Zombie Ocean (Book 2): The Lost by Michael John Grist Read Free Book Online Page A

on until they reached a bright orange desert that went on and on.
    She found caps for both of them in a roadside motel, to keep off the sun. She pulled her own tightly on her head, and changed her shoes for better-fitting boots. They didn't match her dress, but that was OK. Alice never had to walk this far.
    Two weeks passed, then three then four. She became expert at foraging for milkshake and water in shops and houses that they passed. She had names for two-dozen of the people always walking nearby, those who walked a little more slowly than her Daddy, so they were always overtaking her when she stopped for food, then her Daddy overtook them again later.
    She told them silly jokes she thought of, about their families and where they were going: it was a recall from the machine-people factory, or a big assembly at the world school, where the principal was going to tell them all off for coming to school looking so shabby.
    After six weeks she smelled the sea. She didn't know what it was, having never seen it before, but the tangy smell in the air felt like a destination. Soon they were stumbling down a rocky cliff-side, with Anna leading her father past the dangerous areas where the others fell down, always keeping him safe.
    It was near to sundown, and the beach spread out like a beautiful golden road to either side. The ocean was vast and went on forever, and now Anna understood: her ocean of people wanted the ocean.
    She laughed and ran down to the water, peeling off her shoes. Her father stumbled on behind her. The sand underfoot was soft and hot, cushioning her toes. A warm breeze rubbed across her skin.
    "Isn't this wonderful?" she asked the people around her, as they all slid into the water together. Anna laughed and joined them, splashing and kicking at the water. Perhaps this was what they'd all come for then, to have a great big bath together.
    Amandeep bobbed past her.
    "Can you swim?" Anna asked. "It'll hardly be much of a bath if you can't even swim."
    Amandeep answered by dropping beneath the low waves. Anna chewed her lip and waited for the dry brown head to re-emerge, but it didn't. She stopped splashing and watched the water.
    Amandeep still didn't pop up.  
    A coldness clamped in her chest and she stopped laughing. She spun. Here was tall Trevor and he was going under too. She watched the surface where he'd sank, but he didn't come back up either.
    This was bad.
    "Daddy!" Anna shouted. She splashed and turned, hunting for his familiar snail-backed shape, but she couldn't see him. She ran out of the water onto the beach and looked again, shouting and pushing the others out of the way.
    At last she glimpsed him a little along the sand, already treading into the water. She called and ran to him.
    "Wait Daddy, just wait!"
    He kept walking, already waist-deep into the water. It was up to Anna's shoulders and she dived to tackle his legs, but in the cloudy water she couldn't get a good grip and it was hard to see what she was doing.
    She breached the surface panting hard and clutched at her Daddy's shoulders. She shouted but he kept going on, carrying her with him. She kicked at the water to slow him down but her feet only made feeble splashes, far from enough to make him stop.
    "Daddy please," she cried, "please stop!"
    He kept walking. The water reached up over his chest now, covering his shoulders and touching his chin, so Anna was paddling beside his head. She tried to keep it above the surface, pulling feebly on his neck, but she couldn't get any grip on the water and she couldn't stop him going on. He was too big and too strong, until just like that his head dropped beneath the water. His eyes extinguished beneath the surface and she plunged with him, holding to the loops of his backpack like the reins on a horse.
    Down there she glimpsed a dark underwater world where hundreds of bodies were walking along the deep sand, into darkness. They looked like an army of ghosts. Her lungs burned but she clung to her