The intercom message finished with a click and the irritating soothing music resumed.
“What in the world?” Christine exclaimed, pushing herself up from the table.
“You wait here”, her Malaysian masseuse insisted and simply abandoned her there.
“Oh come off it, are you serious? Wait here after we both heard that announcement? You've got to be having a laugh”.
She sat up, swung her legs off of the table, covering her exposed upper half and slid off.
“They're not serious, they could have at least helped me get my clothes, this is ridiculous”, she muttered to herself. She walked across the room and grabbed her gown. Her things were in the changing room. Her mother or possibly even Edward were probably calling her after hearing that.
She covered herself and stepped outside of the massage parlour with her soft slippers on.
A crowd of people had amassed in the Zen room, all from different parts of the spa, like her, wondering just what the hell was going on. One particular man in his white gown who appeared as though he was in his late fifties, seemed most displeased, as he shouted over everyone else.
“This palaver is ridiculous, I've never seen such incompetence! Does no one communicate? How could none of you know what is going on? Is this a drill?”
“Sir, we are just responsible for the spa, we can’t provide any information beyond what we just heard as well, I sincerely apologise for the inconvenience, but this is the most we can do right now. Please don’t panic, just return to your cabins until further notice”, a female spa worker replied.
“Bloody ridiculous, clearly some people need to be fired”.
“Sir, please, we are only capable of handling what we have jurisdiction over. If you have any further complaints, please take it up with ship staff”.
“We’ll definitely be sure to!”
Mumbling and grumbling, the spa guests were advised to retrieve their belongings from the lockers and make their way back to their cabins, but the crowds made it something of challenge to do so, with Christine stuck at the back, waiting for most to collect their things and leave, but that was made more difficult with stubborn people deciding that this was the best time to attempt to get change and in doing so, fuelling irritation and creating arguments that could have been avoided.
Eventually Christine managed to weave her way through people entering or leaving the locker room to collect her things, but on the way back out to leave the spa, the Zen room erupted into screams and people leaving poured back in, running in the opposite direction.
Christine was left bewildered, uncertain of what she was running from or why, but people screaming and running was never a good sign. She took off running in the opposite direction with others, most of the crowd backing into the locker room, others taking off into the hot tub rooms and massage parlours, and she and others running towards the sauna room.
As she came to the sauna room, those ahead of her dived in and slammed the door behind them, sealing themselves off from those outside.
“Open it up! There are still people out here!” A man next to Christine snapped. The two of them pounded on the sauna door, as those inside held it closed, refusing to open it.
“Open the door, you fuckers! Open it now!”
A fruitless ambition, the two quickly realised that this wouldn’t do, so turned to head back towards the Zen room, the man running in front and as they returned.
It quickly became apparent that they were in graver danger than Christine could have imagined. There before them were corpses littered across the ground, blood everywhere and people hunched over other people ripping them apart with their teeth.
Just what manner of horror was this?
Stopping dead in her tracks, as the man ran towards the locker room in hopes of finding something, Christine was left standing there, uncertain of what to do. Foolishly she turned back around and made for the sauna room again with hopes that this time they would open it for her, but they didn’t. Banging on the door, they shouted obscenities at her through the glass window and refused to open it. Christine, terrified and certain she was going to die at this rate, turned to see a cupboard opposite the sauna room. She ran over to and opened it, finding inside neatly folded towels and gowns, with just enough room for her to hide. She slid in and closed the doors, praying that whoever had killed those people outside didn’t find her.
She could see through the doors of the cupboard, so did that mean that those outside could see her?
She began reciting words of the bible to calm herself down, praying to God that he protect her and guide her to safety.
It was only a few seconds more before three erratic behaving people covered in blood entered the room, so Christine's fast decision making and stroke of luck may have paid off. They twitched and muttered words under their breath, before discovering the people in the sauna room, which in turn increased their twitching and excitable aggression. They slammed against the sauna door with a tremendous and terrifying determination to get in.
“Please let us in, we just want to… kill you… I mean use the sauna room. Don’t keep it all to yourselves… motherfuckers!”
Petrified with terror, Christine remained as quiet as she could possibly be, covering her mouth in case even so much as a squeak escaped her lips and gave away her hiding spot. There she would remain for as long it required, silently praying.
1:28pm - 6 hours, 41 minutes since outbreak in London.
18 minutes since outbreak aboard MS HotS.
Edward and Martha stood
