Zombie Ocean (Book 2): The Lost

by Michael John Grist

  Anna took a step closer too. This was Jabberwock and vorpal sword time. To back down meant a life lived under the covers, and that was not who she was anymore. She'd ridden in a taxi pulled by the ocean, she'd lived with them, she'd saved them and guided them and she was not going to be afraid.

  "I will," she spat back at him. "I might do it any time. You should be afraid of me. You go put your finger in the tube, if you like it so much. Make your rules. Do not try to scare me anymore."

  His body tensed, and for a moment Anna thought he would jump on her, like her Daddy had that first night. She got ready to dive to the side and run along the rows, though she knew he'd run faster than her. He looked so angry. His face twitched.

  Then his body went slack. His face seemed sad.

  "That's going to get you in trouble," he said at last.

  "What is? That I'm not afraid?"

  "That, yes. The world's a bitch, you know, Anna? One day you'll see that. Now get lost."

  "You get lost. I came looking for Amo. Where is he?"

  Julio turned his back. "I don't know. In the office maybe. Don't bother me again."

  He walked back over to his desk. He looked at his bits of metal. Anna felt her own eyes shine brightly. He didn't look up at her again.

  "They like me," she said. "The zombies, they're my family. Don't forget that."

  She walked out.

  She found Amo in the office. It was a bright white room in the basement, with bits of yellow wood, a long brown desk lined messily with chairs, and a big TV at the end. A generator sat next to it silently. They'd been using that in the last few days, flashing up screens from their computers for all to see.

  Amo was sitting at the middle of the desk, looking at a dozen pieces of paper spread across one of the big unfolded maps. At first he didn't notice Anna in the doorway, and she took a moment to admire him.

  He wasn't tall or huge, he wasn't even as big as her father, and he had soft floppy hair, but something about him radiated strength. He was the mayor. He'd dealt with Sophia and Don and he'd brought them all together. If she was like anyone at all here, it was Amo, not Julio. She'd known it ever since she saw the yellow pie-face on the Denver tower. His quiet blue eyes had seen things that all the others hadn't. His face looked tired and worried though.

  He chewed absently on a blue ball-pen.

  "You called me little sister," she said.

  Amo looked up, and his tired face broke into a smile. That was nice to see.

  "I did," he said. "I hope you didn't mind."

  "I don't. I never had a brother, though."

  He got up from his chair and came over to her. It wasn't at all like Julio coming closer. He pulled up two chairs and gestured to one for her. She had to hop up into it to sit down. These new clothes (she hadn't been able to find a new and clean Alice dress yet, so she was wearing jeans) were not too stretchy, so it was tricky. He sat down too.

  "I never had a sister either, but that's how I'd like to think of you, if it's OK."

  Anna smiled. Smiling made her cute, she knew, and it was good to look cute to Amo. "Is Lara like your sister too?"

  He laughed. She'd known he would. "No. She's like a, hmm, wife maybe? Though that's a bit premature... Girlfriend, you know what that is?"

  She got shy suddenly and ducked her head. He laughed.

  "I get it. You're teasing me? Smart cookie, Anna."

  She didn't think anyone had ever called her a cookie before.

  "Are you looking for Robert?" he asked. "I think he's in the housing block still. Does he know you're here?"

  "No. It's OK, I'm looking for you."

  "Ah, well you found me. I wanted to talk to you too, anyway. It's been so busy, we never had a chance. Can I go first?"

  She nodded.

  "OK. So I want to say welcome again. I'm really glad you're here. I've heard all about your travels, and I think we're going to need someone like you with us. I'm serious. You know the ocean in ways most of us don't. You've seen and lived things none of us can really imagine."

  She felt herself swelling with pride. It really felt like a balloon was blowing up inside her, with nice hot air.

  "Thank you," she said. "That's very nice."

  He smiled. She smiled. They sat there smiling for a little while.

  "Now it's your turn," Amo said at last. "What did you want to say to me?"

  She cleared her throat. This was the big one. "I can't stay."

  Amo just nodded. He didn't say anything about she was too young or too weak, like she'd been afraid of. He just said, "OK. Where do you have to go?"

  The way he accepted it made her feel close to tears. His eyes looked into hers and understood. Probably that was his gift too.

  "I have to find my father," she said.

  Amo leaned back in his chair. He tapped on the armrests for a minute. "That's a big job, Anna. They go into the ocean, don't they? How can you find your father when he went into the ocean? We have no idea if they come out anywhere, or if that's even possible. We don't know where they're going."

  "I do."

  "How?"

  This was her big secret. She couldn't tell it to just anyone. Only to Amo.

  "I've got a tracking chip in my Daddy."

  Amo blinked, then frowned, then leaned forward in his chair. "What?"

  "He's got a tracking chip in him. He ate my dog on the first night, the Hatter, and the Hatter had a chip in his back, and now the Hatter's in my Daddy and I've got my Daddy's phone and it tells me where he's going."

  Amo stared at her a moment longer, than he laughed. "A pet tracking chip! It must be RFID, what, maybe even keyed to a satellite? I've heard of this, they've been putting them into cars and phones for years, so why not dogs too? That's genius, Anna. You're a genius."

  She blushed. "He just ate my dog. His name was the Hatter. He was just a little puppy."

  Amo calmed himself. "Of course, I'm sorry for the Hatter. I lost a dog too, in New York. It hurt and I didn't even know that dog's name. But look what the Hatter's done for you. With his help you can find your father again."

  She nodded. A few of the tears crept out. To hear Amo say the Hatter's name made her go all wobbly inside. "He's somewhere in the ocean still, I think. In the water. The phone just shows gray, but it knows the direction."

  "That's amazing." He leaned back again. "I never thought of it."

  "So can we go?" she asked.

  A gray cloud came over his face then. The happy smile faded. "I don't think so, Anna. I don't want to lie to you. I don't think we can go any time soon."

  "Why not? We don't have to take everybody. It could just be you and me. You and me and Lara, maybe. We'll find him."

  Amo took her hand in both of his. He looked into her watery eyes.

  "And what then, Anna? I don't think he'll come back with us. He wants to go wherever he's gone. You know that."

  "I don't need him to come back," she said, crying properly now. "I just want to see him. I want to know where he went, and why he left me. I want to say goodbye properly."

  He squeezed her hand. He rustled in his pockets then in a bag by his feet, and pulled out tissues which he used to wipe her eyes and nose tenderly.

  "Hey now. It's OK. Listen, Anna, you know why I came here don't you?"

  She tried to speak through the tears. Sobs were creeping up that made her hiccup. "Because you like movies?"

  He laughed a little. "Yes, good point, but it's not only that. I wanted to make a place for people to come. Like a lighthouse, you know what that is? So I made the cairns, like Pac-Man and Jordan and the others, to guide people here. I made the comics. I wanted to stop people from hurting the ocean, and stop them from hurting themselves. It's hope. And now you've arrived, you're the first! I can't leave now. I've got to do more."

  "But," Anna mumbled, "but…"

  "Shh. I know. I know it's important; I want to know where they go too. I want to help them if I can, I promised that to Cerulean, to Robert. But
think of all the actual proper people out there who are lost, who are alone, like you were and I was. I have to find them all now, Anna. I've got to make this lighthouse a bright and safe place where they can live and be happy. That's a hard job, I think. I don't even know if I can do it. The world's so different now, isn't it? Plus, not all of the people who come will be good. I'm positive but I'm not living in a fantasy. You read about Don in the comic? I have to deal with people like that. I can't trust anyone else do it. I need to protect them. Do you understand that?"

  She sniffled. "Because you're the mayor?"

  "Because I'm the mayor."

  "Julio's not good," she managed to say between tears.

  "What? Why do you say that?"

  She told him what had happened in the dark theater. His teeth grated together while they spoke. His eyes got angry.

  "I'll deal with him," he said afterward. "He shouldn't have said any of that to you, not at all, but I don't think he's a real threat. He's just scared too, and he took it out on you. That's not OK, and I'm sorry it happened, but you were very brave. Thank you for telling me. I think you do understand why I can't go with you now."

  She nodded. It wasn't fair but it made sense. What if there were other little boys and girls out there, and other Julios and Dons to scare or hurt them, and there weren't people like Lara and Amo to help? She couldn't be the cause of that.

  "So when?" she asked.

  He sighed. "I don't know, Anna. Honestly. When this place is ready. When you're ready. I really don't know when that will be. But there are things we can do to get ready. We can try and get the coordinates out of your phone. I don't know how much range it has, or when the satellites will start to fail. We can learn about sailing across the ocean. I don't think we'll be flying again for a while. We build this place and ourselves up. Can you agree to that?"

  She nodded. She shifted her hand in his so it was a proper handshake, and they shook.

  Later that night she sat alone in her new room, in her new chair looking out of her new window, holding her Daddy's old phone in her hands. The yellow dot was flashing, flashing, flashing on an empty map of gray.

  She looked out to sea. Every now and then gray people walked past her, like shooting stars coming out of the cereal box but extra slow, headed for the water.

  Her Daddy was out there still. He was leading the flock, first in line to do whatever he had to do, marching onward with a thousand others just like him.

  It made her feel tingly to think of. She watched the dot flash and flash and flash like a pulse, like the phone itself was alive, reminding her of all her promises. She'd made the Hatter a promise that she couldn't keep. She'd made the puppies a promise she couldn't keep. She wasn't going to break this promise too.

  "I'm coming, Daddy," she whispered. "I'll find you."

  LOOKING GLASS

  11. 10 YEARS LATER

  Her single hull racing yacht cut through the waves off Muscle Beach like a comet. The wind rushed through her long dark hair and she leaned back at full stretch off the starboard rail, hiking the craft hard into the wind with the weight of her body. It tore along at a sharp forty-five degree angle, tilted over to port. Her every muscle flexed like a bowstring at full tension and she reveled in the rush.

  "Yee-haa!" she screamed into the spray and the surf.

  Waves crashed by only inches beneath her, each one strong enough to rip her grip away. One mistake and the yacht would capsize and all her efforts to fine-tune it would be lost. That's what made the rush so high.

  The sun beat down on her deeply tanned skin and she yanked hard on the halter, turning the keel beach-ward just enough to ease off the pressure and let her bend out of full stretch. As she bent inward the yacht responded and the sail flapped as the wind fell away, coming out of full racing sprint.

  She pulled herself smoothly onto the deck, yanked the tiller to throw the yacht into a hard turn, then ducked and braced in the mast well as the boom snapped across the yacht's frame like a hard right cross.

  TWANG

  said the cable lanyards. The jib-sail plumed out like a jellyfish and drove the craft through a sharp one-hundred-eighty turn, then she was up and leaning out hard on the port rail. The yacht kicked sharply as the strong sea wind caught the sail fresh out of the turn, jerking the port side clear out of the water and driving the yacht directly back along its course.

  She yelled again as she leaned out and counterweighted the wind with her body again, humming and in perfect tune. In those moments she felt free and everything else fell away. This was speed unlike anything else.

  "Too fast," came Lara's crackly voice over the amplified speakers in the yacht's small cabin. "You'll tear the rudder to bits like that, and you'll be lucky if half the boom brackets are not shearing loose again."

  Anna laughed and pulled harder into the wind, driving the sail almost horizontal to the water, so low she could see over its concave swell to the tiny figure of Lara on the beach and the twinkle of her binoculars.

  "It's what it's made for," she shouted over the crash of breakers.

  "It's not what we're made for," Lara's voice called back through the speakers. "You're too far out for us to get you. The riptide's strong today and you may not be able to swim back if you go in."

  Anna laughed. Lara worried all the time. Amo worried all the time. Cerulean worried most of all. None of them seemed to understand that the whole point of a racing yacht was to race.

  "Plus the microscope's up," Lara said. "Jake's got it working finally. Surely that's worth surviving for."

  Anna punched the air. The yacht momentarily wobbled, she almost lost control, and had to throw herself hard to the right to catch it before it capsized. An inch wrong in either direction and the line could break; the mast would come rocking back like a trebuchet arm and rip her head clean off. She got it just right and the wind kicked back in at just the right moment and angle. Her heart pounded madly and she laughed.

  It would be pretty ridiculous to drown on the day the electron microscope finally came online with some usable slides.

  "What was that?" Lara's voice came through sharply on the speakers.

  Anna laughed louder. "New trick in my repertoire. I'll be back in ten. Don't look at anything without me!"

  "Cerulean says slow down."

  "Tell Robert I'm coming in hot!"

  In one smooth motion she slacked the boom line again, let the sway of the yacht pull her back into the mast well, and re-angled the tiller at a sudden ninety-degree angle. The brackets crunched, the sail whipped like a gunshot, and then she was soaring back toward the beach with the wind at her back and the mast creaking against the hull.

  The electron microscope was up! That was cause for celebration indeed.

  On Hermosa beach Ravi dashed over to help her pull the yacht out of the surf. He was sixteen going on six, with all the brains of a tea pudding but the body of a rock god. All that water hauling and wall building in the California sun made him ripple with tanned muscle.

  "Hey Anna," he called as he snatched up the bow-rail and pulled, "nice curves out there."

  Cocky-funny, of course. He'd been reading books on flirtation; she'd seen them in his room. There weren't a lot of secrets in new LA, population thirty-six.

  "Stick it in your tea-hole," she replied, the first thing that came to mind, and bound to keep him puzzling for hours.

  She hopped off the front rail and bent down quickly to examine the lower keel. Damn, ground up on the sand of course. She'd come in too fast.

  "Tea-hole?" Ravi muttered. "I don't even like tea."

  Nearby Lara strode over the packed wet sand and stood one with one hip cocked sardonically. Only Lara could stand like that, with so much judgment in the angle of her waist. She looked model-good in her Karenina khaki beach slacks and Giovanni fat sunglasses, but then designer gear was for everyone now, and everyday wear.

  "The marina would have just taken too long, Anna?" she asked.

  "Time is money, aun
tie," Anna answered. Lara hated to be called auntie. "And you're right here."

  "You've scraped up the underside hey? Scratches lead to blemishes, make fractures make the keel snap. How many times Anna?"

  "How many yachts are there in that marina still?" Anna countered. "Hundreds in each basin alone."

  "And do you see a factory pumping out more?"

  Anna sighed. It was always like this with Lara, everything had to be a battle. "I'll buff them out OK? Let's just get to the microscope."

  Lara sighed too, letting this one battle go. The microscope was a big deal.

  "Get in," she said, "passenger side."

  Anna ran over to the sand buggy, raised off the beach on fat traction tires, and sprang into the passenger side. Best not to push it.

  "Thanks Ravi," Lara called, walking over. She shot Anna a dangerous glance through the windshield.

  "What?" Anna mouthed.

  Lara climbed in, started the engine, and they tore off at a sand spraying pace, jolting Anna backward into her seat. And Lara preached to her about going too fast?

  "You take advantage of that boy," Lara shouted over the rush of wind through the open window.

  "He likes doing it," Anna answered, "what else has he got to do?"

  "It's cruel. He's not smart. He thinks he's getting somewhere."

  "Maybe he is."

  Lara gave her a withering sidelong glance. "You are a confounding child."

  "He's asked me to the summer ball," Anna shouted.

  "Of course he has. You're the only one near his age. He's a good boy."

  "Whatever."

  "Whatever," Lara answered, then let it rest as they raced up the beach even faster than before. In this at least Anna and Lara were much alike; they both loved speed.

  Five minutes along the beach, and Lara took them bumping over the low railing and through a slim cement park where once skateboarding kids would have ground out their smooth moves on trick-rails and ramps.