The Outbreak Series (Book 1): Safe Haven

by Thomas Baker

  "The dead were soundless as chunks of their bodies were torn or ripped away by the broken glass and the hail of bullets. They just continued pressing through the openings, some even continued crawling on even as they lost limbs and other body parts."

  "I stood frozen in horror, even as the undead came closer and closer, hands clawing and teeth gnashing. I only moved after one slipped and fell, impaling its head on a large shard of glass still in the window. It then laid still, brain matter dripping down the jagged instrument of its second death. That broke the spell. I turned and I ran, locking myself in the classroom closet."

  "The heavy wooden door muffled the sounds of gunfire. I sat all the way in the back, knees up to my chest and my arms wrapped around them. I stifled a scream when the thumping started on the door. The sound of gunfire got louder and louder, until it was the only sound in the world. Until it stopped. That's when the screaming started."

  "I raised my head off the cold floor, my neck cramping in pain. Sometime during it all, I must have fallen asleep. Passed out from fear was probably more accurate. I got back up into a sitting position, wincing. Then the memory of what was going on all came back to me and I bolted into a standing position."

  "Gingerly I made my way through the dark to the front of the closet. Putting my ear against the door, I strained to hear what was happening on the other side of the closet door. Minutes crept by and I still couldn't make out any noises. I couldn't decide if I wanted to leave the closet or not. My hand went to the handle, back to my side, then back to the handle."

  "Taking a deep breath, I finally went for it and pushed open the door. It swung open part way, and then hit some resistance. I let out a low moan as I froze half out of the doorway. I moved my eyes down without moving my head. The door hit against what was left of a dead body. The headless corpse looked like it had been chewed on by a pack of wild animals. "

  "I turned my eyes quickly upwards, my stomach doing long flip flops. My vision started to get hazy. I closed my eyes, counted silently to ten. When the feelings inside my body calmed down, I opened them again."

  "What used to be my classroom was now an open grave. The floor was covered with bodies, lying among the shards of broken desks, ceiling tiles, glass from the lighting fixtures and the windows. All color seemed gone from the room, except for the blood and gore. What was left weren't even whole bodies either. Most of it was pieces, like some kind of human meat grinder had processed all the people in the room."

  "I stood there for what seemed like hours. I just couldn't wrap my mind around what I was seeing long enough to make any sort of plan as to what to do next. I then became aware of the absolute silence around me, and of the stench of what smelled like the world's worst barbecue."

  "The next thing I remember, I was walking down the middle of a street. I weaved in between all of the smashed, broken down cars. I felt something heavy in my right hand. I raised my hand up to my face. Somewhere along the way I had picked up a pistol. I looked at it as if I was holding a poisonous snake. Shrugging my shoulders, I continued walking down the road."

  "I walked and walked through the seemingly never ending carnage. My lungs and eyes burned from the smoke that was literally coming from everywhere. When it started getting to dark to see, I began checking out houses to stay in for the night."

  "I went into house after house. Each one was soiled in some way. I checked one block, then another. Full dark was fast approaching when I finally found a house that still had the doors actually intact. That was a good sign. Both the front door and the back door were locked. That was a very good sign. I then tried all of the windows I could reach. They were locked too. I was about to give up, then I remembered what kind of world it was now. It wasn't like someone was going to be able to call the police.

  “'Fuck it', I whispered to myself, using a rock to break out a window panel. I reached in, unlocked the window and then hoisted myself inside. I wasn't prone to cursing usually, but things like politeness and manners didn't seem to matter anymore."

  “Hello?” I called out as I went from room to room. I checked every room upstairs and downstairs, getting no answer and finding no one at all. I decided to stay."

  "I struggled, moving several pieces of furniture over the window I came in, and both doors. By the time I was done it was fully dark. I flipped a light switch. There was no electricity. Blindly I felt my way along the walls, up the stairs and into a bedroom. I kicked my shoes off, collapsed on top of the covers and instantly was out."

  "Without electricity, time became a meaningless thing to me. I woke, ate, slept and then did it all over again. I saw no one and heard nothing. I never went outside. I never even looked outside. I ate all of the food in the fridge first, and then moved on to the canned goods. I began to store water in every container I could find in case that started to run dry."

  "One day, after the fresh food was all gone, I looked at myself in the mirror. I had started to grow a shadow of a reddish brown beard. My hair, which I had always kept very short began to creep down to my neckline in back. My eyes were bloodshot, even though I felt like all I did was sleep. In a fit I grabbed the toilet bowl brush and broke the mirror."

  “'Welcome to Mike’s Hideaway.'” I began singing to myself one day while I worked on gathering supplies into a duffel bag I had found. “'We're glad you came to visit but it is time for you to go. Come visit again soon. We would like to have you don’t you know.'”

  "Sweat poured off my body as I worked. I had start going shirtless most of the time. It was beginning to get hot inside Mike’s Hideaway as the days passed. I never dared open any windows. A rank smell began to fill the Hideaway day and night. More than my dwindling food supplies, this is what drove my desire to leave the Hideaway and move out of the city. I guess by now it must have been close to summertime. I began to sing a new song."

  “School’s out for summer. School’s out for ever!”

  "I laughed, probably sounding like an insane person. School's out forever isn't it.”

  "America's down but I wouldn't count her out yet," Dusty said, "I'd say school's on pause."

  Mike's face showed that he didn't believe what Dusty was saying. Dusty wasn't ready yet to believe every military installation in the US or around the world went down like his did. If they would all just keep moving, they would find help. Not waiting to debate that now, Dusty motioned for Mike to continue.

  “Before I left, I went down my list. Food, check, water, check, clothes, check. Gun, check.”

  "I had found the pistol while searching the house. I had no idea how to use it. What I knew about guns I had learned from action movies growing up. I knew it had a safety but if it was off or on I could only guess."

  “I am going to have to work out how to use this thing. Just in case.”

  "The day came when I felt I was as ready as I was ever going to be. It was so long and adios to Mike’s Hideaway."

  "I shoved the furniture from the front door and stepped out into the sunny day. I had to shield my eyes for quite a long time as they adjusted to the outside. I closed the door behind me, thinking someone else might stumble upon the Hideaway. At least it gave me hope that there might be other normal people out there. I also couldn't bear to think of the last peaceful place I might ever know, being spoiled…..by them. With a heavy sigh, I adjusted my duffel pack, turned, and picked a direction leading out of town."

  "I soon learned to walk in the grass next to the shoulder of the highway. It was the clearest path while still keeping the road in sight. Once I figured that out, and stopped fighting the congestion on the road, I was able to make good time. Where I was in such a hurry to get to anyway?"

  "A few days later, I stumbled across a teddy bear. It was just laying in the road. I had to stop walking minutes later. My vision became too blurred to see where I was going. I began crying. I knew why. It was that god damn teddy bear back there. A teddy bear made me unhinged. It was blue and lying on the shoulder, somehow clean without a speck of
dirt or blood on it. Somehow seeing that damn bear made everything more terrible than anything I had seen so far. I had to sit down, I was bawling now. I found it difficult to catch my breath. Maybe I was hyperventilating. I don't know how long I might have sat there, if it wasn't for the banging sound just ahead of me."

  "I looked up to see one of the dead things, bouncing back and forth between two cars jammed together, like a fly trapped in a window. I wiped my face and my eyes."

  "At the sound of my crying, it seemed to turn in my direction. Bong off the car. It tried to get through again. Bong off the car. I felt like I was watching a live action Looney Tunes cartoon."

  "I raised my pistol. Bong. I looked down the sight. Bong. I dropped the pistol back to my side. Bong. I gave the vehicles a wide berth and continued on. Bong."

  "I went on day after miserable day, further and further out into the countryside. Sometimes I lucked out and found safe shelter inside but more often than not, I slept outside. Wishing I had found a tent. I began to have a harder time finding food and more importantly, water. Sometimes I went a day or two without anything to eat or drink. Not once did I come across any other people. I did start coming across some signs of life. A message spray painted on the sides of building, houses and once even the road. 'Safe Haven' with an arrow pointing the way."

  "I started to follow these signs. I had no other plan for so long, it felt wonderful to have a glimmer of hope to latch on to. That uplifting feeling of hope didn't last long."

  "In a few days it seemed I had left even the small towns I had been coming across behind. I was in a no man's land now. I staggered down the middle of some two lane country highway. I hadn't had a thing to eat or drink in what felt like forever. Late spring was turning into early summer. Unwavering heat beat down on me from sunup to sundown."

  “'Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone.' I sang softly under my breath. It hurt my chapped lips, but I did it anyway. I remember staggering down the white line like a drunk. 'Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone.'"

  “'And this house just ain’t no home, anytime she goes away.'”

  "For the hundredth time I started to think and wonder what had happened to my friend Brian. Brian's Mom as well, who had just gone into the hospital for hip replacement surgery when the Outbreak happened. I didn't have any family to worry about. I was an only child, and my parents were both dead. For the hundredth time another part of my brain shooed those thoughts away. I just concentrated on putting one foot in front of another."

  "Why is the ground so much closer? That was one of the last coherent thoughts I remember having. At some point I had started crawling on the smoldering concrete."

  “'Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone. Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone.'”

  "My last thought, at least that I can bring up was thinking 'It's time for a commercial break.' I do remember giggling. I stopped and just rolled over on my back in the middle of the road. My eyes must have closed, I know a rest didn't sound like a bad idea."

  “Then I woke up here. Thomas told me how he and Harold found me. A man wasting away on the road. On the way back here Thomas said I just kept shouting, 'I want to be left alone to die. Die and not come back.' Harold's the reason I'm still alive. He helped me get my strength back. He game me food, water, and shelter. A rifle and some training on how to use it.”

  “What does he expect to get out of helping you?” Dusty asked.

  “He has never asked me for anything in return."

  "So you think he's a good guy then? Nothing weird or off about him. Never done anything strange while you've been here."

  "He's okay, in his own way," Mike said, getting huffy. "I think I'm done talking to you now. Thanks for listening to me ramble. Good night.”

  Mike walked away, leaving Dusty to stare into the flames of the campfire. Dusty thought about what his next step should be. After that story he didn't trust Harold any more than before.

  Harold pounded that last stake in the ground. He had helped set up every extra tent that he had salvaged from town. Everyone staying in the cabin wasn't working for him. It was just too much noise and commotion for him. For everyone else, all they could complain about for the last week was about how crowded it was. As he swiped his brow Harold wondered, not for the first time either, why he had even saved them all. Then he would look at one of the women and those thoughts would melt away.

  Early that morning, Harold decided he would fix the problem. He made a run out to the Wal-Mart and gathered up all of the camping equipment he could find. He noticed while he was there that the store was looking pretty bare. Some other scavengers must have come through lately. Soon the Wal-Mart was going to be empty of anything useful. He would have to find a new resource to draw from.

  Harold had also brought back a pot of fake flowers and some music Cd's for Ashley. That didn't go over so well. What did she call him? Oh yeah, a lame brain. Was she teasing him? He knew sometimes women liked to play hard to get. He had read that in several books.

  Gus, Dusty, Tyrone, and Alan had helped him get the tents up. It was Gus who interrupted his thoughts.

  "Well look at that. It's our very own tent city," Gus said, hands on his hips."Forget deluxe apartments in the sky. This is the new moving on up."

  There was a tent for each of the men. Harold planned on leaving the women in the room across from his.

  "This reminds me of one of my tours overseas," Dusty said. "At least I won't be sleeping on a pile of rocks."

  "I've never liked camping out much, now I have to live out here?" Tyrone said, a whiny edge to his voice. "It's going to be rough going back to this, if you know what I mean."

  Harold sighed. More complaining. He wondered if he could get everyone but Ashley and Hannah to leave.

  Tyrone went into the cabin and came back out with an armload of his stuff. He was singing as he worked on putting his things in his tent.

  "Goodbye yellow brick road, see the dark clouds are starting to pass."

  "Sing it kid," Alan said, chuckling.

  Harold didn't know what to think of Alan. Sometimes, when Harold looked in his eyes, he thought he saw a kindred soul. Then other times he couldn't see himself acting the way Alan did. The joking and easy camaraderie Alan shared with the group, even though he wasn't always around them, it was foreign to Harold. He left the men to finish up. He went to look for Ashley. He wanted to see what she did with the flowers he had given her.

  He found her in the kitchen with Hannah. They were playing some kind of card game. The back of the cards said UNO.

  Ashley was a beautiful woman. It made him nervous inside to even talk to her. His mind went blank with what to say. Wasn't he going to ask her something?

  "How's...how's your ankle Ashley?" He asked awkwardly, standing over them.

  He got a grunt and a shake of her head out of her. She didn't even look up. He thought she must be nervous around him, too. I knew it from the minute I saw her. There's something, maybe a mutual attraction, between us.

  His head ached. He rubbed above his nose and went into his room. He sat on the edge of his bed. He didn't understand. His head had started to hurt more lately. He also began to hear that other voice too. The other in his head. Usually that only happened after he had been in town. When the government used their tools and devices on him, he suspected.

  He bolted up, even though it caused such sharp pain that black dots swam in his vision. Could this whole zombie thing be a test? Could it only be around his cabin and in the town that the government turned people into zombies? Could one of those he took in, or even all of them, be spies?

  No, not Ashley at least. He couldn't, he refused to believe she could be in on it. She was probably an unsuspecting pawn as well.

  It was too much. His head felt like it was splitting now. He stumbled, feet dragging, to his bathroom. He took a couple of light blue pills, swallowing them dry, and went back to sitting on his bed. He had been rationing the pills for emergencies only. This felt like
one. He had thoughts of his book, maybe it was time to take it out and write in it again.

  A loud commotion from the other room was like a splinter in his eye. While thinking his head had sagged down onto his hands. His elbows had dug into this thighs. His legs tingled when he stood.

  He decided right then he was going to have a talk with JT. Harold went out into the kitchen, where it sounded like an army was setting up camp.

  "There's no sign of life. It's just the power to charm. I'm lying in the rain, but I never wave bye-bye." Tyrone was signing. He was sitting at the table with the girls. Dusty, Mike and Alan were going through the kitchen cabinets and the fridge.

  Sometimes I wish that kid would just shut up with all the singing. Harold glared at Tyrone, then scanned the room.

  "Where's JT?" Harold asked, rubbing his forehead absently.

  Alan poked his head up out of the fridge. "I believe he went out to talk to Gus."

  Harold stalked out, his headache was getting monstrous now. It was almost too much trouble to even think. When was the god damn pill going to kick in?

  He found JT, and went right up to him. "I need to talk to you, now."

  JT looked like he was about to mouth off to him. Instead he turned to Gus. "I think we are about finished here Gus. It should do us unless another bad storm comes through."

  "The luck we've been havin, don't even joke about that," Gus grunted as he got up. "I'm taking these old bones inside for a rest."

  The moment Gus was clear of the tents, Harold started in .

  "Your group should go soon. You need to go soon," Harold said, his hands covering the top of his head.

  "What do you mean go? Harold you are making no sense," JT scratched his head. "You just helped us get all the tents set up. Now you are telling me we need to go?"

  "You can take the tents with you, and some supplies too. I want you all the hell gone. Off my property, right now. Except Ashley and Hannah, they can stay if they so choose."

  "They can stay if they so choose? Where in the hell is this coming from? You're making zero damn sense right now man." JT's voice intensified as he spoke.