beating on doors or sides of houses. The occasional report of gunshots is heard as well.
Morning comes with Jim being on watch; he picked being the last on their rotation, knowing that the predawn hours are usually the most difficult to stay alert in. He trusts his sons, but he’s more accustomed to working with little sleep.
Shortly after dawn comes, Jim informs them that they’ll need to use the stored water to complete their morning rituals, explaining that in the pre-dawn hours the electricity went out. The family gathers for a breakfast of reconstituted freeze-dried breakfast packs of food, with the water having been heated by a Coleman stove near the fireplace.
The house is cold; a front has obviously moved over their area of Texas. Luckily, the natural gas to the home is still flowing, and provides them heat from the gas fireplace. Berk asks Arzu, “Why is a blanket on the TV?”
“Oh, it’s not working right now, Berk,” Jim replies. “You and Kayra need to eat right now, OK?”
“Why is the blanket on the TV?” Arzu asks when Berk is out of hearing range.
“I was taking a look at the news sometimes and didn’t want the light to show outside.”
“And?” Arzu asks.
“It’s the same stuff as before, just a lot worse. Then the power went out at about 4:30 this morning.”
The family continues to eat with little being said; all are lost in their own thoughts until Jim quietly breaks the silence with a barely audible curse. “Shit.” The others, hearing him, look in his direction questioningly. “What’s wrong?” Arzu asks.
“I’m stupid!”
“Well, I wouldn’t go that far, Dad. Maybe a little slow, but not stupid,” Jeremy says with a grin shared with Chris. Looking over at Berk and Kayra sitting away but in listening distance, Jim chooses his words carefully.
“We need to make some obstacles to the second floor. If we have issues with the security we already have in place, we need to have time to get up to the attic and out to Chris and Jeremy’s work truck.
“We need to take care of this today. The Nissan is in the garage; we need to get it stocked with some food, water and other gear in case we need to leave directly out of the garage, which I’d prefer because we’ll all fit in it better and we couldn’t take the time to properly stock the work truck with supplies.
“We’ll barricade the stairway with furniture and anything else to slow those things down if they were to get in. We can give ourselves more time to make it to the attic and get out from there if it gets worse. If we have to hide out in the attic, that’ll mean we’ll be taking Chris and Jeremy’s work truck.” With all in agreement, they decide to work on the new plan after eating.
Throughout the day, the family puts into action their plan as quietly as possible, constantly breaking away from their work to see what the infected in visible range of their home are doing.
Jim notices one of the infected in their backyard. It’s a male, wearing only a pair of dirty boxers. The infected man is lying with his head under the shade from their picnic table and its body in the sunlight. He’s in the fetal position, with his eyes shielded by his arm. Arzu notices Jim spending more time at the widow and comes to his side.
“What is it?” she asks Jim.
“I don’t know, but they remind me a lot of someone having a migraine. Look at the way it’s, I mean he, is shielding his eyes from the sun.” Jim turns from the window and resumes helping prepare supplies and items for the barricade. He passes on his observation of the man in the backyard to Chris and Jeremy while they work.
Chapter 4
Siberia, USSR 1974
Just outside the prisoner holding area of the bunker complex, Colonel Azarov, Doctor Kosktov, and a mixture of other scientists, military, and a handful of the complex’s guards crowd the reinforced window, peering into the prisoner section.
Both of the infected men seem to focus on the