The Dark Days Series | Book 2 | Sanctuary

by Cole, Christopher

  I kept watch while she did her business behind some other trees.

  “So, how many are in your group?” Ellen asked.

  “Twenty-three. That includes all my friends, plus some teens and the soldiers including Captain Alvin and Noir,” I answered.

  “That red-headed bear is with you guys?”

  “Yep, tough guys like him won’t go down so easy.”

  “Please, you feed that guy armor plating and he’d crap out scrap metal widgets.”

  Ellen finished and we walked back to the river and Ellen kept close to me. Ellen kept scanning, keeping her eye out for anything moving. She was really on edge. She kept a tight grip on the short sleeve of my arm as we walked.

  I started, “You know, Ellen, if you want to hold my arm you can just—”

  Ellen’s eyes widened and she grabbed me to stop me completely, “Look out!”

  Before I could even ask, I heard the sound of rattling. I looked and saw the snake. I had my hand on my pistol ready to draw as we took a few steps back. The snake gave a mean look before slithering away off the trail. It was gone. My heart rate calmed, but Ellen still kept a tight grip on me.

  “Thanks,” I said.

  “No problem . . . you really gotta keep your eyes open out here. You almost stepped on that fucker. That was a poisonous snake, right? It wasn’t one of those snakes that just looks poisonous, right?” Ellen asked.

  “Don’t you remember the survival guides and textbooks? That was a Northern Pacific Rattlesnake, they’re venomous. Vipers are venomous snakes too; they all got that triangle-shaped head,” I explained.

  “I remember. I just forgot what they look like . . . for a moment . . . and also I was keeping an eye out for wild dogs, mountain lions, and zombies.”

  I thought for a moment, “Ellen . . . do you have a weapon?”

  “Yeah, my KA-BAR knife. I had a hatchet, but it got stuck in one zombie’s head and I didn’t have time to pull it out.”

  “Alright look, when we get with the others, I’ll give you my AR-15 so you’ll be better armed.”

  “Guns are too loud! We’ll attract every zombie within miles,” Ellen argued.

  “All that gunfire from Camp Sledgehammer attracted the zombies and an attack helicopter gunned them all down as we were escaping. So, our biggest worry is the bandits, if there are any left out here. There shouldn’t be too many more zombies out here,” I explained.

  Ellen looked unsure.

  “If you want, you can use my bow instead,” I offered.

  Ellen looked at me and said, “The rifle will do just fine. If you remember, I’m not the best archer.”

  “You can use both if you want, because I remember you did alright by my account, or at least, you did way better than Peter.”

  “You kidding me? That loser couldn’t hit the water if he was standing in a boat! Wait a minute, what the hell are you gonna use if I have both your rifle and your bow? And don’t say your Katana, because you don’t bring a knife or a sword to a gunfight. You can’t shoot a sword.”

  “I have another rifle. You’ll see.”

  We got back to the river and everyone was still chilling. My friends got up after seeing I wasn’t alone. Ellen still kept a tight grip holding my arm.

  “You found Ellen? Is she okay?” Ashley asked.

  “She’s fine, she got separated from the others and didn’t know where they went. So, don’t ask her a million questions. She’s been through a lot, let’s get her some food and then let’s get moving,” I said, handing Ellen a canteen of water.

  She nearly gulped the whole thing.

  While Ellen was washing her head and her hands, I picked my marlin rifle and showed her what I was talking about. She agreed to use my AR-15 and I gave her my ammo vest and belt.

  “Here, put these on,” I said, as I gave her my vest and belt.

  Carrie saw what I was doing and asked, “What the hell are you doing?”

  “Giving her my AR rifle,” I answered.

  “Uh, no you’re not.”

  “Why not?” Ashley asked.

  “Because he needs that rifle,” Carrie answered, firmly.

  “It’s okay, Carrie. I got this one,” I said, showing her my Marlin rifle.

  “That’s for hunting, not combat fighting.”

  “It’s a gun, Carrie, no matter how you look at it. You’re gonna kill someone if you shoot them with it. Besides, this is a one-shot, one kill, because 45-70 is a big bullet.”

  Carrie sighed while rolling her eyes.

  I was able to put some pistol magazines in my cargo pockets. Captain Alvin got in touch with the other officers. At least, four groups were on their way to the town. We agreed to meet up at a small hotel in the middle of town. We began walking.

  Chapter 14

  Nathan/Sonny

  “Never let the light in your heart go out, it’s the only way to see through the dark.”

  – Unknown

  We found the hotel and several groups had managed to arrive first. They saw us coming and didn’t shoot. The hotel was well hidden by trees and there was only one way to approach it using a narrow road. On the other hand, it was a hotel cabin resort with a small RV park adjacent to it so there was plenty of cover for anyone to come at us from the trees. Out of the roughly one-hundred and twenty people that were here, both soldiers and Black Shadow, we had twenty-one wounded, with seven in critical condition. The soldiers were doing what they could to keep them alive, but without at least a field hospital with some meds and instruments, they were in trouble – and there were still at least five other groups that were still unaccounted for. Whatever numbers were able to fight were fortifying our defenses and preparing for an attack. While Ellen was looking for her friends, I couldn’t help but notice this place was well hidden, especially from the sky. I looked up and there wasn’t much space for a helicopter to land.

  “Uh, Captain Noir . . . I don’t see anywhere for a bird to land. Unless we got flares, how are they gonna find us here?” I asked, looking up at the trees.

  “Yeah, the biggest open area is here in front of the hotel check-in and it’s cutting it close. Why’d they pick this area?” Ashley asked.

  “It’s probably the only place that could house our numbers combined with some cover. Right now, let’s focus on how we can help the wounded and worry about how we’re gonna get out of here later,” Captain Noir said.

  “Yes sir.”

  We entered inside receiving some nods from fellow Shadows and returning the same. My friends and I helped barricade the windows for the wounded, and I took the opportunity to zip up an ammo vest and a belt with the same number of magazines as before. Only this time they gave me a Bravo Company BMC CQC AR-15 with a 12 inch barrel in 300 Blackout with a Magpul CTR stock, a 10.5 inch A.R.M.S. SIR rail handguard, a stainless steel Seekins Precision ATC muzzle brake, vertical foregrip with a flashlight, designator laser in front of the sight, and a Dagger Defense DDHB red dot reflex sight – all the magazines they gave me were loaded with supersonic ammo. Ellen came rushing into the room looking for me – she had a Cold Steel Dragonfly Wakizashi sword on her belt and a Glock 19 strapped to her thigh – she looked like a blonde Lara Croft.

  “Nate! I can’t find Kate. I can’t find her or Michael or Andy or anyone! My group didn’t make it here!” Ellen said, with a worried look.

  “We need to look for someone who saw them last before everyone scattered into the woods. Maybe, they know where they headed or what direction they went. Let’s ask around,” I stated.

  “Huh? Oh! Yeah! You’re right!” Ellen said, before rushing to where the wounded were.

  We asked around for people that might have seen Kate and her friends or anyone that saw them before everyone got separated. As we went around asking, I found myself standing in front of a tall stuffed grizzly bear. Seeing it so close, gave me a very sudden and unfriendly flashback of when Grim took me out of the camp for some training. We went hunting and accidentally came across a bear.
That was when I saw how strong Grim was and why people were right to be afraid of him.

  ****

  “What kind of tracks are these?” Grim asked.

  “It’s a coyote. It went that way,” I answered.

  “And those other tracks we saw by the highway?”

  “Human, because the feet weren’t dragging.”

  “Good, good.”

  We tracked down the coyote until we came to a small neighborhood. Grim and I wore our hunting gear with our clothing in hunters' camouflage. The neighborhood was deserted with overgrown plants and vegetation. Grim and I moved quietly while keeping an eye out for the coyote. As I rounded a corner, I found him. He was feeding on a little critter, looked like a rabbit. I used hand gestures to tell Grim where it was. I scanned the whole area to check for zombies, I didn’t see any and gave Grim the ‘all clear’ sign – he nodded for me to shoot the coyote. I raised my suppressed LWRC REPR AR-10 and aimed at the coyote.

  “Don’t forget to breathe,” Grim whispered in my ear.

  I calmly inhaled through my nose and exhaled through my mouth. I took my time to get him directly in my scope then I pulled the trigger. The rifle kicked, but I hit the coyote in the torso at its front legs. The bullet went clean through him and he fell dead. At first, he twitched a little before bleeding out. Grim and I walked over it.

  “Good kill,” Grim said.

  I nodded, “Thanks.”

  “Remember what I taught you about skinning animals?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good, what do you do first?”

  “Check the animal to make sure it’s safe.”

  We checked it and it was clean, no bites.

  “Now, where do you start field dressing your kill?” Grim asked.

  I pulled out my knife and spoke, “You start right here—”

  I was interrupted by some noise coming from the house close by. We looked and heard zombies coming out of the front door.

  Grim pulled out his tomahawk and his bowie knife.

  “I’ll take care of this. Keep skinning that coyote,” Grim ordered.

  I set my rifle leaning against a car close by. I focused on skinning the coyote while he took care of the zombies. As I was skinning the coyote, I started to hear some rustling in the small trees near the sidewalk. Then more zombies came and rushed at Grim. Before I could even help him, I looked over and out of nowhere a big tall grizzly came out of the trees and brush. It stood on its hind legs growling. It was definitely a male, eight feet tall, and over 600 pounds. I was so stunned, I forgot to move. My eyes were wide open in shock and my head felt light.

  I uttered, “What the—?”

  “Nathan! Run!” Grim yelled.

  I ran, stumbling as I ran for the van parked in the driveway. I slid underneath the van and the bear almost got me with its claws – a moment too late and he would have killed me. The bear was growling as it was trying to reach me. I’ve never been this close to a bear in my whole life. It was nothing at all like on TV, because they are way bigger up close. I couldn’t get over how big his head is! And his claws were the length of daggers!

  The bear was growling, roaring in frustration, and snapping with its big teeth. When he tried to bite me, he was lifting the van off the ground. I quickly rolled over to the other side and got out from underneath the van and ran past some cars as fast as I could. My heart was pounding out my chest and my head was light. It was different than any zombie horde or bandits. This was something that’s really hard to kill!

  The bear tripped and fell as it tried to climb over the cars. I ran through the alleyway between the houses and hopped the fence to the backyard. The bear was fast as he chased after me, but he wasn’t a fast climber. I jumped to climb the back fence and ran downhill. Bears can run as fast as horses, there’s no way I’ll outrun him. I looked around to find somewhere where I could get high ground. An RV, a radio tower, an overhead power line, something! I scanned everywhere for something. If I don’t find something, I’ll be dead! Then I saw at the bottom of the hill was a playground with a dome climber jungle gym.

  “Here’s hoping those metal bars hold up!” I thought to myself.

  When I turned around, the bear had climbed over the fence and was still chasing me – what the fuck?! I sprinted down to the jungle gym and ran inside it. I was panting so hard it felt like my whole body was beating like my heart. The bear charged towards me at the jungle gym. He was pissed off now as he growled and swiped at me with his claws. The jungle gym wasn’t very big, so I had to maneuver to keep away from the bear as he circled around the jungle gym trying to get at me. Several times, he stood on his hind legs to grab the jungle gym from top and tried to break or pull at it. It was holding, but the bear was strong enough to shake its foundation which got me even more scared. It was impossible to stay calm!

  Then I saw Grim running down the hill toward the bear. He had some kind of spear in his hands. It was a big spear with a thick pole and a big spearhead that had an axe blade on one side, more of a halberd. As the bear stood on his hind legs to shake the jungle gym Grim charged at the bear with the spear ready. Grim charged downhill to build up momentum. The bear heard Grim turn to him too late as Grim stabbed the bear in the center of its chest at his heart. The bear growled and made sounds of pain before falling on its back. Grim held the spear down on the bear with one hand and used the other hand to pull out his tomahawk and repeatedly struck at the bear’s throat and neck. He used his feet to keep the bear's paws from clawing him. Grim had a wild look in his eyes as he was killing the bear, grunting angrily with each strike. Blood splattered on his arms, his chest, and on his face. After doing this for half a minute, the bear was dead. Grim stopped to catch his breath. Seeing him like this reminded me of seeing my father when he killed those zombies in the mechanic garage.

  I got out of the jungle gym and spoke, “Grim . . . are you okay?”

  “Still alive . . . you?” Grim asked.

  “Yeah . . . I mean, the bear scared six of my nine lives, but I’m okay. Thanks for coming.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “I got two questions. One: where the hell did this bear come from? There haven’t been bears here in like a hundred years. And two: where did you get that spear?” I asked.

  Grim pulled out a bandana and his canteen. He dabbed the bandana with water and started cleaning the blood off of his face.

  “My rifle jammed, so I couldn’t shoot the bear and I couldn’t find your rifle. That house up the hill has some kind of small blacksmith in the garage. There’s a bunch of swords, axes, and spears like this. Some kind of blacksmith or swordsmith lived there. As for the bear, I think this bear was at some wildlife animal shelter and then when the outbreak happened, things went from bad to worse, somebody let this guy and all the other animals out. A lot of zoos and wildlife shelters did that, giving the animals a chance to survive out in the wild,” Grim answered.

  “They let them go? All of them? So, there are lions, tigers, and other big predators out here?” I asked.

  “Probably, there have been reports of prides of lions here and there along with packs of grey wolves, bands of monkeys – one guy claims he saw an elephant.”

  My eyes were wide open, “An elephant?”

  “Yep.”

  “Jesus Christ.”

  “Those animals are lucky . . . they can escape in the wild on land. All the aquatic animals were left to die.”

  A small chill went up my spine with a feeling of dread.

  “Just how strong are you?” I asked Grim.

  Grim looked at me and replied, “That’s a loaded question.”

  “It’s just . . . you killed a grizzly bear with a spear and a tomahawk!”

  “I know son, I was there.”

  I couldn’t get over how calm he was. My hands were still shaking, but he just looked like it was no big deal. Just like, ‘Yeah whatever.’

  Finally, I asked, “One more question.”

  Grim looked up. />
  “Do you think I could ever be as strong as you?” I asked.

  Grim stared me for a while as he was getting the blood off of his chest.

  Then he answered, “Yes, you will be – and if we’re lucky . . . you’ll be stronger.”

  “Maybe.”

  “Strength is a function of many things. You have to keep your fire burning.”

  I looked at him a little confused.

  “Fire?”

  “The fire that’s your will to survive, to keep fighting even when you think it’s hopeless,” Grim answered.

  I nodded in understanding.

  “Now go get the truck. We’re gonna need the other coolers for this.”

  “Wait, we’re gonna field dress this bear? That’ll take all day, Grim!”

  “Then if I were you, I’d quit yappin’ and start working.”

  Grim tossed me the truck keys and I left with a sigh. However, I still had chills from the bear . . . seeing Grim fight and kill the bear. I couldn’t help but think, if he can kill a bear like that, he really can kill anything.

  ****

  “Yo, Nate! Ellen! Get up here,” Shaun called, from the second floor.

  He, Warren, and Ashley were waiting for us upstairs. There were two others standing with them, Danny Sutherland and Helga Barnes. Both were wearing MOLLE ammo vests like ours and had their sidearms strapped to their thighs like us too, only Helga was armed with a Colt M4A1 carbine rifle in forest camouflage with a EOtech holographic sight with magnifier, vertical foregrip, and side flashlight. She also had a Gerber Gator Combo Axe II hanging from her hip and a two-tone Beretta 92FS where the slide, hammer and grips were black and the barrel, trigger, and frame were matte finish. Danny Sutherland was armed with a green digital camouflage Springfield Armory M1A SOCOM 16 with an Aimpoint PRO red dot sight, a SIG-Sauer P226R sidearm with a black frame and stainless-steel slide. Both Danny and Helga had a twenty-four-inch blade Fiskars Machete strapped to their backs and a KA-BAR 1217 knife strapped to their thighs. Danny and Helga were both wearing MICH-04 Fast Ballistic Helmets with a flashlight attached to the left side of their helmets. Danny and Helga were both close to fifteen, Ashley’s and my height, and strong athletic built like us too. Only difference was Danny was brunette with green eyes and Helga was blonde with blue eyes.