Realistic or Modern Overcast: Marten Rietveld

[Croike]

Marten takes that into consideration. "Might be worth seeing if we can get to the naval port."

"I'm going to check on the patient." He then goes below-deck to do so.

"There wasn't really time for introductions." He offers her a handshake. "Marten. How are you holding up?"

 

[Lorsh]

"Perhaps," Wigg says. He wishes you luck, seeming to have grown somewhat nervous about the boy himself.

You head below deck, passing Roche on the way down. You see the mother sitting down on the bed with her son covered in a blanket with his wrists tied on either side of him with paracord. His chest rises and falls, and he looks very pale and otherwise unresponsive. The mother sniffles, and looks over at you. "I'm Cassandra. This is Patrick," she says.

 

[Croike]

Marten nods.

"Once we make landfall, I'll see if there's anyone who can help you and Patrick get to a hospital."

He runs a hand through his hair, sighing. He takes up a quiet position of vigil near Cassandra, and waits.

 

[Lorsh]

You go on for a long while without any meaningful conversation, as Cassandra remains silent. The female boater, whose name you eventually learn to be Jane, comes down and offers you some bottled water and some salted crackers with tuna spread. You haven't eaten in a few hours, after all.

Some time after she goes back up, Cassandra falls asleep in the chair next to the bed. More time passes, and eventually, you see Patrick's chest stop rising.

 

[Croike]

Marten, upon seeing this puts on the oven mitt and approaches the boy. Using the mitt, he turns the boy's face away from his other hand and attempts to take his pulse.

He keeps his breathing slow and steady while he does this.

 

[Lorsh]

You get close, not disturbing Cassandra as you try to gauge whether or not the boy has a pulse. You feel for it, and there isn't anything. If he does has a pulse, it's far too faint for you to feel. It already feels like the body is cooling.

 

[Croike]

Marten swears softly and stalks out of the room, looking for Ben, Jane and Roche.

 

[Lorsh]

You head topside and find Ben has swapped out with Jane again. The latter is comforting Jodi, who looks slightly seasick as she looms over a tupperware container. Roche is in the upstairs compartment near the wheel, making some old instant coffee with Wigg. "How's it going down there?" your employer asks. Roche holds the coffee maker steady on a small table as it spits some liquid into a red party cup.

 

[Croike]

Marten shakes his head and looks ruffled. "Bad. Kid's carked it. No pulse, not breathing. I've got no fucking idea how we're going to break it to his mother."

He looks very uncomfortable. "I'm expecting the worst."

 

[Lorsh]

"Where is she- is she not down there?" Roche asks, not knowing she's asleep.

Wigg swallows, his face grim. "Now, that's a real shame... something real wrong about losing kids in all this," he sighs. "I guess we'll just have to tell her... no other way to do it."

 

[Croike]

"She's asleep near the bed."

He looks off the the side. "Consider there's a non-zero chance of her going into hysterics and leaping off the boat."

He starts going back to the bedroom. "I'm- not a good grief counselor. Would anyone like to break the bad news?"

 

[Lorsh]

Wigg swallows with some difficulty, and stands up. He smooths out his suit. "I suppose I could," he says. Roche appears at his side, as one might expect. "We'll just... see how it goes. I'll promise her that we'll get him somewhere that they can have a proper funeral," he says. "These are trying times, indeed."

 

[Croike]

Marten sighs as he returns to the bedroom, he casts a glance to the boy's still body and gently shakes Cassandra's shoulder.

"Hey, you need to wake up."

 

[Lorsh]

You arrive back to the bedroom, finding that Cassandra is still sound asleep. When you wake her, some kind of motherly instinct kicks in as she instantly registers that something is wrong with her child. "Patrick?" she asks in a shrill voice. She's on her feet instantly, moving to the bedside as she feels his cold forehead, then starts checking for a pulse. "Oh god," she shrieks. "S-something's wrong- oh god!"

 

[Croike]

He shakes his head softly, looking to Mister Wigg, then back to Cassandra and the boy. "I'm sorry. There's nothing we could have done for him on this boat."

 

[Lorsh]

"Nonono, god!" The mother rasps. "No, god. This is... this is fucking..." She blinks away a few tears, staring at the corpse with bug eyes as she clutches her son's cooling hand. "I can't believe that he's," she bursts into tears. "No, no, he isn't. He can't be..." She tries to check his pulse again, choking back her sobs. Then, she puts her hands on his chest and begins to administer CPR. "Come on, come on."

"Be careful!" Mr. Wigg urges.

 

[Croike]

Marten takes a sharp breath of air and makes to grab her shoulders. "Cassandra. He's gone. Chest compressions aren't going to help." He sighs again, trying to pull her away if she looks like she's actively going to attempt to breathe air into the dead boy's lungs. "Mister Wigg- could you please get Roche and Ben here?" He keeps his main focus on the boy's body, working his jaw with an air of apprehension about himself.

 

[Lorsh]

Mr. Wigg nods, and goes back above deck to fetch the other able-bodied men. Cassandra squirms in your grasp in momentary fury, but ultimately she's too overcome with grief to put up much resistance, simply beginning to sob solemnly by the time that your backup arrives. "What are we going to do...? He needs..." She sniffles. "He needs a funeral. We can't just..."

"It might have to be a burial at sea," Ben says, and Roche nods. They both lean against the wall nearby, both of them not getting any closer to the bloodied boy than they need to. Ben is wearing a mask fashioned from a dishcloth.

"Burial at sea? This is such... horseshit!" rasps Cass.

"It's the sickness," Roche explains. "We don't know what could happen, he could be contaminated with something, get us sick. We can't risk that."

 

[Croike]

Marten steps around to be next to the dead boy, looking over his restraints one more time. "Something I noticed on our way here- is that a number of the infected were sporting injuries that would be fatal to an ordinary person." He clicks his tongue a few times, looking for something thick enough to act as a gag near to hand. "There's something unnatural about all of this- I don't mean that in a superstitious way, it might just be this is something nobody's ever seen before."

He glances at Ben, checking if he brought the gun below deck with him.

"Better a burial at sea than nothing."

 

[Lorsh]

It looks like it would take some effort for a child to break free from the restraints - it's relatively sturdy paracord. There is a pillow cover that you you could use as a gag.

"So, he'll... the infected are dead?" Ben tries to wrap his head around it. You can see that he has the revolver tucked into his waistband, but now he puts his hand on it. "This is some crazy shit."

"I don't even want to think about that," Cassandra sniffles. "He wouldn't... he's never gotten in a fight in his life. He wouldn't hurt anybody. He's so kind."

"Those people trying to eat us weren't kind," Roche says. "We should get him out of here sooner rather than later."

"Please, just keep him on. He won't hurt anybody. He's just... peaceful," Cassandra argues, wiping away some snot and tears with her sleeve.

 

[Croike]

"Cassandra, I'm sure most of the infected we've met were good, or at least- normal people before their infection. I'm all but certain that some of the hotel guests were eating the bartender on our way out of the building. It does something to the sick. It's best you say what goodbyes you can manage now." He nods to the other men, setting to placing a gag in the body of the child, and undoing the restraints that they may move Patrick to the deck to do what they can for a 'burial'.

 

[Lorsh]

Cassandra is silent for about a minute, holding one of her child's bound hands. Clearly, the situation is very hard for her to process. But slowly, she nods. "O-okay..." She lets you gag him, though she winces. She relaxes more when you start to undo his restraints, at least. The mother hesitates for a brief moment as Roche and Ben help pick him up, careful not to put their hands on the blood, but ultimately she follows them back above deck.

Mr. Wigg shuffles after the group, looking uneasy. On the deck of the motorsailer, the other women are crying as the dead kid is brought back up. Cassandra, at this point, just looks numb.

"Are there any parting words you'd like to say?" Mr. Wigg asks as the men prepare to chuck him over the side. "For what it's worth, this is just... awful. I'm so sorry."

"I just... I just... I don't know what to say. This hardly feels real." Cassandra wipes her eyes. "Just..." She looks away. "I don't want to watch."

 

[Croike]

Marten murmurs a prayer in his native language for the dead boy as he lowers him toward the water. He does this with as much solemnity as the situation allows for. He heaves another long exhausted sigh as Patrick is given over to the sea.

 

[Lorsh]

Cassandra sobs loudly as her dead boy drifts for a just moment, before quickly beginning to sink beneath the waves. The corpse disappears into the dark abyss as the folks still aboard the motorsailer glumly look on. In the distance, Congress is burning, as are a few unlucky watercraft near the harbor. Gunfire continues to cut the air, along with distant screams.

There's not enough space for everyone to sleep, much less pillows and blankets, so it has to be done in shifts. After a few more long hours on the boat, you get a chance for some rest.

 

[Croike]

Marten sleeps fitfully, dreaming of days gone by, of freezing nights spent patrolling the desert. Grueling days of jungle heat, the faces and voices of men he has not seen in over a decade. When he does wake, he reaches for a knife that has not been by his side for years.

When he wakes, there is a hardness in his eyes aside from the obvious haggard exhaustion.