Maybe they’re talking about Tosco and the others.
Not like there would be anything else of interest.
Curious, Alice left her muddy coffee on the table and crept back out into the corridor. The voices were coming from the officers’ cabins at the aft of the ship. Tosco had the admiral’s suite, but there were two single-occupant cabins opposite. The voices were coming from inside one of those. She crept down the corridor until she could make out words.
“We haven’t had any contact in hours. Tosco called in a mortar strike right on top of his position.”
“What? That’s suicide!”
“I know. Apparently, Tosco said they would be gone by the time the bombs dropped. He demanded Lieutenant Michaels fire the guns and trust him. He said we were to head back to Portsmouth immediately.”
“We just left there!”
Alice had to grab the wall to keep herself steady. Why on earth would Tosco have ordered The Hatchet back to Portsmouth? She had got the impression they were wanted fugitives there or something. She had a terrible fear that Tosco was dead. Maddy too.
“And can you believe they found Alice’s mom? I mean, what the hell?”
“I thought Captain Granger’s ex-wife lived in Indiana?”
“Exactly! How did she make it all the way over here, and in the exact place our commanding officer takes us to? It seems like too much of a—”
It was a massive no-no to enter an officer’s cabin, but Alice barged open the door and threw herself inside. There, she found Lieutenant Brooks talking with Ensign Grady. Strangely, Brooks was lying in his bed, while Grady was sitting on a chair to one side of the cramped room. Alice assumed Grady had just finished his shift.
“What the hell are you playing at, Alice. Get out!”
“I heard what you just said. You said my mom is alive!”
Brooks and Grady both stared with their mouths open, and their shocked expressions led her to doubt herself. Had she misheard? Or was cabin fever sending her insane? Of course, there was no way her mom could be alive. No way at all. It made no sense.
Brooks swallowed. Slowly the shocked expression left his face. He ran a hand over his mouth and ruffled the stubble on his upper lip. “Apparently, yes, she was alive. That’s what Commander Tosco reported to us yesterday, anyway. It seems like the settlement in the forest was attacked while they were there. We haven’t heard anything since.”
“We have to go there. We have to go and find out what happened.”
Brooks sighed. “Our orders are to return to Portsmouth. I think Lieutenant Michaels plans to set sail at oh-seven-hundred.”
Alice clenched her fists and stepped up to the officer’s bed. He pulled up his blanket and shuffled against the headboard. Was she scaring him? “There’s no way I’m going back to Portsmouth if my mom is here. I’m getting off this boat.”
“Don’t be stupid,” said Grady. “You can’t survive on your own.”
Alice spun on him. “I would rather die alone out there then be stuck on The Hatchet any longer. I’m tired of being a prisoner.”
Brooks frowned. “You’re not a prisoner, Alice. Tosco brought you on board to keep you safe.”
“And now he’s missing. What kind of person would I be if I abandoned him as well as my mom? I want to go look for them in this forest. That’s why we came here, right?”
Ensign Grady stepped towards her with his hand out. “Come on, Alice. It’s early. Let’s get some chow and we’ll talk about it.”
Alice swiped at the man’s outstretched hand. She ignored Grady and kept her focus on Brooks. “Help me, Lieutenant, please. Help me find my mom. If not for me, then do it for my dad.”
Brooks looked away, almost like he was ashamed. “Captain Granger was a good man, Alice, but I fear his spirit will come back and haunt me if I allow you to get hurt.”
“He sailed an ocean to get to me. What do you think he would think if I was unwilling to travel a few miles to reach my mom?”
Grady stuttered. “C-Commander Tosco saved my life on more than one occasion. I would be happy to go look for him with Alice.”
Alice turned to the junior officer and wanted to hug him. He couldn’t have been much older than twenty, and he looked like a starving fox with his wispy red hair, but he was clearly brave to offer to help her. He was willing to do what was right. “Thank you, Grady.”
Brooks threw off his blankets, revealing himself naked aside from a pair of briefs. “None of this means anything. It’s Lieutenant Michael’s decision, so I suggest we go and talk with him. He might be willing to send a small team to find out what happened in the forest, but I doubt it.”
Alice averted her eyes, uncomfortable at the sight of the officer’s bulge beneath his well-developed abs. “But you’ll help me, right? You’ll argue on my side?”
Brooks sighed. “Yes, Grady and I will both argue on your behalf. To be honest, Tosco has earned the right for a rescue mission. If he’s in danger, he deserves our help. Now, Alice, will you kindly get out of my cabin so that I can get dressed? I expect a coffee waiting for me when I step outside.”
Alice snapped to attention and smiled. “Right away, sir.”
My mom’s alive.
And I’m going to find her.
14
The demons were starting to increase in number. A majority of the fighting was within the ruins of the city, but it was gradually getting closer. The demons came from the rubble, moving through side streets and main roads. Defenders continued firing from machine-gun nests and sniper posts in the various buildings, but over the last two hours, as dawn arrived, screams had begun to break out. The demons were getting through the barricades and making it up the stairwells. A hundred metres away, Mass saw
