Cryptophobia | Book 2 | Hell & High Water [Fear The Unknown]

by Henderson, G. D.

  “No, she continued off down the corridor”.

  “Okay, give me a second”. Edward got dressed and stepped back out of the bathroom. He approached the door.

  “Where are you going?”

  “To check”.

  “She said we have to stay here”.

  “Why? What were they running from?”

  “I don’t know, but you’d do well to heed her advice, before you get us both in a pickle we can’t get out of, like you got your marriage into”.

  “Fine, I’ll just look through the peephole and let you know if I see anything suspicious”.

  “Be my guest, but open that door for anyone other than Christine and my granddaughter and you will discover how unfriendly I can be”. She stepped aside for him.

  “I won't, you have my word”, he replied, turning away from her, “grumpy bat”.

  “Did you say something?”

  “Nothing at all”, he replied, pressing his face against the door and squinting to see through the peephole.

  There he waited for what seemed like an eternity, before growing bored and returning to the centre of the cabin to pick up his phone.

  “Anything?” Martha asked.

  “There's nothing there, you paranoid moose”.

  “You certainly don't hold back with your childish insults do you? I was given an instruction, I followed. Just because you like to live on the edge and break rules, test the waters, doesn't mean I have any desire to join you”.

  “I'm going to be on the phone now, so I won't be listening to your negativity any longer”.

  “I have nothing to say, I know what I saw. If something happens, it'll be too late to admit I was right as per usual”, Martha grumbled, returning unnervingly to the couch.

  CHAPTER 15 - CHRISTINE, EDWARD, RACHEL & WILSON

  1:19pm - 6 hours, 32 minutes since outbreak in London.

  9 minutes since outbreak aboard MS Hoots.

  . . .

  . . .

  Rachel crawled through her social network feeds in a fruitless attempt to find out more about the cause and effect of the chaos in London. She had grown obsessed with looking at videos and hearing people's personal accounts, as the drama continued to unfold back in her home city, by which point even Lori had reached emotional and mental fatigue, too worn out to witness any more suffering and violence.

  “Terri and her boyfriend are okay, she said they're getting the fuck outta dodge, but apparently no public services are running and naturally the streets are fucking rammed. Jeremy hasn’t replied to me and it’s making me really worried. I really hope neither he or anyone else I know were at ground zero”, Rachel informed.

  “Most of my family are okay, but my uncle and auntie went into town today and haven't responded to messages and calls either, so I'm worried”.

  Rachel looked up at her.

  “I hope they are okay”.

  “I hope Jeremy is too”.

  Rachel returned to her phone and a minute or two later she broke the silence again.

  “Some young girl named Ria has gotten famous on Chirper in just a few hours for documenting everything going on since this morning. The creepy thing is that six hours ago her messages were days apart, but since then they've been getting more and more frequent. She was in a car crash, she saw people attacking people, she’s lost her brother somewhere, her mother is stuck in an office that got attacked and now she's in some car with a bunch of strange guys who offered her a lift out of the city, which frankly sounds dodgy to me”.

  “That does. It would be the perfect opportunity for opportunists to take advantage of the chaos by kidnapping people and stealing stuff. She shouldn’t trust them”.

  “Right? I told her to make a break for it”.

  “What are they calling it? Whatever is happening? Just crazy people crazying?”

  “Sounds appropriate. What else can you call them? They're fucking lunatics”.

  “Do you think they escaped from an asylum or something?”

  “That many? And didn't you see some of them all dressed up? No. I thought it might have been something like that at first, but this is more like a zombie movie”.

  “Are you seriously saying that these crazy people are… zombies?”

  “Well… maybe not zombies, they don’t exist and now it sounds ridiculous having come out of my mouth, but would it be far reaching to think it spreads like an infection, similar to the whole zombie premise?”

  “You think it’s spreading?”

  “I say that because every video I’ve seen just shows more and more people who look dressed completely ordinarily attacking one another and behaving erratic, violent, possessed. Where else could they be coming from? The only thing that seems to make any sense is that it’s spreading. Think about it, if someone were infected with something, like say a disease or virus, it would only need to start off with one person and then they bite someone like you saw that woman do to that guy in the video and the ball just keeps rolling from there”.

  “Like rabies or Ebola or something?”

  “Maybe. I know how crazy that sounds, but when you take into account the pandemics the world has faced before, this isn’t that far from the mark… only worse, much worse. That would explain why police officers were shooting indiscriminately, they’ve lost track of who is and isn’t infected. It’s just a theory, but I really hope above all that I’m wrong, because if I’m right, London… no, the world has to brace itself and I don’t want to know what the outcome of this will be. I just want it all to end. These videos are terrifying and my stomach feels tight, my mind is literally buzzing with a million thoughts. I feel like I’m going to crash”.

  Rachel stood up and began pacing back and forth across the cabin anxiously.

  “You’re scaring me. I’m already worried sick about everyone back home. They told people to stay indoors. They should be okay if they listen, right?”

  “But you saw those crazed people throwing themselves through windows without a care in the world, can just staying indoors really be safe enough?”

  “Stop, I can’t”.

  “I don’t mean to… I’m just… all over the place at the moment, I don’t know what to think or feel anymore”.

  “I just hope you’re wrong”.

  “I hope I am too”.

  1:21pm - 6 hours, 34 minutes since outbreak in London.

  11 minutes since outbreak aboard MS HotS.

  Wilson was a wealthy successful man, he made his millions in automotive and electronic parts trading and had amassed quite a network of suppliers who could provide what he needed for suitable prices. The gift of the gab was a particularly useful thing to have in his line of work, in fact it was useful just about anywhere. There was always something to be said about a man with the divine ability to sway minds with his whipping charm, such a man was born to be something great, for simply possessing such a talent bestowed him with an upper-hand not many could claim to have. This gift wasn't limited to business, it extended to all aspects of life, friends, access to exclusive events, women, daily bargains and extended trips on-board this truly majestic and grand cruise liner.

  There wasn't many things this man couldn't get with his gift, which was just the way his compass of luck pointed. Others were more than welcome to call his attitude towards life arrogant and conceited, but his success, happiness and achievements had all been attained because of those attitudes, in fact, all that he had attained because of his gift and attitudes spoke for themselves.

  Having been on the phone all morning to contacts in London, he wasn't in the best mood. The chaos in London was disrupting business and therefore his happiness. It looked as though he'd be taking the first available flight back to London the moment he was able to disembark. Fucking great time for terrorists to pick to attack London, whilst on his vacation, miles away from business and business associates, unable to do anything whilst the ripple effect of the attack crumbled everything he had worked so hard for. He’d happily pa
y for someone to personally deal with those motherfuckers if he could.

  His ladies chatted away in front of him, as they made their way towards an elevator that would lead to his luxurious cabin suite. The elevator bell sounded and the doors opened as it arrived on their floor.

  Giving one of his women a playful spank, she giggled and they stepped onto the elevator together.

  An older lady stood in the corner giving the three of them the stink eye, probably because of how scantily dressed the two ladies were in only their bikinis.

  “I need a fucking break today, thank God I have you two goddesses, otherwise I’d have gone fucking nuts”.

  “We’ll take your mind off of it, Wilson”, Sophie, one of his ladies replied, stroking his cheek.

  “I’m sure you will”.

  “Why don’t we give you a taster of things to come”, Laura replied, playfully spanking Sophie, who kissed her in return.

  “God, what you two do to me”.

  The old woman’s disapproving gaze could burn through metal.

  “What’s wrong, old lady? These two remind you of what you wished you could be when you were younger?” Wilson asked, rudely. She shot him a look of scorn, looking him up and down before turning away.

  “Hmph!” She got off on the next floor, before the doors shut again and ascended to their floor. They stepped out, but had to jump back in alarm, as several staff members came rushing by, carrying what looked to be heavily wounded people and for a second, one of which had her eyes gouged out, or at least that’s what it looked like.

  “What the fuck?”

  His curiosity piqued, Wilson decided to follow them to confirm what he had seen, with the two ladies following behind him, holding onto each arm.

  Two injured women were carried to the infirmary, one of them trembling and mumbling something inaudible, the other screaming in agony.

  Wilson and the women, as well as several other onlookers, stopped outside the infirmary to peer in, but a staff member tried to push them back.

  “What the hell is going on?”

  “Please sir, ladies, return to your cabins and lock your doors, do not come out until we have given the word”, the staff member sounded spooked and out of breath.

  “You’re going to have to give me more to go on than that. What the fuck is all this about?” Wilson demanded.

  “We’ve had a… erm… problem. We’re trying to sort it out, please just go to your cabins”.

  “Not until you tell us what’s going on! You have two people in there fucking injured, what happened? I thought this was a luxury cruise liner made for people to get away from common thugs! I can’t be on a ship with people who would do that to others! Did you condemn the motherfucker who did that, to solitary or something, or are they still at large?”

  “Sir, this isn’t what you think…” The staff member began to reply, but the sudden silence of the agonised screaming, replaced with what sounded a lot like choking and people struggling to hold them down as they thrashed, kicking down objects in the room, made him swivel around on spot to see what had developed.

  Wilson and the ladies used the opportunity to sneak past in order to get a better look. The staff member caught them and came after them.

  “Sir! Ladies! I said…” He stopped mid-speech, distracted by a female doctor thrashing on the recovery bed and staff members trying their best and failing to hold her down. In the other bed was a woman, a doctor from the looks of it, trembling like a leaf and confirming what Wilson believed he had seen, missing both her eyes, bloody sockets where they once were. His two ladies gasped and covered their mouths in horror.

  “What… the… who did this?”

  “A family… they were sick and…” The staff member holding them back replied.

  “Did she do this to that doctor?” Wilson demanded, pointing to the thrashing woman.

  “No…”

  “Give me the Haloperidol! That will calm her down!” One person in the room shouted. Another made for a draw and withdrew an injection syringe, but before they could inject the woman to calm down her aggressive behaviour, she managed to pull one leg free, kick the woman previously holding down that leg in the face, most likely breaking her nose as she flew back. Her behaviour from there went from aggressive to downright psychopathic, as she kicked the man holding the other leg, despite someone else trying to grab hold of her free leg. It was as she kicked, that Wilson and the ladies noticed a massive gash to the back of her leg that looked like a bite.

  The thrashing woman hissed and spat, before screaming in agitated fury.

  “Let me fucking go, you pieces of fucking shit! Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you! I’ll murder you all!” The man with the syringe looked too nervous to even get close to the woman, far less inject her.

  “Do it!” Someone shouted and he sprung to action, just as she managed to free her second leg and contort herself somewhat unnaturally, as though breaking bones in the process, to free her arms. She then grabbed the person closest to her by their face and bit their nose clean off, leaving them screaming and waving their arms in pain. Another sprung at her, she dodged it with cat-like reflexes and bit their neck. Two more lunged for her and she scratched and gnashed at them like a mad woman, before lunging at the man with the syringe, breaking his wrist with relative ease in what was the nastiest sight Wilson had ever seen. His broken bone popped out through his skin and she swiped the syringe from him, stabbing it into the eye of a staff member trying to restrain her.

  The staff member holding Wilson and the ladies at the door abandoned them, prioritising stopping the woman’s rampant frenzy.

  The eyeless girl on the other bed screamed in terror, hearing the sounds of the chaos, but not being able to see it. The crazed woman snapped one of the staff member's’ necks and dropped their limp lifeless body to the floor, before lunging at the poor eyeless girl and ripping her apart with her teeth and fingers, as the remaining few brave enough and uninjured staff members attempted to save her.

  But as the woman bit massive chunks of the poor young defenceless female doctor’s face, legs, arms, fingers off and ripped her hair from her skull, Wilson and the women had seen more than enough to know it was time to go. They needed no further explanation or convincing. Fleeing with other onlookers, his ladies ran ahead of him, making their way down the corridors to the second elevator that would take them up to the VIP sections of the ship.

  They stopped short as they came to a corridor swarming with blood covered people hunched over and savagely feasting at what looked to be corpses lying upon the ground.

  If Wilson hadn’t witnessed what he had just witnessed in the infirmary, he would have thought this shit was one big elaborate horror prank meant to scare them to generate laughs for a TV show and it certainly wouldn’t have been funny, but this was far from laugh inducing, this was fucking terrifying.

  The crazed people feasting away hadn’t noticed them at first, but as onlookers screamed at the grisly sight, those feasting looked up, tilted their head, twitching, their eyes wide and their teeth bared, before springing up to attack them.

  Faster than anyone could react, the crazed people were up from their hunched positions and pouncing on those at the front, ripping them to shreds. More crazed people lunged at them, biting flesh and spraying blood across faces, the floor, walls and ceiling.

  Wilson wasted no time, turning to run right back to the elevator of which he came. His ladies were just behind him, but so were their pursuers, so when Sophie slipped at a corner and fell, Wilson and Laura didn’t stop to help her.

  “Wilson! Laura!” She wailed. “Help me!”

  The next thing they heard were her screams, as two of those crazed people pounced on her and began eating her alive.

  “Fuck that! Fuck that!” Wilson shouted, running faster than he ever had in his life. Having created a distance between himself and Laura, he dived into the elevator and repeatedly hammered at the buttons to close, but just as the doors began closing, Soph
ie grabbed them and tried to wedge herself through, arm first.

  “Wait for me, please don’t leave me behind”.

  “Fuck that!” Wilson shouted, continuing to hammer at the button, whilst pushing her arm back out. Blood sprayed across his face and shirt as one of their crazed pursuers pounced on her, biting into her arm and neck.

  Her scream was ear piercing and more than enough incentive for him to just keep on hammering at that button.

  “Get the fuck out!” He yelled, hitting her arm, as she wept and pleaded with him to open the elevator door.

  “Hell fucking no!”

  He didn’t have to fight her persistent attempts to enter long though, as more lunatics joined the fray, viciously chewing and ripping through her arm, eventually separating it from her body to her spine chilling screams of agony. The doors shut, Wilson fell backwards and Sophie’s bloodied arm dropped down between his legs.

  He sat there staring at it, hyperventilating, but on the bright side, at least the elevator was finally descending.

  1:26pm - 6 hours, 39 minutes since outbreak in London.

  16 minutes since outbreak aboard MS HotS.

  Christine struggled to relax as she lay on the massage table. Even the deep sensuous massages did little to ease her anxiety. There was simply too much to think about, too much to worry about and very little in the way of reassurance.

  As she lay there, background music meant to be soothing, irritated her and she was beginning to regret coming for a massage, none the wiser to the horrific events unfolding right there on the ship.

  Much to her relief, the music abruptly cut, but what replaced it was worse. A familiar male voice taking over the intercom.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. In light of the events in London, I have made the decision to continue the journey to the Caribbean, where you will then be able to disembark and take a flight home. This decision, should foreign embassies continue to allow it, will allow for you to not only potentially return home faster, but stay at a hotel courtesy of Starling Cruises should the UK not allow you to return just yet. The alternative was to turn around, but we could not guarantee we’d be able to disembark you. I have also recently received the troubling news that a disturbance is occurring on board. As of right now, I have no substantial information to provide you with, so in the interest of not inciting panic and confusion, there will be no speculative information, instead I must request that you all so kindly return to your cabins and lock your doors until further notice. I repeat, return to your cabins and lock your doors until further notice. I'm tremendously sorry for the disturbance this will cause to your affairs. That is all. I'll repeat this again soon in case some have not heard”.