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

stood, legs like jelly, trying to push away the thoughts of what could have happened if I hadn’t made it.

Each of the grasping creatures fell from the edge and the waters must have deepened as Cassie lowered the throttle to keep us from slipping along into the estuary. We had two passengers to wait for.

All but Cassie stared out at the treeline. The air filled with the splash of water as a hand or appendage rose above the surface, the slow current drawing the creatures from the lock, passing our hull and out to the river.

A chorus of short, excited squeals called out from the trees; the sound of something enjoying a chase. A chill raced down my spine as I peered to the treeline, searching for anything that could be the two dark-clothed soldiers running towards us.

When the soldiers weren’t apparent, I knew we couldn’t wait forever. We were too close to the bank for the distance to protect us from the bounds of those creatures.

If they overran the soldiers, we were next on the menu. We had to make the terrible call. We couldn’t just wait and see what fate would fall upon us.

Thompson decided.

“Take us into the estuary,” he said in a quiet voice. The rise of the engine note replied as our speed increased.

“No,” I called. “You can’t leave them here. Just a few moments more,” I said, not able to leave them to their death when there could still be hope.

“We’re going. They knew the risks,” Thompson said, shaking his head, but I still looked past him at the treeline.

“Look,” I shouted, pointing to movement I hoped wasn’t in my imagination. When I saw the two distinct black shapes, my lips pulled into a smile I couldn’t hold back and I waved furiously like an excited child.

“Hold,” Thompson snapped, and the engine noise dropped back to an idle as he followed my outstretched finger and held his palm out to Cassie.

Looking up as a collective gasp rose in the air, at first I couldn’t see what had prompted the reaction. Then I saw the figures leaping to the air as they chased Sherlock and Gibson, their number too many to count. It was then I remembered what Alex had said in the restaurant; I didn’t want to believe they could multiply, that they could make more of their own, but the sight told me she must have been right.

I expected Thompson to call out an order for us to leave. I expected Cassie to push the levers up, forcing us to watch the running men perish. There would be no chance of outrunning the frenzy chasing at their backs.

I hadn’t expected the movement across my front. I hadn’t expected, like an Olympic gymnast, Jess to leap in a great arc from the boat to the bank, running in a blur towards the soldiers.

The soldiers were soon close enough I saw their expressions, their wide eyes at the sight of Jess running towards them, their faces contorting and giving her a wide berth as she ran between them.

“Hey.” The call from Alex pulled me away and I turned to see an arm reaching over the edge of the boat, a pale hand gripping to the base of a metal rail.

Alex stood to the edge, looking down, jabbing the pole at the figure. I rushed to her back, peering over to see an old man clinging to a handrail, with two more grabbing around his neck as they tried to use him as a ladder.

Gripping the shotgun up from the deck, I flinched at the terrible sounds from where Jess had run to and saw Sherlock and Gibson had made it to the manicured grass.

“Get ready,” Thompson called, and I turned away, rushing to Alex’s aid as she jabbed the pole over the side of the boat to the sound of sucking flesh and the strike of bone.

When two heavy thumps hit the deck, Thompson gave the order and with the engine revving high, I didn’t need to look to know the two soldiers were on board and Jess was the one we were leaving behind.

“Jess,” Alex called, as a creature’s hand wrapped around the pole with the bodies slipping away in our trail to sink below the surface whilst still grasping out towards us.

Her head rose, pale and wide-eyed when we turned to see the receding woods. Staring out, I watched a figure at the head of a group, a pack of creatures running and bounding toward us. It was Jess, but we were slipping down the canal to where it swept into the river at our right to become the estuary and lead us to the sea with the sticky mud flats either side at the edges of the water.

There was no way she would make it in time, even if the creatures chasing didn’t catch up to take her life.

74

JESSICA

There were too many. Their number so great. I could have stayed and fought but I knew it would be my last and I wasn’t ready.

With their thick blood dripping from my hands, I turned from the fight, watching the boat move, my gaze catching on Alex’s desperate expression as she stared from the deck.

They’d made the right decision. The needs of the many and all that. Still, I couldn’t help my regret as Alex screamed, her voice so desperate in my direction. I kept running for the fear she might do something stupid.

I kept running, somehow ahead of the charging pack. I knew they were only interested in me because of my attack, my battle to save those soldiers and take away their prey.

I thought I would pay for my stupid act. I thought I would pay for saving their lives with mine. I was in no doubt these creatures, who were only one