Ragnarok Rising: The Awakening (Book One of The Ragnarok Rising Saga) (58 page)

“Dad?” said the voice. “Is that you?”

“Yeah, Elliot,” I said, grinning, “It’s me.”

“Where are you?” Elliot asked, excitedly.

“About fifty yards away from you, standing on the dock,” I replied, waving one arm in the air.

I could see a flurry of movement on the deck of the boat.
Several people emerged and started crowding the railing and waving their arms in the air. I even saw the big dogs bound out onto the deck to see what all the excitement was about.

“What do we do now?” asked Elliot.

“We’re all getting out of here.”

“Do you want us to bring the boat in?” asked Elliot.

“No, leave her anchored where she is,” I answered. “I’ll bring out the ski boat. Be ready when we get there, we don’t have a lot of time.”

“What do I bring with us?” asked Elliot.

“Just bring people and dogs. We’ve got weapons and food pretty well covered. Besides, we don’t have time to wait for you to pack.”

“We’ll be ready, dad,” said Elliot.

I hopped into the speedboat and motioned for Spec-4 to follow. She climbed in while I was retrieving a key out of a magnetic container hidden beneath the dash.

“Spare key,” I said, holding it up.
“Unhook the lines while I fire her up.”

She cast off the mooring lines while I fired up the big engine.
It rumbled to life and began to idle. I started changing the channel on my radio while she climbed into a seat. I could see zombies were now coming down the walkway from the shore. We were cut off from land.

“Here they come,” said Spec-4, pointing.

I nodded and keyed up my radio.

“829 to 917,” I said.

“Go,” answered Southard.

“How close are they?”

“Too damned close,” replied Southard. “Close enough to hit with a rock. They’re less than thirty yards away and closing fast.”

“Do you remember how to get to the marina from here?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Have John drive one Humvee and you take the other.
Meet us over there as soon as you can get there.”

“Are you sure?” asked Southard.

“Yeah, get moving.”

“Copy that, we’re moving out.
917, out.”

Then we were moving, too.
In seconds, we were racing away from the dock. The zombies were getting closer, but were still too far away to be a threat. We’d be out in deep water long before they reached us. I throttled up and headed right for the
Caitríona
. Behind us, the first few zombies tried to stop at the edge of the dock but the ones behind them forced them off into the water. It was deep enough that they instantly disappeared from view and didn’t resurface.

In less than a minute, we were pulling along the aft section.
Spec-4 stood up and tossed a line to my son, Elliott. He was taller than I was with dark brown hair and glasses, but had my features. Immediately, people began to climb into the speedboat. First inside was Kris Newberry’s daughter, Amanda. Next came my two other boys, Erik and Evan. They ran to me and hugged me tightly.

“Dad!” they yelled together.

Then my two little nieces climbed into the boat. One was eight and the other was five. My sister-in-law, wearing an expensive sweater and jeans, followed them.

“Kathy,” I said.
“How are the girls?”

“They’re fine,” she answered.
“They still think this is a game.”

We started shuffling the kids into laps, to make room for everyone.
The boat was filling up rapidly. Suddenly, my two dogs bounded into the boat and headed right for me. They were slobbering and wagging their tails excitedly.

“What kind of dogs are those?” asked Spec-4, in shock.

“They’re a mastiff – dinosaur mix,” I replied, grinning. “This is Odin and Thor. Odin is the one that’s missing an eye.”

“Oh, that poor dog,” she said. “Did he get hurt in a fight?”

“Nope, he was born that way.”

Next in line
, my wife climbed into the boat. I could tell by the look on her face that she was close to crying. Elliott was the last one to board. He was holding a shotgun and had a pistol on his belt. He was also carrying a black backpack. While Elliott took a last look around to double check everything, Karen came straight to me.

“Well, you certainly took your sweet time getting here,” she said,
starting to cry.

“I’m sorry, babe.
I got here as fast as I could.”

“What happened to your face?” she asked, touching the wounds on my face and forehead.
“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, babe.
I’m still alive.”

“Where are we going, now?” asked Elliot.

“We’re heading back to the jail. So far, it’s the safest place I’ve found.”

“What about the Evac-centers?” asked Karen.

“We’re not going anywhere near the Evac-centers. I’ll explain it all when we’re safe.”

“Ok,” she said. “Wylie, we were so scared.”

“I know, babe. It’ll be all right. We’re together, now.”

That seemed to satisfy her, for the moment.
Elliot moved up and gave me a big hug. I felt like I was about to cry, myself. I kept it together, barely. Right then, I was more proud of my sons than I had ever been before. They had all taken up the slack while I was gone. I could see how they were still looking after the others, even before settling in themselves. Karen had done an amazing job, getting everyone here safely and keeping them that way.

“I’m glad
you’re here, dad,” said Elliot, smiling broadly.

“Me too, son,” I said.
“Me too.”

“”I missed you, dad,” he said, softly.

I just smiled and hugged them all, as tight as I could. After hugs, kisses and some big slobbery licks from the dogs, I turned back to the boat controls. Now more than ever, I had to get us through this in one piece. Not only did mine and Spec-4’s lives hang in the balance, but my family did as well. I could not let them down. I
would
not let them down.

“Everyone,” I said, “this is Corporal Chrissy Wilder.
She’s with the National Guard. If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t be here now.”

She smiled and waved.

“Don’t let him fool you,” she said. “He’s the one who kept us all alive. I just helped out along the way.”

“She’s being modest,” I replied. “She’s saved my life more than once.”

She smiled and shrugged. I could see a tinge of jealousy in Karen’s eyes. That didn’t surprise me, at all. Suddenly, I had the distinct feeling that I was going to catch hell about Spec-4, once we were safe inside the jail. Oh well, at least we would all be alive for me to do so. I brought the boat around and headed around the tip of the peninsula. As soon as we cleared it, a large marina came into view.

“829 to 917,” I said. “What’s your ETA to the marina, over?”

“Holy shit, Wylie,” said Southard, “this place is crawling with fucking zombies. Are you sure that you want to do this here?”

“Do you know someplace better?”

“No, not really,” replied Southard. “We’re gonna have to make this really fast. We’ve got zombies all over the fucking place up here.”

“Copy that.
What’s your ETA?”

“Give me five minutes, and then come in hot.”

“Got it. Can you give us any covering fire?”

“We’ll try,” Southard replied. “It won’t be easy.
We’ve got no one in the turrets, and if we open the doors we’ll get swarmed.”

“Do your best,” I said. “Out.”

I throttled back and started to make a wide circle, keeping us where we could see the marina. There were zombies all over the area, but the beach next to the dock was miraculously clear. Then I saw the Humvees smashing their way through a large crowd of zombies. Southard had been right; the marina was crawling with zombies.

“Here they come!” I shouted, pointing.

I turned the wheel over and headed straight towards shore, pushing the throttle all the way to full. The big engine roared to life and we shot towards the shore, accelerating rapidly. The Humvees burst through the crowd and sped towards the dock. I angled the boat so that it would come in on the beach, right next to the dock. I wasn’t slowing down at all. The timing on this was going to be close.

“Hang on to something!” I yelled.
“We’re going in hard.”

Seconds later, we hit the beach at full speed.
We slid up into the sand and came to a stop almost fifty feet from the edge of the water. The engine roared louder with the prop spinning free of the water. I killed the engine and grabbed my weapons, as soon as I regained my footing. With extreme urgency, I turned to get everyone going. We only had moments before every zombie in the marina came running down on top of us. We had to get to the Humvees, and we didn’t have much time to do it.

“Move out!
Head for the Humvees. Go! Go! Go!”

Erik and Evan were the first ones out of the boat.
I had to smile because they turned around to help others out of the boat instead of running. My sister-in-law and her two little girls went out next. She carried the smaller of the two girls and my boys helped the other one along. Odin and Thor leapt out and took up positions on either side of the boys. I knew the dogs would die to protect them.

Next out was my oldest boy, Elliott.
He took up a position and worked the action on his shotgun. Then he helped Amanda Newberry out of the boat and hurried along next to her, keeping the shotgun ready to fire. I couldn’t help but smile at my sons, thinking of the safety of others before their own. Now it was my turn. I sent my wife next. Spec-4 followed her while I brought up the rear.

“Run for the Humvees!” I screamed. “Don’t stop for anything!”

Elliott fired a shot at a zombie that emerged from behind a trash dumpster, striking it in the face. It was knocked over backwards, and didn’t get up. Spec-4 and I were both firing into the crowd of zombies that were coming at us. I could see that it was a losing battle. There were just too many of them. For every one we shot, it seemed like ten more took their place. I knew we couldn’t get them all, but I prayed that we could get enough of them to buy us enough time to escape. My heart nearly sank as more and more of them just kept coming.

There had to be a couple hundred of them or more.
The front rows were mostly
Sprinters
, and they were coming at us fast. I sized up the situation in my head and came to the realization that we weren’t going to make it. I could see it clearly, as if in slow motion. We were going to be overrun just about the time we reached the Humvees. The little kids might make it, but the rest of us didn’t stand a chance. Spec-4 must have realized that, too. She met my gaze and her eyes widened with fear. We only had seconds left before we would be swarmed.

“Get them out of here!” I bellowed. “I’ll buy you some time.”

Before she could protest, I grabbed her shoulder and gave her a shove towards the Humvees. For just an instant, our eyes met and I could tell she knew exactly what I was planning. Then I turned and ran directly at the
Sprinters
, firing as I ran. I had to slow them down, no matter what. That feeling in the pit of my stomach was almost nauseating, now. There wasn’t any alternative, if the others were going to make it out of here alive. What else could I do?

“DAD!” I heard Elliot screaming.

“Wylie, don’t!” screamed Karen.

“Get to the Humvees!” I heard Spec-4 screaming.

I caught a glimpse of them as she shoved them on as fast as she could go, tears stinging the corners of my eyes. I tried to keep an eye on them, but had to concentrate on shooting as I ran. My sister-in-law reached the second Humvee and dove inside the back seat with her youngest daughter. Erik and Evan made it to the lead Humvee with the other girl and climbed into the back seat with Thor right behind them. The rest of them were still ten yards or more away.

I aimed into the on-coming crowd of zombies and let fly with a round from the M-203.
Then I felt the
CRUMP
of the explosion. The blast sent bodies flying into the air and pieces scattered in all directions. It wasn’t enough to stop them all, but at least a dozen of them were now out of the equation. I closed to within ten yards of the lead
Sprinters
. Then I turned hard and sprinted towards the dock, firing into the crowd as I ran.

Karen reached the lead Humvee and helped Amanda Newberry into the back seat.
Thor climbed onto Amanda’s lap, taking up the entire seat. Elliott was still shooting at any zombie that got too close. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Odin broke loose and ran after me. He put his head down and ran full out. For a big dog, he was amazingly fast. He was quickly eating up the distance between us. Elliot shut the back door before Thor could follow after Odin.

I fired as quickly as I could pull the trigger, aiming at about head level.
I knew that the M-16 didn’t have the power to take out legs. I had to try for kill-shots. My weapon clicked empty and I dropped the magazine without hesitation. Then I yanked a full one out of my cargo pocket and shoved it into the magazine well. I reloaded while I was running and continued to fire into the crowd of zombies, screaming as I ran.