It was about this time when the pain of having Eli tugging on her arm and this whatever-or-whoever was tugged at her leg started to sink it. Between the panic and the pain, it was damn near impossible to keep up her usual brave front, and she was actually almost thankful for the water, keeping the fact that she was sobbing secret to anyone who couldn't see the look on her face. It occurred to her that Eli could see it, and he was really the only one she cared about seeing it aside from her father, but she couldn't help it. She let out an almost primal scream, the fear, the frustration and the pain finally catching up to her.
Keeping her cool was no longer an option. She saw Aaron behind Eli, squaring his shoulders and trying to keep him from falling over the edge of the boat, and if she made it through this alive she'd have to be sure to thank him. Miriam was helping, too, she saw him trying to direct Andreas' shot with her eyes—her eyes were superior to anyone else's anyway, one of those "one sense doesn't work so the rest are almost superhuman" things—and she realized that with all these people trying to help her, she had to help them. She just had to fight harder. She kicked with all her strength, making contact with something that felt solid, and the creature's grip loosened for a second, before she felt the sharp pain of teeth making contact with her calf.
She screamed again, both out of surprise and, obviously, pain. She couldn't help it.
"It's a fucking zombie! In the water!" she shouted, kicking again, then using the moment of weakness that it brought the creature to kick up to the surface again and give Eli an easier grip on her.
When Eli grabbed hold of her, she returned the favor, putting her arm around him and helping him get her into the boat. She was so panicked, so afraid, that she barely heard the sound of the AK going off in the background, which fortunately made her miss the image of the offending zombie's body floating up to the ocean surface. Instead, she simply buried her head in Eli's chest now that she was relatively safe, coughing up ocean water, shaking from the cold and sobbing like she hadn't since that day at Carnegie.
"Th-thank you," she choked out. "Th-thank you for saving me…" she whispered.