by M. L. Banner
“How much time?” Jean Pierre asked.
“At most… five hours.”
43
Alone
TJ pulled the door closed behind her and sobbed into her palms. She felt utterly alone.
She found her bed, in a cabin separated by what felt like miles from her husband, when it was only a few decks.
She was absolutely exhausted, having not slept for many days now, even though her new body demanded sleep, and lots of it now. She literally could sleep for a week and it still wouldn’t be enough.
As she stared at the ceiling in the dark—she could make out every detail—she longed for her husband and for his touch.
She pulled the necklace out of the folds of her running shorts. The clasp broke and it was the only way she could prevent losing it, and yet keep it close to her. Her fingers ran over each of its intricate curves and angles, knowing its shape and look so intimately now.
She considered the reasons behind Ted buying this: he had thought of her as a warrior, because she had always insisted she was a warrior, taking the job of a warrior, until her fears took that away from her. Now she was afraid of nothing. Almost.
She wished she could go back to being that fearful person.
Her previous fear of animals was a distant concept. The only fears she held were not being able to be with people, without wanting to hurt them. And most of all, she was terrified that she’d never be with her husband again.
She tried to tuck these fears back into the dark recesses of her mind. Before all of this, she was really good at repressing her fears, or at least hiding them so she didn’t have to deal with them. So she would try to do this now.
She focused on his face tonight. He looked so handsome, with his perfectly shaved face. Even his mustache was gone. She grinned to the darkness at this.
TJ kissed the necklace, and then placed it above her heart, until finally she drifted off.
~~~
Ted let the door to his empty cabin slam shut, and all at once, he felt like he would collapse from fatigue. He’d been working for endless hours on the video project, the monitoring, the endless wardroom discussions, the confabs with Molly and Chloe. But, it was that image of his wife, with tears streaming down her cheeks, that sucked every last bit of energy from him.
When the meeting concluded, he tried to find his wife, but the endless questions poured out and Jean Pierre asked him and the others stay and answer them for an hour. So he did.
After an hour or so, he did what Jean Pierre asked and told the audience that they were concluding the meeting, because the acting captain couldn’t be here to attend to a problem on the bridge. So they would have to reconvene again soon. And fellow crew members would be in touch with each of them soon.
They concluded and the wardroom members broke free and met up with Jean Pierre and Niki, who also left early.
That was when they heard the details of the problem. Their fuel problem was real, though not quite as bad as they’d first heard: Niki was able to change the efficiency of some of their systems to buy more time. They also turned off all air conditioning throughout the ship, except in the Wayfarer lounge where all the parasitics were still being held. Even with that, they had maybe a day and a half of fuel left.
It seemed fortuitous that Ted had found the group who had fuel for trade. They made contact and were set to meet in the morning. If all went well, they’d avert one more disaster.
And what a disaster it would be: if they ran out of fuel, not only wouldn’t they be able to go anywhere, but their parasitic problem would come back. And even though they had them locked behind doors, there was no way those doors would hold back the strength of two or three of them, much less a few hundred.
Ted looked over at the empty space where TJ should be lying beside him. She’d separated herself from him, out of fear of what she might do. And he was pretty sure that’s what she was crying about tonight. His own tears welled up as he patted her side. “I miss you, darling,” he whispered.
That’s it; I can’t sleep, he thought.
He was wired for sound, though his body was exhausted. He couldn’t sleep now, even though his body demanded it.
He often found peace and the ability to sleep when he wrote. So he grabbed his Mont Blank box and pulled out the pen she had given him for their anniversary. Right when this whole thing started… It was on Day Five, the day I lost her...
A couple of tears crept out, and he furiously wiped them away.
Ted pulled out his journal, and reread his last notation. He examined his pen, with “T.D. Bonaventure” embossed on its shaft.
He clicked off the pen cap and slipped it onto the back of the pen.
He looked up and a tear burst out. He wiped it away immediately.
he paused for a moment, thought about it, and began to write.
THE JOURNAL OF TD BONNEVENTURE … DAY FIVE continued.
What’s Next?
The final chapter of the trilogy
SYMPTOMATIC: MADNESS Chronicles III
For more information, including release date, go to
http://mlbanner/madness3
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Who is ML Banner?
Michael “ML” Banner is an award winning &
international best-selling author of apocalyptic thrillers.
Four of his seven books were #1 Amazon best-sellers in one or more genres. Highway won the 2016 Readers Favorite Gold Medal in Thrillers and was 2016 Finalist for Kindle Book Review’s Best Sci-Fi Novel. His work is both traditionally published and self-published.
Often his thrillers are set in far-flung places, as Michael uses his experiences from visiting dozens of countries—some multiple times—over the years. His last two transatlantic cruises were the foreground of the MADNESS Chronicles, his newest series.
A serial entrepreneur, having formed multiple businesses over the years, he founded and still runs SmallBiZ.com, which helps small businesses create and maintain entities, forming almost 100,000 entities over its 18 years of existence.
When not running a business or writing his next book, you might find Michael hunting, traveling abroad, or reading a Kindle with his toes in the water (name of his publishing company) in the Sea of Cortez (Mexico). That’s because he and his wife split time between their homes in Arizona and a beach in Mexico.
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