by Lundy, W. J.
The large ship in the water gave a blast of its horn, and the small boat replied with a blast of its own. The boat’s engine changed pitch as it rode closer to the pier with its bow pointed towards the shore. When it was within a hundred feet, the motor again idled and the boat bobbed in the water. A man on the bow of the ship called out several times. After getting no reply, he moved back towards the cabin and leaned into an open window. He returned with a set of binoculars.
The man on the forward deck searched the shoreline with the binoculars. The spotlight continued to search the pier and beach as the boat slowly drifted towards the shore. There was a single unsuppressed gunshot as the cabin window exploded, dropping the man at the controls. Energized by the sound of the shot, the prisoners behind the tires rose up and unleashed a salvo at the small boat. Most of the rounds went wide or fell short, but the wild shots and noise provided more cover for the snipers on the hillside. In quick succession the man at the spotlight and the one with the binos fell into the water.
As the remaining man ran back towards the cabin, the prisoners found their aim and fired rapidly, rounds tearing into him, knocking him into the water. The prisoners cheered before being hushed by one of them, then dropped back into cover. There was another loud blast from the ship’s horn. This time the blast wasn’t answered as the small boat drifted towards the shore. The ship let out a long blast, again with no response. The small boat bounced then slapped against the pier.
A male prisoner looked over the tires, then got to his feet and ran down the pier followed by a woman. The man slowed as he approached the bouncing boat. He tried to visually inspect the vessel then took a running start as he leapt to the rear deck. The man disappeared into the cabin. The engine cut off and the man returned and tossed a length of line to the female. The woman pulled the boat in close to the pier and tied it off. The man ran to the bow and jumped back to the pier before pulling in and securing the front of the craft.
When the small boat was secure, the pair ran back, joining the others at the tires. Brad watched as they hugged each other and shook hands. Brad lifted his binoculars and again searched the entire area. Slowly he watched more people leave the confines of the containers. Most just huddled around the entrance, afraid to move any further. Some walked completely out, and the prisoners by the tires, spotting them, moved in their direction.
The large ship blasted its horn over and over, not getting a response from the shore. The prisoners seemed to ignore the horn now, overwhelmed with their new freedom. A few of them walked towards the row of buildings carrying rifles. Brad heard doors open and close and an occasional gunshot as they entered and cleared building after building. They relit the fire on the beach and huddled around it. People brought containers of food from the buildings and cooked it over the fire.
Brad watched as children left the confines of the container and joined the others. He heard a noise behind him and searched the top of the cliff. Seeing nothing, he dropped his night vision over his eyes and continued to search the hill and the tree line. He saw a bright IR strobe. Brad reached up to his own goggles and switched his IR headlight on and off. He watched as Sean and Brooks came into view and walked across the incline towards him. Brad got to his feet and walked to join his friends.
32.
They spent the rest of the night in the high position guarding the civilians below. Sean was concerned primals may make their way up the road drawn in by the gunfire, but they never came. The cove was indeed sheltered and secluded. Brad stayed in over watch on the cliff as Brooks and Sean retrieved their rucksacks. Even though they weren’t ready to approach the civilians, they didn’t want to take their eyes off of them.
They had retrieved their heavy packs under the cover of darkness and returned to the sides of the cliff. It was still predawn but there was plenty of activity on the beach. Brad sat and observed the people below. The ship blasted its horn several more times, causing the trio to look up. The ship now had all of its navigation lights and spotlights on.
“Might as well give up on that shit,” Brooks said as he sat back against his pack, eating a tin of fruit. “Ain’t nobody gonna reply to that horn.”
“We going down there?” Brad asked.
Sean looked up from his breakfast, “Yeah, as soon as the sun comes up. I don’t want to spook anyone and get shot in the dark.”
The freighter’s horn blared long and steady, giving a solid blast. The freighter began to drift, then moved backwards and farther away.
“Something’s happening,” Brooks said, lifting his binoculars to look at the freighter. “Looks like they’re pulling anchor.”
“What about that ship? Do we go after it?” Brad said.
“It’ll work itself out,” Sean said, finishing his meal. “Looks like they all took to the single freighter, I never saw movement on the other vessels.”
“Yeah, me either,” Brooks added. “By my count we brought down twenty last night, and another ten or so at the roadblock. Who knows what kind of damage the primals did to ‘em.”
Sean stood, straightening his jacket. “Yeah, we will have to see what answers the civilians can give us. To be honest, I’m happy not having to take down a freighter with just the three of us.”
He stood and prepared his pack as the first glimpses of the sun peeked out over the water. Brad and Brooks took cues off what he was doing and readied their own gear. They put on their packs and walked closer to the cliff’s face. Looking down, they could see that more of the civilians were up and moving around now. They had stacked the dead guards in a row along the street. Others were moving around the small boat, searching it and removing gear.
“Figure it’s time to say hello,” Sean said.
He walked closer to the cliff face and cupped his hands around his mouth before letting out a loud yell. At first no one noticed so he tried again, this time getting the attention of a group of children standing near the buildings. They ran excitedly towards the beach, grabbing a man by the arm then pointing towards the cliffs. Sean raised his hands in the air and waved them. The man on the ground waved back and signaled for them to come down.
“Okay guys, follow me. We’ll follow the same path as last night, just be careful around these folks, they might be skittish,” Sean said as he stepped off, walking in the direction of the valley road. Walking upright and casually it took them less than thirty minutes to reach the valley that sloped down to the road. The valley was steep, but there was plenty of evidence of people having hiked these hills in the past.
They followed a steep broken dirt path down, grabbing trees and vegetation often so that they didn’t fall. As they got closer, the stench overwhelmed them. Brad stepped into a trench that skirted the road, then onto the paved surface itself. Looking left and right, he could see that the road was still littered with bloated primals’ bodies. He stepped over one and into the middle of the road. Sean and Brooks moved up beside him. “They need to do something about this, gonna fuck up property values,” Sean said, looking disgusted.
“Yeah, it was your idea to send the horde after them two nights ago,” Brooks said.
Sean grunted. “Point taken, but it did its job. And on the plus side, I bet this attack cut down on the numbers in the area.”
Brooks stopped and looked up and down the road, “Yeah, enough here to make up a small town. So much death,” he said, shaking his head sadly.
“They were already dead, this just put them to rest,” Sean said, looking at the decaying corpses. “Okay fellas, weapons down and follow me, let’s make ourselves known,” he ordered.
The trio walked in line, arm’s length apart as they rounded a bend in the road. As they got closer to the berm, the primal bodies thinned out. Brad could see drag marks where the bodies had been moved and thrown into fires. He had witnessed that on the first day of their arrival. He looked at the top of the earthen barrier and could see that it was now lined with the civilians. A man Brad recognized as the one who had been beaten and tied t
o the mast came forward and walked down the barrier through a break in the tire wall.
He was armed as the others but his rifle was slung over his shoulder. Sean stopped and the others stopped with him. They waited for the civilian to approach them. As he got closer, Sean waved but the man’s face remained stone solid. He gave no indication whether he was friend or foe. The stranger stopped a good ten paces away and looked at them apprehensively.
“You the ones that helped us last night?” the man asked.
Sean smiled and stepped forward with his hand extended. “Sean Rogers, U.S. Navy, or used to be,” he said, introducing himself.
The man gave Sean a puzzled look and Sean lowered his hand. “Were you expecting someone else, friend?”
The man looked at Brad, then at Brooks before turning back to Sean. “Where are the rest?” he said in a confused voice.
“Don’t worry pal, there are more of us, they’ll be here tonight.”
The man smiled then closed the distance and extended his own hand, shaking Sean’s. “I’m sorry, so much has happened. Please, please, come and meet the rest of us.”
The man introduced himself as Johnathon. He wasn’t from the area. He and his wife had been taken at the roadblock. It was rare for the raiders to take men, but they had manual labor to do that day and he got lucky, if you could call it that. Johnathon had been at the camp for over three weeks. He had lost count after they started locking them in the containers at night. That was where he had spent days and nights locked away with his wife and infant child. Johnathon guided them through the barriers and over the berm where they were quickly greeted and welcomed by the other survivors.
Brad was grabbed and hugged deeply by a man and a woman, and several children grabbed at his jacket sleeves and pants. Quickly they were guided across the stony beach and to the small fire pit near the shipping containers. They were ushered to sit and eat. Men were preparing more food on the fire. Johnathon explained how they had been nearly starved by their captors. Their keepers had plenty of food but rarely shared it with them.
“Who were they?” Brad asked as he was served a bowl of stew filled with bits of thick vegetables and seafood.
“They came from all over, but most of them came from that ship, the one that left.” Johnathon spit and gave a sour look as he stared where the large freighter had been.
A woman who had remained silent now stepped forward towards the fire. “Eastern Europe but mostly Russian, one of them … Mika,” she said, causing others to shake their heads and look towards the pile of bodies. “Yes, Mika, he talked of home often, he was the devil.”
Johnathon looked to the woman, then back to Brad and the others. “Mika was one of the worst, not the leader, but he acted like it.”
“How many are left?” Sean asked.
Johnathon answered. “Not many now … less than five. The captain and his officers rarely left the ship. At one time there were twice as many sailors, but they didn’t all agree with the way Mika’s crew had taken over, especially with the killing. Some ships left after the Coast Guard vanished, other crews were murdered.”
“Wait … what about the Coast Guard, what do you mean vanished?” Brooks asked.
Johnathon looked over his shoulder at the Coast Guard ship. “They were gone long before I arrived.”
The woman spoke again, “Mika’s men killed them, the Coast Guard sailors.”
“I’m sorry,” Johnathon said. “This is Jane, she is from here, the village, she has been here since the beginning.”
Sean nodded to her. “Jane, what do you know about them?”
“It doesn’t matter who they were now. They were brought here when the quarantines started. The Coast Guard put their boats in a row and left them there. Men from the government arrived. They built a road block, it was small at first. They just wanted to keep people away from the village, keep them from seeing the boats.
“When the attacks started most of the policemen and military went up the valley to defend the other roadblocks. Things got worse. Some of those people, the sick ones, managed to get by them, to get this far. They attacked the village. Mika and his men, they saved us. We thought. They came forward with the Coast Guard captain. They cleared out the village, the beach, and built the berm. Mika’s ship had tires and mechanical stuff for the barricade, others had food.
“Mika … he wanted more, he wanted to leave the village and move up the road. The Coast Guard had orders to hold the village. They argued over it for several days. In the meantime we could hear the fighting from the valley, the shooting. Occasionally a creature would manage to make it to our barrier. But Mika’s people always dealt with them.
“One morning the Coast Guard was gone. Mika said they left, but no one believed him. Mika and his people started going up the road. They would return with vehicles, new weapons. They started wearing uniforms. Then …” Jane paused and looked down. Another woman moved and sat beside her.
Jane looked back up at Sean and the others. “Mika’s men returned with several new people, captives. Women, and young girls … they did things to them. The other sailors argued, they confronted Mika. But he was too strong by then, he killed them, anyone who disagreed. He killed my husband and most of the villagers, sparing only a select few of us. He imprisoned us, worked us, and discarded us when we failed to obey,” Jane’s voice began to break as she buried her hands in her face.
Johnathon got to his feet. “It’s over now. We don’t have to fear them anymore.”
Sean walked away from the fire having heard enough. He looked towards the ships anchored in the cove. Brad and Brooks moved across the stone-covered beach to join him. The civilians had stayed by the fire, letting their saviors have a moment. “What are you thinking Sean?” Brooks asked.
“I’m thinking I don’t want to stick around.”
“Really, we just got here,” Brad halfheartedly joked.
“We need to check out that Coast Guard boat, get on the radios. Put out to sea before the weather turns on us.”
33.
Sean sent Brad and Brooks back up to the high ground to find the others. They walked through the forest, this time sticking to visible trails. After a distance they found a flat spot with long views and lay in position, waiting for Jorgensen and the rest of the team. Sean had chosen to stay back with Johnathon and the others. He was planning to give them instructions on using the weapons and training on how to split up watches and defend the walls. Brad didn’t want to leave Sean alone, but he was anxious to see the rest of the men.
They didn’t have to wait on the trail for long. Hours before sundown, they saw Joseph Vilegas moving down the path slowly. He stopped often, crouching down or taking cover. Others were behind him, following far off. Brooks didn’t want to spook Joseph into a firefight so he called out when they were still far away.
As Brooks yelled Joseph’s name, they watched as the man dropped into the prone and out of sight. Brooks called out again, then watched Joey get back to his feet and step out into the open. Brad and Brooks stood up and waved to him. They approached each other on the trail and exchanged handshakes as the rest of the patrol filed forward. Jorgensen had come through. Brad recognized several faces from the factory as well as Jeremiah Murphy.
Brad looked back to Joseph, “You can relax a bit, the village ahead is clear for the most part.”
Joseph nodded and slung his rifle. He was quieter than usual.
“How’s your brother?” Brooks asked.
Joseph didn’t speak. Instead he shook his head.
“I’m sorry to hear that, Joey,” Brad said somberly. Joseph still didn’t say a word and walked further up the trail.
Jorgensen walked towards the front of the patrol with Parker and Alex close behind him. Chelsea smiled and walked up next to Brad. Luke and Alex and their cousin had also joined them on the trail. All of the factory boys now carried the Canadian versions of M4s, except for Alex who had held onto the Remington shotgun.
Jeremiah
Murphy had moved next to Brooks. He was wearing an old set of camouflage fatigues with a Canadian flag on the sleeve and held his rifle naturally like a trained soldier. “So what the hell are we standing around for?” Jeremiah asked Brooks.
Brooks shrugged his shoulders and laughed, “Well, you heard the man, let’s get moving.”
The civilians from the village eagerly greeted the members of the factory. Even though none of them knew each other personally, they were excited to find other survivors. Luke and the other boys told them about the factory and the farm, and how they were able to sneak past the creepers and avoid the Buhmann. Their stories gave them all hope, hope that they could still find a future on the island.
Brad was exhausted from the past days’ work. He was resting on a bench near the road, silently watching all of the activity. He smiled as he watched the boys talk and lighten the mood of the survivors. He saw Chelsea helping children gather their things. Many of them would be moving to the factory. Others would stay here at the cove to rebuild. Chelsea took notice of Brad looking at her; she returned his smile. He watched as she hugged the children then left them to join him.
She walked across the small road and took the seat next to him, sitting close. Brad leaned back and made an exaggerated stretching gesture before putting his arm around her, causing her to laugh. Chelsea smiled and grabbed his fingers, pulling his arm down and around her. “I’ll admit it … Sean was right to come here,” Chelsea said, watching the families interact.
Brad pulled her close to him, not giving a response, knowing how things could have easily been different. Once again they had gotten lucky. Many things could have gone wrong, if the gang had been better prepared to face an armed force and not just the occasional civilian. As it turned out they were weak and arrogant. They had never prepared for any defense other than those that worked against the primals.
