by Kip Nelson
By this point, Tristan had reached the water's edge. He was slapping at the docks and calling for help. By now, he was almost on his last legs. Saul and a couple of the others kept watch over the sailors, having now drawn their guns to make sure the sailors didn't do anything rash. Although in some ways Saul wanted them to, because he loved a good fight. Grace had no idea why the sailors would turn on them, or what had happened to Tristan, but she was worried for him, and for New Haven itself.
She led a couple of people to the edge of the dock and found a rope, which they all took hold of and dangled down to Tristan. He caught it and pulled himself up slowly, and with the help of Grace and the others he was soon on dry land again. His clothes were soaked through. He looked pale and weak. He coughed and spat out sea water, and he shuddered with emotion as he crouched on all fours. The skin on his lips had crusted over, and Grace felt a swell of pity for the boy. He had been through so much, and his time on the ship was supposed to have been a nice treat for him. Instead, it had turned into whatever this was. Grace called to get him some water from the supply they had brought with them, and she took off her jacket, placing it around his shoulders in an effort to warm him up.
Tristan's lips chattered, and when he spoke his words came out in a vibrato. Grace held him close to her, wanting to warm him up as quickly as possible to prevent any chance of him getting an infection. She had been the one to let him stay on the Southampton, so whatever happened to him was her fault, and she didn't know how she would explain it to Maggie. As soon as he was able, Tristan explained what he saw, although it was in fractured sentences because his mind was hazy and all he wanted to do was sleep. But he was able to communicate the truth.
“The sick bastards,” Saul said, overhearing him.
He looked down at the sailors and kicked one of them in the chest. Grace was filled with revulsion as the truth dawned on her. She wondered if they were planning on eating everyone in New Haven.
There was a huge groan as the Southampton loomed over them, coming even closer to the shore. The shadow enveloped them like an abyss that was about to swallow them up.
“Surrender!” Grace yelled, but the only reply was a gunshot that hit the water before her, and was too close for her liking.
As she looked up she could see a few of the sailors peering down at her. She turned to the others and asked them if what Tristan had said was true. They hung their heads in shame, but did not say anything. Although, in some ways, their silence said more than words ever could. Saul was enraged. He started beating them again, going around to them, one by one, kicking them and punching them in the face, letting out his intense anger in one incoherent burst. Grace had to yell multiple times to get him to stop. She needed everyone calm because they were still in the line of sight of the sailors on the ship. She assumed they hadn't continued firing because they were afraid of shooting their shipmates, although she hoped it was because they were out of ammo. At least the ones they had captured weren't going to fight back, Saul had seen to that.
“We know what you did, and you're going to come with us back to New Haven whether you like it or not,” Grace yelled to the sailors on the ship. “But we're going to leave people here to watch over you, and make sure you don't leave the ship. Then I'm going to come back with more people and more guns, and we're going to pick you off one by one if you stay on the deck. Or you can go below and we'll wait you out. Either way, that ship will turn into your tomb if you don't leave and get down here right now.”
She saw a slight movement of heads on the deck, but it was a while before they responded by jumping into the water and swimming to shore. Grace and the others had their guns trained on them to make sure they didn't try anything stupid. While all this was going on, Tristan was shaking and holding Grace's coat tightly around him. He stared into the distance. Grace walked up to Saul.
“What the hell are we going to do about this?” she said.
“Burn the sick bastards? No wonder they wanted to eat all our food. Probably wanted to get the taste of human flesh out of their mouths,” he said, and aimed another kick toward one of the sailors sitting at his feet.
“We must get back to New Haven as quickly as possible,” she said, and then turned to the sailors again. “What are you planning in New Haven? Are you going to attack us? Was this all some kind of trick? Is that why Flint insisted that you come with us, because you were going to take us out?”
Again, the sailors said nothing. They looked at each other, and it was clear they all were going to remain silent.
“None of them are going to flip, are they?” she said.
“No. Apparently, they are willing to eat each other, but they won't turn on each other. We'll let Mack handle it, and Flint, although I can't imagine how that conversation is going to go.”
“With great difficulty, I imagine. Flint doesn't strike me as the type to walk away from something such as this.”
“And Mack isn't going to approve. I know he's said he always would do whatever it took to survive, but this...” Grace said, barely able to comprehend what she had learned.
By this point, the sailors from the ship had reached the shore. They were escorted to the other group and held at gunpoint again, stripped of their weapons. They looked sullen and haunted, and now that she knew the truth Grace could see the toll it had taken on them. They weren't just men anymore, they were beasts as well, and she wondered how she hadn't seen it written all over their faces. Perhaps it was because it was such an incomprehensible thing.
“Get them tied up,” she ordered as she went back to Tristan.
“What about the others, are they still on there?” she asked. Tristan nodded.
“We have to go get them. We can't leave them there,” Grace said, turning to Saul.
It had taken a while for Tristan to speak properly, but he was able to tell them where the rest of the prisoners were being held. Grace told the others to keep a close eye on the sailors and to shoot if they made a single move, but from the looks of them they weren't going to do anything of the sort. Grace and Saul dived into the water and swam to the ship, pulling themselves up the rope ladder that dangled over the side.
When they stepped foot on the deck they wrung the water out of their clothes and moved with great speed to save their friends.
“I've heard about people doing that in desperate situations,” Grace said, “but I didn't think I'd ever come across it myself. It always seemed so...surreal.”
“I don't even want to think about it. The more I do, the more it freaks me out. How do you think they decided who to eat? Can you imagine that situation? To be with a group of people you trust more than anything else in the world, knowing they're going to eat you?”
“Maybe it became a type of ritual for them, sort of like a sacrifice to the gods.”
“Only the devil would like that sacrifice. No matter what happens in New Haven that never is going to be us.”
“I can't imagine anyone even suggesting it, even if we ran out of food. There would have to be other options, even though these men saw no other way. I can't imagine what it was like in here, to be shut off from humanity, not knowing what happened, or even if they were the last people alive,” she said as she traced her hands along the inner walls of the ship, already feeling claustrophobic at being in such a confined space.
Even after the end of the world, some people had it better than others. They worked their way through the ship and came across the mess hall. They went into the kitchen, saw the same thing Tristan had seen and, like Tristan, were filled with revulsion upon seeing the bones. The sight of them almost made Grace sick, and Saul turned a shade of green. She never thought she'd see anything affect Saul in this way, but it was good to know he was human, too.
“So, you and Alison,” she said as they left the mess hall. She knew if they didn't talk about something they only would dwell on what they had just seen, and she didn't think her stomach could take that. It was taking all the willpower she could muste
r to stop herself from vomiting.
“What about us?” Saul said, somewhat defensively.
“Just wondering how it's going,” Grace said. “It's good to see you happy.”
“It's going pretty well. She's a hell of a woman.”
“She'd have to be, to put up with you,” Grace replied with a twinkle in her eye.
“I'm not going to argue with that.”
“Did you ever think back when we were walking through the forest, or sitting outside that mental hospital, that we'd end up here, with problems as mundane as figuring out how to love someone in a world like this?”
“That's not much of a problem to have. If you want to love someone you just do it, and everything else works itself out.”
“You really think it's that easy?”
“I didn't say it was easy. I just mean that if you love someone, then that's something that you can be sure of, that you draw strength from. There's so much uncertainty all around us that it's nice to have something like that, something you can count on. And, no, I didn't think I'd be here at all. Look at me, I'm taking care of orphans and teaching them how to live after an apocalypse, while the woman I'm with is teaching them about math and English and things. My future certainly has changed, along with the world.”
“Mine, too,” Grace said as she ruminated on Saul's words.
At one point, she had been sure she loved Luis, but now? She couldn't say. The time away from New Haven hadn't really helped her in the way she had hoped. She wanted the solution to come forward itself, but it didn't seem as though it was going to be that easy.
“I think they're down here,” she said as the two of them walked down a corridor.
They opened the doors and found their friends, who looked much as Tristan did, worn down and exhausted. There were cries of relief as Grace and Saul moved from room to room, untying the ropes that had bound them together. Then, as a unit, they all helped each other back off the ship. They managed to make it back to shore, leaving the ship behind, as an empty shell that had housed inhumane horrors.
When they returned to shore Tristan was looking a little more like himself. Although they wanted to get back to New Haven as quickly as possible, Grace was aware that those who had been imprisoned needed time to get their strength back. While they waited, Grace and Saul spoke to Tristan. He told them all that had happened on the ship, about how the sailors had fed him on the fish that swam close to the pier. And how he never knew why they had captured him, since they hadn't said anything about what they wanted him for. Thankfully, they had managed to retrieve everyone, and none of them had suffered the same fate as those whose remains they had found in the kitchen. Grace hugged Tristan and apologized for what happened, and promised him she would get him home soon. Then she walked over to the sailors, a pitiful lot, but she found that she couldn't say anything to them because she simply didn't know what to say.
When everyone was ready Grace made sure the sailors were bound together so none of them could run away. She had people keep a close watch on them at all times as she took the lead and started to make their way back to New Haven. Before she left, however, she took one long, last look out at the docks and at the sea. The horizon looked so beautiful, with purple hues cascading across the sky over the shimmering water. Yet, being lost out there at sea had caused these men to do something grotesque, and Grace hoped that nothing had happened at New Haven in their absence.
Chapter Nine
It was a long march back to New Haven, and not many words were exchanged between them. The sailors shuffled along, tied together like a row of prisoners to ensure that none of them could escape. Grace made it clear that if anything had happened to the people she loved in New Haven, then they would pay the price, and that there was no version of that story where they got out alive. Eventually, they returned. By this point, Tristan and the others who had been held prisoner were about to collapse, and only the thought of being back in New Haven had kept them going for this long. The barriers were opened, and all eyes were on this procession as it entered the settlement. People stopped what they were doing and watched as the sailors came back. Grace marched straight up to Flint, who was standing around with his men, and pointed her gun directly at his head.
People gasped with tension. The other sailors looked at each other, then at their brothers, who already had been captured, and they also bristled. It hadn't taken long for word to spread, and soon everyone was outside. Maggie and Luis rushed up to the scene. Luis had mixed feelings, for he had missed Grace and wanted to talk to her, but now was not the time or the place. Mack was there too, wondering what had happened. He had been concerned for Grace since he hadn't had the chance to warn her. Although he was pleased to see she had handled things, and seemed as though she knew more than him.
Maggie drew her gun too, although she wasn't sure who to point it at, so she kept it aimed at the ground. She looked at Tristan, and saw the state he was in. It had taken everything she had to maintain her role as sheriff, when all she wanted to do was to go over to her son, give him a hug, and take care of him. He looked as though he was about to drop, and he still was standing only because Saul was letting Tristan lean on him, but he offered his mother a weak smile. Others in New Haven quickly ran up and offered aid to those who needed it, wrapping warm blankets around them. Yet, they had done this in silence because they could see things were tense, and any sudden movements could have proven costly.
“Arrest this man and all his men,” Grace declared, her voice loud and clear in the evening.
Her hand didn't waver. Flint raised his hands and wore a clenched smile, his dark gaze moving from Grace to his men. Mack looked on with a furrowed brow, and he shared a look with Hank. Oliver was with the other sailors and looked extremely agitated, especially since he was the recipient of some awful glares. Nobody dared to move.
“What's going on Grace?” Maggie asked.
“When we got back to the ship Tristan was swimming toward us. The sailors tried to attack, but we managed to overcome them. It turns out they've been keeping a little secret from us. They're cannibals. That's how they survived out at sea for so long. They ate the other sailors.”
At the mention of this, more weapons were raised, and the sailors' heads dropped. Loud murmurs also began rippling through the crowd that had gathered. Nobody quite knew how to process the information. They all were as shocked as Grace and Saul had been when they first discovered it.
“We found human remains in the kitchen,” Grace added, before any of the sailors could defend themselves.
Mack barely could believe his ears. He knew the sailors were hiding something, but he never expected it to be this. He almost felt betrayed by Flint. He could have taken that man into his confidence, yet he had harbored that secret. He walked forward and stood beside Maggie.
“Were you ever going to tell us?” Mack asked. Flint sighed, shook his head, and chuckled in the face of defeat.
“Would you ever tell anyone? You can see now why I wanted to keep it a secret. Why I was willing to go to any lengths to keep our secret,” he said, his voice getting angrier as he turned his glowering face toward the sailors who had been captured.
“You should have been more careful. This never should have happened.” His voice was heavy with disappointment. Mack only could stare at him in disbelief.
“Let's get them locked up,” Maggie said.
She and Luis, with the help of Saul and a few other people, escorted Flint and the sailors away to be locked up for the time being. Mack scratched at his jaw, then summoned Hank, Freddie, and Grace to go with him so they could discuss what to do. Before he left he told everyone to try getting on with things as normal. Although he knew it was a futile wish, since how could they, when faced with something so unusual?
The friends walked in silence to Mack's office. When they sat down nobody knew where to begin. Eventually, Mack slammed his hands down on his desk.
“I don't know what to say.”
�
�I guess we know why Oliver was so torn up,” Hank said. Freddie and Grace gave him a questioning glance, and Hank quickly explained how Oliver was torn between his sin and his loyalty to the sailors. Although Oliver never said exactly what the sin was.
“And now we must decide what to do with them,” Mack said gravely.
“Can there be any forgiveness for them?” Grace asked, looking at Hank.
Hank shifted in his seat uncomfortably. “I know we want to try rehabilitating criminals, but we were talking about things like petty theft. I'm not sure what we're supposed to do here. This is almost too big for us to handle. I'd like to say we could forgive them, but the opinion of them is already pretty low, and I'm not sure anyone is going to be comfortable having them around. If they had been model citizens first, I perhaps could make a case for this being an aberration, and over time they could be absorbed into the community. However, given what's already happened, I don't see how anyone in New Haven is going to be in favor of keeping them around here.”
“And there was absolutely no doubt about what you saw?” Mack asked.
“None whatsoever. This happened, Mack. I don't know the details. I'm assuming they did it because they had no other choice, but even if I was in that situation I'd like to think I'd do anything before doing that.” The thought still disgusted her, and it was difficult for her to imagine that behavior actually taking place.
Freddie replied, “I'd like to at least keep a few of them around to explore the psychology of it. There have been similar cases where people have been stranded at sea and resorted to such measures. It's quite fascinating, really, because the brain actually adapts to survive. For example, it will make things seem appetizing. So, you actually want to eat it, rather than just eating it to survive. It's amazing how the brain works, and this would be a unique opportunity to learn more about what happens, and the effect it has. Those men out there must be suffering terribly. It explains why they're so close, I suppose. They were brought together by this great guilt and shame. I'm sure none of them felt proud of it, but they are loyal to each other, and wanted to protect the secret. I wonder how they even can sleep at night, or function in this normal society. What must they have thought when they saw us? I presume they were envious that we had managed to build New Haven into a functioning community, while they had to resort to cannibalism to survive.”