Sea Sick: A Horror Novel(16)
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 passengers at around the same time. The safest place to be, Jack had discovered, was in the lower decks of the ship, where the frightened passengers 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 passengers 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 goddamn 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 compassionate 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 drinks order. She hadn’t turned up when she was supposed to.