Cryptophobia - Hell & High Water

CHAPTER 13 - CHRISTINE & LORI: 11:11am - Outbreak

Lori groaned as she rolled over onto her side. What a horrible night. Everything fucking ached, these floors were horrendous, even with the extra duvet they requested over at the supplies unit and lain out on the ground for lying upon. So much for thinking it would offer even the slightest semblance to the comfort they had in mind. One night though it may have been, her back would probably remind her of this for the rest of the week.

Rachel lay besides her lost in a world of blissful slumber. At least she looked fine with this arrangement.

Up on the other side lay her dad snoring away on the bed, sprawled across it stomach down and his right arm hanging off the side. If Lori had been told that there was come a night when she'd be sharing a room with her girlfriend and her dad, she would have laughed in that person's face, and yet ironically, here she was lying between both father and daughter.

She sat and stretched, not that stretching was doing anything to alleviate the aches and pains, or pins and needles in her foot.

The cabin was pitch black as per usual, one off the many perks that came with a cheaper windowless option, so time was impossible to determine without checking her phone.

11:13, they had slept in late again, she thought as the bright screen from her phone filled the cabin with light. Her throat was parched and she had no desire to lay back down on that uncomfortable floor and stare aimlessly into the darkness, so instead she decided to use the excuse of buying a few bottles of water and snacks just to escape and go for a walk.

They were getting closer to the Caribbean now, it would be getting a great deal warmer outside soon and what an exciting premise that was.

Having put on a pair of jeans and t-shirt, whilst recovering from banging her toe on the side of the small table, a pain that anyone who knew it could agree was one of the worst pains in the world, she slipped on her shoes and stepped outside, yawning as she did so.

The corridor was brimming with light, artificial light, but light nonetheless.

She made her way down the corridor towards the stairs and descended to the floor with the shops. There didn't appear to be as many people hustling and bustling about as usual days, was something going on?

As she made her way towards one of many small shopping areas aboard the ship, it became all too clear why there were so few people around, the TVs screens mounted on the walls, usually there for the sole purpose of advertising and information relative to the ship, cruise destinations and occasionally big sporting events, talent shows and more, were now all tuned into one thing, the news, with crowds huddled around each one. At the bottom of the screens was the big bold text "Breaking news!: Possible terror attack in London".

"What the fuck?" Lori murmured and approached one of the screens.

She had to squeeze through people just to get close enough to see the screens. From listening to those around, she had learned that this had been going on since 8 this morning, so 3 full hours had already passed and new reports still didn't seem to have a clear depiction of what exactly was going on.

Scrolling beneath the breaking news was a report that a helicopter had been mysteriously downed, on board were reporter Ellie Branning, cameraman Zachary Lincoln and pilot Steve Phillips, that the chaos which seemingly began at South Kensington spread quicker than emergency services and SWAT teams could handle. This was either multiple attacks in different locations, or something spiraling out of control from South Kensington, either way, no one seemed to have a clear depiction of what it was.

Those around her were speaking of spotting something lunge towards the helicopter, whilst others speculated that it was someone jumping from a building. So much chatter and no clear indication of what was happening, clips on the news of people fleeing, but fleeing from what? Did she want to know?