“I couldn’t imagine this world without that sweet little girl in it. I feel like she’s one of mine now anyway. You think heading to the resorts is the best idea?” Brenda asked.
“We missed out on the final days of the disaster when it all really went down but we’re thinking most people would’ve been trying to get home and not hang out at theme parks. They should’ve been shut down by then anyway. If we can get to one of the parks itself and get in, we should be good. There’ll be food there for years. If it doesn’t look doable, we can just turn back and reassess. Sound fair?”
“I guess. I’d been thinking to head for the beach or somewhere deserted where we could fish or grow a garden or something to survive. I guess we can do the same thing there though. I’m willing to give it a try. I do have a huge favor to ask though. It’s something I need to do while we’re still in this area.”
Chapter 18: The Definition of Insanity
Mike led the way down the hallway and back to the first floor. He was holding the shotgun they’d pulled off the corpse upstairs like it was a trophy. That made sense as it was the only valuable thing they’d actually collected so far. The shotgun coupled with the boxes of shells they’d found should give them a fighting chance to defend themselves against small groups of Zombies. Having the gun gave them both a more secure feeling than carrying around hatchets did. Being charged by sore covered crazy people who want to eat you when all you have to defend yourself with is a tool designed to make kindling out of medium sized branches isn’t an ideal situation.
They were poking around the first floor again in case they’d missed anything useful the first go around when the sound of the horn beeping outside had them hurrying over to the closest window. Kyler pressed his face to the window and looked down at the Range Rover. A group of about ten Zombies were surrounding the Rover. Seth was nowhere to be seen so Kyler figured he was laying as far down on the seat as he could get and still press the horn. As Kyler watched one of the Zombies started bashing away at the driver’s side window. Kyler didn’t know if the others could see Seth also or they just got excited as a group but the rest of them started screeching and beating on the SUV as well.
Even worse than the screeching from the Zombies trying to beat their way into the SUV was the large quantity of answering screeches coming from the woods around them. Kyler motioned for Mike to head out to help Seth. He needn’t have bothered as Mike was already headed for the front door. Kyler followed close behind him. Mike was standing at the top of the stairs and trying to line up a shot. The SUV was fairly close, so the difficult part wasn’t going to be hitting the Zombies so much as trying not to hit any important parts of the SUV. They also wanted to avoid shooting Seth. No matter how tempting that might be.
“We just need to put the Zombies on the ground. We don’t necessarily have to kill them.” Kyler said. He thought he’d said it quietly, but something caused one of the Zombies to look in their direction and notice them standing on the porch. That Zombie let out a screech and vaulted over the front of the SUV before leaping over the dead bodies on the porch directly at Mike. Mike got lucky. He pulled both triggers and the shots connected with the brain pan of the leaping Zombie. The mostly headless body landed on the ground at their feet.
Kyler’s mind was racing even as Mike broke down the shotgun and shoved two more shells into the chambers. The other Zombies were coming for them, but none displayed the crazy athleticism the first jumper had shown. If all the Zombies started moving like that then their odds of survival were going to go down to zero real fast. The motley group shuffling towards them from around the SUV now were moving much more slowly. One did make a run for them and Mike put a slug through its head. A massively obese older black man with dark black welts covering his forehead tripped trying to come up the stairs at them. His massive body blocked off the stairs giving them a momentary respite from the attack.
They took that time to go back into the house and slam the door. Mike quickly loaded another couple of shells in the chambers. Once he had the gun loaded, he opened the door and walked out on the porch to shoot the huge black Zombie in the head. Once he’d finished that one off, he put a slug into the body of a preteen Zombie who was trying to crawl over the black Zombies body. The boy was wearing a shirt that said something about Zombies hating fast food. Kyler wondered if the boy would’ve put the same shirt on if he’d known what his fate was going to be.
Mike reloaded as Kyler shook off the tangential thoughts that were creeping in. It didn’t really matter what t-shirt people were wearing if they got stuck in this house. Kyler forced himself to get his head back in the game.
“We can’t stay in here. We need to make a run for the Rover and get the hell out of here. Between Seth laying on the horn and us blasting away with the shotgun we’re going to be swimming in Zombies pretty soon.”
“Agreed. I’m thinking I blast two more of them then reload then we make a run for it. We would have to end up with a gun that only lets you shoot twice before having to reload.”
“Wanna trade?” Kyler asked. He was holding up his hatchet. Mike smiled nervously and signaled for Kyler to open the door open again so they could go for it.
Kyler flung open the door. Mike shot one Zombie who was already standing on the porch then shot at another one who was standing at the bottom of the stairs and screeching at the top of its lungs. The shot hit the Zombie center of mass and made the middle aged pudgy looking man take a step backwards, but he didn’t fall down or stop screeching. Sidetracked by the man at the bottom of the stairs neither Kyler nor Mike saw the tall woman who ran silently along the wall before leaping into Mike and riding him down to the ground.
Without missing a beat Kyler took a step forward and swung the hatchet as hard as he could for the mass of matted brunette hair on the Zombies head. To his own amazement he felt the hatchet sink deep into the Zombies head. She deflated like he’d let the air out of a giant balloon. Mike jumped up completely freaked out. He’d thought he’d been a goner. He saw Kyler trying to get the hatchet out of the skull and told him not to worry about it. Leaving the hatchet sticking out of the Zombies head they navigated their way through the pile of bodies on the stairs and ran for the Rover.
Coming down the street up ahead Kyler saw a blond-haired Zombie wearing a pair of lime-green boxers sprinting full speed towards them. The thing was moving with inhuman speed. Kyler was happy the Range Rover was parked so close. If it’d been any further, he doubted they could’ve gotten to it before that Zombie reached them as fast as it was going. Slamming into the driver’s side door Kyler grabbed the handle and realized the damn door was locked. Judging from the cussing he heard from Mike he must’ve made the same discovery on the rear driver’s side door. Looking through the window Kyler saw a Seth who was paralyzed with fear.
“Open the door!” Kyler screamed. Seth just sat there staring at him and slowly shaking his head. Kyler glanced over at Mike who was yelling through the window at Seth as well. Mike gave up on Seth for the moment and got busy reloading the shotgun. Kyler realized he didn’t even have his hatchet anymore. The fast blond Zombie made an impossible jump and landed on the roof of the Range Rover hard enough to dent it. The large Zombie hitting the roof seemed to break the trance Seth was in. He started fumbling with the buttons on the door trying to let them in.
The Zombie jumped over Mike and landed behind him. Mike swung around to take a shot at the Zombie. The barrel of the shotgun connected with the side of the Zombies chest as the wiry Zombie made a grab for Mike. Kyler ducked as Mike wildly fired off both barrels. One shot took out one of the windows on the front porch of the house while the other one took out a chunk of flesh from the side of the Zombies torso. Having hit a window and a love handle with his only two shots Mike took a step back and swung the shotgun like a baseball bat. The tall blond Zombie had been knocked backwards by the earlier shot and lost its momentum. The stock of the shotgun smashed into its face knocking it to the ground.
Mike was in a killing frenzy now. Stepping forward he proceeded to beat the thrashing Zombie in the head until the things skull caved in. The body was lying sideways on the ground. The welts they’d been seeing on the foreheads of the Zombies were going down the back of this one as well. He couldn’t remember if they’d seen another Zombie with its shirt off. While Kyler was sidetracked pondering that he heard the muffled click of the doors being unlocked.
Spinning on his heel he jumped for the driver’s door before Seth could decide he was still freaked out and lock them out again. He got the door open and jumped into the driver’s seat. Mike was doing the same thing in the back seat. Once they were both in and had their doors shut, he put the SUV in drive and got them the hell out of there. Gravel was flying into the air behind them as he got out on the access road and barreled down it to get them off the narrow road before more Zombies could show up and block them in. Neither Mike nor Seth said a single word about being bounced around in the back this time. They both knew the narrow road could easily become their grave if they didn’t get out fast enough.
They made it. Turning onto the main road they saw a few shapes moving towards them from the opposite direction, but they quickly left them behind. Kyler was thinking to himself they needed to find a place to hole up and rest. A place to recoup their energy and try to recover some of their sanity. It was obvious to him that Seth and Mike were having problems coping. Kyler had scared himself during the action today when Mike had to snap him out of the weird cackling thing he’d started doing. They either needed to rest or find a drug store and rip off all the Xanax and Valium they could carry.
Out here in the middle of nowhere Kyler began looking for the next house to try. Based on their success so far, he was starting to feel like they were running up on the old adage about trying the same thing the same way repetitively while expecting to get different results was the road to madness. He knew they certainly didn’t need to do anything that would get them to madness any sooner than they were already looking to arrive there. He just couldn’t think of anything else they could try besides raiding homes and hoping for the best. That reminded him of another saying that fit their situation.
‘You can’t win if you don’t play.’ They could really use a winning lottery ticket right about now.
Chapter 19: Mission Failed
Randy watched from the deck of the cutter as the bosun set a course out of the harbor back towards the island. The dock he’d barely escaped alive from was covered in Zombies. The Zombies stared out at the boat as they sailed out of the harbor. A couple of them went off the dock into the water. From this distance, Randy couldn’t tell if the ones who’d went into the water had been knocked off by the press of the Zombies forcing their way onto the dock or if they’d jumped in trying to get at them. Once he’d gotten out of jumping range from the dock when he was swimming for the cutter they’d stopped jumping in after him.
Those evil screeches were still audible over the roar of the boat’s engines even at this distance. The mission had been a spectacular failure. Randy had little doubt that on getting back to the island he was going to be facing some harsh consequences. He’d failed to bring back any supplies. The partner they’d sent with him had been killed in plain sight of the boat crew. On top of the mission failure Randy was going to have to tell Joes wife and kid that Joe hadn’t made it.
The only thing of any value he’d managed to take away from this experience was the knowledge they’d gained during the attempted supply run. In this new normal of a world gone insane the kind of knowledge he’d just gained had a good deal of value. He just needed to be able to communicate what that value was to the leaders back on the island. The men on board the cutter had taken a ton of digital photos of the Zombies. They’d asked Randy all kinds of questions about them. None of them had gone toe to toe with the demons and survived though. Randy had. He hoped that was enough to keep him and Kelly in the good graces of the commander and give him another opportunity to earn their way off the island.
The mission turned out to not be a complete loss. They were able to find several boats moored in the harbor that had survived the storms. They boarded the abandoned vessels and gathered supplies as well as a few weapons. Nothing to really write home about but still better than the nothing they had otherwise. Once they’d spent a couple of hours and way too much diesel checking out the abandoned boats the bosuns mate pointed the bow back at Block Island and they cruised in silence through the big swell rolling in.
Randy spent the time alternately worrying about Kelly and going over what he was going to say to the commander if he got an audience with him. He was planning to focus on what he’d learned and angle for a chance to do it again. He’d learned the Zombies responded to loud noises very quickly. The screeches seemed to be a way to communicate so as to alert other Zombies of the location of prey. The Zombies couldn’t swim. They also weren’t super bright based on what he’d seen so far. One or two of them weren’t that big of a deal to handle if you had a weapon and were prepared. When they came at you in a confined space in a large group you were in real trouble.
He was interrupted mid-thought by the bosun telling him he’d be going straight back to the school once they’d docked. The bosun asked him a few more questions so he’d be ready to make the report to the commander. They pulled up to the dock and the bosun disappeared to go meet up the commander and make his report while Randy was told to hike back to the school and report in there. The island was fairly small. The commander or one of his underlings must’ve realized that they were wasting a lot of gas moving everyone around via cars when people could easily walk just about anywhere.
Randy set a quick pace on his hike to the school. He kept himself from running with an act of will power. He was extremely nervous about how Kelly had been in his absence. The island was being lorded over by a man who’d gotten some serious delusions of power. Although, to be fair, he might be right to be grabbing on to whatever he could and holding it given the circumstances. The rules of the old world no longer applied. No matter what the man’s plans were. Randy wanted none of them. His only goal was to get him and Kelly off this island and on the way to be reunited with their kids down in Florida.
He had no idea how they were going to be able to get down the coast safely and then find the kids once they made it down there. He shrugged to himself as he made his way along the edge of the great salt pond. One problem at a time. The first step was to get off this island then they could worry about the next step. Just getting off the island seemed like an insurmountable task when you included landing somewhere you wouldn’t be ripped apart once you started walking down the street. They needed weapons, they needed food, they needed transportation. Randy had been thinking of trying to stage all of that for them somewhere they could pick it up once they hit the shore.
He had plenty of ideas on how he could round up food and hide it in the houses he was scavenging for the commander. He’d also want to secure some weapons for them if he could find them. A vehicle with keys and gas in it would be a priority as well. He’d left one of those at the dock they could grab assuming the Zombies had dispersed by the time they went back. He’d have to do it carefully. If any of the people sent with him on the scavenging missions said anything to the Coast Guard guys about it, he could be sure of never being able to go on another scavenging mission. In addition to not being sent on more scavenging missions, there was the very real possibility they’d just execute him to serve as an example to the others.
All of this was assuming the commander even used him for additional missions. He’d botched this one pretty bad. He’d shown up at the dock with a mob of angry Zombies. His partner had been killed in full sight of the boat crew. The boat crew had watched him throwing supplies into the bay and then swimming out of there like an idiot. What Randy was considering valuable learning experiences the commander may just consider the actions of a moron that they shouldn’t waste diesel sending back to the mainland. If they didn’t
need him to scavenge then they may decide they didn’t need him at all. If you didn’t earn your keep on the island, they may make you swim for it or use you as Zombie bait.
Randy’s mind kept churning through different scenarios during the long walk back to the school. In between thinking of escape plans from the island and trying to plan a route to get them to Florida he tried to think of a way of telling Joe’s wife and kid what’d happened. He didn’t even remember her name. He thought the daughters name might be Joy or Joyce or something that started with a ‘J’. He’d have paid better attention if he’d really thought Joe might die on the mission. This all seemed so surreal to him still. This kind of thing just didn’t happen. This should be the plot of a cheap horror flick and not a reality he was living. He knew he needed to accept and deal with it or they wouldn’t have much of a chance of surviving it and getting back to their kids.
One bit of reality that was currently making him walk like a penguin wearing stilettos was the fact that no one on the boat had any dry pants to give him. They’d had a blanket for him and they’d even found some new shoes at the station when they docked. The shoes were too small, and he could barely get them to lace up, but they were better than not having any at all. His crotch felt like someone had waxed him with sandpaper. He was pretty scared of even dropping his pants to take a look. He’d finally mostly dried off, but he wasn’t feeling too good after swimming fully clothed then having to take this long walk. Telling himself to quit whining since at least he’d survived helped put the rash in perspective, but it still hurt like crazy.
A Small World Page 14