Under a Graveyard Sky

areas except those specifically locked down by higher. That’s only going to be bridge and possibly engineering. If you can find Gwinn’s badge… That’ll do the trick. If not… You’re down to cutting torches. All the doors, including cabin doors, are steel.”

“Roger,” Steve said, gesturing at Fontana with his chin. “Any way to upgrade your key?”

“Only with power to the systems,” Chris said. “And you’d need to find and get into the Staff Side office… Break… Steve, I really don’t want to come over there. Can’t describe how much. But…”

“Once we’re to that point, I’m going to need you to liaison with the Coasties on clearing,” Steve said. “But if you’re talking now, no. We can probably find the cabins that are occupied on our own. We’re going to need help when we start clearing the crew areas and the working areas. But by then maybe we’ll have found a map or something.”

“Roger.”

Fontana came back shaking his head. No badge.

“Cooper, for what it’s worth, it’s not here. She’s not here. Will your badge get us into the interior?”

“All common areas,” Chris replied. “Passenger and crew and most support supply areas. Food at least. But you’re going to be buggered getting to those passengers in cabins.”

“What about security, over?” Fontana asked.

“Security officers should, repeat, should have access to cabins. Also some housekeeping will access some but not all. Did you find a security officer?”

“Minimal clothing and materials cast-off in this area,” Steve said as Faith clambered over the side. “Faith’s here. We’re going to continue this operation.”

“Again, good luck, Wolf.”

“Thanks, Cooper,” Steve said.

“Chris said this isn’t going to get us in the cabins,” Faith said, handing him the card.

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

* * *

“Zombies, zombies, zombies,” Faith said, banging on the hatch with the butt of her Saiga. “Customers.” She worked a stethoscope in under her gear and listened. “Okay, lots of customers.”

“Okay,” Steve said, trying not to snarl. They hadn’t even gotten off the lifeboat deck, yet. This was the third hatch they’d tried and they all had “multiple customers” lined up. “Faith, Hooch and Fontana, form a line, five meters that way,” Steve said, pointing forward. They’d gotten away from the entry area and the deck was mostly clear except for the usual fecal matter and occasional gnawed corpse.

“I will pop the hatch, then run like a bugger your way,” Steve said. “Do not fire until I clear the defense point. Let me make this very clear: Do not shoot me.”

“Sir…” Fontana and Hooch both said.

“Yes, one of you probably should do it,” Steve said. “But I’m going to. That’s an order. Just form up and don’t shoot me.”

“Try not to, Da,” Faith said, walking forward. “Just better run like a roo.”

“Weapons pointed down,” Fontana said when they’d lined up. “Locked and loaded, off safe, fingers off the triggers. Take position, prepare to point.” There was a large gap between himself and Faith. “Faith, locked and loaded?”

“Ready.”

“Hooch?”

“Prepared, sergeant.”

“Ready when you are, boss.”

Steve took a deep breath and keyed the door. It popped open slowly, fortunately, and he turned and started running like a scared roo.

“Don’t look back,” he muttered. “Don’t look back.”

He didn’t really need to. The howls of the zombies told him everything he needed to know.

* * *

“Oh, run faster Da,” Faith said. Ten meters didn’t seem very far unless it was the distance your Da had to run to outrun a pile of zombies that was, if anything, larger than her reception party. Da was loaded down with weapons, ammo and equipment. The zombies were not. They’d been slowed opening the heavy hatch but they were now catching up.

“Fire!” Fontana said, putting words to action with a blast of 12 gauge in a zombie’s chest.

* * *

Steve skidded to a stop and turned around, then lunged to fill the gap in the line. There were at least fifty zombies in the group that had been following him. They were tripping over the bodies of the leaders but that wasn’t stopping them, just, barely, slowing them down. He lifted his shotgun as he joined the line and pulled the trigger. It wouldn’t move. He grimaced, jacked a round into the chamber, took it off safe and pulled the trigger again. That time it worked.

“Back step,” Fontana called. “Stay on line.”

“I’m out,” Faith said, pulling a pistol.

“Going pistol,” Hooch said. Ten rounds goes fast when it’s a zombie horde.

“Shit,” Steve said. One of the zombies was still wearing body armor and a riot helmet. No pants but body armor. And shotgun and.45 did poorly against body armor.

The zombie zoomed in on Faith and tackled her. It had apparently figured out how to lift its face shield to deliver a bite and bit down on the juncture of her neck and shoulder.

“Fuck!” Faith said. “Not again!” Her hand scrabbled for a weapon.

“Pistol…won’t work… Kevlar… Knife…!” She reached down to her leg, pulled out a nine inch Gerber Commando and started to stab the zombie repeatedly and rapidly in the back through its armor. “I looove youuuuu toooooo…”

The wave had receded, the security zombie was pretty much the last.

“Reload,” Fontana said. “Faith, you going to get back to work any time soon?”

“He’s heavy,” Faith said, pushing the dead zombie off. “Use a little help here.”

Steve lifted the security guard off his daughter by the neck of his armor and gave her a hand up.

“That is why I hate mall cops,” Faith said, pulling out the knife with a twist and wiping it down with a rag.

“For future reference,” Fontana said. “The pistol would have worked. He had his arms up. Stick the barrel in the armpit.”

“Point,” Faith said, putting the knife away. “But I was pissed off. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to eat me or…something else.”

Steve rifled through the pockets on the armor and came up with a security card.

“Tada,” he said, waving it.

“Cross load ammo and reload magazines,” Fontana said, pulling off his assault pack. “Hooch, Faith on guard. Wolf and Falcon to load. Commodore, I would recommend, despite that card, that we remain together as a four man team until we’re sure that we’ve dealt with all similar large groups.”

“Agreed,” Steve said, pulling out ammo and reloading his Saiga mags. He’d never pulled his pistol. He held out his hand for Faith’s and started loading hers. “What could we have done better?”

“The overall plan was good,” Hooch said. He’d turned to face forward while Faith covered aft. “Except for one thing. I think in future with large groups and multiple possible entries… Or… I understand the thing about bringing them to you not going to them. But… Maybe open the hatch, then call for zombies?”

“If you have reason to suspect a large zone with multiple zombies, open the hatch, back off and then draw them to you?” Fontana said.

“Reasonable,” Steve said.

“It’s not really relevant here,” Fontana said. “But the one rule of Zombieland I’d like to bring up is always have a way out. Preferably with a way to lock it behind you.”

“What if we run into more security zombies?” Faith asked. “I tried for a leg shot but missed. Sorry.”