"Is that a boat?"

Posted on Fri Jun 6th, 2025 @ 11:29am by Albert 'Bert' Smith

563 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Safe Harbour
Location: Dunsbrough
Timeline: 2nd December, 2013

Bert had arrived in the small fishing village, which he found was called Dunsbrough, a couple of days earlier. The weather had turned and he needed to find reasonable shelter from the snow and bitter cold winds. This would be his third winter since ‘The End’ as he called it. Each one seemed to be harder than the last. He wasn’t sure if that was technically true but he was growing weary of this existence. Many times he had considered ending his own life but he didn't have the courage or bottle to put a knife through his temple and roaming the world as a zombie wasn’t a better choice either.

He searched the village on his arrival. It had mostly been looted, most things of value had been taken. He was lucky enough to find a blanket and some socks, which would keep him warm at night. A couple of tins of dog food, a can of baked beans and half a jar of instant coffee, which he was thankful for. Canned goods were harder and harder to find but were good to have in case you couldn’t scavenge anything else, especially in winter. Coffee had been a treat he’d been without for a long time.

There were some undead dotted around the village. Most were trapped in buildings and couldn’t escape. Those buildings he didn’t search as he didn’t want to tempt fate if it wasn’t needed. Those that were free, he avoided.

He felt lucky as the village church had a bell tower with two floors. After locating a ladder he was able to climb up to the first floor and pull the ladder up to keep himself safe. The second housed the bell but was a good view point of the village and surrounding areas. From there he was able to use his half a binocular to scout where seagulls and pigeons were. Not the first choice of meat but it was a meal and there seemed to be plenty in the area so was happy to take up the food on his door step.

Bert was getting low on water and piss bucket needed emptying, so he sat in what he called his ‘crows nest’ and started planning his route through the village, through his binocular lens. A fresh water stream ran through the back end of the village but had been frozen since his arrival. Using his crowbar he had been able to break chunks of ice and melt them under the fire. Not ideal as he only had a fire lit for a short period as it attracted unwanted attention.

As he looked for his next meal, something on his ocean caught his eye. “Is that a boat?” He said to himself, talking to himself seemed to be a new thing. He shifted his position to get a better look. Sure enough a boat was there, with what looked like two people on board. “Shit.” He said as he quickly put the binocular lens down. He didn't want any light reflecting off of it and giving away his position.

Bert quickly made his way down to his accommodation level where he grabbed his knife, crowbar and bow and arrows before scaling the ladder down to the ground floor.

Did they know he was here?

Only time would tell….

 

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