Free Undead Rain (Book 2): Storm by Shaun Harbinger Page B

until the rain stops,” I said. “Those zombies will come pouring out of the shops. The soldiers will have to deal with them.”
    Tanya shook her head. “We’ve lost the element of surprise. They’ll deal with them easily now. Listen.”
    Beyond the windows, shots continued. The zombies were being destroyed as they took cover. Soon they would all be dead—our only advantage lost because of the weather.  
    “So we’re trapped here,” I said.
    “This sucks, man,” Sam added.
    Tanya was quiet. She looked around the shop. “Does that door lead to the boats?”
    I nodded. “Yeah. There’s a gravel beach that leads down to the water. The boats are all out there, tied to the jetties.”
    She crept forward on her hands and knees and retrieved a small pair of black binoculars from the floor. Staying low, she shuffled to the windows that looked out over the marina and cautiously lifted her head. She frowned and brought the binoculars to her eyes, scanning the beach.
    She adjusted the focus and whispered, “What the hell?”
    “What is it?” Sam asked.
    “I…don’t know. There are only a couple of soldiers on the jetties. Everyone else is on the beach. There’s a big tent there. I don’t know…take a look.”
    Sam crept forward and took the binoculars. “What the fuck are they doing, man?”
    The curiosity was killing me. I found a pair of binoculars on the floor and trained them on the sandy beach. The rain smeared the window and made it hard to see clearly but almost all of the soldiers were gathered outside a large olive tent.
    They were lined up outside in the rain, filing in when they were called. Two Land Rovers parked next to the tent had the army medical symbol on their doors, a red cross in a white square.
    I adjusted the focus and concentrated on a soldier coming out of the tent. He rubbed his arm gingerly through his combat jacket.
    “They’re being inoculated,” I said. “They must have a vaccine or something.” Was it possible they had a vaccine against the virus?  
    “That doesn’t matter right now,” Tanya said. “They’re all over there on the beach. I count four soldiers on the jetties, two on each. This is our chance.” She went over to the sales counter and rummaged around until she found a bunch of keys. She brought them over and spread them on the floor.
    Five silver-coloured keys, each on a ring that also held a round neon yellow plastic float, so the keys wouldn’t sink if dropped overboard, and a white plastic tag stamped with a number. On the reverse of the number tag was the slogan, “Sail To Your Destiny” written in dark green script.
    I arranged the tags so they were all number-side up.
    42.
    45.
    59.
    63.
    71.
    “Can we see any of these boats out there?” I asked, pointing my binoculars towards the moored boats.  
    Tanya did the same. “I see 71 ,” she said. “It’s tied to the jetty on the right, closest boat to the shore.”
    “That means we’d have to sail it out past all the other boats before we got out to sea,” I replied. “Keep looking.”
    “We need to hurry,” Jax said, “Some of the soldiers are coming back.”
    At the moment, there were only two soldiers on each jetty. They stood in the rain with their weapons slung over their shoulders. They looked bored. I didn’t intend to provide them with action to relieve that boredom. If possible, I wanted to sneak past them unnoticed.
    I hurriedly scanned the names and numbers on the boats. “I see 42 . She’s all the way out at the end of the jetty. Near the fuel pump.”
    Tanya adjusted her binoculars and searched for the boat.
    Jax sounded panicked. “We need to move.”
    “There’re four soldiers coming this way, man,” Sam said.  
    “Let’s go,” Tanya said, opening the door. “We’ll go for 42 but bring all the keys just in case.” She scooped them up and went out into the rain.
    I followed her out. As soon as I got onto the pebbled beach, I was soaked. The cold rain hissed down