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

Through the mess I could see Lou chewing on what used to be Tim. He must have turned first and gone after Tim before he died of whatever it is that is killing everyone. Now we had a zombie to kill in the wheelhouse. Not a great place to have to kill somebody. It’s a tight squeeze, so there isn’t a lot of room for swinging pipes.
    We had to come up with another plan. We were dead in the water until we could regain control of that room. The nice thing about a fishing boat is the abundance of shit that can kill you. All we needed to do was find the right tool for the job. Cap decides that a large knife is our best bet. We both armed ourselves, warned Earl what was about to happen, and took off towards our target. Cap stormed the room first. He said it was his boat, and he was getting it back. I was right behind him. I never felt so alive in my life. This was some crazy shit and I was about to do the most insane thing I had ever done. For once I was doing it for the right reasons.
    Lou gets Cap by the arm immediately. Sinking his teeth in, he got Cap off the offensive in one bite. I come up behind him and as I am about to slice his throat, he turns his head and chomps on my wrist. It was a quick bite, but it was a bite. I used my other arm to pull him off and stabbed straight through his eye. He went down like a bag of bricks. Cap and I looked at each other. We were both screwed. The only one left with a chance was Earl. He couldn’t drive the boat; he was just a deckhand and a new one at that. We had to figure out a way to get him back to land. Cap looked sick right away.
    We decided that we would give Earl a crash course in running the boat. Once we got sick enough we would jump ship if you know what I mean. We couldn’t leave the kid to fight off zombies. Cap would have made one hell of a zombie. As big as he was he would have been the king of the zombies. After a few hours of talking to Earl about what to do I noticed Cap was getting sicker and I wasn’t getting it at all. No fever, not even a headache. Earl noticed too. He started saying that training him was useless, and I should get him back. Crazy fuck, he knew before I did that I was different. Cap made it through the night, but by morning it was time to say goodbye.
    I kept waiting to feel sick but didn’t. I had to look at my friend, my drinking buddy. The man I have fought beside more times than I can count. The guy I trusted with my life and say goodbye. Cap was a better man than I, and it didn’t seem fair that I was going to live when he wasn’t. We both knew it was time, and true to himself Cap said he was going out the way he wanted, not the way the others had. He took a giant swig of whiskey and dove off the side of the boat. Earl and I stood there for a really long time. It felt like I had lost a brother and I wasn’t ready to move yet.
    Earl and I stayed out at sea for another 3 days. I wanted to be sure I wasn’t going to get sick. I knew if I did I would be bringing a plague back to the island I loved. I spent those days pondering why I was still alive. Why should a flawed man like me be the one that lives? I began to realize my purpose. That I was special. I am the future of our species. I was not weak like the others. God had created me different, and I am to be the way we live through all of this. I am the answer, and everyone else is to follow me. There can be no other reason to explain why I am immune to something that kills everyone else.”
    He stared at me with those piercing blue eyes. He was waiting my response. What could I say? The man was insane. The power he has taken has rotted away his sanity like the illness rots away the people it kills. All I could do was look away and hope he would release me from that room. None of that story could be true. That was the only thing I knew for sure.

 
     
Amy
     
     
    All of our scouting has paid off. We are on the road now with more than enough supplies. It wasn’t an easy task. It took a