Zombies staggered around both on the island and on the beach. I wanted to take my bat and smash the head of every last one of them.
As we sailed closer, I could see black scorch marks on the rocks where Mike had crashed Harper’s boat. Pieces of burnt wood were jammed between the rocks near the water’s edge. Charred bodies lay in a blackened mess. Mike’s death had been such a waste.
It wasn’t until Jax appeared at the top of the ladder and said, “Hey, Alex, we’re at the lighthouse. Are you okay?” that I felt my throat hitch and tears sting my eyes.
She came up onto the bridge and put an arm around me. “Hey, it’s okay. I’m sure they were great friends and coming here is going to make their loss all the harder. You come down to the living area and have a cup of tea while we wait for Lucy to arrive.”
I dropped the anchor and killed the engine. When the rumbling of the engine died, I could hear the distant low moans of the zombies by the lighthouse.
In the living area, I sat on the seat by the window, looking out over the calm sea. Sam handed me a mug of tea and when I took it from him, I noticed my hand was shaking. What if Lucy never showed? How long would we wait before we moved on and I never saw her again?
The tea was hot and sweet as it burned down my throat. I placed the mug on the coffee table and resumed my watch out of the window.
Johnny spoke. “I’m sure she’ll come, Alex. You just have to give her time, my friend.”
They all knew that Lucy and I were close friends but I hadn’t told them just how much she meant to me. I hadn’t even admitted to myself how deep my feelings were.
If Lucy didn’t arrive, I wasn’t sure I could go on without her.
Jax sat next to me. “We’ll wait here as long as it takes, Alex. We’ll—”
“She’s here!” I said, getting up and going to the aft deck. I had seen a boat approaching from the north and I knew it was The Big Easy. I recognised her like an old friend I had not seen for too long.
I reached the aft deck and leaned out over the rail. She was coming slowly along the coast, close to the rocks. If the tide was out, she would be too shallow, in danger of grounding herself on the bottom. Lucy knew better than that. What was she doing?
I shielded my eyes against the mid-afternoon sun and peered at the bridge window. I couldn’t see Lucy. The Big Easy’s bridge was deserted.
The joy I felt at seeing the boat plummeted into a cold pit in my gut. Something was wrong. I rushed up the ladder to the bridge and started the Lucky Escape’s engine. Raising the anchor, I turned the boat around and put her on a slow course towards The Big Easy.
Tanya, Jax, Sam, and Johnny came out to the aft deck.
“Something’s wrong,” I shouted down to them, “Something’s wrong.”
Where the hell was Lucy?
I brought the Lucky Escape around in a wide arc and came up behind The Big Easy, matching her speed. Through the binoculars, I inspected her bridge.
The wheel had been lashed with a cord to keep the boat on a straight course.
The pilot’s seat was empty.
I slid down the ladder to the aft deck. “Tanya, take the wheel and get us closer. I’m going to go on board.”
She nodded and went up to the bridge. She did a good job. Within a minute, we were alongside The Big Easy and I was able to jump across the narrow gap separating us.
“Lucy?” I called once I was on the familiar aft deck. “Are you here?”
No reply.
I went up to the bridge and untied the cord holding the wheel steady. If I didn’t take her out into deeper water, she would be stranded on the sea bed at low tide.
I didn’t know what was happening. Lucy had obviously lashed the wheel and set a course for the lighthouse. Only she knew the place I was referring to in the radio message.
But where the hell was she?
I took The Big Easy into deeper water and dropped anchor. On the Lucky Escape, Jax, Sam, and Johnny watched from the aft deck, worried looks on their faces.
I went down the ladder and into the living area. There, on the table, was a note from Lucy, written in black pen on a piece of paper. I recognised her handwriting but it looked like it had been hastily written.
“Alex. Bitten at 1100 hours on 15th. Lucy.”
I didn’t understand. Today was the 15th. Was she saying she had been bitten today? Why leave me a note? Where was she?
“Lucy!” I called. “Where are you?”
I heard a noise from below. A low moan?
If she had been bitten this morning, she would have turned by now. No. Please, no.
I didn’t even think about taking a weapon with me as I went down the steps to the bedrooms. How had she been bitten? What if she was turned…gone? The note didn’t make any sense. If she was leaving me a note to tell me she had been bitten, why write the exact time? What difference did that make? She wasn’t thinking straight. With the virus in her blood, she was confused. Perhaps she had been in some kind of denial.
I listened at the bedroom door but everything down there was quiet.
“Lucy?” I whispered. “Are you there?”
Nothing.
I opened the bedroom door, ready to flee back up the steps and jump over the side of the boat if I had to.
The bedroom was empty.
I heard a noise coming from the storeroom.
I pressed my ear to the wooden door and listened.
Rapid breathing came from the other side of the door.
“Lucy,” I whispered.
A noise like scuffling on the floor.
I took a deep breath and opened the door.
She lay in the corner of the room, among a pile of T-shirts and the spear guns. She was curled up in an embryonic position, shivering and sweating. Her breath came in ragged gasps. Her jeans were torn on the right thigh. Lucy had bandaged a wound there but blood seeped through the cotton and stained the denim.
Lying next to her on the floor was an empty hypodermic needle. Traces of the amber fluid it had once contained lined the plastic tube.
Now I knew why the time she had been bitten was in the note. She had injected herself with vaccine a few hours ago and knew by the time she arrived here, she would be in this state, unable to tell me what had happened.
The note was a plea for help.
She had four days before she became a hybrid.
She wanted me to try and save her.
I knelt down next to her and reached out to stroke her matted blonde hair.
She shrank away and groaned three words that chilled my heart.
“Leave…me…alone.”
******************
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Undead Rain (Book 2): Storm Page 15