by Trimboli, TJ
“Bobbi, I’m sorry but I did what I thought was right. That’s all any of us can do, that’s all you’ve been trying to do. It just didn’t work out this time but that doesn’t mean I’m against you. Without you I’d be dead, I’ll never forget that and I won’t ever leave your side because of it.” He crept toward her.
“Then prove it,” she said setting the hammer into his hands.
“I don’t follow.”
“We’re not going to kill the sick,” she stated matter-of-factly.
“Bobbi—”
“WE’RE NOT. But I understand your concern with disease so, we’re going to get them off this ship.” She smiled.
Richard peered at the boat, his expression looking troubled. “Bobbi, we were ordered to do a job. If we disobey this command, what is the point of our cabinet? What is the point of putting in place this system?” he pleaded with her.
“It’s wrong and you know it! Killing them all. It’s wrong. I’d rather be known as the one who let society die, then be known as the one who killed innocent lives to try and save one last shred of it.”
Richard went to speak but refrained. He ruminated on her words for an inordinate amount of time.
She got concerned he may simply not respond and turn her in.
After what felt like an eternity, he looked at her. “You’re right. It’s wrong. If there’s a better way than killing them, we should do it. What do you need me to do?”
She told him of her plan to get the sick off the ship; the rope, the men she needed to help, and of Trent’s part to play in all this.
Richard never once spoke out of turn, listening to every step that was to be asked of him. He nodded, his photographic memory soaking up every inch of the goal. When she was done, he simply walked away.
Bobbi thought nothing of it while concealing the pod underneath the tarp. She set off with a renewed vigor in her step.
She got no further than two steps through the pool doors when three of Kendra’s acolyte’s surrounded her.
Instinctively, she placed her hand on her gun.
The lead acolyte, a brown fellow sporting a scar across his neck, put his hands up. “Kendra has given us implicit instructions to follow your every command. There is no need for such hostility. We will not harm you,” he spoke softly and comfortingly.
His tone made her even more furious feeling as if they were purposively talking in such a manner as to drive her insane. “I’ll be the judge of that,” she said brushing past them.
They followed behind her.
“What is thy bidding?” he asked.
She stopped turning back to him. “Your bidding is to leave me the fuck alone,” she muttered.
“But Kendra said—?”
“I know what she said. You want to be any help to me then shut the fuck up and do what I say. I won’t accept people who talk back or question my leadership. In fact, I won’t accept talking of any kind. Just do what I say, exactly as I say it, and everything should be peachy.
Understand?”
None of them uttered a word. They simply stood upright, stoic with poker faces and awaited her command.
“They want Trent by nightfall, so we’re going to make sure we turn over every last stone on this boat to make that happen. I want you to round up a few more of your posse and head up to the top floor. You search every last nook and cranny of that floor before moving on down to the next one. And you do that floor by floor, level by level, until we have him trapped with nowhere to hide. And then you bring him to me, is that clear?” She barked.
The brown fella nodded and they were off.
Good, that will keep them busy for a while. She grinned.
She flew down the halls heading for the infirmary. She passed no one on her way down. It froze her spine, goosebumps prickling up her skin. This ship was one week away from being a ghost town. There was just under two hundred denizens left and this ship was big enough to hold four times that amount.
We will rarely ever see each other. We’ll all take to a corner of the ship and become like animals parading over our territory…No better than the zombies by then.
Even at this point, she didn’t think they were any better than the zombies. At least with a zombie you knew what you were getting. They were going to try and kill you and eat your brains. You knew how to prepare. Not like on this ship. Here, it was all politicking, and mind games, subtle manipulation. There were too many minds together thinking a thousand and one different doomsday scenarios each and every second of the day.
It’s no wonder more and more people go insane every day on this wastetoid of a ship.
She approached the infirmary looking in through the glass doors on the entertainment level. The sick had doubled in numbers since the last time she walked these halls. Death hung like an odor over the floor, both as a warning and an invitation. Peering through, she could see Becky sitting on a stool next to a dozen children, reciting a story to them. Slowly, she slipped through the doors listening in on the tale.
“And in one fell swoop, the sorcerer transformed himself into a giant cobra and ensnared our hero, saying he is the most powerful being in the world,” Becky’s voice sang with clarity perfectly transcending the words whisking these kids to a faraway land, as far from this hell hole as she could possibly take them.
The kids sat on their knees slowly leaning towards her as if being closer to her will force the story out faster.
“However, our hero tells the sorcerer that the Genie is more powerful, inspiring the sorcerer to use his last wish to become a genie himself. The genie grants this wish turning the sorcerer into the most powerful genie imaginable, only to be sucked into his own lamp as part of the genie’s nature, dragging his parrot with him.” She mimed the parrot noises drawing laughter from her audience.
Bobbi sat down a few feet away, enraptured by the story as well.
“The genie takes the sorcerer’s lamp throwing it back into the Cave of Wonders, and asks our hero to use his third wish to regain his royal title. Our hero instead decides to free the Genie,” Becky went on.
This elicited awe and shock from all the children.
Bobbi couldn’t help but laugh at the wonder of these young boys and girls. Tears dripped down her cheek.
“Learning of our hero’s generosity, the Genie goes wild. He jumps, dances, and spouts off a hundred different thoughts at a time,” Becky said before going into one of the genie’s tirades. “I’m free! I’m free! Quick, wish for something outrageous,” she said to one of the small children in front of her.
His eyes went wide with excitement at haven been chosen.
“Say I want the Nile. Wish for the Nile try that?” She motion for the kid to respond.
He looked around at all the kids around him cheering him on.
Bobbi watched in amazement being swept away momentarily from the heartache around her.
For just a split second, she was one of those kids. “I wish for the Nile,” Bobbi whispered.
The kid answered along with her, “I wish for the Nile.”
“NO WAY!” Becky goofily shouted at them. The kids erupted in howls of laughter.
It was the most heartwarming sound Bobbi had ever heard. She forgot how much she missed laughter. She looked around her to see that not only the kids, but every sick teen, adult, and senior citizen alike watched in childlike glee at the story being told.
“And the Genie says his goodbyes to his friends and sets off to explore the world and the Sultan seeing the love that our hero has for his daughter alters the law, so that she can marry whomever she chooses and she chooses our hero and they kiss…they lived happily ever after.
The end.”
All the kids sat back with bright smiles on their faces. There wasn’t a dry eye around them. All the adults politely clapped at the conclusion of the story. For one moment, in this shit sandwich of a boat, they were all happy again. They were coming together, feeling together, they were one.
Becky stood up t
o take a bow. She now noticed Bobbi smiling. Becky smiled back taking a bow.
They laughed. All around them people clapped. As Becky straightened herself back out, Bobbi noticed blood seeping from her nose. She looked at her concerned. Becky felt it at her lip, dabbing it slightly with the tip of her tongue. She doubled over coughing violently, blood staining the floor.
The less sick around her dove away, while the ones too far gone simply let themselves be splattered in her blood. It made no difference to them.
Becky would have keeled over if it wasn’t for Bobbi’s quick reflexes. She slid across the floor catching Becky as she fell to the ground. She landed in Bobbi’s arm violently spasming.
The children all cried, disappearing into the shop behind them.
Joe ran up behind her taking Becky from Bobbi’s arms. He lifted her eyelids, he put two fingers underneath her neck for a pulse, he laid Becky on her side letting her simply vomit the blood that needed to be expunged.
She gagged and screamed repeatedly.
“It’s okay Becky, let it out. Let it all out,” Joe said soothingly.
After a few moments, her fit slowed down and she leveled out. He laid her up against the wall of the gift shop placing a cold wash cloth against her head. She slowly drifted off.
“She fainted. Don’t worry it won’t last for long. She’ll come out of it just like the rest of them,” he spoke softly before dealing the blow. “Lucky for her, she won’t have to live like this long.” He spewed. He got up heading off to other patients.
Bobbi, taking offense to his words, followed him. “In case you forgot I was on your side back there. I voted no too.”
“And a lot of good that did Bobbi. Look, I don’t want to argue with you. I’m sick of doing it. From now on, I’m just going to mind my own business and look out for me. After tonight, after what we do here tonight, I don’t want to ever see or talk to you again. Do you hear me?” he asked.
“Perfectly. But I’m not going to do it. I’m not ending any lives tonight. I’m saving them.” “What’re you talking about?” He wondered aloud but she had already turned her back to him.
She looked out at the fifty three sick souls waiting to die. “Excuse me,” Bobbi muttered.
No one paid her any mind.
“Excuse me!” she shouted silencing the hall.
All eyes turned to her.
She resisted the urge to look back at Joe looking for a way out. She would stay the course. “The council has seen fit to decide that your lives aren’t worth caring for any further. Tonight, they want to do what they think is best for the healthy people of this ship and humanely end your lives. Joe and I voted against such a heinous idea but it didn’t make a difference, the decision was made. I don’t want to see your lives end tonight, I’ve seen enough of that and so…I’m not.” No one said a word, too engrossed in her tale to speak.
“There’s an escape pod I refurbished; on the eleventh floor at the front of the ship. At nightfall tonight, I will get you on that boat, put you in the water, and get you to safety.”
At this, a portly bald woman chuckled. It sounded like a weasel would, had it been smoking for seventy five years. “What makes us any less safer out there than on this boat? Have you forgotten what’s out there? What’s roaming our land now? You want me to prolong dying here somewhat peacefully and instead, die on land as viciously and inhumanely as it can happen?
Why on Earth would I do anything like that?”
She had a point. Bobbi didn’t think of that and she had no definitive answer to give her. “If you’re looking for a reason why…I can’t give you that. All I know is human beings, people who are supposed to be better than the zombies out there, decided today that it would be easier to do away with fifty three people than take the chance of becoming one of you themselves. As far as I’m concerned, that makes us zombies. When we stop caring about the sanctity of one another’s lives, we as a society have crumbled. It’s a wrong step in our development and it scares the hell out of me what will happen to us if we accomplish it. So yeah, maybe I’m asking you to go die at the hands of evil than to let good become evil with one fell swoop. I don’t know. None of us know. That land is as great a mystery to us right now as the existence of GOD. We don’t know if there could be survivors, we don’t know if there could be an all out war, we don’t know if we’re the last people left alive on this planet, but I tell you what I do know. I know that I want to find out.”
The woman refrained from speaking further, seeming to ponder on Bobbi’s words.
“Now I know it’s a scary thought going into the unknown but the only way we as a species don’t lose our sense of right and wrong is if we save your lives tonight.” She stood there afterwards silently waiting for any kind of response. She looked around to see many of the sick that were still conscious were looking towards the bald woman.
She looked Bobbi dead in the eyes. “Alright, kid. We’re with you. Better to die out there in the sunlight, in the world than down here in this coffin, right? When?” she asked.
“Sunset,” Bobbi answered.
Joe stood shocked that Bobbi managed to will enough fight left in these lost souls.
The bald woman nodded her head to Bobbi. They would be where they needed to be. One step closer. “There’s just one problem,” the old crone said. “Those escape boats can hold forty, forty five people tops. Some of us will have to stay behind.”
“No one is getting left behind,” Bobbi argued. “People will double up, it’s not for long, just until you hit land.”
“You don’t get it Sheriff,” the old countered. “Those boats aren’t equipped to handle that kind of buoyancy. We’ll tip over. We won’t make it anywhere near land.”
Bobbi grappled with the thought. She couldn’t allow even one person to be slaughtered by the council tonight.
The bald woman could see her struggling with the decision. She approached Bobbi. “Listen kid, along the way sacrifices are going to have to be made. You’re doing a good thing here, saving what you can, of your people and of your mind. It’s the right call but so is leaving some of us behind, so the majority can make it. Besides, you’re going to need some people to help you lower them down.”
Bobbi didn’t try to fight her on it. Even though she knew Richard would show with a few good men to lower them down, she knew the bald woman was right. Not all of them could go, some people would have to die tonight. It sucked the air out of all the work she’d accomplished in the last couple of hours but that was one of the sacrifices that had to be made.
Shoot for the stars, land on the moon.
Bobbi nodded to the bald woman. “We’ll see you at sunset.” She walked away then turned back to Joe. “I have a lot more I need to do before tonight. Please, make sure they get there and watch over Becky for me.”
Joe nodded. “You’re going to get him, aren’t you?” She paused not knowing how to respond.
“If we’re going to do this Bobbi, it has to be without him. You can’t put him on that escape boat with them. He can’t be trusted. I won’t put their lives at danger any further,” he angrily stated.
Bobbi thought quickly. No way was she leaving Trent on this boat, another second longer here and he would fully lose it. She needed to get him off this boat and the sick were the way to do it. After all, just cause Trent wasn’t spewing out blood and coughing up a storm doesn’t mean he’s not sick. She gathered her thoughts and decided to lie. She didn’t have time to deal with Joe’s inferiority complex right now. “He’s not. I need to meet with Richard, and fix up the boat a little more. I hid Trent from Valentina and Kendra because I owed him one from a long time ago, now we’re even. He’s on his own,” she said as convincingly as she could.
“I’ll see you at sunset.” He walked away.
Letting out a sigh of relief, she made her way back to Becky kissing her forehead. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. I won’t let this be your tomb.” She set off down the hall, missions to complete, jobs to
do. Running them off in her head, it dauntingly terrified her that she wouldn’t finish in time.
I need to do my rounds, attach the escape pod to the ropes to balance it over the edge of the ship. I need to be at the forefront of the search party making it look like I’m giving it my every effort to find my husband, steal a small portion of food to give to the sick for their journey. Something that will be damn near impossible now without Becky on rations duty. Check on my husband to make sure he hasn’t completely lost his mind down there, and make sure no one even so much as takes a step on that level until sunset when I sneak them all off this boat. Got it Bobbi? Let’s get to work.
She set off with a pep in her step and a smile on her face. The plan was set and the part that came naturally to her was at hand. All that was left would be the task of seeing its completion and she’d always completed more tasks than any of her peers back on the force. The third quarter was starting and Bobbi had finally found her edge. Nothing would stand in her way.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
VALENTINA
Passing through the stacks of crates and debris that cluttered the Helipad, they made their way towards the aft. She heard Kendra gag behind her and she knew she was close. Flies swarmed over a bloody tarp that rested on top of a broken crate.
“Am I sure I want to know what’s under that?” Kendra lamented.
Valentina remained silent ripping the tarp off. Beneath it, were the corpses of her children.
Kendra covered her mouth shrieking at the sight of a young boy and girl so far decomposed, they were barely recognizable.
The boy’s throat was a hue of dark purple, eyes wide open, staring at the sun above him. It was so hot they could practically see the stink coming off of them. Blood stained the boy’s lips. The girl was a story Valentina tried not to read. Her sundress was torn at the bottom, panties nowhere to be found, her womanhood bare for all the world to see. She didn’t need to think further to see how her story ended. She did her best to conceal her tears but for the first time since the night riot, she cried. She felt Kendra’s hand on her shoulder. Turning to her, she saw that Kendra was right there with her, tears flowing down her cheeks.
