HAYWIRE: A Pandemic Thriller (The F.A.S.T. Series Book 2) (22 page)

The handle was gone. The door was warped shut. He hauled on the window frame.

It didn’t budge.

I need a pry bar.

Wait. My shovel!

He still had it. He swung it around, wedged the blade into the door, and then pulled...
.

Metal twisted against metal as King used all the strength in his huge shoulders and back.

Shrieeeek - Crack!

The door flew open.

He staggered back, gripping his shovel.

‘This way!’ he hollered as loudly as possible. ‘The lifeboat is open!’

Forest heard Sergeant King’s deep voice booming over the chaos.

His words galvanized the healthy passengers. They threw themselves at the hostiles with renewed determination. Forest witnessed the last hostiles in their ranks being clubbed to the deck.

The healthy passengers had the upper hand.

For the moment.

‘Onto the lifeboat!’ Forest ordered. ‘Drag on anyone with a life vest and a pulse!’

King lifted a wounded woman through the doorway.

‘Everyone find a seat,’ he bellowed. ‘Quickly. You don’t have long.’

A crew member took up position to drive the lifeboat. ‘I’m ready.’

Back on deck, King scanned the crowd rushing into the lifeboat. If any hostiles regained their footing, he was ready. He spun the shovel in his hands, primed to attack.

Come on, you crazy bastards. Poke your heads up and see what happens.

A dozen passengers suddenly pointed above the lifeboat.

King spun.

Four people had jumped onto the lifeboat’s roof from the deck above. King could only see their legs.

He dashed to the railing.

Are they hostile?

He shouldered his shovel and swung up his XREP, feeding his last two shells into the weapon.

He squinted against the sun.

‘King!’ Forest yelled. ‘Are they hostile?’

Forest wanted confirmation to shoot.

King shaded his eyes, trying to see faces.

A shape blocked the sun.

‘Look out!’ Forest shouted.

King realized the shape was a person jumping toward him.

‘Hostiles!’ King roared as he fired. His shot must have hit. The jumping man’s electrified body crashed into the handrail and then tumbled away down into the ocean.

Another hostile leaped for the railing.

King readied himself to knock this man overboard too.

He’s not getting over this railing
.

The attacker sailed through the air. Just before he could grab the railing, King thrust his rifle out at the man.

The hostile passenger surprised King.

Instead of grabbing for the railing, he grabbed for King’s thrusting rifle. He caught it with both hands and held on. His bodyweight pulled King instantly off-balance and slammed King straight into the hand railing.

King felt his shoulders and upper body being hauled over the railing. He released the rifle, but too much of the falling man’s momentum had been transferred to King.

His hips struck the railing.

He boots lifted from the deck.

His upper body tilted completely over the edge.

He couldn’t stop it.

He couldn’t even snatch the railing in time.

I’m falling!

He saw the frothing white water beside the ship and then—

— something made of steel wrapped around his legs.

It was Corporal Forest.

It felt like Forest’s boots were bolted to the deck, and from a nearly upside down angle King saw that Forest had wedged his boots under the railing as he’d grabbed King’s legs. If Forest’s boots dislodged, they would both tumble over.

Forest was completely committed. He’d reacted in a split second.

Straining, Forest seesawed King back in the right direction.

He pushed King’s boots all the way back down to the deck.

The moment his boots made contact, King shoved himself away from the railing. Both Marines fell.

Forest didn’t stop.

He scooped up his rifle and charged back into the crowd. One of the hostiles had leaped down among the crowd still boarding the lifeboat. Forest tackled the man, disappearing from sight.

King stood, still reeling from his return trip over the railing. Forest had just saved his life.

Something urgent tugged at King’s mind.

There were four hostiles on the lifeboat,
he realized.
Where’s the—

The fourth hostile landed on King’s shoulders.

It felt like a giant spider monkey had dropped from a tree. But there were no trees here. This was no monkey.

This was a woman.

A small, skinny, bony woman.

King glimpsed her purple hair. She wrapped her stick-thin legs around his shoulders and tried to gouge out his eyes.

King wrenched her off his back and hurled her against the wall.

He could have thrown her over the side, but he wasn’t going near that damn railing again.

The woman struck the wall and fell.

Spider monkey or not, she wasn’t getting up from that.

King glanced at her wrinkle-covered face. She wasn’t just old; she was
really
old. Easily over ninety.

She’d leaped onto King’s shoulders like a Chinese acrobat.

What the hell is going on here? How can these old people suddenly be so...so...young?

These people had been changed.

They were mentally psychopathic, but physically rejuvenated.

‘They’re all on board,’ yelled Forest.

King dashed to the lifeboat. ‘I’m launching it.’

He broke the button’s protective glass with his shovel. Normally a staff member would mark off names on the passenger manifest, perform a headcount, and then provide reassuring words to the passengers about the unnerving launch procedure.

King and Forest kept it less formal.

‘Hold on!’ King yelled to the passengers. ‘I’m launching this fucking thing!’

‘Wait!’ blurted Forest. ‘There they are!’

Two people were heading toward them.

King recognized the retired cop they’d saved earlier. Weaponless now, he carried his granddaughter in both arms. He couldn’t run. He had blood all over him.

Stubborn determination drove him forward.

King saw a man who’d been through hell and back, and would probably do it again for the person he carried.

Five crazies pursued them.

The man didn’t glance back. He trudged and stumbled forward.

Crack! Crack!

Forest fired twice. Two crazies tumbled to the deck.

‘I’m out,’ declared Forest. ‘I’m out of ammunition!’

King charged.

He was closer than Forest to the struggling man, but the hostiles were closer still. One lunged for the protective grandfather’s hair.

King hurled his shovel.

He hurled the shovel with every ounce of strength in his body.

The shovel sped through the air.

The blade buried itself straight into the lunging hostile’s face. The man’s head snapped back. He crumpled to the deck.

King sprinted passed the stumbling grandfather and snatched up his shovel. Without slowing, he swung the shovel.

The hostile didn’t even duck.

They were running in different directions, and for a moment all that opposite momentum connected through the shovel.

Slam!

King heard the ghastly sound of the shovel demolishing every feature on the hostile’s face.

The last hostile was too quick for King.

He was also the largest. Barefoot and wearing only boxer shorts, he looked and moved like an athlete.

He also carried a blood-covered kitchen knife.

Before King could halt his own momentum, the hostile sprinted passed him.

Damn it!

King skidded along the deck, desperately trying to change directions.

Spinning, he saw the tall, heavily-muscled hostile would never reach the man and his granddaughter.

Forest stood in his path.

The hostile man lowered his head, charging at Forest.

Forest looked calm.

Take him down
, thought King.

Forest obliged.

The hostile lowered his shoulder, trying to tackle Forest around the waist.

Forest stepped aside and swung his rifle butt in a short, powerful temple strike.

King didn’t even hear the impact.

He just saw the large man charging one moment, and then sliding along the deck the next.

Forest instantly ran to help the man with his granddaughter.

King ran back to the lifeboat and hauled open the door. ‘Hurry. Get on. You’re safe now.’

The man stumbled into the lifeboat with his granddaughter.

King slammed the door behind them and then thumped the lifeboat’s launch button.

‘Erin. Erin! Are you all right?’

Erin fumbled for her belt radio.

‘Ben! Yes. I’m here. We made it.’

‘Are you in a lifeboat?’

‘No. There wasn’t time. I’m with the Marines. Did the starboard lifeboats launch?’