“I don’t know,” I said, “but maybe hundreds or even a thousand, and that’s a good thing. When we run the new power line across the moat, there will be far fewer of them in the nets to worry about.”
Jean said, “I’m going to go take a nap.”
She left the room before any of us could even answer. Blue crabs had been a favorite seafood to Jean before the infected dead had become a favorite seafood of blue crabs. Seeing them roam over the bloated bodies was almost more than I could stand. It was no surprise that the thought had caused her to turn a funny shade of white every time she saw them feeding.
The Chief looked at Bus and asked, “Any idea how much cable is hidden under the dock?”
“Enough to reach the shelter twice,” he answered. “Titus said he felt like we should plan to replace the power cables twice. I had a similar supply of cable back at my shelter.”
“Okay,” said the Chief. “We can live on generator power for a couple of years, or we can fix it now. Does anyone have anything against us taking our fate into our own hands? I mean, that’s what we seem to do best.”
He surveyed our faces, and I don’t know if it was ever in doubt. We nodded our agreement with him, and we all set about the familiar task of planning for another road trip. This time was different because we weren’t going to just pass through the Charleston harbor. This time we were going to get out of the boat.
******
When I went to check on Jean, she was already deep asleep, so I just pulled a blanket over her and slipped back out of the room to join the others at the dining room table. The Chief was doing his thing again with the high resolution pictures and maps. After Bus had told us that Fort Sumter was a shelter, it only stood to reason that there would be a clue in the wealth of information left behind by Uncle Titus.
There had been clues to the shelter built by Doctor Bus, but we didn’t realize they were clues until we actually met the man. One clue had been a building that led us to a supply of aviation fuel, but it had almost cost us our lives when we were trapped between that building and a resort.
I recalled those days when we had flown to Guntersville, Alabama to reunite Tom and Molly with Allison. We had almost lost Jean while we were gone, and that seemed so much more real to me than what had happened to us. First, we were forced into the resort by a pack of hungry dogs, and then we had to escape a horde of the infected dead as they walked out of a lake and up a boat ramp.
After Jean had recovered from the near fatal infection she had gotten from being scratched by a dead Russian sailor, I had told her about our trip to Alabama. She had beamed with pride when I told her about how the Chief had helped the Army evacuate a temporary camp at Fort Jackson, but when I told her about how we had been cornered by a resort full of the infected, she had cried with relief that we had survived. We were both lucky to be back together, but none of the trip seemed real to me. I was too focused on how we had found Jean, feverish and near death in the cabin of the Russian ship.
Since that day, we had vowed repeatedly not to ever leave each other again, but we both knew there would be a time when we would forced to make the same hard decisions that had been made since the first day when the infection had swept across the world. The Chief, Kathy, and Tom had all told me I should stay behind with Jean if there was ever a reason to leave again.
Bus tried to be neutral whenever the topic came up because Allison felt like Tom should stay behind with her while the rest of us went out and risked our necks to keep her alive. I had heard her say more than once that they would have been better off if they had stayed at the shelter built by Bus at Green Cavern.
I was lost in my thoughts when the Chief said he found something. He showed us an aerial picture of the entire Charleston harbor, and there was a shaded area colored into the sand dunes on Morris Island.
“This must be the location of the hidden entrance to the shelter,” he said.
Bus leaned in for a closer look and studied the picture.
“That looks about right, Chief. It’s directly south of Fort Sumter and about one hundred yards long. I had been told the tunnel was about the length of a football field.”
“What are the chances someone else has already found the entrance?” I asked.
“That’s doubtful,” said Bus. “The entrance is buried under about four feet of sand, and even if you cleared the sand away, it wouldn’t look like a door. It’s disguised as a power junction with warnings on it that say to stay clear due to high voltage.”
Kathy shook her head with wonder and said, “So, you say there are twenty-nine more shelters out there, Bus? Wouldn’t it be better to just give us a list of them and let us decide what to do with the information?”
“How can I say this?” he said. “For the time being, I’m going to have to think about what I tell you. Some of the shelters would be nothing more than a death trap, and besides, between here and Green Cavern we have enough to survive on. The only reason we have to go to Fort Sumter is to be sure we can control the harbor. We can’t have anyone shooting at us from there.”
I could tell it still wasn’t sitting too well with the Chief. He liked Bus a lot, but he didn’t like having someone tell him he was better off being left in the dark because he wasn’t capable of making decisions for himself.
“Bus,” said the Chief, “one day you may wish you had told us where the other shelters are just because we might need to know in a hurry. This isn’t your grandfather’s USA anymore. You may feel like you’re keeping state secrets or something, but if you haven’t noticed, things didn’t go down the way the government thought they would.”
The Chief was such an easy going man that it was tough to see him be upset. He walked away from the table, and Kathy followed him. If things weren’t bad enough Allison chose the same moment to come back into the room and announce that she wanted to go back to Green Cavern, and the way she put it to Tom, it didn’t sound like she was inviting the Mud Island group to come along. Things seemed to be unraveling from more than one loose string.
Bus looked from where the Chief and Kathy were in the living room and then at Allison and Tom. I was just about to tell him it was time to make up his mind when he did it on his own.
“Chief,” he called to the other room. “I was wrong. I don’t know why I haven’t realized that things aren’t ever going to be the same again, but it’s time for me to either throw in with you guys or go back to Green Cavern and hunker down forever. And it’s an easy choice if you’ll forgive me for treating you like adolescents. I’ll give you a list of the shelters. If we ever need to bug out from here in a hurry, I may not be able to tell you then.”
The Chief visibly relaxed as he walked back into the room.
“I’m glad you came around,” he said. “I didn’t know how we were going to be able to get along if you didn’t show us some trust.”
“Tom, did you hear what I said?” Allison was oblivious to what was happening with the rest of us. She had her arms crossed and assumed a demanding stance squarely at Tom.
Tom had heard what Allison had said, but he didn’t pay attention. It didn’t sink in until she squared off with him, and even then he wasn’t totally comprehending. He looked straight into her face and didn’t flinch.
“We’re not going back,” he said in a tone that left no doubt that he was not going to debate the issue.
Allison must have recognized the look because she turned on her heels and disappeared from the room without even looking at anyone else. I expected her to at least say something, and I instinctively watched her leave the room. When I looked back at Tom I was surprised to see Tom and Kathy looking across the room at each other. I wondered if I had been missing something all along.
While the relationship drama played out, the Chief and Bus had already gotten down to business. They had a map laid out in between them, and Bus was using a red pen to draw stars at different locations. He was also writing the security codes next to each star. I moved into a position where I could get a better look at the map, and I saw the stars were spread out across the country. There was even a star in Alaska.
Bus said, “You’ll notice that no one put a shelter anywhere near Washington, D.C., and there aren’t any located near nuclear power plants. The obvious reason for avoiding those places was the likelihood of a preemptive strike by a foreign power. Those would be targets, so it would be impossible for anyone to reach a shelter in time. It would be better to get out of the area to a place that wouldn't be a target."
The Chief studied the map as Bus added the stars, and he let out a low whistle from time to time. One or two seemed to be more interesting to him than others. A couple of times he looked at the rest of us, and he eventually motioned for us to take a look. He pointed at one star and said he thought it was a stupid place to put a shelter. I didn’t disagree with him. It was in the Gulf of Mexico and was part of an oil platform.
“If the whole world was wiped out, it might be a good idea,” said the Chief, “but it would be a tempting target for almost anyone with a boat.”
“Wouldn’t that be the same thing as our houseboat or the village above Green Cavern?” asked Kathy. “People could live on an oil platform without ever getting into the shelter.”
“Not exactly,” said the Chief. “If someone decides to blow up our houseboat, it won’t help them get to us. If someone tries to blow up an oil platform, the whole thing will sink.”
Despite our loss of electrical power, we were all beginning to appreciate what Uncle Titus had done for us even more than we had before. Mud Island wasn’t perfect, but it had been well designed compared to some of the others.
Kathy said, “Some of these have probably been breached already just because of their locations, but we need to find a way to communicate with them to see who made it and who didn’t.”
“You’re right, Kathy, but first things first,” said the Chief. “We have to get that power line restored, and that means checking out Fort Sumter.”
Tom asked, “When do we leave, Chief?”
“We shouldn’t wait,” he answered. “I think we should make our move as soon as we can get ready.”
As he answered, the Chief studied Tom closely for any hesitation. We weren’t sure how Tom was going to react to Allison’s demand that they leave, but we didn’t think it was going to be a pretty sight when both Tom and Bus told her they weren’t leaving for Green Cavern, and it wasn’t like Allison could do it on her own.
We all shared a look as Tom went to talk with Allison, and there was no doubt in our minds there would be fireworks. What we got was not what we expected. Only a couple of minutes after Tom left the room, Allison stormed in and announced that she was going with us to Charleston harbor.
Kathy looked like she was about to say something, which was the last thing she should do, but the Chief beat her to it.
“Allison, there’s no need for you to risk your life just to prove you’re as tough as the rest of us.”
“I am as tough as the rest of you,” she said it a loud voice. “I’m not staying behind while the rest of you go out there and fight those things…”
Her voice trailed off as she caught a glimpse of what was happening on the monitors. The mass of bloated bodies, arms and legs moving as the infected continued to reach and push against each other, began drifting with the current. As it did, there was more room for bodies to reach the surface, some so bloated with gases that they broke the surface like cork bobbers.
Allison gasped as a shark tore one away from the rest. The face of the infected was expressionless as it disappeared under the surface once again.
I switched on the camera that showed a view of the southern tip of the island. The current was drawing the floating infected through the place where the water exited the moat, and one by one the bodies were washed out to sea. I figured if anything could make Allison want to stay inside the shelter, it would be remembering what was waiting outside.
She looked like she was going to be sick, but she put her shoulders back and said, “I’m going along.”
It was easy for us to see that her reason for wanting to go was to keep an eye on Kathy, but the truth was that we could always use another gun or just a pair of eyes. Jean could stay behind with Molly, so Allison could come along. Also, none of us were in the mood to argue with her.
“That’s settled,” said the Chief. “We leave tomorrow at dawn.”
Jean and Molly were up before the rest of us the next morning. They wanted to give us a big breakfast as a surprise send off. The smell of coffee and fresh baked bread was enough to get me out of bed, but they had found plenty of other treats to go along with it. The supply room had some wonderful canned food, and the jars of jam and preserves had been a delightful surprise.
One by one we gathered around the table and dug in, but it wasn’t the usual excitement we normally felt before leaving the shelter. This time felt different, and it was probably because Allison wasn’t a good fit.
Regardless, we were all ears when the Chief explained that the best approach to the harbor was going to be from the south, and it would be by plane. He could land close enough to Fort Sumter for us to beach the plane and then walk to the hidden entrance to the tunnel. The high resolution photographs of Morris Island gave us enough detail to see that there were low places between the dunes that couldn’t be seen from the fort. If someone was still in control there, they would undoubtedly have one or two people standing watch in case they were attacked from land.