In the far corner heavy cotton sails like the kind you would see on an old outrigger were piled up, along with an array of mast rigging and lines. Unusual, Kate thought, why would an FFV have any kind of sail rigging...
Kate edged closer and shone the torch further along the wall. The stench in the hold by this point was getting almost unbearable and she was trying not to breathe too deeply for fear of dry retching. The smell gagged in her throat, and the air was so thick and heavy with heat and moisture that made her cough as she tried to get better oxygen…but failing, when her radio crackled to life.
"X-Ray 8-2 this is Charlie 8-2. Sit-rep."
Silence.
"X-Ray 8-2 this is Charlie 8-2, sit-rep over"
"Charlie 8-2 this is X-Ray 8-2, sir...I'm in the hold of the ship. Standby" Kate's halting voice cracked through the radio and echoed through the thick air as she took quick short breaths reaching forward towards the rigging.
"X, what can you see?" Dutchy had his head halfway through the hole trying not to lose sight of his boarding officer.
Kate grabbed the mail sail and gave it a large tug. A second later she let out a huge yelp as it gave way and she was knocked over, a dead weight pinning her to the floor of the hold.
"X!"
...
She couldn't breathe…..her chest was being crushed…. as she struggled against the very large and very dead man on top of her who was very much in a state of decomposition. She could feel the softness of his skin, oozing…the smell permeating her senses. Next to him were another two bodies, equally dead and equally gruesome in their appearance, so bloated and disfigured that she could not tell anything about them other than their shoes. And behind them lay the body of a young girl, or what was left of her. Her jaw was blown away and only her cold blue eyes were left, staring straight at the X.
Her heart was pounding so hard in her chest and a total feeling of panic spread over her, rushing through her body and down her arms and legs, making her hands tingle. In the blackness, she pushed the dead weight off of her and in short quick panicky rasps she pushed herself backwards, crying out and stumbling and falling over the blood, not blood of the fish but clearly that of the dead, slipping and falling with every movement...heart pounding...trying to breathe...reaching out to the beam of light at the other end of the hold.
"X!"
"Dutchy...we've got bodies down here! At least...ahhh" she sucked in a mouthful of racid air as she struggled to breathe… "at...at least four, mm..maybe five. They're pretty far gone. God, get me outta here!"
With a swift strong pull, Dutchy had a hold of the X's hand and was swinging her back towards the upper deck.