Rise (4 page)

We have spent the last few days at a campground a few kilometers from the pass. We decided to stop when we went through the pass, and saw a gas truck at the service station by the tourism center. We checked the place out and found nobody was there, despite the fact that there were a few cars outside. The front doors were unlocked and there were lights on inside, so I went in and had a look around. I took the police officer's handgun instead of the rifle this time. Sarah and Darren stayed in the Explorer, and when I waved, they moved the vehicle up to the pumps and I went back out to help pump fuel. We ended up with a full tank, and then found a few empty gas cans in a car nearby, so we filled them too and put them in the back. Then it was time for a shopping trip. I'd seen lots of things inside that I think we could use, so Darren and I went inside while Sarah kept the rifle outside in case we had to run quickly.

We loaded up some bags with all the canned goods we could find, and grabbed bottled water and fruit juice as well out of the coolers. I spotted a portable gas camping stove and grabbed that too. We loaded all this into the back of the Explorer (getting crowded back there now) and then decided to look inside the tourist trap gift store next door.

It started raining, which was odd, since the sun was shining. We had passed a sign that said the weather could change suddenly up high in the mountains, and I guess that was true. So while it was raining we walked over to the store, Sarah keeping pace with us in the Explorer. Inside (again the door was unlocked) we found the place in chaos. Shelves tipped over, tacky tourist shirts and books scattered all across the floor, and a bloody handprint on the cashiers’ desk. As we stood there looking at the destruction someone came out of the back. Some
thing
, rather. This creature had once been a gas station staff member, and its reek preceded it, making both of us gag in the close quarters. It looked terrible, smelled worse, and came at us with a low moan and bared teeth. Darren yelled and back-pedaled outside, and I followed him. The walking corpse was on me before I could get another three steps. It was faster than I suspected it would be. It grappled me and tried to bite me, but all it managed was a mouthful of my denim shirt, and I used a judo technique to sweep its legs out from beneath it. I lost the gun somewhere; I don't even know when I dropped it, probably the adrenaline acting on me. Dead guy fell down, but was turned over in a second and getting up again. He lunged at me as I backed off, and I let him grab my sleeve. A martial arts teacher I had years ago had once told me that if an opponent grabbed your arm or your sleeve, you had him. He'd committed his energy, and you could do whatever you wanted at that point. I found this to be true in practice, and now I found it to be true in reality. I twisted his wrist back, caught it with my other hand, straightened his arm as I slid behind him, and broke his arm at the elbow with a sharp thrust as I passed. Then I found out that the undead don't feel pain. A blow like this would normally have incapacitated a normal human, but this dead guy just ignored it. He was off balance, and one arm was useless now, but he still wanted to bite me. He snarled silently and tried to grab me, and I had to dodge out of the way. I slipped in a puddle and went down, skinning my palms as I broke my fall. I expected nearly two hundred pounds of undead carnivore to land on my back, but instead I heard a gunshot. Not the .22, Darren had picked up the cop's gun, and shot the dead guy in the temple. He toppled and twitched once, and then bloody gore leaked out of the exit wound in his head. Sarah was there right away checking me over, but other than skinned palms I was fine. We looked around carefully, but nothing else came to try and eat us. We packed up what we had and drove away.

After a few kilometers we found this campground. There was a trailer abandoned here, and we stayed the night in it. It was cramped and the beds were small, but it made us feel safer to have metal walls around us. No one else was around, though several of the campsites had signs that people were there recently.

At about 2 in the morning I was out on watch, looking at the glorious sky full of stars, when a few cars went by on the highway. We had the lights off, and the campsite was set back a ways from the road, so I doubt they know we were there. I counted four cars, and they drove by slowly, about 40 kph maybe. They were going west, the same way we were going. They passed and the night got quiet again. Why they were traveling at night I have no idea. I thought that maybe that would attract any undead nearby to the noise and light.

I have also been thinking about how this happened so fast. It seems like within two weeks the whole world just fell apart. Sarah had the thought that maybe the virus was widespread before this started, and something triggered it. She said that some viruses mutate and change when certain conditions happen, and maybe this one was a mutated version of a more common virus. I don't know. I can't imagine what the cities are like now. I think heading into the mountains was the best and luckiest thing we could have done. We have seen a few zombies, some people trying to survive, but nothing on the scale of what we saw in TV feeds from New York or Toronto. It still seems unreal. I think about friends and family, and I have no idea what happened to them. Both Sarah and I lost our cell phones or forgot them when this all started, and we haven't found a working phone so far. And who would I call? Anyways, it's near dinner time now. Its overcast, about 7 pm, and the sun will set pretty soon here. We have been using the propane stove in the trailer to heat food, and Darren is making something that smells wonderful. The kid has hidden talents. I'll try to update more later.

It's the 13th...a month since this all started. It's amazing how fast the world fell apart.

It's raining lightly, and has been on and off for a few days. We've stayed at the campground, and after the first night I went down to the entrance road and shut the barricade. It won't keep anyone or anything out, but it'll make noise if it's moved, and give us some warning.

A plane went over earlier today. We all heard a jet go by at about 10 this morning. After the quiet we have been used to it was quite loud, but we couldn't see it at all due to the clouds.

Our food and water situation is growing dire. We have enough food to get through about a week and a half, or even two weeks if we stretch it a little. Water is so far not too much of an issue, though we all wish there was enough hot water for a shower. I haven't shaved in days, and Sarah is looking for a way to wash our clothes. We refilled all our empty water bottles from a stream, and boiled all the water on the propane stove to purify it. Provided the propane lasts, we'll use the purified water first, and save the unopened bottles.

We haven't seen anyone on the road since the convoy went past the other night. The radio doesn't receive anything this high up in the mountains. We've been considering our options, and we think we are going to keep moving in a few days, heading for Kelowna eventually, or maybe we'll go north towards the Yukon. Either way, we'll have to get supplies and a better vehicle.

It's our last night here in the campground. We've decided it is time to move on. The rain and cold weather at night have chilled us, and we're out of propane now. We have taken to huddling together in the camper even during the daytime to stay warm. Even in June the temperature this high up can get fairly cold.

We haven't seen anyone pass this way since my last entry. A bear wandered through here two days ago around dawn, but he left us alone. He looked healthy and well fed, and probably outweighed all three of us together. He only got about 100 feet away from us at the closest. As soon as he smelled us he took off.

We are planning to head into Revelstoke and see if anyone has survived. From there we are going to try to find a better vehicle, better on gas than the Explorer, and head north towards Prince George.

I am on first watch again. Darren thinks it is stupid keeping a watch here, but I disagree. All it would take is one of those things to find us all asleep, and that would be it, we'd all be dead. I'd better get to it; it is starting to get dark now, and colder. If I walk around and wear layers I can keep warm, though without the propane we can't make coffee, and I won't risk a fire that can be seen or smelled for miles. More in the morning when we're on the road. I'll make Sarah drive.

We drove towards Revelstoke, leaving the camper behind. In the event someone else comes this way and needs some shelter, we left the key in the door, and a few blankets and a note inside telling who we are and where we went.

We passed the odd car or truck on the road, but otherwise saw nothing and no one. There were a few deer out on the roads, but they ran off as soon as we appeared. We stopped to siphon fuel a few times, each time being careful to keep a watch while I ran the tubing into the other car. I picked up a magazine from one car, a Newsweek dated four days before I left Calgary. It didn’t contain anything useful.

We reached Revelstoke without any trouble, but found some when we got there. The town wasn't exactly
crawling
with the undead, but there were enough out in the streets to convince me the place was overrun. The sight of houses and stores with smashed windows and doors, a car nose first into a traffic light pole, and a few skeletal remains in a store parking lot, not to mention the trash blowing along the sidewalks, was more than enough to make me think this was a dead town. We drove past a few shambling dead things, easily avoiding them, and were thinking of just driving straight through when we heard a gunshot. It was easy to tell what it was, but we couldn't tell where it came from! The undead seemed to know however, as they all turned in a northern direction and started shambling off that way. We quickly decided that if there were other survivors we had better go help.

We drove into the area the undead were searching and heard another shot. After that we had an idea where it was coming from, and then it was only a matter of time. We found a house with a pile of corpses in front of it. There must have been twenty or so, and the walking dead were converging on this place. In the second floor bay window I could see someone moving, and then there was another shot, and a nearby zombie went down as its head was destroyed by a bullet. The person in the window started waving, and I drove right up to the house, and then turned the Explorer around. Darren leaned out the window with the rifle from the back seat and shot an approaching undead, and Sarah stepped out with the pistol and covered the front of the vehicle. I saw the windows open on the second floor, and a rope was thrown out. The main floor doors and windows were all boarded up and sealed with bars, so I guess whoever was in there was coming out the window. A backpack got tossed out just as I was stepping out of the truck with the baseball bat, and I heard Sarah shoot twice at something. Darren shot at another one that was about 50 feet away. I ran over to grab the pack just as a young woman with a rifle and a child of about four clinging to her back stepped out of the window and down the rope in one smooth motion. We just stood and stared at each other for a second, and then I grabbed her pack and told her to come on. We all piled into the Explorer, and I stepped on the gas as everyone was getting squared away in the back.

She introduced herself as I wove the vehicle around and through the walking corpses that were clutching for us. Her name is Jessica, and her son is named Michael. She busied herself getting him belted into the middle seat, and then asked if we had any food or water. She explained that the electricity and water had cut off a week ago, and she was out of food for two days now and nearly out of bottled water as well. Darren reached back and gave her two water bottles and a can of fruit salad and some canned soup, and after he found a can opener in his pack she opened them and fed her child. Little Michael was so happy to see the fruit salad especially that he cried as he was eating.

By this time we had gotten back to the main road safely, and in a matter of minutes we had left Revelstoke behind. I checked the gas; we had over two thirds of a tank still, so I wasn't too worried.

Jess told us her story as we drove. She was so relieved to see other people that she just about broke down a few times, but was still able to tell us an amazing tale. When the dead rose, they didn't come near Revelstoke for a few days, and nobody in the town really believed what was going on, but the failing communications and lack of road traffic alarmed everyone. Then one night an 18-wheeler rig had crashed into the gas station on the west end of the town, and apparently the driver had died. When the local police opened up the trailer to see what he was hauling they found several partially devoured corpses, and about a dozen of the undead, who immediately attacked them. The police were killed in just a few minutes, and the undead spread into the early morning town and attacked homes and people. Jessica's boyfriend Ken had gone off when the attack started to see if he could help, and never came back. They had boarded up the doors and windows a few days earlier, and Jess had the forethought to fill every container she could with water. She then moved herself and her son upstairs in their house, and took a chainsaw to the staircase. She left enough for herself to climb down in an emergency, and sat and waited while her neighbors left town or were killed by the walking dead. She had her rifle with her, and when the undead came too close to her house she shot them. It took a few tries to figure out that the brain was the right spot to aim for, but after that she didn't let any undead within 40 feet of her house while she was awake.