I stare at the bite mark. But Curtis just starts walking him towards the bungalow.
“How did you get that” I ask and point at the mark.
“Oh strange story” He has an unexpected american accent “When I was on my way here and about to set of this crazy women ran up and jumped in the boat, she bite me, hurts like Hell, but I pushed her into the water and high tailed it out of there” I raise my eyebrows.
“Were you ill before then?” I ask. And he looks at me quizzically, the shakes his head. I leave at that and join the others. The day goes by as normal, we swim and the girls soak up the sun. When me Hayley and Tash are in the water at about five in the afternoon, curtis runs out to us, he looks panicked. I see him talk with Sayed and Michelle, they beckon is in.
“Whats wrong?” Tash asked with a laugh, as if this is typical of him.
“Curtis says he died” Sayed Michelle. I recoil and the girls stop drying themselves and look at him.
“But how” I ask. He shakes his head. Hayley puts her hand on his shoulder, and he looks up at her. Michelle's eyes flare for a second.
“It’s ok, maybe he’s out cold or summit, the heat could of made him faint” He shakes his head again. At that we quickly dress and get back there. As we walk in we see him standing, he looks at us with a sort of animal like interest. Sayed and Tash are at the front of the group and they both laugh.
“See he’s fine, melodramatic much” Sayed says. Just then he launches for us, at Tash, but as if it were a knee jerk reaction Sayed steps in front of her and pushes her back, Michelle catches her easily. Sayed and, well whatever his name is, end up on the floor, theres a grunting sounds coming from the handyman. And it looked like he bites Sayed chest. We all react in different ways, Hayley kicks the man, with a considerable amount of force, and he rolls of Sayed. Michelle runs inside and grabs and hammer out of his tool box, curtis grabs Tash and pulls her back as well as grabbing my T-shirt so I stumble back a little. Michelle, runs up and smashes him on the head as he tries for Sayed again, she hits again and again until he’s still. We all stand still for a moment then Tash runs to Sayed. He panting and convulsing, his body jerks and weird ways.
“Thats what he did” curtis says “Before he died” Michelle, not affected at all, pulls the body to the side a little to give more room to bring everyone into the centre of the room. Then suddenly Sayed stops, and looks at Tash.
“I can’t feel a pulse” She says suddenly. She clings to his body as his eyes go out, instinctively I find Hayley’s hand and like a bear trap she clung to mine. Tash sobbed and the noises of her pain, her grief, shook through me, they were long high wails, screams begging for him to come back. I looked over and saw, the dead handyman next to a silent TV, the picture was on but in the corner I could see the mute symbol. On it was a channel from somewhere in america, a big city but I couldn't tell which one. The feed said live and there was a camera looking down at a street that’s in utter chaos. At one end was a police blockade, well a firing squad more like, they were firing into a crowd that was coming towards them, every now and then someone in the crowd went down but not as often as you’d have thought.
“Is that a movie of summit?” Hayley asks quietly, Tash is sobbing slowly besides the body. I quickly go and change the channel, it has a similar scene, only in a big square with religious looking statues. And on the next channel and the next. After about ten I come to a channel where there are people sitting around and talking but the chaotic scene’s are on a screen in the background. I un-mute it, there a women speaking with a fast and urgent voice, like there being timed.
“…So far it seems russia appears uninfected due to it’s line of defence but with chases being reported in china it seems that just protecting themselves from Europe isn’t enough” I don't understand what’s going on, what she’s on about sounds like a virus but the scenes look like war. Another man picks up, he is more reserved, and calm.
“What not many people are thinking about is the fact that there could still be people in there, we think that we’re saving ourselves but at what cost, the change might be reversible” The third and final man interrupts him.
“Theses people have died, do you know a way to reverse death?” Theres a silence in the room. And then it all snaps into place in my head, the infected, the dead, the handyman, the bite mark. I look at Hayley and I can see she’s come to the same conclusion I have.
“Tash get away from him” She shouts quickly. But it to late, I dash round the sofa to see the scene unfold. Both Tash and Michelle are leading over him, his eyes staring back into there’s. Then he lurches for them quickly taking a chunk out of Michelle’s neck, and then bites Tash’s hand thats on his side. The look in his eyes is the same as the handyman’s. Curtis runs quickly stomps on Sayed head, bashing in his skull and then his brain, he stomps again and again. Hayley skirts round the room towards where Michelle has keeled over.
“NO!!” I shout at her. “DONT GO NEAR HER” she stops as so does everything. Sayed lays still again on the floor, a small pool of blood now surrounding him. Curtis ignores me and clutches his Girlfriend’s neck, she can’t even scream, or yell in pain. Tash has somehow got to the other side of the room, she’s looking at her bite mark in fear.
“Do you understand” Hayley asks her, and she nods.
“Im so sorry, so so sorry” I tell her. She smiles.
“It’s OK, we’ll be together again” She says, almost with euphoria, like she’s won this. She’s look at Sayed body, or what she can see of it where she’s standing. I nod and look to Curtis, he’s holding Michelle close to his chest and I can see he hasn’t been paying attention to a word we’ve said. How long does it take for them to come back, only a few minuets at most.
“Curtis get away from…” Hayley’s cut of by the yell that comes from him. She’s gone straight for the neck like before, it was so swift so fast. She looked at him for just a spilt second, with hunger and longing but then she lurched for him. But unlike before she doesn’t let up, we don't have to run although Hayley dashes for me and stops me going over to him. She rips parts of his neck out and he tries to fight her of trying crawling along the floor to get away from her, but she rip's into other parts of his body, his chest his legs his back. Tash suddenly runs for the door, she looks like she’s going to be sick. But she turns and yells at us.
“Im going to get as far away as possible to I'm not near you when I…” She looks at Michelle, who’s now looking up at us, curtis is scratching at the floor with his free hand. Me and Hayley slowly back away, but she doesn't take this caution into consideration. Michelle stands blood dripping from her mouth and neck and frantically she runs at us. Hayley pulls me through the door we’ve back out way to. And quickly shuts and locks it, I pull the desk over which still has Tash’s work on, I ram it against the door and then sit under it to put more weight on, Hayley joins me, and we breath.
Hours later, when there are two more out there, when Tash died and came back and Curtis gave up and came back we’re still here. Sitting under the desk, the adrenaline and rush has worn of and everything, the sea water, the horrors, the dead. It’s all taken it’s toll. Dawn’s breaking when I finally come to my sense and decide there’s a way out, an obvious one, it’ll save her, me however, that might go either way.
“Get up” I say softly to Hayley. She does, and we stand, the doors gonna hold for a while, by the looks of it so I don't think we have to worry about it. “Right Im going out the window” she nods “What I want you to do is stay her and keep tapping the door, it’ll keep them here. If you think it’s gonna go just climb out to, thank god we didn't decide to take the two story place on that other island” I say as an after thought “Im going to go round and shut the door, they’ll be locked in then and there’s no other way out for them and I don't think there clever enough to open doors of windows but I’ll lock them to be sure. When I come back we can take the boat and get off this island” she looks at me with a face I can’t describe.
“I don't like this Tom” she finally says, but she knows it’s the only way. “Can’t we both just run for the boat?” I shake my head.
“If they see us and we can’t start the boat or get away fast enough…” She reaches out for me, put her hand on my necks and presses her lips against mine, she lingers for just a moment then, pulls down and presses her forehead against mine. “I promise I’ll try not to die” I say with a hint of a smile. This reassures her, and as I open the window she starts tapping the door, they go into a spiral of rage.
“If they break through go straight for the boat, I’ll try and get to you, but if not…” There’s a strength in her now, like when she stopped me helping curtis. I smile at her, well force a smile, and I'm out the window. Dawn is just breaking, and I go around the building. I close all the windows first, quietly locking them from the outside. Then I make my way round the the front, I snap a branch from one of the trees and freeze, bloods pounding in my ears and I hope to god it was quieter than it sounded. After a very long minuet I decide it’s fine and I make my way onto the sand. I edge along the side, and then I come to the doors. There are two sets, for one frame, a glass pair that hangs outwards and a wood one that looks strong but hangs inwards. I nudge my head round a tiny bit and see them. The three undead banging on the door and wall next to it, I can just here Hayley attracting there attention. I see the key in the wooden door, it’s on the outside so there is no need for me to have to go to far in. A stroke of luck. I phyc myself up, but then think the door could give and Hayley could die, so without thinking, in one swift movement I shut the first door, the banging stops they turn, I shut the other, they run, I fumble the key, they hit just as the looks clicks to tell me it’s shut.
I Breath and then lock the glass doors for good measure. Something taps me on the shoulder and I turn and trip over, it’s Hayley.
“Sorry I new you were done when they stopped so I” She help at a hand and I got up and embrace her. “Just the rest of the world now eh” I laugh.
“Just the rest of the world” We grab each others hands and walk now towards the boat. Who would ever have thought we would be so happy to escape paradise.
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