The Zombie Apocalypse

Chapter 6 - The Military Base

We were soon at the military base. We instantly knew that coming to the base had been useless. The base was crawling with zombies. There was gunfire as living military people fought with dead 'army mates'. The sound was deafening, with all kinds of guns being fired at the same time, along with the screams of many soldiers.

'Now what? Looks like coming here didn't help us out.'

'But we can't let them just die here. Why don't we kill some of these things?' suggested James, who had been quiet all along the journey.

'That's not a good idea. Who knows, we might ourselves die while fighting!' I said, scared.

'He's right. Let's go.' He said and started the engine. We were about to leave when suddenly a zombie landed hard against the window of the minivan. The windows got covered in blood. Caesar suddenly lost his temper. He picked up a gun with one hand and opened the window with the other. 'Oh boy.' said James. Caesar shot the zombie right in the head thrice. My ears burst in the first shot, in the second shot I thought I would never hear anything anymore, and in the third shot I almost fainted. Even my AK-47 never made such a deafening sound. What gun was this?!

I didn't speak for the next half an hour. James understood my condition, and told Caesar, who seemed angry even then, to turn off the radio. After half an hour, I finally asked James in sign language what was the matter with Caesar. James spoke out loud, though, and said, 'This minivan belonged to Caesar's father. He had died when Caesar was young, and the minivan is the only thing that reminds Caesar of his father. So if anyone causes harm to his van, the person might as well end his own life.'

I was too weak to say anything to Caesar about his father. I just nodded my head. I looked at Caesar. With great efforts, I made out the word 'sorry' with my lips. No sound came out of my mouth. Caesar just smiled and nodded his head.

I was able to speak only after an hour. 'Where are we going?' I finally said. 'I don't know. We are just going on the interstate right now. I suppose you can decide what to do now.' I had no idea why he thought that I would know that.

Though it was a funny thing to do, I just searched on the net, 'what to do if a zombie apocalypse breaks out.' They mostly said to leave the infected area. They said with the developed military forces, it would be a matter of hours when they would destroy the infected area. But the circumstances here were different. The military itself was... dead. I kept reading, though it was boring. Most of the steps they suggested had already been carried out by me – store supplies, find survivors and get a few nice guns.

So it seems we would have to go to advanced steps now. But I found nothing useful anymore.

'Not much help from the Net.' I declared.

'So where should we go?'

'The best thing to do is find out more about the apocalypse. Maybe they are announcing some shelter for survivors or something like that. Turn on the radio, Caesar.'

Without saying a word, Caesar turned on the radio. The radio did announce a shelter for 'living humans'. The shelter was, luckily, in the direction in which we were travelling. The radio announced the location in many different ways, so that everyone could understand. They gave coordinates, they spoke in a few weird languages, and announced a few landmarks that could be seen from a distance.

'I can see one of the landmarks even from here. There's that windmill they were talking about. Though I already know the place. It's quite far still. We'll reach only by tomorrow, considering the fact that we'll stop somewhere at night.'

'We'll not stop. I know a drug store nearby. One of us will have to stay awake an drive all night. We can use some adrenaline for it.

Caesar you know the way, so you can rest right now. James, do you know the way too?'

'Yes I do. I might as well drive now. Caesar's been driving for a while.'

'OK. I'm stopping here. Can't see any zombies there.'

He stopped the car on the roadside. Caesar was right – there were no zombies here. James took over the wheel. Seeing that there were no zombies around, we decided to rest there for a while and eat something. We took out some food which we had stored in the back of the minivan. All of us ate for some time.

We were on our way after about 15 minutes.

'How long would it take if we drive all night?' I asked Caesar.

'We'd be there early in the morning. Maximum 4 a.m.'

'Sounds OK.'

We continued to listen to the radio. We all were surprised when the radio suddenly screeched. We heard screams from the radio.

'Looks like the zombies got to the radio station too.' James said.

I wondered if it was safe to drive all night. What if James fell asleep while driving? 'Are you sure you can drive all night, James?' I asked.

'If I get adrenaline, I'd be fine. I took adrenaline once when I was 20 years old. Didn't sleep for a day then. I think I had taken too much of it. It doesn't normally keep you awake so long.'

'I hope it would be safe to drive at night. I mean, it's difficult to see at night.'

'Don't worry. I don't have night-blindness. Not that old yet.'

'Yeah, yeah. But it still isn't a good idea I think. It's better to find a safe place for the night.'

'You're right. Even if we reach late, at least it would be less risky. But how do we find a safe place?' asked Caesar.

'Hmm...It shouldn't be that tough. We've been going around this place for a long time. I'm sure I can find a safe place for us.' said James.

We moved through the highway swiftly. It was almost 4 p.m. now. Not much time was left before night fell. Not much food was left too.

'Do you know a place from where we can get more food? Our old stock is almost over now.'

'There's a supermarket down the highway. But then we'll have to go off-track.'

'It's alright. We'll be reaching tomorrow anyway.'

James took the next turn to go off the highway. At almost 5:30 p.m. , we reached the supermarket. The area was deserted. The supermarket was an old building. But the place didn't seem to have zombies.

'Who'd like to go?'

'What all do we want from there?' volunteered Caesar.

'All food items that we can store for a long time. Don't bring any fruits or stuff that expires quickly. Who knows, that shelter might not be as safe as we are expecting it to be. Just bring things absolutely necessary.'

'OK.'

Caesar took an unknown gun from the bag and left the minivan. He walked into the supermarket. The supermarket was painted red on the outside, and there was a weird smell in the air, which seemed to come from the supermarket. I looked around. There were apartments across the street. There was an eerie silence in the apartments. James and I waited patiently for Caesar.

We heard a gunshot. Neither of us were surprised. But we were a bit concerned. Was Caesar ok? Did he need help? Was he even alive?

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