Hello reader!
Chapter sixteen of Zombie Shark Highway coming atcha! Yes, we are already at chapter sixteen and things are about to get real toothy.
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!
Or! Download the full ebook by becoming a paid subscriber.
Ok, here we go - Chapter Sixteen!
CHOMP CHOMP!
😱🦈
SIXTEEN
The water level was rising. The pounding rain feeding the waves. Kayla watched the flood climb from the curb to the lawns, to the base of the trees as Justin raced them back to Point Chester. By the time they were turning onto Main Street, the water was over the bumper.
"Oh God," breathed Maddie. "My parent's house. The whole downstairs will be flooded."
Most of the houses on Main were flooded. Water rising fast. Where was Bo? Kayla felt her heart race, thinking of him alone in his little trailer.
"I have to get home," she said.
"You're on the other side of town," Maddie said. "Justin just turn here. Drop me off."
Kayla saw the apologetic look in his eye as he glanced in her direction. "Our street's right here, Kay," he said, turning down the road that lead to his house. "We'll drop Maddie off and I'll take you straight to Bo's."
She didn't argue. What he said made sense, she knew, but as the water lapped over the hood of the car, Kayla was ready to swim to Bo.
Maddie screamed as water poured into the cab of the truck, swirling around their feet, the icy waters of the North Atlantic soaking their shoes and jeans.
Bam! Bam! Bam! Melvin pounded his fist on the roof of the truck.
Justin cut the engine, and Kayla listened to the sound of the water -- a roar as it thundered its way into Point Chester, intent on drowning everything it touched. There was something else too, a sound climbing over the roar -- voices.
The strange harpoon man knocked on the window and Justin rolled it down. "There's no getting down this road. We need to go back."
"Go back where?" said Justin. "The whole town's flooded."
"We need to get to higher ground," said Melvin. "We'll get swept up."
"But my parents!" cried Maddie.
Not just voices, Kayla realized. She opened the door, slipping out into the street.
Justin called after her. "Kay! What are you doing?"
The rain and water were relentless, pushing against her and threatening to carry her away. She held tight to the rearview mirror. And listened.
The voices -- they were screaming.
"Do you hear that?" she asked them.
The other three went silent, and Kayla could hear the voices clearly now. Desperate screams.
Justin held tight to the wheel. "Maybe we should get out of here."
"What if it's my parents?" said Maddie.
"Kay, get in the car." The truck rumbled to life as Justin turned the key.
"I can't just leave them!" Maddie cried.
Kayla's eyes followed the flow of the current, past rows of perfectly spaced oaks and family homes that were quickly being destroyed by the flood.
"There!" she shouted. At the end of the street -- three figures huddled together on the roof. And the water below them foamed white, churned up by something thrashing beneath the waves.
"That's Joey's house," Maddie rasped.
"Kayla," said Justin. She looked back at him. His eyes were hard, determined on the DeStefano house. "Get in the truck."
"We can't just leave them," she said.
"We're not."
"What?" Maddie screeched.
Justin revved the engine, and Kayla leaped back inside as Melvin slapped the roof of the truck. "We can't drive through this!"
Justin ignored him, yanking the gear shift and sending the truck forward, ploughing through the deluge. "Goddamnit!" thundered Melvin, positioning himself behind the harpoon.
As they neared, the white foaming water revealed what Kayla knew it was hiding. The sharks. Four of them. Thrashing and flailing just outside the broken bay window of the DeStefano home.
On the roof, Kayla could see the family -- Mr. and Mrs. DeStefano, and a younger man, Joey's brother.
"Where's Joey?" Maddie's voice was frantic. "Where is he!"
Kayla watched Joey’s mother, weeping, trying to push her husband away. She was trying to get back inside.
"He's in the house," Kayla realized.
"What!"
Kayla's chest tightened. The sharks were back. Back for more blood. Back for another life. Her father's wasn't enough. Sarah and Mike's weren't enough. They wanted more.
And Kayla didn't want them to have it.
"What are you doing?" screamed Justin.
She didn't know what she was doing. Didn't think, as she forced open the door to the truck and plunged herself into the water.
"Kayla"! Justin called after her. "Get back here!"
She couldn't. Joey was inside. The sharks were trying to take him for their own. They couldn't have him. She wouldn't let them take another.
Water poured over her arms and she could barely touch bottom as she held herself against the current. The water was strong, but so was she. She was a swimmer. She could handle her own.
She kicked her way to the closest tree, clinging to it's trunk. The sharks gnawed at the house, others circling the broken window. If she kept to the fence, she could bypass them, she could get to the tiny kitchen window at the side of the house. As long as they didn't see her.
The horn of the truck blasted out above the roar of the water, and several of the sharks reared their monstrous heads in the direction of the sound. Justin was wailing on the horn, drawing their attention. Three of the sharks took the bait, silently stalking their way back to the truck. One remained, patrolling the broken window like a sentry.
This was her chance.
Carefully, Kayla slid around the trunk and pushed off towards the house.
Behind her, the engine growled, sputtering and choking on the waves.
She grabbed hold of the corner of the house and looked back for the truck. The engine tried again, but it was drowning. Maddie shrieked, her and Justin climbing over top of each other to get out onto the roof as the sharks closed in.
Water exploded in front of them, one of Melvin's harpoons missing it's mark.
Kayla didn't have much time.
She pulled herself along the wall to the kitchen window and kicked in the glass. "Joey!" she screamed.
No answer.
She pulled herself up, and squeezed through the tiny frame, landing on the kitchen counter where the water was already spilling over. "Joey?"
The only sound was the trickle of wet, and the screams outside.
One shark at the front window, three headed for the truck. That left four sharks unaccounted for. She watched the surface of the water, black and inky in the dark of the house. It wasn't deep enough to hide them, If they were here she'd know. Wouldn't she?
Steeling herself, she slipped off the counter and into the water, heading for the family room. "Joe?"
Dishes, tables, cards and other debris floated by. The pieces of a family drowning in the Atlantic's overflow. Did Bo's trailer look like this? She bit her lip. How long before she could get back to him?
A splash to her right. Muffled. But still, she'd heard it. She scanned the drowned living room. The water rippled, but not enough to have been a shark. Just the general trickle of the current.
Something splashed again.
It was coming from behind a door on the other side of the den.
"Joey?" Kayla picked her way across the room, arms held above the water, pushing floating pieces of furniture out of her way. When she reached the door she had to search for the handle beneath the water. She turned and pushed, but the door wouldn't give. With a shove of her shoulder, it blew open, and there was Joey, standing on the back of the toilet, his hands pressed to the ceiling. He was shaking.
"Kayla?"
"Joey! We have to go, we have to get out of here!"
"They're out there," he said, voice trembling.
"They're gone, I promise." She held out her hand, but Joey didn't look convinced. "Justin's distracting them!" she said. "But we don't have much time, let's go!"
Joey glanced passed her, checking the living room.
"Now Joey!" she shouted.
Nervously, he took her hand and stepped down off his perch, letting Kayla guide him out into the living room.
"Kitchen window," she told him, leading him back the way she came. The water was already higher on the way back, well above the microwave so that she had to swim to stay above the surface.
She reached for the door frame to the kitchen, the dim light of the grey day spilling into the house, lighting their way out.
Joey pulled her back, a strangled whimper escaping his throat. And Kayla looked back to see his eyes like pin points, staring passed her.
At the shark on the other end of the kitchen.
It's ugly head rolled sideways to cast its milky eye on the both of them.
Dead.
White.
And hungry.