An Apocalypse Family (Book 1): Family Reunion (29 page)

I sat on the back deck, looking out over Penn Cove. I was grateful for finally reaching our destination, but knew I would soon have to begin my journey to the east.

Two days… I’ll give myself two days to recoup…
My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a ferry’s whistle.

They still refer to a ferry’s horn as a whistle, but it sounded more like the blast of a foghorn. The boom echoed off the trees. I stood and walked to the edge of the deck to look toward the mouth of the cove.

Everyone came running at the sound. I couldn’t imagine a ferry coming into Penn Cove, but sure as shit, there it was, a damn ferry headed toward us. Parker walked up next to me and handed me his binoculars.

“Looks like Cousin Maddie standing on the bow.”

I took the binoculars and looked for myself. “What the hell, it is Maddie.”

It took a while for the pandemonium to die down, during which time I passed the word around that it was Cousin Maddie on the ferry. It took another hour for the ferry to anchor up and for them to launch a zodiac for the trip to shore. I watched the whole process through Parker’s binoculars. I could see several other people on the ferry but wasn’t able to figure out who they were. When they finally made it to shore, I saw four people get out. They made their way up the hill from the beach, and when they got about halfway up, I recognized Carla. She was the last person I expected to see, and she looked completely wiped out. Conner was helping her up the hill. I would recognize Conner anywhere; he was the spitting image of my father. Even he seemed subdued.

Maddie made a beeline for me and was about to grab me in a bear hug when Meg stepped in and hijacked it.

“He’s got a gunshot wound in his side, but I could stand a hug.”

I threw up my good arm and welcomed her in with a half-hug. I finally got to meet Harry and was in the process of shaking his hand when Carla came up on the deck. She broke down and started sobbing when she saw me. I moved away from Maddie and Harry and took her into my arms. I thought she was grieving Jacob, and that wound was worse than the one in my side. I began to tear up while telling her it was going to be okay.

“No,” she said, “we lost Lauren. She was right; it’s never going to be okay.”

It took several minutes for me to get the story of how they lost Lauren to the freaks, which she referred to as Shriekers.

“So, do you know anything about your mom and whether they left San Diego?” I asked. Not the question I should have asked right then.

“I don’t know, but San Diego is gone, wiped out,” she said, visibly shaking now.

I left it at that.

“Why don’t you get some rest?” I waved Molly over. “Hey, can you show Carla where to find a place to rest for a while?”

Conner, Carla, and Molly went in the house, and I looked for Maddie. I found her, Parker, Max, and Jean sitting in the great room.

“Ah, I’m glad you are all in one place, saves me having to track you down. I wanted to ask what you all think about moving everyone out to the ferry.”

Maddie smiled. “We were just talking about that.”

It was already late afternoon, and we couldn’t spend too much time debating the finer points of the plan. We decided to move everyone to the ferry and worry about the supply situation tomorrow. We would leave just a few people onshore for the night to guard the supplies.

We gathered the entire group, which now numbered over fifty, and reached a consensus that the ferry was the most logical place to stay. No one had proof, but none of us had ever seen a freak in the water. Someone made the point that we needed to agree on a name for the people who had turned. No one could agree, so we tabled that discussion for another time.

Parker and Max took Parker’s boat down to the launch ramp in Coupeville, got it into the water, and we began taking people out to the ferry.

Max and Lisa volunteered to stay onshore in the tree house, and Cousin Merle and his brother-in-law Lou would stay in the house with the supplies.

It was late. Max was having trouble staying awake. He thought about waking up Lisa, who was fast asleep on the cot, but the lights around the perimeter began to pop on and staying awake became a moot point.

“Lisa, wake up!”

The freaks poured through the tree line, hundreds from all directions. Max got on the sound-powered phone and called Merle.

“Massive horde is coming at you!” he screamed, and then began to shoot.

The attack lasted for two hours. Max and Lisa fired close to fifteen hundred rounds of 5.56. The brass covered the floor of the tree house. The house had been overrun, and it didn’t look good for Merle and Lou. No one answered the phone when Max tried to contact them.

At dawn, Parker and I returned to shore to survey the damage. I found Max in the house. The bodies of the freaks were everywhere. I stepped over them on my way in.

“Hey, you okay?”

Max looked like he was ready to call it quits.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Can’t find Merle and Lou, though.”

We searched the house and dug through the mess of freaks. After twenty minutes of searching, we found Lou upstairs. He looked like Davy Crockett at the Alamo. Dead freaks were piled up around him. Upon further examination, it appeared he’d opted to end it before being eaten alive. There was a single gunshot wound to his temple.

I bent down to get a closer look, and that was when Merle came out of his hiding spot. The room had gabled ceilings that came down to about four feet off the floor. The space in the eaves was closed off, except for the hidden section Merle had snuck into. “Hey guys,” Merle said as he crawled out, “just escaped at the last minute before the barricade gave way and freaks poured into the room.”

It was decided to completely abandon the compound and relocate everything to the ferry. It took all day, but we managed to salvage enough supplies to keep the group going for a week or so. We still had the farm, which would keep the group busy and fed quite well.

I called a meeting late that afternoon. We managed to get the barbecue grills out to the ferry, and we had a memorial for Lou and everyone else we had lost up to that point. There was a lot of singing and crying, but we made it through.

It was amazing how good the hotdogs we found in the deep freeze on the ferry tasted. The walk-in freezer had stayed cold enough that nothing was ruined, and it was fully stocked with ferry food. Nothing like steak, but there were hundreds of pounds of hotdogs and hamburgers.

After the memorial, a dozen of us met to discuss the future.

“We need to establish a council that represents the group when it comes to making decisions. We can’t continue to vote on every little thing,” Jean said, starting the ball rolling.

“I won’t be staying,” I said.

Several different people were talking at once, but when I said that, a quiet came over the group. Max was the first to speak.

“Well, I tried my best to talk him out of it, but Ryan is determined to go east to try and find his family. Lisa and I have talked about it, and we will be going with him.”

This was news to me, and although I told Lisa she could come with me, I’d decided to go it on my own. It was my idea and I didn’t want to get anyone else involved.

Maddie spoke up next.

“We aren’t staying either. Harry and I have to find our kids back in Texas, and we owe it to Mr. McClure, the owner of the coach out there, to at least find out if he’s still alive.”

“I’ll stay long enough to help get things organized here, but we need to hit the road soon,” I said.

Parker stood and motioned to Henry.

“Henry and I talked, and we need to clear the island of vectors, or freaks, or whatever you want to call them. It will take a long time and a lot of work, but we think if we blow the bridge, we can eventually reclaim the island. I think we can do that, but I would appreciate your help getting started, and by that I mean help destroying the bridge.”

Everyone agreed to work on a plan to destroy the bridge in four days. That would give me a little more time to recover from my gunshot wound, and the group enough time to come up with a feasible way to take out the bridge.

*****

Maddie and I sat on the sun deck of the
Tokitae
, enjoying a warm day. We talked about all the shit we had recently been through, and about combining our strength. I realized it would be stupid to turn down Max and Lisa’s offer to go with me, and Maddie convinced me that we should all go together in the coach. It would take me out of my way, but it increased my chances of making it to West Virginia at all.

We were making plans when Thomas came up the stairs and made his way across the deck to us.

“Hey guys. Maddie, we need to talk,” he said.

“Sure thing, darlin’. What’s up?”

“I love you guys, and you have become like my family, but I think Rico and I are going to stay with the folks here. They need my help, and to be honest, I’m not cut out for the road.”

Thomas spoke like it was a hard decision that he’d spent a lot of time considering.

“I understand completely. We’ll be screwed if the coach breaks down, but they do need you here to keep the ferry running, too,” Maddie said. She was never one to candy-coat a situation.

“Harry is no slouch when it comes to fixing diesels, Maddie, and if you have issues with anything else, you can always call me on the sat phone,” Thomas said.

“Yeah, as long as it isn’t the sat phone that’s broken,” she said with a smile.

“Maddie, don’t make me feel like shit here,” Thomas pleaded.

“I’m sorry, Thomas. I’ll really miss having you around, is all,” she said, letting him off the hook. “Now go get that bottle of Fireball you’ve been hiding in the coach and we’ll celebrate.”

“Deal,” he said, and went to fetch the whiskey.

I woke up with a slight hangover. Last night was the first alcohol I’d consumed since all this began other than a couple of beers. It was hard to believe that it had only been a little over two weeks ago that I was on another ferry headed for a few days of fun at our family reunion. It seemed like a lifetime ago that I left West Virginia.

I stood up and my head spun for a second; I had to grab for the table. We had taken up residence in the passenger cabin and were sleeping on the long bench seats. I made my way to the bathroom, washed my face, and brushed my teeth. The toothbrush gagged me a bit and I almost lost it before getting control.

I looked in the mirror and hardly recognized myself. The face that looked back at me was thinner, harder. I stood up and pulled up my shirt. Damn! I hadn’t realized it, but my well-crafted paunch had diminished considerably. Getting chased by hordes of freaks and eating only when we got the chance had turned out to be quite the diet and exercise program. I would have to find some new clothes soon, or at least a smaller belt.

I examined my wound and found that it was actually scabbing over. It felt tight, but on a pain scale of 1-10, it was no longer a 13—more like a five or six. I used someone’s deodorant that had been left beside the sink. Good old-fashioned spray. It was kind of funky smelling, but it beat my funky smell. I would have to get a bath today. I didn’t plan on doing much of anything else.

I made my way to the cafeteria and got a cup of steaming hot coffee. Henry had put a sign-up sheet on the wall for work that needed to be done at the farm. I saw that every slot for work had a name next to it. That was good; no one other than me was shirking responsibility today. I took my coffee to a seat out on the deck and lit a smoke, thoroughly enjoying the moment of peace. Parker and Max were working with Thomas and Harry to develop an idea for taking out the bridge. I was no demolitions expert and figured they would tell me when they worked out a plan.

I heard one of the Zodiacs fire up. I stood and walked to the railing, where I looked down on Parker and Max getting into Parker’s boat.

“Where are you headed?” I shouted down to them. Max looked up and yelled back at me.

“We’re going to check out the bridge from the water while the tide is in.” Rather than try to carry out a shouted conversation, I just gave him a wave. I went back inside to find Lisa and Maddie sitting there, chatting over coffee.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“We were just talking about making a scavenger run. You need anything?” Lisa said. I smiled and hiked up my baggy pants and said, “
Necesito nuevos pantalones, por favor
.” Lisa raised her eyebrows at Maddie.

“He said he needs new pants,” Maddie translated.

“And a belt, too, but I don’t know the word for belt,” I said. “Size 38 ought to work for now, but at this rate I will be down to 34 in no time.”

Maddie laughed. “Shedding some of that fluff, are you? We’ll see if we can find something.”

I left them in search of Thomas. Conner, at the coffee pot, told me he was fetching some for Thomas. I went with him to the engineering deck and found Thomas busily working on a diagram of some kind.

“What are you making?” I asked.

He looked up. “Hey Ryan, I’m working on making an improvised explosive device.”

“An IED? For the bridge? What are you going to use for explosives?” I asked, looking at the diagram.

“Not sure yet, but I want to have the basic design done so I can be ready to go. Henry said he has a ton of ammonium nitrate at the farm, but that would be too bulky. We’d never be able to set the charges somewhere they could bring the whole thing down.”

I thought about it for a minute, then asked, “What about the Naval Air Station? Do they have any bombs over there that we could borrow?”

“They should—when Max and Parker get back, we’ll go over there and do some recon. I sent them to take some pictures of the underside of the bridge so I can figure out where to place the IED.” He was being polite, but I could tell he was annoyed by my questions. I left and headed back up to the main car deck.

I found Harry in the coach listening to the radio.

“Anyone out there?” I asked

“Yeah, I’ve been listening to a group who have set up a camp in a shopping mall in Olympia. By the sound of it, they’re building a wall around the place. I don’t know what to make of it.”

“Huh, that’s interesting. Bring it up at the meeting, but don’t make contact with them. They may be friendly, but I’d just as soon keep our presence quiet for now,” I said.

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking, too,” he replied. “So, are you going to come with us to Texas?”

“Yes, as you heard, Max and Lisa have decided to go with us as well. Her husband is, or was, in Arkansas. She wants to find out if he made it or not. Max thinks it’s a pipe dream, but he said he doesn’t have anything better to do.” That got a chuckle of out Harry.

Harry continued fiddling with the radios. My eyes were heavy, and I dozed on the couch.

I woke up to Maddie’s voice.

“Hey, we’re about to meet upstairs, you coming?” I hadn’t realized how tired I was; I must have slept the day away.

“Yeah,” I said, shaking the cobwebs from my head.

Thomas was talking to the group when Maddie and I entered.

“We found several MK81 bombs at NAS Whidbey. These warheads have about 300 pounds of composition H6 explosives. One of them will be sufficient to blow up the bridge.”

Max spoke up, “Uh, there is no such thing as too many explosives.”

Thomas smiled and shook his head.

“True, but we don’t want to blow ourselves up in the bargain.”

Thomas went on to explain how he would rig the IED. Most of it was over my head, but I kept nodding like I understood.

“The IED will be triggered with a walkie, so while I’m working on it we’re going to have to collect all the radios, just to be safe. The finished IED will be pretty heavy, so we’ll have to use a block and tackle to raise it up from the boat.

“That brings us to the next topic for discussion. We need to take the ferry to the terminal in Clinton to get the coach off,” Harry added. “We’ll be the last vehicle to cross the bridge.” The thought of us leaving turned the group somber.

“Well, there’s no reason to put off the inevitable,” Thomas said, acknowledging the fact that we would be leaving in a few days. Clay brought up that he needed to make a run home to retrieve the remainder of his drugs. Parker said he would go with him in the Zodiac so that they wouldn’t have to take the ferry. Doreen wanted to go along, so they made plans to do that after they docked the ferry at Clinton. Harry would drive the coach back to Coupeville and help Thomas with the IED.

Harry also mentioned the group south of Seattle that he heard on the radio. He also reminded everyone of the incident that they’d had with the marauders in Olympia. Everyone agreed that we should monitor them without initiating contact. Henry gave a report on the progress at the farm; it looked like there would be a good crop of squash this year, and with the help of the rest of the group, they should have enough food to make it through the winter. He went on to talk about planting a variety of crops next spring. The plan was to scavenge seeds from the surrounding farms’ seed banks. The overall outlook for the group was a positive one. They talked about the need to start hunting the Shriekers/Freaks/Vectors once the bridge was taken out. It would be a slow process, but they figured they could eventually reclaim the island.

A chirp from Clay’s radio interrupted the discussion. Conner’s voice came across the airwaves.

“Hey guys, we’ve got company.”

I turned my radio on.

“What exactly does that mean, Conner?”

“There’s a boat headed toward us. It isn’t coming fast and all its lights are on, so they aren’t being sneaky, but they are definitely headed our direction.”

We had drilled for this possibility earlier and everyone went to their posts. I retrieved one of the M4s with an ACOG scope and went to the bridge on the end of the ship facing the channel. Max, Thomas, Henry, and Merle went to the main car deck to repel boarders. Harry and Maddie went to the coach and tried the VHF radio to hail the boat on channel 16, the emergency maritime channel. Clay turned off all the lights on the ferry and Conner manned the search light on the flying bridge, where I was.

“Don’t turn that thing on unless I tell you to,” I said, and he gave me a thumbs up to show that he understood.

Harry came over the walkie.

“Hey Ryan, this guy says his name is Josh and he’s looking for his Uncle Ryan.”

“I’ll be damned,” I said to Conner, “it’s your Uncle Josh.”

I replied to Harry over the radio. “Ask who’s with him.” I hoped that Barb and the rest of her clan was onboard the boat.

“He says it’s just him and two other survivors,” Harry replied.

“Okay,” I said over the radio. “Everyone stand down, and someone find Carla and tell her that her brother is here.”

Clay turned the lights back on and we all made for the main deck to welcome our new arrivals.

The main deck actually sat eight feet above the water. Parker and Max had stolen a floating dock and had tied it off at the rescue boat davit, giving us a place to dock our small boats. They had two extension ladders tied together side-by-side for getting personnel onboard, and the davit worked for anything that had to be hauled up onto the deck.

Josh tossed the line across and Parker tied him off. A blonde woman and a young girl stood in the back of the boat.

I waited on the main deck. It was several minutes before I saw Josh’s head pop up the ladder. I went over and greeted him as he got his feet firmly on the ferry deck.

“Hey Josh,” I said, giving him a hug.

“Hey Uncle Ryan, I wish I had better news for you, but…” I just held him in the hug.

“Don’t worry about that right now. Let’s get you guys settled and then we can talk.”

Josh introduced everyone to Liv and Stacey. People were saying hello and greeting them with hugs when Carla came running across the deck with Conner in tow.

“Josh! Oh my God, Josh.” She encompassed him in a flurry of hugs and kisses, then stopped and looked around.

“Mom? Dad? Hope?” Josh just shook his head and wouldn’t look her in the eye.

“Josh, where is everyone else?” Her voice now became a little shrill as the panic set in. “Josh, did you leave them somewhere safe, are they coming behind you… where are they, Josh?”

“None of them made it, Carla,” Josh stated. “They are all gone, except for Denise; she’s still in San Diego.”

It was a crushing blow to Carla’s already fragile psyche. She fell to the ground; Conner just caught her. Maddie stepped in and tried to bring her around, but she was out.

“Get a stokes-litter, and then take her to the crew quarters.” Meg and Jean jumped into action.

“We’ll get her an IV and keep her comfortable, that’s about all we can do.” Conner was visibly shaken himself.

“What’s wrong with her?” he asked Maddie.

“I don’t know,” she replied. “She’s probably in shock and her body just shut down. She should be okay, but we need to keep an eye on her.” They hustled around getting Carla taken care of. Josh just stood there staring.

I went to him. “Hey man, don’t worry. She’s just a little overwhelmed. She lost Jake and then Lauren, so she’s been through a lot.” I took our three new people up to the passenger cabin and got them some coffee. I asked the girl if she wanted cocoa and she seemed miffed.

“No, I’ll have coffee too.” And after a stare from her mother, she added, “Please.”

Josh filled us in on what had happened to Barb’s group and how everything went to shit pretty much that first night. He explained where he and Liv had met and how good Stacey was with a rolling pin. They had spent the last two days searching the island, looking for us. They went to Maxwelton Beach first, as Josh remembered that was where the last family reunion had been held. When they found no one there, they went to the old homestead in Langley. Josh said he vaguely remembered that one of his Mom’s cousins had a farm in Coupeville. He wasn’t even sure where it was, so they had just stayed close to the beaches, looking for signs of life. When they rounded the point and saw the ferry, Josh said he knew he’d found us.

“Only the damn Brant family would think to steal a ferry,” were his exact words. I pointed out that it was actually the pirate Clay Hansen and his sister Maddie who had acquired the ferry.

We set them up in their own little area, which consisted of two big booths in the passenger cabin.

“We are talking about building walls for some privacy, but we haven’t gotten that far yet,” Doreen said. She was the acting captain’s wife and was taking a lead role in the logistics of the group while on the ferry. No one seemed to mind, and it was a job that needed doing. I left them to get situated and went to the crew’s quarters to check on Carla. I found Meg sitting with her.