She had witnessed more than she could ever want to, ironic given her job title, but there was something different about a bloodied body on an operating table and those sprawled across the floors here lying in pools of their own blood, their innards ripped open and out. Seeing those crazy people run at you screaming obscenities and twitching had a way of shaking a person to their very core, leaving them paralysed and vulnerable, furthermore, the very fact that Edward could set them ablaze without so much as flinching now, called his very integrity into question. Was this the same pathetic man that had stepped onto this ship?
Watching his back, it slowly became apparent how much he had changed, though how much for the better was another question.
“Do you know where we are even going?” She whispered once she had ensured they were alone.
“I hope so, I’m heading in one general direction, but of course I can’t be certain. They don’t exactly advertise the bridge on cruise ships, Martha”, he replied snidely.
Just as she was about to say anything further, the intercom clicked on.
“This is a public service announcement! Tai Amihan speaking. To anyone still attempting to make their way to the bridge, please don’t. The bridge has been compromised, I repeat, the bridge has been compromised. Attempting to reach this location will endanger your life, leave this ship by any means necessary, just don’t come this way. It has been the utmost pleasure sailing with you all on this voyage and I can do naught but wish you all the best. Fight on, live on and survive. God save our souls…”
As he concluded there was a loud crashing sound, followed by a series of screams, a scuffle and then the intercom clicking off.
“God hear our prayer”, Christine began to repeat, clutching onto both their hands even tighter.
“Shit… shit, shit, shit!” Edward repeated, “What the hell do we do now? And the girls”.
“It’s hopeless”.
“Not yet, there are still lifeboats”.
“Which we don’t know how to operate, in the middle of a storm and that’s assuming we get off the ship at all, taking into account your quickly exhausting firepower. Even if you find another deodorant can, where are you going to find another lighter?”
“Maybe…”
“Please don’t get any heroic ideas in your head. We have to find the girls”, Christine reminded him.
“I hadn’t forgotten, but your mother is right, even if we all find a lifeboat, those things have all sorts of safety and security components that we’d need a manual just to lower it, let alone sail off into the sunset”.
“We can figure that all out when we find the girls”.
“I’ll text them”. Edward pulled out his phone and texted the girls while the two women kept an eye out. No more than a few minutes later, Rachel replied with confirmation that they were okay, on the starboard side of the ship and still with the group of survivors, the leader of which was trying to negotiate their way onto a lifeboat. Rachel however, wasn’t prepared to leave without the three of them, insisting that they were getting off this ship or not at all.
Edward texted her back demanding they use that opportunity to escape and if the three of them could, they’d try to reach them before they set off, they weren’t that far away from the girls now.
Feeling somewhat reassured, Rachel accepted under the condition that they made it there within the next fifteen minutes.
Despite all three knowing he couldn’t guarantee this, he gave her his word.
“We can’t assure them of that. What if we don’t get there on time?” Martha protested. “You’ve just given them false hope”.
“What would you have me do, Martha? Tell them that we won’t make it on time? Give them guilt on top of the fear they already have? All we have to do is quit wasting time talking and get fast walking”, he got up, leading Christine along, “let’s go”.
CHAPTER 22 - EDWARD & RACHEL
4:21pm - 9 hours, 34 minutes since outbreak in London.
3 hours, 11 minutes since outbreak aboard MS HotS.
. . .
. . .
Rachel, Lori and the other survivors had been held up by this new group standing by the lifeboats for a while now. There were only five of them, but they were all relatively well equipped. A security officer with a pistol, two staff members holding flare guns capable of lighting up the deck if fired and two doctors.
There was more than enough space for all of them on that single lifeboat and quite possibly more, but capacity wasn’t the issue here, trust was. It had only taken a few hours for attitudes to degenerate into a fierce game of self preservation. Arguing here achieved nothing but to slow things down, yet here they were making petty threats at each other when a mere few minutes ago a man was brutally murdered and his corpse left horrifically sprawled out on the floor. Rachel and Lori knew nothing about that man, whether or not he had a family, a wife, children, parents, absolutely nothing. They didn’t even get to find out his name and yet, so simply his life was snatched away from him and brushed under the carpet as an accident, the first person either of the girls had ever seen being killed and lying dead before them.
Traumatised though the two girls were, others were behaving as though it never happened and the one woman who seemed bothered by it at all at the time, even joked about it. What the fuck was this shit? Is this what people had
