The left over chili was on the table and the smoke coming off them indicated Mike had reheated it. There was also a carafe of coffee on the table, an opened can of condensed milk and a box of sugar packets. I grabbed a mug and took it over to the table. I didn’t feel like eating, I would, but I wanted coffee.
I poured some, added the condensed milk and sugar, and then sat next to Keith. He looked cleaner than he did yesterday so I guess Jim told him about showering.
“Feeling better?” I asked, as I took a sip of the nasty coffee. The sugar and milk didn’t help.
“Much,” he said, his voice still low. “The shower was amazing-- ” He looked at Tanya. “Thank you for allowing me more than the allotted time.”
“Just this once,” she said, “but now on 2 minutes four times a week or five minutes twice a week.”
I can imagine he hadn’t done much showering unless it rained. He was pretty stinky when we found him, but none of us, except maybe Grace, smelled like roses.
Then the outside bell began rang. Tanya stood up. This meant whoever was on watch had seen something.
Tanya already had her boots on, so she grabbed a jacket and headed above deck.
“What’s going on?” Keith asked.
“Something out there,” I explained. “Most likely a zombie.”
“In the ocean?”
I didn’t respond. I got my boots on and grabbed my coat.
Keith put on the work boots he wore yesterday. I didn’t know if they were warm enough for snow. I reminded myself to tell Jim to get a pair for him in the next supply run but I don’t know if there would be one before spring.
I walked to the deck followed by Keith and found Tanya at the bow looking at the water.
I followed her gaze and saw it.
It was a floater.
Not a piece of shit or something easy to deal with, but a floating zombie.
The one thing I was always grateful for was that when zombies go in the water, they bloat, and then float instead of sinking. I couldn’t imagine them at the ocean floor.
It was at the end of summer with still a few hot swim days left. The boat had a swim deck in the back.
One day the weather was perfect. Everyone put on their bathing suits or shorts and we hung around the deck. Jim found the boat had an Mp3 sound system with preloaded songs. We blasted pop music, had warm beers, and it seemed almost a party of friends rather than a refuge boat. Even Grace wore a skimpy bikini widening the eyes of every man but Jim and Eric. I think Mike was in the doghouse for a week for staring. Even though, I caught Hannah checking out Jim in his short shorts. I guess she thought it was okay because Jim was unavailable, but I don’t think Grace had any interest in anyone but herself.
It didn’t matter; we were having a great time. I almost stopped dreading the upcoming winter. I didn’t have a bathing suit so I wore shorts and a tee. The water felt refreshing on such a hot day.
That stopped when Henry screamed, so terrifying I thought he was drowning until I heard the moan. That’s when we saw the floater. It nearly ran into Henry and caused a panic with the other three people in the water: Jim, Hannah, and Dena.
Good thing zombies can’t swim. All four safely made it back into the boat while Grace shot it. She had her rifle even as she sat sunning herself on a lounge chair.
We never had a day like that again. We only had two more hot days and that involved quick dips. Grace, Mike, Tanya or me watched with a rifle. Henry wouldn’t even do that. He refused to swim again. Jim came out wearing boots and an open coat.
“Where’s Grace?” I asked.
“She knows. She’s coming.” He began buttoning up his coat. I felt the chill of the morning and the sea wind.
We all took shooting lessons from her, but when we needed a quick shot, Grace did it.
I looked at the zombie, then Keith. He didn’t look scared. Neither was I. One thing a zombie can’t do is climb a ladder and the swim deck was closed. We were safe in the boat but it could get tangled up in the engine and if we didn’t kill it, it would stay with the boat and continually moan. We found that out the hard way. On a morning watch a few weeks ago, Dave saw a floater too far to take out. It was lost when we moved but showed up a day later, moaning and it brought two more with it.
I looked back to it. The scary part is it looked fresh, a new zombie rather than an old one. I couldn’t tell the gender because of the bloating and the gray skin, but it looked like it wore jeans and a t-shirt.
I heard the door of the below deck open. Grace came out with no coat, and still wearing her Jimmy Choos. She hadn’t changed from when I saw her in the bathroom. She had her pretty rifle on her back. She went to the bow, looked at the zombie, raised the gun and fired.
The zombie’s head vanished, but the bloated corpse stayed above water which it would briefly than sink. Gross. Grace put the gun down. She didn’t say a word, she walked back below deck. She didn’t even look like she was cold.
This was going to be a very long winter.
Chapter 3
Keith fit in quickly and Tanya wasn’t so hard on me for leaving the door unlocked. I told her I blew it, she told me it shouldn’t happen again. That made me feel guilty about keeping Keith’s secret.
He stayed quiet like Eric, Grace or Simon except he didn’t have Grace’s sarcasm or Eric’s moodiness. Jim added two game nights, one night of poker for candy and another for monopoly, but I was still bored and depressed. Tanya announced we were casting off and heading a mile off the Hamptons where we would stay for the winter. Grace knew of a dock big enough for the boat to fit, in case of emergency. I was happy to leave the boat now.
It was cold with a bitter wind, but I sat above deck watching the ship crash against the waves and the cold wind blow the sails. Grace was sailing but Tanya was with her getting lessons. We would have to ride around Orient beach and Plum Island. Plum Island was one of the places Jim’s suggested but rejected. The island was home to laboratories and who knew if anything nasty got released.
I wore thermals, jeans, a tee, a sweat jacket, the winter coat, scarf, hat, gloves and a hood but I was still felt chilled to the bone. Everyone else was inside, probably thinking I was crazy.
It was when we passed Orient that I saw the people.
There were two of them standing on the beach: A younger black woman and an older Hispanic man. Neither wore coats. They were waving at us frantically. I waved back and they waved again, still frantically, jumping up and down with their hands in the air. I think they needed help. I ran up to the bridge to let Tanya know.
“Yeah,” she said as soon as I got inside. The warmer air was a godsend. “I see ‘em.”
“We need to stop. We should at least talk to them.”
“In the spring maybe. Not now. Keith’s our last passenger. We can’t take on anymore and we can’t dock, which mean someone’s gonna have to take the dinghy out in this cold, and I ain’t risking that.”
“But what if they just need supplies? I could go.”
“We can’t help anyone right now,” she said. I looked at Grace and she seemed uninterested.
Angered, I chose not to respond, instead I left the bridge. The people were already gone in the distance. I waved but I don’t think they saw me.
I heard the door open and Keith came out. He had two steaming mugs.
“Hi,” he said. “Thought you might like coffee.”
“I saw people at Orient beach,” I took one of the cups. I sipped the lousy coffee but I didn’t mind because it warmed me up.
He looked out onto the water but they were long gone. “We aren’t the only survivors.”
“I know, but I feel like we should start talking to other people—“ I paused. “But then there are hunters.”
He looked flustered. “I shouldn’t have told you, Annemarie,” he looked down. His eye glasses hit the edge of his nose.
“Too late for that.”
“Don’t let my problem get in the way. I’ll move on in the spring.”
“You don’t have to. The hunters, do they know you?”
“A man came to the camp, asked a lot of questions about carriers.”
“The camp at Northport?”
“I told two people there a zombie bite couldn’t kill me. I needed to tell someone. Felicia, she was the leader, and one of the soldiers kept it secret until the man came asking about carriers. The soldier, Manny, thought this guy might be trouble. He said I should split, so I did.” I remembered Felicia’s story about someone like Rachel who had left the camp. Anyone from that camp might be able to identify Keith. That meant if we went looking for Aisha, he had to stay behind.
“I met Manny. He seemed like a good guy.” I said, remembering the Hispanic man who showed us around the camp.
“He didn’t want me to go but that guy unnerved him.”
“Keith, we are good people. We’re a family, good, bad and ugly but we don’t turn our back on each other.”
“I’ve only been here for three weeks. I’m not part of your family.”
“We don’t let a good person get murdered.”
“How do you know I’m a good person?”
He got me there. I didn’t know if Keith was joking. “You haven’t hurt us.”
“Not yet. Tanya would kill me if I did.”
“She won’t.”
“I figured Mike would leader, not Tanya—she seems—“
“Tanya is new at leading. If you can believe she used to deal drugs and steal cars. But she knows what’s best for us.”
“Are you sure?” he asked. He smiled. The first time since I met him. “Your face scrunched up when you said that.”
“She is new and I don’t know—“ My voice trailed off. I thought of the long winter and wondered I could cope.
“Why doesn’t Mike take over? Tanya’s cool and all—and a bit scary but Mike’s older.”
“We are only his extended family. Hannah and his kids come first. For Tanya, we all come first. It isn’t perfect, Keith, no family is—“ I paused, realizing that family shouldn’t keep secrets from each other.
“What?”
“We have to tell Tanya about you and the hunters.” Despite being angry at Tanya for not stopping, I knew I couldn’t keep lying to her.
Keith lost his smile and became the scared cat again. “I wish I never told you.”
“It’s too late. You did. I think you wanted someone to know. I have to tell Tanya, Keith—I’m sorry. She won’t be angry except that we didn’t tell her right way.”
We met in Tanya’s room. Since Grace had the bridge and Dave was in the salon, the crew quarters area were empty and we could have privacy. Still we kept our voices down. She was silent for a long time after we told her. Keith did most of the talking. I added small details and that I was sorry for not telling her sooner.
She didn’t look happy. Possibly because this was another burden she didn’t want or she was mad at me for not telling her right away, or both.
“Keith,” she finally said, her voice steady, no hint of anger but I knew she was. “You seem like a good kid and this ain’t your fault. My issue is the rest of my people. I don’t like them in danger. You understand? And I don’t like keeping secrets—“
“Tanya, we can’t toss him out.” She gave me an annoyed look for interrupting her, so I didn’t say anything else.
“Didn’t say that. You want to stay, Keith, you gotta be careful. You needs a new identity ‘cluding a new past. That means everything, parents names, age, where you from--”
“I appreciate this,” his voice low and shaky. “But maybe I should go in the spring.” I knew Keith was terrified. We couldn’t let him go out on his own.
“I ain’t gonna stop you from going but I don’t want you to think we drove you out. You can stay but there are rules. Ain’t no facebook or internet to check you out. Easy to hide your identity now. Make up a story and stick to it. You make sure you memorize your new life. You don’t slip up. You don’t come with us when we look for Aisha. Beside I don’t like innocent people getting’ killed. Kind of pisses me off.”
Keith didn’t say anything.
“You got it, Keith. You always careful. Don’t fuck up. If you fuck up, the hunters will be the least of your problems.”
“Okay.”
“Just so you know, your special status means you gotta do those universal precautions.” She said sounding out the words. “You can’t have sex. I won’t even recommend it with a condom. Rachel passed it no problem. Right now only us three will know. I trust my people and I hate keeping secrets from them, but the more people know the more of a chance it gets out. Got it?”
Keith didn’t say anything. He looked at me then back to Tanya.
“Got it, Keith? I ain’t playing.”
“I got it,” he said, his voice just above a whisper.
“Another thing, someone figures you’re a carrier and they hurt my people, it’s their fault. You do something to hurt my crew, open your mouth and the wrong person finds out, it’s your fault,” she looked at me. “Same thing for you, Annemarie. Open your mouth, there will be consequences.”
I didn’t ask what those consequences would be.
On Christmas Eve the air had turned ice cold but stayed dry, no white Christmas. We stuck to our rationed heat and bathing water. It hadn’t rained enough for washing and showers got cut to two a week for two minutes. The ship began to stink of body odor but after a while I got used to the smell.
Christmas Eve came with no fanfare, no parties, no music, no services. On Christmas Eve after dinner of spam, rice, and beans, Dave, Jim and I sat at the table reminiscing about Abe. It hadn’t been planned but it was anniversary of his death and we all wondered if things would have been different if Abe was still alive.
Tanya got up and left when Abe’s name came up. Mike left claiming the kids wanted to play monopoly.
Dave and I were the only ones still around from the first group at Costking. Everyone but Ashley had died and I strongly suspected Ashley never made it out to California, though I hoped she did.
Dave made Abe a martyr. I had mixed feelings. He wasn’t perfect. He saved Mindy, but he made that rule about the old folks that I hated. It wasn’t like we could do anything in case of life threatening diseases except to let them die with some peace.
“I never knew why he did it,” Jim said. He had a hot cocoa in front of him. I also had cocoa. Both Jim and I had a shot of brandy in it, but Dave refused. I had never seen him drink which was weird because I could see him as the beer kind of guy. Instead he drank black coffee. I had two snorts before putting some more in the cocoa. Getting drunk was my plan for the evening. Second Christmas without parents or boyfriend.
“He couldn’t deal,” Dave said. “It was too much of a burden. We should have tried to lift it from him.”
No one could deal. What made Abe so special?
I heard someone coming from downstairs and saw that it was Grace. She looked dressed to go out.
“Hi, Grace,” I said. She looked at me like I slapped her in the face.
“Do you want a snort,” I said, showing her the bottle of brandy. She didn’t take Xanax or Vicodin anymore but still had a nippy bottle for her watches. “We were talking about Abe.”
“Why?” she said, giving us the amused face.
“What’s the matter, you didn’t want to reminisce?” I almost slurred my words. I took a big gulp of cocoa allowing it and the brandy to warm me.
“Who would?” She began to put on her boots.
“Come on, he kept us together—“
She looked peeved I was forcing her to converse with me. I must have been buzzed. “He was a bad leader.”
“Come on. This family unit, these decisions how to survive. All Abe’s ideas. We’re all alive because of him.”
Grace looked at Jim. “All your ideas, except for the age limit and the twenty person cut off.
Abe was a bad person and selfish.”
“Sounds like you,” Dave said.
“I wasn’t your leader. I could be bad and selfish.”
Before Grace rarely talked to us, now she at least tried. This is the first time I saw her angry.
“Abe had issues, but he did the best he could,” Jim said, forever trying to make peace. She was right at least. A lot of the ideas Abe used came from Jim. In the beginning we didn’t really organize or ration. “I understand wanting to kill yourself. This is a hard world.”