Ex-Isle by Peter Clines (electronic reader TXT) 📕

shark teeth. “I told you, I don’t want to do this,” yelled the merman. “You’ve left me no choice.”

He had one arm up over his head, moving it in a slow, heavy circle. Moonlight glinted on the spinning length of chain. The big steel shape came at him again. Nautilus leaned into his swing, St. George tried to duck, and the yacht’s anchor slammed into his shoulder.

The impact hurled him off the ship. He caught himself before he hit the water and pushed his body back up through the air.

Nautilus whirled the anchor around his head. It had to weigh close to a thousand pounds easy, with another five hundred pounds of chain, and he swung it one-handed like a kid spinning a shoelace. It whooshed through the air like the blades of a massive propeller.

The chain passed and St. George lunged at Nautilus. The merman snapped the chain forward like a whip, smashing the anchor into the hero again. It would’ve crushed a normal man. Turned his rib cage to powder and pulped his insides. It slammed St. George back into the yacht’s bridge. Wood and fiberglass and glass shattered around him. He heard more screams from the people up front, and maybe some more belowdecks.

He pushed himself out of the wreckage just in time for the anchor to rush at him. He got his hands up and caught it, grabbing hold of the shaft. A thousand pounds, easy, with a lot of momentum behind it.

Nautilus jerked on the chain and yanked St. George off his feet. The hero sprawled forward on the yacht’s deck, but didn’t let go of the anchor. Nautilus snapped the links like a whip, and the big piece of iron thrashed in St. George’s hands. Another lash of the chain tore the anchor away.

Then Zzzap shot down out of the sky and lit up the deck like daytime. He held up his hand, and everything went white. Nautilus roared. The anchor and chain crashed to the deck.

St. George blinked the light from his eyes and looked around. “Where’d he go?”

D’you like that? I remembered Deathstroke used the same trick on Aquaman once, because his eyes were made for—

“Barry, where did he go?”

What? He dove off the side. Launched himself right over the fishing boat and hit the water.

“Crap. Can you see him?”

The wraith flitted a few yards up into the sky. Zzzap’s head swiveled back and forth across the ocean. No, he said. The water makes things tough, especially with his body temperature being on the low side. He was heading away from the island, but I—

“Dammit.”

What’s the big deal? We’ve got him on the run.

“He’s got a submarine!”

Zzzap froze in the air. What did you say?!

“He’s had a Navy submarine hidden under all the ships, and I’m pretty sure it’s got a bunch of silos across the top. He was dragging it out from under the boats when I grabbed him.” St. George looked out at the water. “I think he’s going to nuke Los Angeles to prove he’s been telling the truth.”

SCREAMS DANCED BACK and forth across Eden as the sky darkened. Danielle looked around. The sound of clicking teeth echoed around the building. How had it gotten so loud so fast? The exes couldn’t be here already, could they?

“Let’s go,” shouted Kennedy. She snatched up a rifle and lunged down the path toward the southern fence. Wilson, Taylor, Hancock, and Johnson were right behind her.

Gunshots echoed down from the roof as Pierce slowed the undead advance.

The exoskeleton looked down at Danielle. “What do I do?”

She looked at the door into the courtyard, a panel of expanded steel that could latch shut. The tremor she’d been fighting to control got loose in her gut and churned her stomach.

“Come on,” Gibbs told Cesar. “This is what you’re here for.” He grabbed a rifle from the rack, shoved a spare magazine in his pocket, and headed after the Unbreakables as fast as his mechanical foot would allow.

The battlesuit looked at Danielle again. She set her jaw and managed to nod without making it look like some kind of spasm. “Go.”

He followed after Gibbs with long, loping strides.

“Goddamn,” said Hector.

“You, too,” Danielle said. “They need fighters. People with experience.”

“You got more experience fighting them than me.”

She shook her head. “Not like this. I’m no good like this.” She gestured at the courtyard. “Get everyone back here. This is the safest place. If they can’t make it here, get on a watchtower or climb a tree or find one of the garden plots that still has a fence around it.”

He glanced at Lester, then looked at her. “What about you? You don’t look so hot.”

“I’m fine,” she snapped. “Stop wasting time, go.”

Hector looked at the rack of weapons, snatched up a pistol, and shoved it into the waistband of his jeans. He gave her a last look, then headed into the garden. He turned a corner and vanished behind a tall cluster of okra plants.

Another gunshot echoed from above Danielle. And another. Was there a ladder up to the roof, or did the Unbreakables just jump? Even in their weakened state, they could probably jump.

The roof was safe.

She stared down the path after Hector. Then she turned and looked after Cesar. After her battlesuit.

The bell stopped ringing. Whoever had sounded the alarm was focused on other things now.

“Oh my God,” said Lester. “They’re inside. They’re inside the fences.”

The clicking teeth sounded so close.

Danielle grabbed Lester by the arm, dragged him into the courtyard, and pulled the gate shut behind her. She made a fist and stopped her hand from flipping the latch. Other people would be coming. They’d need to get in. She couldn’t lock them out.

She moved into the main room, pushing Lester ahead of her.

Kennedy ran along the concrete path. To her right, past the double rows of tomatoes and beans and squash, she could see what was left of the southern fence line. Pierce