Thomas continued to work on the coach. He made a modification to the zapper system that he hoped would result in a fatal shock for anyone or anything that touched the coach while it was activated. He’d connected the coach’s electrical hookup to the house. With the generators running, it would allow them to turn on the zapper without having to run the engine.
It was decided that four of them would sleep in the coach to rotate standing guard, and everyone else would stay in the house. The night passed and Thomas was almost disappointed that none of the zombies came around to test out his modification.
During his watch, Thomas called up the Skylark satellite that he’d positioned over Washington and downloaded as many photos of the area as he could, at several different magnifications.
The next morning, they had a meeting with everyone to discuss what they were going to do and how they would do it. Clay was excited to see the satellite photos and was certain that there was a ferry docked at Mukilteo they could use.
They loaded up the coach and got an early start. The trip from the south side of Seattle to the ferry terminal took three hours. They had to exit the interstate twice to find a way around accidents that had blocked off the road completely. They arrived at around ten o’clock and parked on the ramp leading to the ferry.
They all went together to board the ferry and see if they could get it launched.
“That’s weird,” Clay said as they approached. “This is the
Tokitae
.”
“What’s so weird about that?” Maddie asked.
“It’s not supposed to be here, that’s what,” he said, a bit perplexed. “It’s a brand new ferry that was supposed to replace the
Cathlamet
, but I could swear I just read that its delivery was delayed. Oh well, guess we shouldn’t bitch. It’s supposed to take less crew than the older models, and look, there’s not a single car on it.”
“We’ll need to clear the entire boat to make sure there’s no…” Harry paused, “what are we calling them now, Maddie?”
“Shriekers,” she replied. ”You know, like the sound they make”
“Like I was saying, we have to make sure there are no Shriekers on board.”
Maddie agreed, “Most of the interior is lit by the windows, so that should cut down on the time we’ll have to spend searching it. Let’s split up. Carla, you and Lauren come with me, and we’ll start at the top. Boys, you get below decks and any interior spaces on the main deck, okay?”
Clay protested, “What are we supposed to do?”
“Just sit here and enjoy the morning. We will clear the wheelhouses first, then come get you,” Maddie said.
Maddie led the way and walked onto the
Tokitae
. They checked their radios to make sure they were working and split up once they were aboard.
Carla followed Lauren, who was right behind Maddie. They opened the door to the first stairway they came to.
“Okay, everybody got a light?” Maddie asked.
Lauren turned on the flashlight attached to the end of the Mossberg 380 shotgun that Clay had lent her. Carla put on the headlight that she carried, and Maddie flipped the switch on her AR15’s tactical light.
“Here we go.”
Thomas, Conner, and Harry cleared the main deck spaces without finding a single living soul. They ran across several bodies of crewmen that appeared to have turned and then died from exposure.
“Why didn’t they just go inside?” Conner wondered out loud as he checked out the red, blistered skin on the body.
“Look, these doors all have actual handles; you can’t just push on them to open them.” Harry twisted the handle on the stairway door leading down to the engine room.
He swung it open to show Conner, and a Shrieker was on him. It came out so fast, he’d no time to bring up his weapon.
A simple mistake is going to kill me,
he thought as the Shrieker closed its hands around his neck. He felt the burn of something hitting his shoulder as he fell backward.
Conner had no choice. He swung the machete as hard as he could, knowing that he didn’t have enough clearance. He nicked Harry on the shoulder before burying the blade of the machete into the creature’s ear. It sliced from below the cheekbone into the side of its head and got stuck about three-quarters of the way through. Instead of pulling on it, Conner stepped toward them and kept pressure on the blade. The blood poured over the blade and splattered back onto his hands, but he kept pushing. The Shrieker went sideways and lost its grip on Harry.
Conner screamed as he pushed the damn thing to the ground and drove the blade into its head.
Thomas was already at Harry’s side, examining his wounded shoulder. Conner spun and looked down the stairs. There was another one, but sensing the light, it had retreated down the stairs and was panting in a darkened passageway.
“What the hell, Harry?” Conner said, his hands on his knees, breathing heavily and shaking his head.
“Sorry kid; you didn’t have to cut me for it though,” Harry replied, lying on the ground, bleeding from his shoulder. Thomas had his pack off and pulled out a handful of clean rags. He applied direct pressure to the wound and began taping it down.
“Hey, that’s duct tape,” Harry complained.
“No, that’s
medical-grade
duct tape. Now shut up while I finish.”
“How deep did I get him?” Conner asked, concerned.
“Aw, it’s just a flesh wound.” Thomas winked at him. “He’s just a big pussy.”
“Hey now, I’m not that big!” Harry shot back.
*****
Maddie crept slowly up the stairs. Once she saw another door ahead, she quickened her pace.
“Ready?” she asked.
“Just go already,” Lauren said.
“Ready,” Carla replied.
Maddie opened the next door. To her right was the second car deck, the door standing open. To her left, a door that said “Crew Only.”
“Let’s keep going up.” She reached across the space and opened the door leading to the next set of stairs. The light from the exterior windows on the passenger deck filtered down to them.
“Okay, I think we’re good, but stay alert.”
Maddie scaled the stairs quickly, and Lauren and Carla stuck to her like glue. They made a complete circuit around the passenger deck and found no one.
“All right, let’s go up the stairs to the sundeck.” They went back to the stairs and went up the next flight. Unlike most of the ferries Maddie had been on before, the interior stairs continued up to the wheelhouse.
“Well, this is different,” she said after she tried the door. It was locked. They went to the right and exited onto the sundeck. They made their way to the exterior stairs that led up to the wheelhouse. A green chain-link fence barred their way. Maddie traded weapons with Lauren.
“Stand back,” she said, and aimed at the lock. It only took her three shots to blow it open.
Her radio crackled.
“Hey, what the hell is going on up there?” It was Clay from the pier.
“Nothing, just unlocking the gate,” Maddie replied. Immediately the radio came back on.
“Hey, this is Thomas. We ran into a Shrieker down here and Conner killed it, but Harry took a scratch in the process.”
“From the Shrieker?” Maddie asked fearfully.
“No, no, from Conner; you may have to stitch him up, but he’s going to be okay,” Thomas assured her. “We are going down into the belly of the beast now, so we will probably lose radio contact. Don’t worry, we’re fine.”
“Okay, be careful. I need Harry for stress relief,” Maddie said. That got nothing in reply.
Maddie, Carla, and Lauren cleared the bridge and found no more of the creatures.
“Wow, look at this. I hope Clay can figure all this out,” Carla said, looking at the high-tech equipment in the wheelhouse.
“If anyone can, he can. He has a lot of experience as a captain,” Maddie said.
Thomas led the group down the next flight of stairs, since Harry was a bit handicapped. They came to the foot of the stairs, and as Conner had warned him, there was a Shrieker just down the passageway. Thomas dispatched it with a single shotgun blast to the head.
“Twelve-gauge persuasion,” he said as he stepped over the body. They came to the engineering operation station, a room filled with monitors and controls for the engines and generators. It looked like the Starship Enterprise to Harry.
It took them nearly an hour to search the remainder of the engineering deck, but they found no more surprises.
“Where is the rest of the crew?” Harry wondered.
“I don’t know, but there have to be more of them onboard somewhere,” Thomas said.
“Well, let’s go back up and tell them what we found, and help finish the search up there,” Harry added.
They all met up back on the car deck. Doreen and Jen had wheeled Clay onto the boat.
“We searched all the passenger areas including the bathrooms,” Maddie said.
“Harry, I need to take you back to the coach to look at that shoulder. Can the rest of you get Clay up to the bridge?”
It was slow going, but they dragged Clay backwards in his wheelchair up the stairs. He kept telling them he could walk, but Doreen just shushed him and motioned for Conner to keep going. When they got to the wheelhouse, Thomas and Clay got down to business. They started by trying to figure out how to operate the 362-foot ship.
“Before we do anything else, you’re going to have to get the electrical generators up and running,” Clay told Thomas. “They will be down in the engine room.”
“Okay, I’ll take Conner with me and see if we can’t get that done,” Thomas said. He got Conner’s attention and they headed back down the stairs.
Back in the coach, Maddie finished sewing up Harry’s shoulder.
“Hey, easy baby,”
“Oh shut it, you big baby,”
“Hey, that hurts sweetie.”
“I’m sorry, just a few more.”
It took fourteen stitches to close the wound to Maddie’s satisfaction. She doused it with iodine just to give him one more reason to bitch.
“Now, we’re going to give you antibiotics for the next few days to make sure it doesn’t get infected, but you should live.” She bandaged him up, gave him some Tylenol, and made a sling for him. They stepped out of the coach and the smell of the ocean greeted them.
“Ya know, Harry, I didn’t realize how much I missed home until we made this trip. The thought has been nagging at me this whole time, but with everything that’s gone on, it’s had to take a backseat in my brain. I think I’ve been homesick for a long time.”
Harry put his good arm around her and sidled up for a kiss.
“Let’s go see if we can’t help them get this boat running.”
They headed back toward the wheelhouse, still being cautious, knowing the entire boat had not been cleared. When they came to the door with the “Crew Only” sign on it, Harry stopped and put his ear against it. He listened for a minute.
“I think we found the rest of the crew.”
They continued up to the bridge to tell the others their suspicions. As they stepped onto the bridge, the lights came on. The main control console lit up, and different systems started beeping as they came online. Clay was holding a telephone handset.
“You got it, Thomas!” he said.
Everyone broke into applause.
Thomas had successfully started the electrical system’s generators. He, Clay, and Conner were now working on how to fire up both of the two main diesel engines that would propel them. This ferry, like most in the Washington state ferry system, was different than most other ships in that it had two bows. The pilothouse, or wheelhouse, was duplicated over both ends of the ferry so that the crew did not have to turn the ferry around during the passage between the mainland and its destination.
After another hour of fiddling around, they got both main engines started. Clay gathered everyone and explained what had to happen next.
“Okay gang, here’s what I need. Thomas and Conner, I need you to operate the loading platform. Everyone else except for Harry will need to be working the lines. I will apply thrust and push the ferry into the dock. Thomas and Conner will release the lines on the pier. Once that is done, they’ll adjust the loading ramp and Harry will drive the coach onboard. The ramp is run by hydraulics and will come down, but with no power onshore, it won’t go back up. So, Thomas, you have to make sure you don’t let it down too far. When Thomas and Conner have pulled the lines off the pier, I need everyone else to pull them onto the boat. Any questions?”
“Where do we put the lines once we have them on the boat, Dad?” Jen asked.
“Don’t worry about that right now. Just pull them up onto the car deck. Any more questions?” Clay asked, excitement in his eyes.
“Okay,” he continued. “Maddie, Thomas, I want you to each give me a yell over the radio when you’re ready. Harry, check with Thomas before you move the coach. Let’s go!”
Everyone scurried into their positions, Doreen staying with Clay to help him if he needed her.
The lines attaching the ferry to the docks were stretched tight. Thomas and Conner made it to the first one and called up to Clay.