Sea Sick: A Horror Novel

The two teenagers headed down the stairs and disappeared. Jack turned his attention to the elderly lovers kissing against the railing for few moments and wondered what their story was. Had they been in love for decades or were they both widowers who’d met each other later in life? Who knew? Jack thought they were sweet either way.

He lay back in his lounger, smiling. The altercation with Conner had been pointless, but had given him a small sense of satisfaction anyway. It was enough of a break from the usual doom and gloom to re-motivate him. As soon as Tally arrived, Jack would be ready to go back down to that cargo hold and make Donovan give them the answers he demanded. Until then, he was going to lie back and enjoy the sun.

***

Jack awoke in the dark, alone and shivering. The moist, salted air skimmed across the deck and brushed his face.





Damn it. I must have fallen asleep.

He had often fallen asleep on the Sun Deck on previous days, but he’d assumed that this time Tally would have arrived to wake him up. For some reason she hadn’t turned up at all.

Maybe Donovan shot her in the head and she’s dead – really dead.

Jack prodded at the bruising on his chest, huffed in pain. His gunshot wound was only a mere abrasion, but what if Tally had taken a bullet to the brain? Or even if she’d healed, would bruising on the brain be enough to stop her waking up? The possibilities were worrying.

Jack checked his watch and saw that it was a little after eight. It was almost time for the infected to attack. There were limited areas onboard that offered safety, but most would become overrun eventually, although the passenger cabins were mostly able to withstand the nightly terrors if they remained locked. Jack thought about going to his now. There was a bottle of Glen Grant in his luggage with his name on it. He couldn’t risk getting hurt tonight, not now that he was waking up with residual bruising from whatever fate had befallen him the evening before.

Jack stood up and breathed in a deep lungful of sea air. The view from the ship was unending darkness, slithering away for a hundred miles in every direction. If Jack really was in Hell, then it was at night time that he truly felt it. The world was absent.

It would be happening soon, so Jack needed to hurry. His cabin was two decks below and the elevator was slow. He raced down the stairway to the pool area and headed for the Promenade Deck. It was deserted, which allowed him to sprint at full speed. There was probably less than five minutes left now until the attacks, but Jack was confident that he could make it to his room in time, just so long as nothing got in his way.

Jack hurried inside the corridor he used to get to the elevator and was grateful to find that it wasn’t being summoned by anyone else. He stabbed the CALL button and waited.

The elevator began to rise.

The doors opened.

Someone was standing inside.

The elevator’s occupant had a gun and it was pointed at Jack. “Hello, pardner. I was hoping to bump into you again.”

Jack’s eyes went wide. “Donovan?”

***

Donovan escorted Jack down to the Orlap Deck, the gun buried against the small of his back the whole time. If the weapon went off, Jack’s spine would be shattered.

And it might stay that way, he thought grimly. I might never recover.

“Okay,” Donovan said as the elevator doors opened. “Get out.”

Jack stepped out onto the steel walkway and headed left under the direction of his captor. They were heading towards the blue crates and the other pallets belonging to the Black Remedy Corporation. The plastic boxes had been pulled free of their cargo areas and placed on the floor in parallel lines. All of the crates were open, displaying millions of dollars in US currency.

Jack whistled. “That is one big shitload of money.”

“Certainly something, ain’t it?” said Donovan.

“What the hell is it all for? Why have you gotten it all out on display?”

“In the interest of openness, Jack. Think you and I both want answers.”

Jack nodded. “Okay. You think maybe we can be open without the gun?”