Sailing to Astoria - Zombie Hoards

I sailed to Astoria today and evading a fast moving swarm and met up with an old friend.

The day was sunny and warm – around 72 degrees.  I had no fear of a sunburn. I’ve found that I’m a nutty brown these days as the season winds down into fall, at least my face.  

 The mission today was to run into Warrenton.  It’s a five mile one way trek – five miles back with a pack.  I carried no water as I hoped to find some in Warrenton, I didn’t want anything to slow me down.  A stupid risk in retrospect and one I will not make again if I can help it.

I had not made it a mile from Fort Stevens before the zombie swarm came out of the trees and clogged the road way.  I typically see a shambler or two as I run but these were well organized and faster than most.  I cursed every step I ran as they cut off the main path and herded me toward the Marina area.  

As you know reader I hate getting stranded against the waterfront.  It’s dangerous to say the least.  I also have said that zombies usually don’t come out in force or in direct sunlight but today I was dead wrong. 

I kept following the curve of the Columbia heading toward the Skipanon River and the Warrenton Marina.  Ruins of lumber mills stood in my way and I kept having to back track and otherwise be creative to avoid the zombs.  

 Man, there were a lot of them out.  I tried not to count, just to keep moving. 

 I thought I was lost when I hit Tansy point, but I slowly navigated to the old Warrenton Trail and where I then ran like a banshee.  I high tailed it down the trail because I knew it so well and it dumped me out at the Marina.  

I took the chance that maybe Tess was on her boat – that was a dumb move – I mean, seriously she probably wouldn’t be.  As it was however she was there and had just arrived.  Turned out not to be coincidence.

Tess later told me that she had evacuated out to one of the islands in the Columbia.  They were so far from shore as to not be visible and most people, even locals, didn’t know they existed.  She had come into town however.  Tess had known everyone in town before the Zombie plague.  I was in luck I thought at the time.

Tess’ boat the Avenger had a small motor but more importantly it had sails and in time of crisis when one couldn’t get petrol it was very advantageous.  Many people had died in their yachts when they ran out of gas and they were far from shore.  And Tess had a radio and basic communications.  

“I thought you could use a lift”  Tess said as I hurried aboard the boat uninvited wobbling onto the craft better than I had expected to since it wasn’t berthed yet.  

My chase had made the radio waves and chatter of the local populace holed up in Warrenton Mansion and from the Fort.  We reversed course and headed out of the water way toward Astoria.

Tess is the kind of woman who should have been a college professor.  She explained how the boat ran and her time on the Island.  One question I wanted to desperately know however: “Why are the zombies active today?”  She smiled. 

“Well it’s why I’m coming to shore for a few supplies.”  Her dog barked at a passing sea lion and we paused to watch it.  Some animals were doing fine without excessive humans.  “This is the last beautiful day we are bound to have for a while.  There are big storms moving in.  The Zombies are sensitive to the weather, it makes them excitable from what I can tell.”  

Possibly I should explain here that Fort Stevens is in a rain forest and each fall we get hellified storms that come in and dump a ton of rain on us, then there is a gentler rain that falls for the next six  months.  Rain, rain and more rain and it all starts at some unknown date in the fall, that time had arrived.

Tess’ island had gear on it from the Coast Guard and she had radar.  

We sailed up the channel toward Astoria.  I would never try to sail myself.  It’s a wicked dangerous water landscape comprised of ocean tides versus ever changing winds with depths of water from 11 – 120 ft.  You never knew what the Columbia would throw at you so novice boatman often wound up in trouble.  

There were harp seals and brown pelicans.  The mouth of the Columbia that goes into the ocean is eight miles across and everything looked so normal from out there.

In Astoria we were able to get to the Safeway gas station and I was able to score six cans of petrol for Fort Stevens.  We were chased by three zombies, but our dock had sea lions sunning on it and they hated the zombs worse than us dodging around them.   We were safe enough. 

Tess let me off at the harbor at Hammond which is less than a quarter mile from the Fort.  I was able to use her radio to let the Fort know I would need help hauling supplies back and they promised me Hero 13 and Runner 8, but even the Commander showed up.  The Commander gave Tess a shank of Elk as a token of appreciation, as we have little else to give that’s worth much.   

We hauled the petrol back in high spirits.  Armed guards made sure no Zombies gave us issues.  

Come to think of it I think Tess might be a vegetarian…maybe that doesn’t matter anymore. 

Tonight the Coyotes aren’t howling but the undead are.  They are hitting the fence with their arms and bodies making an ungodly noise.  The wind is picking up.  There is a spittle of rain.  A tension is in the air and nobody is going to bed early.  I keep thinking about Tess’ dog ‘M’ – I wish I had a dog.

Goodnight Reader – until tomorrow my final run of the week.