by L. D. King
“Sergei, you speak to us like we are your equals, like we will do the same work as you do,” said Boleslav. “The four of us are the some of the most powerful people in Russia. We don’t do this kind of work.”
“Boleslav Nikolayevich, neither my friends nor I care who you used to be. Those days are over. Today you are merely one more person trying to stay alive. If you want to try to hold on to your old life, go ahead, but you’ll be doing it on your own. We will go our separate ways in the morning. The privileges that you used to have are gone, and your best chance of survival is with us. We have made you an offer, with terms, for us to stay with you. As far as I’m concerned, you can take the offer or leave it. It is not negotiable. We will find a place that we can make safe for us tonight, eat what we have… we will sleep on the floor if we must. Then tomorrow, before anything else, you will need to make a decision as to who you want to be with. The three of us are tired of your complaining.”
They walked for another half kilometer in silence. They found a small building, or perhaps it was a large shed, depending on one’s perspective. They made sure that they were alone. They entered the building, securing the doors behind them. They ate their cold evening meal in silence and set up places to sleep, and the three security experts started their watch.
At first light, the night watch woke everyone up. They ate another small, cold meal. It was very quiet in the building. The men were waiting for someone to say something. Everyone knew what the issue was. It had to addressed now. Finally, Sergei broke the silence.
“It has been a long, quiet night. We stood watch and we talked. Grigori, Dmitry and myself have decided that if you do not agree to our terms, right now, we will part ways as friends. This morning, here and now, will be the last that we see of each other. If your choice is to go on without us, we will divide what supplies we have equally between us. Have you made a decision?”
“The three of us talked about your offer last night,” said Boleslav. “We know that we need your help to stay alive. We will accept your terms if you stay with us. We want you to teach us how to do what you do. All we ask is that you give us a little latitude because this has never been required of us before. We have never had to walk more than a few hundred meters at one time. From today forward we will carry our share of the burden. We will try to walk as fast or as far as you tell us.”
“Boleslav Nikolayevich, we accept your offer to work with us. We are equals now. We will all do our equal share. At night, when it is time to stand watch, the four of you will take your turns standing watch with us. This will give us a little more rest by adding the four of you to the schedule. We all will eat whatever we are able to find. We all will be wearing the same clothes. You are no longer the power elite of Russia. You do not have any more money than we do. The banks failed long ago, and any money that you once had is worthless now.”
He looked grim. “We have a lot of ground to cover without much time to do it. Dmitry and Grigori will take Boleslav when they go out to search this morning, for two hours. I will stay behind to protect the ladies. We will be getting our camp ready to leave when you get back. After that, we will start our day’s walk.”
“Boleslav, we need you to take one of these canvas bags when we go out on our search run,” said Grigori. “We will move at a faster pace while we are out. Remember that the zombies don’t start coming out until late afternoon. By that time, we will be back. As a group, our goal today is to cross the border into the Czech Republic. We want to make a total of 30 kilometers today before we stop for the night. All right, Dmitry, lead the way. We need to hurry.”
Dmitry, Grigori and Boleslav headed out to search through the small town of Chalupki, Poland to find what they could to further their journey. Sergei remained with the women as they all cleaned up the small building they were in. They packed up the few supplies that they had into seven equal bundles to be ready to leave when the three men returned.
The three men searched through every building or home that they saw, collecting anything that they thought would help them on their journey. While digging through piles of clothes for all of them, Grigori made an exciting discovery.
“Dmitry, come and look at this. I found a Polish Border Guard’s uniform with all of the correct patches and emblems.”
“You did good, Grigori. One of us could wear this to help the rest of us get across the border. That is, if the border is even still being guarded.”
“Dmitry, I think that might just work. Now all we need to find is the boots and the cap. It’s getting close to the time we need to go back. Gather up everything that we have. Take as much clothing as we can so everyone will have something warm to wear.”
“Okay,” said Dmitry. “Everyone gather up your bundles, and let’s get out of here. We need to be back quickly. As I was watching, I saw two zombies go by in the direction that we need to go. We need to be careful. Boleslav, you will carry those two bundles over there. We will get the rest. Let’s go. Be quiet. Be watchful.”
Hefting the bundles onto their backs, they headed back to the safe house. They were able to get past two zombies that Grigori spotted along the way. As they got closer to the house, they were starting to feel better about the discussion that they had all had the previous night. When they were back inside, they laid out the items that they had found. Sergei was surprised about the uniform. They had found the boots and the cap that made it a complete set.
“Gentlemen, I believe you have found something that very well might enable us to cross the border — that is, if it is guarded at all any more. With the food you found and the clothing that you have, we will be in very good shape for nearly a week. I am proud of all three of you.”
He continued, “Ladies, please select some warm clothing and boots. Change into them quickly. We need to be at the border before they lock it down. I would guess they will close it by mid-afternoon since that is when the zombies will come out. That is, if they are still staffing the border checkpoint at all.”
They changed their clothing and repacked the bundles. Then they were out the door, walking towards the border. They made the bundles a little heavier for each of them so that Sergei, who was in the uniform, would not need to carry a bundle. As a Polish Border Guard, he would be in charge.
As they neared the border, Sergei had them walk in front of him. Surprisingly the border was still manned. Sergei nodded to the guard in the shack as he started to walk them across. On the Czech Republic side, he was stopped and questioned.
“Excuse me, Sergeant, why are you taking these people into the Czech Republic?”
“Private, my orders are to escort these people to their homes to retrieve Polish goods that they have taken from our country. These items must be returned to Poland.”
“Sergeant, I have received no communication about this from my superiors. I cannot let you pass.”
“Private, I need to get these people to their homes and retrieve the goods that they stole from us. Then I must return before the zombies come out. I want to be back in my home before then. You must let me cross. If there is a problem, I can have my superior officer come up here to talk to you if you would like.”
“No, Sergeant, that will not be necessary. I will let you pass this time. If you are not back before the zombies come out, we cannot help you.”
“Thank you, Private. All right, everyone, let’s get moving. You have work to do.”
As soon as they got far enough away from the border, Sergei led them off the road. He changed out of the Polish Border Guard uniform. He also took one of the bundles that the others had been carrying for him. Then they continued down the road, intending to make their 30 kilometers for the day. They would look for a safe place to stay for the night.
They walked in silence, for the most part. When they had covered what Grigori felt to be 30 kilometers, he turned to face everyone.
“Look at that building. I think it will work for us tonight. We first need to be sure that it is empty before we move
in. Come with me, Dmitri; let’s check it out. I’m hungry and tired.”
Inside they went. As they looked through the house, they found a welcome surprise in the basement. Dmitri called to everyone who was standing outside.
“Everyone come down here and see what I found!”
“Dmitry, what have you found? I hope it is not something that is of no use to us. I’m not going to carry it just because you think it has some importance.”
As everyone went down into the basement, they all stopped at the bottom step. They were shocked to see what Dmitry was shouting about.
“Look at this! I haven’t seen so much food in months! Food, water, wine, and clean, warm clothing. And to top all of that, come over here and look at what is through this door.”
“Oh, my word, Dmitry! It’s a truck. A four-wheel drive Mercedes! And it looks to only be a few years old. Look at the back wall. Are those cans of gas? There is a small, enclosed trailer to tow behind it. Look at the ramp! We can drive right out of this basement if it runs. We have found something that will save us for a long while.”
“Sergei, I think we should consider staying in this house for a couple of days so we can rest and get some good food in us. Then we can load up the truck and the trailer.”
“Grigori, before we think about staying here longer than tonight we need to know that the truck runs. Dmitry, go try to start the truck. If it runs, we will stay for a couple of days to search the rest of this house and get the gear that we want to take. Then we can get it loaded and ready to go.”
“I found the keys. They are in the ignition. Hold on, let me see if it will start. Oh, my God. It runs. Is there any way that we are dreaming?”
“Guys, come up here. Has any of you looked in the back yard? There are several dead bodies back there. Perhaps they were the owners of this house.”
“Boleslav, I saw them. They might have owned this house. Right now we can’t do anything about them. We know the zombies were here at one time or another, so we will need to stay vigilant.”
They secured the house for the night and prepared something to eat. Their night watch was now with all six of them. The watch would consist of one security man, then one SRW, alternating in case someone fell asleep on watch.
The next day they started with breakfast. Then it was off to search the rest of the house, now that they had more light. They found a hidden gun cabinet with long guns and handguns, with enough ammunition for both.
“Sergei, Dmitry, everyone, come look what I have found in the master bedroom.”
The other two smiled at the treasure he had found.
“Grigori, if we take these weapons, then we will have to keep them out of sight while we travel. They might bring us more trouble than we need if we do not keep them hidden.”
“I think you are right about that point Dmitry. Guns in an argument push the argument out of control quickly. I think we should take them but use them only when we absolutely have to.”
“I can accept that Sergei. You are right. We need to inventory everything we have found. We cannot take everything. We need to decide what we will take and what we will leave.”
The only other thing they found was a stock of cigars. They made a list of everything they had discovered. From their list, they decided what they would take.
Food, water, and gasoline for the truck were the first things they selected. Some of the weapons and ammunition were loaded as well. The clothing was new, so everyone changed into the new clothes and each selected two more changes of clothing. Everything was going great, when suddenly Tasha let out a scream.
“Oh, no! No! They cannot be moving! Oh, my God! Look, everyone! The bodies in the back yard… they are moving!”
“Tasha, what are you talking about?”
“Grigori, look. The bodies. Look…!”
Grigori ran to the window that Tasha was looking out of. He could see that one of the dead from last night had started to move. It had rolled over onto its back and was trying to sit up. As everyone else got to the windows, the dead man struggled to its feet. Once it was upright, it simply walked away. The other two bodies were moving now as well. In a short while, they too had stood, walking away, following the first one. Everyone in the house stood there staring blankly at the dried blood on the ground. Their mouths were hanging open, but no words were coming out. They were afraid that if they tried to speak, they would begin screaming.
“I think we have just seen where zombies come from. The dead do not stay dead. This is why we have seen so many dried puddles of blood, with no bodies.”
“Dmitry, someone needs to find a cure for all of this before everyone in the world has been turned into a zombie.”
“Grigori, we are not the ones that will find a cure for this. all we are is gun-toting security men.”
“Fine. We need to load everything up today. We will work into the night if we must. I want us out of the Czech Republic at first light. We need to get to Africa as fast as we can.”
They continued loading the truck or trailer. One thing they found was an old ham radio. No one really knew how to operate one, but as they drove, they could use the truck to power it. From today forward, they would have one person on watch at all times.
After dinner, no one was able to get much sleep. The next morning, they ate breakfast, then they opened the basement door to drive the truck and trailer out. They headed down the road towards Germany. Sergei was driving, and Dmitry was fiddling with the two-way radio.
“Sergei, listen to this. I’ve got someone on the radio. This is Dmitry in the Czech Republic, who am I talking to? Over.”
“This is the Spanish Survivor Stronghold. Where did you say you were? Over.”
“This is Dmitry. We are in the Czech Republic. We are heading to Africa. What is the Spanish Survivor Stronghold? Over.”
“We are a safe camp for survivors that have gathered to live without fear of the zombies. We have a large camp. We are able to take up to 5,000 survivors. Anyone is welcome. You are welcome to join us. Over.”
“Spanish Survivor Stronghold, this is Dmitry in the Czech Republic. Let me talk to the rest of our group about you. We will call you back within one hour. Over.”
“Sergei, what do you think? Should we go? I know that the others are tired of running, and I am getting tired as well.”
“Dmitry, I think that this might be better than Africa for us. It sounds as if there are no zombies there. It is not far from us, now that we have a vehicle. It sounds like it is in Spain. We were already going to go through Spain. We can look at them while we are close. Do you think you can live under someone else’s rules?”
“If it means we can stop running, I could. Do you want to stop for a minute to talk about this with everyone? I think we can make a decision to go or not to go.”
“Dmitry, Sergei, I know the ladies and myself would welcome the ability to stop for good if that is what this is.”
“Boleslav, I believe that if this is place is what they say it is, we can go to them and look at the camp, and if it does not look good, we can always keep going. I vote to see what they have to offer. Does anyone disagree with me? No? Then I will have Dmitry call them back now and get directions to their stronghold. We will go.”
With everyone ready to go to the Spanish Survivor Stronghold, Dmitry called them for directions. He wrote down everything they told him and read the directions back to them to make sure he had them correct.
They were happy to be on the way to a safe camp where they could stop running. They would have to get there first, but they’d had plenty of experience running. Now they had a vehicle with enough supplies to get them there quickly. So they headed for Spain in a hurry. Now they had a purpose to run.
Chapter 14
Australian Associated Press
Melbourne, Australia
ADZ +170d
It had been eighteen days since the zombies’ first kill in Melbourne. It was such a horrific event that, years from now, the world
would still refer to that day as Australia Day Zero to mark when events occurred in connection with the zombie outbreak.
On the eighth day since Australian Day Zero, the station had recalled all of their mobile news crews to return to the station to keep them safe. When the station recalled all of the mobile broadcast vans, two of them never returned to the station nor did they report in. Chlöe Knetes, the station director, assumed the crews were either dead, had given up the vans going on the run on foot or had used the vans to flee Melbourne. On that day, the station began broadcasting the news by connecting to leased traffic cameras owned by the government or other sources. They also used cameras that the station owned that were mounted throughout Melbourne. This was how they broadcasted the news for anyone who was watching.
They kept this up until the eighteenth day after ADZ. Everything was working fine until Australia’s electrical generating plants failed, throwing the entire country into darkness. The studio was nearly out of food and bottled water. The toilets had stopped flushing. The entire building started to smell like an open sewer. They knew that they had to get out of the building. The only thing that was still running was the huge backup generator for the studio. It had enough fuel to run for 30 days.
After 18 days, there were nineteen people remaining inside the studio. These included station manager Chlöe Knetes and William Pike, head of security, along with his security staff of four.
After eighteen long days in the building, as everything gradually stopped working, Chlöe knew they had to get out of the studio or they would die there. She picked up the phone — which, miraculously, still worked — and dialed the security chief.
