“Fucking monsters,” said Lizzy. “I’m killing anyone I see with that emblem on his jacket. I don’t care where they are or what they’re doing. I see that, and I will shoot.”
Briana pulled a sheet over some babies lying beside a concrete wall. A rough circular target had been drawn there with a can of blue spray paint.
“Think we’re in danger?” asked Mary. She was very quiet, saying almost nothing and hanging close to her sister.
“We’ll warn the others when we get back, face to face. No radio in case whoever did this is close enough to listen. No radio between the Jeeps as we go back either. This was recent, probably day before yesterday. I’m guessing the message we received had something to do with it.”
“Steph was attacked two days before that,” said Lois. “Do you think they were heading east and those were stragglers?”
“Maybe,” I replied. “They could have been scouts though, looking for places to resupply or attack or… I’m going to assume the worst. We’ll head back as soon as we’re sure there’s no one left alive. Then we spend a few weeks sitting tight in the castle, out of sight of the roads. Give the freaks who did this some time, and they’ll probably move far away.”
“Waiting for them to go isn’t the best plan,” argued Lizzy, “not when we have no way of telling where they are.”
“Look at this. Thirty of them killed, and they still had enough to loot and trash the place, and torture everyone inside, more than two hundred people. There has to be a lot of them. From all the bullet holes and shrapnel and stuff, I’m going to say they’re armed to the teeth too, military weapons.”
“We’re hiding Lizzy,” said Briana. Her tone held no room for discussion or debate.
“Yes,” agreed Mary.
Lois nodded as well.
“Fine,” she snapped. Then Lizzy softened. “You’re all right, anyways.”
We continued our search, trying to learn anything we could. It was obvious the people intended to stay long term. They had established themselves in comfort, far better than us. They were situated along a highway, which meant the risk of zombies coming along was greater. Still, it seemed to have been working. I think it’s safer living in the woods mind you, but other strategies were apparently viable.
Their scavenging was also far more detailed and organized than ours. One building was used exclusively as a warehouse with the largest section devoted to food. The shelves were even labeled using strips of duct tape that someone had written on with a black marker. Some items remained, but it appeared a large amount had been taken. The shelves labeled candy were empty, as were the ones for alcohol and Spam. However, there was no shortage of canned vegetables.
In addition to looting, the raiders had spent a great deal of time just wrecking the place. We found furniture slashed, stacks of books burned, and toys and games broken. We also located their transmitter in an office on the top floor of the highest building. It had been shot up. There was a log book next to it, which we took to review later, and we closed the door when we left. There were file cabinets full of records, apparently relating to this enclave. Those could be examined in the future, when we returned.
Just outside the second hole – this was the one farthest from the gate – were seven zombies, all men, strung up with ropes around their necks. Each was wearing fresh clothes. My best guess is that they were people from the settlement, lynched by the raiders and left to reanimate after they strangled to death. The ropes were arranged so their toes could just touch the ground. It must have taken a long time before they grew too tired to keep struggling and balancing in order to breathe. We put an end to them and cut the bodies down.
Interlude – Log Book
I thought long and hard on whether or not to insert a side story based on the log book we found in Martin, South Dakota. It wasn’t technically an individual’s story, which is what I’d been focusing on. However, I think it’s beneficial to share what this other, nearby group had done to survive and how they set up their community, along with the news they inadvertently provided about the rest of the planet. Also, I’m running out of stories to tell. Being in the field most of the time, I hadn’t learned any beyond what I’ve already shared. That, or they were closely related to one previously given.
As with the diary, I’m not going to rewrite the entries. Most are outright boring, dealing with everyday issues or providing details of which I have no frame of reference. Instead, I’ll just summarize the key events, particularly the start, the initial organization, and their expansion.
Like every other town in America, the change hit Martin in the wee morning hours when nearly everyone was asleep. Unlike most others, particularly Chadron which fell into complete chaos, there were people who reacted quickly and decisively. The key figures in this case were a set of twins, Tara and Dale Zablocki. Both lived with their mother, and while I had nothing that listed their ages, I’m guessing early twenties.
They appeared in the center of town around dawn, covered in blood and driving a beat up station wagon that barely ran. Tara got out and clambered onto the heavily dented roof. From this perch, she unslung an expensive and extremely accurate hunting rifle and promptly began shooting. Their family was described as being nearly destitute, but what money they did come across, and the skills they possessed, were directed toward guns and only guns.
Tara dropped one zombie after another, targeting those in the distance, particularly any that were chasing or attacking the living. There were no reports of her striking a normal person by accident. While she was doing this, her brother was keeping the area around the station wagon clear using a high end .45 automatic. Dale also had an Uzi hanging from an underarm rig but never raised it.
Survivors, seeing them, ran their way and were completely ignored. The twins never said a word, never gave any sort of assistance. They just kept on shooting until they ran out of zombies. Then they set off on foot, impressing a stranger into service, apparently against his will. This man carried their ammunition as the pair worked their way through the town. He later said they never displayed any emotion and did not speak, aside from the bare minimum required. It’s easy to understand why they’d always been considered outcasts.
Others, hiding in apartments or houses, soon noticed what they were doing and began to follow suit. More people appeared, armed with whatever they had available, taking down the shamblers. By lunch time the town of Martin was mostly zombie free, and the survivors gathered in the center to decide what to do next. The injured were taken care of, and a small defense force was organized. Despite their obvious talents, Tara and Dale were not part of this. The twins steadfastly refused to obey, and usually acknowledge, any orders.
While the Zablockis were doing their own thing, without any apparent concern for the opinions of others, they remained diligent in the shooting of zombies. They were also the only ones who never hesitated when it came to putting down a child who had turned. There was no shortage of log entries questioning their mental state, but neither had ever harmed another person, under any circumstances. The matter was intentionally ignored.
By the time the survivors secured a building to spend the night, they numbered nearly five hundred, out of an initial population of under a thousand along with those who’d been passing through or trickled in from outlying farms. This didn’t last of course. A large proportion had been bitten, and after three days the surviving population was cut in half. At first glance this seems dreadful, but I know of no other town that had a quarter of its population still breathing after the first week.
Tara and Dale continued to go zombie hunting each day, and other than taking a short break to bury their mother behind the trailer where they lived, the twins kept to this activity and did little else. Some people chose to leave, other refugees arrived, and once things settled down the townsfolk decided to establish an orderly system to guarantee their continued survival. They chose the absolute worst possibility the human race has ever encountered. It was rule by co
mmittee.
Committees are evil, not in the hellish sense, although Satan might have had a hand in their creation, but rather, you end up with constant debates and arguments, especially at times when immediate action is called for. Committees also have a disturbing tendency to compromise. It would have been much better to set up an elected council and just have them vote with the majority winning. We’d been using that system in the United States since the beginning, and it worked fairly well. But no, they couldn’t accept something so simple.
There was a committee for security composed of eight individuals – all the committees had eight people – a committee for health, a committee for recreation, a committee for food and water, and so on. Nearly every adult was on one or more committees, though with twenty two of them that wasn’t hard to arrange. The people had created an unworkable system. Still, they somehow made it function.
Tara and Dale, and a few others, were named as free roaming security. Essentially, these were the individuals more than happy to find and kill zombies in lieu of doing anything else. They proved exceptionally capable, and after two weeks the committee on security focused almost exclusively on building the walls around their compound, leaving the actual fighting to them.
An important aspect of this burgeoning society was that they were trying to live as normally as possible and disdained anything that reminded them they were in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. Their gun policy was the most apparent. All weapons had to be checked in the armory, other than for the free roaming security, who were exempt and would have likely refused, and the men and women on actual watch. Children attended school with set classroom schedules. They also insisted on extra-curricular activities and organized sports and games. And people were not allowed to talk about zombies in front of the kids. That was a big no no.
The log book said nothing about plans to grow crops, and other than the bodies of some cats and dogs, probably pets, we found no evidence of livestock of any sort. I was somewhat surprised at this. At the very least you’d think there’d be a chicken coop for eggs, but perhaps it was located elsewhere. Their scavenging was expansive however. They quickly emptied their town and moved down the roads, steadily clearing them as they went. This done, they would hit an outlying community and systematically strip it bare with the focus always on food. Thinking on it, there are enough entries regarding rationing that they might have simply thought to use boxed and canned goods indefinitely. Still, I find that difficult to believe. With so many people, someone had to have suggested they at least plant a vegetable garden.
Things followed this basic pattern until early November. It was then that Tara and Dale encountered Sergeant Jim Stone. He was U.S. Army, the last survivor of a unit that had tried to hold out in St. Cloud, Minnesota, to the northwest of Minneapolis. They took him back, handed him to the committees to deal with, and resumed scouring the countryside for zombies.
Stone was a communications specialist. He had been involved with the early attempts to organize a response, and these were valiant. According to him, the military managed to secure most of the bases scattered about the country from the outset. While their numbers had been decimated due to the initial change, early bites, and some deserters trying to get to their families, the military had not lost its equipment. Weapons and supplies they had in abundance.
Safe zones were then established. Unfortunately, by the time this was accomplished, most cities had lost power, and there was no easy way to get the news out to the surviving population. St. Cloud was somewhat unique in that it was an ad hoc installation. Stone had been part of a convoy moving equipment when the change hit. He survived, and they set up outside the town while trying to get guidance or updated orders. A general told them to just sit tight.
Being fairly secure and having generators and state of the art radio and satellite uplinks, the unit did just that. They were joined by more soldiers, reservists, and quite a few civilians who were willing to help. This unplanned facility became an official safe zone forty eight hours later. They even received supplies, via helicopter, and soon had a defensive ditch dug and barbed wire strung about. The wire was ideal for slowing zombies, sometimes stopping them outright if they became entangled.
Stone spent most of his time inside a truck monitoring communications and sending out reports. He also had access to satellite imagery. This allowed the man to confirm, personally, that nuclear weapons had indeed been used. There were the initial strikes in India and Pakistan, along with some in China, presumably launched by Chinese government. The satellites also picked up radiation clouds over France and throughout other portions of the world. Many of the civilian reactors had gone critical.
He confirmed that Switzerland had survived as a nation. Between the fall of Zurich and the threat of radiation, those who remained had fled to the southern regions and settled in the Alps. They were joined by the Pope and other Vatican officials, evacuated by the Swiss Guard on the first day. Later, the Swiss flew back to Rome and Florence and recovered much of the artwork stored in the two great cities. A similar attempt to reach the Louvre in Paris was aborted when it was discovered the building had caught fire and burned to the ground. In all, the Swiss had three hundred thousand people with about half being citizens and the remainder foreign residents or refugees.
The United Kingdom was somewhat functioning with the royal family and a few members of Parliament holed up in a series of castles and towns in Scotland. They were in no position to retake their country, but they had managed to secure large swatches of the highlands. With most of the zombies well south in England and Wales, they seemed capable of surviving long term.
The rest of Europe was in poor shape. There were some Greek islands that came through sort of intact. Malta, with a much reduced population, was also functioning. Of the rest, there was little information. The Swiss were sending out teams to search for people. When possible they tried to bring these back to the Alps. Other times they dropped weapons and supplies.
Israel also survived. With their well armed population and huge military, on a per capita basis, they had been able to eliminate the zombies among them. Then they were forced to shift gears and fight a religious war. The Muslims, both citizens within Israel and Palestinians in the territories, blamed the entire affair on the Jews, claiming it was a Zionist plot intended to destroy the Islamic world. This seems incredulous, but the clerics began spouting the nonsense from the mosques, which was where most of the Muslims had gone to organize or for shelter. The fact that the Israeli army focused on Jewish neighborhoods and settlements and that they immediately occupied the Temple Mount to use as a secure base within Jerusalem added fuel to the claims.
The battles were short and brutal with no quarter given by either side. The Israelis won and promptly expelled all Muslims, citizens or not, from their land. Israel as it exists now is not based on the old borders and certainly not on the 1967 line. The nation runs from the ocean near Tel Aviv through Jerusalem to the Jordan River. South, it went into the desert ending at Masada, which was being used once more, after two thousand years, as a fortress. North, it went about thirty miles. Everything else was evacuated.
Lying within their boundaries is the independent town of Bethlehem. Most of the Christians, a tiny minority to begin with, tried to stay out of the conflict. They flocked to the village, somehow took it from the Palestinians without a fight, and fortified it. Once things settled down, Israel declared it a free city under their protection, but while Israel would provide military assistance, the people had to take care of their own day to day needs. The estimated population of Israel is two hundred thousand. The population of Bethlehem is six hundred.
Mecca is gone. The people there never had a chance. Once power was lost, the high temperatures and inability to get supplies, particularly clean water, doomed them. A few of the Arab nations attempted to purge the zombies – they had been declared unclean by fatwa – from the city, but none came close. Their efforts accomplished nothing in the end, sa
ve to speed the collapse of the Middle East. Forces that could have been used to establish safe zones or fight back were thrown away.
Of the majority Muslim nations, none have anything resembling continued civilization, save where foreign military was involved. It had been impossible to recall the soldiers stationed in the Middle East, so the generals and commanders withdrew to their bases or hunkered down in the wilderness. Unwilling to shelter refugees – they simply couldn’t care for the locals, especially when so many were still doing their level best to kill them – they fought to hold on to what they had.
After a few weeks, when the vast majority of people were lying dead or shambling about, the remaining units unified under American leadership. Despite most operations being NATO or alliance based, the United States had sent a disproportionate share of men and, as such, had most of the survivors. There are plans for the Navy to evacuate them by sea in the spring. Unfortunately, I have no idea if the Navy possesses enough ships, manpower, resources, and whatever else to accomplish this.
On a related matter, Japan is wrecked with over ninety nine percent of the population presumed dead. The imperial palace in Tokyo was standing, although much of the rest of the city had gone up in flames, and there were some mountainous regions that appeared secure. American troops, mostly from the bases in Okinawa, had migrated over to assist the Japanese defense forces. There was also talk of relocating all survivors to smaller islands or possibly Hawaii, which was now largely empty of people as well.
Russia lingered on, with safe zones centered on military bases, along with numerous towns scattered about Siberia and the heartlands. And there was news that the Mongols had survived, this being due to the small population being spread out over a large region. After the survivors cleared their immediate area, there had been no zombies within miles, sometimes hundreds of miles to take their place. Those still living a nomadic life or residing in isolated communities had the time they needed to get organized, a very precious commodity.
Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse (Book 1): Sanctuary Page 38
