Apocalypse Bohol

Chapter 6: Defeat?

Luke, Jay Arr, and Klaudine heard the rumbling sounds of the second group's armored vehicle and went outside to greet them.

"Hey guys! I decided not to grab the solar panels... cause we found these!" Luke said, proudly showing them two dusty but new medium-sized Champion generators. "The solar panel shop had these beauties in the back. These run on gasoline... we could build a shed for these two to control – wait, where's Ma'am Rheena?"

"She didn't make it." Carlos answered. The group was sullen, and tired.

"Well... I'm sorry to hear that." Luke paused. "Come inside. Klaudine made dinner for us."

Everyone climbed out of the car, depressed. Even so, they freshened up and washed themselves while Jay Arr and Luke washed the armored truck. After that, everyone unloaded the day's hauls. Daryl was in tears. Sobbing, he removed the pillows and other personal effects that they had collected from Rheena's home.

"She's gone, Luke, we were too late!" He sobbed. "We could've gone earlier, but we were still too damn late!"

"Hey man, I'm sorry." Luke placed his hand on his shoulder. "It's my fault that you weren't able to get there early."

Daryl sniffled. "We could've saved him if it weren't for you!" He said.

Luke sighed. "I know. I'm sorry man. But I just wanted to make sure that you guys were safe."

Daryl shrugged him off. "No you didn't!" He said. "If you had just taken action, maybe she wouldn't have died! She wouldn't be dead! But she is, and it's all because of you!" He stormed off, still sobbing.

A hand draped over his shoulder. It was Carlos. "No man... Daryl's wrong. You actually saved us. You were right, if we had ran off straight into that subdivision with that car of yours, we could've died. There was a monster waiting for us there. It was flinging zombies through the air like they were baseballs, man. One hit from that would've flattened the roof of your car."

"A monster?" Luke asked. "Like a giant zombie?"

"No, man, it was something worse... something bigger." Carlos explained. "Look, let me help you clean up and I'll explain it to you later."

They finished washing the car and Carlos recounted the events of what happened later over dinner. Luke was mortified.

"We're not safe here." He declared. "Anytime that thing decides to chase us down, we'll be trapped like mice in a cage on this mountain."

"Hill" Carlos corrected. "But you're right. There's a military installation at the heart of Bohol. Maybe we can seek safe refuge there?"

"Ugh. Military. What if they'll abuse us? How sure are we that they won't hurt us?" Luke asked.

"I don't know. Maybe we should check online for more news in case we learn anything new?"

They went back inside the house. Daryl was still sulking, but he still managed to help out. Luke forced himself to ignore the poor guy. There were bigger problems to deal with. He and Carlos sat down on the dining table and Luke opened his phone. The Internet had miraculously stayed up despite the fact that the world had become a zombie's paradise. While the public sectors had taken huge hits, Military units had been mobilized to make sure that the communications arrays had been protected, while most communications stations have been destroyed, no zombie could reach into space, and so the internet stayed up, though anytime even that may be destroyed, but for as long as it's still working, the internet remains a valuable resource.

The fastest way to get news now was through facebook; most social media websites had been shut down or destroyed, but somehow facebook managed to stay online. These days it had been turned into an information sharing network between surviving groups and their families.