It has been an exhausting 2 days. And that is a colossal understatement. We found Henry and Zoe in the bilge compartment of the ship just in a different section of it. During the course of autopsies, we determined that the monster, Double Dutch, whatever you want to call him, drowned both of the children in the filthy, contaminated water. In order to prevent either of the children from returning, Ben removed their brains from their skulls.  We then locked the bodies in one of the luxury staterooms and kept guard. It would have been easier to just toss the bodies over the side of the ship of course but we needed a clue as to what it was that was bringing them back. If  we’re dealing with a virus or pathogen that has gained the ability to be airborne, there was no telling how many people who had died from natural causes over the course of the last few weeks or even months that could be affected. The Undead army could grow by staggering numbers if this were the case. The ramifications were disquieting to ponder.

We knew that a shot to the brain killed them so essentially we wanted to know if disconnecting the brain from the body after death would prevent a reawakening. With Jess and Kalla, it took them quite some time to come back. And the scary thing was they could have come back while we were performing the autopsies on them. There was so much that we didn’t understand that taking the chance to do a little bit of experimentation when we could was worth it. Some might cringe at the thought of using the children but the truth of the matter is that they were already dead and we didn’t want their deaths to be in vain. They had already died in such a horrible way; why not have their deaths to help humanity?

In the end, they never reanimated so we can’t exactly draw a conclusion that what Ben did worked. All we can say is that it might have worked. We can’t say with 100% certainty that Jess and Kalla hadn’t been contaminated in some way though the chances of that were so slim that it bordered on being next to impossible. It would have been smarter if we had left one brain intact and removed the other. Hindsight is 20/20 but I think the thought of more Undead on the ship had us all a little petrified so we really didn’t take any chances.

The main thing that we’ve decided on as a group, well as a smaller group because not everyone was involved in the decision was that we need to get our hands on the FBI Double Dutch profile. We can’t afford to let anymore of our children to go missing. What if he were to take Lily and Liam next? The two of them are just coming back to us after Julie’s death. I don’t think that Ben or I could bear to lose them. I know they’re not our children by blood but since we found them the bond that we’ve formed with the two little imps has grown just as strong. Ben and I might not talk about them all that much but we’ve just been so worried for them that we couldn’t talk about them. I hope you understand.

So our plan is simple. We’ve already got the ship into position off the coast of Brooklyn but not too close. We don’t want to alert any of the Undead to our presence out here. We’re going to have some of the crew row us to shore in one of the lifeboats so that we can be fairly silent the closer we get. The idea is for us to get into the city in a small team of 3 people, Doug, Phillip, and myself (Max, just in case you were wondering) and then make our way to the closest NYPD Precinct.

We chose Brooklyn because it has access to the ocean and an abundance of Precincts located within it. We’re obviously hoping that when we hit the 60th Precinct on West 8th Street that everything is in order and we can just get in and out and back to the ship with no problems. Something tells me that it’s not going to be the case though. The information that leaked out of NYC during the spread of the infection wasn’t good. All of those people in such close proximity with limited avenues of escape was not the equivalent of fun times for most.

We have no idea what to expect. We have no idea what shape the Precincts will be in. We’re going to bring the laptop with us just in case the hardware at the stations have been trashed or looted. We are going in 100% blind and hoping that we don’t end up dead, or worse Undead. We have a map of all the stations and a plan. That’s about it.

If you happen to be reading this and you’re in NYC and want to get out, the life boat will be returning to Coney Island every night at 6pm starting tomorrow night for 5 days until my team returns. If we’re not back in 5 days, they’re going to move on without us. Just try to be as discreet as you can if you make for the life boat. If hordes of the Undead are following you, they won’t be able to help you. And you could end up putting all of us in jeopardy.

So we row ashore at first light, carrying only essentials: guns, ammunition, limited water, and the laptop. If you’re of the persuasion that prays, could you say one for us? We could be walking into hell to save our sanctuary from another.

The Next Day