“At least this time we get a choice,” I said.
He ignored that and said, “I’ll get a team together to take you to the docks.”
I pointed to the Desert Eagle on my hip. “I suppose you’ll want this back.”
Hart shook his head. “Keep it. You’re going to need it when you take that antivirus to the mainland.”
Tanya raised an eyebrow. “So you trust us not to sail away with your weapons?”
“Of course,” Hart said. “As the director said, you’re good people. You’ll be back here in three days, I’m certain of it.”
23
Hart arranged for a convoy of three Jeeps filled with men and women from his security team to drive us to the dock. The guards were all armed with automatic rifles and sat in the vehicles scanning the terrain as we drove beyond the gate. With Jax on the loose somewhere, these people weren’t taking any chances.
We got to the dock without incident. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw The Big Easy and The Lucky Escape waiting for us.
I told Lucy to get aboard while I untied the Easy. Although Lucy seemed perfectly fine and had regained her strength, I didn’t want her to do anything strenuous, at least for a while. We had both been through a lot to be reunited and now that we were together again, I wanted to protect Lucy from everything, even the chance that she might pull a muscle untying the boat. My overprotectiveness would probably drive Lucy mad sooner rather than later but for now, I wanted to do everything for her.
As I jumped from the dock onto the aft deck, I said, “Home, sweet home.”
Lucy looked up at the sun. The day was unusually warm. “I’m going to put on a bikini and catch some rays on the sun deck.”
“I approve,” I said.
She kissed me. “And why don’t you find a pair of shorts and catch some rays yourself?”
“I might do that,” I said, surprising myself. I usually wore a baggy T-shirt no matter how hot it was. I had always tried to hide my body, but now I thought what the hell? I’d survived zombie attacks, explosions, being shot at, and an injection of the pure virus; being seen without a T-shirt wasn’t going to kill me.
I climbed up to the bridge, picking up the radio and hailing The Lucky Escape while I sat in the familiar pilot’s chair.
Sam answered. “What is it, man?”
“Any particular place you want to go?” I asked him.
“I don’t care where it is, as long as it’s far enough away from here that we can’t see the island, man. Why don’t we find a nice spot, just drift for a while, and enjoy the ocean and the freedom?”
“Sounds good,” I said. “Lead the way.”
Two hours later, we were drifting on the gentle waves. The coast was in sight, the cliffs bright in the sunlight. The wind was almost nonexistent, making the sun feel even hotter. Lucy was lying on the sun deck wearing one of the bikinis I had taken from the marine shop in Swansea, a yellow number that barely covered anything. I was in a pair of black board shorts, and nothing else, feeling comfortable and cool. We had Survivor Radio on. The new DJ wasn’t a patch on Johnny. He played some good tunes, though. The opening bars of “Don’t You Forget about Me” by Simple Minds drifted from the radio.
“Have you seen The Breakfast Club?” I asked Lucy.
She laughed. “Only two million times.”
“We should get a DVD player,” I suggested. “The next time we go shopping, we should get a DVD player and some movies.”
“Sounds good to me, as long as we can get The Notebook.”
“Ugh,” I said. “Forget I mentioned it.”
She looked at me with one eyebrow raised. “You haven’t even seen it, have you?”
“No, and that’s how it should be. You want a drink?”
“Sure. In fact, that bottle of wine I got from the village is in the storeroom.”
“Sounds good.” I went in through the door that led to the living area and kitchen. As I walked past the dining table and over to the door that led to the lower level, I noticed that it was open. That was strange; I was sure I had closed it.
Outside, Lucy screamed.
I ran for the door, scooping up the Desert Eagle from the kitchen table on the way. I yanked the gun from the holster and emerged onto the sun deck with it clutched in my hands, safety off.
Lucy was shrinking back toward the door, her eyes locked on the creature that stood on the deck.
It was Jax. She was naked, a map of dark veins visible beneath her skin. She glared at us with yellow eyes. Now I knew why the hunting parties hadn’t been able to find her in the woods; she had been hiding out on the boat. But why had she waited so long before she made her presence known? I looked at the distant cliffs and the answer became obvious. The shore. She wanted to get to the mainland. I couldn’t allow that to happen.
I wanted to talk to her; to see if any shred of the Jax I had once known was inside that monster somewhere.
“Jax,” I said. “You don’t have to do this.”
She grinned at me with the same cruel grin I had seen on Vess’s face at Site Alpha Two and lunged forward.
I shot the Desert Eagle twice in quick succession. The sound ripped through the air. The gun bucked twice in my hand. Jax fell backward over the railing and into the sea.
I rushed to the railing and looked overboard. There were ripples where she had hit the water, but no sign of her.
Sam shouted to me from the deck of the Escape. “What happened, man?”
“It was Jax,” I replied.
“Did you shoot her?”
I remembered how Vess had moved so quickly that Johnny’s bullet had missed him. “I don’t think I hit her,” I said. “I think she went over the side on purpose.” I looked toward the mainland and pointed. “That’s what she wanted all along, to get to the shore. We just gave her a lift to where she wanted to go.”
Sam looked at the gentle sea and shook his head. “Man, it’s gonna be bad if she’s loose on the mainland.”
I looked toward the distant cliffs and nodded. It was going to be bad.
It was going to be very bad.
Lucy appeared beside me and put her arms around my waist. “Don’t beat yourself up over it, Alex. You tried to stop her.”
“Yeah,” I said.
* * *
Later, after darkness had descended and Lucy and I had gone to bed and made love, I went back up to the living area and switched on the light over the easy chair. Taking a pen and a blank journal from the drawer. I poured myself a glass of the red wine that Lucy had risked her life to get, sat in the chair, and began to write about Apocalypse Island and Site Alpha Two and the loss of my friends.
By the time I was done, the sun was rising over the horizon, staining the sky orange and red. I stretched wearily in the chair, my bleary eyes looking down at the last words I had written:
“Yeah,” I said.
I wished I could have said more to Lucy, assured her that everything was going to be all right. But I couldn’t. Delivering the antivirus to the people on the mainland was going to be dangerous. With Jax on the loose, it was probably going to be even more dangerous. The zombies and hybrids were bad enough, but now an even more terrible monster roamed the land.
I rubbed my eyes. I needed to get back to bed. I might as well put Jax and the other creatures out of my mind for a while and enjoy the three days I had before we returned to Apocalypse Island.
Because these were probably the last good days I was ever going to have.
I turned off the light and went down to bed.
Ready for Book 4?
WILDFIRE: DESTRUCTION OF THE DEAD is available on Amazon here:
WILDFIRE: DESTRUCTION OF THE DEAD
Operation: Wildfire. Deliver a batch of vaccine to two army camps. For Alex and his friends, the task sounds simple. But in a zombie apocalypse, even the simplest tasks are dangerous.
With a new threat arising on the coast, and an old enemy determined to kill him, Alex must fight for surviv
al while carrying out a mission to save humanity.
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