Dead Meat | Day 7, page 10
part #7 of Dead Meat Series
“Hold on!” the girl calls, concentrating on steering the jet ski with one hand. “I’ll take us to a safe distance, then pull you up.”
Dan tries to tell her something—he’s not completely sure what, maybe “thank you”—but his head slips below water again, and he’s already out of breath, so he needs to save it.
His thoughts are reeling too, spinning around the fact that one of the deads just touched his ankle, even pulled off his shoe. What will he find when he checks his skin down there? He can’t feel anything, but that’s no assurance. There could very well be scratch marks from the zombie’s nails …
After half a minute or so of Dan holding on to the girl’s hand while trying to keep his head above water, the jet ski slows down and comes to a halt, bobbing in the low waves.
“Right, you need to move to the stern,” the girl says, nodding her head in the direction.
Dan just stares up at her, not letting go of her hand.
“You can do it,” the girl tells him. “You need to let go and swim.”
Dan is suddenly terrified of loosening his grip. As soon as he does, he might get pulled under. And he doesn’t have the strength left for fighting back. He doesn’t even have the strength for talking, so he just stares pleadingly up at the girl’s face outlined against the sky, hoping to communicate his fear without words.
“It’s okay,” the girl tells him, seemingly catching the message. “Here, I’ll help you.” She twists and leans back at an awkward angle, holding his hand as she guides him back.
Dan swims clumsily. It’s only a few feet, but the water feels like fast-drying cement around him, and he can barely move his body. Finally, he reaches the rear end and grabs hold of the bar he saw the girl use.
There’s no way he’ll be able to pull himself up like she did, though.
The girl slips free of his grasp, and for a moment Dan is afraid she’ll tell him to just climb up—she might as well ask him to climb a mountain wearing a fat-suit. But instead she swings her leg over, enabling her to turn around.
Dan reaches up his hand, but the girl doesn’t take it. Instead, she slips her hands down into the water and under his armpits. In doing so, she leans close enough that Dan’s face gets buried in her long, golden hair, and he picks up that sweet scent of lemons once more. He feels like closing his eyes and going to sleep into that smell.
Then she leans back and pulls him with her, raising him almost waist-high out of the water. “You’ll have to do to the rest!” she groans in a strained voice.
Dan climbs forward clumsily, heaving for breath and grabbing on to whatever he can find. He manages to crawl aboard the jet ski, ending up lying halfway over the girl. He would have felt awkward if he wasn’t so exhausted.
The girl slips out from below him, maneuvering back around with impressive agility while keeping her balance. She takes hold of the handlebars and looks back at Dan. “Sit upright. And hold onto me. Can you do that?”
“Yes,” Dan mutters, regurgitating and letting out a salty burp. He leans forward and places his arms around the waist of the girl, leaning his cheek against her back. His hands meet in front of her and he interlaces his fingers.
Then he closes his eyes.
The girl tells him something else, but Dan can’t pick it up; he’s drifting off. The last thing he perceives is the jet ski starting to move again.
TWENTY-FIVE
Liv keeps her right hand on the handlebar, throttling the gas and steering the jet ski across the mild waves, while her left is clasping the guy’s folded hands pressed against her stomach.
They’ve been riding for half an hour, maybe more, and Liv’s arms are reaching exhaustion.
The coastline is going by on their left, alternating between smaller harbors, beaches and cliffs. The beautiful landscape of southern Norway would normally have been quite the sight, yet Liv hardly notices.
Now and then she sees figures out there, on land. A few of them are waving at her—probably gesturing for her to stop and bring them along—but most of them aren’t waving, they’re simply staggering straight out into the water.
Liv shivers at the thought of how many of the infected are walking around the seabed below them. She makes sure to never slow down the jet ski.
The sun is sinking and the temperature is too. Her clothes have mostly dried in the lukewarm air, and so has her hair. The guy sleeping against her back helps to keep her warm. Still, she wishes she had brought the wetsuits, but those are forever lost back in Grandpa’s car. She didn’t give them a second thought during the panic of getting the jet ski in the water.
The thought of Grandpa makes Liv’s stomach tighten. She feels the tears press behind her eyes, but she blinks to keep them back.
Focus on Solveig. She’s all that matters now.
The guy mutters something, pulling her from her thoughts.
“Are you waking up?” she asks over her shoulder. “Good, because I can’t hold you much longer …”
The guy doesn’t answer. He’s still leaning against her. But now he’s tilting to one side.
“Hey! Sit upright, or you’ll fall!”
Liv eases off on the gas but can’t let go of the handle. She holds on tighter to his hands, but he’s still slipping, muttering in her ear: “Cut that out, Jennie …”
“No, you cut that out!” Liv tells him, wriggling from side to side, trying to shake him awake. The movement doesn’t wake him up, though, and now he’s leaning out over the water, threatening to fall in. Liv leans to the other side to counter the balance. “Hey, you! Wake up, damnit!”
Still no response from the guy. Liv’s grasp on him is slipping, so she pinches the back of his hand with her nails.
“Ouch!” he cries out, jerking his hand back and finally coming to. He sits up straight, and Liv looks back at him. He stares around in confusion, blinking and clearly trying hard to remember how he ended up on a jet ski in the middle of the ocean.
“You awake now?” Liv asks.
He looks at her, then nods. “Yes.” He looks down at his hand. “Did you … pinch me?”
“I had to. You would have fallen in.”
He looks down at the water, then seems to suddenly recall what is lurking down there, because his expression changes. “Holy hell … I almost drowned …”
“Yeah,” Liv nods. “You almost did.”
“They were down there,” he goes on. “In the water. I felt them grabbing my—” He cuts himself off with a gasp, then bends down to check his ankle. After a few seconds, he sits back upright with a sigh of relief. “I’m not hurt.”
“No, you would have been dead by now if you were.”
“It can take up to several hours.”
“They said on the radio it’s more a matter of minutes.”
“Well, I’ve seen it go both fast and slow. Depends on the wound, I guess.”
There’s a moment of quiet between them. The jet ski drifts softly along on the waves.
He looks at her in earnest. “Wait, so you saved me?”
Liv shrugs. “I guess so.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“Sorry for passing out like that, by the way. I haven’t slept well for days.”
“Me neither. Look, mind if we get going? I don’t like sitting still out here.”
“Sure.”
“You okay to drive?”
“I think I would prefer waiting a little, if that’s okay. I feel pretty groggy.”
“That’s fine. I can go another ten minutes. Just hold on to—”
He slips his arms back around her waist.
“—the handles on the sides,” Liv finishes.
“Oh, sorry,” the guy says, taking away his arms again.
“No, that’s okay. Whatever works for you.” Liv feels the heat rise to her cheeks and feels stupid. She keeps looking ahead, making sure the guy can’t see her face.
He wraps his arms around her again, and Liv speeds up.
“I had no idea they could live under water,” he says in her ear. “Were they, like, swimming?”
“I think they were walking on the bottom. I’m sure their lungs are filled with water. If that’s true, then they wouldn’t be able to float.”
“I guess that makes sense.” A moment passes, then he suddenly asks: “Wait, are we going south?”
“Yeah. I’m headed for Denmark. I’m sorry, but that’s not up for discussion. If you want off, I can pull over anytime.”
“No!” the guy says. “No, that’s perfect. I’m going to Denmark, too! I just thought you were lying when you said you were going there.”
Liv glances back at him. “You are going to Denmark too? Why?”
“That’s a really long story.”
“Is Jennie there?” The question slips out before she can think it through.
The guy doesn’t answer right away. “How do you know Jennie?”
“I don’t. You just mentioned that name in your sleep.”
“Oh. Right. I remember now. I had a dream.” His voice trails off.
“Is Jennie your girlfriend?”
The guy scoffs. “No way. She’s my sister. Was, I mean.” Those last three words are so full of pain, Liv regrets she asked.
“I’m sorry.”
The guy doesn’t answer.
“I’m going back to find my sister,” Liv tells him. “She’s still in Denmark. At least she was when I spoke to her yesterday. I haven’t been able to get hold of her since then. I hope … I hope she’s okay.”
“I’m sure she is,” the guy tells her.
Silence for a moment, except for the hum of the engine and the rhythmic sounds of the waves hitting the jet ski.
“Sorry, I didn’t catch your name?” the guy asks.
“I didn’t tell you. It’s Liv.”
“I’m Dan.”
“Right, you said that.”
“How long will it take us to get to Denmark?”
Liv glances down. “We’re going close to sixty-five miles per hour, so I guess that’s five or six hours.”
“That’s a long ride. You got enough fuel on this thing?”
“There’s an extra tank at the back. My Grandpa made sure of that. So we wouldn’t have to pull over and find more gas.”
“Great. So, we’ll reach Denmark at around, what, midnight?”
Liv glances down at the dashboard again. “It’s only six o’clock now. We should be there at eleven.”
“Where exactly is your sister?”
“We lived in Viborg.”
Liv can feel Dan jump a little. “No way, that’s where I lived! And that’s very close to where I’m going. Sounds like we might as well go together.”
“Sure.”
Another pause.
Dan breaks the silence once more: “You want to tell me how you ended up in Norway?”
“I was visiting Grandpa when this … thing happened.”
“I see.”
“How about you?”
“Well, we were trying to get away. Originally, we were headed for the Faroe Islands.”
“You and the woman back there?”
“No, I just met her this morning. I was travelling with a group of people from Denmark. We, uhm, split up.”
Liv glances back at him. “Creative differences?”
Dan snorts. “I suppose that’s not a bad way of putting it. I was the one who wanted to go back to Denmark, and the others wanted to press on.”
“So, who are you going back to find? I thought you said you lost your family?”
“I did.” He pauses. “I’m not going back because of them. Well, I guess I am, in a way.” He pauses again. “I’m going back to try and stop this thing.”
TWENTY-SIX
It takes him the better part of an hour explaining everything to Liv.
He begins with how he agreed to go along on Jennie’s paper route and ends with how he and Åsaa reached the harbor in Bergen.
He doesn’t skip any parts, but tells her everything. The death of Jennie, his mom and his dad. How they reached and later lost the safe house. How they got the helicopter and ended up in Norway and how he convinced William to go with him back to Denmark—and how that sealed William’s fate. He even tells her everything about the voodoo and why he thinks it holds the key to stopping the pandemic.
It’s a long story, and a personal one. He feels awkward telling it to a person he just met. But the way Liv simply listens, and maybe helped by the fact that he can’t see her face, makes it surprisingly easy to keep talking. It also has a therapeutic effect; it’s like his mind needed to put everything in order, to sum up this last, awful week of his life where everything has been turned upside down.
Once he finally stops talking, he feels both exhausted and relieved.
“Well, you were right,” Liv says. “That was a long story.”
“I know, sorry about that.”
“Can you drive a jet ski? My hands are freezing.”
Dan blinks. “Oh, sorry, I completely forgot we were supposed to switch.”
“Don’t sweat it. Can you drive it?”
“I never tried it before. But I guess I can give it a shot.”
Liv slows down the jet ski and leans sideways, showing him the dashboard. “Let me give you a crash course. It really is very simple. You just need to keep it at full throttle and then concentrate on steering. If you turn too sharply, you’ll throw us both off. But there’s a safety thing that probably won’t allow you to. See that thing there? That’s a digital compass. You just follow the coastline until it’s pointing west, then let me know and I’ll take over again.”
“All right. How do we switch?”
“It’s not going to be easy without one of us going into the water. But let’s try. Me and my sister did it once. Come forward as far as you can.”
Liv scooches up against the handlebars, and Dan follows her.
“Right, now lie down on your back.”
“What?”
“Just trust me.”
Dan leans back and lies down on the seat. He lifts his head to see Liv look at him over her shoulder. “Now, try to be still. Don’t lean to either side, or we’ll both go in.”
“Uhm, okay,” Dan says, feeling both awkward and exposed as he lies there with no idea of what’s going to happen or how this will help them switch seats.
Then Liv raises herself up and moves backwards, climbing over him. Her buttocks pass right in front of Dan’s face, and Dan is so unprepared for it, he has no idea how to react, so he simply shuts his eyes firmly.
He can sense Liv hover over him when she says: “Right, here’s the tricky part. Now you sit up.”
He opens his eyes and hoists himself up, feeling Liv grab his shoulders for support. They wobble for a second but manage to regain balance. Dan grabs the handlebars for support and Liv sinks down into the seat behind him.
“There,” she breathes. “We did it.”
Dan is too flustered to say anything, so he just clears his throat and focuses on the dashboard.
“You remember what I told you?”
“Yeah, sure. I just need to turn the handle like this, right?”
He twists the throttle carefully. The engine growls louder and the jet ski begins moving forward.
“You got it,” Liv says, moving in closer and putting her arms around his waist. “If I nod off, remember to tell me when the compass points west.”
“I will.”
He feels her leaning her cheek against his shoulder blades. She shivers gently all over.
“You freezing?” he asks.
He can feel her nod. “My hands are like ice.”
Sitting up front, he understands why; even though the wind screen blocks most of the oncoming air, it’s still a lot cooler than sitting behind the driver. Especially his hands are taking the worst of it.
“You can put them in my pockets, if you want.”
The suggestion slips out before he can think about it.
He can feel Liv sit a little more upright. “You sure?”
“Yeah, no problem.”
She hesitates, and Dan looks back. “What?”
“There’re no holes in them, are there?”
“Holes in what?”
“In your pockets.”
“No. Why would there be—” Dan cuts himself off, then looks back at Liv. “You thought I wanted you to …? Jesus, no!”
“Good,” she says earnestly. “Just making sure.”
“Well, don’t worry.”
Liv slips her hands into Dan’s pockets, curling them up into fists. Even through his pants, he can feel how cold they are against his thighs.
Dan can’t help but snort with laughter. The situation is simply too weird and awkward.
“What?” Liv asks in a defensive tone.
“It’s just … I can’t believe you … sorry, just forget about it.”
“Well, you’d be surprised,” she says. “Some guys never miss a chance.”
“I just told you I lost my entire family!” he blurts out, and he can’t help but laugh some more. “Trust me, the last thing that’s on my mind is getting a hand job.”
“Good,” Liv says, and even though her voice sounds tight, he can tell it’s because she’s close to laughing, too. “My hands are so cold right now, I’d probably turn it into an icicle if I touched it anyway.”
A moment of tense silence passes between them. Dan has to fight hard not to laugh. He feels almost giddy. And it makes him wonder if he’s lost his mind. That image of his penis all blue and frosty just keeps popping into his mind.
Then Liv begins sniggering, and it’s all the trigger Dan needs to burst into shrill laughter. She joins him, and they laugh like crazy for almost a minute. Dan’s eyes run over with tears, and he has to slow down the jet ski.
Finally, the laughter dies down.
“Oh, well,” he says, coughing. “Glad we got that out of the way.”
“Yeah, me too,” she tells him, still hiccupping with laughter.
As they ride on, Dan feels a strange sensation pulsating in his chest. It’s something he hasn’t felt for days. It almost reminds him of being carefree, how it’s like to have no worries bearing down on him, no giant loss weighing down his heart.
