Return to the factory

Early morning, Smith and the other two came out of the house with bags. Smith put his bag on the back of the truck and sat on the jeep inserting the key and starting the engine. Lane in her military uniform was checking her gun, while Wolfe was coming out carrying her bag as well. He put the bags at the back and climbed up and sat down. Lane came to the back and stared at him.

"I thought you would sit at the front", Wolfe said.

"Who would keep eyes at you then?", Lane said with a straight face with prompting him to move further inside. She climbed up and sat down and tapped the vehicle telling Smith that they were ready to leave. Smith soon pressed the accelerator and the jeep started moving. 

After an hour and a half, they were almost near the old factory, Lane looked at Wolfe, offered a gun to him and said, "We are about to reach. Take this. Use it only when they come near you. And don't get separated from us and don't even think about running away".

"Come on, how many times do I have to say that I ain't gonna do that. I also want to help", Wolfe said with an accusing face.

Smith stopped the jeep a little earlier than the gate, got out and said looking at Wolfe, "We will walk from here. Keep quiet and don't make any sort of noise. And if you see any infected approaching, shoot him at the head". Wolfe nodded. They started going towards the gate, slowly. Smith was actually scared but didn't show it because as he had taken the responsibility to lead the group. They were all alert when they entered the gate. It was empty like when they came there earlier.

"They must have come out when we drove off", Smith said while still alert.

They moved stealthily, scanning their surroundings and entered the factory. Inside there was dark, Lane and Smith turned on the torch brightening the area. They could see the blood spilled on the floor. Soon, they reached the place where they had set up their communication systems. A sound came from behind the setup. Looking carefully, Lane found an infected who didn't have lower part of the body and a hand, groaning, dragging his body towards them with one hand.

"God forgive. How is he still alive?", Smith said quite unsettled by looking at the body. Wolf went near the infected in spite of Lane warning him to not approach it. He bent down, took out his dagger from his belt and struck at the head and the infected stopped moving. He looked at the duo and said, "No need to waste bullets. Hurry! contact the base".

Smith who had frozen watching Wolfe kill a fellow soldier although infected without any hesitation came out of his stance and started looking at the device. He Picked up the talkie and pressed a button but there was no sound. There was not even static.

"Comms are dead", Smith said. Lane put her torch light towards the comms and prompted towards the machine saying, "Bullets".

"What do we do now?", Wolfe asked.

"Well, the communication got cut off. So, they will send reinforcements to see what happened here", Smith said.

"So, we wait here. In the middle of nowhere?", Wolfe asked thinking about the isolated location of the factory.

"Well, there are no infected here so, we are safe. We can close the gates. We have enough food supplies and weapons. We can stay here till someone comes and picks us", Lane said while Smith nodded.

"And how long would it take? The army busy killing civilians right now", Wolfe said mockingly.

"Hey, we have no other choice. The shelters have been compromised. The infected are everywhere", Smith tried to justify.

"That's what the radio said. Shouldn't you guys have been prepared for this?", Wolfe looked at Lane and asked.

"It's final. We stay here until help arrives", Lane said in a commanding tone.

"I'll go check the parameter and close the gates", Smith said and left. Lane and Wolfe were left alone in the hall.

After a moment of silence, Lane said while throwing a torch at him, "If you don't have anything to do, help me collect the guns from the ground".

"Yes ma'am", said Wolfe, catching the torch, standing up and scanning the floor for any weapons. 

A few days passed by. The trio stayed on the abandoned old factory. They had enough military grade food for three people. In these few days, they killed every infected that arrived at the gates differently. Sometimes using guns while other times, a knife. Every time, the infected would not stop moving until their brain was shot or stabbed. They also noticed that the infected couldn't run. Some could walk faster than others. Their holding strength was better than normal people as observed when Smith got caught by one and Wolfe had to cut the arm of walker to separate them. While Smith and Lane were switched to keep watch, Wolfe started working out and recover his strength. He would only eat, sleep and exercise.

 "Alright, I don't think any help is coming. We have been waiting for twelve fucking days. We are so isolated from the world that we don't even know what's going on. The radio isn't working and I sure as hell haven't seen any living person for these past few days. All we do is wait and kill a few infected that gather at the gate. You guys don't think they would have sent someone here by now?", Wolfe said impatiently looking at Smith and Lane.

"I think he's right. We are too isolated. We don't have any means to contact them. And by the looks of it, the army seems busy doing other things to notice that we have been gone out of contact for a while", Lane said looking at Smith.

"But we have to wait for them, they will come as long as the situation is handled", He said although lacking confidence in his words.

"Alright, here's what we'd do. We will wait for a few more days here and if someone still doesn't come, we'll leave this place and look for a nearby base. I found a map in a bag while searching. I will see where we should go", Smith said. They looked at each other and nodded, acknowledging the plan.

A day went by, and evening approached as the team decided to leave next morning. The trio were in the building preparing and sorting out the supplies for their journey. They were confused whether they should leave on their jeep, leaving much of the ammunition and supplies in the factory, or take the truck filled with enough supplies and ammunition for their journey. Although it would take much gas, they decided to take the truck and started filling it with rations. As they went inside to pick up the last drop, they heard the sound of vehicles approaching. Lane quickly shushed Wolfe and prepared her gun for safety. Wolfe and Lane then silently approached the door where they saw Smith sitting hiding near the window already with a gun in his hand.