by Lee Thomas
Stepping into my cabin, I saw the message had been left on the bar counter. As expected, Amanda did not take the news well, but Michelle was staying with her for a bit to help out. Since that situation was being handled then, I could focus on keeping things running up here. I hoped to be done with this by spring so we could start planting, and the only way that would be even close to possible was to focus on the task at hand. I then headed out to check with Chris in the machine shop to find out how much and what kind of building supplies we had on hand. If we could get that safe house secured before the storm, I wanted to make it happen.
After speaking with one of the guys in the shop and getting an updated inventory list, I headed up to the flight deck after dropping the list off at my cabin. It was late afternoon now, and I wanted to enjoy the remaining daylight before the ground teams returned. I stopped in the bridge and asked that a message be sent to the other group, asking them to send updates as soon as their teams returned also. I was worried because most of our people were up here involved in this, and we had only left around 400 back at the base. That did not leave very many to both keep everything running and growing, as well as patrol the wall to keep everyone safe, which was one more reason for the urgency of completing this mission.
Thinking about the daylight, and realizing how hot the deck could be, made another thought cross my mind, and I turned and hurried over to where the chopper pilots were finishing their check of the birds. Kyle looked up at me as I approached and waved.
“Almost done, and they both seem to be in fully working order.” He told me as I poked my head into the cabin.
“FLIR, both birds have it installed, correct?” I asked, skipping any small talk.
“Yes, both of them. We also have portable units we could install on vehicles too, why?” he replied with a confused look on his face.
“I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before. The infected run hot, right? We know that much, and the mutants seem to run even hotter. Why are we running around looking for them when we could simply take the birds up at night and use the FLIR to find them, track them, and take them out. Why waste the resources and time to do a building by building search?” I exclaimed excitedly. They both looked at me as the realization of what I was thinking sunk in. We talked about how it would work, ways to communicate and coordinate with the ground teams, and how fast we could search. Once I had a few answers, I ran back into the bridge to send a message to the ground teams to all report back to the ship now. I wanted everyone in safe, and I wanted the team leaders to all hear my new plan together. I then went to the machine shop to find out how many portable units we had and how long it would take to fit them to vehicles.
After speaking with Chris, who consulted with our mechanics and electricians, we determined we could have all three APC’s rigged with FLIR, and even a few spare units for any other vehicles we could manage to scrounge up. I kicked myself now for not bringing our original RV’s since they would be perfect for this, but hindsight and all that. I called up to the bridge from the machine shop to see if the other ships had been contacted yet, which they had, and we received a response that both the Port Royal and the Leyte Gulf had FLIR units onboard since they could house two choppers each. That meant that we should have plenty to go around and make this go much more quickly than originally planned. We would have to be careful with them though to make sure we didn’t damage them before clearing the land.
Hanging up the phone, I started pacing the hangar bay near the elevator, waiting on the ground teams to arrive. The sun was beginning to set finally, and I was impatient. I hurried up to the flight deck again so I could see when they cleared the gate, leaving a sailor to act as a guard and inform the team leaders that I wanted to talk with them tonight, as soon as they all returned. Stepping out onto the deck, out of breath from trying to jog up the stairs, I took a couple of deep breaths, both to slow my breathing and just smell the sea air, and then looked out over the pier area, watching for movement. Since it was getting darker, it was getting harder to see, but I thought I saw what appeared to be flashlights moving around, and a few minutes later I saw them again in between buildings below us, and it turned out to be one of the teams. After watching for another hour or two, I counted all teams back onboard, so I headed down to the ground teams’ office, which is where I had asked for the leads to meet me.
“I’m assuming there is something of pretty strong importance to pull us all the way back here tonight?” Gary asked, a little grumpily. I could understand that because I was sure his team had to come the furthest back, and it was obvious the week of searching so far was already starting to wear on them, physically and mentally. I knew that would happen so I was planning on having them take a break for a few days soon anyways, but with my new idea, it would be much more feasible now.
“Yes, and I think you will all love to hear it. I think I found a way to not only shorten the time it will take to clear the land, but also make it infinitely safer for you all on the ground.” I answered, pacing a little in my excitement.
“Well, don’t hold us in suspense, what is it?” Peter asked.
“FLIR.” I stated simply. I waited for their response, watching their faces. They all just looked at me quizzically for a few minutes, and then I could see some of them starting to understand.
“That might actually work.” Tony said, under his breath, obviously thinking it over.
“I don’t get it, what is FLIR?” Roger asked. Since he was the only one in the room with no military experience, I expected him to not know what it was.
“It stands for Forward Looking Infrared. It’s what police helicopters and search and rescue teams use to look for people. It detects heat, and since we know that the infected and the mutants both run slightly hotter than human normal, we should be able to use it to find them, track them, and then take them out.” Christian explained for me.
“Exactly, so that means no more door to door searches, no more teams exposed to danger all day, and clearing the land for occupation much quicker than anticipated. We could possibly be done with this mission by the new year, instead of spring. I’ve talked to the chopper pilots, and both birds have fully functional units, and maintenance says we have enough for all three APC’s as well as spares for other vehicles. I’ve already contacted the other ships, and they also have units onboard, so all our starting locations can have units. Tell your men to take a break, no more going out for the entire weekend. By Monday we should be able to start with the FLIR on the birds, as well as the APC’s.” I said. Relief crossed several faces at that, which told me they were getting burnt out already, or the men were, so a break, and a better solution, would be welcome news. We chatted for a few more minutes about how things were going with the searches; what, if any, animals had been spotted, and if any of the leaders thought a man or woman needed to be replaced on any of the teams. Most of the teams got a clean bill of health, but there were two, on separate teams, that might need to be looked at a little more closely. Since it was starting to get late, I let the guys go to tell the teams the good news that they could sleep in tomorrow, and I headed up to my cabin to think and review maps again.
I had the copies from the team leaders marking off the grids they had searched, along with possible safe house locations. I made notations on my larger scale maps, getting an idea on how much land we had searched in a week. It was not as much as I had hoped, and I acknowledged to myself that I had grossly underestimated travel time to and from the grids. The teams could not work all day, every day with that kind of stress and exertion without cracking, and it was bound to happen sooner or later. With the introduction of the FLIR plan, there would be no more door to door, and we could hopefully find any infected, or gathering thereof, and go in and clear them out. Not only was this going to save time, but it would give the men a more defined goal to shoot for. I decided to call it a night, finishing my notes and setting everything aside before taking a quick shower and heading to bed.
&nb
sp; Sept. 28th, 2020
Monday, Sept 28th. I gave the ground crews the weekend off, and plan on starting to utilize our infrared searching tonight. I don’t know why I didn’t think about it earlier, but this would not only be faster, but also be safer for the ground teams since they wouldn’t have to go door to door now. Today would be spent planning new search grids and taking supplies to a few designated safe houses so the teams can be off ship and safe. We found places like banks, city jails, courthouses, and even a couple of churches. We chose buildings that we built sturdy, and could withstand lots of punishment, and weather. There was rain coming, and possibly some severe storms, which would delay searching tonight, but we would see what the day brought.
This last week was tough; we lost Ozzy in a supply run that went south, and some of our cattle broke through the enclosure and ran amok through the base before they got caught again. That wasn’t so big a deal, but they could have been seriously injured, and we have precious few right now. With the farmland we have available up here, I hoped we could increase our numbers there, as well as all our livestock. Our hydroponics were also being hard pressed to keep up with our needs, and the land again would be a huge boon for that. I knew people were getting mighty tired of being cooped up, even in the openness of the base, and I planned on starting to move everything by the end of December. I wanted everyone in place and settled by spring so our growers could be getting set for planting, and our livestock workers could make sure the fences were in good shape and start breeding more.
Closing my journal, I set it aside and got up when I heard a knock at my door. I called out ‘enter’ as I stepped into my living area, sitting on my couch as Jackson entered with a sheaf of papers in his hand. I assumed that meant we were in for some bad times weather wise, and motioned for him to sit.
“You probably know why I’m here, so I’ll cut right to it. The weather pattern we have been watching has taken a strong turn, and not a good one for us. As you can see here, the base will be hit first, followed shortly by us. It appears to be a fairly slow moving system, so lots of rain for sure, possible severe thunderstorms.” Jackson started, showing me different printouts of radar screens and other info I couldn’t decipher, but I trusted what he was telling me.
“Any sign of hail, or is there a chance any of it will freeze?” I asked. With my limited knowledge of how the weather worked I didn’t foresee any freezing rain, not at this time of year, but hail could be damaging, and we might not have the resources to repair it.
“Possibly localized hail, but I think it would be much, or widespread. The biggest threat here should only be damaging winds and possibly some flooding.” He explained.
“Damn, not the news I was hoping for. Looks like everyone has another day off then. When do you expect it to hit?”
“Should be hitting the base within the next two to three hours, then up here in about four to six hours, depending on how fast it moves. I took the liberty of sending the report to Dave already so Norfolk can take precautions.” He informed me as he shuffled his papers back together and put them back in the folder.
“Alright, I’ll pass the word to the bridge and put everyone on storm stations, then I’ll check in with Dave and see how the base preparations are going. Thanks, Jackson, keep us informed.” I replied, standing and reaching for his hand as he did the same. After he turned to leave, I sat back down and reached for my boots, slipping them on and tying them before heading out of the cabin towards the bridge. While searching would not be possible tonight with this storm overhead, I hoped we could at least accomplish something today.
Stepping into the bridge, the two sailors on watch were looking out over both the water and the pier area, watching for movement and anyone approaching, like they should be. I greeted them and they turned, greeting me in return, then returning to their watching. As much as I tried to not foster a military mindset for the group, I did appreciate it sometimes as it made things run smoother. I wrote a message out, handed it to the radio operator, and then simply stepped up to the 1MC and flipped the switch.
“Attention all personnel, this is Sheldon speaking. You all know why we are here, and what is at stake here. With that knowledge, I’m still not going to risk anyone’s life unnecessarily. We have bad weather coming, which is putting a delay on restarting our search efforts. We will go to storm stations today, but once everything is secured, I have an idea. We haven’t tested anyone’s swordsmanship skills in a while, so I’m thinking a sparring tournament today would be a nice change of pace, as well as help everyone blow off some steam and have a little fun. Anyone interested in that, please meet me in hangar bay 3 as soon as storm prep is done. I have a special prize in mind for the winner, so we’ll see who is up to the challenge. Sheldon out.” I replaced the mic and turned off the intercom. I told the sailors on duty right now that once the storm finally hit they were relieved of their watch, as I doubted anyone would be stupid enough to be out in a storm of that magnitude, and were more than welcome to come join the tournament if they wanted.
I made sure the outer hatch near my cabin was secured, and then checked the other doors along the starboard side as well. Finding all the outer doors shut and secured, I made my way down to my hole in the wall hideout and checked the hatch there also. Once it was shut and secured, I made my way down to the hangar bay and saw the sparring mat was getting set up. It consisted of wrestling mats inside a wood frame, and it was large enough to allow for plenty of movement. There wasn’t much of a gathering yet, but I figured it would take everyone a while to secure everything for storm stations, and then get ready for the fight.
Since the frame was already assembled, I started helping dragging the mats over and putting them in place. It was quite a few of them to make such a large area, and they were each not very light, so it wasn’t an easy process to get them all set, but once we were done we had a forty-foot square mat. Someone had brought out all the practice weapons and laid them out on tables, so after making sure everything was ready, and more men and women had starts showing up, I went over and picked up a couple for myself. A couple of test swings showed me they were balanced well and should perform well. It had now been about two hours since I had made the announcement, and it seemed that about three-quarters of the ship had showed up to either watch or participate in the tournament. I stood on one of the tables to get everyone’s attention so we could get this thing started.
“Alright, listen up, here are the rules. Standard melee rules apply; two limbs count as a death, glancing torso shot counts as one point, direct hit is a kill shot, and everyone is allowed two deaths. Hits to limbs with two swords at once only count as one point. I have five volunteers for judges, and their word is final, no arguments, understood? If you lose a limb, you can no longer use that limb. That means going to your knees for a leg shot, and your arm must dangle if its hit. This will be a one-on-one fight, but everyone must fight before someone goes twice. If you’re ready, let’s do this.” I said, jumping down to cheers and yells. Everyone started spreading out around the ring to see, and the first two men stepped up on the mat. It was a decent match, the two men going back and forth for a while, and finally one scored a spinning hit to the others back ending the first match.
The next several matches were also well matched, each one lasting around thirty to forty minutes. Watching all the matches, I noticed that almost all of them used only a single sword, but there were a few that used two, like me. The single sword users had a habit of picking longer swords, while the Florentine users picked shorter weapons, which were easier to flip back and forth and spin around. The shorter reach meant they had to be quicker and more creative to get inside the reach of the longer swords, or longer arms of some opponents.
Several hours later we had cut half the field out, which left us down to still about thirty or so, and the matches were getting shorter and shorter as people were getting winded, but also watching the others and learning each other’s moves. Very few had made it out of any of th
eir matches untouched, myself included. It appeared all the training that Roger and I had started was apparently paying off. If the men were this good against opponents who could think, and plan, and had their own weapons, then against the infected who stumbled along blindly they should have no problems. The third round took out another good chunk of fighters, which left us about twelve, other than myself.
“Alright, listen up. Since we now have an uneven number, I’m taking myself out temporarily. That leaves twelve to match up, and since everyone has now had one death, this becomes an elimination round. The six remaining after this round will face each other, and then the three left will face each other as follows. The loser of the first match will face the third man, then the two winners will face each other. The winner of that match faces me for the prize. We will take a twenty-minute break to rest, then be back to start the final rounds. See you shortly.” I announced before starting the next round. A quick break would help us prevent injuries, as well as make for better matches. After coming back, the crowd had gathered for the last few matches, and the referees had assigned the matches for the first six, so we began the first one as soon as everyone showed up.
The first three matches took about an hour and a half, and then after them we took another twenty-minute break before starting the last three matches. Once again the referees had picked the first match, and Alan, the loser, had to face Henry, who he tromped easily, to a lot of surprise. That meant the he had to face Leslie one more time, and it was close, but her athleticism won out as she did a spin and duck move to tag him in the back. The crowd cheered and congratulated Leslie, while at the same time consoling Alan. Another short break, and finally it was time for the final match, Leslie versus me. She was good, and watching her in the previous matches I could tell she used short, pointed movements, and lots of footwork to keep an opponent off balance. This would not be an easy fight, even with me being nice and fresh and her having had been in several recent matches. Stepping onto the mat, Leslie and I both looked at each other and nodded, determined to put on a good show at least.