by DeLeon, Jon
Joe turned and ran through the front door, careful not to cut himself on the remaining glass shards hanging around the edges, and sprinted down the dock. The young girl was right behind him every step of the way. She had regained her composure. Joe didn’t turn to check, but judging by the frightened looks on Aaron’s and the kids’ faces as he and the young woman ran toward them, the zombies must be close behind. Joe pointed at the boat they had gotten the keys for and yelled, “That one! Go!”
Aaron and the kids got on the boat, followed closely behind by Joe. Before he even had the chance to turn around, he heard the young woman shouting, “Start the yacht! I’ll untie us!”
Joe turned to see she was still about ten feet from the boat and the first of the zombie horde was only forty feet behind her. He jumped up the small flight of stairs at the back in one leap and ran inside to get the boat moving.
Kira jumped onto the back deck of the Marquis 630 and started undoing the mooring lines. She made swift work of the two lines feeding from the floor to the dock. Luckily La Vida Dulce had been parked in a center slip, meaning the only line tying it in was the back line. Wooden poles kept it from careening side to side.
Kira began climbing the stairs as she felt the boat’s engines roar to life. She turned to look back at the dock. At just that moment, she saw the first of the zombie horde leap, aiming for the back deck. He slipped on landing and fell into the water. The horde stopped suddenly in unison as they watched one of their own sink to the bottom.
Kira climbed the rest of the way up the stairs and headed inside.
After spending the rest of the day floating out at sea and making contact with other ships, Joe had decided to follow the military’s orders and head south. The only problem was that the yacht they had commandeered had almost no fuel. They would have to wait the night out offshore and return in the morning to the Miami Beach Marina to refuel.
“I’ll pilot the boat,” Kira said to Joe.
“Uh.” Joe paused.
“I have experience with this yacht and know the currents off the beach better than anyone. We drop anchor out there to entice potential buyers. I’ve got this,” Kira said with an undeniable confidence.
Joe stepped aside as Kira took the captain’s seat.
After a few minutes, they were heading out of Government Cut toward more open waters.
La Vida Dulce: End of Outbreak Day
“Well I think it’s time we all got some sleep. I’ll take first watch. Kira, go to bed.” Joe stood up and extended his hand. She took it and allowed Joe to help pull her up. She smiled and descended the stairs. To face what awaited them in the morning, they would all need rest.
Joe sat on the Marquis, staring up at what would normally be a picturesque sky. The moon was full and hid itself halfway behind a puffy cloud. Its white glow shone brightly against the abnormally black sky. The usual neon lights and colored strobes of Miami were black, giving even more clarity to the night sky. Joe had only once seen a night like this, and he had been on a boat then too.
Miami: Outbreak Day -2 Years
The night was calm as Joe and Kurt sat in their small aluminum boat floating in the Atlantic Ocean. They had planned this trip for weeks, and the weather had cooperated. It had been raining all week and then suddenly stopped, leaving tonight’s sky clear and the ocean uncrowded by other weekend fishermen. Joe had been away for training most of the previous weekends. This might be the last time the two of them could be alone in quite a while.
“Pass me another beer.” Joe pointed at the red cooler that sat between the two of them.
“Aren’t you technically the captain of this boat?” Kurt asked.
“I thought you were,” Joe said, fighting back a sarcastic laugh.
Kurt reached down and cracked open a Corona can and passed it to Joe.
They both sat in silence for a moment as the boat rocked in the gentle waves. They were fishing, but tonight was not about a grouper or mackerel haul; tonight wasn’t about fish at all. This trip was about Joe and Kurt voicing the fears neither had spoken aloud. Joe, having always been the more courageous of the two, spoke up first.
“Bro, I’m fuckin’ scared, man.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah, I mean, what if I can’t lead men?” Joe asked.
“What do you mean?” Kurt asked.
“Well you don’t really ever know until you get in the shit. What if I freeze? What If I’m one of those officers who, when the bullets start flying, just chokes? What if I make the wrong decision and end up getting guys killed, or what if I can’t even make a decision?” Joe watched a bird fly through the light of the moon above.
“You’ll be fine, man. Think about it. Have you ever frozen before? When the bid to go to the state championship was on the line, did you choke on the free-throw line?”
“It’s different.”
“Yeah, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen you choke. If you ask me, the fact that you’re worried about this shows your mind is right. And if you’re focused on making sure that doesn’t happen, you won’t let it happen.”
“Maybe.”
“No, not maybe, man. For sure.” Kurt paused and took a big swig of his beer. “I’m scared too, man.”
“What about?”
“What if this never happens again?” A tear threatened to come to Kurt’s eye. “What if, I mean, what if you don’t come back?”
“Yeah, there’s that. I mean, what makes me better than everyone else? If it’s my time, then I don’t know, man. Just pray for me, all right.”
“Yeah, man, will do.”
“Hey, what’s going on with you and Becky?” Joe asked Kurt, changing the subject.
“Oh man, I’ve got a story to tell you.” Kurt and Joe spent the next few hours laughing and talking about all the great times they’d had and all the cute girls in their lives. Soon it was time to head back to the marina. Joe reeled in his uneaten bait and started packing up all the gear. Kurt brought in his line as well and went to start the engine.
Clug, Clug, Clug, Click.
Kurt pulled the cord again.
Clug, Clug, Clug, Click.
“Joe, did you fill up before we left?”
“Yeah. Dude, you were there with me. Is it seriously not starting?”
“No, dude.” Kurt pulled again. Clug, Clug, Click.
“Dude, that’s not funny.” Joe half laughed in disbelief.
Kurt laughed back. “I’m not joking.”
“Shut the fuck up.”
Kurt sat down on the back bench. “Well what do we do?”
Joe grabbed under the tarp that sat discarded on the floor of the boat and pulled out two wooden paddles, handing one to Kurt.
Kurt took hold of the paddle. “This is gonna suck. We’re way out here tonight.”
“Yep.”
The paddle back to shore had taken hours. The only thing that kept them going was each other and the occasional joke about what the Coast Guard would say seeing two men paddling a small boat into Miami from way offshore. By the time they reached the marina, both their hands were sore and red, and their muscles ached. Together they had made it; together they had pushed through one hell of a long night.
La Vida Dulce: Outbreak Day
“HEEEELLLLLP! AHHHHHH! EEAOURTFGH!”
A sharp scream from Miami Beach pulled Joe from his thoughts. The shout turned into a mixture of screeches and muddled yells. As the scream echoed away into the night, Joe looked at the moon shining bright. This was going to be a long night. He didn’t have Kurt to rely on, and tomorrow was going to suck even worse.
La Vida Dulce: Outbreak Day +1
It was 6:00 a.m., and the sun was rising, turning the South Florida sky into a melting pot of red, orange and yellow hues. White clouds streaked overhead as the occasional seagull cooed while passing by. On any normal morning, Miami Beach would be in full swing, a passing of the guard. The early risers would be up, stretching for yoga on the beach or waiting in line for a Cuban coffee. The all
-nighters would be stumbling home, drunk or exhausted from the night before. The vivacious and the half-asleep zombie crowds would be flowing past each other. Now only the zombie crowd remained, however, not as many as Joe would have expected.
The massive horde of undead creatures was gone, vanished in the night. Only a few stragglers, those who had lost their legs or entire lower bodies, slowly crawled around. From downtown Miami, sporadic gunfire rang out. People were still alive and fighting. Those people were not Joe’s concern this morning. In the early morning, he had sailed the boat down Government Cut and toward the Miami Beach Marina, where yesterday he and Aaron had commandeered the Marquis and saved Kira. All three now sat looking out at the docked boats, scanning to see any movement. Their goal today was to gather the essentials before heading south to rendezvous with the military.
“Joe, are you sure about this plan?” Kira asked, not even coming close to hiding her fear. Her lips quivered, and her face grew white as they looked at the peaceful harbor. She knew that just around the corner would be bloodstains and undead freaks.
“We need to get supplies, and I don’t see any other way.” Joe nodded his head, convincing himself of his plan and running through a list of options. “I need to get my sat phone, we need to get some medicine for Christine, and we need the fuel.”
“Let’s get this over with.” Aaron had been silently staring at the water just off the boat. He wasn’t particularly happy with the mission himself, but for his kids, he would do anything.
“Kira, you remember what I told you?” Joe asked.
“You and Aaron are going to work your way up Alton and go to CVS and raid the pharmacy. Then you will move up the road to Dade Boulevard and head to your apartment. There you will get your satellite phone, head down and take a kayak from the dock out back of your apartment building to open water, where I will meet you after I fill the boat up with gas.”
“Open water?” Joe asked, looking for clarification.
“Open water, next to Beer Can Island.” Kira smiled with a laugh.
Joe looked at her with a judgmental eyebrow raised. He knew “Beer Can Island” was the slang term Miamians called the small key that Flagler National Monument sat on. He had called it “Beer Can Island” himself quite a few times. During the summer, he and Kurt had paddled out more than a few times and shared a few. Now, however, was a time to be serious. Lives were at stake.
Kira sarcastically apologized. “Sorry, Flagler National Monument Island. Same thing.”
“And if we aren’t there?” Joe asked sternly.
Kira responded, suddenly getting serious herself. “Wait until sunrise the next day, and then head south.”
“Good.”
“You will be there though, right?” Kira’s fear audibly showed.
“Leave at sunrise, no matter what,” Joe said coldly.
One hour later . . .
Kira docked the boat with expert efficiency, and Joe tied the mooring lines to the pier. Kira knew how to sail, thanks to her father. After the death of her mother, Kira and her dad had gone sailing nearly every weekend that the lakes weren’t frozen for the last few years. It had been a fun way to spend time with her father and give him a purpose at the same time. Kira had been competing with a Miami Beach team the last few weeks before working at the yacht sales office. Kira hopped off the boat, plugged in the fuel code and started to fill the boat’s reservoir.
Aaron gave his kids a hug and climbed onto the wooden planks that, yesterday, he had run down for his life. Kira stood guard as the gas flowed through the pump, while Aaron and Joe began their quiet hike inland.
“See you soon,” Joe said as they passed her.
Aaron and Joe walked in the shadow of the marina’s closest tower, turning carefully and clinging to the cement wall. After a quick pause to listen for any signs of warning, they crossed A1A and began a slow walk up Alton Road. They traveled down the middle of the road in order to have as much space from doors and windows as possible. Aaron had protested earlier, worrying that it made them more visible to any undead searching for their next meal, but Joe had remained stubborn on this. So the duo silently walked. Nervous sweat dripped down their foreheads. Any disturbance made them jump. A few blocks soon turned into a marathon of nerves.
Step after step seemed to bring them no closer to their destination. It was a strange feeling. The streets were oddly silent. Joe thought of when Alton had been under construction for years. At night, there had been no cars, and most of the businesses had closed because of lack of customers. Even then, the occasional runner or rental bike would pass by, or there would be the call of a parakeet flying or the glow of Lincoln Road’s neon ahead. Now it was a complete ghost town, absolutely nothing and no one. It was almost unbearable emptiness. Vacant buildings and alleyways begged for people. Cars needed drivers. The faster they could get off this haunted road the better.
Finally their target came into sight. Bright-red letters, contrasting against the blue morning sky: CVS.
They had chosen this CVS building because it was only one story, limiting the possibility for a nasty surprise. Joe slowly inched the door open and moved inside.
The air conditioning was a sharp bite to the warm morning outside. The sweat that nerves had induced on the two men now felt like freezing ice. Joe and Aaron silently worked their way down the first aisle. As they turned the corner, a voice blasted from behind them.
Miami Beach Marina: Outbreak Day +1
Kira finished topping off the tanks of La Vida Dulce and was returning the fueling hose to its hanging spot. A shout came from behind her. She jumped so intensely she almost fell off the other side of the dock and into the water, dropping the gas pump handle to the wooden planks.
Kira had been watching the city, flinching at every sign of movement. No zombie was going to take her by surprise. What she hadn’t expected was something coming up from behind her, from the water.
A small aluminum rowboat paddled up to the dock. Inside were two men. One was a skinny, tattooed young man in his late twenties. The other was a larger man in his forties. The younger man hopped onto the deck and tied the boat up. The older man spoke to Kira as he sidled up onto the mooring.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare ya. We just needed you not to hang up the pump. Once you hang it up, you need that damn code again.”
Kira, cautious of strangers, stepped back away from the pair of men.
“I’m Paul. This here is Ricky.” The older man held out his hand for a handshake.
Kira kept her hands to herself but replied, “I’m Kira.”
“Nice to meet you. You are our guardian angel today.” Paul turned to the skinnier, younger man known as Ricky. “Start filling that bad boy up.”
Ricky nodded, smiling, and grabbed the gas hose. He ran off down the dock to a 108-foot mega yacht and started pumping it full of fuel.
“You guys are taking that boat?” Kira asked.
“Yeah. She’s beautiful, isn’t she?” Paul answered.
“She’s big.”
“Yeah, she is. That’s our own little heaven on earth.”
“Is she yours?”
“After today she will be.”
“Do you have the keys?”
Paul laughed. “Of course not, Ricky there can hotwire anything.”
“Um, I don’t mean to rain on your parade, but you can’t just hotwire boats that big.”
“Oh ye of little faith.”
“No, it’s not a thing of talent. I’m just saying that the larger yachts have built-in defenses against hotwiring. Now if you choose a smaller ship, those keys are kept in the office, and I know for a fact that the safe is open.”
“The safe’s open?”
“Yes.”
“So the keys to this monster are in there too, right?”
“No. The larger ships’ keys are kept in security deposit boxes.”
“Hmmm, too bad. That would’ve made it easier.”
“You’re still going w
ith that massive yacht?”
“It’s the biggest one here, right?”
“Well yeah, but you can’t start it. Even if you could, it’s too big for two people to handle.”
“You live on your paltry boat. I’m living big.”
“But . . .”
Paul climbed onto the dock and strode confidently down the planks, saying over his shoulder, “Goodbye, Kira.”
Kira squinted her eyes at the man’s back. What an idiot. She watched Ricky and Paul hop onto the yacht. They broke the door handle and went inside. Kira got back on the Marquis and sat at the upper helm, outside. She had already untied the boat’s moors.
It had been a few minutes since Paul and Ricky had disappeared into the belly of the 108-footer. In an instant, the boat erupted with sound. Fog horns blew and sirens wailed. The lights began flashing on and off rhythmically.
“Oh God . . .”
Kira had been right. Paul and Ricky triggered the anti-theft programming, and she wasn’t the only one who heard. Zombies came pouring over the stepped palisade of a nearby apartment building. A string of undead freaks were charging down the dock. Kira turned the ignition and steered La Vida Dulce around the marina house, to open water. She turned and watched as zombies poured into the boat. It looked like a magic trick. Too many zombies to even fit filed in.
Kira turned her head and pushed more throttle into the Marquis’s engines.
CVS Store # 3704: Outbreak Day +1
“Welcome to CVS, where your health is important to us. Make sure to use your CVS care card . . .”
Joe and Aaron felt their hearts slowly descend back down their throats. It had been a motion-sensor welcome kiosk. They moved deeper into the store, away from the kiosk, aiming for the pharmacy. Aisle by aisle, they looked for anyone hiding. Every corner set their nerves on edge. Every corner came up empty. The store was empty. They grabbed a duffel bag from a shelf and hopped the counter to the pharmacy. Whoever had been here before had left in a hurry, leaving everything unlocked. Joe and Aaron scanned the pharmacy racks, grabbing first the asthma medicine for Christine and then a random assortment of antibiotics and other multipurpose drugs. Neither of them had advanced knowledge of medicine, so besides the classic drugs they had heard of—such as penicillin, Codeine and Vicodin—they grabbed some anticonvulsants, cancer drugs and erectile dysfunction pills. They hurriedly threw them all in the bag and headed to the front of the store. They each grabbed a water bottle and chugged it. They would need the water to face that empty hell of a road outside again. After a few seconds, they headed out at a quick pace, back onto Alton Road.