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Regrettable Circumstances: Episode 2, Part 1

Doc went inside the tent with Leon, James, and Keith. "You are all incredibly lucky to still be alive." He said. "You don't know the half of it, man." Leon responded. "Actually I do know the half of it, and in fact I know all of it. I was part of the research team that was researching this virus." Leon raised his eyebrow as if to say 'tell me more'. Doc continued. "This virus was uncovered three years ago in the La Brea tar pits. Of all the unlikely places to find such a thing, it was uncovered in the pits, inside of a Brontosaurus's femur bone, in a state of extended dormancy. The results of the carbon dating showed it was from the Jurassic period in Earth's history. After that it went straight to the CDC where I was one of the researchers that studied it. Come to find out... well... I have to explain this more in detail. Life is a series of chemical reactions. That's really all your body is, is just a big... uhm... vessel containing hundreds and hundreds of chemical reactions. Your brain functions on chemical reactions, as well as all of your internal organs. Anyway, this virus kills the subject, except for the two in every... say... one-thousand individuals who are immune to it, and then re-animates them by setting off a new series of chemical reactions. Yes, Leon, we studied these undead creatures. They have a significantly reduced brain function. As they eat... well, as they eat other people the virus harvests the nutrients. The subject isn't the one that uses it anymore. This virus is like nothing ever found before, it is the biggest find in history, and undoubtedly the most terrible. It is a symbiotic microorganism that essentially takes over the host's body. While I was researching it I was unable to find an antidote, so I suspect that there isn't one. The host is pronounced deceased as soon as the infection begins to spread in their body." Leon looked more disturbed than ever. He had a few questions that he would not allow to go unanswered anymore. "Doc, do you think the infection will spread beyond Newcastle?" "Oh most assuredly, it is only a matter of time I'm sorry to say." "Well, how long do we have do you think until it comes here, to Lake View?" "On an educated whim I would have to say... Doesn't a river run from Newcastle to Lake View?" "Yeah." "Which way does it go?" "I think it goes from Newcastle to Lake View." "Just as I thought. In that case, the infection is already here. The virus stays in the subject for one month, dormant. It keeps multiplying and multiplying during this month. Then, after the month, give or take, is up, the subject begins to exhibit the symptoms; shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, fever, dry mouth, and in half the cases hemorrhaging profusely out of all orifices." Leon looked disgusted. Doc looked at him frankly and took his glasses off, looking into his eyes intensely. "Now do you realize how lucky you are? You were in the middle of a city that was absolutely covered from street to roof with this disease, so undoubtedly you and your companions are immune to it. I am too, so I'm not afraid to come into contact with you." James, who until now stood silently and listened, spoke up. "Well, Doc, what can we do about it?" Doc looked at him thoughtfully. Finally, he said, "Nothing, dear boy, nothing."

Finally they wrapped up their conversation and Doc retired to his tent for the night. "What are we gonna do? You heard Doc, we're not much better off here than we were back in Newcastle!" Said Keith. "I know." Said Leon. "We're worse off here than we were back in Newcastle. The military is keeping us under armed guard, and not letting us go... The infection is due here in, well, now... and those assholes took all our guns." James almost whined. "Well, I wouldn't say they took all of them..." Leon said with a knowing smile. James raised an eyebrow curiously and said "You sneaky devil, what do you know that I don't?" "Let's just say they didn't check inside my jacket and under my seat..." James smiled at this and asked "Well, how much did they miss?" "Not much, I'll give 'em that, but they missed my side-by-side Remington 12-gauge under my seat and that revolver I been keepin' on me lately in my jacket." "Yeah, but do we got bullets for 'em?" "Well, yes, but not many. I got about 20 shotgun shells in a little box I tucked into my glove box. As for the revolver, I only got the 6 that're in it." James ran a hand through his long hair. "Well, that's not much, but it's way the hell better'n nothin' at all." "You got that right."

The next day passed tediously as they waited for the outbreak to begin in Lake View, but it didn't. The sun rose and set once more before the walking dead attacked. This allowed the three survivors to brew some plans. The best plan they could come up with, however, was to just get the hell outta dodge when the infection comes, while the soldiers that were guarding them were busy fighting the undead. The infection took around 10,000 more lives on the day after that though...

Leon was the first to wake up that morning, around 8AM. He sat on the cot he had been sleeping on for the last several days and lit his morning cigarette. He wasn't halfway done with it even when James got out of bed and headed for the latrine. Keith wasn't likely at all to wake up before 10AM, which was normal for him. Leon finally finished it and put it out on the bottom of his boot. Leon didn't eat breakfast because he never ate breakfast. He stepped outside for some fresh air after finishing his cigarette and that's about the time the outbreak in Lake View started. He saw some very sickly guards with confused looks similar to the confused man that was in the farmhouse. One of them was bleeding from every opening on his face; his eyes, his nose, his mouth, and his skin was cracking and bleeding on his hands and cheeks. Within the next hour a lot of the worst cases were taken to the medical tent. Due to the fact that the medic suffered a brain hemorrhage and went into a coma, the medical tent was overflowing with dying men with no medic to help them. Then, the guards began to die. This was the opportunity that Leon and the rest of the group had been waiting for...

As a pair of guards died in their own ways; one of them having a violent seizure on the ground and the other laying on his back, paralyzed and drowning on his own vomit, Leon walked casually back into the tent and woke Keith. "Time to go, shit's gonna hit the fan again." Keith was finally over the worst of his fear after the last few days, but still looked like he dreaded it. As Keith was putting his shirt and shoes on, Leon went to the Doc's tent. He poked his head inside the opening. "Doc, it's ti-... Doc?" Doc wasn't there and all of his stuff was gone. Leon didn't have time to think about it. He went back and got Keith, who was now dressed, and they both headed to the truck. James had done his part of the plan. The truck was started and warmed up and three M-4's with several clips were waiting inside the toolbox. All three of the survivors got into the truck cab just as several of the first undead soldiers began to stumble out of the medical tent. They drove away without looking back. They discussed between each-other the night before as to what to do after leaving. Keith suggested that they get as far from civilization as possible and live in the wilderness. James countered that suggestion by saying that none of them would be able to survive without supplies. Leon basically compromised by suggesting that they grab said supplies and then getting as far from civilization as possible and living in the wilderness. They headed towards town. The town seemed to be concurrent with the camp, everyone was dying, but not staying dead. The chaos around the city reminded all three of the remaining survivors of the days they spent in Newcastle. Wrecked cars, dead bodies, burning buildings, and the dead who didn't stay dead. They wasted no time. They had acquired a map of the town from Doc, and James had lived in this town two years before moving to Newcastle. Between these two advantages they would be fine, if they made it out of the town alive...

Leon drove through the streets for several minutes before finally coming to a small general store. "You remember the plan, right?" He said to James. "Yeah, you and Keith are gonna get out here, and I'm gonna drive around the corner, through the alley, and pick you guys up from the back." "Yeah, and use the truck to block the alley and shoot any zombies that start climbing." The zombies were not far behind them so they would have to act quickly. Leon and Keith jumped out of the truck and made a bee-line for the door. Once inside they began clearing the shelves as fast as possible. That's when something horrible happened.

As Leon was shoving bread into the duffel he had used to carry the guns several days ago, a zombie came out of nowhere. It stumbled and fell onto the shelf. The shelves began to fall. Keith was fast enough to avoid the falling shelves, but Leon wasn't. The several hundred pound solid oak shelf hit him square in the chest and landed on top of him, making a sound that could be compared to a pile of branches being crushed. "Leon!" Keith shouted. Leon didn't answer. Keith ran over to him and shot the zombie as he saw it getting up. Keith shook him, and he let out a howl of pain. As Keith began trying to lift the shelf, Leon said "NO! NO! Leave... Leave me here. They're gonna... get us both if you don't." Keith would have none of this. "I'm not leaving you, we stick together. Either I save you or die trying." He then grabbed the shelf and slid it several inches with great difficulty. Now Leon could be pulled free. Then he took hold under each shoulder and began pulling him free. Between his four broken ribs, his dislocated shoulder, and his severe fracture in his femur, Leon howled in agony. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! STOP IT!!! FUCKING STOP IT!! YOU GODDAM PRICK YOUR KILLING ME!!!" This didn't phase Keith and he kept pulling. Leon was almost freed from the pile of debris when he writhed free from Keith's hold, thumped on the floor with another howl, and pulled the .357 free from his waistband. He pointed it at Keith, grimacing from the severe pain, and said "KEITH!!! Get out now! I'm a dead man and... and we both know it. Now go before I shoot you myself. Let me... Let me die in peace." Keith thought for a moment. Leon didn't expect what happened next. Keith kicked him just right in the jaw, not hard enough to cause serious damage, but hard enough to knock him out. The gun went off and missed Keith by only centimeters, grazing the fur of his shoulder. He picked up the revolver and put it away quickly and finished pulling Leon free. Leon was almost too heavy to carry out to the truck, but somehow he managed to get him out there. He barely managed to get Leon inside the cab before the zombies began charging down the alley, then got in himself. James had to scoot quickly to the driver's seat. "James! Drive! Go! I don't know how to drive a stick!" James put it into reverse and floored it as the zombies reached the hood. They flew out of the alleyway and skidded onto the street, performing a clumsy turn-around. "Just get out of town, we can come back later if we need to." James did as he was told. Before an hour had passed, they were back at the trails where they met up with the group that took them to Lake View in the first place. This time it was entirely deserted, and nothing remained of the campers except for cigarette butts, tire tracks, and the occasional piece of trash blowing in the wind. James stopped the truck under a tree and turned the engine off. He looked at Keith. "So, what the hell happened to him?" "We were in the general store getting supplies, and one of those infected people knocked a shelf over on him. It was one of those old fashioned wooden ones too. Anyway, well, I had to knock him out to get him out. I guess it just hurt too bad or something, he said he was gonna shoot me if I didn't leave him." James nodded his head. "Well, I'm glad you did. It woulda sucked if he died, I kinda took a liking to him." "Yeah, me too. He's a good guy." The two got out and sat on the tailgate after laying Leon out on the bench-seat to give him some room. "We can't stay out here forever, you know." James said. Keith nodded. "Well, where should we go?" "I don't know." James ran his fingers through his beard and looked at a group of clouds. They sat in silence for more than a minute. Keith finally said something. "If we can make it to the mountains, north of here, my parents have a little cottage up there, miles from any town. It's even a mile from a paved road. Beat that!" "Can't say I could Keith, good thinking." They went back to the cab of the truck and propped Leon upright again, and he let out a pained grunt, then a labored sigh. They spent the rest of the day driving, and an hour of the night. When they got to the cottage, they were exhausted. Also, they started with ¾ of a tank, and now it was below a quarter. They made it though. Leon had partly woken up just before the sun set and was mumbling deliriously about his chest burning. When they got to the cottage they unloaded him into a bedroom and put the guns in the closet. "Do you think we should even bother barricading?" James looked at Keith like it was the stupidest thing he had ever suggested. "Hell no I'm not gonna do all that tonight. We're so far away from everything I'm willing to bet we won't have to worry about being attacked for several months. The problem is, do we have enough food to survive that long?" Keith shrugged. "I don't know what we have here. The last time I've been here was three years ago, which was the last year I lived with my parents. I'll go see what we have." Keith went into the kitchen and started searching through the drawers and cupboards. His eyes moistened as he saw one of his mother's oven mitts. He remembered her using it the last time he saw her here, and it almost tore his guts out with grief. She seemed so close, because all of his memories of her happened in that very house, yet she seemed so far away because he listened to her screams as she was killed during the first hours of the outbreak, as he stood helpless in the living room of their home in Newcastle. He blamed himself for his family's deaths. He came back to the living room unable to tell James how much food they had. James felt sorry for Keith, but there wasn't anything he could do. He went into the kitchen and looked around. He finally determined that they had almost a month's worth of food in the cupboards. James went back out in the living room and stood for a second. He gave Keith a brief look and went to check on Leon. Keith was sitting on a stool by the mini-bar with his head down so far it was almost on his chest.

Leon looked awful, but he was finally awake and coherent. He was pale, and was experiencing a cold sweat and chills along with agonizing pain throughout his whole battered body. "How we holdin' up, trooper?" "Hurts." "I bet it does. Now you just relax, we got enough food here to last almost a month, and we are about 35 miles from the closest city. By the way, the closest city has a population of less than a thousand, did I mention that?" Leon made a momentary half-hearted smile before going back to a pained grimace. "Anyway, don't you worry, we're gonna take care of you 'til you get goin' again, bud." "As far as... As far as that goes... I was supposed to be dead already, so no worries here." James sat with him for a moment before deciding to go see if he could help Keith. "Well, Leon, I'm gonna let you rest awhile. You need it." Leon didn't say anything. James got up and went into the living room. Keith was sitting where he left him, only now with a bottle of Jose Cuervo held tightly in his paw. "Found some consolation in a bottle did we?" Asked James. "Honestly?" "Yeah, spill it." "No. My life wasn't spectacularly great before all this, but this is some real bull-shit." Keith took a large swallow from the bottle, wincing as the tequila burned his throat. "In only one day, I lost my parents, probably lost my entire family to be exact." He took another three swallows. "And now I find myself being best buddies with a goddam bottle of liquified shit. I hate this shit but if it'll make me numb I will love it at the same time." It wasn't much longer before Keith was smashed like no tomorrow, and James had to help him to get to bed. James was now the only one awake and capable of clear thought. Until tomorrow it would be as if he were entirely alone. He decided to have a drink of the tequila himself and go to sleep.

The next day James got up and went into the kitchen. He was surprised when he saw the digital display on the microwave was lit up and had the time on it. He opened the refrigerator and it lit up inside. "How does he have power here?" James asked himself under his breath, bemused. James looked out the window and saw something black and shiny across the yard. Solar panels. James was pleased by this, especially when he noticed that the stove was an electric stove. He got some eggs and bacon out of the refrigerator and made breakfast. Keith came into the kitchen and sat down at the table. "Feel up to a plate o' bacon an' eggs, Keith?" "Oh, hell no. I feel awful." "It's called a hangover, kid." "I know what it is, just, I hate it." James didn't say anything else. He made enough to fill two plates, set one of the plates down on the table and took the other one to Leon. James sat back down at the table and began eating his. "So, your parents must have used this cabin a lot, huh?" "Yeah, wh- how did you know?" "Well, people don't normally put bacon and eggs in their 'fridge when they don't come around often, so I just figured that they must have come around here a lot." James finished eating in silence, then put the plate in the sink. "Now for the moment of truth..." James said as he pulled the handle on the faucet. Nothing happened when he turned the handle. "I woulda figured that if you guys had solar panels, you woulda had a well. Hm. Oh well. Is there any water in here?" Keith looked at him for a moment with a sickly expression and blood-shot eyes. "Yeah. My parents didn't drink tap-water. It should be in the bottom of that big closet over there. No not that one, the one by the broom closet... on the left." "You guys have a lot of cupboards in here for such a small house." "I know. You can thank my mom, she liked a lot of storage space. You know, she used to make the biggest meals I ever saw anyone make for a family of three." Keith chuckled lightly, but he looked sad. After a week of hard times, he finally had time to think of old times, and he was in the perfect place for that. "Did you have a family?" "Blood family? No. But my brothers in arms, yeah." "Brothers in arms?" "That's military terminology, kid." "So, you were in the military?" "Well, yeah, but I'm not talking about old Army buddies. That's what we called our team-mates. Brothers in arms." "Brothers in arms..." "Yeah. Ever heard of 'The Rats'?" Keith looked at James for a moment. "You mean that biker gang that pretty much ruled the road back in Newcastle?" "Yeah, that's us." "You were a member of The Rats?" "Not were, am. Once a Rat, always a Rat. 'Til the day you die, brutha. That's what I meant when I said I was someone you wouldn't have wanted to know before this infection started. I'm a soldier." "Soldier, huh?" "Yeah. That means that if there was somebody causin' us problems, I'd be the first one to pay them a visit. The ambulance would be the second one, and most of the time the ambulance wasn't in any hurry, if you get what I mean." Keith nodded his head. "Well, I'm sure as hell glad I know you now, because you're a good man to have on our side." "Yeah, I'm pretty satisfied by our little band of survivors. Leon bein' the fix-it man, me bein' the kill-it man. You bein'... well, I don't know exactly what your department is just yet, but you'll find one sooner or later. I gotta go get Leon's plate." James was headed out the kitchen when Keith asked, "How's he doing, by the way?" "Go see for yourself. He'll probably enjoy a visit from you." Keith sat where he was for a moment, for fear that he might throw up if he tried to get up too quickly, but he finally got up and headed towards Leon's room. James came out with an almost full plate. "I spent all that time makin' that dick-weed breakfast, and he didn't even eat more than four or five bites of it." Then he disappeared into the kitchen. Keith went into the room and sat down in the chair next to the bed. "How you feeling, champ." "Like shit." "I bet. You been through plenty of it." They sat in silence for awhile. Finally Leon said, "I never thought I would thank someone for kicking me in the face, but, thanks." "Well, after you called me a goddam prick, it was the fun part of saving you." "Yeah, sorry for calling you that." "It's okay. I know you were in a lot of pain as it were. Then on top of that I was pulling on you pretty hard." Leon made an effort to sit up, but finally gave up. "Listen, Keith, I need you to do something for me." "Anything I can." "My... My left shoulder is out of its socket and I can't get it back in by myself." Keith got up and went over to the edge of the bed. "Of course, I'm probably gonna call you plenty of names over that one, too. So I'll just tell you 'no offense' ahead of time." "I'll say 'none taken' ahead of time then, I guess." Then he knelt down on one knee and pushed Leon's shoulder together again. It made a loud pop, and Leon yelled out. After he got a grip on himself again, he said "You sadistic bastard, you enjoyed that didn't you?" "Yep. Every second of it." "Kiss my ass." "Tell ya what. You get me Dale Earnhardt Jr's autograph, and you got yourself a deal." "Fat chance of that happening." "My point exactly." They both laughed at that. Leon got three laughs out before he broke into a coughing fit. Finally he quit coughing. "Don't make me laugh so hard... It hurts. And I didn't know you liked NASCAR." "Love it. I used to watch every race. If I wasn't home when they had a race, well, let's just me and TiVo were best buds. You like NASCAR?" "Yep. I watched it plenty. I didn't watch all o' them races, but I seen good and plenty of 'em." They sat in silence for a minute or so. "Hey, Leon?" "Yeah?" "Did you have a family before all of this?" "Well, yes and no." "Why yes and no?" "My mom lives on the East Coast, my dad disowned me when I backed into his Mustang, uh, grandparents'r dead. Cousins are all shits so I disowned them, and that's pretty much it." "Wow, your dad disowned you over a damn car?" "Yep, you bet he did. He worked on that car's body for almost a year. Then I backed my big 'ol Ford into it. I broke out a head light, dented up the fender, the bumper." "You seemed like a better driver than that to me." "Oh, that was years ago. That was when I was younger than you, even." "So is that the same truck you had all this time?" "Yep, the only vehicle I ever did own, and the only one I ever need to, as far as I'm concernin'." "What year is it?" "'70." Keith nodded his head approvingly. "It's in pretty good shape for a 40 year old truck." "I took good care of it, and it done returned the favor. See, a car or truck is kind of like a woman. A decent one anyway. You take good care of her, she'll take good care of you, too. But if you just screw her over and use her for all she's got, she'll get back at you sooner or later." "I see." "Well, anyway, you got any pain-killers around in here? I don't think I can stand this much longer." "I'll see what I can find." Keith went out of the room and looked in the medicine cabinet. He didn't find anything remotely like a pain-killer. Finally, he just went out to the bar and got a bottle of rum and took it in to Leon. "Not what I had in mind, but beats the hell outta nothin'."

-To Be Continued-