Surviving the Apocalypse

Final Days

Hanna woke up with 2 days left until the apocalypse began, and she could feel in her bones that it was closer than what the timer said it was. She had seen the same sick people as they went to the supply warehouses for their final deliveries, her funds now totaling $100 million that she absolutely wouldn't be able to spend and actually get anything for it. As it was her final pickups and deliveries were all scheduled for the next day, and something told her that it was a good thing all 8 deliveries were scheduled before 7 am. The pickups would be more difficult, as they had 6 of them, all scheduled for 8 am.

Her system had already given her the Tier 3 reward for spending $3 billion dollars on the Camp, most of it deployable once the apocalypse began as it would enhance crops, livestock, greenhouse and their production capacities of milk, eggs, fish, shrimp and even the crabs and lobsters that they had plunged into the depths and created specialized passageways for them that the fish could use.

The Camp looked amazing in the morning sun, 50 campers and motorhomes now sitting in the spot they had assigned to them, all of them equipped with full off-grid systems as they had connected all of them to the septic system they had designed to be able to accommodate the waste they generated. All of their land had been planted with multitudes of crops, the automatic watering system tied into the Camp AI that monitored everything and would control the various automated defense systems once the apocalypse began and she activated them.

She had already deployed the 5 radar stations to the peaks of 5 mountains surrounding the valley that had what was 5 different cities that had somehow managed to essentially merge into one massive one. There were 22 million people in the city, and she knew from experience that only about 5 percent were going to survive the first month.

She sighed as today was the last auction before everything happened, and she had no intention of leaving any animal in that place. So she and 6 other women who had been going each week loaded into one of the SUVs they had bought with their funds, total electric and nearly totally silent. Hanna enjoyed the ride as she realized that 30 of the adults had purchased these very cars, thankfully their power systems easily able to charge them when they were needed and used.

When they got to the auction house, they were surprised to see it only had half of the animals it had the week prior. Hanna smiled until she looked around and noticed that most of the hands that ran the place were also gone. They were operating on a skeleton crew, and almost no other buyers had even registered. In fact when the auction started the auctioneer waved her over and asked her what she wanted as she was the only buyer registered for the day. She looked at him seriously before she realized that the virus was impacting humanity far greater than she thought before it actually caused the outbreak.

"We will purchase everything you have." she said as he smiled and nodded.

"We only have a few hands to help today, but they are all yours until you load them all. We will ring you up at minimum prices for everything." he told her as the other women went out into the yard to begin immunizing and feeding all of the animals they had just bought.

Hanna didn't waste time as she filled out the paperwork and got all the records before joining her team outside, Pamela shaking her head in disbelief as she hung up the phone.

"They cancelled our livestock haulers for today, not enough drivers." she said as Hanna sighed as she walked over to one of the caged ducks trying to think of what they could do. She considered her storage space for a brief second as she touched the cage, as soon as she did it disappeared into her space, animal and all. She tested it on the entire stack of the ones in this lot she was by, the entire thing going into her space as if it were only natural. She smiled as she tested it on the different animals they had already examined, each type of livestock and even the horses able to easily fit into her space. The few hands around were clearly not caring that they all just disappeared, as they had paid for them and than got in their truck and left.

"We need to go shopping for everything we can get that we think will be useful over the next few weeks." Hanna said as Patricia pulled out of the lot and smiled.

"There is a warehouse mall just a few blocks away. 6 different companies with everything we can imagine. It is about to begin, isn't it?" Patricia asked as they saw how sick some people looked.

"Yes, we have even less time than I feared." Hanna replied as they carefully drove to the stores and all split up into teams to go into them one at a time. Whenever they finished Hanna stored everything in her space like it was nothing, as the women had already learned that 4 of them had abilities of their own. In fact 52 of the 113 Camp members had already developed distinct abilities, so they all knew exactly what was happening.

When they finished they drove back to the mine, the reports from the others who had been completing the last of their deliveries spreading through Camp that there were a lot of sick people in the city. Hanna gathered them all, knowing that the last 6 deliveries the next morning were critical.

"I fear that instead of having all of tomorrow to finish our work, we are going to find ourselves dealing with the beginning of the outbreak. We have 6 shipments we must pick up, each one critical to some aspect of our survival. Instead of traveling in pairs however, I fully intend to send full squads of 5, armed to the teeth in case my fears become reality. We have armor and weapons for everyone who goes." she said as people started stepping forward. Most of them were the men who had experience hunting, and were determined to do whatever it took to ensure their families survived. She nodded as she looked at them. "After dinner we will get everyone geared up, tomorrow at 0600 we depart Camp for the last time with society standing." she said as the cooks served dinner, which always seemed like a feast as they were eating a lot of calories to support the work they did.

Hanna woke up at 0400 as she always did and began training her body to be the absolute strongest and fastest she could be. She knew that both were critical to survival, her body just getting warmed up as the others joined her in full gear. Hers was laying on her bags as she was strapped to the resistance bands, running as hard as she could against them before they would inevitably drag her back. As soon as she noticed Peter standing there with a thermos of coffee and a cinnamon roll for her, she unhooked herself from the equipment and walked over, her fit body glistening with sweat as she grabbed a towel and stood herself off.

"If I were a younger man." he said making her blush as she took the coffee and cinnamon roll from him.

"You think you could handle all this?" she asked which made him chuckle.

"Oh I highly doubt it, even with my Earth ability I wouldn't stand a chance against you." He replied as she took a bite of the warm roll and moaned at how good it was.

The others who had volunteered slowly joined them as she finished the cinnamon roll and put on her armor and weapons. By the time she was fully dressed, they were all there.

"Gentlemen, Ladies, what we may face today will be what we most certainly will in the future. These weapons are for defense of ourselves only, against anything that tries to prevent us from completing our mission. The zombies are nearly blind, they hunt primarily by smell and sound. With any luck, we will get the last of the supplies we desperately need and will return without incident. But we do not plan on luck, which is why we are armed. If the need to use them arises, don't hesitate because what we will be facing, will not hesitate to kill you. Let's move." she said as they each knew their assignments and what exactly they were picking up.

Hanna's team had the furthest to travel, their pickup actually two separate businesses that were right next to each other. Half of the shipment was veterinary supplies they needed for the livestock, the other was computer equipment and surveillance gear that they would be able to deploy once they began expanding. So she watched out the window as the rest of the team did as well, the rising sun lightening the world to what they realized truly was the apocalypse as the people they saw were stumbling around clearly sick.

They pulled into the warehouse and she had Peter and Nathaniel unhook the trailer once it was in the loading dock and secure their supplies aboard it. The truck went to the loading dock of what she now realized was an entire supply store as they heard three shots ring out from inside the building.

Hanna, Jason and Michael all raised their own guns and entered the building through the door, the lights and weapons quickly sweeping the scene when her system suddenly gave her a new quest.

'Zombie Virus detected: Load as many supplies into storage as possible. For every ¥500 worth of supplies, storage space will be expanded by 2 cubic foot.' her system said as they found the last employee with two zombies dead at his feet.

"Anyone else in the building?" she asked before she saw the second body begin convulsing before she put a bullet in its head.

"No, he just attacked her out of nowhere." the kid said.

"It's gonna be okay kid, you can come with us. We need your help to load our supplies into the truck, think you can handle that?" she asked as he nodded. "Great, I am going to make sure there aren't any more. Guys, high alert, load the truck and protect it until I return." she ordered as she darted into the store and saw they had all sorts of supplies in here she could take.

She didn't bother with single items, taking the shelving units and all as she jogged through the store carefully taking everything. The best part was any units that were attached to each other entered her space as one unit, automatically accommodating whatever else was inside it. It took her only a few minutes to reach the front doors, seeing a butcher shop and market that was only a few dozen yards away from the doors.

She unlocked it easily and darted through the deserted complex over to the butcher shop that had the front door open and screams coming from inside as she quickly stored the refrigerated units in front that were completely stuffed with meat for the day. She even loaded the hanging meats in the front with a glance as she carefully entered the back room to see a lone woman standing over four corpses that had been clearly killed.

"Were you bitten?" Hanna asked the woman who was covered in blood and shaking with a mallet in her hand.

"No, what the hell is going on?" the woman demanded seeing how Hanna was dressed before all of the meat disappeared into her storage.

"Hard to explain right now, if you want to remain safe, come with me." Hanna said as the woman nodded as all the butcher equipment vanished as well, Hanna even took the entirely stocked freezer that had been in the back as they went back into the store. Hanna took everything from the other side as she led the girl to the docking area where their truck was. She knew it would be a tight fit on the way back to base, but she wasn't about to leave either one of these survivors after what they had just experienced.

Just as she finished absorbing the entire inventory of the store, her men said they were fully loaded as she ran through the back room taking whatever else was left before exiting the door with the girl that she made get in the front. She pounded on the side to get them moving, fully intending to loot the last of the veterinarian supplies as well from this distribution center. The driver expertly backed to the trailer that they were almost finished loading when she rushed in and found all 4 employees dead. All of them shot by her men when they had entered. She didn't waste time seeing what anything actually was, the meds, injectors and everything else they sold going into her storage within a few minutes of her entering the store.

When she exited she saw Nathaniel and James loaded into the rear of the trailer, making it clear they intended to protect the rear as she nodded and got into the rear of the truck with the two survivors before the truck pulled out. Their return was far more interesting, the zombies running around creating havoc apparent as the reports from the other teams as they returned verifying that the outbreak started with the living before the dead actually had risen. It was a sobering realization as they returned to Camp with way more supplies in her space than they had planned on.