Another bang sounded from along the corridor.
“They’re trying to attract our attention,” I whispered to Lucy.
“By banging on the door?”
“They’re locked in a room. There’s no way for the virus to spread. So it’s trying to attract the attention of somebody… anybody… to come open the door. They’ve probably been banging like that since they got locked in there. Just biding their time and waiting.”
“Do you think they know we’re here?”
“Yeah. They probably want to try and tear that door down to get to us but they know we’d run. So they’re luring us to them. Think about it… the only reason we came on board was because we heard that bang. They’re using human curiosity to get us to open the door. And if we did that…”
“Curiosity killed the cat,” she said.
“Exactly.”
“I say we don’t open the door.”
“Sounds good to me. We should take a quick look around to see if there’s anything worth taking before we leave.”
We left the last resting place of Max Prentice and went to the kitchen, ignoring a bang from down the corridor.
An empty plastic cool box on the table seemed an ideal way to transport goods back to the rowboat so we set about placing cans inside. There weren’t many. I had the impression Max and his family had taken The Hornet out on a weekend cruise. Their pleasure had turned to horror when somebody on board turned. Maybe it was Mary, the mother, saying that morning that she felt well enough to go out on the boat despite being a little sick. Maybe it was Dan, the son, keeping his illness hidden from his parents because he had been looking forward all week to a weekend out at sea.
Either way, the consequences were tragic. A mother and her son turned into monsters. A father, unable to deal with the loss, taking his own life.
“There’s not much here,” Lucy said, searching the cupboards.
“No, let’s go.”
“Wait, what’s this?” She brought out a gun from the cupboard underneath the sink.
“Flare gun. There’s one on The Big Easy too. It’s in a cupboard up on the bridge.”
She found a box of flares and stuffed it into her pocket along with the gun. “Might as well take them.”
“Sure. Although I’m not sure who we’ll be signalling.”
“You take that box outside and I’ll check the other bedrooms.”
“Don’t go near that storeroom.”
She turned to me. “How will I know which door leads to the storeroom?”
“It’s the door that’s locked.”
“Oh, yeah.” She went down the corridor to search for more plunder. A loud banging came from down there.
“It’s the door that’s being pounded on,” I shouted after her.
“Got it. Avoid the noisy door.”
I picked up the cool box, carried it outside and laid it on the deck. I was about to go back inside to help Lucy search the bedrooms when I heard something break and then a high-pitched scream. I ran in, bat ready in my hands. “Lucy!”
There was banging coming from down the corridor. And that god-awful low moaning.
“I’m in a bedroom,” she said, “They’re trying to get in. I can’t hold the door closed.”
I didn’t even think. I sprinted down the corridor and around a corner to come face to face with Max’s wife and son. They had broken through the storeroom door. It lay in splinters on the floor. They pounded on the door opposite. With every blow from their fists, the door opened slightly and Lucy grunted as she pushed it closed again.
“Hey!” I shouted at the zombies.
They turned their greedy yellow eyes on me.
Mary was dressed in a light brown sweater and jeans just like any normal woman on a weekend getaway with her husband and son. Except she wasn’t a normal woman. Her long blonde hair covered most of her face but the blue skin and yellow eyes were apparent. She opened her mouth and moaned hungrily at the sight of me.
Dan, dressed in a Slayer T-shirt and black jeans echoed his mother’s pitiful cry and came for me, staggering forward in the cramped confines of the corridor.
I backed away, hoping to lead them into the kitchen where I could get the space I needed for a good swing of the bat.
They followed. My mouth was suddenly dry and my heart felt like it was beating in my temples. I felt repulsed by these creatures with their stink of death and rabid eyes. They were no longer the wife and son Max Prentice had come on board with; they were foul monsters, killing machines with a single purpose: destroy humanity.
I backed into the kitchen. They were getting closer, picking up speed as they anticipated the taste of their prey.
I refused to be that prey.
I swung the bat at Dan’s head. The wood cracked into his skull, sending him down to the floor.
Mary stepped over her son, her maternal instincts long gone, and gnashed her teeth at me.
I pushed her away with the tip of the bat, giving her a hard shove into the kitchen cupboards. The cupboard doors flung open and plates and dishes fell onto the floor, shattering into a thousand pieces.
Dan got up and lurched forward, his rotting hand brushing my arm. The revulsion rose in my throat like hot bile and I reflexively hit him with the bat again.
I heard his skull crack. The bat sunk into his head and he dropped heavily at my feet.
Mary came at me, pushing me out of the doorway onto the deck. She was a thin woman but she had strength lent to her by the virus that inhabited her body. I fell backwards and she was on top of me, teeth biting and tearing at the air in front of my face.
Her breath smelled like rotted leaves, rancid meat and open graves. I wretched as I fought to hold her head away from me.
Her yellow eyes seemed to bore into my skull with their hatred.
She came in closer, her fetid smell making me want to vomit.
Just as I thought she was going to get close enough to bite me, her body lit up with sparks and flame. Her grip on me loosened and I pushed her away, rolling out from under her and scrambling to my feet.
She staggered backward, her entire body lit up like a firework, flame licking the blue skin. She seemed unable to comprehend what to do and chose to make a final lunge at me.
I hit her with the bat and she went toppling over the back of the boat.
Lucy stepped forward, flare gun in hand.
“Thanks,” I said.
“Thank you for distracting them so I could get out of the bedroom.”
Beyond the stern, smoke drifted into the air. The crackle of flames reached our ears.
“Oh, shit!” I said, leaning over the edge and looking down.
Mary’s flaming corpse had landed in our rowboat. As the zombie lay like a heap of flaming rags, the rowboat burned around her.
I untied the rowboat and let her drift away before she set The Hornet on fire.
Lucy looked at the burning boat and sighed. “Looks like we’ll be swimming back.”
Great. Just what I needed after fighting zombies—a swim in the cold sea. Although it might get rid of the grave smell I felt was clinging to me. I wanted to get back to The Big Easy, burn these clothes and take a shower in disinfectant.
On the water, the rowboat still burned. The zombie corpse emitted a foul-smelling black smoke.
I turned to Lucy. “So was it worth coming aboard?”
She nodded. “Of course. We learned a valuable lesson.”
“And what lesson might that be?”
“We learned that flares kill zombies.”
“Yeah, it nearly killed me too. You could have just used the Colt.”