Sea Sick: A Horror Novel

“I’ve been informed that you’re guilty of some pretty despicable behaviour aboard my ship.”


Jack leant forward across the desk and kept eye contact with the Captain. “Now, you see, that’s where your facts begin to go severely wrong. I haven’t hurt anyone. Whoever has told you otherwise is a liar.”

Marangakis finally took a seat. He yanked back the chair and dropped himself down with such force that it must have hurt his rump. “The accusation has been made by a member of my crew. I see no reason why she would lie.”

“So it’s a she, then?”

“I’m sure you know very well. You’ll be placed in the brig and handed over to the French authorities as soon as we make port.”

Jack laughed. “And when the fuck will that be? I’d love to know.”

The captain seemed confused by Jack’s reaction, which was hardly surprising. “We’ll be there in a little over twelve hours. I’d be in no hurry if I were you.”

“We’ll see,” said Jack. “Do you want to show me to my room then?”

The captain nodded to a guard standing by the door. The burly man stepped towards Jack and went to take him by the arm. Jack stood up and shrugged away from his grasp. “There’s no need to get grabby. I’ll come.”

Jack went with the guard to the cell next door and allowed himself to be locked inside. It was probably the safest place to be anyway. Once the infected became violent they would wreak havoc on every area of the ship, but they wouldn’t be able to get inside the brig. After what had happened to Donovan, Jack was starting to worry that the spell was wearing off and that if the infected were to rip him apart, he might not get put back together again. Despite how much Jack’s life sucked, he didn’t want to die. He was getting too close to working things out.

The guard closed the cell door and locked it, leaving Jack to sit and contemplate. His previous life, of walking the streets as a policeman by day and drinking himself into a stupor by night, now seemed like a distant memory; a fuzzy recollection of a vivid dream. It would once have seemed impossible to think it, but Jack was actually starting to miss the life he had all but lost. Given the chance, he would make more of it then he had.

Jack lay down on the room’s uncomfortable cot and closed his eyes.

He awoke a few hours later to the sound of screams and chaos. From the bowels of the ship, the noise of passengers being torn apart was clear. The eyebleeders were doing their thing on the upper deck. Jack closed his eyes and went back to sleep.



Day 236

Security took Jack away again. He ended his night in the cell as he had the night before.



Day 245

For over a week now, the ship’s guards had come to arrest Jack, and every day he had gone with them peacefully. His intention was to see how long Tally – if she was in fact responsible –would keep it up. It appeared, however, that she was content to have him detained indefinitely. For some reason she wanted his movements aboard the ship restricted.

But why?



Day 246

Jack got out of bed quickly and hurried to get dressed. He selected some jeans and a white t-shirt from deep within his luggage, along with a baseball cap. He hoped that the change of clothing would allow him to move undetected by whoever it was making accusations about him.

He slipped on his trainers and rushed out of his cabin. It had been only a matter of minutes since he’d awoken and Jack was quick enough to get out of there before the Security goons came for him. How long he could evade them, he did not know, but hopefully it would give him some time to find Tally and ask her some pretty serious questions.