Apocalypse by Zombie

Prologue

DPS Construction shut its doors in February of two thousand seventeen , and left me without a job. It hadn't been much of a job, mostly building pole barns during the summer and snow removal in the winter.  With a wife and three kids to support out of a job just is not an option.   Luckily for me our former day care lady's current boy toy David, had an in with a job on a pipeline running from northern Canada to North Dakota. It took some convincing but I talked him into hooking me up.   Taking just over a week for the whole process of applying, getting interviewed, and getting a ship off date.  Getting the job turned out to be the easy part.   

It took me a few more days to set everything up at home and my wife Des was not happy. We had to arrange for child care and help with getting the kids from place to place.  My wife Destiny or Des as she liked to go by, had to request a schedule change at work to accommodate. She was really unhappy about me having to go so far for a job.  The kids acted like I was abandoning them.  Considering how things had gone with their biological father how they felt wasn't very surprising.  It seemed that no matter how much I reassured them they weren't going to change their minds.  Leading up to my departure date was an emotional roller coaster.  I was actually relieved to be boarding the plane when the day came. 

The flight out was smooth, considering the airplane seemed to have came out of a cracker jack box.  It was easy to tell the new guys from the roughnecks on the flight.  Besides the quality of gear the veteran roughnecks had us newbies had duffels and luggage when they just had carry on. The camp was similar to what I had experienced in the military and it didn't take long to accustom myself to the new way of life.  Schedules had to be kept and the harsh living conditions made for strict rules.  I was surprised to find that I had missed the simplicity of this type of life. Time seemed to fly like it had an Acme rocket strapped on and before I knew it months had passed.   

The job had it pros and its cons but it was a job non the less.  In three short months of work there i made more than enough money to catch us up. Not just catching up but replacing some things that need replaced like furniture.  It was hard work but being able to look back at the end of the day and see what id accomplished was gratifying. Looking back and knowing that five hundred feet of pipe was mounted by these hands, or repaired if that be the case.   I could have gone on like that for quite a while longer, but there were problems brewing.

Des had never been able to handle distance in a relationship.  When I was still in Colorado before I managed to move home the distance played havoc on us.  Since being together and together there had been a few times we had need of being apart.  Things could have gone better at those times.  A few days were hard on her, months must have been a nightmare. The distance between my wife and I seemed to be growing to be more than just miles the longer i was away.  My first hitch was almost up and I would be going home for two weeks.  the only thing was is I wasn't sure weather I would be going home to stay or not. 

My supervisor was pretty upset about my situation due to my level of experience. I went from general laborer to equipment operater in the first month. When i wasnt running equipment i was welding. It hadnt taken me long to become a solo operator. In doing that i also had to aquire a lot of gear. I got a three oh eight rifle, a smith and wesson nineteen eleven fourty five, and a remington twelve gauge with the drum. The guns and all of the ammo i could carry were half price. The company bought them whole sale and sold them at half price. Wolves, bears, and bandits were a problem so armed workers were happy workers. I also had some very nice thermal gear, tent, and accesories so i didnt have to go back to base every night.

I was a couple of weeks out when i got an email from a mutual friend of des and I. He told me she had started spending a lot of time with a guy she used to work with at a nursing home. His name was Travis, and they had gotten closer than they should have a while back but i nipped the whole situation in the bud. Now with out me there to ground her it seemed Des was floating away. There were pictures of them walking and holding hands and a couple of them hugging.  So the plan changed for me, instead of flying back and discussing things with her to decide on whether I stayed or came back for another hitch.  The decision would be based entirely on what I found when I got there.  If things were good I would be staying.  If the situation was the nightmare plaguing my sleep then I would be getting some proof, getting a damn good lawyer, and heading back. 

It was starting when I left for my last trip into the wilderness.  During the last couple of weeks before i was due to head home almost half of the crew came down sick. The replacement crew must have brought it up with them or something, but by the day i left we were down to one shift running a skeleton crew. I managed to avoid getting sick because i was hardly ever in base. I got back in from the field grabbed my bags and was on the airplane twenty minutes later. I didnt even take the time to say goodbye anybody.  The broken hanger had been much worse than i had been told and had taken six hours to fix. They were flying out some of the more severe cases and we all had to wear respirators because no one was sure what the disease was.  I wasn't sure on the procedures but I was fairly certain the CDC would disagree with that decision.  

We had been in the air just under an hour when all hell broke loose.  The storm hit out of nowhere and was throwing the plane around like a snow flake in the wind. The pilot had no choice but to try to return to our start point, it was the closest landing site and we would be lucky to make it back. In the turn something happened and the plane was flipped with the shrieking sound that could only be tearing metal. The movies show flashing lights and the camera shakes, people do scream but the movies just dont come anywhere close. The lights are just gone, and in the night it was almost black in that small plane. It doesnt just shake, but pitches and rolls tossing everyone and everything from one end of the plane to the other. I could tell the plane was falling rather than flying due to the almost weightless feeling to my body. The crash left no doubt about what was going on, and i was only concious for another quick second before i was thrown again and slammed into a wall.