Shame she will have to die, if it came down to the line. If she gets in the way, she will pay the ultimate price, just like the apostate stranger.
“God’s way is just,” he mutters to himself.
253
Alex, Lindell, Terrance and Mollee
On a walkway on the superstructure of the cargo ship
Somewhere off the shore in New York State
Alex couldn’t believe that he always ended up in the middle of everything. Why me? He kept asking himself. I have no attributes that can change the outcome of this situation. I can understand Lindell and Terrance, because they’re built like tanks, and Mollee, because she a complete nutcase, but I’m nobody – a scraggly kid with a pigeon chest. Even Mollee has more muscles than I do.
The four of them were heading down the superstructure’s metal steps to hopefully save Naomi. That was the plan, but there was an unsaid silent agreement in place – the man had to die, regardless of the outcome of Naomi’s situation. One sacrifice to save many.
And of all the people that had to be taken, why Naomi, the worse person possible. No one likes her – she’s a complete bitch!
Alex actually heard a few people sigh with relief when it was first announced that she had been taken. Everyone has been subjected to her cruel tongue and hateful words.
Lindell led the way with Terrance close behind.
Mollee walked at the back.
Alex gave Mollee a quick glance. She always seemed to walk with her head slightly lowered, as if looking through half-closed eyelids. But he knew she was alert. Her knuckles were white where she gripped the knife handles. Her strides were confident and sure.
She looks freezing in the blood splattered summer dress. Does she even feel the cold? Does she feel anything anymore?
Her bare feet leave wet footprints on the metal deck.
I would not like to get on the wrong side of her; he thought. He saw her dispatch the bitten Shapter sisters without so much as a twitch on her face.
She lost her grandmother to the infected. She has no one left apart from us, and I think she’s only with us, so she has the opportunity to kill as many of them as possible.
They stopped when they reached the bottom of the steps. Lindell and his brother leaned in close to chat to each other. Then Lindell turned to the other two.
“We think it would be best for us to split into two groups,” he said. “I will go with Mollee, and Terrance will go with you, Alex.”
“You sure that’s wise, splitting up?” Alex asked. “Surely we will be better as a large group?”
“We can cover more ground in two groups, and we can move faster,” Terrance stated.
“We both have radios, but only use them in an emergency, or if we locate the man and Naomi,” Lindell said.
“You okay with that Mollee?” Terrance asked.
Mollee simply nods. Her thick hair dances around her lowered face.
“Good. Me and Mollee will take the port side; that’s the left side, and you,” he said to his brother Terrance, “will take the starboard side with Alex.”
They all looked at each other.
“We will head towards the bow, and you head towards the stern, so we cover more ground. If we find nothing, we will circle around and run into each other.
“And remember, this guy is infected. Shoot first and ask questions later.” Lindell cocked his handgun and checked the safety is off. “Also, if Naomi has been infected…” He left the sentence unfinished.
“Don’t worry, we know what needs to be done,” Mollee muttered. Her hands tightened on the handles.
Alex could just about hear her above the sound of the wind and waves crashing against the moving vessel.
For some reason, that he couldn’t explain, Alex glanced up at the birds that were circling high above them. They looked different – all five he could see had something in the beaks, but it was too far to make out any details.
“Okay, let’s go,” Lindell said.
Alex looked back down towards the deck. He didn’t have time to ponder on the birds.
The two teams split and head to hatches on opposite sides of the vessel.
254
Stu and Soozie
On a beach
Somewhere on the shore in New York State
The six people were churning over the woodland floor with all the speed they could muster. The horde of infected that was chasing them was a good incentive.
“Don’t leave us! Please!” a woman shouted. “We have children!” She looked to be about thirty, but it was hard to tell – she was in dirty, ripped clothes and covered in mud. All six of them were covered in thick dirt.
Stu was revving the outboard motor. All he had to do was release a switch and the boat would surge forward out to sea and freedom.
One of the men reached the boat and turned, urging the others on. Then a woman raced down the pebble beach and into the water. As she reached the waterline, she tripped. She hit the side of the boat with her face as she fell. Even though the boat was an inflatable, it was hard sided, with metal fastening loops around its sides. She hit a loop face first. The crunch was audible. There was no way she was getting up again.
The man started to shout and tried to lift the limp female from the cold water. Blood poured from the wound on her forehead and tinted the waves crimson.
Stu had the boat at an angle so the people could easy climb over the side, so they could stay clear of the outboard motor.
The first child reached the boat and with reflexes of a cat, he jumped the distance from the beach into the craft. He landed hard and slammed into Soozie – they both fell into a pile in the bow.
The creature’s animalistic cries rose as they saw their quarry escaping.
The naked infected were gaining on the other man, woman and child still racing towards the shoreline. The adults knew they didn’t all stand a chance. The female shouted something that those in the boat couldn’t understand, and then she stopped running, turned around, and raised her arms to make a bigger target. She closed her eyes and said a prayer. She was going to make the ultimate sacrifice so the others could make it. She knew if she didn’t, they’d all die.
The man realized what she was doing and skidded to a halt, he then started to race back, grasped her around the waist, and started to pull her along.
The child was so scared and intent on reaching the boat; she didn’t realize what was happening behind her.
The man struggled with the woman, but it was too late; the creatures reached them. A group of dirty, naked infected slammed into the two figures, and they vanished beneath a pile of thrashing bodies – they were ripped to pieces before they even hit the leaf covered ground. Blood billowed out in arcs, splattering the trunks of nearby trees.
The young boy, no older than eleven or twelve, started to scream when he saw what was happening back in the woods. He was in the process of climbing back out of the boat when Soozie gripped him around the waist and pulled him back in.
The young girl, a little younger and smaller than the boy reached the beach and raced into the choppy water, and then started to climb into the craft, while ignoring the man trying to lift the body of the woman.
“Get us out of here,” Soozie shouted as she pushed the boy to the deck, and then knelt down, leaned over the side of the boat and pushed her arms under the man’s armpits and locked her hands over his chest.
The man was thrashing about in the freezing water, trying to lift the woman’s limp body into the boat.
“Let her go; she’s dead!” Soozie shouted at the man, as Stu released the switch, shooting the boat forward as the wave of creatures reached the waterline.
The boat shot forward, but the man in the water would not release the woman’s body.
“They’re causing too much drag,” Stu shouted over the roar of the motor.
The man’s body and the drag of the dead woman were pulling the boat to one side, right back towards the beach and the creatures.
The infected started to pour into the ocean.
255
Naomi and the stranger
Down inside the hull of the cargo ship
Somewhere off the shore in New York State
The man continued to drag Naomi.
Naomi allowed him to manhandle her. The casual way he had announced that he would be waiting for those who followed them down into the belly of the ship, and he had a surprise ready for them, was disquieting.
What could he have waiting? she wondered. The others have been on the boat for weeks, or was it months? She wasn’t sure how long because she didn’t bother listening properly when they were speaking. Surely, they would’ve found something below deck – something that could hurt them all. Then again, they never found this fuck-face asshole!
Naomi stumbled. She was dragged back to her aching feet.
She no longer tried to provoke him. She didn’t want him leaning in close, with his rancid breath pouring over her. Also, looking into his bloodshot eyes was possibly one of the worst things she has ever had to do. Every ounce of her being wanted to bolt.
The lights flickered over their heads.
The sound of her panicked breathing echoed off the metal hull.
He’s not even breathing hard; she realized. I thought the infected were meant to be ill – sick? Shouldn’t he be struggling or at least panting a little?
None of this makes sense. If he’s been in the ship hiding the whole time Smokie’s people have been here, how come he’s infected? I thought it only lasts days before the blinking, red-raw eyes lead to the comatose state. So either he’s been here all this time, or he somehow got onboard in the last few days. Maybe from the other ship that attacked? Then again, he knows his way around, and he said it was his ship.
“You said this is your ship?” she asked. She decided she would try to get some information out of him. What’s the worst that could happen; he was already dragging her around at knifepoint?
“Shut up!”
He gripped around her arm harder.
“It’s just, how come you’re infected if you’ve been down here so long?”
He started to chuckle.
She decided the sound was one of the worse things she’s ever heard.
‘You will soon find out,” he stated. “We are almost there.”
“Almost where?” She couldn’t explain why, but she had a feeling things were about to get even worse, if that’s at all possible?
Her feet were sore, and her arm hurt where he dug his dirty nails in.
“Look man, I’m fucking tired, and I’m going to collapse in a minute, and then you’re going to have to drag my fat arse along this corridor…”
“My names Cain,” he muttered.
Ah for fuck’s sake, he would go and have an ominous name like Cain, wouldn’t he.
256
Smokie and the others
Inside the superstructure of the cargo ship
Somewhere off the shore in New York State
Smokie paced back and forth around the mess hall. Something was niggling at the back of her mind, but just like a word that was just on the tip of the tongue; she couldn’t place the feeling.
The others had settled down, knowing there was nothing else they could do – they were locked and secure in the superstructure. The ship was on the move away from the sinking coastguard vessel, and all considered; they were in pretty good shape. Just one infected running about, with four of their best in the process of sorting out, it could’ve been a hell of a lot worse.
“Get that down you,” Caroline said. She handed Smokie a black coffee.
“Thanks, but I think I need something a bit stronger.”
“I know you do,” Caroline said with a wink as she walked off.
Smokie sniffed the coffee. Whisky! Just what the doctor ordered.
She walked over to one of the large windows that looked down the length of the massive vessel. The containers creaked and groaned under the pressure as they rolled from side to side with the movement of the vessel and the pounding waves. The powerful engines hummed through the soles of her shoes. She could see the coastline on the right-hand side.
She noticed a lot more seagulls than normal. They seemed to be in a circling pattern around the ship. She had never noticed them doing that around the vessel before. It reminded her of images she had seen of seagulls flocking around a fishing trawler, waiting for any scraps.
However, there are no scraps here, she thought.
She gave it scant attention. How birds flocked together was the least of her worries.
“Here’s the ships invoice so far,” Sue said as she dropped a bundle of sheets in a dirty magnolia folder onto the Formica tabletop next to Smokie.
“I managed to find the manifest in the captain’s cabin. It seems the ship was traveling from the Yokohama Port in Japan, down the Luzon Strait to Port Klang in Malaysia, then along the Malacca Strait to the Port of Toamasina in Madagascar, then down the Gulf of Aden into the Suez Canal, past Gibraltar, then onto the Port of Virginia, USA.”
Madagascar, why does that ring a bell?
“Nothing surprising. We already know what’s in the main holds, and some of the containers. But as I’ve already said, there seems to be no plan to the layout, and until we figure it out, what’s in each container will remain a mystery until we can open them. Also, a few larger, thick doors below deck that we have yet to break into. However, these are at least listed on the ship manifest. Some are simply empty to balance out the cargo.”
Sue’s little dog rested two small fury paws on Smokie’s leg. With one hand, she absentmindedly stroked Tia’s ear.
“I know you have a lot on your plate, but I thought I would give it to you while I remembered.”
“Thank you Sue.”
Sue wandered off to help Caroline serve tea and coffee to a few other tired looking individuals.
Smokie flicked through the files of the manifest. There was something niggling at the back of her mind. She knew it would come to her eventually, but it was annoying all the same.
Madagascar, She thought. There’s something about that country, but with everything that has been going on, her brain simply couldn’t connected the dots.
257
Bachman, Emma, Ralph and Pete
The train platform in Zone 6
The underground bunker
Quirauk Mountain, Pennsylvania
The group raced down the tracks with the lights flickering above them. Behind them, they could hear the creatures attacking the train cars, and the sound of the cars grinding on the tracks.
Their ragged breaths echoed around them as they pushed themselves harder.
Zone 6 and 7 were relatively close, but having to run down the track; it seemed much further. They also had to stay clear of the live track-run, which would fry them alive if they so much as touched it. They passed a few fried creatures, which had obviously raced after the train down the track, and had wandered onto the live line.
It pissed Bachman off – most of the creatures had been herded to the warehouse on the surface; he thought they would have a clear run to the weapons in Zone 8. It’s obvious a lot more were left behind than they first thought.
So far, they have been lucky and met no creatures on the line, apart from the remains of the ones they hit when they passed, which had been reduced to a black smear on the tracks, and the fried ones. They subconsciously held their breathes when they past the remains of the creatures, in case there were any spores floating around them.
“In here,” Ralph said, as he stopped by a metal door in the stonewall.
“Why not head for the station?” Bachman asked. He was wheezing from the running, and lack of sleep and food.
“For all we know the next station could be full up with more creatures by now, having been attracted by the sound of the passing train. This door leads to the surface. It’s a maintenance entrance.”
“Did you design this bunker, Ralph?�
�� Emma asked with an exhausted smile.
“In my time here I’ve tried to learn as much as I can. Call me curious.”
“Thank god for your curious mind,” Emma stated.
“Amen,” Bachman added.
A sound drew their attention. More creatures were surging down the tracks from Zone 6. Ralph was right; the passing train had attracted the remaining tentacled creatures.
There was a loud hissing sound as one of the creatures touched a tentacle against the third rail. It fizzled and popped as the strong currant surged through its deformed body.
Just then, an air-duct fan dropped from above, and a creature started to pour out of it. Its black tentacles lashed around like a thing possessed.
Ralph secured the thick entrance behind them just as a dent appeared in it as the creature tossed itself against the door.
As they headed up the steps, they could hear the banging behind them.
258
Troy
Inside the hull of the cargo ship
Somewhere off the shore in New York State
Troy’s patience was wearing thin. The corridor seemed to run for miles, with very few doors leading off the main section. He checked every single hatch. So far, he hadn’t located the stranger dragging Naomi, just the large holds with vegetable oil and paper decorations.
He steadied his breathing as he wiped his free hand over his sweaty forehead.
God will lead the way. God is all-knowing; He has a plan; I just have to trust in Him.
Troy tapped the gun against his dirty jeans. His finger teased the trigger.
We all play our roll in Gods great, unfolding plan. I was meant to drive the group – was meant to lead them here. Naomi’s sacrifice is her offering. My part is unleashing the bullet that will end the stranger’s life, so His new Ark can go forth and repopulate the cleansed earth.
The Sixth Extinction America Omnibus [Books 1-12] Page 54