Happy Friday, my fellow zombie enthusiasts!
Time for another chapter of my b-movie creature feature madness that is Lava Cat Cruise Ship! There’s not a ton of us here, but I so appreciate your readership. I hope it’s bringing you a laugh or two, and that you’re having fun with Eidon and Cecelia! If you missed the latest chapter, find it here. And if you are new to LCC and want to start at the beginning, you can find the first chapter here!
And hey, if you feel like binging the whole thing on your Friday night, consider becoming a paid subscriber to access the full ebook - and the ebook for the companion novel, Zombie Shark Highway! Hey, two books - pretty great.
Also, I don’t share this story via email so as not to overwhelm subscribers and clutter inboxes. I only post and hope readers find it. Word of mouth is really the only way this story finds itself in front of eyeballs. So on that note, if you’re enjoying these fiery felines, I would love if you told a friend, shared it with a reader you think might like it.
ANYWAYS, let’s get to the mayhem, meowing and LAVA!
SIXTEEN
Eidon woke to a growl in his stomach.
When he opened his eyes, it took him a minute to place where he was -- the Hydra. He sat up, twisting around to see over the side of the research vessel. The ocean still boiled, pops of steam shooting skyward. But the lava geysers, those seemed to have stopped altogether. How long before they released their anger again?
A hundred feet away, he could see her -- the Silver Queen. She was still afloat. The ocean hadn't claimed her yet. But how was Eidon supposed to get back to her? His wet clothes clung to his body, the damp making his water-logged skin itch. He could swim it. But the thought of getting back into those churning waves, of dodging the deadly spouts of steam and flame -- he'd just barely survived the first time. What were the odds he could survive it again?
Eidon stood, his gut aching -- when had he eaten last? The hunger was all consuming, a pain growing from his gut up into his brain. He couldn't think straight. If he was going to figure out what to do next, he needed to eat.
Eidon left the safety of the crane and headed down the deck, finding an open green metal door. The inside of the Hydra smelled of rot and dust. Thick, stale air clung to his nose and throat so that he coughed. It was dark, dim firelight from outside spilling in the port windows was all he had to see by.
His toes hit something lying on the floor -- a small black tube. A flashlight. Eidon picked it up and flicked it to on, its pale blue glow illuminating the floor.
Smeared, bloody prints lead down the hall -- the unmistakable massive tracks of the Smilodons, and a lone set of booted footprints. Eidon shuddered. Whoever had run from the giant cats, it was safe to assume they hadn't escaped.
Clutching the flashlight, Eidon continued down the hall to where the tracks veered right, through another door.
Inside was pitch dark. Eidon had to prop the door open all the way to let the dim light seep inside. He let the flashlight roam through the dark, its small ring of light letting Eidon piece together that he was standing in a kitchen -- what was left of it, anyway. Chairs and tables were overturned, plates shattered on the ground. And more dried blood. A lot more than had been in the hallway.
But where were the bodies?
Eidon swallowed. The creatures had left nothing of the Hydra's crew behind.
He made his way over to the cupboards -- the smell of rotting food faint beneath the fetid blood. The boxes were ripped and overturned, the cans punctured by fang marks and oozing their spoiled contents. A small yellow can sat on the top shelf just within reach. It looked untouched, so Eidon snatched it. He held the light to the label -- Tuna.
Gross.
Eidon hated tuna. But the ache in his stomach and his brain was enough to make him overlook that detail and he set to work breaking the can open. He looted every drawer, finding no sign of a can opener. But he did manage a serrated knife and it pierced the lid with a concerted effort. When the lid was free, he dug into the grey fibery meat with his fingers, filling his mouth with half the tin in one go.
Meal in hand, Eidon made his way back through the kitchen, kicking at the debris that littered the ground. Plates and cutlery. A picture began to come together in Eidon's mind -- they'd been in the middle of dinner when those things surprised them. He let his light roam -- textbooks and papers, charts and maps. Whatever they'd been working on onboard the Hydra, the scientists didn't even seem to take a break over supper.
One binder -- forest green -- lay overturned in the corner, the number of pages inside as thick as a bible. Eidon downed another finger-full of stinky fish and crouched beside it. Something poked between the pages and Eidon pulled it loose.
A Polaroid.
He squinted at the grainy image, not sure what he was looking at -- until he made out the fangs. A Smilodon. It's open maw snarled out from a frozen block of ice. Specimen 1, Day 2 of thaw, someone had scribbled along the bottom in blue pen. Eidon flipped the binder into his lap, and more pictures lay on the open page. Specimen 2, Specimen 3, Specimen 4. Eidon rifled through the photographs, the still images of frozen monsters gradually changing, the ice melting away, the flaming fur and furious eyes staring into the camera. What had the crew of the Hydra been doing out here in these Northern waters?
Eidon flipped through the pages of the binder. He found a series of black and white illustrations. Giant, saber toothed cats filled the page, their skeletons drawn on top of their frames. Eidon didn't bother to try and pronounce the complicated, scientific names printed neatly beneath each one: Promegantereon, Megantereon, Paramachairodus. In the center of the page, the creature with the biggest fangs and broadest muscle was circled in the same blue pen from the Polaroids. Smilodon.
Eidon swallowed the wad of tuna in his mouth with a painful gulp.
Had the Hydra been looking for Smilodons?
Eidon flipped a few more pages. A print out of an email from Dr. Lee Wright, Director of the National Prehistory Laboratory for Bio-engeneering . Dr. Troyer, The condition of the specimens are our chief concern. If even one of the animals is in the kind of condition you are talking about, then I don't need to tell you we are looking at the best preserved Saber toothed cat in the history of paleontology. Can you imagine? Viable DNA from your specimens would make the de-extinction of Smilodon a reality.
De-extinction? Was that what Dr. Troyer and the Hydra were out here trying to do? Find long extinct Saber-tooth blood to take back to some lab and grow a whole new litter of them? Eidon felt a wave of sick roll over him, the tuna surging back up from his stomach. Looked like Dr. Wright and Dr. Toyer wouldn't need the DNA after all. The Smilodons were de-extinct enough already.
The final pages of the binder were a list of articles Eidon couldn't begin to make sense of:
Teen Girl claims great white sharks found off Point Chester were 'Zombified'.
'Killer horse monsters' are responsible for attacks on Maple Falls cattle says teen-aged suspect police are investigating for the crime.
Unusual Aggression reported in Vesper Island Bats thought to be caused by extinct parasite.
What did horses and bats and sharks have to do with the Smilodons Dr. Troyer was studying?
The word parasite was circled in blue ink, question marks surrounding it. Words in the text had been underlined -- atypical behaviour, hyper aggression, insatiable appetite. In the bat article, there was an image of a bat's ear, a tiny wriggling wormy grey creature poking out. Eidon glanced back to the shark article. Dr. Troyer had scribbled on the photo of eight sharks lying dead on a beach. Melvin says Remora attached to sharks may have been affected by parasite.
The parasite. Why was Dr. Troyer so fixated on a parasite affecting sharks and bats?
Eidon looked back through the Polaroids. The Smilodons stood frozen in ice. He stopped on one image he hadn't paid much attention to at first -- the inner ear of Specimen 1. Eidon's skin went cold. Just like the picture of the bat, something grey and squiggly trailed out of the massive Smilodon's ear.
Was that why the Smilodon's had attacked the Silver Queen? Hyper agression. Insatiable. Were the Saber-tooths under the influence of this parasite?
Eidon flipped the page. Another article.
Teen accused in the murder of childhood friend claims to have had brain 'hijacked'. Dr. Troyer circled the location, Vesper Island -- just like the bats.
The doctor had scribbled a note beside it, the words forcing a tremor through Eidon's body as he thought of Celia, alone on the Silver Queen, with five parasite-ridden Smilodons; infecting humans, extra caution.
Pssst………here’s a secret, limited time LCC discount code for a free trial of Authorstrator - where you can access the ebooks! Thanks again for reading!