Awake

by Edward J. McFadden III

The interior of the house was extravagant, but dirty and worn. The decor definitely had a woman’s touch, but by the look of the place, said woman had fled long ago. Glass doors opened into a large living room, and Don told Dempsey to take a seat. Keeping the M16 trained on the man, Don went to the front door, and let in Tank and Lester. Jessie followed, and when Tank came in, there was some sniffing and circle walking, but in the end, Jessie jumped up on a chair where she appeared content to sit this one out.

  Once they were all in the living room, Don said, “First things first. We’re staying the night, so there’s no rush. You have coffee?”

  Dempsey nodded.

  “Lester, take Mr. Dempsey into the kitchen and watch him while he starts a pot of coffee. Look for dog food while you’re in there. Grab yourself a drink, Rideboy. I meant what I said. No one is getting hurt. Yet.” Lester rose and jerked the shotgun toward the hallway. When Dempsey was in front of Lester, he turned back to Don, who mouthed, “Searching house.”

  There was no one else in the house, and Tank and Don were back in the living room, relaxing on the couch, Jessie watching them, when Dempsey called in from the kitchen. “You want cream and sugar?”

  “Black,” Don yelled back.

  Lester and Dempsey emerged from the kitchen. Lester held a bottle of beer, and Don’s coffee. Dempsey held a dog dish mounded with cut-up steak and a tumbler of brown liquor. When Lester handed Don his coffee, the agent looked down at Lester’s beer, and shook his head.

  “You need coffee, and I need beer. What’s the difference?”

  Don was going to answer that one impaired you, and one didn’t, but then he remembered that wasn’t true. He lifted the mug to his lips and sniffed the coffee as though it were a flower. Then he took a sip, and his stress and pain eased. “Like taking that first sip of wine after you’ve crossed the desert.”

  “Scent of A Women,” Dempsey said, and Don chuckled.

  Dempsey put the dog dish on the ground and Tank went to it and sucked down all the meat in seconds, and then returned to his spot next to Don.

  “So, you ride?” Don asked.

  “Nope,” Dempsey said. “No idea what’s in that shit. I tell my customers that. They don’t care. Drugs do sell themselves. Death at twenty milligrams.”

  “Why do it? Is money that hard to make?”

  “Yeah, it is. My parents came here from Cuba with nothing but the clothes on their backs. I swore I’d never let my children live like I did. Not knowing where their next meal would come from.”

  “And it doesn’t matter if you kill people in the process?” Don checked himself; he was getting off track. “Listen, I’m—”

  “I don’t kill anybody. I’ve tried to cut people off and they threaten to report me to the police. Most of my customers like a little ride, not a never-ending adventure.”

  “I take it Rick Dempsey isn’t your real name?”

  “Dad thought an American name would help us blend in. Minority benefits hadn’t been an issue when he had to decide.” The room fell silent for an instant, then Dempsey said, “How you doing, Lester? Sherri okay?”

  “No. She’s not okay. She’s one of them.”

  Dempsey’s face twisted. “How’d you let that happen?”

  Neither man spoke, and then together they said, “Teapot.”

  The sound of static came from down the hall. “My police scanner. I have a good one so I can listen in on what the pi… cops are up to. I got it hooked up to a car battery through an inverter,” Dempsey said.

  “You have news from outside?” Don was excited.

  “A little. Most of the military traffic is in code, and I only get sporadic commercial traffic, but it sounds as though the quarantine is holding. There are no other reported cases outside the infected zone. They’re still saying to stay inside, and that troops and vaccines will be on site shortly.”

  “Have you heard anything about the walkers?”

  Dempsey looked perplexed, and then understanding spread across his face. “Two times. That’s it.”

  “What?” Don said.

  “You can only wake someone twice, and then they’re lost. At least that’s what the local police are saying.”

  “Two second chances. Do they know loud noise scares them?” Lester asked.

  “Not that I’ve heard.”

  “We’ll listen later when we’re done talking.” Don rose. “I need a refill.”

  Don paused in front of the sliding glass doors. To the west the sky was a bruised purple-black. To the east was the ocean, and lights stretched across the horizon like a strand of Christmas decorations. The Navy had created a barricade a seagull couldn’t pass through unseen, but there were many boats that had dropped anchor inside the blockade and were waiting things out on the sea. The last rays of the setting sun fell across the canal, and the water sparkled. Dusk fell over the backyard, the color slowly draining from the world. It would be dark soon, and he needed food and rest. He heard a faint scream far off, and a dog barking.

  “Sleep tight, Miami,” Don muttered, as he went to get more coffee.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Darkness settled like a blanket over the Everglades, and the creatures that controlled the day retreated to their sanctuaries as the animals of the night started their shift. Crocodiles, giant centipedes, cotton mice, owls, and snakes ranging in the size from simple garter snakes, to enormous pythons, searched for food amidst the decaying plants at the water’s edge. Maureen recalled reading that researchers estimated there were over twenty thousand spiders per acre of land in the Glades, and arachnids were among her least favorite things.

  A waning gibbous moon rose in the sky, and the stars glowed bright. Shadows lurked under every tree and plant, and the vines that hung over everything writhed and slithered in the faint breeze. Maureen snapped on her flashlight, and scanned the area around the kayaks. They were a hundred feet away at the water’s edge, the bright colors standing out in the darkness. She snapped off her light, and slipped it back into her jacket.

  Ping and Saura were already moving slowly toward the boats, crawling along the edge of camp, keeping as low as they could. Wendy followed them, but Raul waited with Maureen. Maureen worried about those last two bullets, if it was Hawk’s gun being fired at them. She hated making assumptions, and assuming their attacker had only two bullets was a big one, yet everything she’d seen so far pointed to that conclusion.

  “You want me to go first? I can cover you with the rifle?” Raul whispered.

  “Nay. You go. I’ll cover you.” The rifle with three shots was all Maureen had. Tim was gone. All sense of order and rationality had fled, and now it was her and three bullets against whatever came her way.

  Raul grunted, and dropped into an army crawl, and worked his way to the boats. Soon Maureen couldn’t see any of her companions as they disappeared into the murky darkness. She felt more alone in that moment than she had ever felt in her life, and angst paralyzed her. She kept the rifle at her shoulder, but saw nothing of consequence. Minutes passed, and she heard nothing from her team. To Maureen, the day grew darker, and the night symphony grew louder. The trees and vines swayed, her mind drifting, her focus waning. Weariness and hunger were getting the best of her.

  She remembered lying with her brother in the field behind their house on summer nights, watching the stars roll by. She missed Calab, and a day didn’t go by that she didn’t remember the good times they’d had. All the support he’d given her, all the love. He gave himself to others, as she did, and he had paid for that service with his life.

  The snap of a tree branch brought Maureen back to the present. She scanned the forest, and then searched for her friends who should be close to the boats, but she couldn’t see anything in the darkness. She pulled her flashlight from her jacket and held the metal cylinder in her hand. If she turned it on, she might give away everyone’s position, and this rational idea fought with her rising panic. She needed to know what was happening. She refused to delay any longer,
hiding in the bushes, waiting to be attacked or shot.

  “Raul,” said Maureen in a low, restrained voice. No response. “Raul?” No response. Now Maureen thought something was wrong. Pointing the flashlight in the direction of the kayaks, she clicked on the light.

  Maureen jumped back, and dropped the flashlight. It hit the soft peat and drenched most of camp in pale white light. Ten paces away, Lilly sized up Maureen. The young beauty’s blonde hair was matted with blood, and she was swollen like an engorged tick. She growled, but shied away from the light as she staggered forward. Ping, Wendy, and Saura lay prone by mangroves, about half way to the kayaks. Raul was nowhere to be seen.

  Maureen raised the rifle, and to her surprise, Lilly raised a revolver, and for the first time, she saw that one of Lilly’s fingers was missing on her left hand.

  Then Raul was there, like a flash of light firing from the shadows. He took Lilly down with a clean tackle, and the gun flew from her hand. Lilly screamed, and bit at Raul as he fought her off. They rolled across the peat, and leaves, spiders, and decayed vegetation clung to their clothes. Lilly went for Raul’s face, and they tumbled out of the flashlight beam and disappeared in the shadows.

  “Up and to the boats,” yelled Maureen, as she ran for the kayaks. This time it was her turn to get decked.

  Sheryl hit Maureen with a tree branch as she sprinted by her hiding place within the mangroves. Maureen went down, and the air left her lungs in one painful push. She lost the rifle as she writhed on the ground in pain. Sheryl was on her, and she pulled and tore at Maureen’s clothes, trying to take a bite out of her as the two struggled.

  A gunshot popped in the darkness, and then another. Sheryl went limp. Blood, bone, skin, and entrails splattered the ground, and the sight of Sheryl’s blood seeping into the soft peat made Maureen cry. She screamed as Sheryl’s body fell lifeless before her, the old woman transforming back to herself as she took her final breaths. She’d been shot by Wendy.

  Maureen dropped to her knees, trying not to look at the old woman’s face, but failing. In the moonlight, Sheryl stared up at her with vacant eyes, white scars crisscrossing her liver-spotted face.

  Raul was still wrestling with Lilly, and when they rolled back into the glare of the flashlight beam, Wendy rushed to his aid. Ping and Saura were at the water’s edge, pushing the kayaks out into the still, dark water.

  The rifle lay on the ground ten feet away, so Maureen figured Wendy had shot Sheryl with Hawk’s gun, and it was now empty. She crawled toward the rifle, her muscles aching, her stomach burning. She reeked of sulfur, rot, and smoke. Her fingers sank into the damp peat as she clawed toward her gun. As near as she could tell, Sheryl hadn’t bitten her, and she felt no open wounds. She reached the rifle and scooped it up as she got to her feet. She moved in a wide circle around the struggling Raul and Lilly. Wendy held the revolver out before her, trained on Lilly.

  “Let him go, or you’re dead,” Wendy yelled. Maureen wondered if the woman knew the gun was empty.

  Lilly didn’t heed Wendy’s command, and continued to wrestle with Raul who appeared to be losing. Answering Maureen’s question, Wendy hurled the gun, and it clunked off Lilly’s head. This enraged her, and she tossed Raul aside, and came at Wendy with a battle cry that woke every creature for miles around.

  Maureen fired, but missed. Wendy went down, and Lilly tore her throat out. Blood, skin, and a chunk of muscle dangled from Lilly’s mouth, and she jeered at Raul.

  Raul screamed, and tackled Lilly hard, pounding her into the ground as she transformed. Maureen pulled him off as Lilly became herself again. Her big blue eyes cleared, and the swelling eased. She watched Maureen and Raul like a child, confusion and pain etched on her face. She was bruised from Raul’s pounding, covered in Wendy’s blood, and there were several gashes on her hands and legs, but other than that, she appeared to be all right, minus one finger.

  Lilly saw Conrad’s body and wailed in pain, tears leaking from her eyes as she shook with grief. She ran to him, and that seemed to remind Raul of Wendy, and he went to his fallen wife who lay broken on the peat a few feet away. Wailing and crying filled the night, as Raul bent over Wendy’s lifeless body, and Lilly mourned over Conrad.

  “Sorry, but I wouldn’t touch them,” Maureen said. Sometimes being a nurse sucked. She pulled a shell from her pocket and loaded it. That left one bullet in reserve.

  “Hey,” yelled Ping. He and Saura were in kayaks, and they floated into the sawgrass. As always, they’d gotten as far away from danger as possible. They were paddling back to shore now that the commotion had died.

  Maureen’s heart raced, and her ears rang, and she bit her lip. Lilly made her nervous. Only moments before, the woman had been trying to kill her, and now she didn’t know what had happened. This posed a unique ethical dilemma. Should they leave Lilly? How could they bring her? It was the same thing as Tim. Neither of them could leave the island until they were treated by a doctor, and the infection within them was killed.

  The moon glared down like an accusing eye, and the animals of the glades went about their business as though nothing had happened.

  ***

  An hour slipped away while the group pulled themselves together. When adrenaline flees, only hunger and weariness remain. Ping and Saura rested while Raul wept over his wife. Lilly sat away from everyone next to Conrad with her back to the group. She seemed to understand the sickness had made her an outsider.

  Maureen gave her a wet rag to clean her face, but before she could ask the girl how she was, Lilly said, “We hadn’t known each other long. This trip was his idea. He said he wanted to get to know me away from all the distractions of life. I really liked him. He was so kind.” She reached out a hand and ran a finger over what was left of his scarred face. She turned to Maureen, and asked, “Does my face have scars like that?” Maureen nodded. “I’ll wait here. You guys go.” Lilly turned her attention back to Conrad, the issue settled.

  Maureen was always amazed at the courage of women. Giving up a life for the better of the group. “What if you fall asleep? Or Tim attacks?”

  She didn’t answer, and Maureen didn’t ask again. “I’ll see you tomorrow. We’ll leave you food and coffee. Stay awake.”

  Maureen joined Saura and Ping. Ping had Hawk’s camp stove going so he could cook them a fast meal. Everyone was starving, and exhausted, but Maureen was upset with him, though she didn’t know why. The threat level was low, but it seemed inappropriate to be eating given what they’d just been through. Tim was the only unknown problem, but he didn’t have a gun, and he was alone, so what was she worried about? To this, her logical brain reminded her she might not have all the facts, and there was always Lilly.

  The sweet smell of stew pervaded camp, and Maureen’s mouth watered, and hunger took over. Raul left Wendy’s side, and went straight for the cooler. He pulled out a beer, opened it, and downed it with one long pull. Then he looked back at his dead wife, tears streaming down his face, creating what looked like fresh streams running through dry dirt. “This is seven kinds of bullshit. She didn’t even want to come here,” he said. Raul rubbed his eyes, and lowered his head. He looked up when he smelt the food. His bloodshot eyes studied Ping as he cooked, and the ridiculous image of a cartoon character changing into a hotdog while the wolf licked his chops flashed through Maureen’s mind.

  “Have another beer, man. Bring me one. I have a cup of stew here for you. Do you good,” Ping said. Raul’s face softened and filled with sorrow.

  With a look back at Wendy’s body, he nodded, and grabbed a few beers to ease everyone’s nerves. Saura helped Maureen get cleaned up, but no matter how hard she scrubbed, Maureen still felt dirt on her face. Lilly joined them at one point, eating some stew and drinking the stiffest cup of coffee Maureen had ever brewed. When she finished, she went back to sit beside Conrad. Maureen figured Lilly sensed the group’s unease at her presence—it had been easy to see.

  Several evening bats fluttered out of the tree cover
and zipped across the water. Crocs huffed and croaked, and the constant buzz of insects made it hard to hear a person speaking. A fox sat in a nearby tree, watching them with glowing eyes. The ground slithered and writhed with ants, spiders, millipedes, frogs, snakes, and beetles. The Glades were constantly moving, as the water, vegetation, animals, and weather danced with a grace that made Maureen wish she hadn’t had a second beer.

  Her stomach gurgled. She’d packed herself with stew, and the beer and gentle breeze had lulled her toward sleep. She thought something moved in the forest, a dark shadow that looked to be hiding behind a tree, but when she turned on her flashlight, there was nothing to be seen.

  “Shit!” Ping yelled.

  Flames rose at the water’s edge. Ping had knocked over the cooking stove, and before it had splashed into the water, it set some grass on fire. Smoke poured across camp, and the wind picked up, stoking the fire and spreading it. In the darkness, the flames glowed against the water, and they spread quickly as sawgrass tops burn like tinder. Soon the fire covered half the field, and it had spread to the mangroves, where it appeared to be slowing.

  The blaze roared toward the kayaks, and if they didn’t get underway soon, the boats would be lost. Flames lit the smoke-filled sky, and in minutes, chunks of the island would be on fire. As the fire reached the peat shore, which separated the forest from the shallows, it was dying out.

  Maureen sprinted for the kayaks, and Ping and Saura followed. As she ran, Maureen looked over her shoulder and saw Raul standing over his dead wife in the firelight. Smoke and ash covered his face and hair as he knelt beside her.

  Maureen and company jumped into kayaks and pushed off without worrying about supplies, personal effects, or food. The sleek boats slide into the water, the burning sawgrass tops fizzled and popped as they reached water and were quenched. Steam and smoke filled the air. They stroked hard. Raul jumped in a boat and pushed away from shore. Maureen smiled. In the background, illuminated by the firelight, Lilly watched them leave.