Left 4 Dead (Closed)

Robert Carroll
Age 28
Height 6"
Weight 155
Dark brown eyes and short hair
Clean shaven. No tattoos or piercings. Does not drink or smoke. Not married/ no children. Works as a construction worker by day, off work part of a civilian 'zombie watch' group.
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As much as I didn't like the dense, hemmed in, population saddled between the high mountains and the ocean, it did allow for a key feature of our zombie plan to be executed. Before all of this I work at a construction company that builds prefabricated homes as well as take them apart. It was a rather simple job that built up my stamina and was able to meet a lot of other people that share the same interests as I, mainly zombie and infected survival.

With that we formed a zombie awareness group. With what happened in Florida, Massachusetts, and Texas, the news running a muck with people eating each others faces or eating body parts that spurred us to stockpiling weapons and supplies for what we were sensing was the coming of the apocalypse.

Then, it occurred to us; it would be wise if we purchased a ship instead of taking our chances of running into the mountains or staying put in an apartment complex in the heart of the city, that is where we found: the Pigeon.

http://www.navsource.org/archives/11/110204719.jpg

She had seen better times in the United States Navy. She was 187 feet 10 inches in length and a beam (width) of 35 feet six inches and draft (height of the hull below the waterline) of 9 feet; certainly not the largest ship but it suited our needs as it was our ship now when we bought it from the scrap yard for $10,000 where it has been sitting for about sixty years. The hull was rusted and riddled with holes, there was a bird’s nest in one of the stacks, and all of the equipment had been stripped away leaving it a hulk that we had to mount on blocks on the land to begin our work.

For six months the eighteen of us spent our free time cleaning the Pigeon up; patching and cleaning the hull, putting in a custom made steam engine and a single screw (propeller) and a powerful radio system. Originally this ship had 3inch guns on board for aerial defense and machine guns, but we couldn't get the Federal licenses for that, but what we could get were assault rifles, shotguns, pistols, and lots of ammunition. We had friends, its good to have friends, in the right places and one was a gun store owner that was in the Navy in Korea and in exchange for letting him board and look around the Pigeon he gave us a great deal on ammunition. The work attracted a lot of attention, some pretty women came by thinking that this was a luxury yacht and wanted to go for rides once it was done.

A lot of people called us ‘childish’ and even ‘stupid’ for wasting so much of our time and money not only on the Pigeon but also on our preparedness. Even if we could get the damn ship to float; what then?

The 18 of us was just enough to man this ship effectively but few had any experience on a ship so I spent many hours in the library as well as handling smaller ships in the Sound to increase my knowledge and experience and for that I was voted as Captain of the ship but I was not given a rank insignia or even a hat; it was just a position for our small group.

Then zombies came.

It was late at night. The news was confused at first; calling it civil disobedience then rioting as the police stepped up their response but that was all we needed. Grabbing my belongings, rifle, and running through the streets I made it to the Pigeon first then the rest of my friends clambered onboard and we shoved off immediately not paying any heed to anyone else and tried out the engine for the first time and it worked. We built up steam and proceeded at five knots towards open water. It was better for us to wait it out offshore than risk it sitting at dock for any new signs.

We endured the freezing wind all through the night and we heard on the radio as it became progressively worse. We listened as the military and more law enforcement poured into the city, but that didn't seem to be enough...

Zoey . Age 24, Height 5'7", Weight 115, one of the Survivors of the Zombie Apocalypse.

Life had been easy going for me, I was going for my degree at Aldrich and would party all night if the opportunity arose. That was before it had happened. The plot-line from all the movies I had watched, the Romero story-lines were coming to life before my very eyes. The zombie apocalypse was occurring all around the world and right there on campus. "Son-of-a-bitch!" I screamed as I swung the metal bat across the Campus cop's head. I needed a gun and couldn't go far with just a bat. "What the fuck is going on?!" I screamed out as I continued on my way, more of Them showing up.

A few days went by and I was eating the remnants of a granola bar that I had picked up at the 7Eleven after wiping out the cashier and a few people that I was certain had been there when this all happened because of the stench. I walked a ways and didn't see any of Them around so I sat down on a park bench for just a moment. My Nike's were worn down from stepping in all the blood puddles. "Crap, need bleach," I said when I heard a tree branch snap behind me. I stood up quickly and turned around pointing the gun in the direction of the noise.

A person was standing there shining a light in my face. "Are you bitten?" came the deep voice behind the light. I kept pointing the gun in the direction and held my arm up trying to block out some of the light to see who it was. "Are you bitten, I asked you?!" the voice said louder. "No, no. I'm not," I responded. The man put the light down and the view before me showed not just one man, but three.

I kept the gun up in case these were desperate guys in the hunt of a good fuck. "What are you doing here," I asked. "Probably just like you, little lady," the older man said. "Just fighting for our lives," said the black man. I put the gun down feeling some sort of relief they weren't gonna gang up on me. "Any idea what in the hell is going on here? Or if it's everywhere? If it's gonna end?" I was asking desperate for some sort of answer and since these were the first survivors I had seen in a few days, I wanted to know.

"Just the dead are walking and adapting, bunch of stenches if you ask me. Death is everywhere and it eats the living. I don't know about the end sweetheart," the tall one said. The older man walked over to me and held out his hand, "Let me see that piece, I'll see if I have ammo for it. By the way I'm Bill, pretty boy there is Francis and the other guy is Louis."

I handed him my gun, "I'm Zoey, student at Aldrich, or at least I used to be before all my campus-mates became zombies." I looked at the three of them not sure where to go from there when we heard a rumble coming up the street. "Tank!!" Francis screamed. Bill handed me another gun since he didn't have the bullets in my original one. We started firing the gun at the huge monster, apparently a mutated zombie, nothing like I had seen before.

"Fuck!" I screamed out as we continued firing at it, it taking more bullets than average to take down and all of us having to take aim to destroy it. "What the hell was that?" I exclaimed when we finally took the beast down. "That was a 'tank' and there's only more of mutated zombies like this out there," Louis said panting.

"Damn, we're almost out of ammo," Francis said looking into his backpack. "I think there's a gun supply at the river bank," Bill said. "We should head there." I nodded in agreement as we continued on, me taking the gun that Bill had given me plus my pistol that he had loaded up after we defeated that monster. I didn't know what would lie ahead but right now, our true objective as the only survivors that we knew about was to make it to that store and hopefully find other people along the way wanting to survive just like us.

The radios were first full of people frantic and pleading for help, but we couldn't help them. We tried once and by the time we got there the huge dock was swarming with those things. We took them first to be the classic slow moving George Romero zombies, but as we drew close one of them wrapped a long tongue around one of our crew and tried to pull him overboard, but a firm hand on the rails and a sharp knife severed the line. "What was that?! A Yoshi?" the sailor gasped as he removed the tongue from around him.

There were more. These things seemed to be faster and some seemed to have special abilities. It was this new threat that steered us to staying off the shore. After a few days the radio signals began to fade and it seemed that one by one the outposts were overrun. It felt like we were entirely alone in this. It is what we planned for, the zombie apocalypse, but once we had it going we could only feel the deep void in our stomachs at watching the carnage around us and how utterly useless we felt watching it. It was a shame that the Pigeon didn't have its big guns that we could have swatted away some of those hordes, but beggers couldn't be choosers.

Setting a new course we plotted out that there was a small dock about ten miles away that might have supplies. It was a vacation retreat and from the distant looks of it there wasn't any infected around. Might be a chance for us to land a party and gather supplies. I was hesitant about sending anyone onshore, but the men wanted to get on dry land.

Staying on the bridge I kept the radio on and carefully scanning the airwaves for any more sign of living people. I didn't have family anymore, no girlfriend, or wife or anyone to care for now except my crew. We weren't really an experienced crew, but we were better off together than alone.

"Shit, they don't stop coming!" Francis screamed out as we fought off a huge horde just before the gun shop. "What in the hell, I didn't know there were this many people in this area," I replied hitting a few off with the bat, avoiding using the guns because of the noise drawing more in. "Crap!" I screamed as this huge strand of wetness wrapped around my waist. I tried pulling it off but it just got tighter, tighter than a vice.

"A smoker's got Zoey!" Louis screamed firing shots in the direction of the thing that had a hold on me. "Get it off!" I screamed, my breathing getting tighter and my arms getting weaker fighting it. Finally the tightness released and I turned around pointing the gun in the direction and seeing a decapitated zombie with it's long tongue hanging out. "What the fuck?" I said catching my breath.

"You alright, Zo?" Francis asked me. "Sure, I'm good." Bill handed me the bat back and I held it in one hand and gun toting in the other. "There's the gun shop..Let's get ammo and get out of there before we're surrounded," he said continuing on. We followed behind shooting at 'stenches' along the way until we got there. "Oh my god, a radio.." I said going up to it. I handed the guys the guns to refill while I tried my hand at getting it going. "Hello, anyone out there?" I said it over and over on each channel getting static until there came a voice from the other end.

"...hello....there" a faint voice crackled on the radio. What was that? A survivor?! Going to the radio I keyed the frequency, but got more static than anything else until the voice came back. "Is anyone there?" I heard. Picking up the transmitter and keying the transmission button I replied, "This is the Pigeon. We are receiving you. What is your location?" The signal was weak, they had to be a good ways off as lookouts continued to scan for any signs of activity, but the night was falling as so was visibility. Damn. "I say again, this is the Pigeon. We're five miles off the ocean coast and ten miles North-east of the Danker light house. What is your situation? How many of you are there?"

The crew was nervous about this. They were fearful that it would be a repeat of what happened at the docks. If these creatures have evolved or mutated then God knows how else they have changed, but this was the first sign of someone else. "We're going to go for it" I said confidently, "We're going to try and save them." They didn't object openly, but I knew they had their reservations. "Try to home in on that signal," I said. It was difficult with the weather and the weak signal, but we got a rough bearing and began closing in. All the while I kept trying to raise the faint voice on the other end.

"Oh my god guys, it's another survivor," I exclaimed. The guys looked at each other before gathering as much ammo they could carry, filling their backpacks with food from the vending machine and giving me a backpack of my own. To them, it was all too real - a voice one minute, a growl the next. "Hello, I'm Zoey, we're at the gun-shop on the banks of the Delaware. God you don't know how good it is to hear from someone."

"Don't get too hopeful. They'll be stenches before they reach us," Francis whispered in my ear. I shoved him off wanting to hope for more than just that. Bill pointed at some gun sights for Louis to pick up. I kept trying to get the signal stronger when I heard zombies hitting on the window. "Keep that thing down, it'll attract them here," Bill said to me in a hushed tone. "How many are there with you?"

"We have a crew of eighteen. We can take you" I replied as the signal faded. Our radio range finder was able to focus on a single bearing and we homed in on it. "Be advised, we have your signal and we're homing in on it. ETA is ten mikes" as the order came for everyone to man their battle stations. Everyone was armed with a rifle, pistol, knife and prepared to do battle. As we came closer we could see through a light mist, that there was a old dock and next to it was a tall building. There was some movement going about it and the instruments were telling us that's where the signal was coming from. "Be advised, we're heading for the dock. Meet us there and be ready to jump on board. We will not stop." That was key. Every moment we stayed there was another moment that we would be swarmed. Staying by the radio I checked my rifle and announced through the PA system, "Men, we're going for the dock. Be ready. We're having survivors coming aboard. Medical team, when they're onboard check them for infection. I want everyone to be ready for a fight. We'll be heading for the dock, but we won't be stopping."

The crew were psyching each other up for a fight. They cheered and gritted their teeth, taunting the zombies with oaths, though we were too far out to be heard. They were stewing for a fight now.

"Attention, Zoey. How many people are in your group?" I asked, "Do you have any medical conditions that we need to know about?" It seemed silly to be asking that. With zombies in the area they would be swarming her by now, but that was to keep the signal alive as we homed in on it. Had to keep her talking to assure us that she was still alive to be rescued.

My heart beats were rapid. This was going to work. We couldn't leave them there and we knew that there was going to be a fight. "Increase speed to full. We're going in there."

"Should I go ahead and tell him?" I asked the guys, hoping they would say yes. Louis shrugged, "I don't care, as long as it's away from these zombies." I looked to Francis, "I don't like the idea but whatever." Bill gave no word on it. "There's four of us, me and 3 guys. No medical conditions, Bill is a bit on the old side though," I said. "Hey, I'm not old!" he retorted. "I'm 53." he admitted quietly. Francis showed a slight smile which he hadn't since I met him a few hours ago.

"The docks? 10 miles out huh? We'll be there, we'll hold out for you, Pigeon. Over and out!" I replied hearing more zombies arriving outside. "Well, now is as good a time as any," Louis said. We headed out the door shooting 'em down as we continued on our way to freedom. There was a crying in the distance, "Avoid that, it's not a child, don't be distracted by it," Francis explained. I looked through the sight on the gun towards that way and pulled my finger off the trigger as not to accidentally shoot in that direction.

"Wha--What is that?" I asked, curious as to what was glowing. "That's what I call the witch.." Bill explained. "A witch if she grabs you and a bitch to get away from." I nodded understanding and continued following the guys, taking up the rear. I wasn't really a good shot but I knew my way around a hunting rifle and could take down a deer when hunting with my dad from over 300 yards away. I moved closer to the front since they had cleared out a bunch of the zombies so I had a clear sight of the docks. I knelt down and took down about 10 of them before deciding to add more rounds to the clip.

"Try looking out over the water for the ship," Louis said whispering in my ear. I moved the sight over the water and saw red lights on the horizon, breaking through the fog. "It's coming!" I screamed in excitement. That did it, I called the horde! "Shit!" Francis exclaimed. "Get to the dock!" They came faster and harder than ever. One of those 'smokers' got Louis and I aimed and took it down before it could hurt him bad. We made it to the docks just as the ship was starting to appear closer. "We gotta run, it's not stopping!" I shouted to them all. Bill was holding down the back end with Louis while I took the front with Francis. A tank came bounding up the road knocking the undead out of the way. The ship was there, "Get on the fucking ship!" Bill shouted out getting ready to jump. I knocked a zombie out of the way being the last one on just before the tank got to the shore, the men on the ship firing away at it.

"This is it, boys!" I shouted from the bridge, "Fire as they bear!" The dock was closing in, "All ahead half-full" to the helm to cut our speed down to seven knots. We're still coming in fast, but it would be slow enough for those survivors to come onboard. There was a great roar off in the distance and guys were shouting, "What the fuck is that?!" pointing at a beast running towards us. "Kill it!" and the night was perferated by the bursts of small arms as the ship was guided towards the docks.

300 yards.

Closing in and the infected were swarming the bank and funneling towards the survivors we could now see clearly.

200 yards.

7 knots speed. The fire was picking up as we were cutting down the infected with well aimed bursts of fire. The air was sprayed with rotting flesh and dried blood, but with everyone one we took out there seemed to be three more that quickly took its place.

100 yards.

We could see them all cluttered together on the dock. Four survivors with one of them wearing a cherry red jacket that made them stand out. We're coming in hot.

The steel hull of the ship brushed against the wood beams, "Get on!" we all shouted and begged them.

I jumped on and landed flat on my stomach, flipping over and pulling the pistol out to join in the fire against the Tank. After we were away enough and the Tank was dead, I was helped to my feet by a handsome man.

"Thanks for saving us," I said thanking him. "Yeah, thanks for the ride," Francis smirked obviously jealous. "Oh don't get jealous, you just met me," I quipped back at him.

I pulled the gun around and handed it off as the rest of the guys were asked to and taken to the galley of the ship to be looked over. "Hey, don't touch there, I wouldn't be bit there," Bill said trying to push one guy away. "Yeowch!" Louis whimpered as his limbs were looked over and put back down to his side as he was forcefully checked. Francis stood there like a stone and held his arms out to the side as he was checked as well, not caring.

The man that had helped me up looked over at us, wondering if we were infected. I checked out first and walked over to the guy, "Hi, I haven't gotten to introduce myself, I'm the one on the radio. So, what's your plan?"

"Hi, then you must be Zoey. I'm Robert Carroll, but you can call me Robert. I'm the captain of this ship. Our plan was to head to one of the small islands, after we gathered up intel on what was happening along the coast. It seems that most if not all of the major cities along the shore have fallen to the infected and it seems that many of them have mutated or evolved. We're dealing with a foe that we can't deal with on our own. Our plan is to head to one of the small islands off the Florida Keys and dock there. The islands are small and should be lightly populated."

"That was our plan, at first," Bill growled as he was given a clean bill of health. "But we ran into the government outside of the city. They're completely in the dark about all of this" as he pulled on his OD blouse and buttoned it up. "Any of you boys got a smoke on ya?"

I said to Zoey, "You're all welcomed here. I just ask that if you're good at anything, have any skills that we should know about, because we only have 18 on a ship this size and we need all of the help we can get. We have enough food to last us for months in our holds and enough fuel in our bunkers for, perhaps a thousand or so miles at this speed. The only thing we have to fear are other ships or if the buggers have figures out how to fly, then we'll be in a world of hurt."

"I hate ships" Francis said as he was allowed to cloth himself, "And I hate the water."

I stuck my tongue out at Francis, "Just don't puke on my shoes, don't think they can take it," I said to him, pointing out that my shoes were so blood-soaked. "Well, I used to go out with my family on fishing boat years ago, but I think I can cook, if ya want," I replied to Robert.

"I'll be able to keep watch if you have caffeine boosts," Louis chimed in wanting to do his part. "What? Before law school, I used to binge nighters with my classmates." Bill shook his head before saying, "I'll just stay out of your way until you need me," he said lighting the cig given to him by one of the ship-members.

"And I can use a sniper rifle well, if you need a lookout," I said smiling. "Just all this hell in such a short time, and the evolving of the undead, doesn't make sense."

I walked out to the deck and he followed, "Military outpost on the edge of town was run out before everything got started good, all turned or all eaten to the point that they couldn't come back again."

"We can use everything we can get" I smiled at her as went onto the deck. The Pigeon had pulled away from the coast by three miles giving us a good breathing space that we could slow down our engines. All of this was a lot to process. Morale of the crew went up knowing that we have saved four survivors that would have been left for dead if we turned out backs on their call, but even then Francis, the big guy with sleeve tattoos was giving us lip.

"You Army guys better be better than those other guys" Francis said.

"For Christ's sake, kid, they're sailors, not soldiers! Get your head out of your ass and think for once," Bill yelled as he took a long drag on a fresh cigarette.

"We could use another look out," one of our sailors said to Louis, "Our guys are runned down and could use a break."

"Okay, sure" Louis smiled, "Got any of those pills that'll help?"

"I'll see what we have in the pharmacy" the sailor replied.

Our lights were out so not to give us away to any pirates and the air was chilled with the moon now being obscured by an overcast that I pulled on my jacket to stave off the cold. "Where did you meet these guys?" asking because they were a colorful bunch. Zoey would be the only female in the entire crew and looking at her up close, she certainly was pretty, but now was not the time to be asking for a date.

I watched as the other guys went off about their business, Bill and Francis were on the verge of attacking each other when I shouted back, "Shut up, you pussies or I'll throw ya overboard," mocking how Francis always talked. Sure I've swore, but not like that. It only brought a laugh from most of the guys on the ship.

I turned back to Robert, "I was a student at the college there when everything went to hell in a hand basket. I met them after taking on most of the students on campus and even bashing in the head of a cop that had turned.."

She pulled her jacket up a bit more, zipping it to fight the cold. "Sort of like Grand Theft Auto but with more blood," I quipped before continuing. "I was sitting on a bench and honestly I was thinking about giving up before those three found me.. More like Three Stooges than zombie killers," I said looking back to see Louis getting hyped on caffeine pills and stealing Bill's smokes and tossing them to Francis.

"You think there are more of us out there, y'know, like more survivors?" I said looking up to him.

"Well," lowering my head a bit, "I'll be honest, you're the only voice we've heard for a few days. We were surprised, that's why we went for it. The last time we tried to help someone we almost lost a man and the docks...well, the docks were overrun." The memory of seeing so many people being torn to shreds and devoured was heart wrenching that I pushed it out of my mind after she told me that she had to fight the zombies on her campus all by herself. She had to be strong, determined and smart in order to do that and make it this far, and then there were her three companions; Larry, Curly, and Moe. I could hear Bill still and then came Francis with a wail, "I hate black coffee". Shaking my head I thought, "Is this going to be like this the whole time they're with us?" because as much as we're laughing now, it's going to get old and then someone is going to knock this Francis guy out.

Shifting my feet and adjusting the strap for my rifle on my right shoulder I asked, "What can you tell us about the zombies? We've ran into one that has a long tongue and another that is as big as a house. Any others that you've seen and heard?"

The Pigeon puttered away, the stack was giving out light wisps of black smoke. We headed towards the bridge where we could be out of the cold.

"Well fate would have it that we're meant to be together then, huh?" I replied when he said they were the first in days. "Yeah, but he'll listen to me for some reason, I don't know why." Things were quieting down when I leaned against the railing to tell him what I knew of the zombies.

"That long tongue one is what they call a 'smoker', no idea why the long tongue though. The big guy is a 'tank', for obvious reasons - it makes people get out of the way, well undead out of the way.." I looked up at the moonlight trying to make it's way through the fog cloud surrounding us.

"I know there is a crying one with red eyes called a witch..Franny-boy says to avoid at all costs, you need to tell your guys if they hear crying, don't go to it." I continued on for a good bit. "It seems they met each other at a store of sorts along the way or were parts of their travel that they bumped into each other."

"I don't know how far we'll get, but we're gonna get a lot farther now that we found you," I said before I shivered due to the cold.

"It might have been fate," I replied with a slight shrug of the shoulders. Normally I wasn't a believer of 'fate' more along the lines of karma. "I'm just glad that we didn't have a repeat of last time" then saw her shiver and tighten up her jacket. That cherry red jacket made her stand out against the battleship gray of the hull and superstructure, "Here. Let's go to the bridge. It'll be warm there and we have coffee already made," a good hot cup of joe to keep us alert. The Pigeon continued to put along the smooth ocean surface, the white wake we left behind slowly faded into the blackness of the night. Dark out. Easy for something to pounce on us.

"We have plenty of bunks for everyone to sleep in. They're not much, but at least you don't have to share them with everyone". When we reached the bridge there were two men on duty, one on the helm and one keeping watching with his eyes on the binoculars looking constantly left and right for any threats. We didn't have any night vision goggles or anything that would give us good vision at night, it was too expensive for us working me to afford. "Everyone, this is Zoey, she is one of the survivors we rescued. She and her friends; Francis, Bill, and Louis will be joining us," going to the coffee maker there was a half filled pot of scalding black stuff and picked it up by the handle, "Want some?" pouring myself a cup, "We have sugar and powdered cream," but didn't know how long it would last for us in this situation. For now our rations were going to be good; lots of packaged and freeze dried stuff, but when we bugged out we didn't have enough time to get a lot of fresh fruits or vegetables. That would affect us in the long run, which is why I aimed for a southern island, a chance to get out hands on oranges and other citrus fruits. We were thinking in the long run, but that all changed with these new zombies. A Tank and a smoker and a Witch? This all had to go down on a report and relayed to everyone. Those were another bit of things that we had to stay away from, but they could be killed. We killed one of those tanks. They weren't invincible.

"Hello all," I said taking a seat. "Oh I believe I can help with that..I looted them from the gun-shop.. Hope these help," I said tossing them to the guy that had the other pair. "When did you?" Francis asked wondering. "I thought they would be helpful, no biggie," I said.

Bill shook his head, "It would look like the girl knows more on Army stuff that I do, and I'm the veteran." Louis patted Bill on the shoulder, "Don't worry old man."

"I'm not old.." Bill scoffed taking a drag on the cigarette.

"Well, I know that we'll be seeing sunlight soon and if we're close enough to shore, we'll be able to see how bad it is," I recommended.

"Don't think too much on shore especially if there's a hunter out there.." Francis spoke up after taking a drink of the coffee, swearing at it because of the taste.

"Hunter?"

"Yeah, you think they can't do too much, but if you let down your guard, they'll hop on ya and rip you to shreds.. Saw a guy get eaten alive after being pinned by one," she replied in the gruff tone he had.

"Better add that one to the list for the crew, Robert," I said taking a sip of the coffee, adding a packet to it to lighten the taste.

'Hunter, Tank, Witch, and Smoker' writing them down on a small pad of paper before taking another sip, "Anything else?" I asked. Bill leaned against the bulkhead and sighed snapping this index finger and thumb.

"Yeah, one last thing. There's a fat lil fucker that hovers around. He likes to vomit on people. Don't know what it is but there's something in his puke that attracts the hordes. Saw him vomit on people and then came the mobs. Careful how you shoot them. They explode and they can still get that green stuff on you."

Putting down his cup Francis growled, "Damn it, Bill. Now you made me lose my appetite."

Looking over at Zoey I said, "We're not going to make any landings, unless we see something that we need and it's clearly deserted and even then only in the day light. Speaking of which, when it does get light out we'll move closer to the shore to get a look see, but we're staying about a mile out. Hopefully, these things can't swim either."

"I don't think they can swim," Bill replied, "But i've seen them walk along the floor. Best stay out of the shallow areas."

"Crap, they can walk on the bottom?!" I said shocked. "Never going swimming again, that's it." I shook my hands and head at the same time. As Bill explained about the Boomer, she couldn't help but almost wanna vomit with Francis. "I don't get squeamish at much, but that would make me wanna barf," Louis said.

The sunlight was soon coming up over the horizon and I walked out onto the deck to get a better look at the shore. It was a mile out so I borrowed the old binoculars from the guy that was keeping watch. "Oh shit, it's to hell...not to hell, it is hell."

I handed them over to Robert who looked as well. Nothing but Tanks attacking whoever was left alive and other specials taking out the rest that remained. "There may not be other survivors out there on shore," I said.

"Maybe only on the sea that made it," Bill said taking a whiff of the salty air, filled with death all the way out this far.

Francis didn't want to look. As tough as he was he couldn't bear it and headed inside as Louis went up to keep watch. I scanned the area. Horrid. Everything was wrecked, burning, and gone. We wouldn't find anything or anyone here. Turning to the remaining people, "Why don't you guys get a shower and get some sleep? You guys have been through the ringer. We have some fresh clothes and we can clean what you have. We're going to do our search and continue heading south along the coast. We'll make you up if we find anything."

"Sounds good to me, kid" Bill said flicking his cigarette into the ocean before turning away.

That just left me with Zoey. Handing back the glasses to the lookout I leaned against the rails resting my arms on them, "We're going to keep scanning the airwaves. If there's a radio station or someone out there with a powerful enough radio then we can home in on it, like we did with you. Hopefully...hopefully...there's someone else out there." I was trying to keep myself confident. If we found these four then there had to be more of them. "There are plenty of empty beds to choose from. The guys will give you fresh sheets and pillow and direct you to the head...or the bathroom. But you'll have to be careful because the there are no individual showers unless for the officers on this ship. Everyone just uses the larger shared ones."

"I'll keep my eye out and I'll let you know so you can tell the crew not to mess with me while I shower..Honestly, I haven't had a decent shower in a few days, since it went down," I admitted when we were alone. I couldn't help but notice how he looked, strong but filled with despair.

"So what made a man like you get this crew together to plan the impending apocalypse?" I asked, curious about everything and how they had managed to get this thing going. "It seems like this ship is old, but runs like it doesn't have a problem in the world.."

I looked back at the shore and saw someone waving their arms at us and then a smoker took them under the water. "Fuck, the specials are in the water. They just took a few under..No one has a chance."

"This ship is old. Was in World War II! It was on blocks when the government sold it. A group of my friends that I worked with all pooled our money together and we bought this hulk and then we ran into others that were into zombies and we formed out group; friends and friends of friends. We were lucky that we have guys that had skills in welding and working on ships that they were able to get this old bucket floating and the engine...well, that was a miracle of itself." I didn't want to bore her with specifics. "The shower should be open. Those not on duty now will be in their bunks. The shower should be open. They may be guys, but they're not those kind of guys" smirking at her. "I've known them for a few years and they're good at what they do, because they know how to handle themselves."

"Breakfast will be at 0800 and then lunch at 1200 and dinner at 1700 hours in the galley," I said, "That's 8am, noon, and 5pm" chuckling. Bill would certainly know about that, but I didn't know about Zoey and the others. "If you need me, i'll be in the captain's quarters. There are signs pointing our directions all through the corridors so that no one can get lost" That was something that we put in because almost none of us had any notion on how to serve onboard ships and the first time we tried to tour the hulk before we bought it many of us became hopelessly lost and ran in cicles.

I giggled when he said that about the times food was to be served, "I know a bit, my grandfather fought in WWII and Father in Vietnam. Yeah my parents were older when I was born.." I didn't want to seem too weird.

I left his side and headed to the shower, there were clothes in the shower room closet, some were women's clothes but a bit big. He had said that they would wash what they wore so they could have them again, but I had decided that I would just want my red jacket, that's all. I'd make do with the rest.

I took off my clothes and stood in one of the stalls, turning on the water. It was cold at first making my nipples become erect, but then it got hot. Images of the zombies and the mutants flooded my mind, but seemed to wash off with the water - the dried blood from killing so many washed away.

I finished the shower, having never felt so clean. I stepped out wrapping a towel around my head. I grabbed my thong that I had washed first and held it under the hand dryer to dry. I would let them wash my bra, I didn't care. All I needed was my panties.

It wasn't too long before a knock came at the door asking if I was alright. It was Francis' voice. "I'm fine, I'll be right out.." "Well we need to talk about whether or not we get off at the next port, I'm not comfortable here," Francis said. "I'll be right there," I responded.

I pulled on the jeans and black tank top I had found. My shoes looked like hell but I had scrubbed the sides enough that they would last a bit longer. I pulled my hair down and pulled it back into a quick ponytail and headed out only to bump into Robert. "Oh hey, I think Francis wants off. We need to talk him out of it. He's a good shot, just got a bad temper."

"So it seems" I replied.

Francis was heard, "I hate ships. I hard the water. I hate the cold" and the knee knockers didn't help his situation as he walked through the corridors. Every once in a while there was a crack followed by some cursing. "Who the hell designed this thing? Sadists?"

It took some getting use to, yes, but we quickly caught up to Francis in the galley where he tried to get some more coffee. "I was told, Francis, that you want off at the next dock" I said to him as he poured another cup of scalding black coffee.

"Yeah" he said turning to us holding the white porcelain cup in his hands. "I can't stand boats or the ocean. I'm a hog rider. I live for the open roads."

"Well, that's good for you, but if you haven't noticed, the shore line is full of those zombies. If we land you, where will you go? How will you survive? We're outside of the major cities, but it seems that the zombies are damn near everywhere and those mutated ones, the Tanks and Smokers and what not, they'll get you as soon as you land. I'm not putting my crew or this ship anywhere close to the shore."

"That's bullshit!" Francis roared, "You can't keep us prisoner on this ship. I've got rights, you know."