Just Trying To Stay Alive: A Prepper's Tale

by Michaels, Brian

  Just Trying To Stay Alive

  By Brian Michaels

  December, 2018

  Brian had been raised by his father to always be prepared.

  His dad had taught him to think for himself, to work hard for the things he wanted, be fair and honest with others, not to trust the government and to always be prepared.

  The only question was, be prepared for what?

  Brian often felt that his dad and some of his dad’s friends took things to the extreme.

  Some had prepared to survive a nuclear war, others prepared to defend themselves against the government, still others prepared to survive their own pet conspiracy theory or some unlikely apocalyptic event.

  Brian prided himself on being a realist.

  He didn’t see a nuclear war as something that you could survive, and he wasn’t sure if he would even want to try to survive something like that.

  What would be the point?

  But Brian identified what he felt was a more realistic problem that he needed to prepare for.

  What he saw coming wasn’t a fantasy, nuclear Armageddon, or some science fiction end of the world event, like the planet being struck by an asteroid. What Brian feared what was going to happen was real and if he was right, it could happen in a matter of weeks or months.

  As part of his plan to be prepared and to protect his family, Brian moved his family out of New York City and to a slower paced and the friendlier environment of Rapid City, South Dakota.

  However, Brian and his family’s life drastically changed before his fears were realized when Brian’s son, Logan, woke him in the middle of the night with a strange request.

  Over the next few days Brian knew that he and people like his dad’s friends were not prepared for what was happening. How could they be? He didn’t think he was crazy and only the crazy would have been prepared for what was happening outside his house and around the country.

  Brian knew he had to adapt if he and his family were going to have a chance.

  Against overwhelming odds, he did what he thought was best, but he had never thought about what he would need to do to protect his family from the growing hordes of the dead that always seemed to be one step ahead of his every move.

  By the time they had finally admitted what they were fighting against, the dead had destroyed everything that they knew and cared about.

  When all seemed lost, they were presented with one last desperate option to live.

  The choice they had would be all or nothing. They would die or, if they were lucky, live to fight another day.

  With the world crumbling all around them, they made one final attempt to survive.

  It was a long shot, but it was the only move they had left.

  Part 1

  The Infection Begins

  Chapter 1

  “I’ve decided we are going to leave tonight,” I whispered as I looked around to be sure no one other than my family would hear my voice.

  My family gathered around me near our small two-man tent and looked up at me as I talked.

  There were probably two hundred people crowded together around us in what looked like at one time had been an old National Guard base. With the high barbed wire fence surrounding the base and all the haggard, desperate looking people packed inside, it felt more like a prison camp.

  A death row prison to be exact.

  Prying eyes and listening ears were everywhere hoping to see or overhear anything that would be of value.

  Someone was always ready to stab you in the back if it would get them something.

  Whatever you did, someone was always watching.

  Privacy, modesty and honor were things that we no longer expected or received.

  If I were to be overhead telling my family that I felt we should leave this place tonight, my family and I could find ourselves dead, or worse still, find ourselves tossed over the fence for entertainment so someone else could have our tent and food rations.

  Outside the base were perhaps tens of thousands of the walking dead looking for their opportunity to get in at those of us still alive inside the reinforced fence.

  Each day the crowd outside grew larger.

  Where they were coming from, I could only guess, but I was certain with the way their numbers were increasing that the fence would not be able to hold out much longer.

  The dead had the base completely surrounded and they spent all their time clawing at the fence. As they stare in at us twenty-four hours a day, their eerie moaning and horrendous smell, make it impossible to pretend they aren’t there and push out of our minds what they want.

  Having seen firsthand too many times what it is that they do to the living, it’s amazing I’m not totally insane at this point. All I can think is, that it was my concern for and the desire to protect my family that has kept me from losing it.

  I can’t believe that the fence has kept all of them out of the base over the last month. I feel certain that the fence will give out from all the bodies pressing against it soon and I don’t plan on still being here when that happens.

  Anyone inside when the fence gives out will be dead in a matter of minutes, but those minutes will be the longest most horrifying minutes anyone could ever imagine.

  The only problem is how to get out, but I think today, we found a way out.

  We were brought here by helicopter, but I haven’t seen the helicopter flying lately. I have head rumors that it has a mechanical problem that they are trying to get fixed.

  They say once the helicopter is repaired, they will start to move us to another more secure location.

  Myself, I believe that the problem is that they are out of fuel and they also don’t have anywhere left to fly.

  All we have is rumors and guesses as to what’s going on, but all the rumors seem to point to the fact that everyone in the outside world is dead.

  That and the fear that we all will soon be next.

  Of all the people inside the base, there are only about thirty soldiers. They’ve done their best to make sure the fence keeps out the dead, but there have been many days and close calls where I thought the end had finally arrived.

  These few soldiers also have the job to maintain order in the base, but there just isn’t enough soldiers to handle the job properly. They do their best, but in a place crowded full of desperate people, it is more or less every man for himself. As long as no one tries to get into the building where the soldiers stay or cause an outright riot, the soldiers don’t have the manpower or the desire to do much to interfere with what is going on among the civilian inhabitants.

  The soldiers also pass out rations once each day, but the portions are getting smaller and smaller.

  Besides the shrinking rations and the growing mob surrounding us, it doesn’t take a genius to realize the end is not far off.

  I’ve tried to find other decent people inside the base to bond with, the idea being safety in numbers to fend off the gangs that really run things inside the base, but any feeling of safety is fleeting at best.

  Besides, even if you think that you’ve found a friend, you soon realize that when push comes to shove, all anyone is really concerned about is themselves.

  The less you confide to any of the others in here with us, the better your chances. Say too much and you end up putting a target on your back. In fact, I believe the gangs have spies moving amongst us to report back what they were able to see and hear.

  I looked around to be sure that no one was staring in our direction before continuing.

  There are four of us, our small two-man tent is little more than a six by eight-foot piece of canvas held up by a few pieces of rope to pr
ovide modest shelter from the elements.

  It was all that was available when we were brought here but it is a lot more than most of the later arrivals were given, most of them received a blanket and have had to sleep out in the open regardless of the weather.

  Food, shelter and all the basic necessities of life are in short supply.

  All of this has me worried.

  In fact I have been worried for some time now.

  We came here because we were told we were being taken to a safe zone, a place where we would all be safe until the current problem could be resolved.

  At the time it seemed like the thing to do and we let the soldiers bring us here.

  In hind sight, it was a mistake.

  From what I can see, there is no resolving the problem we are all facing. We seem to be sitting on a ticking time bomb that will be exploding at any moment.

  It was getting too dark to clearly see the look in my family’s eyes as I continued, but in a way I was grateful for the darkness. The blank stare of despair and hopelessness that had replaced the look of life that had always been on the faces of my family was becoming too painful for me to look at any longer.

  I knew I had to do something soon or it would be too late, that is if we haven’t passed the point of no return already.

  Logan’s two black eyes and the numerous bruises he has suffered from the daily fights inside the compound has made me even more worried about my family’s safety.

  Katie, my daughter, is beginning to attract too much unwanted attention as the conditions inside our prison continue to deteriorate.

  I’m worried soon that a threatening look from me will no longer be enough to keep the wolves at bay.

  It is bad enough knowing that the dead could break through the fence at any minute, but now we can’t even try to ignore the dead and pretend that we are safe with the increasing tension and hostilities inside.

  It has all become too much and I’ve decided that we would have a better chance to survive anywhere else other than here.

  We would have been better off if we had never been brought here.

  All we have done is manage to trade one hell for another, but that is all ancient history now.

  “Where you able to check out our escape route?” my wife Emma whispered.

  “I’m going to go do that now,” I nodded.

  “Dad, do you think it will work?” my daughter Katie asked.

  “I hope so,” I replied. “As far as I can see, it looks like the only way we are ever going to get out of here.”

  “If it doesn’t work?” Katie asked.

  “I think it will work,” I replied again. “If it doesn’t work out……, but don’t worry, I think we are going to be fine.”

  “If it doesn’t work out, at least it will be better than staying in here for another day,” Katie smiled. “Sorry I asked, it was a dumb question.”

  “Katie, there are no dumb questions,” Emma said.

  Katie just smiled and looked down at the ground.

  She was a smart girl and knew what was at stake, I could tell she was just looking for some reassurance from me that everything was going to be OK.

  She knew I was lying when I said I thought we would be fine, but just hearing me say it was enough to give her some comfort and I could hear the tension in her voice relax a little.

  “Why don’t all of you try to get some rest,” I said. “I still have a few things I need to do. When the moon is over head and everyone in the compound has settled in for the night, we leave.”

  My wife and kids sat back nervously, hoping that I was right.

  It looked like, one way or the other, the end of our time here in this hell was coming to an end.

  I only hope that it isn’t already too late to do what we should have done a long time ago.

  Would we actually be able to escape this hell hole, or would we all end up dead?

  I honestly don’t know, all I know is I am prepared for either outcome.

  As I see it, we don’t have a choice if we want to live, but

  deep down I know I’m just longing for it to all be over, one way or the other.

  I’m tired, we’re all tired.

  As I moved away from my family, I looked around at what surrounded us, the madness both living and dead.

  It was hard to imagine that this was what my country had become.

  For the last five years I had a feeling that the country was going to collapse. I had seen so many signs and I had done my best to be prepared for it, but this is not what I had expected.

  There was no way I could have ever been prepared for this, because there was no way any rational person could have ever foreseen something this insane happening.

  But on the other hand, maybe that is why I should have expected it.

  After all, those of us that had been preparing for the end were called crazy.

  I guess this proves we weren’t crazy, or we would have been ready for what happened.

  I remember as I was growing up my friends would ask me that if I had a chance, would I want to live my life over again? Retaining the knowledge of what I had learned as I grew older, maybe I would be able to do some things different and make the world a better place.

  Maybe I could change the world or become filthy rich because I knew what to expect and I could take advantage of that knowledge. I could have bought Google stock when the Company first started, when everyone had said it was a fad and wouldn’t last long.

  When Apple and Microsoft made their first computers, but everyone said that there would never be a market for something like a computer.

  Just knowing about these two things in advance I could have become wealthy beyond belief.

  But I was never sure how to answer that question as I thought about it.

  The question wasn’t really as simple as it sounded at first.

  At first, I tried to think about all the things I could do with my added knowledge, but then I began to think about all the things that I wouldn’t be able to change.

  There was no way, no matter how much I knew about what was going to happen, could I change things like the deaths of my friends, grandparents and my dad.

  Maybe I could change a few minor events or make a few good investments, but there would be so many things that I wouldn’t be able to change no matter what.

  As I see it, at best in one’s life, the most anyone can hope for is to break even. But in the big picture, being able to change a few things wouldn’t matter in the end so a person would have to ask themselves would it be worth suffering through all the sad things in life all over again just for a chance to try.

  If someone would ask me that question today, I wouldn’t have to give it a second thought, my answer would be a resounding, “Hell No!”

  After the last year, there would be no way I would ever want to relive what I have seen and endured, there would be no way I would ever want to watch my family live through this again.

  There would not be a chance in this life to come anywhere close to being able to break even in the end.

  At best, life would be a journey of pain and suffering and if you were lucky after all of that, you would die.

  But now the odds were that you wouldn’t even be able to die, death now had an entirely different meaning than it once had.

  What have I seen?

  Maybe the better question is what haven’t I seen over the last few months?

  Let me tell you a little about myself and take you back to the day this nightmare had all started.

  I have a few things to do before my family and I can try to get out of this place, but I’ll try to fill you in as I go.

  Chapter 2

  By the way, my name is Brian Michaels.

  I am, or was, what many people call a survivalist or a prepper.

  I prefer to call what I am a realist. I’ve never bought in to all the ideas of the survivalists, even though I must agree that a lot of what they say makes sense.

 
I never intended to be a prepper. I guess I fell into that category by how I was raised and what I had observed during my life that guided me to do what I felt needed to be done.

  My father was an official and certified prepper or survivalist, I guess he gave me my first experience with the prepper way of life.

  It was here that I began to develop my distrust of the government.

  I was born and raised in Montana.

  I don’t know why or how my dad became a survivalist. When I was old enough to start understanding what was going on around me, I was told that’s what he was.

  We lived out in the country and didn’t have very many neighbors.

  I had a neat hideout that I always played in as a kid. It had beds, a radio and was well stocked with food and water.

  I got into trouble a number of times because I got caught eating the food in my hideout and especially for going to the bathroom inside the hideout.

  It had a porta-john in the back room that I thought was really cool and I couldn’t resist trying it out.

  I kept getting into trouble, but just being a young kid at the time, I didn’t understand why at first.

  When my dad told me that my hideout was actually our bomb shelter, that still didn’t help me understand.

  I had no idea what a bomb was let alone why we had bomb shelter.

  He tried to explain that the shelter was where we would go in case of an emergency.

  I of course didn’t know what an emergency was either, but this was the beginning of my indoctrination to the ways of thinking like preppers or survivalists.

  As I grew older my dad taught me about many things, how to hunt and especially about the dangers of the world that we needed to worry about.

  He taught me that there were other countries, places where other different people lived.