I slept like the dead that night, pardon the pun but it was true. We all did. The lack of sleep from the previous nights and the constant stress really did a number on a person; I even slept through Zoe's snoring. The others were already up by the time I rolled out of bed, following the very welcome smell of coffee. It was only instant coffee but I gratefully accepted the cup from Ethan as he passed me a steaming cup. Chloe was up in the loft keeping an eye out the small window, if anyone saw anything it would be her. John was tinkering with the CB radio he brought, trying to get it to play anything but static.
"How long have you been at that?" I asked after downing about half the cup of coffee.
"Not too long, 'bout five minutes or so," John answered.
"And still nothing?" I asked.
"A few words here and there but unless I know the frequency I'm looking for, it's just a shot in the dark," John shrugged.
"You got a radio in here or anything?" Taylor asked scanning the room.
"Here," Chloe said as she climbed down from her perch.
She placed the plastic, bright pink radio on the counter.
"Better than nothin'," Taylor shrugged and flipped the on switch.
Immediately the room was filled with yet more static but as he scanned down the channels a voice soon caught our attention but was gone to soon.
"Go back," Ethan said jumping right next to Taylor.
Carefully, as if he was doing surgery, Taylor turned the knob back and the needle barely moved.
"...indoors as much as possible. Gather all the supplies you can and wait for further instruction. Again, we repeat, under no circumstances are you to engage the infected. The virus is passed through contact and is not air born. All those with firearm licences are strongly encouraged to obtain a weapon, only to be used in the case of extreme emergencies. We ask that you hold tight until the military is able to make it to your region, we are doing what we can to stabilize the remaining population and restore order. Keep strong and God bless.........This is an emergency broadcast. The date is February 13th, 2013 at 8:15 am and martial law had been declared. The President has fallen and Vice President, Mr. Biden has taken the position in this grave time to lead our great country. The virus has gone international and now has been classified as epidemic in proportion. You must avoid infected at all cost and try to stay indoors as much as possible..."
Taylor flicked off the radio when it started to repeat. It was clear the message was on a continual loop.
"That was yesterday," Zoe said quietly.
"Holy shit, the President is gone," Darren said in disbelief, leaning further into the couch.
I was no expert but I was pretty sure the situation must be quite dire for them to announce something like that. I noticed how they didn't tell us to go anywhere like the newscast had a couple of days ago. Either they thought we really were safest in smaller numbers or there was no safe place left standing to go. I looked down into my coffee cup wishing I had something stronger, maybe some tequila.
"I can't believe they were encouraging folks to get guns," Ethan said astounded.
"A situation like this is unprecedented, basically they're sayin' we're on our own," John said placing his cowboy hat on his head, "Well if we are going to go around armed, we best get some practice."
"Why do I have the feeling that was aimed at me?" I grinned despite the grim newscast and everyone chuckled.
"Cause it was," Darren smirked back, pushing himself off the couch.
"We can't do it here though, we need to move away so that the sound isn't linked back to the cabin," John said, "You know of any fields within ten or so miles?"
Ethan thought about it,
"Don't know, there is some crop fields back aways."
"Guess that'll have to do," John said.
"What will we use for targets?" Zoe asked.
"Those empty water bottles and whatever else we can find along the way," John suggested.
Everyone sprang into action while I finished my coffee. I was no good to the world without my coffee. I grabbed my Beretta with the silencer still attached and a box of 9mm bullets and shoved the piece into the holster; making sure I checked that the safety was on only around seven times. It wouldn't really help my case that I could manage a gun if I shot myself. And I didn't think to bring a belt, so Ethan let me borrow one of his. How many belts he had with him, I will never know but it looked like a lot. The holster I grabbed was the one with a hole in the bottom so even though the handgun had a silencer on it, it still fit. Then I looped on my holstered hunting knife on the other side of the belt. Needless to say, I felt pretty badass walking out of my room with all my weapons.
Although, the weapons kind of looked out of place with my outfit. I swear it felt like it was a hundred degrees outside so I opted for my shorts and tank top with a pair of versatile flats. Actually come to think of it, I felt kind of like Lara Croft; though I looked nothing like Angelina Jolie.
John was the only one by the truck when I finally exited the cabin. He nodded at me as I approached the truck.
"You ready to go?" He asked.
"Yep," I said, looking at his outfit, "How are you wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt when it's this hot out?"
He cracked a grin, "I grew up here, kind of used to the heat by now. Plus this ain't even that hot."
"Well I'd be dying of heat stroke if I wore that on a day like today and it's hot to me," I squinted up at the glaring sun.
"Glad you decided on the shorts cause I wouldn't be dragging you back," Zoe joked as she approached us.
"Glad to know I have such great friends," I joked back.
Zoe plunked the bag she had into the back of the truck and then turned to us.
"So decided which way we should go yet?" Zoe asked John.
He pointed to a section on the map, "According to Ethan, this is an empty field and it's fenced all around so we should be ok if we go there."
As the others joined in our little pow-wow, I could hear the tinkling of cans as they rolled around in the plastic bags the others were carrying. With the location in mind, we headed off.
Instead of going back the direction we came, we went even further into the rural area. All the roads were gravel this far out and again the Mazda was stuck following in our dust trail. The tall trees helped to shade us from the unrelenting sun which made the trip slightly more bearable. There wasn't even a cloud in the sky to filter out some of the rays. All three of us that were crammed into the back were desperately trying not to lean against each other, not wanting body heat to add to the already raised temperature. Ethan said it was unusually hot for February, which was just my luck.
We came up to a rotted gate that boasted a No Trespassers sign and Ethan had to hop out to kick it open. The dirt path eventually just stopped and all I could see for miles was row after row of grass and crops. As we walked away from the vehicles, we stayed close to the fence line so that we could easily find our way back.
"This looks pretty good," Ethan said as he scanned the immediate area.
"'Bout as good as any," John agreed and we started to set up the cans and bottles.
Using some of the well water, we had to pour some liquid into the containers so that they would stay put on the fence. I voluntarily took the targets at the very end.
"Alright, so as you may have guessed I served in the military and the first thing they teach you is gun safety," John said, standing slightly in front of us, "This is your safety, this is your clip release and this is the trigger."
Darren rolled his eyes at that last one.
"You must keep your trigger finger on the side until you are ready to shoot, otherwise we will have some trigger happy accidents," John continued on, "These notches are for aiming. The one in the front must align in the middle of the two on the back."
He went on for a while before finally using his own gun to demonstrate taking a shot. He lifted the pistol to eye level and took aim. He looked calm as he slowly squeezed the trigger and one of the bottles exploded when the shot rang out. That was one thing movies never got right, just how loud an actual gun shot was. Admittingly it was less loud than the shots in the grocery store but that was because we were out in the open.
We all spread out just a little bit more to try it ourselves. I flinched at the sound of the others shooting but once I started myself; the other sounds faded into the background. My first few shots missed by miles but as I got more comfortable I started to at least hit the fence and even one bottle. I hit the release button and the empty clip slid out. I fished the other loaded clip from my bag I brought and reloaded the gun. Everyone else was doing pretty good but some bottles and cans remained untouched on the fence, almost seemed like they were mocking us.
"You need to slowly squeeze the trigger, you're jerking it which jolts the gun and ruins your aim," John offered me some advice.
I took time to line up my shot and slid my finger to the trigger, only this time I took a breath and released it as I slowly pulled down on the trigger. The shot landed on the very bottom of one of the bottles but it still went flying into the grass behind the fence.
"See, there ya go," John grinned, patting me on the shoulder, "Also make sure your gun goes up when you fire not down or else the shot goes off target."
"Thanks," I said as I turned back to my targets.
With renewed vigor, I took my time and managed to hit the remaining bottles and cans. Had they been moving, that would have been a different story. I'm sure the infected wouldn't stand still for me, even if I asked politely. I wondered how John planned to train us with moving targets? Dangle a bottle with a string from a tree branch?
"Wow, you hit them!" Darren exclaimed when he saw the empty fence in front of me.
"Damn straight," I grinned proudly back at him.
"Ya'll did good," John said, making me feel less special, "But chances are, those things ain't gunna stand nice and still for ya."
Looks like he had been thinking the same thing.
"Well what would ya suggest?" Ethan asked, as he slid his empty clip out of the gun.
"That's the question isn't it?" John said contemplating what to do.
"We could do real target practice," Darren suggested.
"Maybe you should elaborate slightly on that," I said, concerned.
Darren grinned like he made a joke, "I meant go find a bunch of the infected in an area and they can be our target practice."
The idea creeped me out but Darren had a valid idea. The whole reason we were in this field right now was to practice shooting so we could defend ourselves against those things. But was I or anyone else ready to unload on a bunch of infected?
"Ok, say we did that. Where would we go?" Taylor asked.
"Well it would start with us having to head back towards the city because there would be more infected than out here," Darren suggested.
No one said anything; not too keen on heading back to the place we had just fled from.
"Well we can't all just pack up and go. What if somethin' happened here while we were gone?" Ethan pointed out.
"Like?" Darren prompted.
"Infected wandered in and the place got over run or what if some other people come by and took the cabin?" Ethan listed off.
"Well we could split into groups I guess and take turns going," Darren compromised.
"We could also pick up some more supplies when we went in," Zoe pointed out.
"Alright let's head back to the cabin and plan this out properly," John said.
No one said anything as we walked back to the vehicles; their minds to preoccupied with thoughts of heading back into that mess. As much as I hated the idea, it was the only way to familiarize ourselves with the infected and learning to defend ourselves against them. If we just hid out at the cabin for who knows how long and infected showed up, we would be sorely out of practice in dealing with them.
"How about we just give it a couple of days?" I suggested, "Let us get more experience with the bottles and stuff first."
"Probably a good idea," John nodded.
I moved my arm around a bit to stretch the sore muscles. That's another thing they don't show you in the movies, the pain that accompanies the kick-back from the gun.