The Tide (Tide Series Book 1)

by Melchiorri, Anthony J

  “Yes, yes I did.”

  “Meredith, I want you to protect my girls. They’re in Frederick, too.”

  There was a pause on the other end of the line. Dom hoped he wasn’t taking advantage of their friendship—a friendship that had threatened to blossom into more after his divorce. At last she said, “I promise, Dom. I’ll find them and keep them safe.”

  “Thanks. And Meredith...be careful.”

  “You too, Dom.”

  Chao disconnected them.

  Thomas laid a hand on Dom’s shoulder and gave him a slight nod of reassurance. “If she says she’ll help them, your daughters are probably some of the safest people on dry land.”

  “I know. It takes one more worry off my mind so I can focus on business here.” But Dom knew he would be lying to Thomas and lying to his crew if he said his thoughts would solely be focused on uncovering the truth behind the Oni Agent. He strode to the exit of the electronics workshop, Thomas by his side. Lauren and her team would still be waiting for him, ideally with updates, and he wanted to interview the mechanic. But first there was something else he needed to do.

  Policy aboard the Huntress was to shut down all personal communication with the mainland during a mission for the sake of security. But if Kara and Sadie were in danger, if things were as bad as Meredith said back home, what did policy matter?

  “Chao, Samantha, Adam?” Dom asked.

  The three techies, each at their respective bank of computer monitors, turned to him.

  “Monitor all civilian news stations and track the spread of all Oni-related incidents. Also, I want you to open up secured lines so the crew can call any family they might have.”

  “But—”Adam began.

  Dom held up a hand. “You can be first in line. Call your parents, call your siblings. Whoever you’ve got. I don’t want anyone worrying whether their loved ones are safe or not. It’s better to know than to let our imaginations drive us crazy, wouldn’t you say?”

  “Aye aye.” Adam picked up a handset for their sat-phone and handed it to Dom. “Captain, why don’t you try first? I don’t have anyone, other than an ex who’d hate to hear from me even if I was the last guy on Earth.”

  Dom smiled and took the handset. “Much appreciated.” He dialed Kara’s cell. He waited with bated breath, but a message reported his call could not go through. He tried Sadie and Bethany. Still nothing. Maybe cell service had gone down. Then he recalled Bethany’s birthday was coming up this weekend. Since Kara was attending the University of Maryland, just a couple hours’ drive from Frederick, he assumed she’d be visiting her mother to celebrate. At least, he hoped so. He tried Bethany’s home number. His heart pounded as he chewed his bottom lip.

  Still no luck.

  “Not working,” he said. “Adam, try those numbers again when others aren’t dialing out. Let me know as soon as you make contact.”

  “Sure thing, Captain.”

  Dom nodded and started toward the medical bay with Thomas trailing him. Though eager to hear from his daughters, there was nothing else he could do but trust in his crew and trust in Meredith to do what he couldn’t: protect his family.

  “You sure you don’t have anyone you want to call?” Dom asked Thomas.

  The second-in-command opened his mouth to answer, when a scream echoed down the passageway. It had come from the medical bay.

  ***

  Kara tried the cellphone again, but the call still didn’t go through. “I can’t get ahold of her.”

  “She was babysitting the Weaver kids. Can you try their landline?”

  “I don’t have their number, and my phone’s not getting data. I can’t look it up.”

  “Try my phone.” Bethany passed the cell to Kara.

  Kara scrolled through the contacts until she reached Nina Weaver. She hit the call button and prayed that their neighbors would pick up and tell them Sadie was safe. It wasn’t long ago that Kara babysat the two blond grade-schoolers, Zack and Leah. Now she found herself wishing it was her who was with the Weavers and Sadie was safe with their mother. The line suddenly went dead. Kara tried to call again, but she couldn’t get through. “No luck.”

  Her heart raced as her mother turned the Volvo into their neighborhood outside Frederick. No one shot baskets on their driveway hoop. No lawn mowers droned, and no children raced bicycles down the sidewalk. People had evidently taken the emergency broadcast warnings to heart and stayed inside.

  “Almost home,” Bethany said. She remained outwardly calm, but Kara knew her mother must be filled with worry.

  “She’ll be okay,” Kara said. “Aren’t Joe and Nina usually at home by this time anyway? They probably sent Sadie home hours ago.”

  “Sadie, home alone?” Her mother floored the accelerator. “That’s even worse.”

  They raced down the curving street. Parked cars lined the road, and ancient trees with thick branches shaded green lawns. The speed limit of the historic neighborhood was twenty miles per hour, but Kara knew no sign could convince Bethany to pull back from the gas pedal. Rubber screeched on asphalt as they rounded a corner. The street narrowed as they approached the cul-de-sac where their house lay.

  At the cul-de-sac’s entrance, black smoke filled the air. Flames licked from a four-door Honda Civic. The car’s front end was crumpled around a thick oak, and another vehicle lay abandoned and burning near it. Between the crashed vehicles and billowing smoke, the street was blocked.

  “Oh my God,” Kara whispered.

  “We’re going to be okay,” Bethany said, seemingly more to herself than Kara. She parked the vehicle a couple driveways down from the smoke.

  Kara scanned the houses, looking for signs of life. But no one was brave or curious enough to stare at the wreckage. Then a shiver snuck down her spine as a terrible thought occurred to her: maybe there was no one around to witness the spectacle.

  “Try calling her again,” Bethany said. Her eyes remained glued straight ahead.

  Kara did. Still no answer. Just a recording stating the call could not be placed as dialed. She shook her head.

  “Home line?”

  Again Kara dialed.

  Nothing.

  Bethany brushed back the auburn bangs from her eyes and leaned forward. “I don’t see anyone around.” She switched the car into drive, and the vehicle bolted forward. Dodging the burning wreckage, she drove through their neighbors’ front yards. The Volvo’s tires left trails of kicked-up sod and soil. Kara gripped the handle on the side door, her fingers trembling. It wasn’t her mother’s driving that scared her as their car burst through the smoke. A body lay sprawled out in the grass before the Civic. The Volvo sped past the mangled corpse, rendered unrecognizable by scorched flesh. Kara cupped her hand over her mouth, nausea rising inside of her.

  Where were the ambulances? The police?

  She briefly wondered if the wreck here had been like what they’d seen on the highway. Her only hope was that Sadie had made it home before the crazies started running rampant in the streets.

  Their house lay at the end of the cul-de-sac, far too close to this sickening scene for Kara’s comfort. Beige siding and black shutters decorated its front. On the first floor, a bay window jutted out from the front room. Kara loved to read in that nook with sunlight filtering in through the leaves of the elm tree just outside the window.

  But now someone else was trying to get in through the bay window. It was a woman of a slender build wearing a jogging suit, her hair tied back in a ponytail.

  “Who the hell is that?” The car shuddered as the anti-lock brake system reacted to the sudden shift in speed and tires screeched on concrete.

  The woman pounded on the panes of the bay window, seeming not to notice the Volvo. A crack splintered the glass. It shattered as the woman punched into it. She withdrew her arm from the jagged shards, a fountain of blood spewing from the gashes in her skin. That didn’t stop the woman. She pulled the shards away and squirmed through the window.

  Bet
hany rolled down her window. “Hey, what the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  The woman spun, her nose twitching. Her eyes seemed to bulge at the sight of Bethany. She sprinted toward them, abandoning the window. Bethany threw the car into reverse. The crazed woman jumped, her arms extended and fingers reaching out. Even as the car backed down the driveway, the woman reached it and slapped a hand against the passenger-side window. Kara drew back from the glass as the woman drove her shoulder into it. The window shattered, and fragments of safety glass rained down as Kara undid her seatbelt to crawl farther from the woman’s grasp.

  Bethany turned the car and threw it into drive. But the woman was quicker. She reached in and yanked Kara through the window by one arm. Concrete scraped against Kara’s skin as she tumbled out.

  The woman leapt at her, but Kara rolled to one side. The woman in the jogging suit slid across the concrete, and fresh cuts formed along the side of her face and arms. She stood, seemingly unaware of her injuries, and charged Kara again.

  “Mom!” Kara called, struggling to her feet.

  Bethany jumped from the parked car and waved her arms as she ran into the front yard. “Come and get it, bitch!”

  The crazed woman’s neck twisted, and she let out a growl. She barreled toward Bethany. At the last second, Bethany sidestepped her charge and jabbed an elbow into the woman’s shoulder. The woman staggered but regained her footing. Her hand swung in a quick arc and connected with Bethany’s side. Bethany fell back from the blow. Her feet slipped on the grass, and she landed on her side, crushing one arm. She yelped in pain as the woman pounced.

  The crazy lady clawed at Bethany’s face. With her left hand, Bethany grabbed the woman’s wrist. She threw a knee into the woman’s pelvis and twisted to free herself. But the enraged woman didn’t let up. Even when Bethany caught her other wrist, the woman twisted her neck to bite at her face. Bethany’s head whipped left and right to avoid the chomping jaws.

  Kara could see her mother’s arms shaking. Bethany couldn’t hold out much longer. Kara ran to the Volvo and tore through her bag, desperate to find a weapon, anything to aid her mother, but she found nothing of use. She popped the trunk.

  “Get back in the car!” Bethany yelled, her voice strained.

  Ignoring her, Kara pulled up the mat covering the car’s spare tire and the toolset for changing a flat. The glossy black X-shaped lug wrench glinted in the late afternoon sunlight. She tore it from its place above the spare and stomped toward the woman who was trying to hurt her mother.

  “Get off her!” Kara yelled.

  The woman whipped around, and Bethany used the momentary confusion to shove her off. Her eyelids twitching and her mouth hanging open, the woman lunged. Kara cocked back the lug wrench but froze before she struck. She’d hunted the Maryland woods with her dad before. She’d field-dressed deer and harvested her fair share of wild turkey. But she’d never hit a person.

  “Kara!” Bethany called. She threw herself at the woman and took the brunt of the attack meant for her daughter.

  When the woman’s scraping fingers drew blood along her mother’s face, Kara’s hesitation broke. She swung the lug wrench with all the power of a steroid-laden batter going for a grand slam. The end of the wrench smashed against the woman’s skull. Flecks of blood and flesh spattered from the blow. Bone splintered.

  Yet the debilitating injury hardly fazed the woman. She snarled and let out a howl. Once again, she leapt at Kara.

  This time Kara didn’t hold back. The lug wrench connected for a second time with the woman’s face. Her neck snapped backward. Momentum carried the bottom half of her body forward, and she spun before she smashed against the ground. Her feet landed on the driveway, her crushed head on the grass.

  Kara drew the lug wrench back again, ready to swing should the crazy person decide she wasn’t finished. She crept toward the woman and kicked her in the ribs.

  “Are you okay?” Bethany asked.

  Nodding, Kara stared at the body. Crimson liquid seeped from the jumble of torn flesh and fragmented bone. The woman’s chest lay still. Kara dropped the wrench, and it clattered on the concrete. A painful knot twisted in her gut, and she threw an arm over the Volvo’s open trunk as the contents of her stomach spilled on the driveway.

  “You’re okay,” her mother said, drawing an arm around Kara’s shoulder. “You’re okay,” she repeated.

  Kara retched again before dry-heaving. She dragged her sleeve across her mouth and stared with grim fascination at the corpse.

  “You did the right thing,” Bethany said, exhibiting an amazing calm despite the events she’d just endured.

  In her mind’s eye, Kara saw the people on the highway running, pouncing, and tearing apart their hapless victims. This woman in the tracksuit must’ve been like them. Enraged. Crazy. Yet she was still a woman, and Kara had still killed her. She dry-heaved again before straightening. “She’s dead.”

  “You saved my life,” Bethany countered.

  Kara hardly registered the words, focused on the destruction she’d caused and the life she’d taken.

  “Come on, let’s find your sister.” Bethany jogged to the front porch and opened the door. Maggie, the family’s golden retriever, bounded out to greet them. She wound between their legs, whining all the while.

  Bethany stepped inside the house and called, “Sadie! Sadie, are you home?”

  One hand scratching the back of Maggie’s head, Kara glanced around the street. No one other than the corpse near the car crash and the dead woman at their feet could be seen. The neighborhood appeared empty. She ran to the passenger side of the car and grabbed her bag. Kara followed her mother into the house. She locked the door and tried to flick on the light. “Power’s out,” she said.

  Bethany ran up the stairs. “Sadie? Sadie, are you home?”

  Kara’s heart began to climb into her throat. “Sadie!”

  Breathing heavily, Bethany came back downstairs. The cut on her cheek was bleeding, and the skin around it already seemed to be turning a yellowish color like a fading bruise. “Your sister’s probably still at the Weavers’. We’ve got to go get her.”

  “Mom, are you okay? Your cheek—”

  “I’m okay. I’ll be fine.” Bethany went to the door and peeked out its small half-circle window. “There are more of those people out there. Those crazies.” She turned away from the window and back to Kara. “We’ve got to find your sister. Run downstairs and grab a couple guns from the safe.”

  Kara plunged into the cold basement with an emergency flashlight and ran to the safe. Her eyes were wet, but she made no effort to wipe away the tears as, guided by muscle memory, she twisted the safe’s dial until it clicked open. She selected a Remington Model 860 Pump and the H&R Handi Rifle that was her mom’s. The Remington was Kara’s favorite hunting gun. Her mom had never been as into deer hunting as Kara and her dad, but he’d gotten her a basic rifle and taught her to use it, anyway. Kara sprinted back up the stairs with the weapons and handed the rifle to her mother.

  Bethany gripped the weapon and looked at her daughter with haunted eyes. Kara could tell what her mother was thinking. They were so close to Sadie. But with more of those crazy people out there like the ones they had seen along the highway and the one who attacked Bethany, Sadie might as well have been a hundred miles away. Bethany wanted to venture out there alone, fighting off rabid people.

  Kara shuddered. “Are you sure you don’t want me to go with?”

  “I’m okay,” Bethany said, repeating her mantra from earlier. She wiped the tears from Kara’s cheek with a free hand. “We’re going to be okay.”

  -18-

  Meredith patted her holstered pistol beneath her jacket as her boots crunched over fallen twigs and leaves. She stepped over the rotted-out husk of a log resting across the trail. Her thoughts lingered on the promise she'd made to Dom. She would gladly help his daughters; over the years, she'd heard enough about the girls to feel that they were a part of her fa
mily. She'd never met Kara and Sadie, but Dom had regaled Meredith with his daughters' exploits in school, on camping trips with him, and their family vacations. After his divorce, the stories had become bittersweet, his time with them less frequent. But Dom had still kept her updated on his girls.

  Whenever she contracted Dom for a new job or checked in on a current one, Meredith made sure to ask after them, too. They often ended up carrying on like the old friends they were, whether over the phone or in person—though in-person meetings happened far too infrequently for Meredith’s liking. He was a good man, and sometimes she wondered what would have happened if things had turned out differently between them.

  She trudged along, lost in her reminiscing, until she came to a small clearing among the trees. Ahead of her, a golden-brown cedar structure greeted her: Rocky Run Shelter. It looked like a log cabin without its front wall. She checked her map to confirm her location and trudged toward the structure’s covered deck. A porch swing creaked in the wind behind a grill pit. Compared to other shelters on the Appalachian Trail, it was a veritable palace. Not only was this one of the more recently renovated structures along the trail, but the paths near it boasted scenic overlooks where, on a clear day, the verdant greens of the surrounding woods and rolling hills contrasted sharply with an azure sky.

  These features also meant this particular portion of the trail was rather popular. After listening to the radio reports of spreading violence and rabid humans running amok, she feared encountering anyone. She crept toward the shelter and looked for a pump to refill her water bottles once she had ensured it was safe.

  Something moved in the shadows. Slipping one hand into her jacket, she walked toward the porch. She resisted the urge to call out and instead wrapped her fingers around the pistol grip.

  A wiry man emerged from the shadows. He blinked and wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve. Dust caked his curly brown hair. Stretching out his arms, he let out a yawn as a young woman, tall and thin as he was, joined him.

  “How’s it going?” he said.