SURVIVORS OF THE DEAD: FROM THE ASHES (19 page)

“We struck out and were okay until we neared the end of the last street where we saw the marina entrance sign. We found where all the people had gone. There was what looked like a large warehouse of some sort at the far end of the marina. The place was surrounded by fifty to sixty of those things! At least that was what it looked like from what I could see. There were no windows in the building, but they were pounding on the walls and doors. It didn’t make any sense, but since they weren’t looking in our direction we headed for the docks. Thinking back on it, I’m pretty sure there must have been people in that warehouse. People those things were trying to get at.” Wanda paused for a moment to shake her head before resuming.

“Made it as far the dock entrance and the ramp where all the boats are pulled up to. Unfortunately there was a fence that surrounded the entrance, and a gate that was locked. With a fairly hefty-looking padlock.”

“Excuse me ma’am,” Frank interrupted. “Harry, we need a go or no go here. We’re ready to cross Bay Street.”

Harry quickly glanced through the windshield to see where they were, knowing that once they crossed Bay they would be committed. Frank had gotten them to Baker and Marina Boulevard. Once they crossed Marina they would be on Yacht Road and only minutes to the main gate of the harbor.

“Okay Frank, shut us down right here for a few. I want to hear the rest of Wanda’s story, and contact the fireboat to make certain they’re ready,” Harry directed.

Frank brought the truck to a stop and turned the engine off. Both Harry and Frank scanned the immediate area for any company they might have attracted. It seemed clear of any infected for the time being. But they now also had a very clear view of the dozens that milled around the harbor area right across the street. Marina Boulevard was one of the widest streets in the City, with two lanes running in each traffic flow direction. This allowed for a fairly decent separation between the truck’s location and the horde. For the time being, at least.

Looking back to Wanda, Harry said, “Please continue.”

“Well, we needed to get through that gate,” Wanda began. “Not sure what else to do, I started whacking the hell out of the padlock with the tire iron. Seemed to work in the movies so thought that was the best course to take. Not so much, it turned out. The noise immediately brought us to the attention of some of those Zs. Yeah, good name since these things seem more like zombies than just people with some sort of crazy infection. The noise brought us to the attention of the Zs. Not all of them seemed interested, but enough.”

Harry had not really thought about what to call those things other than ‘infected’ but Wanda was right. They were more like zombies, Zs, than people.

“That was really scary, too, Gran,” Nevaeh, now awake, said as she slid from the wall bench to sit at Wanda’s feet, wrapping an arm around a leg.

“”It sure was, honey,” Wanda said quietly to her granddaughter. “But we made it.”

“So there I was, banging away on that padlock like I knew what I was doing, with Nevaeh telling me to hurry. I was proud of her though. She really kept her cool,” Wanda said while caressing the girl’s head. “I knew we either had to get through that gate or we had to run. I gave that padlock one final good blow and it popped open! I stood there for a second or two just staring at it! I think I’d just said something stupid like ‘it worked’ when Nevaeh reached for the gate and removed the broken padlock. She grabbed my hand and we went through, closing it behind. Several of those things were nearly at the gate by then, so not really thinking I jammed the tire iron between the gate latch and the side post, wedging it closed. I didn’t think it would hold for long, but was most sincerely hoping long enough.

“We ran down the dock ramp until we reached the end. I wasn’t certain where we were going, just trying to put some distance between us and the increasing group of Zs at the gate. They were really pushing on it by then and I knew we didn’t have much time. We reached the end of the ramp and just jumped on this boat that was sitting there. The other boats we’d passed seemed difficult to get on, or they were covered. The boat we found at the end was tied to a pole with a single rope, had what appeared to be a covered area where it could be steered from, and, like I said, it was the last boat. Not much choice left other than swimming at that point.

“I did a quick search of the boat to make sure it didn’t have any of those things on it, then jumped back onto the ramp to untie the rope that secured it in place. Just as I got the rope off the post they broke through! I heard what sounded like a loud metal crash and looked toward the gate. They had broken the entire gate down and were pouring through the opening like a swarm of bees! I use that comparison because the sound of so many together was almost like a buzzing.” Wanda stopped and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. “The ramp was fairly narrow and although many of those people, those things, were falling off as they clamored to get at us, enough of them were quickly making their way down the ramp!

“I pushed at the front of the boat to try to get it away from the dock and out into the open water. I’ve seen that done in movies, too. I really think I’ve watched way too many of those action movies!” Wanda laughed for a moment, with Derrick and Harry joining in.

“I suppose there won’t be many of those movies being made now,” Wanda said quickly sobering to that reality. “Anyway, the boat moved a little but not as much as I’d thought it would. I jumped back on the front part of the boat, the deck I guess you call it, and headed up to where the steering wheel was located.”

“By the time Gram was back on the boat I’d found the key near the steering wheel,” Nevaeh interjected. “I even put it in the slot where it’s supposed to go!”

“That’s right honey, you sure did,” Wanda said, smiling proudly at her granddaughter’s quick thinking. “That saved us a bunch of time, too.” At the praise from her grandmother, Nevaeh returned a smile with an obvious look of satisfaction on her young face.

27

“I take it you were able to get the boat started and out of the slip?” Harry asked Wanda.

“Yes we did,” Wanda replied with a smile. “Thank God there was a small diagram next to the ignition that showed how to start the boat. Flip a switch, put a lever in neutral, and turn the key. Worked like a charm, too! The engine started right up except we were still facing the ramp.

“At about the time I was wondering how to put the boat in reverse, a couple of those things jumped on the front of it! I had been so focused on getting the boat started I wasn’t paying attention. Hadn’t realized the front portion of that group had made it to the boat so quickly. We felt the weight of them hit the boat causing it to dip a bit in the front! I figured we were done for. But something happened that I still don’t understand. Somehow the few that had managed to get onto the front slipped off and fell into the water! It’s kind of hard to describe, but the front of the boat was enclosed. And there was nothing for them to hang onto or get caught up in.

“When they fell off, somehow it actually pushed the boat back enough away from the ramp that I was able to get the boat moving forward. As I said, we were at the end of the ramp with nothing blocking us in and were able to head out toward the opening of the marina. I thought for sure those things would jump in the water after us! A bunch were pushed because of the sheer amount of them crowding the ramp, but the reaction I saw was amazing. They knew we were still there and it was very clear they wanted to come after us. But they only stood on the ramp with their arms outstretched, uttering that god-awful moaning. They did not jump in the water after us! The ones that had fallen in the water were going crazy! Thrashing around like they had fallen into acid, then slowly sinking beneath the surface. That’s when I figured out they were afraid of water.” Wanda paused with a distant look on her face as she recounted those events.

“I nearly ran us into the rocks that surrounded the boat dock area while I was watching those things, too!” She took up the story again. “But I was able to somehow get us out into the open water and away from that marina. Not really knowing which way to go, I decided to head south, staying along the coast as closely as possible since I really had no idea how to navigate a boat in the ocean. Talk about a white-knuckle ride! I don’t know how long we were out there but it was at least a day and a night. There were no gauges of any kind by the steering wheel, so I really had no idea how much gas we had, but I figured we’d just keep going as far as we could.

“I was beginning to panic just a bit when we finally saw the Golden Gate Bridge. Just rounded a point and there it was! I figured we could find help around here so I steered us toward it. Let me tell you, that bridge is something when you’re driving over it, but to see it from beneath is incredible!” Wanda looked at Harry with a slight smile. “That thing is huge!”

Harry chuckled and said, “That it is.”

“Anyway”, Wanda resumed, “once we were past the bridge a good distance I decided it was time we got off that boat and onto dry land again. I saw what looked like a beach area to my right so I headed directly for it. I told Nevaeh to hang on and I let the boat run right up on the sand. We were going fast enough that we hit pretty hard, but at least the boat was stuck in the sand afterward and I didn’t have to worry about it slipping back out from under us.”

“That must have been the Crissy Field Beach,” Frank said absently as he continued to scan the area outside for any threats.

“Oh, I didn’t know that,” Wanda replied, glancing toward Frank.

“I cracked my head on the side of the boat when we hit the sand, too!” Nevaeh said, looking up toward Harry and rubbing lightly at the spot. “Hurt just a little but I didn’t tell Gran.”

“You are very brave, Nevaeh,” Harry said smiling.

Wanda again stroked the girl’s hair and continued with the story. “I knew we had to move right away. I’d left the tire iron back at the boat ramp, so I took a minute to look for something else. Apparently the owners of that boat didn’t prep well for these sorts of situations. Couldn’t find a thing. Not really certain what I would have done with a weapon, but would have felt a lot better if I’d had something.

“It was beginning to get dark and really cold. Fog was coming in, too, but thought it might be better if we waited on the boat until full dark. I’d found a flashlight, so at least we could see. By the time it had gotten dark there was a heavy fog in the area. It almost felt like it was drizzling rain. We climbed off the boat and headed toward what I thought at the time was the main part of San Francisco. That was some scary shi…” Wanda began but caught herself, glancing to her granddaughter. “That was some scary stuff. We saw a lot of shapes in the fog but it seemed as if they weren’t paying much attention to anything. That’s because of the fog, isn’t it?” she asked, looking to Harry.

Harry nodded. “It appears that the Zs want nothing to do with water on any level. The fog seems to disorient them.”

“Good thing for us. I’m not sure what we would have done if those things had decided to come after us!” Wanda replied with a visible shudder. “We got as far as the street where you found us, and were able to get into a house. Found some warmer clothes and something to eat. There was also a battery-powered radio that we listened to. I couldn’t believe what was happening! The world seemed to be going mad. Like something straight out of a horror movie.

“We’ve been there for almost
a week. Lots of those zombies, things, infected, whatever you call them roaming around. Saw some pretty bad things happen to some folks, too. But there was nothing I could do to help them.” Tears had once again formed in Wanda’s eyes. “I just stopped looking out of the windows when I heard the screams. That is, until I heard your truck. When I saw you were the police I figured that if we didn’t run out we wouldn’t make it much longer. That’s our story in a nutshell.”

Wanda took a deep breath and leaned back, closing her eyes. Harry could only wonder what she had left out of the story for her granddaughter’s sake. Regardless, he knew she was an extremely strong woman who had faced nearly impossible odds, and all for the sake of this child. Harry could understand that bond quite well. Thoughts of his own nephew, Eric, popped into his mind with clarity so strong that tears of his own formed. “No time for this right now,” he muttered to himself.

“Harry, we need to move soon,” Frank said.

“Right,” Harry replied, shaking the unbidden emotions off as he reached for the radio mic. “Phil, this is Harry. Do you copy?”

“We’re here, Harry, go ahead.” Phil’s voice came through the speaker almost immediately.

“Are you guys ready to roll?” Harry asked.

“Good to go,” Phil replied. “Jimi said it would only take a few minutes to get the boat started and in position. He said the water is deep enough around the docks that he can bring the boat almost to the shoreline if necessary. We are still not real clear on what you have in mind, though.”

Harry thought about that for a moment, then said, “Copy, Phil. Ask him to get the boat to the breakwater side nearest the harbor entrance. I need you close enough that when the monitors are turned on the water stream will reach at least twenty-five to thirty feet onto land and maintain a width of about fifty feet. We are going to be coming from the west side of the marina on Yacht Road. As soon as we clear the parking lot we are going to head directly for the gate that leads to the boat slips. I need you to make certain you are flooding the area around that gate. Once we have the truck in position, I need you to maintain a steady flow on and around us. We are going to walk right through the gate. Do you copy all that, Phil? It is extremely important that you do not allow that water stream to stop until I give you the word!”