Eliza and the others ran at full speed towards the pink and green boat, which bobbed calmly up and down in the gentle waves. She grunted with frustration as her boots dragged along the beach, kicking up sand as she sprinted. Normally, she never really noticed her dragging foot, but for some reason, the sand really brought her little issue to the forefront of her attention. Her cross-body bag, laden with her laptop, padded incessantly across her left hip as she ran.
Bree ran alongside her, as Wyatt and Addison sprinted ahead towards the vessel, which was accessible by a small ramp which connected to the pier. Just a few more yards, and Eliza wouldn't have to run in this stupid sand anymore.
All around them, there was chaos. Eliza watched as a zombie couple hurriedly tried to pack up their belongings, the young man struggling to try and fold up the little tent they had set up.
"Leave it!" Eliza shouted as she ran past. "Get out of here!"
The boy, whom Eliza recognized but whose name she couldn't remember, nodded vigorously and dropped the stake that he'd just pulled up from the sand.
"Come on, Maizie!" He shouted to the female zombie beside him. "Let's go!" He quickly grabbed her by the arm, causing her to drop the bags of food she had been frantically trying to gather. Together, they ran away from Eliza and in the direction of the parking area, where the majority of the beach-goers were now fleeing.
Eliza watched as a car with two humans in the front stopped, shouting for the zombie couple to get in. A younger female wolf also clambered into the car, before they drove off in the direction of Zombietown. In spite of the fear and chaos, Eliza had a moment to be touched by the fact that the human couple had stopped to help the others, as she turned and continued to run towards the boat.
She recalled her girlfriend's words from the night before.
"I'm not surprised anymore when people do the right thing. I'm just... Proud."
Eliza's heart clenched in her chest. She knew Willa could take care of herself, just as Eliza could, but she ached at not knowing if she was okay. Though admittedly, Eliza was the one currently running headfirst right into the danger zone. Maybe she should be more concerned about herself and her three companions.
Nevertheless, her heart seemed to painfully beat out the words "Willa, Willa, Willa," as she skidded across the pathway where the sand gave way to the old, wooden walkway that led to the pier. She knew that she wouldn't feel right until she was at her werewolf's side again. But for now, Eliza tried to set her worries aside so that she could focus on the task at hand.
"Come on, guys!" Wyatt cried, waving her and Bree forward as he and Addison sprinted up the ramp that led onto the large boat. Bree was right behind her, and together they raced the rest of the short distance to the overly-decorated floating monstrosity.
As Eliza finally made it onto the deck, she took a moment to realize that the boat seemed to have been deserted. Apparently, the crew had fled along with everyone else when Addison's dad had announced that Charon was on the loose. The deck was clean and tidy. It was freshly painted a vibrant white, which practically glowed against the nearly cloudless sky. Strangely, there was not a firework in sight, at least as far as Eliza could see. Clutching her laptop to her side, she and the others stood still for a moment, contemplating their next move.
"Can you really drive this thing?" Wyatt asked, glancing over to Bree.
"You don't drive a boat, you conn it.", Bree corrected. "And yes. Daddy and I have been sailing together since before I could walk."
She paused. "Bailey used to go with us, too. She loved the ocean."
There was a short beat of silence, broken by Addison.
"You've got this, Bree." Addison said, enveloping her best friend in a swift but tight hug. "Do you need me to help?"
"No," Bree insisted. "I'm good. You guys start searching for the moonstone; I've got things up here."
Quickly, Bree hugged Addison back. Then, she sprinted towards the front of the boat, her glittering outfit shimmering in the sunlight as she ran. As they watched her go, Eliza, looked side to side, trying to figure out how to access the lower deck of the boat. She was pretty confident that wherever the moonstone was hidden, it wasn't up here. The picture that Qamar had drawn displayed a dark, dingy space.
"There!" Wyatt said, pointing to a windowless metal door. They rushed toward it, and Addison reached out to tug at the slightly rusted handle. It was locked.
"Ugh!" Addison huffed in frustration.
"Allow me." Eliza said with a smile. Grinning, she slung her bag behind her back, and took a running leap at the door. The handle broke off with the first kick, making a horrible clanking sound. The now-broken door swung inward with a deep groan. Kicking in doors was quickly becoming a hobby for her, it seemed.
The boat seemed to lurch around them as they all heard and felt the engine rumble to life beneath them. Clearly, Bree had managed to get to the bridge, or whatever it was called. Bree definitely knew the terminology better than her. With another lurch that caused Eliza, Addison and Wyatt to sway on their feet, the boat began to move forward.
Good. The further from Seabrook that this boat got, the safer Willa and the others would be, until Eliza could fix whatever it was that Charon had planned.
"Let's go." Wyatt said, his voice muffled by the rumble of the engine.
Together, they descended the stairs. The opened doorway illuminated their steps, but not by much. There were lights below deck, but they were dim and spaced widely apart. Addison's hair glowed dimly in the feebly lit interior of the craft. Eliza felt her eyes widen with unease as they entered the narrow hallway. There were a few doors on either side of the space, with a larger door at the opposite end of the hall. Around them, the rumble of the engine seemed to increase as the boat picked up speed.
Bree was really booking it.
"Which door do you think we should try?" Addison wondered as they began to stride together down the darkened hall.
"I have no idea." Eliza said, reaching out to jiggle at a doorknob to her right. It opened, giving way to reveal a tiny storage area, filled with cleaning supplies. "Process of elimination, I guess."
Then, Wyatt yelped. "Whoa!"
Eliza and Addison both froze, looking to the wolf to see what had prompted his exclamation.
He was looking down, directly at his moonstone necklace. As they stared, the little stone seemed to twitch, causing both Addison and Eliza to start slightly. Then, Addison jumped, grasping at her own neck and pulling at the leather cord which rested there. Her own moonstone necklace, a gift from the wolf pack, was twitching as well.
Eliza felt her eyes widen even more in surprise.
"Our necklaces react when the moonstone is nearby," Wyatt explained, looking faintly surprised himself. "The same thing happened with Willa and I, when it first crashed here."
Wyatt frowned. "If we'd been using our heads, we would have known that stone in the old Seabrook Power building was a fake a lot sooner."
He was still for a moment as his necklace twitched again, in the direction of the furthest door.
"That one." He said definitively, pointing towards the door at the other end of the hallway.
Eliza didn't respond, but instead trudged forward, still grasping her bag tightly as Addison and Wyatt followed behind her. Behind her, Addison's hair glowed like little blue fireflies, sending flickers of light dancing along the wood-paneled walls.
The outside of the boat may have been decorated festively, but the interior was bleak and barren.
She reached the door, half hoping that it too was locked so that she could further refine her door-kicking skills. But the handle turned easily, swinging inward and rocking on its hinges. The boat was bobbing up and down as Bree sped through wave after wave, carrying them further out to sea.
Eliza felt her stomach twist uncomfortably, but swallowed hard, forcing her breakfast to stay where it was. She had never been on a boat before, and honestly, she wouldn't mind if she wasn't on another one again for a good long while after today. The doorway and the room within smelled heavily of mold and some other scent she couldn't identify.
Together, Eliza, Wyatt and Addison crept into the dim room, which was fairly large in size. It must have taken up most of the back of the ship. There were boxes of fireworks everywhere, the large kinds that were normally used in larger-scale fireworks shows. At least, that's what Eliza imagined. Zombies weren't exactly big on fireworks, what with fire being a necessary component of them, and she'd never actually seen fireworks up close.
The fireworks, novel as they were to her, did not hold her interest for long as Eliza's eyes continued to examine the large room. The entire wall to their right was draped in old fishing net, discolored and grimy. Addison grinned slightly, clearly proud that her guess about the netting had been right. Eliza returned the grin with a roll of her eyes.
Then, as they maneuvered around a particularly large crate, the moonstone itself came into view.
It was hanging in the center of the space, dingy old ropes suspending it only a few feet from the floor. It glowed dimly, casting a light, purplish hue across the three of them as they examined it.
"Wow," Eliza said, taking a cautious step closer to the stone. At her side, she could see Wyatt and Addison's necklaces continue to twitch. The moonstone was beautiful, despite its dreary surroundings. It rocked back and forth, moving in tandem with the waves of the ocean that surrounded them.
"Look," Addison whispered, drawing Eliza's gaze with her outstretched hand. "There's something attached on the other side."
They all moved forward, walking carefully between the fireworks and boxes. There were wires hanging down, connected to explosive charges beneath the moonstone. Several wires also seemed to snake out in all directions along the floor of the room. The whole room seemed rig to blow at once, and there was enough ammunition here to cause one heck of the explosion. And that was without factoring in the power of the moonstone itself. Eliza was certain the presence of the moonstone would increase the force of any explosion near it, causing it to become potentially catastrophic in nature.
Eliza reached the other side, where a screen and set of controls had been mounted to the other side of the stone. She pulled out her laptop, and hooked it up quickly to the device. The darkened screen lit up almost immediately, showing a countdown that still wouldn't zero out for several more hours. Phew.
Eliza breathed out a short huff of relief. At least this would give her plenty of time to figure out how to shut this thing off.
"What is it, Eliza?" Addison asked. "I mean, obviously it's rigged to make some kind of huge explosion. But why? Surely he isn't planning on killing everyone in Seabrook. He said he was trying to 'save' Seabrook. This doesn't make sense."
"Look," Wyatt said in a hushed voice, pointing to a clear box attached to one of the ropes.
They both peered over at it, and Eliza made a face of disgust.
Inside the box were vials of what looked like... Blood. Ew. Eliza scooted closer, setting down her laptop for a moment to examine the vials more closely.
"Human DNA" read several vials, all filled with bright red liquid. Others, marked "Wolf DNA," were identical in color to the human vials. Then there were darker tinted vials, and Eliza could tell without reading that they were filled with zombie blood. Even more unusual were the vials filled with an almost purplish liquid. Unlike the rest of the vials, none of the purple ones were labeled.
"Lunite blood, I'm guessing." Wyatt said, looking completely grossed out as he leaned back and away from the container.
"Gross." Addison said, wrinkling her nose delicately. "Why would he have human ,wolf, zombie and Lunite DNA attached to an exploding moonstone?"
Eliza felt suddenly cold, as an idea crept into her brain.
"I don't think he was planning on killing the people of Seabrook." Eliza said slowly. "I think he was planning changing the people of Seabrook." She rotated her head rapidly to face Wyatt and Addison.
"Just like when the moonstone made people into werewolves and zombies. I think he's trying to turn everybody into something else. Something new."
Addison and Wyatt stared at her, shocked. For a moment, they both seemed to contemplate her words, though Eliza knew that she had to be right.
"That's... That's crazy!" Wyatt gasped. "Who would do something so dangerously risky? I mean, there's no way of knowing exactly what would even happen. Who knows what would we all turn into, if that thing exploded!?"
Suddenly, a dull thunk resounded behind Wyatt, and he tilted forward with a groan, collapsing to the floor. There was blood in his scalp, and he lay next to the stone without movement. Eliza heard Addison scream.
"I have no idea what we will become," Charon said, striding out of the darkness with a crowbar in his hand. "But won't it be fun to find out?"
ZzZzZzZ
Thwack!
"Agh!" Zed yelped, feeling the sting of multiple tiny branches hitting his head and face as he was abruptly ripped back to consciousness. What in the world? He was being carried by someone, and whoever it was was rocketing through the woods at inhuman speed. Zed rotated his head upward, catching sight of a familiar head of shaggy green hair.
"Bonzo!" Zed shouted, wriggling in his friend's grasp. "What the— put me down, man!"
"Naz," Bonzo replied with a quick shake. "Addiska zolg mah gekdo gar ah frodsk." (Addison told me to get you somewhere safe.) He lept over a fallen tree branch as he spoke.
Zed thought back, instantly remembering what had happened. They'd been about to go to the boat, to find the moonstone and to get it as far away from Seabrook as possible. Then, Addison had argued with him, telling him not to go with them. He had told her that they were a team, and that he went where she went. And then... Zed growled with sudden realization.
"Did she knock me out?" He nearly shouted, the anger in his voice causing Bonzo to stumble.
"Bonzo, PUT ME DOWN, NOW!" Zed yelled, twisting as he tried to free himself.
Bonzo stopped then, setting Zed down quickly and holding his hands up in defense.
Zed stood, growling and raking his hands recklessly through his hair as he tried to calm himself down. Around them, other zombies and wolves were booking it through the forest, apparently running away from the beach and towards Zombietown. And he was right here with them, running to safety instead of keeping his future wife and his friends safe.
How could she betray him like this? His chest ached, and Zed wondered vaguely if this was what heartbreak felt like. He'd felt a fainter version of it before, back when he'd thought that Addison was going to leave him for Wyatt. But this was so much worse.
"How..." He gasped. "How could she do that to me?"
"Zed," Bonzo said, this time in his accented English. "She did it to protect you. She was afraid something would happen to you if you went with them." He put a hand on Zed's shoulder.
"Zher graz zeka garga za." (She did it because she loves you.)
Deep down, Zed knew Bonzo was right. He was sure that Addison had thought that she was doing the right thing. In fact, he probably would have done something similar, if the roles had been reversed. But that didn't stop it from hurting like someone had punched him directly in the heart.
"We have to go back, Bonz." Zed said, grasping his friend's arm.
"Zedka," Bonzo reasoned, "How? They drove the boat away. We can't get to them."
Zed could tell that just thinking about their friends alone on that boat was filling Bonzo with dread of his own. His girlfriend, Zed reminded himself, was on board, too.
"We have to try," Zed said. "I can't let her do this on her own!"
With that, Zed turned, and began running back in the direction of the sea. Half a second later, He heard and felt Bonzo running alongside him. That hadn't taken much convincing. Clearly, Bonzo was just as worried about the others as he was. They both maneuvered themselves between trees, rocks, and the flow of other people fleeing in the opposite direction.
Zed didn't exactly have a plan as he ran back towards the danger, other than to somehow get to where Addy was. He may have been mad at her, but nothing would stop him from being with her.
Not even Addison herself.