“My heart rate is elevated… I can literally feel it pounding as though it’s about to burst from my chest. I have this… headache, it’s weird, it’s throbbing and it’s almost as though I can hear whispering in my head… it’s making me paranoid, but it’s inaudible. I feel… nauseous, like I’m going to puke any moment now. My vision is blurred, I’m burning up and… and… I’m beginning to twitch…”
“Why are you telling me this?” Rachel murmured weakly.
“Because I want you to know what I’m going through… I want you to feel, even if it’s the smallest thing, some semblance of what I’m experiencing”.
“But… why?”
“So that first of all, you can share my last moments of self control before I become… one of those people. Secondly, so you don’t have to experience it yourself and thirdly… so that you know why I’m doing this, despite how painful it is”, Lori began to cry, unable to fight back the tears, “So that I’m not the one that tries to hurt you… I could never forgive myself… it would kill me more than anything in the world, so please… please don’t open that door”.
Rachel dropped to her knees as Martha released her and crawled towards the door, resting her head against it so that she could hear Lori’s lowering voice.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry, Rachel. Please forgive me”.
“What are you sorry for?” Rachel whimpered. “You have absolutely nothing to be sorry about. If you hadn’t come to save me, I’d have probably been dead by now… instead I put your life on the line, it’s me that should be apologising to you”.
“You are one in a million. When we met at university I couldn’t have guessed you would be the one I’d fall so madly for and I have enjoyed every second of it”.
“So have I”.
“Rachel…”
“Lori?”
“Live on, live strong”.
“I love you”.
“I love you too”. Lori pushed away from the lifeboat and jabbed the button to descend it down towards the sea.
“Lori!” Rachel screamed. “Lori!”
Lori ignored her and turned her back to the lifeboat, clenching her fist, wiping tears from her eyes. She was on her own now, facing whatever she had now to deal with entirely alone. That was the most difficult decision she had ever had to make and easily the most difficult thing she had ever had to do.
Swallowing saliva and taking a deep breath, she gazed to her left and right. Crazies stood at either side glaring at her menacingly, attracted by the noise.
“Live long, Rachel, live strong”.
The lifeboat hit the water with a thud, the heavy stormy waves battering against the side of the boat and pushing them towards the ship.
Martha, the only one of the three mentally and emotionally stable at that point in time, took to the controls, pulling the lever that would free them of the safety harness and rendering the lifeboat exposed to the elements.
As Christine sat in the corner holding onto the handlebars for dear life, Rachel wept on the floor of the lifeboat repeating Lori’s name.
“Ladies, I hate to interrupt your emotional breakdowns, but I need your help here. We’re going absolutely nowhere if I can’t get this hump-a-junk moving”, Martha declared, fumbling with the control panel.
After a few seconds of no success, she grew more frustrated.
“Ladies!” She snapped, spinning around to them. No sooner did she snap at them, there was a loud bang, the sound of something heavy falling on the roof of the lifeboat and rolling off the side. Christine yelped and Rachel jumped.
“What on Earth...?” Martha exclaimed.
There were two more loud bangs and it was not until they spotted through the windows the bodies of crazies rolling off the top of the lifeboat into the ocean, did they realise the peril they were in. Then came the loudest bang, loud enough to make all three of them yelp out, forceful enough to dent the top of the lifeboat, shatter a glass pane and violently shake the boat.
Peering through the front window pane was the monstrous goliath that had chased Lori and Rachel.
“Fuck! It’s that thing again!” Rachel yelped.
“It followed us?” Martha replied.
The colossal monstrosity roared and began smashing its head into the front window pane, cracking the glass.
“Grandma, we need to get out of here! Now!” Rachel snapped, springing to her feet and leaping over to the control panel.
“Didn’t I say that when you were wallowing in your sorrow?” Martha snapped back.
“Do you know how to start it?”
“I do”. Martha briefly explained what Lori had instructed, with Rachel attempting it. The engine roared to life and Rachel grabbed control, jerking the lifeboat to the right in order to throw the colossal monster off, but it clung on like ivy to a wall, continuing its onslaught.
“The crack is getting larger! Grandma, do something before it gets in!” Rachel instructed as they pulled away from the ship.
“Do what?”
“I don't know! Isn’t there anything you can use?”
“You honestly think there is anything in here that’ll rid us of that thing?”
“For once in your life, stop complaining and just find something!”
Time was of the essence and that couldn't be stated any harder, for mere moments later, shattered glass from the front window pane flew inwards, forcing Martha and Rachel to shield their faces as glass scattered across the panel.
As ocean spray entered the new gap, the brute stuck its colossal hands into the gap and attempted to widen the gap, shattering more glass.
“Ma!”
“There’s nothing I can do!”
The brute stuck its head through the widening gap and roared at them, covering them in sticky blood and saliva. The cracks grew larger, spreading right across the pane, Rachel screamed, Martha stared up at the brute in terrified silence and Christine? Christine stood up filled
