The Event: The Beginning (31 page)

              “Don’t know, just came to me. Since we couldn’t move the van without leaving a gaping hole in the fence, I figure why not see if we could use it somehow. I was actually thinking of using it as a guard post. You wouldn’t be seen, and we could potentially but a radio in it to communicate with the ship, and it wouldn’t be heard either. The idea of using it as a gatehouse just kinda came to me while I was inside looking at it. Let’s keep going, see what else we have in store.” I replied, settling myself on the seat. Once we were all settled, Roger took off again. We bounced along once more along the fence line.

              We came upon a tree line before too long that the fence actually ran into. I had obtained a paper map before we left, and looking at showed it should be the Sewells Point Golf Course.

              “Well, we can’t take this thing through the trees, so now what?” Roger asked as we slowed to a stop before the trees.

              “According to this map, this is Sewells Point Golf Course. It runs all the way to the highway. That road there runs behind it. Take the cart around and find the highway. You should be able to find it easily. Jason and I are going to walk the fence, make sure it’s intact through here too.” I told Roger.

              “I don’t think so man, I can’t let you do that. You know the girls would have my ass if anything happened to you and I wasn’t there.” Roger argued.

              “It’s not up for discussion. You and Casey search from here to the highway. Hopefully the fence continues around the golf course to the next gate. If not, at least we will know where to start building one. Keep your eyes open, watch your backs, and find someplace to stay hidden if need be. Jason, let’s go.” I informed him. I unsnapped my swords, checked my pistol and motioned to Jason to follow me. Roger huffed a little, but waited until Casey moved to the front seat and settled in.

              Jason shouldered his rifle, unsnapped the latch on his pistol holster, and followed me. We started walking for the trees as Roger started maneuvering the cart towards the road. It looked like the fence ran just outside the tree line, but a few had grown outside, as well as bushes and shrubbery growing through it and around it. I led the way through the brush, trying to move as silently as possible. It would also allow us to hide quickly if any infected were near the fence, or any people that might appear to be less than friendly.

              About halfway through the golf course, we found a small break in the fence where a tree had partially fallen and bent some of the posts. It appeared that the tree itself was blocking anything from coming in though, so we would probably leave it for now. We continued on our way after inspecting it, and didn’t really see anything else until we reached the curve of the road. Looking out across the road, we could see wrecked cars, some of which were burned out. A few bodies were strung across the pavement in various stages of decomposition, and even completeness. Some were missing limbs, and there was even a head missing a body. Jason and I looked at each other and then continued on our way. Since I had my machete with me, I kept swinging to clear a path through the thicker part of the brush. We kept walking, and inspecting, and watching for dangers.

              As we followed the main road now, there were more cars crashed, more bodies, but thankfully the fence was proving to be intact. Some of it was overgrown with the brush, so it was hard to see, but a close inspection proved it to be intact. There were also places were the trees had thinned out enough that we could see out across the golf course. It appeared to be mostly untouched, but we could see a few golf carts that had been abandoned, and what appeared to be golf clubs and bags dropped and left, but no bodies, no apparent blood from this distance, and no real damage either. I would save a close inspection of the course for when the wall was complete.

              “Hey, look there.” Jason said, tapping me on my shoulder to stop me, and then pointing off across the road. I followed his finger and saw a school bus abandoned near the gatehouse. It appeared that something bad had happened as there was something smeared on the glass. From here it looked like blood, and it looked to be on the inside. My hope was that it wasn’t full of kids when whatever it was went down. Several of the windows were broken out and glass was scattered around the ground, and the back door was open. I turned and looked at him, shook my head, and he shook his also. Motioning for us to keep going, we slowly moved forward.

              We made it to the edge of the golf course and met the back of the residential area fencing. The iron fence stopped there as the house privacy fence took over, but at least it butted right up against the wood. I used the support bars on the iron fence as a stepping stone, grabbed the top of the wooden fence and pulled myself up. Looking over the top, I saw a swing set, a sandbox, and a dog house. There was a flower bed in a raised box along the porch edge, and the door was slid open. No damage was evident, and no sign of any infected or dead, so I decided we should jump the fence and start inspecting the fences behind each house. At least this way we would not be seen by anything.

              “Want to search the houses now, or just keep inspecting the fence?” Jason asked me.

              “Fence. I want to make sure we are safe for now, then we can search later.” I replied. We continued on our way through this back yard, made our way out of the gate, and found the gate to the next one. We poked our heads in to the backyard long enough to see the fence was intact, and then headed out to the next one. There was ten houses down this street, and we hit each one only long enough to see that the fence was good.

By the time we made it to the last house, it was noon or just after according to the sun. After the last house, the road turned and headed to the main road. We turned and followed it and realized that the gate was right there. The arch stretched across the road, but there was no fence between the post of the arch and the fence from the houses. We would have to put something up to keep this side secure. There were several cars lining the road, stopped by the lowered gate and the steel posts that were raised out of the road.

“Look there.” Jason said, pointing towards the middle of the road. I looked and saw our cart standing near the guard house in the middle. We started across the road, watching for movement. Walking up to the guard house, Jason stepped to the door and knocked lightly. Casey opened the door and we all stepped in. It was a good vantage point to see most of the road.

              “See anything?” I asked as we all crowded into the small space.

              “A few infected walking around, some dogs, but that’s it. The infected just milled about, bumping into each other, or the cars, and then turning and walking away. None of them managed to make it onto the base though.” Casey informed me.

              “Excellent. The fence seems to be intact the whole way, except one place that a tree fell, but the tree also seems to be blocking its own hole, so I think we’re good there. The iron fence stops at the houses where the privacy fence takes over, but even that stops here near the arch. I don’t see any fence at all on the other side of the street, so that may be the extent of our protection. If that’s the case we are going to have some major work to put a fence up along this main road.” I told them all.

              “It should be doable fairly easily though. We can use fencing from inside the base and move it here.” Jason said. I liked that idea. We watched for a few more minutes, and then I motioned we should leave. Even though there didn’t appear to be any more fence along this road, I wanted to be sure that it didn’t continue the other way. According to the map, the airfield was just north of us, so the fence could easily go the opposite direction to encompass that. We loaded back up in the cart, but before I could give Casey the go ahead since he was driving this time, our radio squawked to life.

              “All teams, report.” came the voice of Christian. We listened as each team reported in, and Jason called us in during a lull.

              “We have people on the pier. They appear uninfected and are currently on the far end. They seem to be searching the ships, don’t know if they are going to be hostile, or just looking for a place to stay. How do you want us to proceed?” Christian reported, and then asked.

              “Watch only, do not contact. I am heading back, and we will try to determine if they are friendly or not. All teams report back to the ship, but try to not be seen.” I ordered, signaling for Casey to start moving. We headed back towards the pier, but we were pretty far away at this point. Casey floored it, but since these were basically glorified golf carts, they didn’t really go that fast. At least they were silent, the only noise was the tires on the pavement and a small whine from the motor. That would allow us to not be heard as we made our way back.

              As we maneuvered through the streets of the base, we heard the others call in that they had arrived. We were apparently the farthest out, so we were the last to arrive. As we neared the pier fence, I signaled Casey to stop while we were still hidden from view.

              “This is Sheldon, who is on lookout in the bridge?” I radioed.

              “Sheldon, this is Christian. I have several lookouts keeping watch. They have moved two piers closer and seem to be not be taking anything from the ships. They could be looking for weapons or food, which we had already cleared out.” He reported back.

              “Good. We are currently just out of view near the gatehouse. Is it clear to make it to the ship?” I asked him.

              “Negative at this time. Wait a minute for them to go into the next ship.” he replied.

              “Roger that, let us know when it’s clear.” I told him. “Casey, soon as he gives the all clear, you floor it and get to that pier. You need to be between the carriers as quick as possible. If these guys aren’t friendly, I don’t want to give them an easy shot, understood?”

              “Yes, sir.” He replied, leaving the cart in gear with his foot on the brake.

              “Excellent. Now, when you get back to the ship, get onboard and tell Christian to post snipers, but hold his fire unless fired upon. Roger, come with me, we are going to try to sneak behind them and see if we can find out if they are friendly or not.” I said, waiting for the reaction. Casey and Jason both started arguing about that decision over each other, but I hushed them and signaled them to stay quiet.

              “Look, I’m not pushing this whole captain thing, but this time I will. If these people are just survivors looking for supplies, then we have an obligation to help them. Roger and I will be careful, but tell Christian that if they open fire on us, take them all out, understood?” I told them, staring at each in turn. I really didn’t like the whole captain thing, and sticking to military chain of command that much, but in this case I would use it on them.

              “Yes, sir.” They both replied, a little sullenly, but as sailors they would obey the order. I nodded at Roger, who nodded back. We got out of the cart and both adjusted our sword belts.  We took the rifles from Jason and Casey, just in case. Roger and I then started jogging south along the pier fence. There was plenty of vegetation with the landscaped bushes, debris, and buildings and signage to give us plenty of cover as we made our way past where we thought the others were. It took us about twenty minutes to jog that far since we tried to stay hidden the whole time.

              “This should be far enough, let’s find a way through this fence.” I told him. We moved towards the fence, and I motioned we should simply slip under the chain link. Removing a couple of wires on the post allowed us to pull the chain link up just enough to slip under, then we replaced the wires. That put us on the pier itself, but we had chosen a spot behind a couple of shipping containers, so we should have gone totally unnoticed.

              “Ok, now what? Do we just stroll up to them like ‘Hi, how ya doing?’, or do you have something else in mind?” Roger asked me as we peered around the corner.

              “Well, something like that, yeah. We are going to play it as if we are simply looking for supplies. If they press us, we will say we have a building not far from here, just out looking for supplies and food. Clear?” I replied. It seemed a fairly simple, easy to remember cover story, and it seemed very feasible. Roger confirmed he understood the story, so we stepped out from around the corner to the middle of the pier, and headed for the closest ship, trying to act like we had just arrived. We made our way to the ship, climbed aboard, and started looking around topside. Roger noticed the others had spotted us and were watching us, so he ‘noticed’ them, and then waved me over. I made obvious hand gestures to let them know we were not infected, and when they motioned back, Roger and I headed off the ship and started heading their way.

              “Christian, this is Sheldon. The other group has noticed us, we are moving to meet them. They appear friendly so far, but keep your eyes on them. Radio silence from now on please, I don’t want to tip them off.” I said into the radio quickly while we were out of sight. As we cleared the bow of the ship, we could see the other group was gathering on the pier and coming to meet us. Roger and I walked slowly towards them, looking around as if we were looking for infected as we did.

              “Are you bit?” one of the larger, older men asked. He had kind of a mean, hard look to him which reminded me of an old surly biker. I assumed he was going to be the spokesman for the group then.