Noah's Ark - Survivors by Harry Dayle

dream. The sight of Max, Lucya, and Grau crowded round the end of the bed quickly put paid to that idea.
    “Welcome back,” Lucya said softly, smiling.
    “No, don’t try and get up, not yet. You need some more rest.” Grau was the only one of the three seated.
    “What happened? Where’s the captain? Did you find him? He’s gone crazy, he wants to kill us all. We have to stop him, he’s got a gun!” Jake lifted his head as he tried to sit up, felt dizzy and immediately fell back onto the pillow.
    “Slow down there fella,” Max came round the side of the bed. “The captain’s not going to be doing any killing, you saw to that.”
    “I slowed him down? You got to him in time to tie him up?”
    “Jake,” Lucya glanced uneasily at Grau. “The captain is dead. There was a fight, do you remember?”
    “Of course I remember! Sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t meant to snap. What I mean is, I haven’t lost my memory, I know what happened. But how can he be dead?”
    “You stabbed him, with a piece of glass.”
    Jake pulled his hand out from under the bed cover and looked at it, remembering how the bottle had cut it open, remembering the blood. His palm was neatly and comprehensively bandaged.
    “I’m thinking of specialising in hand wounds, you two are certainly keeping me busy,” Grau said, looking from Jake to Lucya.
    “Listen, you did what you had to do son.” Max tried to reassure him. “Given the state we found you in, it was pretty clear that you had to defend yourself. That piece of bottle went straight into Ibsen’s heart. He would have been dead within minutes. The cut was deep, nobody could have saved him.”
    “He said that we were supposed to die, that it was God’s will. He was mad, I’ve never seen anyone like that before.”
    “I must share some responsibility for what has happened here,” Grau said, a grave look on his face. “I couldn’t say anything before, because of patient confidentiality.” The others looked at him expectantly. “Captain Ibsen has been seeing me regularly with a stress related condition. I was of the opinion that it did not affect his capacity to run this ship. Clearly, I was wrong.”
    “This isn’t your fault Doctor Lister,” Lucya said. “Today has hardly been normal circumstances, it’s been enough to send anyone over the edge.”
    “That is possible, and I appreciate your kind words. Even so, at sea we are meant to expect the unexpected, to deal with unplanned and dangerous events. I should have made a recommendation to the company that the captain be given leave to rest.”
    “Listen, this is not your or anyone else’s fault Doctor,” Max said. “We can debate this all we like, doesn’t change what happened here. We have more pressing things to discuss, like what we do now. Jake, you understand you’re in charge now, right?”
    The thought had not occurred to him, and Max’s words hit him with almost as much force as the captain’s punch to the face. His head began to spin. He, Jake Noah, had just killed a man. He was responsible for taking a human life. And now he was responsible for safeguarding three thousand more human lives aboard this ship. Possibly the last three thousand human lives on the planet. If the rest of the world had been destroyed as the broadcast had suggested, he was in charge of the rest of the human race. With that thought, he passed out again.
    • • • • •
    “Nothing. No response to my distress calls. No radio chatter. Nothing on the shortwave. I can’t even pick up any navigation beacons,” Lucya said, setting down her headset on the dull grey communications console.
    “We mustn’t give up hope,” Silvia said. She and Lucya were the only two people on the bridge. They had used the fire escape staircase that went directly from the bridge all the way to the roof of deck thirteen in order to enter without being seen by the angry mob camped out by the main door.
    “You’re right,” Lucya said. “Just because