by J. W. Vohs
Lori nodded her head, “Sounds like pneumonia to me, but Vickie will have to give the formal diagnosis.”
Mary looked terrified as she asked in a hushed voice, “What can we do for that?”
Lori patted her shoulder reassuringly, “We have several types of antibiotics; hopefully, one of them will work on the bug causing his illness. Let’s just wait till we hear from Vickie, okay? I’m used to treating wounds and injuries; people usually don’t call an ambulance or a combat medic for something like this.”
David interrupted, “Mary, have you been seeing any of the infected around here?”
The woman’s eyes grew large and she nodded, “Yes, nobody can move outside on the island. The creatures are in a pack now and they seem to be growing faster and stronger every time I see them. We’ve stayed really quiet in here since the girls left, so they haven’t tried to get in the house.”
“Do you have any idea how many there are?” David asked.
“Probably only about twenty of the really strong ones, but there’s at least that many of the slow ones still roaming around too.”
“How often do you see them around here?”
“Oh,” Mary thought, “I haven’t seen any in days. Maybe a week. Most people live down by Put-In-Bay so that’s probably where the infected run around too.”
David was silent for a moment, so Christy stepped over to Mary and said, “There’s something we need to tell you about the girls . . .”
By the time Vickie and the others arrived Mary had gone through the immediate emotions caused by learning what the girls had been through while they were gone, so when they ran through the door and into her arms they found a mother simply ecstatic to see them. David figured there would be time enough to deal with the effects of the trauma they’d experienced after their father was taken care of, and he urged them to be quiet as he led Vickie into the room where Bob was coughing and burning up. The doctor needed about sixty seconds to confirm Lori’s suspicions, but gave the sick man the usual once over in case there was something else going on. Finding nothing obvious except the pneumonia, she got him to swallow a couple of antibiotic tablets and some Tylenol. She counted out a supply of the pills and slipped them in an envelope.
“Well,” she told Mary and her daughters, “keep the fever down and let the antibiotic do its work and he should get through this if no secondary illness or infection sets in.”
“Thank you so much,” Mary emotionally declared. “Everyone, thank you for what you did for my girls.”
David quietly said, “You’re welcome, but now we’d like to know how you plan on keeping them alive in the months to come. Food, water, medicine, weapons, heat in the winter . . . what’s your plan?”
She suddenly looked weary as she explained, “We were just trying to survive the outbreak; we didn’t have a long-term plan except to wait for the government to eventually get services going again.”
“That won’t be happening again for a long time, Mary, if ever. Right now, we all need to force ourselves to act as if the U.S. government is gone for good. We have to take care of ourselves.”
Mary instinctively pulled her daughters closer, “Do you have any suggestions?”
David let out a long sigh. He really wanted to keep the group moving toward Indiana, but he also realized that he probably could help these people. “We are on our way to join my brother and a group of survivors in Indiana. We don’t have much room, but if you want to join us we’ll find a way to make it work.”
Mary put her hand on David’s arm, “I do appreciate the offer, but I don’t want to try and move Bob, plus this is our home. Do you have any suggestions for how we can survive here?”
David sighed, relief mixed with resignation. “Well, the first thing we need to do is rid the island of the infected.”
CHAPTER 16
David and the rest of the group wasted no time in forming a plan and setting it into action. They brought in the ARs and shotgun from the yacht, and everyone had a pistol of some type after scavenging from the supplies on Middle Bass Island before they left. The Tenets had an Expedition in the garage, which Jerry and Luke immediately began to modify. By late afternoon everyone was rested, fed, and ready to kill the infected. The plan was simple: drive the vehicle into the small village and use the noise of the SUV to draw the hunters into kill zones. Once they were dealt with, the rest of zombies would be relatively simple to destroy. Then the team would look for survivors and help the residents organize themselves for the future.
The Expedition had all of the windows rolled down with sections of chain-link fence bolted over every opening. The windows that didn’t open had all been removed except for the windshield, which Jerry believed could withstand anything the hunters could do to it. Christy was the driver, with David literally riding shotgun. Jerry, with an AR, and Lori, with her Glock, sat behind the husband-wife team. The rear firing position was held down by Luke with a captured shotgun from the island, and Gracie with an AR. In addition to the guns, everyone carried their usual assortment of medieval weapons.
Even as they drove the short distance to the little tourist hamlet, a number of hunters came running from the surrounding countryside, doing their best to catch up with the vehicle which operated like a dinner bell to the infected. They slowed down a few times to take out some of the fastest hunters, and once in town the shooting and shouting began to draw infected from all over the island. The killing of the creatures was routine and almost ridiculously easy this time. After all the close calls the shooters had survived in the past few months, knowing that there was a limited number of flesh-eaters in the area, and that they could fire as many rounds as they needed to from a protected position, made this battle a relatively simple affair.
Within ten minutes every hunter and zombie that had appeared was dead on the ground. The group climbed out of the vehicle to look over their handiwork, and after a brief inspection of the corpses Luke mentioned, “You know, after every fight we’ve been in we’ve had to run for our lives. This is the first time we’ve been able to look the creatures over since they started evolving. Have you noticed that some of the hunters don’t seem to be wounded?”
That drew everyone’s attention, and they began to carefully look over the bodies strewn about the surrounding area. The creatures they called zombies still bore the wounds from whatever attack had turned them, as well as any trauma they had suffered since their transformation. Some of the hunters still had open wounds too, but every one of them also showed signs of healing. Hard, pink, scar tissue covered places that from torn clothing or irregular skin patterns indicated recent tissue damage. Jerry noticed an elbow covered with the hard skin and lifted the arm to find that it seemed to be fused at the joint. Another hunter had obviously lost an eye at some point, and the socket was sealed closed by the pink scar tissue.
David finally remarked, “They’ve been wounded, and they’ve healed.”
Lori added, “Some of the infected are so damaged that they can’t compete for flesh with the others, but they can’t seem to die from their wounds either.”
Christy sighed, “This is just plain evil. Whoever invented this virus makes Hitler look like an amateur.”
Luke asked, “I wonder how far this process goes? I mean, are they gonna develop the ability to regenerate body parts? To fly?”
David suggested, “I don’t think they feel much, if any, pain. They seem to be immune to the elements, and what would be mortal wounds don’t stop them unless the brain is destroyed. No, Luke, I don’t think they’re gonna fly, but they are gonna be around for a long time. Jack had hoped that they might decay or otherwise die off on their own, but as long as they can find flesh that isn’t gonna happen. By this time next year I suspect that most of the surviving infected will be the strongest and fastest, and they’ll instinctively know how to use their physical abilities to hunt better than those who didn’t make the cut. If only five percent of those originally infected with the virus become a full-fle
dged hunter, what was the United States will have over ten million of these creatures roaming the land. I’m being conservative with that estimate too; there might be thirty or forty million that make it.
“They’ll outnumber the surviving humans at least five to one, and the people who can fight by at least double that number. Again, that will be the best we can hope for; it might be a lot worse than that. As for food, with all of the domestic and wild animals we used to eat roaming around and breeding unchecked there will be plenty of protein for them to devour.”
He looked out toward the lake for a moment before quietly stating, “Homo sapiens as a species is gonna have to work really hard, and enjoy some pretty good luck, to avoid the extinction list this time.”
“Except this time,” Christy added, “there won’t be anyone around to record the extinction. Unless of course those hunters evolve enough to do that too.”
After firing up two SUVs found in the village, David’s group of shooters returned to the Tenet home to set up patrols around the island. Two hours of cruising the island with horns honking, stereos blaring, and people shouting out of the windows as often as possible uncovered two more zombies in terrible condition, and one hunter with a fused knee. More importantly, three survivors ventured out to see what was going on, and once they talked with Mary Tenet and discovered what the strangers making all the noise were up to they called for the other members of their groups to come out of hiding.
David conducted a head count and discovered that, including the Tenet family, there were nineteen survivors on the island. Four males and two females could be considered fighters, and he was pretty certain that Brittany and Beth would soon be among their number. Roaming packs of the infected had kept people cooped up in their hiding places for weeks, but everyone was certain that they would find plenty of extra weapons, ammo, and food once they started scavenging from house to house. Vickie was sure that the island would also yield plenty of medicines of all types, and was very pleased to discover that one of the women had been a nurse before the outbreak. Overall, David was sure they could get through the winter, and probably another, with the supplies they would find in the town. Plenty of gas was still on hand to power some of the many watercraft docked at the marina over to Middle Bass to find more goods there if necessary.
Despite the never-ending sense of urgency David felt to get to the Maumee and head to Indiana as fast as possible, he decided that they would spend the night on South Bass and talk survival strategy with the people on the island. Thinking ahead, he could see a time when having a safe place a few days travel down the river from Fort Wayne could be very beneficial to the new life Jack’s group would be struggling to establish. With that in mind, David promised that if he made it to his brother he would see to it that long range radios and fighting gear were sent this way as soon as possible so the two groups would be in contact in the event of medical or other types of emergencies.
A quick search of the town in the late afternoon had yielded the trolling motors and batteries they needed, as well as three canoes large enough for the trip up the Maumee. David wanted at least six of the boats to use on their journey, so they would still need to find three more of them when they reached the Toledo area. Before he allowed himself to think about sleep, David went over mental checklists regarding what this community needed to do in order to maximize its chances of survival, as well as what his own group needed to face the coming days.
Christy had made up the hideaway bed in the Tenet’s family room and was waiting up for David when he finally turned in for the night. “David, the way these monsters are evolving scares me more than anything. Where do you think it will stop?”
He pulled her close and held her tight against his chest. “I wish I knew.”
After a moment Christy whispered, “I don’t care if they learn to think, I don’t care if they evolve into freakin’ Einsteins, I will not think twice about wiping out every last one of those zombies or hunters or whatever they are.”
David chuckled, and Christy sat up and looked at him quizzically, “What’s so funny?”
“I was just picturing Einstein zombies—we’d be able to grab them by their hair without having to get too close.”
Christy smiled, “I guess they could evolve into anything. Maybe they will evolve into politicians and end up more interested in fighting each other than surviving as a species.”
David nodded and was quiet for a minute, “Does it bother you, what we did with Lyle and Cleve?”
Christy didn’t hesitate, “Not a bit. Maybe it should, maybe if you would have asked me the same question six months ago . . . but with what we’ve been through I don’t see so many shades of gray anymore. These days, life is pretty black and white. There are good guys, and there are bad guys. I don’t have the energy or patience to worry about mitigating circumstances—however they got there, those men were monsters, and we’ve learned the only way to effectively deal with monsters.”
“Yeah, I agree, but I still let Lori handle it.”
Christy snuggled down close to David again, “Is that what’s bothering you? Honey, the simple fact is that Lori wanted to handle it. I don’t know the details, but there was something personal there for Lori. Everyone has their private demons, and I imagine anyone who has been to war has seen more than their share of evil. For whatever reason, Lori seemed to recognize the evil in those men, and she needed to slay that demon for her own sake as well as for some greater good.”
David’s whole body relaxed, and he quietly whispered, “I love you, Christy Smith.”
“I love you, too.” She sighed, “Now let’s get some sleep before the sun comes up again.”
Before resuming the journey at dawn, David felt confident that the survivors of the South Bass Island outbreak had an excellent chance of establishing and maintaining a successful settlement. He wouldn’t have left the girls behind if he didn’t feel that way, but he knew they felt comfortable here and wanted to stay if at all possible. Overall, these days had been very productive in what he suspected would be a generational war against the hunters. Even though there was no way to know how far the creatures would evolve, just knowing what they were capable of at this point was strategically and tactically beneficial. Knowledge was still power.
The entire population of post-outbreak South Bass Island saw David and his group off the next morning. Everyone on the boat felt a renewed sense of purpose, and they were more energized and confident than they’d been since first encountering the hunters. The ordeal with Cleve and Lyle served as a grim reminder that zombies were not the only danger in the world, but the people of South Bass Island were a testament to the fact that most people were, at their core, good-hearted and honorable. The G.A.E. executives were the exception, not the rule.
As the yacht slowly cleared the docks, it was followed by effusive thanks from the townspeople for clearing out the hunters and setting the community on the road to long-term survival. Long after voices no longer carried over the water, the residents waved until the vessel was out of sight. Even then Luke continued to watch them with his binoculars from his observation post on top of the cabin. Finally he called down, “Well, I guess we’re on our own again,” and the grin that accompanied his words spread among the members of the group as they scurried about preparing their gear and packs for whatever challenges awaited them on the Maumee.
CHAPTER 17
Father O’Brien took his time heading toward Toledo, seeing no reason to risk mechanical failure by pushing the heavily-laden vessel toward a destination where they didn’t know what awaited them. Still, by noon they could see the skyline of the mid-sized city, and an hour later they were maneuvering around the wreckage in Maumee Bay. Several giant freighters had run aground, while a number of others swung around on their anchor chains in deeper water. Every vessel appeared to be abandoned, and nobody in the group even considered trying to find out if any survivors were hiding on the huge ships. As they entered the river they could see t
hat like Cleveland, Toledo had burned. Looking over the destruction in the distance David murmured, “What the hell?”
Jerry was standing nearby and explained, “I thought this might be the case. Public services crumbled as fast as all other organizations, so nobody was around to fight fires, turn off gas lines, generators, and a hundred other things that could start fires and provide fuel once they got going. If fire doesn’t get the cities floods will, or any number of natural forces will wear them down within a few years. Heck, just the moisture generated from temperature fluctuations as the seasons pass will make most of these places uninhabitable faster than you would believe. I think that most cities will only be good for scrap in the years to come.”
Christy was listening in on the discussion and argued, “But most cities are where they are because of the water. I mean, eventually some type of settlement begins again right here; this place just has too many advantages in a world without roads.”
David added, “Assuming that humans win their war with the infected, yeah, it’s only a matter of time before people find a way to take advantage of these types of locations across North America. Of course, that might be a hundred years from now.”
Gracie was leaning against the gunwale as she followed the conversation and jumped in with her opinion. “David, we’re gonna win this war. I mean, I’m Jewish . . . believe me, our people have come through more than one apocalypse. We’ll need to stick together and be patient, and we can never give in to despair. We have to accept that we are fighting for the right of future generations to exist, and not let the fact that we will never know normal again stop us from achieving our mission. I’m gonna have a husband and a family someday, and we’re gonna settle a place like this and create a future for them.”
