• • • • •

“Captain Noah? Can you hear me?”

Jake tried again to open his eyes. The light was strong, they stung. He was lying on his back, but wasn’t sure where. A figure was bent over him, looking at him. A woman.

“Jane? Is that you?”

“Captain Noah, it’s Kiera. No, don’t try and move, not yet. You fainted Captain, you hit your head on a bench.”

A tiny light flicked on, shone directly into his left eye, then the right. A pair of hands turned his head to one side, very gently. Fingers probed around the back, carefully, gently. A jolt of pain stabbed at his skull. He cried out.

“Sorry Captain, I didn’t mean to hurt you. There’s some blood, and you’re going to have a heck of a lump there for a while, but I think you’ll live.”

The pain had somehow brought his vision back into focus. He looked up at the nurse. She actually looked a little like Jane, he thought. Similar short blonde hair, thin face, long neck,. He didn’t feel so bad about having said the name of his wife. He did however, feel intense embarrassment at having passed out, and in front the others. Not Kiera, she was a nurse, she’d seen it all before. Not even the sailors, not really. What really upset him was that Stacey would have witnessed it. A moment of weakness. He had a nasty feeling he wouldn’t be allowed to forget it.

“Can you try and sit up for me a bit Captain?”

“Only if you stop calling me that and call me Jake.”

“If that’s what it takes. Come on, let me help you.”

She put her hands behind his shoulders and helped him lift his back from the floor. Another jolt of pain shot through his head. He winced, but didn’t make a noise. Once in a sitting position he shuffled back until he was leaning against a bench. The opposite bench bore a dark red stain. His blood. His eyes swivelled around as he scanned the interior of the boat.

“Where did everyone go?”

“Horace and Dante went to tie us up. The other two have gone ashore.”

“Damn. Damn! Ouch!” his hand flew up to the back of his head.

“Careful, no sudden movements, Jake!” Kiera smiled cheekily. “I need to dress that, then you can go out and play too.”

“They shouldn’t have gone without me. Oh what the hell, I never asked to be captain anyway, so what if nobody listens to me.”

“To be fair, I don’t think you gave any orders to remain aboard while you fainted.” Kiera regretted the words the instant they left her mouth. She looked nervously at the captain, worried she had overstepped the mark. He started back at her, and a grin spread across his face.

“No, I don’t suppose I did. Now, about that dressing.”

The nurse pulled out some sterile swabs from her medical kit, doused them in antiseptic, and dabbed at the wound on the back of his head. It stung when she touched it, but not as badly as before. Once clean, she did her best to bandage it. She looked at the dressing on his hand.

“Well, you’ve got matching bandages now.”

“Don’t. I must look like some kind of confused pirate with this stuff wrapped round my head.”

“I don’t think anyone is going to worry about that. Do you think you can stand?”

“I can try.”

There was a blood curdling scream from outside. A woman’s voice. Stacey’s. It wasn’t just a single scream, it went on and on.

“What the…?” Jake tried to scramble to his feet, but the sudden movement sent more shockwaves of searing pain through his head, causing him to fall back onto his backside. “What’s happening, what’s going on?”

Kiera rushed to the open sliding door and looked out. At the exact same moment there was another scream, a man’s.

“What can you see?” Jake was still trying desperately to get to his feet. He hauled himself onto the bench and looked out the window. They were tied to the remains of the pier. Horace had found a spot between the broken concrete that littered the sea just large enough to get the tender in. The pier was much higher than their little boat. It had been designed for cruisers and tankers, not small craft like this. Most of the window was obstructed by concrete, just a thin slot at the top was clear. Through it Jake thought he could make out Stacey. She was on her hands and knees, screaming apparently in pain. It was hard to tell why, she was too far from the boat to see. In front of her was one of the sailors, he had also been on his hands and knees but as Jake looked on he saw him roll over onto his back.

“It’s Stacey,” Kiera called back from the window. “Wait there, I’m going to try and help.” She grabbed her medical bag and climbed out of the boat onto the roof, and from there jumped onto the broken pier.

Another scream, but this time not pain. It was Reeve, he was running towards Kiera.

“No! Get back on the boat! Don’t go any further! Get back!”

Jake tried again to get to his feet, this time successfully. Adrenaline was coursing through his body, and it blocked out much of the pain in his head. He wobbled over to the door. From behind him came a terrible cracking sound, and then another noise, like someone had opened a gas bottle. He turned to see a crack opening up in the hull. Just a hairline fracture, but enough that seawater was spurting through at high pressure. The force of the water was opening the crack wider. The hastily applied patch was breaking apart. He steadied himself, climbed through the door and grabbed the thick concrete of the pier. His shoulders were level with the ground outside and he didn’t know if he had the strength to pull himself up.

“Get back on the boat Kiera, now!” Reeve had nearly reached them. Stacey and the sailor were now both writhing around on the ground, still screaming.

“No, Kiera, don’t get on the boat!” Jake called up to her as she turned round to jump onto the roof. She looked down at him confused, and turned back to Reeve. He was beside her now.

“Captain! Stay on the boat, it’s too dangerous,” Reeve called.

“Get me out of here Reeve, this boat is sinking!”

The security man looked over at the others on the ground. Their screams were weakening. He sprinted to the end of the pier, grabbed Jake’s hands. As he pulled, Jake pushed off as best he could. He landed on his knees, felt he was about to collapse.

“Get up, now!” Reeve cried, adding, “sir!” Without waiting, he pulled Jake onto his feet. “Don’t move. Either of you. Don’t move from this spot.”

The wailing had stopped, and the only noise was the sound of water flooding into the failed tender. It groaned, creaked, then lurched over onto its side, sinking until just the upturned side protruded from the water. Air bubbles gurgled up and popped on the surface, and then, there was silence.

• • • • •

“Reeve, what the hell is going on here?” Jake’s head was throbbing, and he was bruised on his chest where he had been pulled out of the boat so quickly and aggressively. “What’s happened to Stacey and whoever is with her? Kiera should go and help!”

“No, nobody should move. It’s the dust, the ash. It’s dangerous.”

“What do you mean? It can’t still be hot, not after all this time.”

“It’s not the heat, there’s something else. Look around, it’s not the same ash. It’s thicker, we didn’t see this on the ship.”

Jake and Kiera did as instructed. Where they were standing, on the very edge of the broken pier, there was no ash. It had been blown away, probably into the sea. The pier opened onto a wide flat area. Jake could imagine how normally it would be filled with vehicles, coaches taking cruise parties on tours of the town, or trucks loading and unloading supply boats. The ash gradually increased in thickness in this area, until it became impossible to tell where the hard standing ended and the road up to the town began. Stacy was about fifty metres away, where the ash was several centimetres thick. Something was wrong with her though, something more than the fact she wasn’t moving.