by Woosey, JP
Luke felt vibrations as he continued to walk, but he couldn’t hear anything. It must be the tram. I must be getting close. The directions to the different parts of the ship were brighter and much more intense. Mainly because of how brightly illuminated the signs now were. It reminded Luke of taking Elizabeth to the entertainment section of the ship for the first time. They went to watch a show in the theatre. Luke didn’t care much for it, but she loved it. He smiled as he remembered the awe that was bestowed upon Elizabeth’s face as she watched the show. Her eyes had sparkled with the dancing lights, and she had laughed, smiled and cried with every action. She had especially enjoyed a dancing segment. Ribbons flowed and twisted around the twirling graceful woman. The dancer was portraying a girl being carried away from her home by a storm. The ribbons billowed as if caught by an unyielding hurricane. Elizabeth was enthralled. Captivated she held her breath. The tears trickled as she absorbed the passion of the dance and its emotive story. The young girl lost her life and her body was washed away by the cascading music of the waves. 'She's drowning.' Elizabeth had choked between her tears. 'Look at the movements of the lights. It makes you feel like you are falling with the girl below the water, pulled down below the surface of the sea.' Her eyes held her awe. Elizabeth had smiled, a tearful, grateful acknowledgement at Luke's supportive arm wrapped around her shoulder and his little squeeze. He had wanted to wipe away her tears. Luke's eyes stung as he remembered his girlfriend’s emotionally filled eyes and compared them to her last cold dead stare. His mind flooded with the words. She's no longer here. He imagined telling Megan of Elizabeth's fate. His eyes stung, but he did not cry or feel melancholy. Damn these chemicals in the air. I shouldn't feel this calm. I should at least feel waves of sadness… My eyes sting from the brightness of these damned lights.
His guilt at not feeling any significant grief led him to fumble in his pocket. The gold chain of the necklace wrapped its sections around his fingertips in a twisted link. Luke removed the entangled trap and smiled again as the sparkles of crystal blue topaz lit up his eyes with the remembrance of Elizabeth. 'A perfect match.' His grandmother had told him. But what about Megan? She had grumbled that Luke was a boy. 'What does he want with a necklace? It should have been mine by right.' Luke had overheard his sister complaining. Megan had thought it should have been passed down to her. She had more use for the jewellery. Instead it was handed to the eldest of the two siblings. Megan had sulked with jealousy for what felt like an eternity. She was only really coming to terms with the relationship between her brother and Elizabeth since they boarded the ship... But even then, Luke always sensed a barrier. Was it the necklace? You never really trusted Elizabeth, did you Megan?
Reality kicked back into Luke’s system as he heard a door open ahead of him. He quickly shook loose his fingers and allowed the piece of jewellery to slip silently into his pocket. He refocused in a flash. He clung tight to the wall, and pulled his revolver out of its holster. He aimed his weapon at the noise. Nothing moved. What opened that door? Luke asked himself as he heard more noises. Footsteps sounded and a figure emerged. It was surrounded in darkness, just a shadow. It seemed to turn and face Luke, and then it stopped. Luke didn’t know what to do. Should I fire? He thought, but before he could come to a conclusion the figure spoke.
“Y…You!” The man shouted.
Luke’s memory struggled, and then remembered where he had heard the same stuttering voice. It was the man who sat on the white sheets, who kept his wife chained up like a rabid dog. He looked strange and disorientated. Where was his wife? Would he have left her chained in that room like an animal?
“Y…you must have t…taken her!” The man started to walk towards Luke. “Wh…Where is she!? Where ha…have you taken h…her!?” The man’s walk speeded into a jog. He raised his right hand, and a shiny blunt metal rod rose with it. “Wh…What have you d…done with my wife!” He stopped right in front of Luke. The rod in his hand shook intensely.
“I haven’t done anything with anyone... I don’t understand.” Luke pleaded with the man. He lowered his revolver and placed it back into its holster, and then he raised his hands for calm. The man glared at him, and then slowly glanced down to the floor in deep thought.
“My w…wife is gone. I…I don’t know where sh…she is.” The man looked around, hoping to find a clue to his wife’s whereabouts. “The li…lights came back. It agg…aggravated her. Then the n…next thing I knew, the chains had sn... snapped and sh…she was gone.”
“Maybe I can do something to help you?” Luke asked. He didn’t realise the lights would be a problem to anyone. Maybe this was what Maxwell was talking about.
“You must help m…me.” The man checked the device strapped to his wrist and added Luke’s contact details. “Th… There. We can con…contact each other n…now.”
Luke checked his own wrist device. A profile of ‘Lance Felts’ appeared on his device.
“Lance?” Luke asked, but the man did not answer. “Are you Lance?”
“I must fi…find my wife.” He avoided eye contact with Luke and sprinted off down the hallway.
There was suddenly silence. Luke felt as if he was the only person aboard the ship. He somehow expected more to happen with the power being restored to non-essential operations. But maybe he didn’t realise the full severity of the situation he was in. He felt for his revolver, and then carried on towards the tram. Luke found a brief moment of consolation. The lights may have aggravated Lance's wife, but at least he could follow her trail, at least Lance can see where he's going instead of stumbling in the dark.
Luke had been walking for a while before he began to feel the vibrations of the moving tram again. At least I can get to my sister now. He jogged up a staircase, which sat below a brightly lit sign indicating tram station RE1. He felt the tram come to a halt through the vibrations. His weary jog turned into a run, and then to a complete stop as he heard a deafening bang from a gunshot. Luke didn’t know what to do. Should I enter through the double doors, or just wait? Another bang sounded. He hesitated, but opened the doors. The room shone brightly from the lights which were all around the room, from the ceiling to the tram. There were broken benches, over turned vending machines, glass scattered along the floor from broken windows of a general shop, and blood smeared incomprehensible scribbles across the walls and floor. The intensely illuminated tram was larger than Luke remembered. It stretched the whole length of the station. Twelve doors were open to let passengers aboard the transportation vehicle, but only one of them was being used.
Shrieks and grunts were the response to yet another gunshot. Seven people, if you could still call them people, stood surrounding one of the entrances to the tram.
“You want some of this too?” Someone shouted from within.
Luke couldn’t see the man, and he could only barely hear him. Luke entered the station and the doors closed behind him. He heard the doors shut, and he quickly raised his head expecting the savage cannibals to be heading his way, but they hadn’t heard him. If those things had heard him Luke didn’t know if he could have escaped. He stepped softly on the dull grey metal flooring, and moved towards an entrance to the tram at the rear of the vehicle. He stopped abruptly as the man fired his weapon multiple times. The person must have fired four bullets straight after each other. For a few seconds there was nothing, and then one of the things shrieked louder than Luke had ever thought possible. He clasped his hands over his ears in a futile attempt to drown out the unbearably high pitched scream. It felt as though the sound lasted an eternity before it eventually stopped. For another brief period there was no noise again. Luke hesitated, but stepped towards the back of the tram. He made it to the open doors of the transportation vehicle and hit the red close door button located to the side of the doors. He breathed a short sigh of relief. Just as he finished his sigh, he heard more distant shrieks and screams. They're getting closer. The door Luke had entered the station from thudded from multiple fists, feet and heads banging
against it. It eventually opened and a mass of homicidal maniacs crashed through. Many falling over and many more stampeding over them, they ignored anything in their way just to get to the man who had been firing his weapon. Luke ducked his head. There must have been at least thirty of the demonic creatures who had lost their minds. Luke heard the man shout for them to go away. They didn’t listen. He heard a few more shots from a firearm, a loud scream of agony, and then a snap.
Everything went quiet again, almost peaceful, but that didn’t last long. Luke heard footsteps and glanced up through the glass window of the door. He saw six of the abominations, carrying the man, covered in blood, and his head barely attached to his body. Blood gushed from the hole in the neck like water from a waterfall. A seventh abomination stood below the neck rinsing its face in the blood, showering herself in it, holding out her tongue to relish the taste. Luke gagged.
He stayed still and quiet. He couldn’t move from the fear that bound him to the floor in his crouched position, out of sight. He felt shame wash over him. I could have helped. He knew he sacrificed saving the man, for the hope that he could find his sister. The tram hadn’t moved, someone or something had pressed the emergency stop button. The tram needed to be manually started again. Luke built up his courage and lifted his head up so he could glance around the immobilised vehicle. Nothing, but an eerie silence. He swallowed his fear and stood up. His right hand clutching at the handle of his revolver in its holster. He needed to keep moving. He needed to know that his sister was okay. She just has to be... Otherwise I'm fighting to survive for nothing.
The seats in the tram made for good cover. Luke used them to the best of his ability to keep out of sight from anything that could look into the vehicle through any of the windows. Luke couldn’t hear anything, but he knew he couldn’t be too careful now. Maybe I shouldn’t have restored power. Maybe it was my fault that the man died… It was my fault. The lights coming on could have disturbed so many people in hiding. Luke tried to stop thinking about the lives he may have ruined, and needed to focus on the task at hand, getting the tram running again.
He felt his foot step onto a sticky liquid. He glanced down to the floor of the tram and realised he was standing where the man had been killed, where the man’s head had nearly been yanked off his body. Luke shivered as he remembered the woman showering in the blood. He reached the door that led into the control room. The door was bashed and dented, the lock snapped completely. Luke pulled the door open slowly. It creaked, so he prised the door open enough for him to squeeze through, and then waited. He couldn’t hear anything. At least those things are long gone… They're probably feasting on that man.
Little lights of red, yellow and blue flashed across a terminal in front of Luke. They could have been indicating anything from low power to a fault on the tracks. Even if there was a conveniently placed instruction manual, Luke didn’t have time to read it. There was a large flashing message across a screen to Luke’s left. ‘Brakes Locked’. Luke pressed the button to release the breaks. Nothing happened. He placed his hand on his chin and began to rub his unshaven face as he glanced over the control panel. After a pause, he began to press a selection of buttons. It wasn’t long before a beep echoed throughout the station. Luke’s heart skipped a beat and he held his breath. What have I done?
“Disengaging locks... Don't forget to choose your destination on your wrist devices. The tram will not stop unless passengers want to board, or leave the tram. Thank you.” The familiar computerised female voice sounded out of the tram’s speaker system. Luke wasn't sure whether to believe the computerised voice. Knowing my luck, the tram will stop next to a horde of those creatures. There was a moment of silence, and then the doors closed simultaneously. The tram jumped forward and began to move. Luke lost his balance, as he fell back into the wall behind him. He moved out of the control room and edged back into a seat. Finally I can rest. But he knew there could be complications he would have to overcome when the tram eventually stopped.
Chapter 7
Luke swayed from side to side in his seat as the tram moved. It made him feel incredibly sleepy. He shook his head and gave himself a slap on the face to keep him awake and alert. To his right was a not so comfortable bench identical in design to the one he was sitting on, except the padding had been gnawed off. The glass in the window across from him was shattered, stained with trickles of blood that had congealed into a small pool at the bottom of the window. As Luke continued to glance around the tram he saw torn bits of clothing piled up in the corner of the tram like a nest for a rodent, a human sized rodent. There were cracks in the glass where the man had fired off rounds. A large splatter of blood clung to a panel by a door, it dripped down slowly like someone had thrown a can of paint at the panel.
The tram entered a tunnel and the lights inside became brighter. Luke shifted in his chewed seat, he was uncomfortable, but he didn’t want to move to another bench with someone’s blood for company. He glanced out of the window, nothing but blackness surrounded the tram in the tunnel. A door slammed behind him as the tram turned with the tracks. Luke jumped from his seat and took cover behind it. He heard nothing, only the tram’s low hum. The door crashed again, he ducked at the sound. I can't live like this, jumping at every noise. He rose to his feet, and walked cautiously to where he heard the emissions of noise. One of the emergency exit doors had its lock broken and a bar which had held it in place had snapped. The door crashed against the side of the tram again. Luke checked his vicinity for something to block the door. He noticed the pile of torn clothes in the corner and edged towards them. As he moved closer he could smell the stench of urine and faeces, Luke gagged, but he carried on. He pinched at the clothes, but only picked up a small piece of clothing. He stopped for a brief moment, and then used a firm grip and picked up a handful. As he walked to the banging door, a piece of clothing fell from his grip, and a strip of faeces splattered against the floor, Luke didn’t notice what he had dropped until he stepped in it. He shoved the clothing into the gap between the door and the wall. The door still crashed into the panel, but the sound was muffled. Luke hoped his efforts in attempting to silence the door had not been made in vain. He didn't want to attract those things. He didn't want his head to be ripped off, or his limp body to be carried away to their lair. He didn't want to be feasted on by those creatures. He had to protect himself at all costs, and he had to get to his sister.
Luke, annoyed with the faeces stuck on the sole of his boot, made his way back to the bench he had been sitting on before. He sat down in a huff, and checked his boot. “Great.” He whispered to himself. At least I can’t smell any worse.
The tram exited the tunnel, and the lights inside switched into a different, less intense mode. Luke looked out of the window. It was dark, as dark as it was before Luke restored power. Maybe the power wasn’t restored to the whole of the ship. He quickly disregarded that thought as the tram approached light. It was a station. He saw about five people standing below a light. They all had objects in their hands. One had a wrench, another had a pipe, and one even had a door handle. They took turns jumping, and swinging their weapons at the light. Each one shrieked as they failed to hit the light bulb, it was just a little bit too high for their reach. Most of them ignored the tram as it drove past, one looked over and met Luke’s gaze. He didn’t know what to do, should I duck? Stay still and hope that the thing hasn't seen me? Before he could decide one of the other creatures had jumped and smashed its wrench into the light, it caused a flurry of sparks and glass, reminding Luke of a firework display that he had taken Megan to watch once when she was young. The monster that had met Luke’s gaze had turned back to dance atop the glass. Do they even feel pain? He continued to watch despite the growing distance between them. The creatures were destroying the source of light. Is this what Maxwell meant by his comments that they wouldn't like it? Luke shuddered, why would the creatures abhor the light? He struggled to make sense of his surroundings. I wish I'd stayed safe in my c
ryogenic chamber. Safe, frozen and asleep. Well away from those creatures... But then he remembered Megan. He had awoken too late to help Elizabeth, but will I be too late to help my sister? A nightmarish picture entered Luke's mind of a woman's body wrapped in flowing dancing ribbons, being carried by a horde of violent, enraged beasts. They held the body aloft like a victor’s trophy. The ribbons soaked and stained with blood. They ripped at the woman's flesh and danced on her bones. Luke shuddered once more as his mind’s eye tried to follow the woman's face. Can I see my sister in the dead woman's eyes?
The lights shone brightly again as the tram entered another tunnel. Luke relaxed, as best he could, in his seat, but not for long. The tunnel was short, and he bolted up to look out of the windows again. Only the backup lights shone on the platform outside of the tram. The vehicle slowed. Luke’s hands began to shake. Why's the tram stopping? Has one of those things pressed the button? He grew more nervous as he saw feral people throwing objects at the tram. One hit the window Luke was looking through, and he jumped backwards. He had never seen so many inhuman savages in one place before. Maybe they're attracted to the screeching of the brakes... Or maybe the headlights of the tram had aggravated them, or they can feel the vibrations of the tram and know that I'm aboard.