TYBEE ISLAN
ISLAND
By By Paul Paul Cales Cales & Becca
Continued from the June 2018 Beachcomber.
Catch up @ http://tybeebeachcomber.com/magazine
Chapter 12 – Brian’s Got a Gun
Day 4.5
30 TYBEE BEACHCOMBER | JULY 2018
Carrie lays her head back against Jay’s chest and closes her
eyes slowly. Nate turns toward Jay with a grim look on his face and
shakes his head slowly from side to side. Jay returns the look and
nods down toward his right hand. In it is his buck knife.
Nate leans in close to Carrie and whispers, “You hang in there,
girl. We love you.” Before he stands, he places his 9mm next to
Jay’s right hand. Jay nods in understanding. Then Nate returns
to the group. They are continuing their conversation when Nate
interrupts, “Guys, I really don’t think it’s going to be long now.”
“Are you sure?” Tony asks. “It’s only been a couple of hours since
she was bit.”
“I’m not a zombie doctor, you idiot!” Nate returns, finally losing
control of his emotions. “No, I’m not sure!”
“Guys,” Becky interjects. “You have to chill.”
“Look,” Nathan begins, his voice calmer. “All I’m saying is she’s
in really rough shape and getting worse. I think you were right, a
bite is a death sentence.”
“Shit.” Tony says. “Should we…?”
“No,” Becky interrupts before his thought is spoken. “We need to
wait until she asks us or until she turns.”
“You’re right, Becky,” Rudy speaks up. “You’re right.”
After a brief silence, when everyone looked toward Carrie in
silence, Tony begins again. “Okay. We need to keep a lookout for
those things. Now that we know those things can get over here from
Tybee we’re not as safe as we thought. We need to consolidate the
two camps and have two people on guard duty at all times. Becky
and I will take the first shift, Rudy and Nate the second, Jay and
Bri… Wait… Where’s Brian?”
“Oh,” Rudy answers. “He walked off a few minutes ago. Went
over there.” He points toward the other tents.
Nate looks toward Tony with eyebrows raised.
“Jesus Christ, what is he up to now?” Tony says.
“I don’t know man,” Rudy begins as he stands up. “But I’ll go find
out. I guess I’ll be Brian’s baby sitter again.”
“Do you think he’s messing with our stuff?” Nate asks.
“Probably,” Tony says, sighing. “But most of the food and guns
are on the boat or in the cache.”
“I left one of the…” Becky begins before Rudy interrupts.
“Found him!” Rudy announces, as he walks back toward the
group with Brian in tow.
“I see you’ve been rummaging through our tents,” Tony says.
“Yeah,” Brian responds. “And the only gun I could find was this
SKS. Where’s all the other stuff?”
“Safe, that’s where the other stuff is,” Tony quickly returns.
“What gives you the right to go through our shit, man?”
“I’m not sitting here all defenseless against those things,” Brian
replies calmly. “Why’d you guys hide all the food? The guns? The
ammo? It’s like you’re planning on leaving in the morning and not
coming back. What the hell? Just gonna leave us here to starve to
death or get eaten?”
“No, Brian,” Nathan says before Tony can start shouting at Brian.
“We just wanted to make sure that if we got into trouble on our
recon we would have enough supplies with us to hold out for a bit.”
“I’m calling bull shit!” Brian shouts.
“Guys,” Becky says. “You have to chill.”
“Dude,” Tony takes a deep breath before continuing. “We’re not
leaving you guys here. We aren’t taking everything with us. Rudy
knows where to find the supplies and, if needed, he knows how to
get them. And, before you even ask… No. We don’t trust you.”
Jay is holding Carrie in his arms. The wound Howard inflicted
to her chest has finally stopped bleeding. Tony and Rudy have just
returned to camp after burying what remained of Howard in the
wood line.
Nate looks over to Tony. “Is it done?” he asks.
“Yeah, man. It’s done,” Tony says, before looking towards Becky.
“How’s Carrie?”
“Jay has her calmed down. The bleeding has mostly stopped.”
“How long do you think she has?” Nate whispers.
“I don’t know,” Tony answers, while watching Jay stoke Carrie’s
hair while rocking her back and forth. “A day? A couple hours?”
“You guys still going on the recon mission tomorrow?” Rudy asks.
“That was the plan, but considering what happened to Carrie I
think we should just play it by ear,” Tony answers.
Nate stands up. “I’ll be right back,” he announces to Tony, Becky
and Rudy before heading over toward Carrie and Jay. “How’s she
doing, Jay?” he asks softly as he squats down to eye level with the
pair.
“She’s hanging in there.”
Nate notices that her breathing has become labored and she is
shaking a bit.
“Why are you guys talking as if I’m not here?”
“Sorry hun,” Nate says. “I thought you were asleep. How ya
feeling?”
“Like a train hit me. This thing is burning like hell.”
“Can I have a look?”
“Yeah,” Carrie says, and lifts her bandage away so Nate can
see it. He sees the greenish puss that is oozing from the wound
and black vein lines extending away from the bite. Without even
flinching he says, “It doesn’t look that bad, hun. Then asks, Do you
mind if I look at your face in the light?” as he pulls out his flashlight.
“Nah man. Do what you want.”
He turns the flashlight on and points it at her face. Her eyes have
become jaundiced and there’s a red haze around her pupils. Her
face has gone from sun kissed and rosy to something resembling
grey clay.
“How do I look, man? Hot as always?”
“Oh yeah, babe. You’re still a looker.”
/magazine