Smoke was now filling the room, flowing over their heads and out the open door.
“We have to be quick. Remember to hook your ankles together, press your knees together, and clamp your arms to your sides. Cover your mouth with one hand, and plug your nose with the other.”
“What are we doing, Mr. Cole?”
“Getting out of here. Come on.” Daddy struggled back up onto his feet and led them outside.
Hope looked toward the front of the ship, assuming that’s where they were going. Instead of a clear path, she saw two men having a sword fight. It wasn’t like the sword fights she had with her friends; their swords looked real.
Toward the back of the ship, glass exploded outward followed by a lot of smoke and fire. Both Dakota and Hope screamed.
“Remember what I told you in the room,” Daddy said as he picked up Dakota.
“I remember.”
Suddenly, Daddy threw Dakota over the side of the ship. Both Dakota and Hope screamed again, but Dakota’s stopped much quicker this time.
“You’re next, buddy.” Daddy picked up Peter, and then threw him over the side as well.
“Daddy!” Hope didn’t understand what was going on.
“Sorry about this, Milly.” Daddy picked up the husky and threw her over the side. Milly yelped as she disappeared from sight.
“Daddy, no!” Hope backed into the wall as he turned toward her.
“It’s okay, I’m coming with you. I’m not leaving this time.”
A scream farther up the ship made them both turn. One of the men had been stabbed by the other and had fallen to the deck. The man who had done the stabbing, turned toward both Hope and her daddy. He raised his sword and ran toward them.
“No time for diplomacy,” Daddy said as he grabbed Hope. “Plug your nose, sweet pea, and take a deep breath.”
Hope plugged her nose as Daddy climbed onto the railing with her, and then jumped off, pushing them outward with his not-bleeding leg. Together, they fell through the air. Hope held her breath despite wanting to scream, and clung to her daddy who held her in a crushing grip.
They hit the water feet first, and plunged below the surface. Daddy let go of Hope. She tried to grab him, but her lifejacket soon carried her upward. As she reached the air, she gasped, tasting the nasty seawater. Before she could cry out for her daddy, he popped up beside her.
“Hold my shoulders.” Daddy turned around backwards so that Hope could do what he said.
Daddy started swimming toward the back of the ship, which was moving but not very fast. They found Milly first, her eyes wide with terror as she struggled to keep upright. She tried to climb onto Daddy, but he wouldn’t let her. With one hand, he steadied the dog, and she began to calm down as she realized she wasn’t going to sink. They kept swimming until they found both Peter and Dakota. Somehow, Dakota still had her hat. She must not have listened to one of Daddy’s instructions about what to do with her hands.
“You kids all right?” Daddy asked them.
They both nodded. Dakota was struggling to keep her lifejacket from floating up over her head.
“Okay, we have to swim away from the Diana now. Can you do that for me? I want you to hold hands. You too, Hope.”
They all formed a line. Daddy was on one end, holding Hope’s hand, and helping Milly, while Dakota was holding Peter’s hand on the other end, so that she could hold her lifejacket down with her free one. Together, they slowly swam away from the Diana.
“Where are we going?” Peter asked.
“The Diana is going to sink. We have to be away from it when it does. Right now, all we’re doing is moving away.”
“What about the pirates?” Dakota asked next.
Daddy didn’t answer that question. Hope could see some boats driving around, but they didn’t make any attempts to be seen by them. The boats most likely belonged to the pirates, and they wouldn’t help them.
“Daddy?” Hope suddenly thought of something.
“What is it, sweet pea?”
“What if there’s sharks?”
Daddy didn’t answer that question either.
IV
Evacuation
Abby was close to losing her mind with worry. When Claire had cried out that she had been separated from Peter, she immediately tried to go back for him, but she couldn’t. The press of people evacuating the burning, zombie infested rear of the ship to the relatively safer front of the ship had been too much. Even standing still had been difficult to do, and Lauren had already been lost in the throng. When Claire was nearly ripped away from her in the narrow hallway, Abby knew she had to keep going. With her arm tight around Claire’s shoulders, they had gone with the flow. Abby prayed that the kids were following the crowd, or that someone would notice them and bring them along. So far, no such luck.
Abby paced back and forth in the Lily Lounge. It was crammed full of displaced people. So far, no one had brought in Peter or Hope, or even Milly. There was a guard at the door who wouldn’t let Abby leave. To reduce the confusion and risk of further accidents, those who made it to an evacuation point were forced to remain there.
Claire stood nearby, watching Abby pace, her hands clasped tightly beneath her chin. They didn’t know where Lauren was either. She must have been moved to a different location.
“They must be in a different area, like Lauren,” Claire insisted.
“Yeah. They probably are. With everything that’s happening, they must not have time to get separated families back together.” Abby desperately wanted to believe this.
When Mathias showed up, her heart broke. The way he was looking frantically around, he was obviously searching for his daughter.
“Where’s Hope?” he asked, hobbling over on a wounded leg the moment he spotted Abby.
Abby had to explain how they got separated, how she tried to go back for them.
Mathias placed his hands on Abby’s shoulders, quieting her down. “It’s fine, it happens. But tell me, what room were you in?”
“6368,” Abby told him.
“I’ll find them. Don’t you worry about it. I’ll find them.” Mathias then left as quickly as his wound would allow.
Despite his words, Abby kept worrying. Now she had even more to worry about in fact. Judging by the white bandage, Mathias’s leg had been looked at, but the injury must have reopened. Red blood was staining the bandage, and Mathias’s running around on it would only make things worse.
She continued to pace.
***
Down in the medical centre, Riley was frantically trying to get the last of the injured moved out. Not only was the place filling with the smoke of the advancing fire, but raiders were boarding through the door that had been blown out. A team of ship defenders was doing a good job of keeping them back, but they were quickly running out of ammunition.
“He’s next!” Riley ordered, pointing to a man who had lost his leg when the cannon ball smashed open their defences. The hallway outside the medical centre was a mess, with debris from their barricade scattered everywhere. A few dead lay amid the wreckage.
Assured that everyone was doing their job, Riley crawled over to the final patient. The smoke was so bad that everyone was crawling now. On the floor, wrapped in a sheet, lay Rose. She was awake and watching Riley above the oxygen mask strapped to her lower face. Her skin was pale, and her heartbeat was very rapid when Riley checked it. Rose shouldn’t be moved. She was still very weak from blood loss. There was no choice though. Either they move her, or the fire would get her. If not the fire, then one of the burning zombies that kept stumbling out of it. Riley suspected that the blaze was spreading a lot quicker because of them. Although attempts had been made initially to put out the flames, the zombies kept driving the firefighters back. Now the burning corpses were carrying the conflagration past the areas the firefighters had soaked.
“You’ll be moved soon,” Riley told Rose, her voice muffled by her own mask. Riley’s mask was only a damp cloth, but it was
helping to prevent smoke inhalation. Still, Riley could feel the tickling in her lungs, the need to cough. She was trying to keep the coughing at bay as long as she could. She knew that once she started, she’d have a hard time stopping.
Rose blinked once, slowly, deliberately, to let Riley know she understood. She was too tired even to nod her head. It was likely that fear was the only thing keeping Rose awake right now, and even then, her mind wanted to drift off. Riley stayed crouched down beside her, waiting for the next group of stretcher-bearers to arrive.
“Are there any more patients?” Dr. Owen asked as he sidled up next to Riley and Rose, arming the sweat off his forehead at the same time. The heat was rising in the medical centre. Already the major staircases just down the hall were burning, and the patients had to be carried through the belly of the ship.
“No,” Riley shook her head. “You and the other doctors get out of here. I’ll wait with Rose for the last stretcher team.”
Owen nodded, and then went off to inform the other remaining doctors. Riley looked around the medical centre. The beds weren’t all empty, but no one living occupied them. A lot of people had already died this night, and she suspected a lot more would follow.
A stretcher team arrived and scuttled over to Riley. Under her orders, they gently lifted Rose in her sheet, and rested her on the orange plastic backboard. Rose groaned, but didn’t scream or cry out, and she managed to stay awake. Riley carefully placed the small oxygen tank between her remaining arm and her body where it should hopefully stay put, and then told the stretcher team that she was good to go. As they carried her out, crouching as low as they could, Riley took one last look around the medical centre. This was the place where Hope had been born.
She grabbed her bag, which was stuffed with medicine and supplies. All the doctors had carried out similar bags, and so did several stretcher-bearers, but there were still some things they had to leave behind. It was all non-essential stuff, such as vitamins, but Riley was still pissed she had to leave it. The off-shippers had risked their lives scavenging all this stuff. There were also larger pieces of equipment they could do nothing about.
Out in the hallway, she let the ship defenders know that the medical centre had been emptied. She got a good look at the approaching fire in the process. If the main staircases and elevator shafts hadn’t been as close to the medical centre as they were, they would have been smoked out long before they could get everyone out, but thankfully, most of the smoke was being drawn upward and away from them.
The ship defenders left their post and headed to the front of the ship with Riley. Let the raiders deal with the fire, and the burning zombies.
***
Lauren sat sideways in her seat, her eyes locked on the doors into the theatre. No one else had come in for a long time, but still she watched. Abby and the kids must have been directed to another place. Lauren cursed herself for being separated from them. She shouldn’t have bothered with the box of supplies. Unfortunately, she had no way of knowing how hectic that hallway was going to be. She thought that because they heard about it on the walkie-talkie, they would have gotten out ahead of the crowd. Apparently, a lot of people were listening to walkie-talkies, and whoever had been going around door-to-door to warn everyone must have started before anything was said on them.
The theatre wasn’t packed with people, but there were a lot. Most of them sat quietly in groups, while a few like Lauren sat alone. Some of them were smoky, their faces and clothes smudged black from getting too close to the fire. Earlier, Lauren had seen Mathias come in. She had waved him down and told him that Abby and the kids had to be in a different room. He left immediately to find them. Since then, Lauren hadn’t seen anyone she knew enter the theatre.
On stage, a few entertainers were trying to keep the displaced people occupied. The lead singer of what used to be a very popular rock band, Quin Beharry, was currently working his way through a song. He had a ratty guitar at which he was plucking away, his voice doing most of the work. Earlier, an actor had been reciting monologues. Also on stage was Brittany, the grief councillor, with her little wiener dog, Olivia. Abby had had trouble dealing with the emotional stress of the Day and all that followed, even after being reunited with Lauren. Brittany had helped her a lot, and she was continuing to help people now. Whenever someone needed an ear to listen, she hopped off the stage and went over to them. Lauren admired the woman, who had survived both brain and breast cancer—the latter resulting in a double mastectomy—before the Day happened. Even though there was always the lingering threat of the cancer coming back, and the ship not being equipped to help her if it did, she always had a kind word and a comforting shoulder for others.
It was Brittany who was summoned to the back of the theatre when Captain Sigvard eventually arrived. This wasn’t long after a ghostly groan had echoed throughout the entire ship. Lauren couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but it was clearly a very serious matter. When they were done, Brittany ran back to the stage, ignoring a man who tried to flag her down. It was very serious indeed.
Up on stage, Brittany silenced Quin and his guitar, and faced the crowd. Everyone was literally sitting on the edge of his or her seat, wondering what was going on.
“Attention!” Brittany called out, her voice powerful enough to fill the room. If there had been someone not paying attention to her before, they were now. “I’ve just received word from the captain that the Diana is slowly sinking.”
A ripple of shock and worry rushed through the crowd, while one woman screamed outright.
“I know this is terrible news for you all, it is for me too, but I need you all to evacuate as calmly as you can,” Brittany told them. “Do not rush, do not push. Remain calm and everything will be fine. We’ve rebuilt once before, we’ll rebuild again. The only thing that can’t be replaced is you, so be smart. There is absolutely no need to panic. Remember the practice drills, we always knew this could happen. Everything will be fine. Let’s go.”
Brittany stepped away from the edge of the stage, walking to Quin and gesturing for him to leave the stool on which he was sitting. He did, and then went backstage to gather anyone left behind the curtains.
“Let’s go, people!” Brittany called out again as she stepped down.
Everyone started to stand up, one by one. Lauren grabbed her box of meagre supplies, suddenly understanding how much more important they were now. With everything burning and sinking, they’d lose it all. They’d lose everything they weren’t carrying. Lauren was glad that everyone had been issued a weapon before the raiders showed up, because if they were going to shore, they’d need them. Tucked into the waistband of her pants, Lauren had a small, six shooter revolver, loaded with three bullets.
Joining the crowd headed for the door, Lauren saw that Captain Sigvard was watching the procession. Several people were stopping to ask him questions, most of them about the raiders. Sigvard patiently answered them the best he could, but most of his answers weren’t very satisfactory for those asking them.
“What was that loud groaning?” Lauren walked up to him and asked. “Is it why we’re sinking now and not earlier?”
Sigvard nodded. “The ship that rammed us created a large hole, but mostly in the upper decks. The longer they were stuck to our back, however, the farther into us they pushed, and the lower the damage got. That wasn’t so bad, as the ship also plugged up the hole it made in the Diana. That groan you heard was it slipping. It’s slid sideways, ripping the hole bigger and unplugging it. We’re no longer ploughing straight through the water, and the longer we sit this way, the more we’re going to be turned. Eventually, we’ll be turned enough that the ship behind us will break free, leaving a massive hole, and no longer helping to hold us afloat. We have to be off the Diana when that happens. There’s time, but please don’t dawdle for anything.”
Several people had clustered around Lauren, as they too wanted to know the answer to her question. One of them asked about the raiders again, to w
hich Sigvard’s only reply was that they would do their best.
Lauren followed the crowd up to the fourth deck. Above her head, the lifeboats hadn’t been launched yet, but through the grated catwalk, she could see the injured being loaded aboard them. It was unfortunate that the fire was keeping them from using the tender boats and a few of the lifeboats at the back of the ship.
Rafts were being tossed over the side and deployed, with healthy people then jumping into the water and boarding them. Rope ladders were draped over the side of the ship so that the rest of them could climb down. As Lauren neared a ladder, waiting in a line that had naturally formed behind it, she noticed that a lot of ship defenders were gathered around the evacuees. Several of them had rifles pointed at the ocean, while others flanked the stream of people and kept them organized.
“Leave that box here, Ms. Sanford,” a voice spoke to Lauren.
She knew who it was before she even turned to look at his face. Winchester always called her Ms. Sanford, ever since they had met at a motel so long ago during the Day.
“You can’t climb down the ladder while holding that box.” Winchester held out his arms for Lauren to hand it over.
She did. “You’ll keep an eye out for Abby and the kids, won’t you?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he smiled for her, “all the kids.”
“What’ll happen to the supplies?”
“People first, supplies second. We’ll load them onto boats and rafts when we can. The lifeboats are loading up as many supplies as they can between the injured. Don’t worry about it. Now, go on, you’re next.”
Lauren turned and saw that she was indeed next. As she carefully climbed over the railing and onto the swaying ladder, she looked along the deck. The last thing she saw before descending was Brittany, with Olivia in her arms, helping a couple tie a rope around their terrier so it could be loaded onto one of the rafts. Lauren thought that, if everyone managed to keep holding together like that, then they might just stand a chance.
***
Survival Instinct (Book 3): Fighting Instinct Page 33