John Ringo - Under a Graveyard Sky

As soon as all of the anchors on the Victoria were down, the Cooper moved up cautiously alongside. The new crew of the Victoria , four volunteers that had been “supernumerary” on the Toy and Cooper started, inexpertly, throwing balloon “fenders” over the side. As one that was badly secured fell in the water, “Captain Mike” started bellowing from the wheelhouse.

“One of these days we will find real professionals to figure this out,” Steve said.

“That’ll be the day,” Sophia said.

“But to do that, we need to clear more boats,” Steve said. “As soon as we’re replenished… Back to sea.”

“Da,” Sophia said, quietly. “You’re serious about me taking a boat?”

“I’ll need to find the right crew,” Steve said. “I don’t want you kidnapped in a mutiny. But, yeah. We need captains. And you’ve got more experience than anyone but Chris and Mike. And Mike’s content to sit on the Victoria . So…yeah.”

“Thanks, Da,” Sophia said.

“Thank me after you’ve had the responsibility for a while,” Steve said, rubbing his forehead.

“You okay, Da?” Sophia asked.

“There are people dying out there, right now,” Steve said. “There were people dying that we could have saved a long time ago. I’m regretting just hiding for so long.”

“We’ll get there, Da,” Sophia said.

“ Toy, Victoria ,” Mike growled over the radio.

“Toy,” Sophia responded.

“Now that we’ve got this ratfuck cleared up, come alongside port. We’ll start filling you up.”

“Roger, Vic,” Sophia said. “Da, you want to get ready to handle the lines?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Steve said, grinning.

* * *

“While we’re here,” Steve said, looking at the coast of the nearby island.

“What are you thinking?” Stacey asked.

“Nothing worse than going to a concert…”

* * *

Steve slipped over the side of the dinghy into the water carefully. All he was carrying was a pistol in the event there were some zombies around. Mostly, he planned on out-swimming them if it came to it.

“One last time,” Faith said. She was rigged up in case swimming didn’t work. “You sure about this?”

“I can see the utility,” Steve said. “I think it’s a good idea. If I can’t find any or I get eaten, it was a bad idea.”

He quietly swam ashore, keeping an eye out in every direction he could. The zombies seemed to barely notice human activity in the harbor except at night when there was light. Then they’d line the harbor, trying to find a way to the boats.

There was plenty of junk along the shore but what he was looking for wouldn’t be found there. He let his nose do the work for him, moving carefully through the sea-grapes of Gamma Island following the smell of rot.

It was, unsurprisingly, a human corpse. Probably a zombie that had lost the zombie-eat-zombie battle of survival. And very putrid. It was covered in flies, which weren’t of interest to him. But it was also covered in small black beetles.

Those he collected, quickly, and popped into a zip-lock bag.

He stopped as he heard movement in the trees and looked up. There was a zombie crouched under the bushes. A young black woman. She was regarding him ferally, apparently trying to work out if he was worth attacking.

Steve stood up, slowly and then leaned forward, raising his shoulders and grunting at her.

She ducked back into the bushes and disappeared.

Steve snuck back through the bushes, trying not to think about the interplay in which he’d just engaged. He had to pay attention to keeping alive. But it was interesting, nonetheless…

“Seriously?” Faith said, looking at the beetles crawling over the tuna guts. “That’s it?”

“You’ll see,” Steve said. “They’ll be useful.”

“We’ve got survivors on this one,” Sophia called over the intercom. “Liferaft. Looks like two people. People, people.”

“Roger,” Steve said, looking up from his paperwork. He’d known there was going to be paperwork, but there had to be a better way.

They’d been clearing for two weeks since towing in the Victoria and picked up two more useable boats. Both had survivors and they had a. agreed to help out and b. were experienced and c. it was their boat. So Sophia was still running the con. They also had found more than twenty survivors in liferafts and life boats, including more from the Voyage Under Stars.

Steve didn’t even sway as Sophia swung the boat around to back up to the liferaft. He did check his pistol and taser, though. A couple of the survivors had been problems. They’d settled by pulling two wrecked sailboats off the shore of Jew Bay and putting them on those, solidly anchored in the harbor. One for men, one for women. That had come about due to the accusation on the part of one of the female survivors that she’d been raped by one of the males. And it just made sense. Mike didn’t think that he’d want to be on those boats but there wasn’t much else they could do at the moment.

Steve stepped out onto the back deck as Sophia backed up towards the liferaft.

“Throw your line to the man on the deck,” Sophia said over the loud-hailer. “Exit junior person first, senior last. Last person out, pull the wire on the EPIRB before boarding. After boarding you’ll have to wash down on the back deck to decontaminate. After that we’ll get you some food. By the way, welcome to Wolf’s Floating Circus and Rescue Flotilla. You’re welcome.”

The man threw the line, then pulled the wire from the EPIRB. Steve pulled the raft alongside and helped the woman onto the deck, then the man.

“Thank you,” the guy said. He wasn’t exactly ugly looked at in the right light. But he wasn’t a beauty, neither. Big as hell, his skin was flat black as an ace of spades. “Who’s Wolf?”

“My actual nickname in the paras was Wolfsbane,” Steve said. “Got around due to one of my daughters and got changed to Wolf or Papa Wolf. Steve Smith, captain of the Tina’s Toy and, somewhat against my will, and I quote ‘commodore’ of this lashup. And the name wasn’t my idea.”

“I really don’t care if you’re called the Devil’s Own,” the woman said, grinning. “I’m just so glad to be off that boat! I’m Sadie Curry, Captain Smith.”

“ Thomas Fontana,” the man said. “Paras… Not Brit or Irish. Aussie with lots of time in the states. Southern states. Paras or SAS?”

“Paras,” Steve said, surprised. “Brother was a goldie.”

“Sorry,” Thomas said, shrugging. “Any idea on him?”

“Last I heard he was on a flight to a secure point,” Steve said. “Long story. Let’s get you washed down and some food in you…”

* * *

“There is probably something worse than being stuck on a cruise ship, unarmed, in a zombie uprising,” Fontana said, popping two sushi rolls in at a time. “Food…” he muttered past the mouthful.

“ Thomas was special forces?” Sadie said. “I think I got that right. I didn’t know anything about the Army until we ended up on the…raft.” She grimaced and shrugged. “That was right, Thomas? Green berets?”

Fontana nodded, trying to clear his mouth of rice and tuna. He took a sip of tea and just sighed through his nose.

“God this is good,” he muttered.

“Most of the boats from the cruise ships are, well, boats,” Stacey said.

“I couldn’t make it to one,” Fontana said. “There was an open door and I went out. Outside. There were rafts in the water…”

“I was running from a zombie and he saved me,” Sadie said, grabbing his arm. “My hero.”