He opted not to tell them how he had reluctantly climbed out of his bed to dress as his wife sat on the edge of the bed talking to him softly in a sad voice. He had just returned from overseas and she had hoped he could make a normal life with his family. There had been plans to see his son play basketball in the early evening followed by dinner at their favorite barbecue dive. Of course, that would never happen.
Instead he had found himself rushing to make it to the base. He took the time to open the doors to the bedrooms of his three children one by one. Trying hard to control his emotions, he tried not to remember how their skin and hair felt under his touch as he had kissed them goodbye as they slept. He had left his home for the last time, promising his wife that he would contact her as soon as he could. He would never speak to her again.
The briefing at the base had been quick and his orders simple. At a truck stop near a small town a riot had broken out. The local police and sheriff had responded, but were overwhelmed. The military was being sent in to quell the violence and bring it under control. There were rumors it was one of many riots breaking out in the pre-dawn hours in the country. The convoy of trucks had departed the base, the headlights sluicing through the darkness like a blade. Looking back, Kevin had to admit he had seen some odd things as they traveled out into the hills. At one point he saw two people running down a street at such a quick pace he had thought they must be training for some sort of sprinting event. Now he wondered if they were running to or from something.
By the time they had arrived at the truck stop, which was a small city unto itself, they found a scene out of hell. Vehicles were smashed into each other, one truck was overturned, and a fire was spreading inside of the restaurant. But what was worse was the human carnage. There were dead people everywhere, but they weren’t lying down. Instead, to his horror, they were running about. As soon as the convoy came into view, it was rushed.
Those minutes were a blur. The sound of weapons being fired, screams, growls, and the horrible chewing sounds filled his ears. Blood had sprayed through the air and he had to wipe it from his face mask. Somehow, they managed to tear a swath of destruction through the horde of undead. But mostly, they only damaged them enough to slow them down. Finally someone had shouted to aim for the head. It wasn’t until that moment that Kevin fully realized what they were dealing with. He had seen the armless man running toward him and the woman with an empty chest cavity ripping the eyes out of a soldier, but it had not fully hit him until then.
The soldiers swept through the truck stop, guns firing, bullets ripping apart heads, blood and gore splashing over the pavement and sides of trucks like gruesome artwork. There had been losses as men fell under the onslaught of the zombies. Once they realized what they were up against, the soldiers were more methodical and soon they stood wearily triumphant among the truly dead.
The true horror started when the wounded soldiers suddenly attacked the living. Kevin had fired four bullets into the face of one of his best friends to keep him from attacking him. It was then he discovered a bite was lethal. Reporting in, Kevin found himself defending what he had seen. Finally, he was told to help the National Guard in the nearby city at the downtown rescue center. As he sat in his truck, covered in blood, his men waiting for his orders, he looked up to see the sun rising over the hills.
Little did he or his superiors realize that the world was already dead.
They had traveled along the back roads toward the city, occasionally stopping to eliminate any zombies or any infected they ran across. Now he realized it was fruitless to eliminate all the bitten, but at the time they had tried to do their best. The number of undead was probably overwhelming at that point, but they didn’t know that.
Looking at Katie as he spoke, he recognized her as the woman he had seen with the German Shepard. The two women with their dog in the big white truck had impressed him that morning. They both looked so shell-shocked yet determined to survive. He remembered petting the dog and thinking briefly of his family. He had told them to go to the Madison Rescue Center. Yes, there had been others much closer in the area, but that one seemed the farthest away and therefore, possibly the safest. When the convoy had reached the city, it was like entering the gates of hell. The trucks had barreled through snarled traffic, run over raging zombies, smashed through barricades, all in an attempt to save the living. They had reached the police station just as it was overrun. The police chief and some of his surviving men had leaped from the roof of the police station onto the back of one of the trucks. It was terrifying to see how few people survived. They had met up with what remained of the National Guard and made an attempt to get out of the city. Nearly half of their vehicles and men were lost when waves of zombies filled the roads.
Shattered, overwhelmed, and near panic, the soldiers had fled into the hills. A few had jumped ship at the first sight of an abandoned car to try to go rescue their families. It was tempting to do in the face of so much horror, but Kevin knew their efforts were fruitless. He understood what those men and women did not.
The world was dead. Their families were dead. His own family would have taken refuge in the hospital where his wife worked. There was no hope for them, but he could try to save others.
He had let those soldiers go. The world was ending and every man and woman deserved to make a choice as to their own fate. So those who remained followed him into the hills. They found their way to Madison, driving through dying towns, and watching with weary eyes as the zombies followed the trucks howling. Bullets had struck down the walking dead, but nothing could alleviate the pain the soldiers felt.
It was the most bitter of any defeat.
They had found the Rescue Center abandoned by FEMA, a few military survivors and townspeople inside, and a locked door in the back barely holding back a horde of undead. Kevin had made the choice to get the people to the mall. All the businesses were closed due to the outbreak spreading so fast so it seemed like a secure location. The high wall around the mall provided them a chance to hold back the undead.