USS Apocalypse

Jacksonville Part Two

The day Kathan died dawned grey, as all other days in this new world did. Each passenger was allotted a strip of bacon, a bagel, and a carton of juice for breakfast. The passengers, with nowhere to go, gathered mostly on the upper decks, desperate for air. Some of them tried using their cells phones to call loved ones on land, but to no avail. 

Mitch remembered the boat on Grand Cayman. How white the sun had bleached it. How plagued by bugs it had become. The Breeze itself was transforming into that boat. With non fuel at the port and no one to take care of it, it was only a matter of time before the stately vessel disintegrated under its own crushing weight.

Mitch walked out onto the deck that he had once sworn to avoid. The wood creaked under his ever footstep. Mist hung in the air around the ship. Everything seemed... ghostly.

Ryan Leslie's face did not leave his mind, ever since that horrible day. I killed Ryan Leslie. The Red hand print was still smeared down the wall, it's wretched countenance still shouting a declaration of War upon the minds of everyone who passed. No one had bothered to clean it. Meanwhile, Ryan himself still slept deeply in his room, covered with a clean sheet.

I remember this place, Mitch thought, looking blankly into the mist. This is where we saw that we truly were alone... no one is coming. No one is going to save this ship.

A smile grew across his strained face. Only I can do that.

The boards under his feet were crusted with salt, but also with another substance... mildew. The fungus had crept between ever crack and crevice in the ship. Mitch did not envy those who had allergies. The Black cracks betrayed their true nature. Evil lies within us all, waiting for the opportune moment to rear its head. Screams from inside... no more food... 

Famine was to come.

Poor Kathan.

He doesn't deserve to die of hunger. Maybe everybody else, but not him. He was always kind... maybe he even loves me. I don't have a problem with that. But he doesn't deserve that pain...

Mitch felt a hurt that was not his own, right in the space between his heart and stomach. Loss. 

I'm sorry, Kathan. You didn't do anything wrong. Sleep well.

Jordan burst through the door a couple of minutes later. 

"Mitch... Kathan... he's dead."

Mitch nodded slowly, blankly. "...I'm sorry to hear that. What happened?"

"We don't know... he didn't get out of bed this morning, so we broke into his room. I think he died in his sleep."

Mitch did not turn around and comfort his friend when he heard him start to cry. He was numb. "A better fate than the rest of us will have."

"D-Do you want to... see him? Before the Captain takes him and Ryan away to be buried?"

He didn't need to. He could see it all in front of him already. Kathan, under a clean white sheet. His eyes closed, never to wink at Mitch again. The faint smile on his lips that had once enthralled everyone who saw it... gone. His boyish, blonde curls never to dance around his head, like a halo. He had left this world as innocent as he had lived in it.

"No."

Jordan left Mitch alone. 

Barely 15 minutes later, the door creaked open again, closing softly. Mitch did not have to turn around to know that it was Andy.

"Mitch... I'm so sorry. I know he meant a lot to you"

Mitch shrugged. "People come and go in this life. He's at peace now. He's in the forever after this for now."

"You really need to stop thinking this way. It's causing you more pain than you know-"

"I know exactly what I'm doing, Andy," The last word came out much more harshly than intended. "I knew that he would suffer, and he is now banished from my mind."

"Mitch!" Andy was suddenly beside him, glaring up at him. "You can't just banish people from your mind! You can't just live in your own little- little fantasy world!" Her hands had balled up into fists. "It's time that you stop playing this game, it's time for you to accept that there are just some things you can't change. Like change itself!" 

"Change is a force of nature that everyone is a slave to. Except me!" He turned away from her piercing gaze. "I've found a way to circumvent it, Andy. All I have to do is...is to hold on."

Silence settled in around the two beings. One stuck in this reality like glue, refusing to let go and the other slowly being pushed out of it.

"You don't need to hold on," the woman replied in a quiet voice, almost a whisper. "I've seen this time and time again. You might be stubborn, but I have seen the most stubborn of people accept what even you can't." She reached out her hand. 

"Mitch..."

Her hand touched his shoulder lightly. Mitch felt a sensation like a heavy drug, dragging him down into a sleep, a restful, beautiful sleep.

Sleep.

"No!"

He jumped away, anger flaring in his dark eyes.

"Don't you touch me..."

Andy backed away a few steps, her hand still raised, almost in defense.

Mitch stared at her, with wild, suspicious eyes. "Don't think for one second that I don't know what you are, because I do. I know what you are, and I know what you're here to do. I will not let you do it!" He turned and started to walk away. 

"Mitch, wait! You don't understand what you're doing to yourself!"

Mitch did not listen anymore. HER voice dissipated into the mist, just as he willed it. 

"Hey, Mitch?"

Mitch turned around and saw Jordan approaching him, still dressed in his dinner clothes. "Hey, Jord. You better go to bed soon, it's past one-o-clock."

Jordan chuckled a little. "That's where I'm headed. I wanted to ask you something."

"What is it? Fire away!"

His friend's expression changed, softened. "Mitch... who were you just talking to just now!"

The lido deck around them was empty. Only industrial sounds from the kitchen could be heard.

"Oh, that girl? She's the one I told you about on the first day. The pretty one?" Mitch smiled. "I learnt her name, it's Andy!"

"Mitch... is she who you were dancing with at Trivia night?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"You didn't dance with anyone, Mitch. I'm sorry. And there was no one sitting beside you here. I was watching."

The words echoed in Mitch's mind, not fully registering.

"You were talking to yourself..."

Suddenly, Mitch laughed. It was not a nervous laugh, but his usually, full, mirthful laugh. "Oh Jordan, you are a funny guy!"

Jordan looked a little more than concerned at this declaration. "What?"

Mitch kept laughing. "You really need some sleep, man. See you in the morning!"

Jordan was dumbfounded. Had Mitch... gone crazy?

"WAIT, Mitch, you-" 

Mitch waved, disregarding Jordan, then disappeared in to an elevator. 

Jordan was left alone, confused, concerned... and afraid for his friend.