Zournal (Book 2): Cruising The 'Poc

by R. S. Merritt

  I pulled out my knife and told Ginny and Thomas what I was doing in case they could think of a reason why it was stupid. No one was chiming in with a reason not to do it so I got to work on the strings and pretty soon had the hard cloth roof in a big pile slightly forward of the bridge. Ann and Ginny came around to help while Thomas continued to steer. Mostly because he was tall enough to see over us. The rain had washed away some of the Zombie muck but enough remained to be gross.

  The bow section just had a big piece missing from it. I guess when a massive piece of concrete hits something at high speed it pretty much just goes through it like a hot machete through warm ice cream. I’d kill for some ice cream. The metal railing that went around the bow was still in place on both sides of the hole but not where the hole was. There were also some cleats in the middle of the bow meant for tying it off to a dock. We monkeyed around with the tarp and the rope until we had a half ass shelter rigged over the big hole. I estimated it was keeping out a good sixty to eighty percent of the rain which was definitely better than nothing. I was honestly pretty proud of the work we had gotten done, especially since I had thought we were going to drop the tarp in the water a bunch of times throughout the procedure.

  We were all soaked. We had all been sitting on parts of the deck covered in stuff we’d rather not identify. Since we were soaked anyway we went and let the hot water from the shower run over each of us. Of course, the shower sucked when you got out and the cold and the rain hit you again but it was a solid two minutes of ecstasy standing in that hot spray. It also server to sober me up and get the last bit of valium induced fog out of my head. The valium had done the trick though, helped me over the hump just like Ann had hoped it would.

  Speaking of being whacked and in a lot of pain. Reeves came crawling out of the cabins and moved over to us. He was still obviously not feeling any pain. He had brought his bag of Doritos with him and offered them around to everyone before he leaned back.

  “I’m sorry guys. I’m sorry I lost it with Chrissie. She just pissed me off so much taking the cowards way out like that. I’m sorry – “

  A loud ‘Yowl’ noise shut Reeves up. We all sat up.

  Thomas said, “There’s a raft thing headed our way with a big gun on it pointed at us.”

  That didn’t sound good.

  A man on a loudspeaker came over the air. “This is Lieutenant Meacham of the United States Navy. You are entering a restricted zone. Turn your craft around and leave or you will be fired on.”

  “Thomas, how much gas we have left?” I asked.

  “Not enough. About a quarter tank showing on the auxiliary tank gauge.”

  Hmmm.

  Bullets ripped through the water all around us. The big gun on the front of the raft that the Navy guys were on was pretty bad ass. The Meacham guy came on the bullhorn again. “That was a warning shot. We will not be firing another warning shot.”

  I looked around us. The North shore looked like it had some big mansions along it and that was it. We needed to get on the North side anyway so might as well do it here since we did not seem to have a choice. I told Thomas to turn hard to port and start going back up the rive but angle for the North shore.

  “Civilian vessel. You will proceed out of our waters. If you are seen again you will be sunk. Signal you hear and understand by waving at us now.”

  I started waving my hands. Reeves waved around his middle finger. They trailed along behind us for another hundred yards then stopped. We were almost out of gas. I told Thomas to head hard for the North shore. He gunned the engine and cut towards the shore. I flinched, expecting to hear that big gun start up again and bullets to start hitting around us any second. They didn’t.

  Speeding up had picked the bow up out of the water pretty good though. We were about eighty yards from the docks in front of some large mansions, I was just about to tell Thomas to slow down very slowly so the bow would have time to settle. We ran out of gas. The bow came down in the water hard. Water came into the boat through the big hole in the bow and we started floundering. I yelled for everyone to grab their stuff, put on lifejackets, and get ready to go for a swim.

  By the time I said that and we had a bunch of our stuff together we had about two seconds to abandon ship before the whole boat disappeared under the water leaving us bobbing around with a very long swim ahead of us.

  We started paddling. Trying my best not to think about sharks and alligators and dead bodies and who knew what else might be in this cess pool of a river.

  Entry 18: Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay

  Due to the strong currents, we missed the dock we were aiming at and ended up coming up on one two houses down from that one. I was laying on my lifejacket and using it as a kickboard to get through the water. I had thrown my backpack on and tied my sword onto my back. Every part of my body was pretty thoroughly soaked. My foot did touch something under the water one time that moved away when I kicked on it. I had that mantra in my head from the Finding Nemo movie. “Just Keep Swimming.” It was solid advice.

  Coming up on the docks I saw a fin disappear into the water in front of me. A second or two later I saw a dead body that had been trapped on the wooden support beam going into the river on the bottom of the pier being ripped off the beam. Something big and powerful bumped into my leg under the water and I saw another fin come up by the body that was getting ripped apart. Good thing I was in the water because I pissed myself. I focused on the ladder coming down from the dock that was now about twenty feet away from me.

  I looked around and everyone else was coming as well. I raised my voice just loud enough for them all to hear, “Don’t splash. Stroke. Let’s hurry and get out of this water.” I slowed down and waited for the others to catch up. I didn’t like dangling in the water but I didn’t want to haul ass and leave them all behind either. Once they got closer I continued treading towards the ladder. Getting within about ten feet of where the body was being torn apart. On a positive note, I saw there were two or three more decaying bodies stacked up in the water on the other side of the wood. Hopefully, the sharks were not into sport and would just eat the easy meal.

  I got to the ladder and started pulling myself up it. There was a wooden beam going across about five feet out of the water. I swung myself over to it and sat on it and waited. Thomas was the next one to make it over and I told him to go sit on the dock. Ann followed along behind him, I had Chrissies pistol in my hand. I was out of bullets for mine. I wasn’t real sure if a .22 would even deter a shark but I figured I could cover the people coming out of the water and hope for the best.

  Reeves and Ginny swam up next. As Ginny was hoisting herself up the ladder a blur came out of the water and grabbed her by the leg and started shaking. Without considering the consequences, I pulled the trigger on the pistol until it clicked on an empty chamber. Looking down I saw there was now blood all in the water and Ginny was barely hanging on as the shark still shook her leg, trying to pull her into the water. Reeves had his knife out and was climbing on the shark and stabbing the shit out of it.

  I dropped the empty pistol into the water and swung myself back onto the ladder. I grabbed Ginny and man handled her up the ladder. The shark had finally let go of her. I turned around to see Reeves get pulled under by something. I pulled out my Kabar and dove into the water after him. I opened my eye under the water but I could not see a damn thing. It was dark, big things were moving all around me. My pack and my sword and everything I had tied to me was hampering my movements. I saw a black blob shoot to the surface and attack something. I swam towards it and stabbed as hard as I could underwater from an awkward angle with my Kabar. That accomplished nothing. Unless the shark was ticklish I was in serious shit. I felt a hand on my arm and I looked over and Reeves was in the water beside me pointing up.

  I struggled to pull myself to the surface. Breaking the rivers skin, I sucked in a huge breath of air as I watched the shark, about a foot away from me, continue to try and eat the lifejacket I had
left floating on the surface. Reeves pulled himself on the ladder and I followed. Reeves was missing his pack.

  Reeves helped me onto the dock where we joined the others. I collapsed with Reeves beside me. I looked over and Ann and Thomas were working away on Ginny’s leg.

  “How is she?” I asked.

  “I’m fine.” Ginny said, “Just a little shark bite on my leg. No big. I was more worried you were going to shoot me.”

  Judging by the amount of blood I could see over there I assumed Ginny was in shock was why she wasn’t currently bouncing around and screaming in pain.

  “How about you?” I asked Reeves.

  “Shark grabbed me by the pack and pulled me under. I didn’t want to but I released the pack when I saw some more of the sharks heading over to see what was up. I’m good though. Thanks for jumping in and waving your knife around.”

  “Not the most well thought out rescue plan I’ve come up with. Next time you’re pulled under the water by a shark I’ll ty and come up with – “

  I stopped talking. A whole lot of screaming was coming our way. I had been hoping the gunshots I fired would have gone unnoticed. Evidently not so much. With Reeves pack gone and my pistol empty we were going to be critically short on ammo and weapons. I looked down the dock to try and see if we had time to make it to the house. We didn’t. I stood up, pulling out my sword. I heard Reeves coming up behind me, he had a knife in his hand, his bat had been tied to his pack. Thomas had his trusty stair post.

  Ginny was trying to get up but Ann told her to stay still so she could try and keep her from bleeding to death. It looked like about twenty to thirty Zombies headed our way. That was about twenty more than I thought we had a chance of handling in our weakened, wet miserable state and only three of us doing the fighting. I thought of the beam I had been sitting on.

  “Everybody get down to that beam I was on. Go now! Ann, you and Thomas help Ginny get down there. Thomas, hand Reeves that stair post.”

  Reeves and I moved forward a few more steps and took up our stances.

  “What’s the plan then?” Reeves asked me.

  “We fight until everybody is safe then we jump off the dock and try to swim away.”

  “That plan sucks. What else you got?”

  “I got nothin’.” I shrugged out of my pack and dropped it on the ground. I moved forward and got ready to take a swing at a Zombie that had lead the pack. It was a teenager who looked like he probably played basketball. Tall and skinny with muscular arms. His eyes were red and crusty and he was screaming at me with primordial hatred, running straight at me with his arms outstretched. I swung the sword, it knocked his arm out of the way and bashed into the side of his head causing him to flip sideways onto the ground. I’d hit him at an angle that ripped his ear off. He started to get up again and Reeves finished him with a blow to the head from the heavy steal stair pole.

  “Everybody down the ladder?” I yelled the question out. The dock was shaking from the number of Zombie’s rushing towards us.

  “Yes!” I heard Ann yell from somewhere behind me.

  “Jump!” I screamed at Reeves. I dropped my sword on the dock and ran and jumped as far out into the water as I could and then started stroking for the horizon to put as much distance between myself and the Zombies as possible. I heard a splash beside me and assumed it was Reeves. Then I started hearing more and more splashes. I did not bother trying to look and see. Reeves had looked and the raw fear in his eyes had been plenty to motivate me to keep swimming and not look behind me.

  There was a lot of thrashing. We swam another twenty feet and then I turned and looked and saw a bunch of fins and blood. I saw a few of the slower Zombies still coming up the dock but most of them had already jumped in. I waved at the Zombies on the dock.

  “Hey assholes! Come join us, waters fine!” They roared, jumped in, and either drowned or got eaten. Not seeing any more Zombies and worried about Ginny I started swimming for the shore as hard as I could without making any splashing noises. Reeves easily outdistanced me and I realized he could have beaten us all to the dock ladder in the first place. Another notch in the belt of my respect for that guy.

  We got to the shore, waded up to the sand, and walked to where the dock started. One lone Zombie was limping towards us. He didn’t seem to be a huge threat so we jogged down the pier and told Ginny and them to come on up. I went over and helped Reeves help Ann get Ginny up onto the dock. They had cut her pants leg off and wrapped a bunch of clothes around the cuts but there was blood everywhere. I picked up my sword and strapped on my pack. I looked around the dock and saw they had one of those long stretcher things pools are required to have in case someone jumps in and breaks their necks. I jogged over and grabbed it and drug it back to where everyone was standing.

  “Ginny, get on here and lay down. Reeves, you and Thomas carry it. Ann, you have guard duty with me, you take the rear and I’ll lead. Let’s try and get into that big ass mansion and see if they have something we can patch Ginny up with. Let’s roll.”

  Entry 19: 90210

  There was one fat, old Zombie at the end of the pier. A woman, hugely obese, wearing a disgusting looking shift that had ridden up on her hips. She moved slowly towards us. Hitching breaths and moans coming from her. Hoping to keep her from screaming and attracting any more Zombies I rushed forward and brought my sword down directly on the top of her skull. Her head split like a watermelon getting smacked by an ax. My sword got stuck in her neck fat. I’d gotten some spatter from her brains on me. She fell to the ground, twisting the sword out of my hand. I worked on twisting it out as Reeves and Thomas came jogging by. Carrying the litter with Ginny in it. I noticed she was passed out. That wasn’t good.

  We got to the mansions front door. The place was huge. Huge, like CEO of a fortune 500 huge. We ran through a big back yard garden entertaining area up to the back door of the home. I tried the door knob. I’ll be damned if the door wasn’t unlocked. We all just walked right into that multi-million-dollar manor.

  Once inside we found a couch and transferred Ginny over to it. I assigned Thomas and Reeves to clear the house and make sure we were alone. Ann and I started digging through pantries and closets trying to find something to help Ginny.

  “She needs an IV.” Ann said.

  “That’s probably not going to happen.” I said. “We’ll have to get her to drink a lot of fluids once she wakes back up.”

  Ann had found some hydrogen peroxide and a bunch of towels in a bathroom. She ran over to the couch and started working on cleaning Ginny up. She took the towels and tied them over the lacerations that were still oozing blood after she dumped Hydrogen Peroxide on everything and cleaned it up. Ginny moaned and rolled around on the couch but that was it. Ann sat on the floor next to her with a bottle of Gatorade she had found.

  She also had a pain pill in her hand. She asked me to go find her a cup. I went and got one. I ran over to her and she handed me the pain pill and two antibiotics and asked me to crush those up and put them in the cup. I ran back into the kitchen. Looking around everywhere I found one of those hammers like the ones chefs on the food network use to beat the crap out of chicken breasts. I found a Ziploc bag, dropped the pills in there, and went to town with the chicken breast hammer. Once it looked like a fine powder in the bag I shook the contents into the cup and carefully went back over to Ann.

  She took the cup from me and poured in Gatorade. She swirled it all around then had me hold Ginny up. Ginny did not show any sign of waking up. Her body was super flimsy. I put her back down and Ann said to go and try to find a funnel. Good thing we were in a rich guy’s house. They have everything in their kitchens. I doubt any of it ever gets used but they have it. I found a cabinet with like ten assorted funnels in it. Like one funnel isn’t enough.

  I ran back into the sitting area and Ann and I got Ginny to sit back up and we shoved the funnel down her throat and dumped in the Gatorade antibiotic pain killer mix. Then we waited. Thomas and Reeves repor
ted back that the house was clear. They sat down on the opposite couch and we all stood vigil. Ann was holding my hand in one hand and Ginny’s in the other. Reeves and Thomas had not said a word other than the house was clear and to ask if there was anything they could do.

  We needed to secure the house and set watched but none of us wanted to leave. Ann had been looking at the towels on Ginny’s leg and she said that she thought the bleeding was stopped and it was safe to change them now. That sent us all scrambling to bring back towels and bottled water and tape if we could find it. We came back with the supplies and Ann started working on that with my help holding up her leg and such. Once we had the towels changed out and we had shoved some more antibiotics and Gatorade down her throat we all set back down.

  It was getting dark out which meant we needed to secure the house. “Reeves, can you help me secure the house. Thomas, you stay here and do whatever Ann needs for Ginny.” Reeves followed me to gather up sheets from the upstairs linen closets. After making sure all of the doors were locked we started pulling curtains closed over windows and hanging sheets over everything. We were planning on having some light in the sitting area for sitting with Ginny and I did not want the light to be seen by anyone. Especially after those guys in the boat had shot at us earlier for no discernible reason.