EMP Survivors (Book 1): Destination Lost

by Christof, Norman

  "I remember, a few years ago. Some cruise ship had engine troubles, and they had to tow it back to shore."

  "Yep, the ship had engine troubles and they lost propulsion, air conditioning, and plumbing."

  "But, they made it back intact. Everyone was fine."

  "They did, but this is a lot different. We've lost all power. At least as far as we know."

  "What do you mean, as far as we know?"

  "I was just thinking that maybe the captain and crew aren't telling us the whole story. It seems crazy to me that everything would go down indefinitely. They've got a whole team of engineers and maintenance staff that should be able to rebuild stuff from scratch. I would think that they'd have some critical stuff up already."

  "That would be good."

  As they got closer to their room, Holly pulled out their room key.

  "Ah, crap. I bet we're going to be locked out. These are all electronic key card locks."

  "Damn, I'd forgotten about that. Let's try anyways. They must have some way of working when the power goes out. They're the same as the hotel room doors. They must have battery backups or something."

  At their door, they tried the card key; none of the lights lit up, and it didn't beep like it was supposed to when the lock released.

  "Shit," Holly said. "Now what?"

  Just then, they heard some loud voices from around the corner, several rooms down. It was hard to hear what they were saying, but it didn't sound good. There were men and women's voices, and they were angry.

  "I'm gonna check," Garrett said.

  "No," Holly said, grabbing him by the arm. "You don't know who it is, or what they're up to. Don't go butting into other people's business."

  "I just want to know if it's crew or passengers arguing," he whispered. "Just wait right here and I'm going to go peek around the corner."

  "Don't leave me here all alone."

  "It's just a few doors down. I'll be two seconds. We need to know what's happening. The more we know the better."

  Holly shook her head, and whispered, "Fine. Be careful. Look, and come right back. Don't you dare get involved."

  "I won't. It'll be fine."

  The voices continued around the corner, and were getting louder. Garrett could make out what they were saying as he got closer.

  A woman's voice. "You've got no right to take that from us. That's ours!"

  A man's voice. "We're in charge of this section of the ship now, and you're not even allowed to be here. We're operating on captain's orders to confiscate any contraband, and to detain any passengers violating ships rules."

  There was a loud din as several people starting talking and yelling at the same time, making it impossible to hear what they were saying. Just as Garrett was about to look around the corner, Holly called back to him in a loud whisper.

  "Garrett, it's open! The room door is open. C'mon back." She was standing halfway in the doorway, and motioning with her hand for him to return.

  He held up his index finger, and mouthed the words, "One minute."

  Garrett looked around the corner to see a half dozen people arguing over a backpack. Three of them had their hands on it, and were trying to pull it away from the others. A few of them were facing in his direction, but were so consumed by the debate over the backpack, they didn't notice him. Then, suddenly, a gunshot rang out in the hallway. Everything moved in slow motion. One of the women that had her hands on the backpack fell backwards, clutching her stomach. Her white blouse slowly turned red where her hands were. Her face reflected shock and surprise. A second man let go of the bag and tended to the woman as others turned with the backpack and ran down the hall towards Garrett.

  Garrett turned quickly and dashed back down the hallway towards Holly, still standing in the doorway. She'd stopped calling to him, and stood frozen in fear and confusion. He raced past her into the room, pulling her along, then closed the door quickly and quietly. They were both breathing hard as he threw the deadbolt from inside the room.

  "What ... what happened--" Holly started, but couldn't finish.

  "They shot her. They shot a woman." They both looked at one another. He recognized the same look on her face that he'd seen on the woman who'd been shot. Disbelief. "They're coming this way."

  "Did they see you?"

  "No." He looked around the room, as if seeing it for the first time. "No ... I don't know. I don't think so. I never saw their faces, so they couldn't have seen me ... right?"

  "Yeah, I guess. I don't know."

  The sound of running feet echoed down the hall, getting louder with each step, heading in the direction of their room.

  Chapter 14 ~ Leap Of Faith

  Becky cleared the edge of the landing by almost a foot, but that didn't stop her heart from racing the entire time. She landed squarely on both feet. She got her flailing arms under control, and steadied herself without losing balance.

  "OK," she said to herself. "That wasn't so bad."

  "Nice job," William called over. "Look who's the track star now."

  Becky smiled as she undid the rope from her harness. "Yep, that's me. Never won a race in my life, but I can leap skyscrapers with a single bound ... at least parts of them I can."

  William tied the rope to his harness, and performed the same jump, almost running into the back wall of the landing.

  "Easy there, killer," Becky said. "It's not a competition. You don't need to beat the girl's jump so your friends don't laugh at you."

  "I was more worried about the drop than crashing the wall. Guess I don't need to go quite so hard the next time."

  "How many more times do we have to do this?"

  "Looks like about a half dozen from here. It's hard to tell from this angle. We can do it. No problem."

  By the time they made it to the last landing, they were starting to feel pretty good. Nobody turned an ankle, nobody crashed into a wall, and most importantly no one missed a landing.

  "I'm starting to see the attraction of being an Indiana Jones like yourself," Becky said, teasing William.

  "Very funny. To be honest though, I'm just putting up a very brave front here. I figured it would be the chivalrous thing to do, to help the lady keep her spirits up."

  "Now, that is the most non-Indiana Jones thing I've heard you say all day. From what I remember of the movies, he seemed to consider the women in his life more of a nuisance."

  "You actually saw all the movies?"

  "Of course. Didn't you? I thought everybody saw them. My parents insisted on it. Like they wanted to share a part of their formative years with me or something."

  "My parents weren't big fans of TV or movies. More into the real world. We did travel a lot, and I'm grateful to them for that."

  "We never traveled much. Rarely got out of North Carolina. It's a great place, but both Mom and me got a little tired of spending all our vacations camping in the woods and fishing. My Dad's idea of heaven on earth."

  "That doesn't sound so bad. I like fishing."

  "You'd like my dad then. Maybe you should go on vacation with him. He ..."

  Abruptly, Becky turned her back on William and started sobbing.

  "Hey, what's wrong?" William put a hand on her back. "Don't worry. We'll get out of here soon, and you'll see your parents again."

  Becky turned around and looked at William with misty eyes.

  "My parents have been separated for the past six months. It's been pretty rough. Especially for him, I think. Hard for me too, but I didn't want to let him see that. He was having a hard enough time with it all."

  "Shoot. I'm sorry to hear that. You never know how these things will go. They'll probably get back together."

  "Really." Becky smiled. "How would you know that? You've never even met them."

  "Well, no, but I have met you, and you seem pretty amazing. That doesn't happen by accident. They must be pretty amazing people as well to raise a kid like you. So, they'll probably work it out ... just a feeling I have."

 
"Thanks for the optimism, but the thing is, they're kind of already back together."

  "Well, see, there you go. I was right all along." William grinned.

  "They went on one of those big cruise ships together. First vacation they've taken outside North Carolina since we went to Disney when I was small

  ."

  "That's great, I've always wanted to do one of those cruises. I'm sure they'll have a blast."

  "My mom was super excited about it, but my dad was dreading it ... kinda. He was doing it because he wanted to be back with my mom, but flashy cruise ships just aren't his thing. First, he said he'd only go if he could fish from the deck of the boat. Course he was kidding, but still. He went for her. And now ..." Becky started crying again. "Now they're out in the middle of the ocean, and I'm trapped up here, and I don't know if they're having problems like we are down belowthere are terrorists on the street ... and

  ..."

  "Whoa, whoa, just hang on. You're getting way ahead of yourself. Let's do this thing one step at a time." Becky suddenly burst out laughing in between the sobs. "What's so funny?"

  "We've been jumping like nine steps at a time ... not one." She laughed hard again, then snorted through her nose. Quickly she covered her face with her hands from embarrassment. "Oh my God. I can't believe I just did that. I haven't done that in years."

  William started to laugh.

  "Don't laugh." She punched him in the shoulder. "It's not funny."

  "Sorry." He laughed again. "Sorry ... really I am." He did his best to stifle the next few laughs. "We all do embarrassing things. It's allowed, especially with the kind of day we're having. Trust me, it's OK. I promise not to tell anyone you snort like a pig when you laugh."

  "Promise?"

  "I promise."

  She gave him a suspicious look. "Tell me the most embarrassing thing you do."

  "No. Why would I do that?" He mustered up his most hurt-looking face. "You don't trust me?"

  "If I know one embarrassing thing about you, then I know you won't tell anyone about me. Mutually assured destruction." She nodded her head.

  "OK fine. I still use the same Spider-Man sheets on my dorm bed that I've had since I was like twelve."

  "No way. I don't believe you. Someone would have already told that story."

  "Maybe I don't let just anyone in my room, and that's why you haven't heard about it."

  "C'mon, we're in our sophomore year. I don't believe you haven't had anyone back to your room."

  "Alright. Alright. That would be even more embarrassing, I guess. You've never heard anyone say anything because I only put them on before a big exam."

  "What?" Becky both smiled and squinted her disbelieving eyes at him.

  "It's true. They're my good luck charm. I always put them on just before I go to bed on the eve of a big exam. They relax me, and help me sleep better. Getting a good night's sleep is one of the most important things you can do before writing an exam. It's true ... really ... no lie." He held up the three fingers on his right hand, like the Boy Scout promise oath.

  "You were never a Boy Scout."

  "No, but I always wanted to be, so it still counts."

  "Alright, fine. I trust you now.

  "Great, glad to hear it. Now, let's get this last jump over." He knelt to tie their line to the anchor point, and realized there wasn't one. "What the heck?" He motioned to Becky.

  "Oh no. Where's the anchor?"

  "Damn. Someone screwed up. That must be why these stairs haven't been finished yet. They're waiting to re-pour this landing before they install the steps. We're going to have to do this one without a safety net."

  "We can make it. We haven't missed yet. Why would we now?"

  "Exactly." He forced a smile. "It's how Indiana Jones would have done all of them. No safety net."

  Now, it was Becky's turn to stifle a laugh.

  "What's so funny?"

  "It might be the way Indiana would have done it, but it's certainly not the way Spider-Man would have." There was no stifling her laughter now.

  "Yeah, yeah. Very funny." Now he broke out laughing.

  Five minutes later, when they regained their composure, they leaned over the edge of the final landing.

  "Well, at least it's not that far a drop this time to the next set of stairs," Becky said.

  "We'd still probably break a leg at least."

  "Yes we would. Better not miss."

  "Nope. I don't intend to." They both took a deep breath at the same time. "Ladies first?"

  "Don't mind if I do."

  Chapter 15 ~ A Better Idea

  Muffled footsteps running down the carpeted hallway grew louder. Garrett still had his hand on the deadbolt latch as the steps came closer. They slowed ... still moving towards them. Garrett leaned in to look through the peephole, but Holly grabbed him by the hand and pulled him back. He turned to look at her, and she was shaking her head.

  She whispered. "No, don't look. They can tell from the other side if someone is at the door. Come back."

  Garrett started to follow her back into the room, then hesitated.

  "No ... I have to see. We need to know who it is."

  He let go of Holly's hand as he moved back to the peephole, and peered through. Holly hunched her shoulders and covered her mouth with both hands, barely taking a breath. Garrett watched through the peephole. The voices were hard to hear through the heavy door. A good thing when you're trying to sleep, Garrett thought, but not so great when you're trying to ID thugs.

  It sounded garbled as they spoke. "Did you see? Did you see?"

  "That wasn't supposed to happen. Why'd you do that? We didn't need the food."

  "They saw the gun, I had to do something. I couldn't just let them call one of the crew."

  "And now what? You think the captain won't find out? They'll be after us."

  "We'll leave. We can't stay anyways. This place will be a zoo in a few days. They'll all turn on each other."

  "We can't leave. We're in the middle of the ocean on a ship, you idiot."

  "There's a way off ... I know. I'll show you."

  Then they were gone down the hallway, out of sight and range. Garrett put his hand back on the deadbolt latch, just to double check that it was still locked.

  "They're gone. Yeah, they're gone," Garrett said.

  They both sat on the edge of the bed for a few minutes and didn't say anything, just digesting what had happened.

  Garrett suddenly became alert. "The girl! Damn. The girl. They shot her. I have to go check."

  "Wait ..." Holly started, but before she could say more, Garrett was out the door, racing down the hall back to the scene of the crime. Holly followed on his heels. He slowed going around the corner, but there was no one there. He ran to the spot where the altercation had taken place. There were blood stains on the carpet, and blood on the handrail that ran the length of the wall. It went halfway down the hall then stopped just before the stairs.

  "Where did they go? She couldn't have just gotten up and left."

  Holly took Garrett's hand. "What happened?"

  "There was a group of people, including the ones that walked past our door. They were fighting over a bag, like a backpack. They were all pulling on it, then one of them shot the woman. I ran back to the room right away. There were others with the woman. Maybe they carried her away."

  "Where? Back up? Maybe to one of the rooms?"

  Holly tried the handle on the nearest door. It opened.

  "Don't," Garrett said. "We don't know who's in there." He paused, looking through the open door to an empty room. "Wait, how did you do that? These doors should be looked. It just opened. Was ours locked?"

  "No, ours wasn't. I tried the handle and it opened just like this one."

  "Must be something to do with the power failure. All the locks just released."

  "That can't be right. There'd be a rash of break-ins every time the power goes out."

  "I don't know. I can't think straight ri
ght now. Let's go back to our room."

  "Did you recognize them?" Holly asked when they were back in their room.

  "No, I'd never seen them before."

  "Would you recognize them again?"

  "Oh yeah, in a heartbeat. There were two older men, probably in their sixties, and a Hispanic woman, probably about ten years younger. She didn't say anything when they went by, it was just the two men. They looked very similar. Could have been brothers. Tall, over six feet, and full heads of totally gray hair. Dark tans on both. The woman looked really scared."

  "Scared of the men?"

  "No, not of the men. She was holding one of their hands. Scared of what had just happened. She looked like she was going to be sick."

  "I don't understand how they could have gotten guns on board. There's no way anyone could have gotten a gun past boarding security. It was like going through an airport."

  "I agree. But, somehow they did."

  "Could they have been cruise line security? They have undercover officers. I thought I read that somewhere when I was booking the cruise. They have to have security for a ship of this size with all these passengers."

  "Those guys didn't talk like security officers. They were worried about being caught. Whoever they were, I'm pretty sure that they weren't supposed to have weapons."

  Holly was visibly upset now, and doing everything she could to hold back the tears. She pulled a tissue from the nightstand and blew her nose, then walked into the washroom.

  "The toilet looks like it's stopped working," she said from within the washroom. "The bowl's empty, like all the water's been drained out of it."

  "With all the power out, the plumbing probably won't work. That's going to be a problem in a big hurry. I hope the ship has manual toilets. Can you imagine four thousand people without working toilets for a day?"

  Holly came out of the washroom. "I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry. You never wanted to take this trip. I coerced you into agreeing to it. I never should have ..."

  "Hey, don't even say that. None of this is your fault. No one could have possible imagined this. Not you, not me, even with all my paranoia, and obviously not the cruise line. Although, now that I think about it, they're more responsible than anyone else. They should have better contingency plans for something like this."