Sabre dancing with the Dead Ch 7
Tokonosu Yacht Club
14:45 April 16, 20xx
Day 2
Wolf stepped down into the dink, then turned to help Kat down. Once she was seated, he turned to the outboard and got it started. Giving it a couple of minutes to warm up, he had Kat cast off, and they motored over to the club landing dock.
"I thought we were going to meet the others?" Kat asked.
"Thought about that, but I think it makes more sense to find out what food supplies are stocked in the club. That way we can let others know what there is if they need something for the immediate future. Getting organized for a supply run will take some time yet."
"Right. Good idea."
As the two walked up the ramp onto the landing, Kat wrinkled her nose up, and said "Oh my God, what a mess!" as she caught sight of the parking lot out beyond the truck. A 100 foot diameter section of parking lot, covered with bits of tissue, assorted appendages and blood. Lots of blood. Road Kill Pizza.
"Hmmm. Crap. We'll have to do something about that mess right quickly before they start to rot. Thank god it's still pretty cool." Wolf paused at the top of the ramp. He thought about it for a moment. "I wonder if there is a heavy duty pressure washer here. We can use that but it will take a good long while to do and what happens if we flush that crap into the harbor?"
"Maybe we can get some of the others to help us shovel the chunks into a heap and we can burn it. Pressure wash the rest of it into a pit off to one side and bury it." Kat grimaced as she looked at the mess on the pavement. "You know, it might have been a better idea to draw them out of the yard and THEN squish them."
"Yeah well, live and learn. It's not every day you go through a zombie apocalypse you know. I didn't expect to be munching up dead people by the dozens when I woke up a couple of days ago."
They turned towards each other, and immediately burst into laughter as the insanity of the situation caught up with them.
Wolf gasped out "I hope you're keeping notes Kat. So you can write the 'Zombies 101 Handbook' or 'Zombie Apocalypse for Dummies' later." They laughed for a fair long time before they finally got hold of themselves and wiped away the laugh tears.
"S' not a bad idea about burying them though. I can see a small tractor over by the cradles that has a back hoe on it. I can dig a pit in the lawn at the end of the parking lot and wash the mess into that. All of it, to hell with burning it all. Let the stuff dry for a bit and then back fill the hole. I wonder if we can find some quick lime." He mused.
"Ok, but first lets go see what stores we can find, and meet the others." Kat said as she pointed to the club building. "We're need help for this clean up anyway so let's get to it." She turned and headed to the front door of the club, and headed back towards the dining area, Wolf in trail.
Walking through the dining room, clearing the room as she went, she turned to the double doors leading to the kitchen area. Very quietly she opened the door, Star B in hand, and looked around. Nothing moved. She reached onto a shelf near the door and pulled down a stainless steel mixing bowl, and tossed it with a clatter across the tiled floor. Wolf stood behind her, his 686 now drawn and pointing upwards, covering her from one side. They waited for a minute or two, and nothing moved.
"Looks good" she said over her shoulder as she walked over to the door of the cool room. Wolf headed down a hall to the left, and into the dry goods storage area. Most of the boxes were labeled in Japanese and English so he could make out what they had. Sacks of rice were sacks of rice in any language.
The two of them came together after a few minutes and compared notes. It appeared that food would not be a problem for at least a couple of weeks as far as staples went. Other items, like fresh vegetables were not in such supply, they might last for 4 or 5 days at the most.
On their way out, Wolf hit the bar and liberated a couple of bottles of rum. He winked at Kat, who in turn picked up a bottle of Cointreau and another of Drambuie. She had always had a thing for liqueurs.
They walked back down to the dink, and headed out to the first of the boats. She packed the 4 bottles into the small locker up in the bow and turned towards the first boat they were heading towards. As they motored over, Wolf told her that he wasn't planning on actually getting much more than 10 feet away from them. She wondered why, but didn't ask. Wolf had his way of doing things. She figured his 'spidey senses' as he called them must be pegged for some reason. She looked down at the butt of the Star B, making sure it was accessible.
Moving slowly down the line of docks, they found that those nearest the shore were lifeless. Or at least they were until the sound of the outboard caused the critters on board to stir and show themselves. As they passed by, some of the things actually stumbled over the side or transom and fell headlong into the water where they flailed about. Wolf put the outboard into neutral and they watched them thrash about. Even the ones that ended up along side a dock couldn't get out, because they didn't try. Swimming towards the dink was apparently also a lost cause, because none of them could swim. They just bobbed around, flailing their arms about and slowly drifting down the fairway as the tide went out.
This solidly confirmed the concept of safety afloat, but Wolf wondered what would happen if the things got near a beach or shore. They could stumble back up to dry land. Not a good thought. That in mind, he nudged the dink closer, and taking the oar in hand, he started to bash them in the head. That seemed to work pretty well until one of them managed to grab onto the gunnel and nearly capsize them. Kat shot the thing in the head and it let go. Wolf pulled away from the mass.
"Ok, that was stupid." She glared at him.
"Yup, it sure was. Won't be doing that again." He replied with a sheepish look. "Good shooting though."
They continued to scan the docks and it was the same all over. Any boat that was still tied up was either empty or blood covered and with critters milling about. So they headed back out to the moorings. As with most yacht clubs, there were lots of docks but also a few moorings where passing boats could tie up over night if they didn't want to pay for a dock and didn't mind rowing over if they needed to use the amenities of the club. The Tokonosu club had a good 25 moorings, and all but 3 were occupied. Most of them were power boats, but there were a few sailboats in the lot.
As they approached the first boats, Wolf decided that trying to speak to the people individually was really a waste of time. He looked at Kat and explained what he had in mind. So when they got near enough to the boats, all she did was tell people that the area was clear, food was available and that they would be having a meeting in 1 hour to discuss the situation, gather news and try and set up groups to handle various items. First on the list was the disposal of the parking lot mess. Most of the people she spoke with agreed to come, a few were still afraid but the majority would be there.
The ones too afraid to come ashore were asked about their food and water supplies, and for the most part they were all in fair to poor shape. Especially those on smaller boats with minimal cabins and arrangements. Wolf thought about them for a moment and he could see that people were afraid, but he decided on the spot that he'd be damned if he was going to hump supplies back and forth for them. He had Kat tell them that. That changed a few minds, not that the people were happy about it, but he figured this was an all hands on deck situation. The more the merrier.
Kat having translated all that he figured needed to be said, he turned the dink around and headed back to the club landing. As he tied up, he decided to pull the fuel hose off the tank and motor and bring it inside with him. Chaining the dink up might be a bad idea if they needed to get away in a hurry, but once pushed off from the landing, he'd have time to reattach it and start the motor. Not to mention that it made the dink harder to steal.
They pushed the door to the club open, and listened. Quiet. Entering slowly, they cleared the place once more, and then made for the bar. Mixing themselves each a drink, they sat at one of the dining room tables conversing, and waited for the others. Half an hour later, the first group came in.
A young man, about 30 or so, Japanese along with his wife, or girlfriend. They waved, and headed into the kitchen area. Ten minutes later they both came out carrying some supplies. These they put on the floor near another table, and seeing Kat and Wolf drinking, went and made themselves something.
They came back, and introduced themselves. The man was Kenji Todamatsu, and his wife, Fujiko. They started speaking in Japanese, but when Kat explained that Wolf didn't speak it, they politely switched to English. As they chatted, a few more came into the dining room. One was dressed in cammies, and carried his rifle. He stood off to one side, looking somewhat unsure of himself and those around him. Two more showed at the entrance, an older gent with his wife in tow, who headed straight to the bar, mixed themselves a drink and also joined the group around Kat and Wolf.
"Hi, I'm Wally Tomlinson, and this is my wife, Elaine." Wolf and Kat introduced Kenji and his wife, and then themselves.
"Thanks for showing up like the 7th Cavalry. We were thinking we were going to have to pull out and head elsewhere. Not that there's much point, the shortwave radio is, or rather was reporting this mess all over the world. Local radio and TV went down by the end of yesterday, and my single side band radio and VHF all reported pretty much the same thing."
"You've been in touch with others? This is all over the place?" Wolf asked.
"Yeah, I've had Berlin, London, Paris, Moscow, Tokyo, Washington and Johannesburg up on the shortwave, or at least I did 'til this morning. Now I can't get anything from them. I've been using the SSB, talking to some ham operators but they are pretty much all off the air now too. Local VHF communications say the JSDF and local police and emergency services are retreating and consolidating their front farther to the north, on the other side of the river. I think they also decided that the tsunami wall was a natural defense line. Civilians are trying to get in behind the line but the deaders are nipping at their heels." Wally reported. "By the way, using a heavy truck for an APC was a pretty damn good idea. But I gotta tell ya, it sure made one hell of a mess of the parking lot. We're gonna have to clean that up pretty damn quick or risk getting all sorts of problems."
Elaine spoke up, "We run the risk of disease if we don't clean that mess up. And we have to keep it out of the water too, because we don't know anything about the factors that cause this thing. I'd give my left arm for a few barrels of disinfectant. Even bleach would help. I think all we can do is collect it up and burn it."
Kat told them all that that was the first thing on the agenda. She mentioned Wolfs idea to dig a pit, just as a young Japanese woman in working attire walked up to the group.
"I can dig your pit for you. The tractor out back has a backhoe and I can run it. Where do you want the pit?" she asked.
"I was figuring along the north end of the parking lot, as far from the clubhouse as we can get."
"OK, I can do that, the soil there is natural, not fill like what we are standing on. There are some pretty major pieces of rock and concrete rubble under us." She replied.
"Are there any high pressure wash units in the yard?" Wolf asked her.
"Yes, we have 3 of them, gasoline driven on hand carts. We use them to clean the boats when they come out of the water." she replied. "Oh... my name is Eriko. I work here at the Club, along with those two over there." as she pointed to two more people who had just come in.
More people kept coming in, and sitting down away from the group around Wolf and Kat. Wolf didn't give it much thought, people handled stress in different ways. Lets face it, the world had gone to hell, and caution was a good way to stay alive. If they wanted to stay back a ways and get the lay of the land, it was all good to him. Some of them came in, grabbed some food and zipped back out the door without a word. Again, it didn't matter. Maybe they would come back to see what was up or they'd hide out for a while. His 'spidey senses' have been in full on combat mode since this shit got started and he wasn't about to back off from being cautious either. Who knew who had had the luck or the brains to get this far? Good people? Bad people? Hard workers or slackers? Someone who cared about his fellows or someone who would drop anyone else into the shit just to save themselves? It would take a while to see what developed but he'd be living and breathing 'condition red' for a long while yet. He chuckled to himself for a moment. There would have been a lot of people going from white to red, orange or black at the speed of light lately.
The conversations went on until Wolf glanced at his watch, looked around at the people here and decided it was time to get the show on the road. He stood up, and asked those near his table to grab a seat so he could get things moving. After they'd sat down he turned to the bar and turned on the speaker system he'd noted earlier. Kat came up beside him, and he got started.
"Good afternoon. My name is Wolf. This is Kat, and we called you together to see if we can get a game plan happening here to make sure we survive this disaster. I know from what I've seen on the way here from up in the hills that Tokonosu is filled with hordes of zombies, and we are in a full on survival situation. That means we all have to pool resources and skills, and try to keep on living. To that end we cleaned out the area around the club, and secured the compound. Given the way this place is laid out, as long as the gates remain closed, none of those things can get in here. We removed every stairway from the hill on this end to the hill on the up river end and there is nothing in between to allow anything over the top. The club area has a wall at either end, with 4 gates. We have food resources for about 2 weeks for staples and about 2 or 3 days worth of fresh foods." He paused and took a sip of his drink, then turned again to the people.
As he was about to start again, someone at the back of the room, one of those who had sat back and not introduced himself, stood up, pointed at Wolf and demanded "Who are you to take charge? You are not even Japanese!"
"And who might you be? Wolf asked.
"My name is Yoshimitsu Yamato. I work for the city of Tokonosu."
"Well Mr Yamato, I'm not taking charge. I am pointing out the current situation, and trying to organize a work force to take care of the mess outside. But if you would like to step up to the plate and take charge, knock yourself out. The mike is yours." With that Wolf turned to the bar, put the mike down, picked up his drink, and went to sit down with Kat and the others.
Mr Yamato stood up and moved to the bar. Picking up the mike he started to speak in a forceful voice.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we need only remain here until the central government gets rescue parties here to put down this riot. We ha...
"Riot? Are you nuts? Have you been paying any attention to the people out there being torn to pieces, dying and coming back to life?" Others shouted at him.
"Please, remain calm. I am quite sure that..."
The loud comments went right on. Finally the quiet lad in the cammies hollered "Shut up you fool and give the mike back to Wolf. You have no clue what is happening."
'You can't speak to me in that tone of voice. I am a city official and as such am in charge during an emergency, not this foreigner." Yamato cried.
Wally stood up from the table and started to speak to Yamato. "Bub, your city is just about dead, the country is in total chaos, and the rest of the world is as well. There IS no central government anymore, all services and organization has fallen apart. He went on to relate what he'd been hearing on the various radio frequencies most of yesterday and all of today.
Yamato tried once more to regain control but was booed back to his chair in short order. Wally looked at Wolf and pointed to the mike. "Have at it Wolf. You were doing fine."
Once again, Wolf took up the mike. This time he looked around the room for a moment before speaking. "Is there anyone else who wants to have a chance to give it a try?" He waited. No one else said a word. "OK then."
"Our first big problem is to clean up the mess in the parking lot before it starts to rot. Elaine here has pointed out all the potential for disease, vermin and other problem if we leave it there, hoping rain will wash it away. To that end, Eriko said she can dig a pit at the edge of the lot, and we can use power washers to wash the mess into the pit. The equipment is here in the yard. Now ideally we would have to cover it with quick lime but I have no idea where to find some. But we have to wash it away soon." he paused. "Any comments?"
A woman stood up hesitantly. Wolf acknowledged her and she started to speak.
"I think I can help you with that. I am Saeko Sahashi. I am... Or rather I was the warehouse manager for Takagi Shipping. Our warehouse is 8 blocks from here on the other side of the fishing harbor. Kuma here..." She pointed to the young man sitting beside her, "Unloaded half a dozen containers from China last week. They are full of drums of Calcium Oxide for the local steel mill."
"Takagi Shipping huh? What else do you have in the warehouse at the moment?" Wolf grinned at her. Sounds to me like we have our first scrounging mission already. I'll drive! Who wants to come along? We need at least 4 more. Kuma, and Saeko, I assume you will be coming?"
They both nodded in the affirmative.
He looked at the young man in the combat uniform. "How about you? You still have ammunition for that rifle?" He asked.
"Yes, I do. Not much but I still have about 60 rounds left. I will come." he replied. "My name is Corporal Yamata, JSDF."
Another man stood, "I will come as well, if you have a weapon for me."
"I can take care of that. What's your name sir?" Wolf replied.
"My name is Saburo. Saburo Sakai."
"No kidding? You wouldn't be related to Saburo Sakai, the Japanese fighter pilot of WWII?"
"Yes. I am honored to be his grandson. Like him, I too am a fighter pilot." Saburo nodded.
"Well I'm pleased to meet you. I met your grandfather at an airshow in the US about 30 years back. I've read his book at least half a dozen times over the years." Wolf said with a smile. "Alright, let's get ready and see about this quick lime. I have to get over to my boat to get some gear. The rest of you hang loose til I get back. Kat, lets go."
Most of the people headed back to their boats, taking supplies with them. The four going on the mission waited, talking to each other while Wolf and Kat headed back to Sabre Dance.
–-Author's notes: I don't own HOTD, or any of its characters. I just get to play in their universe. All characters in this story (So far) are my own.
Thanks to MarshalZhukov and Draco38 for their reviews and PMs. Good guidance, which I will try to follow. Other reviews gratefully accepted, as long as they are constructive and non-abusive.