by Lee Thomas
The rest of the group made it to the door, rushing in and slamming it behind us as the last one made it through. I quickly made my way to the upper watch station to see what was going on. I yelled for reinforcements to be brought here, and started thinking about how we were going to get Jared and the other guy out of the house and back safe behind the wall. We couldn’t do anything for Amber now, but we could still save the other two. Looking out over the street, I could see the infected we had dropped, along with the ones the shooters were taking down, as well as the ones drawn by the sound. I had already passed orders to hold fire, and the gunfire died off as each person got the order. It was too late, however, as more and more infected were pouring into the area. The ones nearby were starting to attack the wall, but with our cutouts we could take them out with swords and other blunt weapons.
Others were showing up in electric carts, thankfully with more guns and ammo as well as their own swords, bats, and other assorted blunt, quiet weapons. Bows and crossbows were handed out as well, and a few were starting to fire those, taking out more before they got too close. Unfortunately, the more we took out, the more seemed to show up. It seemed like I should have taken Jared’s advice after all and left it alone; now Amber’s death, and the safety of Jared and the other guy, were on my hands.
“Jared and Levi are in that house, second from the corner. Amber ran off around the corner, but I don’t know her status.” Kelly reported, walking up to me.
“I know about the guys; I saw them go in. Amber was bitten before she ran, I saw that too. How do we get them out of that house and back here safely?” I asked. I was not going to risk more lives unnecessarily, even if it meant those two had to stay out there for a while longer.
“Safely? No way, unless we can get the attention of these infected elsewhere. With them riled up right now, I don’t think just shooting off flares would do it, we need something loud and obnoxious.” Kelly replied.
“How about one of those whistling rockets? We could fire at one of the cars down the street, the whistle and explosion would get their attention, and the fire would draw them and burn them.” Chris offered.
“What happens if the fire gets out of control? It’s not like we can just call the fire department anymore.” Lisa countered.
“What about a non-incendiary rocket, like a signal rocket or something with a whistler attached? Can you make something like that quickly?” I asked.
“Yes, I think so. It wouldn’t fly very far but it should go far enough to get Jared and Levi out of the house. Let me see what I can do.” Kelly said, turning and jogging down the stairs. I turned back to the street, watching as the infected continued to shamble in from the side streets. The screeching had stopped for the most part, but the groans and growls continued as they fought to reach us within the walls. The thuds from them striking the wall didn’t echo very far, and the steel was sure to not bend under the onslaught, but we still didn’t need them there. I could hear the hollow thuds of bats, spears, and swords thunking into skulls even up here, and looking down I could see the pile of infected starting to thicken around the base of the wall. I knew once we finished with this herd we would have to get those bodies moved before they started to rot and smell, as not only would that cause problems for us, the smell would attract more infected, as well as scavengers and large predators.
“Sheldon, I think this will work. It’s a modified pipe rocket, simple, but with three whistler attachments for balance. It won’t fly far, but it should be loud enough, and with a load of gunpowder at the end of the fuel cell, it should be a loud enough bang that if the whistlers don’t work, that should. We could draw them away maybe three blocks or so before the fuel runs out. That should be more than enough space to get Jared and Levi out.” Kelly said, coming back up the stairs about twenty minutes later. I was impressed with how fast she came up with rocket, and hoped it worked out like we hoped. If so, it would be something we would consider making a lot of and keeping on hand. She passed us the rocket to see, explaining how it worked. It seemed to work like a model rocket with one fuel cell. I wondered if we could modify it to use three cells to go further and faster, increasing the whistle effect. The whistlers were attached to the body like they were fletches on an arrow, just further up the shaft. The firing post was a modified tube with grooves for the whistlers to slide.
“Very good, let’s give that a shot. If we can get two more made quickly, three would probably be a better diversion.” I said after everyone had a chance to look at it. I looked back out over the herd and saw Jared waving from an upstairs window. I waved back, hoping he could see me. He motioned to the infected, then to himself, obviously questioning what to do. I attempted to motion back that we had a plan, and hopefully he understood. He turned from the window in a hurry, and I assumed he and Levi were trying to keep the place safe from infected for a little while longer. I could see infected banging on the door and windows in the front, and I could only assume they were also trying to get into the back as well.
Turning from the watch post and heading back down the stairs, I went to where Kelly was making another couple of rockets. It was a difficult process with the limited supplies we had for something like that, so it seemed that we were only going to have the one for now. We could work with that if we had to, the main concern would be to get the men back behind the wall. One of the men who showed up earlier was Heath, someone we found on one of our early supply runs with a group of about fifteen or so, hiding in an abandoned jail. He had proven to be a very capable leader and planner, and I had gone with several of his plans in the past. I brought him over and explained what was going on, and he agreed to take over any planning that needed to be done. He had been taking over a lot of responsibility of the guard details from Dustin as well as Dustin was wanting to spend more time with his dad and on other hobbies. I left the project in his hands and headed back towards the ship. I needed to continue planning for the northern expansion since I wanted to start it next Monday. We had the ammo stores concentrated in the ship, but we still needed to move the last of the people who were staying off the ship. Most of the people staying were moved already, but there were a few left, and several people were still trying to get me to consider staying and letting others take the lead in that project. I was considering it, but I felt a responsibility to the group that led me to feel like I needed to be there to oversee it, especially as this plan was my idea.
Finding where my horse had been put, I mounted the horse and headed back towards the stables. It was almost five in the afternoon by the time I finally got the horse back to the stable area, and looking up I saw the clouds starting to form, which looked promising for a storm. I hoped it didn’t storm, because that would definitely hamper our plans. Leaving the horse with one of the kids learning how to manage the animals, I grabbed an electric cart nearby and headed for the ship. Checking the radar was my first thought, then back to my maps and plans one more time. I knew I was obsessing over them, trying to wring some other idea or insight on how to make the land safe for people to live without having to keep a gun or sword nearby at all times. That was the ultimate goal after all, trying to get back to as normal a life as possible.
“Dad, there you are. Mom has been looking for you all day.” Cassie said, walking up to me as I entered the hangar bay. She had apparently been waiting for me here.
“I was out at the wall, sorry. How are you doing?” I asked her.
“Fine, waiting on mom and my sisters to finish packing so we can move. Angie and Desi are fighting again about who is supposed to be packing. I’m done.” She told me as we both walked towards the stairs to head to their quarters. Others passed us carrying bags and boxes, obviously, the ones not going on the trip up north. We took the stairs to the 02 level where Michelle’s and the girls’ cabin were, a general bunkroom for the girls, each of them getting their own bunk section to themselves, separated by curtains for privacy; and one bunkroom for Michelle that had been remodeled into a small apartment,
with a separate bedroom and living space. The only thing she didn’t have was a bathroom, but there was a head, what a bathroom was called on a ship, just a short distance down the hall. I could hear Angie and Desi arguing down the hall, especially since they had left the door open. I knew Angie would be trying to get Desi to do the bulk of the packing, and Desi would only do it half-ass, and that’s probably what started the fight. I looked at Cassie, who just shrugged, as we approached the door, then poked my head in to see what was going on.
“Hi girls, what’s up in here?” I asked them. They both turned to me and started trying to tell me their side of the story at the same time. I let them both vent for a little bit until it looked like they were about to get physical, then broke it up.
“Desi, to your side, Angie, stay there. I’ll hear you both out one at a time.” I finally cut in, pointing to the curtain for Desi to go to her side, and then to Angie’s section for her. Cassie stood in the doorway not saying anything.
“I simply asked her to help me pack, and she refused to, called me names, and said to do it myself.” Angie replied. I figured there would be a little more to the story than that, because there always was. I could see two suitcases on the beds, partly packed, and I figured Angie got tired of doing it herself, and told Desi to finish it up for her, simply because that’s how it had been in the past. I listened to Angie tell her side of things for another minute or so, then told her to keep packing while I went to talk to Desi.
Pulling back the curtain, I saw Desi packing some more of her stuff now as well. I talked with her for a few minutes, getting her side of the story, which of course was nothing like Angie’s side of things. Angie was always trying to get her sisters to do things for her, and when they said no she started an argument. It was just sisters being sisters, so I let it go for the most part, told them each to pack their own areas and to get along. I expected it last for about an hour, if that long. I told Cassie to make sure she was finished and then I headed out towards Michelle’s cabin. Since she had a house on base now as well, I assumed she hadn’t left too much here onboard the ship. I knocked and waited for her to answer, then turned the knob and walked in.
“How’s the packing going?” I asked her, glancing around at the bare shelves and walls.
“Pretty much done since almost everything was at the house already anyways. I didn’t have much left here to pack. I’m almost done here, want to help me take the bags down?” she replied. I reached over and shouldered one of her bags and grabbed a second one, following her out of the room after she finished packing the last few small things and zipped up her last suitcase. We headed to the girls’ room, finding them arguing again, but at least they were packing. We continued down the stairs to the hangar bay and placed her bags on the pile to be moved to the base. Michelle and the girls would all follow later, along with everyone else going to the base. Hopefully the girls would be done packing by then as well.
After dropping the bags off, I asked her if she wanted to grab a game of pool, to which she agreed, so we headed to the rec room with the pool tables. We also had a two-lane bowling alley and a small movie theater onboard, built into the ship already to help the crew relax on long deployments.
“Rack or break?” I asked her as we walked in and found the tables unused today.
“Break.” She said, walking over to the cue rack and picking one out. Finding one she liked, she chalked it up and placed the cue ball on the table. I finished racking the balls and placed the triangle back on its hook. As I was picking out my cue stick, I heard the crack of her breaking the rack. We went back and forth, neither one of us being very good at pool, but enjoying it even so.
“Corner pocket.” I said, taking aim at the 8 ball. She leaned over and tried to distract me, but I just smiled, looked back at the ball, then took my shot. I watched the 8-ball sink with a grin on my face, and Michelle just pouted. She grabbed the triangle and racked the next round. It was another close game, but I smirked again as I sunk the eight ball one more time. We played several more times, with the final score being 4 to 3, me pulling ahead with the last game. I knew once securing the northern area was done that we would be able to do this a lot more often, along with cards, bowling, and fishing. We headed back up to the hangar bay and saw that the pile of luggage was gone, and the sun was starting to go down. I knew the vans would have already left so I stopped by the welcome guard station and asked for a cart to be available to take Michelle and the girls to the house as I saw Angie and Cassie hanging out around the corner of the support beam. I figured Desi would be around here somewhere as well, and none of them would want to walk to the house. I waved the girls over and waited for them to meet us before we all walked out of the ship and headed down to the pier to wait for the cart.
“Nice night.” I said, looking up at the mostly clear sky. It had just enough of a chill in the air to keep you from sweating, but still warm enough to walk if we wanted.
“Yeah, it is.” Michelle replied, looking up.
“Are we going to the house now?” Angie asked.
“Yes, we’re going to the house now. You all can sleep in a real bed tonight, and however long you want, and in a couple of months, hopefully, we can all move north to the peninsula and not have to worry about those things out there anymore.” I replied as we walked. Desi was sitting at the end of the pier on one of the benches with her head down, probably drawing again. She was an amazing artist and was always drawing something. We walked up beside her and she looked up.
“Hi dad.” She said, seeing me first. She greeted her mom and sisters as she saw them and started packing her stuff up. Once she had packed it up, we all started walking towards the garage where the carts were stored. With the sun pretty much down, it felt like the night would cool off quickly. We were about halfway to the garage when the door opened and someone drove one out. Apparently, that was someone who was coming to meet us as they waved when they saw us and pulled to a stop near us. I recognized the driver, a guy named Jimmy that we had found along the way to the ship. He wasn’t a very good fighter, not necessarily cowardly, but not very prone to violence, but he was funny, always had a joke handy, and was very friendly. Jimmy was a good guy to have around, even if we couldn’t count on him in a fight, but we had plenty of people for that.
“How’s it going Jimmy, haven’t seen you around for a bit.” I asked as he stopped the cart and got out.
“Good, Sheldon, not too bad. Looking forward to moving north and not having to look over our shoulder all the time.” He replied.
“We all are, Jimmy, we all are. Soon, I hope, very soon.” I told him, shaking his hand as the girls climbed into the cart. Jimmy walked back towards the garage as I climbed in and started moving towards the gate. Jimmy was good with his hands, and he had taken to keeping the carts running as best as he could. They needed little maintenance, but occasionally the tires needed repairing, or an axle needed straightening.
We rolled silently along, the girls arguing about rooms as usual, who was getting what room, how they were going to decorate it, things like that. They were always arguing about something, but it never turned serious, thankfully.
“You’re not staying, are you?” Michelle asked me as we drove.
“No, I’m not. I’ll be on the ship, helping to clear the land and make sure it’s safe. I want to be sure that when you and the girls move up there that you will never have to worry about locking your door, or keeping a gun or sword nearby.” Michelle was always leery about guns, but was a decent shot after some intense training from Jeff and myself, but she still didn’t like carrying one around all the time. Since we built the wall she hadn’t had to, and hadn’t.
“What about us? We are going to worry about you the whole time. What if something happens to you? What will I tell the girls?” she asked. Even though we had been divorced for years even before the event happened, we were still friends.
“I will be fine; it’s not like I’ll be leaving the ship all the time. I will n
ever be alone, no one leaving the ship will ever go alone. We have a grid pattern laid out to search, and the men and women going were all active military when everything went down. That kind of training doesn’t just go away, and I think this will be good for them, give them a purpose, and some good work for them. It will be okay, I promise. I will stay in radio contact every day.” I assured her. The look she shot me meant she didn’t believe me, and would still worry, like I knew she would. The girls would too, but would never tell me about it, because why would they tell dad they were worried?
“Who are you taking with you?” she asked. I knew she meant who that we knew was I taking.
“Jeff is staying here to run things on the ship, Dave will keep watch on the base stuff, and Val will keep an eye on you and the girls. Roger is going, and Tony, and I have Tony looking for who would be the best to run the missions since he knows them better. Ethan’s group has fortified the apartments up there, so that’s where one group will start from and live. The Nimitz will be docked a little further north and used as another safe base, while I’m sending the third group to the west on the Port Royal to find a place to dock and use the ship as a starting point. Since when have you been interested in the plans?” I answered her, glancing over with a grin. She didn’t usually ask many questions about the plans and what we planned on doing, just going alone with it and trying to pretend that life wasn’t as jacked up as it used to be.
“I’m worried, that’s all.” She replied. We drove in silence for a while, except for the chatter of the girls in the back. Several people were still out, just walking around, trying to enjoy the night it seemed, and I waved to most of them. While I was passing the running of things to others, a lot of people still saw me as in charge. Even Dave still got deferred to a lot, even though he let his helper Armando take over most of the day to day running of the base.