The Infected Dead (Book 3): Die For Now (39 page)

"I don't know, Captain. Like I said, no radio contact, but if you're wondering about how a small group like ours could consider taking a fort away from someone, we also knew where the back door was located."

A Corporal approached and told the Captain it was mandatory exam time. Jean suggested they set up at the showers and let everyone get clean at the same time. The men and women under Captain Miller's command were more than glad to accept, and they eagerly lined up at the entrance to the shelter.

This was one time when Jean was glad she opened the door.

It was supposed to be a celebration of a job well done as we gathered at the end of the dock, but we were a somber group as we left for the final part of our mission. The Chief was in the wheelhouse of the Cormorant with Kathy at the remote controlled guns. Tom was their lone deckhand who would help attach the towing lines.
 

The outboard boat was mine to drive, and Chase was with me. The plan was simple. I would dock with the line laying barge and release it from its moorings. If it had an anchor, I'd raise it. Then I would toss over the towing lines, and we would be on our way.

Bus had the best job. We decided he could do a quick pass over the harbor in our newly acquired Beaver, and he would just see if there was any trouble waiting for us at the barge. The Chief was obviously wanting his turn flying the powerful bush plane, but he reluctantly agreed Bus should continue back to Mud Island. Bus had been able to establish radio contact between the plane and the Coast Guard ship, so we were all hoping he could make contact with Mud Island and then relay information back to us. It would be nice to know Jean was safe. I had wired in the radio I had gotten at the marina and was looking forward to testing it.
 

We didn't have any trouble persuading Olivia to stay at the shelter with Sam and Whitney. All three of them were still badly shaken and were in no shape to go along for the ride. We considered shipping them out with Bus in the plane, but in the end it was decided that we should just keep them inside. The Chief locked the elevators and the stairwell door for their peace of mind.

We launched the Cormorant first so Bus would have plenty of room to taxi away from the dock. When he took off, we were all impressed by the sound of the engine in the Beaver. It sounded like it could tow the barge by itself. Bus headed off in the direction of the barge, and as we approached in our boats, we saw him make several passes then he turned in our direction.

As the Beaver roared overhead, Bus radioed and said, "Be advised the barge is clear of activity, but the surrounding area has multiple infected, over."

That was no surprise to any of us, and we had hunting rifles with scopes with us this time. If we could reduce the number of infected dead in the area by shooting them at a distance, it would make life a little easier.
 

I keyed the microphone and said, "Roger your last, Bus, and have a safe trip home, over."

The Chief came over the radio and said, "Thanks, Bus. Let us know what's happening back home if you can. All of us want to know how Jean and Molly are doing, over."

"Will do, Chief. Can't wait to park this baby next to the dock at home. Maybe I'll let you take it out for a spin, over."

The Chief kept the microphone button keyed up, and we all heard him say, "Kathy, target the Beaver."

We heard Kathy say, "No."

Then we heard the Chief say, "Please," in a really sweet voice.

Kathy said, "No," again, but we could tell she was trying not to laugh.

The opportunity to improve our collective mood was needed, and we seemed to be at our best when we joked a bit. Not one of us forgetting that we had lost a good kid today, but we had to put it behind us.
 

As we cruised past Castle Pinckney on the way to the barge, I wondered if Tom realized how close he was to where Allison died. I knew that I would be thinking exactly that if it had been Jean. I could see him on the deck of the Cormorant, but there were no outward signs giving me a clue about how he felt.

It was only a matter of minutes before we were at the barge. I tied us off at a cleat on its flat surface and climbed aboard. Chase handed a rifle up to me and then climbed aboard.

"I'll get the lines and the anchor," said Chase.
 

I gave the Chief a thumbs up as the Cormorant began to rotate its stern toward us. As I was sighting in on the infected that were milling around on the dock, I thought myself there was no doubt about it I had come a long way from that first day when I went into town for some video games.

******

"Beaver to Cormorant, over."

"Cormorant, here, Beaver. How's everything at home, over?"

I had to admit, it seemed like the brightest, prettiest day ever when Bus said he had a visual of Mud Island, and the US Army has set up a large safe zone on the entire northern end of the island. He said Jean and Molly had spoken with him by radio, and they said it was the Chief's friend from Fort Jackson. They were outside waving at him as he made a pass, and he would be landing in seconds. Then came the really bad news.
 

The Oconee Nuclear Plant in the far northwestern corner of South Carolina had a meltdown. He didn't have many details, but radio contact with someone broadcasting near Charlotte said a radioactive cloud was drifting roughly in the direction of Mud Island.
 

The Chief relayed the message down to us, and the obvious question was how much time did we have. If that cloud dropped on us we would be forced inside, possibly for years if the fallout came down heavy in our area. My first thought was Jean, and whether or not it would have an effect on her pregnancy.
 

Once we got the towing lines in place, the Chief began to ease the barge away from its berth. The Cormorant wasn't really designed to tow something the size of the line laying barge, but there were two things working in our favor. The current was so strong in the passage between the mainland docks and Castle Pinckney that the barge moved practically on its own. The second thing was the open stern of the Cormorant. An extra line was tied straight through the back of the ship, and it gave us more pull where it was needed the most.

We had a hard time stopping the forward motion of the barge as it began to swing like a pendulum when we made our turn around Castle Pinckney, but the Chief managed to get it going in the right direction by using the current from the Ashley River. Once he had it moving in a straight line, he just let the barge keep moving out of the harbor into the open sea.
 

As I watched the progress of the barge past the jetties, I worried about how much time we had. We didn't have accurate weather reports, so we didn't know how fast radioactive fallout would reach us. We also didn't have enough information to know exactly how bad the accident was. Like most people my age, I was too young to remember Chernobyl, but I knew enough about it to know it was bad. I had seen statistics that said over four thousand people would die over the years from illnesses related to the accident.

There was one big difference with this accident besides our lack of information. At Chernobyl they buried the reactor under a mountain of concrete. At Oconee no one was doing anything to stop whatever was happening. We might never know when the accident was really done doing damage.

I pulled the boat up to the dock at Fort Sumter, and Chase tied us to the posts. We were moving much faster now that we had to worry about getting the power cable in place before fallout could reach us. I contacted the Chief one last time before he would be out of range and asked for an update, and he said it looked like we had about a day before we had to worry.

The good news was that we had a doctor to help us survive this latest problem. He sent a message that the Mud Island shelter had a large supply of Potassium Iodide, and he had already started dosing everyone. He explained that it would block the absorption of radioactive iodine by the thyroid gland. He had already quarantined Jean and Molly to the shelter.

I didn't flunk Chemistry 101 in college, but I came close. All that mattered to me was getting the job done so we could get inside. The clock was ticking as Chase and I ran into Fort Sumter. We made our way through the familiar tunnel and through the hidden door. We were in the control room within minutes, and found Olivia, Whitney, and Sam at the monitors. None of them had any gear packed and ready to go.

Our questioning looks were enough, and they seemed uncomfortable as we looked at them one at a time for an explanation.
 

"We don't want to leave," said Olivia. "We have everything we need here. In time there might even be others living here with us, but for now, this is where we want to live. Besides, you guys have always said Mud Island would be crowded."

I couldn't help thinking Molly could use Sam's friendship. He was only a couple of years older than her, and they would find a lot of things they had in common. Tom might not appreciate some of those things, but it was part of growing up, and dads needed to go through those pains, too. I started to say something to him, but Whitney gently cut me off.

"Ed, we know you've been talking about Molly getting to meet Sam, but Perry was like a brother to both of us. We need to be here for now. Maybe later we can work something out."

"There won't be a later for a long time," I said. "The Oconee Nuclear Plant has had an accident. It's the farthest reactor from here, but the fallout will be here in about a day. When we get back to Mud Island and connect the new power cable, we plan to close ourselves inside for however long it takes to be safe to come outside again. If you stay here, you'll have to do the same thing."

They didn't look nearly as fazed by the news as I had expected. As a matter of fact, they just shrugged it off.

Olivia said, "Maybe that's a good thing, Ed. I know there are still a lot of survivors out there who will get caught in the radiation, and they will die because they don't have a safe place to go, but a lot of bad people will die too. And maybe...just maybe it will destroy the infected. Wouldn't that be great?"

Chase had been as surprised as I was when they said they weren't going, and maybe Olivia knew all along what his reaction would be. He listened to us just long enough to be sure, then he said what Olivia hoped to hear.

"Ed, you found Jean because the world as we knew it came to an end. Things have worked out for you and your group, and because of you guys we can live too. What if you guys hadn't come along? Olivia and I would have been dead at the hands of those crazies up there. You know what they would have done to us. It's sad about Allison, and it's sad about Perry, but you guys did good. After this reactor thing blows over, your group is gonna hit the road again, and someone is going to be better off because of it. In the meantime, I'm staying here with my new family."

Chase gave Olivia a look that made tears begin to stream down her cheeks. I couldn't say that I blamed him or the rest of them, and as long as they had each other and a lifelong supply of food and water, they could live here forever.

I could see it was a closed issue, so I gave each of them a hug and said goodbye. It wasn't as sad as I expected, and that was probably because they were all looking so happy. They were all smiling as they escorted me to the tunnel and watched me go up the ladder.

"One last thing," I called down from above. "Follow the advice of my Uncle Titus. Don't open the doors for any reason. Think like survivors."

We all knew that wasn't going to happen, but it was advice I hadn't followed from the start, and it had worked out pretty good.

******

I caught up with the Chief about five miles up the coast and radioed the news that the others had chosen to stay behind. He said he wasn't surprised, and then gave me his own good news. Captain Miller had used our two boats to begin clearing a perimeter around the hidden cable on the mainland. We would be able to work faster without interference from the infected. He also had several people trained in the use of SCUBA gear, and they were clearing the moat in the path of the new cable. It was tricky work, but they were making progress, and everyone was being closely screened for bites when they came out of the water.

The Chief said there had been no Electro Magnetic Pulse associated with the accident because nuclear accidents weren't the same as thermonuclear explosions. In my mind I was thinking, “Whatever," but when the Chief explained it meant our electronics weren't fried, I understood it was a good thing.

The clock was still ticking when we were in view of Mud Island, but I had to appreciate the view. It was a beautiful sight, even though there was a tent city on the beach side of the island. There were also guards everywhere, and they were waving at us as if they were welcoming home heroes. I didn't know yet how many of them were with Captain Miller at Fort Jackson.

The Chief passed the island and then gently let the current pull the barge into the northern entrance to our moat. The waterway had always acted as a natural river with the water entering at the north and exiting to the south. The current would pull the barge right to the dock where the backup cable was hidden.

As I passed the southern exit, I saw scores of infected being washed out of the waterway. The Army had managed to free the nets from their attachments at the mainland and the island, and the trapped infected were being flushed out. It was good timing because we needed to get inside.