The End (21 page)

Jacky cries alongside Ashley as Jason runs
after him while firing on Luke, Luke took a tight turn and jumped
into the sea, diving making it impossible for Jason to track down
or follow. Jason heads straight back, praying that he somehow
missed arriving at her lifeless body, Jason grabs Martins flash
light to be able to see better.

It’s a direct shot and she is dead, Jason
cries loudly as Martin tries to calm him, trying to get Jason in
the boat to retreat, gun fire from the remaining three survivors
stopped minutes ago, it could mean only one thing, they have
failed.

Jason placed her body gently on the deck of
the boat covering her body with his jacket, promising himself and
her sister Jacky that he will find a way for them to pay he promise
his life on it.

Luke stares aimlessly at the boat as it
drives off, knowing exactly where he will be going, Luke is happy
with his progress, he managed to at least make Jason suffer for now
by losing a loved one, just like Luke lost his brother.

William and Conway swim from pillar to pillar
with small breaks in between, it’s felt like ages when they were
laying on the beach, tired and exhausted.

“It’s late, we should get going,” Conway said
as he got up.

“Just five more minutes,” William said
breathing heavily.

“That’s five more minutes you will have all
to yourself, as I am leaving now,” Conway said laughing softly.

“There is no way I am staying here alone,”
William said as he got up fast.

“So the plan didn’t fail entirely,” William
said.

“It still counts as failing in my books, it
doesn’t matter now,” Conway said.

“We should stick to the beach, it will be
safer than taking any road,” William said softly, still out of
breath.

“It sure will be, let’s just take it cool and
calm any faster and I am sure you will die on the spot,” Conway
said smiling.

“Real funny smart guy,” William said.

“Hey, exercise can come a long way, you
know,” Conway said laughing softly.

“Sorry, I am just playing around I don’t mean
to mock you or try to make you feel bad about yourself,” Conway
said.

“It’s ok, I never was a fit guy, and in fact
believe it or not I was bigger than this before I came to Florida
for my short vacation,” William said.

“Must be one hell of an adventurous vacation
so far,” Conway said laughing.

“Jip, beside from that it’s the worse
vacation ever,” William said.

“I can’t hear any gun fire, they must have
retreated or failed horribly, and died,” William said.

“I can tell, you now that Jason wouldn’t have
died, on our little trip here, he killed many and if I might add,
he killed them in very creative ways,” Conway said.

The two walk on their sweet time, arriving at
Key West they can see from a distance, that it was a warzone there,
burned bodies everywhere, the mass amount of bodies with the large
pools of blood, it couldn’t smell more terrible than this. There is
still a few roaming the area, not to many, they are pretty much
scattered far apart so there is no real danger here, not anymore at
least.

“Well the boats are gone, some must have
gotten out alive,” William said.

“I suppose, one of them must be seriously
injured if you look at all the blood here,” Conway said
worried.

“Well we passed a few bodies, freshly eaten;
it’s strange how some of them were eaten and chewed up almost
entirely,” William said.

“Guess, that’s what an entire horde will do
to you,” Conway said.

“Don’t worry about it, injuries were meant to
happen, lives were meant to be lost, here today,” William said.

“Injuries sure, not lives, not like this,”
Conway said.

“If we had more men and more time, things
would have been better, you can’t blame this on anyone,” William
said.

“We can’t leave, the few boats left have been
stripped of parts so that no one can invade us at Fort Jefferson,”
William said.

“By the looks of it, unless they spread out
more, it will be way too dangerous to search for a working boat any
suggestions?” Conway asked.

“Yes one, we have rigged a room with steel
bars, its ghetto but safe, we can stay there for at least two days
before food runs out,” William said.

“Only two days?” Conway asked.

“Sadly so, my eye caught a glimpse of our
food storage here, burned down, there might be canned food that’s
maybe still ok to be consumed but I highly doubt it, not worth
taking the risk, can’t afford to get sick now due to bad food,”
William said.

“After two days, what do we do then?” Conway
asked.

“We most likely won’t wait two days; we still
have a few more people at Jefferson that will look for us,” William
said with confidence.

“Let’s get going then, I am dead on my feet
tired,” Conway said.

“I agree, my feet are sore and I am
starving,” William said.

“Remember big guy the food has to last for
two days like you said,” Conway said laughing, as he follows
William to the safe room.

“You can drop the jokes, it’s not funny
anymore,” William said.

“It is, it’s funny to me, just kidding lets
go,” Conway said smiling.

Arriving at the safe room they insure it’s
safe, they double check to make sure it will last if they had to
come this way, so tired they skipped making food entirely and just
went to lay down and get some rest, both falling asleep shortly
after a few minutes passed.

William wakes up with some serious body
pains, though its quickly forgotten when he see Conway is preparing
food, it smells delicious; he really can’t wait much longer. After
eating, they feel much better, refreshed and with the little sleep
it couldn’t be any better, the little happiness they had for the
day didn’t last very long as those things have rounded up again,
almost like they to smell the food.

William can almost tell for a fact that these
things are getting smarter by the day and soon they will have
undesirable smart opponents to face, so far, fire and water seems
to be their greatest weakness, shooting them takes long to bring
them down, unless it’s directly to a vital organ, the heart or
brain.

Of course some of them just die, the ones
that just die are the weak ones, the ones that didn’t have enough
fresh flesh to eat, they rot much faster and cripple around much
more than the healthier ones.

The ones that are lucky to find prey, they
are the strongest and fastest, everything about them is better,
hearing seeing including thinking they will even kill of the weaker
ones just to get some food in their system, to keep them going
until their next meal, they are also much harder to kill.

At first everything have started slow, they
were just sick people and weak, some eventually died from this
virus, they could only track movements really. Later on they
started seeing and operate their bodies much better. The ones that
advanced far enough knows and realized they need to eat to survive
it’s like they developed this as an instinct.

William is getting a lot of education from
Conway, William didn’t realize much this but it makes a lot more
sense to him now, it’s like a rebirth of something entirely new,
they start out small and dumb just like a baby.

Before the small group could get any closer,
they were picked off one at a time, William have never been so
happy to see Samantha, Taylor and Emma surprised that they were
still alive.

Samantha and Emma feels guilty for just
hiding while the rest did all the fighting, knowing that if Martin
survived he will be furious, Taylor in the other hand pretty much
slept straight through the entire thing, no idea how he did it.

Emma feels the worse hating to leave so many
to die, knowing she didn’t have much of an option, like William
said she has a daughter to take care of, as a mother only she will
be able to take good care of her, this is how any mother would feel
about their child or that’s at least what Emma believes.

“I am truly happy to see all of you made it,”
William said.

“Glad to see you made it; did you maybe see
Danny in that crowd or maybe a body?” Emma asked.

“No I didn’t, I tried checking some of the
burned bodies but none looks like him,” William said softly almost
crying.

“Then that must mean he is still out there
somewhere, you three guys should go and look for him, just to be
sure.” Emma said.

“She is right, while you look for him we can
look for Ashley and Jason’s two daughters,” Conway said.

“I think that’s a good idea,” William
said.

“We girls will stay here, if one of them had
to come looking for us, then we can make sure they wait until you
return,” Emma said.

“That would be great,” Conway said.

“Let’s get going, if we play our cards right
I suggest we split up and look through one house at a time by
jumping the fences,” Conway said.

“That way, we can cover more distances and
have this place searched in no time,” Conway said.

“I am sorry I can’t help you find Ashley but
if I were to be Danny, then start looking at the places we already
swept clean of resources, it’s a good place to hide as he know no
one will look for him there,” Emma said.

The small group pack their bags, restocking
on anything they need with anything they could find, a few cans of
food with only three bottles of fresh water, not much, though
enough for a fast search and if each one ration their water, then
they can really go the extra mile with their search for the people
they care for most.

Chapter 12: Showdown

A few
hours after they started their search, Samuel arrives with Martin,
to fetch any survivors and the other boat that was left behind,
Emma finds it strange, was the boat stolen if Martin said they all
escaped with just one boat?

“We should leave soon, I take Conway and
William didn’t make it back?” Martin asked.

“He did, he went to go look for Danny while
Conway searches for Ashley,” Emma said.

“We already found the people Jason and Conway
were looking for, however one of Jason’s daughters died last night
murdered,” Martin said.

“What do you mean murdered?” Emma asked.

“I don’t know the story but some guy was
holding a gun to her head and pulled the trigger, killing her on
the spot right in front of Jason,” Martin said.

“That doesn’t sound good, what happened did
you capture him or maybe even killed him?” Emma asked.

“He took off the very second he pulled the
trigger, Jason opened fire and pursued him but he managed to get
away, I don’t know if he took a bullet or not,” Martin said.

“That’s horrible to hear, not something he
will get over easily,” Emma said.

“Start packing, as soon as they get back we
should go,” Martin said

“You might as well get comfortable they only
left a few hours ago,” Emma said.

“By the way, did you maybe see Danny along
the horde?” Emma asked.

“No, I am 100% certain he wasn’t among them,
yet again there is still many around and if you should see the ones
that fell, you can’t recognize them at all, in a horde those things
are like piranhas,” Martin said.

“Then there is still hope,” Emma said

“Where were you when all of this went down?”
Martin asked.

“I thought about what William said, its true
I need to take care of her as long as possible, I asked Samantha to
join me, Taylor in the other hand just hid with us, sleeping
through the entire thing” Emma said.

“I understand your reason, though you could
have returned Fort Jefferson at any time, I won’t lie I am very
disappointed in you three,” Martin said.

“It’s not my fault Taylor didn’t join the
fight,” Emma said.

“Your right, though you could have stayed and
not come in the first place, just because you wanted to tell
William about Danny you risked all of us, you could have left at
any time, maybe if Samantha and Taylor joined the fight, maybe we
could have saved a few, maybe defend the entire Fort, next time
don’t get in the way unless you really have a reason to,” Martin
said angrily.

Emma remains silent thinking about what
Martin had to say, she knew he was right, if she didn’t stay both
Samantha and Taylor would have joined in on the fight. Emma feels
horrible but what’s done is done, she can’t change anything now,
she does find this to be a valuable lesson. While they wait for
them to return, Luke is already on the island thinking of a way to
make Jason pay for what he did.

Even if he killed Maggie, it’s not enough,
Luke can’t stop there, and Jason must suffer, just like Roy did,
stabbed and nearly burned alive, the only way Jason will suffer, is
if Luke takes his other daughter too.

Maybe if she is killed brutally, maybe then
it will be enough, Luke figures once the deed is done he can make
his escape with the boat he arrived with, then make his way as far
as possible and simply leave his father behind, it’s not like
Bradley was of any good help anyway, its slightly due to him that
Roy ended up like this.

Luke starts sneaking closer searching for
Jason, after several minutes he finally found him, Luke can see
that he cried a lot, he just finished digging his daughters grave,
Luke can take him right now but instead figures it will be more
enjoyed if he just wait and listen to his final words before he
closes Maggie’s grave.

Several minutes later, only Jacky had a few
words to say, though Jason said nothing as Jacky starts to pray,
Luke aims his rifle not too far from them, it will be an easy shot
to take, Luke thinks twice about what his about to do, feeling some
slight regret but then he starts thinking about his brother, Jacky
ends her prayer with Amen.

Jason hears a loud gun shot, opening his eyes
at the same time, seeing Jacky on the clean sand, the blood is
flowing heavily but she is still alive, Jason looks around him and
immediately spots Luke, Jason starts running after him, this is
exactly what Luke wanted, Luke runs extremely fast and made his
escape by entering the Fort.