by Sarra Cannon
Parrish’s shoulders relaxed, and she smiled.
“Too bad I forgot my bikini,” she said, rolling her eyes. “But okay. I guess we can spare an hour or so for the beach this morning.”
A huge smile spread across Karmen's face. She grabbed the large beach bag she’d hidden by the couch and lifted it into the air.
“Don’t worry, I found bathing suits for all of us,” she said. “Let’s get changed.”
“Race you to the water!”
Karmen laughed as Noah and Crash ran toward the waves. The sun was bright overhead, glittering off the water for miles. She could almost close her eyes and pretend all was right with the world.
Maybe they were just friends, here on a fun, late-summer vacation at the beach. No virus. No Dark One or witches. Just fun in the sun with her best friend and a couple of hot guys.
Next to her, though, Parrish sighed and shook her head.
“Stop worrying,” Karmen said. “Just for one hour, try not to act like the weight of the entire world is on your shoulders. You've got to loosen up.”
“Not everyone is like you, Karmen.” Parrish dug her toes into the warm sand. “And I mean that in the best way. I wish I could just relax and have some fun for a change, but I can’t get New York out of my mind.”
“You know I wasn’t joking about the mental health thing,” she said. “If you spend all this time worried about what could go wrong in New York, you’re more likely to make a mistake or miss something important. But if you relax and just let loose for a while, you’ll think more clearly when it’s time to go. I promise.”
Parrish studied her.
“How do you know all that?” she asked.
Karmen laughed. “Years of therapy, I guess,” she said. “Maybe it wasn’t all money down the drain, after all.”
Her therapist had actually been really nice and very smart. The woman had known there was more going on at home than Karmen was willing to say, but her father had warned her that if she said a word about their special relationship, he’d tell everyone she was a habitual liar and have her put in some kind of institution.
Looking back on it now, she realized those were just empty threats.
He’d abused her for so long, he’d brainwashed her to believe that even if she spoke up, no one would believe her. That she would end up all alone and ridiculed if she said anything.
So, she kept her mouth shut, even in therapy.
But she’d learned that spending all your time worried or focused on the bad parts of your life only made things worse. Instead, it was better to make the most of the good things when they came.
And today, this morning by the beach, this was a good thing. And she wanted Parrish to enjoy it, too.
“Come on, let’s have some fun,” she said.
She grabbed Parrish’s arm and together they ran down to where the guys were splashing around in the waves. The water was colder than she expected, and she shrieked as it splashed against her legs. Crash laughed and grabbed her around the waist, lifting her high into the air
As the next wave came, he dove into it, carrying Karmen with him. They came up together, laughing and wiping salt water out of their faces.
“Come on, let's swim out past the breaking waves where the water is calmer. Maybe we can dig with our toes and find sand-dollars,” Karmen said, grabbing Parrish and pulling her along in the surf.
All these years, the two of them had been fighting and exchanging harsh words and ugly looks, but now, after all they’d been through together, Karmen was glad Parrish was the one she’d gotten to be with here at the end of the world.
Together, the four of them swam out past the point where the waves broke. Karmen could barely touch the bottom with the tips of her toes, but Crash held onto her, as if she belonged to him. Their bodies kept touching under water, and she had to admit, she didn’t hate it.
For half an hour, they jumped and swam out in the ocean, laughing and playing together like old friends without a care in the world. Karmen found a few shells she wanted to keep, and Crash slipped them into the pockets of his swim trunks.
Every once in a while, his arm would casually circle around her waist, sending shivers of excitement up her spine.
She wanted to stay just like this forever, and for a little while, she pretended that they would.
“Holy crap,” Crash said, pointing into the distance as his grip around her waist tightened. “Is that a ship?”
Karmen smoothed her wet hair away from her face and squinted into the distance. On the horizon, she could just barely make out the silhouette of a ship. At this range, it was hard to tell exactly how big it was, but she thought maybe it was a cruise ship or some kind of freighter.
“I have binoculars in my bag up on the beach,” Noah said, then started swimming back to shore.
By the time they all got back to the beach, the ship had already gotten closer, and from the looks of it, there was another one not too far behind it. Noah dug through his backpack and pulled out his binoculars.
“We thought we saw lights on the water last night from our balcony,” Parrish said. “Maybe it was these ships.”
“Do you see anyone on board?” Crash asked.
“It’s definitely a cruise ship,” Noah said. “A big one.”
“Maybe it’s a group of survivors,” Parrish said, but Karmen had a bad feeling about this.
Her stomach twisted, all good vibes of a day on the beach shifting to discomfort and fear.
“Come on. What are the chances the people on that ship aren't infected?” Crash asked. “A million to one.”
“I remember hearing on the news that they were quarantining cruise ships when the virus first began,” Parrish said. “Keeping people on the ship for weeks until they knew for sure no one was sick. Maybe the people on this ship were lucky. Maybe they heard what was happening on shore and decided to stay on board.”
“I don't see anyone,” Noah said, handing off the binoculars to Crash.
The closer the ship got to them, the more uneasy Karmen began to feel. Nausea swept over her and she felt chilled, despite the heat.
What the hell happened to you? Don't come any closer!
A man's voice rang out in her head, and Karmen felt a stabbing pain behind her left eye. She winced.
Oh God! What are you doing?! Someone help me!
The voices grew louder. When she closed her eyes against the pain, an image appeared in her mind, as clear as a memory. A man, about her father's age, wearing khaki shorts and a blue Polo. His hair was black and curly. She didn’t recognize the man, but she could see what was happening to him, like a movie going across a mental screen.
Her head throbbed. A scream pierced her mind, so filled with horror that it sent her to her knees in the sand.
“Karmen? What is it?”
Crash knelt beside her, but she pushed him away and focused on the ship, instead.
She wasn’t sure what this new ability was, and it was killing her head, but she wanted to understand it. Parrish had said every battle was an opportunity to practice or develop new skills, right? She could handle the pain if it meant understanding what she could really do with it.
Karmen focused on the man in her mind. In a way, she was in two places at once. Her body was there on the beach, but another part of her, some part of her mind was with this dark haired man. All she saw were flashes of action, and each flash sent an awful pain through her.
The man backed into a corner. A figure limped toward him. A scream. Then blood. So much blood!
“What's happening to her?” Parrish asked. “Karmen, are you okay?”
But Karmen waved them away.
She was aware of the action around her, but she couldn't speak or respond. She gripped her head in her hands, trying to lock onto whatever images she’d seen.
She focused on the ship, and she could see the corridors. The dining hall. The casino. Zombies huddled inside in large groups, the walls and floors covered in blood.
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The story of the ship’s demise came to her as if she’d lived it herself. A woman had been sick when she boarded the boat. Just a cough. It was nothing, really.
Only, she’d spread the virus to everyone else on that ship who’d gotten close to her, and when she died, just like so many others in this world, she’d come back to life as something different.
Something controlled by an ancient evil.
The man Karmen had seen in her vision was just one of many who’d been bitten, died, and turned out there on the cruise ship.
The ship had been the site of unspeakable horrors and bloodshed, and suddenly, she knew with utter clarity that there was no one left alive on board.
As quickly as the visions had come, they were gone. The pain in her head disappeared, and she collapsed onto the sand, exhausted.
“They’re all dead,” she murmured, trying her best not to let those breakfast cinnamon rolls come back up. “Everyone on that ship is dead.”
Twenty-Six
Noah
Noah got cleaned up and changed into some fresh clothes he found in the closet.
Karmen’s idea to go to the beach for a little while had been awesome. He’d allowed himself to forget about the world as it was, and that was priceless.
If that cruise ship hadn’t come along, they might have stayed out there for hours laughing and having fun, but what she’d seen on board that ship had sobered them all. And it wasn’t just the fact that there was a ship full of dead people. Hell, the whole world was full of dead people at this point.
It was also the fact that their powers continued to grow and shift.
How were they really going to fight some ancient, powerful evil if they didn’t even know what they were capable of? Or what hidden drawbacks there were that might get them killed?
So far, no one else had really come up against using their power and nearly dying because of it, but Noah had learned a major lesson back in Philly when he’d helped Stephen.
He’d felt something strange when he worked to heal that illness, but he hadn’t listened to his own instincts. He’d been more interested in learning what he was capable of, trying something new and helping out in the process, when he should have been interested in staying alive.
Karmen seemed to be fine after her initial nausea and dizziness out there on the beach, but embracing a new level of magic had definitely taken its toll for a while.
The visions had obviously caused her pain, and she’d been so consumed by it, she hadn’t been able to speak or respond to the rest of them while it was happening. That made her vulnerable to attack if and when it happened again.
Noah shook his head and ran a hand through his freshly washed hair.
They needed more time to train and explore any new abilities they could. He was grateful they were going to have a few extra days here, but then what? New York was going to be an extreme test of their abilities.
What if something new came up that got them all into trouble, just because they didn’t know how to control it?
“Hey, you okay in here?” Parrish asked, coming up behind him and wrapping her arms around his waist.
Her hair was wet, too, thanks to Crash turning on the power long enough for everyone to get hot showers, and it tickled the side of his arm as she leaned in.
“I’m okay,” he said. “Just looking at those ships and thinking about how awful it must have been to be trapped on there when all of this broke out.”
There were three ships visible in the distance now, and Noah assumed it had to be part of what Parrish had said earlier. How cruise ships had been quarantined in the early days and forced to stay at sea. These ships must have just been wandering out here for the past month or two with no one still alive on board.
“There are horrors like that happening all over the world,” she said. “We have to try not to focus on that. Instead, we focus on what we can do about it. If David is right, we can put an end to this soon. I dreamed of the island again last night. I think it’s close.”
“I do, too,” he said. “I’ve been thinking that after we get David and Zoe out of the city, we should try to head straight there on the boat. The sooner, the better.”
“I agree. And once we’re on the water, it will be nearly impossible for the Dark One to reach us.”
“Let’s hope so,” he said, though he didn’t think it was good to underestimate or make any assumptions about what the Dark One was capable of.
“Come on, let’s get downstairs,” she said. “I think Crash wanted to go check the nearby houses for phones and computer gear.”
He nodded. “You go on down,” he said. “I’m going to hang out up here for a few minutes and just take a breath.”
“You sure you’re okay?” Parrish asked, tilting her head to study him.
“I just need some time to think,” he said.
She squeezed his arm. “Okay, I’ll see you downstairs.”
Noah stared out at the cruise ships, feeling restless, as if time was slipping away faster than any of them realized.
Twenty-Seven
Parrish
The day couldn’t go by fast enough.
Parrish was anxious to hear from David and Zoe again. They were so close now, she couldn’t bear the thought of anything going wrong at this point.
The whole group had gathered together in the living room, waiting for David to reach out to them and let them know what his searching had produced today. Parrish had the fatalis stone clutched in her hand, and she kept turning it around and around, touching each of the symbols and wondering if they’d chosen these for themselves or if someone else had carved them into this stone.
“Stop fidgeting,” Karmen said. “They’ll be here any minute.”
“I can’t help it,” Parrish said. “I just want to know they’re okay.”
“I honestly believe if anything happened to David, we’d know,” Crash said. “The closer we get to each other, the more I can feel his energy. And my own. If he’s fine, I’m sure Zoe is fine, too. We just have to be patient.”
Easy for him to say. It wasn’t his ten-year-old sister sitting in the most dangerous city in the country.
But he was right about David. Parrish was sure the buzz of extra energy running through her these past few days had a lot to do with how close they were to finally becoming a group of five again.
Also, David had sensed it when she was in trouble and being held by that silver zombie back at the compound. He’d felt her panic and fear. If something had happened to him and Zoe, all of them should have felt it.
She took a deep breath in and let it go slowly, releasing the fear and just being present to the moment.
They were lucky, really.
They’d had the odds stacked against them from the beginning of this mess, and yet they’d managed to find each other. Zoe had managed to stay alive, and better yet, David had found her just before the Dark One got to her.
If their luck continued, maybe this whole thing could be over in a few more days. All they had to do was get through New York and find that island. Then the Dark One would be sealed in tight for another hundred lifetimes.
But what if their luck didn’t continue?
What if the Dark One went free before they had a chance to get to the island and reseal the world?
Like she said when she’d held Parrish there by the bus at the compound, they’d never actually defeated her. If they’d been able to do that, she would have been dead, not sealed away.
How powerful did a witch have to be to take on all five of them at full strength and still survive?
Parrish shuddered just thinking about it.
They simply couldn’t let her go free. That was all there was to it.
Crash stood and headed toward the kitchen.
“Hey, where are you going? They should be reaching out any second,” she said.
“I’ll be right back,” he said, disappearing into the downstairs bedroom.
Parrish took
another deep breath. Okay, so she was maybe losing her patience a little too easily. There were going to be delays and hardships coming up. She needed to chill.
But when David’s voice came into her head, she called out for Crash to move his butt.
“Coming,” he shouted, running into the room and jumping over the couch to join them around the coffee table.
He placed an iPad he’d gotten from a group trip to raid some of the nearby houses this afternoon on the coffee table and pressed record on the video camera app.
They all took hands and Parrish placed the stone in the center of the group, calling up David’s image as if he were there in person.
“You have no idea how good it is to see you again,” Parrish said. “How’s Zoe?”
“I’m good,” Zoe said. “It’s boring here, but we’ve been doing puzzles to pass the time. It’s not so bad, but I miss TV.”
Parrish had to laugh at that. Zoe had always been in rehearsals. She’d barely ever watched any TV at all, and when she did, their parents limited it to a single thirty-minute show on the weekends.
“How did the recon go?” Crash asked.
They spent the next twenty minutes going over what David had been able to find out in the city that day. From the sound of it the Hudson was completely impassable, just like he’d guessed.
Crash gave him some other places to look at tomorrow.
“Has it been raining there?” Parrish asked.
“Yes, but I think that’s working to my advantage,” David said. “I hardly saw any rotters on the rooftops today. It took some time to get the hang of flying in bad weather, but I was actually able to form a sphere of air around my body so I didn’t get wet. It was fun.”
“And it’s going to rain again tomorrow?” Crash said.
“I think so,” David said. “I’ll check out those places you listed in the morning and we can meet back up this same time tomorrow.”
“Zoe, you’re staying safe in the apartment by yourself?” Parrish asked.
She didn’t like the idea of her sister all alone in a strange place after everything she’d been through, but it was better than having her out where the Dark One might see her.