by Mark Woods
A Vampyre sprung up in front of them, and Wilfred quickly pulled out the old service revolver he still carried – left over from his time in the war - and with his free hand, opened fire. The silver bullet hit the Vamp square in the face, causing it to explode in a mist of blood and gore – some of which sprayed out over Jaqueline.
“Not real, not real, not real…” he heard her muttering under her breath. “It’s a dream, a nightmare; all of this, it has to be…”
“If only it was,” Wilfred said. “This way, c’mon, we need to go…”
Jaqueline allowed herself to be pulled away, obviously suffering from shock and no doubt in denial of everything her eyes were seeing played out in front of them. Finally, as they approached the lifeboat, Jaqueline began to scream…and scream…and scream...as everything she’d seen up until now all finaly started to catch up with her.
Wilfred slapped her, hard, in the face to help break her hysteria, then just as suddenly regretted it, even though it seemed to temporarily shut her up.
“Get in the boat, quickly,” he snapped at her. “There’ll be plenty of time for hysterics later. For now, I just need you to try and keep calm – just long enough for us both to get away and off of this ship. ”
There were a few people already in the lifeboat, he noted – a mother and a young girl whom he assumed must be her daughter judging from the way they sat together - cowering, frightened, up at the far end of the boat.
There was also a member of the ship’s crew who looked to be no more than nineteen or twenty at the very least and a tall, exotic-looking woman, dressed in a crimson ball gown, who he presumed must obviously have still been in the process of getting herself all dolled up for the Halloween Ball when all hell had broken loose on the ship.
Wilfred went to help Jaqueline into the small lifeboat but when he made to follow her, the young crew member on-board held up his hand to stop him.
“I’m sorry, Sir,” he said. “But didn’t you hear the Captain just now? It’s strictly women and children only for now, I’m afraid. I’m sorry but I simply can’t allow you to join us. Not when there are other women and children still on-board the ship who might need the space.”
“This whole ship is going to hell in a hand basket,” Wilfred said, standing up to the young lad and getting right in his face. “And you’re seriously trying to tell me you expect me to just sit here and watch you sail off into the distance, leaving me behind here to die, whilst there’s still space on your lifeboat, simply because your ‘Captain’ told you women and children need to go first? I don’t think so, me ol’ mucker.
“Have you seen what’s happening behind me? Can you see any other women or children coming who might need the room? Because if you do, I’ll happily give up my seat but until then, as far as I’m concerned you can do one. If we don’t leave right now, you know what’s going to happen? None of us are ever going to end up getting off this ship and we’re all going to end up dying here so while there’s still space left on-board, and unless you have any other objections, I’m taking a place on this lifeboat. That is, unless you want to risk an argument with this…”
Wilfred held up his revolver and pointed it at the steward, who quickly stepped aside.
“That’s what I thought - now, move aside motherfucker and get the hell out of my way. We can do this the easy way, or we can do this the hard way, but either way, I’m getting on this boat.”
“Okay, okay,” the crewman said, holding up his hands in surrender. “You win. You can come aboard, but we can’t go anywhere yet – it’s Ship’s regulations. We can’t abandon ship until we’re at full capacity.”
“Fuck me,” Wilfred cursed. “Weren’t you listening to me? Are you deaf as well as stupid? If we don’t go now, there’s a very good chance none of us are ever getting off of here. Release the harness for fuck’s sake and let’s get the hell out of here, and if you’re not willing to do it, move aside and I will…”
He went to move towards where the lifeboat was still harnessed to the ship, lifting up his revolver again when the crewman made to stop him.
“Don’t make me have to use this, boy,” he warned him. “Make yourself useful and fucking help me, or else stay the fuck out of my way.”
Wilfred could hear the sound of more Vampyre and Lycanthropes rushing down the ship towards them from behind even as he spoke; joining forces, now slowly starting to realise that if their two species didn’t start working together, then very likely they were going to die as well and their prey was likely to escape.
The steward, seeing this, suddenly decided Wilfred was right – they did need to go. He began struggling to undo the harness that secured them, pulling out a pocket knife to help him cut through the cable when he realised somehow it had managed to become tangled.
Wilfred pushed him aside.
“Let me do that,” he said, and began sawing at the rope with his own, much bigger knife as he holstered his gun.
“No, wait – stop! Look! There’s someone else coming…” Jaqueline shouted, and pointed back the way they’d come where a young, distraught girl was currently being pursued by a pair of wolves.
The crewman leapt out of the small craft as one of the wolves grabbed a hold of her and spinning the creature around, proceeded to punch him in the face.
“Get your hands off her, you creep,” he shouted in the monster’s face as he assaulted the woman’s attacker.
There was a loud explosion right by his head that sent the crewman’s ears ringing, and suddenly the wolf fell limp in his arms, dead, even as cranial matter splattered his face.
Wilfred was standing at the helm of the lifeboat, his revolver once more drawn and still smoking in his grip, even as he helped the latest survivor to join them aboard.
“Come on, for fuck’s sake – don’t just stand there, get in as well!” Wilfred shouted. “We NEED to go…”
The crewman took one last, long look behind him, then clambered in behind the girl as Wilfred finished cutting the rope.
The lifeboat dropped suddenly, sending the girl’s head flying back to smack against the side of the boat.
Jaqueline did her best to catch her, but it was too late – the girl fell to the floor, unconscious.
“Do you know how to start this thing? Can you make this thing work?” Wilfred asked the young crewman – pointing to a small petrol engine at the rear of the boat.
The crewman nodded.
“Then what are you waiting for? Start it up and let’s get the hell out of here…”
As the crewman rushed to comply, Wilfred looked over at the young girl who had been the last to jump aboard.
The tall, dark-haired woman in crimson had sat her up and was stroking her hair, trying to comfort her as she whimpered in her arms.
Sensing he was looking at her, the tall, dark-haired woman glanced back up at him and as she did, it was all that Wilfred could do not to recoil in shock.
Though she was doing her best to hide it, and had retracted her fangs, Wilfred instantly recognised the woman and knew her for what she was.
Vampyre, he thought…Fuck. The bitch must have somehow gotten on here, on the lifeboat ahead of us and cloaked herself – something only a few, older Vampyre were supposedly able to do.
Now what the fuck are we supposed to do?
Just then, the steward started the engine….
Billy’s Story…
I just fucking knew there was something off about this ship, Billy thought as once again, yet another explosion rocked The Bellastaria, almost sending him flying straight into the bulkhead. If it hadn’t been for the fact that he’d needed to get out of New York, and quickly, he thought, he probably never would’ve even taken this job in the first place.
But he had and now here he was, fighting for his life, trying to survive whilst all the while, the ship he was travelling on threatened to break up all around him.
The sound of frenzied howls and screams could all be heard, coming from behind him, ech
oing up and down the corridor he was in, as more and more of his fellow passengers and crew began transforming into monsters, turning on themselves and attacking each other even as he attempted to flee.
The whole thing was like something out of a nightmare – the only difference being, Billy thought, you could wake up from a nightmare. There was no waking up from any of all this. This, all this happening around him, was really, truly happening…
I knew I should have listened to my gut, Billy thought, but at the time he’d taken this job, he hadn’t exactly been left with a helluva lot of other options.
Billy had first found himself stuck in New York about three weeks ago, after the ship he normally sailed upon had been taken into dry-dock for routine maintenance and repairs. After the first ten days or so, he had very quickly become bored and after having exhausted all the usual tourist sights, had taken to drinking and playing late-night poker, often up until the very early hours of the morning. Somehow, one night – he forgot how now – he had ended up in a late night poker game with a bunch of guys, and to his surprise had ended up cleaning up and taking all their money.
The guys he had been playing with had been none too happy for obvious reasons, and had all insisted he give them a chance to win their money back and Billy, like a fool, had foolishly agreed, and that was when everything first started going wrong.
This time around, Billy had lost – and more than that, he had lost everything.
The guys had wiped him out, leaving him owing them even more money than that he’d originally started with and what was worse, as it turned out, the guys he had been playing were all heavily connected to the mob. They had given him less than 48 hours to pay them back every cent he owed, or else, they promised, they would hunt him down and break both his legs and with no money to his name, and no way of getting it in the allotted time, Billy had started to panic.
Which was when he heard about a position opening up on The Bellastaria as a Cabin Steward, due to leave New York sailing for England the very next day.
Billy had quickly met up with the Chief Purser for an interview, and had pretty much been hired on the spot with all his previous experience, and that was how he had ended up here now…
But right from the very start of this trip, he’d had a bad feeling about the ship and its crew – the way many of them would look at him hungrily with their wolfish grins, like he was a prize lamb being led to the slaughter, and though it was not the first time he’d had to deal with being ‘fresh meat’ on a ship, this time it had felt different.
Billy had done his best to ignore the crew who looked at him this way, knowing if the worst came to the worst, he could always jump ship when they reached England and find work on another vessel, but the feeling of unease had persisted.
And now, here he was, a few hours later, quite literally caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, facing off against the type of creatures he had never imagined might ever possibly exist outside of the pages of penny dreadfuls’ and in hindsight, he was starting to think he should have probably listened to his gut.
Anybody else right now, would probably have been scared stiff at the sight of the things his fellow crew members were currently transforming into all around him – along with many of the passengers too – but Billy’s fight or flight response had been well and truly triggered because of this, all he could think about was staying alive long enough to make it off the ship.
Preferably before it sank.
He wasn’t sure exactly what was happening, what the hell was going on, but he knew these monsters, these creatures, were the least of his worries.
Something had exploded on the ship, several somethings in fact, and Billy knew it was only a matter of time before the ship started going down.
He didn’t know if it was a bomb that had gone off, or the engines, or what the hell might have happened and quite frankly, didn’t much care. All he knew was that he needed to make it to the lifeboats and escape, and nothing, not even monsters that by all rights should not even exist, were going to get between him and survival.
One of his crew mates leapt out into the corridor and began transforming into some kind of wolf in front of him but before Billy could react, a passenger jumped out from nowhere and onto his crew mate’s back and proceeded to start ripping open his former crewmate’s throat with its fangs.
Looking up to see Billy watching him, the creature hissed at the young cabin steward and let loose his grip on his victim’s drained corpse, leaving it to drop heavily to the floor.
Billy didn’t even think twice about trying to defend himself and instead just turned and fled.
Before the Vampyre could pursue him, another wolf leapt out into the corridor and pounced on the creature, attacking him and distracting him from Billy as he continued to escape.
Billy found a door, slipped through, and found himself back out on deck.
By rights, he thought, the life boats should be just around the corner.
A mother, with what was presumably her young daughter clutched in her arms, grabbed a hold of him as he ran past.
“Please,” she begged him. “Help us, please. My daughter – she’s just five years old. You have to help us, please…”
“Follow me,” he told her, “and stay close.”
They continued making their way to the lifeboats. Reaching the nearest boat, Billy found a tall, dark-haired woman, dressed in a crimson ball gown, sitting there already, and guided the mother and daughter towards the small vessel.
“Please,” the woman in the boat asked him, in what sounded like a heavy Eastern European accent. “Are you part of the crew? Do you have any idea what is happening? When I felt the explosions, I must admit I panicked and I…I …just came here, thinking a lifeboat would be the safest place to go, yes?”
“Good thinking,” Billy said. He pushed the mother and daughter forwards in front of him. “Here, help me get these two into the boat.”
The tall, dark-haired woman reached out her hand and helped them both in.
Another couple approached them – a tall man with a silver hand, and a woman he thought he recognised as the ship’s on-board entertainer. Some kind of cabaret singer from what little he could recall of her…
“Quick, get in,” Billy told the woman, and then, “I’m sorry,” he said, as the man with her tried to climb on-board with her. “Didn’t you just hear the Captain’s announcement? Women and children first, I’m afraid.”
“Seriously? This whole ship’s going to hell all around us and you really want to mess with me?” the man asked, brandishing the gun he was holding and waving it in Billy’s face.
Billy held up his hands and reluctantly relented.
“Okay, okay,” he said. “But get on and quick, we need to get off this ship before the whole thing breaks all apart…”
Billy climbed in the boat with his passengers, and swiftly started trying to unharness the lifeboat from the ship, but it was caught - the buckle to the cable attaching them was stuck. He pulled out a knife and began cutting at the cable, but it was slow work and there was no way, he thought, he would ever be able to cut them loose in time.
“Get out of the way,” the man with the silver hand insisted, and pulled out his own knife and began cutting at the cable.
Billy saw another woman fleeing towards them, another passenger, being pursued, and leapt out of the boat to help her.
Without thinking what he was doing, he began punching the wolf attacking her as the creature turned towards him instead and snarled, drool and saliva flying everywhere.
A second later, the creature’s head exploded coating him in blood, gore, and what looked like pieces of brain. Billy looked back to see the man with the silver hand, his revolver still smoking, clenched in his fist.
“What are you waiting for?” he shouted at Billy, who could barely hear him over the sound of the gunshot still ringing in his ear. “Get back in the boat…”
Billy jumped back in the lifeboat as t
he man finished cutting the cable that attached them to the ship, and they suddenly dropped down towards the inky black depths of the ocean below.
As Billy attempted to start the small, petrol engine of the boat they were on, he looked back up, towards The Bellastaria behind them.
The ship was now totally consumed by flames, wolves and passengers leaping from the deck and into the sea – many of them on fire.
The man with the silver hand who had threatened him earlier came up on him from behind.
“You got a death wish or something?” he asked. “Start the fucking engine already and let’s get the fuck out of here.”
As Billy started the engine, together the survivors, all six of them, left the burning wreck of The Bellastaria behind…
Not a single one of them looked back.
Part two: Rescue…
One
They sailed off into the night.
At some point, behind them, The Bellastaria sank beneath the surface, sending tidal waves surging across the sea to rock them in their boat as it went down, but by then the ship was long gone from sight.
It had taken a lot longer than he’d thought, Wilfred thought to himself, thankful that at least some of them had survived.
.
In the distance, a few lights seemed to suggest some more of the lifeboats appeared to have made it off the ship as well – but they were few and far between and too far away to hail, having apparently set off in all other directions.
Apart from that, the sea was empty.
They were lost, stuck out in the middle of the ocean all alone – their only illumination the full moon, shining down upon them from a cloudless sky up above.
The six of them, he reflected, were on their own…
What happened next was up to the gods.
Two