Day Four

by Sarah Lotz

  And then Bin started yelling and pointing at something. I ran up to him, which almost killed me. The helmet’s visor was steaming up, and the oxygen I was breathing tasted like diesel. And then I saw it too. A flash of red in the sand about five hundred metres away.

  Bin said he thought it might be a lifeboat, but it was difficult to be sure with the flies and the spray and the fucking helmet. He set off, and I ran after him. We jogged past another of those tents, this one had earthmoving equipment around it and an overturned army jeep.

  It was a lifeboat. One of the triangular inflatable ones. It had collapsed, which isn’t supposed to happen, so fuck knows what it had been through, and the sea was trying to tug it back in. Bin was there first. There was something tangled in the ropes attached to it.

  A body.

  Did you recognise the body?

  JZ: Ja. It was Damien. The cruise director.

  [Interview suspended]

  >>Gardner, Madeleine/ Interview #3/ Page 2

  all he would say, over and over again. ‘This is impossible. This is impossible.’

  Why impossible?

  MG: The ship had lost communication for . . . God, what was it? Five days by then. You could see that what had happened must have taken longer than that. And a cataclysm hasn’t hit Miami in actuality, has it? I’m here . . . sitting here. Talking to you. We’re in Miami, right? Or close to it.

  Please continue, Ms Gardner.

  MG: We headed away from the beach and towards the highway. The apartment blocks to our right were barricaded with rolls of razor wire. I couldn’t tell if that was to stop people getting out, or getting in. We passed the gate to the harbour. There were still boats there, yachts, but I saw something lying behind that gate . . . sprawled out, covered in flies. None of it felt real. None of it. Xavier led us to the end of the walkway, around a corner and towards a wide boulevard. Behind us, a few hundred metres away, where the main road met the highway, it looked like the army had set up some kind of barrier there. More wire, huge army trucks, I think there was even a tank. I don’t know. Sweat was running in my eyes, it was becoming difficult to see, and my shoulders were aching and shaking under the weight of the suit and the oxygen tanks. I did try to peer past it, hoping that maybe I could see towards the airport. Stupid, really, as I knew it was miles away.

  We passed by a large strip mall. God, that freaked me out. A huge pet store, all kinds of graffiti smeared across the windows. A CVS pharmacy that looked like it had been turned into some kind of church. And the billboards . . . instead of adverts for McDonalds or whatever, they . . . um . . . One said nothing but ‘repent’ in huge red letters that looked like blood. Another showed a series of photographs of teenagers, the word ‘sinner’ slashed across each of their faces.

  How were you feeling at this point?

  MG: Numb, I suppose. Light-headed. Part of this was the equipment. My entire body was wet with sweat. I was running out of energy and I asked Xavier how much further it was. He told me it was just three more blocks. He kept moving, and I kept following. Part of the main road was flooded where a water pipe had burst and we had to detour around it. Um . . . God. There was so much to take in. And flies. Flies everywhere. I had to keep brushing them away from my visor. Whatever had killed the people, it hadn’t killed the flies.

  Finally he turned down a residential street that looked reassuringly normal. Only . . . several of the houses’ windows were boarded up and notices were stuck onto every door or garage door that we passed. Most were ripped or weathered, but I found one sealed in plastic. Have you seen it?

  [Subject is referring to the following document scanned in here for convenience:

  What to do if you suspect your family is infected with the Ishi Virus.

  Do NOT approach the authorities or attempt to leave the vicinity. Call the 0700 hotline.

  WE WILL COME TO YOU.

  Quarantine the infected in a room and seal and secure the entrance and exit. All items that the infected has touched must be incinerated.

  Those attempting to flee the quarantine line will be prosecuted.

  May Jesus and Lord our God have mercy on all our souls.

  NOTE: There is no known strain of disease classified ‘the Ishi Virus’. ‘Ishi’ was the codename for Unit 787, the covert biological and chemical research undertaken by the Japanese in World War II]

  Xavier eventually stopped outside a house three blocks down the street, a park of some kind behind it. Semi-detached. Not high-end or anything, but nice enough, apart from the fact that the windows were covered with newspaper. The door was locked, but he flipped up a pot outside the door and retrieved a key.

  Then we went inside.

  In your opinion, what was Mr Smith’s state of mind at this point?

  MG: You mean Xavier?

  Yes.

  MG: It was difficult to see his face clearly through the visor, but I could tell he was trying to hide his emotions. But when I asked him if he’d put the newspaper over the windows, he snapped at me, said something like, ‘Don’t be so fucking stupid.’ The place was cramped and dark. We tried the light switch, but the electricity was out – no surprise there after everything we’d seen. The kitchen and lounge were on the ground floor, and it looked like the bailiffs had just been. The floor was covered in dust and filth, there was sod-all furniture, nothing but a desk and an empty bookshelf, and someone had spray-painted a peace sign on the fridge door. Xavier had told me he was a trust-fund kid. I wouldn’t have expected him to live in such a squalid place.

  Did Mr Smith comment on the condition of the residence?

  MG: He said something like: ‘This can’t be,’ then he ran up the stairs. I don’t how he moved so fast in that suit.

  Did you follow him?

  MG: Not right then. I snooped around for a few minutes, looked in the kitchen cupboards – they were all empty – and checked the desk drawers. That’s where I found the e-reader. I’m not sure why I pocketed it. Maybe because it seemed to be the only thing of value in the place and I thought Xavier might want it. Time was really running out by then and to be honest I was getting spooked. As if I was in a haunted house or something. I called out that we’d have to hurry as we’d need enough air to get us back to the tender boat, but he didn’t answer. I shouted again, and he still didn’t respond. I had no choice but to go after him.

  And where was he?

  MG: He was standing in the doorway of what had to be the bedroom, staring down at something. I touched his shoulder and he screamed. I told him once again that we had to get the hell out of there, and this time he listened to me and headed for the stairs.

  What was it that he was looking at?

  MG: The room was empty but for a mattress with a lumpy duvet piled on top of it. Look, I can’t be sure or anything, but it was possible that there was something . . . God, someone – okay? – under there. All I know is that the window frame was black with dead flies.

  Did you investigate further?

  MG: No way. Do I look insane? No. I got the hell out of there. Can I get some water, please? My throat is aching.

  [Interview suspended]

  >>Fall, Helen/ Interview #3/ Page 2

  It was Althea who came to find me. She was kind, I’ll give her that. The whole time we were on that ship, she was kind to me and Elise. She said Celine wanted to see me. She said Celine was waiting for me in the spa.

  Did you go and meet Ms del Ray, Ms Fall?

  HF: Yes. I was reluctant to leave Elise. Probably you’re thinking I’m some dotty old woman, but even though I knew she was gone, that there was nothing else I could do for her, I didn’t want to leave her. But I did.

  I was curious. I suppose I wanted to hear what Celine wanted to say to me.

  I wasn’t shocked at the damage inside the ship. I’d been expecting it. And as for the spa, do you know, Elise and I hadn’t even been in there the whole time we were on the ship. It was relatively untouched. Smashed bottles, which made the whole place stink
like a prostitute’s boudoir, and it had clearly been looted, but it was quiet.

  She was waiting for me in the hair salon. Sitting in her wheelchair, flicking through a magazine – yes, really! – as if she was a client waiting for her stylist.

  She greeted me like an old friend. It was . . . it was . . . and I don’t like to use this word . . . but there is no other. Surreal. Two old women at the beauty salon or the hairdresser’s, swapping small talk.

  Please continue.

  HF: She thanked me for coming. I asked her why she wanted to see me. She said she’d taken a shine to me. That I had proven myself to her. She said . . . I do have an excellent memory, but . . . hold on. Yes. She said, ‘It gets dull after a while. Going round and round and round again. Far better to be a puppet master than a puppet. Tearing down worlds then building them up again. Setting wheels in motion to see where and how they’d roll.’

  She went on like this, talking clichéd nonsense, for quite a while. It was all rather annoying, if you want the truth.

  Do you know what she meant by that?

  HF: I assumed she was talking about her parlour tricks.

  >>Smith, Xavier L/ Interview #3/ Page 2

  and then there are those medical tests you did. Have you tested us for drugs? Hallucinogenics?

  Mr Smith, to confirm, you state that you never returned to your house?

  XS: I never went back to my house! Ask my fucking neighbours.

  I was never off the fucking ship.

  The captain and crew ditched us, people panicked and fled, only to lose their lives in the storm. And the rest of us . . . Celine convinced us that we were experiencing something we could never have experienced.

  [Subject is shown the e-reader that Madeleine Gardner states she collected from his residence]

  Can you please explain what this is, Mr Smith?

  XS: It’s a Kobo. You can read books on it. It’s like a Kindle, only more ethical.

  Mr Smith, would you mind reading the content list from it? Just the first page.

  XS: Yes, I would mind.

  [Subject is shown the list of books stored on the device purportedly taken from his apartment: From Crash to Conspiracy by Elspeth Martins, Beyond Black Thursday by Carter Edwards, The Truth About Black Thursday by Ace Kelso, and Dangerous Belief by Michael Shermer.

  NOTE: It has been ascertained without a doubt that the authors of the books named have not written or published this material]

  XS: I’ve never seen those before.

  [Subject refuses to comment further]

  [Interview suspended]

  >>Gardner, Madeleine/ Interview #4/ Page 7

  drag him back to the boat. By now I was absolutely exhausted. Xavier kept saying ‘it isn’t happening, it isn’t happening’. I didn’t bother to argue with him. My back was sore, I was dying of thirst. The Beautiful Dreamer had drifted further out, and I remember this weird panic that we wouldn’t be able to get back on it. After what we’d been through on it! . . . God . . .

  Devi was the next one to arrive. He’d been at the cordon, the place that I said looked like some kind of military blockade. He said he’d tried the radio and they had satellite phones and all sorts of equipment, but there was nothing. No signal.

  None of us said the obvious. That this damage couldn’t have taken place over five days. The damage we’d seen would have taken months.

  The doctor came back alone.

  [Subject requests a ten-minute recess]

  [Interview suspended]

  >>Trazona, Althea/ Interview #4/ Page 2

  she told the old woman that she could have her husband back. That there were ways. That she could have everything she wanted. That someone like Helen could learn to do what Mrs del Ray did. We all could. It was hard to make sense of what she was saying. For example, I heard her say that we could all learn to come back again and again in a vessel of our own choosing. It sounded like religious nonsense to me.

  How did Ms Fall respond?

  AT: She was staring at Mrs del Ray as if she was mad. Perhaps she was. Or is. I liked Helen and Elise. Very good guests. Clean. Quiet. I was sorry that Elise died. Then Mrs del Ray said I could leave them alone. So I did.

  Where did you go?

  AT: I went out onto the main deck. People were clearing up the area. Most of them were helping with the work, but Mr and Mrs Lineman, who were guests on my station, were sitting by themselves at a table next to the Lido bar. Mrs Lineman called my name and asked me to go to their cabin and collect Mr Lineman’s medication.

  How did you respond?

  AT: I was tempted to tell them to go and fuck themselves, but they looked so lost that I agreed. They had been punished enough. Mr Lineman had broken his arm, and she was very pale and tears were running down her face. On my way to their cabin, I met Rogelio, one of my paisanos. He was very worried about a friend of his, the security guard who had gone with the others to the mainland. I could see he wanted to talk. I let him.

  He knew I’d found the body of the dead girl.

  Kelly Lewis?

  AT: Yes. Rogelio told me that the man who had murdered her was locked in the morgue. He said that Devi, the security guard, wanted him to stay in there as punishment for what he’d done.

  How did you feel about this?

  AT: I didn’t know the man. Rogelio said he was worried about Devi and how he would feel if the man died in there. He said Devi was sensitive and might blame himself and regret it, even though the man was a rapist.

  I suggested that we should go and see if the man was still alive.

  We went down to the morgue, and Rogelio banged on the door to see if there was an answer.

  And was there?

  AT: Yes. A soft tap. Weak. I didn’t hear the man cry out or anything like that, but it sounded like he was still alive.

  Then what did you do?

  AT: I told Rogelio to wait for me there and then went to ask Mrs del Ray what we should do with him. If we should leave him in there, or let him out.

  What did she say?

  AT: She said it was Rogelio’s choice if we wanted someone like that to join them.

  Did you question what she meant by that?

  AT: No.

  Rogelio and I had a long discussion about what to do. Devi had given Rogelio his taser gun, and he held it in front of him while I opened the hatch. The smell! I thought I was going to vomit. The man had messed himself and he was moaning and sweating and talking all sorts of nonsense. He tried to climb out, and then Rogelio shot him.

  The man jerked like a puppet, and then he seemed to pass out.

  Moving him out of there was hard. We had to drag him part of the way. He was heavy. But when we reached the I-95, we were able to use a gurney from the medical bay.

  Where were you planning on taking him?

  AT: I knew the crew members had opened one of the loading bays. It was simple. Rogelio took his legs, and I took his arms and we carried him to the edge. He moaned, and Rogelio thought that he would have to use the taser again, but then he was quiet. We rolled him into the water.

  I would like to make it clear that we weren’t planning to kill the man. He was not dead when we put him into the water. He deserved a chance to live. Everyone does. He could have woken up and swum. But I will admit we didn’t check if he did. Perhaps we didn’t want to know. We weren’t far from shore. And at least that way, Rogelio said, Devi would not be haunted by the man’s ghost and his conscience. He said that Devi would assume he had escaped and had thrown himself overboard. That way he would not blame himself.

  What did you do next?

  AT: I had something I had to do. I had someone I had to find.

  Who?

  AT: Trining. One of the other stewards. I thought she might still be on the ship.

  Did you find her?

  AT: No. But I promised myself I would keep looking. Mrs del Ray said that he – she – was no longer on the ship, but I didn’t always trust what she said. I needed to make sure
.

  >>Gardner, Madeleine/ Interview #5/ Page 3

  Why did you not leave Miami and go overland to attempt to see if there was life elsewhere?

  MG: Because we were running out of air. And anyway it was obvious that there was no life elsewhere. That level of destruction didn’t just happen in isolation. The extent of it was . . . I’ve told you how bad it was.

  How did the other passengers react when you told them what you had discovered?

  MG: Not well. And it was up to me and Devi to do the honours. The second we got back to the ship, Xavier disappeared and locked himself in Celine’s cabin. He couldn’t cope with what he’d seen. Jesse also left us. He was gutted that he’d let the nurse go off by himself and he hadn’t tried to stop him. Yeah, so Devi and I did our best, but they didn’t want to hear it. They hadn’t seen what we’d seen, so they kept insisting that we were mistaken, that it’d happened recently, while we were at sea, and that was why no one had come to rescue us. A few of them – Jacob especially – got quite angry with us. Celine just listened, an infuriating smile on her face.

  What is your explanation for what you saw in Miami, Ms Gardner?

  MG: There’s only one, and it’s batshit insane. That somehow we’d arrived in . . . I don’t know. Another version of reality. One where the world had been hit by a cataclysm. One with a history that had never happened. Celine – or the ship – had taken us somewhere else.

  Yeah. Trust me, I know how that sounds.

  What happened next?

  MG: Celine spoke up and gave another one of her speeches. She said that we must move somewhere where we could live until the dead bodies had had time to putrefy and wouldn’t be a health hazard. And, surprise, surprise, she knew exactly where we should go.

  She had it all planned to a tee.

  And where was that?