by Scott W Cook
“Heave!” I called.
The line went taught and I had to flex my biceps to maintain the tension. I pushed with my leg and put the other boot on the hull and walked slowly up. Just as I was putting my right foot down again for the third step, my boot skittered backward. Luckily I had most of my weight on the left foot so we didn’t fall.
I reached the deck and once on two solid feet, the Gunny climbed off and sighed, “Christ, I thought we were going for a swim there for a second!”
I scoffed, “Not a chance.”
“So how do we get inside?” Andy asked, “Anybody got the keys?”
“Don’t need em’,” Tony said, “she’s unlocked… except for one little problem.”
Tara groaned.
“The only way in is from the bridge,” Tony said with a wry grin.
Tara, Andy and even Rivers looked a little confused. Finally Tara raised her hand, “Do you mean the control room? Isn’t that like under our feet? I see there are some hatches forward and aft of the sail.”
“True,” I cut in, “Those are loading hatches and the smaller round ones are the escape trunks. They can only be opened from inside. The bridge on a submarine is up there.”
I pointed to the top of the conning tower twenty-five feet overhead.
Now it was Rivers’ turn to groan.
“There’s a ladder on the port side,” Tony said, “It’s an easy climb.”
“Okay, so go climb it then,” Andrea put in, “Go below and open one of the loading hatches for the Gunny.”
“Well…” I started.
“Oh, for God’s sake…” Andrea cranked, “Can’t anything just be easy?”
“The loading hatches are electrical,” Tony said.
Vicky grimaced and shook her head, “So you two boys have to climb up, get the main power back on, or enough auxiliary power to open them while the rest of us hang out up here with the stiffs.”
“Which might take a while,” I said, “I have no idea what the sitch is down there… or if there might not be zombies inside.”
“Oh, fuck me,” Tara said, “Go into a dark metal tube with the dead? Jesus…”
“So we can do it the way Vicky just suggested,” I said, “Or we climb up and help the Gunny.”
“Let’s do it, Captain,” Gunny said, “Hell, I can probably climb with only one wing anyway.”
“Okay,” I said, “I’ll go up first and Tony follows. We’ll enter the boat and do a quick recon. Shouldn’t take more than ten minutes or so. I’ve got to believe there’s minimal emergency power based on the heat bloom. The reactor is ticking over, so there’s got to be lights. There are two decks, but we won’t go over the entire ship. Just the conn and immediate areas.”
I went around to the other side of the tower and started climbing. It was an easy climb, the ladder was cold and dry and wasn’t a big height. Tony struggled a little more below me, but he made good time.
I peeked my head over the lip and saw to my relief that the streamlining bridge cover was open. It was usually left open when the vessel was docked and thankfully that had never been changed. I hopped into the rectangular cut out of the bridge and reached down to help Tony the rest of the way.
“Damn, Sharky,” He said with a grin. I could see that his ebony face was shining with sweat but he didn’t complain, “Been a while since we’ve been aboard one of these babies.”
I smiled, “Kind of like going home again, huh?”
From our vantage point two-plus stories over the water, we had a pretty good view of the base, even in the dark. And yes, it was crawling with the undead. As I looked around with my NVG’s, I noticed that a lot of them wore uniforms. I could see the peanut butters, summer whites and even blue jackets of the Navy, olive drab of the Marines and Army along with a variety of BDU’s as well. There were lots of civilians among the stiffs, too. They were in various stages of dress or undress depending on how mangled they were or what the elements had done.
“Christ…” I muttered.
Then something else caught my eye. I was facing to port, casting my gaze over the docks and the supply warehouses when a flash of light from the right drew my attention. The sound of something pinging off the metal just forward and below me also got my attention in a big way.
Somebody had fired on us.
Chapter 39
From the personal journal of Samuel R. Decker
“It just can’t ever be easy, can it, Sammy?” Tony asked as we ducked down below the lip of the bridge.
Several rounds pinged off the ship’s hull. There was no real danger to the ship, though. The vessel’s super hard steel was more than a match for the 5.56 rounds.
“What the fuck, Sam?” Andrea said over the radio.
Tony chuckled.
“Maintain radio discipline,” I barked into mine, “And it’s not my fault for Christ’s sake!”
“How do we get inside now?” Andrea replied with a chuckle.
I thought about that for a moment. They certainly couldn’t climb up here under fire. I keyed my mic, “Blue one and I will go below and check the systems. I doubt there will be enough power to open a loading hatch, so my thinking is I’ll open the after escape trunk and see if we can get you all in that way. Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” She replied, “The sail is protecting us. Just hurry up, Red.”
“Okay,” I said to Tony as I began to spin the wheel on the access hatch in the deck, “I’ll go down first and let you know. You’re okay to slide down?”
Tony scoffed, “I’m a sailor, white boy.”
“That’s racist,” I said with a grin as the hatch opened with a small puff.
“Not really, some of my best friends are sailors,” he replied.
I slid down the long access tube and found myself in the control room. There was indeed power but only at a bare minimum level. Two small emergency lights cast a pallid and ghostly glow over the room. I stood for a long moment and listened. Other than the very faint tinking of bullets occasionally hitting the conning tower, the boat was as silent as a grave.
“Christ,” I grumbled softly wishing I hadn’t thought of it in quite that way. Then louder, I shouted up the ladder way, “All clear!”
Tony slid down and gazed around, “Wow, the reactor is ticking over for sure.”
“How about getting more power?” I asked.
We both went over to the operations station and began reading indicators and throwing switches. Regular illumination snapped on, making the con feel a bit more life-like.
“Not enough to open those big loading hatches,” Tony said, “We’ll have to go through the reactor warm up process.”
“Concur,” I said, “Then it’s the after escape trunk. See what you can do from up here and keep your ears and eyes open. We don’t know if this boat is truly empty or not.”
“You think zombies might be on board?” Tony asked and then grinned, “Or ghosts?”
I snorted, “Maybe both. I doubt it though. I think G’s would’ve made themselves known by now.”
I headed down the corridor toward the stern and found that the after escape trunk was fully equipped. The submarine was remarkably clean. Submariners were notoriously neat, but even after six months, there was little sign of dust.
I went up the ladder into the escape tube and opened the three foot wide circular hatch. It thankfully opened with hinges on its forward edge giving me a nice shield to hide behind.
“You guys okay?” I called to the five people hiding behind the sail almost a hundred feet ahead of me.
“We’re swell,” Andrea quipped.
Several bullets flew over my head. Whoever they were, they had good eyes. Probably NVG’s and thermal scopes on their rifles, too.
I held my radio up to my lips, “Blue two, red one… try and cycle through the freqs and contact them.”
I saw a tall figure move away from the four women. He laid down on his belly and slid backward until his legs and most of his body were danglin
g over the exposed curve of the hull. He hung onto the edge of the deck by his hands and started sliding himself sideways and back toward me.
Not a bad idea, but I knew Julie Rivers couldn’t do that with her wounded arm.
My radio crackled, “…the hell are you people? Repeat. Unauthorized intruders… identify yourselves and cease all activity on that submarine.”
I keyed my mic, “This is Captain Samuel R. Decker, United States navy. We’re here on an official mission authorized by Admiral Jethro Banks under the authority of ComSurfCarib. Who the hell are you, Mister?”
The firing ceased. Well that was something. By now Andy had just about made it to my position.
“Keep going until the hatch is in line with me and you,” I said as I eased myself fully out of the hatchway and crouched to keep the open hatch cover between me and the shooters. They were firing from a position slightly off the port bow.
“Roger that,” Andy said as he kept going.
“Is that really Sam Sharky Decker?” the unknown voice asked with far less hostility this time.
“My friends call me Sharky,” I said, “Are you military?”
“Sir… this is Lieutenant Commander Martin Franks,” The man replied, “We served together a few years back.”
“Marty? Well I’ll be a bullfrog’s ball sack!” I exclaimed, “Is it really you? If so, then what was the name of that girl you were chasing on our liberty in Gibraltar when we were both aboard the Virginia?”
Franks laughed, “God damn… How can I forget Helena Margarita Estanzia… okay, back to you, Sam. What was her cousins’ name?
“Oh Christ…” I grumbled, “I don’t remember. But I do remember that she had a face could make a freight train take a dirt road. You begged me to double with you and I got the short end of the ugly stick on that one, Marty!”
Franks roared with laughter, “Holy shit! It is you! Hey, man… she might’ve been a bit plain… but her body was nothing to sneeze at. Ended up with her and Helena in a hotel room that night. We got drunker than sprayed roaches and… well…”
Andy had low crawled up to me and was grinning from ear to ear.
“Hey, boys,” Andrea said over the channel, “Hate to break up this little walk down memory lane… but what the fuck?”
“I think what the lady means,” I said, “Is why did you start shooting before asking questions? Not cool, Marty.”
A long pause, “I’m sorry about that, Sam. It’s been… rough here. Raids and G’s… in fact, it’s the last raid that got all these stiffs here in the first place. And that fucker Banks did nothing to help. We radioed for assistance but he said it wasn’t feasible at this time. Son of a bitch…”
I sighed. Not an unfamiliar tale. Evidently Banks was happy to let small outposts of humanity get overrun and then come in later and take their resources. I knew that at some point, this pretense of working together would fall, but for now, it served us.
“How many of you are there, Marty?” I asked.
“A dozen,” He replied glumly.
“Any submariners besides you?”
He laughed, “They’re all crew from the Connecticut. I’m her XO.”
Well, at least I knew what ship we were stealing, “Awesome! Can you guys get out of where you are and make it here?”
“We’ve got some cars and a boat… but the G’s are everywhere. We’ve built some bridges between rooftops for just this scenario… but there are thousands of them, Sam…”
I groaned, “Okay Marty. Send somebody to check. Maybe there’s a spot with low density you can slip through?”
“Stand by,” he said.
“Let’s go!” I called to my group.
No sense in waiting around. Andrea and the other women hot footed it over to us and she hugged me.
“Okay, here’s what I want you to do,” I said, “Andrea, you, Andy, Tara and the Gunny do a sweep of the ship. Compartment by compartment. Make sure there are no surprises hidden down there. Vicky, get set up at sonar and start going through all the gear and software to make sure we’re good. I’ll be down shortly.”
“Are we really taking this guy?” Andrea asked.
“What choice do I have?” I replied, “We can’t just leave them. And we can use a dozen hands for sure.”
Andrea frowned, “I don’t like how he opened fire first, Sam.”
I nodded but before I could answer, my radio crackled.
“It’s no go, Sam,” Franks said flatly.
“Sorry, Marty,” I replied, “I wish we could help.”
There was a pause, “You’re pulling out without us?”
“I don’t have the ammo to get to you,” I said, “I’ve got maybe a thousand rounds. There’s no way. However, I’m not abandoning you. I’ve got a Viper pilot in my crew. As soon as we get back to the squadron, I’ll demand we get a helo and come back up here and get you guys. Give me a few days, Marty.”
“I’m gonna hold you to that, Captain,” he said resolutely.
“And if by some miracle you can get away,” I said, “We came up by locomotive. It’s sitting downtown with all batteries off. It’s a straight shot down the east coast.”
“I’ll keep it in mind.”
“Good luck, Marty,” I said softly into my radio, “And hang in there. I won’t forget you.”
There was no answer. What could he say?
I went down the trunk and secured the hatch. Tony met me in the con with an iPad in his hands.
“I’ve been checking systems and I’m running a diagnostic on the computers now,” He said, “But I’ll need your help aft.”
“Okay,” I said glumly.
“What’s up?”
“Did you hear the exchange topside?” I asked.
“Bits and pieces,” Tony replied, “Did I hear you right? Was that Marty Franks?”
“Yeah,” I said, “He and about a dozen crewmembers from this boat are trapped in the buildings off our bow. G’s are everywhere and they can’t get out. We have to leave them.”
Tony frowned, “That sucks. Then again, maybe if they hadn’t opened up on us first…”
I sighed, “Yeah that was stupid. Just made a lot of noise and drew more of the stiffs.”
“Yeah, and kind of a dick move too,” Tony said with raised eyebrows.
We started toward the reactor room, “Marty said they’ve been raided. The large number of undead is partly because of the last one.”
Tony grunted noncommittally.
“He also said he got in touch with Banks and the Admiral refused to help,” I added.
Tony scoffed, “fucking figures. And now we’re gonna deliver this boat to him…”
Now I grunted.
The reactor control room, like the rest of the boat, was neat as a pin. Between Tony and me, we cycled the reactor up to full power in just a few minutes. The fuel and control rods were in great shape and the procedure was simple thanks to the unit having been powered down properly.
“My concern is barnacles,” Tony said, “She’s been sitting still at this dock for six months at least. That and I’d like to flush the turbine reservoirs too.”
“Let’s get that started,” I said as we entered propulsion, “We can cycle them through a cleaning as well. By the time we check the systems, the desalination compartment should’ve made enough new fresh. Let’s flush that out now. As for barnacles… we’re in brackish water here, more fresh than salt, really. And with the stuff they use for hull paint… I think we’ll be okay.”
It took an hour to clean the fresh water storage for the turbines. But once we did that, we had enough new fresh water to fuel them. We then performed a test on the maneuvering equipment. Turning the rudder and putting the pump jets in forward to blow any obstructions out. The ship responded well. Even the auxiliary maneuvering units were functioning properly.
“Everything aft looks good,” I said as I entered the con. Tony had elected to nursemaid the power plant and engines as well as answer bells in man
euvering. Unfortunately, when the helmsman turned his or her speed dial in the con, a crew member in the small maneuvering rooms would set the appropriate steam turbine and reactor rod controls manually. Normally, this compartment was manned by several enlisted as well as an officer, but we didn’t have the personnel, so Tony was pulling triple duty.
“We’re ready to pull out,” I stated.
“I thought you said you hated to pull out,” Andrea joked from the helm.
“Not in front of the kids,” I said, waving a hand at Andy, Tara and Julie.
“So you pull out when we’re not around?” Julie quipped.
The laughter eased the tension a bit. I knew everybody was nervous about taking this beast to sea.
“You ready to con us out of the harbor, L T?” I asked Andy.
He paled a bit, “What? Me? Shouldn’t you be up there?”
I smiled, “Well, I’ve got to make sure everything is okay down here. You can do it, and I’ll help. You’re just going to be my eyes. And no, the periscope isn’t the same thing. That’s why we have a bridge.”
Andy groaned, “Okay, I’ll try.”
I smiled at him, “We’ve been going over all of this sub stuff for a reason, Andy. And there is no try, only do.”
Andy looked confused.
“Yoda?” I asked, “Luke’s first Jedi training in Empire Strikes Back?”
Andy, Tara and even Julie looked at me with blank expressions.
“Are you shittin’ me?” I asked.
“Was that a movie?” Tara said innocently.
“Must be before our time,” Julie deadpanned.
“Oh, fuck you kids!” I grumped.
They burst into laughter.
“Busting the captain’s balls, eh?” I grumbled, “it’ll be the masthead for the lot of ya’.”
“But this is a submarine,” Tara said.
“Right,” I said with a glare and a wicked smile, “Okay, smart asses. Andy, let’s cast off and then you take the bridge.”
Andy and I went out through the after escape trunk and threw the big forearm-thick dock lines off the boat. She was now untethered and ready to sail.
After getting back to the con, I had Julie set the 1 MC on hands free throughout the ship. Only Andy would have to key his mic up on the bridge.