by Diane Butler
They kept at this pace for another hour, being tossed from side to side watching the water roll over the deck at times, but Brandon was doing a good job of keeping her intact and was boosted by Terry’s admiration of the fun that he was providing her. Finally Lucky said, “Jesus, does this creek ever end? Or at least widen to a calm spot where we can stop for a while?”
“Martha only mentioned the railroad tracks as a stopping place,” Brandon shook his head without taking his eyes off the creek. “Then the two hair-pin turns on the second day. She didn’t mention a third day so I’m hoping we will only be on the creek for a short time after the last turn. Yesterday my arms were exhausted by noon and I certainly don’t want to do this until nightfall.” There was a loud scraping sound and Jenny lurched violently to the left. “Shit!” Brandon yelled and reached over to raise her paddles. “That was the hull. If I notice any change in how she handles then we’ve got a leak.”
They waited with baited breath expecting Brandon to tell them that they needed to prepare to abandon ship. Roxanne knew that she could not recognize if the boat was damaged unless one end tilted badly and did not stabilize again. She found that she was concentrating on how many times they leveled out and not on how many times Terry gave a yelp of excitement with her childish pleasure.
It seemed an eternity before Brandon said, “Last turn coming up and I need to put her paddles back down so hold on.” Brandon lowered them to the speed of docking so they wouldn’t hit bottom but he could see that it wasn’t slowing them enough to make the turn. He took a chance and dropped them lower to use as a brake. This time they were prepared to be thrown but Jenny did not jerk as hard as that first hair-pin turn of the day before. Only Mutt lost his balance and would have gone flying across the room except for the rope that kept him from sliding more than a foot from Roxanne’s feet. He decided not to get up and stayed down on his belly.
It was another hour before Brandon said, “I think I see open water ahead.” Jenny shot out of the creek like a bullet, almost going airborne and landed with a splash in calm water. She rocked from side to side, then stabilized and began to slowly paddle forward. Brandon turned around to look at the crew and everyone started laughing and patting him on the back.
But their joy was short-lived as they began to hear an occasional “thump” against Jenny’s hull. Brandon quickly looked over the bow and his face went white. “Jesus, what are those? Are those bodies?” Lucky and Roxanne ran outside the bridge to the railing and looked down immediately covering their nose from the stench. The water was the color of grey with a thick film of white matter floating on the surface. Above that was a wavering haze of fumes. They saw a few bodies around the boat and then looked up to scan the surface surrounding them where they saw hundreds of bodies, some still moving, the closer ones reaching an arm out toward them. “Oh God,” Roxanne whispered, her face going white.
Lucky turned her away and led her back to the Bridge. “We can’t stay here,” he said to Brandon. “This water is infected. We can’t live on it or fish in it. We need to move on.”
Terry began to cry, “I told you, I told you!”
“Right now we need to make sure we don’t get stuck on anything,” Brandon said. “If one of those bodies gets caught in the wheel we can’t dive under to pry it loose. Roxanne, you and Lucky get two poles and go to the bow. Use the poles to push off any body that looks like it may go under the boat. I’ll see if I can find a way through this where they aren’t so many.”
Roxanne told Mutt to stay on the Bridge with Brandon and tied a kerchief around her mouth and nose. Then she grabbed one of the hooks used to haul in fish and leaned over the rail. It was difficult on some of the zombies because they were so bloated or decomposed that the pole went through them. Roxanne kept looking up at her surroundings but could not see shore in any direction and then realized that the dead bodies were creating a foggy mist that hovered over the water. More than anything she feared infection not knowing what chemicals a zombie’s body would give off. Sometimes they had to yank the pole out of a zombie’s hand that was still alive enough to grasp it. She felt the boat turn to her left and hoped that Brandon had a better view from the Bridge.
Brandon was starting to sweat, feeling responsible for getting them into this mess. Terry continued to weep behind him but Mutt stayed at Brandon’s legs as if encouraging him. Brandon had also noticed the mist hovering above the water, making it more difficult to navigate. He frantically looked from side to side hoping to see fresher water when it appeared that there was open water on his left. As he entered that portion of the lake the mist cleared and he could make out the shoreline with a landscape of buildings. He breathed a sigh of relief and called in Lucky and Roxanne.
“We need to make plans,” Brandon said. “This portion of the lake is clearer, but not safe nor suitable. I know we haven’t eaten all day but I have lost my appetite. I know that the Inner Harbor Canal runs off the Lake and that will lead into the Mississippi but I don’t know where it is. I can cruise along the shoreline and hope that we find it today, or find a safe place where we can dock for the night and take up residence in a building somewhere.”
“Why don’t we get closer to shore first,” Lucky said “and see what the situation is. We’re too far away to see if there is zombie activity on land and we don’t know if we’ll run into more patches of mist. That was some horrible stuff we went through, possibly dangerous to our health.”
As they got closer to the shore they could see heavy zombie activity on the streets and wharves with no break in the herd to allow them to sneak on land. As they went further along the shore they could tell that someone had tried to fortify access to the lake by lining up vehicles on the street to protect the wharves. It appeared to have worked since the wharves in this section of the city did not have Ze’s on them although they were crowded behind the buses and cars.
“I could dock at one of the wharves,” Brandon said, “but it makes me nervous that a herd of Ze’s are just on the other side of those vehicles.”
“Look at all the boats though,” Lucky said. “All types of boats and not all of them were made to dock at these wharves. It looks like a gathering of some sort, prearranged to meet here.”
“Or,” Roxanne said, “because they couldn’t get off the lake anywhere else. Possibly were trapped here by the mist; couldn’t find the canal you’re talking about Brandon. Or perhaps the gates were closed to the canal.”
“I told you not to come here!” Terry wailed. “I never should have followed you. I should have gone home.”
“Shut up and listen!” Lucky hissed. “Do you hear that? It sounds like people calling. Keep on course Brandon.”
He opened the cupboard behind him and took out a rifle wrapped in plastic and Roxanne’s holster and gun that was wrapped in the same manner. Roxanne’s raised her eyebrows since she had packed these things in the raft. “It was just a feeling, Roxanne” Lucky said. “Put it on and we’ll go on deck. Bring your staff too.” The staff was one thing that she had kept with her on the bridge. “Whoever it is, I want them to think that we are fully armed and to be reckoned with.”
They went out on the bridge and saw that they were approaching a two-story casino built on a floating platform on the lake. There looked to be about thirty people on the balcony and patios all waving at them, instructing them to come their way and dock. No one had a rifle or shotgun but the balcony hid whether anyone was carrying a sidearm. There was a mixture of men, women and children and then suddenly someone shouted, “Roxanne! Roxanne!”
Roxanne was shocked to hear her name called and quickly scanned the crowd looking for anyone she should recognize. Then a figure started running down the stairs to the lower platform waving his arms and jumping up and down. “Caleb!” Roxanne screamed. Behind him Roxanne saw Morgan running, trying to catch up. Roxanne looked at Lucky who was grinning then she turned and yelled into the bridge, “Brandon! Do you see that? Can you dock? Can you dock?” she was besi
de herself with joy.
“I got it Roxanne,” Brandon said. “Hold your horses.” Morgan, Caleb and another man wearing a Captains hat ran to the end of a wharf and motioned for Brandon to pull in. The Ze’s behind the bus became frantic with the sight of humans and a few of the vehicles started to rock from the herd building up behind them.
The man with Morgan noticed the heavy activity and frantically waved Brandon in. “Quickly, quickly we need to get out of sight. They will calm down once they don’t see us.” He caught the rope that Lucky threw to tie off the boat. “Leave your gear here. You can come back for it tonight when they can’t see you. Say your hello’s inside. Quickly,” he said as he reached out for Roxanne’s hand and was startled when a dog appeared and jumped on the wharf behind her. “Morgan, take them in and get them settled.” He reached out for the second rope that Brandon threw to tie Jenny down.
“Don’t leave me!” Terry screamed.
“Shush Terry,” Brandon said. “We’ll go together.” Once the man had Jenny tied down Brandon took Terry’s arm and together they jumped to the wharf. The man took Terry’s other arm and they ran up the wharf to the stairs to enter the casino.
Morgan was laughing and hugging Lucky and Roxanne who had tears streaming down her face. She hugged Caleb to her, Mutt jumping all around them. “As soon as someone said there was a woman with a staff,” Morgan said, “I ran out hoping it was you but expecting to be disappointed.”
Caleb stepped away from Roxanne wiping his eyes with his sleeve, “I’m crying like a damn fool,” he said. Then Brandon walked in. Neither Morgan nor Caleb knew that Brandon was piloting the boat since he was in the shadows while inside the bridge. “Brandon!” Caleb shouted and ran to him. Morgan walked over laughing and slapped Brandon on the back, shaking his hand.
In all the confusion no one noticed that a crowd had gathered. Once Caleb ran to Brandon, Roxanne stood up to hear remarks which not only confused her but plummeted all her hopes that they had found shelter.
“Oh, thank God you are here.”
“You have saved our lives.”
“You must help us.”
“We need to get out of here.”
Roxanne turned to the Captain who had tied down the boat and he caught her look of confusion. “All right everyone,” he said. “Back off and give the folks a chance to catch their breath. You folks,” he waved to them “let me take you to the kitchen so we can talk and I’ll explain how things are working here. Frank, Smokey, Allen if you three will come with me please.”
For the first time Roxanne looked around and saw that they were in a lounge of couches, over-stuff chairs and end-tables with huge artificial flower arrangements in fancy vases. The Captain took them to a door beside an empty bar which opened into a formal dining room with windows on each side. Going through that they entered the kitchen where he introduced them to Gretchen. “If you could get these folks something to eat and drink Gretchen,” the Captain said, indicating that the four of them should sit in a booth. The three men sat facing them at the counter where Gretchen was working and Morgan and Caleb got into a booth behind them but Caleb turned around so he could lean over the back, looking at Roxanne. Roxanne made sure that Terry slid to the inside so that she could quickly get out with her gun if necessary. Since Lucky still had his rifle he had Brandon slide to the inside of the booth.
The Captain pulled up a chair and introduced himself, “Name’s Toby and I run a tugboat that is now out of gas which is my own damn fault. In fact all the boats that you saw docked are out of gas since everyone contributed their gas to me so I could cruise the Mississippi looking for more survivors. We thought we had a haven here, looting all the other casinos on the lake for food and water, all the supplies we needed. As you can see we blocked off the entrance to the casino and along the wharves so people could get to and from their boats.”
“But now the Lake has gone bad, even toxic and we hadn’t counted on that. The instruments on my tugboat haven’t worked in a long time, but I was always able to gauge the gas knowing how much she could run off of and how far. I badly miscalculated on my last run and barely made it back. But now I’ve stranded these people here and I feel responsible for it since I directed anyone I met in a boat to come here and brought others who were on foot.”
Gretchen came over with a roasted duck and plates followed with a bowl of crawfish and cold slaw. “Don’t worry,” Toby said. “None of it came from the lake and I’ve been picking late vegetables from an abandoned estate up river.” Roxanne broke off a leg of the duck and handed it to Mutt under the table.
“If you’re looking to get gas out of Jenny, we’re running manual. Never had gas,” Brandon said.
“No,” Toby said, “Where you come in is getting us to gas. That’s where Frank, Smokey and Allen come in. There’s a barge stranded in the Inner Harbor. It doesn’t have enough gas to run on its own, but enough for my tug boat and some of the other boats. We need to get these people off this casino and it’s going to take more than one boat to do that”.
After dinner Brandon and Toby moved over to the counter with the three men to work out the details of retrieving gas from the stranded barge. Terry said she wanted to meet some of the other people and went back out to the lounge but before leaving Toby called her over. “You have some people out there who are near panic. They will be asking you questions. Just tell them that we are working out the plans and that you found it boring so you left.” He then turned to Frank and asked him to find Larry and Butch. “Have them go down and guard the riverboat that they came in on. No one is to board that boat, you understand.”
He looked up at Brandon, “Most people here are good people and respect property of anyone on board. But there are some that panic easily. It’s just precautionary on my part to ward off any trouble.”
“Yeah, we’ve met a few like that. Terry is one. We just met her. The other is dead,” Brandon said thinking of Ed.
“How did you get here Morgan?” Lucky asked. “We waited at the farmhouse. What went wrong?”
Morgan shook his head, “As soon as we made the turn onto the highway, Gene had a heart attack. The truck was into the turn and it just rolled over into the ditch. Everybody was pretty banged up and it took us some time to get the doors open and crawl out. We couldn’t save Gene and Sally was beyond despair, screaming and crying.” He paused and everyone was silent for a moment. “It….it didn’t help to leave him there and her hearing the shot when I made sure he wouldn’t turn. Sally stopped eating after that and became terribly thin. We got caught in a downpour one night and she caught pneumonia which she was too weak to fight off. We did manage to bury her though.”
“It was just me and dad after that,” Caleb said. “We never saw any other people the whole time until we saw Captain Toby on the River. We kept to the highways hoping someone would come along.”
“We hated leaving all the ammo and supplies in the overturned truck but we took only what we could carry” Morgan continued. “We could hear the explosions off in the distance and knew it was Randy with his grenades but then everything became dead quiet. When we reached the farmhouse we could see it was surrounded by zombies, most of them trying to get into the barn. We were afraid it was you trapped in there but we didn’t hear any gunfire and I couldn’t handle that many Ze’s alone. We kept to the highway and walked past the farmhouse and only a couple of them saw us.”
“That was Randy in the barn,” Lucky said. “Cami didn’t make it out and Randy was bitten along the way. Like your situation with Gene, we were not able to bury Randy. We crossed the highway when we left the farmhouse and went into the dried cornfields across the road. We never took the highways, always staying in the woods. We couldn’t imagine what held you up and could only guess that there were Ze’s at the entrance and that you couldn’t get through.”
Brandon’s meeting broke up and Toby came over to the group with Brandon following. “I must ask that your group spend the night here at the casino. I
can’t let you go back to your boat other than to get sleeping gear. If people see you board they will panic and think that you are abandoning us. You are our only hope at this point. I will have people guarding it all night in fact the two of you can be on one shift if you like.”
Lucky and Roxanne were suspicious of that idea but Morgan spoke up, “These are good people standing before you.” He nodded to Toby’s group. “You can trust them.”
“I’m going out to make the announcement as to what our plans are,” Toby said. “Morgan after you finish visiting with your friends will you show them Cabin B1 and B2. Let us know when you want to get your gear and I’ll have Frank and Smoky escort you. Can’t let Morgan go with you or they’ll think you are skipping out with your friends. Some of them now mistrust me since I made that disastrous error in fuel so I can’t go with you or they may think I’m skipping out on them. They’ll be comfortable seeing Frank and Smoky with their rifles escorting you.”
They looked up at Frank and Smoky, both huge men who looked as if they were still working out at the gym. Smoky, a black man had his arms crossed and was grinning, “We’re pussy-cats really but our size makes people pay attention.” They followed Toby out to stand behind him as a force while he made his announcement.
