The staff and security at the doors didn’t seem prepared to let anyone out any time soon and from what Rohini could tell, observing their nervous behaviour, increasing interactions over walkie-talkies and determination to keep the doors sealed, those inside had little to be calm about as the staff would want from them.
The only reason Rohini was even here was because she was responsible for the overseeing and management of the acts on stage and the stage itself. Contrary to belief, things couldn’t simply stop on board the ship because of what was going on back in London, people had paid a pretty penny for all services, whether they chose to attend each night or not. With the palaver in London, there was nowhere else she would rather be than outside finding out just what was going on back in London, but yet, here she was, worrying and just waiting for an available opportunity to find out more about what was happening and whether the people she knew were still safe.
She pulled out her phone and saw several messages and voicemails left by family, friends and of course her husband, all the way in the galley of the ship, Lakshman.
With so many people to call and message back, she called the most important person first, her mother, not only to ensure that she, her father and brother were okay, but her son she had left in their care too. Upon hearing the reassuring sounds of his baby gurgles and hearing that they were evacuating London as the situation had seemingly escalated, she felt it okay to then call and speak to her husband.
“Are you still in the galley?” She asked, as he answered.
“I am, we’re on lockdown, nothing is coming in or going out of the kitchens at the moment”.
“Okay, I’m still in the auditorium. It’s pretty much the same thing. Do you know what’s going on?”
“I have about as much information from security as you probably do, but rumours are circulating and word is that there is some kind of contagion onboard?”
“Someone is sick?”
“More like someones. It’s spreading alarmingly fast, so fast that it’s creating chaos and no one seems to know how to deal with it”.
Rohini glanced around nervously.
“Through the ventilation system or something?”
“I don’t know”.
“So we could already be infected?”
“Again, I don’t know. I have no idea how it’s spreading, what it looks like, who has it thus far or anything”.
“Shit…”
“I know. They’re trying to keep it under wraps so as to not create hysteria, but they’re only compounding the issue. People are getting irate and impatient. If they at least explained things, people might not be so resilient to being locked down like this”.
“What is going on today?”
“Have you spoken to the family?”
“I have, they’re evacuating! I mean, what the hell?”
“I know, I got a text from them. This is the one time we should have been at home and we’re not”.
“I know, I know…” Rohini’s conversation was interrupted by a loud crashing sound from the upper levels of the auditorium, followed by screams and shouting. Standing just beneath the overhanging upper levels, it was impossible to see what was going on, so the discord occurring was entirely left up to the imagination.
Rohini could hear Lakshman calling out for her through the phone.
“Hold on… something's happening…” she replied.
A woman screaming to let someone else go, more upheaval and then a crashing sound as someone came tumbling down from the upper level to the lower level, crashing into the seats below. Rohini and others gasped in horror, for a fall like that was surely a death, at the very least a critical injury.
The ruckus above continued, but some of those below rushed over to help whoever had fallen.
As Rohini drew closer to watch, the full extent of her gruesome injuries became clear. Her leg was twisted at an unnatural angle and bone protruded from her knee joint, the chances that she’d be able to walk on that leg again were slim at best, but as people hurried over to help her, some trying to get a better look at what was happening above, the woman spontaneously lashed out, grabbing another woman who had put down her bag to help the young lady and sunk her teeth into her face. The woman screamed and flailed her arms in an attempt to escape, but the young lady held on to her as though the world depended on it. What was wrong with her? Was it schizophrenia or something?
“Help me! She’s hurting me!” The woman screamed and others rushed over to help, visibly unsure of what to do in such a situation. One man chose to intervene, attempting to pull her away, but that only made the aggressive young lady bite down even harder, causing the woman’s screams of searing pain to echo throughout the auditorium.
More people dropped down from the upper levels, it was like they were raining down now. What the hell was going on?
The crazed young lady tore the woman’s cheek clean off with her teeth, before swallowing it whole and turning to the man holding her back. That scene was enough to turn Rohini’s stomach, but before she had time to dwell on it, those who had fallen were standing, some impossibly on broken limbs, twitching erratically and walking towards them wide eyed and crazy looking.
Rohini backed away, still hearing Lakshman’s concerned voice calling out her name from the receiver, but she couldn’t answer him, not right now, because alarm bells in her head were ringing louder than ever. This wasn’t normal, these people had just sustained serious injuries, yet they were walking with them with a murderous glint in their eyes.
Some of them began running towards
