Under a Graveyard Sky

“until I can get the hell away from these nutjobs…”

“So help me God.”

“You can holster, Faith,” Steve said.

“Damn,” Faith said, decocking and holstering.

“For everyone else,” Steve said. “I was a para in the Australian Army. I am a combat veteran long before this current brou-haha. I am a naturalized American citizen. Immediately prior to the plague, I was a history teacher. I actually understand these times because they have been common in history. Oh, not zombie plagues but similar situations. Once we have more than one bloody boat for people to be on, we can determine who gets the boat and who goes on it. And we’ll do that by vote. Not that you get a vote about taking this boat anywhere. But when one comes open, anyone who fears for their safety with we mad people, or who is unwilling to aid in this Great Endeavor can move to that boat. Or, as I’ve said repeatedly, when we approach shore you can take your chances. But until I’m assured that you are not going to mutiny, do not become a security threat. Do I make myself very clear? A chorus of ‘yes, captain’ would be appropriate.”

“Yes, captain,” the group said.

“Aye, aye, captain,” Chris said from the galley. He was spinning a rather large knife. “I’ve got asahi coming up if that meets with the captain’s approval?”

“Thank you, Chris, that would be superb,” Steve said. “The next boat that we come to, if there are no security threats, you’ll be clearing the EPIRB Mr. Isham. Clear?”

“Yeah, sure,” Isham said nervously.

“Clear, Captain or Aye, aye, captain,” Steve said, trying not to sigh. “There really is a reason for it. So… Try it again…”

CHAPTER 18

“Toy, this is Cooper.”

“Cooper, Tina’s Toy, over,” Sophia said.

Sophia sometimes thought about complaining that she was on the helm about fourteen hours a day. She, like, never got a break. The problem being, she knew she loved being at the helm.

They’d picked up two other boats and six more survivors. Isham, Christianson and four others that volunteered to leave had been put on one of the yachts and told they could go anywhere they wanted, don’t let the door hit you in the ass and don’t get in our way.

Chris was now running the Daniel Cooper, a 75' “flush deck trawler.” It wasn’t as cool looking at the Toy but Sophia had to admit it had more room. And it had taken less of a beating from zombies.

“Uh, Captain Chris wants you to come over here…”

“Where is here and why, over?” Sophia asked.

“There’s a big boat here. He says it’s a Shewolf job.”

“Give me your location, over,” Sophia said, trying not to snort. She was actually at fault for the nicknames. She’d been talking to Paula, at the helm as usual, and telling some stories from Da’s old days. His old para nickname of Wolfsbane had come up. That got changed to “Captain Wolf.” Then people started calling her, Sophia, “Seawolf.” So now it was “Papa Wolf” or “Captain Wolf,” “Mama Wolf,” “Seawolf” and “Shewolf.”

She took down the coordinates, then another voice crackled over the speaker.

“Seawolf, Cooper, over,” Chris said.

“Roger, Cooper,” Sophia replied.

“Need to talk to your Da, over.”

“Da,” Sophia said, keying the intercom. “Cookie’s on the horn. Says there’s a boat that’s a ‘Shewolf job.’”

“I hate you!” Faith yelled from the saloon. She was engaged in cleaning some of the guns.

“It’s not my fault your adopted,” Sophia sang out.

“I’m not adopted,” Faith said.

“She’s not adopted,” Steve said, walking onto the bridge. “Cooper, Toy actual, over.”

“Got a big job here, Toy. Forty, fifty meter tug. Zombies, plural, on deck. Lots of corridors. Not our cuppa.”

Steve had supplied Chris with some weapons to clear open boats but not something like that. Besides, he’d expressed an unwillingness to do serious clearance. “I was a chef not SBS.”

“Roger,” Steve said, thinking about it. “We’re about to clear a purb. We’ll vector after that.”

“Roger. We’re on to other clearance then?”

“Roger. Continue clearance. We’ll handle the big job.”

“Better you than I. Cooper, out.”

“Shewolf job?” Faith said. “Big job?”

“You are about to get your wish, I think,” Steve said. “Big ocean going tug. Hundred and fifty feet or so. Zombies on deck.”

“Which means zombie city,” Faith said, excitedly. “Boo-yah!”

“You’re too weird not to be adopted…”

* * *

The EPIRB had been another bust. The tug was another matter.

“Assuming it didn’t run its engines out and it’s diesel that’s a boomer of fuel for the taking,” Steve said.

The tug was enormous. Next to it the Toy looked like, well, a toy. And, as reported, there were zombies on the deck.

“I can get an AK and try to shoot them off,” Faith said.

“You mean I can try to shoot them off,” Steve said. They were certainly lining up for it. “I’m a better hand with a rifle.”

“Bet I get more than you,” Faith said. “Bet you dishes.”

“The problem is bouncers,” Steve said, considering the angles. “We’re going to hit low some of the time. We don’t want them bouncing back. That would be unwelcome.”

“I was thinking from the flying bridge,” Faith said. “But if we fire from down here, they’re going to bounce up, right?”

“There’s a bit of a lip,” Steve said, pointing to the metal balwark. “Either way, we’re going to have some come back and down. 7.62 tends to keep going you know. Like going through your mother, going through the hull…”

“Frangibles?” Faith said.

“We’re a bit short on those,” Steve said. “Full up body armor, ballistic glasses, shotgun and hope like hell we don’t kill anyone but zombies or sink the boat.”

“Shotgun spreads, Da,” Faith pointed out.

“It also is relatively low velocity,” Steve replied. “When, not if, it bounces it hopefully will not go all the way through the hull. The family will rig up, everyone else below decks.”

* * *

“Think you put enough holes in the boat, honey?” Stacey asked, nicely. There was a large one right in one of the saloon windows.

“I’m just glad nothing worse happened,” Steve said. He was finishing rigging for the entry. This time an assault pack made sense. But they’d put lifevests on outside everything. They were going to have to climb a boarding ladder to get up to the tug’s deck. That was going to be a new experience. “We’re going to have to figure out a better way to clear zombies off the deck.”

“Like water cannon maybe?” Sophia called. She’d taken off her helmet but was still in armor. And she hadn’t