The End (26 page)

“Well, it’s definitely something worth
thinking about,” Conway said as Martin left.

Chapter 15: Restoration

The
defenses is looking good, in fact everything is looking good but as
taught many times over and over again, Conway wont bargain on
anything to last, he will always make sure that he is prepared for
the worst case scenario. There is only three months left until
Christmas, Conway figured they should at least try and do something
nice for a change, maybe pull the generator out, set up a few
lights and have a large barbeque.

Since Bobby has been behaving well since he
was put in there, it might be ok to let him go after two months,
which should have been enough time for him to learn his lesson.

Having done so much in so little time, Conway
can hardly believe it, everyone really pulled through well, all
trying their best to play their parts and make everything happen,
even if many lives have been lost.

Conway is interrupted by Martin calling him
to come as fast as possible, Conway follows Martin and as they get
closer to the entrance, Conway can hear this loud sound, soon
realizing it was the blades of chopper spinning. Conway can’t help
but wonder if this is trouble or possibly even help, since he can
see the pilot is dressed in a military uniform, Conway can only
hope as he waits patiently for the man to get out and approach.

“I want to speak to the leader of this
group,” The man asked.

“You are speaking to him,” Conway said.

“I am Private James Orton, recently not long
ago, I dropped a supply crate for you,” James said.

“That was useless, it only got a very
important person killed,” Conway said.

“How so, it wouldn’t be too hard to fetch it,
even if it’s a little offshore,” James said.

“Well, apparently the sharks in these waters
have been infected and killed the person that went down to get it,”
Conway said.

“I am truly sorry to hear that, I will have
to see such a specimen myself in order to believe you,” James
said.

“Just tell me what you want and be on your
way,” Conway said angrily.

“I want a place to stay, yesterday I had to
go out and drop supplies, if I ever had to find any survivors, when
I returned to base it was over run, everyone was dead,” James
said.

“Are you sure about that?” Conway asked.

“Went through each body myself,” James
said.

“Then I am sorry to ask but what exactly did
you have there, because most likely we will need all of it,” Conway
said.

“It’s not a big base, if that’s what you are
thinking but we do have food, some weapons with almost no ammo left
and of course we have two 50.Calibers, this is the only thing that
I can offer, that will be of use to your group,” James said.

“What is that exactly?” Conway asked.

“Its two heavy machine guns, you can mount
them pretty much anywhere to mostly anything, best way to boost
your defenses,” James said.

“Since you have the helicopter, I want the
following, all the food, any weapons with or without ammo and both
of those two guns you’re talking about,” Conway said.

“No can do, this is the reason I want refuge,
it’s only for a short while so that I can get a few repairs done,
then I will be leaving again. To head back to Santa Rosa Beach is
insane, the fuel left there will surely not get us back; if you
want you will have to fetch it with a decent size vehicle,” James
said.

“No can do, we don’t have many people left,
we can’t travel that distance,” Conway said.

“If you can get me closer, then I can go,”
Martin said.

“I want to go to,” Debra said.

“I can maybe go as far as Lake City, that’s a
little more than half way at least,” James said.

“Hold on a second, Martin its crazy out there
you know that, you can’t go alone,” Conway said.

“Look, if you know what those guns are
capable of then we must go and fetch them and Debra will go with
me,” Martin said.

“She can’t do anything, she will just get in
your way,” Conway said out loud.

This made Debra upset, though Conway has a
decent point, knowing she hasn’t made much contribution to the
team. As much as Conway said, he didn’t get through to Martin, the
easiest he could do, is let him go, there is no point in trying to
help if they don’t want to be helped.

Several minutes passed and they were ready to
go, it’s not going to be easy Martin knows this much but if they do
manage to get there and bring back those weapons, then there is no
way even a big horde can pass through to attack Key West, with any
luck they can get explosives to take down the bridge entirely.

Conway can only worry about them, Martin had
proven himself extremely worthy to the group, Debra in the other
hand doesn’t deserve to die either, even if she’s a lazy brat.
Losing her won’t make any difference but losing Martin would mean a
lot to the entire group.

The day went by slowly, most of the work has
been done, Conway insisted they clean up, at least, make things
look slightly better; no one wants to live in a mess like this,
especially when it still reeks of death and decay.

James have already returned, Martin and Debra
have been dropped down successfully, Conway isn’t slightly
impressed with either of them, knowing that Martin might be right
and possibly the only one here that would return with the
weapons.

Its dark, cold and late Debra refused to
continue until morning, but Martin wanted none of it and suggested
they keep on moving. They could easily take a car but that will be
too loud and to risky especially if the horde that overrun there
base is still around and close, they will require a vehicle once
they arrive at base.

Its early morning, Martin and Debra can hear
all types of screams, at times even growling, they moved fast and
softly, until it was decided to take a car, it was needed even if
Martin didn’t like the idea, but from the sounds of things its
getting dangerous, he also didn’t want to get killed for no reason
or just because he didn’t make the right decisions.

Arriving at the camp, Martin could really see
that these people had no chance against the horde, believing, it’s
because they were simply out here in the open. What disturbs him
most, is that one military vehicle is smashed, there is no way this
thing would run and there is nothing that it could have crashed
into. He did see that big creature that he hadn’t told Conway about
but as long he doesn’t have to, he won’t say a word until he
absolutely must.

The guns are un-mounted, with loads of ammo
for it; James was right though the rest is useless to us since
there isn’t much ammo to spare for them, and he did find an RPG a
Rocket-propelled grenade.

This will be useful if they do have to face
that thing, or things, since Martin only came up close to seeing
one, he believes that they must be rare.

He and Debra loads the food into the truck,
after they loaded the weapons, knowing they can’t stay long, before
they arrived there was a lot of screaming and its getting much
louder. Martin got into the truck waiting for Debra, it’s been at
least four minutes now, Martin got inpatient as she just needed to
go pee, how far did she need to go to do that, looking through the
base he finds nothing and no one.

As he passes a tent, he can hear clothes and
flesh being torn from someone’s body, slowly approaching the tent,
he only stares through a small gap between the zippers. Debra is
dead and the thing that killed her is a large dog that must be the
howling they heard.

Martin backs up slowly and only a few meters
away he hears growling, it’s an entire pack, as he starts running
towards the truck, he is starting to believe he needs to die this
way, due to his encounter with dogs at the hospital as well.

He reaches the truck and takes of fast, the
barking, growling and howling continues, they get softer the
further Martin gets from them, they followed a good distance its
almost hard to believe they manage to run that far, this didn’t
encourage Martin to slow down, the roads were filled with these
things, and getting tightly packed the further he goes.

Martin has a plan, though he hates it deeply,
he could always find a boat, though lately after his shark
encounter on the ocean, this entire plan of him gives him the
creeps, if he had to stop for any reason there will be no way to
get the truck back up to speed, there is simply to many of these
things, the truck slows down with each one he hits until he
decided, that he just have to take a boat.

There was only enough time for him to grab
the two guns, the RPG and one bag of food, he knows there were
explosives loaded on to that truck to, there is no way to get them
now, that truck is over run. Martin is tempted to try out the RPG
but it only has one shot and he figured that it will simply be a
stupid move to waste something so powerful.

Conway is worried its late afternoon, it’s
not supposed to take this long, they were supposed to do it as fast
as possible, no wasting time, grab a car drive, load and escape it
was that simple.

Conway decided it would be best to start
looking for them even if he has to do it on his own, arriving at
Key West, Martin was already there waiting.

“Damn, that really is big guns,” Conway
said.

“It sure is, look about Debra,” Martin
said.

“What she didn’t make it?” Conway asked.

“No she didn’t,” Martin said.

“It wasn’t going to be surprise to me, I told
you this,” Conway said.

“She did great, somehow at the very end she
was tackled by a bunch of dogs, I hardly made it myself,” Martin
said.

“Were they infected?” Conway asked.

“Yes they were,” Martin said.

“Dangerous animals like this, is going to be
a very big problem for all of us,” Martin said.

“What were they like; did they show the same
behavior as humans that were infected?” Conway asked.

“Not at all, they could see, hear and most
likely smell as they caught Debra without her even making a peep,”
Martin said.

“I didn’t know she was dead until I found her
in a tent being eaten,” Martin said.

“We better get home; oh did you find
explosives for the bridge?” Conway asked.

“Yes I did, sadly it was lost in my desperate
escape,” Martin said.

“Let’s get going, don’t worry about it we can
make another plan,” Conway said

“I found an RPG, you can use that to blow the
bridge,” Martin said.

“Though it only has one shot,” Martin
said.

“Then we save it, until they do manage to
pass through,” Conway said.

The defenses is looking better than ever,
they are almost there, Conway can almost feel it, see it and
believe it, the only thing they need now is livestock or simply
food any food will do, though believe it or not, anyone here would
kill for a piece of steak, or roasted chicken, a decently prepared
meal not only with fresh meat but with fresh vegetables, rice or
potatoes anything fresh will be great for all of us here.

There isn’t much left to do, soon everything
will fall into place and once it does everyone can start living
normally again, doing their work, go home spend time doing whatever
they wanted. It’s a good thing William set up the sun panels the
electricity really helps a lot. This is another thing we should
start doing, just in case they had to break. There is days where
the power is slow due to bad weather maybe we can add another
method to cover these areas, we have the generator but it’s loud
and annoying and to power everything, we will be out of fuel in a
matter of days.

Chapter 16: Happy endings

It’s
been some time now, no real attacks, no deaths, no disease or
people falling ill, we have successfully set up a third camp
located on Cormorant Rookeries by using a lot of painted signals at
Pelican Bay Harbor Marina, it wasn’t neat or tidy though it was the
perfect set up. We got it barricaded with much needed warnings,
including things they need to watch out for, and most importantly
never go in the water even by boat because it is dangerous.

Sharks in these waters are savages, they go
after anything bleeding, even tested it with sound alone and even
that seems to be a deadly attraction, at least, the ocean is being
kept clean as this is a predator they will still go after the
injured whether they are healthy, infected or busy dying its all
the same to them.

Other predators have the same reactions, even
if they are infected, we have found dogs, cats including a small
alligator, and they will still continue hunting as they normally
would, it’s no easy task, they are much more aggressive and the
slightest bite can transfer the virus.

Even with this new challenge it isn’t as bad,
the most dangerous encounters we have encountered is healthy human
beings, including Luke, Bobby, Roy and Bradley. People are by far
the worse, not as dangerous as those things out there but combine
them with hate, vengeance and a thinking brain then they sure as
hell are the worse things we have ever faced.

Beside from that we also have areas with rat
problems, this forced us to put on heavy gear and thick clothing,
it’s the only way we can insure our safety. Having an entire horde
of flesh eating rats or any other rodent, now that is a real
problem, individuals will rarely attack but once they team up, they
have the courage to take on even the biggest of animals.

Other small animals are exactly the same,
though we can only be happy that we haven’t encountered any birds
that have been infected, so far I believe they can’t be infected,
though I won’t speak to soon of this, otherwise we might just find
a few. If birds ever had to make a change and get infected then
there will be no way of surviving this outbreak.

This doesn’t mean it’s over, we have come
across many animals not infected, some even skinny that’s deeply
into starvation, this is sad yet it is good news, they managed to
survive this long, it must mean that they aren’t infected at
all.