by Brian Toal
Jon and Carman sagged against the steel wall of the alcove, clearing their lungs of the poisoned air of the hold.
"Sir! It's gone!" Jon's head turned at the crew member's exclamation. The alcove was built into the ship's side, the floor a continuation of the steel deck plates of the hold, but divided from the vehicle deck by a concave wall with a single hatchway. The outer edge ended, open to the sea, with two empty davits hanging forlornly over the side. The zodiac they had struggled across the hold to reach was gone.
"Chris!" Carman wrenched her arm from Jon's grasp and jumped across the small space to where the First Officer gently lowered Chris to the metal plates.
"Oh, Chris...my God...what have they done to you?" She sagged to her knees beside him.
"Do you know this child?" The First Officer asked.
"Yes! He’s the boy the people on the bus were after."
"The kidnaping victim? Why would they have left him in the hold?"
Carman didn't answer. She knelt beside him and with her hands on either side of Chris' head, she turned his face upwards. "Oh my God...Oh my God!" Her voice rose to a shriek as she noticed the blood matting his hair and oozing down his face, the folds of flesh under his bulging left eye a deep purple.
"Oh, fuck..." Jon spun on his heel behind her, turning away from the mess that had been Chris face. “Is he alive?" He asked, still with his back towards Carman.
"Yes, he’s alive." The first Officer answered. "He struggled for a second when I picked him up. But he passed out, just before we got through the door."
"What should we do, sir?" One of the ratings interrupted from behind them. "Somebody has taken the zodiac."
The First officer didn't answer. He raised the radio to his lips. "First Officer to bridge..."
There was no response and, as Jon knelt down beside Carman, he tried again. "First Officer to bridge..."
A few moments later the radio crackled to life. "This is the Captain. Go ahead."
"Captain, the zodiac is gone. I think the people from the bus must have taken it."
"Yes, I know..." The Captain voice ended - dead air - and the First Officer was about to try again when she continued. "First Officer Riggins, return to the bridge with the three ratings."
"Captain, how are we going to corral the life rafts without the zodiac?"
"There may be another way, Officer Riggins, but I want you and your three men to return to the bridge immediately. I need help up here, loading the lifeboats. Understood?"
"Yes, Captain." He returned the radio to the holder on his belt.
"What other way is there to corral the life rafts without the zodiac?" A rating asked.
Officer Riggins shrugged his shoulders. "The lifeboats have motors, I suppose we could pull a few rafts behind each of them, and besides some other ships should be here soon and they will have motor launches."
The rating nodded.
"Anyway...the Captain wants us back up top. What about you two?" He turned back to Carman and Jon. "Do you want to try and cross the hold again or wait here?"
Jon looked up from his position by Carman. "I don't think we want to go into the hold again. What’ll happen if we wait here?"
"I'll make sure a lifeboat swings by and picks you up. Otherwise..." He nodded towards a stack of foam rings, racked in the corner "...you’ll have to trust your luck to those. If you see we have deployed the life rafts, get the hell off the ship and try and paddle your way towards one. The rafts can't maneuver very well, because the paddles in them are really small, but some of them will be lowered into the water only fifty feet away from here, towards the bows. Try and make it to one."
Jon nodded towards Chris. "And him?"
The First Officer stared silently at Jon for a moment. "I'll try and ensure a lifeboat gets over here. But if they don't make it...just do your best."
"Right." Jon muttered.
The First Officer nodded. "Good luck."
THIRTEEN - FIVE
"Alright Captain...you can have your crew proceed with lowering the lifeboats. Of course, the lifeboat with my friends in it will be first."
Terry nodded and picked up the microphone that linked her with the lifeboat stations. "Starboard-bow...this is the Captain. When you are ready, lower away that lifeboat." She deliberately did not mention the special nature of the lifeboat's passengers. The rating at the station was equally aware of the pistols pointed in his direction."
"Understood, Captain."
"Good and then begin to load the other passengers into the life-rafts."
"Understood, Captain. We will commence inflation of the life-rafts as soon as the lifeboat is away."
"Excellent Captain Gowers." The man standing behind her with the gun in his hand, nodded. "I will remain with you until your First Officer has returned and I can let myself out through the hold."
At the starboard-bow lifeboat station, the rating cranked the loaded lifeboat out over the side where it swung eighty-feet above the water. Below him he could see the zodiac, idling twenty feet away from the ship's side. He had only been a crew member aboard the Queen of Selkirk for less than a month, but he knew the three people in the zodiac were not members of this crew. He shook his head in dismissal. His problem was to get the passengers off the ship - not worry about what would happen when they reached the water. "Okay, when you hit the water, pull this lanyard." He instructed one of the men sitting in the stern of the lifeboat, gently swinging on its two wire cables over the water far below. "It’s attached to the release pins on the cable. I can't release you from up here and, if you don't pull it promptly when you hit the water, the ship is going to be pushing against your gunwales. You could be in trouble if that happens. And..." He continued, just to unnerve this conservative looking man, dressed in a charcoal-grey business suit who only minutes before had been pointing a gun in his face. "...don't pull the release lanyard too soon or the fifty of you will be doing a team dive, followed by a two-ton lifeboat. Got it?"
The man in the business suit nodded and the rating released the winch lock. The lifeboat with its fifty silent passengers dropped away. Behind the rating there was a hissing thump and the first life-raft on the starboard-bow inflated.
"Come on, come on..." He yelled towards the passengers now that the people with the guns had disappeared over the side. "Twenty-five people. No more, no less. Let's go! There's lots of room for everybody."
"Queen of Purcell this is Tsawwassen control. Do you have the Queen of Selkirk on your radar?"
"Tsawwassen Control this is The Queen of Purcell. We are four miles from the Queen of Selkirk and not only do we have her on our radar, we can see her."
"Then what the hell is happening?"
Captain Spencer allowed himself a small smile, in spite of the situation. The administration and especially Tsawwassen Control were sticklers for proper radio protocol. He had received several reprimands over the past years for perceived breaches in radio communications. But swearing! Well...they certainly must be upset.
"Tsawwassen Control, the Quean of Selkirk is adrift and we can see they are lowering lifeboats. There are at least three boats and I don't know how many rafts in the water."
"You are aware of Captain Gowers Mayday call?"
Oops another breach of protocol. "Tsawwassen Control, yes, we heard Captain Gowers Mayday, but they are definitely off-loading lifeboats and rafts. There doesn't appear to be any hindrance to their progress."
"What is your planned course of action?"
Captain Spencer shrugged. If Tsawwassen Control felt that they could dispense with ship-to-shore protocol, then so could he. "I already have our zodiac over the side. In four minutes, I will reduce speed and lower it away. The four crew members will reconnoiter the Queen of Selkirk and report back to me."
"Understood. Please be advised the Coast Guard will be doing a flyby in fifteen to twenty minutes."
"We will have arrived by that time."
"Understood. Our recommendation is: do not bring the
Queen of Purcell closer than one nautical mile, until the situation has resolved itself."
"Okay, that sounds good to me. I'll hold her back at one nautical mile and launch our zodiac from that position."
"Queen of Purcell...understood and please keep us informed. The Queen of Selkirk is not answering our call."
"Tsawwassen Control, this is the Queen of Purcell. Understood and out."
In the silent hold of the Queen of Selkirk the L.E.D. readout on the side of the reefer changed to twenty-four degrees - one degree below the freezer’s diesel engine powered starting temperature.
THIRTEEN - SIX
"Jon! He’s waking up."
Jon dropped the three life-rings he had been tying together with a piece of oily rope and moved over beside Carman. "Is he okay?"
"No! But I think he’s going to wake up anyway."
Chris groaned and twisted on the metal plates, his hands rising to his face.
"Chris! Can you hear me?" Carman had his head and shoulders cradled in her lap as she gently stroked his forehead.
Chris stopped moving and slowly nodded once. "Carman." He whispered.
"Yes! Oh...Chris, what have they done to you?"
Chris' eyes remained closed as he carefully moved his head in her lap. "Hurt me.... they hurt me bad." He whispered, the dried blood, caked on his lips and cheeks cracking as he spoke.
"Oh...Chris, we’ll get you to a hospital somehow." Carman hugged him as tight as she dared.
Chris' eyes slowly opened and Carman almost screamed as he looked up at her. His left eye was a ruptured blood-red mass, and as it rotated up to stare into her face a squirt of blood shot from its corner, joining the clotted mass covering his cheek and thick in his hair. "Look what they did to me," he whispered.
"Oh God..." Carman's hands hovered over his face, unsure of what she should do.
"Chris!" Jon spoke from above her and Carman watched Chris' eyes slowly move upwards to search him out.
"Can you move? We’re in big trouble here and we are going to have to get off the ship."
Chris lay limply in Carman's lap. "I don't think so."
Jon dropped to his knees beside him. "Can you move?" He asked again. "There are no life-jackets down here, only life-rings. Will you be able to hold onto one?"
Chris shook his head.
Jon reached forward and gently slipped his arm under Chris' shoulders, raising him to a sitting position, although his head sagged to his chest, his body limp in Jon's hands. "Chris, make an effort. Can you support yourself or not?"
Carman watched as Chris placed his hands flat on the deck, his shoulders rising as he took the strain. "A little." He whispered.
Jon eased Chris' back up against the steel wall and knelt in front of him. "Hey kid, this is time to tough it out. If you got the strength, make it happen okay?"
Chris nodded. "They'll be back."
"Who?"
"Uncle Charlie and my mother."
"Your mother!" Carman exclaimed. "Is your mother on the ship?"
"Yes, but she’s part of it too."
"Oh, no..."
Chris shook his head dismally. "It doesn't matter, she is just like the rest of them."
Carman grabbed his hand. "What happened?"
"They operated on me...while I was awake...and my mother helped hold me down."
"Oh, God..."
Chris nodded. "She held me down while it stuck things into me and she didn't even care."
Carman said nothing her arm sliding up and around his shoulders.
"She is part of it now. Everyone I know is part of it. There’s no one left..."
"We're here." Carman said gently.
"Yes..." Chris sighed. "Until they come back..."
There was a sudden sound of voices and a life-raft appeared below them, bumping and spinning against the ship's side. Two men in bulky lifejackets had their legs over the edge of the raft, trying to push the rubber craft away from the sheer steel walls of the ship. None of the occupants looked up and a second later the raft spun away to the stern.
"They’re abandoning the ship!" Jon moved over to edge of the metal deck. "We’ve got to get on one of those rafts."
"But, that Officer said he would come back for us." Carman said.
"He said he would try to come back for us - not that he would."
Carman turned to Chris. "Chris can you stand?"
Chris said nothing, but then slowly pushed himself to his knees. Kneeling, with his chin slumped against his chest for a long moment, and then, as Carmen gripped his elbow, he rose to his feet. He sagged against the rear wall as Jon leaned out beyond the alcove to attempt to see along the curved wall of the ship.
"If I see another raft up against the side, we got to jump for it. Carman, get those three life-rings I have tied together. When we go into the water, we got to have those."
"Chris can you stand on your own?"
"Yeah." His head hung, his eyes half closed as he sagged against the wall. "I'll be alright."
Carman turned to retrieve the three life-rings as the motorized zodiac roared around the stern.
"Fuck! It's your Uncle!" Jon yelled as he jumped back into the alcove. "What the hell do they want?"
"That thing is still in the truck." Chris answered. "He’s come back for it and for me."
"For you? Why?"
"They don’t actually want me, they want what I know."
"For fuck sake!" Jon screamed, "will this never end?"
Chris said nothing as Carman returned to stand by him. "What do we do?" She asked.
"Help them." Chris shrugged. "It’s all we can do."
"Kill them! Fucking, kill them!" Jon ran over to Chris, kneeling down in front of him as the motor on the zodiac died and the boat drifted in under where they stood.
"Kill them Chris. You’ve got to. It’s our only chance."
Chris shook his head sadly. "Not anymore Jon. It took that away from me. There’s hardly anything there anymore. Only a glimmer. I can't do what I used to do."
"We’re fucked then."
A man's head and shoulders appeared above the deck, then immediately disappeared from view. Quickly replaced with two others with guns drawn. "You two." One of them yelled. "Back up against the wall, where I can see you."
Jon pushed himself to his feet and turned around to face them.
"Back up against the wall. And leave the boy alone."
Jon and Carman stood side by side as the first boosted himself up onto the deck. Quickly he pushed himself to his feet and covered them as the other climbed up onto the metal plates behind him.
"Sit." The two advanced towards them as another three people clambered onto the steel plates behind them.
Jon and Carman sagged to the deck.
"Mom!" Chris yelled from beside them and Carman looked up, the first time she had seen Chris' mother. A woman with long red hair stood on the deck plates, beside two other men.
She nodded at Chris. "I see you have recovered." Her voice flat and without compassion.
"Mom, how can you say that? I almost died. Don't you care a bit?"
"Of course, I care Chris. And, I see that you are alright."
"Mom, I'm not alright! I'm not well at all. I’ve been tortured. I’ve had my eye torn from my face, I’ve had things shoved into my head. I'm bleeding. I can hardly stand. I'm not alright at all!"
"Oh, Chris..." She walked a few feet towards him.
"Stay away!" Chris held up his right hand and pushed himself back against the wall. "You aren't my mother anymore. Look at what you did to me. You held me down while that thing tortured me. You let it do things to me that no mother should ever let happen to their children, or anyone's children. You aren't a mother anymore. You are a thing, a robot, a mindless slave."
"Chris be quiet. You don't understand."
"Don't understand? Mom, how can I understand - I was awake. I was screaming. I was screaming for you to help me. And all you did was hold my legs down harder."
> "Chris! Shut up!" It was his Aunt, just now climbing onto the deck plates. "You know your anger is a waste of time. You are fully aware of what our purpose is. And yes, it seems cruel sometimes, but it was the right thing to do. I had to have Todd killed and yet we all know it was the right thing..."
"You had Todd killed?"
"Yes, it was absolutely necessary, he couldn't..."
"You killed Todd. Your own son. My friend."
"Yes, I didn't want to, but...."
"You freaks!" Chris rushed at his mother. "You fucking freaks! You killed my friend!"
His aunt grabbed him by the hair and threw him back against the wall. "Smarten up. You should know by now, the importance of our endeavors."
Chris smashed up against the metal wall beside where Carman and Jon squatted and then spun around to face his Mother and Aunt. Blood smeared his face, his bloated, red eye with the blue iris in the center staring like a demented demon. "You mutants! Nothing is that important. You are nothing! You aren't my family. I don't even know you."
"Chris...quiet down." Carman whispered from the floor where she knelt beside Jon. "They’ll kill you."
Chris spun, his face contorted, his eyes wild and staring. "No! They can't. They aren't allowed to. But I can kill them and that is exactly what I’m going to do."
"What the hell are you yelling about?" His Uncle was on the deck and in two quick strides advanced to where Chris was standing, his hands pressed against the wall behind him for support. "You’ve caused us all enough trouble. I don't know why you need to live."
"That's right you don't. You don't know anything. None of you know anything, do you? You just follow. You just do what it tells to do you because you can't do anything else. You’re zombies. You’re fucking, homicidal zombies."
"Shut up." Charlie belted him across the face, gobs of blood flew from his hair and face across the wall behind.
"We cannot tolerate any more of your interference."
