“God, they look just like those other two,” Adam whispered. “No wonder the people at the barricades moved so strangely. We weren’t able to get close enough to see them like this.”
“It would have scared the hell out of us if we would have been able to get this close,” Dave added, “Now I understand why the army was shooting at them.”
Maggie covered Joey’s eyes as she squeezed in next to Dave to take a look outside.
Even though she thought she knew what she was going to see, she still cringed when she saw the grisly looking bloody creatures below.
There were six of them.
Two of them looked like they had been on the beach when they became whatever they were now. One had been a pretty blonde girl in a skimpy blue two piece bathing suit. She looked like the typical victim in most of the older low budget zombie films. Now she looked pretty gross with the hair and flesh missing from the right side of her head and face. Her body and bathing suit were covered in streaks of dried blood.
Her boyfriend was in even worse condition. His right leg was little more than a boney pole that he used to keep himself from falling to the ground as he staggered around Carl’s truck, smearing blood over the truck’s doors and fenders as his body slid against the side of the truck.
The other four creatures must have been tourists. They were wearing blood soaked flowered shirts like most of the tourists wore. None of the locals would be caught dead wearing one of those shirts.
On one guy, one of his shirt sleeves hung limply to his side, soaked in blood from the large gash where his arm had been ripped away.
They all wore the same style of knee length shorts. The color of the shorts was no longer discernable through all the blood that covered them.
Between the six of them, they wore one sandal and one tennis shoe.
Their skin was a dark gray, the color raw hamburger turned on a hot day if you let it sit out in the sun too long before cooking it. The dark rotting gray color made the milky white eyes stand out on what was left of their dark faces.
The creatures didn’t seem to pay any attention to each other, as they moved around the truck. Each creature appeared to be driven by its own desires.
The creatures were in a group, but gave no indication that they were working together in any way.
“They are all real zombies,” Maggie whispered to Dave.
Dave just stood silently and watched them move around the truck.
The group all watched silently as the creatures examined and slimed the sides of Carl’s truck.
A single crack sounded and echoed off the Post Office building across the street.
Maggie gasped, as the blonde girl’s head seemed to explode. The girl’s body or what was left of it crumbled to the ground.
Another loud crack sounded, and this time one of the tourists fell to the ground next to the blonde. The back of its head splattered across the side of Carl’s truck.
Two more loud cracks and two more of the creatures dropped motionless to the ground, their heads now also half missing. Blood and gray matter oozed out of the shattered skulls and spread out on the gravel around the bodies.
Dave looked over at the Post Office when he noticed some movement coming from in that direction. He spotted a group of men in blue uniforms. Two of the men took careful aim, and fired their weapons again.
Dave looked back down into the parking lot to see the last two zombies fall against Carl’s truck and then slide to the ground.
“The Army to the rescue,” Carl smiled as he walked over and opened the door.
A bullet struck the door and lodged itself into the door six inches from Carl’s head.
“There is another one up in that room,” one of the men shouted from down in the parking lot.
“Don’t shoot,” Carl called out, “I’m not a zombie!”
Carl waited for a reply but he didn’t stick his head anywhere near the open door this time.
“Whoever is up there, come out with your hands up,” one of the men shouted.
Dave glanced out around the curtains on the window.
There were now at least ten men in blue uniforms standing by Carl’s truck. Their rifles were raised and pointed towards the cottage.
“Wait here and let me go out and talk to them,” Dave said.
“Do you think you should go out there?” Maggie asked. “It could be dangerous.”
“There are a lot of them out there with guns,” Dave replied, “If we don’t go out, they will be coming in and we can’t do much about it. I think it’s better if I go out first and find out who they are and what they want.”
Dave signaled the others to stay there and be quiet.
“Don’t come out until I call you,” he whispered.
Dave walked over and stood by the side of the door.
“I’m coming out, please don’t shoot me,” Dave yelled.
“Come on out,” a man yelled back.
Dave took one last look at Maggie then pushed the door open.
He walked out onto the small landing, holding up his hands.
“I’m not armed,” Dave said looking at the men.
“Is there anyone else up there with you?” the man with the most bars on his uniform asked.
“There are seven of us, two women, two little kids and three men,” Dave replied.
“Tell everyone to come out,” the man ordered.
“Who are you?” Dave asked.
“Petty Officer Davis, USS Saratoga,” the man replied. “Come on out, we won’t shoot you.”
“Are you sure?” Dave asked.
The Petty Officer laughed, “I’m sure, just keep your hands up until we make sure everything is OK here.”
Dave turned and signaled to Maggie for her and Joey to come out and stand next to him.
Maggie picked up Joey and walked out and stood next to Dave.
“This is my wife Maggie and my son Joey, can we come down first?” Dave asked, “This landing isn’t large enough or strong enough for all of us to be out here at the same time.”
“Step down,” the Petty Officer replied.
As Dave and Maggie walked down the steps, Adam, Nicole and Everly came out next. They told the Petty Officer who they were and slowly followed Dave and Maggie down the stairs.
Carl was the last one to come out. He quickly moved in behind Nicole and Everly and followed them down to the parking lot.
When everyone in the group was down and standing in front of the Petty Officer, he signaled to two of his men.
“Go up and check it out,” he ordered.
“There is no one else up there,” Dave said.
“We have to make sure,” the Petty Officer smiled, “don’t worry we won’t mess with your things.”
“We don’t have anything to mess with,” Maggie replied.
The men ran up the steps, but returned after only a few minutes.
“All clear, Sir,” one of the men reported.
“Lower your weapons,” the Petty Officer said then looked at the group. “Have any of you been bitten or injured?”
“No sir,” Dave answered then pointed to the bodies on the ground by Carl’s truck. “Could you tell us what is going on and what happened to these people?”
“Do you know when we can get off the island?” Adam joined in and asked.
The Petty Officer looked at Adam, “I wouldn’t plan on trying to leave the island anytime soon.”
“But we live over in Lakeland,” Nicole replied, “and we want to go home. It’s crazy around here.”
The Petty Officer looked at them, “No one can live on the mainland any longer. All that is on the mainland are more of these things.” He pointed to the creatures on the ground. “Consider your selves lucky to be here on the island.”
“We live up in Starke,” Dave said looking at the Petty Officer.
“To the best of my knowledge, no one is left in Starke or anywhere else right now,” the Petty Officer replied.
The
group looked shocked.
“What happened?” Dave asked. “We didn’t realize this crazy shit was happening anywhere but here on the island.”
“All I know is that about a week ago, some kind of infection was discovered in a number of cities across the country.
At first no one was concerned, but before anyone could identify it or figure out how to deal with it, it had spread across the entire country. It was completely out of control before anyone knew it had even started to spread. In fact we weren’t informed about any of this until a few days ago,” the Petty Officer answered. “Anyone who gets bitten or scratched by one of these things, let’s just say it’s all over for them at that point. You become one of them. Just about everyone in Florida is one of them now.”
“They become zombies?” Maggie asked.
“I don’t know if that is the official term for what they are, but technically, that is correct,” the Petty Officer replied.
The Petty Officer looked to the seaman to his right, “Give Seaman Johnson here your names. We are trying to secure this end of the island and find out how many survivors are left.”
“How many are left?” Dave asked.
The Petty Officer stood silent for a moment, “So far counting you seven, we’ve found twenty-three survivors.”
“What happened to everyone else?” Carl asked.
“You’re looking at what happened to everyone else,” the Petty Officer said and pointed again to the bodies on the ground. “Everywhere we’ve been in Florida, this is what we’ve found. The rest of the entire country is probably like this by now too.”
“Shit,” Dave exclaimed. “Everyone! This is unbelievable.”
“It’s a damn nightmare is what it is,” the Petty Officer replied.
The Petty Officer continued, “Me and my men, we are all that is left of the crew from the aircraft carrier Saratoga. Our group and a small unit from the army are trying to secure this island. If we are successful, hopefully we all can call this island home. But even if we are successful, and again there is no guarantee that we can even do it, it will take time.
I suggest you stay here and in a couple of days I will send a few men to check on you to be sure you are OK. We’ll let you know when we feel the island is safe enough to move around freely , but in the meantime, I recommend you stay inside as much as possible and be careful when you have to go outside.”
The group nodded in unison.
“In the event one of you gets bitten or injured by one of these things,” the Petty Officer stared for a long moment, “it may seem cold, but do them and yourself a favor. Quickly put them out of their misery.”
“Kill them?” Dave repeated.
“If you don’t, they will become one of these zombies,” the Petty Officer replied, “and that person will not hesitate to kill all of you. There is no way to help them, believe me I’ve seen many people trying to help their injured family members and friends. In the end they all died.
Entire cities and entire ships have been lost because someone tried to help one infected friend.
Once someone is infected they cannot be helped, it is too late. Besides, watching your wife or child turn into a zombie is much worse than the alternative.”
“Should we go somewhere else that would be safer?” Nicole asked.
“This place is as safe as anywhere for now,” the Petty Officer replied, “just stay in this two or three block area. We have just moved through the area between here and the southern tip of the island. We have eliminated dozens of the infected, but there could be many more that we didn’t see. The army will be sweeping the area again after they are done up at the Cortez Bridge. If you see any soldiers, wave or something so they know you’re not a zombie if you don’t want to get shot.”
“Seaman Johnson will take your names and then we have to move on. My men are sweeping this side of the Cortez Bridge. We are to meet up with the Major at the bridge shortly. Hopefully we can soon start to take back the rest of the island from these things.
Again, I’ll send someone to check on you in a few days. If you don’t hear from us again, then all I can tell you is good luck.”
“What are our chances?” Adam asked.
“Honestly they are not good,” the Petty Officer replied. “If we can’t retake the island, then there won’t be much chance anyone will survive.”
The Petty Officer turned and addressed his men.
“Gomez, you stay with Johnson until he gets everyone’s name,” the Petty Officer ordered, “then meet up with us down at the marina. I’m going to check out the marina before we go back out to Gulf Drive to meet up with the Major. Make it fast.”
The Petty Officer and the other men got into formation and slowly moved towards the marina.
Adam and Nicole moved over to Seaman Johnson first to give him their names.
Dave and Maggie were next in line.
“My name is Dave Kelly,” Dave said as Seaman Johnson wrote down the name. “If you see the Sergeant or whoever is in charge of the army, tell them the man they were trying to find who could drive the big bulldozer is back down at the Pelican Post.”
“That will mean something to the army?” Seaman Johnson asked as he wrote down Dave’s name.
“It did before,” Dave replied, “I’m not sure if it will mean anything now but let them know anyhow. It could be important.”
When the two sailors left to join with the others, Adam walked over to Dave.
“Decide you didn’t want to be Andrew anymore?” Adam asked. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“I’m not sure about anything anymore but I don’t think I need to be Andrew any longer,” Dave replied, “If the army still needs me to run the dozer so they can keep these things off of the island, I want them to know where I am. If what that Petty Officer told us is true, then the only thing keeping us all alive is this island. I think if there is any way I can help it would probably be a good idea for me to help.”
Adam looked around at the bodies lying in the parking lot.
Adam nodded, “I guess it couldn’t hurt.”
“I just hope we aren’t already beyond help,” Dave sighed. “That Petty Officer didn’t sound too optimistic about our chances.”
“What did you think about that Petty Officer?” Maggie asked as she walked up between Dave and Adam. “I didn’t like him. I think he is up to something.”
“I thought we gave up on a government cover up and had settled on zombies as the problem?” Dave grinned.
Maggie smiled, “It’s was just something about that guy. I just had the feeling he wasn’t telling us everything.”
“I think he told us more than I really wanted to hear,” Dave grinned sadly, “What else could he have possibly been hiding? Maybe a better question is why would he even bother to try and hide anything? There isn’t anyone left to care anymore.”
“Maybe you’re right,” Maggie smiled. “Let’s just go inside.”
Chapter 12
Carl walked down First Street, turned right and started down the final block leading to the Bridge Tender.
The others were planning a short trip up to the Circle K to find some food to bring back to the cottage.
Carl told them he would be right back after he made a quick trip to the Bridge Tender.
He was surprised when no one volunteered to go with him, but he didn’t dwell on it for long.
Whatever he could carry back would be all his.
After almost being eaten by Shirley, he could use a drink.
If the others weren’t interested in a beer, good, that meant more for him.
The last time he was there, the Bridge Tender was starting to get low on beer. That was the only thing he could remember from the other night.
Carl started to walk faster. According to the Petty Officer, there were sixteen other people on this part of the island. That and Carl knew how much army guys liked to drink.
Whatever beer was left in the Bridge Tender, he had be
tter get his share while he had the chance.
When he would go out with the others later to look for food, he would have to keep an eye out for more beer.
Carl turned the corner and stopped.
The front door to the Bridge Tender was open. Not only was it open, but it looked like someone had forced their way through the door. The double doors, each side made up of eight vertical glass panes, hung partially open. All the glass panes on the right side of the door had been smashed. The jagged edges of the glass were covered with blood, bits of flesh and yellow strips of cloth.
Carl moved next to the door and listened.
After listening for a few minutes, he decided to go inside when he didn’t hear any sounds inside the bar.
Carl pushed the door open slowly and stuck his head inside the Bridge Tender.
When his eyes finally adjusted to the dark interior, he stepped inside.
“It doesn’t look like the bottles lined up on the shelves behind the bar have been disturbed,” Carl thought as he breathed a sigh of relief. “It was probably just some creep looking to rob the place.”
Carl walked over to the bar and looked at the cash register.
The drawer hung open. All the slots inside the cash register were empty.
Carl smiled and walked behind the bar and looked under the back of the bar where he had seen the bartender retrieve beers to fill the cooler.
Four cases of beer sat under the bar.
Carl quickly reached under the bar, lifted the cases one by one and stacked them on top of the bar.
After deciding the four cases of bottled Bud Light were going to be too heavy to carry back to the motel at the same time, Carl headed for the door at the right side of the bar. The door would take him into the storage room.
Now It Begins Page 13