Undead Honeymoon (4 page)

“So where do we go now?”

A sudden scratching noise made us both jump. We turned to the door as the noise grew louder. The man with the broken neck was still trying to get to us, and his blood had already started to seep under the doorway.    

Finn ignored the noise and turned back to me. “It looked like a good portion of the ship’s passengers were in that theater. That means the majority of them might already be dead, or worse.” He took the sleeve of his shirt and wiped the blood from my cheek.

My pulse quickened as I pictured what just happened, and I couldn’t seem to catch my breath. How could Finn be so calm about all of this? I think he sensed I was inches from losing it, because he placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed. 

“I‘m scared too,” he said softly, “but freaking out won’t do us any good, and it’ll probably just get us killed faster. I‘m sure there is a rational explanation for all of this, and if we manage to stay safe long enough, everything will sort itself out.”

I nodded as I fought the urge to collapse. He wrapped me in a tight hug before making his way down the stairs.

“Stay close Lily,” he whispered, “and watch where you put your hands.” He pointed to a smear of blood on the railing. 

As we made our way down the steps a putrid, overwhelmingly strong odor suddenly hit us. It smelled of meat that’d been left out to rot in the sun, and then sprayed with cheap perfume. My stomach turned as I thought of what it could be, and I instantly decided I didn’t want to find out.

The smell grew stronger with each step, and as we reached the base of the staircase, my worst fear was confirmed. A woman’s body was lying in a pool of blood, just beyond the bottom step. It looked like she’d been thrown in a pool of piranhas. Her torso was almost completely void of flesh, and ragged bits of clothing hung from her hollowed ribcage. Her skull had a gaping hole in one side, and what was left from inside had since oozed out of it.       

Somehow I managed to keep my composure as we stepped around her. Finn looked detached, and I saw he was trembling as we stepped on pieces of her clothes.

“Do you know what this means?” I said.

“That those things are down here, too…” 

“Yeah, but look at the flies, and the dried blood. She’s been here for hours. We shouldn‘t have come this way. I think we should try a different deck.”

“You’re probably right, but let’s at least check the highway first, it’s our best bet to get back to the cabin. If she‘s been here a while, those things could be anywhere.”

I thought about what was back at the theater, and whether or not the doors we’d passed on the way down led to anything better. “Fine.” 

The staircase had ended at the edge of an enormous hallway. My first thought was to head back, the shear distance in front of us screamed certain death to me. If those things were down here, we’d never make it to the other side without running into them. 

I nearly missed the dozen or so smaller corridors, hidden in shallow alcoves. They were nearly invisible from where we stood. The ship was so new that time and use hadn’t gotten their chance to fade the pearly white walls. All of our possible escape routes blended together almost seamlessly. The floor, however, was a different story. The once white tiles were splotched and smeared in something dark.   

The corridors seemed to stretch out like tributaries, all feeding off of one big river. I could see several crew members off in the distance, but they weren’t moving. They were just standing in place, swaying like pendulums as the ship moved.   

“So what now?” I asked. “Those people over there look like they work for Imperial, should we try to talk with them? Maybe they know what‘s going on.”

Finn looked at the workers, then turned and looked back at the stairs behind us.  

“Lily,” he whispered, “I need you to be ready to run if I say to, all right? We’ll head back up the stairs and try another floor.”

My eyes widened in fear as a dozen unpleasant scenarios ran through my head.

“Something seems off about those people. They aren’t moving like the maniacs in the theater, but it seems weird for them to be standing there in the middle of the highway. I mean, a large portion of the ships passengers were just murdered. You’d think they would’ve been told to do something, anything. At the very least they should be panicked out of their minds. We’ll go try to talk to them, but let‘s be ready to bolt just in case.” 

“Okay,” I squeaked, my voice breaking. “I’ll be right behind you.”

Finn tightened his grip on the metal bar and started making his way toward the crew members. 

“Finn, the floor,” I said, pointing. The white tiled floor was nearly coated in a retched smelling, reddish black substance. Most of it was dried, but there were a few pools of it that still looked wet. “Be careful where you step.”

He nodded silently as we started down the corridor. We crept along the side, dodging the pools as we made our way to the opposite end of the ship. They smelled similar to the woman’s body, but with a sour aspect to it that made my nose burn.

Our pace slowed to a crawl as we approached the two stationary crewmembers. The first was a short blonde woman, and her collared shirt said maintenance on the back. As we inched closer I saw a large portion of her left cheek was missing, exposing her jawbone and a row of blackened teeth. I managed to stifle a gasp as Finn raised the bar in preparation.

The second was a man of Asian descent. He wore a white, paint stained jumpsuit and rubber boots. He looked to be unharmed, except for his hands, which were pitch black and swollen. We were less than five feet away, but they made no move toward us. Instead they just swayed in unison, keeping with the subtle movements of the ship.

Finn must have realized something, because he lowered the bar and looked back at me. He let go of my hand and put his finger to his lips. I mouthed the word “NO” as I realized what he was about to do, but he ignored me and turned toward the workers.

The bar trembled as he raised it in front of their eyes. He waved it up and down, then quickly stepped back. Their breathing came in quick, shallow breaths as they continued to stare forward. Finn carefully tiptoed back to me and took my hand. I gave him the “you’re in trouble” face before we made our way around the woman.

“It almost seems like they‘re asleep,” he whispered. “But their eyes are open. I don’t really know what to make of it, but if we’re quiet we might be able to sneak by and get to our cabin without waking them up.”

I nodded and made sure I had a good grip on his hand; he wasn’t going to pull something like that again. The workers in front of us made my skin crawl. They smelled like rotten eggs, and I’m not sure if it was better or worse that they weren’t moving. I half expected them to jump at us at any moment.

“Let’s stick to the main hallway,” Finn added after we passed the crew. “I don’t like the looks of those alcoves. There could be more of those maniacs just out of sight.”

We snuck by two more eerily still crewmembers before Finn and I started looking for a staircase that could lead to the upper decks.

I stopped briefly as we came even with one of the alcoves. The walls leading down the short corridor were covered in bloody handprints. It ended in a set of metal double doors that read CREW MESS HALL. Both doors had porthole windows, but the glass had been blacked out by something, making it impossible to see inside. After a moment of silent staring, we pressed forward without saying anything.      

A loud BANG followed by the clang of a door being slammed against metal nearly made us jump out of our skins.

We spun to see a small group of people, normal people, falling out of an alcove. They were halfway between the staircase we’d climbed down and us, right in the middle of the four crewmembers we’d slipped by. There were three men and a young woman, all dressed in formal attire. One man had a gun in his hand, and another carried a shattered violin. I recognized them as the band I’d seen playing in the Albatross Lounge on deck seven. For a split second the woman and I locked eyes, and even from where I was standing I could see the pure, unadulterated fear that coursed through her veins.    

Their noisy entrance into the highway had jolted the sleeping crewmembers, who were now twitching and jerking their heads in the group’s direction.

The ones Finn and I had snuck past earlier started to close in on them, slowly but surely cutting off any chance they had of moving forward. 

The sound of doors opening, lots of them, started reverberating throughout the highway.

“What is that?” Finn asked, his jaw clenched.

My heart dropped when I saw them.

Finn pulled at my arm as he took a step back. “Oh my God.”

More crewmembers had started to stream in from the side corridors. They stumbled and shuffled their way toward the source of the noise as Finn and I stared on in horror. The crewmembers didn’t seem to notice us, they were too focused on the band members. 

“We’re dead if we stay here!” the woman screamed. “Go back, now!”

They disappeared as quickly as they’d come, back into the alcove and out of sight. The highway had changed almost as quickly, from a couple of crewmembers to dozens in a matter of seconds. It was like the aftermath of an ant pile that’d been stepped on and thrown into chaos. 

Everything seemed surreal at that point. The shock of being overrun seemed to root us in place. Finn had been right about the alcoves, and I’d been right about the highway. It was a deathtrap. 

He pulled my hand again and pointed toward an opening about ten feet ahead of us. I nodded and started behind him. My nose started tingling, and without thinking about it I let myself sneeze. Finn whipped his head around and froze. His eyes widened as he looked behind me. I turned and saw a massive chunk of the maniacs in the middle of the corridor already breaking off. They were slowly making their way in our direction.

My stomach lurched as Finn yanked on my arm, but my feet didn’t want to move, they couldn’t. I suddenly felt hands grabbing at my legs and back. I screamed and kicked, but quickly realized it was Finn. He picked me up and carried me toward the opening. He gently set me down at the base of a staircase identical to the one we’d originally come down.

“Let‘s go Lily!” he urged.

I was still in shock, but somehow managed to start moving. We climbed for what seemed like forever before he tugged at the back of my shirt.

“This is our deck,” he said, keeping his voice at a whisper.

I breathed a sigh of relief as I tried the door handle. It was unlocked.

“Finn, listen. They’re following us.”

The sound of feet clumsily making their way up the metal stairs was faint, but slowly getting louder. We made our way into the corridor of deck 11 and found it deserted. Plates of half eaten room service platters littered the floor outside several suites. We power walked the fifty feet to our suite and locked ourselves in.  

That was how yesterday went. I wasn’t sure if I should write about it. Or if I could, for that matter. I do know one thing for sure. If we die, I want the world to know I’m not crazy. All of this really happened.

August 15
th

It has been two days since we’ve gone outside the cabin and we’re running low on food. We’d already be out if it weren’t for the mini-bar and a stash of snacks I’d brought in my carry-on. Thankfully the sink still works, so we have plenty of water. I’m not the biggest fan of drinking from the faucet, but I feel like that’s the least of my worries at the moment.      

“Sooner or later I’ll get someone,” Finn said as he dialed yet another number. He’d been at it all morning. After giving up on any of the passenger relations numbers, he’d started calling random cabins. “We can’t be the
only
ones left on the entire ship,” he growled as he slammed the phone down.

“Maybe we are,” I replied.

Finn turned to me as I buried my face in my hands. 

“There are several thousand passengers on this ship, Lily,” he said, “and I refuse to believe no one else found a place to hide. It has only been two days, plus I’m sure someone in the bridge got an SOS out before everything went crazy. Which reminds me, check your phone again.”

I turned my phone on for the umpteenth time to see if I had any signal. The words “No service” still flashed on the top corner of my phone’s screen. “Still nothing.”

Finn sighed. “The worst part about international waters is that you never know when you‘ll have signal. I wish we would’ve paid for the roaming.”

Just then my stomach growled. I tried to play it off, but Finn noticed immediately.

“When’s the last time you ate?” he questioned, narrowing his eyes at me. I had to think for a moment. “I had some cookies earlier. The ones from the little box you got for being a Jade Member.”

Finn shook his head, and I could tell he was contemplating going outside the cabin again. I yelled at him before he had a chance to speak.            

“No Finn! You can’t! Those things are still out there!”

“Well then what do you suggest we do!” Finn yelled as he paced the stateroom. “You were there, you saw what happened with the crewmembers. We were right next to them and they never moved. As long as I’m quiet I should be able to sneak right by them. Whatever this thing is, an outbreak, plague, whatever… it doesn‘t seem to be airborne. We have to be attacked by the infected in order to get it.”

Finn did have a point. I’d been thinking about the man who’d run by us just before the theater was attacked, the one whose neck my husband had broken. It looked like he’d been bitten, and moments later he was infected. It didn’t matter though, I didn’t want either of us to leave the cabin. And there was no way he was leaving without me. If he was refusing to stay put, there was only one option. 

“I still think we should stay here until someone comes, but if you leave the cabin, I leave with you,” I replied, folding my arms in defiance. 

“It has to be done, Lily. Who knows how long it’ll be before they send a rescue team in. We’ve got water, but it will only get us so far, and there’s no telling how long that faucet will keep working. There is no reason why it should be both of us, though.”

I hated to admit it, but he was right. I’d been hungry since the day before, and I knew Finn was too. It was only a matter of time before water just wasn’t enough.  

“Where would
we
go?” I asked. The question was my subtle way of agreeing with him about the supplies while reiterating that I would not allow him to go alone.

“To the buffet on deck twelve. It’s the closest spot on the ship that’ll have food,” he said. “Do you know what suitcase the duct tape is in?” he asked.

“You brought duct tape?” 

“I used it to fix the suitcase handle I broke when we were packing at the house,” he said as he rummaged through our luggage.

“I have no idea.”

We spent the next five minutes searching before I found it stuffed in an inside pocket of our garment bag.

“Found it.”

“Perfect,” Finn said as I tossed it to him. He pulled on a dark blue long sleeve shirt I’d picked for him to wear on formal night. Before I could ask what he was doing, he started wrapping the duct tape around his sleeves.  

“What in the world is that for?” I asked, bewildered. 

“I‘ll be in the front, and I figure if one of them attacks us, this will hopefully provide some protection,” Finn answered as he patted his forearms. “Makes it a little harder to move, though.”

“What?” he said defensively when he noticed me staring. “I saw it on YouTube.”

After his sleeves were done, he moved on to his pant legs and midsection. I reached for the tape, but Finn shook his head. “I want you to be able to run if something happens.”

“You mean if something happens to you?” I said, frowning. “There’s no way I’d leave you.” Finn started to argue, but cut himself short and passed me the tape. 

After we finished Finn let himself down onto the bed.

“We should try to rest before we leave. I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted, and there’s no telling how long we’ll be gone.” 

I nodded and settled down next to him. I didn’t think I’d be able to rest with so much going through my head, but I was out in minutes. 

When I woke up Finn was gone.

There was a note lying next to me, scribbled in his messy handwriting.

It read:

“There’s nothing I could’ve said that would‘ve made you stay. This was the only option I could think of. I know you’re going to worry, but I couldn’t handle it if you came and something happened. We have to face facts, we are in the midst of a REAL zombie outbreak. That means these things will probably last much longer than we can. I have to get us food, otherwise being bitten will be the last of our worries. I’ll be back soon, I promise. Please please please don’t leave the cabin! 

I love you so much.

Finn.”

I read the note three times, not believing that he’d left without me.

Now I was alone, and so was Finn. 

My heart threatened to jump right through my chest as I leapt from the bed. I ran to the door and yanked at the handle. Without thinking twice I pulled it open and walked through.  

The emergency lighting was on, and I stopped partway through the door as my eyes adjusted. The hallway looked empty at first, until I noticed movement on the floor several cabins to my left. A large vacuum cleaner had been left out, probably while one of the maids were cleaning the suites. It was being moved by something.

I took a step away from the door as I strained to see what it was. I suddenly remembered I didn’t have a room key on me. I whipped around and caught it just in time. There was no sign of Finn. I couldn’t see him down either side of the dimly lit corridor. He was headed to the buffet on deck 12, but which one? I wasn’t as familiar with the ship as he was, but I was pretty sure there was more than one.  

I realized that as much as I wanted to look for him, I shouldn’t leave the cabin. If he came back and I wasn’t there, he’d leave to find me, and we might never find each other again.

I spent the rest of the day either worrying about Finn or deciding on just how mad I was that he’d left without me. I don’t even remember falling asleep.                    

August 16
th

It’s morning now, and I’m still alone.

There was the briefest moment when I woke up, a wonderfully bliss moment, where I thought everything that’d happened was just some horrible nightmare. It evaporated the second I found Finn’s side of the bed empty. 

I nearly ran outside the cabin in panic again when I realized he hadn’t come back. My hand got to the door handle before I stopped. I wanted to check every inch of the Wellspring until I found him, I still do! I don’t care about the maniacs out there, even if they really are
zombies
. Being ripped apart and eaten terrifies me, but not knowing where Finn is and if he‘s alright is even scarier.

After almost an hour of pacing I decided to continue waiting for him. If he came back and found me gone, he’d freak and probably get himself killed trying to find me. Even if I left a note, it probably wouldn’t turn out well.

Writing seems to be helping with my nerves, but it has done nothing to stave the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I don’t know if it’s from the lack of food or the fact that my husband is still out there.

He should be back by now, right?

The lights started to flicker about an hour ago. They went on and off for about ten minutes before going out completely. It meant that there were no crewmembers maintaining the generators.

Finn and I might really be the only two left.

I hadn’t thought of how hot it would get when the power went out. I changed into a light tank top and some jean shorts, but even as I write this beads of sweat are making their way down my back. The sliding glass doors to the balcony are cracked open. The light, salty ocean breeze is helping keep the cabin bearable.   

I can hear the distant crash of thunder somewhere over the water. There’s a storm coming, so I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep writing. The cloud cover might make the cabin too dark to see. I’m not looking forward to being stuck in the dark, surrounded by deranged cannibals.

Twice now there have been scraping sounds from outside the door. I’ve looked through the peephole each time, but didn’t see anything. I’m kind of glad I haven‘t. 

The water is still running, so I filled the tub to the brim. We might not have much food left, but the water should keep us going for a while. After the tub I emptied all the carbonated drinks in the mini fridge and filled them with water, too. I figured it’ll be better than flat soda.

Another three hours have gone by, and I can’t sit still. At the moment my intense anxiety outweighs my exhaustion, so there is no possibility of sleep. The storm has unleashed its full fury on the ship, too. The constant pounding of rain and bright flashes of lightning are wreaking havoc on my nerves. Despite the howling winds, the Wellspring hardly moved at all.

I found some candles in Finn’s bag; he knows I love to read by candlelight when I take a bath. This is the first time I’ve ever written by them, though. It makes me feel like I’ve gone back in time, all I need is a quill. What I can’t figure is how we got through customs with them, though. I’d read the lists of items that weren’t permitted, and it seems like they’ve really tightened up on security. It seems like a new terrorist organization is popping up every day now, so I can‘t really blame them. 

I’ve also been thinking about what Finn wrote in his letter. Can all of this really be a zombie outbreak? I keep going back to the massacre in the theater, and the crewmember that tried attacking us backstage. They really were acting like…
zombies
. 

This is all so crazy, and I don’t know what to think anymore.

Zombies just can’t exist.

Can they? 

August 17
th

Finn is back!

I woke up this morning to find him sleeping next to me, like he was never gone! He jolted awake as I punched him in the shoulder.

I was absolutely fuming.

“YOU IDIOT!” I wailed. “Why didn’t you wake me up? I‘ve barely slept since you left! I thought you were…that you’d…” 

“Calm down, Lily,” Finn said sleepily as he rubbed his shoulder. “You were asleep, and I figured you could use the rest. I was tired, too. That and I was scared of how you‘d react when I got back.”