Scarlet Memories (Book 1) (3 page)

Jeremy looked up at Ian’s face. His emotions seemed mixed. But, the majority of emotion that he saw was of sadness.

‘That must have been horrible to witness. We have to tell everyone. They need to know to be careful with these things. I checked with them and most of them want to get back to their loved ones. They aren’t looking to stay here. And I don’t blame them.’  He shook his head.  ‘Neither do I. But, there is something we have to worry about. These things are strong and fast and we have to be careful not to cross paths with them. And if we do, we have to be prepared to handle them.’ Ian thought back to his toss up with Kendra. ‘Kendra came at me. She wasn’t herself. She was one of those things. Had been sick all day. Remember?’ He was repeating himself.

‘We had to send her to get rest? It must have happened then. And it didn’t take her long to take care of Cranston. You don’t want to see him. In fact, we can’t let anyone back there. This is something they don’t need to see at all.’ Ian shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair. It was drenched in sweat. He had been through a lot already today. And he knew this wasn’t the end of it. No, it was the beginning of what he believed to be hell on EARTH.

The two decided they would both tell the swell of people out there what had happened. And then they would let them decide if they wanted to stay together, go in groups or try to make it on their own. Of course, they would shoot for option one; staying together.
The more people we have the better. We need the numbers.
Ian thought. He suddenly was remembering a lot of things Matt had taught him. He hoped more would surface soon. He knew he would need it. Plus, it felt nice thinking about his old best friend again. He did miss him. And things sure would be better if he were still around today. He hoped that where ever his friend Matt was; that he was in a better situation than he was in at the moment.

   Ian took a deep breath. Allowing his lungs to expand fully. He was nervous about telling the others what he knew. Knowing that there was a chance that people would leave. The thing that was taking over peoples bodies was right here. In the very same building. But, as far as anyone of them knew, it had stopped with Jim and Kendra. It really wasn’t safe to stay here much longer anyway. They needed a plan.

Ian and Jeremy walked into the filming area. Everyone was too busy talking to each other to notice them step up onto the main staging area.  They both looked around the room. The sense of terror was heavy in the air. So heavy that you could almost taste it. If they were going to make a plan, they needed to make sure it was something that wasn’t thought of out of fear. That could get them into a lot of trouble. They needed to get somewhere safe. And this was hardly it. This warehouse had too many ways to access the inside.

Jeremy cleared his throat loudly so that the place would hopefully quiet down. Finally, a few people heard him and started ‘shushing’ the others. When they had won the attention of the audience they at once began.

‘We know that many of you don’t have anywhere to go.’ Ian said. Opening up the first button of his button down plaid shirt. It had suddenly gotten much warmer in the room. Everyone was staring at them wondering what to do next.

‘I need to tell you something that I just witnessed. And I need you all to remain calm.’ Stated Ian bringing his hands up and down signifying complacently.

He took another deep breath and prepared himself for the next part.

‘Kendra and Jim are dead.’ There was a start of an uproar in the crowd. You could hear people asking one another how this could happen. ‘I don’t know how, but she turned into one of those…things.’ He paused between words. He wasn’t quite sure what they should be called. No one had a clue what it was that brought it in the first place. ‘I was forced to defend myself from her. And it’s not a pretty scene.’ Ian lowered his head. The tears welling up in the corner of his eyes.

‘She was my friend. I never wanted to see her like that. ‘Sweat was beginning to pour from his scalp. He was very nervous about the next part. ‘Jim was an innocent by stander in all of this. It looks like she got a hold of him before he could find help. These things are strong! We can’t fight against them if we don’t have a way to defend ourselves. And we can’t just go running outside looking for a fight either. They tore Jim apart… We need a plan.’ The whole room got quiet at that point. They all seemed to agree with Ian about needing a plan.

Jeremy piped up finally,’ I think we need to discuss changing locations. Now, I know we can’t stop you from leaving. But, it would be in everyone’s best interest if we stuck together. What does everyone think about that?’ Immediately Jeremy and Ian wished that they had gone about this in a different way. The whole room started shouting. Before you know it people were shoving one another. Yelling obscenities.

‘I want everyone to stop for a minute!’ Ian shouted at the crowd. This was pointless time they were wasting. They needed to do something quick. Ian pulled Jeremy to the side quickly. ‘How about we vote on it?’ He asked. This was the only thing that he could think of. And if someone didn’t want to stick together, well they could just go. They didn’t need someone dragging them down.

‘We are going to vote on it.’ Said Jeremy.

Chapter Two: Journey

‘Everyone that wants to stick together and find another place to seek shelter raise your hand.’ Nearly everyone in the room raised their hands. There was a select few who looked rather upset and brooding. From what Ian could tell, most of them were from Texas and probably had family close by. ‘If you don’t want to stay here, you can go as you please. But, those of you that are sticking with us, we need to start packing supplies for the road.’

Ian motioned to Jeremy that he was going down into the crowd. Jeremy started talking to the crowd about food and water. And about how everyone needed to grab only the necessities. ‘Don’t pack so much that you can’t run.’

Ian walked between the people in the crowd. He was looking for Susan. Susan was a sweet older woman in her late 40’s. She recently divorced her husband. And took this job on to get away from her old life. She was one of his best assistants. Susan had brought her 10 year old son Jaime with her to stay for a couple of weeks with her at the Howett Hotel about five miles from here. ‘Susan!’ He raised his voice over the crowd so that she could hear him. Susan met him in the middle of the room. ‘Where is Jaime? He needs to stay close.’ Ian asked her looking around for any sign of him.

‘He is still at the hotel. ‘She cried. Her eyes streaming tears down the sides of her face. She looked as though she had been crying for some time by this point.
The one day she decides not to bring him into the studio!
Ian scowled. ‘I need you to call him right now and tell him to stay put. We don’t need him out in the streets.’

As if they didn’t have enough to worry about. Now this? As far as he knew, Jaime was the only family member of the cast and crew that tagged along for the ride to Texas. They were going to have to help him. He couldn’t stand the thought of the poor guy being left alone to fend for himself. ‘Susan?’ He asked looking over her. She was a mess. She didn’t seem to care what Ian was saying to her. She could only crash her face into her palms and sob.

‘Susan!’ He shouted. ‘I’m not going to leave him there. I need you to calm down. Stick close to me. Ok?’ He asked her. Looking deep into her eyes to make sure she heard and understood him. ‘Alright?’ He asked again. ‘Yes, ok.’ Susan said. Her eyes glowing with hope once again. It must be so hard for her being so close and yet not being able to comfort him. He didn’t blame her for getting the way she did. Ian just needed her to snap back into reality. They didn’t have the time. ‘Go look for some supplies for yourself. Pack light, if you can. Only what you can carry and only essentials.’ He told her grabbing the sides of her arms gently helping her steady her feet. She nodded and started off towards her things in the corner. She didn’t have. Looked like she probably had a little bit of food and a change of clothes. Ian felt so bad for her. He would have to keep a close eye on her.

Ian met back up with Jeremy. Who was talking to a few people on the stage.  ‘Hey!’ Jeremy said, waiving him over. ‘I was just talking to Ethan from the Lighting Department and he told me that there is a school that’s about 3 miles north of here. It’s pretty fortified. Built with three levels within. High walls, small windows and plenty of food. The locals there fixed it to double as a shelter for the town. Texas was prone to severe weather at odd times.’ He looked at Ian with an excited tone to his body behavior. ‘What do you think of that?’

Ian weighed their options. What very few they had left. He still needed to get Jaime. And that was something he had to do. ‘Where is this school at exactly?’ he asked.  ‘There is something that I have to do before we make it there. Susan’s kid is stuck at the hotel near the highway about five miles back. You know the one?’ Ian pointed towards the back of the warehouse. ‘We can’t just leave him there. It’s not a very big hotel so we can be in and out quick… And if we don’t?’ He paused. He didn’t even want to think of what Susan would do without her son. She would be alone in this world. ‘Well, I don’t know, he’s just a kid. ‘ 

‘Why don’t we all head that way? Said Jeremy. It’s on the way and you can take a few guys with you to go check it out. The rest of us will head to the school and prepare it. Along the way we can look for weapons and supplies.’ 

It wasn’t a bad plan. The only thing that Ian didn’t like was the part about splitting the group up. But, it was the safest bet when it came to getting the kid and the group to safety. ‘Alright, we can do that. I’ll go round up some volunteers.’ Ian set off to find four other guys to help him grab the kid from the hotel. It wasn’t much further from the school. And he felt that since they were dealing with saving a kid he might actually get volunteers.

Ian managed to round up four other guys to help him go the extra two miles passed the school to check on Susan’s kid. They weren’t the best group but, it was better than going alone. Which he never wanted to do again if he could help it. He decided he would have to go and get a few things from his dressing room. Ian hated the idea but, knew that he had no other choice. Figuring he would be alright since it was just in and out. He walked straight back. Trying to ignore any signs there might be of Kendra and Jim’s struggle. That’s the last thing that he needed.

Quickly passing by the break room as fast as he could, Ian finally came to his dressing room door. Slowly opening the door, he went inside and stood in the middle of the room. He only had a few moments to decide on what would stay and what would go. So, he had better hurry up. He hated being rushed. But, there is nothing like a crisis such as this to light a fire underneath you. Ian grabbed the gym bag he had thrown on the floor this morning and walked over to his fridge. He pulled out a few snack cakes, nutrition bars and all of the water that he could find. He also found some bread and a few small bags of assorted chips.
That should be more than enough to get me 5 miles down the road, right?
Plus, they would be passing several places along the way.

Ian also found a few miscellaneous items that he needed to bring for the memories. Because he had a feeling he would never see this warehouse again. Even if the government found a way to control those
things.
He reached for a photo he framed when he first got here. It was of his mother and father. They were at a waterpark back in their hometown. Ian stared into his father’s deep green eyes.
Those stern eyes
….And his mother with a care free smile. How he missed them. He tucked the photo into his wallet that he kept in the back right pocket of his pants. He wanted it on him in case he lost the bag. He never wanted to forget what they looked like.

Ian grabbed a few other things. Things that wouldn’t put a damper on the weight of the bag with everything in it. And at last he grabbed his cell phone. He swiped the screen and found his parents number. Pressing call Ian placed the phone to his ear.

‘Ringgggg…….riiiinngggggg……rinnnnggg…..’ This was taking forever
! Why won’t they answer?
He questioned. They always answer when I call. After a whole minute of letting the phone ring on their end, Ian ended the call. He would just have to try them later. Maybe they were sleeping. He placed the phone back into his pocket and started for the staging area. Closing the door of his dressing room for possibly the last time. The world didn’t need a good Actor anymore. He felt that he was writing a new chapter in his life. One full of unseen probabilities and reveries.

The crowd gave off the look like that of a gang. They all had makeshift shivs, pitchforks and assorted metal piping.  They were ready to face the world it seemed. Ian nodded to Jeremy, showing him his gym back hanging from his shoulder.  The crowd was finally ready to depart the warehouse. Shuffling his feet to the front door, Ian spun around on his heels to see the crowd gathering behind him and Jeremy. Their eyes full of fear. ‘Maybe we should say something to them?’ Ian told Jeremy pointing to the people behind them. ‘Yeah, we probably should. You go?’ Jeremy pushed. He wasn’t confident enough in himself to do it.

‘We are about to go out there,’ he motioned with his hands to the door. ‘We aren’t sure what we are going to find out there. But, I can tell you that we need to stick together if we are to stand a fighting chance against them.’ He paused.

‘Hit them in the head. Whatever you do. That seems to work.’

With that, he turned around and opened the front door of the warehouse. Ian shielded his eyes from the sun. It was extremely bright outside today. And he was very glad that he brought as much water as he could. Texas was so hot and humid in the middle of summer. He peered out at his surroundings. He could see the parking lot, which was filled with the employees of TRYFILMZ. As he turned his head to look to the right of the front door he noticed there were barely any cars passing the warehouse on the main road. And the day was getting to be a bit later on in the afternoon. Seeing that there was simply no immediate threat, Ian allowed Jeremy to follow him out into the parking lot. Jeremy held the door for the rest of the group to join them outside.

‘Ok, we need to head towards the interstate.’ Ian pointed north towards the highway. ‘And we need to go north to reach the school. I will be taking a detour with 4 others to help Susan find her son not far from where the school is. You guys will go with Jeremy and set up camp. ‘He motioned to the rest of the group. ‘Do you guys have any questions on what to do?’ He asked starring into the crowd of men and women. No one seemed like they wanted to question his plans. This was fine if they thought he was doing a good enough job to at least get them to the school and take care of Susan’s boy. ‘Alright, I’ll be right back.’ He told them raising a hand to wave at them. Ian walked over to the few that decided to part ways with the rest of group.

‘I know you guys have to do what you need to. You have families to think about. Please just be careful’

He offered a hand to the ‘leader’ of the group, John. He was a film editor. And he definitely looked as though he could take care of himself. He had that sort of rugged look. John took his hand and shook it tightly. There was an understood respect shown between the two and Ian wondered if their paths would ever cross again. He truly hoped that they would be able to reach their families and friends. And he prayed that they would not have to deal with one of those
things.

They then got into their cars and drove off leaving the rest of them to fend for themselves. Now
they
needed to figure out who was driving with whom. There were about thirty people left in Jeremy and Ian’s group. So, it was time to figure out transportation. They needed to resolve this issue quickly for the day was depleting quickly. And no one wanted to be out at dark.

Ian walked back over to the crowd of people. They all looked ready for the road. So Ian began. ‘I assume all of you have a vehicle. We will only need to take enough vehicles to carry all of us. That way we can conserve gas if we need to.’ Most of them nodded in agreement so he continued. ‘We need people with SUV’s and Van’s to walk forward. There were three who did. One short older man and two younger guys from editing. ‘Ok, that’ll take care of almost half of us.’ Jeremy said.

Things were looking up. The least amount of cars they had to use the better. ‘Now trucks and Jeeps…’ He asked motioning for them to move forward. Two stepped up. They had one of each vehicle.

‘I’m going to need you and your truck for a run to get Susan’s son.’ Ian told the guy who stepped forward claiming he had the truck. ‘He is by himself in a hotel room about 2 or 3 miles passed the school. It won’t take us long and we will be coming right back to the school.’

There was an uneasiness that draped the crowd. Not a single person there wanted to think of any child in danger’ let alone one of their close friend’s children. That’s already hard enough to think about.

‘And we are going to do all of this before dark.’ He said, trying to snap everyone back from thinking about the situation. ‘We need to actually hit the road if we want to make that deadline.’ He hoped into the truck that the four of them would be using. ‘Everyone organize who will be riding with whom. Make sure we aren’t over crowded because we need to conserve gas. Once we fill up the vans, SUV’s and trucks, then start packing cars. Shouldn’t have to go through too many cars.’

Ian then pointed at the four guys that would be going with him. Ricky from the Makeup department, Spencer from Janitorial, Jason from Props crew and Eddy from Jim’s office crew. They stepped forward in front of Ian. They were an odd bunch to put together. But, Ian had to take what he could get. And it wasn’t like they were going on a ride or die mission. They were just picking someone up who happened to be stranded.
We can do this…
Ian thought assuredly. He suddenly felt an overwhelming bout of confidence.

‘Let’s hit the road!’ He told them.

Spinning his head around to behind the truck he saw Jeremy talking to the rest of the group about how they would follow him straight to the camp. Jeremy seemed to be making it a heavy point to not stray from the rest of the group. This would be a key point within the group. Never doing anything alone. This would greatly represent what Ian was trying to do. And explain why he was taking the other men with him.

With that, Ian stepped inside and closed the front door to the red extended cab truck that he and the others would be using as transport to the hotel. One by one each of the four guys got into the truck. They had loaded the car down with their bags and headed in behind Jeremy. He was in one of the vans. They would then follow Jeremy to the school and continue on the same path, where they would shortly see the hotel from the highway. He decided earlier that Susan would be the driver in their vehicle. She knew the route the best because she traveled it every day. Ian noticed that Susan had a new sense of meaning and direction in her mannerisms. Her body language assured him that she was ready to take this on.