(Aren't Surprises Great?)
(By the way, the redundant title of the previous chapter came from one of the famous "Yogisms" uttered by the all-time great baseball player and unintentional humorist Yogi Berra. He was a Hall of Fame player and even more famous for his remarks. My personal favorite is that during a game at Yankee Stadium a streaker (a craze for running nude in public places) ran past Yogi who was in the on-deck circle. When asked by reporters if the streaker was a guy or girl he supposedly replied "Couldn't tell. They had a bag over their head." On with the story.)
K-Mart watched as the floating community receded in the distance. Off to her right all that could be seen of the boats carrying the inhabitants out to sea and hopefully safety were the tips of their sails. Shortly even that was gone.
There was a sigh beside her. She looked sideways at the teenaged boy standing there, riding easily to the motion of the boat as it cut through the water.
"What's wrong Ted?"
"Oh nothing. But this place is pretty similar to where we're going next. And that next place is ours. I'm just thinking I hate to see that place empty and abandoned like this one. We all worked so hard to build it as a safe place for us all and now it may all be for nothing."
"Is that home?"
"It has been for the last couple of years. Before then, well, you know."
K-Mart nodded. Like pretty much everyone else in the post-apocalyptic world she didn't spend much time thinking about what had come before. It was all gone never to return so why dwell on it? It was enough to survive today and plan to survive tomorrow.
Things were better for her, for all of them now then they had been. She had come a long way from a solitary, starving and terrified child scavenging in the stockrooms of the ruined store that had given her her new name. Now she had wonderful, protective and extremely capable parents. She had a home to go to now, not just to dream about. Slowly but surely Nature was reclaiming the Earth from the effects that man had unleashed. She had other adults she considered family who looked out for her. She had a best friend her own age.
Speaking of her best friend, K-mart closed her eyes. She had no idea why but it seemed like she could "hear" Angie better when she did that. In fact she had no idea how this telepathic link between her worked or why it seemed she could connect better with Angie than anyone else could, including her mother whose body had also bonded with the T-Virus although in a completely different way. She just accepted that it worked and worked better with her eyes closed.
"Angie?" she thought.
She knew her friend was many miles away. She also knew that she had received only a feeling from the other teen, not words as she had got in the hidden cavern.
"Anything?"
The blonde girl opened her eyes to see that her dad had joined her and Ted.
"Nothing Daddy. I don't know whether we're too far away or what."
"Probably too far away," her dad reassured her.
"But I heard her before. She can't have gone that much farther in such a short space of time."
"The situation may be resolved by now. I bet you only felt her because of the stress of whatever the situation was." Seeing his daughter was still uncertain he hugged her. "Come on. Angie's shown herself to be pretty darn capable, just like you."
"And Aunt Jill and Uncle Chris will be taking care of her. I know." She leaned into her dad's shoulder for a moment. "And before you remind me I have stuff to do here and I'll get on with it."
"That's my girl."
Meanwhile a not-quite-official but pretty-much-accepted-as father was yelling at his daughter.
"Move it baby!"
Angie stumbled across the packed sand as Chris whirled and fired a burst from his M4 carbine, more to keep the pursuers heads down rather than with any hope of hitting either of the rubber boats behind them. Jill was running along side her daughter. Their friends Sue and her son Barney were ahead of them and climbing over the dunes that protected the straggling vegetation growing on the land. The roar of the outboard motors bringing the pursuers closer filled her ears. But she knew something that no one else, especially the Umbrella storm Troopers behind them, knew.
She peeked back over her shoulder as she and her parents reached the dunes. Both boats were coming on fast, their bow wakes foaming at their speed. Most of the weapons that had been firing at them had fallen silent as the men prepared to jump out of the boats once they reached shore. As her feet led her down the back side of the protective sand she turned and gave a silent command with all the force of her mind.
"Now!"
Suddenly the first boat stopped as though it had run into a concrete wall. Men went flying into the water, which was still too deep to stand up in. Black clad men hastily shed their equipment and weapons to lighten themselves enough to swim to shore. It didn't help. From their position of relative safety the party saw a swimming Umbrella trooper suddenly disappear a though he was jerked under water. Then another disappeared and another. Only an occasional fountain of bubbles marked where they went under.
Jill looked at her daughter. "Sweetie did you..." The question was left hanging in the air.
"Yes Mom."
"Good."
Screams came across the water. The other boat was nearly ashore before it was flipped on its side. This close the undead Great White Shark could be clearly seen as it remorselessly dragged down the pursuers one by one. Panicked gunfire from those who had found their footing and not lost their weapons churned the sea but seemed to have no effect.
Still nearly half-dozen troopers made it to land. The party, Chris and Jill especially, noticed one man. He was walking backwards, dragging a comrade who looked to have been stunned. Alone among the survivors he seemed to keep his wits about him. When the shark lunged for him so hard that it was half out of the water he pushed the other Umbrella soldier to one side. Waiting till the last instant he flipped a grenade into the oncoming maw and dove away. The explosion ripped the zombie shark apart and it quietly sank into the water. Calmly the man grasped the collar of the fallen man and pulled him the rest of the way to shore.
Chris and Jill motioned for the others to stay down as they rose from cover. Angie half-obeyed, rising to one knee and bringing her shotgun to her shoulder. Her parents covered the men sprawled on the beach.
"Drop your weapons and raise your hands!" commanded Chris.
There was a momentary hesitation. Fingers tightened imperceptibly on triggers. Then the man who had kissed the shark and rescued his comrade pulled his helmet off. Dropping it to the sand in a gesture of surrender he spoke.
"Do what he says. I've already lost enough men."
In response the three men who had reached land first started to lay their weapons down. Then one man, his visor raised, saw Angie. The teen girl recoiled from the look of fanaticism and fear on his face.
"It s her! That's the little witch we were told about! KILL Her!"
This time there was no hesitation. As the wild-eyed man in the middle snatched up his submachine gun the Umbrella troopers flanking him hit the sand and grabbed for their own weapons. Gunfire filled the air, bullets ripping into the sand and forcing Jill to dive for cover. Chris was able to stand his ground and fired; dropping the man shooting at his fianc e. Jill popped back up and nailed the other flanking guard.
Angie knew she would have to deal with the crazed one in the middle. She centered her shotgun's barrel on his chest and fired; pumped the action and fired again. She realized the range was too great. The buckshot from her cut down twenty gauge was spreading too far. One pellet drew a bloody line across his cheek and two more were stopped by his protective vest. With the clarity of vision that sometimes comes in situations like that she saw his finger whiten on the trigger and tried to throw herself flat, knowing already there wasn't time. Bullets walked across the sand as her parents frantically tried to zero their fire in but they weren't going to be in time either.
The man's face twisted into a parody of a smile. Then the muzzle of his weapon pointed skyward as it fired and his evil grin turned into a look of shock and puzzlement. His weapon dropped to the sand, followed by his knees. A spreading red stain seeped through the armor vest protecting his chest.
Behind him the Umbrella officer lowered his smoking pistol. Planting a foot in the already dead man's back he pushed, sending the body toppling on its face.
"When I tell you to do something," he informed the corpse, "it's not a suggestion. It's an order." He looked up at Angie and his determined faces softened. And I do NOT allow the shooting of children. In fact I don't allow any attack or abuse on them period." He looked back down. "But I guess you know that now."
Angie rose unsteadily to her feet. In fact she wavered, which brought both Jill and Chris to her side as fast as possible while still keeping an eye on the last Umbrella soldier. Even so it was Angie who spotted the danger.
"Behind you!" she shouted.
The black clad man spun quickly. The man he had dragged to shore had risen, revealing an ugly wound on his leg that had obviously been caused by the undead shark. The bitten man's eyes were unfocused and he staggered as he walked. With a heartfelt "DAMN" the Umbrella soldier raised his pistol and aimed carefully. He fired twice and his infected subordinate fell, now dead for good. Turning back to the approaching trio he surveyed the bodies and shrugged.
"Now then, I think we were right here before things got out of hand," he said dryly, carefully setting his pistol down on the sand.
The group stood in silence as Angie and then Sue and her son joined them.
"I'm sorry about your friend," said Angie, not quite sure of exactly what to say.
The man shrugged. "I didn't really like him anyway. He was a typical Umbrella bully boy. All muscles, few brains and no conscience."
"But you risked your life for him," Jill pointed out.
"No choice. He was under my command and therefore my responsibility. Doesn't mean I'm not really relieved to be shed of him. Them."
"Wait a minute," Sue said looking carefully at him. "What's your name?"
"Corporal Dwayne Hicks."
"Well, I'm not surprised." Sue nodded with satisfaction. "Morganna mentioned you to me."
"Morganna?" There was surprise in the non-com's voice as well as more than a hint of longing. "Morganna Combs? You know her? Is she alright?"
"She mentioned you a time or two," Sue replied. The others were surprised to see an actual twinkle in the woman's eyes, the first they had seen. "In fact I recall getting a bit bored at the list of your virtues. Anyway, yes, she's out of harm's way and out from under Umbrella's control. What do you think about that?"
"I don't know how that could have happened, but if it did and you know it and her, than you probably also know why Umbrella separated us."
"Too humanizing an influence on each other was the charge as I recall. NOT something Umbrella wants in its corporate drones." The seafarer looked at Chris and Jill. "Morganna spoke of this guy often. He's one of the reasons her loyalty to Umbrella was worn thin."
Chris and Jill exchanged looks. Jill shrugged. Chris pointed at Hick's discarded sidearm.
"I think you better pick that up. It's a long way till we reach safety and you might need it before then."
The man picked up his weapon and dusted the sand from it. He dropped the magazine into his hand and reloaded before holstering the pistol.
"And now?" he asked.
"We get this boat back in the water and head back to our starting point. And Morganna by the way."
(To be continued)