Emergence Boxed Set, page 89
part #1 of Emergence Series
“From the navy ship, si—that is Santiago,” said Nick. “Yeah, they encountered some turbulent weather, you could say, and won’t be making their rendezvous with the Americans after all.” He thrust his chin up at the passing sailor. “Santiago is kind of like you—someone who has indispensable knowledge.” He tilted his head at Victor. “Or I’m hoping that’s your story.”
Nick turned towards his alphas, who were getting restless next to the captives. “Feed upon the older men but save the women and children.”
Victor scurried away, pressing himself against a boulder. “Don’t harm los ninos—they are innocent.”
Nick moved towards him then squatted on one knee, staring into the face of the frightened figure. “Oh no, I’m not gonna eliminate a future crop. As for the innocent part, there’s no such thing anymore.” He picked up a handful of sand and let it flutter through his fingers. “Nature has favored a new race in place of yours, and I’m here to reel in that new era.”
Victor’s lips trembled as he crawled towards a small shrine at the edge of the dirt road, which housed a figure of the Virgin Mary.
Nick followed him then stood with his hands on his hips, grinning at the statue. He thought back to the beatings he had received from his zealous father whenever he mispronounced a passage in the bible during their morning recitations. He thrust a finger at the faded blue statue, whose head was bleached from the sunlight. “You think your God is going to help you—help any of your kind? He took a train for the coast after seeing what you’d done to each other with this virus.” Nick put his hand on the head of the statue then squeezed down until it cracked, shattering into small fragments like it was made of brittle clay. “This world may finally have a chance at recovering from the misdeeds done in the Almighty’s name.”
Victor gasped, backpedaling to the right while his eyes darted over Nick’s features. “What are you? You can’t be one of those things?”
“All you have to be concerned with right now is: how much are you worth to me?” Nick knelt down next to him, flinging a handful of statue rubble into his lap. “So, let’s talk about the resources of this region—the boats, the planes, and the fuel at your disposal. Then you’re going to tell me everything you know about the islands off the coast.”
Chapter 4
Arizona/California Border
Lake Havasu National Wildlife Refuge
Kelly Ivins stuck the rusted tip of her blade into the soft belly of the fish until the intestines spilled out and blood ran down her tan fingers. She flopped the limp creature onto the deck of the houseboat and continued gutting it, then flung the entrails onto a clump of cattails a few feet away. Kelly watched a great blue heron ascend from the marsh to her left with a small fish wriggling in its spear-like beak. She recognized the bird from the streak of black on its otherwise yellow bill. It had become a constant in her otherwise monotonous life. She had been living off the river for the past six weeks since she and her daughter Cassie had fled from the doomed community at Raven’s Keep. They had escaped along with two other survivors, Mary and Erica, following the catastrophic assault on that compound by thousands of paras.
The isolation in this immense stretch of riparian wilderness seemed idyllic at first—there were no signs of creatures this far out, no desperate survivors like they’d encountered during the early days of the pandemic in L.A., and plenty of fish, along with Mediterranean weather amidst stunning desert vistas. It was a setting that most people, prior to the virus, would have paid thousands of dollars to partake of, but now it had become a prison without walls. The four of them were able to meet their physical needs, living off the bounty of the river, but they realized their idyllic campsite in the cattails would have to come to an end soon, given their dwindling supplies. Kelly also knew that it would only take one accident—a severe laceration from fileting fish or a slip on the jagged rocks when they went ashore to scout for supplies—to thrust them into a precarious medical setting. Her training as a nurse could only take them so far in a world where Murphy’s Law could rear its ugly head at any given moment.
“What’s for breakfast today—please tell me it’s not striped bass again?” muttered Erica, who stood to her right, the mist from her breath visible. “How about an omelet with ham and mushrooms with a dose of Tabasco instead?” Erica slid a tattered fleece sweater over her tattooed arms, then she took a swig of water from a flask on the bench next to her.
Kelly stood up, shrugging her shoulders. “You don’t like how I grill up my fish filets?”
“Charred black? Not really,” smirked Erica as she squashed a spider under her boot. She flung her head back towards the inside. “Besides, I think the propane is nearly gone, so it might be sushi from now on.”
Kelly looked at the sun cresting over the sandstone ridge across the Colorado River. “Yeah, I figured we are almost at the point of needing to talk about relocating.” She craned her head back, looking down the passageway that led to the back berth where Cassie was asleep. “I think we’re going to have to revisit what we talked about two weeks ago.”
“But go where? Other than that small outpost near Yuma, we haven’t heard anything on the radio in days.”
Kelly knelt down, swishing her soiled blade in the water. She looked at the trash bin behind her, filled with dirty water filters that they had already tried to scrub clean along with empty MRE packets. “I don’t think we can be picky—couple more weeks and we’ll have to be like the herons and push on.” She resheathed the blade and grabbed the fish, putting it in a small frying pan on the deck.
Kelly heard the sliding glass door in the galley open as her daughter walked out. The girl pulled a threadbare Arizona Diamondbacks ballcap down over her disheveled blond hair, muffling a yawn as she shuffled forward in her untied sneakers. “I’m hungry.”
Kelly looked at the fish fluttering in the fry pan, trying to think how she could spruce up another meal that came from the river. “How about some James Pond or Gill Clinton for breakfast?”
Erica rolled her eyes. “That was rough, Kelly—if that was the kind of humor you used in your bedside manner as a nurse then I can’t imagine many patients pulling through.” Erica picked up the little girl, spinning around on her heels while chuckling. “Don’t ever let your mom become a comedian, OK?”
Cassie nodded, leaning on Erica’s muscular shoulder as she smiled at her mom. “Can’t we have cereal?”
“Sorry, babe—maybe one of these days,” said Kelly, reaching over as Erica passed off the girl.
All three of their heads turned in unison at the sound of gunfire, followed by rocks falling off the thirty-foot escarpment above the back of the houseboat. Kelly reached for the Beretta on her hip and pulled Cassie in closer. A second later, they saw Mary frantically climbing down the boulders from her lookout position on the mesa. She leapt the last few feet, landing on the deck, her eyes rollercoaster wild as she ran through the cabin towards the closet where the weapons were stored.
“They’re coming—thousands of them.”
Erica’s face turned ashen. “What? There haven’t been any in this region in weeks. Why now?”
“They’re moving in from the desert to the northwest,” yelled Mary. “This must be a new army of creatures from Vegas or somewhere else.” She paused to glance at the two women, her cheeks turning red. “And I mean an army!”
Kelly felt her heart punching through her chest as the comfort of living in such a serene setting was abruptly erased. She saw the heron taking flight at the deafening commotion from the creatures, and Kelly grew envious of the great bird’s ability to swiftly flee from danger. The sheltering cliffs before them suddenly seemed to shrink in stature as she saw two parasite-riddled creatures bound along the boulders while others gathered at the rim of the mesa. Their translucent skin was illuminated by the rising sun, and their ravenous black eyes were focused on the food before them.
Erica bolted inside, rushing past Mary and firing her 1911 pistol into the head of the first creature. It collapsed in the muddy water as she shot a flurry of rounds into another rock-scrabbling drone. Two rounds struck it in the chest and neck as it leaped onto the rear deck. Erica fired wildly at the gnashing beast as it dove at her, several rounds striking the jaw and exiting behind the left ear. It fell backwards off the boat, plunging into the cattails.
Kelly was at the helm, firing up the engine, then she ran to the end of the bow and hoisted up the algae-covered anchor. As she spun around, she saw six more drones leaping from the cliff as hundreds more reached the edge. She lunged for the throttle on the dashboard, slamming it forward then grabbing the steering wheel as she heard a cacophony of gunfire from the rear. Kelly piloted the boat straight ahead, out of the cattails and into a deep tributary, then she spun the wheel hard to the right as she shoved Cassie beneath the console.
Once they entered the main branch of the Colorado River a few hundred yards from shore, she slowed the engine and glanced over her shoulder at the ensuing battle on the rear deck. She removed a palm-sized .22 pistol from a compartment in the console and flicked off the safety, leaning over and handing it to Cassie. “Stay put and remember what I taught you about shooting.”
Kelly tucked her Beretta in her belt then climbed up the ladder leading to an open veranda on the second level. She leaned on the aluminum canoe that was strapped to the roof then fired two rounds into the head of the closest creature, removing most of its skullcap. Shards of bone and worm clusters splashed back into the river. She fired wildly into the torso of a single drone that surprised her as it bounded up the deck ladder. Its sternum cracked open, and she shot a flurry of bullets at the head, hitting it twice in the right eye. It shrieked, flipping over the railing into the Colorado.
Kelly saw Mary firing her last round from her Springfield XD pistol at a bullet-riddled drone that gnashed at her face. She withdrew a hot dog skewer from the barbecue grill and drove it up through the soft tissue in the jaw, burying the tip in the brain. She shoved the groaning beast back with her hands until it fell overboard, where it was quickly converted into a pulpy mess by the boat propellers.
After draining her pistol, Erica finished the last drone with a glass beer schooper to the temple, sending it into the current below. The two women on the rear deck quickly backed up, checking for parasites on their skin as Kelly retreated back to the helm.
She squatted down to retrieve Cassie, but panic tore through her when she saw that the girl was gone. Kelly screamed out the child’s name then saw a shoelace sticking out from the bench seat. She pried up the lid and found her daughter balled up inside, shaking violently.
“Oh, baby—it’s OK now. They’re all gone.” She set down the shotgun and picked up Cassie, holding her close. “They’re all gone, sweetie.”
Mary and Erica entered the boat, resupplying their pistols with fresh magazines then sitting down next to Kelly.
“They came out of the canyon a half-mile away—that’s how I think they covered their passage,” said Mary, looking back at the cliffs to the west, where thousands of creatures were still on the move.
“But coming from where?” said Erica. “And why are they heading south?”
The girl sniffled, burying her head in her mom’s neck. “But they’ll be back again, won’t they? They’re never going away.”
Kelly wanted to lie and tell her daughter that she would always keep her safe—that the danger was over.
“I will protect you. Erica and Mary will protect you.” She pointed to the river. “And the mighty Colorado will protect all of us as long as we stay on it.”
Erica looked down at the miles of river in front of them. “Where to now?”
“We can’t go north—who knows how many more creatures are already up that way.”
Kelly tried to still her trembling hands, knowing they would have to find another location that was out of harm’s way. But where—where in this world is there such a place now? She watched the body of a mangled drone float by then disappear under the current.
“Yuma—we should try to link up with others. We’ve been lucky so far, camping out here all this time, but we need strength in numbers. Hopefully, this boat has enough fuel to take us all the way there.”
The two other women looked back at their sanctuary in the cattail cove then back at Kelly, nodding their heads in confirmation. Erica removed a laminated map from a console drawer then unfolded it, tracing her finger along the river. “Well, not all the way—there’s a huge dam across the Colorado about forty miles south of here.”
Kelly leaned over, studying the route, then looked up at the creatures moving along the western ridge. “We can be there in a few hours, which will give us a lead over those things. Then we will either have to find a boat on the other side or use the canoe.”
“Canoe the rest of the way to Yuma? That’s going to be a haul,” said Erica.
“Then let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.” Kelly set Cassie down, moving the throttle on the console forward until the boat sped into the main current. She thought of her husband Tom Ivins’ words when he had described being in a harrowing battle overseas during one of his many deployments. Hope is a survival priority as important as your rifle, knife, or med kit—and sometimes it’s the only light you have to shine through the unending darkness. Right now, she fought to keep that flicker of light aglow, knowing they were venturing down a path with no discernible end in sight.
Chapter 5
Reisner followed Runa out of the corridor on the main deck of the Lachesis. They walked past the vacant helipad at the stern, climbing down into the Zodiac. A young man named Clark who was dressed in camouflage blue navy fatigues was at the helm and fired up the engine as he disengaged the boat from the Lachesis.
As the Zodiac swung out into the ocean, Reisner felt the cold rush of air flit through his hair like a thousand tiny icicles driving into his scalp. He removed a black wool cap from his jacket and slid it over his head then glanced out at the fleet of a hundred vessels fanned out around the Lachesis. Most of them were medium to large frigates out of New Orleans or Tampa that had escaped the initial wrath of the virus during the early days of infection. They had mixed crews of civilians, Coast Guard personnel, and merchant marines. The non-military vessels largely served as storage for the fleet’s food and freshwater drinking supplies, along with housing for civilians at sea or those coming and going from MacDill. With the medley of crew on board, each had formed its own unique subculture rife with the problems that unfold when small confined groups are forced to live together under cramped conditions.
As the Zodiac bobbed along the waves, Runa looked back at Reisner. “Good to be out for a change, isn’t it?”
“That’s an understatement.” Reisner nodded up towards one of the frigates in the distance. “I imagine most people on board these ships haven’t had the ability to move around much off ship like us.”
“They all have their jobs to do, but yeah, most are living in an isolated little community of other survivors who were ripped from the lives they once knew on the mainland. Can’t imagine being confined to a dank ship out here for months—it’s not like they enlisted in the navy and knew what they were getting into.”
“Ivins mentioned something a while back about there being issues with gambling and petty theft.” Reisner looked up at the deck of a large fishing trawler to see a thirty-something man with disheveled clothing staring with a vacant gaze out at the waters. The man didn’t even notice them pass by as he stood like a gaunt mannequin, holding on to the bronze railing with one hand while cradling an empty vodka bottle.
“To be expected when you thrust a bunch of desperate people together with a limited pool of resources. Dorr assigned a handful of navy personnel to each of the larger frigates to serve as a loose form of law-enforcement, but some days are still like the Wild West from what I hear.”
“Jody’s told me a few stories. Glad she’s on one of the better ships in the fleet, and at least she gets to spend a chunk of each week at MacDill when they rotate work crews.”
Runa grinned. “And most people also know who her brother is, given your reputation, and they know what will happen to them if they fuck with her.”
Reisner flared an eyebrow. “And what reputation are you talking about exactly?”
The Zodiac arced to the right, coming between two massive cargo ships.
“If someone were to ask me, I’d say the one about you being cocky and stubborn as shit most days while not hesitating to get the job done.”
“Regardless of the cost,” he whispered, letting his eyes gaze to the east.
“What happened to Nash wasn’t your fault, Will. You will have to find a way to move past what happened in South Carolina.”
He clutched a hank of rope coiled next to him. “And if I can’t?”
Runa glanced down at the waves to his right as he removed a gold ring that was tethered to a piece of leather cord around his neck. He moved closer to Reisner so he could be out of earshot of the helmsman. “You asked me once about what happened during the fall of Langley when we had to flee Virginia after the paras swept through the city.” He cleared his throat, looking back at Reisner. “It took me weeks to even think back to what happened and all the good friends I lost. Most of the agency staff were cut to pieces as we fled the building. A dozen of us made it to the company vehicles and were able to gain a few miles before we were attacked.”
Runa squinted, looking up at the sun, obscured like a gray disk behind the stratus clouds. “During the next two hours, we fought, we evaded, and we ran past destroyed neighborhoods—ran for what must have been miles until we made it to this little white house on a cul-de-sac. It looked untouched—there were even flowers still in a pot on the porch.” Runa shook his head. “By then, there were only five of us left.” He lowered his eyes, his forehead wrinkling. “The night felt like it lasted a month—gunshots and screams from the nearby streets came and went as the creatures poured like a fucking tidal wave into the surrounding city.”
