by Howard, Bob
The good news was that the moat was effective at keeping people away from Mud Island, but that was also the bad news. There was no way for Iris and her group to cross the moat or take a boat across land to reach the moat. That left them with only one option, and that was to find a boat in Surfside and use it to reach Mud Island from sea.
They could see the marina ahead and they were hoping to find a boat before it got dark, but Kathy and the Chief had told them about the chaos and death at all marinas. There was only a slim chance that there would be a boat they could use that was tied to a dock.
Their best bet would be to find a sail boat that was at anchor far enough from shore to have been spared the damage of the first night, but anything that had been anchored that far out would have been forced to endure over five years of bad weather. Even if there had been no hurricanes or tropical storms, there were bound to have been storms bad enough to swamp a boat at anchor near the marina.
Even in daylight years after the infection began, it wouldn’t take an expert investigator very long to describe the scene that must have unfolded at the marina. There were no more bodies, just piles of rags and bones spread around on the pier that led to all of the slips.
In its glory days the marina held over three hundred boats of all sizes. A seawall had been built across the entrance to protect it from the wakes of bigger ships as they passed by, and there was an entrance at one end and exit at the other. The area had been kept as pristine as possible, and it was unlikely that big ships ever came in too close, but the seawall was necessary. This marina was intended for important people, and accommodations must have been the best when the marina was alive.
On the day when money became worthless, so did the status of the people who could afford to dock their boats here. The marina had been swamped with desperate people who were trying to save their families, and they would do so even at the cost of someone else’s life. The parking lot that was used to luxury cars was full of pickup trucks and minivans. Boats that managed to carry people to safety left the marina with bullet holes in their windshields and blood on their seats and decks.
The rest of the boats were upside down, resting on the bottom, or at least half full of water. Broken masts of sailboats lay across the wreckage like death shrouds, not a single one without a tear. The five survivors stood side by side and remembered their own first days of terror in Wilmington, and despite everything they had seen since leaving Charlotte, they realized they had blocked out in their minds just how bad that day had been. If they had remembered, maybe they would still be safe in their shelter on Ambassadors Island.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Room Service
Year Six of the Decline
The marina featured a five star hotel for its rich clients, and it curved around the southern side of the slips. That way its guests could not only see their prestigious yachts, but they could see if someone famous was coming into the marina. Twenty stories tall, it had a grand view of the beach in both directions for miles.
George had his attention so focused on the hotel that he didn’t hear Iris ask him if he could see something the rest of them might be interested to know about. Sherry poked her husband in the ribs and asked him what he was doing. The rest of them were feeling like they had come to the end of the road, but George was sightseeing.
“Do you think it’s safe to go in there?” he asked.
“Safe?”
Sora was regarding his friend with an expression that said he might be going insane.
“Yeah, safe,” said George. “The higher we get the further we can see. If there’s a usable boat anywhere within a hundred miles we should be able to see it from up there, and check it out. It goes right down to the water’s edge.”
“I don’t know if a hundred miles is accurate,” said Iris, “but I get your point. I just don’t know if I want to go into a building that was probably a death trap for a few thousand people.”
“Maybe we don’t have to go all the way to the top,” said Yuni. “Maybe just high enough to see down the beach in both directions.”
“Good point,” said George. “Come on, Iris. It’s worth a shot. If we can just get a look at the other side of that sea wall we might find something useful.”
“I doubt it,” said Iris, “but if we can see the other marinas from one place, it would save a lot of time on the ground going from one place to the next.”
“You remember what the Chief said about buildings?” asked Sherry.
“Too clearly,” said Iris. “Buildings are worse than finding one or two infected wandering around inside your shelter. Especially buildings that were meant to hold that many people.”
“All we have to do is get into the stairwell on the end,” said George. “We don’t need to go near the areas that would’ve been crowded.”
Sora asked, “You don’t think the stairwell would have been crowded on that first day? I’ve got a news flash for you. Anyone with half a brain wouldn’t have been waiting for an elevator.”
“We’re talking about rich people. They wouldn’t have been on the stairs.”
George was getting defensive, and they had all seen it before. If he got it in his head that it was a good idea, then it didn’t matter how bad it was. They all knew he was going to go into that hotel.
“Let’s play it by ear,” said Iris. “If it looks safe from the fire entry at the end of the building we’ll go in. We should find something down here to pry the door open. How about a lug wrench from one of those pickups out front?”
George couldn’t have been happier and ran off to get a lug wrench. Sherry didn’t seem to be too happy about it, and neither did the Tanakas.
“Why did you give in so easily?” asked Sherry. “You usually stand up to George until he backs down.”
“This time he’s right,” said Iris. “We could save a full day or even two just by getting high enough to see down the beaches, but like I said, we’ll play it by ear. If that place is full of the infected, we’re getting out fast.”
As soon as George got back they crossed a courtyard in the marina that led to the hotel. Golf carts lined one side of the brick sidewalks for people who preferred a slow ride over a little exercise. Everything was overgrown with weeds and tall grass, but it was easy to see that this had been an expensive place back when things like this mattered to people.
Getting to the end of the hotel proved to be more difficult than they had expected. The vegetation that was meant to make the courtyard feel like an island paradise had gotten so thick that it actually became dark walking through tunnels of tall vines. They followed the untended sidewalks much further than they would have gone if they had known it was so overgrown and found themselves at the back stairwell doors without even realizing they had gone far enough.
“That’s one spooky garden,” said Sherry. “George, this had better work because I don’t want to have all of that be for nothing. We have to go back through that stuff again.”
Iris wished she had listened to the others. The glass on the door was crusted with something on the inside, so they couldn’t even see down the dark hallway. She hated to think what it was that had been smeared so thick on the glass that it blocked out the light. It was gloomy on their side of the glass, but it was midnight dark on the inside.
George stuck the lug wrench into the corner of the lock, and Iris held out her hand to stop him.
“This might not be the best idea. We can’t even see in there?”
“I have a flashlight. Besides, we’ve come this far for nothing?”
It was getting late in the day, and it was either now or wait until the next day. They still had to go back through the courtyard and all that jungle, so Iris gave in again.
“At least listen at the door for any sound first. You can’t just bust it open and hope nothing falls out on us.”
George was getting impatient, but he knew he had to humor the rest of them, or they might change their minds about going inside.
&nb
sp; He leaned his head toward the glass, and it felt cold against his ear. He wasn’t sure, but he thought he heard rustling on the other side.
“I don’t hear anything,” he announced as he stood up straight and pushed the lug wrench into the lock for a second time.
The salt air had caused the gaps around the door to fill in with fine sand from the dunes. For over five years the door had remained shut, so it resisted at first. Then the strain on the frame caused the glass pane to shatter, and the entire thing came down in huge splinters. In the jungle enclosed area by the door the sound was deafening, and they found themselves being pushed back by something that was heavy and loose at the same time.
They fell into each other as they tried desperately to bring their weapons up in defense against the mass of junk that fell out on top of them. There were suitcases, handbags, shoe boxes, clothes, and a variety of room decorations. They were all tangled up with each other on the ground, and everything just seemed to keep coming out through the broken door.
As they untangled and scrambled to their feet, they realized they hadn’t been able to see inside the door because it had been barricaded from the other side. It was still dark in the long hallway beyond, but someone had obviously been trying to keep something from getting in.
George shone his flashlight inside, and the light seemed to disappear into the darkness. It only lit up the area just inside the door enough for them to see the door on the left that was labeled with a little sign that said stairwell. He stepped into the darkness without hesitating and pulled on the stairwell door. It opened with a loud scraping sound that seemed to advertise their presence even more than the shattering glass.
If they had all told the truth at that moment, not one of them had ever been more afraid, and everyone was holding their breath. George disappeared into the dark stairwell as if he knew exactly what he was doing, and the others were forced to follow.
Everyone turned on their flashlights, and it got bright enough in the stairwell to see that nothing was moving, but people had died in there. They had to watch their steps as they avoided one pile of bones after the next.
Yuni asked in a voice so low she could hardly hear herself, “What happened to the rats that cleaned up all of the bodies?”
She still sounded to herself like she had been too loud.
“Hopefully they moved on looking for more food,” said Sora. They ran out of things to eat in this building years ago.
He hoped he sounded more convincing than he felt.
“How many floors should we go up?” George asked from the first landing above the others.
“If it feels right let’s try for ten,” said Iris.
“What do you mean, if it feels right?”
Iris had a moment when she seriously thought she might lose her grip on reality and shoot George. She was supposed to be the leader of the group, but right now she was as scared as she had ever been in her life. It was just so dark that every corner looked like it had someone standing in it.
“Stop at each door and listen. If you don’t hear anything, go up to the next floor. If you hear something, we’ll go back down one floor.”
George stopped at the next door and then walked silently up the next flight of stairs. They reached the tenth floor without hearing anything on the other side of any of the doors, but while George was standing with his ear pressed against the cold metal, he heard something through his other ear. There was something in the stairwell above them. He held up one hand in their direction and whispered, “Freeze.”
With the same hand he changed to one finger and pointed upward and then at his right ear. The moan that came from above had to be several stories above them, but it was loud enough for everyone to feel their legs go week. Yuni was at the back of the group, and she lowered her feet down one step at a time. They all turned off their flashlights except George, and he put his hand over the lens of his.
“Do you think we can open the door at the ninth floor without making any noice?” Sora asked George.
There was a rustling sound above, and a piece of paper drifted down to their floor. They watched it as if they had never seen anything like it before.
“We had better get a grip on ourselves, or we won’t be ready to go through the door,” said Iris. “We all know what to do, and we all know how to defend ourselves, so get yourselves together.”
Yuni motioned for Iris to come closer before she whispered to her.
“We’ve had it too easy. We haven’t been running into the problems we expected so far, and George has gotten reckless. That’s got you acting like you’re not sure of yourself, and the rest of us are waiting for him to get us killed.”
“Great time for a pep talk. Got any suggestions?”
Even in the darkness Yuni could see Iris was upset, but she knew her well enough to know she wasn’t mad at her. She was upset because Yuni was right. If George didn’t start acting like this was a dangerous place, he was going to cost someone their life.
Iris clicked her flashlight at George to get his attention, and he came down closer to the group. Iris put just enough anger in her voice to make him understand she was serious.
“You have the rest of us on edge. At any moment we could panic and run. If you don’t start being careful, I’m taking the lead, and you can back me up.”
George had never given even a hint that he couldn’t follow Iris, and she didn’t doubt it had something to do with the five years they had spent in the shelter. He was just being impatient, and she understood that he just wanted to keep making progress. They had already lost days by having to backtrack away from the I-26 horde.
A range of emotions flickered across George’s face. He felt like he was being careful, but the way he had shattered the glass door had left them unnerved. There’s something about the sound of breaking glass that stays in your memory and makes every sound after that seem amplified. The last emotion Iris saw in his features was the George she knew well. He understood, and he felt bad for making his friends feel so frightened.
He gave her a nod and held out a hand for the others to knuckle bump. He gave Sora a pat on the shoulder as he went back down the stairs one level.
They could tell George had gotten the point when he arrived at the door on the ninth floor because he approached it as if it was wired with explosives. He listened longer with one ear pressed against it and then motioned for Iris to do the same. Neither of them heard anything on the other side.
George got down on his knees and gently brushed away small bits of debris that would be in the way when the door opened. When he finished, he brought everyone in close and asked Iris if she had a plan in mind or anything to tell him.
“The doors will be spaced farther apart because these were expensive rooms. They also won’t be easy to break into if the locks are manual, but if they’re key cards, the batteries should have failed by now. We won’t know until you try a door, but some locks fail to the locked position. You can always get out from the inside, but you might not be able to get in. If you have to pry a door, signal us first.”
George gave her a thumbs up and turned back to the door. It didn’t make nearly as much noise as the glass door had, but there was a noticeable change in air pressure in the stairwell.
“What was that?” asked Yuni.
Sora answered, “You don’t smell that? This place must be airtight. Bodies decayed in their rooms, and if the HVAC system shut down, there were trapped gases.”
“Nice. So we’re breathing in dead people.”
George held a finger to his lips, and the Tanakas stopped whispering. He slipped through the door and let it close, but Iris got her fingers around the edge before it could close all the way. She peeked through the gap and could see George’s back as he moved along the wall. He had his flashlight pointed down at an angle, and she could see why.
The floor of the hallway was a mess. There were human remains, but there was no way to guess what had happened here. Some of the rooms were
open, and furniture had been dragged into the hallway. She tried to imagine why there were minibars in the hallway with lamps and mattresses and could only guess that someone was trying to create barricades.
Sora leaned over her shoulder and said, “I think they blocked all the stairs and elevators, locked themselves in their rooms, and then called room service.”
“How many do you figure were already bitten when they put up the barricades?”
“Too many. They put up the barricades and then couldn’t tear them down fast enough. These people probably called 911 right up to the very end.”
George’s flashlight went out.
Iris stared into the darkness where the light had been and held her breath. Sora was practically on her shoulder, and she couldn’t hear him breathing either.
Behind them Yuni was facing the stairs. She was trying to tell herself that she had imagined the sound of something being dragged. They had come up the stairs, so she reasoned the sound must have been somewhere above, but then she wondered if something had entered the stairwell on the eighth floor.
George’s flashlight blinked on again, and he aimed it at his hand so they would see him motion to come forward. Iris opened the door just far enough to go through, and Sora squeezed through with her. The door clicked shut before Yuni knew they had even moved.
It was pitch black in the stairwell, and Yuni didn’t even want to move her feet for fear that she would make a sound. It seemed as if her breath was stuck in her throat, refusing to go in or out. She was paralyzed with fear because she knew she hadn’t imagined the last thing she had heard.
Without eyes to tell her what was there, her mind was filling in the blanks. The sound had come from the landing only eight steps up, and it was low to the floor. Whatever it was, it moved as if it was sweeping garbage ahead of it. When the blanks filled in, she pictured an infected dead dragging its useless body along the floor through the debris, and as if to confirm what her mind was seeing without her eyes, some debris went under the railing of the landing and dropped to the bottom of the stairwell. That made her breath move again as she gasped through her open mouth, and she could taste the old odor of decay.