Sea Sick: A Horror Novel (18 page)

Jack turned around and said nothing.

***

Jack hadn’t seen Tally since the day she’d told him she’d been raped – the night they had lain together like lovers.  Jack was mad at himself for not checking in with her sooner – letting his vendetta against Donovan consume him. 
When a woman shares something like that with you and falls asleep in your arms, the least you can do is catch up with her the next day
.

I can’t believe that she could tell a lie like that.  No way.  I may not know her as well as I would like to, but I know she’s a good person.  She tried to protect the children on the Sports Deck and she has a daughter of her own, too.  Donovan, on the other hand, is a womanising jackass.  But still…I don’t see him doing the things he’s been accused of.  He just doesn’t give off that vibe.

Jack couldn’t believe that he was in a situation that now involved a rape accusation in addition to a deadly manmade virus and a supernatural time spell.  Coming aboard the
Kirkpatrick
to relax was the single most stressful thing to ever occur in Jack’s life. 
Irony
didn’t even begin to describe it.

There were likely two places that Tally would be.  Either the Sports Deck, if she were still trying to help the children, or her cabin.  It was still pretty early in the day, so Jack was guessing the latter.
He had a quick think about where she’d led him on the night he’d visited her room. He remembered it was towards the rear of A Deck –
the aft
.  He headed for the elevator and pressed the CALL button, then waited while it descended.

A couple of minutes later,
Jack was on A Deck and heading towards Tally’s cabin.  A maid passed him along the way, smiling and nodding, but other than that the entire deck was deserted.  He thought about which cabin was Tally’s and knocked on the door he thought was correct.  After ten seconds of waiting, he knocked again.

Then somebody knocked on the back of Jack’s head and the lights went out.

Day 235

At 1400 Jack did not wake up.  At 1425 he managed to stir, his head whirling with a faraway throbbing.  Whatever had struck him in the back of the head had been enough to knock him out cold for the rest of the day (or perhaps even killed him) until midnight had come and started things over.  His head still hurt, and for the first time ever he had overslept.

Putting his feet onto the carpeted floor of his cabin, Jack eased himself up until he was standing.  The room tilted and, for a moment, he thought it was his vision, but then he realised that it was the ship that was rocking.  He was usually out in the corridor by then.

Jack went into the bathroom and stared at the mirror.  The flesh beneath his eyes was dark and his pupils were wide.  He looked tired.  He felt it too.

I can’t believe I fell for Donovan’s bullshit.

After leaving the Cargo Deck for Tally’s cabin, Donovan must have followed Jack and jumped him from behind.  It was a risky move because the man knew that Jack wouldn’t stay dead. Obviously
,
Donovan had decided it was time for him to fight back.  In a way Jack didn’t blame him, but it now made things very clear to him – that Donovan was one of the bad guys.

He’s going to pay for this.

Jack felt the familiar anger rise up in his guts, but took a deep breath and fought against it.  He turned on the tap of the faucet and splashed some cold water onto his face.  Forgetting everything else, Donovan had been correct about one thing: Jack was being consumed by his rage.  It had destroyed his life once before and now he was allowing it to control him again.  Running around the ship like a madman and committing murder would never have been acceptable to the man Jack used to be – the man who was in love with Laura.  Once upon a time Jack had believed in justice and doing things by the book.

Now I’ve become something else.

Something still needed to be done about Donovan, but there had already been too much violence.  Jack would have to find another way.  A way that meant not losing a part of himself.

He got dressed and sat down on the end of the bed, then stared at the blank television screen as he thought again about the sickness onboard. It was still unclear
whether or not
it was the reason for everything that was happening.  Was there really a way to stop the virus?  To save everyone from their grisly fate?  Jack had tried before, but it had been no good.  So, what was he missing?  Why was he stuck here?  Who was responsible?  There were so many questions that Jack’s throbbing skull began to ache even worse.  One thing was for sure, though, if Jack did manage to find a way to break the spell, Donovan was going to end up in handcuffs the moment he left the ship.  BR Shipping would also have some difficult questions to answer about the large sums of money stored away in the hold –
not to mention God knows what else.

As Jack thought about how to spend his day, he decided that all he wanted to do was find Tally.  He’d been jumped right outside her room and it was a possibility that Donovan had hurt her again.
Jack needed to make sure she was okay.

Jack tried her cabin again but there was no answer, just as had been the case before.  He constantly checked over his shoulder as he went about the ship, wary of being jumped again from behind.  The next place he searched was the Sports Deck, but that, too, was free of Tally’s presence.  He would try there again later if need be, but decided, for now, to visit the pool area and
Sun Deck
.  Perhaps Tally would be working there again, trying to find some comfort in her old role.

Jack got a drink from the bar in
High Spirits
and took
it out with him to the
Sun Deck
where he found Claire.  They exchanged small talk as usual but Jack paid no mind to her; he was more focused on keeping a look out for Tally. Each second she didn’t show up made him worry about her a little more.

“You’re in a nosey mood,” said Claire.

Jack looked at her, hearing her words but not really absorbing them.  “Huh?”

“You keep looking around the ship and staring at people.”

“Oh,” said Jack.  “Yeah, I guess I do.”  He suddenly had an idea.  “I’m a…health inspector.  I travel on cruise liners to look out for signs of infectious illnesses.”

Claire went pale.  “What?”

Jack put a hand up.  “Oh, don’t worry.  We’re talking Avian Flu at worse, and that wouldn’t affect a healthy young girl like you.  Have you seen anyone with cold or flu-like symptoms?”

Claire nodded her head enthusiastically.  “My boyfriend.”

Jack kept his voice calm, not wanting to panic the poor girl, but saw
that he had an opportunity to ask some important questions.  “I’m sure there’s no reason to worry,” he said.  “Do you know where he might have caught it from?  Has he been mixing around with anyone under the weather?”

Claire shook her head.  “I don’t think so, but then I flew out a day earlier than he did.  Him and his mates got drunk and missed the original flight. They had to board in Majorca instead of Barcelona like I did.”

That was interesting, thought Jack, because Claire was healthy and Conner was not.  They had boarded in separate locations.  But Conner had boarded the same day as Jack had, and Jack himself was perfectly fine.  He felt like he was close to something, but not quite there.  “What about your boyfriend’s mates?” he asked.“Are they ill?”

“I think so,” said Claire, seeming even more worried.  “They had the sniffles this morning at breakfast.  I don’t know how bad they are now, though.”

“Like I said, no need to worry.  I’m sure it’s just a cold virus spreading.”

“What if it
is
something worse?  Would I be at risk?”

Jack looked at Claire and wondered why she was so concerned.  There was no reason for her to worry about a cold.  “No.  There’s no reason you would be at risk.  Flu viruses are only a danger to the elderly, the very young, or-”

“Pregnant women,” Claire answered for him.

It all made sense then.  That was the reason that Claire put up with the way Conner spoke to her.  He was the father of her baby. 
Just another teenage pregnancy to add to the list.
  Jack sighed and shook his head.  He’d seen so many young lives wasted by unplanned pregnancies.  A baby was a wonderful thing, but uneducated, jobless teenagers were just adding to the cycle of benefit-seeking, ambitionless families that were nothing but a drain on society.  Not all were like that, of course, but many were.  “How far along are you?” he asked her.

“A few weeks, I think.  I haven’t told my boyfriend yet.  I was planning on doing it this week, maybe tomorrow at the Captain’s reception.  We’re getting dressed up.”

Jack smiled, hoping that one day tomorrow would actually arrive and Claire would get to put on her dress.  “Well, I hope that he takes the news well and that you’re very happy together.  In the meantime, please don’t worry.  There is a very good doctor onboard and I have no reason to believe there is anything to worry about.”

Yeah right!  Just a nasty little bug that turns human beings rabid, even after they’re dead.  Other than that, there’s no need to worry at all.

Right then, Conner’s cue to arrive came up and the young couple had their predictable conversation about hotdogs.  Jack chose not get involved on this day;
there was no reason to cause Claire any more worry than she already had.  Still, he was disappointed not to have learned more about how Conner had caught his flu.  The answer was lurking there somewhere beneath the surface, but there hadn’t been enough time to squeeze it free.

And still there was no Tally.

Jack decided that the only other person with possible answers would be Donovan.  It was time to pay another visit to the cargo hold.

***

The
Orlap Deck
was deserted and Donovan was nowhere to be seen.  The pallets and crates lay undisturbed.  Jack called out, but there was no answer.  He moved around the space cautiously, aware that Donovan was dangerous and also in possession of a gun.

“I’m done with this shit, Donovan.  Whatever you’re deal is, I’m ready to put a pin in it for now.  When everything goes back to normal then you and me will have a different conversation, but right now all I want are answers.  I need to find Tally.”

There was still nothing but silence.  Jack headed further into the cargo area, looking left and right between boxes of pharmaceuticals and the blue crates of money.  Towards the back of the area were some thick metal cases that he’d not noticed before, each
was the size of a footlocker.  Behind them something lay on the floor, sticking out a few inches.  Jack took slow steps towards the object, ready to throw a punch at the first sign of a threat.

As Jack got closer it became clear what he was looking at.  On the floor, sticking out from behind the crates was…

A foot.

Jack stepped forward to find Donovan lying on the floor.  He was covered in blood and it had congealed against the metal grating beneath him.
The blood was old and his body was stiff.  Donovan
had been dead for a while.
And he wasn’t coming back.
Jack had seen enough bodies and their timelines of decay to know that Donovan must have been murdered shortly after speaking with him the day before.

Which means that Donovan wasn’t the one who jumped me from behind.

I really need to speak to Tally.

Day 236

Jack had spent the rest of the previous evening looking for Tally, but had been unable to find her.  He was lost in a spiral of confusion and felt more alone than before he’d even met Tally and Donovan.  Having an enemy onboard willing to kill remorselessly was a far more unsettling prospect than anything else that had happened up until that point.  Jack still found it difficult to picture Tally as the one behind Donovan’s death, and he both hoped and dreaded that there was someone else onboard responsible, but it didn’t seem likely.

Jack got out of bed and
made a mental checklist of the things that weighed heavily on him.  He needed to find Tally, needed to find out if it was indeed her who had attacked Donovan, needed to find out who the pathwalker was, and most of all he needed to stop the virus.

Then maybe I can find that time to relax.  Yeah, Jack, keep on dreaming.

Jack freshened up, spent an hour relaxing, and then got ready to leave. Before he reached for the door, however, someone knocked on the other side.

What the hell?  No one ever knocks on my door.

Whoever was out in the corridor, knocking at his cabin door, could only be someone outside of the spell.  It could even be Tally.

Jack opened the door.

Two large Filipino gentlemen stood there wearing the bright red waist jackets of Security.
Jack didn’t understand how they could be here.  What had changed? 

“Yes,” he said. “Can I help you?” 

“Could you come with us please, sir?”  It wasn’t a question, it was an order.

Jack closed the door slightly, bracing his foot behind it to keep it still.  “I’m sorry?  What is this about?”

The man on the left, identical to his colleague in every way except for a wispy black beard, said, “We’ve received reports that you assaulted a member of staff during the early hours of this morning.  We need you to come and answer some questions for us, please?”

“What?  That’s impossible.  Who told you this?  Who am I supposed to have hurt?”

“Please, sir.  If you could just cooperate.”

“Cooperate, my arse!  I haven’t done anything.”

The two men tried to barge through into Jack’s cabin, but he held the door firm with his foot.  The man on the right reached to grab Jack and received a punch in the face for his efforts and most likely a broken nose.  Jack had been hoping to move
past the violence of the past couple of weeks but it didn’t look like he was going to get that choice.  He threw an overhand right at the remaining security guard and sent him to the floor to join his partner.