by Trimboli, TJ
Joe approached her first. “I’m not one for drawn out goodbyes, so why don’t we keep this simple.” He said putting out his hand.
She shook it. “Stick to the plan.”
“Find land, access the area, send someone back with progress. Easy as my high school girlfriend,” he quipped and took his spot on the boat.
All that was left was Trent. He sauntered up to her. “Let’s keep this simple shall we?” Bobbi laughed.
“What?” Trent asked.
Men. “Nothing.”
They hugged once more, quick and painless, then he stepped onto the escape pod sitting against the railing.
Bobbi looked out at them all, hoping and praying, they would manage to make it to safety. She found herself more worried about their journey now at sea then she did of their plight on land. Since waking from her dream, she’d become more and more convinced land wasn’t as destitute as they imagined and this band of weary travelers would be the key to that.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
TRENT’
Trent sat transfixed on the ground. The pod shook and staggered, suddenly dropping five feet in seconds flat. His stomach dropped and he leaned over the side hurling bile to the ocean below. The water collided with the side of the ship a hundred different ways. The sea seemed angry and would claim them all if they weren’t careful.
The pod slammed against the cruise ship splintering some of the wood. Some of the sick uttered shrieks of panic.
“Easy everyone. It’s all right. We’re fine,” Joe said soothingly.
They all looked at each other.
Trent could see Joe didn’t mean a word of what he was saying. He’s just as scared as the rest of us. He saw Bobbi’s lady friend passed out against the man next to her. What I wouldn’t give to be her right now. He looked up to see what the holdup was and that’s when he saw him. Against the railing of the ship, two men held the ropes on both sides. One was sickly fellow whose eyes were so puffy, it was a wonder he could do anything at the moment but he wasn’t who caught his attention. It was the man closest to rail, staring down at him, smiling that evil smile only he could manage.
Noah.
“BOBBI!” Trent shouted as he jumped up off the boat grabbing at the railing of the cruise ship.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
BOBBI’
She barely heard him call her name when it happened.
“Loose!” Richard shouted and the horror began.
All around her, figures covered in blankets ripped off their coverings exposing their bald heads. They let go of the rope. The sick people still holding on went flying. One woman went careening off the edge of the boat. Her screams were lost in the ferocity of the wind. In an instant, the rope threaded through the buckles, disappearing to the ocean below. She heard no screams over the rain. Against the railing, fingers grasped the metal frame.
“Trent,” she shouted then ran but only got a few measly feet before someone tackled her to the ground. She kicked and fought but the figure was too strong. He held her down against the floor, water pooling around her mouth. She looked out and watched helplessly as the sick were sliced open and murdered like dogs. A body dropped right in front of her and she recognized the bald woman instantly. She was the one who started it all, the first of the sick to agree to this. If it wasn’t for her, none of them would have agreed to her plan and now, they were all dead anyway.
Hands wrapped around her body pulling her up.
Richard stood in front of her.
She launched her body at him but the man holding onto her kept her in place. “You son of a bitch! What have you done?” she shouted at him.
“What’s necessary to survive,” he said sternly, his hapless, comforting demeanor disappearing.
Behind him, two of Kendra’s thugs pulled Trent up dropping him on the ground. They pulled their knives on him.
“Stop,” Richard said. “Leave that one alive.”
One of the goon’s kicked Trent in the gut as the other tied him up.
“You won’t get away with this. Valentina will—”
“Valentina will what?” Richard asked. “You betrayed her authority Bobbi, you’ll be lucky if
Valentina ever does anything for you again. Take them away.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
VALENTINA’
“And now I ask thee…” Kendra began.
Valentina had finished her expulsion of sin and all that remained was a quick prayer and the baptism. She found herself suddenly terrified of the process. All day, Kendra’s kind and comforting words abated her unease but now, staring at the tub of water in front of her, she froze.
The room felt like a thousand degrees but one couldn’t tell looking at Valentina’s naked body. Her nipples hardened, her teeth were clattering. She lifted her hand to steady her nerves but it shook uncontrollably.
Get a hold of yourself. Two thirds of your people have gone through the ritual and all made it out the other side unscathed. If they can do it, you most assuredly can. You are strong, you are confident. You are a leader.
Kendra cleared her throat breaking Valentina’s trance. Valentina nodded to her.
“Dost thou believe in GOD the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth?” Kendra said.
“I do.”
“Dost thou believe in Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son our Lord, who was born and hath suffered for us?”
“I do.”
The disciples around her took a step back, leaving just her, Kendra, and the bucket. She couldn’t take her eyes off of it. The sloshing water unnerved her to no end. As if it challenged her, inviting her to take the plunge into its depths and see if she had the fortitude to journey to the other side.
“And Dost thou believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic church, the Communion of saints, the Forgiveness of sin, the Resurrection of the flesh, and life everlasting?” Kendra decreed.
“I do.”
“Kneel,” Kendra demanded.
She did as she was told, slowly dropping to the ground in front of the tub. She rested her hands on the sides of the bucket. They were frigid. On the outside, she showed indifference but on the inside, she was screaming. Another few minutes and it will all be over.
“Valentina will now be baptized and born anew to take her place as our rightful leader. She has barred her soul and now GOD will judge the veracity of her willingness. Let her rise again anew or be struck down to eternal damnation.” Kendra walked around the tub kneeling down beside her.
Valentina felt Kendra’s hand at her back softly rubbing it.
“Don’t worry. It will all be over soon. You’ve done so well so far. I’m proud of you Mother.” Kendra smiled.
“I’m ready,” She said firmly and as the moment approached—she truly was. She felt confident, calm, ready to be the leader they needed her to be.
“You served your purpose and now there’s just one thing left to do, Mother!” Kendra exclaimed. She turned to the crowd. “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, I baptize thee.” Kendra stroked the back of Valentina’s hair. “Say hello to my sister for me,” she spat.
Valentina’s eyes widened at the sudden realization she’d been had but it was too late. Kendra gripped Valentina’s scalp pushing her down into the depths of the tub. Valentina heard gasps as she submerged but no one came to help her. She clawed and kicked but Kendra’s grip was talon like. She screamed, water rushing into her mouth, down her throat. It filled her lungs. She gasped, pleaded with God in her mind to get her out of this but he didn’t answer. Her thrashing became less violent as she slowly slipped into a trance. The water calmed and euphoria engulfed her consciousness. She saw her children at the bottom of the tub, laughing and playing. They looked up at her shouting for her to join them. She let go of her anger. Any attempt to free herself was now lost to her, she wanted more than anything to join her children and in a few short gasps —she would.
Valentina’s last thought was of Bobbi h
idden somewhere on the ship, alone. She felt sorry that Bobbi would suffer the same fate as her, maybe even worse but the thoughts slipped from her mind as fast as they accumulated. Her children held out their hands and she reached out to greet them.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
KENDRA’
As soon as Valentina’s arms went limp, she pulled her from the water.
Valentina slumped over onto the floor, eyes wide open, tongue dangling against her lips.
The crowd sat in silent anticipation. Viewers in the back even stood up on their chairs for a better vantage point.
Kendra put on the facade and played the part perfectly. She tapped at Valentina’s face.
“Valentina! Valentina!” she shouted.
Hand over hand, she placed them upon Valentina’s breast plate doing compressions for an interval of thirty seconds. When she finished, she listened for breath and leaned in to give air. She put her lips upon Valentina’s and feigned like she was breathing air into her lungs. She did another set of compressions, this time as lazily and haphazardly as she could. She heard cartilage tear and ribs snap.
Valentina never made a move.
Kendra relaxed knowing that she was really dead but she still had an act to put on. She screamed, tears streaming down her cheeks. She made a fist, slamming it down upon Valentina’s chest. “Not this one LORD! You can’t take her. She is supposed to lead us!” she shouted. She feigned a few more breaths before finally calling it. She finished off her Oscar worthy performance by upending the tub, spewing the water over the stage onto the people below. She screamed agonizingly.
The crowd sat stunned.
She faked exhaustion breathing as heavily as she could. “GOD…has spoken. His judgement…is final. Valentina, our leader…is gone.” She said sullenly. “But do not fear my children…for I am still with you.”
The crowd all sat back looking defeated by tonight’s activity but not Kendra. She turned from the crowd, grinning ear to ear. Their plan had worked. Through all the twist’s and turn’s, pawns, checkmates, and rebuttal’s, they had finally reached their position at the top. She looked up seeing Richard standing behind the curtain.
Their eyes met and he smiled.
She approached him.
“I see everything went smoothly.” Richard said.
“That it did. And yourself?” she asked.
“There were a few complications but I have them. They await your arrival in the council room.”
“Excellent. Let’s introduce them to our new world,” Kendra said gliding her way past him.
All hail the Queen.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
BOBBI’
She paced back and forth around Trent, trying to get a grip on the situation. The guards surrounding her had taken her gun and hatchet, leaving her more vulnerable than she ever felt before.
Trent stood perfectly still, eyes fixed on the guards in front of him.
She paid them no mind, as she remained too transfixed on all the times Richard had pretended to be there for her. All the guidance, all the advice, every time he had my back was just to fuck me over in the end.
One of the guards was servicing her revolver. He popped open the chamber and howled with laughter. “Check this out boys,” he said to his mates. He showed off the chamber revealing it to be empty. “All this time she was lying. The power she held, keeping us all in check and she was just bullshitting, the same as the rest of us. We could have killed her days ago and she couldn’t have done a damn thing about it. How about that?”
“A funny thing, information,” Bobbi told them. “Give you a little piece of it, like I have four bullets left, and leave everyone else to their own machinations, pretty soon everyone would have you believing I had three guns to my name.”
They all looked at her nervously. “You don’t got nothing anymore, bitch,” one of them spat.
“You’re wrong slick. I have everything,” she said coldly.
The door opened and in walked Richard.
Kendra slowly strolled in behind him, taking a seat at the head of the table. “She’s right, you know…about information. How easily it can be manipulated. You’re told one thing and you tell another, and he tells another, and she passes it on and so on it goes. Until it finally reaches back to you and it’s nothing like you told it. The nature of information. The media made a living out of information like that…Wasn’t there a children’s game kinda like that once upon a time?” she said looking to Richard.
“I believe there was. The telephone game, they called it. At least in America. Originally called, Chinese whispers.”
“I like that. Chinese whispers. Sounds much more exciting. Been a lot of Chinese whispers aboard this ship but I’ve seen an end to it.”
“Why am I talking to you? You are nothing but a lap dog. I demand to see Valentina.” Bobbi said.
“Valentina stepped down. She preferred to spend her time with her children. I’m in charge now,” Kendra said venomously.
Bobbi’s heart sank. “You lie.” Bobbi roared.
“Do I? Do I speak more Chinese whispers? An unreliable narrator of the Lord,” Kendra said smiling. She whistled.
Seconds later, the door burst open and they carted her in. They dropped her limp body on the table. Her face pale as winter. Her eyes unnerving—her lips with purple hues.
A lump formed in Bobbi’s throat. She thought she was going to faint but held on.
They conspired this together, to take over.
Tears welled up in her eyes. She looked past Kendra straight at Richard. “How could you do this? You were my friend.” She cried.
“And we were!” he shouted. The sudden forcefulness of his retort had her caught off guard. “I had a vision for this society. All my life, I studied the human race from the dawn of time until this very minute. What made them work, what made them fail, who implemented the best ideas, who succumbed to the wrong people, how and why they fell, every little detail I could learn I did and this is my chance to effectuate them. Then you came along to muck it all up with your dreams and your premonitions. Land is no longer for the living but you couldn’t let sleeping dogs lie. No…you have to try and convince us to go back there.”
“Because we need to see it for ourselves. How do we know that there aren’t certain areas that are safe?” She shot back.
“Because we’re all not stupid. We’ve seen the movies, the graphic novels, every piece of literature they’ve thrown at us. We all know how it ends. They win and land rots away. Seeing is no longer believing…I’ve never seen the Great Wall of China but I know it’s there. Just like I don’t need to go back to land to know that it is lost on us forever and you inspiring false hope into these people is ruining our chances of a future society.” “And we say the zombies are only on land,” Trent argued.
“You are one to talk, murderer,” Kendra vocalized.
“So all this time, everything you told me, everything you fed me and Valentina were all lies?
Just so you could install her in power?” Bobbi lamented.
“You act as if I was out to get you from the start. Nothing could be further from the truth Bobbi. I meant it when I told you that if it wasn’t for you I would be dead. I owe my life to you. I truly wanted you to succeed. I wanted you to lead us. What you did during the night riot was truly inspiring. Valentina was always weak, the death of her kids sealed her fate from the start, but you had potential. Who would have thought love would do you in?” He said sullenly.
“So you framed him for all those murders, just so I would turn on him? Get him out of the way and put me at the top of the pedestal? You’re sick.” She spat.
Richard laughed at that. “Love has truly blinded you my dear. Every one of those deaths was by your husband’s hands,” he stated matter-of-factly.
“LIAR!” she yelled.
“You will be dead in a few minutes, we have no further need to lie to you,” Kendra spoke. “That man is a rabid dog. One that was helpful to
us off his leash, but now needs to be put down.”
She could see Trent arch his head down in defeat at that. He obviously believed the lies these two spewed forth from their lips but Bobbi would not succumb to their evil. “You won’t get away with this.”
“Enough!” Kendra shouted. “I will not be so dumb as to continue this conversation and bare my soul to you. Your heroics do not end this story. This is my world now. Democracy had its time but it died the second you let it kill my…” She composed herself. “Now is the time of our Lord. Take them down to the fishing level, slit their throats, and dump them off the side of the ship.”
Two guards grabbed at Trent pushing him into motion.
He put up no fight.
Neither did Bobbi when two more approached her, now was not the time. They led them down the corridor towards the stairs. Dozens of people had gathered around the hall to see them led away. Bobbi looked each one of them that she failed in the eye as they spat epitaphs and curse words in their directions. Some even threw trash at them. Neither of them flinched at the objects careening past them. She held her head up high, even though she felt the lowest of the lows. “What’re we going to do Trent?” Bobbi whispered.
None of the guards paid them any attention, they were too busy keeping the combined denizens of Kendra’s new army at bay.
“There’s nothing left to do Bobbi. Look around you. Humanity is over. They won.” “Mine isn’t and as long as I still have it in spades, I won’t give up,” she mused.
At that, he cracked the tiniest little grin.
“What?” She wondered.
“You are the strongest person I’ve ever met.” He looked around at all the people yelling in their faces. “When we get down to the fishing level, it will be just us and the guards. When I signal you, you’re going to run and not look back.”