Fred and I were outside quite a while tinkering with that snowplow, and then the wind kicked up so much that it was cutting through our clothes like cold little needles. I don’t know if that wind was what brought the ghoul towards us, maybe taking our scent to it, but from out of the woods behind the building came what was a very big man in hunting gear. He was even still carrying a rifle in his hands as if ready to fire. Fred and I hopped into the snowplow quickly. There was no doubt the hunter was a ghoul, but who knew if its rifle was loaded, ready to fire or worse - a good enough shot to take one of us down. We sat still in the snowplow and watched with tension as the ghoul stumbled about. It got close enough that we could tell its eyes were missing, and its face looked to be clawed at - its nose well in tact, though. It had to smell us. Fred and I kept whispering what to do. Fred wanted to just get out and shoot it as he’d brought his shotgun. I countered by saying that the ghoul shouldn’t have been moving that well - it should’ve been too damn cold! That meant we wouldn’t know how fast it could react, and if that rifle was ready to fire. Fred then asked for my sword, which was all I had brought along. Again, I countered with us not knowing how fast the ghoul could move - that we should at least watch it to see its patterns of movement. We ended up just sitting still for what seemed like forever. We were starting to feel the cold really get to us as we could only sit still. The ghoul was then to the point of closely circling the snowplow over and over. Fred began spilling thoughts of Beth and Ellen, not knowing if other ghouls were making their way to them, and it really began mentally pushing us to having to find out how fast this ghoul was anyway. Also, what if Beth and Ellen came to find us and either ran into other ghouls or fell victim to this one. I would definitely be the bad guy in that case. Just as I started feeling like a big wuss and before I could even make a move, Fred looked at me in a cross sort of way, and he just said, FUCK IT. Fred burst out of the snowplow, took to lying on the ground and quickly aimed his shotgun at the ghoul. The ghoul turned quickly, and did actually fire its rifle. Fred fired once and took off the top of the ghoul’s head - also blasting off the ghoul's orange hunting cap it had been wearing.
I’m not sure how much longer I sat inside that snowplow, but I know that Fred, Beth and Ellen all were eventually calling for me to come back inside the building - that everything was okay. I just kept staring at the bullet hole the ghoul’s rifle made. The bullet hole was in the windshield right in front of me - the actual bullet was lodged into the back of the metal cab only inches from my right ear. I heard that bullet. I actually saw the blur of its course. That was really fucked up, Fred!
DAY - 70
Apparently the reason why Beth and Ellen didn’t come looking for Fred and I earlier during our snowplow incident yesterday was because Beth decided to start teaching Ellen some sign language. I saw them trying to converse more this morning as Fred and I loaded up the snowplow. I was a little pissed because Beth hasn’t been showing me too much of her sign language in a while. I guess our relationship is just different and good enough for her as it is.
The weather was horrible and windy again. The snow and ice began falling more. We decided that it was best to use the snowplow as our main source of transportation until we either run out of diesel fuel options to fill up or until we’re clear of this shitty weather - whichever comes first.
As luck would have it - my luck, at least - we didn’t get too far in the snowplow. At a pace of about 15-20 mph. We made it to just past Eagle, Colorado’s city limits before the snowplow’s engine began starting to falter. Again, my luck allowed us to make it into the roadside parking lot of a big restaurant - EAGLE EYE GRILL AND CAFE. There were far too many cars in the parking lot than I wanted to see, and I explained to everyone that if we were about to try and take hold up in there, it was going to probably be a dangerous and messy siege. Beth kissed my cheek and just smiled a bit about it. Ellen grimaced. Fred just started loading his shotgun in full with a very nonchalant look on his face - like it was going to be no big deal. I followed suit, but I was intent on using the Tommy gun. One look at The Eagle Eye reminded me of a Cracker Barrel restaurant in that it was built like a huge log cabin with a souvenir shop just inside the two sets of front doors that served as a lobby and waiting area for whatever hostess to eventually seat you. As soon as we entered the lobby we saw three ghouls stumbling about. One of them was steadily rotating a swiveling postcard holder as if really shopping for the right one. The other two ghouls were standing at the far wall where there various assorted candies - suckers, candy canes, gummy bears and such. Those two ghouls turned to us immediately and revealed their mouths were stuffed like hamster's cheeks full of candy. They were a man and woman and probably a couple before all of this because the front of the man’s shirt read, “ I’m with stupid, “ and under it had a big arrow pointing to the woman beside him. I chuckled, Fred started laughing his ass off but Beth and Ellen stepped forward and started shooting the ghouls - three shots, three down for the count. Then all hell broke loose.
We could hear the rustling and scampering coming from the main dining room that we could only barely see at that moment. I kicked into gear, stepped to the threshold that opened into the main dining room and let the Tommy gun rip. I’m guessing that I spent the final 70 or so rounds in its huge magazine of ammo. I tossed the Tommy gun to the floor - no way I was reloading that damn thing ever again. Just as I was sure I took all of the ghouls down, there were two that surfaced from the kitchen area that looked and moved completely different than any ghouls we’ve yet to encounter.
These two things had bones protruding from their limbs and their backs as if they had broken themselves into their current shapes. They were styled more like dogs in shape - even moving and jumping around, and they were damned quick despite the cold temperature. Fred, Beth and Ellen began firing the rest of their rounds to finally dispose of them. I then pulled my sword and removed the thing’s heads completely as well. I also removed the heads of any of the ghouls still writhing a bit stuck seated at booths or too closely seated at tables. We’ve locked ourselves in the manager’s office for the night. We’re all hoping for decent sleep tonight.
DAY - 71
If ever there were questions as to whether the nanotech were affecting everything by now, then those questions were put to rest as soon as daybreak. We felt so warm in the office this morning that Fred and I were expecting to open the door and witness the place on fire. Not so, though, as it was simply the weather outside. Bright warm rays of sunlight were blazing in through the many windows of the restaurant, and it felt quite muggy, even humid it was so warm. One would think it a hot summer day at the beach. We all took a long look outside. The snow and ice were gone - only wet ground remained. Beth then covered her mouth, her eyes grew wide and she backed away from the windows
a bit. Ellen then popped a question that Fred answered before I could - those many things out on the interstate - those were snakes. I’m pretty sure none of us had seen that many snakes before - ever. There they were, though, no doubt sunning as they tend to on a nice hot day. I personally do not like snakes at all. I don’t like anything that has teeth and attacks you with intent to kill you for that matter.
In no time we were cautiously but furiously getting our things out of the snowplow and cramming them into a Mitsubishi sedan - it had the most fuel in its tank of all the cars in the parking lot. Fred soon hotwired it, got the engine running for us and placed himself in the driver’s seat ready to go. Ellen joined him in the front. Through all of the stress of the situation, we never even came close to having to worry about those snakes. They pretty much stayed where they were, but that didn’t stop Fred from purposely running over as many of them as he could as we sped off. He doesn’t like snakes either.
It wasn’t very long at all until Fred stopped the car with a screeching halt. He grinned big and pointed out the sign on the side of the interstate. It said Gypsum, Colorado HAATS - Next Exit. Fred started saying that we just struck gold, as long as enough fuel was available for us - and that weapons wouldn’t be a problem either.
HAATS means: High-altitude Aviation Army Training Site.
And on this site they have a shitload of what Fred had been raving about - helicopters. His first assignment in the military was flying UH-1 Huey helicopters. He apparently did a lot of black-ops missions in South America and could fly us anywhere if everything was in tact for us to use. The only thing that slowed us down from finding out - the entire fenced in base was a fortress for ghouls. We drove up close enough to see many ghouls in fatigues and then even more of the ones that seemed to break themselves into quadrupeds and moved about quite quickly.
We waited in our sedan until night set in. We loaded our shotguns in full, and we waited to see if any lights came on anywhere on the base. We were holding out hope that maybe some folks had survived and were inside somewhere. We saw nothing, though - no signs of survivors. Fred didn’t want to sit tight, though. We prepared ourselves, and Fred drove us through a pair of fences and didn’t stop until we reached a round roofed bunker. He killed the engine, ordered us out and used a shotgun blast to open the door to the bunker. The fast ghouls came quick, but we managed to barricade ourselves securely inside the bunker. It then took only a flip of some light switches to reveal that we had entered an armory - aircraft artillery, infantry weapons and just weapons galore.
Fred has us planning quite an assault at daybreak. I can imagine we’re going to make a really big fucking mess of those ghouls.
DAY - 72
With only a hint of sunlight peaking into the bunker through part of Fred’s shotgun blast to the door, I awoke to everyone packing mortar rounds onto a four-wheel cart. Fred also had a slew of weird looking guns seemingly ready to go on the bottom tray of the cart. Fred picked up one of the guns and handed it to me while helping me to my feet. He said, “ welcome to the real world of weaponry. “ I was handed a P-.50 assault rifle. Perfected and in limited use for the past six years already was this gun based on pulse firing. It was much the same premise as the rail guns used in movies I had seen. Fred said it was going to get colder the more I fired it, so I needed to use the gloves that he handed me next.
Soon enough we were all fitted like a S.W.A.T. team. We had the helmets with the glass face shields, zip-up style Kevlar vests, thick gloves with open trigger fingers, steel-toed boots and best of all, we had a mortar mounted and ready atop our cart. The first round we launched blasted a huge hole out of the front of the armory. I’m thinking that alone took out about 4-5 ghouls. Immediately the quadruped ghouls came our way. We took care of them with our pulse rifles. I couldn’t believe the lack of a kick from them, and then to see the damage they did was amazing. It’s like STAR WARS almost. We made our way to every building on the base taking out ghouls left and right. We made sure not to open any doors or harm those buildings either. Our plan was to fully wipe out and secure the outside. It was such a roller coaster ride of emotions that I can’t even figure how long it took us to kill them all. We did kill them all, though. Not a single ghoul came close enough to touch us.
The second part of Fred’s plan was then set in action. We had to finally enter another building on the base. This building was a fueling and controls station for the aircraft. Fred wanted what he needed to get us in one of those Hueys and get us out of here. I was savvy to that as well. Beth blasted the door knob off of the front door to the station, Ellen stood watch by the nearest Huey and Fred and I ran inside the station.
Once inside there were five ghouls to deal with, and they were all fucked up. They looked to be seated at desks, or so we thought. We were wrong. These ghouls were another new variation - ones with three legs. I swear it looked like they had grown an extra leg each right out of their asses. I wanted to laugh even though I was shocked by them. They tended to move like crabs, but they weren’t so fast. Again though, our pulse rifles were enough to take care of them.
We had spent probably a good hour or so piling what we felt was only necessary into the Huey. Fred did give us a weight limit, but I’m sure we were well under that requirement. Ellen then helped Fred fuel the Huey to its max and also load some fuel cans to take along. For the record we are now equipped with four pulse rifles, four shotguns (with a shitload of new ammo for them) one mortar launcher with 6 shells, an M-60 belt-chain, ammo driven machine gun mounted on the Huey, a hell of a lot of sodas and MRE’s, a slew of new military clothes (fatigues mostly) and of course, one sharp as hell katana sword.
Fred had us in the air by dusk. We’re all enjoying the ride and feeling an incredible rush.
DAY - 73
I see that Del thinks I am showing favoritism towards Ellen for showing her more about sign language than I’ve showed him. Well, it’s common knowledge that women always have more to talk about, so why not teach her to communicate better with me? You must know that I have many questions for her regarding dealing with a few feminine issues at this point. I’m sure you don’t want to know about all that stuff, so I’ll be asking Ellen.
I can’t believe that you were ever put off by Cody’s behavior. Yes, he had incredible troubles inside his head, but it was never fair to dislike him because of it. I guess that’s just a man thing, so I’ll leave it be. I need you, Del. I always will. Don’t forget it.
As for how I dealt with this apocalypse in its beginning phase, I did happen to have to run away from my own family members. I was on my way to work anyway, but it’s a hell of a thing to have your father half-naked and chasing you in your car. Apparently, the paper-delivery person attacked my father early that morning. I ended up having to run over both of them to get awa
y. I still hope that I killed them, but I’ll be damned if I’m going back to make sure of it. Once at the theme park where I worked in the water park area, my friends were already hurt and dying. I had to watch them become ghouls like all of the others, and that’s when I decided to lock myself away from them.
I’m not even sure how long we’ve been flying in this helicopter so far, but I know that we are going to have to land soon for refueling. It’s not very late in the morning.
The sun hasn’t been up for that long.
It’s evening already. I can’t believe the hell we’ve gone through today. Fred landed our helicopter on top of a tall building in this city. The plan was that we were just landing to refuel as I had expected. Del wanted to be his curious self while Ellen and I were scouring the rooftop for anything we might not have seen at first when landing. Del opened the door to the stairway going back down into the building. That’s when a lot of rats came pouring onto the rooftop. Del began stomping and swinging his sword at them. Ellen and I shot at them before finally piling back into the helicopter and shutting the doors to keep away from them. Fred dropped his fuel can and also hopped back into the helicopter. We had to watch, as Del managed to climb upon a mounted radio antenna far enough that the rats couldn’t reach him. He still kept swatting at the rats with his sword. Fred started the helicopter’s engine and began yelling at Del to jump down and make a run for the chopper. With the rats seemingly nipping at Del’s ankles, he still managed to get inside the chopper untouched. As we lifted into the air a good height, I shot down at the spilt gasoline with a flare gun from the chopper’s emergency kit.
HOLD Page 13
