Monster Island(55)

“A flare gun?” Gary asked aloud. “A goddamn flare gun? What’s next? A starter’s pistol?”

“Jesus,” the living man said. He wore a blue fleece with the collar up around his neck. “You can… you can talk.” He put the flare gun down on the deck and raised his hands in supplication. “I am so sorry! I thought you were one of those dead things!”

I am, Gary thought, and prepared to pounce on the idiot but before he could get into position the sailor ran up onto the deck and leaned on the railing, staring down at the turbulent water. “Jesus Christ, what have I done! I’m so sorry-I have a life preserver here somewhere. Can she swim?”

Gary looked down into the water. He could see Faceless, illuminated by the sparkling flare, struggle to pull the incendiary out of her midriff. “She’ll be fine,” Gary said, as much menace as he could get dripping from his voice. “You, on the other hand…”

“You are dead.” The sailor’s face went blank. “But you can talk. Listen. Come belowdecks. We’ll, we’ll discuss this like rational people. Please.”

Gary felt like laughing but he just nodded. He went down into the belly of the ship, leaving Noseless to help Faceless get back onboard when she could. Gary ducked his head to get through a low galley and followed his guide into a cramped cabin at the fore of the boat. “You want some coffee?” the sailor asked, pouring himself a mug from a tiny electric coffee maker. “No, I guess you wouldn’t. I’m Phil, by the way, Phil Chambers from, from Albany originally. Things were bad there. We came down the river hoping to find a safe place… Saugerties was on fire and now, New York City, this is it, I mean there’s no place else to go but out into the Atlantic. This is the end of the line.”

“Yes,” Gary said. It would only take a moment to kill this man. One quick bite on the throat. A deep laceration on the carotid artery.

Chambers pulled some charts out of a pigeonhole and spread them across a table. He stared hard into his mug as if he had discovered an insect inside. He didn’t seem able to drink. “Please don’t do this,” he said. “My kids are in the stern. They’ve got nobody else.Oh, Jesus, no.No, you won’t take my kids too. Please.”

Gary stepped closer until he could feel the man’s body heat. Chambers was shaking and he stank of bad sweat. Gary grabbed him by the hair on the back of his head.

“I’m begging you, guy, I’m begging. I’m begging.”

Real tears rolled down the man’s cheek. Gary could taste them on his neck when he bit in to the yielding flesh.

He’d thought it would be difficult when they pleaded for their lives. He had dreaded the moment when the old woman started blubbering.

It turned out to make no difference at all.

David Wellington - Monster Island





Monster Island





Chapter Sixteen


Jack looked at me over his shoulder as I approached. He had the girl-the one who had called the cat and been bitten by an undead feline for her trouble-behind a locked steel gate at the bottom of a stairwell. She looked more sullen then afraid. “Hold on, Dekalb,” Jack said. “I’ve got to see to her first.”

I nodded and sat down on a crate. We were at the last safe barrier on the Seven Train Platform, according to a sign written in sharpie and taped to the wall. The tunnels themselves couldn’t be closed off so the survivors had simply sealed off all the platforms, sticking to the concourses and their connecting passageways where they could be assured of their safety. Shailesh had told me that they had never actually seen one of the undead down on the tracks but that Jack refused to take the chance.

The girl-her nametag read HELLO MY NAME IS Carly-had been put out on the platform to see if she died or not. If she didn’t, she could come back in. If she did Jack would put a bullet in her head. Either way he would be spending the night sitting next to her. He did what he could, passing a first aid kit through the bars. She dabbed mercurochrome on her arms until they turned bright orange.

“Did you forget what I taught you?” Jack asked in a flat voice. As if he was simply asking for basic data. “You never touch anything that’s been outside. Not until it’s cleared.”

“It looked so scared and I just wanted…” Carly shrugged. “It’s not like it matters. We’re all going to die anyway.”

“You can’t give in to that attitude now. Especially not now, when we’ve actually got a chance to get out of here. You haven’t heard about his boat?”