Chapter 103

Trudge: Surviving The Zombie Apocalypse By Shawn Chesser

Day 2 - Southeast Portland

 

The boys were silent as they followed the man. All three were beginning to sweat. It was July, so in the midmorning sun it was already 75 degrees and probably would reach 85 by noon.

 Cade took a different route back to his house in case the dead had followed him. When the three were a block east of the house, they heard walkers well before they saw them. There were two: a female with a blood saturated cotton sundress pasted to her body, and a male minus most of his face. He wore a Pabst Blue Ribbon beer shirt, cargo shorts and only one flip flop which slapped the pavement as he walked.

Cade thought, Probably a couple of Reed college students on summer break. Looks like school’s out forever.

The three of them hunkered down and remained quiet.

Just as the undead pair passed by, Cade’s neighbor Rawley came speeding down the street in his older model white Ford Bronco. Cade liked to kid him about the “O.J. Simpson” truck he drove. The Bronco skidded to a stop abruptly in front of the green house two lots down and across the street from Cade’s. It looked like he had been on a supply run, as he was hurriedly taking bags and boxes up his stairs and into the house.

Their attention aroused, the two infected college kids about faced and set course for Rawley. Bone chilling moans and the slapping of the frat boy’s lone flip flop on the street signaled their approach.

Finished with his task, Rawley jumped into the still running SUV, cut a wide U-turn in the street and careened past the two, barely missing them. This again influenced their direction of travel and they clumsily about faced and followed the white Bronco.

Rawley’s house backed up to an alley and it was where he usually parked his truck. Cade guessed that was his destination.

The three-minute distraction allowed the trio to stealthily slip back into the alley from the east and proceed to the rear of Cade’s home. They avoided detection and knelt in the thigh high grass near the back fence. After making sure all was clear, Cade helped the boys, one at a time, scale up and over the barrier. Next, he vaulted it with ease and double checked to make sure they were alone in the enclosed backyard. The yard was clear and the back door was still locked. Nothing seemed disturbed and the house was silent as they entered the kitchen.

They lived in a brown, two-story Craftsman style home with a two car garage; the driveway sloped down about thirty feet to the street. Next to the garage a padlocked wooden gate the same height as the rest of the fence opened into the backyard. The front door was sturdily constructed from solid oak. The back door led into a sun porch followed by another dead bolted door leading into the kitchen. 

When everyone was in, Cade closed and locked the outer door. He had installed an extra dead bolt for added security. It wouldn’t stop a determined intruder but it would slow them down.

 Once inside, the boys relaxed a little. They jumped at the offer of something to eat.

While he prepared some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, he introduced himself to the older boy. “My name is Cade.”

With a furtive glance the bigger boy curtly replied, “Leo.”

“And your brother’s name?”

“His name is Isaac; he goes by Ike.”

Ike had taken a walk around the family room while Cade and Leo talked. When he returned to the kitchen he asked, “Who is the little girl and lady in the pictures above the fireplace?”

Not wanting to go over it in detail, Cade simply said, “My wife and daughter.”

 Leo continued the interrogation. “Where are they now?”

“They’re in South Carolina visiting my wife’s parents.”

“Why didn’t you go with them?” Ike asked.

“I have a lot of projects that need finishing around here.”

Abruptly ending the conversation Cade picked up the remote control and turned on the television. When the LCD flat screen came to life, the silent images of carnage and looting said more than words. They watched the muted television until the scene changed to the Oval Office of the White House and the President strode in and sat down in his plush chair. This was orchestrated to put the American people at ease. Seeing the man in his comfortable office as opposed to him standing and reading from his ever-present teleprompter was supposed to have a psychologically calming effect. To Cade it did the opposite. He couldn’t put a finger on it but something didn’t feel right about the scenario.

Cade turned up the volume in time to hear the anchor introduce President Bernard Odero. The President started off by telling the television audience he had been forced to declare martial law in Washington D.C. It was the first city to see signs of the infectious disease. Other areas of the country were also affected by the contagion. Los Angeles, San Francisco/Oakland and San Diego were the hardest hit on the West Coast. He recited a litany of Midwest cities including his hometown of Chicago. The entire Eastern Seaboard of the United States, Florida on up to Maine, was battling the epidemic as well. Air, maritime and rail travel had been canceled until further notice. High-speed transportation had initially led to the disease’s prolific spread, while the localized pattern of outbreak seemed to start in the hospitals and radiate outward into the communities. President Odero emphasized that all resources were being utilized to determine the cause of the outbreak and find a cure.

While the President spoke, the crawl on the bottom of the television screen displayed a list of the countries already affected. The list was not short.

President Bernard Odero finished his speech by imploring the American people to remain home and stay strong; he promised the United States Government would not fail them.

Cade noted the absence of any mention of God at the end of Odero’s speech. Being politically correct to the nth degree, it was par for the course for the President. Cade knew this would be the “perfect crisis” that Odero’s advisors would not let “go to waste” as some in the President’s administration were fond of saying. Since the 9/11 attacks the sitting politicians on both sides of the aisle made every attempt to give themselves more power and the people less freedom. An event like this was sure to permit them free reign to make any constitutional changes they deemed necessary. As far as martial law in Portland was concerned, he was sure it loomed on the horizon.

Cade was baffled by the fact that the President was still in the District of Columbia at all. It also astonished him at how the most protected city in the world could fall so fast to the walking dead. One word quickly came to mind: “Rome.”

After the President finished his somber speech, a White House pool reporter’s head filled the screen and indicated that the President and his family would be moved to a secure and undisclosed location until the “unknown threats facing our nation were dealt with.” The reporter’s next piece addressed immigration and borders. Apparently, it took a pandemic of biblical proportions for the U.S. President to finally grow some balls and seal the southern border with Mexico. Between San Diego and Tijuana at the border checkpoint, hundreds of people on both sides had been attacked by the cannibalistic infected, resulting in upwards of three hundred deaths and counting. The capital, Mexico City, was a blood bath. The violence inflicted on the population by the infected made the Mexican drug war pale in comparison.

All day long the talking heads on every news channel were reporting about a deadly virulent new strain of flu that had not been encountered before. The Fox news anchor said a full-blown pandemic was rolling across the nation. Anyone that was bitten by a carrier also became infected. Death followed, sometimes quickly. Sometimes it took hours, but the main thing they stressed was that after succumbing to the infection, the newly dead would re-animate and attack any living thing they saw. The infection made the afflicted patient feverish, hallucinate and violence prone. Unconfirmed reports suggested a few cases had even ended in homicidal violence and then escalated to cannibalism. The anchorman finished by adding, as Cade had already discovered first hand, that the only way to kill them was to destroy their brain.

 Cannibalism. The word alone made the hairs on the back of Cade’s neck stand on end, especially after what had happened at Ted’s house. Cade turned the TV off and went upstairs to the office to retrieve his phone; he passed the wall covered with photos of his family in good times: skiing, camping, holidays and school milestones. Cade felt a lump forming in his throat. His eyes lingered on the photo of the three of them all bundled up on Mount Hood, enjoying a family ski outing. Raven and Brook’s smiling faces seared into his memory. He made up his mind at that moment; it was time to leave Portland and go locate his family.