“Get her off me! Get this crazy bitch off me!”
“You look tasty! I just wanna bite! One small bite, maybe a big one too, maybe I’ll just eat you all up! Fuck knows!” The psychopathic woman shrieked. What the fuck was wrong with her?
Her friends managed to heave the woman off of her and throw her back, giving Wendy a chance to roll over and escape, but now the woman had turned her attention to her friends. Wendy grabbed a bottle from the side bar and smashed it over the woman’s head, knocking her to the ground. The three of them then intervened in the tussle between her male friend, the man and their assailant.
“Fucking stab that motherfucker in the eye!” Her male friend shouted, seeing Wendy with the jagged bottleneck in hand.
“What? I can’t do…” She began to protest.
“Do it, Wendy!”
Switching off all sense of reasoning, Wendy lunged forward with the bottle neck and stabbed the man, not quite in the eye, but at least in his neck, giving her friend the chance to punch him and knock him down.
“Go, go, go!” Her male friend shouted, grabbing his girlfriend. They ran towards the stern of the ship, just beyond where the pool was, as more of those crazy people poured out of the doors leading to the lower floors, tackling people to the ground, jumping on their backs, ripping skin from their bodies with their teeth and fingers. One woman fell into the pool and as she struggled to swim to the other side, two of those crazy people jumped in after her, biting at her and pulling her underneath the water.
She screamed for help, visibly struggling to keep her head above the water and thrashed, as they grabbed and bit at her arms and neck.
Wendy stopped.
“We have to help her!”
“No! Keep going! Look at what they’re doing to her, do you think they won’t get you?” One of her male friends shouted.
“What kind of people are we if we just run away from someone in trouble?”
“Alive ones!”
Her female friends grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her away as the water turned red with the woman’s blood. It was horrific, like a river of piranhas tearing apart a piece of meat. What had happened to these people? Why were they doing this? Had they lost their fucking minds?
More crazed people ran across the deck towards them at an alarming speed as the six friends made their way towards the stern water slides down to the lower levels, the only logical place in the vicinity they could escape this bloodbath.
One of her male friends stopped.
“I’ll slow them down, keep going!”
“Ricki! No!” One of the girls shouted.
“Jason and Tom!” Wendy’s kickboxing friend and another male friend, “make sure they get to safety!”
Jason and Tom nodded and hurried the women along. Behind them, Ricki grabbed deck chairs and threw them at two crazed men that appeared unfazed by them, before as a last resort, punching them as they tackled him to the ground. His friends merely heard his agonised screams as they continued on.
Mirian, one of Wendy’s female friends, burst into tears and lost it.
“What is this shit? What the fuck is this? Is this a joke? It has to be a joke! Yeah, that’s it, it’s a joke! A TV channel is going to come out any moment now and say it’s a joke! That we’ve been pranked, right? They do that all the time! Those prank Vyou channels or some shit! It’s just special effects, fake blood and stuff!” Mirian stopped and turned around.
“Mirian, what are you doing? We have to go!” Wendy insisted, grabbing her wrist. Mirian yanked her wrist away.
“Don’t fucking touch me! This is a joke, don’t you get it?” She wiped her tears away and began laughing hysterically. “You can come out now! I’m not fooled by it! Am I on TV? Am I famous? You got me!”
But her words were to reach no one and more of those crazy people were sprinting towards them. Tom ran back to grab her, but she pulled away from him. He attempted to hoist her over his shoulder, but she aggressively pulled away from him once again.
“I told you not to fucking touch me! Fuck off, Tom! You’re such a stalker! I don’t fancy you! I fucking rejected you ages ago! Get the fucking message!”
“This isn’t about you or me or us right now, Mirian! Wake the fuck up!” Tom snapped.
“No! You wake up! You think I didn’t notice you trying to be a cockblock… or clam jam or whatever last night? Yes, I slept with that guy Tristan and the sex was fucking awesome! Nothing I’m positive you pathetic prick could compare to! I’ll never ever sleep with you! No matter how much you fucking keep leering at me! Undressing me with your fucking creepy eyes! Fuck o…!” She stopped mid-sentence as a crazy woman pounced on her, gnashing at her face, biting her exposed hands and drawing blood.
“Mirian!” Tom cried, and lunged at the crazy woman, punching her repeatedly in order to save Mirian. Tom was far from a violent person, usually cowardly and introverted, so for him to attack someone, Mirian meant more to him than they could all possibly imagine.
He managed to pull the woman off and Mirian clambered to her feet.
Heaving, she began laughing, the polar opposite of the expected emotion at the time, leaving the others stunned.
“What? So you think I’ll sleep with you now? My fucking hero! Maybe you’re part of this too! All of you!”
Wendy wanted to help Tom, but doing so would get them all killed and Jason held onto her wrist tightly, he wasn’t going to let that happen.
“They’re just fucking actors, Tom! I already know your game”. She went over to grab the woman by the hair in order to demonstrate, but the woman turned on her, just as two more crazies joined the fray, no more than teenagers. Together they lunged at Mirian, sinking their teeth into her shoulder as she laughed, spraying blood everywhere. The woman bit her arm and pulled her down. Tom couldn’t defend himself, far less her.
“We have to help them!” Wendy yelled, pulling away, Jason’s grip however only tightened.
“We are getting the fuck out of here!”
As Wendy and the other two fled the scene, Mirian laughed hysterically throughout her own horrific ordeal, as though disillusioned with the belief that this was all one big hoax, right to the bitter, bloody, gruesome end. Her laughing only ceased when the crazed bit into her throat.
The remaining three ran up the stairs leading to the giant water slides at the rear of the ship, more crazy people jumping up onto the side of the steps and trying to hoist themselves up in pursuit.
“Why did I come on this trip? Why?” Liana, Jason’s girlfriend snapped, terror prominent in her voice.
“I invited you, you said yes!” Wendy snapped back.
“I never should have agreed to come, never! Fuck this!”
“So this is my fault?” Wendy snapped.
“Stop arguing you two! Self preservation first for fuck sake!”
Jason pushed Wendy and Liana ahead and backed his way up the stairs, kicking at the crazies trying to pursue them.
“Jason!” Liana cried.
“Go! Keep going! Get down that slide!”
The last time they had ascended these steps, of course under more pleasant circumstances, there stood a killjoy attendant at the top and at the time, he was the only thing to have ruined the trip, preventing them from sliding for being too rowdy and tipsy. The irony now wasn't lost on them.
Wendy was the first to reach the top, stopping just beside where water jets, now deactivated, usually sprayed water down the slides.
“Come on! Come on!” She cried desperately.
Jason continued kicking and punching their pursuers as he made his way up the steps, but as one grabbed hold of his leg and pulled him, throwing him off balance, Wendy knew that things weren’t going to be as easy as she had hoped.
“You two go!” He snapped, struggling to get back to his feet.
“Not without you!” Liana replied.
Jason punched his pursuer, but not before being bitten on his leg.
Wendy grabbed Liana’s
hand.
“Liana, let’s go”.
“You go! I’m not going without Jason!”
“Jason told us to leave”.
“I’m not going without Jason!” She screamed.
Wendy, realising that she’d be alone at this rate, decided to help, fighting back against the crazies alongside Liana, but the longer they spent fighting, the more that seemed to accumulate and just as the two had managed to free Jason and help him up to the slide, more clambered up the steps and hoisted themselves up from the sides. Jason insisted Wendy go first and she sat down on the slide as he took Liana’s hand. That was the last she saw of them as Jason pushed her down the slide and more crazies pounced on him.
Wendy slid down the winding slide, its enjoyment completely lost in spite of her excitement to try it from the moment she spotted it on the booking website, once a symbol of great things to come from the moment her eyes spotted it, now tainted forever in horror and misery.
Her heart pounded, her mind was blurred, her mouth dried and fret contorting her stomach so much so, it felt tight. The slide, usually perhaps over before it even gets started, felt like an eternity before she reached the bottom and once she had, she stood transfixed at the shoot waiting for her best friends, but their joyful wails and screams would never come, instead, much to Wendy’s horror and tremendous heartbreak, just blood, followed by Liana’s blood covered bikini, followed by two hands locked, Jason’s and Liana’s and then nothing.
Wendy’s couldn’t fight tears, nor could she fight the gruesome scene induced nausea.
It was time to run, she was on her own now.
1:38pm - 6 hours, 51 minutes since outbreak in London.
28 minutes since outbreak aboard MS HotS.
Rohini stood in a locked down theatre wondering just what the hell was going on now. Sighing frustratedly, she looked around. She was on the lower level of a three level auditorium. It wasn't particularly packed given the time of day it was, so she could only imagine the surge of people there would have been if it had been. Standing towards the back of the crowd, people rightfully wanted answers. So far they had been left to simply interpret for themselves what was happening, one minute a cryptic message from the captain instructing them to return to their cabins and just a few short seconds ago a recall on that order for anyone already in enclosed spaces to remain where they were and lock doors.
Naturally those stuck in this predicament were inclined to think the worst, since no one was telling them anything, a hijack maybe? What other scenario would call for them to remain secluded from everyone else in an auditorium?
The staff and security at the doors didn’t seem prepared to let anyone out any time soon and from what Rohini could tell, observing their nervous behaviour, increasing interactions over walkie-talkies and determination to keep the doors sealed, those inside had little to be calm about as the staff would want from them.
The only reason Rohini was even here was because she was responsible for the overseeing and management of the acts on stage and the stage itself. Contrary to belief, things couldn’t simply stop on board the ship because of what was going on back in London, people had paid a pretty penny for all services, whether they chose to attend each night or not. With the palaver in London, there was nowhere else she would rather be than outside finding out just what was going on back in London, but yet, here she was, worrying and just waiting for an available opportunity to find out more about what was happening and whether the people she knew were still safe.
She pulled out her phone and saw several messages and voicemails left by family, friends and of course her husband, all the way in the galley of the ship, Lakshman.
With so many people to call and message back, she called the most important person first, her mother, not only to ensure that she, her father and brother were okay, but her son she had left in their care too. Upon hearing the reassuring sounds of his baby gurgles and hearing that they were evacuating London as the situation had seemingly escalated, she felt it okay to then call and speak to her husband.
“Are you still in the galley?” She asked, as he answered.
“I am, we’re on lockdown, nothing is coming in or going out of the kitchens at the moment”.
“Okay, I’m still in the auditorium. It’s pretty much the same thing. Do you know what’s going on?”
“I have about as much information from security as you probably do, but rumours are circulating and word is that there is some kind of contagion onboard?”
“Someone is sick?”
“More like someones. It’s spreading alarmingly fast, so fast that it’s creating chaos and no one seems to know how to deal with it”.
Rohini glanced around nervously.
“Through the ventilation system or something?”
“I don’t know”.
“So we could already be infected?”
“Again, I don’t know. I have no idea how it’s spreading, what it looks like, who has it thus far or anything”.
“Shit…”
“I know. They’re trying to keep it under wraps so as to not create hysteria, but they’re only compounding the issue. People are getting irate and impatient. If they at least explained things, people might not be so resilient to being locked down like this”.
“What is going on today?”
“Have you spoken to the family?”
“I have, they’re evacuating! I mean, what the hell?”
“I know, I got a text from them. This is the one time we should have been at home and we’re not”.
“I know, I know…” Rohini’s conversation was interrupted by a loud crashing sound from the upper levels of the auditorium, followed by screams and shouting. Standing just beneath the overhanging upper levels, it was impossible to see what was going on, so the discord occurring was entirely left up to the imagination.
Rohini could hear Lakshman calling out for her through the phone.
“Hold on… something's happening…” she replied.
A woman screaming to let someone else go, more upheaval and then a crashing sound as someone came tumbling down from the upper level to the lower level, crashing into the seats below. Rohini and others gasped in horror, for a fall like that was surely a death, at the very least a critical injury.
The ruckus above continued, but some of those below rushed over to help whoever had fallen.
As Rohini drew closer to watch, the full extent of her gruesome injuries became clear. Her leg was twisted at an unnatural angle and bone protruded from her knee joint, the chances that she’d be able to walk on that leg again were slim at best, but as people hurried over to help her, some trying to get a better look at what was happening above, the woman spontaneously lashed out, grabbing another woman who had put down her bag to help the young lady and sunk her teeth into her face. The woman screamed and flailed her arms in an attempt to escape, but the young lady held on to her as though the world depended on it. What was wrong with her? Was it schizophrenia or something?
“Help me! She’s hurting me!” The woman screamed and others rushed over to help, visibly unsure of what to do in such a situation. One man chose to intervene, attempting to pull her away, but that only made the aggressive young lady bite down even harder, causing the woman’s screams of searing pain to echo throughout the auditorium.
More people dropped down from the upper levels, it was like they were raining down now. What the hell was going on?
The crazed young lady tore the woman’s cheek clean off with her teeth, before swallowing it whole and turning to the man holding her back. That scene was enough to turn Rohini’s stomach, but before she had time to dwell on it, those who had fallen were standing, some impossibly on broken limbs, twitching erratically and walking towards them wide eyed and crazy looking.
Rohini backed away, still hearing Lakshman’s concerned voice calling out her name from the receiver, but she couldn’t answer him, not right now, because alarm bells in her head were ringing louder than ever.
This wasn’t normal, these people had just sustained serious injuries, yet they were walking with them with a murderous glint in their eyes.
Some of them began running towards the crowds on the lower levels and the security guards leapt into action, firing rounds at them with guns Rohini wasn’t even aware were readily available onboard.
She herself took off towards the side of the auditorium as bullet fire echoed across the entire theatre like a warzone. Shot in the head, many of those crazed people dropped to the floor dead. Rohini ducked between seats and held her head, her heart pounding like a drum and the same words repeating over and over in her head.
‘What the fuck? What the fuck? What the fuck!’
All the while, her concerned husband yelled her name down the phone, begging for her to answer him, but she just couldn’t, panic had set in and all she could think was that she was going to die here, she was going to die on this Godforsaken ship and never see her family or son ever again.
As if the situation couldn’t get any more traumatising or chaotic, those that were shot simply began rising back up as though nothing happened, twitching, their eyes rolled back, their lips apart, making a gurgled choking sound and bullet holes through their skulls.
Rohini was beginning to feel lightheaded, held up only by pure adrenaline.
More bullets were fired and as magazines emptied, the security guards reloaded and peppered the attacking people with more rounds, but more of those people dropped down from the higher levels, some taking down screaming people with them.
Rohini witnessed one man fighting for his life up on the higher levels, only to fall over the balcony with one of his assailants and snap his spine on the head of the seat below; she could literally hear the snap and it wasn’t a sound that would leave her memory any time soon.
A crazy person covered in lacerations seemingly appeared out of nowhere, lunging over the seat to grab her hair. Rohini screamed and lashed out, managing to pull herself away just long enough to crawl down the aisle, get up and run as fast as her legs could carry her, down the steps, up onto the grand stage and through the back curtains, leaving the chaos and bullet fire behind her. She made for the dressing room and pounded on the door, most likely locked by the performers upon hearing and possibly seeing the madness occurring above.
Cryptophobia | Book 2 | Hell & High Water [Fear The Unknown] Page 17