Brian Keene: Dead Sea

“We’re all right,” Malik said. “But we’re in deep shit. Them grenades went off.”

I sighed. “I thought I told you to stay inside the compartment. Why were you messing with Mitch’s grenades? You could have gotten infected or—”

“I wasn’t fooling with them,” he interrupted. “Honest.”

“Well, then what set them off?”

“Tran did it.”

“Tran?”

Malik nodded. “Yeah, he was one of them things.”

“Lamar,” Carol said. “We need to keep moving. The water is coming.”

We ran back the way I’d come. I took the lead, heading for the nearest ladder so we could meet the other survivors topside.

“It wasn’t our fault,” Tasha explained as we fled. “We stayed in the room, just like you told us to. But then we heard someone out in the hall. Mrs. Beck thought it might be you coming back, so she peeked outside. But it wasn’t you. It was Tran. He was… all bloody. Some of his fingers were missing.”

“I tried to shut the hatch again,” Carol said. “But the children insisted on defending us. They ran out into the passageway before I could stop them.”

I frowned at the kids. “I told the two of you to listen to Mrs. Beck. You could have been killed.”

“On the contrary, Lamar,” Carol said. “If anything, it’s because of them that we’re still alive. If they hadn’t run out when they did, I hate to think what would have happened.”

“Tran was eating on Mitch,” Tasha said, her voice low. “He ignored us. I tried to shoot him, but I couldn’t get the rifle to work. Wasn’t until later that I remembered the safety was on.”

“You should have figured it out,” Malik teased.

“That’s why Mitch should have given the gun to me, instead of that big ass knife.”

“Shut up,” Tasha scolded him, before turning back to me. “Anyway, Tran picked up one of the grenades and started licking it. You know—Mitch’s blood was all over it. He was licking it like a lollipop and since I couldn’t get the rifle to work, we decided to come find you for help. We were scared. He had the grenade in his hand, and we didn’t know if he knew how to use it or not.”

Each time we entered a new passageway, Carol shut the hatch behind us and made sure they were sealed tight. I led us to a ladder and we started up to the next level. The air smelled charged, like the atmosphere after a lightning storm. Probably an electrical fire somewhere in the ship’s wiring. A thin line of smoke floated along the ceiling.

“We started backing away,” Malik said, continuing their story, “and got to the end of the hallway when he pulled the pin out. I don’t think he knew what he was doing. Just dumb luck.”

“So what did you guys do then?”

Malik laughed. “We got the hell out of there. Good thing we did, too.”

“It was horrible.” Carol shuddered. “Tran—that poor man—he just… exploded. It just smeared him all over the walls. And the blast set off the other grenades. The berthing area was destroyed. If we hadn’t already been through the hatch, we’d be dead. The entire passageway was just… gone. The last thing we saw before we closed the hatch was water gushing in. We couldn’t see anything else, because of all the smoke. The water came through the first hatch, and the second. It leaked right through the seals. We’ve been shutting them behind us, hoping to slow it down.”

I stopped at another emergency phone and tried calling the bridge. The phone wasn’t working. There was no tone or ring—just dead silence. The smoke in the passageway grew thicker.

“Did you guys hear the chief’s announcement?”

“No,” Carol said. “The speakers weren’t working in our section. The explosion must have damaged them.”

“He ordered us to abandon ship, so he knows about the hull breach. There must be sensors or something on the bridge that alert him. We’re supposed to meet on the flight deck.”

“How’s he gonna fix the ship?” Malik asked.

“1 don’t think he can,” I said. “That’s why he gave the order to abandon it. We’ll have to set off in the lifeboat.”

Tasha halted. “In the water? But you said the zombies were in the ocean now—that the fish were catching it, too. If we go in the water, what’s to stop them from attacking us?”

The three of them stared at me.

“Come on,” I said, trying hard to conceal my dread. “Let’s keep moving. I don’t think the fish can do much to hurt us. Fish are small and most of them don’t have teeth.”

“Shit,” Malik said. “You ain’t never seen that movie where Samuel L. Jackson fights the sharks? There’s some big ass fish in the sea, and they got teeth.”

The smoke grew thicker. It smelled acrid. Bitter. My eyes watered. A shower of sparks rained down from a ventilation shaft. We threw our arms up over our heads to protect ourselves. I led us down the passageway to another ladder, this one leading topside.

“Seriously,” Tasha said. “How are we gonna make it out on the water? We’ll be sitting ducks.”

“We can’t worry about that right now,” I said. “And besides, we can’t stay on the ship. We’ll drown.”

Malik wasn’t convinced. “I’d rather drown than get bit by a zombie shark.”

I handed the shotgun to Carol, went up the ladder, and opened the hatch. Cold drops of rain pelted my face and hands.

“Wonderful,” I told them. “Besides everything else, there’s a storm, too.”

“Lamar! Carol. Wait up.”

It was Runkle. I climbed back down the ladder and waited for him to reach us. He was out of breath and his hair was slicked to his head with sweat. In the time that I’d left him, he’d found an old peacoat and put it on. It was about two sizes too small for him, and the buttons bulged out.

“Any sign of the professor?” I asked.

“No. But I did find Murphy. He was one of them.”

“Did you…?”

He nodded.

“Tran was infected, too,” I told him. “He set off Mitch’s grenades. That’s what the explosion was.”

Runkle looked at Carol and the kids. “The rest of you okay?”

“We’re fine,” Carol said, “but we really should find the chief, don’t you think? He’ll be waiting for us.”

“Good idea,” I said. I started back up the ladder again, and then turned and looked at Runkle. “Might want to turn that collar up, Runkle. It’s raining outside.”

“I know,” he said. “That’s why I put on the coat when I found it.”

I paused. “But how did you know it was raining? Weren’t you below decks hunting for the professor?”

He frowned. “Sure. But I talked to the chief on the phone. He told me there was a storm coming in.”

“That’s funny. The emergency phones weren’t working when I tried them. The explosion knocked them out.”

“Really?” He shrugged. “Must be a localized thing, then. I didn’t have any trouble getting through.”

Growing up where I had, I knew when somebody was bullshitting me, and I knew that Runkle was lying now. But I didn’t know what about or why. Was it because he’d stolen a peacoat? It seemed like a stupid thing to conceal, but then again, he’d been a cop. Maybe he had conflicting morals about it or something. Or maybe he was just scared in general. I certainly was, so why shouldn’t he be, too? I decided to let the matter drop.

Taking the shotgun back from Carol, I crawled up onto the deck. Tasha and Malik came next, followed by Carol, and then Runkle. The rain and wind lashed at us, and the salt spray stung our eyes. The temperature had dropped, and I shivered in the cold air. Basil’s thin T-shirt clung to my wet skin. Visibility was limited, but the flight deck appeared deserted. No sign of anyone else, dead or alive. The Spratling continued its starboard list, and as we approached the lifeboat it felt like we were walking down a steep hill. Worse, the deck was wet and slippery. Each time the ship crested a wave, we had to struggle to keep our balance.