Apocalyptic Empire: The Hatchery Compound

by Chris Blake

  “State your intentions soldiers!” Logan yells in a commanding voice.

  The soldiers freeze for a second clearly recognizing a voice of command.

  “We’re heading north to the base, and just trying to get the fuck out of here.” one of the soldiers replies.

  Logan lowers his rifle slightly and signals to Robby and Vin to hold back at the ready. He walks towards the men, and they drop their weapons slightly.

  After a few minutes of deliberating, all five men visibly relax, and Logan walks back over with the four soldiers in tow.

  “These are good boys Vintago. I knew their commanding officer before the shit hit the fan. We used to drink at one of the military bars in town.” Logan explains.

  Logan tells Vintago how they have been on the run since the bombs dropped just trying to make it somewhere safe. He tells them how their company was overrun by Charlie, and they fell apart and split in every direction.

  “We’ve been struggling to make it north since it happened, picking through scraps of food and we’re about outta ammo too.” one of the army boys says.

  Vintago waves Logan over to the back of the pickup and says, “What do you want to do with them Logan?”

  “You’re the boss and it’s your compound, it’s your call.” Logan replies.

  “Can they be trusted?” Vintago says with a look of concern, “Remember it’s my family back there, we can’t bring back anybody I can’t depend on.”

  “It looks to me like these boys are just looking for a place to hunker down, but like I said it’s your call.” Logan says, not answering his question entirely.

  Vintago walks over to the military boys and says to them, “Listen guys, we don’t have any room in our vehicles here as you can clearly see, but let us run back to our compound and grab another vehicle, and we will come back for you OK.”

  Vintago explains their condition at the hatchery, how they have food, water, shelter, and security. By the end of it, the four men are nodding their heads.

  “Sounds good to us sir.” the highest ranking man, a Corporal, replies.

  Vintago grabs a handful of additional M4 magazines and an ammunition can full of 5.56 rounds and hands it to the men. Their eyes open wide as Vintago lifts the tarp exposing all of their munitions.

  “Where did you get all of that!” one of the Privates exclaims.

  “Like I said, we can offer security to.” Vin laughs.

  He tells them to continue hiking up the road towards the hatchery, and that they would be back for them as soon as possible.

  Logan, Robby, and Vintago wave to the men and mount up. They pick up their pace a little bit and head towards the hatchery. The Outlander’s four cylinder engine struggles to keep up, heading up the steep inclines with a full load. Logan simply waves as he passed him with the hulking V10 engine on their Ford.

  When they arrive at the hatchery, the families are standing out front, wondering whose truck they are driving. Vintago drives over to the visitor center and waves Logan over to follow.

  They both park the rear ends of their vehicles towards the door of the visitor center and jump out. Their family members come over and as Logan lifts the tarp on the Ford, their eyes open wide.

  “Holy shit, where did all those guns come from, did you guys raid a military base?” Greg says out loud.

  “Listen, Logan can tell you guys, the story, but I need to go back and pick up some more survivors we met along the way. Ben and Greg help Logan and Robby unload all of this into the visitor center. It’s going to be our new armory.” Vintago says with a smile.

  Vintago waves to everyone and sprints over to his car and hops.

  He throws it in gear and hauls ass down the road back towards the soldiers.

  Twenty minutes later he rolls down his windows at the sounds of gunfire.

  “This can’t be good” Vintago tells himself.

  As he rounds a corner, the three soldiers are running toward him, the Corporal covering their rear shooting at a group of Charlie about twenty strong.

  Vintago hauls ass towards them, pulls the e-brake and slides to a stop within ten feet of them, opens his door and stands up. He starts hosing the Charlie behind them with .308 rounds from his HK rifle. The men sprint towards the car, its trunk already open for their packs, and they hurl their packs in the trunk. Vintago drops the mag on his HK and slaps in another one from his pocket and chambers a fresh round. He keeps dropping Charlie as the guys pile in the tiny car. Once everyone is in Vintago jumps in and slams the door. He jams the car into gear and pushes the pedal to the floor. It takes a second for the tiny four cylinders to respond, and the Charlie get within grabbing distance. They start slapping the car, just as the Corporal leans out his window with his Beretta 92FS and drops two more Charlie.

  The car leaps forward and speeds off up the hill leaving only a few straggler Charlie behind. The men look around at each other, and all four burst into laughter.

  Vintago only shakes his head, soldiers.

  The Corporal leans forward and pats Vin on the shoulder.

  “Thanks for coming back.” He tells Vin.

  “I told you I was coming back, and I am a man of my word.” Vintago tells him.

  “Good thing you didn’t stop for a shit first.” the Private First Class says with a laugh.

  At this, all five men crack up loudly.

  Vintago makes the short trip back to the hatchery and watches in the rear view mirror as the men eyeball the compound.

  Logan is waiting for them at the entrance to the parking lot, rifle slung around his body. He waves to them and Vintago pulls into his spot.

  The men climb out, and collect their bags after Vin opens the trunk.

  “That was quick” Logan says to Vin.

  “The boys ran into some Charlie along the way, and we had to hightail out of there.” Vin explains.

  “Well, glad everyone made it out OK.” Logan says.

  Vintago gives the guys only a brief tour of the compound as it is starting to get dark now. Greg hooked up the power to the visitor center again so they can see what they are doing, and they are still unloading all the munitions into their new armory. The whole inside of the building is lined with ammunition cans, fully automatic military style M4A1’s, SAWs, sniper rifles, tactical shotguns, and all sorts of small arms. There are Berettas, 1911’s, HKs, Glocks and FNPs. There are also some submachine guns coming in an MP5 variant.

  The hand grenades, rifle grenades, and explosives, Vin decides to lock up in the small shed ways away from the munitions. Logan has some explosives training from the Seals, but even he is a little hesitant to mess around with all the high explosives. Vintago does not want the whole compound to go up in flames if something were to happen to the explosives.

  Since the crew quarter rooms are full, the soldiers are given the office building to call home. It has eight minute cubicles, a small break room with a kitchenette, and a single bathroom. The guys are more than excited about this, and they roll out their sleeping bags each in their own cubicle, making mini bedrooms. Vintago also invites them over to the crew quarters to take showers and get cleaned up.

  “After you guys get cleaned up, we will have some dinner and get to know each other.” Vin tells them.

  He leaves them to get settled in and exits with Logan. A few feet outside of the building he grabs Logan's arm and stops him.

  “I want to keep our eyes on them for a while until we can make sure they can be trusted.” Vin tells Logan.

  “I’ve only been here a full day now, why do you think you can trust me?” Logan says, playing Devil’s advocate.

  “You’ve proven your worth to me, and joined my cause. That’s enough evidence for me.” Vin tells him.

  “Fair enough. I’ll keep an eye on them boss.” Logan says.

  Vintago walks over to the armory building and starts helping Ben, Greg, and Robby finish unloading everything. Just as, the sun sets and it starts getting truly dark, both vehicles are done being
unloaded. Everything is nicely packed in the armory building. Vintago explains to Greg how he wants him to shut up the building and make it more secure.

  “Throw some bars on the windows and reinforce the door and its locks.” Vintago says.

  Greg just nods, as he understands what Vin is trying to do. It makes no sense to keep all of these weapons if they cannot keep them safe. Especially since they have been bringing in new people every day.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Expansion

  February, 2013

  After the soldiers had gotten cleaned up, they changed into some of the extra clothes from the crew quarters. Looking more like civilians than soldiers, they emerged into the family room.

  Dinner was already prepared by Jessica. She had to prepare meals that could easily be expanded to fit their group that was growing in size. With the new members, their company had surged to eighteen people. That was a lot of mouths to feed. She made a lot of soups, casseroles, and dishes that could support more than ten people.

  These new members were hungry mouths to feed too. They ate enough food for two people, and by the end of the meal, everything was eaten. After dinner, the group piled into the living room. At one, time, it seemed large, but now it was starting to look small.

  The group went about introducing themselves to the new members, and soon it was time for the soldiers to introduce themselves.

  The Corporal, being their natural leader introduced them all. Private Nathan Jenkins, the young looking soldier. Private First Class Jose Gomez, a tough looking Latino fellow. Specialist Anthony Smith, their radio operator.

  Finally, he introduces himself, and of course myself, “I am Corporal Trevor Steele.”

  Trevor begins telling them the story of their squad, “We are all that’s left of our platoon, for all we know. We got overrun in Tucson trying to hold the line so survivors could make into the camps. The line fell, the camps were overrun, and the army bugged out. We grabbed the first Humvee we could find and got the hell out of there. We’ve been on the move ever since, just trying to make it north away from the valley and Tucson. It has been a pretty tough month. We originally had another two Humvees full of our guys with us. The problem was the vehicles ran out of gas from constantly running on the line. When we took off, our Humvee had less than a quarter of a tank. After that, we started humping it up the hill searching for other vehicles. That’s when the shit started hitting the fan. We lost a lot of guys on the way North.”

  The four men had a sober look on their faces at the end of the short retelling of their story.

  Vintago’s group was starting to get used to these stories, and they take it all in without a word.

  Finally, Vintago speaks up, “Well guys, we are glad that you made it this far. I’m not sure what your plans are from here, but you’re welcome to stay with us.”

  The four men thank Vin and Trevor stands up to shake Vin’s hand. The group decides to start winding down for the night, and the army boys go over to their new quarters while Vin’s family and the Black family all bunk down in the crew quarters.

  The next morning, Vintago decides that it is time for a little R&R. He has been going at a breakneck pace for far too long, and with the recent additions of supplies, food, and ammunition he thinks everyone deserves a break, even him. The newcomers, including the Black family, are more than happy to take a day and just relax.

  Vintago and Logan decide to take the children fishing. Vin loads up Grayson in the jogging stroller that his wife just had to bring along, but for times like today he does not mind it. The stroller is more than capable of handling the rugged terrain down to the stream next to the hatchery.

  Logan brings all four of his kids, and they all huddle around a small fishing hole. Logan helps his kids throw some worms on their hooks. Vintago grabs the smallest fishing pole he can find and gets it all ready and tosses the line in the pond. He lets Grayson hold onto it like the other kids, but he gets bored quickly and drops the pole and runs over to play in the water.

  “Buddy,” Vin says to Grayson, “that water’s freezing!”

  Grayson just giggles and splashes in the water.

  Logan says to Grayson in a playful tone, “You’re scaring all the fishies away!”

  "Uh-oh," says Grayson.

  He gets up and starts running around in the tall grass, chasing a butterfly that caught his attention. Vintago keeps an eye on his son, but ultimately lets him have some space to play.

  “He needs more time to run around and be a kid these days.” Vin says.

  “I hear yah brother, my poor kids have gone through hell and back in the past month.” Logan replies.

  Vin just nods and goes back to fishing, enjoying the outdoors.

  Timothy is the first one to catch a fish, and he goes totally crazy. Grayson runs over, not quite sure what’s going on as Timothy reels his line in a little too quickly. Timothy gets the fish all the way up onto the shore and Logan grabs it. He takes out his multitool and takes the hook out of the fish’s mouth. It’s a small little trout, not even worth keeping.

  “OK guys, we’re going to send this one back to its mother.” Logan says with a smile.

  “But Dad!” Timothy says with a sad face.

  “He’s not a big strong fishy yet, we have to let him grow more.” Logan tells his son.

  Grayson waves goodbye to the fish as Logan lets it go back into the pond.

  After another hour or so the younger kids are getting stir crazy and the guys decide to pack it in and head back to the crew quarters. They take the kids back to the crew quarters and let them play in the house.

  Vintago suggests that, with all their new weapons and ammunition, they should have another range session and check some of it out. Logan checks with the new army boys and all four of them light up at this idea. The army guys had just been sitting around the house resting all day, and they were getting a little stir crazy.

  Greg and Ben decide to come along as well after they hear about the plans to hit the range

  Vintago grabs one of the quads from the warehouse building and straps on a large storage container. He cruises over to the armory and they start loading in rifles, handguns, and some of the new fully automatic weapons. They also pack in a couple thousand rounds of ammunition for all the different calibers.

  By the time they are done, the men all look like it is Christmas, especially the civilian men. None of the civilian men have gotten the privilege to fire fully automatic weapons before now.

  The guys walk over to their little firing range, which is just a rock wall about 500 feet away from the hatchery where the sound is dampened and provides a decent backdrop. They set up some of the junk they brought with them to shoot, and get out all of the new shiny weapons.

  They choose not to bother taking turns this time. Everyone stands up to the line holding whatever tickles their fancy and they all start unloading on things. Vintago lies down in the dirt behind one of the M249 SAW machine guns and thoroughly lays into the junk facing the wall. He watches as the tracer rounds chew up the cliff face and he about loses his mind. Shooting the fully automatic weapon is about the best fun he has had in a long time.

  Logan is shooting one of the MP5s, Ben and Greg just try out one of the fully automatic M4s, and the soldiers are using an array of handguns, shotguns, and long rifles.

  After what seems like forever, the gunfire dies down as there is nothing left to shoot. Everyone takes a break to reload their magazines, and they set up some new targets.

  During the eerie silence, Logan hears rustling in the woods and spins around. Approaching Logan and the men from the woods behind them is a group four Charlie shambling their way over towards the guys.

  “Contact, Charlie!” Logan says and grabs a fresh magazine for his M4. He slaps it in the mag well and charges his rifle. He brings it up to his shoulder and fires precisely four shots, striking each infected person in the head, killing all four Charlie before the others even realize what the hell is go
ing on.

  “Holy shit! What just happened!” Vintago screams, the ringing in his ears causing him to speak far too loud.

  “They came out of nowhere.” Logan replies.

  The group takes a few minutes to process the whole event. In the end, they are more than a little shaken up by Charlie within farting distance of their compound. They decide to pack it in and head home before they lure any Charlie lurking around.

  They pack up the remainder of the munitions and firearms and put them on the back of the quad. Vintago rides the quad in, and everyone hikes back to the compound.

  The guys put everything back in the armory, and Vintago tells every man to grab a rifle of his choosing and at least one sidearm, two if they prefer. Vintago watches as each man picks out a rifle, finds a suitable handgun and holster, and loads ammunition in both guns.

  After everyone has their rifle and sidearm, they stand outside the armory, waiting for Vintago.

  “We need to have a serious discussion about what just happened.” Vintago begins.

  “We can’t have Charlie walking into our compound, we have women and children running around.” he says.

  The men all nod their heads in agreement, especially the men with families. The four soldiers understand the idea of protecting civilians.

  “Let’s hear what we are going to do about it.” Vintago says to the men.

  There is an awkward silence as everyone thinks about his question and nobody responds.

  Finally, Corporal Trevor speaks up, “I think it would be smart if my men and I started patrolling the area surrounding the compound using the quads.”

  Figuring that the military training his men have, Trevor figures they would best be suited as a security force.

  “That’s a good start. We were patrolling regularly down by the highway to make sure they didn’t come up the road, but we have never seen them up here before.” Vintago explains.

  “We need to put up a fence of some kind, to create a safe zone around the compound.” Logan tells the group.