supplies. And there weren’t many of those.
“One of my grandparents had been a prisoner of war during The War, as it’s referred to Down Under,” Steve said, closing the door on the dead. “To his dying day he never drank more than one cup of water with breakfast, one with lunch and one with supper. That was exactly all he drank. Doctors told him it was bad for him. He didn’t listen.”
The next room contained a family that had zombied. Or at least some of them had. One young male was still wearing scraps of clothes. All the corpses except one had been thoroughly gnawed.
“And he had about a million other quirks. Like reading so slow it took him a year to finish a book. He’d read one word, savor it like the water, then read another. He’d developed what looked like bat shit habits that kept him alive and sane in the camps. This world isn’t going to get any better soon. The question is if Faith’s, face it, schizophrenia is a functional response or if it’s going to cause a real split personality. Because, right now it’s the only armor her brain has against this horror. And, face it, whereas Granpa’s bat shit was weird in the normal world, Faith’s going to have to grow up in this bat shit world.”
“She’s only thirteen,” Fontana said, walking in the next room. That was the pattern. Fontana took outboard, Steve took inboard. “Ever thought about, you know, pulling her back? We’ve got the Coasties now to help with clearance.”
“The Coasties have other skills,” Steve said. “And when they say ‘clearance’ they mean rounding guys up, searching for drugs and maybe getting shot out. They don’t mean blowing their way through zombies.”
“They’re still adults with some weapons training. Got a live one. Not thirteen-year-old girls.”
“On the face of it, you’re right,” Steve said. “I should pull her back. You wanna tell her? Medical team to cabin Two-Nine-Seven-Four.”
“No,” Fontana said, giving the woman some water. “Hey, you’re gonna make it, okay? Just hang on. We’ve got medical teams on the way.”
“Th’nk u…” the woman whispered.
“Just sip the water…”
* * *
“So, about Faith,” Fontana said. “The zombies don’t bother her. Much.
“I know,” Steve said. “But the damned stretcher teams will barely come up into the dark areas. And they won’t go anywhere we haven’t cleared for zombies. Even when all the zombies are dead. Find somebody who’ll do this besides you, Hooch, me and Faith and I’ll send Faith zombie hunting.”
“Get the Coasties,” Fontana repeated. “This is their kind of shit.”
“I will,” Steve said. “When they get here. Some. Some are going to have to help with just keeping these poor bastards alive. We’ll go back to heavy clearance. But for now, we’re all we’ve got.”
“And we can’t do this all day and all night, twenty-four seven,” Fontana pointed out.
Steve reached up and changed the frequency on his radio.
“
“Gone,” Fontana said. “No pupil response.”
“Can you retrans to squadron ops, over?”
“Yeah,” Steve said. “Isham, we’re going to call this at twelve hours from when we went over the side. Whenever that is. The clearance teams that is. If the Coasties are on site by then I’d like them to manage the recovery work. But nobody works on it for more than twelve hours at a time. The clearance team is going to need some bunks on the
“All the zombies are dead in the passenger cabin areas,” Steve said. “We’re getting about one survivor per ten cabins. As soon as some of the Coasties get on site, have them replace Faith and Hooch. Then us. Faith and Hooch go down for longer than we do. We’ll both start again tomorrow at the same time but get them replaced
“Thanks,” Steve said. “Wolf out.”
He changed the radio back over to the medical channel, then shrugged.
“Best I can do,” Steve said.
CHAPTER 31
“Any decisions you need me to make?” Steve asked as he stepped off onto the flush deck of the
The waves were chopping up and the deck was awash but he didn’t really care. It would clean some of the crap off his boots.
“None,” Isham said, shaking his head. “It’s not a power grab. Everything that can be got under control is under control. Just…trust me on that and get some rest.”
“I want to drink myself to sleep,” Steve said.
“Hang on,” Isham said. “Hang on to that grab rail and just stand there. We’re going to wash you down out here.”
“Makes sense,” Steve said. He was covered in wet weather gear top to bottom. “The guns are going to need…”
“To be cleaned off in fresh water, dried really well and then lubed up really well,” Isham said, backing up the stairs. “Just let them wash you down…”
* * *
“Steve,” Stacey said, hugging him. “Oh… God…”
“It’s bad,” Steve said, nodding. “I’m really regretting bringing Faith onboard.”
“She’s having a lot of problems with the…” She stopped and grimaced. “She likes the zombie hunting…”
“I’m going to switch her to that as purely as possible,” Steve said, nodding. “I mean, there are horrors to that. But this has been… Different.”
The cabin was excellent. Steve wasn’t sure how Isham had procured the materials to return it to if not its former glory than very liveable. But it was nice. And the meal that had been waiting for him after his long, hot, shower looked really, really good. He wasn’t sure that he could eat it, though.
“You have to eat,” Stacey said.
“Reading my mind?” Steve asked, smiling faintly.
“Always,” Stacey said.
“Talk to me about something,” Steve said, taking a forkful of the dish. He wasn’t sure what it was but it was excellent. “When did Chris go back to being a cook?”
“That’s Sari,” Stacey said, smiling.
“The one that was on here?” Steve asked, then winced. The horrors of the
“She’s a really good cook,” Stacey said. “And Mike is overseeing the maintenance on the weapons and gear. I made sure they were all clear. He knew how to clear them but I checked first. He’s going to fine tooth
