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ellowynthenotking · 2 months ago

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Undeath on the High Seas

Chapter 1

They ended their time in Southeast Alaska’s Inside Passage with patches of clouds intermittently covering the sun. Fate had been smiling on them for the last couple of days. The forecast had predicted a cold rain, but all the sleepy little towns were graced with clear skies instead of the usual “liquid sunshine.”

As the ship slowly made its way out of the inside passage, a gentle breeze ruffled Penelope’s hair, bringing the crisp, soothing scent of the ocean. The sun is perfectly positioned, warming her legs without blinding her, and the clear blue sky and untamed green forests are reflected on a deep, dark sea. The distant roar of the ship covers all other sounds, and Penelope is just getting into the first book in her bag when Teagan and Courtney stop by.

Courtney slams the sliding glass balcony door open, something Penelope hadn’t thought possible, and yells, “Found her!”

Penelope jumps hard enough at the interruption that she nearly throws her book. Maybe she should have saved the horror novel for later.

Or at least for when her friends weren’t scaring the bejesus out of her.

Teagan pops her head out after Courtney. For once, her chestnut hair is loose from its usual severe, slicked-back bun. As usual, she’s distracted by her ancient phone, probably texting her boyfriend as she says, “Hey! Should have figured you’d be hiding away.”

“Well,” Penelope begins, tucking her feet under her chair. She doesn’t really have an excuse—she was hiding. “I just wanted to avoid the crowds.”

“Courtney wants to explore the ship, maybe take some aesthetic pics. Wanna join?” Teagan asks before Courtney can.

Penelope gets more comfortable and smiles, “No thanks, I finally got comfortable.”

“But it’s gonna be fun!” Courtney whines, giving Penelope puppy dog eyes. Unfortunately for her, it's much less effective now than in elementary school, when she’d had the big doe eyes and dark curly pigtails to match. “We can even see the boring parts of the ship you’ll like!”

“I find reading just a liiiittle more comfortable than posing for you forever.” Penelope's already done three shoots for Courtney and wasn’t feeling up to more.

Courtney pouts, crossing her arms over her stark white crop top. She looks like she’s going to argue more, but Teagan cuts her off.

“Okay, we’ll see you at dinner then.” Teagan looks up from her phone long enough to smile and wave, braces unable to diminish her pearly whites. As they leave, she shouts, “Enjoy your book!”

Penelope half-salutes, watching through the balcony door as they grab another bag—likely full of props and clothes—and head off. Penelope knows they’ll probably take way too many pictures that Courtney will edit and then pass out to the rest.

Presumably, to post on their own socials.

Even if she were into that lifestyle, Penelope will wait to post anything. She’s heard one too many stories of people coming home to find that they'd been robbed. Even though she has roommates—and she’s probably more at risk of them stealing her stuff—she’d prefer to avoid that.

Penelope settles in again and relaxes into her book, letting her dark hair loose around her shoulders to help keep the cool breeze at bay.

She’s glad they’re all still friends, but a vacation is supposed to be relaxing.

Even if they did go to see stuff like the engines or the ship’s bridge, she’d be the only one enjoying it. Though, they would get some cool pictures if they were allowed to take them.

...---... ...---... ...---...

After a while, Penelope notices the slight catch in her throat and thinks about getting a drink, only to be startled again by the door to the room slamming open.

“You’re never gonna believe it!” Melissa shouts as she crashes into the room, shattering Penelope’s peace again.

Penelope hopes Melissa will get the message by burying her face in her book. However, she continues to chatter, obviously missing the fact that Penelope isn’t paying attention. Resigning herself to her fate, Penelope chooses to actually pay attention to her friend.

Melissa’s tousled blonde hair bounces as she flits around the room, gushing the guy she met. “-He’s so sweet and such a good listener! And I was telling him about how I’m looking for a job-”

Penelope listens to her besotted friend as Melissa puts on clean clothes and chatters away. She's wearing the same sundress she wore last night when she went to “watch a movie.” Other than her hair being a bit of a mess, she looks happy.

Glowing, really.

Maybe Teagan’s wedding isn’t the only one we’ll be going to soon, Penelope thinks to herself, nodding as Melissa keeps talking.

“-He says that there’s a school district near him looking for art teachers, and you know I minored in that, but I was thinking it might be a good idea to apply there anyway-”

She seriously doubted it would actually happen. Though it is fun to see how Melissa acts, bouncing and moving through the cabin with vitality, whenever she meets someone new, she always plans their whole lives together immediately. She would make a decent life coach if her dreams didn’t bounce around as much as she was now. But she was happy and could be as “in love” as she wanted as long as she could hold down a job.

“-And if I do get a job there, maybe having a friend there can help me get settled. I mean, he’s gotta know all the best places to hang out and-”

Penelope smiles and nods as her friend talks. Even though the interruptions are irritating, the rest of the cation will be perfect for reading. Besides, this will be the last time she sees her friends for a long, long while. She'd only come on this trip because of the lull between her summer job ending and her big new fancy job starting.

“-He’s just so nice, and he constantly talks up his friends. Can you just imagine him doing the same about me? I mean, not that I expect him to, but he’s so outgoing and just-”

She tries to enjoy it while she can. Usually, Melissa gets too into whatever she’s working on to remember to tell the others about her current boy toys, often leaving them confused when she shares news without updates in between.

And while Brody is apparently the best man ever, Penelope is sure he’s just another in a long line of them. However, he probably will hold a special place in Melissa’s heart just by virtue of being her first love at sea.

“-I’m probably just getting ahead of myself again.” Melissa stops, looking over at Penelope.

Penelope freezes, her muscles tensing. Should she say something? What? She hadn’t been listening, and that didn’t sound like a question.

She tries to cover up her panic, but Melissa shrugs before she can say anything.

“Eh, at worst, I have a job, right? So Brody lives in-”

Crisis averted.

Penelope allows herself to go back to thinking. She’s really enjoying Alaska. A beautiful cruise ship with stunning sights, friendly people, and lots of sun. Not to mention tons of time with her friends. Kodiak was gorgeous, just like all of Southeast Alaska. There were undoubtedly upsides to living in this part of the world, friendly people aside. Maybe she can get a job traveling in this part of the world. There is always a need for tech people, and stuff on the cruises probably needs fixing.

Who would I need to talk to about that? She wonders.

“-But he probably knows about some places that might be cheap or easy to rent, right? Not that I need him to help me find a place. I can do it on my own, but it’d be nice to have someone to help with all the bills. I wouldn’t ask Brody to-”

Although Information and Technology wasn’t Penelope’s first choice, it was a good path, and she'd make decent money. The biggest downside she’s noticed is that everyone goes to her when they have computer issues.

Her mom disapproved, but her mom had met her dad before leaving college and thought a Mrs degree was the most important one a woman could have. It doesn’t mean that Penelope wants to do the same.

She just needs her mom to stop setting up blind dates for her without any warning. Well, the one with Frakenlin hadn’t been the worst blind date, except that she was a woman, and that really wasn’t what Franklin was looking for in a partner.

She should call him when she gets home; if nothing else, he was fun to talk to.

“Do you think I should invite Brody to dinner?” Melissa asks her, and Penelope thinks for a moment.

She taps her lip as she thinks. It’s not something she’s crazy about, but she’s pretty sure they’re not allowed to have guests. She isn’t going to tell Melissa that, though.

“I thought we were going to spend some time together. You know, like we’d planned?” Penelope does her best to avoid wincing. She can admit it came out a little… well, a lot worse than she’d planned. “You’re spending so much time with this guy. Let’s have a girl dinner, and you can introduce us later.”

“You know what? You’re so right. And I am all over that.” Melissa says, coming over and giving Penelope a quick squeeze, briefly enveloping her in a cloud of sweet perfume before returning inside.

Penelope sighs with relief, then notices Melissa packing an extra change of clothes. “Or are you just planning to not see us until tomorrow if we won’t have dinner with him?”

Melissa blushes, a pretty thing influencers wish they could replicate. “I need them for dinner, obviously! I’m not just going to dip on you guys.”

Penelope is pretty sure they both damn well know that the clothes are for her next overnight stay with Brody. She smiles at her anyway. “Go have fun, just message one of us if you’re not coming so we know not to wait around.”

Melissa beams and calls, “Okay-love-you-bye!”

Even though she’s mostly out the door, Penelope calls back, “I do want to meet that boy of yours! Eventually!”

If you're interested in this so far, preorder now on Amazon!

Penelope Rose thought a cruise through Southeast Alaska would be a relaxing way to celebrate getting her degree with her friends.

She couldn't have been more wrong.

After a week of sun, fun, and visiting all the little attractions that every town had to offer, all that was left was a week at sea.

Then came to request to stay in their rooms. Hours turn to days, and the food deliveries stop. Penelope and her friends have to leave the safety of their room, only to find most of the ship's passengers dead, or infected with a disease so terrible that Penelope can't even think the name.

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rabbitcruiser · 4 months ago

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Alaska (No. 4)

The state is bordered by Canada's Yukon and British Columbia to the east (making it the only state to only border a Canadian territory); the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean to the south and southwest; the Bering Sea, Bering Strait, and Chukchi Sea to the west; and the Arctic Ocean to the north. Alaska's territorial waters touch Russia's territorial waters in the Bering Strait, as the Russian Big Diomede Island and Alaskan Little Diomede Island are only 3 miles (4.8 km) apart. Alaska has a longer coastline than all the other U.S. states combined. Alaska's size compared with the 48 contiguous states (Albers equal-area conic projection)

At 663,268 square miles (1,717,856 km2) in total area, Alaska is by far the largest state in the United States. Alaska is more than twice the size of the second-largest U.S. state (Texas), and it is larger than the next three largest states (Texas, California, and Montana) combined. Alaska is the seventh largest subnational division in the world. If it was an independent nation, it would be the 18th largest country in the world; almost the same size as Iran.

With its myriad of islands, Alaska has nearly 34,000 miles (55,000 km) of tidal shoreline. The Aleutian Islands chain extends west from the southern tip of the Alaska Peninsula. Many active volcanoes are found in the Aleutians and in coastal regions. Unimak Island, for example, is home to Mount Shishaldin, which is an occasionally smoldering volcano that rises to 10,000 feet (3,000 m) above the North Pacific. The chain of volcanoes extends to Mount Spurr, west of Anchorage on the mainland. Geologists have identified Alaska as part of Wrangellia, a large region consisting of multiple states and Canadian provinces in the Pacific Northwest, which is actively undergoing continent building.

One of the world's largest tides occurs in Turnagain Arm, just south of Anchorage, where tidal differences can be more than 35 feet (10.7 m).

Alaska has more than 409,000 natural lakes at least one hectare or bigger. Marshlands and wetland permafrost cover 188,320 square miles (487,700 km2) (mostly in northern, western and southwest flatlands). Glacier ice covers about 28,957 square miles (75,000 km2) of Alaska. The Bering Glacier is the largest glacier in North America, covering 2,008 square miles (5,200 km2) alone.

Source: Wikipedia

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