Melbourne, Australia
23:45 hours
Alex closed his eyes for a quick nap. He was tired; the day had left him exhausted after all the running around they had done. Now that it was quiet, he had some time to reflect on events. He was sprawled out on one of the ship’s leather sofas, perfectly comfortable.
Martin and Andrew had gone up the nearby stairs, located at the end of the hallway near the rear of the ship. They had said they were going to check out the control deck. Alex didn’t care to see how the boat was controlled, he was just tired. As he thought about his day, something kept him from falling asleep. A noise. It could be heard from a deck below or so. It was very quiet, and if the others had been around, he wouldn’t have ever noticed. It was a low hum; he couldn’t identify it at the moment. Curious, he opened his eyes and sat up. Whatever it was, it was depriving him of his needed sleep. He sighed and headed to the stairs. The lights were dim, and it was dark out. Dark clouds had obscured the moon, as if something was being set up just to make this miserable for him. He could hardly see as shadows moved in all around him. He held his arms out feeling for anything he might accidentally run into. As he crept down the halls even further, darkness began to take over. His body shook internally; he desperately fought a losing battle to shake away the fear that was coming. He felt his way to the staircase and slowly descended. He was careful not to make any noise. The hum grew louder and judging by the direction it was coming from, it had to have been one deck below them.
He turned the corner on the stairs, and found himself looking at a lounge room. The only source of light in the room was the microwave in the corner. It was the object making the humming noise also. But why the hell was it on?
He walked over to the appliance, and looked inside. He couldn’t see to well, his reflection on the glass obscured his view. Wait a minute… he looked closer at the reflection. A smile? He wasn’t smiling…
At that moment, his head was shoved forward, and slammed into the glass. Pain dulled his senses and he panicked. His assailant shoved his body to the ground, face downward. The person took a step up, and stood on top of his back. The shoes dug into his spine, he winced in pain. The attacker pressed the off button on the microwave, and opened the door. The person took out whatever it was in there, and sat down on top of Alex. This was too embarrassing.
“Get off…” He moaned.
“What’s the magic word?” He recognized the voice sadly. He didn’t want to have anything to do with her either. He couldn’t believe his luck for ending up here, in this situation.
“Sami… why are you here?” He whimpered silently.
“The question is, why are you here. I thought you guys said you weren’t following me. Now I leave you, and look at this. You end up on the same boat as me?”
Sami opened the microwave ready cup of chicken noodle soup that she had warmed up, and took a sip.
“It’s just a coincidence. Why the hell would I follow you?” he sternly asked, making sure to accentuate the ‘hell’ and ‘you’ part. She laughed.
“Well I don’t know. You don’t seem to like me very much, so you do have a valid point there, uh...”
“Alex. Alex Bakken. Didn’t I tell you my name earlier?” He asked. She was pissing him off on an unimaginable scale.
“Maybe you did. I don’t care, I just forgot if you did.”
“Can you please get off me…?” His back was getting really sore, and his arms hurt from the weird position also.
“Since you asked so nice…” She said. She stood up, releasing Alex from the trap. He got up slowly, and rubbed his nose. A few drops of blood ran down from his nostrils.
“You made me bleed…” He said. He put pressure on the wound.
“Oh sorry. I didn’t know who the hell you were when you came down. I just assumed you were one of the crazy guys again. I can’t see anything down here anyways.” She said, between bites of her soup. “Mm, this is good. You should make some.” She was still enjoying the beating Alex had taken. It infuriated him.
“Stop acting like that! Can’t you say you’re sorry at least?!" he yelled. This was pissing him off even more then last time. She always seemed to act like this, defiant because she won.
“Sorry,” she simply said. She took a sip of a soda she had sitting on a table nearby.
“Ok, whatever. I’m going back upstairs to take a nap. I was doing fine until your damn microwave ruined it.” He turned around and headed for the stairs.
“Where’s Martin?” She asked. So she did remember their names.
“He said he went upstairs to check out the bridge. We have a new party member, his name is Andrew. He’s up there also,” he said. His anger with her had reached unprecedented heights. She must have lived to make him mad.
“Ok, thanks,” she said sweetly. She must have also known that that sort of talk made him mad as well. Alex sighed and headed up the stairs to his couch. He flopped back down, and finally closes his eyes to earn some real sleep…
Martin brought his hand slowly over the throttle quadrant located to the right of the “pilot” seat. Indeed, the bridge had more in common with a commercial airliner’s flight deck, then that of a boat. Digital displays covered the dashboard, illuminating engine power, hull integrity, fuel consumed and used, and more. Above them were loads of smaller switches; Martin assumed they were circuit breakers. A wheel didn’t turn the ship; there was joystick that acted as a throttle at the same time. A second throttle was located in the middle of the display, to the right of the pilot’s seat. It must have been used as an individual engine throttle.
“Do you know what any of this stuff does?” Andrew almost considered finding a new boat. This was far to complicated, even for his technical skills.
“Most of it yes. I have my pilot’s license, this is all very familiar. It has more in common with the A380 then a boat.”
“What’s that?” He asked. Numbers meant nothing to him.
“Nothing… it would take to long to explain all this, but I think I could sail this thing,” he said. And he couldn’t wait to try it either.
There was a knock underneath Andrew’s feet. They had to use a ladder to come up; they had closed the hatch once they had made it.
“Alex, what do you need?” Martin asked. He looked out the window. He could see the mall they had been in earlier from this height. Well, he assumed it was the mall. The lights were the only things visible. He couldn’t even see the wave lapping five decks below them, against the shore.
“It’s not Alex,” Sami said. Martin recognized the voice instantly and almost laughed. “Oh, so did you kill him?” There was a pause.
“No, but I came close. I think he’s pissed off at me now. Can I come up?”
Andrew looked to Martin for approval, he nodded. Andrew moved off of the hatch.
“Ok, come on up.” The hatch opened, revealing the girl. She climbed the ladder and stood next to Martin.
“It’s pretty big up here.” She observed her surroundings. They must have had fifteen feet behind the two pilot chairs. She gazed at the instrument panel.
“That’s a lot of electronics.” She said. She could guess what a few of them did, but didn’t know what any other of the more complex ones did.
“Yeah, it is. So how did you find us here?” Martin asked. He was curious on how she had gotten to here.
“Actually, I was here first. I was the one that picked the lock on the door after moving the ramp up. Alex sort of ran into me while I was eating my late dinner.”
Martin sighed, “He’s not hurt is he?”
She shook her head. “Not really. His nose was bleeding a little bit, but nothing he can’t handle.”
Martin nodded. “Oh, by the way, this is my friend Andrew. We found him around Alex’s house after we left the school.” He pointed to him. “Andrew, this is Sami. Don’t piss her off, because it seems she could probably kick your ass.”
“So I hear,” Andrew responded.
“Oh did you tell him stories or something?” Sami asked.
“Well you did hold Alex at gunpoint. That’s probably why he hates you so much, don’t you think?” he pointed out. She shook her head in defiance. “No, I don’t think so. He seems like the person to forgive the murder of his parents,” Sami said sarcastically. Alex probably was just mad because he doesn’t like her personality.
“Oh well. It’s a coincidence that we found you here… are you going to be leaving again?” Martin asked. He didn’t want to get to know someone real well, only to have them leave on him.
“Get this straight.” Her attitude suddenly changed to harsh. “I don’t need you guys to survive. I’ve done pretty well by myself the past ten years. But one thing is for sure; you would make excellent human shields. So I’m in.” Martin almost laughed at the statement. Somehow that wasn’t supposed to be funny though.
“Ok then. I don’t know if we’re really going anywhere now… I suppose we might leave this city. If that’s ok with you guys.”
“I don’t have anything here. This city means nothing to me. Yet I have lived here my whole life.” Sami looked to the shore. She didn’t want to think about such things. They got in the way of business. And business was life. “Let’s get out of this crap hole and go search for more survivors. I say we figure out what happened.”
Martin nodded. He looked at Andrew. “I agree. I don’t really have anywhere else to go now. I think we should set out on a global tour.”
“A global tour?” Sami questioned. The word sounded ridiculous.
“Yair. It’s not like a rock concert I mean. I was thinking more in terms with a tour for survivors. An international collaboration. Since… it’s very well likely Melbourne wasn’t the only city affected. It may be more then just Australia as well. Remember that internal government idea you had Martin?”
“Oi. Don’t think I would forget my own thoughts.” He frowned. “It was a good idea. Alex just didn’t understand.”
Sami was confused. “Government? Governments don’t work as well as everyone thinks.”
Martin questioned, “Why not?”
“Oh, if they had… never mind,” she cancelled herself.
Martin sighed and explained his proposition. “I think we could use this large ship as an aid station for survivors. We could find enough people to create a small floating village. We would move on to other cities, find people, and then keep going after they come with. We could create a mobile government. Complete with firearm training, to protect against those crazed civilians we find…”
Sami snapped to attention. “You saw one?”
Andrew nodded. “Yeah. He almost strangled Martin. No thanks to me did he escape…” He put himself down a little. He didn’t think it felt good to do it, but he wanted to give Alex the credit he deserved for his bravery as well.
“Huh?”
“Well he’s saying that he was a little… shocked by the incident. He couldn’t move for a bit. The man had me pinned down, Alex distracted him for a moment, and I had a chance to pull this little bugger out.” He drew the KBAR, now stained with a crimson coating along the edge. “Oh, I forgot to clean it.” He quickly hid the disgusting utensil.
“No worries. Mine is worse,” Sami chuckled; lighting fast she drew a large knife from her hip. It wasn’t as large as Martin’s, but it sure looked sharp. The blade was actually rusted. Martin hoped it wasn’t from blood, but he wasn’t sure. Especially with her.
“Oh god. You stab them, then give them a dose of tetanus.” Andrew rolled his eyes. This girl was ridiculous. He guessed he would have to get along though. Better make sides with the powerful, then enemies with the deadly.
She snickered. “If you got stabbed by this, you really did something wrong.” Sami holstered the weapon and looked out the window once more.
“It’s a good idea… People that have been abandoned, they would really like a place to stay…” she said. Martin looked at Andrew, who returned the glance. Something had happened with her, but she was not obligated to say what.
“Well I have a question to this. How are people going to find us? We just going to toot the horn in every harbor? And wait for someone to come?” Andrew asked. It was a big problem. The horn may be loud, but that would attract maybe one or two people at least. They needed something better.
“I got a solution to that already.” Martin climbed down the ladder. “Follow me.”
They both followed down; Andrew climbing, Sami jumping.
“Where are we going?” She asked.
“You’ll see.” He led them down a hallway, to the staircase. There was a set of stairs that went up as well as well, but there was no floor above them. Andrew had assumed it was roof access. Martin pushed against the staircase’s roof, and it flipped up, much like the hatch to the bridge.
The night breeze flowed through his auburn hair; he looked around for his target.
“There it is.” He climbed onto the roof. Andrew climbed up as well, along with Sami.
“Why didn’t I see this before?” Andrew asked, dumbfounded.
A small helicopter sat upon its helipad, on top of the yacht. It was strapped down with cables; the rotors were all compacted down.
“I’m not certified to fly rotary craft… but I could probably do it if I tried. It’s different from a plane, but they fly on the same mechanics…”
“Yeah, yeah. We don’t need your aviation skills talk. We know you can fly,” Andrew cut him off. He was getting sick of hearing it. Mainly because he wanted to learn to fly as well, he never had the money.
“Actually, I didn’t know that. Speak for yourself,” Sami answered. “So you can fly the chopper?”
“I don’t know. I recommend that I go alone the first time.” He laughed nervously. “Anyways, I don’t need to do that for a while. I suppose we should cast off. Anyone got any places to go?”
“Well, we should have enough fuel to get to Sydney at least. More then likely. We could restock stuff there and take off again. Brisbane would be next. Just an idea,” Andrew said. He gazed off into the distance. He could see a lot of lights from here. It was an amazing view. The wind felt good too, blowing away his worries. The sea could really calm a man. He thought that, listening to the waves crash ashore, the crisp clean sound of the surf lapping the docks was relaxing.
“I don’t care were we go. As long as I get a whole deck to myself, I’m fine,” Sami commented. It sounded selfish, but Martin half-understood her reasons. He didn’t quite understand everything, but she obviously had been through something really bad. He didn’t want to think about it.
“But-” Andrew was the one who was cut off this time, by Martin.
“That’s fine. We have more then enough decks for everyone. There’s like seven. As long as we get the stairs and the lift.”
“Yeah whatever. You better not piss me off though… or you’re in a world of pain.” She smiled menacingly, fingers tracing around her rusty knife.
Martin shuddered menacingly. It was a fearsome thought.
“I’ll leave you alone. You can wake up whenever.” He said. He would probably use the lift instead of the stairs, just to avoid her.
“Fine. I’m as tired as flying fuck, so I’m going to take a rest like Alex. I’ll be on deck two. That’s one below the one you came in on, so go there and die.” She turned and left, just like that. After a moment of silence, Andrew spoke up.
“What a bitch.”
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