by SD Tanner
Lydia looked puzzled and asked, ‘If that’s the case then the super hunters must want her pretty badly, but why would they want her?’
Gears shook his head and replied, ‘I dunno. What I do know is we can’t keep her safe on land, which means we need to accelerate gettin’ that ship up and runnin’.’
Their conversation had woken Ip and she was sitting up staring at him intently. Trying to make eye contact with her, he realized she wasn’t staring at him. Ip was focused on something in front of him, but there was nothing there. He was used to her seeming a little unfocussed, and he decided she’d had a long hard night and was probably very tired.
***
Ip thinks: Why is the hunter ruler in front of me? His body lies dead there for all to see. Yet here he stands glaring at me. It is with my eyes that I do see for my mind is free of he. Why do you stand staring at me? He does not answer. Perhaps he does not hear me? His eyes are red. No longer blue. His body is dead so why do I see him through? He does not speak. He has no mind left to. He has no body there is just this. A shadow of his former self. He is no longer on this earth. He has no substance. He is a shadowy shell. He needs to go straight to hell. Go away I tell him so. I think you demon that much I know.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Even hell has a little bit of heaven (Gears)
‘Unbelievable!’
‘Awesome!’
As Hatch slowly circled the cruise ship before he landed, Max and Juan were shouting in amazement and he had to agree. He might be a landlubber, but even he could appreciate the ship was a beauty. Ip and Jordy were hanging out of the crew windows gawking at the boat, and he could see the wind was whipping Ip’s blonde hair into a frenzy.
Travelling on the bird, the thrill of seeing the “Destiny”, an endless hazy horizon and the rich refreshing sea air, gave him a sense of freedom he hadn’t felt for decades. It reminded him of when, as a young boy, he’d stood on the roof of the barn at the Ranch. Back then, looking out across the seemingly endless land filled with the pungent odor of the horses and the sun warming his body, he’d felt the exactly the same way.
Through his headset, he said to no one in particular, ‘It’s good for the soul.’
Hatch replied, ‘Yeah, it sure is.’
He thought it was good for the soul, until Hatch starting singing, ‘Yippee yi ohhh, yippee yi aaaay….Ghost riders in the sky…Ghost riders in the skyyyy’
With a horrified look on her face, Ip suddenly launched herself at Hatch and she swatted him on the nose. Silently agreeing with her, he said mildly, ‘Ip, honey, don’t smack the pilot while he’s flyin’.’
Jordy added dryly, ‘Yeah, wait until he lands.’
Hatch said, ‘Harsh.’
After Hatch landed, they headed to the “Midway Bar” where TL and Benny had started their recon of the ship. He thought Benny’s footage didn’t do the cruise ship justice. It was the most spectacular thing he’d ever seen and he couldn’t believe there was a good chance they’d be living on it.
Everyone sat down for a briefing and he said, ‘Jordy, ya need to wait up until we’ve walked the ship, so make yourself comfortable. Hatch, stay outta the bar. And Jordy, if Hatch acts up then slap him on the nose Ip style. Juan and Max, you’re with me and Ip. We need to get into every room eventually, but we’re gonna clear the areas we need to use now and Jordy needs the engine room first. Later on, we’ll split up into two teams and tackle the guest rooms. Ip’s still recoverin’ from bein’ shot, so I don’t wanna push her too hard. We’re here for a few days and we got time. Any questions?’
‘No, boss. Sounds good to me,’ Juan replied on behalf of the team.
Nodding, he added, ‘Based on what TL’s told me, I’m not expecting any trouble, but stay alert.’
Thanks to TL and Benny, they had a good idea of the layout of the ship and he was keen for Jordy to get at least the emergency lights working. He, Juan, Max and Ip headed straight down to the engine room. Like TL said, it looked clear and the ship was utterly silent, but they did a thorough walkthrough checking every area in the engine room and leaving doors open to indicate the room was clear. Once done, Juan and Max got Jordy and helped him carry his tools, a generator, fuel and lights down to the engine room. They helped him set up lamps and he began to work on the generators to get the power working.
He went with Ip to the main reception area to hunt for keys to the rooms. He didn’t want to check the guest rooms without the emergency power working and he hoped Jordy could get the power on fairly quickly. Every so often, he couldn’t resist pulling Ip to him and kissing her. Since their night at the Ranch, they’d moved to a whole new level and he was filled with a sense of awe about her. Ip had always trusted him to be physically close to her, but now she molded into his touch and welcomed him to her. With Ip, he’d found a joy in himself he never knew he had, and he was feeling a little reborn himself.
Searching through the reception and back office, he was surprised to find the ship didn’t use electronic key cards. Each room had a long, graceful gold key attached to an equally gold chain and tag with the room number etched on it. This ship was clearly expensive and exclusive and there were few paper-based records in the office, but he did find a manual about services and basic procedures. Finding a locked box in the office, he levered it open with his KA-BAR and found the master key to the rooms and facilities.
Having the master key, he decided to explore the rest of the boat with Ip. He wanted to see the bridge, but it took them quite a while to make their way to it. There was a lot to see, but he didn’t want to over tire her. He knew from experience, that despite what people saw in the movies, being shot was never trivial and a through and through was a shock to the body. He still couldn’t work out how she had been shot. Mom and Pop had shotguns and Ip had a bullet wound, so he knew it wasn’t them. Jordy was not a confident shooter and he said he hadn’t even gotten a shot off. That only left Dave, Jay, Max or Anna. Both Dave and Jay were experienced hunters, which is why they’d been sent to the Ranch. Pax said they were good with their guns. Max was combat trained by Pax and he didn’t believe she was careless with a gun. That only left Anna and, if it was Anna, then he didn’t believe it was an accident. He needed to confront Anna and bury the one sided argument she was having with him, but that was a problem for another day. Right now, he was on a luxury cruise ship with a woman he’d fallen deeply in love with and today was a day to be enjoyed.
The bridge was still gleaming under the fine layer of dust. He could see dark glass areas, which he assumed were computer screens, on a long tilted table that stretched the distance of the gently curved window of the bridge. There were other gadgets on the bridge, but he knew nothing about ships and he had no idea what they were. He stood with his arm around Ip’s waist and they took in the panoramic view of the sea. They could see the port and land to their left, but otherwise they saw only the movement of the waves matching the gentle sway of the boat. He wondered if he would ever see the boat cutting through those waves, and he hoped he would. Now he was here, he felt an urgent need to get away from the Base and be in this clean, fresh remnant of a lost world.
Without warning, dim red lights flickered on. He looked up at the strip lighting concealed in the walls and realized Jordy, the genius, had gotten the emergency power up.
Cheerfully, he exclaimed, ‘My man, Jordy!’
Ip looked up at him and laughed. She didn’t laugh often and, delighted by her happiness, he caught her face in his hands and kissed her deeply. Juan and Max left Jordy working on getting the rest of the generators working. Apparently, lights, showers, toilets, engines and general electrical all used different generators, but he was pretty sure Jordy could sort it out. Jordy was an electrician for 40 odd years, and there wasn’t much he hadn’t seen or worked on.
Meeting Juan and Max at the bar, he dumped the keys he’d collected onto the table and asked, ‘Where’s Hatch?’
‘In the middle of the empty swimming pool,’ Max replied, in her usual blu
nt way. ‘He’s singing.’
Juan shook his head and said, ‘That guy be fuckin’ crazy.’
Unable to disagree with Juan, he said energetically, ‘Let’s go huntin’!’
They decided to start with the lower decks and work their way up. It was going to be a tedious process, but he figured, he would know the ship pretty well by the end of it.
As they set off down the corridor leading away from the bar, he said, ‘We’re gonna take regular breaks, so we don’t overstress Ip.’
The whole ship was swathed in low red light and they weren’t being overly cautious. Like TL and Benny, he thought the ship was empty of all life other than theirs. When they got to the kitchen, they were impressed. It was huge and designed to feed hundreds of people only the best food.
‘Harry’s gonna love it,’ Max remarked.
Juan looked at her dubiously and said dourly, ‘Shit in, shit out, woman. It doan matter what youse cook it with.’
He thought Juan had a point. Harry did his best without fresh ingredients. They desperately needed access to fresh food, but with the Ranch gone, they would need to find another solution. As they cleared rooms, they left the doors jammed open. In the kitchen, they discovered the freezer was a mess and there was rotting food everywhere. It made the whole area reek with the stench of rotted meat and freezer fluid. The freezer looked like it had been fully loaded with supplies. The crew cabins were clean and tidy, but basic. Some cabins had clothes and other personal items and he assumed, at some point, the crew had been on board.
Finally, they headed into the guest rooms. They found the guest bags delivered to the rooms, but the guests clearly never followed their luggage. Every room had a fine layer of dust, was immaculately made up and had a collection of luggage tidily waiting for its owners to arrive and unpack.
Looking curiously at the luggage, Max asked, ‘What are we gonna do with all their stuff?’
Shrugging, he said, ‘Finders keepers. Whoever gets the room, gets the stuff.’
Juan nodded and said, ‘That’s fair.’
The guest rooms were compact, but still managed to give the impression of being spacious. Every room seemed to be a suite with a king size bed, lounge area, bathroom and a private balcony. The sofas in each lounge could be converted to become a double bed, and all the rooms were finished in the same light-colored wood and good quality, but hardwearing carpets. As they went from room to room, he noticed they were becoming larger and slightly more luxurious, finally becoming two bedroom suites with dining area, separate lounge area and two bathrooms.
At the end of the two top levels were three spectacular suites. The Grande Suite was the largest and was a three bedroom apartment that was on the level below and directly under the bridge. In the Grande Suite, each bedroom had a king size bed, private shower and toilet and there was a shared gleaming and marbled bathroom with a Jacuzzi and double headed shower. The lounge and dining area shared the same view as the bridge, only one level lower and the fixtures and furniture were grander than anything he’d ever owned. To the left and right of the suite, were generous and furnished balconies. On seeing one of the bedrooms in the suite, Ip squeaked happily and threw herself on the king sized bed and looked up at him expectantly.
Realizing she clearly wanted the suite, he laughed and said, ‘Okay, honey, the four of us can have the Grande Suite.’
Max grinned and said, ‘Your job has gotta come with some perks.’
Grunting, he said dourly, ‘Ya think? I gotta live with Pax.’
Laughing, Max replied, ‘Point taken.’
By the time they’d been through every room, it was past 8pm. Now every door on the ship was open, and there’d been no sign of anything moving alive or dead. Once he was satisfied the ship was secure, he sent Hatch back to the Base. It had been a long day and hard work, and they were sitting in the bar eating the MRE’s they’d brought with them.
Looking at Jordy, he asked, ‘Do ya think ya can get it operational?’
Jordy scratched his head and said, ‘I can make the electrics work, but I’m not an engineer, Captain.’
Raising his eyebrows at the title, he thought if people started calling him Captain, Pax would screw with him so badly, he might have to kill him. Shaking his head, he said firmly, ‘Don’t call me Captain. It’ll end in blood and it won’t be mine.’
Changing the subject, he asked, ‘Can ya get the showers, toilets and lights workin’?’
Jordy nodded and said confidently, ‘Yeah, it won’t be a problem. I can get the air conditioning working as well. I can even get power to the engines, but I dunno how to drive a ship. Problem is the ship has batteries for stored power when it’s in port, but the batteries are charged by the engine. If the engines are always off then the generators might not pump out enough power for a boat running at capacity to keep the batteries charged as well.’
Confused, he asked, ‘What does that mean?’
Jordy replied, ‘It means if there’s too much demand, you’ll run out of power. People need to be frugal and you might wanna shut down some functions for eight hours to let the batteries charge.’
He nodded and said, ‘Maybe we can keep showers and toilets runnin’, but limit air conditionin’ and general electrical use. Every room had TV’s, radios and stuff.’
Jordy said, ‘Yeah, well, you might wanna take away their hairdryers and TV’s.’
Looking confused, Max said, ‘What the hell is there to watch on TV. There’s no cable.’
‘Wouldn’t matter if there was,’ Juan said dryly. ‘Never was anythin’ to watch anyways’
Worried Ip was tired, he said, ‘We’re gonna head up to our new barracks.’
‘Some barracks,’ Max smirked.
He smirked back at her and said, ‘Yeah, well, membership has its privileges, but a fuckin’ big gun helps.’
Grabbing his gear and some extra bottles of water to wash up with, he headed out of the bar and to their suite with Ip. Their suite was as spectacular as he remembered and Ip went straight to the bedroom she’d chosen, pulled off her clothes and grabbed the water to clean herself. As she disappeared into the bathroom, he admired her lean body, full breasts, tiny waist and high rounded buttocks. Despite being tired, he felt his body stirring at the sight of her and he started tugging off his own clothes, already anticipating how they might put the king size bed to good use.
He sat up around 3am needing to take a leak. Ip had been curled into his side, but now she was almost completely lost in the thick, fluffy down quilt. He smiled at her sleeping form, remembering the good use they’d made of their king size bed earlier that night. He was learning Ip followed her instincts in all ways. It was as if she could feel what he was feeling and she knew exactly what they both wanted. He realized this was the first time he’d ever fallen in love, and he was happy in a way he’d never known before.
The toilets weren’t working yet so, pulling on his ACU pants, he headed out to the deck next to the bar. There was no one there and he assumed everyone had found themselves a guest room for the night. He was standing at the railing enjoying the cool wind, when he heard something snarl behind him and felt a body blow to his back. He immediately slammed his hands against the railing to take the impact of the body hitting him from behind him and to stop himself from being pushed overboard. At the same time, he slammed his head back hard and fast, and felt something crunch wetly against the back of his skull.
He was unarmed against a hunter, but he felt no fear. A deep unrestrained fury unleashed in him and dropping low and turning, he grabbed the thick hardened body of the hunter and drove it at the wall of the ship behind it. The hunter reached down, grabbed his head by both hands and he could smell the vomit as it bent its head down and opened its jaws to tear into his face. He pulled his head back, slammed his left forearm under its jaw, snapping its head upward and then pulled and punched his right elbow into the side of its vibrating face.
These blows would put down a human, but they had little e
ffect on the hunter. All he was doing was stopping it from tearing into him with its teeth. He followed the jab with his right elbow by getting its head locked into his right arm and he dragged it by its head until he was positioned behind it. The hunter was trying to reach back and grab him any way it could. He needed to snap its neck, but that was easier said than done with an incredibly strong and highly agitated hunter. Closing his arm tightly around its throat, he pulled his head away from its grasping hands. Using his left arm to brace against the shoulder of the hunter, he started to pull its head away from its shoulders, finished the move with a sharp yank and heard its neck snap.
The hunter didn’t stop moving, but its arms lost direction and it started to flail wildly. His heart was hammering in his chest and adrenalin was coursing through him. He dropped the now uncoordinated hunter to the deck, ran through the bar and back to the Grande Suite to get his gun.
Running down the corridor, he roared, ‘Hunters!’
As he burst into their room, he saw Ip was already on her feet and pulling on his t-shirt. He grabbed his gun and her and sprinted out the door to the upper deck. On the way, he ran into Max. She was half-dressed, but had her weapon ready.
Immediately falling in behind them, Max asked, ‘What’s happening?’
‘Hunter on the Midway deck,’ he replied brusquely. ‘Where’s Juan?’
Max replied, ‘I dunno, he was in bed with me when I fell asleep. I didn’t know he left.’
‘Damn!’ He swore sharply. ‘Where’s Jordy?’
As if he’d heard the question, Jordy suddenly made it clear where he was, and the ship lights came on around them. They’d just run into the bar and, in the sudden bright light of the room, they saw blood was pooled and streaked across the floor and chairs. He realized Juan had been attacked by a hunter and was now a hunter. Before he could deal with Juan, he needed to make sure Jordy was safe.
Grabbing Ip by the hand, he said to Max, ‘We need to secure Jordy. Let’s go. Cover my six.’