Free The Tide (Tide Series Book 1) by Anthony J Melchiorri Page B

this man. His coveralls were torn and stained but otherwise didn’t look to be affected by whatever had turned the person they’d scuffled with earlier and the one in Meredith’s video into those monsters. Renee knelt by the man. Sweat matted down his black hair and dripped over his light skin. She pressed her fingers against his neck. He didn’t roar to life, nor did he flail at her like the creature above deck. A weak, almost imperceptible force pushed back against her finger. A pulse.
    He was alive.
    ***
    D om knelt by the picked-over corpse. The flesh was ragged and already growing rank. He plucked at the black cloth hanging from the remains. Gnaw marks scarred the bones.
    Miguel took a knee beside him as the others stood guard. “What do you make of this, Chief?”
    “Probably one of Webb’s other contractors.” Dom rubbed a piece of fabric between his gloved fingers. “Looks like special ops getup.” He motioned to the SCAR belonging to what little was left of this man or woman along with a crushed set of NVGs.
    “Those creatures did this to him?” Scott asked. “Holy shit.”
    Glenn glanced down the corridor. “He didn’t do it to himself.”
    “Enough. Let’s move.” Dom stood and pointed at a fragment of the man’s shattered ribs. “Take that with you.”
    “Serious?” Miguel asked.
    “Serious as this place is dark. If we’re looking for bioweapons, we might find something there.”
    “And I suppose you’re going to want us to grab a sample of one of those Skull beasts, too?”
    “Skull beasts?”
    “Yeah, Skulls.” Miguel withdrew a small plastic container for the collection of biohazardous samples. He also held a set of forceps he used to deposit chunks of broken rib into the container. “The damn thing that attacked you looked like a skeleton flipped outside its body, didn’t it?”
    “Fair enough,” Dom said. “And yes, if we can, we’re going to want a sample of a Skull. Now, let’s see if we can’t find something more interesting than the crew quarters.”
    When Miguel closed the biohazard sample container, Dom motioned for the Hunters to step in with him as they continued their exploration. Echoes of the pounding rain outside resonated within the passageways. The platform almost seemed to sway with the crashing of the storm and waves. They delved deeper into the corridors until they reached a room filled with glassware, microscopes, and contraptions that looked like squat gray refrigerators—cell incubators.
    A lab, Dom thought. Finally someplace that might actually have something useful.
    “Collect notebooks, hard drives, anything you can get your hands on,” Dom said. The Hunters did as he commanded and then gathered at the rear exit of the lab.
    Dom counted down on his fingers, kicked the door open, and sprinted through. The passage opened up into a larger corridor filled with heavy metal tanks.
    “Looks like a distillery or something,” Glenn said in a low voice.
    “Bioreactors,” Dom corrected.
    They snuck through the corridor. Dom kept his eyes on the shadows behind the vats and waited for the intense howling of the Skulls. Plastic curtains, covered with splatters of something , hung in another entryway. A heavy steel door drooped off its hinges. The hydraulic cylinders that had once controlled it were burst and leaking. The hair on the back of Dom’s neck stood straight. He held up a fist, signaling his team to hold up. He waited a second while he anticipated a Skull charging through the plastic curtain.
    He almost jumped when his comm link crackled. “Alpha, this is Bravo,” Renee reported over the comm link. “We found somebody.”
    “Not a Skull, was it?” Dom asked.
    “A Skull? You mean those monsters. No.”
    “Was it another commando?”
    “No, but he’s alive.”
    “What did he say?” Dom asked. “Did he know anything?”
    “He’s out cold,” Renee said. “But I don’t think he was one of Webb’s guys. We found him behind a door. He