HAYWIRE: A Pandemic Thriller (The F.A.S.T. Series Book 2) (50 page)

She had saved his life.

Twice.

Coleman didn’t remember even climbing
into
the elevator.

His last clear memory was inside the ice bar. Christov had surprised him. Twice Christov had plunged his trench knife at Coleman’s face, impaling his right ear and slicing his left hand. Coleman’s last memory was Christov’s knifepoint hovering over his eye.

Then Neve used the electro-dart.

After that Coleman only remembered following Neve’s voice until she pulled him from the cramped elevator.

Once he regained his senses, his body quickly recovered. The elevator had brought them right to the ship’s top deck, within sight of the bridge.

Coleman noticed two things.

First the angle of the deck.

And then the severed tail rotor from a Black Hawk helicopter.

Heavy gunfire had destroyed the deck around the tail rotor. Pieces of the chopper lay scattered all over.

We won’t be getting out of here by air.

If he and Neve stood any chance of escaping the rapidly sinking
First Lady of the Sea
, they needed to reach the bridge.

Coleman pushed Neve’s wheelchair up the deck with all his strength. Neve thrust herself forward with every step he took. The wind gusted against them.

Coleman suddenly looked down at his boots.

What’s that?

Water washed over his boots and around Neve’s wheels.

It wasn’t seawater.

The swimming pool beside them was overflowing.

Another huge wind gust buffeted Coleman.

He heard noise coming from every direction.

Everything on the top deck that wasn’t bolted down began sliding. Wind, water and the ever-increasing pitch of the ship began sliding everything on deck toward the back of the ship. A huge umbrella tumbled right past them.

‘Coleman!’ Neve yelled, pointing ahead.

Coleman looked up.

An army of wooden deck chairs rumbled toward them. The first line of chairs hit some raised decking and stopped. The others piled up behind them, cramming together. The pile of chairs grew larger and larger, like a giant beaver’s dam made of polished timber and canvas.

Coleman saw the avalanche about to happen.

‘Get out of your chair,’ he yelled. ‘Quickly!’

He scooped Neve from her chair.

Shuffling sideways like a crab, carrying her in his arms, he sidestepped across the deck away from the mountain of growing deck chairs, hoping he could get far enough to—

Crr...crrr...CRACK!

The dam of deck chairs collapsed under its own weight. The pile of timber avalanched down the deck toward Coleman and Neve.

Coleman threw Neve into the pool. As she landed in the overflowing pool, he dove after her.

He wasn’t quick enough.

Deck chairs smashed into him, entangling his arms and legs. He hit the water wrapped in canvas and broken wood. Canvas covered his face. He couldn’t see a thing. The chairs hadn’t just caught him; they were trying to drown him!

Completely underwater, he thrashed against the debris entangling his body. The moment his arms came free he tore away the canvas covering his face. His left leg was pinned between two chairs. He twisted his leg free and then kicked away from the lethal pile of debris.

He broke the surface and looked for Neve, praying she hadn’t been likewise trapped.

Tangled and broken deck chairs completely covered the pool’s surface. He couldn’t see her anywhere in the mess.

She could be drowning right now!

‘Neve!’ he hollered.

‘Over here,’ he heard her call back. ‘I swam under it. The pool’s clear over this side!’

Coleman took a deep breath and dove down under the wreckage. He had to swim right on the pool bottom, pushing aside underwater curtains of canvas and broken wood before he finally spotted Neve’s legs in a pool of light. The water around her was turning red with blood.

He surfaced beside her.

‘You’re bleeding,’ he said.

‘It’s just my legs,’ she replied. ‘I can barely feel it. I think the blood’s from my clothes.’

Coleman quickly checked her for injuries anyway.

‘I thought you were trapped under all that,’ she said with relief.

‘Only for a few seconds,’ he replied. ‘Did you swim all this way underwater after I threw you?’

Neve looked back and shivered. ‘I had to. The chairs pushed me right to the bottom. I couldn’t reach the surface. I figured the highest part of the pool might be clear, so I followed the slope of the pool up to this spot.’

And she was right.

Again Neve impressed Coleman with her resourcefulness.

She pointed over his shoulder. ‘The bridge is right there!’

They were closer than before the avalanche, having now swum part of the way. Coleman cleared a path to the pool ladder.

‘Get on my back. Quickly.’

Neve didn’t argue.

Coleman hauled them both from the pool. He tested his balance, checked his footing and then began ascending the deck again, carrying Neve on his back.

Erin ran into the dining hall.

King limped quickly behind her, using a wooden paddle from the museum as a crutch.

He had two bullet wounds - one above his knee and another above his collarbone. His body armor had saved his life. Erin had done her best to glue and bandage the bullet holes. King was on his feet and keeping up.

Erin scanned the massive dining hall for a way across. Everything in the hall was moving. The entire hall rumbled with the sound of sliding furniture.

‘Holy crap!’ pointed Forest.

Erin looked.

Oh, my God!

The ship’s upper and lower dining halls offered panoramic views of the gigantic aquarium. The balcony-like upper hall allowed diners to sit close to the aquarium. The sprawling lower hall allowed diners to see more of the aquarium. Combined, the two levels seated thousands of people.

The gigantic plexiglass panel separating the diners from the marine life had been lowered into position by two enormous cranes.

It was the single largest plexiglass panel in the world.

It had to be.

Engineers insisted the water pressure acting upon the plexiglass couldn’t be contained by anything less.

Unfortunately their calculations hadn’t accounted for a tilting ship.

Forest pointed at a huge crack in the plexiglass. Water blasted through the crack, flooding the upper dining hall like a dozen fire hoses working together. Furniture began piling up against the balcony railing, pushed along by the water that started cascading over the balcony like a waterfall.

‘We can’t go this way,’ Forest yelled over the roaring water. ‘That wall is going to collapse!’

Forest still carried the strange weapon from the museum. The weapon that had very nearly killed him.

Erin grabbed his arm. ‘It’s the only way. If we don’t go now, the helipad will be underwater.’

CRACK!

The terrible sound came from the aquarium wall.

A huge chunk of plexiglass blasted free of the wall and flew over the upper level balcony. The size of a refrigerator, the massive chunk of plexiglass slammed down into the lower dining hall like a meteorite from space.

There was no longer a crack in the aquarium.

Now there was a hole. And from that hole poured forth a geyser of water that blasted aside tables and chairs as though they were dollhouse models.

As Erin watched, another great chunk of plexiglass blasted free from the wall.

Then another!

Three huge geysers gushed into the dining hall.

‘Let’s go!’ ordered King. ‘Hurry!’

Erin charged forward. The moving furniture forced her to weave a crooked path. The hall had become a shifting maze.

Erin stopped when three tables crashed together right in front of her, cutting her off.

‘Go around them!’ hollered King.

‘There isn’t time,’ Erin shouted over her shoulder. ‘We have to go over them!’

She jumped.

Her feet never landed on the table.

Forest grabbed her.

He hauled her backward.

A moment later, Erin saw why.

A massive chunk of plexiglass from the aquarium wall smashed right down onto the table she’d been about to jump across. The impact shattered the heavy wooden table into matchsticks. Wood flew everywhere. Something struck Erin’s face.

‘I can’t see,’ she cried. ‘I can’t see!’

Forest held her upright. She felt him wiping her face.

‘It’s water,’ he yelled over the roar. ‘It’s just water!’

Erin tried to open her eyes. Everything looked blurry. Her eyes stung, but she could see. She saw the water reaching her knees now.

They weren’t even halfway across the dining hall.

The path ahead was suicide.

Forest yelled something at her. The aquarium water thundered so loudly into the dining hall that Erin could barely hear him yelling.

He pointed at the aquarium.

She strained to hear him.

‘It’s collapsing!’ he repeated.

Erin looked back the way they’d come.

‘We can’t go back,’ yelled King. ‘We’re cut off!’