“Hey! Lucifer’s fucking child! Want to eat someone? Bite on this, motherfucker!”
Rachel and Martha spun around just in time to duck, as Christine pointed a flare gun she had found tucked away in a flare gun case towards the brute and fired. The flare shot across the lifeboat and into its mouth, setting its head ablaze.
Ferociously wailing in agony, it retracted its head, temporarily releasing its vice grip on the lifeboat. Christine grabbed the steering wheel and with Rachel’s help, jerked the boat so hard to the left that even they were thrown to the side, but they were free of the brute as it toppled into the ocean.
“Go, go, go!” Christine shouted, clambering to her feet. Rachel slammed on the acceleration, jolting the lifeboat forward and leaving their unwanted brutish stowaway in their rear view.
Only once they were certain they were safe did Christine drop to her knees and sigh with relief.
Rachel, Martha and Christine stared out towards the cruise ship as it disappeared over the crest of the high waves unsure of where they were going, if their lifeboat would hold up with its extensive damage, if they’d be able to weather the stormy waters with gaping holes, if they would be found, what the fates of those left behind would be and whether or not any others had managed to save themselves. Would that ship ever be found? Would their loved ones ever find peace? Would they have been better off never having gotten on this ship in the first place and did they even have a home left to return to? Even if they managed to get home, what was left for them? Would the three women be able to rekindle their battered relationship in light of the circumstances they were now faced with? So many questions and so few answers.
For what it was worth, even if some questions would take longer to answer, at least some were answered in the coming hours and days. The women did cooperate and put aside their differences over a discussion, having more time than ever before to do just that and maybe time was all that was ever needed, the time to hear one another’s point of view, the time to consider one another’s thoughts and feelings, even if that meant simply agreeing to disagree.
It was another two days at sea without food, another two days worrying if they’d encounter just the wrong wave to sink their damaged boat after all the efforts made to escape the ship, another two days emptying out water and avoiding waves, of sitting in a cold and wet floating casket, exhausted, ironically thirsty and all out of hope before they were found. The damage incurred by the brute had rendered their radio useless, leaving their lives in the hands of fate itself, fate in turn rewarded their patience with a large passing ship the women had almost missed in their sleep.
It was only by chance that Rachel was disturbed by water spray, rousing her from slumber. She checked their surroundings and spotted the ship sailing away. Waking the other two, they fired a flare into the sky, lighting it up like the fourth of July.
Initially they thought they hadn’t been seen, but when the ship turned around and came back towards them, they knew they had been saved.
The feeling upon seeing that ladder descend down to them was akin to being saved by angels, reaching out their arms to carry them all to safety. The women couldn’t have been more thankful, even with the language barrier, for this was a Venezuelan frigate and the only one who even remotely spoke a lick of Spanish was Christine.
They were fed, clothed and given soft beds to rest their heads. The lack of luxuries was a very fair trade, for the safety and sanctitude of being aboard a vessel that wasn’t crawling with crazed people. What they had seen and experienced would more than likely plague their dreams until the end of days, there was no escaping horrific imprinted memories like those, no matter how fast and far a person ran.
The ship sailed into a Venezuelan port and docked, but the future lying in wait before the three was paved with uncertainty; their home compromised, their new destination an unfamiliar place and everything they had known destroyed.
They stepped down from the ship to flat ground and even though it wasn’t home, it was still land and something they would never take for granted again.
Birds sang, the port bustled with people carrying out their duties and a gentle breeze caressing Rachel’s face carried a whiff of smoke.
As her grandmother collapsed on the ground and her mother explained to port staff as best she could that they needed to know where to go and who to speak to, Rachel recalled taking Lori’s hand and stepping up into the cruise ship, excited, nervous and anxious, here she was now, alone, miserable and thankful to simply have her feet on the ground.
As she gazed up at the frigate, she pondered where the ship known as the MS Heaven of the Seas had eventually ended up, whether there was even a remote chance her girlfriend was still alive and whether or not she would ever be the same again.
Who knew. What she did know however, was that she had every intention to heed Lori’s words, live long, live strong.
End
BONUS CHAPTER - LEO
8:37am - 4 days since outbreak aboard MS HotS.
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. . .
Nestled in the northernmost region of Toa Baja, Puerto Rico, home to over 88,000 people, was the little farmland belonging the Báez family, consisting of married couple Janiel Báez and Catalina Báez, along with Janiel’s father Alphonse and their thirteen year old son, Leo, a spriteful little boy with a particularly
