4 Days Later. 02:55 Barnaby Street, Bermuda
Alice and John were running through the darkened streets of Bermuda. Neither knew exactly where they were. Why they were running away was crystal clear. Alice’s ugly side of jealousy and possession were on full display at the borderline dive-bar they were formerly at. She had sobered up instantly once the fireworks started. John, on the other hand, was enjoying the shitshow far too much for her liking.
John was laughing as he ran next to Alice away from the bay, “You know this is actually kind of fun.”
Alice continued to look forward and picked up her pace, “You are an asshole. You actually are enjoying this.”
“It’s nice to not be the instigator for once.”
“Can we talk about the causes of this once we get free?”
“Hey, you were the one that picked the fight with the chick that was eye-humping me,” John continued to laugh, “Take a right up here.”
The couple continued running through the streets. John pointed at an ally for them to run down. Alice sped down the street. She was in absolutely no mood for his bullshit. That he was as calm as he was while also enjoying this was simply rubbing salt in it. John was having flashbacks to Cuba which was increasing his overall enjoyment of this complete shitshow.
Alice stopped at the end of the ally and turned to face John. She threw her hands out and was about to speak when John grabbed her tightly and kicked off the angled wall. John dropped Alice onto the balcony and then grabbed hold of the fence he was leaning against. He then hoisted Alice up so she could climb up onto the roof.
John jumped up and clambered up to the roof. He noticed a hot tub and roof access to his right. He was standing between some outdoor furniture and a coffee table. Alice was on his left climbing up the stairs to what appeared to be a rooftop bar or communal space for the condo that they jumped onto.
Alice squatted down and looked around the small building to see if the people were following them. John casually strutted up and looked over the bar. He smiled to see that the residents had left some drinking glasses and bottles of wine and spirits there.
He turned the lights and TV on and reached over the bar. In one hand were two glasses and in his left was a bottle of Moscato wine. Alice looked back on John in horror because he wasn’t taking this seriously.
“What the hell are you doing? We’re being chased?” she angrily whispered.
“They lost us. There’s no way they caught us taking that turn, much less climbing up onto this roof. Plus look around at the other buildings toward the bar. Lots of lights and parties going on. May as well enjoy this building’s hospitality for a while until the shitshow subsides outside,” John said as he sat down at a round table.
John spun the cap off the bottle and threw it at the garbage receptacle next to the bar. Then poured the wine for the two of them. He laughed at drinking the wine out of a glass that was better meant for water or beer.
Alice reluctantly sat down but saw her hands shaking, “What the hell am I doing?”
“You are wound up tighter than I’ve ever seen,” John said taking a drink of the sweet wine, “It’s been building up for quite some time. Suppose this is on me for not speaking up sooner. What gives?”
Alice took a big gulp of wine and smiled, “Do you know when my stress levels began to spike?”
“Our field trip to Luna, during ascent. Seeing me almost die to a pulmonary embolism or another hit team probably didn’t help any.”
“I love you, John. I really do, but even knowing how you are wired, you’re running into the face of danger without a care in the world is just so stressful. I thought I could handle it better, but I suppose I never really got over your last brush with death.”
“And then you find out I ran off to chase another ghost during finals week and it’s like one more dagger to the heart.”
“How do you do it? How can you run into those situations with the confidence that you do?”
John looked down at the glass and smiled, “Back when I had my powers I knew I could, without fail, accomplish anything. I could act as quickly as I thought through situations.”
He paused and grunted, “With varying degrees of success as you no doubt have seen. My confidence more often than not threw mew curveballs. But deep down I just knew I could be successful in whatever I was assigned to do. But now…”
“Things are different, you aren’t the same person that you were,” Alice finished her glass.
John poured out the remaining wine into their glasses, “In some respects, I’m less than I was, but in others, I’m so much more. It may seem like I don’t think things through, but I do,” John paused with a sigh, “Well, OK I’m at least trying working on that.”
“I know you are. Fuck,” Alice looked up at the star-filled sky, “Why am I so goddamned jealous?”
John chuckled, “I mean, it is kind of cute in an oddly weird way. But it becomes troublesome and worrying when you pick a fight with someone that was literally three times your size and their retinue.”
“I have to chill out,” Alice said burying her face in the glass.
“We both have to do a better job of speaking to each other when we’re stressed out. Keeping that in is cancer to a relationship,” John took another sip of his wine.
Alice was about to speak when three people walked up to the roof bar. They were very surprised that there were people there. The man stepped forward and began speaking.
“You can’t be here. This is only for tenants.”
John reached into his pocket and pulled out a credit chit. He tossed it over to the man, then stood up and walked over to the bar and picked out a Pinot Noir wine of some sort. The bottle cap was spun off and tossed over John’s shoulder into the trash can.
John smiled as he sat down, “Apologies for borrowing this space. My lovely wife here decided to pick a fight with a group of men and women that were much larger than her. While I wouldn’t say no to good ol’ fashioned throwdown I am trying to amend my ways to be more civilized.”
John finished his win then began pouring the new wine into his glass, “If you check that chit, you’ll find more than enough money to compensate the three of you for the wine we’ve drunk. Along with enough extra money that you might allow us to share this space for a little while longer so that things may die down a bit.”
One of the women with the man grabbed the chit out of his hand and scanned it with her tablet. Her eyes bulged when she saw the amount. The other woman peeked over her shoulder and began giggling at the amount.
“You are more than welcome to stay for as long as you want,” the giggling woman said.
“Wait, why?” the man turned to protest.
John smiled and raised his glass to the trio that had joined them.
“Mighty fine of you to share your accommodations. And once again, I am sorry for intruding, we’ll get a cab and get back to our ship shortly.”
The trio thanked John for his kindness, several thousand credits on an unmarked chit was an early Christmas present for them. They made themselves at home at the bar but generally kept to themselves. Despite the gift, John and Alice were outsiders, and this tightknit group was obviously wanting the couple to move on from their area.
John and Alice made small talk and agreed to revisit their more serious conversation down the road. He insisted that she relax and enjoy the rest of their trip. When they were nearly done with their second bottle John took the initiative to order a cab to pick them up. He wasn’t feeling like running a small marathon to get back to the dock where their ship was moored.
03:45 Ocean liner Dock #2
John was so thankful to be out of the cab. He wasn’t certain if it was the cabbie or the car, or maybe both, but someone stunk in that vehicle. He tipped the cabby well and opened up his door and walked out. He closed the door and immediately smelled his armpits to confirm it wasn’t him.
Alice looked over the roof of the car and rolled her eyes, “Do I even want to know why you did that?”
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As the cab drove away from the dock John looked back at her, “Was confirming I wasn’t what smelled like ass.”
Alice shoved John off her when he began sniffing her, “You are not doing that to me.”
“Well, you weren’t the offending party either. Let’s go get one more drink. Even when she’s docked up the bars are open all day long.”
Alice shrugged and went along with his suggestion, “One drink, then sleep.”
“Which bar should we hit up?” John asked as they walked into the terminal.
“Well, we ought to slum it out at a dive bar,” Alice said upon reflecting at the night’s actions, “Maybe we just fake it and go high class.”
John grunted, “Lord knows I don’t deserve high class, yet that’s the only thing I want right now. Lead the way, my dear.”
The couple walked through the ship terminal, which was confusing because of its labyrinthian feel. They didn’t do a good job following directions either and made many wrong turns throughout it. What should have been a fifteen-minute walk instead morphed into thirty. John blamed alcohol on the couple not being able to follow directions.
The annoying elevator-like music that played in the hallways was not missed when they finally got to the correct gate. They stepped onto the deck of the ship and turned to the aft of the ship. Just as they got underway, they heard a stern-sounding voice call out to them.
“Excuse me you two. Could I ask you a couple of questions?” the man said as walked towards them.
John sighed internally then turned to face the man and spoke pompously, “What can we do for you officer?”
Alice realized that they had been caught and was trying to collect herself. She slowly turned around but tried to hide behind John. Her attempt at hiding was both telling and pitiful.
The man was wearing a ‘Ship’s Security’ jacket which had an embroidered badge over the right breast. He looked very tired, as if he was well underway during a double shift or wrapping up some overtime. John just smiled and waited patiently for the man to start their discussion.
“Could I scan your passes please?”
John handed it over and began looking down at the man, “If you must.”
“Thank you,” the man sighed when he saw he was dealing with rich people, “We had reports from a local bar that a man and woman from out of town were raising hell there. Would either of you know anything about that?”
“We were at the Conservatory Bar and Lounge this evening,” John spoke very convincingly, “The closest thing to a commotion that happened there was when the barkeep apologizing profusely for pouring the man a Macallan 40 instead of Macallan 35 as he had ordered. Worked out in the lucky gentlemen’s favor.”
“So, you weren’t at the Midtown Lounge tonight?”
Alice shook her head and asked, “What kind of establishment is that?”
“Borderline middle-class bar in a rough neighborhood. Then that was you two?”
John gave off a light chuckle as he looked at his tablet, “Heaven’s no. We wouldn’t be caught dead in such an establishment, far too uncultured for my wife and me. We prefer…”
Alice finished John’s sentence, “A more refined and noble kind of establishment, befitting of our class and social status. Those are the types of establishments that we frequent. To be frank I wouldn’t be caught dead in such an uncouth place.”
“Must be another couple. Thank you very much,” the guard turned and began mumbling to himself as he walked away, “God damn I hate these fucking rich assholes.”
John turned and continued to walk toward the Captain’s Mast Bar and Lounge. Alice noticed that he was grinning from ear to ear. She grabbed his hand and walked to his side, shaking her head at what she had said.
“Ugh, my god I sounded like Paul,” Alice sounded like she wretched those words out.
John laughed and cocked his head, “Speaking of, how are he and his wife doing. He got married when we were out and about in the spring, right?”
“Well, Paul’s still the same rich asshole he’s always been. Seemed a bit happier in the last message he sent though,” Alice stopped speaking as she was trying to remember something, “Oh dammit, I forgot to mention this to you. Dad wanted you and me to head home between graduation and shipping off.”
“Cool, no problem here. Think we have a week and a half between graduation and shipping out.”
“Yup,” Alice was smiling, “By the way, you are way too good of a liar. How do I know you aren’t cheating on me?”
John knew this was a trap question. He should answer it the correct way. That, however, wouldn’t be any fun. Besides, he was tired, slightly drunk, and in a mood to poke the bear. Even if it would hurt him in the long run.
“What makes you think you’d ever find out?”
Alice squeezed his hand hard and angry pouted at him, “I will cut your balls off if you do.”
John was smiling, “Calm down Sassy McGee. I can lie with the best of them. But the truth of the matter is you’d never find out if I was careful about it. I take our vows very seriously and haven’t looked at any other woman that way.”
Alice noticed that she was hurting her hand more than she was compressing John’s and lightened the grip back to normal, “What if you were on some deep-cover mission and you would’ve had to get busy with someone else.”
“Situation already came up. I found a different solution to that problem,” John shrugged as he spoke, “As I said, our vows are important to me.”
“Why didn’t I hear about this?”
“Because I know how you’d react. Didn’t feel like making you rage against some lady that you’d never meet.”
“You weren’t tempted to do anything?”
John laughed, “The temptation is always there. It’s no different for you. But like you, I don’t act on the temptation. There are literally hundreds of hot and attractive women on this boat. The temptation is real, but as I’m not interested in anyone but you in that way. Honestly, resisting those feelings is pretty easy.”
“Ugh, oh my god,” Alice had a moment of clarity, “I sound like an ugly jealous bitch.”
John couldn’t stop laughing until they got to the upscale lounge. This didn’t make Alice all that happy, but the realization that her jealous streak was as ugly as it was stuck with her. After they finished their lone drink in the lounge they left to head back to their room.
09:45 Ship’s Indoor/Outdoor Gym
John only got about four and a half hours of sleep that day. Alice had happy feet once again and literally kicked him out of their bed. Despite a fair amount of cursing Alice continued to snore through the situation. He put on some gym wear and left their room to get a start on the day.
The look of annoyance was hard to hide when John got to the exercise facility. It was far busier than he had expected. He was lucky to find an empty treadmill and hopped on to warm up. Cardio was something he hadn’t been focusing on much recently.
John smiled when he thought that. That had been an ongoing lie he was selling to himself. Exercise in general hadn’t been something that he and his classmates had been focused on this year. He felt soft because of the reduced amount of PE placed because they were seniors. When they had any free time they were either studying or hanging out, being young adults, not being part time gym monkeys.
That wasn’t to say that his physique had suffered grievously. John still possessed a very muscular structure, though it wasn’t nearly as defined or cut as he had been during the first couple years at the academy. Despite the reduced amount of working out, there was still enough being done to keep his form in good shape.
John’s fifteen-minute timer then went off on the treadmill. The annoying ring took him by surprise when he looked down to turn it off. He had run just over four miles. The woman next to him stopped her run momentarily to see his running statistics. She mouthed ‘oh my god’ as John walked into the sunlight.
He smiled when he got to the weight machines. John jogged over to the rope press-down machine and began his warmup. After changing the weight to one hundred twenty pounds, which John thought amounted to a good warmup.
The warmup routine consisted of five sets of fifteen presses pulling straight down as he faced the machine. After a short break, which consisted of him sweating and walking around staring at the machine shortly he did another work by pulling the rope over his head with his back facing the machine.
John had successfully managed to go into full sweat-beast mode when he was done with his second warm-up. His next target was some bar exercises. He didn’t want to do squats, but that was the only thing available, and he wasn’t being a beggar or chooser that morning.
The new first-world problem facing him was getting enough forty-five-pound plates. Which initially seemed to be in short supply until he found a couple of body-builder types that were hogging them. The thirty-five- and twenty-five-pound plates would have to suffice.
His ugly solution allowed him to squat four hundred forty-five pounds. He began working on his plan of five sets of ten. In between sets, he continued to pace around staring at the rig as if it owed him money. After he was done with his last set, he walked over to the musclemen to see how much they were lifting at the bench.
“Y’all mind if I get in on this?” John asked casually.
The man to his left laughed and said, “There’s six and a quarter on it. I’m not sure you can handle that.”
John smirked, “Been a while since I pushed myself, but I’ll give it the ol’ college try.”
The other two men shrugged and laughed to themselves. John slid down onto the bench and got himself into a comfortable position. One of the bodybuilders walked behind to spot him on the bar. The other two walked over to the end of the bar just in case. While these men thought very little of John, they also didn’t want to see this presumed idiot hurt themselves.
The man behind the bar looked down at John, “Ready?”
“Yup,” John said as he pushed the bar off its resting point.
The first rep was very mechanical and precise in nature. The second and subsequent reps were much more fluid. Each one of the bodybuilders was shocked at the ease at which John was hefting the bar. It wasn’t often that they had seen someone built like him lift that much weight.
John’s genetics allowed for just that though. The density of his muscles was significantly higher than a baseline human being. The lifetime of hard work and exercise helped John harness his own physical potential. Curiously he could make his physique look like theirs, but it would require an unbelievably amount of effort to build his muscles up to that level.
When he placed the bar back on the bench the bodybuilders were excited. John joined them to do two more sets with them and then followed them to the barbell station. This would be where John started his cooldown until Alice showed up twenty minutes later.
“There you are,” Alice said walking up to the divider that separated the walkway and outdoor exercise area, “And would you look at that, you found some new friends.”
“Hey, honey. You don’t look hungover, very nice,” John grinned as he sassed his wife.
“Aside from all the lying I had to do I feel fantastic,” Alice said with a smile, “Gentlemen, please don’t take this the wrong way, but I do not want my husband to get as large as y’all are.”
One of the men instantly flexed his biceps in front of her, “This ain’t sexy?”
Alice shook her head calmly, “No, it is not.”
“Hell of a workout man. Good luck and stay safe out there,” the man sitting next to him said as he bumped fists with him.
“Thanks, have a good one guys. Looks like the boss lady needs me cleaned up for something.”
John hopped the divider and landed right next to Alice. She got on her tiptoes and sniffed him. She pushed him away from her.
“You are both sweaty and smelly. Do not try to hug me either, I do not want to change clothes.”
“Good morning to you too,” John said as he began to walk to their room, “Where should I meet you?”
“The coffee shop, we’re going shopping again this morning.”
The bodybuilder’s overheard that comment and started to laugh. John sighed to himself and accepted that the rest of his morning was ruined. He couldn’t stop smiling though. Christmas day was coming up and they’d be celebrating New Year’s Eve somewhere in the Caribbean. Nothing had gone really wrong. This was turning into the best vacation ever. If this trend continued no one would end up being shot or killed.