Two of those options were quickly crossed off the list when they heard erratic voices coming from outside, making little to no sense, before startling banging at the door, a banging which steadily grew more intense, as though someone were throwing themself at the door.
Suddenly the fire alarms began blaring, a sign of events surrounding them only growing more dire by the second.
Wasting no further time, the survivors in the room set about trying to prise the air duct cover off with whatever they could muster. Finally, with a clatter, the cover dropped to the ground beneath them.
Much to their surprise a man scrambled in first, not giving the others even so much as a second thought. After some nasty words from Lori to the selfish coward, the remaining eight worked together to hold the door and save as many lives as they could.
One of them, a veteran who fought in Afghanistan, wanted to hold the door, the others quickly decided who should be first to enter the duct and a young man was picked, he would guide the way for the others. Secondly two children would follow behind him, but not before a hesitant teary eyed departure from their mother, a departure that tugged at Rachel’s heart.
After, with much delegation, finally parting them from their mother and getting them into the air duct, she attempted to go next, but sadly the air duct was simply too narrow for her and most likely too for the well built veteran holding the door. Try as she might, she simply couldn’t make it in, finally conceding and with cheeks of red and eyes soaked with tears, she asked Rachel and Lori to tell her children that she loved them with all her heart and to promise to protect them. Heartbroken, Rachel and Lori obliged and went next, Rachel first, due to Lori’s insistence.
The last thing Rachel would see before clambering into the air duct was the expressions on the faces of the mother and veteran, the expressions of sadness and desperation, of determination and plea, before she headed into the air duct, followed closely by Lori and shortly after that was a loud crash of what sounded like the door to the room. Screams and shouting ensued, as the final person to attempt to enter the air duct, a panic stricken girl who looked no older than her early twenties scrambled to get as far into the air duct as possible, however, she didn’t make it far before she was dragged right back out screaming, naturally Lori, now at the rear, was panic stricken and wanted nothing more than to get as far away from that room as possible. Her frustration and fear only grew as those in front of her slowed down for decision making. Honestly, Rachel felt the same way, worrying more for her girlfriend behind her than anything else.
They pushed forwards, putting more distance between them and where they came in. It was ridiculously claustrophobic and pitch black, so it was only too lucky they still had their phones to use for a light source.
Getting the two kids to keep moving forward was proving also to be a tremendous challenge, for this entire experience would have to have been pretty traumatic and not just the, dark air duct, or the screaming from the girl behind them as she was pulled back to her death, they were still unaware of their mother’s wellbeing and that was probably only compounding what anxieties they may already have had.
After what felt like an eternity of shuffling through a dusty, dark air duct, they came to an opening leading to a storage room below. They had the option of continuing on, but there was no way of telling whether that would lead them to safety or right into the midst of danger. They’d take their chances here.
They clambered out of the air duct, Lori the last person to step out, as the kids looked on expectantly.
“Where is mummy?” The daughter asked.
“Yeah, where is mum?” The son asked, he looked a little older than his sister.
“She… she stayed behind”, Rachel replied, after Lori had clambered out of the air duct with no one behind her.
“Why did mummy stay behind? The bad people are behind. The bad people will get her”. The kids began to cry.
“We should get moving, we don’t have time for that right now”, Lori replied, grabbing the little girl’s wrist. The little girl pulled her wrist away and stepped back.
“No, not without mummy!”
Rachel crouched down in front of the two children.
“What are your names, darlings?”
“My name is Molly”, the little girl replied, stumbling on her words.
“Tyler”, the boy replied.
“Those are very nice names. Well Molly and Tyler, your amazing mummy stayed behind to make sure the bad people didn’t get to you. She told us to make sure you were okay and that she’d find you again. She made me promise to look after you, so if I let you stay here or go back to the room with the bad people your mummy will be angry with me. Do you want that?”
Molly nodded her head, but Tyler stood defiant and seemingly unconvinced.
“You’re lying”, Tyler replied, to which he grabbed his sister’s wrist and pulled her closer to him.
“About your mummy loving and wanting to protect you?”
“No, about her wanting to stay behind”.
Rachel sighed.
“Tyler… I don’t have a baby brother or sister, so I’m a little jealous of you, but if I did, I would want to protect her every day. She would be the most special thing to me in the world”.
“Molly is special to me”.
“Then help me protect her”.
He looked down towards his sister and she looked back up at him.
“There is nothing I can do now except protect you and your sister. Will you help me?” Rachel asked.
He was hesitant for a while, before nodding.
“Okay”, Rachel replied with a smile and took both their hands.
Lori watched on, occasionally returning her attention to the young man who had led the way, as he attempted to open the door to the room.
“It’s not locked, it feels as though something is obstructing it, the handle won’t go all the way down.
“That fucker… excuse my language, was ahead of us, think he blocked the door?” Lori asked.
“He wouldn’t”, the guy looked up towards her, “would he?”
“Is it so out of the realm of thinking? He left us for dead. Wouldn't put it past him to block the fucking door, slow us or those crazies chasing us down, excuse my language again”.
The moment was suddenly disturbed by the clanging sound of something crawling through the air duct towards them. It certainly didn’t sound like one of their own, but to err on the side of caution, Rachel called out to their visitor.
“Hello? Who is that?”
There came no sound at first and then a woman’s voice.
“Molly? Tyler? Are you there?”
The kids knew the voice immediately.
“Mummy!” They shouted in unison and released Rachel’s hand to approach the open vent. Rachel however immediately felt uneasy and rightly so, for their mother’s next statement would send chills up her spine.
“Ah, you’re both alive and well, that’s a relief… mummy wouldn’t know what to do if something bad happened to you. Nobody should be allowed to tear open your little bodies and drink your blood, smash your heads against a wall to open your skulls and eat your little brains except me. You both like when we BBQ right, how about I cook you this time? Would you like that?”
Rachel sprang forward faster than she ever had and grabbed the two small children’s wrists. How did their mother manage to get into the air duct when she couldn’t manage it before?
Backing off with the kids, Rachel shouted to the others.
“Get that door open now! We need to get out of here! Kick it down or something!”
Lori and the guy began using their combined body weight to break open the door.
“Oh? You fucking bitches are there too? I hope you’re not taking my kids away again! They’re mine, you scummy, shit stain, two-faced bitch whores!”
The kids thought they had recognised her voice, now they were all too certain it wasn’t the mother they knew and loved. The sl
amming of someone working their way towards them from within the air duct resumed.
“Hurry!” Rachel cried, as the two slowly edged the door open, eventually creating enough of a gap for them all to squeeze through. Once they all had, it became abundantly clear that Lori was right, there laying in front of the doorway was a vending machine. How that guy had managed to push it over, the five of them would probably never know, but they weren’t about to waste any time investigating. They fled down a corridor to the sounds of Molly and Tyler’s mother screaming out their names, whilst hurling obscenities.
Their accompanying male companion led the way, ducking at the slightest sign of trouble and warning the others to do the same with hand gestures.
They suddenly spotted another group of people running past the end of the corridor. The desire to call out to them was overwhelming, but to do so would put all their lives in jeopardy. Instead they picked up their own pace in hopes of catching up to them, remaining wary of the fact that in hot pursuit of that other group could very well be a horde of those crazies.
They went after the other group, moving as quickly but as quietly as they could muster. For a very brief period of time they lost the other group and panic set in.
Ironic was it that a mere day ago escaping people in general and retreating to the confines of their cabin seemed a luxury, now just the very idea of being left alone overwhelmed them with terror. This ship was swarming with those things by now, leaving only pockets of survivors like themselves in various parts of the ship, they were the minority now and their enemies were ruthless crazed cannibalistic monsters, mere shells of the humans they once were.
They watched from behind a wall as the group they were pursuing ducked into an open door and shut it behind them. Their male companion gestured for them to sprint for the door before the other group barricaded it and no sooner did they do so, they spotted more crazies. They hadn’t been seen yet, but they couldn't make any more noise than they already were.
Reaching the door, they could hear the low voices of the survivors just beyond and desperate for refuge, their male companion began thumping at it with his fist.
The voices went silent, evidently wary of whoever had approached the door.
“Let us in, we have kids!” Their male companion whispered, but whether or not they heard that was another question, still, if he raised the tone of his voice, likely they wouldn't be the only ones to hear him. As he continued pleading with them to open the door, eventually there was a click of the door being unlocked and the handle turning for the door to open. Their male companion stepped back to allow it to open and once it was, he wasted no time in dashing into the room.
“Thank you, you don’t realise how much we appreciate that, those people are…” His sentence was cut horrifically short, as the blade of a fire axe came down between his eyes. Synchronized gasps filled the room, before it fell abruptly silent. The shock of it left everyone momentarily speechless, even as blood streamed down Lori and Rachel’s male companion’s face and he dropped to the ground in a pool of his own blood, his murderer’s trembling hands still clinging to the handle of the fire axe, disbelief temporarily left them without any other reaction but to stare.
The middle aged man, slightly overweight and wide eyed with terror, stood with his shaking hands still clinging to the handle. Sweat trickled down his brow and his lips trembled as he struggled to form the words to explain himself.
“I… I just… I thought…” He stammered, releasing his grip on the axe. He seemed to have appeared from out of nowhere, swinging that dangerous thing, with no pause for consideration.
The room erupted into screams from both Molly and one other, noise that would most definitely attract attention. Rachel covered Molly’s eyes and mouth, but it was already too late, Molly had seen more than enough to scar her forever. As for Tyler, he stood hypnotised by the grisly scene, unable to even so much as flinch.
“Shit, Darren! What the fuck? What… the… fuck!” A woman snapped at the shaking and stuttering man.
“I thought he was one of those things, I thought… I… I didn’t know he was…” the man responsible for killing Lori and Rachel’s male companion, only known as Darren, replied.
“Who's fucking great idea was it to give the guy with a nervous disposition the fire axe? That guy could have been useful to us for fuck sake, Darren!”
“Fuck! Shut that door quick!” Another man shouted and sprang to action with others’ help. They could hear the wild screams and stampeding footsteps of alerted crazies, before they slammed the door shut. “We need to barricade it now, fast!” He yelled.
The others proceeded to find something or several objects to place in front of the door, but not before the loud slam of people crashing against the other side of the door.
There were eleven of them altogether, including the new arrivals and excluding the corpse that would have been the twelfth; the mood wasn't exactly welcoming to say the least.
As the others barricaded the door, the two women and children huddled into a corner, terrified of this new group; it had been less than a few hours into the outbreak and already they were turning against each other.
A man approached them and opened his hands and arms submissively.
“I won’t hurt you, you have my word. I apologise for what Darren did to your friend or family member. Everyone, as you can imagine, is on tenterhooks and unfortunately we trusted the worst possible person with the axe we found for breaking down doors and obstacles in an emergency. My name is Adam, what are your names?”
CHAPTER 21 - EDWARD, ADAM & MARTHA
3:45pm - 8 hours, 58 minutes since outbreak in London.
2 hours, 35 minutes since outbreak aboard MS HotS.
. . .
. . .
Edward placed his arm out to keep Christine back, as they came to the remaining corridors leading to the cabin where Martha resided. It was a good thing though that Edward had switched his mobile to vibrate only, because with the way Martha insisted on calling every few minutes, despite getting no answer, that iconic tPhone ringtone would have alerted those twitchers on several occasions to their presence.
The sprinklers were going off and the corridor was drenched, no doubt because of the fire he had started earlier, but at the rate he was starting fires with just this canister of deodorant and a lighter, sprinklers would have to have been going off all over the ship. Effective though it was, it certainly wouldn’t last forever, sooner or later one or the other would run out and then they’d all be seriously fucking screwed. Before that could become a possibility, they needed to rescue Martha and get the fuck off of this ship.
Not only was traversing the soaked ground noisy, but substantially sluggish too.
Edward decided to take precautions and pre-emptively text Martha to open the cabin door. She likely wouldn’t reply by text, so he could only trust that she had read it and wouldn’t attempt to fruitlessly call him yet again.
Reaching and waiting at the end of the corridor leading to the cabin door where Martha resided, they waited there for the door to open, it left them less exposed and with the option of three directions to run in, instead of two if they found themselves facing adversaries.
“Where is she?” Edward whispered after several minutes of waiting, “We’re helpless out here, she might as well be signing our death warrant!”
“She’ll open it, we can trust her. Be patient”, Christine whispered back, but as calm as she attempted to be, her trembling hand squeezing his own was a clear indication that her words were paper thin.
With a sigh of relief, a beep signified the opening of the cabin door and the two wasted little time making for it, as Martha peered out and gestured them to come in. That door shut very quickly behind them and the two hunched over in the middle of the cabin panting.
“Where on Earth were you for so damn long?” Martha demanded. Edward remained silent, instead pointing towards the bathroom.
All huddled inside the bathro
om with the door shut behind them, Edward turned to them both.
“Okay, and then there were three. Sorry Martha, those things are swarming the place and not attracting too much attention meant a great deal of biding my time and hiding. On top of that I had to locate your daughter, who I only found by sheer chance and could have just as easily missed, but I managed to get her and we’re both safe and well”.
“What exactly is going on?” Martha enquired.
“Everyone’s fucking lost it. It’s probably better you stay ignorant, besides, I couldn’t explain what I saw and encountered if you gave me all day”.
“Okay, are we safe here?”
“No”, Christine replied.
“What are we going to do about it then?” Martha asked.
“It’s less about how safe we are and more about how safe we will be. We could probably stay here without being caught for as long as it takes, but sooner or later we’d need to come out and when we do, our lives are at risk. If that wasn’t enough, have you spoken to the girls? Are they okay?” Edward enquired.
“I tried calling them, but they haven’t picked up in some time, nor have they texted in a while”.
“You really need to learn to text back. What was the last thing they replied? Where are they? Or at the very least, where were they?”
She raised her phone to her face and skimmed through her messages.
“The last thing Rachel texted me was that she was in a room after having escaped an air duct they crawled through”.
“So they might still be okay, I’ll call them”. He pulled out his phone, hushing Martha before she could utter another word. The phone rang for a while before there was a click and Lori picked up.
Cryptophobia | Book 2 | Hell & High Water [Fear The Unknown] Page 21