Free Aftershock: A Collection of Survivors Tales by Valerie Lioudis, Kristopher Lioudis Page A

ladder. That was enough to keep him where he was.
    I sent Anthony and Lou down to see what was really going on. I sent those men to their deaths, and I will never forgive myself for it. That is why I am so careful now. No one ever goes anywhere without good scouting first. No more finding out what is behind door number one. I wish I knew then what I know now, because it would have never played out the way that it did. Anthony was bitten first. Mike was waiting at the bottom of the ladder and the minute Anthony stepped within biting height Mike had his ankle in his mouth. He fell down the ladder and trying to catch himself, got Lou by the ankle, and pulled him down too.
    Lou managed to get partially back up before Mike took a bite of his leg. He made it on deck, but couldn’t get much further on his own. I had to go down and carry him into the wheelhouse. That’s when I looked down the hole and saw Mike killing Anthony. It wasn’t the first time I had seen a man die at the hands of another, fishermen are a rough group, but it was by far the most vicious. Mike was the predator, and Anthony was the prey. It was like a kill on the nature channel, no emotion, just death.
    So far we had 3 dead crewmates. Mike was dead but alive somehow, and Anthony and Roger were gone. Cap and Earl were still down with Mike but they were separated from him by a solid metal door. I had Tim and Lou both but up in the wheelhouse with me. I stopped the boat 2 hours out from shore. We weren’t moving until I got things under control. I needed to get Cap and Earl safe. There was no way I was leaving 2 men down there with that monster. I left the boys in the wheelhouse and went to look down the ladder. I needed to see if there was anything I could do to stop him. Lou was looking worse than Tim when I left. He had a fever and was sweating like crazy.
    I get to the top of the ladder and I hear the door open between quarters and the galley. Cap went all Rambo and tried to take Mike on with a metal pipe he found somewhere. Cap was a huge man. Not big, huge. He could take on 4 or 5 guys in a bar fight and come away without a scratch. He took Mike down with one giant swing to his head. Crashed that pipe right through his skull. Once Mike was put down, Earl and Cap made their way to the deck. We weren’t sure if he was going to come back to life again. Hell, we didn’t know anything then.
    Earl just kept freaking out. He curled up in a ball on the deck and mumbled to himself the whole time Cap and I tried to figure out what was going on. We started talking options, and both agreed that we needed to get the dead off the boat. We couldn’t chance another incident. So Cap and I went down the ladder and carried our 3 guys up. We laid them on the deck, said a few words, and then tossed them overboard. We both figured we would catch shit for it later, but to hell with that, no dead on the boat. Earl quieted down once the bodies were off the boat. I’m pretty sure it was shock, because he just stared off blank eyed.
    I went up to check on the boys that were bitten. They were both sick now and looked a lot like Mike did before he turned all killer zombie on us. I shut the door to the wheelhouse and informed Cap that we had 2 more men to deal with. By now it was morning, and we were both out of energy or ideas. I know we should have tried to get back to shore, and get them fixed up but neither of us could navigate the waters as tired as we were. We agreed on a quick nap, then back to shore. Judge us if you want, turns out that it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. They would have died no matter what.
    I’ve never slept as hard as I did that morning. It wasn’t just me, Cap and Earl were out cold too. By the time Earl woke me up it was night. He didn’t want to go up and check on the boys alone. Earl isn’t cut out for zombies. He’s just not built that way. Cap and I got a large flashlight and went to the wheelhouse. There was blood covering the windows.