《Zombie Survivor Diaries》Chapter 6: A boat ride that changed life
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That singular moment shook keeper out of her instincts, someone was there begging for help. Screaming at the top of her lungs to live, the shrieking sound was followed by many of the infected sprinting after the girl. It was a gamble, if she were to stop now there would be a big chance the infected would be able to get onto the rowboat. However if she didn't stop, it would be her leaving this girl to die, letting someone who was clearly still normal die just for her own safety. Could she do it? Could she sacrifice someone else over herself? But as she was considering her options her own body spurted into action, rowing back to the shore. “What am I doing? Why am I going back? I’ll die if I go back.” Phrases kept repeating in her head, despite her body rowing to the shore to rescue the girl her mind didn’t follow, her mind was conquered by fear yet her body moved without stopping, determined to rescue this girl.
Her eyes followed the girl who fell, she was chased, the panic creeping on her face as she ran like her life depended on it. The rowboat was only one jump away from the shore, anything closer and they wouldn't have the time to escape. It was now all on the girl to make the jump, it was on her to save her life, if she failed Keeper couldn't do anything more for her then she already was doing and if she made it then Keeper would have a second mouth to feed.
The girl leaped and surprisingly enough, leaped well, landing right into the rowboat. “GO GO GO '' The sound of her voice bellowing over the sound of the infected. Keepers arms moved without a word, following the girl's leadership without question despite being older than her. The Infected however lept after the boat, one of which scraped it, rocking the fragile boat against the water. But once the infected hit the water it was obvious that they already had a singular shortcoming, they couldn't swim or at least this one couldn't. Other infected started coming down the slope, luckily for keeper and the girl, they were long gone by the time the infected were able to come close. “The name is Jill. Thanks for waiting.” The girl said as she relaxed on the rowing boat, her body was cut and bruised from the crash. “You can call me Keeper.” Her voice was shaky as she looked up at the woman so she could inspect her up close. Now that she could get a better look at her body she noticed that the woman was of asian descent, her hair cut short with a pair of fancy sunglasses on top of her head which surprisingly didn't fall off in both the crash and the trip to the boat. The rest of her outfit seemed to point towards her or her parents being fairly wealthy. “Keeper? That's a weird na..?” She stopped mid sentence as her adrenaline levels lowered and she started throwing up over the boat. Realising and coming to terms with what had just happened. It was obvious that she had seen much more than keeper.
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It appeared that this moment of safety allowed both of them to take a deep breath. The water was calm as if nothing had ever happened, Seagulls flying above them peacefully. The only real sound coming from the paddles pushing against the water and the puking of Jill. The closest city was about half an hour away by ferry, it would certainly take longer with a rowboat. But this gave them time to think up a plan. Neither of them knew what they were dealing with so coming up with a plan would be crucial. “Do you have a cellphone? Maybe we could call the cops or rescue services to clean up the boat.” Keeper said after taking a deep breath, it was clearly bothering her that she was stuck with someone, rowing away from the place her art and peace were. The freak accident now fading out of sight as the rowboat started getting further and further away. “What? No, all the lines are dead anyway, I tried calling 911 when it all started but I got no response. I doubt it would be any different now. ” She said in a mocking tone. It seemed that normality had returned in her and she was acting mostly like a normal girl her age. Yet what she said was worrying, 911 not responding to an emergency call could only mean that either they were getting too many calls at once or nobody was there to respond. Both options were equally terrifying. Keeper didn't know what to do, hell she barely understood what the situation was in the first place. She was calmly on her island taking care of the lighthouse and then BOOM, she was running away from monsters that looked like people. “They were people and then out of nowhere they changed into these monsters, I was on the deck right before the crash and everyone there just started changing and attacking the people that didn't change. The crash really saved my life.” She said nonchalantly as if she wasn't puking just now. Although the explanation was difficult to understand, she could piece together what had happened. Or at least imagine the scene that Jill was explaining. A boat covered in creatures like the ones she saw, attacking anyone and anything that is moving, ripping them apart as if it was nothing. Jill tried to run to the edge of the yacht using some kind of rope to climb over the bars that would have normally prevented anyone from falling off. The infected tried to chase her. Perhaps that was why the infected were tumbling off before the boat had hit her island. Even so, Jill should consider herself lucky for not dying the moment the crash happened.
After their short conversation the two girls kept quiet for a while, it had been about half an hour rowing, yet their destination was not in sight by a long shot. Keeper was getting tired but did not want to say anything to Jill, who was staring off in the distance into the direction of the crash. “ I am sorry, your family must have been on that ship.” Keeper said quietly as she noticed Jill looking back. Something she didn't think about, Jill was on a yacht, something you would normally go on with friends or family. Something you would go onto if you were to have a vacation and Jill has not said anything about it so far. “No, not really. I was on the ship with my manager but he was the only person I really knew there.” She said without turning towards keeper. “My manager turned into one of them as well of course. First one I noticed turning. It was almost as if he turned into one of those zombies out of a zombie movie. But not quite the same, as he just changed. He didn't die or anything like that, he just changed. Weird growths appeared all over his body, foam from the mouth, things like that.” It kept feeling strange for keeper, hearing Jill talk about what happened in such a casual way. “Keeper right? Do you think the mainland is safe? Anything on the news?” Jill asked as she turned towards Keeper. As she did, Jill noticed how tired Keeper actually was and offered to take over the rowing. Which Keeper gladly accepted, her arms sore from the half hour, realizing just how much she was out of shape after she started living in the lighthouse. “I don't know, but it is our only option really. I was planning on docking the boat somewhat off of the main part of the village but we would need to get to my car if we don't want to walk. But it really can't be that bad can it? I mean sure it was on your ship but did it really already spread to the cities? Viruses don't go that fast do they?” Keeper had more questions but decided to stop asking here, it might show Jill that she is panicked and confused, something she didn't want to do. “I looked on facebook and twitter, it seems like almost nobody is responding or saying anything. The ones that do are asking if there is anyone out there that can either help them or join them. Do you want me to respond?” Her phone was now in her hands. It was clear that Jill's hands were shaking holding the thing, realizing that there was a chance the entire world around her had started crumbling. Keeper while worried, wasn't as heartbroken at the fact, sure they were in danger but something about it felt invigorating to her.
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Another half an hour passed. Jill was more talkative this time around, telling keeper about the things she had seen on the internet. Locations of people still alive and videos of the infected. Keeper now was able to see the infected up close. A video of the change was posted on youtube by someone named SurvivorKentucky708. The change was swift and clear, the infected looked very much the same as anyone else. But there were things off about the video, first in the background one of the infected changed into a completely different looking person, unlike the other infected. Keeper looked at Jill and Jill looked back. Both of them noticed the weird change of one of the infected. “Did you see someone like that on the ship?” Keeper looked at Jill as she asked, only to be met by a confused face and the shaking of her head. The weather started to worsen, clouds in the distance were getting more grey by the minute. Luckily, the beach where keeper planned to dock was in sight so they wouldn't have to worry about the weather while out on the water. This did mean they would have to find shelter somewhere and if the reports were true, the two of them would have to traverse a village that seemingly would be full of these infected. If they were like the zombie tv series she was watching that wouldn't have been a problem, she always wondered how people died in that series anyway. But from what she had seen these infected were just as capable as people. just slightly slower than a normal person while running. This meant that the infected could easily overrun them, Jill didn't seem like the fighting type and she knew that she herself was as good as a towel in an actual fight. The two of them sadly didn't have any time to plan as the shore was now close enough to dock.
As Keeper stepped out of the boat she looked around. Nobody was there, she didn't hear any sound coming from the road and there was nothing on the beach. She motioned Jill to come out of the rowboat as she slowly looked at her surroundings, she has been here before but knew that this might be the last time. The sand wasn't the pretty beach sand you would expect, it was more dark of colour and rough to the touch. Around her was a cliff, it wasn't high but it was high enough for her not to be able to look over. The Sky was now getting dark, it was almost as if the warm bright sun was abandoning the situation much like they were. “Keeper, What now?” Jill said rather casually and loud. First keeper was confused as to why she asked her for leadership, Jill at first glance looked far more capable but then Keeper realized that Jill was actually rather young despite looking at least 20 years old. Keeper looked up at the sky one last time to take a breath and glanced at the road.
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