A closed glass cabinet in the fishing section caught my eye and I went over to look at the spear-guns displayed inside. The cabinet was locked.
Using the handle of a fishing rod, I smashed the glass and reached inside, taking the six guns and all the spears in there.
The cart was full and I was sure I had salvaged everything useful from the store. I wheeled it over to the cart of clothing and left it there. I thought of checking to see if any of the nearby stores on the street held any treasures. How far did I dare push my luck? The safety of the marine shop and my two carts of plunder had made me overconfident.
I looked out at the street. Rain lashed down from dark clouds. That was going to affect my vision, making a trip across the road even more dangerous. There was no point looking out for zombies if I was blinking rain out of my eyes every two seconds.
Taking a diving mask from the display, I put it on and pulled up the hood of my jacket. With the mask on, I could keep my eyes open. Pulling up my scarf to cover my lower face, I pushed the door open and stepped out onto the street, gun in hand.
The rain bounced off my hood and the mask but at least I could see. I looked along the street in both directions.
Nothing.
Fifty feet away, I saw the open doorway of a supermarket. It looked like the door had been smashed. The place had probably already been looted but it was worth a look.
I strode across the street quickly.
As I approached the broken door, I lifted the gun and stared into the darkness of the supermarket.
What I saw made me gasp and step back.
Too quickly.
I stumbled and fell, scrambling to regain my feet before the dozens of zombies I had just seen came pouring out of that supermarket like a tidal wave of rotting flesh.
I ran back towards the marine shop, praying I had time to get my carts and wheel them out to The Big Easy before the shambling nasties caught up with me.
But when I glanced over my shoulder, expecting to see monsters, I saw an empty street.
They hadn’t followed me.
I stopped and stood in the road, watching the door of the supermarket.
I heard groans coming from inside but none of the zombies stepped out through the doorway.
Slowly, carefully, I walked back to the doorway and risked a glance inside.
The shop was full of them, packed in there so tightly it was standing room only. They shot hateful looks at me with their yellow eyes and a collective moan rose from the herd. The ones standing closest to the door reached for me but none of them made a move.
I watched them, the prey regarding the predator, and wiped rain from the lenses of the diving mask.
This made no sense.
Either way, the supermarket was a bust.
Out of curiosity, I went to the Chinese restaurant next door and looked in through the windows. The place was full of zombies.
I turned on my heels and went back to the marine shop. Opening the back door and pushing the carts outside, I took a last look around the place to make sure I hadn’t missed anything valuable.
Mike stood by The Big Easy waiting for me. When he saw the carts, he came running along the jetty and took one of them from me, pushing it to our boat as I followed.
“You look like a bandit, man.”
“It’s easier to see this way.”
“See any zombies?”
“Plenty.”
He looked over his shoulder and increased his pace.
“Don’t worry, they’re not coming,” I said. I was pretty sure I understood why the city seemed deserted. Why we hadn’t seen any zombies during our night in the cave. And why they had seemed to be waiting for us on the porch at the farmhouse.
We reached The Big Easy and managed to unload both carts into the living room area. By the time we were done and the carts on the jetty were empty, the sky had begun to clear a little.
Mike untied us and jumped on board. “Let’s go, man,”
“Just take us out a little,” I said. “I want to see if my theory is correct.”
“Theory?”
I nodded.
“OK, man.” He climbed up to the bridge and started the engines. We sailed away from the marina, our wake bobbing the moored boats up and down like fishing floats indicating a bite.
When we got half a mile out, I shouted up to Mike, “Stop here.”
He cut the engines and the clanking of the chain began as the anchor lowered.
“What is it, man?” He slid down the ladder and stood beside me.
The rain was stopping. I removed my diving mask and stood watching the marina.
Lucy and Elena came out from the kitchen. “What’s going on? Why have we stopped?”
“Alex thinks something’s going to happen,” Mike informed them.
“What?” Lucy asked.
“Just wait and see,” I said.
We stood on the deck while the sea lapped against the side of the boat. The dark clouds that had hung over the city scudded away farther inland and the sun broke through. Sunlight hit the boat and we basked in its warmth. The sea shimmered like glass.
“Look,” I said, pointing at the marina.
A lone figure moved stiffly out over the jetty. Then another. Within minutes the place where we had been standing earlier was swarming with zombies. The streets erupted with movement as the monsters came staggering out of the shops. Soon the city, which had been deadly silent, was a writhing mass of rotting undead bodies. Their mournful groans reached us even across the half mile of water.
“I don’t understand,” Lucy said. “How did you know this would happen?”
“It’s simple,” I said, watching the monsters roam the city. “They won’t come out in the rain.”
fifteen
We sat around the dining table with the lights on in the cabin. Darkness had fallen outside. Mike had piloted The Big Easy out a few miles from shore and for the first time in a long while, we felt safe. Elena and Lucy had arranged the food in the cupboards and made chicken curry and rice. Even though the curry came from a can, it filled the dining room with mouth-watering smells of savoury spices.
The clothing and supplies from the marine shop had been stowed in the storage rooms below. Mike and Elena had claimed the largest bedroom on the stern, leaving Lucy and me with the smaller helm bedroom. Lucy wasn’t complaining about the arrangement. I tried to keep my celebration hidden by fixing a nonchalant look on my face.
The curry was delicious and when we pushed the empty plates away, Lucy said, “Now tell us how you knew about the zombies and the rain.”
I had kept quiet on the subject, working it through in my own mind before I was ready to explain it to the others. “I saw a TV show about how a virus behaves. Once it infects a host, it makes the host do things that achieve the virus’s goal of spreading to other hosts. There was a virus that made ants climb up high plants so the virus spores would spread farther when released. There was a bird virus that started out in a fish but really wanted to be inside a bird. So it made the fish swim erratically in the shallows where it would attract a hungry bird. Once the bird ate the fish, the virus got into the bird where it wanted to be in the first place.”
“I don’t follow,” Mike said. “How does that apply to zombies and rain?”
“If a virus can make an insect or a fish act like that, it shows that the virus ‘thinks’ long-term. It makes the host act in ways that will ensure the virus’s future.”
Mike said, “A virus can’t think, man.”
“But it’s like thinking. The virus doesn’t just infect a host and that’s that. If it has bigger plans, it makes the host act according to those plans. So this virus - whatever it is and wherever it came from - wants to spread among humans. Remember that guy who had died of a heart attack in the car crash? There was no reason for the zombies to bite him because he couldn’t spread the virus. It needs the host to be mobile and able to bite or scratch uninfected humans so it can be spread.