by Lee Thomas
“Good job guys, but we got movement about four blocks back or so. I couldn’t quite make out if they were infected or not from this distance, but let’s not take a chance. Once we get through, let’s move one or two back to block it off again.” I said as everyone piled back in the van. I eased the van through the hole, had Tony help boost me on top of the van and took the rifle from Vince to watch the movement. The guys moved two of them back, nose to nose and at an angle so unless they climbed over the hoods, the infected would not be coming in. We all loaded back up and headed in what we thought was the direction of the pier.
Once we passed by a building that looked like it could have been some kind of administrative offices, there was a small grassy area that opened up our view. I could see a wall not too far away from us and turned at the next road that headed that direction. A short ride down the road brought a gate into view. As we pulled up to it, I killed the engine on the van and we got out to examine it. The wall was concrete, about eight feet tall. The gate was simple chain link, and it appeared to be on a chain that rolled it open sideways. We tried moving it by hand, and found that it slid fairly easily. Roger slid it all the way open while I stepped through and took a look. I smiled when I confirmed what I thought I had seen over the wall. Multiple ships sat in port, along with the masts of two aircraft carriers, and the conning tower of a submarine.
“Hot damn, something going right.” I cried, turning to look at the rest of the group. They stepped up next to me as they looked at the ships. The gate was at the far end of the pier from the carriers, but I assumed there would be other gates. I waved for Roger to bring the van through, and the rest of us walked up a little to make room. I asked Jeff to close the gate behind Roger, and he moved off to close it. Once the gate was closed again, we loaded up in the van again.
There was an area with a lot of shipping containers to our left, which was now behind us as we turned towards the ships. Train tracks ran along the length of the pier, as well as down each arm of the pier. I kept that in mind. We rolled slowly towards the carriers, avoiding the piles of crates, golf cart like carts, and the few bodies that were strewn around the pier. I looked at the ships as we passed them, and they all appeared untouched, but not inhabited, either.
I directed Roger to pull next to the carrier at the end, the farthest ship on the pier. The carriers were tied up to the same arm of the pier, with the pier between them. Both of them had their elevators raised and hangar bay doors closed, which implied they were also not occupied. Stopping the van near the bows, which is the front of the ship, I got out, followed by everyone else. I looked down the length of the ships, and heard a couple of the guys whistle.
“This thing is huge. How the hell do you not get lost in there?” Roger asked. I chuckled to myself, realizing again how big these ships seemed, especially if you had never been near one in person. Tony was former Navy like me, so he had been near them before, while the others had only seen them on TV.
“A room on board ship is called a space. Each space has a designator which tells you how far forward or back it is, as well as what deck it’s on, and even port or starboard, which is left and right. I’ll show everyone how to read them so you can find your way around. Vince, you and Dave keep a watch, just in case. Let’s see how we are getting onboard this beast, shall we?” I explained. I walked down the pier slowly, looking up and trying to determine my options. With the hangar bay doors closed, it appeared our only viable options were to climb a line or find another way to make it onto the ship.
“Wait, I’ve got an idea. Let’s go, follow me.” I said, as an idea struck me. I led the guys back to the van. I waved for everyone to get in, and we headed back to some of the smaller ships. The first set we came to was a couple of cruisers just one pier over. I stopped the van at the head of the pier and we walked to the gangplank of the first one. The banner on it said this was the USS Princeton. I had Vince and Dave stay on the pier to watch our backs, while the rest of us walked up the ramp. I led the way onto the deck, and just took a moment to reflect on the fact that I was once again standing on the deck of a Navy warship. I closed my eyes and smelled the hot metal, the salty tang in the air, and listened to the constant slap of water against the hull. There was no rocking motion as the ship was tied up tightly, and it was a strange, but good feeling to be here.
“What’s the plan?” Jeff asked, breaking my moment. I blinked and got my head back in the plan.
“Find some rope. There should be a storage locker or three on deck here somewhere. I’m going to find a sea anchor. Nobody goes into the ship alone.” I told them. They all split up and went different directions, searching for the lockers. I walked along the side and found the first set of life rafts tied to the wall. There was a locker underneath them that held the pack that went over with the rafts. It included a box that held a collapsible fishing pole, desalinization tablets to make seawater drinkable, and flares. Along with the box was a sea anchor, which was a heavy piece of rubber designed to keep the raft from drifting at sea. It was attached with a rope and just dropped in the water. I grabbed two of the packs and took them back to the bottom of the ramp. Stepping back onboard, the others met back at the gangplank. Roger and Tony had both found rope and had it curled around their shoulders.
“Excellent. Let’s get back to the carrier. I want to be onboard as soon as possible. Good job guys.” I said. I planned on coming back to the cruiser with a large group and clean it out of supplies and weapons, if it hasn’t already been cleaned out. We made our way down the gangplank and headed back to the van. Loading up the rope, packs, and anchors, we started moving back towards the ship. Once there, Dave pulled us halfway down the pier before I told him to stop. We unloaded and they followed me aft.
“Um, what’s the idea man?” Jeff asked.
“These sea anchors are heavy enough to keep a life raft with up to ten men from drifting at sea. I plan on tying it to the end of the rope, throwing it over the rail at the fantail, the platform at the back of the ship.” I explained. “I’m going to climb over that way, then make my way to the elevator control room to lower an elevator and open a hangar bay door for the rest of you.”
“Why do you have two of them then?” Roger asked.
“Tie the second one to the other end. Wrap it around that pylon there, and loop the rope over itself a couple of times. The weight of the anchor will prevent it from slipping.” I explained as I set down the anchors and reached for the rope he carried. He handed it over, but kept the other and began straightening the rope out.
“Vince, think you can swing it over the rail? I would ideally like it to swing around it, but as long as it hooks somehow, I’m good.” I asked once I was confident the knot was secure. He gave his rifle to Jeff and took the anchor from me. Stepping up to the edge of the pier, he began swinging the anchor until he had enough momentum to swing it in a complete circle. After a few rotations, he let it go. It bounced on the deck and came to a stop. I began pulling the rope to bring it to the railing.
“Tie the other end off to the pylon.” I instructed once I had it secured to the rail. It still had a little bit of bounce to it when I pulled it tight, so I hoped it held long enough for me to get across. Tony gave me a thumbs up once he had it tied as tightly as possible. I checked my sword belt to make sure it was tight, then sat on the edge of the pier and grabbed the rope. I put one leg over it and prepared to scoot off the edge.
“Are you sure this is going to work, man?” Dave asked me.
“Honestly, no. But it was my idea, and if it doesn’t, then I’m the one who will be getting wet.” I replied. Gripping the rope tight, I slid off the pier and let my weight swing me upside on the rope. I swung my other leg over it, and started going hand over hand towards the ship, using my legs to keep me balanced. I tried to go as fast as possible, but I had to be deliberate so I wouldn’t swing too much.
A little over halfway there, the anchor slipped and I started to fall. I felt the line go slack, and then th
e jerk as it stopped moving. I looked towards the ship as my guys were yelling about something. The slackness was from the anchor slipping off the rail. The jerk when it stopped moving was because two men had grabbed the line and was now holding it. Another was holding his hand out to me to help me the rest of the way. I reached out and grabbed his hand and he helped me over the rail. The other two began untying the anchor once I was off the rope.
“You seem awfully determined to get onboard, and obviously are not infected. Are any of your men down there infected?” the man who helped me up asked. They were all three dressed in Navy uniforms, and the one speaking to me had lieutenant bars on.
“No, we’re all good. I appreciate the help.” I told him. I then turned towards the guys on the pier. “Shut up, if they wanted to hurt me they would have done so on the rope.”
“We will open the hangar bay up and lower an elevator for you, meet us there.” the lieutenant yelled to them. “Follow me.” He said, turning and walking into the ship. I followed, adjusting my sword belt, just in case.
“May I ask why you are trying to board the ship?” he asked.
“Well, to be honest, I had a survival plan, and it hinged on being able to find a carrier and get onboard. I didn’t expect other people to latch on to the idea though. Although, you all seem pretty at ease onboard, and I see you are all in uniform, so my guess is you were onboard when this all went down.” I replied to him.
“Most of us, yes. A few were from the cruisers, and we even have about ten submariners. I’m sorry to disappoint you, but we were here first. Although ‘plan’ isn’t something we have, we are just trying to survive. I would like to hear yours, if you don’t mind.” he said as we stopped by the hangar doors. He had stopped a sailor already and ordered the doors opened, and by the time we stopped walking, the doors had started to slide apart and the elevator was moving down.
“I don’t mind. Of course, unless you want to be a part of it, I will have to modify it at this point. I really need this ship for the plan to work, but I’m not about to fight anyone for it either, especially fellow shipmates. I’m former Navy myself. Since there are two carriers however, if you choose not to be a part of it, we will take the other one. Allies and neighbors instead one large group.” I told him, looking straight at him to judge his reactions. With typical officer composure, he didn’t really let anything show.
“That sounds reasonable. If you’ll follow me then, I’ll have some food and drink brought to us and you can fill me in on this plan of yours.” He replied, motioning for a sailor to come over. He gave the order for some refreshments to be brought to Ready One, which was one of the Ready Rooms for the flight crews. I remembered the term from my time in. There were usually six ready rooms, and they were simply offices and meeting rooms for each flight crew. The pilots were broken into six crews to allow for duty rotations, and each one kept its own records of flight times, accomplishments, maintenance problems, etc. They would be perfect for small meetings, as that’s what they were designed for.
We waited on my guys to make it up to the elevator, then once they caught up to us, the Lt. led us towards the ladderwell, which was what stairs were called onboard ship. Other than Tony and myself, none of the other guys had been onboard a ship like this before, so I got a small chuckle out of them turning their heads about, looking at everything. Once we made it up three flights we were on the 03 deck, which is three decks above the hangar bay, and directly below the flight deck. There would also be outside access hatches leading out to the catwalk, which was a fire escape like walkway under the edge of the flight deck. There were stairs leading to the flight deck from it, as well as the designated smoke pits since smoking was not allowed inside the ship.
“Have a seat gentlemen. Something to eat and drink will be brought shortly, and I have also asked a couple of my officers to join us as well. I want them to hear this plan of yours too.” the Lt. said, waving us inside. We all filed in and took a seat. The Lt. stood at the front of the room and just stared at us for a while.
“My name is Lt. Christian Levine. I am the highest ranking officer here, which makes me the captain, I guess. We still have somewhat of a chain of command here, but it is not adhered to but very loosely. Ah, here is Chief Aaron Carter. He knows this ship like the back of his hand, and I swear they built it around him. Ensign Paige Harper is right behind him, and she keeps track of where our people are at.” He said, introducing the two new people when they walked in. Chief Carter looked like an old Navy Chief, tough looking and stout. The Ensign on the other hand looked like she was fresh out of OCS when this happened. She had that cocky, ‘I’m an officer’ look that most new ensigns had, but you could tell she was still scared about the situation we now found ourselves in.
“My name is Sheldon Friend, this is some of my leadership as well. This is Jeff Neal, Dave Crow, Vince James, Roger Powell, and Tony Nelson. I have known most of these guys for most of my life, and Tony is also former Navy, like me. I have quite a few former military in my group, some that were in when it happened. I’m going to get right to the point here. We have a larger group close by, and we came to scout the base, see if we could find a carrier, and take it as our safe haven and base of operations. I have a survival plan, and the first step of it was to get here and get onboard a ship. I did not however, expect it to be full of sailors.” I started. I spent the next twenty minutes going over how I planned to secure the base itself, start crops, and survive this epidemic. I gave them only really the broad strokes, but they did ask some pointed questions, and they seemed interested. Once I finished, they excused themselves and stepped out into the hallway to discuss things.
“Well, what do you guys think? Think we have more members of our group, or are we going to take the empty carrier and have neighbors?” I asked my guys.
“I think they are seriously considering it. We may merge into one large group.” Dave said.
“If we do join forces, you realize you will have to establish some kind of chain of command. There are obviously enough sailors here, and the Army people we got from Ft. Lee, that without some kind of order they can follow things might not flow as well as you hope.” Tony reminded me.
“I gotta go with Tony on this one. We will need some kind of command system. All of the ones we brought, or found on the way look to you as the leader now. The ones at Ft. Lee look to Tony, but would defer to you if he does. There are also enough veterans in the group that a somewhat normal chain of command would make most of them feel more comfortable.” Jeff replied. Vince nodded his head and agreed with Jeff. Roger and Dave also agreed, so I filed that away for reference and considered how to apply it. We turned as the door opened and Lt. Levine came back in.
“Alright Mr. Friend, since you seem to have at least a halfway thought out plan, we are going with you. Bring your group here, we will join forces, and the ship is yours.” he told us, coming over to shake my hand.
“Thank you for your trust, Lt. Levine, but it’s going to be a lot of hard work for everyone. I’ll send my guys for the rest of the group, and I can address your sailors if you’d like.” I replied, shaking his hand and nodding to the Chief and Ensign.
“That would be fine. I’ll assemble as many as I can in the hangar bay. There is a platform you can stand on by the machine shop. Just out of curiosity, you said you were former Navy. What ship were you on?” he said.
“I was at Fleet ASW in San Diego for A-school, then stationed on the USS Nimitz while she was in dry dock getting her overhaul from 98 until I got out in 2000. Since I didn’t see any designators coming up to her, what ship are we on?” I asked in return. The three looked at each other and laughed.
“Let’s go up to the flight deck, I’ll show you.” Lt. Levine chuckled. He led the way out and we all followed him. He took us through an outer hatch onto the catwalk and then up to the flight deck. We walked far enough into the middle so I could see the numbers on the tower appear. I started laughing as soon as I saw them; the huge, white,
68.
“No freaking way, are you serious?” I laughed.
“What ship are we on?” Jeff asked.
“Well, I wouldn’t believe it unless I saw this, but we are on my old ship. Welcome aboard the USS Nimitz, CVN-68.” I told them. I couldn’t stop laughing or smiling at the coincidence. I was always talking about my time in the Navy back home, and how much I missed being in. I couldn’t believe the luck that landed me back on her.
“Let’s get your group here and get you settled, shall we?” Lt. Levine asked.
“Let’s. Tony, Jeff, Vince, and Dave, you guys head back in the van to get the group. Leave that gate blocked when you come back through just like we did. Radio when you are back at the base itself and we will get the doors back open for you. Be safe, but quick.” I told them. It felt like the first real order I had given since this group trusted me with being in charge.
“Why don’t only two of us go back and the rest stay here? I don’t like splitting up too much.” Jeff asked. I knew he didn’t like leaving me somewhere unknown because he knew if anything happened to me he would catch hell from Michelle and the girls.
“Because that not what I said. I will be fine with just Roger. I need to talk to the sailors, and I want them to know they can trust us without a big show of force. Putting us in a vulnerable position with them should gain their trust once they hear the plan, and that is crucial if this is going to work.” I replied.
“Fine. Let’s go.” he huffed. Lt. Levine motioned to the Chief who showed the rest of the guys down to the hangar bay and out. The Ensign he asked to make the announcement to gather in the hangar bay.
“You know, if you let the sailors see your men talk to you like that with no repercussions, it won’t exactly foster a respectful relationship, if that’s what you’re going for.” he told me as we walked back inside the tower.