The Outbreak Series (Book 1): Safe Haven

by Thomas Baker

  "Sure thing darlin'," Gus said with a smile. "You just make sure you don't venture too far off and stay alert. You got something just in case?"

  "No, I was hoping for a sense of normalcy," Hannah replied.

  "Please, don't venture from the trails. " Mike added in. "Harold 's not lying when he says he has this place trip wired and trapped in several locations. I would suggest sticking to the smallest path directly south through the trees that goes toward the water, it is safe as long as you watch your step and don't veer off the beaten path."

  "I'll go with you," JT jumped into the conversation. "I mean if you wouldn't mind the company. I don't like the thought of you out there with no protection. Hate to side with Dusty, but you really never know."

  "Sure, I'd really like that," Hannah said. She tried not to show how much she really did like that idea. JT had been such a nice guy so far, not bad looking either. She didn't want to give in to the feelings she was having. Or lead JT on. Everything was just still so confusing right now.

  "Come on dude! What about football?" Tyrone whined.

  "Later kid," JT said, "we got the time now. We can relax here. Maybe you can get one of these old farts to toss it around with you."

  "Old farts!!" Gus exclaimed. " may be old and I may fart a lot but I am not a fogey yet. What do ya say there Mike? Should we show this young whippersnapper how to toss around the pigskin?"

  "Oh no, not me," Mike smiled. "I've never been one for sports myself. I'll just be the spectator. You two, enjoy your walk but please watch your step. Whatever Dusty believes, Harold isn't joking about his set up. I've never seen Harold joke about anything."

  Gus laughed as he gave a wave to JT and Hannah."Yes, you kids be careful."

  "Always Grandpa!" Hannah said, giving Gus a big smile.

  JT and Hannah started their way down the path Mike had suggested to them. She yawned. Hannah had been up with Ashley most of the night. They talked about lots of different things. After that she had laid awake, struggling to clear her mind.

  She glanced over at JT as they walked. She knew that he was attracted to her. She hated to admit to herself that she was starting to feel that way as well. Besides Ashley she felt like he was the only other person she could be honest with what she felt and he would take it seriously. She had planned to go by herself but she was glad he had asked to come.

  "So. What brings us out for a walk today ?" JT asked.

  "Honestly?" Hannah replied. She had so many things bothering her, she didn't know where to start.

  "Umm yeah, of course. What's wrong? Is it Ashley?"

  "Well...that is one thing I'm worried about, but..." Hannah stumbled over her words. She looked around, hoping they were far enough from the cabin to bring it up. "It's just that...Well it's just that...I don't know why but Harold has been making Ashley and I feel a little uncomfortable since we got here."

  "How so?" She could sense the anger in JT's tone of voice. She hoped this wasn't a mistake. She had seen the way he could fly off the handle sometimes.

  "It's.. It's just that.." Hannah began to stumble again. "It's just the way he looks at us. Always staring and seeming not to care if we notice. This morning he stood in the doorway of our bedroom and watched us. I woke up and saw him standing there. I know we had shut the door when we went to bed. I quickly shut my eyes and then opened them a tiny bit. He just kept on standing there while I pretended to still be asleep."

  Hannah could feel JT tense up next to her.

  "Maybe I am just being paranoid or dumb. I know it probably sounds crazy. It's his cabin. He's probably just a lonely guy. He's been nice enough to take us in, share his house, and his food and...now I'm rambling and you probably think I'm an idiot and..."

  "Hannah stop!" JT stepped in front of her and put a hand on each of her arms. "You don't sound stupid at all to me. You may be right, he probably is a lonely guy and let's face it, neither you or Ashley are lacking in the beauty department. But as long as me, Gus or hell even Dusty are around, NOTHING will happen to you girls. I...especially you."

  Hannah felt her face turning red at his comments. She was torn and about to back off, instead she stepped in for a hug. She felt so safe in his embrace yet she was terrified of losing him. She couldn't get feeling for him. Now now. She was scared of getting too close and losing someone else. She already felt that about Ashley.

  Hannah broke their embrace. She took a step back. JT lifted Hannah's chin with his finger and looked her right in the eyes. She thought maybe he was about to kiss her. Instead, JT launched into a bad impersonation of Gus.

  "Now come on you pretty little thing. You're too darn good lookin' to be worryin' so much. It'll add wrinkles around your eyes I've heard. Let us men folk handle everything."

  Hannah laughed, it sounded terrible. She playfully punched him in the chest.

  "Get to walking before you have to explain to Tyrone why you came back with a fat lip, mister."

  Hannah nudged past him and began walking again. JT jogged the few feet to catch up to her. Hannah felt lighter now, a weight was off her chest. JT was so right, nothing would happen with all of them around. It was one guy who was a little odd. They had already fought through bigger challenges and lived. It wasn't like she couldn't take care of herself as well. She was ready to change the subject.

  "So. Let's talk about fun stuff, just you and I." She giggled at JT as he walked backwards, matching her pace. He was smiling wildly.

  "OK, what are we gonna talk about? Fire away." JT said, turning around and walking beside her again.

  "Hmm.. OK let's start out easy. If you could have anything you wanted to eat right now what would it be?"

  "That's too easy! A Peanut Buster Parfait!" JT exclaimed.

  "Ice cream? That's what you would choose?" Hannah was surprised. "I thought a big, strong man like you would want something like a steak."

  "What can I say? Hands down, ice cream's my weakness. I could still kill a cow and make a steak. Without electricity I can't really just make some ice cream."

  "Guess you have a point there," Hannah conceded. "I don't think you killing a cow and making a steak is as easy as you think. Not like I'm a farmer though."

  "Hey, me big strong man," JT joked, making muscles with his arms. "What about you? You have a secret food kryptonite?"

  "Chicken Alfredo! Ashley and I used to go to this little Italian restaurant close to campus on Thursday nights. They had all you can eat Alfredo for $5.99. Sometimes we didn't even have to pay that, because one of the waiters there had a major crush on me. A little flirting would go a long ways for two broke college girls," Hannah said laughing.

  She turned to JT when she didn't get a response. His face was scrunched up funny.

  "You OK?" Hannah asked.

  "Yeah I'm good," JT said, a little too curtly.

  "Wait, does that bother you hearing me say that?" Hannah had a big smile on her face as she batted her eyelashes at him.

  "No," JT said, looking down. "Why would I be jealous of some waiter? It's somebody I don't even know."

  "Oh my God! You are jealous! Aww, that's so sweet." Hannah decided to just go for it. She put her hand in his and swung their arms as they walked along. She might regret it later, but for now it just felt good.

  JT cleared his throat. "What's your favorite movie? The one you could never get tired of watching?"

  "Ohhh no!" Hannah said in mock defiance. "You will make fun of me hardcore!"

  "Come on now that's not fair," JT chided.

  "OK...fine. It's Bring It On." Hannah sighed dramatically.

  JT couldn't hide his laughter.

  "See I knew you would make fun of me you jerk!!" Hannah elbowed him gently in the ribs.

  "No I'm not! I swear! It's just a little cliche isn't it? The cheerleading and all that?" JT tried to reign it in. "I mean let's be honest, if I were to say my favorite was Rudy or Remember The Titans, wouldn't you judge me?"

  "It reminds me of my friends and I in high school, you
jerk! We used to watch it so much we could quote the entire movie."

  "Well truth be told, I've seen it....more than once," JT admitted.

  "Ha! See! It's good, huh?" Hannah laughed. "Well?"

  "Well, what?" JT replied

  "Well what's your favorite movie? Duh!"

  "You won't believe me when I tell you."

  "Oh, now come on. I told you. Wait, is this like the Zombie song thing?" Hannah teased.

  "You got me," JT sighed. "It's....Dawn Of The Dead. The remake from 2004."

  Hannah and JT just looked at each other and burst out laughing. Hannah couldn't remember the last time she had laughed so hard at something so mundane.

  "Ohh you know what would be fun?!?" Hannah asked, excited.

  "What?!" JT replied clearly mocking her.

  "We should hang out, just the two of us, tonight! We can sit around and maybe just talk about normal stuff like this for a change."

  "I'd be down for that. You think Ashley's going to be okay being kicked out of her kingdom for a little while?" JT laughed as he said it.

  They stopped at a small clearing, where some wildflowers still peaked out of the bushes. JT watched Hannah as she picked at some dandelions and blew on them like a child would.

  Hannah caught the look JT was giving her, their eyes locked and froze. He took two steps towards her. He grabbed both her hands in his. He came in close. She looked up at him, then closed her eyes to slits and parted her lips. He started to lean into her when the loud crack of a gunshot made both of them nearly jump out of their skin.

  "Oh! I'm so sorry!" Harold exclaimed, stepping out of some thick brush. "I didn't know anyone was down here. I've been seeing deer in the area. Thought I had that one in my sights."

  "You scared the shit out of us!" JT's voice rose in anger. "What deer? I don't see shit! What if you'd of hit one of us you-"

  "I truly am sorry," Harold broke in. "I didn't mean to give you a fright. Please accept my apology."

  Harold kept shifting his eyes to Hannah the whole time he was talking to JT. A half smile played on his lips. She didn't like it, he didn't seem really sorry, but she didn't want the two of them to get into an arguing match, or worse.

  "No fu-" JT started.

  Hannah cut him off again. She didn't want a blow up right now. "It's okay," she said. "You just scared us half to death."

  Dusty came running up one of the trails weapon drawn.

  "What the hell is going on?!?!" Dusty demanded.

  "Harold decided to try and shoot at a deer and almost kill us!" JT answered. He gave Harold a searing look that could have melted steel.

  "I can't seem to apologize enough," Harold said. "I wasn't even aiming in your direction Hannah. If saw you, I'd never fired that shot."

  "It's over, let's just go on. Right JT?" Hannah squeezed his hand.

  "Yeah, yeah sure." JT was clearly still upset.

  She was thankful for the fact he was able to get himself under control enough to not go off any more. She felt they were already on thin ice after the blowup between Dusty and Harold.

  "Wonderful," Harold said, smiling at Hannah and ignoring everyone else.

  Dusty walked over to JT and Hannah as Harold disappeared up the trail.

  "Stay alert. Stay alive. Just like I said," Dusty swung his rifle back over his shoulder. "Not that JT ever listens to me. I'm headed back to camp."

  JT started to open his mouth again. Hannah covered it with her hand.

  "Don't," she said. "Let's just head back. I need to check on Ashley anyway. Let's take a rain check on hanging out tonight. That kinda ruined the moment."

  Hannah put her hand into his as they headed back to the cabin. She felt sad but also relieved at the same time at the interruption to their walk. She liked JT, liked him a lot. Her attraction to him really started escalating since that night in the van. Was she really ready for something like a relationship in this hostile world they lived in now? Where could that really lead? Hopefully it wasn't too late to back things off a bit.

  It was their fifth night at Harold's cabin, by Dusty's count. Dusty noticed how cozy everyone was getting already. It sure didn't take long for everyone to fall into a routine. People, we sure are adaptable he thought.

  His recon trips weren't paying off much. He saw some of the traps and trip wires were actually out there in the woods. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but the work Harold had done impressed him. That being said, Dusty still didn't trust the guy. There was something about Harold. He couldn't get the guy to open up so he could figure out what was setting his radar off.

  Hannah and Ashley were in the back bedroom, he presumed doing girly things. Tyrone was regaling Gus and Thomas with yet another one of his football stories. Gus had probably heard it three times already, but he still gave Tyrone his complete attention. Dusty also saw that Tyrone had put back on his football jersey. That made him shake his head as a little smile crossed his lips. That kid is delusional. It would be a long time, if ever, before things would go back to the way Tyrone knew them. He needed to adapt to the new world, or he was going to die.

  They all might be annoying at times, but he was starting to think of them as his squad. His new squad. Unlike his old squad, he wasn't going to lose any of them on his watch, not if he could help it. If only he could get everyone to see that if they just followed him without question, instead of JT, they would be a lot better off. JT knew his way around a fight, but he was no leader.

  Dinner came and went. It was a pretty quiet affair. Dusty thought that after the talks they had a couple of nights ago around the campfire, everyone was pretty much done with talking about the past for awhile. That was fine with him. What was the point, talking about the past. It was over, there was nothing they could do about it. They just had to keep on going.

  After dinner Harold excused himself, saying it had been too long, he was going out on a perimeter walk. Everyone else drifted off, doing their own thing. The only people that were unaccounted for were Mike, and Alan of course, but Dusty had stopped trying to track Alan long ago. Dusty thought he would get some fresh air himself, so he went out. Maybe he would come across Mike. He wanted to get some more intel on Harold.

  Dusty took a deep breath and looked around. He saw a lone figure had gotten the fireside going tonight. He got closer and saw it was Mike sitting out here. This could be his chance to talk to Mike alone, to assess the situation. Maybe through him, he could get to Harold.

  Dusty approached Mike as he sat on the ground in front of the fire, poking it with a stick. Dusty sat down next to him. Not one for small talk or to mince words, Dusty came straight out with his questions.

  “How long have you been with Harold?” asked Dusty.

  Mike looked over, like he was just now noticing someone was there. He then went back to staring into the fire. Dusty was about to ask again when Mike answered.

  “I think about a month, maybe a little longer. When he first found me, I was pretty well out of it. Wasted away is what Harold said.”

  “Really? What happened?”

  “It’s a long story. You sure you want to hear it?” Mike asked.

  “What else we got to do. Watch the newest episode of The Big Bang Theory?”

  “Point taken." Mike took a deep breath. " OK. Of course it started back with the Outbreak. Before that day, I was a college history teacher.”

  "I stood at my chalkboard, looking out at my classroom of students. The period was just beginning and everyone was still getting settled in. I waited until the sounds of shuffling and scooting ended before I began my lecture.

  “As you should remember from last time, today we are going to start our discussion on the Mongols. A fearsome people, yet they are also more civilized than popular culture gives them credit for.”

  "I had just turned to start writing on the chalkboard, when several loud popping sounds erupted from outside. Everyone jumped and turned to look in the direction of the sound."

  “Oh my god, it's a campus sh
ooting!” a student yelled. I could see the students were quickly panicking as they started to mill around their desks and a few students headed to the two full length windows at either end of the outside wall. Then there was a loud boom, what could only have been an explosion."

  "A woman screamed, “What is happening!?” as the whole class dropped everything and ran to the window"

  "There was a large thump against the window at the front of the room by the chalkboard. Everyone at the window backed away several feet. I heard several people making wretched screaming sounds through the glass."

  “Everyone please gather back in the center of the room! Stay away from the windows!” I yelled trying to make myself heard over not only the hysterical students, but the increasing noise from outside.

  "There were a couple more loud thumps on the windows. All of the students were screaming and yelling as the entire class ran for the lecture hall doors. They pushed and shoved and I thought to myself that there was no way that I was going to try and stop them."

  "Outside it sounded like they were filming a war movie. The thumping against the windows decreased in volume but increased in frequency."

  "I started towards the windows to see what was going on for myself when they shattered inward in a spray of shards. I backed away horrified as the first of them started falling in."

  "They fell without uttering a sound, even as the jagged glass in the window tore at their flesh. No blood flowed out of their open wounds. The people didn't even seem to notice they were being cut open."

  "Except I knew right away, somehow, they were not really people anymore. I saw one, with a clarity that still haunts my dreams. It was nothing but a charred skeleton, with just enough tissue and tendons left to propel the body forward across the ground."

  "The quietness of the undulating horde was just as unsettling as the sight of walking corpses that came stumbling and crawling through the now open windows. As the dead bodies fell through the opening, I could catch glimpses behind them of people in military gear, wildly firing machine guns."