Day 68

A fresh layer of snow was just revealed as the sunlight peeked up over the hill top. A small cloud of breath could be seen leaving Jeff's lips as he raised his rifle, "Breath out when you're ready to fire" The words of his now dead Drill Sergeant entered his mind as he laid his finger on the trigger. As Jeff placed the cross hairs on the kill spot of an old mule deer, Hunter looked over at Jeff, "Are you going to shoot it or just make love to it with your eyes?"

Jeff turned and looked at hunter, Hunter just shrugged his shoulders with a grin on his face. Jeff smiled at Hunter and pulled the trigger, never removing his eyes from Hunter's. Hunter quickly turned only to see the deer's carcass hitting the ground. Hunter turned back to Jeff, "You learn that in the military?" Breaking down his rifle, Jeff responded, "Something like that". "You shot it, I get to clean in" said Hunter, "I have no problem with that, but I get the skin" Jeff answered back. Hunter nodded his head in agreement and the two finished packing up their stuff and starting climbing down the stand.

"We had better hurry before any zombies decide to follow the sound." Hunter explained. 'You don't have to tell me twice, I hate having to deal with those things." Jeff answered back. "Alright, cover me" Hunter whispered as he bent down to start field dressing the deer. Hunter was just about done when Jeff said in an alarmed voice, "Hunter, get ready, I heard a noise" Hunter quickly finished cutting the last bit of food free and placed it in a plastic bag, stuffed it in his pack, picked up his rifle and turned around ready to fire. "Where are they?" Hunter whispered frost coming out his mouth. It was extremely cold out. Jeff pointed in the direction he heard movement, then slowly started to head that way. Hunter adjusted his pack onto his shoulders better, then followed Jeff.

Jeff and Hunter slowly made their way through the woods, "Jeff!" Hunter whispered. Jeff looked over at Hunter pointing at a small footprint and what looked like something was being dragged. On the side of the drag, was a drops of blood."Looks like a Z to me" Jeff mentioned. Hunter agreed and the two followed it with guns raised.

After a few minutes the two of them came across an open field and the noticed someone bent over like they were in pain. "Stay here and cover me since you got the hunting rifle" Jeff said. Hunter agreed and started to climb the tree next to him. When Hunter signaled to Jeff, Jeff started to slowly make his way to the open of the field.

As Jeff approached the figure, he noticed that there were actually two figures there and not just one. Jeff kept inching closer and closer slowly and with caution. Soon, the smell of fresh blood filled the air and Jeff knew that the zombie was chomping down on another poor soul. Jeff holstered his pistol and unsheathed his machete, as Jeff raised the machete above his head, he casted a shadow down upon the victim of the zombie. The zombie slowly turned to reveal that it too had only recently died.

Jeff plunged his machete into the forehead of the zombie and tried to pull it out, but it was stuck. Jeff pulled at the machete. but try as he might, the blade would not dislodge from the skull. Jeff let the zombie hit the ground with hopes that a more stable body would make it easier to come out. Jeff continued to struggle for a few moments to get his machete out of the dead zombie, finally after several minutes of wrestling with his machete, Jeff was finally able to break it free. Jeff turned around to stab the body lying behind him, only to be attacked by the corpse.

Jeff grabbed the zombie by the neck and started pushing, but the zombie overpowered him and made Jeff trip over the corpse of the one he killed. As Jeff was laying there, trying to fight off this zombie that wanted to turn Jeff into a mansanwich, a single thought kept racing through his mind, "Where the hell is Hunter!?" "That bastard was to be covering me!" The zombie was inches from tearing into Jeff's flesh, a hand appeared and pulled the zombie from Jeff. It was Hunter, he awoken his sleeping blade and thrusted it into the eye socket of the zombie.

Hunter threw the zombie to the ground, and turned back to Jeff with his hand stretched out. "I'm sorry Jeff, As soon as I saw the zombie, start to move, I jumped down from the limb I was on and raced towards you".Jeff wiped off some blood from face and then took Hunter’s hand. "I was wondering if you had left me or not" Jeff said as he stood up with the help of Hunter. Jeff bent down and picked up his machete and placed it back in his sheath.

Jeff turned back to Hunter,"I just hope they appreciate everything we went through for this." Hunter slung his part of the deer onto his shoulder, "I'm sure they will", Jeff nodded, "Let's get back before we run into anymore of these things" Hunter agreed, the two of them picked up their packs and made the trek back to the base with the carcass of the dead mule deer hung over their shoulders.

Day 36

“Slow down, I can’t keep up”, Will said excitingly as his bare feet sunk slightly into the soft sand. “Then learn how to keep up William”, she said as a giggle escaped her lips and reached back for his hand. Will smiled and reached for hers and as soon as their fingers touched, Will heard the sound of a shotgun being cocked. It echoed through the sky like thunder. Will turned around to try to find the cause of the sound but, to only fail in his efforts. He turned back around to continue his walk.The sky had turned a dark gre, clouds were rolling through the sky at incredible speeds.Lighting flickered through the clouds and a strong wind begain to blow. Will looked around for her but she was nowhere to be seen and in an instant, a bolt of lightning came crashing down into the sand right in front of Will blinding him.

Will woke up in a panic from his dream only to find a man standing over him with a flashlight pointed at him and 2 barrels that belong to a shot gun. “Just what the hell do you think y’all are doing”, The stranger said as he raised his gun. “We found this tower because we heard music and decided to follow it. We don’t want any trouble.” The man looked over at Jeff as he lay asleep on the floor then back at Will. “What happened to your shoulder”, The man asked. Will removed his hand to reveal a bullet hole; the stranger raised an eyebrow “Did you get that yesterday?” Will shook his head, “Yes sir. We thought we were being shot at, so we took off into the woods and that’s when we heard the music”.

The stranger lowered his shotgun and released a deep sigh, “You weren’t being shot at, and it was a misfire on my part. I fell over a log while being chased by some of them undead bastards and when it hit the ground, well, you have the results”. The stranger nodded at Jeff, “Wake him up and we’ll get your shoulder fixed.” Will stood up and then walked over to kick the bottom of Jeff’s boot, “Wake up you lazy bastard, you feel asleep on watch”. Jeff rolled over and looked at Will, “Yeah, I’m sorry, I just got sleepy with all the food that we ate” Jeff said with a smile on his face. The shadow of the stranger fell over Jeff’s eye as he took a step towards the window.

Jeff scrambled to his feet, “Who the hell are you?!” The stranger turned around, “My real name is Nicholas, but you may call me Hunter” Hunter then motioned to Will and Jeff to follow him, “Well, how do we know you aren’t going to try to kill us?” Jeff questioned. Hunter turned back around and looked Jeff in the eyes, “If I was going to kill you two, I would have done it while you slept.” Hunter turned his back and started to walk down the stairs. Jeff and Will looked at each other, picked up their packs and followed.

The three of them made it to the bottom of the stairs, “Are you the one who is playing the music? Will asked. Hunter stuck his head out of the door and looked both ways, “Yep, I am using it as a distraction so that the zombies don’t bother me while I’m working.” “And what kind of work do you do?” Jeff asked, “I’m working on a helicopter so that I can fly out of this hell hole” Hunter turned back around and faced Will and Jeff, “Do you two want to see it?”

Hunter, Will and Jeff started walking over to the north end of the runway to a little utility shed. As Hunter took out his keys and began looking for the right one, a zombie came walking around the corner of the shed. “I’ve got him” Jeff said as he unsheathed his blade and walked up to it and used the end of his machete to pierce the rotten flesh of the zombie and pushed it through the back of its occiput. As a few small droplets of blood clots fell from the freshly made hole, the zombie took its last breath and collapsed to the ground.

Jeff ripped off a piece of clothing and wiped the blood from his machete and placed it back in his holster.  Hunter unlocked the door after Jeff rejoined the group.Behind the door was a stairwell leading underground. Suddenly there was a small buzzer noise, the door closed behind the three and a small light appeared at the bottom of the tunnel. “It’s down here with the rest of the group” Hunter explained as he started walking down, “Uh; there is more than you here?” Will asked.  “Just a few more, they are helping with the work. They found the place kind of like y’all did, they heard the music, they followed the music” Hunter turned around, “they ate my food” Jeff put a smile on his face. Hunter turned back around “The only thing we’re missing for the helicopter is a pilot”.

As the three of them made their way down the stairs, sounds of grinding metal fill the air. “This reminds me of my time in the military” Jeff said. “What did you do?” Hunter asked, “He was a test pilot” Will answered. Jeff looked over at Will with a shut the hell up look, “Yeah, after our team finished repairs, I was the guinea pig.” Jeff responded. Hunter let out a small laugh, “Good, then you can be our guinea pig too then”. Hunter turned back around and continued down the stairs.

As the three of them reached the bottom, Hunter turned around. “This is our little base of operations. We have about 8 diesel generators that are powering all of this.” Hunter points up, “The music however, is being powered by a small little solar panel” Hunter turned around. “Hey guys! I got some new recruits!” Hunter said as he pushed a button that made a buzzer sound throughout the underground bunker. As the buzzer finished, the sound of grinding metal halted and three figures came out from behind the chassis of the helicopter.

“Allow me to introduce the crew” Hunter said as the three walked up, Hunter pointed to one of the guys, “That’s Gage, anything that deals with computers, he can fix it.” Hunter pointed to the next person, “That tree stump there is Max. The man is so strong he can bench press a small car, oddly enough, he is also our medical staff, go figure.” Hunter put a smile on his face as he pointed to the last member, “Last but surely not least, this little number; her name is Rogue, she use to be a Robotics Engineer”. Hunter placed his hand on Jeff’s shoulder and smiled to the others, “This man here is going to be our test pilot.”

The three all looked at Jeff with eyes of relief Max then walked up to Jeff and stuck out his hand, “Glad to meet you.” Gage and Rogue then followed suite, “Max, I need you to look at Will’s shoulder, I accidently shot him yesterday” Max, Gage and Rogue looked at Hunter with brows raised, “Don’t look at me like that, it was a complete accident. It happened when I fell down running from those zombie bastards.” Max turned back to Will and waived him to follow. As Max and Will got out of sight, Rogue suggested that it was time to eat some breakfast.

Day 35

Will and Jeff decided to travel west from the run down military base in hopes of finding any trace of humanity. The days were cold and the nights even colder, they were afraid of lighting any fires to keep warm. Not only because of all the undead but also because of all the bandits that were created after the great turning. “We need to find some shelter soon; the night is almost upon us, Will said to Jeff as a puff of smoke escaped his mouth. Jeff nodded in agreement, “It looks like there is a small rock cliff off to our left. Let’s see if we can find anything.”

As Will and Jeff approached the cliff wall they noticed what seemed to be a small cave. “I’ll go first”, Will insisted, as he took off his pack. Will crawled into the hole and while doing so knocked down some loose rocks. That made the entrance bigger. “Well, now we can both fit no problem”, Will said in a giggled tone. Will and Jeff were lucky enough to find some thermal blankets at one of the many campsites they had discovered on their travels. Putting one on the ground to lie on and using the other to cover up. The deathly cold air at night was more bearable.

Will woke up in a fright one night, “NO!”, panting, Will looked around and saw nothing but a fresh layer of snow on the ground. “You have another nightmare?” Jeff asked, sweating from his dream, Will turned to Jeff, “Yeah, this time it was about her” Jeff’s eyes widened and then kind of hazed over, “I see her in my dreams sometimes too”. Will with a look of relief on his face, turned his head back around to look outside.

A single ray of sunlight began to break the darkness that surrounded the two inside the cave as the sun gave birth to a new day. Will and Jeff had already been up and gathered all of their belongings, “Let us be on our way, shall we”, Jeff said as he placed his hand on Will’s shoulder. Will sheathed his knife and began to crawl out the mouth of the cave. As they exited the cave, they noticed that they were close to an old abandoned train station.

Will pulled out his map and tried to find where they ended up, “Fucking shit!”. Jeff looked at Will with a worried look, “We fucking went south instead of west instead of heading to Utah we’re almost to New Mexico”. Will drew out his knife and stabbed the nearby tree in anger and let out a monstrous yell. “Feel better now?” Jeff asked. Will looked at him and let out a little laugh and yanked out his knife. As Will was putting his knife away, they heard some shuffling in the bushes behind them.

They ducked and hid behind a tree and a rock then turned and watched was coming up behind them. Jeff had his hand on his pistol ready to draw and Will at the ready with his shotgun. They both sighed a sign of relief as a rabbit busted through the bush and ran past them. Jeff holstered his pistol and Will put his shotgun back on his shoulder, “I was sweating bullets there”, Jeff said. Will chuckled and the two turned back around to continue heading south. “Well, since we are so close, we might as well go to New Mexico” Will mentioned. Jeff agreed and as he turned to Will, some blood landed on his cheek.

“WILL!” Jeff yelled as he caught him from hitting the ground. Suddenly there was a faint crack that rang out through the air, almost as if someone had taken two bricks and banged them together. Jeff collapsed to the ground with Will, “Are you okay?!” Jeff yelled panicky, “I’m okay, it hit my shoulder” Jeff started looking around for any traces of where it came from. “I don’t see anything” Jeff said, “That sounded like a hunting rifle, they could be far away” Will answered back. “Then what do we do?” Jeff asked, “We wait them out or we can run into the woods” Jeff turned his head and in the direction of the forest, “That seems awfully far, can you make it with that wound?” Will sat up and with a grin on his face almost as if he was enjoying it, “Just another day in paradise”.

As Will and Jeff sprinted for the tree line. Then a small horde of undead decided to make its presence known. Jeff drew his machete, “Cover me!”, Jeff yelled to Will as he charged the horde. Will grabbed his pistol and began to fire at the zombies as Jeff plunged the edge of his machete into the forehead of the last zombie. Jeff wiped off his machete with a piece of clothing that he ripped off the body that laid in front of him. Will walked up, “We’re still in danger let’s move.” Jeff put away the machete and they continued to run towards the woods.

Jeff and Will had been walking for about an hour without any signs of anymore undead or of the sniper. Suddenly they heard a faint noise in the distance. “Will, do you hear that?” Will stopped walking and listened for a second, “It sounds like…music”. Jeff and Will looked at each other confused, so they decided to investigate. They headed in the direction that they heard the music playing. After a few minutes of walking the music was getting louder and louder. Will and Jeff noticed that the trees were starting to thin out and the music was getting louder, “It looks like there might be a clearing up ahead” Jeff said to Will. As they walked through the clearing, their eyes took in the site of a dilapidated airport.

As they stood there looking at the airport, they noticed that the music was pretty loud at this point. “It sounds like it is coming from the other end of the air strip” Will said. Jeff looked over and noticed that there was a giant hole in the ground in the direction of the music, “Shall we go check it out?” “Let’s see if we can find anything at the hangar and tower first” Jeff agreed and the two started walking towards the tower.

Will and Jeff made their way into the tower and started climbing the stairs leading to the top. “Times like these, I wish the power grid was still up” Will said to Jeff as they reached the half way point, “Yeah, I have to agree with you on that one” Jeff answered back. The two reached the top of the tower and found a stock pile of cans of food and bottles of water, “Well, it would appear that we have found somebody’s stash” Jeff said.  Will and Jeff began to fill their packs with as much as they could carry, “I think we should hang out here for the night and gorge ourselves” Will mentioned to Jeff.  Jeff looked up with a smile, “You read my mind”.  The two then commenced to opening cans of food and began to stuff their stomachs.

As the two sat and ate and drank their fill, the night time was soon upon them, “Well, I guess we should just stay the night in here since its already dark.” Jeff said.  Will stretched out and let out a big yawn, “You take first watch then” Will said as he rolled over and covered himself, ”Yeah, don’t worry, I got it” Jeff said as he threw an empty can at Will. Jeff got into what he thought was a good lookout position and as he began to look out, he could see zombies walking towards the pit and falling in.  “Whoever came up with that idea is a smart bastard” Jeff thought to himself.

Day 22

The sun had just set and the air was getting cooler by the second, Will and Jeff knew they were close to the old NORAD base housed under Cheyenne Mountain, but more importantly, they knew they were close to shelter. Running as hard as they could through the woods, they could only hope that they would reach it in time. As cold as it was, the elements were the least of their worries.

The road to the base was run down and nature was beginning to reclaim it, but it was still easily visible. They hunkered down on the side and caught their breath, watching the air leave their lungs in clouds that floated upon the cold Colorado wind. Will poked his head up and surveyed the area. There was a fairly large group of undead shambling around the entrance. A flash in the corner of his eye caught his attention. Turning his head, he could see the outline of a man in the distance, and he was carrying a flashlight.

"We're not alone", he said.

"Maybe he's friendly... should we make ourselves known?" Jeff said. Will nodded in agreement, and they snuck around the horde and into the base.

Will put his weapon in the man's face and demanded he identify himself.

"B-B-Bob... I was in the medical ward here, Alone. I found a flashlight and somehow managed to find my way out here... What the fuck is going on? Don't kill me, please!"

Jeff and Will gave him a quick rundown of the events leading up to today. He asked to join, and seeing no threat, they obliged.

As they made their way into the base, they noticed two hangers housing Predator drones. "Whoa... I remember hearing all about these as a kid, never got to see one in person. What about you?" Jeff said as he turned to Will.

"No, I've never...GET DOWN!" Will said in a hurried hushed tone,

"What is it?" Jeff asked.

Will pointed out across the street, "I saw someone move..."

Bob stuck his head out a little too far. A sharp crack rang through the air, Bob's body jerked violently, and he collapsed in a pool of blood and brains.

"Shit... let's sneak out the back and see if we can get behind him" Jeff said.

Will nodded and started to slowly and carefully make his way to the back door. He alerted Jeff that the way was clear. Jeff started to turn and head towards Will when he saw a man drop from a rooftop. He started walking towards the hanger, undoubtedly to search Bob's body

for anything useful.

"Fuck... bandits".

The two slowly made their way towards the street in between the two hangers as the figure came closer. "Get ready!" Jeff whispered to Will,

"I've got him"

As the bandit slowly made his way around the building and searched Bob's body, Will let loose with a blast of buckshot only to miss. "Shit!" Pellets hit the ground all around him, he then got up and ran off behind the building.

As the bandit turned to the corner with his weapon raised, Jeff was waiting and sent a barrage of 9mm bullets into the man. He crumpled over into a pathetic lump of meat, dead.

"I GOT HIM!" Jeff yelled to Will, "There's another one in the building!" Will answered back as he took off sprinting trying to take him by surprise before he could draw his weapon. The other man jumped out the window in hopes of escape, but Will had been an all-star long distance track runner in high school and had no problem catching him.

The bandit turned to fire. He was fast, but Will was faster, and put twenty-four buckshot pellets into the man's stomach. As he lay on the ground, unable to even scream from the pain, Will drew his knife and plunged it into the bandit's eye. He spat on the body, "Miserable piece of murdering shit". However, Will felt a small pang of guilt as he said it, this bandit wasn't his first kill. Probably wouldn't be his last either. It was getting easier to kill every day. He could only wonder as he walked away from the body how long it would be until he started to even enjoy it.