Undead Rain (Book 2): Storm (19 page)
I raised an eyebrow. “You mean you’re going to steal it from a government facility?”
“If that’s what we have to do. It’s not just the vaccine; they must be working round the clock on other things too. What if they have a vaccine that makes you invisible to zombies like in
World War Z
?”
I rolled my eyes. “I think if they had that, they’d be using it by now, don’t you?”
“Okay, so not that in particular but they must be working on other things.” The tears were gone from her eyes, replaced with an enthusiastic brightness. I understood then that people like Jax, Tanya, and Sam needed a goal at all times. They were goal-oriented and without that part of their personality being fulfilled, they would probably go as crazy as the feral survivors on the beach.
Although we had banded together, I was the polar opposite from them in a lot of ways. Once I was reunited with Lucy and Joe, I would be happy to take
The
Big Easy
out into open water and live a carefree existence on the waves. Fishing. Reading. Listening to music. I could happily adjust to that life while others took responsibility for rebuilding the country from the ashes of the apocalypse.
“What about you?” Jax asked. “What are your plans?”
“Right now, I just need to be reunited with Lucy. After that, I’ll take it one day at a time.”
“So when we get to the lighthouse, we’ll be going our separate ways,” she said.
I nodded then asked, “What about Johnny? Is he happy to go on a search for Apocalypse Island with you?”
“Yeah. After his experience at the hands of the authorities, he wants to do anything he can to get back at them.”
“Cool. It’s weird but I kind of miss hearing him on the radio.”
“Me too.”
I stood up. “I guess we should get moving. The sooner we get to the lighthouse, the sooner you can start your search for Apocalypse Island.”
She smiled and touched my arm. “Thanks for the chat, Alex. Talking to you always cheers me up.”
I walked to the bridge ladder wondering if I had mastered the art of conversation…or at least mastered the art of withholding the truth. If I had told Jax what I really thought, I wouldn’t have cheered her up at all. Her boyfriend was probably dead and they were crazy to think they could go to Apocalypse Island and set foot in a government facility, never mind steal a vaccine from there and live to tell the tale.
There was a big difference between breaking into a radio station and entering a government facility. The place was sure to be heavily-guarded and not in any half-assed way like the radio station had been.
I was glad I had cheered Jax up but sad that I’d done it by being dishonest.
As I sat in the pilot’s seat and started the
Lucky Escape
’s engine, I wondered if I was being dishonest with myself. I had sent out my message on Survivor Radio but there was a good chance Lucy never heard it. We had the radio on nearly all the time on
The Big Easy
but for all I knew, Lucy wasn’t even on the boat any longer. There had to be a good reason why she had left me at the marina and it might be that she was taken by the army. They were all over the marina on that foggy day.
My hopes of meeting Lucy at the lighthouse could be nothing more than a mental survival mechanism, the same way Jax and the others had their goals to keep their minds focussed on something other than the hell around us.
What would happen if Lucy didn’t turn up? I would never know what happened to her. Would the mental strain eventually send me into madness like so many other survivors?
As I turned the boat south and headed for Land’s End, the song on the radio finished and a voice came over the airwaves. Male and smooth and with a mid-Atlantic accent, it said, “Hey, folks, this is Nick Tucker, the new voice of Survivor Radio. We’ve got lots of great music for all you survivors out there. Don’t touch that dial.” Evanescence’s “Bring Me to Life” started playing.
The army had replaced Johnny Drake quickly.
The world moved on.
thirty-one
Two days later, we reached the lighthouse. It was mid-afternoon on a cool but sunny day when the rocky island and the lighthouse came into view through the bridge window. Seagulls and crows circled around the island and perched on the railing I had once jumped from to save my life.
Elena had not made that jump.
The tide was in at the moment, so the island was cut off from the beach by a strip of seawater. When the tide went out, a rocky causeway beneath the water would be revealed.
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 15
th
. Lucy.”
I didn’t understand. Today was the 15
th
. 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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