The Afflicted: A Zombie Novel (21 page)

“Evan, look,” said
Amane pointing out the window. A couple of zombies were shambling up the pier toward them. Further back, hundreds more were entering the harbour.

“
Shit. I’ll get us going,” said Evan, taking the key out of his pocket. “Can you cast off? Just untie those ropes over there.”

She left the bridge and walked back down the
steps to the deck where she began untying the ropes. The meaty rope was heavy but she got the job done. She heard the engine start and as soon as she had loosened the final rope, the ‘Johanna’ pulled away from the pier.

Shielding
her eyes from the overhead sun, she looked at Evan through the crystal clear glass of the bridge. He was steering them away out to sea. His face was driven and focused. She wondered how he did it. How he could just switch off and focus like that? Had he forgotten Sasha already?

She looked back at the pier melting away as the approaching zombies fell into the oce
an. Unable to swim, they splashed around momentarily before dipping below the surface. She wondered how long they would stay that way. Would they rot? Would they stay below the water forever? She stayed out on the deck watching the city recede whilst Evan drove them on.

Amane
was enchanted. She had never seen the city skyline from this vantage point before and it was beguiling. Tall skyscrapers shot up into the sky, highlighting man’s ingenuity, his ability to beat nature. Yet looking closer, she could see that man was now dead or dying; the city was burning and the last two people alive there were leaving.

She left the bow and walked
carefully to the stern so she could watch Australia fade away. It was a peculiar feeling. She had made it her home in the last few years, yet she also felt as if she was a stranger here. Her true home was back in Tokyo. Her friends were there: people she had gone to school with, her first boyfriend, her relatives, aunts and uncles.   

She sat back
feeling the warmth of the sun and counted her blessings that she was alive. So many people had died, her parents, Lily, Joe, Rob, and Sasha. Back when she was fifteen, a close aunt had died. She hadn’t told her parents or even Hakuba, her best friend, when she had visited the family’s Kannushi in the temple.

“Where do you go when you die?” she had asked him.
His wizened old face remained expressionless. After the old man had considered this, he had answered her.

“
Where do
you
think?”

At the
time, she hadn’t known what to say and had blurted out something she had read in a magazine: something vague about heaven or hell. Amane had left the Shinto shrine and ran home. She replayed the conversation in her head.

“
Heaven or hell,” she said out loud. “Except when Hell is full, the scum get sent back to Earth until we’re all wiped out.”

“What’s that?” said Evan
, arriving behind her. He sat down beside her.

“What about the ship?” she said
, worried.

“It’ll be okay for a
second. I just wanted to make sure you were all right.”

“I’m fine.”

He sat beside her for a moment while they watched the city retreat from view. The sea air was invigorating. Heading away from the mainland with the gentle ocean spray on his face, it almost felt as if their problems were disappearing along with the city skyline. Soon he would be reunited with his children. He had to believe they were there. They
must
be.

“
Well I’ve got to get back to the bridge.”

They stood up
together and Evan walked away. “How long will it take? Until we get there I mean?” Amane asked him.

“All night
I expect. We should be there by early morning. Why don’t you take a look down below? There should be somewhere to rest up. Just take care, okay?” Evan trudged back up to the bridge leaving her alone.

Amane
stayed a minute or two longer and then followed him. She found her way through the bridge, proceeded down below, and tried the doors one at a time. The first door led further down to the engines. The second was a galley. She wandered around opening cupboards admiring all the food and drink. She helped herself to a chocolate cupcake and carried on exploring the ship.

Amane
paused in front of the third door. There was a rolling, banging sound inside, faint, but definitely there. Were they not alone on this ship? Evan was up on the bridge. Surely if there was anybody on board, they would’ve come out by now, unless they were incapacitated for some reason. She looked around for a weapon and drew a blank. She went back to the galley and grabbed a kitchen knife. She approached the door again slowly. The sound was still there and she turned the door handle slowly. When the lock clicked, she flung the door open brandishing the knife. A bottle of gin rolled up against the wall and she let out a sigh: spooked by a bottle. She picked up the unopened bottle, unscrewed it, and took a swig. The alcohol burnt her throat and she coughed before taking another, longer swig.

Venturing further into the
room, she put the knife down on a small table. There was a bed, table and chairs, closet, television, even a music system and an iPod dock. A photo hung on the wall by the bed and Amane took it down. A cheerful family smiled at her: a mother, father, and a girl. She took another long swig from the bottle and lay down on the bed. With one hand on the gin and the other grasping the photo tightly, she wept until she fell asleep.

*
* * *

Evan looked at the charts spread out before him. M
uch of it was gibberish but he had a good idea where they were headed. They were going to be at sea for hours bobbing up and down over the ocean. Father Thomas had told him about the Bass Strait, about the dangerous squalls and troughs. He also told him of the abundant marine life, the whales and sharks. It had been a couple of hours since Amane had gone downstairs and he heard her resurface, padding up the wooden steps to the bridge. He shuffled the charts away, not wanting to worry her.

“There’s some sort of marine GPS thing on here
, but damned if I can work it out,” he said as she sat down next to him.

She looked out over the bow
. The ocean was calm and peaceful. Occasional white crested waves broke the serene blue glassy sea reflecting the sky. She found it hard to tell where the ocean and the sky split. The horizon just merged them together. A large seagull flew down and landed on the deck, picking at its feathers, interrupting her thoughts.

“Do you think the animals know what’s going on?
I mean cats and dogs and that, well they’re basically fucked, right? Either their owner ate them or they’re stuck at home starving to death, probably contemplating eating their owner. What about the free animals that weren’t caged or tied up. The ones we hadn’t tamed yet: the birds, the insects, fish. It’s just another day for them isn’t it?”

“Well
he
certainly seems happy,” said Evan, watching the gull watching him. It flapped its huge white wings and took off, soaring over the railings and swooping low over the waves, until it was out of sight.

“
Amane, can I ask you something?”

He took her silence as a yes.

“What was George talking about? Why would he want to go to Canberra?” said Evan.

Amane
shifted in her seat and swivelled the seat to look at Evan. He looked tired. He hadn’t shaved in days now and he had bags under his eyes. If it was possible, he looked even thinner than when she had met him. It wasn’t just the physical punishment, but the stress that was taking its toll: on them both.

“I told him about a conversation I had with Lily. I wish I hadn’t
, but you can’t undo what’s done. And that’s a fact.”

Amane
turned the seat back to the window and for a minute, Evan wondered if she was going to carry on or just stare out the window.

“You remember she said her father works there?
Well, he was quite the VIP apparently, so what he told her is probably true. There’s a bunker beneath parliament. They built it a few years ago in secret, in case of a terrorist attack. After what happened to Hong Kong a couple of years ago, they weren’t taking any chances so they built it deep. Like
really
deep. Lily said it was stocked with food and water in case of a nuclear attack so they could survive down there for years.”

“S
o that’s where George is going? Good God.”

“There’s nothing good about Him,” snorted
Amane. “Anyway, you think George will make it? Or you think Lily was making it up, trying to impress us?”

“I don’t doubt her word. Will George find it and find a way in? That’s another question
. I bloody hope so. He’s a brave kid and he deserves a break. He’s lost his entire family in the space of a week. I’m not convinced the people in charge, whoever or wherever that is, have a clue what they’re dealing with though.”

“Evan
there’s something else. Lily told me about a plan. She spoke to her father briefly before we met her and he told her something. The line was bad and she only half caught it before they got cut off, but if she’s right...”

“What plan?” he asked.
Amane looked pale.

“They’re going to burn i
t: all of it. They think they can burn them out. Burn the country and the zombies will burn with it. Disintegrate, turn to ash and Australia will spring back up as it always does.”

“Burn it? That’s ridiculous.
You can’t burn a whole country!”

“That’s what I said
, but Lily was adamant that’s what he’d said.”

“Well
, whatever genius came up with that idea probably hasn’t got the ability to go through with it anyway. For starters, they’re buried below ground, so how do they even know what’s going on up here? Don’t tell me they’re using the cameras. The cities are on fire, Amane. Half the cameras don’t work and the other half are going to show you nothing but vast plumes of smoke.

“
Anyway, the zombies aren’t scared of fire. If they were, they would’ve left already, but they haven’t. If anything, they seem more concentrated the further you go
into
the cities. There are millions of them and a fucking bonfire is not going to wipe them out. Shit I don’t know. My head hurts trying to think about it all.”

Evan was exasperated.
Amane looked at the beautiful blue ocean shimmering in the sun. It was hard to juxtapose the serenity of the sea against the scenes of death and devastation floating around her mind.

“I found a letter,” he said, “pinned to the back of the door.”

“What sort of letter?” she asked.

“From the owners of this boat
I think. It was more of a note to one of their children, asking them to meet back at the hotel. They were worried as they had called their parents back in London and they’d said that England was overrun.”

“
Overrun?”

“
By zombies I assume. Said they were going to try to get the train to Paris, but then they’d gotten cut off. Whatever’s happening is happening everywhere, Amane. You know what your parents told you about your home? Do you think the idiots at Canberra know any better than anyone else? London, Tokyo...where does it end? I don’t know. I don’t know if it will end.”

For a
while, they just sat looking out the window. There was nothing either could say.

“Tell me about the ship,” said Evan
feeling disheartened, trying to lighten the mood. “Anything useful down there? I could use something to eat and drink. It’s got to be getting on a bit by now.”

Amane
stood up. “Yes actually. There’s a pretty well stocked kitchen down there. I was going to get us something but I fell asleep. I guess I needed a power nap. You want to come down with me and get something now?”

Evan powered down the engines. “No worries, just give me a minute, I’ll see you there.”

He busied himself at the controls whilst
Amane went to the galley. She poked around and found plates and cutlery. In the fridge was a cold litre of unopened water. She took it out and placed it on the counter alongside various tubs and jars of chilled food she’d found: pasta, potato salad, relish, cheeses, tomatoes, even some fresh prawns. Whoever owned this boat was clearly never going to go hungry. Her stomach growled as she lay it all out and it was only then she realised she was hungry. It had been hours since they’d eaten last. As the engines died, she found some glasses and poured out the water as Evan came down the stairs.

“Wow,” he said, standing in the galley doorway surveying the feast spread ou
t before him. Amane passed him the water and dolloped a spoonful of pasta onto her plate.

“
Tuck in,” she said through a mouthful of food. They both began eating, stuffing themselves with food that, though simple, tasted like a slice of heaven.

“Are we still headed the right way?” said
Amane, loading her plate with more food.