Bill revved the engine a second time and the boat lurched backwards by about a foot. I looked at the shore. The shadowy figures were being whipped into a frenzy by the noise, and a few of them were making brief forays into the shallow water. It wouldn’t be long before one of them plucked up the courage and went for it. When they did, they would reach the sandbar in less than a minute.
I weighed up the situation in my head. ‘We need to get off now. I felt it move last time, and I think we can do it. If someone goes into the water and pushes up on the left-hand hull while we run the engine in reverse and crank on the winch, I think that should do it.’
‘Well don’t look at me.’ Jon was making sure he wouldn’t get volunteered for going over the side. I didn’t blame him. It would be risky. If the infected made it across before we got off, whoever was in the water wouldn’t stand a chance.
‘Don’t worry. I’ll be the one going into the water.’ Jon was startled by what I said. It was clear he hadn’t thought I would willingly offer to do something so dangerous.
‘But what about your foot?’ CJ shone her torch onto the deck. ‘You can’t go into the water bleeding like that. You’ll attract sharks.’
In all the commotion, I’d forgotten about the broken crockery. The cut on my foot was bleeding slowly but persistently.
‘Ah, CJ, I think sharks are the least of our worries right now.’ Bill turned to me. ‘But she’s right. You can’t be getting into the water. If you get an infection, it’ll put you out of action and we need you fit. I’ll be the one going in. You can keep a look out, warn me if any infected get too near. Jon, you take the wheel and deal with the engine, and Mike, you operate the winch.’
Before any of us could stop him, Bill was up at the left-hand bow and over the side. The others just stood there staring after him.
‘Right, places everyone.’ My order seemed snap them back to reality, ‘I’m going to go up front, I’ll shout when Bill’s ready. You all clear what you need to do?’
They all nodded.
‘I’ll come with you. I can bring the gun … you know, just in case,’ Jimmy’s suggestion was a good one and I guessed his greater experience with the infected focussed his mind on such things.
‘No, you stay and help the others. I’ll take the rifle with me’
‘You know how to use it?’ Jimmy looked sceptical.
‘Yep.’
It had been a good few years since I’d got my certificate, but I still remembered the training. The summer after I’d finished my doctorate I’d been lucky enough to get a place on a dig looking for Viking settlements on Svalbard, and it had been a requirement that everyone passed a fairly intensive firearms course because of the polar bears. As it turned out, I was a bit of a natural.
I grabbed the rifle and the spotlight and headed for the bow. Bill was in place and ready to go. I scanned the shoreline. One of the infected was half-way through the water separating the sandbar from the island. It turned away as I shone the light in its face but it didn’t stop or even slow down. The water was only up to its calves and it was moving fast. I wedged the spotlight so it cast a pool of light on the sandbar behind Bill. Any infected would have to cross into the light to get to him, meaning I could get them first.
‘Now!’ I shouted and raised the gun into a firing position. I heard the engine roar and felt the bow rise as Bill pushed up from below. The boat moved slowly but surely. I steadied myself and sighted the infected with the rifle. I thought back to the firearms course. Breathe out, hold your breath. Don’t pull at the trigger, just a slow, gentle pressure. As the infected moved into the light, I made out the now-ravaged remnants of a human face. I heard it as it threw back its head and howled. I’d already killed two infected, but this was different. The first had been an accident and, with the second, I’d reacted instinctively. Now I had time to think and as I did so I could feel my hands start to shake. I did my best to remember that the infected weren’t human any more, that they weren’t really people. I thought about what they would do to Bill, to all of us, if I gave them the chance. I felt my hands calm and I knew it was time. The training, the natural fluency I’d felt when I’d first learned to fire a gun, all came flooding back. I lined up the shot, squeezed the trigger and saw its head explode.
On hearing the gun, Bill paused and looked up at me. I could see he knew what it meant. He redoubled his efforts and the boat inched agonisingly slowly away from the sandbar. I steadied myself and scanned across to the island. Another infected emerged from the darkness, mouth open, screaming, running towards us. I pulled the trigger and missed. A second shot and I winged it. It slowed but only momentarily. A third shot and I brought it down but didn’t kill it. By this time another two had joined it on the sandbar. I took aim more carefully and despatched both of them. The injured one was now slowly dragging itself over the sand towards us, still making the same awful sounds. At the speed it was going it posed no immediate threat so I left it there.
I looked back to the island and froze. There were now so many shadowy figures on the shore that all I could see was a seething mass pulsating in the darkness, and more were appearing out of the bush with every passing second. All the noise we were making was attracting infected from across the island. The only reason we hadn’t noticed this before was that it took them time to get to us. I wondered again where they had all come from.
I heard splashing in the darkness. Looking round, I could make out three shadows running through the shallow water and saw another on the sandbar. These ones were silent, concentrating all their energy on reaching us. I fired, disabling but not killing them. At this rate, I wouldn’t be able to hold them off much longer.
‘Bill, you need to get back in the boat now.’ He looked up but kept pushing. ‘Come on, we’re pretty much off. The engine will be able to take it from here.’
‘Not quickly enough.’
‘I can’t hold them off much longer.’
Bill ignored me and gave one last heave. I could see his face turn red as he strained and then I felt the hull finally break free. I saw the look of relief on Bill’s face and then it turned to fear. Jon hadn’t realised we were off and the engine was still running full in reverse. The boat leapt away from Bill before he could try to get back on board. I shouted, but Jon couldn’t hear me over the sound of the revving engine. I turned back towards Bill. There were four infected closing on him and the sound of splashing in the darkness told me more would soon emerge into the light. I fired at each of them in turn, bringing three down and killing the fourth.
By now Jon had realised we were free and he was trying to bring the boat back to pick up Bill. There was a sudden judder and we were floating dead in the water some twenty feet from the sandbar and from Bill. The water was deep enough here that the infected wouldn’t be able to get to us but we couldn’t get to Bill before they did.
Bill realised something was wrong. He turned and looked at the horde of infected running towards him. The closest would be on him in seconds. I saw him decide to swim for it, but the time it took him to reach this decision was a fraction too long. Just as he started towards the water the first one attacked, pinning him to the ground. He was doing his best to fight it off but I could see he was losing. I raised the rifle and shot the infected in the body, throwing it backwards and away from Bill. He tried to scramble to his feet but before he could do so another was on him and then another.
I aimed and pulled the trigger again. The rifle clicked, the magazine was empty and I’d not brought any more of the bullets forward with me. Through the rifle’s sight I saw the fear in Bill’s eyes, but no pain, the adrenaline that would be rushing through his body must have kicked in. More infected were arriving all the time and while he was still fighting, he was never going win. I didn’t know what to do. I watched until Bill disappeared under a mass of writhing, snarling figures. The last I saw of him, he looked straight at me, pleading with me to do something, but there was nothing I could do.
I walke
d slowly back to the cockpit to find out what had gone wrong, the gun held loosely in the crook of my arm. As I did so, I glanced back and saw a squabbling mass of infected where Bill’s body lay in the pool of light still being thrown onto the beach from the front of the boat. Those that couldn’t get to Bill were prowling the water’s edge, searching the darkness, trying to locate the rest of us. I turned my attention back to the cockpit. CJ and Jimmy were looking over the transom while Mike shone a torch into the water. Suddenly Jon appeared, climbing up the dive ladder, a knife in his hand. He looked surprised to see me standing there.
‘Anchor rope got caught in the propeller. When we broke free, we couldn’t get it in fast enough and it got tangled. Where’s Bill?’
At this the others turned, aware of my presence for the first time.
‘He’s still on the sandbar.’
‘We need to get back, pick him up. Get the engine started.’ At Jon’s order, Mike turned the ignition. The others were leaping into action but all I could do was stand there.
‘I can’t see him. Oh my god. They’re everywhere. Why aren’t you shooting them?’ CJ had run forward and was searching the still illuminated shoreline, ‘Where’s Bill? Is he in the water?’
‘Bill’s dead. They got him.’ My voice sounded distant, almost as if I was listening to someone else speak.
‘Fuck!’ Jon pounded his fists onto the wheel.
‘Oh god,’ CJ was close to tears. ‘How could you let that happen? You were meant to be protecting him.’
‘I ran out of bullets.’
‘I knew you couldn’t handle it,’ Jimmy’s voice dripped with disdain. ‘I should’ve come up front with you.’
‘Even if I hadn’t run out of bullets, there were too many of them. The problem was the boat getting away from him.’
‘Are you saying it’s my fault?’ Jon was shaking with anger. ‘It wasn’t. If anything it was Mike’s. He was the one who didn’t get the anchor line in fast enough. That’s why it wrapped around the propeller. That’s what stopped us picking Bill up in time.’
‘I’m not the one who ran the boat into the sandbar in the first place,’ Mike shot back.
‘Stop it, stop it all of you!’ CJ yelled at the top of her voice. ‘It doesn’t matter whose fault it is. What matters is that Bill’s dead. He’s dead!’ She was teetering on the brink but she was just managing to hold herself together. ’Don’t any of you care?’
There was a moment of silence as her words hit home. I sank down onto one of the seats in the cockpit. We’d lost Bill and I wasn’t sure how long we could survive without him. As I sat there, physically and emotionally numb from what had just happened, I watched the others as if from a distance.
‘Of course we care.’ Jon glanced round at the rest of us. His eyes lingered on me. ‘CJ’s right. It doesn’t matter why Bill’s dead. We need to decide what we’re going to do next.’ Sensing my fragile state, Jon was taking charge.
‘What d’you mean?’ CJ was no longer close to the edge. Instead, there was a hit of anger in her voice.
‘We can’t just float around out here. We need to do something.’ Jon looked down to avoid making eye contact with CJ. ‘I think we need to keep going.’
‘Yeah, you’re probably right.’ Mike’s voice wavered as he spoke. ‘We need to keep going,’
‘We can’t just leave Bill there,’ CJ glared at Jon and Mike almost daring them to disagree with her.
‘We don’t have a choice.’ Jon wiped his eyes before carrying on. ‘Besides, it’s what Bill would have wanted us to do.’
As we set off once more, Jon got the others busy with different tasks, not ones that really needed done but ones that would keep them occupied, making sure they had no time to dwell on Bill’s death. This was a smart move. With Bill gone and while I was in no state to help, he couldn’t afford to lose anyone else, even temporarily.
As I watched, I was struck by how CJ was reacting to Bill’s death. While she was upset, she seemed to be dealing with it better than I was. It was as if losing him to the infected was the trigger she needed to finally accept that the world had changed, and that she had to change with it or become lost within it. I watched as she moved around the deck. There was no hint of the fragility that had haunted her since she’d gone to pieces in the cockpit just a few days before. Instead, she had a look of grim determination on her face, as if she’d resolved to never let this new world beat her, no matter what obstacles it threw in her path.
The others worked well together, with CJ acting as the second in command, marshalling Mike and Jimmy to the tasks Jon assigned them. Soon the spotlight was removed from where I’d left it wedged on the bow, the anchor was retrieved and the dinghy was raised back on board. While the others were doing this, Jon worked out how to get us back on course and rearranged the watches, not that anyone was going to be able to sleep. Soon we were underway once more.
As we left Great Sale Cay, I couldn’t help but stare into the darkness off our stern. Somewhere out there, the infected were feasting on Bill’s lifeless body and there was nothing I could do about it.
I felt so helpless, so empty, so lost. I knew I needed to bring myself back to reality, but I was unable to do it. I remained detached somewhere deep within my soul, trapped by my inability to do anything for Bill even after he was dead. He deserved better than to be left alone on that beach, being picked over by the horde of infected that had killed him. Yet what else could I do?
Chapter Six
I don’t think of any us left the cockpit until the morning. We sat silently in the darkness, Bill’s absence unmentioned but ever-present. As the sun rose, I finally managed to pull myself together and moved for the first time in hours. This startled CJ who had put a comforting arm around me sometime in the night.
‘Hey, how are you doing?’ CJ looked up at me, ‘You want some tea?’
I nodded. CJ disappeared into the cabin, emerging a few minutes later with a tray of mugs and a box of crackers. She handed a coffee to Jon, who was at the wheel, and woke Mike and Jimmy to give them theirs. She handed a tea to me and sat back down with her own. She put the crackers on the table, ‘Sorry, it was the first thing I found.’
‘Where are we?’ My voice cracked as I spoke.
‘We’re just off Allans-Pensicola. I looked it up in that.’ Jon pointed to a spiral-bound book lying open on the table, ‘It’s a cruising guide to the Bahamas. I found it when I was looking for a pencil under the chart table. Apparently, it used to be two separate islands until a hurricane threw up a sandbank that joined them together.’ Jon looked across to the nearby island. ‘Anyway, it’s got a pretty good anchorage. I figured we could rest up there for the day. You know, regroup. We need to decide what we’re going to do now, without ...’
Jon didn’t finish the sentence, but we all knew what he meant.
An hour later, we pulled into the lee of the island and were surprised to find another boat already there. Jon brought the catamaran to a halt by turning it into the wind.
‘D’you think there’s anyone on board?’ CJ was craning her neck to get a better look.
‘If there is, they might know more about what happened.’ Jon scratched his head. ‘There’s still a lot I’m not really clear about.’
Jon was right, the information from Jimmy and Mike had given us a rough idea, but we still weren’t clear how the world had gone to hell so quickly.
‘We need to be careful.’ I glanced round. Mike was standing in the cabin door, there was a note of warning in his voice. ‘You can’t just go jumping onto other boats. There could be infected on board.’
‘Mike’s right. We need to be very careful.’ I looked over at the other boat, trying to work out how we could tell one way or the other. ‘We don’t want another incident like the one with the life raft.’
‘What should we do then?’ I turned to answer Jon’s question to find everyone looking at me expectantly.
It was then that it dawned on me that while Jon ha
d done a good job since we’d got off the sandbar, he viewed it as a temporary charge, and now I was back he presumed I’d be taking Bill’s place. This was something I wasn’t keen to do, I’d never liked making decisions involving other peoples’ lives, and it was one of the reasons I’d never risen up the academic hierarchy. Yet, in the situation we were now in, I wasn’t too sure I had a choice, I’d promised Bill I’d help look after the others. I felt trapped and I wasn’t too sure what to do. I thought for a full minute, the silence broken only by the sounds of the sea and the fluttering of the unfilled sails.
‘Okay, we can check it out, but we won’t actually go on board. All we’ll do is see if there’s anyone there.’
It was my first decision, I wasn’t certain it was the right one, but it was a decision and the others seemed happy enough with it. When we were within fifty feet of the other boat, CJ and I dropped the sails and we drifted slowly towards it on the tide. Once we were within twenty-five feet, I dropped the anchor. Standing around the cockpit, we took turns to inspect the boat with the binoculars. It was small, a twenty-five foot day sailer, but it was in good condition. There was no obvious damage to it and no signs of a struggle. There was an empty whisky bottle upright on the table in the cockpit. It was unlikely it could have stayed like that for long given the movement of the boat as it rode on its anchor. This suggested someone was on board and was still human, or at least they had been until very recently.
I looked beyond the boat to the island and saw a single figure on the golden sands. It stood, slightly slouched, staring towards the day sailer. After five minutes, it hadn’t moved. As we’d approached under sail, we’d made little noise and it didn’t seem to know we were there.
The others again turned to me for a decision, and I made my second of the day. We were far enough from shore that making noise wouldn’t cause us too many problems. The lone infected on the beach would be alerted to our presence, but there was only one and I figured it wouldn’t be able to get to us even if it wanted to. With tacit agreement, or at least with no one objecting, I went into the cabin and reappeared with the foghorn. It would be a rude awakening for anyone on the other boat, but we’d find out pretty quickly what we were dealing with.
For Those In Peril (Book 1): For Those In Peril On The Sea Page 8
