In The End Box Set , Stevens, GJ [motivational novels .txt] 📗

But I found him scowling whilst he waited for me to push the lock gate.

With my heartbeat pounding in my ears with the effort, it was only as the boat slipped through the opening that I caught the continued beat somewhere in the hotel.

Cassie brought the boat to a stop, pulling to the side as Sherlock and I worked the first gates to close. Cassie threw ropes to the edge, but rather than directing me to tie them off, she jumped from the boat, taking them from my hands before securing to the bollards on either end of the craft.

Within a few moments Cassie stood beyond the far gates, looking down to the shallow river on the other side.

“We need high tide,” she said, but cut herself off, looking towards the hotel as the thumping stopped.

71

JESSICA

Standing still was the worst. With the sound of the water rushing into the canal gone, there was nothing but the rhythmic drum from the hotel and it didn’t help to keep my mind from what could happen at any moment.

I’d shown them and myself what I’d become. I’d shown them at times of need I could switch into something so terrible. I’d shown Thompson enough that he hadn’t tried to put me in shackles and chains and drag me along; I could see in his eyes he was sure I could pull any metal bonds apart on a whim.

I hadn’t told them I had no idea how I could turn into the monster. I hadn’t told them the pain of my empty stomach or the need to bite down on flesh. I hadn’t told them how I feared the next time could mean I wouldn’t come back to who I really was. Or should that be who I had been before?

But still, here they were. We were all together and I hadn’t ripped them to shreds. Perhaps there was hope. Or perhaps there was not.

When the sound ceased, I drew a deep breath and did the best I could to stop my heart rate rising.

72

LOGAN

“Hold your fire,” Thompson roared at the sight of a line of figures streaming through the double doors, their glassy, white-eyed stares fixed our way with their mouths hanging slack, stumbling in a stream that seemed to be never ending.

Thompson was the first person to move and rushed to the closed lock gate bridging the canal, with Sherlock following.

Although still shaking from the cold, on the boat Gibson held his aim to the pack, along with Alex, but neither pulled the trigger. Our only option would be to drift the boat to the middle of the canal and out of arm’s reach.

I followed Cassie from the far gates and back to the boat, watching as she unwound the first rope from the bollard before jogging to the next to do the same.

“What do you mean we have to wait for the tide?” I called.

Cassie didn’t reply straight away; instead, she kept one eye on the continual line emerging from the double doorway as she unwound the rope.

The first of the creatures were soon at the nearest lock gates and I followed Cassie back to the deck, looking to Thompson, then to Sherlock as their boots hit the hull.

“There’s nowhere near enough water on the other side. This lock only operates at high tide,” she called out.

I looked past the end of the boat, remembering the tide mark I’d seen so far up the bank. “How long?”

Turning to Cassie, she’d disappeared from my side to push us from the bank with a long wooden pole.

“The tide’s rising but I couldn’t say,” she replied.

“Can’t we just open the gates and wait?” I asked, twisting around to the creatures at the edge of the lock, their number spilling around and filing along, but somehow not falling to the water.

Cassie ran along the edge of the boat to the front, pushing the pole against the bank to keep us from turning.

“We’d ground out and topple on the keel,” she said, moving to the other side of the boat, ready to push off as we drifted closer to the line of creatures clawing the air and mashing their mouths.

“The keel?”

“The fin-shaped thing underneath that keeps us steady.”

I shook my head; it wasn’t the time to learn these things.

“Shit,” came Thompson’s call, and I turned to see his rifle raised with his aim following a once-young man in a checked shirt, his legs bare, only in white boxer shorts stained with blood as he crossed the lock, edging sideways to grind his teeth in our direction.

“We have to wait until high tide,” I repeated.

“Shit,” he said again, glancing to Cassie for confirmation.

“We’ve got no choice but to wait it out,” she replied, and I watched as a creature bent, reaching for the pole as Cassie pushed off the edge, whipping the long stick back before its gnarled hands could get a hold.

“That could be hours,” I said, my voice desperate; for the first time in what seemed like an age, she looked me in the eye as she spoke.

“We have no fucking choice. Deal with it.”

I stepped back, reeling from her words as I glanced at Alex. I didn’t look as Cassie spoke in a softer voice.

“As I said, it’s on its way in. Maybe an hour at a guess, but I don’t know these waters,” she said as she handed off the pole to Gibson once he’d shouldered his rifle.

I watched as she moved to the wheelhouse and killed the idling engine with the thin crowd slowly encircling us as more took the journey over the locks to bridge the canal whilst somehow not falling into the water.

They stood at the edge with their hands grasping out, bloodied mouths opening and snapping closed. Each