Swarmed?

Erin and I sat around the fire trying to figure out what we could do. We had last watched Tony walk off alone over 4 hours ago. We had no idea where he was going or what was running through his mind. I could only imagine the anguish that was tearing him apart at not being able to find his family. I looked over to Erin and she was half lost in thought and half on the verge of tears. I sat there thinking that she was now beginning to feel the pain of loss that Tony was feeling and it was finally getting to her.

We sat in silence staring at the fire and occasionally into the woods. We had spent weeks trying to get here and now the first person we had found that we were looking for had lost his mind and wandered off alone. I knew there was no way I could leave yet I knew soon I would have no choice as there were other I needed to find. I pondered how I would locate the others; would they be as easy to find as Tony had been or would we run across more difficult obstacles along the way.

As I sat looking up at the night sky, something I had not taken the time to do in a long time, I heard a loud gunshot ring out from the woods. I jumped up with my guns drawn staring at the direction from which the sound had come. I glared into the darkness of the woods trying to see if I could see anything coming towards us. After a few minutes of looking I saw a dark mass moving quickly down the path. I trained the two handguns I was holding on the moving object as it raced down the path. As the object got closer it began to take shape, that's when I realized that the quickly moving mass was not a enemy; it was Tony.

As Tony raced from the words he yelled something that I could not make out. He turned back towards the woods and fired another round from the sawed off shotgun. I sat thinking that he was just shooting random shots to blow off steam when I saw what he was shooting at. There was a horde of zombies running through the woods towards us. I yelled for Erin to get up and run, we had to somehow get to the car and get out of here or get to higher ground and try to fight back. I dashed for the car only to realize that there was no way we could get everything loaded and drive away before we were swarmed. Erin ran to the closest trailer and dove in while Tony ran to another. I was to far away to try to reach the door to one of the trailers so I jumped on top of our car and hopped onto the roof of the nearest trailer.

I heard Erin screaming out trying to found out where I was. I yelled back telling her that I was ok and just t start shooting. I was cut off by the sound of her shotgun blowing a whole through the nearest walking dead. The pieces of the creature blew backwards and covered the rest of the horde. The proximity of the blast naked the creature back and it bowled over the nearest zombies. I ran across the top of the trailer and jumped to the next. I barely landed on the roof but gained my footing after a few seconds. I slid to the end of the trailer and started firing off shots. Shooting in the dark is more difficult than one can imagine. The rounds struck various parts of the mass of moving dead, a few dropping in the process.

As on st on the roof trying to figure out how the hell we were going to get back to the car, I heard a noise I did not think I would here in the middle of a fire fight. I heard the sounds of a ripcord being pulled and a engine starting. As I listened to the whir of the engine I could not figure out exactly where the noise was coming from. I continued to fire shots into the mass below watching the mass continue to move forward and swarm our makeshift campsite.

I watched as the mass slowly moved towards the trailers and began pounding on the walls and doors. As I continued to fire into the crowd I saw the door to the trailer Tony had run in burst open. Like something out of a bad horror movie I watched as the zombies rushed towards the now open door. I fired rounds towards the door trying to stop the creatures before they could overwhelm the trailer but I could not stop them all. As I sat firing shots I heard the distinct whirring noise get louder and louder. I listened to what I assumed was Tony screaming as the creatures rushed him.

As I ran along the trailer and again jumped to the next one in the group I heard the whirring still going but still could not understand where it was coming from. It appeared to be coming the trailer that Tony had been hiding in, the same trailer that was now flooded with walking dead. As I jumped to the top of the trailer I could tell that the noise was definitely coming from this trailer and that it was unbelievably loud. I ran to the hatch opening on the roof and looked in, what I saw blew me away.

I looked down and saw something straight out of a b list horror flick. Inside of the trailer was Tony with a welding mask over his face, his shotgun in one hand and a chainsaw in the other. I could swear I was looking at something inspired by Army of Darkness. Tony swung the chainsaw at head level and caught every walking dead that moved towards him. There was a pile of bodies in front of him getting bigger and bigger. As the creatures tried to climb over their fallen brethren Tony continued to hack away. I yelled down to him from the hatch and told him to get over to me. He slowly backed away from the mass and headed for the roof hatch. Once he reached the opening he dropped the chainsaw and slipped the shotgun back into its holster. I reached out and told him to grab my hands. I struggled but slowly pulled him to the roof with me.

I looked into his eyes once we were on the roof together and could tell I was no longer looking at the same Tony that I had known before he walked into the woods. I could see the blank stare he had, his eyes were glossed over and staring through me. I knew this was a man who knew that he may never see his wife and child again but would not accept that they may be dead. I yelled for him to snap out of it and start moving. He glared into my eyes, grabbed on of my handguns and started moving for the edge of the trailer.

He hopped over to the next trailer and stared back at me. I knew he had something planned and I needed to get my ass moving. The whole trailer was moving at this point as the creatures continued to pile in through the door. I rushed to get away from the trailer as I saw Tony raise the gun to eye level. He was taking aim at something on the ground but I had no clue as to what. I jumped just as the hammer came down on the round out of my handgun. The round flew straight into something that I had not seen previously. I now understood why Tony had been piling them into that particular trailer. Outside of the door was two propane tanks that he was had seen prior to running in. The round struck the tank and blew the tanks up. The blast tore the trailer and everything on the ground near them to shreds. The explosion was deafening but did its job. Nearly everything within the vicinity of the trailer was gone. The other trailers had rocked with the explosion. Tony and I had lost our footing on the trailer we were standing on and fell to the ground.

I slowly stood up and looked around. My ears were ringing from the concussion of the blast. I looked over to the trailer Erin had run in and watched as the door slowly opened and she stumbled out. The explosion had caused her trailer to nearly fall over and she had been banged around in the process. She walked over to where we were standing and just looked at me without saying anything, For now the threat was over as nearly everything had been destroyed. We walked through the camp ground putting the final shots into the few that were still moving.

We walked around the camp gathering up our supplies and headed for the car. The blast had knocked one of the creatures onto the hood and smashed the windshield. The remnants of one of the tanks was lodged in the creatures head. The damage to the car was pretty significant, we would need a new ride soon but for now this would have to do. We tossed everything we could gather in the back and got in. I looked back to Tony and knew in that instant that we needed to go back to his house to see if there was any sign of Karen and Abby.

Karen and Abby

I stared at the spot where Tony had been standing. By time I realized what he had said he had already dashed away back to the weapons room. I turned and looked at Erin and she was awake from her little nap and on her feet. The realization of what Tony had said hit me. Karen and Abby, his wife and daughter, had not answered the CB. His imagination had come up with the worst scenario possible and he went into overdrive. The part that scared me about the whole situation was that even though his mind was going to the worst case scenario it was most likely the one that had occurred.

I jumped to my feet and ran after Tony. I yelled for him to toss me his keys so we could start loading his Dodge Magnum since it had more room than our tiny clown car. He told me that wasn't going to happen since it wasn't running. Dammit it look like we are packing more into our tiny little car. I grabbed a armful of supplies and started loading up the car. I maneuvered stuff around to try to make room for Tony and his weapons. Damn this was going to be a tight fit, felt like playing a game of Tetris, but in the end everything fit in its place.

Tony, Erin, and I crammed as much of the weapons, ammo, and supplies as we could into the back of the car. I asked Tony where I was going to and he grabbed the keys and told me he was driving. That suited me fine since I only knew that Karen and Abby were with her parents, where that actually was I had no clue. He jumped into the front seat and immediately hit his knees on the steering wheel. Seems I forgot to tell him that Erin had been driving and seeing as she was a midget he should move the seat first, oh well. Erin climbed in the backseat, i jumped into the passenger seat, Tony revved the engine and pooped it into reverse. He spun the wheels as we backed out of the driveway, he popped it into gear and took off.

We sped along the roads at breakneck speeding avoiding anything and everything along the way. we weaved in and out of the broken down cars and bodies strewn about. I held on to the door handle and looked back to see Erin covering her eyes. We had not driven like this the whole way here and now here we were in a emergency situation flying down the road. I turned to look at Tony and saw him with a determined look on his face, focusing with everything he had to drive and not get us killed. I watched as we passed things I remembered from growing up here and realized we were headed for a town called Oxford. Oxford was best described as a one light town that hadn't really caught up to the real world. I guess this would be the perfect place to put Karen and Abby since the population was so small.

We turned off the main road and hit a dirt path. The path was clear of nearly any obstructions beyond some small branches and the leaves that had fallen from the trees. Tony drove along the path like a rally car driver racing for first. Up ahead I could see what looked like a small settlement of broken down RVs an mobile homes. This must be where Abby and Karen were being hidden. Tony slammed on the brakes and we slid to a stop. Before the car was even turned off Tony had the door open and was running towards the encampment. He had his shotguns out and was yelling for Karen. I grabbed the keys from the ignition and turned the car off. If I didn't do something Tony was going to attract the attention of everything in the area, and if that happened I'm not sure we would be able to fight our way out of it.

I flung the door open and hopped out of the car. I looked back to see Erin already had the back hatch open and was arming up. She looked at me and tossed me my .50 cals. I checked to make sure both had full clips then took off after Tony. I ran as fast as I could to catch up with him but he was a man possessed. He was on the hunt for his family and nothing was going to stand in his way. I yelled for him to slow down, he turned and looked in my direction, then turned back and continued down the path. I had almost caught up to him when he ran into one of the trailers.

I dashed for the trailer that Tony had just run in when I heard the blast of one of his sawed off shotguns echo through the woods. I reached the door in time to see Tony come out covered in blood. I stopped him before he could get to far and asked him what had happened. He told me that he just had to kill what was left of his father in law as he had become infected, but that Karen was not in there. He looked towards the next trailer and pushed me to the side. By this time Erin had gotten her weapons together and was coming to join us.

Tony went to the next trailer and kicked in the door. I looked over at Erin and told her to go check the one to our left and Ill take the one next to it. We headed for the trailers and heard Tony start yelling Karen's again. I knew he had not found her by the tone of the yell but at the same time knew that if he kept yelling eventually something was going to hear him. I pushed open the door to the trailer in front of me and headed in.

The musky smell throughout the trailer was almost overwhelming. My stomach started to turn and I could feel myself starting to convulse. I felt as though I was going to throw up but held my lunch in and continued on. I started looking around to see where the smell was coming from. I opened the door to what turned out to be the bathroom and found it empty. I took a few more steps down the hall and opened the door to the main bedroom. Laying on the bed was what was left of Tony's mother-in-law. Damn how the hell was I going to tell Tony. There was not much left of her. It looked as though she had been sleeping when she was attacked. The blood soaked sheets hid most of the damage that had been done but it was obvious she had not been aware of what was going to happen when the attack occurred. I stepped away from the door and headed back towards the entrance. As I was a few steps from the door it flung open and scared the hell out of me. Tony stepped inside and started yelling Karen's name again. He must have saw me out of the corner of his eye but not realized it was me. He swung one of the shotguns around and fired off a round. I dropped to the ground when I saw the gun get raised. The shot flew over my head and shattered the door to the bedroom. He looked down and saw it was me, said he was sorry and shot out the door. Guess I cant blame the guy I would have shot first and questioned it later to.

We all stepped into the middle on the commune and started to try to figure out what happened. Karen and Abby were nowhere to be found, alive or dead. Both of Tony's in laws were dead, one infected and one not. We continued to look around for clues as to where Karen and Abby had gone. We searched high and low for any sign of them and where about to walk away when Erin yelled for us to come over to her. She was one the fringe of the trailers looking at the ground. When we got over there she pointed out something that we had missed. There were imprints on the ground were a car had been, but was no longer there. That makes sense, Karen must have grabbed Abby and taken her in the car when she realized what was happening with her parents. With her mother dead and her dad infected she was no longer safe here.

I looked at Tony and asked him what he wanted to do. He just looked and meet and then turned and walked away. Before he turned I could see the signs of tears welling in his eyes. I could understand what he was feeling. Neither Erin nor I had any one in the world besides our friends. Neither of us had significant other to worry about, let alone a child. I had never known Tony to cry in his entire life, but here was this grown man; a ex marine on the verge of breaking down. Tony walked away from us and started down a small dirt path out of the back of the community. Where he was going I wasn't sure but I knew he was going to need a little time to get himself together and vent off what ever he was feeling before we could continue.

We waited for hours for Tony to come back to the encampment. As we waited Erin and I started working out the next steps for what we needed to do. I told her that before we left Michigan I had one other person I had to find.I had to know what had become of Sam Sam, the only person in the world that I can call my little sister. Erin told me she was ok with that but once that was done we needed to leave. The snow would start getting heavy soon and she wanted to be gone before it happened.