The Tide (Book 3): Salvage

by Anthony J Melchiorri

  What are you doing?” Andris asked. “We need to move!”

  “You go! I’ll catch up!”

  “No way!” Andris said. He shouldered his rifle and fired into the horde of Skulls.

  She pulled the trigger. The grenade lobbed out of the launcher and crashed into the Skull leading the pack. A booming explosion followed the impact. The two huge metal spheres and columns came crashing down in the nearby Lightning Show exhibit. Bones crunched and wails sounded from under the heavy metal objects. Fire licked up around the fallen spheres. Tongues of flame caught two massive banners hanging from the ceiling, and the conflagration climbed them.

  “Now we can go!” Meredith yelled.

  Meredith and Andris shot up the stairs, taking them two or three at a time. Her quads burned. She felt the temporary effects of adrenaline finally leaving her body, no longer able to sustain her energy. Meredith thought of Dom and the rest of Alpha. She pushed on for him, for the Hunters.

  Two Skulls burst into the stairwell. They slid into the wall, their claws scrambling for traction. Sooty, black burns marred their skeletal plates. Meredith fired on them while continuing her ascent. One fell and tumbled down the stairs. The other continued unperturbed, not sparing a glance at its fallen companion.

  “Almost there!” Andris called, now ahead of her.

  Another three Skulls joined in. One was missing an arm. Another’s chest appeared caved in, but that didn’t stop it from howling at the sight of Meredith. She continued up the spiraling stairs, and the sounds of more Skulls chased after her. She reached a landing and caught up to Andris. He pushed through the door, held it open for her, and then engaged the internal lock.

  They emerged into the cool night air. A freezing wind tugged at them. The door rattled as Skulls pounded on it from the other side.

  A question occurred to her—one she probably should have asked earlier. “How are we going to get back down?”

  Andris set down his pack. He pulled a loop of braided climbing rope from it. “Can you rappel?”

  “I most certainly can if it means we don’t have to fight our way through those bastards again.” She set down her own pack and stepped toward the side of the tower. “Glad you were thinking ahead.”

  Andris nodded and started to assemble his sniper rifle. Adjusting the sights on her SCAR-H, Meredith lay prone near the edge of the roof. She placed the rifle beside her and scanned the streets along the dam with her binos. She gulped.

  “You good with long-distance shots?”

  “Better when I was in the French Foreign Legion. Had more practice then.”

  Meredith counted the Skulls wandering between wrecked cars. There were so many—maybe too many. Dom and the rest of Alpha would never make it if they didn’t thin the herd first.

  “It looks like you’re about to get plenty of practice,” she said.

  -21-

  “We’re almost there!” Dom yelled, pointing toward the opening of the tunnel at the end of the platform. The labored breaths of the Hunters sounded all around him, and their boots crunched on the gravel between the tracks.

  Miguel reached the platform first. A Skull lingering next to a tiled column caught sight of him. The Hunter aimed his rifle and let loose three rounds. The bullets tore into the creature, ending its life before it could charge. The other Hunters formed a perimeter around Glenn and Connor. Terrence grimaced as he shouldered his rifle. The bandages along his neck crinkled as he moved, and Dom shuddered to think what the wounds beneath must look like.

  “Take a moment to rest and reload,” Dom said.

  The clicking of magazines being replaced echoed in the cavernous room. Connor began to sob again. Glenn gave the boy’s shoulder a squeeze and knelt next to him.

  “You’re going to see your parents soon, buddy. Just a little longer, okay?” Glenn licked his thumb and cleaned some of the grime plastering Connor’s face. Connor bobbed his head slowly, his bottom lip quivering.

  “Bravo, this is Alpha,” Dom said into his comm link. “We’re at the Science Park T station.”

  “Copy, Alpha,” Renee called back. “So glad to hear your voice again. Frank can’t get an LZ, so we’re going to pick you guys up ourselves.”

  “Understood. What’s the situation?”

  “Skulls.” Meredith’s voice came over the comm link now. “Lots of them. But Andris and I will have you guys covered.”

  “And where are we meeting Bravo?”

  “In the river,” Renee said. “You’re going to need to drop in over the dam near the Museum of Science. It’ll be a short run for you. Maybe thirty yards. Hop over the guardrail, and we’ll scoop you out of the water.”

  “Sounds like a half-baked plan, but I’m tired of these damn tunnels.” Dom turned to the rest of his team. “You all ready to do this?”

  “Aye, aye, Captain,” they chorused.

  Glenn started to pick Connor up, but Terrence motioned for the man to stop.

  “I’ve got him,” Terrence said. “I’m going to be a crappy shot with my shoulders burned to hell. Can’t aim a rifle steady, but I can hold the boy.”

  “You sure about that? I’m happy—”

  “I’m good. But you gotta kill triple the bony bastards to make up for me.”

  A wide grin spread across Glenn’s face. “It’d be my pleasure.”

  “All right, team,” Dom said. “Everybody knows their places. Stay frosty and quiet.”

  “You got it, Chief,” Miguel said, flexing his prosthetic fingers. They clicked against the metal of his rifle.

  He and Jenna led the group up the stairs to the aboveground station. They crept between the stone pillars and a wall of ticket machines. Dark splatters covered the vacant LCD screens, and shredded newspapers littered the ground. The team took careful steps toward the exit doors. A body rested against them. It was a man in khakis and a collared shirt. No bony protrusions stuck out of his skin, though his face appeared gaunt and skeletal.

  “God, looks like he just starved to death,” Jenna said.

  Miguel shook his head. “Waiting for help that never came.”

  Guilt stabbed through Dom. Here was yet another soul they might’ve saved. If they’d been in Boston sooner, if the military had done something more to eradicate the Skulls, this man might’ve made it.

  “Let’s try to do this as quietly as possible, but”—Dom gingerly moved the body aside—”as soon as we open those doors, move fast.”

  The Hunters signaled their assent with nods and thumbs up. Dom inhaled deeply and then nudged open the door. Miguel and Jenna slunk out first, followed by Terrence with Connor in his arms. Glenn and Dom took up rear guard. The group flitted, one after another, from the newsstands in front of the station to a city bus with fractured windows. Skulls lumbered between the cars and over the sidewalks. They moved with no sense of urgency, and Dom hoped Alpha team wouldn’t give them a reason to be urgent.

  Miguel peeked around the corner of the bus to gauge their next hiding spot. When he did, two Skulls lurking around a taxi spotted him. One of their heads exploded immediately. Brain and bone fragments splattered the asphalt. Gore spattered against the remaining Skull, then it, too, went down in a bloody burst.

  “Nice shooting, Andris,” Dom said in a low voice.

  “It was luck, Captain,” Andris replied. “And I’m not sure how much of it I have. There’s a pack of Skulls, maybe twenty, thirty deep, traveling westbound toward your position. They’re moving slow, but they’ll be on you in minutes.”

  “Copy,” Dom whispered back.

  Flashing a quick hand signal, Dom commanded Miguel to move forward. The Hunter sprinted behind a garbage truck that had bulldozed into a line of cars. He crouched near its rugged rear tire. The other Hunters took turns covering each other and running to the next vehicle. Glenn slid into his spot last. Another Skull with wide, fin-like shoulder blades jutting from its back turned toward the garbage truck. It cocked its head for a second. A loud splat followed. Its head disapp
eared in bloody fireworks.

  “Keep trying my luck, friends,” Andris’s voice crackled over the comm link. “Alpha, more Skulls coming in from south of the station. I’m afraid you cannot take this slowly.”

  “You heard him,” Dom said. He signaled for the others to stay low and dash between a line of cars leading toward the Museum of Science.

  A Skull blocked their path. Miguel lunged. His hidden knife flicked out of his prosthetic and impaled the monster through its neck. It gurgled, and Miguel lowered the dying creature to the asphalt gently. Another crept up on them from between an SUV and minivan. Jenna slashed out with her knife. A third caught sight of her, but its head exploded in a shower of pink and red. Dom thanked the heavens Andris hadn’t lost his sharpshooting skills.

  The headless creature fell against a car, and a hollow thud rang out. The noise was just enough to attract several more of the nearby Skulls. They were two cars over from the nearest Hunter, Glenn. No one could reach them in time without firing a shot, and Dom judged in that split second Andris couldn’t bring down all four before one of them howled, calling the rest of the pack.

  Dom straightened, shouldered his rifle, and fired at one Skull. Glenn took out a second, and Andris managed to bring down the third. But the fourth fell to all fours, coiling to pounce. Andris’s second shot missed the Skull. It shattered the car window behind the creature. The creature screeched, and the Skull lunged over a police cruiser at Glenn.

  The Hunter swung his barrel around and fired a couple of quick shots. The rounds sent the Skull sprawling over the hood of the cruiser. But the monster had already done irreparable damage.

  There was no more time for stealth.

  “Run!” Dom yelled.

  Skulls, no longer lethargic and slow, charged. They jumped and soared over wrecked cars and scrambled out of storefronts with shattered windows. The monsters’ howls resounded through the streets. Armor-piercing rounds shattered bony armor and sent the rampaging Skulls tumbling in a mess of blood and limbs. Miguel hurdled the fallen corpses and spun to his right. He sent another salvo into a throng of monsters streaming around a fire truck.

  A loud wail crashed against Dom’s ears. He turned in time to see a Skull dropping on him from the top of another bus. With a quick sidestep, he dodged the monster. Bones cracked against asphalt, and the Skull’s claws scraped the spot where Dom had been. He squeezed the trigger of his rifle and ensured the Skull stayed down. There was no time to catch his breath; he raised his barrel and aimed at a sprinting Skull. With two well-placed shots, the creature crumpled forward. Momentum carried the monster across the asphalt. Its listless body slammed into a sedan.

  “Help!” Terrence yelled. A Skull with long horns slashed at him, and he twisted to protect the little boy in his arms. One of its scything claws caught his fatigues.

  Dom saw a flash of red underneath the tear. He ran toward Terrence and leveled his weapon at the creature’s overgrown ribs. Three rounds knocked the monster backward. Hot crimson poured between the cracked ribs, but it didn’t stop. It pushed itself up, and Dom put another three rounds into it. Blood bubbled and popped from between the Skull’s curved teeth. The Skull’s bloodshot eyes rolled back, and it crashed to the ground.

  The crack of gunfire, chorus of Skulls, and clatter of claws grew louder. More glass shattered from stray bullets smashing through car windows and storefronts. Rounds pinged off the vehicles. All the while, the Hunters cleared a swathe out in front of them, desperate to keep the lane between the cars clear.

  Two more Skulls appeared to Dom’s right. He kept running as one’s chest burst open. The other fell backward, its skeletal face destroyed by another of Andris’s well-placed shots. Alpha team continued their unrelenting charge toward the dam, toward the water. Toward safety.

  Miguel and Jenna reached the dam first and dove for the water. Terrence carried Connor and leapt into the water with a splash.

  Dom caught up to the group. He had thought Glenn was right behind him, but when Dom turned to tell the Hunter to jump, he realized Glenn had fallen behind, guarding their escape. He was still several yards away from the dam—and Skulls were closing in from all sides.

  Dom moved to help his Hunter, but he was already too late. He watched in horror as Glenn disappeared under a writhing mass of Skulls.

  “No!” Dom sprayed gunfire into the spiky backs of the monsters nearest him. He fired at two others, point-blank, and kicked their lifeless bodies away. But Glenn still remained out of sight, buried under the attacking creatures. “Goddammit, no!”

  “Come on, Chief,” Miguel called from the Zodiac. “What’s the holdup?”

  Dom didn’t have time to explain. He prepared to fire again, but two Skulls flew into the air, carried by some unseen force. Three more were thrown back, alive but dazed. Glenn shot out from the pile of Skulls. One grabbed his arm and prepared to take a savage bite. Glenn swung his fist into the creature’s nose. The monster’s cartilage caved in. Blood seeped from scratches in Glenn’s arms and legs. He’d lost his helmet in the fray, and a lacerated six-inch cut on his scalp drenched half his face in blood.

  But he was alive. He was fucking alive. He turned and sprinted toward Dom.

  Dom sprayed a volley into the Skulls now chasing after the injured Hunter. He brought them down one after the other. When Glenn reached the dam, Dom wrapped an arm around the man’s shoulder, and they jumped together into the water twenty feet below.

  Almost immediately, Dom felt the weight of his armor-plated tac vest drag him down. He fought against the pull while struggling to keep Glenn’s head above water. He started to slip under the cold, dark waves, but then fingers wrapped around his limbs and pulled him from the river. Miguel and Jenna dragged him into the Zodiac, while Renee and Spencer yanked Glenn aboard. One of Glenn’s eyes was already swollen shut.

  “You good, Captain?” Jenna asked.

  “I’m good.” And despite his soaked fatigues and the cries of the Skulls still ringing in his ears, he felt good. Some of the more suicidal monsters splashed into the water in a futile attempt to board the Zodiac. But the currents swept them away, and they sank below the murk. Spencer was already patching up Glenn. A young, lanky guy he didn’t recognize was tending to Terrence’s acid burns. Dom guessed he must be Navid, and he gave the man a warm, approving smile.

  Dom liked Navid already. Someone they’d rescued was yet again already doing their small part to help humanity in its fight against the Oni Agent. He’d marveled at the way men and women seemed to instinctively want to help each other, banding together against a common enemy.

  His relief was short-lived when he remembered that Meredith and Andris were still on the museum roof. He sighted them on the tower, preparing to rappel down the building. Unfortunately, a mass of Skulls was waiting for them below.

  “Meredith, Andris,” he said over the comm link, “sit tight. Frank, can you pick up our friends on the roof?”

  The thrum of the AW109 zoomed overhead, and Dom watched the chopper hover near the top of the museum’s tower. Two shapes hopped through the open side door. Skulls began scaling the walls, climbing up the bricks like cockroaches. But the chopper banked away before they’d reached the second floor.

  “Good work, everyone,” Dom said. They’d done it. They’d accomplished their mission, delivered a slew of samples, rescued survivors they hadn’t expected to find—and he hadn’t lost a Hunter. He looked at Terrence, then Glenn, and frowned slightly. At least, not yet. Hopefully not at all, if they got the injured back in time for Lauren to treat. Tonight had been a solid win, and soon he’d be back aboard his ship with his crew, his daughters, and maybe even a hot breakfast. Life was, if not good, a hell of a lot better than it’d been since the outbreak.

  -22-

  Kara heard the mechanical grinding of the cargo bay doors. She knew what the sound meant—the Hunters had returned from their mission.

  “Dad’s back!” Sadie yelled. Maggie’s tail whipped madly at the girl’s ex
citement.

  Kara’s thoughts veered between relief and dread. She hoped with all her heart that he had come home...but what if he wasn’t on the Zodiac? Every time he left the Huntress, that fear crept into her mind, and she’d had to mindfully force it out. Focusing on FoldIt had been meditative enough to distract her. But now she would face whatever reality might hold.

  Kara and Sadie hurried to the cargo bay, Maggie loping after them. Dim amber lights guided their way. It was bustling with activity. Men and women ran back and forth between the bay and passageway. Shouts and commands exploded around her in in terse voices. She spotted Lauren rushing into the bay with Peter, both carrying a case full of medical supplies. Divya chased behind with a gurney at her side.

  A sinking feeling caught hold of Kara. If the medical team was worried, then she was worried.

  Kara jogged the rest of the way down the passageway. She was about to follow the doctors inside when a hand grabbed her shoulder.

  “Not right now,” Thomas Hampton said, giving her a scolding look. “It’s best to stay out of everyone’s way.”

  “But my dad—”

  “Is fine,” Thomas said. “The whole crew made it. And they brought back two more survivors.”

  “Why can’t we go down there? I want to see Dad!” Sadie said. Maggie barked to emphasize the girl’s point.

  “Like I said, we need to stay out of the way.” Thomas offered a sympathetic smile, sending his sun-worn skin wrinkling. “What do you think I’m doing out here?”

  Kara leaned against the bulkhead to wait. After a few minutes, Lauren jogged down the hall with a battered-looking Glenn, who had a young boy in his arms. Terrence followed close behind, refusing to be carried on the gurney, with Divya dabbing at bandages over his head and arms.

  Then a familiar voice boomed down the passage. “Girls!”

  Kara and Sadie both grinned and hurried to meet their father and Meredith. They were climbing the ladder from the bay, and their faces were covered in a mixture of soot and grime, interspersed with flecks of dried blood.