Knight Terrors: A Zombie Apocalypse Survival Tale (12 page)

     The training day for the combined groups went a lot like the training day we had when we arrived at the fort.  We started with the AR’s.  Everyone showed that they could handle the weapon safely and then did some dry firing.  When Ron and Tony were happy, we set up targets on the sandbar towards James Island and fired off ten rounds from the top of the Battery.  With only one or two exceptions everyone did really well.  Even Tabby, who had obviously received some coaching from Mike.  We did the same with our handguns and then took a break for lunch.

     “Did you see me shoot, dad?” asked Tabby.  She’s been maturing almost daily.  And I was starting to see more of Sam in her daily, too.  I was proud of my daughter but I missed my wife.

     “I did Tabby.  You did great.”

     “Mike’s been teaching me,” she said.  Mike looked proud.  “I want to go on the next supply run.”

     ‘I didn’t teach her that,” said Mike as he threw up his hands.

     “Tab, we just lost Keith on our last run.  You did well today and I’m really proud of you, but I cannot live without you.”

     “You can’t keep me cooped up here in the fort for ever and ever.”

     “I know that.  But, you’ll have to wait a little bit longer.  Give it time and keep training.  You did really good today.”

     She stormed off but she’d calm down eventually.  I looked over at Mike.

     “Hey, I don’t know where that came from.  But, she’s right.  You can’t keep her in here forever.”

     “I know that.  But, I’ll try.”

     The crossbow training went about the same as the firearm training.  Everyone got to shoot more with the crossbow because almost all of the bolts we fired were recoverable.

     After crossbow training, everyone used the targets for melee training.  Axes, knives and other makeshift weapons were tried out.  I’m not sure what the point of this was other than to blow off some steam.  Melee was easy…  hit them hard in the head.  Ron watched everything intently with Tony.

     Everyone was pleased with the days training.

     “Mr. Knight,” Ron stuck out his hand.  I took it.  “You are to be commended.  Everyone did well today.  I’d be happy to fight alongside any one of them.”

     ‘Thank you, Ron.  That means a lot.  I just wish we hadn’t lost the folks we’ve lost.”  I was thinking of Sam.  “But, we’ve done the best we can.”

     “Well, I’d take any of them out.”

     The decision was made to blend the groups as much as possible.  Mike and Tony, who was up and around without a cane now, would lead one group with one of Ron’s assistants, Lois and four others.  Ron and his other assistants would lead a group with Tom, Karen and a few others.  I wasn’t happy about Karen going out without me to watch her but I figured Ron would be a good person to be out on a run with.  They would all go on the boat that Ron arrived in since he was familiar with it and they would coordinate from there.

     We took a hard look at the supplies and the upcoming projects and decided on a list of things we needed.

     After dinner, I got to play with Mal for a bit.  Tabby was still catching up with Justin.

     I was just starting to get sleepy when Tracie sat down next to me.

     “How’s your foot?”

     “Hurts.  I’m not staying off of it like I need to.”

     “Nervous?’

     “About my foot?”

     “About tomorrow.”

     I sat silent for a moment.  Which, I guess spoke volumes.

     “You are, aren’t you?  Is it because you’re not going, or…”

     “I don’t trust very well anymore Tracie.  I’ve always been somewhat cautious.  Hell, it took me a while to trust my wife.  It kills my soul that my daughter is trying to spread her wings and find her place in this world.  Shit, I barely trust myself.  So, I’m second, third, fourth and fifth guessing myself about the decision to let these people in.”

     “Do you really think Captain Rendina wants to take over and run things?”

     “No, I’m sure he wants to take over and run things.  What I don’t know is if that would be for the best.”

     “I’m sure that none of your people would like to live under some sort of military rule.”

     “Our people,” I corrected.  “We’re all one big happy family now.”

     “Well, that remains to be seen.  Look, I can tell that you don’t want the responsibility but from what I’ve seen you’re the best man for the job.”

     “I just wanted to keep my family safe.  Now that Sam’s gone…”

     “You still have the kids and Karen to look after.  And me.  I have no one else to look after me.  All of our group trusts you.”

     “Not all of them,” I said.  “Not anymore.”

Monday, January 5, 2015

     The boat left without much fanfare.  I could see Tabby holding Mike’s hand before he went.  I wished everyone well as they prepped to go.  Once they left things around the fort got moving.  For everyone else anyway.

     The watch schedule was already set.  A group was assigned to build the chicken coop.  Jerry, from Ron’s boat, was a handyman in the world before zombies.  He knew what he was doing and certainly didn’t need my help.

     Mal was playing with Willie with Pat looking on.

     Tracie cooked lunch for the work crew.

     And I waited.  And waited.  And waited.  The lack of something to control, something to do was eating at me like a damned zombie.

     I tried to relax.  The only thing that kept my butt in bed was knowing that the faster I healed the faster I’d be back in charge of things.

     Lunch came and went.  And I waited.

     The chicken coop was finished and I spoke to Jerry about some other things that needed to be done:  better latrines, a cistern and better shelter for the campsites from the wind.

     Finally about 3pm we heard some chatter over the radio.  The groups were back at Patriots Point and were loading the boat to come back to the fort.  I wanted to call and see how it went.  It was tough but I stopped myself.  Nothing in the radio chatter indicated anything was wrong and we’d know soon enough.

     Just about an hour and a half later the boat was pulling up to the pier.  I used my cane and help from Tabby and Tracie to get down there.

     One of Ron’s assistants was doing a good job of handling the boat although it was vaguely comical to watch the non sailors struggle with the lines.  Ron came off first and we shook hands.

     “Welcome back.  Gimme some good news,” I said.

     “We got everything we wanted with no losses.  I even picked up a few toys for the two boys.”

     “Good work, Ron.  And thank you.”

     I shook hands with everyone as they got off the boat.  Karen got a hug and she looked a little rattled but not bad.  Then I got out of the way to let them unload.  Tabby gave Mike a hug then he stepped over to me.

     “Did it really go well?”

     “Yeah, his people are good.  One of his guy’s is Tyler.  He loosens up some when he’s not around Ron.  We do have one piece of bad news.”

     “Oh?”

     “We caught a glimpse of the horde.  It’s grown.”

     Dinner was a bit of a celebration.  After all, there’d been a successful supply run with no one hurt.  And it was a show that everyone could work together.  Even Mike seemed a bit more mellow about the newcomers.  Although that might have been because of the attention he was getting from Tabby.

     “Ryan,” said Tony.  “We saw something today that was, hands down, the scariest thing I’ve ever seen.”

     “You mean the group of zombies that Mike mentioned?  We saw them a few days ago.”

     “Not like this,” said Mike.  “It’s bigger than anything we saw.”

     “And it’s grown since we saw it at the armory,” said Ron.  He paused for effect before continuing.  “Mr Knighht, I’ve seen combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.  I’ve been wounded twice, had three vehicles destroyed from under me and watched as good buddies were killed,  But, I’ve never been afraid like this.”

     He had everyone’s attention, for sure.

     “I don’t know what brought them together.  Most of the zombies we’ve seen tend to ignore each other unless there’s a common goal.  I know I’ve seen 50 zombies at a time.  I’m sure there were 100 zombeis at the armory fence.  So, I’m guessing this was more like 1,000 zombies.”

     A few people listening gasped at the thought of 1,000 zombies.

     “It’s no joke either,” continued Mike.  “It’s not an exaggeration.  They were moving south on Hwy 17 towards the bridge.  But, out further near Bowman Rd.  We had to stop and backtrack like before.”

     “I’m not sure what could stop 1,000 zombies,” said Lois.

     “Except Fort Sumter,” said Karen.

     “No, what’s keeping us safe is location,” I replied.  “We are surrounded by water.  1,000 if they could get here would bunch up against the wall and easily get over.”

     “Well,” said Ron.  “Now I am even more glad that we made it out here when we did.  And, that you took us in.”

     I raised my can of coke.

     “To safe havens.”

     “To safe havens.”

     After dinner, I found Ron sitting by himself cleaning his firearms.  I hobbled over and sat down next to him.  He eyed me a moment before continuing.

     “How clean is your Glock, Mr. Knight?  You can tell a lot about a person by how he takes care of the things that keep him alive.”

     “I don’t clean it every day, if that’s what you’re asking,” I replied.  As I spoke, I removed the Glock from my holster and unloaded it making sure to get the round from the chamber.  I handed it to Ron and he looked at it with his flashlight.

     “It wouldn’t pass inspection, but it’s in good shape.  I can see it’s been through a lot.”  He handed the weapon back to me.  I loaded it again and put it back in the holster. 

     “It has, Ron.  It has.  This was my gun long before the zombies came.”  Tracie appeared behind Ron.

     “Am I interrupting?” she asked.

     “No, of course not,” I said.

     “No, young lady,” said Ron.  “What can we do for you?”

     “Nothing, really.  We didn’t talk much about cleaning the guns when we did the training the other day.  I wanted to see how to clean them.”  She pulled up a chair and sat down at the makeshift table.  “Ryan, you were saying that was your gun before all this happened?”

     “Yeah, it was one thing from my bachelor days that Sam tolerated.  I would go shooting now and again on the weekends.  It would stay out of the reach of the kids at home but close in case of an emergency.  I never thought I would actually use it.”

     “Why did you have it then?”

     “For fun mostly.  But, let me ask you something.  Did you have a fire extinguisher in your house?”

     “Sure,” she replied.  “You never know if you’ll need it one day.”

     “It’s the same with a gun in the house.  You’ll never know if you’ll need it.”

     The talk died off uncomfortably for a minute then Tracie asked Ron a question.

     “Ron, what about you?  Do you have a family somewhere?”

     He sat his firearm down before answering.

     “I had a wife and son before all this happened.  We lived off Dorchester Road where a lot of the base personnel lived.  The day I escaped from the base, the day it was finally over run, I went home to look for them.”

     “What happened? She asked.

     “I don’t know.  They weren’t there.  I looked inside and out.  I checked the neighbors; any place I could think of where they might have gone on foot.  Her car was still in front of the house.  I didn’t find them.”

     “Maybe one day you will, Ron,” I said.  “Don’t give up hope.  It’s a miracle that any of us are alive.”

     “I agree in principle Mr. Knight.  But, every day they’re out there is another day I can’t protect them,” he said.  “Every day is another day that I have no control over what happens to them.”

     “I have not felt an abundance of control since this started,” I said.  I was thinking about losing Sam.

     “What happened that day Mr. Knight?” asked Ron.

     I looked down at my feet for a moment before answering his question.  Tracie gently put her hand on my arm.  I shook my head to clear it.

     “We had been forced from our house on Johns Island by a group of marauders led by a guy named Preston.  They found us accidentally looking for Tom’s group.  We drove away with everything we could pack in our vehicles.  And we burned the rest so they wouldn’t get it.  It was just so important to me that they didn’t win.  We spent a night in downtown where we lost Tom’s wife Barb and one of his nephews, Morgan.  When we got to Liberty Square, we used the vehicles as a barrier to keep the zombies out.  It worked well until one crawled under the bus and grabbed Sam by the ankle and pulled her down.  I couldn’t get her out fast enough.  She got bit.” 

     I was crying now as I told the story.  Tracie had tears in her eyes.  But, Ron seemed unmoved.  Maybe it was the military training.