We got to our destination after driving through a small residential area, and across a long pier or dock. At that point, I had an idea where we were headed to. His boat was docked there, as he had hoped. Ditching the buggy back at the beginning of the dock, we rushed out there where Maxie, calmly and cleanly, pushed the only two zombies out there into the water, where they became even clumsier than they were on land. We did stop to observe, though. They were easily under the water, yet no bubbles were coming out of their mouths as they sat there, thrashing about under the water at us, in slow underwater motion. Whatever made their brains work enough to move their limbs, wasn’t good enough to make them walk back to the shore and out onto the dock. Of course, if the zombies were that smart, we would all have died a very long time ago.
I had been under the impression that Maxie’s boat required a much larger group or crew than just the two of us, but he said that both of us could crew it the few miles he intended to move it. Besides, he used the onboard motor to get us there easily without using the sails. He had gotten permission to dock it at a marina in Carolina Beach, not too far from where most of the soldiers lived.
As he did most of the work and I just followed orders, I was in heaven. It had always been my dream to sail on a real sail boat, and here I was. As we sailed down the waterway that separated the main land from the coastal island and the Atlantic, we watched from the boat a couple of zombies attempt to walk out into the water after us. They had no chance, of course, since I had also not seen any zombie swim, but it made me wonder just how safe they were down on the island.
Anyways, Maxie was going to be staying here for a few more days, and was going to take me out to show me the basics, just in case my weird plan about sailing to Haiti actually came to happen. It was probably best that we got back to the mountains. Dad is dead, and I think it’s time for us to start living. There are some things we need to do at home, especially to see what that search turned up. Besides, more than just plain negotiations for a new world order took place this week.
Ok, I must start out by saying that this was all predicated by the fact that on Thursday, Aaron and Lucy showed up and invited us all to witness at their wedding ceremony. Yes, the two decided to tie the knot. Horrible old saying, as I prefer Velcro. Well, it appears that they had found the idea of starting a family very appealing. The Navy had as well. They had essentially ordered all single men and women, which was nearly everyone, to find their significant others, and get to making babies. I don’t know if they planned on making baby soldiers, but the idea was there. We were here, it’s time to regroup and regrow what we had lost. Now, it wasn’t all a massive orgy here, quite the opposite. The orders were really for weddings and marriage. Nice and old fashioned, but that stability was part of the whole equation.
It seems that Aaron and Lucy fell for that. I knew they loved each other, and not just because they had been thrust into an almost horrible situation. They knew each other’s spouses well, too. Maybe it was that familiarity that had created the love, or maybe it was the comfort of actually having someone. In either case, they looked around at the possibility of an actual life beyond the end of the world, and decided to make what they had legally permanent. They aren’t staying here, though. They made it clear they want to live in the mountains, or more precisely, deep under a specific mountain.
So, I told this bit of news to predicate mine. As you may have noticed, I haven’t written any entries this entire week. That first night, we were quite tired, but the second night, Heather and I went for a walk on the beach, and that continued every single night. Yes, long walks on the beach. If there was ever a more corny, romantic, sentimental statement than that, there are few. We were uneasy, and yet addicted to that safety that was offered here. So we walked, and we talked, a lot.
Heather is here now, and I just showed her this last little bit. Her smile proves everything to me. She is asking me to listen to a song that she has found on my iPod. I’ll finish up here, and then join her.
It’s safe to say that I love this woman. It may be all that attention she gave me, although she will now claim that it wasn’t entirely a survival mechanism. It may be that she’s , quite simply put, stunningly beautiful to me. Her long brown hair has just that right amount of bounce, a liveliness that enhances her spirit, as defeated as it may have been not too long ago. Her eyes, just a hint of green amidst the hazel, show a spark that had nearly been extinguished by the violence inflicted on her. It may be the way she has grown, found strength, and found the way to spear zombies through the skull. It could be that I'm simply a fool.
But I love her.
As it turns out, she loves me, too. Again, I might be the guy with the coolest house on the block, or I might be the guy that supposedly saved her life. Hell, it just might be the last guy on earth syndrome, but she claims she loves me.
So, in the spirit of all that is happy and joyous about this island we are on, we are finding that chaplain tomorrow, and getting married, as well.
And then, we’re going home.
Battle of Carolina Beach – Professor Jonathan Gault
The following events were not mentioned by Brian in immediate entries. He alludes to them in bits and pieces, in entries many years down the road. Instead, I’ve put together the events of that night, and the following day from Evan’s notes, Department reports and from the stunning video images that were recorded by the Department, and archived after they were studied. Here are the events that would be known as the Battle of Carolina Beach.
At approximately 1 AM, on June 7th, the day following entry 50 by Brian Orbison, a member of the Followers of Inanna, having studied the island and current residents of Carolina Beach, was able to cross the channel dividing the island from the mainland, without drawing the attention of any guards, and make his way into the main residential area most heavily populated by the Department soldiers and workers. He had acquired for himself a common United States Army uniform in the hopes of completing his mission in secrecy, before escaping unnoticed amidst the chaos he was about to create.
Unfortunately for him, Admiral Gurtz, after information received from the Battle of Black Mountain, decided to establish a surveillance system on the island and ships, using a military version of the Police FT-17. The military version of this civilian facial recognition system had a faster response time, and a larger wireless connection area. Having scanned all existing soldiers into the database, any intruder would immediately be detected, once caught on camera by the FT-17.
At 1:43 AM, two guards on patrol came across the Follower masquerading as a soldier returning from a late night out. The FT-17 quickly detected the individual as an unknown, and the two guards, Pvt Leers and Spc Monroe, apprehended the individual, and prepared to have him transported off the main land. On route to the boat that would take him to the Abraham, the Follower was able to detonate the device that he had been carrying with him. The explosion killed him and Spc Monroe, while maiming Pvt Leers. Otherwise, the explosion just destroyed the jeep they were riding in, and no others were injured. This occurred at 2:01 AM.
The purpose of the explosive was not to destroy, though. Inside this specialized explosive was a container full of fused Ionatite, which, when exploded, changed properties, and became a soft, silky, silver like material, that spread out and around a five hundred foot radius, coating everywhere it fell. Removal of this material would later prove to be very difficult. Tests would later confirm that this was the same soot like substance that had been found in the gear room the Followers had at Black Mountain.
Evan would note that he and Aaron had heard the explosion, but had thought nothing of it. In fact, very few people on the island thought much of it, and the night continued as any other would have.
At 3:46 AM, reports began to be radioed in from several points along the channel that several zombies had been spotted on the opposite side, and were “throwing” themselves into the water, only to disappear beneath it. By 4:17 AM, all of the seven guard pos
ts, and the main bridge had reported in, describing a very unusual amount of zombie activity. The barricades were reinforced on the bridge, and ten minutes later, the order was given to blow the bridge. At 4:30 AM, a large explosion woke up a vast majority of the residents on Carolina Beach. The only bridge off the island had been blown to stop the zombies from crossing.
Across the Cape Fear River at Sunny Point, reports of massive zombie movement towards the river started coming in from patrols around 3:59 AM. Fifteen minutes later, the order was sent out to evacuate all personnel onto boats to be moved off the coast.
Back on land, video feed from several posts began to show central command on the Abraham a remarkable, yet horrifying, event. Zombies, numbering in the thousands, were pouring into the channel, which was now becoming congested by all the bodies, bodies that were still moving and thrashing about in the water.
The channel was approximately five hundred feet across, and connected the main Cape Fear River to the Atlantic Waterway. It was deep enough for most large, personally owned boats to traverse. By 5:20 that morning, estimates had come in that nearly twenty thousand zombies had walked into or fallen into the channel, in at least two separate locations. Guards at those locations began radioing reports that some of the zombies were beginning to make it across, using the bodies of the zombies that had first fallen in and had actually filled up the channel. At 5:30 AM, four Apache attack helicopters had taken off, and were attacking the horde, in an attempt to blow this writhing mass of a bridge that had been accidentally created. Meanwhile, on land, guards at all locations were given the go ahead to engage any zombies reaching their side with live rounds.
Back in Carolina Beach, the noise of the machine guns going off had already been reported, and the small community was alive with movement. The Vault group was now fully awake in a desperate bid to find out information about what was going on. Captain Rhodes had already been called off, and had left them nearly thirty minutes before, in order to pilot his helicopter. Evan describes the scene,
“It was pure madness. Some soldiers were half dressed, rubbing their eyes, running around trying to make sense of what was going on, while others were hopping into their vehicles or bicycles, and heading off west or south, towards their respective docks. The gunfire was clearly coming from the north, but none of us had any idea what it might be. From experience though, we quickly began to gather our belongings. We were in a bit of a bind though, since we were nowhere near our own vehicles.”
During these tense moments, the group came to the realization that Chris, Heather’s younger brother, was missing. Despite his arguments against it, Brian remained behind with Tague and Evan, to keep packing up, while Aaron, Lucy and Heather went out to attempt to find him. The previous night, Chris had identified a potential dune buggy he wanted to drive a few miles south, and had woken up early to attempt to go retrieve it. He had been oblivious to the sound of the explosions, or had simply ignored it.
At 6:15 AM, one guard tower went silent. Three minutes later, the same guards were able to report in telling the command that their post had been overrun. Incredible video footage showed vividly clear images of countless zombies walking across a very nearly filled in channel. As the sun was beginning to rise and the sky clear, the footage clearly showed a massive horde of zombies, into the thousands, pouring off the far banks and walking across.
Helicopter attacks on the makeshift body bridges were only slowing the movement of the horde. Their rockets were simply bursting into the bridge, creating large gaps that were quickly filled in by oncoming zombies. With this news, and the news of another guard station being overrun, command gave the order to abandon all guard posts, and retreat back through the city, attempting to slow down the horde in order to allow the full evacuation of the residents in Carolina Beach.
Reports from soldiers on the ground, as well as visual confirmations from helicopters, showed that there simply wasn’t enough firepower to stop the entire movement of zombies sweeping through to the south. Some aerial footage showed a nearly solid dark mass moving along the ground, like a slow moving tsunami washing over the land. Despite all attempts to remove everyone with trucks and other vehicles, zombies began to reach the residential area of Carolina Beach at 7:05 AM. The sight of the horde, at this point roughly estimated to number at least a hundred thousand strong, made the remaining residents flee south in a panic.
As the horde approached, Brian began to become desperate. Maxie had arrived, and suggested that they flee using his boat. Not wanting to leave anyone behind, especially Heather, they used the dune buggy in an attempt to find their other missing friends. Chris himself had been swept up by the retreating soldiers, and had been taken aboard an escape boat. On land, just hundreds of feet from the incoming horde, the dune buggy caught up with Aaron and Lucy, coming out of a residential building, which Heather had indicated to them as a possible location where they had seen Chris the night before. Heather was not there, and Aaron told Brian that she had entered a neighboring house, just north of them, and very close to the moving horde.
They quickly turned the buggy around and sped north, hanging on as best they could since there was barely enough room on the small vehicle for all of them to sit. As they reached the front of the house, the horde was nearly upon them. They had to retreat a ways, just in time to see Heather come out onto a porch on the third floor. They shouted at her to go around to the entrance facing the ocean.
As Tague kept the buggy just a bit south of the moving horde, many of the creatures began to specifically target them. Brian and Evan ran around to the back of the house and ran up along the dune, and ran into more zombies, as they had already overrun the house on the beach side.
Evan “We rounded that corner and it was all zombies, as far as the eye could see. They were all packed in, stumbling into each other, falling around in the sand, only to be trampled under by the next zombie. Brian started attacking the first one he saw, spearing him cleanly, dropping him right away. But it made no dent.”
Behind him, Heather popped out onto the porch, only to have to double back in. She just narrowly escaped being grabbed by the zombies that had now completely crowded the porch area she had tried to retreat from.
Evan “We heard the screams. She screamed Brian’s name. He went crazy, running into them, pushing some and spearing others, but they just kept on pushing through to us. Brian didn’t care, and one of them even bit into his arm, ripping flesh off, but I think he was oblivious to the pain. I had to grab him and pull him away. There was nothing we could do in that situation, unless we got trampled over and killed.”
Brian “I heard her scream my name. Those words, that specific sound, were forever etched into my memories, branded into my soul.”
Dragging Brian, Evan threw him into the dune buggy, telling Aaron that Heather was gone. He then told them to go ahead, that there was no room for him. He would run and try to reach one of the evacuation ships. He then took off running. Evan would easily stay ahead of the moving horde, and made it onto one of the many ships that had been stationed on docks south of Carolina Beach. All accounted for, the Department was only able to evacuate one thousand two hundred and three of the residents that had been living and sleeping that night at Carolina Beach.
Brian saw Heather one last time from the third floor, just as they were driving away. “She wasn’t crying or screaming. She was just looking at me. At peace even. I should have gone back for her, at the very least died with her, fighting and screaming. I didn’t.”
Brian would write in future entries that the ride from where they lost Heather to the boat was a complete fog. Without Evan’s notes, we have no information on how the group was able to double back somehow, avoid the horde and reach Maxie’s boat. What we do have from Brian, we have from entry 77 of his journal.
Brian “I was in tears. I could feel the buggy bouncing around, but I didn’t see where we were going. I kept hearing her screaming out my name. I heard Lucy trying to say something, bu
t all I remember is crying; the tears that came out that heart wrenching night clouded my sight. I do remember, though, at some point, just taking a breath amidst my sobs and looking up. A helicopter fired a rocket of some sort, the smoke trail of the rocket just hanging in the air of the dawn sun, before the rotors on the helicopter blew them away.”
Several runs were made by the helicopters, which at this point were only trying to slow down the movement of the horde. They would try to hit groups closest to anyone who was fleeing. They would also attempt and succeed in rescuing seven individuals off the roofs of their houses. An eighth individual slipped out of the knot, and fell into the moving mass.
The group was able to slip away from the marina, but had to travel up the Atlantic waterway, instead of taking the channel across to the river. They broke out into the Atlantic, and doubled back south in order to round Cape Fear, and try to meet up with Evan. The Department was able to evacuate its men at Fort Fisher, and anyone who managed to make it to an escape at any docks.
Those on Maxie’s boat described the scene they saw from the ocean. The zombies were lined up along the beach, as well, stumbling through the sand as waves knocked them over. On the river side, once they had rounded the Cape, they saw no indication of the zombies wanting to fall into that river in order to get to any of the boats. Whatever drew them onto the island was there, and not in the water.
The river had become a chaotic scene of ships of all sizes moving back and forth from the land to the bigger ships on the river. Maxie’s boat, the One Star Wonder, was ordered to move south and remain there. The group was not able to find and contact Evan, and would not see him again for two and a half years.
The Followers had staged similar attacks on the Department forces in Charleston and Annapolis. All three locations had been overrun by an undead horde that numbered in the tens of thousands. The Sunny Point terminal had been completely overrun by zombies, these also desperate to cross the river. The Cape Fear River was far deeper here, though; any zombie that attempted to cross here was most likely washed out to sea.
Deadfall: Survivors Page 30
