Sea Sick: A Horror Novel(15)

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 mass 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 bloody 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 hellish ghouls trying to get at them. The enclosure’s doors were locked from the inside and, so far, the hard plastic glass 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 hell 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 glass 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 passengers. 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 passengers 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 hell. I must have died on duty, stabbed by some drug dealing scumbag, and this is the boat meant to take me to hell. This is the River Styx and somewhere I’m going to bump into Charon ready to take me to the underworld.

The infected passengers seemed to notice Jack all at once and let out a simultaneous screech. Acting as a single entity 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 passengers from the Sports Deck. They stumbled down the stairs towards him, gathering bodies like a grizzly snowball. 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 God.



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.