The Tide: Breakwater (Tide Series Book 2) (31 page)

“Understood.” Lauren hung up the handset. Images of the triage they’d attempted to set up on the
Queen of the Bay
flashed through her mind. All her team’s planning and preparation had been almost useless when the panicked passengers threatened to mob them. Most passengers thought
they
should be treated next;
they
were more important than whoever Lauren happened to be examining at the time. People who weren’t even affected by the Oni Agent had been driven mad simply from paranoia.

She took a deep breath and mentally steeled herself for the chaos she knew would soon erupt. Her resolve would be tested, and people’s lives would be relying on her ability to stay calm under pressure. A bead of sweat rolled down her forehead, and she wiped it away with the back of her hand. “Everybody ready to go?”

Peter snorted, his tell that he was as ready as he was going to be.

Lauren led them toward the cargo bay where the Naval Academy survivors would arrive. “Let’s roll out.”

––––––––

“T
ime to go!” James said, swinging the bloodied ax.

Navid shivered, holding Abby’s hand. The old professor paced the lab like a caged, rabid dog. He picked up a sledgehammer in his free hand and walked over to Navid and Abby. He stood in front of them, the ax over one shoulder and the hammer over the other.

“What...what...” Abby stammered.

“Spit it out, girl.” James glared at her, his face smeared with blood he’d half-heartedly tried to wipe off. “We don’t have all goddamned day.”

Abby only stared back and shrank into Navid’s embrace. Navid wrapped his arms tighter around her and prayed James didn’t see the tiny scratches on her arm. He couldn’t stand the thought of the man trying to butcher his girlfriend like he’d done to Sandra. He glanced at the poor woman’s bloodied corpse. Nausea gripped his stomach, and he gagged, urging himself not to vomit.

“What’s the matter, boy? Can’t stand what this world’s come to?” His eyes darted between Abby and Navid. They lingered on Abby for a moment, and Navid positioned her behind him. He stood in front of James. “Ah, so your morning sickness passed, did it?”

James dropped the sledgehammer at Navid’s feet.

“What the—” Navid started.

“Take it.” He pointed at Abby. “She doesn’t look like she can hold a toothbrush, much less a weapon.”

“What about him?” Navid tilted his head toward Geraldo, who was wiping blood from his cracked lips.

“Dumbass can get his own weapon. Don’t know if he’ll use it anymore though. Seems to have developed a soft spot for those creatures.”

“Sandra wasn’t one of ‘em yet!” Geraldo yelled.

“Yet!” James countered, mocking Geraldo’s accent. “Yet! Yet! Yet! Ain’t that a pretty modifier, ya dumb piece of trash. She would’ve been soon enough, and it’s better we took care of her now than when she turned into a monster we couldn’t handle.”

Geraldo rubbed his jaw and glared at James. He pushed himself up to his knees then stood.

“You can be pissed at me all you want”—James gestured to the cans of white paint—“or you can help us get the hell out of here.”

Geraldo’s eyes never left James’s while the custodian trudged to the paint cans. He pocketed a few paintbrushes and stowed one of the paint rollers in his coverall. One can in each hand, he returned to the entrance of the lab. “You struck her down before we even knew if she was going to turn. You’re playing God, deciding who lives and dies.”

“I’m not playing God.” James shouldered his ax over his right shoulder and put his left hand over his heart. “I’m as much of a pawn as you are. Only I’m not going to be sacrificed like one.”

Abby squeezed Navid’s hand. He caressed her forearm and locked eyes with her. Hers were covered in spiderwebs of red vessels. Sweat dripped down her forehead. She opened her mouth as if to talk, but no words came out.

Navid put a finger up to her lips. “It’s okay. Once we’re out of here, maybe we can go to the Bahamas. A nice Jamaican resort maybe.” He forced a smile. “How about San Francisco? I’ve never been.”

The corners of Abby’s mouth twitched, and she managed a weak smile. Her fingers interlaced with his, and a tear rolled out of one of her eyes. Navid wiped it with the back of his hand. He felt a presence standing above him.

James had one hand on his hip and the other on the ax handle. “Enough crying. We’ll have plenty of time for that when we get a rescue party’s attention, and the only way that’s happening is if we get to the damn roof.” He waited a second. “That means move, son!”

“Right, right.” Navid helped Abby to her feet.

She still favored the ankle she’d hurt earlier, but he could tell the injured joint wasn’t the only thing bothering her. James sauntered over to the corner where he’d left his backpack of supplies and picked it up. While he wasn’t looking, Navid applied another dose of antibiotics over Abby’s scrapes. The little scratches were yellowed, and the skin had turned red and inflamed around them. His mind returned to what had become of Kaitlyn and Sandra and all the crazies in the hospital. Maybe Abby had just picked up an infection. All kinds of nasty antibiotic-resistant bugs were known to make a home for themselves in hospitals. Just because she and Navid had worked on a research floor of Mass Gen didn’t mean they weren’t exposed to them.

He tried to tell himself that maybe she had MRSA, and that was what was making her so sick and weak. The antibiotic-resistant bacteria responsible for those terrible infections seemed better than the alternative.

“We don’t have all day!” James yelled. “Let’s move!” He ran out the lab door.

Navid stowed the sledgehammer in his belt and struggled to help Abby out. Geraldo shot him a look filled with pity as he followed.

At the end of the hall, near a stairwell, James waited with the ax at the ready. He pressed his ear against the door.

“Don’t hear any of those assholes,” he said in a low voice.

Navid gave him a nod, straining to hold Abby. He hadn’t realized how out of shape he was until the world seemed to fall apart around him. He positioned his arm a little tighter around Abby to help her limp along.

She was the runner, the athlete. She should have been the one in good health and good spirits. She’d always taken care of herself and chided Navid for not doing the same. Whenever he came down with the flu or a cold and she remained healthy, she told him it was because she exercised regularly and ate healthy—something he claimed not to have time to do.

Things will change
, he thought.
If we make it out of this, we’ll go all over the world together, running and hiking.

He vowed to minimize his time being cramped up in a little lab, moving liquids from one plastic container to the next, hoping to see some machine spit out a meaningless result reporting a change in RNA expression or relative fluorescence level of some conjugated antibody.

It was all meaningless now. None of those words or numbers mattered. Only Abby did.

“Geraldo, you’re leading,” James said, pressing a hand against the door.

“Me? You’ve got the weapon.”

James shrugged. “I’m an old man. You’re faster.”

Geraldo shook his head but took point anyway.

Navid knew what he was thinking, and James didn’t even try to make his lie sound convincing. When James wanted to run, he could—and had. He’d left the group behind, and he’d do it again if it meant saving his own ass.

James pushed the door, and it flew open with a smack. Geraldo rushed into the stairwell and began pounding up the steps. James followed, not bothering to hold the door open for Navid and Abby.

Navid threw his shoulder into it. “Come on, Abby. We got this.”

Abby’s head bobbed, but her eyelids fluttered as if she was ready to fall asleep standing.

“Stay with me!” Navid pushed up the stairs, his muscles burning, still not recovered from their previous flight from the crazies.

The footsteps from James and Geraldo echoed overhead. They were already a full floor above Navid and Abby.

“Three more to go,” Geraldo called down. “Come on, guys!”

Three more floors
. Navid gasped for breath. He was practically dragging Abby up the stairs. He wasn’t sure if he could—

Abby went limp in his arms. Navid tried to catch her, but she slipped from his grip and crumpled down the stairs. Her body slammed onto the landing.

“Help!” Navid said.

“No, don’t!” James’s voice answered.

But Navid could hear footsteps coming down. He rushed to Abby’s side and picked her up. Warm blood dripped from her scalp onto his fingers.

“Abby, Abby, can you hear me?”

Her head rolled to the side and her mouth moved, but no words came out.

“Come on, Abby.”

The footsteps from upstairs grew closer. “Navid, she okay? You okay?”

But Geraldo’s voice wasn’t the only one now echoing in the stairwell. Below them the cries of the crazies sounded once more. A shudder tore down Navid’s spine. Their nightmare wasn’t over.

“Come on, let’s get her up.” Geraldo bent down and wrapped an arm around Abby. He still managed both paint cans. “Let’s move!”

With the load lightened, Navid continued up once more. Abby’s head lolled, and she started murmuring. Navid couldn’t hear her words over the growing cacophony below.

A brief flash of white light above caught Navid’s eyes.
The sun
. He watched James’s silhouette flit out to the roof. The door closed behind him.

Two more floors
. Navid huffed. His lungs strained for air. Geraldo’s face was turning red with the effort. The custodian appeared as out of shape as Navid. Maybe worse. But the man hadn’t for a second hesitated in helping Navid and Abby.

“Thanks,” Navid said between breaths.

Geraldo looked at him as they moved up another set of stairs. “Ain’t got anything to thank me for yet. We ain’t”—he wheezed—“we ain’t clear of ‘em.”

The crazies’ bellows grew louder. The click and scratch of their claws on the stairs and walls added to the relentless din. Navid’s heart thumped, his pulse racing from a combination of fear and physical exertion.

“Come on, come on,” Geraldo said. “We’re almost there...almost...”

An inhuman shriek called out from behind. Navid turned. A crazy with flame-red hair streaming behind it jumped with outstretched hands. Its crooked, clawed fingers sliced through the air, and Geraldo pivoted in time to swing one of the paint cans at the crazy’s head. Two more climbed over its body and charged forward. They screamed, their pale tongues whipping between yellowed, fanged teeth.

“You go!” Geraldo said, letting Navid bear Abby’s full weight.

Navid stopped and pulled out his sledgehammer while still holding onto Abby. He couldn’t let Geraldo take these monsters alone.

“No! Go!” Geraldo clenched his jaw. Dried blood still traced his bottom lip from the blow James had delivered back in the lab. “Go!”

Navid nodded and started up the stairs. He heard the smack of the paint can against another crazy’s head, but he didn’t dare turn back. He was too close, too close to the door, too close to getting Abby to safety. The growl of another monster sounded, followed by a scream of agony that sounded all too human.

Navid didn’t look back. He ran up the last stairs and shoved open the door to daylight.

James stood before him, ax at the ready. “Good, good, just you and the girl. None of those beasts. Where the hell is Geraldo with the paint?”

Navid set Abby down and fell to his knees. His pulse still pounded in his ears as he recovered his breath. “Down...down there.”

“Down there? Still? With those
things
?” James paced, appearing almost as crazy as the monsters. “You got to go back there, get the paint. Without it, how the hell do we signal a chopper or plane or satellite or drone? Huh?”

The old professor’s eyes were wide. He made an imploring gesture, the ax precariously balanced in his right hand.

“You go...you go get Geraldo,” Navid managed.

“Me?” James’s bushy eyebrows lifted as he scowled. “Not a chance.” He raised the ax above Abby. “You. Go.”

“No, don’t.” Navid’s heart stopped, his blood running cold. They’d made it this far and finally had a chance to flag down some elusive rescue squad that might or might not exist. And James was going to cut down his hopes right here. “Please.”

“Then go!”

Navid pulled his sledgehammer from his belt. He wielded it in both hands and wondered if maybe he shouldn’t end James’s life first.

The old man’s eyes narrowed as if he could tell what Navid was thinking. “You make one step toward me and she’s gone. Now go. Go get the paint.”

Navid tore open the door. His vision swam, muddled by rage and exhaustion, as he ran down the stairs where he’d left Geraldo. He saw two crazies huddled over the stairs, digging at something.
Geraldo
. The custodian was sprawled out on the stairs, and the monsters were attacking him.

One plunged its hand into Geraldo’s stomach and tore the skin back. The glistening red of Geraldo’s innards shone in the dim emergency lights. The crazy abruptly flew backward. Geraldo’s arm had shot out once more, shoving the beast. He swung a paint can at the other, but missed.

Navid reached Geraldo and slammed the sledgehammer into the attacker’s head. It connected with a sickening thud. The creature staggered but recovered. Its lips drew back in a snarl. Navid smashed the hammer into the creature’s face. Its teeth cracked, and blood poured from its glistening lips. He swung again and again, until the creature’s skull caved in and it fell.

“Come on, Geraldo. We’ve got to go.” Navid hated saying the words as he watched the life ebb out of Geraldo’s body. He knew the man would never make it; there was no use in even pretending. But he had sacrificed himself to save them. How could he abandon him, even in these last moments? He wished it was James dying in a pool of blood.

“Move, kid. You gotta go.” Geraldo held up a paint can.

Navid took it reluctantly.

More of the crazies’ wails sounded. Another cornered the landing, followed by a second, a third, and a fourth. The group snarled and growled, their muscles tensing under their skeletal plated bodies.