Burnt Sea: A Seabound Prequel (Seabound Chronicles Book 0)

by Jordan Rivet

  Simon realized that the whole prayer group had turned to look at him.

  “I just wanted to check in and see how everyone’s doing,” he said. “Any injuries during the storm?”

  “The Lord brought us through. Didn’t He?” Penelope said.

  The people nodded fervently.

  “I see.” Simon faked a smile. He didn’t want to think about God, didn’t want to allow the anger and despair to rise in his chest. “Good. Well, I’ll leave you to—”

  “Would you like to join us in prayer?” Penelope asked.

  “I’m Jewish actually . . . I don’t think—”

  “That’s all right. Horace here is a Buddhist,” Penelope said, gesturing to the suited man. “We don’t think Jesus’ll mind too much under the circumstances.”

  “I don’t want to pray,” Simon said, his breath catching. He tried to slow his heart rate. He could stay calm in other situations. Why not during a simple prayer meeting?

  But Penelope wouldn’t be deterred. “Would you mind if we lay our hands on you? You don’t have to speak a word.”

  “What? Why me?”

  “You’re the one who’s been watching out for everyone. We were talking before the prayer, and we think you’re the shepherd anointed for this voyage.”

  The two Michigan parents were nodding. The old woman who had opened the door patted Simon on the shoulder.

  “I’m not really doing anything, just helping out.”

  “Even so,” Penelope said, “we all feel better with you taking the lead. Don’t ya’ll think Simon’s got a better head on his shoulders than most?”

  A murmur of assent went around the room.

  “Thank you. Hopefully we’ll be disembarking soon, though. I’d better go get some shut-eye.” Simon was surprised to see a flash of disappointment on a few faces when he turned to go. He really didn’t like to let people down. He sighed. “I suppose it couldn’t hurt.”

  He went to the center of the cabin, a mere two steps from the door, and got awkwardly to his knees. He was exhausted. He hadn’t slept the previous night as he sat tensed in the alcove, trying to keep Esther and Judith from tumbling into the sea. But the weariness was deeper than that—bone deep, soul deep. Every waking moment he was struggling against the despair that threatened to pull him under.

  Penelope shuffled forward on her bunk, reminding Simon of a pheasant hen. She put her right hand on his head. It was soft and light. The others reached out their hands, some firm, some trembling, and connected.

  Then Penelope prayed, her breath ruffling the hair on the back of Simon’s neck.

  He couldn’t identify what he felt as she spoke. There was energy in the room, perhaps because it was small and stuffy and the floor still tipped, perhaps because everyone was coming down from what he had learned to recognize as a fear high. He’d experienced that high too many times in the last few days. But Simon felt warmed by all the hands on his head and shoulders. It was as if they were sending electricity into him through this act of faith and hope. He didn’t know if it was God, but when it was over he felt encouraged and a little more alert.

  “Thank you,” he said as he stood to go. “Uh, take care, everyone.”

  “God bless you, Simon.” Penelope took the hands of the people next to her again and closed her eyes.

  Out in the corridor Simon leaned against the wall. Emergency lights along the ceiling lighted the passageway. It was a strange feeling to have people put their trust in him. He’d rarely had anyone except his family rely on him or look to him for leadership. It scared him, but the more they looked to him, the more he knew he wouldn’t let them down. He rolled his shoulders, feeling a little looser and lighter, and went into his own cabin.

  Judith

  At Manny’s words, Ren jumped into action, turning to the ship’s computers to isolate the problem. She should be able to close the flood doors in the problem area to keep the water from spreading.

  Manny darted to the crow’s nest and whisked up the ladder to fetch the captain. He stopped when his heels were about to disappear from view and then backed down into the bridge. Vinny and the captain followed.

  Captain Martinelli’s silver hair had lost its sheen. It looked longer, Einstein-like, without the careful comb and plaster job he’d worn previously. His face was darker than the sky outside.

  Judith leapt up and helped Nora to her feet. They backed away, hoping the captain wouldn’t notice them. He stumbled on the last step, but when he stood, his back was straight. He walked stiffly to the windows.

  “We cannot disembark in Hawaii,” he said, his voice distant as the moon. “We don’t have enough fuel to reach Asia or return to the continent. Little good that would do.” He put both hands behind his back and stared outward, unseeing.

  “Uh, sir?” Ren said, looking like she might faint. “There’s a leak in the hull. What are your orders?”

  “Let the ship sink into the goddamn sea.”

  Judith started. Manny crossed himself and squeezed his eyes shut.

  “Sir?”

  Captain Martinelli didn’t turn from the window, but his voice was as clear as a thunderclap.

  “We have nowhere to go. I will not abandon this ship. Let her sink.”

  Ren and Nora stared at each other, eyes sharp and fearful despite the alcohol. Vinny’s mouth worked soundlessly, and he looked like he might throw up again.

  “We have to do some— ” Nora began.

  “You wish to do something?” Captain Martinelli said. “It’s taking too long for you, is it? I agree. I shall open the floodgates.”

  He strode to a computer console and began tapping.

  “Sir!” Ren started up from her chair. “You can’t do that! The water—”

  “The water? The sea? The infernal goddamn ocean can take us. We shall sink like the Arizona, like the Lusitania, like the Titanic herself!”

  “We’re not just going to give up and die!” Nora said.

  “The world is dead already,” Captain Martinelli said, hammering at the computer like a piano.

  Judith turned to Ren. “Is he really going to—?”

  “Yes.”

  “He’s raving!” Nora said.

  Ren curled her fingers around the neck of the mostly empty vodka bottle.

  “We have to do something,” she said.

  Nora joined her, a little unsteady on her feet. Vinny shrunk back from them, clapping a hand over his mouth. Judith watched, paralyzed, as Ren and Nora approached the captain, silhouetted against the windows. He mumbled about shipwrecks and floodgates and doom.

  All was still for one razor moment.

  Then Ren lifted the bottle and brought it down on the back of the captain’s skull. The crack was worse than thunder.

  Captain Martinelli crumpled like paper. Nora caught him and guided him to the floor, while Ren took over the computer.

  Manny opened his eyes. He took one fleeting look at the captain. Then his jaw set into a firm line, and he walked over to Judith—not to Ren or to Nora; to her.

  “What do we do?” he said.

  Judith shook herself. No point in gaping. It was done.

  “We need to fix the leak,” she said. “And then we need to stop wasting fuel. Ren? Nora? Can you shut off all operations that require fuel temporarily? Even the engines. We need to figure out exactly where we are before we make any decisions about where to go. And keep the captain here. I’m going to find Simon. Manny, come with me.”

  Simon

  Simon had barely closed his eyes when Judith pounded on his cabin door. He stumbled over to it, still groggy.

  “Simon, the captain has lost it!” Judith stood in the corridor with Manny the porter, bouncing anxiously on her toes. “The ship is sinking. We have to make some decisions. You need to come to the bridge!”

  “Calm down, Judith,” Simon said. “Tell me what’s going on.”

  “We can’t dock in Hawaii because of the storm,” Judith said, “and we’re running out of fue
l.”

  Simon glanced at Esther sleeping beneath the periwinkle blanket. She didn’t stir. He stepped into the corridor with Judith and Manny and closed the flimsy door behind him.

  “What’s wrong with the captain?” he asked.

  “He wants to let the ship sink,” Judith said.

  “There is a leak in the hull, Mr. Simon, sir,” said Manny. “She is sinking.”

  “Are you sure?” Simon asked, following them along the corridor. The emergency lights flickered above them.

  “I think something is hitting the ship,” Manny said. “Maybe another ship.”

  “Okay. Manny, can you find Reggie and let him know?”

  “The captain is saying—”

  “We’ll take care of the captain,” Simon said.

  “Yes, sir.”

  Manny jogged to the service stairwell at the end of the corridor and started down it. Simon and Judith headed for the bridge.

  Ren, Nora, and Vinny were gathered around the captain when Simon and Judith arrived. He slumped on the floor against a computer console, eyes closed. A thin trickle of blood made a track down the side of his face.

  “What’s going on in here?” Simon said.

  Judith pranced beside him like a nervous racehorse.

  “He tried to open the flood doors,” said Ren—a navigator, if Simon remembered correctly. “The ones I engaged to contain the leak.”

  “He said the whole world is dead,” Nora said.

  “I hit him on the head with a vodka bottle.” Ren looked like she was in physical pain. Nora put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it gently.

  “Is he alive?” Simon asked quietly.

  “Yes.”

  “Okay.” Simon let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. “Let’s try to keep the violence to a minimum. That’s the last thing the world needs right now.” Ren started to speak, but Simon held up a hand. “I understand you did what you had to. Now, what’s going on with Hawaii? Can we disembark?”

  Vinny, a flabby middle-aged man with nervous hands, quickly reported what he’d heard on the radio from another ship, who’d heard it from someone holed up in a villa on a mountainside on Oahu. The Hawaiian Islands had endured a devastating storm surge. The ports were clogged with debris and mud. The people left behind by the torrent were only starting to pick through the wreckage. They weren’t in any condition to help refugees.

  “The navy was supposed to be gathering there,” Judith said quietly.

  “I’m sure some of them are still out there,” Simon said. “Didn’t they see the storm coming and head out to sea? I understand that’s safer than being in port during a big storm.”

  “It is safer,” Vinny said, “but they didn’t see this one coming. We’ve become too reliant on satellite imaging to predict the weather, but the satellite signals haven’t been getting through properly since the eruption. I’ve basically been living in the broadcast tower because it seems to be the only way to get any news, and I don’t want to miss it.”

  “What about the Internet?” Simon looked to Nora. She seemed a bit unsteady on her feet.

  “Getting spottier,” she said. “The major US networks are down. I can barely get the BBC to load because of the bandwidth required. There must be a server running somewhere, though, because there’s a rudimentary news bulletin site up. It’s preaching doom and gloom mostly.”

  It seemed incomprehensible that they could be so cut off from the global news. In the wake of the eruption, Simon would have expected twenty-four-hour coverage of the disaster. Instead, deafening silence came from the continents.

  “Do you know where we are?” he asked.

  “Best as I can figure,” Ren said, “we’ve bypassed Hawaii and been thrown pretty far west. We may be able to wait a few days and then sail back once they’ve cleared the ports and gotten their relief efforts going. Maybe they can send someone to help us.”

  “Okay. Providing we can fix the leak, that sounds reasonable. How far could we go on the fuel we have left?”

  “I don’t know yet,” Ren said. “That’ll take some calculations. We cut the engines to conserve fuel until we have a new heading. Judith’s idea.”

  Simon nodded. He was exhausted. It was hard to think clearly in this state. “That was the right move,” he said. “We should have enough food to last us a bit longer. Maybe some of the navy ships that were on their way to Pearl will be able to help us. Vinny, can you stay on the radio? I’ll find someone to help you out if you need it.”

  Vinny saluted.

  “Good. Let’s all get a bit of rest and then call a meeting to discuss our next course of action. We should let everyone know we may need to hang on for a few more days before landing in Hawaii.”

  “What should we do about the captain?” Nora asked. He hadn’t moved from where he had slumped against the computer console.

  “We’d better restrain him somehow,” Simon said, “if he’s going to cause problems.

  “We can barricade him in his quarters until things calm down,” Vinny suggested.

  Simon felt like he was in a small boat that had just tipped over the crest of a colossal wave. He didn’t know what he was doing. They needed the captain, but not if he was in this state.

  “Okay, yes,” he said finally. “Lock him up for now and make sure he has plenty of food and water.” He hoped he was making the right choice.

  “We just started a mutiny, didn’t we?” Nora said.

  Ren blanched at the word. Simon looked down at his hands

  “You had no choice,” he said. “We’ll do whatever it takes to get through this.”

  Chapter 10—The Meeting

  Judith

  After a few hours of sleep, the Catalina survivors gathered in the Pearl Theater. Vinny had showed them how to use the intercom system so they could call everyone together at once. A group of teenagers led by Rosa Cordova’s daughter Gracie gathered all of the children in the bowling alley, while the remaining adults squeezed into the theater to discuss the situation.

  The stage was nearly two decks tall and featured heavy velvet curtains in shades of purple and gold. A garish lighting fixture shaped like an octopus hung from the center of the auditorium. The theater wasn’t quite big enough to seat everyone, but it was more conducive to conversation than the plaza.

  Judith stood at the edge of the stage beside one of the velvet curtains and watched the survivors trickle in, somewhat the worse for wear after the storm. They looked tired and rattled. Some people had given up on showering in the days since the disaster. They stared around, glassy-eyed. Others had dressed up like they were going to see a show on the cruise’s formal night. The muted tap of high heels echoed on the theater steps.

  The crew assembled too. Some had already made subtle changes to their uniforms, leaving buttons undone and forgoing their neckerchiefs. The rules no longer applied.

  The most bedraggled among them were those who had fled from San Diego. Like Judith, they had now been wearing the same clothes (their own and a miscellaneous assortment borrowed from the shops) for four days. She had never wanted a nice stiff pair of freshly washed jeans more. At least she had her running shoes, but they were still damp after being soaked during the storm.

  When every theater seat had been filled and more people crowded outside the double doors, Simon stepped to the center of the stage. He was supposed to take a nap before this meeting, but he still looked very tired. Briefly, he explained how the storm had devastated Hawaii and no one on the islands could help them right away. They had been driven to the west, far out in the Pacific Ocean and further away from Hawaii and the mainland. They had to be careful about making any movements lest they use up their fuel and exhaust their options.

  Simon spoke patiently, and Judith could see the teacher in him. He told everyone they had decided to float for a few days to conserve power until relief efforts were underway in Hawaii and someone was able to send help. Judith thought he sounded perfectly reasonable, describing
precisely why this was the best course of action for all.

  Judith had always imagined her first boss would be a bit like Simon: a wise mentor; someone to help her prepare for her career. Someone who recognized her potential. It had always been important for her to get recognition and respect. Even here she was desperate for it. All her other plans were spinning out of reach, but at least she had Simon’s lead to follow. She wanted to show him how capable she was.

  She thought the others must admire Simon as much as she did, but as soon as he closed his mouth, the problems began.

  “Who died and made you king?” said Rosa Cordova.

  “I can’t stand being on this ship another day,” shouted a man in the front row. “We need to get to land!”

  “My whole family is crammed into a two-hundred-square-foot cabin,” someone else called.

  “We can’t take it anymore!”

  “We have family all over the US. We have to find out what happened to them.”

  “Where’s the captain?”

  “Captain Martinelli is incapacitated at the moment,” Simon said. “I’m just filling in.”

  He tactfully left out the part about Ren hitting him over the head with a bottle. But this only made the people more agitated. Some stood up from their seats to shout their opinions.

  “Why do you get to decide?”

  “We almost died last night.”

  “Shouldn’t we vote?”

  “I want my feet back on dry land.”

  Simon looked surprised at the onslaught. “I thought it would be best—”

  “We should go to Hawaii.”

  “My wife is too seasick to leave her room.”

  “We’ve been here too long already.”

  “When’s the captain coming back?”

  “Let’s sail back to California!”

  “Why does it matter? The world is already ending.”

  The words assaulted Simon from all sides. The pressure had been building for days, and now it was boiling over. Judith clenched her fists. She wanted Simon to shout at the people, to make them see how foolish they were being. Simon’s decision to wait for a few days was obviously best for everyone.