ZOMBIE SHARK HIGHWAY

Chapter 4

It’s undead shark time! To read from the beginning, start here!

CHAPTER 4

Justin Heard's pick-up was a pig sty. He never realized just how bad the hot chocolate cups and Betty's junior burger wrappers had gotten until now - driving out to Highway 3 with Kayla Girard pressed uncomfortably close between him and Joey DeStefano. Her feet crunched on the wrappers as she shifted in her seat. His thigh felt suddenly cool where her leg had been touching him.

DeStefano cleared his throat awkwardly.

The three of them hadn't said much the whole drive. But then, what was there to say to Kayla Girard?

She shifted again, her shoulder pressing against his arm as she turned to look out the back window. Sarah, Maddie and Mike were all riding in the bed. Justin watched in the mirror as Maddie and Sarah threw up their arms. They'd been screaming the whole time-- Maddie's tank-top flying up just enough to see her gecko belly button ring.

Kayla let out a heavy sigh and turned back around. She looked miserable. And no wonder. She wasn't exactly among friends. Then again, Justin wasn't sure she had any friends. Whenever he saw her she was always on her own. Even when they swam together, he couldn't recall a time when she hung out with anyone on the team. So what was she doing here, anyway? Sure, he invited her, but he hadn't actually expected her to come.

Sheriff Girard wouldn't like this, Justin knew that much. His grip on the wheel tightened. Sheriff Girard would probably ground her forever if he found out Kayla was hanging out with someone like him.

DeStefano cleared his throat again and Justin looked over. DeStefano made a face and nodded at Kayla who didn't notice. What the hell? He mouthed.

Justin looked back at the road. She wasn't really supposed to come.

Kayla leaned forward. "This is it."

"What do you mean this is it?" said DeStefano. "There's nothing here."

Justin pulled over. Highway 3 looked so different in the daylight but Kayla was right. This was the spot. He could see four police cars parked on the beach. The transport truck was gone now, towed away. But the blood stain was still there as well as the drag marks in the sand, stained an unsettling reddish brown.

"Where's the sharks, Heard?" said DeStefano.

Justin looked at Kayla who kept her eyes on the road. There was no sign of the sharks.

The truck shook as Maddie, Sarah and Mike leaped down from the bed. Justin could hear them all, asking the same question as DeStefano.

DeStefano slid out, slamming the door on Kayla.

Justin watched as she frowned and pulled a burger wrapper off her shoe. "Would your dad have taken them somewhere?"

"How should I know?" She couldn't, Justin guessed. But she didn't have to be so snappy about it.

She opened the door and threw it shut with a bang, leaving Justin by himself in the cabin.

Four cop cars. He felt a sloshing in his stomach.

With heavy feet, he slipped out of the truck and stepped onto the asphalt.

DeStefano and Mike stood on the shoulder with the girls. They looked less than impressed.

"So? Where are they, Heard?" said Mike.

Justin shrugged. "Moved 'em, I guess." Though he had no real idea.

Kayla stood in front of the truck squinting in the direction of the cop cars. He stepped closer to her. "Do you see your Dad?"

"That's his cruiser," she pointed. "But I don't see him. I don't see anyone."

Kayla was right. There was no one on the road, just the cars and the blood stains. Justin scanned the trees that lined the highway for signs of the officers.

Nothing.

Something smacked his ass.

Maddie stood behind him, leaning against the hood of the truck. Her tank top was riding up again, the sparkly gecko belly button ring glinting pink in the sunlight.

She watched him with a perked, perfectly-sculpted eyebrow, a playful grin on her peach-coloured lips. Justin knew that grin. She got it a lot when she drank. And when she wanted to hook up.

"Tough break, Heard," she said. "Maybe the mother ship beamed them back up."

Justin laughed. "You saw the picture!"

She touched her tongue to her front teeth, tapping the metal stud against enamel and shrugged. "I mean, it was pretty dark and grainy."

"You think I made it up?"

Maddie smirked. "I think you need to lay off the 'shrooms, hun."

Kayla's eyes flicked to Justin. He had the urge to tell her he never did shrooms.

"Kayla was with me, she saw them," Justin said. "You think she needs to lay off the shrooms too?"

Maddie's playful grin faded, and she looked down at her stomach, readjusting the gecko.

"I don't do drugs," said Kayla.

Obviously, Justin tried not to say. "Yeah, we know, Kay."

She folded her arms. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"What?" What was she mad about now? He had no idea why she was so prickly. "It doesn't mean anything. You don't do drugs. What?"

Kayla glared at Justin. What did she think it meant? What did she want him to say?

"Well, drugs or no drugs," said Maddie, breaking the stare-down, "you managed to get us all out here with your crazy story anyway. So, no point just standing here like idiots." Maddie pulled off the tiny tank top revealing a bright blue bra.

Justin glanced over at Kayla who was already red in the face.

Sarah, Mike and DeStefano burst out laughing as Maddie tossed the shirt at Justin. "Skinny dipping, anyone?"

The other three didn't need an invitation. They were already pulling off their clothes and making a run for the beach, DeStefano already down to his boxers. How could anyone strip that fast?

"Come and get me, Heard!" squealed Maddie as she chased after the others.

He wanted to. He couldn't deny that. Just looking at a shirtless Maddie, he wasn't sure why he wasn't already halfway to the water.

"Are they seriously swimming?" Kayla looked at him. "They want to swim where we saw eight dead sharks last night?"

Good point. It probably wasn't the best idea. Justin looked over at the seemingly abandoned cop cars. And sharks or no sharks, the Sheriff probably wasn't too far away.

"We better get them," he said, heading down to the water.

Justin and Kayla trudged their way through the sand while his friends splashed and laughed in the surf. Justin heard Maddie, her high pitched squeal as DeStefano threw her up onto his shoulders and dropped her in the waves.

"Guys!" Justin shouted. "You should get out of there, it's not safe!"

Maddie flicked her sopping hair back over her face. She waited, her smile begging him to join her.

"She likes you."

Justin looked down at Kayla, hugging herself against the ocean breeze.

"Who, Maddie?"

Kayla nodded.

"Nah," he laughed. "She just likes the drama of it all."

"The drama?"

Justin shrugged and nodded over at Maddie, climbing onto DeStefano's shoulders again. "She just wants us fighting over her."

"Do you fight over her?"

"Hell no," he said, shoving his hands in his pockets. "I don't, anyway."

Kayla kicked at the sand, her eyes on her feet.

"It's stupid, I know," he said. "I don't even know how it started, really. DeStefano liked her first. Once she found out about that, she was all over him so we all figured she liked him too and then one day, it was like she got bored with it, or something. Anyway, she gets more excitement out of trying to pit us against each other, you know?"

Kayla started moving down the beach, never looking up.

"Well, no, of course you don't know," said Justin. "Maddie gets under DeStefano's skin but, I dunno, she's always seemed a bit...."

"Desperate?"

Justin looked down at Kayla, surprised. Was that the right word? She crouched down, her fingers reaching for something.

"Yeah," he said. "I guess so."

He waited for Kayla to say something else but she didn't.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Drag marks."

She stood up then and took a step back. Justin watched, trying to see whatever it was Kayla Girard was seeing.

They were there. Drag marks. A long thick track in the sand leading all the way to the water.

And there was another one, a little ways down the beach.

And another.

Eight.

Eight snaking paths to the water.

Justin's stomach twitched. "Shit."

"What is that?" said Kayla, making her way to the water's edge.

Justin could see something, moving gently in the waves that kissed the shore. Driftwood? He followed after Kayla, the piece of debris suddenly coming into view.

His throat went dry.

A leg.

Kayla stood, frozen in front of the gnarled limb.

A human being's leg. The flesh gnarled and bloody where the knee should have been. Justin's stomach lurched.

"Is that..." he started. But he couldn't finish it. Couldn't ask because he knew it was. From the boot. From the sock.

An officer's leg.

Kayla didn't move. She just stood there, staring.

Justin looked back at the cars. Did they all...

His heart thumped inside his chest. Did the sharks...

The sound of Maddie's laughing broke between his thoughts. He looked back at his friends, playing and splashing in the water. The sharks.

He took off running. "Guys!" he screamed, waving his arms. "Get out of the water!"

The four teens ignored him, enjoying the sea and the salty breeze.

"Justin!"

He looked back at Kayla who had a finger pointed out to sea. He followed it to something sailing through the choppy waves. There was no mistaking it.

A fin.

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Chapter 3

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