The Black River (The Complete Adrift Trilogy)

by K. R. Griffiths

  Mark clenched a fist.

  "Bullshit," he growled. "I'm not going down without a fight, you hear?"

  Herb laughed bitterly.

  "It will be a lot worse if you resist," he said. "And in the end, it won't change a damn thing. There are three thousand people on this ship. Way more than they need. They aren't just here to feed."

  Mark's muscles ached with the constant tension. Whatever was happening on the Oceanus, it was way beyond his experience and know-how. He was starting to feel fatigued just trying to gather all the questions that needed asking in his mind. And worse, he was starting to believe Herb. After all, the guy wanted to be executed. He wanted a quick death.

  As opposed to what? Mark thought darkly.

  "You want a quick death," Mark said finally. "You can have it. But first, you're going to tell me how to fight these things. People must have fought them before. How?"

  "Nobody knows, for sure," Herb said. Mark thought his tone suddenly sounded eager and hopeful.

  He really does want to die.

  "All the knowledge I have comes from books, and even that is second hand stuff. I know what my father told me, and it's worth you bearing in mind that my father is a fucking sociopath."

  Outside the barricaded door, a bloodcurdling scream ended in a snap. The noise sounded terrifyingly close.

  Close enough that further conversation suddenly seemed like it might result in bloodshed. The room fell into silence, and Mark counted out the beats of his heart, waiting for a sound that might confirm they were in immediate danger. He counted to ten.

  No further noise beyond the door.

  "Get to the point," Mark hissed.

  "Forget all the vampire stuff that you think you know," Herb said. "Garlic, holy water, crosses. These creatures are older than religion, none of that stuff will work. There are some accounts that being staked through the heart works, but that's just hearsay. The one thing all sources agree on is that these creatures have an effect on the human mind, something that makes attacking them directly impossible. So even if staking them did work, getting close enough to stick something in 'em is unlikely."

  "What sort of effect?" Mark asked.

  "I don't know," Herb said. "Supposedly it's like a sickness. My brother saw one. He said they made a girl...do things. To herself. Like she was on fucking remote control or something."

  "The eyes," Vega said weakly. "When you look into their eyes, you can feel them. In your head. In my head."

  Vega trailed off, and his words hung on the air like smoke.

  "They don't like light," Herb said, breaking the thick silence. "That's one reason why we had to disable the ship's electrics. I don't know if sunlight kills them, but I really doubt it. But they don't like being seen. They're parasites, you understand? Like your friend over there said. Insects. If they can, they'll stick to the shadows. They'll kill everyone on board before sunrise."

  "And what if they don't? Can we just find somewhere to hide until the light comes and drives them away?"

  "You could," Herb said. "If they were going to leave on their own terms. But they're not. They will be picked up, in exactly the same way that they were dropped off. And then this ship will be sunk. You see? Even if you survive the vampires, you won't survive the ship. Nobody can be allowed to know about the arrangement we have with them. All evidence has to be disposed of."

  "Because if people knew, we'd find people like you and tear them apart," Mark hissed.

  "Because if the knowledge that these things exist got out, the whole fucking world would collapse," Herb snapped. "And the deal would be off. Truce finished. Millions would die."

  "What else?" Mark said.

  "That's all I know," Herb said. "And most of that is probably wrong. Remember, I didn't believe in any of this shit either until a few months ago."

  "But these things aren't immortal? They can be killed?"

  "As far as I know," Herb sniffed. "They're not magic, they're not undead. They're just creatures. Can they be killed? Yeah, sure. Probably. Can you kill them? I doubt it. And even if you could, would you? Knowing that if you kill them and somehow get off this ship, you'll almost certainly be starting a war that could cost millions of lives?"

  "As opposed to surrendering, and fucking feeding people to these creatures by the thousands?" Mark said bitterly. "Yeah, I think I'd prefer war to that. I'll take a fight over that shit anytime."

  "Do whatever the fuck you want," Herb said sharply. "It's not going to matter to me, is it? I've told you everything I know, and we have a deal. I'm not letting those bastards get into my head. They're evil, you understand? Sadistic. They're not just here to feed. They're here to play. So get your gun out, and make it quick."

  Mark stared at the oppressive darkness for a moment. Even with his eyes adjusted to the gloom, he couldn't make out Herb at all.

  "Yeah, the deal," Mark said. "Turns out you're not worth a bullet. Deal's off."

  25

  For a moment, the darkness confused the hell out of Elaine. She had woken with a headache, but that in itself wasn't unusual: she occasionally suffered migraines that wore her like a pair of old boots for a few hours before subsiding.

  But it was damn dark. There were streetlights right outside the bedroom window—a source of much irritation over the four years that she and Dan had occupied the flat in South Wimbledon—but she saw no sign of their amber glow tonight, and without it, the darkness of the bedroom was almost impenetrable.

  She stretched out a hand, scrabbling for the phone that she kept on the bedside table.

  And drove her arm painfully into a wall that had no business being there instead.

  What the hell?

  I’m not at home. Not in bed.

  It all came back at once. The honeymoon. Dan's disappearance. The power cut and the crazy minutes spent stumbling through the dark. Distant screaming.

  Falling.

  Elaine winced and lifted her fingers to her forehead. They came away slick.

  Judging by the hard edges currently wedged into her back, she had fallen down a narrow staircase.

  Drawing in a breath as sharp pain lanced through her back, she levered herself upright, and checked her head thoroughly. She discovered a deep gash on her right temple, but it felt no bigger than an inch across. Not bleeding too badly.

  It hurt like hell when her fingers found it, though.

  And it's still dark.

  Elaine squinted into the darkness, trying to figure out where she was, but it was if the light had been sucked away completely.

  No windows, she remembered. She was still in the maze of corridors that ran through the passenger cabins, probably somewhere close to the centre of the ship. The park shouldn't be too far away. Easy to reach, as long as she could find an exit from the dark labyrinth.

  As long as I stop throwing myself down staircases.

  Elaine hauled herself upright with a grunt and checked the rest of her body for injuries. Aside from the gnawing pain at the base of her spine, she seemed to have come off lightly.

  At least I landed on my head, she thought. No vital damage done.

  Dan would have laughed at that.

  The thought of her missing husband made her mood darken to match her surroundings. Elaine had no idea how long she had been unconscious at the foot of the stairs, but it definitely felt like time had passed. So where the hell was Dan? And why had nobody sorted the lights out and found the unconscious passenger sprawled across the stairs?

  A flash of light, somewhere ahead of her.

  Weak; barely-there and then gone in an instant, but Elaine knew she had seen it. Straight ahead, and coming from somewhere to the left.

  A crash of thunder made her flinch. Storms had long ago lost their power to frighten her, but Elaine wasn't sure she had ever heard thunder so close. So loud it made her aching head ring.

  She shook her head groggily and started forward, keeping her arms outstretched to run her fingers along both walls. When she had taken th
irty steps, she paused, waiting for the storm to light her way once more.

  She didn't have to wait for long. This time, she was much closer to that left-hand turn, and she saw the flash of light clearly. She made for it quickly, and reached the turn before the light faded and left her blind once more. Once she rounded the corner, she saw that, up ahead, the corridor widened out onto one of the balcony areas that overlooked the park.

  She set off as the light faded to nothing, keeping her steps aimed straight forward.

  And stopped dead when she heard something in front of her. A strange, unidentifiable noise.

  What is that?

  The noise was heavy and wet, strangely rhythmic. Like a machine leaking oil at regular intervals.

  A voice at the back of Elaine’s mind implored her to turn back, but she ignored it. Going back meant returning to the dark maze of corridors and getting lost all over again, and quite possibly tumbling down another set of steps.

  She began to edge forward, toward the noise, and with each step she wondered both what the noise could be, and why she was instinctively holding her breath; trying to make as little noise as possible.

  Because you don’t want it to hear you, silly.

  It?

  Feeling the wall with her arms, Elaine came to a stop, somehow afraid to take another step and see what waited for her in the darkness.

  You’re being ridiculous, Elaine. There’s something wrong with the ship, that’s all.

  Setting her jaw firmly, she took another handful of steps forward and stopped once more.

  Directly ahead of her, Elaine could now see a rectangle of the gloomy light that diffused through the clouds. She was close enough to the balcony that she could just about make out the space beyond.

  Another step.

  Another pause.

  There was something else; another shape that deformed the rectangle of half-light ahead of her. An odd shape that made no sense. For a moment she thought it looked like a pile of bags, and wondered if someone had forgotten to take their luggage into their cabin.

  Another step.

  Another pause.

  Elaine's nerves fired a warning shot to her brain.

  The luggage was moving.

  Another crash of thunder overhead almost made her scream, and she froze on the spot, waiting for the deafening noise to subside.

  But the noise rolled on and on.

  Elaine frowned into the darkness.

  The noise she was hearing now didn't sound like thunder; not exactly. A low rumbling sound.

  Growling. Ragged panting. Like an animal. Like a large animal.

  All of a sudden, Elaine's muscles, which had been locked in place, wanted very much to move.

  She began to back up slowly, trying to make as little noise as possible, without even knowing why she had to be quiet, just that it was imperative that she do nothing that might draw attention to her.

  Attention of what?

  Elaine's muscles flooded with adrenaline, pleading with her to use every ounce of energy they offered to get the fuck out of there fast, but she forced herself to creep backwards slowly. Quietly.

  Somewhere behind her was a set of dark stairs that might as well be invisible, and which had already proven to be treacherous in the total darkness. Somewhere ahead of her, something was close enough that she could smell it, and bile surged at the back of her throat.

  A foul, musty stink which reminded her of the basement in the house that she grew up in; an ancient place that her parents barely ever used. The smell of rot and damp and decay, mixed with a much fresher, and more troubling scent.

  Rusting metal.

  Blood.

  Her heel hit the first step, and she began to back up them slowly.

  And then the lightning lit the corridor once more in brilliant white light and she saw it, and Elaine froze, unwilling to let her foot drop on the step for fear that even the tiniest noise would alert the thing she saw. Crouched in the doorway straight ahead of her, in a spot she had almost stumbled to blindly in the darkness, was a creature that Elaine hadn’t ever seen before; large and angular, a muscular, dark body that seemed to glisten in the temporary light, as though it had been covered in liquid.

  The creature was hunched over something, and it took Elaine a moment to understand what she was seeing. The top half of a corpse that had been ripped in two; legs nowhere to be seen. What remained of the person pinned beneath the creature was almost unidentifiable; torn into hideous strips; a human being reduced to nothing but lumps of gore and a dark pool of liquid.

  The thing was eating the corpse, casually tearing away chunks of flesh and popping them into its mouth like snacks.

  Suddenly, Elaine realised what the rhythmic noise she had heard moments earlier was: not something mechanical. Not even close.

  Something chewing. The sound of a human body being steadily consumed.

  The dark liquid that covered the creature’s hideous body stopped being a mystery immediately. Human blood. It looked like more blood than one person’s body could possibly contain.

  The creature tossed a chunk of flesh aside, as though it couldn’t stomach another bite, and alarms began to sound in Elaine’s mind.

  You have to move!

  She took another step backwards; another step up the stairs toward the dark corridors that she had been so desperate to escape only moments earlier, and as the last of the illumination from the lightning faded, she saw the creature rising up to its full height, its meal forgotten.

  And turning toward her as the darkness returned.

  26

  A distant scream rattled Dan's nerves, and he felt that familiar rushing sensation; the panic gathering momentum inside, slowly ripping his thoughts away from him.

  Adrift on the terrible black river, tumbling endlessly toward danger...

  He shook his head, trying to force his attention back to the present. If he let the old anxiety submerge him now, he had a feeling that he might never resurface.

  The creature that had been outside the closet door was now inside the superstructure, and by the sound of the screaming, it had made its way up from the empty security suite, and was heading toward the bridge.

  All those people, rushing around in the dark bridge, desperately trying to get their dead instruments working. Focused only on solving the mystery of the sudden loss of power. Dan doubted they even knew what was happening on the ship, let alone what was, at that very moment, headed straight for them. Even if they had known, he didn’t think they would believe it. He wasn’t sure he could believe what he had seen with his own eyes.

  But the terrible creature was coming straight for them, ready or not.

  It would be a massacre.

  "We have to get out of here before it comes back," he breathed.

  Katie didn't respond, and Dan slowly became aware of her breathing. Laboured. Frantic. It sounded like she couldn't draw in enough air to speak.

  "Katie?"

  She panted and choked, and suddenly Dan realised that he was on the other side of an experience that he had endured all too often.

  In the darkness, he reached out until he found Katie's shoulder and moved his hands up, clasping them against her cheeks.

  He leaned in close, as though moving in for a kiss, until their foreheads met.

  "It's a panic attack," he whispered. "That's all. I know it feels like your heart will explode, but it will pass. You just need to concentrate on breathing, okay? Breathe with me. In."

  He sucked in a deep breath, gratified to hear Katie following suit.

  "Out. In. Out."

  He repeated the slow breaths for several moments, until he felt Katie's shaking subside a little, and her breathing eased up.

  "I thought...I was having a heart attack," she gasped weakly.

  "I know," Dan said. "It's terrifying, but you sort of get used to it."

  "You’ve had panic attacks?"

  "Heh. Me and panic go way back. You’ll be okay. Just keep breath
ing, try to stay calm."

  Dan remembered hearing those very words spoken to him. Remembered, too, how feeble and ineffective they had been when he suffered his first panic attack.

  There were some situations where words just weren't enough.

  He pulled Katie into an awkward hug. She stiffened for a moment, and then relaxed into his embrace before pulling away.

  "What was that thing?" she whispered.

  "I don't know. Nothing I've ever seen before. And there's more than one of them on board. I saw at least three in the park..."

  He trailed off.

  The park.

  The memories of the images glimpsed in the park lingered like a scar on the surface of his mind. People being torn apart by inhuman monsters. Other people killing themselves in horrific ways, or throwing themselves overboard to die in the sea. It was a scene from a nightmare, and Dan didn't think the images seared onto his mind would ever fade.

  I have to find Elaine.

  "Listen," he whispered. "We can't stay here. That thing sounds like it's headed for the bridge, and once it’s done there it will come right back this way. I don't know about you, but I want to be somewhere else when that happens."

  Silence.

  "Are you nodding?" Dan said, and Katie choked out a soft laugh.

  "Yeah, sorry. Thanks for...you know, calming me down."

  "You're welcome," Dan said. "Can't have you checking out on me. You're my guide. Now, come on, let's get out of here."

  "Okay," Katie said. She sounded uncertain. "And go where?"

  "We have to find somewhere safe," Dan said. "Maybe find your friends with the guns, but first, I'm going to cabin number 217. I have to, you understand? Are you with me?"

  Dan figured that the resulting silence was Katie nodding again, and he grinned despite himself. He reached out in the darkness and found the handle of the door and eased it open a crack, peering through and seeing nothing. He knew that straight ahead was the balcony that overlooked the park. To the right, stairs leading down. To the left, the balcony wound around toward the centre of the ship, passing the door to the security suite.