The Event: The Beginning (17 page)

              It wasn't a long walk to the nearest door of the mall, and we saw no signs of movement, nor did we hear anything all the way there. I could see the glass doors had been smashed at some point, and some hasty repairs done to block them off. I motioned to Roger's group to take the far side while my group would stay to the left upon entering.  One of the guys on my team, David, I think, tried the handle and discovered it was unlocked. He glanced up at Roger, then back at me, and I nodded. He then pulled it open towards us and Roger's team rushed in. Once the last man entered, David moved to enter and the rest of my team followed.

              Roger had already moved to the right and found an open store to search as my team moved to the left. There was an information desk followed by a large window for the first store. Trash was strewn all over the floor, and the skylights had been broken at some point, possibly from a storm by the looks of the damage and debris. Water was still pooled in places, and you could smell the mold starting to grow. We stepped slowly over debris and trash and went around the corner to enter the first store. It was apparently a bath and body works type store, with shampoos and lotions and such, or so it appeared with what was left behind. A quick search told us nothing was left of value or usable, and no infected or humans were hiding in the back.

              We stayed in a group as we went to the next store, all the while keeping an eye and ear open for movement in the walkways. Several of the gates were down over some of the stores, but most were not. We ignored the ones with gates as there was no way an infected would be able to open the gates. We crept slowly down the aisle, searching store after store that was open, until we came to the food court. According to the directory we had seen, we were about halfway through with our half of the mall. Tables and chairs were thrown every which way, food scraps and wrappers were trampled underfoot, but there was no sound of movement.

              As we spread out to search, one of the men kicked a chair, making it fall over. The loud sound made us all jump a little, and we immediately heard screeching. Three infected exploded out of a store just ahead of us and turned to look at us.

              "Circle up!" I yelled, moving so my back was to another man. I had my swords out and guns were being aimed. More sounds from the other side proved there were more infected coming out behind counters. Brian fired at the closest one and hit it square in the chest. The infected stumbled backwards, but didn’t drop. Trying to screech, it bubbled blood out of its mouth, but still started moving towards us. More yells and gunshots rang out as the infected started pouring out of the kiosks. Looking around, we were suddenly surrounded.

              I jumped forward and swung at an infected that got close. Cleanly decapitating it, I stepped back to avoid the spray of blood as I kicked it's still twitching body to the ground. We were dropping them pretty quickly and I spun around as I heard noise behind me, but it turned out to be Roger's team coming to help.

              "Heard the yells and shots, figured I couldn’t let you have all the fun.” Roger said as he stepped up next to me, blood dripping from his blade as well.

              "Well, you know, I wanted a party.” I quipped back. The others had formed a line to keep the things from escaping the food court, and finished dropping them one by one. Once the last one fell and stopped moving we assessed the damage. There was about thirty or so infected on the ground, but thankfully none of my people were bitten or hurt.

              "Did you find anything your way?" I asked Roger as we walked around, looking for usable supplies.

              "No, everything was pretty much looted, or trashed. Did you really expect any different?" Roger told me. We picked through the remains of several shops, but nothing usable was found.

              "No, not really. Let’s gather back up and head out. It should be getting dark soon, and I would love to get moving again soon.” I said. I motioned to the group and everyone began gathering back up. Nothing was found of value, so we started heading back out, looking for the entrance we came in, and searching other shops on our way out. All we found was trash, debris, torn clothing, discarded food remains, but no signs of current habitation. We did find a game store fairly intact, which figures as stuff like video games wouldn’t be of much use. I decided we would grab some games and systems to take with us for the kids. Once at the ship, we should have power, so they could be used.

              We made it back to the entrance without further incident, but still slowly opened the door, just in case. All we saw was our group still milling about the vehicles. Walking through the parking lot, we relaxed, but still kept watch as we made our way towards the group. We split up, and I headed towards the rig to check in with Jeff and see if it was road worthy still. The sun was almost down, so I hoped it would be repaired by now, or very soon.

              "What's wrong with it?" I asked Jeff as I got close.

              "Blown hose. I had a spare, so it’s fixed now. I also had more coolant, so once its filled back up I should be fine.” Jeff told me. I could see Jerry and two others still working on the engine, supposedly putting the new hose on. I nodded at Jeff who then turned and went to help finish repairs. I made my way down the line of vehicles, checking in with people, making sure everyone was fine. By the time I touched base with everyone, the sun was just about fully down. We heard vehicles approaching, so I jogged back up near the road so I could see who was coming. It sounded like two cars, so I hoped it was our search teams coming back so we could load up and head out.

              Two cars came around the corner and headed this way. Neither car had lights on, but they did turn directly into the mall and headed straight for us. I looked up at the watchers and saw that several of them had hunting rifles and were aiming at them through the scopes.

              "It’s Aaron and Eric.” one of them called. We all relaxed, and I told the watchers we were going to start loading up to leave. I went to meet Aaron and Eric as they pulled up to the trailers the cars they took belonged on to see how they fared. I didn’t hold out a lot of hope that they found anything, but maybe luck was on our side for a change.

              "Any luck?" I asked as Aaron and his team got out of the car closest to me.

              "Not really. Every building we hit had already been fairly trashed already. A few changes of clothes, a couple of boxes of ammo, but nothing really useful. I don’t even know if the ammo is going to fit in any of our weapons, but we brought them anyways.” Aaron told me. He tossed the small bag of stuff they found back into the car for now as it finished getting tied down on the trailer. I saw the others loading back up into the vehicles, so I went to clean my blades and load up myself. Kids were being herded back into the RV's and the watchers were climbing down off the roofs. I saw Jeff waving to get my attention, and when I finally looked at him and he gave me a thumbs up sign to indicate the rig was fixed. I gave him one back and went inside my RV. I saw Jimmy in the driver's seat already, so I took off my sword belt and set the blades on the table to clean them while we drove. The radio crackled as the other drivers called in saying they were ready. Once everyone was set, I nodded at Jimmy who radioed the order to move, and I heard Jeff's rig fire up.

              We proceeded back to the highway once more in the dark. I hated driving at night, but we were so close to our destination now I didn’t want to risk staying anywhere overnight and risk being attacked. I wanted to be in Petersburg by midnight or so. Finding a place to rest there and begin the search for Dawn and Tony was my next step. Knowing how Tony thought, the army base there would be where I went first. Being fenced, it should be fairly easy to defend, plus it would have supplies, vehicles, and some of the buildings would be fortified, as well as have some sort of underground shelter. That would be my first step, get us to Fort Lee, and find some sort of safe haven for the rest of the night.

              Being a state highway and not an interstate, there was not very many lights on the road. With no real moon tonight, and hardly any stars yet, it was very dark out. Jeff was not going very fast, but at least we were moving. I finished cleaning my blades and put them away. Looking out the window, I watched the landscape slide by, thinking about what to do next. There were several cars along the side of the road, glimpses of trash in the headlights of the vehicle behind us, and the occasional animal looking for food. We saw nothing of any survivors, or infected for that matter.

              Two hours later, around ten o'clock, we had made it about halfway to Petersburg. We were passing a small town called Farmville now, or rather just outside of it as the highway skirted it. The radio came to life every so often as drivers checked in with fuel levels and just to make sure we were all still together. It seemed everyone was keeping up just fine, and fuel was good for now. I knew we were getting low, but hopefully we wouldn’t need to scrounge for it much longer. My hope was that we would be done with this trip by noon tomorrow at the latest.

              Turning from the window, I watched the girls sleeping, leaned up against each other and the wall. Being a parent, this was not the type of life I wanted for my kids, but this was what we had. All I could do was keep them as safe as I could, and try to give them some kind of life. I hoped my plan worked so they could have just that. They were strong girls, and smart, so I was sure they would be fine, no matter what.

              "Sheldon, you better take this.” Jimmy said, holding up the radio. I stood up and reached for it. Brian got up from the passenger seat and let me take it, while he moved to the back. Sitting down, I told whoever was on the radio to go ahead. I could see Jeff pulling over in front of us and it appeared he was slowing down as well.

              "It’s Jeff, I'm losing power badly, and I've got all kinds of warning lights on. There was also a loud few bangs, so I think something is seriously wrong now.” Jeff told me. He sounded a little worried, which was not like Jeff at all. He usually sounded calm, no matter what is going on.

              "Can you get stopped safely?" I asked him, motioning for Jimmy to follow.

              "Yeah, I think so, but the gears don’t seem to be co-operating. I may have lost the transmission. I'm coasting right now. This may be the end of the line for the rig.” he said. Jeff knew what he was doing when it came to driving, so I took him at his word and started running scenarios in my head if the rig really was toast. Most of the supplies we could load up in the cars, but the air compressor was too big, and since we were loaded up with a lot of supplies now, finding a place for the gas cans would be an issue as well.

              "Brian, the map please.” I asked him as we passed a mile marker sign. I heard him looking for it as I watched Jeff scoot over to the side of the road. I could tell he was trying to get as far as he could without braking, which was good. I radioed to the other drivers to stay off to the left and prepare to stop, but to come up beside us first. I looked at the map and saw we were about ten miles outside of Farmville, without another significant populated area for at least another ten or twenty. There was one marker that indicated it might be a rest area, but I doubted we would make it that far.

              Jeff finally ground to a halt partly on the shoulder, partly still on the road. I pulled up next to him and watched as the rest of the vehicles followed suit.  They pulled into as close a defensive position as they could get on the road, and I put my blades and armor on while I waited for them to get settled. I then stepped out and listened to the night, to see if we had been noticed. The last of our engines shut off, and the quiet took over. With little light from stars or the moon, hearing something approach would be our only warning. Several others were also emerging from the RV's, weapons in hand, curiosity on their faces. No one knew why we had stopped, and this was different from what we usually did. Most of the group knew I didn’t like stopping in the open unless we had to.

              Walking up to the truck, I met Jeff as he was raising the hood. I could hearing something dripping, which probably wasn’t good.  Jerry was on the ground, scooting underneath the engine. I could hear them both muttering to themselves.

              "What's the prognosis?" I asked quietly, I didn’t know how well the infected could hear, and I didn’t want my voice to carry.

              "Give us a minute to be sure, but I'm almost positive it's the transmission. I can't fix it if it is." Jeff told me. The engine was still hot, so there wasn’t much he could until it cooled and he could look at it properly. I walked back towards the group and asked for the ones who were becoming un-official leaders to meet up so I could explain what was going on. One of the RV's was empty as everyone was stretching their legs, so I borrowed it for the meeting. Since Jeff was busy with the engine, but he was one of this group, Michelle was taking notes for him. The ones I had gathered were Dave, Val and Vince, Roger, Leni and Brian, Christy and Shayne, Kevin, and finally Daryl.

              "Alright guys, we have a problem, as I'm sure most of you have already figured out. The semi is down. Jeff thinks it's the transmission, which would be un-fixable out here on the road. Now, most of the supplies are transferrable to the RV's, or the cars. Spare tires, the air compressor, and probably a good chunk of the gas cans would be a problem, and would most likely have to be left behind. Now, according to the map, there is what appears to be a rest area about ten or so miles from here. My hope is that it is there, and possibly has a truck or two in the parking lot. If so, we may be able to hotwire one if the keys aren't available, and come back for the trailer and the supplies. If not, we are about 200 miles from the base if I'm counting right. That’s about four more hours’ drive time, not counting scrounge runs." I said, looking around the group for reactions.