The Walking Dead: Flames in the Northwest

Chapter 2

*Day of the breakdown*

It was partially cloudy and the sun was still in its' low, morning hang. The stench of sweat and sea-breeze streamed into his nose. Salty ocean spray sprinkled across the skin on his face like mist. Worried chatter and forlorn sobbing filled the atmosphere in the enclosed space. Hisato was making his way to the outdoor viewing deck and had started panting from the effort just to get through the entryway between. He wanted to see for himself where he'd just left and what the ferry was sailing away from. He was really feeling the exhaustion of the task as a bead of condensation rolled down his forehead.

Struggling to peer over the heads of others in front of him, he squeezed his way toward the railing. It got increasingly difficult to push forward as he inched ever closer. So much so that it seemed like the half-century old, rusted railing might finally give away from the sheer weight of pressed bodies before he even made it. Maybe it would, but hopefully not.

Hisato summoned all his strength into his legs, straining forward and jutting his arm through until he caught a grip on one of the vertical bars. Using it as leverage to pull himself at arms-length, he was able to force his way to the edge of the crowd. The metal was lukewarm from his and however many strangers' hands. He had to keep a tight grip on the railing as well, in order to keep the claim on his spot. Battling against the hundreds of impatient others who also wanted the view.

Hisato looked ahead and focused on the sight. The spiring skyline expanded in front of his eyes. At this point, the ferry was maybe a mile from shore, traveling at a fair speed away from it. In the distance, he could still make out the vast hordes - hundreds of thousands of people, flooding into empty and available vessels along the waterfront. No less than 10 minutes ago, he'd been a part of that stampede.

There were hundreds - could've even been thousands, of ships and boats in the bay. All heading back and forth from the waterfront ports to the ports of various islands out in the Puget Sound. Freight-liners, ferries, naval transport ships, tugboats, sailboats, yachts - almost anything that floated in the water. The waterways were comparably overcrowded themselves much like the streets. At any second, it seemed like two vessels would collide with each other, consumed into a disastrous ball of sinking flame. 

Though it was an incredible sight, he had to admit. To witness all this traffic at sea. He'd never seen so many vessels in the water at once in his life. Probably no one there ever had. Not even Lake Washington in the summer held up to this. It was a major maritime feat for this whole operation to be happening successfully like it was.

It reminded him of Dunkirk in WWII. Both military and civilian vessels crossing the English channel between the island of Britain and the French mainland to rescue stranded troops. This was almost the same. Different in a lot of manners and ten times the scale. And the enemy here was an even greater threat. A threat no one could hold back for long. This was a mass evacuation. 

The ferry was headed due north, away from the city, and he was at the stern staring back at the place. A dozen other ships to the left and right were trailing behind, trudging along on their own routes. Hisato slightly leaned forward, glancing side to side, down below, and up above. People were literally everywhere on the ferry. Where cars should've been in the bay was replaced by gathered bodies. There was definitely more than a few thousand occupants packed like sardines on a vessel that should've only had a few hundred. The other ships that Hisato could see were packed the same. 

If you'd ever seen pictures or videos of commuter trains in India with people pouring over the edges and huddled on the roof, then you'd know how these ships looked. Every living soul in the greater Seattle area was being evacuated out onto any dock-able island in the Puget Sound. The result of that was this frenzy.