Cryptophobia - Hell & High Water

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 decided to make an 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...people now, if you could even call them that anymore. 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 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 who was sorta kinda infatuated with his female friend and would the entire night getting wasted and complaining about how he was a nice guy and she needed a nice stable guy, that nice guys were never treated with respect and a monologue of other whiny bullshit. It was times like that Kunal realised how good a friend he was. Needless to say, distracting Mirian's clingy friend gave his friend a chance to get jiggy with her, Kunal's chance to ditch that guy there with the 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 horny tiger in bed, ended up being a morning filled with fret and anxiousness 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. 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, before he even had the chance to fix his mishap and escape, they caught him and pulled him down. Kunal and one other man pounced in to help, but those chasing 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 and 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 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 death.