Clutch had a point. Once the critical repairs had been made to the Aurora, there was little left that could be done quietly. It didn’t take more than a couple days of relative safety for laziness to set in. Hell, if I didn’t have Clutch’s persistence at having me spar with him and Jase’s contagious energy, I’d be heading back to bed right now out of boredom.
As we walked across the deck, I watched Clutch’s legs as his stride nearly matched mine. “You’re healing really fast now. I can already tell a huge difference from yesterday.”
“Doc said that healing would happen in bursts. All I can tell you is that it can’t happen soon enough. I’m sick and tired of being a cripple.”
I rolled my eyes, because Clutch may be a lot of things, but he was no cripple. He proved it during our sparring session in the towboat’s engine room. Even though his legs were weak, his upper body strength more than made up for it. I almost got in a high kick once, but he’d taken me down with him. I imagined it would always be that way: Clutch the master, me the student. He had too many more years of experience.
After a day of doing little, as the sun began to set, we headed to the commons area in Barge Two to meet Jase for dinner. The area was already filled with people. I stepped into the line while Clutch spoke with Tyler. I looked for Jase, but he wasn’t at our usual spot on the floor yet.
I grabbed a tray, and Vicki, Fox’s best cook, slid chunks of white meat onto my tray.
My eyes narrowed. “Fish?”
Vicki nodded. “They finished the nets this morning and fished off the south end of the island so the zeds wouldn’t see. Fish for everyone tonight!”
I grinned. “Awesome.”
Normally, the fishermen caught no more than a dozen fish using fishing poles. They figured the zeds rotting in the shallow waters scared them off. The livestock from the fire was being dehydrated for the winter, so we’d been living on canned meat, beans, and grain. As I worked my way through line, I noticed everyone was in a better mood. The fresh fish, the zeds starting to disappear, and the repairs to the Aurora relatively complete gave everyone hope.
I sat down on the floor and dug into the fish.
Jase sat down a minute later with his food. “What kind of fish is this?” he asked.
I shrugged.
“It’s catfish,” Frost said as he and Benji ate a few feet away from us. Diesel had his head buried in a bowl of dog kibble.
The fish suddenly went down like a rock. “Catfish?”
“Wait,” Jase said. “Isn’t catfish a bottom feeder?”
“Yes, why?” Frost said.
Jase’s eyes widened as he looked at me. “Didn’t anyone tell the cooks?”
“Tell them what?” Frost asked.
I dropped my fork. “Bottom feeders are tainted from feeding on zeds. Sorenson said they’d lost a crew member to bad catfish.”
Frost grabbed Benji’s hand that held a fork full of white meat, but the boy had already cleaned much of his plate.
“Maybe these fish are okay,” Jase said to the pair before giving me an oh-shit look.
We jumped to our feet at the same time.
“Where are you going?” Clutch asked as Jase and I ran past.
“To warn Vicki,” Jase said.
I took the stairs two at a time to reach the kitchen faster. Halfway up the second flight, a stomach cramp doubled me over.
I felt Jase’s hand on my cheek. “Cash, are you okay?”
I clenched my teeth as I grabbed my stomach. “Bad fish.”
Chapter XVIII
The day was a horrifying blur of dry heaves, chills, high fever, and bizarre dreams. All around me, people moaned and cried. They lay in bed, the slightest move causing them to retch.
Jase and Clutch took turns at my bedside. They helped me and the others without rest. Since neither had eaten the catfish, they hadn’t gotten sick. They were in the minority. Thirty-three residents had eaten the tainted meat. They kept all of us in barge Number One and had opened the bay door to let in fresh air.