by Howard, Bob
Just as the infected started toward the cell, the Captain appeared behind it. He was injured and had blood running from a cut on the side of his head. He reached into the small room and grabbed the infected by the back of the shirt collar. Captain Aristov practically jerked the infected off of its feet and dragged it from the room.
He pushed the former shipmate to the deck outside the room and quickly said, “I am so sorry, Jean Mitchell. I should have let you go before it was too late. You would not make it to shore now. If we do not see each other again, I hope you find a way to escape from here.”
Captain Aristov pulled the door shut hard, and Jean heard it lock. She knew he wasn’t locking her in as much as he was locking them out. Either way, she knew she was going to die in that dark cage.
Chapter 10
Green Cavern
Allison contacted us on the radio almost as soon as we were in the air. Molly squealed with delight when she heard her mother’s voice on the speaker.
“Otter, this is Allison. Come in Otter. Over.” She sounded worried, and we couldn’t blame her. We had already survived a rough morning and a really close call at the resort.
“We read you, Allison,” I answered. “Good to hear your voice. Do we have a rendezvous location? Over.” I sounded more like Allison than I had wanted, and my first thought had been not to worry her.
“Go to the same location as yesterday. Is everybody okay? Over.”
Allison’s transmission confused us at first, but we weren’t going to dispute it with her. Maybe there was something we had missed because of the rain. The Chief had already gotten the plane in the air, and we were already crossing over the bridge at the entrance of the lake. He was going in for a landing before I could respond to Allison’s question.
“We’re all fine, Allison. No one is hurt. We’re just a bit shaky. Will Bus be meeting us? Over.”
Molly leaned into the front of the plane and pulled my arm toward her. She pressed the microphone button and said, “Hi, Mommy. We’re all okay. Over.”
“Hi Molly, I’m glad you’re okay. Mommy will be seeing you soon. Over”
Tom said to us all, “Molly had just started calling Allison Mom, not long ago. I guess she went back to calling her Mommy because of what she has seen.”
“Otter, park where you were yesterday and move in closer. Flash strobes on high beam directly ahead. Watch for activity and wait for a response. Over.”
Allison was doing a good job of not giving away their position, but none of us could guess why we were returning to the same spot as before. The Chief did his usual smooth job of landing the plane, and we coasted to a stop at almost the exact same spot as yesterday.
There weren’t any infected dead raining from the side of the mountain now, but there were still plenty milling around inside the grotto. Some were still walking up onto the beach and into the cavern beyond. No more than a hundred feet into the cave it was pitch dark, and it didn’t look like a place where I would want to run into any of the infected.
The Chief let the plane coast a bit closer, but he didn’t cross that imaginary line where the infected rained down from above the day before. Getting hit by a falling body would not be a good idea, although it was reassuring to know there was a ready supply of seaplanes back at the resort. Of course, the keys were probably all hanging in the maintenance building, and I doubted we could go back there any time soon.
Once we reached the closest position we could risk, the Chief turned on the emergency strobe lights above each wing. They were intended to make the plane easy to spot if it was stranded out on the water, but they were also good for distracting the infected that were wandering around in the cave and in the water.
Even though the lights flickered at high speed, we could still see deeper into the cavern. There was still blackness at the back, so we couldn’t tell if there were tunnels, but we imagined any infected that were out of our view could still see our lights blinking.
Gradually, the sandy beach that served as an entrance to the cave was filled with the infected. They were being draw out by the light as moths to a flame, but in this case, they were going for a swim. As they walked into the water, the eventually disappeared into a deeper area and didn’t resurface. It wasn’t like our moat where they dropped off a shelf into deeper water and got carried away by the current, but it was deep enough to keep them from returning to the cave for a long time.
Since a zombie apocalypse wasn’t the first thing on the minds of the designers of these shelters, their plans didn’t take into account the need to prevent them from walking into the entrance of the shelter. Nor had there been a concern for them falling over the edge of the mountain and landing right at the entrance.
I said to the others, “When we finally get to meet Bus, someone remind me to ask him what that fenced in plateau up on the mountain was really for.”
The Chief said, “I’m willing to bet it’s several things, Ed. There’s probably an emergency tunnel to that level, and maybe even one to the top level. That would have made one hell of a landing area for a helicopter.”
“It could also have been a possible expansion area for survivors,” said Kathy. “It may be like our moat in one way because nothing could climb that side of the mountain and get in through the walls, but if people had managed to survive they could have fortified it and squeezed in a couple hundred more people.”
“Yeah, it looks like that worked out for them really well, didn’t it,” said Tom. “It got overcrowded up top, someone knocked a hole in the fence, and someone didn’t tell the others they had been bitten.”
“It’s pretty easy to read that story from the looks of things,” I said. “One way or another, when the group gets too large, the infection gets in.”
We sat in silence for a bit, just watching the infected clear out of the cave. I imagined if Bus had it all to do over again, he would have made the entrance more like our moat. That way, the infected couldn’t walk from the water into the cave.
Eventually, there was no more movement in the cave. There had been hands reaching above the water, but they slowly dwindled in number until it was just a quiet nature scene.
“Otter, come in. You should be clear to approach,” said Allison. “Just check for clear skies first. Over.”
“I’ll do it,” I said. I climbed out onto the pontoon from the passenger side of the front of the plane and moved backward along the body until I could see far enough up the mountain. It looked all clear, so I waved the Chief forward.
“We’re moving into position now, Allison. Over,” said the Chief.
The plane moved forward, and as we passed under the lip of the overhanging mountain face, I understood the sloping beach of sand at the entrance much better. The entire plane was able to slide into the relative safety of the cave, just as if it had been a garage. I occurred to me that Bus may have had a seaplane parked at this spot when the apocalypse began, and just like our plane, it couldn’t be protected from everything.
Once the plane had come to a complete stop, the Chief cut the engine, and it went totally quiet except for the sound of air moving around rocks. It was like being inside a giant seashell.
I was still standing on the pontoon looking around at the back of the cave when the Chief switched the lights from strobe to steady bright. The walls were multicolored and beautiful. In the distance I could see stalagmites and stalactites that looked like a stone forest. I was particularly watching for a wall that would turn into a door, or a hatch to open in the floor. I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of walking further back into the cave to find a big vault door like my entrance. There could be a few more of the infected dead lurking around in the shadows.
I was so focused on the floors, walls, and the back of the cave that I didn’t see a large square in the ceiling of the cave was lowering down next to the plane. As a matter of fact, I didn’t see it until I looked into the cabin of the seaplane and saw that the Chief, Kathy, Tom, and Molly were all looking at me. I
was just about to ask them what they were looking at when I heard a voice behind me.
“Welcome to Green Cavern,” said Bus.
I almost fell off of the pontoon when I jerked around. The cabin door did the rest and knocked me on my butt when Molly came flying out through the door and threw herself at Bus. The others came out after her, and Tom pulled me to my feet before going over to give Bus a big hug.
Bus was shorter than the Chief, had a full beard and a bald head, but like the Chief he had that perpetually broad, white smile that made you feel good when the world was going to hell all around you. He looked like he could wrestle a bear for fun even though he was probably in his fifties. He caught Molly in a big hug as she jumped into his arms.
He said, “Everybody grab whatever is important to you and hop aboard. This thing can lift a ton at one time. The Chief and I weigh about that much, but we should be able to squeeze the rest of you on, too. We don’t want to advertise the location of the front door any longer than we have to.”
We grabbed our gear as quickly as we could and jumped onto the elevator with him. It was a solid platform that had lowered down on four thick steel cables. Three sides were enclosed by nets rather than solid walls, and the fourth side was open.
“The ride is pretty smooth, folks, but if heights bother you, just get a hold on the nets. It won’t take long.” He pressed a button on a control cable, and the entire thing rose silently toward the ceiling.
I looked up and saw that we were ascending into a brightly lit room, and I could see the face of a slender woman with brown hair looking over the edge. It was undoubtedly Allison. She had to be beside herself, wanting to see her daughter again.
As soon as the elevator came to a stop, Molly and her mother were in each other’s arms, and Tom was holding them both. The three of them were all laughing and crying at the same time, and we were in no hurry to see them stop. I looked at Kathy and the Chief, and I saw they felt the same way I did. We got Tom and Molly home. As crazy as the idea had been, as bad as they odds were against us doing it, we had gotten them home.
“Dr. Bus, I presume,” said the Chief as he held out his hand.
“Please. Call me Bus. Even when the title was on my door, I didn’t feel comfortable hearing it.” He shook the Chief’s hand and then mine and Kathy’s.
He held Kathy’s hand longer than mine and said, “My, oh my, she’s a real looker. Which one of you gentlemen is the lucky guy?”
Kathy turned beet red. The Chief grinned and said something about her being his adopted daughter. I thought about Jean and said, “My looker is back at our shelter holding down the fort. As a matter of fact, I can’t wait to get back home to see her.”
“I’m sure you can’t, young man. He clamped a hand as strong as a vise to my shoulder and gave it a squeeze.”
We all looked over at Tom, Allison, and Molly, and it seemed that they had decided on crying for the moment. They were all shedding tears quietly while Molly attempted to soothe them by saying everything was all right now.
“Let’s give them a few minutes,” said Bus. “You must be tired from your trip, and more recently from your escapades over at the resort.” He gave them a scornful look and asked, “What did you figure you were going to do over there after you got your fuel, play a few holes on the golf course?”
He didn’t wait for an answer before he started down a gently sloping tunnel through what appeared to be solid granite. It was brightly lit by lights inside heavily reinforced fixtures, and the light made the granite sparkle. We followed behind him like a bunch of school kids who were being led to the principal’s office.
The Chief felt like we should at least try to give him a rational explanation, so he said, “I told the others we should try to get some spare parts for the plane.”
Bus turned around to face them and said, “The picture said Aviation Fuel on top of the building, but that didn’t mean it was in the building. Didn’t Titus teach you guys anything?”
He turned and started walking down the tunnel again while we stood and stared at him. The revelation shouldn’t have come as a complete surprise to us because we had been noticing the clues. After sharing a look of disbelief we started to follow again, but Tom caught up with us.
“Friends, let me introduce you all to my wife, Allison.”
Instead of waiting for him to say our names, she wrapped her arms around our necks one at a time and gave us each a really big hug.
“I already know each of you of course, and even if I didn’t, you’re the angels who brought my husband and child back to me. How many women can say that in this awful world?” She stepped back from them and gave them a look that was both happy and sad.
“I have to tell you the truth,” said Allison. “I felt cheated by Tom’s baseball career. It was supposed to be glamorous being the wife of a baseball star, and I let that get in the way of being a supportive wife. When civilization ended, all I could think of was making it up to him, and you’ve given me that chance. I can’t thank you enough.”
Bus came back from around a slight curve in the tunnel and gave them all a stern look, but the slight upward curve at the corner of his mouth gave away how he really felt. He had been living for this moment ever since he had learned Tom and Molly were still alive, and of all things they were in Titus’ shelter.
We all started following Bus again, and we passed doors along the way, but he kept going. The tunnel started to slope upward a bit, and it changed directions left and right several times. It was wide enough for a golf cart, and I wondered if Bus had given any consideration to getting one from the resort. I thought better of it, though. He would think I was totally nuts.
The shelter on Mud Island had been like a really cool, well furnished apartment. When we reached the end of the tunnel we found ourselves in something that was more like a really cool, well furnished mountain vacation home. The tunnel became wider just before it ended, and there were doors to several rooms that were open. We saw all of the amenities we had, such as the workout facility, the armory, and a nice little hospital clinic, but the best was yet to come. The room that Bus called his living room had a vaulted ceiling and a feel of openness that our shelter didn’t have. I don’t remember ever feeling claustrophobic in the Mud Island shelter, but if this had been smaller, maybe the thought of a mountain sitting on top of us would have made me feel that way.
Bus flipped a switch on a console, and a row of windows appeared from behind a large panel along one wall. A breathtaking view of the valley appeared beyond the windows. I walked over to the windows and looked out at the scenery. The windows were hidden under an overhang that jutted out from the mountain at least twenty feet. Below was a sheer rock face that went straight down for hundreds of feet. It didn’t look like anyone could climb up to the windows or drop down from above. The overhang also kept the windows in the shadows, and I doubted you could see them from below unless they were left open at night and the lights were on.
Judging from the view, I could tell we were not on the side of the mountain that had the winding road to the top, and we definitely weren’t on the side that dropped onto the plateau that was filled with the infected the day before.
The room itself was furnished with plenty of comfortable looking sofas and chairs. One wall was full of TV screens just like ours, and there was an impressive library of DVD’s. Up a set of stairs and overlooking the great room was a kitchen that looked like it had been designed by a chef. Just looking at it made me hungry. There was a large dining room through a door at the back of the kitchen. It also had a vaulted ceiling with ornate lighting hanging down over a long table that could seat about forty people. Dr. Bus apparently like to live in style.
On the other end of the great room was a set of stairs similar to the ones that went up to the kitchen. A study filled with books was visible up those stairs, and Bus explained that the bedrooms were all down a corridor past the study. We could see his shortwave radio set on a table in the study.
Bus was more than glad to accommodate me. He led me up to the study and switched on the radio. “We get better range at night,” he said. “It’s called skip distance. The atmosphere is thinner and higher at night, so you can send a signal farther.”
I sat down at the microphone and gave it a try, but all I got was static and something random I couldn’t understand. I tried for about thirty minutes while Bus began working on a decent meal in the beautiful kitchen. Kathy and the Chief were given the go-ahead to explore the shelter while Tom, Allison, and Molly went off to get some family time. I couldn't say that I blamed them. I was really missing Jean, and we weren't even family yet. I was sure I'd be the same way once our baby was born.
The thought of a baby hadn't sunk in yet. In a private moment I had asked Tom when it had sunk in with him, and he told me it wasn't real until the day they brought Molly home from the hospital. Our baby was going to be born in the shelter, and he or she was going to be home already. I guess for me it would be the moment I became a father. I looked at the microphone and wondered for the thousandth time in the last thirty minutes why Jean wasn't answering. She had to be waiting to know if he was alive and if we had made it.
"Lunch is ready, folks," Bus announced from the kitchen. Something smelled really good, and I decided it would tear me apart if I let myself worry about Jean. We were over five hundred miles from each other, and worrying wasn't going to make it any easier. Besides, Jean would probably be on the radio soon.
Everyone climbed the steps to the kitchen and crossed into the dining room. Bus had put out a nice spread, and even though we had been eating well enough in our shelter, it had still been a couple of days since we had a good, hot meal.
