Chapter 10

Dallas

The Dallas area had been hit hard in the aftermath of the superflu. It already had its bad areas and with it being such an urban environment finding food and supplies had quickly become a risky proposal. It didn’t help that a large number of the people in the area were completely dependent upon civilization to manage. When they could no longer go to the Walmart or HEB to get food and all the restaurants had shut down things went from bad to worse.

A population estimate in 2022 had the city of Dallas well over 1.3 million people. The superflu quickly brought that number down to a little over 50,000 people. That number would further dwindle quickly due to crimes, accidents, starvation, dehydration, or what had previously been manageable health issues. Now the drugs people had needed had quickly been seized. Violent gangs taking what they could regardless of actual need for them. Organized police had swiftly been overrun. The bad side of society showing too much of a “me first” mentality rather than the tendency to help.

Victor Gonzalez was quickly getting a wake up call to this new world order. While he was smart enough to have read what was coming and of the need to stock up on food and supplies he only had an apartment to work with. Luckily for him it ran off a backup generator, though. He was able to limit how much power it drew by shutting off the power for unoccupied apartments and floors once the neighbors had died off. He had also been forced to do cleanup. Dead bodies in the building were quick to decompose and the smell would have been overwhelming otherwise.

Victor had some experience that seemed to help. He was an Army vet, having spent a few years stationed down in Ft Hood, Texas before getting out roughly 10 years prior to the end of the world. He had stayed in the Texas area in part because he liked the liberal gun control policies and had his own small arsenal. He had trained and competed in some amateur 2 and 3 gun competitions and had even started winning some prize money. He did well in 3 gun, that is pistol, shotgun, and assault rifle primarily. However, he would still have to say he felt more comfortable with 2 gun assault rifle and pistol. It made sense though - it fit closer to his Army training, after all.

After about a month he had lucked into finding what would become a companion. He had been scavenging in a nearby Sam’s Club when he had literally came face to face with Brandi. She was quick to ignore his rifle, instead he would later find out she claimed to have read his aura and rushed to give the startled man a hug. Once the new companions had gotten over the initial surprise, it was quickly agreed she would join him at his apartment.

In the coming days they talked about a lot of things. Both agreed that this area wasn’t one to be conducive to a high degree of safety. Victor had mentioned an old Army buddy he had kept in contact with. He had seen progress that Ryan had posted online in pictures and videos of how his compound was coming along.

Victor hated to admit it, but his first thought back then was his friend had gone paranoid and delusional. But he didn’t seem to have completely flipped his lid, so all Victor gave was some teasing about wasting money on things he’d never actually need. The man had a basement commercial freezer, that had to be overkill, right? Not to mention he had an entire wall full of MRE cases, you couldn’t buy a case of 12 MREs for less than $100 normally. The guy had even designed it to be secure and off the grid. Solar power, a well, gas and propane tanks. Months and years ago he had teasingly called him a crazy old man (Ryan was currently 46 to Victor’s 40), now he was advocating for the crazy idea of trying to make the roughly 3 hour trip to get down there and the hope that his friend was still alive, or if not, perhaps be able to take over his compound.

The debate on staying or going hadn’t taken long. That night as the two companions retired to their respective beds for the night the sound of gunfire could be heard from the streets below. The gunfire wasn’t the single shot of probably shotgun, pistol, or hunting rifle fire. It was the rapid fire sound of someone firing an assault rifle. Probably several, the shots were just far enough apart to not be machine gun fire but close enough to be controlled pairs being fired from likely several assault rifles. That meant people who knew the weapon, whether opposing each other or working together Victor and Brandi had no way of knowing.

It wasn’t more than a few minutes before Victor heard a soft tap on the door to his room before it was pushed open, the small figure of Brandi silhouetted from the light in her room across the hall. “I’m on board. Let’s pack up and get out of here in the morning. A full tank on the truck should be able to get us down there.”

Victor sat up a little, looking over at her before nodding his head in response. “Yeah, I think the rewards outweigh the risks. Especially if Ryan is still alive. I thought he was delusional for his prepping, now I’m hoping he’s there to help keep us alive. Not only does he have the goods, he IS the goods. That man is grace under fire in a combat situation. I’ve never seen someone else who shoots better when he’s in combat than on paper in training. Adrenaline hurts my shooting, he just gets better.” He considers the idea of leaving for tomorrow. “We’ll load up first thing and hit the road. Rifle, pistol, and magazines ready for each. Gas cans on hand in the back and a backpack of canned goods in case we get delayed.”