The older woman turned, held up a finger then finished the message she was relaying on her radio, then looked back to Clara. “Glad to see you made it. It seems like that child has really got the foreigners riled up.”

  “The child? Hope, is she here?” said Lauren.

  “No. She left with someone called Joe, and his family… and a soldier called Baldwin.”

  “Yes!” said Lauren, not being able to contain her relief. “Where did they go?”

  “To the cruise liner. They left about an hour ago. Enzo took—”

  There was frantic chatter on the multiple radios, causing Jenn to quickly respond then look back at Lauren. “The whole island is evacuating to what boats and ships they can get on to. Maybe the foreign troops will leave us alone once we’re out to sea.” She looked away once more, continuing her conversation on the radio.

  Clara moved closer to Lauren. “We should go.”

  Lauren silently voiced the words “Good luck,” to Jenn and made her way outside, turning towards the way she had come.

  “Lauren?”

  She turned around to face a boy, one she wondered if she would ever see again. Owen pushed through the crowd. “Is Mavis with you?” she said.

  “Yes,” he pointed at the crowd behind him. “She’s laying on a camp bed, back there. They are working on her…”

  “Working on her? What do you mean? Show me.”

  The three of them made their way through the groups of anguished people, to a large singular cave with multiple camp beds all filled with people with obvious wounds. Nurses tended to most of them, as other people stood or sat nearby.

  Lauren spotted Mavis before Owen could lead them in the right direction, and they moved to the far wall, where two women with stethoscopes were hovering over the elderly woman. “How is she? Is she dead?” said Lauren.

  “Who are you?” said the younger of the two nurses.

  “We’re her friends. How is she?” The woman’s expression answered Lauren’s question.

  “Her pulse is weak. Her organs are shutting down. I’m sorry.”

  Before Lauren could respond, the two women moved to the next patient.

  Clara knelt near the camp bed, taking Mavis’ hand in hers, which felt cold and clammy.

  Lauren shook her head, looking across the desperate faces of those huddled around each of the other beds. “How are they going to get all of these people onto—”

  “Clara?”

  Lauren and Clara both turned to face Grace, moving quickly across the room, who then stopped on seeing Mavis and Owen. She ran quickly to the boy, briefly hugging him then took Clara’s place next to Mavis, holding her wrist.

  “They said her organs are shutting down…”

  Grace swallowed hard while shaking her head and moving her finger to Mavis’ neck.

  “They’re going to evacuate the whole island…”

  Grace stood. “I don’t know where Liz or—”

  A woman screamed, making them all swing around to face a commotion across the room. People were fighting. A man, one of the patients by the look of how skinny his arms were, was on top of someone else, as others tried to pull him off.

  The others looked back at Mavis, but Lauren took a step towards the brawl. The person on the floor had grown quiet, the men fighting with the agitator were shouting, actually they were pleading.

  The zombie flicked its head up, turned and bit clean through two of the men’s fingers. Now others were screaming. Lauren swung to her right. More fighting, more of the undead were attacking those closest to them. Before she could shout to the others near her, there were gunshots, the bullets ricocheting off the walls, one of the projectiles slamming into the back of a man’s head, just a few feet from Clara. He fell to the floor just as a woman who had just seconds before been in a camp bed, sprang to her feet and lunged at Owen.

  Her teeth bit down into the boy’s right shoulder before Clara could grab the thing’s head and pull it back, kicking it across the face with her boot, causing the thing to almost flip over backwards.

  More gunshots, more people being hit. Lauren was low, crouched, only able to tell who was the undead and who was alive, by which figures were trying to escape through the room’s narrow exit. Clara grabbed her arm, pulling her forward through the chaos. She felt a presence close behind, not knowing who or what it was, but pushed and dragged herself way through the limbs which were flashing across her view, most bloodied, most not belonging to anything still breathing.

  Other hands pulled her through the exit with Clara, Grace and Owen close behind.

  Grace swung around, trying to fight her way through the flood of people still trying to get out. “No! We have to…”

  She could see Mavis, a friend of many years, standing upright on her camp bed, her grey hair now loose, almost covering her face, then without warning, Mavis grabbed at a man that was fighting off two of the undead that were snapping away at his arms, that he was using to keep their jaws from his neck. The creature that was Mavis grabbed his head, causing him to lose balance and sink to the floor amidst a sea of scratching, tearing teeth and nails.

  Grace looked away, blinking, not fully aware of her surroundings as Lauren shouted at her.

  “They’re evacuating the caves!”

  “Okay…”

  “We have to go!”

  Lauren pulled Grace and Owen with the crowd, as the crush made its way closer to the exit.

  “Clara?” Grace shouted, throwing glances over her shoulder, trying to see past the heads of those trying to get to the sand.

  With Lauren and the boy, they spilled out, first onto rocks then sandy pebbles, strewn with human refuse and seaweed, which neither of them could fully see due to the sheer volume of people that were running towards the surf and the towering vessels beyond.

  Lauren’s hand broke free of the doctor’s. She tried to stop, to pause but the wall of people compelled her forward to where the icy cold water was already up to knees. She spun around, trying to see past the rush of people coming at her.

  A man fell to her left. Dropped as if…

  She ducked instinctively, and in doing so was too low for the next bullet which sliced through the neck of a woman to her right, who grabbed the wound but then was barrelled into the water by another wave of people, her blood soaked gurgling being overwhelmed by the salty water.

  Someone shouted that the foreigners are here, the person’s words being eclipsed by a large explosion, not on the beach, but from somewhere…

  Lauren swung around to face the crashing waves which were now above her waist. Somewhere in the void one of the huge ships was ablaze, flames soaring hundreds of feet into the night sky.

  “Lauren!”

  A voice she recognised, but had no way of pinpointing due to the chaos she was trapped within.

  Something bit into her leg. She looked down at the vague shape of a body beneath the water. One of the undead was trying to eat her. Its mouth clamped onto her calf. Desperately she tried to pull back, but did not need to as the thing was then trampled by a deluge of people that ran over it.

  “Lauren!”

  This time her name was shouted with more clarity. She looked left then right, then—

  A motorboat’s engine roared, the side of the rubber vessel almost knocking her back into the arms that were clawing at her and it, trying to board.

  Clara and Martin hoisted her onboard, as Grace and Mathew smashed wooden oars across the heads of those threatening to capsize the craft.

  The engine roared again, the boat colliding with others, similar vessels, all trying to plot a course between the massive hulls which were pitching and yawning blocking the route to the open sea.

  From out of the black loomed a hull, deep red, which rose up into the heavens, seemingly ready to crush the dingy, but instead crashed down just shy, its energy transferred to a huge wave that flung the boat momentarily into the air before it to succumb to gravity and plunged back into the ocean.

  “Martin?!” shouted Ember into the abyss, one hand clamped to the bench she was seated on, the other holding the satchel to her chest.

  Lauren, Clara, everyone that still had their senses swung around, looking for the young man that was no longer contained within the boat.

  Ember’s cries were swallowed by another almighty wave that dragged the dingy further into the ocean as two huge walls of steel began to converge from both sides.

  “They’re going to—”

  Before Mathew’s fear could fully be expressed, the small boat surged forward as the massive hulls came together behind, producing a huge clang and crunch that was almost as loud as the roaring waves.

  Enzo threw a hand into the darkness towards a group of sparkling lights. “There! We go there!” he shouted.

  Ignoring the pain in her lower leg, Lauren lifted her head, looking back towards the shoreline which was still full of people but she couldn’t tell if they were alive or something else. Multiple boats and ships were now aflame. “Why… why are the ships—”

  The night became day for a moment as a huge explosion ignited at the stern of the cruise liner.

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  JOE

  Joe knew his world was red before he realised he had been thrown from his seated position against the cabin wall in front. The ringing in his ears merged with the siren, and he whipped around to try to locate the three others in the room.

  Liz was on the floor, holding her head where blood trickled from, Tia was close to her, helping her to stand, while Hope was still on the bunk bed, holding onto one of the posts, seemingly unharmed.

  “What happened!” shouted Tia.

  Joe knelt, moving to his wife, checking her wound which had become a small bump. “I don’t know.”

  The sound of footsteps running made him stand, wavering a little. The deck was slanted, not a lot but enough for him to notice. He pulled the hatch open to the narrow corridor, and a crowd of people running past, some with blood oozing from lacerations.

  “What happened?” he shouted to any that would answer.

  A younger man looked back. “We’ve been hit! We’re sinking!”

  “Hit?” Joe looked back at his family. Liz was holding herself up with her cane, leaning against the wall. “We had to go. Tia, take Hope’s hand.” The girl did, while he helped his wife. All four moving into the corridor which was noticeably even more slanted. A man and woman appeared to his right, a section of the corridor which was cast in momentary shadow from the flickering wall light. He raised his hand to them. “Hey, I think we have to—”

  The two individuals sprinted forward, covering the short distance before Joe could fully react. The closest went straight for Tia who screamed, Joe managing to grab its arm slowing its momentum but not enough to stop it from knocking into her, sending her to the floor with the thing, snapping away, inches away from her neck.

  The other crashed into Liz, seeing her back against the doorframe, her cane across her chest, just being enough to stop it from biting into her face.

  He let go of Liz’s hand, leaped forward, grabbing the first zombie by its neck and tugged it from his daughter who scrambled away, then forced its head into the wall where it met with a crunch.

  “Joe!” screamed Liz who was on her back, the female undead creature’s jaw snapping close to his wife’s features.

  He whipped around, his intention to grab the other zombie thwarted by another child, who leaped onto the back of it, chewing into its neck. The creature clawed at Hope, trying to rid itself of the thing tearing into it.

  Tia ran to her mother as Joe grabbed her cane, then with his free hand pushed the zombie against the wall, Hope dropping to the ground, and drove the end of it through its open mouth and into its brain, where it slumped to the floor.

  “There’s water!” shouted Tia at the sodden carpet.

  “Take Hope!”

  Tia hesitated then saw the child’s eyes had returned to normal and grabbed her hand, pulling her up the incline of the deck, Joe scooping his wife up and over his shoulder, the three of them quickly arriving at the end of the corridor, and spotting the stairs to their right, ran in the same direction.

  “All crew and passengers make your way to the main deck for immediate evacuation!”

  They climbed as quickly as they could, the ascent being more difficult due to the tilt of the stairs.

  “This way!” shouted Joe, seeing the sign to the main deck, then with his children ran the length of the corridor to a closed hatch, which he opened and a world of wind, rain and sound consumed his senses.

  He walked over the lip onto the slanted deck and into a crowd of people but that’s not what took his breath for the entire horizon was one wall of flame. The ocean-going vessels were alight, their hulls broken, half submerged into turbulent waves. It was only then he understood what had happened.

  “You!” shouted a man to his left. Joe turned, trying to see who was shouting. “You four, in this boat, now!”

  Others in the crowed protested as Joe, carrying Liz and holding his daughter’s hand, pushed through to the edge of the deck, where one of the lifeboats swung on its rigging, looking already full.

  The officer pointed at it. “They can take you four! Climb in!”

  Joe placed Liz on the deck, she holding onto the handrail, then picked up Hope and hoisted her across to someone who took her into the boat, then repeated the same with Tia and bent over to take his wife.

  Somewhere behind those packed onto the deck there was shouting and without further warning, the deck violently dropped towards the stern, the angle becoming so steep that people slid in that direction, Joe and Liz grabbing onto the railings at the edge.

  “Lower, lower!” someone shouted, the lifeboat instantly dropping.

  “No! Wait!” shouted Joe, trying to pull himself upwards while holding onto Liz.

  The chains holding the lifeboat began running freely, the boat descending rapidly as those onboard screamed.

  Joe stood, trying to pull himself and his wife over the rail, as the waves crashed over them both, the deck having almost reached sea level. Holding her hand, he gripped the railing, trying to make sense of where the lifeboat was, but the pull of the tide was too strong, and pulled him, Liz and those still hanging on for dear life, into the waves, some instantly sinking into the depths.

  “Grab hold!”

  Amongst the constant white noise of the crashing waves, someone was shouting, and a rope landed on top of him. As he desperately trod water, he grabbed it, wrapping it around Liz’s chest, feeling the tension as they were pulled upwards, lifted high then brought down onto a deck. As his lungs tried to expel the icy water, he coughed and felt the embrace of his daughter, then two others.

  “Dad! Dad!”

  Joe looked past his family into a crowd of faces he mostly recognised, including a certain Spanish captain, who looked down at him with a smile.

  Continued in book six.

  Thank you for reading Deadlock, book five in the Infernal Contagion series, I hope you enjoyed it. Book six will be coming in mid July.

  If you would like news on my latest releases, special offers or a free book, you can sign up to my mailing list on my website at www.philmaxeyauthor.com .

  Thank you again.

  Phil.

  *****

  About the Author

  Phil Maxey is an author who resides in the UK. Formally a game developer he now spends his time putting his love of sci-fi and the paranormal into words.

  *****

  Acknowledgements

  Book cover design by Phil Maxey.

 

 

  Phil Maxey, Deadlock: A Zombie Apocalypse Thriller

 

 

  Thank you for reading books on GrayCity.Net
Share this book with friends