Zombie Cruise

I've never cared for the water, not even as a baby. When my parents would try to bathe me I would scream something awful according to my mother. As I got older my dislike for water never really got better or worse but it was still there. I didn't do pools or water parks as a kid. I would sit off on the side, maybe put my feet in the water so I didn't look too weird. High school was also problematic because of the locker showers but I managed. However now I'm stuck on a cruise ship with my family in the middle of the ocean and I'll admit I'm panicking just a little.

This all started because of my mother. She's the one who suggested this mad trip. She's getting remarried and wanted all of her children to come with her and her new husband for part of their honeymoon. We were taking a three day cruise in the Bahamas after which all the children would disembark and then her real honeymoon could begin. I love my mother dearly so I couldn't say no to her but I really wish I could have. We are on the second day of our trip and we are stuck in a nasty storm. I've been sitting in my room with my head in a bucket praying that this storm would just end.

I finally managed to fall asleep somehow. I'm not sure how long I slept but at least the storm was over. I stepped out of my room and decided to try and hunt my family down. My room was on the inside of the ship but as I walked towards the outside I could see sunlight. I figured everyone was probably out on the deck having a grand time not living in a constant almost phobic state of water. I got outside and saw my youngest brother standing by the railing looking out at the sea. I walked up to him, steeling myself for having to look at the water.

I put my hand on his shoulder and instantly recoiled from him. He was colder than a freezer to the touch. He slowly turned to me and I staggered back even further. His face was somewhat green, his eyes were all white, and he seemed to be partially decomposing. "Oh what the hell? A zombie? Why on earth are you a zombie?" I ran off towards the front of the ship hoping that he was the only one and we could figure out how to deal with my brother.

I ran out onto the front deck of the ship seeing three people. My older brother, my mother, and her new husband. They all had their backs to me but being cautious I called out, "Hey mom. Um… Something is wrong with Tom. I think he might be a zombie." All three of them slowly turned around and all I could do was groan, "Really all of you too? I'm stuck on a ship in the middle of the ocean with zombies. If you had asked me how I was going to die I don't think this would have been my answer."

As the three of them started shambling towards me and I could hear Tom coming from behind I heard a voice booming over the speakers, "Hey kid from the looks of it you're still alright. Find your way up to me here at the bridge. I've already adjusted our course to the nearest port." I looked up wondering how to get there but for now I have to get past the zombies back inside the ship. I ran towards the opposite side of the ship I came out from knowing eventually I would find a door back in.

It didn't take me too long and I was back in the ship near the main dining area. As I'm running I mutter to myself, "Thank god mom's hubby was rich enough to rent out an entire cruise boat for just us. Otherwise I'd already be dead." I keep going through doors and soon I'm in the main dining area. Inside it are eight people all of them staff for the ship who are just milling around the room. Unfortunately I was a bit too loud coming in and now they're all focused on me.

The voice calls out again, "Head for the back. You'll find a set of stairs leading up. Just follow them and you'll get to me eventually." I nodded and tore off for the back. I can hear a set of footsteps behind me. I look back for just a second to see a shorter man running behind me. He's a zombie and yet he's got some speed to him still. Thankfully I'm a bit taller so I've got the leg length to put myself ahead of him. Soon I hit the stairs and started taking them two at a time. When the zombie hits them he trips within all of three steps. I laugh a little but keep going as fast as I can.

I follow the stairs flight after flight starting to finally wind down. After four flights of stairs I find myself on another deck with no other stairs in immediate sight. I stop for a moment to catch my breath wishing I had taken up running at some point. The voice calls out again, "Now head right at the second four way intersection turn left you'll find the last set of stairs." Nodding I start off to the right and find where I'm supposed to turn fairly quickly. I run for the stairs and start heading up again.

Soon I'm at a bolted steel door which I knock on as hard as I can, "Please let me in. I'm not a zombie." I hear a wheel turning and the door opens with the captain standing on the other side. He waves me in and closes the door behind me. I sit down taking a moment to catch my breath again.

The captain heads back to the wheel. "You got lucky son. During that bad storm everyone was eating and apparently something was wrong with the food. Very wrong obviously. They all started turning shortly after eating and well you know the rest."

I look around the bridge, "So all your staff up here got turned to? Were they all at the dinner?"

The captain looked around distractedly, "Yeah I think so. I had sent them off to go eat and I was staying up here to guide the boat."

I continued to look around slowly, starting to become suspicious, "I'll admit I don't know a whole lot about the chain of command on boats. But wouldn't that be dangerous? What if you had a heart attack or something? No one would know if you did and who knows what could happen to the boat with no one guiding it."

The captain was starting to look a bit nervous, "Yes that is true but we're in the Bahamas. There are no pirates or icebergs out here so the worst that would happen is we wander aimlessly for a bit before someone found me. While my mind is on it, having mentioned dinner, are you hungry?"

I look around confused, "Wait do you have food up here? How do you know it isn't tainted? Have you been eating it? How long has it been up here?"

The captain growled, "Do you want some food or not boy? Stop asking so many damn questions." He stepped away from the wheel scrounging around the bridge coming back to me with a small hunk of bread.

I eyed him warily, "Why are you doing this? Why turn everyone on the boat into zombies? What's the end game?"

The captain stared at me for a moment before sighing and sitting down in front of me, "Seeing as you'll be one of them soon I might as well tell you. I was paid by some man from the US government to feed you all tainted food and then take you all to an abandoned harbor where they would all be removed. He didn't really tell me what would happen but that I would be serving my country and helping to save soldiers overseas. As well as I would get enough money to scrap this ship and go do whatever I wanted. So I did it. You're the last one and now you're going to eat this bread. I'll kick you out the door and you can join your family."

I sighed, "Man that's a story. I feel for you I really do. But I'm not eating that bread." With that I threw a straight punch with my right fist hitting the captain square in the nose. The captain's head snapped backwards from the punch cracking against a console and knocking him out cold. I waved my hand, "Ow! God hitting someone hurts. I'm really sorry for what I'm about to do but I have to." I drag his body to the door opening it up and throwing him out the door before closing it back up and locking it.

I head towards the radio grabbing it and finding the call out button, "Mayday. S.O.S This is a call for help from the cruise ship Alluring Abigail. We need help. Everyone on the ship except for me has become very ill with a contagious disease. We need help please!"

The radio crackled to life, "Alluring Abigail we read you. Stay at your current heading we will intercept you soon." I waited for about an hour when I saw a nondescript ship heading my way. Soon they were pulled alongside me and men in hazmat suits were boarding the ship. It took them less than twenty minutes to round everyone up including the captain who was still alive.

Soon a knock came on the door, "Unlock the door. You can come out son. We've removed everyone from the ship." I stepped out from the bridge to be met by two men in hazmat suits and carrying guns. "Come with us. We'll check you over and once you're clear you can go home." They turned and started to walk down the stairs.

As I followed them I decided to ask about my family, "So what's going to happen with my family? I know they are really sick but can you guys help them?"

The two men look at one another sharing a brief nonvocal moment, "Well we're going to try to help them and if they recover they'll be home with you soon enough."

Nodding along I pretend to not see their moment, "Well thank you so much for helping us. Don't know what we would have done without you."

The rest of everything was a blur. Within twelve hours I was already on a flight back home with a clear bill of health. Within twenty four hours there was a story in the paper about eighteen people dead on a cruise ship from food poisoning. According to the paper there were no survivors. That honestly worked for me because now I was going to have to try and find out why the US government wanted zombies.

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