The Aftermath

by Gary Chesla

  She looked to be about eighteen years old, but as she pushed her body into the corner, trying to make herself as small a target as she could, it was hard to tell her age for sure.

  “Please don’t hurt me,” the girl sobbed when she saw Tony standing at the door, pointing his crossbow at her.

  Mike looked around the doorway.

  “She’s alone,” Mike said.

  “Come out of the cabin,” Tony said, still aiming his bow at the girl.

  The girl slowly got to her feet.

  She wrapped her arms around herself and slowly walked across the floor and stepped out into the daylight, shielding her eyes against the bright sunlight.

  “Have you been bitten?” Tony asked.

  The girl shook her head no.

  “Put your arms down by your side so I can see them,” Tony said.

  The girl lowered her arms, trembling as she stood in front of Tony.

  “Her arms and legs look OK from this side,” Tony said looking at Mike. “How’s does she look from your side.”

  “She looks fine from this side,” Mike replied.

  Tony lowered his bow.

  “What’s your name?” Tony asked.

  “Sherry,” the girl replied nervously.

  “We’re not going to hurt you,” Tony said. “What are you doing here?”

  The girl was about to answer when she noticed the woman’s body on the ground and she began to sob loudly.

  “That’s my mother,” Sherry cried.

  “What happened here?” Mike asked. “Why are you here?”

  After a few minutes, Sherry was able to compose herself.

  “My mom, dad, brother and I lived down near Ligonier,” Sherry said. “For the last month we lived in the A&P grocery store outside of Ligonier. We couldn’t get out of the store because there were so many of those monsters. They were everywhere. We didn’t know what to do, they couldn’t get in to get at us, but we couldn’t get out either, but at least we had something to eat.”

  “How did you end up here?” Tony asked.

  “About a week ago, Dad said it looked like we could get out of the store because there wasn’t any of those things in the parking lot. So we ran out to our car and tried to go to my grandmother’s house, but everywhere we went, everyone was dead. There was blood and bodies everywhere.

  We couldn’t find anyone else that was still alive.

  When I was little, I went to camp with the girl scouts here at this campground.

  We didn’t know where else to go so we came here.”

  “What happened to your mother and where is your dad and brother?” Tony asked.

  “My mom and dad went to look for food yesterday,” Sherry replied. “They found these houses down towards Johnstown and said they saw a lot of things there that we needed. Dad said they didn’t see any of those monsters running around there, so they went back down yesterday to load up the car and bring some supplies back to our camp.

  Last night after they came back, my mom and dad said they weren’t feeling very well.

  This morning my dad said they had to go back down for a couple of things they didn’t have room for yesterday.

  My mom was really sick and couldn’t go with him, so my brother went to help my dad.

  I stayed home to take care of my mom.

  About an hour ago, I tried to get my mom to wake up to drink some broth to keep her strength up.

  When she opened her eyes, I got really scared when I saw what they looked like.

  They were all white and cloudy.

  Then she started to growl and started to come after me.

  I couldn’t believe it, she had turned into one of those monsters. I didn’t know what to do so I ran out of our cabin and hid in this cabin.

  I don’t know how she knew where I was, but she came right to this cabin and started banging on the side of the cabin.

  I just tried to stay quiet and hoped my dad would come home soon.”

  “I’m sorry I had to put your mother down,” Tony said. “But when they change into what she became, there isn’t anything else you can do for them. All you can do is set them free so they can rest in peace.”

  “I know,” Sherry sobbed.

  “When will your dad be home?” Tony asked.

  “I don’t know,” Sherry replied. “I thought he would have been home by now. He said they wouldn’t be long.”

  “What color was the car he was driving?” Tony asked.

  “It was red,” Sherry replied.

  “Was it a Kia Soul?” Mike asked as he looked at Tony. Mike had a feeling the answer would be yes.

  “Yeah, how did you know?” Sherry replied.

  “Was he an older man and was he wearing jeans and a yellow pullover shirt?” Tony asked.

  “Yes,” Sherry replied. Her eyes got large as she answered, fearing where these questions would lead.

  “I’m afraid your dad and brother won’t be coming home,” Tony said softly. “He and your mother must have gotten infected when they were down near Johnstown yesterday. You dad changed like your mother did. We found your dad and brother in the car earlier today. He must have attacked your brother. I’m sorry.”

  Sherry began to sob quietly again as she realized that she had just lost her entire family and was now alone.

  Mike looked at Tony.

  “I guess we could take her back with us if you don’t have any objections,” Tony said.

  “Take me where?” Sherry asked looking alarmed.

  “My wife and daughter are at a little place we found,” Mike replied. “You can come stay with us.”

  Sherry still looked terrified.

  “Look Sherry,” Tony said. “We’re not going to make you come with us and we’re not going to hurt you. But as you well know, it’s dangerous out here. Do you really want to stay out here by yourself?”

  “No,” Sherry replied hesitantly. “But I don’t know you.”

  But you’ll be safe with us and I’m sure my little Jamie could use your help looking after George,” Mike smiled.

  “Who is George?” Sherry asked.

  “Her pain in the ass kitten,” Mike smiled. “I have to warn you, he eats stink bugs then throws them up all over everyone. It smells like hell.”

  Sherry smiled briefly, “Will you show me where you found my dad’s car?”

  “Sure,” Tony replied.

  “Can we bury my mom before we go?” Sherry asked. “After all, she was my mother. I don’t want her to just lay there, she should at least have a decent burial.”

  Mike nodded. “Sure, we’ll help you, then we need to go. We’ll take you home where you can get away from this.”

  “OK,” Sherry replied. “I guess I don’t really have a choice unless I want to stay here by myself. Do you have anything to eat where you stay?”

  “We have enough to eat, at least so far we’ve done OK,” Mike smiled reassuringly.

  “Do you have anything you would like to bring with you?” Tony asked.

  Sherry shook her head, “No, everything I had got burned up in the fire when the cabin burned down.”

  “How did the cabins catch on fire?” Tony asked.

  “My brother knocked over a candle,” Sherry replied. “He got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. The candle set the cabin on fire. It woke me up and we we’re lucky to get out of the cabin alive. Then the fire spread to the next cabin. That was where we were keeping our supplies. That’s why my dad had to go back down near Johnstown this morning. All our food was destroyed along with everything else we had.

  We didn’t have any way pf putting the fire out and it just kept spreading.”

  “Let’s go bury your mom,” Tony said.

  Chapter 16

  July 1st, Granite Mountain

  Doc walked to the situation room to find Chervy, Rogers and Davis pulling up chairs around the computer.

  Reynolds and Connors stood behind the others, looking down over their shoulders at the com
puter, anxiously waiting for something to happen.

  Chervy had just hit the power button on the computer when he saw Doc come into the room.

  “Good morning Doc,” Chervy smiled.

  “Hi Doc,” Davis added. “You come down too to see if our visitor was back last night?”

  “I thought this was where I would find everyone,” Doc replied and smiled as he continued. “This was the only reason I could think of for the mess hall being empty when I walked in to the mess for a little breakfast and found the bay deserted. The mess hall is usually the most popular spot here at Granite Mountain at this time of the morning. But I have to admit that I am also curious to find out what happened at our food drop last night.”

  “Sorry we didn’t finish cleaning up the mess hall, Doc,” Reynolds said. “When Chervy said he was coming down to see if our visitor was back last night, we just had to come down to find out what happened. We can go back and finish cleaning up if you want?”

  “No, relax, the cleanup can wait a few more minutes,” Doc smiled, “We’re all curious to see what our visitor looks like. After all, it will be the first look we’ve had at another living person since the infected overran the base.”

  “I hope our visitor is a woman,” Connors said. “I haven’t seen a woman in months.”

  “For now, I just hope our visitor is someone that we can find a way to talk with,” Doc replied. “Someone that has knowledge about others that may have also survived and how we might be able to contact them.”

  “All of that and be a woman too. How else are we supposed to repopulate the earth,” Connors laughed. “Blonde hair would be nice, I like blondes.”

  “I don’t care what color hair she has,” Rogers grinned.

  “Yeah, Rogers doesn’t even care if she is inflatable,” Davis laughed.

  “Hopefully sometime in the near future this can be a conversation we can continue,” Doc replied. “But I’m afraid we have a few obstacles to overcome first. The first thing we have to do is confirm that our visitor was in fact a living human. Did the system indicate that our visitor was back again last night?”

  “We don’t know yet, Doc,” Davis said. “Chervy just powered up the computer.”

  “Didn’t the system print out any reports about last night’s activity?” Doc asked.

  “No, the system here isn’t set up like what we had back at the base in Fallon,” Chervy replied. “At Fallon the system was set up for twenty-four hour monitoring and notification as part of the Satellite Watch Program. Here, the system collects all the information sent back by the satellite and records it on the server. It only prints out anything when we ask for it. Once the terminal powers up, I can search what was recorded last night and see if our visitor came back.”

  “We tried to stay up and see our visitor live last night,” Rogers said. “But we didn’t last too long.”

  “We sat up to 0100 this morning,” Chervy added, “but when the cameras and the motion detectors we set up hadn’t pick up anything by that time, we decided to call it a night.”

  “I tried to bet these guys that our visitor wouldn’t come back last night,” Rogers smiled, “but no one would bet me.”

  “It’s hard to bet when you are hoping you will see who is out there,” Davis added. “Even though Rogers is always wrong, and the bet would have been like taking candy from a baby, I was afraid I would jinx us if I bet him.”

  “It’s still not too late to take my bet if you’re so certain it would be a sure thing,” Rogers grinned.

  They all stopped talking and stared at the computer monitor when the screen lit up. The picture from the satellite’s camera of the area around the food drop came into focus.

  The men all crowed around the monitor, straining to see the food crate in the middle of the picture and to see if there were any signs it had been disturbed.

  “Zoom in closer, Cherv,” Davis said. “I can’t tell if any of the food was taken or not.”

  “It doesn’t look like anyone was there,” Rogers said. “I told you no one was going to show up last night.”

  “Wait until we get a better look, smartass,” Davis growled. “We can’t tell anything from this distance yet.”

  “If you two would just shut the hell up for a moment,” Chervy laughed, “I’m working on getting us a better picture. The satellite response is a little slow this morning for some reason, so cool it for a few minutes.”

  “You don’t think we are having a problem with the satellite or the computer?” Doc asked.

  “I don’t think so, I think it is just the amount of data we may have received from the satellite last night,” Chervy replied. “The system here at Granite Mountain is slow. The hardware and system programing haven’t been updated in years. The operating system we’re using here is still Windows XP which was released eighteen years ago. The processor is a Pentium II, which I think came out the year I was born. It’s a good system, but a little slow compared to what I’m used to working with. It just takes a little longer to process what the satellite is sending us.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Doc sighed, “this equipment is our eyes to the outside world. It would make our goal a lot harder to accomplish if the system gave out on us. Since you’re the only computer tech we have, do you think you can repair this system if there is a problem?”

  “It depends Doc,” Chervy replied. “I just hope we don’t have to find out the answer to that question any time soon. But I don’t think we have to worry for a while. The system is slow but otherwise seems OK.”

  The view on the screen finally began to change and soon the men could clearly see the crate of supplies sitting on the ground near Stone.

  “I’m afraid it looks like Rogers was right,” Reynolds said. “It doesn’t look like anything was touched.”

  “Yeah, yesterday things were scattered on the ground all around the crate,” Davis added.

  “Well, I guess you and I might as well go back to work,” Connors said looking at Reynolds. “We have to clean up the mess hall before we tackle storage bay #19.”

  “Yeah, I guess we all got excited over nothing,” Reynolds added. “See you guys later.”

  Connors and Reynolds walked slowly out into the tunnel, obviously disappointed that they didn’t get a look at the mysterious visitor, and disappeared as they headed back towards the mess hall.

  “What do the satellite images show about last night?” Doc asked. “Did anything happen at the site?”

  “They probably show that it was a quiet night in Stone,” Rogers said. “Unfortunately!”

  “What do you mean unfortunately?” Davis growled, “You were trying to bet everyone that no one was going to show up last night.”

  “I guess that was my way of making sure that person would come back,” Rogers sighed. “Like you said, I’m usually wrong most of the time. I was really hoping if I bet that no one would show up, the opposite would happen, and we would get a look at the visitor because they would come back.”

  “It’s a scary thought that the fate of mankind could be in the hands of you two,” Chervy grinned.

  “It’s also a scary thought that if no one shows up again at the food drop that we could be all that’s left of mankind,” Rogers added.

  “I’m sure if Doc wasn’t concerned about mankind surviving the apocalypse, after listening to the three of us, he is beginning to have second thoughts,” Chervy laughed.

  Doc just smiled to himself as he waited for the images taken by the satellite last night to come up on the screen.

  Finally, the first image appeared.

  “This is the first image the satellite took last night after we turned in,” Chervy said. “I set the satellite, like you instructed, to take an image every five minutes, so that if our visitor did return after we went to bed, we would get more information about where the person came from and where they went after coming for the supplies.”

  Doc nodded, “Too bad it appears they didn’t return. I felt certain t
hat they would be back.”

  Chervy flipped through the next few images, not stopping until the image time stamped 0200 appeared on the screen.

  All the images up until this last photo had been an eerie greenish black picture of nothing but a solid dark color.

  But the image time stamped 0200 was different.

  “Our visitor was back!” Chervy exclaimed as he pointed to the right top corner of the photo and the light green blurry human body shaped figure.

  “What does the next image show?” Doc asked. “I’m curious to see if we can see why our visitor didn’t go all the way down to where the food was.”

  Chervy clicked the arrow on the keyboard and the next image scrolled onto the screen.

  “This image shows that our visitor was moving closer towards the food crate,” Chervy said. “The food crate location is marked by the red dot in the middle of the image so we can determine where our visitor is in relation to the food crate.”

  “So they were going after the food, that’s strange,” Doc said. “Something had to have happened.”

  “If the visitor came back and was moving towards the food and supplies, why does the view from the satellite this morning show that nothing was touched?” Davis asked.

  “I don’t know yet,” Chervy replied as he tapped the keyboard to move to the next image.

  “This next image shows that our visitor was almost to the food crate,” Chervy said. “It doesn’t make sense. The person came back, walked up to the food crate but didn’t take anything.”

  When the next image came into view, Chervy stopped and stared, “The visitor’s image is now moving away from the crate.”

  “Do you see anything that would account for the movement backwards?” Doc asked. “Can you see anything else on the picture besides our visitor?”

  “Not on these photos, Doc,” Chervy replied. “Like I said when we first discovered that someone had taken food from the crate, the satellite images taken at night are not very good. The satellite that we are able to access wasn’t designed to take night photos. I was able to adjust some of the programing to take night shots by finding and displaying shapes created by body heat to help us look for survivors, but there wasn’t much I could do about the image quality.”