Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse (Book 1): Sanctuary (45 page)

“Fucking
monsters,” said Lizzy. “I’m killing anyone I see with that emblem on his
jacket. I don’t care where they are or what they’re doing. I see that, and I
will shoot.”

Briana
pulled a sheet over some babies lying beside a concrete wall. A rough circular
target had been drawn there with a can of blue spray paint.

“Think
we’re in danger?” asked Mary. She was very quiet, saying almost nothing and
hanging close to her sister.

“We’ll
warn the others when we get back, face to face. No radio in case whoever did
this is close enough to listen. No radio between the Jeeps as we go back
either. This was recent, probably day before yesterday. I’m guessing the
message we received had something to do with it.”

“Steph
was attacked two days before that,” said Lois. “Do you think they were heading
east and those were stragglers?”

“Maybe,”
I replied. “They could have been scouts though, looking for places to resupply
or attack or… I’m going to assume the worst. We’ll head back as soon as we’re
sure there’s no one left alive. Then we spend a few weeks sitting tight in the
castle, out of sight of the roads. Give the freaks who did this some time, and
they’ll probably move far away.”

“Waiting
for them to go isn’t the best plan,” argued Lizzy, “not when we have no way of
telling where they are.”

“Look at
this. Thirty of them killed, and they still had enough to loot and trash the
place, and torture everyone inside, more than two hundred people. There has to
be a lot of them. From all the bullet holes and shrapnel and stuff, I’m going
to say they’re armed to the teeth too, military weapons.”

“We’re
hiding Lizzy,” said Briana. Her tone held no room for discussion or debate.

“Yes,”
agreed Mary.

Lois
nodded as well.

“Fine,”
she snapped. Then Lizzy softened. “You’re all right, anyways.”

We continued
our search, trying to learn anything we could. It was obvious the people
intended to stay long term. They had established themselves in comfort, far
better than us. They were situated along a highway, which meant the risk of
zombies coming along was greater. Still, it seemed to have been working. I
think it’s safer living in the woods mind you, but other strategies were
apparently viable.

Their
scavenging was also far more detailed and organized than ours. One building was
used exclusively as a warehouse with the largest section devoted to food. The
shelves were even labeled using strips of duct tape that someone had written on
with a black marker. Some items remained, but it appeared a large amount had
been taken. The shelves labeled candy were empty, as were the ones for alcohol
and Spam. However, there was no shortage of canned vegetables.

In
addition to looting, the raiders had spent a great deal of time just wrecking
the place. We found furniture slashed, stacks of books burned, and toys and
games broken. We also located their transmitter in an office on the top floor
of the highest building. It had been shot up. There was a log book next to it,
which we took to review later, and we closed the door when we left. There were
file cabinets full of records, apparently relating to this enclave. Those could
be examined in the future, when we returned.

Just
outside the second hole – this was the one farthest from the gate – were seven
zombies, all men, strung up with ropes around their necks. Each was wearing
fresh clothes. My best guess is that they were people from the settlement,
lynched by the raiders and left to reanimate after they strangled to death. The
ropes were arranged so their toes could just touch the ground. It must have
taken a long time before they grew too tired to keep struggling and balancing
in order to breathe. We put an end to them and cut the bodies down.

Interlude – Log Book

I
thought long and hard on whether or not to insert a side story based on the log
book we found in
Martin,
South Dakota
. It
wasn’t technically an individual’s story, which is what I’d been focusing on.
However, I think it’s beneficial to share what this other, nearby group had
done to survive and how they set up their community, along with the news they
inadvertently provided about the rest of the planet. Also, I’m running out of
stories to tell. Being in the field most of the time, I hadn’t learned any
beyond what I’ve already shared. That, or they were closely related to one
previously given.

As with
the diary, I’m not going to rewrite the entries. Most are outright boring,
dealing with everyday issues or providing details of which I have no frame of
reference. Instead, I’ll just summarize the key events, particularly the start,
the initial organization, and their expansion.

Like
every other town in America, the change hit Martin in the wee morning hours
when nearly everyone was asleep. Unlike most others, particularly
Chadron
which fell into complete chaos, there
were people who reacted quickly and decisively. The key figures in this case
were a set of twins, Tara and Dale Zablocki. Both lived with their mother, and
while I had nothing that listed their ages, I’m guessing early twenties.

They
appeared in the center of town around dawn, covered in blood and driving a beat
up station wagon that barely ran. Tara got out and clambered onto the heavily
dented roof. From this perch, she unslung an expensive and extremely accurate
hunting rifle and promptly began shooting. Their family was described as being
nearly destitute, but what money they did come across, and the skills they
possessed, were directed toward guns and only guns.

Tara
dropped one zombie after another, targeting those in the distance, particularly
any that were chasing or attacking the living. There were no reports of her
striking a normal person by accident. While she was doing this, her brother was
keeping the area around the station wagon clear using a high end .45 automatic.
Dale also had an Uzi hanging from an underarm rig but never raised it.

Survivors,
seeing them, ran their way and were completely ignored. The twins never said a
word, never gave any sort of assistance. They just kept on shooting until they
ran out of zombies. Then they set off on foot, impressing a stranger into
service, apparently against his will. This man carried their ammunition as the
pair worked their way through the town. He later said they never displayed any
emotion and did not speak, aside from the bare minimum required. It’s easy to
understand why they’d always been considered outcasts.

Others,
hiding in apartments or houses, soon noticed what they were doing and began to
follow suit. More people appeared, armed with whatever they had available,
taking down the shamblers. By lunch time the town of Martin was mostly zombie
free, and the survivors gathered in the center to decide what to do next. The
injured were taken care of, and a small defense force was organized. Despite
their obvious talents, Tara and Dale were not part of this. The twins
steadfastly refused to obey, and usually acknowledge, any orders.

While
the Zablockis were doing their own thing, without any apparent concern for the
opinions of others, they remained diligent in the shooting of zombies. They
were also the only ones who never hesitated when it came to putting down a
child who had turned. There was no shortage of log entries questioning their
mental state, but neither had ever harmed another person, under any circumstances.
The matter was intentionally ignored.

By the
time the survivors secured a building to spend the night, they numbered nearly
five hundred, out of an initial population of under a thousand along with those
who’d been passing through or trickled in from outlying farms. This didn’t last
of course. A large proportion had been bitten, and after three days the
surviving population was cut in half. At first glance this seems dreadful, but
I know of no other town that had a quarter of its population still breathing
after the first week.

Tara and
Dale continued to go zombie hunting each day, and other than taking a short
break to bury their mother behind the trailer where they lived, the twins kept
to this activity and did little else. Some people chose to leave, other
refugees arrived, and once things settled down the townsfolk decided to
establish an orderly system to guarantee their continued survival. They chose
the absolute worst possibility the human race has ever encountered. It was rule
by committee.

Committees
are evil, not in the hellish sense, although Satan might have had a hand in
their creation, but rather, you end up with constant debates and arguments,
especially at times when immediate action is called for. Committees also have a
disturbing tendency to compromise. It would have been much better to set up an
elected council and just have them vote with the majority winning. We’d been
using that system in the United States since the beginning, and it worked
fairly well. But no, they couldn’t accept something so simple.

There
was a committee for security composed of eight individuals – all the committees
had eight people – a committee for health, a committee for recreation, a
committee for food and water, and so on. Nearly every adult was on one or more
committees, though with twenty two of them that wasn’t hard to arrange. The
people had created an unworkable system. Still, they somehow made it function.

Tara and
Dale, and a few others, were named as free roaming security. Essentially, these
were the individuals more than happy to find and kill zombies in lieu of doing
anything else. They proved exceptionally capable, and after two weeks the
committee on security focused almost exclusively on building the walls around
their compound, leaving the actual fighting to them.

An
important aspect of this burgeoning society was that they were trying to live
as normally as possible and disdained anything that reminded them they were in
the middle of the zombie apocalypse. Their gun policy was the most apparent.
All weapons had to be checked in the armory, other than for the free roaming
security, who were exempt and would have likely refused, and the men and women
on actual watch. Children attended school with set classroom schedules. They
also insisted on extra-curricular activities and organized sports and games.
And people were not allowed to talk about zombies in front of the kids. That
was a big no no.

The log
book said nothing about plans to grow crops, and other than the bodies of some
cats and dogs, probably pets, we found no evidence of livestock of any sort. I
was somewhat surprised at this. At the very least you’d think there’d be a
chicken coop for eggs, but perhaps it was located elsewhere. Their scavenging
was expansive however. They quickly emptied their town and moved down the
roads, steadily clearing them as they went. This done, they would hit an
outlying community and systematically strip it bare with the focus always on
food. Thinking on it, there are enough entries regarding rationing that they
might have simply thought to use boxed and canned goods indefinitely. Still, I
find that difficult to believe. With so many people, someone had to have
suggested they at least plant a vegetable garden.

Things
followed this basic pattern until early November. It was then that Tara and
Dale encountered Sergeant Jim Stone. He was U.S. Army, the last survivor of a
unit that had tried to hold out in
St. Cloud, Minnesota
, to the northwest of
Minneapolis
. They took him back, handed him to the
committees to deal with, and resumed scouring the countryside for zombies.

Stone
was a communications specialist. He had been involved with the early attempts
to organize a response, and these were valiant. According to him, the military
managed to secure most of the bases scattered about the country from the
outset. While their numbers had been decimated due to the initial change, early
bites, and some deserters trying to get to their families, the military had not
lost its equipment. Weapons and supplies they had in abundance.

Safe
zones were then established. Unfortunately, by the time this was accomplished,
most cities had lost power, and there was no easy way to get the news out to
the surviving population.
St. Cloud
was somewhat unique in that it was an ad hoc installation. Stone had been part
of a convoy moving equipment when the change hit. He survived, and they set up
outside the town while trying to get guidance or updated orders. A general told
them to just sit tight.

Being
fairly secure and having generators and state of the art radio and satellite
uplinks, the unit did just that. They were joined by more soldiers, reservists,
and quite a few civilians who were willing to help. This unplanned facility
became an official safe zone forty eight hours later. They even received
supplies, via helicopter, and soon had a defensive ditch dug and barbed wire
strung about. The wire was ideal for slowing zombies, sometimes stopping them
outright if they became entangled.

Stone
spent most of his time inside a truck monitoring communications and sending out
reports. He also had access to satellite imagery. This allowed the man to
confirm, personally, that nuclear weapons had indeed been used. There were the
initial strikes in
India
and
Pakistan
, along with some in
China
, presumably launched by Chinese
government. The satellites also picked up radiation clouds over
France
and throughout other portions of the
world. Many of the civilian reactors had gone critical.

He
confirmed that
Switzerland
had survived as a nation. Between the
fall of
Zurich
and the threat of radiation, those who
remained had fled to the southern regions and settled in the Alps. They were
joined by the Pope and other
Vatican
officials, evacuated by the Swiss Guard
on the first day. Later, the Swiss flew back to
Rome
and
Florence
and recovered much of the artwork
stored in the two great cities. A similar attempt to reach the
Louvre
in
Paris
was aborted when it was discovered the
building had caught fire and burned to the ground. In all, the Swiss had three
hundred thousand people with about half being citizens and the remainder
foreign residents or refugees.

The
United Kingdom
was somewhat functioning with the royal
family and a few members of Parliament holed up in a series of castles and
towns in Scotland. They were in no position to retake their country, but they
had managed to secure large swatches of the highlands. With most of the zombies
well south in
England
and Wales
, they
seemed capable of surviving long term.

The rest
of Europe was in poor shape. There were some Greek islands that came through
sort of intact.
Malta
, with a much reduced population, was
also functioning. Of the rest, there was little information. The Swiss were
sending out teams to search for people. When possible they tried to bring these
back to the Alps. Other times they dropped weapons and supplies.

Israel
also survived. With their well armed
population and huge military, on a per capita basis, they had been able to
eliminate the zombies among them. Then they were forced to shift gears and
fight a religious war. The Muslims, both citizens within Israel and
Palestinians in the territories, blamed the entire affair on the Jews, claiming
it was a Zionist plot intended to destroy the Islamic world. This seems
incredulous, but the clerics began spouting the nonsense from the mosques,
which was where most of the Muslims had gone to organize or for shelter. The
fact that the Israeli army focused on Jewish neighborhoods and settlements and
that they immediately occupied the Temple Mount to use as a secure base within
Jerusalem
added fuel to the claims.

The
battles were short and brutal with no quarter given by either side. The
Israelis won and promptly expelled all Muslims, citizens or not, from their
land. Israel as it exists now is not based on the old borders and certainly not
on the 1967 line. The nation runs from the ocean near
Tel Aviv
through Jerusalem to the
Jordan River
. South, it went into the desert ending
at
Masada
, which was being used once more, after
two thousand years, as a fortress. North, it went about thirty miles.
Everything else was evacuated.

Lying
within their boundaries is the independent town of
Bethlehem
. Most of the Christians, a tiny
minority to begin with, tried to stay out of the conflict. They flocked to the
village, somehow took it from the Palestinians without a fight, and fortified
it. Once things settled down, Israel declared it a free city under their
protection, but while Israel would provide military assistance, the people had
to take care of their own day to day needs. The estimated population of Israel
is two hundred thousand. The population of Bethlehem is six hundred.