Meanwhile, two platoons of dog-tired yet eagle-eyed troops from the Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry watched the engineers working feverishly, guarding against infected. This had meant taking up positions outside the wire, which the troops weren’t really excited about, but they had no choice in the matter. For safety, they sat atop Bison APCs, which could race back into the base in a matter of seconds. Fortunately, they didn’t need to, as infected only appeared singly, or occasionally in pairs and trios and were easily dispatched by snipers like Master Corporal Stone.
Chapter 19
September 29th
Xander woke up to total blackness. He blinked a couple of times. Nothing. Then he waved his hand in front of his face. Still nothing.
Then he realized it was pitch black because every light inside Costco was off. That’s odd, he thought. At night, it was normal to leave a few on, just in case somebody needed to go to the washroom in the middle of the night.
Muttering to himself, he fumbled for his backpack a few feet away. After an interminable time, he found it and pulled it to him. He reached inside and pulled out a flashlight. He turned it on and the sudden flare of light blinded him temporarily. He sat still for a few moments to let his eyes adjust to the dim lighting, then got up and left the sleeping area.
He walked over to the office where Steve usually stayed. He opened the door and saw that Steve was already awake and had lit a couple of candles providing some flickering light in the room. He was intently reading some documents.
“Well, I guess this time is as good as any to see what your plans are for dealing with a permanent blackout,” Xander said groggily. For the past couple of days they had gone over plans for rationing, security, and half a dozen other things, but somehow had never gotten around to dealing with a loss of power.
“Huh? Oh hey, Xander,” Steve replied. “Yeah, we’ve got some ideas, but most people aren’t going to like them very much.”
Jessica walked out of the back room where Steve usually slept and said tiredly, “Why are you awake, Steve? Come back to sleep.” Then she realized Xander was standing in the room. Even in the dim lighting, Xander could see her blushing.
“It’s not what you think,” Steve said.
“It’s probably exactly what I think, and frankly, it’s irrelevant. You’re both adults and capable of making your own decisions,” Xander replied. “The only person you probably need to worry about is Donald. After all, he’s sure you two are in cahoots.”
“Don’t worry, we’re doing our best to keep it a secret. You’re the first person to find out,” Steve said.
“Anyway, back to dealing with a power failure. What can we do?” Xander asked.
“Well, we have good news and bad news,” Steve said.
“How about the good news first?” Xander said.
“The good news is what was in the trailer on Bay Three,” Steve said. “It was full of summer items like camping supplies the store was going to return to the manufacturer. Sleeping bags, tents, a bunch of solar-powered camp chargers, some Coleman stoves, propane bottles for said stoves, and so on. The best thing for staying warm is a backyard firepit set – it looks like an old cast iron stove with four screen doors on it. You stuff it with wood and start a fire. Ventilation might be a problem, but odds are, most people here would rather smell a bit smoky than freeze to death. We also found a few boxes of solar-powered garden lights, so we can charge those everyday and have some lighting in here at night. They aren’t very bright, but it’ll be better than nothing.”
“The hardware department even has a couple of generators we could hook up – if we had gas to run them. The only solution for that is to go outside and siphon the gas from our cars. With all those infected outside, it’s a bit of a suicide mission to ask anyone to do that.”
“Not only that, but the fumes would make this place a morgue in a day or two. Gas generators are great, but without ventilation, they aren’t something we want to use in here.”
“That is good news,” Xander said. “I can think of a dozen uses for those solar camp chargers – I guess the only question is what we use them for – I’ve got half a jerry can of gas for a generator, but it probably wouldn’t last very long and rigging up some sort of ventilation would be a royal pain in the ass.
“And the bad news?”
“The bad news is that the power is off in most of the city now. I went up on the roof half an hour ago and everywhere I can see – east, west, north and south of us – is just as dark as here. Worse yet is that there is still a ton of food in the coolers and freezer. Most of the fresh meat from the meat department is gone, but a few cases of steaks and ribs were in the cooler. If power doesn’t come back on soon, we’ll lose all of that food – dairy products, meat, frozen, you name it,” Steve replied.
“We knew it was always a possibility, right? We might not have said it out loud, but at the back of our minds, we all wondered how long the power would last with everything else falling apart,” Xander said.
“Well, you did say it out loud, a few days back when you called Donald out at dinner. Remember?” Jessica said, smirking.
“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Xander fired back. “Do you know if anyone in here is an electrician?” Xander asked.
“We can find out,” Steve said. “Jess, open up that file that has everyone’s bios in it.”
“Sure thing, it’ll just be a minute or two,” Jessica said and flipped open a laptop and fired it up.
“We backed up everything onto a couple of laptops a few days ago after that last brownout. All of them have fully charged batteries and we have another half dozen charged batteries set aside,” Steve noted to Xander.
“That was a good idea,” Xander said.
“Why do we need an electrician?” Steve asked while Jessica typed on the PC.
“Um, depending on how much juice those solar powered camp chargers put out, maybe we could hook them up to one of the coolers and save some of the perishable foods. I’m thinking high calorie items like cheese, sausage, maybe some meat. If we could get a freezer going, ice cream and the rest of the frozen food. Right now only Donald is grumbling about the food, but once the power goes for good, I predict a lot of people will get tired of eating out of cans real fast.”
“No, it doesn’t look like anyone is an electrician. Maybe we can ask around at breakfast,” Jessica said.
“If not, maybe we could use them to power some of those small fridges over in the appliance section,” Steve said.
“That would work, but the dairy cooler would probably hold the equivalent of a hundred of those fridges. Still, something would be better than nothing,” Xander replied.
“There’s one more bit of bad news,” Steve continued. “Without power, it’s going to get damned cold in here. Up till now, it didn’t matter that fall was beginning outside because we had the furnaces and the electric heaters. Without power, neither of those will work. Fortunately, there’s a ton of winter clothes on the tables out there, so during the daytime, it shouldn’t be too bad, but the nights are already cold, dropping to close to freezing as it is. We’ll need to think of a way to keep warm at night. Maybe hooking up a couple space heaters to some of those solar chargers will help. Plus, we have all those sleeping bags in the trailer. That should keep us all from freezing to death in here.”
“Aren’t you just full of good news,” Xander said. “Let’s go look at the freezers and coolers and see if we can rig something up.”
September 30th
Xander was the first to notice the strange behavior of the infected in the parking lot. He was taking his turn on the roof. There was a cold wind blowing out of the north, and if he had to guess, the temperature was on the verge of falling below zero. Fortunately his winter parka – courtesy of Costco – kept him plenty warm. He cradled the rifle in his arms and watched the horde, now numbering, at best guess, several hundred, in the parking lot. Every few minutes, he walked the perimeter of the roof, making sure nothing
amiss. For the most part, they were wandering around aimlessly, but a large group was standing next to the southeast corner of the building. They stood almost completely motionless and moved only slightly, shifting a foot or two only occasionally or pawing at the steel wall in front of them. The infected might look up at him once and a while, but they were focused on something else completely.
He had noticed during other shifts, there was almost always a large group there. He spoke into his walkie talkie, “Steve, can you come up here?”
Xander wandered back to the south wall and looked down. The group still huddled there, and as he watched over the next ten minutes, it grew larger and larger.
Steve popped his head up and said, “Everything okay?”
“I think so, come here for a minute, will you?”
Steve climbed onto the roof and ambled over. He followed Xander’s gaze to the parking lot.
“Have you ever noticed this before?” Xander asked.
“Sure, they’re always there during the day, and no, I have no idea why.”
“Any idea what everyone inside is doing right now?” Xander asked.
“If I had to guess, I’d say eating lunch,” Steve replied.
“Hmmm,” Xander said.
---------
Dan drove around aimlessly in his car alone. Ed had died when the North Division station had been overrun with infected earlier in the morning. He and three other officers manned a barricade near the main entrance, firing into the dozens of infected that had broken into the station. They had fired until they ran out of ammunition and began fighting them hand-to-hand. Eventually they disappeared in the sea of infected, their screams quickly snuffed out as they were ripped apart. Dan had desperately tried to rescue Ed, but had been pulled from the carnage by a pair of other officers.
Dan and about a dozen other officers had survived the retreat and headed to the older North Division station built in the mid-1970s. Unlike their previous station, it was made of concrete and had narrow Plexiglas windows only eighteen inches wide, most of which had been boarded up, simply because no one occupied it. The city had wanted to turn it into a homeless shelter years ago, but a strong case of NIMBY prevented that, so it still sat empty. They had begun fortifying it when more infected appeared out of nowhere. In under an hour, there were a dozen infected outside, pounding on the windows, seeking a way in. It was only a few kilometers from the other station, but given how fast the infected moved, these were almost certainly a different group altogether.
It was then that Dan advanced the idea that the infected had some way to sense the uninfected. He didn’t know how it was possible, but his intuition told him he was correct. The other officers were skeptical, but Dan was convinced. Every time that he found survivors in the past week, infected had been close by. Even in the North Division station, there was nothing to suggest why they were discovered. They had kept the blinds closed, didn’t use lights at night or even cook for the last couple of days. There was no rational way the infected had clued into the police officers there, at least not until after officers had gone outside to thin the crowd of infected surrounding the police station.
He realized his earlier mistake and told his fellow officers that to hole up anywhere in the city was to invite disaster and suggested fleeing, maybe setting up a base somewhere on the outskirts. His idea was quickly shot down, so he decided to head out on his own. The other officers wished him luck and got ready to assist him.
He ran out the back door, MP-5 up and ready. It slammed shut and the bolts engaged faster than he could blink. Two infected came around the corner. Dan fired two short bursts, killing both quickly. The sound attracted the others, and soon another eight infected separated him from his car.
A window on the second floor of the station shattered and a rifle barrel poked out. There was a flat crack and one of the infected pitched backwards. Dan aimed and fired again, dropping another infected.
The rifle in the window barked once more, taking out another infected. Dan emptied his magazine, taking out two more. He let the MP-5 fall to his side and grabbed his pistol. He fired again, knocking out another two infected. The slide on his pistol racked back. Empty. He still had one more infected to deal with.
He holstered the pistol and pulled out his baton, giving it a hard flick to extend it. He slowly stepped forward, and as soon as she was in arm’s reach, he swung the baton hard and hit the infected woman on her arm, breaking it. She didn’t even notice the compound fracture, nor the bone fragment protruding from her forearm. Instead, she growled and reached for him with her one good arm. Dan used his baton to parry the attacks. In the background, he could hear more moaning and groaning. Great, more infected, he thought.
Dan stepped inside the infected woman’s reach and brought the baton down on her shoulder. She staggered and slipped, falling to her knees. She growled and her teeth snapped towards his groin. As he backed up, he swung again and crushed her skull this time. He clipped it back on his belt and ran to his car. He glanced back at the police station to see if anyone had changed their mind. He waited for what seemed like an eternity, but really was only a few seconds.
He jumped in and locked the doors. Starting it, he roared off, heading west on 137th Avenue. When he had gone a dozen blocks, he stopped in the middle of the road and hurriedly reloaded his weapons, jamming new magazines into his pistol and MP-5. He looked around carefully and then started driving again.
He had no idea where to go, so he drove aimlessly. The police radio was silent, but that wasn’t a surprise. He hadn’t heard a thing from downtown in days, West Division had gone off the air yesterday when they had been overrun, Southwest Division had fallen a few days prior to that, and now North Division was toast. Southeast Division had a police station built exactly the same as the one his fellow North Division officers were now holed up in, but he had no idea if they were even still alive.
Should he drive there? He mused.
It was too far, and he’d have to go through lots of densely populated areas. Nope, same with downtown. Anyone still there was infected no doubt, were the thoughts that percolated through his mind.
He was driving west on 137th Avenue when he came to the intersection at 97th Street.
I’ll go north, maybe get out of the city, he thought. As the car headed north on 97th Street, he noticed the bright fall colours on the trees lining the street. Unlike the trees native to the area, these trees were bursting with red and orange leaves, as well as the typical yellow leaves seen throughout the river valley this time of year. For a second, the carnage and horror of the past two weeks evaporated, as he remembered stopping at this very spot last year with his wife to take photos of themselves.
Within moments, he was past the maple trees and his view was once again one of cookie cutter homes and suburban strip malls. Soon, he was on the outskirts of the city, passing the Anthony Henday ring road. As his car rolled down the overpass, a massive LAV III leapt out of the ditch at his cruiser, its turret pointed ominously at him. In his day-dreaming, he hadn’t even noticed the big camouflaged monster sitting there. He hammered on the brakes and his car screeched to a halt only a dozen metres from the massive army vehicle.
“Please step out of the car!” boomed a voice over a loudspeaker.
Dan complied, stepping out of the car. “I’m an Edmonton Police Officer, what do you want?”
“Are you infected?” The loudspeaker blared.
“No,” Dan replied, rolling his eyes. Who in their right mind would tell anyone else they were infected? He thought to himself.
“Drop your weapons and keep your hands above your head.”
Dan tossed his weapons into his car, closed the door and raised his hands.
There was a moment of silence, then the ramp on the back of the Armoured Personnel Carrier dropped and several soldiers jumped out. They kept their weapons pointed at Dan the entire time. After they were satisfied Dan was safe, an officer stepped out of the APC. He walked over.
/> “Hi, I’m Lieutenant Collins. Sorry about that, but we have to at least try to stop the spread of infected. We can’t be too careful.”
“I understand. We did the same thing at the police station until just a couple days ago.”
“What happened then?”
“We were overrun by a several hundred infected. Most of my fellow officers didn’t make it out.”
“Yeah, it’s happening all over the place,” Collins said. “Where are you headed?”
“No idea, really. I just didn’t want to stay inside the city and become dinner for some infected asshole.”
“Well, how about the base? It’s still operational and we’ve got more work than people right now. Unless you’ve got someone waiting for you out there,” Collins said, pointing north.
Dan swallowed bitter memories of what had happened to his wife and shook his head.
“For safety’s sake, we’d normally confiscate your weapons now. However, in your case, just toss them in the trunk for now.”
“But…”
Collins cut off his protest. “Look, you know and I know that you’re trained in their use, but that’s the rules.”
Grudgingly, Dan did as requested, while Collins walked back to the APC.
Collins stepped out of the APC a few minutes later and said, “Someone is on their way to guide you in.”
Dan got back in his car and waited. A G-Wagon with a cupola mounted machine gun appeared in a minute or so and one of the soldiers motioned for him to follow it. Dan started up his car and followed, as the APC reversed back into its hidden position at the side of the highway.
They drove for less than a minute and arrived at a deep ditch. A large, metal bridge crossed the ditch, which was several metres across and just as deep. Deep enough in fact, to swallow his car whole, or so it appeared. After they crossed, Dan noticed an engineering tank moving forward, to pick up the bridge section. They crossed two more partially finished moats, each under construction by combat engineers. This time they waited far longer, as neither already had a bridge in place. Finally, after close to an hour of waiting, he followed the G-Wagon down 195th Avenue until it turned at the army prison.
Zombie Night in Canada (Book 1): First Period Page 19
