by Paul Bryce
“There must still be some survivors” said Terry
“He’s right” said Bill “we’ve got to focus on making contact with the survivors and getting off this damn island.”
“Nearly 100% infected. Does that mean 100% dead? said Robbie.
“There's no-one to send a message to man” said Terry
What are we going to do? thought John. They all looked at each other.
They look overwhelmed thought John.
Karly collapsed down onto rock and puts her head in her hands. John sat down next to her and puts his arm around her.
“What are we going to do?” she said, “What is happening out there?”
Maybe there's mayhem out there but there must be some government , some organization somewhere” said Bill.
“You heard what the broadcast said man” said Terry.
“How about us … are we safe” said Karly “Its all around the world can it get to us here ?”
“Hadn't thought about that” said John.
They were quiet for a moment.
“Maybe its the water” said Terry “we're an island maybe their are other people safe on islands”
“We need to focus on what we can do,” said John. “We need to stay alive and keep trying to contact survivors.” He wasn’t sure they could survive on the island, or if there really were any survivors, but he knew everyone needed to hear there were. “Let’s keep our routine going, keep the signal fire alight and keep checking the radio.” he said.
“It’s all a waste of time” cried Robbie, “we’re all going to die”
“Shut up you stupid kid” said Bill. He’d grabbed hold of Robbie and was shaking him.
Leave him alone said Terry; he tried to pull Bill off Robbie.
Bill sent his elbow full force into Terry’s face, and he fell to the ground, blood pouring from his nose. Bill turned to finish Terry off but John blocked him
John pulled them apart “Stop it - we can't waste our energy on this.”
***
A few days later John went down to the beach. They still needed to eat so he’d carried on leaving out the nets at night.
After the fight between Terry, Robbie and Bill things had been strained in the camp. But they'd stuck to his plan – so far. How much longer they could hold it together though he didn't know.
He looked down the beach to where they’d laid out the SOS. It was still there they hadn’t bothered to move it, and the sea hadn’t washed it away it.
What was that?
He thought he’d seen something move. He strained to focus. Shit someone was done there lying on the beach!
He saw ran over to it as fast as he could, and in less than 30 seconds he was standing over it. He’d never seen anything like it. It was a man he thought lying on his back. His skin was white, waxy. He had no hair, not even eyebrows. He looked like a waxwork dummy. He was almost naked – just a few remnants of clothes.
He wasn’t moving now. John crouched down next to the body. Up close it was even stranger. The texture of the skin was like something between plastic and stone.
He leant in closer looking for any chest movement, listening for breathing and feeling for a pulse at the neck. Shit its skin is cold he thought. He didn’t notice he’d unconsciously used the word it. He couldn’t find a pulse, and it wasn’t breathing.
But he knew the heart almost stopped when the body was very cold.
You're not dead till your warm and dead he’d learnt that at med school. He checked again, might have missed a faint pulse he thought, and leant in.
The chest was still. He leaned in to listen for breathing again.
Then the eyes opened. Two white eyes with no pupils were staring at him.
What the...
Then everything happened very quickly.
It grabbed hold of John by neck and pulled him towards him. His mouth opened revealing pointed teeth. Like normal teeth that had been sharpened to a fine point.
But that’s ridiculous.
He released this was what had grabbed hold of him out in the ocean. But that had been under water. It hadn’t been breathing.
John was just about to succumb. He was running out of strength as the teeth got closer to his neck. The creature leant forwards closer, opened its mouth even further. Its teeth pushed against John's neck – just about to puncture the skin...
To be continued in Book 2 coming soon ...