David and Jack threw their bags into the back of Jack’s brand new pickup truck and raced off. After getting up to speeds of 95 MPH and drifting around corners they made it safely in under 15 minutes to Charles’s house. They ran into the house to see Charles packed up and ready to go. “You’re late,” said Charles. “Whatever. We are here now,” snarled David. After Charles threw his stuff in the truck they took off from Salt Lake City to the base of the Rockie Mountains. “Alright, we need to go to my cabin which has an underground prepper space,” said Jack. “And that’s at the base of the mountain?” asked David. “Yes. It goes underground and under part of the mountain,” answered Jack. “Sweet! We will survive the zombie apocalypse for sure! Is the area around the house covered with foliage?” asked David excitedly. “Yes we will survive for a while, but for now shut your trap and relax. We have a long ride from and we don’t want to hear you yap,” yelled Jack.

After eight hours they finally arrived at dusk to the cabin. The got out inside of the freezing garage and unpacked all of their things. Jack approached the interior door, he opened it to see his best friend, Cole.

“’Sup buddy?!” Jack yelled out.

“How have you been? Long time, no see!” Cole exclaimed back.

“I’ve been great! Where are your vehicles?” questioned Jack.

“They are outback, come on in I have some coffee freshly brewed,” said Cole eagerly. After the three men unloaded all of their belongings into the garage, they went inside to be welcomed by a hot cup of coffee for each one.

“Thanks Cole!” said everyone in unison. After relaxing around the fire, all of them fell asleep.

Charles was just opening his eyes in the early hours of the morning when he heard something. He woke up Cole, Jack, and David.

“Guys, I think there is someone else here!” quietly whispered Charles.

None of them responded, he had to shake them to wake them up.

“Hey, guys! There is someone out there!” he repeated.

Finally Jack got up and went with him to see what it was. They traveled through the kitchen and past the cozy dining room. They were heading towards the sound, and they figured it was coming from the front door. Charles grabbed a shotgun lying on the side table just to the right of the door. Jack looked through the front windows to see if anyone was there, but there was no one. Charles aimed the shotgun at the door while Jack opened it.

“I’m going to go investigate outside.” said Jack.

“Here, take this gun just in case,”  replied Charles. They opened the door to see snow falling and about six-inches of it piled up in front of the porch steps.

“Gee, that’s quite a bit of snow!” exclaimed Charles.

Just after he said this the other two men came running over. They were informed on the information by Charles while Jack was out looking around. For any signs of what was banging on the door. As he was walking up to the door he realized that it was the door knocker that was banging against the door. They taped it down and went back inside.

The four of them collectively decided to go outside and chop more firewood. While outside, they found a husky. They all stopped what they were doing and approached the animal. Charles, Cole, David, and Jack all carefully approached it, not knowing what it would do to them. After the dog let them pet it they decided to name it Tank. Tank was about two years old from the looks of it and he was a very energized dog. They decided to let him inside after they finished with the firewood. He sniffed every inch of the old dusty house. He became best friends with Charles, because he fed him. As the sun fell down over the mountains and the surroundings became darker. The four men had Kraft mac and cheese, including Tank who finished his in an instant. They started the fire and all of them slept comfortably inside the nice warm house.

In the morning Tank woke them all with his loud bark. They all jumped out of bed to see what was going on. They ran into the grand dining room to see Tank sitting nicely next to his bowl, he wanted food.

“Tank buddie, you scared the hell out of me!” yelled Cole.

The other three men had the same idea inside of their heads but didn’t say anything. Charles made coffee, and eggs from the chickens in the barn for everyone.

“Wow, this a great meal! Thanks Charles!” said Jack satisfied.

Everyone was at the table eating eggs and drinking their coffee while Tank was eating cold Pork n Beans.

“Alright, what’s the plan for today? I think we should take an adventure into town to check things out and see if we can still scavenge some more canned goods from the store,” said David.

“That sound like a decent idea. Let’s go in two hours.” replied Cole. After they cleared their plates Jack plugged in the radio. It was powered by generators, that run on thermal energy from the mountain. Jack began broadcasting over channel 3.

“Hello, is anyone there? We are broadcasting from Denver, Colorado.”

“Hello, is anyone there? We are broadcasting from Denver, Colorado.” No one answered. Jack unplugged it.

“We will try again tomorrow. Let’s go to town” Jack said. They loaded supplies and Tank into the truck and made their way down the mountain to town.

After a 45 minute drive, they finally arrived into town. There was not a soul in sight. Tank was looking out the window with his ears all perked up. They drove into a grocery store parking lot to see about any canned goods left over. As the four of them and the dog approached they saw a zombie walking around the shed in the parking lot and began towards the men.

“Charles, you brought that shotgun?” asked David.

“You know it!” Charles replied as he pulled it out of the truck.

“Who wants to do the honors and kill our first zombie?” asked Cole.

“Me! Me! Me!” yelled Jack in the most obnoxious way.

“OK, but go quickly. I want to get out of this place. It doesn’t feel right,” said David.

Jack ran over to it, got the kill and returned to the group. They entered the grocery store to find shockingly it was still in pretty good shape.

“Alright, we have one gun but need to split up. Everyone find a weapon,” exclaimed Charles.

They all picked up the thing closest to them. After that, it was off to the races to get dog food, water, and canned food. After 30 minutes with the store, it was wiped out from canned foods, mac and cheese, dog food, and water.

“Wow that was fast! We got everything we need, right?”asked Cole.

“Looks like it said Jack. They headed to the exit to find a mob of zombies surrounding the zombie that Jack had recently killed.

“Uh, guys we have a huge problem,” said David.

“I see it,” said Charles.

“The plan is that we just full on sprint to the truck and Tank,” stated Jack. “Alright. On three. One… Two… Three!!”

All of the men took off as fast as they could to get to Jack’s Navy blue truck parked pretty far back in the lot because of all the abandon cars taking up the front spots. They all arrived at once and began piling stuff into the back of the truck. Tank was inside whining while they finished putting stuff away. The zombies shifted their attention to them. The zombies began to run while Jack was fumbling with the car keys.

”Unlock it! Hurry!” yelled David.

Finally the sound they’d all been waiting for, the unlocking sound of the car. They hopped in as quick as they can.

“Phew, that was close!” exclaimed Jack. And they took off.

They drove back up to the cabin at the base of the Rockies and took out the truck full of stuff that they had just picked up from the store. It took all but 20 minutes to unload everything from the truck and put it in the pantry. By the time they had all mellowed out it was late afternoon. The four men and the dog had their share of baked beans, mac and cheese, and dog food. As the sun dropped even lower than it already was, so did the temperature. It got to 17° Fahrenheit.

As Charles began to start the fire with Cole and David, Jack wandered off to the radio again. He repeated what he had said earlier

“Hello, is anyone there? We are broadcasting from Denver, Colorado.”

He did it again “Hello, is anyone there? We are broadcasting from Denver, Colorado. If you hear us please respond. We are on the west side at the base of the mountain.”

Jack said over the lonely radio. As he went to unplug the radio he heard a crackling as if some were about to respond when all of a sudden there was a loud knock at the door and there was commotion going on outside.

“Alright guys, we are going outside right now! Follow me. We are taking a detour to the “wine cellar” and we are doing it quickly,” yelled Jack.

They all followed him into the so called wine cellar. In place of the wine was actually a bunch of weapons. It wasn’t a wine cellar, it was an armory.

“Quickly everyone, pick up a vest, a rifle, and a handgun and we going outside as fast as we can,” barked Jack.

In under 2 minutes they all got ready and ran at the front door. David slowed down and yanked the door open to see a horde of zombies.

”Here we go,” said Charles.

“Remember aim for the head,” reminded Cole.

They charged the horde in a line with their guns a blazing. As they ran faster toward them, they saw a live human being with his arm out yelling for help.

 

To be continued…