Infected (Book 1): Mission: New York

by Jack Walker

  Screaming; some members of the horde were pushed over the edge of the bay into the water; where their cries escalated into higher pitched cries of distress and agony. On board the boat they watched as the crowd of infected were pushed by the rest; plunging into the water turned them into pink sloughing flesh, and the screaming did not end. Being shoved into the water was obviously a way to kill them; but their utter agony as they disintegrated in the water was horrible to watch. George shuddered as he gunned the engine of the boat as they drew away from the shore. Leaving the infected far behind them quickly; they settled down after that nerve jangling experience. George tried to head out to sea a bit more to get away from land as much as possible, to avoid similar things happening. He did not want to see any more of the infected go through the horrible process of being shoved into the water again. He shuddered and stared out over the water, he looked dazed and confused. Simon tapped him on the shoulder and looked at George to check if he was okay.

  “You okay George? You look a bit dazed. Was it the sight of all those infected being pushed into the water?” Simon asked nervously. “George, George; are things okay?”

  George finally looked at Simon and just nodded. He was definitely shell-shocked, and Simon was getting anxious. He needed George to snap out of it, and he needed to do something drastic. Looking around, he spotted Dawson approaching and he quickly whispered to her what had happened. She grimaced as she turned to George; then slapped him hard.

  “Snap out of it Soldier, you need to be on point right now!” she commanded, and watched as George’s eyes suddenly focused. “Sir; Yes sir!” He responded squaring himself and standing to attention. He came back to himself and looked at Dawson then at Simon apologetically.

  “I’m sorry, I.. I.. don’t know what came over me. It was.. it was.. just the sight of them all crowding in like that.” George stammered. “They just.. got to me. I just wish this was over, this whole mess. They actually scare the shit out of me. I know I seem strong, but just knowing they were people like us, but with no rational thought.” He shuddered then as he thought back to the episode they had just witnessed. Simon realised how much it had affected them; George especially, and knew he had to get George to focus on getting them safely to the island safely.

  “George, we need to get to the Island, do we have enough range to get there and enough fuel?” Simon asked sternly, looking directly at George.

  “We do, we do indeed, “ George said as he tapped the fuel gauge and pointed out to Simon that it had used hardly any fuel yet.

  Simon had the map and he passed it to George, who studied the map; straightened up and turned the wheel and throttled up toward their destination. The boat thrummed with power as it started moving towards the spit of land – Rockaway Point. Simon watched the shore as they headed down toward the point. As they approached, he saw movement on the beach and was worried for a moment that more infected had made their way down toward there. Getting closer he saw that the people were actually waving at them; trying to get their attention. Simon was surprised and immediately called for Dawson. She headed over and stood next to Simon. Lifting the binoculars to her eyes she looked over toward the shore. Simon looked at her; then did a double take as he realised that she was actually holding binoculars. He wondered where she had gotten them and asked her. She had replied that they had been downstairs in a cupboard that she had searched. She had taken it for just such an occasion. She passed the binoculars over to Simon who took them gratefully and looked toward the shore. He saw the people there waving their arms as they stood on the green of the Golf club. He smiled at the thought of more people that looked like they were relatively safe.

  “Let’s go over to them and see if they need our help.” suggested Simon

  Everyone agreed and the boat slowed down as George guided the boat over to the small dock near Rockaway point.

  Interlude

  Commander Michaelson of the carrier Honduras watched in horror as the frigate approached them at full speed. The impact would be bone shattering he knew; the impact would almost tear the carrier in half. Avoiding them was impossible now as it was almost upon them. They had tried to hail the frigate, but it was not answering their hails; it just steered toward them. He sent out a ‘brace for impact’ call across the whole carrier; as the klaxon wailed he watched as the frigate struck. The whole carrier rang like a bell that had been struck; it listed over from the impact as the water rushed in through the tear created by the frigate as it hit. The impact had indeed damaged the carrier very badly. Water rushed into the damaged compartments; quickly flooding the compartments. Sailors were killed as the impact tore apart the hull, ripping into the bodies as their blood mixed with the water rushing in. Impacting the carrier had been the start of their plan; they had wanted to take out the carrier that could continue to prevent the spread of the virus.

  The terrorists had watched the carrier launch jets and helicopters to destroy the bridges. It had been one of their plans to destroy the carrier that protected New York. The carrier had been offshore doing exercises with a full complement of crew, when the general alert had been received about the infected. They had reacted far quicker than the terrorists had anticipated and were subsequently caught off guard when the bridges were all but destroyed by the jets and helicopters. They had been unfortunate in that they had not known that the carrier was doing exercises. The plan had gone flawlessly up to the point where the infection had started spreading and the infected had started to spread out throughout the city. The infection rate had been even greater than the terrorists had anticipated. They had watched as the infection had spread through the concert, then as it had multiplied exponentially throughout the city. How they had cheered; finally they were getting revenge on their oppressors, and the infection was going to be the Americans undoing. They had laid their plans patiently; with precision they had built up their forces and their insurgents had been planted carefully in New York. Their plan had been to destroy the financial capital of the United States; keeping the infrastructure safe; but bringing the Americans to their knees. Originally the virus was supposed to burn out after twelve hours. After the twelve hours the infected should have expired permanently. For some reason this had not happened and after the forty eight hour time period had passed with no infected expiring. Their plan had failed at the point where the infected had not expired. They finally realised with horror that something had gone wrong with the infected.

  Hurriedly they had decided to utilise this new twist to their advantage and allow the infection to spread. Deciding this had been easy for them as they realised that if the infection spread beyond New York then it would decimate the entire United States. That was when the carrier had arrived just off New York. It had been an unexpected addition and its capabilities were formidable in terms of the arms it could bring to bear in very little time. Their readiness and reactions to situations was astonishing; but they knew that the Americans were some of the best trained in the world. The terrorists were in awe as they listened to the reports from the carrier. That was when they made the plan to capture the frigate; and they had decided to use it on a suicide mission to attempt to sink the carrier; disabling the carrier’s response to the infected had to be their main objective to allow the infection to spread throughout the rest of the United States.

  The frigate had been in the Naval dockyard for repairs; and had been nearly complete; that was when the terrorists had struck, stealing the destroyer with a small crew. The terrorists had former military personnel in their crew, and had attacked and captured the Frigate when the military had all but been killed to a man. They had taken the frigate out to 10 miles; then had turned it around toward New York and had then piled on the speed and aimed directly for the carrier. By the time the frigate was in view the Carrier had stood no chance with the Frigate bearing down on them. The terrorists had braced themselves before the point of impact; allowing them a quick recovery time to then attack the remaining crew of the Honduras. They had known
it was a suicide mission they were on. The impact of the frigate on the carrier had literally jammed the two ships together. Taking on water rapidly; the frigate had started sinking, thus pulling the carrier over at an angle. Water gushed in and started filling the compartments; but due to the damage caused by the frigate was too much for the carrier to endure for very long. The amount of compartments that were flooding was too great even for the pumps on board the carrier to handle.

  One by one the pumps failed catastrophically. Water was now gushing in faster and faster, causing the carrier to start sinking. Commander Michaelson had in the last few minutes of the carriers life tried to get the remaining helicopter off the carrier’s deck. That had succeeded with instructions to head for a deserted island and land there until a plan could be formed. Fortunately the pilot of the helicopter knew of an island of the perfect description that he could use as a landing point. That was when he had loaded up the helicopter with ammunition and supplies to last them a few weeks. He had also asked for volunteers to fly out with him to keep the defence alive. The pilot had taken off with a very full load, had flown over to the island he had chosen and then returned empty to carry more personnel out to the island as well. On the last trip he had radioed ahead to get the Commander ready to evacuate at last. Fuel would be critical but the Commander had also launched small craft carrying survivors to head toward the island. He knew they had a slim chance of survival but he would take a slim chance over none at all. The small boats would be carrying MRE’s and some water that they would need to survive. By the time the frigate finally sank below the waterline; the carrier was almost flooded and was listing badly. The huge chunk of Metal real estate would now be doing no more to help the defence of New York. With a huge expulsion of escaping air; the carrier finally sank with the destroyer. The Captain had also armed the failsafe explosive charges, and had set them so that the explosion would destroy most of the carrier; as well as hopefully the destroyer that was now sticking out like a knife from a wound. As the helicopter finally cleared the Carrier, and had enough safe distance; the Captain saluted his dying ship. He pressed the trigger on the remote explosive charge and watched as the Honduras mad its final contribution. The explosion was loud and would be heard for Miles; the deep ‘BOOM’ echoed for miles. It ripped the carrier apart; tearing the destroyer form its side, and flinging the enemy attackers far and wide. Some were incinerated in the blast; some were merely killed by the over pressure from the explosion. Only one actually managed to survive, and that had been purely through luck. He had fallen overboard into the water. Floating to the surface there was some debris; and a few bodies. Only one hundred and fifty crewmembers had been evacuated before the carrier had finally gone below the waves. The only terrorist that survived was a Libyan terrorist who had finally realised his dream of being part of the mechanism that would finally destroy the Great Satan. He watched as bodies popped onto the surface, his legs kicking and his arms flailing; he started swimming toward the nearest spit of land. It would be a long swim he knew, but he needed to get there so he could survive to see the plan succeed.

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  Landing at the dock, Jones approached Simon and spoke quickly to him, making a slight change in their landing plan. Simon wanted to leave some people behind on the boat just to ensure the safety of the group. Simon asked around and as usual Dawson, Judith, Ella and George wanted to go. Jones stepped in as well into the group and assigned them all a weapon; just in case things went downhill once they stepped ashore he said. Phil decided he would be the over watch and was equipped with the one good rifle with a scope. He would keep an eye on the proceedings as they occurred. Jones let everybody disembark first then he stepped off last of all. Keeping his rifle at the low ready; he knew he would be the best to react the quickest if anything happened. He hung back a bit further at the back of the group to ensure that he could also keep an eye on the proceedings; but close enough to hear if anything went horribly wrong. He was suspicious as to why these people would be safe when most of New York was apparently infected. Knowing that the bridges had been mostly destroyed; he was unsure if the bridge that led to this part had actually been destroyed or damaged badly enough to prevent the infected getting across. He watched as the small group of ten approached them slowly. They held their arms up and outstretched as they approached with smiling faces. Jones eyed them as they approached and noted that they did appear to be friendly, but one could never tell. He theorised that it would be better to be suspicious of new people that they did not know from Adam. Slowly he made his way around the side of them to give himself room to manoeuvre if something did go wrong.

  Simon also noticed their apparent friendliness and slowly watched them; his hand close to the pistol that he had tucked into the holster. “Stop there please; we are rather cautious as we have been chased and attacked previously.” he stated boldly, “We do not know you. Please do not try anything with us as we are rather nervous.”

  The leader of the group motioned them to stop, and as one, they all halted where they were. They all looked at Simon’s group with nervous smiles. Simon nodded and did not take his eyes off the man that had motioned them to all stop. He motioned the man to move forward. He obliged with a smile plastered broadly on his face. That smile was what made Jones very nervous. They should have had some weapons at least; he thought, looking at the group again, darting from one to the other. That was when he noticed the other two people hidden in the bushes off to the side. Only due to his military training had he spotted the two with what looked like rifles aimed at them.

  “Drop the rifles or I will shoot!” Jones shouted; bringing his rifle up to his shoulder and pointing in the direction of the two men. “Drop the weapons now! I will fire if you do not comply!” Adrenaline flooded his body as their intentions suddenly became clear to him. They wanted the boat, and would do anything desperate to get at the boat. The leader of the group dove to the ground as the shot was fired. It was fortunately wide, but it had the desired effect. His group dived into the earth as well; Jones immediately pressing the trigger; firing on the two men he had seen and watched as they were both knocked off their feet by the impact of the bullets hitting them. He kept his weapon up as his peripheral vision picked up more people off to the side, and he swung his weapon in an arc to aim in their direction. They were unarmed women and children he saw; but he decided to issue them an instruction to get them to fall down and lie still. “Stay down; I repeat stay down!” he emphasised, “Stay down until we can assess the situation properly!”

  The leader had sprung up and was now rushing silently at Simon and the rest of the stunned group. They had frozen in panic when the first shots had gone off. He was nearly to Simon when a shot rang out from behind the group; taking the leader out. His body tumbled as he hit the ground with blood spraying from his neck. Everybody in the group then got their weapons out and aimed them at the people now cowering on the ground. Jones again told everyone to stay on the ground and not make any sudden moves. He stated that they had reacted only because of the danger they had been in. He noted that now that the leader was dead; the rest of them were now crying openly, and he was quite relieved that his suspicions had been correct.

  The real leader had stood shakily, with the group covering him carefully. He nervously began to speak, loudly so everybody could hear him. “The one that was our ‘Leader’ was a fake; he had kidnapped our women and children, and was holding them hostage. He wanted; no, needed the boat he had said. He wanted to get as far as possible away from New York. Your boat looked like easy pickings to him,” the man stated in a quavering voice. “We are quite safe here, we have quite a lot of food that we managed to scrounge up before we came across here. The Infected were kept at bay by a bus that we had used to block the bridge; then the jets came and blew the bridge up. Now we are isolated and will be okay.”

  His body relaxed as he dropped his hands, “I, no we..; are thankful for your assistance. We could not have done anything to the
se men that had tried to use us as bait. They would have eventually killed us I am sure.” He sighed and approached Simon slowly. He extended his hand and shook Simon’s proffered hand.

  “We can try taking you with us if you like, but I would need to discuss it with my group. If we have some weapons to spare we could leave some pistols behind with ammunition to give you a helping hand if you need it.” Simon stated, “How everybody feels right now is another story. We came with good intentions and unfortunately those men did not help matters.”