The Outbreak Series (Book 1): Safe Haven

by Thomas Baker

  "Alan! You OK, pal?" Gus asked, crawling out from the tent. He was soaked in an instant, without the protection of rain gear.

  Alan didn't answer. He looked at Gus, gave him a nod and then pointed towards what he assumed was a flaming tree top in the distance. It was hard to see far in the sheets of rain.

  "I need someone to relieve me," he finally said.

  "I figured you might have relieved yourself after that," Gus joked.

  Alan didn't acknowledge the joke. He went into his tent, grabbing his crowbar and the rifle that Gus had gifted him. He headed off into the trees towards where the glow was emitting from. He wanted to make sure if the lighting did start a fire, that it wasn't in danger of spreading their way. He half suspected it would be out by the time he got there, in this torrential downpour.

  "Well alrighty then Al, be safe out there," Gus called out.

  "I'll take watch," said JT, who at some point had also come out from his tent. He had taken a garbage bag and made it into a makeshift poncho.

  "Where is he going?" JT asked, watching Alan stalk off.

  "Maybe he is really Smokey The Bear and he is off to prevent a forest fire," Gus snickered.

  "You're one funny son of a bitch Gus," JT laughed, grabbing Alan's bucket seat.

  No sooner than he had left camp, Alan decided to go back. The wind really picked up, pushing his hood back. That worried him more than the threat of fire. The tents were flapping in protest and the sudden sound of corn being popped was all around him.

  "We've got hail!" Alan shouted.

  At first it was a steady stream of pea size hail, then came the half mixture of marble sized and by the time it had turned to quarter size Alan watched JT dash back the few feet into his tent. Alan strode to his tent, even though he didn't think it was going to offer much protection if what he thought might be coming did arrive.

  The wind howled, sounding like the shriek of a dying woman. It swirled around the campsite as the onslaught of hail continued. The rain had almost been completely replaced with hail. Alan didn't think the tents were going to take much more of this.

  "Are we safe in here?" He could hear Ashley frantically asking. She had to raise her voice just to be heard over the storm.

  "Safer than outside." JT offered her as an answer.

  Yes but for how long.

  Two loud, quick cracks came from outside.

  "Was that thunder or gunfire?" shouted Dusty from another tent.

  Alan came back out as Dusty unzipped the door of his tent and crawled out, joining him. The hail stung everywhere it struck him. Alan was just about to go back inside. Without warning the hail turned back into a heavy downpour. The heavy thunder and lightning returned. Alan closed his eyes and listened for the out of place cracks he had heard. Maybe it really was thunder. It would be almost impossible to tell now. The wind was gusting even more now. It felt like at any moment the tents were going to be blown away.

  Through the lightning flashes, Alan thought he saw something.

  "What is that?" Alan asked Dusty. He was pretty sure what it was he saw. He could feel the manic anger rising in him. Already his breathing increased.

  "I thought I saw something too. A deer maybe?" Dusty replied.

  The next round of flashes revealed it wasn't a deer, or any other kind of animal.

  "Fuck! We've got dead!" Dusty yelled, pulling his knife out. The zombie was coming into the clearing. Dusty charged it. The zombie didn't make a sound as he drove his knife into it's skull.

  To Alan that was one of their more disturbing traits. He would rather they moaned or made some kind of noise like in those terrible B movies from his childhood. That would be preferable to the dead silence.

  "Big boy, you can come clean this up. This was on your watch," Dusty said as he turned back towards the tents and gasped.

  Zombies were coming in from the other side as well. One was practically right on top of Gus's tent. Five or six more were closely behind it.

  "Everybody out!!" Dusty ordered. "We've got company!!"

  Everyone clamored out of their tents as quickly as they could. People scrambled in the mud. Alan pulled his flashlight, turning it on and waving it around. Trying to get some light so they could see to fight. The rain began to taper off a little.

  The closest zombie fell over Gus's tent, collapsing it down on top of Gus as he exited, pinning him to the mud. JT was quick to react, coming to Gus's rescue. He kicked the zombie in the side of the head. Its face sunk in from the force. JT pulled Gus up and away from the wreckage.

  Alan spotted a blur of movement through the trees. He followed it with his flashlight. His eye's widened when they fell in his beam.

  "Run! Fast movers! Go!" Alan yelled, as the lightning continued. It lit up the horde of dead faces now pouring out of the trees, like the rain from the sky. Alan was horrified. Hailstones were stuck in some of the zombies rotted skin, like engorged whiteheads. Others looked like the hail had smashed away what was left of their features. Their faces sagged this way and that, sinew and bone hung out of the open gashes.

  "We have to go now, before we are completely surrounded!" Alan shouted. He swung his crowbar at a zombie dressed in business casual attire, ripping a gaping hole in the side of its head. It felt good, smashing the zombie. It always did.

  The zombie dropped, creating an opening.

  "JT, Dusty! Get everyone going this way!" Alan shouted, waving his unarmed hand wildly in the air.

  JT grabbed Hannah by the hand and started to run. She in turn grabbed at Ashley, who wasn't next to her anymore. She saw Ashley was clinging to Tyrone as he took off towards Alan.

  "Well this don't look to good for me," Gus said, stumbling. Covered in mud, it was hard for him to gain traction.

  Gus quickly got left behind by the younger group. Alan stood his ground. He was not going until everyone else was out of the clearing. He kept waving each person past as they scattered into the woods.

  Alan grabbed Gus by the arm and pushed him down. A runner met a face full of Alan's crowbar as it tried to get Gus. It landed with a thud into the mud, crowbar stuck in its head.

  Alan snarled. He pulled his crowbar out of it's face.

  He pushed Gus along ahead of him, trying to look everywhere at once, light diminished in the dimness. Ahead he heard Hannah.

  "Please! We have to wait for everyone."

  "We have to live," JT answered.

  "We won't if we don't get going!" Dusty said.

  "We're here," Alan announced, letting go of Gus. "Where are Tyrone and Ashley?"

  "I heard Tyrone yell at Ashley to head to the road," Hannah said.

  "Let's go!" Dusty charged off.

  They crashed through the trees and came out into the grass beside the road. Alan raised his flashlight high.

  "There," he said, stabbing his light to the left.

  Tyrone and Ashley veered on and off the road, racing towards Alan. Ashley was struggling to keep up. She was gripping Tyrone's shirt, pulling and stretching it out. A zombie raced out into their path. Tyrone changed course so quickly, Ashley lost her balance. She fell hard half on and half off the road. Alan flew to them, oblivious to anything but the need to kill the zombie. As he got closer Alan could hear her sobs of pain.

  The zombie was on top of her, dropping in an gangly manner. She tried to squirm away but it grabbed her by the ankle. She cried out in pain. Alan's teeth were bared as he closed the gap. Tyrone was trying his best to pull the dead thing away from her. Alan could see its rotted teeth working, just aching to bite into her leg.

  The zombie thrashed as Tyrone tried to stomp on its head. In the chaos of the night, Tyrone had brought no weapon. He did his best trying to keep the zombie from getting Ashley. Tyrone was so focused he wasn't aware of another zombie closing in on him.

  "Tyrone look out!!" Ashley shrieked.

  Tyrone turned. A zombie, naked except for a blood soaked neon yellow safety vest, lunged for him.

  "I got it! Keep the other
one off Ashley!" Alan yelled. He was nearly there, side burning, heart pounding. Tyrone kicked at the one on the ground while also dancing out of the other zombie's reach. The sound of a gun report filled the air. Dusty had shot safety vest zombie right in the forehead, dropping it. Alan shifted, homing in on the zombie attacking Ashley. With a vicious downward swing, he decapitated Ashley's attacker.

  "That's what I'm talking about! Yeah boy!" Tyrone cheered, pumping a fist in the air.

  The rain slowed to a pitter patter on the wet concrete. Alan was just about to declare it was all over when the dead started streaming out of the woods. Drawn by the gunfire? Alan wondered.

  The dead were now forty to fifty deep. Where the zombies emerged from the forest, they had cut off JT and Hannah from the rest of the group.

  "Shit, here we go again," Gus whispered, sounding defeated.

  JT and Hannah slowed to catch their breath. JT looked back, he couldn't see any zombies or anyone else from the gang. Again the storm, which had turned to a light rain, began to ramp up around them.

  "We need to find some type of shelter. A place to hide until this passes. We're too vulnerable at night as it is. Now we have no light, no weapons and who knows how many dead fuckers are out here now." JT felt totally screwed. All he could think about was that line from "Aliens". Game over man, game over.

  He wasn't going to give up that easily though. It wasn't in his nature.

  "What about everyone else? What about Ashley? We have to find her!" Hannah said, her voice high pitched.

  JT couldn't tell if Hannah was crying or if it was rain running down her cheeks.

  Hannah screamed at the snapping of a nearby tree limb. It crashed to the ground. The wind was blowing in vicious waves. The trees swayed under the punishing burden. JT knew they had to move.

  "We will find her. I promise. She is with Gus, Dusty, and Alan. She will be fine. They will take care of her. We have to worry about us staying alive to find them. OK?" JT said, reassuring her.

  Hannah nodded as she wiped her face and JT pulled her in close. The rain died down again and the wind dropped to a modest level. The storm seemed to have finally blown itself out.

  "Trust me Hannah, we have to move," JT said.

  Hannah put her hand in JT's. They stumbled in the near total darkness, following the road. At an underpass, they came upon an old rusted out van. It had no windows and missing both front doors.

  "This will have to do," JT said. "At sun up we will look for the others, but for now let's get out of the rain."

  Opening the back doors, JT helped Hannah climb into the back of the van. Inside, they both leaned up against one wall. Hannah didn't hesitate to cuddle up right next to JT. Her head laid on his chest moving up and down with each breath.

  "Promise you won't ever leave me behind," Hannah said. She pulled JT's hand up under her chin and held it tight.

  JT did not reply. He held her tight as he relaxed his head against the van. Hoping that they would see the next morning. Exhausted, he closed his eyes.

  JT woke up. He didn't even remember falling asleep. Where am I? It took a minute for his fuzzy brain to wake up. Hannah was still sleeping, clutching him tightly. Oh yeah, we're in the van. JT blinked, sunlight hitting his face through the cracks of the van. He slowly and carefully moved his cramped muscles, trying not to wake Hannah. He exited out one of the missing front doors. He stretched, feeling more sore than he had after those two a day summer practices in Texas.

  It was still. You could hear the dripping dampness. Tree limbs hung like broken limbs. Debris both natural and man-made were scattered all over. It was like the forest had been put in a washing machine on high. If it weren't for the van and the way it was pointing, he didn't think he could recognize the direction they came from.

  "O.M.G." he heard behind him. He guessed Hannah had come out of the van.

  "It's something huh? You could almost think a tornado came through here. Lucky that we found this van."

  "Where do you think everyone else is?" Hannah asked, as she came up alongside him and leaned her head against his shoulder.

  "Good question," He said putting his hand up to his eyes, looking in the distance. "I'm hoping they found a place to hunker down for the night. Then, if I were Dusty, I would double back to camp, now that it's daylight. See if there was anything I could salvage. "

  "We should go back and check then. I am worried about Ashley. I don't like the thought of possibly being left alone out here because they couldn't find us." Hannah was starting to sound a little hysterical.

  "Okay, okay. Stay close to me. Who knows if there's anymore dead ass hats lingering around."

  JT checked the van, not really thinking he would find anything. He couldn't believe his luck when he found a tire iron underneath it. The weight of it felt good in his hands. Better than nothing.

  The two of them maneuvered around several fallen tree limbs and a few of the dead. Hannah clinched JT's hand tighter as they passed the bodies. They came across a zombie, still squirming, on a large tree branch that had impaled it. It struggled in silence. With three blows, JT put it out of its misery.

  JT had always had a pretty good sense of direction. He led Hannah along, back down the road and into the woods. Just as JT was beginning to think maybe his sense of directions wasn't that good after all, they came to the camp clearing. JT couldn't believe how far they had ran in the night.

  "It doesn't look like anyone came back here yet," Hannah said, worried.

  "I'm pretty sure they will Hannah. What else can we do anyway? I say, let's get a head start on cleaning up this mess."

  JT and Hannah worked on picking through what was left of the camp. He didn't like the way Alan had snapped at him, but he was glad he had put stuff in the trash bags. There would have been even less to salvage.

  JT inspected the tents. Though weathered and looking rough, they still stood and appeared to have survived the storm. Once again JT had to admit he had Alan to thank.

  "You know JT, we are blessed to have survived," Hannah said, picking through her scattered belongings.

  JT grunted.

  "Look what I found! Let's take a break," Hannah said, ripping open a package of pop tarts and handing one to JT.

  "Hannah!" Ashley squealed.

  Hannah jumped, so startled she dropped her pop tart, and turned around.

  "Oh my god, Ashley! Are you OK?"

  Ashley limped across the clearing, Gus and Tyrone on either side of her, helping her along. Dusty and Alan followed in the rear.

  Hannah and Ashley latched onto each other, crying and laughing at the same time. JT pulled Gus to the side.

  "Did she get bit?" JT asked

  "No, no. Nothing like that. Think old Dusty would bring her back here if she was. He went over her with a fine tooth comb. Her ankle is swollen pretty bad and she can't hardly put weight on it right now. Must have twisted it during the attacks last night."

  Hannah found a tree log that Ashley could prop up against. She rolled up one of her shirts and put it under Ashley's ankle. She let Ashley rest as she went back to scavenging through the campground remains.

  "What a mess!" Tyrone stated, looking around.

  "Thank you captain obvious." Dusty replied.

  "Why don't we save the mouth and use our hands to help pick up," JT said, already irritated by Dusty's attitude.

  He could hear Dusty mumble under his breath. He let it slide, for now.

  "Damn, I had forgot about my uninvited house guest," Said Gus, looking at the dead zombie collapsed on top of his tent.

  "Let's just get this done, Gus," Dusty said, grabbing the zombie by the legs and dragging it off. "Then we can take a look at what we got left."

  "Well shit boss." Gus said, inspecting the tent now that the body was gone. "Looks like our tent has a few small skylights in it now. Won't that be romantic."

  Gus made kissy noises at Dusty. Dusty frowned. JT laughed until his belly hurt.

  It was mid-morning before a
ll their remaining equipment was gathered up. Most of the lighter stuff, like extra clothes, had blown away in the storm. Some of the food was ruined as well, crushed or soiled during the attack in the night. They were down the tent Gus and Dusty had shared. It was even more damaged once they had inspected it further. The strangest thing was they couldn't find Gus's bag that had the handguns and extra ammo. It was too heavy to have blown away.

  "It's a damn shame," Gus commented. It was the first time JT had seen Gus actually angry. "Haven't we been fucked over enough already?"

  "Agreed," JT said. As he had been picking up that morning, he had been getting angrier at this whole situation. "I have been thinking. We need to find someplace to hole up for awhile. If we can find this Safe Haven place, and it turns out to be real, I think it would be just what we need."

  "No, it's not," Dusty chimed in. "That's a terrible idea. We need to keep on the move, on the road. For all we know Gus's bag got swiped by another group of survivors that happened by here and now they could be armed and dangerous. You want to find a camp of people like that?"

  "How can you say that?" Hannah asked. "Isn't this what you Army guys would call exposed?"

  "Yeah, look around here, stupid,"Ashley added, "I lost some of my clothes. I had to sleep in the mud under a bridge. I almost got eaten." Ashley's voice rose as she continued. "I don't want to keep doing this. Plus I think I might have broken my ankle in that stupid storm."

  "Fuck your clothes and your comfort," Dusty said, really getting worked up. "I am thinking about survival here. I think it's a bad idea to settle down in one place. In case you didn't think about it, the dead slightly outnumber the living. Any place would be overrun."

  JT took a few steps closer to Dusty.

  "Look at us man," JT said, spreading his arms wide. "Seriously, you think we are going to keep going like this? How long do you think we can keep this up? Yeah they outnumber us and if they came across us now, we wouldn't stand a chance."

  Dusty stepped towards JT until inches separated them. His voice got louder.

  "Ever hear of attrition? Even if only ten percent of the population is infected, we are talking 3 million of the dead. They can keep coming and coming. If we were pinned in some house, or in some cave, what makes you think we would last any longer? Here at least we have multiple directions to outrun them. You should leave the thinking to a tactician. It's obvious you aren't smart enough to be in charge."