Her bottom lip trembling, Sadie nodded and let out a long breath. “I wish Dad were here.”
“Me, too.” Kara hoisted herself up and through the window. She lay low on the roof. The sun beat down on her, warming her skin even as a cold wind sent goose pimples along her flesh. She inched across the roof, her hands scraping on the shingles.
A couple of crazies meandered around the cul-de-sac. Almost a dozen more wandered between the neighboring yards. They seemed to be lethargic, yet she’d seen how they reacted when they had been whipped into a feeding frenzy. She didn’t intend to underestimate them now.
“Hand me the toolbox and sheet,” Kara said, keeping her voice low and fighting to restrain the panic threatening to overtake her.
Sadie passed the toolbox and then handed the sheet through the window.
Carefully, Kara situated the toolbox and the sheet next to her as she lay on the roof. “Shotgun next.” She felt naked enough being on the roof where the crazies might spot her. “Okay, when you come out, make sure to keep a low profile. These things only seem to look straight ahead unless something attracts their attention. So don’t attract their attention, got it?”
“Of course.” Sadie said as she pulled herself up through the window.
They army-crawled across the roof and spread the sheet out between them. The shingles scraped the bare skin of her arms as Kara moved to the far side. When she judged the sheet was in a good position, she gave Sadie a thumbs-up.
The distant beat of a helicopter made her heart leap. Sadie shot Kara a wide-eyed look, and Kara nodded to signal she’d heard the chopper, too. It underlined the importance of getting their distress sign in place.
Careful not to rattle the box of nails, she selected a nail and grabbed the hammer. As she drew it up, she froze.
Maybe it was her exhaustion. Maybe she wasn’t as resourceful as she thought she was.
But she realized pounding nails into the roof was most certainly going to attract the attention of the crazies below. She searched her mind for alternatives. Tape probably wouldn’t hold the sheet in place, especially if the wind grabbed hold of it. Glue was far too impractical.
Sadie seemed to sense the dilemma but remained flat on the roof, waiting for her sister to signal their next action.
The shotgun still lay within arm’s reach if all else failed. Kara hoped she wouldn’t have to resort to using the weapon, but it at least was some reassurance. She drew her leg up and slipped off her shoe. Sadie raised an eyebrow but said nothing. A perplexed look crossed her face.
Kara placed the shoe over the nail and peeled back its tongue. Cautiously, she tried one hit with the hammer. The muffled blow seemed to work, and she slowly but surely hammered in the nail. She started to feel confident. This might actually work.
A sudden gust ripped the sheet up from Sadie’s grip. It furled in the wind like a sail at full mast and whipped over Kara. She struggled to hold the sheet down without dropping the hammer.
But the wind prevailed and tugged the fabric away. It pulled the single nail straight out from the shingle. Kara lunged to grab the corner of the sheet, missed, and hit the box of nails. They skittered down the roof. Kara watched, her heart caught in her throat and her fingers splayed in one last desperate grab. The box rolled off the roof and fell onto the driveway. The unmistakable ping of metal dancing across concrete echoed across the cul-de-sac.
Kara’s pulse pounded in her ears as everything seemed to happen in slow motion. The nearest crazies whipped around to locate the disturbance. Their red eyes darted across the front of the house. Then one caught sight of Sadie and let out a grating bellow. Others followed the gaze of the first, and they rushed at the house.
“Get inside!” Kara yelled.
Sadie scrambled along the roof toward the window.
Her feet slipping from under her, Kara hurried after her and picked up the shotgun.
A crazy, black T-shirt hanging in rags from his torso, ran and jumped at the roof. His hands missed the gutter by about a foot. Another man with a tall, thin frame leapt onto Bethany’s Volvo parked in the driveway. With arms outstretched, he jumped at the roof above the garage. His hands caught on the shingles, and he carried himself up. Sadie was almost through the window when the man caught a foothold and ran at them.
Kara shouldered the shotgun, pumped, and fired.
The thin man’s chest exploded in a splatter of flesh and blood. His body was thrown backward and out of sight.
“Come on!” Sadie called from inside the bathroom.
Another two people bounded off the top of the Volvo and grappled with the roof, fighting for purchase. Their jagged teeth clicked together, and their eyes bulged as they shrieked in frantic rage.
Kara swung into the window feet first and slammed it shut behind her. She locked it as a woman with a shredded face crashed into the glass. Fingers with long, claw-like nails scratched against the glass. The woman’s muffled growls filled the bathroom. More howls and yells echoed outside.
Kara and Sadie sprinted from the bathroom and slammed the door shut.
“The mattress!” Kara pointed at the bed, and her sister launched into action. As Kara had done before, they built a barrier supported by the dressers along with the king-size mattress.
Joe pounded up the stairs and entered the bedroom, rifle in hand. “Are you two okay?”
Kara pulled a lock of sweat-matted hair out of her face. “We’re alive.”
With the makeshift wall in place, they scurried down the stairs.
“Do you hear that?” Sadie asked.
Kara paused on the bottom of the stairs and strained her ears. Between the howls and cries of the crazies, the distinct chugging of a diesel engine could be heard. “Is it the Army or something?”
The roar of the engine grew louder until it seemed as though it was directly outside the house. Kara ran to the front room, her sister in tow. Joe beat them to the door and peeked through the small window near its top. “What in God’s name...”
Sadie and Kara peered out the unbroken window, prying open the blinds. A yellow school bus had come to a stop in front of their house. Several of the crazies pounced on it, climbing on top of the hood and throwing themselves at the cracked windshield.
The female crazy that had been at the bathroom window limped across the driveway, her ankle bent at an unnatural angle. She must’ve jumped from the roof when the bus arrived, and evidently the intense agony of a broken ankle was nothing compared to the allure of fresh prey.
The emergency hatch in the bus’s roof burst open. A red-haired woman around Kara’s father’s age pushed through, wielding a pistol. She strode toward the crazies on the bus’s roof, the pistol firing all the way. Kara’s heart fluttered as she watched someone else handle a firearm against the crazies milling about. Each blast, deliberate and powerful, knocked the attackers to the ground. Blood pooled around their corpses even as the crazy with the broken ankle climbed the side of the bus.
Another man, this one no more than a few years older than Kara, came through the emergency door of the bus followed by a young woman wearing what looked to be hiking gear. The man wielded a lug wrench, and the woman held a pry bar, tools Kara was familiar with from time spent working with her dad on his classic Challenger project cars in the garage. Neither of them looked crazy, either. In fact, they seemed to be actively fighting the crazies off.
The young woman swung the pry bar at the crazy with the bent ankle and sent her sprawling across the asphalt. Several more climbed the bus, but the three people defended their turf valiantly.
None of it made sense to Kara. Why leave their vehicle and risk their lives fighting these people in the middle of a neighborhood?
One of the crazies leapt up the side of the bus. Instead of climbing to the roof, he swung out and grabbed the red-headed woman’s ankle. He jumped back from the side of the bus and dragged her with him. Her body hit the asphalt hard, and her pistol clattered away. The two younger people had no ranged weapons and were s
till occupied by a stream of crazies climbing toward them.
The red-headed woman tried to crawl away as the crazy coiled, preparing to pounce. She reached for her pistol, but it was too far. She wasn’t going to make it.
Without hesitation, Kara pushed Joe aside and stormed out the front door.
-30-
Meredith reached for the pistol, but she saw she wouldn’t retrieve it in time. She rolled instead, concrete scraping her arms.
The Skull slammed against the driveway. His talons stabbed down where she’d been a moment ago. His nose scrunched in a menacing snarl, and he twisted his neck. Growling at Meredith, he drew back for a second attack, putting himself between her and the pistol.
Meredith brought herself up to her knees and rolled to her left as the man swiped out with one malformed hand. Skeletal blades protruded from his skin at his elbows. Beneath the tatters of his T-shirt, a bony cage was forming around his chest.
Eric and Shauna still defended their position valiantly. Each connecting swing sent another Skull tumbling from the bus. But no matter how well they fought, they wouldn’t make it to her in time.
A female Skull sidled up next to the one in the tattered T-shirt. She shoved him, growling and snapping. With a gut-wrenching howl, she sprang at Meredith.
A loud shotgun blast exploded to Meredith’s right. The Skull flew sideways and slid across the concrete, leaving a trail of flesh and blood. The second Skull jerked to his left, but another shotgun blast knocked him off his feet.
“Are you okay?” a young woman’s voice called.
Meredith got to her feet and sprinted toward her gun. Her savior had deep auburn locks and striking cheekbones. She appeared to be no older than twenty, yet there was a determination, a ferocity in her green eyes that Meredith remembered seeing in only one other person.
“You’re his daughter, aren’t you?” Meredith asked, chambering a round in her pistol. The young woman shouldered her shotgun again, getting a bead on the nearest Skull, and fired. Pieces of bone flew from the Skull’s chest. But the creature’s arms and bloodshot eyes didn’t stop moving. A yell sounded from its mouth that resonated in Meredith’s chest. It was as if the buckshot hadn’t bothered the creature in the slightest.
“What the hell?” The girl aimed the shotgun at the Skull’s chest again.
“Doesn’t work on all of them,” Meredith said. She leveled her pistol and sent a bullet through the Skull’s eye. “You’ve got to go for the face.” Meredith fired at another Skull. She was back in the rhythm, firing and swiveling, catching her breath. “I’m Meredith Webb, an old friend of your dad’s.”
“Kara,” the young woman said, standing side-by-side with Meredith. She readjusted her aim, and another Skull’s head exploded in a splatter of blood and bone fragments.
For as youthful as she looked, Kara appeared to be a hardened warrior. Definitely Dom’s daughter. “Where’s your sister, your mother? Are they okay?”
Kara arched the shotgun around the cul-de-sac. No other Skulls charged at them, but with the gunfire, more would be on their way.
“My sister’s fine.”
“Good,” Meredith said, ignoring the unspoken suggestion that the girls’ mother was not all right.
“Yep,” Kara said, pumping the shotgun. “She’s inside with the others.”
“Others?”
Kara nodded. “The neighbors and their kids.”
“All clear?” Meredith called to Shauna and Eric.
“Looks like it,” Eric said.
Shauna pushed a Skull’s body over the side of the bus’s roof. Its body smacked against the asphalt, and Shauna and Eric climbed down over the hood and onto the ground.
Meredith made brief introductions as they ran to Kara’s house. When Kara closed the door and locked it, Meredith felt a wave of relief, almost as if she’d come home. For the past week, she’d been on the run from the CIA, staying at temporary lodging where she could get it. Then on the Appalachian Trail in an attempt to hide in plain sight while making her way to Fort Detrick. The outbreak had made what was already a perilous race for her life all the more dangerous.
And now, she was finally in a home where a family lived normally.
Had lived normally.
The house certainly smelled lived in—a distinct odor brought on when too many people resided in a place with minimal air circulation. Meredith sniffed, thinking she could detect the scent of something similar to rotting meat. Maybe food had gone bad with the power outage.
The looks on the faces of the survivors told her spoiled food wasn’t the worst of their worries. These people, in the short time since the spread of the Oni Agent, must have their own harrowing stories to tell.
A golden retriever hobbled over. The dog’s tail wagged as she licked Meredith’s open palm. It favored one of its legs.
Meredith knelt down, eye level with the dog, and scratched behind its ears. She examined the homemade splint. “Did you do this?”
“I did,” Kara said. She introduced the other five people waiting at the edge of the front hall. There was a smaller version of her who must be Sadie. A family, too: Joe, Nina, Zack, and Leah. The children seemed too young to have to witness the atrocities in their front lawn. In turn, Meredith introduced Eric and Shauna to the group.
Now that the fighting had hit a lull and they were safely in the house, Kara’s eyebrows scrunched together, and she shot Meredith a skeptical look. “How do you know my dad? He never once mentioned your name.”
“He probably wouldn’t.” Meredith inhaled and exhaled deeply. She knew there was no point in sugarcoating the truth or keeping secrets. “I met your father when we were both at the CIA.”
Sadie and Kara shared a baffled expression. Their eyes widened in disbelief as Meredith continued the story of how she and Dom had worked together to defend the nation against both homegrown and international threats. She revealed his current status as a private covert contractor and his second home aboard the Huntress.
Meredith paused. “I’m sorry, I know this is a lot to handle.”
“I have no idea if you’re crazy or just making up this story,” Kara said, “but I guess it isn’t any crazier than what’s going on outside, huh?”
“You’ve got that right,” Meredith said. “You should ask him to show you his old CIA badge. It’s not like he’s got any reason to hide it anymore.”
“I think it’s awesome,” Sadie said. “No wonder he’s always gone. He’s like James Bond.”
“Not exactly, but he is good at what he does.” Meredith checked her watch. “He should be here with the Hunters any minute. Everyone needs to be ready to move as soon as they're here so we can go straight to Detrick.” Another thought struck her, something she’d been afraid to ask before. “Kara, where’s your mother?”
Kara chewed her bottom lip, clearly putting on a brave face. “She...turned.”
Meredith’s stomach twisted. “Is she still—”
“She’s in the basement,” Kara said. “She attacked us, but...she’s in the basement now.”
The mere thought that one of these Skulls was below them, residing in their shelter, sent a shiver crawling down Meredith’s spine. She’d been so concerned about safety from what lay outside, she hadn’t considered the dangers she might face indoors.
“But Dad’s people are working on a cure, right?” Sadie asked, her eyes alight in hope.
“They’re trying,” Meredith said. “But I haven’t heard the latest updates.”
Sadie seemed to accept the answer, jubilantly optimistic that Dom’s team would cure their mother.
But Kara frowned. “They don’t even know what this thing is. How can they even hope to cure it then? Most pharmaceutical products take years to test in the lab before they ever help a patient.”
“Correct.” Meredith nodded, impressed with the young woman’s knowledge. She recalled Dom saying Kara attended the University of Maryland and figured she must be an attentive student in some medical-re
lated degree program. “But it’s possible the Oni Agent is composed of a pathogen or combination of pathogens we already have a cure for. If that’s the case, I believe Lauren’s lab can identify the culprit agent and use an existing therapy.”
“And if that’s not the case?” Kara raised an eyebrow.
“Then we’ve got a long road ahead of us.”
Kara’s cheeks flushed red as the others waited around the living room in silence.
“Who would make a biological weapon that does something like this to people? Why would they unleash it on us?” Kara’s nose wrinkled in indignation. “It isn’t right!”
“I completely agree. Trust me, we’re working hard on figuring out how to stop the Oni Agent and find out who or what is behind it.” Meredith reached a hand out, but Kara recoiled from her attempt at comfort. She continued, “Your dad is the best at what he does. We’re going to get out of this, and we’re going to do what we can to help your mother.” As the words left her mouth, she wondered if she was making empty promises.
“And make sure whoever is responsible for doing that to her pays,” Kara said through gritted teeth.
“Absolutely,” Meredith said.
Silence drew on between them for a moment. The unmistakable whir of a helicopter grew in the distance.
“There it is again,” Sadie said. “I knew we heard a helicopter before.”
Kara peeled back the blinds over one of the kitchen windows. “Is that the Army?”
Meredith checked her watch and then joined Kara. “If I had to guess, it’s your father.”
-31-
Dom and his team had no cover from the Skulls except for the swing set and the hedges. One of the Skulls pushed through the greenery and howled when he spotted the team.
“Into the house!” Dom yelled.
He led the rush toward the house as more Skulls filtered in from beyond the hedges and from the front yard. Wails filled the air. Leading with his shoulder, Dom hammered the sliding glass door until it shattered. He ushered the other Hunters inside and picked off a couple of the closest Skulls. Once his team was inside, his boots crunched over the broken glass as he entered the country-style kitchen.
The Tide (Tide Series Book 1) Page 24