…and opened them a moment later when Morgan screamed. Caterina and Novak shrieked along with him. When Gail saw why, she cried out, too.
The starfish creature had snuck up behind him, probably attracted by the sounds of the struggle. Now it towered over Morgan, its broad hands on his shoulders, and lowered its mouth over the top of his head. As they watched, it bit through his skull, neatly slicing off the top of his head. Morgan’s screams reached a feverish pitch as the monster slurped his brains out. He whimpered twice, and then went limp.
Before the beast could drop the corpse, Simon swept forward, snatched up the trident, and plunged it through Morgan’s chest. He threw all his weight behind it, pushing the weapon through the dead man and into the creature, impaling them both. The monster screeched, flailing both its human arms and its starfish appendages. Blood gushed down the shaft of the trident, slathering Simon’s hands.
“Novak,” he grunted, shoving harder. “Gail… help me!”
Gail dropped the shotgun. The two of them rushed to his aid, adding their weight to the trident. Together, they drove the thrashing creature against the bulkhead. It slapped at them with its hands, but they held firm.
“Push,” Novak yelled.
The monster’s claws raked across Gail’s forearm. She flinched, gritting her teeth against the pain. Then she shoved harder.
They kept it pinned there until it was dead. Then Simon yanked the trident free. Both Morgan and the starfish creature slumped to the deck. Simon gasped for breath as he turned back to face the others.
“Holy shit,” Novak said. “You’re in pretty good shape for a guy who was almost dead yesterday.”
“I heal quickly.”
Gail knelt over McCann. She had the urge to check his pulse and see if he was alive, even though he was clearly dead. She closed her eyes. The smell of blood and gunpowder hung thick in the air. She sensed movement next to her, and when she opened her eyes again, Novak was kneeling beside her. His cheeks were wet with tears.
“Why did he do that?” Novak whispered. “Why charge Morgan like that? He must have known it would be suicide.”
“He’s been acting weird for a while now. Ever since the island… monster… whatever it was. Maybe he finally snapped.”
Novak opened his mouth to reply, but sobbed instead.
“I’m sorry about Mr. McCann,” Simon replied. Then he pointed at Caterina. “You said there were two more people on this vessel?”
She nodded. “Mylon and Tatiana.”
“Well, then. I suggest you, me, and Gail find them, and make sure they are okay. And I recommend we do so carefully, just in case Mr. Morgan was wrong about the number of creatures left on board. And while we conduct our search, Mr. Novak can prepare to set sail.”
“We’ve got engines,” Novak said, standing up and wiping his eyes.
Simon smiled. “Then check the engines, Captain.”
Sniffling, Novak grinned back at him. “Can I find my flamethrower first?”
Simon laughed. After a moment, Gail and Novak did the same. Gail had a fleeting thought that perhaps it was wrong, laughing this way with McCann barely five minutes dead. But it felt good. She felt… alive.
“I’m still confused,” Caterina said. “Where are we going, again?”
“That’s easy,” Simon told her. “We’re going to the edge of the world.”
PART THREE - THE EDGE OF THE WORLD
CHAPTER 66
As she did every morning since she’d killed him, Sarah went to the large windows and looked for Kevin’s ghost. It had been two weeks since Henry’s arrival and Kevin’s death, and Sarah was pretty sure that she wasn’t coping with it in a healthy manner. She’d felt grief and guilt and sadness in the first few days, but they’d quickly been replaced with an emotional malaise—a numbness that seemed to coat her very soul. She didn’t feel anything anymore. She didn’t eat enough, not that it mattered. Henry ate enough for them both. She’d had to remind him several times about rationing their food. She slept too much, but there was no release even then, because every time she closed her eyes she dreamed of Baltimore and the cultists, or Teddy and Carl.
Or Kevin.
If she could see his ghost, if she could see a Kevin-shaped apparition standing at the base of the tower and waving up at her, it would be proof that he wasn’t really gone. Proof that the sum total of his existence hadn’t ended with a bullet and then melted away into a puddle of water. Because if he didn’t exist anymore, if there wasn’t some part of him, some part of his consciousness, some part of his essence that didn’t survive beyond this, then what hope was there for any of them? What was the point of going on? She thought back to her conversation with Henry when he’d first arrived at the ranger station. She’d asked him if he was ready to kill himself, and he’d said he wasn’t. She hadn’t been either. But now…?
Sarah wiped condensation from the window and peered outside. Kevin’s ghost wasn’t there to greet her, but Earl and the others were. If the thing outside was really even Earl anymore. The creature was man-shaped, having a head, two arms and two legs, and stood about Earl’s height, but its mass was nothing more than white fuzz. Its clothing, skin and hair had all been covered by the fungus. It certainly didn’t look like Earl. Sarah could only take Henry’s word for that it was. Henry’s word… and the fact that the creature seemed to grow agitated when it saw her, as if it recognized her, remembered her from before. And if it was Earl, then what had happened to Teddy and Carl? Could they have been transformed into one of these things, as well? The thought of those two sweet old men stumbling around as one of these fungal-zombies filled her with remorse.
Henry stirred behind her. Sarah turned, smiling sadly as he stretched and yawned.
“They still out there?” he asked.
Sarah nodded. “They haven’t moved. Still in the same spot they were in yesterday. But there’s more of them now.”
“Wonder how they know we’re up here? I mean, how is it that more and more of them keep showing up? It’s like Earl called for reinforcements. You reckon they can communicate in some way?”
“They must,” Sarah said. “Or maybe they’re just converging on the last piece of dry land.”
She turned back to the window and stared at the horizon. The forest was gone, submerged now beneath the waves. A few treetops still jutted from the water, but with each passing day less of them were visible. The rain kept falling and the waters kept rising, and their mountaintop refuge was now nothing more than a very small island in a very big ocean. Sarah figured that they had about another week before the waters reached the tower itself. After that, it would only be a matter of time before the ranger station sank beneath the surface, as well. That was unless the white fuzz got them first. She and Henry had managed to stymie Earl’s attacks by barricading the door and booby-trapping the stairs, but that didn’t impede the strands of fungus that were slowly growing up the sides of the tower, encasing the steel girders like vines. Sometimes at night, Henry told her he could feel the tower swaying back and forth as the supports weakened, but Sarah insisted it was just his imagination.
“What next?” Henry muttered, running a hand through his dirty hair and crawling out of bed.
“That’s just what I was wondering,” Sarah whispered. She looked again for Kevin, but only saw more rain.
CHAPTER 67
The hours crawled by. Neither Sarah or Henry owned a watch. Both had used their cell phones to tell time.
