The second man was Hector Campos, a laborer for a local landscaper. He lived with two other landscape workers in a trailer park on the eastern end of Key West. He was fortunate enough to be working overtime in one of the big resort hotels in town when some residents decided to barricade off the west end.
The third and last survivor of the attack was Tina Brown. She was the owner of a popular and very active bookstore in the tourist portion of Key West. She always had book signings and poetry readings in her store and was the president of the Key West Rotary Club. Because of Pandora, she was scheduled to have Vernon Knox, author of the popular book The Coming Plagues, come down to do a book signing and reading. However, the mutating virus ended that event.
Up on the bridge, Luis was at the helm. Tommy and Jake were engaged in a tense discussion.
“I know you want to get to Antigua as quickly as possible. Especially now, after Key West,” Tommy said.
“Yes, I do,” said Jake.
“I know I may be asking a lot, but those of us who want to stay stateside…Could you make a detour up to, say, Miami? Drop us off at a marina and we’ll requisition a boat and be off on our way.”
“You know,” Jake said, “after all that has happened here and all of the misery Bouchard caused, some of you may have changed your minds. I hope you realize that you’ll be heading back into hell again. And there are the new people. I’m including Regina and Frank with them. They were never in the equation. Now that they are, they should have a choice.”
“I know that,” Tommy nodded, “and will give them a choice.”
Jake looked at Tommy. “I can’t change your mind?” Jake asked sadly.
Tommy smiled and put his hand over the wealthy stockbroker’s hand. “No. You know I have to do this. I know the others feel that way too.”
Jake leaned in with a serious expression. “I know why. I do,” he spoke. “You’re looking to find America again. I know you think it’s there somewhere. Hiding. Waiting to gather strength again. And believe me; I hope to God you’re right. I really and truly do. But…but in case that place you’re hoping to find just isn’t there anymore and all there is turns out to be death and zombies, I want you to come to Antigua. There is an important place there for a man of your caliber. And for Manny and Sean and Mike and your brother Jack also. All of you.”
Tommy looked fondly at his friend. “I will. If it gets too bad out there, we will turn around and head to Antigua.”
Jake sat back and smiled. “All right then. I’ll take you up to Miami. We’ll find you a boat, make sure everything is good, and then we’ll take leave.”
“Deal!”
They both rose. Tommy stuck out his hand to Jake. The old man stepped forward and hugged his young friend hard. This was going to be a new chapter in the group’s life. As they stood there together, they both thought, Dear God, I hope this is the right decision. And I hope we’ll all live to find out.
10
After an uneasy night of tossing and turning, Steve awoke to a gray morning. Rain was imminent. At one point during the night, he heard a bunch of zombies passing by. One or two scraped the sides of the bus in their passing. He peeked above the window rim as they left. He couldn’t see all that well in the dark, but there looked to be about a dozen of the ragged creatures. It did not make for a peaceful sleep nor bode well for the morning.
Steve could see that Max and Ana were awake also. She was looking at him.
“Rough night?” she asked.
“Yeah. You too?”
Ana nodded and rubbed her eyes. Max was carefully looking around through the school bus windows.
“It seems pretty clear out there,” he said, “of zombies, I mean. It looks like it’s going to pour any minute.”
Josh stirred and then sat up, looked around, and said, “Morning, guys.”
As they gathered themselves up, Luke and Karen woke. They all exited the bus and, grabbing some things from their cars, ate some crackers and jelly. Karen opened a medium-sized can of fruit salad, and they all shared.
Looking down toward the entrance ramp, Max said sadly, “I guess Dan didn’t make it.”
“Do you think we should give him more time?” asked Karen.
“No,” Steve said. “If he didn’t get here by now, I don’t think he will.”
No one said anything for a while. They could hear the moans of the undead coming from up the highway. Looking around nervously, they could just see the heads of several zombies weeding their way through the stalled cars.
“I guess it’s time to start moving,” said Luke.
The small group got their things together and entered their vehicles. Steve said before going,” Okay, we’ll all go in a single file. I’ll lead.”
The caravan moved on down Interstate 95. The survivors threaded their way through the still and sometimes twisted vehicles. At times they had to pass close to some cars, and it was extremely unnerving to see the trapped undead inside, clawing at the windows and slamming their snapping mouths on the glass. Some cars’ windows were open, but the undead drivers were buckled into their seats. Their arms and hands reached out, trying frantically to grasp the passing cars. There was a good number of zombies out and roaming the highways. At first, Steve tried his best to steer around them, but eventually he just ran into the creatures. Most of the time, he knocked them off to the side, but occasionally they fell in front of the car and, with a double bounce, he ran them over. He just tried to think of them as speed bumps, but that was not always easy. It was slow and nerve-racking.
Finally, two hours later, they reached Boynton Beach. For some reason, the highway was clearer of zombies by the Woolbright Road exit. Steve pulled off on the shoulder before the exit ramp. They all got out of their cars.
“Man,” said Steve, “that was grueling.”
“Christ,” Luke added, “there were times I thought we were not going to make it.” He walked up to his side window. “Look,” he said.
There was a greasy blood smear along the window, continuing onto the back window.
“Some freaking zombie in a car reached out and slammed his filthy hand on my window, trying to get me. Scared the shit out of me.”
“We all need a break,” said Max.
“Listen,” said Karen, “a couple of nights a week, I teach an aerobics class in Boynton. There is a Home Depot and a Lowe’s up that road.”
“How far?” asked Steve.
“Right off the road. A couple of hundred feet I guess.”
“Do we need anything there?” Ana asked.
“Well,” said Luke, “we could probably use some weapons. I’ll bet if we went to the tool department, we could find some axes and hammers and stuff.”
Steve looked off in that direction. Biting his lip in thought, he said, “Sounds like a plan. We could use something for defense. The couple of guns we have I’d like to use only when necessary.”
“Why?” asked Max. “I’d rather kill them at a distance than have to stand right next to them and do it.”
Steve looked at the feisty old man. “You that good of a shot, ace?” he said, smiling. “Besides, the noise just brings more in.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Max agreed reluctantly.
“Do we all go or what?” asked Ana.
“Well,” thought Steve aloud, “I really don’t want to split up the group. I think it would be best if we all stuck together. Something happens and we have to go in another direction, there’s a good chance we’d never reconnect.”
Agreeing, they reentered their respective vehicles and drove up the exit ramp. Making the right onto Woolbright, they drove to the light and made another right to go into Home Depot. Two or three zombies they passed turned and followed.
Entering the nearly deserted lot, they drove right up to the entrance. Steve and Josh jumped out and ran to the glass doors. Tugging ineffectively on the handles, they turned to the group and said, “Locked. I guess they closed early.”
“Ye
ah,” said Luke, “they took off for National Zombie Day.”
Chuckling, Steve grabbed a large, rolling lumber cart and, backing up, said, “Okay, look out.”
Taking a running start, he wheeled the heavy steel car toward the glass doors. There was a loud crash as the car hit the doors and, with glass shards flying everywhere, smashed through and into the store. Immediately, an alarm started ringing.
“Oh, for Christ’s sake, really?” Steve bellowed. “A fucking zombie apocalypse and this asshole manager is worried about somebody stealing a power drill? Come on, let’s hurry.”
They all ran in and headed for the tool section, which was right in the front. Everyone quickly went about finding an appropriate defensive weapon. Steve grabbed a hatchet and hefted it in his hand a few times. It felt right. As he turned, he saw Josh coming down the aisle brandishing a chainsaw.
“Are you for real?”
“What?” said Josh. “Chainsaw…zombies…right?”
“With what electricity?”
“That’s the beauty,” responded Josh, smiling broadly. “It’s gas.”
“And where are you getting the gas?” Steve said, exasperated.
Josh stopped and looked at the impressive power tool. “Oh,” he said and threw it down.
Walking to the end of the aisle with his hatchet, Steve saw Luke running back from the gardening center. He was carrying a palm-trimming saw in one hand and a root cutter in the other.
“You are scary!” Steve said, smiling.
“Max is coming back with a grass sickle,” Luke said with a laugh.
Josh came up carrying a claw hammer; Ana had a large screwdriver; and Karen had an ax handle.
“Where’s the rest of it?” Max asked Karen, walking up.
“Too heavy to swing,” she answered.
As they started happily for the exit, they saw three zombies entering the shattered glass door. They skidded to a halt and looked on fearfully.
With uneasy bravado, Luke strode up and said, “Well, let’s see if these stupid things work.”
Luke may have been overweight, but he was still solid. As he neared the first zombie who entered, he planted himself and, with a mighty swing, swung the palm cutter with all his might. The large, shiny blade flew in a long, swift arc and hit the zombie in the side of her neck. With the sheer momentum of the swing and the razor-sharp blade, her head was cleanly separated from her shoulders. Her head, sailing off, bounced over the checkout counter and hit the cash register. Her body stood wavering for a second and then collapsed.
“Whoa!” said Luke, astonished by his handiwork. He was so mesmerized by the lethality of the blade that he didn’t see the others coming up. As the second zombie in the group growled, Luke spun his head around and then jumped back as it grabbed his wrist. This zombie opened his jaws, anticipating a meal, and tried to bring Luke’s arm up to his mouth. He was a young black man in a Dunkin’ Donuts uniform. The pink-and-orange polo shirt was stained red with blood. Apparently, Luke was not his first victim.
Max quickly ran up and lifted his arm over his head. Chopping down, he buried the point of his sickle in the top of the zombie’s head. The ghoul stiffened and then collapsed to the floor, pulling the deeply buried sickle out of the elderly man’s hand.
Luke then stepped toward the third attacker. He swung the blade again, and this time it almost decapitated the zombie. Held on by just a few strings of muscle, the head flopped to the side. Swinging with the other arm, this time he succeeded in separating the two. The body fell to the side as the head dropped down and rolled to Luke’s feet. Looking down, he saw the eyes looking up at him and the mouth open and close. Luke scrunched up his face in disgust and kicked the head through the broken glass door and into the parking lot.
Quickly moving back out into the large parking lot, the group saw a number of undead starting to filter into the lot.
Yelling over the alarm, Steve said, “Let’s get the hell out of here. This noise is drawing them in from everywhere.”
They all jumped into their vehicles and starting them up, raced around, and followed Steve out of the lot. They passed a Dunkin’ Donuts as they left and saw two girls in the store’s uniform staggering after them. Both were ripped open, probably by the man they just encountered. Their milky eyes followed the group as they snarled at them. But they soon became trapped and thrashing in the bushes around the store.
As they raced toward Woolbright Road to turn back onto 95, they saw their way was blocked by a huge crowd of zombies coming from the direction in which they wanted to go. Quickly turning right and cutting through a gas station, they zoomed up Woolbright Road heading west. They were moving away from the zombies, but they were also heading away from Interstate 95.
Jake dropped part of his boat’s passengers off in Miami. Everyone was given another chance to decide what he or she wanted to do. The original group members who wanted to return still stuck with their decision. Naomi, who wanted to stay in Key West originally, threw her vote in with Jake. As she originally stated, she just couldn’t do it anymore. She would miss her friends terribly but didn’t think she would survive another day on the mainland. She was hoping they would all wind up in Antigua, eventually. Tina Brown also voted to go to Antigua. She knew she would be better off there and protected. Regina, Frank, Konrad, Hector, and Mel wanted to go with Sean and Tommy. So did Carlos Guzman.
They all thought it would be better to get to Florida’s west coast, where there was a lower population density. They reasoned fewer people ergo fewer zombies. Sean, Jack, and Tommy got a south Florida map and worked out a route to get there. Their main roadway was “Alligator Alley”. This was a straight highway that ran horizontally across the state. Officially called Route 75, it was uninhabited and ran through the Everglades, which was protected swamp and marshland. They were hoping that since there were no houses, stores, or businesses along the way, the only zombies they would find would be the unlucky souls who were turned and trapped in their cars. At least, that was the plan.
Mel found a boat in one of the many marinas around Miami, and the eighteen brave survivors sailed across Biscayne Bay. Because of the bad weather, the trip up to Miami had been a little rough. Several people were seasick. Travis Cassidy was the worst. He was so sick, he couldn’t even stand. It was raining and dismal. Already late afternoon, they all wanted to be off the boat. Docking in the small marina in Coral Gables, they disembarked and sought shelter in the small hotel nearby. They avoided the few zombies they saw and, forcing the side door, entered the deserted hotel. Tommy, Sean, Jack, and Paul searched the building from top to bottom. Finding it empty, they raided the kitchen in the attached restaurant and were able to find a few cans of food and a few boxes of very stale but mold-free crackers. They divided the food, and everyone sat around the ballroom and ate.
After Mike had told Susan about finding Carlos in that building, she had gone out of her way to make sure that he was taken care of. She was horrified by what the man they killed was probably going to do to him. Carlos seemed so…so harmless. As they were sitting around talking in groups, Susan looked up to see that Carlos and Hector were deep in conversation. They were all smiles. While Carlos spoke absolutely perfect English, she knew that Hector’s first language was Spanish and his English was very poor. It was nice that he had someone whom he could communicate with fluently. Because the hotel was empty, several people had gone looking in the rooms to see what they could find. Some of them had clothes and suitcases in them. They took whatever fit. Carlos, who wandered off on his own, came down with a small leather camera case. Mike had asked him what he was going to do with the camera, but Carlos said it was empty. He liked the bag and thought it may come in handy for something.
As the night lengthened, the group started to retire in twos and threes to the rooms upstairs to sleep. Travis was already asleep in one of the rooms because he was still sick and nauseous. He just wanted to sleep.
Carlos had wandered into the kitchen and was l
ooking around in there. Tommy had Manny check on Travis and then take first watch in the lobby. They wanted to make sure that unwelcomed “guests” did not wander in.
At last, only Sean, Linda, Jack, Regina, Carlos, and Hector were left.
Jack said, “Do you really think we’ll be able to make it to the west coast of Florida?”
“Yes,” said Sean, “I do.”
“Once we make it to Alligator Alley,” said Regina, “we should be in good shape. It’s a straight run to Naples and the west coast. If we stay on the inland highways and away from the more populated coast, we’ll have a chance. There are several army bases around too. Maybe some of those are still functioning.”
“Well,” said Jack, “we’ll have our work cut out for us getting to that point because there are sure a lot of zombies around here.”
“Thanks a lot!” Linda said with a laugh.
“And on that note,” Regina said, standing, “I’m turning in. We have a long, dangerous day ahead of us tomorrow.”
“I think we’ll be going to our room also,” said Sean. He and Linda stood and waved good-night.
“Yeah, I’m getting sleepy too,” added Carlos.
They all said good-night and went to the second floor rooms to spend the night. Hector stood and looked at Carlos. The other man was taking his time getting up. Turning to Hector, Carlos said in Spanish, “All right, Hector, everyone is retiring for the night. Now, let me show you that great Mexican restaurant next door. I know they’re closed like I told you earlier, but I’m sure we can still find some food in there.”
Pandora 2: Death is not an Option Page 9
