Fight the Tide (23 page)

The camera was in the pocket of his cargo shorts, reassuring even though he hadn’t filmed anything since Abby. He had to preserve the battery anyway. At least that’s what he told himself.

Adam went to stand by Parker’s side. “It’s bad over there. Keep your distance.”

“Will do.” Parker squinted at the shore and then looked back at the sea. “Good idea sending them down. Jacob is having a bad day, I guess.”

“Yeah.” He focused and dialed in to Jacob, who murmured and slept restlessly. He couldn’t quite make out what he was saying, but tuned out, not wanting to invade the boy’s privacy. “How’s the wind? Do you think it’ll be right tomorrow or the next day?”

Parker gripped the wheel. “Maybe. It’s hard to say.”

“We’ll make it. I have faith in you.”

Laughing sharply, Parker went to adjust a sail, handing off the wheel. “Not that I don’t appreciate the vote of confidence, but this is the ocean we’re talking about. It will chew us up, spit us out, and then swallow us right down. The wind’s coming from the southeast today, which is good. The stream should be calm. Well, calmish. Hard to say what it’s like out there. So we’ll see what tomorrow brings. Well, what the middle of the night brings. The days are so short now. We have to leave well before sunrise. Better to have light when we’re out there than closer to shore.”

God, the
smell
. Adam kept the beach in his periphery, sensing the movement, movement, movement. A herky-jerky dance of desperation, the virus turning these people into animals. He wondered if he looked anything like that when he transformed without control, the times when it hit him like a bolt and tore out of him, the wolf refusing to be denied.

Picking up the binoculars, Parker gazed at the shore, his throat working as he scanned slowly. When he lowered them, his hands trembled for a moment, his skin pale and eyes wide. “God. That’s…”

“I know. Don’t look anymore.”

“Yeah.” He put down the binoculars on the table and chugged from a bottle of water, his chest rising and falling too fast. “It’s not getting better. Just worse and worse. Okay, need to put that out of my mind.” With a full-body shake, he went back to work, examining the sails and bustling about.

Even when Daytona was miles behind them, the stench still lingered. Adam snagged Parker’s belt loop and pulled him back flush against him, rubbing his stubbly cheek over his head.

Parker laughed softly, still tense, but trying not to be. “You okay there, big boy?”

“Mmm.” He tugged Parker’s tee over his head, keeping his arms aloft as he leaned down and buried his face in Parker’s armpit. The tuft of hair there tickled Adam’s nose. He inhaled sharply, one hand snaking down to flatten over Parker’s stomach.

Laughing breathily, Parker squirmed a little. “Tickles.”

Adam rubbed his face back and forth, breathing in Parker deeply. “Thank you,” he muttered. “Need to clear my nose out.”

“Ah, so this is a palate cleanser? Okay, good to know.” Parker lowered his arm and covered Adam’s hand on his belly with his own, leaning back.

“Oh, uh, sorry.”

Lifting his head, Adam found Craig halfway up the steps. He stepped away from Parker, a hot flush spreading up his neck. “We were just… It’s fine.”

Craig smiled. “No worries. Just getting a little hot down there. Abby would wink and say it’s getting hot up here too.” His smile faded, and a number of expressions flickered across his face—guilt, grief, affection, and sadness. He came up on deck, rubbing the back of his neck.

Parker bent to grab his tee. “Sorry. Come on up. Is Jacob awake?”

“Still curled up in bed. I thought I’d leave him for a bit longer.” He called down, “Sweetheart, are you done with the soup?”

Lilly popped up a minute later. “All done. I wrote them all on the list. We have five chicken noodles, three beef barley, one tomato, and six split pea.” She grimaced.

“Yeah, not my fave either,” Parker said. “Hey, you guys want to cast out a line and catch some fish for lunch? I’ll lower the sails.”

Standing at the bow after they got out the fishing equipment and worms from the fridge, Adam reeled in slowly, hoping for a nibble. Lilly stood beside him with her own rod, Craig hovering nearby to grab hold of it if something bit.

The wind was calm, and Adam breathed in, frowning. He still couldn’t get that damn smell out of his nose. It was hovering just out of reach, a wisp of decay and sickness he couldn’t banish.

He reeled in a fish—he had no idea what kind, and didn’t care as long as they could eat it—and brought it below to clean right away with Richard Foxe’s excellent set of boning knives. But when he stood in the kitchen by the sink, the lingering scent of rot got stronger.

He opened up the cupboard and inspected the trash, but they were careful to keep composting garbage separate to throw overboard. Jacob coughed from behind the closed door of the stern cabin, and Adam heard him mumbling to himself.

Adam’s feet were already moving, and he inched open the door. The scent flowed over him, and all at once he realized what it was. He leaned over Jacob, who was curled toward the hull, shivering, the covers tangled around him. Resisting the urge to haul Jacob up and inspect him, Adam closed his hand over the kid’s shoulder. “Jacob?”

He jerked under Adam’s touch, his eyes opening. “I’m fine,” he muttered. “Just want to sleep.”

Adam pulled back the covers, ignoring Jacob’s protests. The kid wore boxers and a too-big dark hoodie. The scrape on his knee had scabbed over, but there was something else…

Jacob was fully awake now, and he batted at Adam’s hands. “What are you doing? Leave me alone.”

“Are you hurt?” Adam ran his hands over Jacob’s bare legs. “Answer me.”

“It’s nothing. I’m fine.”

He tugged down the hoodie zipper despite Jacob’s growing protests, his breath catching at the dark stain on Jacob’s blue tee. With one knee on the mattress, he shoved Jacob’s hands away again and eased up the shirt. “Jesus. How did this happen?”

“It’s nothing!” he squeaked, his face flushed, hair damp on his forehead. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

A bandage was taped haphazardly to Jacob’s belly, blood seeping through. Not much at this point, but when Adam peeled it back, the small puncture wound oozed pus, the smell of infection so strong Adam tasted bile. “Why didn’t you tell us?” A run-of-the-mill infection could easily lead to sepsis. “Parker! Craig!”

“No, don’t tell them! I told Parker I was okay. He’ll be mad. Please.” Jacob clutched Adam’s wrist with his clammy fingers. “Please.”

“It’s okay. He won’t be mad,” Adam lied. He had no idea what had happened, but Parker getting mad was usually a safe bet.

With Craig at his heels, Parker exclaimed, “What the actual fuck!” He stared around Adam, squeezed into the cabin, his eyes locked on the wound before meeting Jacob’s accusingly. “Did you do that on the fence? Why didn’t you tell me!”

Adam shifted over in the narrow space between beds, Mariah wedged on top of the other bunk. Craig pushed in, his eyes going wide. “What is this?” To Parker, he asked, “What fence?”

Parker muttered another curse under his breath and rubbed his face. “When you guys went for fuel a couple days ago, he saw a gas can over by a shed. Behind a chain-link fence. He…wanted to help, so he went to get it.”

“You let him go ashore alone?” Craig’s voice rose sharply.

“No,” Jacob said hoarsely. “He told me not to. Don’t be mad at him. Please.”

Looking as if he was confessing to his own parent or perhaps a teacher, Parker lowered his head. “He swam to the dock and ran down it. I was going to go after him, but I couldn’t leave Lilly alone. I’m sorry.”

Adam wordlessly squeezed Parker’s hand.

Craig blew out a sharp breath. “It’s okay. But I wish you’d told me when we got back.”

“Ugh, I know.” Parker scrubbed a hand over his hair. “I figured no harm was done, so I said I wouldn’t.” He narrowed his gaze on Jacob. “I didn’t realize he was straight-up lying to my face.”

The flush in Jacob’s cheeks deepened, and tears flooded his eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think it was bad. You told me not to go, so I didn’t want to… I put iodine on it, and I figured it would be okay. It’s not much more than a scratch.”

“A scratch? There’s a
hole
! Okay, it’s done, so let’s focus on fixing it.” Craig dropped to his knees and reached for the wound on Jacob’s stomach before apparently thinking better of it. “You did this on a fence?”

He nodded, tears staining his red cheeks. “Coming back over, I had to hurry because suddenly there were creepers there. They just came out of nowhere.” His voice broke. “Which is why I was totally dumb to do it, I know. Parker told me, but I didn’t listen. Mom would be so mad.”

Craig brushed back Jacob’s damp hair. “Yep, she would. But look, we’re going to fix this, okay? Going to get you better so then I can give you a good talking-to. Parker, can you grab the first aid kit?”

As Parker dashed out, Adam gave Jacob’s arm a pat. “Hang in there, pal. You’ll be okay.” To Craig he added, “I’ll go up and check on Lilly. Do a scan.” He squeezed past, briefly gripping Craig’s shoulder in what he hoped was a reassuring way.

In the kitchen, Parker pulled out the kit from a cupboard. He scowled and whispered, “I should have told you guys. I know. I was trying to be nice to the kid. He’s had such a rough time. I didn’t want to get him in trouble.”

“It’s okay.” Adam kissed him softly, wanting to erase the creases in his forehead.

“Hope he was up-to-date on all his shots. I don’t even know what tetanus is, but my mom was always worried about it. That fence seemed pretty old.” He reached back into the cupboard and pulled out a few bottles. “Dicloxacillin. Is that an antibiotic? Sounds like it. That’s what you need for an infection, right? How about Linezolid?” He shook the bottles. “Barely half full, but better than nothing.”

“I’m not sure.”

“Oh, right. You never get sick.” His smile was sharp. “Better hope Salvation Island isn’t bullshit, because we might need a doctor real soon.”

*

“Guess it’s now
or never.” Parker hoisted the sails, muttering to himself as he apparently followed some kind of mental checklist. “At least there’s almost a full moon. Wouldn’t be able to see shit otherwise. I guess you could, though.”

Parker’s heart skip-scattered, and Adam gently took hold of his shoulders, the cotton of his hoodie thick and soft. “You can do this. I believe in you. We all believe in you.”

Scoffing, Parker said, “The others don’t really have a choice. We need a doctor.”

“We. Believe. In. You.” Adam squeezed for emphasis.

“Okay. Thank you.” He gazed around. “The wind’s coming more from the west, but as long as it doesn’t switch to north… Normally I’d say we wait another day, but…”

But Jacob’s fever had steadily climbed all day at a frightening rate, despite giving him aspirin and starting him on the mismatched antibiotics they’d collected along the way. Now it was three a.m., and Parker had deemed it the right window of time. “Let’s do it. I’m ready to be ordered around, Captain.”

A smile ghosted over Parker’s lips. “You’re an excellent cabin boy.”

With the sails up and catching the mild wind, they headed out to sea. Adam was on watch, scanning with the binoculars in all directions for other vessels or signs of danger.

When he turned methodically back west and realized he’d lost sight of the shore, he had to admit his stomach clenched like a fist. They’d never been this far out to sea before, and the waves were already bigger.

“How will you know when we reach the stream?” he asked.

By the wheel, Parker nodded with his chin toward the faint glow of the instruments. “Water temperature reading. It was seventy-two when we left. Will probably get up into the eighties in the stream. This is assuming the increase in wind and big-ass waves don’t tip us off.”

For the moment, Adam couldn’t discern any difference. He wanted to ask more questions, but went back to patrolling. Parker squinted at the telltales in the darkness and adjusted the sails every few minutes, concentration etched on his face.

After a time, he asked, “How are they doing down there?”

Adam concentrated. “Lilly’s finally sleeping. Craig’s awake. Jacob’s sleeping, but not well. The fever’s bad. He’s breathing hard.” The pitiful little moans and mutters made Adam wish there was some way he could rock Jacob in his arms and lull him into a proper sleep without fever dreams.

When the wind picked up, at first Adam only shivered and zipped his leather jacket. The waves grew, the water looking far more choppy than it had. Parker rushed around tightening things and rolling up the bottom of the jib sheet, muttering to himself again.

Adam tried to concentrate to see if he could hear the water in the Gulf Stream current flowing north, but the wind was howling now, the splashing as the hull rode the growing waves all melding together.

“Okay?” he asked Parker.

“So far. Let’s hope the wind doesn’t get any stronger.” Grimacing, he leaned down and rapped his knuckles on the deck. “I totally jinxed us. Just…no talking.”

Adam zipped his lips and did another scan.

It was an hour later when he was looking at the biggest waves he’d ever seen in real life. While the water was warm, the air had cooled considerably, and Parker shivered more than Adam liked. When he shoved his feet into Topsiders, the gnawing worry in Adam’s gut took a big bite.