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  Water: The End of Us

  Elements of the Undead, Book Four

  William Esmont

  Edition 1.0 January 2014

  Copyright © 2013 by William Esmont

  All rights reserved.

  Smashwords Edition 1.0 January 2014

  License Notes: This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  www.williamesmont.com

  By William Esmont:

  The Elements of the Undead Series:

  Fire: The Collapse

  Air: Mortal Choice

  Earth: Desperate Measures

  The Elements of the Undead Omnibus (Books One – Three)

  Water: The End of Us

  The Reluctant Hero Series:

  The Patriot Paradox

  Pressed

  The Dispossessed Series:

  A Wasting Time

  Other Titles:

  Self Arrest

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

  One

  Gulf of Mexico

  One mile south of the Gulf Star oil platform

  Megan Pritchard raised her binoculars and scanned the seething crowd of zombies blanketing the deck of the MK Excelsior. Life on the derelict container ship had not been kind to the creatures. Everywhere she looked, she saw evidence of the corrosive effects of the harsh maritime environment: skin sloughing from bleached-white bone, empty eye sockets where the ever-present sea birds had plucked away delicate ocular tissue, sickly green skin shot through with rot and fungus. Yet even in their advanced states of decay, the zombies pouring from below decks still sought human meat.

  “Do you see them?” Chris Thompson asked from behind her, his voice on the verge of panic.

  “No,” Megan said. “Wait.” She halted her slow-motion pan across the deck and dialed up the magnification on the binoculars, zooming in on the back of a tall, lean man with close-cropped gray hair. He moved with the quick, jerky motions of the recently infected. “God damn it!”

  “What? What is it?”

  Passing the binoculars to Chris, Megan pointed through the gaping hole that used to contain the bridge windows. “It’s Harvey. About one o’clock, near those empty lifeboat davits.”

  Chris put the glasses to his eyes and followed Megan’s directions. His shoulders slumped. “I don’t see Liza. Maybe she—”

  “No,” Megan said, shaking her head. “She’s gone too.”

  Chris lowered the binoculars. Broken glass crunched under his boots as he stalked away from the window, cursing.

  A faint sound, barely audible over the moans of the undead, caught Megan’s attention. She put a finger to her lips and indicated for Chris to be quiet.

  Pop… pop. Pop. Pop… pop. The unmistakable crackle of small-arms fire.

  Someone from the third boarding team was still alive, Megan realized with a start. The zombies surged toward the noise. She waited for more shots. None came.

  When the container ship had first appeared on the eastern horizon three days before, cheers of excitement had gone up all over the Gulf Star. But elation had turned to dread as repeated attempts to hail the ship went unanswered. A visual survey as they drew closer revealed the tragic truth of the vessel. The MK Excelsior, for all its impressive size and former glory, had become nothing more than a ghost ship, a decaying vestige of the past, drifting aimlessly through the Gulf of Mexico under the hand of no man. How the craft had not sunk or been grounded in all the years since the end of civilization was a mystery, one Megan realized they should have left well alone. Hindsight was a bitch.

  Within moments of boarding, she had understood the full scope of the error in their judgment. The evidence was all around her—from the tattered clotheslines stretching between hulking stacks of empty shipping containers to the rusted cooking utensils and moldering trash piles that told a story of a desperate bunch of survivors living in abject squalor. As for the people, whoever they were, there was no sign. At first.

  The boarding party consisted of six brave souls split into three pairs. The first team headed below decks to determine if anything of value remained. The second group set out to search the cargo containers chained to the deck for any clue to where the people had gone. The third pair, Megan and Chris, made a beeline for the bridge to try to bring the foundering leviathan back under power. A vessel of that size could be useful, moored next to the Gulf Star or even the Dixie Sunrise, the smaller sister platform to the Gulf Star located several miles to the north, both as living quarters or as a place to store supplies.

  From external appearances, the ship had appeared deserted. They couldn’t have been more wrong. Every one of the standard precautions had failed: the shots fired near the hull, the blaring air horns, the clank of metal on metal as the boarding party ascended the chain steel ladder they found hanging down the starboard hull. None of those tricks had worked to rouse the dead. If they had, Megan and Chris wouldn’t be the last two people left alive.

  Megan started as a body slammed into the hatch on the far side of the room. The door rattled and flexed in its frame but didn’t open. Their assailant roared in frustration and tried again. The fury of the attack struck a primal vein of fear in her, and she had to fight to control the shaking of her hands. She took an involuntary step backward. Fingernails scrabbled at slick metal as the creature searched for a way inside.

  Megan unclipped the radio from her belt and jabbed the transmit button. The portable radios had a range of a little over a mile, more than enough to reach Jack Wolfe, who floated a few hundred feet off the stern of the Excelsior. “Jack? Are you there? Come in!”

  The radio was silent. Chris stared at her expectantly.

  Another zombie joined the assault on the door. They had a few minutes, at most, before the monsters damaged the doorframe enough to force their way inside the room.

  Jack finally responded, “What’s going on up there? What’s that sound?”

  “We’re bugging out,” Megan said. “They’re at the door.”

  Jack cursed. “Are you guys okay?”

  “For now. Watch out for us, though. We’ll be coming in fast.” She didn’t mention the fate of the other four.

  Chris went to the door and cocked his head, listening intently. As if sensing his presence, the creatures redoubled their efforts. The door clanged with the impact of dead flesh. They had seconds, Megan realized. Not minutes.

  “I think there are only two of them. Maybe three,” Chris said. “We can do this.”

  Megan gave him a skeptical look and keyed the radio. “We’re on our way now, Jack. Going silent.”

  The radio squawked once in acknowledgment.

  Megan clipped the radio back to her belt and joined Chris in checking her weapons for the coming battle. The time for stealth was over. They both carried three extra magazines of nine-millimeter ammunition attached to their waist belts. Megan also wore a lightweight axe strapped over her shoulder. Chris carried a dented and scratched aluminum baseball bat in a sling, the area near the grip scored with dozens of tiny vertical lines representing the zombies he had killed over the years.

  Chris gestured at the door with his pistol. “You or me?”

  The plan was simple: one of them would brace the opening enough to allow a single-file flow of bodies to come through the doorway. The other person w
ould pick off the zombies at their leisure. They had used the technique on countless scavenging runs in Galveston, and the scheme had worked almost every time.

  “You got the door last time,” Megan said, grasping the doorknob.

  “You sure?” Chris asked. When she didn’t answer, he dashed across the room to a spot where he would have a clear line of fire.

  All the while, the creatures continued their assault on the door.

  “On three,” Megan said.

  Chris leveled his gun at the center of the door, lifting the barrel to head-height.

  “One. Two. Three.” Megan yanked the handle.

  Chris’s gun roared as he shot the first two zombies to barrel into the room. He kept firing.

  Megan peeked through the crack between the door and the wall. Four zombies lay slumped on the floor, the remains of their heads painted in wet chunks across the hallway. Another pack was coming on fast, drawn by the noise.

  Chris yelled, “Close the door!”

  Megan tried, but a leg of one of the corpses was in the way. Chris rushed over, grabbed the zombie by the shoulders, and dragged it into the room. Megan kicked the door shut. As she slid the deadbolt home, the door rattled under a crushing impact. She stole a quick glance at the empty husk that used to be a person lying on the floor beside her then turned to Chris.

  Her breath came in harsh gasps. Panic filled her, jumbling her thoughts. Her world shrank to a tiny bubble, the distance between her and Chris. “What next? That was the only way out!”

  Chris moved to the panoramic bridge window and looked out. “No. There’s another way. Come over here. Look.”

  Megan went to his side. Taking care not to slice himself open on the daggers of glass remaining in the blown-out window, Chris leaned through the frame and inspected the catwalk deck encircling the superstructure. He pointed at a nearby cluster of shipping containers whose tops were almost even with the nearby edge of the catwalk. “If we can get to those containers, we can stay above them and work our way back to the ladder.”

  “And then?”

  The door exploded.

  A hulking mass of rotting zombie flesh surged across the room toward them. Megan dove through the window and landed on the catwalk. Chris was right behind her. A short jump was all it took to bridge the distance to the first container. Behind them, the frustrated pack of flesh-eaters struggled to navigate the window. Megan and Chris dashed along the roof of the first container then hopped the small gap to the next one, making their way slowly but steadily starboard, toward the spot where they had first climbed over the railing what seemed like an eternity ago.

  Megan’s hopes crashed when she and Chris reached the final container in the line. Hundreds of zombies prowled the deck between where they stood and the ladder that would take them back to safety. To Jack.

  “God damn it,” she said, shaking her head. “There are too many of them. Where’d they all come from?”

  Chris checked over his shoulder. “Come with me. I’ve got an idea.”

  Megan took a last look at the milling crowd then followed Chris as he turned and sprinted back the way they had come. He stopped at the port end of the first container and gestured with his foot at a narrow strip of open deck below. At least ten feet separated them from the railing that ran the length of the ship.

  “But Jack’s back there,” Megan said, hitching her thumb over her shoulder. “On the other side.”

  “Call him,” Chris said. “Tell him we’re changing plans.”

  “You’re forgetting something,” Megan said, knowing deep in her gut Chris had not actually forgotten. “We don’t have a ladder.”

  “I know. We’re jumping.”

  Megan’s stomach lurched. A light breeze gusted at that moment, bringing with it the rancid stench of decomposing bodies. Megan couldn’t think straight. “We’re too high. It’s gotta be what… sixty, seventy feet?”

  “More like eighty,” Chris said. “But I’ve jumped from higher. When I was a kid. There was a quarry—”

  “No! There’s got to be a better way.”

  Chris glared at her. “We don’t have time.” He gestured behind her.

  A growing mob of undead was gravitating toward their position. So far, the creatures didn’t seem to have a solid fix on their location, but that would change soon. And once that happened, she and Chris would be trapped.

  Reluctantly, Megan unclipped her radio from her belt, turned the volume down, and activated the transmitter. She whispered, “Jack, are you there?”

  The radio squawked. “Yeah. What’s going on? Where the hell are you?”

  Megan looked at Chris. His head was down in concentration. His lips moved in silence.

  “Hurry up,” Chris hissed, without looking up. “We don’t have much time.”

  Megan bit back her fear. “Jack, we’re coming over the port side instead. We have to jump. Come get us.”

  “I don’t—”

  Megan cut him off. “Just do it!”

  The leading edge of the zombie pack zeroed in on the radio noise and charged toward their container. The sound of hundreds of feet thundering in their direction shot a lightning bolt of fear into Megan’s veins. She shoved the radio into her pocket as every thought in her head not related to getting off that death ship fled from her consciousness. She took a step toward the edge of the container and stared at the open expanse of deck, mentally calculating how long it would take her to clamber down then reach the railing.

  “Wait!” Chris said, shrugging his prized baseball bat from his back and dropping it with a clatter. “You’ll sink. Too much weight.”

  With a frantic glance at the approaching zombies, Megan quickly shed her ammunition and weapons where she stood. “Do you want to go first?” she asked.

  “No! Just go!” Chris snapped, nervously eyeing the tide of dead flesh and razor-sharp teeth closing on their position. “I’ll be right behind you.”

  Dropping to her knees, Megan dangled her lower body over the edge of the container then let herself fall. Her feet impacted the deck with a thud. The horde was only a dozen yards away.

  Chris landed on the deck beside her. “Go!”

  Megan didn’t need any more encouragement. Taking off at a run, she vaulted over the railing and launched herself into open space. Her arms and legs pin-wheeled as she sought purchase in the dense, salty Gulf air. For a moment, as she tumbled through the sky, Megan was struck by the beauty of the early morning sun glinting off the Gulf.

  Then she slammed into the water.

  ***

  Jack cursed and ducked as a thrashing and moaning zombie splashed into the dark green water just off his bow. The monster bobbed once then slipped beneath the surface, leaving a greasy slick in its wake. Two more crashed down to his right in rapid succession. Jack winced with each sickening thwack of rotted flesh.

  Less than a dozen yards away, Megan treaded water with Chris’s unconscious form clenched in the crook of her left arm. Chris’s head was tilted back, his mouth ajar. His eyes stared at the sky, unseeing.

  “Hurry up!” Megan screamed. “I can’t hold him much longer!”

  As if to underscore her point, Chris’s head slipped and dipped beneath the surface of the water, only to emerge a second later as Megan yanked it up. Water poured from Chris’s slack mouth and dribbled from his nose.

  Jack feared he was already too late, that their efforts to save Chris would all be for nothing. He had been rounding the bow of the container ship just as Chris hurled himself from the railing far above and had only been able to watch in horror as his friend had tumbled out of control through the sky before slamming face-first against the unyielding surface of the sea. A broken neck, Jack thought grimly, was almost certain.

  With a glance at the sky, Jack blipped the gas and sent the twelve-person rubber Zodiac boat gliding toward Megan and Chris.

  The Zodiac came to a stop, and Jack sprang to his feet. “Grab this,” he said, snatching a stubby aluminum gaffing s
tick from the floor and shoving it in Megan’s direction.

  Megan shook her head and sobbed. “I can’t. I’m too tired.”

  Chris slipped from her grasp again.

  “Hold on,” Jack said. “I’ve got an idea.” He probed at Chris’s body with the stick.

  Megan nodded as tears filled her eyes. “Jack—”

  A teeth-jarring impact rattled the Zodiac, the unexpected jolt nearly tossing Jack into the water. The gaffing stick slipped from his hands, and he barely caught it before it vanished into the depths of the Gulf.

  Turning, he discovered the pathetic remains of a zombie dragging itself across the floor of the boat. Slimy loops of intestines and a glistening section of spinal column trailed from where the monster’s legs should have been. The other half of the zombie lay draped over the rear of the Zodiac, where it had broken off during impact. The sight turned Jack’s stomach. Bone ground against bone as the creature snapped its teeth at him. Flashes of yellowed tendon and muscle as dry as beef jerky showed through on its arms where the skin had worn away. Empty eye sockets tracked Jack’s movements as he dropped the gaffing stick and drew his pistol. His pistol cracked twice. The first shot went wide, boring a useless hole in the surface of the water. His second shot entered the zombie’s head a few millimeters over its left eyebrow, peeling off the top of its skull in a spray of glistening bone and festering brain matter. The zombie collapsed at Jack’s feet, finally, truly dead.

  Jack returned his attention to Megan and Chris. “Hold on,” he said, holstering his gun and retrieving the gaffing stick.

  Megan grimaced and redoubled her efforts treading water. Jack extended the gaffing stick.

  Megan guided the hooked end into one of the straps on Chris’s belt. “Try that,” she said, tired hope filling her voice.

  Jack tugged. With only one arm, he had to work twice as hard and be twice as careful, but he managed to drag Chris’s soaked form over the edge of the Zodiac. He pulled Megan in next, and she collapsed in a heap beside Chris’s inert form.