Chapter 16

On to the Coast

Hank and I looked at each other and then ran towards the front of the store. We skid to a halt before going through and peek out to see what was going on. I can see one of the other guys we brought with us holding a bleeding arm and I cannot see anyone else.

Hank and I are in a relatively safe position so I decide to yell out to get information rather than go out where I might get shot.

“What exactly is happening?”

“Mayor’s kid showed up and tried to rob us. He was smarter than we thought and waited until we had done most of the work gathering it up. He got some weapons from somewhere and has Phil and Andrea pinned down in the cereal aisle. One of his jerk friends winged me.”

“Are they all towards the front of the store.”

“As far as I know yes.”

“Good stay where you are.”

“Hank come with me. We are going to head up to the Deli and Bakery and flank them.”

Hank nodded and we made our way forward. We quietly looked out from bakery and saw three people lined up ready to shoot further into the store and one person trying to go around to apparel to flank our two who were pinned down in the cereal aisle. Well we can’t let that happen. I signal Hank to shoot on 3 and then aim and slowly count down in a whisper. Three……two……one…… I then pull the trigger on my shotgun and pump and pull and pump and pull for all I am worth. Hank joins in and all three go down. The one trying to flank our group screams out a name and then just starts crying. I reload before leaving the protection of the bakery counter.

I first approach the crying man who was not hit in the initial volley. I try and swallow down my disgust and feelings and shoot him in the chest from about three meters. His crying has stopped forever now. I reload the shell and try to ignore the horrible thoughts running through my mind and the stare I am getting from Hank. I pull my .22 pistol and approach the wounded people. The first lady is not going to make it. No use wasting a bullet. Same for the second guy. The final victim is the mayor’s son that started this whole thing. He is shot but only winged in the arm and leg. Potentially lethal, but he could survive. I can’t have that. I aim my pistol at him and try to ignore his pleas. “I am sorry, just let me go and I promise never to say anything. I can help you. You can’t just murder me.”

Before I have to listen to even more I pull the trigger and silence him. With my hands starting to shake, I reload my weapons while I can. I walk over to Hank and signal for him to follow me. He just numbly nods and falls in behind me. I call out, “Hey guys it is just us. The situation has been dealt with. I think we all need to have a talk.”

I gathered everyone back in the store room in the back.

“I realize that this may change things for some of you. All I ask is that you hear me out. What just happened up front is probably going to happen over and over, at least for a while. With law and order being out the door, some people will start trying to force their way on other people or rob and kill them. Yes, we could have just left, but here is the reality of the situation. If we let them go today, they would have come looking for more in the future. Maybe not from us, but definitely from someone. Their shooting first solidified in my mind what needed to be done. I don’t like it, in fact I am shaking and nauseated just like some of you, but it has to be done. If you have an enemy that was trying to kill you it is stupid and ignorant to think that if you let them go they will change their ways. There are no more jails or correctional facilities. We have to decide how we are going to punish people on our own.”

“Did you have to execute them like that?”

“I don’t know any other way. I did not stop them from leaving with the vehicles earlier. I will not force my beliefs on anyone. However, when they came back and threatened me and my group I reacted in the best way possible. I eliminated the threat. I will probably have nightmares about this for weeks, but it needed to be done. I understand if you will not be able to continue forward with me. I will not stop you from leaving. I do hope that you will at least help me finish loading and delivering supplies to the school.”

“I think that we all agree that we should at least accomplish that. We will give you our individual decisions when we get back to the school.”

“That sounds fair. Now I think the division of labor was working well. Let’s keep the groups we had and get out of here as fast as possible.”

Hank and I finish loading pallets and we are able to get three well stacked and wrapped ones onto the trailer. The other group was bringing out cart after cart of supplies and dumping them in the back of the trucks and the back seat of the single SUV. It only takes another fifteen minutes for us to wrap up our little raid for supplies. This was good timing as the front group noticed new zombies wandering around in the front of the Wal-Mart parking lot. I signal the others to load up and carefully lead the way driving around 15 mph. I can easily go faster than this, but I am afraid to go too much faster on account of losing the pallets when trying to corner.

Luckily for us the zombies are blessed with endurance not speed. We quickly leave behind the few zombies starting to gather around us and head back towards the school to deliver supplies. A few short minutes later I pull up in front of the school. I quickly check the area around me before hopping out. Two zombies, nothing to worry about. Before I can even approach the zombies Hank from the group that went with me called out. “We will get these Mr. Evans, go ahead and unload the trailer.”

Well it was nice to have a few people around you that seemed halfway competent. Instead of unloading the trailer I just go and unhook it from Betsy. I don’t need a trailer at the moment and if I do I can always just go pick up another one. I look around one more time before I finish unhooking the trailer just to be safe and notice that the group I was with is killing the zombies in melee without shooting. Smart folk. No noise, and no wasted ammunition. I think I will take anyone they want to bring with them.

After some quick back and forth with the two police officers at the school I gather up the group that went with me.

“You four did excellent on this trip. If you are interested I would like to extend an invitation to you and whoever you want to bring with you to travel with me.”

“Well we discussed it Mark and Susan, Charles and I will be going with you.” Hank replied. “Shane has family up north that he wants to look for.”

“That is completely understandable. Why don’t you three gather up who you are going to bring and let me give Shane some quick advice.”

“Yes sir.”

“Shane, a couple of things before you head off. First, always clean your guns as soon as you can. If you don’t know how there are instruction on the cleaning kits we picked up. Second, gather supplies soon. The longer you wait the harder it will be and the more competition you will have. Third, go buy a hardware store and pick up a hand sump pump, hose, and crowbar. This is what you can use to open up the storage tanks of gas stations and pump out the gas you need. Finally, if you decide to join us later in the islands, remember it is Andros Island and give the password Pablo Picasso sent me. That way if I am not around others will know that you really know me.”

“Pablo Picasso sent me?”

“Long story short, basically I can’t draw very well and my brother and sister used to tease me and say I would become as famous as Pablo Picasso one day.”

“Thanks for giving me a chance Mr. Evans. Who knows I might see you soon.”

With that exchange I was ready to move on. The others brought back five people to join us. Hank brought his wife and three kids and Susan brought her dad, Franz. Franz was retired, but still spry in his sixties. The most interesting part about Franz was that he used to be a commercial fisherman. I finally had someone who knew something about boats bigger than a bass boat you took to the lake. I sure hoped Franz remembered his training.

We left the school as quickly as we could before others could try and talk their way into our little convoy. I continue to do my travel an hour to an hour and a half driving and then stop and find an overpass to thin out the zombies. It is much easier with others to help and watch out with you. Travel continued like this for two stops before we were getting close to Hilton Head. I wanted to make one more stop and try and find another set of people to join us to find somebody else who could help on a boat. This is when Franz first showed his usefulness.

“Mr. Evans I have an idea if what you truly are looking for are people to help out on a ship.”

“Go ahead Franz, I will listen to all good advice. Well instead of looking for random fisherman or boat captains why not go to the source.”

“Sounds good Franz, but I am not following you completely. What source?”

“Why don’t you just go to some of the marinas around and check for survivors. If they made it to the marina the likelihood of them being people that can be helpful on a boat increases.”

“Well Franz, that makes perfect sense. I kind of feel like an idiot now, but that’s okay. It isn’t the first time someone has pointed out something obvious that I missed and I am sure it won’t be the last.”

I could actually see some of the tension leave the group. I guess they were not sure how I would take to being either corrected or how I would deal with suggestions. My willingness to not only listen, but recognize a good suggestion seemed to calm the group down a bit.

“So do you have a couple of recommendations for where we can go and look?”

With that single question I learned that there was a lot more places that boats docked and people gathered than I ever knew. I finally got the top three spots to look for people who had experience with ships out of Franz and why he ranked them that way.

“Franz those are excellent suggestions but I think we will actually go in reverse order. Your number three spot might have some farmers or others that might be useful in starting out on the island. Your second spot is smaller so there should be less problems with zombies and others interfering.”

“I hadn’t considered that aspect Mark.”

“Alright everyone gather round and let me explain the plan before we head in and look for our ships and people to operate them.”

I proceed to explain what I wanted.

I wanted at least one barge or another form of boat that we could literally just drive onto and off of. This would make loading supplies and other things easier. I wanted a small container ship. Something that had its own crane to load and unload containers. This would be a major source of goods that many people would be unable to access. I wanted two or three easy to use yachts for transport of people and raiding purposes. Long term I wanted to raid and gather at least one smaller diesel fuel transport ship and one normal fuel transport ship. This should last us for years with a smaller population. Finally, I would love to have seaplanes and someone who knew how to fly them for emergencies and exploration.

Everyone listened to my wants and agreed that everything I said was reasonable. However, finding and getting people to run them would be much more difficult.