He worked hard, but he always had a natural knack for it, able to predict where and when the fish would be most plentiful. His success led to many repeat customers over the years so that he was solidly booked from the beginnings to the ends of most summers. He liked the phrase to the effect that if you loved what you did then what you did would never be work. He was certainly living that way.
When he bought his property in Shotgun Cove, he knew that he had finally arrived. His business didn’t center on a single fishing boat. He had the full package to offer his customers. He owned several boats parked in the harbor. He had reliable hands working for him, trained to be wise about their fish sense. Every day, he would take out one of his own boats so that he could still taste the salt air of the sea and chase fish.
William knew that he should have been there with his crews on that day when all of this started. He was Skyping with his daughter, who lived with her mother in Washington. She was eleven and growing faster than he could accept. Her name was Chloe and she was his little flower. Her birthday was fast approaching on that day and plans were being made about a visit.
His crew, led by his best and most loyal friend Paul Peters, was waiting for him at the dock to take a late season group out. William already had a good idea about where the fish would be lurking and had them stall casting off until he arrived. He wanted to close out the season with a bang.
William never made it out of the Cove that day. He never saw Paul or any of his men again. He hoped that maybe they had cast off and gotten away before things got too out of hand in the city. Those hopes were dashed earlier when he and the others were running along the edge of the harbor. When he got to a certain memorable bend, he stood upon an equally memorable large, flat rock and looked over at the harbor. His boats were still there as were a waiting crowd of ghouls packing the pier full.
He felt like he betrayed those men all over again when he saw his boats still there. They had waited for him and now were likely no different than Sandra or Allen. He’d condemned them so that he could talk with his daughter for a few minutes more.
William couldn’t know if things might have worked differently for them if he had been there. The likelihood was that he would be one of those things too. Maybe, though, had he been there, he would have sensed the rising danger and the approaching calamity the way he could sense where the best schools of fish were waiting. Maybe they all would have lived.
Leading his friends and this new group of people, William took them closer and closer to the Whittier Manor Condos. They had passed a few of the creatures along the way but were moving fast enough to stay well ahead of any single pursuers. When they happened upon three of them standing in the middle of the road, Neil and Jerry stepped forward with their bats.
The two men circled the ghouls like the outer wheel of an intricate gear made of concentric circles. Giving themselves enough room, the two men swung their weapons, cracking bones, crushing limbs, and ultimately pummeling skulls and brains until the creatures no longer posed a threat. It took only a few seconds but it was enough for them to lose the rhythm of their flight.
Standing there for those couple of seconds, Danielle noticed that same nauseating buzzing hanging in the air. Jerry saw the recognition on her face and said to her and everyone else, “Yeah. They’re close. We should get inside now. There could be a big group of them coming at us.”
Neil asked, “Where to?”
With most of this side of Whittier behind them, William was hard pressed to think of anywhere else to hide unless they wanted to double back. Maybe they could make it back to the truck and drive back to the Cove. Getting back to the truck could prove difficult at the moment though, so he decided to push them forward.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much space left for them on the downtown side of the city. To their right were the Whittier Manor Apartments where they had started the day. Behind them were the Anchor Inn and the gathering horde, which had nearly trapped them there. The slope to their left was overgrown with thick brush and sharply angled, making it all but impassable.
The most likely option for them was to keep moving forward. Maybe they could get onto the seaside portion of Whittier. They could perhaps find a place to sit and rest. They needed to regroup. William recognized that he needed to take a moment to process what had just happened to them. Sandra, Allen, and Gus were all dead and gone. He needed some time to roll that over in his mind. He wasn’t equipped to simply accept it and move on with his life.
He wondered about Danielle as well. She looked as if she was in a bit of a stupor. The others with them seemed to be immune to the loss and devastation. They so easily shifted into survival mode that the deaths of William’s three friends didn’t faze them in the slightest. Their attitudes were cold and distant to William. He just couldn’t figure out these new people. He still wasn’t certain he trusted them entirely. Now that it was just Danielle and himself, William felt like maybe he should be more on alert.
Following the same basic physical principles of water, the group flowed down the hill toward a big white wall, separating the seaside and commercial side of Whittier from its residential downtown, which ironically sat on the top of a hill. On the other side of the wall and between another wall, sitting a little closer to the water, was a wide bank of often used railroad tracks that acted like a moat of sorts, dividing the city into two halves.
Looking at the wall hopefully and with their options dwindling quickly behind them, William could only hope there would be better opportunities on the other side.
Chapter 16
William and Jerry were the first over the wall. Jerry landed and immediately maneuvered the hunting rifle from across his shoulder into his hands. He didn’t see anything in either direction but he felt exposed, watched.
Jerry stood guard, trying to look both directions at once, while William helped the others over the barrier. They repeated the same on the other wall and found themselves in a grassy patch in Whittier’s seaside. It looked and felt like a different city. It was as if Whittier suffered from schizophrenia or lived a very public double life. Trying to get their bearings and the courage to go on, they cowered in the shadow of the wall, hoping their arrival had gone unnoticed.
Neil and his original group had already passed through this side of Whittier, avoiding several packs of the creatures. The walking corpses, gray with rot, loitered amongst the cars and the buildings. For long moments at a time, the ghouls could be mistaken for grotesque statues placed in an expansive lot amid abandoned cars. At random and infrequent intervals, aggressive tics gripped each of them successively, causing waves of flailing arms and spastically jerking heads. Neil watched for any patterns, wondering if they were somehow communicating with one another with more than just their moans. There wasn’t time to watch closely, so he wasn’t able to tell for sure. Thankfully, it was quiet in this little corner.
Not far off from where they stood was a solid, promising looking building with intact concrete walls. If the front looked as good as the back, then Neil thought they had just found the perfect spot to rest and let things settle down. They needed to get back inside while they were still able.
He suspected that when some of those things were stirred like a bunch of hornets, it had a similar effect on others a short distance away. It excited them and attracted them toward the sounds of the others. Their moans, that buzzing Hell’s echo, beckoned to ghouls near and far like Satan’s dinner bell.
Neil had no interest in being on the menu and had no intention of allowing that to happen to any of the people with him, especially Danny and Jules. There was the third child, little Nikki, too, but Neil’s connection to her was tenuous at best. It wasn’t that he didn’t care about her or didn’t want to protect her, but she was so detached. She was so ghostly quiet it sometimes disturbed him. It was easy to forget that she was there on occasion.
He whispered his inquiry, “What is that building there?”
Danielle answered quietly, “Fe
rry terminal. Why?”
“We’re goin’ in,” Neil answered. “Jerry, Emma, let’s go check it out. Jess, you hang here with William and Danielle.”
Jess nodded and pulled the three children close to her. She had somehow become the de facto mother figure to the kids. She was comfortable with that, she guessed, and felt like she was the only one with any parenting experience in their group. It wasn’t much of a burden really. She had always been good at it and enjoyed it more than most. If that was how she could do her part, then Jess was more than willing.
Before he turned to go, Neil said to Danny, “Keep a sharp eye out. You still have your pistol?”
Danny patted the front pocket on his sweatshirt. Once again, Danny had to watch Neil walk away from him. It had become so commonplace that it barely even had an impact on him anymore. He knew that Neil would come back. He always did. The true discomfort this time for Danny was that he and the others were waiting outside with nowhere to hide if they were spotted. He only hoped Neil would hurry.
Neil, Jerry, and Emma darted to the right, running along a chain link fence until they came to the back of the building. They climbed up onto a loading dock area and then paused in the shadow. From his backpack, now weighed down with cans and boxes of food, Jerry pulled a crowbar. He tried to force the door open with the tool but managed only to work up a sweat. If they were getting in, they would have to find another way.
Emma, getting impatient, asked, “Front door then?”
“How about over the fence and look for a back door?” suggested Jerry.
Nodding and starting to move at the same time, Neil said enthusiastically, “Sounds like a hell of an idea.”
It was not that long ago when Neil would have looked at a fence like that in front of him and would have found a way around or through it before he would have contemplated climbing it. As it was, he leapt into it, scaling more than half of it with the jump. He pulled himself up the sagging fence as adroitly as a cat. In a flash, he was over and into the back lot where vehicles had been staged to be loaded one by one onto the ferry. It was currently empty.
Emma was next. She was lighter and shorter than Neil but not as practiced. It took her a couple of seconds to reach the top of the fence.
Jerry watched and waited for his turn to go when he was aware of an uncomfortable pressure in his chest and ears. It was a very familiar low buzz which had him spin around, expecting the worst.
Sure enough, a fiend dressed in a green Forest Service uniform rounded the corner into the loading bay. Jerry thought for a moment about climbing over the fence and leaving the thing on the other side. He decided that having it agitated and moaning there on the bay might bring more of them toward the ferry building. He needed to deal with it before he went over the fence.
Clutching the crowbar tightly in his hand, Jerry gritted his teeth and closed the distance between the two of them. He was raising the weapon above his head and readying to strike when two more of the demons came around the corner. Jerry skidded to a stop, throwing off his balance and his swing.
The tool’s sharpened claw head hit the uniformed zombie across its lower mandible, shattering its jaw and scattering teeth across the loading bay’s concrete surface. In the process, Jerry tumbled clumsily into the first and then the other two creatures. Jerry and the former Forest Service employee came to a thudding stop on the loading bay platform. The other two teetered off the edge and crashed to the pavement below in a teeth-chattering crunch.
Jerry wasn’t entirely sure who or what was still with him in the loading bay but he was certain he wasn’t alone. There were too many legs and arms wrapped around him for it to be all his. He tried desperately to free himself from the knot of flesh. He pushed and stretched, trying to get a better angle on the creature with whom he fought. Jerry couldn’t find its head or its lethal mouth.
Struggling and fighting, Jerry finally got himself onto all fours and was ready to get back onto his feet win the unthinkable happened.
Emma watched helplessly from the opposite side of the fence as the creature closed its mouth around Jerry’s forearm and bit down. Emma screamed Jerry’s name but was unable to do anything more. Neil climbed over the fence in the blink of an eye and was running toward Jerry.
Jerry, his veins pumped full of adrenaline and fear, yanked his bloodied sleeve from the corpse’s mouth and rolled away. Coming to a stop, he looked up just in time to see Neil bludgeon his attacker, crushing its skull in a series of punishing blows.
The other two things were reaching and clawing but not posing an immediate threat. Neil ignored them for the moment and helped Jerry to his feet. He asked, “Can you climb the fence?”
Jerry was stunned and looking at his arm. There was no pain. He assumed he was in shock. He nodded at Neil and heard himself say, “Yeah. I think so.”
Neil tried to soothe his friend’s nerves saying, “It’ll be okay. We’ll figure something out. I won’t let you...” He couldn’t finish his thought let alone his words.
The two men made short work of the fence and were on the other side with Emma in a flash. She met Neil’s sorrowful countenance with an empty, emotionless stare. She swallowed her pain, turning it into rage. Her breathing slowed and her mind cleared. She felt like a zombie herself. She looked at Jerry and then at his arm but didn’t say a word. She turned about and started to walk away, shaking her head.
Neil said, “See if we can get inside. We need to find somewhere...we need to...” Neil couldn’t finish his words and his thoughts were no better. He just followed Emma toward a back door and hoped they would be able to get inside.
Chapter 17
Danny and Jules shared a worried look when they heard the echoing scream. They couldn’t make it out, but they heard words in the feminine shriek. It sounded like Emma.
Jules stepped back further into the shadows, sitting down and tucking her legs up close to her chest. It was cooler in the darkness, but she didn’t notice. She actually felt safer, almost invisible, insulated and protected from all the hate and death with which the world was now filled. Despite her sadness, Jules had no more tears left to shed. Hers was a quiet and lonely sadness that she shared with no one.
Danny watched Jules slink away. He knew how she felt because he felt the same way. Emma’s scream could only mean that they had gotten into trouble and the silence following likely meant even worse. His stomach twisted into a knot, becoming heavy and uncomfortable and leaving a nasty, bitter taste in his mouth.
Danny tapped Nikki on the shoulder and pointed to Jules. Nikki, understanding the directive, walked absently toward Jules rocking herself in a daze. Danny wished he knew what to do but he clearly didn’t. At ten, how could he be expected to know what to do when the world had come to an end?
He had his pistol, a rifle, and a backpack full of food and water. His body was still cold but he was dry. The world was unforgiving and brutal, but it could be worse and had been as of late. He thought that maybe if he could know just what had happened then maybe he’d be able to figure out some kind of a next step for himself. Thinking about that for a moment, he decided that maybe he didn’t want to know. What would happen to them if it were Neil? How could they survive without him?
He looked at Jess and then at the two new adults, Danielle and William. Not a single one of them looked as if there was an idea to be had about what to do next. It was apparent to Danny that they simply had to wait for the others to return. No one dared to contemplate the possibilities if Emma, Jerry, and Neil didn’t return.
Chapter 18
Miraculously, the door on the back of the ferry depot was unlocked. Neil looked in through the small window on the door but couldn’t see much of anything. It was dark but it also appeared to be undisturbed. Neil opened the door and stepped inside slowly. Emma and Jerry followed him, though Jerry stopped near the door and waited until he was told the place was clear. It only took a few seconds to check the handful of offices and rooms.
Jerry wandered
toward the front of the building and peeked outside. He could see some of the abominations still some distance away but starting to turn toward them. They could hear those two things out front and it was probably his fault that they were still out there at all. Neil wouldn’t have fallen. He wouldn’t have fucked it up. Those things would be dead and everyone would have made it had it been Neil instead of himself.
Jerry hadn’t looked at his arm yet. He hadn’t been able to work up the courage. He stepped away from the thick glass front door and wandered slowly into a bank of chairs in front of an enclosed counter and a desk. He sat heavily in one of the plastic chairs and sighed. Slowly, he lifted his up his arm. The sleeve was dark and shiny with blood and other matter. He couldn’t see through to his arm though.
Reluctantly, he lifted the sleeve of his coat. He closed his eyes, still too afraid to look. When he heard Emma gasp from behind his shoulder, Jerry thought to himself that maybe it was just better not to look at all. Suddenly, he felt a cheek close to his and breath on his cheek.
Emma’s soft voice whispered in his ear, “Open your eyes, dumbass.” The soft press of her lips against his cheeks helped his eyelids part. He looked down and was left utterly speechless. His arm was clean. There wasn’t a bite or even a bruise. That was why he couldn’t feel any pain.
Jerry shook his head and wiped his eyes, which were beginning to fill with relieved tears. He looked again, afraid of what he might see, but his arm was still perfectly intact. He even managed to laugh a little. “Teeth. It didn’t have any teeth.”
Alaskan Undead Apocalypse (Book 4): Resolution Page 13