by Trimboli, TJ
He laid in apocalypse level heat and yet he felt ice cold. The laugh sending shivers up his spine. He screamed lunging at the shark. The life raft gave out from under him and he slipped into the ocean. Without any energy in his arms to hold him up, he sank. He took in his surroundings as he descended to the deep. Life went on all around him. Schools of fish, sharks, eels, and thousands more coursed through a shipwreck. An old mayflower type ship split in half at the center. The top of the mast lay beneath him where dozens of fish swam and fed. He thought about the shark’s words.
He’s right. We’ve been here for a blink of an eye. These creatures have not only been here since the dawn of time, but they learn to adapt and survive at all costs. They don’t concern themselves with social accounts, jealous lovers, a high paying job, or how to stay a leading superpower. They simply exist, day to day, night to night, until they die…If we don’t put aside our petty differences, then we all deserve to die.
“That’s good Morris,” a voice spoke in his mind.
He looked around for the body to go with the voice but he was all alone.
“Down here,” the voice said.
Someone whistled.
Morris looked down at the shipwreck.
Ahmed sat in a beach chair on the top deck. He wore ™Ray Bans and only a bathing suit.
He held a tanning reflector underneath his neck.
Morris tried to speak but water filled his lungs.
“Don’t speak my friend. Just listen. Take what you’ve learned, bring it back to that ship and save your people. The world is no longer about power, religion, and technology. It is a matter of adaptability. Those who do not or cannot, will not survive in this new world and you need to show them that. Adapt or perish, there is no in between.” Look at what Kendra did to you. He thought.
“I did all of this of my own volition.” I still don’t understand why.
“I don’t expect you to. I owed her a life Morris. The Night Riot was all my fault. I could have stopped it. She was my penance. Go now my friend. Go now and right the wrongs.” He lamented.
Morris used what little energy he had left to try and swim to Ahmed. A splash rung out from above. Bubbles appeared around him. He looked up but the bubbles hindered his sight. There was something above him. It made a B line straight for him. Its shadow darkened the world around him. He sank as quickly as he could.
I will not be shark food.
Through the bubbles came a hand. It latched onto his collar pulling him skyward.
Morris saw the light reflecting above him. It grew exponentially, the white light engulfing him. He smiled as he could feel the warmth of his mother’s embrace.
Momma, I’m coming home. He shut his eyes.
He landed with a thud against a hard surface. Smacking his head, he yelped grabbing the lump. Keeling over on his side, he vomited what felt like a gallon of sea water. He opened his eyes but the image before him was murky. A shadowy figure moved erratically in the corner of his eye. The sun shone down on him as it did before but he no longer felt the ocean’s saltiness at his fingertips. He rubbed at his eyes, sight becoming clearer to him. He focused hard seeing he was in a little shipping vessel and not just any vessel, but his. The shadowy image took shape revealing Hector, knife in hand, cutting at a morsel of lobster. He cracked open its shell revealing its succulent insides. It wasn’t until the smell hit him that he understood just how hungry he was.
His stomach sang the song of its people, alerting Hector to his consciousness.
He turned around shocked to see Morris’ eyes wide open. “Welcome back. Enjoy our swim, did we?” He said smiling.
“Where a-m I-I?” Morris asked barely able to stutter the words.
Hector walked over to him lying the lobster at his side.
Morris slowly rose, head resting against the side of the vessel.
Hector gutted out the lobster feeding tiny bites to Morris. He parted his mouth best he could but it would be a while before he could manage to eat on his own. Morris was amazed to see the vessel still intact. He’d been sure it was a goner during the storm. A pain in the pit of his stomach ate away at him until he realized that Jamal was nowhere to be found. “Jamal?” Morris softly spoke.
Hector frowned shaking his head.
Poor kid. “How did you find me?” Morris asked.
“Pure luck. I figured you for dead. I was simply heading east in hopes of finding land. Every morning I’d wait to see where the sun would rise and I’d set off in that direction. Today, I came upon a life raft, and here you are.” Hector smiled.
Morris peered behind Hector to see the life raft he had spent the last day on idling at the head of the boat. He laughed. He laughed so hard he thought his heart would give out from exhaustion but he didn’t care. He was alive and there was work to still be done. “East, you said?”
“Aye, east. Go long enough and we’re bound to hit Europe.”
“Forget Europe. We’re going to find our ship.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
BOBBI
With one heave, the door caved in and she hobbled her way to the desk. Everyone around her gasped. Her left eye had swollen shut darkening around the eyelid leaving her with what little sight she could muster but she didn’t need both eyes to distinguish the threat before her.
Richard refused to meet her gaze, as Valentina sat rigid as a board basking in perceived adulation and Xao was nowhere to be found.
You’ve been a busy bee, Val.
It was in Xao’s place that Joe sat. Unlike Richard, Joe wouldn’t take his eyes off her; not that she could blame him. She probably looked like a certain telekenetic freak Stephen King had written about back in the day.
Kendra walked around from behind her taking a seat at the table.
They all waited but Bobbi refused to move a muscle.
“You don’t look so hot,” Valentina remarked.
“Really? My pit stains would say differently but what do I know?” she retorted.
“Bobbi.”
“What the hell is going on? Where’s Xao?” she questioned.
“If you’d just take a seat.”
“No thanks. I’ve done enough lying around.” “Bobbi,” Richard said.
She cast a menacingly evil snarl towards Richard shutting him up. Normally, she was never one to appear scary but having your face covered in another’s blood will undoubtedly help to change such aspersions.
“Xao no longer sits on this council. He was unfit for his role.” “And she is?” Bobbi asked pointing a finger at Kendra. “Valentina is a smart enough woman to understand the value of the Lord’s power on one’s side. We will go nowhere without it,” Kendra chimed in.
Bobbi ignored her words staring directly at Valentina. “So that’s your plan? Let the loonies run the asylum?”
“You watch your tone with me girl. I have done no such thing. What I have done is ensure the safety and survival of our people, something I had hoped you could handle but I need a pit bull to do that, not a love sick puppy.” Valentina spat.
“You let this woman sit on this council and you will not ensure the safety of anything but the destruction of it. Countless lives will die under her guidance.”
“And how many have died under yours?” Kendra grimaced.
Bobbi leapt over the table clawing at Kendra. She would have torn flesh from skin had it not been for Richard’s cat like reflexes.
He hoisted his arms around her waist pulling her away.
“THAT’S ENOUGH!” Valentina shouted.
Kendra grinned licking at the microscopic drop of blood that stained her bottom lip.
Valentina kicked her seat out from under her stomping her way towards Bobbi.
Bobbi wrested herself from Richard. She made no further attempts to attack, Valentina made sure of that by standing in her way.
“This obsession you have with her stops now, do you understand me? I don’t care what happened before this moment, you will put it behind you. That goe
s for all of you,” Valentina ordered. She looked at Kendra specifically. “Understood?”
“Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord,” Kendra stoically replied.
Bobbi spat on the ground. “She’s playing you. Whatever truce you think you’ve made is bullshit. She’s playing you and you’re letting her get away with it. She will bring all of us down with you.”
“ENOUGH!” Valentina shouted.
Her shouting was enough to break Bobbi’s stride, silencing her.
Valentina then spoke so softly Bobbi was barely able to make out the words, “And I am playing her.”
Bobbi looked around struggling to process this new information.
Kendra glared her steely gaze in her direction with gleeful abandon.
Valentina turned away from Bobbi heading back to her desk. “Now I don’t want to hear another word about this feud between the two of you. It no longer exists. You will either accept Kendra as a valued member of this council or I will accept your resignation from it.” She sat down. “What will it be?”
Bobbi looked each member of the council in the eye.
At the sight of her, Richard turned away shrinking to the corner.
Joe sat, silent, unflinching in his cold demeanor.
Valentina interlocked her fingers patiently waiting for an answer.
Kendra, pious as could be, sat with the sunlight at her back, illuminating an aura around her that felt both brilliantly exhilarating and dangerously frightening.
She stepped to the nearest chair taking a seat.
Valentina smiled. “Before Xao was dismissed he’d been looking for the Captain’s keys which would gain us access to his quarters. We hoped that inside would be any information that would help us get this ship running again but despite our best efforts, the key remains lost, most likely residing in the Captain’s pockets at the bottom of the sea. I am also calling off the wait for the men Richard sent out in search of habitable islands. It’s been a week and a half, if they were making it back, they would have. So, that leaves us with some creative thinking to be done. We need to find a way to get us all off this ship and to somewhere safe, without any mode of transportation, unless by some miracle, Morris makes it back to us. So, any ideas?” For the first time, Richard turned to her. His eyes were pleading with her.
He wants me to tell her about the boat. She briefly flirted with the idea but with Kendra now on the council, she quickly made her decision. She turned her gaze away from Richard to the floor. Valentina may be playing Kendra but she did not have enough faith in her anymore to believe her escape boat would be safe.
Kendra would destroy it. She doesn’t want to leave this ship. Here, she is somebody. If we get off this ship and god willing I’m right and we find other survivors, she’ll go back to being nobody and she doesn’t strike me as the type of person to take that lying down anymore. No.
Better to keep the boat a secret, for now.
“We could drum up whatever spare parts we could find and build a makeshift raft. Send a team out to scour the nearby area for any type of land that’s hospitable,” Joe suggested.
“And what would that accomplish?” Bobbi interjected. “We already sent people out in search of land and they never came back. We’d just be making the same mistake again.” “We don’t have much of a choice if we wish to leave these quarters dear,” Kendra replied.
“Do you think you could do it? Build it, I mean?” Valentina asked ignoring their comments.
“It worked on LOST, right?” Joe muttered.
Everyone looked at him with blank expressions on their faces.
“No one? We’ll it could be done. All we have to do is find someone on this ship with any building experience.”
Fat chance. Kendra’s asshole’s just killed the last one. Bobbi rolled her eyes.
“You couldn’t handle a task like this, with all your knowledge of whatever that LOST thing you were talking about was?” Valentina wondered.
“Me? No. They didn’t exactly do a play by play. Besides, I have dozens of patients to attend
to.”
“Well, what if you didn’t have to anymore?” Valentina replied.
The hairs on Bobbi’s arms stood up. Something felt utterly wrong here.
“What do you mean?” Joe asked.
Valentina looked to Kendra.
“Each day more and more people take ill. This ship has become a breeding ground for bacteria and disease. In your expert opinion, is there anything to be done for those that take ill?” Kendra asked him.
Bobbi didn’t like the way this was heading. The line of question felt queer to her. She was leading him somewhere.
Unfortunately, Joe took the bait. “Under normal circumstances, if I had my supplies and a medical room to work with, it would be a walk in the park. They’d be in and out in a few days but given the massive step back we’ve taken in antibiotics, no. All we can do is sit by and make them as comfortable as we can while they slowly and painfully die.”
A light bulb went off over Bobbi’s head. She can’t be serious. “We can’t kill them!” She shouted out.
It took Richard and Joe by surprise but the women were cool as cucumbers.
“We are not killing them. We are euthanizing them,” Valentina explained. “We all sit by day in and day out, listening to their screams of pain as their life dwindles before their eyes. Would it not be easier to put them out of their misery, to relinquish their pain? How many of us may we save in the process by cutting off the disease before it affects every one of us?” “It’s not right,” she said.
“Nothing is right anymore Bobbi,” Valentina countered. “There’s just the dark days and the really dark days. Today is no different.”
Bobbi turned to Kendra. “And you stand by this? How does your GOD feel about you murdering and destroying his essence to save yourself?”
“We all must one day be judged and if I am to be punished for sacrificing the few to save the many, then so be it. My GOD is a just GOD and I do his bidding as best as I can and this is what he requires,” She spewed with vigor. “Those on the brink of death must be returned to him. The
LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”
“Open your eyes, my dear. You’ve heard it from the best source himself,” Valentina coldly added. “We can do nothing but sit by while they suffer, erode, and infect us all. It is in our best interest, our self preservation that we euthanize the sick.”
A tear spewed from Bobbi’s black eye. The pain burning through her body. “I became a cop to save lives. I agreed to be your Sheriff to protect.”
“Then be what you claim you are and trust in the LORD’s guidance,” Kendra spoke placing a comforting hand upon Bobbi’s.
She pulled away afraid that just by touching that spiteful creature she would catch her evilness.
“We will put it to a vote,” Valentina said. “Kendra?”
“I will fulfill my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people. Yes,” Kendra replied.
“Joe?”
“I will not play GOD with people’s lives. No,” he uttered.
Bobbi perked her head up. They still had a chance to stop this madness from happening.
The vote was even and her closest friend on this ship had the last say. Please, Richard. Stop this horrible idea from spewing forth into reality. She softly laid her hand upon his.
“Richard. You have been quiet throughout all this. What say you?” Valentina asked.
Richard looked at Bobbi choking on his words. “Y-you know me ma’am. I prefer to listen then to do the talking. A study of society was not conducted by helping to shape it.” He nervously laughed. “It is a sobering, ugly thought that we have come to this point but all throughout history, men and women have been tasked with such decisions. Look no further than the bubonic plague to see that what we struggle with here isn’t the first struggle of its kind. We have c
ome to this crossroads before and lived to warn others about it and here we stand today, looking at that same crossroad. Only this time, we have the wherewithal and the knowledge of which path to take.” He turned to Bobbi, sadness in his voice. “I am sorry Bobbi but you and I both know which direction we must walk. I take no comfort in what must be done but the alternative would be that much worse. We cannot let ourselves be forever etched in history as the ones that let humanity die. I vote yes,” he said coldly, removing his hand from Bobbi’s embrace. “It’s settled then,” Valentina announced formally.
Bobbi barely heard the words lost deep in despair within her mind. And just like that, dozens of lives will end under our watch. What will the history books say about that?
“Tonight, while the ritual is underway, Bobbi, Joe and Richard will oversee the…” Kendra struggled on the words. “…containment of the sick.” “Ritual?” Bobbi questioned.
Richard chimed in, “As a sign of good faith between two leaders coming together,
Valentina has agreed to undergo Kendra’s rebirthing baptism.”
Kendra gleamed at Bobbi, daring her to speak a word of protest.
Bobbi would not take the bait. “Are you sure that’s safe?” she asked Valentina.
“Why would it not be safe?” Kendra wondered, just asking for Bobbi to slip up and say something she would regret.
“Well, I don’t know of any other baptism requiring one to voluntarily drown herself,” she snapped.
Kendra smiled. “A new world requires a new type of sacrifice. We must cleanse our body and soul rebirthing ourselves into the new world and as with anything else in life worth gaining, there are always risks.”
“She hasn’t lost any lives which is more than you or I can say,” Valentina interjected. “She knows what she’s doing.”