ZOMBIE SHARK HIGHWAY
FIFTEEN
Here comes chapter 15! Chapter 16 coming up close behind!
I know, I know. I said I’d post them YESTERDAY but the holiday weekend has made gettting anything done IMPOSSIBLE. I am bound an determined that nothing will stop me from getting these chapters to you today - so buckle up chompy toothy zombified action!
CHOMP CHOMP!
😱🦈
As always, if you’re new to ZSH you can start at Chapter 1 here or find any of the previous chapters under the ZSH section of Authorstrator!
FIFTEEN
Joey DeStefano flicked off the television and the sound of the rain hammering the living room window filled the silence. His brother Lucas had downloaded his favourite show, Dead March, as a binge watching distraction. A way to keep his mind off Sarah and Mike. But the last forty-five minutes of zombie hacking hadn't been as entertaining as usual.
Joey sat in the green tweed recliner, staring at his face reflected in the black screen. Sarah and Mike were dead. And Joey himself -- a swell of fear surged up from where he'd bottled it -- had almost died with them.
Those teeth were in his nightmares. Even when he was awake, he saw them -- gaping, wanting. They wanted his bones. Crunched between each razor sharp edge like toothpicks. He pressed his palms to his eyes, willing the image away. He had to do this a hundred times a day, it seemed. But those teeth always came back. He'd see them again, he knew it. And all he wanted was to forget.
He'd told Justin, told Maddie, that they had to forget. It was the only way to survive. The way the sharks came up out of the water - who could believe them? That was what he'd argued anyway. But sitting there, in his chair, staring at himself in the reflection of the TV, he knew that wasn't the only reason he'd told them not to talk about it. The bigger reason was that he needed them to forget about it. To convince themselves they hadn't seen what they'd seen. Because if they could forget, maybe he could too. Maybe things could be normal again.
Maybe he wouldn't have to be so afraid.
His phone lay perched on the armrest, and he snapped it up. No messages. Where was Maddie? He'd sent her an embarrassing twenty-eight texts today. And she'd responded to none of them. Why wasn't she responding?
She was still upset. He knew that. They both were. She probably didn't want to talk to anyone. But he thought, maybe stupidly, that he wasn't just "anyone". Thought maybe he'd be the one person she could talk to. Because Maddie was that one person for Joey.
Is she talking to Justin?
The thought made his hand clench. Justin was the one who saved them, after all. The one who tried to warn them about what was hiding in the waves. The one who drove the truck out of there. The one who came back for Joey.
Justin was the hero out on Highway Three.
Not Joey.
His fist slammed the armrest.
"Doing alright there, big guy?" Lucas appeared behind him, two sodas in hand. He offered one to Joey.
Joey shook his head, embarrassed his brother had seen his outburst. Lucas shouldn't have come home. He went to school at Leawest College, a five hour drive away. But when their parents called to tell him what happened on Highway Three -- well, what they thought happened anyway -- Lucas rushed home. And it wasn't that Joey wasn't glad to see his big brother, he was. It was just that, seeing Lucas home was a reminder that something bad happened. Another reason he couldn't just let himself forget.
Lucas left the unwanted soda on the coffee table and cracked one can open for himself. "How are you feeling?"
"Fine."
Lucas frowned, flicking the metal tab with a ping ping ping sound of tin. "You can tell me the truth, bud. You know that right?"
No, he couldn't. Joey nodded anyway.
Lucas waited, and Joey knew his brother wanted him to open up. But he just didn't want to face the look on his brother's face -- the doubt he knew he'd see as soon as he told Lucas about the sharks on the highway.
Sarah and Mike drowned.
That was the story everyone could accept.
The sharks had to be forgotten.
Lucas sighed and lay back on the couch, realizing he wasn't going to get what he wanted. He switched topics. "Cats and dogs out there, eh?"
Joey nodded. The rain hadn't stopped since Sarah and Mike. And it was getting heavier.
A roar exploded from somewhere deep in the house, and both Joey and Lucas leaped to their feet.
"Son of a bitch!" their dad bellowed, flinging open the basement door. "It's flooding!"
"What is?" asked Lucas.
"The basement! Don't just stand their boys, grab some buckets! Towels!"
Joey and Lucas rushed to the kitchen, pulling out pots and pans and anything else that might catch water, but when they got to the door of the basement, Joey realized buckets would be useless against this deluge.
"Jesus," said Lucas. "It's halfway up the stairs!"
The bottom half of the staircase was completely submerged. At this rate, the water would flood the main floor in no time.
"Ah Christ." Joey watched his Dad run for the upstairs. "Judy, call the insurance company!"
Joey stood there, staring into the basement, his body reflected in the rippling water below. If their house was hit this badly, the whole block must be flooded.
"Holy shit!" cried Lucas.
Joey turned to see his brother standing at the living room window. "The street! The whole street is like a river!"
Joey joined his brother and looked out at the neighborhood. Brown muddy water raced along the road, cars submerged to their bumpers. Point Chester was drowning.
Lucas pointed up the road. "What the hell is that?"
Joey's knees trembled, recognizing the monstrous scalpel cutting down the road towards them, his nightmare made real again. "Shark fin," he rasped.
They'd found him.
They wouldn't let him forget.
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