Outbreak The Beginning (The Outbreak Series Book 1) (5 page)

Chapter 9

Well I better get back into the house so I can help the kids. Standing up I hear yelling, it’s not really that close but all the same. I try to make out what’s going on but it’s really impossible to tell, it kind of sounds like screaming. I shudder at the thought of being eaten alive. Rushing to the sliding glass doors, I open the screen and step inside. Closing and locking it behind me I make for the living room. “Hey Liam anything new?”

“Yeah, they say it’s spreading, that the hospitals are overflowing and there’s fighting and break-ins all over. Youngstown is really bad Mom and they said something about Martial Law going into effect. Mom what is that?” 

“Well honey, it means the military are taking over and can shoot anyone who break curfew.” Shaking my head I say. “Hank is so not going to like this, he’s the type to shoot his way through. This really isn’t good. Have they said anything about what it is yet?”

“Nope, nothing on what it is Mom.”

“Ok, you hungry? I’m going to make something for dinner?”

“Yeah Mom I can always eat. Are we going to be OK?”

“Yes babe, were going to be fine, we just need to be smart in what we do and pray!!”

I enter the kitchen and see Tabitha is just about done with putting the stuff away and she’s marking things off the check list. “Hey babe, you almost done, I thought I’d cook something up for dinner … it will be a couple hours though.”

“Yep Mom, I’m just about done. Man you have tons of stuff … we don’t need to go to the store for years!!” she says laughing.

“Oh Tabby, you’re so funny! There’s enough to get us through that’s for sure but we’re always going to need more, much, much, more.” Opening up the refrigerator, I look to see what I have ready to make, ah! Pulling out the chicken, I take it over to the sink. Once I remove the wrapping, I rinse it off. I really hate handling raw chicken, it’s slimy and gross. I grab a plate and lay all the chicken out. “Hey, do you think John will grill these up?”

“Yeah Mom, he loves to grill, hold on and I’ll go get him. If he’s not done with Nate, I’ll take his place.” Tabby darts off.

“Fine. Hmm, what else for dinner? Well, let’s see, I have fresh corn from the local farmer, that would be good and some mashed potatoes would be amazing and some bread. That should do it.” The hammering falters then continues at a lesser rate.

John enters from the back of the house. “Hey, Tabby said you wanted me to grill the chicken?”

“Yes that would be great, that way I can get the rest of the food ready,” I say.

“Ok sure, we have one window left in the last bedroom and the office off of that. Nate even did the door window that leads outside, just to be safe. I mean there is the main fence around the whole place and then the smaller one off the private patio for the spare bedroom. Hey, who’s getting that room anyways?” he asks.

“Well Mom and Hank will get that when they decide to come here. And it sounds like you guys did a great job on the windows.  You can’t be too careful.” 

John grabs the chicken and goes outside. With that being done I can take a breather, something I really need to do. I grab a little pink case as I go out the front door. I sit down on my special chair close to the garage, open up the case and pull a cigarette out, I light up, inhaling deeply and sit back. Then the damn phone rings. Fishing it out my pocket I answer it, it’s my Mom.

“Hey Mom?”

“Well just got off the phone with your sister. She and Pete are going to come this way sometime tomorrow. They’re bringing the RV but I told them you had an extra room for them and that Tomas can share one of the boy’s rooms is that ok?”

My sister married Pete around eight years ago and damn can he be a cocky guy. He’s a firefighter and paramedic, maybe that’s why he’s so cocky. They never had any kids together, she had Tomas from another marriage and Pete had 5 kids from his first marriage. Can you say the damn Brady Bunch!!! Don’t get me wrong, Pete is one hell of a guy, he’s so good to my sister and there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for anyone in the family.

“Yes Mom that will work. So they’re coming there then to my house?”

“Yes Egypt, that’s what I’m saying they’re packing up as much food, water and stuff they can carry.”

“Ok Mom, geez don’t be so testy,” I say laughing. “So are you and Hank coming?”

“Well babe I would think so, Hank says your house is a fortress. But I think he wants to talk to you first.” 

“Ok Mom, what about Aunt Nancy and her family?”

“Well, I think they’re going to stay where they are for now.”

“Wow, ok, how stupid is that, but whatever? You guys have something to eat down there for tonight?” I ask.

“Yes, Hank got some fried chicken the other day, so we are going to have that tonight. Ok honey, I will call if I hear anything more, love you.”

“Love you Mom.” Hanging up, I finish my cigarette. Looking over to where the school is I see that it’s still smoking. I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Walking back into the house I leave the big door open and lock the glass door. I love the light coming in. Liam is still watching TV but now he’s got his game boy in his lap and playing it. I guess the news is all played out for the moment.

Going into the kitchen, I start the rest of dinner. I can hear what the others are doing and the hammering has stopped. Nate is talking to his sister, or rather arguing with her. Sighing, some things will never change. The end of the world isn’t going to alter them. John’s outside fighting with the grill. The chicken looks almost done. I better start setting the table. John comes in with the chicken. “Hey John go tell everyone time to eat.” Taking the rest of the dinner to the table I sit down waiting for everyone to get in here.

I wait for everyone to sit down and I glance at Liam. “Why don’t you pray for us this evening?” We all bow our heads while he recites a prayer. He includes us all, blesses the food, to help the homeless, even what’s going on now! After he’s finished, we dig in.

Hey guys we need to figure out who’s going to keep watch first tonight, I think we can do it with three shifts so at least two of us can sleep the whole night.

Nate talks first, “Mom I’ll do first watch.”

Tabby speaks up, “I’ll do second watch Mom, I know you’ve been through a lot today.”

“Well Tabby, you’re on second, but I think we all have been through a lot.” I sip my pop. “I’ll take the early morning so tonight is set.” I glance at John and Liam. “You guys will start tomorrow night’s watch.” I see Liam nod at me and John is just John.

“Mom, what’s the plan tomorrow?” Nate says.

“Well we need to get the RV’s from G-dad down here. And get the ones in the side yard lined up out back. Then I want most of the gas out of them. Get them ready for people to live in. Blankets water that kind of stuff. Nate, you might have to get more wood so that way we have it ready to cook with if we need to. I don’t want to use the generators until we have to and get the cameras up and working, that’s something I never got around to doing but we’re going to need them. Also anything that needs washed we need to get it all done. We don’t know how long the electricity is going to be on. I would think it would be for a while but I could be wrong.”

I grab the dishes and take them into the kitchen. I rinse them ready for the dishwasher. The others start doing the same thing. After the dining room and kitchen are cleaned up, they all go to the living room and watch TV. I feed the dogs, grab my pop and cigarettes and head out the door.  I love it out here, so peaceful. Sitting down in the recliner, I kick it out and relax. Closing my eyes I listen to the leaves blowing, the birds chirping, the dogs barking. I glance to my right and see them playing. To have that energy would be amazing. Being forty isn’t so bad. I think I’m in the best shape of my life. I work out five days a week. I run a mile or two every day. Well I used to run, I don’t think it would be smart anymore. Maybe I’ll get a last run in tomorrow morning before everyone gets up. That’s one of the times that I feel free and can think. It’s not that I don’t have a ton to think about, I mean we will have the whole family living here at some point.

Shivering, it’s starting to cool down. Stretching, I decide to get up. Strolling over to the side yard I look at the RV’s, I’m glad I didn’t sell them. They will sure come in handy and I have two more down at Hanks. We should have enough room for everyone. It’s not like we’re not a close family. Walking around the yard with the dogs in tow, I can see it now how it’s going to look like with everything set up. I reckon it will look pretty cool considering what’s going on. I know the younger kids will think it’s just like camping.

I get a sick feeling for they’re still just babies and they have to see the world at its worst. We have to keep them safe. It’s the thing that terrifies me the most. That has got to be the number one priority. We have to keep all the kids safe and yes, that includes mine. I know that they have grown up into fine young men but that doesn’t matter to a mother…

I step up to the sliding door and yell for the dogs, we all enter and lock up for the night. It’s after 9 pm already, they say time flies when you’re having fun. NOT!! I sit down in the family room and watch TV. Nothing has changed, they seem to be repeating the same thing as earlier. To me that can mean one of two things and to me neither are any good. It’s that or I have just watched too many zombie movies.

Trying to lighten the mood a little I say, “Hey guys want to watch a zombie movie?” I laugh.

All at once they say, “NO.”

I start laughing so hard my stomach hurts. I throw my hands up. “OK, OK, I give up!”

“MOM that’s not even funny,’ Liam says. He leans over and hugs me, gives me a kiss on the cheek. “Good night Mom, I love you, see you in the morning.”

“Good night sweetie, I love you to.” 

Tabby and John get up and I hug them both, they head downstairs to go to bed too.

I glance at Nate.

He says, “Mom I’m good, why don’t you try and get some sleep? It’s going to start getting harder as these days go on.”

Chapter 10

“I know babe, we just have a ton of stuff to do and not enough days to do it. You sure you’re good? I can take the first watch if you want?” I say.

“No Mom I know what to do. And I’m not tired anyways. I’ll wake Tabby up here later to take over,” Nate says.

Strolling out to the kitchen, I grab a bowl and a spoon. Heading to the refrigerator I open up the freezer and grab some moose tracks ice cream. Scooping out a big mound of it I put it back. Walking into the living room and hand it to Nate.

Grinning up at me, he takes it and stands up to hug and kiss me. “I love you Mom. Go get some sleep. We need you bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in the morning!” 

Laughing, I say, “Ok babe, I’m headed to bed.”

“Hey Mom, are you going running in the morning?”

“Yeah I think so. Why?”

“Wake me up and I will run with you.” 

That’s my boy! “Ok Nate, will do.” I enter my bedroom with my babies in tow. I check the patio door is locked. After brushing my teeth I turn off the light and prepare for bed. Pulling back the blanket, I toss Rufus up on the bed. The poor little old guy, he just can’t jump up like he used to. Herk is already on the bed, the brat. Getting comfortable, baby Herk goes under the covers, all the way down to my legs. While Rufus gets under the covers with his little head on my pillow. I know we are good to go to sleep. We’re all set.

Grabbing my gun from the floor by my pants I put it on the night stand. This will be something we will all have to do from now on. I lay there a minute, close my eyes and just know that I’ll be having nightmares about what happened today. Who wouldn’t? I just have to look forward until tomorrow hoping that it will be a new bright day. And hopefully no death in it.

“MOM, MOM, wake up its 3:30 am. It’s your turn to keep watch,” Tabitha says.

Rolling over, I open my eyes. DAMN! She has the lights on already. Stretching I look at her and say, “OK babe I’m up you go get some sleep. Anything happen last night?”

“Not really, Mom, just seen a few people walking by and a few cars. That’s it.”

“Ok honey. Why don’t you go get some sleep? It’s going to be a very busy day. We have a lot to do before the family gets here.” I stretch and throw back the blankets.

After freshening up with cold water I dry my face, neck and start brushing my hair, looks like it’s going to be a ponytail kind of day. Putting my hair up I flip the light off and walk back into my bedroom. I look at Tabitha she’s taking off her shoes and jeans.

“Hey babe what you doing?”

“Oh yeah” she says. “Can I sleep in your bed for a while Mom? I just feel safer here.”

Looking at her you wouldn’t think she was 20, she looks maybe 16. And boy is she beautiful with long brown hair, big blue eyes, she’s just a little thing really. That’s why guys her age laugh when she tells them she hunts and fishes and I have to laugh because she’s a better shot than anyone I know. It’s funny because if someone messes with her brothers she gets ready to kick their asses. She’s the only one allowed to pick on them. “Yeah babe, you can sleep here.”

I go to my closet, grab a pair of yoga pants and another tank top, lime green this time. I throw them on and grab a matching pair of tennis shoes and socks and head out the door. “Come on Rufus, Baby Herk wanna go outside?” They slowly get up and stretch. “Come on boys.”

They follow me down the hall and into the dining room. I let them out and leave the door open enough for them to come in when they’re finished. I flip the outside light on, check for danger signals. I freeze at the distant gunfire followed by an explosion. I see a flash of light and thick, black smoke. Sirens! Then I hear the screams. I shoo the dogs back in and lock up.

In the kitchen I go straight for the Keurig, grab a mug and put it under the nozzle and hit brew, what a way to make coffee, one push of a button. I hear it start to gurgle while it fills my mug. The smell of the coffee hits me and boy is it divine.

Switching on the TV, I sit in the chair by the window so that I can look out! It’s still dark but I should be able to see something move around by the light of the moon. As the TV comes on, I take a sip of my coffee. 

Headline news -- The CDC is now saying that this can be spread by a bite or scratch, that it’s highly contagious. Once bitten or scratched you will become infected. As of right now there is no cure and it’s spreading rapidly. Everyone must stay indoors. Do not go to any hospitals, they are at capacity. This is not the Flu, repeat not the Flu. The CDC doesn’t know what it is. It behaves like rabies but it can’t be spread to animals. China is still not responding to anything, it’s a dead country. There is some speculation that they are all infected over there and there’s no one left to contact. Youngstown, Ohio is in chaos and some of the city in ruins from fires and vandalism. All cities have been quarantined and are no-go areas.

This sucks big time! This seems to me to be the end of the world as we know it and my family is so very lucky that I prepared like I did. There’s nothing to see outside except the fence, I must get Nate to hook up the cameras so that we can see what’s going on.