Chapter One

Jennifer Baisley woke up at the wheel of her Stanford hoverboat at precisely 7am, in the middle of the Sheeva Bay with no memory of how she got there, or where she'd been heading.

For a moment, she had but to concern herself with correcting the hoverboat, for it had been aimlessly plowing through or rather just over the waves and was now heading straight toward a fully-loaded ferry, with wide-eyed passengers staring and pointing and shouting. She whipped the wheel about frantically. "What the heck is going on, and why can't I remember a damn thing?" She said under her breath, shutting the engines down after she was clear, so she could catch her breath and think.

Embarrassed, Jennifer avoided eye contact with the occupants of the ferry as she sat there shivering, until she heard a blood-curdling scream. She quickly realized that she had completely misinterpreted their earlier response; they weren't yelling to get her attention due to the collision course, but were crying out for help! Some of the occupants on board the ferry were running and others were moving sluggishly, clumsily along, like out of some B rated monster flick. “Ah crap! Please. Please. Please tell me those aren’t what I think they are!”

Suddenly the door to the hoverboat cabin swung open. A handsome, young man with blonde hair and a thing goatee stood there, his eyes clearly filled with concern. She did not recognize him at all.

"Jennifer! Thank Yahweh! What is going on! We have to get out of here. Turn the boat around!", said the strapping young man.

Startled, Jennifer stumbled backwards, gripped by fear, half expecting him to be a zombie, as crazy as that sounds. But the world was upside down, and running on instinct and adrenaline, she removed the flare gun from its mount, and with shaky hands, aimed it in the man's general direction, shouting, "Don't ... move!"

The man stumbles back a step as Jennifer points the flare gun at him, and says in a haltering voice, "Je-Jenn... what are you doing? It's me, Cody. Your boyfriend? Put that thing down, we need to get out of here, that cruise ship is being attacked by some kind of monster, or zombies or something."

Suddenly a loud explosion sounds off from the direction of the cruise ship, and peering out the window Jennifer sees a ball of fire rise into the sky just off the main deck, around the middle of the cruise liner. Loud creaking and groaning ensures, and the screaming intensifies.

"Cody." She said, noncommittally, beginning to feel feint, and yet unhinged at how familiar he seemed to be with her, yet she had no memory of him. Her head hurt, making her wonder if she'd gotten a concussion, but when she'd absently massaged the back of her head, she felt the stitches and screamed, crumpling to the deck in tears.

Waiting no longer, and seeing that Jennifer had lowered the flare gun, Cody entered the cabin, and fired up the hoverboat's engines. Jennifer slumped down in the sofa-bench and began to cry.

"What did they do to me?", she sobbed.

Cody looked grim and fingered the back of his skull as well. "I'll explain everything once we're safe", he says.

As they sped away on the hoverboat another explosion sounded off at the cruise boat, and the huge vessel suddenly began to split in two near the centre, both sides headed for the depths of the water below.

The trauma and exhaustion of the past 36 hours weighed heavily upon Jennifer. Inside the claustrophobic cabin, she lay curled up on the bench, crying and confused until she passed out.

She woke up many hours later as the sun was setting; her hands occasionally touching the back of her head as if hoping she'd been mistaken, but the long row of stitches were still there.

Jennifer looked out the window and saw they were many miles down the coast now. The hoverboat was on autopilot with a blinking message on the screen, "Port Garvis -- 2 Hours, 21 Minutes, 34 seconds to arrival".

Jennifer's eyes snapped open, her mind racing through scenario after scenario of what might have happened, none of which adequately explained her current predicament or who this Cody was.

It was quite as she stepped out onto the deck to get some answers, but Cody was in a corner of the boat sleeping.

As she sat on the deck, staring out to sea, and wondering what in blazes was happening, a fog horn sounded.

Turning her head around to view she saw a large coast guard vessel approaching, and a megaphone sounded, "Kor-Fanel Coast Guard. Turn off your engines and bring the boat to port for boarding please."

Cody awoke in a flash, his hand tightening around the flare gun he hadn't realized he was holding, then set it down, hearing the command. A wave of relief came over him, knowing that the zombies - or whatever they were - couldn't talk, and therefore the approaching vessel wasn't a threat.

Jennifer quickly complied bringing the boat up to dock beside the large coast guard vessel. She hoped that finally she could get some answers as to what was going on, and had a healthy respect for authority, as her father was a police officer before he died in the line of duty.

Cody sighed in relief, and smiled, saying, "Thank God. Everything's going to be fine, Jennifer."

As they were brought on board, they could see a well-armed squad standing by - more than was typical for such a vessel, and behind them, in a large, hastily-built cage on the deck, were nearly a dozen zombies, safely behind bars.

"I was right", thought Jennifer to herself, and then sunk slightly more into despair as the coast guard crew took her on board.

"You two alright?, says one of the seamen, "You look like you've been through hell. Though given what's going on, I can understand that."

"I'll let you know when I wake up and see that it's all been just a bad dream," Jennifer said, not taking her eyes off the zombies.

"Oh, I'll need to take statements from you both," The captain said, ushering them onto the bridge, adding, "do either of you require medical attention?"

Cody trades a glance with Jennifer, then sees the zombies penned up in the cage, and says, "Er... no, I think we're fine".

"I don't want to end up a lab rat, given what they did to us", says Cody.

Jennifer wasn't ready to make any statements quite yet, as she was still seeking answers herself. "We haven't slept much and won't provide a very accurate statement in our current condition - mine at least. Is there a place we can snag some rest, and then we'll be happy to fill out whatever paperwork you have for us," She said, wanting to get Cody alone so she could pump him for information.

"Alright, we'll give you some time to rest. Two hours, then we want a statement. Things are going to hell real quick. You'll be locked up, for our own protection. ", says the captain.

Cody simply nods and one of the seamen lead the pair down into the cabins in the decks below.

Jennifer didn't like the idea of being locked up one bit, even if it was for her own safety, but if even one of those zombies got free, she figured a locked room was safest, if those things were as stupid as portrayed in movies.

Once inside, and out of earshot, she turned to Cody and said, "Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't remember you from Adam so I'd appreciate if you tell me what the heck's going on around here!"

"Fair enough", says Cody, "And I'll do my best"

"Does the name, 'Project Rampart' ring any bells?", he asks.