I wasn’t a hero or a warrior, and I was okay with that.
We came upon the station from behind. Only a few zombies roamed there, and we easily took them down. We weren’t necessarily quiet about it, but we didn’t attract those that were in the front, so that was a good thing.
The back entrance was locked up tight. Something large and cumbersome blocked the right-side entrance, and the left side didn’t have a door, which left us with no choice but to try to get in through the front.
“What’s your plan for getting through them,” I asked after we’d double-checked that the zombies were still pacing the front of the building.
“We try luring them to us one at a time,” Sadie said.
“How?” I asked.
“I’m not sure yet. You stay here and cover us. Make sure no more sneak up on us. I’ll be the bait. Maddie, you wait a little ways behind me. I’ll kill them. You stack them off to the side.”
“We’ll need to discard the bodies somehow. We can’t let them pile up like that. If we stay on the island much longer, we’ll need to start clearing the city of the bodies. All that rot will bring on disease,” I said, looking around at the trash pit the city had become.
“That’s a problem for a different day. Right now, the smoke will draw more of them to us,” Sadie said, seeing what I was.
“Yes, but it might also bring more survivors to us,” I replied, knowing that idea might bring her around to my suggestion.
“You’re right. We’ll check out the rest of the city over the next few days, and if we don’t find a way out of here or any more survivors, we’ll start making ourselves more at home.”
I didn’t argue. I wanted off the island, too, so I’d go along with her. I didn’t think we’d find a way to bring the bridges down, but I couldn’t give up hope either.
I nodded my head, and she motioned for us to get into position. I understood why she put me in the rear. I was the weakest link, but she was playing a dangerous game with my sister’s life, and that I didn’t like.
The first couple of kills went off smoothly, then all of a sudden, they surrounded us. Sadie had rounded the corner to lure another zombie to us when one ambled right into her. She yelped in surprise, getting the attention of the rest. A second later, she stabbed the man in a police uniform in the head with her knife.
In the time it took Maddie and me to get to her, and for her to shove the man off her, the rest were rounding the corner and attacking. We ducked and dodged, damaging the brains on the ones we could and hobbling those we couldn’t, trying to make them easier kills.
Our zombies weren’t like the ones from the old movies we watched. If you shot the leg out from one, it would go down. The shot wouldn’t kill it, but it would make it harder to come after you. That didn’t mean the creatures weren’t dangerous or strong, they were. Whatever had changed them, had made them feral and determined. Some, whose bodies had been in good shape before and whose hadn’t taken too many blows since changing could chase you down like a cheetah.
Most of the ones we fought had seen a bit of battle, so they were slow, and other than a few bumps and bruises, we made it through the fight easily enough. We looked like survivors from a horror film once we’d finished, but those things hadn’t bitten any of us. The cleanup when we got back to the hotel would be disgusting, but we were alive.
Breathing heavily, I cleaned my blades on one of the zombie’s shirt and tried not to vomit.
“What do you think we’ll find inside?” Maddie asked Sadie who was leaning against the building and grinning like a fool.
She’d enjoyed the fight.
I could’ve strangled her. Who enjoys themselves in a fight to the death? I was starting to worry about her sanity.
“Probably cops cowering in fear,” she said, kicking off the wall and heading toward the large double doors.
I didn’t think that would be what we found. If we could take the zombies down quickly, a station full of cops could do the same. Death is what I thought we would find, and death was what we found. Blood and bodies covered every surface. The placed looked like the mouth of hell had opened up and spewed its guts.
I did vomit then. I didn’t make it a foot or two inside the door before spinning around and spewing my breakfast in the bushes right outside the building. When I turned to the entrance, I could see Sadie, shaking her head at me, but I could see that she was putting forth lots of effort in holding in her vomit. Maddie was gagging and trying not to be sick as well. Both of their reactions made me feel a little better. I was tired of feeling as if I were the only one sickened by what we were doing and seeing on a daily basis.
Cleaning my mouth, I went back inside. That time, I propped the double doors open to let a breeze come in and clear the smell.
“How could all of those cops with weapons not defend themselves?” Maddie asked, surveying the station.
“I don’t know. I heard a rumor that some of the sick were coming here for help after the hospital started turning people away. They might have been housing those who were too ill to go home. If they weren’t prepared for and expecting an attack by zombies, I could see them quickly losing control of the situation,” Sadie said, looking for the chief’s office.
We split up—stupid, I know, and I said so, but they overruled me again—to search the station. All we found was nothing but destruction and bodies.
We tried to sift through the random papers that were covered in God only knew what to see if they could give us any information on what had happened, but we found nothing about the outbreak. With the power out at the station, we couldn’t access the computers, and even if we could, the internet was out, so if the chief had received an email notice on it, we’d never see it.
Despite finding nothing, Maddie and I had to drag Sadie out of the station. She was determined to stay until she found any scrap of information, but it was getting late, and we needed to get back to the hotel before dark. I didn’t want to face one of the turned at night.
The next day, Sadie was up bright and early, eager to leave the hotel. That day, she wanted to check out the smaller police station on the east side of the island and the East Harbor Bridge.
The East Harbor Bridge was the largest one that led off the island. It was the first bridge built after the quakes that allowed people to travel on and off the island. The island had four bridges total; one on the north side, one on the south side, and one on the west side.
Before the government built the bridges, Ferry ports took people on and off the island during high tide, but they became defunct and non-existent after the bridges went up and the water line dropped too low to cross to the other side. We might find one of the ferries, but chances were small that it would still be functioning. Nearly all of the docks were gone as well. Most people were so tired of being on the water by the time the bridges went up that they abandoned the ferries and boats. People rarely owned ships or spent time on the water anymore.
I griped and grumbled as usual, but I refused to let my sister go out into the world alone. I knew I was behaving like a mother hen, knew I was treating her like a child. No matter how much I chided myself for doing so, I couldn’t stop.
The zombies we encountered on our way to the station were slow and few and far between. I was thankful for the luck we’d had. I didn’t envy those who had been out during that first week or so after the first ones turned. I hoped that all across the continent their numbers were decreasing and that we saw the last of the outbreak soon. I’d be pissed off if we got off the island only to move into a world where the hordes were still in full swing.
The second police station looked pretty much like the first aside from the fact that it didn’t have the same number of zombies circling it. There were three of them…all civilians. The only reason I could think for them, and for the ones at the first station to focus on the buildings the way they were was that those places had been the last place they’d seen a live person, which reinforced the idea that we were
alone on the island.
We disposed of the three zombies quickly and entered the building. Again, there was blood and bodies everywhere. We searched the entire place and found nothing. There were notices from the first station telling the second about the strange behavior of some of the prisoners and talking about the sick civilians they were housing, but nothing about how everything started.
“Damn it. Damn it. Damn it,” Sadie screamed, flinging the memos she’d found across the room. “How does no one know what the hell is happening on this island?”
“It all happened so suddenly. Yeah, you had sick people for a week or so prior, but no one expects sick people to suddenly turn into zombies, no matter what the movies say. Police or medical personnel wouldn’t have had much time to communicate with the outside world, once the outbreak started,” I said for the lack of any other response.
“True. But if someone survived either here or out there, wouldn’t they have sent word as to what was happening?”
“By the looks of the places we’ve explored, not many survived the outbreak here on the island. If it happened here first, with as fast as it happened, there wasn’t time to warn the outside world about the zombies. The sickness, yes, but not its aftermath, and even then was too late.
“Maddie and I hadn’t heard about the sickness until we got here. We boarded our plane and flew in with no problems. It wasn’t until we’d settled into the hotel that the city even mentioned closing the airports and it was a day or so later that they raised the bridges. A waitress told about rumors of the sickness, but we thought they were just rumors.
My gut says it started here and spread outward. We might have sent messages out, but everything was over before anything came in, and what was mentioned probably came in via the phone or email, nothing with a paper trail we can follow.”
My rationalization of the situation wasn’t helping matters any. Sadie wanted answers, she wanted off the island, she wanted a specific target to focus her fear and rage on, and I didn’t know how to help her. I wanted those same answers, but I was also scared enough to want to hide from it all and wait for help to come.
I hated saying it, but I put my hand on her shoulder and said, “Let’s go to the bridge while we’re on this side of town. If we can’t get across or get it down, we’ll hit the other three over the next few days. One way or another, we’ll get off this island soon.”
She didn’t reply. She just nodded and pulled away from my touch. Maddie and I followed her out of the station without a word. I knew nothing about bridges, so when we got to the one on the west side of the island, I just stood and looked at the world off the island. Maddie stood beside me and gaped at the pillars of smoke coming from the small city of Edge Borrow, nestled on the other side of the bridge.
“That doesn’t mean anything,” Sadie said. “Anything could have happened.”
She was right, of course, but chances were high that the turned had infected the outside world. That didn’t change the fact that Sadie wanted off the island. I didn’t say so, but the smoke told me that I wanted to stay right where I was. If the number of turned were decreasing here, I wanted to stay where I was and let the infected burn themselves out or be killed off in the rest of the world before leaving the island.
Chapter 10
~~~Jason~~~
—Inside the decontamination room.—
“Should I be worried that Samantha hasn’t woken up in a while,” I asked my uncle’s disembodied voice.
“No. Her mind and body are trying to heal. We’ll have to force her awake sometime soon, but for right now, though, let her sleep,” Jasper replied. “Let her subconscious work through all that’s happened this summer. We’ve all had it rough.”
“That’s true, but what if she doesn’t wake up again?” I asked, looking at the sleeping woman to my right.
“She’ll wake up. She’s made it this far. She’s a fighter. I don’t see her giving up now.”
“I hope not. We could use another body around here. Any news from the outside world?”
“Not much. The number of turned is still decreasing. Our zombies aren’t like the ones in the movies. Their bodies die over time it appears. The people they eat aren’t nourishing them, but even so, if they don’t suffer any significant damage, they live a long time after they’ve turned. On the other hand, if you shot the legs out of one and it couldn’t move for a few days, its body will slowly decay.”
“Interesting, so we aren’t looking at a world full of zombies living forever. That’s good news.”
“That it is, but the fact that a cure or vaccine hasn’t surfaced means we still have a problem. We don’t know if those of us who haven’t turned just haven’t come into contact with the virus or if we’re immune. If the first is true, we risk our lives every time we leave Shore Haven.”
With a loud sigh, I leaned back in my chair and looked over at Samantha.
“That means we continue focusing on finding survivors and praying they don’t bring the virus with them,” my uncle said, to break the quiet.
“Have you heard anything from the rest of the world? Has it spread off the continent?”
“I haven’t heard anything from Europe, Asia, or South America. I don’t know if they are keeping radio silence or if their focus is on battling the turned.”
“We’ll have to venture off the island soon. All that’s here are the turned, I think. I’m pretty sure that Samantha is the last living person we’ll find.”
“I believe you’re right.”
Jasper went quiet after that.
I let the silence fill the room as I thought about the few survivors we’d found. The night Kayla came to us, was a surprise. We knew others were out there alive and well, but we hadn’t thought about bringing them to Shore Haven for protection. Actually, we hadn’t even thought about it when we saw her. The idea hadn’t occurred to me until about two days later when her shock had worn off.
After getting Kayla inside and doing what I could to make sure she was okay, she told me how she’d watched her mother and sister get sick, turn, and go after her father. He wasn’t feeling well either, but he hadn’t turned yet. She’d shot them both before they got to him.
On his deathbed, her father had told her to come to Shore Haven. He knew Uncle Jasper, not well, but knew his plans for the compound, and hoped she’d be safe with us. I’m not sure if the man had been foolish or smart to send his teenage daughter out in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. She’d be safe at Shore Haven, no doubt, but it was a miracle she’d made it to us in one piece.
Kayla told me that she’d run across zombie after zombie on her way over, but had managed to sneak by them unnoticed by slipping in and out of the shadows, and by letting other survivors lead them away from her. That had been a good thing because she’d left her house without the gun with which she’d shot her sister and mother.
After the decontamination shower, and after her body had realized that she was no longer in danger, she had a hard cry, then gone to bed for twelve hours. Once she’d woken from that, she’d been quiet for nearly an entire day.
Eventually, Kayla snapped out of it and started talking again. She didn’t act as if her mind had blocked what had happened to her family. The grief was evident in her tone and eyes. I could also see that the determination to survive had overridden the horror and was in control of her words, thoughts, and actions.
At the end of our decontamination period, I showed her around the facility, and in doing so, she’d been the one to suggest that we start looking for survivors. The idea had been brilliant, but Uncle Jasper hadn’t been easy to convince. He feared that bringing people in so early in the outbreak would mean we’d be bringing in some of the infected without knowing it, and we only had so many decontamination rooms.
Even with decontamination, since we didn’t know for sure what was causing people to turn, we couldn’t be sure three days in one of the rooms would guarantee someone wasn’t infected. Jasper felt that if we wa
ited another week, maybe even two we’d weed out all of the infected. In private, he also admitted that waiting that long meant that we’d weed out the weak. He could be a cruel bastard when he wanted to be, but a part of me understood his point.
We put off our leaving Shore Haven until the day the bridge lowered. The island had been quiet for a while when the bridge went down, so we heard it dropping from a few blocks away. Jasper said he could see it going down from one of the cameras on the top floor, but couldn’t see who had lowered it.
By the time Kayla and I made it out of Shore Haven and to the bridge, it was down, the people who had let it down were gone, and a massive horde of zombies was heading across it.
Kayla opened her mouth to scream at the sight of them, but I managed to silence her and jerk her into the shadows of a nearby building before she could alert them to our presence. We slipped into the nearest doorway, which opened into a hallway and a set of stairs. We were in an apartment building.
She was trembling so bad that I thought she was going to pass out from shock.
“You’ve got to get yourself together,” I told her, pulling her up the flight of stairs.
My heart beating in my ears and her harsh breathing made it impossible for me to hear any movement on the next floor up or the next one. No zombies rushed at us, so if there had been any in the building, they were inside the apartments.
I hadn’t known that my destination was the roof until we reached it. Someone had propped the door open, allowing us to slip onto the roof of the building with no problem. The view was horrifying.
Kayla muted her screams with her hands that time.
Shore Haven Page 8
