12.5 Maldive Courage

Faith climbed to the Captain’s Deck before the lights went out. In fact, he was up on the ladder when the deck lights went out. He landed on the boat deck. With a fag in his hand, he approached closer to the funnel when he heard screams. He paused there. Then he saw smoke. He dived to take cover.

Captain Hiroshi placed Marisa face down in bed and dumped a bowl of ramen on her back. He slurped it from her back like a fish. Marisa, a thin brown girl with short cut hair, was loving it. When the lights went out, he jumped to sit upright in bed staring at the ceiling and the emergency light, “Naniga okiteiruno?”

Marisa cackled in a burst, “Ka-ka-ka-ka-ka!”

He climbed down from bed and stepped out into his day room stark naked. Two guys grabbed the captain and another slammed a hammer on his head. The girl in the cabin screamed out of wits. They threw canisters and subdued the captain on the spot.

Before they assaulted the captain, those Pinoys captured the radio operator and hijacked the radio room. He lay in bed gagged and packed.

The Pinoy on the Passenger Deck entered S4 and he could not find the dancer in bed in the diffused light. He checked the cabin thoroughly. She was gone.

“When are you going to cum?” asked Amira.

“In a minute!” Zahir yawned.

“You are holding it!” she grumbled.

“Can you please get on with it!” he rolled an eye, “Where are you? I can’t see you! Hey you!” He did not even know her name.

He felt those two tucks on his cojones and suddenly released helplessly. That was a trick she applied.

When the lights went out, the bosun lost the girl in his bunk. The girl who said she was a dancer. “Oh shit! She escaped in the minute the lights went out! Bitch!” he grabbed a torchlight and stepped out stark naked.

When the lights went out, two girls in the crew mess flirting with a bunch of guys vanished without a trace. Irma lost her golden necklace and Sirocco lost her girdle.

On Level 2, dancers and visitors got locked up in the rooms along with some crew members. Salt and Muja in the smoke room decided to get out.

Pinoy on the veranda saw where Muja entered so he stepped out to watch on the promenade. Muja did not know. He climbed out of the porthole and paused for Salt to come out. Simultaneously, he saw the Pinoy pointing a gun at him. Muja ran towards the Casino but the guy fired a flare. In thirty feet it hit him on his right shoulder and took a slice away. The flare was lit and catapulted around aimlessly on the promenade. Salt immediately withdrew closing the hatch and drove the latch.

Meanwhile, the Pinoy armed with an axe crashed the door open and slipped in. He entered the corridor and kicked the doors. Others followed him. Six local guys sat helplessly in the Casino and one stabbed.

Farida listening at the door heard those noises of girls screaming. She opened the door and stepped into the other corridor. They kicked the door of the restroom and the dancers were screaming like hell. There came an Indian, a thickset guy, who grabbed a dancer and dragged her away. Farida cried, “No! No!” And the Pinoy wielded the axe at her. They were howling like some wild animals in the corridors.

That moment the lights went out and Farida ran back to the restroom on the other corridor and locked in. Gradually, the emergency lights filled in a gloom.

The Pinoys couldn’t see the girls in the blackout. They ran away in the minute it turned blind.

Then the Pinoys threw smoke canisters into the cabins and closed the doors. They tossed those canisters on the corridors and moved out.

Meanwhile, the barman, crew and the musicians did whatever they could to wrap the injured; Sawsan, Allo and one local crew. Mona was still in the Casino and the Pinoys maintained watch. Suzi and Gulish were missing from this floor.

“This way!” Farida opened the porthole and Kish climbed out, followed by Nashee, then Farida. Meanwhile, Salt climbed out from the smoke room and joined them. They staggered down the companionway to the afterdeck when a Pinoy shouted. They chased and cornered all four of them. Again, very loud on the deck.

That Indian crew molesting Gulish heard those noises. He put his fist around her mouth firmly not to let her release a cry. They were out in the moonlight on the other side of the deck. Pinoys tied the two dancers, Farida and Salt.

Muja climbed to the boat deck in the hope to get to the captain or the operator or reach the radio station. The lights were out and it was dark. At Level 4, he heard voices of the Pinoys and detected smoke. He realised they detained the captain. He dropped beside the funnel and grabbed his hurting shoulder. He was lucky not to take a direct hit though he bled heavily. That moment someone seized his shoulder and he threw back in shock.

“Who the hell are you?”

“It is Faith,” said a voice.

“Oh Faith! You gave me such a fright!”

“What is going on?”

“Riot! Pinoys taken over the ship!” claimed Muja, “Look! I’m injured. I need your help. Follow me!”

Muja retrieved the steps back to the main deck and Faith followed. They passed the smoke-filled Casino from the starboard side to reach a companionway leading to the foredeck. They managed to cross the weather deck to the forecastle, Muja leaving a blood trail. A minute or two after that, Mannan ran on the deck and plunged into the hold. Neither Muja nor Faith noticed him.

Muja grabbed a First Aid kit and asked Faith to bandage his shoulder as tight as he could. It took a few minutes. Then he called the galley using the intercom and told the cook to fire some flares after he shot them first or in case if he could not fire them.

He was an Indian cook who did not want to take sides and he started firing much later. Though, Muja fired his first signal into the sky.