Read Online Rise by Gareth Wood - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Gareth Wood
Tags: Canada, Zombies, apocalypse, Armageddon, Journal, Living Dead, End of the world, postapocalyptic, permuted press, diary, romero, day by day armageddon
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as quietly as we could and waited for several hours. It started to rain, and the noise of the rain on the roof covered any noise we made inside.
Jess and I changed clothes into dark pants, black shirts, and dark coats and hats. She showed me the carbine we had taken from the farm, and showed me the quickest way to reload it. It had two clips, and we duct-taped them together facing opposite each other, so all I’d have to do if I emptied one would be flip it directly over and place it back in the weapon. I took both clips for the Glock as well. Jess took her rifle and scope, and we spent several hours cleaning them all and going over our plan. Sarah, for the record, doesn’t like the idea of us going in to rescue DJ Dave. She thinks it’s dangerous and not worth the risk. My argument was that he was alive, and that I was not under any circumstances going to abandon anyone alive to those dead monstrosities.
Finally it was time. We had waited for the sun to go down, and waited to see if the street lights came on. They did in a few areas, but not where we were. That suited me just fine. Jess and I took our weapons, leaving the others to watch the area. Michael was asleep, and I was glad of that. Jess was risking her life for a stranger and with her little boy asleep with Darren and Sarah to watch out for him, she felt a little better about going to get DJ Dave. We had been listening to the radio broadcast quietly, and he had nothing really new to report. He made another “Dead Report” around sundown.
We set out, keeping to the shadows and going slowly. I wished we had radios to keep in touch with my sister, so we could call them if anything went wrong. I made a mental note to keep a lookout for a Radio Shack or a Revy or something. We saw several undead on the way to the river, but the darkness and rain kept us unseen. We were able to sneak by them quite easily. We reached the river after about an hour and a half.
We had several advantages over the walking dead. Speed, since they walked or limped along, but never quite ran. Brains, since they appeared to all be about as smart as a dumb cockroach. Weapons were also an advantage. They appeared to rely on hands and teeth only, and they didn’t appear to be getting any stronger as they decayed. Our disadvantages were numbers and endurance. There were many, many more of them than us at this point, and I remember a news report, one of the last I saw, saying that they didn’t tire. They could chase us for days, and while we had to rest, they never needed to.
At the river we took a few moments to rest under a tree. I had brought along a backpack with three water bottles, binoculars, first aid supplies, two flares, some food, and a couple of flashlights. Jess and I ate a bit, and then kept going. We were soaked but not cold. It was still a warm night. Lightning and thunder started up to the west, and we were able to make good time upstream. Few of the dead seemed to be anywhere near the river. Perhaps some instinct kept them away from running water. We saw only three, and all of them were watching the lightning. We passed them quietly, and kept checking behind us, but they never followed.
Four hours after setting out we stopped. We were near the train tracks opposite the radio station, and it was full dark now. A few blocks away the power was on to the street lights, and we could see into the buildings in a few places. Interior lights revealed a few of the undead just standing in some buildings, and on the street a large mob of them had formed near the front and back of one building, a three story brick structure with a fire escape ladder. The top floor lights were all on, but I couldn’t see movement inside, even with the binoculars. Jess and I were safe at our current location, as we were on the other side of a chain link fence, and no undead were within 200 yards of us here. Well, ‘safe’ might be too strong a word, but we were not in immediate danger.
We looked
Jess and I changed clothes into dark pants, black shirts, and dark coats and hats. She showed me the carbine we had taken from the farm, and showed me the quickest way to reload it. It had two clips, and we duct-taped them together facing opposite each other, so all I’d have to do if I emptied one would be flip it directly over and place it back in the weapon. I took both clips for the Glock as well. Jess took her rifle and scope, and we spent several hours cleaning them all and going over our plan. Sarah, for the record, doesn’t like the idea of us going in to rescue DJ Dave. She thinks it’s dangerous and not worth the risk. My argument was that he was alive, and that I was not under any circumstances going to abandon anyone alive to those dead monstrosities.
Finally it was time. We had waited for the sun to go down, and waited to see if the street lights came on. They did in a few areas, but not where we were. That suited me just fine. Jess and I took our weapons, leaving the others to watch the area. Michael was asleep, and I was glad of that. Jess was risking her life for a stranger and with her little boy asleep with Darren and Sarah to watch out for him, she felt a little better about going to get DJ Dave. We had been listening to the radio broadcast quietly, and he had nothing really new to report. He made another “Dead Report” around sundown.
We set out, keeping to the shadows and going slowly. I wished we had radios to keep in touch with my sister, so we could call them if anything went wrong. I made a mental note to keep a lookout for a Radio Shack or a Revy or something. We saw several undead on the way to the river, but the darkness and rain kept us unseen. We were able to sneak by them quite easily. We reached the river after about an hour and a half.
We had several advantages over the walking dead. Speed, since they walked or limped along, but never quite ran. Brains, since they appeared to all be about as smart as a dumb cockroach. Weapons were also an advantage. They appeared to rely on hands and teeth only, and they didn’t appear to be getting any stronger as they decayed. Our disadvantages were numbers and endurance. There were many, many more of them than us at this point, and I remember a news report, one of the last I saw, saying that they didn’t tire. They could chase us for days, and while we had to rest, they never needed to.
At the river we took a few moments to rest under a tree. I had brought along a backpack with three water bottles, binoculars, first aid supplies, two flares, some food, and a couple of flashlights. Jess and I ate a bit, and then kept going. We were soaked but not cold. It was still a warm night. Lightning and thunder started up to the west, and we were able to make good time upstream. Few of the dead seemed to be anywhere near the river. Perhaps some instinct kept them away from running water. We saw only three, and all of them were watching the lightning. We passed them quietly, and kept checking behind us, but they never followed.
Four hours after setting out we stopped. We were near the train tracks opposite the radio station, and it was full dark now. A few blocks away the power was on to the street lights, and we could see into the buildings in a few places. Interior lights revealed a few of the undead just standing in some buildings, and on the street a large mob of them had formed near the front and back of one building, a three story brick structure with a fire escape ladder. The top floor lights were all on, but I couldn’t see movement inside, even with the binoculars. Jess and I were safe at our current location, as we were on the other side of a chain link fence, and no undead were within 200 yards of us here. Well, ‘safe’ might be too strong a word, but we were not in immediate danger.
We looked
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