She looked up when it started to rain. The storm clouds were now overhead and, although she couldn't hear thunder, she didn't fancy getting soaked just before bed. She had to be up early for the hangover shift anyway.
"Thanks for the smoke," she said, standing up and letting his arm fall away. "I should be getting back."
"I'll walk with you."
The hum of the ships engines was the only sound as they made their way back along the deck. Most of the passengers would be in their cabins by now, most of the staff would either be clearing up after them or asleep.
They reached the staff only door.
"Wait," said Billy.
She bowed her head and closed her eyes, she could hear it in his voice.
"Samantha I..."
She stopped him before he said something he couldn't take back. "Don't Billy." She fixed a stare on him and tried to explain it with her eyes.
He nodded, seemed to understand. "Good night," he said. "I think I'm just going to take a lap."
She smiled. "Good night Billy."
She turned to walk through the door, already imagining her warm bunk and the trashy novel she was reading.
The floor shook beneath her but she barely noticed.
4
A hole began to open up in front of him. The wind buffeted his face and rain fell like tiny shards of glass. He held the rope tightly but it was slipping, stripping away the flesh on his palms.
Peter saw the swell of the wave in front of the ship and braced himself. The boat rose up to meet it and the deck disappeared from beneath him. He wrapped his legs around the rope and held tight. The hull groaned loudly enough to be heard over the crashing water.
Once he had caught his breath he looked around to check the others were alright. Distinct black shapes hugged the side of the boat in the distance and that was as good as he was going to get for now. He tried his radio again but no one responded. On the other side of the ship a red flare lit up the sky but what good would that do if no one was looking for it?
The sea continued to sink and rise but he couldn't just stay where he was. He needed to make sure the others were okay and find out what was going on. They should have turned around by now. There was no way the captain would have authorised passing through this storm.
Peter edged along the railings. As the boat rocked back and forth and from side to side he used them in places like a ladder and in others like monkey bars. He could hear shouting but it was distant and indistinct. Possibly the passengers wondering what was going on.
The boat creaked as it rose into the air. He grabbed hold of the handrail as the floor was swept out from under him and the deck became a wall. He hung on as something fell past him. It might have been a person but he hoped not. He didn't think he could deal with it being a person.
He clung on until the boat righted itself again and the wave it had ridden crashed over the sides. He was soaked through but he kept moving.
He fell through the floor onto the soaking wet bridge. Water fell from the walls and ceiling. Suddenly he could hear shouting.
"What's going on?" he said, pulling himself up by the counter where a number of instruments were currently flashing and making alarming buzzing noises.
No one seemed to have heard him and he ventured further onto the bridge. Nothing was visible through the rain out of the front window and too many people were shouting for him to make out what was being said.
Peter grabbed a girl in uniform. She had short dark hair and her eyes were wide with panic. "Where's the captain?" he said.
She shook her head. Her mouth moved open and closed but nothing came out. She was in shock and no good to him now. He let go of her and moved onto the next person, a short man with a white beard.
"Where's the captain?" he said.
"The captain?" repeated the man. The captain’s dead."
Peter stepped back and the ship lurched with him. Suddenly he was falling.
The groan pitched up and he heard metal snapping, wood cracking. When the boat righted itself a big red light flashed on the control deck. He'd never been on the bridge before but he knew it meant the ship was taking on water.
"We need to evacuate," said a wooden man, bursting through a door on the other side of the deck. He was already dressed in waterproofs and had a life jacket on.
Peter ran for the door and back into the storm.
5
Samantha woke in mid-air. Her bunk no longer beneath her, the ground rapidly coming up to meet her. She was vaguely aware of someone screaming but it sounded a long way away.
She hit the floor and slid back into the wall. One of the other girls, she couldn't tell which, landed on top of her.
The floor slid again and then Samantha was on top of the other girl. She realised with alarm that there was about an inch of water beneath her.
She pushed herself up and saw that the girl who had landed on her was Millie. Millie was all of five foot tall and skinny like a pre-pubescent boy. It would have been a lot worse if Lucy had fallen on her, she probably wouldn't have been getting up anytime soon.
Millie took her hand and she pulled her up.
"What's going on?"
Samantha turned to see Rachel on the other side of the room. She didn't know what was going on but the water on the floor was rising at an alarming rate and she knew they had to get out of there. The other girls were standing around looking confused and she realised that, if they were going to get out of there, she would have to be the one to lead them.
"Put on warm clothes and follow me," she said, already grabbing the pair of black combats and the blue crew jacket from the end of her bunk. "Hurry," she said a moment later as she watched the girls sorting through piles of clothes. There wasn't time to worry about fashion and she wasn't going to end up dead because some bimbo didn't think her shoes matched her top.
She pushed open the door to their cabin. Water poured in, soaking past her ankles. It was freezing cold and her feet were already numb. The girls behind her squealed as it reached them. She ignored them and carried on. Walking through the water got more difficult as it rose further up her legs. By the time they reached the stairs at the end of the corridor it was up to her thighs.
It sounded as if something snapped and she turned around half-expecting to see a cable or something hanging from the ceiling. Instead she saw the corridor fall away and turn at the same time. The water that had been on the floor fell to the ceiling and the lights spluttered out.
Samantha grabbed hold of the stair rail just in time to avoid falling into the ink black vortex below. She saw three of the girls do just that and vanish beneath the water. She didn't even hear a splash. The emergency lights started to glow. They didn't illuminate much except the bodies now floating in the rising pool.
Rebecca and Millie were still behind her, clinging to the door frames. When the floor appeared beneath her again she hauled herself up the stairs and into the night.
6
He clung to the side of the raft so tightly that his fingers had become numb. He could hear the shouts and screams of more than a thousand people trying to escape from the sinking ship. He could see the whole thing lit by the full moon that seemed to hang too low.
It wasn't his fault. There was nothing he could have done. It would have been a senseless waste for him to go down with the ship. A stupid tradition that he had no intention of observing.
Trevor had been captain of the ship for less than two hours but anyone would have said it was a dead loss long before he'd taken over. They had wasted too much time on Captain Rogers. If they'd just accepted he wasn't going to make it they could have put him in charge sooner and he could have got on with turning the ship around and heading for land. As it was, by the time he had taken over, it had already been too late.
He'd raised the alarm hadn't he? What more did they want?
Cautiously he let go of the sides and flexed life back into his aching fingers. He watched the ship for a little longer but the r
aft was already drifting away. Soon it would be an dot on the horizon, if it wasn't below the water first.
He hoped everyone would get off safely but if he was really honest he didn't actually care. Certainly not enough to do anything productive to help.
He slid back into the sheltered rear of the raft. With the wind and rain off he felt a little better. He picked up the ration box. It contained enough supplies to keep twelve people alive for a week. He had already set up the rain collector to gather water.
The sea was much calmer in a little raft and he felt secure. He ate an energy bar and drank some water. Then he closed his eyes and lay down. He had no trouble getting to sleep.
7
She woke with the taste of salt in her mouth and the feeling that her body was still in motion. She tried to sit up but the bright sunlight and sea water stung her eyes. She rolled onto her side and vomited.
She could hear waves crashing somewhere nearby. The ground was soft and damp. She took short breaths and made an inventory of her body: her left knee ached as if it had hit something solid and unyielding; her shoulders and arms ached as if she had been carrying something.
The last thing she could remember was running across the deck. She had been holding Millie's hand and thought Rachel had been running behind them. She'd slipped, the deck had been slippery. After that everything was a blur. She had a vague memory of being underwater but she couldn't place a time. It might have been a half-remembered dream from childhood.
Samantha took a deep breath and rolled onto her stomach. She used her hands and knees to push herself up on all fours. She waited for the nausea to pass and then she opened her eyes.
A dark green wall of trees stood about a hundred metres away. The canopy swayed gently in the wind which came from the sea. There were birds circling above the forest and she thought she saw something leap from a branch and then disappear.
The soft ground beneath her was pure white sand. Between her and the forest there was a piece of driftwood as big as a three seater sofa, dark and sodden but possibly more comfortable than the ground.
She pushed herself up and stood. It felt like when she'd come out of hospital and hadn't used her legs for weeks. They wobbled beneath her as she took a tentative first step forwards.
"Sam?"
She turned too quickly at the sound of her name. When her legs stopped moving her body carried on and she fell the the ground in a heap.
Footsteps running towards her and then bare feet sinking into the sand in front of her. "Are you okay?"
She lifted her head and Billy was standing there.
He offered her his hand and she let him pull her to her feet. Her legs were still shaky but with his help she made it over to the driftwood and sat down.
She rubbed her face. It was covered in tiny cuts which stung as the salt and sand from her hands got into them. She felt drained and confused.
Billy sat down beside her but she couldn't bare to turn and see the look of concern on his face just yet. Instead she looked down the beach at the calm blue sea. The waves gently lapped at the shore. She could see things floating in the water but they were too square to be people. Passenger luggage and shards of the broken boat.
"What happened?" she said, to herself as much as Billy.
She heard him sigh but still didn't turn towards him. "Maybe we hit something. Maybe the storm."
She nodded and they once again lapsed into silence. The sounds of the forest behind them came alive. Chirping and rustling and sounds that she didn't even have a name for but were a bit like a yelp and a howl mixed together.
"Have you seen anyone else?" she said and finally found the strength to turn and look at him. His brow was creased and his hair had dried into shiny curls.
He shook his head. "I just woke up before I saw you. Do you want to go and look?"
She nodded and he helped her up. She tried to walk by herself but didn't have the strength to manage it. She let him put his arm around her and leaned against him as they made their way along the beach.
"Do you have any idea where we are?" she said. It seemed strange that no one had come to help them. Surely the crew had sent out a distress call before the ship sank. She would have expected a coast guard or ambulance to be rushing to help them.
Billy shrugged. "As far as I knew we were a week away from land."
Sam nodded and thought no more about it. Wherever Billy had got his information from it was wrong; they had found land and she was damn sure she hadn't travelled four days to do so.
They found plenty more driftwood and luggage washed up on the beach. They found clothes and pieces of the ship. They even found an old bicycle which was covered in a thick layer of lumpy orange rust. They didn't see any people though and by the time she was too tired to go any further Sam guessed they had walked for close to three hours.
"Maybe they're the other way?" suggested Billy.
Sam nodded. Maybe they were but she didn't feel up to walking any further at the moment. She needed to rest.
8
The night arrived suddenly and brought the cold with it. He turned away from the beach.
Peter skulked in the shadows that enveloped the forest. He moved almost silently, despite the fallen branches and dry leaves that littered the forest floor. He was naked and barefoot but still moved quickly.
He saw the fire though the trees as he approached his camp. Black dots flew around it, darting as close as they dared. He picked up a handful of dirt and dropped it over the flames. A puff of thick smoke bellowed out and stung his eyes. He stepped back and made a mental note not to leave the fire burning in future. He hadn't been planning to move on until the morning but the fire could have been seen by anyone.
He pulled his clothes off the branch over the fire. They were dry but now stank of smoke and dirt. He put them on and made his way over to the shelter he had set up on the other side of the clearing. As he got nearer he heard choked sobs and movement. He listened for a moment and then continued.
He pulled down the canvas roof and folded it into his bag. He picked up the bottles of water and put them in as well. He hadn't been able to salvage much from the ship but he'd made sure what he got was valuable enough to be worth the extra weight.
When he had packed the bag to his satisfaction he hefted it onto his shoulders and ducked beneath the branch where the shelter had been. He could just about see them in the dark. He reached towards the first one and pulled the gag off her mouth.
"What the fuck!" she said, gasping for breath.
He pulled back his hand and slapped her hard. She looked at him with startled eyes so he explained. "Watch your mouth girl."
She struggled to get out of the vines that he had wrapped around her wrists and ankles. He left her to it and moved onto the next girl. When he released her she just started crying. He rocked back on his haunches and waited while they calmed down.
He grabbed the vines between their wrists and pulled them to their feet with him. They struggled, as he had expected, but he didn't let go.
"What are you going to do to us?" said the little girl. In the dark she might have been twelve years old but he'd seen her on the boat and knew she was older.
"Nothing," he said. "If you're lucky, and you do what you're told."
"Fuck you," said the girl with the potty mouth.
He grabbed her throat and squeezed, not enough to stop her breathing but enough to let her know that he could if he wanted to. He leaned in close enough to kiss her and could see the fear in her eyes, that was good, if she was scared of him then she'd do what he said. "Watch your dirty mouth child," he hissed in her ear. Then he held her a bit longer, squeezed a bit tighter. Then he let go.
She tried to fall to her knees but he kept hold of the vines around her wrist and didn't let her.
"Understand?" he said.
She didn't reply but she looked away. That was good enough for now. He had other ways of making her do what he wanted if needed.
He dragged
them along without explanation. They needed to get out of the area before something bigger than insects decided to investigate the smoke. As they passed the place where the fire had been he kicked the dirt and ashes flat so that no one would know he had been there.
9
Billy sat down beside her. The floor of the forest was hard and uncomfortable but at least it wasn't damp. She couldn't see him in the dark but she could sense his jittery movements and feel the warmth of his skin.
They sat in silence and listened to the waves. She tried to think about what had happened and what she should do next but her mind was a mess. She should have been able to handle the situation better, she knew, dealing with unknown situations was part of her job.
She moved closer to Billy and leaned her head against his shoulder. He put an arm around her and she felt safe. She knew it was an illusion but it was one she was happy to succumb to. Things would look different in the morning. In the morning she would be able to think more clearly.
They slept side by side beneath the huge trees. Billy kept his arm around her and didn't disturb her, even when she woke him mumbling words that he didn't understand. At some point during the night it rained and she was woken by a heavy drops falling from the canopy above. She wiped her face and sat up. Billy had gone.
She jumped to her feet. The full terror of what had happened yesterday hit her like a hammer blow to the head. Her heart pounded as she searched the tree line for some sign of what had happened to him.
She almost screamed out his name but stopped herself in time. She didn't know where she was and she didn't know what dangers were around her. Sam reminded herself that she had been trained to deal with this sort of situation better than that.
The clearing was about ten-metres square. The mud dried and compacted to form a solid floor. There were a few dead leaves and animal droppings but not much else. The wind had picked up and blew warm rain into her face. It was the temperature of a decent shower and only the shade provided by the trees caused her to shiver.
Three Stories Tall Page 17