Stage 6 (Book 1) Read online

  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.

  Day 2

  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.”

  I then looked over to see the chimney clear, and slowly lowered myself in using my legs held firmly against the sides to slow me down (thankfully I had jeans on.) I hit the bottom and awkwardly scooted out. Lucy just looked at me while my mom ran forward and hugged me. I could tell she wanted to reprimand me for taking too much of a chance running outside, but I broke free of the hug after a second, and told Lucy to grab the supplies she had gathered and try and board up the chimney as best as she could. I then quickly told them what was going on, and ran out to the garage with my shotgun.

  Knowing that time was extremely important here, I yelled into the phone “GO!” and shoved it in my pocket.

  I watched as gunshots rang out and there were flashes from across the street as Ian’s dad shot all the zombies in front of the garage. I started opening my garage, and blasted three zombies in the heads. Ian was half way there when a zombie jumped on the side of the truck and somehow managed to hold on. They roared across and entered the garage as I backed up to try and hit the automatic garage door closer. I tripped over Hunter, who was barking maniacally right behind me. I fell to the ground as Ian stopped the car and the Infected was thrown off into the wall, while meanwhile more started running towards the open garage door. I looked at the oncoming crowd in terror.

  Ian jumped out of the driver’s seat and yelled, “Shoot the line!”

  I immediately understood and pointed the shot gun up at the cable line running across the ceiling holding up the garage door. One shot, and the door collapsed as Infected slammed into it and fell stumbling to the ground. They had seen the door open however, and were attacking it with frenzy. The glass windows were broken suddenly, and cracks and splinters began forming the weak wooden doors. I jumped up and quickly ushered Ian’s sister Karen inside. Hunter sniffed her menacingly but let her pass. I yelled for my mom and Lucy to help unload the truck. Ian grabbed a bunch of weapons in the back and hurried inside, and we grabbed the meager supply of food they had brought with them. More thuds, and the garage door was on the verge of collapsing. I ran inside and slammed the door behind me, dead bolting it into place. I heard the creaking sound of the garage door falling in, and suddenly Infected were pounding up against the door. It was a pretty strong door, but it wouldn’t last forever. I yelled at Lucy to find some furniture to block the door with, but she couldn’t find any. Ian seized a small shelf from in front of a relatively obscure window in the corner and dragged it across the room. Lucy looked embarrassed that she hadn’t thought of that as Ian and I shoved it into place blocking both the front door and the garage door at the same time.

  After a few minutes of rest, the panic over, we then adjourned to the family room and sat in a circle to talk. We recounted the past day’s events to Ian and his sister, and then they did the same to us.

  Ian started off, “Well yesterday my mom had just left to go shop when we heard the same noises you did. I looked outside just in time to see Devin and Lucy run into your house, and Devin’s dad run after them. Shocked, I tried to call nine-one-one, but I couldn’t get through. I told my dad and he wanted to go over with a gun and hold him down, but before he could do that we were interrupted by breaking glass in Karen’s bedroom and screaming. My dad rushed in with his revolver and shot the Infected as it moved towards Karen. It fell to the ground but continued to go towards her so he shot it another few times for good measure, once in the head. We saw a few more outside the window, and heard more screams from around the neighborhood. My dad grabbed Karen and backed out from the room, locking the door behind him. He then grabbed our kitchen table and stuffed it against the door. Knowing that nine-one-one was down, we turned on the T.V. while warily looking around us. We heard about the riots, and similarly to you guys began barricading. We locked all the doors around the family room because we didn’t have much spare stuff to barricade with, but luckily our house doesn’t have many windows in the first place. We watched T.V. for a while, and saw the same message you did last night. At that point we were pretty terrified. We gathered all our food and weapons, each of us aiming at a separate entrance and tried to stay awake during the night. We could hear them breaking in, but failing to get past the barricaded doors. They couldn’t even figure out how to unlock or turn the door knobs. Then we waited like that until morning, until you called us, and you know what’s happened after that.”

  We asked a few questions but I was satisfied for the most part. They knew of no other survivors, and the streets were empty, but I felt sure the newly placed banner would draw some attention.

  Ian then remarked, “Of course, we are going to have to retrieve my dad somehow. We felt reasonably sure he could be safe there for a while, but I don’t think he will survive the night in that house.”

  I agreed, and we began plans to evacuate Mark, his father. Ian had brought over little food, but a fantastic array of weapons. He had brought two standard hunting rifles, a revolver, and a semi-automatic pistol. The semi-auto pistol belonged to Ian, and I already had a shot gun. My mom and Ian’s sister Karen each took a hunting rifle, and Lucy took the revolver. We discussed several different scenarios while Ian called his dad to get him in on the conversation.

  I ventured, “We need some sort of distraction. The Infected are attracted to loud noises and movement, right? What if we taped my megaphone playing a song onto that old remote control car I have, and drove it around towards the end of the street? If I could keep it away from Infected for a while, it would attract all of them to it and lead them away from the house. Then your dad could simply run across the street?”

  Everybody thought it was a good idea, and Ian relayed the plan to his dad. He thought it was as good a plan as any, and as soon as he heard the megaphone playing he would get ready to go. To see where it was going though, I had to find a view point. We took down the barricades in front of the front room’s middle window so I could see, and then opened the window, threw the car out, and turned on the mega phone. It began to play some sort of victory song, and I shut the window and drove the car outside. Immediately the Infected nearby began chasing it, and I drove it in a neat loop several hundred feet away from the house. The Infected apparently were not smart enough to figure out the pattern, and soon I had a quite sizeable horde of them following the car around in neat circles. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Mark open his front door and start to run across the street, as Ian opened our front door to go meet him. Then everything went wrong. Distracted by the movement, I let the car slam into a curb and it was quickly destroyed by the confused Infected. As Ian’s dad ran across the street, another Infected that had been coming from around the house ran towards him. Ian shot him in the chest a few times, and then once in the head and the Infected laid still. They both ran towards the house and as I moved to board the window back up I heard screams and gunshots. I bolted towards the family room and stopped as I saw the cause. There was an Infected that had chased them and managed to get in before they had closed the front door.

  He was on top of Mark, while Ian was yelling, “Don’t let him bite you dad!” and trying to get a clear shot. I ran up without thinking and grabbed the Infected around the throat so he couldn’t bite my hand, and then slammed him into the wall.

  I shouted “Shoot!” and Ian shot the remaining rounds of his pistol into the Infected. It slumped to the floor and I quickly dragged him to the window I had just opened previously. I shoved him outside, and then boarded up the window again. I walked back in to find the rest of them aiming guns at each other.

  I yelled, “What the hell!?”

  My mom said slowly, “We don’t know if he’s bitten or not.”

  Mark calmly replied, “Search me then. And search Jack too, because as much gratitude as I feel towards him we don’t know for sure.”

  As an added measure we all pretty much stripped down and inspected each other. It felt a little awkward, but this was a life or death situation. No time for modesty. Satisfied none of us were bitten, Mark, Ian, and Karen hu
ddled into a group and announced that they were going to sleep, because they were exhausted having none for the past few days. I was a little annoyed that Mark would just announce this to us as if we had no say in the matter, but I agreed and told them we’d work on a plan while they took a nap.

  “From now on, I think it would be best to take turns staying awake so that one of us is awake at all times. And we all sleep in the family room, the middle of the house,” I said to consenting nods from Lucy and my mom.

  I asked my mom, “Assuming the bare minimum needed to keep us alive, how much longer can we stay here based on our food supply?”

  The tentative answer came, “With the six of us? I’d say maybe another two weeks at the most, and that’s with barely anything to eat during the day. We would be weak and starving when we finally ran out of food.”

  We sat there in silence for a bit while I thought. I knew we would have to leave, but my mom didn’t seem to keen on thinking about this possibility.