by Garth Ono
That accusation horrified her. All Kate could do was stare at the man she loved like a second father. His grief-stricken face would forever be etched in her mind. Problem was, Kate thought he was right. It was her actions that brought those murderous men to town. They found Daphne while searching for her.
Multiple shots rang out from the garage. Kate could hear Max, Nolan, and Brody shouting. Daphne's sobs reached her as well. She looked all around. There had to be a way in, or an angle through a window…
The cops started returning fire. Kate cried out. Sheriff Coleman put a stop to it.
"Cease fire! Cease fire!" he shouted. "They have a hostage, you morons."
"Damned right you better cease fire," Max shouted. "Otherwise something really bad could happen to his pretty little thing."
Daphne was forced up against the one unbroken window. Kate spotted Carl's head over her shoulder. He had a pistol pressed into the side his hostage's neck. Daphne never looked more afraid and miserable in her life.
"What do you want?" Sheriff Coleman asked. "I'm willing to negotiate the release of your hostage."
"First I want the fifty thousand dollars Kate Brokenshire stole from me," Max said. "And then safe passage to the Zombie Lands."
Deputy Doge sprinted over from behind his car to the sheriff's side. They quickly got into a heated argument. Kate didn't like the look of it. So she raced over to join them.
"What's going on?" she demanded.
"You're boyfriend wants to sacrifice himself to save my daughter," Sheriff Coleman said.
"Are you mad?"
"I don't want to die," Randy said, looking grim. "But I think I can make it all of the way inside the garage."
"They will gun you down the instant you step inside."
"I know," he said. Randy shrugged, "But I was a minion. I'll rise again, but will pretend to be dead so they forget about me. Then I'll attack them."
"But you'll be a vampire."
"Exactly. They won't expect that, and their guns will be useless against me. I can protect Daphne's body with my own, while the rest of you charge in," he said. "They're full attention will be on me, so there shouldn't be any problem charging in and killing them."
"That is the worst, most asinine plan I've ever heard," Kate said. "You cannot commit suicide like that. I won't let you. Besides, their bullets will pass through you and kill Daphne anyway."
"She's right," Sheriff Coleman said. "If I even think you are considering anything like that in the future, I swear I'll take your badge."
"But, Sheriff – "
"But nothing, Randy. Neither I nor Daphne want anyone to sacrifice themselves to save her," he said. "For Christ's sake, use your head." He sighed. "I want you to go to the office and bring back the suitcase of money."
"You can't pay ransom," he said. "You're going to let them go?"
The sheriff never looked so miserable in his life. More State Police cars were arriving. More guns. More chances his daughter would be killed in the ensuing gunfight. Time was running out to have a satisfactory resolution.
Kate shared a long, tearful look with him.
"He doesn't have a choice," Kate said. "They are obsessed with the money. I think there's a good chance giving them the money and safe passage will work. Even if it doesn't, we have to try for Daphne's sake."
A State Police officer ran up to them.
"Sheriff Coleman, I am Sergeant Rudolph," he said. "I just received word that one of our negotiators is on the way to resolve the hostage situation."
"I'm in charge of this crime scene, Sergeant," he said.
"No offense, Sheriff, but we're a little better equipped to handle this kind of situation," he said. "And if these men are the zombie smugglers, then it's state and federal crimes they are guilty of, so we should take charge."
Before the sheriff could respond, Kate heard a sound. She couldn't quite place it, but it came from the garage.
"Shhh," she said, holding a hand up.
An engine revved, and she realized what she'd heard was a garage door being rolled up. She remembered Mr. Rose had a Lexus. Her blood went cold.
"They're escaping!"
The car sped out of the garage, wheels squealing on the smooth concrete. Instead of turning toward the street, they drove across the lawn, past the carriage house, and through the back fence. Kate's jaw dropped as she watched them plow through more fences to pass between two homes on the next street over.
Everyone scrambled for their cars. Kate jumped in with Randy, riding shotgun. He objected, but she buckled her seat belt.
"Go!" Kate commanded. "Head for the highway."
The other police all followed Sheriff Coleman between the houses, following the smugglers' path. Kate noticed they turned right, which would take them back up to the highway. Randy listened and didn't hesitate. He sped up Sherwood at breakneck speed.
As they approached the highway, Kate looked up and down the road. The Lexus was already on the freeway and headed north, away from them. Traffic was approaching from the south, but far enough away.
"Clear to the right," she said.
"How did you know to do that?" he asked as they turned onto the highway.
The sheriff pulled onto the highway before them, but Randy managed to squeeze in behind him before the State Police could cut him off. Kate still thought he was driving too slow.
"I watch a lot of cop shows on the telly."
Kate switched on the siren. The lights were already flashing above. She pulled her phone and tapped the app she shared with all of her friends. There was little chance Daphne had her phone on her, since she usually kept it in her purse, which Kate assumed was in the SUV they'd just passed resting in the ditch. Instead, her screen showed Daphne ahead of her on the highway.
"Yes."
They wouldn't escape now. Kate kept that screen up just in case Max gave the sheriff the slip. Then once past Tennyson proper, the Lexus turned off the highway. They were heading west down Hank's Landing Road.
"We got them," Randy said joyfully. "This is a dead end road, baby."
Kate was excited, until she realized there here homes to either side on the river. Johnny lived just a short ways through the woods to the south. There were more homes north of Hank's Landing. Many, if not most, had boats. If they found a boat with keys, then they'd escape into the Zombie Lands.
Kate picked up the police radio handset and keyed the mike, "Sheriff Coleman. We have to pin them down inside the car. If they get into the woods they might be able to reach a boat before we catch them."
"Get off this radio, Kate."
"Don't answer him," Randy commanded, and pried the mike from her hand. "Sheriff doesn't like to be told what to do."
They topped a rise and she saw the Mississippi ahead. The Lexus's brake light lit up bright as it came to a stop just short of plunging into the river. Sheriff Coleman hit his brakes, slowing down too soon by her way of thinking.
"Go around him," Kate said. "Push them into the water. They'll have to get out and surrender then."
"Are you crazy? Daphne might drown."
It was too late. Kate spotted Max dragging her friend by the hand into the woods north of the ramps. Carl, Brody, and Nolan paused long enough to fire at the police cars, before they plunged into the woods and vanished.
As soon as the car stopped, Kate jumped out and raced into the woods, shotgun in hand. She heard them crashing through the underbrush ahead. Then a splash. Lots of angry shouts. Daphne screamed for help.
"I'm coming!"
Kate charged through the woods, holding the sawed off shotgun ahead of her to part the low limbs. Still, branches and briars slapped at her face, arms and legs, ripping skin and clothes. She just ran harder.
An engine started. It sounded like an outboard motor. Kate wailed in misery as she veered toward it. The engine revved up, and she could hear it moving away from her very quickly. A second later she burst out of the woods and onto a manicured lawn. Her eyes locked on a ski bo
at speeding away, heading straight across the river.
"Daphne! No!"
Chapter 29
The cops stayed down at Hank's Landing a god-awful long time. Kate regretted riding over with Randy, since she couldn't leave until Deputy Doge left. And she needed to leave so badly, too. They didn't accomplishing anything. They were just investigating, looking for clues and other stupid, needless things. So it was almost dark before Randy pulled up to her place.
"Thanks," Kate said. "I hope I didn't get you in trouble with the sheriff."
"He'll get over it," Randy said. "Are you going to be okay?"
She paused, afraid he knew what she planned to do. Studying his expression a moment, Kate decided he was just concerned for her. She smiled and kissed him on the cheek.
"You're sweet," she said, and opened the car door. "I'll be fine. Thanks."
Kate walked past the pickup, opened one of the bay doors, and paused at the back of her Land Rover to put her weapons back inside. Randy remained there until she started for the door. And then she spotted it and froze. He immediately came out of the car.
"What's the matter?"
"I don't know," Kate said. "My door is smashed in."
He rushed past her, gun in hand. Kate grabbed her shotgun. He cleared the bottom of the stairs by the time she arrived. She tried to take the lead up the stairs, but Randy ordered her back. Since he was a cop, Kate had to obey, but it really grated on her. So she followed him up despite his command for her to stay down on the ground level.
The interior door at the top of the stairs was also open. Like below, it was severely damaged. Mr. Rose was not going to be happy. But then again, after what went down earlier, Kate was pretty sure she was going to be tossed out into the street. She wouldn't really blame him, either.
Kate followed Randy through the door. They quickly searched the one bedroom apartment. No one was there. Not anymore.
"Dammit. Why did they have to trash the place?"
"Um, bad guys?" Randy said.
"Funny," she said. "The coast is clear, Deputy Dog. Thanks for everything. You're a peach."
"Are you being sarcastic?"
"Perish the thought," she said. "Seriously, thanks for everything."
Kate ushered him out as quickly as possible. She didn't have all day. Time was of the essence. Yet, she had to get rid of him in a way that didn't alert him she had dangerous plans for the evening.
She knew exactly where Randy was going. The sheriff was back at his office making calls. He was trying to call in favors. Kate thought he was wasting his time. No one was going to dispatch a team to rescue Daphne. Anyone who vanished into the Zombie Lands was written off by the police and society. There was no cavalry to save you.
Kate planned a more direct approach to the problem. She opened her laptop and pulled up a program. After she inputted Daphne's last know GPS location, the software pulled up a map of the area. It was about an hour north of Hank's Landing, right on the river.
"What does Google Maps show?"
She changed to Street View. Kate was able to look at Max's fenced compound from a river view, rather than a street view, which was best for her purposes. It didn't take her right up on the property like she wanted, and it was a picture of the site prior to the Zombie Apocalypse, but showed her what she wanted.
The main house was high atop pilings to keep it above the frequent floods. There were a number of metal outbuildings that weren't so lucky. Most of them appeared to be barns and tool sheds. Maybe a water pump shed, too. Utilities could be spotty in the Zombie Lands.
"Hang on, Daphne, I'm coming," she whispered.
Kate quickly changed into all black: Long-sleeved shirt, cargo pants, hunting boots. She braided her hair before pulling on black driving gloves. A shoulder holster with a 9mm pistol came last.
Then she stuffed a navy blue ski mask, passive night vision binoculars, and some rope into a small black nylon pack. Kate didn't think she'd be able to take any of them alive, and really just wanted to grab Daphne and run. But if she could bring any of them back to face justice, all the better. Hence the rope.
Daphne's signal was gone when she checked her phone again. Did Max just discover Daphne's phone? Did he turn it off, turn off the GPS, or destroy the phone? Kate quickly turned off her phone's GPS. If he was trying to track her, then he might think she went off the grid like that because she was coming after him. So she turned it back on and left the phone on her table.
Am I over-thinking this? she wondered. Guys had told Kate many times that she over-thought everything. I'll err on the side of prudence.
Kate dug a spare phone out of the closet. She rarely used it. Johnny called it her burner phone. No one knew the phone number, so she could make discrete calls with it. There was nothing tying her to that phone number.
Using her regular phone, Kate called Johnny.
"Hi, Johnny. Are you home?"
"Not for long, baby girl," he said. "There's a party over at Greg's. Aren't you going?"
"No, I've had a bad few days," she said.
"I've heard," he said with a chuckle. "You sure know how to stir folks up."
If she survived the night, she'd have to question him further on just what everyone was saying. The subject of gossip in Tennyson rarely knew everything being said about them. Johnny's parents were the towns' most notorious gossips. According to Johnny the shenanigans going on around town was ninety-nine percent of the conversations in their house. He would tell her everything no one else had the courage to do.
"Listen, I wondered if I could borrow your boat tonight?"
"Tonight?"
"I find night fishing very relaxing," she said. "Please?"
Johnny could never say no to her. Kate convinced him to leave the keys in the ignition. They had two boats in the water, tied to a small pier. One was a flat bottom bass boat. Kate thought it looked like a fancy john boat, which Johnny found shocking. Apparently if you put a deck on the front and gave it a steering wheel a john boat became a BassTracker. And they also had a very big and powerful ski boat. Kate wanted the smaller fishing boat.
Kate turned off all of her lights and left. Mr. Rose's house was also dark. She wondered where he was staying. And then she worried he'd be too afraid to ever go home again. Mr. Rose living anywhere but that big Victorian didn't seem right.
She stayed off the highway and away from downtown. Kate took the back way to Old Mill Road, and headed west toward the river and Johnny's place. She worried that his parents would discover what he was doing and stop him from lending her the boat. The boats actually belonged to his parents, after all. When she reached his house, she noticed his pickup was still there.
Cruising up slowly and quietly, she parked next to the pier and quickly checked for the key. It was there to her great relief. Then she armed up, taking every weapon she had left. Kate shoved away from the dock and drifted a good hundred feet away before she started the motor. And then in the pale moonlight, without running lights, Kate headed upriver.
It took her a little over an hour to reach her destination. The main house was lit up completely. The grounds were also lit up by landscape lighting. She stayed offshore and studied the compound through the passive light binoculars. It was pretty much the same as what she saw on Google Maps, with some additional fenced in areas. Also, Max had put in extensive ditches, fences, and other defenses.
The ten foot chain link fence encircled three sides of the compound, and went well out into the river to keep zombies out. The river shore had no fencing or any other defenses she could discern in the dark. There were two docks with three houseboats, one of which was the one she shot with a 40mm grenade. The ski boat they stole to escape was also tied to a dock. The house was a good hundred feet back from the river, and atop a small hill. There was some cover between the river and the house, but not much. And there were two sets of stairs, one off the back to the decks, and one in the middle underneath.
Kate turned her attention upward. Since s
he didn't see any movement or sign of people on the ground, everyone must be in the house. She zoomed in on the main windows. It took her all of two minutes to find Daphne. Her friend was tied to a straight back chair.
"These guys really like to tie people to chairs," she muttered. "I thought that only happened in movies."
Carl was talking on the phone across the room from her friend. While she watched, Max came and went, and then Nolan came through the living room eating off a plate. His left arm was in a sling. He offered Daphne a bit, but she turned her face away. He laughed and walked out of view. Brody was nowhere to be seen.
Once she was satisfied, Kate slowly maneuvered the fishing boat up to shore. She beached it next to the southern fence line, where there were a few small trees. She didn't bother tying it to anything, but did pull it higher on shore. If she and Daphne were being chased, then she only had to shove the boat back into the water.
The first cover she had was a steel building just twenty feet from shore. The walls of it were filthy and showed several water lines on the walls from past floods. Kate couldn't imagine what they'd store in there. When she dropped to a knee at one corner, while studying the grounds between her and the house, she heard something bumping into the walls. So she eased over to the door, pulled out a flashlight, and peeked inside.
"Rotters?"
Kate slammed the door as they lurched toward her. There was no lock, but she didn't think they could open the door. The zombie smugglers had bound all of the rotters' wrists behind their backs. They weren't really smart enough to escape.
"Lovely. Business seems to be booming." She shook her head woefully. "God forbid we try and keep all of the Zombie Lands' rotters contained, especially when there was a black market to satisfy."
Besides the Zombie Mafia, Kate imagined jaded rock stars and billionaires keeping "pet" zombies to show off to friends. That's got to be more prestigious than a pet tiger. Not to mention more dangerous and illegal.
She looked at the other outbuildings more suspiciously. They were probably full of undead merchandise. Releasing the zombies while escaping might not be a bad idea, but with their hands bound the smugglers might not care. Still couldn't hurt.
