“I shouldn’t even be tellin’ you this part.”
For that Mitch received cries of disappointment from all of the kids.
“We want to hear” cried Julian.
“Yeah, don’t stop now” cried Paul.
“Yeah Mr. Mitch” said Benny. “You always say ‘finish what you started’. Come on now.”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah.”
Even nine year old Lacy had something to say. “Come on Mr. Mitch. I can take it.”
Mitch thought about it. Sure they want to hear it. But is it really relevant? The subject matter was enough to give him pause, but did they really need to hear this?
Then he thought of what Captain Bern would say to this. ‘No use trying to hide the truth. When you do that you’re only making future victims.’ It made sense then and it makes sense now. Plus, it saves him from agonizing over making that decision. And if their parents have a problem with that they can take it up with the captain.
“All right, all right, I’ll tell you. Just pipe down.” The kids immediately got quiet, leaning forward so they could hear every word.
“So like I said, the captain had a plan. He would cruise in real slow, so as not to draw any attention. Then three of us would go to the dock master’s shack and grab some water.
“Here’s the messed up part. He chose the three men with wives to do the job, figuring that no man would leave his wife alone for too long. That would be Mr. Larry, Mr. Brandon, and Mr. Robbie.”
“Who’s Mr. Robbie” asked Wendy.
“and Mr. Brandon” added Lacy.
“Someone you never met” said Mitch. “Look, just listen…
“We weigh anchor and the captain starts the engine. We come in slow, ready to jet the second things go bad. So far so good, the zombies don’t notice us. We pull up to the dock but we don’t tie off, captain’s idea. Larry, Brandon and Robbie get off the boat and slowly start making for the shack as quiet as can be. They get there and look inside. No zombies. They go inside and find the cases of water. They grab them and start making their way back, when Brandon’s wife decides to make a run for it. On her way down the dock she knocks over Robbie. She grabs at Brandon and the case he’s carrying, making him drop it, then she makes a break for their car, making all kinds of noise while she’s at it. This of course wakes up the zombies and they start making for them. So we got Larry running for the boat, Robbie trying to pick up the water bottles from his broken case, Brandon looking at his water and deciding it wasn’t worth it, and zombies coming for all of them. Brandon’s wife made it to the car and locked herself inside. Brandon runs up the dock to get to the car, only he’s got to run through some zombies. The wife’s in the car, just screaming, while the zombies start climbing all over it. After some hesitation and some fake outs Brandon makes it to the car but because of the zombies on his car and the zombies chasing him, he gets taken down.
“Larry makes it back to the boat with his case of water. Once he’s on, the captain revs up the engine and starts to take off. We all started yelling about Robbie, but the captain isn’t listening. Brandon’s wife meanwhile started the car and was banging around the parking lot trying to get out of there. Robbie gets to the end of the dock with zombies right behind him and cuz he’s out of options he just jumps into the water, followed by several zombies. His wife screams and jumps off the boat after him. Me and the others yell at the captain to turn around but he wasn’t listening. A couple of the guys tried to rush the wheelhouse but the captain pointed his gun at them, told them to get below or get dead. The last I saw of Robbie and Amber is them bobbing in the water, trying to save each other. It was messed up, the way the captain just left them. And there was nothing we could do about it, not as long as he had that gun.”
Winston spoke up. “Boo that captain. Boooo!” The other kids joined in, booing him with gusto.
“I know, it was pretty bad. He was pretty bad” said Mitch. “So now everyone’s mad at the captain for leaving them behind, and afraid of him cuz he got that gun. He don’t care, he has the gun, and he tells us, even me, that we can like it or leave it. No one wants to go on shore, so we shut up and do what he says, but not without some grumbling and some crying. He took the water and keeps it in the wheelhouse, which is locked now with him in it. He drives the boat northward, out of the harbor. And we sort of drift along, looking for other docks for supplies.”
“He’s a big meanie” says Lacy.
“He was. He was also as scared as all of us, maybe more. The zombie attack came out of nowhere. No one saw it coming. No one expected it. And for all of us things turned to desperation. And desperation can make you do all kinds of things, whether they make sense or not.
“You see kids, when people are faced with the unexpected, you never know how they will react. Someone you hung out with for years and always seemed pretty tough, when faced with danger could step up and handle it, or shrivel up like a daisy and run from it. You never really know until it happens. I always thought the captain was as tough as they come. Turns out he was a bit of a pu…, uh, a wienie.”
“That’s not what you were going to say” said Wendell.
“Shut up you.” Mitch gave him a glare and continued.
Mitch turned to the wall and pointed at a plank. “That’s why we have this wall, to remember people we lost to the zombies, or to whatever. See right here? There’s Brandon’s name, right next to his wife Amber. Mr. Jules put that there, I guess they were close. We lost them because of a crazy captain, and some scared folks.”
“Is your girlfriend’s name up there” asked Jaqui.
“No it isn’t. I can’t even remember her name. We weren’t that close. I had a few friends, don’t know what happened to them. My parents were already dead. So no, I’ve no names to put there. But Brandon and Amber are there. I barely knew them, but it still sucks they way they went.” Mitch grew silent just then, lost in thought. Long enough for the kids to get anxious.
“Ahem” said Billy.
Mitch started and turned back to the kids. “Huh? Oh right, back to the story. And Billy, you don’t actually say ‘ahem’. You just clear your throat.”
“Yes sir.”
“Yeah, so, we drifted north from there…
Arid Testimony 