Extinction Level Event (Book 1): The Turn

by J. Walker

  Their names were Josh and Jenna, they were siblings in their late twenties. They were also survivors of the 401 massacre but they preferred not to discuss about their ordeal. They displayed obvious signs of hunger, appearing both thin and emotionally withdrawn. With gratitude they returned to compound with us and within weeks of their joining us, their moods changed and their physical health improved.

  They were moved into the farmhouse with Amy and the children. The smaller farmhouse was bursting to capacity but Amy loved the constant activity and called it cozy.

  In addition to the six bedrooms each home had, the two farmhouses also had small bachelor type ‘in-law’ suites in the basement. These suites were really nothing more than a tiny bathroom, kitchen and sleeping area. If we encountered any more survivors, there were still a few options left. We also had the three empty tack rooms in the barn. The rooms could be quickly converted and made into small but comfortable living spaces.

  We adapted because we didn’t have a choice. Settling into daily routines allowed us to better accept that the world was changed and would likely never be the same. Our circadian rhythms began to match the natural order of things. We began to rely not on the hour, but on the movement of the sun in the sky, the changes in the environment around us and the behavior of the animals.

  Slowly, grudgingly, we relinquished our hold on the past, allowing ourselves to be navigated by the world we knew instead of the world we had known. Once dictated by computers, televisions and cellular phones, nature began to guide us. Initially we struggled against the changes to the way of life we’d always known. As soon as we stopped fighting the reality, the easier it became to move forward and find our place in an ever-changing but cruel new world.

  We had been here since mid-May and throughout that time birthdays came and went. With a communal effort we baked cakes and ceased worrying long enough to celebrate, especially where the younger ones were concerned. It took some determination but it was as necessary to our survival as food and medicine.

  We put aside our nightmares to play guitar and sing the songs we remembered from those other lifetimes. Laughter and lighthearted conversation were rediscovered around bonfires burning late into the night. The younger children would doze peacefully on blankets strewn across the grass at our feet as the hour grew late and we were reluctant to leave that long forgotten comfort.

  It was always a struggle to find some joy in this life, in this perseverance to do more than simply survive. There was definitely more to this life than mere survival. There had to be. It didn’t have to always be ‘for the children’; it had to be for us as well. Otherwise the sacrifices made by our fallen loved ones were nothing more than empty promises.

  October saw Thanksgiving come and go, our celebration kept light because our hearts were heavy with our losses of the previous months. It was our first big holiday since the outbreak had taken hold and it served to do nothing more than remind us of all that was lost. Still, we were gracious enough to be very thankful for what we did have. By the time Halloween came, our moods lightened enough to create a festive night for the children. Our costumes were homemade and so were the treats. The children played games and made crafts. They mentioned nothing about previous years of trick or treating and scary costumes.

  Josh and Jenna eventually began to open up more and talk about their travels on the road. They told us about tractor trailers on the highway that were loaded with goods of every kind. We began to discuss and eventually plan in earnest how we would get these items back to the compound. It was a possibility but our plan had to be completely foolproof, we would be heading out further into the outlands than we’d been since the outbreak.

  With the colder weather coming upon us, it seemed to slow the zombies down quite a bit. All indicators pointed to this winter being far colder than the last. We were also further north than we’d been in the past so the changing seasons occurred earlier in the cold months and would be later in the warm months. We hoped that the frigid temperatures of winter might actually stop them until a spring thaw. It was a blessing we prayed for every night.

  During the pre-outbreak planning phase, Amy and I had built up quite a large supply of non-essential items. We stockpiled items like clothing, outerwear, footwear, books and all manner of school supplies and even toys. These items had been plucked from various second hand stores and department store clearance shelves.

  However, our planning hadn’t included the likelihood of taking on other groups of survivors. There were at least eight additional members of the compound whose presence had not been factored into the equation. Some of our supplies were running low and needed replenishment, so the decision was made to head into the outlands to scavenge for more provisions.

  At the break of dawn on a frigid day in mid-November the five of us set out. Sam, Mike, Josh, Jenna and I bid farewell at the main gate to the group staying behind. Although dressed warmly, we made sure we were still able to move quickly and did some stretches before we left. As usual, we wore thick, high leather boots and gloves to protect our arms and legs from possible bites. Crossbows were strapped to our backs along with high powered rifles with scopes and suppressors.

  My heart was beating rapidly with anticipation and fear. My stomach churned with excitement to be leaving the compound. This was our first trip beyond the three dirt concession roads and sprawling conservation areas that had become our microcosm. I was excited and scared about what I would see.

  We expected to be on the road for approximately two hours or more. We promised the group staying behind that we would spend no more than two or three hours scavenging on the highway. This would give us six to seven hours to make the most of our trip. Mike and Josh both knew how to drive the large rigs and Josh also knew how to hotwire but we chose not to ask him how he’d acquired this skill.

  While the main purpose of the trip was to find supplies, we also wanted to see how much the outside world had changed. It had been six months since our escape from the city. A good number of our group had been out there, struggling for survival but the rest of us had been safely tucked away behind the wall. We were anxious to see the damage but seeing it could do more harm than good.

  “Scared?” Josh asked me, breaking the silence of the trucks interior.

  I sighed quietly and replied. “A little.”

  Jenna nudged me with her elbow sharply in my ribs and I turned to look at her in annoyance.

  “Smoke a doob?” She asked with a smirk. “It’s some goooood shit!”

  I grinned back and responded enthusiastically, knowing this would take the edge off my anxiety. “Of course!”

  Sam cleared his throat loudly from the driver’s seat and said. “Make sure you crack open a window, don’t want it to get too smoky in here ladies.”

  Mike chuckled and lightheartedly gave Sam a punch on his arm.

  “Hey why drink and drive when you can high and fly! Come on, Sam, lighten up, we need something to take the edge off. Someone forgot to pack the beer. Who the hell planned this apocalypse anyways?”

  Then he turned and winked at us in the back seat. “You better share.”

  Jenna lit the joint and I closed my eyes, savoring the pungent aroma. She tapped my leg as she passed it to me. I took a couple of deep drags off the marijuana cigarette and passed it to Josh.

  He was an attractive young man and I wasn’t the only one who’d taken note of his good looks. I’d been quietly observing as a bond slowly began to form between Josh and Amy. It surprised me because Amy was such a reserved and quiet woman who kept her feelings to herself. Aside from her grief when John was discovered and the fearfulness she occasionally displayed when faced with daunting decisions, everything else was kept locked away.

  She had seemed so lost and bereft after John’s burial, I didn’t think she would recover from the grief. Since Josh’s arrival, she’d been smiling more often and her laughter seemed more genuine. She was also beginning to take more shifts on the wall and always in the c
ompany of Josh. Amy was coming out of the shell she had built around herself out of fear and hopelessness. She was slowly coming back to life.

  At last Sam turned off the dirt road and onto the small county road that would eventually bring us to the highway. I looked out the window at the bleak and barren countryside. A few zombies stumbled slowly in the dying fields. Random intervals in the landscape showed them feasting on various corpses of wildlife and orphaned house pets.

  The cold November air had notably impeded their mobility. All we needed was a good cold snap and there was a likely chance their ranks could be rendered entirely immobile for the winter season.

  Before long we could see the highway in the distance. The surrounding terrain revealed the scars of many lost battles. Vehicles lie scorched and on their sides, pockmarked by bullet holes. Long dead corpses exposed to the elements were strewn piteously across the desolate landscape. Gleaming white skulls grinned at us as we slowly passed. Carrion birds pecked at the undead when their slow meandering came to momentary stop. A murder of crows took to flight at our arrival, cawing angrily at the interruption.

  Josh nudged me and pointed out the window.

  “Right there.” He said. “There are the trucks.”

  I looked in the direction he was pointing and sure enough, there were a handful of tractor trailers stranded on the highway and the gravel shoulder. They must have been heading south on the highway to fulfill deliveries and had been caught in the midst of the evacuating civilians and oncoming military vehicles. The drivers had hurriedly abandoned their vehicles upon seeing the tidal wave of zombies headed their way. Either they had decided to head north on foot, away from the hordes of shambling dead or they had soon joined their ranks.

  There was also a smattering of abandoned military vehicles. Evidence suggested heavy fighting and it was obvious who lost the battle. Thousands of shell casings littered the ground and made hollow tinkling sounds as the truck slowly drove over them. Those who had been caught between the soldiers firing their weapons and the oncoming zombies had ended up becoming a massive banquet for the dead. All that remained were gleaming piles of bones and grinning skulls. Guts and gore stained the asphalt, partially devoured bodies hung out of car windows and the air was deathly still and eerily quiet.

  I shuddered as a chill crept slowly down my spine.

  “Okay, let’s do this. Everyone remember the plan?” I said somberly.

  We were stepping into a graveyard that had gone long untended. Out of respect for the dead that were not coming back, we tentatively stepped out of the vehicle and quietly absorbed our surroundings. My eyes were captivated by everything around me. I held onto a glimmer of hope that we would find some evidence of an active military but there was nothing to be found. The military was gone. There was only the mindless shuffling of the undead and the malodourous reek of the long dead.

  Sam had parked the pick-up truck close to the tractor trailers. He ensured the vehicle was easily accessed, parked in a way that wouldn’t impede a quick and easy exit. We didn’t want to place ourselves in a precarious position that we would be unable to escape from if a large herd came through.

  “Check under the vehicles first.” I called out to the others. “Maybe Jenna can take first watch.”

  Jenna nodded in agreement and climbed up on the roof of the pick-up truck. She maintained a steady watch up and down the highway, keeping her eyes peeled for both zombies and other survivors.

  We’d been fortunate in our two encounters with other survivors, their small groups were a welcome addition. However, there was always the chance that any group we encountered may be hostile. We couldn’t afford to be careless. Our numbers were too small to go up against an unfriendly group and we could not risk our location being discovered by the same.

  The four of us slowly and carefully checked beneath each vehicle on the southbound lane of the highway. Especially dangerous were children that had turned because their size made our lower bodies vulnerable. They also moved far more quickly than adults that had turned. Crawlers, zombies who lost their lower limbs, were also quite deadly. They were often unseen and could easily clamp down on a foot or lower leg.

  As I came around the front of a Canadian Tire rig, I walked directly into the path of a slow moving crawler. The frigid November air hampered its progress but the ugly, legless thing was determined to make a meal out of me somehow. I watched the wretched thing as it dragged itself from beneath the front of the truck.

  No sound issued from the devastated mass of rotting flesh. The gaping wound in its throat likely hindered its ability to recreate the characteristic groans. The head sat unbalanced on an exposed spinal column, looking as though it might simply fall right off. The zombie that had attacked the person it once was, had gone right for the throat and ripped it clean off. At the same time, other zombies had ravaged its lower legs. Using a fork, I put a quick end to its miserable existence but my mind always turned to wondering who they might have been before the outbreak.

  “I’m clear.” I called out to the others as I finished walking around the exterior of the truck.

  Other voices began to announce the same. Jenna called out to say that she could see nothing more than a few stragglers moving lethargically on the other side of the highways concrete barrier.

  We left the corpses where they lay and cleared the interiors of the cabs. Luckily, we found the keys still sitting in the ignitions of two trucks and said quiet prayers that the drivers had not left the engines running. We all breathed communal sighs of relief when they started up noisily.

  “Fantastic!” Sam called out happily. “If we find anything in the other three rigs, we’ll load what we can into these two trailers. Mike and I can drive these two back while the rest of you take the pick-up.”

  “Sounds like a plan.” I said and everyone nodded in agreement.

  Working tirelessly for the next hour and a half, we hand bombed goods off the skids inside the trailers of the non-operational trucks. Everything began to pile up next to the trailers of the trucks that were still functioning. Our find was monumental. There was everything from gardening supplies, camping gear, non-perishable foods, toys, books, clothing and medical supplies, including pharmaceuticals and nutritional supplements.

  “Uh, guys!” Jenna called out excitedly. “We got company!”

  We froze in the midst of our labors and listened to the distant hum of approaching vehicles. My eyes widened as I looked at the others. We dropped our burdens and ran to Jenna’s perch on the pick-up truck. I reached for the binoculars she was holding out and my hands shook nervously. Holding them up to my eyes, I viewed the steady approach of five military vehicles that were moving with speed to our location.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “I don’t fucking believe it.” I whispered, more to myself than the others.

  Jenna exhaled a long disbelieving sigh and murmured. “My God.”

  Josh echoed a similar sentiment.

  “Christ!” Mike and Sam exclaimed at the same time.

  There was a large, dirty armored personnel carrier with three small and beaten up army Jeeps following closely behind. A military cargo truck loaded with people, equipment and supplies lumbered slowly at the rear of the convoy.

  They were coming from the south but they were also travelling in the southbound lanes of the highway. From the looks of the highway on the opposite side of the concrete barrier, there was no possible way they could have travelled on the northbound lanes. The deserted and empty vehicles were far too numerous for safe travel.

  The vehicles began to slow down as they approached our position and slowed to a stop beside the pick-up truck. We remained standing on the roof of the truck and regarded their arrival warily. I looked to Sam and Mike for some kind of direction on how to proceed but they were looking at me with the same question in their eyes.

  “Just be ready to leave and leave quickly at the slightest hint of anything, uh, sketchy.” I said quietly and jumped down from the
truck.

  The others followed and we waited cautiously, weapons at the ready, until someone made a gesture of communication. The soldiers, men and women of various ages were all dressed in a mix of fatigues and warm winter civilian clothing. They regarded our small group with uncertainty and caution, even though their numbers clearly outnumbered ours, they seemed to be waiting for someone in authority to establish contact with us. The silence was deafening and no one uttered a single word.

  Finally a door to the Jeep closest to us opened. A man dressed in a similar haphazard combination of military garb and civilian gear climbed out. He was tall and ruggedly good-looking with more than a few days’ worth of stubble on his chin.

  I looked at Jenna and whispered. “Holy shit, its G.I. fucking Joe.”

  We both fought to stifle the laughter that threatened to rise.

  The soldier who stepped out of the Jeep gave a quick, brief nod to his group and they immediately appeared to relax their stance. A few members of the caravan climbed out of their vehicles to stretch their legs. At least two of them walked over to the APC and opening the back, climbed inside. I could hear quick conversing within the large vehicle but my attention was divided and I couldn’t overhear what was being said.

  The soldier approached us with a concerned look and a quick smile that revealed a row of perfect white teeth. I stepped out from the others and extended my hand. He stepped forward to do the same and shook my hand quickly but firmly and with a slight nod.

  “Ma’am.” He began.

  I groaned inwardly. Did he really just call me ma’am?