Excerpt: Captain Tory's Schooner/Zombies Amuck/State of Altitude

Captain Tory's Schooner
by Elysabeth Eldering

The large ship appeared out of nowhere on this very dark and foggy night. Bobby didn't know if he should run or board the schooner for an adventure of a lifetime as promised to him. The ship appeared to be something out of a ghost story as opposed to a real ship. Bobby found it very difficult to see the schooner or really any parts of it. His first inclination was to run away and forget he had ever met Captain Tory, but with Captain Tory gripping his right arm he knew he couldn't run anywhere.
Bobby wondered where the ship would dock. There was no pier for it to anchor by; there was no way it could get close to the shore as the water was too shallow and the bottom was nothing but large rocks. The ship moved closer and closer to shore. Bobby feared it would run aground and sink from all the large boulders and other things in the water. Bobby's eyes grew wide and he tried to run before the ship had had a chance to wreck and take him out with it. Bobby's feet were stuck. He couldn't move one way or the other.
Captain Tory must have sensed Bobby's fear because his grip tightened every so slightly. “Listen here, boy.” Captain Tory hissed at Bobby, “won't be none of that baby stuff on my ship. When the boat docks...”
Bobby stammered, “But, but, but...”
“Speak up, boy. I can't hear nonsense.”
“Sir, there's nowhere for it to dock. It's about to run aground and we will be taken with it, washed out to sea.”
“Nonsense. My ship has never met a shore it didn't like.”
The ship continued its slow movement closer to shore. Then it stopped suddenly. No noise, no stones scraping the bottom, nothing. The gangway or gangplank, Bobby couldn't remember what it had been called in the books he had read, slowly lowered towards the road that Captain Tory and Bobby were standing on. It moved with no noise. Bobby was sure gangplanks needed some sort of mechanism to move but he heard nothing. Just the silence of the foggy night surrounded him.
“Now remember, boy. When we get on ship, you are to speak to no one, not a soul. You will be quartered until I've had my meeting with the first mate and my crew. Afterwards, I'll fetch you for your chores.”
“Chores?”
“That's right. Every boy has chores. You will adhere to the schedule or face your worst nightmare.”
“Captain, I'm very hungry as I haven't had my dinner since I was snatched so quickly. Would it be possible to get a bite to eat before starting chores?”
“If there are any vittles left, I might think about putting a plate together. If not, you'll do your chores and maybe there will be enough food in the morning for you to have breakfast.”
Bobby's heart sank. He figured out this was no more an adventure than walking to the store for him.
The gangplank didn't feel real as Bobby trudged up toward the deck. The crew members were staying low-keyed and not looking at Bobby or Captain Tory. Bobby needed to run so he could get back home. For him that would have been the easy way out. But there was no home to go to. There was no family to welcome him back with open arms. There was nothing for him. It was either the orphanage or the streets and neither was a situation Bobby wanted to face again. So it looked like the schooner was his only way out.

Bobby kept trying to remember his mother's face. She was always gentle with him and never cross like his father had been, but Bobby knew that was just the way most women were, kind and gentle. His father worked hard and barely had time to spend with Bobby, what with him being the last of twelve children. By the time Bobby came around, everyone had to pull his or her weight to make ends meet. The further up the plank Bobby walked, the more his heart sank. He would never be able to go back to any place that was remotely close to being his home or the life he knew. He drew himself up to his full five foot frame and walked with pride, trying hard to shake the grip that Captain Tory had him. He was seven almost eight years old and was old enough to walk unescorted, or so he thought. Captain Tory's grip kept tight. Bobby was lost forever.

As Bobby and the captain stepped on the deck, Bobby looked around at all the crew members. Many seemed to young to be on a ship as big as the one they were on. Many seemed older than they probably were. Bobby wondered if he would look as old as they did if he stayed on the ship for any length of time. The captain pulled Bobby toward the door leading to below the deck. He shoved him in a darkened room that had several bunks lining the walls. There was very little room to walk between the bunks. Bobby stumbled on someone's feet, or maybe it was a plank that had come lose or maybe it was a body. Bobby couldn't tell but knew there was something in his way. To keep from falling, he grabbed the first thing he could and jumped to the other side. What he thought was a lower bunk, turned out to be a body. A cold, unmoving body.
Bobby was thankful for the darkness. No one could see his face and the tears that were threatening to break loose. Bobby tried hard to act grown up but couldn't do it. He was still a little boy. He needed his mother to comfort him and rock him to sleep. He was hungry and tired and wanted to go home.
The ship rocked quietly in the tide as it headed out to sea. Bobby couldn't tell which direction they were heading but knew the boat had moved away from land. He sat on the edge of the bunk he had been pressed against after feeling the cold body. His knees were weakened and he felt sick. If this was seasickness, Bobby though, I don't want any part of it.
Finally the rocking ceased and Bobby closed his eyes. He had been able to scoot back on the bed but was afraid to lie down because he didn't want to take someone else's bed. Hours passed. Bobby drifted in and out of sleep, dreaming those dreamless dreams he'd been having of late. Trying to remember his father, his brothers, his sisters and his mother. Try as he might, nothing came to him. Only the soft gentle rocking of the ship heading away from the shore.
Bobby woke to the loud screaming and scampering of bodies. He could tell it was daylight. The captain hadn't sent for him as he had been told. Maybe the captain had forgotten about Bobby and had someone else to do the chores. Bobby was too afraid to leave the room to try to find some food. He also knew he couldn't stay in this position much longer as he hadn't been to the bathroom in a while and his bladder was feeling very full. He willed the urge away for as long as he could.

The clanking of the metal dishes startled Bobby. Several of the other boys in the room went to grab plates and bring them back to the bunks. One of them nodded at Bobby in a manner to say that he better scramble to grab a plate as well or he wouldn't get any food. Bobby felt like Oliver Twist reaching for a plate that had barely any food. Please, sir, may I have some more? The thought kept running through his mind. But mostly Bobby wanted to find a bathroom and relieve himself. Instead, he sat back across from the redheaded boy who had indicated he better grab what he could. He wanted to talk to him but realized none of the boys in the cabin were talking. Bobby ate his food in silence. He had no sooner finished when the door opened and a hand reached in and grabbed Bobby jerking him up from his little corner on the bed. Bobby wanted to protest but couldn't find his voice. It had disappeared on him, just like everything else in his life.

****

Bobby stood in the captain's chambers waiting his fate. Captain Tory kept staring at Bobby and the papers on his desk. The ship rocked slightly with a soft wave. The captain turned to look out the porthole. He mumbled almost inaudibly, “Shouldn't be any storms right now.”
“Sir?” Bobby's voice trembled as he tried to question the captain. “Are we at sea or still close to land?”
“What's that you say, lad? Why this ship has seen many a storm, so a little rocking wave isn't going to bring me down. I just wasn't expectin' no storm right now.”
“So a storm? Can you turn us back? I want to go back to the orphanage. Please, sir.” Bobby pleaded.
“That's not gonna happen. You are mine now. That place wouldn't barely keep you alive a year. With me, you'll be alive and well many years.”
The boat rocked again. This time, there was a loud boom. Bobby closed his eyes tight and saw the flashes and heard the sounds, but they weren't of a boat on water hitting a rock or another ship; they were images of his family in their last moments, as Bobby had imagined.
Bobby wasn't with his parents that morning. They were going to town to do some shopping and his siblings had gone with them. Bobby was with a neighbor playing. The traffic was terrible. Bobby had been told that everything happened so quickly. First the unsuredness of what was going on ahead of the family and then the loud noises and people running everywhere and someone slamming up against their vehicle and then the fires and the bright flashes and everyone was gone. The whole block had been taken out with bombs. The wars between the churches and militia and other groups continued. Taking out innocent people for a cause only to find that most people were fighting for the same cause just on a different side.

“Boy, what's that on your face? Tears? No cabin boy cries on my ship.”
The captain's voice startled Bobby back to the present. As quickly as the scene popped into his head so did the noises disappear. He couldn't stop the tears, though he knew he was too old to be crying. “Sorry, sir. I don't know why I'm crying.” Bobby lied to the captain so he wouldn't have to explain that he missed his family, even though he knew that the family would never be there for him.

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RL STINE CONTEST: BEGINNING (NOT COUNT AS WORD COUNT)

What should I do? What should I do?

I ran over to Amy and William and started rambling about anything that came to mind. I couldn't let them figure out the grave they were just staring at was mine.

"You know these old graves are stupid." I emphatically turned around and wobbled towards the rest of the class.

"Wait up, George." Amy hollered only to fall on deaf ears.

I couldn't let them stay at the family plot much longer or I would have to attack them to save and protect myself and my family. I had to get them back to a different area of the cemetery.

William ran after me. I could hear his footsteps getting closer and closer.

"George, what's up with you?" He grabbed my shoulder, almost revealing my secret since zombies have a tendency to lose body parts if pulled on too hard or moved the wrong way. That happens when a body has had two hundred years to deteriorate. “We were just looking at the graves like everyone else.”

“Well, I've seen plenty of graves and there's nothing special about that little plot back in the corner where you were. Figured we should just move on and go find some more interesting ones.”

Amy finally caught up to us, her face ashen like she had seen a ghost, or a zombie. She bent over catching her breath. She stood up and looked at William and then at me. Back and forth. I knew she was about to reveal something about the family burial ground. I needed to stop her train of thought but I surely didn't want to hurt her. I mean, after all, she was one of my best friends. And when a person only has two best friends in the whole world and no one else, you can't get rid of either of them. “William, you've got to come back and see this. It was weird what they put on that grave we were looking at.”

“William, you don't have to go back,” I said. “She's making it up. Nothing interesting or weird about it. I've looked at it many times and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary on it.”

Amy kept shaking her head. “No. No. No. There is something weird about it. The name on the grave is the same as yours. The whole family died in a shipwreck over two hundred years ago.”

I groaned a bit too loud. I knew as soon as it escaped my lips that this would be a call to the family to start uprooting. I had to stop them from coming out during the field trip and keep William and Amy from figuring out that the grave was actually mine. I was stuck. I didn't really know what to do. I did the only thing I knew would help me, went by my grandmother's grave and sat and talked with her for a few minutes. I kept hoping she would provide me with some answers and keep the family intact without causing any more stress or concern in my friends.

Amy tried leading William back to the graves. He's kind of stubborn or maybe he just got tired of the whole cemetery thing and wouldn't budge towards my plot. She finally came over to where I was sitting and started asking all kinds of questions.