Dead Series (Book 2): A Little More Dead: Gunfire & Sunshine (3 page)

“Paul!”

Blinking water
from his eyes, he kicked to stay afloat, glancing at the guns just behind the
gruesome twosome. “I’m going to swim down the shoreline and draw them from the
towels. When they’re far enough away, you get the guns and shoot them.”

Wendy studied the
creatures, indecision flickering in her eyes.

“We can do this,
Wendy,” he said, jerking her from her doubt. “It will work. Trust me.”

She nodded faintly,
her goose-pimpled skin shivering against him.

When he tried
swimming away she latched on tighter. “It’s okay,” he said, already getting
tired from treading water. “They can’t get us out here. Just be ready to get to
those guns.”

“Okay,” she panted,
reluctantly releasing her death grip.

With the sun in
his eyes, Paul swam parallel to the beach, like you would to escape a riptide.
The dead man followed, tracking him like a coon dog. “That’s it, buddy,” Paul
yelled over the crashing waves. “Soup’s on! Come and get it!”

The man took him
up on the invitation, eagerly splashing through the shallows while his better
half stayed put by the towels. “Shit,” Paul whispered, leading the heavyset man
further down the beach. “Come on, lady!” He waved his arms over his head, hoping
to attract the woman’s attention but her vacant gaze remained firmly fixed on
Wendy. “Sonofabitch.”

Wendy seemed to
get the message and started swimming in the opposite direction, drawing the
dead woman away from the guns. Paul reversed course and swam back to the towels
with the tall man following along the shoreline. He swam like hell but it
wasn’t enough; the straggler was much faster on land and easily beat him back
to the guns. Treading water, he watched the man splash in up to his waist while
Wendy swam back over with the dead woman following in the wet sand. Paul
couldn’t believe his eyes. They were working in tandem, somehow wise to his
plan and it wasn’t possible. Those things couldn’t think, let alone outsmart
him. No fucking way.

Wendy stopped next
to him, hands doing figure eights through the water, breathing hard out her
mouth. “Well, that didn’t work.”

Paul kicked faster
to keep from swallowing more saltwater, his eyes locked on Mike and Molly standing
side-by-side in the shallows. “They’re working together to keep us from getting
the guns,” he panted.

“That’s
impossible.”

 
“And they don’t plan on letting us get out
anytime soon.”

Studying the
monsters on shore, her eyes thinned into reflective slits. “If they were really
smart, they’d step back and give us just enough room to make us think we’d have
a chance of reaching our guns. Instead, they hover in the water like fools.
Like we’re just going to just swim up and say here we are, enjoy your meal!”
She shook her head and lowered her voice. “No, they may be able to think a
little, but they’re still just dumb animals.”

“Yeah but…they
could stay there for hours.” Paul turned to her, eyes widening. “How long can
you tread water?”

She blinked back.
“At the lake on Joe’s boat, maybe an hour.” Her eyes flicked back to Mike &
Molly. “Out here, knowing I’ll drown if I stop? Maybe ten minutes.” She wrapped
an arm around Paul’s neck. “My legs are already feeling it and this water is so
cold.”

Gently rising and
falling with each small swell, he watched the man watch him back. “Did you see
him throw your surfboard out of the water?”

“I was too busy
swimming away.”

“He
purposely
threw it out of our reach.” His
gaze met hers, mental gears slowly clicking into place. “This really isn’t
good.”

 
 
“What
do we do now?”

He looked to the narrow
beach house in the distance, struggling to catch his breath. “At this point,
I’d suggest we start panicking.” Screaming for Curtis and Stephanie at the top
of his lungs, Paul waved his arms over his head like he was shipwrecked on a
deserted island and down to his last bottle of rum. Wendy joined in the panic,
inciting the corpses into a full blown riot. Outside of the three horses, there
was zero movement back at the house. A cramp pinched Paul’s side, tightening
his jaw and cutting off his air. “Okay, we have to go closer until I can touch bottom
or we’re going to drown. I can’t do this much longer; too many margaritas last
night.”

Wendy frowned. “Closer?
That’s pretty much the exact opposite of what I was thinking. Let’s swim down
the shoreline and see if they give up and leave.”

“We can’t risk
wasting the energy. If it doesn’t work, we won’t last much longer in this deep
water.” He clenched his teeth against the shooting pain in his side. “I’ve got
a bad cramp and have to get closer.”

Teeth chattering,
she faintly nodded. “Okay.”

Paul wrapped an
arm around her waist and waded closer to the dead things standing between them
and their guns. If they had any chance of making a break for the weapons, they
would have to cover as little ground as possible. Paul’s toes hit sand and his
entire body expelled a huge sigh of relief, muscles relaxing as he greedily filled
his lungs. With the water’s surface bobbing around his chin, Wendy clung to
him, unable to touch.

“Look at the size
of that guy,” Paul panted. “He must’ve eaten the entire town.”

“And he’s still
hungry.”

After a few seconds
of quiet deliberation, the verdict was in. The big man came closer, wading
through the water with outstretched hands.

“Oh crap.”

“Relax.” Paul
curled his toes into the packed sand. “He can’t come in this deep.”

“He’s taller than
you are, Paul!”

Taking a small step
back on his tip-toes, water slipped into his mouth as the corpse crept closer.
“Damn.” Paul took another step and tipped his head back to breathe through his
nose. The cuts and sores in the man’s twisted face grew clearer. His hands
bigger. Teeth sharper. Wendy tightened her hold around Paul’s neck, blocking
his airflow. She screamed when the thing lunged. Long fingers just missed their
faces as Paul pushed off the sandy bottom and sinuously back floated away. The
man screamed and pounded the water with meaty fists while Paul and Wendy
quickly found themselves back at square one: treading water with nothing to
hang onto.

The husband backed
up a few steps and waited, wife gravitating to his side.

“Can you believe
this shit?” Paul kicked to stay afloat. “I told you this surfing thing was a
bad idea.”

“Oh, now it’s my
fault?”

“I should’ve kept
my fucking gun on. Fuck!”

“Do guns even work
underwater?”

“I have no idea,”
he said, wincing as a stabbing pain shot through his side. The short-lived rest
on land recharged his energy banks but wouldn’t last long. Already drained from
an eventful day, time was running out. He dragged in a deep breath. The man and
woman reminded him of the decaying passengers who fell from the cruise ship to
the beach. That undead crew was just as eager to get to Wavy Gravy as these two
now. But at least they couldn’t swim.

Yet.

The beach house
was still quiet but that didn’t stop Paul from letting go of Wendy and trying
again, recklessly burning through his energy supply.

Wendy yelled until
she was red in the face because this was the end and Paul could barely hear her
over the waves and wind and there was no way anyone could hear them from inside
the house. Especially with the hurricane-proof glass between them. Spinning in
the water, he frantically searched for something to swim to. Something to grab.

An oil rig.

A rusty buoy.

Something!

But the only thing
between them and the horizon was an endless sheet of glistening glass. Paul’s legs
ached and his side pinched. He would have to make a move, and soon, or he’d
never get the chance. He’d rather take the two corpses on hand-to-hand than
simply drown. Who knows? He might get lucky, like he did with the black kid.

Wendy shrieked and
grabbed onto him, pulling him under the water.

Paul saw bubbles
and with a quick thrust of his legs, shot back up and wiped water from his eyes.
“What’s wrong?”

“Something just
bumped against me,” she whispered, hanging from his neck and scanning the water
around them.

Her warm breath
washed over his face in quick bursts as he did jerky circles. “Something what?!”

“Something hit my
leg.”

“Are you serious?
You better not be fucking with me right now, Wendy. Because this is not the
time.”

“I swear to God.”

“Well what was it?”

“I don’t know but
it felt big and slimy.”

“Slimy?!”

She inhaled
sharply and squeezed his neck way too hard. “There it was again,” she said in a
guttural voice that gave him chills. “Something just ran into me.”

He twisted in
circles, taking her with him and searching the water that was transparent for a
few feet before turning murky. “I don’t see anything.”

“Shhh!” Wendy spun
with him, nervously squinting at the shiny water around them. “It’s still
here.”

Paul couldn’t see or
hear anything but the sway of the ocean and their heavy breaths.

“There! It just
went right past us.”

He looked down,
bracing himself for impact with something unseen. “Where?”

“Didn’t you see
that dark blob just swim right past us?”

“I can’t see
anything!”

Wendy twisted her
neck around like an owl, teeth chattering as her body temperature dropped and
her fear rose. Paul was about to check on Mike & Molly when Wendy’s teeth
stopped chattering and her eyes got round. “Oh my God,” she said in a cold
whisper.

Spinning around,
his heart skipped a major beat. With Wendy’s arms wrapped around his neck, he slowly
turned with the shark fin circling them twenty yards out. “Jesus Christ,” he
panted. “You have got to be kidding me.”

“Oh my God oh my
God oh my God,” Wendy murmured, as if speaking in a quiet voice would keep the
shark from noticing them. But it was too late for that. Anyone who ever watched
Shark Week
knew it was standard procedure
for a shark to bump its prey before sinking its rows of pointy teeth in. Wendy watched
the shark, jerking her head around to the other side every few seconds.

“Wendy, you’re
choking me!”

Loosening her hold
just enough for Paul to draw in the sliver of a breath, he forgot all about the
two things on shore because judging by the size of the dorsal fin it was
something big, maybe a tiger or bull shark. He pushed the thought of a great
white from his mind, too terrified to even entertain that option but, the way
this day was going, nothing would surprise him.

“What do we do?”

“Just stay calm and
do not panic. We’re going to be fine.” Paul glanced back to the husband and
wife who stood watching.

Waiting.

Grinning.

Drooling.

It was almost like
they knew what was happening. Like they
knew
it was only a matter of time before Paul and Wendy had to swim to shore and
when they did…those two
things
would
be on them in a heartbeat.

He spit water out.
Shark or not, they couldn’t stay here for long. If the shark didn’t get them,
they’d soon drown. His legs were screaming for a break and he couldn’t support
the two of them much longer. They had to get to shore and take their chances
with big and bigger. Maybe he could trip the big guy up just long enough to
dive for the Beretta. Maybe he could… The thought died when a black F-150 burst
onto the scene, tearing across the sand and making Paul’s heart do a somersault
inside his chest.

“Look!”

The tall truck
bounced over fallen bodies on the beach like they were telephone poles before plowing
into Mike and Molly, sending them hurtling into the water with a massive splash.

“Let’s go!” Paul
towed Wendy to shore as the shark fin slid beneath the water and disappeared
from sight.

He swam hard, feeling
the sharp teeth tear into his flesh before it even happened. Not being able to
see through the water was the worst part. The beast could be anywhere, ready to
strike his legs or hands or the cramp in his side. His toes hit the bottom
again and relief shot through his veins. Hurriedly, he helped Wendy stagger toward
the shoreline, knowing that most shark attacks occur in less than five feet of
water. His eyes circled their bodies, searching for something big and dark. A
wave rolled past their legs before sucking back out to see, making it feel like
they were going backwards and driving Paul insane. An agonizing moment later,
they were finally free of the goddamn ocean.

Stopping in the
sand, they chased their breath and watched the dead man and woman flail in the
deeper water. The shark fin popped up and did a lazy circle around them before
sliding beneath the surface and vanishing again. Paul and Wendy looked at each
other and turned back just in time to see the woman violently jerk under. The
man looked like he was trying to help her. Blood sprayed into the air like a
fountain and the big guy was next to go. He fought back but not for long and in
less than a minute the only thing left were bloody chunks of flesh that drew
the white flying rats around them.