by Chris Blake
Ben and his son start slowly walking back to the crew quarters when he says to his son, “How are you holding up son?”
“I’m doing OK Dad” Vin answers, but they both know it is a lie.
“You know for such a young man you sure have held it together well through all of this. I wish I was as strong as you Son.” his father says with a quiver in his voice.
“I just process things differently than everyone else, that’s all.” Vin replies.
“Yeah, you don’t process them at all. That’s not exactly good.” Ben says with a worried look. “Listen, I cried all last night thinking about your mother. She turned into one of those things.
I still can’t believe it.”
“I know Dad, we just have to stay strong and hang in there. Somebody will get a grip on this thing, and it will all turn out alright.” Vin says, but not believing it himself.
They both stop talking and walk in silence the rest of the way back to the crew quarters.
When they arrive, Victoria has lunch all laid out and tells them to come sit down. They eat their lunch and get everything cleaned up.
The men decide that it would be a good idea if they went through their guns and ammo and showed the women how to shoot the guns a few times. Victoria knows how to shoot a handgun just fine, but she has never fired a rifle before. Cindy has never fired any type of firearm. With Grayson, they cannot all just up and leave, so Cindy stays behind to watch Gray and Victoria comes first. Jessica decides to tag along to get some practice in with her Colt. They take some extra bottles and other refuse from the trash bins and walk a reasonable distance away from the hatchery. The canyon has a lovely outcropping which will make a good backstop.
Vin sets up the bottles on top of boulders near the outcropping. First he brings out all of the handguns his own included. They have Vin’s two Tauruses the .45 and the 9mm, Greg’s Springfield 9mm, Victoria’s Ruger .380, Ben’s Kel-tec 9mm, and Jessica’s Colt .45. Though Jessica does not let anyone else touch her .45.
The idea is to let everyone shoot each gun a few times to get the feel for them. Everyone goes through the motions trying each handgun and feeling the recoil. Vintago refrains from shooting as he is interested in doing this on his own when everyone else is gone. Ben is by far the best handgun shooter, with Jessica coming in a close second. Victoria surprises everyone by making a few good shots, and Greg for the most part hits around the targets. That should be good enough for what they will need to do.
Next they bring out the rifles. The have Vin’s AK-74 in 5.45x39mm, Greg’s SKS in 7.62x39mm, Ben’s new Remington .308, and even though it is not a rifle, Vin pulls out the Wilson Combat 12 gauge. Additionally, Vin drops the duffel bag of munitions that he commandeered from the armed robbers. Inside are three AR-15s in 5.56mm, two AK-47s in 7.62x39mm, and an HK MR762A1 in .308. Along with the rifles one duffel bag was full of ammunition for all of the rifles.
Vin lays out all of the rifles and has them pick which ones they would like to shoot. He slides the HK away as he wants to try that bad boy out on his own and the .308 rounds are much harder to come by.
Everyone tries out the AKs, both in the smaller 5.45 round and the much larger 7.62 round, as well as the AR-15s. They also try firing Ben’s new hunting rifle, and the SKS. The consensus is of course everyone wants one of the AR-15s. Even Ben is having a hard time choosing between his brand new rifle and one of the bloodied ARs.
After about an hour and a half of target practice and training, Vin sends the rest of them off to fetch Cindy and send her up. They only leave an AR-15 and a couple handguns for her to try out. She is not the fighting type, so she only needs to know the basics for self-defense.
While Vin is waiting he picks up the brand new HK rifle. The HK is a mean looking black rifle with a twenty round magazine. He settles it firmly into his shoulder before taking his first shot and gently squeezes the trigger. The recoil hits him harder than he expects. Used to firing the smaller 5.56mm and 5.45 rounds, the .308 is significantly harder hitting in the shoulder.
A few more rounds and Vin is starting to like it. He pops three bottles at a hundred yards with iron sights and that pretty much makes up his mind. He will keep the AK-74 as a high rate of fire backup, but this HK is his new friend.
Cindy shows up as he is reloading and he waves her over. He has to go through all of the safety features, how to hold the guns, and how to handle a gun before he lets her put in a new magazine. After he feels confident that she will not kill herself or him, he lets her try it out.
She is more than a little hesitant and jerks the trigger pretty bad sending her first round way off. After about two more magazines and not much improvement, he lets her try the AR-15, and it is the same result. She’s just not cut out for shooting. That much is clear.
Vin packs up all of the guns, and they head back to the crew quarters. By now it is midafternoon and starting to get darker. Vin breaks out the cleaning kits and shows everyone interested how to clean their new rifles. The guys know how to clean their handguns, and Vin cleans Victoria’s Ruger.
By the time all the weapons are cleaned and stowed away, it is time for dinner. Jessica decided not to bother cleaning her Colt and went straight into preparing for dinner. They finish up their dinner without talking much, and then they all huddle around the fireplace in the living room.
Vin reaches over and grabs the remote for the TV and powers it up. After a few minutes of news, he wishes that he had not.
The news anchor is explaining, that most major cities in the continental US have been evacuated to more rural areas and that some of the evacuation sites even had to be evacuated. They cut to scenes of New York ablaze, with thousands of people walking out of the city across the various bridges. Next, they show Los Angeles, where there are hundreds of looters smashing windows and stealing TVs and electronics. Lastly, they show Chicago with helicopters flying above the Sears Tower as it leans over and as the camera pans around there is a large aircraft lodged into the face of it. The reporter claims that the pilots had inadvertently opened the door, and an infected person killed them on their way to land at the O'hare airport.
Cindy is visibly shaken up by the Chicago scene, probably hoping her mom is OK. Even though her mom lives in the suburbs, this scene is just a little too close to home. Both Cindy and Greg were born and raised in Chicago, and they knew quite a few people still in Chicago. She hopes that they made it out safely.
Everyone urges Vintago to change the channel to a local news station to see what is going on in Phoenix. He changes the channel to one of the local stations, and the scene is similar to what they were just watching. The highways are jam packed with abandoned cars as people chose to walk as it was probably quicker, and their cars started running out of gas. In one shot, a military convoy is smashing through the vehicles heading away from the city. This struck the group as odd, why would the military be leaving the city, they were supposed to be staying to gain control of the city?
Another minute goes by showing various scenes of carnage and chaos, and then their questions are answered.
Another Emergency Alert takes over the screen and says;
Emergency Alert: Please be advised at 1200 hours Eastern Standard Time tomorrow the United States Government will detonate tactical nuclear warheads above the following cities in an effort to stop the C.Virus from spreading any further. Please stand by for a list of targeted cities and safe zones located in your region. Please proceed to the nearest safe zone before 1200 hours.
With that, the message repeated three more times and then cut to a screen showing a list of cities.
Target Cities in Arizona include; Phoenix, Tucson, Mesa, Scottsdale, Chandler, Gilbert, Goodyear, Glendale... the list goes on and on, covering all significant cities in the metropolitan area.
Safe Zones in Arizona include; Showlow, Flagstaff, Safford, Kingman, and Blythe.
Five cities, these are the only places in the entire state that will be protected by the military,
and they are going to cram upwards of six million people into them?
“There’s absolutely no fucking way!” Vintago yells. “How are they going to fit everyone in those cities? Hell, half of them are not even cities. They are towns!”
“They don’t plan to fit everyone Vin, the whole point is to reduce the population and weed out as much of the infection as they can” Ben replies.
“They are committing mass murder!” Cindy says out loud.
Ben simply nods his head and says nothing. They are practicing Civil War medicine. Hack off the limbs and pray to God that it works. It sounds like a great idea in practice, but if you chop off enough limbs, it leaves a person unable to fight back. It probably sounds like a good idea from a bunker somewhere, but in the real world, it will not work. Even if they manage to knock the population centers out of commission, there will still be plenty of infected people in rural towns and smaller cities to finish taking everyone out.
Sadly, Ben knows now what this virus has in store. This virus will not come and go, they are on the brink of extinction, and everyone is going to have to fight for their lives.
Chapter Eight
Countdown
February, 2013
With the end of the transmission, everyone decides it is time to wind down for the night. They are all in a state of emotional coma. Nobody talks much. Nobody even thinks much. Just trying to comprehend the idea of ending the lives of millions of people is just too much to bear. The other problem is that they are only seeing this outbreak through a microscope, looking only at the state of Arizona.
What if other countries are the world are doing the same thing? What will happen when all these nuclear warheads go off? Even if, they are low yielding nukes, there has to be a certain amount of fallout.
That’s when Vintago comes close to having a heart attack. What if the nukes going off in the valley affects them up here at their hatchery! Are they far enough off the grid to be safe from the radiation?
Vin runs into the room where Jessica sleeps. She spins around trying to figure out who has barged into her room. As she spins around, Vin’s eyes open wide and his mouth hangs open. She’s standing in her room bare ass naked.
Vin just stares at her for more than a second, absorbing her figure. Her bare breasts, slender waist, and long slender legs are engrained in his mind. Then, he catches himself and shuts the door with lighting speed.
“Sorry!” he yells through the door.
A few moments go by and she opens the door with a towel wrapped around her torso, but exposing her cleavage.
“What’s up?” she asks coolly like nothing even happened.
“I uh... what was I coming here for.” he stammers.
She just looks at him with a wicked little grin.
A few seconds go by and his brain reboots itself, and his logic comes back online.
“Oh right, I need to see if you can get one of the computers in the office building on the internet for me. I need to do some research.” he tells her.
“Umm, sure I guess.” she tells him, “Just let me put some clothes on, and I will meet you over there.”
Vintago leaves the crew quarters in a hurry and goes over to the office building and flicks the lights on. He boots up one of the computers and leaves it at the screen waiting for a password.
Jessica walks in a few minutes later, acting perfectly normal and punches in her password. Within a minute, Vin is on the web and searching Wikipedia for everything he can find about low yield tactical nukes.
While he is searching he says to Jessica, “Sorry for walking in on you like that, I should have knocked.”
“Oh don’t worry about it Vintago, it’s not like you haven’t seen a woman naked before.” she replies.
“Well yes, I have, but it’s a surprise seeing a girl like you naked after only knowing you a couple days!” he tells her.
“What do you mean a girl like me? she asks.
“Well you’re a pretty attractive girl, and well you know, I guess it’s a shocker.” he says sheepishly.
“Your wife is a beautiful woman also you know, and thank you for that compliment, by the way” she says with a grin.
“Yes she is, I’m lucky to have her” Vin replies, happy to change the subject.
Jessica, uninterested in what Vin is looking at decides to go back to her bedroom. She leaves Vin by himself and shuts the door.
As she is walking out the door, she cannot help but smile and think that this Vintago is more than he appears to be.
Vintago clicks around through numerous articles concerning the use of tactical nuclear devices and finds in the end since they are more than a hundred miles from the blast zones and well above six thousand feet in elevation that they should be fine. Additionally, since they are in the canyon, they should see no effect. The only harm that could come to them would be a forceful wind carrying the fallout north.
Satisfied that they will be fine, Vin retires to his tent with his wife and son.
In the morning, the group huddles around the kitchen table in silence while they eat breakfast. Cindy and Greg are having the hardest time out of everyone. They realize that their son was heading towards Tucson the last time they spoke to him, and Tucson was marked to be destroyed, as well as the entire valley. It seems no matter what direction he goes he is doomed. With the countdown begun and only three hours remaining, it almost confirms it. This is a bitter pill for any parent to swallow.
With only a few hours remaining, Vintago thinks it would be smart for them to make one more supply run to Payson. Knowing that Payson lies on the road for some of the northern escape cities, it will most likely become inundated with fleeing civilians, who will surely destroy the city in their wake.
Vintago tells everyone this, and they agree with him. The men choose to get everything together to make one more trip into town before all hell breaks loose. Being that it is early in the morning, they should have a few hours head start on anyone coming up from the valley.
The men load up their firearms, Vin taking his new HK and both Taurus handguns, Greg taking his Springfield XD and an AR-15, and Ben taking his Kel-tec and another AR-15. They grab some of the extra gas cans from the building where the vehicles are kept to get just a bit of extra fuel. The rest of the space in the Outlander they leave empty, and head out.
They turn on the radio while they are driving and a voice tells them that the nukes will be falling in two hours and thirty eight minutes.
“For anyone unable to make it out of the cities, God rest their souls.” the unknown radio DJ says.
The DJ continues talking about the events unfolding and covers something the group has yet to pay attention to; the rest of the world. He informs them that the United Kingdom suspended all inbound flights when the United States began to fall, and they remain uninfected for the mean time. The rest of Europe didn’t fare as well as the UK. Some countries in the EU banned inbound flights much like the UK, but that did not stop the virus from spreading across the land. Their train and road networks doomed them, instead of helped them. China entirely closed off their borders after they found out about the virus because risking their entire population would be far too much for everyone else in the world. Russia did the same thing, but they were caught off guard, and the virus made it into their borders, despite their best efforts. They are blaming the United States, and are talking about starting a war, but it may not turn into much as they are currently having to use their weapons in the same way that we are. The middle east is busy praising Allah that the infidels have been killed, and so far they remain untouched. All the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq were pulled at the onset of the outbreak to try and save the United States.
The DJ doesn’t say anything about Africa, but since the middle east remains largely unaffected thus far, Africa is probably doing hanging in there. That is, unless of course people in the EU are fleeing south to get away from the infected, then it might be a whole different story.
Lastly, he
talks about Australia. They apparently shut off all incoming flights, boats, and any other form of transportation. They were effectively quarantining themselves from the rest of the world. It was probably smart on their part, Vintago figures.
Upon hearing this sobering news, the three men decide that’s enough of that and shut the radio off. They travel in silence for the rest of the journey into Payson.
As the guys roll into Payson, what they see simply blows their minds. The city that was fairly quiet only days ago is now bustling with activity. There are military vehicles driving down the highway heading north, probably coming from the valley. There are thousands of civilian vehicles and the streets are jammed as parking lots overflow. Everyone seems to be stopping for supplies, much like Vin and his two fathers plan on doing.
Vin pulls up to the local Walmart and spends about fifteen minutes looking for a space before just parking in a dirt lot way on the outskirts of the parking lot. The guys leave their rifles in the car, but again all carry their handguns.
They enter the store and find a scene straight out of a movie. People are shoving and running around like madmen. A younger group of people are literally fighting over a case of Ramen noodles. Upon seeing this chaotic scene, the guys do a double take.
“Well, I don’t know about you guys, but I am not going to kill someone over Ramen. Let’s get the hell out of here and try another store.” Vin says.
Ben and Greg nod their heads, and they do an about face and almost run out of the store. They load back up in the Outlander and drive across town to a smaller local grocery store.
The scene here is quite a bit chaotic as well, but because it is smaller and more expensive, not as many people are trying to ambush the store.
The guys enter the store and grab one of the last few carts. They cruise around the store and pick up whatever they can find. Foodstuffs are extremely few and far between in the mess of a store. Mostly it is just canned goods and a random assortment of things left. The guys are not too picky and just swipe everything they can into the cart. Soon the cart is full and Vin grabs another one. People would not normally think to buy creature comforts like soap, toothpaste, etcetera, but Vin is not a normal person. He goes down the aisles and grabs all kinds of toiletries, baby care items, and even feminine products.
