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Chapter 86


Everything’s getting harder.

Traveling ain’t easy anymore; we’re having to get more creative with the ways we get around. Fighting these things ain’t getting any easier either. There’s just as much danger, but we can’t always win. The odds are just too high in their favor, ya know? There’s been too many close calls…

It’s enough to drive a person crazy.

But I keep telling myself we’re gonna make it. I have to believe it. Someone needs to have hope around here, and I guess it’s gotta be me.

It’s gotta be me, ha, sounds like a song. I think. I can’t remember.

I shouldn’t use a song quote this entry, I need a movie one. I should stick in more of those, ‘cause, ya know, movies can’t be forgotten either. I’m an actor… well, I was… or I tried to be. Anyways. I’m not that person anymore, but still, the old me is still part of the new me. Or something. I need a movie quote.

I gotta keep the classics alive, right?

Except I can’t think of a good movie quote. Damn.

Oh well… song of the entry it is!

I don’t think I’ve used a Beach Boys song yet, have I? Rye loves them. (Which is funny as hell since just about everything else she likes is rock.)

“Let me go home
Why don't they let me go home
This is the worst trip I've ever been on

So hoist up the John B's sail
See how the mainsail sets
Call for the Captain ashore
Let me go home, let me go home
I wanna go home, yeah yeah
Well I feel so broke up
I wanna go home…”

“Sloop John B” – Beach Boys



Friday, November 9, 2012
Week Twenty-Nine

Nick could feel the wind blowing by him fiercely, challenging him, and taunting him. He turned the wheel accordingly, enjoying the control he now had. There wasn’t much he had control of these days. It felt good to be doing something he used to once love, to know he had some hold on something.

The storm had finally ended the day before. Once it had, they’d found their tour bus trashed by animals and the storm. It had been Nick who’d come up with the idea of trying to sail down the river, in hopes of hurrying their journey along and avoiding the roads. It was night then; he could see the stars twinkling above them gently in the sky.

Originally, Nick had wanted to steal one of the old-fashioned riverboats they’d seen along the shores, but Kevin had pointed out that they needed far more people to actually operate it properly. In the end, Nick ended up stealing a large speedboat that must have belonged to some fisherman, given how much gear had been left behind inside it.

A glance back showed Riley sleeping contentedly across the rear seat behind him. Kevin had finally dozed off in the seat beside him only a few hours before. For the moment, Nick was the only human awake in the area, left to his own solitude. He could hear Riley shifting, stirring with the noise of the engine and movement of the boat. He sighed and slowed the boat down, before cutting the engine completely. For the time being, Nick was content to float down the Mississippi River and let his two companions sleep.

“Hey, why’d you stop?” Kevin asked, rubbing his eyes tiredly as he looked around.

Nick shrugged. “I was trying to let you sleep, man.”

“It’s not easy to sleep these days.”

“Rye manages to alright.”

“I mean after…”

Nick nodded. “Right.”

Kevin’s near-death experience still unnerved them all. They had become more cautious, more wary, with the exception of Riley and Nick’s little escapade back in St. Louis. Nick thought back that with a wide smile, forgetting for a moment that Kevin was, in fact, awake beside him. He couldn’t see what Riley saw in him. Any time he looked in the mirror, he saw the same old failure. He had to remind himself daily that that Nick was dead, that life had moved on, and that he had changed, along with the world around him.

He caught Kevin smiling out of the corner of his eye. The smile was a melancholy one, wistful and accompanied by a distant look in his eyes. The trip had aged Kevin in ways he didn’t like to think about. There were more lines around the corners of his eyes, his face more weathered by the hard times that they had been through since that fateful April day. Nick turned, not looking directly at him. Instead, his eyes focused on the waters illuminated eerily by the moonlight from above.

“What?”

“Nothing…”

“Come on, man, talk. We can’t do much else right now.”

Kevin leaned back in his chair. His hands rested beneath his head as he gazed up at the stars, rather than Nick. It was eerie how no animal noises could be heard near them. As a nature lover, Nick definitely missed them immensely. They could hear the moans of the undead, but nothing more. Kevin sighed, as Nick looked down at the moon’s reflection along the water.

“The two of you just remind you of me and Kristin.”

Nick raised a brow, sitting forward to look at Kevin more directly. The boat floated serenely down the river, giving the illusion of a peace that no longer existed. Kevin kept his eyes toward the sky, lines creasing his forehead as his line of vision went beyond the here and now and into the past beyond their reach.

“I didn’t know you were married…”

Kevin gave the simplest jerk of the head. “We weren’t. I always wondered if we should have. If there was a ‘one,’ I think she might’ve been it. But she didn’t like how many times I’d been sent out on-duty, how much we had to move around…” He sighed. “I don’t know… we broke up and got back together so many times. I loved her. She’d bait me, tease me… so when I see you two, lately, I’ve been thinking of us.”

Nick nodded. “You think you’d both be here if you had married her?”

“I’m not sure. I wonder that myself. But then I think maybe it would’ve been worth dying, to have that. To have started my own family, instead of choosing my life in the military. Maybe it wouldn’t have. I’m not one for lot of ‘what ifs,’ but that’s the one that’s followed me.”

“If it helps, I’m glad you’re here. I don’t think any of us would be alive today if you weren’t.”

“You give me too much credit.”

Nick shook his head, running a hand tiredly through his hair, as he attempted to stifle back a yawn. “No, sometimes, I feel like you’re not told that enough. Hell, if we had to have gotten stranded in the middle of the country, where the odds are that we’ll die before making it back home, I’m glad you’re the one who led us into this mess. Anyone else, and we’d probably have been nothing but bones picked clean by now.” He grinned. “The zombies missed out on a grand human buffet because of you. No braaaaaaaiiiiiiiins for them.” He mimicked some slurping noises. “Nick – it’s what’s for dinner! Dun-dun-dun.”

“Nice image.”

“I try, but seriously, man, I mean it.”

Kevin smiled up at him gratefully. “Thanks.”

“So, since we’re on a boat, you think I’d be the Skipper if this was Gilligan’s Island?”

The older man sat up, a bit bewildered by the sudden subject change. It almost made Nick laugh. So many people in his life had claimed to be used to his forever-short attention span, but he’d always managed to surprise them sometimes.

“What?”

Gilligan’s Island! You know…” His expression brightened as he happily launched into the theme song. “Just sit right back, and you'll hear a tale… a tale of a fateful trip… that started from this tropic port, aboard this tiny ship…”

“I think you’re sleep-deprived.”

“The mate was a mighty sailing man, the skipper brave and sure. Five passengers set sail that day for a three-hour tour, a three hour tour…”

“You’d be Gilligan; I think I’d end up as the Skipper. The Skipper knew what he was doing.”

“Hey!”

“What made you think of that, anyway? We’re not shipwrecked; we’re not even sleep-deprived.” Kevin glanced around, searching for something, but not wanting to disturb the still-sleeping Riley.

“What are you looking for?”

“Our makeshift anchor. It’s too risky to try and tie up the boat ashore; we’d be best off at a standstill in the middle of the river. You clearly need some rest.”

Nick dug down between his legs, where a large weight sat on the floor. Around it was tied a thick, heavy rope. He grabbed the end of the rope, securely fastening it around one of the metal loops on the side of the boat, typically used for tying it down at a port. He expertly tied it, having done it so many times in the past when he’d go sailing just for fun. Carefree days that seemed like eons ago, another life.

“I can stay up and keep watch.”

Nick yawned as quietly as he could, discretely wiping his eyes. “You don’t have to; I think we’ll be okay. We’re in the middle of the river, at the deepest part.” He dropped the weight into the water, hearing the immediate sploosh sound that followed. Water hit his face in angry beads that looked like tears. The boat jerked to a stop, swaying gently as the river rushed around them. “You need your rest, too; I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“Maybe you’re right; we should be left alone here.”

Nick lay back, staring up at the stars once more. They were so inviting, little gems of light that felt comforting in a world that was no longer safe for them. They seemed to speak to him. He felt as if they were saying that, soon, everything would be alright.

“Goodnight, Nick.”

“Goodnight, Kevin.”

As his eyelids grew heavier and fluttered to a close, he prayed he was right.

***

It was the splashing of water and Riley’s frantic cry that woke him up, only hours later. His eyes shot open just in time to witness Kevin being pulled into the water by a zombie that somehow had managed to climb up the rope attached to their anchor. His mind raced, groggy and jump-started all at once.

“Wha…?” was all he was able to actually vocalize.

“I don’t know how, but it got up… Kevin was trying to fight it off, and…” Riley was frantically trying to grab some sort of weapon. Nick immediately saw what she planned to do. He grabbed her wrist, stopping her. Their last close call flashed through his mind. How she’d been moments away from being eaten. The same, familiar fear crawled into his heart, making the decision for them both. He wasn’t about to let her risk herself again. He stripped off his shirt, and before Riley could say anything, he dived into the river to help their forever-fearless river.

Once underwater, the shock of the cold was what hit him first. He forced himself to try and acclimate to the low temperature. His eyes darted around, searching for the sign of a struggle. What they saw was an endless stream of zombies, roaming the bottom of the river. Bloated, their clothes having rotted off, they roamed without any true purpose, their moans unheard. Nick refocused and soon spotted Kevin trying to fight his attacker off. The zombie still had a hand on the rope, keeping it closer to the surface than the rest below.

He swam forward, suddenly thankful for all those scuba diving escapades over the years, which helped him hold his breath underwater. Kevin was clearly struggling, fighting to be free of its grip, looking desperate for air. Nick propelled himself toward the zombie, full speed ahead, and forced it off of Kevin. The arm holding the rope was torn from the body, bits of flesh flying around and clouding the water, along with Nick’s vision.

A gargled moan escaped the zombie’s mouth, as its one arm reached for his throat. The grip caught Nick by surprise, forcing out the breath he was holding in the water. His lungs began to scream for air, as he struggled to fight it off. Kevin swam up behind it, pulling at the head, whose jaws were snapping at him. He tugged back hard, and the neck, weakened by the water that had puffed up the body, tore away. The grip fell slack, and both men shoved themselves up to the surface for air. Nick gasped, enjoying the feeling as the oxygen returned to his burning lungs.

“Thanks,” Kevin said, as he caught his breath as well. He threw the still-moaning head, and it skipped along the water before sinking in the distance.

“No problem.” They swam back to the boat, where Riley was waiting. Her expression was anxious as she helped them both back into the boat. She hugged Kevin, before turning to Nick. He wrapped his arms around her, while Kevin pulled up the weight they had been using as an anchor.

“I thought you were both dead.”

He smirked. “Come on now, if I’m gonna die, it’s not going to be in the water. I just wonder how one got up.”

Riley shrugged, still not letting go of him. “Maybe the fact you’re weightless in the water makes it easier to climb. No need for coordination.”

“It was too close of a call. We need to start moving.”

Nick turned to go back up and drive the boat, but Kevin surprised him by sitting at the wheel. He shook his head at him, motioning for him to relax. A sentiment passed between them without a word spoken. His shirt was tossed back at him offhandedly, and he put it on, trying to dry off in the cold.

The boat started making its way, once again, down the Mississippi. Despite everything that had just occurred, Nick felt safe. They would persevere, and they would survive. Covering them both with a blanket, he lay back on the seats with Riley in his arms. Her head was on his chest, her gaze meeting his own.

That was how Nick fell asleep once again, a peaceful smile upon his face.

***