{Book 1/3 of The Quarantine Series}
8 teenagers. One abandoned island.
---
An unknown calamity leaves eight teenagers stranded on a mysterious and remote island. Confused and distraught, they must find a way to work together, in order get off the is...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I scramble off the hard floor, my heart rapidly beating in my chest. My skin crawls at the blood-curdling scream filling my ears.
And then I see it.
In the lake.
Prodigious and abhorrent.
A monster, the size of the large rocks surrounding the lake, wriggles out of the water, its long tail splashing the water behind it as it leaves the lake. I look at Lauren, who is sitting, wide-eyed, her mouth open in mid-scream.
Saige and Ryan are both staring at it, frozen in fear.
I can't move. My whole body seems to shut down, as I try and process what my eyes are seeing.
It's green, leathery skin shudders as it climbs out of the lake. It is slow and clumsy, yet absolutely horrifying. Its eyes bore into mine, black, colorless and hollow, like an empty abyss. Water drips off its already lubricated skin. Its teeth, sharp-edged and pointed, are yellow and rotting, and they protrude from its mouth. It's wrinkled face is contorted and grotesque, and my stomach churns just looking at it.
A scream builds up in the deepest pits of my stomach, but it can't escape through the tightness of my throat. I swallow the build-up of bile in my throat.
"Run!" I scream as it crawls closer. "Run!"
Saige snaps out of her trance. I sprint over to Ryan and Lauren and shake them, tears starting to blur my vision.
"Please!" I shriek. They start to scramble backwards. Ryan helps Lauren up, their eyes never leaving the monster.
And we run.
My ears ring as I push past the trees, stumbling over fallen logs. Ferns and grass catch on my feet, trying to pull me down as I sprint, and curling around my feet and legs. Blurry-eyed, I push my legs out in front of me, adrenaline fresh in my veins. I blindly wave my hands in front of me, trying to feel for trees. Branches scrape my face as I run, but I don't care.
All I care about is getting as far away from that thing as possible.
When my chest begins to get tight, I slow down to a walk, and fall to the ground, my legs weak. I hear sobs from behind me, and I look up. Lauren falls to the ground, tears staining her dirty cheeks. She clutches her leg, her face contorted in agony. Ryan sits by a tree and stares at the ground. He wraps his arms around his knees and rocks back and forth. Saige drops down beside me. I look at her.
"What. The hell. Was that," she whispers, looking at me, her eyes wide and full of fear. Why was she asking me? How was I meant to know what that thing was? I lift my shaking hand to my forehead and push my sweaty hair back. I don't answer her, mainly because I don't have an answer for her.
