“Maybe we are,” I replied.
Finn turned to me as I buried my face in my hands.
“There are several thousand passengers on this ship, Lily,” he said, “and I refuse to believe no one else found a place to hide. It has only been two days, plus I’m sure someone in the bridge got an SOS out before everything went crazy. Which reminds me, check your phone again.”
I turned my phone on for the umpteenth time to see if I had any signal. The words “No service” still flashed on the top corner of my phone’s screen. “Still nothing.”
Finn sighed. “The worst part about international waters is that you never know when you‘ll have signal. I wish we would’ve paid for the roaming.”
Just then my stomach growled. I tried to play it off, but Finn noticed immediately.
“When’s the last time you ate?” he questioned, narrowing his eyes at me. I had to think for a moment. “I had some cookies earlier. The ones from the little box you got for being a Jade Member.”
Finn shook his head, and I could tell he was contemplating going outside the cabin again. I yelled at him before he had a chance to speak.
“No Finn! You can’t! Those things are still out there!”
“Well then what do you suggest we do!” Finn yelled as he paced the stateroom. “You were there, you saw what happened with the crewmembers. We were right next to them and they never moved. As long as I’m quiet I should be able to sneak right by them. Whatever this thing is, an outbreak, plague, whatever… it doesn‘t seem to be airborne. We have to be attacked by the infected in order to get it.”
Finn did have a point. I’d been thinking about the man who’d run by us just before the theater was attacked, the one whose neck my husband had broken. It looked like he’d been bitten, and moments later he was infected. It didn’t matter though, I didn’t want either of us to leave the cabin. And there was no way he was leaving without me. If he was refusing to stay put, there was only one option.
“I still think we should stay here until someone comes, but if you leave the cabin, I leave with you,” I replied, folding my arms in defiance.
“It has to be done, Lily. Who knows how long it’ll be before they send a rescue team in. We’ve got water, but it will only get us so far, and there’s no telling how long that faucet will keep working. There is no reason why it should be both of us, though.”
I hated to admit it, but he was right. I’d been hungry since the day before, and I knew Finn was too. It was only a matter of time before water just wasn’t enough.
“Where would we go?” I asked. The question was my subtle way of agreeing with him about the supplies while reiterating that I would not allow him to go alone.
“To the buffet on deck twelve. It’s the closest spot on the ship that’ll have food,” he said. “Do you know what suitcase the duct tape is in?” he asked.
“You brought duct tape?”
“I used it to fix the suitcase handle I broke when we were packing at the house,” he said as he rummaged through our luggage.
“I have no idea.”
We spent the next five minutes searching before I found it stuffed in an inside pocket of our garment bag.
“Found it.”
“Perfect,” Finn said as I tossed it to him. He pulled on a dark blue long sleeve shirt I’d picked for him to wear on formal night. Before I could ask what he was doing, he started wrapping the duct tape around his sleeves.
“What in the world is that for?” I asked, bewildered.
“I‘ll be in the front, and I figure if one of them attacks us, this will hopefully provide some protection,” Finn answered as he patted his forearms. “Makes it a little harder to move, though.”
“What?” he said defensively when he noticed me staring. “I saw it on YouTube.”
After his sleeves were done, he moved on to his pant legs and midsection. I reached for the tape, but Finn shook his head. “I want you to be able to run if something happens.”
“You mean if something happens to you?” I said, frowning. “There’s no way I’d leave you.” Finn started to argue, but cut himself short and passed me the tape.
After we finished Finn let himself down onto the bed.
“We should try to rest before we leave. I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted, and there’s no telling how long we’ll be gone.”
I nodded and settled down next to him. I didn’t think I’d be able to rest with so much going through my head, but I was out in minutes.
When I woke up Finn was gone.
There was a note lying next to me, scribbled in his messy handwriting.
It read:
“There’s nothing I could’ve said that would‘ve made you stay. This was the only option I could think of. I know you’re going to worry, but I couldn’t handle it if you came and something happened. We have to face facts, we are in the midst of a REAL zombie outbreak. That means these things will probably last much longer than we can. I have to get us food, otherwise being bitten will be the last of our worries. I’ll be back soon, I promise. Please please please don’t leave the cabin!
I love you so much.
Finn.”
I read the note three times, not believing that he’d left without me.
Now I was alone, and so was Finn.
My heart threatened to jump right through my chest as I leapt from the bed. I ran to the door and yanked at the handle. Without thinking twice I pulled it open and walked through.
The emergency lighting was on, and I stopped partway through the door as my eyes adjusted. The hallway looked empty at first, until I noticed movement on the floor several cabins to my left. A large vacuum cleaner had been left out, probably while one of the maids were cleaning the suites. It was being moved by something.
I took a step away from the door as I strained to see what it was. I suddenly remembered I didn’t have a room key on me. I whipped around and caught it just in time. There was no sign of Finn. I couldn’t see him down either side of the dimly lit corridor. He was headed to the buffet on deck 12, but which one? I wasn’t as familiar with the ship as he was, but I was pretty sure there was more than one.
I realized that as much as I wanted to look for him, I shouldn’t leave the cabin. If he came back and I wasn’t there, he’d leave to find me, and we might never find each other again.
I spent the rest of the day either worrying about Finn or deciding on just how mad I was that he’d left without me. I don’t even remember falling asleep.
August 16th
It’s morning now, and I’m still alone.
There was the briefest moment when I woke up, a wonderfully bliss moment, where I thought everything that’d happened was just some horrible nightmare. It evaporated the second I found Finn’s side of the bed empty.
I nearly ran outside the cabin in panic again when I realized he hadn’t come back. My hand got to the door handle before I stopped. I wanted to check every inch of the Wellspring until I found him, I still do! I don’t care about the maniacs out there, even if they really are zombies. Being ripped apart and eaten terrifies me, but not knowing where Finn is and if he‘s alright is even scarier.
After almost an hour of pacing I decided to continue waiting for him. If he came back and found me gone, he’d freak and probably get himself killed trying to find me. Even if I left a note, it probably wouldn’t turn out well.
Writing seems to be helping with my nerves, but it has done nothing to stave the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I don’t know if it’s from the lack of food or the fact that my husband is still out there.
He should be back by now, right?
The lights started to flicker about an hour ago. They went on and off for about ten minutes before going out completely. It meant that there were no crewmembers maintaining the generators.
Finn and I might really be the only two left.
I hadn’t thought of how hot it would get when the power went out. I changed into a light tank top and s
ome jean shorts, but even as I write this beads of sweat are making their way down my back. The sliding glass doors to the balcony are cracked open. The light, salty ocean breeze is helping keep the cabin bearable.
I can hear the distant crash of thunder somewhere over the water. There’s a storm coming, so I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep writing. The cloud cover might make the cabin too dark to see. I’m not looking forward to being stuck in the dark, surrounded by deranged cannibals.
Twice now there have been scraping sounds from outside the door. I’ve looked through the peephole each time, but didn’t see anything. I’m kind of glad I haven‘t.
The water is still running, so I filled the tub to the brim. We might not have much food left, but the water should keep us going for a while. After the tub I emptied all the carbonated drinks in the mini fridge and filled them with water, too. I figured it’ll be better than flat soda.
Another three hours have gone by, and I can’t sit still. At the moment my intense anxiety outweighs my exhaustion, so there is no possibility of sleep. The storm has unleashed its full fury on the ship, too. The constant pounding of rain and bright flashes of lightning are wreaking havoc on my nerves. Despite the howling winds, the Wellspring hardly moved at all.
I found some candles in Finn’s bag; he knows I love to read by candlelight when I take a bath. This is the first time I’ve ever written by them, though. It makes me feel like I’ve gone back in time, all I need is a quill. What I can’t figure is how we got through customs with them, though. I’d read the lists of items that weren’t permitted, and it seems like they’ve really tightened up on security. It seems like a new terrorist organization is popping up every day now, so I can‘t really blame them.
I’ve also been thinking about what Finn wrote in his letter. Can all of this really be a zombie outbreak? I keep going back to the massacre in the theater, and the crewmember that tried attacking us backstage. They really were acting like… zombies.
This is all so crazy, and I don’t know what to think anymore.
Zombies just can’t exist.
Can they?
August 17th
Finn is back!
I woke up this morning to find him sleeping next to me, like he was never gone! He jolted awake as I punched him in the shoulder.
I was absolutely fuming.
“YOU IDIOT!” I wailed. “Why didn’t you wake me up? I‘ve barely slept since you left! I thought you were…that you’d…”
“Calm down, Lily,” Finn said sleepily as he rubbed his shoulder. “You were asleep, and I figured you could use the rest. I was tired, too. That and I was scared of how you‘d react when I got back.”
“Damn right, you should be scared! I’ve been all alone, wondering if my husband was ever coming back. Wondering if he’d been torn apart, or worse, turned into one of those things. I almost left to go look for you!”
I caught my breath as my anger quickly turned into relief. He wrapped me in a tight hug as tears stung the corners of my eyes. I buried my face in his chest and realized he was still wrapped in the stupid duct tape.
“What took so long?” I asked, my voice muffled.
I felt his chest rise as he took a deep breath. “Well, at first I thought it would be easy to get to the galley. The first couple zombies I passed stood there, just like before. It’s too bad they’re not all in hibernation mode,” Finn said, shrugging. “Some of them are just pretending to be.”
It was then that I noticed his left forearm. The duct tape was pulled and twisted, and several grey fibers hung from its frayed edges. A black substance was caked and dried in several spots.
My stomach tightened. “Were you bit?” I asked, failing to hide the panic that boiled up inside.
Finn cradled my head as he spoke. “Yes and no. One of them caught me off guard and managed to latch on when I was walking by. It was incredibly strong, but I managed to shake the thing off before it broke through the tape.”
I couldn’t take my eyes off his arm as he spoke. The stuff caked on the tape smelled awful, the same stench from when we were in the highway.
“I think some of them are like watchdogs for the rest,” he continued. “They pretend to be dormant, but launch themselves at you as soon as you’re close. The worst part is the noise, they screech when they see you and it wakes the others around them up. It’s horrifying.”
“How do you tell if they’re sleeping or not?”
“I have no idea. They all looked the same to me. You could walk right in front of some, even make a little noise, and they won’t budge. The banshees, however, will twitch and start screeching the second you get close. It’s almost as if they’re setting some kind of a trap. They lure the living in by making them think they’re hibernating, then sound the alarm.”
“I thought zombies were practically brain dead. How could they set a trap?”
Finn shrugged again. “I don’t know, but these ones can. Thankfully I didn’t run into many until I got to the buffet. There was a group of about ten just inside the doors that I had to get by. I thought I was in the clear until I got to the galley door and heard one of them screech. I had to barricade myself inside the kitchen until they lost interest. Strangely enough they all went back to exactly where they were before I came in.”
The images going through my head were starting to make me nauseous. What little food I had in my stomach was threatening to make an appearance. As if we didn’t have enough to worry about, now there were corpses setting traps for us.
“I was lucky, though,” he continued, “because there weren’t any inside the kitchen. I was able to look around while I waited.”
He sat up and gestured toward the floor.
I leaned over the edge of the bed and spotted several black trash bags strewn across the carpet.
“Food?” I asked hopefully. He nodded, a satisfied grin on his face. He jumped from the bed and opened the nearest bag. From it he pulled handfuls of fruit; apples, bananas, kiwi, and more I didn’t recognize.
“We needed food that would keep without being refrigerated,” he said as he tossed me a ripe Granny Smith apple. I immediately sank my teeth into it. It was the most delicious thing I’d ever tasted.
“I almost got some of the canned food, but it made way too much noise when I carried it. I didn’t want to take any chances on my way back. I did snag some knives from the kitchen, though. They should come in handy if we have to move.”
“I thought you said we should wait here? We can‘t go out again, not with those banshee things out there!”
Finn took a large bite from a banana and walked back over to me. “We’ll stay here for as long as we can,” he said as he plopped down on the bed. “I don‘t want to go back out there any more than you do, but I‘d rather be ready in case we have to.”
After finishing several more pieces of fruit, we spent the rest of the day trying to get signal on our cell phones. Finn managed to get a single, solitary bar near the balcony at one point, but his call never went through.
Maybe tomorrow we’ll have more luck.
August 19th
The last few days have been the most boring of my life. Finn keeps saying we should sit tight and wait for a rescue team, but I’m beginning to think the zombies (if that’s what they truly are) might be better than the never ending silence.
“There is no way someone doesn’t know we’re stranded,” he repeated for the hundredth time. “We’re on the biggest ship in the world, and we never made it to our next port of call! Even if there was no distress signal sent, Imperial Cruise Lines probably knew something was wrong within minutes of all this.”
“They know, but something else is going on,” I said. “Every second we’re here is another chance for us to be eaten by those things. Imagine the press coverage for all this. They’ll probably go bankrupt with all the lawsuits.”
Finn huffed. “That’s for sure. If someone can make money because their coffee was too hot then just imagine how muc
h an undead lawsuit will net them. Then again, if we really are the last people left alive there won‘t be anyone else to sue.”
Finn laughed and walked out onto the balcony. I stared at him as he leaned against the railing.
He‘s trying to hide it, but I know he’s worried.
I’m worried too.
False Hope
August 20th
This morning we were woken up by the sound of helicopters.
Undead Honeymoon Page 5
