Slither - Edward Lee [59]
Sobbing?
That's what it sounded like-like a woman coughing and crying at the same time. Slydes smirked.
Ruth's back, he knew.
Sure enough, just as the realization kindled, a sobbing and very distraught Ruth pulled herself up the side ladder.
"Where the hell you been, girl?" Slydes asked with feigned authority. You been out in the woods all last night and all day?"
Her face looked drained, her hair a mess-that is, more of a mess than it usually was. She collapsed to the deck, then drew her knees up like a scared child. "It was awful, it was awful!" she hacked.
Slydes had no concern whatsoever as to what had traumatized her. "You see Jonas? He just went out a few minutes ago lookin' for your sorry ass."
"I was almost raped, you asshole! And I was almost attacked by these big pink snakes!"
"Big pink elephants is more like it."
"Fuck you!" she belted out, tears streaming. "Didn't you hear me! I was almost raped!"
"Raped?"
"Yeah, fucker! I was almost raped by a yellow zombie!"
The good hard laugh which followed helped Slydes feel better. "Uh-huh. Yellow zombies and pink snakes."
"Twenty-foot-long snakes!" she added hysterically. She dragged herself up, her unknotted T-shirt swaying. Slydes eyed the large unbra'd breasts tossing beneath ...
She seemed desperate, searching the deck. "Holy fuck, is there anything to drink on this tub?"
Slydes pointed a serious finger. "Watch what you call my boat, girl."
"I'm dying of thirst!" she bawled some more. "I was burning up in those fucking woods today."
"Why didn't you just come back to the boat?"
Her tense face glared at him. "I was hiding from the zombie!"
Slydes could only nod through another smile. "There's still a few beers downstairs-"
"I don't want beer, I want water!"
"Well, there ain't no water, unless you wanna drink the Gulf of Mexico."
She thumped belowdecks, then resurfaced, chugging half a beer in one pull. Her face blanched, she looked cross-eyed; then she threw up over the side. "Fuck!"
Slydes was not too sick to object. "Don't you be puking up perfectly good beer! I got a mind to bitch-slap you. What's wrong with you?"
"Shit, I'm sick ..." Less than ladylike, she spat more bile off the deck with a retching sound worthy of a longshoreman.
Sick, Slydes thought. He scratched his beard. "Did you find any bugs on you?"
Ruth snapped a glare. "Bugs?"
"Yeah, piss-yellow little things, with red spots. Like ticks or beetles, but soft."
"No!" she barked back. "I told you I got attacked by worms! Same color as that one that landed on my arm last night-only fuckin' huge!"
When she bent over the stanchion again, Slydes couldn't help but notice she wore nothing but the fluorescent-pink T-shirt. 'Your bare ass is showin', girl. Where's your shorts?"
That big guy ripped them off!"
"What big guy?"
She bellowed at the top of her lungs, "The zombie! The zombie that almost raped me! And I think he wanted the snakes to rape me too! He laid me out naked in the woods last night when I was passed out-"
Sooner or later the drugs burn your brain, Slydes thought. That's why he stuck to beer. Jonas must've tricked up some of his reefer, he deduced. "I'm tired of looking at your brown-eye. Go put some pants on."
She huddled back down. "I don't have any more! The zombie took them!" Then she cradled her stomach and began to rock.
A thought more serious snapped into Slydes's mind. A big guy. A big zombie. Slydes didn't believe in such tripe, but he did believe in drug-induced hallucinations.
What if this "zombie" of hers was a real person?
One of them photographers ...
His tone grated with import. "Hey, girl. When you were out running around in the woods, did anyone see you?"
"The zombie saw me!" she continued to shriek.
"Yeah, yeah-the zombie-I know. But I mean anyone else, like maybe one of those photographers?"
She groaned, shaking her head back and forth. "Holy fuckin' shit-I feel bad ..."
"Go belowdecks and get some sleep," Slydes told her. "You're all fucked up. Sleep it off. When Jonas gets back,