“Sounds good my man. I’ll go get the kiddos.” Jessie said and headed back downstairs.
Jessie emerged with the three groggy children at the same time that Abby and Kenny emerged from their room.
“Good morning everybody.” Mauri said doing her best Howard Stern fake DJ voice.
“I want pancakes.” Michael said.
“Pancakes.” Rebecca agreed.
“Pancakes and juice.” Shawn managed clear as a bell.
“And juice?” Mauri asked and scooped up the toddler. “You got it buddy.”
Chapter 22 – No Man’s Land
After breakfast Jessie and the brothers got busy prepping the tank and boat. Patrick showed Jessie how to be the second on the tank. By nine AM they were all ready to get back on the Island Home and make their way to No Man’s Land.
It was a smooth trip thanks to a calm sea and the nautical GPS. They had taken a second GPS and stripped the yacht of pretty much anything they thought useful. For Mauri, that meant all the bed clothes, towels and blankets. For Charlie it meant cramming as much booze as he could fit into three plastic totes he found while he was down in the Island Home’s engine room. By the time they were done they had stripped the yacht like a vulture with a baby deer carcass. As they sailed. Michael and Shawn kept Mauri on edge by trying to climb up on the ship’s railing to see the water rush by below. Rebecca was content to sit in the canteen area coloring a book she had in her backpack.
Kenny and Charlie volunteered to clear the island and the research facility while the others waited on the ferry. They came back to the water’s edge after a little more than an hour and gave the thumbs up. Kenny paddled back to the ferry for the first of five trips back and forth. Jessie decided to leave all the supplies on No Man’s Land. They had planned on using it for a fall back anyway. If the Vineyard was livable they wouldn’t need this stuff, there would be plenty there. He remembered the Ace Hardware store and the IGA and the forty thousand tourist trap gift shops from when he was there on vacation.
It took until two in the afternoon to get everyone and everything off the boat. Patrick was the only one who stayed on the ferry. They had no way to anchor the thing, so he had to keep it in position.
The research facility was quite nice. The front door had been locked, but Kenny had broken the shatter proof glass with the stock of his M16, reached in and turned the dead bolt. Other than the broken glass on the floor the place was immaculate. There was a small hall that led to what looked like a pretty normal house. There were little differences to be noticed. The sink in the giant kitchen was a two basin industrial job with a detachable hose instead of a faucet. The fridge and freezer were enormous. The kitchen table was long and surrounded by eight chairs, three on each side and one on each end. The washer and dryer in the bathroom were once coin operated, now modified to be free. There were lockers like you would see in a men’s locker room in a room that would have been a sitting room or office in a normal house. There were six of them and they each held hanging back packs, rain slickers and heavy winter jackets. Each also had a pair of rubber boots and a winter skull cap in the foot locker below. The living room had four mismatched couches lining three walls with a large flat screen television taking up the fourth. There was an end table between two of the couches littered with copies of Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated and National Geographic. The pantry was filled with dry goods and cleaning supplies. There was no shower in the downstairs bathroom, but there was a hand dryer like you would see in a restaurant.
Upstairs there were four bedrooms and two bathrooms. It was very dorm like. The bathrooms had two shower stalls each and enclosed toilets. One had a urinal, the other an extra toilet. There were bars of soap and shampoo bottles that appeared to be in mid use in the stalls. Each bedroom had two double beds, two wardrobes, two foot lockers and a small television mounted to the wall. There were extra blankets in the bottom of the wardrobes and a stash of five sleeping bags in the closet of one of the rooms.
“Well now.” Kenny said. “This place is perfect!”
“It’s well equipped, that’s for sure.” Jessie agreed.
“We need to check the basement and see what we are running on.” Mauri said.
There was a door at the far end of the kitchen that Jessie assumed lead to the basement. It had a nine digit keypad.
“Interesting.” Jessie said and gave it a hard tug.
The door did not move in its frame as much as a millimeter. It opened into the kitchen, so there was no hope of a good strong kick getting them in.
“What do you suppose is down there?” Kenny asked.
“I don’t know, but we have to figure out the code before we do anything else.” Jessie said.
“How are we going to do that? We don’t even know how many digits the code is.” Mauri said.
Jessie stood thinking about it for a while. His eyes lit up. He took his iPhone from his pocket and turned it on. Mauri saw him and did the same.
“Mine is already on.” She said and slid the unlock bar.
She tapped settings and then the Wi-Fi icon. The thinking circle spun for a moment and the window appeared. A network called Server19 appeared. It had all three bars and no lock icon next to it. Mauri looked at Jessie in shock.
“There’s Wi-Fi.”
She tapped the line called Server19 and waited. The WI-FI icon appeared at the top of the display. She closed the settings application and tapped on the Safari internet browser. Google search popped up. She typed “news” into the search field and the thinking circle spun. It spun for a long time and then it stopped, but yielded no results. She hit refresh and it repeated the process. She thought for a second and tapped the address bar. She typed in Google, but instead of ending it with .com she typed .ca for the Canadian version. The Google logo appeared again only this time there were two words under it; English and Francais. She again typed in “news.” The thinking wheel turned and a flurry of news stories filled this display. Her stomach rolled as she started to read the headlines.
“Don’t do this now.” Jessie said over her shoulder. “We need to concentrate on the task at hand.”
“You’re right.” She said and pressed the home button a bit relieved.
Jessie went to the keypad and took a closer look. Along the bottom of the unit were a logo and an alpha numeric engraving. The logo said TURK and the number was T182.
“Search for TURK locks in Google.” Jessie said to Mauri.
“Got it.” She replied.
Five minutes of searching and clicking and he had a PDF of the instruction manual for the T182 model up on her phone.
“It supports up to ten users, each with a four digit pin code. It doesn’t say anything about disabling itself if there are too many wrong codes entered. This thing looks like it’s the entry level version. It says once the unit is programmed you hit pound and then your code.” Mauri said.
Jessie tried the obvious combinations, each number beeping back at him; 1,2,3,4 then 1,1,1,1 then 4,3,2,1 then 0,0,0,0. No luck. He tried typing in each digit four times but that was no good either.
Mauri started singing “Funkytown” replacing the notes with beeping sounds.
“You are not helping.” Jessie said.
“You are going about this wrong.” Abby said.
“Enlighten me.” Jessie said.
Abby went from the cellar door to the fridge. There were some scrap papers on it under magnets. Some had phone numbers on them, others were websites, but none of them interested her.
She opened one kitchen cabinet then a second and then a third.
“Here we go.” she said looking at a piece of paper taped to the inside.
It was a more formal list of telephone numbers. The top was typed and had all the official phone numbers for local authorities, the coast guard, the home office number. Under the typed numbers on the thirty or so empty lines, several people, judging from the handwriting, had added to it. Important items like Chief Scheider’s cell, Mindy,
and Island Pizza - they deliver for fifteen bucks in parenthesis - populated the sheet. Abby’s eyes floated down to the bottom of the sheet. Right under the last entry – B Gardner – there were four numbers all by themselves. 1900. Abby went to the cellar door hit the pound key and typed in the code. The light turned green and the automatic lock clicked. She turned the handle and the door opened. There was a soft sound from the basement.
Jessie grabbed Abby by the shoulder and yanked her behind him. He drew his gun and got low in front of the open door.
“Hello? Anyone home?” He asked.
No reply.
“We are not dangerous, we have supplies and just need a safe place to hide.” He said.
No response.
“I’m coming down. I have a gun, but don’t be scared. I don’t want to use it.”
As he inched closer to get a look into the dark staircase a fat orange tabby came up the stairs. No dramatic horror movie entrance, just a casual stroll. It made its way over to Kenny and rubbed against his leg. Kenny leaned down to pet the cat and it immediately flopped on the floor presenting its fat belly for scratching.
Jessie turned back to the door. He got closer and saw there was a light on in the room at the bottom of the stairs. He crept down the flight, pistol in front of him. When he got to the bottom he poked his head into the lit room. It was half lab and half animal shelter. There were half a dozen cages filled with dead animals. They didn’t die of starvation or from whatever was turning everyone into blood thirsty monsters. They were each wrapped in plastic bags. Their name, species and a date was printed on each bag. All the dates were between yesterday and the day before. Jessie made his way around the cages and jumped back at what he saw.
There was ratty green couch with a coffee table and footrest. On the couch was a dead body. It was male, no older than thirty and lying down as if it was asleep, with the exception of the eyes being wide open. On the coffee table there were two bottles of Jack Daniels, a needle and a thumb size vile with the word Carfentanil on the side. Next to the couch there was a sheet of paper on the floor. Jessie picked it up and read it.
“My name is Ashley Campbell, I’m from Ellis, MA and I’m sorry. I let the animals I felt were in good enough health to make it go. The rest I treated humanely. It was painless for them. Tell my mother, Kimberly Campbell of Boston, that I love her and tell my father, Howard Campbell of Saco, Maine, that I will see him in hell when he gets there. I’ve been watching the news and I know I’d never make it in the new world, I barely make it in the one I know now.”
There was no signature at the bottom.
Jessie checked the rest of the basement level and went back upstairs to join the others. The kids were huddled on one of the couches and there was a whale watching video on the big screen television. Mauri had been waiting at the top of the stairs. Kenny and Abby were sitting at the kitchen table. Jessie spoke in a low voice.
“There is a dead body and a bunch of dead birds and rodents down there. The guy killed himself after putting all the animals to sleep. I don’t think he has been dead long, most likely since last night.” Jessie said
“Jesus.” Abby said.
“What else is down there?” Mauri asked.
“There is a ton of expensive camera and video equipment and the lab. I think the cameras are the reason for the fancy lock.” Jessie said.
“Once we get the kids down for a nap we can get the bodies out of there.” Mauri said.
By five in the afternoon the unpleasant work was done. The three men dug two holes in the soft dunes, one for Ashley Campbell and the other for his furry and feathered friends. Charlie said a prayer and they left the graves unmarked. When they got back to the house the kids were up and Mauri was making sandwiches for the boat ride.
“Are you sure we don’t want to wait until the morning to go?” Mauri asked.
“We can’t leave Patrick out there all night. Besides, we want night cover.” Jessie said and the conversation was over.
Jessie went into the living room where the children were watching “Home Alone” on the big screen television. It was the most kid friendly movie they had in the limited DVD library next to the player.
“Hey boys, your dad is going away for a little bit.” Jessie said flopping down on the couch.
“Where?” Michael asked.
“I have to go to a different island and see if it’s safe for us there.” Jessie answered.
“I miss you, Daddy.” Shawn said.
“I know pal, I’ll miss you too. You guys have two big sleeps and I’ll be back.” Jessie said.
“OK, Daddy.” Michael said. “Are you going to bring us something back?”
“I’ll see what I can find.” Jessie said and knelt down in front of his two boys.
“Give us a kiss.” He said.
Michael and Shawn took turns giving their father big bear hugs and kisses without taking their eyes off Kevin as he smashed hot irons into the burglars’ faces on the television. He got up and walked over to Mauri, frowning.
“Don’t worry, they will be fine. Kenny and Abby got it.” She said.
“I know. After the last few days I never thought I’d leave them again.” Jessie said.
“It’s for our family’s well-being.” Mauri said.
“Isn’t it always?” Jessie said and went to the kitchen to get his gun and pack.
“What if you don’t come back? How long do we wait?” Abby asked.
“A week.” Jessie said.
“A week?” Kenny asked.
“A week. They are starting the bombing the day after tomorrow. They are going to do a thorough job.” Jessie said. “By then, if we don’t come back we ain’t coming back. Take the dingy to Nantucket as see what it looks like there. If Nantucket is a mess, try for Block Island.”
“I once knew a man from Nantucket.” Kenny said smiling.
Chapter 23 – Martha’s Vineyard
Everyone hugged and tried not to cry.
They fit everything they needed into the dingy and only had to make one trip. Patrick helped them on board and they all followed him back to the pilothouse. Mauri brought out the sandwiches and handed three to Patrick.
He took three big bites and the first one was gone.
“What’s the plan, Daddy-o?” he asked Jessie.
“We go tonight. By the time we get close it will be getting dark and I think we will be able to get a pretty good look without being seen. There are binoculars on the counter. We can check out Oak Bluffs and see if we are good to dock.”
“Are we going in hot?” Charlie asked.
“What are we, the fucking A-Team?” Mauri asked.
“Well, we have the tank. All you need is a Mohawk.” Charlie shot back.
“We are going to exit the boat in the tank, so yes, I’d say we are going in hot.” Jessie said.
“We are going to scare the living shit out of those people.” Mauri said.
“I’m alright with that.” Jessie said. “Them scared is better than us bitten and dead.”
“Or undead.” Charlie added.
“Thank you for that, Charlie.” Mauri snapped.
“We roll down the dock, we cruise Circuit Ave and see what is going on. If all looks well we go find Selectmen Vaughn.” Jessie said.
“If it doesn’t look well?” Mauri asked.
“We see if we can make it to the hardware store before we fall back to No Man’s.”
“Shopping?” Mauri asked.
Jessie looked at his watch.
“We have thirty seven hours to get ourselves ready to be cut off from civilization for a long time. Once they start carpet bombing they aren’t going to stop for weeks, or maybe months. We need whatever we can find and we need it fast.” Jessie said.
Mauri didn’t say anything. She knew Jessie was right, but she hated the way he went about telling her, like she was a grade school student that asked too many questions.
“Do you have a shopping list?” Mauri asked trying
to lighten her tone.
“As many generators as we can find, gas, dry food and water.” Jessie said. “If this is a cluster fuck we go back for the Jeep, get to the hardware store first, then the Stop & Shop in Vineyard Haven.” Jessie said.
Patrick navigated the Island Home well away from the island as he first headed west to east and then south to north through Nantucket sound, around Chappaquiddick and past Edgartown Harbor. He came at Oak Bluffs from the northeast and killed the lights on the boat half a mile off shore.
“Do you smell that?” Mauri asked.
“It smells like the dock.” Patrick said.
“I don’t see anything burning on the horizon, and we would from here.” Charlie added.
They slowly drifted closer until they could see the harbor with the binoculars. Jessie scanned the docks and the roads leading to the docks. There were people. Not shambling rotting zombies, but people, and nothing appeared to be on fire. Some people were standing together talking as others seemed to be hustling off on some errand. There was a police car with an officer standing next to it just south of the main dock. He seemed to be guarding nothing in particular.
“What do you think?” Jessie asked handing the glasses to Mauri.
“I don’t see any zombies.” She said.
“I suppose not.” Jessie said.
Patrick and Charlie took turns looking.
“Looks pretty normal to me.” Charlie said. “Let go get some lobster.”
Something about this didn’t seem right to Mauri but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Jessie saw the look on her face and nodded.
“Something’s wonky.” He said.
“I don’t know. I can’t put my finger on it.” Mauri said.
“It’s like they don’t know.” Patrick said.
“It’s impossible.” Jessie said. “TV, internet, radio, cell phones. They know.”
“Maybe they have their heads in the sand, so to speak.” Patrick said.
“Ay-eah.” Charlie agreed.
“Whatever it is they’ve got going on we have to be careful when we dock. You three will stay in the tank and I’ll hang back on the boat. I don’t want to have to double back to get the Jeep if we need to hit the stores for supplies. I’ll have a good view all the way to the square and I’ll be able to cover you and signal you to come back if something is wrong.” Jessie said.
Sawkill [Omnibus] Page 19