Now It Begins

by Gary M. Chesla

  Another group of soldiers, looking tired and battered were lying under the palm trees.

  On the other side of the fence, stretching for two hundred feet, were hundreds of strands of barbed wire wrapped around posts and abandoned cars. Hundreds of zombies were snagged on the barbed wire.

  At the other end of the maze of barbed wire was another ten foot high reinforced fence where thousands of zombies were struggling to get over the fence.

  The soldiers walking along the cars that supported the fence would occasionally shoot at any zombie that had managed to get through the jagged maze and approach the second fence, the last barrier between the soldiers and the approaching hordes.

  The sound of the groaning and the smell of death were horrific where Dave and Adam were positioned.

  “What do you think?” Adam asked. “Do you think we should try to go up there?”

  Dave looked around and finally spotted someone that looked to be in charge.

  “Let’s go over and see if we can talk to the men under the palm trees by the traffic light. That one guy seems to be in charge,” Dave said. “It’s either that or we go back home.”

  “I guess if we want to learn anything we should try to talk with someone,” Adam replied, “I just hope they don’t shoot us.”

  “Something tells me they won’t want to waste their ammo on us,” Dave said.

  Adam just continued to look at the grisly scene beyond the fence.

  “Follow me,” Dave sighed, “Stand tall and walk normal. We don’t want them to think we are zombies.”

  Adam nodded nervously.

  The guys stood up and walked out on the road. They turned and started towards the soldiers that were under the palm trees.

  One of the soldiers spotted them and alerted the others around him.

  Three soldiers started to walk towards Dave and Adam.

  “I recognize the one soldier,” Adam said quietly, “That’s the Sergeant that came over to the Pelican Post.”

  “Wave at him,” Dave said, “maybe he will recognize you.”

  “After the way I yelled at him for busting up the office he might shoot me,” Adam replied.

  “After everything he went through trying to find me,” Dave said, “I know he will want to shoot me.”

  The Sergeant approached them with two men following behind.

  “Good morning Sergeant,” Adam said.

  “I see you are still alive,” the Sergeant replied, “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “We wanted to find out what is going on,” Adam replied.

  “Take a look,” the Sergeant replied sounding annoyed. “This is what is going on.”

  “Where are the rest of the soldiers?” Dave asked.

  “Who are you?” the Sergeant asked.

  “I’m Dave Kelly,” Dave replied.

  “Oh yes, the dozer operator,” the Sergeant said. “I heard you were still alive. Where the hell were you when we needed you? We could have used you when this all started. If we could have blocked the north bridge on day one, maybe all this shit wouldn’t have happened.”

  “I’m sorry you weren’t able to locate me,” Dave replied. “Is there anything I can do now?”

  “Since we can’t get anywhere near that dozer now, No there isn’t anything you can do now,” the Sergeant said obviously annoyed.

  “Where are the rest of the soldiers?” Adam asked again. “I understood there were over three hundred men here.”

  “This is all that is left,” the Sergeant answered. “If we wouldn’t have found the wire fencing last night down at the marina that was being delivered to someone here on the island, there wouldn’t be anyone left today. We found the fence and managed to erect this barrier before all these things made it down this far.”

  “It seems to be doing the trick,” Adam replied. “Do you know when you will start to move up the island and eliminate these creatures so things can start to get back to normal?”

  “It’s not going to happen,” the Sergeant replied. “With only fifty men and the fact our ammunition is running low, this is it. The barrier slows them down so we only have to deal with a few of them at a time. This is about all we can handle right now.”

  “How long can you hold them here?” Dave asked.

  “As long as they stay on that side of the fence, who knows,” the Sergeant answered. “So far they haven’t figured a way to get through the fences. They could walk around the fence by wading out into the water but thankfully the dumb bastards can’t think.”

  “How would you stop them if they started to get through the fence?” Dave asked.

  “We couldn’t,” the Sergeant replied, “This is it, we hold them here or it’s over. We are out of men, ammo, explosives and soon food. Hopefully we will get help from somewhere. Until then, we hold our ground for as long as we can and hope. Now why don’t you go back where you came from and let us do our jobs.”

  “Thanks Sergeant, I appreciate all you’re trying to do,” Dave said.

  The Sergeant smiled, “Don’t give up hope, we’re not. I have to believe the Calvary will arrive soon. Command knows we are here. Sooner or later help has to arrive. Until then we do what we have to do. So go home and watch your ass. Now get the hell out of here.”

  The Sergeant turned and left.

  “Make sure these two get the hell out of our combat zone,” the Sergeant told the two soldiers behind him. “And don’t come back.”

  Dave and Adam turned and quickly walked back towards the marina.

  The two soldiers followed them until they walked down off the road and into the parking lot at the police station.

  Dave and Adam were quiet until they reached the marina.

  “What do you think?” Adam asked.

  “I think we are sitting on a ticking time bomb,” Dave replied.

  “That barrier seems to be keeping the zombies from getting down to our end of the island,” Adam said. “The Sergeant thinks that help will eventually show up. If they can continue to defend the barrier, we could be OK.”

  “What about what the Petty Officer said?” Dave asked. “He said there is no one left to help. He was on an aircraft carrier and they have been all over Florida. He said there is nothing left.”

  “If the sailors can clear out our end of the island and the army can hold the barrier, this end of the island should eventually be safe,” Adam replied.

  “I don’t think the army can keep control of that barrier for much longer and the navy hasn’t done much down our way,” Dave said. “I just think it is all going to come apart.”

  “We certainly have something to think about,” Adam replied.

  “Yes we do,” Dave said.

  They walked in silence until they reached the Pelican Post.

  As they came around the corner of the motel, they both stopped and stared.

  Maggie was on the landing outside the cottage, holding a chair over her head.

  She threw the chair down the steps, hitting Carl and knocking him off of the fifth step.

  Carl tumbled down the four remaining steps and landed on the ground next to two other chairs.

  His arms and legs frantically flailed against the ground until he managed to get to his hands and knees.

  Carl was soon standing and started towards the steps again.

  Maggie looked out at Dave and Adam.

  “It’s about time you two got back,” Maggie said. “We only have one chair left.”

  Chapter 16

  Dave dragged Carl’s body back over to his room. He left his body four feet inside the room, next to the zombie that had killed him, closed the door and walked back to the cottage.

  Dave had crushed Carl’s skull with the same post that he had used to finish off Shirley.

  It had been hard when he had crushed Shirley’s skull. It was difficult when he had finished off the zombies up at the Circle K.

  He knew it would be hard to end what was left of Carl.

  Even though they
hadn’t been good friends, they had been friends.

  It was a lot harder to hit Carl with that post than he thought. There was just something about doing that to someone he had known, talked to and worked with over the last year.

  If that would have been Maggie or Joey, he didn’t know if he could have done it.

  Life had really become a nightmare.

  Maggie always liked to read parts of her zombie books to Dave. She especially liked to read him the parts were someone had to kill their friends or family members to save them from becoming a zombie and roaming the earth for eternity, searching for the living so they could eat their flesh.

  Maggie would always tear up when she read Dave these parts of her book.

  Dave had always just shook it off as nonsense and made fun of Maggie for reacting that way to fantasy and unrealistic stories like that.

  Never in a million years did Dave ever imagine that he would find himself in a situation like that, until now.

  Now not only could he imagine it, he knew he was in that position now.

  Unless something changed very soon, not only was it a possibility, it was going to happen sooner or later.

  Seeing the army’s last ditch efforts to survive at the Cortez Bridge, Dave knew it was only a matter of time.

  The army would be overrun and the thousands of zombies behind that fence would swarm over the southern end of the island.

  There were so many zombies on the other side of the barrier, Dave knew if they ever broke through that it would all be over in a few days.

  “A few days, it would probably be over in only a few hours,” he thought.

  If they weren’t killed outright, they would be trapped in the cottage and would all starve.

  Could Dave watch Maggie and Joey starve to death?

  He didn’t think so.

  But if not, what could he do to keep them from suffering such a fate.

  Dave didn’t like any of the answers to that question.

  There were no good answers to that question.

  There were only horrible answers and then there were outrageously horrible answers.

  Dave walked up the steps to the cottage.

  They were going to have a meeting to discuss what he and Adam had learned from their visit with the soldiers at the bridge.

  Dave knew what he believed he had to do to protect his family.

  Nicole and Maggie sat on the couch holding Everly and Joey.

  Dave and Adam sat on the floor.

  It would have been nice to have sat at the kitchen table, face to face, to discuss what Dave and Adam had learned, but Maggie had tossed all the kitchen chairs down the steps at Carl.

  The chairs were now bloody and no one even considered the possibility of bringing them back up into the cottage and cleaning off the blood.

  “Did you get to talk with any of the soldiers?” Maggie asked.

  “We were able to speak with the Sergeant that came down to the Pelican Post,” Adam replied.

  “The guy that was looking for us and the guy that took Carl away?” Maggie asked.

  “That’s the one,” Dave replied, “Needless to say he wasn’t real happy to see us. In fact he sort of blamed me for the entire zombie apocalypse.”

  “Those bastards,” Maggie protested, “That’s just like the government. If they can’t cover it up, they blame it on someone else.”

  “The Sergeant also said that he was doing all he could but he wasn’t giving up on getting some help. He said their commander knows they are on the island and should send help as soon as he can,” Adam added.

  “But the Petty Officer that was here said there isn’t anyone left,” Maggie said.

  “I guess it depends on who you want to believe,” Dave replied.

  “What was it like up at the bridge?” Nicole asked. “Did the army look like they had things under control up on their end of the island?”

  “The entire north end of the island is gone,” Dave answered. “The army has set up a barrier near the entrance to the Cortez Bridge. Everything north of the barrier belongs to the zombies.”

  “That is getting awful close to where we are,” Maggie said looking concerned.

  “Will their barrier hold?” Nicole asked. “What did it look like?”

  “They have two fences running across the island from the gulf to the inter-costal waterway. The fences are about two hundred feet apart. Between the fences is a maze of barbed wire. The barbed wire is trapping any of the zombies that get over the first fence,” Adam said. “It seems to be keeping the zombies from getting down to our side of the island.”

  “A fence?” Maggie exclaimed, “Fences never hold up against zombies.”

  “Not in the movies,” Adam smiled, “but I thought it looked good.”

  “The fence has only been standing for what, twelve hours,” Dave said. “The Sergeant said they only erected the barrier late yesterday. Did you take a good look at that fence?”

  “I thought it looked fine,” Dave responded.

  “I saw some of the reinforcements the army had made to the fence for support,” Dave added, “and it looked like they were starting to give way. I seriously doubt that barrier is going to hold for much longer. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if it collapsed before the end of the day. And as far as reinforcements, the only side getting any help is the zombies. Did you look up Gulf Drive? I saw a steady stream of those things coming towards the barrier from the north end. You saw what they did to your Land Rover yesterday. That is going to mean more weight against that barrier.”

  “That doesn’t sound good,” Maggie said.

  “I agree I would feel better if there were a few thousand soldiers armed with bazookas at the barrier,” Adam said, “but at least for now it is better here than what we have been told that things are like on the mainland. I think we should ride things out here as long as we can. If it starts to fall apart then we could all leave. We can get a boat ready down at the marina. If the barrier fails then we could leave.”

  “If that barrier fails there could be thousands of zombies on us before we would even know that the barrier gave out,” Dave added. “We might not have the opportunity to make it to the marina. Look at the problems we had at the Circle K, and it was only three hundred feet away.”

  “How many soldiers are at the barrier?” Nicole asked.

  “About fifty,” Adam responded.

  “There are only fifty men left?” Nicole sounded shocked.

  “We know what the mainland is like. According the Petty Officer, it has already been overrun,” Adam said. “We might get overrun too, but we haven’t been overrun yet. I think we have to stay where we are and just hope the barrier holds. You might be right. We may have to start running for our lives. But I don’t want to live like that until I have to.”

  “We saw the sailors going through the area again today,” Nicole said, “Maybe they are finally getting our end of the island cleaned up. They could soon be able to go help the army. Maybe together they can make the barrier hold. Since the sailors went through, except for Carl we haven’t seen any zombies today. Maybe things aren’t as bad as we think.”

  “Yea Dave, maybe things aren’t as bad as you think,” Adam pleaded his case. “Stay here with Nicole and me. I think we make a good team. No matter what happens I think we can get through it. At least give it a few more days. We can go up and check out the barrier every day. If it doesn’t look good you can always leave then. Maybe at that point we will even go with you. Give it a chance.”

  Adam looked at Nicole, “I say we stay. What about you?”

  “It’s our home,” Nicole smiled weakly, “I agree that we should stay and hope the army can keep things under control.”

  Adam stood and reached out his hand.

  “Let’s go in the bedroom and give Dave and Maggie a chance to talk this over.”

  Adam pulled Nicole to her feet. They took Everly and left the room.

  “Well Mag,” Dave said. “You heard
what was said. I think we should go. It won’t be easy but when that barrier breaks, we won’t have a chance. But if you want to stay, I’ll stay and try to make the best of it. Maybe I’m wrong.”

  “I know the stories in my zombie books aren’t real,” Maggie smiled, “but every book I have read would tell me that the zombies are going to push through that barrier. I also don’t trust the government but I do trust you. If you think it is better to leave now, I agree we should trust your gut and go.”

  “My gut’s track record the last few years hasn’t been anything to brag about,” Dave laughed.

  “You’ve always had a good feel for things,” Maggie replied, “the last two years was just something we didn’t have any control over. It was just plain bad luck. In spite of that, I kind of enjoyed it all. It was a fun adventure.”

  “I thought you were just humoring me,” Dave replied, “In fact I was worried you were going to leave me if it got much worse.”

  “Really?” Maggie grinned. “I thought it was fun and it did finally all pay off. Here we are, on a fantastic island, great beaches, great food, great weather and we are completely surrounded by zombies. I couldn’t have asked for more.”

  Maggie giggled.

  “You’re one hell of a girl,” Dave smiled.

  “That barrier also worries me,” Maggie said sounding more serious this time. “It was all I could do to handle Carl. If thousands of zombies broke through that barrier and came down here, I don’t think I could find enough chairs in the entire motel to keep them away from us.”

  Dave smiled, “It’s not going to be easy over on the mainland.”

  “It’s not going to be easy here for much longer either,” Maggie replied, “but I agree that we have a better chance over there to find someplace safe than we have here.”

  Dave leaned forward and gave Maggie a kiss.

  “I think we should go today,” Dave said. “Adam helped me pick out a boat down at the marina. It has a cabin where we can stay until we find a safe place to go ashore. It even has a few fishing poles so we can fish for food until we decide to go inland.”