‘Get in the fucking boat, Nurse Starling.’
She wiped back a tear and leapt down. With effort Connelly stood. He risked a look back and saw them, the bloated dead thing, coming along the upper deck. He turned and flopped down into the boat. He struck his leg on a bench but barely felt the pain.
‘Push off with the hooks. Get us clear.’
Lily strained against the hook to push off but the waves quickly grabbed the little boat and cast it out to sea, away from the Shinjuku Maru. Waves slammed against the little boat and water sprayed over the trio huddled together.
Connelly coughed and blood stained his chin.
‘Sit me up.’
They got him up and sitting, and he watched the ship as they moved further and further away. When it came, it was nothing like you would expect. It was audible rather than optical; there was a loud thump that could be heard even over the noise of the storm. The Shinjuku Maru shifted and leaned to one side as it raced for the tear in the horizon.
‘Go down you bitch,’ muttered Lily.
The ship listed heavily to one side and then turned so far towards them that the funnels faced out at the retreating lifeboat. And then it was gone.
‘We did it, professor! We beat it – we won.’
Amelia turned, smiling, and saw that Connelly’s eyes were closed.
EPILOGUE
The Catalina seaplane flew another circle and then came in slow and easy to land on the calm blue ocean. The sky was a deep azure. It took the crew some minutes to prepare a dinghy and send it out to investigate the lifeboat that they had spotted from above.
Two crewman paddled the dinghy over while others watched the sky and sea and manned the Vickers K machine guns that bristled from the big seaplane.
‘Reckon we’ll find anyone this time?’
The other crewman shrugged.
‘As long as it isn’t another body job.’
They pulled alongside. Inside the lifeboat a shelter had been rigged using the sail and formed a tent around the rudder.
‘Ahoy, the boat,’ called the first crewman while the other withdrew a Webley revolver from his holster, ‘anyone alive in there?’
The sail shifted and moved and then opened. A head stared out at them, an unruly mass of sun bleached blonde hair atop it.
‘Took your bloody time didn’t you?’ asked Lily.
Another head appeared and Amelia looked out at them.
‘Just you two?’
They looked at each and nodded. The crewman tied up alongside and got them into the dinghy before rowing back for the Catalina. The plane was locked down and the dinghy stowed away. Lily and Amelia were given mugs of hot sweet tea and put into seats like passengers with somewhere to be. The Catalina began its run and got into the air like a fat duck.
Beneath them the calm sea bubbled here and there. A water-logged corpse popped to the surface. Then another. Another. And another. They sprouted like mushrooms in the dark places. The sky began to darken and lightning flared in the distance.
‘Something up with the radio, Captain – hearing some right strange things…’
AUTHOR’S NOTE
While the events depicted in Hell Ship are completely fictional they were inspired by the massacres of the crew and passengers of the ships The Behar and Tjisalak by the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Second World War.
This story was, in some way, my way of trying to make sense of such acts. May we never forget the inhumanity that man has inflicted on his fellow man, in the hope that such things never happen again.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Benedict J. Jones is a writer of crime, horror, and westerns from south-east London.
He is probably best known for the Charlie Bars series of neo-noir novels and for the splatter punk novella Slaughter Beach.
About the Publisher
The Sinister Horror Company is an independent UK publisher of genre fiction founded by Daniel Marc Chant and J R Park. Their mission a simple one – to write, publish and launch innovative and exciting genre fiction by themselves and others.
For further information on the Sinister Horror Company visit:
Facebook.com/sinisterhorrorcompany
Twitter @SinisterHC
Further reading by the Sinister Horror Company:
THE CHOCOLATEMAN – Jonathan Butcher
WHAT GOOD GIRLS DO – Jonathan Butcher
MARKED – Stuart Park
BURNING HOUSE – Daniel Marc Chant
MALDICION – Daniel Marc Chant
MR. ROBESPIERRE – Daniel Marc Chant
INTO FEAR – Daniel Marc Chant
DEVIL KICKERS – Daniel Marc Chant & Vincent Hunt
CORPSING – Kayleigh Marie Edwards
FOREST UNDERGROUND – Lydian Faust
THE UNHEIMLICH MANOEUVRE – Tracy Fahey
KING CARRION – Rich Hawkins
MANIAC GODS – Rich Hawkins
DEATH – Paul Kane
THE BAD GAME – Adam Millard
TERROR BYTE – J. R. Park
PUNCH – J.R Park
UPON WAKING – J. R. Park
THE EXCHANGE – J. R. Park
POSTAL – J. R. Park & Matt Shaw
DEATH DREAMS IN A WHOREHOUSE – J. R. Park
MAD DOG – J. R. Park
GODBOMB! – Kit Power
BREAKING POINT – Kit Power
Visit SinisterHorrorCompany.com for further information on these and other titles.
Copyright
HELL SHIP
Copyright © 2018 by Benedict J. Jones
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written permission.
Edited by Daniel Marc Chant & J. R. Park
Interior design by Daniel Marc Chant & J. R. Park
Cover design by Vincent Hunt
Published by The Sinister Horror Company
Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.
HELL SHIP -- 1st ed.
ISBN 978-1-912578-06-1