by Mark Clodi
“Tom.” Tom said, offering the man his hand.
“Josh. Excuse me, but my girlfriend is still tied up in there.” Josh staggered into the room on unsteady legs.
Inside the bedroom a nude young woman was bound on the bed, her hands and legs tied with electrical cords. Her mouth was gagged with pair of blue shorts and she had tears in her eyes.
“I gotcha baby, I gotcha.” Josh untied her legs and pulled the gag out of her mouth, while Tom unbound her hands. In a moment she was rubbing numb hands over her legs and sobbing to her boyfriend.
Tom thought it best to rummage around in the dressers for some clothing, which he tossed on the bed before he stepped back into the living room. Lance had Paul over by the kitchen sink and was carefully dabbing the other man's face. Tom took a moment to pick up his shotgun and reload it.
“Tom.” called Carl's voice from the bedroom, where he was still on the floor.
Tom looked over at him, “Yeah Carl?”
“I'm sorry.”
Tom thought about it. “They took control of you?”
The zombie man nodded, “I didn't think they were that strong.”
“How'd you get free?”
“When you shot the woman, something clicked. The man wasn't as strong as the woman and I could hold him off.”
“Josh shot the woman, I was down to calling her 'dootie-face' and a knife by that point.”
“Knives aren't very good against people like me Tom.”
“No shit. But I kinda lost hold of the shotgun when you pushed me over the couch.”
Carl winced, “Sorry.”
“Forget about it. Next time we'll be more careful. Maybe tie you up better or something. How did you break out of the restraints?”
Carl's hands were no longer bound in front of him. “The woman told me to. They were never strong enough to hold me.”
“Why didn't you tell us that?” Tom was too tired to be mad about it, he was more curious.
“Well, if things didn't go well, or I thought you were going to kill me, I wanted to have a chance to get away. Besides, what else is there?”
'True.' thought Tom. It is not like they had run into any handcuffs in their search of the ship so far. “Kinda pointless I guess. I wish you had confided in me from the start.”
“I do too Tom. You don't know how much I do too.”
Chapter 13
Clearing the ship took them another week. They found only twenty more people alive on the ship, all of them between twenty one and forty years old and they were split down the middle in terms of gender. They found many dead, zombiefied crew members, but Carl was unable to learn how to control the ship from any of them. They found a room in the hold and put twelve crew men, including the man they thought was the captain locked there in case they needed them later. Food was becoming a problem, when the power had been turned off the freezers had gone off as well, ruining the majority of the frozen food. They were down to canned goods and other non-perishables now. Lance had suggested they start fishing, they had found some gear in the crew sections down in the hold.
They had double, then triple, checked the ship, still no one went anywhere alone unless they had to. Mary Beth was still fighting off an infection from the burns, but one of the survivors was a doctor getting ready to start her final year of internship. ‘Doc Eli’, as she liked to be called, had found antibiotics in the ships infirmary and she was caring for Mary Beth.
The core group, Lance, Tom, Paul and Carl were up on the bridge, tinkering with the controls of the ship. They had figured out how to cut power to most of the passenger decks, they left the upper decks with nicer cabins powered to live in. They had also figured out how to start the massive engines on the ship, but after that discovery they had turned them off and focused on another problem; they didn't know where the ship was.
“There are small islands all over the place, what if we run into a shoal or a reef or something? We'll end up stranded in the middle of nowhere.” Tom said.
The others nodded. All of them were torn between the risk of running aground and staying where they were, as Tom said, still the middle of nowhere.
“We gotta figure something out with the electronics, if we can get a radio working right maybe we could contact someone to help us. The whole world can't be dead.” Lance said.
Except no one was answering any radio calls they made. Lance suspected they were calling using a short range radio and that if they tinkered around enough they might be able to figure out how to turn on its long range capability. So far they had spent most of the afternoon in the bridge and made no progress.
“Fuck it. Ah'm gonna go get a beer. We need a break.” said Lance. There was still plenty of alcohol and other drinks on the ship.
“I should check on Mary Beth.” Tom said.
“Yes, you should. Meet me in the bar after though.” Lance told him.
“You don't want to swing by there with me?”
“No. Eli might be there.”
“Oh, yeah, right, you two had a falling out.” Lance and the doctor had already gone through a rapid relationship in the short course of the week, which ended badly.
“You going down Paul?” Tom asked.
“Yeah. Carl?”
“I'll stay, beer doesn't help me think like it does for you.”
“Okay, Carl has the bridge.” Tom said formally. The three of them left and after a brief trip to the infirmary to check on a sleeping Mary Beth Tom joined the other two in the 'Deck 9' bar near the stern of the ship. The others had a pint head start on him and had taken the liberty of pouring him a beer while they waited.
“How's Mary?” Paul asked.
“Sleeping. Elizabeth was there, she asked after you Lance.”
“Good thing ah was busy.”
“I told her you were still fiddling around on the bridge, but that you promised to come down to 'Deck 9' later. She said she'd do her drinking in her cabin.”
Paul laughed, “How'd you screw that up so quick?”
“Ah don't want to talk about it.”
“Okay. So anyone think of something we haven't tried upstairs yet?”
“Only a few thousand things.” answered Paul. This was a very true statement as the radio equipment had a dozen different setting that could be positioned a hundred different ways, they had barely scratched the surface on how they could set the equipment for broadcasting.
“Ah I had a different thought though.”
“What?”
“Bring a bottle. And cold beer.” Lance said.
Paul gathered up an ice bucket, ice was plentiful in the restaurants again now that they had restored power. That left Tom to gather up a few beers and a bottle of Jack Daniels. He slide the alcohol into the bucket that Paul brought over then grabbed his half full beer off the bar top and followed Lance out into the sun.
A group of people was sitting in the hot tub on the fore deck. Tom didn't blame them, they had nothing else to do. He waved, smiled and continued on past despite calls from the others to join them.
They arrived at the suite Lance was using and followed him inside, where he turned on the television with the remote.
“What are you...” began Tom, only to be cut off by Lances making shushing noises.
Using the remote he flipped to the ships catalog of services, like most modern cruises you could order most things directly from your room, on this ship you made purchases using your television remote.
Lance flipped over to the 'IT Support' tab and highlighted, 'Buy Internet Access'. He selected it and scrolled down to buy a two day pass. They held their breath for a minute while the computer automatically authorized the transaction on the account of whoever had the room before Lance moved in. A moment later a user name, 'shodge' and password, a string of numbers and letters, appeared on the screen. There was additional text detailing daily limits and charges if they were exceeded. The three men barely read the words and then they were scrambling to connect their smart phones. La
nce came up with his first and was busy entering in the wireless credentials while the others were still trying to make a connection to the ship's Internet.
“Ah'm in.” Lance said, proudly displaying the web on his phone.
“Why didn't we think of this before?” Tom asked.
“We've been busy. Sleep, eat, in Lance's case fuck, then get back to clearing out the ship. We haven't had time to think about this until today.” Paul said.
An alert sounded on Lance's phone.
“What is that? Can you get a signal?” Tom asked, excited.
“It's a chat request from my mama.”
“Answer it!”
“Already am.”
The next three hours were spent chatting with Lance's mother, who was worried sick about her baby boy and seemed reluctant to tell him about what was happening on the mainland. They pieced the information together bit by bit and were dismayed to find that things were bad everywhere. Everyone had come down with the sickness, people were killing and eating each other, but a few towns seemed to be spared. They finally convinced Mrs. Charleston that she had to contact someone who could help them figure out the controls on the ship, starting with some of Lance's buddies in the army. Lance told her the Marines or Coast Guard might be okay too, but to try to contact one of his friends in the military first. Then they sat down to wait. They had finished off half the bottle of Jack and all of beer by the time there was a soft knock on the door. Tom staggered over and opened it up.
“Carl.” he slurred as the zombie came in.
“Well, you three come up with anything.”
Lance raised the bottle of Jack Daniels by way of answer as Paul yelled, “We did!”
Carl seemed taken back, “Really? Or are you just drunk?”
“Really.” Tom answered. “We got internet, we chatted with Lance's mom. She is trying to get a hold of the military.”
“That's fantastic.” Carl said, but his voice sounded like he wasn't really pleased to hear the news.
“What's wrong?”
“When do I get on a lifeboat?”
“What?”
“Well I am not going to stick around and wait for the military to get here. I doubt they would welcome me with open arms. So I better leave. Sorry Tom, I am happy for you. I hope things work out, but I won't stay to meet them.”
“Oh, yeah, right. I get that. But it's not like they will be here tonight. She hasn't even gotten back to us yet.”
“How are things on shore? Okay?”
Tom shook his head and took a seat when he lost his balance. “No. Bad. She won't say.”
“She doesn't want to worry me.” Lance said.
An alert sounded from Lance's phone, which was now plugged into the wall to keep it charged. Lance reached for it and smiled, “It's Tyrone! My buddy! He's still in the service.”
A furious round of messages flew between the two men, hampered by Lance's degraded ability to spell. “He's gonna go up the chain, see if he can get someone who knows something about cruise ships to contact us. He says to 'sit tight'.”
“How long?” Tom asked.
“Ah don't know. He'll try to have an answer for us by morning. But things are all messed up right now, he is supposed to be deployed tomorrow...this can't be right.” Lance typed some more, “He's being deployed in Kansas, to fight there. Says my ma and dad should have been evacuated already, but are still at home. I'm getting my mama back on the chat, to see what is going on.” While Lance did that Carl helped Tom stand up and took him over to the hallway door.
“Are you going to tell the others?” asked Carl.
“I think we should. At least to let them know what we know.”
“I can do it. Elizabeth is out there with them in the hot tub. It would be better if Lance didn't go out there. Things are, well, you know how the hot tub was last night?”
Tom did know, last night was the first night that they were sure the ship was safe, the party that took place in 'Deck 9' had sprawled out into the hot tub and clothing was not only optional, it was forbidden in the activities that followed. Tom had held back, even though he was pretty sure the zombies were gone, there was still one running around, Carl. And Tom felt nervous letting his guard down so soon. Lance has also refrained, but that was because he was afraid Elizabeth would show up and get into an argument with him in front of everyone.
“Are they all naked and drunk again?”
“Worse. They invited me to join them.”
“Eww.” seeing the look on Carl's face, Tom immediately regretted saying that, “Sorry Carl, but you're...well dead.”
“Believe me, I understand. It still hurts though Tom, to hear you react that way. I fear that your reaction is something I am going to have to get used to from everyone who knows. I wasn't tempted to join them anyway.”
“Can you...?” Tom asked, curious in spite of himself.
“Tom, I could. But I choose not to. I have to believe that everything I trained for before this happened is still valid. I won't commit adultery.”
“Whoa. But that means...”
“It means I will probably spend a long time alone. Maybe this is reversible.”
“Oh God I hope not! I mean we just walked three thousand people off the back end of the ship, we'd be murders!”
“Yes.” Carl said, nodding his head.
“You stay here, stick close to Lance, and keep an eye on Paul, he's really drunk. You might switch to Pepsi now, and try to wean them off the alcohol, I don't think it’s helping. I will go tell the others.”
“See you in the morning Carl.”
“See you Tom.” Carl said, letting himself out.
Tom turned back around to the others, but only after engaging the deadbolt on the door behind him, he still didn’t entirely trust Carl, despite the last week without any problems.
Chapter 14
The medical level was deserted, like Carl knew it would be. The door to the outside was locked, but he was prepared for that, the key ring he had taken from one of the crew men opened the door easily enough. The medical facilities was surprisingly small, it had two bays for working on injured or sick people and a main room, where Carl was now, for dispensing things like Dramamine to sick passengers.
The outside room was dimly lit by a lamp on the counter, which provided more than enough light for Carl to see Mary Beth where she lay in one of the rooms.
Softly Carl started speaking to himself. “O Lord, in this time of need, strengthen, me. You are my strength and my shield. You are my refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. I know, Father, that Your eyes go to and fro throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts long for You. The body grows weary, but my hope is in You to renew my strength.
“Why did they leave me like this? Why did I take the keys?” The others were all drunk past the point of sensibility. Carl had walked to the hot tub, where the events taking place there could best be described as a 'Roman Orgy', he had told the others that Tom had succeeded in raising someone on the mainland and help might not be that far away. This promoted a round of applause and toasting, which Carl was pressed into participating in. The alcohol didn't affect him.
'Not surprising.' he thought, 'I am not human.'
But was he human? Did the Lord look out for his wayward sheep or had Carl passed into the realm of Satan, like he suspected. That is what he was here to find out. He hadn't told the others that he was still hungry. It was bearable, but just barely. Seeing the live bodies around him, touching them, smelling them, seeing them... Yes, seeing had replaced his sense of smell, or so it seemed. When he saw the swirling rainbows of brilliance that the living had become, it created in him a lust, a passion to feed. 'And worse, I don't know if it will ever go away.'
The hot tub partiers had been disappointed when he left them, he overheard one of the young men call out “C'mon Carl, prove that once you've gone dead, you'll never turn down another zed!” after him.
Carl had just smiled and replied,
“I don't think that would be a good idea right now. Someone has to stay sober and keep an eye on you kids!” But that wasn't the real reason he left.
Looking at Mary Beth he was sure she was sedated. Elizabeth has told him as much at the hot tub, stating that nothing should wake her tonight, but that they aimed to try.
Carl ran his hand up Mary's exposed leg, feeling the life pulsing within her. He moaned, a low, erotic sound not fitting with his own image of a Lutheran Pastor. “I have to stop.” he said out loud, “I am not a servant of the devil.”
Thinking about his situation he went to his knees and started to pray, “But remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what other experience. And God is faithful. He will keep temptation from becoming so strong that you can't stand up against it. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it.” Carl paused, then looked heavenward, “Where is my way out Lord? Where?”
A blood red tear dribbled down one of his cheeks as he looked at the ceiling mural, then Carl smiled and said, “You have not forsaken me.” Strength flowed into Carl's body, an energy that did nothing to slack his burning hunger, but one which bolstered his will to refuse to feed it.
The next morning it was late before everyone started getting up. Tom was up before anyone else and probably had the least hangover of any of them. He checked on his friends, then went around to where the party had been going last night to see if anyone was still there and in need of help back to their cabin, or, barring that, sunscreen. The deck was empty and cleaner than Tom would have thought given that everyone had been drinking out here last night.
Going around to the individual cabins took a little longer, but Tom made the effort, ending with Elizabeth's. She was as groggy and hung over as the rest of them, but did manage to ask if Tom had any more news about help from the mainland.
As it turned out Tom did, the Navy was going to call back in an hour to tell them how to work some of the ship's radios and turn on their emergency beacon. With any luck a naval ship would pick up their distress call and there would be actual naval personal on board before the end of the day to bring the ship in. Tom had seen Lance and Paul off to the bridge, while he checked on everyone else.