by Chris Blake
“Things like this will be worth their weight in gold soon.” he thinks to himself.
After raiding the pharmacy aisles and grabbing pain relievers, bandages, cold and cough medicine and all sorts of other supplies, the guys run into the booze area. Now, in a situation like this, one would think it unimportant to have alcohol on your list. That of course would be wrong. The guys grab about twenty bottles of whisky, vodka, rum, and all sorts of liquors.
Lastly, they pick up every perishable item they can get. They grab what's left of the milk, eggs, bread, and meats. The hatchery has a giant deep freeze in the crew quarters, and they intend to fill it up.
At the end of the stop, they have filled four carts full of supplies. Most of the items they found were complete junk, and most likely the women will have a field day, but that was just how men shop. Greg and Vin stand around looking at Ben at the checkout, and he gets the hint and pulls out his Visa. There’s no way Vin or Greg have enough money to pay the massive bill.
It takes the guys about thirty minutes to cleverly pack everything into the Outlander, and in the end poor Greg disappears with stuff on his lap and at his feet.
Vintago starts up the engine and takes off to the gas station on the way out of town. They make it to the station and then they all slap themselves on the forehead. They buried the gas cans under all the groceries!
After a bit of digging and much complaining they get the cans out of the vehicle. Vin goes into the station to grab some water bottles, as they are all thirsty now, and to pay for the gas.
Vin heads to the back of the store where the water is located and takes his time being selective about what kind of water to get. During his moment of indecision, the door chime rings and two men burst through the door.
“Get the fuck down!” one of them screams.
Vin spins around and sees two men with guns pointed at the clerk behind the counter. Vin immediately ducks behind an aisle and fiddles around trying to get his Taurus out of his holster in a hunched over position.
When he peeks back through the aisle, he can see the clerk being shoved out into the open by one of the gunmen. The next man goes behind the counter and starts trying to open the cash register, but he cannot figure it out.
“Come open this fucking thing!” the guy yells at the clerk.
The poor clerk does as he is told and skirts around the gunman to open the drawer, but instead of opening the door he reaches down below the cabinet. He produces a revolver and fires two shots at the gunmen.
Seeing the whole thing unfold the gunman fires back and hits the clerk in the head shattering his skull and sending bone and brain fragments all over the window behind him. The gunman does not get off scot free though as he clutches at his stomach.
Vin shifts his body slightly at the sight of the carnage and accidentally knocks over some of the merchandise.
“Shit!” he thinks to himself.
“What was that?” the unwounded man says to the other.
“I don’t know, go check it out.” the wounded man says.
The unwounded gunman starts walking across the store and comes down the aisle Vin is hiding behind. Vin slides behind the end cap and hunkers down with his .45 in hand.
Just as the gunman comes around the corner, but before he sees anything, Vin stands up and places the gun right in front of his face and pulls the trigger.
The result is disastrous. Half of the back of the man’s head sheers entirely off as the hollow point round expands and exits his skull. Blood, brains, and bone fly across the room in a huge arc of gore.
Stunned by the sudden explosion of his friends head the second gunman just stares blankly at Vin, now standing in the open.
Vin wastes no time and immediately fires three rounds at the man, one nailing him in the arm and another skimming the top of his head, the third is too far off as the man dives behind the counter.
He holds his gun above the counter and sends rounds flying back at Vin and causes Vin to drop behind the aisle again.
“Where the hell are Greg and Ben?” Vin mutters to himself as he hides behind the end cap.
Vin army crawls across the floor to get one aisle closer to the counter. The gunman sends another few rounds down range before peeking his head above the counter.
Seeing movement, Vin fires again at the man and narrowly misses his head once more.
This makes the man duck behind the counter again, and Vin crawls like a madman two more rows towards the counter.
The gunman stands up, and this time he is greeted with a well-placed round right under his nose. Bone, teeth, and gore fly out of the back of his neck as his spinal cord is shattered, and his life turns off like a switch.
Vintago stands in the aisle, adrenaline coursing through his veins, as Ben and Greg finally run in to help. They take in the scene with a look of horror on their face and then stare at Vin, who wears the coldest look imaginable. Within three, days, Vin has killed four men, and it’s starting to show as he stands in the aisle with a smile on his face.
Vintago feels absolutely no remorse. An almost nauseous feeling runs through his mind, excitement. Vin knows that he should not be excited to take a person’s life, but these men deserved it, right? They are the ones who decided to rob a convenience store. They just chose the wrong store to rob.
Ben finally relaxes a bit and walks over to give his son a reassuring pat on the back, and says “It’s OK son. You were just protecting yourself...again.”
They get some waters, and Vintago leaves five bucks on the counter. He’s not quite sure why, but it feels right, if even a little comical.
As the group walks out of the building, guns in hand, someone shouts.
“Stop! Drop your weapons and get on the ground!” a local sheriff yells.
The sheriff has his gun out and pointed directly at Vintago, Ben and Greg, who are coming out of the building. Greg, who walked out of the building, is in front, Vin is in the middle, and Ben is in the back.
In a split second, Vin steps out from behind Greg and fires four shots at the police officer. The officer, not quite ready for the confrontation, is struck three times in the chest and once in the neck just above his shirt.
“Holy shit Vintago, what did you just do?” yells his father as he runs over to try and save the deputy.
Vintago casually strolls over to the young deputy drowning in his own blood in front of him. He pushes his father away. He lines up the sights on his handgun, centers them on the officer’s head, and pulls the trigger just once, ending the poor man’s suffering.
This final act of violence completely sets off his father and Greg. They both have a mental breakdown in the parking lot. They look at Vin like he is some a monster. Which at this point is not too far off.
Finally, Vin breaks the silence.
“He was going to stop us, question us, and probably arrest us until we could convince them that we were acting in self-defense.” Vintago begins, “We simply do not have time for this fucking bullshit right now. In less than an hour, there will be nuclear warheads screaming towards the valley and when that happens I am not going to be anywhere near here.”
Vintago was not wrong at all, the people streaming through the town were becoming more aggressive and had started looting shops. There were so many people on the road heading north that the highway was jam packed with cars.
Vin holsters his weapon and starts walking to the car.
He spins around and says, “You guys coming?”
After a moment of indecision, both Ben and Greg walk over to the Outlander and mount up.
Vintago puts the car in gear and drives slowly out of the parking lot. He gets back on the highway and starts heading east back to the hatchery. They ride in complete silence the whole way. Both Greg and Ben too scared to say anything. How could Vintago be so cold and heartless? They both understood he was acting out of self-preservation, but to kill a man in cold blood, that was just madness. Neither man says a word though, and Vintago jus
t drives to the hatchery.
Chapter Nine
Annihilation
February, 2013
When they arrive the women come out to see what they got, and Greg blows past them and goes inside. Ben takes a walk out into the woods to be by himself.
Wondering what is going on, Victoria asks “What’s gotten into them?”
Not quite sure what to tell his wife Vin says, “We ran into some bad guys again, and I took care of it.”
“What do you mean you ‘took care of it?’” she asks him.
“I shot them both, and we packed up the vehicle and came back here.” Vin replies leaving out the part about also shooting the cop.
Victoria gives him a concerned look, knowing inside that he is not making a significant enough deal about this, also that he seems to be hiding something. Not wanting to push him anymore after such an ordeal, and glad that he is back safe, she decides to leave it.
“You guys need to get the car unpacked and come inside. The news is showing this whole damn thing on the TV, and they have a countdown running.” Victoria tells Vin.
Since both Greg and Ben abandoned him, Vin starts unloading the car by himself. He grabs one of the hulking fish food carts from the warehouse building and starts packing it full of groceries and supplies. One cart at a time he brings everything to the front doorstep of the crew quarters where the women are putting it all in its precise position. They all think that the guys went a little overboard with some of the stuff, and they do not approve of all the alcohol.
After a few trips with the cart, Vin has all of the supplies unloaded. He puts the gas cans in the warehouse property and then he walks back to the crew quarters. Greg and Ben have both come in to sit down while Vin was unloading the car.
As Vintago walks into the living room of the crew quarters, all eyes are glued to the TV. On the screen, the cameras are pointing towards a far away shot of the greater Phoenix area. The news reporters must have parked their van on top of one of the many mountains surrounding the valley. The screen also has a countdown timer in the top right corner of the screen. It reads: 23:43 and continues counting down.
The news reporters are all standing around looking at the valley, pointing and saying things that almost sounds like a joke. Unfortunately, it is not a joke, and they are talking about the shockwave, blast radius, and square miles of impact. These are things that should not be referenced when dealing with discussing complete US cities.
Twenty minutes goes by like the blink of an eye, and now everyone is unquestionably enthralled in the scenes coming from the TV. There are probably millions of other Americans watching these same broadcasts in their cities. The absolute atrociousness of the whole thing is that all these people were consciously preparing to watch the mass extermination of millions of other Americans. Not everyone was able to make it out of the cities in time. There were countless number of people unable to make the journey, which were simply left behind. Along with these people, millions of infected people are also roaming the streets.
The minutes countdown to seconds, and in the end, a final countdown begins.
The timer reads; 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, everyone sucks in their breath, 2, 1. The timer blinks red and fades out. Everyone waits with bated breath.
Another thirty seconds slides by, everyone finally lets out the wind in their lungs and looks around the room. Another minute goes by, with nothing happening. Five minutes slide by like a wicked snake.
The group starts to get up. Maybe they cancelled the launch? The reporters are equally stumped.
Suddenly, the camera pans around and zooms at something flying through the air. The camera spins in another direction, and a second object appears. Lastly, a third object appears behind the first. They are streaming towards the valley with incredible speed.
They curve upward and then stay in a downward slope, blurring the edge of reality.
Within seconds, three separate detonations occur across the valley. The light is blindingly bright, which causes all of the reporters protect their eyes and turn away. The camera is left facing the detonation, and within just seconds, the blast radiates outwards destroying everything in its path. A few more seconds go by as the blast radiates upward, and the TV goes blank. The TV studio broadcasting the event is wiped off the face of the planet, killing all transmissions.
Greg quickly grabs the remote and flicks through the channels trying to find one still recording the destruction. He ends up finding a small regional news station that is still broadcasting. The news anchor is confirming that the major cities in the Phoenix area have been impacted, and likely decimated. He is saying they are getting reports that all principal cities and metropolitan areas in the continental United States have been wiped out.
The anchor is interrupted by someone, and he says “Breaking news folks, the President is going to go live and address the union.”
A few seconds of static and a Presidential Seal comes up on the screen. The President walks into view of the camera and stands behind a podium. He is clearly shaken up by the entire event and a look of concern shows on his face.
“Citizens of America.” he begins, “Today we have tested the strength of our great nation in a way unfathomable to our minds prior to this virus outbreak.”
“Our country is on the verge of collapse, our greatest cities have been annihilated, and our government is failing. I make this broadcast from what was once a secure location. Outside this room, trusted Secret Service men and women are desperately trying to hold off a horde of infected.” he continues.
With this, everyone in the room is shocked. If they cannot even keep the President safe, how does anyone have a chance!
“I am giving this state of the union address, to express my deepest sympathies to the families of those who have lost loved ones in the last week and especially in the last hour. I need every American to know that even as I am gone, and the rest of the government of the United States of America will soon be gone. You must stick together, stay strong, and survive! The heart of America is in its people, and as long as Americans fight this epidemic America will survive.”
The President continues talking for another two minutes or so and explains that the remnants of the military will be under control by the Secretary of Transportation. He explains that the rest of his cabinet members had been killed or were missing in action. He tells them the Vice President and the next few members on the list of succession were all flown out of D.C. to a facility much like the one the President is currently being entombed in on TV. They were eventually overrun as the virus made its way in with some of the cabinet members. Since the Secretary of Transportation was highest ranking member of the line of succession that was able to be confirmed, he would assume control of the military as acting President.
The sad thing was that the President speaks about all of this like it has already happened, and he was already dead. He is just getting his affairs in order it seems.
After finishing his stint on the line of succession, he stops speaking for a moment as someone yells in front of him, “Mister President, they are coming!”
The President speaks extremely fast now, “Remember you are citizens of the United States of America, be strong, be smart, and help your fellow citizens! Stay in your homes and shut up the windows if you can’t get out. If you can get out, try to make it to a military base outside the containment zones.”
With this, the door bursts open and three Secret Service agents run up and surround the President. They have their guns out and are shooting wildly at infected outside the view of the camera. After a fierce battle lasting what seems like forever, but realistically unfolds in a matter of seconds, all of the agents are out of ammunition and run straight towards the infected. They give out a final battle cry and start punching, kicking, and slicing the infected. Eventually, their battle cries turn into cries of suffering and death.
The President picks up one of the Secret Service weapons, slides a single 9mm bullet into the c
hamber, racks the slide, and steps out of view of the camera. One last shot rings out in the eerily quiet place, and the President of the United States leaves a spray of blood and gore on the Presidential Seal.
The camera keeps recording the scene as blood and brains slowly slides down the Presidential Seal before someone gets smart enough to stop the footage.
The anchor man comes back on the screen and isn’t quite sure what to say. He just stares blankly at the camera. Someone behind the camera must have signaled him because he suddenly slips out of his trance and begins talking again.
“Folks, I’m not entirely sure what to say about we just witnessed, so I am just going to say this,” he begins, “The President is undoubtedly correct...We need to band together if we are going to survive this plague. We need to help each other, get over our differences, and come together for one last stand. This is no longer the survival of a country, this is the survival of the human species.”
That is all he says, and he gets out of his chair and walks away with the cameras still rolling. About a minute into this what looks like a director or producer steps into view of the camera and sits down in his chair.
“We are going to shut down the cameras now to be with our families. The infection hasn’t reached our city yet, but we are going to get prepared. The best advice I have for you now is to run, hide, and pray. In that order.”
This man gets up and walks away as well and shortly after that the transmission ends.
Vintago and his family sit in front of the TV, totally blown away by what they have witnessed. There are no words that can explain it.
In less than a week, Vintago and his family had been uprooted from their homes, lost half of their family members, and forced to watch the destruction of one of the greatest nations in the world.
