Leticia waited until everyone was calm again. “At this point, I should tell you that the types of monsters you’ve encountered are not the only kind. As Taylor has informed us, with many of your experiences, the Changed are continuing to mutate. Other lifeforms are changing too. We’ve only noticed mammals have changed so far, at least land mammals that is. To our knowledge, no sea mammals have, but we can’t be certain.” People murmured. “Plant life is changing. We’ve come across a forest I know were pine trees but now they have a purplish-blue color and the trees bend toward the wind from our Blackhawks, instead of away. As if they were reaching for us, for our sound, not away from our chop.”
Glances were exchanged.
“Zaid also informs me, and we have a single meteorologist on our Cutter that confirms it, that the weather patterns have changed dramatically worldwide in the last few months. Hardly any rain over land and the rainfall at sea has been minimal. We’ve been tracking a storm that’s heading this way, and if you have any way of catching rainwater, I would certainly advise it.”
I confirmed we already had prepared for that eventuality.
“Another thing we’ve been experiencing is a change in compass headings. Our readings are off by a few degrees. North is no longer True North. It’s as if Earth’s magnetic field shifted.”
Leticia sipped her water again. “All we can tell you about how this Change has happened and why is what I’ve just told you. Your group, here, on this island, is the largest concentration we’ve encountered not including our own. I meant to tell you also the reason we were out to sea and found that odd ship, was we found survivors who abandoned ship from a British cruise line and we found them in life boats out at sea. Our Coasties went out and retrieved them. The survivors said the cruise ship was overrun. We’ve been searching for other cruise ships along the coast but that’s the only one where we found human survivors. Others have the mutants manning the rails.”
Leticia shrugged. “That’s about it. We can take questions and answer the best we can, but that’s really all we know.”
Questions began immediately, and Cheyenne, Julie, Janessa, and Caroline turned their attention to me.
“Well, that wasn’t very encouraging,” Julie said, popping a bubble.
Caroline shook her head, adjusting her eye patch, as she fed Bass. “That’s about the same as what I saw along the coast coming down.” Caroline raised her hand. “Captain, I mean, Leticia. I watched people kidnapping other survivors outside of Norfolk and putting them on yachts. With that, and this Amos Benson guy Taylor and his group knows, that set those monsters against us, can you tell us if you’ve met anyone doing anything like that?”
Leticia, Zaid, and Teddy nodding in unison.
“Yes,” Leticia said, “We’ve been shot at as we’ve tried to contact some groups on the ground. In one instance, one part of the group looked like they were seeking help, but another part of the same group looked as if they were trying to prevent them from signaling us.” She motioned at Zaid, “Zaid encountered a vessel, a large fancy yacht crawling with armed men and women in bikinis who were rushed below decks as he did a fly over. They didn’t fire on him, but he had the feeling they would have if he returned. He said the women didn’t look as if they were there of their own free will. It was near Norfolk.”
Caroline sat straighter. “A blue Yacht? Three levels? Really expensive looking?”
Zaid nodded. “Yes, that was the one. I didn’t get the yacht’s name.”
Caroline nodded. “That’s the one I saw. Those women aren’t there of their own accord.”
Leticia nodded, rubbing her forehead, “Yeah. We know some people are doing a lot of bad things. But right now, our main objective is surviving and creating a safe place for those survivors and trying to find a solution to this monster problem and what caused it and see if we can’t find a cure.” She frowned. “I hate that we can’t do anything to help everyone in every situation, but there’s only these three Blackhawks we have. No assault teams. No active police force. No real organizational structure.” She waved her hands over the listening crowd. “Right now, all of you are it. You’re our hopes and dreams of survival. You’re our hope for the future.” She smiled at her flight crew and their pilots. “These sorry excuses and I are here to help keep you safe. We’ll do the best we can.”
“Everybody!” someone yelled from the front of the building, “Everybody! It’s raining! It’s raining!”
Everyone scrambled toward the front of the building, cheers broke out and little kids ran to get outside.
Without streetlights and with only the light spilling out from the rec center front doors (the doors were covered with blackout sheets to not attract potential Changed if they got through the barricades) we could barely see the falling pitter-patter of rainfall striking the parking lots pavement, but we could hear it and feel it.
Every occupant of the center, including some of the tired and wounded, walked, were carried, pushed, and some would have crawled if they needed to, to turn their faces to the sky to feel the lukewarm rain on their faces.
For the first time in a week, no one stopped anyone from making any noise so as not to attract the Changed. People cried, cheered, laughed, danced, and hugged as the pitter-patter turned into a steady downpour.
Cheyenne, Janessa, and I embraced in a long crushing hug, then turned to our other friends and random strangers beside us. Zaid lifted Leticia and spun her in place, much to her shocked displeasure, but he set her down and she broke into a huge smile.
Julie and the Atkin sisters joined hands and spun in a circle, laughing and dancing. We took their hands and the circle grew larger and wider as we spun beneath the much-appreciated rain.
The storm’s downfall increased so the sick, tired, elderly, and wounded went back inside as others continued running and splashing in puddles. King barked and shook, splashing little kids and adults around him, obviously happy. Caroline stood on the porch and dabbed water from the eaves onto Sebastian’s little head, rocking him gently back and forth. He laughed a few times which made my sister beam with happiness at the same time as she cried. What she cried over, I could only guess.
The Captain ordered the Blackhawks lashed down and secured for weather.
Cheyenne hugged me again, jumping into my arms, wrapping her legs around my waist and holding on as she kissed me passionately.
“Geez, guys,” Janessa laughed, “Kids around here, y’know?”
Cheyenne laughed and tilted back her head into the rain and laughed the heartiest laugh I’ve heard her make since I met her.
Cheyenne hopped down, hugging Janessa as Julie dragged me and the sisters up the steps to join Caroline and Mrs. Gale.
Everyone was delighted. We began hearing radio chatter from the two walls, Randy, Patty, and Diego, the lighthouse, the flotilla and every radio operator as the storm continued, the air filled with joyful tension release.
Leticia’s personal radio got her attention as her survivors and the coast guard cutter informed her the rain was part of the front coming from out to sea, they told her about and it looked like it would last for hours so they were anchoring where they were and would make contact in the morning before heading to Hatteras Village’s Coast Guard station. Caroline gave me a side hug as Bass smiled at me and laughed at my expressions.
“Let’s go home, Taylor,” Caroline suggested.
Chapter 24
Our entourage drove back to my family home.
There was room at the main house for Janessa, Julie, the Atkin sisters, my sister, and nephew. Cheyenne and I would stay in my little square home.
We remained on the porch of the big house for a while, enjoying the cooling rain. King jumped and played in puddles in the yard, his long, red hair plastered to him, while we ate a halfway decent meal of sandwiches and power drinks and talked about our families and friends we missed and what the future might hold. Patrol cars slowed down and flashed spotlights against the road and house before moving
on. Spotlights were only used near the water to attract or find Changed that swam to shore during the day. Since they were typically clustered and sleeping at full nightfall, or at least the type we knew were, the spotlights were not seen as much of a threat to our safety.
Eventually, Cheyenne and I retired to my place with King in tow, who planted himself by the front door on the carpet.
Wet clothes were disposed of and within minutes, Cheyenne was making that new laugh I heard earlier, which made me laugh, which erupted into snorting laughter before we calmed down and returned to softer sounds and different vocalizations.
The rain pattered against the windows as we lay there, exhausted, and watched it fall into Pamlico sound behind the house.
King suddenly sat up and sniffed at the door.
Cheyenne, always on guard, reached for her Winchester beside the bed as I sat up and reached for the Colt on the bedside table.
Soft footfalls crossed the porch and a gentle rapping at the door relaxed us as we set our weapons down. The Changed don’t knock.
“Who is it?” I asked.
“It’s me, Janessa.” She said. “Um. Am I bothering you guys?”
Cheyenne, nude, jumped up and grabbed my shorts.
I was speechless looking at how beautiful she was in the moonlight. Her scars, scrapes, and bruises only added to her beauty. She must have seen my expression as she grinned, tossed my shorts at my head, and searched for an oversized T-shirt I gave her that fell midway down her shapely legs.
After she made sure I wore my shorts, she cracked open the door.
“Hey, sweetie, what’s going on?” She asked.
“I don’t mean to bother you guys, I can’t sleep. I keep waking everybody, shouting and jumping in my sleep, and nobody can sleep.”
Cheyenne glanced back at me and opened the door wide, pulling the young girl inside and shutting it behind her.
Janessa wore an emergency plastic rain poncho over her black running shorts and green T-shirt, the short fuzz on the top of her head shimmering with moisture.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, pulling a tank top over my head.
Cheyenne crawled on the bed beside me, tucking her legs under her. “Night terrors?”
Janessa nodded. “I’m so used to sleeping beside you two, now I can’t do it alone anymore.” She removed the rain poncho and sat down on the foot of the bed.
For the last week, we either shared a tent or the interior of the Jeep to sleep and live in. Her night terrors were lessened when she could open her eyes and see us for reassurance. Days ago, I said that we considered her a little sister, and we meant it. Janessa may look like a grown woman, but she was still just a girl, with a young person’s fears, some with real justification.
“I know I’m just being a big baby,” Janessa continued, “but since I keep waking everybody up at the house. I thought maybe, if you guys didn’t mind, I could . . . sleep here tonight?”
Cheyenne gave me a sideways look and nodded.
“I have just the solution,” I said, as I hopped off the bed and reached beneath it for an inflatable single airbed and hand pump. “Sometimes my cousins from the mainland come visiting.”
Janessa smiled and leaned over to hug Cheyenne as I broke the inflatable bed’s box open and began pumping.
Halfway through the slow inflating process, King sat up on his haunches and paid attention to the door. Soon, another set of feet crossed the porch before another knock announced another visitor at our door. The knock made a rhythmic pattern.
“Yes, Julie?” Cheyenne smirked.
“Well, hey, y’all.” Julie’s said through the door. “I hope we’re not intruding. We saw Janessa head out here and wondered if she was okay?”
“I’m okay,” Janessa told her.
“Well good. That’s good.” Julie said.
We waited. We could hear whispering.
Cheyenne sighed and stood up, pulling the T-shirt back down over her thighs, crossed to the door and opened it.
Julie straightened from leaning over while whispering to Lexi and Mia.
“Well, hey!” Julie beamed. “Anyway! Hey!” She looked Cheyenne up and down and then me pumping the air bed and Janessa sitting on the floor beside me. “Hi. Um. Hey.”
Cheyenne waited with her hand on her hip.
Lexi and Mia held two boxes. A single airbed and a double airbed we kept at the house. They wore rain ponchos like Janessa over their shirts, shorts, and wet sneakers.
Cheyenne glanced back at me and rolled her eyes.
“What do you have there?” I grinned.
Lexi smiled. Mia smiled. Julie smiled and tousled her wet fauxhawk.
“See, um, the girls were thinking,” Julie began, “that if you didn’t mind Janessa crashing with you two, that maybe you wouldn’t mind if we, I mean they, them, crashed with you too.”
Cheyenne smiled and covered her mouth, watching me, trying not to laugh.
I sighed. “Well, there’s much more room at the house. Wouldn’t you rather-”
A long loud fart came from out of view of the doorway.
“Caroline?” I asked, straightening.
My pirate-eye-patched sister leaned around the door frame from the right, holding my expressive, and flatulent, nephew.
“Well, hey there, little brother.” Caroline grinned, rubbing Bass’s little sleeping noggin.
“Can’t sleep either?” I asked, taking a break from the air pump.
“Well, I wasn’t going to be rude. What with you and Cheyenne needing privacy and all.” She nodded at Cheyenne. “But I thought since, if, you let Janessa stay, and if you let Julie and both of these lovely young ladies stay, since the house is so big and empty, you wouldn’t turn your poor sister, and your innocent little nephew, away.” She gave us a pitifully fake pout.
Julie grinned at me. “She is so much like you.”
“You want to stay out there?” I warned her.
She made a zipping motion across her lips.
“Cheyenne?” I asked my lovely girlfriend who continued covering her mouth.
Cheyenne laughed, “Of course, y’all can. The more the merrier. Pick a spot.” She motioned them in and crawled back onto the bed and tucked her legs under her again.
Julie carried in a bassinet and a baby bag for Sebastian from the damp porch while Lexi and Mia pulled off their ponchos before dumping the inflatable beds on the floor beside Janessa. Janessa took the air pump from me as Cheyenne leaned over to whisper in my ear.
Everyone but Caroline made comments about my home and possessions. Julie grinned at the books and movies while Lexi and Mia liked the feel of the carpet.
“You don’t mind, really, do you?” Cheyenne asked.
I shook my head. “Everyone will feel safer and more comfortable like they were on the road for the last week. Caroline’s been on her own all that time. I didn’t want to really leave her alone either. I was going to ask if we could go up to the main house later to check on her and Bass anyway.”
That response earned me a tender kiss on the cheek.
Caroline positioned the bassinet and the single bed on the floor on our left as I crawled higher into bed, resting my back on the headboard. Janessa shifted the nearly inflated bed onto the right beside Cheyenne. The sisters positioned the flat double bed at the foot of our bed as King huffed and returned to his sentry position by the front door.
Julie stretched beside our bed and removed her poncho. Then she laughed, fell backwards onto the bed, and squirmed playfully, finally rolling over onto her right side and glanced up at us.
She leaned up on her right elbow, pulled her left knee up, deliberately smirking at Cheyenne, Cheyenne’s shapely bare legs and her attire, before deliberately smirking and looking at me and my legs.
Julie made a mischievous face as she slowly ran her free hand up and down her thigh against her shiny, skin-tight, yoga pants.
“Well, hey there.” She said suggestively, moistening her lips. “How are you t
wo doin’?”
Cheyenne and I looked at each other, Cheyenne might have blushed before I did, I’m not sure.
Julie rolled over onto her back, clapped her hands and laughed.
“You two are so easy!” She said, “I absolutely love you both.”
She arched her back in a sexy pose directed at us before she pushed off the bed and helped Janessa finish her inflating.
“That woman is the devil,” I whispered to Cheyenne.
“The devil.” She agreed, whispering back.
Caroline leaned over and whispered, “I thought she was . . . y’know . . . just interested in women?”
Cheyenne and I both raised our hands and wiggled them from side to side, smiling.
“I’m openminded.” Julie theatrically whispered over the bed to Caroline. “I’m interested in all kinds of people.” She winked at Caroline. “Especially pirates.”
Caroline blushed, touched her eye-patch, shut up, and turned all her attention to little Bass. My sister doesn’t fluster easily. She also didn’t know that Julie still missed her deceased girlfriend, and probably would for a long time. Her flirtations were just a defense mechanism and part of her sense of humor.
Um. Maybe. We think. Probably.
Julie chuckled and joined the sisters telling them to go brush their teeth as she placed their wet ponchos by the door and began pumping up their bed.
Julie was in rare teasing form as she worked the hand pump occasionally catching our attention and, much to her personal delight, made suggestive expressions only when the young sisters and Janessa weren’t looking.
Having shocked my sister enough, not to mention embarrass Cheyenne and myself, eventually, Julie and the rest of us inflated the beds and everyone got comfortable covering ourselves partly with loose spare sheets. It was too humid and hot for more than that, even with the windows open to allow air circulation. Julie and the sisters lay in the double bed. Janessa lay on our right, Caroline and Bass on our left. King was completely comfortable on the carpet.
The Unchanged (Book 3): Safe Harbor Page 20