Sea Sick: A Horror Novel

After a moment of shocked inactivity, Joma got moving, leaving Jack to deal with the overweight man on the floor. Along with the blood spewing forth from the man’s eyes, Jack’s barrage of punches had left his face a crimson mask. He was still snarling, though, ready to bite.

Jack was so consumed with keeping his current opponent down on his back that he did not see the other infected passenger coming up on his flank. The man leapt onto Jack’s back and instantly began biting and tearing at the back of his neck. Jack screamed out as he felt a chunk of flesh come away from the bone. He shot to his feet with the passenger still clinging to his back. The overweight man began to rise to his feet in front of him. Jack knew there was no way he could defend against both of them.

Suddenly the weight removed itself from Jack’s back. He spun around to find Joma standing over the body of the infected passenger with a heavy, glass ashtray. One corner of it was covered with blood and matted hair. Jack snatched it away from Joma and quickly turned to the overweight man who was now fully on his feet.

Jack brought the ashtray down on the man’s head and the heavy object made contact with a resounding thud! No other blows were necessary.

“Okay,” said Jack, panting and out of breath. “Let’s barricade ourselves back in the office. We only have to wait until midnight.”

***

The infected were trying their best to get in, but with the sofa-cube pushed in front of the office door and several bar tables placed on the other side as an obstacle course, Jack and Joma were relatively safe. Safe enough that Jack had relaxed sufficiently to polish off almost a quarter bottle of whisky. The fuzzy feeling in the bottom of his guts was pleasant and almost made him forget the horror on the other side of the door. The bite on his neck had stopped bleeding and was now just tacky and moist. It throbbed in time with his heartbeat.

“You need to end this,” said Joma, flinching as something unseen was tipped over in the lounge. “Time is running out.”

“What do you mean?” Jack took another swig of liquor. “You still haven’t told me what the hell it is I’m supposed to do. Is it still against the rules now that your cover is blown?”

“No,” said Joma. “You found me, which makes anything I say to you a consequence of your actions, not mine. It is now within the rules that I tell you what you need to know.”

“So tell me already!” Jack almost shouted it. “I’m tired, Joma. So goddamn tired of this shit.”

Joma rubbed at his face and seemed to have yet more wrinkles. “This virus…. It’s not just a danger to the passengers on this ship. It’s going to wipe out the entire world.”

“You’re shitting me?” Jack gulped the whisky down to halfway and let out a long sigh. “And you know this how?”

“I saw it, Jack. People like me, those that can see the pathways, have dreams. These dreams show us glimpses of the future – especially tragic events. We see death on a grand scale. A person’s death causes a small pulse in the fabric of existence, but when many people die at once it creates a ripple that travels in all directions – including backwards. When one of these ripples travels backwards it can reach some people through their dreams. I dreamt of this ship, Jack. I dreamt of the virus. I saw the end.”

“What, so this virus turns into…what? An epidemic?”

“More like a global pandemic. It will wipe the earth clean of life in less than a year. It will infect a dozen different species, as well as humans, and the world will fall apart. The infected will attack the healthy. It will be hell on earth.”

“But…how does it happen?”

“The ship will dock in Cannes and the virus will immediately spread throughout Europe and into Asia, reaching farther afield through national airports and contaminated food shipments. Once this ship hits the mainland it becomes unstoppable.”