How It Ended

Chapter 1

Its May 1, 2024 and our world came to an end. My boyfriend and I had just bought a RV and were getting ready to start traveling the country. We both worked from home doing freelance work and I also ran a blog and wrote for a living. We never thought this would happen. A couple just came and bought the last of our furniture and we were packing up the of the items we had just got from the store into the van when we heard the message that North Korea had released a biological agent at three different airports in the USA, China, EAU, India and England. This agent will not affect everyone only a handful of people. The people who are affected turn into zombies. Not the traditional zombies though if they kill you, you do not become a zombie you just die. The biological agent will not disappear now it is in the area forever. It can rest in your system for months before something activates it. 

We got back to our rental and handed our keys in after making sure we had everything. We looked at each other and put on the radio to listen to as we headed to the state park we were going to be boondocking at for the next few weeks. As we were approaching a Publix supermarket. I suggested going in to get a bit more non perishables and drinks and gallons of water. Even though we could not fit much more into the cabinets we thought it would be a good thing incase we had to drive to areas where there are a lot of issues. 

We grabbed our covid masks we had just in case and went into the store. We each grabbed a cart thinking we can stack and store things in laundry baskets as we saw them on sale at the front of the store. The store said one cart per family. We knew it was getting bad and I said, "Go and shop. I will start at the other end of the store. Get toilet paper, laundry detergent, bleach and baby wipes." 

Since I was closest to the drinks I loaded half my cart as well as the bottom shelf with drinks and water. Filling it up with gallons so we can drink and cook with it. After that I went to the non perishable shelves and loaded up on ramen, pasta, canned meats and crackers. I had checked out and unloaded my cart when my boyfriend came out. He joined me and said, "We need to find more stores I grabbed a bunch of baskets and we can put them under the table and in the corners for now. The gallons of water we can line in the bathroom and in the food pantry. Thankfully its only three in the afternoon. We need to move fast because apparently Tampa international airport was one of the airports hit and it has been chaos near Tampa and it seems to be spreading."

We were heading to a place called Mystic Springs Boat Ramp and Camp Ground in McDavid Florida. From out old place we had six and a half hours to go. This place has free camping and we booked out a two week visit. We even called to let the people who manage the property to let them know we were still on our way. They said that would be no issue as a lot of people left due to the state of emergency. She asked if we were stopping at a tore to pick her up some French roast coffee.

The next store we got to was a Winn Dixie and a Family Dollar. My boyfriend Charles went into Winn Dixie and I went into the Family Dollar. There were signs on the door stated one cart per family. So I loaded it up with drinks and medical kits. I went to the non perishable food and grabbed what I could. At the end I precariously added garbage bags and foil. I got to the RV and loaded things up and Charles came out of Winn Dixie and unloaded his cart. As he started to drive away I started to sort everything adding it to the laundry baskets. While we were pulling away we heard screaming coming from the pizza place in the plaza and saw a man attack a officer. The mans face looked like that of a traditional Zombie. The officer was able to fight him off and get the man into the back of his police car.

Charles looked at me and asked, "Should we try a few more stores?"

"Yes," I said. "That location we are at the next two weeks is in the middle of nowhere. We should stock up. We just need to make sure we get drinking water and limit the showers we take in the place. Oh did you get Carols coffee?"

"Yes I did," He said. "She also called while I was in Winn Dixie and she asked for a big bag of sugar. She also told us we can stay as long as we want and she has a black water dump as well as a hose so we can refill."

Looking at him I said, "Why don't we hit up smaller stores as we saw a so called Zombie I want to be in and out as fast as we can. Also we need to grab more cheese. So if you see shelf stable anything we can still fit some in the fridge but everything else has to go shelf stable."

We drove another hour and stopped in a plaza that had a Dollar Tree, Aldi, Rural King and Walmart. Charles went into Walmart while I ran into Aldi. When I brought the Aldi purchases to the Camper I saw Charles loading up a couple of boxes into the side hatch of the RV. He looked up and said, "They had a limit on food which I am going to go back in to get but we have a propane stove and hot water tank. I went and bought five full propane tanks for the hot water tank. They capped purchases of tanks at 5. I want to get a few more but not happening right now. I also grabbed twenty of the mini propane tanks for the stove. We need to get them and steno for the mini steno burners. If you want to go into Rural king first and get some I will follow after I get food from Walmart. I may also try to get more with this round of shopping.

I nodded and headed towards Rural King. When I got in there I was able to get ten boxes of ten steno refills. Another twenty propane tanks and a few fire extinguishers. I added them into the outside storage and added all the food into the RV. Charles was unloading when I came back from the Dollar tree and he was on his way to Aldi. I went into Aldi after I unloaded. Charles was in checkout and I was a few people behind him. The cashier looked stressed and after Charles left I grabbed some paper sacks and said to the cashier, "Be safe sweetie. I hope you get home soon."

We went out to the RV and Charles had baskets full of food. I laughed and said, "I have paper bags and am going to organize everything as we travel so we can have more room."

He sighed and said, "Great idea."

As we unloaded my cart I said, "I worry now because I heard people talking about cases of people getting attacked."

He said, "Same we need to be very careful."

We stopped every hour or two and gave ourselves thirty minutes  to shop in whatever stores we stopped at. By 1145 we came to a Wawa and grabbed a insane amount of food. We grabbed enough takeout and case items to last a few days. When we got to the RV spot Carol came out and met us. She looked worried and saw behind us and chuckled, "You kids were very smart. The chaos is starting to get bad they said attacks are becoming more consistent. If you are gun savvy tomorrow my husband is running into town and will take you if you want to get ammo. So I know its late but what we are going to do incase bad things happen I suggest you do as well. I want you kids to make sure your water is filled and the black water is emptied. Do not leave it hooked up in case you need to bug out fast. My Jim did the same thing for our RV after our showers. You can top off and empty daily but just in case always end the day unhooked."

"Abby why don't you shower first. After I shower we can empty and fill everything then we can eat and continue to organize." Charles said. 

I gladly jumped into a quick shower and when I got out I started to organize the RV. By the time Charles had finished his shower I had organized a bunch of what we bought. I put on the news on my Laptop and was listening to reports from across the country. From what the CDC found so far anyone within range of the agent or killer Zombies could be exposed to the virus. The CDC recommends respirator masks and immediate showers if you are within five yards of a human Zombie. 

Charles watched the screen and said, "I am going with Jim in the morning to get more ammo for our guns and maybe pick up some additional long range weapons. While we are there I am also going to see about respirator masks for us."

I nodded as he went to empty the compost part of our RV, the pee tank, empty our black water and fill up our tank. When he came in I had organized more of what we had and we sat at the table watching the news and ate. When we were finished I said, "I will finish everything in the morning while you go out with Jim getting what we need."

He looked at me and asked, "You sure Abby? The RV is packed with shopping bags that have to be put away."

"Your fine babe," I said. "I organized the bunk beds earlier and emptied one to store a lot of this. Its just getting it organized in bags and baskets and stacking it. While we were driving I made sure I put the frozen away in the tank freezer and stuffer the fridge with our perishables. We have room for a bit more. Some items had to be repackaged with the vacuum bags. I can do that in the morning and once it is done we can work freely."

He went to the bunks and saw where I had cleared one and added rope to hold everything on the bunk in place. He looked at me and said, "Wow you fit a lot there. At least we have toilet paper and stuff already stocked. I will get additional if Jim allows it."

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We put everything away the leftovers from dinner and were more tired than we thought. At 6am the following morning Carol called. When Charles answered he said, "Hello Carol I will get up now and will be ready at 630 where does Jim want to meet?"

While he made plans I went to the kitchen and made coffee. Charles looked at me and said, "Why don't you get some sleep you look exhausted."

"You know i will not be able to sleep while your gone," I said. "I am just going to watch some YouTube and sort and get it all away."

He drank some coffee and there was a knock at the door. When he opened it Carol was there with her husband Jim. Charles went with Jim and Carol and I talked about what was going on while I sorted. She said, "I never thought that this would be happening while I lived. In your travels did you see anything?"

"We did from across the parking," I said. "The guys face looked like a traditional zombie. We had thankfully been in our RV and was leaving when it happened. But that was also near Brooksville where we saw it."

She shivered and said, "I gave Jim orders to message me or have Charles message you every thirty minutes till they get back. Since he had a bigger truck he wants to hit up a few stores for ammo and supplies after watching the news last night. I guess Charles will shop with him as well?"

"Oh yes," I said. "He wants to get some respirator masks and filters. I don't know if they will help but its worth a shot."

"Well Jim and I manage this place and decided you kids can stay here as long as you wish," She said. "I hope eventually everything will be some semblance of normal, but until then we can be safe here in the woods. Besides that river the only way in is on the road unless people hike in."

"We would like that," I said. "We are lucky we both work from home and we have solar panels on the roof for electricity if the power goes out. As long as we have water we will be okay. We are lucky we have a water purifier system and the gentleman who sold us the RV also provided another five plus two cases of filters he had bought for the RV as he wanted to travel to cold weather and was afraid of piped bursting. He even winterized the RV already."

"That is amazing," she said. "I did message Jim as you mentioned that and told him to get another purifier in case."

Looking at my phone I saw a message from Charles, "Thirty minute check in. Stores are starting to get crazy we are going to more ammo shops and out of the way stores."

I showed Carol and she sighed, "Thank God."

We talked for another few hours and we each got check ins. By the time Charles and Jim returned I had gotten everything put away. When they returned Jim and Charles unloaded half the truck into our RV and Charles said, "That should hold us for a while. The last ammo shop we went to the news was reporting that the government is going to put a lock down in place. As of now there is a sundown curfew."

I looked at Carol and said, "So how often is there traffic on this river?"

"Not often," She said. "Abby it has been great visiting with you I am sure we will be spending a lot of time together."

Jim pointed to the door and said, "Well my love let us get this stuff put away. Charles we can walk the perimeter later. Abby its nice to meet you."

When they left I turned to Charles and said, "Spill it I know you were censoring it for Carols sake."

Rubbing his hand through his hair he said, "Babe its bad. Miami is locked down as that was one of the airports that the agent was released at. I took Jim up on the offer to stay here as long as we want to and he said if we need to bug out he has a master list of places we can travel to that are out of the way. I have enough ammo to start a small militia here. I also got us masks and filters. I just hope we do not have to use any of it. We stopped at a local supply shop and they had sacks of oats, flour, wheat flour, sugar and big bricks of baking yeast. When we ran into Winn Dixie I did get us a bit of meat, and stocked up on the non perishables as well as more spices. Well I am sure you will see it all when we unpack. What do you want me to do first?"

"Go outside and use the outside shower," I said. "Put your clothes and any towels you use in the washer that is outside so it can be washed. Just in case. I know it seems like I am being paranoid but you never know what is on you." 

He said, "Good idea. Will you throw me a towel and clothes out the door?"

"Sure will," I said. I grabbed a towel, clothes, a bottle of body wash, shampoo and laundry items and placed it in a basket.

Walking outside he said, "Is that to be left next to the shower and washer?"

"Yes it is," I said going back inside and taking a cannister of bleach wipes out I wiped down everything he bought while wearing gloves. I know people would think I am being paranoid but better safe than sorry.

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Once he was finished showering and started the laundry he put on the news and we listened while eating a quick lunch and both of us pulled up our laptops to check in with work. Both our freelance jobs are remote and when we checked our message boards we both noticed we were still able to work and we checked our safe and had plenty of money on our cards as well as cash in the safe. We both sat working for a while listening to YouTube when we heard a knock at the door. When Charles opened it Jim was standing there looking a but shocked.

Charles asked, "Hey man you okay you do not look well?"

"Did you guys see the news coming from India?" He asked.

I turned the news back on and the special report was loading. There was a video of down town New Delhi and there was complete chaos. The zombies were trying to break into the buildings and were attacking at will. People were hiding in buildings trying to escape the craziness. The Zombies were jumping on the cars with people in them and trying to break into them to get the passengers.

Looking at the screen I said, "Oh no this is bad."

Another report showed downtown Miami and the few zombies on camera. Looking at the men I asked, "Why are our streets more clear?"

Then across the screen we saw why. The military were in Jeeps and they were shooting the zombies and then white suit people were coming in with body bags and picking up the corpses. Jim said, "They have to know something we don't. There has to be a reason they would kill them."

The reporter came back to the screen and said, "I know that it is hard to watch. The CDC issued a report stated that once a person becomes a Zombie their vital organs shut down and soon only the brain is left with the lust to kill. If you see a creature stay away and do not let it attack you. Call your local authorities as soon as possible. If you have to end a zombie do not burn it. These creatures still have active agents in them that can spread even after the fire. Call authorities to have the corpse removed they are being kept in extreme cold chambers until a way to dispose of the corpses can be found."

Brooksville, Florida 5/1.......to.........Mystic Springs Boat Ramp and Camp Ground in McDavid Florida. Carol/ Jim- Site Manager..............

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