Generation Dead Book 2: What You Fear (25 page)

“You ever meet a man about fifty or so, white hair, dead eyes?” I asked casually. 

All four men shook their heads.  “No one like that has ever been around here. Around fifty?  No, sir.  Oldest person here is thirty five.”

That made no sense.  Anyone who stayed here after the Upheaval would be older, and in some cases, considerably.  Unless blondie here cleaned house and populated it with friends and kidnap victims.

Suddenly,
the light bulb went on.  Of course!  There wasn’t enough zombies at the place in Blue Island to cover the number of people kidnapped, and they had to be kept somewhere they couldn’t leave, but nice enough they might not want to leave. Especially if their home back at the capital was a small house or shack.

I waved my dad over.  “We need to get out.  Let’s go while they haven’t figured out who we are yet.”

Dad nodded.  “Agreed.  We haven’t mucked this up yet, so let’s not start now.”  He turned back to the men.  “We’re going to use one of your boats.  Which one do you use to go on the lake?”

The men looked down, and one answered. “The black one.”

“Thanks.  We’ll bring it back, maybe by this evening,” Dad said.

Chapter 58

We left the unwounded men tied and gagged, while the wounded
men, we treated and locked in an office.  It would be a couple of hours before anyone came looking, or was brave enough to investigate the shots, and we would be long gone by then.

The boats were well maintained, and we chose the smallest of the four. It was a bass boat, with a trolling motor and oars.  The other boats were too large for our purposes, and
would likely raise questions if we showed up unannounced.  The biggest one was a large cruiser with black tinted windows. It was easily seventy-five feet long, and would be a very nice boat on the lake.  On the canal, though, it would ground itself in a heartbeat past the locks.

We piled into the boat and Duncan pushed us off.  If I remembered the river right, we had a little ways to go, follow the water as it flowed to the right, then we’d be making our way across a small harbor to Navy Pier.  It was going to get really interesting then.

The trolling motor started right away, and quietly pushed us along the river. Duncan kept us to the shadows cast by the tall buildings, and steered around some debris that looked like it had been there a long time.  Under one bridge there was a submerged car. 

I used the opportunity to wipe off my weapons and to top off my magazines.  My dad watched me for a while, and I knew what was on his mind.  But I wanted to wait until he said something.

“You’ve grown up a lot, Aaron.  I have to say that,” Dad said.  “For a while there, I thought you’d be willing to let us take care of business, but you sure put that fear to rest.”

I shrugged.  “If you’re worried about the man I ran through, don’t be.  He’d have done the same a hundred times over without batting an eye.  He was in league with Ben, and I wouldn’t want to guess how many of those girls at the school he was personally responsible for kidnapping.  Should I have faced him
armed? Maybe.  But you were the one who taught me fair fights were for fools.”

I could see
that Dad was torn a bit inside.  One the one hand, I had stabbed an unarmed, surrendered man. On the other, it was a really bad man.  In the end, Tommy was the one who broke the dilemma.

“He’s dead, and how he got there really doesn’t matter, as long as he go
t there, right?  His usefulness was over.  If it means anything, Aaron, I’d have shot him, myself, and not cared which side I was facing,” Uncle Tommy said.

The rest of the men nodded, and I finally
think the matter was at an end. We had more pressing things to worry about.  As we travelled, the dead came out to see us by.  Hundreds of zombies lined the walkways and the streets, moaning softly as they tracked our progress.  One reached out over a rail and fell into the water, disappearing in a swirl of deep green.

We rounded the bend and Duncan slowed the motor, moving as quietly as possible.  Charlie, Tommy, my father, and
I kept a watchful eye for lookouts and sentries.  Our weapons were ready to hand, but not up, keeping our profile as simple as possible. 

“What’s the layout of this area, Aaron?” Charlie asked quietly.

“The harbor is enclosed, and if we make our way along the north side, we can anchor and get out without being seen,” I said.  “But the hard part is getting to the Pier itself.  It sticks out in the water, so there’s no way to approach it without being seen.  We’d be under fire the second we pulled out from the harbor.”

“What about on land?”

“Odds are better, but we’d have to be really lucky.  If there was a way to keep everyone’s attention away from the land, then we could make a run for it,” I mused.

Dad
nodded slowly.  “I think we can manage something.  We’re going to have to get coordinated soon, so listen up.”

Chapter 59

I moved along the water’s edge, trying to keep as low profile as possible.  I could see a sentry standing by the front of the entrance to Navy Pier, but I wasn’t sure if there was another one.  The trees along the water’s edge helped a great deal, along with the years of growth from the grass, but they also kept me from seeing things, too.  I had no idea if there was a large contingent of zombies making their way over to me or not.

I had slipped out of the bass boat when we made the locks which led to the lake.  My father and the crew were going to execute the other part of the plan, which was to distract and attack from another side.  If they were very lucky, they would be able to even the odds a little before storming the place. 

As I approached, I was hit with a small, nagging doubt.  What if Ben wasn’t here?  What if he had made his way to another destination and we were walking into a major horde of zombies?  I began to worry that all the confidence I had felt earlier was wasted.  Then I suddenly realized that I could have asked the guy back at the apartments where Ben was, but I killed him before I thought to ask. 

“Ah, hell
,” I said aloud, not thinking about my whereabouts.

I thought about them soon enough as a deep groan answered me from the other side of the trees.  That groan was answered by another, and another, and another.  I didn’t wait for them to come exploring, I kept low and ran for all I was worth, trying to get some distance between me and the spot where they would come looking.  Zombies were kind of dumb that way. They zeroed in on a sound and checked it out, and if there was something for them, they killed it.

I ran for about one hundred yards, and then I reached the street.  I kept to the overgrown bushes that lined a small, U-shaped turnabout in front of Navy Pier, then without worrying about a sentry, I crossed the road and made my way over to the gate that closed the area off.  Ten seconds later, I was inside the gate, hiding behind a small bush, where I tried to catch my breath. 

I held my breath, though, when voice above me said very clearly, “W
hat the hell has stirred up Zeke out there?”

Another voice answered. “What are you talking about?  They always make noise over here.”

The first voice sounded skeptical.  “No, this is something different.  They got wind of something.  Think one of those stupid collectors is sniffing around again?”

“Likely.  I’ll call it
in. Then we’ll see if the dumb fuckers want to come over and have their asses saved.”

The first voice chuckled. “That was funny.  Waving them to the gate then slamming it shut while the zombies are on their tails.  Man, they screamed when the zombies started ripping into them.  What did that one girl say?”

“’It’s not fair!  You’re not fair!” the first voice said sotto voce, in a mockery of the victims’ voice.  “She fought pretty good, but they ripped her apart.”

“Had nice tits, if I recall correctly.” 

“Right up to the point where that big zombie bit them off.”

“She was still alive when he did
that, right?”

“She lived a long time.  Her hands were still trying to push them off when they were eating her insides.”

I had heard enough.  Obviously, I was in the right place.  How the hell they didn’t see me come over the gate is a damn mystery, but it worked for me.  I looked at the wall, and saw there was a window about fifteen feet above me.  A large sill underneath it blocked a good part of the view of the gate, which explained why they missed me.  A door was further down the wall, and I slipped over to it, trying to keep quiet as I moved through the brush.  I didn’t know if there were more guard posts, but I began to doubt it.  This place was about as secure as you could find in Chicago.

The door opened easily, and I moved up the stairs.  What I needed was on the second floor.  The corridor I was in was dark, save for a single bulb burning at the top of the stairs.  That told me all I needed to know about whether or not this place had power.  Given the weakness of the light, there wasn’t much, but they had enough for their needs.

I listened at the door for a moment and heard one of the guards talking on the phone.  He did a lot of, “Yes, sir.” And “No, sir,” and finally, I heard, “Okay, sir.” I knew then it was time to move.  I tuned the knob quickly and quietly, drawing my pistol as I did so.  I was carrying a Beretta 92 again, mostly because it was big and carried a lot of bullets.

I opened the door and stepped in, bringing my gun up.  Two men were ten feet from me and both had their backs to me.  They were three feet apart and one had his feet up on the desk that had been shoved up to the windows. The entire second floor was covered in windows, and by the angle of the man leaning back, he couldn’t even see the street, let alone someone under his window.  The other man was leaning back now, too, having gotten whatever instructions he was going to get from his superior.  I began to wonder how many men were here, but I had to deal with this pair first. 

I stepped forward and kicked the legs of the chair of the leaner forward, sending him crashing to the floor.  I used my gun like a club and smashed the second man in the teeth as he turned to the noise.  The first man I kicked in the head to get his attention, and then kneeled on his chest near his neck.  His hands stopped moving towards his waist when I shook my head at him and stuck my gun in his mouth.  I pulled a second gun from my waist, my father’s stainless old .45.  The big gun must have looked huge the man holding his bloody mouth, since his eyes got very large.

I wasted no time.  “Cooperate and I won’t kill you right away.  Don’t, and I will.  Decide now.”

Chapter 60

Both men looked at each other and nodded slightly.  I got off the man on the floor and put away the 1911.  Stepping back, I held the gun on both men as I signaled them to their feet. 

“Put those chairs back up.  Weapons on the floor.  Slowly.  Now back up to the window.” I gathered the guns and put them in my vest. “Now, who’s got the key to the gate outside?” I asked, keeping an eye on both men.

The man I had upended pulled a ring of keys from his belt and held up one.  I waved my gun at the stairwell and both men started down.  I waited a second to make some space between us, and then followed.  At the bottom, I told them to stop. 

Pulling some zip ties from my pocket, I told Bloody Mouth to tie his partner’s hands together.  When he had finished, I did him the same favor.  “Wait here
,” I said.

I slipped outside and checked for any activity.  There were several zombies wandering the trees over by the traffic circle, and I could see dozens more in the grassy area just beyond it.  That would do.  I unlocked the gate and opened it slightly.  Hurrying back to the stairwell, I found the men had used their time wisely.  One of them was trying to chew through the zip tie of the other, making for a very compromising situation.

I kicked the man doing the biting in the ribs and slammed an elbow into the head of the one getting bit.  I was suddenly very mad and the words of the two came back to me about letting that collector die.

“You like to bite things?  Then I think you should go where they bite back
,” I snarled, grabbing the men by their hair and dragging them outside.  I didn’t give them a chance to shout or raise an alarm; I just threw them outside the gate, shutting it behind them.  I gave them a final piece of advice.

“You might have a chance if you run along the water.  Maybe.”  I wasn’t feeling very positive about their chances, but then sometimes I just never knew.

The men stood up, looked at their approaching doom, and decided it might be worth it to run.  They took off for the lake and disappeared out of sight.  The fact that they didn’t scream told me several things.  One, there weren’t that many people here.  If there were a sizable force with decent firepower that could have rescued their asses, then they would have stayed and yelled their fool heads off.  It also told me that the nearest buildings to the city were likely empty.  I wouldn’t have much to worry about if I was careful.  Lastly, they ran exactly where I wanted them to, which would signal to my father and his crew that I had done my job and the sentries on this end of the pier were taken care of.