The Tide: Breakwater (Tide Series Book 2) (8 page)

“FA—what?” Adam asked.

“Full authority digital electronics control,” Chao said. “We can relay instructions to Adam and Frank if you guys are ready.”

The sun had already dropped below the trees. Shafts of orange fought against the encroaching hues of purple and blue. Without daylight, repairing the chopper would be hard.

“Let’s do this quick,” Dom said.

“Contact spotted,” Renee said, her voice cold. “Make that two.”

“Skulls?” Meredith asked, crouched and making her way toward Renee’s side of the cabin.

“Definitely,” Hector said. “They’ve got the bony talons to prove it.”

Dom’s heart sank as he looked at his daughters. He’d thought he was saving them by taking them to Fort Detrick. After Detrick had been compromised, however brief the scuffle had been, he’d thought they would stand a better chance at survival aboard the
Huntress
. He had only taken them from one disaster to another. It seemed there was no escaping the Skulls’ reach.

“Everybody, stay low,” Dom said.

But it was already too late. The Skulls didn’t need to see their faces to be interested in the chopper. The near-crash landing of the AW109 had piqued their curiosity. The two Skulls broke out into a gallop. Their screeching howls pierced the cabin.

“I don’t think they realize we don’t have room for any more passengers,” Miguel said.

Renee hoisted her rifle. “Should we check their boarding passes?”

Dom held up a hand. “How’s it going with the computer system?”

Adam shook his head, and Frank opened a panel in the controls.

“It’s going to take us a while to diagnose the problem, assuming it’s software-related and not hardware,” Frank said.

One of the Skulls leapt at the helicopter. Its bony claws scratched at the exterior. Sadie threw her hands over her ears.

“Captain, mind if we take over as TSA?” Renee said. “I think we’ve got passengers trying to bring aboard unauthorized weapons.”

“That depends,” Dom said. “Frank, how long ’til we fix this thing? I don’t want to attract any more Skulls than we can handle.”

The two Skulls scraped at the side of the chopper and continued howling. A third Skull, dressed in a torn mechanic’s coverall, broke through the edge of the forest and sprinted toward them.

“Shit,” Dom said. “Looks like they’re already getting riled up.” He nodded to Renee, Hector, Meredith, and Miguel. “Ready?”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” the Hunters said again.

Meredith shot him a thumbs up before wrapping her fingers around her rifle.

“Girls, stay back,” Dom said to Kara and Sadie.

They moved toward the opposite side of the cabin. Kara held Maggie’s collar as the dog growled. A fourth and fifth Skull burst from the foliage. Leaves and branches snagged on the skeletal spikes protruding from their shoulders and elbows. Another three Skulls tore out from the entrance to the hiking trails.

If they were going to do something, they needed to act soon or they risked being overwhelmed. Hector sidled up to Dom, and Renee joined him at his other side.

“Three, two”—Dom slid back the cabin door—“one!”

He planted a boot into the coverall-wearing Skull’s chest, and the creature flew backward. Hector and Renee’s rifles barked to life. Blood and bone fragments exploded from the two other Skulls. Their bodies dropped. The one Dom had kicked recovered and stood. With a quick pull of his trigger, Dom sent two bullets through the beast’s head. Crimson liquid poured from its wounds. The other Skulls surged. Their claws clicked on the asphalt as they ran. Dom, Hector, and Renee filed out and formed a defensive perimeter around the chopper.

Meredith and Miguel leaped out next. Miguel shut the chopper door as Maggie, Kara, and Sadie watched. He patted the side of the bird before shouldering his rifle.

Muzzle flashes exploded from the Hunters’ weapons with each measured shot. One of the charging creatures let out a high-pitched wail. A chorus of other cries, some distant, others sounding considerably closer, joined the beast’s frightening song. A spatter of bullets knocked the monster off its feet. For a few seconds, the parking lot was clear of living Skulls. The last throes of the sinking sun cast long shadows over the crumpled bodies and pools of blood.

“Everybody’s night vision in working order?” Dom asked.

Meredith flipped down the NVGs she’d borrowed from Adam. “Seems good to me.”

The other Hunters followed suit. Dom clicked on his NVGs and peered into the now black-and-green landscape. Next to him, Meredith and the Hunters each wore infrared tags on their shoulders. The tags glowed a bright white when viewed through NVGs but were invisible to everyone else. The tags were commonly used by American forces to prevent friendly fire when operating in the cover of darkness.

Through the NVGs, the vacant vehicles in the parking lot appeared like ghostly apparitions. He played his rifle across the trees. Everything remained silent despite the earlier cries they’d heard.

Dom clicked on his comm link. “Frank, how’s my flyboy doing with the FADEC?”

“We managed to use one of Adam’s sat link devices so Chao and Samantha could dial into our systems from the
Huntress
. They’re troubleshooting now.”

“Keep your eyes on my girls for me, will you?”

“You got it, Captain.”

A guttural cry escaped the woods to their left. Dom and the Hunters swiveled. A Skull lunged over a fallen tree trunk. It sprinted toward them until a spray of bullets sent it sliding across the grass. Another howl sounded to their right, followed by a series of screams directly in front of them. More Skulls poured from the woods. Like the legendary hydra’s heads, each one they took down seemed to be replaced by two more.

“Reloading,” Renee called. She jammed a fresh magazine in place and resumed firing.

As soon as she did, Miguel yelled, “Reloading.”

Dom took his turn, clicking a new magazine into place.

The incoming Skulls seemed to be swarming them like someone had kicked a beehive. Dom’s thoughts turned toward Kara and Sadie, and he wondered how they were holding up. He prayed the Skulls would never reach the chopper. He squeezed the trigger and sent another skidding, dead, across the asphalt.

Dom realized they were losing ground. There were far too many to hold back. A chorus of howls echoed across the parking lot directly behind them. Dom swallowed hard. He risked a glance over his shoulder. His NVGs lit up in bright flashes of green. A frenzied horde of Skulls scrambled across the lot to the other side of the AW109.

“Frank,” Dom said. “I hope to God you’re about to tell me the bird’s ready to fly.”

“That’s a negative, Captain,” Frank said. “And if these new passengers decide to climb all over the chopper, there’s a good chance we’re never getting out of here.”

The wails of the approaching Skulls grew louder, and Dom’s pulse thumped in his ears. Hot adrenaline flooded his vessels. Next to him, his four crew members were clearly visible with their IR tags illuminated in his NVGs. The tags were completely invisible to the Skulls, but the bright flashes of white bursting from the muzzles of their rifles were not. An idea struck him, and he stopped squeezing the trigger. “Hold your fire!”

––––––––

“W
ith me!” Dom started running away from the chopper toward a picnic shelter. The others followed. When he reached the shelter, he flipped a picnic table on its side against one of the shelter’s support columns. Hector and Miguel turned over another, then Renee and Meredith shoved a third table over. It gave them a meager barricade against the Skulls.

“Why the fuck are we running away from the chopper?” Miguel asked.

Instead of answering, Dom squeezed the trigger and sent off several bursts into the flanks of the Skulls. The beasts swiveled and crashed into each other. Confusion riddled their ranks. Exactly what Dom had hoped.

“This is why!” He fired again. “Open up on ‘em!”

The other rifles chattered to life. The oncoming Skulls switched their attention to the muzzle flashes. Howls and calls rending the air anew, the beasts scrambled toward the picnic shelter where Dom and the Hunters had set their firing position. The tide of Skulls shifted away from the chopper.

“What’s going on?” Adam’s voice broke over the comm link.

“They hunt based on sound and sight,” Dom yelled through his mic. “So keep your asses down and work quietly while we draw them away.”

Three Skulls in ragged clothing broke away from the pack and came bounding at him. The growling bellows coming from their mouths made them sound like creatures two or three times their size. Dom gritted his teeth and fired. He was rewarded with the gratifying smack of bullets plunging through bone and flesh, and the monsters tumbled into the grass. He shot off another burst, praying his daughters would stay hidden under the fuselage windows of the chopper. The scene reminded him of the attack on Detrick: a seemingly endless stream of Skulls flooding them with no end in sight.

When they’d left the base, Shepherd had only given Dom and his crew enough supplies to tide them over in case of an emergency. He had no idea how long they could last.

He patted his tac vest to confirm what he already knew: one more magazine left. He squeezed his trigger, pumping lead into a Skull with its claws outstretched and its mouth open in a wail. A long mess of dark hair trailed behind it, and a leather belt was still wrapped around its waist, a lingering reminder of its former humanity. Dom’s rounds knocked the creature back, and its muscles rippled and writhed under spikes and bony plates as its life ebbed away. Still more creatures came at them.

“How’s everybody holding up?” Dom asked.

“Reloading,” Miguel said. “Last fucking mag.”

“Same,” Hector said.

Meredith and Renee continued to fire. When they paused, they confirmed their dwindling ammunition.

“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.”

***

K
ara 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.