by Howard, Bob
It wasn’t exactly a straight path, but it gave Jed the ability to see a longer distance up ahead, and he could spot any unwanted company. The good news was that he made better time than he had on the interstate, and he was able to put more distance between himself and the expanding spider web. It was nice to see trees with Spanish moss hanging from them instead of the stuff that resembled Halloween decorations.
By nightfall they had made such good time that they reached the intersection with Highway 17. He had considered using a shortcut at Longpoint Road that would have saved him a few miles of travel, but it didn’t take long to see that it would become a deathtrap. From the overpass on the exit he counted over forty of the infected wandering in his direction. Some of them were already passing directly below him when he peered over the side. None of them were draped in spider webs, which meant the webs hadn’t made it that far yet, but the number of infected meant he would have to use buildings as cover to follow the shortcut.
One thing he had learned in six years of survival was that some buildings had been closed since the beginning, and opening them meant letting out the infected trapped inside. Sometimes you could see them pressed up against glass or hear them making that awful moaning, but most of the time you didn’t know they were there until it was too late. Buildings were great shelter, but you could also get trapped inside them. A rule he had followed was to always be sure there was a back door.
Jed decided that moving from one building to the next in the opposite direction of the infected was a bad idea, so they passed the shortcut and went straight for Highway 17. He was hoping that the infected were taking the shortcut onto Longpoint Road in larger numbers. If they were, he could make up the time he had lost by skipping the shortcut himself. Jed didn’t know how fast that spider web was spreading, but he knew he had to be north of it before he got boxed in.
Judging by the view from the top of the next overpass, Jed could tell life wasn’t going to get any easier. There was a steady stream of the infected going south and passing right under him and Mattie.
“What do you think, Mattie? Can you stay really quiet for me? I think we have to go to the same place where all of these infected are going.”
Before Mattie could answer, they heard a sound they hadn’t heard in a long time. They instinctively ducked lower next to the overpass railing. The sound got louder and was obviously coming in their direction. Mattie lifted her head high enough to see what it was, and Jed pulled her down again. He put his finger over his lips and motioned for her to follow him to the other side of the overpass. If he guessed right, the vehicle would pass below them on Highway 17, and they could see it after it went by. If anyone saw them, they would just think they were infected.
Jed remembered to sit his rifle down on the pavement, but he stood up just in time to see three large vehicles lumber by on the highway below.
“Personnel carriers,” he said in a surprised voice.
Mattie turned from the vehicles back to Jed and then to the vehicles again.
“You mean like buses?”
“Yeah, sort of like buses.”
“Buses carry persons,” said Mattie.
Despite himself, Jed was amused by Mattie’s connection between persons and personnel, but it didn’t pull him away from the moment. Personnel carriers driving down the road were like seeing civilization arriving.
Jed was too surprised to do more than stare with his mouth hanging open. The three vehicles weaved between the old wrecks that lined the road, and when they came to an infected that was wandering down the centerline, they just ran straight over it. It didn’t appear that they even slowed down, and they were so heavy that they hardly even bounced. He shook his head from side to side.
“I wonder what they will do if they come across any of those big spider webs. Let’s go, Mattie. We have to move fast so we can find out where those things are going.”
It was dusk before Jed and Mattie got close enough to the Yorktown to see that he was correct about where they had gone. There had been a few of the infected for them to avoid, but he had reasoned they would also be going more in the direction of the bridge than Patriots Point. They spotted a fire engine that had a ladder extended to the roof of a building, and he could imagine the scene had been fairly common across the country as people scrambled for the safety of rooftops. It was far better to be trapped on a rooftop than trapped on the ground, and quick thinking firemen had hustled as many people up the ladders as they could. Years later it was helping someone again.
He had only driven past Patriots Point when he was a kid. The last time was when he was in high school, and his football team traveled all the way to Charleston for a game against one of the big high schools. They had been beaten badly, but not so bad that they didn’t have fun. The sight of the big bridge and the World War II aircraft carrier was enough to make them feel like they had made it to the championship.
The ship was sinking into the shadows now, and a barrier had been built around Patriots Point by hundreds of containers from the State Ports. The sun was going down on the other side of the ship, and it was getting dark fast, but there was still enough light for Jed to tell where the gate was. All of the containers were placed end to end except one, and it was larger than the others. As a matter of fact, it still had a large sign on it that said it was an oversized load. It was positioned perfectly with its doors facing outward, and Jed didn’t doubt there were doors at the other end that he couldn’t see.
To their right the containers were stacked in a curving line all the way to the bridge. He studied the layout and would have bet anything that the ends of the containers were all open so people could walk through them in safety. The whole thing resembled a freight train that was sitting still on the railroad tracks.
If Jed didn’t have Mattie with him, he would probably be far less cautious, and he would have just gone straight for his target. He wanted to find whoever it was that had gotten his friends killed by building that thing that called the infected dead to come to it. That reminded him. He had far more to worry about now than he had before.
In front of him was an unknown enemy with obvious power. Enough power to defend themselves against the infected, and to some extent the power to control them. They obviously had something in mind for dealing with the infected, but so far they hadn’t revealed what that might be. All around Jed were the infected that had been summoned to the bridge. They would attack him and Mattie if they were spotted, but they were so distracted by the invisible pull of the thing on the bridge that they walked with their heads aimed slightly higher than normal, as if they were being called to their creator.
The thought made Jed get an involuntary shiver. What if these people knew how to call the infected to them because they had something to do with the infection in the first place. If he found out they did, he couldn’t imagine anything stopping him from letting loose the anger he would feel.
Behind Jed was an even more insidious threat that made Jed realize his options had been narrowed to one, but he was the kind of person who always wanted to know what was beyond the last option. He had to go forward. He had to find out what was happening on the Yorktown, but after the Yorktown secrets were exposed, what was going to stop the billions of spiders that were consuming the remnants of civilization? As total darkness fell around him, Jed felt himself ready to give in to the inevitable.
He gave one more thought to what might lay beyond the Yorktown, and he knew it would depend on what happened on the ship. He wondered if they would treat him and Mattie well in return for warning them about the new threat. He mentally filed the thought away as something to try if they were caught by the people in the Yorktown.
If Jed had been stunned by the sight of the personnel carriers, it was a mild reaction compared to how he felt the next time he turned to face the Yorktown. He was just thinking about whether he should sneak past the barrier of containers or if he should try a more direct approach when he saw something beyond the Yorktown.
He hadn’t seen any guards yet, but if he could find one and get his attention without getting shot, it might be the best way to at least get away from two of the threats on his side of the barricade, but what he saw made him forget what he had been thinking.
Without regard for being seen by anyone he stood to his full height on the edge of the building and watched the blinking red light descend toward the coast. It was too dark to see where it was going, but from Jed’s position it looked like it went straight into the water. Then he remembered what was over there. It was Fort Sumter, and that red flashing light could only have been one thing.
Mattie saw it too, but she hadn’t grown up in a world with lights moving through the sky. When Jed stood up, she assumed it was safe to do the same thing, and she saw his reaction to the light.
“Is that a star, Mr. Jed? It’s moving, and it’s the wrong color.”
“No, Mattie, it’s something Mr. Jed hasn’t seen in a long time.”
The loud creak of the hinges on the oversized cargo container tore through the silence of the night. Jed wrapped an arm around Mattie’s waist and pulled her back from the edge of the building. He told her to stay put and then crawled just as quickly back to where they had been standing.
Three personnel carriers were driving through the open doors with their headlights brightly illuminating the container. They were either the same ones he had seen or three different ones. There was no way to tell for sure in the low light. He had assumed they had gotten here before nightfall, but he had taken a different route from them. The noise of their engines were enough to distract the infected from the ‘zombie-call’ on the bridge for at least a few minutes, and if they got delayed by a detour, Jed would have been forced to find a safe hiding place while the infected converged on the area. He figured they would get to Patriots Point long before him, so he chose to cross Mt. Pleasant and use Coleman Blvd.
The doors swung shut as soon as the third personnel carrier was through the opening, and Jed saw why when the crowd of infected emerged from the darkness and pushed up against the container. Whether they were the same vehicles or different ones, Jed saw that he had been right about the attention they would attract. At least fifty of the infected pressed up against the metal doors as if they could see people inside.
On the other side of the wall of containers, the doors were just as loud as they had been on the outside. Jed muttered to himself that the people in charge didn’t pay attention to details, and that was a sign that they weren’t afraid of much. Maybe they would be more afraid of spiders.
The headlight of the personnel carriers lit up a contingent of guards that Jed hadn’t seen before. They were all carrying military style rifles, and Jed wondered what they would have done if he had been seen when he stood up. He told himself not to be stupid again. Then he chuckled when he considered that practically everything he was doing was stupid.
The sound of the engines faded as the vehicles drove toward the Yorktown, and the only noise came from the crowd of infected. They were still hanging around the door, but they were beginning to lose interest in the quiet metal. Jed watched them turn, one by one, and lift their heads in the direction of the bridge.
Jed said out loud in a low voice, “Okay, everyone go home. Nothing to see here.”
“I was just thinking the same thing.”
The voice had come from somewhere behind him, and Jed was sure he had time to turn, find his target, and shoot, but Mattie was behind him too.
“Take your finger away from that trigger if you want the kid to live,” said the voice.
Jed immediately lifted his right hand free of his rifle and held his hand above his head.
“Please just let us go, man. We didn’t mean no harm. We’re just passing through, trying to stay alive like everyone else.”
“Sure you are. I’m sure you’ll forgive me if I don’t want to get knocked out twice in the same day. Is there anybody else up here with you?”
Jed took a chance and turned his head to face the man as he answered.
“No. It’s just me and Mattie.”
Jed had heard once that strangers were less likely to hurt you if they knew your name.
“I’m Jed. And that’s Mattie.”
The man behind Mattie seemed impossibly huge. He was holding a hand gun of some kind loosely aimed toward Mattie.
Jed opened his mouth to say something again, but the man only had to say two words. They were said in a way that made Jed understand the consequences of not obeying.
“Stop talking.”
Jed decided that he needed to keep the big guy from overreacting, so he held out one hand toward him palm first. With his other hand he gently pushed the rifle further away. Then he scooted his body across the rough surface of the roof away from the rifle.
“Smart man. You want to live? You need to keep being that smart.”
The big man motioned toward the side of the building where the ladder was, and Jed put his hands in front of him as he took a step in that direction. He kept his eyes on the man but held one hand out toward Mattie. The man gave Mattie a slight nudge forward, and she gratefully ran to Jed, wrapping her arms around his leg. There was enough light behind the man that Jed saw he wasn’t wearing a uniform.
They crossed the rooftop and climbed down the ladder without talking, and when they reached the fire engine Jed just pulled Mattie off to one side with him. It was quiet except for the sound of the infected that were walking toward the bridge. For some reason Jed could hear the ringing in his ears better, and he wondered if it was because they were so close to the bridge.
Jed saw that the man had taken a moment to pick up his rifle before following them to the ladder. He had it strapped across his back and still had the handgun where he could use it in a hurry if he had to. The man surveyed the area around the truck and motioned for Jed to climb down.
“Nice weapon you got here. Looks like military issue. You don’t mind if I keep it, do you?”
Jed didn’t bother to answer. He just kept following the silent orders of the big man until they found themselves outside the container doors he had watched the personnel carriers drive through.
The man rapped twice on the door and asked in a loud voice, “Who’s on watch tonight?”
It sounded like someone fell down inside the container. It was probably someone who didn’t expect to hear a voice outside the door.
“Who wants to know?”
The voice that answered was higher than normal, and the big man seemed to enjoy it.
“Clemenza.”
There were hushed voices on the other side of the door as if people were arguing in whispers.
“Prove it,” yelled the high voice.
“How about I start pumping lead through this door at you? I’ll bet a bullet would ricochet all over in there and get more than one of you.”
New sounds came out of the darkness around them as the noise had drawn a few of the infected away from the call of the thing on the bridge.
“It’s getting crowded out here. Open the door and you’ll see it’s me, but if I get bit, I’m coming after everyone who didn’t let me in.”
His reputation was apparently enough, because the door opened only a few seconds later. Jed and Mattie went through fast, but he still felt a big hand give him a shove. Jed felt the strength in that arm and knew he had done the right thing by not resisting the big guy.
When the guards saw the man, they were openly surprised, and they started talking all at once. A light turned on, and Jed picked Mattie up from the floor. She held tightly to him with both arms and buried her face in his neck. The guards didn’t pay much attention to them because they were too busy with Clemenza.
They had learned when the personnel carriers arrived about how Clemenza had disappeared on a trip out to the city and how some guy had come back pretending to be him. Clemenza wasn’t amused until he heard that they had the guy in custody on the Yorktown. Jed didn’t have a clue what they were talking about
, but he decided it was a good time to act innocent. The other guys told Clemenza the rumor was that he had been jumped by at least six people. He asked if there was any proof, and one of the guys said they found the bodies of three people. At least that’s what he heard from a friend who knew someone who had been there.
“Someone get me a ride. Tell them I’m coming in with two guests.”
A personnel carrier showed up a few minutes later. Someone had shown Clemenza a measure of respect by sending a uniform, and he had plans for the guy who left him tied up in that marina.
Jed and Mattie were escorted from the vehicle into the ship, and he did his best to reassure Mattie when they separated them. He had expected they wouldn’t know what to think of them other than the fact that they were lucky to be alive. He knew they would interview them separately, and since Mattie didn’t know much about him, she would just tell them the truth. Her parents were bitten, they became infected, and Jed rescued her. They would ask if there was anyone else with them and if they came from a camp. She would tell the truth. He would tell the same story, and their captors would decide they were harmless.
Maybe it would have gone like that if they hadn’t thrown him in a cell with Chief Barnes.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Sabotage
Contagion Extinction Level - Present Day
The population of Fort Sumter had swollen over the years, but Iris knew every face and every name. It was like back in her days as the mayor of the shelter under Ambassadors Island, and it had just become a habit to pay attention when she was introduced to someone. She couldn’t turn a corner without seeing someone she knew, so the shelter felt particularly empty knowing that she wasn’t going to see her family when she turned the next one. She would feel better if she knew the Chief had found the rest of the group. At least they would have each other’s backs.