by Matt Hart
Chapter 34
Erin : San Diego, California
So close. How can we come so close but not make it? I looked toward the ocean, but knew I wouldn’t find what I was looking for. There were no boats anchored here, none at all. It was a somewhat narrow, rocky beach for miles—there weren’t even any surfboard rental places. There were only a few, isolated sandy spots where sunbathers used to stake an early claim every day. It’s one of the reasons for the cheaper neighborhood. Only the marina had boats that could reach the Wind Spirit, the sailboat that was all I had left of my real parents. No way to swim that far, especially not while trying to carry guns and food and gear.
“You’re trying to get to the marina, right?” asked Ima Jean.
I couldn’t speak.
“Yes,” said Joe. “She has a sailboat there.”
“Alright,” said Ima Jean, letting her foot off the brake and moving slowly toward the zombies. “I’ll get you there. This Ford is good Detroit steel, not that cheap plastic stuff that new cars are made from. I’ll get you there.”
“Jeans,” I said, “Stop the car. You cannot mow through them. If the car had a plow or something, maybe, but pushing fifty people is like trying to push a concrete wall.”
Ima Jean just kept going.
“Jeans, stop the damn car!” I yelled.
Instead, Ima Jean floored it. As the car approached the horde, she swerved left and slammed on the brakes. The car ended up almost backward to the creatures. “Get out, both of you!” she yelled.
“No, you’ve got to get out of here!” said Joe.
I started to yell the same thing but stopped. Instead, I grabbed my pack out of the back and bailed out of the car. “Joe, move it!” I slammed the door behind me and ran toward the beach.
I heard another car door slam and then a loud honking. I looked back to see the car moving slowly away, honking. Joe jogged toward me and I saw a few creatures following him. The car stopped, honked again, then Jeans got out and walked away from it a bit.
“Hey, zombie-freaks, over here!” she yelled, drawing the stragglers away from Joe and me. She looked right at me and waved, turned her back on the zombies and wagged her butt, then got back in the car and honked again. Joe and I moved down the beach until we came to a lifeguard station. I dropped my pack and scrambled up, then lifted myself to the roof and stood up. I watched the big blue Ford drive slowly away, leading the creatures. To my left, up the beach, the horde was thinning as it spread out. It probably didn’t even understand that it was following the car, only the shambling zombie in front of it.
“Erin, here,” said Joe. I looked down and saw a huge black arm sticking out from under the guard tower roof, holding a pair of binoculars. I snatched them and looked out again toward Ima Jean, and beyond. I sat down on the roof and set the binoculars beside me.
“Erin?”
“She’s driving into… there’s another mob in front of her. She turned left, but I don’t think…”
I don’t think she’ll make it.
I don’t know how long I sat there. I didn’t count, I didn’t think. I just remembered how she opened the door to her home and let me in.
Chapter 35
Joe : San Diego, California
I waited for Erin, for Ninja Girl, to come down off the roof, but she didn’t make an appearance. It took about an hour, but the horde moved on, and the way to the marina was probably clear by now.
“Erin?” She didn’t answer, and I didn’t hear anything. “Erin, we need to go. Let’s go to your sailboat, now.” I waited another minute, wondering what I could do to get her down from there, because I sure couldn’t climb up.
“Here,” I heard her say.
I looked up and saw her dangling the binoculars. I took them and stuffed them into the top pocket of my pack. Her legs appeared and she climbed gracefully down. I handed over her pack, then climbed down the stairs of the guard tower. She followed me, almost listless. I walked over and was about to put a hand on her shoulder before remembering her rule. I lowered my hand, but she took mine in hers without looking at me. We turned and walked down the beach, holding hands.
We walked that way until we reached the end of the sand and ran into some sharp black rocks. I let go and climbed over them, looking for a good path without danger of slipping. I knew I needn’t worry about Erin—she probably wouldn’t slip even if a fifty-knot wind was blowing. We came to a wall and had to walk back up toward the road. There were two straggling zombies up there, but they were thirty or so yards away and probably weren’t much danger.
I heard a yell behind me and Erin flew past, throwing her pack and shotgun at me. I caught the pack and fell to the ground. The shotgun bounced off of me. I looked up to see her striking the first creature—she must have run those thirty yards in less than four seconds. Her baton slashed across its face, crumpling it. I struggled to my feet and looked up to see the second one falling, headless. She crouched like a tiger, looking around wildly for another target.
“Erin!” I called. She looked at me with fury and adrenaline rushed painfully into my head as my fight or flight reflex responded to that look. Then she looked around once more and, after wiping her machete and baton on the pants of one of the zombies, stood and put them back in her tool belt, then walked over to me. Her movements were precise, deadly, still reminding me of a tiger. She stopped in front of me and looked up. “Hi Ninja Girl,” I said, softly.
“Camo Joe,” she said. Then she surprised me by stepping forward and giving me a hug. I wrapped my arms around her. She loosened her grip so I loosened mine. She stepped back then picked up her pack, hefted her shotgun, then turned and walked toward the marina. I followed closely behind her, scanning left and right as I saw her doing.
“With this horde, I expect the houses and stuff around here to be empty,” I said.
“Probably. I hope the marina is okay, but even if it isn’t, we can still get out of here.”
Ten minutes later, we were standing in front of the marina gate. It had been battered down by the mob of creatures, and there were still a bunch inside. Erin walked deftly over the chain link gate and hopped down. She blasted the first creature in the face, the buckshot making a mess of it. I eased myself over the fence, turning backward so I didn’t have to jump with the weight of myself and my pack on these old knees. I turned around to see Erin watching me with a wry grin on her face.
“Not a word!” I said.
“Wouldn’t think of it, Clumsy Joe.”
I shook my head even as I lifted my rifle, aiming at the furthest zombies who were coming over to investigate the noise of Erin’s shotgun. I switched the selector to single shot and missed the first shot at maybe eighty yards, but hit it with the second. Erin’s shotgun boomed again and I looked over to see what looked like a tall lifeguard zombie fall to the pavement.
“We need to get to the smaller building on the left,” said Erin. “That’s where the keys to my boat are kept.”
“Got it,” I said, taking out a third creature. We made fairly quick work of the ten or so zombies that were inside the marina grounds. The building’s door was locked, but the windows were busted out. “Could be some inside, let me clear it,” I told Erin. “You keep watch out here, but keep a low profile in case there are more bad things than zombies around.”
“Roger, Camo,” said Erin. She positioned herself in front of the locked door and pulled both of our packs in front of her, then hunkered down behind them.
Smart girl.
I switched magazines in my rifle then swung it behind my back. I pulled my service handgun and a tactical flashlight and made my way to the broken window. “Army!” I called inside. “We’re here for, uh, for Erin’s boat keys, that’s all!”
I didn’t even know her last name.
I moved the flashlight around in the darkness. Seeing nothing, I stepped through and quickly cleared the room that I could see. There were a couple of closed doors, but I didn’t really want to go through them
. I went to the front door to open it, but it was locked from the inside as well as the outside, so I went back to the window.
“The main room is clear,” I called to Erin. “Bring the packs over and we can find your key.” Erin walked over after a few seconds, wearing her pack.
“I’m not going to try to carry your Monster Joe pack, buddy. It stays there unless you want to go and retrieve it.”
I sighed and thought about it. I really, really wanted to leave it there, but I knew it would hurt if it disappeared, and I’d feel exceedingly stupid. Instead of climbing back out the window though, I walked over to the door. Fortunately, it opened outward, so I just planted my foot right next to the bolt with all my weight behind it. The door flew open and banged into my pack. I reached out and picked it up, then let the door close behind me. Erin stood looking at me with her mouth open.
“We all have our talents, Ninja Girl.”
She smiled and turned, walked around the counter, and tapped a big silver box on the wall. “Time to show me what you’ve got, Wreck-It Joe.”
I walked to the counter and set down my pack, then walked around and looked at the box. It was locked with a padlock, but the lock mechanism looked like an aluminum weld. I glanced around the counter, shined my flashlight underneath and came up with a screwdriver. I put it inside the lock and twisted until the welds popped, then opened the door to the box with a flourish.
“There you go, my dear.” Erin walked over and patted me on the arm, her hand smaller than my arm’s width.
“Good job, Monkey Joe, now watch for zombies.”
I laughed and went back around the counter, put on my pack, then scanned the windows and those unknown doors for threats. Erin jingled some keys and I looked back. She held a ring of keys with a bright orange foam float, a huge smile on her face.
“Almost there,” she said.
“Almost there,” I echoed.
I went out the door first, looking for threats but seeing only a couple of creatures off in the distance. Movement out in the harbor caught my eye and I looked toward the ocean. Smoke curled upward in the distance. “Some boats are on fire in the harbor,” I said, pointing.
“Zombies on the boats too, then?” asked Erin.
“I guess, but it sure doesn’t make sense unless the infectious agent was distributed across the whole city or planet...or however much of the Earth is affected.”
“Either way, we get to my boat now.”
“Roger that,” I agreed. “Lead the way” I gestured toward the various boats.
Chapter 36
San Diego, California
“As fun as it is killing the natives,” said a disembodied voice, “I’d rather be chewing spicy drinks and watching the natives kill each other.” An armored Boreling briefly appeared as his strange rifle cracked and recoiled strongly. A slug exited the square barrel and plowed through half a dozen zombies, cutting the first two in half. A second Boreling briefly appeared as it lined up its smaller rifle and headshot the creatures struggling to sit up.
“I wouldn’t mind just lounging poolside with some females and playing the new ‘Placid Creatures Rampage’ game. I watched it last night and it was hilarious!”
“Tell me about it,” said the first voice. “These humans raise them for food, and our drone look-alikes start chasing them and eating the humans! I laughed so hard I had Spicy drink coming out of my nose!”
“Hilarious!”
Both voices chuckled as they advanced on the zombies. Their bodies would briefly appear when they fired, shorting out their active camouflage for a fraction of a second. One of them staggered away as the big rifle was fired too close to the other’s armor.
“You doglard!” it called out. “You shorted my active camouflage!”
The other one laughed. “Sorry, Thefgor, I guess I shot too close to you.” He laughed again as a bio-creature grabbed the flickering Boreling by the leg.
Thefgor, becoming more visible as his active camouflage flickered away, stomped on the zombie’s head. Another grabbed him from behind as more began to converge on the Boreling. “Hirtuy, get this thing off of me.” A chuckle sounded a few yards away. Thefgor began firing his small gun at the creatures around him. A loud “Ping!” and an armored Boreling momentarily appeared, indicated he’d hit his companion.
“Now this is entertaining!” said Hirtuy. He stepped away from Thefgor, now covered in bio-creatures. The Boreling armor was bitten and pulled until it began to tear away. Thefgor screamed as the zombies ripped at him. Hirtuy turned away and took aim at some bio-creatures mobbing an old automobile as it moved slowly, trying to push the creatures out of its way. It looked intact, and a frightened old human female stared out the window at the scene. He took aim, and his suit flickered briefly visible as he shot through the window, giving the creatures access to the human within. He smiled as they climbed through and attacked her.
Chapter 37
Salisbury, Massachusetts
Richard laughed loudly as Jeffrey told him he’d found the kid and the woman. He slapped his nephew hard in the back. “Excellent! Now we just wait for those knuckleheads to return and plan out our attack. A cairn of rocks, you say?”
“Yep,” said Jeffrey. “He said to put out some kind of obvious rock pile and leave some trade goods there. We could take them and leave something of value.”
“He must live nearby, and he or that one you said disappeared when you approached will probably be watching the whole time.”
“So what do we do?”
Richard sat down on his pack and picked up a stick. He drew a long line, then a big circle next to it. He put a pebble at the end of the line. “He’ll expect the cairn somewhere along the road. We should hole up in one of the houses along the road.” He tapped along the edge of the road. “Let’s find one now and clear it.” He pulled out his shotgun from the pack and grabbed Jeffrey by the shirt, pushing him ahead, leaving both of their packs behind.
“Which house?”
“Pick one where you can see the spot you met them.” The two walked for a bit and Jeffrey pointed to a house on the right side of the road.
“That one. We can see the spot, just up that way.”
Richard looked thoughtful. “Let’s take the one down a bit and on the forest side,” he said. “That way we can keep watch out toward the trees as well as the road.” Jeffrey nodded and they ran ahead to the house. Richard barely paused as he booted the door in and rushed the house. “Upstairs!” he said, pointing at the stairwell. Jeffrey ran up and looked quickly in every room. He heard a scream from downstairs and cringed, hoping against hope that his uncle would let whomever it was go. He finished checking the rooms and headed downstairs. He stopped in the living room, staring at Richard who had his gun on a young couple.
“No one upstairs,” said Jeffrey.
Richard looked at him with a wild grin. “Check the basement, then head back to our packs and wait for Mickey.”
Jeffrey nodded, then glanced at the couple. They were looking at him with pleading eyes. He shivered and turned away, looking for a door to the basement. He found it on the other side of the stairway and headed down. He checked the basement – it didn’t take him long as it was practically empty. Probably the couple just moved here. He located the basement bulkhead doors and unlocked them and headed out that way – he didn’t want to go back through the house. As he walked away, he heard another scream and a couple of gunshots.
“I could just walk away somewhere,” he thought. “Just keep going past the packs, grab mine and maybe even head to a different house on the other side of the lake.”
“He’d find me,” muttered Jeffrey as he reached the packs. He heard a noise down the road and looked up. The two cons were walking back to him, waving. “Too late anyway.”
“Nothing up those roads,” said Mickey. “Saw a couple of zombies in the distance, but we stayed away from them.”
“I found him,” said Jeffrey. “And Uncle Richard is staking out in
a house up the street. It’s just across from the small beach and has a whole bunch of wood ready to be split for firewood in the yard, you can’t miss it.”
Mickey nodded. “Let’s go, Watson,” he said, and started toward the house.
“Hey,” called Jeffrey, “Can you get Richard’s pack for me?” Mickey stopped and looked back. He exchanged glances with Watson and they walked back to Jeffrey.
“Sure,” said Mickey. He grabbed Jeffrey and held his arms as Watson punched him in the stomach. Then Watson picked up Richard’s heavy pack and threw it onto Jeffrey as he bent over in pain. The pack hit him on the back and he dropped to the ground.
“Aww, he fell down!” exclaimed Watson.
“Yep, let’s help him up,” said Mickey. The weight lifted from Jeffrey’s back and he was hauled to his feet.
“Here you go,” said Watson, holding out the pack, his muscles bulging from the weight of it. Jeffrey stood up straight and put the pack on his back, stumbling and almost falling again.
“I got this one for you,” said Mickey, picking up Jeffrey’s much lighter pack. He and Watson began walking down the road again. Jeffrey swayed beneath his uncle’s much heavier pack and followed them slowly.
Chapter 38
Mark – Salisburg, Massachusetts
I woke up startled, hearing noises and fearing an attack. My heart pounded as I remembered where I was – finally safe at home. The banging that woke me up was somewhere in the basement. I got up and went downstairs to find Art tearing up the room my dad had built in the basement and nailing the boards to the two large and two small windows that showed the backyard and underneath the front porch.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“We’re securing the windows from intruders,” said Art. “I hope you don’t mind”, he added, gesturing to the former walls of the room.