6th Horseman, Extremist Edge Series: Part 1 (28 page)

Markus and I follow the others toward a metal
staircase leading to a lower level that is even with the deck of
the
Pioneer
. Ian had ripped down the small gate that keeps
people off the stairs. Markus goes first. I ask Ian, “What do I
need to do?”

“Just get on board,” Ian says quickly. “We do
this fast,” he says, half smiling.

I climb down then cross the platform to the
boat. I watch Ian run back to the rowboat and untie the line
holding it to the dock. He runs back to the
Pioneer
, tugging
the rowboat along. He tosses the line onto the deck. The line lands
on the
Pioneer
loosely. I guess we’re taking the rowboat
with us.

I look at Isabella. She’s not surrounded
anymore but takes puppets down as they get close. She’s tossing
most of them into the water. I think she’s out of ammunition. Even
though she’s a bit of a pill, I’m glad she’s with us. She is
tougher than most men I know.

“Isabella!” I yell. She turns, then runs to
the stairs. When she climbs aboard I wait for Ian. He practically
leaps onto the
Pioneer
. He turns and pushes the platform off
the rails. It crashes to the dock.

We’re all aboard. The sun is hot and I’m
sweating like a soaked sponge wrung out under the blazing sun. At
last I feel like I can really inhale and stand solid. We’d been on
that little boat for so long I’d lost my sense of stability. The
Pioneer
is big and solid, and I love it!

A screech pulls my attention back to the
horde. Dead people have overrun the dock completely. They’re trying
to leap onto the boat, but are hobbled. All are falling off the
edge and splashing in the water. I watch one thrash and sink. It
has nothing to hold on to so it disappears into the darkness
below.

Ian looks to Markus. “Find the diesel and see
if you can turn it on. Hurry!” The boat is big. Its black painted
masts are shiny and slick and tower over me like colossal tactical
batons. Sailboats have always scared me. Lines of rope hang on
hooks and in clusters by the masts and on the side railings. Rope
ladders lead up both sides of the masts, all the way to the top.
Most of the deck is flat, except for a pilothouse back by the
wheel, just behind the rear mast, and a waist-high sitting area
between the masts. In the front of the boat is a really long
bowsprit — a large wood pole that juts out from the front of the
ship. All the sails are tied up.

Ian yells out from the front of the boat. I
hurry over to him. He’s got a long pole with a hook on it. He’s
trying to hook the rope that’s tied to the rowboat.

“Hold me. The line fell and I can’t quite
reach it,” Ian says. I hold him by the waist and let him lean over
the edge. His pole snags the line and he pulls it in.

“Smart move, saving the rowboat,” Markus says
as he hurries up to us.

“Thanks. I figure, since none of us are too
experienced, it would be a good idea to have a life boat. There’s a
small inflatable back there, but we all wouldn’t fit on it
comfortably.” I follow as he takes the line still tied to the row
boat and walks it to the back of the
Pioneer
, then ties it
to the back rails.

“Ian!” Ben yells. “We need to get off the
dock, dude. And, like, right now!”

“Cabin is locked!” Markus yells.

Ian runs to the front of the boat and unties
a line. Isabella loads and pumps her shotgun. She shoots a puppet
who’d found one of the bumpers protecting the boat from hitting the
dock. I run to the pilothouse by the rear mast, kick the door open
like I’m raiding a drug house, and go downstairs. Finding the motor
is easy. It’s a rebuilt Yanmar Diesel. Josh follows me. It was
definitely upgraded since the thirties. I didn’t have time to find
the keys so I pull out my multi-tool from my police belt and pop
off the control panel. Sure enough, there’s an electronic ignition.
I rip it off. No need for that anymore. I hot-wire the starter just
like I did at the boathouse in Swindler’s Cove. The engine fires
up. It sputters. I pull on the throttle, giving it strength. It
purrs solidly.

I run back up top. Ben and Ian are batting
off puppets, and Isabella is smacking them with the butt of her
shotgun.

“The lines are tied to the dock, Ian!” Markus
yells.

“Chop them!” Ian replies. “Leave the spring
line ‘til last! That’s the long one over there.”

Isabella flips her gun around and shoots
point blank at a line that holds the boat to the dock. I run to the
last line and hack at it with my knife. The spring line snaps. The
Pioneer
is free. She rocks away from the dock. A handful of
puppets fall into the water. I reach out and grab the side railing.
There goes that stable feeling.

Ian runs to the wheel. “Where’s the
throttle?” He finds it and bumps it into gear. The motor catches
the prop gears and the boat starts moving forward. I fall to my
butt and try to stabilize my chemistry. Tanis runs to me and gives
me a hug. I can feel his relief.

Ben yells, holding the bat over his head like
a victorious warrior. Markus puts his Bible on his forehead and
thanks God. Rice runs to Ian and jumps up and down, holding onto
his shoulders. Josh swears at the puppets receding into the
background. Isabella sits and cleans her face and arms. I can tell
she is happy underneath that thick skin. She radiates relief
whether she wants to or not.

I look to Tanis. “You okay?”

“I’m okay.”

“TO EDEN!” Ian yells, the city of New York
slowly drifting away.

I
told Hana I was
fine, but I’m not. I feel better now that we’re on this gigantic
boat, but what I really want is to see my Ma. I accept that my Dad
is probably one of those puppets, but what about Ma? I don’t have
any brothers or sisters to worry about, but I have a dog named Kat
and a fish named Birdy. Yeah, I thought up those names. I don’t
know why. They’re funny to me.

“What’s so funny?” Hana asks. I tell her
about my pets.

“That’s great. I like those names,” she says
with a big smile.

I go to the side of the boat and watch as the
tall skyscrapers get smaller and smaller. Hana puts her arm around
me. “I’m glad you got my back,” I tell her. Then I flip off the
puppets that are clustered at the dock, lookin’ dumb as rocks.

I see Andy looking at me. “It’s okay, buddy.”
I take his shoulder and guide him to the railing. “Go ahead and
flip those bastards off. Put up your middle finger and hold the
others down.”

Andy’s eyes narrow. “I know how to flip the
bird. I’m not a baby.”

Tanis laughs. “No, you’re not.”

The three of us flip off the puppets and
yell.

After some silence, Hana pushes me gently.
“What’re you thinking?”

I look down at the water rippling past the
boat. “I wanna go home.”

She takes a deep breath. “So do I.”

“I’m going to find Rice.” Andy walks away,
his head low.

“How do I know my Ma isn’t locked up in our
house waiting for me?” I ask Hana.

“We don’t.”

“I think I wanna know. And Andy will probably
want to know if his parents are out there.”

Hana takes me to Ian who’s steering the boat
through the Upper Bay.

“Ian, I need to know if it would be possible
to make a pit stop,” Hana asks.

Ian must have been feeling jazzed and pumped.
“Full tank of gas. No way to get attacked by the walkers. Where you
thinking? Want to go to Greece real quick?”

“How ‘bout Forest Hills?” I ask. “Tanis wants
to see if his mother survived.”

“Woah!” Ben approaches, butting his nose in.
“Let’s stick with the plan. Markus says that radio message, the one
about Eden, is coming from Cuba. That’s a long way off, so we
should go now. Eden is civilization now. Hot showers, you
know?”

“You may not give a shit about your family,
but I do,” I snap. “What if my Ma is waiting for me? She could be
locked up in the house, yo. You don’t know.”

“Sorry, Tanis,” Ian answers. “I have to agree
with Ben. This boat needs to get us thousands of miles south. Any
deviation may bring us too much trouble. We’re in survival
mode.”

“Let’s vote on it,” Hana suggests. “It’s just
a bit north and won’t take us too far out of our way. You can stay
on the boat.”

“I can almost guarantee you, mom ain’t gonna
to be there, kid,” Ben says.

I want to box his head in. “You’re here,” I
reply, then I repeat Hana’s idea, “Can’t we vote?”

“This isn’t a democracy. Not now. Once we get
to safety we can try to find your folks.” Ian won’t budge.

“What do you have against voting, Ian?”
Markus asks. “Maybe we should vote. It seems to have worked for our
culture in the past.”

Ian laughs. “It rarely works! Voting has
lowered standards, increased bureaucracy, and rendered entire
environmental efforts dead. Vote for a President; you still go to
war. Vote for judges; they still get bought off. We vote and we get
shit. Politicians spend more time campaigning than actually trying
to fix anything.”

“I actually agree with you about voting,” I
interrupt Ian. “It’s useless and leaves the important stuff for
everyone to agree with, and that sometimes crashes and burns. So
let’s not vote. Let me barter instead. Get me as close as you can.
I’ll be gone for five hours. Any longer and you can leave without
me.”

“I’m confused. Where does bartering come in
here?” Ben says in his ass-face tone.

“I’ll bring us back at least five gallons of
diesel fuel,” I say. “So the barter is, Ben, five gallons of fuel
for five hours of time.” I sneer at Ben then turn back to Ian. “I
know where to get the gas.”

Markus pleads with Ian. “Let the boy try. He
is, after all, a child in need of closure.”

“I’m not a child, old man,” I whip. I am
definitely not a child. I know more than most adults do. I can
program a registry bug, squat on a multibillion-dollar
corporation’s website, rebuild any PC, operate it with style, and.
. . I can get a hacker into the mainframe control system of a
secret Department of Defense’s premier satellite management
office.

I feel a pang of guilt, like some invisible
hand reaches through my rib cage and squeezes my heart. I haven’t
thought about it since I was trapped in the building. I helped
Zilla slow down the military’s ability to effectively quarantine
the island of New York during an outbreak. The bug probably
disrupted air traffic control and international communications. It
kicked all the first responders in the ass. And that was all the
virus needed, a way behind the firewalls. I turn from Ian as tears
flood my eyes.

Ian puts his hand on my shoulder, “Fine, lil
man. Good deal. I’ll even help you.”

“I will too,” Hana offers.

“Sorry, I ain’t dyin’ for your closure, kid,”
Isabella says as she crosses her arms. “But we do need the fuel.
Maybe some other shit.”

Ben looks surprised then rolls his eyes.
“Someone has to stay with the boat!”

“That’s you!” Isabella snaps. Ben steps away
from the group.

“We go to the house and bring back Tanis’
mom, plus the fuel, and any other supplies we can carry,” Ian says,
addressing everyone. He looks at Josh. “Up for a shopping spree
with Isabella?”

“Yeah, I can do that,” Josh answers.

“I’ll help shop.” Markus nods to Josh.

Rice looks at Ian. “I — I can’t do it. I
won’t put Andy through that either.”

Ian shushes her, “No worries, Rice. Stay with
Ben. You three will be fine on the boat.”

Ian turns the
Pioneer
northeast. I
watch the compass turn slowly, praying we’re not making a colossal
mistake.

In the morning light, yellow and black smoke
color the blue skies. There are still fires burning all over the
city. I see a skyscraper shedding its skin, exposing steel
bones.