Chloe and Big boy went through her mental check list of questions, before she turned to the group and starting figuring out a plan.

"First we need a way of getting out to the ship. Anybody?"

I had been pondering that myself in between being beaten on the day before. "Yeah, I had a few ideas."

Which is how I found myself kicking along in the water with both hands pushing my wood shield ahead of me. The shield had my armor and what I was calling my cutter on it. It was fairly secured to the shield with most of a dollar store roll of duct tape.

Despite being made of wood, the shield was completely incapable of holding up the weight of my stuff, let alone me. The two doubled up heavy duty garbage bags on each side that had been filled with entire box of sealable sandwich bags, all filled with air, that were secured to either side of the shield with a orange extension cord was what was keeping everything from sinking to the body of the sea. I was just hoping it would still be useable after spending this much time in the water.

Which reminded me, I should really need to name the body of water we were in before somebody did.

What kind of name should I be thinking... You know what? I got nothing, so... "Dibs. Dibs on naming the sea, I called it."

"Shut up you stupid human. We're trying to not die here. Just call it death so no one else does something this stupid."

The shrill complaints were coming from Rill as she she lay on a transparent blow up air mattress, clutching on to a flat "seat" life preserver, one of the two we that had somehow ended up in room D. The other one had been taped to the top of a boogie board Tok was using to keep herself above water as Chloe pulled her along behind her. A look of grave suffering on the Hazk woman's face.

Rill look plain old terrified as two teens towed her along. It seem that people born and raised on space stations and in what sounded to me like a desert didn't get a lot of chances to learn how to swim. But the plan needed Tok, and Rill wasn't about to be left out of a fight. So all three members of my Isekai "Harem" were coming along on the mission.

Of course the one other Verco who coming along, Kun, seem perfectly happy in his children's unicorn floaty ring. he was kicking along and making his way out to the Pastoria all on his own. To be fair, he was the right size for it, and young enough to enjoy new things. As well as a bit of daredevil.

He had almost got Bran Starked off the bell tower when he popped into the window from the outside and surprised Sandra.

It seemed had been climbing the stone spires around the Verco's proving grounds when he got yonked here, which had earned him a [Climber] class which is why we were bringing along a Verco kid still young enough to just be wearing a sort of set of baggy shorts and a sleeveless pull over shirt from room D. The light blue shirt had a Squirtle on it, which seemed kind of appropriate.

Turns out the cloth the Verco used sucked up water like a sponge and was a poor choice to swim in, let alone try to fight in while weighted down.

Which is why Rill had a red plastic rain coat tied by it sleeves over one shoulder and black cocktail dress on over a set of cut down happy cloud pajamas.

Char, the Bluestone tribe's [Healer}, had given me a unasked for in-depth explanation of the historic and cultural significance of the Wraps, or Flitiko, a word I will never think of them as, that every adult Verco seemed to use. It had something to do with never showing all their options to others and also something to do with cleaning themselves, but at some point I just kind of let everything fall out of my head as quickly as the healer was trying to put it in.

If any of it was all that important, I'm sure someone will mention it again.

But anyways, we had a kid with up because he too, was part of the plan.

-The water is still clear, but your kicking is attracting some of the smaller predator. They also tasty, but small and some will get through if you take too long.-

"Thanks Big guy. We'll either beat them there or we won't"

The Big guy and the other sea serpents had taken out the shark finned squids creatures that had taken to hanging around the cruise liner the Pastoria after people starting jumping into the surrounding water to escape the zombies infesting the ship, as well as the zombies others had managed to throw over themselves. But Big boy was worried some of the other sea serpents, that ones he called youngling, that might be tempted to try nibbling off a limb from one of us, just for a taste out of a curiosity.

Another words, your typical, annoying, and for a bonus, lethal, teenagers.

Chloe paused to call out in a whisper, which probably carried father then just talking in a normal tone of voice, the next part of a our plan.

Earlier Chloe had decided to go with my plan to get us out to the ship. "Good, we got that part figure out. Now how do we get up to the ship."

That when we found out what a [Climber] class could do.

"I can get up there." One of the Verco children announced, just before running over to a wall with a leap and proceeding to sprint up it, all the way to the ceiling before cautiously setting his hand on the plaster sealing. Which concerned me. "Hey, don't try to climb out of that. It probably won't hold your weight and you'll mess up the murals."

Chloe smacked me on the back of my head. "Maybe worry more about Kun, then the painting."

I rubbed the back of my head. "I was, that's why I warned him first, then mentioned the mural. I can worried about both, and I did prioritized the kid."

My friend gave me a dubious look, then called the kid back down. "That's great Kun, but I don't think you can carry anyone else up." she turned to look at the group, then settled on me. "Do we have anything he can carry up for the rest of us to climb."

No one else spoke up while I considered our resources. "I think we have enough extension cord swe could tie together to reach, but they don't seem like something all that easy to climb. I also don't know how strong they are really."

And you know, the whole part of me being pretty sure that I at least, can't climb up what looked to be at least fifty feet to reach the lowest deck of the ship. I also doubted anyone else besides Chloe and Rill could do it either, let alone anyone being able to hold off all the of undead by themselves when they mobbed whoever went up first.

That when Tok asked. "Why climb up to get aboard."

So out on the water, Chloe swam over with the kid to the front end of the ship and held his unicorn steady as he headed up near the prow of the ship, just short of the deck and just clung there, waiting all eager and excited for the signal.

but Kun wasn't our way up, he was the distraction.

I know, I know, it was messed up sending a kid up there by himself, or at all. But the fact was, he was old enough to petition to become a adult in his society. Today was his test. The ship was his proving ground.

This is how his people did things. It's not for me to judge, and Kun volunteered even before the Abb laid his hands on his shoulders and told him that if he survived he would be a man. I'm not going to try to take that away from the kid, this is his day.

Tok was the rest of the plan.

The two boys, Brody and Andre, moved away from Rill to help hold Tok steady until Chloe swam back and waved them to tow Tok over to the side of the ship. Then she swam up and gently shook Tok until the Huzk finally opened her eye and started having a almost motionless panic attack until Chloe could calm her down.

The she got of the other half of the branch cutter that I had gotten the weapon I was calling Cutter from. Which I guess made Tok's half, the Branch.

The short curved hook on the business end of it was a thick piece of metal that ended in a rounded point. While I wouldn't want to be hit with it, it really wasn't suited to be a weapon. Which is why we gave it the [Tinker] to use as a tool.

The metal hook was thick enough for her to inscribe her symbols into both sides to make what she called a Slow knife. Supposedly useless as a weapon, but with Tok's broad shoulder putting as much force on it as she dared without risking flipping over into a deep dark sea, it made on heck of a cutting tool on the side of the ship.

As well as a loud one. Magical tool or not, it still made a amount of noise that you would expect from steel being cut. More then enough to attract the attention of the undead meandering around the deck above.

Which is when Chloe gave our decoy the signal.

The kid was up and around the prow to pop up on the railing on the other side of the ship, precariously balancing himself on the top of the rail while taunting the undead. "Look at me! Look at me! I'm the distraction!"

O'kay. Full points for getting the idea. But minus two on style.

Tok stopped cutting until Big Boy called out. -= They have all moved away to chase the insane one =- then she began cutting again, putting a little shoulder into it until she realized she one of her human pontoons was getting pushed down enough to leave her starting to dip down into the water on her left.

I tried to encourage her. "You're okay Tok, just try to brace with both your hips, not just one. Maybe have them move the board over a bit."

Chloe glared at me, but Tok just nodded. As a former guy she know what I meant.

Of course in order to get us all in, she had to not only cut open a hole big enough for her to get in, but one large enough to give her the room she needed to cut open the inner hull two feet in.

The area we were cutting into only had about a two foot drop, as we were directed by the ship's captain by way of Big boy as the best spot. So at least we didn't have to worry about loosing the Branch tool, or falling down.

Nope, we just had to worry about divebombing zombies.

Big boy warned up. -= The empty one are coming your way, the angry one is leading them.=-

Looking up I could see a mob of dead people. Recently dead people, still fresh with their necks torn open and covered in their own blood. All of them beginning to get pressed up against the railing. The zombies I had fought a few days ago had been almost comically long gone, like someone in make up or a good CGI from a cheese ball horror movie.

These... these were people. Grandmas and grandpas, young people in staff uniforms. Middle aged couples. Real people who had been killed and were just... walking around. Whatever mental filter had been laid on down on us wasn't doing it's job as a I froze in place. Right up until I saw the one the demon was riding around in.

It had been a man that must have been quite burly in his youth, and had only gone to fat with age. He had on a set of light gray cargo shorts and a mostly red Hawaiian shirt. Strained with something black that was covering his lips and chin, as well as running out of his solid black eyes like tears.

Black eyes filled with a hate that twisted the face it wore as it spoke. "Rector..."

What the? "They talk now?"

That got other peoples attention, as the two teenagers nearly dropped Tok into the sea before she pulled her self half way into the hole in the side of the ship. Then the demon was lifting and throwing a zombie as me.

Fortunately it had terrible aim as the skinny old guy's corpse just hit he water face first and just kept going down to the bottom.

I splashed back, pulling my gear as I went, and looking up to see the demon pointing at me and shouting in a spray of black gunk flying out of it's mouth. "Get him!"

The the zombies, at lest all of the ones in the crowd around the demon, started climbing up the railings. Some of them jumped out, getting a bit of distance, others just sort of rolled over the top as they were pushed by the ones behind them.

Chloe starting yelling "Clear out! Clear out! Get away from them!" But nobody was moving all that fast. Thinking about it later we would have been best off sticking close to the hull which curved in under the railing above. But when it's raining dead, you don't really have much time to think.

A older, heavy set woman managed to get a bit of distance from the rail as she dropped, all the way out to dive bomb my shield and tear away one of the black bag. Also getting trapped in the power cord well enough to start taking my gear down with it. With her arm thrashing around and her mouth held wide open to reveal a lot of dental work, I really didn't feel like getting in close to fight her for it.

Instead I just got close enough in to pull out Cutter by the very end of it's handle, getting it free just in time to see the weight of her corpse and my gear pull everything free from the other garbage bag. Leaveing it floating all on it own as my gear sunk to the bottom.

Then I was busy getting one of the teenagers, a tall girl named Bruna, free of the one of the dead who had managed to grab her wrist, and then her leg as the corpse sunk below the water and she got pulled in close to the girl as she tried to keep her head above water.

Cutter was not the best tool to on chop away at something under water, especially when the person you are trying to save is shoving you underwater as well while panicking. But I did manage to damage one of it's shoulder by stabbing down at it well enough to free Bruna's hand, and Chloe swam underneath and just wrestled the thing free of the girl, letting go of it to let it sink down out of sight.

But the time I caught my breath well enought to look up again, the demon was long gone with only a few zombies left behind to stare down at us blankly.

Where did he go? Looking over at Tok who had spent the fight cutting a section of the hull off well enough to use to support herself as she cut away at the inner hull, I guessed it was arranging a welcoming party.