Dead Calm (9 page)

The crowd scattered under the assault, and Connie
took advantage of the distraction to run toward her brother and
pull him away from the melee. After dragging him a short distance,
she covered his body with hers so no further harm would come to
him.

When the noise of the short lived battle was over,
Connie looked up to see the red shirts grouped in front of a man
wearing a three-piece suit. Those clustered around this new man
called him Reverend Ricky, and from what Connie could see, he
appeared to be their leader.

When the red shirts finished explaining what had
occurred and how they even had to lock their own people in the
cabin area to keep the infected contained, Reverend Ricky raised
his hands up in benediction, as his followers bowed their heads. In
a deep, bass voice, Ricky intoned, “Thy will be done Lord. Make me
a tool of thy will and use me as you see fit on this Earth until
you call me home at the rapture. My faithful Ushers have vowed
their obedience to you, oh God, so I ask that you protect them as
they go about your work, Amen.”

The Ushers intoned, “Amen” and looked to their leader
for further instructions. With a tight smile, Ricky ordered them to
lock down the cabin areas on all the remaining decks but not to
clear them of the passengers first since they couldn't afford to
risk losing any more of their people. Not questioning his orders,
the red shirted Ushers went to do his bidding.

When they were gone, Reverend Ricky looked around
with contempt at the few moaning, bloody people left behind. With
venom in his voice, he warned them not to stand in the way of God's
will again or risk an even more severe form of punishment. As Ricky
glowered at the beaten passengers, his eyes fell on Connie crouched
next to her brother. Instantly in motion, the scowl on his face
changed to a grin as he walked toward her and asked in a soft
voice, “What's the matter child, do you need some assistance?”

Tim's friends were always telling him how beautiful
his sister was, but he thought she was a pain in the ass. She was
nineteen and still living at home and had taken it upon herself,
since graduating high school, to make sure her little brother
didn't get into any trouble while their parents were at work. As
far as Tim was concerned, she had ruined the past summer.

When he found out they were going on this cruise, he
hoped she wouldn't ruin that too. Luckily, she had been distracted
by all the attention she received from the guys her own age and
hadn't tried to keep track of him. Tim had even heard one of the
crew say that Connie was a hottie after she walked by in a
swimsuit. He had almost thrown up. How anyone could call that
warthog a hottie was beyond him.

Reverend Ricky gushed sympathy at Connie and
deflected the blame onto others. She explained how their mother had
been trapped in the cabin area and her brother knocked unconscious
by the Reverend’s men. Promising he would put the situation right,
Ricky pulled out a walkie-talkie and spoke briefly into it. Within
minutes, two of his Ushers appeared. Before ordering them to carry
Tim to a safer place, Ricky promised Connie he would summon more of
his people to extract her mother from the cabin area.

When Connie was done relating what had happened, Tim
asked her where the Reverend was so he could thank him. At this,
Connie shook her head and replied, “No, we have to get out of here.
Ricky isn't doing this to be nice, he's after something else.”

Confused, Tim asked, “What?”

“Me,” Connie replied. “I've seen his type before,
perverts that use religion to seduce their followers so they can
have sex with the ones they lust after. Even though Ricky smiled, I
could see the truth in his eyes. He's a pervert. The only reason I
went along with his men was to get you somewhere safe.”

“He said he'd rescue mom though,” Tim pleaded.

“He lied,” Connie said. “He'll say anything to get
you on his side so he can use you. While you were unconscious, I
snuck back down to deck four and saw that the doors leading into
the cabin area are exactly the same as when we left, except someone
spray painted crosses on them. No one tried to go back in
there.”

As Tim tried to absorb this, Connie asked, “Do you
think you can walk? We've got to get out of here before Ricky comes
back.”

Motivated by the frightened tone in his sister's
voice, Tim rose and stood a little unsteadily. He felt nauseous,
but it passed quickly. Connie put a steadying hand on his shoulder.
When he felt stable enough to move, he asked, “Where do we go?”

“Back down to deck four,” she answered. “We need to
be on the same floor as our old cabin in case dad comes looking for
us. The shops there were all closed up and locked, but I know how
to get in the back way. A steward gave me a tour of the ship
yesterday and showed me the passageways that run behind the stores
and cabins that the crew uses to get around.”

Hearing they would be looking for their dad, Tim's
expression grew determined as he shook off his sister’s supporting
hand and said, “Then let's gets to it. We're wasting time
here.”

At that moment, the lights flickered in the cabin,
and the familiar dull thrum of the engines slowly died off to leave
a heavy silence. Looking at each other in panic, Tim and Connie
fled out the door and down a corridor now illuminated by emergency
lights. Thus the two went into hiding.

Tim noticed that no one paid any attention to a kid
wandering the passageways and found he could move around the Calm
of the Seas without being noticed. Through listening in at doors
and eavesdropping on conversations, he learned that Reverend Ricky
now controlled the ship and that his followers numbered over two
hundred. He also discovered the reason the engines had ceased
operating. Three of the engine room crewman, those same men bitten
and infected by the cabin attendant, had gone berserk and killed
their fellow workers. Other crewmembers, not wishing to risk their
lives in an attempted rescue, sealed the entrances to the engine
room. Shortly after that, the huge motors that propelled the Calm
of the Seas fell silent. The emergency generators kicked in but
they only provided electricity to the essential areas of the ship.
After securing his position, Reverend Ricky had his Ushers start
other generators to give more power to certain parts of the ship.
Most of the decks had lights but none had air conditioning or heat.
Electricity was diverted to the huge coolers and freezers in the
kitchens and the eateries on what was called restaurant row on deck
five so the survivors wouldn't run out of food. With barely one
twentieth of the passengers left alive, Ricky and his men
calculated that their supplies would last for a long time.

This also worked out perfect for Tim and Connie, who
survived off what was in the shops and food from the kitchen that
serviced the formal dining room at the rear of deck four. Reverend
Ricky and his followers had plenty of provisions on the upper
decks; so only twice in as many months did Tim see anyone venture
down as far as deck four. And then only to take a quick look around
before leaving.

Tim found an AM/FM radio early on in his wanderings,
and at night he and Connie could pick up a few stations
broadcasting from Florida. They listened in as the world seemed to
be coming to an end. The last radio station, KLAM out of Clearwater
Florida, had been broadcasting real time reports of what was going
on in the Tampa Bay area and giving tips on how to stay alive in
the new dead world. The signal slowly faded away when the range
became too great as the Calm of the Seas drifted further into the
Gulf of Mexico. The signal died, to be replaced by silence. When
this happened, hope of being rescued also slowly faded in the Lopez
siblings and day-to-day life became more an act of just doing
rather than living. That was until Tim saw the sailboat coming
toward them.

After discussing it with Connie and explaining that
it wasn't only men on board the small craft and that he’d seen two
women and a little girl, she agreed to let him open a hatch and
allow the strangers on board.

Now, sitting on the counter looking at the armed
foursome in front of him, Tim didn't feel afraid. He sensed no
threat from the strangers as they stood a few feet away, studying
him as he studied them. When the one Tim took to be the leader
said, “You've got nothing to be afraid of with us, kid,” a feeling
of relief washed over Tim and he believed him. When the blonde
woman asked what Tim meant about the people on board the Dead Calm
being crazy, he told them.

After listening to Tim's story, Steve said
unbelievingly, “The rapture? You mean to tell me that the people on
this ship are waiting for Jesus to come down and carry them up to
heaven?”

Tim nodded, “They say it's the end times, so every
night at dusk they gather on the pool deck and wait to be saved and
ascend into heaven.”

With sarcastic amusement, Tick-Tock asked, “Anyone
lift off yet?”

“No,” Tim replied, “but I’ve seen a couple jump
overboard when it doesn't happen and they lose hope.”

“Jesus,” Susan exclaimed.

“Has nothing to do with this,” Connie called out
loudly.

All four of the boarding party spun toward the voice
as they raised their weapons, but quickly lowered them when they
saw who spoke. Standing in the doorway of a clothes shop from where
she had been listening to her brother tell the strangers their
story, Connie looked anything but a threat.

Standing five foot three, with long, shiny black hair
that fell to her waist and large dark eyes, Connie looked more like
a model than the woman that Tim described as a warthog and a hag.
Wearing shorts that showed off her legs and a t-shirt that couldn’t
begin to hide the rest of her shapely figure, she could only be
described as a knockout.

Susan turned to say something to Tick-Tock, but when
she saw the expression on his face instead whispered, “Put your
eyes back in your head, pervert. You're old enough to be her
father.”

“Only if I was doing the wild thing when I was
twelve,” he replied and continued to stare.

Heather looked at Steve to see his reaction, but he
had already composed himself. She gave him a warning look on
general principle before saying to Connie, “Thank you for deciding
to let us get on board and opening the hatch. I promise you, we
mean no harm to you or your brother.”

Connie only nodded as she walked forward to join
them, still not sure if she had made the right decision by letting
them on board. Tim hopped down from his perch and joined his sister
as he said to her, “I was just about to tell them the rest.”

“A boat load of Jesus freaks and zombies isn't
enough?” Tick-Tock asked. “Who else is on board, Idi Amin?”

“They’re not Jesus freaks,” Connie corrected him. The
people in control couldn’t care less about religion. The leader
formed a cult by playing on the survivors’ hopes and fears.”
Looking at Tim as if not sure whether to continue, Connie shrugged
and said, “They have orgies up on the pool deck every night after
they fail to ascend into Heaven, and this includes the willing and
the unwilling. But most of the faithful, as Reverend Ricky calls
his followers, worship him like he's the second coming and join
right in. Tim's listened in on some of the conversations Ricky's
had with his Ushers, and they're so worked up with his false
religion that they're ready to martyr themselves for him. The inner
circle, Ricky calls them his Head Ushers, are in on the scam, and
they use the regular Ushers to keep the faithful in line.”

“That's okay,” Tick-Tock said nonchalantly. I’ll pop
a cap in Ricky's ass and he can show his Head Ushers how easy it is
to get to Heaven.”

“His followers would turn on you,” Connie warned.
“Maybe not all of them, but over half are faithful to Ricky and the
religion he's set up.” Remembering how many survivors Tim had told
him were left on the ship, Steve did the math as he considered the
odds of assassinating their leader and getting away with it.
Needing to know exactly what they were up against, he asked Tim,
“Are they armed?”

“They've got three rifles and three pistols, but only
the Head Ushers carry those,” he answered. “But just about everyone
carries a knife or a club or something in case they run into one of
the dead.”

“You've got Z's running around?” Heather asked. “I
thought you told us that this ship was secured.”

“I said that most of the dead were locked in the
cabin areas,” Tim replied.

“They show up from time to time,” Connie interjected.
“No one knows where they come from but on a ship this big, with all
the places they could hide, I'm sure there's a lot that didn't get
locked in the cabin areas.”

“They hide?” Susan asked.

“Look at what they did in San Francisco,” Steve
pointed out.

“And in Clearwater,” Heather added. “Most of the dead
hid in the storm drains and the sewers until there was a shitload
of them, and then they came out to eat.”

“So, we've got a couple things we need to consider,”
Steve said. “First off, we need to leave Reverend Ricky alone for
the time being. As much as I'd like to kill his ass, I don't want a
hundred religious nutcases making a suicide run at us.”

Tick-Tock nodded, but looked slightly disappointed at
Steve's decision.

“Cheer up,” Steve told him. “They've got to know
we're here. If they make any aggressive moves, we waste them. Now
for the second issue, which also ties into the first one.” Turning
to Tim, he asked, “How many ways are there to get down onto this
deck?”

“Only one,” he answered, pointing to the grand
staircase. “The doors to the stairs at the back of the kitchen are
blocked off, and none of these elevators have power. The only other
way down to this level is the stairs back there.”