by Lee Thomas
It was pushing midnight already, and I knew the team had to travel all the way to the naval air base since the civilian one was apparently over run with infected now, which meant a good difference in travel time. I wanted to sleep, but with a storm approaching, the renewed infected sightings and attacks, and now even more newcomers, the stress was too much. I walked around the ship for a while, just wandering, listening to the silence of the ship at night. Without a full crew, and no need for anyone to be doing anything at night, the ship was eerily quiet. A few people were up, wandering sleeplessly like I was, or else going to or from one of the few night watches we had. With the construction of the wall, most of the night time watches on board ship had been discontinued, as we could relax security here. The only ones we had left were watching the cameras which had a feed from the wall, the weather radar, and a few down in engineering to keep an eye on the engines. We had a specific crew assigned to fire watch as well, both on ship and on the base, and that was their sole responsibility. We hoped never to use them, but life happens sometimes.
My wanderings finally took me to the flight deck, where I gazed up at what few stars were peeking out through the clouds. My boots made little sound as I walked all the way forward, which allowed me to gaze out over the base. Even though we had power, there was little light on as we all knew light drew the infected. We had enough of them to deal with without drawing even more by running lights at night. That left the night sky visible to watch the stars. I didn’t stargaze much, but it was pretty sometimes. The clouds rolling in though spoke of the storm that was on its way, and while we could use some rain, I hoped it wasn’t too severe.
“Sheldon, Ryan reported in, he said they are back at the eastern gate. Gate guard confirms they just rolled through, so they should be back on board in no more than an hour.” Jacob informed me as he walked up beside me. Nodding my acknowledgement, we both simply gazed out at the stars for a while, each lost in our own thoughts. After about half an hour, when we could see the lights from the vehicles nearing the pier fence, I clapped Jacob on the arm and turned to head in. Since the team was almost back, my destination was the hangar bay, while I heard Jacob head up towards the bridge. As long as we had been here, I had always felt it was my responsibility to greet any newcomers and make them feel welcome and safe.
Stepping into the hangar bay, the first thing I noticed was the sound of people training with the practice swords. The yells, smacks of wood against wood, and the cheers of those watching and waiting their turn to spar echoed throughout the bay. That was something I started with a few others shortly after arriving to the ship, as bullets were a limited commodity and gunfire only drew more infected, so sword play seemed like a great alternative to it. I continued over to the temporary trailers we had set up for new arrivals to make sure they were ready with fresh sheets, food, and some bottles of water. Being this late at night I wasn’t going to assign any of my group as tour guides, that could all wait until morning. My assumption was that the newcomers were probably tired, depending on how long they had been on that plane, so a good nights’ sleep on a real bed would probably be welcome.
Opening the first trailer, I stepped inside and flipped the light switch. I could see all the bunks had sheets on them, and checking the small pantry area showed me some non-perishable food and water bottles in the cabinets. Even though most of the survivors that made their way to us had a small food supply with them, we always tried to provide something as well to make them feel welcome and relaxed. Once I saw that everything was ready, I headed back and towards the elevator to await the teams’ arrival onboard. A few of the ones in the sword practice waved to me in acknowledgement, which I returned with a nod. One of the guys made a gesture with his swords and pointed to me, obviously asking for a match, I simply shook my head, pointed at a pretend watch to indicate no time now. He saluted with the sword and turned back to the match in progress. Training with the men was one of the things I enjoyed, and it did help me keep my skills sharp as well, but meeting the team first was a priority.
Standing near the edge of the elevator was the best vantage point to see the vehicles approach the ship, which was were the team saw me as they turned the corner onto the pier itself. As they approached, the vehicles spread out slightly so they could park next to each other and still unload everyone. The drivers killed the lights as they came to a stop, and doors opened as people started filing out. The newcomers gravitated together, staring at the ship and talking amongst themselves, even as Ryan lead the entire group towards the stairs. I greeted each team member as they walked past me, the few that were former military saluting me as they passed. Ryan paused near me to wait for the rest to pass, and to introduce me to the new people.
“Kyle, this is Sheldon. Sheldon, this is Kyle, Erica, Samantha, and Tommy. I’ll let them introduce the rest of their group. I’m going to see that our weapons are checked in and get some sleep. My report will be on your desk by noon.” Ryan said, nodding to the newcomers and then following the others into the ship.
“I’m glad to meet you. We have some trailers set up with beds, water, some food, and a place you can just sit and relax. I don’t know how long you have been traveling, or how long you have been on those planes, but I assume you would like a real bed to sleep in?” I said after shaking hands with them.
“Well, we left from England about a week ago. We hopscotched from there to Iceland, Greenland, and ultimately down the eastern seaboard here. We have been looking for survivors, hoping to find some to take back to England to continue the human race. It looks like you have a pretty good set up here though.” Kyle replied, waving his arm to indicate the entire base. I laughed, and waved for them to follow me.
“It didn’t come easy though, we had a lot of losses and setbacks along the way. Let’s get you settled for the night, in a real bed. We’ll talk in the morning. I want to hear all about how life on the other side of the pond is, and how you all dealt with the infection. For now, it’s late, and I’m sure we could all use some sleep. Good night for now, I’ll let you all get settled.” I explained as we crossed the hangar bay to the trailers. After showing them around the trailer for a bit, and meeting the rest of Kyle’s group, I left them to have their rest and went to get mine as well.
Chapter 2
Being shaken awake after only six hours’ sleep was not my ideal start to a day, but Jeff would not be in here doing it if it wasn’t super important.
“Wake the hell up, we got a problem at the wall.” Jeff informed me as he shook me heavily.
“I’m up, what’s wrong?” I asked, shaking the sleep from my head and swinging my feet over the edge of the bed.
“There is a mass of infected gathering near the eastern gate. Doesn’t seem like they have spotted any of the people yet, so they are not actively attacking the wall, but it’s a massive herd.” He explained to me as I got dressed.
“Have the guards been alerted?” I asked.
“Yes, and extra support is already on the way. They were told not to fire unless they had to, but you know how some of them are, shoot first and shoot later.” He replied. I knew all too well that some liked to shoot on sight, although noise drew more. I had finished getting my clothes and armor on at this point, so I threw on my sword belt which held my dagger as well as the double swords, grabbed my helmet, and followed Jeff out of my quarters. If it was a large enough herd to put everyone on alert and wake me up, this could be bad.
We headed up to the bridge first for an update, if there was one. The duty officer said there was no new updates, the herd still wasn’t attacking the wall, but a few had got close and pounded on it a little, which drew a few more to it, but they were near a view port and taken out with swords. No shots had been fired yet.
“Get the chopper crew on ready five, if it’s that large of a herd we may need the bird to draw them off. Jeff and I are going down there to look around. Get Val up here to coordinate things, and find out if any hunting teams are out. If so, I want them
brought in, asap.” I ordered as Jeff grabbed two of the long-range radios for us. Handing one to me, we clipped them to our belts and headed down to the hangar bay. Jeff had apparently called to have a vehicle ready as there were three electric carts waiting on the pier with other men and women waiting to go help. Jeff got in one while I got into another, and since we took the last two seats, all three took off. The drivers maneuvered as quickly as possible through the base, even though the carts didn’t have a very fast top speed, and since the herd was on the eastern end of the wall it took us almost thirty minutes to get there.
“I still don’t hear gunshots.” I remarked to Jeff as we pulled up to the eastern gate and got out of the carts. The others started spreading out to help with control, while I headed towards the stairs. I wanted to hit the watch station up top to get a good vantage of everything. The guards up there handed me a pair of binoculars, but I didn’t need them at first as infected were milling about all over the street, the yards, everywhere you could see. Only a few seemed actively interested in the wall, the rest were simply shuffling about, but we had seen what a few of the mutants could do, they could somehow rally the infected into a mob with a single focus. If this herd didn’t clear out by the time dark fell, and at least one mutant found it, along with us, it could pose a serious problem.
“How long have they been gathering?” I asked the guard.
“Not sure exactly, sir, they were here when I started my shift this morning at 0800, and the prior team said they noticed them around 0330, and there were already most of what you see now here. A few more have straggled in, but once they are here, they don’t seem to be wandering off.” He reported to me. That was disturbing that no one saw them starting to mass last night before they got this bad. Of course, if they came in slowly, and didn’t make any noise, the cloud cover last night would have made it hard to see them without any moon or star light. I just hoped we didn’t get anyone jumpy and accidently shoot one of them; that would for sure start a stampede towards the wall. Handing the binoculars back, which I noticed no one was using anyways, I headed back down towards the guard shack to speak with whoever was in charge right now.
“Sheldon, we have counted about two hundred infected out there right now. Nobody has fired, so it doesn’t seem like they have noticed us, but a few have ventured close enough to view ports that they were dispatched with spears.” Jared, the one in charge told me.
“No one saw this group forming at all last night?” I asked bluntly. That was one of the main functions of the guard detail was not only preventing them from getting in, but to spot any of them approaching the wall, let alone a herd.
“That’s what I was told this morning. Apparently, the dense cloud coverage last night made it so dark that the infected were all but invisible as they approached. I thought the upper watchers had night vision goggles just for the dark nights, but either they were not in use, they were not charged, or the watchers were not watching. Either way I’m looking into it.” Jared informed me.
“Let me know, but for now let’s deal with the problem at hand. We need to clear them out before any more show up, or any mutants show up tonight to band them together.” I replied, clapping him on the shoulder before heading back outside. Jeff was helping to spread out the guards and make sure the that if we did have to start shooting, plenty of ammo would be available quickly. I hoped it didn’t come to that, but if it did, we would be prepared.
Seeing this area was now backed up, I radioed to the other gate to see if the infected were massing there as well. Receiving a negative answer from the western gate, I also radioed the far western gate and received an all clear. With the infected only massing here, it made me wonder what exactly was going on, especially since we were about to start heading north to secure all that land. Heading back up for another quick view, that was the thought that plagued me now. Was the infected going to attack, and if so, how strong would it be. The wall had held for this long, but I knew it wouldn’t last forever. That was my biggest fear; that I got everyone here, got them safe, and then got them killed. That was my biggest reason for the northern peninsula venture was to provide safety without walls, without risk of the infected breaking in.
After seeing that this area was well covered, I waved to Jeff to follow me as we took one of the carts and headed back towards the ship. With the infected herd being watched, we were no longer needed to stand watch, and I trusted the guards to do their job, and call for help if they needed too. I wanted to get back to the preparations for the northern trip. With Shayne’s preliminary report stating that our other carrier, the Thomas Jefferson, was functional, but immobile, that meant the Nimitz, what we’ve come to see as ‘home’, will be the ship going north.
We parked the cart and walked up the stairs into the ship, Jeff saying he was going to go check on some things, so I headed up to the map room on my own. I wanted to check my notes again, look at the grids that had been laid out, and see if there was any way we could improve the plan, or make it safer to accomplish. I wanted this to be done within three months’ time, but was beginning to wonder if that was too unrealistic. Summer was ending, and I would love to have the area ready to move into before it got cold. I knew Michelle and the girls didn’t like the cold, so they would want to have a warm place to be by then. I was hoping to find them a nice place, or several close by each other, that they would enjoy and be able to stay warm this winter. It would also give the farmers time to stake their claim on land and get it cleaned up before spring planting time.
The plan was set that the Nimitz would dock at a shipping company about halfway up the peninsula that would have deep enough water to accommodate the ship and use that as our starting point. When the original teams came and got the bridges secure to prevent any infected from entering the peninsula, which would help us know when it was clear, part of that was also taking any power lines that stretched out of our secured area down so when we attached the power from the ship we could have power only to where we wanted. I hoped that what looked like power stations on the satellite pictures were power stations so the ship would not have to be the sole power source. If they were still functional that would be good for us, provided they weren’t coal or something else we couldn’t acquire.
There wasn’t much more I could do for now until all the preparations were done and we started moving this floating city for the first time since she docked before the Event. The sailors were all being brought on board for the move so they could operate the ship, and were being mixed with the non-sailors that had been trained to make sure we had enough people to operate and maintain all the systems, just as if she was still an active, functioning ship. Obviously, some stations were not going to be needed, but we had to make sure we could keep the engines running, water flowing, and keep people alive. With only about two thousand people to work with, we were going to be stretched thin trying to keep the wall safe as well as have enough people on the ship to clear the land as well as people on the base tending the animals and food production. We were lucky to have competent people in almost every area, who could train those who weren’t.
Thinking back to our newcomers last night, the emergency this morning meant I hadn’t spoken with them yet. Pouring myself a cup of coffee from the last pot I could make, I headed down towards the hangar bay to do just that. I wondered one more time as I headed down, when was I going to move off the ship as my knee reminded me I couldn’t do these stairs all the time. Limping a little by the time I got to the hangar bay, I strolled over to the visitor’s trailers to meet the entire group of new people. I had read the brief note that Ryan had left about their encounter last night, and the radioman had told me that he did confirm their story with our contacts overseas, so maybe this was finally a good thing happening for us. I knocked on the door of the trailer and was greeted by one of the women I had met last night, Erica, if my memory served me right.
“Good morning, how did you all sleep?” I asked her as she ushered me inside. It appeared mos
t of the others were awake as well, sipping on water or coffee, checking their gear, or just talking amongst themselves.
“Pretty good. We’ve been sleeping on the planes since we left Britain, so a real mattress was nice.” Erica told me as she took me around and introduced me to the rest.
“I always make sure I personally greet all of our visitors, as I know life is hard out there with the infected, and I like to make sure that people know this is a safe place. Of course, with you guys being on an island I guess you haven’t had to deal with them up close too much, huh?” I asked, accepting the water bottle one of them handed me.
“Well, not so much, but there were a few that made it in country before the lock down, so there were a few small outbreaks. Luckily they were squashed early and contained, so for the most part Great Britain and Scotland have gone untouched.” Another replied, Aaron, I think.
“I’m assuming that means farmers and ranchers have been able to keep up with food production then, but what about power, medical supplies, things like that?” I asked.
“Food hasn’t been a problem, no; and with rationing, medical supplies have stayed plentiful for now, but of course things like daily meds for some people are now gone, or dangerously low for some. There were two production labs in Britain, and one in Scotland for medications, but without being able to obtain or reproduce the basic ingredients, they have been unable to really produce much.” Kyle replied.
“That’s better than we have at least. We scavenged on the way here, stockpiled as much as we could, and cleaned out as far as we could every building of food, medical supplies, anything we could lay our hands on that would be useful. We have finally managed to get a food chain up and running, but we’re not all that overflowing with food right now. We still have to ration to make sure everyone eats.” I answered.