by Bob Howard
“Any idea what the range is on the cameras?” asked the Chief.
I thought for a moment because I really had no idea, but then I remembered that we could use some of the cameras for a frame of reference because there were known objects within view.
I switched to the grid and then selected the one that showed the houseboat. I had spotted that camera from the Boston Whaler when I went out for target practice. I knew it was there somewhere and wanted to see if it was visible to strangers. What I found was that I wouldn’t have been able to spot the camera unless I had known it was there. I mentally pictured the location of the camera and the length of the dock and guessed that the range was only about twenty yards on a dark night.
I told the Chief my guess, and he said, “That’s better than nothing, but it isn’t great. I think you’re right that we should have someone keeping watch around the clock.”
We cycled through all nine views, and I showed the Chief another control that would allow the person on watch to keep track of news broadcasts at the same time. They might not last much longer, so I suggested that we have someone watching them until there were no more stations broadcasting the news.
The station I had been watching from the start came up on the screen. The anchorman wasn’t at his desk, and the monitors in the background were blank. The chief and I both sat there watching as if something would happen, but it was just quiet.
I said, “That’s probably why we need to watch. We need to see if anything happens that we didn’t know about.”
The big bearded face rotated in my direction. I felt like I was looking at a Viking in a white uniform. The Chief had not tried the coveralls yet because the ladies were still in the shower.
“Ed,” he said in a low voice, “please don’t tell me that you think these things are going to change, or that things can get worse.”
“Well, no, I didn’t really mean it that way, Chief. I wasn’t trying to say these things were going to mutate and start running or learning to use weapons, or form a union. I meant that I’d like to know what happens to the people. Maybe they were rescued or something.”
The Chief smiled that trademark smile of his and laughed at himself, “I was seriously spooked for a moment Ed. Just think about it for a second. Do you even have a clue about how tall the pedestal is that we’ve got you up on right now? You must really have your ducks in a row to be this safe while the rest of the world is in Hell, and if you told me the infected are capable of resuming the news broadcasts, we’d be inclined to agree with you. I thought you were going to predict something else since you seem to have predicted the end of the world already.”
“Do me a favor, Chief. Take me down off of that pedestal. I’m not comfortable up there. As a matter of fact, change channels and see if you can find The Three Stooges or something. I could use some serious TV right now.”
The Chief let out a hardy laugh that was really reassuring, and it felt good to get that scary serious look off of his face. The problem was, it stopped like someone flipped a switch. He just stopped laughing and froze.
“Did you see that?” He asked.
“See what?”
He switched to the security camera view and zoomed in on the screen that showed the mainland right about where the dock should be. The green light didn’t illuminate the dock or the beach because its range was far too short, but it didn’t have to reach that far to see light on the beach.
I hit the switch that changed the camera back from night vision to normal, and all we could see was total blackness. We stared at the screen for what seemed like an eternity until we both saw the unmistakable beam from a flashlight. It was right in the area of the dock, and it could have even been on the dock. The infected didn’t use flashlights.
My mouth felt dry as we watched the beam move around as if the person with the flashlight was exploring the dock and maybe the footprints I had left around it.
As if the Chief read my mind, he asked, “Did you leave any clues that you were out here on this island?”
“No, nothing but footprints, and that would only tell someone that somebody has been at the dock recently. That spot where you see the light is where the mainland dock is located. Whoever that is, they would be just as likely to assume that someone had a boat here and escaped with it. The northern tip of the island where the houseboat is tied to the dock isn’t visible from that part of the beach, and the part of the beach that would allow you to see the dock is pretty inhospitable.”
“Something’s happening over there,” said the Chief.
I watched and could tell he was right. First the flashlight aimed back toward the trees and then toward the sky. We couldn’t see anything except the light changing directions, and that didn’t make sense. It seemed like it was moving in circles at one point, and then it was moving closer like it was out at the end of the dock. Then it went down to ground level and stopped changing directions. It was just a little white star in the blackness, and it was pointed toward mud island.
“Some poor bastard just dropped his flashlight,” said the Chief.
“Do alligators hunt at night,” I asked?
“I don’t think so, why?” The Chief was looking at me like I was on the pedestal again, and all of my answers would be wise.
“Well, I didn’t see any other flashlights, and no one picked up the one on the ground, so I’m going to rule out the possibility that the guy dropped it because someone living attacked him…assuming it was a man.”
I added, “I don’t think alligators hunt at night, either, but I know what does.”
The Chief looked concerned but not really worried. “Ed, if there are infected dead running around over there, it means we’re safe at night, because they can’t get here, and they’re going to keep anyone else from getting here. I feel bad for whoever that was, but at least they didn’t bring the infection over here.”
******
The ladies came up from the lower levels toweling their hair dry and wearing really comfortable looking navy blue bathrobes.
“We found these robes in with all of the other clothes. Talk about being well stocked,” said Kathy.
Chief Barnes asked, “Leave me any hot water?”
They both laughed and said, “No,” at the same time.
The ladies joined me on the couch while the Chief went to take his turn. Since the center control console was in the down position, I was squeezed into a smaller section with Jean. Her fresh smell was making me dizzy, but having her up against my hip and thigh were killing me.
“What is that on the TV screen?” Asked Kathy.
“The Chief and I spotted a flashlight moving around over on the beach. That’s where a smaller dock is just like the one where we tied up the boat. We think whoever was using the flashlight was attacked by something and dropped the flashlight. It stopped moving, but the batteries haven’t run down yet.”
Kathy said, “So, you have a camera system around the island. Is it any good at night?”
I reached over to the controls and switched it back to the nine screen grid. Then I selected night vision.
There was an immediate, collective scream from the three of us. I wasn’t ashamed to scream and jump because no one cared…not when the camera on the southern tip focused in on a man standing completely still about ten yards away. The green light made it hard to make out all of the details, but he was standing with his left side toward the camera and just staring out toward the ocean.
I think we were all holding our breath and staying completely still just out of reflex. The man wouldn’t know we were here just because the camera was pointed at him.
He turned very slowly, first straight toward the camera, then back toward the ocean. We could see that his clothes were ragged and filthy. He was also soaking wet.
A crab was hanging onto his leg just above the left knee. At first I wondered why he didn’t brush it off, but Jean said the reason first.
“He’s infected, and I think it’s the de
ad variety,” she said.
“You’re right,” I said. “Crabs are bottom feeders, and the more dead you are the more they like you. People use rotten chicken as bait to catch crabs. An infected dead walking around on this island is bound to attract them.”
Kathy had a sick look on her face. “I had considered doing some fishing and crabbing from the top of the houseboat. I think I’ll pass on that idea now.”
Jean asked, “How did it get here? I thought the current would be too swift because the water is so deep between the island and the mainland.”
“There’s still longshore drift even with the jetties,” I said. “I think that’s the only explanation. There are a lot of bodies that went into the water north of here. If they go into the water dead, then they won’t drown. As long as the current keeps carrying them down the coast, I don’t see why they wouldn’t get up and walk when they wash up on shore.”
The infected dead man began walking toward the ocean and made the turn from the southern tip onto the long stretch of beach facing the Atlantic. He went out of view, and I wanted to know where he went, so I switched to another camera on the grid. He shambled back into view and walked about fifteen or twenty feet up the beach until he tripped over something. When he got back up, the dark shape he had tripped over got up too. There were two of them now.
“Uh, ladies….I don’t think there’s going to be a reason to go outside alone for a long time, but if we have to go out, we should go out in pairs and be armed.”
Chief Barnes came up behind us, looking like a boxer with a towel draped over his head and wearing a bathrobe just like the ladies. “What did I miss?”
“We have a couple of infected dead on the beach. I think they washed up on the beach side, but one had strolled around the southern tip.”
He didn’t look too concerned, but then again, he hadn’t turned on the camera and found one posing for a picture.
“Okay, that’s two, but we learned something today,” he said.
Kathy answered, “They stay alive in the water, or should I say they stay dead in the water? No, that’s not right. They stay dangerous in the water if they are still moving around when they go in.”
I said, “We need more sharks.”
The Chief said, “They’re a fact of life now, so we just need to be careful. I guess we can hope that they walk back out into the water, but we can’t assume they will. One thing we can assume is that there will be more on the ocean side. We have a choice, let them wander around out there or go out and neutralize them.”
******
There’s a lot you can say about being completely safe, but there’s one thing you can’t say. You can’t say that you ever feel completely safe. Over the month that followed the arrival of my new friends, we watched sporadic news broadcasts, we saw more infected dead wash up onto the beach, and we saw plenty of them carried away by sharks.
Some infected dead washed up on the beach and never moved again. When they did, we wanted to know why. We wanted to know what killed them. In one regard, we were always lucky enough to be able to see head wounds, and we knew they had probably been completely dead before they went into the water. We were lucky because we didn’t need to go outside to verify it.
One body washed up onto the beach, never moved all day, but was gone the next day. No one saw it leave, but we hopefully chalked it up to a higher than normal tide during a full moon.
Of the news broadcasts, most were just audio, but some were amateur at best. I got a big surprise when the station I had been watching at the beginning came back on the air.
I had the midnight watch and was alternating between outside views and scanning for broadcasts. I had the Internet for a bit, but the bandwidth was so low that I couldn’t get pages to load. When I switched to TV broadcasts, I got the same empty newsroom that I had seen dozens of times, but the lights were brighter. A young man with long hair walked into view and sat at the news desk.
“Hi to anyone who might be watching tonight. I have a little bit of news to pass on that probably can’t be verified, but I’m going to tell you about it anyway. Oh, by the way, names don’t really matter anymore, but you can call me Mike.”
I leaned closer and turned up the volume. I didn’t really care if it was verified or not. Any news was still news.
Mike continued, “First, for those of you who are wondering about what happened to the news crew, they got word from somewhere that there was a military installation that had managed to keep the zombies, or whatever it is you call them, from getting inside. They sent a helicopter to this station and evacuated them to that installation. Here’s the bad news folks; if you’re sitting there wondering where that installation is, I can’t help you because they didn’t tell me. I found a sign they left on this news desk that said they were getting picked up by the military, and that was it. Thanks, right?”
“Ok, the next news story is something I managed to pick up from a shortwave radio broadcast. The guy who was broadcasting said he was a survivor somewhere in a bunker. He said he had been in touch with a US Navy ship off the coast of South Carolina that sank a cruise liner. The Navy said they had been watching the ship for weeks, and that it was still crawling with zombies. They didn’t want anyone thinking they could retake the ship, so they sank it.”
Mike shuffled some papers as if he was doing a real broadcast. “Next up is a report that the military has also tried bombing major cities in order to wipe out the spread of infection. Word is that it has not worked so well. If anything, the problem is worse because of collateral damage. That’s what the military called it, not me.”
“We also have a report.”…Mike stopped and looked like he was bothered by something. “I have a report would be more accurate since there’s no one here with me. Reports are coming in that the military has been firing weapons at other military. The Navy has possibly put some cruise missiles into an Army base that was previously considered a safe zone. Sorry, folks. I don’t know if it’s the same base that evacuated this station.”
I didn’t hear Jean come into the room, and I was so intent upon what was being said that I jumped a bit.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” she said.
What startled me was when Jean snuggled up with me on the couch. She did it so naturally that it seemed like we had always been that comfortable with each other. I had a blanket across my legs, so I pulled it over her, too.
“Ummm…this is comfortable,” she said. “Can we stay like this for a bit?”
“Sure, it feels nice to me too.” What I was thinking was that we could stay like this forever if she wanted.
“You found some news? Anything good?” Jean sounded a bit sleepy.
“No, nothing you’d want to hear. I think the Navy sank that ship you guys were on. That would explain all the infected that washed up on the beach. This guy’s news is undoubtedly older than he realizes, so it probably happened a long time ago. Other than that, it really isn’t anything we haven’t heard on other broadcasts.”
Jean’s even breathing told me she had dozed off. I was sleepy myself, but I wanted to stay awake for as long as I could and enjoy her warmth against me.
******
“It’s definitely a ship, but it’s still too far out to tell anything else,” I said to the Chief. I had gone to get him as soon as I saw on one of the camera monitors the sunlight reflect back from something on the horizon. We had agreed that the ocean side of Mud Island was just as dangerous as the side facing the mainland for one reason. Any small ship or boat that was trying to survive at sea for the last month would be trying to find a safe place to come ashore. Fresh water and other supplies would be necessary to their survival, so they would try to come in wherever it looked safe. After all, that’s how Jean, Kathy, and the Chief had found safety.
Mud Island would look like a dream come true if they came in close enough to see the northern dock where the houseboat was parked. Since it was well hidden from the mainland and deserted looki
ng, someone in a small boat would have to figure it was a safe haven. Tidal creeks and small inlets away from marinas were much safer than populated areas.
Up and down the coast there were thousands of small boats and cabin cruisers that had made it to safety in the open sea. According to the increasingly rare news reports, they couldn’t stay at sea indefinitely, though. Some had tried to seek help from the Navy ships that were patrolling along the Gulf Stream, but the Navy couldn’t risk losing more of its numbers to the infected. Those who didn’t heed the warnings to stay away were sunk, and as water became increasingly scarce at sea, more of them became too bold with their approach toward naval vessels.
Many of the boats were lost because there were infected on board. Whether they were strangers or family members, it didn’t matter. It was happening just as if they had found temporary safety on land. People just weren’t willing to turn in their loved ones if they were infected.
Some of them thought they could make it into ports for supplies and then make it back to sea, but they found they either couldn’t reach land safely or they couldn’t escape a second time.
As small boats encountered each other at sea, the paranoia caused by fears of infection or even piracy caused people to shoot first and ask questions later. On land there were places where people had dug in, and out at sea, every boat had become its own island.
“I don’t think they’re going to be a threat to us,” said the Chief. “They look pretty far out to sea, just barely on the horizon.”
“Maybe, Chief, but they are closer than they were before,” I said. “I’ve seen enough ships and boats in the last month to tell that one is coming straight toward the coast.”
The Chief studied the image on the screen for a minute and said, “We should have set up a way to tell distance a long time ago, but I think you’re right. Is the camera on maximum zoom?”
