The Last Words

by Marcus Caine

  “Oh, yes, you remember me, don’t you?”

  “No, but I’ve read about you.”

  “Ah well, not much time now, they’re trying to get in the truck. We still have the welding equipment, do you think that we can cut the bars with it?”

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  And older women, wild looking but pretty, brought the welding stuff up.

  “Sally!” Tim Tom yelled. “Where’s Ponch?”

  The Doctor tried to explain by cupping his ear, we could still hear the siren.

  “Who do you think is driving the cruiser with the siren on that drew them away?”

  Tim Tom figured it out while he was grabbing the welding equipment and getting what he could through the bars. The helmet wouldn’t fit so he just snapped off the visor.

  “Oh, is that him in the police car?” Tim Tom asked.

  The Doctor nodded then looked at me.

  “Seems that Eric was also a car thief as well as a drug dealer and meth maker.”

  “What about the rest?” Tim Tom asked.

  The Doctor looked grim. “We’re the only ones who made it.”

  Tim Tom saw his face and knew what he had said. “Marcus even?”

  The Doctor just shook his head.

  Tim Tom looked sad for a sec but a loud bang on the van reminded him he didn’t have time to mourn right now. He started cutting the bars with the welding equipment, pulling the tubes through as best he could. It was a bit awkward because the whole tank couldn’t come through, but he was making good time which was good because more of the affected were coming back, collecting at the bars and it sounded like banging on the sides of the van.

  “Oh, here,” I passed a couple of the .45s through the bars, “Do you know how…”

  Cassie pulled the top back to see if there was one in the chamber, then slipped the clip out to see if it was loaded, slid it back in and was ready to go.

  “You scare me,” I said. “So you know how to use a gun?”

  “Why do you think I was sent to the forensic ward before getting over here?”

  “Oh.”

  She went to the front, rolled down a window and put the gun right up to the bars we had welded on the outside and shot the affected that were right up against them. It might attract more but at least it seemed to distract them from rocking the van.

  Timmy had two bars down and was moving fast. The Doctor had passed me the map we had made so I would remember what to do and was catching me up as best he could over the welding and the chanting and the screaming and the groaning, “so we are going through the sewage treatment plant to get to this tugboat. Now, there are fires there and there that we will have to get around, and then hope that there aren’t more.”

  I studied the map, committing it to memory as best I could. I knew at least that I could remember it long enough to get us there unless something stopped us.

  The siren came closer and attracted them away again and then screamed back off into the distance.

  “You said you could probably work the tug.”

  “Yeah,” I replied, “I can, I learned that before my injury.”

  “OK. We hadn’t really discussed it but we could try some of the islands along the coast, just to rest for a while, and maybe we could see if Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket is clear and find food and shelter there for a while, and maybe another boat.” The Doctor had some good ideas.

  Tim Tom had all the bars out now and the doctor splashed some water from a bottle he had packed on it to cool it down. “I packed all the food we had and as much water as we can carry.”

  “Great, now take these.” I handed him the big bag of guns.

  “Wow, quite a haul.”

  “Yeah.”

  I motioned to Tim Tom to go through first.

  “Tim Tom, weld a few holes in the side, big enough…” I used my hands to point to the side and then circled the end of the shotgun, “for this.”

  “Make holes for the shotgun?”

  “Yes.”

  I handed a gun to the Doctor, “you know how to use this?”

  “No.”

  “Just point and pull the trigger. Cassie will show you how to reload.”

  “Everyone ready?”

  Cassie had two guns, the Doctor had one, and Tim Tom was holding a boom stick in his good hand. It had a pistol grip and he was big and strong enough that he could probably shoot it with one hand and handle the kick. Guess we’ll find out.

  “OK, let’s do this.”

  I jumped in the driver’s seat and we were off.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  From the journal of Jude Guerrero

  12/25/2012

  First we had to ram the entry gate, which shouldn’t have been a big deal, the delivery van was big enough. The problem was that there were a whole lot of affected on the other side of it, trying to get in to see what all the commotion was. In fact, it quickly became quite obvious that the gate had been keeping a whole lot of affected away from the hospital this whole time, making things easier on us. And now here they were, crowds coming from all over the island to get us.

  I built up speed and we hit it hard plowing through a crowd of wackies several bodies thick. But we slowed down quick, running over bodies as we went, almost getting stuck like we were going through mud. The van was sliding and shifting, I didn’t want to think about on what.

  “Shoot, thin them out,” I hollered.

  Tim Tom had already burned a couple of holes in the sides just big enough to shoot through, and Cassie started with the .45 on one side, taking several shots as we all realized the problem with this plan.

  “Fuck, Cassie, stop!”

  My ears were ringing, but probably not as bad as Tim Toms and the Doctors. Course, Cassie didn’t notice because she already had earplugs in and her head wrapped.

  “Oh yes,” I think the Doctor said as I saw him reaching into his pocket in the rear view mirror. He pulled out some more earplugs. “Thought we might need these.” And he handed them to me and Tim Tom, putting some in his ears too.

  Tim Tom was busy welding more holes as best he could with the van rocking. He had a few at eye level some big enough that he was able to start with his shotgun on the opposite side of Cassie.

  We were so fucking surrounded that there was no way you could take a shot without hitting some of them. The front windshield was swarmed, the affected grabbing onto the bars we had welded on. But the van kept moving, and soon we were through the worst of the crowd and I was moving faster. Blind, but faster. I was able to get back up to speed as I turned onto the road that would take us to the sewage treatment plant and slammed on the brakes. Everyone lurched.

  “Sorry, I should have warned you.” I needed to get the affected off the windshield. “Get down,” I yelled and motioned with my hand and started driving again, swerving to try to get them off. It was working, but they did leave a few fingers behind, broken off in the criss crossing bars. I tried to look behind us and took my earplugs out to see if I could see or hear Eric in the police car. I was hoping we had managed to make a path for him through the crowd. He made it, even covered in affected. Now we were on the way.

  I took a hard right turn, heading towards a wasteland of smoke and gases, hoping we would even be able to make it on this side. I had studied the map right before we took off so I knew which way to go if it was still open.

  It was, to some extent. It was smoky, but it was coming from the other side, so it definitely could have been worse. The affected were also getting thicker, I guess they were attracted by the smoke or explosions, I’m not sure, but they didn’t seem to give a fuck that they were taking in deep breaths of acrid smoke.

  There were even bodies of affected scattered about that must have passed out or even died from the smoke. Man, these fuckers were dumb. The ones who were all over the road were actually harder to deal with than the ones running at the van. I could knock the standing ones right out of the way, but had to start trying to dodge the bo
dies to avoid the bumping and the possibility of puncturing a tire on their bones.

  The smoke seemed to start clearing out and that is when I saw the bad news, a wall of flame right in the path I had been planning to take.

  As I was trying to figure out which way to go the Doctor got up in the front seat with the map. “Try left, this way.”

  It took us through a crowd of affected but it did seem to get us clear of the fire, although not the smoke.

  It was then that I realized the police siren was getting quieter.

  “What? What is Eric doing?”

  “He’s drawing them away, Jude. He knew it was only a matter of time before he slept enough that he might succumb.”

  “You knew he was going to.”

  “He didn’t say anything, but I had a feeling. When he said good luck it felt very… final.”

  “Dammit.”

  I kept driving as the smoke was getting thicker and coming in through the AC and the holes in the side. Maybe that part wasn’t that well thought out.

  Coughing I asked, “can you get us through this?”

  At this point I wasn’t’ seeing the affected until I hit them, but they were still there in the smoke.

  “I’m trying, just don’t hit anything. And definitely don’t go over into the tanks.”

  Great. I had slowed almost to a crawl, afraid to hit something and be unable to keep going, but then it started to clear up a little. I think the wind had actually shifted.

  I sped up, seeing a fairly clear path ahead of me.

  Hell yes.

  And then the fucking world exploded.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  From the journal of Jude Guerrero

  12/25/2012

  Of course I heard it first, but then the whole van tipped up onto two wheels and hovered there for a second.

  I heard a thud as Tim Tom slammed into the side, giving the van a little more momentum and weight on the side that was in the air.

  We came down in what seemed like slow motion and hit the ground hard, rocking from side to side for a few seconds.

  Good old Tim Tom.

  “Everyone all right?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Cassie yelled, “ just fucking drive.”

  I started again but quickly realized the tank that had blown was way too close to us, and unfortunately, ahead of us. Flame was now in the straight path down to the water that we had had before.

  “Dammit. Where now?” I asked the Doctor.

  “Back up.”

  “Really?”

  “It’s the only way.”

  So I kicked it in reverse, backing blindly up since there was no rear view and the mirrors on the outside had been torn off. I couldn’t even put my head out of the window to look because of the bars we had welded on the outside, oh, and the affected might tear it off anyway.

  I managed to not hit anything somehow and the Doctor yelled, “OK, to the left here.”

  I turned and headed down a ways, through more affected and smoke, until I heard, “OK, right now.”

  “A little more warning Doc.”

  “Sorry.”

  I took a hard right and we were on the way to the water again. I sped up as much as I possibly could, hoping to get well ahead of any affected following us because I knew we were going to need a head start once we got to the boat. A little time at least to get out, untie it, and get going.

  At last we were down by the water. I took a left and we were cruising right alongside the barge and heading toward the tugboat. Then I realized we might have a problem.

  “Shit.”

  It was attached to the raw sewage barge. Of course it made sense, that’s why it was docked there in the first place, it had pulled the big barge in.

  It would take a lot less time to release the barge and tugboat from the dock than to try to get the tugboat unhooked from the barge itself.

  “OK, change of plan everybody.” I turned around, “we’re going to have to untie the barge to, it’s going with us.”

  “What?”

  “Goddammit.”

  “Sorry. Try to explain it to Tim Tom as best you can. I’ll need him to help.”

  I got back down to the first tie point and stopped, hopping into the back.

  I grabbed a shotgun and opened the door and didn’t hesitate a second before opening fire on two affected heading our way.

  “OK,” I pointed at Tim Tom and using my hands made what I was saying clear, “come with me. You two cover us.”

  They pointed their guns out, shooting any even close to us, Cassie actually hitting them. Luckily, I had given us a little time and not many were right here, but I knew the guns would start drawing them right to us like moths to a flame.

  Tim Tom figured out what we were doing real quick and we got the huge rope off the tie and jumped back in the van. I headed toward the front, not bothering to close the door since we weren’t going far to get to the next one.

  “Hold on,” I started driving and stopped again.

  “I got this one,” Tim Tom said and jumped out, taking shots with his shotgun as he ran and got the rope off the next one all by himself, even with the injured hand. He was a big tough motherfucker.

  “OK,” he yelled and jumped in, trading his now empty shotgun for a fresh one and telling the Doctor to reload that one.

  To the next one I drove, hoping we would keep getting lucky and they would all be this easy, with plenty of slack in the ropes, cause if they started getting tight we were fucked.

  The next one came off easy, but with the back starting to drift out I knew this last one was going to be a bitch, so I jumped out with Tim Tom.

  Damn. The rope was taught. We couldn’t get it off. We tried hard, affected sprinting toward us, Cassie and the Doctor putting a few down but not enough. Then Tim Tom pointed his shotgun at the rope and fired and I’ll be damned if it didn’t fucking work. It tore off a big chunk of the rope and another blast cut it right off and we were on our way again.

  While the slack in the rope was good news for getting it off, I realized real quick it wasn’t all good news. I could see affected jumping onto the boat, some grabbing at the rope and climbing up. OK, maybe they were a little smarter than I gave them credit for.

  The ropes to the barge itself were much easier since it wasn’t being pulled away from the pier by the barge quite yet.

  We grabbed the bag of ammo and food and water the Doctor had packed and ran aboard, affected right on our heels. Tim Tom and I had cover fire duty, our shotguns taking out a few at a time. I aimed low, at the concrete, and took out the front of the crowd with shot that ricocheted off the ground, the way riot cops are taught to do with rubber shot. It bounces off the hard surface and spreads out, taking out their legs. With these guys it would only slow them down, not stop them at all, but it was enough to put those on the front on the ground and the ones after them were sent spiraling when they tripped over them. Then more shots at the ground and I was hitting the ones on the ground in the head while Tim Tom continued shooting the ones behind them straight on.

  Everyone was on board and we headed up the ladder and I kicked it in as Tim Tom released the final rope and we were off. Affected were jumping off the pier, trying to reach us on the boat but were just far enough that they went right into the water except for a few more athletic ones who jumped far enough to hit the side before going in. One particularly tall one actually managed to grab a hold of the boat but a shotgun blast took care of that. Now we were drifting free and I had to go get that engine started before we drifted into the other side of the river.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  From the journal of Timothy Lorne

  12/25/2012

  While Joe went to get this tub moving we had our hands full up on top. We had gotten all the nutters off the boat but some were swimming out to us and we weren’t moving fast enough to get away from them. Plus there were some on the barge, wading through the shit to try and get to us, even climbing down the line to get to o
ur ship.

  And of course, as luck would have it, the tow ropes weren’t rope, but thick metal cable that I couldn’t just shoot through like the mooring ropes had been. And they were attached to a big reeling rig that I had no idea how to work.

  “Any idea how to work this?” I asked Cassie.

  Cassie shook her head no and Joe and the Doctor were busy trying to get this thing started and going.

  The best we could do was pick them off as they tried coming down the line until there were none left, and there couldn’t have been too many on the barge, they hadn’t had enough time.

  Of course, that was all depending on if we got going or not.

  We were drifting pretty fast, and the barge itself was drifting much faster, pulling the end of the boat around and putting pressure on the tow rig. If they didn’t get it going soon we might drift into the other bank. The other bank which was chock full of crazies just waiting to get aboard. Apparently, we had attracted quite a crowd now, on both banks, watching us, some of them even trying to swim out to us, though it didn’t look like many were likely to make it. We were drifting too fast and they weren’t swimming like people swim, just kind of wildly kicking and dog paddling. Guess they had forgotten how to swim too.

  I kept trying to figure out the tow rig, how to loosen it or better yet get us detached from the barge when Cassie drew my attention to the far end of the barge.

  It had almost completely turned and was getting mightily close to the other bank.

  I went to the front and yelled, “Joe, how’s it going? We’re getting pretty close to the bank on the other side and we have company waiting for us over there.”

  He took a look out and said something I can only assume was a swear and was back at it.

  I heard the engine rumble, then stop. OK, progress. Then it rumbled again.

  Good, good. Oh shit.

  The other side of the barge was close enough to the shore now that some of them were making it to it and trying to get aboard. If we got too close it might even get stuck, then we would really be fucked. I had to find a way to get us detached but of course I couldn’t read any of the signs and Cassie was trying but didn’t seem to have any idea how to work the rig either.