Sky is now Sam
Knox is now Kate.
Enjoy!
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Sam looked around the large room with a satisfied grin. The room was as close to sparkling clean as you could get. He blew on his spray bottle like it was a gun he had just fired it before he spun it around on his finger and holstered it in the pocket of his khaki shorts.
He turned to the cleaning cart and whistled as he expertly maneuvered it out into the hallway and to the next room. As he reached the next door, he heard the faint buzz of his walkie-talkie. His hand instinctively went to his right pocket, where he always clipped the walkie-talkie, but he came up empty. He heard the buzz coming from behind him and realized he had left it in the room he had just exited.
He swung himself around and jogged back to the room. Sure enough, when he opened the door he found the walkie-talkie sitting on the coffee table. It buzzed again as a voice came through.
"Sam the man, I repeat, come in. This is the Bat-Cave. Over."
Sam shook his head. "Johnny, who gave you a walkie-talkie?"
There was a long silence before Johnny spoke again. "Oh, were you done talking?" he asked, "because I didn't hear you say over. Over."
"Seriously, who gave you a walkie-talkie?" There was another long silence before Sam added, "over."
"I stole it," Johnny boasted. "Dude, we on for ping-pong tonight?"
"This is an official line for Cruise Employees. The discussion of personal matters is prohibited," a third official voice added to the conversation. "Jules, wants her walkie-talkie back Johnny," the person added.
"I did not..." Sam switched his walkie-talkie off.
He was turning back towards the door when he heard the surprised gasp. There was a girl standing in the doorway, looking apprehensively at him. She was in her early twenties with a youthful look and long brown hair. She looked vaguely familiar, and he realized she must be one of the guest celebrities on the cruise.
Instantly, a big smile spread across Sam's face as he slipped into customer service mode. "Apologies..."
"What are you doing?" she blurted out.
Sam instinctively took a step back at the concern in the girl's eyes and spoke calmly. "I just forgot my walkie-talkie." He held up the walkie-talkie. Her eyes jumped between him and the walkie-talkie in his hand, then down to his blue polo.
His hand went to the Cruise Ships logo printed on the left side of his shirt. "I work on the ship," he clarified.
"Okay..." She nodded but still eyed him hesitantly. "But this is my room... Look, I really appreciate your enthusiasm and support," she said calmly, and suddenly Sam felt like they had reversed roles. Why was she talking to him in the same calm voice he used to with upset customers? She took a hesitant step further into the room, towards the counter where the phone was located. "I wouldn't be anywhere without my fans, but..."
Sam looked at her more closely. She was in her early twenties with a youthful look and long brown hair. She looked vaguely familiar, and he realized she must be one of the guest celebrities on the cruise. Which also meant she thought he was an eager fan. One who had broken into her room.
He tried to soften his smile and look as calm and level-headed as possible. "I work on the cruise. I was cleaning your room. The cleaning cart is just out in the hall." He motioned towards the open door, so she could look for herself. She looked at him like she didn't completely believe him, but she stepped back towards the door and looked out.
When she came back in, her demeanor had turned sheepish. Sam spoke up quickly. "Again, my apologies ma'am. I didn't mean to scare you. Is there anything else I can do for you before I go?" He said with complete sincerity even as he worked to keep the smile from his face. He couldn't wait to tell the rest of the crew. They were going to die from laughter.
The whole 'Celebrity Cruise' had had the whole crew in a frenzy thinking about interacting with some of their favorite celebrities, except Sam. Passengers were passengers, he didn't really care what they did for a living. And now he had been mistaken as a crazed fan willing to break into this person's room.
"I guess I should be the one apologizing," the girl said.
Sam waved away her words and let the smile slip onto his face. "It could happen to anyone," he smoothly lied. "I'll just get out of your way."
As he started for the door, she moved out of his way and further into the room. He had just reached the hallway and was reaching to pull the door closed when he heard it. It started so faint he didn't even register it until the door was almost closed. But as the sound grew louder and he frozen, his ears focusing in.
It was a deep steady beat of slow approaching footsteps. Then he could feel the steps reverberating through the ground, and he began to grasp just how many bodies were moving in their direction.
Once the full reality of what was heading in their direction landed, he jumped into action. Running the few feet to the cleaning cart, he grabbed anything that would be useful: the chemical cleaners, the broom, toilet plunger.
In less than thirty-seconds, he was back in the girl's room. She jumped in surprise when he dumped all the supplies on the floor and slammed the door shut with him inside the room.
"What are you...?"
"Go into the room and empty the closet of everything." He didn't look at her as he put into place every lock the door had. He whipped around, looking for the coffee table and found the girl hadn't moved at all. "Go!" he shouted, trying to kick her into action.
Her shock turned to anger at his raised voice. She placed her hands on her hips, a scowl settling in between her eyes, but Sam didn't let her get a word out. He quickly crossed the room, turned her towards the room and pushed her in.
"We don't have time for questions," he said. "If you want to survive you will do what I say. Empty that closet. Now!"
He watched as his words began to break through her anger and shift into panic. In any other situation, his customer service background would have him offering her seat on the couch while he got her a cup of water and slowly broke the news of what was happening. But he had been through this before and all niceties got thrown out the window the moment he heard those footsteps.
"Closet! Now!" he repeated, clapping in front of her face to get her to move. The noise worked enough to get her moving and Sam ran back to the other room. He grabbed the coffee table and dragged it in front of the door as an extra layer of security. Next, the couch, butted up against the coffee table. He was sliding the couch into place when he heard the first wails coming from down the hall. The hallow sound ran shivers down his spine.
He grabbed the cleaning supplies and ran into the room. He was grateful to see the girl had listened to him. The closet was empty with just enough room for the two of them. "Get in," he instructed her, throwing the supplies in before crossing back to the door.
He put the flimsy lock into place before pushing the desk in front of the door. He knew from the first time the bed was bolted down, or else he would have moved that against the door too.
He turned back to the closet and found the girl cowering inside of it, staring at him with confused and frightened eyes. He grabbed the two life-jackets and joined her in the closet.
"Put this on," he told her, as he slipped one of the orange vests over his own head. Her hands shook and she fumbled with the buckles.
"Here, let me help," he offered. He pulled her close and snapped the buckles into place.
"What?" she started. She looked up at him, lost for words. "What are these for? Whats going on?"
Sam reached out and closed the closet doors, sending them into darkness. "The vest offers an extra layer of protection," he said.
"Protection?" she questioned. "Protection from what?"
They both jumped as something banged against the main door. Another awful wail rang out. The scar running down Sam's back prickled at the sound. It had been years since he had heard it, but he could never forget it.
He reached for the girl in the dark and took her hand. He knew nothing made sense to her. Moving forward, nothing would make sense. But if she stuck with him; if he remembered what worked last time; if he lucked out in pulling off another miracle, they might see the other side of this cruise.
"Whats that sound?" the girl asked, the fear clear in her voice.
Sam gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. He took a deep breath, bracing himself as he breathed out the answer. "Zombies."
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Hey hey!
So I wrote a gender reversal chapter for A Secret Service (posted in Open Case File) and then convinced JoymomentsSISTER to do one for Celebrity Cruise. But the problem with it was she got bored halfway through and decide to change the ending just a little bit.
That's how you all got zombies instead of a good Meet Cute! It's typical of her to do this. The one other time she wrote me a cute one shot she killed everyone with a meteor attack. She's not really subtle when she wants to be done with something.
Hope you liked it even if it was a bit surprising.
I'm not going to lie if I think she would do it, I would want her to continue this epic story! Also Sam is super hot when he's preparing to take on a horde of zombies!
Vote, comment, follow because you doesn't like zombies!