“You can’t stay with me. You have your mother and grandmother to look after now. Repair your bruised relationships, take all this hurt and turn it into something special. Your father sacrificed himself for your mother and grandmother, now it’s my turn to do the same for you”.
“Don’t be fucking selfish! I never asked you to sacrifice yourself for me, Lori! You don’t need to! That’s not your choice to make, don’t be a hypocrite! Let me open the door!” Rachel screamed, thumping at the door and weeping harder than she could ever recall. This feeling was akin to someone ripping her heart from her chest and stomping on it, what could possibly be more painful than this moment? Was there a pain in the world that could ever compare to this? If losing her father wasn’t enough heartbreak as it was, to lose the love of her life was life itself kicking her whilst she was down.
Unable to open the door, she began kicking at it and slamming her entire body against it, when that didn’t work, she tried looking for the unlocking mechanism on the side of the door.
“This isn’t what I wanted either!” Lori replied. “I wanted an entire life with you, I wanted everything with you and now… now it’s all gone to shit. But this is the least I can do, I can save you. Don’t unlock that door, you’re not just putting your life at risk, you’re putting your mother and grandmother’s lives at risk as well. Martha, please stop her”.
Martha grabbed hold of Rachel, fully aware she was outmatched in physical prowess, but if she could hold her granddaughter back for just a moment, it was more than enough.
“Let me go! Get off of me!” Rachel screamed.
Lori placed her head against the door.
“Rachel, listen to me, listen to me through the door”. Rachel quietened down, her eyes filled with vision obscuring tears.
“My heart rate is elevated… I can literally feel it pounding as though it’s about to burst from my chest. I have this… headache, it’s weird, it’s throbbing and it’s almost as though I can hear whispering in my head… it’s making me paranoid, but it’s inaudible. I feel… nauseous, like I’m going to puke any moment now. My vision is blurred, I’m burning up and… and… I’m beginning to twitch…”
“Why are you telling me this?” Rachel murmured weakly.
“Because I want you to know what I’m going through… I want you to feel, even if it’s the smallest thing, some semblance of what I’m experiencing”.
“But… why?”
“So that first of all, you can share my last moments of self control before I become… one of those people. Secondly, so you don’t have to experience it yourself and thirdly… so that you know why I’m doing this, despite how painful it is”, Lori began to cry, unable to fight back the tears, “So that I’m not the one that tries to hurt you… I could never forgive myself… it would kill me more than anything in the world, so please… please don’t open that door”.
Rachel dropped to her knees as Martha released her and crawled towards the door, resting her head against it so that she could hear Lori’s lowering voice.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry, Rachel. Please forgive me”.
“What are you sorry for?” Rachel whimpered. “You have absolutely nothing to be sorry about. If you hadn’t come to save me, I’d have probably been dead by now… instead I put your life on the line, it’s me that should be apologising to you”.
“You are one in a million. When we met at university I couldn’t have guessed you would be the one I’d fall so madly for and I have enjoyed every second of it”.
“So have I”.
“Rachel…”
“Lori?”
“Live on, live strong”.
“I love you”.
“I love you too”. Lori pushed away from the lifeboat and jabbed the button to descend it down towards the sea.
“Lori!” Rachel screamed. “Lori!”
Lori ignored her and turned her back to the lifeboat, clenching her fist, wiping tears from her eyes. She was on her own now, facing whatever she had now to deal with entirely alone. That was the most difficult decision she had ever had to make and easily the most difficult thing she had ever had to do.
Swallowing saliva and taking a deep breath, she gazed to her left and right. Crazies stood at either side glaring at her menacingly, attracted by the noise.
“Live long, Rachel, live strong”.
The lifeboat hit the water with a thud, the heavy stormy waves battering against the side of the boat and pushing them towards the ship.
Martha, the only one of the three mentally and emotionally stable at that point in time, took to the controls, pulling the lever that would free them of the safety harness and rendering the lifeboat exposed to the elements.
As Christine sat in the corner holding onto the handlebars for dear life, Rachel wept on the floor of the lifeboat repeating Lori’s name.
“Ladies, I hate to interrupt your emotional breakdowns, but I need your help here. We’re going absolutely nowhere if I can’t get this hump-a-junk moving”, Martha declared, fumbling with the control panel.
After a few seconds of no success, she grew more frustrated.
“Ladies!” She snapped, spinning around to them. No sooner did she snap at them, there was a loud bang, the sound of something heavy falling on the roof of the lifeboat and rolling off the side. Christine yelped and Rachel jumped.
“What on Earth...?” Martha exclaimed.
There were two more loud bangs and it was not until they spotted through the windows the bodies of crazies rolling off the top of the lifeboat into the ocean, did they realise the peril they were in. Then came the loudest bang, loud enough to make all three of them yelp out, forceful enough to dent the top of the lifeboat, shatter a glass pane and violently shake the boat.
Peering through the front window pane was the monstrous goliath that had chased Lori and Rachel.
“Fuck! It’s that thing again!” Rachel yelped.
“It followed us?” Martha replied.
The colossal monstrosity roared and began smashing its head into the front window pane, cracking the glass.
“Grandma, we need to get out of here! Now!” Rachel snapped, springing to her feet and leaping over to the control panel.
“Didn’t I say that when you were wallowing in your sorrow?” Martha snapped back.
“Do you know how to start it?”
“I do”. Martha briefly explained what Lori had instructed, with Rachel attempting it. The engine roared to life and Rachel grabbed control, jerking the lifeboat to the right in order to throw the colossal monster off, but it clung on like ivy to a wall, continuing its onslaught.
“The crack is getting larger! Grandma, do something before it gets in!” Rachel instructed as they pulled away from the ship.
“Do what?”
“I don't know! Isn’t there anything you can use?”
“You honestly think there is anything in here that’ll rid us of that thing?”
“For once in your life, stop complaining and just find something!”
Time was of the essence and that couldn't be stated any harder, for mere moments later, shattered glass from the front window pane flew inwards, forcing Martha and Rachel to shield their faces as glass scattered across the panel.
As ocean spray entered the new gap, the brute stuck its colossal hands into the gap and attempted to widen the gap, shattering more glass.
“Ma!”
“There’s nothing I can do!”
The brute stuck its head through the widening gap and roared at them, covering them in sticky blood and saliva. The cracks grew larger, spreading right across the pane, Rachel screamed, Martha stared up at the brute in terrified silence and Christine? Christine stood up filled with a newfound sense of courage and vigour.
“Hey! Lucifer’s fucking child! Want to eat someone? Bite on this, motherfucker!”
Rachel and Martha spun around just in time to duck, as Christine pointed a flare gun she had found tucked away in a flare gun case tow
ards the brute and fired. The flare shot across the lifeboat and into its mouth, setting its head ablaze.
Ferociously wailing in agony, it retracted its head, temporarily releasing its vice grip on the lifeboat. Christine grabbed the steering wheel and with Rachel’s help, jerked the boat so hard to the left that even they were thrown to the side, but they were free of the brute as it toppled into the ocean.
“Go, go, go!” Christine shouted, clambering to her feet. Rachel slammed on the acceleration, jolting the lifeboat forward and leaving their unwanted brutish stowaway in their rear view.
Only once they were certain they were safe did Christine drop to her knees and sigh with relief.
Rachel, Martha and Christine stared out towards the cruise ship as it disappeared over the crest of the high waves unsure of where they were going, if their lifeboat would hold up with its extensive damage, if they’d be able to weather the stormy waters with gaping holes, if they would be found, what the fates of those left behind would be and whether or not any others had managed to save themselves. Would that ship ever be found? Would their loved ones ever find peace? Would they have been better off never having gotten on this ship in the first place and did they even have a home left to return to? Even if they managed to get home, what was left for them? Would the three women be able to rekindle their battered relationship in light of the circumstances they were now faced with? So many questions and so few answers.
For what it was worth, even if some questions would take longer to answer, at least some were answered in the coming hours and days. The women did cooperate and put aside their differences over a discussion, having more time than ever before to do just that and maybe time was all that was ever needed, the time to hear one another’s point of view, the time to consider one another’s thoughts and feelings, even if that meant simply agreeing to disagree.
It was another two days at sea without food, another two days worrying if they’d encounter just the wrong wave to sink their damaged boat after all the efforts made to escape the ship, another two days emptying out water and avoiding waves, of sitting in a cold and wet floating casket, exhausted, ironically thirsty and all out of hope before they were found. The damage incurred by the brute had rendered their radio useless, leaving their lives in the hands of fate itself, fate in turn rewarded their patience with a large passing ship the women had almost missed in their sleep.
It was only by chance that Rachel was disturbed by water spray, rousing her from slumber. She checked their surroundings and spotted the ship sailing away. Waking the other two, they fired a flare into the sky, lighting it up like the fourth of July.
Initially they thought they hadn’t been seen, but when the ship turned around and came back towards them, they knew they had been saved.
The feeling upon seeing that ladder descend down to them was akin to being saved by angels, reaching out their arms to carry them all to safety. The women couldn’t have been more thankful, even with the language barrier, for this was a Venezuelan frigate and the only one who even remotely spoke a lick of Spanish was Christine.
They were fed, clothed and given soft beds to rest their heads. The lack of luxuries was a very fair trade, for the safety and sanctitude of being aboard a vessel that wasn’t crawling with crazed people. What they had seen and experienced would more than likely plague their dreams until the end of days, there was no escaping horrific imprinted memories like those, no matter how fast and far a person ran.
The ship sailed into a Venezuelan port and docked, but the future lying in wait before the three was paved with uncertainty; their home compromised, their new destination an unfamiliar place and everything they had known destroyed.
They stepped down from the ship to flat ground and even though it wasn’t home, it was still land and something they would never take for granted again.
Birds sang, the port bustled with people carrying out their duties and a gentle breeze caressing Rachel’s face carried a whiff of smoke.
As her grandmother collapsed on the ground and her mother explained to port staff as best she could that they needed to know where to go and who to speak to, Rachel recalled taking Lori’s hand and stepping up into the cruise ship, excited, nervous and anxious, here she was now, alone, miserable and thankful to simply have her feet on the ground.
As she gazed up at the frigate, she pondered where the ship known as the MS Heaven of the Seas had eventually ended up, whether there was even a remote chance her girlfriend was still alive and whether or not she would ever be the same again.
Who knew. What she did know however, was that she had every intention to heed Lori’s words, live long, live strong.
End
BONUS CHAPTER - LEO
8:37am - 4 days since outbreak aboard MS HotS.
. . .
. . .
Nestled in the northernmost region of Toa Baja, Puerto Rico, home to over 88,000 people, was the little farmland belonging the Báez family, consisting of married couple Janiel Báez and Catalina Báez, along with Janiel’s father Alphonse and their thirteen year old son, Leo, a spriteful little boy with a particularly keen interest in insects.
Leo had amassed quite the collection of insects both rare and common alike, from as far reaching as he could get on the island without getting himself into trouble and nothing gave him more sense of delight than studying them. He kept his collection in the old shack that used to be his father’s storage space for farming tools, before he abandoned it in favour of a bigger more spacious one.
With a bit of upkeep and a few modifications of mostly his own doing, including the occasional help of his grandfather, Leo was able to convert the little shack into the perfect little insect paradise, something he took great pride in.
Leo wasn’t the most popular child in his school and his disdain towards school was hardly secretive, often getting himself into trouble, but his little insectopia was his escape, a place where he could truly be himself. When he wasn’t in his shack tending to them, he was out hunting for more to add to his collection.
His grandfather was his hero, understanding him and his love of insects better than anyone else possibly could. Not only did his grandfather enable his passion, but grandpa was at times his only real human company. His father spent a great deal of time on the farm tending to animals and crops, his mother then spent her time selling the fruits of the labour, establishing connections with buyers - markets and wholesalers alike - and keeping the family business afloat, so naturally with both their hands full, giving him constant attention was always lowest priority, until of course his grades fell or trouble caught up with him.
Both his mother and father worked tremendously hard to give him the kind of lifestyle they weren't able to have, but as vicious cycles went, it meant he was often left to his own devices, occasionally helping his mother and father, but not nearly involved in their daily routines enough to alleviate the loneliness.
Often they would scorn his grandpa for encouraging his behaviour, when in fact his grandpa was the one thing standing between him and utter loneliness. No one was really to blame, everything was as a result of something and those somethings were inevitable.
If there was any one thing that could be attributed to his suffering and equally theirs as a result, it was poverty alone. Both his mother and father had grown up poor, scraping the barrels to get by, so their joint effort to construct a better life for themselves and their son couldn't be faulted. He was here today because of their sacrifices and hard working ethic.
Perched in his hideaway and talking to his little friends, Leo propped his head up on his hands and tapped at the glass tanks of his proud collection of assassin bugs.
“No sabes lo afortunado que eres”, he mumbled, “Sin preocupaciones, sin estrés, y lo mejor de todo, sin escuela”.
His mother interrupted his alone time to request something from Levittown to the east, a journey he frequented by bike, but she had requested he go with his father on this particular occasion, wh
ich could only mean a horrible trip by tractor. Needless to say, he wasn’t exactly brimming with enthusiasm.
His father seemed chirpy however, maybe it was just the rare quality time he was able to have with his son or some other special occasion, but it was of no concern to Leo.
“Vamos, hijo, no te sientas mal. Es un hermoso día, esto será divertido. Nosotros inclusive podemos buscar más insectos luego, ¿qué tal suena eso?” His father beamed, trying to appeal to his better nature with the promise of bug hunting afterwards. Leo shrugged dismissively.
“Te prometo que será divertido. Vamos”. He lifted Leo up and placed him up onto the tractor, before hopping on behind him. With the sun shining down on them and a very gentle breeze caressing their faces, they pulled out of the farm and hit the road.
“Podemos tomar la ruta panorámica, no tenemos prisa”, his father said, suggesting the scenic route.
Despite Leo’s initial reluctance, the journey itself was rather enjoyable. Putting aside the unpleasant smoke the old tractor pumped out and the uncomfortable seating, it was actually kind of nice being on the road with his father. Honestly, he couldn't recall the last time they did anything remotely fun together and whilst unconventional though it was to constitute this errand run as anything close to fun, he couldn't have asked for more. When quality time with his father was a hard thing to come by, every spare moment with him was worth the slog it might have taken to make it a possibility.
“¿Papi, crees que no soy malo?” Leo asked. The question of whether his father thought he was a bad son came from a state of insecurity, an insecurity he had always had somewhat, but his father was quick to shoot down the question, stating that if all it took to be regarded as a bad person was to be a little naughty in school, nearly everyone in the world would be branded with that title.
“Somos buenas personas, solo que a veces tomamos malas decisiones. Tú siempre serás mi hijo, el hijo de un hombre que también era un chico travieso”.
Cryptophobia | Book 2 | Hell & High Water [Fear The Unknown] Page 26