Read Online Black Tide by Del Stone - Free Book Online Page A

water’s surface, and to my shame I admit I shifted a little closer to the burning body to protect myself from what I knew was lurking out there, in the dark.
    Heather had moved over to stand with Scotty. He had his arm around her, but there was no challenge in the gesture.
    We stood there, as the body burned.
    Â 
    Later, we huddled at the top of the dune.
    Each of us had a flashlight, but we had decided to use only one at a time. Scotty was sweeping his beam in a circle, aiming at the water just off the shore. A few times the light had found one of the people, or things, whatever they could be called, attempting to creep ashore. But mostly what we saw were their eyes, staring just above the surface. The light caught them for only a moment before they jerked back below the surface. But it was enough to make your flesh want to crawl off the bone. More times than I can count I had been driving back from some field study like this, tired and sunburned and ready for a shower and something more civilised than military meal packets to eat, and had spotted animals crossing the road at night, opossums, raccoons, deer, and other wild creatures. They would stop and stare into the headlights, and their eyes would throw back a particular wavelength so that they seemed to be glowing with an internal radiance, strange greens and shades of magenta. But these creatures reflected only blue, a cold, dead blue. Odd. And frightening.
    DeVries moaned once, then lay quietly. The bleeding had all but stopped. For some reason I did not take that as a hopeful sign.
    After a lengthy silence, we began to talk. If you could call it that.
    â€˜So, Fred, any theories since the last time I asked,’ Heather started.
    â€˜Jesus. I don’t know.’
    â€˜What’s happened to these people?’ Scotty asked.
    â€˜Don’t know. It’s … it’s unprecedented. I can’t think of a rational explanation. But the man who figures it out will win the Nobel for biology – biology, chemistry, voodoo – you name it.’
    â€˜Well, what do you think?’ Heather asked, her tone almost accusing. I was the college professor, the scientist. I suppose I should have had a working thesis by now.
    So I speculated. ‘In many ways the reaction resembles an allergy …’
    â€˜An allergic reaction that’s contagious?’
    I threw up my hands helplessly. ‘I don’t think it’s a pathogen, like a virus or a bacteria. Maybe a prion. Or a chemical reaction of some kind.’
    â€˜A communicable chemical reaction.’
    â€˜ Something – I don’t know what – but something is causing the body to metabolise …’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜I don’t know.’
    We sat quietly for a moment.
    â€˜What do they want?’ Heather asked.
    I sighed. I didn’t want to say the words ‘I don’t know’ again, but it seemed inescapable.
    â€˜They’re vampires,’ Scotty said, swinging the flashlight beam around us.
    I snorted. Tired and frightened as I was, I still could not escape the irritating grate of his nonsensical ideas. ‘I think it’s safe to say they won’t turn into bats and suck our blood.’
    â€˜OK, Professor. What are they? Zombies?’
    â€˜I’m not up on my contemporary horror lore but I wouldn’t call them that, either.’
    â€˜Oh, yeah?’ he sneered. ‘How can they live under the water? How come they want to eat us?’
    â€˜I don’t know anything about what motivates movie zombies to seek out human flesh …’
    â€˜Brains,’ Scotty said.
    â€˜In that case you’ve got nothing to worry about.’
    â€˜You’ve been saving up all night for that one, haven’t you, Professor?’
    â€˜Well what do they want?’ Heather cut in.
    I shrugged. ‘I really can’t hazard a guess. It could be anything. Some component of our blood