Burnt Sea: A Seabound Prequel (Seabound Chronicles Book 0) by Jordan Rivet Page B

Simon to see
if he had noticed, but he was already dealing with a dispute between two older
men. He apparently trusted her to take care of Rosa on her own.
    Most people cooperated. They only needed to stay on this ship for a few
days, and then they’d be safe. They set their sights on Hawaii.
    By the time everyone had been fed and assigned a room, night had
descended. Simon picked up his daughter, who had fallen asleep leaning against
a support pillar near their table, and told Nora and Judith to get some rest.
    Nora invited Judith to bunk with her in her stateroom on the eighth
deck. It was about the size of a college dorm room and had a queen-sized bed.
The bathroom door retracted like an accordion, and a closet/dressing area
separated the bathroom from the rest of the stateroom. The walls were painted
sandstone, and large abstract prints hung above the bed in mostly sea green and
purple. A small desk with a round cushioned chair sat between the bed and the
floor-to-ceiling window. A little square balcony jutted out from the ship,
divided by a low wall from the balconies on either side.
    “Toilet still works,” Nora said, poking her head around the corner of
the dressing area.
    “That’s a relief. Hope it stays that way.” Judith sat on the edge of
the bed, rubbing her feet. She was thankful for her comfortable running shoes,
but it had been a very long day. “Do you think the ship will make it all the
way to Hawaii?” she asked.
    “It should,” Nora said. “We made it out of the ash fall.” She sat down
on the other side of the bed and began removing her larger earrings.
    “How much longer do you think it’ll take to get there?” Judith asked.
    “Maybe three more days. A normal cruise does it in four to five, and
we’ve been booking it.”
    Judith studied the other woman. She had tossed her heavy black trousers
onto her suitcase, which had been delivered to the room before the chaos began.
She had a tattoo of an upside-down tree stretching most of the way down her
thigh.
    “Nora,” Judith said.
    “Yeah?”
    “Why were you cruising by yourself? Don’t people usually do that sort
of thing with friends?”
    Nora was quiet for a moment. “This is supposed to be my honeymoon,” she
said finally. “I know I don’t look like the cruising type, but my fiancée
really wanted to do one. She loved the beach and Mexico and the sea . . .” Nora
fell silent.
    “I’m sorry,” Judith said. “Did she . . . ? ”
Judith didn’t want to complete the sentence, even in light of the fact that
most of the people she knew had probably died today. That still didn’t feel
real.
    “Oh, no!” Nora said. “Nothing like that. The bitch got cold feet a few
months ago and dumped me. I paid for the cruise, though, so I decided I’d go
anyway and have a bang-up time. Guess the joke’s on me after all.”
    “Do you think she made it?” Judith asked.
    Nora sighed. “Yeah, she’s probably fine. She lives in Boston now.”
    “Do you think you’d want to see her again?” Judith asked. She thought
of her own strained relationship with her parents. Despite everything, she
desperately wanted to hear their voices. She wished things had been different
between them. She’d even be happy to see her insipid stepfather.
    “Sure, why not?” Nora said. “I’m over it. God, I could sleep for a
week. I had no idea apocalyptic disasters could be so exhausting.” She flipped
over in bed and burrowed beneath the covers, so that Judith could only see the
bright pink of her hair.
    Judith didn’t answer. She lay on the bed, still in her borrowed Catalina sweats, and pulled the blanket
up to her chin.
    Scenes from San Diego began to curl in the air above her like smoke.
The screams. The pure terror on faces she barely registered as she ran after
Simon. Esther’s pigtails bobbing like a beacon in front of her. She saw the
animal fear in the pregnant woman’s eyes. The bared teeth of the tall sailor as
he pulled up the gangway