by Jon Schafer
***
Pushing one shopping cart in front of him and pulling another behind as he made his way down the dock, Tick-Tock could see Denise sitting stiff backed in the captain’s chair. He kept his voice light as he said, “I found all kinds of good stuff in there.”
He received no answer and she made no move to help him.
Deciding to try and talk his way through it instead of out of it, he called off the items as he loaded them onto the boat. “We got everything we came for, but look what else I found. I got a couple good pair of binoculars, some baseball bats, and here are some maps and a couple compasses. I also got knee pads and elbow pads, and I needed clothes so I grabbed some pants and shirts.”
He held a camouflage shirt up to his chest, and asked, “What do you think?”
No answer.
Knowing he had to appease her in some way, Tick-Tock grabbed a plastic bag from the cart and stepped onto the pontoon boat. When he stood in front of her, he saw her avert her eyes and look off toward the river. He moved to stand in front of her again, then held his gift out and said softly, “And I found these for you.”
When she switched her gaze to look him in the eye, he could see she was still pissed off.
Tentatively, she took the bag from him saying, “I’ll check it out later.”
“But it’s something you need now,” Tick-Tock replied.
With a skeptical look, Denise opened the bag and glanced in. She did a double take, her eyes growing wide when she saw what was inside.
“Are these what I think they are?” she asked in wonder.
“Found them in a storage room,” he replied.
Denise extracted one of the dozen 30 round clips for her carbine from the bag and said softly, “Thank you.” Looking at the carts still standing on the dock, she added, “Let’s get that stuff on board.”
***
Tick-Tock lay on the forward deck of the sailboat as he gazed up at the stars. The night was mild so he’d decided to take the sleeping bag he’d liberated from Cabela’s and give it a test drive. If they didn’t find somewhere to land tomorrow, they’d all be sleeping out on the open decks of the pontoon boats, so he wanted to be comfortable. Even if they did find a place to go ashore, they would definitely have a few nights sleeping on the ground.
When he and Denise had returned, they helped Brain and Sheila tie up all the boats side to side. This way, it would be easier to load the people from the battleship the next morning. It was decided that Steve would pilot the tugboat and Brain one of the pontoons. When Steve told Tick-Tock that he would take the other, Denise had immediately objected. With fire in her eyes, she told him that it was her boat and she would drive it herself.
Steve didn’t object to this, but he did tell her that one of his people needed to be on board. Without a second of thought, she told him she wanted Tick-Tock go with her.
With his hands clasped behind his head as he adjusted his back to the slant of the deck, Tick-Tock considered Denise. He was attracted to her but couldn’t tell if it was mutual. Despite his peace offering of the magazines for her M1, she’d seemed distant, and they had barely spoken on the trip back to the Battleship Texas. Needless to say, he was surprised when she asked specifically for him to go with her.
As he lay on the deck, deep in thought, it took him a second to realize that someone was standing over him. Thinking it was Steve, he said, “Everything’s cool, man.”
“No, it’s not,” Denise replied.
With a start, he moved to sit up, but stopped when she said in a low voice, “The problem is that I’m not in there with you.”
Flipping back the edge of the sleeping bag, he said, “Then why don’t you join me?”
She did.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Usual Suspects:
“I say five,” Brain called out.
”At least nine,” Tick-Tock said firmly.
With a laugh, Sheila said, “I’m a little more confident in their abilities, I’ll go with three.”
Coming up the ladder from below, Heather asked, “Three what?”
“We’re betting on how many of them fall into the water when they climb down the cargo net,” Brain answered before asking her, “You want in?”
Interested, she asked, “What are we betting for?”
“The loser has to take Mary on their boat,” Tick-Tock told her.
“That’s not nice,” Connie said from her position at the rear of the cockpit. “The pot was started with Tick-Tock throwing in a bag of gourmet coffee he found at Cabela’s.”
“So what do I need to throw in?” Heather asked.
“One full clip of ammunition,” Cindy said from behind her.
Spinning toward her, Heather asked with horror, “They’re teaching you how to bet?”
“I’m the one who came up with the game,” she replied proudly.
Shaking her head, Heather nonetheless said, “Alright, I’m in.”
“What’s your number?” Sheila asked.
Looking at the people standing along the rail of the Battleship Texas, she asked, “Is seven taken?”
Checking the list in his hand, Tick-Tock answered, “Nope, you’re good to go.”
When Tick-Tock finished pulling the last of them in with the rescue hook and tallied up the numbers, it ended up being five. Brain jumped up and down in triumph while doing air punches as Pep barked and ran around him in circles.
Since she knew the area from her daily foraging expeditions, Denise led the way as the people from The Usual Suspects and the Battleship Texas headed out of the quay and into the San Jacinto River. The people from the sailboat looked back sadly at The Usual Suspects, slowly settling into the water. Within a few days it, and the Battleship Texas, would settle slowly to the bottom.
At first they didn’t see many of the dead on shore, but after passing under the I10 Bridge into a more residential area, the Z’s began to show themselves. Like the other bridges, this one was packed with cars and a few Z’s that stared hungrily at them as they passed below. Four jumped over the rail to get at them, with one landing only a few feet from the boat Tick-Tock was on. The difference between the two groups was immediately apparent when the people from the Texas rushed to the opposite rail while Tick-Tock and Sheila rushed forward with weapons at the ready when it looked like one of the dead things might land on the deck.
After passing through Bear Lake, they entered a nature preserve. Where before they had to go slow because of debris in the water, it was clear through this stretch, so they sped up.
“Like I was telling you all last night,” Denise said to Tick-Tock and Sheila over the steady drone of the engine. “I made it all the way up to Lake Houston on my scavenging trips. There were good pickings there because it was a residential area. Not a lot of the dead around either. I don’t know why, but they all seemed to cluster around the areas that burned.”
“Maybe they’re attracted to the smells,” Sheila proposed.
“Could be,” Denise said. “All I know is that I’m glad to get away from it.”
From behind them, one of the refugees asked, “When are we going to eat?”
Annoyed at the interruption, Denise replied, “We’ll let you know.”
“But we’re hungry,” he whined.
She turned to glare at the eight people on the back deck and said, “I’ll make you a deal. You all take turns pushing the crap that’s floating in the water out of the way when we hit the next logjam, and I’ll give you five cans of stew.”
They clustered together for a brief conference before the man who spoke first stood up and said, “We’ve had a meeting of the committee of this boat and -.”
Tick-Tock cut him off by asking incredulously, “The committee of this boat?”
After clearing his throat, the man said, “Since the main council is now split up between the three crafts, we’ve voted ourselves to be the legislative body for this boat. That being said, we demand you adhere to the deal your leader ma
de with Sean. You have the boats, and in exchange you have to feed us and give us water. Additionally, we have concluded that all decisions regarding the course of your actions be approved of by us first. As for your more in depth ideas on how to proceed to the aid station, you must first pass these on to us, and, when the full council convenes after we gather each evening, we will discuss these and render a decision.”
Sheila gave him an answer that caused Tick-Tock to almost double over with laughter.
“Fuck off,” she told him.
Pep barked in agreement and let out a low growl.
Sputtering, the man said, “Don’t you know who I am? I’m the Senior Congressman from the great State of California. We make the decisions around here. You can’t talk to me that way, young lady.”
With contempt, she replied, “And I’m Sheila, the former bar fly from the great State of Tennessee. I pull my own weight and can shoot a gnat off a fly’s ass, so I get a say in what we do and you don’t. And until you get your ass in gear and do some work, you need to sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up.”
Looking at the pistol she carried, he muttered something about barbarians as he rejoined his group.
“I don’t know why we didn’t just give them some food and water and one of the boats and leave them,” she said to Tick-Tock.
“You know Steve,” he replied, “He’s trying to save the world. Besides, there would have been too many of them for one boat.” He pointed across the water to where Sean and Steve were having a heated discussion on the tugboat, then added, “I think he might be regretting his decision though.”
***
“What do you mean you’re not sure where we’re putting ashore?” Sean demanded. “You’re telling me we went with you and you don’t have a plan?”
“I have a plan,” Steve replied, trying to keep his temper in check. He pointed to the front of the tugboat where Cindy stood watching the water and said, “It’s to get her to a military base. You’re just along for the ride.”
“Then how are you going to do it? That was the question I asked, but you won’t give me any specifics.”
With a sigh, Steve said, “We have a rough idea of where we need to go now that we have maps. I10 is out so that means San Antonio is out. We need to stay in the less populated areas anyway so we’re heading for Louisiana.”
“Why Louisiana?” Sean asked.
“Because from the looks of it, Fort Polk is our best bet,” Steve explained. “On one of the maps Tick-Tock and Denise got from Cabela’s, it shows the locations of military bases and that’s the nearest one. Besides that, almost the whole area between here and there is a nature preserve or a state park. Less population means less Z’s.”
“I wish you wouldn’t call them that,” Sean said with disgust. “They are people after all.”
“Yeah, dead people who want to eat you,” Steve replied.
“You’re just like Denise,” Sean said in a sad voice as he shook his head. “She’s always calling them nasty names like uglies and biters.”
Steve laughed and said, “Those are good ones. I haven’t heard them yet.”
“Once again,” Sean said as if talking to a child. “They’re people.”
Mimicking him, Steve said, “Once again, they’re dead people who want to eat you.”
Waving his hand in dismissal, Sean asked, “So how exactly are you going to get us to Fort Polk?”
“We land upriver and find some transportation,” Steve told him. “There are a lot of military vehicles left around after martial law was declared and everyone got eaten, so we grab a couple and take the back roads. We’re hoping to link up with the Army.”
“That’s your entire plan?” Sean asked.
“Look around you,” Steve said as he pointed to a group of dead wading into the river to get at them. “It’s not like we can call the travel agent and book a flight.”
“That’s neither here nor there,” Sean replied in a pompous tone. “I need to know your exact plan so I can take it to the committee and have it approved.”
“Approved?” Steve asked in disbelief.
“Yes,” Sean said as he nodded his head enthusiastically. “All decisions need to be approved by the committee before we can give you the go ahead to proceed.”
Heather had been listening to the conversation and jumped in. “Sean, you and your committees don’t work anymore. It’s all about survival now. What I suggest is that you go back to the others and decide how much you want to live.” Putting a reassuring hand on Steve’s arm, she added, “If you want to learn how to survive in this new world, just ask. We don’t claim to know everything, but we’ve made it this far.”
“Learn how to survive? Learn how to shoot a gun is what you mean,” Sean said with mixed horror and disgust. “That’s what got us into this in the first place.”
Not even wanting to know how he could possibly have come up with that connection, Steve said in a low voice, “You people are always harping on gun control. So if guns kill people, then pencils misspell words, cars drive drunk and spoons make people fat. I might have said before that this is a capitalist society, but I’ve changed my mind. It’s now a dictatorship and I’m in charge.”
“How did you decide that?” Sean asked with indignation. “It wasn’t brought before the committee.”
Hefting his M4, Steve said, “I decided with this. Now go sit down.”
***
On the other pontoon boat, Brain and Connie were standing at the steering station when the first member of the committee approached them.
She started to speak, but was interrupted when Mary called out from the bow, “Damn it, Brain, watch where the hell you’re going. You almost ran over a bunch of rope or something.” She pointed the boat pole in her hands at him and added, “There’s not a lot of crap in the water but there’s still some, so pay attention when I direct you. I’m up here working and you’re back there screwing off.
“Working for the first time in your life,” he said under his breath before turning to the woman and asking, “What’s up?”
“I’m Senator Feinstein, the spokesperson for this boat’s committee and -.”
Brain cut her off by saying, “And I don’t care what your socialist ass has to say. There’s no committee on this boat. I’m in charge and that’s the end of it.”
She turned to Connie and asked in a voice dripping with disgust, “How can you stand to be with such a Neanderthal?”
Connie motioned toward where the seven other members of the committee sat huddled at the stern and asked, “And how can you stand to be with such pussies?”
With a huffing noise, the Senator turned to rejoin her comrades.
Grinning from ear to ear, Brain put his arm around Connie’s waist and said, “Pussies?”
She blushed as she said, “It was the first word that came to mind.”
He chuckled and said, “Well, if the shoe fits…”
***
Night fell before they reached a place where they felt safe enough to drop anchor. After a quick discussion, they decided to spend the night where they were since they were heading into an area with a lot of debris in the water. The survivors from the radio station and the Dead Calm gathered to eat on the tugboat with Denise, while the others sat on the pontoon boats and squabbled over the food they’d been given.
“I knew they’d try us, but I didn’t think they’d be so organized,” Steve said after hearing everyone relate what they had been through that day with the people from the Battleship Texas.
“Now you know what I’ve been dealing with for the past few months,” Denise interjected.
“Dead weight,” Tick-Tock said, “but right now we have to concentrate on our next move.”
Pulling out the map and laying it flat on the table in the small open cabin of the tug, Steve pointed to where they were moored near the entrance to Lake Houston and said, “We’ve got a couple options. We can try Humble Huffman Road, but it’s a residential area so
there might be a lot of Z’s around. I’m more interested in where I69 passes over the river. From the satellite map, it looks like it’s a park or something.”
“Less people, less dead,” Heather spoke up.
“Plus, we might find some kind of transport near the bridge and we’ll be close to this railroad,” Steve added as he pointed to a second bridge near where 69 crossed the San Jacinto. “The roads might be blocked, but I’ll bet you there wasn’t a traffic jam of trains.”
Tick-Tock looked at the map then broke out in a smile and said, “Pure genius. It runs right along I69 and 494. Now we just need to find a couple heavy-duty trucks. We can take the batteries from the boats to get one started and use it to jump-start whatever else we find.” Opening another map he’d taken from Cabela’s, he scanned it for a moment before saying, “There’s a shitload of fire roads all through these parks. If we can get on those, then we should be clear.”
From where she was sitting at the stern, Mary asked in a confused voice, “So we’re taking a train?”
Sheila, sitting next to her, stroked Mary’s hair and said with a laugh, “Don’t worry about it, honey.”
Yawning, she replied, “All I know is that I’m beat.”
“Because you actually did something today,” Tick-Tock told her.
Flipping him the double bird, she replied, “And now I’m going to bed.”
“Not so fast,” Steve said. “We still need to set up a watch.”
Mary waved hand at the open river around them where they’d tied the three boats together and asked sarcastically, “And watch for what? We’re in deep water so none of those things can get to us.”
Pointing to where a dark shape crept toward the supplies at the front of the pontoon boat tied up next to them, he said, “It’s not the Z’s I’m worried about.”
***
They came across another burned out section to the west of the Humble Huffman Road Bridge. An entire subdivision had been razed by fire and had attracted the dead in great numbers. Bypassing this, they turned where the river branched to the left. They had just entered an area with a park on both sides of them when Steve called for a halt.
