Sea Sick: A Horror Novel

Before Jack could gauge Tally’s reaction to his words, Marangakis piled into him from out of his blindspot. Jack’s feet tangled up and he found himself being rammed backwards against the room’s desk. He felt something sharp dig into his back, then dampness. Marangakis pummelled Jack with fists, left and right, knocking his vision loose and disorientating him. From the corner of his eye, Jack watched Tally flee through the door and several guards enter.

Jack struggled to get free of Marangakis’s grip before he was outnumbered. He rolled, twisted, and managed to shrug the larger man away from him. The guards struggled to surround Jack in the small room and he used that to his advantage. He straightened up from the desk and winced at a stabbing pain in his shoulder blade. He reached behind him and pulled loose a bloodsoaked pencil that had been embedded a half-inch into his scapula. Jack thought about using it to stab Captain Marangakis, but decided against it. If he injured anyone today it would be permanent. Like it or not, the people he was fighting with were innocent and didn’t deserve to die.

They still needed taking down, though.

Jack swung a fist and backhanded Marangakis across the bridge of his nose. Then he reversed the swing into an overhand right and clocked the nearest guard in the jaw. In the narrow space of the room, Jack was able to take down the other men, one after the other, by being sure to incapacitate them as quickly as possible while keeping control of the murderous rage inside of him.

The guards were soon dealt with and Marangakis was stunned. The Captain was sat down on the floor like a wounded Teddy bear. He looked up at Jack wearily. “You’re a madman.”

“Yes,” said Jack, “but trust me when I tell you that I’m trying to help you – everyone. Terrorists have released something monstrous onto this ship and if it reaches the mainland, we’re not going to make it. I don’t know who’s responsible, but the only lead I had just ran out of that door. I need to find Tally before it’s too late. So please don’t stop me.”

The Captain looked at Jack with no indication that he believed him now any more than he had done the previous times they’d spoken. Some things just couldn’t be accomplished in a single day. Convincing Marangakis of the danger aboard his ship was one of them.

Jack sighed. “Just…if anything happens tonight, around eight-o-clock, at the first sign of danger…

Oh, I give up. Look, just contact the mainland the moment you think anything is wrong. Keep an eye on the passengers and in a few hours you’ll be wishing you’d listened to me.”

Jack examined the exit door to the room and saw that it opened from the inside via a round push button on the wall beside it. Jack raised a foot in the air and hoofed his heel against it. The door unlocked itself and the plastic button ripped from its casing. Jack opened the door and slid back into the corridor, satisfied that the broken button on the other side would be enough to buy him some time.





1800hrs


Time was running out fast. Jack raced out onto the Promenade Deck and was faced with a setting sun above a dark blue sea. If Jack didn’t do something soon, this would be the final sunset the world would ever get to enjoy before things went downhill. He had two hours left. Just two hours. Jack prayed to God that Joma’s vision of the future had been wrong, because it was starting to feel very certain that failure would be the only outcome of trying to stop the virus.

There’s nothing I can do. Tally got away, Marangakis won’t listen, and the passengers were infected yesterday. What the hell can I do? I’ve tried everything and nothing works.

Jack didn’t know how much more he had left in the tank; maybe not even enough to make it through the next two hours. He was tired, broken, and bleeding. His back throbbed where the pencil had speared him and as he reached his hand around he felt cold kiss of blood against his skin. He brought back his fingertips bloody and stared at them for a few moments, realisation setting in that the wound would not simply go away as soon as midnight hit.