by Schafer, Jon
Steve nodded. He had seen hundreds of the white, chest sized crates bolted to people's docks.
"I opened one up to see if I could find anything I could use, and one of those things was in there," Heather said, trying to keep her voice calm. "He popped out and bit me on my left tit."
Steve's eyes got big on hearing this and his body tensed.
Seeing his expression, she said quickly, "Don't worry. I was still wearing my vest."
Steve relaxed.
With a sick laugh, she said, "The son of a bitch latched on good though. Bit right through my shirt. You should see the bruise." Realizing what she said, Heather added with a half smile, "If you're lucky, I might let you see it."
They both smiled at that before she went on, "It let go to try and bite me again so I backed off and shot it in the face. There were more of them around and they heard the shot and started coming in my direction, so I skipped my plans on breaking into one of the houses there to look for food. I made it all the way around the southern tip of Pinellas down by Fort Desoto in the dark. I pulled into John’s Pass looking for somewhere safe to tie up but everywhere I looked on the Boardwalk I saw those things staggering around. A few of them even stepped off into the water to try and get to me.
She shuddered, then said, "There was no way I'd get any sleep thinking of those things crawling around underwater below me, so I moved on."
"Underwater?" Steve asked.
Heather nodded, "We found out they can stay under water from that diver who found the first one off Indian Rocks Beach. It makes sense that they don't need to breathe since they're dead. That’s how they got into McDill too."
Steve nodded thoughtfully at this. It was something to keep in mind. He didn't plan on being on the water, much less swim in it, but it made him wonder what else the dead could do since they were dead.
"I headed up the intracostal and I could pick out the houses that had survivors in them because they were mobbed by the dead," Heather explained. "You know the bridge that crosses into Bellaire Bluffs?"
"Know it well," Steve said, thinking of the night he drove to Ginny's.
"Just past that I ran out of gas. I think I might have made it all the way to Clearwater, but I was fighting the tide when I went under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge and used up a lot of fuel. I was too afraid to tie up anywhere, so I pulled out the oars and started rowing."
"How big was this boat you were in?" Steve asked.
Heather thought for a moment then replied, "About eight feet."
Again, Steve was amazed. Heather had piloted an open, eight-foot, inflatable boat all the way from the pier to Clearwater. On a normal day it would be difficult, but under these circumstances...
He had a greater respect now for the woman sitting next to him as she continued to tell her story. "I tried to land in a few places but kept running into those things. I finally ended up at the Marine Laboratory and stayed because it was absolutely deserted. I broke in just as it started to get light, but it was so spooky. I kept hearing noises that sounded like those things. I was going to look for somewhere else when I realized what the sounds were."
Steve looked at her expectantly.
"The animals," Heather said. ''No one freed them."
This made Steve think of all the other places that kept animals and people caged up. Zoo's, mental institutions and prisons came to mind, but his focus returned to Heather.
"So you went around and let them go," he stated with a smile.
Looking slightly embarrassed, she said, "Someone had to."
I'm glad you did that," Steve said. "They would have starved."
"That's what I was thinking," Heather replied and then laughed. "I almost couldn't get the otters to leave me alone. They were the first ones I let loose and I expected them to haul ass out to the water, but they followed me around the whole day while I let the other animals go. The dolphins were the hardest because I had to wait while another pool filled so I could open the door between them to the outside."
"So you didn't get any sleep?" Steve asked.
"A little," Heather said. "But it was getting dark so I just rested my eyes for a bit and then left. I made it all the way to the library overlooking Clearwater Beach before I was spotted by some of those things. I thought I was cornered up against the building but I managed to get up on the roof of the library and run across it. That's when I started cutting through alleys and climbing up on roofs to scout the way I wanted to go. I eventually made it to where you saw me on the building across the street."
"And waved me down with a flashlight," Steve finished.
"After I tried calling a dozen times," she said. "I'd been trying to get ahold of you for days but couldn't get through. A lot of cell towers are down because of the blackouts. I'm surprised you still have power here. I saw the lights on in a few of the offices. I didn't know which one was yours so I was just running my light over all the windows, floor by floor, until I got a reaction, just hoping I was on the right side of the building. If your office was on the other side, I was going to have to move again."
"Well, you made it," Steve said. "You didn't give up."
"I'd been shining that light for two hours and I was ready to give up when I saw your office lights flash. What took you so long?"
Steve explained about Donna and about what they'd been doing for the past days. Heather listened intently and asked, "Are you sure there's no more of the dead lurking anywhere else here in the building?"
This made Steve pause and consider. Marcia was at her desk so he asked her to find Susan and send her in. While they were waiting for her, he explained to Heather that Susan had been watching the door in the lobby on Monday, but with everything going on he'd forgotten to ask her if anyone came in.
When Susan entered, Steve quickly introduced her to Heather and then got down to business. Susan told him that no one had entered through the foyer but she couldn’t be sure about the second floor walkway from the parking ramp.
Steve thanked her, and before she left, Susan invited Heather to lunch. Heather accepted gratefully. She felt like she’d been isolated for days from normal human interaction. When she was serving as a cop during the crisis, she had been insulated from others by her position and now looked forward to talking to another person.
When Susan was gone, Steve filled Heather in on the other survivors at the station. When he got to Mary and Susan being a couple, Heather raised a questioning eyebrow.
"How do you feel about that?" She asked.
Waving a hand in dismissal he replied, "I've got way too much to worry about already. As long as they don't cause problems, they can call in the whole staff, break out the Crisco oil and the rubber bed sheets and play nude twister for all I care."
"Sounds fun," Heather commented with a half smile and then grew serious before saying, "Any word from Ginny?"
Steve shook his head, "She's still missing in Tampa."
Heather didn't wish any bad on Ginny but she hoped the woman stayed away. In the present circumstances, Tampa was about as attainable as the moon. That left Steve here. With her.
Going to the office door, Steve called out for Tick-Tock, who appeared seconds later. Steve introduced Heather to Tick-Tock who looked uneasy in her presence. Turning to his second in command, he said, "Since all three of us are here, I want to clarify something. Tick-Tock, you're still my right hand man. I don't want you to think that because Heather showed up that you're going to be kicked to the curb."
Steve brought this up because he thought it might cause potential problems. He had spoken to Tick-Tock about Heather possibly showing up while they had been working on various projects in the building over the past few days and at the time had thought nothing of it. When Heather finally did arrive, Steve noticed Tick-Tock being standoffish and unusually quiet and reserved and saw a conflict in the making.
Looking at Heather, Steve explained, "Tick-Tock knows these people better than I do. He's worked with them for years and he also served as a
Marine. I just wanted to get this out in the open, so there won't be any confusion later on. I still need your opinion Heather because you have a lot of experience that we can use, but Tick-Tock is in charge if I'm not around.
Heather had no problem with this and said so. Tick-Tock looked relieved so Steve continued, "With that out of the way, I want the three of us to sit down and figure out what we need to do to reinforce our position. Heather brought up something that we need to address, and I have an idea that I want some feedback on."
Sitting down next to Heather, Steve asked, "Do you feel up to going over a few things?"
She gave him a smile and replied, "If I could eat again first, I could."
"No problem, I'll get you something from the deli," he said and started to rise.
Tick-Tock spoke up, "You two hang out. I'll run down and grab something for all of us. They had a couple of those party platters made up so I'll see if they're still fresh. If not, I'll whip up something."
To Heather, he asked, "You're not a vegetarian or anything are you?"
"With what I've seen the past few days I should be," she replied. "But right now, I could definitely go for a roast beef and swiss on rye."
"Coming up," he said cheerfully as he went out the door.
When he was gone, Heather said, "You handled that fairly well, blunt and to the point, but fairly well. I was wondering how I'd fit in here."
"You'll fit in fine," Steve assured her. "We need you, and I'm glad you're here."
Now's the moment of truth, Heather thought. Everything was being brought out in the open so why not clear the slate.
"About us," she started out. "I need to know if there is an us. Do you need me or are you just glad I'm here?''
Quietly, Steve said, "I need you and want you. I think I've wanted to say that since last week, but I didn't realize it for sure until I saw you on that roof last night."
She leaned across the couch and kissed him.
When they came up for air, Steve said, "You handled that fairly well. Blunt and to the point, but fairly well."
"Shut up," Heather said and kissed him again.
Tick-Tock came back a while later and interrupted with a discrete knock. He offered to come back later, but Steve insisted he stay and eat with them.
"We need to go over a few things and I'd like to do it now." They both nodded, so Steve continued, "We should search the building to make sure that there aren't any more dead lurking around. After the incident with Donna...” He left the rest unsaid.
"Good idea," Tick-Tock chimed in. "We can do a floor by floor search. Between us three we should be able to check the whole building in no time." Motioning to Heather’s CAR-15 in the corner by the end of the couch, he added, "That'll add to our firepower too."
"The problem is that the ammunition I have for it got wet. I cleaned the rifle but I can't say whether or not they’ll fire." Heather pointed out. "The bullets might be fine, but I wouldn't want to have a misfire at the wrong time."
"Which brings me to a solution to that problem," Steve said. "We need weapons and ammunition and we've got them nearby, we just need to get them."
"Where?" Tick-Tock asked.
"The MRAP," Steve replied. Motioning them toward the window, they looked down at the vehicle still parked in the center of the street while he explained, "I can see two of the M4's the National Guard guys were carrying from here. One's laying on the hood of the MRAP and the other is looped over the hatch on top where the gunner sits. All we need to do is grab them and then get into that armored car. They're bound to have more ammunition, and who knows what else inside."
Pointing slightly to the left, Steve continued, "See the rope Heather came over on last night? All we need to do is move it to the right so it hangs directly across the top of the armored car. Tie off another line to it over the MRAP and we can drop down and get inside."
"I've seen those dead things climb up on vehicles," Heather said. "It's not fast or pretty, but they can." Looking over the street, she continued, "There must by a couple hundred down there. What's to keep them from swarming all over you?"
"Yeah, Steve," Tick-Tock added. "You must have missed it last night when your girlfriend here was coming across that rope, but she had the attention of every zombie on the block. They were all looking up drooling."
"I have that affect on men," Heather said. "But I never knew it crossed over to the undead."
Steve smiled and said, "I'm going to give them something to distract them."
"What?" They both asked.
''Me."
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Clearwater, Florida:
Steve tested the gate leading into the parking ramp by giving it a few hard, rapid tugs. He had reinforced it with lengths of chain and rope from the maintenance office but it still seemed like a flimsy barrier for what he was about to attempt.
His actions attracted the attention of a few of the walking dead. They approached and hung on the fence while hungrily watching him. Steve stared back at them without expression. At one time they might have been people from the neighborhood whom he passed on the sidewalk with a friendly nod, but now they were dead, animated sacks of meat. He felt no real hatred toward them, disgust at their appearance but no hatred. He saw them only as an obstacle to his survival that needed to be dealt with.
Steve watched more zombies gather and wrap their fingers through the fencing of the gate as they moaned at him in hunger. Turning to gauge the distance to the safety of the stairwell in case they broke through, he lifted a small gong he had gotten from Meat and waited for the signal. Meat had used the gong in a radio spoof he called Jap Slap Theatre but had found it was too loud. Steve hoped it would be loud enough.
A gunshot rang out from the front of the bank building, signaling him to begin, so Steve started banging a large screwdriver against the gong while screaming at the top of his lungs. Instantly, he wished he’d brought earplugs. The sound of the wooden handle hitting the two-foot wide metal disc created a noise that seemed to drive into the center of his brain.
They had experimented with various noisemakers to see if any specific sound attracted the dead. After blowing whistles and banging on various objects, they found the gong worked best. Steve could see it was having the desired effect as the zombies at the gate were starting to get agitated at the noise, echoing out from the parking ramp into the street. Attracted by this, more of the dead shuffled toward him and soon he had a crowd of over five hundred clustered on the street in front of him with more on the way.
Walking further to his right, Steve kept up the banging while watching to see if his plan was going to work. He saw those walking dead clustered at the side of the pack move toward him, while more came to fill their ranks. Soon, he had a mass of animated dead flesh that seemed to roll along and follow his movements outside the chain link fencing that secured the first level of the parking ramp. To keep them interested, he would walk back and forth in front of the throng first, before moving further along. Eventually, he led them around the outside corner of the building and down the side of the ramp almost to its back wall. When he was sure he had succeeded in getting most of the dead to follow him, he stopped hitting the gong.
Without the noise deafening him, Steve was suddenly aware of the shrieking, whining sound coming from hundreds of dead throats. He shivered slightly at the eerie noise before he turned and ran up the slope of the ramp to the second level.
Now we'll find out if this works, he thought to himself. Even if it doesn't, I just hope nobody gets fucked up.
Rounding the corner on the second level, he could see where Heather waited on the elevated walkway. She spotted him and smiled. Then came a noise, which caused her smile to turn into an ear-to-ear grin. In the silence of the dead city, the sound of the diesel engine of the MRAP roaring to life echoed between the buildings, which told them that Tick-Tock had started the second part of the plan.
As Steve joined Heather at the walkway, he heard the armored car’
s engine change pitch as it was put in gear. The original plan to salvage material from the MRAP had been expanded by Tick-Tock in their earlier planning session. He reasoned that it made more sense to try and take the whole vehicle and pull it into the parking garage so that they could pick over its contents at their leisure. Steve agreed. This was better than his original idea where they would divert the attention of the dead and then drop down and grab what they could from the armored car before retreating back up the rope and into the safety of the building.
They were considering what problems they might face, no charge in the battery to start the MRAP being the worst case, when Heather brought up a hitch in the plan. The armored vehicle’s clearance was too high to be able to enter the ramp. Steve and Tick-Tock hadn't considered this and realized it was a good thing Heather was sitting in on the war council. It would have been a mess if they took the MRAP and drove to the entrance, only to find out it wouldn't fit. Together they came up with the alternate plan they were using.
Steve heard the MRAP's engine fade as it went around the opposite side of the Garnett Building. Moving to the low concrete wall of the walkway that faced the rear of the building, he listened intently for the crescendo of the diesel engine to reach his ears, telling him that Tick-Tock was on his way.
A sudden rising whine from the super-charged engine was followed a few minutes later by a series of crashes. Steve estimated that Tick-Tock was now driving through the outdoor eating area at the back of the building, just around the corner from where he now stood. Heather also heard the sound of umbrella-covered tables and metal chairs being shunted aside and crushed by the steel behemoth and shouldered her CAR-15.
"Any second now," Steve said.
Even as the words left his mouth, the nose of the MRAP appeared around the corner of the bank building, a metal table wedged into its front bumper. But this wasn't the only adornment TickTock had picked up, clinging to various sections of the armored car were a half dozen zombies. Heather fired the first burst, which knocked one of the dead from its perch on the hood. Steve only had his pistol, so he had to wait for Tick-Tock to turn into the grass strip between the bank building and the parking ramp before he would be in range.
