Outside beyond the porthole everything from the rails and up looked normal.

Tranquil.

Calm.

At first sight that was.

Until you looked closer…

The deckchair thrown to one side; the fabric ripped and blood-stained.

Sections of the deck smeared with gore and blood. Drag marks disappearing around corners.

The pool … God the pool. The parts bobbing in the red-tinged water.

And finally the bodies; dead and infected alike littering every square inch of open deck.

Martin looked out to the world beyond the door aware that he had to do something but unaware just yet of what that might be. He knew that there was a huge horde of dead at their heels and that there where even more ahead.

Excrement … creek … paddle, anyone?

He leant his head against the steel of the door and took several deep breaths. What the hell to do?

'We need a distraction.'

He turned at the voice and saw that the woman, Margo had stepped up next to him.

He looked deep into her eyes and saw a glimmer of madness still, but also something else. There was hope in them.

The captain looked over his shoulder where he knelt at the corridors junction a few meters away. He lowered his gaze after a few moments and lightly bobbed his head.

Martin hung his own in reply.

'I'll try and draw them away, give you time to get to the boat and get it in the water.'

'No, that's not what I meant.'

He looked up into her face, her jaw set and determined.

'Both of you need to lower the boat, I'm not strong enough. I'll keep them away.'

McBride looked as if he wanted to say something more; his mouth opened and then closed again, opened once more…

'I hate to admit it, she has a point.'

Martin reached out to her knowing that anything that he said wouldn't be enough to hold her back.

'Anyway,' she said. 'I've been scared for long enough.'

They all heard the tell-tale sign of feet in the hallways of the vessel. They were getting closer, they were running out of time.

'Whenever you're ready. We go.'

Margo stepped up to the door and grasped the handle.

'No time like now.'

She placed the bag she had been carrying at her feet and reached out her hands tenderly cupping Martins face in them.

Before either of the men could say anything more she opened the steel barrier and stepped out. Just before the door shut they were sure they heard her say something else.

Sounded like … 'Fresh meat.'

Martin allowed himself a small tight smile and watched as she ran at the closest infected. Just before she reached them she veered away, running for the next. In no time at all she had gathered a fairly large group that eagerly snapped at her heels as she back peddled across the deck.

She seemed to know what she was doing and, even if she didn't, there was little they could do to help her now.

He felt rather than saw the captain as he walked up next to him. Martin took a moment to grab the duffel and sling it over one shoulder.

They waited until the last of the dead where out of sight then through an unsaid agreement opened the door once again.

McBride turned when they were outside and jammed the shotgun that he carried through the brackets on the door. It wouldn't stop them for long but hopefully it would slow them long enough to make a difference.

The two men dashed across the sun-streaked deck and ran towards the nearest boat cradle. They reached it in record time.

'Open the panel to your left and flip all the switches. Let me know when your ready?'

Martin leant his gun up against the railings and almost ripped the panels cover from its housing. Inside `were a set of seven switches and he threw six of them as fast as he could. His hand slipped and he lost his grip on the last. He steadied his hand, taking a breath, and reached for it again. It locked down easily enough.

'Ready.'

McBride turned to him.

'Underneath is a handle, slot it in place and crank it anti-clockwise. It won't move fast bat it will move.'

Martin saw the crooked bar and put it in the required space, they started at almost the same moment. The boat ahead of them started to lower amazingly slowly.

Too slowly.

They heard growls and howls from somewhere off to their right and instantly both men grabbed the shotguns nearby and lifted them in the general direction of the sound.

On the other side of the deck they saw a figure run towards the front of the ship, the woman's hair streaming out behind her in the slight breeze.

A few seconds after she went by the first of the creatures followed.

It wasn't alone.

Martin turned back to the task at hand.

The boat sank inch by inch.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Margo ran.

And ran.

She breathed easily, entirely happy that she had never smoked or drank.

Her body moved through the air and her feet skimmed the deck. She imagined herself flying.

A legless, one-armed figure reached out to her trying to grasp her ankle as she ran past.

She jumped into the air and the hand missed her by at least a foot. She came down lightly and continued her game of cat and mouse.

The demons were at her back and she knew that one slip would mean her death.

But everything would be okay.

She could fly.

She smiled and kept running, a smile on her face.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

McBride heard the door give way where they had come from. It hadn't lasted early long enough.

They had one saving grace; the horde had no idea where they were.

That was the good news.

The bad …

In about five minutes, max, they would be found and ripped apart.

Apparently martin had the same thought as he had. He had stopped turning the handle and grabbed the shotgun once again.

He aimed at the cable in front of him.

'Think it'll work?'

The captain looked first at the wrist-thick steel cable then at the weapon that the other man held.

He smiled a slight smile and pointed his own gun at the cable facing him.

He put his finger on the trigger and applied a small amount of pressure.

'Hell if I know.'

Both men fired at the same time, the noise incredibly loud in the silence of the day.

The results of the shots were even more spectacular.

The trailing end of the group chasing Margo stopped their pursuit and turned their hungry gaze in their direction. The second group from the interior of the ship found the stairway that lead to their prey.

One of the cables splintered from the solid shot fired towards it but held …

The second exploded in a shower of metallic fibres.

McBride felt splinters whiz past his face and threw his head back, lifting his arm to protect his eyes. Martin lowered his arms and watched in dismay as the small launch swung on one half destroyed cable. He lifted the weapon again and pumped in another shell.

The second cable snapped as leant towards it.

He saw it snap and watched in horror as one jagged end flew towards his face. He threw his arms up to protect his face knowing that if the cable hit him fully there would be nothing that he could do to save major injury.

The thick cable seemed to move in slow motion and all he could do was watch.

A split second before it hit him he felt rough hands on his shoulders and he was spun around, stopping mere inches from the rotten face of a dead man.

He knew he was going to die.

Knew that there wasn't a damn thing that he could do to stop it.

He forgot the cable.

It snapped taught over his shoulder and flew over it. The fractured, splintered end sliced through the fabric of his shirt cutting into his shoulder. It kept going.

The end smashed into the face of the creature in front of him. It hit it on the bridge of the nose and just carried on. The dead man was lifted off its feet with the force of the shot and thrown backwards. The cable snapped again and was tugged from the things skull taking with it the best part of the rotten brain.

Martin, now free of the restraining hands, dropped to the deck and reached his right hand to his lacerated shoulder, applying as much pressure as could stand.

McBride was next to him in the next instant.

He felt a second pair of hands on him and thought that there was another infected next to him. He tried to grab the shotgun from where it had fallen but couldn't reach it in time.

'It's okay, relax.'

Margo helped the captain get him to his feet.

While he stood there swaying gently McBride stooped and grabbed the bag from the deck at their feet, he lifted it and opened it. He took something from inside then zipped it back up. He threw it overboard into the water below. It landed with a splash.

'Not to be too unkind miss, but what happened to the things that were chasing you?'

Margo took a quick look behind her.

'Ah yes, about that…'

The captain looked in the direction she had come from. His eyes growing wide from the sight.

'Oh shit!'

He helped Martin to the railing a few yards away and opened the barrier there.

Then he pushed him. Margo jumped as soon as he was clear.

He waited a few seconds and turned to the crowd of dead that were nearly upon them. He lifted the flare gun that he taken from the bag and, hastily aiming, fired the shell that it held into their ranks. Not looking at the results he threw the gun down and jumped through the gap in the rails.

Martin felt himself falling through space and did his best to arrest his fall.

He landed on his torn shoulder and it was all he could do to not pass out.

As his head broke the surface he heard another splash as a body landed next to him, about five feet away.

Then another as a third mass fell into the foaming sea.

Then a forth.

What the … ?

A charred and still smoking corpse broke the water next to him and he lurched away from it.

He heard the cough of a small engine as the launch came to life and then hands were helping him from the sea just as his head was threatening to submerge again.

The figure pulled him onboard the launch and then they were moving away from the ship.

He lifted his head and through the pain he felt he saw the myriad dead standing at the railings looking back at them as they moved away.

He thought he saw one of them standing there, apart from the others. Its hands were down and it didn't look as … vacant … as the others.

He thought he saw it as it saw him. But, in the next instant, the figure was gone, swallowed into the throng that surged around it.

Martin knew no more as the world turned black around him. He allowed it to swallow him into its depths.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The large vessel sped away from the three survivors towards ports unknown. The ship continuing its journey although no-one alive remained onboard.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

The launch followed in the ships wake. The three people onboard tired to their very bones. Their spirits broken along with their bodies.

They had escaped.

They were alive.

They were headed back home.

Civilization had never seemed so far away

But … they were alive.

For now, at least, that was enough.

A.N

Well, that dear reader is where we leave our survivors.

Will they be okay? Will they find the world that they left behind the same when they finally reach land once again?

We know that the Leviathan will reach port before them, but what will be left for our heroes?

Tune in next time and find out.