Chapter 27 Quiet Time And Dealings - New Additon

Charlie put his rifle down and knelt down by Maggie and the boy. I rolled over to my stomach and pushed myself up to my feet. Frank stood nearby watching. Maggie was struggling not to cry as she examined her son, searching for bites, her hands a pair of nervous birds fluttering over his body. Finally James reached up and got ahold of his mother's wrists gently and spoke, “Mom, I'm ok, no bites.” Maggie stopped and closed her eyes and pulled her son to her and held him. He hugged her back. In spite of his toughness he was just as scared. It was close.

I caught Charlie's quizzical look at James when he spoke. “The boy is deaf, in case you're wondering Charlie. He's deaf but a damned tough kid. Helluva good shot too.” I added as I bent to pick up our discarded weapons off the deck. Charlie accepted my explanation with a nod. “Uh, just out of curiosity,” Frank's voice spoke from behind us, “who's driving the boat?” Charlie turned to him and grinned. “Ya'll didn't think I'd be alone on this tub did ya? My daughter is driving this thing.” That caught my attention. “Daughter? You got married?” I asked. Charlie shook his head still grinning. He always did have a smile on his face irregardless of the circumstances. Seemed that nothing ever got this man down. “No, not married but that doesn't matter now does it?”

Frank held out his hand, “No, that really doesn't matter at all. I want to thank you for helping us. It's hard to find decent people these days.” Charlie took his hand and shook it once and let it go. “It's John you should be thanking. If I didn't know him, you'd never gotten on board.” Frank nodded, “we're grateful to John already for a lot of things. Either way we still want to say thank you.” My friend shrugged then turned to me. “I hope they know this ain't going to be a free trip.” This time I had to grin.

“Since when have you ever done anything for free man?” This cracked both of us up.

I turned to Frank, “sorry it's an inside joke. But I should've mentioned that we would have to barter our way. But I didn't mention it before because I wasn't sure if we would've found him and also the excitement in the last ten minutes kinda put negotiations on hold.” If Frank was bothered by it, he didn't show it. “Not at all. I wouldn't dream of getting a free ride.” He turned to Charlie, having to look up to be face to face with the tall man. “Whatever you need, if we got it to spare, it's yours. You can be sure that we'll do our best to match your generosity.” Charlie nodded, still grinning. “John has never been a free-loader. So I'm not going to worry about it just yet.” He stepped away and went to the wheelhouse door, banged on it twice with an open palm, paused, then banged once again and rapped twice with his knuckles. There was a distinct sound difference between his palm and knuckles on the steel door.

“Malika, stop the boat, we're going to drop anchor for a while.” From inside a girl's voice called out. “Dammit Daddy you just woke up the baby!” Sure enough from inside came the sound of a baby's cry. Charlie chuckled and turned to me. “Baby can sleep through a gun fight but not me knocking on the door. Go figure that one out. Oh, and close your mouth man, the flies are bothersome enough.” I shut my jaw not realizing that it dropped open. Maggie was staring at Charlie and so was Frank. James sat there looking up at us all wondering what was going on. He toed his mother's boot until she signed to him what was said. James got up and brushed himself off. “Baby?” he said in voice and signs, “cool! Can I see it?” Maggie signed something and James hastily added “please?”

Charlie did something that surprised us all, he voiced and signed back “You sure can, in a minute ok.” The look on James' face was something as his eyes lit up. “You sign good.” he said. Charlie made a now familiar gesture to me “Thanks, you too.” James laughed probably for the first time since we left the hotel. Charlie turned to us, “let me go drop anchor and we'll have time to get introductions and everything out of the way.” He turned away and headed to the front of the boat.

The three of them looked at me. I was at a loss to what to say, “I didn't know he knew signs.” Maggie stepped over to me and wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me hard. “It doesn't matter. Thank you for saving James,” her voice breaking and she kissed me again. Charlie's voice called out from the front of the ferry. “Hey now, this ain't the Love Boat, ya'll go find a room!”

Our kiss broke but Maggie still held on to my neck and rest her head on my chest. I held her close as I could, ignoring everyone else.




It was about mid-afternoon and while the weather was warm it was comfortable enough to sit out on the deck. Charlie had a few folding camping chairs set out in a small circle in front of the wheel house and was nice enough to drag out a large cooler that was filled with ice and various drinks. We were anchored out near the middle of the river and eventually the rear of the ferry was facing downstream thanks to the current. Charlie didn't seem too concerned about it. He said it was the safest place for us to be. The area on both sides of the river was lined with trees, so at least we didn't have to worry much. Charlie also said this point in the river was deep so we were safe.

His daughter came out of the wheelhouse and was holding her baby. Malika was young, very young, I guessed she was about 16 or so, turns out she was 14. Her baby was 8 months old. She took a seat by her father. James was enamored with the baby, he squatted down beside the girl and was watching the baby with a bright smile on his face. I glanced over at Maggie who was watching her son. I could see she was getting misty eyed again. Charlie leaned over and opened the cooler and pulled out a beer and tossed me one without even asking. He looked over at Frank and gotten a nod. He then gotten another one out and held it out to Maggie, who was still watching James coo-ing over the baby. I cleared my throat and when that didn't work, put my cold can up against her arm, she turned her head slowly at me and looked at the can and gave a nod with that small smile. I jerked my head to Charlie who held out the can patiently for her. She murmured an embarrassed thank you and blushed. “Your girls are beautiful” she said softly. Charlie gave a nod of thanks and then waved at James to get his attention and held up a coke. James took it then signed “thank you”.

Charlie popped open his beer and leaned back into his chair. “Well I guess introductions are now in order” he looked at me. I was caught with the can at my lips and nearly sputtered at the laughter that threatened to bust out of me. I don't know why but I was so glad to see him again and amazed at the circumstances of our reunion. I made proper introductions around and allowed Frank, Charlie and Maggie to make small talk. Each of us told our post apocalyptic stories then allowed Charlie to tell his.

“When this thing hit, I was already had been with the company that ran the ferry for a couple of years. Malika was with her mother at the time and she and baby Sharonda had managed to get away because she was on her way to see me. Janeen's father was nowhere to be found. Malika was on the bus when it got over run and she got out and ran the rest of the way here. Her mother was working at the hospital, a nurse. We haven't seen her, so we can only assume the worse. They've been on board ever since, she refuses to touch dry land.” Charlie talked as if his daughter couldn't hear him. I glanced at her and saw she was giving her attention to her baby and James.

Charlie confirmed my suspicions, “She's still in shock. She's seen things that no girl her age should see plus she told me how she saw one mother give her baby to those things just so she could get away.” Maggie's hand went to her mouth and it barely covered her cry “Oh god!” Charlie nodded in agreement. “She woke up first night on the boat screaming that the dead were coming to take her baby. It took me a while to calm her down and get her back to sleep. When she woke up the next morning, she was gone.” he nodded to her to indicate her present condition. “So whenever they are around, she goes into the wheel house with the baby, and doesn't come out until I bang on the door and call her name. She always shouts that I wake up the baby whether it's asleep or not. At least she knows it's not one of them. She knows my voice, anyone else would get shot right through the door. I taught her how to shoot before all of this, so I'm not worried too much whenever I have to leave the boat for supplies.”

He took a long drink before finishing. “Taught her how to pilot the boat so that whenever I do go to shore she takes it out to the length of the anchor line, shuts off the engine and waits for me. When I return from a day's scavenging I'll park the truck a ways from the ramp and walk on down, pull the ferry to shore and bang on the door, calling for her.” He shrugged, “it's a good system and it's kept us alive.”

“What about other survivors? What do you do about them?” I asked. He finished his beer and crushed it in his hand and didn't answer, it was answer enough. “So what made you come out for us?” He chuckled “John, I'd recognize you any day, didn't you know that?” I snorted. “Yeah? So why did you take a shot at me if you know me so well?” At that he laughed aloud, “To see if you were still that jumpy sucker I always remembered.” I could feel myself blushing. He was right, prior to the outbreak I was a bit jumpy. But afterwards, I guess I must've hardened up somewhere along the line. I purposefully took a sip of beer, “sorry to disappoint you man”. He shook his head, “Au Contrair, I'm glad to see you get over it.” His face fell suddenly, “I also learned that even friends can turn ugly on you. If you had ill intent, I think you'd run for your life, but you held your ground. That took a lot of trust. It told me that you were still an honorable man.”

I saw that Maggie and Frank were “studying” this exchange. It offered them a bit more insight upon the man they adopted into their family. I didn't mind really. I felt that I already had proven myself several times over to where my past wouldn't have mattered. The smile I got from Maggie said so anyway.

Frank cleared his throat, “Well, John has done well by us. We're very glad to have hooked up with him.” I raised my hand to protest, but he over rode it, “I know, you actually joined us but either way, if it weren't for you I think we'd been taking our chances on one of the bridges and missed out on meeting this gentleman” raising his own beer towards Charlie. Before Charlie could respond, Malika spoke up. “Daddy, can the white lady hold the baby? I need to use the restroom.” Charlie looked over at the girl who stood and was holding the baby out towards Maggie. “Sure hunny, that's fine, but ask Maggie” stressing her name “if she wants to first.” Malika blinked and looked at Maggie and held the baby out to her, “You wanna hold the baby Maggie? I think she would like you.” Maggie gave Charlie a quick look for an okay and he gave a small shrug. She got up out of her chair and went over to the girl and held out her hands, “I'd love to watch her, thank you Malika.” As she took the baby in her arms she coo-ed to it “ohh c'mere baby girl, oh you're so pretty! Just like your momma.” Malika dropped her chin and reached out and stroked Maggie's cheek, “Thank you m'am” and went into the wheel house.

Maggie looked at Charlie in askance of that last bit of contact. Charlie watched the wheelhouse door where his daughter disappeared, “she misses her mother” he said simply. Maggie's face became a mixture of emotions then she finally nodded and sat back down focusing her attention to Sharonda. James moved over and squatted down by his mother this time and continued to fuss over the baby.

Frank cleared his throat and address Charlie. “Why don't we get the negotiations out of the way and that way we can have a better chance to relax. How far can you or will you take us?” Charlie became all business. “I guess it will depend upon how far you're wanting to go and what you got to offer, doesn't it?” Frank nodded, and I could see he got into his command mode and I became intrigued at how it was all going to play out. Charlie was no push-over to be sure and I felt he'll drive a hard bargain. Frank got up out of his chair and extended his hand to his truck. “Allow me to show you what we have to offer and we'll go from there.”

Charlie got up in one smooth move and nodded. As far as he and Frank were concerned we ceased to exist. I looked over at Maggie who was still adoring the baby, decided to leave her to it and got up to join the others. Frank lead Charlie to his truck and opened the rear window of the topper then dropped the tail gate. Charlie looked inside and gave a low whistle, “boy you don't kid around do you?”

Frank grinned and said nothing. Charlie reached in and pulled out a long box and set it on the opened tailgate. He glanced at Frank who shrugged a “go ahead” and opened the box. Inside were several M-16's lined up in a row. Charlie took one out and examined it with the hands of someone who has lived with the rifle as best friend and protector for many years. He put it back and replaced the cover. “How many rounds you got for these?” his tone was a matter of fact, as if he did arms deals all the time. Frank reached up and lifted up his hat and scratched his head, “well, about 2000 rounds for each rifle that you see there, all in pre-loaded magazines in a different case, with about 50 mags per case.

Charlie nodded, “what else have you to offer?” Frank reached in and pulled out yet another box, this had the stencil “explosives” on it. “Fragmentation grenades, and there's another case with smoke grenades and still one more, though we'd have to dig it out, of enemy suppression mines.” He stopped there, trying to think of anything else in the inventory that Charlie may be interested in or could use. “M-86's?” I asked. Frank nodded without answering, still in thought. Charlie looked impressed for the first time, “how did ya'll manage to get your hands on those?” I looked down at my feet, “Maggie was an EOD in Afghanistan and Iraq, before she got hit and sent home. She was an instructor at an Army base when the outbreak hit. Obviously she survived and managed to get into the ordinance depot and well, basically helped herself.” Charlie looked over my head, not a difficult thing to do, and watched Maggie playing with the baby happily. He put one of his hands on my shoulder, “Looks like to me you found the best kind of woman for this new world of ours, phat and deadly.”

The first word caught Frank's attention, “fat? I think she too thin as it is. How can she be fat?” Charlie and I laughed. “Phat. Pretty Hot And Tempting.” I explained. Frank shook his head and resumed his mental inventory then brightened, “oh I also got an M-60 in there if you're interested and 10,000 rounds for that already on the belts. I don't have a mount for it but it does come with it's own bi-pod. I think a big fellow like you should be able to handle it on your own two feet.” Charlie grinned, “so I can go all Rambo on the bastards huh? Yeah, let me think on that one but you already got me tempted.”

Frank nodded once, I'll leave this open for a bit, we need to talk about how far you can take us, now that you've seen what we can pay you. Wish we had fuel to offer. We also got cases of food in the other truck if you're needing that. Mostly freeze-dried and MRE's. Water purifiers and filters good enough to take it straight from the river, those have a 200 gallon capacity, we can let you have a few of those. Charlie held up his hands, “woah, woah, I think you got me convinced that you got what I need when you opened the frag grenades. Like I asked, let me think upon it and I'll give you a list. But I still need to know where you're going.”

Frank walked around to the cab of his truck and reached in the window. He came back with the map that he showed me earlier. “C'mon on over here so I can lay this out” and began spreading the map out on the hood. As we walked over, I looked over and saw Maggie and James were talking with Malika, who resumed holding her baby and openly breast feeding her. Maggie didn't seem the least bit bothered that her son was watching. James however was a darker color red than his tan originally was.

Charlie was already bent over the map looking at a spot Frank held his finger on. “Uh, yeah there should be a landing a few miles from where you're wanting to go. It'd take us about 3 hours to get there. He looked up at the sky, then at his watch. It'd be dark soon. Those creeps are usually more active when the sun goes down.” He leaned against the hood of the truck. “I don't have a problem with you all spending the night and I can take you down first thing in the morning. If you're not in a big hurry to get to the base.”

At that Frank jerked a little in surprise. “You know about it?” Charlie nodded and stared out across the water at particularly nothing. “Yeah, I know about it. Had to ferry someone to it about a couple months back. They didn't have much, but I took 'em anyway because they had kids with them. Some Senator and his wife. Kept promising all kinds of stuff. How he was going to have a truckload of supplies sent up to me and all that.” He looked at Frank without smiling. “Lying bastard, just like every other politician.” Frank nodded, “I never had much use for them myself as well. I'm career army and I've seen my share of idiots on the hill. You'll get whatever you want and then some. You're saving us a lot of aggravation taking us down river this way.”

Charlie grinned again and put one hand on Frank's shoulder and held out his other. Frank took it and put his free hand on Charlie's shoulder as well. Nothing more was said. Details can be worked out later. For now I think we all wanted to rest. I know I did. I was looking forward to possibly getting more than just 4-6 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period. I could feel myself wearing thin. If this “Wildfire” place that Frank wanted to take us to was all that he said it was, perhaps I could get the rest that my body sorely needed. As the evening wore on we had a simple dinner of freeze dried concentrates and the cold drinks that Charlie kept in his cooler. Because he had ample battery power he was able to have a small freezer to create ice cubes made from scavenged trays from the abandoned homes along the river. Charlie didn't have much and he explained that having the minimalist approach was the best way to live in his opinion. Having gone that route myself, even before the outbreak I was inclined to agree with him.

Malika had been a good hostess, checking on us now and again, if we needed anything. She tended to keep to herself in the wheel house watching over Sharonda. James was idly fishing off one end of the ferry, thanks to a rod and reel loaned by Charlie. At one point he caught a dead-fish. What was disconcerting was that the fish had a bite taken out of it. Charlie explained that while the zombies can't swim, they are in the river, wandering along the bottom, too stupid to fight against the currents to make their way across the other side. The water along the middle of the river was far too deep for them to be a danger. Most however tend to use the bridges, taking hours to by pass the traffic jams or blockades. Understandably, James lost his taste for fishing after that and played with his portable gaming system quietly by one of the trucks.

In a while the conversation dragged and waned and Frank and Charlie got into a discussion by themselves and as it turned out they came to an agreement upon the payment for our boat ride. By the time we would leave, Charlie would have enough weapons and supplies to last him for a while. Maggie and I in the meantime found a quiet spot on the end of the Ferry and watched the sunset. “According to your dad, we don't have that much farther to go” I said pointlessly but wanting to make small talk. She nodded, resting her head on my shoulder, saying nothing. I had a feeling of what she was thinking about. It wasn't about Wildfire or surviving day to day in this terrible new world we were in. It was about the baby. Taking a chance I asked her, “You're worried about the girl and the baby?” She nodded without replying. “Charlie is a good man, being on this boat gives them a tremendous edge over any other survivors with children. Even if the dead hear the baby crying, they still can't reach them.” She nodded again and shifted her weight a little. “It's not only that” she began, “it's the idea of that baby growing up in this world. She and her mother and even James won't have any chance of what we used to call a normal childhood.”

I had to agree but countered her with this. “I'm sure you saw kids in desperate straits overseas. Always in a war-zone, always the chance that death will tap them on the shoulder. Not knowing if this adult is going to be a good guy or some asshole.” I paused to light a cigarette, took a drag, blew it out and continued. “The kids today and the ones born after will be the ones most changed, but the ones that survive will be tough, diligent, bright, alert, more capable than James or Malika. We might be on the cusp of an evolutionary change that's necessary for our species to survive.”

At that she lifted her head off my shoulder and leaned back away from me as if to get a better look. “Are you always such a philosopher?” I blushed and made an exaggerated shrug of my shoulders. “No, just during zombie apocalypses.” She giggled and playfully slapped me on the arm, then leaned back against me, resting her head on my shoulder breathing a deep sigh. “Perhaps you're right. So what about us, the old guard?”

I remained quiet for a long space before answering, I wanted to make sure it's what I really wanted to say. “We will just have to survive and teach our children the best we can and hopefully live long enough to see the fruits of our labors.” I felt her nod and she tried to snuggle closer to me. Beyond us the sun had set along the horizon, turning the skies a wonderful shade of deep reds and orange.