AGE OF INSANITY

Chapter 17: The Shelter

Charles P.O.V

The twins did not stop talking until we got to the shelter. The road to the shelter was filled with the infected. Judging from thier bloodshot eyes with dark pupils they had not been exposed to the virus for long. Most of the moved fast but could not keep up with our Jeep wrangler. The twins made a game of it and by the time we got to the shelter the count was up to twenty.

We arrived at the fairly deserted compound save for two infected who lay unmoving on the ground. They were a man and a woman. The man had had the back of his skull repeatedly bashed in until it resembled a bowl of pasta. It took some effort to turn over the overweight giant and when he was finally on his back, Erick decided to empty the contents of his stomach.

"Oh my God! That's coach. What the hell happened?" Patrick shrieked out loud. He construed his face as a wave of nausea hit. He tried fighting it but ended up next to his brother heaving his guts out.

Erick was the first to recover and did waste another second outside. Patrick was not so lucky as he caught sight of the next body. The female looked young. Her white pupils glazed over in death. Her face was fairly unscathed save for the deep cut that almost severed her head from her neck. After a few more seconds of dry heaving Patrick finally identified the female.

"That his only daughter", he said hightailing after his brother.

It took me ten minutes to get rid of the bodies. I dragged them out of the compound dumping them in a compost pit that was at the edge of the clearing. The bungalow was surrounded a small forest. If we were lucky we could catch some game meat or even raise a couple if the space allowed it.

I got back to the bungalow in time to see the vault door that guarded the shelter slide open. Patrick held a drawing that bore identical symbols to those on the door in his hands while, Erick who had opened the door, disappeared inside. I followed him in to find an empty dark room with a hatch in the middle of the room. I tried to pull it up to no avail. I enlisted the help of the boys, putting our backs into it, to no avail. I was heading back to the car to find a way of tethering it to the hatch when I saw a lever at the corner of the room. I pulled on it and screamed a little in my head as the forsaken hatch swung outward.

The hatch revealed a seemingly endless flight of stairs. We descended down the cylindrical tunnel for exactly eight minutes pausing at a narrow landing and another door. This time I shone my torch on the walls looking for a lever or button and was met with an electronic lock.

The lock had three layers of encryption and after and hour of trying to hack and bypass the lock using my sophisticated software I resorted to an inferior software that more or less used brute force by keying in over a million combination per second. The lock could open today or tomorrow, and there was no way of telling.

With nothing left to do I left the twins to monitor the door and headed for the forest. I hated confined spaces almost as much as I hated talkative people. A confined space occupied with talkative people was hell. I trudged through the woods careful not to draw attention in case there were any infected people around. I did not get far before coming across a herd of gazelles. Not far from where the gazelles were grazing there was a  pond from which a herd of buffalos were drinking.

The animals must have moved closer to the bungalow probably due lack of human activities. If we were hoping to catch some, it would have to be before the rest came to the shelter. I made my way back to the shelter careful not to alert the wildlife. The hacking software was still busy at work giving me time to explore the house. The bungalow consisted of five bedrooms, a kitchen that had a big pantry, that was still fully stocked and a spacious living room.

The rooms were undisturbed, meaning the coach and his daughter did not make it into the house. The damage done to the coach and his daughter could not be self inflicted and neither was it done by an animal. Someone had been here although there were no signs of anyone around. I made my way to the shed and almost had a heart attack at the sight that met me.

A total of twelve people were chained to the walls of the shed. Judging from glazed over eyes  and grey skin, they were all infected. Five of them lay on the ground unmoving while the rest snapped at me throwing themselves against the chains that secured them. Years of combat in enemy territory had sharpened my senses, that being the only reason I felt, rather than saw someone come up from behind me.

I ducked in time as an axe flew past my head and out of my assailants hand. I jumped out of the way narrowly missing heavy boots that had meant to knock me. I turned around to face the seven foot man that darkened the exit. With the axe out of the way, the mammoth began extracting a machete. He was big and slow but overpowering him would take some time.

" Look man, there is plenty of space for all of us. We don't need to fight, the world is ending after all".

I tried reasoning with him as I backed away from him and further into shed. The infected become more agitated the closer i got to them. The mammoth moved closer to me not acknowledging my plea in the least. I took out the silencer from its holster and a trigger later, the mammoth crushed to the floor. My victory was short lived as more axe wielding men charged towards me.