Another Friday, another chapter! Things aren’t looking food for Point Chester….
If you missed last week, you can find chapter twenty one here. Or, if you’re new to ZSH, you can start at chapter 1 here. All ZSH chapters can be found under the ZSH section of Authorstrator.
CHOMP CHOMP!
TWENTY TWO
Why Kayla came here she couldn't say. She'd been searching for Justin for hours. And with each second she didn't find him, the more hopeless her search felt. Coming here, the same place he came to find her not so long ago, felt like as good a place as any.
Kayla cut the motor and listened.
The trailer park was silent. The sounds of barbecues and kids riding bikes, the hum of the golf carts and sun porch laughter, all of it was gone, drowned away by the rains and floodwater. Kayla shivered, chilled by the rain and the loneliness that was seeping into her bones. Justin wasn't here. No one was. She could only hope Bo had managed to get out before the rain.
She ran her hand over the gun in her pocket. She was on her own.
And then she heard a sound -- a muffled echo beneath the falling rain. Someone was shouting.
"Kayla!"
Shouting for her.
Kayla's heart swelled. "Justin?"
"Kay!"
She revved the motor and took off in the direction of the sound, the direction of Bo's. When she came upon the trailer, it was barely even there. The place where she'd spent most of her childhood, swallowed by the overflow of the Atlantic. All that remained above the waterline was the roof. And sitting on top was Justin Heard.
Kayla burst into laughter -- he did it! He beat them! How did he beat them? Her arms were around his neck before he could fully climb into the boat. She squeezed him to her as tight as she could manage, her laughter choked by a painful swelling in her throat. He was alive. She couldn't believe he was alive. Holding him now, she realised, despite her best efforts, she'd begun to doubt she'd ever see him again.
"I figured you'd come through here," he said, smoothing the wet hair back from her face.
"What happened?" she asked. "How did you get away?"
"I didn't. They just kind of left."
"They left?"
He nodded. "There was this...glow. This sick, glowing green ripple that shot through the water. When that happened, they just kind of forgot me."
"Green?"
"Kay, what was it? Did you see something or do something that would cause that?"
"Me?" What did he mean? Why did he think she caused something like that?
"Right after I saw the green glow and the sharks left, I heard the boat -- your boat."
"I didn't do anything, I just went to the marina like I was supposed to," she said, defensively. It was just a coincidence. What did he think she could have possibly done to cause a green glow in the water? But the colour -- green -- she'd certainly seen plenty of that today. "But there was this...slime. At the marina."
"What do you mean?"
"There was this green goopy slime, all over the marina. And there were sharks...."
Justin's eyes went wide. "More sharks?"
"Yeah, but they weren't moving. They were, I don't know, dead maybe." Maybe. But Kayla's mind flashed with the memory of that first night on the highway. The night Justin climbed into the back of her dad's cruiser. The night they saw the sharks -- eight of them -- supposedly dead on the highway.
"Come on," she said, starting up the boat. "I'll show you."
Justin didn't argue, and they made their way back through the ruins of Point Chester, eyes peeled on the horizon, scanning for the fins they'd become too used to seeing.
As they neared the marina, the water changed from a murky mud brown to the sickly pea soup she'd seen before. The water teemed with the white bellies of dead sharks.
"Kay," Justin shouted, pointing behind her. "Kay, look!"
When Kayla turned, she saw the glow. A green fluorescent ripple pulsing out where their propeller cut through the gook.
"Stop," said Justin. "Kay, shut it down!"
Obediently, Kayla stopped the boat. She leaned over and inspected the propeller. "Is it coming from us?"
"No," said Justin. "Its the slime. Look." He reached over the side of the boat and tapped a finger to the water. As soon as he did, a faint green glow rippled out from his hand through the surface. He looked up at her, a crease between his brow. "What is it?"
"I don't know." It didn't look like algae. Not like any she'd ever seen, anyway. A bad feeling wormed in her gut.
"Well, you're right, anyway," said Justin, poking at the nearby underbelly of a small thresher shark. "They're dead."
But how long would they stay dead?
"Think its the slime that killed them?"
Kayla's eyes roamed over the shark bodies floating by her side of the boat, pussing lesions growing on all of them. Attached to a large mako, she saw a grey fish, twitching as though sucking on one of the growths.
"I don't think so," she said, nodding at the fish. "That little guy's still alive."
Alive, and doing what exactly?
She leaned over the side, trying for a closer look --
An explosive bang as something slammed the side of the boat --
The whole vessel pitched --
The sharks, Kayla knew --
The sharks had found them --
And her balance failed her --
Her body was thrown --
Thrown into the waves --
And she plunged beneath the slime.
Kayla clawed back up to the surface, gasping for air, and looked back for the boat. The water was white, churning and boiling where the eight highway sharks were thrashing. There was Justin, clinging to the bow as the whole vessel was pulled down by the stern, the big one weighing it down.
She pulled the gun from her jeans, fingers trembling, and opened fire -- one time, two times, three -- the sound of it deafening so close to her ears.
The big one slipped back into the water with the others, releasing Justin.
"Kayla!" he screamed.
Kayla could see the fin -- the biggest of the eight -- facing her. It sliced through the green, bareling towards her.
Kayla pulled the trigger -- again and again and again -- and the big one abruptly changed direction. She'd hit it! But that wouldn't stop it for long.
And then a stabbing pain -- sharp and intense, focused, in the base of her spine. Kayla shrieked, unable to keep herself afloat, and sunk beneath the waves.
She clawed at the spot that stung, a slimy, wriggling something stuck to her back. It held firm, and pulling at it only made the pain worse.
Air. She had to breathe.
Kayla forced herself back to the surface, only to stare directly into the gaping maw of one of the sharks, to see directly into the black hole of its throat --
What Sarah must have seen --
What Mike must have seen --
Just before --
Right before --
And then blood. It exploded from the shark in a flurry of red and flesh and puss as Justin, screaming like a maniac, drove the propeller of the boat into the body of the beast. The blades of the prop carved up the creature and Kayla watched, body slipping into shock, as it's jaw went slack, and what was left of it's body bobbed lifelessly in front of her.
"Kayla!" shouted Justin. "Come on, grab my hand!" He held out his arm to her and she clung to him, scrambling into the boat. When she looked back for the sharks, she saw their fins retreating back into the ruins of Point Chester.
"Yeah, you better run!" Justin screamed after them. "I'll chop you all up! Just like your friend!"
Kayla's lungs burned, aching as she gulped for breath. She watched what was left of the shark that nearly ate her, watched it bob in pieces on the waves. It wasn't enough. She knew that much. Justin had stopped the monster for now. But how long til it came back?
Her spine felt hot beneath her skin.
Her skin tingled with goosebumps.
"We need Melvin," she said, her eyelids suddenly heavy.
Justin glanced back at her, a new fear distorting his face. "Kay, what's wrong?"
Her tongue was too hard to move. And her eyes began to close on their own. "Melvin," she barely managed to say.
Because at that moment, for Kayla Girard, the world went dark.
Thanks so much for reading Zombie Shark Highway - we’re getting so close to the end now! Your likes and comments are a huge support, and word of mouth is the best help of all so if you know anyone who would enjoy reading ZSH, please feel free to share it!
And don’t forget, if you can’t wait for next Friday to find out what happens next - consider signing up for a paid subscription and download the ebook!