“So,” Hawkins said, hoping the kid was ready to tell him the whole story. “What happened on the Magellan?”
Joliet spoke into the radio again. “Magellan, come in. This is Joliet. Come in, Magell—”
“You can stop calling them,” Bennett said, picking himself up off the floor. His face was grim. His lips quivered. “They’re dead. Blok. Jones and the Tweedles. All four. Dead.”
Joliet stumbled back, her legs suddenly weak. She held on to the window frame to support herself. “What?”
“It killed them.”
“You saw them die?” Hawkins asked.
Tears returned to Bennett’s eyes. “Jones. Didn’t need to see the rest. I heard them.” Bennett nearly began sobbing again, but held his emotions in check. “And I left them. I hid. And then I ran.”
“Sounds like you didn’t have a choice,” Hawkins said.
Bennett sniffed and wiped his arm across his nose. “I could have fought it. You would have. I could have—”
Joliet put her arm around Bennett’s shoulder and he fell into her embrace, despite being nearly a foot taller than her. With his head over her shoulder, he wept some more.
Hawkins turned away. He’d heard enough.
Bray entered, looking concerned. “What happened?”
“Says the crew is dead,” Hawkins replied.
“Holy shit,” Bray said, rubbing his hand over his head. “Holy shit. What are we going to do?”
Hawkins looked back at Joliet and Bennett, then back to Bray. “Plan stays the same. We stay the night here. Haul ass back to the Magellan. And then leave. Bennett can get us moving. We’ll do our best to help him steer us out of the lagoon and then we’ll head east until we hit land.”
“We can’t go back there,” Bennett said, stepping away from Joliet. “We can’t!”
“Phil,” Hawkins said as calmly as he could. “Listen. Whatever it is that killed the crew and took DeWinter, it’s nocturnal. The first time it came aboard was at night. When did it come aboard the ship?”
“I don’t know.” Bennett said. “Maybe an hour ago?”
“So dusk?” Hawkins asked.
Bennett hesitated and then nodded. “Yeah, the sun was below the horizon.”
“Dusk, then. Odds are it won’t come out during the day. So we stay here until morning, wait for the sun to be in the sky, and then head to the Magellan. We can be out of the lagoon before night.”
“There isn’t really another choice,” Joliet said. “We can’t stay here.”
Bennett was nodding now. “It could work.” He stepped away from Joliet, rubbing his head. “It could work. If we’re fast. If—”
“Do you guys smell that?” Joliet asked.
Bray sniffed the air. “Smell what?”
Hawkins took a deep breath through his nose. “Something sweet.”
“Like flowers,” Joliet said.
“But it’s faint,” Hawkins said. “Could be nighttime-blooming species on the island.”
“It’s really strong over here.” Joliet sniffed the air near the window.
Hawkins stepped up next to Joliet and sniffed. It was stronger by the window, but … Hawkins leaned in close to Joliet and smelled again. “It’s you.”
“Maybe she got something on her outside?” Bennett said. “In the jungle?”
Hawkins wandered the hall, sniffing like a dog. As he neared the stairs, the odor of formaldehyde tickled his nose. Definitely not coming from up there.
He turned around again. Bennett stood on the left side of the hall, near the room where Drake still lay. Bray wandered the far end of the dimly lit hall, sniffing the air. And Joliet remained by the glassless window, watching him. The last light of day was fading. They’d need to make a fire soon. It might attract predators, but there was also nothing better for keeping them at bay. Luckily they had a large supply of very dry pallets to burn. He was about to bring the subject up when an ear-splitting blare, deep and full of bass, rolled over the entire island like an audio tidal wave.
“What was that!” Bennett shouted, cringing.
“That was the same sound,” Bray said. “Before DeWinter was—”
Hawkins didn’t hear the rest of Bray’s sentence. Something moved outside the window behind Joliet.
His mind screamed snake!, but as he opened his mouth to shout a warning he noticed the slender intruder was jointed. It had knuckles—a finger—with a sharp claw at the end! “Joliet!” Hawkins shouted, but his warning came too late.
The long, slender finger slid beneath Joliet’s arm, wrapped around her shoulder, and lifted her off the ground.
Joliet screamed. She pounded the large digit with her fists, but her effort had no effect. Hawkins and Bray charged forward simultaneously. Bray had the ax ready to swing, but the finger pulled Joliet halfway out the window.