Zombie Crusade II: David's Journey

by J. W. Vohs

  Luke was afraid of hitting his dad with the axe so he simply grabbed the monster by the hair and spun it off of the road into the water between the docks. He looked over to see Lori finishing off the hunter he’d flipped a moment earlier, then stepped over to the edge of the dock to discover the creature he’d pulled off of his dad floundering in about eight feet of water. After a moment Jerry and Lori stepped over and asked if he was all right, and he nodded before pointing and saying, “Check this out.”

  The female hunter was standing almost three feet below the surface, appearing confused about where she was before finally looking up and seeing the three humans watching her. At that point she clumsily walked forward until she reached the rocks along the shore, and then began pulling herself out of the water. As soon as her head appeared Jerry shot her between the eyes and she slowly settled to the bottom; then they all turned and moved back to their watch positions.

  Christy had tossed all of the keys for the ships in the last two docks into a small box she’d found in the office, and now Father O’Brien was systematically checking the largest of the vessels to see which of them would fit their needs. At least half of the yachts were missing, indicating that they’d either been stolen or their owners had taken them from the marina without letting the office know. The third boat they boarded was nearly the oldest in the marina, but it was large and clean, and O’Brien declared, “Now that’s a tough old girl right there! I’ll know how to pilot her, and work on the engine a bit if necessary.”

  He then dug around in the key box until he found the one for the yacht they were standing in. Somewhat to their surprise the vessel started right up, and the engine seemed to purr beneath their feet. After a few minutes they shut it down and went to check on the gas situation, where they discovered that the tank was only about a quarter-full.

  Father O’Brien explained, “I’m pretty sure she’d make Toledo easily on a full tank, but we couldn’t reach Sandusky with what’s in here now.”

  “Is the yacht big enough for everyone in our group and all of our supplies?” Christy wondered.

  O’Brien nodded, “We’ll be crowded, but she’s big enough to do the job. Did you see the motorboat and winch on the starboard?”

  David said, “ It was under the tarp; yeah, I saw it. Is that for an emergency or something, like if the engine fails?”

  The priest shrugged as he answered, “Or for fun while the passengers are out on the water. Usually you could just radio for a tow if you had engine trouble. The benefit for us is that we can use it to check for supplies along the shoreline as we travel west.”

  “All right,” Christy interrupted, “so we can start loading up on this one?”

  O’Brien explained, “Yes, but we really need to find gas before we try to get out of here. We need extra cans too, because we need to burn the boats jammed up at the edge of the canal out there.”

  David slapped the old priest on the back and declared, “All right, let’s get back to our people, get this baby loaded, and find ourselves some gas.”

  They found Vickie in the Explorer with the children and everyone else keeping watch around the perimeter. In addition to the corpses of the hunters lying behind the small convoy, a number of individual weaker creatures had stumbled upon the group and been casually dispatched. David looked at the dead monsters lying at the rear of the Jeep and asked, “Everybody all right?”

  “Yeah,” Jerry explained. “Me and Lori have a few bruises but nothing to worry about. They acted just like the ones that attacked us at Menards, and I mean exactly like the others. This is definitely a trend.”

  David shook his head and explained, “Well, maintain a watch up here—we’re gonna start loading up one of those yachts. We found one that runs and will hold all of us for now.”

  Jerry, Luke, and Lori kept watch around the vehicles while the others moved the gear into the boat as quickly as possible. In twenty minutes the work was completed, and everybody piled aboard the vessel as Father O’Brien started it up and shouted for them to remove the ropes holding it to the dock. Luke was still keeping an eye out for zombies when he shouted, “Back this thing up! We gotta another pack running this way!”

  David looked in the direction the teen was pointing to see at least a dozen of what they now thought of as hunters heading toward the yacht. Vickie and Trudy herded the children into the cabin while everyone else gathered near the bow with weapons in hand. As the first of the creatures reached the end of the dock the ship was ten feet out and steadily pulling away; all of the hunters jumped for the humans in spite of the widening gap between them and their prey. Not one of the monsters made it aboard, but the sight of them madly leaping before smashing into the side of the boat and sinking below the surface shocked everyone.

  “We’re going to have to be very, very careful,” Christy said in a flat, matter-of-fact tone.

  “Yeah, we are,” David agreed. “Now let’s get away from the edge before somebody falls in; with all of this gear on we’d probably drop straight to the bottom.”

  Father O’Brien backed the yacht up as far as he could before running into one of the many wrecks blocking access to the interior docks, just below the Highway 6 bridge. At that point he dropped the anchor and shut off the engine, then gathered everyone together for a strategy session. He began by explaining, “We need gas, a lot of it. There are two five gallon containers on this vessel, empty of course, and I suspect that many of the yachts and cabin cruisers docked around here hold other containers and at least some gas in their tanks. I’m fairly certain that there is no point in checking the marina’s pumps because none of them will work without electricity.”

  He then turned to David and smiled, “Well, son, you’re at the top of the chain of command. You get to decide what we’ll do.”

  David muttered, “Thanks, Father,” before looking around at the rest of the group as if hoping someone would offer some ideas. Nobody spoke up so he explained, “I’m sure now that everyone’s had a chance to see those packs in action you understand why we really need to avoid them if at all possible. Those creatures are too fast and strong, and frankly, too good at hunting people for us to expect to continue to win these battles without losses. Sooner or later they’ll start getting through our defenses.

  “We could probably find a generator around here and get those gas pumps working, but I think we should stay off land and as far from the main area of the marina as possible. We’re gonna go boat to boat. Father O’Brien will get us as close as possible to the docked vessels we can access, and we’re gonna send teams aboard. Luke, Blake, and Lori will jump off first, after making sure we don’t hit those boats hard enough to damage our hull. You three will immediately go to the land-facing bow and set up a watch, including one of you watching me, Christy, and Jerry as we clear the cabins of any undesirables. At that point Sal and Jim will come aboard and scavenge for gas, batteries, or anything else that might prove useful.”

  David then turned to Gracie, “I need you to keep watch over our yacht. Vickie and Trudy, you keep the kids in the cabin at all times. Father O’Brien, you keep our craft idling and ready to move in case we need to get some space between us and a pack of hunters in a hurry. All of you clear on what we’re gonna do?”

  Everyone nodded their understanding so David looked over at the priest and said, “Do your thing.”

  A few minutes later they glided up to the first yacht and everything went according to plan. They actually found one full gas can on board and a lot of old blood stains. The tank was about half-full, and Jim and Sal spent twenty minutes siphoning the fuel with a long piece of hose and a small hand pump brought along for this very purpose. After they’d transferred most of the gas to their own ship, they sliced open the tarp covering the on-board motor boat and quickly pulled the battery and trolling motor they found. Jim smiled and said, “One down, a few more to go!”

  The process of salvaging the second ship went as easily as the first, yielding another battery, motor
, and about twenty gallons of gas. Then the trouble began. As they leapt back aboard their own vessel they could hear a chorus of moans and howls from the direction of the marina, and they looked back to see a large pack of about fifteen hunters heading in their direction. As if that wasn’t bad enough, another pack of a dozen or so were following the first by about a hundred yards. This time the creatures ran to the edge of the docks closest to the floating yacht, but only a few actually jumped into the water and immediately sank to the bottom. The rest of the creatures simply moaned, howled, and most disturbingly, ran along the water’s edge following the route the ship was taking toward the blocked entrance of the channel.

  David went over to talk to Father O’Brien and explained, “We’re gonna to have to get out of here with the gas that we already have. I know it won’t get us to Toledo, but we’ll just have to scavenge along the shore. There are already too many hunters up there, and I suspect that more will be coming this way soon with all the racket they’re making.”

  The priest let out a long sigh before explaining, “Look, that pile-up blocking access to the lake isn’t going to disappear on its own. We’re going to have to set the entire crash-site on fire, and that means a few of our people are going to have to climb into that mess and spread fuel around before lighting a match. The whole time they’re in that wreckage those hunters will be able to climb right out there with them from that last pier. ”

  “Yep,” David agreed. “What do you think about lowering the motor boat down into the channel and having our burn-team pull right up to the wreckage on the opposite side of the docks?”

  “That should work, but you’ll still have to provide cover—keep those monsters occupied so the burn-team can get the job done. We can’t underestimate what those hunters might be capable of.”

  David gathered everyone but Trudy, Vickie, and the kids together and explained how they were going to handle the situation. “Jim brought two AR-15s with about two thousand rounds of ammo. Lori has her Glock, and Luke has his bow. We’re gonna need that firepower to accomplish the next mission: burning out that wreckage blocking us from the lake. We’re going to drop the motor boat, and Jim and Sal are going to head to the pile-up with gas cans and lighters. You guys better take axes along in case you need to chop through some doors or rupture some gas tanks. Christy, you’ll cover them with one of the .22s and the rest of your weapons.

  “After we drop that crew off, Father O’Brien is going to take this yacht up to the blockage and pull us into the dock. Jerry, Luke, Gracie, Lori, and Blake will jump off there and prepare to engage the hunters. I suggest Lori and Jerry on the ARs, while Gracie covers them with the Glock. Luke and Blake will reload magazines and fight if necessary. I’ll stay aboard and coordinate both groups with the radios. If the dock-crew needs back-up I’m it; I’ll come in with the usual assortment of weapons if you need me. Any questions on what we’re gonna do?”

  Luke raised his hand, “Are you sure you don’t want me to add my bow to the gunfire?”

  David thought for a moment. “You take your bow along. If the firing line is compromised I want you to hop up on the wreckage and provide covering fire for our people fighting with their SCA weapons.”

  He looked around and asked, “Anything else?”

  When nobody raise their hands or spoke up, David declared, “Okay, gear up!”

  Ten minutes later Father O’Brien showed them how to operate the winch needed to lower the motor boat into the channel, after which the burning-team climbed down into the craft, using the bulk of the yacht as cover from the peering eyes of the hunters prowling the docks. They all crouched down in the small boat to await the signal from David that they had protection on the dock before heading in to the wreckage.

  David watched carefully as they pulled away from the burn-team, thankful to see that the hunters on the docks continued to follow the yacht instead of looking toward the little boat in the channel where his wife, father-in-law, and good friend were crouched, waiting for the fight to begin on the dock. The priest had the ship slipping into one of the berths a few minutes later, and the team of fighters was able to hop off and take up firing positions before the first of the hunters figured out that their prey was now in reach and began making their way along the dock from the shore they’d been hounding for so long.

  David felt helpless as Father O’Brien guided the ship back through the water until they were fifteen feet from the shore. They dropped anchor, and David commanded the action from a perch on top of the cabin. By the time the boat was in position several of the hunters were moving along the dock toward the humans waiting for them, and the rest of the pack seemed to understand from the howls of the leaders that they were expected to follow. David hadn’t noticed that the number of creatures had increased, but he quickly estimated that at least forty of the monsters were now running toward the people at the end of the dock. The second the firing began David shouted into the radio, “Now Christy! Go, go, go!”

  He watched as Jim guided the motor boat toward the wreckage as fast as it could safely move, relief washing over him as they pulled up to one of the crashed boats and climbed out onto the mess without any problems. Turning his gaze back to the shooters he saw that making head-shots on moving targets was still as difficult as he’d imagined it would be. Lori and Jerry were damn good with the ARs, and three monsters were already lying still upon the dock’s surface, but a large, lithe female eluded their barrage and came within eight feet of the shooters before Gracie shot it in the face with the Glock. At that point, the battle began in earnest.

  CHAPTER 13

  Jerry and Lori had six thirty-round magazines between them at the beginning of the battle, and after four more of the monsters went down David could see that Blake was busy reloading a clip that had already been emptied. David realized that he’d underestimated the speed of the hunters, and overestimated the ability of the AR’s to kill the monsters. The sixty-grain, full-metal jacketed rounds did the job when they made it through to the brain, but they had little effect on the creatures when they hit elsewhere. A much larger caliber probably would have slowed or stopped the hunters with body shots, but it was too late for that now. David also realized that Father O’Brien wouldn’t be able to get him back to the dock without exposing the yacht to the monsters rushing to get at the humans now just a few yards away.

  Luke must have come to the same realizations as David because he had given up trying to reload magazines, jumped up into the wreckage at the very end of the dock, and began sending arrows into the faces of the attacking hunters. By that point Christy’s team was inside the pile-up, still with no sign of pursuit, so David ran into the cabin to retrieve the twelve-gauge pump and several five-round boxes of double-ought buckshot. As he raced to the front of the ship he could see that Gracie was standing shoulder to shoulder with Lori and Jerry, and Blake was trying to defend their left flank with his halberd. Before he could bring the shotgun into play he saw Jerry taken to the ground by a determined hunter who’d made it through the hail of bullets and leapt upon the former cop as he frantically tried to seat his final magazine.

  David lifted his weapon and aimed into the mob about six feet in front of his friends. The Remington 870 held five rounds and sported a full length barrel, but he still feared that some of the buckshot would hit his people if he wasn’t careful. Each shell contained nine, .32 caliber lead balls, and David emptied the gun in about three seconds. The effect was devastating on the hunters trying to scramble over the corpses of their pack-mates to get at the fighters who’d sent them to the ground. David killed seven of the creatures outright, with another five or six writhing on the dock with horrific wounds. Then he had to reload.

  Luke was keeping up a steady rate of fire with his bow, but even he couldn't avoid missing once in a while against the speedy hunters that just a few weeks earlier had been shuffling zombies. He kept one eye on his dad, who had used his short sword to dispatch the monster that had knocked him to the ground and w
as now back on the fighting line. Luke had held his fire as David emptied the shotgun into the pack, amazed by the black-red mist and chunks of flesh flying from the bodies of the creatures unlucky enough to end up in the fearsome weapon’s line of fire. Then he started slinging arrows again as David’s gun went silent when he stopped to reload.

  Lori and Jerry were both down to about ten rounds each, and Blake had left a magazine on the ground at their feet in order to more directly help fight off the attacking monsters. The plan for Blake to focus on reloading wasn’t working because there was no way to load the clips fast enough for the shooters. Gracie had gone in with four 15-round magazines fully loaded with 9mm hollow points, and she had just seated her final clip. The hunters were being slowed by the necessity of climbing over at least twenty corpses and a dozen wounded, but they were still coming. She lifted the weapon and sighted in on a small male that was climbing over the bodies on the dock when she saw the fletching of one of Luke’s arrows appear in the creature’s face as if by magic. As that monster collapsed in a quivering heap another immediately took its place; she killed that one after the first shot only took off the side of its face.

  By this time David had reloaded the shotgun, and once again he put down ten or twelve of the creatures with the double-ought buckshot in just a few seconds. Blake was tussling with a large male that he finally flung off the dock into the water, and the gunners each seemed to hit a different target at the same time. Suddenly there were no more advancing hunters. David shouted across the water, “Reload your magazines! I’ll let you know when more are on the way!”