SURVIVORS OF THE DEAD: FROM THE ASHES (18 page)

Harry finally got his feet back under him and rose from his sprawled position. One of the infected lay only a foot or two in front of him. With both legs obviously shattered, it was nonetheless still struggling to crawl. Harry walked up to it and calmly fired a single round from the Glock into its head. That immediately and permanently ended any further movement from the thing.

The truck had backed up from the carnage and Harry watched as both front doors opened and Frank and Derrick jumped out. Frank quickly collected the woman and the kid and ushered them to the rear of the truck. He opened one side of the double doors and helped them both get in. After closing and securing the doors, he ran around the left side and stepped back up and into the driver’s side, slamming the door.

Derrick was on the right side of the truck firing single unhurried shots, so Harry assumed anything that had been mobile enough to run or walk was now down. Rounding the front of the truck, Harry’s assumptions proved correct. Derrick was standing near the open passenger side door firing at the bodies that were on the ground but still moving.

“That’s good, Derry,” Harry said. “Let’s get out of here.” With that, Derrick holstered the handgun he had been using and climbed into the passenger side door with Harry right behind him. Harry waited a moment as Derrick climbed over the center console and into the back of the truck, then sat heavily back into the passenger side seat. Closing his eyes for a moment, he took a deep breath and slowly released it to calm himself. “I am just too fucking old for this shit,” he mumbled to himself for what seemed like the hundredth time since the outbreak.

“Are you okay?” Frank asked as he started the truck and began driving.

Glancing toward Frank and then returning his focus to the street ahead, Harry said, “Other than needing to change my underwear I’m good. But damn, I thought you were going to take me out with the truck before those things did.”

Frank laughed. “Naw, you had at least good six inches between you and the truck.”

Harry chuckled at that and said, “Glad I didn’t sneeze is all I’m going to say. That was good driving, kiddo.”

“Thanks,” Frank replied. “What about the two in the back?”

Harry had momentarily forgotten about the woman and child. Looking over his left shoulder into the rear compartment, Harry saw that Derrick was quietly talking to the two new passengers. Derrick was listening intently to the woman as she spoke, but Harry couldn’t make out what was being said. She seemed to be completely composed now, at least in demeanor. She was an attractive woman, appearing to be in her late 40’s, and bore a striking resemblance to the girl so it was possible that the child was her daughter. Her short brown hair was disheveled, clothes road-worn, and there was a smudge of dirt on her face. Otherwise she seemed unaffected by the recent events she had just experienced. The child, similarly dressed and looking exhausted, also seemed calmer although she was clinging to the woman’s arm. Harry was now able to determine that the girl was much younger than he had initially thought. As Harry was looking back at the trio, the girl glanced up and over toward him. She smiled briefly, then quickly lowered her head.

Harry knew this was going to happen. He had tried to push it out of his mind but he’d known that sooner or later they were going to have direct contact with other survivors in the City. He had been amazed to see so many on the boats at the marina, but rescuing these two brought home the understanding that there were others still alive, and not infected, out there. It was a realization that their task was daunting, to say the least. Harry couldn’t fathom how he and his two companions could hope to do more than stand by and watch as people continued to die. Or worse.

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The woman finished whatever she had been saying to Derrick and leaned back, resting her head on the wall of the truck, and closed her eyes. The girl laid her head in the woman’s lap but appeared to stare off without focus. Harry was thinking how exhausted they both must be when Derrick came forward. He sat down in the jump seat just behind the front compartment and leaned forward so he could talk to Harry.

“So what’s their story, Derry?” Harry asked, still looking toward the two in the rear.

Derrick rubbed his hand over the short-cut hair on his head a few times, then looked up at Harry. “Man, you’re going to be amazed at what those two went through over the last week. I just can’t get my head around it.”

“What did she have to say?” Harry questioned, but stopped as he glanced up and saw the woman gently lay the now sleeping girl’s head on the cushion of the seat she had just moved from. She made her way from the rear compartment of the truck toward the two men.

“I’ll tell him, Officer Washington,” she said with a warm but tired smile as she patted Derrick's shoulder.

Derrick and Harry returned her smile as Derrick rose from the jump seat to allow the woman to sit down. He moved to the back, taking a seat on the wall bench just across from the sleeping girl.

“A couple more blocks and we’ll be at the west entrance to Yacht Road, Harry,” Frank stated.

“Okay, that gives us about five minutes to chat here,” Harry replied while looking directly at the woman.

“Oh, I shouldn’t think it would take longer than that to tell you what has happened, Officer Lancaster,” the woman replied.

Realizing that Derrick would have told her both his and Frank’s names, her addressing him by name was still a bit surprising. Especially with the familiarity in which she’d used it.

“Please call me Harry, ma’am. I think formalities are a bit overrated in the current situation,” Harry responded with a chuckle.

“My name is Wanda, Wanda Pettigrew. That is my granddaughter, Nevaeh. As in heaven spelled backward,” Wanda said with a warm smile, extending her hand. Harry shook it briefly, feeling the firm grasp.

“You two must have been through a lot, Wanda. Don’t feel as if you need to talk about it right now,” Harry said.

The smile slipped from her face as Wanda began speaking without further hesitation; Harry said nothing further, just listened intently.

Wanda and her granddaughter actually lived in New York State, in the capital city of Albany, approximately two-and-a-half hours north of New York City. They had been visiting Northern California to help a close friend with funeral arrangements for her mother who had passed away recently. Wanda had also been assisting in the sad yet necessary steps of going through personal effects and selling the house which her friend had grown up in.

“We were at McKinleyville,” Wanda continued. “That’s right on the coast and about a hundred miles north of here. I know because Nevaeh and I had never been to San Francisco, so we flew into San Francisco International Airport and stayed in the City for three days before renting a car and driving up to my friend’s. We took Highway One almost the entire way and we both had a great time.” She paused to gather her thoughts. Harry took that opportunity to glance through the front windshield and saw they had slowed a bit to navigate around several stalled cars in the street. He didn’t see any of the infected just yet, but knew the sound of the truck was certain to attract their attention soon enough.

Harry turned back to face Wanda and noticed she was also looking through the windshield. “Where are we going?” she asked.

“To the marina. We have some boats waiting to take us out to one of the islands,” he replied. “But please continue.”

“Oh, yes, where was I …” Wanda said, still looking beyond Harry and into the street. Turning her gaze back to Harry, she continued.

“Anyway, longer story short, we arrived in McKinleyville. Hard to see my friend under those circumstances, but we got through the funeral okay. Very simple service. Her mother had been ill for some time, so there was not a great shock at her death but it was still hard.

“There was a mountain of stuff to go through in the house but it was mostly junk. Ended up deciding to call a service to clean it out. I don’t think the woman classified as a hoarder but near enough.” At that Wanda laughed. “Although my friend grew up in that house, she lives in Oregon now, or did, and she’d decided to sell the property. She already had a few people interested by the time I arrived but still had some open houses she wanted to do.

“She needed to meet with a banker or insurance person, don’t remember which now, and she asked me if I would do the last open house scheduled. I said I would, of course, and met with two couples. Both seemed really interested, too.” Wanda paused again for a moment, looking down at the floor of the truck. “I was just closing the door to the house after showing it to a nice young couple who had just been married. I was watching them walk to their car when five or six people ran up to them out of nowhere! They started tearing into them like wild animals! I’ve never seen anything like it except in the movies. For a couple of seconds that’s even what I thought was going on! I was on some movie set that had been set up, or this was some sort of prank! I really had no idea what to do. I should have done something but all I ended up doing was locking that door!” Tears threatened to fall from Wanda’s eyes but she took a deep breath, wiping at them with her fingertips.

“Believe me, Wanda, there would have been absolutely nothing you could have done,” Harry said in an attempt to comfort her a bit. “These things are nearly unstoppable even with guns. Being by yourself and unarmed, there just wasn’t anything you could have done.”

Wanda looked back up to Harry and said, “I suppose not. What I’ve seen since has been much worse, but they were looking right at me as I closed that door.” She didn’t elaborate on what she had seen, but Harry was fairly clear about what it had been like. Harry understood all too well the turmoil she must be experiencing. How many people had he watched die through his apartment window in the early days of the outbreak, never attempting to help a single one of them. He knew intimately what haunted her, but a hundredfold.

“Anyway,” Wanda began again, interrupting Harry’s thoughts, “I waited until things quieted down outside. I was sure those things had seen me but I guess not. After an hour or so they seemed to disappear as quickly as they had arrived. The house was completely empty except for a hand stapler. Not sure why there was a stapler but there it was. I didn’t think that would have proven to be much of a weapon.” She sighed “I was worried sick about Nevaeh and had decided that I was going to get to her one way or the other. That’s when I realized those things had finally left.

“I ran out to my car, which was thankfully parked on the side of the house. I didn’t have to look at what was around the couple’s car out front. I must have dropped my keys at least half a dozen times before I could get the damn door unlocked. Finally did though.” Wanda paused to look back at her sleeping granddaughter.

“I must have gone sixty miles an hour down those narrow streets,” Wanda began again, looking back up and out of the windshield at the passing scenery. “There was nobody around at all, which was really creepy. It was as if the whole town’s population had suddenly disappeared. I didn’t think much about it at the time. I could only think about the mile or so back to the hotel where Nevaeh and I were staying.

“It didn’t take long to get there, and thankfully those things were nowhere to be seen when I pulled into the parking lot. I grabbed Nevaeh and we got out of there quick. I really didn’t have a plan so we just headed out of town. Almost made it, but ran into a pileup of cars a few blocks before an onramp to the highway. Looked like a lot of people were trying to leave town as well, from the size of that mess.” Wanda took a deep breath.

“Harry, we’re only a block away,” Frank interjected.

Harry glanced over to Frank and said, “Copy that Frank. Wanda, maybe you should take a few minutes to rest. We have a lot to do in a very short amount of time.” With that, Harry quickly outlined what they had planned.

“That sounds like an interesting idea and I think it will work,” Wanda said with a level of conviction that surprised Harry.

Harry snickered. “I would say I appreciate the vote of confidence, but the way you said that seems as if you are more assured than I feel about this right now.”

“I am, actually,” Wanda replied. “I know those things don’t like water.”

“How so?” Derrick asked from behind Wanda. He was still sitting on the wall bench with his eyes closed, but obviously had been listening to the conversation.

“I saw the effect it has on them up close and personal,” Wanda said, glancing toward Derrick, then back to Harry. “When we stopped at that pileup I saw a sign indicating that there was a small marina not too far from where we were. Not sure why I thought it a good idea, but decided we needed to go there. I guess I figured people had to be somewhere and if they weren’t in town that was as a good a place to look as any. Unless anyone left had managed to get out before that wreck at the onramp.

“Nevaeh wasn’t thrilled about leaving the car, and neither was I, but we had to get someplace safe. We sat there for a few minutes just to make certain nothing was going to pop up. I rolled down my window a bit to listen. The only thing I heard were birds. Seagulls, I think. I knew we were close to the ocean so figured we only had only a couple of blocks to walk to get to the marina. I remembered that in all the zombie movies I have seen over the years it was a good idea to have some sort of weapon. Not sure what I would actually do with one, but thought it might be a good idea to have something. I popped the trunk on the car and found a tire iron. Figured it was better than nothing.