Blood Bourbon

The Dangers of Hope

The humans had been napping for most of the morning and early afternoon, in preparation for the long night they had ahead of them. Ryker had the window open in the room he had been given, letting in the warm breeze despite the fact that he had the blinds down. He had occupied himself for as long as he could by going over the various plans of attack and search procedures they would use while he checked and rechecked their weapons and ammunition.

Then, when Tim had growled at him to take a break, he had paced the hallways of the building, only managing to look outside for a few moments before the sun caused his head to throb. So he had gone to his room and sat down in the dark, closing his eyes and willing himself to heal faster. He didn't like how stiff he still was, though he could open his mouth most of the way now with only minor pain.

Only about half an hour had past when he opened his eyes, impatient for the sun to begin to set. With a frustrated growl, he had guzzled a bottle of blood and grabbed a shower, forcing himself to take his time with the process.

He had a few hours left before they needed to start mobilizing and he was telling himself that he should take another moment to sit down when he heard yelling coming from down the hallway. Ryker was out the door and sprinting into their ad hoc command room in seconds, though he stumbled to a standstill when he saw what was up on the drone feed. The ship they had been tracking was smoking, flames leaping out of doors and windows from the upper levels, people clogging the deck. No one else came from down below, and no one seemed to be willing to go back through the doors that led there.

"What the hell happened?" Ryker moved to his computer and took control of one of the drones, stopping it from its sweeping passover to focus on what he was seeing.

People in lab coats and scrubs stood in one corner, watching as the crew ran back and forth, grabbing evacuation equipment. A door slammed open then, showing two Hunters, still burning and smoking, dragging out a third and chased by a column of flames.

Nowhere on that deck did he see Daryl. There wasn't even a spot where anyone looked like they were trying to hide or subdue anyone else.

Behind him, he heard the humans rushing into the room, cursing when they took in the scene of chaos.

"Where is he?" Charlie asked, before turning to Tim. "We need to get the boats in the water now, we can go find him in this chaos."

As if in answer there was a massive explosion that had flames guttering out one side of the ship near the waterline, before the vessel began to list slowly to that side.

"Even with the fastest boats out there, we wouldn't get there before the thing sank." Vince muttered softly, eyes glued on the screen as the watched the crew begin filling the life boats with the small group of survivors.

Two hunters rose from where they had been trying to revive the third, turning and making their way towards the group, leaving the unmoving body behind. When the met up with a woman in a suit, a woman Ryker recognized, the Hunters shook their heads.

Ryker felt the world fall out from under his feet, his body growing numb as he tried to find some other explanation for what was staring them in the face.

"That's that bitch from Daryl's trailer." Charlie growled, his eyes glued on the woman's face, which went red with rage.

"He's not on the deck." Mary whispered softly, reaching out to lay a hand on Charlie's arm.

"Of course he's not on the deck. He wouldn't go where he'd walk back into their arms. He doesn't need to be on the deck." Marty rolled his eyes from where he was sitting at his computer. "I've been on a ship like that before, it has a rear sea port for shipments. Bring the drone around behind the thing."

Ryker frowned, shaking himself out of his daze and guiding the drone around. The screen had just opened up to reveal a wide open back of the ship, complete with a lagoon dock, when suddenly the feed went down. He frowned at the computer, letting out a curse. "They must have seen it. Drone was shot out of the sky by something."

"But there was another way out." Charlie said stubbornly, giving him a hard look. "We need to put boats in the water. He'd do his best to avoid the group of them, and they're not so far off shore. Even if there was nothing powered, there had to be some sort of flotation device and he'd make in the right direction. He wouldn't give up."

"It's an awful big ocean, Cap'n." Janek offered softly, drawing Charlie's ire to him.

"I'll keep the drones going, looking for him." Shiloh offered from where she was standing beside Ryker, giving him a firm look. "I'll also pull up some radio traffic. If he knows what to do, he'll head the opposite direction as them. Start there."

"Ryker, you're with me." Carbry murmured, from where he had stood silently through the whole exchange. "We'll go with Charlie and Mary as planned. Tim, you're with Janek and Vince. Bryn, Marty and Chad. We'll take the boats further north. Avoid the military traffic that will most likely be in a tizzy because of this."

Ryker nodded dumbly and moved to grab his equipment, pulling it on and following his similarly equipped boss out the door. Though he moved automatically, his brain having stalled, his mind showing him the image of that sinking ship over and over again.

Was hope just a fool's errand at this point?