In Hiding: A Survivors Journal of the Great Outbreak

by Michael Elliott

  She let the phone ring and ring even after most of us had given up hope. Then out of the blue someone picked up. That I could tell because I could hear the excitement in Kerri’s voice even from where I was up on the roof. There was someone in that gas station hiding behind the counter and they weren’t alone. There were three of them in there actually, two men and a woman and they had pulled in to try and get gas sometime in the middle of the night. That was when they realized that they had to activate the pump from inside the station. They couldn’t figure out how to do it and after making too much noise, they were forced to seek shelter inside. They told Kerri everything and Cody passed it along to those of us on the roof and suddenly it seemed like we had hope again.

  I would love to say that we were all eager to let them inside and that all we thought about was helping them. But that’s not exactly true. We debated letting them in at all for various reasons. Some thought it was too dangerous to try and get them inside. Others feared that they would strain our resources or that they might be infected and not even know it yet. But one of the biggest concerns we had was that we didn’t know what kind of people they were.

  We had seen what was happening out west, what people were doing to each other in the name of survival. We had no way of knowing if these people would come in and cause trouble or steal from us or worse. So we talked it through. What was right and what was wrong, the pros and cons of letting them in or not. We talked about it for several minutes but in the end despite our newly forming paranoia, we decided to help them and find a way to get them inside the store.

  We discussed several options. Some of which seemed like they had a chance of working and others that were borderline insane. We knew that we couldn’t just shoot every Zed that was in the way. We could use some of the ammo for covering fire like we had before and at least eliminate a few of them as they made there way to us. We knew that we had to use the back doors again because there was no getting through the massive wall of infected that had gathered at the front entrance. But even at the back of the building there were still too many Zeds for them to risk just running for the doors. We needed a way to clear them out of there and give the three of them some running room.

  We couldn’t think of anything for longest time. Kerri actually had to call them back and tell them that we hadn’t forgotten about them. But finally it was Adam who came up with an idea to draw them away from the back doors. The kid who rarely ever spoke had come up with an idea that I would have never thought of. I don’t think that any of us would have actually.

  We were going to lower a remote control monster truck down to the pavement below using some well tied fishing line. Taped to that RC truck would be a walkie-talkie. Tanya would talk through our end of the walkie-talkie while Adam slowly drove the truck away, hopefully luring most of the Zeds from the area around the back door. Once we had the idea Kerri called them back and told them what the plan was and to wait for the signal.

  Trevor, Cody and Shannon went downstairs to open the doors for them once they got close. This time Trevor and Cody would be armed with the fire axe and a baseball bat to take care of any stragglers that were left out there. Anne and Paul got into position to provide covering fire and once again Ray and I would act as spotters. Apparently Anne thought we had done a good enough job the last time and preferred that we do it again.

  So Adam, Ray and I started to lower the RC truck down with the fishing line. Well, that was a lot easier said then done. We actually dropped the first truck about half way down and it smashed into pieces on impact. So we rigged up another truck and were fortunate to have success the second time around. At first none of the Zeds even acknowledged that it was there. At that point I seriously doubted that it was going to work. But once it was in position and Adam slowly started to drive it away and they didn’t follow I thought for sure that it had failed. Then as Tanya started talking into her walkie-talkie something started to happen. She spoke softly at first and then louder until finally a couple of the Zeds nearby took notice.

  It was strange watching them lower their heads and investigate the truck. They looked almost confused as they tried to understand where the voices were coming from. But as it turns out the noise was too interesting to ignore and as the truck slowly started moving a few of them started to follow.

  Adam did a great job of keeping the truck just ahead of them and slowly moving it away as they got closer. After one of them started to follow it seemed like another and then another and soon most of the group was in pursuit. Adam had expressed concerns about the RC truck getting out of range if he moved it too far away from the building so he kept it close and drove it parallel to the stores outer wall as he walked along the ledge of the roof. He kept the RC truck reasonably close as he moved it along the back of the building and a few minutes later most of the Zeds had followed it away from the back receiving doors.

  Once we had drawn them away, Kerri called the three people at the station to let them know that it was time. I ran to the front of the store and saw three people slowly emerge from the small gas station. They moved cautiously at first trying to hide from the few Zeds that were standing on the other side of their car. They ducked along the side of the car to stay out of view and once they had made their way around the back bumper they broke into a sprint across the back part of the lot. I pointed out a Zed that appeared to be moving in their direction from across the street but Anne didn’t shoot. Ray pointed out a target for Paul and he held his fire as well. They kept saying they would only shoot if they really needed too.

  The runners stuck to the far end of the parking lot trying to keep as much distance as possible between them and the largest concentration of Zeds that was near the front entrance. Out there in the open they had the space to maneuver around the Zeds that were mostly spread out or at least in smaller groups. They zigzagged their way across the lot moving just fast enough to avoid any contact with the slow moving zombies. At one point I saw one of them almost get pulled back as a Zed grabbed a hold of the younger looking man’s shirt. He pulled away quickly and the three of them just kept on running.

  Many of the Zeds in the area were well aware of them and they were all starting to move in their direction. The group of three stopped for one reason or another behind a car and I remember thinking that they had made a fatal mistake. As the three of them hid, more and more Zeds started to make their way for the car and they were coming from all directions. Anne fired a shot and dropped a lanky looking zombie that was closing in from behind them. Paul fired a shot that missed whatever target he was aiming for and I was starting to believe that this wasn’t going to end well again.

  Then, as if they realized their mistake they appeared from behind the car and I saw one of the men smash the closest zombie in the head with some kind of blunt object just before the three of them starting running again.

  When they finally made it to the far side of the parking lot they started running for the side of the building. I could see a Zed that was moving between two cars and from what I could tell the three survivors hadn’t seen it. It was going to pop out from between the two cars and end up right in front of them if we didn’t do something. Luckily, Anne fired a shot before I even had a chance to open my mouth. Her shot hit the Zed in the shoulder, but it was enough to knock it off balance and it fell to the ground between the two cars and the three survivors ran right bye without incident.

  I could see from the roof that all three of the runners were holding what looked like small camping hatchets, which was a good thing because as they made it to the side of the building there was a small group of Zeds that we hadn’t seen. We ran over to the side of the building to provide cover for them as they headed for the back. We arrived just in time to see one of the men, the bigger guy, smashing his hatchet through the side of one their heads. As that Zed collapsed to the ground he pulled the hatchet free and swung it overhead into the skull of another. With the hatchet firmly lodged in that Zed’s skull he kicked the third Zed in th
e stomach knocking it to the ground. Then he reached down and pulled his hatchet free from the zombie’s skull and the three of them started to run again.

  They ran as fast as they could down the side of the building, running right past a Zed that was so badly beat up that it barely maintained it’s balance as it reached out for them. It never really got close. The three survivors pushed on and rounded the back corner of the building to find that there were still a few Zeds that hadn’t taken the bait and were still pounding on the back doors. That was when I heard the other man shout at them, trying to get their attention. The two Zeds heard him and started heading right towards him. The three of them just stood there as if they were trying to draw those zombies closer to them. At first I didn’t understand.

  That was when the back door swung open and Cody and Trevor came rushing out wearing hockey pads. They were covered in shoulder pads, shin pads, and it looked like they had shin guards strapped to their arms. The man yelled again and the Zed’s focused stayed on him. That was when Trevor drove his axe into the back of head of the one of them. Cody approached the other from behind and swung that bat like he was trying to put one over the fence. He connected right in the back of its head and it fell face first into the pavement. At that point, the three runners ran straight for the doors, they ran right past the two corpses on the ground, they ran right past Trevor and Cody and into the building. Cody finished off the last remaining Zed before they went back into the store and Shannon closed the doors once everyone was safely inside. That was the last thing I saw before we all headed downstairs to meet our new guests.

  When we made it down there, the three new people were laying on the ground exhausted for obvious reasons. Shannon had already gotten them bottles of water and was in the middle of offering them something to eat when Paul interrupted her. He wanted them checked before we offered them anything else. He wanted to make sure that none of them had been bitten or that any of them were showing signs of infection. So that was what we did. We checked them for bites or fever and the three of them were fairly co-operative considering what they had just been through. As it turns out they were all clean, no bites, no fever, no signs that they were infected at all.

  Once we knew that they were safe we began with the introductions. The bigger guy, of the two, well he was Derrick. He was a tall man, about six foot-three with a husky build and came across as a little rough around the edges. The other two were Jacob and Amy. They were a young married couple that looked to be a little more respectable then Derrick. The two of them and Derrick looked like they would have never known each other before the outbreak and as it turns out they didn’t. How they came together was actually an incredible story one they were more then willing to share.

  We had plenty of questions for them and they had just as many for us. Where did they come from? How did they get here? What was happening out there? They sat down and were willing to tell us everything. Not surprisingly they seemed just happy to be somewhere safe for the time being and in return I think that we were just happy to see some new faces.

  Everyone had their own questions that they wanted answered. I was more interested in what was happening inside the city and what they had seen out there. Not the stuff I was seeing on the news in other parts of the country, but what they had seen in the neighborhoods that I knew, in the areas that I had lived in. I wanted to know if they had come across any other survivors or if they had found any area in the city that wasn't a disaster like it was around here. But first they told us how they met and how they found their way to that gas station.

  Their stories didn’t disappoint. Jacob and Amy started things off with Jacob doing the lion’s share of the talking. About two days or so before I left my place they were sitting at home watching television one evening when Jacob noticed his motion light had gone off in the back yard. When he looked through his sliding glass doors he saw a woman standing out in the middle of his lawn with her back turned to him. He opened the door and asked what she was doing or if she needed help.

  At first she didn’t move. She remained completely still, that is until he asked what she was doing for a second time. That was when she turned around and he saw that terrifying look in her eyes. Her face was covered in blood and her skin thin and grey, her clothes were ripped and her movements jerky and clumsy. He slammed the door closed and yelled for Amy to call the police. The infected woman charged for the doors and then started to bang on the glass with her head and fists trying to break through. Jacob had never been happier about spending the money on upgrading that door then he had at that moment.

  They waited in their home, terrified, until the two police cars arrived out front with a military jeep following closely behind. Jacob and Amy ran out the front door to meet them and told them what was lurking around their back yard. They stayed with two of the officers out front, while two officers went inside and the four soldiers went around to the back.

  Then they heard gunshots. What followed sounded like their kitchen table breaking, glasses smashing on the floor and what must have been a terrible struggle. They dragged out the woman with her arms handcuffed behind her back and her ankles tied together with some kind of zip ties. The way he told it she was still hissing and snarling as they carried her out.

  That was when the soldiers told them that they may be safer in one of the shelters that had been set up and they should grab some clothes and other supplies and that they would give them a ride to the nearest one. So that was what they did. They packed up what they could, jumped in the back of the police car and they were dropped off at a nearby church.

  They told us how the church had been barricaded with concrete blocks and makeshift fences to help keep the Zeds out. The hall attached to the church was filled with cots and there were already several people inside. There were a few National Guard soldiers that were there for security and at the time they felt like there were somewhere safe.

  However, keeping the Zeds out wasn’t the only problem. Jacob and Amy told us how they had been letting in the injured and sick and were keeping them inside the church, separated from where they were staying, but the medical facilities that had been set up were about to become a danger to everyone in there.

  Jacob told us about how he had walked into a makeshift room in a part of the church looking for an extra blanket for Amy when he came across an infected young woman eating the stomach of an elderly man who was on a hospital bed hooked up to several machines. Jacob ran out screaming, and a few soldiers ran in and restrained her. That scared the hell out of him but as he said, things would get worse.

  They tried tying down the infected, they tried treating those that had been injured or bitten and soon the virus started spreading through the church like wildfire. The shelter had become unsafe and the soldiers and doctors knew it. They decided to move everyone who was able bodied to another shelter on the outskirts of town. During the evacuations Amy said that the priest decided to stay behind with the sick to offer them comfort. He locked the door after everyone else was out and loaded into the trucks. They didn’t know for sure what had happened to him, but it wasn’t hard to imagine.

  While on route to another shelter, their convoy was stopped by what Jacob described as a huge multi-vehicle accident that blocked most of the road. The most horrifying part of that was there were dozens of zombies out there feasting on the people still trapped in their cars or injured out on the road. Once the trucks came to a stop the Zeds turned their attention to the convoy and soon after that the soldiers opened fire. They tried to protect the people, but there were too many of them. So Jacob and Amy chose to flee.

  They ran for it, through the maze of abandoned cars they ran down the street and then ducked through a small alleyway. They said that some of the others were trying to follow them, but Jacob said he never looked back. He just held onto Amy’s hand and kept on running. When they came out on the other side of the alley there were Zeds everywhere in the street, but Amy said they were pretty spread out so they ran r
ight past most of them and kept on going until they found a safe place to rest.

  Eventually they discovered a small office building where they held up for the night. There they stayed until they found the keys in a desk drawer that belonged to a car parked out front. They decided to try and get out of town and it was while they were trying to find an open road they met up with Derrick.

  Now his story was a little different. Derrick had been at the hospital with his wife visiting his daughter when it all went to hell. His daughter had been very ill and Derrick had been spending most of his time at the hospital with her. They had heard about the outbreak, they followed in on the news and heard the rumblings in the hospital hallways but they stayed. They even stayed as the National Guard came in and started setting up tents just outside and armed soldiers started patrolling the hallways.

  But when the sick started to die and the dead started to rise, Derrick finally tried to get his family out of there. Problem was that his daughter was dependant on several different machines, most of which Derrick couldn’t even tell us what they were for. He couldn’t move her despite his best efforts. Once things got really bad everyone in the hospital that could leave, left. He decided that he would gather all the supplies that he could from his house and barricade himself inside the hospital room with his family. He thought it was the only way he could protect them.