Holding his funny bone - of all places to knock against the railings - , he pulled the door open - luckily most people left the doors open, or at the very least unlocked - and stepped inside a cabin. It looked as though it belonged to a couple, as there were clothes everywhere and Polaroid photos on the bed next to a vintage camera. In the photos were a young woman and man taking selfies at various locations on the ship. It was a fairly messy cabin, but then who was he as a passing intruder to judge?
He disregarded the photos and approached the door, but before exiting, he pulled out his phone and rang Martha.
“Edward? You’re okay”, she answered.
“I’m fine”.
“What happened? Where are you?”
“I’m in the cabin below ours”.
“What? How the heck did you end up there?”
“It’s… a long story. What matters is that I’m safe”.
“And our attacker?”
“He won’t be bothering us anymore. Where are you? Are you safe?”
“I’m hiding in the bathroom”.
“Okay stay there, I’m going to get Christine and return to you, don’t move and don’t make a sound, there may be more”.
“Okay, return my daughter here safe, or I’ll have your head”.
“I won’t let you down”.
“Oh, and Edward”.
“Yeah”.
“You be safe too”. Her reply caught him off guard, it was the first time she showed even an inch of concern towards him.
“I will”. With that, he hung up and rang his daughter.
1:46pm - 6 hours, 59 minutes since outbreak in London.
36 minutes since outbreak aboard MS HotS.
Still standing in the corridor waiting for news, Rachel and Lori were growing impatient, but they weren’t the only ones, by now someone somewhere must have heard something, instead staff had turned their agitation towards the crowd, which did nothing to create reassurance as it did to only further impatience and unease.
Rachel’s phone vibrated in her pocket.
“Hm? Who’s calling me now?” She pondered, before fishing for her phone. Lori glanced at her curiously. Upon the screen, the name Jerk appeared.
“I really ought to change that name”, she said, lifting the phone to her ear, “Dad”.
“Good, you’re okay”.
“Err… yeah, last time I checked. Should I not have been? What’s wrong?”
“Where are you? Did you hear that announcement?”
“We did, we’re outside in the corridor with a crowd just trying to find out what’s going on”.
“Dammit, Rachel, go back to your cabin and stay there, it’s not at all safe right now”.
“How now?”
“I have reason to believe that whatever happened in London is happening here!”
“Wait what?”
“That London infection, it may be aboard this ship!” Rachel’s eyes widened with terror as she gazed towards her girlfriend, Lori in turn tilting her head curiously and forming the words what's up with her lips.
“What… what makes you think that?”
“I went back to our cabin as you know to have a shower, Christine wasn’t there and Martha saw people running and screaming whilst I was in the bathroom. When I spoke to her, she told me that she was strictly told to stay in the cabin and lock the door by a staff member who didn’t stick around for the afterparty. Not long after that we heard the PSA. Naturally we questioned it, until we had a clearly mentally unstable visitor who quite literally broke through the barricaded door to get to us. I managed to get your grandmother over the balcony to the cabin next door and she’s hiding in the bathroom at the moment, I however didn’t even get the chance to jump before I was attacked and the nutter almost threw me into the sea. Not only was he muttering some nonsensical rubbish, he tried several times to bite me and then tackled me off the edge without any regard for his safety. He fell into the ocean and by some stroke of the lucky stick I fell onto the balcony below. I’m aching and shaken up, but I’ll be okay. You two need to return to your cabin now and block the door. Don’t let on that you’re in there and spread the word on your social media thing”.
“Are you serious right now? All of this happened?”
“Word for word”.
“Dad, are you pulling my leg? You’re joking right?”
“Goddammit, Rachel! I’m being serious!”
“But nothing has been said by the staff, surely if something…”
“They’re not going to say anything, Rachel! If you wait for them, you’ll endanger your life! They don’t know what this is any more than you do or I did and even if they did, they wouldn’t want to create panic!”
“So they know…?”
“They know, they bloody well know. I’m going to find your mother. She went to the spa and hasn’t returned. Promise me you’ll return to your cabin and stay there”.
“Dad…”
“Promise me, dammit!”
“I promise”.
“Call me if anything happens or you need me, okay?”
“Okay”, she replied. He hung up. “What the flying fuck?”
“What did he say?” Lori asked.
Rachel recited everything she was told by her father to Lori who simply stood there speechless until she was done.
“So… what do we do?” She asked.
“Go back, stay in the cabin like we were”.
“But you heard him, that man broke through a door to get to him. He’s a fully grown man and he got tackled off the edge of a balcony, what chance do you and I have against just one of those crazed people, far less two or more? Are we just meant to sit and wait in there? Wait for what? We don’t know if they’ve even sent out a mayday message yet, we don’t know a damn thing!”
“What can we do, Lori? Stand here slap bang in the middle of danger?”
“No, but
