by Bob Howard
“We have more immediate problems, Chief. We only have one boat, and we need to get a tugboat running before we can arm it.”
The Chief started to say something but stopped short. I looked in the direction where he was looking and saw another light next to the first one. Then there were several lights all converging on the same spot. They were all gunboats of the same style, and they all had the familiar gun mounted on the bow.
"Do you think Jean and Molly are okay?" I asked.
The Chief laughed.
"Ed, I don't think Jean is ever going to open that door for someone, and I know she isn't going to go outside on a crazy mission again. I think she learned her lesson the last time."
He pointed at the screen and said, "Check this out. They're coming back down the coast."
The gunboats had formed a straight line and were moving south at a high speed. They apparently thought their old bow mounted guns were the baddest things on the water because they were traveling with running lights on. They would be easy targets for almost any South Carolinian raised around hunting rifles, but the fact that they weren't being shot at from shore was a testament to how few people were left alive along the coast. Once they were strung out in a line, we could see there were twelve of them. If there were three or four men in each boat, we were looking at about forty armed people.
"Chief, at the speed they must be traveling, they could reach the harbor before sunrise. What if they see the boat?"
The Chief was probably already thinking the same thing because his brow was furrowed, and he didn't answer at first.
"I hate to do it, Ed, but I have to leave with the boat. If they come into the harbor and decide to stop here, we'll be stuck in this shelter for a long time. They'll either sink our boat or take it. I can't picture them just leaving it here, nor do I want to take the chance that we could be that lucky."
"You don't have to go by yourself, Chief. You could take a couple of us with you. If you have to hide somewhere for a day or two, you would at least have someone watching your back."
He thought about it for a moment then said, "First let's shut off those stadium lights over the fort. Then I'm going to get Kathy. I know Tom could use her company right now, but she knows the city better than any of us."
"You're going to the city?"
My surprised look made the Chief grin. When he grinned, everyone around him got a sense of well-being. If everything wasn't all right, it would be soon. That's how he made people feel.
"That's where the tugboat is, Ed. Not to mention the armaments we need for the tug and the line laying barge."
I wasn't too happy with the idea, but we had to hide the boat, and the Chief and Kathy were the right people to send. Going back to the city would have been the last thing to have on my bucket list.
It didn't take long to find the power to the exterior lights since almost everything was labeled. As soon as I hit the switches the monitors went dark. I found the night vision mode, and they all turned bright green.
"Looks a lot different now than it did before," I said. "You should have seen what it looked like up there. That was a real army of crazies."
"You guys had a good idea getting the infection loose in the middle of them," said the Chief.
"It wasn't exactly a novel idea," I said. "Isn't that what happens sooner or later inside every big group like theirs?"
As soon as I said it, I had a sick feeling that I was describing an inevitable outcome for our group. It must have shown on my face because the Chief clamped a big hand down hard on my shoulder.
"Don't start thinking like that, Ed. The difference between them and us is simple. We care about each other, and we care enough not to risk the lives of anyone else in the group. Now we have two new members in our group, and we have to get them to drink the same Kool-Aid. They have to believe in the survival of the group, or they won't be able to stay with us."
"You mean they have to be willing to take care of it themselves if they ever get bitten, right? How do we get them to buy into that kind of group mentality, Chief? I think we're all wired that way. That's why we would do it. If they aren't wired the same as us, then they'll be just like that couple who tried to strand us on the road when we had to leave the plane."
"Exactly, Ed, but they didn't give us a chance to work with them. Tom gave us a chance, maybe because of Molly, but he still gave us a chance. Then he saw that if something happened to him, he would be leaving Molly in good hands. If we can get Olivia and Chase to work with us, to trust us, then maybe we can get them wired the same way as us. It's all about caring for each other, and if they feel like we care about them, then they'll become loyal to the group."
"Nice speech, Chief. Ever think about running for public office?"
The grin was a dead giveaway for the smart remark he was about to deliver.
"Wouldn't be enough people voting to worry about a recount, would there?"
******
Kathy didn't need to be asked twice. It was easy to tell that she would rather stay with Tom, but there was no doubt about who the best person was for this kind of mission. She was as fearless as she was pretty, and she was very pretty.
The rest of the group had to be told they were leaving, so we all gathered one last time in the dining area. We agreed that the Chief and Kathy were going to go to the Coast Guard base to try to find an armed boat that was small enough for them to operate on their own but also big enough to tow the line laying barge. Their main job, though, was to hide from the convoy of gunboats that we spotted along the coast. There wasn't much time, so the Chief just kept the explanation simple. We would be stranded on Fort Sumter until someone else came along with a boat, and we didn't want to just take what we needed. We needed to keep what we had.
We gathered up some gear for them to take along. A few days of rations, light weapons and ammunition were all loaded into the boat along with some foul weather gear and a folding tent.
Four of us went to the surface. Doctor Bus, Olivia, and Chase all stayed behind. Bus was at the consoles in the control room showing Olivia and Chase how to operate the cameras. The Chief had told him to turn on all of the lights on the side of the fort that faced the ocean if the gunboats arrived before they could pull away. They would at least be blinded long enough to keep them from seeing their boat as it left.
We hurried to the end of the dock and practically threw the gear onto the boat. Kathy and Tom gave each other a hug, and we couldn't tell if it was more than friends or if they were going to just keep things cool for a while. There was still Molly who would be upset to find her mother was dead, and she would certainly be confused by a relationship between Kathy and Tom so soon.
Tom tossed in the stern lines while I took care of the bow. The Chief looked at both of us and said something about us taking care of things while they were gone. Then he added that I would get my hug when he got back.
Normally I would have been stumped and unable to give him a suitable comeback, but I surprised him enough that he could only laugh and give us a salute.
"I'm going to hold you to that promise, big guy," I said.
We gave them a hard shove, and the Chief started the engine. They were just pulling away and fading into the darkness when the lights came on. Tom and I only had a second to see that they were already out of sight, then we ran up the dock. Our side was still dark, and we had to jump over the piles of bodies just inside the fort, but we made it back to the hidden door long before the convoy could make it to the fort.
When we got back to the control room, Bus told us the lights had done the trick. They not only blinded the convoy of gunboats as they passed the jetties into the harbor, they also caused them to wildly break formation. Bus excitedly described two of them cutting hard to port straight into the huge rocks of the jetties. They were smashed to pieces. Two of the remaining ten had done the same thing by turning hard to starboard and ran into shallow water. They didn't sink, but they would be stuck there until the tide came in.
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The rest of the convoy fell into a loose semicircle around the leader and waited for instructions. The entire time they were looking into the bright lights and were unable to see the Chief making good speed away from the fort.
"Okay, Bus. Let's mess with them now. Cut the lights off again."
Turning off the lights must have made them feel like they were in our crosshairs, because the lead boat immediately swung around and headed back out to sea. We knew there would come a time when they would come back, but for now they were unsure of what would happen if they approached.
I said, "They'll drop anchor just far enough out to feel safe and wait for their friends to float free with the high tide."
"In the meantime," added Tom, "the Chief and Kathy will make it to the Coast Guard base.”
******
Across the harbor and around on the Ashley River side of the peninsular city, the Chief had silently drifted up to the side of a Coast Guard ship. He whispered to Kathy that they weren't going to drop anchor too close to the bigger ship because he didn't want any surprises dropping in from above. They just wanted to be hidden from view if there was anyone on shore they needed to avoid, infected or otherwise.
"We can sleep in the boat," he said. "I'll take first watch."
"If you don't mind, Chief, I'm a bit wired up. I could use some company right now."
"I can imagine so," he answered. "Of course I don't mind. It's been a long day for all of us. When I saw you guys up on the wall shooting down at the infected, I thought you had been flushed out of the shelter or something. I thought you were making a last stand. Then I found out you guys were taking the fight to them."
The Chief gestured back toward the fort, knowing that she would understand he was referring to the former occupants of Fort Sumter.
"We couldn't leave Chase in that cage, Chief. Once we knew he was there, we had to try to help him. Besides, we were partially responsible for him being surrounded by the infected."
"That was pretty smart getting the infection to spread inside the fort, but I know it couldn't have been too easy for you to do. I don't mean logistically. I mean taking out a living person. We aren't exactly cold blooded, but we've changed."
"Yes, we have changed," said Kathy. "If you had told me a year ago that I would be killing zombies….Sorry, infected dead, and that I would kill a bad guy to help someone else survive, I would have thought you were nuts."
"Remember when we met?" asked the Chief?
"Of course I do."
"What did you think?" He gave her that charming smile that would have melted her if it had been on Tom's face.
"I thought you were big. What would you have expected me to think?"
The Chief said, "I would hope you thought the same thing I did. I told myself to stick with you because you were going to survive this mess."
Now it was Kathy's turn to smile. "I may not have thought those exact words, but it did make me feel good that you were big enough for me to hide behind you."
The Chief almost fell over the side of the boat as he failed miserably to control his laughter. Kathy teased him and said he was lucky to have survived because there was more of him to bite.
It was almost more than the Chief could take, but the day had so much tension that Kathy knew she had to help him let it go. She still had to know for sure, though.
"Chief, I know you told Tom it happened in the plane crash, but how did it really happen? It's okay. You can tell me, and Tom doesn't have to know. He can believe what he wants to, and that's what he wants to believe."
The Chief didn't want to relive it. He had succeeded so many times keeping people alive that he felt responsible for Allison's death. There was no hiding the truth from Kathy, though.
"We almost made it out, Kathy." The pain in his voice was almost unbearable, and Kathy didn't think she had ever heard anything like it coming from him before.
"Allison almost didn't make it through the crash. She swallowed half of the harbor, but I got her to cough it up. Then she showed a side of her we hadn't seen before. She hung in there pretty tough, and we tried to hole up for the night in the pharmacy of a grocery store. Then two of those morons from the fort showed up. They drew the infected from blocks around. One was killed, and when the other made a run for this boat, we followed him."
"Is that when it happened?" she asked.
"We made it all the way to the boat. I went down the ladder to the dock first, and there was an infected under the steps. It missed me and then bit her on the leg. She knew what it meant. We both did. I put her in the boat anyway and took her with me. I lost her somewhere between there and the fort."
"She took care of it herself?" asked Kathy. She seemed a little surprised that Allison could be that selfless.
The Chief looked down at his big hands, and Kathy saw they were shaking. Something else she had not seen him do. She realized he must be exhausted.
"I could have done it myself, but I couldn't bring myself to. She asked me to help her do it, but the best I could do was give her the chance without stopping her. I'd like to think she took care of it when I gave her that chance."
"So, you don't know for sure if she turned before she went overboard?"
"I think she jumped while my back was turned, Kathy. At least I hope she did."
"You have to make me a promise, Chief. You have to take care of it if I can't. If I get bitten, I'm going to eat a bullet, but if I don't have one to eat, you've got to do it for me. No guessing later. I want your word on it now."
The Chief tried to deflect Kathy's request by bringing it back around to Allison again.
"I wish I had been more patient. If I hadn't gotten mad at Allison and made her get back in the plane, she'd be alive right now."
"Tom doesn't blame you, Chief, and you shouldn't blame yourself. Allison might as well have worn a shirt with BITE ME written on it. She almost got us in trouble as soon as we left the shelter. Now, enough of this pity party. Promise me you'll be there for me if the time comes. I'm not going to wander around as one of those creatures trying to bite people. I need to know that you'll make sure that doesn't happen to me."
The Chief finally lifted his head and looked at Kathy. He gave her a nod and a small, sad smile.
"I wonder," he said, "what would I have done if I had cared for Allison as much as I care for you, or Ed, or Jean? Would I have listened to her when she asked me to take care of it for her?"
Kathy leaned closer and said, "You know the answer to that without even asking, Chief. In order for you to do it for someone else, you have to believe that person would love you or care about you enough to do the same for you. Allison wouldn't have done it for you, and you know it. She would have let you turn, and she would have left you here. No matter what you two went through that made you feel closer too her, Allison was always just in it for Allison, and I have no illusions that she wouldn't have helped me if I was the one asking for her help."
The Chief knew Kathy was telling it like she saw it, and her instincts were pretty good. He also knew that right or wrong, nothing was going to change what happened. Feeling sorry about what happened to Allison wasn’t going to bring her back.
“The hardest part is going to be telling Molly,” said the Chief.
“Just tell her what you told Tom. He wanted to believe there was nothing that could have been done, and that’s what you told him. I think if you had told him the truth, he would have doubted that she took care of it herself. He may have been in love with her once, and she was the mother of his child, but he wasn’t blind to the way she was.”
They both heard the faint sound from somewhere above them on the Coast Guard Cutter. It wasn’t loud, but it was loud enough for them to both stop talking and just listen for a clue about what caused it. The Chief lifted the anchor as quietly as he could, and he let the current pull them along the side of the ship until they were almost to the stern. When he let the anchor slip back into the water, it made the boat swing slightly arou
nd behind the ship. They could see the name “Cormorant” above them along the side of the wheelhouse as they floated past it.
The Chief let them drift into position at the base of a ramp. Kathy had never realized that the stern bulkhead could raise up the way it did to expose a place where the crew could launch or receive a small boat. There was a ladder to the left of the ramp, and even though their boat looked like it could enter the opening, it's curved hull wasn't intended for such a place. If they decided to board the ship, it would be by climbing the ladder.
“Do you think that sound came from inside the ship or on the deck?” asked Kathy.
“Inside,” answered the Chief. “If you were going to hide somewhere safe, where would you go? Ships are easy to defend against the infected and the average scavengers."
“Could there be more survivors?”
“I forgot to tell you something. When Ed and I were getting the benefit of a satellite view, we saw lights here and there. They could have been random lights from odd power sources that haven't run down or been cut off yet, but some may be from survivors who are either safe enough to use light, or they turn on lights because they can't handle the darkness."
Kathy thought about what it would be like out there hiding in the city. It would be life or death every minute of every day. She wondered if she would become like those people who just had to turn on the lights, or if she would be strong enough to let the night hide her from the bad things that were wandering around. She knew the Chief would say she's the kind of person who would survive without the lights, but she wasn't so sure how long that would be true if she was alone.
"Chief, do we investigate or move on?"
"I think we should wait for morning. Whoever that was we heard, they would have all of the hatches sealed and locked from the inside. If they hole up in there at night, they've heard people crawling around on the ship before. They'd just stay quiet and wait."
"Does that remind you of someone we know?"