“I’m so sick of this shit,” Phil said angrily.
“Yeah well so am I but we have no choice but to continue on!” Chad said trying to change Phil’s attitude.
“Whatever Chad, spare the me the lecture. I’m going to bed.” Phil spoke in a defeated tone and Chad offered him no further reply.
Chapter 6
During the night Phil woke up shivering. He needed to take a leak so he left the van as quietly as he could. As he exited Todd spoke,
“What’s up man? You too warm in here?” Todd joked
“No, I just have to run to the bathroom. I’ll be right back,” Phil said before shutting the van door behind him.
Phil relieved himself and then went for a walk. He walked about a quarter mile from the van until he approached the river that they had been listening to while eating dinner. He started walking across the large metal bridge that was high atop the river. When he got about halfway across the bridge, he suddenly stopped. He turned and looked down into the raging river below. It was unbelievably powerful, moving massive amounts of water downstream every second. The waves were high and the spray the river was giving off was ice cold.
Phil climbed out onto the edge of the bridge, never taking his eyes off the river below. He starred into the rapids for a very long time. He thought about his entire life and wondered how he had ended up where he currently was. He was sick of everything and he had nothing to look forward to. He shimmied closer to the edge, slightly hesitating for only a moment.
“Fuck it” he said silently and then plunged headfirst into the chilly abyss.
Chapter 7
Todd knew almost immediately what had happened when he woke up and realized that Phil was nowhere to be seen. He had a feeling that something was not right the second Phil had left the van, but he was too tired to react at the time. Chad, Todd and Lynn followed Phil’s footsteps to the bridge. It didn’t take a professional detective to be able to trace the footsteps to the edge of the bridge and properly conclude what had happened.
“That poor man,” Lynn said as she began to cry.
“I had no idea he was that depressed. I feel horrible. He was a good man and a valuable asset to our team,” Chad’s sadness was clear in his voice.
“I should have gone with him last night. I saw him get out of the van and I knew something wasn’t right. I should have followed my gut instinct,” Todd stared at the river intently as he spoke.
“Don’t beat yourself up man, we are living in a depressing time and that’s just the way the world is now. Some people can handle it and some people can’t,” Chad tried to lift Todd’s spirits but it didn’t appear to work.
“Well as sad as this is we need to follow our plan of action. We need to start the walk to Los Angeles. If we leave right now, sleep in a snow cave tonight and start walking again first thing in the morning, then I think we’ll be there by noon tomorrow.” Chad knew he had to regain control of the group and get their minds back on track.
They packed up the rest of the food and water into their backpacks and started the long walk to Las Angeles. The weather was the best it had been in days and the blowing snow was at an all-time low. Chad held Lynn’s hand as they walked and Todd trailed close behind them. It had been many months since they had seen any other people and they were excited to see what Los Angeles had in store for them.
After about 7 long, painful hours of walking, Chad and Todd jointly decided that it was time to build a camp. They started digging out a snow cave but it turned out looking like more of a trench after the roof collapsed. They were too tired to build a new one, so they decided that they would use what they had since it still fulfilled its primary purpose, which was blocking the wind. The three of them snuggled in tightly in order to stay warm and fell asleep within minutes. None of them had been to L.A. before and they were all anticipating what the great city had been reduced to.
Chapter 8
They were up early and on the move after eating some raw noodles for breakfast. Their water supply was good but their food supply was dwindling. After walking for a few hours they could see the city of Los Angeles on the horizon, it was immaculate. L.A. was far enough away from the blast radius that it didn’t incur much structural damage at all. Most of the buildings were still standing and the city was looking moderately healthy. Chad had always heard about the crazy traffic in L.A. but with the ash ruining most of the car engines, there were very few cars to be seen on the road.
“The radio guy didn’t say exactly where the survival shelters were did he?” Todd asked.
“No man he didn’t, but I’m assuming it would be at a sporting arena of some sort, my guess would be somewhere like the Staples Center,” Chad responded.
Things got very grim the closer they got to downtown L.A. The streets were littered with the dead bodies of dogs, cats and people. Death didn’t really bother any of them anymore as they had already seen so much of it, but they had never seen death on this scale before. As they walked, a man approached them. He had a dark complexion, thin gray hair and a wrinkled face. He was quite short and he walked with a severe limp.
“Hey, please can ya help me out there please, i’m beggin ya?” Said the man
“Hello friend, what can we do for you?” Chad responded.
“Jussa sippa water sir, that’s all I need is jussa sip, please God.” The man was sweating profusely and his skin looked incredibly dry.
“Ya man I can give you a sip and a little bit for you to splash on your face as well”
“Thank ya so much sir, you’re a blessin to me sir, thank you”
Chad removed his backpack and reached inside to grab one of the half empty jugs of water. When he opened the bag the stranger noticed the huge supply of water that Chad had, his eyes lit up and he seemed to become possessed. He lunged, grabbing Chad’s bag and he started running down the street with it.
“Stay right here, I’ll be back in a minute,” Chad told Lynn and Todd and he sprinted after the man.
The man was very fast, especially for an older person. His desperation was evident in every stride that he took. Chad was falling behind as the man started to cut through alleys and jump over fences. This was not Chad’s turf and he had no idea where the man was running. As the man faded from Chad’s sight he had pretty much given up hope. He stopped running in a narrow alley and began to curse.
“For fuck sakes!” He yelled as he punched a concrete wall, scuffing his knuckles and drawing a small amount of blood.
As he turned around to try and find his way back to Todd and Lynn, he heard a barrage of gunshots and a man screaming in pain. The shots were definitely coming from some sort of machine gun and the shooting seemed to last close to thirty seconds. Chad was scared, but his curiosity was getting the best of him. He continued walking as he could hear the sound of voices nearby. He exited the alley and looked to his right, there he saw the body of the man who had stolen his bag, along with 3 armed men standing around his body. The men were talking amongst one another and Chad listened carefully while hiding around the corner of the alley.
“Fuck this guy, greedy bastard gotta tonna fuckin water, but not no more,” One of the men said as he rummaged through Chad’s bag
“Grab that bag real quick. Get that shit inside the safe house and make sure none of them waters are leaking from the bullets. If they are tape that shit up,” A second man said in a worried tone.
“Na man the waters is all good, you know we only take head shots up in here,” the first man joked.
“Good, that’s real good. Water is like the weed and cocaine of this city now. I mean shit Cali had a hard time keeping the water supply coming before that shit got all contaminated and cut from the eruption”
“Ya man you couldn’t be more right. We are like fucking kings now. We gotta ration this and make it last for a while”
“Yea we will, now get that fucking bag inside quick, anybody sees that shit they’ll kill us for it.” The men took off running in the oppo
site direction of where Chad was hiding.
Chad turned around and started heading back to find Lynn and Todd. He realized at that moment that while Los Angeles may not have had much physical damage, their water supply had been completely destroyed. This meant that Chad, Lynn and Todd were traveling through an extremely thirsty city with a great amount of a very precious fluid. This made Chad extremely nervous.
Chapter 9
It took about an hour, but Chad eventually tracked down Todd and Lynn. They had taken shelter in an abandoned house and they were waiting by the window until they saw Chad pass by.
“Hey man, in here!” Todd yelled out.
“Thank God, I thought you guys were gone for good.” Chad said in relief.
“So you didn’t catch him I see,” Lynn said in a disappointed voice.
“No, he got gunned down by a small gang. L.A’S water supply got completely cut off after the eruption and it seems like what’s left of it is totally contaminated. The bottom line is that if we get caught with all of this water, we will definitely be killed for it.”
“So what do you suggest we do?” Todd probed.
“We need to find a good place to stash the remainder of our water. We cannot be seen with bags or people will immediately become suspicious. We need to find the survival shelter as soon as we can. They likely have a fair bit of water in the shelter so hopefully once we find it we won’t need our current water supply anymore,” Chad’s confident tone was inspiring to Lynn and Todd. Todd had a look of confusion on his face though.
“If there’s a large survival shelter with plenty of food and water then why wouldn’t all the survivors in the area be there right now?” Todd asked.
“That’s a good point. I’m going to assume they’ve run out of room in the shelter. But I will figure out a way to get us in there.” Chad remained confident as he responded.
The three of them took shelter in an abandoned building in an attempt to get out of the cold. It was evident that the people of L.A. were not prepared for winter conditions as most of the people who were dead on the streets were wearing shorts and t-shirts. Nobody slept well that night as the sounds of distant gunshots kept waking them up and startling them. Los Angeles had become a warzone and the only weapons they had between the three of them were a knife and a handgun. If they wanted to survive they would definitely need to add some more weapons to their arsenal.
First thing in the morning they went on a hunt for more weapons. They had some extra food in their pockets that they could use a bargaining chips, their only hope was that whoever they tried to get a gun from wouldn’t just point it at them and demand the food. They were operating under the assumption that the people of L.A. still had some humanity left over after the tragedies they had endured. Only time would tell if this was a foolish hope. As they walked down the icy streets with their pockets full of tuna and beans they kept their eyes open for any threats. They figured if they could make it to the Staples Center without bumping into anyone then they wouldn’t even need a weapon, but they all figured this was unlikely.
The Staples Center was now visible from the hill they were currently walking on. It didn’t appear to be that far away but this was merely an illusion. The dead bodies on the street were becoming a common occurrence. Many of the people who were frozen to death were partially clothed. Most of the deceased were black people. Since poverty was such an issue in L.A., most of the poor people lived in tiny houses with barely any insulation at all. None of these small houses were designed for the cold and most of the people that lived in them were totally helpless when the freezing wind and snow came rushing in.
They had done a good job at avoiding contact with any people for the entire walk to the Staple Center, but once they got close to the arena they realized that avoiding people was about to become impossible. There were thousands and thousands of people in a giant mob in front of the arena entrance. Many people were holding large signs that said things like THE WEALTHY SHOULDN’T BE THE ONLY ONES TO LIVE, and EQUAL RIGHTS, EQUAL TREATMENT! WE ALL DESERVE THE NECESSITIES OF LIFE!
The signs pretty much told the entire story about what was going on. Chad, Lynn and Todd started to cut through the crowd, which was certainly easier said than done. There was plenty of pushing and shoving and every once in a while a stranger would shot their gun into the air out of frustration, causing temporary panic and screaming throughout the mob. As they approached the front of the mob they could see a line of riot police with large riot shields and heavy weaponry. There were plenty of dead bodies in front of the line of police who had been gunned down, surely people who had been made an example of after they tried to rush the line.
Chapter 10
After a few minutes of watching the interaction between the mob and the police they eventually understood what was going on. Every minute or so one of the police officers would yell out “NEXT,” prompting an individual or small group to approach the line. If there were any arguments between which group was to approach next, the officers would fire warning shots into the air. If this action didn’t spark a decision between the debating groups the officers would fire rubber bullets at both of the groups. If the rubber bullets didn’t evoke an agreement the officers would gun down all members of both groups and then the leading officer would yell out “NEXT.” This was a barbaric method but it appeared to be working quite well. Once an individual or group was granted permission to approach the line of officers, one officer would walk up and meet with them. They would talk for less than twenty seconds and then the person/group would either be told leave or they would be granted permission to enter the Staples Center, the former being the much more frequently outcome. Chad estimated that only 1 out of every 100 meetings resulted in a person or group being granted permission to enter the survival shelter, and he didn’t like those odds at all.
Eventually Chad decided that enough was enough,
“We’re going next, get ready to walk forward when the officer gives the order”
“Chad honey, are you sure that’s a good idea,” Lynn asked.
“Yes, I’m done waiting. Look they just let that group in, he’s about to give the order,” said Chad pointing at the line of officers.
Right on cue the officer yelled out “NEXT!”
The three of them confidently marched forward but so did two other groups. One of the groups immediately backed down but the other boldly stood their ground. The group consisted of five people, three females, one male and one child. Chad, Lynn and Todd walked over to the other group and Chad began to negotiate,
“We’ve been here for a while and we’ve come a very long way”
“Oh ya? You’re a fucking out of towner then are you?” The man in the group had stepped up to negotiate for his group. He appeared to be of Mexican decent and he had intimidating tattoos covering the majority of his face.
“Yes, we’ve come from North Dakota and we have just as much of a right to shelter as you do”
“Get the hell out of here with that bull shit, you should have gone to Canada you fucking northerner”
Just then a stream of rubber bullets came flying at the two groups, apparently they were taking to long to reach a decision.
“Listen up! I don’t want to wind up dead here. I’ll give you two cans of beans and two cans of tuna if you let us go” Chad was getting desperate.
“Make it three of each,” the man said greedily
“Deal!” Chad yelled as he threw over the five cans he had in his pockets. He was one can of beans short so he yelled to Lynn.
“Lynn, throw him one more can of beans and walk to the line,”
Lynn complied and they walked towards the police line just as the officers appeared to be taking aim to deliver the real bullets.
They walked up to the officers and just before they approached the riot shields somebody yelled, “HALT!”
They did as they were told as they watched the leading officer walk out from behind the shields. The only part of the officer
you could see was his eyes, he was covered in thick black body amour and he looked like he was in no mood for a lengthy conversation. The pressure was on and Chad knew he had to think fast.
“Well, speak up!” the officer yelled.
“We’ve got about 8 cans of food,” Chad responded quickly
“Food isn’t a good bargaining tool, got water?”
“Not with us, we’ve got a few fresh jugs stashed a few hours from here”
“If you can get those here without getting torn apart by these God damned savages you can enter. But for now, turn around and walk away immediately.”
The conversation lasted a grand total of 13 seconds. Chad wished that every conversation in his life could have been as efficient as the one he’d just had.
Chapter 11
They started walking back to their stash house but they now knew that obtaining more weapons was essential. On the way out of the mob, Todd started asking everyone he saw if they wanted to trade a gun for food. Eventually somebody accepted the offer and Chad got a sawed-off shotgun for 5 cans of tuna and 4 cans of beans. Todd now had a shotgun, Chad has his handgun and Lynn was given the knife. They wanted to get another gun for Lynn but they realized that they didn’t have enough food to trade.
The Wrath of Yellowstone (Preppers Fiction): The Wrath of Yellowstone Trilogy Boxed Set (Preppers Fiction, Apocalyptic Fiction, Survival, Travel Fiction Book 4) Page 8
