Miles of Death-8

I have been on my own two weeks, every night I stop and stay in the car. I no longer go looking in houses unless I am looking for supplies. Its too much of a risk with their teams out looking for me. I learned the hard way that there were more people alive then I had known. I don't see them all the time but I have come across groups of people traveling together. I keep my distance and stay out of their sights, but I observe them, watch what their doing, what direction they are going in. I still had a lot of questions and I didn't know if all the people I saw were working for Ben and Sarah. They could just be people traveling together to stay alive. The one thing I have learned is that what you think you know, its not at all what the reality is. All I knew was, people can still be sick and die except for me, if that is even true. I had been thinking a lot about things. I remembered Raya never wanting to touch any of the bodies, never wanted anything to do with the areas they were in either. But, we did go into a city full of them and those people were living in a city full of them. It must be passed by physically touching them or by getting their fluids on you or something. I cant believe I fell for her act, she was good, I'll give her that. No wonder she knew how to hunt and fish, she was a freaking spy. I thought I was a good judge of character, but apparently im not at all. I even fell for Logan and his story about some wife, he probably never had a wife at all and if he did she probably died just like everyone else. And who was this Ben guy, all he did was shovel cow poop and pour drinks for people. What was he doing that was so important that he was trying to save lives. I didn't see one piece of medical equipment or lab equipment. Unless they had a secrete room somewhere I just don't see how those two people could be in the CDC, let alone be giving orders. However, there were no pictures of them in the house, and they did spend a lot of time in the barn. I was trying to make sense of a lot of things that happened or things they said. I thought about all the times Raya and I were out there on the open road, when she could have told me the truth. Maybe she could have started out doing a job but how can you get to know a person and continue to lead them to their death like their nothing. Maybe she hated me because I supposedly cant get the virus and she can. I am the most angry with her and I promised myself that If I ever saw her again I would make sure she paid for what she had done. I never would have gone to that farm had it not been for her. I may have been put in certain areas but I was okay on my own, why couldn't they just leave me alone. I'm not a science project.

 As the sun sets I pull into a drive way to someone's house. I wasn't going inside but, I could park behind the house and no one would see me from the road. I was okay on fuel and supplies for a few more days and I no longer feel like stocking an abundance. Too much risk of exposure going in places or near places. It was getting colder as it was now October and winter would be hitting soon. I wondered what I was going to do for the winter. I wouldn't be able to keep driving around with no plows out to clear any roads. I had yet to find a place that seemed out of the way or secluded enough. I needed to do that and then work on getting some supplies to see me through until I can figure out how to grow some food. I wasn't planning any more but I still needed to be realistic. They would know winter is coming as well and they will assume im going to settle some where. So I have to make sure that where I stay I can not only see what is coming before they arrive, but they wont know to look anywhere close to me because there is nothing around. It was going to be work finding a place like that and I hope I did it before the first snow fall hit. I have headed North towards Canada. That's where im aiming from. I wonder if there will still be a border, or anyone patrolling it. Was this just something that was in the states? I'm not so sure what I will find but I assumed that if it was this bad here its probably this bad everywhere. How could Canada be any more prepared for this then we were or Europe for that matter.

Half way into the night I wake with an uneasy feeling. Trusting it, I turn the car on and decide to get out of there. I drive until dawn, not stopping for anything. I couldn't get rid of that sinking feeling of someone breathing down my neck. Like someone was right behind me and I was just out of arms reach. I didn't know if it was my own paranoia or if it was a true feeling of warning. I didn't really care, I would just drive until I felt a little safer.
After a long night of driving, I pull over on the side of the road under some trees and make something to eat. I refueled with the last of my gas supply. It was getting exhausting trying to find things I needed. With more people out here salvaging, supplies were not so easy to get your hands on. I was managing, it wouldn't last in the winter this way but for now it was and I was thankful for that.

After I finish my meal I get back on the road and according to the map I only had a few more days of driving before I hit the border. If I could find a good gas supply and a good food supply I can just focus on the trip. I decided to make that the days mission. I would drive and If I saw a place where fuel or food might be I'm stopping, fast and sneaky. I didn't want anyone to see me. It was a risk to drive during the day. Although I switched cars a few times since Dallas I still didn't know if they were tracking me or knew what I drove. I didn't know if anything I was doing was working but they were not here and they hadn't caught me yet.
I see a little shopping plaza and take the delivery road to the back. There were a few trucks parked at the loading dock, a few cars in the lot. The trucks were full of fuel and I tapped the tank off and filled several gas cans, it was a good get, I had enough to get me a good distance closer to Canada. I searched the trucks and found some food and water, even some warm clothing and boots a bunch of blankets, mattress topper and pillows, those were like a gift from heaven sleeping in this car. I could make a bed in the back seat, and I certainty had the clothing I needed to get me through a winter in Canada. I hit the mother load of winter supply's. I even got a sled and a pair of ski's that I tied to the roof. I didn't go inside. I limit my stops to twenty minutes max and I had reached my limit. I drive off making sure no one is following me or walking around. I seem to be the only one around. I haven't seen people in awhile, which worried me. Was I in one of their zones again. I hoped not. When I saw people, although it made me nervous, it at least let me know I was still out in the open where they hadn't trapped me. Maybe people started to leave knowing winter would be coming? Was this a smart move to be headed into a place where it was going to take everything to survive in the winter conditions? I wasn't sure about any of it but at least it would be harder to find me.

Another day on the road, another night hidden in the trees. I was sleeping a lot better now that I was comfy and warm. I had stopped a few more places along the way. I had enough fuel in the van I upgraded to from the car. It would take more fuel but I had some room for supply's and for fuel and for living. I removed the front and middle seats in the back and made a bed. I found a mattress in a house and no dead had been in it. I had a tote with all my clothing and outdoor gear, a tote for all my cooking supplies and dishes and living items, a tote for fishing and hunting and medical, personal hygiene and emergency equipment. I had three totes of food, and three totes of drinks. I even found a outdoor travel toilet. It was weird but, at least I didn't have to squat, and with the bags I didn't have to leave the fan and freeze my ass off, which was a definite upgrade for me. I had turned this little van into a portable home. I would keep it until I reached Canada, unless I found a Rv. That is something im aiming for, I could literally live in it and just find a place to stay all winter in that but with more survivors then I thought, stumbling across one of those was not going to be easy. If I got lucky I will be happy, if not its on to another place to live through the winter.

After a long day of driving, I pull over into a camp ground. I have to get out and open the fence. After I drive in I shut it and use a chain and a lock I took from a store. At least no one could drive in after me. I pull up to the little main cabin. I go inside to find a little visitor center and office. To my surprise there is no dead in it but the lights work and its warm. I go out side and look around, the roof is lined with solar panels. This little cabin had power. I was definitely sleeping inside to night.
I take the van and drive up the road, there are several tiny cabin cottages that they must have rented out, there are rows of little lanes, cabins spread out on three levels of the mountain. I checked a few and they to had solar power roofs but everything was shut down and off. The next areas were their tent sights, with a little fishing river and pond, a playground, a little general store that looked to be fully stocked, also solar powered. I found this place had its own water system, its own plumbing system. It was completely self reliant.
I drove on to the last area where they had their Rv sights. There were no RV's but there were solar powered electricity boxes at each sight, so they could have power still. I found a little laundry mat, a few bathroom and shower houses, a arcade and rec center. This place had everything and it was completely empty with no dead inside. It must have been closed during the outbreak. On my last road back to the main cabin I find a restaurant cabin, fully stocked with food, the freezers and coolers still working. It looked like they were prepared for the opening of their season. There was so much to use here. My mind told me that I could pick one of the cabins on the top of the mountain where I could watch for anyone coming, I could stay here hidden all winter. I wanted to, I felt like I had a shot here. But it was right off the high way, and there were signs on the road advertising it. Someone will come here eventually especially if they knew it was self sufficient.
I decide to take some food from the freezer and the pantry and drive up to the cabins,on the top of the mountain. I needed to see if there was a cabin with a good view and was hidden enough. I make my way carefully, the roads tiny and narrow and occasionally I had to get out to clear some branches from the storms that hit. Nothing major as far as damage but just needed some tending from lack of care. At the very top was a cabin slightly larger than the others. It had a deck on it all the way around unlike the others. This must have been their best cabin. I pull the van into the trees to hide it and walk to the cabin. I walk around the deck and notice I have a clear view of the high way, the country side for  miles and miles. I can literally see for miles up here. The air was more chilly and I pulled my coat tighter around me. The front door is unlocked so I go inside and turn on the lights. They come on. Its warm inside and I notice that the this cabin had not turned off. My stomach dropped, there was probably the dead in here, although I didn't smell the familiar stench. I walk the common area, its all open to the views and there is a tiny dinning table and little kitchen, a living room area. A bathroom off the living room. A tiny hallway with a closed door. I turn the light on in the hall and take a calming breath. I open the door slowly and turn on the light. There is a bed and a closet and a sliding door out to a deck, but no dead. I finally smile. Now this was living. It had everything I needed and it was warm, had a good view. But I couldn't get over the risk of it being so public. It wouldn't be smart to stay here, but for the night I was going to enjoy it.

I made a hamburger for dinner with real meat from the freezer. I ate slow bites and savored the taste as if it were my last meal. It just might be the last hamburger I ever eat. I wouldn't come across something like this again. You don't get this lucky out there. After my meal I took a hot shower until the water went cold. It felt so good to be clean and the warm water was heaven on my skin. I changed into some clean clothing and decided to drive down to the little laundry mat and wash what was dirty, who knew when I would be able to do that again. While my laundry was washing, I explored the little shed and found some hunting items they must have stored for campers to rent. Since my paranoia was thick these days, I decide to drive to the main gate and hang camouflage nets all the way across the main gate. The Wooded entrance was thick and from the road it just looked like thick brush, at least it would throw them off a little bit. I use the axe from my van and chop down the two signs at the road. There were now no markers at the source. I toss the signs in the woods. At least I would sleep a little better at night. As long as no one had a working GPS, I should be good. In the morning I could go take down the signs that I had seen, maybe stay a few days and try it out. I knew what I had found, and I knew the likely hood of finding a place like this in Canada. It was worth a trial period.
That night I slept in the bed after locking up tight and making sure all the lights were off, even the main cabin. I didn't want anyone seeing any light from the road. I slept like a baby and slept late into the morning for the first time. My body needed it and I hadn't felt that safe in a long time. If I could make this work, I had a pretty damn good chance, and life wasn't going to be as hard as I thought. Everything I needed was right here. All I had to do was secure it. But one thing at a time. I cant waste time on a place that isn't safe either.

Miles of Death-7

Logan and I have made a temporary home in a high rise apartment building in Dallas. We made our way back the way Raya and I had come because it was the only way to get out of the storm. It had ended here already, flooding most of the city and causing all kinds of damage. I had been here two days and I was already going out of my mind. During the day we keep to buildings, mostly looking for anything useful but with the flooding there isn't much I can use. The stench some how has heightened with the water pooled and full of bodies. Its receding slowly, but its doing nothing for the smell or the heat. We hadn't seen anyone driving or walking around and although I tried to duck out on Logan while he was asleep a few times, I just keep coming back. What if he isn't lying and I leave him here with no vehicle in this hell of a city. I couldn't live with myself. I didn't trust him at all, there were still things that didn't add up for me. How can he stay at a farm with the people who murdered his wife like their family. How did he go from being drugged to being one of them? How had Raya become so dark and deadly all the sudden when not but two days before she could barley summon the strength to live any longer? I was beginning to feel crazy. Why was I listening to these people, why did I care? I just knew one thing for certain, I was going to find out the truth and then I am going to split. I need to know who im really dealing with.

Logan takes off sometimes on his own, like this morning when he slipped out when he thought I was still asleep. I follow him as much as I can without being detected. He is not looking for supply's, he is going into buildings that make no sense for supply's. I guess maybe he thinks there is food or something in there but I doubt it. What is he looking for? I was giving it one more day before I was getting out, even if I had to leave the car, im going. This is all starting to feel like one big game of cat and mouse, and I don't think im the Cat.
I wait for him to come out of the building he is in, noting he is in there a good half hour, longer than any other building he went in. He didn't come out carrying anything that  indicated he found some supplies, unless they were in his pack. I wait for him to round the corner before crossing the street and entering the building he had just exited. It was dark and trashed like most of the main floors of buildings. I take my flash light out and start looking around. It was some kind of office building. I search the first floor as carefully as I can so I don't miss anything, but there is nothing. I find the stair case and go up to the second floor and stop dead in my tracks. The lights are on. How are the lights on? I hear talking somewhere up the hall and I duck in a cubical. Did they find us, were they here? I had to get closer and see. Slowly I ease out a bit to peak. No one is in the hall but I hear laughter coming from the last room on the left. Deciding to take the risk, I come out in the open hall and quietly make my way to the door. I hear a female and a male voice but
 I don't recognize them. I'm pretty good with voices. Risking it all I peak around the door as carefully as I can. I see a women with a head set on sitting at a computer. She has a working computer? The man had his back to me and was sitting in a chair watching monitors.
"Todd, have you seen her on any of the cam's?
Todd yawns. "She must in a busy somewhere looking for stuff. She left right after Logan. Maybe she is trying to run again?"
I back up slowly when the man gets up to pour himself some coffee. What the hell was going on here. Who were they and how did they know who we are?
The women stretches. "Logan said she is suspicious and doesn't trust him, she is out avoiding him that's all. But we better track her down just in case. We cant loose her again."
Deciding enough was enough and I was going to get some damn answers if it killed me. I take the gun I had taken with me from the farm. I didn't have any bullets but they didn't know that. I stand in the door way, still both unaware that I am there.
"Looking for me?"
They both turn around. I point the gun at the man. "If one of you move an inch I will shoot you first, then you. I'm going to ask you some questions, if I think your lying, I will shoot you. Do you understand me?"
They both raise their hands in the air and shake their head yes. I step a little closer to the man.
"Who are you?"
He swallows nervously. "I'm..I'm a camera man. My name is Todd, I'm just here to film lady.."
I step closer and be backs up falling into his chair. "Cameraman for what? What are you filming here?"
He looks at the women and I hit him with the gun and he sinks to the floor. "Don't look over at her, you talk. Right now!"
He eases himself up and touches his head. "Were filming you, watching what your doing."
I look at the cameras on his monitor. There seems to be every inch of where they had been staying covered. What the fuck was going on.
Changing tactics I turn to the women, I point the gun right at her forehead.
"You have thirty seconds to explain it or your going to die."
She shuts her eyes. "listen, we just work here, all we know is the CDC is very interested in you and has assigned one of their best officers to keep you safe. Your the cure Aria."
I punch her again. "The cure for what?"
The women cries and starts to beg. "Please, I'm just trying to survive to."
I kick the man when he tries to help her up. "Get over in your chair and sit down, you move and your dead. Who do you work for?"
The man sits in the chair nervously. "Ben Walsh and Sarah Reeves, their the last of the doctors and their running the show now, on all of us. If you want to survive, you need them. Were not immune Aria, we can still get it, except for you. You are the only one who is immune."
I sit in the chair across from them. "How many people are working for them?"
The man rubs his face. "They have people every where. Its not as isolate as you believe it is out there, you were protected and kept in isolated places. They have their ways of getting you where they want you. Raya was the first time we tested out how you would respond to outsiders. Then Ben and Sarah wanted to bring you to the farm where they could study you and keep you safe."
I laugh and set my gun down. "You mean kill me and study my body? I'm not going to let any of you study me. I hope you all get it and die. Here is what is going to happen. Your going to give me your car keys and all the food and water you have up here and your coming with me. Lets go, get up."
I point the gun as they empty everything onto a cart. They take me down in a staff elevator to the garage. I make them load the car and then get in. I make Todd drive out of the building. The gun to his head the whole time.
"Where do you get your fuel?"
The women tears up. "Please, wont you just let us go. We cant go out there and be exposed."
"Shut up, I could care less if you rot, where do you get your fuel?"
Todd sighs. "I will take you."
"You better keep it quite and not raise any alarms or you know what will happen before they even get to this car. Move it, now!"
He drives two blocks to a fuel station. I make them fill up all the gas cans I could find and the car.
"Are there any trackers on this car or cameras Todd, and Id be careful with your answer."
He shakes his head. "No were not back to that status yet, were lucky to have computers at this point."
I smile. "Good. Get in the car, both of you."
Carefully I drive out of the city, stopping a mile out. "Get the fuck out."
They both jump out of the car and I speed away. I didn't have a map, I didn't know where I was going to do, but I was not sticking around to become everyone's salvation. I no longer wanted any people around.

As I drove I tried to process what they had said. I was the cure? How was I the cure and how do they know that? I know when I took my family to the hospital they had tested me to see if I was positive for the virus and I was put in a holding room which I left because everyone was dead. Maybe they discovered it then, but why would they just leave me in there? Why would they be doing all this stuff to keep me safe from everyone else when they could have just killed me and took my body? Nothing made any sense. I had no idea what was going on, I just had a few puzzle pieces to a giant puzzle, it was enough for me to never speak to another human again. I needed to find some actual bullets. I wouldn't be able to fool them all like that. What was I going to do? Where was I going to go? Where could I hide from these people?

At dark, I pull the car into the woods a little bit, enough to hide the car. I would be spending the night in the car but I didn't mind. No one else was here, I had made it out and I was never going back. Not ever.
After eating some food and sneaking out to go to the bathroom. I decide to go right to sleep. It had been a long time since I slept soundly. I might not be safe but being alone felt safe. I went right to sleep and slept soundly till morning. After a quick breakfast and change I hit the road. I no longer cared for a map or a plan.  The best thing to do was just to stick to the out skirts and find a place I can function without notice for awhile. It was going to be a quite life from this point on but, I can live with that. I would never trust anyone ever again. All I had to do was out live them, if they can get sick then they will eventually. I hoped anyway. It would make things a lot easier if there was no one out searching for me. For the first time since all this began, I had drew a line in who I was and who I once was. From now on, I'm shoot first and ask later. Everyone was a threat, everyone is the enemy.