Terms Mystique: Z Is For Zombie 9

by catt dahman

  Kim sighed tiredly. He knew Jet would keep on this like a dog on a bone until Kim explained. It would waste time, but Jet wouldn’t move otherwise, and more than anything, Kim wanted Jet to get out and get to safety before the cabin washed away. “

  You were out cold. I checked on you and knew you were alive, and then I checked the rest.

  Steve and Tory are gone. They’re down in the water. They both jumped in and were trying to get to their kids, diving under, and Tory struggled and then Steve vanished under the water, Jet. You were out for a minute or two. Steve dove in after them; he didn’t come back up.”

  Jet looked at the dark water, wondering what had happened to his uncle. “All of them?”

  “There was blood. I guess someone hit his head, Jet. Or he was hurt, and Tory and Steve drown, trying to get their kids, okay? It’s over.”

  “What about….”

  Kim felt a little of his heartbreak. “Neal and Ben…no…son; they hit the wall; there’s nothing we can do for them, and you don’t wanna see them like this.” When he got a chance, Kim would scream and rave over losing his small sons.

  Jet could hear his dad weeping about Neal and Ben. Jet felt tears running down his own face and knew that if the boys could be saved, Kim would be doing something besides talking.

  “Mom…Katie…Willow….”

  Kim let his shoulders slump as Jet made him say it, but he wouldn’t tell Jet that he found Katie with a broken slat of railing impaled in her stomach and had bled out before Kim could do a thing for her. Despite her mortal wound, Katie’s face had been lovely.

  “Daddy,” she had said.

  “Hey, Katie Bear, Daddy is here. We’ll get you out,” he lied to her.

  “Tired. Cold. Daddy?”

  “Yes, Baby?”

  “I didn’t know….”

  He didn’t know what it was she didn’t know, and it hurt him. He wished he knew what she meant. She was barely on the edge of the loft. Kim let the water have her too because he couldn’t bear for Jet to see her. Oh, how it hurt. Kim’s throat contracted with the pain of his loss.

  Kim had found Willow, drowned in those seconds; she had landed headfirst into the far wall, and Kim had put her alongside Beth. Kim could see her little body, helpless and broken. Kim’s world was spiraling into an empty pit; he was hanging on for Jet alone.

  He had seen beautiful Beth lying in a heap, not moving, not opening her eyes.

  “Willow is gone, Jet,” Kim brayed long howls. “Beth, awe, Beth, not my Beth….”

  Jet dragged his father out of the water, hugged him, and helped him to the dry side. Jet told him to stay as he went to look and straighten things; Kim was too devastated now to argue.

  In the corner, Jet saw his mother holding Willow and lying quietly with Carl huddled beside her. He figured he was dizzy again or the light was confusing him because he thought he saw his mother’s eyes move.

  “Mama, Mama….”

  Beth opened her eyes and said, “My Jet, shhh, be quiet now; whisper.”

  “I’ll get you out.”

  “Shhh, you have to hurry, Honey; this place is going; listen to me. Listen, I said. I can’t feel anything below my waist; my back is broken. I’m not hurting, Love. There’s no pain. But I need something from you, my brave boy. I want to lie here and hold Willow and stay with Carl. It’s what I want, not people dragging me away when I can’t feel a thing or do anything for myself.”

  Carl raised a battered hand and grasped Beth’s hand. Blood surrounded him in a cloud as he moved. “Sleepy,” he muttered.

  “Carl is my friend. I can go along with him, and we’ll catch up to your sisters and the boys. They’re all waiting on me.”

  “No….”

  “Shhh, yes, I really want Carl to hold my hand and go with me. I’m not afraid. I can see you, so handsome, and your daddy; it’s a wonderful, amazingly beautiful view, Honey.

  Jet held back a sob.

  Beth looked at her son. “You will get out of here, and you will get your daddy out and help him. He’s broken his leg, I think. If he thinks I’m alive, he’ll die trying to get me out and, Honey, I am paralyzed; I can’t move at all; I can’t make it.

  He isn’t strong enough to get me out, but he’d try, and if he does, he will die. You have to be a man and get him out instead. He is my world. You are my world. You let him think I’m gone, and I’ll stay here, but Carl is with me, and I want to spend a little time with him.”

  Jet started to argue, but he really looked into her eyes and saw the incredible sacrifice she wanted to make and the grace she had. She was the most unselfish, loving woman Jet knew, and because of that, he knew he would honor her wishes. “I love you, Mama. Carl, you stay with her. Mama, thank you for loving me.”

  Beth’s eyes were glazing over, and Jet knew she and Carl were on their way.

  Jet kissed her cheek, laid a hand on Carl’s shoulder, and pulled himself up the incline. “Get up, Dad, we have to go. We have to go fast.” As he spoke, the cabin shuddered.

  Kim began to argue, saying he had to get Beth and the children and Carl out, but Jet softly told him it was over for them. “They’re gone, Daddy. Mama is gone now. Carl is gone. The kids are gone. I checked; they are all gone. Get up.”

  In the shadows, Carl squeezed Beth’s hand, and she squeezed back.

  She didn’t want Carl to die, but having him with her was peaceful. He had always fought alongside her, taking risks and grinning a lot; he was always dependable and the one person she could rely on to watch her back. He made her feel very safe as she lay there. And she knew she could let go and let him watch over her one more time. “Thank you, Carl.”

  Kim, crying and moaning, allowed Jet to help him to stand. Jet slapped a broken board and some cloth around his father’s leg to brace it so he could get him out, tying and working at lightning speed. Kim grimaced as Jet tied the board on, but it was the only idea the young man had to get his father out.

  The hatches they had put into the cabin roofs had been Len’s idea and might save their life.

  The wind and rain howled into the cabin as Jet opened the hatch, but Jet was crying so hard he didn’t think about it. Over thirty years old and he felt like the lost, Gothic kid he had been when Beth adopted him when he was seventeen.

  He had worn long hair and had piercings and acted oh-so-cool, but she had known he was tender hearted and strong, even when he didn’t know it. She wasn’t old enough back then to be his mother, yet she had called him her son and mothered him until he gave in and modeled himself after his adopted father, Kim, whom Jet admired and respected tremendously.

  Who else but his parents would have made his life complete?

  Beth had needed to be a mom to survive; a big sister wasn’t enough, so she was Mom. She was the same with Hannah. Beth had needed them to give her a reason to live and to be a good person.

  On the other hand, Hannah and Jet had needed a mother to finish their final years of growing up, so they learned honor, trust, responsibility, and love. What Beth and Kim had done for them and for Katie, who was adopted, was beyond sacrifice; they had given their very souls to give their children a way to survive the zombie invasion.

  Kim pulled himself up, and Jet yanked at his father until they were both on the roof in the powerful wind, blinded by the rain. What they would do next was uncertain, but Jet was going to try hard to get them to a safe place. He had always followed the lead and been the wingman. Now, he had to be a leader and the man Kim wanted him to be.

  But for the second time that night, Jet flew through the air as the cabin came off its foundation. Jet and Kim yelled as they were swept off the roof and thrown into the sea.

  9

  Adrift

  Rae, at first, didn’t get what Rev told her, but then it made sense that he had been looking out and saw first Jessie’s cabin, and then Kimball’s cabin hit by debris, and then the wind blew until they came off their foundations and splintered into pieces. That meant that all those
people inside had been tossed around like rag dolls and were broken apart or cast into the water to drown.

  They had to assume that all were lost.

  She didn’t know if anyone could survive what Rev described to her.

  She couldn’t imagine Beth and Kim, Carl, and Steve being gone. And the children, they couldn’t be gone.

  Their cabin sat lower than the rest of the cabins, and the water was up in the loft, covering the floor with several feet of water. She was not about to sit there until the cabin exploded around them or until they all drown.

  Very carefully, they came up with a plan that wouldn’t be easy to manage, but was the only solution available. Everyone listened and repeated the instructions again.

  She might be doing something wrong, but she didn’t want to fly away in the wind with no chance at all.

  Rev and Rae went through the new hatch, and despite the wind and rain, managed to get the lifeboat free of the carabineers that held it, they lowered it.

  Then Rae got into it as Rev held on to the raft with a rope; finally he jumped into it. Only the last rope, hooked onto a ring on the cabin with a carabineer, held them in place. Without it, they would drift away. The plan was for Johnny and Misty to have the rest swim through the cabin, dive under, go out the door, then pop to the surface, and get into the boat. Rev and Rae struggled to keep the boat next to the cabin while they waited.

  It would have been easier to have everyone use the hatch, but the wind would easily knock the children off and into the water where they would be pulled away.

  On this side of the cabin where they held the raft, the top of the cabin would block some of the wind and rain. Without the little shelter from the wind, they wouldn’t make it.

  Rev saw the cabin quake a little; it wasn’t going to stay up too much longer.

  Misty took Rae’s oldest, and they swam, dodging floating debris that Misty swept aside. Since Misty was there, any packs or bags she found, she grabbed and took with them.

  “On three,” Misty counted down when they dove. Misty found the door easy to open, they swam through, and then they went upwards. It wasn’t far until they surfaced.

  Rae shouted with happiness and got her son into the boat. It had gone exactly as planned. “My turn.” Before her husband could protest, Rae dove and followed the route backwards and into the cabin. She took her second child back and then her third before she would rest. They huddled in a corner of the raft, shivering with a chill and fear of the storm.

  Maybe she was silly, but Rae felt a little strange that things had gone so easily. ‘Stay close and stay as warm as you can and stay low in the boat,” she told her children. Dad and I are going to get everyone onboard and out of this mess, okay? If you see someone swimming, give us a yell,” Rae hoped to find survivors from the other cabins.

  Growing up at Hopetown and then by the sea, all the children and most of the adults were excellent swimmers and comfortable in the sea. Without the flashlights, they would be able to get through the cabin and outside; they were used to the water.

  Misty went back and sent three of her children together; they swam hard, following the route they could barely make out in the weak light. The oldest and next oldest held the youngest between them and ducked through the doorway, kicking their way upwards.

  Rae got John in by yanking at his shirt while he kicked and struggled with the waves. Had he not surfaced close to the raft, Rae couldn’t have gotten him into the raft.

  Xela and Lenny drifted on the waves. Although Rae and Rev reached for them, pulling the raft closer, the two children were quickly pushed past safety and into the water; unprotected by the cabin, they were battered by the wind.

  Xela cried out and gulped water.

  “I’m going,” Rae began, but Rev took her arm and yelled at her to stay with the children. She thought that he meant he would get Misty’s children into the raft, but he didn’t dive into the water. She looked where the children were floundering and saw nothing but water. That fast, they had been pulled away and under the waves.

  Rae felt her resolve slipping away as the little ones vanished while their mother was trying to get everyone else out. Rae felt she had failed to protect and do her best for her friend’s children. Misty would have risked her own life to save Rae’s babies. She cried bitterly.

  At that moment, part of Rae drown: she would never be the same again, never believe in herself, never trust her abilities, and never feel she could back up her word.

  Johnny came up with a sputtering Roxy in her arms, tossed the child to Rev, and dove to get the rest out. Roxy screeched healthily, angry about being wet and chilled, furious she had been awakened from a deep sleep. The little girl may have been a screeching distraction, but the noise made the others feel better that someone among them was so alive and full of emotion.

  When Johnny went back, she found that Mark was halfway out the door and caught on something. Johnny pulled at his arms, but he didn’t budge.

  ‘Get out, Mark, get out; you’re the hero,’ Johnny thought. She felt along the doorframe for anything that might be holding him back. Finally, she felt at his belt, and a nail head had somehow gotten in one of the belt holes and was holding him fast; she was working from touch and couldn’t believe she had found the problem.

  His blank face suddenly became animated, and it was if he realized he had to get out of the water and help save his wife and his children. He helped by yanking his belt off while he looked for the rest. He motioned Johnny to go on and get to the surface. With fierce determination, he wrenched free and pushed himself out the doorway so that Johnny was able to pull him to the surface and swim to the raft.

  “Who’s down there?” Mark asked. One side of his face drooped a little, but he looked a lot like the same man they all knew with sharp-looking eyes and a ready smile. Who cared about his smile? “We need to hurry.”

  Rae and Rev stared in shock as they had become accustomed to Mark’s blank stares and lack of emotion. He hadn’t even spoken much since he was told Lexie was dead. Rae thought that Steve was right about it being a stroke, but he was better right now. It wasn’t even possible, was it? He couldn’t go from being like a vegetable to like this?

  “Misty and your youngest ones and Cinder and Jilly. They’re all scared to try the swim.”

  “Mark, can you help hold us in place? I’ll go back and get them,” Rev yelled above the wind. He thought it had eased up but wasn’t sure. He never thought he and Mark would be having a normal discussion, not that this was normal, but at least Mark was animated.

  As he spoke, he saw two limp bodies float up and away on a wave. He saw. He could see. It must be daybreak if he could see. But then he slumped as he realized that it was Jilly and Cinder who floated with their faces down in the water.

  Mark saw them and shook his head, “They’re gone. I can get them and do CPR….” He was deciding what to do.

  Rev wanted to sit down and cry. Misty popped up with her youngest, Jayne, who was two, and the baby, who was almost a year old. Rev reached for the baby as Mark and Rae held him so that he didn’t go over the side.

  “Mis….” Mark shouted.

  Misty looked at Mark with happy surprise when he called her name, and she saw him smile. In the midst of all this, her husband was back. She tried to swim to them but was caught in a strong current and could only hang on to her child and floating piece of foam that she caught with one arm.

  She hoped Mark could see that she had it handled and would float a while and then get back to them. She smiled and waved to show she was okay. She was more than okay. Let the wind and waves toss them about, let her float a while, but everything was wonderful since Mark was back.

  Mark twisted sideways and tried to jump out of the raft, but Misty was too far away, and whatever she was holding on to wouldn’t support them both. “Lemme go.”

  “Mark, she is okay for now. She is hanging on. We’ll look for her, but you can’t go into the water.”

  “Mis
ty….” He slapped their hands away and the raft dipped down to take on water.

  “Sit down,” Rae yelled. “Mark, hang on; just sit the hell down.”

  He fought.

  Rae lunged and caught him so that she and Johnny could pin him to the bottom of the raft. He had tried again to dive out and get to his wife and daughter, but they were drifting much too fast to catch and were already out of sight.

  Again, Rae thought about going in, and Rev made a motion to go into the water, but Misty and the little girl were already gone from sight around the side of the cabin.

  Selfishly, Rae wished Mark had not picked right now to come back to them, and since he had, could he not be reasonable?

  It took Rae and Johnny both to keep Mark from standing up and tipping over the raft and killing all of them. They sat on him, and he tried to struggle a while. Then he yelled, “She’s dead; everyone is dead. My kids and wife are dead.”

  Rae couldn’t expect him to understand they had the baby in the raft with them. Two of his children were safe. But he swore and fought. “Let me go to them, you bitch,” he yelled.

  Rae looked at Johnny. He didn’t mean save them, but rather he wanted to go in and drown as well. “Mark, stop fighting me.”

  Rev lost his hold, and the raft slipped away from the cabin on a large wave. Trash bobbed everywhere, and the water was dirty grey with breaking waves and trees that swirled in circles. He watched the water sucking at branches and leaves. Exhausted, Rev slumped against the side and looked at the people with him, wet and raggedy, tired and frightened.

  Mark stopped fighting and crawled deeper into the boat. Rae moved so she was just sitting on one of his legs now.

  “Get off him, Rae; his face is in the water. Pull him up, damn it, Mark?”

  Rae realized Mark was face down, and he had gotten lower on the soaked floor of the raft. “Mark….” She didn’t see him trying to get up, so she and Johnny reached down and turned him over.