by Joshua Grant
What if I go and get help? Aubrey and Julian are only a couple decks down if they—
Gabe didn’t finish the thought. He couldn’t accept the fact that they may have drowned down there, not after everything. They were good swimmers, unlike him. They were alive somewhere, he felt it! He just had to locate them. He began to shift forward when Mac’s hand gripped his shoulder once more.
“They’re gone.” He eased himself up onto a knee, peering over the table. The monster dogs were indeed gone since nothing bit his head off.
“Should we go too?” Gabe whispered.
“Not yet.” Mac shook his head and Gabe caught it again, a nervous look. Mac was watching him as if he might jump out at him like one of the ship’s abominations, although Gabe couldn’t figure out why. What was wrong with the guy? No one with an action hero machine gun should be so jumpy. “We’ll stay here for a bit in case one of the pups goes all Homeward Bound on us and comes back around.”
Made sense, sort of, although nothing was stopping the creatures from coming up out of the vent either or through the roof like before. “So, uh, ya got a deck of cards or something?” Gabe tried to smile.
Mac snorted, but for once his laughter seemed to lack any humor, cynical or otherwise. Something was very wrong. “That’s good kid. You’re getting pretty good at the whole witty thing.”
He was way too nervous as he stared at the door. The dogs had already passed. Cold snakes of worry began to slither through Gabe’s gut. Was he nervous because of him? No, that was crazy. Why would he be?
Gabe tried to form words in his quickly drying mouth. “Do you think Julian and Aubrey are okay?”
Mac’s brow twitched ever so slightly. He was definitely watching the door and the boy simultaneously and trying to hide it, Gabe was sure of it now. “If I know Julian, they’re alright. That man can survive anything.” Gabe’s quickening heart stopped cold. For the first time he noticed Mac’s machine gun was pointed at him. Not blatantly of course. It rested casually on his thigh but the muzzle just so happened to be pointed directly at Gabe’s chest and Mac’s finger just so happened to rest on the trigger.
It’s just a coincidence, he told himself but real pangs of alarm were building in his chest.
“No, I’ve seen that man get shot and fall two stories from an apartment window,” Mac continued, “The bastard wanted to go out for drinks that very night. Jules is pretty unkillable.” Mac turned and looked squarely at Gabe now. “Which is why it’s pretty damn surprising that I’m going to keep him alive this time.”
Gabe’s heart pressed into his throat. “Wh-what do you mean?” The nervous energy in Mac’s eyes was gone, replaced by the cold calculations of a serial killer.
Mac didn’t seem to hear the question. “You know, you had me going there for a while. I almost believed you were who you claimed to be. But then you started making mistakes. Little things of course, things the others didn’t seem to notice. But I saw. Like little pop up ads from a porn site, you left a footprint little Gabe and let me tell you, you’ve been a naughty little boy.”
Gabe couldn’t breathe. Mac was going nuts! It was just like some of the crew members. This place had done something to them, made them go crazy somehow. The creatures had other ways to get into your body than the big monsters it had sent thus far. Gabe had seen plenty of fungus or bug like hives throughout the ship during his weeklong stay. The method didn’t really matter, at least not right now. The result was always the same. Its paranoia was staring him in the face and it was just as scary as any monster Watcher could throw at them. What could he do? Both the room’s exits were suddenly a million miles away. The vent would be ideal. Mac would never be able to follow him down the tight shaft. And with all the time it would take you to get in there it’ll make a nice tight coffin too! Think!
Cold sweat trickled down Gabe’s spine. In all the Hollywood movies he had ever seen, the people trapped with the crazy nut always blew it by trying to run. He’d play it cool, buy himself some time, maybe talk him into putting the gun away.
“Mac, your jokes have gotten a little weird.” He tried to smile, hoped it was convincing enough. His face muscles felt like dehydrated clay.
Mac smiled too, but it lacked all good will. “Nice try kid, but I’m not biting. I know what you are, even if you don’t.”
Gabe looked at the vent again, again realizing how very far away it was, when Mac suddenly stood up levelling the machine gun at his face. “Ah-ah-ah. You see Gabe, you’re not very good at this. You had me marching to your tune at the very beginning like everybody else but then Watcher kept finding us everywhere we went. Strange, I thought to myself. And then I thought, maybe, just maybe, our friend Watcher had an ace up its undoubtedly horrifying sleeve.”
Gabe’s smile faded as Mac’s broadened. “That’s right, you’re in a bit of trouble now, aren’t you? No one’s ever seen through your little guise before, have they?”
Gabe tried to choke out some kind of defense, but the words came quiet and dead. “I’m not—“
“Not surprised the giant tossed you aside without crushing your guts back in the theatre? Tell me, you think it would have shown the same consideration to Julian, or me, or even your friend the doctor? You see kid, I’ve been watching you and last I checked this ship hasn’t given anyone a ‘get out of death free’ card except you. And then there was that stunt you pulled just now down below. That was the big tell now wasn’t it? How many ten year olds go on cruises and are afraid to get a little wet? You’re a fake, Gabe. Part of the big illusion. What I really need to know is why? Why go through the trouble instead of killing us from the start?”
Gabe’s time was running out. He felt it with each word that slipped from Mac’s mouth. The man was becoming more and more determined, more certain that his crazy theory was the only possible truth. Maybe he could make it over the massage table in time. Mac couldn’t have that many bullets left in his gun. Of course, with the way it was pointing and how close they were, there was about zero chance of any of those bullets missing. Fighting wasn’t much of an option either. Even the tech had combat experience. Gabe hadn’t achieved a successful push up in his life. But to just stand here and be murdered at the hands of a madman…
“No? Nothing? I didn’t think so but asking never hurts.” Mac sighed. “I’ve gotta hand it to you though, you’ll do pretty well at the poker game down in hell. There’s only one way to be one hundred percent certain of course, but I’m pretty sure when I open you up with this I’m going to find a wolf with sheepy pajamas.” He began to squeeze the trigger—
Oh my God he’s going to kill me!
Everything happened in an instant and Gabe’s brain struggled to catch up. Blood sprayed across his face, but it wasn’t his own. The machine gun hadn’t even gone off. Mac seemed just as shocked as he was. The man’s dark eyes stared accusingly as he was yanked back over the massage table by the Hunter that had bit into his already torn up shoulder. A second Hunter joined it there, latching onto Mac’s flailing arm with its flappy jaws, dragging, and the three were gone through the hallway entrance.
Gabe didn’t wait to see what fate they had in store for him. Watcher’s drones were not benevolent rescuers. He wasn’t even conscious that he had moved until he was at the vent cover, kicking it in. It clattered into the vent on the third try. Gabe followed it, scraping his side but caring less than a sloth on morphine.
He was alive, as were Julian and Aubrey. He just had to find them before Watcher did. Or before Julian jumps to the same conclusions as the crew and—and Mac. He squirmed through the dark tube having not the slightest idea of where he was going but knowing all too well that he needed to go.
Aubrey’s in trouble! She needs me!
Chapter 28
Deck 1, Aft
Just about the worst place they could be didn’t do it justice. Julian’s head still pounded from its brief divorce from oxygen. He blinked it off, ignoring the throbbing. They had bigger problems. He searched
their surroundings in the dim light. They were back on Deck 1. He could see as much from the half veiled stairwell lobby sign. The other half, the covered part, was the problem. Covered wasn’t an apt description. Devoured was more like it. Slimy black tendrils oozed over the sign like an aerial view of an invading army of ants coming to the picnic. The fleshy mold didn’t just reside there. It had crept over the greater portion of the lobby too. The corpulent mat pulsed in parts, an unnecessary reminder that it was quite alive and likely dangerous. The invasive growth curved along the walls, ceiling, and carpet coiling back into the aft port hallway like some dark giant’s gaping throat.
“We need to move,” he whispered. Aubrey nodded. She too was well aware that the army of ghouls was only a third a ship away and that flesh covered lobbies weren’t the best places to hide.
She grabbed Julian under his arm and hefted him to his still numb feet. “We’re not leaving without Gabe,” she stated, looking to him for confirmation.
“Or Mac,” he agreed. Her eyes met his then and there was a deeper understanding there than Julian had ever felt, on the battlefield or off. None of the distrust remained that had been the norm just a few hours earlier. Standing this close, he felt her warmth and wanted to curl into it. If they weren’t standing in the middle of hell on earth he might have kissed her.
It was Aubrey that looked away, the moment dissolving back into the harsh reality of two almost strangers standing in the dark, a breath away from gruesome death. “They’d head for the Lido deck, right?” she asked, the pain and fear leaking back into her voice.
Julian winced, wishing he could take all that away, if only for a moment, but knowing all too well that nothing short of a reunion with Mac and the kid would. “Makes sense. They’re probably already there waiting for us.”
The suggestion sounded hollow, even to him, but Aubrey nodded, willing to take any hope no matter how small and foolish. Julian’s heart swelled. “C’mon.”
They eased up the stairs as quietly as possible, both searching the black carpet and walls for any sign of movement. They were about halfway up when Julian stopped. There was something here, more than what they were seeing, what they had been seeing this whole time. His heart thundered faster, warming his chilled limbs. Aubrey’s flier, the submerged bodies, the Prowler that attacked them and then retreated, it was all pointing to something.
“What is it?” Aubrey asked in barely a whisper, her eyes searching wildly for the threat.
“Could be nothing.” Julian retreated down the stairs, cupping a hand and dipping it in the icy water. Hell if I ever go swimming again. He hurried back up to Aubrey, the trapped water seeping through the cracks in his fingers. “Could be everything. Watch.”
He tossed the liquid missile into the closest patch of alien tissue and watched…watched nothing happen. Damn. Aubrey opened her mouth to speak. “Just wait,” he instructed, hoping, holding his breath and counting the seconds in his head. Five, six—
The water-spattered section began to react! Bubbles formed along the surface, blisters that swelled and tore, dark fluid foaming up from their craters! It was grotesque, and by far the most beautiful thing he had ever seen!
Aubrey looked from the burning mess to Julian in disbelief. “What—“
Her question never fully formed, her mouth instead boiling into a smile that matched his own. “It can’t withstand salt water,” he explained excitedly. “That’s why it can’t get off this ship or touch the bodies down below. The crew wasn’t crazy or trying to off themselves by sinking the ship. They were trying to kill it! Just like the Atlantians tried to do by submerging their city.”
Aubrey shook her head slowly in wonder, her thoughts racing as quickly as his. “Amazing! Fucking amazing! But this doesn’t change anything. We still have to find the others and then sink the ship.”
Julian nodded. “You’re right. But I tell you doctor,” he moved up past her onto the landing where the afflicted flesh still fizzled, “Your bedside manner could use a little work. Maybe a smile now and then.”
Aubrey joined him, the edge of her soft lips curling ever so slightly upward. “You’ll get the rest when you get us the hell off this ship.”
Julian’s short-lived smirk died as he turned his attention back to their dark surroundings. “Main stairwell’s blocked. I, uh, blew it up. Which leaves us with option number tw—“
His breath caught when he saw what was waiting for them in front of the auxiliary stairwell door. He heard Aubrey’s do the same.
“Oh my God,” she whispered and then rushed forward.
Gabe stared at them blankly as Aubrey snatched him in a tight embrace. Julian joined them, surveying their surroundings for anything threatening before turning his full attention on the boy. He was painfully aware that something was missing in this equation. “Gabe? What—how—“
The boy looked just as shocked as they were. Aubrey loosened her grip so she could look him in his sooty face. “How did you get away?”
“And where’s Mac?” Julian added, dark curls of apprehension beginning to worm up his spine.
Gabe looked at them, his eyes staring but not really seeing. “I ran,” He said at last. Tears filled his eyes.
“Gabe, where is Mac,” Julian repeated as gently as he could, his heart quivering coldly in his chest.
The boy focused on him with a stare so intense it could cut glass. “He tried to kill me.”
Julian stared at him blankly, the words somehow not fully registering. “What do you mean?”
Gabe’s voice trembled. “He went crazy all of a sudden, just like the white shirts from the crew. It got to him somehow and made him try to kill me.” His voice choked off.
Aubrey locked eyes with Julian letting him know not to press too hard like he badly wanted to. Turning back to Gabe she spoke evenly. “Where is he Gabe?” The boy looked up at her in panic. “He needs our help,” she asserted.
The boy shook his head. “It’s too late. They got him and there was nothing I could do. I just ran.” His voice choked off again, mouth still moving, still trying to form the words but there were none to be said.
They got him. The words repeated in Julian’s head threatening to suck the strength out of his legs.
Aubrey pulled Gabe into another hug and this time Julian joined them, holding the two for strength he didn’t feel. No, he felt sick, and angry, and so damned helpless all of a sudden. And tired. So tired, and hurt, and—
Mac’s gone! Gone! Even if he was somehow still alive, he was fucking gone! And God why couldn’t Julian cry? Why couldn’t—
The tears forced themselves out, forced upward by his stinging throat. He hoped the salt-to-water ratio would be just right to burn Watcher’s godforsaken flesh.
“He was your friend and I just ran,” Gabe sobbed.
Julian still clutched the shotgun. He squeezed it tighter. It didn’t compare to the tightness of his jaw or the crushing vice grip that had closed around his chest. “You did the right thing.” He pulled out of the embrace and stood up. “You were very brave. You did the right thing. Now I need you to be brave for just a little bit longer. Go with Aubrey. Keep her safe. Take the stairwell up to the Lido deck and make sure our ride’s still waiting for us.”
“What are you going to do?” Aubrey asked, alarm slipping into her voice.
Julian looked down the flesh-lined path that led to the engine room like a molded red carpet. “No matter what happens, we can’t let it get off this ship. We gotta sink her one way or the other.”
Aubrey caught hold of his arm, her eyes burning with protest. “You can’t do this alone Julian. There’s no telling what’s waiting for you in there.”
Julian looked into her fiery eyes—and saw the vulnerability, the fear. But not fear for herself. She really didn’t want him to go, to leave her alone again. And for once he wanted to stay put, to stop running away from a checkered past toward an endless void. For once he felt like there was something in this world for him, more t
han the tenuous promise of redemption and the pressing need to provide his brother with a better path. Aubrey didn’t care what he had done. He looked in her eyes and saw perfection and knew that she was staring at the same thing--
--and Julian was moving before he thought to do so. He leaned in pressing the warmth of his lips against hers, his heart fluttering as their chests brushed each other, his thumb sliding gently across her shoulder. She pulled back out of sheer surprise, blinking, and Julian was surprised to find his cheeks getting warm.
Yeah, he probably seemed a little crazy, kissing someone after his best friend just got killed, or maybe a little false going for the gold just before marching into what might be his grave. But Julian knew, more than anything he had ever known, that this was the least crazy most genuine thing he had ever done.
He offered a sheepish smile. “Go make sure our ride is there. I’d like to see that smile someday.”
Aubrey blinked, recovering quickly from the shock. “I’m not big on the whole macho thing, you know.”
“That’s why I want you to take this,” he gestured to the shotgun. “There was something in the stairwell earlier. Damn near got me.”
Aubrey pressed the shotgun back against his chest. “No,” she said and fixed him with a look before he could protest. “Where you’re going, you’re gonna need it. We all will. If this ship doesn’t sink then none of us are going anywhere anyway.”
He knew a ‘and that’s final’ when he saw one. Julian nodded. “Better get going. I’m pretty sure it’s past this one’s bed time.”
Gabe still trembled but managed a tired smile. Aubrey nodded, moving the two of them towards the stairwell door. She delicately pulled it open, clearing the other side with her pistol. Julian was relieved to see that his multi-eyed friend hadn’t returned, at least not in the immediate area. He swiveled to face his own nightmarish walkway.