Joe was yelling that they needed to leave immediately. Randy felt an irrational urge to stop everything he was doing and just give Joe a big sarcastic response. ‘You think so?’. Instead, he focused on figuring out the best way to drive out of the suddenly very popular driveway. While he was working on figuring it out the truck was in danger of becoming covered in Zombies. One had already hopped in the back and was pounding on the back window. Another was steps away from the driver side window. The ones coming up the driveway were getting closer every second he hesitated. Several of the Zombies they’d hit with their shotgun battery had picked themselves up and were charging them again.
Randy slammed his foot down on the accelerator with the truck in reverse. The Zombie trying to climb over the roof of the cab from the back flew off the roof, bounced off the hood and landed on its head on the hard concrete. Randy spun the wheel and the tires squealed as they turned to face the main road. He put the truck into drive and pressed down on the accelerator as a Zombie started hammering on his window. A tall Zombie with a bushy white beard wearing a bright yellow rain slicker was beating on Joe’s window. More were surrounding the truck. It was quickly getting to the point where Randy couldn’t see where he was going as arms stretched out covering the windows from all around.
Randy sped up as the newly arrived Zombies jumped for the truck. The top of his window started to bow inwards. He heard a grinding noise as his window started to give. With a loud snap it shattered. The arms that had broken the window reaching in to get at his flesh. He was busily blinking to get at least one of his eyes operating well enough to keep driving. Completely blinded by the glass shards from the Zombies breaking his window he stomped on the gas pedal and hoped for the best as he felt cold fingers groping and grabbing at him.
The truck smashed through the Zombies in front of them. The big tires climbing haphazardly over the squirming corpses without getting stuck. Their ride now needed a car wash like crazy, but it still moved when he stomped down on the pedal. Randy was finally able to get an eye to open all the way and see where he was going. Joe helped by dumping a bottled water over his head to wash away the pieces of glass that were scattered all over his face. Joe yelled for him to turn right as he was dumping the water on him. Randy cut the wheel hard to the right and let off the accelerator a little bit.
His blurry cyclops vision revealed they’d narrowly missed going into the ditch. He cut the steering wheel back the other way and they tore around the curve heading for the harbor. Joe was staring out the back window while he frantically urged Randy to drive faster.
“They’re following us. We’re going to need to get to the dock and get this stuff into the boat fast.” Joe was pointing the direction to the dock out to Randy who was still trying to get his eyes to work. Randy thought about pulling over to let Joe drive. The problem being they were so close to the docks that losing those critical few seconds to switch drivers could mean the difference between getting their stuff loaded on the boat or a big mission failure if they didn’t make it in time. Not making it in time being if the Zombies came charging down the dock while they were still trying to carry crap to the boat. Randy snorted at the messed-up logic leading to the mostly blind man being the one driving them out onto a dock. They needed to commandeer a ferry, so they could just drive the car right onto the boat in situations like this. Randy made a mental note of the ferry idea to share with the commander if they happened to get out of this alive.
They rolled into the parking lot by the ticket booth. Randy drove up as close to the dock leading out to the waiting Coast Guard Cutter as he thought was safe. Joe was already out of the truck and running for the end of the dock before Randy had even confirmed he’d parked as close to the dock as he could safely get. Joe got to the end of the dock and quickly pulled the loop of rope holding the big orange raft off the mooring bracket. He started walking down the dock tugging on the rope to drag the big orange raft closer to the truck. The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter had gathered in the wheelhouse and along the stern to watch them attempt to get the supplies out to them. The guys on the cutter didn’t know the Zombies were after them so were probably wondering what the big rush was.
They were bound to have heard some of the screeches from the Zombies and the shotguns being fired. They had no way of putting all that together though. Randy was out of the truck and unloading the supplies as quickly as he could. Him and Joe managed to get the guns and the boxes of ammunition on board. They kept two loaded shotguns leaning against the truck. They’d barely gotten a few boxes of food thrown into the raft when the first Zombie trotted into the parking lot. Joe yelled for Randy to keep loading and grabbed one of the shotguns to cover his back. Randy grabbed a box full of canned food and slung it off the dock towards the raft. The box hit the side of the raft and most of its contents spilled over into the water.
Cussing aloud, Randy went back to the truck for another couple of boxes. He aimed better this time on his tosses. Both of the boxes he threw crashed into the bottom of the raft with only a few items bouncing out over the side this time. He realized he was standing there staring at his handiwork instead of moving more boxes. The eye the glass had gotten into was working better at this point. The sweat and the water and the terror was all contriving to clean it out for him. He turned to go back to the truck as a series of shotgun blasts shattered the quiet of the bay. Ignoring the blasts, he grabbed some more boxes and kept trying to transfer as much from the truck to the raft as he could before too many Zombies showed up.
“Let’s go!” Joe yelled as he ran up to the edge of the dock and motioned for Randy to hurry and get in the raft. Randy started climbing down the ladder where they’d tied the raft to the dock. He realized about halfway down he was going to have to jump for it. The raft was too far from the ladder for him to step over to it.
Above him on the dock he heard the sounds of running feet then a scuffle. There was a series of loud splashes as a couple of bodies tumbled off the dock. Randy yelled loudly for Joe, but no one replied. There were voices drifting to him from the Coast Guard cutter. It sounded like they were yelling at him to jump for it. He couldn’t make out the exact words but there was no mistaking the urgency. Randy climbed up a few rungs to give him the best angle to try and make a leap for the raft. He glanced up as he climbed and caught the eye of a Zombie standing on the edge of the dock. The vacant eyes lit up when they caught Randy staring back. The Zombie tried to bend and reach out for him but only succeeded in falling off the dock and into the bay. The Zombie narrowly missing knocking Randy off the ladder before it disappeared into the cold, dark water with a loud splash.
Not wanting to risk another attack from above Randy took a deep breath and jumped for the raft. He landed in the middle of the supplies they’d managed to get on board. He lost his footing and ended up with the top half of his body sliding into the water over the side of the boat. His desperate scratching and clawing for purchase on the hard rubber of the raft kept him from falling in. He pulled himself painfully back into the boat and looked up at the dock to try and spot Joe. He didn’t see Joe but there was a small group of Zombies staring back at him. As soon as he made eye contact with them, they started leaping through the air straight at him.
He tried to move backwards on the raft but the first Zombie who’d jumped landed right on top of him. The Zombies head banged hard into Randy’s face. He felt his nose snap and blood start gushing out of his nose and down his chin. The blood enraged the Zombie and it started trying to claw at him and try to get its teeth into him with a renewed fervor. Another Zombie landed in the boat and crawled towards them. Randy knew it was going to continue to rain Zombies. Nott seeing an immediate way to save the supplies he kicked the current Zombie off him and dove off the raft into the harbor.
He heard splashes and screeching behind him. Something grabbed his ankle and tried to pull him under, but he just kept kicking hard away from the dock and the thing grabbing him only ended up with one of his shoes. Once he
was out a little further, he worked off his other shoe and swam towards the cutter. The crew of the cutter threw him a life preserver once he got close enough. They helped pull him aboard when he finally made it over to them.
“So. How’s your day going?” The Bosuns Mate in charge of the boat crew asked nonchalantly as he handed Randy a towel. Randy didn’t bother answering.
Chapter 17: The Devil You Know
“Pastor Methot.” The pastor held out his hand and lowered the shovel until he was holding it more like a walking stick than a weapon. The thirty something blond haired man who’d just pulled up considered the hand for a second before sticking his own out in return. After he’d shaken the pastor’s hand he turned and shook Brenda’s as well. He looked like he was going to ask them again about what was going on between the two of them when a little blond blur came streaking out the door and jumped into the startled man’s arms.
Brenda watched with amazement as the little girl she’d saved in the hallway of the church buried her head into this stranger’s shoulder and completely lost control of her emotions. Tears and snot covered the little girls face. After she’d regained some of her composure, she started trying to explain what was going on.
“Uncle Eric this is Miss Brenda. She kept me safe from the monsters. Are we going with you now? Mommy and daddy are dead. The monsters got them.” On hearing her own voice say that her mommy and daddy were dead Alice started bawling again. She shoved her face back in to the blond man’s shoulder and didn’t appear to be pulling it out any time soon. Eric looked through tears of his own with wide-eyed amazement at the back of the little girls head he was holding. He looked at Brenda for confirmation.
“Her dad died getting her to safety. He got her almost all the way to this closet we’ve hiding in. He was bitten and dragging a Zombie along with him when he gave her to me to get to safety. After he gave her to me, he turned around and kept the monsters back, so we could escape.” Brenda left out the details around the pastor shutting the door and telling her not to go rescue the child. She knew the man wouldn’t have given her another chance had the situation been reversed but she decided to let him have another chance to prove himself.
“Thank you for taking care of my niece.” The man Alice had identified for them as uncle Eric took a second to wipe the tears out of his eyes. “That sounds like my brother alright. Always willing to make that sacrifice for family. You guys didn’t ever happen to see his wife, did you?” Pastor Methot and Brenda shook their heads. They’d seen a lot of people in the church but even though they’d spent days locked up in the hot, musty building everyone had mostly kept to themselves. The lack of light and high probability of imminent death hadn’t lent themselves to an air where one spent a lot of time socializing.
“I’m pretty certain we’re the only ones still alive in the church. Those demons broke into the main sanctuary then poured into the building like water. I can’t imagine any more people survived that wave of them coming in like that. I know this church and the grounds pretty well and can’t think of another place a person, or group of people, could’ve survived the way I did with Brenda and her grandkids and your niece.”
Eric listened to the pastor respectfully then looked over at the door where Caitlyn, Zoey, Doreen and Myriah were all now visible. They were standing there waiting to see if they were allowed to come outside or not. Everyone tensed as a few of those inhuman shrieks drifted in on the wind from outside the church. The men with Eric finished dispatching the Zombies in the loading dock area and walked over to join them. A brief round of introductions ensued with Brenda forgetting everyone’s name almost as soon as she was introduced to them.
The group consisted of Eric and five other men. They were dressed like homeless people who’d been given access to a pawn shop near a military base and had watched Rambo movies too many times as kids. Camouflage and bandoliers with random war paint were the norm with this group. Brenda wondered briefly if the Zombies were fooled by camouflage or if you could walk around with a bright orange vest on like a deer hunter and be fine. The pastor immediately started talking once the men had finished introducing themselves. Bill may be a coward, but he did have a powerful amount of charisma. The men were laughing at his jokes and nodding and saying ‘amen’ right along with him at the appropriate times.
Then Eric asked him to introduce the people on his side.
“This wonderful lady is Brenda. She’s the one who went out into the hallway to rescue your niece. Brenda, would you like to introduce your grandchildren to the men here.”
“No. I’d like you to introduce them to us preacher.” Eric said in a sterner tone than he’d used before.
Pastor Methot made an attempt to introduce the kids but it became really obvious, really fast, that he had no idea what their names were. Eric let him struggle for a minute before announcing it was time to get the supplies loaded and the kids in the truck. They all pitched in to help. They were moving as fast as they could since the screeches around the church were growing louder.
They had shoved all the children in the backseat of the extended cab with Caitlyn keeping watch over them and started in on the supplies when the first Zombie came running into the loading dock area. This being a very large church it was a sizeable area they were in, so it took a minute for the men to mobilize and head over to take out the lone Zombie. Three of them had gone to take care of that task while the rest of them kept up with moving supplies from the storage closet to the truck. They worked quietly except for the pastor who kept up a stream of nervous chatter the entire time. Eric finally told him to shut up before he attracted more Zombies.
They’d moved most of the bottled waters and cans of food into the truck. It was a sign of the times that other than a little embarrassment on the part of the kids no one seemed to think twice of the smell emanating from the storage closet. The Florida heat and humidity had made it pretty pungent in the hot, enclosed space. At the other end of the parking lot the men began doing their Zombie disposal procedure with the poles and the fire ax. It was obvious they’d done it enough times to have perfected their technique. The first man struck the Zombie hard with the end of the long wooden rod he was carrying. He’d aim for the Zombies knee. The Zombie spun in the air from the strike and landed on its back. It started to spring back up, but the other man now had a short rod he was using to pin the monster down with.
The third man walked forward and swung the ax hard at the Zombies head. This particular Zombie had been a normal teenage girl not too long ago. The sickness had caused a long line of red pus-filled welts to break out along her forehead. She was still dressed in a t-shirt with a country singers face on it and a pair of jeans. If she’d been wearing shoes those had been lost at some point in her journey. She was still screeching and trying to grab at the men pinning her down when the fire ax ended her.
More screeches echoed into the loading dock accompanied by the sound of running feet. Eric climbed in the driver’s seat and started barking out orders for everyone else to get in. The preacher tried to climb in the front seat ahead of Brenda. Eric told him to get in the back instead. When the pastor tried arguing with him Eric reached over and shoved him out the door. Brenda climbed in and slammed the door for the truck as Eric switched into drive and headed over towards his guys.
Eric slammed his foot down on the brakes throwing the men and supplies in the back all over the place. The three men who’d gone to take out the lone Zombie all climbed into the truck bed as fast as they could. Eric barely waited for them to get in before he started accelerating again. Brenda watched the bed of the truck and when the last man was pretty much in, she yelled for Eric to get them out of there. They dodged around the stream of Zombies coming for them. Tires squealing, they made it out of the loading dock area before the mass of Zombies blocked them in.
Eric dove-tailed them out of the parking lot and onto the main road.
“What happened to the little girl’s arm? Doreen, right?” Eric casually asked
Brenda.
“She got it broken in the door rescuing your niece.” Brenda answered. She had no idea why she was still protecting the pastor.
Eric didn’t say anything else, but he did give her a look that seemed to say he knew there was more to it.
“The pastor broke Doreen’s arm. I should’ve been watching her better, but she got up to watch Grammy rescue Alice and the pastor slammed the door on her arm when the monsters started coming for us. I’m sorry.” Caitlyn had evidently had enough of secret keeping. Brenda mentally thanked her for blurting it out. She reached back to rest a hand on Caitlyn’s shoulder to let her know it was ok. Eric didn’t say a word about it. He just nodded like he wasn’t surprised to hear that. Looking to change the subject, Brenda asked him if he had any idea where they were headed.
“The plan is to try and get to one of the resorts over by the theme parks. Assuming it’s not too big of a death trap over there. I was a manager in the security department over at Disney so have access to all the buildings and the tunnels linking them together. Most of us know the layout over there. We all worked together out there before this all went down. We were at Port Canaveral on a deep-sea fishing trip when everything went to hell. We’ve spent the last week going door to door trying to find wives and cousins and moms and dads. Alice is the only family we’ve found so far. Thank you for saving her. I owe you everything.”
A Small World Page 13