The Infected Dead (Book 3): Die For Now Page 7

  The Chief wasn't going to wait to see if the fort people took Allison's wave as an invitation to come get them, and he wasn't going to play twenty questions with her about whether or not she could swim. She hadn't even thanked him for saving both of their lives, and she was already putting them in more danger by waving at the people in the fort.

  Without warning the Chief scooped Allison up off of the sand and ran into the water toward the docks. He was stronger than most men on dry land, but he was almost stronger in the water. He knew it would be a race to swim one hundred yards and get to safety on land before the people in Fort Sumter could get there with a boat. He didn't doubt the order had already been given by someone in authority over there.

  Allison screamed at the Chief the way she had in the seaplane, and he was at least a little tempted to swim underwater. He resisted the temptation because he didn't have time to do CPR again if there was a boat heading their way.

  With powerful strokes the Chief crossed the docks and aimed for a steel ladder that was bolted to the concrete and extended below the surface of the water. Allison had no choice but to hang on until he put her within reach of the first rungs. She didn't have to be told to climb, and she was waiting for him at the top just to give him a piece of her mind.

  The Chief didn't give her a chance. Before she could get out more than four words, he had her over his shoulder and was running for cover. A quick glance toward the harbor told him he had won the race because the boat was only half way across, but that was just the water part of the race. If they were armed and had been coming to the mainland for supplies, then they knew this terrain pretty well. There was no place to hide that they hadn't already been, so the Chief decided he wouldn't try to hide until they were away from the waterfront. That meant they would be forced to cross the downtown part of the city. It was either that or try to cross the Ravenel Bridge, and there was no doubt in his mind that they couldn't be more exposed if they had targets painted on their backs.

  Allison was struggling enough to be slowing them down, and he had to stop for a minute. As soon as her feet were on the ground and she started to verbally assault him, he pulled back his right arm with his massive fist where she could see it. Her eyes went wide, but she stopped talking.

  Chief Joshua Barnes had never hit a woman in his life, and he wasn't going to start now, but he needed her to pay attention long enough to understand what kind of trouble they were in, and they were really short on time.

  "Do I have your attention, Allison?"

  She nodded her head, but her eyes stayed glued to the fist.

  The Chief lowered his arm and took her hands in his. His grip was urgent but reassuring at the same time.

  "Allison, those people at Fort Sumter are dangerous. They weren't excited because we survived the crash. They were excited because they saw a pretty woman waving at them. They're coming after us, not coming to rescue us."

  The Chief's words were well put for such a short amount of time, and Allison understood they were in really big trouble. She looked toward the harbor and could see there were now two boats crossing the harbor. Her head turned back the other way and she saw that they were surrounded by cargo containers, and they would run out of hiding places in a hurry.

  "What are we going to do?" she asked barely above a whisper.

  "First we run,” said the Chief. "Then we need to make it out of the cargo storage areas and cross the city. Our only hope of getting out of here alive is to get a boat, and the nearest place I know of where we can find one that isn't in their clear view is the Coast Guard base. If there isn't one there, we have to make it to the city marina.”

  Allison looked toward the city that was beyond the tall chain link fence surrounding the cargo containers. It was an old city dating back to the original settlement in 1663, but even though it was old, it was always a shiny kind of old. It was clean and colorful. Now, after long months with no loving care from its residents it looked old and worn, and it looked foreboding. The buildings looked dirty, and more than one fire had ravaged entire neighborhoods. Smoke was still drifting upward from somewhere not too far away, and they could smell something in the air that could only be decay.

  “We have to go, Allison. There’s no time to think about it. We have to be on the other side of that fence before they reach the docks.”

  Although they knew what would be in the city, the alternative left no choice. The people in the boats had weapons, while the infected dead had to get up close and personal. They would have to take their chances in the city.

  This time the Chief didn’t need to carry Allison, and they both broke into an all out run through the containers. It was during that run when the Chief remembered they had very little in the way of weapons. They both had large hunting knives on their belts, but the guns and machetes had gone down with the plane. He took the lead from Allison just in case there were any infected still within the perimeter. There was always a chance that there was a hole in the fence somewhere.

  He led Allison on a diagonal path that would take them to the fence. He reasoned that the people coming from Fort Sumter would probably tie up at the docks where they saw them climb the ladder. If he was right, that would put them at a greater distance from their pursuers, but he also wanted to move as far along the city as they could before they no longer had the protection of the fence. Once they got past the fence, they would face an unknown number of the infected.

  They zigzagged through row after row of stacked containers. Some stood open, and the contents were spread around the open doors. Colorful containers full of electronics shipped to stores like Best Buy and Target were mostly full, but containers of packaged foods like Ramen Noodles were almost stripped bare. It was no surprise that this had become the private shopping center of the people in Fort Sumter. There were probably skirmishes with other groups that were holed up in other places, so this wasn’t the safest place for them to be even if there were no infected.

  The Chief saw the first of the infected dead only about twenty yards beyond the fence. It had already spotted them and was weaving in their general direction. At first the Chief figured they would just outrun it, but one groaning infected would attract the attention of others, and it wouldn’t be long before they were noticed by their pursuers.

  The Chief pulled his hunting knife from its sheath and ran straight toward the noisy infected. Allison stopped and watched with a look of disbelief on her face, but became obvious what the Chief was doing when she saw his knife was already in his hand. It didn’t take more than that for the infected dead to rush up against the fence. The Chief quickly silenced the groaning with his blade and just as quickly began running again.

  As he passed Allison he said in an urgent voice, “The reason there aren’t any infected on this side of the fence is because those people cleared them out and then secured the fence. We won’t find any holes to escape through, so we have to find a good place to climb.”

  “I was raised around tall trees, Chief. I can climb just as good as you.”

  Somehow the Chief doubted that, but he wasn’t going to argue with her about it. He at least needed for her to believe she could climb as well as him. It would be a good thing if she could climb that well.

  They reached the border of the container storage area and looked at the tall fence that stood between them and the city. The fence didn’t end at a perfect corner but in a long curve that went around a power junction like the one Tom had told them he had encountered near Simmonsville. A police officer from Conway, South Carolina had heroically destroyed hundreds of the infected dead by drawing them into the fenced perimeter of the power junction and then blowing it up while he was still inside. If not for him, Tom and Molly might not have survived.

  “No explosions today,” thought the Chief. “Today everybody lives.” The sign on the nearest corner said they were at the intersection of Charlotte and Washington Street. That meant they were already parallel to East Bay Street, the main street that would take
them most of the way to the Coast Guard station.

  The Chief mentally clicked off the main streets in his mind and estimated that they were about twenty blocks from White Point Garden, otherwise known as the Battery. Then they would have to go west for another eight blocks to reach the Coast Guard station. He could try to take a more direct route by turning onto Tradd Street and going straight for the Coast Guard base, but the houses were too close together, and the street was too narrow in places. He didn’t see how they could avoid getting caught by the hordes of infected dead he knew were wandering through the city the way they had been in the woods near Mud Island.

  He also considered the possibility that there would be a boat at one of the many small docks along Concord Street, but that would have been the most likely place for the inhabitants of Fort Sumter to have gotten their boats in the first place. Even if boats had docked there from somewhere else, those docks were all too visible from Fort Sumter. They would be spotted by either the people in the fort or the people who had crossed the harbor in pursuit of them, and even if they weren’t, there was no guarantee that a boat would be just sitting there waiting for them to take.

  The Chief had also considered the possibility that there would be no boats at the Coast Guard station. If there weren’t any working boats there they were still close to the Charleston City Marina, and they wouldn’t be in clear view of Fort Sumter.

  Allison hit the chain link fence faster than the Chief expected. He thought she would need a leg up, but she went up the fence like a squirrel on a tree. She was half way to the top before he even got started. They managed to keep from falling over and breaking a leg, and they both ran stooped over to the other side of Charlotte Street where a few trees provided some cover. The trees were up against another fence that surrounded another power junction area. They were far enough ahead of the people from Fort Sumter to be safe, but now they had to cross a dead city to find a boat, and they had to do it before it got dark.

  The Chief checked the position of the sun and didn’t like what he saw. If they could just walk along the sidewalks to the Coast Guard station, they could do it easily within an hour, but the last thing he expected was deserted streets or that they would be able to just walk. He expected a lot of running. If it took too long, they would have to find a place to be safe for the night. There were plenty of houses, but thousands of people had tried to stay inside when the infection spread, and that was where they had died. Finding an occupied house was going to be as easy as finding the infected dead out along the streets. Empty houses were more likely to be rare.

  “So, how do we do this, Chief? Are we going to run down streets or climb fences the whole way?”

  “Some of both, I’m afraid,” answered the Chief. “I was just thinking we should keep an eye out for a safe place to spend the night.”

  Allison said, “If there is such a place.”

  At first the Chief felt angry at Allison’s pessimism, but in her simplistic way she had summed up how hard it would be to find a safe place in downtown Charleston. The infection had spread quickly throughout the city. People on the streets were attacked, and if they died on the streets, they rose up and attacked more people. If they made it to safety inside, they most likely carried the infection inside with them.

  “For the first time today, Allison, I’m inclined to agree with you. We can only keep moving and run faster than whatever we find out here. Let’s try to take the shortest path as often as we can.”

  The Chief pointed toward the nearest corner and said, “That’s Washington Street. Let’s get this party started.”

  Keeping low and close to the trees they crept along Charlotte Street until they reached the intersection. The Chief peered around the corner of the trees and fence, and he was surprised to see so many of the infected dead. There were dozens along the first city block. The closest was only a few feet away, and it appeared to be focused on something that was running along the street. A large rat came over the curb running straight at them, and Allison couldn’t stifle the scream in time. The infected dead down the entire block heard it, and there was no telling how many had heard it on other streets.

  The Chief grabbed Allison by the hand and started running hard for the intersection in the opposite direction. It was a long block, so by the time they reached the corner, a quick look back was all they needed to see that the scream had gotten a lot of attention. The first of the infected was only barely able to follow them, but it was making such a racket with its groaning that it was bound to be attracting everything at least a block away in all directions.

  The Chief let go of Allison’s hand as they got closer to Concord Street and said, “Get ready.”

  She didn’t know what he meant until she saw him pull out his hunting knife. She drew her own knife from its sheath and held it out in front of her. If they were lucky she would run into something hard enough to at least knock it down.

  They reached the corner and saw that it was bad but not as bad as the last street. The first infected was coming straight at them because it was being drawn by the noise a block behind the Chief and Allison. The Chief shoved the hunting knife upward into the bottom of its chin, and the infected fell backward out of his way. The next one was at least twenty feet away, and the Chief had time to prepare for the attack.

  Allison was just tagging along at this point, but she wasn’t screaming, and she was watching how the Chief made short work of his targets. She saw that the Chief was letting the knife and his momentum do all of the work. He would run straight at the infected, and he didn’t extend his arm with the knife until he was within an arm’s length.

  The Chief was moving toward a pair of the infected that were walking side by side at their typical shambling pace. It was going to be tricky because he would have to stab one and then immediately get the other. The problem was that they were so close together that one would be able to grab at him while he was taking care of the other.

  To say the least, the Chief was surprised when he went for the one on the left, and Allison stepped confidently into the one on the right. She neatly pushed her blade upward just as she had seen the Chief do, and the infected dead dropped to the pavement.

  Allison had made the decision to help when she saw there were two of the infected too close to each other. There wasn’t time to ask the Chief which of them she should try to eliminate, so she watched from a half step back to see which one he would take first. As soon as he committed to the left, she stepped forward and aimed at the soft spot below the chin.

  Their timing was so good that both of the infected dead dropped to the street at virtually the same moment. Even though they didn’t have a second to waste, the Chief hooked him right arm around Allison’s neck and pulled her into a hug.

  He thought, “Maybe this is what she needed to get herself to feel like part of the group. The way she had insisted on coming along couldn’t have all been because of Tom.”

  Allison was pleased with herself and gave the Chief a big smile. They turned together and charged the next of the infected that were coming their way. As soon as those were down, they moved on to the next ones.

  Eventually Allison and the Chief reached the next intersection on Concord Street. The sign on the corner said it was Aquarium Wharf, and the Chief saw an opportunity to gain some advantage.

  The infected that had been drawn to Allison’s scream had been attracted to Charlotte Street, and it had ironically provided just enough of a diversion for them to escape around the other end of the block. Since they were unable to think through a problem the way a living person could, the infected were still drawn to the spot where the scream had come from. It was almost as if they were determined to reach that spot while the Chief and Allison escaped around the other end of the block.

  The opportunity the Chief saw was a park that occupied the entire block just ahead and to their left. It had a heavy growth of trees surrounding it, and they would be able to run an entire block without having to leave the
cover of those trees. He caught Allison by the sleeve of her denim jumpsuit and led her to the left into the trees.

  They were able to drop to their knees out of sight long enough for Allison to catch her breath. It wasn’t that she was out of shape. She just wasn’t used to having her adrenaline so high for this long. She had survived a plane crash and was having to run an obstacle course within the same hour. The Chief had to give her credit for eventually coming around, and it made him regret deciding to take her back to Mud Island.

  “Well, you can’t live in the past,” he said.

  “What was that, Chief?” Allison asked in a low voice.

  She was either too winded to be loud, or she really was starting to understand how bad things were for them. He didn’t have the heart to tell her, but the chances of them living long enough to get a boat were pretty slim. It just wasn’t in his nature not to try. On her own Allison had a zero percent chance of living. With him, the Chief figured they had about a ten percent chance at best.

  “Nothing, Allison. You did good back there. You keep that up, and we might just clean out the whole town and move here.”

  He gave her his big, broad smile and she visibly looked like she was ready to go the distance.

  “Let’s get going and see if we can’t have you safe with Tom some time tonight.”

  They stayed in the trees until they reached the end of the small park, and then they took a chance and crossed the middle of the street to get to a much larger park. It didn’t have much cover at all, but it gave them the advantage of being able to see what was ahead. By crossing the wide open area, they would be able to cover the distance of three city blocks more quickly. Plus, the park was so wide that any infected that saw them would be so far away that they could change course long before the infected could reach them.

  The streets around the aquarium and the park were relatively clear considering what the Chief had seen so far in other cities, but the more distance they covered, the closer they were getting to the more heavily populated part of Charleston. There were more cars in the streets, more damage to buildings, and more human remains. Everything was starting to look like what he had expected it to be. Overgrown patches of grass and weeds choked the sidewalks, and the city looked as dead as it could be. He doubted that any survivor groups had managed to reclaim any part of the city.