Errol's Folly

by Dave Brown

  #

  Two hours later Anne rubbed her hands together, excited, as the first copies rolled out of the printer in the staff room of Koninklijke. The biggest ship in the spine was also the administrative center of New Taiwan. There were only a handful of working computers on the island, and Koninklijke had the only ones with the ability to scan and print pages. Fresh paper itself was in desperately short supply, so the use of the printer was only authorized for vitally important documents. Anne's eventual aeroponics designs had been green-lighted for real paper when she first proposed them to the council, sixteen days ago. The result was two double sided sheets detailing how to use simple materials to create a modular aeroponics unit.

  Anne picked up the first ten copies and tapped them on the table. The staff room used to be a galley for up to twenty-five crewmen. Now a dozen work stations were set up for the planning committee's day to day clerical business. Nguyen Tran and Jill Peters, two of the staff, were there with Anne waiting for their own set of copies to distribute.

  “Okay, I'm taking these down to the plastics guys on the south end. You know where you're taking yours?”

  Jill nodded enthusiastically. Tran was already making a checklist on a pocket notepad. They were very excited about the project. Anne shook their hands and then took her stack of copies out the hatch and onto Koninklijke's deck. The sky was mostly clear and the sun warmed her hair. People were hurrying around going about their business. She was just starting to notice that many of their faces looked anxious, even scared, when the first klaxon began to wail. It jolted her badly and she stopped still where she was. Somebody running in her direction saw her standing and shouted. It was George.

  “Get to the north end of the spine!”

  “Why? What's hap-” and then the deck of the ship heaved underneath her and the calm day was marred by screams and an ear-piercing howl of colliding metal.

  Chapter 16

  Reg stood on the catwalk outside the Folly's bridge and watched Jimmy Hong's plane pull away from its improvised dock on the southeast corner of the island. He had just traded a few words with the Canadian over the radio and was more than a little concerned about the ship Jimmy and Lana were being sent to find. He knew all too well what could happen when visiting the shore of the old world.

  Since the first day the crew of the Folly embarked on the New Taiwan project, Reg had remained on the ship. His knowledge of electronics was considerable but he had little experience with building self sustaining systems. Errol needed somebody to keep watch on the ship during the project and Reg volunteered. Everyone else rotated through a schedule that kept three other people on board all the time, with Reg in charge. This afternoon he was minding the store with Patty, George, and Barbara.

  He looked down at the gang plank between the Folly and Boi do Mar and saw Anne coming across. They hadn't seen much of each other in the last three weeks and he found himself surprised at the feeling of missing her. She looked up toward the bridge and he waved. She waved back. The whine of an aircraft engine drew his attention and he turned to see Jimmy's plane speeding south. The worried feeling returned.

  Anne didn't have much time for him so he settled for a few long kisses and then left her to her work. An hour later he watched her hurry back over the plank, headed toward the center of the spine. George came onto the bridge and noted down something in the maintenance log.

  “You got it bad,” he said.

  Reg didn't say anything, just watched her go. The radio speaker suddenly crackled to life.

  “Jimmy Hong to New Taiwan, come in please.”

  There was no immediate answer. Reg stared at the radio, nervous. Jimmy called again three more times and still received no answer. Reg decided to get involved.

  “Jimmy, this is the Folly. We read you, over.”

  “That you, Reg? We found the Galápagos. They don't respond to hails and I can see corpses on deck. The restless kind.” Reg's heart sank, but it didn't stay down for long. “It's headed your way,” Jimmy said.

  He first spotted it on the horizon a few minutes later. Through Jones's spy glass he could barely make out the shape of the approaching cruise ship. It was not just headed their way, it was coming almost directly toward them. He picked up the radio mike again. “Errol's Folly to New Taiwan, come in please.” He waited a few seconds. “Folly to New Taiwan, urgent, come in please.” There was nothing but silence.

  “George, get over there, find somebody in charge and tell them the Galápagos is on a collision course.”

  “What?”

  “Now, George.”

  The man hurried off the bridge. Reg pressed a button on the radio that switched to the ship's address system. “Patty and Barbara, on deck, repeat on deck.”

  He rushed down to the deck and almost ran over Patty. George was just disappearing onto Boi do Mar and Barbara came running up the stairs inside the tower. “What's up, Reg?” she asked.

  “Patty, I need the engine turning right now and ready to back us up. Barbara, help me get all the mooring lines off.”

  “The hell?”

  “There's a dead ship on a collision course. I don't want to be tied to this heap if it makes contact.”

  Patty turned without another word and ran inside the tower. Barbara stood still and stared at the island. “Cloydon,” she said.

  “Jones can take care of himself and he'll want his home intact when he comes back. Come on!”

  She nodded and ran to the bow. Reg took the stern. Five minutes later all the lines were untied and he could feel the engine turning beneath his feet. He ran to the tower and took the steps two at a time up to the bridge. Looking out the window he saw the Galápagos had grown significantly. She was moving pretty well. Patty called up from the engine room.

  “I'm all set down here, Reg.”

  He snatched up the mike. “Give me a nice a slow reverse.” There was a slight lurch and the ship started to move. Barbara ran onto the bridge.

  “Where do you need me, Reg?”

  “Go around to the aft catwalk and make sure there's nobody behind us.” He eyed the side of Boi do Mar, anxious. He'd never piloted anything this big before, let alone during something as delicate as a docking maneuver. People on the Boi were pointing at the Folly, clearly confused.

  “We're clear to stern!” Barbara yelled from outside. It took several minutes before they were far enough away from Boi do Mar for Reg to relax. He grabbed the mike again and tapped the away team pre-set on the transceiver.

  “Folly to away members, emergency. All teams check in immediately.”

  “Jones to Folly, we read you.”

  “This is Errol, I read.”

  “Hayes to Folly, reading you.”

  That was all three walkies that were checked out. Reg pressed the transmit button. “Cruise ship Galápagos is on a collision course with the island. George is already spreading the word. Round up the crew and get them to the north end of the spine. I'm bringing the ship to you. Acknowledge.”

  Errol's voice was the first to respond. He sounded very tense. “Roger, north end.” Jones and the doctor also acknowledged. Reg switched back to the engine room.

  “Patty, give me another two minutes of reverse.” He turned the big ship's wheel as be spoke, beginning the slow turn that would get the Folly pointed north. “Then get us ready to move ahead.”

  “You got it, Reg.”

  He yelled out the open hatch behind him. “Are we still clear back there?”

  Barbara came hurrying onto the bridge. “All the way to Australia, looks like.”

  “Grab a walkie and get out to the bow, I'll need you to let me know if anything gets in front of us.”

  She nodded and grabbed one of the three remaining portable radios out of its charging bay. Then she looked out the starboard windows and froze. “Oh my God,” she said, almost a whisper.

  Reg looked too. The cruise ship was clearly visible now and approaching fast. Reg guessed they had no more than five minutes until it
plowed into the island, probably right into Boi where they had been moored. He could see people on the big container ship starting to move. They must have seen the Galápagos, too. He straightened the wheel for fifteen seconds or so and then turned it again. Just as the bow was aligned parallel with the spine of New Taiwan, he felt a change in the thrumming beneath his feet. Patty had cut the reverse thrust. He straightened the wheel again and called her to kick them into forward gear. With the ship heading smoothly ahead, he locked the wheel in place and ran out onto the catwalk. The Galápagos was speeding toward the island. The massive cruise ship looked to be doing between fifteen and twenty knots, but with the amount of mass about to come together that was more than enough for a catastrophe. It towered over Boi do Mar, much more so than he remembered Lusty looming over the deck of the Folly. As he watched, it closed on the immobile container ship at the south end of New Taiwan. His thoughts turned to Anne, somewhere on the island distributing aeroponics designs. Reg was not a religious man, but now he found himself asking, then begging anybody listening that she would be safe long enough for him to get to her.

  The speeding behemoth made contact with Boi do Mar. The tip of the keel must have contacted first because the container ship bucked hard before the smooth line of the Galápagos's bow touched it. There was a thick booming sound that Reg felt in his teeth. The ships of the spine were separated by a few layers of tires from various sources, but a good deal of force was transmitted to the next ship along anyway. The bulk carrier Skellen Nippon heaved upward on her port side before sinking back down again. All this happened in the first instant, and Reg could not take his eyes away from the unfolding disaster. The momentum of several thousand tons moving at fifteen knots carried the cruise ship forward regardless of the resistance offered by the smaller container ship. Less than a second after the keel impacted, the sharp line of her bow plowed into the side of the Boi. The hulls of both vessels crumpled, but force was on the larger ship's side. The Galápagos's engines were still running, forcing the bow deep into the container ship's hull. The sound of the impact took on a shrill metallic note, mixing with the lower frequencies in a way that made Reg reflexively cover his ears. The broken cargo vessel was now listing badly to port. The keel of the cruise ship must have punched a terrific hole below the waterline.

  Less then ten seconds after the beginning of the impact, the cruise ship's forward progress halted. It was jammed well into Boi do Mar's thirty meters of beam. Reg could see the force of the impact moving along the spine, causing the other ships to rock ominously like an enormous metal wave. As the Folly passed the gap between Boi and Skellen, he noted the huge bulker had taken some damage of its own. The port side hull where the tires were lashed had dented inward. Then the Folly was past the gap, continuing north. He ran around to the rear of the tower, hoping to see more of what was happening. The angle wasn't right to see the immediate destruction anymore, but what he could see at that moment made his blood turn to ice water: the dead, falling off the end of the cruise ship's bow to the waiting feast below.

  Chapter 17

  “Roger, north end,” Errol said. He dropped the radio into one of his oversized pants pockets and looked around. He was standing at the north end of the spine on the Varden, a container ship formerly out of South Africa. A shrimp tank sat in pieces on a work bench in front of him. Carl Wallace, the Folly's marine biologist, was staring at him with his mouth agape. Renee Devoux, their committee liaison looked equally stunned.

  “What do we do?” Carl asked.

  Errol was drawing a blank. “Um...” He shook his head hard, clearing it. “Carl, you run over to the plastics cluster at the bow and tell all our people there to stay put here on Varden. I'm going south to try and find more. Get everybody together on the starboard side, that's where Reg will have to get us.”

  Carl nodded and ran out of the workshop.

  “I'd better get back to the committee,” Renee said, hurrying out herself.

  Errol picked the radio out of his pocket again and pressed the transmit button as he, too, began to move. “Errol to Jones, what's your location?”

  “Pride of Panama. I've got Emmy and Bill here.” The Texan's eternal cool helped sooth Errol's ragged nerves. “I'm sendin' 'em north and then headin' down. There are six of us between here and the south end.”

  “Anybody supposed to be on Boi today?”

  “No, sir, lucked out there.”

  “Tell Emmy and Bill to keep an eye out, fill in any of ours on the plan. Hayes, you reading this?”

  The doctor's voice was also steady. Maybe Errol was the only one that let his anxiety show. “I read you Errol. I'm just leaving Koninklijke with George. Ran into him at the admin office. The island's main radio is down, they can't spread the word as fast as we'd like. We grabbed a couple bull horns and we're splitting up, telling people to get as far north as they can.”

  “Good plan. I'm on my way south, hopefully I'll run into you. Errol out.”

  Most of the deck space of New Taiwan was filled with shipping containers re-purposed as housing and work space. While the density was nowhere near what it would have been in the old days, it was still a complex maze of enclosed spaces. The view in any direction was cut to no more than ten feet in most spots. There were navigational cues stenciled on the sides of containers at places where the paths between them crossed. Errol began taking every turn and path he could that would lead him south, telling everyone he saw about the impending collision. If the decks had been clear and he wasn't stopping to talk to people along the way, it probably would have taken about five minutes to walk from one end of the island to the other. As it was, he had only made it to the third ship in when he heard the impact. A few seconds later the deck heaved under his feet and he put a hand out against the nearest container to keep his balance.

  “Damn,” he said under his breath. There were a dozen or so other people around him. One woman screamed aloud, then seemed to catch herself, embarrassed. There was a man with a handheld radio on his hip who immediately raised his hands.

  “There's been a collision,” he called in a strong clear voice. There must have been some limited spread of the news over the handheld network. Good thing, Errol thought. The others in the area turned their attention to the man with his hands in the air. “We need to proceed calmly to the north end.”

  A few people broke and ran, ideas of calm forgotten. Most walked, if a little hurriedly, and the man with the radio appeared ready to turn south.

  “Hey!” Errol called to him. The man looked in his direction. “Errol Stimsky from the Folly. What have you heard?”

  “Not much. The cruise ship was headed for impact. I guess we know what happened after that. You looking for your people?”

  Errol nodded. “My crew is bringing our ship up to the north end to get us.”

  “Okay, good luck,” he said and then ran between some nearby containers. Errol looked around and saw a ladder leading to the top of one of the container clusters. He ran to it on impulse and began climbing. A minute or so later he stood atop the steel box and saw a different side of New Taiwan. Nearly every cluster was connected by planks and improvised walkways on top. There were dozens of people using this elevated landscape, most of them moving north. When he looked to the south he saw the giant cruise ship. From this perspective it looked like it was simply parked off the south end of the island, but the cacophony of noise earlier told a different story. He saw objects falling off the bow of the towering ship and realized with cold terror what they were. With the path here easier to see, and no need to stop and spread the word since it appeared everybody had gotten the message, he moved much faster. He held his walkie up as he ran, listening to occasional chatter from Jones and Doctor Hayes, even a bit now and then from Reg. It sounded like Jones had bumped into several members of the Folly's crew. Hayes had also snagged a few and was continuing to head south. Errol pressed the transmit button on the radio.

  “Bernard, be careful. The zombies are falling o
ff the Galápagos. The farther down you get the likelier you are to bump into them.”

  “I hear you, Errol,” Hayes’s voice sounded steady.

  “I found a sort of rooftop walkway system. If you see a container cluster with ladders on it, I recommend getting up there. Those things can't climb.”

  He moved south, doing a count in his head. Three people still on the Folly. Jones had found ten, Hayes four. Carl and the three people he was supposed to find at the plastics center on Varden brought the total to twenty-three. Not counting himself, that left five people still missing. He was sure they were all following the herd north, but couldn't allow himself to just turn around. He slowed his pace and cupped his hands to his mouth.

  “Use the tops of the containers!” he shouted. “Those things can't climb!”

  He continued south, glancing back occasionally and gratified to see more and more people using the elevated escape route. Within a few minutes he had made it to Pride of Panama, still shouting for anybody that could hear him to use the containers.

  “Errol!” someone shouted. He looked around and finally down into the walled passage below. George was standing there holding a bullhorn.

  “George! How many have you found?”

  “Five!”

  “Fantastic!” Errol grinned. “Get up here. We can get all the way to the north end this way.”

  “Anne took off! She said she couldn't leave Reg. She was gone before I could even tell her he was bringing the Folly around!”

  Errol's heart sank. If she was heading south, and had been for several minutes, she would probably be at Boi do Mar by now. “Get up here and give me that bullhorn, then get up north as fast as you can.”

  “I'll go with you!” he said as he started climbing a nearby ladder.

  Errol shook his head. “I don't want to risk anybody else. Just get to the north end. I'll catch up.”

  George reached the top and they met on the roof of a rusty green container. The man looked torn between choices, but handed Errol the horn. “Good luck,” he said and clapped his captain's shoulder. Errol watched him jog away toward the rendezvous point and then resumed his own hurried pace toward the bottom end of the island.