Knight Terrors: A Zombie Apocalypse Survival Tale by Stephen J. Beard

Island by another group of survivors.  People who preyed on others to get by.  We lost a lot of people and barely escaped.  I’m not as trusting as I used to be.”
         “I understand completely, Mr. Knight.  But we are refugees, not conquerors.”
         “That’s for us to decide. Captain.  My family is in there.”  I pointed to the fort.  Captain Rendina nodded.  “I need to be sure.”
         “How would you like to proceed?” he asked.
         “Slowly.  First, understand that we mean you no harm.  We just want our families to be safe.  If we wanted your supplies you’d be dead.  That’s not who we are.”
         Rendina nodded.
         “And, I hope you understand the same, Mr. Knight.  We all want the same thing, safety.”
         “Do your people on the boat have enough supplies for breakfast?”  He nodded.  “Then why don’t the four of you join us inside for a bite to eat?”
         “That would be fine, Mr. Knight.”  He grabbed a walkie off his belt.  “We are going to go inside the fort and break some bread with these nice folks.  Call if there’s any problems”
         I grabbed my walkie.
         “Beth, would you get the gate for us.  We’re gonna have these folks in for breakfast.  Mike, you can bring it in, too.”
         We waited until Mike came off the boat and joined us.  He helped me limp up to the gate.
         “That was good thinking, Mr. Knight.  Putting a man on our flank like that.  I didn’t know he was there.”
         “As I said, Captain, we’ve had to defend ourselves.  And I’ve seen enough movies to know that flanking an enemy can win battles.”
         “How’d you tweak your, what is it, your ankle?’
         “Yeah, ankle.  Door broke open at Lowes, zombies were on the other side.  I fell and twisted it.  Tom’s nephew, Keith helped me get away but got bit for his trouble.  We’ve seen too much death, Captain.”
         “We have, too, Mr. Knight.”
         Breakfast was cold cereal over milk reconstituted from evaporated milk.  But we all had hot coffee and that put smiles on our visitors faces.  They hadn’t enjoyed hot coffee in a while.
         We told an abbreviated version of our story.  I tried to embellish a little and make us seem more formidable than we were.  I doubt that Captain Rendina bought it.  He could see everyone in our group.  He was studying us but hid it well.
         “Mr. Knight, I want you and your people to feel as comfortable with us as possible.  I’m sure we all understand that every living human is one less zombie that we have to exterminate.  But, I also understand that we are invading your living space, your home.  So, let me start by saying that it was my people who saw you the other day at Patriot’s Point.”
         “I was wondering…”
         “Their orders were to observe and report and that’s what they did.  We were going to watch you for a bit longer to see if you were friendly but we spotted a large group of zombies outside our fences and decided we couldn’t stay put.”
         “Where were you situated?”
         “The National Guard compound on Mathis Ferry Rd.”
         “Huh, I forgot about that.”
         “It seemed safe until the zombies showed up in those numbers.  We counted over 100.”
         “We saw them too.  We were headed towards the Walmart and had to backtrack because they filled Hwy 17.  Where do you think they came from?”
         “I don’t know.  Initially we thought your group led them to us.  But, now that I’ve met you I know that isn’t true.”
         “That’s how we lost Mike’s father actually.  A group of looters lured a large group of zombies to where we were at the Costco.  We got trapped inside.  It was dumb luck that Mike and I made it out.  All of this had just started and we didn’t know what we were doing.”
         “The