Stage 6 (2 page)

Lucy then started to yell, “You just killed him. You just killed someone! You’re a murderer!”

I yelled back, “It was in self defense! You saw him! He was just like his dad, out of control and mad!”

As Lucy was no doubt about to yell something back, my mom interrupted and took charge. “Both of you get it together. He’s bleeding all over our floor.”

Surprised at the cold indifference in her voice, I helped as they moved the barricades against the sliding glass door and then dragged Devin’s body out to the back yard. I hurried them inside, and then slid the couch against the door. My mom and Lucy, now blood-smeared were huddled together on the couch watching any news they could find. I immediately went to the bath tub and washed myself and changed clothes. I wanted to return to my room, and there was no way I was getting it all bloody. I went back to my room, and started to make a list and collect items that could be useful in this epidemic, because I was now sure that this was indeed an epidemic. It spread to Devin from his father in a matter of hours, turning him into a raging psychopath. I had never been very much for fighting, but I loved puzzles and strategy games. I made a list of all the things I had to use at my disposal, keeping in mind strategic themes I had learned over the years.

1. A dog. This is an invaluable weapon. Judging from the experience with Devin, Hunter seems to instinctively know when somebody is about to transform. He will alert me and he will protect me.
   
2. Information. It was approximately twelve hours after Devin had been attacked by his dad before he grew violent. It seems likely that Devin was infected by his dad, possibly via scratches or bites.
   
3. Last, and in my opinion most important, is a Mossberg 500 pump action shotgun. Before my dad passed away, he had bought this for “home defense.” I’m sure he never imagined a situation like this though. When I was thirteen, he had taught me most of the basics of handling the gun and I remembered most of his teachings. After loading the twelve chamber shotgun, there were still plenty of shells left in a large ammo box of his.
   

My mom walked in and started to ask something when she stopped.

Looking down, my mom noticed the shotgun. She looked at me as one might look at a misbehaving baby, and asked “What do you think you’re going to do with that? You might have killed Devin because he was attacking you, but we aren’t going to make a habit of murdering these people.”

Surprised at her sudden attitude, I retorted “Well you don’t have to use these, but I for one am not going to be caught by one of those things again without a proper weapon.”

She yelled back “Don’t call them ‘things’! They are real living people, and you have to treat them as such!”

“The hell they are! Devin tried to kill Hunter back there, and his dad tried to eat him! Don’t tell me these are normal people. Normal people don’t vomit up blood on other people’s couches.”

Before she could come up with a reply I brushed past her and walked to where the kitchen table used to be. I sat down in one of the old chairs, and thought about how amazingly different our house had become. In one hard work-filled day, we had transformed it from a comfortable home to a well defended fortress. Thinking about forts however, I remembered that the easiest way to beat a fort is to starve them out. I began to make plans.

If we were being affected in a small county in Texas, then we could reasonably assume it had already spread through many other places. I hoped that this would get better, but it never hurts to think. Planning for the worst scenario was my philosophy, and it had served me well in the past. Where would we go? We couldn’t survive indefinitely here without any way of getting more food. My thoughts were interrupted as Lucy turned the volume up and I could clearly hear the T.V. from my room. Now there were a bunch of official looking people on the T.V., and the words STATE BROADCAST were splayed across the top. I walked into the living room. There was a politician speaking into a microphone, and a crowd of people in medical suits standing behind him. He started to address the camera.

“We now have the unfortunate responsibility, of informing anyone who is watching that this, ‘Infection,’ has engulfed the population. In the next few minutes, I will attempt to prepare you with the information we have. The state of Texas has been placed under military Quarantine. Nobody is allowed in or out, until this is dealt with. We are working on a way to fix this situation, but for now... Be on the lookout not only for Infected humans, but also any strange acting animals. We have reason to believe this virus can jump species. This virus spreads through body fluids, and can be transferred through saliva via bites, or contact with Infected blood. Once Infected the victim can feel no pain, and will be consumed with an irrational hatred for everything and anyone. It will see any living thing as its only possible food source. We do not have medical treatment. The only way to deal with the Infected is to kill them. In this state of emergency, we are lifting all laws regarding violence with the Infected. If you come into contact with an Infected, you MUST do whatever you can to survive. We estimate that at least twenty percent of the population is Infected, although this number is increasing extraordinarily fast. They tend to move in groups, and rarely act alone. Even just one will soon attract more to its location, especially if they have the scent of food. We have no way of knowing how long this will last. I must emphasize the military is organized and in control. Camps and forts are the biggest and best defenses we have going right now. There are trained soldiers waiting there to protect you. This will not last forever, and there are already many Nations mobilizing their Outbreak Control forces. They will help us soon. In the absence of a timely solution, you can expect electricity, power, gas, and water to shut off within weeks. Good luck to you all, and may God be with us. Any new information we have will be added to this broadcast. This message will repeat itself indefinitely.”

As the broadcast began to repeat itself, we sat there in stony silence, digesting the horror of our situation. We were in a suburban area, with probably thousands of Infected rampaging around us. Almost certainly everybody we knew was dead. The T.V. had just told us that even one Infected banging around a house (like our predicament) would soon draw more to its location. It had now been over twelve hours since Devin’s dad started attacking our front door, and we could only assume that by morning there would be more. Additionally, the entire state of Texas was quarantined and we couldn’t get out even if we wanted to.

“Alright,” I said, “You two should get that Infected blood off of you. As long as it doesn’t get into any openings you should be ok, but let’s not take any chances. I’ll stand guard tonight also, to make sure we don’t turn psycho and eat each other.”

Hunter barked in affirmation.

I woke up early in the morning, my phone alarm set to six o’clock. Surprisingly, after being relieved by Lucy for the night shift I had slept quite well considering the circumstances. I felt well rested for the day. I guess the excitement, although terrifying, kept me going. I checked all the windows for break-ins, of which I found none. Then I stopped dead as I neared the kitchen window to the backyard; through the non barricaded sliver in the side I could see the horrifying result of Devin’s dad’s banging around our house. There were ten Infected wandering about, slamming into the walls and stumbling every few steps. They appeared to be searching for ways in. Shocked, I ran to the front door to the see the same thing but even worse. The streets were filled with wandering Infected swarming all the houses, and there were at least twenty outside my house. There was no way of knowing but I assumed we were surrounded around the sides of the house as well. Shaken by the news, I went to wake Lucy and my mom up. They reacted better than I anticipated, and set about making breakfast. I guess their way of dealing with the situation was to try and start the day normally. I, on the other hand was immediately concerned with our chances for survival. Sooner or later they would learn that the windows were our soft spots, and attempt to break them. Sure our barricades were strong, but they weren’t invincible and the Infected were fighting for their food after all. They had all day and weren’t about to give up. We only had several household items left for scrap wood; we had the rest of our chairs and the shelves in the cabinet. And our food, even rationed for the three of us, would only last three weeks at the most. I voiced my concerns to Lucy and my mom, but they said nothing in reply. We sat there in silence, listening to the barely intelligible moans outside.

Then Lucy said, “What if there are others nearby? There is strength in numbers, and if we are outnumbered by ten-to-one we need every person we can find. I’m sure that other people are nearby.”

I replied happily for the first time in over a day, “Yeah! Ian and his family live across the street. They hunt a lot and probably have quite a few more weapons than us. They aren’t used to being the ones hunted, but still they should be ok...”

My mom still said nothing, and I knew now that I would have to take charge here.

“Alright, there’s still some furniture we can chop down. Lucy, gather all the things we have left that can be used as barricades. Here, use this saw.”

“Mom, why don’t you see if you can organize all our food into items that can be stored long term, and food we have to eat right away. I’ll see if we can call Ian and his family, or try and put up a sign or something to let others know we’re alive. Alright?”

They nodded consent, and we set off on our own separate jobs.

I muttered to myself, “I hope the phones are working today...” and pulled out my cell phone to call Ian. I anxiously waited for him to pick up.

Ring ring... Ring ring...

“Jack! Hello, dude, are you ok? I’m surprised you can call me. I didn’t think the phones would be working.”

Relieved to hear my good friend’s voice, I answered quickly “Yeah man I’m here. I don’t know what’s up with the phones, but are you guys doing ok?”

A pause followed, then “Well not really. My mom was out shopping when it happened, so we don’t really know what happened to her. But my little sister Karen is here, and my dad. Man whatever these things are, they are persistent. They’ve already broken through several of our windows. I don’t know how long we can survive just beating them back.”

Shocked that they were faring worse than us, I tentatively replied, “Well man, you guys should come over here. We have our house really well barricaded, and the only thing we are short on is food. I’m guessing since your mom was out shopping that you don’t have much, but if you are gonna come over than bring what you have. Oh, and weapons. All we have is a baseball bat and a pump shotgun.”

He said “That sounds great to me; we have all sorts of weapons over here; we just haven’t slept for fear of those things getting inside. I’ll let my family know about the possibility. I’ll call back in a little bit with a plan. Bye.”

I hung up, and allowed myself a few seconds to smile. We definitely weren’t the only ones left in the neighborhood. I hurried to finish my second plan however, to make some sort of flag we could drape outside saying that we were alive. Any search and rescue parties would know where to look for survivors, and perhaps even some other survivors might find us as well. As Lucy said, there is strength in numbers. I tore the white sheet off my bed, and grabbed some old permanent paint form underneath the counter. I very carefully painted “We are alive. Fortified house but surrounded. Need help, and food.” After finishing however, I wondered how I would ever get to drape this over the roof with all the Infected just waiting for me outside. I decided I would quickly open the front door, run out and climb on to the roof from on top of my mom’s van. I waited until it looked clear and then ran out with my banner in one hand and shotgun in the other. Immediately, a group of Infected noticed me. I jumped up onto the van’s hood, and threw the shot gun up on our roof, hoping it wouldn’t fall off. I then quickly hoisted myself up on the roof as the Infected began to run towards me. Once on the roof I looked down at the growing horde of Infected snarling up at me. They weren’t smart enough to copy what I had just done and jump on the van, but they were strong and determined and it wouldn’t be long before they figured out another way to jump on the roof. It occurred to me once I began to unfurl the banner however, that I had brought no nails. I pried up some of the shingles on the roof, and yanked out some loose nails that must have been left there some time ago. After a few tries I got a bunch of nails up, and I hammered them in with my shot gun. The heavy work finished, I wondered how I would get down. Considering the giant horde of zombies, the chimney was beginning to look like a viable option. Luckily we had a pretty old house, which was built with a big old fashioned chimney. I could easily fit down it.

I peered over the side and yelled down it, “Someone clear the pile of wood and dirt down there, I’m going to come down the chimney.”

Lucy yelled back up that she was on it. Meanwhile one or two Infected had gotten the bright idea of trying to climb the trees nearby and then jumping onto the roof. I grabbed the Mossberg and aimed at the nearest one. BOOM my shoulder was thrown back as the shotgun blasted the Infected off the tree and on to the ground. Smiling grimly, I began to yell down the chimney to see how it was going when my phone rang.

I answered to hear Ian’s voice. “We are going to use my dad’s truck we have in the garage to store all our weapons and food. We are coming out now, because watching from our windows I can see you on the roof. You’re distracting all the Infected and bringing them to you, allowing us to get out. Tell someone to open the garage and we will drive right across the street into it. My dad will stay and snipe the Infected in front of our truck with his hunting rifle. You’re going to have to shoot any Infected that make it into the garage, and then close the garage immediately afterwards.”

I replied quickly, “Alright man! Stay on the phone and when I’m ready I’ll give you the go.”