Dead Sea

    Chief Maxey nodded. "I had nowhere else to go. I'm not married. I have no children. I don't even have a pet. My apartment was just where I went to sleep. All of my free time was spent here onboard the Spratling. This was where I wanted to be. And by then, it wasn't like we were open for tours, anyway. Early on, I raided the Whole Foods store, the aquarium's cafeteria, and some of the restaurants at the Inner Harbor. But I was alone and couldn't carry much at once. And to be honest, I wasn't counting on feeding twenty people. Food and water will be our number one concern. The good news is we have fishing tackle onboard-I used to fish in the evenings after we closed to the public. And one of the displays has deep sea rods that previous sailors used. So we can supplement our rations with fish. We can catch and collect rainwater, as well. The ship has a small supply of fresh water. It was used for the water fountains and the head-that's a rest-room for you civilians who don't speak military. But the water tank isn't at full capacity. I've shut off the showers and sinks so that we can better conserve it. The toilets and urinals are shut down, too, but I kept the head in the engineering compartment operational. We'll show you how to get there later on. But that is the only functioning head and I ask that when you use it, you adhere to the following rule- if it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down. That will help to save water."

    We laughed at the joke, and then he continued.

    "The showers in that head are also functional. Again, I ask that you adhere to a strict time limit. No longer than two minutes per person to shower. Once we fill our tanks, I'll lift that rule. My plan is to find a base or station where we can take on supplies. Maybe we'll try the naval base in Norfolk, or Hampton Roads or Portsmouth. There are a number of bases and commercial docks we could try. We could possibly even anchor off Ocean City or one of the other seaside resorts along the coast, and take a lifeboat in to shore."

    "But the situation in those places will be just like it was in Baltimore," Mitch said. "Do we have enough people to fight our way into and out of a storage depot or fueling station if it's overrun with zombies?"

    "I don't know," the chief admitted. "But I'm glad you brought that up, Mister…?"

    "Sorry. My name's Mitch Bollinger."

    "Well, Mr. Bollinger, you raise something else that we need to talk about. Officer Runkle and I were talking earlier this morning about law and order onboard ship. Like it or not, this is our home for the foreseeable future. Now, I'm sure that all of you are very nice people, but the fact of the matter is, I don't know for sure. Neither do you. With the exception of Mr. Bollinger and his three friends," he nodded toward me and the kids, "all of you boarded the ship on your own last night. None of you were traveling together. It was simple luck-and the fires of course-that brought you all to the harbor at the same time. So even though we might all seem nice, we really don't know each other. Many of you brought weapons onboard: rifles, pistols, knives-I think I even saw some grenades, though I can't remember who had them. Officer Runkle and I feel that our best course of action is to lock all of those items up in the ship's armory. It's for your safety as well as everyone else's onboard. We have children present, and it wouldn't do for one of those weapons to find its way into their hands."

    "Hey," Malik said, "I know how to use a gun. Grenades, too. I blew up a whole bunch of zombies last night."

    A few people in the crowd laughed, and that just made Malik angry. Glaring at them, he leaned against the rail and scowled.

    "I'm sure you're very brave, son," Chief Maxey said. 'And if you used a grenade last night, then I think it's safe to assume it was your father or Mr. Bollinger who brought them onboard?"

    I started to tell them that I wasn't his father, but before I could, Mitch spoke up.

    "I did," Mitch said. "And I'm not too happy on the idea of giving them up, even temporarily. Like you said, we don't know each other that well. And what if we do get attacked by marauders? How would we defend ourselves if we got boarded?"

    "If we were attacked," Runkle said, "we'd know in advance. The chief has a key to the armory. He could distribute the weapons."

    Mitch didn't seem assured. "Is it the only key?"

    "Yes." Chief Maxey nodded. "I have a complete set of keys for the ship. The duplicates are back at the Maritime Museum offices."

    "So, no offense, Chief, but if something happened to you-if you fell overboard or lost the keys or something, and we were attacked, what would we do then? Cut through the armory door with a torch?"

    "Well," the chief admitted, "that wouldn't be very feasible."

    "No, it wouldn't," Mitch said. "And we don't have the means to copy your key. Look, I don't like the idea of all of us roaming around with guns either, but the simple fact is I'd feel more comfortable holding onto mine."