Sea Sick: A Horror Novel Part 4

But flee from what? What the h.e.l.l is wrong with everyone and where have they all gone?

Outside of the Broadway lounge was a short hallway with staircases on either side. He knew it led to an area outside with tennis courts and a 5-v-5 football pitch inside a Perspex enclosure. Technically, Jack had never been there before and should not know a thing about it, but he remembered it from the...dream he'd had last night or whatever it had been. The first time he'd lived through this day, he had explored the ship, and now he remembered. If that had actually happened in reality, rather than his imagination, then the Sports Deck would be exactly as he expected it to be.

Jack stepped outside and was immediately horrified. The Sports Deck was laid out exactly as he knew it would be: two tennis courts, a basketball D, and the enclosed football pitch at the back. The tennis courts were swamped with a seething ma.s.s of bodies, bleeding and shedding flesh like waterlogged corpses. They were all eyebleeders, hundreds of them, including staff. The focus of their attention was the football pitch. They clawed and bashed at it with their b.l.o.o.d.y fists, trying to get at the contents inside. It was the contents inside that made Jack's stomach turn.

The Perspex enclosure was filled with children and a handful of adults. They all screamed, terrified by the h.e.l.lish ghouls trying to get at them. The enclosure's doors were locked from the inside and, so far, the hard plastic gla.s.s was withstanding, but it would only be a matter of time until the sheer weight of bodies against it sent it crashing. Even now, Jack could see the structure swaying to and fro as its bolted foundations began to come loose.

There was nothing Jack could do. He was a capable fighter, but no man could effectively take on a hundred crazed attackers simultaneously. There was no choice but to get the h.e.l.l out of there. He had no choice but to leave the children to their fate.

He started backing away slowly, mindful of catching the attention of the mob. Luckily, their focus was, so far, transfixed on the terrified children in the gla.s.s cage. Not one of them had turned to face him. But, while Jack had his eyes on them, he was backing away without being able to see what was behind him. When his back hit against something, he almost let out a wail, his fraught nerves so close to snapping. While he managed to keep himself quiet, by that time it was too late.

The equipment rack full of tennis racquets went crashing onto its side. The contents went clattering across the ground as Jack watched in absolute horror. Then he turned his attention back to the horde of infected pa.s.sengers. All of them had begun to turn, swivelling on their injured, clumsy legs. Slowly, one by one, a hundred pairs of eyes set themselves upon Jack.

They sprinted towards him.

Jack turned and smashed his way back through the door, back into the ship. He collided against the walls, his panic disrupting his balance. He turned right and leaped down the stairs in the hallway, heading back down to the Broadway Deck. He had to find help, or at least somewhere he could hole up until rescue arrived. His instincts to fight were now completely flattened and he wanted only to find somewhere he could curl up on the floor and close his eyes until it was all over.

Jack reached the bottom of the stairs and flung himself forward at full speed. He almost fell down a moment later when he skidded to a stop. The foyer was filled with as many infected pa.s.sengers as there had been upstairs. Blood covered absolutely everything, like an industrial paint spill, and severed limbs littered the ruined carpets in every direction.

This is h.e.l.l. I must have died on duty, stabbed by some drug dealing sc.u.mbag, and this is the boat meant to take me to h.e.l.l. This is the River Styx and somewhere I'm going to b.u.mp into Charon ready to take me to the underworld.

The infected pa.s.sengers seemed to notice Jack all at once and let out a simultaneous screech. Acting as a single ent.i.ty they bolted towards Jack in unison, chasing him back towards the staircase. He took the steps two at a time, climbing as fast as he could, the screams of a hundred demons behind him.

Halfway up the stairs, Jack was met with the infected pa.s.sengers from the Sports Deck. They stumbled down the stairs towards him, gathering bodies like a grizzly s...o...b..ll. Jack found himself trapped as attackers came from both above and below him.

There was nothing he could do as the bodies began to envelop him, teeth ripping into his flesh and rending it from his bones. He wouldn't have thought it would take so long to die, but it felt like hours.

Day 4.

Jack woke up screaming. The day ended the exact same way.

Day 5.

Jack stayed in bed all day, afraid to leave his cabin. At midnight he fell asleep...

Day 6.

...and woke up at 1400hrs. The day was still the same.

Day 64.

Jack threw himself overboard.

Day 65.

He woke up in bed. The day was still the same.

Day 77.

Jack killed himself a dozen different ways.

Day 89.

But he always woke up in bed. The day was always the same.

Day 99.

Jack prayed to G.o.d.

Day 100.

His prayers went unanswered.

Day 101.

Jack rose out of bed, woken by his luggage falling against the wardrobe for the one-hundredth time. The clock read: 1400 as it always did. Like a robot he walked across the room, went for a shower, and then got dressed. Some days he just stayed in bed, staring at the ceiling for hours and hours until, inexplicably, he would fall asleep at midnight exactly. There was never any fighting it. Other days he made the effort to get up and do something, but, no matter what he did, the day would always end in the same agonising way.

With everyone being ripped apart by a mob of snarling lunatics.

The eyebleeders appeared each night, always between eight and nine. The High Spirits lounge was the first place to turn from what Jack had gathered. Conner and the little girl with the dolly seemed to be primary vectors always the first ones to attack. His investigations had also uncovered that Carlo's Casino, on the Eagle Deck, also became overrun by infected pa.s.sengers at around the same time. The safest place to be, Jack had discovered, was in the lower decks of the ship, where the frightened pa.s.sengers remained locked up in their cabins. Jack had no idea how the infection had gotten onboard, but it was clear from the moment he woke up each morning that it was too late to help anybody. As soon as he left his room and explored the ship, he would always notice people sneezing and coughing, growing pale and sickly. The little girl with pigtails seemed to be the worst; a little further ahead in her condition than everyone else. Perhaps she was the originator.

Patient Zero or whatever they say.

Jack often considered throwing the little girl overboard, but had always found that he lacked the ability to perform such an evil act. He doubted it would help, anyway. The virus had already taken a firm hold on the ship. The pa.s.sengers were doomed from the moment he woke up each day. And they didn't even know it. Only Jack knew that death was coming for them. In a way, he figured that made him the most doomed of all. He was totally alone in the misery of knowing what was to come.

Jack stepped out of the elevator onto the Broadway Deck. He stared scornfully at the room service cart to his right. He hated that G.o.dd.a.m.n cart. Then he walked towards the entrance to the Promenade Deck in the opposite direction. He braced his legs as the ship rolled suddenly. He hardly noticed the sudden movement anymore. The ship's rocking had become like the predictable beating of his heart.

He opened the door and immediately turned right.

"Slow down!" he shouted at the two young boys sprinting towards him. They did as he told them, at least at first, but then accelerated back to their original speed as soon as they were past him, racing off towards the pool area. The little brats never took any notice of what he said.

On the Lido Deck the usual people were present: the same children swimming in the pool; the same parents disregarding them as they drank beer and read trashy autobiographies; the same smiling staff carrying overbalanced serving trays.

Jack went up the steps to the Sun Deck and threw aside the green towel that covered the sun lounger he now thought of as his. Claire looked at him warily as he dumped himself down.

"You okay?" she asked him.

Jack forced a smile. "Yeah, great. How about you? Missing Leeds?"

"Huh? How did you..."

"Your accent," he said.

"Didn't realise it was that thick? You're from-"

"Birmingham. Yes, well done."

"Funny how you meet all different kinds of people on holiday. Are you here with your wife?"

"No," said Jack. "Work sent me here."

"Really? I wish I had a job that sent me on cruises. What do you do?"

"I'm a police officer."

Claire seemed confused. "I don't understand. Why would you be sent on a cruise?"

"Because I had a nervous breakdown," Jack replied bluntly, knowing that it didn't matter what the girl knew or thought about him. She wouldn't remember a thing this time tomorrow.

To his surprise, she acted concerned. "That's terrible," she said. "My brother had one of those when he was younger. He has an anxiety disorder and has to take pills. I'm not surprised people struggle to cope with the world when it's such a horrible place. I hope you get through it."

Jack studied her to see if she was genuine. "That's a very compa.s.sionate thing to say to a stranger."

She smiled at him. "Like I said, my brother has been through something similar. I know how horrible it can be. If we were all a little nicer to strangers then perhaps we'd all be happier."

Jack was wary, but couldn't help but like the girl. Every time he spoke to Claire, they seemed to have a fresh conversation and he ended up learning something new about her. The more he got to know her, the more he found out what a caring and strong-minded person she was. What he didn't understand, though, was why her boyfriend, Conner, had such a hold on her. In the various encounters Jack had with the couple, Conner would always order Claire around as if she were his slave; Claire was always nervous and let him. There was something going on there, but Jack hadn't yet learned what. Trying to find out would be a waste of his time, anyway. It wasn't as though he could change anything.

As if on cue, Conner appeared and did his little routine about the hotdogs and being ill. Claire followed after him and the two of them went downstairs. Everything was always the same, like clockwork. Events could vary somewhat due to whatever involvement he took in them, but nothing was ever really different. The night would always end the same.

Jack decided to take a nap, knowing with certainty that he would wake up at 8PM, alone and in the dark, just before the attacks began.

Been there, done that. Got ripped apart by zom- Wait one minute...

Jack suddenly realised something. Today, everything was not the same. Something had changed. For the first time in the last one-hundred days, the brunette waitress with the dark eyes had not come to take his drink order. She hadn't turned up when she was supposed to.

Day 102.

Jack had spent the entire previous evening trying to locate the brunette waitress, but he had failed to find her anywhere. Asking other members of staff where he could find her had been no help; they were cagey and distrustful of him. But today he would have longer to look.

Jack had awoken at 1400hr as usual. The seagull was at the window and the shower was freezing cold until it warmed up a couple minutes later. Everything was the same as it always was an endless loop of October 14th. The only thing that ever changed was him.

Every day Jack was more depressed than the last. He had longed every day for death, all his hope evaporated. But now things were finally different. There was someone else on the ship who was like him; someone who was not fixed in place or stuck in time.

Jack got dressed quickly and headed outside. He decided to go and take the sun lounger next to Claire and wait for one hour to see if the waitress turned up. It was probably the best place to start the one place he knew she was at least supposed to be.

Jack threw aside the green beach towel and sat down on the sun lounger. Claire, as always, said h.e.l.lo.

"Hey," he said back to her, glancing around the deck for the waitress. "How you doing today?"

"Good, thanks. The sun has been out most of the day, but I think it's going in soon. Should have come earlier in the year."

"Why didn't you?" Jack asked, glancing around the deck again.

"Why do you think? Money. I'm only a hairdresser. I could barely afford to come in October, let alone during peak time."

"What about your boyfriend? You should have made him treat you."

"Conner? How did you know I came with my boyfriend?"

"I, er...saw you together. We boarded at the same time."

"You couldn't have. We arrived separately." The girl seemed a little freaked out for a moment, but then she shrugged."You must have seen us somewhere else. Anyway, Conner doesn't earn that much more than me. He's a mechanic at a place his dad owns, but he doesn't get paid a lot."

"How long you two been going out?"

"Six months or so. How about you? Are you with anyone?"

Jack thought about the last time he had kissed a woman and shook his head. "I've been single for a long time now. Not really interested in being with anyone."

"Bad break up?"

"Something like that," he said.

Jack looked around the deck once more, becoming more and more anxious that the waitress wasn't going to turn up. If she didn't, then he would have to resume his wild goose chase from the previous evening. Before he got going, though, he wanted to ask Claire one last question.

"Does Conner make you happy?"

Claire raised her eyebrows at him. "What? That's a bit of a nosey question."

"I know," said Jack. "You just seem like a nice girl, that's all. I hope he treats you well."

"He does. Well...most of the time. To be honest, I-"

"Hey babe, who's this?" Conner stood in the gap between Jack and Claire's sun loungers. He glared down at Jack with an accusing look.

"My name is Jack. I was just having a chat with Claire. Is there a problem with that?"

Conner's eyes narrowed. "Depends. If you're on the pull, old man, then you and me have got a problem for sure. She's half your age, innit."

"Yes, she is," Jack agreed. "Thankfully there are no laws against chatting to someone, regardless of their age."

Conner snarled at him like a kicked dog. "You cheeking me, mate? Because that would be a mistake."

Jack couldn't help but smile. The threats meant nothing to him. He knew Conner's fate, after all, and it wasn't at all good. "You sure you want to start something, son?" Jack goaded the lad. "Because you're not looking so hot, to be honest."

"Yeah," Claire b.u.t.ted in, trying to stop the back and forth between them. "You look bad. How are you feeling, babe?"

Conner turned his attention from Jack toward his girlfriend. "I'm fine. Just a cold."

"Okay," said Claire. "Let's go get some food in you. This guy wasn't doing anything except talking to me, so it's not worth causing trouble over. You know I only love you."