Cartel Part One by John O'Brien

Author:John O'Brien
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: thriller, horror, military, apocalypse, creatures, survival, postapocalypse
Publisher: John O'Brien

Chapter 6

The sea below is dark with gentle swells rolling several feet underneath. Overhead, stars glow brightly against the blackish-purple backdrop of the heavens. The Chinook is shaking from the giant spinning rotors amid the roar of the engines. We sink lower, the downdraft whipping the waters into a frenzy of white froth. This helo is configured with a power down ramp and water dam configuration, which means that it can actually float on the water’s surface for several minutes.

We touch the surface, the helicopter settling. Water is whipped, the spray flying. The six of us push the Zodiac out of the back, climb in, and push the boat away. Denton lowers the motor and starts it, the sound barely audible. With a thumbs up, the MH-47E lifts out of the sea, water trailing away in long streams. Its dark silhouetted form gains altitude and turns, growing smaller and blending into the shadows of the night.

The swells rise up behind as we turn toward land. We’re several miles off the shores of the western Yucatan peninsula, where intel points to an operation being conducted up one of the rivers of the jungled shores. Four of us lie low along the gunwales, with Henderson crouching at the bow. Denton is bent over at the aft end, steering our craft. It isn’t long until we can make out the darkened strip of land on the horizon, silhouetted against the lighter backdrop of the nighttime sky. Once land is sighted and our positioning confirmed, Denton keeps us on a course to the specified river mouth, doing his best to remain in the troughs to further hide our approach.

We pass a large rock protruding from the seas, the waves splashing white against its steep sides. Its presence marks the outer edge of a small bay fed by two rivers. Our target location is up the larger southern one. Near the coast, the jungle hangs over the water, the coastline flooded. Slowing at the river’s mouth, we creep through the entrance near one of the overhanging shores.

Jungle sounds come from both sides of the river, mostly insects with the occasional screech of some animal. Swirls in the water show where some underwater creature arrows toward the bank. Roots protrude from the shores and dive into the water, and branches hang down close to the surface of the waterway. Several gaps show in far banks—inlets opening to the main channel.

After traveling a short distance, light glows over the tops of the trees, and we pull into one of the inlets, tying off to one of the roots. It’s there that we don the rest of our scuba gear. Sitting on the gunwales, Gonzalez and I slip backward over the side and silently enter the dark waters. Greg and McCafferty will follow.

We swim out of the inlet and stay near the banks as we make our way further up the river. Several times, I slowly peek above the surface to keep my bearing, seeing the top part of Gonzalez’s head and half of her goggles as she does the same.

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