Prepping For The Unknown: A Fighting Chance (A Preppers Journey to Survival Book 1)

by Jason Alters

  ‘Guys,’ I made my way to my feet. ‘Don’t you think it’s time we head to bed?’

  ‘She’s right,’ mom agreed, shaking her head at Brandon. ‘We’re going to want an early start and there’s no point in being tired. We need to travel as fast as possible and without energy there’ll be no speed.’

  ‘What are we going to do about food?’ Brandon asked.

  ‘I’d say we all just have a bowl or two of cereal when we wake up. I’m also going to put an array of supplies on the table which you can go ahead and stick in your pockets on the way out. It can’t hurt to have a few extra tools that you don’t have to go digging through your bags to retrieve.’

  ‘Perfect,’ I replied, taking Anton’s hand and leading him in the direction of my room.

  ‘Goodnight,’ Anton called out to mom and Brandon.

  ‘Goodnight,’ they both replied.

  Chapter 8

  The time was now. My alarm went off at four am, interrupting the most peaceful dream I’d had in a while. ‘Anton,’ I whispered, shaking his lifeless body. He didn’t respond. ‘Anton.’ My voice was a bit louder the second time.

  He mumbled a series of nonsensical words, before opening one eye. ‘What?’

  ‘We’ve got to go.’

  ‘Huh?’ he quickly sat up in the bed.

  ‘We’ve got to get something to eat and head out.’

  ‘Oh shoot,’ he said, finally remembering where he was and what had been planned. ‘How long have I been asleep for?’

  ‘We went to bed at eight, so you’ve been sleeping for like eight hours.’

  ‘And I’m still this tired?’

  ‘You’re just not used to waking up at four in the morning,’ I chuckled.

  ‘You say that like four in the morning is a normal time for you.’

  ‘Eh. When I go to bed at eight, it’s not that bad. And I have to say, with all that has transpired, sleeping is a lot harder than being awake.’

  ‘I’m just happy you’re okay honey. If this thing ever tries to attack you again, I swear on my life, I’ll hunt it down and…’

  ‘No, Anton. You won’t do anything stupid.’

  ‘I’m just saying, I’m going to do whatever it takes to protect you. I promised you forever and I’d be damned if these zombie things rob us of our forever.’

  ‘I’m just hoping things never have to get to that point. I know that we’re heading to the bunker to find some form of escape from what mother things is the inevitable but a part of me still doesn’t believe we’re in for a full on attack.’

  ‘Hopefully not, but it’s definitely better to be safe than sorry. I bet the people in Birmingham wished they had prepped. The chaos that’s ensued there is just unreal, to say the least.’

  ‘Well, luckily for us, we’ve got my mother. All her hard work prepping and the money she invested in the bunker surely won’t be going to waste now. Never did I think the day would come that we’d actually need to head there.’

  ‘I’m just happy that’s she’s been so welcoming to me.’

  With a finger, I pushed his long dark hair out of his face. ‘I’m just happy that I have you.’

  ‘Forever,’ he replied, wrapping his arms around me and squeezing tightly.

  That one hug was filled with so much passion that it tugged at the strings of my heart. There wasn’t the shadow of a doubt in my mind that Anton cared about me but this was so much more- gratefulness, feeling as though he finally belonged. I hugged him back, just as tightly as he hugged me, trying hard not to let the tears that were building up in my eyes fall.

  ‘Okay, if we’re going to make it out of here in time then we’ve got to hurry,’ I said, lessening the strength of my hug.

  When he dropped his arms, I slipped my legs from underneath the sheets and placed them in my slippers which were positioned at the side of the bed. Anton followed closely as I entered the living room. Mom and Brandon were already awake and seated at the breakfast table, shoveling spoons of cereal into their mouths. We said good morning and joined them at the table. No one spoke. The urge to strike up a conversation struck me once or twice but the guilt of breaking the silence held me back. I could almost see the thoughts running through everyone’s minds. Mom was more than likely busy running through supplies in her head. Brandon probably couldn’t get the image of the zombie out of his mind and as for Anton, he was perhaps too overwhelmed to speak. Once we were through, it was time to take a look into mom’s last minute survival gear basket and fish out a few things that would be easy to stick into our pockets. I opted for a mini flashlight that snapped right onto my belt, a pack of cards which slipped in my back pocket, and a cereal bar. Anton reached for a mini multi tool, a granola bar, a Bic lighter and a few batteries secured in Seran wrap.

  Mom handed us whistles, strung onto cord. ‘Just in case one of us- for some odd reason- gets away from the group. Now, this is not for playing around because remember, the more you blow, the more you’re alerting others of our whereabouts.’

  I knew she’d add that part; forgetting that none of us still had a childish fascination with blowing whistles. ‘I’d say we’re about ready to go,’ Brandon placed the last dish in the dishwasher and started it.

  ‘Backpacks, everybody.’ Mom said, maneuvering her own bug out kit over her shoulders.

  I put my pack on, buckled the strap in the middle and headed for the door. Mom lingered behind for a minute, ensuring that all lights in the house were turned off. She’d set a timer on the living room light, just to make sure it seemed as though there was some life in the house when we left. Just when I thought she was ready to go, I heard her yell, ‘Nails. Nails. We haven’t got any nails.’

  I didn’t ask what the nails were for but waited patiently as she opened the kitchen drawer and grabbed a handful, cringing as one or two poked her fingers.

  ‘Now we’re ready,’ she said, putting the nails in a small pocket on her backpack.

  Through the door we went and into the chilliness of the early morning. The grass was damp and slippery and there were traces of blood from the thing Brandon had shot. I maneuvered my way around it and did a little hop onto the pavement avoiding the last few splatters of blood. While we walked down the lonely and quiet streets, I couldn’t help but to look back at my home. I would miss it, even though I doubted we’d be gone for long. Mom increased her pace. We all followed closely behind, walking as though we were in some sort of a race. I looked through each window we went by to see that there were no nosy eyes peeking through. Even Lorna, the old lady who no one thought slept, must have been fast asleep. Her curtains were in an unusual position- closed -and there wasn’t a hint of light or life in her home.

  Mom pointed to the left, instructing us to turn. I assume that her notion was more for Anton than for Brandon and me as we’d traveled this route quite a few times before. The entrance of the trail was just as damp as the grass in front of my house. Crunching sounds were the only things to be heard as our boots traveled through patches of leaves and twigs. Soon, there was no house in sight. Looking behind, trees and bushes were the only things to be seen. Keeping up with mom’s pace started to become difficult. The way Anton and Brandon moved made it seem as though I was the only one who was out of shape. I didn’t complain. Instead, I carried on, pushing through like a true champ. The sooner we got to the bunker, the sooner we’d be able to relax. I knew this. Breaks would be taken when mom said it was time to take them. Water needed to be enjoyed sparingly; not because there was no water along the trail, but because hardly anyone wanted to have to turn to lifestraws or some other form of filtered water. Though clean and therefore, safe enough to drink, the dirty taste wouldn’t be wholly removed.

  Mom made a turn, leading us even deeper into the woods to an area where the trees grew high and the grass grew higher. I kept my eyes on Anton, who was only a few steps in front of me. I could almost hear him wondering where on earth we were headed to. A part of me wanted to speak, but I knew that mom would e
nd up shushing me as soon as the first words left my mouth. She liked silence at these times. Noise- even in the empty woods- would cause the nobodies who were around us, to pick up on a destination we weren’t even close to approaching. But I needed something to keep my mind off the sharp pains that were penetrating my side. This walk proved to me just how out of shape I was. Once upon a time, I would have been able to run through the woods without thinking twice about cramping up. Now, I was more unfit than mother, who was in her fifties. If only I had listened to her. Time and time again, she reminded Brandon and me that being in shape was the first part of being a successful prepper. Time and time again, I ignored her. The treadmill that she’d bought me for Christmas had made its way into her room within the first month of me receiving it. I think I must have stepped on that thing once and that was just to check that everything was working as it should. How I saw it, there was no reason to get in shape when I wasn’t out of shape. But as this hike began to prove, being a size three didn’t mean much. I was skinny and unfit.

  ‘Anton,’ I whispered.

  Anton turned around, his face as red as a tomato. ‘You okay back there,’ he said in a relatively quiet tone; a tone that wasn’t quiet enough for mom’s liking.

  ‘Shh,’ she hissed.

  We continued to trek along in silence.

  ***

  After walking for hours and only having a few breaks to take a sip of water and catch our breaths, it was time for a real pause. The heat from the sun was slowly but surely draining the energy from my body.

  ‘Twenty minutes is all we get,’ mom informed us, setting a timer on her watch to make sure that we wouldn’t be a second over the given time.

  ‘Twenty minutes,’ I turned to Anton who was trying hard to make himself comfortable on a boulder he was adamant to turn into a chair.

  ‘That’s what the boss said,’ he smiled.

  ‘I don’t need twenty minutes,’ I panted. ‘I need a bed and at least nine hours.’

  Anton reached for a small towel which he had tucked into the waist of his pants. ‘It feels great,’ he said, using the towel to wipe an excessive amount of sweat from my face.

  ‘Feels great. Not even that zombie thing managed to take my legs off, but this hike, it’s pretty close to doing it.’

  ‘She’s complaining, isn’t she,’ mom intruded, removing the wrapper from her granola bar.

  ‘I’m not complaining,’ I replied defensively.

  The smile on Anton’s face and the constant nodding of his head, told her the truth.

  ‘I told you that you needed to get in shape, Liz. So, maybe this will be a lesson to you.’

  ‘Way to kick me when I’m down, huh? What happened to being nice and telling me that I can do it, that I’m brave.’

  Mom laughed, ‘you’re brave Elizabeth. You can do it.’

  ‘That’s not my name,’ I insisted.

  ‘Well, the Elizabeth you were named after was a pretty brave lady, so draw strength from that.’

  I rolled my eyes and resumed my conversation with Anton. ‘You’re telling me that you’re not the least bit exhausted.’

  ‘I didn’t say that. But it does feel pretty good. The air’s fresh, clean and crisp. There’s just something about being out here that makes me feel rejuvenated.’

  ‘That’s nature for you.’ I took a bite of my cereal bar, moistening it with a drink of water. ‘Mom,’ I raised my voice enough to pull her attention away from Brandon, ‘when are we going to settle down for dinner?’

  Everyone laughed but I didn’t get the joke.

  ‘We’re having lunch now,’ Brandon snorted, ‘and you’re already thinking about dinner.’

  ‘I don’t care about the food, you idiot. I wanna know when we finally get to stop walking.’

  ‘We get to stop walking when we’ve made it to the bunker,’ Brandon laughed again.

  ‘What!’ I exclaimed. ‘You’re not seriously trying to tell me that we’re going to be walking all night.’

  ‘Brandon’s just messing with you,’ mom said, patting Brandon on the back. ‘I’d say we need to settle down for dinner at around seven or eight o’clock, depending on how dark it is.’

  I checked my watch to see that it was shortly after four. ‘Another three to four hours. I can make it,’ I encouraged myself out loud.

  ‘Liz, do you remember how to make the Dakota fire hole,’ mom asked.

  ‘Yeah, absolutely.’

  ‘Great. Then when we’ve decided to stop walking for the day, I’m going to need your help with that. The boys will need to take care of making booby traps around our tent. Is that okay with you, Alton?’

  ‘Of course, Miss… Of course Sherry,’ he corrected himself.

  ‘Perfect. And just like today, we’ll want to get an early start. If we wake up at four in the morning again and go as fast as we are now, then we should be at the bunker in six to seven hours.’

  ‘That’s not too bad,’ Anton smiled.

  Not too bad? I was exhausted. Even if I went to bed before the sun went down, I’d still be exhausted in the morning. I needed a new pair of legs, lungs and a whole bunch of adrenaline to get through the next round. Again, the journey to the bunker started and I was the one lagging behind. Once the exhaustion had really set in, I tried just about everything possible to get my mind off walking. I sang silent songs, counted the stones I passed, named leaves- just about everything. And then, something unexpected happened. I heard something but this time, not the squishing of leaves beneath my tired feet. I heard the same rattling sounds I’d heard when that thing showed up. Determining whether or not to push it to the back of my mind- and convince myself that it was some sort of rodent looking a new home- was hard. Remember Brandon’s words told me what I had to do. His no secret policy meant that I had to tell them. There was no holding anything back. Secrets were dangerous.

  ‘Guys.’

  Everyone stopped upon hearing the trembling in my voice. Their eyes pierced right through me and I felt as though I was in high school ready to deliver a presentation I hadn’t prepared for.

  ‘What is it, Liz?’ Mom asked calmly.

  ‘It’s probably nothing, but I’m pretty sure I heard something.’

  ‘Heard something like what?’ Brandon said.

  ‘Like shuffling.’

  ‘We’re in the woods, Liz. That’s only normal,’ Anton tried to be soothing. Perhaps aware of the panic I felt.

  There was no getting the image of that thing out of my head. Not after being dragged down the porch stairs with its claws deep in my calves; staring it in the face and thinking that it wouldn’t let go until I didn’t exist anymore.

  ‘We’ve got to check it out,’ mom insisted. With her high beliefs that a full on attack was slowly but surely approaching, I didn’t doubt for a minute that she’d get to the bottom of things. Mother was thorough and she would do all it took to ensure that we were safe. ‘Where was the noise coming from?’ She turned to me.

  ‘Over there, I think.’ I pointed to my left, in the direction where I thought I heard the shuffling around. ‘But I guess I also heard a bit of it coming from behind us.’

  ‘Okay, then we’ll check both.’

  Mom found a long stick, pulled out her knife and started carving the end of it until it was sharp and spear-like. Brandon followed close by with his gun firmly gripped and held in front of him. Slowly, they walked toward the spot where I had pointed to. Their heads turned from left to right, right to left, scouting out the area.

  ‘Found it,’ Brandon howled.

  ‘Hey,’ mom glared at him. ‘We’re still trying to keep things quiet around here.’

  ‘Sorry,’ he replied.

  ‘So what did you see?’

  ‘They’re some people behind us.’

  Mom, Anton, and I turned around to see that there were indeed two people making their way through the woods, just like we were. However, I was confident that they weren’t the reason for the sounds I’d heard. This sh
uffling that had been bothering me was coming from closer. I looked around, trying to see if I could spot something but there was nothing. Maybe I had been imagining things but this wouldn’t stop me from keeping an eye out and letting them know if I heard something again.

  ‘We should talk to them,’ mom said, already headed in their direction.

  ‘Um… why?’ I asked puzzled.

  ‘Because they’re on our track,’ mom said matter-of-factly.

  I laughed, ‘what are you, the new Sherriff in town? You know they’re allowed to walk wherever they please, right?’

  ‘I’m not planning on kicking them off the track, silly. Maybe they’re heading to the bunker too and if they are, it couldn’t hurt to have an additional four eyes with us. Plus, heading to the bunker would mean they’re preppers and would also indicate that we could possibly benefit from their skills later on.’

  ‘What do you mean, later on?’

  ‘If this thing really gets out of control. But let’s not get into that now.’ With her sharpened stick, she pushed away just about everything in her way.

  The people we were walking toward were laughing and giggling with each other and it seemed as though they didn’t spot mom until she was practically right in front of them. I watched as mom blabbered on to them. The distance made it difficult to decipher just what they were saying but when mom pointed to us, I figured it was only appropriate to wave.

  Eventually, mom made her way back to us with the two campers following closely behind.

  ‘I’m Opal,’ the female camper said. She was relatively short; approximately three inches less than my five feet and six inches. Her jet black hair with hints of blonde at the roots barely made it to the nape of her neck.

  The man introduced himself as ‘Nolan.’ His height was on the other end of the spectrum from Opals. Not only did he hover over mom and me, but he was significantly taller than both Brandon and Anton.

  ‘They’re here on vacation,’ mom said. Her eyes wide and her smile forced.

  ‘Vacation,’ I repeated.