SurvivorZ: Grave Harbor

101

LAURIE

Laurie hugged herself, fighting a painful shiver wracking her body that had little to do with the cold. Standing with the others by the loading bay door set in the east wall, she listened to the distant gunfire pounding from the opposite end of the fort. It made her think of her family's television blaring downstairs, piping through the thin walls of her bedroom while she did her homework.

Except Lexington was a million miles away from this hellish place, and the years she spent pouring over textbooks was the partially forgotten dream of a lifetime ago. This racket wasn't the reassuring background noise of her family's presence. She wouldn't be going downstairs to find her dad falling asleep in his favorite chair to one of his war movies. It was all frighteningly real. A fact that would soon become brutally apparent, the minute they set foot outside.

The storage room with its harbor-facing loading door was filled with supplies offloaded from Mystic's boats. Boxes, tarps, sacks, and gas cans were piled together in every corner of the room. Judging by everyone's expressions, Laurie wasn't the only one feeling claustrophobic in the cramped chamber.

Sergeant Lowe had been fortunate to catch the majority of their group huddled together in the bunkroom. Safe from the fighting but not from their worries, she and the others – including Lily and Doctor Bradshaw – jumped at the chance to grab their things and leave. Where they ended up wasn't an improvement in Laurie's opinion.

While stuck waiting for the last of their group to arrive, dreadful thoughts of the horrors awaiting them on the other side of the exit consumed the last of her peace. By the time Maureen, Drew, Robin, and the others finally appeared, all she had left was the conviction that leaving the fort was a terrible idea. The shock from seeing Maureen's scarred features for the first time did nothing to ease her mind.

"What the hell happened to you?" Graves cried, first to express the sentiment felt by everyone in the room.

"Mom!" Danielle and Emily rushed to her side.

"I'm okay," Maureen assured everyone.

"You're bleeding," Danielle said.

"I was attacked, but I'm okay now."

"Judith tried to kill her," Lee announced, primarily addressing Danielle. "She killed my grandparents, and Brent... and I think she trapped people in the school on the day we found her."

"God, mom... I can't..." Danielle struggled to speak. "We need to get you patched up."

"There's no time," Graves interjected. "You can hear what's going on out there. We've waited too long as it is."

"She can't go outside like this," Charlie argued. "Those things will smell her blood the minute she takes a step outside."

"None of us will be safe out there," Graves countered. "There's only one zombie on this side of the wall we can use as a disguise, and close to twenty of us. Even if we had time to carve up Milton Hewes, which we don't, there's not enough of him to go around. We're going to have to fight our way out."

"I'll cover myself," Danielle suggested. "I'll go out there, kill some more zombies, and bring them back so—"

"Dani," Maureen stopped her. "He's right. We don't have time."

Metallic tapping distracted Laurie from the remainder of their discussion. She looked over to find Paige's friend, Stan, knocking on the gas cans with an ear cocked for the sound.

"I think these are full," he said. "We should take a few with us."

"That's it!" Mike suddenly shouted. When everyone stopped to stare at him, he explained the reason for his excitement. "Gasoline. Mueller designed her formula for Z-Off partially from petrochemicals. We could cover ourselves before heading out there."