Lost At Sea

2:00 AM, Somewhere in the Andaman Sea (off Andaman & Nicobar Islands, India)

A full moon illuminated the dark Sea. An old fishing trawler was the only occupant of the panorama at this wee hour. It’s ancient motor growled and sputtered as it pushed the rusty hulk of MV Baratang over the treacherous yet calm waters some 30 nautical miles off the uninhabited Boning Island. The skipper was Muthuswamy, an elderly fisherman with a jet black face covered by a contrastingly white flowing beard. The whiskers around his mouth were brown from decades of smoking. He wore a faded blue shirt and a lungi.

At the bow of the boat stood Rajesh Sharma, a much younger, clean shaven and urbane looking man. He was busy looking at his mobile phone’s screen. There was no network as such in the middle of nowhere but what he was looking at was a photo of a much younger him standing with a girl and blowing the candles of a birthday cake together.

It had been over 21 hours since they had sailed out of Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The third man aboard the old vessel was David. But David was agitated and seemed unwell- all wrapped up in a tattered blanket. His face belied fear, great fear. He was a middle aged man whose right arm was bandaged. He protested in a meek voice “I want to go back. Please don’t take me to that place again!”.

Rajesh replied “David, you are the only one who knows the way and you have to take us there. I’ll pay you more if you want”. “No, no, no, no. I can’t do this. I can’t. Please” wheezed David pulling the blanket over his face, trembling.

Rajesh was now irritated. “Just shut up! You’ll do exactly as I tell you…” he yelled and pulled out a Pistol, wrenching away the blanket from David. “You WILL take us there..or else I’ll shoot you and make shark feed out of you” he said in a firm voice. David looked at Muthu for support but the old man just averted his gaze. He was more interested in the handsome remuneration promised by Rajesh.

Muthu called out to Rajesh “Saar, can I talk to you for a minute?” Rajesh walked up to the bridge. The cabin barely had space for one person. “Is it really a good idea? When this fellow was washed ashore, he was babbling about ghosts and monsters and what not…probably we should listen to him.”

David lifted the dirty bandage off his arm. There were bite marks underneath it and the wound seemed infected oozing with pus.

“Muthu! It is my sister we’re talking about here. I have to find her. If this guy survived whatever the hell happened to them, then there’s a chance she did too.If it is money you are after …I’ll pay you more-but we are not turning back” said Rajesh sternly shutting down scope for any further argument.

The fishing boat trudged on in the open sea. Suddenly a thick fog rolled out from the distance. “Looks like we’ll be hitting some trouble now” said Muthu in an ominous voice. He knew this was completely abnormal as such fogs seldom happen in tropical seas. Rajesh saw the oncoming fog and muttered expletives under his breath. His thought was broken by David’s shrill voice laced with terror- “We are there! It won’t leave us now! Oh Jesus –save us, I don’t want to die here.”

“The fog. It comes out of the darkness. I’m telling you one more time, not to do this. Death waits for those who enter the fog….it hides the very devil within it” David continued ranting. Rajesh was totally irritated now and he pulled out his pistol once again and pointed it at David. “You piece of shit! If you don’t shut up—I’ll blow your brains out”.

The fishing boat sped on and soon the dense fog enveloped it. The fog was dense and one could barely see the person adjacent let alone anything in the water. “Slow down Muthu!” said Rajesh as he peered into the fog through which the hand held search light which he was carrying ineffectually tried to cut through. “Rashi..Rashi..are you there..can you hear me…” he shouted out his sister’s name as Muthu hooted the boat’s horn into the darkness.

Suddenly there was a loud thump and he heard Muthu swear loudly. “What happened?” shouted Rajesh as he saw David cowering in a corner, the blanket covering his face. “I don’t’ know…we seem to have hit something” said Muthu.

Rajesh flashed the light towards the port side of the boat. The sound had come from the front left end of the boat. The round bem of the light illuminated something which looked like a wall…dark and barnacle covered. He went closer to inspect. Muthu too had followed him.

“Saar, it is a ship!” yelled Muthu. Indeed, it was. It seemed to be the rusty hull of a ship.

“Wait! There’s something written here” said Muthu..pointing to something written in English in peeling paint on the hull. “L--u-b-o….- O-r-l-o-v-…”-Rajesh read out loudly though some alphabets were worn out and undecipherable. The name sounded Russian and somehow appeared vaguely familiar- though he could not place exactly where he had heard it.

David was howling now “We are dead now!”. “Shut up David! Have you seen this ship before…what is this?” said Rajesh. “This ship is the devil itself….we should leave…I beg you!” said David in reply.

“Rashi, Rashi …are you there …Is anybody there abroad” yelled Rajesh looking up at the dark hulk of the ship. It appeared derelict as it had no lights on and its hull was badly rusted. There was no answer or activity from the ship.

The sea was surprisingly calm and luckily it seemed that the collision had done only some cosmetic damage to the MV Baratang. An old boat she was but apparently robustly built. The only sound was that of the sea water lapping the boat and the ship. The engine of the boat had stalled owing to the collision. Muthu now tried to start the aged gasoline motor…it refused to start. Apparently a fuse had blown. Muthu went down to the engine room and after a few laborious attempts to manually crank the engine, the motor finally started. However, when he pushed the throttle, there was no movement. Muthu peered over the stern and realized that the propellers were not moving. “Saar, I think the drive shaft is busted” he said in a dejected tone.

“What now?” asked Rajesh in an irritated voice. “Don’t worry I always carry a spare..but I’ll have to go over board and change it. Will have to wait until morning for that…I cannot see a thing now…some fuses seem to have also blown so none of the lights too are working. It is in any case only 3 hours to day break.” Replied Muthu. He was able to push the boat away from the ship with a setting pole and place a few old tyres on that side as buffers to prevent any further collision damage. In any case the sea was absolutely still so the boat sat still not drifting much.

Though pretty vexed, Rajesh agreed to this…purely because he had no other choice as also he thought that day break would also put them in a better position to search the area and possibly the ship. The three of them huddled on the deck, dozing fitfully.

Suddenly Rajesh was woken up by the sound of water splashing around the boat…as though someone or something was swimming in the water. Muthu and David were already awake and looking nervously. David especially looked pale and absolutely stricken. He just pointed his finger in the direction and said “They are coming..there is no escape! They will take us also and devour us as they did to your sister ”.

Before either Rajesh or Muthu realized, David picked up Rajesh’s pistol which was lying on the deck, put the barrel in his mouth and pulled the trigger. The shot rang out in the empty ocean as he flopped dead on the deck with his brains splattered all over.

Rajesh and Muthu were stunned. Muthu started crying. “I should not have listened to you and come. It is only my greed which brought me here…now God only knows what damnation awaits us.”

Rajesh was silent.. he too was scared now. What was it that was so scary that the man took his own life to escape it, he wondered. Notwithstanding, he unclasped the dead man’s fingers and removed the pistol from it and tucked it in his belt.

As if to answer his query—the splashing sounds became louder and seemed nearer. He flashed the hand-held search light’s beam in the direction of the sound. It was emanating from near the ship and all along the water between the ship and the boat….a distance of about 100 yards by now.

The beam searched the ship sides. Rajesh could now discern a dark stream which seemed to be flowing from the side of the ship along the old rusted ladder. The dark stream reached the surface of the sea and then seemed to be coming towards the MV Baratang. It was this which was causing the splashing sounds. “What is it Saar?” asked Muthu. Rajesh just shook his head and shrugged.

Then the splashing sound changed somewhat and was now accompanied by a scurrying sound. Both the men realized in horror that the dark stream was nothing but hundreds of rats scampering out of the derelict ship and then swimming en masse towards the boat. The first of these rats had now started boarding their boat. Muthu picked up a paddle and beat off the rats which were now closing in on them. But there were way too many of them. The rats smelt terrible and looked diseased.

Muthu motioned Rajesh to follow him and both men locked themselves in the tiny cabin which acted as the bridge of the boat. As the men watched in horror, the rats pounced on poor David’s lifeless body and began hungrily devouring it. Rajesh felt nauseated and threw up out of the window. Muthu quickly closed the window once he had finished and began mumbling what sounded like a prayer. There was still two hours for day break…he hoped this nightmare would end with the first rays of the sun. At least they would be able to clearly see what they were up against.

Suddenly, the eerie sound of the thousands of feral rats scampering stopped and it all became quiet again. A splashing sound was heard again..only it was a heavier sound-as though something bigger was swimming in the water. They felt heavier objects bump against the boat and then something appeared over the edge of the deck.

Muthu was frozen silent now…staring the direction which was illuminated by the search light. There were some more rats which had boarded the boat…only they were the size of a big dog- almost as big as a German Shepherd thought Rajesh in horror..eyes wide with disbelief.

The smaller rats seemed panic stricken at the sight of these large monsters and many jumped off the boat in apparent fear. One of the monster rats now looked towards the bridge and barred its filthy brown fangs and hissed. Rajesh instinctively drew the pistol and fired at the rat. The bullet blasted the face of the oversized rodent as it fell dead. The other rats immediately fell upon it and began hungrily ripping the carcass. 

Muthu switched off the search light to conserve it’s battery and also not to attract attention of any of the giant rats. But the scurrying again started increasing and was very near the cabin now. Muthu switched on the light and flashed it through the window. The sight was nightmarish. Thousands of rats had taken over the boat and now were all around the cabin. The giant rats were however not seen. Then they heard the sound. A distinct sound of teeth gnawing wood. The giant rats were trying to gnaw through the door of the cabin to reach them!

A huge rat..much bigger than the one Rajesh had shot earlier, was now trying to enter the cabin with a hissing sound. Rajesh carefully aimed the pistol and blew it’s head off. The same sickening routine followed…the rat got devoured by the others. Then Rajesh shot another one and then another…until he finally ran out of bullets. Muthu had in the meantime climbed up the roof of the cabin and climbed up the mast on top. All he could lay his hands on was a can a gasoline.

He then saw Rajesh too meet a grisly fate…he was eaten alive by the swarm of cannibal rodents, both the normal sized ones and the large mutated ones…his howls of terror and pain reverberated disconcertingly before finally dying down.

The rats then seemed to sense that Muthu was up the mast and one of the giant rats was now trying to scale the mast. “I will not die like this. I will not be eaten alive. I will kill you bastards too” screamed the old man as he sprinkled the gasoline down on the deck from his aerial perch. He then coolly lit his beedi (a thin Indian cigarette or mini-cigar filled with tobacco flake)—took a deep pull at it and threw the lighted cheroot down towards the deck. MV Baratang erupted in flames lighting up the area around the ill-fated boat.

Surprisingly, the fog had cleared and the derelict ship was nowhere to be seen.

***

A news item in The Guardian U.K. of about 6 months ago:

A GHOST SHIP INFESTED BY CANNIBAL RATS LOST AT SEA

Months after a Russian "ghost ship" turned up adrift off the Irish coast, she's gone missing again. The unmanned ship, infested by rats, was earlier reported to be heading towards the British Isles. Really? Well, the mystery of the derelict Russian cruise ship the 4,000-tonne MV Lyubov Orlova has become a news story that has been circulating online and splashed in newspapers. Just imagine it: a shadowy vessel silently docking in the dark of night, while cat-sized killer pirate rodents descend and scurry around our cities, brandishing their fangs ready to gnaw at your bones – yes it's the stuff of nightmares. 

In 2012, the abandoned ship was accidentally lost at sea and is believed to be infested with cannibal rats. The Coast Guard however believes that the derelict ship, not heard of in the Atlantic Ocean since early last year – has most likely sunk or hit rocks somewhere in the high seas though no wreckage has ever been found. 

Technically she could still be floating around anywhere in the vast oceans thousands of miles from the British Isles, completely un-noticed.

 

Disclaimer: Though this story is inspired by real places, events and things- it is a pure work of fiction and a product of the Author’s imagination. All characters in the story bear no resemblance to any person living or dead.