The coastal steps that lead down to the shore are steep and hazardous, with brambles laying on the uneven stone as tripwires and murky water covering them in green moss. The rail is tiny and covered in nettles, leaving us to slip down with burning pain stinging our palms. As we reach the bottom of the steps we emerge onto a pebbly cove, scattered with grey stones that coat the obscured sand. We wobble across the balanced rocks and towards the port, which lies motionless ahead of us.
"How much further?" Sophie asks in a strained voice, sweat beading on her forehead.
"Not far, just around that corner," my Dad replies tiredly and we all push on harder, the pebbles become slick with the incoming tide and my feet slide beneath me. I slip against a fallen tree and catch myself on a branch, it smacks into my healing ribs and I groan in pain.
"Madeline? Are you ok?" Josh asks and cups my cheek in his hand, concern flickering across his face.
"I'm fine, thank you," I grimace and shift Ashia's weight to my other hip- thankful that my imbalance didn't cause her any harm. I press forward with the others and we finally make it to the corner of the cliff where I stare around the corner. I groan and turn back to face the group, an exhausted strain to my voice.
"Guys, there's a group of zombies on the jetty- near the boat which we need to board," I explain and I hear Maria huff in annoyance. I bite my lip for a moment before quietly speaking again, "We need a distraction." The group nod their heads slowly before Josh speaks determinedly.
"I'll do it," he offers, I grind my teeth together and stare up at him.
"Be careful, I love you," I say and gently press my lips to his, he wraps his arms around my waist and I tuck my head into the crook of his neck.
"I'll be fine Madeline, I promise. I could never leave you and Ashia," he whispers in my ear and I nod slowly into his shoulder, inhaling his scent of peppermint and vanilla. He slowly walks around the corner and I almost cry, letting him walk away from me. I look around the cliff edge and see him run along to the opposite side of the port, he grabs his bow and arrow and starts slamming it into the side of a boat.
"HEY! HEY OVER HERE! COME THIS WAY!" he yells, the zombies start to stalk over to him and I grimace at the smirks on their faces.
I take a deep breath and crouch down low, running silently along to the boat. I balance carefully over the gap between the jetty and gasp as the murky water splashes up to my feet. We all climb aboard and I crouch down by the engine, I search through draws filled with clutter and rubbish before finally finding a tiny box. I open it and find the keys buried amongst letters, I insert the keys into the engine and start it up in one sharp twist of the keys.
The engine roars to life and the infected turn towards the boat, they growl at us menacingly but continue to swarm over Josh. They get closer and closer to him and I scream out, desperation flooding my voice.
"NO! JOSH PLEASE NO!" I shriek, passing Ashia to Soph and stumbling to the edge of the boat.
I feel a hand clasp around my wrist and I spin around, my Dad holds me in his tight grip and I try to shake him off.
"Dad? What are you doing? Let go!" I exclaim in frustration and pull towards the jetty, aching to get to Josh.
"I can't let you do this, it's for your own good in the end. Why can't you see that?" he states in irritation and I try to pull away again, only causing him to tighten his hold further.
"Let go of me," I spit and he just shakes his head sadly, I look over and see Josh slowly backing towards the water and I scream in frustration.
I use my free hand to pull out my gun and I aim it at my Dads forehead, I raise an eyebrow and speak as calmly as I can manage.
"I'm giving you one last chance, let me go," I state and close my finger over the trigger. My dad chuckles hysterically and shakes his head, his grip remaining tight against my wrist.
"What? You're not going to shoot your own father, Madeline," he taunts and I press the barrel against his forehead. "Go on, then, shoot me!" he states and my Mum wails in the corner, but she's too frozen by fear and shock to move. I smirk at my Dad sadly, though my eyes are filled with betrayal and sadness.
"You're right, I'm not going to shoot you," I say gently before I raise my gun and smash the hard metal into his jaw. He yelps and tumbles to the floor in a dizzy heap, narrowly avoiding Jaz who barks when he hits the floor. I scamper off the boat and shout over my shoulder to Maria and Elijah. "Keep them on the boat!" I yell and sprint towards Josh, pushing even harder.
I skid to a stop as I see him shooting them down around him, arrow after arrow lodges itself into their brains but he's outnumbered. I hold my gun out in front of me as I see a zombie behind him, ready to shoot. I'm about to scream out but a zombie crashes into my stomach and pushes me towards the edge of the jetty.
Everything seems to slow down and I grimace as the infected wraps it's decaying arms around me, the zombie behind Josh is almost on him and I raise my gun in panic. I aim straight at the infected's head and fire the bullet, snapping out of my haze as the bullet lodges itself deep into its skull.
Blood splatters down Josh's back and he spins around, his eyes flicker from the zombie dead at his feet and up to my dread-filled eyes. He lunges forward but he's too far away, his arms stretching out into the open air. The infected keeps it's arms tightly around my waist and we crash off the edge of the jetty, spiralling through the air as I scream for Josh.
Then the water pulls me under and floods down my throat.
YOU ARE READING
Revenge of the Dead
HororBOOK TWO I can feel them getting closer. Their screeches haunting me at night, telling me to drop dead. I've never listened to them before. But it's different now. You can't save some people, but I'll fight to the death to save humanity. What's m...
