Government Z (Book 1): The Beginning

by Reid, Bryan D.

  There seemed to be tension growing with some of the survivors. There had been a lot of arguing during the night hours, but no one ever said anything because they were trying to complete the outpost. Everyone got to work early again in the compound. Mike, Pastor Scott, Bart, and Brent started working on the covering the septic tank and building walls for the bath/shower rooms. Each bathroom was going to consist of five showers, five toilets, and four sinks. There’s going to be a men’s and women’s rooms like at the campgrounds. Chris and Blake began running electrical boxes to the catwalk for the spotlights and switches to control both the inside and outside facing lights. Everyone else worked on moving the vehicles and organizing all the supplies in the camp. They had been at it for seven hours before they stopped for lunch around one in the afternoon. Mike’s crew had the walls up and was ready to install the plywood for the roof. Chris and Blake had fed the pvc pipes under the catwalk and ran the wires up to the light switches and spotlights by drilling small holes in the catwalk where the lights were going to be located. Bev started moving the trailer into the dock and moved the rest of the trucks over to the neighbors since there was lots of parking over there and with the daylight it was easier to see zombies coming. Mike knew about the rec room he had Abby, Christi, Bev, Chad, and Kathy start building walls around the foundation he had set the night before after talking to Rus. By the time lunch hit they had three walls up and the fourth with the door framed in was ready to go up. Everyone headed in for lunch. When they arrived at the mess hall lunch was not prepared. Odd Mike said. Mrs. Babcock always has lunch ready around one Mike added. I don’t see anything cooking either Bev pointed out. We’ll go check upstairs and see if she’s in the command center Anne said as she and Jessica headed upstairs. When they got to the command center they found Mrs. Babcock sitting in the chair listening for a news broadcast. Mrs. Babcock? Anne said. Anne tapped Mrs. Babcock on the shoulder and she collapsed out of the chair. Jessica screamed down the stairs. Dr. Chen, Dr. Li come quick! Anne checked her pulse. She’s not breathing Anne said. Jessica and Anne started CPR when the doctors arrived. They continued for thirty more minutes with no success. What happened? Everyone asked. Dr. Li came out and said looks like she had a heart attack but we will perform an autopsy to find out for sure. Janelle can you go get the gurney please? Dr. Li asked. They moved Mrs. Babcock’s body to the hospital and the doctors went to work on an autopsy. Bev and Abby went in to make lunch. We still need to eat Janelle said. It’s the circle of life we get old and leave this world Mike said. Christi said I am going to listen on the radio for now in case a broadcast gets through. While Christi was in the command center listening to the radio Bev came in put a plate in front of her and also laid several file folders down on the table in front of Christi. What are these? Christi asked. I found these when we rescued everyone and I think you need to read them Bev said. Ok I’ll look them over while I listen to the radio and for the CB in case the guys try to contact us. After everyone ate what they could stomach. Once they cleaned up the mess hall and kitchen they all headed back to work. Once Chris and Blake went back to work it was fast paced since it was the same wiring job at each station. After about one hour both Dr. Wong’s informed everyone that Mrs. Babcock did have a heart attack. They believed it was a complication from her hip surgery. Chris and Blake finished up and headed to help Mike and his crew. When they got over there Mike put Chris in charge since he was going to start Rus’s project. Mike had helped get all get all the plumbing pipes aligned and now they were on to installing the prebuilt showers which just had to be lined up and tightened down. While working on the showers Steve and Chad got into a heated argument. They had to be separated and put on different projects. What’s going on? Mike asked. Steve informed Mike that he caught Janet and Chad in bed together the other day and it has caused a lot of tension between the four of them. Especially Chad’s wife Kathy, who couldn’t even be near Janet or Chad without throw punches. Well we will sit down later and sort that out but for now we need to get finished Mike said. Christi ran out to find Bev. Did you look at these files? Christi asked. I glanced at them and saw it mentioned something about white eyes so I grabbed them of the ER doctor’s desk. I am going to talk to Abby about these and when the guys get back we will discuss this with them. By night time the shower were installed but didn’t have running water yet, Mike had the hole dug Rus wanted but that was all he had time to finish, and the rec room had four completed walls and a roof on and shingled, it just needed installation, drywall and electrical ran. Mike asked Kathy, Chad, Steve, and Janet to meet him in the mess hall at ten thirty. Mike went to the mess hall around ten for some coffee. Around ten twenty two gunshots echoed throughout the outpost. Everyone went to look for the source of the shots. As they ran toward the tents another shot went off followed by a fourth shot. When everyone got to the tents they saw the four bodies. Chad and Janet’s bodies were in the bed on top of each other in one of the large tents. Chad had two gunshot wounds thru his back. The bullets went all the way thru him and into Janet’s chest killing them in the middle of having their newly started affair. Steve who they found still breathing had a gunshot wound to the stomach. Dr. Chen ran over and applied pressure to the wound. Anne came over and put pressure on the wound so Dr. Chen could get supplies. Dr. Chen walked by Mike and said Steve won’t make it that much longer. You see that dark blood coming out of the wound Dr. Chen asked. Mike nodded. His liver has been hit and we don’t have the proper equipment to save him here Dr. Chen said. I will give him morphine that will help dull the pain until he passes. Kathy laid at the end of the bed with a gunshot wound to the temple. Steve was telling the story and how Kathy just couldn’t handle it. Before Dr. Chen returned, Steve started to turn blue and passed his last breathe out. Anne closed his eye lids. We have lost so many in the past few days Anne said. Christi put her arm around Anne and said we all need to stick together. We are a family now we need to stick together more than ever now. If anyone needs to speak I will have a private moment with you Pastor Scott offered. Everyone else go to sleep and tomorrow we will all sit down and establish rules for the community and what’s expected of everyone Christi announced.

  Chapter 10

  We made our way to the army base to find it completely deserted. All vehicles were missing and not a living person in sight. I think we need to lock the main gate and verify the compound since it is enclosed because if someone else shows up they will have to go through the gate and that will give us time to react instead of being ambushed again Rus said. We closed the main gate and made our way toward the commanding officers quarters. You hear that? Don said. A loud humming sound coming from a small electrical shack, so we headed over to see what the sound was. We opened the door to reveal a huge generator that was running. Then we went to the commanding officers office looking for clues to where the army may have disappeared too. I started searching through the file cabinets, Rus went to the desk, and Don searched the computer. There is nothing in his emails, but I found something that looks like longitude and latitude coordinates Don said. I’ll print them off and put them with that map off the wall Don added. I found something here it’s a telegram that requests all army commanders to have their top recruits report to Washington D.C. by order of the President of the United States Rus said. Better keep that Don said. You find anything Bryan, Rus asked. Yeah, keys to the entire base and a file titled Emergency Military Project I said. Load these documents into truck and let’s go inspect the sleeping quarters first, than the garage, and lastly we will hit up the armory. As we headed to the base quarters we checked all the doors on the way to see if any were unlocked to make sure we were still alone. We got to the quarters and I unlocked the door. We hadn’t heard anything but we still entered with guns drawn and very cautiously. The quarters were empty as well the beds had just mattresses on them and no signs that they had been used in weeks. Let’s go see what supplies are in the garage Don said. We made our way to the large garage and opened the side door. Let’s open
the main rolling doors so we have better light to see what’s in here Rus said. We opened the door and turned on the overhead lights to see what we had to work with. Look at the size of those doors I think that’s what we are looking for the garage at the compound Rus said. We took the next hour disassembling the doors and stacking them in the trailer. Once we disassembled the doors and the lights came on we found where all the army vehicles were stored plus any civilian vehicles that were left on the base when everyone left. There were several cargo trucks, a HUMVEE, two off road ATV’s, a six wheeled gator, motorcycles, and a few cars in the garage and a lock box on the wall that must hold all the keys for the vehicles. I started flipping through the keys to find one to try. Rus walked over and said this will be quicker and shot a round from his glock that blew the lock off the box. There we go Rus said. Rus back up the trailer to that loading dock and we can load those small off road vehicles Don said. Rus moved the trailer up to the dock so Don and I could load the truck. We loaded the ATV’s, the six wheeled gator, a Can-AM Spyder three wheeled motorcycle, and an Ural motorcycle with side car that Rus claimed as soon as he saw it. We also grabbed the keys to the HUMVEE and the M36 cargo truck that had a sixteen foot bed and a covered top. We can use the M36 to transfer what we want out of the armory and then we can build benches in the back to transport a larger group of people instead of taking extra vehicles each trip Don said. We need those also Rus said pointing to the wall where two large tracks were. Those go on the gator and it gets better traction thru the snow and swamp Rus said. Well let’s get to the armory and see what they keep on base if anything is left and then to the dealership and store before we head to the compound. We moved all three vehicles to the armory. We got out unlocked and opened the door. There was a long hallway with two doors on the left and two on the right and one at the end of the hallway. Let’s start on the left side Don said. We opened the first door to reveal assault rifles and sniper rifles. We knew we couldn’t take everything so we checked the next room to find the ammunition. The ammunition was for heavy guns as well as the rifles we had just seen, so we loaded all the ammo up first since we could stack it around the off road vehicles we just loaded. Then we went back and grabbed one of each gun that went with the ammunition that we had just got so who ever used it would have the most ammo to go with their gun. After going through the rooms on the left and loading up what was needed we headed for the second door on the right. We opened the door to see the walls covered with grenade and rocket launchers with crates of ammo and explosives stacked on the floor. We took three of each launcher along with all the ammo and several boxes of C4 that was stacked with the ammo. We hit the next door and it was the jackpot we were looking for. We walked in to see several miniguns with six barrel action along with cases and cases of ammo for the mini guns, so we loaded the entire room into the truck. We then headed for the door at the end of the hallway and found all the heavy army clothing like boots, vest, and cargo pants and some hi-tech items. Grab those heavy duty binoculars, night vision goggles, canteens, and utility belts. Alright let’s head to the dealership we passed and see if what I wanted was still available Rus said. We locked everything up and Rus lead the way smashing thru the front gate as we headed for the dealership.

  Back at the compound the bodies of the deceased were taken to the neighbors and burned in the pile with the remains of the zombies. Christi called Bruce, Abby, and Bev into the command center and discussed what she had found in the files Bev took from the hospital. We need to get Bryan and Rus in here as soon as they get back and inform them of what we have discovered so far Christi said. But for right now we need to keep everyone united and working together. Bruce you go help Blake, Bart, and Brent with Rus’s project Mike got them started on it already. Bev can you go help finish the Rec room and Abby and I will go help Mike with another project I want done. Bruce went pass the armory to the southeast corner and helped the boys who had start laying the cinder blocks out to start the wall underground. Since it was only a fifteen by fifteen room it wasn’t going to take long to complete the seventeen foot tall wall Rus asked to be built, twelve underground and five above the ground level. Bev went to the rec room and helped finish the drywall and the floor. It took only three hours to finish the rec room completely all that was needed was the furnishing. So Bev took the crew and started putting away all the tools and extra building supplies away in the newly finished tool shed. Christi and Abby went to talk with Mike about what she wanted for the community. I want you to lay a new foundation behind the hospital and make a small church for Pastor Scott to praise in Christi said. With everyone so stressed out I think it would be helpful if we can start restoring everyone’s faith Christi added. I think that is a fantastic idea Mike said. I’ll get started right away Mike said as he dashed off to get the excavator. Abby, we can go start condensing the food in the kitchen and free up room to empty the refrigerator truck Christi said. Mike used the quick drying cement and that would only take twelve hours to dry once it got poured out. Mike worked as fast as he could to get the cement poured and the foundation smooth. He had the cement poured and smoothed out by nine in the morning so the cement should be dried by before nightfall. So while his cement was drying Mike went and checked on the progress of the pit that Rus asked Mike to build. When he got to the pit Bruce and the boys were nine feet up the wall so Mike started working on the brackets for the steel door that needed to be installed. Since it was a really heavy duty door it took a little more time to secure the door in place. Two hours later Mike had the door installed and the guys were on the last row of cinder blocks. Mike started on the staircase doing down to the door while Bruce and the boys went to the mess hall and got something to eat. After a half hour the boys returned and helped Mike finish the staircase in an hour. Mike went to get something to eat now while the boys started working on the enclosure that would cover the pit. It was a long day at the outpost. Everyone was working hard and together at the compound and finished every project that could be completed before sunset except the church. The cement just wasn’t set yet but the four walls were built they just couldn’t go up until the cement was set. We will finish the walls and roof tomorrow and use that wood flooring they got for the inside Mike said. Everyone ate up and headed to bed.

  We arrived at the dealership around eight in the evening. Rus and Don parked the semi and HUMVEE in the road and I pulled the cargo truck into the dealership since I had a hitch on the back of my truck. That’s one of the things I was looking at when we drove by Rus said. Back the truck up Bryan so Don and I can hook the trailer up to the hitch. Rus had me back up to a small trailer which I didn’t see what was on it until I got out of the truck. Nice three brand new snowmobiles were sitting on the covered trailer. That will come in handy in a few months when winter hits Rus said. We hooked the trailer up then suddenly five motorcycles drove up and started circling us. We drew our guns when they stopped and removed their helmets. What do you think you are doing? The leader of the group said. We are getting supplies for the outpost we are building and we are not looking for any trouble Don said. Well you found it another biker said. He raised his arm and blasted a loud air horn in the air and they started to drive off again. We turned and saw a herd of zombies coming toward us. That son of a bitch Rus said as he pulled out his crossbow. Rus took aim down the scope and shot an arrow toward the bikers. We watched as Rus hit the back tire of the lead biker and he lost control of his bike causing the other bikers to crash into the down biker and fall off their bikes. We jumped in the trucks and headed toward the downed bikers. As we approached the bikers helping each other up Rus leaned out the window of the semi and said hope you are not looking any trouble fellas. He then honked the rigs loud horn several times and ran over the motorcycles as we drove out of town. We looked in the rear view mirror to see the zombies were headed toward the down bikers. Rus stuck his hand out the window and flipped them off to add insult to injury as we finally headed back to the last stop and hopefully would be home for the
time in four days. The final stop was at an outlet mall on the way back to camp. Since it was mostly a clothing outlet it looked like no one ever bothered to raid it. We went store by store filling every open space we had left in the truck with shoes, socks, underwear, shirts and pants for all sizes to cover everyone at the camp. We then headed home.