Sea Sick: A Horror Novel (15 page)

“That is very good.  Can I get for you a drink?”

“Yes, I think I fancy a pint of lager, please.”

Jack went to hand over his passenger card to add the drink to his account, but Joma waved it away.  “I give this one free of charge.  You give me good tip and I look after you.”

Jack couldn’t even remember how much he’d given the man now, all that time ago.  He took his free pint and nodded his thanks. He decided to remain at the bar on one of the stools, feeling it would keep him more alert than if he went and slouched on one of the sofas.

“There’s a bad cold going around today, no?”

Jack nodded.  “Yeah, there sure is.  “It’s real bad.  Don’t think anyone else has noticed though.”

“I have.  Many people sick today.  Sneezing, coughing, very bad.”

“You don’t look so hot yourself,” Jack commented as he examined Joma’s face.  “You look exhausted.”

Joma nodded and seemed a little embarrassed that the focus of the conversation had
suddenly
turned to him.  “I am fine, Mr Jack.  I just work long hours.  Lots to be done, many drinks to be served.  It is tiring work.”

Jack looked at Joma and placed him a little over forty, which was strange because when they had first met
,
he probably would have placed the guy at a little under.

He must have had a rough day,
Jack thought as he sipped the crisp, golden liquid from his pint glass.

“So how long have you worked on the
Kirkpatrick,
Joma?”

“Almost four months now.  I work aboard another ship before that.”

“Why did you change?”

“Change of scenery.”

“Oh, okay,” said Jack, not
expecting such a short reply.  “Guess one of the perks of the job is being able to travel the world.”

Joma smiled and seemed to look off into the distance.  “That is true, but I miss home very much, too.  The most beautiful place is where people love you.  The Mediterranean cannot compare to that, or anywhere else.  Do you agree?”

Jack drank from his pint and placed it down gently on the bar.  “Perhaps I would have once.”

“But no longer?”

“Well, where do you find beauty if nobody loves you?”

Joma thought about it while scratching at his chin.  “I guess you find it in hope; hope that one day somebody
will
love you.  I pray that you do find love, Mr Jack.  A man is always stronger with love.  It’s the only thing that truly separates us from the cavemen we used to be.”

Jack thought about what Joma was saying and actually found himself smiling a little.  “I hope I get the chance one day to see if you’re right.”

“I have no doubt that you will, my friend.  Now, can I get you another drink?”

Jack looked down at his near-empty pint glass and was shocked to see that he had drunk it so quickly.  “Yeah, make it a whisky, please.  Cheers.”

Joma got to work, thrusting a low-baller glass against the base of the optic and pouring the brownish-gold liquid in its measured amount.  He handed the glass to Jack and smiled.  “I will have to charge you for that one, my friend.  I lose job otherwise.”

“No problem.”  Jack handed over his card.  “Say, do you know a girl called Tally?  She usually works the Lido Deck during the day.”

Joma raised an eyebrow at him.  “You make a friend already?  Yes, I know Tally.  Pretty girl.  You like her?”

Jack felt his cheeks blush, and then wondered why he’d had that reaction.  “Yes, I like her, but not in that way.  I was just wondering where she goes at night.”

“Honestly, I do not know, but some of the day-staff sneak off to the Sports Deck at night.  It is closed to passengers then, and some of them go there to have a drink together privately.  Perhaps you will find her there.”

A coughing fit from behind Jack made him swivel around on his stool.  He thought back to the last time he was on the Sports Deck.  It hadn’t been locked up then.  In fact it had been full of children (
stuck inside that
Perspex enclosure like sardines
). 

He turned back to Joma and asked him, “Are you sure it’s locked up?  I’m sure I saw children up there a few months…uh, late last night.”

Joma nodded.  “They have an under-twelve football match between eight and nine, but other than that it is locked up tight.  Too dark for people to be running around outside on deck. Dangerous.”

Jack glanced back around at the gentleman in the corner, who was still coughing and hacking, then looked back at his watch.  It would only be an hour or so until the Sports Deck was overwhelmed with eyebleeders again.  If Tally
was
there, as Joma suggested she might be, it would not be a great time to talk to her.
Jack needed to get back to his cabin, for now, where it was safe.  He would visit the Sports Deck earlier tomorrow. Then at least he would have enough time to see what was going on with Tally and try to convince her to start helping him again.

The thought of seeing her again sent a shiver through
his tummy.  He really hoped she would be there tomorrow.  But he’d have to wait to find out.

Day 216

Jack checked the ship’s newsletter that came under his door every day and learned that the Sports Deck was open until 6PM.  He decided he would get there an hour before.  If what Joma had told him was correct, he’d eventually be asked to leave, and the deck would then remain empty until the children arrived at 8PM (to be subsequently attacked by eyebleeders at 8:20.)

Right now, there were still lots of people milling about.  Young couples batted tennis balls back and forth, while the older generation played bowls on a small green in the far corner.  Up ahead was the enclosed football pitch that would later play host to a monstrous siege.  It was a place of fun and hijinks, which made its eventual fate even more tragic.

Jack took a seat on a spectator bench beside one of the tennis courts and watched
a game being contested between two teenage girls.  They seemed very competitive and were even donning appropriate athletic skirts and nondescript white panties underneath.

The sea beyond the deck shone gold beneath the wide rays of the setting sun. Once it went down completely the ship would be surrounded by the featureless black of night, but right now it was pleasant.

Jack shivered at the thought of approaching darkness creeping towards the ship, ready to engulf it.  He hoped Tally would turn up soon.  There was something about the Sports Deck that sapped the strength from his soul.  All the young life and joyful energy
made him miss the world even more.  Jack realised that what he wanted more than anything was to go back to his old life; he wanted to go back to where his actions truly mattered.  Jack might have been jaded by his impotency as a police officer, but at least there was always the hope that he could do some good.
But onboard this damned ship his actions were useless; his effect on the world was less than a mayfly.

Sitting there alone, surrounded by obliviously happy people, Jack found his thoughts turning to Laura.  He didn’t want his mind to go there, but he was powerless to stop it.  His memories came charging at him like a trainload of grief, crashing through his barriers and forcing their way into his consciousness.

His partner, Laura, was
only just past thirty when Frankie Walker had shot her in the stomach.  There was no need for him to kill her; he just did it for kicks.  The decline of young morals in the United Kingdom seemed unstoppable.  They fucked each other indiscriminately, snorted drugs, attacked each other, and robbed old ladies from as young as ten years old.  It was chaos.  And it was getting worse. 

But Laura had always seen the best in people.  She believed in the inherent
-
goodness of society and that people would generally make the right decisions if given the chance.  It was a naïve outlook, Jack thought, but he sometimes envied her.  It must have been a great comfort to see the world in such positive colours instead of the bleak black grime and sodden greys that he did.

Jack missed
Laura’s smile;
the one she showed only
in private when the two of them were alone.
But he knew that he would never get to see it.  It had been erased from the world by the ills of a sick, decaying society.

Laura had died because she’d made the mistake of showing compassion for a husband who was trying to protect his family.  The husband’s wife and child had been tortured and stabbed by a local gang. The husband had then
gone and murdered one of the thugs in revenge.  Laura and Jack had been given strict orders to take the man in – and they could have – but he had begged for one more night to finish what he’d started.  The husband wanted to go after the rest of the gang and their leader, Frankie.  Laura had said yes, and despite his better judgement, Jack had gone along with it.

Jack had known it was crazy the moment they’d stood aside and let the husband go.  The only reason he went along with it at all was because he loved Laura – it made him weak and unable to do his job the way he knew he should.  He should have been angry at her for that, but it was just who she was – and that was something he could never blame her for.  He wished more than anything that he could go back to that evening and arrest the man before he had a chance to go on his rampage.  Then no one else would have died that night.  Frankie Walker wouldn’t have ended up cornered with a gun.  Laura wouldn’t have been trapped inside a hospital room with him.  She’d still be alive.

Jack’s eyes caught movement and he snapped out of his memories. Tally had entered the Sports Deck. She copped one look at Jack, then turned back around and tried to leave without him spotting her.  She wasn’t quick enough, though.  Jack ran after her.

He caught up with her in the corridor.  She was hurrying away but hadn’t broken in to a run.  Perhaps she never realised she’d been spotted. 

Jack placed a hand on her shoulder and spun her around to face him.“Why have you been hiding from me?” 

She shrugged free of his grip.  “I haven’t been hiding.  I’ve been coming here every night.  You just haven’t seen me.”

“Okay,” said Jack, trying to stay calm.  “Why have you been coming here instead of coming to see me?  I thought we were friends.”

Tally laughed. It was a cruel sound.  “We are not friends, Jack.  We are just two lost souls
floating aimlessly in the abyss.”

Jack wrinkled his brow and said, “But
you
were the one that said there was a reason for it all, that there was a way to stop it.  We haven’t found the pathwalker yet.  We can still stop all of this.”

“We have not found the pathwalker because he does not want to be found.  Whatever is happening on this ship is nothing to do with me.  I wasn’t chosen like you were, Jack.  The only reason I’m even in this mess is because of my heritage.  If I was
not Romany then I would be as oblivious as everybody else.  I wish I was.”

“Me too,” said Jack honestly, “but that’s not how life goes.  When it starts raining shit, it’s not always up to us whether or not we have an umbrella.”

Tally looked at Jack like he was mad, but then she cracked a smile and shook her head, obviously angry at him for getting past her acrimonious shields.

“See?” said Jack.  “It’s easier to face all this with company – I mean company that still remembers you every day.  We shouldn’t be alone in this, Tally.”

“We’d soon get just as sick of each other as everybody else, Jack.  Doesn’t matter how much I like you, I don’t want to spend the next thousand years with you.”

“So you admit you like me then?  Here I was thinking you were avoiding me.”

Tally rubbed both her eyes with the palms of her hands.  “God, Jack.  I don’t know how much more of this I can take.  I just want it to be over.  I want my life back.  I have a daughter back home.”

Jack felt his jaw tighten.  “Shit, Tally.  You never told me that!”

The tears came quickly and unexpectedly so Jack went forward and held her.  He wrapped his arms tight around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head.  If only there was something he could say…

“I need a drink,” said Tally in a voice muffled by the closeness of his chest.

“Okay,” Jack agreed.  “We’ll go to the bar.”

“No.  I can’t be around people at the moment.  They just remind me of what I’ve lost.  Do you have anything to drink in your cabin?”

Jack nodded.  “Hope you like scotch.”

Tally wrinkled her nose.  “I suppose it will do.  Long as it will get me drunk.”

“Oh, it’ll do that alright.”

Jack took Tally to his room.

***

Half the bottle of Glen Grant was now gone and Jack’s vision was bleary.  He’d been drinking now, every day, for a couple of weeks, but his tolerance never increased.  Every night at midnight the day reset and Jack’s constitution reverted back to how it was the day he had first boarded.  When you considered the fact that he was still aging, it seemed a little unfair.

Tally seemed as drunk as he was.  She was lying on the bed beside Jack and stared, transfixed, at the television set. 
Toy Story 3
was playing on the modest LCD and a big pink bear was stomping around a playroom like a tyrant while the other toys cowered.  Jack wondered if the film would make Tally miss her daughter, so he pressed a button on the remote and switched the channel to something else:
an infomercial about Cannes – their ever unreachable destination.

“So are you going to tell me what happened, Tally?  Why did you disappear on me?”

Tally rolled onto her side and looked at him.  “I…just needed some time alone.  Some of the crew go to the Sports Deck for a drink at night so I thought I would join them, try to forget about things for a while.  It worked for a few hours the first night and I even started to have fun.  It was only staff members up there and none of them were sneezing or coughing.  I thought it would be a good place to stay during the attacks.  But…”

Jack nodded.  He knew the story already.  “At 8PM a bunch of children showed up?”

Tally seemed to recall the memory in vivid detail.  Wrinkles appeared across her brow.  “Yes.  A couple of the children were under the weather,
so sat on the side-lines with their parents.  A lot of adults were also very ill.
I knew then that things were going to get bad.”