The Tide: Breakwater (Tide Series Book 2) (7 page)

She’d seen what lay beneath them. She instinctively patted the pistol she’d stowed in her waistband. Miguel had refused to take the borrowed handgun back from her. He’d told her she needed something to protect herself and her sister. Now she feared his words were about to be proven true.

***

L
auren scanned the notebook pages of handwritten lists. Each line contained universities, nonprofit research groups, medical companies, and hospitals. Between lab experiments, she and Peter had scoured academic journals and published research conference proceedings to gather names and locations of laboratories that performed prion or neurodegeneration research. They’d tried to narrow down the list to those within reasonable distance from their current location in the Chesapeake Bay outside of Annapolis.

With the notebook under her arm, Lauren left the ship’s medical bay. Her unbuttoned white lab coat billowed out behind her. She prayed
someone
on that list would, by some stroke of luck, be accessible through telephone or radio or email...anything. She rushed through the passageway and burst into the electronics workshop. Normally the room glowed an ethereal blue as Samantha and Chao worked diligently behind their monitors.

Now, the room buzzed with a sense of urgency. Thomas stood beside Chao, speaking rapidly into his headset. Samantha had left her computer station and leaned over a laptop at Chao’s station. Glenn spoke with Andris and Jenna, two other Hunters, in one corner. It took only a second of examining their expressions to realize something was wrong.

Tentatively, Lauren approached Chao’s side. His computer terminal displayed a map. She recognized the overview of Baltimore. A single flashing dot flew southwest of the city.
The chopper
, she realized. She caught Chao’s eyes as he listened to a headset of his own. One nod affirmed her darkest suspicions. The notebook full of research institutions in her hand no longer seemed so important.

“You all hang on,” Thomas said. He glanced at Glenn, Jenna, and Andris. “You’ve got Hunters standing by. Just tell us where to send them.”

A canyon of wrinkles formed across Thomas’s brow. Chao handed Lauren a headset.

“—not send anyone out to us.”
Dom’s voice.

“Can’t follow that order, Captain,” Thomas said. “We can have a squad of Hunters—”

“It’s hell on earth out here,” Dom responded. “You can’t send any Hunters by land to meet us. There’s far too much resistance for one squad to handle a Skull swarm. We barely made it to Detrick as it was, and I won’t have anyone losing their lives in a useless effort to save our asses.”

“Sir, with all due respect, we can handle ourselves,” Glenn said. Jenna and Andris nodded in agreement. “We’ve seen the Skulls.”

“Not like this. Not out here,” Dom said. “Listen—” He stopped. The frantic sound of voices on the chopper carried through the line. “We’re going to get this bird back up in the air as soon as possible. Night’s falling. You don’t have any air transport, and you’re not making it to our location on foot. Sit tight and help the doctor find a cure.”

Thomas audibly exhaled. “Dom, you remember what I told you before you left the ship?”

“I haven’t forgotten,” Dom said.

“Well, I have no intention of becoming captain of the
Huntress
, and I will get the hell out there myself and haul your ass back if I have to.”

“Duly noted,” Dom said. “Likewise, I don’t want to have to drag
your
ass back to the ship, so save me the work and keep it there.”

The readout from the chopper’s instrument panel displayed on the bottom of Chao’s computer monitor. Chao pointed to the altitude. He put a hand over his microphone and spoke to Lauren. “They’re in a controlled descent. All Frank’s got is their forward momentum and autorotation of the blades to glide the chopper to a landing.”

“Where’s he going to put it down without landing in a nest of Skulls?”

Chao pointed to a spot on the map south of Baltimore. “Right about here.”

Lauren squinted at the area. “Patapsco State Park.” She saw the open parking lot leading to hiking trails through the surrounding forest. How many Skulls were lurking under those trees? She dropped the notebook on Chao’s desk. It wouldn’t matter if there were any scientists out there waiting for them if they didn’t save Dom first.

***

N
avid tiptoed down the stairs. Flashes of red emergency lights illuminated the stairs enough to guide him and Abby down toward the first floor of the hospital building. He nudged open a door with his right hand while holding Abby’s hand with his left.

No shadows danced across the walls, but the sterile smell of the hospital had been replaced by one of musty neglect and rot. He strained his ears. No footsteps. No yells. Only the sound of water dripping somewhere unseen.

He nudged the door open wider to reveal a broad hall. An empty gurney speckled with stains lay against one wall. Pieces of crumpled paper and shredded bed sheets lay strewn over the tiled floor.

At the end of the hallway was a set of doors. Splatters of something dark mottled the letters CAFETERIA on the placard above the door. Navid shuddered as the emergency lights flashing in the hallway revealed the same stains all over the floors and wall. He led Abby into the hall, and his suspicions were confirmed when the coppery scent of blood overwhelmed the mustiness he’d smelled from the stairwell.

Navid turned to Abby. He raised his eyebrows and mouthed,
You okay?
With her nose scrunched, she nodded back. Neither said a word while they crept toward the cafeteria’s entrance. It struck him as odd that no one else was there. Maybe it was easier for the other survivors to loot the smaller conveniences stores and restaurants lining the streets. Or maybe the cafeteria had already been ransacked. Navid hoped not. It had been frightening enough creeping through the halls between the laboratories and hospital corridors—he didn’t want to have to search somewhere else.

He took another step forward. Abby squeezed his hand and pulled him backward. He almost lost his balance, and his heart thudded against ribcage. Abby caught him and pointed at the floor where he had been about to step.

Shards of glass glinted red in the flashing emergency lights. He nodded to her before picking a path around the debris. Even if they hadn’t seen anyone or anything yet, crunching that glass would’ve pierced the silence, attracting any of the crazies within earshot.

He felt almost exhausted from the tension of their slow progress to the cafeteria entrance. By the time they finally made it, sweat trickled down his back. He sucked in a breath of the humid, fetid air. He steeled himself, preparing for whatever lay before them, and nudged the cafeteria door open slightly.

More emergency lights blinked over the tables and toppled chairs. Navid’s heart felt like it was climbing into his throat as he stared. Between those empty chairs and tables, humanoid silhouettes staggered slowly back and forth. They moved with no particular urgency, stumbling through the darkness. Navid’s arms shook. He slowly drew back from the door and closed it as noiselessly as possible.

Abby cocked her head.

“Crazies,” Navid whispered. His stomach grumbled again.

He wanted to run upstairs and hide, but there was no turning back. They needed food and water. Going through the cafeteria was no longer an option. Not with those things meandering about in the shadows.

Abby pointed down another hall and started forward. Navid snuck after. They navigated between empty hospital beds, tipped-over trash cans, and the occasional IV pole. Abby abruptly stopped, and Navid almost ran into her.

Then he saw what had made her freeze.

A body—if Navid could even call it that anymore—lay on the tiles in a puddle of dried blood. Its skin had been shredded, and little remained of its organs. Mostly, Navid saw only the broken bones of someone who apparently had met their end at the hands of the crazies. Abby held her hand over her mouth while she trudged past the person’s remains. Navid gingerly stepped over the cracked skull and busted spine.

A shiver raced through his flesh, and a sensation of lightheadedness almost overcame him. He paused for a second, leaning on the handrail on the hospital wall, and waited for the feeling to pass.

Abby pulled him onward until they came to an
Employees Only
sign above a single door. Navid understood where Abby had taken them. Judging by their location in relation to the cafeteria, this must lead to the kitchens.

Abby tightened her fingers around the door handle, but Navid shook his head. He didn’t want her to go in first. If there were crazies or violent looters or who-the-hell-knew-what inside, he wanted to be in front of her. He wanted her to have a chance to escape.

She frowned, but he took her place at the door, slowly twisted the handle, and opened it a crack. He held his breath as he peeked inside. The smell of rotting fruit and meat hit him with an almost palpable force. He began to retch but held it in. He forced himself to survey the kitchen. This time, he saw no lingering crazies. Just stainless steel counters littered with utensils, cookware, and spilled food. Heaps of trash and empty tin cans were piled about the floor. Navid ushered Abby inside, and they tiptoed through the wreckage toward the shelves near the rear of the kitchen. Cans and boxes of food, most still undisturbed, were arranged in rows.
Enough food to last Abby and him a year. Maybe even two,
Navid thought.

They gathered as much as they could into two cardboard boxes, one for each of them to carry. When the boxes were filled, they carefully shuffled back to the door they’d entered through.

Unable to see his feet, Navid kicked something. It pinged against the empty cans resting on the floor. He and Abby froze and stared at what he’d kicked. His stomach turned over as he realized it was a bone—a human bone. He looked down at his feet. A skeletal hand was sticking out from under a rolling cart. Between the empty boxes and rotting produce, he saw a mess of scattered human bones.

He and Abby had been so focused on the prospect of food, and their senses so overwhelmed by the malodor of the spoiled food, that they’d missed the bones, picked clean by the crazies, hidden by the piles of refuse.

A low growl echoed through the kitchen. Navid twisted and saw a humanoid shape come out of the open walk-in cooler at the far end. The red emergency lights flashed over its face. Long hair trailed over its shoulders, and it wore the tattered remains of a line cook’s white uniform. Knobby growths jutted out around its scalp, and its fingers seemed to be long and serrated like kitchen knives.

All thoughts of Navid’s empty stomach were immediately forgotten. He dropped the box of food and yelled, “Run!”

––––––––

D
om patted Kara’s knee and leaned over to squeeze Sadie’s shoulder. “Don’t you two worry. This type of landing isn’t that bad.”

“Speak for yourself,” Kara said through gritted teeth. Maggie whined.

“I hear ya, dog.” Miguel held the dog close.

Hector and Renee both clutched their weapons as they watched the ground rise. Long shadows cast by trees and picnic shelters draped across the mulch and grass surrounding the state park’s entrance. The cars in the parking lot were rapidly growing larger as the chopper descended.

“We’re right on target,” Frank said. His eyes remained straight ahead. “No need to panic, folks. This is one of the first things they teach you when learning how to operate a bird like this.” Without glancing at his passengers, he shot them a thumbs up.

“Fuck that, bro,” Miguel said, “I don’t care if you say it’s easy, we’re still going down!”

The Hunters shuffled in their seats, and Dom fought the fear trickling through him.

“Seriously,” Frank said. “This isn’t as bad as it looks.”

Frank’s confidence wasn’t as contagious as the pilot must’ve thought. Dom knew he was telling the truth; an autorotation glide landing wasn’t exactly routine, but in some ways it was easier than hovering in place or the other advanced piloting Frank had mastered. But it didn’t make him feel any better. He did his best to appear stolid and unworried. In truth, he wasn’t too concerned about himself. He glanced at Kara and Sadie again. Kara remained staunchly stone-faced. Sadie seemed to draw from her sister’s strength, but her bottom lip still quivered and her eyes remained wide.

Dom pressed his binos to his eyes. He searched along the empty parking lot, lines of trees, and abandoned vehicles. “I don’t see any contacts, but be prepared, Hunters.”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” came the responses.

The trees grew closer, and the leaves and branches no longer appeared as an indistinguishable blur of browns and greens. They skimmed over the forest as those branches scratched the bottom of the chopper.

“Brace yourselves,” Frank said.

The chopper hit the asphalt and bounced on its wheels. Frank leaned his weight into the collective and brought it down again. Dom reached for his daughters, holding their hands as the chopper slid toward a minivan. The rotor blades still spun, cutting through the air. With a jerk, the chopper lurched to a stop.

“Everybody okay?” Dom asked.

“Aye, aye, Chief,” Miguel said. “Might need a change of pants, but I’ll be all right.”

“God, I hope you’re not serious.” Renee wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. She undid her harness, as did Hector and Meredith. Each loaded their weapons.

“Frank, how long until you fix this thing?” Dom asked.

“Hard to tell,” Frank said. “Based on the loss of rotor speed and the throttle’s lack of response, I’m going to say there’s something wrong with digital engine control.”

“Can you override it?” Dom asked.

“Afraid not. These things are fully automated.”

“Then how do you fix it?”

“I’m just the pilot, not the electronics expert.”

Adam held up his hands. “Don’t look at me.”

Dom clicked on his comm link. “Chao, Samantha, do you read?”

“Loud and clear,” Samantha responded. “We heard you, and we’re ready to troubleshoot the FADEC.”