And yes.
Yes, now…they could see.
“Oh God,” Eva groaned.
The sand was moving. It seemed okay close to the rocks, but there was a wide swath of beach extending outward from the dead bodies that was, without a doubt … teeming.
“Sand mites?” Bryce looked at Mike. “Is that what you think?”
“Shit man, I don’t know. Whatever they are, they’re quick and deadly as piranha.”
Stacy, who Eva had all but forgotten about, suddenly joined the discussion. “You think he did this on purpose?” she said, her voice high-pitched and cracking. “You think he brought us here to die?”
“Take it easy, hon,” Mike said softly.
“There’s not much left of them now,” Bryce said, and it was true. The bodies were still lumped on top of one another, but the flesh had been eaten away, leaving bloody tissue and flashes of wet gristle, like raw hamburger beneath a charred shell. A red stain of blood surrounded them.
Their flesh seemed to boil.
“You can stay on the rocks. Most people do,” Manu called cheerfully. “But sooner or later ….” He shrugged, giving them his best what are you gonna do expression. “To help you avoid temptation, I will leave now. I hope you are still alive when I come back, because that would be much more interesting!”
Manu pulled up the anchor and started the boat, gave them all a cheerful wave as he turned it around and motored slowly out of the harbor.
“Son of a bitch,” Bryce said, his tone heated. “Why is he doing this?”
“Don’t know,” Mike said.
Eva turned around, studied the shadowed tree line. “What about the trees? He made a big deal about us staying out of there, so maybe there’s help there. Safety.”
Mike nodded. “Good point. Still, there’s a lot of sand between here and there.”
“We could also try swimming to the edges of the harbor,” Bryce added, “climbing those rocks and seeing what lies beyond. He claimed this island was uninhabited but, to Eva’s point, he was probably lying, wanting to keep us on the sand.”
Stacy groaned and they all looked at her. She was looking down, one palm on her chest, pressed against her heart. “Oh no….”
Mike studied the area Stacy was fixated on.
“He’s right,” he said with a sour grimace. “Blood does get them stirred up.”
Hesitantly, Eva looked back toward the beach between the rocks and the water, the imbedded footprints of her and Bryce’s path still evident.
The sand was crawling.
All of it.
Mike cursed and leapt to a far rock, nonchalantly skipping over three feet of sand without hesitation. He picked up a black nylon belt that had been thrown into a pile along with the couples’ snorkeling gear. There was a rip of Velcro and Mike dropped the belt but held onto a black-handled knife sprouting a four-inch serrated blade.
“What are you gonna do with that?” Bryce asked. His voice was level, but Eva could hear a note of caution running beneath it.
“For one, use it to gut that bastard if I can get close enough. Two, I’m gonna want it as protection when I make it to those trees. He may have been lying about the wild pigs in there, or God knows what else, but I’m gonna stay on the side of caution.”
“Mike, no!” Stacy said, clamping a hand to her mouth.
“How will you get there?” Eva asked. “It’s gotta be thirty feet of sand. Did you see the beach? Whatever it is … it’s everywhere.”
“I know but look.” He lifted a foot casually, showing off a dark green rubber scuba slipper. “These will keep those things off my feet, better than sandals anyway. Once I get to the trees and the hard ground, I should be okay. I’ll search for help. Worst case, I’ll find something we can use to get you three to safety.”
Eva turned to Bryce, to ask him what he thought of the idea, but Bryce was no longer paying attention to them.
He was studying his feet.
Eva followed his gaze, down the tanned legs, past the bumps of his ankles … “Bryce?”
He looked at her, his eyes wide and crystal blue.
And wild with fear.
“I think,” he said, then abruptly slid one foot free of the sandal, bent his knee and turned his foot so the bottom faced upward.
A black, blistered swirl stretched from his heel to his big toe.
Eva could see the bugs under the skin, crawling, infesting.
Eating.
“Jesus, Bryce!” she yelled, reflexively taking half a step backward, nearly pitching herself ass-backward off the rock.
“I’d felt it a few minutes ago. I guess I hoped … boy, it’s bad, I mean … oh! Oh God!”
