A Rising Tide (Zombie Apocalypse Series Book 2)

by Jeff DeGordick

  "Did you bring the explosives?" Sarah asked.

  "Yeah," Sandra said, "it's right over here." She walked behind the buffet counter and returned with the black duffel bag in hand, handing it over to Sarah.

  Sarah unzipped it and checked inside to see the explosives and blasting caps still accounted for.

  "I'm still scared of that stuff," Sandra said, looking at it cautiously.

  "Don't worry," Sarah said with a laugh, "it's stable. You could play catch with the stuff."

  "So what do you need it for?" Tommy asked.

  "I told you I was from Noah's Ark," Sarah began. "But I don't want to be anymore."

  "Are you going to blow it up?"

  "Not exactly. Just one man."

  "Noah?"

  "Yes. Well, three men," Sarah corrected. "They're all dangerous."

  "What about the rest?" Tommy asked. "Zed said they're all murderers."

  "They are," Sarah said. "But I can't blow up all of them; there are innocent people there too. It's funny... Noah told us Zed and Delroy's people were murderers. I thought that Noah was righteous, that he wanted to do good things for us, but I know that was just a lie."

  "We saw firsthand how Noah would send his men to terrorize us," Sandra said, becoming emotional. "Noah's camp was bigger than ours, so he would constantly push us around and kill our people. Zed told us it was only because of Delroy working with us that Noah didn't wipe us out a long time ago."

  "How were things in the camp?" Sarah asked. "Did Zed treat you well?"

  Sandra nodded, wiping her eyes. "He was a good man. We didn't have much, but he gave us hope that we could live a simple life. But now we have nothing. I still don't know what happened last night."

  "I don't either," Sarah told her. "But I know who's responsible."

  "So why did you need us to take these explosives?" Tommy asked. "Why didn't you just take them yourself last night?"

  "I can't be seen with them," Sarah said. "If I want to be able to get close to him, he can't have any idea what I'm up to. But I'll take them with me now. I snuck out of camp and no one knows I'm here, so I can sneak them back in with me."

  "I wish there was something else we could do to help," Sandra said.

  "There is," Sarah replied. "I need you to cause a distraction so that I can sneak into Noah's office and plant the bomb."

  "What do you want us to do?" Tommy asked.

  Sarah glanced in the duffel bag and saw the pistols were gone. "Did you figure out how to use the guns?"

  "No," he said. "We didn't want to make a sound last night in case anyone was following us. But I think I know."

  "Just make sure the safety's off, then point and shoot," Sarah said. "Do you know where Noah's Ark is?"

  "By the carnival, right?" Sandra said.

  Sarah nodded. "Go to the west side of the camp. There's a four-story hotel across the field that overlooks it. Hide up in one of the rooms and look for me standing at the top of the wall. When I give the signal, wait for me to get down and count out two minutes, then start firing."

  "At what?" Tommy asked.

  "The wall or the guards on top. You don't have to hit anything, you just have to get their attention. Fire for a few minutes and be careful. Change floors and windows if you have to, and don't stay there for more than five minutes, because they might send someone after you."

  "That'll give you enough time?" he asked.

  "Yeah. I just need to slip into his office and set the bomb. Then later, when the time is right, I'll detonate it."

  "What about all the other men?" Sandra asked. "Won't one of them just take over?"

  "I don't know," Sarah said. She never considered it. "But I have to do something."

  "Okay," Sandra said. "When are you going to do this?"

  "Tonight. And make sure when you—"

  A noise came from the entrance of the hotel, like broken glass being crunched underfoot.

  The three of them stared at the door like deer in the headlights before bolting off to hide. Tommy grabbed the duffel bag and ran behind the buffet counter at the edge of the lobby, Sandra following behind. Sarah started to run for a waist-high wall on the opposite side of the room, but it was too late.

  "What are you doing here?" Noah said, surprised. He had entered the hotel with a group of three other men from camp, each of them carrying an empty sack.

  Sarah froze on the spot. Her brain kicked into high gear, but produced nothing of use. She tried to stay as cool as possible, even though she could feel the shock and fear written on her face. "What are you doing here?" she countered, immediately cringing at how suspicious it sounded.

  "We're getting those supplies we were supposed to leave with last time," he said. "How did you get out of the camp?"

  She backed up into the waist-high wall and then pretended that she casually decided to lean on it. "I... uh... one of the guards let me out."

  "Who?"

  "Um... Derek."

  "Derek's not on the wall today."

  "Uh... he was, um, passing by and I asked him to let me out."

  The suspicion on his face was beyond damning. "Sarah, what are you doing here?" he said firmly.

  Her mind continued to race, but it was still just as useless as when he had shown up. Defeated, she staggered forward, holding her head down in shame. "I'm sorry," she said. "I just... I had to get out of camp for a while. I had... sort of like a panic attack, I guess."

  Noah glanced at the three men with him. "Why don't you guys head up and start collecting some supplies? I'm going to take her back to camp. Give me maybe twenty, thirty minutes."

  The men agreed and filed past the two of them, heading up to the second floor.

  Noah turned to her and held her by the shoulders. "I never wanted you to go last night. It was dangerous, and I know it must have been overwhelming to watch. You, uh... didn't actually go inside the camp, did you?"

  "No," she said quickly. "No, Wayne made me stay outside." She could tell he was judging her face and she tried not to reveal a tell.

  He nodded slowly and seemed like he genuinely hadn't caught on yet. Wayne still must not have told him about what happened the night before, and she couldn't understand why. But she knew it was only a matter of time; tonight was probably her only opportunity to do this.

  "That's good," he said. He hugged her and she cringed but tried to hide it. "I think you need to take it easy for a while. Why don't you come back to camp with me and I'll get you settled?"

  She turned her head and looked back at the buffet counter. "But..."

  "What's wrong?" he asked, looking at the counter.

  "No, nothing," she said. "We can go."

  "Okay," he said, and he started to lead her back to the front door.

  "Wait!" she said suddenly and stopped.

  "What is it?"

  She glanced back at the buffet again. She needed those explosives. "I just heard a noise," she said. "Didn't you hear that?"

  "No," he said, looking at the counter.

  "Hold on!" she said and ran off.

  "Sarah, wait!" he said, coming after her.

  She ran behind the counter and saw Tommy and Sandra, who had stuffed themselves and the bag in a shelf underneath that was previously used to hold kitchen and serving supplies. Their eyes were huge and they shook their heads at her, trying to get her to go away. She quickly bent over and whispered, "Bring the bag to the woods beside the camp," then turned and quickly walked away.

  Noah slowed to a stop behind her. "What are you doing?"

  "I thought I heard something, but it was just my imagination," she said, walking by him and trying to pull him away.

  But he was unswayed and took a few more steps to see what was behind the counter. He stood at the end of it and leaned to the side to see, but he only saw the empty tile floor in front of the shelf. He stared at the area suspiciously for a moment, then finally turned and walked with Sarah. They didn't say anything else about it to each other, and they made their way
back to camp without much more said at all.

  When they reached Noah's Ark, Noah took her aside and tried to make sure she was going to be okay. She told him anything she could to assure him she was fine and make him go away.

  He started to head back for the gates to return to the hotel, and she started to walk back to her dorm, constantly thinking about Tommy and Sandra and wondering if they got out okay.

  Before Sarah or Noah got very far, three guards rushed by them and ran up the stairs to the second floor, disappearing inside. They seemed alarmed and this got Noah's attention. He turned back and went up the stairs too, passing Sarah. When she reached the foot of the stairs, she heard yelling coming from inside. Curious, she trotted up the steps after Noah and the two of them entered the building and passed the infirmary, rounding the corner near his office to see what the problem was.

  Kathy was standing in the middle of the hallway, shouting and shoving her finger in Mark's face, who was cowering to the side. Jenny stood next to them, holding their two kids and shouting back at Kathy.

  Mark was a complete mess. His skin was frighteningly pale and had broken out in a sweat. Every time Kathy opened her mouth and spewed vitriol at him, he shrunk farther away from her and his whole body shook like a jackhammer.

  "You're not wanted here!" Kathy yelled shrilly. "Get out!"

  "Stop it!" Jenny snarled back. Sam and Jake pressed themselves against her legs, peeking out from the corners of their eyes at their father being attacked.

  "What's going on here?" Noah asked in a commanding voice, stepping in.

  "He's dangerous!" Kathy cried. "I heard him plotting! He wants to attack us! We can't trust him!"

  "Calm down!" Noah told her.

  "Throw him out!" she yelled, spit flying out of her rabid mouth.

  Mark was at his breaking point. He tried to fight back against her, but he was too mentally weak to do anything.

  "Throw him out!" Kathy yelled again.

  "I'm not going to do anything!" Mark cried in anguish.

  "Don't lie!" she screamed. She turned to Noah and pointed right in Mark's face. "He wants to get into the bunker and get weapons! I heard him!"

  Noah looked at Mark. "Is this true?"

  Mark started to crack as his family watched in horror, Jenny still screaming at Kathy to stop. He shied away from Noah and squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block out the attacks that felt like sharp knives piercing his skin.

  A crowd of people had now gathered in the hallway around them. They all watched and some of them gossiped to each other under their breath.

  "He wants to kill us all!" Kathy cried, turning and appealing to the crowd.

  The world closed in around Mark and the final straw was thrust at him, shattering his fragile psyche. As Kathy turned back to him, he reached under his sweater and pulled out a handgun. His face was a mess of redness and tears as he pointed the gun at her and pulled the trigger.

  Kathy's face fell into shock just before the first bullet hit her, and she staggered back against the wall.

  He fired over and over again, emptying almost the entire magazine into her, and the bullets ripped through her torso, splattering the wall behind her with her blood.

  The three guards that had come up originally to see what the commotion was reacted in surprise as they stumbled to pull out their guns and aim at him.

  He was finished shooting by the time they pointed their guns at him and he had already dropped the pistol on the floor.

  Sarah could see the pistol clearly as it fell and was horrified to discover that it was the gun she had taken from Zed's camp and hidden in her dresser.

  Kathy's eyes stayed locked on Mark, still wide. Her mouth fell open and a trail of blood ran out and dripped down her chin. Her body slowly slid down the wall as the crowd screamed, and she slumped forward on the floor, her eyes finally rolling down as she faded away.

  Mark stared down at her in horror, shocked at what he had done. He looked around at the crowd and at the armed men pointing their guns at him. The kids were in shock and Jenny's mouth hung open, speechless. No one knew what to do, and Sarah stood there watching, just as shocked and horrified as everyone else.

  The armed guards looked at Noah and he nodded. They turned their attention back to Mark and, without any hesitation, executed him. Three bullets pierced his skull and he sank to the ground immediately.

  Jenny screamed at the top of her lungs as she let her kids go and sank to her knees over her husband's body. The kids bawled their eyes out, their faces twisted into wretched sculptures that could only be etched by evil itself.

  Sarah stood behind Noah, frozen in horror. She felt an unknowable rage build up in her like she had never known, but her body was too stunted in that moment to express it.

  The guards put their guns away and Kenny pushed his way through the crowd to Noah. "What happened?" he asked, agitated and ready to rumble.

  Jenny got to her feet and ran up to Noah. "YOU MURDERER!" she screamed, raising her fists. Kenny intercepted her and pulled her away as she uselessly struggled against his immense strength.

  "Get her out of here!" Noah barked.

  Kenny dragged her away out the door to the catwalk and her kids ran through the crowd after her, still crying and screaming their heads off.

  Noah turned to the crowd. "We can't have murderers in here!" he yelled. "If one person's a danger in this camp, we're all in danger. We do this to protect you! Now get out of here and go back to what you were doing!"

  The crowd lingered, murmuring to each other.

  "Now!" he added.

  Wayne came up at last and started ushering people out of the hallway.

  "Clean that up," Noah said to the guards as he looked at the bodies.

  The three men dragged Mark and Kathy out the back of the building to the graveyard, leaving an empty crime scene drenched in unnecessary blood.

  Sarah found the motor skills to move at last and ran out the door after Kenny. She stopped at the top of the catwalk and saw him by the gates, still holding onto Jenny as she struggled. Sam and Jake were at his legs hitting them, but he ignored them. A guard opened the gates and Kenny walked a few paces forward and shoved her out. Her kids ran up to her as she fell to her knees and lowered her head onto the grass, her face twisted in agony. Sam and Jake hugged her as Kenny walked back inside and the guard closed the gates, leaving Jenny and her kids out.

  Sarah ran down the stairs and confronted him. She started to scream at him, but he ignored her and brushed her away with his huge arm as he walked by. It felt like she was struck with a two-by-four as she staggered sideways and fell to the ground.

  She could still hear Jenny and her kids sobbing on the other side of the gates as she got to her feet. She looked up at the window to Noah's office and saw him standing there looking at her before he turned away and disappeared from view.

  That black and ugly rage bubbled inside her again, and as she stared up at his office, she couldn't wait for night to fall.

  20

  Moves and Countermoves

  The hours and minutes ticked away as Sarah bided her time. Even the seconds were agonizing as the sun completed its slow descent onto the other side of the now-unknown world. As soon as darkness fell, she got up and started in on her plan. She hadn't told Tommy and Sandra a more specific time than "tonight", and she didn't want them to wait for too long and think that she wasn't going to show.

  The activity outside the camp died down when there was no sunlight to offer any warmth, and everyone had kept mostly to themselves after what happened with Mark and Kathy, being too shaken up about witnessing the brutal deaths in the hallway. Sarah had stood on the wall and looked for Jenny and her kids after Kenny booted them out, but they had already left by the time she got there. Where they went, she didn't know, but she couldn't stop worrying about them. She couldn't stop worrying about every other innocent person in the camp, and now that Noah had the so-to-speak monopoly on safe havens in the area, she feared that h
is cruelty would only manifest itself more and more often.

  Sarah left the main building and walked to the shed. If everything was going according to her plan so far, she hoped Tommy and Sandra would have already dropped off the C-4 in the woods, but if not, she would wait for them. She opened the door to the shed and stopped, seeing someone leaning behind the shelf at the back wall.

  She made a noise and Barry spun around in surprise. When he saw it was only her, he calmed down. "Sarah, you're going to give an old man a heart attack!"

  "Sorry. I didn't think I would run into you. Are you leaving?"

  "I am."

  "Like... are you leaving, leaving?"

  "I am. That is, unless you have any objection to it."

  She thought about it for a minute. She made sure the shed door was shut behind her and walked close to him. "Let's talk outside," she said quietly. "I don't want anyone to hear us."

  His eyes lit up. "Oh, you're heading out too? Didn't I tell you this was a great secret?" he said happily.

  "You did," she returned.

  "Well," he said, sizing up the hole that he opened in the wall, "ladies first, I guess." He ushered her to the hole and she ducked out. He crouched through behind her and pulled the shelf and panel back into place.

  When they were outside, they looked up to see the coast was clear, then they moved across the narrow path into the woods. Sarah began looking around for the duffel bag as Barry followed her, asking her what she was doing out here.

  "I'm looking for something," she said.

  "Like what?"

  She paused her search for the moment and glanced around, making sure no one would spot them.

  "I think I can use your help," she said. "If you're willing."

  "Name it, Sarah."

  She hesitated. "Did you hear about what happened today?"

  "I did. That's what finally made me get up and leave. When we start to have that lunacy within our own gates, I think that's my cue to skedaddle."

  She pressed him: "Do you know what happened last night?"

  He thought about it. "I heard rumors mostly. I heard Zed and Delroy are both dead."