She watched the group to her left first, following them as they headed upriver twenty yards or so before entering the water. She looked to the right and saw that the other group had done the same, only this time down river. They were surrounding her again, in the water now, and this time, she really had nowhere else to run. The only place unguarded was further out into the tributary, but there she’d eventually end up in the open water of the main river and would drown within minutes.
The crabs directly in front of her were only to about the depth of their shins, taking their time with their attack as they often did. Perhaps it was after they fed when they lost the aggression, Danielle thought, still studying the creatures for more data, even under the dire circumstances.
The crabs upriver had also kept themselves in less than knee-deep water, but they were moving quickly in Danielle’s direction, and instinctively she moved away from them and further down river. But in that direction, the crabs on that side had moved closer as well, and this group was waist high, almost lateral with Danielle.
She was truly trapped now.
If only she had a gun, she thought, but not for the obvious reason that she could engage in some riverside water battle. She could have used it as a signal now, to alert the guard tower that she was here, a civilian, alive and under duress. The heavy downpour from earlier had certainly masked the rifle shots she’d taken, but now, with the air clear and calm, the sound of a gunshot would rattle to life whatever sleeping guard was above. And that would spark radio calls, reinforcements.
And if soldiers did arrive, Danielle would do her best to keep from being captured, to try and escape in the fracas caused by the soldiers and crabs in battle. And if they did detain her, at least she would still be alive. Whatever situation she found herself in afterwards couldn’t be worse than the one she was in currently.
And then, as if she’d just awakened from some hypnotic trance of ignorance, Danielle realized she had another option. It was the most primal of choices, really.
She could scream.
She cupped her hands to her mouth and lifted her chin high and back towards the guard tower. “Help!” she called. “Help me! I’m down here! In the river!”
Now that she had unleashed her calls, they didn’t sound quite as loud as she had hoped, which was in part due to her exhaustion and partly to her underestimation of the vastness of nature. She looked up to the trees, waiting for some sign, a spotlight, movement of any sort. But there was only the calm wave of the branches and leaves.
The crabs were undaunted by Danielle’s shrieks and continued their steady progress into the water, their white bodies slowly being enveloped by the dark tributary.
It didn’t even matter, Danielle thought. Even if someone heard me, or saw me, what could they do at this late stage?
As her thoughts began to tumble rapidly toward her demise, a steady rumble suddenly came on the wind, drifting down from upriver. It was just a low vibration to start, but within seconds, it became the roar of a tyrannosaur.
Danielle saw the ghosts turn with alarm toward the noise, and then she followed their stares in time to see the Silverado bounce around the bend of the river, two of the wheels coming off the ground for just a moment before regulating.
The truck splashed into the river like a hunting tiger, and then slammed the bottom of its grill into the heads of three of the crabs, flattening them beneath the surf.
The truck was headed directly toward Danielle now, and she dove further out into the water just as the eight-cylinder beast turned back toward the beach and crashed forward into two more of the hunters.
Danielle quickly plucked her head above the surface, in time to see the truck turn sharply toward the beach, skidding sideways for several feet before getting traction again and accelerating forward.
The remaining crabs in the truck’s path began to run now, as if noting this was an enemy they couldn’t conquer. But it was too late for them, and the Chevy smashed against the spines of the demons, flinging them face first into the crushed rocks beneath them.
Danielle counted only two of the creatures remaining now, and as quickly as she spied them, they were gone, scurrying like hermits back into the cover of the woods.
The truck slowed for just a moment, and then it lurched forward and slammed into the high sandy bank just below the rock cluster before finally coming to a stop.
Danielle could only stare at the monster vehicle, observing it as if it were being guided by some alien force, waiting for it to levitate perhaps, or speak.
But there was only stillness from the truck, until finally the door on the driver’s side opened and Michael stepped to the running board and then down to the shoreline.
“I hope you were wearing your seatbelt,” Danielle called, breathlessly, not feeling any of the levity the statement implied, yet sensing an instinct to keep Michael calm.
The boy nodded.
Danielle writhed through the tributary in the direction of the truck, and within a minute or so, she was standing next to the boy who had saved her.
Again.
She would save the gratitude for later though, when they were clear of this section of the cordon that had so quickly turned from a promising escape route into disaster. All Danielle could think of now was the safety of the Flagon.
“Let’s go, Michael. There could be more out here. They might be watching.”
But Michael was staring blankly over Danielle’s shoulder, entranced.
“What is it?” she asked.
Michael blinked once and then nodded his head over her shoulder.
Danielle turned slowly, expecting to see a dozen or more of the monsters rising from the water on the horizon. Instead, she saw the barrel of a rifle pointed directly at her, and the second she turned, it lowered.
The man holding the gun was a soldier, shades across his eyes, his hat low, but as he removed the sunglasses and brought them low to his hip, a smiled drifted across his face.
“I knew it,” he said.
Danielle felt her legs wobble and her eyes flood, but she managed to utter the man’s name. “Dominic?”
4.
“What are you doing here, Dominic? How...”
Danielle struggled to form the questions in her mind, and she wasn’t even quite sure that it was, in fact, Dominic standing before her. Perhaps her eyes were tricking her,
projecting to her brain some kind of person-level mirage.
“Listen to me, Danielle, I’ve got another hour and thirty-four minutes until my shift is up. At that point, my replacement—”
“Wait a minute,” Danielle shook her head, confused. “Are you telling me you’ve been up there this whole time?” She pointed to the North tower. “You could see me? See how close I came to being eaten?”
“I could barely see the tip of my nose in all that rain. But then when it subsided, I heard the scream for help and saw the crabs moving in. That’s when I left my post and came inside—both of which are against protocol, by the way—but...” Dominic looked around the empty area of the cordon, bewildered. “...now they’re gone. There were dozens of them.”
“Dozens?”
Dominic nodded.
Danielle knew that couldn’t have been right, but arguing about the crowd size was way down on the list of worries right now.
Dominic looked to Michael. “And who do we have here?”
Danielle studied Dominic, a suspicious glare now crinkling the lines of her face. She ignored his question about Michael and cocked her head. “Why are you here, Dominic? And I don’t mean standing here right now. Why were you up in the tower? Are you working for them?” Her look of confusion suddenly turned to disgust. “You’re working for the military?”
“Danielle, it’s a long story and—”
“I don’t care how much time you have.”
“I promise I’ll tell you everything, but n—”
“Just the bullet points then. I’m not taking a step until I know what the hel
l is happening right now. It is good to see you, Dominic, incredible really, but this doesn’t make any sense. And I have a lot of reasons not to trust you right now.”
Danielle thought of her list again, noting there was one more goal she could now scratch off: Find Dominic.
Dominic closed his eyes and nodded, acknowledging the fairness of Danielle’s insistence, and then he began explaining, his eyes wide and scheming.
“They never saw me, Danielle. None of the people who wanted me dead—who still want me dead—ever saw what I looked like. Other than Stella and the colonel, nobody else in charge ever saw my face.” He paused, seemingly for effect. “And Stella and the colonel are dead.”
Danielle realized she hadn’t asked McCormick specifically about the fate of the colonel, only Stella. “I heard about Stella.”
Dominic cocked his head, confused. “Heard? From who?”
Danielle shuddered off the question. “No. Not right now.” And then, “So you saw it, Dominic? You saw her die?”
He nodded slowly, frowning, his eyes thin and weary as he recalled the event. “I saw it. Why?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
Danielle made a mental note to put a line through that item on her list as well. She had believed McCormick when he told of Stella’s demise, but not fully, and for that reason, she had left the item unchecked. But now she knew for sure. One more piece of closure.
“But what does matter is my as-yet-unanswered question about how it is that you’re here right now. And also, just so you’re aware, you’re damn lucky that horde of crabs showed up. Otherwise, you’d be a lump of dead flesh in that tower right now.”
“What do you—”
“How did you come to be in that tower, Dom?”
Dominic took a deep breath and lowered his voice. “You heard about Stella, which means you probably heard about the D&W building. And our escape.”
Danielle nodded. “I did. I even witnessed a few seconds of the latter item. Watched the helicopter fly out that day. I figured you were inside. Hoped so, anyway.”
Dominic looked to the ground in shame. “We knew you were alive, Danielle, but—”
“I know. It doesn’t matter. What happened?”
“Stella and the colonel weren’t the only ones inside the lab that day. There were others. Some of whom were civilians, just working the job, not really knowing all that was going on there. But there were soldiers there also, protecting the place.”
“Okay, so what does that have to do with anything?”
“The soldiers didn’t make it out of the lab either, met the same fate as Stella and the colonel.”
“How did you manage to take out a whole lab of soldiers?”
“There were only a handful of them, and I didn’t do it on my own. I made some soldier friends of my own along the way; I’d have never made it a day out there on my own without them.”
Danielle wanted to interject about her own adventure alone, and how she had made it, but she checked herself.
“So, anyway, there were dead soldiers, with IDs, and before we made a run for the helicopter, I made a point to swipe one of the badges. Everything happening inside that place was illegal, and surely classified, so there wouldn’t have been many on the outside who even knew the guy was there, let alone that he’d been killed.”
“Someone probably missed him?”
Dominic shrugged. “Not if he didn’t have family, or if he had told them he was on a classified mission. Someday yes, but not while all this is still going on.” Dominic held his hand out to the prison that was the cordon. “Anyway, he didn’t look exactly like me—a decade younger maybe—but it was a close enough match to allow me initial access. At that point, I just kept my head down and did what I was told. Plus, I had the help of actual soldiers—also unknown by the current brass—and they helped me navigate the red tape so I could get tower duty.”
Danielle looked at Dominic, her eyes narrow, questioning. “So you just walked right back into the lion’s den. With a fake ID?”
“I thought it would be harder than it was, honestly, and under normal circumstances, I imagine it would have been. But we’re way past normal, Danielle. They’re running out of bodies out there. The cordon is expanding, breaking down; they’re on the edge of losing control. This thing isn’t going to last for much longer.” Dominic shrugged. “And for that reason, leadership isn’t really asking too many questions of those who are able-bodied and enthusiastic. If you’re a soldier and ready to serve, you’re up.”
Danielle just nodded, trying to find any gaps in Dominic’s story.
“And I don’t mean to rush you, Danielle, but we need to be hustling. I’m guessing your story is even better than mine—and maybe you can tell it to me over breakfast one day—but right now we should be going.
Danielle narrowed her eyes and frowned. “You wish.”
“Fine, coffee then,” Dominic corrected, keeping a straight face despite the obvious joke. “Let’s go.”
“Why did you want initial access?” Danielle prodded, not moving.
“What?”
“You said the dead soldier’s ID allowed you initial access? Access for what? Why would you have wanted to come back here? Why would you have wanted tower duty?”
Dominic snickered and furrowed his brow, bemused. “Why do you think?”
Danielle shook her head, eyes wide, genuinely confused.
“I was looking for you, Danielle.” Dominic’s face wore the same look of puzzlement as Danielle’s. “Why else?”
Danielle fought back a smile, but her mouth twitched just a fraction up the right side of her cheek.
“I would have gone on the cordon raids, but I haven’t been here long enough to qualify, so tower duty was the next best thing.”
Danielle smiled in full now, but she quickly blinked away the moment, not ready to soften in front of Dominic just yet. Instead, she turned to Michael and held out a hand. “This is Michael. He’s been my hero over the last day or so and has suddenly become a big part of this very long story that I’ll tell you over coffee some time.”
Michael gave a wave and Dominic returned it in similar fashion.
“So, what do we do now? How do we get out of here?”
Dominic gave a somber nod but then answered quickly. “It’s not going to be easy. Well, actually getting outside the cordon won’t be too tough, but from that point it’s going to be tricky. So, let’s handle the first part and get the hell out of this place before your friends return. Once we’re outside the gate,” Dominic pointed to a spot shrouded in shrubbery, “we should be safe for the moment. But at that point, we’ll have to move. We’ll only have a little over an hour to get some distance; once they find out I’ve left my post, they’re going to start ringing alarm bells.” He frowned and looked at Michael. “I’m not going to lie to you though, Danielle, having a kid with us is going to make it tough.”
“Well then it will be like every other day inside this place.”
Dominic smiled and shook his head as if in awe. He wrinkled his forehead, squinting. “How are you still alive?”
Danielle shrugged. “I don’t know, but you were still looking for me, so you must have had a little faith I would be.”
Dominic nodded, his eyes now glistening with something between joy and love. “Damn right, I did.” He held his stare for another moment, and then he swallowed and nodded toward the gate. “Listen, both of you, we’re going to have to be quick and quiet and you’re going to have to listen to me.”
Danielle shrugged. “Okay.”
Dominic suddenly looked around him, studying his surroundings as if seeing the cordon for the first time. “This is the first time I’ve stepped back inside since our escape.”
“Feeling weepy about it?”
“Not quite.”
As they walked toward the cordon entrance, Danielle thought of the others from the original group. “Tom and James,” she said, suddenly embarrassed she’d yet to inquire a
bout them. “Are they...” she trailed off, hesitant to know.
Dominic nodded. “They’re fine. Safe and secure.”
Danielle took a deep breath and nodded. “Where are they?”
“If we can make it out of the camp, we should see them tonight. They’re still in hiding, but they’re comfortable.”
“It can spread, Dominic,” Danielle uttered, almost irrelevantly. “Did you know that?”
Dominic nodded. “Yes, I know. They know. That’s why their expanding the cordon.” He paused. “But how do you know?”
“I saw it. I saw a man...turn into a crab right in front of my eyes. They just cut him and he...” she trailed off, still disturbed by the memory of Davies’ transformation.
“They say it has to break the skin for the turn to happen. That it enters the bloodstream.”
“What does?”
Dominic shrugged and shook his head. “Their sweat, maybe? Oils from their skin? Whatever it is that carries the virus or bacteria or fungus or whatever. I’m not sure they even know yet. The scientists, I mean. But they’re in there around the clock; I know that much.”
“The lab?”
Dominic scoffed as he nodded. “Yeah, the lab. You did learn a lot in here. But like I said, I don’t really know. We only get what comes out of the rumor mill.”
Dominic stopped walking, and Danielle and Michael followed in turn. Dominic stared into Danielle’s eyes, a look of sadness there, despair.
“They’ve escaped. Did you know that? More than one.”
Danielle nodded.
“They think it’s been contained for now, but...but they can’t know for sure. And now...now they’ve decided to just clear the cordon out for good. They’re going to begin daily raids, to just try and capture anyone left inside.”
Suddenly, Michael’s pained voice rang from behind Danielle, startling her.
“Have you seen a black man that looks like me?”
Danielle turned and put her hand across Michael’s shoulders, pulling him toward her.
Dominic shook his head. “I haven’t. Is he your father?”
They Came With The Snow (Book 3): The List Page 14