Zournal (Book 1): It All Started

by Randall S. Merritt

  Still eyeballing the fast-approaching freighter Ann slowly opened the sliders. “I think this is going to work. We just can’t hesitate. When we hit the other ship, I have no idea what is going to happen but I’m assuming we’re going to be thrown around all over the place as part of it. Grab what you want to bring and get ready, as soon as we get ready to hit I say we all run and throw ourselves over the railing.”

  Beth and Thomas had looked at Ann skeptically but everyone agreed to give it a go since it did seem like it could end up being there last legitimate hope. Ann kept watching, finally she yelled “Go!”, and all three of them ran for the railing and starting climbing up it to make the leap. Before any of them had made it up the railing, the ships collided.

  Ann woke up laying on the freighter next to Thomas spitting out blood from where she had bit her tongue and cut the inside of her lip somehow. Thomas was laying on his arm at a weird angle and Ann confirmed it was probably broken, waking Thomas up in the process. He looked around, confused, then tried to move his arm and yelled in pain. Ann heard an answering scream coming from across the ship and clamped her hand down over his mouth to keep him quiet. She stood up and looked around at the deck of the ship they had been tossed on. She did not see Beth anywhere so she grabbed Thomas and helped him stand up. She then used a towel she had brought with her and her shoestring to fashion a sling for Thomas really quickly to try and help him keep the arm still. She opened a small bottle of aspirin and he helped himself to a mouthful of them.

  Looking around Ann saw that the cruise ship had come to a stop about 3,000 yards off the bow of the mangled freighter they were currently standing on. They walked around the large metal box container they had been standing beside and saw Beth laying on the ground with blood trickling out of her mouth, her vertebrae were visible through the gash on the side of her neck. Thomas ran over with Ann to look at his mom but it was obvious she was gone. They heard another yell from where they had just woken up. Leaving Beth laying on the ground, they started jogging in between the massive containers on the deck, veering around the ones that had fallen over in the collision. Ann tried to head towards the starboard side of the ship, tugging a sobbing Thomas along with her, she assumed there would be a gangway to allow them access to the ground from that side.

  They finally got to the starboard side of the ship and she looked down and saw that there was one gangway but it was about eight decks down from their current location. Not at the top. Still, this ship was nowhere near as tall as the cruise ship they had just abandoned so if they could find the stairs they should be able to make it down and off pretty quickly. They played a game of cat and mouse with the ‘yeller’ who was up there with them until they finally found the entryway into the ship. The entryway them to a room with the stairs going up to the bridge and down towards what they hoped would be the gangway level.

  They hustled down the stairs as quickly and quietly as possible considering the fall they had just taken and the guilt they were both feeling over leaving Beth’s body laying up on the deck. They both still had their lifejackets on which was hampering their movements but Ann had no idea if they might end up needing them or not so she chose to keep hers on and make Thomas keep his on as well. When they had run down enough stairs that Ann figured they must be at the right level, they opened the door to the stairwell and ran down the hallway in the direction they imagined the gangway to be located in.

  They got lucky on the first try. They came to an open door that had the gangway hanging off of it. It had been crumpled during the collision but looked like it should still hold their weight. Ann told Thomas to wait a second and she scrambled over the wreckage of the gangway and onto the dock. She then motioned for Thomas to follow her, which he did without incident.

  Once they were both standing on solid ground Ann remembered that Diane had said to minimize noise and travel mostly at night. She was considering going back on the ship with Thomas to wait for nightfall but she saw that the ship was starting to list more and more to port like it was getting ready to tip over. Taking that into consideration, she decided the best course of action would be to try and find somewhere to hole up dockside until nightfall. Looking around she saw a bunch of locked up warehouses.

  Ann and Thomas started walking towards the warehouses trying to find somewhere they could hide until nightfall. They heard a loud scream and turning around they saw a body smash into the dock about 20 yards away from them. They could not be sure but Ann assumed it was the man they had heard screaming and been dodging when they had been up on the top deck of the freighter. The body twitched a few times then lay there unmoving. Completely freaked out by this latest violence, Ann and Thomas turned and started moving quickly in the alley between the warehouses.

  Once they got to a space where they could sit down for a minute Ann started fussing over Thomas and trying to help him get his arm better secured.

  Thomas looked up at her, “Mom didn’t want to jump.”

  Ann couldn’t think of anything to say to that. The same thought had been going through her head ever since they had found Beth’s body. She tried to shove that thought away and just keep helping Thomas but the tears were running down her face and she was afraid she was hurting him more than helping him. She wiped snot off her face and gave up on the sling and turned around to try and get control of herself.

  Thomas kept talking,” She didn’t want to jump. I didn’t want to jump either but she knew it was our best chance, same as you did. I think she jumped to help me have the strength to do it. I think she jumped because she loved and trusted her sister. I think if she was here right now she would hug you and tell you it was Ok and not to worry about it and just be strong, to help me, but to help yourself through this to. She loved you, you loved her, I think that is all there was to it and all that you should focus on about her dying. It wasn’t your fault, any of us could have ended up like that.”

  Thomas wrapped up what he needed to say and he started sobbing. Ann held him and he held her until they both felt too drained to cry any more. Ann smiled, “You’re a great son and nephew. Thank you. I know she would be like that. I know we’re both going to miss her a lot. But you’re right, she’d kick us both in the ass and tell us to get moving. Let’s figure out what we do next. I’d personally like a car and some weapons. Diane said not to use the weapons but I always feel better with a large caliber rifle in my hands.”

  Thomas smiled and pointed to the end of the alley where Ann now saw there was the hood of a cop car. Still pointing, “Hopefully they left the keys.”

  They got up and approached the car. As they got closer they started having to walk around dead bodies on the ground. Getting closer to the car they were able to make out in the twilight that it looked like the two cops had gone down shooting. There were dead bodies all over the place and the cops mutilated bodies were surrounded by ejected shell casings.

  Gingerly stepping around the remains of the officers, Ann looked in the front seat of the squad car and saw some crumpled Wendy’s Bags and a shotgun lying on the seat. She did not see any keys in the ignition. She looked around on the ground then started patting down the dead pair of officers. She found a set of keys on the second body which she tried on the trunk and got it open. In the trunk, she saw the video equipment and all the typical equipment like the spike strips and a few road cones. She saw two duffel bags as well and pulled them out and opened them on the ground.

  Finding a uniform inside she quickly stripped down to panties and bra and put the uniform on followed by the coveralls that were inside for hazmat duty. Ann thought about trying to get Thomas into more protective clothing but decided it would be too painful for him with his arm. She continued to rummage around and pilfered the weapons and ammo she could find on the dead officers. Including their weapons and belts full of gear. Feeling much better protected she helped Thomas get into the passenger seat and she got into the driver’s seat and fired up the crown vic.

  She flicked the headlights on,
made a tight turn and headed towards the main highway. She rolled the window down to help her hear the surroundings and immediately heard the yells and screams as the noise from the car caught the attention of the nearby Zombies. She floored it and got on the ramp and just kept the hammer down until she hit the ramp for the toll road. Making a snap decision she headed towards Orlando and dodged traffic until she got to the massive pileup on the I95 intersection. Ann avoided a group of Zombies running for them and took the least congested route which was south on I95. She took that to a pileup on the 520

  She drove across the median and squeezed down the wrong way on the on ramp down to 520 in the squad car. Once she got to the bottom she turned into the Warehouse parking lot to see if she could figure out how to get some gas from the pumps. She drove around looking for the pumps but could not find them. Looking in the rear view she saw they had attracted quite a few unwanted followers who were running full speed towards them. Ann drove around quickly to the back of the warehouse looking for a door.

  Entry 30: Life goes on

  When Ann drove around the back of the warehouse, Hank had popped out the loading dock door and waved at her to get in the warehouse through the loading dock door. Hank and Barry had helped her transfer all the supplies from the car to the warehouse quickly enough that they were able to get into the warehouse right as they heard the Zombies start getting danger close.

  Once inside, Ann had seen that Hank and Barry and a few others were looking at her with expectant eyes. Not quite knowing what to do she had slipped into a leadership role with the small group. Quizzing them on their numbers and circumstances she learned that the majority of the group were friends of Hank who had lived right down the corner from the warehouse with quite a few of them actually having worked there. Hank had been in charge of the nighttime cleaning and stocking crew so had the keys needed to access the store once the emergency had hit.

  So far, the store had been working very well for them. They had let in three more people they saw running through the parking lot the day after they had come in but had not seen anyone get close since then. Ann had most of them stay in the back of the store and just sent Hank and Barry out on sentry duty and to bring back supplies. She figured that was best for noise discipline since they did not want the store to get overrun. That is how they had been living since this whole mess started.

  Having heard her story my respect and admiration for her had gone way up.

  “I’m very sorry for the loss of your sister.” I said and Ginny and Reeves echoed the sentiment. “How is Thomas doing?” I asked.

  “He’s adapting. This place had a pharmacy department so we were able to get him pain killers and a proper sling. Wasn’t sure what else to do so we gave him a bunch of antibiotics just to be on the safe side. I’m the closest thing here to a doctor since I’ve had some EMT training but even if we had an x-ray machine I wouldn’t know what I was looking at or what to do about it.”

  “He’s alive. That’s more than most people can say and he’s got you to thank for it.” Ann looked up at me as I said that, nodding her recognition of that fact.

  “Ok then, let’s get you all settled in. We have plenty of mattresses and blankets and pillows and all of that as you can probably imagine. Pretty much anything you can imagine to eat, as long as it did not need to be refrigerated. We ate as much of the perishable stuff as we could before it started smelling funny but it was still a pretty huge waste of food. We have buckets with kitty litter bags next to them in one of the rooms down the hall, pretty easy system to figure out, no need to tell me it’s gross, I’m well aware.”

  Ann looked at us to make sure we had understood everything so far and did not have any questions, seeing us staring back at her she continued, “We are practicing noise discipline. Based on your little book you got going there you understand that a single noise can bring down a whole store. With that in mind we’ve got it down where only Hank, Barry or I really move freely around the store. Everyone else hangs out here in the back. Not a lot to do back here but so far everyone is pretty happy just being alive and fed. For now, I’d like it if you guys followed suit and stayed in the back as well. Is that going to be an issue?”

  Reeves and Ginny both looked like all they cared about was finding a mattress and getting their eyes closed. I agreed with them but wanted to make sure I got out some of the things I’d learned so far. “Ann, escaping from the cruise ship and then beating your way here dragging a teenager with a broken arm the whole way is awesome. Now, before we all go to sleep, I just want to reiterate some of the stuff you read about in my ‘little book’. One main thing really. Before we crash can you show us the back door and fill us in on the emergency escape plan in case everything goes to hell?”

  It had been impressed on me many times at this point that you always needed to know the alternative ways to escape from a place. Try spending a few days sitting in a bathroom behind a flimsy door with flesh eating monsters hanging out a few feet from you ready to pounce on if you make a single noise and you get pretty interested in always having another way out. Ann nodded her understanding of my desire to make sure we knew how to escape if needed.

  “No problem, follow me and I’ll give you the backstage tour.” With that she opened the door to her office and waited for us to gather our stuff. “You can set all that junk down in that corner over there. That can be your place to setup when you’re done. We’ve got mattresses and pillows and all that stacked up over there so just grab whatever you want.”

  Ann waited for us to put our stuff in the corner and then Barry helped us drag some of the mattresses over to the indicated corner. Ann then pointed out the different doors and where they went, including the infamous “giant litter box”. I personally needed to spend some quality time in the litter box but wasn’t about to make everyone wait for me. Plus, I was not looking forward to what had now built up in my mind as an airwave of stink that would hit you when you opened the door.

  Continuing the tour, Ann walked us around the back of the building pointing out the loading dock doors, the giant containers and boxes and pallets covered in all kinds of groceries and products. She took us to a room they had dubbed the “shower room” which was filled with sanitary products, deodorants, soaps, disinfectants, and a lot of the handheld and bulk sanitizer you could smear on yourself. In one corner, there was a hose and a drain. Ann explained, “So we don’t want to waste all of our bottled water so we keep the bottles after we drink them and either Hank, Barry, or I fill them up from some containers we have setup outside to catch water when it rains. About once a week each person gets a luxurious ‘shower’ in here where you’re allowed to dump two whole bottles of water on your head and try to use that to get as much of the funk off your body as possible. We’ve had some decent rain lately, not trying to offend you guys or anything, but I’m going to go ahead and authorize your first showers for today and let you each use five bottles. Before we do that, we’ll find you all some fresh new clothes also.”

  About an hour later it was my turn to ‘shower’. I was sitting outside the shower area waiting on Ginny who was taking forever. When she finally came out she had a huge grin on her face. “That was awesome. Best – Shower – Ever!” with that she continued to wander towards the area where we had setup our beds and stuff. She had a garbage bag full of her old clothes which she threw into the pile of trash being accumulated at the far end of the community area by the loading dock doors.

  I walked in and shut the doors behind me. Pushing the little button, in the middle of the door down to activate the lock. I stripped off my clothes and for the first time since this all started got prepared to take a shower. I walked around the room, naked, looking for shampoo and soap and all of that. They had shaving stuff in there as well but I decided life would be easier with a beard for right now. I’d finally got past the super-itchy stage of growing one out so saw no need to hack it down since I assumed the same thing would be happening again pretty soon.

&n
bsp; Five bottles of water were a luxury. I knew I stunk, we had been walking around in the humidity and heat of Florida, sleeping and hiding in houses that were probably hovering around ninety degrees. My clothes had basically become a second layer of my skin at this point. I had periodically changed my boxers and rubbed on deodorant and made some sort of attempt to be less disgusting. Overall though, I knew I was pretty disgusting. Standing there in the corner over the drain hole pouring the first bottle of water over my body and feeling some of the dirt draining away felt beyond good.

  Once I had poured the first bottle over me I lathered up using the soap and shampoo and then used another bottle to rinse off. I went ahead and repeated the process until I was out of water, which, due to bad planning happened before I had all the soap off of me but at that point I really did not care. I had procured for myself a large ‘luxury bath towel’ which I used to dry my body and get rid of the rest of the soap. I felt beyond awesome. Nirvana was achieved. You know how it feels when you go camping for a week and take a shower, or when you get cleaned up in the shower after a long day at the beach? Multiply that by a million. I kind of just wanted to stand there naked but was afraid Reeves was going to take it upon himself to barge in any second now so I grabbed the clothes I had selected from the large assortment that had been dragged into the back area.

  Fresh underwear is the bomb! I pulled on a pair of those then some cargo shorts with about a zillion pockets, followed by one of those shirts that kind of look like the expensive $100 T-Shirts but only cost like $10. I slid on some thick socks and a pair of hiking boots that actually fit. I threw a generic grey hoodie over the whole deal, pulled on a belt, secured my pistol to the belt, grabbed my sword out of the corner and walked out. Did I mention I’d gotten to use mouthwash and everything? I felt ridiculous.