End of the Line (Book 2): Stuck in the Middle by Lara Frater Page A

hadn’t been worn several times. Now that it was cold, we wasted some battery power running the dryer for 30 minutes. We never washed sheets, towels, or blankets, just kept using it no matter how rank. A blanket that Brie threw up on got tossed overboard. When I got my period I was careful not to soil my clothes. During supply runs I searched health food stores for diva cups, but never found them. I stuck to tampons because they were easy to flush. One great thing about this boat was it has a large capacity waste holding tank. We can piss and shit for six month without dumping it. 
    I looked forward to moving to a house. Sunlight in the summer and a fireplace in the winter could be our dryer.
    I had dinner with the others. One of the freeze-dried dinners from a Costking emergency bucket that tasted like cardboard. Tanya never mentioned my outburst again. Mike had been right. Henry got the engine running later that day.
    Tanya sat in her usual spot. I think she wanted to live on this boat forever.
    At five minutes to ten, everyone had left the table. I grabbed a cup of strong hot black coffee, a lantern and went to bridge. The air was frigid and I was dressed for it with five layers. Eric was waiting for me. All the lanterns were lit and the kerosene heater was going. In eight hours, Hannah would relieve me. I hated night shifts. Only ten of us could do it, which meant I had to do one every two weeks. Night shifts were the worst. It was hard to read in the lantern light and most of the time people including me had fallen asleep. I had a DVD player and book, but I was supposed to be on watch and occasionally walk around.
    There was nothing to keep an eye out for. All I saw in every direction was fucking darkness. No lights from shore, not glowing zombies, nothing but blackness and some light from the stars when it wasn’t overcast. It wasn’t tonight. It was clear and freezing cold.
    Eric had a book with him. His shift was from 2-10 so he had a few hours of daylight to read in. Tanya never bothered him for his behavior like she did with me. As long as he did his work and he wasn’t a problem. Quiet and brooding was fine. Acting out like Dena or I guess me wasn’t.
    “Hey Eric, how are you doing?”
    “Fine.”
    “No trouble?”
    “Nothing.” He put on his coat and hat. I had one similar that Maddie knitted. We all did. Maddie had spent a lot of her off time knitting things.
    “Have a good night.”
    He didn’t respond, instead left the bridge, allowing one last frozen blast of air inside. I had a strong suspicion if Eric ever got the chance to leave us, he would. He’s only here because he knows survival in numbers.
    Since this was a luxury yacht, the bridge was elaborate with plush couches, leather seats and a captain’s chair. I sat in that with a blanket around me. It had been one that Maddie had knitted.
    I had a book with thankfully good eyes. Besides Keith, only Eric and Hannah wore glasses. Rachel did Eric’s prescription a month before we fled Costking and she made four pairs for him. Hannah said she had two extras. I don’t know what to do about Keith. Since I didn’t think we could get him new glasses. We could steal them out of stores or off the dead but it might never be the prescription he needed. 
    I put the book under one of the lanterns and began reading. It was a light hearted mystery, something easy to read without thinking. I knew I couldn’t do this for eight hours. Read one page, look around at the dark, then read another. Night shifts needed two people. I don’t know how Grace did them at Costking. I guess she liked shooting zombies. Now there wasn’t that much more to kill. In the dark I wouldn’t be able to see the floaters. There were two battery operated torch lamps on the outside deck but I could barely hit anything even in broad daylight, let alone the choppy frozen dark ocean. I’m pretty sure droves of floating zombies came in the night that no one noticed. I only noticed the