Chapter 2: Camp.
Cezar and Spock had been traveling for almost two hours now. The trip was smooth so far, the road was strangely clear, different from what Cezar had thought, there were only a few abandoned cars in some stretches, Spock had fallen asleep in the passenger seat some time ago, the puppy seemed to be very relaxed, unlike Cezar who constantly looked in all directions looking for possible threats. At the rate they were going, they could make it to the dirt road that leads to the camp in at least another half hour, that is, of course, if they didn't find anything to slow them down.
Cezar was constantly thinking about the next steps he should take. Camping was a good option, temporarily, but not a permanent option. From what he heard while at the outpost, the military managed to successfully evacuate nearly half the population of their old city, but unfortunately the rest of the population was left to their own devices and the other cities in the region did not have a very different fate.
There were some reports about some groups of people that were surviving in the region, however, most of the rumors were not very good. Desperate people do desperate things and the reports Cezar was able to see at the base said that these groups of survivors were extremely dangerous. He didn't completely believe what he read and heard, but still, he didn't want to try his luck with these people.
The trip to the dirt road that led to the camp was uneventful, however, as Cezar was turning onto the dirt road he saw a man standing right in the middle of the road. He was a tall man but it was not possible to see his face because the man had his back turned, looking at nothing. Cezar stopped the car as soon as he saw the man and stood there without reaction for a few seconds, after thinking about the situation he took his hand to the pickup horn and pressed it.
"POOOM! POOOM!"
Immediately, after Cezar honked, the man turned towards the car, and it was finally possible to see his face. It was a man who was between 50 and 60 years old, his skin was pale, his eyes were red and he had black veins all over his body. However, what caught Cezar's attention the most was that the man had part of his throat open as if a wild animal had bitten off a part of his neck.
The man began to walk slowly and awkwardly towards the truck. The distance was at least twelve meters and Cezar was looking at him for a few seconds and, after watching the walk of the infected for a few moments, Cezar accelerated the car as much as he could and ran over the man. The impact of the crash sent the man flying for a few meters.
Cezar could see that the infected continued to move even after being hit. Taking advantage of the fact that he was lying on the ground, Cezar drove towards him with the car again, this time, passing with the vehicle's tires on top of the man's head. After the undesirable occurrence, Cezar continued on his way while saying a silent prayer for the poor guy who had his head crushed by the wheels of the car. Spock, who had been awakened by all the commotion, tried to crawl onto Cezar's lap for shelter. Seeing this, Cezar let out a smile and stroked the puppy's head.
Fortunately, he didn't find any more infected until he reached the camp. He stopped the car some distance away from the site to make sure that if there was anyone or anything in there he would not be heard or seen when he arrived. Cezar took his revolver and got out of the car, Spock tried to follow him but the man stopped him by closing the door.
"No boy, you stay."
Spock didn't seem to understand and tried to claw his way out as well. Cezar felt a little sorry for the little beagle, but he couldn't take the dog to camp until he was sure everything was safe. The man turned and left the truck and the small dog behind, Cezar walked close enough to get a good view of the camp. He hid behind a tree where he had good visibility and watched the camp for about half an hour, but he could not see anything unusual. Cezar had a view of some of the cabins used by the campers and the communal bathrooms, however, he wanted to have a better view of the rest of the camp and began to walk carefully, always looking around, to the nearest cabin.
Now, behind the hut, Cezar had a better view. He still couldn't see the entire campsite, but from there he could see what really mattered to him: the main building. The main building was a large rectangular two-story building, inside there was a kitchen, a large communal dining room, changing rooms, an office, and a storage room.
In the distance, Cezar could see that the double doors to the main building were open. The doors are always closed outside of the camping season, and he was pretty sure he'd closed them long before he left the last time he'd been here, but it didn't matter. What really mattered now to Cezar was whether whoever opened the doors was still here or not. Cezar went around behind the hut where he was hiding and he walked crouching down until he reached just in front of the window of the main building, he got up and looked inside carefully, he managed to see the dining hall: a large hall full of chairs and tables wooden boards arranged in rows. In one of these chairs there was a girl, she was young, about 17 or 18 years old, she had blond hair and brown eyes, she was no more than 1.70 meters tall. The girl seemed to be sewing some clothes that were on the table.
"Meg."
Cezar couldn't help saying the girl's name, he knew her, her name was Megan Carter, she was one of the young camp counselors. Cezar used to hire some guys and girls to work in the summer due to the increased workload at the time. He was relieved that Meg was still alive and that she was the one at the camp. It was such a relief that he felt his body get even lighter at the sight of Meg, however, when he thought about getting up and going to Megan he heard a noise behind his head.
FUSHI! POOW!
The first noise was something slicing through the air, the second was the sound of something colliding with the side of his face. It was a beautiful blow, Cezar felt a tremendous pain in his head and for a second he thought he would pass out, but, luckily, he managed to maintain his consciousness. Still confused, Cezar who had fallen to the ground, managed to turn around and point the revolver at whatever attacked him.
"BACKWARD! OTHERWISE I'll SHOOT!"
Cezar shouted with all his might, the figure that attacked him backed up a little at the man's warning. He was still a little dazed by the blow and it took a few seconds for him to stop seeing his attacker as just a blur and when his vision cleared he could see that the one who attacked him was a woman. She was around 25 to 30 years old, black hair and brown eyes, she had an ordinary but still pretty face. Her clothes were a little dirty and she held a shovel in her hands, Cezar looked at her still confused by the blow and said:
"This is private property and you are trespassing."
The woman didn't seem to be affected by Cezar's words. This time it was her mouth that opened to speak.
"Who are you? What do you want here?"
The woman's facial expressions were grim, she looked at Cezar and tightened her grip around the handle of the shovel. The man, seeing this, tried to get up using the wall as support and when he finally managed to see someone coming out from behind the community center, to his left. He was a young man, he had black hair and brown eyes like the woman's, he was a similar age to Megan: probably 17 to 18 years old. The boy had a hunting rifle in his hands and wasted no time in pointing it at Cezar. He looked at Cezar who was still pointing the gun at the woman and shouted as he pointed his own gun at Cezar:
"Drop it! Drop that gun now or I swear I'll shoot!"
Cezar looked at the boy and the woman who tried to take another step forward while Cezar looked at the boy. The situation was not good, if he shot the woman the boy would kill him and if he shot the boy the woman would go after him with that damn shovel.
Cezar looked into the woman's eyes and said in a cold voice:
"Not one more step or I'll blow your head off!"
Cezar turned his head to the boy and spoke again:
"Someone's gonna put the gun down here kid, but it ain't gonna be me."
The boy was not intimidated by Cezar's warning, on the contrary, he placed his hand on the rifle's trigger but did not squeeze it as he saw someone leaving the community center. The door to the community center wasn't too far from Cezar and if he fired he could hit the girl who just left.
"DAMN MEG! GO BACK INSIDE, NOW!"
The boy's scream alerted Cezar and the woman to the girl's arrival. The two looked at the girl who had just walked out the door, the woman's expression visibly worsened, since Cezar didn't know very well how to react. He looked at the girl and said in a low voice.
"Megan."
To say Megan was confused was an understatement. The girl was inside the community center doing some chores given to her by her sister, when she suddenly heard noises and screams outside, so she dropped everything and ran as fast as she could out of the community center. The scene she saw when she left was surreal: there was an unknown man pointing a gun at her sister, while her brother was pointing his own gun at the man. Megan was frozen and unresponsive for a second. She was only awakened from her stupor when her brother shouted for her to come inside.
The last year had been hell and Megan had been through every kind of dangerous and traumatic situation imaginable. However, these experiences were not all bad, she grew stronger and learned to deal with extreme and desperate situations. She knew from where she was, she would be hit if her brother fired. Megan knew too, that she was the weakest in her family and wouldn't be of much help in this situation she had to follow Thom's instruction and get out of the line of fire if she wanted to help and that's what she tried to do.
Megan tried to get back inside as quickly as she could. When the stranger looked into her face and called her name, for a second Megan's head stopped working. How did he know? How did this man know his name? Why? Who? Megan looked straight into the stranger's face.
He was a tall man, he had black hair and blue eyes, his hair was long and disheveled, his beard was dirty and a little disheveled. The blood running down his face didn't help either, Megan took a few moments before recognizing him: Doctor Cezar Hardy. The young woman had difficulty recognizing him due to his current appearance, along with all that chaos, but now realizing who he was, Megan knew she couldn't let that situation continue.
The girl held her hands out in front of her while making a gesture for everyone involved to lower their weapons, she looked at her brothers and hurriedly said:
"Thom, Helen, put down your weapons! It's Doctor Hardy!"
Thom and Helen's expressions changed, they looked confused at the man's face and recognized him with a little effort. Cezar was little known in the area, San Hernest was a small town. Thom and Helen lowered the rifle and shovel slowly as they recognized the man, seeing this, Cezar followed their lead by lowering the revolver. With the threat to his life temporarily resolved, he leaned against the wall and sat up. His vision was fading, Megan's voice calling his name was the last thing he could hear before passing out.