After another hour or so, the younger kids were stir crazy and the guys decided to pack it in and head back to the crew quarters.
Bryce suggested that, with all their new weapons and ammunition, they should have another range session and go through some of the guns. Logan checked with Trevor and his men and all four of them were excited about the idea. They had sat around the house all day and rested, and now they were ready to do something fun.
It was hard to understand the concept of fun in their current situation, but even the adults were able to have a good time occasionally at the hatchery. Bryce knew that this simple concept could mean the difference between merely surviving and thriving.
Greg, Benjamin and Jessica decided to come along, as well, after they heard about the plans to hit the range.
Bryce grabbed one of the quads from the warehouse building and strapped on a couple large storage containers. He cruised over to the armory with everyone else in tow, and the entire group of shooters loaded rifles, handguns, and some of the new fully automatic weapons into the storage containers on the quad. They also strapped ammunition cans full of rounds for the different calibers to the racks on the ATV.
By the time they were done, most everyone looked like they had opened all of their Christmas gifts. Who didn’t like to play with new toys, Bryce wondered.
They all walked down to their firing range, set up some of the junk they brought with them to shoot, and got out all of the shiny new weapons.
This time around, they chose not to take turns. Everyone stood up to the line with whatever weapon tickled their fancy and they all unloaded their magazines. Bryce lay down in the dirt behind one of the M249 SAW machine guns and thoroughly tore into the junk that littered across the backstop. He watched as the tracer rounds that he had loaded into the ammunition belt chewed up the cliff face and he had a surge of adrenaline course through his veins. The privilege to shoot a fully automatic weapon was about the most fun he had partaken in since the Outbreak began.
Logan shot one of the MP5s, Benjamin and Greg tried out one of the fully automatic M4s, Jessica fired a particularly large handgun, and the soldiers started off with an array of handguns and long rifles.
After an intense round of gunfire, the noise died down, when there was nothing left to shoot. Everyone took a break to reload their magazines and walk down range to set up new targets.
During the eerie silence, Logan heard rustling in the woods behind him, which sent a chill down his spine. He spun around instantly, and behind Logan and the others a group of four infected shuffled toward them in a small pack-like formation.
“Contact! Infected!” Logan yelled and grabbed a fresh magazine for his M4. He slapped it in the mag well and charged his rifle. He brought it up to his shoulder and fired precisely four shots, which struck each infected in the head, and killed all four before the others even realized what the hell was going on.
“Holy shit! What just happened?” Bryce yelled. The ringing in his ears caused him to speak too loudly.
“They came out of nowhere,” Logan replied calmly, as his eyes still searched for more targets.
The group took a minute to process the whole event, and in the end, they were more than a little shaken up from the idea that there were infected within earshot of their compound. In the interest of safety, they decided to pack up and head home before they lured out any more infected that lurked around.
They gathered the remainder of the munitions and firearms and put them on the back of the quad. Bryce rode the quad slowly next to everyone else as they hiked back to the compound.
After everyone made it back to the compound, they put all of the weapons back in the armory. Bryce told everyone to grab a rifle and at least one sidearm, two if they preferred. With no protests, he watched as each of them picked out a rifle, found a suitable handgun and holster, and loaded ammunition in both guns. Trevor and his men had already selected their munitions the night before, but they grabbed some more for their building anyway.
After everyone had their rifles and sidearms, they stood outside the armory, and waited for Bryce while he grabbed his wife and Christine from the crew quarters. Bryce came back out with Logan’s family and his own family and walked over to the rest of the group.
“We need to have a serious discussion about what just happened with the infected,” he began. “We can’t have infected walk into our compound, we have women and children running around here,” he said.
They all nodded their heads in agreement; as if he told them something they already knew.
“What can we do to shore things up around here?” Bryce asked the group.
There was an awkward silence as everyone thought about his question, but nobody responded right away.
Finally, Lieutenant Trevor spoke up. “I think it would be smart if my men and I start to patrol the area that surrounds the compound using the quads.”
With the military training his men had, Trevor figured the security force would best suit them.
“That’s a good start. We used to patrol regularly down by the highway to make sure they didn’t come up the road, but we haven’t seen them up here before,” Bryce explained.
“We need to put up a fence of some kind, to create a safe zone around the compound,” Logan said.
Bryce nodded. That was part of his own plan as well, although he wasn’t sure how to accomplish the task.
“How do you propose we do that, Logan? The compound covers quite a bit of land. It would take thousands of feet of fencing to enclose it all,” Bryce questioned Logan, with hope that he had more insight into the matter.
“I think that between the two trucks here, and our new Ford, we should be able to get enough chain link fencing and posts to encompass the entire compound. It might take us a couple weeks to put it all up, but it would keep out the infected well enough,” Logan explained.
“Another thing we could do is put up floodlights all around the compound so that at night, we will know if there is any movement,” Logan said.
Bryce had never thought of installing floodlights, but he thought that it was a great idea. The chain link fence idea was also excellent. It wouldn’t stop intruding survivors, but it would stop infected from reaching the compound. Plus, it would be something that Greg could work on, and that would give him a sense of purpose.
Bryce said, “The other thing we need to do is have more firearms training. I think you need to teach everyone how you shoot like that, Logan. I want to have everyone in the group carrying a firearm, but they need to know to shoot it efficiently too.”
“That’s just SEAL training and years of practice, Bud, but I might be able to hand out some pointers,” Logan said.
“All right, first things first, Greg, Dad, get a bunch of those Glocks out of the armory and give them to the women, I want them to carry a holstered nine-millimeter, as well,” Bryce said.
“Now, let’s get our shit together, because we need to head back into town. This time, we’re going to stop at the Home Depot.” Bryce grinned.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Hatchery Compound, Mogollon Rim, Arizona
The group dispersed after they finished their conversation and they all began to carry out their individual roles. Greg and Benjamin filled up a bucket with Glocks, extra magazines, and boxes of 9mm ammunition and went into the crew quarters to distribute them. Cindy wasn’t overly happy about the new rules concerning firearms because of the children, but Victoria and Christine both willingly accepted the firearms. Both Victoria and Christine knew that guns were now an essential part of their survival, and with the proverbial knock on their door, they needed to protect themselves.
After everyone was armed to the teeth, Greg and Benjamin joined the rest of the group at the vehicles where they were in the middle of preparation for the next trip into town.
The group then got into the large flatbed truck, the pickup truck from the hatchery, their Ford F-350, and Bryce pulled around in the Outlander. They got
all the vehicles fueled up from the tanker truck and ready to go. They placed an ammunition can inside each vehicle, after Bryce had come up with a new strategy from his days in the military. He decided that they should all carry M4 rifles or SAWs when they went on their little excursions. This way, they only needed to carry one type of ammunition, 5.56mm. He also told each of them to bring a secondary weapon. Bryce brought along the M4 he selected for himself, which had canted sights and a red-dot scope mounted on the receiver. For his handgun selection, he skipped all of the new armory weapons and instead went with his two Taurus handguns. They had saved his ass more times than he liked, so they held a special place in his heart. He strapped his 9mm to his thigh and threw the .45 in the Outlander.
Bryce, Benjamin and Jessica piled into the Outlander and led the way out of the compound. Logan and Robby followed behind in the big Ford. Next came Trevor and Anthony in the flatbed truck. Lastly, in the rear, followed Jose and Nathan in the smaller Chevy Silverado.
Bryce left Greg to hold down the fort and help protect their wives and children, because he thought it was critically important to leave as much fire power at home as could be spared, just in case a group of infected wandered into the compound. Bryce also told Greg and the others to stay inside the crew quarters building and lock all of the doors.
The group waved out the windows to the family members who stayed behind as the convoy made its way down the winding road toward the highway and headed into Payson. Along the way, the group conversed on their radios, and they talked about random things. The whole group was a little tense about going back into Payson so soon. Bryce didn’t particularly like to put people in harm’s way by going into town three times in a week, but he knew it had to be done. Deep down though, as much as he hated to put them in danger, he had begun to enjoy the trips. Every time they went into town he felt like he was a soldier marching onto a battlefield in a distant place. His adrenaline surged at the thought, and mind entered a heightened state. He was ready.
Before they entered town, Bryce told everyone on the radio to stop their vehicles. He wanted Anthony to man the M249 in the back of the flatbed truck, because he wanted to have some heavy fire ready if things got out of control, which given their luck so far, was entirely possible. He also told everyone else to get their weapons ready.
The members of the group who hadn’t already chambered a round in their weapons did so now and placed them in various areas in the vehicles. The convoy applied the term “riding shotgun” to the fullest potential on this trip.
After everyone was ready, Anthony hopped into the back of the truck, strapped himself to the cab for stability, and slapped the roof to signal that they were ready to go again.
They drove through the town, and kept their heads on a swivel as they looked at every shop and building. When they reached the intersection in the middle of the town, they turned right and headed up the hill to the Home Depot without any problems. When they had parked in front of the store and gotten out of the vehicles, Anthony aimed a fairly pissed-off look at Bryce for making him eat bugs the whole way for nothing. Bryce just shrugged his shoulders, and thought, better to be safe than sorry.
As Anthony was about to hop down from the truck bed, Bryce asked him to stay behind and guard the vehicles.
Out of the corner of his eye, Bryce saw Trevor roll his eyes as he had given the command to Anthony. Bryce had not officially told Trevor that this was his show; instead he simply issued the orders without giving Trevor the opportunity to interject. It might cause trouble down the road, but Bryce needed them all to know that, while he was more than happy to accept them into his group, it was going to be his way or the highway, and Bryce was sure that none of them wanted the highway option.
Besides, Anthony had no problem with the opportunity to clean the bugs off of his face and not be bothered moving stuff inside the store.
Bryce and Logan led them single file into the Home Depot to try and find what they needed. The soldiers all checked their sectors and looked for infected, or any other possible threats. Benjamin and Jessica strolled in a little more casually, not sure if they needed to follow the lead of the others or hang back.
The group headed over to the fencing section of the store to find what they needed. They quickly spotted the large spools of fencing that they needed at the back of the store.
Before they left the hatchery, they had performed a quick guesstimate of how much footage they would need. They figured they would need about 2,500 feet of fencing to surround the entire compound. The chain link fence at Home Depot came in sections of fifty feet and when they counted off all the spools, they only found thirty-two.
“Well, this could be a problem,” Bryce said.
“Let’s just get everything we can and worry about the rest later. This should be enough to surround all of the essential buildings. We don’t need to enclose the parking lot and the outlying areas right away. We can always add extra layers later,” Logan explained with a level head.
Bryce was good with that plan, and they began to load the hefty sections of fencing onto the flat carts that Home Depot used. They also grabbed all of the couplings, and hundreds of poles that they needed to anchor the fence. Benjamin hunted down a small cement mixer to help create cement faster for the postholes. It took them several hours to load all of the fencing materials, concrete, and the mixer into their vehicles. By the end of it, they were all exhausted, covered in sweat despite the cool air, and ready to get back to the hatchery.
Before they rolled out, Logan stopped in the lighting section of the store and grabbed every automatic flood lamp he could get his hands on. He found some that were battery operated, others that were solar, and also some that needed to be hooked into electrical systems. Satisfied that the lights would work well, he threw them in the back of the Outlander.
Bryce also raided the tools section of the store where he found a variety of power tools and hand tools that they might need in the future. He went off the “better have and not need” mantra.
With everything loaded, the group piled into their respective vehicles. Poor Anthony had to sit on top of the spools of fencing to keep his gun manned, which made him even more cheerful than he was about the bugs.
Without any more wasted time, Bryce started his engine and led the way out of the parking lot in the Outlander as he headed toward the hatchery.
As the convoy rolled through the streets of Payson, they all heard the screams and gunshots erupt in the distance. Logan spoke over the radio and quickly asked Bryce if he wanted to check it out. Bryce figured it was a group of survivors followed by some infected. Since they needed all the people they could find right now, Bryce decided to check it out. Besides, he felt fairly secure with nine armed people in his group and four vehicles.
Bryce adjusted their course toward the noise and picked up the pace, but the loaded-down trucks had a hard time keeping up with the smaller Outlander. Bryce quickly took too much of a lead, because he didn’t pay enough attention to the group of vehicles behind him.
As Bryce rounded the corner, he saw a group of people in a full on run. There was also another group of armed men in a pickup truck that took potshots at them as they ran. The group on foot returned fire as best as they could, and it was like the scene with Trevor’s men all over again.
Where the hell were all these assholes coming from, Bryce wondered. They had seen too many of these bands of marauders in the past week, but he figured it ran with the territory, with it being the apocalypse and all.
Bryce decided to haul ass up to the truck and head them off, and in his adrenaline fueled action, he neglected to listen to the protests from Logan that came from his radio. He put the pedal to the floor and flew toward them in a game of chicken. He slammed his fist on the horn, to let the people on foot know that he was coming, and they jumped out of the way just in the nick of time. Just before the truck crashed into the Outlander, Bryce cranked the steering wheel to the left, and narrowly missed them, which ca
used his father to yell out an expletive. Clearly, the other vehicle had intended to ram him head on. Bryce braked hard and slid the little SUV sideways. The pickup truck driver slammed on his brakes and came to a complete stop, which threw the men in the back of the truck into the cab.
After they recovered, the men in the truck immediately hopped out of the back of the truck and shot at Bryce and Benjamin, which peppered the side of the Outlander with bullet holes.
“Get down, Dad!” Bryce yelled as he leapt out of the vehicle with his M4A3 in hand. He dove to the rear of the vehicle and returned fire. He took out one of the men with his first shot, because he caught the guy right in the chest. He fired over and over, and killed another one of the men before he ducked back behind the Outlander as shots were returned. He lay down on the ground behind the tire of his vehicle and looked underneath it toward the enemy. They were advancing on his position, and fast. Bryce shot four or five rounds from underneath his vehicle, and nailed one of them in the leg, which caused him to crash into the pavement. Bryce seized the opportunity and fired one more round at the downed man, which sprayed his head all over the guy behind him.
After the spray of cranial tissue, the last three men opened up on Bryce with everything they had, and shots rang out, which punctured the tire Bryce was behind, and peppered the side of his vehicle once more.
The sound of gunfire intensified as the men got closer and closer. Bryce was unable to move and huddled behind the axle, afraid that it might be the end of him, he had no more tactical moves to play. If he moved he would undoubtedly be shot, and if he remained, he would be shot as well. His only hope was to hunker down and hope that his guys got there soon.
The sound continued to intensify, as the three enemies neared his vehicle. Bryce realized that this just might be the end, his error in judgment by rushing ahead, had cost him his life.
Then, Bryce heard various new weapons being fired, and knew that the cavalry had finally arrived. Bryce quickly peeked out from his hiding place, for just a split second, and watched as several rounds that struck them at once shredded two of the men. They had to have been hit ten or fifteen times all within a few seconds, and Bryce knew that it had to be Anthony on the SAW.
The Extinction Pandemic: A Post Apocalyptic Novel (The Hatchery Compound Book 1) Page 20
