Bit Me: A story of the end of the world

No Hillary in this story

Sorry guys, to find mortensen look further south...

Keep an eye on this for me will ya?

Will everyone watch this list for me as the story continues? I'd hate to, you know fall into a cliche'. LOL!

Chapter 3 Continued: gotta feed the beast

Two hours!? That’s not enough time! Gabe started rushing throughout the apartment searching for additional containers to hold more water. The message from the general in charge of Phoenix had just ended and they only had two hours before the power and water was shut off.

The women were plugging in cell phones and battery chargers attempting to store as much electricity as possible.

Dave plugged the bathtubs and filled them to the brim. Finally when buckets and jugs started to pile up he took them into the bathroom and started filling them in the shower.

From the couch Patty asked, “What’s all the rush if we’re going to a safe zone in a few days?”

Dave stopped and looked at her through the hallway. Could she be serious?

Gabe took the time to explain. “With this many people in the house, in the heat we all need at least a gallon every day. We need as much water as we can get.”

Patty replied, “but if we’re going to a shelter with food and water?”

“Do you remember the last time FEMA tried to ‘HELP’?” Gabe said, not gently.

Patty nodded, so he continued. “The government can plan to put a plan in place all they want. We may be without water for days before any shelter is available, if it’s ever available. It’s up to us to take care of ourselves.” He paused, then muttered, “This whole situation is bull****!” She didn’t respond, and everyone slowly moved back into action, trying to get water stored.
Seamus’s wife, Whitney, had taken the kids into one of the bedrooms to read and play to keep them out of the way for now. Deacons wife Kat worked with JJ to sort through the freezer for food that would spoil quickly.
Pulling out a large piece of meat she commented, “Beef it’s what’s for dinner!”

Everyone started laughing until JJ said, “that was from Gabe’s Elk hunt last year. We were going to have that for our Anniversary…” Tears came to her eyes as Kat pulled her into a warm embrace, trying to comfort her.

After an hour and gallons of water stored, Gabe sat everyone down to set up some ground rules. He brought out the camping latrine and set it by the porch door. “From now on, water is for drinking only. Kids, you DO NOT wash your hands!” He put up his hands to quell the protests of the mothers. “I have several full bottles of soap-less sanitizer that we’ll have to use for that purpose. As for dishes we’ll use paper plates so we don’t have to wash. And we’ll have to make due with the clothes that we do have. Depending on how long things take, we’ll figure out laundry later.”

No one said anything.

Finally JJ said, “We’ve got thirty minutes before the power goes out, should we call the rest of the family?”

Everyone hurriedly agreed and started making calls. But the noise quickly turned into to much for any of them to hear the person on the other line. Because of the noise of ten adults excitedly talking on the phone Gabe started ushering couples into various parts of the house so that they wouldn’t continue to try yelling over each other and doors and walls would hopefully allow them to talk at a normal volume.

He ushered Dave and Mindy into the bathroom, Patty and Jordan he put into the kids room. He sent Seamus and Whitney to his bedroom, while Deacon and Kat went to the master bath. Gabe would have called his mother, but he knew after all that had happened he’d give Patty that opportunity. He sat on the couch trying to entertain the kids while JJ called to her family on the East Coast, people that she now knew she’d probably never see again.

He quizzed the kids on Pixar-Disney movies, seeing who could guess what movie he was thinking in as few lines as possible.

“YOU ARE A CHILD’S PLAYTHING!” He hissed

The children squealed “TOY STORY!”

Gabe laughed as the kids chanted, “Again! Again!”

He thought for a moment, “Under the sea!”

Deacons daughter, the youngest started kid started screeching, “Finding Nemo!”

“Not quite!” Gabe said. He knew he’d stumped them for a moment when Marie excitedly started jumping up and down.

“I know it! I know it!” She said. “It’s the mermaid!”

“That’s right!”

Looking over at his wife while she spoke her last words to her grandmother and cried, he put his hand on top of hers and gave it a light squeeze. She smiled at him and began wiping at her tears.

“There’s only another ten minutes left she whispered, do you want to call your mom?” JJ said.

And the AC and lights went out.

Smiling Gabe said, “Not right now.”

Boo Hoo...

Sorry if the crying is bothering you. I've always been a humanist and I'm trying to keep closer to reality. I think that in many cases many people would, if they weren't constantly trying to survive, spend a portion of the time crying.

C'MON MAN!
Millions of people just got turned into monsters!!!

WHERE'S YOUR HEART!?!?

just kidding!

Sorry if anyone took this the wrong way...

Chapter 3 Continued

Jordan came out the kids room announcing, “Phones are dead!”

Soon afterwards the rest of the family came out again sitting in the living room. The kids started begging for more games and Gabe asked the mothers to take over. He motioned for the men to gather by the front door.

“Ok, I wanted to talk with all of you about what’s going on. I expect you to get back with your wives about this so that they know what’s going on. We’re all part of this, we need to keep everyone on the same page and included.” All around the men nodded agreement. “It’s summer in Arizona. It’s going to be hot and right now, thankfully it’s cool, but without air conditioning it’s not going to take long for us to really start feeling the heat.” Again they nodded. “With the covering that we’ve already placed on all the windows and on the porch, I think we need to open the windows and door and let the air flow.” He looked around the circle, he needed more than their help, and he needed their buy in on this. “We’re all going to have to have a gun handy at all times. Because we’ve got to get a chance to get out on the porch, breathe fresh air and try to stay cool.” The men around him nodded, understanding the need to be able to protect their loved ones from the heat and the biters. “Let’s get ready then.”

The rifles that they’d carried had been stuck on top of the kitchen cabinets after they’d enclosed the porch, out of reach of the kids but not readily available, Gabe was determined to fix that. He led the rest of the guys to the cabinet, where he spun the dial on the safe and opened it up. “Dave you still have your pistol right?” Dave nodded. “Seamus you?” Seamus looked down, coloring up red a little.

“I was at work and we aren’t allowed to keep them in our cars…” he said.

Dave looked at him in shock. “AND?!?!”

Gabe said, “Never mind, what do you want?”

“Do you have any .45’s?” He said.

“Kimber, Sig, Glock, Sprinfield, Smith or Heck?” Gabe responded.

“Double Action or Single?” Seamus said.

“Double Action Single except for the Glock and the Kimber.” Gabe said.

“I’ll take the HK.” Seamus said. Gabe proceeded to hand him the gun and a holster along with several spare magazines.

Moving on to his next brother, Gabe asked Deacon, who wanted a Beretta, like the military carried. Again he dug deep into his safe and produced a Beretta 92, 9mm a shoulder holster and a couple of extra magazines.
Finally he turned to Jordan “Ho Ho Ho! And what would you like little boy?” He asked in his best Santa Clause impersonation.

Confusion was evident on Jordan’s face. “I’ll just take something simple.” Immediately Gabe pulled out a Glock 19, 9mm and handed Jordan several magazines and a plastic holster.

“Why do I get a plastic holster?” Jordan asked.

Sighing Gabe said, “Because that’s the only holster I have for that one.”

He turned and started closing up the safe when Jordan asked. “Aren’t you going to take one?”

Gabe just turned and lifted his shirt, revealing his SigP229 Elite in a holster tucked inside his waistband. “I haven’t been without one since I got home. I never will be again after all this!” Dave and Seamus nodded somber agreement. Gabe turned again to close the safe, “let’s get setup!”

The next hour they drilled and mounted gun racks and brackets holding rifles and shotguns all over the apartment, close at hand but out of the reach of children. A three gun rack was placed near the back wall as a fall back position the Ak’s they’d used earlier were joined by Dave’s Robinson. Two rifles were in the kitchen, one of Dave’s AR-15’s and one of Gabe’s Mini 14’s. Two AR’s and two pump shotguns were placed by the patio door. Several racks were in each bedroom with shotguns and rifles, and two shotguns in each bathroom, hurriedly cut down to “friendly” use, giving any adult in any room access to a weapon.

Gabe then grabbed the last mount and put it above the fireplace, screwing it into the wall tightly. He walked back to the safe and grabbed one of the last rifles in it, a Ruger Scout in .308 with a fixed silencer. Dave looked at him, curiosity evident on his face. “Coyote rifle,” Gabe explained, “there’s no limit so with a silencer you don’t scare them off. Keep hunting all day without having to move.” Then Gabe started pulling twenty round magazines from the bottom of a duffle bag, to Dave they looked like modified M14 mags.

“But why a bolt action; and a silencer?” Dave asked.

“I got the silencers a few years ago when I sold my truck. I’ve got this one here, one for an AR and another for a pistol, 9mm.” Gesturing to the rifle in his hand, “We can use this one for when there’s just one or two biters, same as the coyote’s. We don’t alert them, they don’t charge, we can get them all.” Gabe said. He then walked over to the rack and put the rifle in it with a few extra magazines, “never thought I’d use it on a person though.”

Thanks

I wanted to thank everyone for their comments so far. This is my rough draft of the story, and I will be going back and "filling in" the gaps. I do know that I'm going pretty quickly through this. There will be parts that are dull and not as fleshed out, but others I think/hope will be more.

I'm going to slow down my pace to try and raise everything to that next level, to what you have all come to expect. I appreciate your thoughts, suggestions and support.

oh and RUNFRUMU I think in some cases an M2 is even more lethal than an AR, namely close range. Of course that's just the opinion of some guy who wants to shoot more than he can and wants more guns than he can afford. The M2 is one of my all time favorites. Just hope you don't have to reload...

Chapter 3: Concluded

Standing out on the porch holding a silenced pistol Gabe fought to control his emotions. So many emotions roiled inside he felt like he’d fall apart. He’d spent his whole life trying to be ready, that being caught so far off guard just ached through him. The thought of his beautiful daughters bitten ripped and torn into food scorched through him, he felt the bile rise in his throat. He stopped himself in time to keep from vomiting but felt it close.

JJ came outside and sat on the bench next to him inside the horse wire cage they’d built around the porch. He put his arm around her, it was comforting feeling her breath. He thought of his Mother and brother, ‘Bubba’ down south in Y, Arizona. Bubba was a border patrol agent, he’d be ready for it, he’d take care of his family and their mother.

JJ spoke, “Why do you insist on being out here when the sun goes down? You sat out here for two hours last night.”

“I saw a few last night. They seemed almost desperate to get in doors at dark. I wanted to see if they’d do it again tonight.” He said.

Together they sat on the porch, in one of the largest cities in the country, hearing nothing much at all. But as the sun reached the horizon and started to disappear piece by piece, the noises started. Trash cans being knocked over down the street. Banging noises drifted across the wind. Gabe began scanning the neighborhood anticipating the biters repeat performance. A window broke in one of the condos, very close, but still out of sight.

Dave slipped out onto the patio as well. “Are they doing it again tonight?”

Gabe nodded, “I just wish I knew why.”

Dave said, “I’ve been thinking about that. I had two ideas. One of them makes no sense, the other a little.”

Gabe looked at him waiting for him to continue.

“First, maybe it’s a memory for them. They realize they are supposed to be home at night. So the sun starts going down, they start looking for shelter.”

Gabe asked, “What’s your other idea?”

Dave smiled, “Think about wild animals. Compared to most, humans have pretty poor night vision. Maybe they are trying to hide from a predator…”

Gabe nodded, “But what would look at them as prey?”

“What would THEY consider a predator? What could they be afraid of” JJ asked.

Dave looked to Gabe with a nervous look on his face. Both men uneasily started looking about the property, a suppressed human fear of being caught unaware by a superior predator resurfacing.

Finally Gabe slowly said, “I don’t know what they’re afraid of… let’s move inside all the same.”

Slowly, quietly they slide the door and moved inside. Just in time.

* * *

A few miles away three people crept around houses looking for shelter as the last of the sunlight drained from the sky. They’d seen the biters disappear from the streets and they were looking for a home to stay in now that it was dark.

The tallest of the three, a middle aged caucasian man with a few days growth added to what was once five o’clock shadow held up his hand, bringing them to a stop at a sudden snarling and banging up ahead.

He carried an aluminum baseball bat, the second member, a young Hispanic man carried a small .38 revolver he’d taken from off a body and the tall indian woman carried a kitchen knife. They had done their best to arm themselves at the outbreak, but their tools were not ideal, and to go looking for a fight armed so poorly would risk them all.

Their leader peeked around the nearest corner, looking again to the source of the commotion; around the corner a biter was fighting a security door trying to tear it open. The woman laughed. “I had that same door on my house in Tempe for years. He’s not going to break in that way.”

The leader quickly put his fingers to his lips. In the gathering darkness he flexed his hands on the grip of the bat. Suddenly, quietly he rushed across the dark yard, behind the biter and brought the bat down on its head with a wet thunk! Panting heavily he pulled the bat close to him again and swung it, again and again! Thunk; followed by a wet sloppy slide as he pulled the bat again. Thunk!

Gasping for air, he motioned for his companions to join him as he stood over the body sprawled half on the porch the rest in the grass. Bending down he wiped his bat to clean it on the shirt of the biter. As his companions joined him he rolled it over. A loud sharp intake of breath and a louder shriek caused both men to spin around looking for the threat.

Nothing, they looked back at their companion and realized she’d never taken her eyes from the body. The older man had thought it was a teenage boy. But when he looked closer he saw it was a woman. The half healed bites and blood smears showed readily her status as infected. But that didn’t make it easier seeing the bulge at her stomach, clearly marked maternity clothes.

The young man started heaving his empty stomach over the grass.
The man went to the woman and put his arm around her, slowly, awkwardly, almost painfully.

With his arms around her he heard his young friend’s puking grow louder. Turning in concern he saw the young man on his knees. He walked to him, almost as a father, he touched the kneeling boys shoulder. In the dark there was little to see, and he spoke for the first time, “Are you ok?”

The boy said nothing.

Circling him, horror, he saw the throat had been ripped out, flowing blood and bile streaming down the remaining neck and chest. In shock at his friends’ death, he spun round looking for the attacker.

“Who did this!?!” He screamed!

He hadn’t heard any biters!

Suddenly the woman was screaming, screaming, he thought it wouldn’t stop. As he ran towards her, a shadow in the dark appeared, and faster than possible both disappeared from sight. Then the screaming stopped.

He rushed back to the kneeling body and grabbed at the gun gripped firmly in the boys hands. Spinning he shouted and screamed, but all he saw was shadows, and dark, the moon had disappeared behind pitch black clouds as a thunderstorm rolled over what was left of the city of Phoenix.

The streetlights were dark, and all he knew was shadows, and they came for him. He fired the gun wildly and fast, three shots, four, five, click, click…

Then the shadows came and claimed him and he joined his friends.

Thunder shook the sky above.
A little rain fell.
Wind and dust obscured the city.