by Howard, Bob
“Got your running shoes on?”
She smiled up at him and said, “Try to keep up.”
“Okay, we run as fast as we can along the backs of the next three houses. There isn’t time to go all the way to the first one. We’ll circle the house and come around to the garage door. After we get it open, run like hell to the next two, then we’ll go behind the fourth house to keep from being spotted.”
“What if they’re locked?” she asked.
“I don’t know, but maybe with both of us lifting we can force the doors to open. We just need to get a little lucky. Let’s go before they catch up with Kathy and the Chief.”
Months of staying sharp and surviving had been good for both of them. There had been a time when they might have been too winded to do what they had to get done fast, but they were both in good shape. It was an all out sprint, but before they knew it, they were rounding the corner of the third house down the right side. Most of the shooting was coming from men with their backs to them directly across the street. Colleen ran to one garage door, and Hampton ran to the other. They exchanged looks, and both grabbed the handles and yanked as hard as they could.
The last thing they expected was to see the garage doors fly open as easily as a kitchen cabinet. Both had expected resistance in the form of a lock. The best they hoped for was the chains of automatic garage doors frozen in place from lack of use. Neither of them expected to fly upward with the doors.
Letting go quickly was more of a reflex than a decision because each garage bay had about twenty infected dead packed inside. They weren’t as quick to react as Hampton and Colleen, so they were just starting to come out of the garage as the two would-be rescuers were running across the front lawn of the house toward the garage of the next house.
The infected dead began streaming out into the driveway, unfazed by the sudden opening of the doors and the brightness of sunshine in their eyes. They were drawn at first toward the two running people, but the gunshots were too tempting, and over three dozen infected moved with a singular purpose toward the men with their backs exposed to them.
As Colleen and Hampton reached the next house, they risked a glance back and saw that the stream of infected was nearing the end of the driveway. They knew they had to hurry if they were going to send more that way in time.
Just as they had at the last house, they each positioned themselves at handles, paused to see that the other was ready, and both pulled at the same time. This time they weren’t caught off guard by the doors flying open, and that was a good thing because the infected dead inside had been more agitated than the first group.
As soon as the doors started upward, Hampton and Colleen began running for the third house. The shooting was still in progress, but they heard the first yells from the armed men.
The men were so surprised to find a large horde of infected dead walking right up to them that some of them were yelling at the infected as if they would understand. Hampton heard one voice yelling, “Stop that,” and “What are you doing?” Then the questions changed to screams.
The second group of infected had just started reaching the group of men that had tried to outflank the Chief and Kathy on the left side of the house, while the first group of men was thoroughly infiltrated by biting teeth. Some of the bullets meant for the infected were hitting living people.
The third garage doors went up just as easily, and another three dozen infected flowed toward the already overwhelmed shooters. From the looks of things, a fourth house wouldn’t be needed. Well over one hundred infected had swarmed into about forty unprepared morons.
Hampton stopped to watch for a moment, and Colleen came back to his side.
“At least when our army tried to march up I-77, we had a plan. It was a bad plan, but these guys just run and shoot,” he said.
“What was with those garage doors?” asked Colleen.
“I don’t know,” he answered. “Even if they were built to be able to open that easy, it was almost like someone worked on them to make it easier. Remind me to ask the Chief. I’m going to bet he’s already figured that one out by now.”
******
Kathy saw the garage door on the third house across the street fly open. She and the Chief had already crossed behind three houses, circled around the side of the sixth house on the left side of the island, and crossed the street into the woods near the boat park. They knew the men who were shooting at them were trying to outflank them, so the last thing the men would expect was to be outflanked. Soon they would be on the right side of the island, and they could work their way along the backs of the houses back to the place where they had left the plane.
When the door went up, she got a good look at the two people who darted off to the right, and she also saw what had distracted the people who were shooting at them. The trees were blocking much of the action, but she saw the infected swarming in the direction of the third house where they had started their escape.
“Chief, it’s Hampton.”
The Chief looked across in time to see Hampton and a woman watching the mayhem from the corner of the next house down the line on the right side. They ran diagonally across the boat park, and even though they were out in the open for a short distance, the shooters were far too busy to see them. Hampton and Colleen saw them coming, and they couldn’t have been happier. The four of them rushed toward each other, and even though Kathy and the Chief didn’t know Colleen, they hugged her as much as they did Hampton. It was a reunion Hampton didn’t think would ever happen.
It seemed like the shooting wouldn’t stop, but eventually it tapered down, and then it was quiet. They couldn’t tell if it was because the infected had all been killed, or if the shooters had finally been unable to survive the attack. The total quiet was the first clue that the infected had won the battle. There were no sounds of shouting from victorious defenders, but there were some faint cries for help followed by screams. The wounded were going to die anyway, so there wasn’t going to be any help that made a difference.
The Chief was the first to remind them it was time to move.
“We can catch up on how we all got here later, but the first thing we need to do is get ourselves into a safe place,” he said.
“We can get back to the plane with no trouble if we stay on this side of the island,” said Hampton. He had already taken a few steps in that direction, and Colleen had followed.
Kathy said, “Hold up, Hampton. We might have something else in mind. Chief, refresh my memory for me. Are you sure you didn't check for the locations of the secondary entrances and escape hatches? We could use one right now.”
“I didn’t have time to ask Bus, but I don't think they would be particularly well located,” said the Chief. “The guy who designed this shelter probably planned to build a few houses on the island with the secondary entrance and escape hatches inside them. I don’t know what kind of apocalypse he was getting ready for, but it wasn’t this one. My guess is that we would have to clear all of the infected from the houses to get to the hatches.”
Colleen looked back and forth between them and said, “This might not be the best time to discuss this, but you might want to fill in some details for me and Chris.”
The Chief and Kathy could see why Hampton and Colleen might be a bit lost. They had never told Hampton about the shelter on Mud Island, and they certainly didn’t know about the rest of them.
There was a time when Ed had opened the door to his shelter, and they had all stood in open mouthed awe in the entrance thinking they were looking at something great. They had no idea what was beyond the first room.
Mud Island had been designed by Ed’s uncle Titus, and it was one of the smallest shelters. His location for the shelter limited its size a bit, but the Fort Sumter shelter was built on a smaller piece of land and was massive. Titus just hadn’t felt the need to build a shelter that could be used as a small town. As it turned out, Mud Island was perfect for their small group, and Fort Sumter was perfect for
the Army.
In a few minutes, if they were lucky, Hampton and Colleen would get their first look at the shelter below their feet. Kathy and the Chief didn’t doubt the new pair would feel like they had fallen down the rabbit hole.
The Chief said, “Okay, we’re not going back to the plane just yet. We need to work our way around to the front gate because there’s a place there where we can be safe. If we’re correct, it’s also a place that has everything we need to be able to contact Mud Island and Fort Sumter.”
“Mud Island…Fort Sumter?” asked Colleen. “There are survivors?”
The hopeful look of relief on her face was almost more than Kathy or the Chief could stand. For people who had survived outside the shelters, life had become a daily question, not a given. There was no certainty of food, water, or even being alive when the day ended. Nights were sleepless and long, and if you were in a group, it wasn’t unusual to find someone gone in the morning. The worst part was finding out the person you had been sleeping only a few feet away from had been bitten but didn’t say anything. Fellow survivors were always waking up to the screams of new victims because someone had died during the night.
Kathy wrapped an arm around the shorter woman’s shoulders and pulled her closer. She could see that Colleen had been putting on a brave face for Hampton, but she was in bad need of a break from the daily grind of survival.
The Chief gave them a moment, and Hampton seemed like he needed to catch his breath, but he reminded them for a second time that they needed to get moving.
“We’re going to go behind the houses on the right side of Ambassadors Island in order to reach the front entrance. The infected all crossed over to the shooting on the left side, so we should be able to get there with no resistance. If we do run into strays, everyone use blades. When we get to the front entrance, we need to cross the road quickly and drop over toward the water on the other side. There should be a hidden entrance to a shelter there.”
Hampton had felt trust for this pair of people from the first moment he had met them, even though it hadn’t been under the best of circumstances. Despite that trust, he was looking at the Chief as if he was just going along with a joke, and the Chief would deliver the punch line at any moment. Then they could all have a good laugh while they slapped each other on the backs, and someone said something like, “I had you going there for a moment.”
Then Hampton felt like he understood. There had to be a fallout shelter under the first house, and somehow the Chief found out about it.
“Is the shelter big enough for all of us?” asked Hampton. “We could clear one of the houses and make it safe, too.”
“Let’s go,” said Kathy. “It’s time to get these two inside so they’ll feel like tomorrow may be a bit better than today.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” said the Chief. He gave Hampton a friendly slap on the arm and took off running between the houses toward the water.
There were only nine rambling houses between them and the front entrance to Ambassadors Island. The infected dead had been liberated from the garages of the middle three, so they stayed close to the water’s edge to keep the infected trapped inside number seven, eight, and nine from spotting them and getting agitated. The noise would be muted, but on a quiet day like this one, sound might carry too far. They were too close to their goal to take a chance now.
The first three houses all had large pools on their back lawns, and they were all surrounded by plenty of patio space for lawn chairs. Fortunately, the owners of the homes must have all had the same ideas about privacy, because there were rows of hedges along the patios where they faced the water. They had been neatly trimmed and boxed during the previous year, but they had grown considerably taller since then. Even the Chief was well hidden when they passed behind the first three homes.
They were all tempted to take quick looks to see if there were infected dead pushing up against the windows, but there was no longer curiosity about them. It was safe to assume that they would be there, and there wasn’t anything new to be seen.
The fourth house was going to be the first test for them as they ran in a stooped over position. There was no pool, and there were no shrubs to hide behind. Their best bet was to run like hell for the next house where the shrubs began again. It had been the last house that Hampton and Colleen had emptied, so they had to watch for infected that had either strayed from the fighting or had been late in leaving the house.
It might have been the breeze that was always coming off of the lake and rustling the leaves, or it could have just been the sound of the water lapping against the docks and boats. Whatever it was that was drawing their attention, there were infected dead streaming between the fourth and fifth houses.
“There are too many for us to take by hand, Chief,” said Kathy.
“No guns yet,” he answered. “There are ten times as many out front that could come our way.”
“Did we let out that many?” asked Colleen
“I don’t know if those people in the pick up trucks killed many before they were overrun, but add their numbers to the infected,” said Hampton.
The Chief said, “I think those dummies also shot out all of the windows and doors on the houses across the street. If the infected inside those homes got out, we could have about three hundred infected running loose out there. We have to retreat while we can.”
“I have an idea,” said Kathy. “Let’s go two houses back and go out on the dock. There’s a boat out there.”
“What if the boat doesn’t start?” asked Colleen. “We’ll be stuck out there.”
That was the first time she saw the Chief’s famous smile up close. The smile that said, “Everything is going to be just fine.”
The Chief had immediately looked toward the dock to houses back the way they had come, and he understood why Kathy had picked that dock. The house closer to them had a dock with a boat tied to it, but he knew if Kathy picked the second dock it had to be because one was over three times the length of the other.
The short dock that was close to them was so short that the infected dead could practically board the boat as soon as they reached the dock. The other dock was about sixty yards long and was shaped like a big letter Z. Kathy didn’t just intend to get away from the infected that had begun moving in their direction, she wanted to eliminate them.
As they ran past the first house, Kathy ran out onto the short dock, looked around the inside of the boat for a moment, and grabbed the anchor. She used her machete to chop through the heavy nylon line and brought it back to the Chief. She had cut the line right where it was tied to the boat, so she brought a lot of rope with her.
“You know what to do with this, right Chief?”
Kathy was getting just like the Chief, and she flashed him a smile to equal his own.
“Yes, ma’am, I sure do,” he said.
Colleen tugged on Hampton’s shirt sleeve and said, “Your friends are crazy…I like them.”
Anyone else might have been running like maniacs and screaming for help, but the small group of friends jogged toward the second dock, all wearing smiles and even laughing a bit. Kathy led the way and gestured for Colleen to follow her to the boat. Hampton stopped when the Chief did, waiting to see what he was going to do with the anchor.
The Chief handed his gear to Hampton and told him to give him just a little room. Hampton backed off and watched as the Chief played out a bit of anchor line, then he lifted the anchor free of the dock and started swinging it in a forward and backward motion. When he had it moving in a long enough arc, he gave it a little more power to carry it from its backswing into a full overhead swing. The thirty pound anchor crashed through the first two boards of the dock, destroying them both and lodging itself under the third.
Hampton caught on in a hurry and sat the gear down far enough away before running back to help the Chief. He grabbed the anchor line near the Chief’s hands, and together they pulled. The board creaked and the deck screws screamed as
they were pulled from the wood, but the next two boards came up with the first two.
“Damn, Chief. Four boards with one swing?” said Hampton.
The Chief laughed and said, “Give Kathy the credit. Whether it’s four people or five thousand, she sees a way to buy you time.”
He started the pendulum motion with the anchor for a second time, and Hampton stepped back to make room. The swing wasn’t as perfect as the first one, so it only took out one board, but the Chief got it moving again and took out another one. Six boards was a long, empty step for the infected dead because they didn’t have the ability to take a long step…just a long fall.
“I’ve got this, Hampton. It sounds like Kathy could use your help with the boat.”
“No problem, Chief. Good to be working with a team again.”
Hampton gathered up their gear and jogged the length of the dock to where Kathy was ready to start kicking the stubborn motor. Behind him he heard another crash as the Chief widened the gap. The nearest infected were only about ten yards from the dock, but the gap had increased to about five feet. Any of the infected that fell into the gap weren't going to be able to serve as a bridge for the others pushing from behind.
The water at the gap was only about waist deep, but the bottom dropped off and disappeared into darker colors in all outward directions. By the time the first of the infected dead reached the dock, the gap was six feet, and if the Chief wasn’t having enough fun yet, he really started enjoying himself by throwing the anchor at them. The thirty pound piece if metal hit the lead infected dead squarely in the middle of the chest, and its feet flew up in the air as it collided with six more that were too close behind it.
Colleen had stopped to watch the Chief as Hampton worked on the motor, and she was amazed at how devastating he was to the horde of infected. What she didn’t know was that he was mentally seeking redemption for the one time he failed to bring someone back alive.
