<div class="floatleft">(https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-S8nWEwDHoLo/VuctPJcFklI/AAAAAAAAZzE/LH_CQD1cWsM-36_em_H4CNSfKPtAAs7xg/s1600/tumblr_napkpgrAjV1qb647qo4_1280.jpg)<br/></div><br/>A few words ought to be said about Jim's near disregard for the new arrivals.  His thought process was actually rather simple.  It went something like this:  "Is this person a crawler?  If yes, shoot.  If no, don't shoot."  Arlene was not a crawler.  So Jim did not shoot.  Simple as that.  Under better circumstances, Jim might have welcomed her aboard.  Lucas was also not a crawler, so Jim did not shoot him, either.  Sure, he had some qualms in the back of his mind about how coincidental their arrival had been.  They arrived almost at the same time, one by land and the other by sea.  But Jim was on a low-carb, low-cholesterol diet.  He was lucky to get five hundred calories a day.  He was fortunate if he got two or three hours of sleep each night.  Jim didn't have the energy to worry about potential problems.  If the two were up to something, he'd deal with them when they tried something.<br/><br/>Jim helped Lucas on deck with ease.  Although his arrival was odd, Jim had seen odder things in post-civilization.  For example, once, he came upon a family in a hot air balloon.  They landed the balloon right next to him out of nowhere and apropos to nothing.  Lucas's raft barely looked like it floated.  It sort of amused Jim to think about anyone seriously using it as a mode of transportation.  Jim sort of wondered how long Lucas had been on it and where he had come from.  But Jim wasn't in a talkative mood right now.  Jim was in fight or flight mode, and he was leaning really heavily towards fighting.<br/><br/><em>"Thanks, big guy,"</em>Lucas said.<em>"Hope I'm not interrupting?"</em><br/><br/>"No sweat," Jim replied between gritted teeth.  Lucas was<em>joking.</em>And Jim disliked it when people joked in moments like these.   "Welcome aboard," he added sternly before standing upright, hopping over the guard rail, and walking back towards the dock while Arlene and Lucas started chatting.  Jim unslung his rifle and took aim, looking through his scope towards the shore.  The crawlers' cry startled Jim like small arms fire sputtering nearby.<em>Shit,</em>he thought.<br/><br/><em>"Crawlers,"</em>Arlene said.<br/><br/>Almost as soon as she said it, Jim spotted three crawlers working their way towards them in the shadows.  Jim had a good thing going here, and Arlene ruined it if what she said about leading the crawlers here was true.  But Jim wasn't upset with Arlene.  He was tired, but he was not absurd enough to blame her.<br/><br/>Since the crawlers were still out of range, he decided to help Arlene and conserve his ammo.  He hopped over the guard rail again, walked along the top of the outer hull of the riverboat, and unfastened the rope tethering the ship to the dock from the cleat hitch.  Then, he returned to Arlene, sat beside her, and pushed the pole with his feet.  He strained and pushed...!