10 hours, 18 minutes since outbreak in London.
3 hours, 55 minutes since outbreak aboard MS HotS.
Lori struggled to keep up with Rachel as they made their way back down the stairs towards the lifeboat limping and appearing off balance.
"Are you okay?" Rachel asked.
"I'll be fine, just a fracture or something. I'll worry about it once I'm off", Lori replied, wincing.
"Just a fracture? Lori, that's serious!"
"When you consider the fact that we both just managed to make it back here by the skin of our teeth and don't know if we'll have a lifeboat to escape with, given the fact we're already late, I'll take a fracture any day".
"Come on, stay with me", Rachel insisted, returning to Lori's side and placing her arm around her. "We don't have much further to go".
They slowly made their way over to where they had left the lifeboat, avoiding remaining crazies along the way and much to their surprise and delight, there hung the lifeboat that should have long since departed without them.
Rachel sighed with relief as they approached the closed door to the lifeboat and gently knocked, trying to avoid attracting any more attention.
"Mum, gran, it's us, it's safe", Rachel whispered close to the door. There was a few seconds of unnerving silence before they heard a click and the grainy sound of the door slowly sliding down. Out popped the head of Martha and Rachel wasted no time in embracing her, much to her grandmother's initial shock.
"Oh...I'm glad you two are safe".
Rachel burst into tears.
"You waited for us", she replied.
"We did, we're in no rush. I'm old and your mother has lost enough already without a daughter she could have saved to add to the list". No sooner did she say that, Rachel's mother came out and embraced Rachel as well, saying not a single word.
"We should go, the longer we stay here, the more we put our lives in jeopardy", Martha insisted.
Christine climbed back into the lifeboat followed closely by Martha.
"Come Lori", Rachel insisted.
"Right behind you", Lori replied, giving Rachel a reassuring smile, everything was going to be alright now, they were finally getting off this hellish voyage.
Rachel stepped inside the lifeboat and before she could sit down, heard the jerk and grainy sound of the door sliding shut behind her. Not even given the chance to see what was going on, she was pushed forward, landing on her hands and knees with a painful thud.
"What the fuck?" She exclaimed, before spinning around to see the door halfway up and Lori nowhere in in sight.
"Wait...what? Lori? Where are you? Lori!" She clambered to her feet and scrambled over to the door. "Lori! What are you doing? What are you doing?"
"I'm breaking my promise...I'm sorry...I'm so sorry".
"What do you mean? What are you doing, Lori?"
"I'm protecting you. I can't go with you".
"Why? Don't do this! Don't joke around, Lori!"
"I lied earlier. This wound is more than just a fracture, I don't know if I was infected somehow, but I can feel it inside me and sooner or later I'll become a danger to you all, just like...just like those others...so..."
YOU ARE READING
Cryptophobia - Hell & High Water
Horror(Book 2 of the Cryptophobia series) Just before London falls to its knees, the largest cruise-ship in the world, the MS Heaven of the Seas sets sail on its long 9 day voyage across the Atlantic Ocean from Southampton towards the Caribbean. Having to...
