by Mark Goodwin
Everett decided to fill him in. “Another large meteor crashed into the Atlantic and generated a tsunami.
“You’ve got a pretty nice gash on your forehead. Let’s get you to the sick bay and get something on that bump. I’m sure you guys want a shower. Then you can get some dry mattresses, fresh water, and clean privy buckets. After that, we’ll take care of the folks in the other containers.”
Two hours later, Everett checked his watch. “Nine in the morning, and it still looks like dawn.”
Courtney looked up at the haze all around. “I know Lui and Nate have radar and all of that, but it makes me nervous sailing when visibility is this bad.”
“At least the seas have calmed.” Everett watched Clark and Juan who’d just finished giving fresh water, clean buckets, dry mattresses and first aid supplies to the banged-up crew members in container two. “How are you guys coming along?”
“We’re all done.” Clark closed the container door and placed the pin in the latch. “Do you want us to put the lashings back on?”
“I don’t think that will be necessary. Seas should be fairly even for the remainder of the trip. Let’s get food and water to Lars and Maria, then wrap it up.”
“Yes, sir.” Juan held the rod while Clark spun the turnbuckle to loosen the first lashing on container three.
“Ahhh!” Clark screamed in agony.
Everett stepped back and gripped his rifle, unsure if the deckhand intended on trying something stupid. “What happened?”
Clark dropped to the deck of the ship and convulsed in utter torment. “Something stung me in the neck! It hurts so bad, make it stop!”
With that, Everett knew Clark wasn’t joking. “Juan, quick, help Clark back to your container.”
Juan scooped his cell mate up off the floor. “Can you walk?”
Everett heard something buzz past his ear. “Hurry, Juan!”
Juan picked up the pace. “Yes, sir. I’m trying.”
“There goes another one!” Courtney swatted at something.
Juan dragged Clark in the container and positioned him on the dry mattress. Everett shut the door behind him. Clark’s screams pierced the doors of the metal container. Everett felt terrible for the young man, but he could do nothing to help. No one could do anything to alleviate the man’s suffering.
Courtney frantically waved her arms. “They’re all over the place!”
“Don’t panic, they won’t hurt us.” He held her by the arm and escorted her to the door of the bridge castle.
Once inside, Everett looked her over. “We have to make sure none of them rode in on your hair or clothing. If they sting Lui and Nate, we’ll be in a mess.”
He saw one on the back of Courtney’s pant leg. “Hold still.” He removed his shirt and threw it around her leg, pulling the locust off inside the shirt. Everett stomped the shirt and walked to the waste can to dispose of the crushed insect. The shirt buzzed as he prepared to toss the bug out. “I can’t believe it. That thing survived me stomping it with all of my weight!”
“There’s a hammer in the maintenance room.” Courtney started down the hall to get the tool.
Everett held his shirt tightly as he followed, careful not to let the repulsive creature get free.
Courtney came out with the hammer. “Hold it on the floor. I’ll smash it.”
Everett spun the section of the shirt into a tight knot, restricting the area where the tiny monster could crawl. He held the knot out for Courtney. “Hit it!”
She came down with the hammer. CRACK! She pulled the hammer up and smacked the shirt with the instrument two more times for good measure. “That should do it.”
Everett cautiously shook the shirt and loosened the knot to see if the creature may have possibly survived. “I think you killed it.”
He opened the shirt to see only a smear of goo, a hard piece of the bug’s exoskeleton, and what looked like human hair. “Nasty.”
“Yeah, that’s gross.” Courtney curled her lip in disgust. “Let’s take it up to the bridge. I’m sure Sarah will want to see it.”
Everett stopped off by his cabin to get a clean shirt, then led the way up the stairwell. He and Courtney walked onto the bridge to find Williams sleeping and Lui at the wheel. Lui turned to Everett. “Visibility almost at zero. Between smoke and bugs, I can’t see anything. And very difficult to read radar. Bugs look like thunderstorm on radar. I’m very worried we hit other ship.”
“How fast are we going right now?” Everett approached the wheel and looked at the radar screen.
“Fifteen knot.”
Everett looked over at Sarah. “How long has Williams been out?”
“He lay down right after you guys left the bridge.”
Everett paused for a moment. “I hate to wake him. He was up all night fighting the waves, but I think we really need his opinion on this one.”
Everett walked over to the mattress and bent down. He nudged Williams gently. “Captain, wake up.”
Williams rolled over and pulled the shirt off his head that he was using to block the light while he slept. “Yes, sir.”
“We’ve got a problem. I need your advice on something, then you can go back to sleep.”
Nate Williams stood up and followed Everett to the wheel. He looked out the window in disbelief. “This can’t be. Insects can’t fly so far away from shore.”
Williams looked at the radar screen. “The bugs are coming from the direction of the impact zone. Swarms and swarms of them. It looks like precipitation. Some of the swarms look like land masses and other ships they’re so dense.”
Williams stared out the window at the locusts as they swarmed around and around, buzzing, sticking on the window for a moment, then flying away. He turned to Everett. “It’s not safe to keep operating at this speed. No visibility, we can’t trust the radar. We’re blind. We could ram right into the side of another ship.” He took the throttle all the way back to idle.
Courtney looked at the confusing mass on the radar. “What about the AIS? If it’s another ship, the AIS should tell us their information, right?”
“If the other ship’s AIS is operational, yes. But that wave would have capsized smaller vessels. There could be thousands of ships floating around in the Atlantic, dead in the water, with no electronics whatsoever,” Williams said.
“How fast do you think we can travel?” Everett watched several complete sweeps of the radar. The swarms of locusts morphed from one globular green shape to another.
“I think we should kill the engines altogether.” Williams crossed his arms.
Sarah asked, “Could we do five knots?”
“Someone would have to watch the radar at all times.” Williams looked at Lui.
“Yeah, we watch,” Lui answered.
“Staring at a radar screen for hours on end is quite demanding on the eyes.” Williams turned back to Everett.
Everett stepped back. “So, you guys work it out. Take four-hour shifts, six-hour shifts, whatever you need to do to give your eyes a break. Your sleep is going to be segmented, but none of us are really resting easy in our current situation. Let’s keep her going at five knots. No telling how long this swarm will last, and I’m sure you guys are just as anxious to get to port as we are. I’m positive the rest of your crew is.”
Lui patted Williams on the back. “You go back to sleep. I watch radar. I wake you up when my eyes are too tired.”
Williams didn’t look like he was going to be able to go back to sleep anytime soon, but he accepted Lui’s generosity. “If you see anything that remotely looks like it could be a ship, maneuver around it. Don’t assume it’s just bugs. Always act as if it is another ship. Treating bugs as if they were a ship may slow us down, but treating another ship as if it were a swarm of bugs will send us all to Davy Jones’ locker in a hurry.”
“Yes, Captain. I be careful.” Lui gently pushed the throttle forward.
“Five knots. No more.” Williams made his way back to the mattress
on the far port side of the bridge.
“Five knots, Captain.” Lui studied the ever-sweeping radar screen.
Everett unwrapped the soiled shirt to show the bashed bug to Sarah. “What do you make of this?”
She stuck her tongue out. “Yuck! Looks like what the Bible prophesied.”
“Yeah, but do you think they’re coming out of the asteroid, or do you think chemicals on the comet triggered something that was already here?” Courtney quizzed.
Sarah nudged the exoskeleton from the front of the creature which was still intact despite three solid strikes with the hammer. “DARPA did tons of research on bioengineering for the battlefield, super blood, super soldiers, all that. I’m sure you’ve heard about Monsanto’s corn that will grow on an asphalt parking lot, and made-to-order CRISPR babies where the parents can select eye color, sex, hair color, and even edit out hereditary disease from the child’s DNA, but a lot of darker stuff goes on that no one ever talks about.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard about chimeras, creatures made from humans and pigs to try growing human organs.” Everett sat in the chair next to Sarah’s.
“That all came to light via mainstream channels like National Geographic, PBS, and the New York Times several years ago, but the experimentation had been going on for twenty years before anyone ever admitted it.” Sarah frowned. “Cassie, the lady in our group who was taken in the rapture. . .”
“Yeah, you told us about her. She was turned on to all of this stuff. What did she say?” Courtney listened anxiously.
Sarah looked down at her rifle. “Red pilled, she called it; being turned on to what was happening behind the scenes.” She looked back up at Courtney and Everett. “Living Foundries is one of many of DARPA’s on-the-books programs for genetic research. But, just as the military had places like Gitmo and offshore black sites where they can hold detainees that wouldn’t be subject to US law, DARPA also had multiple off-the-books genetic research facilities that received black-box funding from the Pentagon. These sites weren’t restricted by normal genetic research ethics codes, yet they had cut-outs or go-betweens that shared research findings between the on-the-books programs and the more surreptitious programs.
“The genetically modified mosquitoes used to combat Zika are one example of sharing. The research for those came from what scientists call the dark side.” Sarah pulled one of the small strands of human hair from the bug mush in Everett’s wadded-up shirt. “This looks like a prime example of some of the weaponized insects Cassie told me about.”
“Why would it have human hair?” Courtney pulled away from the hair as Sarah held it up.
“It could be a side effect. They could have edited in human DNA in an attempt to make the creatures more intelligent.”
Everett looked out at the bugs as they lit on the window for a moment, then flew away. He shivered as he considered all the horrific testing that would have gone into engineering a creature like the locusts. “The toxin certainly sounds like a weaponized product of military experimentation.”
Courtney looked at Sarah. “Maybe they created these things, then couldn’t kill them, so they dumped the eggs or whatever into the ocean.”
Sarah looked up. “Maybe they thought they did kill them, and they washed them down the drain. Perhaps they washed out to the ocean, and something in the comet brought them out of their dormant state.”
Everett added to the growing hypothesis. “Maybe they never tried to kill them, but the research facility was swept out to sea by the Las Palmas Tsunami. A black-site research facility like that could have been anywhere. If it had been along the coast of Portugal or Spain, the debris would have ended up in the Atlantic, right around where the comet struck.
“Then, like you said, Sarah, some chemical agent in the Apollyon comet activated the larvae, or whatever dormant form the locusts were in before.”
Courtney crossed her arms. “Whatever they are, and wherever they came from, we’ll never get the truth out of the Global Republic.”
“Yep. They’ll never admit that the bugs were prophesied of, and they’ll never admit it if they’re a product of genetic engineering, especially if the research facility was still operational when the Global Republic took over.” Everett stood and walked toward the door. He glanced at his watch. “If you ladies will excuse me, I’m gonna hit the rack.”
“Get some rest. We’ve got this.” Courtney smiled.
Everett proceeded to his cabin and went to sleep.
CHAPTER 13
For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be.
Mark 13:19
Three days passed, but the smoke and the locusts did not let up. Wednesday afternoon Everett stared into the void of haze and insects from the bridge of the Madison Maersk. From time to time, he’d glance over at the acting captain.
Courtney walked onto the bridge carrying a large metal hotel pan. “I brought everyone some dinner.”
“Great! What do we have?” Everett stood up and stretched his arms.
“Baked ziti!” She placed the pan on the break table by the back wall of the bridge. “But it’s way better than regular baked ziti. It’s got ground beef, tomato sauce, mozzarella, Swiss, black olives, spinach, onions; almost like lasagna, but I didn’t have lasagna noodles.”
“Sounds fantastic! Let’s eat. Williams, put the throttle on idle and join us.” Everett took a seat at the table.
Courtney and Williams joined him.
Courtney dished out the food onto plates that were kept on the bridge. “The good thing about it is, it’s easy to pop in the microwave and heat up. That way, when Sarah or Lui wake up, they can have some.”
Everett looked at Williams who appeared to be waiting for him and Courtney to start eating before he would commence. Everett pulled his rifle around to the side farthest from Williams. “I’m sure you’ve figured out that we’re conscientious objectors to the Global Republic because of our faith. We pray before we eat. But don’t worry, my God still hears me when I pray with my eyes open.” Everett patted his rifle and winked at Williams. It was one thing to be cordial and polite, but Everett never let Williams or Lui think for a minute that he’d hesitate to put a bullet in their heads.
Williams looked away from Everett’s eyes. “Yes, sir.”
Everett looked at the beautiful dish made by his wonderful wife. He thanked God for the many blessings they still had despite the cataclysms the rest of the globe was experiencing.
“We need to get food and water to the people in the containers.” Courtney took a bite.
Everett washed down his food with a long drink of water, which was in his coffee cup. “Containers one and two have several more days’ worth of food and water. I wasn’t sure if the seas would kick up again, so I had the guys overstock both.”
“I know, but what about container three?”
Everett finished chewing. “If we open their container, they’ll be stung.”
“If we don’t they may die of dehydration.”
“The Bible says people will wish they were dead if they get stung. Maybe it’s more merciful to let them die.”
“It’s not up to you to decide.” Courtney took another bite of her food.
“Then we’ll let them decide. But it has to be unanimous. If we get one yes vote and one no vote, we leave the door shut. A tie means no, regardless of how much the other person protests.”
“Fine.” Courtney continued eating.
After dinner, Sarah arrived for her shift.
“Hey sleepy head,” Courtney gave her a hug. “You’ve got baked ziti on the break table. Just stick it in the microwave. We’re gonna take food and water to container three before it gets completely dark.”
“You’re going out there?” Sarah yawned. “Are you positive those things won’t sting you?”
“They didn’t last time.” Courtney held Everett’s hand.
Everett lifted his should
ers. “The Book has been right about everything else. I can’t imagine it would fail us now.”
“Yeah, I suppose you’re right.” Sarah looked over at Williams who was finishing his shift and briefing Lui about the slow progress of the ship. “Make sure none come back in with you. Otherwise, it’ll be bad news for these two.”
“We’ll be careful.” Courtney followed Everett down to the exit door.
Everett lined up the buckets of fresh water and several cases of MREs so he could push everything out the door as quickly as possible. “Ready?”
“Just go. I’m right behind you,” she insisted.
Everett hit the release latch and pushed the supplies out. Courtney hurried behind him, securing the door. Locusts swarmed all around them. Everett kept his mouth closed and batted the disgusting creatures away from his face. He grabbed the water and hurried toward the third container.
He knocked on the door. “Is everyone okay in there?”
“No, we’re not okay. We’re out of water, nearly out of food, and we’re practically swimming in our own filth.” Lars yelled from inside.
Everett looked at Courtney who had placed the MREs at her feet to swat bugs. He yelled to the container and explained the situation.
“If they don’t sting you, they won’t sting us. Just give us the supplies,” Maria yelled.
“It’s five months of agony. You will get stung. It’s impossible to open the door and have them not come in. And they’re extremely hard to kill.”
“Just give us the food and water, please!” Lars yelled. “Let us take our chances with the locusts.”
Everett called out again. “Put a lid on your privy buckets and leave them by the door. Then step to the rear of the container. If we open the door, and you are not at the very rear of the container, I promise you will not live long enough to find out how terrible the sting from the locusts are.”
Seconds later, Lars called out. “We’re at the back of the container.”
