A World Apart (Part 1): 8,000 Miles

by Sean P. Thomas

  “I’m ready.” George announced. The others simply lined up behind John to let him know they were ready as well.

  “Alright, here we go.” John said with determination, then he led the way down the stairs to the bottom floor.

  As soon as John made it to the bottom of the first flight of stairs, he heard the first shot from above. The shots were spread out, George was taking his time, making each round count. John continued across a hallway and to the next set of stairs. They reached the bottom floor and moved quickly to the furniture that was blocking the door. John grabbed the first piece of furniture and passed it back to Samir, who was right behind him. Each member of the group grabbed a piece of the furniture and passed it back until it reached Damien who simply set it out of the way. They repeated this process until the barricade was gone. John stood next to the door with his hand on the latch that locked it and his pistol in his other hand, all the while listening to the continued shooting from above. He had lost count, but thought that George must be getting low on ammo by now.

  Several minutes passed when John heard the last shot. His adrenaline was pumping. He was anxious to get this over with. After a few moments, George came running down the stairs and took up the trail position behind Damien. John took a deep breath, and then burst into action. He pulled the latch to the unlocked position and then immediately moved his left hand down to the door handle. He pulled the door in and carefully stepped outside. He had to step over several corpses, trying to keep his footing, while looking for any remaining threats. They were there. There were quite a few zombies still in the area, and they were quickly coming in John’s direction. He started firing his pistol at the incoming dead.

  Samir emerged from the doorway next, followed by Shelly and Ed. Samir moved to the side of the door, and leaned against the wall, he didn’t have a weapon and wanted to stay out of the way. Shelly and Ed quickly joined in the combat, taking aim at the closest zombies and trying to take them down. Apparently, the shots from above, and the shots being fired below, had drawn the attention of other zombies on the base. More monsters were approaching now, from multiple directions. Susan stood in the doorway. She raised her pistol towards a group of the monsters and was about to fire as well, but then she saw that there were more coming than any of them anticipated. She back pedaled through the doorway, almost knocking Damien down, who was trying to come out next. As soon as she was inside, she threw the door closed and latched it.

  John heard the door slam shut behind him. He cursed under his breath. The zombies were going to overrun them, there were way too many to take down, and the exit route back to the gate was completely cutoff. He retreated to the door and started to bang on it fiercely. Susan was on the inside, blocking the door with her body and sobbing. George and Damien were trying to move her out of the way and open the door for their friends outside. John knew they couldn’t wait any longer and urged the others to follow him. They moved along the wall of the building, in the opposite direction from the gate, and their freedom.

  After wrestling with Susan for a few moments, George was fed up with her resistance. He grabbed her and threw her behind him. He pulled open the latch and quickly opened the door. John and the others were already gone. He swung the door back immediately, the zombies were right at the opening. As he tried to shut it completely, the first monster got its arm inside and the door slammed on its arm. George couldn’t get it all the way closed. George put his back against the door and pushed with his feet, all the while, trying to push the zombie’s arm back through the crack in the door. Damien ran up next to George and tried to help hold the door closed. The zombies were piling up against it on the outside. They couldn’t hold it much longer.

  “Susan, you stupid bitch, help us!” George yelled at her.

  She looked up at him, then to the portal being pushed open from the other side. She screamed in horror, turned around, and ran up the stairs and abandoned George and Damien to hold the door alone.

  “Fuck!” George cursed Susan as she fled, all the while, struggling to hold the door closed.

  “We can’t hold it much longer!” Damien yelled. “We have to get to the roof and block them from coming up that way.”

  “Go!” George yelled back. “I’m right behind you.”

  Damien trusted that George would follow behind him. He pushed off from the door and sprinted up the stairs. He didn’t look back, just kept running. He reached the roof in short order, turned and looked for George. He wasn’t there. He waited for what seemed like an eternity, knowing that George would appear any second. Damien heard someone approaching, accompanied by loud guttural growling. He figured it was George, being chased by the zombies that had burst through the door downstairs behind him. Then he saw the form leading the charge. It was one of the hideous creatures, not his friend. Damien slammed the door on the roof shut. They had lost George. Damien slid down to the floor of the roof with his back to the door and wept. Susan was a few feet away, curled up in a ball on the rooftop, crying.

  ***

  John pushed to the corner of the building, taking down a couple of zombies on the way. Samir, Ed, and Shelly followed closely behind. He took a moment to try and find a safe path to break through the throng and move to a safer location. There were less monsters coming from the direction he was heading and he saw his chance. He pushed the closest monster to the side and made a break for it. They weaved around several zombies and sprinted towards a building that was deeper to the south in the compound. When John made it to the wall of the building, he quickly turned to make sure his friends were behind him. Once he saw that they were, he moved to the corner of the building, looked around, and saw that the way was relatively clear.

  John turned the corner, then hugged the wall and turned back to make sure all the others made it around as well. He was watching the building where George, Damien, and Susan were as the others ran around the corner and past him. He witnessed with dismay as the zombies pushed inside the building, and the majority of the horde followed inside. John bowed his head in regret, but he had to move, because several more of the monsters were still pursuing them. He turned back around, ran past the other three, and took up the lead again. There were only a couple of zombies in their path. He saw another building ahead and decided to make for it. He ran past the creatures that were ahead of them and straight to the building he had spotted. He saw the door that would take them inside and ran to it. The door was opened, so he just pushed inside. The others ran past him and he slammed the door shut. There was a latch to lock the door, so he locked it.

  “It looks clear in here so far.” Ed announced.

  “Let’s clear the rest of the building quickly and get to the roof.” John instructed. “The fucking zombies got inside the other building. If the others made it, they would head to the roof, I’m sure of it. We need to see if there is any sign of them and figure out our next move.”

  The others nodded and started moving methodically through the building. There were several rooms on the ground floor of the building. They found one zombie on the first floor and made quick work of it. Shelly led the way up the stairs to the second floor, and they cleared it as well. They didn’t find any threats on that floor. John found the access to the roof. It wasn’t a set of stairs that led to the top, like in the other building, but instead a ladder that led to a hatch. John climbed up quickly, threw open the hatch, and went up top. The others followed right behind him. John ran to the east side of the roof a started scanning the roof of the other building for any sign of his trapped friends. This building was a floor shorter than the building they had left, so John couldn’t see too much of the other roof. He didn’t see any sign of the others. He sighed and turned to his companions.

  “I can’t see them.” John told them. “The other roof is too high to get a clear view, and I can’t see the front door either, that building we passed to get here is in the way.”

  “I’m sure they made it.” Shelly said.

  “Yeah, I me
an, they have George with them.” Ed put in.

  Samir just waited and let the others work it out.

  “What now?” Shelly asked.

  “We wait.” John said. “Wait for the zombies to wander off again, come up with a plan to go in there and get our friends. We’ll take turns watching that roof until we see a sign that they are alive. Then we go get them and get the fuck out of here.” John said firmly.

  CHAPTER 28

  Roy knew Las Cruces as well as anyone. He had a paper map of the city and was marking potential scavenging locations. They were planning to make a run the next day. Jerry had been busy making a list of things they would need to survive at the high school for as long as possible. Derek, Alex, Patty, Chris, and Greg were also there, they were sitting at one of the tables in the cafeteria making their plans together. Greg was the school nurse. He had attended medical school, but failed to finish due to unforeseen life circumstances, but given the current state of things, he was the closest thing to a doctor they had, and he seemed to know what he was doing. When Jerry and the others first met him, he introduced himself as Greg, but everyone had taken to calling him Doc.

  “I have food and water on the list, of course, and more guns and ammo.” Jerry told them. “Any ideas on what else we will need?” He asked the group.

  “If we can make it to one of those big box hardware stores,” Chris began, “we can get a number of things that will keep us going longer, and provide us with a little bit of creature comfort as well.”

  “What do you have in mind?” Jerry asked.

  “Well, a few things actually.” Chris said. “A generator for starts, or several. That will give us electricity, assuming we can get enough fuel to keep them running. We could also get solar panels and some other components, and I could easily keep us going with power for as long as we are off the grid. I think the two would complement each other nicely at any rate, so it wouldn’t hurt to get both sources of power. I know it would be a risk, but it would be well worth it.”

  “I agree.” Jerry said. “Great ideas, anything else?”

  “We could also get the supplies to dig a well, right here on the school property.” Chris added. “We can get an electric pump and run water right into the building.”

  “That would solve our water problem for sure.” Patty said excitedly.

  “Perhaps that should be our first target then.” Jerry said. “We have enough food to last us a bit, but water is a more immediate concern.”

  “There is one of the big hardware stores located on this side of the interstate.” Roy put in. “It’s not far and it is away from the populated areas of the city. We could probably get to it with a vehicle with little trouble.”

  “Sounds like we have a solid location for our first supply run.” Jerry said.

  “We will need medical supplies too.” Greg added. “I have a small supply of antibiotics here, but a simple cut could be fatal if infection were to set in without the proper antibiotics. There is a whole list of other medical supplies I could use to keep everyone healthy.”

  “Okay, Doc,” Jerry replied, “we’ll add it to the list and try to make that our priority for the next run.”

  “Thank you.” Greg said.

  “I have several locations marked on this map for the supplies we discussed.” Roy said as he slid the map to the center of the table. He stood up and put his finger on the first location. “The hardware store is here, northwest of the school and just off the interstate. There is a large supermarket here, even closer to us, and it is on the way to the hardware store. That will be the easiest location to get to from here, but who knows if it hasn’t already been picked clean.”

  “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.” Jerry said. “If it is empty, we’ll find another spot. It has only been about a month since the zombie epidemic really took hold and the city appears to be lost. I can’t imagine all of the supermarkets have been completely looted”

  “There are plenty of grocery stores throughout the city.” Roy continued. “This one is just the closest. There is a hospital close to us too, also on this side of the interstate. We should be able to pick up all of the medical supplies we need there.”

  “What about fuel?” Derek asked. “We haven’t really discussed that.”

  “There are plenty of gas stations around where we could search for fuel,” Roy answered him, “but we would need some way to get the fuel out of the underground storage tanks and something to store it in. Maybe we will get lucky and find a fuel tanker somewhere out there.”

  “I could make a simple hand pump we could use to get the gas from the underground storage tanks.” Chris said. “I’ll add what I need to the list.”

  “If all else fails, we could siphon gas from the hundreds of cars out on the interstate.” Derek added.

  “Guns and ammunition are going to be more challenging.” Roy continued. “We could check a couple of the gun stores in the city, but they are all on the west side and we would have to travel through some very populated areas. The police station is even further into the city. One option we could explore is the FBI building, here.” Roy pointed to a location on the map, it was west of the school, but still inside the city. “It would still require us to move into the city a good bit, but not nearly as far as the other options. They would definitely have an armory inside that building though.”

  “They might even still be operational.” Alex added. “Maybe we can get some idea of what’s really going on out there from some actual feds.”

  “Yeah, it’s worth a shot.” Jerry said. “I think we have a good plan here. Assuming that Kyle and Hector get our transportation ready in time, we’ll leave first thing in the morning. Patty, I think you should stay back here and keep the cogs spinning while we are gone. Doc, you should stay here too, just in case there are any medical emergencies, but we’ll take you on the next run, when we go after the medical supplies. Derek will stay here and organize the guard and handle security. Chris, I need you to come along on this run, to get everything you need to get that well set up and get us some power.”

  All three of them nodded their agreement.

  “I’ll take Alex, Kyle, Roy, Hector, and Chris for this run.” Jerry decided.

  “Hector is a little young, isn’t he?” Patty asked.

  “He’ll be fine.” Jerry assured her. “He seems pretty restless here and he has shown that he wants to help. He is out there now helping Kyle with the bus.” Kyle and Hector were outside preparing a school bus for the run. The plan was to remove all the seats but three rows and use all of that open space for transporting supplies. “Don’t worry, we will keep him safe, and these kids are going to have to grow up fast with the state of things.”

  Patty nodded, though the concern was clearly etched on her face.

  “You will have the guards on the roof watching over the place until we return.” Jerry told Patty. “Derek will keep things safe while we are gone. We’ll leave enough ammo and guns here to keep the guards armed and ready.” Jerry looked at Roy. “Roy, if you could help Derek start organizing that while Alex and I go help Kyle with the bus.”

  “Got it.” Roy said.

  With that, they all took their leave.

  ***

  Angie had spent the morning in their room reading a book she borrowed from the school library. Sam was playing close by. He was actually giving his mother some peace while she got lost in some fictional tale of mystery and romance. She was totally engulfed in a thrilling scene until she realized that she didn’t hear Sam playing anymore. She looked up from her book and around the room. Sam was gone.

  “Sam?” She called out. There was no response. “Sam!” She yelled, starting to get worried. Still no response. Angie threw the book to the floor and shot to her feet. She ran out of the room and into the hallway. Still no sign of Sam. Angie looked down both ends of the dimly lit hallway, anxiously searching for any sign of her son. The west end of the hall would lead back towards the cafeteria, which had
become the social gathering point for the small community of people that had taken up residence in the high school. She was about to run that way in hopes that Sam had wondered off to the cafeteria, but she heard something coming from the east end of the hall. The east side of the hallway ended at a set of large paned windows, but they were boarded up from the inside. Most of the light that barely lit the hallway came from that end, filtering in through the boards that covered the windows. There was also another hallway that branched off from the main hall in that direction.

  Angie turned towards the noise, hoping it was Sam, and scanned the hallway. She thought that maybe in her panic, she had imagined the sound, until she saw a shadow flicker near the other hallway. As soon as she noticed it, it disappeared around the corner. Angie was unarmed, but she couldn’t ignore the possibility that the shadow had been Sam, so she stepped off towards the other hallway to investigate. She jogged, at first, towards the corner where she saw the shadow, but slowed down as she got close. “Sam?” She called out, but there was no response. She came to the corner and peered around it. The hallway had doorways along both its walls, and another intersecting hall at the other end. It was even more dimly lit than the other hall. She saw no sign of Sam, but she did see a shadowy figure at the far end. She wasn’t sure, but it looked like the figure was just standing there, staring at her. “Hello?” Angie called towards the figure. “Who’s there?” She asked. There was no reply, but the figure reacted by turning and disappearing around the left corner at the far end. She was about to follow when she heard sobbing back behind her.

  “Sam?” She called back towards the direction she had come from.

  “Mommy?” Sam replied. His call was muffled as if it were coming from behind a wall.