End of the Line (Book 2): Stuck in the Middle (8 page)

             
Keith and I dragged him across the deck unto some cushions and dry towels and blankets. His body was icy and his brown eyes were opened wide. I put one blanket around him. I didn’t want to get him overheated.

             
“That sucked,” he said. “I hate being here. More will come.” He looked out towards the water.              “Can you close the swim deck when we’re finished?” I asked Dena. She nodded. 

             
“Can you walk?” I felt nauseous but since I only had water nothing came up.

             
He tried to stand but wavered. He could walk but he needed our help. Keith and I helped him up. Dena stood in the corner, waiting for us to leave. Grace followed us from behind, her rifle slung to her shoulders, but she was looking at the water probably for more floaters. None came.

             
It took some effort but we got Henry up the ladder and on to the deck. My robe was soaked as was my pants. Keith and I helped him inside and I heard the sound of the swim deck shut.

             
We walked Henry into the salon. I tossed off my boots, not caring where they landed. Fatigue overcame me and I was desperate to get back to bed.

             
I was feeling like utter crap so I when I dropped Henry into the bed, I collapsed with him even though my pants and robe were damp. I felt someone cover me with a blanket.

             
“Thanks, Keith.”

             
“You’re welcome,” Grace replied.

              When I woke up it was dark and I had no idea what time it was. For a moment I thought everything was a bad dream and Mark was next to me, but that faded immediately and cold reality hit me. Mark, My parents, my friends, my life were never coming back.

             
I didn’t have a fever and was freezing. I wrapped the blanket around me tight. I shivered but not as bad as before. Now it was the regular cold of winter and a boat with rationed heat.

             
“Henry,” I whispered, suddenly frightened that he had died in the night. That I had a cold dead corpse next to me but I could feel his warmth and heard his breathing.

             
“Yea,” he said, his voice low.

             
“You feeling better?”

             
“Yes, now I’m freezing.” I realized he was probably still wearing only underwear.

             
“Did you drink any water?” I couldn’t see in the dark.

             
“A little. If I drink too much I feel sick.”

             
He probably needed to drink more but I didn’t want to pressure him. I figured if it got worse maybe Hannah could give him an IV.

             
“Do you want me to get you some clothes?”

             
“Just an extra blanket.” We kept four blankets on the bed, so I covered him with my extra one. I took off my damp robe and hung it to dry.

             
He didn’t say anything. I thought he had fallen asleep. I was about to join him.

             
“We won’t be together after we get off the boat?” He started me because it had been at least a minute since we spoke last and it came out from left field.

             
“Yes,” I said with no hesitation. I didn’t want to be with Henry or anyone for a while. “Are you okay with that?”

             
“It’s cool,” he said, but his voice cracked a little so I knew it wasn’t really cool. I felt bad. I didn’t mean to lead him on with something this serious. I wanted to say I’m sorry. It wasn’t fair to either of us. He wasn’t Mark. He was one bed in a string of warm bodies. I thought about the other men I was with, Jake, and Harlan. I felt bad for trying to force Jake into a relationship and leading Harlan on when I couldn’t get Jake for myself. Ironically the best relationship I had was with Mindy. I enjoyed her strength and her willingness to survive. Her death hit me harder than Jake and Harlan. I wished she was here now. Instead her body was nothing but ash on top of the Costking.

             
“When we’re better, do you want me to go? I can ask Jim to switch things around. I’ll even bunk with Grace.”

             
“Nah, you shouldn’t torture yourself,” he said and laughed. “You stay here until we’re off the boat.” He took my hand. “It’s better to keep warm unless you want me to go.”

             
“No,” That made me feel even worse. I didn’t pull my hand away.             

It took a week before everyone fully recovered. In the interim nothing got done. It snowed and no one cleared the deck. No one took watch except for Grace who took her normal hours and Dena kept a look out during the day. At least we saved food by not eating.

             
No one knew the source of the food poisoning.

             
I sat with the others in the Salon along with Tanya, Mike, Dave, Jim and Hannah as we discussed what happened. The rest either didn’t want to come or weren’t up to it.

             
Mike and Dave both liked to fish and had fried up a bunch for dinner the night before along with rice and beans. The left over fish had be left outside to keep cold. I thought it was the fish, the most likely culprit and the preferred one. It meant that we could keep all our food, but Grace had it and not any of the rice and beans and Henry had the rice and beans but no fish.

             
“It could have been one can,” Jim said. “Or something got left out too long. The rice, maybe.”

             
“You wanna risk it?”

             
“Risk or not,” Mike said. “If we have to toss the rice and beans from the same manufacturer, we’re talking about a pretty major amount of supplies. We may not have enough canned food to last for the winter. We may settle with nothing but emergency food. We don’t know how long it will be before we get farming right. We need a good amount of supplies saved up. Maybe we should make another supply run.”

             
I thought about all the food that we had left at Costking.

“I wouldn’t recommend it,” Hannah said. “The boat is only slightly warmer than outside. Anyone who gets too chilled may have issues warming up. Look what happened with Henry.” She was right. Henry still hadn’t fully recovered from the food poisoning and his cold water sponge bath. It was unseasonably cold. The temperatures always remained around freezing. Walking to the bridge, you got hit by the icy biting winds of the sea. Ice had formed everywhere on the boat. Mike used the extra kerosene and used the engine to run the heaters, despite that this ship wasn’t meant to be in a Long Island winter. I knew because I read the manifest. It wintered in Bermuda.

              “If we toss the rice and cans, how long we got food?” Tanya asked.

             
“If we stretch and open up some of emergency rations maybe to March. But I don’t want to open the emergency rations. When it gets warmer we need to go on raids gather food. I don’t know what the weather will be like. It could be cold until April. I don’t think it was the cans. I think it was the rice.”

             
“Do we wanna risk going now or hope we gotta enough to last us till spring.”

             
“We still don’t know if all the cans or rice were contaminated. It could have been the cans and not the rice,” this came from Jim.

             
“Judging by the illness, it was probably in more than one can,” Hannah said, “Or in one bag of rice. We can’t risk it. We were lucky this time. Maybe not as much next time. I would suggest dumping it all. Better to be safe that sorry.”

“Why don’t we just use the emergency rations?” I asked. “I mean it is an emergency.”

“Because the emergency rations are just that,” Mike explained. “They last 20 years. Canned, bagged and box food not as long. If we are unsuccessful at farming and we’re out of cans, we’ll have the emergency food. We currently have a year supply for all of us for 2 meals a day, 3 for the kids. We’re going to need that.”

“Then why don’t we just leave? It would be better if we stayed in a house away from the ocean. The sea breezes are unbearable. We can find a house with a fireplace. There are plenty of supermarkets—“

“We’re staying here good or bad,” Tanya interrupted. “You really wanna undertake a move now? We need to find two cars, a house free of bodies and zombs. We’re staying here, Annemarie, end of story. Mike don’t leave any leftover food out. Whatever we don’t finish get rid of. Dump the bag the rice you used. Leave the cans but don’t use them unless we run out. Open a bucket of those emergency meals to give people some variety.”

I was mad but I didn’t say anything. I looked to Mike for guidance or to say Tanya was a fool but he said nothing.

Three nights later, I awoke to a bang. I opened my eyes to darkness. I heard more banging. The air was ice cold. I got up and threw on my robe. I grabbed my flashlight and headed to the salon. It was pitch black except for two lanterns on the table burning low and I could see some light coming from the crew quarters downstairs.

I saw a light and someone came up the stairs. It was Grace. She was dressed in her coat and carrying a blanket, pillow and her gun.

“What’s going on?”

“Hull breach,” she said, calmly, not a hint of panic in her voice.

“What the fuck?” I said. “We’re sinking?”

She looked annoyed like I had asked her a stupid question.

“It’s a pint size hole. Mike is trying to fix it.” She then took the blanket and pillow and laid on one of the cushioned benches.

“Should I help Mike?”

“Whatever,” she said and put the blanket over her head. Not that I expected Grace to panic but her attitude made me think there was no danger. No one had gone to wake up Jim or figure out a way to get off the ship as soon as possible.

I was curious so I took my flashlight and walked down the steps. Shininess greeted me but not from the lights but water on the floor. It was about a half inch deep. I was only wearing socks and didn’t go down further. A flashlight came towards me. It was Tanya holding Idiot.

“Good timing,” she said, handing me the cat. “Can you take her upstairs?”

I took Idiot in my arms. She squirmed but I held on.

“Where’s the hole?”

“Engine room, it ain’t pretty.”

“The engine isn’t working?”

“No, but Mike thinks it might be fine once it dries out.  Dave and Keith are helping. Come back after you take up Idiot and get Olive and bring back Henry. If he’s well we can use him.”

I climbed the stairs with the struggling cat in my arms. I knew I couldn’t put her and Olive together, so I knocked on Jim’s door.

Eric opened the door. He wore a large robe over flannel pajamas.

“What?” I realized that Jim was on watch that night.

“We have some water in the crew quarters, can you watch Idiot?” I said, handing him the cat. Eric took her without reluctance.

“Should I be worried?” he asked.

“I don’t know— But the engine isn’t working.”

“Figures,” he said, then closed the door.

I went back into the salon and slid on my boots before going back downstairs. I wanted to take a look at the engine room. Tanya wasn’t waiting for me. I walked across the cold wet floor and went first to Dave’s room. I knocked and when no one answered, I opened the door. Olive was sitting on the top bunk along with some of Dave’s stuff. She gave me a happy bark when she saw me. I didn’t know where Dave kept her leash and I didn’t want her to walk on the cold floor. I picked her up directly. She was so happy to be picked up, she licked my face.

“Good girl, we’re going to visit Henry for a little while.” I took Dave’s bag hoping he wanted it out of the water.

Olive didn’t struggle as I carried her out of the icy waters and up the stairs. When I got to the salon, I put her on the ground, dumped Dave’s stuff on the table and took off my boots. Grace was lightly snoring on the couch, her rifle was next to her at the edge of the bench. She really did sleep with it. I wished I had a camera. Jim had three Polaroid’s locked up somewhere. This wasn’t the time to look.

“Come Olive,” I said. She hesitated so I picked her up again and took her to my room. I opened the door and put her on the bed. She yapped once. Henry rustled around.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“We have a leak in the engine room. Mike is plugging it up now. They need you. Are you up to it?” I lit one of the room lanterns.

He got up. Despite the cold air, a sheen of sweat formed across his brow.

“You don’t look up to it.” The food poisoning had been bad on Henry and it took him a while to recover.

“Water can’t be good for the engine,” he said and pulled his legs over the side. “I should check it out.”

“Wear your boots.”

“Okay.”