Art of Survival
Chapter 1: How It All Began
“This message is transmitted at the request of the United States Office of Civil Defense. At 9:45 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, The Center for Disease Control released information about an ongoing outbreak of a mutated virus
code-named Virus KP. This outbreak is currently contained in the Atlanta, Georgia area. Everything within a 247-mile radius of the Atlanta Metro area is under mandatory Quarantine. The CDC urges everyone to seek shelter as soon as possible and to only to leave the shelter for priority situations. Monitor all members of your household for the following symptoms
Ø Yellowish Eyes
Ø Uncontrollable Vomiting
Ø Unusual Confusion
Ø Erratic Behavior
Ø Rapid or Sudden Mood Swings
if you are a loved one is experiencing or had these symptoms seek immediate medical assistance this is not a test!”
My family and I panicked as we knew that something big was coming. Our eyes bald and filled with tears as we watch the news show short clips from around the Atlanta area. Soldiers pointing weapons and screaming at civilians, police yelling at the infected. It was horrible, but the worst didn't come until the second emergency broadcast.
“This message is transmitted at the request of the United States office of Civil Defense. At 11:25 a.m. eastern standard time the Center for Disease Control has informed the Secretary of Defense that the infected IS hostile. It has been confirmed that all infected is to be ELIMINATED due to their high hostility. Following this broadcast is information that ALL personnel should know.
The following information is information on the symptoms of the infected and what you should do if you should notice any of these symptoms in any loved ones or anyone close to you. Please take immediate action by calling the authorities or taking matters into your own hands. If you notice yellow discoloration of the eyes brown or black and teeth loose are falling skin slurred language or loud grunting aggressive or hostile moods and attitudes. if it should come to the point where you should need to take matters into your own hands the recommended method of elimination is decapitation, blunt force trauma, projectile damage, etc.”
If you come in contact with any of the infected, seek immediate shelter at any means possible. Eliminating the infected is the last resort! Avoid any confrontation with the infected to the best of your ability. NOTE: The D-Virus is a neurological infection that attacks the nervous system and kills the host within 30 to 40 minutes. Afterward, the host’s brain is restarted by the virus. The only intelligence left inside the host’s neurological system is the desire to feed. This is due to the virus needing to be constantly fed fresh protein from raw flash the virus is transmitted through...”
The broadcast was interrupted by presidential alert he told us that the outbreak was getting out of control of the military. He ordered multiple missile strikes in the Atlanta area to eliminate the mass infected horde! He said that according to further CDC test they have discovered that the infected have no feeling no thoughts and that they cannot smell or hear they only attack when they have spotted something. Studies show that the infected can run up to 20 miles per hour, jump up to 10 feet high, an infected that seem to be bloated can project acid vomit up to five feet away. The type of acid is unknown but from testing, it can break down flesh upon contact. He wanted all to stay inside but the panic was so great people fled all over. Not knowing how the virus was spreading people began killing for the most ridiculous reasons. Coughing, or looking high or drunk you were killed. Children with minor cold and flu or killed by parents trying to protect their other kids. Or worse thrown out of the house and forced to survive with the infected on their own!
The government had a complete shutdown and the military-focused their defense on Washington DC. All outside federal agent, representative, governors, mayor's, etc. were brought into D.C. for sanctuary and protection. All residents that had been there for 1 year or longer were allowed to stay all others had to leave! Entire families were forced to relocate in this infected, overturned, world. The Navy split in three and made three mass fleets to protect the southern, eastern, and western border. The Marines and the Army pulled from overseas and came back to the United States to protect Washington D.C. and the Mexican and Canadian borders. The Air Force roamed all over the US watching and monitoring the skies. All military bases decided to reduce the risk of the virus getting in the bases by only allowing US military personnel and government officials on the base along with their families. Everything went to complete crap.
Chapter 2: Brothers in Arms
Hey, my name is Aiden. Welcome to Louisiana. One of the “5 Sanctuaries”. We call certain states sanctuaries because the states infected population is 10% or less. Our militias are very skilled since the majority of its soldiers are ex-military. we have about 250,000 people here in Louisiana and only about 4,000 is infected. The five sanctuaries consist of Maryland, obviously, Louisiana, Florida, Arizona, and North Dakota. North Dakota supposedly has less than 2% infected out of its population of 567,000 people. Everyone is headed there, but most never make it.
It’s 2054, four years after the initial outbreak. At the time of the outbreak, my mom and dad were out on a business vacation trip in the United Kingdom when it was all happening. Once word got out about the virus all commercial and non-military travel was suspended. All ongoing trips were re-routed back to where they came from. The president made it extremely clear that no United States citizen or resident was to leave the country. All Non-American citizens or residents where told not to enter the US, due to the circumstances. I have nine brothers that I protect with my life. The youngest is Gavin at 7 years old. Then there’s Aivyn. He’s 8, Gabe is 12, and then there’s me, I’m 13, Jaxon and Boston are 14, Jacob and Wyatt are 15, and I Danny is the oldest. He is 16. In all honesty, Gavin, Aivyn, and Andrew are our motivation to keep pushing. They are so young have no clue what beauty the world used to have. We’ve made it our mission to have them grow up fully and learn about the past of Earth.
We lost our home in the missile strikes. Ever since, we have been moving from shelter to shelter, just to survive the nights. Sometimes hordes of infected gather for some kind of migrating thing. They seem to sense uninfected beings. This is especially unusual since the broadcast stated that there was no way for the infected to track us. This makes some people wonder if the virus is evolving. We arrived in Louisiana 7 months ago. We found an abandoned military base and decided to start fortifying the base. Over many months, we have rescued many young kids and adults from the horrors of the outside world. We took them in. You may ask why we take such risk in rescuing people. We say because we would want someone to risk-taking us in if we were in their situation.
Currently, we are repairing the radio tower and the satellite dishes. Our technicians say that the satellite modules will be up and running soon, most likely today. The radio tower will take a bit more since the wires seem fried. You may be wondering how kids know how to set up and repair advanced military equipment. Well like I stated earlier, we have some adults here. And some of the kids here have military parents so they learned a lot from them, and the adults help us. After we fortified the base which took about 3 weeks, we began seeing people noticing the base was in operation. We assumed they noticed the lights. Over time we took in about 4 prior service adults and 8 civilian adults. Our mass majority is kids because no one has the guts to eliminate a kid. That’s why kids just get thrown out of the house. We have rescued 26 kids. Their ages vary from 7 – 18. With all these people coming together, we had to start some type of defense. inventory and collecting all the leftover equipment. We scoured the base and found Barrett .50 Caliber M82A1 snipers, MK208 Grenade Launchers, M249 SAW and M240B’s. After finding all that firepower we finally set up defenses and we’re able to conduct more safe rescues.
Our safe place has come a long way since our arrival. We now have about 60 people mostly kids. We decided that with all the kids being outcast into the world due to them being a higher risk of infection, we should become a haven for them. Kind of like an ASPCA for kids. We have about 20 to 25 adults taking care of us and the sick. When someone becomes infected we do not let them suffer and we do not let the virus take over the bodies. Instead, we have four doctors that use a specific procedure to ease the body into an eternal sleep. There is no pain and no suffering. Our weapons are for any all threats to our community and for the infected that try to get in. Danny the oldest of my brothers is the communities leader. That's because he's the oldest of us eight and since we discovered it everyone agreed we should be the leaders. Once our satellite system is up and running we will be able to contact the outside world to figure out what's going on. We have underground shelter here. It is mainly used for storage, backup power, shelter, etc. we operate on a superiority basis. Our highest leader, Danny has the final say in all major decisions that affect the Community security and well-being. We have something called "Top Cats" or "TC's". They are the representatives of the community residence They are the ones that gather the opinions and suggestions. Then there is "ATC's" also known Assistant Top Cats. They take care of the younger one’s needs. We have a small militia that is specifically trained to defend our base. They are also really familiar without area and they know multiple different routes to and from our community. Our Militia is not a part of the Louisiana militia which is like 10x our militia size. About 15 of them are between 18 and 27 and have US military experience. The other 20 to 25 are about 16 to 30 and are trained by our prior servicemen. Everything here is equal to all. LGBT, females, and males all have the same things that are involved in all activities needed to keep our community up and running. No one is left behind in our community. We care for all people and never leave anyone left out.
We named our place of Odin. Odin is the name of a Norse Mythology god. He was the god of wisdom, poetry, death, divination, and magic. We thought he would represent our stronghold perfectly because we use smarts to fortify and defend our base and we inflict death on the infected that try to invade our sanctuary. This is a place of peace and rest where those who have worried and stressed every day and night can come and finally be at peace and live as they did before the outbreak. Earlier I mentioned that we have enemies oh, yes we have enemies! They mainly consist of the infected gathering in hordes and moving towards our spotlights at night. Sometimes, they’re just simply marauders trying to invade our space and take what we have. But we don’t worry or fear them. The MK208 Grenade Launcher handles the infected hordes and MK249 handles the personnel. It's highly effective since all we have to do is show it off and they go running. We try out very best to never use weapons on humans and people who are not infected. We strive for peace and unity, but sometimes it comes to that point where no one can agree on the same thing and actions must be taken. Our food supply is great. We have an abundance of MREs and non-perishable foods. We have a small farm in which we use for cooking when we feel like treating the community to a great feast.
Chapter 3: Vulcan Project
Our engineers are working on a Battle Enhanced Armored Supply Transportation vehicle. We call it The BEAST for short. Its primary use will be looting and scouting missions, recon, and personnel and cargo transport. So far the blueprint looks pretty cool. It’s based on the design from a movie they watched called “Land of the Dead”. Our engineers say it should be fully up and running, ready for its first mission in about five to six months. Danny plans to use it for scouting missions and recon. Our food supply is good for about two to three years. The cargo trailer will also be detachable. This is for a passenger trailer to be connected. This will help transport our troops and/or people that we rescue. To increase our security in keeping out the infected, we have developed a testing system that shows whether or not you're infected. The infected blood of the host is bright red like human blood, but when mixed with Hydrochloric Acid, the infected blood turns black and smells like sulfur! Uninfected blood does not.
Our community can sustain about 150 people with our current supply. Any more and we would have to work out a rationing system. I have to go and help Danny with our weekly personnel headcount. We have about 60 people and about 30 of them are our security specialist. And the rest are mainly just residence. We have a 10:1 ratio on children. 10 kids to every 1 adult. The youth here range from 7-17. Our 18-21 is training to take care of the community and do their part. 22 and up are our superiors. They have 1 on 1 schooling and mentoring for our youth residents.
Danny called the community to assemble. He had a scared, yet confident look on his face. Aiden and the other brothers are confused, along with the community's people about what the sudden meeting was about. Danny walks slowly to the podium and takes a deep breath. "Good afternoon everyone, I have to inform you all of an upcoming standoff with a horde of infected. The horde was spotted by our scouts about 32 miles away. There were jumpers, boomers, and tracksters.” Jumpers are the high jumping infected that have massive leg abilities, Boomers are the explosive infected. They’re like creepers on Minecraft but these leave a burning acid on your skin. Tracksters are the fastest type of infected. Their max speed is almost 25 mph. “We can avoid the firefight by turning off all the power so they can't see us. This saves us ammo, but the horde is about 270 deep. They would run the chain link fence down and at the speed, they're traveling. They should be here in about 40 hours." The people look shocked. Adam, a 13-year-old boy asked Danny, "What's wrong with a firefight?" "It would exhaust our ammo bud," Danny responded. A lady then stood and said, "You said that there is about 270 of them. I'm pretty sure we have more than 270 bullets." Just as Danny was about to respond, the engineers walk through the doors and whisper to Danny, "Bro, The BEAST is complete!" Danny's eyes widen as he knew that he had the perfect training and testing for it.
The engineers escorted Danny out of the room and to the motor pool where the beast was. "Meeting dismissed! I have solved the problem!" Danny said. Danny and the engineers walk through the doors and saw the beautiful masterpiece of a machine. Aiden and the others ran in after a short minute and stopped in their tracks as they witness the beautiful vehicle. "alright boys what does it take to drive this thing and what does it run on?" Danny asked curiously. " Our scientist devised a special concoction that allows it to run 100 miles per gallon of the stuff. " One of the engineers said. A guy walked in the room with a typical white scientist coat on with a glass jar in his hand and a blackish-purple Galaxy looking color liquid inside. "The mixture is a combination of Diesel and Grade A jet fuel. Because of the low burn time of the two, combining them with some additives to lower the combustion possibility. so on a full tank of 250 gallons, the BEAST can get up to 2,500 miles. Danny smiled. "All right boys fill him up! Time for a field training exercise." Danny began creating a plan to exterminate the infected horde. He gave the engineers specific instruction on what would be used in the attack and what they would need to do a crash course so the drivers of the BEAST could complete this mission.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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