Chapter 13
Stella
“So what the hell happened here?” Boden asked once the community of the S. S. Barbarabelle had convened in the grand dining hall.
Those of us who had just arrived – myself, Boden, Cole, Murphy, Bianka, Leandro, and Ryder – were sent down to the infirmary, where our resident medic Joseph Worrall began a new protocol. He checked our temps and inspected us for any bite wounds.
We’d all cleared, except for Cole, but he’d been sick for so long, it ruled out the lyssavirus.
He stayed down in the infirmary with Joseph, while the rest of us were allowed to clean up before heading down for a boat-wide meeting.
Including the seven of us recent returnees and newcomers, that was around fifty or so people in a room that could seat closer to a hundred, but I did notice a few faces were missing.
At one point, the dining hall had likely been the crown jewel of the luxury steamboat.
Gleaming crystal chandeliers hung from molded ceilings, while gilded mirrors adorned the lavish rococo paneling.
Of course now, the lights didn’t work, half the mahogany chairs had been broken, and there were blood stains and cracks on the mirrors.
Not to mention that most everywhere on the boat smelled vaguely of must or soot.
Although the dining room did typically smell better than most places because it was right off the kitchen, where Oakley Cruz and his small team of chefs worked.
Every day, they would cook lunch and dinner for all of the people who lived here.
It involved a lot of fish and seasonal vegetables, but it was always delicious.
Oakley, his wife Sienna, and their daughter had lived in Emberwood before it fell, but after his brother Wilder was killed during the attack, they decided that the boat would be safer
While I had been gone, I had thought about Oakley’s porridges almost as often as I thought about Fae.
Tonight, though, despite my appetite and cravings, his usual fare felt underwhelming.
Typically, his fish porridge was made with fatty trout, ginger, and garlic, mixed with spring onions, zucchini, and sorrel mushrooms. Then he would top it off with fresh cilantro or parsley.
But this time, it had thin cuts of fish with a simple broth and the only vegetable was canned corn.
I didn’t complain, but Murphy did give me a dubious glance after xe took xer first bite since I had spent so long hyping up his cuisine. I just gratefully ate my meal while Fae clung to me.
“What do you think happened?” Harlow answered Boden’s question rhetorically. “Zombies, same as always.”
She sat across from us, between her girlfriend Kimber and our friend Edie. One of her elbows was on the table, she languidly stirred her spoon in her porridge without taking a bite.
“It was my fault,” a woman interjected. “It was an accident, but it was still my fault.”
She was sitting a few places down from us, and I hadn’t seen her around before. She looked to be in her early-twenties, with jet black hair in corkscrew curls, and her skin was light brown. Her cheeks were round, almost cherubic, but she was slender and petite.
“Who are you, and how did you cause this?” Murphy asked. Xe was sitting on the other side of Boden, but xe leaned forward onto the long table so xe could get a better look at her.
“I’m Alphonsine Babineaux, but people usually call me Alphie.
” She lifted her head up, awkwardly trying to meet our gazes.
After a deep breath, she began again with the honesty of someone who had run out of places to hide.
“Me and my friends left a bad situation a couple weeks ago, and we were looking for another community.
But when we got here… Clifton was already infected.
“I didn’t know it then,” Alphie amended quickly, her dark eyes insistent and apologetic. “He hid it from everyone. It must’ve happened the day before we found the boat. We ran into some zombies, but I swear I didn’t see anything.”
“Alphie, we know,” Sienna said gently. As one of the longest residents of the Barbarabelle, she’d become sort of a one-woman welcoming committee for any newcomers.
“And it’s not like Clifton was the only one hiding things,” Harlow added, her tone weary and bitter.
“That’s how this whole thing became such a clusterfuck.
After Clifton went full zombie, he killed two people outright, and then he managed to bite another two in the process.
But of course Castor hid his own bite, so a few days later, we had to go through it all again. ”
Castor had been with us when we first discovered the boat, along with a few others and his twin sister, Polly. Things between us got somewhat strained after everything that happened in Emberwood, but he’d always been polite and helped out around the boat when needed.
“How many did we lose?” Boden asked.
“Five, including our nurse Mika Dumont,” Sienna said. “And when we burned the bodies, the fire got out of hand, and we lost one of our vegetable gardens and our shuttle boats.”
I held Fae a bit tighter to me and tried not to let myself think about what would happen if I lost her. The Barbarabelle was supposed to be a haven, some place where she could be protected, but nowhere was truly safe anymore. Somehow I’d let myself forget that for a while.
“We have new precautions for getting on the boat, as you all witnessed,” Edie said, as if reading my thoughts. “It can be safe here, as long as we’re cautious and prudent and honest.”
“That’s easier said than done, isn’t it?” Harlow asked dryly, and Edie shot her a look.
“Alphie, you said you had to get away from a bad situation,” Bianka remembered and turned her attention to her. “What was that?”
“We were part of this group called the Reverence of the Revenant – ” Alphie started to answer, but Murphy cut her off.
“Wait, you were one of the fucking Revvers?” Murphy asked, sounding simultaneously incredulous and disgusted.
“Look, I left them,” Alphie snapped. “I realized they were messed up, okay?”
“What are the Revvers?” I asked, confused.
“You heard about the Dignity in Death folks, right?” Murphy asked. “They were basically zombie rights activists who thought that instead of fighting them, we should be keeping them as pets or some shit like that. And the Revvers take it a whole other level.”
“They think zombies are superior to humans, that they’re the next stage of our evolution, and that humans should serve them,” Harlow continued for xer. “They think it’s an honor to be infected.”
“It’s not quite that simple,” Alphie argued, and her cheeks reddened with shame or anger, I couldn’t tell which. “When someone gets sick, they don’t stop being human. That’s all I ever truly believed. But that doesn’t mean I agree with everything they did.”
“Why did you leave?” Bianka asked, sounding much less accusatory than her partner.
“It’s hard to explain, exactly.” Alphie stared down at the table and seemed to struggle choosing her words.
“A lot of little things, and some big things. I wanted to help people, but everything we – er, the Revvers – did only caused suffering. And one day, I realized all we really have is what we do ourselves, here and now, and I didn’t know how much longer I could survive with what the Revvers were doing. ”
“And we’re so glad you found us,” Sienna told her warmly. “Life hasn’t been easy for anyone these past eleven years, but here we can be part of a community that actually helps each other.”
The conversation at the table gradually lost its intensity, and people went back to finishing their meals or talking amongst themselves.
“Well, how was your journey?” Edie asked me and Boden. “I know you’ve found some new friends” – she smiled and motioned to Murphy, Bianka, Ryder, and Leandro – “but did you find any sign of Remy?”
Boden’s mouth pressed into a grim line and he shook his head once. “No.”
“Did you say Remy?” Alphie asked. “Are you looking for someone named Remy King?”
“Yeah.” Boden instantly perked up. “Do you know where she is?”
“I don’t know where she is at this moment, but she ended up with the Revvers back in December,” Alphie said. “She wasn’t around that long, and she carried The Book of Mercy with her.”
“Where was this?” Boden asked.
“Fort Lately,” Alphie explained. “It’s a town to the north where the Revvers made their base. She didn’t seem to like it there much, not that I really blamed her, so she didn’t stay for long.”
“Did she say where she was going?” Boden asked, and all of his attention was completely fixed on Alphie. He was like a bloodhound locked on a scent.
“She mentioned Glacier Valley,” Alphie said.
Boden shook his head, unfamiliar with the name. “Where is that?”
“It’s in the far northwestern corner of British Columbia, almost to the Pacific Ocean,” Murphy replied.
“Doesn’t Cold Shore have an outpost in Glacier Valley?” Bianka asked xer.
Xe nodded. “It surely does. What does Remy want with Cold Shore?”
Boden hesitated, jaw working, and staring down at the table as if it held the answers.
Both of us knew of one reason that Remy might hold interest to some place like Cold Shore, but neither of us could imagine what possible interest they could hold for her.
After what she’d been through at the last government quarantine zone, she never wanted anything to do with organizations like that or even anything medical.
“All I know,” Alphie continued since neither Boden nor I answered, “is that she was in a hurry. I’ve never seen anybody look so determined and so lost at the same time.”
A heavy pause settled over us. The tabletop candelabra flickered, drawing shadows along Boden’s cheekbones.
Finally, he got to his feet. “It’s been a long few weeks, so I want to get some rest. Tomorrow, I need to go have a talk with Lazlo.”