The Serophim Breach (The Serophim Breach Series) (21 page)

“I think she’s still out there,” Heather replied quietly. She was trying to catch as much as she could of her father’s conversation. It seemed the young man who had opened the door for them was a new hire for the Pearl City Police Department who had made it back to the station with two disorderly drunks before the power went out. Almost every other cop had either been sent out in a cruiser or sent home to check on their families. The rookie and one other cop were left with the receptionist to control traffic coming into the station and act as a liaison to the local evacuation centers. They had been given no more information than the broadcasted emergency messages relayed. About twenty minutes after the power failure, a call had gone out over the battery-powered radios for backup near Pearl Highlands Center Mall. They had listened in horror to sounds and shouts they couldn’t understand as more and more officers responded to the area until finally all the radios had gone silent. It had been over an hour since they had heard from anyone.

“Where’s the other cop that was here?” Mike asked.

“We heard a woman screaming outside,” the rookie explained, glancing at the door. “It might have even been her. He went out to help and didn’t come back. I didn’t even hear him fire a shot.”

Mike considered this. Mistaking his silence for judgment, the rookie had continued, “I couldn’t leave all these people in here alone. Someone had to stay at the station.”

Nodding, Mike asked, “Are the radios still working?”

“Ours are. We’ve tried raising Honolulu, but it’s totally dead. No one responds. They’ve got about an eight-hour battery life, and we’ve been sitting here trying to decide when, or if, we should turn them off and try to save some juice for later.”

“You’ve tried every station in range?”

The rookie nodded.

“How many do you guys have here?” Mike asked.

“Eight, I think. I could check around and see if there are any more,” the rookie offered.

Shaking his head, Mike picked one of the radios up off the counter. He looked around the room and said, “If you ask me, someone should be on one of the radios. Turn the rest off; save them for later. We should put together a message that we’ll repeat on every station and listen for a response.” The small group murmured to each other. Sarah thought most everyone sounded glad that someone was taking control; although she felt far from secure, it was nice to know that they were in capable hands.

Heather leaned out from the hallway and said quietly, “Dad, Sarah and I can do it. We’re just sitting over here anyway, and we’d like to be helpful.” She looked back over her shoulder, smiling encouragement. “Right, Sarah?” The younger girl nodded, grateful for the promise of activity and a way to keep herself awake.

After Mike and the rookie composed the short message, they passed off the radio and the pad of paper to the girls. Heather gave the radio to Sarah and said, “Now, push that button and read the message.”

It had been difficult not to imagine the scene the rookie had described only in terms of what they had heard. Now, holding the radio, she felt suddenly connected to it, like the terror and violence would track her voice back to their location. Hesitant, she looked up at Heather, who smiled reassurance at her. In that moment, Sarah understood why Kai liked her so much; aside from being pretty, she was always sweet and helpful. But most of all, she radiated a sense of capability that Sarah found herself wishing desperately she had as well. She mustered up a smile and turned her attention to the words on the paper in her lap. Running through them a couple of times, she realized that focusing her attention on a task drove the images of Lani’s body and the sounds of the crazed woman’s bones snapping out of her mind for a brief, blessed moment. So she pressed the button and began reading.

“This is Pearl City Police station. We are trying to reach anyone on this frequency. We have lost contact with officers in the area and are without power. Please respond with your location and status if you are on this frequency.”

Releasing the button, they listened to static for half a minute before switching to the next station. Sarah took a deep breath and pushed the button again. Suddenly she released it and looked up at Heather, saying, “Do you think Kai could hear this?”

Heather’s cheerful tone sounded slightly forced as she replied, “Of course. There’s always a chance.”

Sarah looked down to hide the tears that sprang up in her eyes. Almost instantly, a warm arm wrapped around her shoulders, and Heather pulled her closer against her side and murmured, “He’s coming, Sarah. He’ll be here soon.”

Gathering herself, Sarah sniffled once and wiped her nose on her sleeve.

“He’ll be glad you’re here,” she said quietly, returning to the radio.

They repeated the message for over fifteen minutes, with static and white noise as their only response. Sarah knew the words by heart after five minutes and had dropped the pad to the floor so she could hug her knees up to her chest and stay warmer. Heather still had her arm around her shoulders, her head leaned against the wall, and her eyes shut, but Sarah could feel that she was not asleep.

They were listening to more white noise when they heard movement coming from somewhere down the hallway. Heather was instantly alert, sitting forward and squinting into the dark. It was a shuffling sound, then a thud and a low growl.

“Dad!” Heather shouted.

Sarah cowered back against the older girl, crying, “What? What is it?”

She heard several people in the reception area jump up quickly, all talking at once, and Mike’s long strides crossing the room. He was shouting for everyone to be quiet as he rounded the corner to stand in front of the girls. The clamor in the lobby died down enough so they could hear grunting, growls, snarls, and the repeated thud of soft weight against metal bars. Turning to the rookie, Mike hissed, “Who’s back there?”

Half-hidden by the wall and wide-eyed, the rookie shook his head and backed away. “No one! Everyone left! The back doors are secure, metal, and locked,” he stammered.

Mike looked around the room and said harshly, “We need weapons. Someone’s back there, and I’m not waiting here unprotected to find out who.”

“Wait, wait, wait!” the rookie protested. He ran his hands through his hair a few times and looked up at the older man. Watching them from the floor, Sarah realized how young the officer was; he reminded her of Paul.

“I had those two drunks with me,” he said, trying to keep his voice low. The people who were close enough to hear stifled moans and backed toward the wall farthest from the hallway. “They were totally gone when I picked them up at Big Louie’s. The owner called and said they’d been fighting, and then passed out. I put them in the holding cell to let them sleep it off. It’s standard procedure,” he said, voice shaking.

Someone in the crowd said hopefully, “Maybe they are! Maybe they’re just drunk!”

Mike shook his head and briefly summarized his encounter with the jogger at the Kavida farm. “And you guys saw this one,” he said, pointing to the front door. “They all make those sounds, like animals. The one at the farm killed a girl.” Another round of horrified gasps came from the group.

“But they’re locked in,” said the rookie.

As he considered this, Mike was taken aback by a sudden thought. “Are they in together?” he said quickly.

The rookie nodded. “They were both passed out when I brought them in. I didn’t think there was much chance they’d get into it.”

Immediately Mike grabbed the rookie by the arm and pulled him in close. “And if one of them is like
her
,” he said, pointing at the woman, “and the other one is like
you
. . . you know what that means?”

The rookie’s eyes bulged as he considered the prospect of being locked in a cage with the rabid woman. He shook his head slowly from side to side, mouth gaping.

“So we better go check,” Mike growled. The rookie whimpered quietly, then swallowed hard and nodded his agreement.

They had just turned to head for the hallway when they heard an approaching engine outside. Headlights washed along the outside wall, illuminating the dark shadows for a brief second. The broken woman outside on the sidewalk stirred. Mike ran to the door and tried to see the parking lot, but the angle prevented him from getting a look at the truck. Doors slammed, and immediately he saw the figure jerk wildly, lapsing into violent tremors.

“Hey!” he shouted. “Don’t come up here!”

Footsteps approached, and he heard a male voice shout something he couldn’t quite make out. Another voice, lower than the first, responded sharply. Then the footsteps were nearer, almost to the door. Suddenly a young man appeared coming up the sidewalk to the door, holding a grisly crowbar over his head.

“Hey!” he shouted, eyes on the body that lay in his path.

At the sound of his voice, the woman uncurled her body and leaped to her feet with a wild screech. She hobbled forward, hands grasping for the man, who approached her with a look of grim resolve on his face.

“What’s he doing?” the rookie asked, horrified.

The man moved forward with measured steps, winding up as the woman scrambled toward him. She was near enough to grab his shirt as he brought the bar around, crushing it into the woman’s skull. She collapsed to the ground instantly and lay still.

The reception area was awash with whimpers of horror, the quiet sounds of gagging at the blood spatters that streaked the glass, and whispers of confusion. Without a second glance at the body, the young man stepped forward and motioned for Mike to let him in. Two more men appeared behind him, walking close together and giving the corpse a wide berth. One held a golf club at his side; the other appeared to be unarmed and gaped at the bloody scene for a second before turning pale and hurrying forward to join the others at the door.

Mike moved to open the door, but before he got near it, a man who had introduced himself as Gordon and had argued with everything Mike had suggested since their arrival stepped into his path. The whole room went quiet.

“We can’t let them in,” Gordon said fiercely. “They have weapons.”

“They’re also doing as they were instructed. You got here early enough, so maybe you didn’t need to protect yourself. But I’ve seen enough tonight to know that if I was out there,” he pointed at the door, “I would want something heavy I could swing.”

Gordon frowned. “Well, he just killed that woman. Without thinking twice, he just beat her skull in. You want to let them in here?”

Mike nodded and said, “They’ve probably got information, and that’s exactly what we need.”

Gordon remained still, feet planted wide like he expected the other man to take a swing.

After a long silence, Mike stepped out slightly so he could see the door. The man with the crowbar was watching through the glass.

“What’s going on out there?” Mike asked, loud enough so they could hear.

The man with the crowbar shook his head. “They’ve blocked the road into the city, and they’re telling everyone to get to evacuation centers.”

“They who?” Mike asked, raising his voice even more.

“The Marines,” the other man answered. “They’re saying riots and looting in Honolulu, but no one seems to know why the power’s out.” He nodded his head in the direction of the other two men who stood behind him, watching the street. “These two saw guys in bio suits. People are going crazy all over the place. We just want to come inside and be safe, like you guys.”

The whispering in the small group picked up as they continued their conversation. Sarah found herself hoping Mike would side with Gordon and keep the men out. They looked more like the boys they had seen breaking windows than the people in the lobby, and she tried nervously to imagine how the dynamics would shift with them a part of the group. Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud “thump” from the cell down the hall.

“Heather?” she whispered, nudging the older girl.

Although there was something of a scream in the cry that came from down the hallway, it was closer to a roar and full of fury. It was long and loud, and her body went numb at the sound. When it died away, everyone was silent. Sarah turned to look at Mike, who was frozen in place like the rest of them; outside the door, the man with the crowbar had taken a step away from the glass and now stared in wide-eyed.

If anyone in the room had spoken, they wouldn’t have heard the cry from outside that answered the one that had come from the cell. But through the silence they heard it—another bellowing shout from somewhere not far enough away. Almost instantly, another cry came from inside, this one shorter, like a bark. Again it was answered from outside, and Sarah saw the three men make a move for their truck. The second cry that answered was much closer and easier to hear from inside the station. She couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to be outside of the station, surrounded by the dark and unknown.

Within seconds the cries were closer and more frequent.

“We have to let them in,” Mike said to the group.

“There is no way we’re opening that door!” Gordon shouted. Murmurs of agreement were a terrible harmony to the yipping, barking, barely human cries that grew louder with frightening speed.

Outside, the man with the crowbar and his friends were only halfway to the truck when the first figure burst out of the darkness, too close for them to evade. The unarmed one was tackled to the ground immediately, screaming for help as he tumbled down the grass with another body flailing viciously on top of his. His friends raced after him and out of sight, weapons in hand. Sarah saw another figure, and another, race past the door in the dark, their shouts and screams trailing behind them.

She clapped her hands over her ears and buried her face in Heather’s lap; Heather pulled her close and put her hands over Sarah’s as well. But she could not completely block out the sounds of the attack going on outside, the screams like Lani’s screams at the base of her stairs, the way the cries of the lunatics who had appeared from the darkness became frantic yipping, like the time she heard coyotes kill a rabbit on her grandparents’ ranch, and the answering cries from the cell at the end of the hallway.