attack.”
I nodded, and he continued, turning to the others “Once you three are safely on the dock, Lamar and I will hand the supplies to you. Then I’ll tie us off and we’ll be home free.”
“How do we get up to the higher levels?” Carol asked. “It seems awfully high. I hope there aren’t any stairs. My legs are killing me, and I banged my knee when that dolphin jumped onboard.”
The chief gently rubbed his injured nose. “Don’t worry. There aren’t any stairs, at least not in that section. Not sure what they’ll have, though. Some rigs have elevators, and others use cranes to lift all their personnel up to the top in man baskets. But that’s not anything to be concerned about. If there are any crew members left onboard, and the rig doesn’t have elevators, we’ll ask them to haul us up in the basket.”
“And what if they refuse?”
“Then Lamar and I will shoot them.”
Carol looked shocked, but then the chief grinned. She smiled back at him.
I checked our pursuers, but they were gone from sight. There were signs of battles being fought below the surface all across the open water-splashes and plumes and red-tinted surf. But none of it was close enough to the lifeboat to cause me any immediate concern. I hoped the fish would continue fighting each other and ignore us long enough to get aboard the oil rig.
We drew closer. The massive jack-up loomed over us. We scanned the decks and catwalks, looking for signs of life, but all we saw were seabirds. They covered the rig, perched on every antenna, crane, building, and safety net. There were hundreds of them. At least now we knew where all the ones we’d seen earlier had come from. They must have flown back and forth from the mainland. And with all the offal now floating on the waves, they wouldn’t even have to make that trip.
The chief pulled alongside the lower level dock and shut off the engine. I stood guard with the rifle, watching the sea for signs of trouble while Carol, Malik, and Tasha climbed up onto the platform. The ocean remained clear, but the signs of the terrible battle beneath its surface increased. Huge clouds of blood now floated on the tide like pools of oil. Severed heads, tails, and organs rolled on the waves. A seagull darted down and gripped some fish entrails in its claws, but before it could take flight again, a large blue-and-green fish leaped from the water and seized the bird in its mouth. The bird squawked in alarm. Its wings beat at the water. Then it was pulled below. I turned back to comment to the others, but none of them had seen it happen.
Once Carol and the kids had safely disembarked from the lifeboat, the chief handed the supplies up to them. They set the containers and bags on the deck. Malik started to explore, but Carol warned him to stay close to the rest of us. Sulking, Malik complied. To distract him, the chief handed the shotgun to Malik, stock first, and Malik set that aside as well. Then the chief turned back to me.
“Are we still clear?”
I nodded. “So far, so good.”
“Okay. You go on up, and then I’ll tie us off.”
I eyed the drilling platform. “Is this thing stable? Seems like its just floating out here.”
“It is,” he said. “Basically, the oil company just floats it out to wherever they want to drill. But there are jacks that extend down to the ocean floor, raising it up and stabilizing it. Kind of like an anchor. So we’re not going anywhere.”
I passed my rifle to Carol, who took it hesitantly. It was obvious that the weapon made her nervous. Smiling, I clambered up onto the dock and took it back from her. Her posture and expression relaxed again. I stared up into the rigging. If the jack-up was occupied, nobody had come out to greet us. Maybe it was abandoned, or maybe they were dead.
In the lifeboat, the chief began whistling while he gathered up the ropes.
“Hey, Wade,” I whispered. “We still don’t know if this thing is deserted. Maybe we should try to be quiet.”
“You’re right,” he agreed, lowering his voice. “I’m sorry. Shouldn’t be whistling anyway, I guess. It hurts my nose. I’m just excited.”
He turned back to the ropes and hauled them over to the side, grunting with the effort. I turned my attention back to the jack-up. Malik and Tasha followed my gaze. Carol watched the chief.
None of us saw it in time.
Our only warning was when the creature surfaced. There was a rushing sound, like a blast of steam from the world’s biggest iron. We turned back to the ocean and the chief froze, the ropes hanging from his hands. The ocean’s surface rippled with a motion not caused by the pull of the tide. A huge black bulk surfaced from the depths, rocking both the lifeboat and the dock. The motion knocked the chief off his feet.
Water streamed down the creature’s sides as it rose higher. It was a whale—an undead whale. Horrible wounds covered its bulk, and the stench wafting off its hide was worse than anything I’d ever smelled. It was like every corpse in Baltimore had been bottled up and brought here. Gagging, I bent over and wretched. Carol did the same. The kids turned away, coughing. When I turned back, I caught a glimpse of one huge, soulless eye—bigger than a dinner plate and black as night. Then the lifeboat capsized, turning over completely and tipping the chief into the sea. A mouth the size of a car opened up beneath him, swallowing him whole. He didn’t even have time to scream. Carol screamed for him. Screamed for us all.
Ignoring the rotting beast’s smell, I snapped the rifle up and fired a shot. It was like shooting spit-balls at a dinosaur. The whale slammed against the dock, and the entire platform shook. I emptied the magazine into it. Beside me, the shotgun roared as Malik did the same. I don’t know if our rounds had any effect. The zombie sank again beneath the waves, taking Chief Maxey with it. The lifeboat drifted away on the tide. The air trapped beneath the hull kept it from sinking. There was no way for us to retrieve it. The lifeboat was already out of our reach.
Carol fell to her knees and sobbed quietly. Tasha and Malik just stared in disbelief. I knew how they felt. It had all happened so quickly. It just didn’t seem real somehow. I mean, a zombie fucking whale? If circumstances had been different, I could have almost laughed. You go through life believing only in what you can see. What science can prove. Things like ghosts and monsters are the stuff of fantasy. But then, one morning, you wake up and the dead are out in the streets hunting down the living. Your world comes crashing down when that happens. But even when you get used to the idea that the dead can walk, a zombie whale still seemed incredible. In a way, I think it shook our world view all over again.
The lifeboat drifted farther away. I watched it go, wondering where it would end up and if there’d be anybody left to find it.
“Why him?” Carol sobbed. “Why Wade? He was such a nice man. So gentle. He saved us all. Why did it have to take him?”
I put my hand on her shoulder. “I don’t know, Carol. I don’t know.”
We’d lost yet another member of our group. And now we were stranded. If there were zombies aboard the drilling platform, we’d have no means of escape—except for the weapons we held in our hands.
“We’ll grieve for the chief later,” I said. “Grieve for them all. But right now, let’s check our ammunition and then make sure this place is safe.”
Malik shuffled over to me as I dug through a bag and found more bullets.
“If there’s dead folks onboard, how we gonna get away?”
I reloaded my magazine and refused to look up at him.
“We’ll find a way,” I said softly, fingering the rounds. “We’ll find a way…”
The floor on the jack-up was about twenty feet off the ocean’s surface, but there were levels under the rig as well. We stowed the supplies on the dock, intending to come back for them once we’d determined that the drilling platform was safe. A metal sign affixed to one of the girders said
We approached the elevator. I took a deep breath and pressed the arrow button. There was still power. We heard the whine of an electric motor and squeaking cables as the car came down to us. The doors clanked open and we stepped inside. The elevator slowly rose. I tightly gripped the rifle and tried to reassure the rest of them with a
