The Infected Dead (Book 2): Survive For Now (4 page)

Chapter 2

Revelations

Tom probably would have slept longer, but the smell of fresh coffee, bacon, and eggs was more than he could stand. He appeared at the entrance to the dining room looking like he wasn’t sure where he was. Before he came out of his room we had all agreed that we would give him a chance to enjoy his meal before we assaulted him with our questions about how he got here. Instead, it was more important for him to know how we got here.

Once he was situated at the table with his first steaming cup of coffee in his hands, we began by telling him about how Mud Island came to be. Molly was still asleep, so it was a good opportunity to tell him about the bad things we had seen, too.

Mud Island was literally carved out of an uninhabitable stretch of beach on the coast of South Carolina. My Uncle Titus was a survivalist with money, and the rest of the relatives didn’t even know he had money. That’s likely to be why he had so much. Anyway, he was a survivalist with money, and he used it to prepare for every type disaster he could think of.

Tom asked, “Did he plan for a zombie apocalypse?”

“I doubt it,” I said, “but this shelter and all its trimmings would have been as close as anyone could have gotten to being prepared for zombies. I think he would have done more if he hadn’t died. There were some plans in his safe that showed he was looking at the idea of putting more protection in the woods on the other side of the moat. The plans had a note in the margin that said a wall was pending approval of the government after an environmental impact study.”

“I guess it worked out in my favor that he didn’t finish that part,” said Tom.

“We’ve talked about that, Tom,” said the Chief, “but we’ll get to that after you’re more awake and you’ve had a chance to enjoy your meal.”

Jean and Kathy finished sitting plates down in front of everyone and joined us at the table.

“Wow,” said Tom, “I never thought I would sit down at a table and have another meal without being worried that something was going to come up from behind me and rip into the back of my neck.”

“You and Molly are safe here,” said Jean. “Enjoy your breakfast while we bring you up to speed about what we know. Afterwards, you can do the same for us, but for now we want you to make yourself at home.”

I went on telling Tom about Uncle Titus and the will. The rest of the relatives didn’t even find out about the shelter, the houseboat, the seaplane, or the Boston Whaler which we had safely hidden in a section of the woods near the southern tip of the island.

“When I found the houseboat, I saw the plane and a boat parked across from it,” said Tom. “Do you know what my biggest fear was?”

“That’s an easy question,” said Kathy. “You were afraid of the owners coming home and finding you living in their home. We’ve thought it all out, Tom. We think Uncle Titus left Ed the shelter to live in, and the nice stuff outside was all a distraction. No one would even bother to check the rest of the island if they thought everything was right at the dock.”

“So,” I went on, “I inherited all of this from my Uncle, and when I came down to look it over, the world went to hell. I drove up to Surfside to get some essentials.”

“Some what?” three people asked at the same time.

Tom looked at the Chief, Kathy, and Jean and saw their accusing grins. Each had stopped eating and were looking at me.

“Okay, let me explain something,” I said. “When I got here, there was no apocalypse in progress. Nothing was on the news about dead people attacking live people and biting them. I was thinking of this place as some sort of beach house without windows, and I was planning on living here. My uncle left me a wall safe full of money, and I figured I would quit my job and just hang out here until I decided what else to do.”

Tom asked, “Doesn’t that sound a bit unlikely? A shelter conveniently falls into your lap, and we have a zombie apocalypse?”

“Some people would say that,” I said, “but when you think about it, people win lotteries, too. Also, there’s a more realistic answer. All over the world there are survivalists who have built places like this. I doubt anyone knows how many there are, but before the zombie apocalypse, a lot of survivalists grew old and died. I don’t doubt for one minute that there’s another Ed Jackson out there somewhere who’s holed up in a shelter because a survivalist relative left him a rabbit hole.”

“That’s the first time I’ve heard you say that,” said Jean, “and it was well put. You were just the luckiest lottery winner because you got your shelter right before the apocalypse. Someone had to be last, right? Imagine how many rabbit holes might be uninhabited.”

“Now get back to that part about going into town for essentials,” said the Chief. “What was it that your uncle forgot to stock? Was it food, water, weapons, or ammunition?”

“It was video games,” I said. “My uncle put TV’s in every room with a great video library, but he knew I was into video games and didn’t think to leave me an X-Box, a Playstation, or a Nintendo.”

My friends were all grinning around their forks as they continued to eat, and I could tell they were just yanking my chain. Tom was clearly enjoying the way we all got along with each other, because he was grinning as he ate, too.

“Anyway,” I said, “there wasn’t anything happening yet, and I had rented a Jeep to make the drive down to Mud Island. When I found all the money Uncle Titus left me, I decided to return the Jeep and get some videos games at the same time. That’s when it all began.”

“I made it back to the shelter and closed myself in. I just holed up and watched the world go to hell and back in a handcart until the rest of this group showed up.”

“So, the rest of you weren’t friends of Ed’s before the apocalypse? He didn’t invite you guys down for a visit, and you got lucky, too?”

“Oh, we got lucky all right, but that came later,” said Kathy. “Did you get to see any of the early news reports on TV about what was happening in other cities?”

Tom thought back and realized how little he had thought about what was happening elsewhere. He had been so concerned about keeping Molly safe that he had changed the channels looking for FEMA and South Carolina Emergency Management broadcasts. When he passed by the local channels, he wouldn’t pay as much attention to the broadcasts as he did the red and white ticker running across the bottom of the screen.

Sometimes there were FEMA messages, but mostly he felt like the stations were just going for better ratings by being the first to report who had just gotten their throats ripped out. He remembered thinking there was probably at least one idiot reporter who had tried to get an interview with a zombie.

Tom’s cynical attitude was really not his normal character. He was just frustrated and scared for his little girl, and all he wanted to know was how to keep her safe.

He said, “It all happened so fast. I turned on the TV, and I caught bits and pieces of what was happening, but I missed a lot of the real stories. At first FEMA said to go to shelters, hospitals, and schools. Then they said to stay where we were. I started to pack, then I started to unpack. Sometimes I turned off the TV when I got mad enough at it, but then I would turn it back on thinking I might miss something important.”

“Did you catch any bits and pieces about a cruise ship named the Atlantic Spirit trying to get out of Charleston harbor?” asked Kathy.

Tom thought for minute and remembered seeing something about the cruise ship. There was something about the people barricading themselves into the terminal long enough to get everyone on the ship. He also remembered thinking he wished he was escaping with Molly on the big ship. There would be food, shelter, water, and people wouldn’t be tipping over the vending machines.

“Yes, I saw something about that,” he said. “Why?”

“Because that’s where we come in,” said Kathy. “We were on that cruise ship. Jean and the Chief were members of the crew. I was a Charleston City Police Officer. Jean was a Registered Nurse on the medical crew, and the Chief was in charge of ship operations. As I understand it, that means the Chief was the senior non-commissioned officer on the crew, and he was responsible for just about everything that happened on the ship.”

Tom said, “So you three met each other on the ship before you met Ed. I didn’t see everything that was reported about the ship, but I knew it was a safe place to be. I mean, you guys are living proof of that. You wouldn’t be here right now if not for the cruise ship.”

Tom looked from one face to the other and couldn’t understand why he wasn’t seeing something that confirmed his feelings about wishing he had been able to get Molly onto a cruise ship. All he was seeing was long faces.

The Chief said in a sober voice, “There were about five thousand souls on that ship, and you’re looking at the only survivors. Jean almost didn’t make it when we were trying to deal with the infected passengers who had boarded.”

“Others may have made it to rafts, but we didn’t see them,” Jean added.

Tom’s expression said he understood something better than he had before.

“That’s why we had the business about inspecting us for bites when we came in last night,” he said.

“People on your ship did the same thing I’ve seen since this all started. Families protecting bitten loved ones until it’s too late. Then they turn on each other until they wind up killing other people along with their whole family.”

“Exactly,” said Jean. “One of them almost got me when we were trying to move his body to a better place after he died from the infection.”

She didn’t think she needed to tell him that they were trying to toss his body overboard. “We were trying to identify bitten people when the whole thing fell apart, and the ship was overrun by the infected. I think we were close to getting it under control at the start, but now I wonder if it’s even possible. People just aren’t willing to admit when they’ve been bitten.”

“What happened to the ship?” asked Tom.

The Chief said, “As far as we know, the Navy sank it after it became a floating cemetery. We made it to a raft, and the only movement we could see was infected dead wandering around looking for more victims.”

“The Navy? We still have a Navy? I got firsthand experience with what was left of our Army, but I didn’t think about the Navy,” said Tom.

“They’re having their own problems,” said the Chief. “On our first trip away from Mud Island, their base at the Naval Weapons Station in Goose Creek was getting overrun. They told us by radio it was the same at other bases up and down the coast. There were some Navy ships still doing rescue operations out of that base, but only Navy personnel and their families. The infection had gotten behind their lines because of civilians looking for help.”

“And some were infected,” added Tom.

I said, “On our second trip out, we encountered a Navy warship that looked dead in the water, but it looked like a Navy SEAL team was trying to board it. Our guess is that it was overrun, and the Navy was taking it back. As long as they’re busy saving themselves, we can’t expect them to do much for us.”

Jean brought the story back around to their escape and said, “We found our hero when our raft got close enough to shore, and Eddy was out in the Boston Whaler getting in some target practice. If you think we were rough on you last night, you should have seen how bad he was. He ordered us to strip right there on the spot.”

The Chief saw that I was about to object to what Jean was saying, so he came to my defense, or at least that was what I had thought he was going to do.

“Now, you know that’s not true,” he said. “He ordered the women to get into his boat and strip, and he told me to start paddling.”

I turned beet red, but I knew better than to try to defend myself. The Chief was a straight-faced comedian when he wanted to be, so people who didn’t really know him could never be sure when he was kidding.

Instead of denying what he told Tom, I said, “That’s close but not exactly true. He got naked as soon as I asked how I could be sure none of them had been bitten. It was not the high point of my day.”

After sharing a good laugh with us, Tom said, “I could tell from the moment I met your group that you guys are very close. You’re lucky to have each other.”

We acknowledged his sentiments all around the table, but my eyes lingered on Jean’s, and hers did the same. It was Jean who had started whipping off her clothes as soon as I had asked them how I could be sure none of them had been bitten. I had stopped her before she had gone too far, and that moment of trust had allowed her to immediately see me for the kind of guy I am……an idiot with the chance to see two good looking women get naked, but a gentleman who would rather believe a stranger.

It was sort of sad that we reached a point where I couldn’t be that trusting again. Back then it was just me, but now I would be placing others at risk by being so trusting.

Kathy said, “Tom, we trusted a couple of people on our first trip out of here. It was a married couple. They had a chance to join our group and come back with us, but the first chance they got they tried to take what we had and leave us stranded. We need to know that you’re not like that.”

“Did the other people have a nine year old daughter with them?” asked Tom. “It’s not hard for me to tell that we’re safer with you than without you, and if something happens to me, I don’t think you guys would turn your back on Molly.”

Jean said, “I think you hit the nail on the head, Tom. So now that you know how we ended up here, the boys can give you a tour of the rest of the shelter while we get Molly up and make her some breakfast. We still have a lot we want to know, but you need to see the rest of what we have here.”