Free Outer Banks by Anson Barber

pulled over and barely got out of the van before I threw up.
    I got back in the van and pulled out once I was able to get my hand to stop shaking long enough to turn the key. I was almost in town when the Haunt—who had been yelling since we left—stopped abruptly.
    â€œHey!” I yelled to him. “Are you okay?” I asked again, knowing the answer was probably no. “Crap!” I slammed my hands against the steering wheel and followed the blue signs with the “H” to find the nearest hospital.
    I took a deep breath and parked by the emergency entrance.
    Two women in scrubs were outside smoking. I could feel them watching me as I unlocked the back door and climbed inside. I turned on the dome light above my head and unlocked the box.
    It was the same as Bobby. Black foam around his mouth, his black eyes staring at me blankly. Dead. It might have happened when the choppers took out the queen.
    I leaned out and called to the women by the door.
    â€œExcuse me! Could you have someone come help me with a body?”
    â€œSure.” The taller of the two threw her cigarette in the ashtray and went inside as if people brought bodies to their hospital in big, black vans every night. Maybe they did.
    Three orderlies came out and pulled the Haunt out of the box, putting him on a gurney and wheeling him inside.
    â€œYou’re probably not going to want to do anything to the body. Homeland Security or some other agency will be getting involved at any moment.”
    I sat on the bench outside the hospital and called Ray.
    â€œDone?”
    â€œNo.” I rubbed my forehead. “I ran into a bit of a problem.”
    â€œLike what?”
    â€œBobby’s dead. He was turned into a Haunt. The Haunt you sent him to bring in is dead too. There was a Bug…” I shuddered, not wanting to finish the sentence.
    â€œYou’re serious? You came in contact with a live Bug?” He must have thought I was messing with him.
    â€œVery much alive.”
    â€œShit!”
    â€œYeah. A queen I think.”
    â€œYou’ll need to get the paperwork in for that. I’m pretty sure that pays pretty good.” I could hear him rifling through papers.
    â€œThanks, Ray. I’m fine by the way,” I snorted.
    â€œSorry. When you get a chance, if you could ask someone for the paperwork that would be great.”
    â€œI think I see the person I need to talk to right now.” I looked up to see a woman flanked by men in blue uniforms walking into the hospital. She stopped by the information desk and the clerk pointed to me. “I gotta go. I’ll call you back.”
    â€œSure. Uh, says here the form you need is a CCL-DCM.”
    â€œGot it.” I hung up and looked at the woman walking toward me.
    She was wearing what looked like a cocktail dress. Red sequins sparkled as she walked on the highest heels I’d ever seen a woman wear. She moved as comfortably in them as I did in my scuffed up work boots. Her mocha skin glowed and her white teeth sparkled as she smiled at me. What she was doing with these soldiers was anyone’s guess.
    â€œExcuse me, are you the person who found the live exomorph?” she asked.
    â€œThe big Bug? Yes.”
    â€œI’m Colonel Michaela Arder. AFMS, Biomedical Sciences Corp.” All I heard was the word colonel and knew she was very important. I fought the instinct to salute her.
    â€œDillon McAllister.” I shook her outstretched hand, thinking my name sounded kind of insignificant.
    â€œIf you don’t mind, I have a few questions.”
    â€œI figured. And apparently I need a form CCL-DCM to fill out.”
    â€œSo you’re a Hunter?”
    â€œRight.”
    â€œBit off more than you could chew on this one, huh?”
    â€œYou could say that.” I smirked as she pulled out a cell phone and texted someone.
    â€œFirst, let’s get you checked out.”
    â€œI’m fine, really. Just a