The Bomb and the Cage: Doree Anne (20 page)

Chapter 43

09/18/2004 1255 Hours

E.M.T. Bruce Howard

After leaving the library we drove around a few times to look for any sign of the children or Amy, we never found either. So, I drove to the three-story building. We could look there. If they weren’t in the building maybe we’d see them from the top. It was the tallest building in Leefield. We would need to gather supplies anyway, so a second trip to town wasn’t out of the question.

I parked the truck on to the side of the building that faced the plaza with the barber shop in it. There was an emergency escape ladder there and I pulled under it. Robert stood up in the back of the truck and pulled the ladder down. I went up first as the other two trailed just behind. We all carried two duffle bags a piece. When we were just a flight from the top there was a loud booming voice.

“Stop where you are and identify yourselves!” At the top were two older men both armed with rifles.

“My name is Bruce and I’m an E.M.T., this is my partner Linda, and this is Robert from the repair shop down the road. We’re not infected.”

“What do you have in those bags?”

“We have weapons and supplies. We mean you no harm. We can survive this together.” There was a silent awkward pause so I continued. “There has been enough bloodshed today.” I took a deep breath. There was the sound of a woman talking, maybe she was pleading with them to let us come up.

“Okay, but don’t do anything stupid.” I felt a weight lifted off my chest as they pointed their rifles away.

When we got to the top, I saw that there was a small group of survivors. Three males and a female all of which looked to be in their forties or older.

“Sorry for aiming our rifles at you. It’s been a crazy day, but I’m sure you already know that. My name is Phil, this is my wife Janet, and these are our friends Daniel and David.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet all of you.” I said with a smile.

“I own the bookstore coffee house down on Main Street with my wife.” Phil said.

“That’s where I recognize you.” Robert spoke up from behind us. “I work at
The Oil Man
.”

“Yeah, you’re the ones that been hurting our coffee business.” Phil said.

“Well it doesn’t look like we will be hurting anyone’s business anytime soon.” There was another awkward pause.

“We’re getting off track.” Daniel said, taking a long breath and letting it out slowly. “You said you’re from Clearwater?”

“Yes, Linda and I were the first to respond to the prison. Those things attacked and killed our partner. We fought back, but they were just too many of them. We were able to escape but barely. Those things are everywhere there.” I said.

“We just came from the library. They were already there.” Robert said then wiped his face. “The library was full of them. My girlfriend is missing. She ran the children’s story time.”

“Her name was Amy right?” Janet said.

“Yes, yes her name is Amy. Have you seen her?”

“Not since this morning. She came by first thing like always for a cup of coffee, nice woman.” Janet said. “A very nice woman.” She continued. The hope that Robert had in his eyes for a slight moment left him just as suddenly as it had come.

“Yes she is.” He said.

Robert looked towards the library. It was amazing how much you could see from up here. You could see all Main Street. Half of the park by the railroad tracks. The lake there glistened in the sun. It would have been perfect. Perfect except for the
Biters
walking around over there. On the other side, you could see the hospital which was four blocks away. The hospital was two-stories and painted an ugly light pink. The hospital was large and was the most advance hospital in the county. I thought for a moment how they fared. It was probably a death trap. We would need to be careful going anywhere near it.  Beyond that, there was nothing more than trees, houses, and the occasional building.

It was strange how peaceful the town appeared to be from here. However if you looked, really looked, you would see glimpses of the hell we were in. Much like the park you could see the faint line of smoke from a fire here and there, the sounds of gunshots, and the occasional speeding vehicle. This was not the Leefield that I knew. It might look the same from a distance, but it was not, nor would it ever be the same again.

I had just started to ask about any information on the news when the sight of the three low flying jets interrupted me. The jets were coming from the North and moving towards Clearwater. They were fighter jets. I heard a booming sound of their engines and felt the ground beneath me shake. Janet started to fall but David was there to grab her in time. They shrunk to the size of a popcorn kernel then flew up at almost a ninety degree angle. They then started coming back the way they had come.

Behind the jets, the sky above Clearwater lit up by a blinding light. Fire came from the ground as if a gateway to Hell had been opened. The explosion lifted the Earth towards the heavens. Fire came out from below the lifted Earth like a tidal wave devouring everything in its path. Then black smoke was forced through the flames leaving behind a very large mushroom cloud.

“Was that nuke?” Linda asked. No one answered her. We just stared at the giant mushroom cloud that rested where the city of Clearwater once stood. There was no telling if it was a nuke or not, but it did look like one.

“So that’s the government’s answer to this? Kill us all?” David asked.

“Maybe it’s not a nuke, I’ve read all about other types or warheads that can make mushroom clouds.” Phil said with confidence.

“We need to get inside and get to cover. We can’t be out here when the wind brings over the air from that blast.” I said.

“I agree we need to get inside and seal the windows and vents.” Phil said turning away from the horror, looking at the group.

I didn’t know how long we had until the wind blew over whatever was coming from Clearwater. It would be impossible to seal off the building in that time. But we would at least be able to seal off the top floor.   

Chapter 44

09/18/2004 1305 Hours

Sgt. John Williams

              I cannot believe how stupid people can be. These were inmates who had a zero chance of freedom, zero! Then I came and freed them. Since Sparring was now dead, I decided, too once again put more responsibility on Jacobs. Sparring made an excellent addition to our group being that he was a
trustworthy
inmate. I knew I could trust Jacobs, but when its two officers running the show, the inmates will eventually mutiny against us. There was also Dale, who seemed knowledgeable and confident. However, it was still too early to know if he was
trustworthy
.             

After the group packed up the supplies from the store into the two vans, I gathered the group by the vans. They looked tired, like it was hard work to burn down a trailer park and raid a gas station.

“Gentlemen, we cannot afford to lose good men! In fact, we cannot afford to lose non infected men!” They looked at Jacobs and me with tired eyes. “The only way we will survive and become the leaders of our future society is by sticking together, being safe, and killing those
Gray
Eyes
before they kill us!” I took a deep breath. “I don’t want to stay here any longer than we have too. However, we need to wait for some of the excitement to die down in Clearwater before going back. I figure a good twenty four hours to let things calm down would be sufficient.”

“You don’t think that’s too long?” Dale asked. “I mean, don’t you think someone else might have stepped up as a leader by then?”

“You saw how crazy things are over there. If we rush in there we might never…” I was interrupted by a loud booming sound. I turned towards Clearwater. In the clear skies, I saw three jets going straight up.

“What in the world?” Brandon said. The jets pulled back, away from us.

A moment later, there was an ever larger explosion than I had heard earlier this morning. The sky turned white and I shielded my eyes. Fire came up from the Earth and looked to engulf all of Clearwater. As the smoke replaced the fire, the sky was left with a large mushroom cloud that loomed over us. We needed to get inside. There were now things far worse to worry about then the
Gray
Eyes
.

“Get inside!” I yelled and grabbed Jacobs by the back of his shirt. “Get inside!” The group turned towards me and I yelled again. This time those words connected with them, they ran into the gas station. I was the last one in and I pulled the doors shut, locking us inside.

“What was that?” Robby asked.

“It looked like a nuclear weapon.” Jacobs said. Just saying those words got everyone in an uproar.

“Everyone, calm down, I’m sure we wouldn’t use a nuclear weapon on American soil.”

“Then what do you think that was Williams!” Max yelled at me. I was losing control over the group.

“They must be using some sort of high powered explosive to destroy those things. Cut off the arm to save the rest of the body.” I said.

“Do you think they destroyed the prison?” Dale asked. I nodded.

“That would make sense. If it was ground zero then it would be the obvious place to wipe off the face of the Earth. Besides its no loss to them, they don’t care about killing inmates. This is why we need to stick together. I care about your safety! If I didn’t me and Jacobs would have left you in your cages.” The group started to calm down. “Now if you don’t mind we need to seal this place up to be on the safe side. Let’s go bring the stuff back inside from the van. Once we get it all inside, we can start sealing the windows with tape.” The group agreed, I hoped we weren’t already too late, I didn’t know how long it took for radiation to spread. I just prayed that it wasn’t a nuclear weapon they used on Clearwater. After all, it would be hard to take over a town filled with radiation. We might have to go to Leefield instead.

Chapter 45

09/18/2004 1305 Hours

Officer Ted Bryant

Amanda was covered in blood and it was hard to tell what had happened to her. She didn’t appear to have any wounds, but it was too much blood to have been from the
Biter
I shot in front of her. I’d had asked her, but she was in shock, which was expected. I couldn’t even get her to say a single word. She needed rest, somewhere quite, somewhere safe. When we got to Main Street, we saw that the area was overrun with the
Biters
.
There was no way we could get onto Main Street, let alone be able to make it to the three-story building. We made the group decision to settle in at one of the local churches for the night instead. A few streets past Main Street was Flora Street. Flora ran parallel to Main Street and four blocks down was a small wooden church.

The church was called
Leefield’s Little Chapel
. It was a wood building built in the early 1900’s. It was a white chapel with large wood doors that were painted a blood red. Thin stained glass windows flanked each side and above the doors. The chapel even had a large steeple above the entrance.

There were a few
Biters
near the front of the church, but they wouldn’t be any trouble for us to take out.

“Fender stop here, I’m going to kill those two things silently.” I said. Fender looked at me through the rear view mirror. I held up my bow and he stopped the van. I opened the back and got out. I pulled an arrow from my quiver and put it against my bow. I pulled back sighting in on the biter that was about ten yards away. It hadn’t seen me yet. It looked to be an older male who was wearing a black suit and tie. He was limping from his right foot as he walked around in a small circle. His face was covered in blood. I couldn’t tell how he died, but he was definitely dead.

I took a deep breath and released the arrow. It struck him in the side of the head and he fell down as I pulled out another arrow. The other biter was a woman and she saw her fellow biter fall from my arrow but was unfazed by the attack. She was maybe three yards farther away than the first
Biter
. Again, I took a deep breath and released my arrow. It flew through the air and right past her. She turned towards me and started running at me. I pulled out another arrow, pulled back the arrow, and released it. This one struck her in the chest. I backed up passed the van which was facing her. I went to pull out another arrow but I didn’t have time to load it. She was only a few feet from the front of the van. Then as soon as she was in front of the passenger door, Mendez kicked open the door. It struck her with such force she was thrown to the ground. I grasped another arrow, pulled it back on my bow, and released. This one struck her in the right eye.

“You need some more practice Ted.” Mendez said, pulling the door shut. When the door was closed, I saw where her face had left a bloody face print on the door.

Fender drove forward to the front of the church as I retrieved my arrows from the two bodies. I met Gus at the entrance to the church.

“I hope this place is unlocked, I’d hate to have to break into a church.” Gus said smiling.

“I just hope they have some food inside.” I said. The doors were unlocked.

The inside of the church was exactly as I had expected. There were several rows of wooden pews (the kind with kneelers) on each side of an aisle leading up to three steps which led to the Alter. The Alter was made of a dark wood and had a white tablecloth across it with a large gold bible on top. Behind it was a large wooden cross-big enough to crucify a real person on. Above the cross was a large round stain glass window of Jesus. On each side of the Alter were doors that probably led to a back area where the priest would change.

“Ted, do you think it’s good luck to be in a church? Like, do you think the
Biters
can enter it?” Gus asked.

“I think your confusing
Biters
with vampires.” Fender said laughing.

“Yeah I think your right.” I said.