Just Trying To Stay Alive: A Prepper's Tale

by Michaels, Brian

  The helicopter climbed to a higher altitude as we flew over the base. We were told the higher altitude was because we didn’t want to attract too much attention as we went by.

  They didn’t want the infected to follow the sound of the helicopter, the higher we flew the harder it would be for the dead to figure out where we were going.

  The base below looked like it was buzzing with activity as the bodies flowed across the base and moved from building to building far below us like ants on an ant hill.

  There seemed to be an unusually large mob of the dead surrounding one of the hangars next to the runway.

  If I wouldn’t have been told that the survivors had all been moved to another location when the dead began to get onto the base, I would have thought that there were still living people in that hangar.

  After all, the only time I had seen the dead pay that much attention to a building was when there was living people hiding inside.

  We had seen that happen too many times as we had looked out at our neighborhood from our refuge in the attic.

  The helicopter had moved by too quickly for me to see any clues as to what had the dead’s attention, but my thoughts kept drifting back to the images in my mind of the dead breaking into the house across the street, the minivan and the blue Kia, then dragging the living out into the street and brutally killing them.

  If I had to explain why the dead were so intent on getting into that hangar, I would say there were people inside regardless of what I had been told.

  But before I could think much more about the hangar, we were informed that we would be landing in a few minutes.

  The helicopter started to reduce its altitude and the ground below appeared to be rapidly rising up to meet us.

  The next thing I knew, the helicopter bounced roughly before coming to a stop, then the engines shut down and the whining of the rotors gradually came to a stop.

  Hank stood up as Pete slid open the side door and the other crewmembers began to jump out of the helicopter.

  I could see once the door was open that the helicopter had landed on top of a building.

  “Brian,” Hank said looking at me and my family, “if you all would follow me, the first thing that happens when anyone comes to the safe zone is that you have to be checked over by the doc. It’s important for the safety of the base that we don’t admit anyone that is carrying the infection. My instructions are to take each of you to a room where you will wait to be examined. It’s basic stuff, so don’t be concerned, it will only take a few minutes.

  After your examination, I will get you a few supplies and help you get settled in. So, if you would, please follow me.”

  Hank jumped out of the helicopter.

  Logan and I followed.

  I turned and helped Emma out of the helicopter then turned around to find Hank helping a smiling Katie.

  He then led us towards a door on the roof where the stairwell would take us down into the building.

  As I started to follow Hank, I glanced over the edge of the roof to get my first look at the safe zone.

  Honestly it looked like the homeless settlement under the big bridge that I passed everyday on my way to work.

  The only difference was the tall fence that encircled the safe zone.

  The area below looked to be the size of a football field. People were scattered around the area, clumped together in small groups. Camp fires sent small pillars of gray smoke into the air from the center of each of the groups.

  I saw a few tents, a lot of sleeping bags and numerous meg-shift forms of shelter scattered among the people.

  I know that Hank told Katie not to expect things to be fancy, but this was extremely primitive. Maybe even calling this place primitive was being too generous.

  Like I said, it reminded me of the homeless settlement under a bridge that I had passed dozens of times in Rapid City.

  “This way,” Hank said as he opened the door and we entered the stairwell.

  We walked down one flight of stairs and came to a doorway that opened into a dark hallway.

  Hank opened the first door,” Katie if you would wait in here.”

  Katie smiled and walked into the room.

  “Should I go with her?” Emma asked.

  “The examinations need to be done separately and in private,” Hank replied.

  “Mom, I’ll be fine, it’s just an examination, I been examined at school lots of times,” Katie smirked and disappeared into the room and closed the door behind her.

  Emma looked at me with a concerned look on her face.

  “It’s OK, she’ll be fine,” I smiled.

  Hank ushered each of us into a separate room and told us the doc would be with us shortly.

  I went into my room and sat down.

  There was an oil lamp burning on the table in the middle of the room to provide light.

  As I looked around at the peeling paint on the wall, the worn tile on the floor and the lack of much furniture, it was obvious that the building hadn’t been used for some time.

  I could hear voices through the wall and assumed that was the doctor talking to my family as he did his examinations.

  After the last few weeks, I oddly felt suspicious of this process. I hadn’t been separated from any of my family for a while, so I guessed that explained my feelings, but I sat quietly and listened to the voices to be sure that I didn’t hear anything that indicated my family needed my help.

  The men on the helicopter seemed like nice people, but I really didn’t know anything about them.

  I listened as the unintelligible but calm voices continued, interrupted twice by the sound of a door being opened then closed.

  When the voices stopped, I was almost ready to put my ear against the wall to make sure I wasn’t missing anything, then the door to my room opened and a young man in a green uniform entered my room.

  “They call me Doc,” the young man smiled. “I’m here to examine you. If you would please remove your shirt and trousers.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “I need to take a quick look to be sure you haven’t been bitten,” he replied casually. “People will often try to hide their wounds under their clothing, so that is the reason I’ve requested that you removed your shirt and trousers. Seventy percent of all infections have been spread by a person who had been bitten, so I always start by checking for bite marks. I will scan you quickly and take your temperature and then we will be done.”

  “OK,” I replied and slowly began to pull my shirt over my head. “In doing these examinations have you found very many people that were infected?”

  “About a dozen, unfortunately,” Doc replied.

  “What happens when you find that someone is infected?” I asked as I slid down my pants.

  “We put them in isolation where they can spend their final hours with their family,” Doc replied. “When they turn into one of the creatures that you see outside, we humanely put them out of their misery.”

  The doc noticed the startled look on my face.

  “Your family, the two I have examined so far are fine,” he smiled.

  “What if the family doesn’t want to have one of their members put into isolation and then put out of their misery?” I asked.

  “They are free to leave, but they cannot stay here,” Doc replied. “It is a very unpleasant situation, but it is necessary for the safety of the base. I wish I knew a way to treat the infected, but that is beyond our capabilities at this time. Hopefully some day we will find a treatment, but by how baffling and complex this new virus is, I doubt I’ll see it in my lifetime.”

  Doc walked over and stuck a thermometer in my mouth then circled around to look me over.

  When he was standing in front of me again, he pulled the thermometer out of my mouth, looked at it for a moment and smiled.

  “You appear to be fine, you can get dressed,” he said. “When you are dressed you can go out in the hallway where your family is waiting.”

  �
�Thanks,” I said, then I began to get dressed as the doc left me alone in the room.

  When I walked out into the hallway, Emma and Logan were waiting.

  “That was fast,” Logan said.

  “It was also awkward, it has been a while since I’ve been examined by a man doctor,” Emma added. “But I can see why it was necessary, they need to be careful who they let in. But it would have been a lot better if they would have had a female doctor. I hope this experience doesn’t traumatize poor Katie.”

  Logan laughed when we all heard Katie laughing and talking loudly, the sound coming from the other side of the door on the fourth room.

  “I hope Katie doesn’t traumatize the doctor,” Logan snickered.

  Just then the door opened, Katie and the doctor walked out into the hallway.

  “OK Monday, you can join your family,” Doc smiled. “If you put the cream I gave on your knees, the redness should go away in a few days. If you need anything else, just let me know.”

  “I will Doc,” Katie smiled. “Thank you very much.”

  “You’re more than welcome,” Doc smiled again, glanced at me and nodded, then walked down the hall and out of sight.

  I looked at Katie as she tugged at her shorts and finished buttoning her shirt. She showed no signs of being traumatized from the examination as Emma had feared, if anything she appeared to be enjoying herself.

  “Dad, did you know Doc isn’t much older than I am,” Katie said, “and he isn’t a real doctor either, he is just a paramedic, but everyone calls him Doc because he is as close as they have here to a real doctor. He is from Texas and was going to college, but he got bored and decided to join the Navy. He was being transferred to San Diego but ended up getting stuck at Ellsworth when his plane never showed up.

  I told him about the flu shots they gave at my school and described what all the girl’s butts looked like after they got the shot. I asked him why were they giving the shots in the butt instead of in the shoulder? I told him I hated to get shots in the butt because my butt is sensitive. He said that they give shots in the butt for certain vaccines when they are required to use a longer needle.

  He liked my new underwear and thought they were cute, he kept calling me Monday for obvious reasons, he said he would like to show me around the base some time. I told him he would have to talk you about something like that because I’m not allowed to hang around with boys unless my dad says it’s OK. I told him I was only talking to him because he was the doctor and I’m sure my dad wouldn’t mind me talking to him even if he was a guy because he was the doctor.

  Otherwise I told him I’m not allowed to talk to boys because I’m only sixteen and my father is a little over protective. His hands were cold too, didn’t you think his hands were cold? His cold hands gave me goose bumps.”

  Before Katie could continue, Hank entered the hallway and instructed us to follow him.

  I was grateful for the brief silence to digest everything that Katie had said. I was sure there were a few things in her outburst that I needed to discuss with her later, but mainly I had noted a change in her attitude that concerned me.

  We followed Hank to the stairway and walked down three more floors to the ground level of the building.

  Hank led us into a gymnasium sized area on the ground floor that was half filled with boxes.

  “Remember I said the base was more like going camping than staying at a hotel,” he said as he pulled a box off the top of a stack of boxes. He set the box on the floor then opened a much larger box and pulled out four blankets, which he piled on top of the smaller box he had just set on the floor.

  “We didn’t have time to move our supplies here from Ellsworth, but fortunately we used this location to store some of our extra supplies,” Hank continued.

  He then grabbed a small basket and walked around to the different stacks of boxes, pulling items out of the boxes and putting them in to the basket.

  He returned a moment later and sat the basket on top of the blankets.

  “These are the items you will need to set up your camp. The box contains a small tent, you have blankets and the basket has matches so you can start a fire, among other things you will need at your site. Once each day we will ring a bell and you will send one of your family members to the main door of this building where you will receive a ration of food and water.

  Once each evening we will distribute to each group a small bundle of firewood, so you can build a fire to heat your food and for warmth during the night.

  If you need anything else, you can ask the soldiers that are stationed at the entrance to the building.

  Find yourself a place outside to set up your camp and make yourselves comfortable and get to know the other survivors.

  In a few days I will try to update you on our progress to relocate everyone to a more comfortable location, but until then make do the best you can.

  Just remember, you are safe here and hopefully very soon, conditions will get better. We’re doing the best we can under the circumstances.

  Any Question?” he asked.

  “Not at present, but I’m sure I will have a lot of questions later after I become familiar with our surroundings,” I replied.

  “One more thing,” Hank smiled. “When you go out into the yard, I would recommend that you turn right and go over to the corner of the building. There isn’t anyone set up around that corner. The corner of the building will give you some privacy and it will also keep you out of the wind that kicks up around here every evening. I think you will like that spot.”

  “Thanks,” I replied.

  “I like you guys, you seem like nice people and I would like to see you get off to a good start,” Hank smiled.

  “Oh, I thought of a question,” Katie spoke up and smiled, “where do we go to the bathroom?”

  “Down at the other end of the building you will see two tents, one is labeled men, the other is labeled women,” Hank replied. “It’s not fancy and it smells. Inside the tents are a row of holes or small trenches dug into the ground where you can go to the bathroom.”

  “Yuck!” Katie smirked. “Where are the showers?”

  “Sorry, we don’t have any working showers, you will have to wash up the best you can with the water we give you,” Hank replied. “Any other questions?”

  When Katie failed to ask anymore questions, Hank led us outside. He pointed to the end of the building where he suggested that we set up.

  He told us good luck and then went back inside the building.

  I carried the box with the tent, Emma carried the basket, Logan and Katie had the blankets.

  I turned and looked out over the area surrounded by the large fence, the yard Hank had called it.

  My second impression of the safe zone was that it reminded me of a prison yard, like the prison we had toured in Sioux Falls last year.

  The view from down in the yard didn’t do anything to improve on my first impression from up on the roof, if anything, my opinion of the safe zone was quickly dropping.

  The enclosed area was about the size of a football field with one large building sitting off the fifty-yard line, but the area now looked to be much smaller as I studied the two hundred people trying to lay claim to a small spot of their own in the yard. I wondered how everyone here felt about their life being reduced to a small spot in a prison yard, but I guess I was about to find out.

  My first impression from up on the roof hadn’t been too far off. My first impression was that the place looked like the homeless encampment under the bridge in Rapid City off West Main Street near Dinosaur Park. But if I had to guess, the homeless in Rapid City were probably a cleaner and happier looking group of people. I saw very few smiling faces amongst the sad looking group that stood staring off into the distance.

  The sight concerned me.

  “Let’s go claim our spot and set up our new home,” I said, shifting my mind to the task at hand.

  “This place is depressing,” Katie said.

&
nbsp; “Hey, you don’t have to crawl around on your hands and knees anymore,” I replied. “We’re outside with the blue sky overhead, I think it will grow on us.”

  “Besides, that guy said they will be moving us to a better location soon,” Emma added, trying to sound upbeat.

  “We’re here. Give it a chance,” I added. “It’s not like we have anywhere else to go.”

  We continued to walk until we reached the end of the building, the area beside the building was vacant like Hank had said. When we walked around the corner, we found we were hidden from two thirds of the people in the yard.

  “It is sort of private,” Katie said. “In fact, I think I’m going to use the area behind our spot for my bathroom instead of using the stinky trench.”

  “Maybe I can find you a bucket,” Logan laughed.

  “Just so you know, if you do, I’m not sharing,” Katie grinned.

  “What do you say we worry about buckets and bathrooms later and get our tent set up,” I interrupted. “I could use a nap.”

  I set the box on the ground and started tearing off the tape that held the box closed. When I had the end of the box open, I reached in and slid out the canvas, laid it on the ground and began to unfold the tent.

  When I had the tent fully unfolded Emma exclaimed, “Is that it? Are we all supposed to fit in that?”

  “No way I’m sleeping in that little thing with Logan,” Katie shrieked, “I’ll sleep out behind the tent first.”

  “When I was a kid, I never had a tent, I always wanted one, but I never had one,” I said as I looked at the small two-man pup tent on the ground in front of me. “I liked to camp out, so I learned to improvise.”

  “I’m listening,” Emma said.

  “We can use this to make a lean-to,” I said.

  “A what?” Katie asked.

  “I’ll show you,” I said.

  I dragged the canvas over to the wall of the building and tied the two loops from the bottom of one side of the tent to the wires that ran up the side of the building.