Happy Friday!
No pre-amble. Things are too real in the world of ZSH so lets just get to it. If you missed the last chapter, catch up here.
As always, if you’re new here, you can start at chapter 1 here.
CHOMP CHOMP!
TWENTY FIVE
The girl that used to be Kayla --
His Kayla --
threw herself at Justin, clawing and hissing and spitting as Justin struggled to hold her back. She was strong. Justin couldn't believe how strong. He held her by the wrists, and she chomped at the air between them, trying to tear off his face.
"Melvin!" he shouted. "Melvin! Help me!"
The shark expert lunged for the girl, his hands coming free of the motor handle. The boat began to slow, the shark that chased them closing the distance.
Melvin jumped back to his seat. "I can't! I gotta drive!"
Kayla was on top of Justin, her nails clawing into his shoulder. How was she so strong? How could he not get a hold of her?
And then pain -- searing, razor, misery in the meat of his shoulder.
Her teeth. Kayla had sunk in her teeth, bitten down, tearing at the skin.
Justin screamed, and on reflex his knees came up between them. He kicked out as hard as he could, sending her sprawling backward.
"Kay!" He pushed her -- Kayla. How could he let himself do that to her?
But Kayla wasn't phased, crawling across the floor of the boat for Melvin. Her hands grabbed hold of his ankles as he tried to kick her back. "Get her off me!" he roared. "Get her off!"
Justin tried, pulling her as hard as he could by the waist, but it was no use. She was stronger than he was. So much stronger.
She took hold of Melvin's shirt and pulled herself up his body. She snapped and spat and tried to sink in her teeth, forcing Melvin to let go of the motor handle and hold her back.
Justin glanced over the edge of the boat, looking back for the shark. It was closing in -- seven more fins joining the charge.
"The gun!" Melvin screamed. "Justin, where's my gun?"
Melvin's gun. Kayla had it. Back when they were swimming, she had the gun tucked into her pants.
The boat lurched up out of the waves as the first of the sharks rammed the right side, sending all three of them toppling over each other. Justin held tight to Kayla as the sharks rammed the boat again, nearly capsizing them. Justin could feel the adrenaline thundering through his veins. They couldn't go over. He couldn't end up like Kayla. Not if he was going to get her back from this. He had to stay him. It was the only way to save her.
The sharks rammed the boat a third time -- so hard that Justin's grip came loose, and Kayla was thrown to the other side of the boat. Something clattered to the floor -- the gun.
"A leak!" shouted Melvin, pointing at the front of the boat. "Justin! They've smashed a hole into us!"
Justin turned to look and saw a small geyser rose up from the floor of the boat where the sharks slammed into them.
A scream from Kayla -- wild, animal, bloodcurdling -- and Justin looked back as she threw herself at Melvin, tackling him to the ground and climbing on top. She frantically clawed for his blood, the back of her shirt rising up. That's when Justin saw it. He blinked, not sure he could trust his frightened eyes, but there it was -- the slithering, coiling, slimy, scaley body of a long, writhing fish somehow attached to Kayla's back.
Justin reached for it, but was too late. Melvin tossed the girl off, and grabbed the gun in a wild flourish. He cocked the hammer and pointed it at Kayla, and before he could pull the trigger, Justin lunged for her, hurling them both overboard as Melvin fired the first shot.
Justin and Kayla plunged into the slimy water, boiling with the thrashing of the sharks that surrounded the boat. He barely broke the surface to gasp for air when hands grabbed hold of his shoulders, pulling him back down beneath the waves. Kayla. She pulled him under, hell bent on drowning him. Justin thrashed against the pain of her nails in his skin, reached around to the small of her back where the grey fish writhed. His hands felt scales and pulled but the creature had fused with her flesh. He dug his fingers in, prying the fish from her body, and as he did, Kayla went limp in his arms. That was it. The fish. That was the key. They'd been there this whole time. He'd seen them on the sharks from his hiding place, seen the slithery suckers riding secretly on the underbellies.
Shots rang out, one, two, three, in rapid succession. Melvin was shooting. The sharks rammed the sinking vessel, the bullets too small to pierce the creatures' skulls.
"Melvin!" Justin screamed, struggling to hold Kayla's head above water. "The sucker fish! Aim for the sucker fish!"
And that's when Justin noticed the red -- the water around them churned with Kayla's blood, pouring from where he'd ripped the fish from her skin.
And the sharks caught the scent.
The beasts turned from the rapidly drowning boat, eyes trained on Justin and Kayla.
And Melvin's gun rang out again -- one, two, three -- each bullet blasting apart the sides of the sharks. But he couldn't hit the fish. They were underneath. The only way to hit them was from in the water. Bam, bam, bam. The sharks were marred, slowed, but not stopped. Nothing could stop them now.
Especially the big one.
It charged straight for Justin and Kayla.
"MELVIN!" Justin screamed.
Melvin pulled the trigger, again and again and again, but the gun refused to fire. He'd used up all the bullets.
It would get them. It was only a matter of moments.
Justin had to move fast.
Before he could really think, he pulled the hunting knife that Melvin had given him, and stabbed it into the body of a nearby floating shark, hooking Kayla to it. When she was secure, floating against the dead shark, Justin took off swimming.
"Here! Here!" he screamed at the shark. "Come and get me, come on!"
The shark obeyed, never deviating from its course. It reared up out of the water, its entire body airborne as it dove for Justin, jaws open, it's slick putrid throat the gateway to Justin's death.
And then something changed.
The shark twisted in pain, dropping in the water in front of Justin, it's nose bumping into his chest. Justin flailed, backing away but there was no need.
The shark was dead.
It bobbed in front of him, rolling onto its side so Justin could see it's underbelly -- see the slithering fish attached there -- not like the others. This fish was big. White. And the knife -- Melvin's knife -- jutting out of it.
The rest of the sharks thrashed and writhed, and finally, rolled sideways, revealing the ugly grey fish on their underbellies -- they were still.
The sharks -- all of them -- were dead.
But -- he didn't understand -- Justin already used the knife. He used it to --
He glanced back --
Kayla.
She was right where he left her, her head resting against the hide of the floating shark he'd hooked her to, one arm around it's body, the other held out towards Justin. The knife. She'd thrown it.
And her eyes --
Her eyes --
were open.
Thanks so much for reading Zombie Shark Highway - ONLY ONE CHAPTER LEFT!
Psssssssst. You can read it here.
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