Haven Chapter 1

Book 2: Haven

Chapter 1:

This is a story about 11 people who put their lives in my hands, and I’m still not sure whether they made the right choice. My name is Todd Hendrikson and 2 weeks ago the world we knew was destroyed. A virus was released through, we think, a flu vaccine, but whether it was intentional or accidental we don’t know. Panic quickly set in and our world was thrown into chaos, me and my girlfriend Wendy Simmons would have been swept up in the panic too if it hadn't been for our friend Will Sandren. Somehow he managed to keep his head and convince me and several others that our best chance at surviving was to remain in a small group of people that we trust and go from there. Eventually there were ten of us, some of us knew each other from before, others we had met and had come to trust. But when Simon was injured and became infected we were forced to head to the hospital, an area infested with the dead, to find medicine for him. While we were there we suffered our first casualty. Caleb Atkins, a man Will had saved early on was killed helping Will escape. But there was no time to grieve, a new friend has arrived, Connor State, a police officer who has been surviving in the police station with two others we have yet to meet. After much discussion we decided to leave the clinic we were staying in and go to the police station with Connor, and that’s where my story begins.

We were ready to leave, Nicole had insisted that we took a gurney and load it into the back of the Ute, in case someone was injured and needed to be moved quickly. Simon’s infection was almost completely gone and he was able and willing to ride in the people carrier along with Monica, Daniel and Daphne. Paige and Brooke were in the Ute, the back now full of supplies, while Wendy, Will, Connor and I were in Connor’s small car. ‘Are you sure this car is appropriate for this situation?’ Will asked Connor

‘Yes,’ he assured us for the thirteenth time, ‘This car is faster than you’d think and reliable, it’s the car I used before all this insanity started so I know all its ins and outs.’ As the got in and the cars began to leave I considered the team’s newest addition. Connor seemed like he would be useful, he was intelligent, quick-thinking and he knew how to use a gun. But more importantly like the rest of us he seemed loyal, I think if one of us were in danger he’d act just like we’d been friends his whole life, which was the reason we had stayed together this long. In a world like this you needed people you could rely on to risk their life for the good of the team. All for one and one for all isn't it?

Connor had managed to recall the route he took to reach the clinic and luckily it was through the small roads, they should encounter little trouble on the way there. I began to wonder about how suitable the police station would be for a permanent base. It may be defensible but there are other concerns now. With power going out food would become an issue, as would heat. And petrol would be needed to keep their vehicles going. I was broken out of my contemplation by Will asking Connor another question, ‘so who are these people at the station?’

‘Students I think,’ Connor replied, ‘their names are Steven and Andria’

‘Not Steven Matthews?’

‘You know them?’ I asked, it seemed impossible that the two people we were going to meet could be friends of Will, it’s too big of a coincidence

‘They didn't say their last names,’ Connor said

‘Their friends from university,’ Will explained, ‘if it is them it’ll be a weight off my shoulders.’

The trip progressed without incident from that point on, apart from a few sightings of solo zombies and a few times where we had to slow down and carefully manoeuvre the cars around a block in the road. But eventually the police station appeared ahead. There was a giant blood stain in front of the station and I remembered Connors story about how the army opened fire on a mass of people before they drove away, taking the rest of the police force with them. ‘What did you do with the bodies?’ I asked, hardly wanting to know the answer

‘The last thing the army did before they left was take them all away from the station and burn them,’ Connor didn’t look at us, just stared at the road ahead, ‘they didn't want the smell attracting more of the dead.’ Images in our heads of what Connor described and what we had already seen ran through our heads and made us silent.

We finally pulled up outside the police station, and when we did two people came out to see us. One was a man slightly taller and older than me and the other was a woman shorter but the same age. Apparently they were Will’s friends because he quickly left the car even before it had parked and ran over to greet them, giving the girl, Andria, a big hug. I remembered all the friends I was still left to hear from, I hoped they had made it onto the army trucks or into a group similar to ours, I hoped they hadn't been burned or worse turned into one of the dead masses.

We went inside and I began to believe Connor’s stories about how defensible the station was. The two glass sliding doors at the front had been blocked, I assumed by Connor and the others, leaving the only entrance a small steel door with bars on the windows. There was another exit out the back that could be used in emergencies but also within the station there was a large amount of doors and corridors that could be used to stop zombies for a moment while we made our escape. There was a glass sunroof that was shattered but Steven insisted that there was no way a deadman could scale the walls and that they shattered the window on purpose to let smoke escape from the fire they made each night on the floor below. I guessed heat had become an issue here too.

‘Well I think we've made the right choice coming here,’ I said to Connor, Nicole and Brooke

‘I hope so,’ Brooke replied, ‘after all the time we spent getting the clinic ready for anything I’d hate to think we left for no reason’

‘I think I got a good reason for you,’ Connor said slyly, leading us away. Eventually we came to a small room blocked by another large steel door which Connor had to unlock before he handed me a spare key and walked inside. I knew we made a right choice, the clinic held nothing for us now except space whereas the station gave us something we desperately needed. A room full of guns.