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

by Henderson, G. D.

  It was only as he readied himself to open the door did he hear the gurgling and low inaudible muttering coming from behind him. As he spun around, he narrowly escaped being bitten, as a woman with her arms outstretched and her teeth bared attempted to pounce on him without warning. She missed him, but that wasn’t going to stop her attack, as suddenly she threw herself at him. He ducked as she attempted to swipe at him with her nails, but her onslaught continued, knocking objects to ground. It was only after he had managed to put some distance between her and him could he see the full picture, this woman was pregnant and had several deep bites to her fresh, her hair was a mess, but it did nothing to hide what was once a pretty petite face. She looked early thirties and this was probably her first child. The sight of her was something of an extreme wake up call, a glance into the future of the human race if this infection was allowed to fester. It was truly heartbreaking to see her in this state and even though he had the scissors in hand in order to defend himself, he simply couldn't find it in himself to attack her.

  “My baby needs to eat. I need to feed my baby. I need to feed you to my baby”, she muttered, dragging her feet across the floor towards him.

  “Stay back!” He warned, waving the scissors at her, but she didn’t appear the least bit fazed by it, continuing her approach. “I said to stay the fuck back!” Her pupils were dilated and frenzied, on top of that was her compulsive twitching, now quite evidently a defining trait amongst the infected. Maybe it was better to just refer to them as twitchers.

  “My baby, my baby is hungry”, she kept repeating. Edward was cornered, as much as his moral code prevented him from attacking another person, let alone a woman, far less a pregnant woman, it was also about to get him killed. He climbed up onto the bed and she climbed up after him.

  This was his chance, it was all or nothing. He pulled out the deodorant can and the lighter and using them as a flamethrower, set the sheets where she stood ablaze, before jumping off of the other side. Initially she didn’t react, but as the flames began to engulf her, she screamed and much to his surprise, instead of backing off, lunged at him. Edward dived out of the way as the flames engulfed her arms and she crashed against the blinds, setting them too ablaze. The fire only seemed to anger her rather than stop her, a sane person would have jumped back the moment he started blasting those sheets with fire, but she didn’t even batter an eyelid.

  He scrambled to his feet and dived over the sofa, crashing down on the glass coffee table, shattering it all over the ground, as she attempted to lunge at him again. She set the sofa alight and continued at him, disregarding any obstacles in her path. Edward threw anything he could find at her in a desperate attempt to slow her down, but nothing seemed to work and he was being cornered again, in a burning cabin now to top it off. His back pasted against the wall, there was nowhere left to run to.

  Before she could reach him however, she stopped suddenly and clutched her stomach as though in pain, before keeling over and dropping to her knees. It took a moment to register, so it didn’t immediately occur to him to use the opportunity to flee, for all he could do was stand there and stare at the burning pregnant woman, a putrid stench of burning flesh that stabbed the nostrils without remorse. Shimmying to the side, he kept his eyes locked on her as he made his way towards the door.

  She threw her head back, her eyes rolled back into their sockets, she croaked and twitched and without warning her stomach exploded open, spraying blood across him and the wall. He shielded his face, but he was still covered in blood and guts, it was more than enough to make him want to heave and that was exactly what he did, as emerging from the hole in her stomach was the newborn, like a scene straight from that alien science fiction film, Attack of the Venusians.

  It cried and outstretched its arms towards him, completely covered in blood and twitching like its mother. Had it eaten its way out or just used force?

  He didn’t want to find out, he had seen more than enough and this entire cabin was engulfed in smoke, if he wasn’t eaten or burned to death, asphyxiation would surely get him.

  Edward ran, leaving the burning pregnant woman and her crying infected newborn behind.

  CHAPTER 19 - KUNAL, CHRISTINE & LORI

  3:13pm - 8 hours, 26 minutes since outbreak in London.

  2 hours, 3 minutes since outbreak aboard MS HotS.

  . . .

  . . .

  Kunal and a group of other survivors had heard the announcement and made the decision to attempt to reach the bridge. Equipped with anything they could use as a weapon, they kept a tight circle and watched one another’s back. If they could attack before being attacked or avoid unnecessary confrontation wherever possible, maybe just maybe they could make it without a loss. The problem was with identifying who was infected and who wasn’t, sure there were telltale signs, like twitching erratic behaviour and sheer aggression, but what about those who had only just been bitten? Was there an interval between being infected and becoming one of them? If so, how long?

  The place was crawling with these infected crazed people now and any shred of sanity they had once had, was all but gone now. Maybe it was inhumane to refer to them as less than human, maybe this was just some form of extreme contagious schizophrenia, but after watching those motherfuckers skin his best friend Tristan alive, let’s just say he wasn’t in a political correctness sort of mood.

  He and Tristan had awoken late that morning with splitting headaches and tight stomachs after what was most definitely an eventful night, except they didn’t awake in the same cabin, for at some point during the night Tristan met some cute feisty blondie named Mirian and was immediately entranced by her, a sexy play hard to get attitude, a mouthy one and fully aware of the sexual vibes she gave off.

  However her hovering friend wasn’t making things easier, so that was where Kunal came in as a wingman, something he was more than used to, what he wasn’t used to however, was playing wingman to get rid of a male friend and one who was sorta, kinda infatuated with his female friend and would spend the entire night getting wasted and complaining about how he was a nice, stable guy and that was what she needed, in short, the nice guys finished last spiel.

  It was times like that, that Kunal realised how good a friend he was.

  Needless to say, distracting Mirian’s clingy friend gave his friend a chance to go back to her cabin with her, meanwhile, Kunal used the opportunity to ditch that guy with a toilet excuse and one last piece of advice, that there were plenty of fish in the sea.

  Tristan didn’t return until morning and what should have been a momentous occasion, considering what a great time he had, describing her as a ravenous tiger in bed, deteriorated into a morning filled with fret and anxiety as they frantically called family members to check they were okay.

  When they heard the PSA, they were in the cafeteria, where reception was better, along with several others who were apparently thinking the same way. Since staff in and around the cafeteria were about as clueless as to the purpose of the PSA as those staying on the ship, they decided it best to return to their cabin, but that would never happen, for they need only get into its vicinity before encountering their first infected person.

  They ran and hid in different places for half an hour after that, even attempting with others to lower some lifeboats in an attempt to flee, but it was no speedy process and surely enough they found themselves overrun with infected people.

  Some people resorted to jumping into the ocean, that’s how bad it got, they would rather take their chances with the rough seas and vacuum of the ship’s propellers than be eaten alive.

  Tristan, running ahead of him, unknowingly ran straight into three of them and before he even had the chance to escape their clutches, they pulled him down.

  Kunal and one other man pounced in to help, but those chasing them caught up and tackled them. Kunal and this other man were so busy wrestling their own assailants off, that neither could help Tristan. Even when he managed to tackle his assailant off an
d smash its face in with a fire extinguisher, it was already too late for Tristan, he had been skinned alive, blood everywhere.

  It was horrific, Kunal just stood there helplessly watching the scene unfold, eventually his screaming ceasing as they tore apart his throat. The other man who had also escaped, quite literally had to drag Kunal away, so paralysed was he by the sight of his best friend’s horrific ordeal.

  Fast forward and here they were running through the open plaza with several other survivors, Kunal with a new sense of vigour and the will to kill anyone who attacked, something he had never done in his life, surprisingly easy to accept when blinded with fury, sadness and the determination to survive.

  People both infected and not were dropping from the balconies above like flies, hitting the ground with a sickening thud, some shattering bones and unable to move, others hitting the floor head first, splattering blood everywhere. Infected still managed to move even without limbs and or a head, one in particular without his entire lower torso. Didn’t these things fucking die?

  Kunal took the fire extinguisher that he had made his makeshift weapon of choice and struck the twitching lower body-less infected to the skull as it reached out for them, before leaping over it. More bodies dropped to the ground like raindrops, some smashing through glass ceilings, others through stalls.

  Kunal and the others navigated their way throughout the corpse littered plaza, a contrasted scene to that of yesterday when it was filled with people relaxing, having picnics and drinking.

  Suddenly from the doors leading out onto the plaza, poured twitching crazies sprinting towards them.

  “We’re exposed here! Go, go, go!” One of the survivors shouted. They took off sprinting towards one of the open doors towards the other end of the plaza and dashed through it, throwing and pulling down anything they could muster to obstruct the path of their pursuers and slow them down, from bins to vending machines.

  They poured into the bowling alley, still pursued by twitching crazies, attracting more as they fled, jumping up from behind desks screaming and covered in blood.

  Kunal and others grabbed bowling balls and threw them. One hit a twitcher in the face, knocking it down on its back.

  “Strike, motherfucker!” Kunal cheered, before continuing his run. Pressing on, they came to the arcades, passing by various popular retro machines. How fucking ironic; if only they could make use of those light guns now.

  They then made their way through a casino, passing by all the blinking, noise making machines, before reaching an exit that would with some luck lead them through the cafeteria and eventually up to the bridge, but first it would seem they had quite a battle on their hands, for before them stood several twitchers blocking their path.

  “We only go forward! Drive straight through them and protect the weakest among us!” Kunal instructed. They charged forward, the only direction to go now, the only direction that made sense any more.

  3:16pm - 8 hours, 29 minutes since outbreak in London.

  2 hours, 6 minutes since outbreak aboard MS HotS.

  Christine squeezed her eyes shut and covered her ears, she wanted neither to see the grisly scenes unfolding before her, or hear any more of the screaming. She silently repeated her prayers, praying for God to protect her, shield her from the devil. She wept and prayed, prayed some more and wept, her whole body shaking like a leaf. She didn’t want to die. She had always convinced herself that if it was God’s will, she would be content with death in any of its forms, but faced with such a horrific way to die now, she’d go back on that, she didn’t want to die, not like this.

  “Please”, she whispered, “please, lord, please”.

  Her palms were sweaty, she could quite literally hear the thump of her own heart and the fear of being killed overwhelmed her more than anything she could imagine. If she had to stay in this spot forever, she’d do that. It would take a miracle to move her from this spot.

  There she remained for what felt like hours until a hand touched her shoulder, naturally her immediate reaction was to freak out. She thrashed like never before and held up her rosary beads in hopes that she could ward away the evil.

  Even as a soft voice attempted to calm her down, panic and terror had set in so much so, that the person quite literally had to subdue her in order to calm her down, even then she downright refused to open her eyes and couldn't stop hyperventilating.

  “Christine, shh, otherwise you’ll attract more of those twitchers, it’s me, calm down, open your eyes”.

  She knew this voice, but it wasn’t that that eventually compelled her to open her eyes, it was the thought that if she were to die, she might as well see the face of the devil himself, instead, staring back at her was God’s most precious angel. Tears welled up in her eyes and she began to shake for an entirely different reason, overwhelming comfort.

  “Ed… ward?”

  He gave her a smile that washed over her like a wave of warmth, as he knelt down in front of her.

  “Hey there, tiger. I’m glad I found you okay”.

  She leapt into his embrace without a second thought and wept harder than she had ever done before.

  “I’m sorry, I’m sorry for what I did…. what I said… everything, I am so sorry”, she apologised.

  “So am I, including the despicable way I reacted when you told me. I was a shitty husband and if we get out of here, I'll do better”.

  After a long and tight embrace, she composed herself, sniffled a little and pulled back to look at him. Her cheeks were puffy and her eyes most likely red, but yet a great deal less of a mess than he, covered from head to toe in blood.

  “How on Earth did you find me?” She asked.

  “It was a fight to get here. If you want to thank anyone or anything, thank your mother’s bad habits she refuses to kick”, he showed her the lighter and can of deodorant. “When I couldn’t find you anywhere in here, my heart sank and I thought you might already be dead, but when I came into this spa section and was about to leave, I heard a shuffling and muttering. At first I thought it was probably nothing, but I don't know, I guess curiosity got the better of me. Much to my relief, who should I find here, my tiger. You know, you really should pray quieter”.

  “No… no, my prayers brought you right to me. I couldn’t be happier to see your silly face, my grizzly”.

  He kissed her and got serious.

  “I want this to go on, but I need to get us out of here, this ship is crawling with them”.

  “What… are they?”

  “People… people who seem to have lost their minds. I had to… I had to… you’ll see for yourself. They wouldn't stop, they don’t even flinch”.

  “My mother! I left her in the cabin”.

  “She’s okay, I made sure of it”.

  “How can you be so sure?”

  He pulled out his phone and showed her the missed calls.

  “This last one was a mere few seconds before I found you”. He texted her back declaring that he had found her daughter and shortly after that she responded with relieved thankfulness, not without her usual snarky undertones of course.

  “She’s okay...” Christine replied, relieved.

  “She is, now to make sure you are too. I’m getting you out of here”. He took her hands and helped her up. “We may have to fight… no, we will have to fight”.

  Before they could leave, Christine stopped him.

  The sauna room door was open, what happened to the people inside of it? As she approached the open door, Edward stopped her.

  “You don’t want to look in there, I thought you may have hidden in there and thank God you didn’t”.

  “Why? What happened to them?”

  “The heat must have gotten to them, I think one of them must have opened the door to breathe, some of the others may have already passed out before that. Needless to say… one or more of those twitching people got in and… I just don’t want you seeing that scene”.

  He pulled her away and she turned aro
und once more to look back.

  God was most definitely good, she could have been one of the people in that sauna room.

  They stepped out into the Zen room and the scene was really no better, what wasn’t a bloody corpse, was a burning heap of nauseating flesh.

  “Was… was that you?”

  “Don’t look at them”.

  “My God, Edward, those are…” She put her hands over her mouth in shock and disgust.

  “People? Maybe once they were, but now they’re monsters hell-bent on killing, Christine. I didn’t want to do it, I held back, honestly I did. I didn’t revel in doing that at all, but they just kept coming and they killed all those other people. I’m not a murderer, Christine, I’m the same man you knew, the man you fell in love with, the man who has a gambling habit admittedly, but wouldn't harm a soul unless his life and the life of his family were at stake, the same man that…”

  “Edward… it’s okay, I don’t like it, I don’t like it at all, but I understand. Let’s just get out of here, this sight and smell, I can’t stand it”, she replied, her eyes averted from the morbid sight of bodies. He took her hand and led her away from the spa.

  CHAPTER 20 - RACHEL

  3:20pm - 8 hours, 33 minutes since outbreak in London.

  2 hours, 10 minutes since outbreak aboard MS HotS.

  . . .

  . . .

  Scrambling through a narrow and terribly claustrophobic air duct, the only means of escape, Rachel and Lori still had fresh on their minds the events of which occurred a mere moment ago.

  They were in that room trying to decide the best course of action for quite some time, nine of them including a mother and her kids. The door barricaded and the haunting screams seemingly ceasing one by one, those in the room knew that if they hoped to escape, sooner was better than later. Even if rescue came, there was no chance they’d risk their lives in search of survivors, and after the captain’s cowardly move, it was most definitely every man and woman for themselves, leaving them with one of three choices, remove their barricade and run again with hopes of finding a safe space to hide in order to be rescued, wait it out here and be prepared to fight if necessary or try to escape through that air duct.