Apologies for the short chapter, I struggled with writer's block at several point. For those who are wondering, I have not read Deck Z, and this story was inspired by a conversation between myself and Thrae Elddim concerning a mocked up poster for Zombieland with the officers Photoshopped in. The game references are intentional, I thought it would be fun if it played out like a video game with points, and Hichens being the 'shop' and stuff lol. Hope you enjoy, keep reading and reviewing!

CHAPTER II

"Take that you bastard!" Murdoch hollered as he blasted the head off a zombie in a steward's uniform. "That'll fucking learn ye!"

Just behind him, Jack dodged out of the way of a zombie with outstretched arms and rapidly shot half a dozen nails into it's skull before aiming for the chest. "This is much easier than I thought!"

"Ayyyyyaaaaaaaagh!" Wilde cried out as he ran towards a couple of zombies, impaling them on his pitchfork before tossing them over the side of the promenade deck. Looking proud of himself, he suggested, "We should make this into a game! Our team against Mister Andrews' team!"

Around him, Murdoch, Jack, Fabrizio, Pitman, Phillips, Moody and Bride nodded in unison, having seemingly cleared the promenade deck of zombies for the time being. No-one looked more relieved that Moody, who was reluctant to use his chainsaw properly and insisted on using it almost like a sword, hacking away at them, with the result not being particularly effective.

"How would we work it out?" Bride asked, absent mindedly tapping his frying pan off the wall. "And who'd run and tell the others?"

Fabrizio volunteered and raised his hand, "I'll go. I have a good enough weapon."

"Thank you Fabrizio," Wilde smiled, nodding politely at him. "I'm thinking, one hundred points for a kill ... Two hundred and fifty for every 'regenerating zombie' that we kill ... And a bonus of fifty points per headshot."

"When does it start?" Pitman asked, glancing at the rest of the team.

Phillips shrugged, "May as well make it right now. You'd better run Fabrizio, we'll still be here. Just be careful, you never know when a zombie will appear ..."

"Where did they go?" He asked, making sure his machine gun was ready incase of random encounters with zombies.

Wilde pointed his pitchfork towards the ceiling above and informed him, "The boat deck. Mister Andrews wanted everyone to have a look at the body of that poor sailor he found earlier. We'll still be around the promenade deck once you've told them. If we do have to move elsewhere, I will send someone up to tell you if it's safe to do so. If not, stick with Mister Andrews, okay?"

Fabrizio nodded and hurried off in the direction of the stairs that would lead upstairs where the other group were huddled discussing the dead crewman. The scene was still as gory as earlier, much to the group's dismay. Suddenly everything got frighteningly real. They were surprised when Fabrizio arrived alone, after braving the short journey alone when zombies could literally pop out anywhere.

Tommy walked over to him, "Hey, what are you doing here?"

"Mister Wilde wants to make it into a game between two teams. Every time a zombie is killed the team gets one hundred points."

"Oh fun!" Fleet declared, keeping a loving hand on his flamethrower as Lightoller eyed it up jealously. Holding it up, he declared, "That'll be easy with this bad boy at my disposal!"

"Mister Wilde is wanting to make light of the situation then?" Andrews questioned with a raised eyebrow as he rounded on Fabrizio, giving him a disapproving look. "We have men dead, not to mention a missing captain! And yet our Chief Officer wants to turn this situation into a game?"

"He said two hundred and fifty points for a regenerating zombie ..." Fabrizio trailed under Andrews' gaze. "And if you get the head ... An extra fifty ..."

"Cool!" Boxhall exclaimed, waving his axe around, narrowly missing Rose's head. "Whoops! Sorry Miss DeWitt Bukater! Would I have got any points for her head?"

"Mister Boxhall!" Lightoller gasped, wanting to hit him over the head with his sledgehammer. "That's a horrible thing to say! Surely that would disqualify you from the team?"

Andrews could only sigh and nod his head, "Right ... A game it is then, I don't see myself managing to change everyone's mind."

"Good luck!" Fabrizio called as he ran back down to the promenade deck, ignoring the play-fight between Lowe with his cricket bat, and Lee with his scythe.

"Well?!" Murdoch asked eagerly, approaching Fabrizio as Wilde followed closely behind him. Both officers had expectant looks on their faces as they tried to hold in their excitement.

"Game on!"

"Oh, fantastic!" Jack cheered, firing a couple of nails upwards, which ended up in the ceiling of the promenade. He looked around for more zombies for a kill, but was disappointed to see none around. "Where shall we go look?"

"We'll head down, right down to the boiler room and engine room," Wilde began thoughtfully. "If we want this ship to stay afloat, we have to make sure nothing can sink us from the inside. I think Mister Andrews will go for a top-down approach anyway."

Pitman nodded, "So we meet in the middle. Easy as, eh Jimmy?"

Moody grimaced in reply as he tried revving up his saw again before whimpering and shutting it off. "I really don't like this!"

"You picked it!" Phillips snorted as Bride cackled, clutching his frying pan. "You were the first one to choose a weapon! Why didn't you go for one of the guns?"

"I don't know why!" Moody wailed as the men around him sighed in exasperation. His regret at picking up the saw was obvious, but he didn't think anyone would swap him. Though possibly Lightoller, but he'd need to find him first, and he wasn't about to run off on his own.

"Let's go men!" Wilde declared, urging for the rest of his team to follow him. They raced as quickly as the could down several flights of stairs, unnerved by the lack of zombies. When they reached the boiler room however, they soon realised the severity of the invasion.

Lead Stoker Barrett was fighting off zombies with a large pole, desperately trying to keep them away from him, as zombies all around him feasted on the other stokers. He kept shouting and screaming at them until he heard several stunned gasps. He looked up to see Wilde and his team and cried, "Help me!"

"Here we go!" Pitman shouted, pulling out his crossbow and aiming an arrow for the head of a zombie. He winced as the arrow pierced the eye socket, disappointed as the zombie to go down, instead staggering towards them with the arrow poking out. "Ugh, that is nasty!"

"Please, let me," Fabrizio said coolly, aiming his machine gun and firing rapidly at the zombie's head. The head was eventually shot to smithereens as he announced, "One hundred for kill! Extra fifty for head!"

Bride pulled out a notebook and pen, "Okay ... Starting with one hundred and fifty! I'll keep score! No doubt Mister Andrews will have the other team's score! He never leaves that book behind ..."

"Let's do this!" Phillips shouted to Wilde, as the two of them charge with their spear and pitchfork respectively, skewering a couple of zombies on each.

"Burn them!" Barrett pleaded, managing to escape the zombies. He stumbled over the bloodied corpses of a few stokers as he ran to the group. "Thank the Lord you're here! It's horrible! Absolutely horrible!"

"What happened?" Moody asked, watching as Wilde dragged the zombies impaled on his pitchfork across the floor and shoving them into one of the large coal fires under a boiler. His face paled at the horror of the scene as Phillips was inspired to do the same. Shuddering, he turned his attention back to the Lead Stoker.

Barrett shuddered as he began to recall events, "I was just telling one of my men to put more coal in one of the boilers when these creatures appeared from nowhere! They began to -"

"Five hundred points!" Wilde called over to Bride, who obediently noted down the score.

"Anyway," Barrett said as he looked to continue. "They started eating the skin off my men! It was so disgusting, you can't even imagine ..."

Murdoch nodded, "I don't think I want to. Look, a bunch of us are trying to get rid of these zombie creatures. But we need you and any surviving stokers down here to guard the boiler room. We can't have the ship go down or get stranded."

Barrett nodded, "Of course sir."

"Now, on to business," Murdoch chuckled as he began blasting away at the heads of zombies.

Jack grinned, "He makes it look so easy, doesn't he?"

"My crossbow's shite," Pitman sighed, twirling an arrow with his fingers. He decided to take aim, missing a zombie, only for it to bounce off a boiler and hit Phillips in the back of the leg.

"Son of a bitch!" He yelled, yanking out the arrow and glaring at Pitman. "HEY!"

"It was an accident!" Pitman insisted truthfully. "Sorry!"

"Jimmy, just try to start your weapon and kill them," Bride pleaded, pulling at the cord.

"Okay!" Moody said in a harassed voice. He pulled on the cord several times until the chainsaw roared to life. He carefully walked over the bodies of stokers until he reached a zombie. With a sickeningly girlish scream, he squeezed his eyes shut and aimed for the zombie. He screamed even more when he felt blood splatter on his face and uniform. "Eyaaaaagh!"

"That's fucking brilliant!" Barrett exclaimed, before adding. "Disgusting of course, but brilliant nonetheless."

Moody eventually opened his eyes and shrieked, "Oh my God!"

"Man up Moody!" Murdoch hollered as he casually shot at zombies. "We still have long way to go before we're finished!"

"Officer's Quarters are clear!" Lowe reported, arriving back with Rose, whose sword was bloodied. "Three hundred and fifty points for us!"

Andrews nodded and pulled out his little black book, "Right ... How are the crew?"

"Unharmed. The zombies were hiding in Mister Pitman's room for some reason," Rose informed him, watching droplets of blood drip from her sword onto the deck. "Also, Mister Hichens, I believe, is offering us supplies to help us fight the zombies. But for a price."

"A shop?!" Lightoller barked, swinging his sledgehammer against the wall in anger, knocking a hole allowing them to peer into the gymnasium. "We're fighting with our lives, and he has the audacity to charge us for help?! He is well getting hammered with this once I am through with him!"

"Bastard!" Lee remarked indignantly as Lowe tapped his head with his cricket bat. "Hey, what d'you do that for?"

"Shut up and listen. He says he has magical goods that can help us have powers. Some protect us from the zombies, some give us magic attacks to hit them with. He also said something about healing potions and remedies as well. Frankly, I don't believe him, I think he's got into the vodka stash Mister Lightoller and Mister Murdoch claim doesn't exist. He said we had to collect gold coins to buy things, but couldn't tell me how we get them," Lowe told the group.

"Shite! We don't have a vodka stash!" Lightoller scoffed as he lied through his teeth. With a scowl he asked, "Is that all that idiot had to say for himself?"

Andrews sighed, "Don't start please! Now, gentlemen and Rose, I think we should go into the gymnasium. I think I can hear zombies shuffling about."

"Oh yes!" Fleet chuckled, running in at full speed as Boxhall and Lee ran behind him. "Time to toast some zombies!"

"DON'T USE THAT INDOORS!" Andrews shrieked, chasing after Fleet desperately as the others followed them into the gymnasium They were greeted with the sight of about ten zombies all shuffling around aimlessly, falling over equipment and bumping into walls.

"Right, time to die!" Lee laughed giddlily, aiming his scythe at a zombie, the blade piercing into the skull. He pulled it out as the zombie slumped to the ground, "Gotcha!"

"He's not dead!" Tommy insisted, watching as the zombie clumsily got to it's feet. There was a dark blue substance trickling down from the hole in it's skull. Immediately, everyone knew what it meant, with Tommy shouting, "Regenerating zombie!"

"Destroy the heart!" Rose ordered as Andrews lunged at it with his machete, aiming for the heart.

"Die! Get off my ship!" He roared as he stabbed it's chest multiple times until the blue blood spurted from it's chest and it disintergrated into a pile of ash, leaving behind a few gold coins. He picked them up and pocketed them, wondering if there was indeed truth to Hichens' claims.

"Coins?! Was Hichens telling the truth?" Fleet remarked, desperate to use his flamethrower on the remaining zombies. He was disappointed that he had limited use of his weapon, even though it was for the greater good.

"Seems so ..." Lightoller said quietly, before swinging the sledgehammer above his head several times before lunging it towards the zombies, who fell to the ground like bowling pins. He smashed the head of one with his hammer, only to discover more blue blood. "Shite! This one's regenerating too Mister Andrews!"

Andrews quickly put away his black book after noting down the two hundred and fifty points for his kill and ordered, "Right, they must all be regenerating! Rose, Mister Boxhall and Mister Lee, seeing as you have sharp weapons, help me destroy their hearts!"

Boxhall relished the opportunity to hack away at the zombies with his axe, as Lowe nimbly moved around to collect the gold coind that spawned with the demise of each zombie. Lightoller, Fleet and Tommy could only look on in jealousy as they others made quick work of the zombies.

"Nine times two hundred and fifty is ... Two thousand, two hundred and fifty points!"

"That's some quick mathematics Rose," Tommy chuckled as she brushed a few loose strands of hair from her face. "You know, if we keep encountering these, then we'll win easily."

Andrews shook his head, "This isn't a game, even though it appears to be a strange game where we collect coins to trade for magic items. And we have a points tally ... Nevertheless, we must halt this invasion and claim Titanic back from the zombies."

"Where to?" Lightoller asked casually, peering outside. "I don't see any out here."

"We'll check the cafes, anywhere the passengers would generally congregate," Andrews answered, walking outside. "Come, we can't waste time standing around. We have zombies to kill."

True to his words, the team entered the Parisian Cafe to find it had been overrun by zombies. Even worse, Rose looked at a particularly smartly dressed zombie and gasped in shock, "Cal?!"