“Nicholle,
be a good boy and stay with Rikah for a while. Mommy will be right back, okay?”
Nicholle keeps on sobbing while clutching Kelly’s arms. She just hugs her son
to calm him down.
Kelly then
turns to Rikah. “Escape through the tender at the aft. I’ll meet you at the
tenth ship in the west…” Kelly pats Rikah’s shoulder and continues, “please
take care of my son….”
Kelly exits
the afterdeck first. A heavy blow shakes the whole ship afterwards. It’s the
signal for Rikah and Nicholle to proceed to the escape route.
I hope
everything will go smoothly as planned. Kelly keeps on praying. She closes
her eyes as the salty wind presses on her skin while standing recklessly at the
bridge of the ship. She then hears growls beneath the ocean. They’re finally
here.
Fish-like
creatures with four feet like that of a toad begin to leap from the ocean into
the bow of the ship. Kelly can sense their hunger. The more aware she is of
their vicious desires; the more her fury turns into ferocity.
Kelly glides
from the bridge of the ship down to the starboard. She then rushes towards the
hateful creatures and takes off two daggers from her side. With her clear
combat movements, Kelly swiftly slashes each creature’s gilled chest. They are
increasing in number but Kelly somehow manages to dodge their every attack.
However, she’s not certain how long she can keep up with the fight. In any way,
she has to distract them long enough for her son and Rikah to reach the safest
place in the west.
After three
hours of gory battle, Kelly finally comes to her limits. One of the creatures
attacks Kelly from the back and unfortunately bites her left shoulder. She
falls over her knees as blood starts to drip; but she endures the pain. She
then grips the creature’s fish-like head and tugs it down in front of her,
following a deep cut in its neck.
Kelly regains
her position but more and more creatures are coming out from the sea. Kelly has
no other choice but to blow up the bow of the ship even if it means risking her
own life. Kelly then scoots to the front of the starboard and strips out the
tender’s cover. She lights a match and throws it to the dynamites inside the
tender. She then quickly jumps into the sea.
As her body
submerges into the ocean, Kelly feels the saltwater slowly drowning her. She
wants to open her eyes but she can’t. Her body feels numb. She can only hear
the rumbling sound of the sinking ship. She knows, with her condition, she will
not survive.
Kelly’s
hearing begins to fade away. Then memories start occupying her mind.
Thud!
The
Pacific cruise ship, where Kelly and her son were in, hit something. Then cries
from the other passengers followed.
Kelly, who was staying at the fourteenth cabin
of the ship, just grabbed her son and ran off to the ship’s uppermost deck.
There, she witnessed an utter display of despair. Why and how their situation
turned into something chaotic was unknown to her.
Amidst
the hysterical passengers, Kelly dashed to the ship’s bow since the ship was
slowly sinking at its stern. She then hugged her son tightly with her right
hand while holding on to the ship’s taffrail with the other. She knew that
surviving in a shipwreck in the Pacific Ocean was hopeless. Still she prayed
for a miracle to come.
Kelly
closed her eyes as she felt her son’s tears falling in her arms.
“Mommy...mommy...I’m so scared...” Kelly didn’t know how to respond to her
son’s distress. All she could do was to blame herself.
As the
ship’s bow sunk in the ocean, Kelly promised to herself, “If I’d be given
another chance to live with my child, I would protect him with all my life and
wouldn’t allow him to die in my arms again.” Tears dropped from Kelly’s eyes as
her vision turned dark.
However,
Kelly didn’t know that her nightmare was just about to begin.
Kelly and
her son woke up in an abandoned ship. She was thankful enough to see her son
alive; though, at the back of her mind, she was unsure of what the future would
hold for both of them.
The earth
where they were awakened was not the same earth that they had known. It was
entirely different -- no islands and no land animals existed. What was present
was the ocean and billions of ships to keep humans alive. What was worse was
the existence of seawater creatures that fed on humans.
Kelly feels
the wind slapping in her face. She knows she has regained her consciousness but
her body wouldn’t respond. She hears something but she’s not sure whether
someone is calling her or is it just the sound of the ocean waves. She relaxes
a bit to grasp her surroundings. She slowly moves her fingers and clears her
mind. She takes a deep breath and listens carefully to the wind.
“…Mommy…please, wake up mommy…”
She knows
that voice – that sad tone of a voice. She feels the urge to be back to her
senses. I must comfort my child. I must…
Kelly finally
opens her eyes and jerks forward. She is gasping and shaking as she vomits an
amount of seawater. She then stands up and walks uncomfortably.
She looks
around to search for her son, but she is astounded of what she saw. She has
survived and is now in a ship with hundreds of survivors. This is the first
time she has been on a ship with so many survivors.
She looks
around again, hoping she can find her son. She runs into the survivors and asks
each one of them about her son, but no one knows.
Kelly nearly
loses hope when she sees Rikah weeping at the deck. She grabs her and asks her
in a flustered voice, “Rikah…where…where’s Nicholle…”
Rikah looks
at Kelly, weeping and shaking her head. Then Kelly’s eyes go blank.
Note: This is an original story by Red Phantom.
