Alive! Not Dead! by R.M. Smith

some?” He laughed.
    “Fuck you, Ski.  I don’t know why you have to be so cruel about it.”  Mindy got up from the table.  She locked herself in the bathroom.  Ski looked around at us with a smile on his face.  None of us were smiling.  He quickly dropped his head.   He asked “Ok then, so what’s our plan?”
    I said “Survival.”
    “Well folks, it’s late and I’m beat.  I’m gonna pull up a cot and lay down for some shut eye,” Marge said.
    “Good idea,” Cindy said as she grabbed a cot, too.  “Thanks for the soup.”
    Ski got a cot, too.  He put it next to Cindy’s.  She rolled over the other way when Ski lay down next to her.
    I put a cot closer to the door of the bathroom for Mindy to find when she came out.  I got another cot and put it near the picnic table.  That would be my place to sleep.
    After everyone was settled, Mindy came out of the bathroom.  She lay down on the cot I set up for her. Marge stood up and turned off the lights.
    “Good night, folks,” she said quietly.
    It was very dark except for a little light coming from under the door leading outside.
    It didn’t know if it was sunlight or moonlight.
     
    I had a dream.  In it I was back on the yacht, safely floating across the ocean.  The skies were clear.  Seagulls flew overhead.  The ocean was calm.  I looked toward the beach.  I saw millions of deads flailing their arms at me, crying, screaming to come out to the yacht, wanting to eat my flesh, but they couldn’t.  Water was something deads could not overcome.  They could not swim.  As long as I was on the yacht, I would be safe.
    I also saw Tara on the yacht with me.  In my dream she was my lover on the yacht, my friend and companion.  I saw her standing on the front of the boat, a margarita in her hand.  She was facing into the wind as the yacht sailed into the warm ocean breezes.  She had let her hair down.  It was blowing in the wind.  She had a towel wrapped around her waist.  It, too, was blowing in the soft breezes.
    I left the helm of the yacht and walked to the front of the boat to be with her.
    “Tara, I am here,” I called to her.
    She turned to me.  She had a smile on he r face.  “Dan” she whispered.  I saw that she wasn’t wearing a bathing suit.  I looked down at her.  Her body had been eaten away.  Her skin was jagged, ripped apart, covered in dried blood and teeth marks.
    I woke up, sweating.
    The room was dark.  Still the only light came from under the locked door.
    I got the chills.
     
    Later I woke to the smell of eggs cooking.
    “Good morning, cowboy,” Marge said.  “We all wondered if you were gonna sleep all day.”
    “What time is it?” I asked, wiping my eyes.
    “Mindy said it’s almost 2 in the afternoon.  Least, according to her cell phone it is.”
    Mindy held up her phone.  “Yep.  2:15.”
    “I’m still amazed that thing works,” I said, getting up sitting down next to her at the picnic table.
    “Me too.  It still has like 75% charge, too.”
    I said, “Try and call someone.  See if it works.”
    “Ok.”  She looked through her contacts.  “I’ll try Paranoia.”
    Ski sighed loudly.  Marge smiled at the eggs cooking.  Cindy was in the bathroom freshening up.
    “That cot wasn’t too bad,” I said.  “I slept like a log.”  I didn’t want to tell them about my dream.
    “I got his voicemail,” Mindy said.  “No one answered the phone.”
    “His voicemail? How could that be working still?” Ski asked.
    Mindy shrugged.
    “Try someone else,” I said.
    She looked through her contacts again.  “I’ll try Jenny.”
    “Oh Jesus,” Ski muttered.
    “Would you stop ?” Mindy smiled.  “She’s a friend from Spokane.”
    “Yeah I know who she is! We dated remember?” Ski said - glad Cindy was still in the bathroom.
    “Oh yeah.”
    The phone rang.  Twice.  “Hello?”
    Mindy sat there, her mouth hanging open.  “Jenny?”
    “ Oh my God! Mindy you’re ok?”
    We