Shaun Harbinger - Rain

At least I couldn’t see Elena.

Somewhere out at sea, distant thunder rumbled.

A few spatters of rain hit the windshield.

Then more.

Then the heavens opened and the rain came down in a torrent.

I checked the rocks near the lighthouse again. The shapes were gone, obviously taking cover in the lighthouse.

All of the zombies on the island would be in there now, roaming the lighthouse from the ground floor up.

And we were about to go in there with them.

I dropped the anchor when we were about a quarter mile from the rocks and climbed down to the deck below, blinking against the rain as it lashed my face.

Harper had ordered Mike and Lucy inside and they sat together on the sofa while he sat opposite them in the easy chair, gun pointed at them.

I got in out of the rain and wiped my face. “We’re here,” I told Harper. “Are you going to tell us what we’re doing here?”

“I need something from the safe in my room,” he said. “You’re going to help me get in there and back out in one piece. When I have what I want, we’re done. I’ll go my way and you go yours. None of you has to get hurt. But if you try to stop me, I will kill at least one of you, maybe all of you. All you have to do to survive is fight off the zombies in the lighthouse.”

“You know it’s raining out there?” I said. “Do you know what that means?”

“Yeah, it means they’ll all be inside. Zombies don’t like the rain.”

“You think we’ll go in there and come out alive?”

He shrugged. “Maybe not all of us. I’m surprised you’ve survived this long. You look like the type of person who read zombie novels and played video games before all this went down. That normally doesn’t translate well to a real situation.”

“What do you know about it?” I said, my anger hiding my acknowledgment that he was right.

“I know plenty. While you were having fantasies about the walking dead, I was preparing. I spent my weekends at gun clubs, at survivalist lectures, at survival exercises in the woods. I knew something like this would happen someday. So I prepared for it. This isn’t a fantasy, this is reality.”

“If you’re so well-prepared, why do you have to go back to the lighthouse? Leave something behind? Doesn’t sound so well-prepared to me.”

He looked chagrined. “I admit I made one mistake. I should have taken all of my things with me when I left the lighthouse. But I didn’t realize then what was actually going down. I thought I’d have time to check out the lay of the land and get back to collect what I needed. It didn’t turn out that way.”

“What is it you need?” Lucy asked. “What are we risking our lives for?”

“Just a set of keys.”

“Keys to what?” I asked.

“My place. The place I’ve been preparing all this time. It’s remote, protected by walls, has enough food and supplies for years. Solar power, hot water, everything. While you’re fighting to survive in this hellhole, I’ll be living in luxury.” He grinned at Lucy. “You could come with me, love. There’s plenty of room for two.”

“Go to hell,” she said, crossing her arms.

“It’s you three that will be going to hell. They’re going to nuke Britain. Did you know that? Do you know how to survive in a nuclear winter? You’re already dead, you just don’t know it yet.”

“The U.N. are coming,” Lucy said. “They’re taking survivors to America.”

He snorted. “Is that right? How long do you think it’s going to take for the virus to get there? Even if they took you to their shores, it will just be a matter of time before you’re living in Zombie America.”

“You have to have hope,” Lucy said.

“I have hope, young lady, because I don’t trust in anyone except myself. You can trust in these rescuers if you want but you’ll end up dead. Anyway, we’re wasting time here. The tide will be going out soon and the lighthouse will be open to the mainland again. Come on, we’re going on a little mission.”

“I need to change first,” I said, “and so does Lucy.” We were still dripping wet from our swim and I felt a chill that reached all the way to my bones.

“Alright, but be quick about it.”

I headed for the door to the bedrooms and Lucy got up to join me.

“No, no, no,” Harper said, waving the gun. “One at a time.”

I went down to the room where we kept our clothes and changed into my rain gear… a ‘Sail To Your Destiny’ T-shirt, dark blue fleece jacket and waterproof trousers that I had taken from the marine store. Over that I put on the waterproof jacket Mike had lent me for the hiking trip and a woollen scarf. I grabbed the diving mask to give me better visibility in the rain and went back upstairs.

“Fucking hell,” Harper said when he saw me. “You look like you’re ready for nuclear winter already.”

Lucy went and changed into jeans, a sweater and her jacket and Harper told her to untie Mike. Then he led all three of us out to the aft deck.

“Bring my boat around to the ladder and get in one by one. All of you move to the stern where I can keep an eye on you.”

Mike took the rope and guided Harper’s boat to the ladder. It was a fair-sized fishing boat but Harper had loaded it with fuel cans and gas bottles so there was hardly any room on the deck. It looked like his preparation was still ongoing. He had boxes stored in the cabin and lashed to the front deck. We climbed aboard and sat among the cartons, boxes and canisters.

Harper dropped onto the deck, told Mike to untie us from The Big Easy, and went into the cabin to start the engine. He pulled away from our boat and steered towards the lighthouse.

Lucy looked at me and I knew she was thinking the same thing as me: how would seeing Elena affect Mike? I gave her an almost imperceptible shrug. When I got changed, I put the flare gun and flares into the inside pocket of my jacket. I couldn’t risk a shot now with all the petrol on board Harper’s boat; it would go up like a bomb.

The rain washed down on us as we approached the rocks. The sky was gravestone grey. I put on the diving mask so my eyes were more comfortable in the rain.

Harper pulled the boat up to the rocks and told us to get off. We climbed out and stood in the rain while he tossed the mooring rope to Mike. Gathering up an armful of weapons, Harper kept the gun trained on us as he got out of the boat. He tossed the weapons at our feet.

A hand axe, a baseball bat and metal bar.

“Arm yourselves,” he said.

Lucy chose the axe and Mike picked up the metal bar, leaving me with the baseball bat. I hefted it and gave it a couple of swings in the air. We were about to go into a lighthouse full of zombies, so I wanted to be sure I knew my weapon.

“Right,” Harper said, “we’re going up to the bedroom level. That’s above the kitchen and living room.”

“We know,” Lucy said, “we’ve been here before.”

I looked over at Mike. He was staring at the lighthouse, the rain falling unnoticed on his face.

“You OK, Mike?” I asked him.

“I don’t want to go up there, man.”

I looked at Harper. “Maybe Mike should wait here. His girlfriend…”

Harper laughed. “Wait here? He’s the biggest guy among you. You think I’m going to rely on a geek and a girl to keep me safe? This guy is the only reason you’re useful to me. There’s no way he’s staying here while we go inside.”

He gestured with the gun towards the lighthouse. “Let’s go.” While we walked ahead, he stayed far enough behind us to be out of our reach if we decided to rush him.

The door to the lighthouse was open. In the darkness beyond, I could see five sets of yellow zombie eyes watching us. They began to groan as we got closer.