by Lee Thomas
It was almost three by the time we pulled close to the dock at the resort. I idled slower and killed the lights to avoid any unwanted attention being drawn to the group. I kicked Roger who was on the bench next to me and he jerked awake. He looked around and sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. As we pulled back up to the dock, he shook the other two awake. I idled up to the dock and killed the engine as Roger jumped down to the dock and tied us off. We all went silently up towards the building, John and Randy leading us, while Roger and I walked more slowly up the ramp. I could see Jeff had posted guards overnight as someone had opened the door just before we got there. They let Randy and John in then shut it back as Roger and I were still a small ways off.
"You alright man?" he finally asked me. I stopped, turned to look at him, and then turned back towards the lake.
"Yeah. I was pretty much expecting this outcome, so it wasn't really a surprise. It hurts though. But so did losing granny.” I said. Granny was his grandma, who I had known since I was little, and considered her my grandma too.
"Yeah, that sucked. But we don’t have time to mourn right now. You're in charge of this little expedition, these people are looking up to you, hoping in you. Let's go make this work.” he told me. He clapped me on the shoulder then turned towards the conference center. I turned too and we both walked up the path. The door opened as we approached, then shut behind us. We both went and found a place to lie down, and got some sleep.
Chapter 3
May 2nd, 2018
I was shaken awake by Jeff around 5 a.m. Not being a morning person, I started to growl at him and say leave me alone, but he put his finger to his lips and motioned me to get up. Only one thing would make him do that this early.
I jumped out of bed, threw my boots on, and grabbed my sword. We walked to the front of the building, where the RV's were parked. I had people stationed inside of them, with the doors locked, just in case. Apparently it was a good idea as they were now surrounded by infected, about fifty of them by a quick count. I looked at Jeff, who just nodded at me, then at the infected. I nodded back, and we started rousing people to help out.
I went back to my pile of stuff and got on my makeshift armor, a set of riot gear we got from an abandoned police station. It included a helmet with a face shield, elbow pads, a bullet proof vest, and I threw some football pads over it to protect my shoulders. Some hockey pads for the legs and arms completed the outfit. It looked funny, but it was pretty good coverage against bites while letting me still swing my sword. By the time I got it all on, Jeff was waiting by the door, looking out.
"It doesn't look like they know we are here, or that there are people inside the vehicles. They may smell us, but they can't find us. We could just wait, and watch, see if they just leave." Jeff said.
"True, but if they don’t? We will have to clear them out then, and by then, more could be here. At least while it’s dark we may have a small advantage, they don’t seem to see any better in the dark than we do.” I said. I was contemplating the pros and cons of attacking them now, or waiting until daylight.
"Well, we have about twenty guys ready to go right now. What do you want to do?"
"Let's gather them up, run some ideas around real quick.” I said, moving away from the door. I motioned upstairs, and the men gathered behind us started moving towards the stairs. We all moved into a conference room upstairs, and I waited until everyone was here.
"Ok, it looks to be about fifty or so infected out there. I'm with Jeff in thinking they don’t know we are even here. I want to hear options. We can wait until daylight, see if they move off, then just leave, or we can go clear them out now. Anybody have any other ideas or thoughts?" I asked the group. I wanted them to feel like they had a voice in whether or not they risked their lives.
"If we wait, isn't there a possibility more will show up? If so, it would be more dangerous to wait and have to deal with a hundred, when we could deal with fifty now." Randy said.
"Or they could move off and we wouldn’t have to deal with any at all.” John piped up.
"What if we attack now, and it draws more?" James asked.
"What happens if we attack, and we get overrun, what happens to the rest of the group?" Allen asked.
All of these were good points, and I had to think about all of them. I couldn’t take long however, as it was after five in the morning already. I had wanted to start waking everyone up at six so we get moving again. We debated for a while longer, talking back and forth about what could happen if we wait, what if we attack now.
"Ok, look. I wanted to wake everyone up at six anyways to get started. That's only a few minutes away now. Let’s wake everyone, quietly, and have them pack up. We will clear a path, and get everyone loaded. We have no choice now.” I said, making the decision. The longer we waited, the more infected could show up, and the longer it took us to get to safety.
"Jeff, you're the only one who can drive the rig. Did you get plenty of sleep last night?" I asked.
"Yeah. I slept while you guys were gone looking for the girls. I'm good." He assured me. I knew he wouldn’t attempt to drive if he was too tired, so I went with the others to start preparing to clear the path.
Everyone was finally awake and packed by six-thirty, so the few guards and I made our way to the back door. The plan was we would go out the back and get the infected's attention off to the side of the building, while the main part of the group went the other way around and snuck into the RV's. It shouldn’t be too hard to get their attention, especially once we started attacking them and making noise.
Those of us on the attack went first. The others were to wait at least ten minutes to make sure we had their attention. We went right out of the door and made our way to the side of the building. I peered around the corner and saw the first of them. They were still just milling around aimlessly. I nodded to the group behind me and made hand motions to convey what I wanted them to do. Everyone nodded that they understood, so we began.
I ducked around the corner, the men fanning out behind me. I walked calmly up to the first infected, who turned and looked at me, but didn't immediately respond to me. About the time it reacted and started that hissing sound they made, I was close enough to plant my sword squarely in its throat, nearly severing the head. It went down, dead. The sound drew the attention of others, however, as more turned towards us.
Several of them screeched and actually ran at us. It was the first time I had seen infected move that fast. I sidestepped one and swung low at its legs at it tried to grab for me. My blow hit it behind the knee, destroying the joint, and it went down. There was no howl of pain, and the scream was more like frustration. The thing tried to attack me still, but a guard who had stuck close to me planted his sword through the things head, killing it. I yelled for him to duck as I swung at one coming up behind him. He ducked as I stepped forward, swinging my sword straight through the forehead of the infected. It dropped straight to the ground and never moved again. I yanked my sword out and helped the man to his feet.
We formed up into an arc, to protect the RV's as best we could, while allowing the rest to load up. We continued to fight as I saw the first of our group come around the side of the building, hurrying to the vehicles. The guards inside the RV's had obviously latched on to the plan, as they had the doors unlocked and threw them open as survivors got close. I glanced back and saw that a few infected were going for the other group, but the guards had it covered. The RV's were parked close enough together that the infected had a hard time getting between them to sneak past us.
Yelling, thunks from swords hitting flesh, and screeches from the infected were all we heard for the next half an hour. We cleared out the infected, with no one being bitten, or scratched. We checked each other over carefully, cleaned weapons, and finally loaded up ourselves. I took one last look at the building before I climbed on. Once I was in, I signaled to Jeff to get moving.
We moved through the resort slowly. Obviously our fight had attract
ed some attention, as we saw more infected hurrying in that direction. A few turned towards the RV's and ran at us, but they either hit it hard enough with their heads to at least knock themselves out, or we fired through our makeshift gun ports and took them out. Once we made it out of the resort, we picked up a little speed as the roads were in better shape and larger. We once again rolled past burned out buildings, overturned cars, and saw some bodies in the street. We made it back to the highway without another incident though, which was good. I wanted to put as much space between us from this place as we could.
We rolled on for another three hours, about which time we needed to refuel. I had Jeff find a suitable place, which happened to be a truck stop right off the highway, and we all pulled over so we could refill the tanks.
I instructed the drivers to get close to the building, but park facing out so we could leave quickly if needed. Once all the RV's were parked, I radioed again to the drivers to wait for a few minutes to see if our noise attracted any unwanted attention. After about ten minutes without seeing any movement, I cleared everyone for getting out. Once everyone had a few minutes to stretch their legs, I organized a team to go siphon gas, and another to help clear the building. I wanted to see if anything useful was inside.
Those of us going inside crept up to the door. The windows were smashed out, but not covered, so it looked like looters had their way with the place, then deserted it. We opened the door and stepped in. The crunch of glass all over the floor made stealth an impossibility, so we just kept our eyes open. We spread out, all of us knowing what to look for. Food was gone, as well as anything that could have been a weapon. Radios, batteries, all gone. The shelves were pretty clear, except for the knickknack items you find at truck stops. Once we cleared the building I ordered everyone outside.
I let everyone stretch their legs a bit, enjoy the sunshine. I didn’t want to pause too long, but breaks were important so people didn’t go stir crazy in the cars. I checked on our siphon team, and they had found some to replenish with. The cans from the rig were enough to fill the RV tanks, but now those were extremely low. I knew we would have this problem, and our only hope for it was to keep finding gas stations and abandoned cars we could siphon from.
Once we got as much gas as possible, and everyone had a nice rest and lunch, we loaded back up and continued on. I had gathered the drivers before we left and informed them we would not be stopping for breaks unless it involved clearing the road or siphoning gas. We had at least two stops to make to search for families along the way, and I wanted to get to the ship as fast as possible.
Around three we passed the exit for Wynne, which according to my atlas was about three quarters of the way to Memphis, which was where we would pick up I-40. We had passed many abandoned cars along the way which helped us replenish our gas cans, but little else. I hoped we had the gas to make it to Memphis, as we should have a very good chance of finding gas there, enough to fill the tanks and the reserve cans. I checked in periodically with the other drivers to make sure there were not any problems in the other vehicles.
As we continued east on highway 64, we drew close to the city of Earle, AR. I decided that since it was almost dinner time, and we could use a top off on the tanks, I radioed Jeff and the other drivers to pull off the highway and find a place to park. We found what appeared to be a large warehouse, or shipping company with a large open area. I told Jeff to pull in there, and the other drivers to form a protective circle around the rig. With the trailers behind the RV's, it wasn’t perfect, but it was good enough. I assembled three teams, one to get cars off the trailers and go in search of food, gas, and anything else they could find, while the other two teams, led by Jeff and myself, searched the building. I hoped it was secure enough we could camp out inside for a while and rest, make some dinner, maybe even stay the night if it was safe enough.
Where Jeff had parked, and our ring set up at, there were four bay doors for semi's to be loaded through. They all appeared to be locked, so both teams went down the wall until we found a service entrance that was unlocked. Since Jeff knew service areas like this better than I did, I told him to take his team to the left through the service bays and search there first. I was going to take my team to the right which appeared to lead into office space.
Jeff and I both listened at the door, and neither one of us heard anything. He turned the knob and pushed the door open. We waited for a few moments to listen, and when he looked at me I nodded. He took his team in first, then I took mine in. We entered into what appeared to be a lobby of sorts. There was a glassed in desk facing the door, chairs along the walls, some small end tables. I saw the last of Jeff's team disappear into a door to the left of the window, obviously into the warehouse area. There was a second door off to the right, which I hoped led into the office area. One of my men put his ear up to the door for a minute, then shook his head at me, indicating silence. I nodded to him, and he took point, throwing the door open and rushing through. The rest of us followed and fanned out.
We had stepped through to a short hallway that opened up into a large room full of cubicles. The dividers where about chest high, so we could see the whole room, but it left plenty of hiding places. The team split up, going down each aisle at the same time, peeking into cubicles, over walls, under desks, and trying the office doors. Several of them were unlocked, and two men at least cleared each one. One of the men found a door that led to a front lobby area, apparently the main business entrance. The front windows were boarded up like someone had tried to secure this place at one point, or just hide.
We finished searching the office area without really finding anything except some blankets and discarded food containers. Someone obviously had holed up here for a while at some point. I had my men make sure that front area was secure, and that there were no other entrances. Once we made sure of that, we headed back to the lobby we first came in at to go find Jeff's team.
As we walked in, one of Jeff's men was there, waiting on us. He said that Jeff was waiting for us at the far end of the warehouse area. There was something he wanted me to see. I motioned and we followed the man to the rest of Jeff's team. We crossed the warehouse, which still had pallets full of supplies loaded and stacked all over the place. Some had been opened and gone through. I stepped over broken pallets and trash as we weaved our way through the warehouse.
Stepping out from the stacked pallets finally, it opened up into just an open area of floor, and I saw Jeff and several of his men standing at an open door. The smell hit me from even this far away, and I wasn't sure I wanted to see it after all.
"Looks like we weren't the first ones to try to hole up here." Jeff said, looking grim. I went up to him, trying to breathe through my mouth so I wouldn’t have to smell it so much. He handed me a flashlight and I shined it around the room. It looked to be a storage locker of some kind. There were metal shelves lining the walls, but the sight that drew your attention first was the small pile of bodies on the floor. It looked to be about ten people, all dead. There was bedding, a few makeshift weapons, and plenty of canned food on the shelves.
"I guess they closed themselves off in here with food and weapons, hoping to ride it out for a while. They must not have realized it was airtight. None of them looked bitten, or changed, from here." I said, surveying the rest of the room.
"Without a close examination it would appear that's the case, yes." Jeff said.
"Clean it out, if there is anything left we can use, then close it back up. Let's leave them in peace.” I ordered, turning to survey the rest of the warehouse. I had seen a forklift somewhere in there, and thought maybe we could move some of these pallets around and clear out the area furthest from the room of bodies. I heard Jeff assigning a few men to clean out the room, and then his footsteps came up behind me.
"I saw a forklift. I'm guessing you are thinking of moving these pallets around to clear out an open area closer to the door, farther away from this room?" he asked me. I just turned my head towards him
and smiled, then nodded. We thought a lot alike.
"We should probably get that overhead door open there for a little while, let it air out in here. I wouldn't want the more squeamish of the group coming in to this smell.” I said, pointing to the closest door. "How much did you get searched? Is there any other entrances to this area we should be concerned with? If we are going to camp out here tonight I don't want any surprises."
"There are other doors, but they are locked tight. It probably wouldn’t hurt to post a couple of guards overnight just in case, but as long as the door we came in is secure, and anything you found was secure, we should be safe here." Jeff said. He motioned a man over and gave him instructions to open the door a little, then he nodded to me and walked towards the forklift to start moving pallets. I looked back over at the room and saw a few men had brought out canned food and water bottles and just closed the door. One appeared to say a small prayer for the ones left inside. I thought we could all use a little of that right now.
I gathered my team to go check the front area again, just to make sure it was all secure. I sent two out to gather the rest of the group and start bringing people in. The rest of us went back into the office area to check it back out. I went to the front lobby area and checked those doors. They were locked, and the boards all seemed to be nailed or screwed in tight. I tried pulling on a few, and none of them budged. As I entered the cubicle room again, one man came over to me and said all the windows in the offices were also boarded up tightly. That meant the only way in or out was the service entrance we originally came in. I told the guys to start funneling people into here so everyone could claim a bit of floor to sleep tonight.
I went back out to the warehouse area and saw that Jeff had managed to move most of the pallets to in front of the door to the dead room and cleared a large area close to the service lobby. People were starting to file in now, and I heard the guard directing people to the office area. With the room closed, and the overhead open for open, the smell was dissipating now. Glancing at my watch, I saw it was now about six. The sun would be going down soon, and those things would be more active. I went to Jeff as he hopped off the forklift.
