Time of Death Book 2: Asylum (A Zombie Novel) (9 page)

My thoughts went dark when I peered over the
railing to the ominous water below. Contrary to popular belief, not
all water in Florida is crystal clear like a Caribbean resort. In
fact, most of the water in our area was a muddy brown with only
inches of visibility. My anxiety shot up as Meg flew past me,
yipping with glee, and went under. The seconds until she
reappeared, laughing, were the longest of my life and I let out the
breath I'd been holding in a forceful gust.

"Holy crap! It's freezing!"

I turned, taking deep breaths to calm my
racing heart, and found Daphne standing in front of me doing her
trademark full-butt wag and looking like a drowned rat. My mouth
formed an exaggerated circle, and I held out my hands shaking them
toward the dog as I gurgled out an exasperated AHHH sound. I shook
my hands between the dog and Jake, never closing my mouth, and
continued to make that weird noise. Anyone who's ever seen Ace
Ventura: Pet Detective will remember him doing something similar
when he got shot in the legs.

"You took the dog down the slide?" I
sputtered out accusingly at Jake, who wore the look of a guilty
man.

Putting his hands up to deflect the blame, he
defended himself the best way he knew how. He let someone else take
the fall. "It wasn't me. Pete did it!"

"Oh, hell no, man. I'm not taking that bullet
for you. Take it like a man." He slapped Jake on the back.

"Okay, fine, it was me. But she pressured me
into it!"

"Right. I can see that. Not!" I softened a
bit. She did look like a happy drowned rat after all. I pulled Jake
off to the side, not wanting the others to hear our conversation.
"What if one of them is in the water?" I asked.

"We're too far off shore and the water's too
deep here for that to be an issue. Even if the bottom was covered
with them, they wouldn't be able to get near us. We need this, Em.
Look at them, look how happy they are."

He was right, once again. Damn, I really
hated when he made sense. The others looked as if they didn't have
a care in the world. The joy on their faces from this small victory
was plainly visible.

I was afraid of the water before the end of
the world; there was no way I was going down that slide. Forget
zombies, Jaws kept me on dry land.

The sun was still high enough to heat the
water in the newly-filled hot tub so that it wasn't a shock to my
system when I lowered myself into its contoured seat.

"This is heavenly," I admitted. "Now all I
need is a bar of soap and my life will be complete." Jake slid into
the seat next to me, and we were soon joined by everyone else. I
bent my legs to let Daphne stand on my knees, half submerged. Jake
flicked water at her, and she kept snapping at the flying droplets
trying to catch them. With my head resting on the built-in pillow,
I closed my eyes and soaked up the relaxing sun. Every once in a
while I heard Jake snap at the dog to stop drinking the water.

"Too bad we can't turn on the bubbles," said
Meg wistfully.

"Who says we can't?" proclaimed Vinny. We
waited for him to flip a switch, but he didn't move. Well, okay,
that's not entirely true. He moved, slightly leaned to one side,
and a second later the water bubbled beside him.

"Vinn-y!" screamed Meg, dragging out the Y
sound in his name in a high-pitched shriek.

Both Jake and Vinny were laughing
uncontrollably, Meg was shrieking, and Peter stared open-mouthed at
my brother-in-law, aghast at his contribution to the tub.

When their laugher died down, I looked at
Jake and asked, "So where are we exactly?"

"Halfway between Fort Myers and Cape Coral.
The Cape Coral Bridge is over there." He pointed over my shoulder
and I looked, squinting to make out the destroyed bridge. A shudder
ran through my body, thinking of the last time I was on the bridge
searching for Jake. The day Sanchez was bitten and hid it from us,
only to turn and kill nearly all our people inside Target.

Jake continued on, "I think we should head
south to the shopping district and do some scouting. It seems like
residential areas are bad news. Maybe we'll have some luck in less
populated areas of town."

"We'll need to go sooner than later, like
tomorrow," added Vinny. "I don't like cutting it so close with
rations."

His statement sobered us. It was one thing to
spitball ideas about venturing into the dangerous city, but putting
a deadline on it made it real and far too scary for my liking. No
discussion was needed; we would all be going on the trip. For one,
I wasn't letting any of my family out of my site, and Peter, well
he seemed great, but I didn't trust him enough to leave him alone
with the boat.

I looked down at Daphne, inconspicuously
taking random licks at the salty water, and knew I would not leave
her behind. Without a guarantee someone would be here to care for
her should anything happen to me, I couldn't bear the thought of
her starving to death alone on the houseboat. It was going to be a
fight, but either way it was a lose/lose situation. One of those
we're damned if we do, we're damned if we don't times. Not wanting
to ruin the afternoon, I decided to hold off on my revelation until
the last possible moment.

Daphne let out a yip, reminding Jake she was
still waiting for him to resume his water flicking. As the bark
escaped, a little nugget of poop fell out of her bum and landed in
the water with a plop, essentially clearing the tub of its
inhabitants in record time. She had the audacity to look offended
when I put her down on the deck.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. What did you expect to
happen after bombing us? Here, let me get that for you…bitch."
Grabbing the net, I scooped the floater out of the water and tossed
it overboard.

"I am not going back in that thing until it's
drained and cleaned," proclaimed Meg. They all looked at me.

Great, just what I wanted to do.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll do it tomorrow."

Chapter 06: Polly Want A
Cracker?

Vinny surprised us all by cooking breakfast the next
morning. The smell of fish still made my stomach turn, but I
learned early on that a full stomach is better than an empty
stomach. While he slaved away at the stove, I escaped to the upper
deck with Daphne. A girl's gotta poop after all. That girl, not
this one.

The scenery had changed and we were closer to
shore. Someone had packed supplies into five bags, and a sixth
empty bag lay next to them; Daphne's bag. Seeing it lessened the
feeling of dread I didn't realize was building inside me.

We ate breakfast in the galley, Jake going
over the plan one last time. "We paddle to shore, and starting with
the closest building; we fill the hockey bag with food and water.
Like last time, melee weapons only. I packed the firearms, but
stealth is imperative. I don't want to be out there a second longer
than absolutely necessary. We all know the risks."

"Let's get that raft up and loaded," ordered
Vinny. "I packed each of us a go-bag. We all have two days' worth
of rations."

Meg, Peter and I passed the bags and weapons
down to the others, and they transferred them into the raft. The
rapid inflation was kind of awesome to watch, but it left me
wondering how we were supposed to fit it back into that tiny bag. I
stuffed a miffed Daphne into her bag and gently passed it down to
Jake, who put her into the raft. Saying she was not a happy camper
would be the understatement of the year.

"I'll be right back," Peter said. "It's my
turn to find a hand-to-hand weapon. From what I hear, I've got some
thinking to do if I'm going to outdo the names of yours."

"Not gonna happen, Pete. There's no way
you'll top The Brain-Biter," I taunted, watching him disappear down
the stairs. I was about to turn back to Jake when something caught
my eye. Moving toward us at top speed, and showing no intent on
slowing, was another boat. Scratch that; this thing was a
yacht.

"A boat!" I yelled, pointing even though it
was close enough to be seen by even a blind man. I had only a
moment of excitement before realizing the boat was headed straight
at us.

We waved our arms, shouting for them to
turn.

"Oh, my God, it's going to ram us." Meg
stumbled back, tripping over my foot and fell to the deck. I
grabbed her by the arm and yanked her back to her feet.

"Pete!" I screamed, over and over again. I
saw his head at the back of the boat a moment before Jake began
screaming for us to jump. The sight of the rapidly approaching
yacht had me paralyzed with fear, and it took Meg, violently
shaking me by the shoulder, to bring me to action.

Meg leapt off the side, splashing to the
water below, and I turned to follow suit. I was too late, and the
boat collided before I could jump, catapulting me over the railing
and through the air. My impact with the ocean felt like I hit a
cement wall, knocking the air from my lungs and pulling me
down.

I kicked my way to what I hoped was the
surface. My lungs burned, and I choked on water as I broke through,
gulping in air and seawater. The raft propelled toward me, being
pushed by the mangled boats in motion behind it.

"Give me your hand!" I heard Jake yelling as
they neared. One chance was all I would have. If he didn't reach
me, the raft would pass by and the wreckage behind it would kill
me.

Everything slowed to a snail's pace in that
moment, and the scene unfolding before me blurred as I fought to
keep my head above water without the use of my arms. I saw Jake's
arms extending for mine before my head fell beneath the water one
last time. Holding my breath, I grasped blindly for Jake's hand and
was pulled back to the surface as his fingers clasped my wrist. He
pulled me into the raft, Vinny helping get my legs, and I rolled
onto my back, gasping.

"Holy fuck," I rasped out, water continuing
to flow from my pained lungs. The fragile raft bounced, and water
cascaded over the sides. In seconds, I was sitting up, rigid, and
peering at the houseboat behind us.

The minutes ticked by as the crafts began to
pick up speed again. Five Minutes? Ten? I had no idea, but it
seemed like forever. The lower deck was almost level with the raft
and I could make out movement through the windows to the
galley.

"Pete!" I shouted, cut off by Vinny's hand
clamping over my mouth. I struggled and broke free. "What the
fuck?"

"Shut up," he hissed at me. "The door to the
galley is open. We need to get free of this death trap."

I didn't understand why he was so freaked
until Pete stepped out from the galley door and onto the deck a few
feet from us. The unknown time we'd been plummeting forward didn't
matter anymore. The only point of importance was that it had been
long enough for Pete to turn. His throat was torn out, skin flayed
from neck to belly button. Pete had joined the ranks of undead, and
had us in his sights. Jake and Vinny paddled furiously along the
side of the boat. If we could just make it to the front end, we'd
be free, and the writhing mass of fiberglass behind us would sail
away.

My hands searched the bottom of the raft for
a weapon. I found nothing to ward off the newly risen Pete. Meg
shoved Spike in front of her in an attempt to hold him off, and he
fell forward, impaling himself onto the long weapon. As Meg was
pushed back, screaming, the shaft exploded through the back of
Pete's head, splattering us with warm blood and brain matter. His
arms twitched one final time before going limp at his sides.

Meg made gagging sounds while I fought to
roll his dead weight off her and into the water. The moment she was
clear, she leaned over the side and vomited violently.

"Oh, come on!" I screamed to the clouds as
zombies piled out of the door in search of fresh meat. They locked
onto us like laser beams and began to stumble across the deck.

"Paddle!" yelled Jake, as we began to make
progress along the side of the boat. My slick hands slid off the
hull as I tried to move us along. Finally I gave up and leaned over
the raft to paddle furiously in the water. The first of the small
group stepped off the edge and landed with a splash behind us,
followed by the rest of the conga line of corpses.

As we made our way free of the boats, we
slowed to a stop and watched in awe as they sped toward the Cape
Coral side of the water and collided with the seawall. The impact
devastated the houseboat and the wreckage sunk, leaving the yacht
listing to one side and nearly submerged. The only sign that the
houseboat was ever there was the cover to the hot tub floating
away.

Jake turned his back on the boats and saw Meg
for the first time since Pete had fallen on her proverbial sword.
His eyes went wide with fear and all the color drained from his
face as he took in her blood-soaked clothes and face.

"No," he uttered. "Meg. Tell me that's Pete's
blood. Tell me he didn't bite you."

"I'm fine, Jake, relax."

"Oh, shit!" I exclaimed, frantic to find the
dog carrier. Water had sloshed into the raft, leaving us sitting in
what felt like a kiddy pool. The bag holding Daphne had tipped on
its side and she was struggling to keep her head above water. I
unclasped the buckle and pulled her out. "Poor baby," I cooed. She
was shaking uncontrollably, and her tiny nails slashed my arms as
she fought to climb up my body and sit on my shoulder.

"So," breathed out Vinny, "when did we get a
parrot?" We tittered in nervous laughter, completely shaken from
the ride. Sometimes, a bit of morbid humor is needed to maintain
our frayed shreds of sanity.

* * *

We rested a bit, the raft bobbing in the
water as the tide moved us farther south toward the commercial
district. My frustration had bubbled over and I was in the midst of
a full-blown tantrum.