Looking down over the wall into the parade ground I could see about 25 or so zombies. They were all clustered over to my left near the sally port. I guess they heard the horn.
“Zombies,” I yelled back down to the team. No point keeping quiet now. “Maybe 25 or so, all over near the sally port.”
I scanned the parade ground for a few more minutes and saw nothing else.
“The usual?’ Mike asked as I came back down the ladder.
“Yeah, the usual.”
Experience has given us a pretty good way to consistently kill zombies in a building without getting ourselves into too much danger. At least it’s worked well so far. The key is limited access. If you only open the door wide enough for one zombie to get through at a time, you can kill them one at a time and not risk getting overwhelmed. A single zombie is not too much of a threat anymore but in large numbers they are very deadly. The strategy has worked well so far.
This looked to be an easy one. To the right of the sally port was a walkway about five feet wide. It led around to the old wharf. On one side of the walkway was the fort, on the other side was a three foot tall, concrete retaining wall. On the other side of the wall was dirt. So, you could stand on the dirt and look down onto the walkway and the little recessed door. Zombies aren’t coordinated enough to get over the wall. All we had to do was open the door and stand on the wall.
“Boat, this is Ryan.”
“Go ahead, Ryan,” it was Tony. “What did you find?”
“Zombies. About 25 or so.”
“Sounds like a lot for that sport fisherman.”
“It would have to be packed pretty tight. But, I think I saw some park ranger uniforms in there.”
“Ah, 10-4.”
“Tony, make sure we’re keeping a good watch. Boats, people, anything. I think we’ll be making some noise.”
“10-4.”
I could hear Tony relaying instructions to the others on the boat as I turned back to my team.
“Okay, crossbows first to conserve ammo. If we need to switch we can do that easily from up here. Let’s take our packs off.”
Everyone stepped back and took off their back packs and laid them on the ground. Then we lined up just back from the retaining wall.
“I’ll go pop the lock and we’ll go from there.”
I hoped down off the wall and peered around the edges of the door as best I could. Nothing. I raised the bolt cutters and bit through the padlock. Then I stepped back, ready. Nothing.
Fuck.
Now I’ve got to figure out where the zombies are which means sticking my head in. The walls of the fort are several feet thick making a tunnel of sorts. One that I couldn’t see out of.
I looked back at the team. They all looked anxious and very serious. Except for Mike. He was grinning.
“What?’
“That look on your face. You look terrified.”
“I am terrified, Goddammit.”
“You want me to do it?” Mike asked.
“No, just give me a minute.” Mike was very capable and would probably do a better job. But I was here and I was not going to let a 16 year old take my place.
I dropped my crossbow on the top of the wall at Mike’s feet and looked up to see him still grinning. Turning back towards the doorway, I drew my pistol. I figured it would be easier to turn with my Glock than my crossbow. As I inched forward ever so slowly, I was imagining and zombie coming around the corner at me and chomping down on my arm. But nothing appeared. The zombies were all over near the sally port. I scooted back out to the walkway and holstered my handgun.
“They’re over by the other door. I’m gonna make some noise and draw them over.”
With that, I started back through the door way into the fort. When I had just cleared the short tunnel into the fort a zombie appeared in front of me just on the left. There was nothing and then he was just there. I was too close to him and couldn’t get my rifle up. So, I backed up and drew my handgun as I did. But, I had turned slightly to face the threat without realizing it. Now as I backed up I was backing up inside the fort. I fired once, then twice and the zombie went down with a round to his leg. Still backing away as he fell toward me I fired twice more at his head. The second one found its mark and his head exploded.
At this point I realized where I was. Not out on the walkway but still inside the fort. And the other zombies were now moving towards me. I reached the entrance to the door just before the lead zombie did. I felt her hand on my shoulder as I turned to get to safety.
I jumped up onto the wall and fell to the ground, rolling as I did. Feet appeared around me and I looked up into everyone’s faces. The gun was incredibly loud in the close quarters of the fort. I couldn’t hear a thing. Mikes mouth was moving but I didn’t hear what he was saying. I shook my head and covered my ears. I saw him turn and say something to the others and they turned back to the door and began to fire their crossbows. Mike looked at me and bit his arm, then looked questioningly to me.
I shook my head. No, I had not been bit.
But, I could see that everyone was firing at the zombies as they appeared in the door. That wasn’t going to work. I began to wave my arms but no one saw me so I yelled.
Apparently I yelled really loud because I couldn’t hear anything. They all turned to me.
“One shot, one kill. Take turns. Conserve your bolts. Don’t waste em.” They settled down quickly into a rhythm and the killing went good.
After ten or so zombies had been dispatched, it became clear that the doorway was going to fill up with dead zombies before all of them got through.
“Cease fire, cease fire,” my hearing was starting to come back. “We’ve got to clear the path some or this won’t work. Tom, get on one side and I’ll get on the other. You guys cover us. Wait till they’re almost through to tag em.”
Tom and I got to work clearing zombies. He’d grab one and drag it out of the doorway, then a bolt would zip by then I’d grab one and drag it out and another bolt would zip by. It was dirty, smelly work.
“Hey, Boss Man,” called Mike. “Slow up. You’re getting ahead of us. I don’t want them getting through that fast.”
Tom and I stopped and retreated around the corner of the doorway. Mike, Keith and John each fired once more then nothing more appeared in the doorway.
“Is that all of them?” John asked as Tom and I climbed back up onto the wall.
“It looks like the right amount,” I replied. “Let’s retrieve our bolts while we can and take a moment to get ready.”
Tom and I covered the youngsters while they retrieved the bolts from the zombies. One of the zombies moved and Mike jumped back. Tom fired a bolt into its head. A reminder that even the safe way that we clear buildings is only a little safe in the zombie apocalypse.
No other zombies appeared in the doorway.
When the bolts that were reusable were recovered, we sat down and had a bottle of water and a power bar. Thor came padding over from wherever he was hiding to get some water from my hand and a bite of my bar.
“I guess we’re going in there now?” asked Keith.
“Yep, we have to clear every inch of the fort before we bring the others in. We have to be sure it’s clear or we risk everything.”
“Is there a plan?” asked Mike.
“I think we’ll start at the top and work our way down. I know my way around the fort pretty well until we get underneath, then we just have to be thorough. Check your headlamps. It’ll be dark underneath. Once we get inside the door we close it behind us. I don’t want the boat to deal with any surprises. I’ll call them and tell em what we’re doing.”
Fort Sumter is a shell of its former self. The walls once towered fifty feet above the water with officers and enlisted mans barracks on three interior sides. Only ruins of those things remained. Instead, the interior was dominated by Battery Isaac Huger. This huge, black reinforced concrete structure was built during the Spanish American War and was used through WWI
I. It had 2 disappearing guns and a maze of rooms below consisting of powder magazines, ammunition storage and machinery to lift those things to the guns. Part of the parade grounds of the original fort had been excavated on the harbor side of Battery Huger. The ocean side remained filled in and was the same height as the battery.
We were forced to go single file through the narrow doorway into the fort. The first person through could’ve easily been grabbed from the left or right. But, there were no zombies on either side. There were four zombies coming across the parade ground towards us. One was crawling. We took them out as we got close. I led the team up the steps to the top level. No zombies here. I wondered if the one that was crawling was up here and fell trying to get to us.
We descended one level and entered the museum. The museum exhibits guided you to the left as you came in and then around to the right as the war progressed. You ended up back at the door you came in. We found six zombies in here including one in a park ranger uniform. Zombies don’t do doors very well and we surmised they had been turned in the museum. Maybe they were seeking shelter just like us.
On the same level as the museum was a small gift shop; empty. We continued and swept the remains of one of the two disappearing gun mounts before descending one level to the bathrooms. There were two zombies in each.
“Before we go the rest of the way down we need to go back up and clear the other staircase. Keith, stay here and keep watch. We don’t want to miss a single zombie. The rest of us will go back to the top and sweep down the other stairs and through the casemates. We’ll meet back here.”
There were only three zombies on the other side. They were all injured in some way. We dispatched them easily. The casemates were all clear. That just left the rooms under Battery Huger.
“Now for the hard part. I’ve never been under Battery Huger before. My understanding is that there’s a series of rooms connected by tunnels. I don’t know how many. We’ll need a way to mark our way and which rooms we’ve already searched and cleared’” I said.
“Duct tape?” replied Tom.
“Sure, that’ll work.”
I went first. The light faded quickly into black. I was glad to have the head lamp. We went slowly. The zombie apocalypse had given us a crash course in how to clear buildings. But this was different than Costco or Target. Every few feet we marked the wall and we marked every room we cleared.
The rooms had heavy doors, or in some cases gates. Most had machinery rusting away in the humidity: loading machines for the WWII guns, lifts for powder and shells. We found no zombies.
At the next to last room we found a locked door. When we pulled on it we could hear whimpering coming from behind the door.
“Hello? Hello?” I called.
“Can you hear us?” called Tom.
We could hear crying now. It sounded female.
“Ma’am, my name is Ryan Knight. With me are Mike Pickler, Tom Morgan, his son John and nephew Keith. Our families are on a boat docked at the pier.”
“Are they gone?” she asked from inside.
“I think all the zombies are gone, yes ma’am. We haven’t found anyone else alive. We have just one more room to check.”
“I’m not coming out till they’re all gone.”
“Okay, we’ll check the other room and be right back.”
“No, don’t leave me!”
I turned to the others.
“Go check that room and come right back.”
“I’m here. They’ll be right back. It won’t be long. Are you hurt?”
“No, but I don’t have any food or water.”
“I can fix that. Are you alone?”
“Yes.”
“What’s your name?”
“Tracie.”
“Okay, Tracie. Here they come.”
“Room’s clear, Boss Man.”
“Tracie, you can come out now.”
A pause. Then the sound of a bolt being thrown. The door slowly creaked open. Behind it a woman appeared. She had dark hair and looked to be in her mid-thirties. And she was very pregnant.
“Tracie, I’m Ryan. Let me help you.”
She took my hand and I led her out on to the parade grounds. The sunshine was almost too much after being in the dark rooms. We sat in the sun. It was cold underneath the Battery.
“Boat, this is Ryan.”
“Go, Ryan.” It was Tony.
“The fort is clear. We have found one survivor; a woman. She’s pregnant. She’s been alone for a few days and she’s a little dehydrated. I’m going to give her some water and a breakfast bar. But, I want Lois to come in and check her over. Mike will meet her on the pier.”
Mike trotted off.
“Ryan, this is Lois. Make sure you don’t overdo it. Little sips and small bites.”
“10-4.”
It took only a few minutes for Mike to come back with Lois. Meanwhile Tracie took little sips and small bites. She said nothing.
“Tracie, this is Lois. She has medical training. Let her look you over, okay?”
Tracie nodded and gave a weak smile.
“Mike, stay with them.”
He nodded. And I pushed the button on the radio again.
“Tony, this is Ryan.”
“Go ahead.”
“Lois is taking a look at our survivor. Mike is watching over them. We need a little time to clean up in here. I don’t want to start off in our new home with corpses all around.”
“10-4, anything we can do?”
“No, not really. Have some lunch for us when we’re done.”
“10-4.”
Tom, John, Keith and I spent the better part of an hour carrying zombie corpses over to the original wharf outside the fort. Keith went to the boat and came back with a five gallon gas can. Thor and I watched as the mound was doused with gas and set ablaze. Unfortunately, in real life, bodies don’t burn so easily. It took the rest of the gas can to reduce the bodies. We were lucky the wind was blowing away from the fort.
The mood on the boat was upbeat as they moved around gathering up the last of the belongings and supplies. Tracie had been brought to the boat and was still being monitored by Lois and Beth had the watch. But, the rest of us had something to eat together.
“How was it?” asked Tony.
“I hate clearing buildings,” I said. “But we used the doorway to our advantage like we’ve done in the past.”
“Once inside,” continued Tom. “There were only a handful of zombies but there were a lot of rooms to search.”
Keith nodded.
“Boss Man,” said Mike. “Do you still feel good about this?”
“Yeah, there’s plenty of space and a lot of it is sheltered under the casemates. We can also use the museum to get out of the weather and the rooms under the Battery for storage. It’s hard to get into and you could fall back under the Battery if needed. You could defend that as long as your supplies held out. I think we still need a 24 hour watch, but, yeah, I’m happy.”
“I’d be happier if we knew what happened here,” said Tom.
“Agreed. Mike, would you go get your mom and our guest?”
Mike nodded and went to get the ladies. I finished off my spam sandwich and drank some Gatorade. It was the last of the bread. Tracie and Lois came over and sat down.
“Talk to me Lois.”
“Like you said, she’s dehydrated and slightly malnourished. It shouldn’t be a long term problem. We got here some multivitamins and she has to eat something 6-8 times a day. But, otherwise she’s healthy and as far as I can tell the baby is fine.”
“Thanks, Lois. Tracie, I’m Ryan.”
“I remember. Thank you for saving me. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you guys hadn’t come along.”
Introductions were made all around except for John who was on watch.
“Tracie, we have some questions as you probably would’ve guessed. I don’t want to upset you but we need to know what happened her before we move in.”
> “No, I understand. What day is it?”
“Sunday, December 28th.”
“Damn, okay. That makes this worse. It was Wednesday morning when we got here. There were 24 of us. The boat was a great idea but no one really knew how to drive it.”
“We saw that…” Mike quipped.
“Well, no one got hurt when we hit the pier. We didn’t find any zombies inside. During the night, the zombies we didn’t find found us instead.” Tracie began to cry and Lois put her arm around her. “I hid after my husband was bitten trying to protect me. That was sometime early Thursday morning.”
“I’m so sorry Tracie,” said Beth.
“Any idea where the zombies came from? Where they were hiding?” I asked. She sniffled a little, then answered.
“They were in the black structure but I don’t know where. I think they were the park rangers.”
I leaned back and thought about what Tracie had said. I was pretty sure we’d gotten all the zombies. Several we killed today were in uniforms. Still, I’d never been under Battery Huger before today. I was tired of losing people. It’s possible that we missed something. Damn.
“What are you thinking, Boss Man?” asked Mike.
“You guys think we missed any rooms under the Battery?”
He shook his head.
“No, we were pretty thorough.”
“I think we got em all, Ryan” said Tom.
“It’s clear,” said Keith.
“It’s our families. We have to be 100% sure,” I said.
“We can check again if you want…” replied Tom.
“I do. Lois, will you supervise everything getting packed up? I want to know for sure it’s clear in there…”
Once inside the parade grounds I turned to my team.
“I’m sorry guys.”
“It sucks, Ryan. But, you’re right. We’re bringing the people we love inside. We have to be sure,” said Mike. Everyone nodded.
Mike was maturing more every day. He’d make a great leader should anything happen to me. Course, it wasn’t good to think that way especially after just losing Sam.
Turns out, we were thorough the first time. We didn’t miss any rooms nor any zombies.
The tide had changed and loading the boat wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. But it was getting late in the afternoon before everything was inside the fort. No one was sure where to set up initially. Some wanted to stay out in the open near the doors. Some wanted to hide in the interior of Battery Huger.
Knight Terrors: A Zombie Apocalypse Survival Tale Page 2
