The Life and Times in the Zombie Apocalypse: Part 3: Homecoming

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Not soon after everyone had fallen asleep the morning had arrived. The ship sat shimmering in the morning sun, it was calm and it was quiet. Nothing was happening. Nothing needed to happen. Nobody had to do anything. This was what it was like each day on the ship. Calm, quiet, and ever lasting.

Richard woke up in a bed, in a small room, the room he had chosen just the night before to rest in. He sat up in the bed and stretched out his neck, then his back, his arms, and then his legs. He looked around the room at everything inside. There wasn't a whole lot. His room appeared smaller than all the others on that deck. There were two dressers, a television on a table top, and a desk; they were all the same dark brown nearly red color with a shiny coating over them.

Richard slid his legs out from under the sheets and then stepped foot on the floor. It was a tan carpet with a peculiar design on it. As he put his full weight onto his feet he groaned in pain. The bottoms of his feet were blister filled and hurt terribly. He walked over to his stuff he had left on the desk and next to it on the floor. He opened up his bag and pulled out a thick pair of socks. Then he sat in the chair at the desk and slowly put them on each foot. Then he slid his feet into his boots on the floor and began tying them up. Once they were tied he got to his feet. This time they didn't hurt as badly, that was because of the sock and boots paddings keeping his feet from any hard surface faces.

Richard grabbed his bag and zipped it up. He then pulled it around his arms and onto his back and walked to the door of the room. He turned to look around once more and then opened the door to the hallway and walked out. Down the hall he immediately could spot Ethan, so he made his way down to him. Once he got to him Ethan smiled awkwardly.

"Most of them are still asleep." Ethan told him as he leaned back against the wall.

"I figured as much, I usually wake up early back at home." Richard announced.

"I do the same here." Ethan told him. "I want you to know, I'm not mean and I'm not a bad guy."

"Never said you were." Richard quickly responded nodding his head.

"But it was implied with the way I acted yesterday and I'm sorry about that." Ethan continued. "I only got so defensive because these people, they're all I got. They're my family. They have been for months. So I'm defensive of them."

"Well that's good, Ethan I respect you for being the way you are. You're a good man and a good leader too." Richard told him patting his shoulder. "Don't worry about being too defensive for the ones you love because they'll always need your defense and one day you'll need to be ready to die for the ones you care about. Even if it ends up being pointless in the end. You need to know that it's a card at play."

Before Ethan could respond a door opened up and Travis came waltzing out.

"Hey guys." Travis waved as he emerged from his room.

"Hey T." Ethan responded.

"Hello." Richard smiled.

"Ethan, I'm not sure if you remembered or not but today's big breakfast day. Why aren't you on Deck with them making food?" Travis asked.

Richard looked over to Ethan and laughed, "Big breakfast day?"

Ethan chuckled a bit, "I know it sounds stupid but it's a weekly tradition. Once a week we all get together and make a big breakfast. We had enough food to last us a month and well, we're nearly out now because it was enough food for 300 people a month."

"I'm not laughing, it sounds like fun to me." Said Richard. "I might make that a new thing in Cranbury. Everyone can get together like one big family, like a happy little community and can have fun and talk and get to know one another. I love the idea."