The civilians that did seek refuge at the base were kept in a fenced compound and treated like POWs. When a couple of them turned, the captain left it to the detainees to deal with the problem. All in all, a bad scene.
They say that over seventy percent of the base personnel deserted. Most took off during their watch or simply slipped out at night…with a lot of equipment. When the first helos came to strike the city and two were shot down, the captain stopped sending aircraft into the heart of the city and instead kept to the perimeter. Both sides seem to be waiting each other out.
Oddly enough, it was Colleen who came to my room and asked if I planned to stay. I asked if there was going to be any problems if I was leaving with my friends. She said she doubted it and that she and Steve would like to come.
The two returned an hour later to my room. They expressed a real concern that there would be an actual attack soon. Steve said that from what he knew of the base’s supply situation, they would be forced to take action very soon. When I mentioned what I had seen at Hangman Creek, they said we should leave tonight.
Since Greg, Kevin, and I have already decided to take off, we agreed there was no time like the present. The five of us spoke briefly of our past and Kevin recounted his story. Steve remarked that there was a rumor that some CDC team had landed at the base about a week after things got ugly…late January. The next day they were simply gone and nobody knew where.
Greg and I shared a glance, but we didn’t say a word.
All of us are now heading back to Ritzville to see if we can talk some sense into Kevin’s brother Randy. If not, we’ll at least see if any survivors want to leave.
Tonight we managed to make it across the creek and to the Spokane airport. We are holed up in a DC-10 that was parked near one of the runways. We had to actually break in through the co-pilot’s emergency exit hatch. Fortunately there weren’t too many zombies around. It seems the airport was shut down early on so only a few stragglers remained, and by the time the sun came up, the few that were attracted by our noise had already wandered off.
Monday, April 14
Found Tim and Meredith. It is a mixed blessing. They managed to get a nice RV. They are parked next to the original and Tim has done a lot of modifying already. Thanks to Julia, Antonio has almost fully recovered. They stayed put the entire time! Julia was up in a cell phone tower with binoculars when we made our run into Spokane. She watched our plan fall apart. But, and this is amazing, she was able to keep an eye on us all. She lost me when I vanished into the tavern, but held out hope since a swarm of zombies clustered in one area and stayed for over a day before wandering off.
She lost track of Greg when he moved deeper into town. Everybody else stayed in radio contact. I guess Jim and Samantha are stuck in a bad position. They found a few good home and garden stores, but got chased by some locals and had to hide out. They were making their way to a top floor of some insurance office when a zombie managed to trip up Jim. In the struggle he took a minor bite on his left arm. Samantha sat through the entire ordeal of his downturn. I guess she had to put him down two days ago.
She hasn’t been able to leave because about fifty of those things followed them in and for some reason have not cleared the stairwell. They continue night and day to just pound and slap on the door. Fortunately they can’t get enough leverage to break in. She doesn’t dare risk trying to take on that many. So, she’s stuck on the top floor in a storage area at the top of the stairs.
We talked it over, it is unanimous. We are going back in. If everything ever goes right with our plan, I just don’t know what I’ll do.
Tuesday, April 15
The only hope Samantha had relied on our ability to break into a city that had been sealed by Air Force personnel. The military has gone to great lengths to hamper any exit or entrance to Spokane.
Steve Morgan offered to accompany us so that, just in case, we had a chance to at least try and bluff our way out of a situation if we encountered a military patrol. Of course, Tim, Greg, and Meredith came. Kevin offered and at one point tried to insist. However, we decided that with Antonio still not fully recovered, Julia and Colleen might need help if it became vital that the RVs move out.
We even decided that if all hell broke loose, Sparrow Falls was the fallback point that everybody would head for. Also, no matter what, whoever makes it back, the group moves on to Ritzville no later than the twentieth.
We went in just before sunset. It was rainy and a bit on the cold and windy side, but we had no other real problems getting in. Getting to Samantha’s location wasn’t much of a challenge. It seems everybody is staying out of the weather. Of course the zombies absolutely do not care about such things.
We did encounter something that almost cost us. A pack of zombies were grouped around a strip mall. One of the buildings, a wood stove dealership, had the windows boarded up. We heard screams from within and nobody could agree to just ignore it. So, we went to help. Everybody drew hammers, bats, any weapon that would not give us away.
There were eleven zombies that we could see. As quick and as quiet as possible, we rushed in. Four of them hit the ground before they even knew we were there. In no time we had cleared them out. Tim, knocked on the door but nobody answered. He called out as loud as he dared but still nothing. Finally he just kicked the door in. A zombie was waiting on the other side. At first we thought it was a really dirty teenage girl until she lunged at Tim and tried to bite him. As he was fighting her off, six more of the things came from the darkness. We managed to take them down.
Then, another woman sat up from behind one of the several wood stoves on display. I took her down and, after a brief look around, the best we can figure is that at some point there had been survivors here. How they got infected we can’t tell. But, and this is our best guess, the woman I killed last had finally committed suicide by zombie. She was obviously freshly turned. There is a store room in back that had to be where the woman stayed. Also, it looks like there had been at least two more people in there judging by the nest-like bedding heaps.
Maybe she had simply given up. Or perhaps she tried to make a run for it. But since she wasn’t carrying any supplies and we found two bottles of water back in the storeroom, I’m guessing it was the former versus the latter.
We got to Samantha’s building and cleared the stairwell. Now we are parked in the woods off the main road (I-90 is becoming almost undriveable in spots due to washouts in several places). Tomorrow we should reach Ritzville.
I made an observation to Tim which got a laugh. We were so overprepared with contingency plans on Samantha’s rescue and it was no problem. Maybe we should overplan everything.
Wednesday, April 16
A sixty mile trip should not be so damned hard! That is the distance from Spokane to Ritzville. But, we can no longer travel freely on the interstate.
Early this morning we were startled awake by rapid pounding on the side of the RV. Now that we have two, we park them side-by-side. In the newer one it is me, Steve, Colleen, Kevin, Meredith, and Joey. The other of course has Tim, Greg, Samantha, Julia, and Antonio. So we wake up and it is not hard to know that those are not the hands of zombies slapping the flat siding of our vehicle.
Kevin covers me as I go to the curtain that isolates us from the driver’s seat. Meanwhile, Meredith moves to climb up and out our roof hatch. Steve is right behind her and Colleen stays with Joey. I peek out and see this flashlight beam waving erratically around the front through the windshield. A man in combat fatigues—obviously standing on the front bumper—is peering in. He sees me, screams, and falls back out of sight.