Free Sadie Walker Is Stranded by Madeleine Roux

toes.
    Something was in the water.
    Idiot. Idiot! I was about to prove that the water was absolutely something to fear. Just add yet another bad example set by Shane’s poor excuse for a surrogate mum.
    I turned a hasty circle. The side of the boat facing me was smooth, curved, with nothing to grab onto. A tiny rope ladder was curled against the railing, tied up and knotted. Theoretically I should have been on that ladder, joking with Andrea as she hauled me over the side, safely back onto the boat. The desire to panic rose again, too strong to fight this time. I scraped my hands against the side of the boat, trying to get purchase, my pulse coming as fast as my panicked breathing. There was nothing, not even a dent, and all the while I couldn’t fight the idea, burrowing its way into my brain, that I needed to get out of the water for more than one reason. It wasn’t just cold. It was suddenly very dangerous.
    “Help! Help me!” I screamed. Finally, knowing it might be too late when somebody finally remembered to look for me, I began swimming around the stern of the boat to the other side. They would see me there. Where the hell had Shane gone? Why wasn’t he listening for me? It was more than just dread, that sudden feeling that nobody gave a shit, that you were alone and drowning, cold and miserable in your final moment.
    At least moving gave me something to think about. But when I rounded the edge of the boat I stopped, regretting it at once. Uncle Arturo was in the water—well, most of him was. Something bobbed on the surface next to him. I retched and flailed, coming up empty. It was his leg, severed raggedly at the knee. A fishing rod danced up and down in the swirling water and so did a pair of zombies—they must have pulled him in by the line. One of them had the fishing hook sticking out of its cheek like a gauche piercing.
    Over the edge, Moritz saw me treading and freaking out. He loped over to my end of the boat, his arm dangling down uselessly toward me. It was too far.
    “You have to get closer,” he called, out of breath.
    Not an option. My sight seemed to be spinning, the world going topsy-turvy as I saw Arturo dip beneath the water. Noah was trying to fish him out but the old sailor was losing consciousness. We had to let him go. The water around me began to turn—cloudy at first but then swirling with scarlet. And like sharks scenting blood, the undead turned toward me.
    “Leave him!” Andrea was shouting. She was sobbing, yanking back on Noah’s shoulders. “It’s too late! Leave him!”
    She was right. Leg or no leg, he had already been bitten, infected, and the change would come on soon. Having him in the boat with us would be guaranteed suicide. Noah heaved backward, trying to pull Arturo up by the arms while two bony creatures weighted him down into the water. I had a horrifying thought—that the water was too deep, that they couldn’t have their feet on sand. They were swimming, or floating, though both were equally terrifying.
    “The ladder!” I screamed, hoping Moritz understood. My teeth chattering like a pair of cocaine-addled macaws didn’t make my speech very clear. “O-On the other side. I’ll swim there!”
    This was purely hypothetical—my limbs were beginning to fail from the cold. Moritz nodded and disappeared for a moment as he ran to the other side of the boat. Losing sight of him made the panic more acute, and it felt as if the icy water was closing in around me, becoming something solid and sentient. It would strangle the life out of me. Shane’s round face appeared under the railing. He stared down at me with a frozen expression of wide-eyed terror. Maybe he was preparing to lose me yet again.
    But seeing his face was like a Taser zap to the ass. Survival wasn’t an option, not with him peering down at me. It was an imperative, a duty that had little to do with me and everything to do with shielding him from another loss.
    Here’s one thing I’m now damn