The End

by Herman Grobler

  “It’s only to make it bearable and stop some of the bleeding, you will have to escape,” Emma said.

  “Ok,” Danny said shivering in pain.

  “Here is a kit, it contains everything you need to stitch yourself up once you reach a safe distance,” Emma said worriedly.

  “It’s not so bad,” Danny said as Emma unties him.

  “Trust me, it’s bad you need to hurry or you will bleed to death,” Emma said shocked as Danny cripple away.

  Emma watch over Danny making his way, making sure he reaches the boat safely, he takes off slowly but manages to escape. Emma have no hope left for him, knowing that he will bleed to death before he can even reach Key West.

  Emma starts to tie down Bobby, hitting him twice over the head with a pan, just to make sure he stays down, she firmly ties him up, before she heads outside, firing one shot to get everyone’s attention.

  “You are all filthy pigs!” Emma said angrily as the people stare at her.

  “Do you have any idea in how much pain he was, while he was being tortured for almost the last hour?” Emma said shouting and crying.

  “It could have been anything, I just got the equipment to diagnose him, did you care, you didn’t even give me the chance to use that equipment!” Emma said crying.

  “But you know what, when you are on my bed seeking help, I will let you suffer, I won’t help you, I simply won’t care just like all of you didn’t care here today,” Emma said angrily as she walks away sniffing.

  She made a valid point, everyone felt horrible even her mother; she really got to all of them, Emma herself felt bad, she made a promise to William that she will take care of Danny until his very last breath. Knowing she didn’t do everything that she could to help him, she blames herself for not going any sooner, knowing something was wrong the moment he mentioned it will take an hour.

  Danny leans backwards trying to relax, with all this pain, even he is sure that he will pretty much die soon especially with his sickness, knowing that he won’t be able to give himself proper stitches, arriving at the shores of Key West far away from the for. Danny knows he needs a place to hide, since William is looking for supplies, it has to be a place where no one can find him, a place where he can die peacefully.

  Strange enough the pain isn’t that bad, now that Danny found a perfect spot in one of the shops, that has been swept clean of resources. Still bleeding Danny decided that he won’t even try to give himself stitches; just the entire idea of going near his private areas with a needle sends chills up his spine. He sits down slowly on a pillow he grabbed, laying himself down gently closing his eyes.

  Danny thinks of all the good times he had, at this moment even the bad times was good compared to now, he could only be grateful to have met William, saying his last prayer for William to be happy, before he could finish, everything just went blank for Danny, his breathing slowed down with every passing second.

  Chapter 8: Approaching Death

  There is only 4 hours left and the supply run has gone very bad, there should still be enough food to last a month, if it’s only us and if we ration it carefully, at least until we find more.

  “How can there be so many of them?” William asked.

  “I don’t know something must be wrong,” Martin said.

  “When we came on this run, there wasn’t even this many,” William said concerned.

  “Unless they learned to pilot a plane or something, there can only be one way into Key West,” Markus said.

  “This is no time for joking around,” William said.

  “He’s right, there is only one way they could get here and that’s the bridge,” Martin said.

  “I highly doubt it, why would they travel so far without any encouragement?” William asked.

  “Your guess is as good as mine,” Martin said.

  “To be on the safe side, we should go check it out,” William said

  “We will never make it back in time if we do, it’s late, you said it yourself, we only have 4 hours left,” Markus said.

  “Are you always this lazy?” Martin asked, William staring curiously.

  “No, but why risk our lives, when we can retreat to the Fort?” Markus asked smiling.

  “If they over run Fort West, then we will need to go further to get supplies or fight endlessly at this rate,” William said.

  “I guess you make a valid point,” Markus said.

  “Then it settled, let’s get to it then,” Martin said, after taking a big sip of water.

  The travel was good and uninterrupted, as they get closer to the bridge more and more of them showed up, a few killings had to take place in order to pass safely, reaching a good lookout, the group is horrified.

  All of them are struck with fear; to see the entrance to the bridge blocked by these things, as far as the eye can see, there is absolutely no way out other than boat or plane. William doesn't consider this to be a real threat to them just yet, knowing that they actually are capable of drowning just like a real human being, Emma said that the organs fail much faster when they fill up with water and this results in death.

  Even though they will simply die, if they ever had to enter the water, it will be a big mess, William already saw what this looked like by the beaches, the water gets murky and bloody, it’s defiantly a risk if this many had to drown and die in the waters.

  “What are we going to do now?” Markus asked.

  “William, we can’t stay for much longer, we will get surrounded before we even know it,” Martin said.

  “What are we going to do now?” Markus asked again.

  “We go, we do nothing for now,” William said.

  “We need to deal with this somehow,” Martin said.

  “We must, it will be the highest priority, as soon as we get out of here,” William said.

  The group struggles to get back, managing to get half way but stuck on 1st street, left, right or straight there is to many of them, they seem highly active almost like they are looking for something, it could also be, that its late and the sun will be down in maybe two hours.

  “How long are we going to wait here?” Markus asked.

  “It could be a while, I know, I have been in this situation before,” William said.

  “They will clear out right?” Markus asked.

  “You saw how many there were, Key West is small, they will most likely just get more than less,” William said.

  “Unless we distract them, once they move away then we can make a run for it,” Martin said.

  “Whoa, hold on a second, I really don’t do all that well when it comes to running,” William said.

  “You said it yourself, either we run or we wait and might never get down this roof again,” Martin said.

  “Ok, so how do you want to distract them?” Markus asked.

  “I found these fire crackers,” Martin said laughing softly.

  “Not funny,” William said.

  “So the plan, I wrap this around a can of food for some weight and throw it as far as I can,” Martin said.

  “Then we just run? Markus asked.

  “That doesn’t seem like much of a plan,” William said sarcastically.

  “Well, I’m not going to stay here and then in the end have no way to escape,” Martin said.

  “Let’s make one thing clear, it will be each man on his own, so just run when they start moving away,” Martin said.

  Before William could even start complaining that he can’t run fast or even last a little jog, the flint went up in bright sparkles. Martin throws the can of food pretty far; far enough, at least, William didn’t even get the opportunity to say anything before the crackers went off, leaving white smoke with each blast.

  Its working perfectly, Martin made the first run, with Markus and William following, it’s hard on William’s lungs as he falls behind slowly. The crackers already stopped firing, they are spreading out again but it doesn’t seem like they are following.

  Seems like the s
udden loud continues bangs made them a little confused, William is breathing like a dying ox, managing to at least reach the second block where Martin and Markus took a short breather, they agree to go silently from there on out.

  To Williams surprise after arriving at Fort Zachary, believing that the worse is behind them, he sees that even more survivors have shown up, most likely the ones that fled from the horde, no one will know, it’s not many, William could count 12 survivors.

  This makes it very complicated for William, knowing that he will have to protect these people, with little explanation, he warns everyone about the horde heading straight this way, in a few hours this entire area will be a war zone.

  William can see that the people are frightened at the same time he can see that these people are all willing to help; the only thing left now is to warn the others and call for immediate supplies, that’s the only reason why a flare gun is kept, no idea if they would even see the flare signal.

  William fires 3 flares and to be safe he sends Martin to take the boat and head back straight away, to tell them what’s about to happen, the main reason for sending Martin, is to get all the weapons possible including anything that could make a distraction with all the cable a fencing they can carry with one trip.

  Martin arrives at Fort Jefferson, rushing over trying to find Emma, he notices the pool of blood in her tent even though she wasn’t there, rushing back to his tent he finds Emma with Bobby tied up and bleeding slightly.

  “What the hell happened?” Martin asked angrily.

  “Your brother over here, tortured one of our people,” Emma said furiously.

  “Who, who did he torture?” Martin asked.

  “Danny, one that was already sick and injured,” Emma said crying.

  “Look, I will deal with my brother personally we are in serious trouble,” Martin said fast before Emma could continue blabbing.

  “What trouble?” Emma asked.

  “The Fort at Key West, there is more survivors but there is entire horde approaching them and we don’t have enough time to bring them here, I need all the weapons, fencing and anything that can make noise,” Martin said as he catches his breath.

  “How do I know you’re not trying to trick me,” Emma asked suspiciously.

  “You don’t, but if you don’t give the weapons, then the death of all those people will be on your hands not mine,” Martin said.

  “Fine, I will get people to load them, you should go and find Taylor he is the only one I know that can fire a weapon,” Emma said.

  “Yes, he can and so can Samantha,” Martin said.

  “Sure, take her as well then, beside you know her better than I do, just go now,” Emma said.

  Martin rushes over sending both Taylor and Samantha to go grab weapons and help loading, while he searches for anything that can make noise. Searching for several minutes Martin found nothing just pots and pans, Martin figures if they can hook them up to some type of rope and hang them it should really confuse those bastards.

  William tries hard to wait patiently, trying hard not to freak out as his heart is pounding fast and hard in his chest, with no doubt this will be his first real fight against these things. Stressing that the fact is there is so many of them, so many, William highly doubt they will be able to defend the Fort and if Martin doesn’t hurry up they won’t be defending or retreating at all.

  Its pitch dark, small drum fires is the only source of light, starting up the generator unprepared will only be for the one that has a death wish, the group of survivors try hard to secure the barricades as silently as possible. William starts stressing all over again with the slightest noise, might it be a can that drop or someone whispering too loudly. William knows that this is the time to man up and face this until there is absolutely no other option to retreat if they arrive here on time; it’s been at least 20 minutes now.

  It’s disturbing how loud their moaning is, it’s scary as hell especially in such large numbers, according to the small scout group William put together on the last second, those things are still far away, still it’s so loud it’s hard to believe that they are still distant. William is starting to lose hope, for all he knows Martin could be chilling in his tent, nicely tucked in his warm, cozy little bed.

  William gets ready to pray, before he could start he hears the boats approaching, he walks fast and hastily towards the docking areas, excited and happy, with a lot of relieve that they made it in time.

  “Emma, what are you doing here, you have a daughter to take care of,” William said angrily.

  “How can you let her come,” William said staring angrily at Martin.

  “There were some complications while we were gone,” Martin said.

  “What complications? Is it Danny, is he worse? William asked concerned.

  “He is a lot worse,” Emma said with tears.

  “I see, if you did everything you could, then no one can blame you,” William said in a very upsetting voice.

  “It’s not that, Emma go ahead, explain to him what happened,” Martin said.

  “Martin’s brother he thought he was infected, he took actions into his own hands, the people voted me aside so that Bobby can murder him, I was held back by everyone,” Emma said.

  “So he is dead?” William asked with tears, trying hard to hold it back.

  “No, Bobby didn’t kill him, instead he tortured him, I set him free but the damage was already done, I gave him a few stitches to stop the mass bleeding and then I let him escape, if he made it or not, I don’t know” Emma said crying softly.

  “William, we will find Danny he must be here somewhere and once this is all over then I will personally treat my brother the same way he treated Danny,” Martin said disappointed.

  “No Martin, I am sorry but I will be talking to Bobby personally,” William said angrily

  “Go find the best capable men here to search for him ask around and send them to search the area in front of the horde,” William said.

  “I will do that immediately and I will get a few to help unload everything,” Martin said

  “Just go, go now,” William said angrily.

  Martin is furious over his brother’s actions, everything was going good, no everything was better than good; William has proven himself as a caring person and well, worth sticking to his side and maybe have a new start. A new start that’s all Martin ever wanted but could never have life is always forcing his hand to do something he isn’t supposed to do.

  Martin found 4 of the survivors that seem to have some skill, he explains to them not to wonder of too far and not to close to the horde approaching, they are not ready to defend just yet. Martin can only hope that these people have the brains like they are claiming to have.

  Martin thinks hard on what he can possible do to fix this mess Bobby made, knowing that the only way is to take this riffle, point and shoot, one shot is all he would ever need. Martin continues planning and figure it’s for the best to simply wait; taking the shot now will surely make him guilty however once those things reach the Fort then it can easily be anyone that shot William by accident.

  Martin praise his brilliant idea as this will give him the opportunity to take over the group while clearing his brother’s name. Martin swear to himself that he will change after this very last sin, after William has been removed from the picture, he can then lead the people like a good leader and prove to himself that anyone can change, now all that can be done, is to wait patiently for the right moment.

  Chapter 9: Survival

  A large group of people unload some of the material agreeing that it might not be the best idea to unload all the weaponry, they can rest easy knowing not all weapons will be lost if they had to fail. Least they will be able to retreat easier, three more survivors joins up with the group, William finds it hard to believe that in a time like this there will be more showing up, the more that is capable of wielding a gun the better.

  “Are you William?” Jason asked.

  “
Yes what do you want, if you haven’t realized we don’t have time to chit chat,” William said.

  “I agree we don’t but have you seen three girls that might have arrived here earlier?” Jason asked.

  “Go look through the people and you tell me, the people you see here is all the new survivors that joined us here recently,” William said.

  “When I say recent I mean they joined today,” William said.

  “I see, damn it,” Jason said worried.

  “Why ask?” William asked.

  “It’s my two daughters and his girlfriend,” Jason said.

  “They have to be here, they would’ve come here in hopes of safe refuge, if not here then at Fort Jefferson,” Jason said.

  “I know it’s much to ask, but we need to look for them, before those things get to close,” Jason said.

  “Hey look mister, I am running the shots here, as far as I am concerned they might be dead, the people here and now need to stick together,” William said.

  “Look I to lost some one recently, knowing that he is not dead makes everything just worse, he is between us and that horde approaching, I have people searching for him, if they find anyone they will bring them back, trust me,” William said confidently.

  “I have a good idea, since you are armed with weapons I take it you are capable of firing them, we need all the help we can get so get your people armed, in the boat over there we should still have some to spare,” William said, being very serious.

  “In return for your help, if we survive then I will give you an entire group to go search for your daughters, I will even go with you myself,” William said.

  “Sorry no deal, I will be searching for them right now,” Jason said.

  “Please stay, you know you can’t go back or through them for a proper search, you will be dead before you even find them,” William said.

  “He has a point you know,” Conway said.

  “Who are you again?” William asked.

  “My name is Conway, and that’s Sarah over there she can’t handle a gun, just putting that out there,” Conway said.