Caught In A Bind (© Ralph E. Powers)
Page 1 Part One Our Story Begins It's
been nearly 3 months since the first outbreak and it's a miracle that I
survived this long. A miracle that anyone, has survived this long. For the sake
of getting this started, I'll just say that I was en-route home from working a
graveyard shift (gads what a ghastly pun) during the initial phase of the
outbreak as it happened. I worked at a tourist cave and was doing some late
night maintenance on the lights and trail where as I normally was a tour-guide.
My experience and expertise in moving around caves during my off hours, had the
management assign me the extra hours of over time which, now I'll never
collect. The night security guard of the main building had gotten to us before
we managed to exit the cave itself and told us what was going on. Naturally we
didn't believe him at first, because his story was just too fantastic. We were
fortunate enough that our tourist attraction was a bit off the beaten path so
we weren't immediately attacked. When
the guard dragged us over to his small portable tv, we were able to see what
was happening beyond our little place in the world. Just our luck we happened
to be living at the city now known as "ground zero". It was horrific of course,
national guardsmen alongside regular military and some law-enforcement were
shooting at people whether they were zombies or not. One of our group of the
five late night workers, had gotten a text from his wife, that they were in
process of quarantining the city limits and nobody is getting out. A couple of
us who had family inside the quarantine zone, as shown by a news graphic on the
screen, took off and they probably got shot as soon as they crossed the lines
in an effort to get with their wife and kids. The rest of us were either
bachelors or divorced with families in other cities. Me, I was one of two
bachelors, the supervisor and guard were of course the married ones who lived
only a couple of miles from the place we were at. Either
way, far as I know, of that original group of six men at the cave, I'm the only
survivor, among a few... hundred? Thousands? That are left in this country and
perhaps on the entire planet. What were left are just the scattered remnants of
the collective once known as human society. Practically nothing is left that
would be remotely recognizable as a government or a cohesive group with an
authoritarian head. National, state and county governments were unable to
maintain order in the waves of panic that swept the country. Now things have
quieted down a good deal. Assuredly there are pockets of survivors here and
there. Small groups of 5 or 20 people who have banded together because of the
belief in the adage "safety in numbers". Of course the odds of survival of
these groups vary from their members and their individual skill levels. Skills
of procuring food and water or fighting and defense. Some I've seen, have a
good group of people, well equip mentally to deal with the day to day stress,
others... well, a couple I've found had been over-run and the entire group had
been torn apart with a few of them opting out. They still got devoured but at
least they wouldn't turn and add to the population. This is a certainty because
the remaining survivors destroyed the skulls of the ones that had been eaten or
died from blood loss, shock, before they took their own lives. I'll attribute
to their demise to basic stupidity and complacency. You learn how eventually
what not to do to attract the dead. One group was so disorganized that they had
three men arguing for the leadership position constantly, no-one really knew
who to follow, and it was impossible to barter with any of them. Even after all
this time, I still don't let my guard down. I mean, hey... I'm still alive to
write this aren't I? Presently
I'm alone, not exactly wandering aimlessly, scavenging, but with no particular
place or destination to go. Part of me had always wanted to see this country as
it was meant to be seen, a little at a time. Well, that's not true either, I
really wanted now was to find any place that had as few zombies as possible.
I've come to believe now that there's no mythological "zombie-free-zone"
anywhere in the U.S., at least, I don't believe the stories from fellow
survivors I meet along my way to "Nowheresville", the place I was headed. I
mean if there were, what the hell were they doing so far from it and why were
they not headed in the that direction? Upon hearing these stories I simply and
politely nod and say: "yeah, hope to see you there someday too, thanks for the
trade by the way... you keep being careful. See ya!" I go on my way and they go
theirs. [ Continue to page 2 ] |