In The End Box Set | Books 1-3 Stevens, GJ (story books to read TXT) 📖

soldiers coming too, pointing their weapons across the striped grass toward the line of trees blocking our extended view.

Cassie and I stood at the far lock, staring to the water lapping gently at the lock gates.

“Is it enough?” I asked, despite seeing the level only halfway to the tidemark on the dark wood.

“I don’t think so,” Cassie said as she drew a deep breath.

I glanced over to Jess lingering on the deck, staring across the estuary to the columns of smoke, her face almost a mirror of Cassie’s blank expression.

I shuddered at the comparison.

“How much more? How much longer?” I said, not able to hold back.

“I don’t know. I don’t know how low she sits down in the water,” Cassie replied.

“Can’t we just open both sets of gates and let the rush of water carry us along?” I asked at the first idea jumping to my head.

Thompson spoke and I turned to see him standing a few steps behind me.

“It’s impossible,” he said. “It’s what they’re designed to stop. The weight of the water on the other side means you’d need a lorry or something bigger to pull them open.”

“There must be a way?” I asked, looking between them.

They shook their heads.

“Unless you have explosives,” Thompson added, but continued to shake his head when he knew what my next question would be.

A shrill call came from the other side of the river and I turned its way, twisting back when an equally high-pitched sound replied at our backs. We had to do something.

Sprinting along the gates and across the water, without looking to the others, I ran back to where the key sat in the slot of the rear gates before grabbing it and running back to the front pair.

To my surprise, Thompson called out orders, shouting for Gibson and Sherlock to head to the trees and find out what they could see.

“Wait, no,” I called out. “Shouldn’t we stay together?”

“Yeah,” Alex added.

When Thompson ignored our words, I wound the key in the mechanism and I glanced up, watching as Thompson threw the rifle to Sherlock. Neither Sherlock nor Gibson questioned the order; instead, they ran toward the treeline, spreading out as they raced to get a better view.

“We need to know what we’re dealing with,” Thompson said, not turning my way. “Stay out of this.”

Pushing hard with each turn, I shook away the dread we wouldn’t see either of them again and that with every turn we were closer to abandoning them as we washed down the river. Instead, I concentrated on working through the ache in my arm as the key went around to the sound of the cogs clunking together and water rushing out of the gate to splash to the river the other side.

High calls came again, one after the other, but no shots were fired. Looking down, I urged the level of water between gates to drop quicker as Cassie jumped back to the boat, the engine soon coming back to life.

“Shit,” I called, as the receding water revealed the dank hair of too many heads to count. Thompson followed my look, his eyes widening at the sight of the water running down their foreheads. Only Jess and Cassie didn’t look as the vanishing water revealed more sodden features of the creatures still standing in the water.

I couldn’t stop looking at the sight of the water lowering, knowing if it dropped too low, they would easily overwhelm the boat.

With the sluice gates fully open, the handle stopped and glancing back to the river side of the lock gate, I saw we were so close, the levels nearly the same.

Arms were out of the water, grappling and clawing at the hull. Fingers held at the edge as more made their way to the boat in the ever-lowering waters.

We couldn’t wait much longer. Alex rested the shotgun to the deck to grab at the pole and jab at the fingers and heads of the creatures as their hands came over the edge. They couldn’t feel pain and didn’t care how hard the wood struck them, continuing to grasp for purchase to pull themselves up to the feast in waiting.

I looked to Cassie and without words she calmly nodded, hoping it meant it hadn’t grounded yet.

Pushing my weight into the gate, with surprise I felt it move against my pressure, sending water rushing in between as Thompson heaved on the other side. With the water dropping at such a rate, our efforts were rewarded as the gates stood open, resting against the concrete.

Arms reached over the edge with Alex, Jess and Shadow standing dead centre of the rear deck. Jess looked on impassively, as if biding her time. Alex held the pole like a spear, ready to attack the first creature to climb.

The boat moved forward, the hull scraping against the bottom of the canal, but with the engine note rising, she pushed past the friction.

Thompson jabbed his fingers into his mouth and issued an ear-splitting whistle whilst Alex walked around the deck, sweeping off the remaining fingers clinging to the edge.

Rushing along the side, I realised with the boat so low I had only moments before it slipped into the estuary and I would have to swim to join her once it cleared the concrete marking the end of the lock. Thompson leapt from the bank, landing on the deck with a great scrape echoing from the hull with the extra weight.

It was now or never. I took a running leap and pushed off to the side. As I leapt, I made the mistake of looking down to the murky water and the bodies standing with their arms flailing as if trying to grab me from below.

Landing, Alex wrapped her arms around me, stopping my fall off the opposite side and I