Dead Sea

    Ignoring the rotting beast's smell, I snapped the rifle up and fired a shot. It was like shooting spit-balls at a dinosaur. The whale slammed against the dock, and the entire platform shook. I emptied the magazine into it. Beside me, the shotgun roared as Malik did the same. I don't know if our rounds had any effect. The zombie sank again beneath the waves, taking Chief Maxey with it. The lifeboat drifted away on the tide. The air trapped beneath the hull kept it from sinking. There was no way for us to retrieve it. The lifeboat was already out of our reach.

    Carol fell to her knees and sobbed quietly. Tasha and Malik just stared in disbelief. I knew how they felt. It had all happened so quickly. It just didn't seem real somehow. I mean, a zombie fucking whale? If circumstances had been different, I could have almost laughed. You go through life believing only in what you can see. What science can prove. Things like ghosts and monsters are the stuff of fantasy. But then, one morning, you wake up and the dead are out in the streets hunting down the living. Your world comes crashing down when that happens. But even when you get used to the idea that the dead can walk, a zombie whale still seemed incredible. In a way, I think it shook our world view all over again.

    The lifeboat drifted farther away. I watched it go, wondering where it would end up and if there'd be anybody left to find it.

    "Why him?" Carol sobbed. "Why Wade? He was such a nice man. So gentle. He saved us all. Why did it have to take him?"

    I put my hand on her shoulder. "I don't know, Carol. I don't know."

    We'd lost yet another member of our group. And now we were stranded. If there were zombies aboard the drilling platform, we'd have no means of escape-except for the weapons we held in our hands.

    "We'll grieve for the chief later," I said. "Grieve for them all. But right now, let's check our ammunition and then make sure this place is safe."

    Malik shuffled over to me as I dug through a bag and found more bullets.

    "If there's dead folks onboard, how we gonna get away?"

    I reloaded my magazine and refused to look up at him.

    "We'll find a way," I said softly, fingering the rounds. "We'll find a way…"

    The floor on the jack-up was about twenty feet off the ocean's surface, but there were levels under the rig as well. We stowed the supplies on the dock, intending to come back for them once we'd determined that the drilling platform was safe. A metal sign affixed to one of the girders said PROPERTY OF BLACK LODGE OIL & GAS-A DIVISION OF THE GLOBE CORPORATION-AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY. I hadn't heard of Black Lodge, but Globe Corp. was massive. One of those big international corporations that seemed to be everywhere. They had their hands in everything before society collapsed: electronics, defense systems, financing, energy sources, telecommunications. They'd been one of the big darlings on Wall Street. Their shares traded for hundreds of dollars. Now those shares were worthless.

    We approached the elevator. I took a deep breath and pressed the arrow button. There was still power. We heard the whine of an electric motor and squeaking cables as the car came down to us. The doors clanked open and we stepped inside. The elevator slowly rose. I tightly gripped the rifle and tried to reassure the rest of them with a smile. My fatigue was gone, replaced with nervous energy.

    We explored the jack-up level by level, sticking together as a group. Tasha and Carol were cautious, but Malik was excited. He wanted to run off on his own, and I had to keep hauling him back, warning him over and over not to do it again. We talked in whispers and communicated with hand signals. The silence was eerie. Everywhere we went, the birds watched us warily. We found a skeletal arm on one level, and a disembodied head lying between two drums of oil. The head barely moved, ravaged as it was by the birds. It had no eyes with which to see us. Its lipless mouth moved soundlessly. The zombie's tongue was missing, too. I kicked it over the side and watched it sink. Then I wiped my shoe off with some greasy shop rags that had been stuffed into one of the barrel's openings. Finally, we climbed back into the elevator and took it to the top level.

    The elevator doors opened and a dead man was there to greet us.