by Damon Novak
“Looks like about to Steinhatchee. You’ll see markers for Deadman Bay.”
“Don’t like the sound of that. Sounds like what we’ve been tryin’ to avoid.”
Danny laughed. “Well, I haven’t been there, so it’s whatever it turns out to be. Judging from all the markers on the GPS, there are lots of restaurants, and a couple marinas there. Symbol for propane, too. Got a need?”
“I’m sure everything down there runs on propane, so we’ll fill as needed. Hell, if we find a boat we like more, we’ll just swap it out.”
Danny looked around. “This is a damned nice Sea Ray.”
“Hell yes,” I said. “But we can get a great deal on somethin’ better.”
“It’s the only consolation. I can replace Dad’s Sportsman with somethin’ better, too. I’d trade it all to have my folks with us.”
“Me too, man. No doubt,” I said, reachin’ over to pat his shoulder. “Anyway, there are seven of us now. And you know that’s my lucky number.”
Danny pulled back and gave me his sly smile. I knew it because it came along with narrowed eyes. “So, if anyone else need rescuin’, it’s a big screw ‘em?”
“My next lucky number’s 35, so for a while, yeah. We’ll need to come across a desperate group of 28 people to hit that one dead on.”
“Smaller’s better anyway,” said Danny. “We need to stay fluid.”
“Wanna drive a while? I’d like to go hang with Georgie a bit. Talk to Lilly.”
Danny stretched, then checked his watch. “You’re holdin’ at 30 knots. Mind if I bump it up to 35?”
“Be my guest. You know your stuff.”
“Okay,” he said. “I say we keep runnin’ ‘til we’re just off Deadman’s Bay, then anchor for the night. We’ll navigate the Steinhatchee River in the mornin’.”
“Sounds good. I found a humidor down there, man. And Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel.”
“Once that anchor’s planted,” said Danny, “it’s a fuckin’ date. Get up.”
I stood, and he slid into the seat.
“How’s my sister doin’ anyway?”
“She changed out of her wet clothes, so go on. I’m not as wet as she got.”
I thanked him and plodded down the steps. I was feelin’ the exhaustion from our most recent ordeal. To be honest, I couldn’t wait until we stopped and took a break.
When I went into the salon, Lilly was sittin’ in the captain’s chair, watching the others set up some game or other on the dinette table. “Hey,” she said, a slight smile on her face.
“Hey, sis. You doin’ alright?”
She stood up and hurried toward me. I opened my arms and let her walk into me. It might’ve been the tightest hug I’d ever given her, and she was squeezin’ just the same in return.
“So glad you’re okay,” I said. “When I saw you almost fall, I thought you were toast.”
“More like toast with all the fixins, as Ma used to say. I was scared, I won’t lie.”
I pulled back and looked at her freckled face. Wipin’ the hair from her face, I said, “You sure you’re okay?”
Lilly nodded. “Yeah. Shakes are almost gone. Thanks for saving us.”
I eased her away from the table where Liam, Terry, Roxy, and Georgie sat, lowerin’ my voice. “I was just reactin’ to my sister and my best friend about to become zombie food. Now. We need to make sure we’re prepared before any of us hit shore again.”
“I was thinking about that when Danny and I were driving. Liam, Roxy, Terry. Do we know their skills?”
“Terry’s got a bit of boating knowledge. Already came in handy. I don’t know if he’s ever shot a gun, and I doubt Liam knows anything about ‘em. I asked Georgie about Roxy, and it seems she’s got some decent skill, like her mama.”
“What’s the plan?”
“We’re tryin’ to get as far as we can on this tank. Danny found a marina that’ll have gas. Stein somethin’.”
Lilly’s eyes were kinda distant. “If we can stop while there’s still daylight, I think we ought to give everyone the opportunity to do some basic gun safety and use training. If they don’t know how to defend, they stay on the boat.”
I shook my head. “Even stayin’ here they need to know how to defend. Bandits, zombies. Never know what’ll come along.”
She scrunched up her face. “Bandits? You’ve been watching too many cartoons.”
“Fuckin’ love eatin’ cereal and watchin’ cartoons. You don’t know what you’re missin’.”
Ω
After I sat down and jawed with the others for a little while, I went back up and offered to take over drivin’ again, but Danny had settled in.
“I’m almost dry,” he said. “She doin’ alright?”
“Yep. She wants us to stop a bit before dark, so we can do some offshore weapons trainin’ for anyone who needs it.”
“She’s smart,” said Danny.
“She is.”
We rode in silence for a while. I was surprised to find that an entire hour had passed since we got free of the cruise ship passengers. In that time, he’d navigated back closer to shore. We were runnin’ about a mile off the coast now.
We switched again, and Danny ran down to grab us a couple of brews. The refrigerator still kept everything real cold, even though we turned the temp down a bit to preserve propane.
The ladies, along with Terry and Liam, were apparently involved in a wild game of Uno, and I heard people yellin’ the word repeatedly, even from up top.
“How’s the fuel?” asked Danny. “I was ready to fill up the Sportsman. Don’t have to worry about that now.”
“Man, that was sketchy. You just ended up right on top of ‘em?” I asked.
“Like running a jet ski onto the beach, man,” said Danny. “All my shit’s gone. Fishin’ rods, stuff we could’ve used.”
“I’m bettin’ everything’s available on a discount nowadays. We’ll stock up on more gear.”
He downed his beer. “I’m gonna go down and hang with them for a while. I’ll maybe send the kid up. You can talk to him about training.”
I waved at him and he thumped down the steps. About five minutes later, Liam came up and I offered to let him drive.
“Really?” he asked. “This thing?”
I looked around. “I don’t see any other thing around here.”
Nodding big, he moved toward me. I got up and he sat in the seat. He had to extend his arms all the way out to reach the steerin’ wheel, but I’d tried earlier to slide the seat forward and it was stuck.
Sometimes it didn’t matter whether you were on a yacht or a dinghy. Shit broke around saltwater.
“I got it set to a good speed. You see that swell out there?”
“That one?” he pointed to the distant ripple that would eventually turn into a substantial swell.
“Yep. As it gets closer, you just gently angle the bow – that’s the front of the boat – right at it. Just turn the wheel ever-so-slightly. Once you get over it, you just turn the wheel bit by bit again until the compass here is showin’ north. That’s the direction we’re goin’.”
I showed him how to read the compass. From that point on, he drove in silence, never takin’ his eyes off the water and the controls.
“Can I talk while you drive?”
He didn’t answer at first, just wiped the red hair from his eye, bitin’ his lower lip, like Lilly. He finally said, “Sure. What about?”
“You ever shoot a gun?”
“Only a BB gun,” he said. “My dad got me one with some paper targets. He only let me use them at our cabin in Maine.”
I was thinkin’ ‘A cabin. You lucky shit, you,’ but then I remembered his stepdad was either deader’n dead or he was one of the walkin’ dead. I knew what became of his mama. Not so lucky, I guess.
“Well, I got my first gun when I was a few years younger’n you. You got the muscle and the brains to handle it. You wanna learn how to shoot tonight? Before it gets dark?”
&nbs
p; “On the boat?”
“Yep. I saw some junk out there you can shoot at. Good thing about bein’ a mile offshore. No worries about collateral damage.”
“Huh?”
“Never mind. Do me a favor, would ya? Run on back down and send Danny up. You tell Terry and Roxy what we’re plannin’, and find out if they wanna train with you.”
The kid was up and out of his seat so fast I just stared after him as I dropped back into the captain’s chair to take the helm.
Guess I figured out what sounds fun to a kid. Hell, not sure why I was surprised – I was the same way.
When Danny came back, he had another two beers.
I told him about our plan. “Lilly still doin’ alright?” I asked.
“She went in the master cabin, took a nap. You know how freaked she gets of the Gulf. Anywhere real deep touches a nerve.”
“Kinda out of our wheelhouse,” I said. “We prefer open boats, shallow water. Reptiles that’ll kill ya.”
“Just gotta know your shit,” said Danny.
“For all the good that does us now.”
Ω
The rest of our trip north was uneventful, and we got to our destination with about an eighth of a tank of fuel left. That’d be plenty, so long as we got to that marina.
Danny’d lost a lot of ammo, but luckily, we’d brought enough with us that we had plenty to spare. In my gun collection I had a Henry Repeating Arms .22 rifle, called a Golden Boy.
It was similar to the guns I started shootin’ with, and reminded me a lot of the gun Mark used on an old black-and-white TV show I watched as a kid, The Rifleman.
The boat safely anchored, I went out to the stern and found some old, orange life preservers like the ones we strapped on our tourists at Baxter’s. They had a pretty good flat surface, and the holes would be easy to see.
I found a black marker and drew several circles on it. Three up top, and four on the sides. I got ‘em mounted as best I could on the outside edge of the swim step, usin’ a couple boat hooks I found snapped into brackets along the inside rail. In the supply cabinet was a roll of duct tape, and that was all I needed. We’d stand about twelve feet back to practice.
Liam hung with me the whole time, and Terry joined us, jokin’ with the kid about what a great shot he was, and how he’d teach the kid a thing or two.
I’d never asked Terry if he knew how to shoot, so I was pretty eager to see how he did.
“Okay, you guys hang here. I’ll get the guns we’re usin’ for this exercise.”
I ran into the salon where everyone else was hangin’ out.
“CB, don’t let him shoot a hole in this thing and sink us,” said Lilly. “You stay with him the whole time.”
“He’s only usin’ a .22, Lil. Don’t get your panties in a wad.”
“Are you planning to let him use that on shore?” asked Georgina.
“Only if he shows some skill,” I said. “Eye-hand coordination’s all it’s about. Shoot what you see.”
“Don’t forget the freak-out factor,” said Danny. “When this thing first started, I was so freaked out I missed shots I could’ve hit with my eyes closed.”
“You’re still alive,” I said. “Come on out if you want. You can work with Terry. Roxy, you want to come out? Do some shootin’?”
Roxy, ever the daughter, looked at her mom. “Should I?” she asked.
“You haven’t been to the range since your dad was around. It might be a good idea.”
She looked at me, and I saw reluctance there.
“Roxy, you know what’s goin’ on out there. I don’t want anyone out there without a weapon, and right now, we don’t have anything but guns. You prefer a machete?”
“Gross,” she said. “I can’t even imagine swinging one of those at somebody.”
“They’re not somebodys anymore,” I said. “They’re pretty much monsters now.”
“They still look like people,” she said.
I sat down next to her and she scooted over. “See this lady sittin’ next to you?”
She looked at her mother. “Mom?”
“Yeah, that’s the one. Anyway, she was worried as shit about you all the way down there. I don’t think she really ever thought she’d see you alive again.”
Her mother patted her leg, squeezin’ it. “He isn’t lying.”
“I know,” said Roxy.
“So,” I went on. “She wants you to stay alive, and with what’s goin’ on, you’re gonna have to leap pretty far out of your comfort zone. This is the first jump.”
“I hate this.”
“We all do, sweetheart,” said Georgie. “You feel better if I work with you?”
“I’m going to be terrible,” she said.
“The gun I’ll let you use is a .22,” I said. “We got a couple of ‘em. Nice long guns, easy to shoot, hardly any kick at all. You can get comfortable with that, and when you’re ready, you can move up to a higher caliber.”
Finally, she nodded. “Okay. But don’t laugh at me.”
“I’m thinkin’ you might laugh on your own. Shootin’ is fun, especially when you start to get better. We’re all set up. You ready?”
She rolled her eyes and stood.
I said, “Good. We’ll go through a couple boxes. Couple hundred rounds.”
“That’s a lot,” she said.
“It’ll go way faster than you think.”
“If you say so,” she said.
“I do.”
Georgie stood, too. “I’ll work with her a bit,” she said. “And the only one I actually shot from a distance was the one at my house. I need to make sure that wasn’t just a lucky shot.”
“Come one, come all,” I said. “We hit shore tomorrow, so now’s the time. Couple hours of daylight left.” We all went out.
We could chow down on tamales later.
Ω
CHAPTER NINE
The other .22 I had might be described as intimidatin’ if you didn’t know guns. It was a Ruger 22LR Charger, and I’d gotten a couple of high-capacity magazines for it.
It looked badass for a .22 long rifle, ‘cause it had an A-2 style pistol grip and a 30-round mag that curved forward. Anyone who didn’t know guns would take one look and call it an assault rifle.
“Okay, listen up,” I said, as everyone sat on the bench seats along the port and starboard sides of the stern deck. “Barrels always pointed down, but not at your damned feet. Finger off the trigger unless you plan to shoot somebody, and that’s rule number one. I’ll warn you twice about all the other rules, but not that one. Even with the other rules, you blow it a third time, you’re gettin’ benched.”
“No need to be a dick about it, CB,” said Lilly. “I see why you never became a teacher.”
“Tough love, sis,” I said. “I want all of y’all to stay alive, so it’s my way or the highway.”
“Can I hold it now?” asked Liam, gettin’ up.
“Danny and I are gonna split duty,” I said. “I want you usin’ the Henry for now, Liam. We’ll use the Ruger a bit, then we can switch. You see there are two targets, so we’ll take the one on the left. Danny, y’all take the one on the right.”
“Right on,” said Danny. He took the Henry and waved Liam over. “You ready?” he asked.
“Yeah!” said Liam.
I could see this had taken his mind off a lot of what had happened. Another good bonus. Maybe it gave him the feelin’ he was takin’ his future into his own hands. Independence feels good, once you recognize it. Makes you feel like you’re fightin’ back.
Roxy got up and kinda ambled over to where I stood, like she was embarrassed and dreadin’ the whole exercise.
We had a couple more feet behind us, but we started about ten feet from the targets. I’d already filled four magazines and the Henry, so I said, “Danny, you go first. Show Liam your form.”
Danny knelt down. “Liam, see this lever? That’s how you get ready to shoot again. You might remember the Terminator
using a gun like this from his motorcycle in T-2.”
“I don’t know what a T-2 is,” said Liam. “But that’s cool,” he said, holdin’ out his hand.
“Nothin’ cool about it,” said Danny, his tone firm. “This is a weapon, and not only can it kill those zombies out there, it can kill you or anyone on this boat, or anywhere else. Now, when I hand it to you, you take it by the stock. That’s this part right here,” he said, patting it. “Support the rest of it with your left hand, on the bottom side of the barrel.”
Danny gave it to him and I saw right away he did just as he was told.
“Good. No bullets in there right now, so get used to it. How it feels. Put that stock against your right shoulder and hold it up so the gun’s straight out, like an arrow.”
“I used to shoot a bow and arrow in Boy Scouts.”
“Good, then you know it’s gotta be true to hit your target. Were you any good?”
Liam shrugged. I’d seen enough. Danny had that under control.
“Your turn,” I said, and Roxy gave me a smile.
“Like I told Liam, this is just a .22, but it looks more badass than it is. You hear everything I said before, and what Danny told Liam?”
She nodded, her face still frozen in a look of apprehension. “I’m ready, I think.”
“Good. Now, this is really more of a pistol, and you’re not supposed to use the bipod as a forward grip, but I don’t think the ATF is patrollin’ right now, so don’t worry about that.”
“Okay, I won’t,” she said, givin’ me a slight smile.
“No sights on this weapon, but it’s got a nice little red dot mounted on the top rail.” I pushed the button, turnin’ it on. “You just look through that little window there, and you’ll see a red circle dancin’ over your target. Point, look and shoot.”
She leaned over and looked through. “Oh, that’s neat. Just make sure it’s over what you want to shoot.”
“Exactly. Be sure to turn it off when you’re not usin’ it so you don’t wear out the battery. This one has a tactical brace installed, so it’ll butt up against your shoulder. You want me to go first?”
I fully expected her to tell me yeah, but she didn’t.
