The Zombie Chro [99] - Collapse, Tales of the Zombie Chronicles

by Mark Clodi

  “A bloody t-shirt, shorts, flip flops.”

  “Was he all covered in blood?”

  “Pretty bad, but c'mon man we all get some splatter on us when we kill them. Poor Mary Beth got hit bad when I shot that one with the flare gun.”

  “Lance, what do you think?”

  “I think he untied the rope and let that Erik guy fall to his death, I think he ate Dan. I think he's one of them.”

  “No I am not! I am not one of them!”

  “So what do we do with him...it?” asked Tom.

  “Shoot it.”

  “I...uh.” Tom started, then remembering his conversation with Lance earlier he shrugged his shoulders and said, “Okay, you want to turn around Carl?”

  The preacher stood upright and faced the gun barrel directly, “No. I will face my fate square on.”

  Tom stepped back next to Lance, putting him six feet from Carl, and then carefully aimed the shotgun.

  “You can't just shoot him!” yelled Paul, making an effort to get up the ladder onto the deck. Lance pushed the young man back down with his foot.

  “Stay outta this please. We know what we are doing.”

  While Lance was distracted Paul threw himself to one side and came around the short deck at Tom. Tom, however, was not fooled and fired the shotgun, hitting Carl in the right shoulder and flipping the man completely head over heels where he lay still on the deck.

  Chapter 10

  “That was a bean bag.” Lance said and Tom nodded, confirming that he hadn't changed out the ammunition in his shotgun. Lance pulled the pistol out of his belt and held it pointed at Carl, who lay on the deck, unmoving.

  “Carl.” Tom said, stepping back to block Paul, who was trying to get around Lance. “Carl we know you are not d...we know you are okay. Get up. Slowly.”

  The man on the deck started to move, slowly pulling one arm under himself, once he was able, he pushed himself up to sit on the deck, as he started to rise Lance stopped him, “That's good, right there, don't bother getting up. This pistol is loaded with real bullets and I can hit you easy enough right where you are.”

  “Why are you doing this to me?” Carl asked.

  “Wh-why!?” sputtered Tom, “You killed Dan! And that guy Erik!”

  Carl looked down, “I didn't.”

  “Oh come off it! You're one of them! How else would you have survived when the elevator went down? What are you doing here? Did you think we wouldn't know?”

  “I...I only want to help.”

  “Help? Yeah, help yourself to the cruise ship buffet!” shouted Tom.

  “I am not...one of them!”

  “Bullshit! Shoot him in the arm or something Lance. That will prove it.”

  The pistol shot popped off, causing Tom to jump, a hole had appeared in Carl's shirt shoulder and a crimson wetness started to soak through it.

  “Aw fuck, he wasn't one of them!” Lance groaned.

  “No, he is! Look that isn't normal blood, it's black!” Tom said.

  “Blood is blood, you douche bag!” yelled Paul, pushing through the men to Carl. “You lay back Carl, we'll get this fixed up, you'll see.” Paul started to pull off Carl's shirt, when the man reached up and grabbed him by both wrists. “Carl? What are you doing?”

  Carl tilted his head sideways, looked the group and gave them a little half smile, “My friends, forgive me, for I have sinned.”

  “Carl, you are hurting me, let me go!” Paul said as the other man twisted him around and pulled him down as a shield.

  “Don't shoot Lance, you can't risk hitting Paul.” Carl said.

  “I fucking told you! I was right!” yelled Tom.

  “Yeah, Tom, you were right, you win a prize, now shuddup and let's see what Carl wants.” said Lance.

  “I just want to help.”

  “Help by killing us off and taking Paul there prisoner?”

  “I can help, but I...I need help too.”

  “Like what?”

  “An assurance you won't kill me. Again.”

  “And you will do what for us?”

  “Keep you safe.”

  “Until you get hungry?” said Tom.

  “No, I am not, well not really hungry right now. I can control it. After Dan.”

  “But it could happen again?” asked Lance.

  With some reluctance Carl nodded, “It may, but I don't know, I feel different now, not like before. I thought my faith would see me through, but you don't understand the hunger, I had to take Dan.”

  “We can't trust you.” Tom said.

  “I realize there will be some problems as we learn to trust each other again. But I am confident that we will work something out.”

  “Trust is hard to earn. Did you untie the rope?” Lance asked.

  Carl nodded.

  “For God's sake why?” asked Tom.

  “I thought, well, with too many of you here, I would be in more danger. It seemed easy to eliminate one of you without a fight. But this was after you made me come up here, I thought you were going to kill me!”

  “I thought you were prohibited from killing? Or was that a lie? About being a minister?”

  “No, I am, I really am. Was, I guess, but I still mean to help people, to stop the violence.”

  “How? Do you know what could fix this?” asked Lance.

  “Nothing can make the people go back to what they were, they are gone, and at least that is what I think. But I could still help the living, still help you.”

  “By doing what?”

  “I can make them move away from me, I can tell them what to do. They have to do it.”

  Lance and Tom looked at each other for a moment. Then Lance said, “Really?”

  “Yes.”

  “So you could make the dead crew do their old jobs with the ship?”

  Carl looked puzzled, “You mean clean the cabins and make the food...well, sure I guess..”

  Tom cut him off, “No! We mean sail the ship! Get us into port somewhere so we could get out of here!”

  “Oh. Well, I think I could, maybe. The ones I've run into so far aren't that bright.”

  “'Maybe'? Well shoot, then I vote we kill him Lance, he's already killed two of us and I don't trust him.”

  “Hold on!” Paul said, “You can't just kill him.” the man's concern may have been more for his own life than Carl's, “He did help us!”

  “Yeah, he helped Erik alright, didn't he?” Tom said.

  “We could tie him up.” Paul suggested.

  “You have more rope?”

  Paul looked down and shook his head, “No, but we could get more, every emergency boat has rope in it.”

  Lance leaned over Tom slightly and said, “We could make something to tie him, hold his arms behind his back or something, like you did with the ax.”

  “Gauze? I don't think that would hold.”

  “Well there are some jackets and stuff, or maybe belts off some of the crew we could get.”

  “That might be better. I think I know where some of the crew is too. Down below near the bathroom and break room.”

  “Oh, ah had forgot about that, I say we try it. Oh Tom?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Load your gun, with the real shells this time.”

  Tom flushed, he had not remembered to reload the shotgun, he nodded and quickly broke the gun open as Lance had showed him and inserted a new shell.

  “So we'll do it?” Paul asked.

  “That depends on Carl. We'll tie you up and you'll help us. Someone has got to trust someone here. And you have to go first.” Lance said.

  “Why me? You could lower the gun.” Carl said.

  “We already trusted you, twice, and you let us down both times, so you go first or I swear by God I will shoot you in the head even if you have Paul there in front of you.”

  The ship gently rocked back and forth as Carl looked at the two men. Lance's arm was rock steady, the pistol was unwavering as it pointed towards Carl. Slowly the preacher rel
axed his grip on Paul and allowed the man to fall forward. Paul crawled to Tom, who offered him a hand up. Lance did not lower the pistol.

  “Now I could kill you. Or kill you again, right now. It'd be easy and we both know it. But we made a deal, you trained to be a pastor, unless that was a lie?”

  Carl shook his head, “It wasn't.”

  “Then maybe the good Lord still means something to you. Why don't you swear to God you will help us and that you won't kill or hurt us. Or through inaction allow one of us to be hurt or killed.”

  Carl nodded eagerly, “I swear to God I will not hurt or kill any of you, or allow you to be hurt or killed through my own inaction. Do I still have to be tied up?”

  Lance lowered the pistol, “Yeah, I think so. That's the deal. You can understand why we might not trust you?”

  “Yes. That is clear. I have much to make up for. I want you to know I am ashamed of what has happened.”

  “That's good, that means you can still repent and make up for it.” Lance said.

  Carl crawled over to the men and put his hand up for one of them to help lift him to his feet. His hand stayed there and all three men looked at it wordlessly, despite the warm weather a chill seemed to come over them. Finally Paul reached down and grabbed Carl's hand, lifting him to his feet.

  “You could've killed me once already. I don't supposed you'll back out on your word now. Welcome back to humanity.”

  “Thank you Paul.” Carl said quietly.

  Chapter 11

  “I can't stand that bastard, not at all.” Tom said quietly to Lance after the others had gone down the stairs to visit the bathroom and galley. Carl was with them, after submitting to a being tied up with plastic restraints that Lance had found in the weapon locker. Lance had used three times the normal restraints on Carl and was still concerned that they might not be strong enough. Paul had unofficially been charged with keeping an eye on Carl. The women had gone downstairs as well, with Angela leading Mary Beth down to 'freshen up', they took the first aid kit with them.

  “Ah don't either, but ah think he can help us. You gotta look at this like a war. Hell it is a war Tom. Sometimes you have to do things you might not have thought you would ever do to get your mission accomplished.”

  “You have experience with that?”

  Nodding Lance said, “All the time, dealing with the leaders from one tribe to fight another, then defeating the next tribe and forming some sort of alliance between the two rivals so we could go after a third. It's shitty work, grueling, and people died, killed by the very guys we were having to sit and drink tea with. We just sucked it up and moved on, because if we couldn't, then how could we expect them to?”

  “That's...that's terrible!” Tom said.

  Lance laughed, a short bitter sound, “And that ain't the half of it brother. So we use Carl, we get what we need out of him, then, if we are nice, we just put him in a life boat and let him leave.”

  “What if he wants to stay?”

  “This is war Tom, you don't plan that step until we get there.”

  “No long range planning?”

  “I didn't say not to think about it. We might have to. Or Carl might end up dead before we get there. Do you think anyone else like him is going to like the fact he is working with us?”

  Tom let that sink in a little then shook his head, “No more than if we found a human working with the zombies. We'd just kill them.”

  “We're working with a zombie.” Lance pointed out.

  “Good point, but we are on the side of humanity.”

  A troubled look came into Lance's eyes, “That's what they all say, 'We are right, moral and proper' and 'It's the other guys who are evil and need to be killed.'”

  Tom put his hand on Lance's shoulder, “Yeah, but I think we have a stronger case now.”

  “If you say so. Ah'll just support you and let the moral consequences fall on your head.”

  “Fair enough. Now what do we do?”

  “Clear the ship. Get Carl to live up to his word. I want all the nonessential zombies offloaded.”

  “Here? On the lifeboats?”

  Lance shook his head, “Why bother? Just make Carl herd them over the edge. We'll keep any crew and give the rest to the ocean.”

  “Do you think they will die there?”

  Shrugging Lance said, “How would I know? The ocean can't be good for them, maybe fish will eat them? At the very least it will take a while for them to wash up on shore somewhere.”

  “Sounds good, when do we start this cleansing?”

  “Now.”

  “Carl killed Dan and that other guy, Erik?”

  Lance nodded.

  “And who knows who else and we shook his fucking hand and let him live. I just can't get over that.”

  “You don't have to. Like ah said, just suck it up for now. He'll get his, you can be sure of that.” Lance said.

  “I'm not sure of anything right now.”

  “Well, let's see what he can do for us. Then decide what to do.”

  “I...I just have a hard time with that. Don't you leave me in a room alone with him or I might end it.” Tom said.

  “Ah think Carl is going to be sticking tight to his new friend Paul. Thing is, I don't think Paul likes him that much either.”

  Tom smiled, “That's the first thing you've said that makes me happy Lance.”

  “And if he kills you, or anyone else we are with I will take him out.” Lance's voice lost its characteristic drawl as he said this and Tom looked at him for a few moments and then nodded.

  “I'll do the same. If it's you he gets.”

  Lance put out his hand and the men shook on it. “It's a pact then.”

  “Yeah, one we should get Paul in on.”

  “Well we won't get him in on it from up here. Let's go find the others.”

  The men went downstairs to find that Paul and Carl were in the galley. Paul was eating a bowl of ramen and Carl stood by the door, there was no sign of the women.

  “Where's the gals?” asked Lance.

  “Haven't seen 'em. Mary Beth squawks once in a while though, so Angela must be fixing her up a bit.”

  “Was she burned badly?” asked Tom.

  “She's got an extra hole down there, if that's what you're asking.”

  “That sounds bad.”

  “It is, the only good thing is, she isn't bleeding much.”

  “We need to worry about infection then.” Lance said, frowning, “I wonder if there are any antibiotics in the first aid kit?”

  “I didn't see any. It just looked like normal stuff, aspirin, ibuprofen, band aids and stuff. Of course most of it was labeled in Norwegian or something, so maybe some of it is for infections.” Tom said.

  “You wanna check with the women real quick?” Lance asked, “Hey Paul, toss me a coke would you?”

  “Sure thing.” Paul said, “Diet or regular?”

  Lance stared at Paul for a moment and said, “Regular.”

  Tom stepped over to the bathroom and knocked on the door, “You ladies okay in there?”

  “Just fixing her up a little bit.” Angela called, “I...you know where she was burned?”

  “I have an idea yeah, but I though the hot tub put it out before too much damage was done.”

  “No it kept on burning, even in the water, but when she was flailing around the fire, sort of, uh, came off of her and stayed in the tub. I think that helped, it would have been worse if Paul hadn't told us to toss her in there.”

  Tom had the door cracked open an inch or so to facilitate talking, through the sliver he could see Angela was down on her knees and Mary Beth was sitting up on the sink, one of her legs was visible from the knee down alongside the other woman's arm. The whole image was slightly erotic for a reason Tom could not quite put his finger on.

  “So...how bad is it?”

  “I'm not a doctor or anything, but I think she'll be okay. There is burn cream in the first aid kit, but right now I am trying to
clean out the burns before I use it.”

  “Do you need anything?”

  “Uh, another set of hands would be good.”

  “No!” said Mary Beth, “I'd die of embarrassment! It'll be bad enough even after I heal up...”

  “What?” asked Tom.

  “She says no one gets to see her cootchie, so back out Tom.”

  “I wasn't volunteering. I faint at the sight of blood.”

  “Seriously? Jeez, you're gonna have a hard time now aren't you? Anyway this is just a burn, about the size of a quarter and about as deep as the nail on your pinkie finger. Hardly any blood.”

  “Still, I think I will pass. I was thinking maybe you needed some sterile cloth or something.”

  “We have paper towels and the gauze from the kit to put over the burn once I have it cleaned up. If you aren't coming in to help, then I guess I've got everything I need.”

  “How much longer do you think you will take?”

  “Gimme ten minutes, tops. Why? Are we in a rush to be somewhere?”

  “We want to start clearing the ship.”

  “Okay, don't start without us!”

  “I'll tell the others, we'll wait in the galley.”

  “Sounds good, see ya in a bit.”

  Chapter 12

  “Up here on the left.” Carl intoned. “In the cabin.”

  Lance looked at Paul and said, “You open this time.”

  “I'm on it.”

  Of course Paul was 'on it', the man had been on everything Lance said, as if trying to make up for some fault the others didn't know about. 'I bet he blames himself for Carl killing Erik.' Tom thought, 'Good, let him stay wary of the bastard.'

  Paul opened the door and stepped back behind Carl, a hot looking young woman stepped out into the hall and Tom said, “Good Lord she is a hot. Are you sure she's dead?”

  “She's dead.” Carl said flatly.

  The woman, dressed in a bathing suit with a white sarong smiled at the men and said, “Not that dead. What are you going to do to me?” The last was directed at Carl.

  “Fuck! She talks!” yelled Paul. So far none of the other zombies had spoken a word to them, the most they got was one man who constantly muttered 'mommy' to himself over and over, even after Carl told him to stop. Most of the others just grunted, if they made any noise at all.