Shaun Harbinger - Rain

Lucy jumped down onto the diving deck and tied us onto it. I cut our engine and climbed over the side of The Big Easy, dropping down onto the deck. The music coming from our boat had switched to an 80s pop tune. I didn’t know where Johnny Drake got his music from but his playlist was definitely eclectic.

We went up the steps to the aft deck. The circular table and chairs in the centre of the deck were arranged neatly, as was the rest of the craft from what I could see. Double glass doors led into a neat living room lined with leather sofas and chairs. A flat screen TV on the wall showed a black screen. There was nobody in there.

I relaxed my grip on the baseball bat slightly.

We knew the decks were deserted so if anyone was on board, they were beyond the living room. I opened the door and took a hesitant sniff of the air inside.

Rancid. Foul. I gagged and put my head back outside to breathe fresh air.

There were dead people in there. Maybe undead. If there was ever a good time to turn back, this was it.

“Do you really want to go in there?” I asked Lucy. “There’s obviously nobody alive on this boat.”

“We could go a little further. I’ve got the gun. We’re OK.” She stepped over the threshold and into the living area… if it could be called that anymore.

Breathing shallowly to smell as little of the fetid air as possible, I followed.

We found them in the kitchen. A family of four. They were all sitting around the table as if they were gathered for a family meal. In fact, that was exactly what they had been doing. In front of each body was a half-eaten meal of mashed potatoes, peas, steak and gravy. Everyone had a glass of grape Kool-Aid poured from a pitcher that sat on the kitchen counter.

Mom and Dad looked like they were in their late thirties. Dad, whose body had sagged in his chair and whose mouth hung open, was dressed in a light blue polo shirt and white trousers. His hair was neat and he looked like he may have worked as a CEO for some company or other.

Mom had definitely been pretty. In fact, she was still pretty even in death. Her hair was long and auburn, spilling over her shoulders. Her makeup was applied perfectly and her face had the striking type of features that were usually found on models. She wore a yellow sundress and apart from the fact that she was slumped to one side and her eyes were closed, you wouldn’t know she was dead.

The children, a blonde girl who looked about ten and a hazelnut-headed boy of maybe twelve, had fallen forward and their heads rested on the table beside their plates.

“What do you think happened?” Lucy whispered.

“I don’t know. Poison maybe? There aren’t any marks on them. I’d say either the dad or the mom or both of them together poisoned their family. Maybe it’s in the Kool-Aid or the food. Or both.”

Her face looked horrified. “But why?”

I shrugged. I had no answer to that. The world had taken a sharp curve into madness but these people were removed from all that, just as we were. They were living in luxury. People have different tolerance levels and the situation must have become more than they could bear.

We explored the rest of the boat and found a laptop computer in the master bedroom. It was still plugged in and had power. I swished my finger across the trackpad and the screen came to life. The computer had been on the internet. The browser window had a number of tabs open, each showing the last page viewed. All were news websites.

The headline on the page that was open told the story.

I clicked on one of the tabs to find a second news site.

There were eight sites open and they all said pretty much the same thing. The virus had reached America. The U.S. military were fighting hordes of zombies in almost every state. Society was collapsing.

This was why no one had come for us.

The dead were rising all over the world.

There was nobody left to mount a rescue mission.

“Nowhere is safe,” Lucy whispered.

I closed the laptop and unplugged it. “We might as well take this with us.”

She nodded.

“Is there anything else you want to take?” I asked her.

She shook her head. “No.” Tears pooled in her eyes.

We walked past the dead family and out to our boat. Somebody in there… either the father or the mother… had read those news reports and then decided to cook one last meal for the family. Maybe the parents had decided to do it together and sat there calmly with their kids eating a meal that they knew would kill them.

They were free from the apocalypse now. No more struggle for survival. No more fear.

We got back onto The Big Easy and I put the laptop on the coffee table in the living room. I didn’t want to look at it right now. I just wanted to get away from this death boat and into open water where I could forget that the whole world had gone to hell and just feel the breeze on my face and listen to music from a better time.

Lucy untied us and jumped aboard and I pulled away from the Solstice on a heading that would take us south to warmer waters. There was no point staying in Scottish waters if there were no rescue ships coming. We might as well sail into better weather and warmer climes off the coast of Cornwall. It didn’t matter anymore.

I gave The Big Easy more throttle and I felt better when the Solstice diminished to a dark shape on the waves, then a speck, then nothing as we got too far away to see her. I kept us out in deep water, not wanting to be anywhere near the coast when we passed the lighthouse. I didn’t want to see that place ever again.

I wondered what the military were going to do with the Survivors Camps now that there was no rescue planned. I expected the British government, safe somewhere in an underground bunker, had plans for the civilians. Whatever they were, I wanted no part of them. The Big Easy was home now and as long as we could avoid pirates and military ships, this was where we would stay.

I felt optimistic about the future.

All of that changed when a familiar voice floated up to me from the deck below.

“My name is Joe Harley and I’m looking for my brother, Alex.”

Joe. It was Joe! “Oh my God that’s my brother!” I slid down the ladder to the deck and turned up the radio. Lucy came out from the living room, a look of surprise on her face.

“…was camping with his friends in Wales when all of this happened. So we’re hoping he’s OK. We can’t find him on the Survivor Board but he might not be in a camp. He doesn’t like the army or police. That’s just Alex, you know. Anyway, Alex, if you’re out there, we’re all OK. Mom and Dad are here too. Get in contact if you can. Say hello to Mike from us. We love you.”

Hot stinging tears rolled down my cheeks.

It was Joe.

He was alive.

Somewhere out there, Joe was alive. And Mom and Dad too.

Alive.

“Oh my God,” I said, crying into my hands.

Lucy put an arm around me. “I’m so happy for you, Alex. They’re safe.”

They were in a camp. They had somehow ended up in a camp. That wasn’t safe. Out here, this was safe. The camps weren’t safe. Once the millions of zombies left the cities in search of more victims, they would travel into the countryside where the military had set up the camps. Huge concentrations of people would draw their attention. They would overwhelm the survivors by sheer numbers. Joe and my parents wouldn’t stand a chance. They were fenced in somewhere in a military compound and it was only a matter of time before the zombies got to them.

“I have to go and get them,” I said, looking towards the distant mainland.

“What? Alex, you can’t be serious. You have no idea where they are.”