The Ark Series (Book 2): The Ark of Attrition

by Scott Kotrous

  Martin orders everyone to gather their things and get into the Havoc. He converses with a few of his men before they break off to get Kristie and carry her into the Havoc. Everyone else gathers as much as they can and then they all pile into the Havoc, and close the door behind them. Once inside, almost everyone collapses to the ground, and while some cry, others attempt to calm down those who are visibly shaking.

  John looks at everyone one last time before he sets down his rifle and falls back into his chair. He bits his upper lip just as a tear rolls down his cheek and falls to the ground. He mumbles to himself, Thank you, God. Thank you, God. Thank you, God. He squeezes the tears from his eyes and then cups his hands over his nose and mouth while pinching his eyes and slowing his breathing. He takes a deep breath just as he sees Maggie out of the corner of his eye walk up to him.

  “Uncle John, we can’t leave yet, we need to go get someone.” She crouches down beside him and puts her hand on his knee.

  He turns his head and rests it on one hand while his other hand holds it. “What are you talking about? We got everyone out.”

  Just as the Havoc starts to move, she stands up and turns to Martin. “Wait, we can’t go yet, we need to help our friend Tammy. I promised her boyfriend on his death bed that I would help her.”

  Martin walks over and lets out a sigh and then drops his head. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I can’t risk more of my men’s lives just to save one more. Our mission was to extract you and your friends and we’ve accomplished that. And now our mission is to get you back home safe and sound, and I plan on completing that as well. So I’m sorry but we just can’t risk another rescue mission by deviating from the plan.”

  “Then let me out and I’ll get her myself.” Maggie picks up her rifle and proceeds to check it.

  John gets up and puts his hands on his hips. “Maggie, he’s right. We can’t risk anymore lives; it’s just too dangerous out there.

  She looks right at John and purses her lips. “Then let me out and I’ll do it myself. I’ve lost a lot of friends myself and I promised Brock I would help his girlfriend.” She turns to look at Martin. “You call yourself a soldier, so act like one! You don’t leave anyone behind, right! Well I’m not leaving another one of my friends behind, dammit! Now stop this truck so I can get out and get her.”

  Martin clinches his jaw and looks right at Maggie. “It’s not safe out there, ma’am, and how do you know she’s even still alive?”

  “We don’t leave any man behind, dammit. Now get the fuck out of my way and stop this truck so I can do it myself!” Maggie checks the mag on her rifle and then slams it back into place.

  Martin throws up his hands and yells, “Oh, come on, you gotta be kidding me!”

  Peter walk up with Kelly right behind him. “She’s right, my dad always taught me that we never leave a man behind. So I’m with you, Maggie.”

  “Me too,” Kelly said.

  John lets out a loud sigh and crosses his arms. “Dammit, Maggie, this is not a good idea. And Martin’s right, how do you even know if she’s even still alive?”

  She walks away from John and Martin and gets beside Peter and Kelly. “Well stop the fuckin’ truck so we can find out.”

  Martin stands there shaking his head and then stares right at Maggie. He then turns and speaks into his radio. “Stop the convoy, I repeat, stop the convoy.”

  The truck slows down but doesn’t stop, and he waits for a response.

  “Ma’am, I just got word that we are surrounded by infected and if we stop we may not be able to get moving again. Now you are risking everyone’s life if we attempt this rescue mission, and I—”

  “Then only our truck stops and the other ones continue on and lead them away from us. We wait until they follow the other trucks before we make our move.” She raises one eyebrow and crosses her arms.

  Martin thinks about it for a second and then bites his lower lip. “Dammit! That’s actually not a half-bad plan.” He hesitates for a moment and then speaks into his radio. “Alright, I want my Havoc to halt while Havoc One and the Piercer keep moving forward. You are hopefully going to lead the infected away from us while we wait it out and then go on a little rescue mission. Havoc Two, prepare for complete power-down, and I need everyone on board to be completely silent. Does everyone copy.” After he gets a response from everyone, the Havoc slows to a stop and then powers down. “Where the fuck is your friend, anyway? You forgot to mention that valuable piece of information.”

  “The house she’s being held at is about five houses down the hill from my house, house number three-twelve. She’s with the same assholes who attacked us.”

  A slight grin appears on Martin’s face. “Oh well, you didn’t mention she was with the same cocksuckers who took out a few of my men, now this is gonna be fun.” He checks his rifle and then turns to look at his crew. “Alright people, everyone needs to sit tight for a while and be perfectly still. We need these fuckers to leave our position and if we make noise that’s not going to happen. So everyone shut the fuck up and keep quiet. If anyone needs to hit the head do it now because I will not allow it in about ten minutes. Is everyone clear on that?”

  Mostly everyone nods their head and only a few people use the restroom. After a few minutes of people shuffling around and getting into a somewhat comfortable position everyone gets quiet.

  They sit there in silence for about an hour before the sun begins to rise and cast an orange glow inside the hull. Those who are awake can’t help but notice the faint light peeking through the gun ports. Martin can finally get a glimpse of their surroundings from the dawning light and it reveals an unpleasant sight from the exterior camera feeds. There are still dozens of undead that surround the Havoc but seem unaware of their presence. The majority of the infected followed the other vehicles, but there are still too many left to fight off.

  Martin whispers over the radio. “What’s the status of our onboard weapons systems? I know the fifty cal is operational, but what else?” He waits for a response from his crew that informs him that most weapons system are still unresponsive and confirms that only the fifty caliber turret is fully operational. He hesitates for a moment before responding. “Alright, I want everyone to get some shuteye, but first we need to contact the other crew and inform them we’re going dark for a few hours and that they need to make some kind of noise that might attract some of the remaining undead around us. Tell them to stay within a mile or so from our position and to let off a few grenades under some parked cars if at all possible, just something that’s going to make a lot of noise.” He gets conformation that his orders have been received by the other crew and soon after a series of explosions can be heard in the distance. He checks the camera feeds and can see that the surrounding undead heard the explosions and started moving in that direction. “Looks like it worked. I’m going off comms for a few hours. Over.” He takes his headset off and then pulls his hat over his eyes and goes to sleep.

  * * *

  After a few hours Martin wakes to the sound of something hitting the side of the Havoc. He puts his headset back on and says into the radio, “I know you’re awake, team, so who’s got a visual on what made that noise?” He waits for a response while flipping through camera feeds and sees an infected standing just outside the Havoc. He again cycles through the camera feeds and can only see a handful of infected still lingering around. “Alright people, it’s show time. Let’s slowly drive down to house three-twelve and park right in front. I’ll be taking a four man crew and you know who you are. So get prepped and ready to go in five.”

  Right as the Havoc starts to move, Maggie walks over to Martin. “I want to go with you.”

  Martin doesn’t even look at her. “Not a chance, little lady.”

  “But how will you know who she is? I need to be there for that,” Maggie said.

  He stops what he’s doing and looks right at her. “Not a chance in hell will you be going with us. Now I’ve agreed to do this out of the kindness of
my heart, and I’m already putting my men at risk by going. I will not drag an untrained civilian along with us putting us at more risk.”

  “But—”

  “—But what. You asked for my help so you’re getting it, but this is non negotiable. And, no, you do not need to be there with us because it doesn’t matter who we bring back. I’ll tell you what, anyone not shooting at us we’ll bring back, how does that sound?”

  Maggie lowers her head and slightly nods and looks away.

  “Peachy. Now if you’d please move out of the way so we can do our job.”

  Maggie steps out of the way and lifts her hand in the direction of the door. Martin walks by and joins his crew at the rear of the Havoc. They finish gearing up just as the Havoc comes to a slow stop and they take one last look at the camera feeds, along with looking out of the gun ports. Satisfied with what they see, they shoulder their rifles and two men pull out their handguns equipped with silencers, but the other two pull out KA-BAR knifes.

  As soon as the door opens, he and his crew swiftly exit the vehicle and the two armed with knifes quickly go to work taking down a few infected threats in the vicinity. Martin takes the lead with his team right behind him. The muffled pop from his pistol taking down a couple infected does nothing more then alert his crew, and no one else. So they quietly make their way up to the neighbors house, and then cross the yard and get up to the side of their target house.

  They move around the side and get to the backyard. They can hear some voices from inside as they pass by the boarded up windows, but can’t make out what they are saying. They get to the backdoor and wait. Martin reaches up for the door and is surprised to find it unlocked. This time everyone pulls out their silenced handguns and wait for Martin’s lead. He slowly turns the door handle and cracks the door just enough to see in. He sees no movement and carefully enters the house without making a sound. The rest of his crew do the same and they all get into the mudroom and wait.

  They can hear multiple voices coming from the room just down the hall, and they can tell they are unaware of their presence. They hug the wall as they make their way toward the voices and stop just outside the room they are coming from. Martin peeks around the corner and can see three men sitting at the kitchen table snorting lines and drinking. He turns back to his men and gives a series of hand signals that explains the situation.

  He uses his fingers to count down from three, and then enters the room and puts two bullets in the back of two men who were never aware of his presence. The third man attempts to grab a weapon but is immediately shot by the second man through the door. The man falls and slams into the table making a loud noise before he hits the ground. Martin instantly turns back toward the other entrance to the kitchen and slowly walks in that direction and with his pistol pointing right at it.

  As soon as he gets to the doorway, he can hear some rustling around in the other room. He motions for two of his men to go back the way they came and enter the room from the other entrance. He waits for about thirty seconds for his men to get into position before peeking around the corner. He flinches back when he’s met with gunfire hitting the doorway just above his head. He instinctively crouches down and throws a flash bang into the adjoining room. As soon as it goes off, he turns the corner and sees multiple hostiles with their hands up over their eyes. He moves into the living room and quickly takes down one of the men with two pulls of the trigger, and his other team members immediately take down the rest.

  They hear footsteps coming from upstairs, and Martin puts up the hold sign. He signals to the staircase and they all move in that direction. As soon as they get to the bottom of the stairs someone yells out.

  “Who the fuck is in my house!”

  Martin puts a finger to his lips and looks at his men.

  “I’ll say again, who the fuck is in my mutha’ fuckin’ house!”

  Martin waits for a minute contemplating his options before yelling back. “Hey fuck face, it’s just your neighbors paying you a little visit. Now why don’t you just have the girl come downstairs so we can be on our way?”

  “Girl? Which one, I got lots of bitches. Here, you want one, take it!” He says something to someone and moments later pushes a women down the stairs. Her unconscious body flops to the bottom of the stairs and lays their motionless.

  Martin grabs one of her legs and pulls her back toward him. He checks for a pulse and is relieved to find a faint one. The girl is filthy and has track marks on both arms and legs. He looks up at his men and then cracks his neck and yells up. “Oh now that’s not how you treat a lady.”

  The voice yells back. “I gave you what you wanted, now get the fuck outta my house before I have to come down there and put a cap in your ass!”

  “Please, by all means, come on down and maybe we can make a deal. I’ve got lots of guns and supplies, so maybe we can trade for a few more of your broads you got up there.” Martin pulls the clip out of his handgun and replaces it with a fresh one.

  “Alright, I’m a business man, and I’ll be willing to trade for some of these bitches. But you first have to lay down your weapons before we can talk.”

  “Hey no problem, man. Me and my men will be happy to throw down our weapons. We’ve got some nice rifles you’d be interested in.” He takes off his rifle and slides it in front of the staircase, followed by two of his men doing the same. “There you go, partner, myself and my two men’s rifles just for you. All we want in exchange is a couple more of those beauties like this one. But this time let’s not throw them down the stairs. We don’t want to damage the merchandise, now do we.” He tucks his handgun behind is back and covers it slightly with his shirt.

  “Alright, fair enough, those look like mighty nice rifles so I can do the same. First let me see your face. Step out with your hands up so I can see you, then I’ll send the girls down.”

  “Well, I don’t know if I trust you enough to walk in front of a loaded weapon pointed down at me. How do I know you’re not gonna shoot me as soon as I step in front of the light?”

  “Because I know you’ve got more supplies I’m interested in. So it wouldn’t be in my best interest to take you down—like I said, I’m a businessman.”

  “Fair enough, but just so you know, if you shoot me, my men will be forced to take you down, and that isn’t gonna help anyone out now will it.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Well alright then, here ya go.” Martin puts his hands up and steps into the light shining at the bottom of the stairs and smiles. He can see two men on either side of the top of the staircase aiming guns down at him. “Waugh hey, I thought we had a deal. Now lower your weapons or the deals off.”

  The man looks at the other man and nods his head. Just as they both lower their weapons, Martin pulls his pistol from his back and fires two shots upstairs and hits both men, sending them both tumbling down the stairs. He moves out of the way just as they hit the bottom of the steps and he puts two more bullets in their heads. “Fuckin’ junkies.” He spits on them both. “That’s for my men you pieces of shit.”

  Martin pokes his head up the stairs again, but doesn’t see any movement. They pick up their rifles and sling them over their shoulders and then slowly walk up the stairs. Once he gets to the top of the stairs he calls out. “Your boys are dead, come out with your hands up and we’ll let you live.” He waits for a few seconds but hears nothing. “Alright last chance to live, assholes. Come on out, or we’ll be forced to kill all of you one by one.”

  He motions to his men and two of them move ahead and make their way down the hall, clearing rooms on their way. They get to the last room at the end of the hall and peek around the corner. They quickly move inside the room and find three half-naked girls in the same condition as the one at the bottom of the stairs. They clear the bathroom before checking for pulses, and luckily finding faint ones on each of them. They look around the room for clothes and gather what they can, and dress them the best they can. Each men pick up one of the unconscious gi
rls and lays them over one shoulder. They carry the girls down the stairs and Martin gets to one knee to put some clothes on the girl at the bottom of the stairs.

  As soon as they all get down the stairs they can hear gunfire coming from outside. Martin quickly picks up the last girl and gently lays her over his shoulder. He radios to the convoy they are coming out with precious cargo and they will need assistance. He gets no response so he lays the girl down on the couch in the living room and looks out a hole in the boarded up window. He can see multiple infected surrounding the Havoc, and gunfire muzzle flashes coming from every opening.

  He turns back to look at his men just as two infected enter from the back and lunge at his men. He pulls his rifle around and is able to get off a few shots just before the infected get close to his unsuspecting men still holding the girls. The infected fall right at their feet forcing his men to jump back.

  “Put the girls on the couch, we can’t leave here with them quite yet, looks like we’re gonna have to fight our way outta here.” His men gently lay the girls on the couch and grab their rifles.

  They get in formation and follow Martin out the back door. They hug the side of the house and reach the front yard in a matter of seconds. The gunfire is intense coming from the Havoc and the bodies have piled up all around it. The fifty caliber turret is mowing down the infected at a high rate, but at the same time attracting more infected to the area. Martin tries to radio his team again, and this time he makes contact. After a quick discussion they come up with a plan similar to the previous successful plan that got them out of Maggie’s house—a smash and grab approach. It’s the dirty form of extraction but usually gets the job done.

  Martin can hear the Havoc start up and he and his men wait for it to get moving before turning and running back into the house. They bolt into the house and quickly grab the girls, and then move to the back door each with one of the girls over their shoulder and a rifle in the other hand.