by Howard, Bob
Up until that moment, she had given very little thought to how long it had been. She had just existed and survived for as long as she could, and didn’t even remember when the last time was that she had seen another crewman alive. When the memories rushed through her mind, she guessed it had been almost a year.
Cassandra held onto the door and leaned out as far as she could, trying to see if there was land off the starboard bow. From her angle she couldn’t see any, but she didn’t want to be in the kitchen or anywhere else inside the ship if it hit land while moving at the speed it was going.
She decided it was time to get herself moving again. She went back to the refrigerator and took a few more swallows of juice then went back to the other door leading out of the kitchen. The big meat cleaver felt good in her hand, and she lifted it half way between her hip and shoulder so she would be ready to use it when she had to. One more deep breath, and she was ready to go again.
This time the door opened into a narrow service corridor, and Petty officer Gibbs felt really afraid for the first time since the infection had started to spread throughout the ship. This corridor she knew, and it was the wrong place to be. The gangway ahead of her in the corridor dropped straight down into the area right outside of the main crew quarters. The smell alone was enough to make her turn around, but the groaning coming from below made her skin crawl. The worst part was that the only way down to the engine room from where she stood was through the corridor past the crew’s quarters.
CHAPTER TEN
Mud Island Assault
Chapter 10
Mud Island Assault
From Mud Island we could see a blue and white ship coming straight toward us, but from the Beaver the view was slightly different. The ship that was on our horizon was heading for the coast slightly to the north of Mud Island, but there were shoals and sand bars along the coast that would stop it short of making landfall.
Kathy and the Chief were faced with a real problem just trying to get back into the shelter, but we already had our usual plan in mind. The Boston Whaler was safely tucked away in its own hidden boat garage on the southern tip of Mud Island, so we would take it out at night and head south to a safe enough distance to pick them up. The problem was that we couldn’t communicate that to them. If we could, they could fly south, land at sea, and just wait for us to arrive.
The radiation levels had dropped to a level so low that it was barely reading anything on our hidden sensors, so we wouldn’t have to worry about exposure. There were probably hundreds of people in our moat who had been fatally exposed, but there was nothing that could be done for them. After what we had seen them doing along the beach, I wasn’t so sure we would have tried. The only thing worse than harvesting the crabs that had been eating their friends was cannibalism, and we weren’t convinced that was beyond this group’s level of thinking.
We all gathered around the dining room table for a group meeting to see if anyone could come up with some ideas in a hurry. Our designated radio operator, Molly, was at her post listening for anything on the radio. I looked around at the group and saw them looking at each other for answers. Jean, Tom, and Bus all looked at each other and at me as if they were waiting for someone to come up with something original.
Jean looked like the strain of thinking this problem through was going to make her have our baby before the day was over. Our two best planners were out there in an airplane, and if I knew them both as well as I thought I did, they had a plan but were trying to figure out how to pass it along to us in a way that wouldn’t make sense to anyone who might be listening. That’s when it I knew what we should do.
“We should anticipate the Chief and Kathy,” I said.
All three of them looked at me expectantly.
“And exactly what do you think they’re going to do, Eddy?”
Jean had a way of saying my name that could sound sweet and sour at the same time. She was frustrated because she was worried about our friends. They were so close to home, but outside was a floating city of sick people and a ship coming toward us. Both of those things were major obstacles to bringing the Chief and Kathy home.
I didn’t answer immediately to give Jean a chance to think about the way she had answered me, and it paid off.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I sounded like a witch, didn’t I.”
It wasn’t a question, so I just gave her a little smile. Tom and Bus stayed out of it, not wanting to get us too far away from the problem at hand.
“So, what do you think they are hoping we will do?” asked Tom.
“Well, when there’s only one thing you can do, you should do it. They know the only way we can retrieve them is to pick them up down the coast at night, so we should go out through the southern escape hatch and launch the Boston Whaler. The current from the moat should carry us out far enough without us even having to turn on the motor. After we pick them up, we can use the motor to get close and then use paddles the rest of the way.”
Bus was nodding at me as I talked, but when I finished he said, “Aren’t you forgetting something? That ship will be here before nightfall, and I’m not entirely sure of where it will make landfall. It could drive right up the southern entrance to the moat for all we know.”
“Okay,” I said. “We can still do it in daylight. The boat people in our moat wouldn’t even see us leaving. They don’t have people in that end of the moat, and the beach is too far from the exit. It might even be better because the Chief and Kathy will be able to see us.”
“We would have to move faster in daylight,” said Jean.
The rest of us looked at her at same time and just waited.
It didn’t take long for Jean to realize the three men were all giving her the same look.
“Mind if I take this one, Ed?” asked Tom. “It might keep you out of trouble.”
“Be my guest,” I said.
“Jean, you’re not going with us. You’re pregnant.”
“You think I’m just going to sit here and wait for you guys again?”
All three of us said, “Yes.”
Before Jean had a chance to start protesting, I saw Molly waving at us from the living room.
“Molly’s got something.”
We all ran into the living room at the same time as she was scribbling on a pad of paper. Molly was a bright girl, and she knew how to write map coordinates. The funny thing was that she knew how to write map coordinates before I did.
She handed me the top sheet from the pad and said, “It was Kathy. She didn’t say anything except to stand by for instructions, then said the numbers. I recognized the first set as our location, so I think she’s saying they’re going to the second set.”
Tom mussed Molly’s hair and gave her a smile.
“Smart girl, Molly. Was there anything else?
“No Daddy, she just gave the double click on the radio button.”
Bus and I were already spreading out the map on a table while Jean was trying to get close enough to see. She was so short that her big belly was getting in the way when she leaned over the table.
Bus located the coordinates and traced a line from Mud Island out to the spot.
“Unless I miss my guess, that looks like the location of the ship that’s coming this way. Why would they send us the coordinates to that ship?”
I looked at the coordinates and said, “No, I think the location is closer to us than the ship. Look at he depth markings on the map. It gets a bit shallow right there. I think they know we can see the ship coming, and that it may run aground before it reaches us.”
“That’s good to know,” said Jean, “but did they tell us that for a reason other than to let us know we aren’t going to have a ship drive up to our front door?
“Hard to tell,” I said, “but if it stops short, we can wait until after dark to leave just as we said earlier.”
Molly came into the dining room and handed us a new set of coordinates, but there were other numbers that didn’t look like
they belonged on a map, and they were followed by a set of coordinates that were inland.
Bus took a pencil and put a small circle at each spot. The first numbers were the same as the earlier set, and they did appear to be somewhere between Mud Island and the ship. The second set were south of the first mark and could be where the Chief wanted to land the plane for a rendezvous with us. The third group of numbers were sixteen, four, and nine. After a space, there was another set of coordinates, and when Bus drew the circle on the map, it was right in the center of Georgetown.
“They’re telling us where to pick them up, and they’re telling is to bring guns and ammo. The third set of coordinates is to remind us that Hampton is with them.”
That was good news to me and Jean. Tom and Bus had never met Hampton, but he was a likable guy, and it would be good to have him with us. He was also a survivor if he managed to live through whatever happened at Georgetown and lived out in the open for as long as he had.
“The Chief and Kathy were armed when they left,” said Bus. “They either ran into problems and lost their weapons, or they want us to bring more support in case we get spotted.”
“There could be another reason,” said Jean.
I hadn’t noticed that she had left the dining room and was standing in front of the big monitor that showed a view of the beach. We all went to join her, and we could see what she meant.
The Chief had most likely gone to an altitude that gave him and Kathy a clear view of Mud Island without being heard from the ground. Given the amount of noise the Beaver’s engine made, he must have gone up a few miles. From where they were, they could see what we were seeing outside through our security cameras.
The entire population of the boat city in our moat was trying to get to the beach for a look at the approaching ship, and it was obvious that they felt like it was their first chance to be rescued because most of them were waving their arms. Some had attached big sheets of cloth of various colors onto long poles and were waving them like flags.
I switched the monitor to a view that allowed us to see what was happening around the island, and we saw that the boats were already trying to get out of the moat at the main entrance to the north. Those that could get underway were turning in place to face outward, and we could see the people who had been living in the houseboat trying again to get our twin outboard boat to start. They had tried before without success, and they weren’t likely to figure out what the Chief had done to disable it, but they were giving it another try.
The first boats got clear of the haphazard mess at the moat entrance and started out to sea. It was like someone got the cork out of a bottle, and a steady stream of boats followed. Some of the people on the beach began running back to the dock to try to catch rides on the boats, and some were dumb enough to start swimming. The crowd looked like it was going to go crazy, and there were far more people than we had realized.
Several of the boats that made it out of the logjam veered off course and came down along the island to the beach, presumably to pick up more people. That was their mistake, because their boats were quickly swamped by the desperate crowds. We watched as people fought with each other and then started shooting. People scattered, and some fell to the ground to die. No one considered what would happen next, as people continued to focus on the approaching ship.
The leaders from the houseboat had given up on our boat and were doing what they could to take boats away from other people. It looked like as many as six or seven men had leadership status, and they all managed to hitch rides with boats that were passing by. The camera view of the moat showed that most of the boats were under power, just waiting for their turn to get in line behind those that were leaving. Some of the boats that weren’t under power either couldn’t start or were being towed by other boats.
******
From a few miles above, Kathy was watching the events below through a set of binoculars and describing them to the Chief through their headsets. Hampton was doing the same from his window in the back of the Beaver, but Colleen was persistently tugging the binoculars away from him for a quick look.
They could see a steady stream of small boats, most no more than sixteen feet long, heading out to meet the big blue and white ship. It looked like at least a two hundred of them were at full speed as they passed the northern jetty. They could also see that the ship wasn’t slowing down. It was on a collision course with a reef that was marked by a buoy, so the Chief knew that no one could be at the helm. If there was, they knew the reef was there, but they didn’t care.
The Chief had seen ships run aground before, and depending on the speed of the impact, it wasn’t a pretty sight. If there were living people on board who weren’t braced for impact, they were thrown into bulkheads and often killed by equipment that wasn’t secured. If they were topside, they were likely to be thrown overboard.
“Do you think it’s safe to try for radio contact, Chief?”
“Wouldn’t hurt. Those people in the boats are too busy to figure out where the radio broadcast is coming from.”
Kathy keyed the microphone and said, “Unidentified vessel approaching the South Carolina coast at high speed. Be aware that you are about to enter shallow water. The buoy is located less than five degrees to your starboard bow.”
They listened for a response for a few seconds, then she repeated the message. There was no change in course.
“Some of the lead boats are going to get to the reef before the ship. The wake will swamp them if they’re too close,” said Hampton.
There was a burst of static on their radio, and then a woman’s voice came through.
“Unidentified radio transmission. I don’t have you in my view. Can you provide location?”
The Chief and Kathy exchanged looks with each other. Neither of them could figure out what she meant by “view”.
Kathy had a thought from her police training and asked the question even civilians understood from watching tv or using a CB radio.
“Negative if you’re asking for our twenty. Hostiles in the area.”
“Copy that,” said the woman. “Plenty of hostiles here too.”
That was what they had been afraid of. The ship was overrun by the infected dead, but at least one woman was onboard with access to a radio.
The voice came back before Kathy could ask more questions.
“Unable to reach the quarterdeck, so unable to pilot the vessel. As many as two to three hundred infected onboard. Unknown if others are alive, but doubtful. Cornered in radio room located amidships one deck below open cargo door to galley storage. Can you assist?”
It wasn’t like the Mud Island survivors to say no to anyone who was still alive after the outbreak of the infection. If they were alive and unbitten, then they deserved to live. Kathy looked at the Chief before answering, and Hampton leaned forward between the front seats and grinned at both of them.
“We’re in.”
“Have you been infected?” Kathy asked into the microphone.
There was a brief pause that caused them to worry, but the voice came back and said, “Sorry, someone wanted into the radio room. Had to check the door.”
“Unidentified friend, I have not been bitten, and I’m allergic to shellfish, so I have not been infected by the food. Most of the crew ate the shellfish so the infection spread fast once it got started.”
“Did she just say what I think she said?” asked the Chief.
“We all heard it,” said Kathy. “It’s time to introduce ourselves and let her know that we’re at least going to give it a try. It’s a good thing we already told our friends to bring more guns and ammo.”
“Unidentified vessel, we can assist. Four friendlies along for the ride with three more inbound. I’m Kathy, and I don’t think you’ll have a hard time figuring out who we are since we will be armed, but be advised there are other unfriendlies inbound. Remain secure until you are sure it’s us and not them.”
“Thank you, Kathy. I’m Cassand
ra. Will remain secure, but please hurry.”
“One more thing, Cassandra. People died after eating the shellfish. Did you mean crabs?”
“Ghost crabs and mangrove oysters harvested near Cameroon, Africa.”
“Well, that explains what we suspected all along,” said the Chief.
“Blue crabs,” said Hampton. “I was wondering about that, too. Some of the people in Georgetown looked sick long before the town was overrun. I knew people were still crabbing after we closed off all of the routes in and out of town, but it bothered me when I thought about what was going into the water, so I didn’t eat what they caught. I remember one guy saying that just left more for him.”
“What about the rest of the food chain?” asked Colleen. “Do we have to worry about everything we eat, and why wouldn’t cooking it kill the virus….or whatever it is?”
“We can worry about that later,” said the Chief, “but for the time being we won’t eat anything that doesn’t come out of our supply room. Besides, you won’t find crab dip on the table in our shelter, not unless you want to see Jean come unglued. In the meantime, I think we can break radio silence now. Things are starting to happen too fast for us to worry about someone hearing us.”
Kathy keyed the microphone and asked Mud Island to respond. Molly answered immediately and asked her if they could see the beach. From a couple of miles away Kathy said they could see what we were watching on our security cameras.
People who had been shot during the fighting for the boats were getting back up from the sand and wandering into the crowds of people still waving at the approaching ship. The unsuspecting people toward the back of the crowd felt the bites on their arms, necks, and legs. The screaming started, but there was so much noise from the excited crowd that the people couldn’t tell the difference between screams and cheers. Only a few people turned to look, but most of them just thought there were more fights. It wouldn’t be long before the infected outnumbered the living on the beach.
