Fear The Dawn Of Apocalypse

2:20 p.m. – CARSON CITY, NEVADA

In Unit D1 at Mills Park Apartment, Lacie Duggan, a 6-month pregnant woman in her late 20s, was vacuuming the living room floor. She glanced at the news on the television a few times. Greg, her husband in his early 30s, entered the apartment. He was carrying a sports bag and a backpack. He appeared gloomy. As soon as he closed the door, he looked at Lacie.

“Please don’t vacuum.” Greg sternly said.

Lacie turned off the vacuum cleaner and rolled her eyes. “I’m fine. I will not get into labor this early. By the way, how’s your uncle?” She noticed Greg’s melancholy appearance. “Are you okay?”

Greg approached the couch, dropped the bags, and sat down. “We need to talk.”

Lacie became confused. “Okay.” She sat down. “What’s going on?”

“Uncle Harry is dead.”

Lacie gasped. “What?”

“When I arrived at his place, I found him dead. He shot himself in the head. I didn’t know why.” He pulled out a little black book from the backpack and showed Lacie. “Until I read this.”

“What’s written inside?”

“Well, you know that he works,” he rolled his eyes. “I meant used to work at Area 51. He wrote some stuff down about the place.”

“So, whatever is happening there made him commit suicide? Did he write down anything about aliens or something?”

Greg sighed. “He mentioned some interesting entities down there.” He paused and flipped through the pages. “There is something that can destroy us all.”

“What?”

“They were trying to come up with a new vaccine. According to what he wrote in the book, the vaccine backfired. It became a virus once the animals were injected with it. Things got crazy with the animals, and staff members were infected. The ones who were infected died. But that’s not the crazy part.”

“Then what?”

“They came back to life.”

Lacie shrugged. “So, now they’re alive. That’s good, right?”

Greg shook his head. “Undead. Zombies, Lacie. All of this happened in the facility.”

“Zombies? Now there are zombies at Area 51?”

“That’s not the worst thing. Uncle Harry and three other staff members got infected as well. One guy is from Modena, Utah. This happened recently. They left the facility because they didn’t want to be executed there.”

“So, all of them were planning to commit suicide?”

“I’m not sure all of them. It’s possible that at least one of them could turn, infect others, and start an outbreak. It makes sense why Uncle Harry shot himself in the head. He didn’t want to turn. Now, I know why he wanted me to visit him. I’m just worried about the other three.”

“Baby, are you sure what your uncle wrote in that book Is true?”

“Look, I knew him very well. He would never lie about this stuff.” Greg moved closer to Lacie and shook the little black book. “This is Area 51 we’re talking about here. Top secret stuff.”

“Okay, okay. Maybe, it’s all true. Maybe the other three who were infected already committed suicide.”

“Maybe not. Maybe it’s too late, or they chickened out and they turned. Even if all of them blew their brains, I don’t trust the fact that the facility has this virus. What if it somehow gets out, and there’s an outbreak? We should not take a chance. We need to do something about this.

“What? Storm Area 51, destroy the virus and save the world?” Lacie responded jokingly.

“This is not a joke, Lacie. I’m talking about protecting our family. I will do whatever it takes to protect you and the twins.”

Lacie looked down and placed her hand on her pregnant belly. “What should we do?”

“I thought about building a bunker, but it would cost an arm and a leg. Besides, if we build a bunker now, it would be too late. Once an outbreak starts, give it a few days, and the country will be infested with zombies.”

“Then, we board this place.”

“Not safe enough. We need to leave the country or move to the mountains or something.”

The married couple turned their attention to the Breaking News on the television. The anchorperson announced a zombie attack in Modena, Utah. The news showed a clip of an amateur video. In the video, there were people running and screaming with a partial sight of a zombie chasing them. Lacie trembled as she was lost for words.

“We have to think of something quick,” Greg said frantically.

“Didn’t you say that one of them is from Modena, Utah?”

“Obviously, he didn’t shoot himself in the head.” Greg abruptly placed the book on the coffee table and stood up. “I’m going to start putting food in the car.”

“Where will we go?”

Greg stormed to the kitchen. “Anywhere but here.”

“Do you need help?”

“No, just relax. I got this.”

Lacie looked at the backpack that Greg carried in and became curious. “What’s with this backpack?”

“Uncle Harry wrote a suicide note. He wanted me to have the little black book and that backpack with whatever’s inside. I’m sure he packed it himself before he ended his life. If you want to see what’s inside, go ahead.”

Lacie grabbed the book from the table and observed it. “Your uncle had great taste in choosing his journal. Nice cardboard cover.” She turned her attention back to the backpack and looked inside. She pulled out a small photo album and flipped through it. She saw pictures of children in black and white. And there were pictures of two young men posing at a beach in color. “There are old photos of your father and your uncle. At least, they are together now. In some of the pictures, they were at a beach. Maybe we should go to an island or something.” Lacie giggled.

“How? By swimming?”

“No. A boat, genius. What about your brother? He works at that boat company in Dana Point, California.”

“He’s not going to just give us a boat, and we can’t afford to buy one.”

“You never know. Our lives depend on this. Maybe he knows about the zombie attack in Utah by now.”

Greg entered the living room with four bags of food and put them on the floor. “Well, getting a boat out of here seems like the safest way.” He pondered. Shortly after, he nodded. “Okay, that is what we’ll do. We’ll collect what we need here in Carson City, drive all the way down to Dana Point and sail out of the states. We may never make it to an island, but we need to sail as far away as possible.”

“How long will it take for us to drive to Dana Point?”

“About eight hours. Let’s hope the zombies don’t get there before we do.”

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Baby, we have to. The zombie apocalypse is starting. Our best chance of survival is if we get on a boat and sail away.”

“Okay.”

“Before we leave, the things we need to collect are obviously food, medicine, weapons, and maybe other important stuff I haven’t mentioned.”

“You still have that Gock 20, right?”

“You mean Glock 21? And yes. But we need to stop by the gun shop nearby.”

“I’m sure many people in this city saw the news. That means that shop is going to be packed.”

“We’ll do whatever it takes. I’m going to call my brother.” Greg pulled out his cell phone.

Lacie looked inside the backpack. She pulled out a small velvet blue box with a keyhole. “I found this box, honey.” She tried to open the box but could not. She searched inside the backpack to look for the key.

Meanwhile, Greg was on the phone, speaking to his brother. “Hey, Jake… We’re okay… Yeah, the twins are doing fine. I can’t wait until Lacie delivers them… Not to cut you off, man, but have you watched the news about the zombie attack in Utah?... No? Well, we’re about to have a zombie apocalypse. I’m serious. If you don’t believe me, keep watching the news… I got a favor to ask. Lacie and I plan to sail away from here. Do you think you can give us a free boat big enough for us to live in?... Charge us how much?... Jake, you know that I don’t have that kind of money. You think you can apply a huge family discount or something?... Okay, I’ll hold…” He rolled his eyes and shook his head in total disbelief. “Yeah, I’m still here… I don’t care what you give me. Just give me something safe enough to get us out of here… $13,000? Are you kidding? We don’t have $13,000… Okay, we’ll try to come up with the money.” He hung up.

Lacie pulled out a key from the backpack. “That didn’t sound well.”

“He said the best he can give us is this 1972 Ericson 27. It should have enough room for us to raise a family. It’s clean and in great condition.”

“But it’s $13,000. How are we going to come up with it?”

“Well, we don’t have time to go around and ask family and friends to help us out. Like they are going to lend us that much money. You have fair credit. My credit is horrible. Therefore, forget about going to the bank. There is only one solution I can think of.” Greg pulled out a Glock 21 handgun from his back pocket. “I’ll make him give us a boat.”

“Greg, he’s your brother!” Lacie screeched.

The television had another Breaking News, and the couple turned their heads to watch. The anchorperson talked about more zombie attacks. But this time, it was in Las Vegas, Nevada. The news showed a clip of another amateur video. In the video, a zombie was eating the flesh of a victim while many people were running and screaming in the background.

Greg quickly approached Lacie. “You see? We have to leave fast. I’m not going to let our family die here.”

“Okay.” Lacie remembered the blue box. She opened it with the key she just found. There were a group of coins inside. “What are these? Tokens or something?”

“Fantastic.” Greg responded sarcastically. “What are we going to do with those? Go to a laundromat? Or how about we go to an arcade?”

“Just wait.” Lacie picked up a coin to get a closer look. One side of the coin had a woman with the word LIBERTY on top, and the other side had two eagles and read 25 DOLLARS at the bottom. “It’s a $25 gold coin. There are about fifteen of them. Maybe more.”

“Is that real gold? Are you sure they are not toy coins or something?”

“Why would your uncle keep toy coins? Maybe we can check them out at a pawn shop. Just in case.”

Greg pondered. “Okay. We get all of our important stuff, stop by the gun place, the pawn shop, and then go to Dana Point.”

4:50 p.m. – CARSON CITY, NEVADA

At Tony’s Pawn Shop, the owner of the shop, Tony Palermo, was using a magnifying glass to observe one gold coin behind the counter. He was astonished. He put the coin and the magnifying glass down and smiled at Greg and Lacie.

“Well?” Greg asked.

“How many do you have again?”

“We counted twenty coins.”

“One thousand dollars.”

Lacie grabbed Greg’s hand and helplessly looked at him. “One thousand dollars is not enough.”

“Ma’am, one thousand dollars per coin is the best I can do.”

Lacie and Greg were surprised as they looked at each other.

Greg turned to Tony. “If it’s one thousand dollars per coin, are you going to buy all twenty?”

Tony nodded. “Give me the rest, and I’ll give you $20,000.”

Ten minutes later, Greg and Lacie were exiting the pawn shop with $20,000 stored in Lacie’s purse. They smiled as they were heading to Dana Point.