Declan woke and heard no rain or wind crashing at the window of the condo. He leaped from the bed and pulled the curtains open. The bedroom filled with a dim light. The trees swirled in the breeze.

It could be a beautiful day.

“Come on, let's go,” he yelled as he shook Noelle.

She rolled over and glanced at the clock. She sighed while Declan pulled on his jogging bottoms and ran around the rooms.

“Rise and shine,” he yelled through Maria’s door. Gab, Sascha, let’s move it, move it.”

Declan heard doors open and bleary eyes peered toward him.

“Relax a little, will you,” Kelvin said.

“No time like the present. Within the hour in the parking...”

“Alright-alright,” Kelvin yelled while he slammed the door closed.

Declan returned back to his apartment, and Noelle was in the shower. He checked their backpacks to make sure everything was packed in plastic. He picked up his cell and checked the battery. He spotted he had a message from Wong.

Sanders is on the run from the storm. His plans have changed. The girls need to get to Houston for lunchtime.

Declan replied and thanked Wong again. Noelle exited the bathroom as he dashed in and dived into the shower.

“It seems like the storm broke overnight. It’s calm outside.”

“Thank God for that,” Noelle replied.

She dressed in clothing which was appropriate for a boat trip. Leather was nice, but get it wet and it’d drag her down with no messing around. She pulled her knives from underneath the mattress and placed them into her backpack. She was ready.

Declan emerged from the bedroom. He’d dressed a little more casual. He walked around the apartment and made sure all the electrical items were unplugged.

“I’ll miss this place. It’s been good to us.”

“It never was home, though, and we always knew it would never be forever,” Noelle replied, now slinging the strap of her backpack over her shoulder.

They exited the apartment, and Gabriel and Sascha rounded the corner laughing and giggling at each other. He turned the other way as Dustin approached, he was shaking his head.

“What’s wrong with you?” Gabriel asked.

“You’ll see in a minute.”

Kelvin walked around the corner in a Hawaiian shirt and a pair of three-quarter-length shorts.

“Are you going on vacation?”

Kelvin slipped his sunglasses into the breast pocket of his shirt. He said he was making sure he wouldn’t be all hot and sweaty. It could be hot as hell in the middle of the ocean.

They climbed into the van and Dustin started the engine. The drive to the boat took around twenty minutes. He pulled up in the parking lot and hid the keys behind the front wheel. He patted the hood of the van and said he’d see her soon. Dustin always talked to his vehicle, and she was forever reliable.

They stood at the gate of the jetty and looked out across the ocean. The first shimmers of sunlight danced over the calm sea.

“We should make up some good time,” Maria commented while an old guy with a massive gray beard approached them. The smell of whiskey hit them before he laid a hand on the gate.

“Morning folks. Are you ready for this?” he asked.

Declan introduced the captain as Andy. They all greeted each other and tried to face away from the whiskey and nicotine smell. The captain led them to his boat.

“Here she is,” Andy said, now waving his hand in front of him. “Miss Behavin’ is her name.”

“Isn’t that right,” Noelle muttered under her breath. “You think he’s fit to sail this thing?”

Declan looked down at her and grimaced. “An old sea dog. I bet he only drank a nightcap to help him sleep.”

They stepped aboard the boat. Two empty bottles rolled across the deck and plopped into the water.

“Nightcap, huh?” Noelle rolled her eyes.

Declan smiled and stacked the backpacks against the cabin. He asked Andy if he’d checked the weather. The captain licked his finger and held his hand into the air.

“It’s calm enough.”

He pushed the start button and the water churned up behind the boat. He yelled over the din of the engines, and said he’d really open her up once they got into open waters. The pack stood, leaned, and sat and watched while Miami faded into the distance. Now they were on a real journey into the unknown. It wouldn’t be much further before there wasn’t much signal for their cells or the internet.

Maria grabbed her backpack and pulled out her laptop. She waited for it to start and went to the weather page she’d saved. She got an internet connection, but it was slow. She drummed her fingers on the case of the laptop while she waited. The map loaded and she looked at their position. She clicked on the wind option, and the map changed color. She clicked back and then back again.

“I think I’ve lost the connection. The map’s showing red where we are which is impossible,” she remarked. “That must’ve been from last night.” The captain asked Kelvin to hold the wheel. He walked and sat next to Maria.

“Show me,” he said.

Maria held her breath and leaned back away from the stench of stale whiskey. If there were anything that’d make her want to throw up, that’d be it. She showed him the map for their location and the wind.

“Try another web page.”

The page was slow, but it opened. The captain asked her to go back to the weather map. His yellow-stained finger ran through his beard. He looked up to the sky.

“Oh fuck!”

He stood and dashed back to Kelvin. He took hold of the wheel and spun it in an anticlockwise direction. His scrabbled for the mic to the radio.

“Mayday-mayday. Miss Behavin’ in trouble.”

Maria called Declan and Gabriel. She told them something was wrong, but she didn’t know what. She showed them the map on the laptop and said the captain freaked and changed direction. The radio crackled with static. They were out of range for the Miami coastguard.

Captain Andy switched frequency. “Hola hola barco en problemas,” he yelled into the mic.

He pushed the levers forward and glanced over his shoulder. He got Kelvin to grab hold of the wheel while he dived below deck and emerged with a telescope. He pushed it hard to his eye and looked back in the direction they’d come from. He dropped the scope onto a coil of rope and took hold of the wheel again.

“Do you need help with the Spanish?” Sascha asked.

“You can scream into the mic as loud as you want. Miss Behavin’ is in serious shit.”

“Who are you hoping to speak to?”

“Havana’s the closest by my calculation. We might just make it, if we’re lucky.”

Sascha frowned when she started yelling into the mic. “Barco en apuros. Puede alguien escucharme?” Sascha translated the short version. “Boat in distress and help.”

Declan stood under the canopy of the boat and reached for the telescope. He looked through the glass in the direction the captain had previously looked. He couldn’t see anything, so he dropped the telescope from his eye and let it hang from his fingers.

“What can you see?” Gabriel asked.

Declan handed Gabriel the old brass telescope. He raised it to his eye.

“I can’t see anything.”

Declan knew not seeing anything on the horizon was the problem. He wasn’t sure how they got it so wrong. No matter how they did it, it was already done. Now they needed to put faith in a captain who smelled like a distillery, and he truly hoped he was as good as he said he was.

“Esta es la guardia costera cubana. Cuál es el problema?” the voice crackled from the speaker.

“He’s asking what the problem is,” Sascha explained. “What do I tell him?”

The captain turned to Sascha. He looked deep into her eyes.

“Tell him we’re in it,” he yelled. The waves got more substantial, and the boat bobbed a little more wildly.

“Estamos en eso, estamos en el,” Sascha yelled when a wave washed over the side of the boat. “What’re we in?” she screamed.

“We’re trapped in the eye of the hurricane.”

“Estamos en el ojo de un huracán y nos dirigimos hacia usted. La pared golpeará dentro de una hora.” Sascha turned to the pack and explained, and she told them the hurricane would reach them within the hour. By the time they entered Havana, it’d be calm until the storm which trailed them made landfall again.

“Gracias Miss Behavin’ sálvate a ti mismo,” the voice on the radio said.

It fell silent.

“What did he say?” Declan asked.

Sascha placed the radio back in the holder on the cockpit.

She turned. “Save yourselves.”

Megan fumed. She wished Sanders would make his mind up about what he was doing. Wait-come, wait-come. He had them up and down like a violinist’s elbow, and she was pissed off with it.

“He’s got us running around after him like god knows what,” she said to Tanya.

Tanya was peeved, but he was the boss after all, and like she’d been told by the great one and almighty, she could take her chances without him. No thank you.

“It pisses me off, but what goes around comes around, so accept it. Wait until it can benefit you and then get what’s owing.”

“I can’t. It riles me,” Megan replied. “I hope it’s all worth it at the end of it.”

They packed their bags and exited the motel room. The motel manager lifted his gaze when a squad car pulled up at the front of the motel. Megan turned to see an officer standing, facing away from the door to reception.

“We’ve got company,” Megan said. Tanya craned her head and spotted the officer.

“Hello Billy,” she called, exiting the motel reception door. “What brings you here?”

“I tracked you down. I thought it was strange you turning up out of the blue,” Billy commented.

“Now you’ve found me. So what?”

Billy glanced over Tanya’s shoulder. The manager of the motel vanished through the beaded curtain. He looked back at Tanya. His eyes turned blood-red as his mouth opened. Tanya spotted the double row of teeth.

“I get the point, so what’re you hoping for?”

“I did some snooping. I got it from a source that you’re holed up with the guy who used to rent the warehouse in the mine,” he said. “I know something’s going on, and I want in.”

Tanya frowned when she explained to Billy that the beasts that were created from the gas usually died in a couple of days. Billy returned an explanation and said he was bitten but never mentioned it. He’d been the same way since the first evening.

“We’re heading out of town. We’ve got to meet Sanders in Houston.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“We’re heading to the airport now. We need to get there and to make sure we’re out of the sunlight,” she said. “Or we burst into flames.”

“It’s okay. I’m in the same boat. It’s only because this gas is here that I can walk around in the day,” Billy added. “If you jump in the car I have a bag ready at home, then we can dump this vehicle at the airport.”

“I don’t think we have many options, do we?”

“None at all.”

Tanya and Megan climbed in the rear of the squad car. Billy reminded them they couldn’t escape and the doors could only be opened from outside. The cage was also high-tensile steel, so it was pointless them trying to rip it from the vehicle.

“You’re not prisoners; you’re only prevented from running off without me.”

Billy drove to his apartment. The streets were deserted from their usual walkers, and it was only the odd vehicle which passed them as they waited.

“I’m not sure if Sanders will be pissed or pleased when he turns up and sees we’ve got Billy tagging along,” Megan said. Tanya rolled her head on the rear seat of the squad car.

“I think he’ll be pleased. He might not show it though,” Tanya replied. “If Billy’s right and he’s not affected from dying after a couple of days, it could be another breed in Sanders’ army.”

Billy opened the door and threw his bag on the passenger seat. He glanced over his shoulder and smiled. Since he’d been turned, he felt alive like never before. The police force had been his entire life, and it was time for a change. Being changed into one of them, an unnamed creature, well, it was a real eye-opener. Billy felt unstoppable.

“What’s the plan when we meet up with Sanders, if that’s what we call him?” Billy asked.

“You might need to call him sir or his majesty. He’s a bit touchy with underlings calling him by his name,” Megan stated.

“What do you two get to call him?”

Megan leaned on the mesh which separated her from Billy. “We get to call him whatever the fuck we want.”

Billy pulled away from the sidewalk and headed toward the airport. He said he hoped the plane had some spare seats; he’d hate to make one of the girls wait behind for the next available flight.

Tanya commented the first flight was less than half full. If by any chance it was full, they had ways of making seats become available, it seemed.

“Exciting times ahead?”

“You’d better believe it. We’re heading into the mountains to find a shaman.” Tanya kicked Megan in the shin. Was she sure she should be giving out their plan to anyone? It didn’t matter if she knew Billy. He could be pulling a fast one and might be working for Gabriel and Declan.

Megan made her excuses and shut her mouth until they reached the airport. Megan and Tanya checked in, and Billy approached the counter. He asked for a ticket to Houston on the same flight. The girl on the counter recognized Billy from the news.

“You must’ve seen the news,” he said. He turned to the girls and grinned.

Megan laughed. “The sheriffs have a bad habit of turning up dead.”

They approached the security gate, and the guards asked Tanya and Megan if they’d have anything to declare. They had nothing, and so the canisters were safely tucked away in the hold.

“Anything to declare?” he asked Billy.”

Billy smiled at the officer. “Only the fact that I’m happy to be leaving this dump.”

The plane boarded and taxied to the end of the runway. Billy peered from the window when the plane took off and banked to the side. He unbuckled his belt and looked over the top of the seats.

He turned to Tanya and Megan. “I’m starving. What do they have to eat on these planes?”

Megan smiled. “The passengers.”

“Blue skies why did you hide away for so long? Where was it we went so wrong?”