Monsters In Our Wake

by J. H. Moncrieff

  Flora’s stomach fluttered with nausea, and she closed her eyes. “I appreciate the pointers, but I hope this was a one-time thing.”

  “Which brings us to the issue at hand. What are we going to do about Frank? Obviously we can’t have him roaming the ship,” Thor said.

  She heard the dull thud of Apostolos kicking Frank’s body. “I still say we donate him to our monster friend. Maybe he’d like some well-aged meat for a change.”

  “I’m really sorry, Flora.”

  She opened her eyes to see Archie watching her anxiously, his round face pale and solemn.

  “I had no idea where he was going. I thought he was taking a walk on deck,” he said. “The few nights I was awake when he left, he told me he was getting some air. If I’d known—”

  “It wasn’t your fault, Archie. Nobody knew.”

  “I should have, though. Bloody pathetic excuse for a man.” Apostolos kicked Frank again, and this time the sailor groaned in response. “Yeah, wake up, you bastard. Wake up so I can pop you again.”

  “Why don’t we tie him up and put him in the cargo hold?” Archie said. “He can stay there until we get to shore. He won’t be able to hurt anybody down there.”

  The big Greek shook his head. “I still like the idea of throwing him overboard.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  If Thor had learned anything, it was that you should never believe things couldn’t get any worse.

  They always could.

  Once Frank came to and realized he was trussed in the cargo hold, he was angrier than a junkyard dog. He hollered and cursed for the rest of the night, and then through the next day, and Flora was right about the creature not liking discord. It bumped against the ship so hard Thor was afraid it was going to tear it apart. The poor Cormorant couldn’t take much more abuse.

  Apostolos was terrified Frank was going to get everyone killed, and when it became apparent the sailor had no intention of stopping, he ordered Thor and Archie to gag him. But they couldn’t do it. Thor was a mechanical engineer and Archie a simple sailor. Neither of them was cut out for that kind of work.

  Once the Greek saw they weren’t going to budge, he went below and did it himself. The men heard some shouting for a while, and then nothing but muffled grunts. Frank’s cries sounded like the half-hearted barking of a dying dog that didn’t have much left in him.

  Flora stayed in the messdeck most of the time. Thor guessed it was probably the only place she felt safe. As he popped in to check on her, he was sad to see her flinch, and enraged at Frank for destroying her spirit.

  “How are you feeling?”

  To be honest, she was pretty hard to look at. Seeing her face made him want to kill Frank. Her eyes were ringed with purple, her nose a swollen, angry lump. He’d done the best he could to set it, but unless a doctor broke it again once she got to shore, it would always be a little crooked. He’d told her it made her look tough, and that had at least gotten her to smile. She smiled so rarely these days.

  Her lip was split, and she’d complained of a headache ever since the attack. The men had raided Frank’s stash of painkillers, the irony not lost on them, but the aspirin they’d been able to find hadn’t done much good.

  “Won’t he stop? He’s driving me crazy.”

  “Not unless we let him out. He’s a stubborn old fucker.”

  “Then maybe Apostolos should let him go. I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”

  Her words shocked him. Pulling out a chair, he was careful not to scrape it against the floor. The slightest sound was enough to make Flora wince—no wonder Frank’s constant barking was driving her to madness. “We can’t risk him attacking you again.”

  “One of you could stay with me, just in case. If someone else was in the room, I don’t think he would try anything.”

  He shook his head. “After what happened, I don’t think the Greek trusts anyone that much. And how about you? Would you feel safe, knowing he was out? That he could be anywhere on board?”

  Flora sighed, resting her head on her arms. “Probably not, but there has to be an alternative. This is awful.”

  Even Thor’s noise-cancelling headphones hadn’t helped her. He’d managed to get the generator working, and those with MP3 players had been able to charge them, but with Flora’s constant headaches, listening to music hurt just as much.

  “Maybe we should throw him overboard.” He’d wanted to make her smile again, but as soon as the words were out of his mouth, he regretted it. She regarded him as if he were something slimy creeping out from under a rock.

  “Don’t even joke about that. As horrible as Frank is, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.” Flora shuddered, and then winced. “Have you forgotten what happened to Liam?”

  Of course he hadn’t, though not for lack of trying. Thor figured the sight of Liam’s flesh dissolving would haunt him for the rest of his life. “I’m sorry. That was my clumsy attempt to lighten the mood.”

  When she met his eyes, he was shocked at how sad she looked. Her eyes were those of a drowning woman, someone resigned to her death. “Maybe some moods shouldn’t be lightened. Liam is gone. George is gone. I’m hurt, and Frank is confined to the hold like an animal.” She sighed again. “I’m not ready to laugh about this yet, and to be honest, I’m not sure I ever will be.”

  “It was in poor taste. I was just—”

  Apostolos interrupted his apology. It was one of the few times Thor was happy to see him.

  “You’re up, Anderssen.”

  “Huh?”

  You’re up was a common refrain when there was work to do, but since the ship was stranded with no drill and no electronics, the Greek had been leaving the crew to their own devices.

  “The beast down below needs a pee break.” Apostolos rolled his eyes. “Give him a sandwich too. God knows we don’t want any squawking about human rights violations when we get to shore.”

  When we get to shore. It was amazing the captain managed to stay so confident. He sounded like he actually believed it, but it would be at least another week before anyone missed them, and much longer for a rescue ship to arrive. And what if the creature attacked the rescuers as well?

  As far as Thor could see, unless he was able to fix the cable and stop the leak, they were doomed.

  It troubled him how Apostolos had taken to calling Frank ‘the beast,’ as if he were somehow less than human. Did he still consider throwing the sailor overboard? It wouldn’t have entirely surprised him. The captain’s nerves were stretched tighter than guitar strings. It wouldn’t take much to push him over the edge.

  As Thor went to assemble the turkey on rye, along with whatever meager excuse for vegetables they had left, Apostolos added another task to his to-do list.

  “And take Tomkins with you.”

  “I thought he was trying to get some sleep.”

  “Who can sleep in this?” Point taken. Even the Greek had to raise his voice to be heard over the commotion in the hold. The gag may have muffled Frank, but it hadn’t slowed him down.

  “He was dead on his feet. I can handle this myself.”

  Apostolos gave him a look that brooked no argument. “I don’t want you handling him alone, Anderssen. Do you hear me?”

  “Yes, Captain.” Thor was annoyed, but also grateful.

  * * *

  Archie wasn’t in his bunk. He also wasn’t in the control room, or anywhere else Thor would expect to find him. Since he was sure Archie wasn’t in the hold keeping Frank company, there was only one place left to search.

  Dread overwhelmed him as he started up the steps leading to the deck. He hadn’t been on deck since the terrible night George died. As far as he knew, none of them had.

  When Thor cleared the staircase, the sea air hurried to greet him. In spite of his fears, it felt amazing. He took a moment to fill his lungs as his shoulders settled back where they belonged. The sun was warm on his face. This was what he’d hoped for when he decided to work on the rigs. Being
on deck made him feel almost human again.

  And best of all, it was another level removed from Frank. Thor could barely hear him bitching.

  Archie hunched over the bow rail, his few strands of brown hair fluttering in the breeze. Even at this distance, Thor could see the man’s old plaid shirt desperately needed a wash. It was covered with splotches of dried blood and who knows what else.

  The boards creaked beneath Thor’s feet as he crept toward Archie, aware with every step that they were both violating orders. The deck wasn’t safe. As wonderful as the fresh air was, it wasn’t worth their lives.

  He could tell by the way Archie’s body stiffened that the man realized he wasn’t alone, but he kept staring over the water. When Archie was close enough to touch, Thor spoke.

  “Hey, Archie?”

  No response.

  “The deck is off limits, remember? What are you doing? You want to catch hell from the Greek?”

  The man muttered something then. Thor couldn’t quite make it out, but he thought it might have alluded to what the captain could do with his orders and reprimands.

  “He’s only trying to keep our asses alive,” Thor said, wondering what parallel universe he had stumbled into that would charge him with defending their temperamental boss. “You don’t want to end up like George, do you?”

  Archie turned, and his face looked terrible enough that Thor retreated a step. The man’s eyes were bloodshot and so shadowed by lack of sleep that they resembled Flora’s. His round face was sunken around the cheeks, and Thor didn’t like his coloring. Archie’s normally ruddy complexion had soured to a whitish green.

  He shrugged. “What does it matter? We’re going to die anyway. At least George doesn’t have to suffer anymore.”

  There was something about seeing Archie in that state that made Thor want to give up. Archie had always been the crew’s comic relief. The man, while maybe not the sharpest tool in the shed, was unfailingly happy and good-natured. They’d needed that.

  They needed it more than ever now.

  “I’m going to get us out of here.”

  Archie groaned. “You don’t have to humor me no more. At first I wasn’t ready to die, but I’ve made my peace with it. If that creature gets hungry again, it can have me. At least it will be an interesting death.”

  “There isn’t going to be any more death, Archie.”

  Thor could see in Archie’s face how young the other man thought he was, how young and how naïve. And maybe he was, but he couldn’t curl in a ball and wait to die. He had to at least try to get them out of there.

  But there was no point arguing with a defeated man. Actions spoke louder than words, and he knew the color would return to Archie’s cheeks when The Cormorant’s engine came to life beneath his feet, when they left the monster in their wake.

  “It’s time for Frank’s bathroom break. And I’ve got his lunch.” Thor indicated the sandwich-and-pickle plate. “Apostolos wants you to go with me.”

  To his surprise, Archie shook his head. Thor had never known him to say no to anyone before. “I can’t.”

  “I know you don’t like seeing him this way. None of us do. But we had no choice. We couldn’t risk him going after Flora again—or anyone else. He’s not in his right mind.”

  “It’s not that. I’m sick, Thor.” Archie hung his head as if ashamed, and it was then Thor realized some of the splotches on his filthy shirt were vomit. His own stomach roiled in sympathy. “I can’t leave the deck. I know you probably thought I was out here because of a death wish, but the truth is, if I try to go anywhere else…” He didn’t have to say another word. Thor got the picture. Sometimes being on deck in the fresh air was the only cure for seasickness.

  He didn’t know what to do. Frank’s sandwich was getting soggier by the second, and standing in the salt spray wasn’t helping matters. But Apostolos would kill him if he found out Thor had disobeyed orders.

  “It’ll be okay,” Archie said, reading his mind. “Frank won’t hurt you, and he’ll be happy to have something to eat.” Thor didn’t miss that he kept his eyes averted from the sandwich. “He’s not a monster, you know.”

  Thor nodded, even though he had his doubts.

  * * *

  The hold was pitch black and stinking. For a moment, Thor felt searing rage at the Greek—at all of them—for allowing a fellow human being to be kept in those conditions. Frank had hurt Flora, but like Archie said, he wasn’t a monster. Were they any better for keeping him down there in the dark?

  He was fumbling for the string to turn on the light when a harsh voice made him jump.

  “Don’t bother. I smashed it.”

  “Why?”

  The question came out before he could second-guess himself. He couldn’t imagine how anyone could stand it there in the foul-smelling darkness, hearing only the shuffling of the rats.

  Assuming they still had rats. Perhaps the rodents were smart enough to have fled a long time ago.

  “Did you know they keep the lights on in solitary confinement? Those poor fuckers have light blasting into their eyes 24/7. It’s called torture, and I wasn’t about to let you assholes do it to me.”

  “It wasn’t meant as torture, Frank.” But as he said the words, he wasn’t so sure.

  The man laughed, a raspy bark with an edge of cruelty. It made Thor’s skin crawl. “You haven’t learned a thing, have you, Anderssen? After everything that’s happened, you still insist on seeing the best in people.”

  He sounded closer than Thor had expected, but that had to be an illusion. The sailor couldn’t be moving—could he? Frank was tied up. Taking a step closer to the door, Thor held the sandwich plate in front of him like a peace offering. He was beginning to wish he’d brought a weapon. “I don’t know about that. I don’t see the best in you anymore.”

  Frank laughed again. “True enough. But you were fool enough to come down here on your own. I’m surprised the captain sent a boy to do a man’s job. Where’s Tomkins?”

  Thor’s throat felt as if it were choked with dust. He forced himself to swallow. “On deck. He’s sick.”

  “Ah. Poor bastard finally told you, did he? I knew he wouldn’t be able to hide it for long.”

  Cold sweat trickled down Thor’s brow, even though the hold was stifling. He took another step toward the door. “Hide what? He has the flu.”

  “He doesn’t have the flu, you idiot—he’s dying. Take a gander at his ankle the next time you see him. That is, if there’s anything left to see.”

  “What are you—?”

  Something shifted in the darkness. Thor felt Frank’s hot stinking breath on his face.

  In that moment, he understood. Frank shouldn’t have been able to move, but then again, he shouldn’t have been able to talk, either. What had happened to his gag?

  Thor realized his mistake too late.

  “Sleep well, pretty boy.”

  Something hit the side of his head, hard. The clanging of metal reverberated in his ears and he had a brief moment of unbearable pain before the floor rushed to greet him.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  He’s free. You have to get out of there NOW.

  The shriek woke Flora. She gasped as she struggled to get her bearings, heart pounding. She’d fallen asleep in the messdeck.

  The last thing she remembered was Thor leaving to get Archie. They were going to bring Frank his lunch. But it felt like that had been a long time ago. Something had woken her, something that was making her mind roil with worry. What was it? What had she heard?

  He’s free. Get in the cooler and hide while you can. Move it.

  Flora didn’t stop to wonder who the voice belonged to. She rushed to the walk-in cooler in the galley, which was as good a place to hide as any. Fumbling with the handle, her hands were damp with sweat by the time she got the door open.

  She blinked as she became accustomed to the dim light, yanking the door shut behind her. Searching the cooler for something large enough to conce
al her body, she was frantic to turn off the light as soon as possible. If she kept it on, it would be a giveaway someone was hiding there.

  At this stage in the journey, the cooler’s provisions were sadly depleted. Doing the best she could, she snapped off the light and ducked behind a large bag of buckwheat flour in the far corner, banging her shin only once as she made her way in the dark.

  No one on the crew was much for baking, so the bag was still bulky enough to hide her from view. She only hoped it wasn’t full of vermin. Curling into a ball, she tucked her knees to her chest and shivered. Before she’d turned off the light, she’d been able to see her breath—must remember to hold it if someone came in.

  If someone came in. Flora wasn’t used to obeying strange commands yelled at her from within her own mind. She was going to feel ridiculous if one of the guys found her hiding in the cooler for no reason.

  But something told her it was for a very good reason. Whatever it was, she trusted it.

  * * *

  Though she was no longer tired, Flora slipped into another nap. She snapped awake when she heard voices outside the cooler door.

  “What did you do with Anderssen?”

  “Don’t worry, Captain. I treated your precious boy much better than you’ve treated me.”

  Fear wound its freezing hands around her heart and squeezed. Frank was supposed to be secured in the hold. How did he get out? Apostolos sounded furious, but she could hear the nerves beneath his fury. And that scared her more than anything.

  “What about Tomkins?”

  “Archie wasn’t brain-dead enough to go down there. He’s had no part of any of this, and that’s the reason I’ll let him live. Not that he has much time left, anyway.”

  What was he talking about? What’s wrong with Archie? He was paler than usual, and maybe a little quiet, but she’d thought it was because of Frank.

  “Don’t be an idiot, Hearne. You don’t want to spend the rest of your days in the brig.”

  Frank chuckled, and it was the most chilling sound she’d ever heard. It was the laugh of a man on the edge of madness.