Dead Waters - Anton Strout [72]
I dodged one of the swiping zombies while hitting another with my bat, squishing the flesh. I looked over at Jane again. She was still paralyzed in place. “You know what?” I called up to Connor. “I have no idea. She’s powerless.”
Connor looked down at me. “Well, help her, then.”
“I’m trying,” I said, wiggling my way out of one of the zombies’ grip. “There’s too many of them.”
“That I can help with,” Connor said and jumped down from atop the cabin. The deck shook from the impact of his landing but Connor kept his momentum and plowed himself into a whole row of the creatures on my right. Half of them spilled over the side of the boat, all of them clawing nothing but air as they tried to stop themselves.
“That worked,” I said, tossing one of my remaining foes overboard. “Thanks.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” he said. “All I’ve done is prolong the inevitable. I’ve bought us a little time.”
“Right,” I said and spun to help out Jane.
By the looks of her, she didn’t need my help. Jane had made it back up to her feet once more and was surrounded by a ring of the creepy creatures. The odd thing was that the rotting monstrosities—outside of their simply being there—were all facing Connor and me, none of them even remotely interested in attacking my girlfriend. Jane wasn’t in need of protection; the damned things were protecting her.
“Jane?” I asked. Her eyes were fixed in our general direction but they were unfocused. There was nobody driving the car, or if there was, Jane wasn’t in the driver’s seat.
“Steady,” Connor said, resting a hand on my shoulder. “What’s up with her new entourage?”
“I was hoping you might be able to tell me.”
“I’m not sure,” he said, looking for a weakness in the ring of them, “but I think we better make the first move before—”
Jane interrupted him, speaking out loud in a language I wasn’t familiar with. “That’s not her machine language,” I said.
“No,” Connor said. “It’s not. It’s Greek. She’s ordering her undead bodyguards to attack.”
“What?!” I swung my bat at the two zombies closest to her before they could even begin to move. “Oh, hell, no.”
I grabbed Jane by the arm and yanked her from within their circle. Her face was still blank, but her body stumbled along willingly as I moved her toward the back of the boat.
“Not a good time to be zoning out, Janey,” I said, but she remained unresponsive. I put my arm around her and guided her along the side of the cabin. Other zombies were crawling up the sides of the ship still, but paused when I moved Jane past them. “Guess there’s one bright side to this.”
I stepped onto the back deck first as we rounded the stern of the boat. The back was swarming with aqua-zombies, all of them keeping well away from the two of us. I lowered Jane to the deck and pressed against the wall of the wheelhouse until I got to the door and slid us both inside. I shut the door behind us and turned my attention to Jane.
Nothing had changed on her face in the past few minutes. There was no sense of recognition in her eyes, just a strange curiosity in them as she watched me. She spoke again, but none of it made a lick of sense to me. I grabbed her by the sides of her head and got right up in her face.
“Snap out of it, Janey,” I said. “Come back to me.”
A dark snarl rose up behind her lips, but I didn’t look away.
“I know you’re in there, sea witch,” I said, not turning away, “but this woman is mine. If anyone gets her, it’s me, got it?”
Jane fought to push me away, but I wasn’t letting go.
“If you can hear me in there, Jane, don’t give in to her,” I said. “You’re better than her.”
A guttural growl rose up from Jane’s chest. I wasn’t sure if it was because the woman was winning or Jane was fighting her, but I let go of her face and grabbed hold of her hands. The strength in her grip was both astounding and crushing.
The door to the cabin flew open behind me and the aqua-zombies started to pour in. I let go of Jane and went to spin around, but I was too slow, unprepared. One of the creatures