And the Sea Shall Give Up Her Dead

[Lady Macbeth]

** Here is a really short rough draft I wrote in a couple hours (so don't expect much!). I bet the idea has already been done but I was just thinking of the prayer for burial at sea the other say for some reason and came up with this.**



The sun had been down for two hours when Lauren came back up. The first few nights on the boat, they’d lit lanterns all around the edges of the deck. But as the days piled on top of each other and the radio spilled nothing but static over the water, they left one and took the rest down to conserve fuel. After the kids were asleep, Ken and Lauren huddled together on its circle of jaundiced light, their backs to the vast darkness.
   
Ken knelt over the map, staring wearily at its grid of latitude and longitude. His throat felt crusted with salt. In the hold there were gallon jugs of mineral water stacked as high as his knees, but he and Lauren took only a few swallows a day, rationing it out. They let the kids drink as much as they wanted.
   
He heard her tread on the steps, the slight creak as her bare foot landed on the loose board by the rafts. He held out his arm, not tearing his gaze from the map. She came and sat beside him. He laid his hand on her hip. “Are they asleep?�
   
“Yes.� Lauren ran her fingers through her tangled hair. “Jack asked about Bowser again.�
   
Ken sighed to hide his shudder. He’d gone back to the house for a few things before they cast off. He meant to collect the old mutt as well, but some of them had gotten to him first. What was left of the dog looked like a heap of slaughterhouse offal.
   
“And he asked about Grandma Shelly too. It’s been a week since the last time he asked. I couldn’t figure out why he’d think of her now until…I realized it’s Wednesday. That’s the day she picks him up from preschool and…� Her voice sank into exhaustion. She didn’t cry anymore. She’d cried a lot, the first few days, but no more.
   
And what about his own parents? They lived just down the street from a church. A church with a cemetery. He imagined the weed-carpeted graves shifting, the grass drowning in a fountain of dark soil. Even the oldest bodies clawed their way out, skeletons held together with bare strings of gristle, yellow teeth snapping, empty eye sockets gaping wide. At first they hadn’t believed the film on the news. But as the names of cities printed across the bottom of the screen grew nearer, Ken had started to think about the sailboat.
   
Lauren bit her lip. “Caroline…she’s just enough older. She doesn’t ask questions.�
   
All around the sea took great, slow breaths. Something splashed near the bow. Ken started. A dolphin, a fish. Land was a million miles away.
   
“We’ll find an island.� He said. “There are hundreds of uncharted islands in the Pacific, uncharted and uninhabited. Any place with people is bound to have a…a graveyard.�
   
“If we had that idea about the boat, surely other people did, too.� Lauren’s shoulders straightened a little. “If we find an island, and they find us-“
   
“I wouldn’t count on it, honey, The Pacific’s a big ocean.� Kan tapped a blank spot on the map with his finger. He didn’t tell her the sailboat wasn’t built for long voyages; it had been made to cruise along the coast. But they were here now, with no land in sight. Just the velvety blackness of the sea, the slightly paler sky, the icy pinpoints of the stars. They were here, and they couldn’t go back.
   
Another splash, this time near the stern. Lauren shivered. It got cold on the water, after the sun went down. Ken drew her closer.
   
Something thumped into the side of the boat. They looked up. Lauren put her hand on his wrist. “A shark?�
   
There came a sound, again from the bow. Not a splash but a scraping, like a nail dragged down a mirror. A splash at the stern. Another over the side. A thump on the bottom of the boat.
   
Kan staggered to his feet, pulling Lauren with him. She clung to his arm, her nails biting into his skin. His heart stuttered in his chest. Fear swelled in his throat, choking him.
   
“Sharks…?� Lauren’s tone crept upward, into a whine.
   
A dark shape appeared over the side of the boat. Lauren gasped. Ken snatched up the lantern. His hand trembled so badly that the light danced crazily, flinging shadows in all directions. But it showed him well enough what the shape was- a human body. Water glistened on the ragged shreds of flesh that clung to the skeleton. Water dribbled from its empty eye sockets. The skin was purple-black, its lips peeled away to reveal yellowed bone beneath. Its rotted foot struck the deck with a wet squelch.
   
Around the boat more shapes rose up. Ken swung the lantern, glimpsing a half-melted face, a tangle of black hair, a decayed military uniform, an exposed shin bone. The creatures themselves made no noise, but their feet hit the boards in a chorus of sickening thuds.
   
Ken put the lantern down. His hands had stopped shaking. “Lauren, go below to the kids.�
   
“But-“
   
“Go. Now.� He lifted her fingers off his arm, keeping his gaze on the first corpse. In the corner of his vision he caught her face, gray with fear. Then her footsteps retreated, the loose board moaned. He held his breath until the slam of the hatch told him she was in the cabin.
   
More climbed up the sides, crowding forward the ones already on deck. They surrounded him, shambling forward, mindless hands reaching out, jaws agape. The stench of decay was dampened by the tang of salt water.
   
The sea vomited up her dead, and Ken doused the lantern so they couldn’t knock it over and set the boat on fire. He burned his fingers on the lantern’s metal cover. In the abrupt darkness a hand closed on his shoulder. He put his stinging fingers in his mouth and closed his eyes.

[Amethyst]

Oh yeah right... what a cop out... he actually thinks by sacrificing himself they won't tear through the hatchway door and kill his family???  Where is the logic in that??  Or by mercifully killing his family before the things get to them??  Surely it would be better to drown in the sea or die in a fire than have those slobbering ghouls eating your insides out!!  And he didn't have a gun?  Plenty of water, but no gun??  No knife?  Come on... those are basics for survival, even on a boat... well the knife would be anyway... lol..

Although that really kinda sucks they've spent all this time out on the ocean to get away from the zombies, and here they come up from the bottom of the sea bed...

It is a really neat story, I just can't fathom why he would just give up after trying so desperately to get his family to safety, or that there isn't something on the boat he could use as a weapon... 

It certainly has a macabre tone to it... although I wonder just how many bodies would be complete enough to rise from the sea...

I guess there really isn't much to continue with it... I was hoping for a better ending than them being eaten alive by zombies... lol..

[Lady Macbeth]

Those are really good points, Amethyst. I'll make notes for the revision. I scribbled it down quickly and (obviously) didn't think it all through.

I wondered how fast bodies decay in the open ocean, with all the animals and such, but I figure enough people die at sea that there would be plenty of recent corpses to devour the family. 

[Amethyst]

Well he just made me mad cause he pretty much just said here I am, come eat me... with no regard to what of course was going to happen to his wife and kids... I'm sorry, but I think drowning or even suffocation/strangling would be preferable to zombies!!

Maybe I just read too many warrior stories where they provide the women with knives in the event the stronghold is overrun by enemies so they can mercifully kill the children instead of allowing them to be enslaved, tortured and eventually killed anyway.... plus they can then kill themselves to prevent raping and torture before their own deaths...

I would think that bodies would decompose extremely quickly, since when they do recover one from water, it is pretty well gone, even if it's only been a few days or a week.... so that would pretty much leave skeletons, and I'm guessing that salt water would do a number on bones pretty much so they wouldn't even be attached anymore if not completely gone...

And I was so hoping to hear how they found a little island, and all their adventures in trying to survive.. the island could be inhabited with natives, or wild animals and such, plus other people might end up there trying to escape the zombies too... although I'm guessing the military might find it fun eradicating all those zombies with flame throwers or blowing them into itty bitty bits..  Or better yet defeat them with magic... a savior could arise with powers to kill or control them... yeah, there we go... lol.. 

[matthew]

:kittii

A moment to get into it, then yeah, it's okay. And hey, I know this movie!
Perhaps opening paragraphs sometimes need more effort to bring the reader in or else orientate them.
Maybe. I don't know. Perhaps it's me getting into reading. xp Patience to read is actually a virtue.
Once the reader's running you're flying.
Yeah.
I found myself sort of hoping they die. Much morbid me?

Quite what he's doing letting himself get killed?
But yeah, twists in the ending. Conclusion kind of thing.

>>I wrote in a couple hours (so don't expect much!
Pfft! Rewrites are for <insert your favorite>.

[marka]

Gotta say, I knew what was coming once the situation (dead rising) was clear. (The title helped.) But that was okay, waiting for the harsh reality to strike, or gnaw, or chomp.

Not sure what else to say. It's such a short piece. Despite the subject, it's not really dramatic. The situation gets defined and then the zombies surface (along with some especially nice description) and then it's over.

In terms of developing it, I guess you could always build up some sort of "Twilight Zone" irony by expanding the exchange between Ken and Lauren ... for instance, it would be fun if he was a zombie expert or loved zombie movies, yada yada ... or if something between them (an old argument) cropped up ... or whatever. Just some interpersonal drama. (DId you ever see Hitchcock's Lifeboat? Not my fav of his films, but it's interesting.)

Of course, it'd be better if you came up with fresher ideas than mine ...  but I think you get my point.

I like Amethyst's idea of having flame throwers ... Having one of those on board might be fun.