While I waited for Lucy to wake up, I thought about Jax. In the short time I had known her, she had been a good friend. We had talked about the world before the apocalypse, and she had told me about her fears for her boyfriend’s safety. She had shown me the engagement ring he had given her, and told me that she regretted not accepting his proposal. Her experience had highlighted a simple truth for me: time is precious.
Now, Jax’s time was done. She had become a monster, and all of the thoughts, hopes, and dreams that made Jax the person she was were gone. If Hart’s men found her in the woods and killed her, they would be doing her a favor; Jax had never wanted to be a monster. The old Jax, the woman I had spent time with, would be appalled if she knew she would murder at least three innocent people someday, ripping out their spines as Vess had done to Johnny.
I wondered how Sam and Tanya were taking the news of Jax’s transformation into a monster and escape into the woods. They had known her for a long time. I guessed it was hitting them hard.
Lucy opened her eyes and blinked at the overhead lights. She turned her head slowly to face me. “Alex?”
I grinned at her and nodded, unable to speak because I knew that if I did, I would start to cry. While sitting here waiting, I had feared that when Lucy finally opened her eyes, they would be yellow zombie eyes, staring at me with malevolence. I had been afraid that the antivirus might not work. But her eyes were the same clear blue they had always been. I let out a sigh of relief.
“You saved me,” she whispered.
I spread my hands. “I can’t deny it.”
She laughed and tried to sit up. But the effort was too much for her, so she sank back down onto the pillows.
“Take it easy,” I said. “The doctors say it will take a few days to recover fully. You’ve been through a lot.”
“Not really. I’ve just been sleeping.” She looked closely at my face. “But you’ve been through a lot. I can tell by looking at you.”
“Do I really look that bad?”
She shook her head. “It’s not that. You look… stronger somehow. But as if you had to go through a lot to gain that strength.”
I shrugged. Nobody could be a survivor in a zombie apocalypse and not be changed in some way.
Lucy looked around the room. “Alex, where are we?”
“Apocalypse Island,” I said.
She frowned with confusion. “Where?”
I laughed. “I’ll tell you all about it later. In fact, I’ll write it all down in a journal like I did before.”
Lucy nodded, her blue eyes wandering around the room.
“So I just have one question,” I said.
She nodded. “I know what it is. Why did I leave you at the marina?”
“Yeah, that’s the one.”
“After you went ashore, I refueled the boat and waited on the jetty. It was so foggy I couldn’t see anything but I could hear sounds all around the marina, splashes and voices. I had no idea how long you were going to be but I felt nervous and vulnerable standing there on the jetty in the fog.
“You said you were going to get a rowboat, so I untied The Big Easy and took her out into deeper water. I didn’t want anyone running out of that fog and boarding her and since you were getting a rowboat anyway, it wouldn’t be a problem for you to row a few more feet to reach the Easy. I was no more than twenty feet from the end of the jetty.”
“That sounds sensible,” I said. I had told Lucy at the time that I was going to find a rowboat but when I was trying to get a boat into the water, feral survivors had attacked me and that was when I discovered that Lucy was gone.
Lucy nodded. “I stood on the deck watching the marina for any movement but the fog was too thick so I listened for the sound of oars in the water. I didn’t think you’d be gone for so long.”
“I had some trouble,” I said. “I heard voices and had to hide in the marine shop for a while.”
“When you didn’t come back, I started to get even more worried. I wondered what I was going to do if you never came back. How long could I wait here? Once the fog lifted, The Big Easy would be visible to the soldiers in the area. I would have to go out deeper and use the binoculars to watch the marina.” She looked into my eyes. “I was never going to abandon you, Alex.”
“I know that.” I took her hand in mine. “I was worried that you’d been captured by the army or attacked by pirates. I had no idea how to find you.”
“I decided to move out into deeper water so I started the engine and sailed out to a spot where I could drop anchor and wait. But then I heard another boat approaching. I panicked. I had to get out of there. Before I could get moving, an army boat came out of the fog and drew up alongside the Easy. It was a small boat, probably quite fast, and it was painted army green. There were eight soldiers onboard and they were all pointing their guns at me.
“I didn’t have time to think what to do. Three of the soldiers came onboard and ordered me off the bridge. I was led at gunpoint to the aft deck and told to stay there. One of the soldiers, a woman named Meyers, sat with me while the other two took control of the Easy and followed the army boat along the coast.
“I asked Meyers what was going on and she told me they were going to send me to a Survivors Camp where I’d be safe. I just kept wondering what was going to happen when you returned to find that I was gone. I started to formulate a plan of escape. I even considered jumping overboard but we were in very deep water by now and even if I made it to shore, my chances of getting back to Swansea without any weapons were slim. So I decided to sit tight until a better opportunity presented itself.
“We must have been sailing for about an hour when they cut the engine, dropped anchor, and transferred me to the smaller green boat. The fog had lifted now and I could see a marina that looked like it had been taken over by the army. All the boats moored there were painted in military green. The civilian boats that must have previously used the marina had been anchored in deeper water, where the Easy was now anchored.
“They took me ashore and made me wait in a tent while they tried to find out when the next camp truck was passing this way. It sounded like they had trucks travelling around each military camp tasked with picking up survivors to take to the Survivors Camps. Someone said that there was a truck delivering “the vaccine” to the nearest Survivors Camp, so I could ride along. They bundled me into the back of an army truck, one of the ones with a canvas top. There were stacks of cardboard boxes in there, which I assumed held the vaccine the soldiers had been talking about.
“Meyer got into the back with me and sat by the tailgate, watching the landscape roll by as we drove along a country road. I asked her what the soldiers had meant when they’d said the truck was delivering a vaccine. Was there now a vaccine against being bitten? She said there was, and it was being delivered to all the soldiers.
“I told her that I thought that was unfair. Why not give the vaccine to everyone? She just shrugged and continued looking out at the fields and trees. Meyer’s lack of concern for civilians made me angry, and my anger spurred me into trying to escape. I could easily jump over the tailgate onto the road. If I ran fast enough, I should be able to reach the woods before they managed to shoot me.