6th Horseman, Extremist Edge Series: Part 1 (22 page)

The man’s smile vanishes. He excuses himself.
I wait and wait. The walls in the office are bare. The desk only
has a note pad and a box on it. There’s a small bookshelf with only
five books on it. I lean in to read the spines:
The Quran,
Muhammad: The Life of the Great Man, Hadith in Islam
and others
I do not recognize. Most are typical, I would guess. There’s one
worn out book that catches my eye. The spine is creased and faded.
It’s a book on astrology.
Someone is very interested in the sky.
Meteorites come from the sky. The Stone of Allah came from the
sky
.

The young man returns. “I do not have any
information about any crown. However, I have heard a story that
many of the survivors of the plague escaped to Gabes. That is all I
have.” The man stands up and shows me to the door. I thank him, but
I’m rushed out of there like I have an infectious disease.

As I leave the courtyard, a van stops in
front of me. A police officer steps out and heads toward me. I’m
not immediately alarmed until I see his face. His stare is solid
and hard and his fists are clenched. I freeze.
I’ve not done
anything wrong
.

“Excuse me!” He says. “American
preacher!”

I don’t know whether to run or not. I see a
woman quickly duck inside a small market across the street. The
street is now empty, silent. I turn but there’s another police
officer behind me. I lift up my hands, palms open. They are grabbed
and twisted behind me. A hood is thrown over my head. I’m dragged,
then shoved into the back of the van.

M
y side arm is at
the ready, cocked, with the safety off. Tanis is hiding on the
other side of the door, looking at me. I peek through the small
glass window centered in the door. It’s raining steadily and
getting worse, so it’s hard to see. Four looters are trying to kick
down the gate at the end of the walkway. The only other weapons I
see are a baseball bat and a two-by-four. I grip my weapon and
thank Jesus that I’m armed.

The gate breaks open and the group quickly
moves down the walkway and onto the pier. One stays behind and
closes the gate. I hope they see that the boats are gone and move
on. The man with the long black hair moves quickly to the door. I
duck just as he looks through it.

“There’s a boat inside!” he yells.

This may get ugly. I motion for Tanis to back
away from the door, mouthing, “Get upstairs!” Tanis disappears up
the stairway.

There are two double doors. I’m behind one
set of doors and there’s another set on the opposite wall of the
storeroom. I’d broken the small windowpane on the opposite door, so
I know they won’t have any trouble getting in. Damn it. I should
have thought to barricade the doors. I may have lost our hideout.
I’m glad to see another human alive, but they may not be friendly.
In these situations, territory like this is invaluable. I decide my
best option is to make a stand. I hide behind a tall storage
cabinet and wait for one of them to enter.

The door opens and the black hair guy moves
inside cautiously. He has no weapon. I lunge from my hiding spot
and train my pistol at his chest.

He raises his hands and yelps. I shush him
and direct him to the corner of the room with my hand. Then the fat
white man enters.

“Drop the wood!” I yell.

He drops the wood. “Ahh, I just pissed my
pants a little!”

“It’s okay!” Ian yells with his hands high
over his head.

I put my finger up to my lips ordering the
two men to be silent. I motion with the barrel of my gun for the
fat man to join his friend in the corner. I whisper harshly, “Keep
your hands up. Make one sound and I shoot you in the leg. You can
bleed out for all I care.”

The black man enters the building. He must
have heard me because his hands are already held high with his
baseball bat pinched loosely between his fingers. “I’m no trouble
to you. Neither are my companions. We’re here for a boat. My name
is Markus and that’s Ben. He is Ian. The woman is Rice and the boy
is Andy. We just saved them from a burning building, which is now
between us and two hundred or so zombies.”

“Thanks, pops,” Ben snips.

I lower my gun, not bothering to point it at
the woman or the kid. “Take the boat. I patched the hole in it
yesterday.”

Markus steps toward me, relaxing. I bring my
gun back up to his chest. He raises his hands back up and says
calmly, “You’re a police officer. I can tell. I’m a preacher. We’re
good guys, too. Please, lower the gun and let’s talk.”

I lower my gun to my side. “Take the boat.
There’s nothing else for you here. All I ask is that you leave as
soon as possible.”

Ben lowers his hands, “C’mon lady. There’s
some crazy shit out there.”

“You’re not safe here. No one is,” Ian
says.

“He’s right. Have you seen what’s going on?”
Markus asks.

“Obviously not!” Ben injects. “She looks
kinda messed up, but if she’d fought those walkers she’d be freaked
like we are.”

“Listen, the dead are getting up and
walking!” Ian takes off his pack and leans against the wall. “We
had to fight them. They don’t die.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” I
snap. “Who won’t die?”

Ben steps toward me then stops as I tense up.
“Listen, lady. Everyone that died is now getting up and walking
around. Zombies, dude.” He grabs a section of his shirt and thrusts
it toward me. “See this blue crap. This isn’t paint, lady. It’s
their blood.”

“The virus seems to have turned their blood
blue. It’s also growing these white root-like things in their
bodies,” Ian clarifies Ben’s rant. “Probably mutated the central
nervous system.”

“It’s all true,” Rice adds, her voice shaky
and weak. “They’re everywhere.”

Markus looks out the window. “They seem to
have some sense for what they crave because they are following us.”
Markus says, then adds, “Oh no. We have more company.”

I run to the door and peek out the window.
Thunder interrupts the conversation, and the rain ratchets up. A
dark bob-cut woman with a couple of rifles draped over her shoulder
and a thin white man wearing a medical mask are at the gate
breaking it open. It must have frustrated her because she pulls out
a shotgun and bashes the latch off with the butt of the gun. The
gate swings open wildly. She is splattered in the same chunky blue
stuff that Ben is covered in.

“Do you know her?”

“No,” replies Markus.

“This one’s armed,” I mention. “Let her come
in just like I let you. Everyone get in the corner.”

Tanis runs down the stairs. “There are two
more coming down the gate.” He’s worried. “The girl’s armed:
shotgun, two pistols and a M16A4, standard issue army reserve
assault rifle. The dude she’s with has a chainsaw.”

“Thanks, Tanis. I’d find that hiding spot
again,” I reply, looking out the window to confirm. “Take Andy with
you.” I add. Tanis takes Andy and goes back upstairs. “She’s not
army reserve, though.”

“Kid knows his weapons,” Ben comments.

“Yeah,” I answer.

Ian peeks out the window of the opposite
door. “Definitely not reserve.” The armed woman at the gate does
exactly the same thing we all did. She tries to lock the gate after
she’d forced it open. Now the latch is too broken, and so she can
only tie the gate shut.

“I think we’re going to avoid a gun fight.
She looks okay to me,” Ian says.

“Thinking like that can get us killed.”

The woman and the man start toward the
boathouse. As they come closer the woman docks her weapon in her
shoulder and stares down the sight.

I motion for everyone to get away from the
doors and watch her scan the area while on one knee. Definitely has
military training. The woman looks across the river, noticing the
boats on the other side. She runs to the building. She veers away
from the door, turns, and hides along the east wall of the
boathouse. She must have noticed the broken window. Maybe she’s
just being careful. The man she’s with stays right behind her with
his chainsaw. There’s another double door towards the back,
presumably for launching and loading boats.

I don’t want a standoff. I don’t want to have
to kill her. I’ve had to kill before and it never leaves you. I
think it changed my DNA somehow, altered my dreams, aged me.

Ian yells as loud as he can, “Don’t
shoot!”

“Then start throwing weapons out that door!”
Isabella replies.

“We’re wasting time. The walkers are
following us! We don’t mean any harm,” Markus yells. “I give you my
word!”

“My name is Hana! What’s yours?” I add,
thinking this is a better strategy than getting shot.

“I just want a boat!” yells Isabella. “And I
won’t take no for an answer!” She fires a round into the air. “I’ve
got sixty rounds here and I know you don’t have that.”

“This is so stupid,” Ian hisses. “Can’t we
all use the boat together?”

“That would be wise!” Markus says. “Please,
lower your weapon and come on in. Help us get the boat in the
water!”

The gate rattles. I see more people at the
gate.

“They’re here!” Ben yells. He runs to the
boat. “Come on! They’re slow as shit, but getting faster.”

“Ben is right.” Markus joins Ben near the
upside-down boat.

I run to the boat. It flips over easily even
though it’s very heavy. Had me and Tanis tried this alone it would
have been impossible. I count the seats. It’s a big rowboat and
will hold us all, barely. The boat slips into grooves in the floor.
The grooves lead to a double door. Ben opens the doors.

“PUSH!” Markus yells.

We slide the boat on its belly and out the
side door. It splashes in the water noisily. Ian holds a line tied
to the boat preventing it from floating away. He steps out of the
boathouse garage and into the line of fire.

Isabella runs up to him. When he doesn’t move
or raise his hands, she lowers her rifle. “Fine, we all use it.”
She introduces herself and Josh reluctantly.

Tanis flies down the stairs to see what’s
going on. I run to him. “We have to go. It’s not safe here.”

He points to the end of the walkway. “There
are more people.”

“Those aren’t survivors,” Ian says as he
tosses his backpack into the boat. Isabella lowers her weapons and
her pack into the boat.

We watch the gate as more and more walkers
arrive.

“We’re good. They can’t get through that
gate,” Ben says.

The gate is over fifteen feet tall and has
solid metal arches on either side of the walkway. The bars are made
to look like boat oars. On top of the bars is a sign. The whole
contraption looks impregnable.