“You sound just like him.”
“Good, because he’s led a distinguished career, and getting on the wrong side of him hasn’t done you any favours.”
Hernandez curled his lip in disgust and let his current handful of bullets fall back into the crate. “You agree with his decision? You think we should just leave civilians to die, to get murdered by those things?”
“And what if I did disagree? Would Johnson change his mind?”
“Command told us to do what we can. Johnson isn’t following that order. If he’s violating an order from above, then we have a duty to—”
Danza waved a hand. “Oh, give it up, Hernandez. A minute ago, you couldn’t stand me, and now you’re talking about the two of us relieving the captain of his command. I was there when Command gave the order. The subtext was that they were barely in possession of their sanity. Fleet Admiral Simpson is in charge, but he’s yet to give any firm orders, so whoever is manning the phones told us to just do whatever we can. The truth is that there are no orders to disobey, so the captain can do whatever he wants.”
“No he can’t! He has a duty to his country. We all do.”
Danza sighed. “I don’t disagree, Hernandez. The thought of all those innocent people... But let’s just hold off on the mutiny talk for now, okay? We are one of the few ships lucky enough to get away from Norfolk in one piece. Let’s consider ourselves lucky and not push things until we know more.”
Hernandez rubbed a palm over his face. What was wrong with him? He was overreacting. He was so angry at Johnson’s treatment of him that petty revenge clouded his thoughts. Or was it fear? Johnson wanted to see him dishonoured and disgraced because of some stupid girl. Humanity was at war, but the man was acting upon personal agendas? Hernandez now worried about America getting its act together and dealing with this crisis. Would there be time for a Court Martial? Would Hernandez end up in prison after surviving death back at Norfolk? It seemed likelier that they would all perish at the hands of monsters, but what if…?
Johnson was a fool. Hernandez stood guilty of nothing.
“Just forget I said anything, Danza,” he said.
“Already forgotten. Unless I need to use it against you later.” He clicked his fingers, firing them like pretend pistol, and laughed. Then he started up the ramp that led back out to the aft deck.
The ship listed.
Danza fell to the ground, struck his head against a pipe. “What the f…?”
Hernandez dropped a handful of 5.6mm NATO rounds onto the floor and cursed. He hurried over to Danza and helped the man back to his feet. “A wave?”
Danza rubbed at his head. “From where? The sea is calm.”
They hurried up the ramp and went out onto the deck where the two Seahawks stood idle. A couple of the ship’s mechanics huddled there, having been working on the broken fuel line. “What was that?” Danza demanded of them.
The two mechanics shook their heads. One of them, Seaman Lyle Crane, sported a greasy smudge across his forehead. “Dunno, sir.”
The sound of gunfire made all of their faces fall at once. It came from the bow, the opposite end of the ship.
Hernandez waved an arm at the two mechanics. “Battle stations.”
At once, they ran off to arm themselves. Hernandez and Danza did the same, grabbing rifles from the armoury and heading for the front of the ship. The gunfire grew continuous.
“How are we under attack?” asked Hernandez. “We’re twenty miles off the coast.”
Danza said nothing. He had grown pale, but he kept heading towards the bow. Hernandez fought the urge to jump overboard and followed his colleague. When they reached the front, they found Hell had come on board.
The crew battled something on the decks—bloated creatures resembling men, their flesh hanging loose and waterlogged on their bones. The entire ship was under attack. Enemies clambered over the railings and spilled onto the decks. Those with rifles let rip, tearing the enemy to pieces as quickly as they climbed the railings, but others stood unarmed, forced to defend themselves barehanded. The enemy leapt upon them like hungry lions, tearing at their windpipes with sharp, slippery claws.
Danza raised his rifle and joined the fight.
Hernandez stood there.
Seaman Lyle Crane stood nearby and came running. “Sir, we were already under attack when I got here. Do you know what’s happening?”
Hernandez shook his head. “I don’t understand where they are coming from. We should have been safe.”
Lyle’s face appeared grey under the setting sun, and impending nightfall felt like a curtain ready to be pulled over mankind’s corpse. Was this the end? Hernandez watched the abominations kill his crew. Yes. “Get on a radio. Call for help.”
Lyle saluted and sprinted off.
Hernandez stood there. He watched his crew fall in a torrent of gore, their slimy attackers ripping them into lumps.
Danza circled back around, popping one of the bloated monsters in the head. It launched backwards over the rail and back into the ocean. “Hernandez, I’m on my last mag. You got ammo? Hernandez? Lieutenant?”
Hernandez looked at the man, but couldn’t summon a reaction. Slowly, like a rusted robot, he reached into his trousers and pulled out a spare magazine. Danza snatched it.
“Thanks! Those things are coming right up out of the water. I see light down there, deep beneath the surface. I think… I think one of those goddamn gates opened in the middle of the Atlantic.”
Hernandez stood there.
Danza gave him a shove on the shoulder. “Hey, Hernandez, get with it! I need your help. Johnson wants a team up on the conning tower to gain elevation. Can you handle that?”
Hernandez stood there.
“Hernandez, go!”
Blinking, Hernandez got his legs moving. His heart thudded in his chest and bile burned his throat like he’d drunk a cupful of bleach. He raced into the ship’s interior, gathering whoever he could along the way. By the time he reached the top of the conning tower, he had seven crewmen and four rifles. He sent one of the men as a runner to gather more weapons.
Hernandez found his voice. “Okay, we need to keep the ship from getting overrun. Concentrate on the enemy trying to board.”
As commanded, the men with rifles concentrated their fire at the railings. The problem was that bloated monsters had now started to come on board via the aft deck too. From the conning tower, Hernandez only had a decent view of the ship’s bow. Someone needed to contain the enemy at the rear.
“Okay, Petty Officer Rossi, hold this position and keep those railings clear. Matthews will be back soon with more ammo.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’m heading to secure the aft.” Hernandez flew down the ladder so quickly he almost free-fell, lucky to make it to the deck without injuring himself. The first person he bumped into was Commander Johnson. He was alone and injured. Blood flowed from his right arm hanging limply by his side. He held a Colt 9mm in his left hand.
“Hernandez. You got a team up top, good work.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Danza is pinned down. We need to offer support.”
Hernandez shook his head. “Sir, we need to secure the rear. The enemy is flooding aboard there. If we can stop the tide, we can regain control of the decks.”
Johnson looked back at the carnage behind him. Despite being surrounded, Danza led a large group of sailors currently holding their own. “Okay, let’s go quickly.”
Hernandez raised an eyebrow. “Just the two of us?”
“You see anyone else we have at hand? We’ll gather men if we can find them, but we need to hold the aft now. The men you put up top will help Danza hold the bow.”
Although it had been his idea, Hernandez felt a cold, wet fish in his guts as he considered what a suicide mission heading to the aft with only his injured commander as support would be. Yet, if he did nothing, the ship would be overrun. Even now, dead men slithered along the rails from the r
ear of the ship.
“Come on!” said Johnson, already heading off. He pulled the trigger on his pistol and hit a bloated creature standing in his way. “Let’s show these fuckers what we do to stowaways.”
Hernandez shouldered his rifle and took off after his commander. Johnson seemed to have snapped—it was the only way Hernandez could explain the man’s lack of fear. Even with one arm, Johnson sauntered along with confidence, raising his pistol and popping off rounds at whatever creature got close.
Almost at the aft, they found a couple of crewmen taking cover inside one of the rigid hull dinghies that hung over the railings. Both men were unarmed.
“Captain, thank God.”
“Winstead, Gallagher! Get out of there. Your shipmates are dying.”
Both men leapt out. “We were caught unarmed, sir.”
Johnson reached into his belt and pulled a Smith and Wesson revolver into view. He shoved it at Winstead then turned around to grab a fire axe from the wall which he gave to Gallagher. “Both of you, come with me.”
Together, the four men reached the rear of the ship. The sun had fallen below the horizon, but the area was well lit by spotlights. The two Seahawk helicopters blocked full view of the deck, but it was clearly an enemy ingress point. They teemed over the rails.
Johnson took out two bloated creatures mid-step. Hernandez opened up on three more sludging towards their flank. The creatures were slow to move—bogged down by water—yet they could pounce several metres once they picked their target. That’s what happened to Gallagher within moments. The man raised the pistol in time to let off a shot, but it was too late. The bloated monster fell on top of him and disembowelled him with a single swipe of its bony claws. Thinking fast, Winstead dropped his axe and scooped up the revolver; pulling the trigger, he blew the creature away.
“Good work, Winstead,” said Johnson, slapping another mag into the butt of his gun and firing off more shots.
Hernandez took out another bloater trying to sneak up behind them. Its leg came away at the knee, but it continued in a crawl. Winstead picked up the axe again and brought it down on the back of the creature’s skull. The blood spatter was jet-black in the moonlight.
“These things are smart,” said Winstead. “This one was trying to flank us. They’re not animals, not monsters... I think… I think they used to be men.”
Hernandez raised his rifle and zeroed in on another creature coming over the railing. Winstead might be right. Although the enemy’s blue, swollen flesh was monstrous, their nipples, genitalia, and most of all, their eyes seemed human. Had they really once been men?
Were they zombies?
Demons?
Hernandez swallowed and pulled the trigger.
The bloated creature fell down dead.
The three of them continued putting up the best fight they could. Winstead swung his axe whenever he could save a bullet, and Hernandez was on his last magazine—he made each shot count. Johnson, however, was a madman, emptying a seemingly endless supply of extended clips he’d brought with him.
The enemy kept on coming. There could be a thousand of them down there beneath the surface of the water. How much longer could the Augusta hold out?
Hernandez pulled the trigger on his last round. Winstead was too slow spotting a bloater coming up on his blind spot. It leapt onto his back and bit into his neck like a ghoul. Winstead fired his revolver over his shoulder and took care of his attacker, but he was hurt bad. He fell to one knee and tried to stem the torrent of blood leaking from his throat with the palm of his hand. He used the axe handle as a crutch to stop him collapsing completely. “I’m down,” he gargled.
The enemy smelt blood. They focused their attacks upon Winstead and swarmed him. Hernandez ran out of ammo, so Johnson was Winstead’s only chance, but his pistol was too slow to fight off the onslaught. By the time he’d taken down three of the enemy, another four made it over to Winstead. He cursed and swore as they descended upon him, but soon cried out in pain. He tried to swing the axe from on his back, but it was swatted away and skittered along the deck. It came to rest at Hernandez’s feet.
Johnson bellowed at him. “Hernandez, help him!”
“I’m out of ammo, sir.”
“I don’t care. Do something!”
Hernandez snatched up the axe at his feet and gripped it tightly, but remained where he was standing.
“God damn it, Hernandez!” Johnson slammed in another clip and fired. He hit two of the bloaters on Winstead, clearing a space in the swarm and revealing the man beneath. Winstead was dead, torn apart like a basket of bread. Johnson let out an animalistic snarl and kept on firing. Hernandez ran to his side.
“We have to get out of here, sir. We can’t hold them off with one gun. They’re going to surround us.”
Even now, it happened. The creatures sensed their advantage and spread out around the railings, waiting to close in like a net. They were smart.
“Sir, we have to go, now!”
“We’re not going anywhere, Lieutenant. Do your duty and secure this area.”
Hernandez looked at his superior officer—saw the madness in his eyes. The man had lost it. The blood on his face made him look like a snarling madman.
“Sir, this is suicide.”
“This is duty. The enemy is aboard our ship. We will die before we let them take it.” He fired off several more rounds, each one hitting its mark. More bloaters came over the rails. The smell of brine-soaked flesh overpowered them.
“I’m heading back to the bow,” said Hernandez.
Johnson glared at him. “Forever a coward. I order you to remain here and do your duty, Lieutenant. If we die, then we die as officers of the United States Navy. We die proud.”
Hernandez wobbled, his knees made of wet sand. He looked around at the railings and saw dozens of the waterlogged abominations all around him. They were surrounded by monsters. No way to survive.
“I won’t die for you, sir.” Hernandez lifted the axe and buried it in his commander’s collarbone, splitting his neck away from his shoulders. Utter shock covered Johnson’s face. He tried to speak, but couldn’t.
Hernandez put his foot on Johnson’s pelvis and yanked the axe free. He swung it again, burying it deeper into the ruined neck tissue like a lumberjack felling a tree. Johnson gurgled. Blood came out of his ruined throat in rhythmic gushes.
Hernandez snarled and pulled the axe free again. This time, Johnson slumped onto his back. “There’s your honourable discharge, sir.”
The creatures fell upon Johnson and tore him apart as he bled out on the deck. Several more stalked Hernandez, but he kept them at bay with mad swings of his bloody axe. He edged backwards, desperately hoping he would make it back to Danza and the others, and that the other lieutenant had things under control. Gunfire still blazed—both a good and bad sign.
With Johnson dead, the ship now lay in Hernandez’s command. The thought excited him as much as it terrified him, and the fact that he considered such things now, in this moment, surprised him. The other thought in his head, bizarrely, was that if he died, the ship would go to Danza. He wanted that even less than dying.
But that seemed to be the way things were destined to go. As Hernandez backed up towards the ship’s launch bay, hoping to slip in through the hangar and race towards the bow, he found himself cut off. If he tried to take the enemy at his back, the enemy at his front would fall upon him—and vice versa. He had no way of defending himself without leaving himself exposed.
This was it. The end.
Killing Johnson had been unnecessary because they had both been screwed.
The first creature attacked and Hernandez was ready. He swung the axe like Mickey Mantle clutching wood. The blade had so much elbow grease behind it that it took the bloated bastard’s head clean off. It also left Hernandez unbalanced and out of breath. The next creature barrelled right into his side and knocked him down. He hit the deck, the enemy on top of him. More surrounded him and closed in,
ready to take their piece of flesh.
Hernandez whimpered. Time to close his eyes.
Rat-a-tata-tata-ta.
The sudden wetness on Hernandez’s face startled him. He flinched and opened his eyes, pushed the weight off of his chest. The creature was dead, its body weeping black blood and sea water from a dozen different holes. The other bloaters had scattered, many of them dancing the death tango as bullets riddled their bodies.
Rat-a-tata-ta.
Hernandez kept low and dragged himself into cover inside the hangar’s entrance. He dared peek out for only a single second to see who had come to his rescue. Had Danza secured the ship? The bastard would be a hero.
But it had been heavy machine-gun fire that had turned the tide. Something bolted down and chain-fed.
Hernandez saw the spotlights circle around and realised who had saved him.
It was another ship.
Vamps
The streets were a chaotic mixture of fear and anger. As many people fled as stayed to throw bricks at shop windows and kicked in car windscreens. Fight or Flight. The concrete jungle of Brixton had become a plain old jungle, and only animals lived in it.
“We need to get out of here, man.” Ginge leant against a lamppost and took great heaving breaths. “I mean, this shit is like Iraq or something.”
“I don’t see no soldiers,” said Mass. “We could use a couple of AKs right now. Wonder if the newsagents across the road sells ‘em.”
“No one will be coming to help us,” said Vamps. “You think they’ll be sending police, or the Army, to help out Brixton when Oxford Street and Soho are in the shit? We don’t matter.”
Ravy ducked as a brick flew over his head. It hit the side of a bus stop and rained glass on top of the old man taking cover there. “Shit man. We’re gunna get our heads caved in.”
Vamps looked at the madness erupting all around him and felt disgusted. Their city was under attack, and the first thing people did was turn on one another. Why? To grab a fistful of fags from the newsagent? What made people act this way?
Fear.
Hell On Earth Box Set | Books 1-6 Page 39