Brian Keene Dead Sea

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Assateague
got the disease, we
'd have zombies on both sides. The horses were used
146
to crossing the bay--chances are they'd do the same after death. I'd rather
not risk
it."
"But horses are immune to Hamelin's Revenge," I said. "I saw it on the news,
before
we lost power. Sheep caught it, but not pigs. Horses were immune, but cattle
were
not."
"Perhaps they were," the chief said. "But the disease must have adapted later
on
because I saw a dead horse running around downtown. It was one of those police
horses
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and it was chasing a live dog."
"Are you sure it was a zombie?"
"Its broken ribs were sticking out of its flesh and its tail had been torn out
by
the roots."
"Something else to consider," Turn said. "Wherever we dock, even if there are
relatively
few zombies, we might want to wear gloves and some type of face mask to
breathe through.
Maybe we can make something up with what we have on hand. One of the museum
displays
has cheesecloth. We could make a mask out of that."
Basil, who had only been paying half-attention, sat up. "Why would we need to
do
that?"
"Disease," Turn answered. "Think about it. Even if the army or somebody had
killed
all the zombies, they wouldn't have been able to burn all the bodies. There'
s simply too many of them. The fire pits worked early on, but once the
situation
got out of control, those failed, too. So now you
've got thousands, maybe millions, of dead bodies lying around--
or walking around. Corpses carry disease. Every zombie is nothing more than a
walking
biohazard."
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"Good point," I said. "But if that were the case, then why aren't any of us
sick
yet? We've survived this long. Wouldn't we have caught whatever disease
they're carrying
by now?"
"Not necessarily. I don't know for sure because I wasn't on deck when you guys
shared
your stories. But I'
ll bet almost all of us survived by staying holed up somewhere and avoiding
the zombies
whenever possible. The fires were what forced us out of hiding, and we had
limited
contact with the dead before boarding the
Spratling."
Basil still wasn't convinced. "You guys remember Hurricane Katrina, right? In
New
Orleans, people waded through the floodwaters, and there were bodies floating
in
the streets. There wasn'
t a massive outbreak after that."
"Lot's of people got sick in New Orleans," Turn said. "But the difference was
that
there were aid stations and medical help on hand soon after."
Tony lit a cigarette. "Maybe we're immune to Hamelin's Revenge. Maybe we've
already
been exposed and it just didn't take."
"Maybe," Hooper said, "your ass should go first when we land. Let one of them
fuckers
take a bite out of you and then we'll see if you're immune."
"No thanks."
"I think we should keep an eye on each other," Mitch suggested. "Make sure
nobody
is getting sick."
"I agree," Runkle said. "And if they do show signs of disease, we should
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quarantine
them."
None of us argued with him. Runkle may have been a prick, but he was right. No
way
could we
148
risk everyone onboard the ship coming down with hepatitis or the bubonic
fucking
plague.
Chief Maxey tapped the laminated map. "That'
s all the more reason why we need to find a place to resupply ourselves soon.
In
addition to food and water, we need medicine and first aid supplies. If we
'd had insulin, maybe that poor woman would still be alive."
"No sense beating yourself up over that, Chief," Tony said. "It was just bad
fucking
luck on Stephanie's part. There wasn't anything we could have done."
"I suppose not," the chief admitted, "but I'll be damned if we're going to
lose anyone
else because of something like that. We've got one little bottle of aspirin
and Murphy's
cough syrup supply--and he'
s drinking through that like it
's a bottle of Knob Creek. If somebody does get sick or hurt, we're going to
need
a lot more than those."
"Okay," Mitch said. "So Norfolk and Portsmouth are out. Same with Virginia
Beach,
Hampton Roads, Little Creek, and Ocean City."
"Virginia Beach is a possibility," Chief Maxey corrected. "Down from the
tourist
area, there's a stretch of national forest. There's a small station there we
could
try."
"What's up north?" Runkle asked.
"The Isle of Wight." Chief Maxey traced the coastline with his finger. "And up
in
Delaware, there's Rehobeth Beach, Bethany Beach, and South Bethany--
all of them are going to be packed with zombies."
Turn said, "What about the lighthouse at Fenwick
149
Island? That should be fairly deserted. I think the lighthouse itself is on
automatic,
so there'd only be a maintenance man, if anyone."
"That's a long way to go," Chief Maxey sighed. "We're closer to North Carolina
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