Tony and his two female warriors stopped in the hallway and listened. They could hear distant thuds and doors opening and closing below them.
“He went below. That’s it—let’s get to the bridge on the double,” barked Tony. The three of them ran as fast as their suits would allow up the stairs to the bridge. They slammed the heavy door behind them and sealed it closed.
Tony pulled off his hood and mask and dropped it on the floor. His face dripped with sweat. He pulled off his gloves and turned around so Jessica could unzip the back of his suit. He stepped out of the boots and dropped the heavy jumpsuit to the floor, stepping out of it as well. Tony grabbed the alcohol bottle and poured some in his hands, then rubbed it all over his face and head. “Just in case,” he said.
Tony helped the women with their hazmat suits and they all wiped themselves down with the alcohol. They were still alive. All three of them. Tony looked at Theresa.
“Nice throw,” he said, then started laughing from pent-up nerves.
Theresa began laughing and crying simultaneously from nerves as well. Jessica hugged her, also laughing as tears flowed. They had just witnessed something no one would ever believe, and they were shot.
“Remind me never to piss her off,” Jessica said to Tony. “Or you either, for that matter. She gave Tony a hug, too. “You are a very brave man.”
“Shit. Theresa’s the brave one. When she threw the bag I almost shit my pants—pardon the expression.”
“Yeah, well, you charged those things like a wild man. I can’t believe we’re still alive.”
“And floating up!” said Theresa, now looking at the control panel.
Tony walked over to the MC and sat down at the captain’s chair. He pressed the button for VAL.
“Unauthorized ascent initiated . . . time to surface, sixty-seven hours . . . hull surface stabilizing . . . current depth . . .”
“So that’s it—it’s over. In less than three days we’ll break the surface,” said Jessica, almost to herself.
“I guess so,” said Tony. “I’m going to send up a buoy with a message for ODSR. We’ll need a ride a helluva lot earlier than planned.”
“What about Jim?” asked Theresa.
“What about him. He’s locked out,” answered Jessica.
“We can’t just leave him running around the ship.”
“Says who?” asked Tony. “You really wanna go out there looking for him?”
They just looked at each other for a second.
“Well?” he asked.
“We can’t bring him up to the surface. I’m not even sure we should be at the surface,” said Theresa.
“We’re not infected,” said Jessica.
“How do you know?”
“Because we don’t look anything like the two things that tried to eat us downstairs! We’re fine. And I am getting off this boat as fast as humanly possible. I’ll swim home if I have to!”
Tony looked at the two of them. “You’re both right. We’re not infected. But we can’t risk bringing Jim to the surface.”
Theresa felt sick to her stomach. “It’s what I was talking about before. He’s still out there. We either sink the ship at the surface once we’re off, or we have to find him and kill him.”
“Fine. We get off the ship and scuttle it,” said Jessica.
“And you think they’re just gonna let us sink a ship that cost a few billion dollars to build? No way,” said Tony. “We’re gonna surface, and the navy is gonna be waiting for us. They ain’t gonna let us sink her.”
They sat in depressed silence.
“We have to find him,” said Theresa.
“Bullshit,” said Jessica. “We’re not opening that fucking door for anything. The only door that opens around here is the top hatch when we surface.”
Theresa stared at Tony for a response.
“I dunno. I’m not in a hurry to open the door either, Jess. But we can’t bring him up.”
“We’re not going out there.”
Tony shrugged. “We’ve got sixty-seven hours to figure something out.”
Jessica pressed the all-call button, which opened up all of the ship’s mics and speakers. She listened as hard as she could for sounds of Jim but heard only white noise and the hum of the power plant.
They all sat and strained to listen. Wherever he was, he wasn’t moving or making any noise. Tony eyed the watertight door and wondered.