“Shit.” I urged greater speed, hurrying people onto the causeway of the Tidal Basin Boat House. For defense, it was perfect. The boat house was forty feet from the edge of the basin and the walkway was barely six feet wide. We could hold this place all day. But what made it even more perfect were the rows of paddle boats. We had our escape. It wasn’t exactly first class, but it was transportation until we could find something better.
Tommy looked over the boats and started laughing and Duncan grinned like he had just eaten the last piece of pie. I stood on the walkway and just waited for the zombies to try and get across. “Get the boats in the water, make sure they float. Don’t overload them. You kids with the documents, you’re on that four-seater.” I paused to knock a Z into the water. “The youngest kids go on the other four-seater, they can all fit with two adults. Get moving, it’s gonna get busy in a second.” I could see a large horde moving this way and there was no way I could take a rush like that, even with a narrow bridge to defend.
Several splashes told me boats and people were getting in the water and I took a second to drag several benches across the causeway. It wouldn’t completely stop the zombies, but it would slow them a little and every second counted right now.
“You got three minutes, Tommy!” I said, taking aim with my rifle. Two shots later and two dead zombies added to the barricade.
“Almost there!” came the reply. I couldn’t look over my shoulder, since the zombies were at my barricade trying to climb over. Slavering mouths and hungry dead eyes stared at me like they’d never seen anything so delicious. I fired twice, then my bolt locked back. I switched magazines and fired again, spinning a dead TSA agent into the murky basin. The benches moved back against the onslaught of so many bodies and I gave ground, firing judiciously. I tried to make my shots count in terms of barricading the walkway, but there was getting to be too many.
Suddenly, my rifle stopped firing. I pulled the handle back, figuring I had a bad round, but the bolt was stuck. I looked at the stock and saw Thorton’s bullet had damaged the gas tube after all and this gun was an anchor now. The zombies looked at me and if I didn’t know better, I swore the lead ones smiled. I tossed the gun aside and just as I pulled my SIG, a voice called out from behind me.
“John! Move it, right side!” Tommy yelled.
Bless you, Tommy, I thought as I spun around and raced down the pier. Behind me the benches crashed over and the zombies came pouring down the dock. Several fell into the water, but far too many were at the Boat House. On the land behind the entrance, hundreds of zombies had converged and behind them were thousands more. I reached the end of the pier and stepped into the paddle boat, placing my pack on the small bench between the seats. Tommy and I pedaled quietly for a moment, joining what had to be the weirdest flotilla known to man. We steered around the thirty or so boats, taking the lead and moving slowly but surely away from the shore.
Tommy looked over at me as we passed the Jefferson Memorial. “Where to now?”
I laughed. “Let’s get out of the city first, then we’ll see about better transportation. There has to be bigger boats somewhere.”
Tommy labored on the pedals for a second. “God, I hope so.”
Behind us, we could hear the splashing of paddles as the Paddle Boat Armada made its way out of the former District of Columbia.
Chapter 21
We paddled and drifted and paddled and drifted for a while, not really caring how we went, we were just happy to be going. I was watching the riverbank go by, paddling occasionally, looking back to see how well we were doing. The paddle boats had strung out in a two by two line and were keeping up pretty well. We sure couldn’t paddle our way back to Illinois, so eventually we were going to have to find some serious water transportation.
Along the shore numerous zombies slowly watched our passage, too many for a quick trip ashore for supplies or a look-see. It matched with what we had felt crossing the Appalachians, that for the most part the east coast was a zombie wasteland. I’m sure there were pockets of survivors here and there, but not enough to make a real difference.
About four miles out of D.C., Tommy nudged me and steered the paddle boat over to the east bank. It looked like there was a harbor for river and ocean craft and I could see at least five boats resting quietly in the water. Three of the boats were sailboats, so they would be handy when the gas ran out, but I liked the look of the big fishing boat. If we could get that sucker up and running, we could ride that all the way back home.
A quick look around showed the boats to be usable and there was a quick transfer from the paddle boats to the sailboats. The people from the Library of Congress split up into groups of ten, shook our hands, extended their thanks and shoved off. Duncan, Tommy and I shared a look, but I was never one to make anyone stay when they wanted to go. We had brought them out of the major danger zone, so they were free to do as they pleased. I never assumed anyone owed me for anything.
The rest of the people and the kids from the Smithsonian opted to hang around for a bit longer. They were from Missouri and would appreciate a ride until we got there. I thought that was fine, but unless we got these boats running, we weren’t going anywhere. I wasn’t worried about transportation anymore, since across the water there looked to be another harbor with several boats still there, so we had some choices.
Duncan dug around the harbor office and when he came back he had a handful of keys. Tommy had spent his time checking out the two boats and making sure the engines at least looked like they might be coaxed into working. I stood guard on the dock, watching with interest as dark shapes moved among the houses in the subdivisions to the north and east. I was tempted to start a little fire, but I had no way of knowing for sure who or what might be in the houses and after our experience with the burning houses in Ohio, that little zombie cure didn’t sit well at the moment.
A cough and sputter caught my attention, then a deep throated purr as the big fishing boat started up. Tommy poked his head out of the engine compartment and grinned. Duncan hopped off the boat and took his handful of keys over to the smaller craft, a decent sized lake boat. After an hour of fiddling, that boat had started as well.
“Looks like we’re in business.” Tommy declared, helping kids get onto the boat and tossing their gear blow. We could fit twenty on this boat and the other boat was tight with seventeen, but we managed. The refrain I kept hearing was “Beats paddling.”
“Excellent. I’ll steer this one, Duncan can manage the other one,” I said, settling into the chair. I had never captained a boat this big, but I figured it couldn’t be all that hard.
We moved out across the river and I went immediately to the other side to the other harbor. This was a place for sailboats only, but I wanted to try and top off the fuel tanks, which according to the gauge were only a quarter full.
While I pumped gas for the boat, several kids wanted to have their own sailboat and be towed by the bigger craft. I didn’t care and it meant less crowding on the boat. Duncan’s group wanted the same thing, so by the time we pulled out, we both were trailing sailboats full of teenagers.
Tommy was up in the bridge with me, checking charts and maps. It was oddly relaxing and I allowed my mind to drift to thoughts of home. I looked over at Tommy and his face wasn’t as lined as it used to be. I guess he was feeling a bit relaxed as well.
“Well, we did it,” I said.
Tommy looked up. “Yeah. Wish Nate could be here,” he said sadly.
I knew how he felt. It was bitter irony that we had made it across the country intact, only to lose one of our number within sight of our goal.
“He’s here,” I said. “Probably screwing around with our lines and hoses right now.”
Tommy laughed. “Not here. He’s over on Duncan’s boat messing with the rudder.”
I laughed and figured it to be true, considering how badly Duncan was steering.
We kept a steady pace, pausing to try and refuel at a place called Colonial Beac
h. We found a goodly store of gas, but I had to take out a ghoul to get it. We pushed on and by nightfall we landed at Lake Conoy, which was on the southern tip of Maryland. There was a boat dock and we looked for fuel, but came up empty. We had enough for a while if we didn’t run too fast, but these things weren’t meant for long travel.
Duncan and I explored a bit and found a handful of supplies in the boat house, but with night coming soon, it wasn’t worth it to run into zombies unless we got seriously low.
We pushed off in the morning and passed by several islands on the sides. We got lucky at another harbor and refueled both boats to capacity. This was fortunate, since we did not want to come too close to Norfolk.
Even from a distance, it wasn’t pretty. People must have flocked to the naval base in the hopes the navy could somehow save them. The ports had become jammed and two ships had run into each other, sinking just enough to keep other boats from leaving. After that it was just slaughter. Zombies were everywhere, crawling all over the big grey ships, now becoming rusting hulks. What could have been havens for thousands became tombs as the ghouls scoured the ships for survivors. Several Z’s saw us and fell into the murky water, not understanding how far away we were.
I moved us past the scene and I was cognizant of how quiet my passengers were. Millions of people lived here before the Upheaval. Now none lived at all.
Chapter 22
We finally reached the Atlantic as we passed Virginia Beach and I gratefully steered the boat south. We had a long trip ahead of us still, but I finally felt like we could make it. Of course, with my luck, we’d get hit with a hurricane which would blow us to Europe and then we’d be in a world of crap. Sarah would never believe me.
We avoided the major cities and steered around dozens of boats whose occupants had long since gone over to the other side. We passed many boats crammed with refugees, all of them undead. Out on the horizon a big cruise ship sat at anchor, but I wasn’t curious to see if we could secure some supplies. As I put it to Tommy, who wanted to try, how was he planning on getting up one hundred feet to the railing?
About a week later, we rounded the southern edge of Florida. We encountered a lot more live people on boats and the Florida Keys were actually living communities. They had realized what was happening and took the drastic step of destroying the bridge that linked them to the mainland. One of the men we talked to said it was the worst thing he had ever done, blowing that bridge. He could see the people on the other side, screaming and crying, holding up their children as if they could appeal to his pity. But he had to protect the people who were here and so in the end, turned his back on the refugees. Every once in a while he would come out to the edge of the bridge and pray for forgiveness, but he never knew if they heard him.
The kids held a conference and between them and the chaperones, they decided to stay in the Keys. I couldn’t blame them; it was as safe a place as could be found, provided the infection didn’t ever become airborne. We left the smaller boat and filled the larger with supplies, topping off the tanks and carrying three five-gallon drums as reserve. The people on the Keys were very happy about us, once they knew what we had done and promised to send a duly elected rep to the new convention which was going to be getting underway soon.
With goodbyes said and grateful hugs exchanged, Tommy, Duncan and myself shoved off once more for the trip home. As we left, I noticed a man standing in the back of the crowd, his eyes fixed intently on me. He looked familiar, but I couldn’t place his heavily bearded face. I put it out of my mind and as we put the horizon behind us, I focused on getting us to the Mississippi and finally home.
Finding Louisiana wasn’t hard, finding an entrance to the Mississippi River was. Since the stoppage of everything because of the rise of the dead, the river was actually on its way to being near drinkable. Since there wasn’t as much sludge and silt pouring out of the river, it was hard to figure out which entrance to take. Some would say that it should be easy, just find New Orleans. But New Orleans actually sits back sixty miles from the Gulf of Mexico and there are at least nine ways to get to the Mississippi. The Big Easy wasn’t so damn easy.
We got our bearings and finally headed north. I had to admit that when I was on the wheel, I tended to give the engine just a tad more throttle. I was anxious as hell to see my son and my wife, praying that they were okay. We still didn’t know anything and for all we did know, they could already be dead. I didn’t want to think about that, but Thorton had been a sure-fire bastard and the men who followed him were on par as well.
I was surprised at the number of living communities we passed. We stopped in several, taking on supplies, trading information. Everyone we spoke with was supportive of what we had done and thanked us for the effort. To a person, they all wanted to see the documents and nearly everyone touched the glass with a kind of reverence. It was during those moments I knew I had done the right thing. People brought out their children and showed them what we had and every man who saw them took care to shake each of our hands.
I spoke with several communities about the need for a new central government and the gathering that was occurring north. They all agreed to send someone to speak for them and I was getting hopeful about our prospects. Many communities spoke of additional survivor towns and they promised to send word to them.
I caught Tommy watching me as we passed by Memphis. That city was as dead as a hammer and I thought the Elvis impersonator zombies were way over the top, even for God’s sense of humor.
“What’s up?” I asked, steering around an errant sandbar.
“I have to ask and I need you to take me seriously,” Tommy said.
That was unusual. “Fire away,” I said, giving the boat a little more throttle through a swift current area.
“What’s your plan? We have all these people coming to us, from all over the place, risking their necks through zombie territory, just for a meeting?”
I thought for a moment. I had, over the past three weeks of travel on the water, given a great deal of thought as to what we were going to do. I hadn’t tried to frame it into a coherent plan before now.
“Well, I’ll tell ya,” I said. “As a species, we damn near bought the farm, lock, stock and henhouse. We got shoved to the brink of extinction and all the technology, weaponry and ability didn’t do us a lick of good. We’d built our defenses around a living enemy that would stop once we pounded them hard enough. We weren’t prepared for a foe that was already dead.” I paused, working on how I would phrase this next part.
“Those of us that survived, did so by a shitload of luck, will and a determination not to go quietly into the dark. Some, like me, had reasons to fight. Others, like you, fought because it wasn’t in you to just quit.”
I looked over at Duncan who was lounging on a couch below us. “Lastly, there were the guys like Duncan, who fought to live because it gave them a sense of purpose they might not otherwise have had.
“So what we have left over is a large group of independent-thinking, hard fighting, surviving people who know what the dark looks like, who the enemy is, and what the promise of the future could be if they are strong enough to reach for it.”
I paused again, steering around another sunken obstacle. The river was full of stuff, especially around the bridges. It wasn’t unusual to find several stacks of cars under major bridges.
“That sound like any group of people you might know, or remember from your history books?” I asked, looking sideways at Tommy.
Tommy frowned in thought, then he punched me on the arm. “I’ll be dammed.”
I laughed. “Already there, welcome to the club.”
Four days later, I docked the big boat quietly at the pier at Starved Rock. It was a little past dusk when we landed and I was happy to see the boat we had sent Janna home in tied up to the dock. At least someone made it back safe.
We decided to leave the documents on the boat. They would be safe enough and since we were going to be transporting them north a
nyway, it was silly to carry them out only to bring them back on board.
Walking up the pathway to the lodge, a shadow disengaged itself from the woods. We reacted on instinct, spread out, and I took point, holding my pickaxe low and to the left, while my other hand held my SIG. I didn’t know who it might be and if it was one of Thorton’s men he was going to die slowly.
The shadow stopped and through the still night air I heard Charlie’s voice.
“Hey, guys. Nate with the boat still?”
Relief flooded through me as I moved forward and was fiercely hugged by my friend. I thanked God and returned the favor and then Charlie gave Tommy and Duncan the same treatment. When we had calmed down, Charlie looked back at the boat and when I caught his eye I shook my head. Charlie frowned and dropped his head, his big shoulders moving with the sound of his breathing. When he looked up his eyes were wet with one question.
“How?”
I steered Charlie back towards the lodge and as we went up the trail stairs, I filled him in on the events surrounding Nate’s death. Halfway up the stairs I stopped and stared in wonder at the lodge. Tommy and Duncan stared as well and it took a moment before Charlie realized what we were staring at.
“Oh, the lights? Yeah, we’ve had power for a few weeks now. Turns out the little dam was a power plant for the locks and I just diverted the power up here. Attracts all kinds of attention, but this way the Z’s come to us and we just finish them easily.”
I had to admit it was nearly the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I hurried up the stairs and stopped on the patio. The big hall was lit up and Sarah and Jake were reading on one of the couches. My eyes filled with unbidden tears as I took in the scene, all of the fear and worry vanishing in a moment and I swore right then I would never leave these two again.
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