Steve threw himself toward Singer.
“Listen to me,” he whispered, trying to grab Singer’s terrified face in his hands. “It was a snake, just a snake, please calm down, it was just–”
Behind him, Jade continued to scream. Dave grabbed her from behind, putting a hand over her mouth as his eyes went wildly to the cabins. She panicked and bit his hand. He jumped back, hissing and Jade stumbled away from him, panting in harsh little bursts.
A low, sighing moan froze them all into stasis. The sound could almost have been the wind, passing through tree branches, but they all knew better. They’d all heard that sound, so distinctly and disturbingly human, and yet not…it was the sound of the living dead.
Brian, who had been the last to react to Singer’s screams, stood in the scrub and bushes, frozen with shock. Then he saw a shadow the seemed to coalesce from the deeper shadow between the two closest cabins…the undead had found them.
“Guys, guys it’s…” His voice was breathy, shaking. “It’s one of them…a sinker.” He pointed, unable to take his eyes from the shuffling horror that had now come fully into the moonlight of the clearing.
It was, or had been, a kid…maybe six or seven. A little boy in footie pajamas detailed with red, cartoon cars. One of his arms was gone, but the shoulder under the flannel bunched and rotated in imitation of the arm that had risen, grasping. The boy’s face was gray and beginning to peel at his hairline.
One of its eyes was gone.
Its mouth hung open and the curious breath of unlife coursed over its spongy, rotting vocal chords. It was less than twenty feet from Singer and Steve.
Steve saw the boy and stood, pulling singer with him. “Get to the boats,” he said, his voice a harsh whisper, and shoved Singer in the direction of the beach.
But Singer only turned in a half circle, favoring his leg, and saw the undead boy. He felt a crazy free fall of fear in his stomach and searched automatically for his sister. She stood next to Dave. They both stared at the boy and her hands were laced over her mouth. Her eyes were large and swimming with panicked tears.
Brian was still standing a few feet back in the woods.
Another shadow lurched to life from between the cabins.
And then another.
Now there were three corpses between them and the beach.
Now five.
Steve felt the cold cloak of decision-making descend, washing away the panic. He turned to the others, his voice a harsh and commanding whisper sawing through the dark.
“Run!”
That broke everyone’s paralysis. They all ran, dodging the sludgily moving dead whose numbers were growing at an alarming rate. Steve broke left and Dave followed while Singer and Jade ran shoulder to shoulder between another set of cabins with Brian not far behind.
The sighing moan became louder, a chorus of rot and ruin, of despair so great that it existed even without the consciousness of those souls in despair. They sighed with both hunger and longing, some deep primal need encouraging them to possess what they now lacked.
At least half were children.
The children and caretakers of children had not fared well in the plague that had decimated the world.
They were past the cabins and across the highway and Steve felt a triumphant lift that pumped his legs harder. They were going to make it.
He pounded down the pier, counting the footfalls behind him: Dave, Jade, Singer, Brian…they were all going to make it.
The boats bobbed complacently at their tethers. Steve stopped ten feet short, ushering everyone past him with a wave of his arm, and looked back the way they had come. The first of the walking dead were just now shuffling onto the pier. They had time. Enough. He turned it time to see Dave and Brian lifting Jade into the larger boat.
Dave jumped into the smaller boat and stationed himself at the oars while Brian did the same in the larger boat. Jade had gone to the rear, her hand on the engine, ready to push the button that would bring it to life.
Singer looked back at Steve. “Come on!” he said and stepped forward. But he missed his footing and stepped between the pier and the edge of the boat, sinking, hitting his chin on the way down.
Steve stared in shock at the place Singer had been a split second before. He’d gone down so fast; it was like an optical illusion, a pratfall.
Then Jade’s scream sliced into his shocked consciousness and he was moving, throwing himself belly down on the pier, reaching down.
Singer’s head broke the water and he reached for Steve’s hand, but in his panic, he missed his grip and flailed wildly.
“Singer, take my hand!” Steve said and was aware of the rowboat rocking furiously as Brian advanced to help. Singer’s panicked waving finally put his arm within Steve’s grasp and Steve pulled, dragging Singer from the water. Brian pulled too and Singer slid like a leaded eel into the rowboat.
Then Steve felt hands grasping greedily on his outstretched legs.
He rolled, kicking and cursing. A woman was chewing on his jeans over his heavy work boot. He kicked reflexively with his other foot, connecting with her face. It sloughed off like a thick, spongy mask, taking her nose and lips with it. She lifted her head, her face a blackish ruin, her jollily rolling eyeballs seeming to bulge from their black sockets.
Her teeth were soft, chalky ruins that crumbled and fell across Brian’s leg. She bent to bite again.
Rough hands gripped Steve’s shoulders and a scream ripped its way into his throat but then he realized it was Dave, Dave pulling him into the safety of the rowboat.
Dave threw off the line and kicked out, his foot connecting with the wood decking, sending the rowboat skittering crazily away from the pier. The woman that had been gnawing at Steve’s leg tumbled head first into the water and then three more corpses behind her also went in, becoming sinkers.
Steve grabbed the oars and pulled, taking them further from the pier. He glanced behind him and saw the boat with Singer, Jade and Brian cruising steadily in the direction of ThreeBees.
Good. They had made it.
He glanced back at Dave and Dave was huddled over himself, arms crossed over his stomach. He was moaning.
“Dave, are you bit? Did they bite you?”
Steve’s arms went slack on the oars. “Dave?” he said. “Hey, man…are you…are you bit?” His voice had dropped, chilled and aching.
Dave glanced up, grimacing. “No, they didn’t bite me. You fucking kicked me in the nuts, you asshole. I think I’m gonna fucking puke.” He moaned again.
Steve was shocked to feel laughter bubbling up from his stomach and he laughed despite himself. It was a short bark of amusement and then he threw a hand over his mouth.
Dave looked up again, his face sour. “You sound like a goddamned seal, you know that?”
They both broke up laughing. It carried across the water to the ThreeBees and at the railing, Maggie tilted her head in confusion.
Across the water, at the end of the pier, the undead did the same.
Chapter Seven
Jade sat on the deck bench of ThreeBees, shivering.
Maggie draped a sweatshirt over Jade’s shoulders and took her chin in her hand. She tilted Jade’s face up and looked into her eyes.
“Do you feel like you’re going to faint? Do you feel lightheaded?” Maggie’s voice was calm but detached as she felt for Jade’s pulse.
Jade shook her head ‘no’ and a tentative smile trembled on her lips. “I’m all right. We are all…all okay.” Tears spilled over her lids. “It was not right of me to…to insist on burying Mrs. Allen. I apologize.” Her voice had dwindled to a sad whisper and she cast her eyes down.
Maggie, who agreed with the girl that she shouldn’t have insisted on the foolish formality, merely patted her shoulder. Then she moved on to Singer. It was automatic for Maggie to get a pulse and she did so with Singer, picking his wrist up almost absently as she looked into his eyes.
“How about you, Singer? Any dizziness?” Maggie asked and then frowned at his wrist in her hand. “Do you have low blood pressure?” He shook his head no to both.
“I’m not dizzy, but my leg hurts where I was bit by the snake.”
Maggie nods. “Yes, we’ll have to get that cleaned out. At least it wasn’t poisonous.” She places her fingertips at his throat, palpating. “Heart murmur? History of arrhythmia?”
He shakes his head no again and Maggie frowns. She wished once again that she had at least a stethoscope. They had yet to find one on any of the scavenger missions. It would help to find this kid’s heartbeat because it seemed pretty weak at his pulse points. But that could be indicative of many underlying conditions, and besides, it didn’t matter at the moment.
There were other things, worse things, to be concerned with.
“Lie on your stomach on the bench, let’s see that bite.”
Singer did as he was asked.
Maggie rolled up the leg of his thin, cotton pants and then stood abruptly. Panic flashed across her features.
Steve and Dave were sitting in deck chairs nearby, and Dave was still grimacing, but he was chuckling, too. Steve kept up a constant stream of jokes, partly to keep Dave distracted from his pain but also in part because, although his relief was immense, it was still shaky. The jokes were bolstering his spirits.
He looked up as Maggie stepped away from Singer and the smile faded from his face.
“Maggie? What is it?”
She glanced at him and then gestured to Singer’s exposed leg. Then she looked over at Jade, but Bonnie and Babygirl surrounded her like protective flanking. Maggie was glad to see it, because there was no telling what was going to happen next.
Steve was next to her in an instant, his face grim as he looked at Singer’s leg. Almost as though he could feel their terrified scrutiny, Singer started to sit up, but Maggie put a restraining hand on his back. “Just…lie still. Don’t move, Singer, please.”
Dave had caught their concern and he hobbled over. He pulled in a breath. Singer’s calf had an oval bruise, mottled from dark red to purple–a bite mark–it had to be a human bite. Dots of blood were still welling up where the skin had been broken. Further down, closer to his ankle, the ragged, two-hole snake bite had already stopped bleeding.
“What is it? What’s wrong with my leg?” Singer’s voice was laced with panic barely held in check. Jade heard and looked over, her face falling.
“Singer?” she said, beginning to stand.
“Jade, stay over there,” Maggie said, her voice flat and commanding. Jade plopped back down. Bonnie put her arm around Jade’s back.
“Is it…what it looks like?” Steve said, his voice low.
“Was he near them? I thought you said that you were the last one on the pier…how did he–”
“The water. He fell in the water. It’s shallow near the pier.”
Maggie nodded. “Singer, when you fell in the water…did you…cut your leg? Did you feel it get caught on anything?” Singer shook his head in violent denial, but his eyes cut back toward Steve, rolling frantically.
“No! Nothing got me! Just that snake!”
Maggie put a hand on Singer’s forehead. “He’s hot, and his pulse is…it’s odd. Not strong.”
Singer scrambled up, pulling his pant leg down with a wince. “I’m not hot. You’re crazy. If I’m hot it’s because of the snake…the snake bite.”
Maggie and Steve looked at each other and their gazes were deeply troubled. If Singer had been bit by a sinker, then he might likely get the disease himself. And if he got the disease, and died, and reanimated…it wasn’t a chance they could take.
No one was one hundred percent sure how the sickness worked. The people who had made it this far
seemed
immune…but what if they weren’t? What if an individual just hadn’t yet been exposed?
“We have to get him off the boat,” Dave said and stepped away from Singer. Singer’s face flew open in panic. And fear.
“I’m not leaving this boat. You can’t make me.”
“Singer?” Jade said. “What’s wrong? What’s happening?”
“You can’t stay! What if…what if you–” Dave said, his voice rising.
“Singer? What are they saying?” Jade tried to rise and Bonnie, almost instinctually, grabbed her tighter.
“You can’t make me! You can’t make me!” Singer chanted, his voice furious and filling with tears. “You c-can’t m-make me!” His face was red.
“You can’t stay here!” Dave said, and now he loomed over Singer, furious in his panic, shouting. “You might be a goddamned sinker!”
Jade, who’d been struggling in Bonnie’s arms, fainted.
~ ~ ~
Jade stood forlornly at the back of ThreeBees and stared at Singer who was tethered in the smaller rowboat, a hundred feet out. The boat had been stripped of oars and motor. Dave sat in a deck chair and he, too, faced the rowboat. He held a shotgun across his lap. Being motorless and oarless wouldn’t stop Singer if he decided to hand over hand the boat back to ThreeBees.
This situation, in Dave’s opinion, was barely better than the honor system. There was too much at stake to trust anyone who might be coming down with the sickness. He glanced at Jade, feeling both ashamed and angry…he wasn’t the bad guy here; he didn’t need her doe eyes following him around accusatorily. He shifted his gaze to
Flyboy
.
He hoped Steve wasn’t getting too much shit from Adam.
~ ~ ~
“You just…went? To land? Without
notifying
anyone?” Adam’s face was red, agitated. He was very aware of the people nearby who could easily overhear this conversation and he very much wanted the conversation to go a certain way.
Steve sighed inwardly. He wanted to keep the peace; above all else he wanted it, but Adam made it hard. He reminded Steve of the attention-seeking fanboy students who waited, tense and alert, for any sort of misstep so they could pounce, triumphant, with their trivial corrections.
“Maggie knew where we were going. I thought if something happened, that–”
“That what? She’d
save
you? She’d
cure
everyone of the disease that we have
no firm knowledge of
?” Adam liked the tone he had adopted; he thought it sounded sharp and demanding. He didn’t notice the eye-rolling that went on around him.