The Infected Dead (Book 3): Die For Now (17 page)

The Chief scooped Allison up from the dock and stepped easily over the side rails into the boat. Allison was protesting the entire time, insisting that the Chief should do the right thing.
 

“Chief, please. You have to do it. If you take me back I’ll be dangerous to all of you, and I don’t want to cause any of you to die.”

The Chief put Allison on a comfortable bench seat that wrapped around the stern and then cast off the lines. He started the powerful twin outboards and pulled away from the dock in a hard turn. He hoped his friends had taken care of business on Fort Sumter because he was going to drive right up to the front door and ring the bell.

The water churned behind the boat as the Chief opened the engines up as far as they would go. It crossed his mind that Allison had stopped arguing. He was glad because he was afraid he would have to tie her up to get her back to Fort Sumter. He looked around and saw that she had passed out and was lying peacefully on the seats.
 

As many times as he had heard Jean say it, he couldn’t bring himself to just leave Allison, and he couldn’t kill her. Jean had said to the Chief a long time ago that she would end it herself rather than to become one of them.
 

He remembered how close she had come to being bitten when they had been disposing of a bite victim on the cruise ship. The best thing they could think of to get rid of the people who died was to drop them overboard from a floating dock. As they were about to push a body over the side, it had reached out and grabbed Jean, tearing her sleeve but missing with a bite. Jean told us then that she would have jumped in with the infected dead before she would have gone through the agony of dying and then coming back like that.
 

He knew Allison felt the same way as Jean, but he was trying to tell himself there had to be another way. There had to be something they had never thought of to save someone after they were bitten.

Away from the shore and in near total darkness, the Chief focused his eyes on the channel while his back was to Allison. In the past there had been harbor lights and the lights from the city itself to guide a boat across the black water. The Yorktown and Patriots Point would be bathing the river with light from the other side, and a boat ran little risk of straying into shallow water.

The Chief had gone so far into his thoughts and the feeling of total desperation that he almost forgot he wasn't alone. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up with the sick realization that Allison was right behind him, and he spun around to defend himself. The move almost made him lose his balance, and the boat turned into its own wake, but Allison was on the bench seat where he had left her. He had become spooked by his own imagination.

Being tired was nothing new to the Chief. He had made a career of pushing himself beyond the limits of normal people, and then he would push himself even harder. But this was different. For the first time he felt mentally and physically like he couldn't take more from the world. He had failed a member of his own group, and he wasn't used to failing.

With his shoulders slightly lower, he turned back to the wheel and brought the boat back on course. He couldn't remember ever being wrong when his senses told him danger was near. He was sure he was going to find Allison dead but coming for him with her teeth bared.
 

It was while he was readjusting both his course as well as his state of mind that Allison rose on the seat, studied the Chief standing at the wheel, and then pushed herself to a standing position. She had lost a tremendous amount of blood, and her skin was so pale she seemed to give off light in the stern of the boat.
 

The shell that had been Allison was unsteady with the damaged leg, and a slight course correction and a bump from a small wave was just enough to cause her to fall toward the rail. Uncoordinated hands clutched at a damp metal railing, and Allison was gone. If the Chief or anyone else had been watching, they wouldn't have been entirely sure if it had been a living person or an infected dead that had gone over the side. Even the fact that there was no scream for help was not a clue. Allison wanted to jump from the moving boat and had been waiting for the opportunity as she slipped closer to unconsciousness. She was only vaguely aware that he had turned toward her for a moment, acting as if she was already standing. It was at that moment that the lights had gone out behind her eyes.

While Kathy was taking care of Olivia's needs, Tom and Bus decided to try to get some rest. I took the first watch on the monitors and played with the different camera angles. The campfires were all but burned out, but they were still too bright for me to think about switching to night vision. I also explored the other switches and controls until I found the power for the floodlights. I thought about turning them on, but then decided against it. In the absence of the Chief, I wasn't able to decide if it was a good idea or not.

Part of me was saying to leave the lights off in case more of the people from the surface came back. They would see the infected dead and either reclaim control of the fort or they would leave. Another part of me was saying to turn the lights on in case the Chief was alive. If he was looking at the fort and saw the walls blazing with light, he would know we had taken control. Of course there was another possibility. The light would be easily seen by anyone else who might be watching the harbor.
 

In the end it was my curiosity that made me hit the switch, and I couldn't have been less prepared for what I saw. There were dozens of infected dead that had given up trying to find more flesh to bite, but when the lights came on, every living being in the fort was immediately exposed. Some ran for the walls and jumped into the water, but most were cornered.
 

Not far from the cage where we had found Olivia, there was another cage, and the infected dead were gathered around it, reaching through the bars. I couldn't see much of what was happening, but I caught a glimpse of a man in the center of the cage, and he was trying to stay out of the reach of the dead. The cage looked like it would keep the dead from getting in, but the man didn't look like he had an inch to spare in any direction.

I looked around on the control panel where I had found the light switch and found what I was looking for. It was an intercom and it would let me call for the others to come back to the control room. I found the microphone and keyed the switch.

"Kathy, Tom, Bus...if you can hear me, please come back to the control room."

The scene around the cage turned into chaos. The intercom was on the surface as well as inside, and the infected dead went into a frenzy like I hadn't seen since the first day when they had attacked so violently. Some attacked the cage even harder while others broke away from the crowd and tried to find the source of the voice.

Kathy was the first to arrive. Olivia wasn't with her, and I looked past her with a questioning look.

"Olivia was wiped out," she said. "A hot bath and a little bit of warm food was enough to put her to sleep. I doubt that we'll see her again tonight. What's up?"

I gestured at the monitors, and Kathy leaned in for a closer look.
 

"Let me guess. The intercom system also broadcasts to the surface. Looks like you really got them shook up."

"Not only that," I said. "Check this out." I pointed at the man in the cage. "Any chance we could help him out?"

"Oh, wow," said Kathy.
 

Tom and Bus came in and saw all the bright lights and the commotion around the cage. They moved in for a closer look, but no one said anything. It wasn't that we didn't feel a sense of urgency. We simply didn't know how we could help the man.

Bus asked, "Could we go up through the tunnels and then get to a safe spot where we can pick them off one at a time?"

"That would be my best idea," said Kathy, "but none of us has a clue where a safe spot would be. There are so many of the infected up there that we wouldn't be any better off than those other people were. We can't just run around until we find a safe spot."

"I have an idea," I said. "Watch this."

I keyed the intercom switch and then tapped three times on the microphone. Almost every infected dead turned in the same direction. I keyed the switch and tapped again, and the rest of them turned toward the sound. Some began to move toward the right side of the screen.

Kathy said, "You're a genius, Eddie. I'm going to go get Olivia. We can have her talk into the intercom while the rest of us go out through the tunnel. That cage looks like it's close to the exit down by the docks. I think we can get up on top of the walls where the infected won't be able to reach us. After we've cleared enough of them, we can get that guy out of the cage."

"That reminds me," I said. "Did you check Olivia for bites?"

"She understood completely," said Kathy. "I talked with her while she ate, and when we went to get her cleaned up, she insisted that I check her. She said she didn't want you guys doing it." Kathy smirked just enough to make us all a bit uncomfortable.
 

"Let's get going," said Tom. "I'd rather do this in the daylight, but I can't stand the thought of that poor guy out there."

Kathy went to get Olivia while the rest of us got our weapons ready. We didn't have a large amount of firepower, mostly just surplus M-16's. We all preferred them over the more powerful rifles because the ammunition was so small. We were able to bring more with us on this trip, and it would be easier to take more up the ladders to the exit.

When Kathy got back with a sleepy looking Olivia, dressed in navy blue coveralls just like ours, she showed her what we had seen on the monitor. She woke up fast when she saw the brightly lit fort and all of the infected dead walking around. She woke up even more when she saw the man in the cage. With fewer of the infected surrounding it, we could tell it was an African American man, and there was no mistaking that he was scared out of his mind.
 

"That's Chase," said Olivia. Her voice sounded pained. "Oh, my Lord, that's Chase Kennedy. I saw him around the College of Charleston and talked with him a couple of times. He's a nice boy. We've got to help him."

Olivia looked at us with pleading eyes. Even though we had already rescued her, she didn't know us well enough to know that we weren't the kind of people who could just ignore someone who was in trouble.

"That's why Kathy woke you up, Olivia. We need you on the microphone so we can have four guns up there instead of three. You ready to help your friend?”

Olivia enthusiastically got herself situated in the chair at the console and listened when Kathy explained the plan. We wouldn't need more than fifteen minutes to climb up to the landing by the door, so we synchronized our watches with Olivia and told her when to begin talking to the infected dead. We would wait five more minutes to allow her to get them all moving away from the cage, and then we would do our thing.

Our goal was simple. We would try to remain out of sight until we got to the top of the walls, and then we would start shooting. Hopefully, we wouldn't run out of ammunition before we ran out of targets, but we had packed our bags with everything we could carry.

We left Olivia at the microphone and ran off at a trot for the tunnel to the surface. As we expected it didn't take us long to climb up to the landing at the door. I could hear my heart pumping in my ears as we got ready to go outside for the second time.

When fifteen minutes passed, Olivia began talking into the microphone. We didn't know for sure what was happening on the other side of the door, but we were hoping the infected had begun moving toward the sound of her voice.

Five more minutes went by, and Kathy quietly opened the door. Tom had his rifle up to be able to shoot quickly if there was anything at the door when Kathy opened it. It was considerably brighter on the surface with the floodlights on, and we could see a set of worn steps that went to the top of the ramparts. They were steep enough and didn't have a railing, so anything that might follow us up there would be easy to knock back down.

Kathy pointed at the steps, and after closing the door, we moved in single file. We had to pass the opening to the main entrance, and as we went by we caught a glimpse of the dock where the tour boats used to arrive. It was deserted now. The boats had either left or drifted away, and the infected had wandered around until they fell over the sides.

As we climbed up the steps, we heard Olivia more clearly over the speakers on the other side of the fort. The infected were being drawn away toward the sound that promised them more living people to attack.

"Everyone spread out along the wall," said Kathy. "Single shots only, and try to work your areas so we don't double up on one. We need to make the ammunition last, so let the others know if you begin to run low. Ed, you have the steps. Keep one eye in that direction and watch for anything trying to come up here with us."

As we were getting into our positions, Tom said, "I wonder why none of the people in this fort tried to make a stand up here."

Bus said, "I think I know why. They were shooting each other. In the dark they were shooting anything that moved. When they got done shooting each other, they got back up and began biting the ones who were still alive. If we had turned the lights on sooner, they may have been able to defend themselves against the infected."