Annihilation - Hope (Annihilation, Book 2) Read online

  Annihilation

  Hope

  By

  AMANDA PETERSON

  PUBLISHED BY:

  IMT, LLC

  Copyright © 2012

  http://amandapetersonbooks.blogspot.com/

  All rights reserved © 2012 IMT, LLC

  No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced in any format, by any means, electronic or otherwise, without prior consent from the copyright owner and publisher of this book.

  DISCLAIMER AND TERMS OF USE

  No information contained in this book should be considered as physical, health related, financial, tax, or legal advice. Your reliance upon information and content obtained by you at or through this publication is solely at your own risk. The author assumes no liability or responsibly for damage or injury to you, other persons, or property arising from any use of any product, information, idea, or instruction contained in the content provided to you through this book.

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, names, places and events are the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously.

  ~ Chapter 1 ~

  The caravan of cars left the farm in a single file, heading down the empty highway. There were abandoned cars on the side of the road and in ditches. They could see bodies in some of them and the others were empty.

  They were heading south on Route 93. As they got closer to the Massachusetts border, there were more abandoned cars on the highway. They had decided to keep radio silence unless absolutely necessary as to not attract any attention.

  Sharon was the first to break radio silence because the kids needed to use the bathroom. Steve and Gwen were still in the lead car so they immediately started looking for a safe place to pull over.

  They found a place where there weren’t many cars around and there weren’t any buildings either. The men were the first to exit the vehicles. They did a preliminary search around the vehicles.

  When they thought it was safe, they let the children come out and go to the bathroom. The men were on constant alert watching for anything that moved or could be a potential threat.

  Everyone took turns going to the bathroom whether they really had to or not. They were unsure of when they would be able to stop again. A couple of times they thought they heard something moving by the trees, but they were all false alarms.

  They returned to their vehicles with the men being the last to get in so they could secure the doors of each vehicle. They continued south on Highway 93 until they were in Salem, New Hampshire.

  As they were coming down the hill just past the Rockingham Mall, there was a part of the highway that was impassable. Steve was afraid to get too close fearing that there could be zombies hiding in the abandonment vehicles.

  Steve had a plan. He radioed to the other men to get their opinion. His plan was for the men to search all the vehicles and make sure they were safe. The women would stay in the vehicles with the doors locked but ready to open them if need be. Some of the women were not happy being left alone, but they understood what needed to happen.

  The men got ready to exit the vehicles by kissing their wives and in Zach's case, his children also. They had their weapons drawn and ready to fire at anything that came at them. The first set of cars was the hardest because they didn't know what to really expect.

  They got up to the first car and heard something moving inside it. They all raised their weapons and pointed them at the car. Steve motioned that he was going to open the driver’s door. He walked over to the door slowly but when he got to it, he opened it fast as he jumped out of the line of fire.

  As he jumped out of the way, he saw something move out of the corner of his eye. As he hit the ground, he rolled, grabbing his gun and pointed it at the car. Luckily, no one fired because it was only a cat. They all sighed deeply. Steve started laughing and got everyone else laughing too.

  They regrouped and continued their search. As they went by each car, they made a mental note of what supplies they saw so they could come back later and get them up.

  They finished their search and returned to the women and children. They counted 36 vehicles to rummage through. The women had come up with a plan while the men were doing their search. They would divide the mass of cars into a grid and each take a piece of the grid to search.

  They systematically went through all the vehicles and took all the supplies, food and clothing they could fit. One of the vehicles actually had a large trailer that had an old antique car in it. The men decided to see if the car would run. When they lifted the hood, they noticed it didn’t have a battery or hoses.

  They decided that they would push the car out of the trailer so they could use it to haul supplies. Tom backed the Suburban up to the trailer and hooked it up. They started loading the clothes, food, water and other miscellaneous supplies they were finding into the vehicles.

  They even took every battery and every possible hose out of every engine they could. They found some empty gas cans and siphoned as much gas out of each vehicle as they could.

  They didn't want to leave anything behind because they didn't know what they would need in the future.

  They decided to keep driving until they lost the sunlight. They found a lot of food that would help keep them eating for a long time. As they were driving, the women were trying to plan meals with the food that they saw as it got packed into the trailer.

  As the sun started setting, Tom came on the radio stating they needed to keep an eye out for a place to stop for the night. As they were driving down the highway, Gwen saw a hotel right off the highway.

  Steve radioed to the other vehicles and they all decided to see what shape the building was in.

  As they pulled up to the hotel, they could see it looked like it was in good condition. They slowly drove all the way around the building to see the building from every side.

  The men decided to search the building while the women waited in the vehicles. They entered the building at the main entrance that led to the lobby.

  Steve had gone to a few hotel conventions even though their bed and breakfast was very small. He had talked to a few vendors about different locks for their suites so there would be less of a chance for anyone copying their keys and coming back when no one was there.

  He recognized the key system that this hotel was using. He knew there was a main master key that would open any locked door in this building.

  He started looking in the back office with no success. The other men didn't know what they were looking for so they kept watch for Steve while trying to come up with a plan to search the building.

  The next office Steve tried was locked. He backed up a little and kicked the door in. The room had multiple monitors on the wall next to the desk. He opened the middle drawer of the desk and saw an envelope that just said “main”. He opened the envelope and found the key he was looking for.

  He started to yell to the others but caught himself before he did. As he came out of the office, he was waving the key above his head. There was a sigh of relief.

  They had all decided to stay together even though they could search the same amount of the building in less time if they split up. They all realized there was safety in numbers.

  The hotel was only one story but had multiple wings. There was an emergency exit map on the wall of the first wing they searched. Zach grabbed it and started marking off the areas they finished searching in case they got turned around. The map also showed the fire doors that would be safer for them to hide behind.

  They finished the first wing and thought it would be a good area to stay in because there was only one other door besides the door that led into the lobby. Th
ere was also a small kitchen at the end of the hallway that was set up for long-term clients.

  There were plenty of pots, pans, plates, and glasses for everyone in their group. Zach made notes on the map where the supplies were that they found.

  Zach noticed that the next wing had a conference room. He thought there might be a supply closet close to the conference room that would have lots of supplies.

  Zach started to get ahead of himself, and Tom had to bring him back to reality. They needed to be systematic with the room searches to verify there were no zombies in any of the rooms.

  They left the conference room to search last even though it was one of the first rooms in the hallway. As they made their way back to the conference room, Steve noticed that the keys on one of the dressers in one of the rooms had a familiar keychain. As Steve got closer, he realized what the keys were for.

  The keys were to a “Mack” truck. The truck wasn't the most important part of the equation, the trailer was. Steve looked through the curtains, out the window to see if they could locate the truck.

  Most truck drivers own their trucks so they like to sleep in their trucks or if they needed to, they would stay in a motel or hotel but they would try to park near their room.

  As he looked out the window, Steve saw the most beautiful royal blue truck with a trailer connected that said, “Wal-Mart” on the side. Tom and Steve were very excited because the chances that the trailer had things they could use in it were very good.

  They still had over half the hotel to search so they all decided to get the searching done first, get the women and children in safe then they will go outside and see what was inside the trailer.

  They entered the conference room next and were surprised to find a couple of dead bodies in the corner. These were the first bodies they had seen in the hotel. Tom and John verified the bodies were dead before they searched the room.

  Zach found a closet behind the main door. It was locked so he asked Steve for the main key. Steve responded to his location and unlocked the door. Zach opened the door and immediately fell to his knees and scared the other guys. They all ran over with their weapons drawn ready to shoot something.

  ~Chapter 2~

  They all lowered their weapons immediately after seeing what was in the closet. There had to be over 100 cases of water and 50 cases of juice.

  There were boxes of paper cups, boxes of bags of pretzels, boxes of bags of chips, and multiple other snacks.

  They were all getting excited to tell their wives about all the supplies they had found but remembered they still had the 2nd half of the hotel to search.

  John had the idea that they should go get the women and children because they would be safer inside than outside. The conference room had an emergency exit door that went into the parking lot. Tom and Zach volunteered to go get the women and children and drive the vehicles around the backside of the hotel to the conference room door.

  John and Steve started pulling everything out of the closet and put it near the door to the driveway. As they pulled the first set of boxes, they saw a hand trailer in the back of the closet. It was a large hand trailer that fit ten cases of water at one time, which helped speed up emptying the closet.

  Tom and Zach tried to hurry out to the cars. They wanted to be safe but hurry none the same, while still being cautious. Once they reached the front door of the hotel, they were almost running to the vehicles. They each went over to one of the vehicles that Steve and John were driving to explain to their wives what was going on.

  Gwen got very nervous when she didn't see Steve coming out with the other guys. Zach could tell as soon as he saw her face that she thought something was wrong. As soon as she opened the door, he started by telling her everything was okay. He told her they were moving the vehicles to the backside of the hotel where they found the conference room and the tractor-trailer.

  Vicky had been sleeping in the back seat the entire time and woke up when Zach was ranting to Gwen the plan. Vicky got scared but Gwen calmed her down.

  Tammy started out being nervous when she saw the two guys and not John but as soon as Tom told her everything was okay she knew she could relax a little. Tom quickly explained what they had found so far and they were going to bring all the vehicles around the back.

  Sharon and Judy were both relieved when they saw Tom and Zach running out of the hotel. After the initial relief, they got scared too when they didn’t see the other two men. When Tom and Zach got to their respective vehicles and explained to Judy and Sharon what was going on, the women were relieved again.

  They all drove the vehicles around the back and parked by the door going into the conference room. Steve and John were watching for everyone and were very excited to show everyone what they had found. Everyone got out of the vehicles and ran to the door of the conference room.

  The women immediately saw just a small portion of the supplies the men found. They couldn't believe how many supplies they found in the closet.

  They were very happy and immediately went into planning mode. Steve and John continued to move the supplies out of the closet.

  Tammy started noticing that the supplies were not going to fit in their trailer. John took her by the arm and led her to the window where he showed her the tractor-trailer outside.

  Sharon was excited about the supplies but she really wanted to get the children settled for the night. Zach took her to the first room.

  Steve had used the main key to lock the center doors that went from the lobby to that wing. The doors were fire safety doors and made to withstand high temperatures and a lot of stress.

  The children kept asking about a pool. Sharon kept telling them they had not found a pool yet. She told the kids that she wanted them to get a good night’s sleep tonight because they were going to have a very busy day tomorrow.

  Tammy and Gwen went down the hall to the next rooms and dropped their bags off. They only brought in what they thought they would need for the night.

  Tammy was too excited to sit. She wanted to see what was in the trailer from “Wal-Mart.” She hurried back to the conference room and in the hallway, she ran into Gwen who couldn’t sleep either.

  The men were just getting ready to head outside and look in the trailer. John and Tom had their weapons ready and were keeping watch all around as Steve and Zach unlocked the trailer.

  John and Tom stood ready as they opened the door. Zach jumped down and got his weapon ready as Steve threw opened the door. Steve jumped off the edge so he was out of the way if his friends had to shoot something.

  They were all pleasantly surprised when the only stuff in the trailer was boxes and boxes of dry goods. There was everything from rice, instant potatoes, oatmeal and pasta to cans of soup, diced tomatoes and tomato sauce. It was like a dream come true.

  John told one of them to pinch him because he felt like he was in a dream in the middle of a nightmare. The only issue they came up with was no one knew how to drive the tractor-trailer. Tom had driven the fire trucks and thought it couldn’t be much harder than that.

  Tom decided he should practice before tomorrow. John helped him unhook the trailer so Tom could practice. Tom got in the driver’s seat and started the truck up. The gas tank was full.

  Tom didn’t want to waste any more gas than he needed but he wanted to practice driving before he hooked the trailer back up to the cab.

  He drove around the hotel and practiced backing up a little. He felt confident and drove back to the trailer where John helped him hook it back up.

  They were losing light so they decided to lock up the truck and secure the part of the hotel they were staying in. The men would take turns standing watch.

  One would be by the door going outside from the conference room and the other would be on the inside of the fire doors at the entrance of the wing.

  Gwen and Tammy were in the conference room trying to organize the supplies like it was a grocery store to help with the packing. They thought it would be more he
lpful going forward to find things.

  As Zach was looking out the window at his set time to keep watch, he thought he saw a shadow but didn’t want to say anything until he was positive. He kept watching and then he did see something. He called for John. The women heard him calling and went over to the window.

  The shadow was circling the tractor-trailer slowly and seemed to be walking like a zombie. They thought it could be the driver of the truck because the zombies are known to return to places that are familiar to them.

  Gwen went to wake up the other men. They both were sound asleep and jumped to their feet when Gwen yelled into each of their rooms that there was a zombie by the truck. If there was one, there was probably more than one since they tended to travel in packs.

  They decided to go all the way down to the end of the wing and look out the windows to see if they saw anything outside on that side of the hotel.

  Tom and Steve ran down there but didn’t turn the lights on so they could see outside while not being seen inside.

  At first, they didn’t see anything but decided to wait just a minute. Just as Steve was about to say lets go back, they saw two zombies walking around their vehicles.

  The men needed a plan. They came up with two of them going out and killing the zombies. They wanted to wait until the sun started coming up so they could see them better.

  They needed to just watch them and make sure they knew where they were at all times. As the sun started to come up, Tom and Steve went out the door at the end of the hall so they wouldn’t bring any attention to the conference room door. They exited the door and hid in the bushes.

  They saw the first zombie walk past them. Tom stepped out behind it and stabbed it in the head with a large hunting knife. They quickly pulled it in behind the bushes.

  Steve saw another zombie walking over by the Suburban. They slowly crept over behind the vehicles, hiding behind the bushes as long as they could.