“Frank, Adam, when’s liftoff?” Dom asked.
“Chao’s telling me we’re close,” Adam said.
A group of Skulls were running near the dark chopper. A six-foot-tall, skinny one still wearing cargo-pocketed hiking pants and a backpack scraped it as he ran. In the background, over Adam’s comm link, Dom heard Maggie’s frantic barking. The thin Skull paused. Its neck twisted and its mouth gaped as it let out a screeching roar. It tore at the chopper with its claws.
Gunfire continued while the Hunters tried to hold off the Skulls still on the attack. But Dom’s attention was drawn to the monster trying to get into the chopper—trying to get at his daughters. Two more of the beasts climbed atop the AW109. Their spiked and mutated arms flailed. They pounded their fists against the fuselage in a rabid frenzy.
Dom had the creatures lined up in his sights, but he hesitated. “How strong is that glass?” he asked Frank over the comm link.
“Strong enough to keep out most small arms fire,” Frank said.
Dom lowered the weapon. If his bullets strayed from their target, he risked not only damaging the chopper, but also its passengers. He couldn’t take a shot from here. Not with this vantage point. None of them could. He stepped from behind the overturned picnic table.
Meredith grabbed his arm. “Don’t. You’re not going to be of much help to your girls if you end up dead.”
Another two Skulls joined the assault on the chopper.
Frank’s voice came over the comm link again. “We might be able to take some small arms fire, but if they damage the intake or the rotors, it won’t much matter. Even if we get the FADEC back on track, none of us will be going anywhere.”
***
Kara had only known Frank for a couple of days, but she could hear the worry in his normally cool voice. Another creature climbed atop the chopper. Its wails resonated through the cabin. Maggie no longer let out her deep, throaty barks. Instead, she whimpered beside Sadie, who crouched in the corner and clung to the dog.
Kara held the pistol in her hands. “We’ve got to do something.”
“You’re not doing anything.” Adam spun in the copilot’s seat. “And I’m not going to let anything happen to you two.” He pointed to the gun. “You got another magazine for that?”
Kara shook her head.
Adam climbed over the seat and into the rear of the cabin. He dug through the Hunters’ supplies and pulled out two more magazines. “Here. Just in case.”
Kara took the magazines and tucked them snugly in her pocket. When Adam continued to search through the supply box, she asked, “What are you doing?”
He gave her a vest complete with body armor plates and handed another to Sadie. “Put these on. If those pieces of shit get in here, I want you two to have some protection.”
The Skull on top of the chopper started to throw itself against the cabin’s roof. The rotor shuddered, hit by the Skull’s violent attacks.
“That thing cannot wreck this bird or we’re all fucked,” Frank said.
Definitely not as calm and collected as before, Kara thought. His marked change in demeanor told her everything she needed to know about the gravity of the situation, as if it hadn’t already been obvious. Her father, Meredith, and the Hunters were still fighting off the wave of Skulls desperately charging the shelter. She doubted they could stop the Skulls assaulting the chopper before the beasts grounded the bird permanently.
More demonic shrieks and cries tore through the night air.
The unmistakable sound of a gun being loaded and cocked echoed in the cabin. Adam closed his eyes and took a deep breath before mumbling a prayer to himself.
“What are you doing?” Kara asked.
“Going to take care of these fuckers,” he said. He positioned himself near the cabin door opposite where the Skulls were trying to tear into the chopper.
Kara started to squirm out of her vest. “You take this. You’re going to need it.”
“Hell, no,” Adam said. “It’s yours.”
He pressed the vest back over her shoulders, its weight slumping over her again. It felt heavy enough to suffocate her small frame, but she relented.
“I’m coming with you,” she said.
“God, no. If I let you do that, your father will kill me if those things don’t,” Adam said, adjusting his thick-framed glasses.
Kara clenched her fingers tight around her pistol. “You can’t do this alone.”
“I’m about to.” He wrapped his fingers around the door handle. “Slam this thing shut as soon as I clear it. And don’t open it for any goddamn reason.”
Frank closed the panel on the dash. “Chao tells me the FADEC is working again.” The chopper shook. More Skulls rocked against its side, threatening to topple the bird like enraged rioters flipping a car. “Christ, these things are relentless.” Frank turned to Adam. “Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Doing something stupid would be doing nothing at all while they fuck up the chopper!” Adam yanked open the door and rolled out. “Close it!”
Kara had no choice but to do what he said.
Frank’s hands dashed across the controls in preparation for takeoff. “Dom, as soon as it’s clear, we’re good to go. But you’re going to have to do something about Adam.”
As Frank listened to Dom’s reply over the comm, he nodded. Kara pressed her hands to the windows and watched Adam round the chopper toward where the Skulls were slamming their fists and tearing at the fuselage. He shouldered his rifle and let loose a salvo into the pack of monsters. Each bullet tore into their flesh or smashed into the bony plates along their gray skin. He couldn’t miss from such a short distance.
The gunfire diverted the Skulls’ attention. Adam ran backward, away from the chopper and the pack of Skulls. He moved so his gunfire wasn’t directed anywhere near the chopper. Most of the Skulls tumbled to the parking lot, where their pooling blood glimmered in the moonlight. Kara watched Adam continue to fire on the monsters. The orange muzzle bursts reflected off parked cars as he drew the beasts away. Only two Skulls from the pack that had assaulted the chopper remained.
Kara was sure Adam could handle it. She released the breath she’d been holding. More gunfire sounded from the picnic shelter as the Hunters mowed down the other Skulls they’d drawn away. They might actually make it. They might actually live.
Then Adam stopped firing.
What the hell is he doing? Kara thought.
Reloading, he dropped the magazine from his rifle as the two remaining Skulls pounced. While he scrambled backward, he fumbled with the replacement mag. One of the beasts lashed out. Its crooked claws caught Adam’s right shoulder. He struck back with the butt of his rifle. It connected with the Skull’s jaw, and the creature’s head snapped back.
But the other Skull took advantage of the momentary vulnerability. It lunged at Adam, and the two went down hard. Adam disappeared under a flurry of skeletal limbs. Kara’s heart pounded wildly. The weight of the body armor no longer seemed so significant. Her fingers tingled and her nerves sparked as adrenaline surged through her. In her mind’s eye, she watched her mother attacked by a Skull—attacked because Kara had hesitated.
She couldn’t watch this man die. She tore the cabin door open and slammed it shut before Frank could protest. Sprinting across the lot, she drew up the handgun. The muzzle burst to life with each successive shot. Most of the bullets sank into their targets, plunging into the skeletal beasts before her, but a few smashed against the skeletal plates, sending shards of yellowed bone flying.
One Skull spun around to face her. Blood dripped from its mouth. Patchy hair stuck up around the horns jutting from its forehead. For a moment, it stared hard at Kara before roaring and swiping its talons through the air. Kara ducked and fired. She missed and jumped back from another swinging claw to fire again. This time, blood poured from the cavity in the Skull’s face where its nose had once been, and the monster crumpled.
Growling, the second Skull—much smaller than the first�
��turned away from Adam’s body. It dove at her with its cracked lips pulled back and its tongue whipping between its serrated teeth. She fired at its face, but it came at her unexpectedly low, and the shot went wide. She squeezed the trigger again. The slide on her handgun clicked back.
Empty.
She sprinted away and reached for a new magazine. But the Skull was quicker. It crashed into her legs. She dropped the fresh magazine and fought to hold the pistol as she slammed against the asphalt. Pain radiated through her elbow, the back of her head, and her tailbone. The Skull drew back a claw. It snarled, and saliva mixed with Adam’s blood dripped onto Kara’s face.
She refused to flinch and tightened her grip on her empty pistol. She wouldn’t go out without causing some damage to the beast. Its claws stabbed at her chest. The body armor deflected the strike, but the sheer force of the impact resonated in Kara’s ribcage. She returned the blow by swinging the handle of her pistol into the creature’s face. Cartilage cracked, and its nose burst inward.
Pain didn’t stop the beast. It slashed at her again. This time its talons connected with her face. She felt the jolt of electricity through her nerves along with the unreal sensation of the thing’s claws tearing into her cheek.
But if pain didn’t stop the Skull, she wouldn’t let it stop her.
With another determined strike, she crushed the creature’s eye socket with the pistol. Her vision clouded with blood. She exchanged more blows with the monster. An image of Sadie flashed through her mind. Then her father. Meredith. The Hunters.
If her sacrifice saved them—saved the team, saved her sister—it was worth it. Maybe they’d find a cure and save her mother, too. The beast’s fist connected with the side of her face again, slamming the back of her head into the asphalt.
Kara’s world went black.
-11-
Meredith watched Kara go down through her NVGs in a nightmarish flurry of flashing greens and blacks. The other Skulls continued to rush the picnic shelter, but she saw an end. Only a dozen or so of the monsters remained. She patted her vest and stood beside Dom. No more magazines.
“Hold your position,” Dom said. Without further explanation, he dashed toward where his daughter had fallen.
Meredith had no more rounds to provide cover fire. She couldn’t help Hector, Renee, and Miguel take down the remaining Skulls. There was only thing she could do: She sprinted after Dom. One of the Skulls haphazardly swung a claw. With the stock of her rifle, she bashed its horned face. A second blow to its jaw sent its neck snapping unnaturally backward, and it slumped to the grass. Gunfire continued to chatter behind her.
Miguel’s voice broke over the comm link. “We’ve got you two covered.”
It didn’t matter whether the Hunters did or not. Meredith knew Dom wasn’t going to stop until he reached his daughter, and she wouldn’t falter until she was by his side. She saw Adam bring himself up into a sitting position. His arms shook as he struggled with his rifle, desperate to feed in a fresh magazine.
The Skull on Kara tore at her chest. Meredith’s heart climbed into her throat as she and Dom ran. Dom didn’t risk shooting the beast yet. Meredith knew he wouldn’t fire until he could be sure he wouldn’t hit his daughter. They bounded across the grass toward the lot. When they were finally close enough, Dom shouldered his rifle and fired. The beast fell limply across Kara’s body.
The girl was still. Meredith couldn’t tell if she was breathing or not.
As Dom lifted the Skull’s corpse from Kara, another of the creatures rushed him. Meredith slammed her empty rifle’s stock into the creature’s face. Its arms whipped at her, but she dodged its desperate attacks and landed another debilitating blow. The gunfire from the shelter quieted. The last of the beasts dropped in the grass. Hector, Renee, and Miguel ran toward Meredith and Dom.
Dom dropped his SCAR and knelt next to his daughter.
Meredith ran to Adam. “We need to move. Can you do that?”
Blood seeped from lacerations across his scalp and the torn flesh on his side. He managed a slow nod, and Meredith guided his arm over her shoulder before helping him stand. She escorted him to the chopper’s cabin, where Frank had already slung the door open. As she laid him down, Hector and Renee rushed in. They tore into the first-aid kit on the fuselage wall and began applying a compress to Adam’s side wounds.
Meredith grabbed a handful of gauze and another compress before running back to Dom. Miguel stood guard over the father and daughter. Dropping beside them, Meredith applied the bandages to the ragged strips of flesh still clinging to the side of Kara’s face.
Dom, his hands bloody and shaking, clicked on his comm link. “Huntress, do you read?”
“Loud and clear, Captain,” Chao responded.
Meredith slid two fingers over Kara’s neck, trying to monitor her pulse. A faint throb beat. The girl might yet have a fighting chance, but she was nowhere near being in the clear yet.
“We have two casualties incoming,” Dom said, his words rushed, almost panicked. Meredith could sense the inner turmoil raging within him. “Heavy bleeding. They’ve also been exposed to the Oni Agent. They’ll need to start treatment immediately.”
“Copy that,” Chao said. “Message will be relayed to the medical team. Godspeed.”
Meredith admired Dom’s ability to hold himself together even while he watched his daughter barely clinging to life. She helped him lift Kara aboard the helicopter then shut the door. The whine of the engines accompanied the Hunters’ voices. The rotors spun, and the roar of the chopper attracted a few lingering Skulls from the area. Four sprinted straight at the helicopter, but it lifted past their reach.
Frank pushed the cyclic and the chopper responded, moving forward with it. He adjusted the throttle, and Meredith thought she could see him holding his breath, waiting to see if the repairs to the FADEC had worked. With no ringing alarms or flashing warning lights, they sped off over the forest. Meredith watched Dom’s face. His eyes were wide with worry as he pressed the dressings over his daughter’s injuries. Meredith undid the straps on Kara’s body armor. “Let’s get this off so she can breathe.”
Dom nodded and pulled his hand away from Kara’s face. Meredith quickly removed the vest. After she cleared it over Kara’s head, Dom reapplied pressure to the wounds. Blood saturated Kara’s shirt. Meredith cut the fabric away and used a cloth to wipe the blood away from her skin. She found no other cuts or wounds. The armor plates had protected Kara’s vital organs.
From the first aid kit, Meredith drew another set of bandages to replace the ones over the side of Kara’s face. She had sometimes regretted her decision to join the CIA and embark on a life without a family. Occasionally, she had dreamed about what it would have been like if she’d chosen a less tumultuous career and raised a gaggle of children somewhere in suburbia. But as she watched Dom tend to his daughter, as she imagined the parents whose children had succumbed to Skulls or were transformed by the Oni Agent, she thanked God she’d never brought anyone else into this unkind world.
***
Lauren Winters rushed across the helipad, and the AW109 landed aboard the Huntress. Peter, Sean, and Divya followed with two gurneys. When they reached the chopper, the cabin door slid back. A mad rush of voices greeted Lauren, and she helped load their first patient onto a gurney. She took one look at the youthful, unfamiliar face half-covered by bandages and stifled a gasp. The auburn hair was a dead giveaway—she had to be Dom’s daughter. Meredith and Dom bounded out beside her. A soft groan escaped the young woman’s lips. Her left eye was covered in bandages, but her right eyelid started to flutter open.
“Kara,” Dom said. “You’re okay. You’re going to be okay.” He held her hand, and Peter and Lauren took command of the gurney.
“Anything besides the cranial trauma and lacerations?” Lauren asked while the group rushed back into the Huntress.
“I didn’t notice anything external,” Meredith said.
“Okay, thanks,” Lauren replied
and then spoke to Dom in a measured voice. “We’re going to take damn good care of her, Captain.”
“I know you will.” Dom’s fingers slipped from Kara’s. Lauren wheeled her into the operating room. He stood outside the small room, separated by an acrylic partition. Lauren and Peter donned surgical masks and gloved up.
Lauren gave him a nod through the window. She peeled back Kara’s saturated bandages. “Kara, if you can hear me, we’re about to administer an anesthetic. You’ll go to sleep, and when you wake up, your father will be back beside you.”
A weak, rasping sound escaped Kara’s bruised lips. Her eyelid fluttered again but didn’t open.
“Pulse is weak, blood pressure’s dropping,” Peter said.
Lauren inserted an IV needle and connected the line. “She’s lost too much blood. We need to make this fast.”
Already, the yellow calcified tissue symptomatic of the Oni Agent had formed over her wounds and helped to stanch the bleeding. With a scalpel, Lauren scraped it away and sutured the torn flesh. She and Peter continued this grueling task, removing the mineralized growths and then closing the wounds.
She could feel the hot burn of Dom’s gaze on the back of her neck. The sounds of Divya and Sean treating Adam in an adjoining room rang in her ears, but she focused hard on the task at hand. Each loop of the suture and dab at the dried blood brought Kara closer to life again. With the IV pumping fluid into her, Kara’s blood pressure stabilized. Her pulse continued its rhythm, steady and slow.
“I didn’t notice any significant craniofacial bone trauma,” Lauren said when they’d patched Kara up.
“Her cheek was torn up bad enough. Poor girl’s going to have wicked scars along the left side of her face.”
Lauren nodded. “Let’s start her straight on the chelation therapy and antibiotics. We need to eradicate the Oni Agent immediately.”
Peter picked up a small glass vial he’d prepared and withdrew the chelation solution with a syringe. He inserted the liquid into Kara’s IV line. Lauren followed with a glass bottle of tetracycline—a strong antibiotic to wipe out the stubborn nanobacteria in the Oni Agent. When she finished, they wheeled Kara to the patient area. Adam lay in a neighboring bed, already recovering from his emergency treatment. White gauze, taped in place, covered his right arm and chest. Dom walked over to the side of Kara’s bed and brushed back her hair. Meredith laid a hand on his shoulder.
The Tide: Breakwater (Tide Series Book 2) Page 7
