Merman - Romance

Chapter 12

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Chapter 12

It seemed as if his eyes had only just closed and then Kent was kicking Ridec against his leg and telling him it was time to wake up and move out.

“Already?”

“We have to try to utilize every second of daylight, these creatures are stronger, faster and hungrier at night,” Kent explained.

“You mean it’s safer?  We don’t have to worry about zombies?”  Ridec was hopeful.

“On land you always have to worry about zombies,” Jessell said.

“On land?”  Kent sounded puzzled.  “There’s nowhere else you can be.”

“You could be on a boat,” Pete piped out.  “My daddy was trying to get us to the water to see if we could find a boat or something.  He said that they were boats that had been abandoned, if we could fix one we would be able to live on the sea peacefully.”

“Come on, let’s clear out of here and forget all that wishful thinking,” Kate said.

“People can’t live on the sea, they run out of food, water and eventually they have to come back to shore to repair the boat, normally when they try to come back to shore they find that there are hundreds of zombies waiting on the shoreline to greet them,” Linda said as she shuffled around the small area collecting her things.

“Yeah and that’s provided that none of the people on the boat change and contaminate the whole plan,” Mark put in.

“ Everyone ready?”  Kent asked seeming to dismiss the conversation.  Ridec couldn’t help but feel the sense of hopelessness these humans felt, all they were doing were running until they were caught and killed.  It just didn’t seem right.

“Ridec,” Jessell whispered firmly, he hadn’t realized that his thoughts had been so opened.  “This is not our problem.”

Ridec just nodded his acknowledgement but he couldn’t help the way he felt.

“I think we’ve got everything,” Linda muttered just as Mark slung the small bag he carried over his shoulder.

“Me too,” Kate put in.

“What about you Jessell?”  Kent asked turning to her and leaning one muscled arm against the wall next to Jessell’s head.

“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,” she murmured nonchalantly.

Ridec grunted with annoyance, Kent was quickly becoming as much of a threat as the zombies.

**

They must have walked almost three hours before Pete said what everyone was thinking.

“We’re lost aren’t we?  What if we never get out of this cave?”  There was no response; perhaps because no one really knew how to answer the questions, instead they just continued walking twisting and turning as the cave stretched on and on.

“Where do you think we’ll come out?”  Kate asked.

“No idea.  I’ve never even dreamed of coming this far into this cave,” Mark responded.

There was silence again as the group moved forward slowly.

“Does anyone have water?”  Linda queried.

There was silence again, another question no one cared to answer.  Ridec could sense Jessell’s mind, she had water but very little and there was no way she was going to offer to share it with the others; water meant everything to merpeople, the truth was Ridec wasn’t sure how long the two of them would survive in this dry and barren place.