Patient Zero (Coastal Fury Book 33), page 2
“What?” Cathleen replied, her voice flat. “Seriously?”
“I’ll carry you back down,” Adam insisted. “Come on.”
“Babe, that’s sweet and all,” Cathleen murmured. “But can you handle it? I mean, no offense, but you can barely keep up with me when we’re hiking.”
“What?” Adam squeaked, his face burning as he turned to look at her over his shoulder. “That’s not true! J-just get on, will you?”
“Okay,” Cathleen hummed as she wobbled up to her feet and then hopped over to him. She settled onto his back and wound her arms around his shoulders.
Adam hooked his arms beneath her legs and pushed himself onto his feet, clenching his jaw as he did. She was heavier than he’d expected, but there was no way he was about to show that, especially now that he knew she’d noticed how exhausted he got during their hikes.
“See?” He cleared his throat as he started to make his way down the hill. “Nothing to it.”
“My hero,” Cathleen replied teasingly as she leaned down to kiss his cheek. That alone was enough to put a pep in Adam’s step.
At least for a few minutes. He really was out of shape, and carrying his girlfriend wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. He was relieved, then, when the two of them happened to run into another hiker a few minutes down the trail.
“Hey!” Adam called as the man stepped out of the tree line and onto the open trail. “Hey! We need some help!”
The man turned in his direction, and Adam stopped. He was still several steps away, but Adam could clearly see the blood on the man’s face and clothes. He was breathing heavily, his shoulders rising and falling as he looked around in circles, as though he was confused or lost. Now that Adam got a look at him, the stranger wasn’t dressed for hiking. He wore a t-shirt, a pair of jeans, and a single sneaker.
“What the heck?” Cathleen murmured. “Is he okay?”
“I don’t think so,” Adam whispered back as the man began to groan and mutter to himself.
The man reached a hand up and yanked harshly at his hair before suddenly scratching at his face. Adam couldn’t tear his eyes away as the man clawed at his own cheeks, his hands coming away red with fresh blood.
Cathleen screamed with horror, and the man stopped and turned to look in their direction.
“No…” the stranger murmured. “Boat… the boat. Why? No!” He wasn’t making any sense, just rambling on as he continued to scratch at his face and pull on his own hair. His eyes were unfocused, and he kept wobbling, as though he were drunk.
Then, suddenly, his demeanor changed. He stopped muttering and gnashed his teeth together. His breathing got heavier, his shoulders rising and falling more dramatically before he suddenly came running at them.
Adam swore as he roughly set Cathleen down, practically throwing her to the ground so he could use his arms to stop the man. He barely managed to put his hands up before the stranger was upon him. The wild man swung his arms around furiously, trying to punch and slap at Adam. His sloppy moves reminded Adam a little of the way kids fight, just swinging their arms aimlessly at each other. The guy was strong, though, definitely stronger than Adam, and he managed to land a few swats and scratches on Adam’s face before Adam was able to push him away.
The man tumbled to the ground, and Adam rushed forward to kick him in the ribs. The stranger grunted with pain, and Adam did it again.
“G-get out of here!” Adam yelled, his voice breaking as he tried to make himself sound intimidating.
The man scrambled to his feet and didn’t bother to look at Adam again before running off into the forest, much like the dog had.
“What the hell is going on?” Adam exhaled as he wandered back to Cathleen. First that rabid dog, and now this psycho. Why had their romantic hike suddenly taken such a violent turn?
“Are you okay?” Cathleen asked as Adam walked over to her. “You’re bleeding!”
“It’s just a scratch,” Adam assured her as he reached up to touch his face. “The freak managed to scratch me. I’m more worried about you.”
“Let’s get out of here before anything else happens,” Cathleen suggested.
Adam nodded and helped her back up. This time, she merely leaned on his shoulder, hopping as they both made their way slowly down the trail. It had been fairly empty as they came up, the weather apparently a little too muggy for most people’s liking, and it was just as empty as they made their way down.
It wasn’t until they were nearly at the trailhead that they finally ran into other people. Although he was still wary after his last encounter with a passing hiker, Adam still called out to them.
“Hey!” he huffed, barely able to get the word out after having half-carried his girlfriend down the trail. “We need some help!”
The three hikers immediately rushed up to meet them.
“Oh my gosh, what happened?” one of them gasped as she looked back and forth between Adam and Cathleen.
“Hang on, I’m going to call 911,” another said as she snatched her phone out of her pants pocket.
“Thank you,” Adam replied, tension draining out of him at that. “Hear that, Cathleen?” He turned to look at his girlfriend, a little concerned that she hadn’t said anything. When he looked at her face, Adam nearly screamed.
Her eyes were glassy and unfocused, and although he hadn’t noticed it while they were walking, he could feel now that she was wheezing as she breathed.
“Cathleen!?” He gasped as she suddenly collapsed onto the ground, nearly dragging him down with her. A mixture of blood and foam dripped down the side of her mouth as she stared blankly up at the sky.
“Cathleen!” Adam screamed as he knelt beside her. He could hear the girl on the phone begging the operator to send an ambulance. As he listened, all Adam could do was think about just how much her dazed expression resembled that of the stranger who’d attacked them on the trail.
2
ETHAN
Diane hadn’t been impressed by my plan to work one-handed. I’d managed to injure my arm rather severely during our last case, and even though my dominant arm was just fine, she’d actually laughed out loud at the idea of me running around in the field minus one limb when I’d insisted that I was still okay to work.
“Go and take a vacation,” she’d ordered with a belabored sigh. “A real one. Not one where you end up getting shot or accidentally stumbling into a case. Just… go fishing or something.”
“I don’t control who shoots at me,” I’d argued back. “Or when I find a case. These things just happen.”
“They better not happen in the next week,” she’d replied with finality.
And that was how I came to be on my boat, sailing along the eastern coast of the United States as I went in search of another one of the Dragon’s Rogue’s clues. Tessa had managed to decipher another one of the map pieces, or so she thought.
“Listen, I could be wrong about this.” Tessa laughed nervously over the phone. I had her on speaker as I steered the boat forward.
This was actually pretty nice, sailing along, stopping to sleep when I got tired, and then continuing on. And sailing around on my boat came with the added bonus that there was virtually no way I’d randomly run into a case out in the middle of the ocean. The only downside was that Tessa hadn’t been available to join me.
“You’re telling me that now?” I laughed back. “After I’ve already sailed all the way up here?”
“Well, these maps are pretty rudimentary,” she grumbled. “And this is the one that was really messed up, remember? That looked like it had been burned and water damaged and potentially used as a cleaning rag at one point.”
“I remember,” I replied, closing my eyes briefly as I let the cool ocean spray mist over my face. “Which is why I was so surprised when you emailed me to let me know that you thought you’d cracked it.”
“Well, the eastern coast is pretty big,” Tessa pointed out. “And I’m ninety percent sure that the spot on the map is along the east coast. It looks like Georgia… but it could also be South Carolina. Or North Carolina.”
“Or Virginia?” I joked.
“No!” Tessa grumbled. “Well, maybe, but no, I’m pretty sure this is Georgia.”
“I wouldn’t mind North Carolina,” I mused. “We worked a case up there once.”
“Oh?” Tessa asked. “Huh… well, I suppose it is coastal, right? I just always picture the Caribbean when I think about the work you guys do.”
“Yeah, most of our stuff is down there,” I replied. “But every once in a while, we’ll get a case somewhere else. There are MBLIS branches all over the United States, and sometimes we’ll collaborate with one of the other ones.”
“That makes sense,” Tessa replied. “Anyway, I don’t think you’ll have to go that far.”
“Assuming I find anything at all.” I chuckled. “We both know that these maps aren’t exactly accurate.”
“You’ve found everything so far,” Tessa reminded me. “Even broke into that library to dig up one of the treasures.”
“One of my proudest moments,” I joked. I was about to say something else when something in the water caught my attention. It looked like something floating off in the distance. “What is that?”
“Hm?” Tessa asked. “What did you say?”
“I think I see something in the water,” I muttered as I steered my boat a little closer. As I did, it became apparent what I was looking at. “Oh, crap, I think it’s a person!”
“What!?” Tessa exclaimed, but I didn’t have time to respond.
I set my phone down and quickly turned my boat toward the person in the water. They were flailing around, but not crying for help. That was usually a sign of drowning. I rushed over as quickly as I could until I was close enough to toss the person a life preserver.
“Hey!” I yelled as I cut the engine.
I ran to unwind the life preserver I’d never used from its spot on the boat. I threw it at the woman, but she didn’t seem to notice it at all. She was still flailing, her eyes unfocused. I swore before diving into the water fully clothed. I swam over to the woman as fast as I could, bracing myself to be shoved under, the way drowning victims usually did when being rescued. I was trained to handle such situations, but to my surprise, the woman didn’t try to push me under. She actually barely reacted at all. I wound my arm around her and dragged her over to the boat. My arm was still injured, so I couldn’t lift her up on my own.
“Here, climb up,” I grunted as I pushed her toward the ladder.
She just stared at it for a moment before doing as I instructed, slowly, like she needed to really think about how to do it. I followed up after her, slumping onto the deck as I did.
“Are you okay?” I panted as the woman slowly got to her feet. I took a look around the water, but I didn’t see a boat or a raft or anything. “How did you end up out here?”
The woman didn’t answer. She was facing away from me, and her shoulders rose and fell as she breathed heavily. I realized then that something was off.
“Hey,” I called out as I slowly got to my feet. “Hey, what’s going on?”
The woman turned around slowly, stumbling slightly as she did. It was only then that I noticed her face. It was bloody, covered in scratches and cut up. I was about to ask her how that had happened, but she answered the question for me by reaching up and clawing at her own face.
“Hey, stop!” I called out, and she did.
Then she began to tremble, her entire body shaking as she stared at me with what I could only describe as unbridled rage. I knew what she was about to do before she did it, but still, I had no time to get out of the way before she suddenly lunged at me.
I tried to remain calm as I shoved the aggressive woman away. I had no idea what was going on. I managed to push her away, and she stumbled to the side, wobbling on her feet and then tripping to the ground like she was drunk. Maybe she was. Maybe that was how she’d ended up in the water. A quick glance around didn’t reveal any other vessels nearby, though, so I had no idea where the woman could have come from.
“Just take it easy,” I cautioned her as I put my hands up in front of me.
“So bright…” she murmured as she slowly got back to her feet. “Why… the sun. So dark. I was inside, at work, but then the boat…”
She muttered away, wandering in circles around the deck as though she couldn’t even see me. Drunk or otherwise, she clearly wasn’t well.
I slowly reached for my phone, then remembered that I had left it propped up on the helm.
Tessa! I suddenly remembered that I’d been talking to her right before I noticed the woman. I hadn’t even had time to explain what was going on before I’d jumped into action to save her from drowning. Tessa had probably hung up by now, but that wasn’t particularly important. What did matter, though, was the fact that the phone was all the way on the other side of the boat, and I would have to get past the woman to get to it. She was calm now, but I didn’t want to agitate her again.
I slowly walked toward the side of the boat to try to give her space to roam. Even though she’d attacked me, I didn’t think it had been out of malice. She wasn’t attacking me now and barely seemed aware of me. What she needed was medical help, so I needed to try to get her that without any more violence.
I only made it about halfway before she turned to me again, and I froze. She didn’t try to attack me again, though. She just stood there, looking tired and sad.
“Thirsty,” she muttered. Then she started gnawing on her bottom lip.
“You’re thirsty?” I repeated. “Okay, I can get you some water.” She followed my movements as I walked up to the helm and grabbed a bottle I had there. It was opened, but I didn’t want to grab a fresh one from below and have to take my eyes off her in the process. I grabbed my phone while I was at it, then slowly walked over to her.
Her eyes followed me the entire time. I took the lid off the water and handed it to her. She took it carefully, then spent a moment staring at it before putting it up to her lips. Even then, it was like she was afraid to drink it. She kept pulling the bottle away, as though she were fighting an internal battle with herself.
“It’s all right,” I tried to reassure her. “It’s just water.”
I reached for it, thinking I would drink some of it myself to prove to her that it was harmless. She recoiled, yanking the bottle out of my reach.
“No!” she hissed before chugging it.
She only managed to get a few gulps in before she stopped, screaming and retching as she threw the bottle so hard it flew over the side of the boat. She reached her hands up to her throat as she continued to gag and gasp, as though the water had burned her. All I could do was watch in bewilderment. I came back to my senses a second later and looked down at my phone.
I’d only managed to type a nine and a single one before I felt a shadow looming down on me. When I looked up again, the woman was right in front of me, her hands outstretched. I dropped my phone and put my hands up to stop her.
She screamed as I locked my hands around her wrists, and she struggled furiously to pull free.
“Calm down!” I shouted as she twisted her entire body around in an attempt to get loose.
Then she suddenly pulled herself up and kicked me in the stomach with both of her legs. I coughed as the wind was knocked out of me. I released my grip on her wrists and dropped her. Instead of running away, though, she lunged at me again, swinging wildly as she tried to punch and slap me however she could.
I shoved her backward, and she landed on the deck with a hard thump. She screamed again, kicking and flailing as she jumped to her feet and ran at me for a third time. This time, I managed to dodge her assault and shoved my way past her before winding an arm around her neck.
“Please just calm down,” I practically begged her as I applied slight pressure to the chokehold.
I didn’t want to hurt her, but she was half my size, and a single punch was likely to do a lot of damage. She was clearly unwell, under the influence of something or just having some kind of mental breakdown. Either way, I didn’t want to hurt her. Putting her to sleep would be the safest option for both of us until I could call 911 and get some help.
She went limp just seconds after I put her in the chokehold, which was… way too fast. I thought she was faking for a moment, pretending to be out to get me to let her go, but her entire body was heavy against mine, so I let her go. She immediately flopped down onto the deck, her eyes wide open.
I swore as I crouched beside her to check her pulse. To my horror, there was none. I leaned my cheek down close to her mouth to see if she was breathing, and she definitely wasn’t.
“What the hell?” I muttered as I stared down at her. She was dead. That was undeniable. She had no pulse, and she wasn’t breathing. I was no doctor, but without a heartbeat or discernable breathing, even I could tell she wasn’t okay.
I swore loudly as I raced to grab my phone. I’d dropped it somewhere when I’d spotted the woman. Tessa, to my surprise, was still on the line. I hung up and quickly dialed 911, mentally promising to call her and explain later.
“911,” the operator droned. “What is—”
“Ah, there’s a woman on my boat,” I yelled as I put the phone on speaker and dropped to the ground to start administering chest compressions. “She’s not breathing!”
“On your boat?” the operator repeated. “And where are you, sir?”
“Somewhere off the coast of Georgia?” I called back, unsure what else to say. I hadn’t been paying much attention, truth be told. I’d just been sailing along, going with the flow, mind completely at ease. Now I was on the deck, trying to revive a dead woman in the middle of the ocean.
“Okay, sir,” the operator replied calmly. “Can you be a little more specific?”
