SurvivorZ: Grave Harbor

59

An explosion from a tank shell blew out the largest of the plant's concrete smokestacks. It was still smoking when a second one hit it in approximately the same location.

Amy and the others watched as Mystic's iconic tower collapsed. It dropped straight down in a cloud of dust, almost in slow motion, before snapping in two and crashing upon the ranks of the undead filling the yard.

The racket distracted the corpses trudging across the dock. Most of them turned to investigate the noise. Only a few pressed on to the edge of the water to bid their escaping dinner a mournful bon voyage.

The escape craft chugged out of port, carrying its trembling crew down the river. Everyone save the captain stared out at the departing sights of their former refuge. Dark smoke billowed from the generating station. Flames chewed through the structure, waving from its breaches like a golden field of wheat in a summer breeze.

A sudden explosion tore an opening the size of their boat through the plant's outer wall. Burning debris pelted the groaning mob outside. The blast only seemed to attract more of them to the inferno.

The gunfire had died down, replaced with the rumble of motors. Amy spotted vehicles retreating across the bridge. Now that their target was ablaze, the troops seemed content to let the dead have what remained. She frowned and turned away, not caring one bit for either their evictors or Mystic's new tenants.

The only thing she cared for less was the way their ride out of here began to sputter and heave.

"Damn!" the skipper exclaimed from the helm.

"What's wrong?" Ed called to him.

"Like I told you, we're nearly outta gas. The engine's running on fumes at this point."

"Can we make it to the other shore?"

The captain turned the wheel, steering them towards a boat ramp on the far side of the river. He didn't seem too put out by the fact that there wasn't any obvious place for them to dock, either.

"Y'all might want to hold onto something," he announced.

"Are you kidding me?" Merl whined.

Amy heard a click behind her. She looked back to find Ed checking the ammo in his gun. He glanced up at her worried expression and flashed her a grimace.

"Just in case," he said.

She felt like asking In case of what, but there was no time. Before she could open her mouth, Janice had her by the hand again.

The woman dragged her to a spot outside the wheelhouse, where she figured they might weather their rough landing together. Amy didn't know how much safer it was, compared to anywhere else on the boat. With dry land bearing down on them, she suspected there'd be bruises aplenty by the time they crashed ashore.

She called it wrong, but not by much. As soon as the hull scraped on pavement, the boat nosed down with a scream of sheared metal. It ran up the ramp with a jarring squeal, tossing its riders here and there, but not to the extent Amy figured. As the Mystic River flooded into its torn underside, the vessel slumped like the head of an aquatic dinosaur breathing its last on its rocky deathbed.

"Is everyone all right?" the skipper asked as he wobbled out of the wheelhouse on shaky legs.

Amy glanced at Janice. She pushed up her glasses and nodded. Merl groaned near the rear of the boat, where he and Ed picked themselves up off the deck.

"I think so," she replied to him.

"We should hurry," Ed said. "The army must have seen us crash. We need to get inside before they—"

The sounds of approaching engines suggested that they weren't going anywhere. The army did take notice of their noisy return to dry land and dispatched two armored vehicles to meet them. Though Ed scowled and pulled his gun out at the sight of them, Amy was glad they were the ones who found them, rather than a herd of zombies. She couldn't bear to face more of them right now.

"What are you planning to do with that?" Merl asked, referring to Ed's weapon.

"Take the women and run for cover," Ed said. "I'll hold them off here while you get away."

"Are you kidding? Don't start anything. You'll just get us all killed."

"He's right," Amy said, watching as a Humvee and an armored personnel carrier pulled up nearby. "We can't fight them and we can't escape them. All we can do is surrender."

"We..." Ed stared at the heavily armed soldiers emerging from the vehicles. Something in his features broke. The big man let out a tired exhalation. "Shit."

He tossed the gun over the side of the boat and slowly raised his hands in the air. Amy, Merl, Janice, and the skipper lifted theirs a moment later. Nobody twitched a muscle except to maintain balance on their unsteady, sinking raft.

They waited for the soldiers to swoop in and order them to disembark. What else could they do? They were prisoners of war now, at the mercy of Colonel Hayes and his army of raiders.

She could only hope their captors remembered they were the victims in this one-sided battle, not the aggressors. As far as she knew, Hayes was the only one among them with blood on his hands.