Sea Sick: A Horror Novel

After leaving Claire on the Sun Deck, Jack had snuck inside the Mariner Deck. He evaded a pair of security guards by stepping through into the Lido Restaurant. Being the largest eatery onboard, and open twenty-four hours, Jack wondered if the virus had been transmitted via the food. Was there a way he could find out if anything had been contaminated? He looked around the self-service buffet carts, at the trays full of chips, spaghetti, fish fingers, chicken nuggets, beef curry, and a whole host of other edibles, and realised that there would be no way of knowing. It wasn’t like he was going to find a glowing green pork chop on a bed of pus-filled maggots. He had a matter of hours to do something to help the passengers onboard, and prodding through several troughfulls of cheap food would not be a sensible use of his time. Anyway, if the food was the source of the infections, Jack was certain there would be more ill passengers than there were. Most of the ship ate at the Lido Restaurant.

On most nights, depending on what area of the ship he was in, Jack estimated an infection rate of about a third of the total passengers. No members of staff seemed to be unwell, which made it a safe assumption that any of the staff-only areas would be exempt as possible locations for the source of infection. Jack had also seen staff consuming their own evening meals inside the Lido Restaurant, which made his theory about the food being contaminated an even more likely dead end.

Jack realised that Ivor and his family were over in the corner. He’d see them in here before at this time, so should have expected to run into them. Their little girl had the infection worse than anybody else. Perhaps she was the key to solving the whole puzzle. If Jack could find out how she caught the virus he might have the answer to how everyone else caught it. Then he might have half a chance to get things under control before it was too late.

Jack took a seat at Ivor’s table. Poor little Heather was as sickly as ever, snoozing restlessly in her mother’s arms. Vicky looked ill herself – and mortified – while Ivor wore his usual stern expression that Jack now knew was just a front for a frightened father. It was unfair that they were all going through this.

“How are you folks doing?” Jack asked them.

“We’ve been better,” Ivor replied in a gruff voice. “Who are you?”

“Officer Wardsley.” Jack offered his hand. “I understand you’re all planning on fleeing to Germany?”

Ivor’s jaw dropped and Vicky began to sob.

“Don’t worry,” said Jack. “No one else knows that you’re here. I just wanted to say that I agree with what you did, Vicky. Nigel Moot was an evil man and deserved to die. As a mother of a young daughter, what you did was understandable.”

Vicky looked at Jack as though she was hallucinating him being there. “T-thank you.”

“May I offer you some advice, though?”

“Yes…please.”

“Forget about it. Put what you did behind you. If you don’t, it will eat away at you until you’re a broken mess, trust me. What you did was a moment of madness, but anyone else would have done the same. Don’t let it change you. Your daughter needs you.”

“Why are you saying all this?” asked Ivor. “Is this some sort of trick to get my wife to confess?”

Jack leant forward and placed a hand on Ivor’s shoulder. His skin was clammy and hot beneath his shirt. “No tricks. I just wanted to let you know that I hope everything works out okay for you all.”

Ivor said nothing. He just studied Jack.

“Your daughter looks pretty sick,” said Jack, changing the subject.

“Just a cold.”

“Do you know where she caught it?”

“I don’t know. Kids often get sick when they travel.”

“How long has she been under the weather?”

Ivor shrugged and seemed irritated. “Since last night. We’ve all been feeling a little unwell. Like I said, though, it’s just a cold.”


Last night. So she got sick the evening we all boarded. She caught the virus yesterday, not today. Damnit! Why didn’t Joma cast the spell a day earlier if that’s when it started? How am I supposed to stop something that has already happened?

Jack stood up, feeling defeated. “One last question, Ivor. There’re a lot of people who have come down with the same flu as your daughter. You got any ideas how it could have spread to so many people?”

Ivor shrugged. “I’m not a bloody doctor, man. But I guess if you thought about it logically, the likeliest place to catch a cold is in high traffic areas. Places where people are bunched together.”

“Okay, thanks,” Jack said, mulling things over. “Hey, you know there’s a doctor on the lower deck. You should take your daughter down to see if he has anything to make her feel a little better.”

“We were just discussing that, actually.”