by Jon Schafer
Although they had no intention of ever leaving Cindy alone or in a position where she might come into direct contact with a zombie, in the new dead world it was better to be prepared. Cindy might be immune to the HWNW virus, but she could still easily be killed by one of the flesh eaters.
“She'll get used to the sight of them,” Susan said.
Heather gave a dry laugh and replied, “I just hope one day I do. It seems like every time I see one of those things, it's more horrible than the last one.”
When Brain and Susan tired of scanning the cruise ship, they sat in the seats lining the cockpit to review what they'd seen and decide what their next move should be.
“As far as I could tell, the open decks are nearly empty,” Steve started out. “And I could see on deck seven that most of the doors leading into the superstructure are wide open. I didn't see any of the dead using them to come out and look at us though.”
“And we definitely attracted their attention everywhere else, so I think it's safe to say that deck seven is clear,” Heather added.
Susan wrote this down and said, “Deck seven appears clear,” as a confirmation.
“The open decks on eleven and twelve didn't have any Z's rubber necking our drive-by,” Tick-Tock said. “I spotted maybe a hundred on the balconies forward of them, but that was it.”
Susan noted this and said, “The deck below that was swarming with them. That would be deck ten. The open deck at the rear of nine looked clear, but the balconies forward of that were full of the dead.”
“The balconies at the front of deck eight looked like a Marilyn Manson concert,” Brain said. “But I couldn't see anything at the rear because it's enclosed. Anyone else catch anything I might have missed?”
No one did, but before they could move on, Mary said, “I'm lost. How do you know which deck is which?” This was accompanied by a vacant look at the cruise ship in the distance.
Brain explained that they were numbering the decks by starting at the uppermost level which they designated twelve. From there, they counted downward to deck four, which was the lowest visible deck on the hull. He went on to say that, with most of the cruise ships he'd been on, the bottom three decks that weren't visible would be used for mechanical equipment, storage and the crew's quarters. When this was met by a blank look from Mary, he tried to explain it again, finally giving up in frustration when she ignored him and asked for someone to point out which deck the spa was on.
“Like I was saying before,” Steve interrupted her, “deck seven looks completely deserted. It appears there’s no one on it at all. Below deck seven, the ship is mostly enclosed, except for the rooms with balconies. I spotted Z's on almost all of those. We can't be sure about the areas we can't see, so we have to assume they're zombified.”
“What about the open hatch on four, right next to the water line,” Susan asked.
Steve shrugged. They had attempted to try and see what was inside. Due to distance and the small size of the opening though, none of them could make out any details. The question on everyone’s mind was what would they face if they boarded the ship through that hatch.
“I've got a theory,” Tick-Tock said. “Deck seven is where most of the life boats are, and I counted eight gone: three on the port side and five on the starboard. I'm going to hazard a guess here and say that the ship had an outbreak and was abandoned. We haven't seen any live people yet, so I think we can rule out the possibility of running into anyone if we go through the hatch on four.”
“That leaves running into the dead,” Steve pointed out.
“But they'll be easier to deal with than live people with weapons,” Susan countered.
“I can come up with a few ideas on things you can check to see if the ship might be inhabited by the living,” Brain volunteered. “The only problem is that you need to be on board.”
“Before we get into all that though, we need to figure out what's beyond that hatch. Living or dead, we'll find a way to deal with whatever we run into, but I'd like to know what the area inside is like,” Tick-Tock said. “You're our resident cruise expert, Brain. You've been on eight different ships, so tell me what you know. What's in there?”
Knowing what he said meant life and death to the four people boarding the ship, Brain thought hard before answering. “If it's laid out like the other cruise liners I've been on, I'd say it's storage for water craft. I could make out the outline of a larger door next to the open hatch. You see, all the cruise lines have their own private islands where you can rent out jet skis and kayaks and stuff. When they need to switch out the old equipment for new, they carry the stuff out with a cruise that's heading there. I remember coming back in the launch one day, and the crew was loading a bunch of old, beat up kayaks through a big hatch, just about where that one is. There were two brand new Sea-Doos tied up there waiting to go to the island.”
When he finished, Susan asked, “What else is in that area?”
Brain shook his head, “I'm not sure, and I don't want to give you the wrong information. Because of the terrorist threat, the cruise lines quit giving tours of the bridge and mechanical sections, so I don't know most of the working areas of the ship. I managed to bribe one of the crew to let me see the engine room once, but that's on a lower deck.”
“What about the common areas for the guests? What would be on that deck?” Heather prodded.
“Most of the cruise ships are laid out similar but not exactly the same,” Brain said. “I've never been on the Calm of the Seas, but I've been on a couple like it. If I had to guess, I'd say it's one of the formal dining rooms and the first level of the main shopping area.”
Mary, who had shown little more than bored indifference to the conversation, since no one seemed to know where the spa was, suddenly perked up and said, “Shopping?”
“Yeah, it's a huge area anywhere from four to eight stories high with all the decks open to the inside. It's full of shops and clubs and coffee bars. They always have glass elevators in there too. It's really cool,” Brain explained.
“What kind of shops?” Mary asked with excitement.
Brain opened his mouth to answer but Steve cut him off. Speaking in a clear, firm voice, he said, “That's not our main concern right now, Mary. We have more important things to focus on.”
Ignoring him, she leaned over and laid her hand on Brain's upper thigh. In a low voice, she said, “You and I will talk later, sweets.” Then she gave the tech a wink and a smile.
Brain felt his face go hot and knew it was turning bright red. He opened his mouth to speak. Not trusting his voice though, he closed it with a snap.
Steve made a mental note to speak with Brain before Mary got hold of him. He needed to warn the tech that she would squeeze him for all she could, long before the engineer ever got close to getting in her pants.
Turning back to the matter at hand, he asked the group, “Anyone else ever been on a cruise?” Susan raised her hand, “I've gone twice. But only short little three day runs out of Port Canaveral.”
Mary narrowed her eyes and asked suspiciously, “With who?” But Susan ignored her.
Steve said to Susan, “Then you get with Brain, and between the two of you sketch out a plan showing where everything is. If it's a guess, then put a question mark next to it. We only need it until we get somewhere that has a ‘you are here’ map.”
“Those are always by the stairs and the elevators,” Brain informed him.
Susan nodded in agreement, “It's really easy to get lost on one of those cruise ships. When we go in, we'll always have to keep in mind how to get out. You can get turned around real quick.”
Steve remembered seeing a can of blue marine paint in the storage locker next to the shower. They could mark their path out as they went in. That way, there'd be less confusion if they were trying to find their way out while being chased and hauling ass.
To Brain and Susan, he said, “Get going on that map.”
“We’ll have it in an hour,” Brai
n promised.
“Take your time, and get it as accurate as you can,” he told him. “Besides, we have something we need to do first.”
“What's that?”
“See if we can get the dead to commit suicide,” Tick-Tock answered with a laugh.
***
After they finished their first circuit of the ship, Heather said, “There's something I noticed.”
“What’s that?” Steve said before putting two fingers in his mouth and letting out a sharp, piercing whistle.”
“I only see a few Z’s on each balcony, and they seem to belong together.”
Tick-Tock said, “Belong together?”
“Yeah, like those two right there.” Heather pointed to a balcony containing a male zombie oozing black puss out of a dozen wounds on his chest and neck and a female zombie, who slumped to its right from a large, crescent shaped gap chewed in her side.
“They’re both dressed in night clothes. He's wearing pajama bottoms and she's wearing a nightgown. And then, just one deck down, are two Z's dressed in formal clothes.”
“That goes along with what I guessed happened,” Tick-Tock said. “They had an outbreak and first tried to deal with it by quarantining the sick in their rooms.”
“And when the disease spread, they started closing off entire decks,” Heather interjected. “They tried to contain it for as long as they could.”
“But we know that doesn't work,” Steve put in.
“So they bailed,” Tick-Tock finished.
All three of them looked at the ship as if it expecting it to speak to them, to let them know that their theory was correct. Instead, they saw a zombie on deck ten climb up on the railing and reach out to them before falling to the water below.
“Got one,” Tick-Tock commented.
“Only a thousand more to go,” Steve said dryly.
“How deep is the water here?” Heather asked.
“Don't know,” Tick-Tock replied. Tapping the depth finder mounted above the steering wheel, he added, “This only goes down to six-hundred feet and it's maxed out. My guess is that the pressure will crush them long before they reach bottom. But who knows how the dead react to atmospheres. They might end up walking around on the bottom for decades.”
As they watched, two more of the dead fell overboard in their vain attempt to reach the living. Heather closed her eyes as the second one hit. It had been a child of about five or six.
Seeing her reaction, Steve said, “They're dead, and they'll make you just like them if you hesitate. They're not people anymore, and we can't let ourselves think they are or we're through.”
Heather took a deep breath and let it out slowly before saying, “I know, I know. When they were coming at me in St. Petersburg and at the bank building, I never thought about the fact that they'd once been human beings with lives. I just took them out. It's just that, from this far away they don't seem to be a threat.”
“They will be when we go on board,” Steve pointed out.
Heather locked eyes with him and said in a determined voice, “Then we better get rid of as many as we can while we have the chance.” Turning to face the ship, she started waving her arms wildly in the air while shouting, “Over here you ugly bastards. Come and get it. Come to mama you freaks of nature.”
Tick-Tock started hitting the horn button as Steve put two fingers in his mouth and let out a long, shrill whistle. Two hours later, Heather asked in a hoarse voice, “How many do you think we got so far?”
“A couple hundred at least,” Steve answered, “Some of the ones who jumped from the upper decks landed on the lower ones, so we can't count them. If the fall doesn't destroy the brain, then they'll be right back up again, dragging themselves by their hands if their legs are broken.”
Susan and Brain had come up on deck after they finished the map and took turns zombie baiting. Steve wanted to get Mary up on deck to do her part, but when Tick-Tock said that even the dead wouldn't want her, he laughed and discarded the idea.
Let her do whatever she wants for now, Steve thought. But when we hit land, she better pull her own weight or she might find herself left behind.
As the sun beat down and the day grew hotter, they became exhausted despite taking regular breaks. Finally, Steve suggested they pack it in. Checking his watch he said, “lt's about noon thirty.”
“Noon thirty?” Heather said with a laugh.
“Twelve thirty,” he corrected with a smile. “It gets dark around seven. If we go aboard the Calm of the Seas at around four, it’ll give us time to look around before it gets dark.” Turning to Brain, he said, “Let’s take a look at the deck plan you and Susan drew up.”
They crowded around the sketch as Brain explained what they'd come up with. “On the level where you'll be going in, we're almost certain you'll be right next to one of the main dining rooms and one of the kitchens. On every cruise I've been on they're always on the lower decks.”
“Why?” Heather asked.
“Less back and forth motion than you get on the upper decks,” Susan explained. She was about to add that if they ever booked a cruise, they should reserve a stateroom on one of the lower decks to help prevent seasickness, when it suddenly struck her that no one would ever book a cruise again in her lifetime. Or even Cindy's, she added as an afterthought. Depressed at this sudden awareness of how the world had changed, she stayed quiet for the rest of the meeting as her mind went over the hundreds of other things she would never be able to do again.
Brain continued the narrative by saying, “Past the formal dining room you should find the lowest level of the Centrum. When we were zombie baiting, I took a good look at the hull and saw the outline of another hatch further forward of the open one. This is where you board the launch that ferries you to their private island. This area will be past the Centrum.”
“What's past the Centrum?” Tick-Tock asked. “More shops?”
Brain and Susan exchanged a glance before Brain said with disappointment, “Neither of us is sure on that one. Susan stayed on the ship when she went out and I only took the launch once, and it was years ago on my first cruise. Mom liked to hang around the casino and I mostly stayed with her.”
Tick-Tock saw that Brain wore an expression like he'd just missed an easy field goal that would have won the Super Bowl, so he slapped him on the back and said, “Don't sweat it Pork Chop. You've given us way more info than we had before. Like you said, we'll find a map near the stairs or the elevators, so we should find one in the Centrum.”
“If we go in that far,” Steve said. After looking at the rough sketch again, he added, “When we first go aboard, we'll be right next to the dining room. This means the kitchen won't be too far away. That takes care of food and water. Since we'll be entering the area where they store the jet skis, then they should keep fuel somewhere around there. I think on our first excursion we should keep it simple. Get in, take a quick look around, grab what we need and get out. We’ll try to find a map so we can plan for any later foraging expeditions, but today we grab the necessities and haul ass. I don't want to get too far into that ship until we know what's what.”
Tick-Tock agreed, but he pointed out that there were many other items they needed that wouldn't be found near the entrance.
“If everything goes good today, we'll plan on going back in tomorrow,” Steve promised. “Then you can explore to your heart's content. If it looks secure enough when we check it out today, we might even be able to move aboard for a few days.”
With the plan in place, Steve went over everyone’s assigned positions. “Brain, you've got the wheel. Keep Cindy below with Mary. Once you drop us off, back up a hundred feet so none of those things drop down on you. Hold your position and listen for us to call you on the radio.”
“Gotcha,” the tech replied.
Indicating Susan, Heather and Tick-Tock, he said, “We move just like we did when we cleared the bank building, two people to a team. We can adjust our positions as the situation changes.
”
Remembering what happened the last time Tick-Tock and Susan were left alone when they searched the bank building, he added, “We all stick together no matter what. Heather and I will be in the lead. If anyone does get separated and can't contact the others, then head directly for the hatch.” Turning to Brain, he said, “Keep an eye out for anyone in case they lose radio contact. You'll have to come in and pick them up.”
“What'll Mary be doing?” Susan asked. “The usual,” Steve replied.
“As little as fucking possible,” Heather finished.
They all laughed as the sailboat passed around the stern of the cruise liner. Tick-Tock looked up and read its name aloud. “The Calm of the Seas.” Turning to Steve, he said, “You know that once we take her, we can rename her what we want?”
Glancing at the zombies clustered on the balconies high above him, Steve said, “How about calling it ‘The Dead Calm?’ From the looks of it, that seems appropriate.”
Chapter Three
Russellville, Arkansas:
Jedidiah Cage looked in the mirror as he adjusted the double silver bars on his collar, still not used to the replacement of his single First Lieutenant’s bar with the railroad tracks of a Captain. His promotion orders had come through while he was in the midst of rescuing civilians and trying to eradicate the walking dead infesting the city of Little Rock. In the confusion of those dark days, no one had passed the orders on to his commanding officer, so it was only recently he'd learned of his promotion.
Cage had been in one of the first units of the Arkansas National Guard called up after the HWNW virus reared its ugly head at a hospital in Little Rock. From there, it spread throughout the city, the nation and the world. Only a few people knew the actual cause of the disease, and in the carnage and terror that spread in its wake, most of those were either killed or turned into the walking dead themselves. Besides a small number of doctors and scientists who were transported to a research center set up in Russellville, along with Cage who had been ordered to report to the facility to provide security, there were few people still alive who knew the beginnings of the virus.