by Bob Howard
The Chief drew Whitney over to him and whispered, "Do you know who this guy is?"
She nodded and said, "We've seen him around. He's like a vulture. He let us do all of the clearing before he tried to move in."
"Would he believe you if you offered to let him in if he came alone?"
"I think so. He doesn't seem too bright," she whispered.
"It's the best we can hope for," said the Chief. "We need to pilot the ship from above, and the only reason he hasn't done it yet himself is because he doesn't know how to. Kathy, get in position as high as you can. Sam and Perry, you two can hide. I'll be up there by the galley. Whitney, back away from the hatch as soon as you unlock it."
Everyone got into their positions, and Whitney moved closer to the door.
"Mister, how do we know you won't hurt us?" she asked through the door.
"We have to stick together, little lady. It's the only way any of us are going to survive."
He tried to put on his sweetest, most charming show, but even through a steel door they could tell he was smirking.
"What if I just let you in? Maybe we can talk and work out a deal?"
It was quiet for longer than before. They couldn't see outside to tell what was happening, but the vulture was overconfident and had signaled for the three men he had with him to go ahead and climb from the boat back onto the dock. He felt like he could handle the three kids on his own. When he and his gang had arrived, they didn't even look down past the stern. If they had, they would have seen the boat tied at the opening of the raft retrieval bay.
"Okay, little lady. I'm all by myself. You can open the door now."
Whitney looked at the Chief to be sure, and he was counting down with one hand. He wanted her to delay for just a few seconds, or the guy might think it was a trap. When he was done counting, Whitney stepped forward and removed the steel pin from the lock. She spun the locking wheel and stepped back quickly. As soon as it was unlocked, the jerk outside yanked it open and came through. He made it about two feet when he heard the unmistakable sound of a hammer being pulled back and felt cold metal touch the side of his head above his left ear.
"The safety is off in case you were wondering," said Kathy.
He started to turn her way, but the Chief said from his right, "Keep looking straight ahead. Act like you're just standing there talking with someone, or I'll tell her to blow your brains out. Nod if you understand."
He nodded, and even though he wasn't told what to do with his hands, he had kept one on the door and the other still held his gun aimed at the floor.
"If you drop your gun, she will definitely pull the trigger. Carefully tuck it into your waistband and then step one more step inside so your friends won't be able to see you clearly. The little lady will then step forward and remove the gun from your waistband."
The leader of the scavengers tried only once to convince the Chief he was alone, and he barely had the words out of his mouth when he forgot what he was saying. When the Chief stepped into view the guy gasped and took one involuntary step backward. To his friends outside it just looked like he was having a chat with someone and taking a look around.
The Chief looked the man over. His hair was long, and he was wearing an ankle length leather coat despite the comfortable weather. That meant more hidden weapons. The man looked back and was likely to be figuring the odds of grabbing Whitney when she stepped forward to get the gun from his waistband.
"Did you forget about me?" asked Kathy. She pressed the gun just a little harder against his head.
The size of the Chief really did make him forget he had a gun against his head. When he remembered she was still there, he wondered if she was the same size as the big guy who was moving slowly toward him. He started to gradually turn his head in Kathy’s direction when a massive hand grabbed him by the front of his shirt and yanked him forward.
The scavengers outside had been watching their leader’s back the whole time, and when they saw him pulled inside like a rag doll, they had that split second of indecision anyone would have, and then they started to react.
That split second, though, was all the time the infected dead would need. The men had been so intent on the door of the ship that they hadn’t looked behind themselves for too long. Their screams pierced the air with such agony that they startled everyone inside the Coast Guard ship.
The Chief was just about to make an example of the leader when the screaming started, and he knew without even looking what must have happened. He kept his hold on the man while he reached past him and pulled the door shut.
As soon as the door was shut, the screaming sounded like it was far away, and then it stopped. Shots were fired by the three scavengers on the dock, at this point with only revenge in mind. When it was quiet, the Chief and Kathy knew what to expect next.
Bullets began bouncing off of the steel door as the three enraged men shouted insults at the kids inside. They still didn’t know what had happened to their leader, but to them the kids were the reason they were all going to die. In between the bullets, there were curses and threats, but the Chief didn’t plan on opening the door until he knew it was all over.
The leader was still in the Chief’s grip, but he tried to twist free. The Chief only had to tighten his grip to stop the struggling. He pulled the much smaller man up to his face and looked straight into his eyes.
“Try to get away again, and I’ll toss you out their with your friends. We all know what they’ll be in a few minutes if they were bitten.”
Kathy climbed down from her perch above the door and searched the surprised man for weapons. She started by pulling off the ankle length coat. There was a pistol in the small of his back, and he had a couple of knives. He was too stunned to move. He had expected a woman built like a linebacker, not a gorgeous blond.
“What’s your name?” asked the Chief. “And don’t make me ask you twice.”
“Frank Tupperman, but my friends call me Tupp,” said the man. He held out his right hand like he thought the Chief would shake it.
“We’re not your friends Mr. Tupperman,” growled the Chief. “What would you have done to these kids if we hadn’t been here?”
Whitney, Sam, and Perry all stepped into the light where he could see them.
“Nothing, I promise. We just wanted them to share this ship with us, that’s all.” His voice started to take on a pleading tone.
“He’s the one we saw giving tied up women to those guys out at Fort Sumter.” said Whitney.
“She doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” said Tupperman, but he could tell they weren’t buying his protests.
“Okay, okay, I was only trying to survive like everybody else. You can’t blame me for that.”
“Yes, as a matter of fact we can,” said Kathy. “We just rescued one of those women and a young man, and we killed all of the parasites who were living in Fort Sumter.”
Tupperman was afraid before, but if these two had anything to do with wiping out the gang that was holding Fort Sumter, they must be even worse than he thought.
“What are you going to do with me?” he pleaded.
Kathy thought he sounded so pitiful that he was going to ask for a lawyer.
The Chief said, “When your friends have had enough time to die, then turn into infected dead, and then either fall overboard or down into the boat retrieval ramp, we’re going to toss you out there with them. We don’t take prisoners, and I don’t want you to survive at someone else’s loss any longer than you need to.”
The Chief tied and gagged Tupperman to keep him quiet. They were surprised to see he was crying at one point, but he was the kind of person who would go right back to what he had been doing before if they let him go. The crying was just an act, and they had seen acts before.
Whitney caught them off guard when she asked, “What are you going to do with us?”
Kathy and the Chief both understood at the same time that they had built up hope in the three young children
, but they hadn’t come right out and said they were going to help them.
“Whitney, if you guys would like to go with us, we have more than enough room for you, and you would be very safe,” said Kathy.
All three of them beamed. They had been on their own for the better part of a year, and they were a lot tougher than kids their ages should have to be, but they were using the backs of their hands to catch the tears that were leaking from the corners of their eyes.
Kathy suddenly felt that she was seeing them as real kids for the first time. They had rags for clothes, they needed long, hot showers, but more than anything they needed grown ups to make them feel like everything would be normal again. She stepped forward toward them and held her arms wide, and they didn't hesitate to accept her hug.
The Chief was shifting from one foot to the other, and Kathy used one arm to pull him into the group. If the kids didn't feel completely good before, they did now.
"Okay, kids. Let's get organized," said Kathy. "We have some work to do. The Chief can pilot just about any kind of ship, and this one is going to be a cinch, but he's going to need a crew."
Whitney said, "We've been talking about using this ship to escape since the day we had to lock the door. My parents said to stay inside no matter what happened, but they also said to try to use the ship to get away if we could. The machine guns were loud, and they were shooting for a long time. Then it was quiet. When no one came back, we started trying to figure out how to start the boat, but we didn't know how."
"The wheelhouse is up above," said the Chief. “The scavengers like Tupperman must not have been able to figure it out, either. They would have gladly used it to at least be safe out on the water, but they weren't sailors."
"We need to check on our friends outside," said Kathy, "then we'll get going. We can make a quick stop at Fort Sumter if there's no one else around, and then we can make a run for that barge we need."
"I want to check our fuel and ammunition first," said the Chief. "If I'm correct, there's an ammo locker forward of crew's berthing. That way ammunition could be loaded easily to the guns topside."
Kathy went to the door and listened, but it was quiet. That could mean anything since the infected tended to just stand around when they had nothing drawing their attention.
The door lock spun as smooth as silk, and the door was easy to push open on its well-greased hinges, but the infected was facing her way when she tried to look outside. One of the former scavengers came for her at a stumbling fall as it tripped over debris and gear left on the deck. Kathy jumped backward, and the infected slammed against the door, pushing it completely shut. Kathy spun the wheel to lock the door again. They were going to be stuck inside for a while unless the infected lost interest.
"There's another hatch up front, but we've always kept it shut," said Sam. "We used it once, but it was heavy and hard to get closed again."
"Show me where," said Kathy.
The Chief started forward too, but Kathy stopped him.
"No offense, Chief, but I wouldn't want you to get stuck going through a hatch."
The Chief looked like he was indignant and just about to give her a piece of his mind, but Kathy stopped him again. She laughed and gave him a hug.
"There are at least three of the infected out there, Chief. I can shoot them if they're in the wrong places, but you need to get up to the wheelhouse fast if we have more company. I'll relay word to you when it's clear."
The Chief had to admit he needed to stand by and let Kathy run things so he could do his job, and he was pretty sure it was because he had relived the rescue at the Kodiak base that he was having a hard time handing over control. He didn't brag about being a hero, but he did like taking charge when things got bad.
Kathy went forward to where Whitney had unlocked the hatch.
"There shouldn't be anything up on the front of the ship," said Whitney. "We blocked the little walkways on both sides of the ship when we had the chance. That way nothing could surprise us if we had to use the front hatch to escape."
Kathy pushed the hatch up and cautiously poked her head out into the sunshine. She looked around and was relieved to see that the wheelhouse totally blocked the view of the aft area. She climbed out the rest of the way and peeked around the corner of the wheelhouse. She could see one of the infected wandering around near the stern, but the narrow walkway along the side of the wheelhouse had assorted pieces of gear piled up in a haphazard pattern.
Kathy had to admit the kids were pretty bright. There was only a low rope railing along the edge of the walkway. The Coasties who had sailed the Cormorant knew how to navigate that narrow path when the ship was at sea, but the infected dead couldn't navigate it when the ship was sitting still.
She let out a whistle, and the infected immediately turned in her direction and started for the path. When it reached the pile of debris, it tried to go around it and did a perfect head first dive into the water.
The commotion the first infected caused was all it took to draw the other two from wherever they had been standing around to her side of the wheelhouse. It was like watching the Three Stooges go through the door at the same time as they pushed against each other to be the first to reach Kathy. It wasn't long before one caused the other to flip over the rope railing to join its former friend in the water.
"Two down and one to go," said Kathy.
This one she didn't wait for. She calmly walked toward it as the infected eagerly stumbled toward the debris from its side. When it reached over the debris and tried to grab her, she caught it by the back of its forearm, rotated it toward the water and gave it a shove.
There was one thing about the infected dead when they fell that always fascinated Kathy. They didn't have a fear of falling, so they didn't put their hands out to catch themselves. Instead, they just face-planted into whatever was there. In this case, it had been nose first into the water that was gently lapping at the side of the Cormorant.
Kathy climbed a small ladder up the side of the wheelhouse and could see there were no more infected dead on the ship, but she could also see there were more on their way. The earlier gunshots had drawn them from outside the base. There was a green and white sign at the corner that said Tradd Street, and there were at least a dozen infected walking past the sign and through the front gate of the Coast Guard base.
She stuck her head down the hatch and yelled, "The deck is clear, but we have lots of company heading our way. We need to move fast.”
The Chief didn’t need a second warning. He and the kids went out through the cabin door onto the stern as quickly as they could. He only stopped long enough to tell Whitney to get their boat secured by a tow rope and to tell the boys to cast off the lines.
Whitney said, “I can do better than a tow rope.”
The Chief didn’t ask her what she meant. He was too busy getting up into the wheelhouse of the Cormorant. He looked fore and aft on the eighty-seven foot craft to locate the sound of an engine and couldn’t believe it when Whitney pulled up along side the Coast Guard ship and waved up at him.
“My dad was a Coastie,” she yelled. “I can drive any kind of boat because he taught me.”
The Chief gave her a broad smile and waved back. He had to admit. Having someone steering their boat was better than towing it. He watched as she idled close to his starboard side and handled a slight chop in the water without bumping against the bigger boat.
When he looked back at the port side he saw the boys had already brought in the fore and aft lines and were helping Kathy push the bow away from the dock. It was much more comfortable knowing the infected weren’t going to be able to come aboard.
The distance between the dock and the ship slowly widened as a result of being pushed away, but the Chief hadn’t started the engine yet. She held her arms out wide with her palms up, hoping he would understand she was asking why they weren’t powered up and pulling away yet.
He responded by showing his palms to her and then facing them
toward the ground. It was a signal they had used many times to say, “Wait.”
When the infected reached the edge of the dock the crowd had swollen to about thirty. There were more passing the Tradd Street sign, and there was no end in sight. More and more came around the corner.
Down on the deck Sam and Perry both looked up at the Chief wanting him to get them out of there, but Kathy told them not to worry. The Chief had his reasons, and the gap between the dock and ship was over six feet wide and getting wider. That was more than enough. They tried not to worry, but this was by far the biggest crowd of the infected they had seen in a long time.
“Aren’t you going to shoot them?” asked Sam.
“No reason to waste the ammunition,” said Kathy.
As the crowd grew bigger, it eventually filled the paved and concrete sections of the dock, and from the birds eye view of the wheelhouse, it didn’t look like there was room for more.
From the deck level view of Kathy and the boys, it looked like they were watching a slow parade coming straight toward them. Whitney had coasted to a spot just forward of the bow, and to her it looked like a solid wall of injured people in various stages of decay.
Kathy knew what the Chief was waiting for and told the boys again not to worry. They understood why when the wall of infected began marching over the edge, and once it began, it seemed like it would never end.
She jumped just a little, but then she started laughing when the Chief’s voice came through a large speaker above the wheelhouse.
“That’s it, you ugly, groaning jerks. Walk right out here and go for a swim.”
The loudspeaker agitated the infected, and the groaning did increase for a few minutes, but as more and more fell over the edge of the dock into the water, the noise began to subside.
Perry looked up at the Chief and held a thumb up in the air. He understood that the Chief had a golden opportunity to reduce the infected dead population, and there was no reason not to take advantage of that opportunity.
The Chief returned the gesture and then tried the ignition. The well tended engine turned over and the vibration rumbled through the ship, but the Chief didn’t pull away from the dock. He figured as long as the dead kept coming, it was worth it to see them go where they wouldn’t be any harm to living people.
