“Hey, if you could do it any better or faster, than you should have stepped up and done it,” Martin said laughing.
“I would do it much faster, though I highly doubt I would have done it any better, I would simply tie it down and be on my way,” Conway said.
“Shall we go then?” Emma asked, all suited up.
“Yes, let’s go,” Conway said.
“Get back soon!” Ashley said shouting as they were already distant.
We arrived at our destination, the crate should be over there where the bright red ball floats, Conway explaining as they get closer.
“This hook is pretty heavy, so you won’t have any problem, just hold on to it and I am sure you will sink with it,” Conway said.
“Don’t worry, I will simply follow the line to the crate,” Emma said.
“How long will this take?” Martin asked.
“Well it’s not as far as I expected, so for starters it’s not deep, so not long at all,” Emma said.
“Just be safe, we never know what might be going on in these waters,” Conway said as he ties down the hook against Emma.
Emma opens her oxygen tank as she fall backwards into the water, both Conway and Martin being worried about her. The water is dark since it’s so cloudy, least the flash light they found in the diving store is really good quality it shines pretty far. Emma is surprised how deep its getting, she didn’t figure it will be this deep since its rather close to Fort Jefferson, she could easily swim this far.
The water only gets darker the deeper she goes, but she is relieved to see the bottom with the crate exactly where it’s meant to be, terror and fear strikes as she can see a shark that must be at least 7 foot if not 8.
Emma goes down slowly, it looks a lot like a Bull shark as she gets closer to the crate, she can see clearly now, it’s a Bull shark, it must be dead, everywhere along the fins and around the mouth it already started to decompose, poor thing Emma thought to herself as she continues toward the crate.
Struggling to untie the hook, she sees the water is murky, it looks like an entire sand cloud where the shark used to be, she freaks out and pulls on the hook desperately to get it lose, managing to do so fairly easily.
She looks over to where the shark was, the sand is still residing, she’s not scared of a carcass, though she does fear for other sharks that might be feasting on the dead one this very moment, she leans towards the crate, hooking it, trying to stay as close and flat against the crate as possible, she pulls on the line attached to the ball.
Conway sees the ball bouncing up and down and starts to turn the crank with Martins help it goes rather fast, unaware that there is sharks in the water, Emma stares into the dark water, using her flash light it works well but not well enough, almost having an heart attack when one just went past her slowly.
She hopes and prays that staying close to the crate will actually work, but before she could even see it coming, one came crashing into the crate right next to her, not hard, but hard enough for Conway to feel it on the boat. Emma looks up and can see it swimming right over the crate it’s still far, trying to think of a plan to avoid this thing.
Thinking maybe if she was beneath the crate, it wouldn’t notice her, still it might not be the best idea as if it did decide to swim deeper then it will surely notice her much easier. Before she could think of a valid plan, the crate gets bumped again, Emma noticed the hook is holding the crate just barely, looking back up, she can see that she is getting closer and soon she will be out of the water in no time.
Believing everything will be fine, the shark passed her again, bumping slightly into her left side; she loses her grip with the impact, floating beside the crate, slightly dazed, it took her only seconds to realize that she needs to swim, as she starts swimming, already knowing it’s too late, feeling three painful crunches on her leg with one yank deeper into the water before it let go.
She doesn’t look down, in shock she struggles to swim, managing to reach the top she yells out to Conway to help her, Martin held onto the crank as Conway immediately took the boat over, arriving alongside her, she gets yanked under water again, immediately to surface again with a pool of blood surrounding her.
Conway held out his arm to grab her but it was too late, it came back, surfacing partially as it snatched Emma that was just out of Conway’s reach, he can hear her scream as she gets pulled around, within a few seconds it was over, she was dragged under. Conway still waited but the only thing that arose from the water was blood, enough that almost surrounded the entire boat.
Conway insisted Martin held on to that crank for dear life as they have to get out of the water immediately, Conway realized this after seeing the shark but mostly after he realized the four extra fins.
Arriving, on the beach they quickly grabbed the crate, they pulled and yanked on it, fearing their lives in to process as they are still too deep in the water, deep enough to get attacked, they managed to pull the crate on shore, just in time as they can see multiple fins circling close by, Martin can’t believe they made it, neither could Conway.
After opening the crate, they found wrapped up blankets that was dry, pillows, canned food, fresh meat, coffee a flare gun and a pistol, Conway was emotionally destroyed, he was sad and angry at the same time.
“How could we let her die for this? For pillows, blankets and some canned food? We have plenty of that the only damn thing worth something in that crate was the pistol and that’s by far not worth someone life,” Conway said loudly out of anger.
“We didn’t know that, it’s not our fault,” Martin said.
“You know, I will have to break the bad news to her mother and daughter?” Conway asked, crying.
“I was with you and I will be with you when you have to tell them,” Martin said.
“Then we better get to it! Waiting won’t change a damn thing,” Conway said.
They share the bad news with the remaining family Emma had left and they were heart broken, Conway couldn’t stand it, he couldn’t get over the fact that he would’ve gone, it wasn’t supposed to be Emma.
Conway gave everyone a break, simply some time for him to get over the loss of Emma, he told everyone to take a break, sadly no longer than a week, arriving at his room Conway felt bad and unhappy enough that made him cry once more.
“Don’t cry, it’s not your fault, no matter who went into that water at that moment, they would have all faced the same death,” Ashley said.
“You don’t understand, I agreed she could go into the water and she ended up dying for nothing,” Conway said.
“It was her time, and no you’re wrong, she didn’t die for nothing, she taught everyone to be aware no matter how good things are going,” Ashley said with a few tears.
“Isn’t that what everyone teaches when they die, especially in our time now?” Conway asked.
“Maybe, you know Emma told me that we shouldn’t give up hope, no until it’s all over” Ashley said, as she hugs Conway, feeling slightly better knowing that Emma would want them to carry on.
“What scares me the most is the news was accurate when all of this started,” Conway said.
“You know, we were told that animals can get infected to but we came to believe they don’t since we don’t see infected animals,” Conway said.
“Yes why?” Ashley asked.
“Because it’s true, when I saw that shark it was clearly already decaying, it should have been dead, I saw it all, the moment it grabbed Emma,” Conway said.
“It could have just been a few bad injuries,” Ashley said.
“It wasn’t, not even a minute later there were a total of 4 maybe even more, we saw the fins, and they didn’t circle around her, they followed us all the way back. Best part of all, it wasn’t four anymore we could see a lot more when we reached the beach, now what normal shark shows that type of behavior?” Conway asked.
“I don’t know, you should get some rest, we can talk more about this later,” Ashley said.
Three days passed, three days ago when they put up a memorial next to Danny and William, Conway figured that it would have been the right thing to do, her mother really stepped up her game and is looking after her daughter. Conway and Ashley already talked about it, when Emma’s mother pass away due to old age or getting killed, then they will personally take care of Sally.
Martin made a pretty grave stone for her, with just paint and varnish with her name nicely carved out of the small round rock he found, he also found her book that they have all been writing in, like one big journal, he gave this to Conway straight away. Since each person she knew and care for wrote pages and was added to it secretly, without anyone knowing what another wrote, it was already thick with just their writing including William’s and Danny’s.
Martin suggested that they should do this to and add it to her book or journal, each one can write their story and put it in this book, it will be great for education if anyone had to survive or if there had to be a next generation. Conway agreed and thought it was a good idea, since mostly everything was destroyed and many have been killed or infected, a new little book of history will do any one good that happened to read it.
“I have a theory, about the shark that day,” Martin said.
“Go ahead, please share,” Conway said.
“It’s almost been a year ago since the virus went viral, across the world when everything stopped and time almost stood still,” Martin said.
“It was dangerous but everything went so slow, we learned things daily about those things and then all of a sudden they will change and everything we learned was a waste of time,” Martin said.
“As you know at start they were pretty much weak, sick people walking around waiting to die any second,” Martin said.
“We relied on this as a weakness and then they could smell, we relied on this and then they could hear changing every day,” Martin said.
“We learned the ones that get to eat are the strong ones and the ones that don’t are the weak ones,” Martin said.
“Now just a few days ago, we discovered sharks that are infected,” Martin said.
“What are you trying to say?” Conway asked staring at Martin.
“Well if you consider everything that has happened up until now, is exactly how it was described by the news, then I think its ok to say that this virus they made is evolving by the day,” Martin said.
“Like bugs or any other living creature, they evolve to be able to survive in their environments, if you give them enough time to do so, so unless they researched this virus for its entire life time, none of them could have ever knew what this virus might turn into,” Martin said explaining.
“It could make sense in many ways, though only time will prove your theory until then we can’t stop operating daily,” Conway said.
“No we can’t, I was merely putting my theory on the table,” Martin said.
“Well, it’s definitely something worth thinking about,” Conway said as Martin left.
Chapter 15: Restoration
The defenses is looking good, in fact everything is looking good but as taught many times over and over again, Conway wont bargain on anything to last, he will always make sure that he is prepared for the worst case scenario. There is only three months left until Christmas, Conway figured they should at least try and do something nice for a change, maybe pull the generator out, set up a few lights and have a large barbeque.
Since Bobby has been behaving well since he was put in there, it might be ok to let him go after two months, which should have been enough time for him to learn his lesson.
Having done so much in so little time, Conway can hardly believe it, everyone really pulled through well, all trying their best to play their parts and make everything happen, even if many lives have been lost.
Conway is interrupted by Martin calling him to come as fast as possible, Conway follows Martin and as they get closer to the entrance, Conway can hear this loud sound, soon realizing it was the blades of chopper spinning. Conway can’t help but wonder if this is trouble or possibly even help, since he can see the pilot is dressed in a military uniform, Conway can only hope as he waits patiently for the man to get out and approach.
“I want to speak to the leader of this group,” The man asked.
“You are speaking to him,” Conway said.
“I am Private James Orton, recently not long ago, I dropped a supply crate for you,” James said.
“That was useless, it only got a very important person killed,” Conway said.
“How so, it wouldn’t be too hard to fetch it, even if it’s a little offshore,” James said.
“Well, apparently the sharks in these waters have been infected and killed the person that went down to get it,” Conway said.
“I am truly sorry to hear that, I will have to see such a specimen myself in order to believe you,” James said.
“Just tell me what you want and be on your way,” Conway said angrily.
“I want a place to stay, yesterday I had to go out and drop supplies, if I ever had to find any survivors, when I returned to base it was over run, everyone was dead,” James said.
“Are you sure about that?” Conway asked.
“Went through each body myself,” James said.
“Then I am sorry to ask but what exactly did you have there, because most likely we will need all of it,” Conway said.
“It’s not a big base, if that’s what you are thinking but we do have food, some weapons with almost no ammo left and of course we have two 50.Calibers, this is the only thing that I can offer, that will be of use to your group,” James said.
“What is that exactly?” Conway asked.
“Its two heavy machine guns, you can mount them pretty much anywhere to mostly anything, best way to boost your defenses,” James said.
“Since you have the helicopter, I want the following, all the food, any weapons with or without ammo and both of those two guns you’re talking about,” Conway said.
“No can do, this is the reason I want refuge, it’s only for a short while so that I can get a few repairs done, then I will be leaving again. To head back to Santa Rosa Beach is insane, the fuel left there will surely not get us back; if you want you will have to fetch it with a decent size vehicle,” James said.
“No can do, we don’t have many people left, we can’t travel that distance,” Conway said.
“If you can get me closer, then I can go,” Martin said.
“I want to go to,” Debra said.
“I can maybe go as far as Lake City, that’s a little more than half way at least,” James said.
“Hold on a second, Martin its crazy out there you know that, you can’t go alone,” Conway said.
“Look, if you know what those guns are capable of then we must go and fetch them and Debra will go with me,” Martin said.
“She can’t do anything, she will just get in your way,” Conway said out loud.
This made Debra upset, though Conway has a decent point, knowing she hasn’t made much contribution to the team. As much as Conway said, he didn’t get through to Martin, the easiest he could do, is let him go, there is no point in trying to help if they don’t want to be helped.
Several minutes passed and they were ready to go, it’s not going to be easy Martin knows this much but if they do manage to get there and bring back those weapons, then there is no way even a big horde can pass through to attack Key West, with any luck they can get explosives to take down the bridge entirely.
Conway can only worry about them, Martin had proven himself extremely worthy to the group, Debra in the other hand doesn’t deserve to die either, even if she’s a lazy brat. Losing her won’t make any difference but losing Martin would m
ean a lot to the entire group.
The day went by slowly, most of the work has been done, Conway insisted they clean up, at least, make things look slightly better; no one wants to live in a mess like this, especially when it still reeks of death and decay.
James have already returned, Martin and Debra have been dropped down successfully, Conway isn’t slightly impressed with either of them, knowing that Martin might be right and possibly the only one here that would return with the weapons.
Its dark, cold and late Debra refused to continue until morning, but Martin wanted none of it and suggested they keep on moving. They could easily take a car but that will be too loud and to risky especially if the horde that overrun there base is still around and close, they will require a vehicle once they arrive at base.
Its early morning, Martin and Debra can hear all types of screams, at times even growling, they moved fast and softly, until it was decided to take a car, it was needed even if Martin didn’t like the idea, but from the sounds of things its getting dangerous, he also didn’t want to get killed for no reason or just because he didn’t make the right decisions.
Arriving at the camp, Martin could really see that these people had no chance against the horde, believing, it’s because they were simply out here in the open. What disturbs him most, is that one military vehicle is smashed, there is no way this thing would run and there is nothing that it could have crashed into. He did see that big creature that he hadn’t told Conway about but as long he doesn’t have to, he won’t say a word until he absolutely must.
The guns are un-mounted, with loads of ammo for it; James was right though the rest is useless to us since there isn’t much ammo to spare for them, and he did find an RPG a Rocket-propelled grenade.
This will be useful if they do have to face that thing, or things, since Martin only came up close to seeing one, he believes that they must be rare.
He and Debra loads the food into the truck, after they loaded the weapons, knowing they can’t stay long, before they arrived there was a lot of screaming and its getting much louder. Martin got into the truck waiting for Debra, it’s been at least four minutes now, Martin got inpatient as she just needed to go pee, how far did she need to go to do that, looking through the base he finds nothing and no one.
The End Page 19