Apocalyptic Empire: The Hatchery Compound

by Chris Blake

  The guys wheel their carts outside and start literally throwing the stuff into the back of the truck. No point being space conscious with this vehicle, the truck bed is massive.

  The guys go back in the store and resume their looting and pillaging. About fifteen minutes into this trip they hear gunshots in the distance and people yelling. Smart enough to take a hint, the guys wheel their carts outside and immediately start throwing everything into the truck.

  Just as, they are about to put the final shopping cart full of stuff into the truck bed, a group of people run around the corner of the shopping complex. They are all carrying a variety of weapons. Some have shotguns others rifles while others have handguns. The rag tag group of people is at a full out run towards Ben and Vin.

  Vintago automatically shoulders his rifle and takes aim at the group, not sure of their intent. As he brings his sights in line with the group he sees that two of the collection are children, not more than eight years old.

  The group sees Ben and Vin and starts hauling ass towards them waving their hands.

  “Stop where you are!” Vin yells.

  The group keeps advancing towards them, and Vin fires a warning shot which skips off the pavement five feet from the leader of the group.

  This stops them in their tracks and the head of the party starts bringing up his rifle.

  “If you so much as move that rifle one more inch I will kill you in front of those kids!” Vin yells.

  The man complies with Vintago as he clearly has them dead to rights.

  “There’s a group of about thirty infected chasing after us! Our car broke down, and we just need a ride out of town!” the man replies.

  Vintago looks at his father and Ben nods his head.

  “Shit.” Vin mumbles under his breath.

  Vintago tells the group to come forward and drop their weapons. They comply, simply looking to get the hell out of here. He tells his father to pick up their weapons and throw them in the cab.

  Just as, Ben places the weapons in the cab, the pack of Charlie round the corner. Spotting the two groups of people enrages them, and as a single collective mind, they charge forward.

  “Get in the fucking truck!” Vin screams.

  The group of people immediately start loading up the truck. First, goes what looks like an eight year old boy and girl, who look exactly the same, almost like twins. Next, goes an older girl, possibly fifteen, and along with her goes an attractive woman probably in her forties. Lastly, a teenage boy, probably thirteen and the leader of their group a grisly looking man in his forties.

  Just as, Vintago is about to turn and run to the cab, the grisly man yells “Look out!”

  Vin turns around, and the pack is within fifteen feet of the vehicle. To close to make it! Vin brings up his rifle and starts taking shots into the group of Charlie. He hits three or four of them, and they go down immediately, but the group is getting close now and Vin is not even slowing them down.

  “Give me a gun!” the grisly man yells above the sound of gunfire and the infected.

  Vin stops shooting for a fraction of a second, pulls his 9mm from his holster and throws it to the man.

  “Get in the truck! I’ll cover you!” the man yells.

  Vin quickly slings his rifle and hops up onto the truck bed. The grisly man starts pelting the Charlie with 9mm rounds, and just as Vin is about to slide his legs into the truck bed, something grabs a hold of him.

  Vin tries kicking and flailing his legs, not to sure what else to do.

  A round zings by Vin’s head so close he can feel the heat, and suddenly, the hand grabbing his leg lets go.

  “Drive Dad!” Vintago yells with all the voice he can muster.

  Ben puts the pedal to the floor and squeals the hulking truck tires as he powers the truck onto the highway. The passengers in the back of the truck are thrown around as the truck bounces over a curb, they cry out in protest.

  Ben guides the truck out of Payson with everyone else in the back of the truck holding on for dear life.

  Vintago finally recovers from the event and looks at the grisly looking man.

  He reaches his hand out and says “My names Vintago Hawkins, thanks for saving my ass back there.”

  “The name’s Logan Black” the grisly looking man extends his hand, holding Vin’s gun. He gives the gun back to Vin and shakes his hand. “This is my family” he begins, “My wife Christine, my oldest Robert, my middle child Rebecca, and the twins Sarah and Timothy.”

  “Pleasure to meet you all.” Vintago says, meaning it.

  The group rides in silence until they are a little ways out of Payson, where Vin tells his father to stop.

  Vintago gets out of the truck bed and walks up to the cab and tells his father to come talk to him for a minute. They walk away from the truck, keeping an eye on the cab where all of the guns are, and just above a whisper Vintago speaks.

  “What should we do with them now? I don’t like the idea of bringing them back to the hatchery, but the guy did save my life back there.” Vin says with a concerned look on his face.

  “Isn’t that enough proof that they do not mean us any harm?” his father answers.

  “Why don’t we see if they can offer anything good to the group before we make any decisions?” Vin suggests.

  With that in mind, Ben and his son walk back to the truck and around back.

  Vintago asks them all to step out of the truck and says “Let’s have a quick discussion.”

  Chapter Eleven

  New Family

  February, 2013

  The Black family dismounts the truck and stand near Logan Black. Clearly, he brings a sense of security to his family. Ben and Vin stand at the head of the group and put it all out in the open.

  “OK, so here’s the deal. We saved you guys back there, and obviously, Logan you saved me to.” Vin begins, “The problem is our home is quite secretive, and we do not want everyone knowing about it. We haven’t found anyone else to bring into the fold, and we’re not entirely sure how to do that safely.”

  Christine gives Logan a concerned look, but Logan just stares at Vin with a piercing look.

  “I guess the biggest thing we want to know is what your intentions are?” Vintago asks Logan.

  “Look buddy, we are just looking to get the hell out of dodge and find somewhere safe. If you don’t want to help us out, then please just give me my weapons back, and we will be on our way.” Logan replies.

  “It’s over 40 miles to the next city, what do you plan on doing, humping it up the mountain?” Vin says with a puzzled look.

  “I’ll do whatever I need to do to keep my family safe, same as you will.” Logan replies.

  “Fair enough I suppose. Can you two bring any valuable skills to our group? I don’t need six more mouths to feed if you can’t help us out.” Vin says coolly.

  “I am a retired US Navy Seal, and my wife was a nurse in the Navy.” Logan replies, getting sick of the questions, but rolls up his sleeves to show the emblem tattooed on his arm.

  Vintago looks at his father Ben, and they both nod to each other.

  “That settles it then!” Vin exclaims.

  Vin walks over to the cab of the truck and hands Logan their weapons. They have a fairly common Winchester hunting shotgun, a Glock 19, a Smith and Wesson .38 Special revolver, a .22 rifle, and go figure, an AR-15. His AR-15 looks more like an actual M416 that the military would issue.

  Vintago hands him the rifle and asks, “Is this your service weapon?”

  “Yep, that’s my baby. Like hell I was giving it back to Uncle Sam.” Logan replies with a smile.

  “You guys have any additional ammo for those weapons?” Vin asks.

  “We have a few extra rounds of 5.56 and a box of .22 shells, but other than that just what’s left in the guns.” Logan says with a sad look.

  That is what Vintago was thinking since they all had only what they could carry on their backs.

  “Well, let’s load up and
head back to the compound.” Vin proclaims.

  The family loads up in the back of the truck, and Vin gets up front with his father. Ben starts up the truck and they start cruising the rest of the way back to the hatchery. After the short trip, they arrive to see Greg and the women standing outside with concerned looks. Everyone hops out of the truck, and Logan stands away with his family.

  “Who are these people?” Cindy asks right away.

  “These people are our new friends Cindy.” Vintago shuts her down as soon as he can.

  “They needed help getting the hell out of the city and Logan here saved my ass.” Vintago explains.

  Victoria has a more accepting look on her face and waves everyone forward.

  “Come on in guys, we’ve got a fire going inside, and as soon as the boys get the genny running again we’ll cook up some dinner!” she says.

  Christine looks at Logan, silently asking for permission and he waves them away. Go on in guys, I’ll help these guys get everything unloaded.

  “Robby, you stay with me and help us out.” Logan says.

  Robert, or Robby as his father called him, nods his head and stays put.

  The women and children all go inside to warm up by the fire, and leave Greg, Vintago, Ben, Logan, and Robby standing around looking at each other.

  “Well, I guess it’s time to see how helpful they are.” Vintago thinks to himself.

  “Come on guys, let's get this stuff off the truck.” Vin waves them over.

  Ben moves the truck near the warehouse building and the guys use the carts to unload all of the supplies. After several trips back and forth by Robby and Ben, the supplies and gas are all unloaded.

  Lastly, Greg has to try his hand at the generator gas tank one more time. Vintago gets the straps all hooked up to the Bobcat bucket and Greg slowly starts lifting it upwards. This time it seems like he has a better understanding of it, and he lifts it with ease and drives it close enough to the generator that the guys can hook up the fuel lines.

  They get all the lines attached and power up the generator and everything springs to life inside the crew quarters. The rest of the functions for the generator have all been but cut off. Jessica moved all the fish down the line towards the giant pond and cut off the power to all of the holding tanks. The generator only powers the crew quarters, the warehouse, and the office buildings. Since the visitor center building is utterly useless at this time, they leave the switch for that building off. The last thing receiving power is the well pump. The well provides them with an unlimited supply of fresh water, which has been an absolute Godsend.

  Logan takes a look around at their operations and nods his head in approval.

  “You guys have been roughing it up here haven’t you.” he smiles.

  “Well it hasn’t exactly been a slumber party for us, but we’ve done OK.” Vin tells Logan.

  “This batch of fuel should last another month before we have to worry about going back into town.” Vin explains, “We have an unlimited amount of fresh water with our well, food for at least another month, even with the addition of your family, and we have the hatchery to support us if we ever do run out of food.”

  “I hate trout” Logan replies with a smile.

  “I don’t mind it, but I wouldn’t want to have to live off them!” Vin laughs.

  “Come on, let's go inside, and we’ll show you how rough we’ve been living.” Vin adds.

  Vintago and the men go inside the crew quarters and show Logan and Robby the guided tour. The other Black family members were given the tour by the women no doubt.

  Out of unused bedrooms, Jessica decides to bunk with Ben. She says it’s no big deal, and they have all lived together for a month now, so it is like they are family.

  Vintago shows the Black family Jessica’s old room and explains that since there are only two beds some of them will have to sleep on the floor, but that they have plenty of sleeping bags.

  “Trust me, Vintago, this is much better than we have fared thus far. We are so lucky we ran into you guys down there.” Logan says with much admiration.

  “Well, it’s worked for us so far. We welcome you to our humble abode.” Vintago says with a mocking bow.

  The Black family starts unpacking what few belongings they have and settling into their new room. They all look worse for wear and they decide to all take showers and clean up a bit before dinner.

  An hour or so later, the Black family are all showered and in some new clothes that Jessica gave them. Her former coworkers left all their belongings when they left the hatchery in a hurry, and the extra clothes have gone to good use.

  The kids, however, have to wear clothes much too large for them and roll up sleeves and pant legs. Cindy says that she will perform her magic and modify some of the clothes for the kids to wear. She had already worked her magic and made Grayson some new baby outfits. Since it is difficult to just go pick up a new outfit, her seamstress skills had come in handy when the guys had torn their clothes, or someone needed to hem up their clothes a bit. Everyone had lost weight over the past month, even eating decently. The extra work around the hatchery burns extra calories!

  Greg and Ben carry over the table from the living room and put some folding chairs around it to accommodate the additional members of their group. Jessica lays out a prodigious meal, which looks more like a welcoming feast.

  The Black family members have not eaten a decent meal in weeks, and they look like it. They all seem to be skinny and have the sunken face look.

  The kids scarf down at least two helpings a piece before they are so full they are going to explode. The parents eat just enough to be satisfied and stop, not wanting to waste food. They know how hard it is to come by food these days.

  Jessica, on the other hand, encourages them to take seconds. Don’t be shy, we have plenty of food thanks to the boys and pats Vintago on the shoulder a little too delicately. Victoria catches it and eyeballs Vin. He just smiles and shakes his head slightly.

  After dinner, everyone sits around in the living room swapping stories while the kids play video games on the big TV.

  Logan tells them the story about how they had come all the way from Tucson before the bombs came down. They abandoned their home and took side highways the entire way, skirting around the valley. They took their time, not wanting to move to quickly and trying to stay off the radar. After more than a week, they decided to head north towards the refugee camps. On their way, they stopped in Globe, the next large town Vintago and his crew drove through on the way up. He says that, in Globe, they were trying to fill up with gas when a group of thugs set fire to their car. Logan was able to kill some of the thugs, but the others forced Logan and his family to flee. They grabbed the first car they could find and jumped in the vehicle. Apparently, it was a piece of crap because it took a dump on them about forty miles from Payson and they had been forced to hike the rest of the way into Payson.

  After the long hike up the mountain and into Payson, the group was totally exhausted. Logan decided that they needed to rest for a day and then get back on the road. They stopped at a small hotel inside of town and took refuge in one of the rooms. Logan went out of the room, to the lobby to try and scrounge up some food. What he found instead was a whole shit load of infected.

  Logan grabbed as much food as he could carry and hauled ass back to the room where his family was located. They barricaded the door with furniture, and that is where they stayed. For two full weeks, surviving on what scraps they had left and what Logan had found in the lobby. It took two weeks for Logan to break down the walls of three rooms adjoining theirs and clear each room before he found a way out. Three rooms later, when he peeked through the peep hole, there were no infected to be seen. He knew they were only a matter of feet down the hallway, but his family was out of food and this was the best he could do. Logan rounded up his family and had them crawl through the holes he had made in the wall with Robby, and they prepared to run for their lives. Robby and Logan grabb
ed their guns and launched into the hallway. The infected were only feet from them, and immediately they turned to chase after them. Making sure that his wife and other three children were safe, he told Robby to flee first, and with one last spray of bullets from his AR-15 he took off running. They ran and ran, for what seemed like forever. They ran down the main drag of Payson, and the noise from the infected caused even more to come out of their hovels. They came upon a small shopping center and could hear voices. They came flying around the corner, and that is when they saw Vintago.

  At the end of Logan’s story, Vin’s group all had to pick up their jaws. They had things easy up here compared to the shit this poor family had gone through in the same amount of time. Now, it made sense why they were so happy to make this place their new home. It offered food, shelter, and most importantly, security.

  After the story, Logan Black told the group Ben decides to call it a night, and along with him most everyone else. Logan Black and Vintago, on the other hand, stay behind watching the last embers of the fire in silence.

  Eventually, Logan turns to Vintago and says, “I want to thank you again for bringing us here. You didn’t have to do that. You could have just left us by the side of the road back there.”

  “Yes, I could have, and I almost did.” Vin tells him, being honest.

  “Once you told me you were an ex-Navy Seal and your wife was a nurse, I couldn’t resist. I’ve needed a guy like you the whole time I’ve been here.” Vin explains.

  “See I have a plan for this little fish hatchery, and it’s going to take men like you to help me achieve it. I’ve done you an enormous favor by bringing you guys here, and I expect that you will honor that with your help.” Vin says to Logan.

  Logan seem to process this information with a little hesitancy, but ultimately says, “Whatever you need Vin, I’m your man.”

  “I was hoping you would say something like that.” Vin says with a smile.

  Vin stands up and shakes Logan’s hand, and says “Welcome to my army soldier.”

  With that, Vintago gets up and walks down the hall to retire to his bedroom.