Aboard the SS Victoria
A short Story
By
Mark E. Green
Copyright © 2015 by Mark E. Green
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Published by I2I Publishing
Layout and design by I2I Publishing
eBook Edition - February 2015
The Aboard the SS Victoria is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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The Skulls of Amarillo
Murder on the Tracks
Kill or be Killed (Horror Series)
CHAPTER ONE
The wind of helicopter’s rotor beats harshly against the waves of the ocean beneath it. They were flying low, below the radar as ordered.
Kate felt the spray of ocean water against her face. It was both refreshing and annoying at the same time. It kept her aware of her surroundings, but no matter where she moved on the helicopter she was getting water on her. She eventually gave in to cleaning her face every few minutes.
“Target is nearly in sight.” Said the pilot’s voice over their headsets. “We should be within drop range in fifteen minutes.”
Kate gave a silent thanks. She was used to rough flights, but flying this close to the water sent the turbulence through the roof. She was more than ready to get on board this ship.
“Let’s go over the details real quick.” Said her leader, Terrence. He was a huge, burly man with dark skin and a mean looking smile. He was dressed in tactical gear like Kate was.
He opened up a small binder and flipped through some the pages. They were laminated, Kate noticed. Someone had thought ahead on this one.
“Okay, so we’re looking for the S.S. Victoria. She was a cruise ship that disappeared near the Bermuda Triangle a two days ago.” He smirked at everyone on board. “Tell me if you’ve heard this one before.”
They all cracked a smile at the very least. Terrence continued on.
“Alright. So. The ship was spotted just of the coast of West Africa early this morning. We’re currently flying towards her last known location. There has been no contact with any of the ship’s crew since it disappeared. The hope is that we find the ship before it runs aground.”
“The goal is to see if the ship is still intact. If so we’ll go aboard, see if anyone’s still alive. We’ll report back our findings. After that we’ll leave the ship to be collected by the company. Our main goal is to search for survivors.”
Kate did her best to pay attention to his briefing as the water sprayed into her eyes. She hoped they were nearing the ship.
Another message came over the headset. “There’s something coming up ahead. I think it’s the ship.”
Kate caught Terrance’s eye. “Alright everyone, show time.”
Kate looked out at the ocean. She could definitely see something. It looked too big to be a rock formation and it definitely wasn’t an animal. They might actually have reached the ship. Finally!
Terrance handed Kate her rifle and she slung it over her shoulder. She checked the ammo cartridge and chambered a round. She grabbed a helmet off the rack and strapped it over her head. It had a tri-light set up for night vision. Since the ship was no doubt out of power, they would need the lighting.
“One minute out.” Said the pilot.
Terrance finished checking his gear. “Everyone clear on the plan?” Everyone nodded. “Good. Get ready.”
Kate pulled a hook from the side of the helicopter. It was tied to a cable strong enough to lift several hundred pounds if need be. She hooked it to her belt and prepared herself to jump down to the ship.
She saw the ship appear below her. She waited for the order to go. With the doors open it would be impossible to hear someone talking to her. Kate looked over at Terrance. He held a hand out and counted down from five with his fingers.
On the final count Kate jumped. Along with the rest of the team, they descended down towards the ship.
They landed perfectly on the deck and unhooked themselves. The cables returned to the ship.
“I’ll circle around and look for a better place to land.” The pilot said over the headset. “Best of luck guys. See you on the other side.”
The pilot cuts off as he flew away and out of range of the crew. They now only had themselves to worry about.
There were six of them in total. Enough for three teams of two. That’s the formation they would be following for the duration of the mission.
“Alright everybody. Let’s do this fast.” Terrance said. He took point and led the group through the first door.
It was immediately apparent that something other than a power failure had happened on this ship. The smell hit them square in the face. It was the kind of odor that choked you, made it impossible to breathe.
“What the hell is that?” Kate asked, coughing through her words.
“I have no idea.” Terrance said. “But let’s just hope it’s rotting food and not rotting people.” He said.
“But haven’t they only been like this for a few 48 hours?” Kate’s partner Jake said. “It takes a lot longer than that for food to go that bad…”
“Let’s just hope it’s food.” Terrance repeated.
The further they went into the ship the darker things got. Without an order, they all began to flip on the flashlights and laser sights attached to their rifles.
“Alright, we need to split up and cover as much ground as possible.” Terrance said. “Laurence you two take the mid-level. I’ll take Connor and go top. Kate, you and Jake have the bottom. Be careful guys and keep in contact. If you guys find anyone, radio and we’ll head over to help you.”
“Roger that, sir.” They all said and began splitting up.
Kate took the lead between the two of them. The ship was dank and smelt of old water. She wondered if the lower levels were flooding. If that was the case, then the mission’s timetable would go so much faster.
They made their way down as far as they could, with the goal of making their way upwards as they searched.
The first thing Kate noticed on their way down was that the ship was not flooded. There were definitely some leaks here and there. The ship had suffered structural damage, but it wasn’t anything to be worried about just yet.
As Kate stepped forward the ship would grumble and echo throughout the empty chambers.
“Careful now.” She said. “We need to be careful how much weight we put on these lose parts. We don’t want any accidents now”
“Got it.” Said Jake.
CHAPTER TWO
They continued on carefully, scouting each room individually. They split the rooms down the middle, with Kate taking the rooms on the left and Jake the rooms on the right.
Unfortunately the first floor they checked was a bust. They found nothing but abandoned rooms and clothing. Most of which were suffering from water damage.
“Do you think we’ll find anyone down here?” Jake asked. “Doesn’t make sense to assume that they all went to the largest room on the ship?”
“You’re probably right.” Kate said. “But it’s better for us to be safe than sorry.” And so on to the next floor they went.
The cruise ship had roughly twenty floors. Each one was rough
ly the length of the entire ship. They were thorough in clearing out each room, so it took about fifteen minutes per room. Kate didn’t do the exact math, but either way it meant they were going to be on this thing for a while.
The pace changed slightly when they moved up a floor. This time they could hear something moving around.
“Animal? Maybe?” Kate said. Whatever it was seemed to be bouncing off the walls.
“Who brings their pet on a cruise?” Jake asked.
Kate shrugged. “I don’t know. Rich people?”
“Which room is it in?” Jake asked.
Kate pointed ahead. “I think it’s that one.” They moved quickly. Kate took up a position against the wall across the door, rifle ready. Jake had his hand on the door handle, ready to go on Kate’s command.
She gave the nod and Jake pulled the door open. Kate went inside, her flashlight quickly covering every inch of the room she could see. Jake came in behind her, putting his hand on her shoulder to let her know he was there. He cleared the bathroom and the closet before returning to the main part of the room.
There were clothes everywhere, but no sign of the noise they were hearing. “Maybe it was some of the wreckage moving around?” Jake said, looking around confused.
Kate didn’t agree. It didn’t make sense. What they heard sounded like something living was in this room.
Then they heard breathing. It was soft and low, kind of like a cat’s purr. Kate and Jake rechecked the whole room, looking under piles of clothing and stacks of junk trying to find the source.
It wasn’t until Kate noticed the slightly of rising and falling on the bed that things began to change. She saw the blanket carefully rising and falling, like someone was asleep underneath it.
“Is anyone there?” Kate asked. “We’re here to help.”
“Maybe they’re unconscious?” Jake said. “We should radio back.”
Kate nodded. Jake turned away for a moment and sent a message to the rest of the squad. He relayed their location and what they were dealing with.
“Roger that Jake. We’re on our way.” Kate heard Terrance say over the headset. In the meantime, they had to figure out what was going on with the person they found. Were they dead? Sick? Injured?
“Sir? Ma’am?” Kate began saying. “We’re here to help. We’re going to get you off this ship.” Kate moved towards the bed and reached for the blanket.
“Careful.” Jake said, holding his gun ready.
“You don’t need to shoot them.” Kate said, pulling the blanket off.
The rest happened so fast. There was a screech and something lunged at Kate. Whatever it was began clawing at her face, tearing the helmet off and throwing it across the room. She couldn’t see, but she managed to grab its arms and hold off its attack for a moment.
But then she felt its head crash against her nose. It spat at her and tried to bite at her with its teeth.
Finally she heard two shots and the beast screamed, swung around and made its way towards his new attacker. Jake took a few more shots of which the last one hit the beast between the eyes. It fell to the ground and was dead instantly.
Kate took in several deep breaths and tried to calm her nerves.
“Are you alright?” Jake asked, coming over to her.
She nodded and continued trying to breath. Kate felt blood coming out of her nose and several scratches on her face. Thankfully the armor she was wearing protected the rest of her body.
“I can’t see.” She said. “Help me find the helmet.”
They searched for a moment before finding it on the floor. The strap had been torn off completely. Even so, it was a tight enough fit that if she didn’t move too fast it would remain still.
Kate turned the lights back on and looked over at her attacker. It was still human shaped, whatever it was. She turned it over with her gloved hands, examining the body. It was human, or at least used to be. There were sores all over its body. It looked like it had been exposed to intense amounts of radiation.
“Where would a cruise ship come into contact with radiation?” Jake asked her when she told him what she’d been thinking.
She shrugged. “I have no idea. This might not even be radiation poisoning. We won’t be able to tell for sure until we get the body back into the chopper.”
The rest of the crew had arrived. Kate informed Terrance of what had happened and that the only thing that took it down was a shot through the brain. He took his own look at the body.
“I’m sorry that happened to you. I’m glad you’re okay though.” He shook his head as he looked over the limp corpse. “We heard similar noises on our section, but we hadn’t gotten a chance to check it out before we got your call. There’s probably a lot more of these… things than we think.”
“What do we do if that’s the case?” Kate asked. There was more creaking from the ship. Kate suddenly felt the need to apply more pressure on her legs to keep herself righted.
“We’re tilting!” Kate called out. She immediately went towards one of the walls and braced herself.
“Brace yourselves!” Terrance yelled. Everyone followed Kate and got against the wall. There was more creaking, it echoed through the halls of the ship. Then gravity took hold and Kate could feel her weight falling against the wall.
The sound of rushing water followed next. It hadn’t reached their room yet, but now that they were walking against the wall instead of the floor, their journey just got impossible.
“What do we do now?” Kate asked to no one in particular.
“We get the hell out of here.” Terrance said. “If we come across anyone on our way we’ll bring them aboard, but we’re on a different timetable now. Who knows how long we have until the ship sinks.”
“You have less time than that.” It was the pilot’s voice on the headset.
“What do you mean?” Terrance asked, the slightest hint of panic creeping in. “Because the ship titled I can’t land anymore. I’m running out of fuel. You have about twenty minutes to get up to me or else I’m going to have to come back for you.”
That would take hours. The copter would have to return to the carrier they lifted off from, refuel, and then fly back out to them. If that happened, there was a good chance they would never get off this ship.
CHAPTER THREE
Terrance was taking in a couple of deep breaths. “Alright. Thanks for letting us know. We’ll do our best.”
The line went down and Terrance looked at his team. “Alright, you all know the deal. Let’s get out of here.”
Kate looked over at the door. It was a few feet above her. She jumped managed to grab onto it with her fingers. Jake pushed her up the rest of the way. Once she was on the door, she knelt down and did her best to stabilize.
There was a long way up from here to the next hall. And there was nothing for them to walk on. It was a long way down from here to the stairs.
“Does anyone have a cable?” Kate asked.
Terrance handed Jake one of his spare cables, who in turn gave it to Kate. She unraveled it and began to swing it. If she was lucky, she’d be able to hook it to the door at the end of the hall. Then they could climb up to the other room. From there they could at least walk along the side of the wall. It would be easier to make a plan once they figured out where they were and where they could go.
Kate slipped the cable out of her hands, launching it above her. It slung over the door and she heard the click of the hook grabbing hold of something. She tugged on it to test it. It held pretty well. Normally she’d hope for something a bit more secure, but they were running out of time.
“I’ll go first.” She said, wrapping her gloves around the rope. She took in a deep breath, prepping herself. If the rope didn’t hold she would plummet to her death. The drop wouldn’t be very far, but crashing into the metal bars would kill her instantly.
“Be careful.” Terrance said, trying his best to smile confidently at her.
Kate appreciated it. “I’ll do my b
est.” She tugged once more on the rope and slid her legs around the rope. It supported her weight, which was good because she’d be applying less pressure once she pushed her feet against the wall.
Kate braced herself against the wall and began climbing. It was easier than she thought. She focused and quickly made her way to the top.
She saw exactly what she wanted up there. The side of the wall would act like a floor for them to walk on.
“We’re good!” She called back.
Instead of voices from her team responding to her, she heard some growling echo up her way. It wasn’t coming from the hall below her though. Instead it was coming from the area she’d just entered.
“There are more of them up here!” Kate said, unslinging her rifle and aiming it ahead. She didn’t see anything yet, but she was sure something was coming.
“We’re on our way!” Terrance was calling.
In the meantime, Kate could see hands appearing outside the room down the hallway. They were just as scarred and irradiated as the other was. And they were beginning to climb up.
Their growl was vicious, something like a high pitched gargle. There wasn’t just one this time though. At least two per room were rising out of the doors.
Kate fired a few warning shots at their hands, but the sight was narrow and a little tough to hit with the ship constantly rotating.
Things got a little easier once they got out of the room. The bodies were in shambles. Of some of them were missing limbs, simply crawling their way towards her.
“How many are there?” Terrance asked, climbing his way towards her.
Kate was too focused to answer. She popped up a few shots in burst rounds. One of them went down. It fell hard into the ground, making a squishing sound akin to rotten milk. Kate did her best not to breathe, the smell was intolerable.
Terrance had made his way up to her. His eyes went wide when he saw what was ahead of him. Even so, he twisted his gun around and began firing.
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