The short of it was that if the civilians were acting erratically or trying to attack others, Trevor and his men were to kill them with extreme prejudice.
Trevor wasn’t sure how he felt about killing civilians, but he knew it had to be done. He knew that the infected were obviously a huge risk to the safety of everyone, and he had seen the horrific videos, so he knew exactly what would happen if the virus spread any farther.
Trevor looked over to his most trusted guys, Sergeant Anthony Smith, Corporal Jose Gomez, and Corporal Nathan Jenkins. They were only some of the men in his unit, but they were also his buddies. He had gone to basic training with them and created quite a bond by drinking together on the weekends, and just general camaraderie. Trevor had more men under his leadership as well who he genuinely cared for, but these three were like brothers to him.
Trevor called over Anthony and the two other sergeants under his command, gave them a quick update, and checked on their mental well being, before he told them to check on the rest of the company. All three gave no indication of fear or concern. They were stone cold, or at least they appeared to be.
Another hour passed by and things had run smoothly right up until everything went to hell.
A different unit with the call sign “Wardogs” farther up the line reported a Greyhound bus full of infected people. The unit reported that there must have been fifty fully turned people on board, who were killing each other, and the survivors were trying to get out.
All it took was one person to open an emergency exit, and the fall of Tucson began.
Before the Wardogs knew it, they were in the same moral quandary that all of the other first responders before them had run into; shoot the civilians like they were ordered to, or try and save them somehow?
Unfortunately, they made the latter choice, and it was the wrong decision. The infected streamed out of the bus, and before the shooting started it was far too late. The infected hit the awe stricken soldiers like a swarm of locusts, poured over them, and decimated the entire unit. To make matters worse, some of the infected swarmed north back into the line of waiting people and vehicles, which caused the infection to spread even farther.
Before Trevor knew what was happening, his radioman shouted out that the unit was being told to fall back to a secondary position and to leave the civilians. Trevor wasn’t sure what to do at this point. He didn’t want to abandon all of those people, but he knew the repercussions of this break in the line.
He ordered his men to fall back, and they drove another twenty miles in a southern direction toward Tucson and where a heavily defensible location had been constructed. The military had already put together chain link fence, concrete barriers, concertina wire, and then they had set up machine guns and all sorts of heavy weaponry. They even had mortars and artillery in the rear to provide heavy fire support if it was deemed necessary.
To Trevor, it looked like World War II and they were preparing for a German invasion. The whole scene had descended into chaos. Were they really going to use heavy artillery on American civilians?
It only took another two hours for Trevor to find out, when the first wave of infected hit them like a stampede. Hundreds of infected poured at them with no concern for their personal safety. The military men were ready this time, and opened fire indiscriminately. They killed them in droves, and watched the infected fall like dominoes. The slaughter continued for quite some time, until the infected started coming en masse. It went from what turned out to be a trickle and ended up a full stream. Thousands upon thousands of infected streamed down the highway into their position.
Then, to make matters far worse, the men stationed in Tucson called into to report that the quarantine at the stadium had failed. The virus was already in Tucson, and soon the front they defended would be assaulted from both sides.
Trevor and his team were forced to fall back again, to try and save Tucson. For the rest of the night they waged war upon the infected, but ultimately things got far too close for comfort, and then spiraled out of control rapidly. Trevor’s men had gotten picked off one by one as the thousands of infected grew substantially.
Trevor knew that there was no hope for this city and he knew deep down in his heart that there was no room left in the world for people, there was only room left for the infected. They had become a superior being, and they had confirmed that they were on top of the food chain now.
Trevor did something that he would never be able to forget. He told his men to grab their shit and get in the nearest Humvee they could find. There wasn’t an ounce of hesitation from his guys; they all grabbed their gear and ran as fast as they could, with infected on their heels that picked off Trevor’s men one at a time.
Trevor finally made it to a Humvee, but only three of his men remained: Anthony, Jose, and Nathan, his best friends, and his best shooters. They all jumped in the Humvee and punched it.
When Anthony asked him where to go, Trevor replied, “North, go, north.”
Chapter Eighteen
Phoenix, Arizona
Benjamin Sloan ran through the cluttered halls of the hospital with his wife Dianna. It had only been a few hours since he had talked to his son and told Bryce that he would stay behind. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that it was only because his wife wanted to do her duty. Benjamin only stayed behind to keep her safe. Now he deeply regretted that he hadn’t dissuaded her from making a decision like this.
Benjamin followed Dianna through the hospital as a swarm of infected chased after them. They ducked into a doctor’s lounge, wedged the door shut with a chair and ran toward the entrance on the other side of the small room.
As they came to the other door, a large infected man, wearing a security outfit, burst through the door and struck his wife in the face. She fell down and the infected man immediately hovered over her and snapped at her neck.
Benjamin watched the entire event unfold as he scrambled to get whatever weapon he could get his hands on. He found a nearby metal trashcan, picked it up, and bashed the infected security guard over the head with it. His strike didn’t gather anywhere near the result he had expected, but the infected man lifted his head long enough for Benjamin to kick him in the face and knock him off his wife.
Benjamin scooped up his wife as quickly as he could and they ran through the door into another hallway. They knew the hospital like the back of their hand, and they knew that they only had one long stretch of hallway before they reached the parking garage, then they could get to their car and get the hell out of here.
Benjamin and Dianna ran down the hallways as fast as their legs could carry them, and slid to a halt just before the door to the parking garage.
What they saw outside scared the shit out of both them; packs of infected milling about between the cars.
Benjamin could see his Mercedes, parked only thirty feet from the exit in the staff designated parking.
Benjamin counted a dozen infected between them and the car. Nevertheless, they had to get to the car, get home, and then they needed to get their stuff and head up to meet Bryce as quickly as possible.
Benjamin stepped in front of his wife and quickly told her his plan, “Listen, I am going to take off in the opposite direction of the car. You take the key, get it running, and get out of there as fast as you can. I’ll meet you at the exit.”
She didn’t like the plan at all, and wanted to stay together, but Benjamin didn’t see how that would work.
Without giving her any time to protest, he handed her the key to his Mercedes, picked another one of his go-to weapons, a new trashcan, and ran out the door swinging it like a wild man.
He struck the first infected in the head, which dented the can and almost knocked it out of his hands. On his follow-through swing he clipped another infected man in the temple, and knocked this one off its feet.
He didn’t bother looking back to see if Diana was moving, because he heard her footsteps running toward the car.
Everything had worked
like he had planned, until he heard his car beep twice signaling that the doors had unlocked.
He looked over his shoulder and watched as three of the infected that followed him peeled off and headed toward Diana. He immediately cut back, and forgot all about the eight or nine infected in front of him as he ran through them to save his wife.
She wasn’t looking as she got into the car and one of the infected stabbed his arm into the doorframe as she tried to close the door. The resulting crack as she tried to close the door told Benjamin that she had broken the infected’s arm. He watched as Diana tried to slam the door again, but it was ripped open by two others.
They lunged in on her, pinning her to the seat and biting down on her neck. Blood spurted all over the inside of his Mercedes, and splashed across the white interior.
He ran as fast as he could, linebacker charged through the infected, and slammed them out of the way. When he reached those in his car he yanked them out of there as hard as he could, and smashed their heads in with the trash can. He slammed the door to his car and ran around to the other side.
He jumped in, just as infected hands slapped against the windows. Dianna held her hands on her neck, trying to stop the bleeding.
The car was running, but she couldn’t drive, so Benjamin put the car in reverse and told her to punch it. He grabbed the wheel and tried to spin the car around as best he could from the passenger side.
They slammed into the car next to them, and pinned an infected man against both vehicles. The powerful Mercedes engine revved and Benjamin cranked the wheel in the other direction, which slid them out of the spot and careened toward the exit. They crashed through the hanging bar at the exit and burst onto the street.
It was chaos on the open street, there were people running in every direction, trying desperately to evade the infected. There were people who used firearms, others used blunt objects like bats or golf clubs, and everywhere in between there were infected.
Benjamin did the best he could to steer the car away from the epicenter of the city. Their home was about twenty miles away on the outskirts of the city in a smaller town. Benjamin knew that they couldn’t drive twenty miles like this, so they found a small side street that was empty for now and stopped the car.
He ran over to the driver’s side and pulled her out. He grabbed a small first aid kit from his trunk and slapped multiple bandages on her neck, which slowed the bleeding.
Then, he got her seated in the passenger seat, and hopped in the driver seat. He hit the gas as hard as he could and jarred both of them back into their seats.
Even through all of the chaos as he left the city, he made the drive in less than twenty minutes. Along the way they had watched people loot stores, fight or kill each other, police lose more ground, and all around anarchy. It was amazing how quickly humans could backslide into animals when they were cornered.
When Benjamin reached their house he helped Dianna out of the car and into their home. He told her to wait while he put together some belongings of theirs. He didn’t worry too much about anyone bothering them in their home, they lived pretty far off the beaten path, but the first thing he grabbed was his 9mm handgun and holstered it on his waist.
He filled two duffel bags with their personal belongings, toiletries, and other odds and ends. He didn’t have much time to spend on anything else of value, so once his two bags were done, he decided it had been long enough. Benjamin glanced at his watch; it had already been two hours since they fled from the hospital.
Benjamin went back into the living room to check on Dianna. She looked like she was asleep, so he walked over and addressed her, but she didn’t wake up. Next, he nudged her arm, again nothing.
He checked her pulse, and his fears became a reality. She had already succumbed to the virus. He checked her bandage and she hadn’t bled out, which led Benjamin to the conclusion that only the virus could kill someone so quickly.
Benjamin slumped to the floor and sobbed for quite some time. He didn’t know what to do at this point. He looked at his recently deceased wife and began to feel anger. Anger that she had been bitten and he hadn’t. She had left him in this shithole to fend for himself.
Benjamin took out his 9mm and laid it on his lap, not sure what to do with himself.
Only minutes later, she started to wake up. He looked up, fearing what was coming. He watched as her eyes opened, but there was no blue color to them, they were all white, glossed over with some kind of white wash.
He knew what was coming next; he had seen it multiple times today. He couldn’t stand watching it, so he quickly scooped her up and put her in the hall closet.
He slumped down on the other side of the door and banged his head against the door as he cried.
Within minutes, something banged back. Soon, fists slammed into the door from the inside, which let Benjamin know that his wife was effectively gone, and replaced by this monster.
He listened to Dianna bang on the inside of the closet door for two hours before he got the courage to pack up his things and walk toward the exit to his home.
As he walked out the door, he took a Zippo lighter out of his pocket and scooped up the newspaper. He lit the newspaper on fire, kicked it under his blinds, and watched as the flames rose toward the ceiling.
He cleaned some of the blood off the seats of his Mercedes as he watched the flames rise higher and higher, and he knew that what was left of the woman he loved burned on the inside.
Benjamin knew that she was gone and that she had moved on to a better place. He also knew all that he watched burn was her corpse, like it was some form of cremation.
He set his gun on the passenger seat, and tore down the driveway, headed for the highway, and toward his son’s house. It would only take him a couple hours to make the drive to Payson, and he intended to make it a fast drive. The highways were more than congested, but he weaved in between cars all the same. He wanted to put as much distance between him and the city as possible, the city, and his dearly departed.
Chapter Nineteen
Hatchery Compound, Mogollon Rim, Arizona
A few minutes after the evacuation message played, Bryce and the others recovered from the shock of it. Everyone but Jessica had family and friends down in the valley, so they were all quite worried. Bryce thought about his parents first, and wondered if they were okay. He thought about calling them and reached for his phone, only to be reminded that there was no cell service at the hatchery.
He brought this issue up with the group, and after a couple minutes of discussion, Greg and Cindy decided to go with Bryce and drive down to the highway where they could place a few phone calls to their loved ones. Victoria decided to stay with Trystan and Jessica in the crew quarters.
Bryce ran down to the Outlander and shifted around some of the junk that had piled up on the seats so that Greg and Cindy could both comfortably get into the vehicle.
Bryce started the Outlander and headed down the road toward the highway. The trip only took about ten minutes, and when they reached the bottom of the hill, they all climbed out of the SUV and immediately pulled out their cell phones.
Bryce took a step aside and called his parents. The phone rang and rang. He was just about to hang up, defeated, when his father picked up.
“Dad, are you okay?” Bryce asked.
“Son,” his father started and then stopped, cried for a minute, and then continued, “Mom didn’t make it, buddy.”
“What do you mean she didn’t make it? Didn’t you guys evacuate like they said to do?” Bryce said with more than a little anger in his voice.
“We were trying to help the people coming in to the hospital, but there were just so many, it was impossible to check them all for signs of the virus,” his father explained. “They started storing the ones that died in the morgue below the hospital, hoping that would keep them cold enough not to cause any problems,” he continued. “I guess that didn’t work because at some point, the doors opened and they all came flying
out of the morgue.”
His father told him the horrific story of what had happened to his mother with the brutal and vivid detail of a medical professional.
“They got Mom before there was anything I could do,” he told his son, and he choked back a sob. “We were able to get away and get back to the house safely, but it was already too late, she had been bitten.”
The memory flooded into Benjamin’s mind, and he was overcome with emotion. He told the rest of the story to Bryce, but left out how he had set the house on fire as he left, that was one detail his son didn’t need to know about.
Bryce brought him back into this world, “Dad, what are you going to do now?”
“I’m driving toward Payson right now, I’m about an hour and a half out right now,” Benjamin told his son.
“That’s good, dad. Do you have everything you need?” Bryce asked his father.
“I don’t have any supplies, just some clothes and my personal stuff,” his father replied.
“Dad, you are a doctor, you will bring more than enough to the table. We have enough food and water to go around, just get up here. Stop on the way and pick up whatever else you may need,” Bryce told him. “Just be careful, the crazy people are starting to come out of the woodwork, and it’s only a matter of time before the looters and pillagers come out in full force.”
“I’ll be careful, see you in a bit,” Benjamin said.
“See you soon,” Bryce replied and hung up the phone.
Bryce struggled to keep it together, the fact that his mother was dead left him in a really odd place. He had told them to join them and get out of town, but she had been stubborn. Now she was dead and nobody could change that. He couldn’t break down in front of anyone else though; he had to stay strong through this entire change. He had to stay strong for everyone else, because they all needed someone to be their rock. They all needed someone stronger than themselves. Bryce had to be that person for everyone, including himself.
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