He seemed almost happy. But he’d been through far too much to really be in such a good mood, Kara thought. They all had. Maybe this mindless task was just enough to keep Navid from dwelling on the girlfriend he’d lost. She’d apparently turned into a Skull before his eyes, and he’d been forced to kill her with his own hands.
Kara shuddered, her mind wheeling back to the transformation she’d seen in her mother. She wondered what kind of skeletal monstrosity her mother had become, locked in their basement back in Frederick. If only someone had offered her mother the mercy Navid offered his girlfriend by ending her suffering before she’d become a Skull.
“You good?” Navid asked, lugging another trash bag outside.
Kara walked alongside him with her own bag, focusing on the waves of overgrown grass flowing in the wind over the estate. “Yeah, I’m okay.”
They set the bags in a dumpster behind the restaurant.
“Silly to put it in here, huh?” Kara said.
“I know. No one’s coming to take our garbage anytime soon. But it can serve as a staging area until we figure out what to do with it.”
Kara used the back of her hand to wipe the sweat off her forehead. The sun glared overhead, but a crisp autumnal breeze rustled the leafless branches. She could feel goose bumps prickle across her skin despite the sweatshirt she wore emblazoned with George Washington’s portrait. Navid closed his eyes and soaked in the sunlight and fresh air for a moment. He wore a matching sweatshirt taken from the gift shop. They might not have as much food as they’d hoped for, but clean clothes were plentiful if not fashionable. He leaned against the brick wall of the restaurant.
“I’ve missed this,” he said.
Kara raised an eyebrow. She was itching to get back to work, but she realized she’d never really sat down and talked to Navid about anything other than their immediate survival or the quest for a vaccine for the Oni Agent. “You miss what?”
“The quiet.” He opened his brown eyes again and stared earnestly, almost unnervingly, into hers. “Boston was always full of noise.”
Kara imagined Navid stranded in the Boston hospital. She must’ve let her sympathy play across her face because he waved his hands in a supplicating gesture.
“I’m not talking about after the Oni Agent,” he said. “I mean, it was noisy then. The screams, the howling. The claws on concrete.” He shivered, and Kara could tell it wasn’t from the breeze. “Abby and I lived in the city for our entire undergraduate and graduate school careers.”
“Your girlfriend, right?” Kara asked.
Navid nodded.
Kara gave him a look that she hoped conveyed her sympathy for him.
“I never took as much time off with her as I should have,” he said, nodding. “I should’ve been outside that damned lab more. We could’ve gone hiking. Or maybe camping for the weekend. Just get away from the city.”
Kara smiled. “I know what you mean. Some of my best memories are of hunting trips with my dad.”
Navid looked almost shocked. “You hunt?” Then he allowed himself a laugh. “Guess that’s why you seem so at home around guns. I hadn’t ever touched a gun before Adam took us off the Huntress.”
“Yeah,” Kara said. She thought about her father, who had hidden a secret life as a freelance CIA contractor from them. She thought about her mother, trapped in the basement of their former home, turned into a mindless killing machine by the Oni Agent. She thought about everything that had changed and been taken from her and never would be the same again. But at least she still had her sister.
Her heart skipped a beat. Sadie had been right behind them with a trash bag, so where was she? Kara lunged into the restaurant with Navid at her heels.
“Sadie? You lounging on the job?”
There was no answer. Maggie didn’t bark, either, and the golden retriever hardly ever left the younger girl’s side.
“Sadie?”
Still no response.
“She’s probably with Adam,” Navid said. He ducked into the gift shop. “You seen Sadie?”
Adam looked up from the radio parts. “No.” He stood straighter, and his hand shot to his holster. “Is she missing?”
“I don’t know,” Kara said. She rushed back to the restaurant. Navid and Adam followed. Then she spotted the open front door. It led to a sidewalk and an empty parking lot. Sadie was nowhere in sight. “Damn it!”
“It’s okay,” Adam said. “Probably no reason to get worried. I’ll check out the woods along the parking lot. Why don’t you two follow the trail to the gardens? Maybe she just went to walk Maggie.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Kara said doubtfully.
“It’s getting dark. Grab a couple of flashlights, okay?” Adam said, heading out the door.
“Got it,” Navid replied.
Kara picked up a flashlight and then began jogging down the path. Navid ran beside her, not saying a word. They rounded the building and made their way past lines of bushes and wooden fences. Withered sunflowers whipped in the wind. Little placards announced the various plants they passed. Some had survived a world without attentive gardeners; some had not.
“Sadie?” Kara called. She didn’t want to attract any Skulls that might be lingering in the woods at the edges of the massive estate, but she couldn’t help the urgency in her voice.
“We’ll find her,” Navid said. His reassuring smile looked forced.
The masquerade didn’t convince Kara. She’d already abandoned her mother to her fate as a Skull. Navid’s girlfriend had shared that same horrible damnation. There was no way she’d let Sadie turn into one.
“Sadie! This isn’t funny! Where are you?”
She finally heard Sadie’s voice. But it wasn’t an apologetic reply. It was a bloodcurdling scream.
-3-
Meredith watched in horror as the Skull sprang at Dom. The other Skulls turned and charged. Their armored plates scraped together, and their howls echoed in the corridor. Dom sprinted to meet the first Skull. He barreled into it with a flash of metal against bone. Clawing and scraping, the Skull flailed at him, but he wrestled the beast away and slammed it into one of its brethren.
“Conserve ammo!” Dom called. He smashed the stock of his rifle into the Skull and rammed the monster into the wall. Its horns cracked off, and its head split open.
Meredith joined the fray with another. This one wore a soiled pantsuit that hung off its jutting spikes in tatters. A pearl necklace was tangled between the coils of muscle and bony plates. The monster came at her in a flurry of skeletal appendages. But the more time she’d spent in the field, the more she had grown accustomed to such furious assaults. She easily dodged the monster and lashed out with her boot. The kick sent the Skull sprawling.
Miguel lunged and twisted his wrist. His knife flicked out of his prosthetic, and he stabbed the blade straight through the creature’s eye. Blood pooled around the creature’s slumped body.
There was no time to celebrate the flawless teamwork.
The Hunters methodically parried and dodged the Skulls’ blows. They fought with knives and gun stocks and even fists. The last of the screaming, scattered Skulls fell to the floor with a thud. Dom removed his knife from a monster’s neck and replaced it in his thigh sheath. He looked around at the others and used the back of his hand to wipe a fleck of blood from his face.
“Everyone good?”
“Aye, aye, Captain,” they chorused.
Meredith strode over to Dom and clasped his shoulder. “We’re getting better at this.”
“I wish we didn’t have so many opportunities for practice, though. Wouldn’t it be nice to simply walk down the street—”
“Or through the Crystal City shopping tunnels?” Meredith added.
“Or the tunnels,” Dom agreed, “without running into those damn things?”
“Couldn’t agree with you more, Chief,” Miguel said. He flexed the fingers on his prosthetic. “This thing’s put up with a lot of abuse. Chao sure knows how to make ‘em. I want him t
o add an insert that sprays acid like the Droolers.”
“Wouldn’t that be nice?” Jenna said as they started to pick past the Skull corpses. She let out a low whistle in admiration. “Man, the way that acid eats through the Skulls’ armor.”
“Better than bullets,” Renee said.
The group came to the end of the corridor. Glass doors and a security cage separated them from the next length of tunnels. Meredith used her glove to wipe away some of the dust and grime that had settled over the glass. She peered through. A pit formed in her stomach.
“Good God.” She leaned back. “Dom, take a look.”
The captain gazed through and shook his head, seeming to deliberate for a moment.
“What’s up?” Glenn asked.
“Skulls,” Meredith said. The sight played across her mind again. Skulls lumbered between overturned tables and chairs. They meandered in and out of the coffee shop and convenience store lining the hall. She recognized the bookstore where she’d come once to kill time before a meeting with another national security official. So long ago, it seemed. Back then people had filled these corridors. Now, those people were Skulls. Or just dark stains and splintered bones under the Skulls’ feet. She exhaled slowly. “A lot of Skulls.”
“We need to go through,” Dom said. “It’s bad, I won’t lie. But it’s better than aboveground. At least these are contained. We’ll funnel them into a chokepoint and take more conservative shots to bring them down.”
“So we can use guns this time?” Andris asked.
“Definitely. In fact, it’s encouraged.” Dom quickly relayed his plan for taking out as many as possible using the element of surprise. The group created a series of barriers behind the doors with overturned tables and shelves pulled from an ice cream parlor. When they were in position, Miguel worked his magic with the security cage’s lock and helped Dom roll it up. Then Dom crouched behind a table with Meredith.
“You ready for this?” he whispered.
“As I’ll ever be.”
Miguel unlocked the glass door and slid it back. He opened it as wide as possible to allow for broad lanes of fire. Each aimed their suppressed rifles down the corridor. Meredith held her breath as she waited in anticipation for Dom’s signal.
“Fire!”
The whoomph of muffled gunfire surrounded Meredith. She squeezed the trigger, sighting up a Skull with short, stubby claws and a single crooked tooth poking from its lips. Rounds lanced into the monster. Its head snapped backward, gore spurting from the exit wound. She didn’t wait to watch it drop before turning her sights on the next. The Hunters worked swiftly, aiming and firing with deadly accuracy. Skulls thudded across the tiled floor. Corpses piled up.
While Meredith drew a bit of satisfaction from each lifeless Skull, she knew not to get her hopes up. Sure enough, more beasts trickled out of the bookstore and the coffee shop. They knocked over shelves and spilled books. Another rammed into a table on its way out. The monster tumbled over it, knocking aside the chairs. More creatures trampled the fallen Skull. The crunch of bones, muffled gunfire, and collapsing bodies was enough to rile the hornets’ nest. The shooting grew more rapid. Meredith switched from Skull to Skull as soon as one dropped. The process became almost second nature. Catch one in her optics. Squeeze the trigger. Move on to the next. But she still wasn’t quick enough.
Skulls howled and wailed. They scrambled down the corridor after the Hunters. Their claws scratched against the floor. The monsters were met with a hail of lead, but they kept coming. Meredith’s heart pounded as fast the automatic gunfire around her. Her vision tunneled, and she focused down her lane. She saw flashes of gunfire, splashes of blood, and the off-white and creamy yellows of the Skulls’ organic armor. Bits of flesh and fragments of bone flew. Frenzied Skulls tumbled after each other.
Still, more poured out of the branching hallways and smaller stores along the passage.
“Reloading!” Glenn bellowed.
Meredith could barely hear the metallic click of his new mag being shoved into place. She fired until her rifle went dry and rapidly reloaded. The Skulls, by sheer force of numbers, pushed through the storm of bullets. She could smell their half-rotten flesh, the telltale sign of the Oni Agent nanobacteria perverting human anatomy into the monsters before them now. The meager tables and shelves the Hunters used as barriers wouldn’t be enough to hold back this wave of creatures.
More rounds cut into the Skull ranks. Shouts from the Hunters reached Meredith’s ears. The monsters came at them, tearing through the barricades like termites through wood.
“Fall back!” Dom ordered.
Meredith stood but never let her muzzle stray from the Skulls. The other Hunters did likewise. They slowly retreated, maintaining a line of fire. Meredith stole a glance behind her. There wasn’t much room left. Soon the Hunters’ backs were pressed against the door they’d first entered. There would be no going outside. Bringing the fight to the streets would only make their problem worse. They had to finish these off or else face certain death themselves.
“Split up!” Dom yelled. He directed the Hunters to take various smaller hallways that branched off the main corridor.
Meredith, Miguel, and Dom started backing down one hall. Miguel tripped over a chair. His rifle chattered, and bullets plunged through the ceiling tiles. Dust rained down, and two Skulls lunged toward them. Dom batted one with his rifle, shot a round into its gaping mouth, and kicked the creature back into the crowd.
With her rifle’s stock, Meredith bashed the other Skull’s head. It left a massive crater, but the beast continued to snap at her. Saliva flew from between its serrated teeth. She fired. Three rounds square into its face silenced it for good.
A sudden hissing was followed by a distinctive gurgling.
“Drooler!” Meredith shouted before she could see it.
“Where the fuck is it?” Dom yelled.
The mass of raking claws, bloodshot eyes, and crowns of bony horns left little room to spot the Drooler. Missing one when it was ready to fire meant someone was going to get bathed in acid. The gurgling grew louder.
“Shit, shit, shit!” Miguel yelled, playing his rifle back and forth over the clamoring pack of Skulls.
Meredith fired into the three Skulls leading the swarm down the narrow hallway. The bodies dropped. Just before the gap in the crowd was filled in again, she spotted a Skull with half its lower jaw eaten away. Brown liquid oozed out of holes in its neck and concave chest.
“There it is!” she said.
Miguel jumped and clamped his fingers around the Drooler’s neck as the gurgling intensified. Liquid dropped and streamed over his fingers. His skin sizzled, and Meredith’s eyes went wide. Then she realized it wasn’t Miguel’s actual flesh, just his prosthetic. But it didn’t take long for the oozing acid to eat away the silicone cover of his arm and leave nothing but a cyborg-like appendage.
“Bastard!” Miguel tossed the Skull into the middle of the horde of Skulls. He stood atop the chair he’d tripped over earlier and sprayed gunfire to where he’d lobbed the spindly, gurgling Drooler. The monster’s body popped and hissed. Acid spewed from its wounds and doused the other Skulls. They went down in a fleshy tangle of dissolving limbs and swatting claws.
It was enough to cause confusion in their ranks. Dom and Meredith added to the pressure, pushing forward and firing more aggressively. Muffled gunfire sounded louder from the other halls where the rest of the Hunters had retreated. Soon the group was rounding up the Skulls into the central hallway again. Spent casings pinged off the walls and corpses as the Hunters fought for each step.
Sweat trickled down Meredith’s neck. The smell of spilled blood and cordite hung in the air. A lanky, loping Skull came at her and hammered its fists down. She sidestepped and ended its life with a short burst of gunfire. The Skulls’ cries became more sporadic until the last ones fell.
One of the dying creatures dragged itself across the ground, its legs twisted and gnarled. Meredith landed her
boot in the back of its head. Its teeth broke on the tiled floor, and its skull caved in. Her chest heaved, and the tac vest started to feel heavy on her torso. Exhaustion slowly replaced adrenaline.
But they had won.
Dom wrapped one arm around her. “You okay?”
She nodded and pulled a strand of hair from her eyes. “Yeah, I think so. You?”
“No scratches here.”
The other Hunters rounded up their packs and slowly assembled amid the carnage. They each reported good health but depleted ammunition. They would be hard-pressed to survive another close encounter, but they had no other choice but to go forward into whatever dangers lurked. Meredith knew there would be no sitting and resting, no regrouping with Dom at the helm. He had a family to find and a ship to take back.
The occasional Skull met them as they cleared the remainder of the lengthy tunnel. The single creatures were nowhere near as frightening or dangerous as the swarm had been. Still, Meredith vowed not to let her guard down. Even a lone Skull could spell death.
“Let’s go up to the fifth or sixth floor,” Dom said as they reached the southernmost stairwell leading up from the tunnel. “I want to get a better view of what we’re heading into next.”
Their boots clacked on the steps as they hurried up the stairs and landings of what had once been an office building. But as they made it to the top, they soon realized there was no fifth or sixth floor. Rather, there had once been a fifth floor. Also a sixth and seventh and eighth based on the placards Meredith had seen along the stairwell. She was the first to set foot on what remained of the fourth floor. She opened the door onto a wide expanse of charred rubble and naked scaffolding. Piles of crumbling brick and broken pipes lay across the burned carpeting. There were no intact windows. At best, a few shards of glass hung around gaping holes in the side of the building. The winds shifted. Soot poured from an enormous crater in the center of the room that led all the way to the first floor. Entire columns had collapsed.
Meredith climbed over a jumble of struts and beams. The sky was already darkening. Tiny pinpricks of stars had started to show in the enveloping blackness, easily visible now that the ceiling and upper floors had been demolished. She trudged to the edge of the building and poked her head out of a gaping hole.
The Tide: Deadrise Page 3