The Tide: Breakwater (Tide Series Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

drinks they rationed from the mini-fridge where the graduate students kept their lunches.
    Navid’s stomach growled.
    Abby rolled over and yawned. “You hungry, too, huh?” She pulled herself up next to Navid and laid her head on his shoulder.
    “Starving.” Navid brushed his hand through her long blond hair.
    Another distant explosion sounded. The windows rattled again, and Abby raised herself to the lip of the one nearest them. Navid joined her as they peered into the darkness.
    Orange and red flames licked up about a half-mile from their position. Black smoke billowed off the raging fire spreading to the neighboring buildings.
    “What the fuck’s going on?” Navid muttered.
    Abby’s eyes remained glued to the conflagration.
    A chorus of blood-chilling, animalistic howls rose up. Navid couldn’t see the source of the din, but he knew it was the crazies. The flickering light cast by the flames provided enough light for him to make out a few dark silhouettes flitting between low-lying brick buildings. He saw one humanoid shape plunge through the broken window of the Yankee Dock Shop where he and Abby often dropped by for a lobster roll and fries for lunch.
    His stomach rumbled again.
    “We can’t stay here, can we?” Abby asked, turning away from the window.
    “I don’t think the fire will make it this far.”
    “No, no, that’s not what I mean,” she said. “Food. We need food, and all we’ve got are two moldy cheese sticks and some curdled milk.”
    Navid sighed. An intense pang of despair stabbed at him. “I know. It’s just—”
    “We don’t have a choice. We have to go out there. We have to risk it.”
    Navid shook his head. “I just keep praying help is going to come. Soldiers or policemen or someone is going to come bursting in here and whisk us away.”
    “The only people I see bursting in here are the goddamned crazies.” Abby’s chin dropped to her chest. “We should get food and move.”
    “Where to?” Navid asked.
    “Hell if I know, but if we don’t risk our asses out there, what chance do we have? We either face the crazies or we starve.”
    “Not much of a choice.” Navid stood. Abby held out a hand, and he pulled her up. Again, he felt a deep-seated pang of despair. Were they the only ones left alive in this hospital? Her eyes locked with his, and he pulled her close. “I love you.”
    “Love you, too,” she said.
    Navid gulped, trying to put on a brave face. At least the darkness might shadow the fear coursing through him. But he tried to be strong, tried to be resilient. Because they were alone. They had no one else to depend on. He interlaced his fingers with hers and gave her hand a squeeze before he started pushing the desk away from the office door. “Here we go.”

-5-
    ––––––––
    K ara leveled her handgun at the burst-open gym doors. Her pulse raced, and she waited with bated breath for the Skulls to surge through. When the dust settled, she saw someone with familiar blue eyes and light brown, almost sandy hair: her father. With Meredith by his side, Dom rushed to his daughters while training his gun on the scattered bodies of the dead Skulls. A dozen soldiers followed.
    Dom hugged Kara and Sadie. “God, am I glad you two are okay. When we saw those things had started coming through the roof...”
    Miguel patted Dom’s back. “Kara’s a hell of a fighter. Skulls didn’t stand a chance.”
    The soldiers flooded into the gym. They encircled the other civilians and began ushering them out the door they’d come through.
    “What’s going on?” Kara asked.
    “The Skulls forced their way over a gate.”
    “Were they all pushed back?” Miguel asked.
    “Not yet,” Meredith said. “But the Army just managed to regain control of the gate. A few Skulls may be scattered around the base, and there are still dozens of them around the commissary.”
    “That’s basically next door,” Hector said.
    “Exactly,” Dom said. “We need to move