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maintenance compartments. The largest of which was labelled ‘Engine Bay’.
    Joel shook his head and sighed. “I hate ferries.”
    “How do you want to do this?” Anne asked.
    Joel gestured to the lounge area. “We’ll make our way gradually room to room, working our way front to back, then back to front, and so on until we get to the engine bay.”
    “How long do you think it will take?” Jordan asked.
    “Depends on how much there is to search,” Joel said. “Maybe nine or ten hours.”
    “And whether or not we run into much unexpected company,” Anne added.
    “Do you think we will?” Jordan asked.
    “No reason not to, I suppose,” Anne said.
    Jordan felt a trickle of fear at the idea of running into his first Lurcher. His grip on the chair leg grew tighter.
    Joel lifted the walkie talkie to his lips. “How’re we looking out there, guys?”
    On Haven , Stan lay back in a deck chair. He had a thin veneer of sweat on his forehead from the high afternoon sun and a knotted flannel on his head to protect his growing bald spot. He peered through the binoculars at the ferry, scanning the parked cars. He froze. His sweep stopped, and returned back to the backseat of a car parked on Light’s deck. He sat forward in his chair and watched the shadow with unblinking eyes. He relaxed. It was a shirt hung up on the backseat of the car, the wind having disturbed it.
    “ Right as rain,” he said. He turned the binoculars back to the bridge. Three shadows moved inside it. “Hey! I see you!”
    “ You see me every day.”
    “Not from this distance. I must say you look much more handsome from here. I can hardly even make out your nose.”
    “Sod you. How’s Haven? Nice and comfy? Hope I’m not disturbing your rec time.”
    “Can’t complain. Mare’ s giving me a back rub.”
    Mary , sat to one side knitting, shook her head the way a mother does at her misbehaving children.
    “ We’ve got the Sunday roast on,” Stan said.
    “Sounds awful.”
    “Oh, it is.”
    “We’d best leave you. You’re obviously a very busy man.” Joel turned, a grin on his face. “What?”
    Anne shook her head , a mirror image of Mary. “You two are worse than a pair of school boys.”
    “Keeps us young.”
    “Keeps you immature , you mean.”
    “What’s the difference?”
    “According to this,” Anne said, pointing to a door behind them without taking her eyes off the blueprints. “We should head down those stairs to get to the next level.”
    Joel and Anne covered the door while Jordan reached for the handle. Joel nodded. Jordan opened it. Joel and Anne stiffened, their weapons held high. An empty stairwell greeted them. They relaxed.
    “ Ladies first,” Joel said to Anne.
    “Thanks. You’re a real gentleman.”
    “I try.”
    The stairs were made of iron grating, which rattled no matter how quietly they tried to descend. The natural light filtering in from the bridge’s windows faded the deeper they went.
    Joel headed down the stairs first, Anne watching their rear. Their flashlights cut swathes through the darkness, the world dissected into a thousand tiny squares. They moved with the smooth ease of those used to carrying out such tasks. They stopped often, listening to the darkness around them. There was something about their movement that tugged on a forgotten memory in Jordan’s mind, but try as he might, he couldn’t retrieve it. They got to the bottom of the stairs and spread out into the lounge room.
    Sunlight filtered in from the windows that took up the entire wall at either end. They were caked in blood and greasy handprints. The light caught the top of the hard benches that ran in long rows like the pews in an old church. The shadows gave way to their torchlight. Magazines and unopened snacks laid on the benches. The sticky floor tore at the soles of their boots. Vending machines stood in uniform lines along the walls. Anne took a spray bottle out of a side pocket of her backpack and sprayed one of