“How about you and yours?” Zimmerman asked Blaze pointedly.
“Most of mine never made it out of high school to be honest. You need a tent thrown up or a ramp built though we got you covered. We had a few guys who could weld but they’re not with us anymore.” Blaze killed the laughter with his last comment. His own face growing serious again.
“Do they have welders on the base you sent the women too?” LeBron asked over the speakerphone. Leander had been silent throughout the exchange so far. Drew could picture their fearless leader hovering over the speakerphone ready to slam the disconnect button if the conversation went in a direction that he didn’t like. Before he could say a word to halt LeBron’s not so subtle fishing exercise one of the Marines blurted out a response.
“You mean the carrier?” The Marine looked around the room wondering why everyone was staring at him. He looked confused by the stares at first. It slowly dawned on him he might have said too much. He clamped his mouth shut and commenced staring at the floor.
“Yes.” Leander’s voice finally came out of the star shaped speakerphone. “They have machine shops staffed by machinists mates and other trades on the carrier. We can reach out to them to see if they can send us some of those guys. We’re also going to need some reinforcements to help secure the base. We’ll have to mop up the infected outside before anybody can get in here though.”
The freewheeling meeting lasted well into lunch. They decided to break to eat and let their minds rest. The Marines had discovered a handful of distractions while based here including a massive library and media room. Pretty much every movie ever made had been burned to discs and stored for easy access. On top of entertainment the movie selection also featured a lot of lessons on farming, living off the land, first aid and even epidemiology. There were recorded lectures on enough topics to earn multiple college degrees.
They debated if they should try and find a learn to weld video instead of flying in real welders from the ship. Drew killed that by asking which adrenaline-fueled rage monkey they were going to use to test out their handiwork before rolling outside. As macho as most of them were none of them felt secure enough in their welding abilities to have any real desire to test their first attempt out in a life or death kind of situation. Having made an ash tray in shop class a decade earlier wasn’t exactly something you kept on your resume.
That meant they were going to have to go back outside to kill more of the infected. The infected that were crawling all over the warehouse like ants on a discarded Snickers wrapper. The men in the communications center over at the barracks had a clear view of the warehouse from the advanced CCTV system. They could tell exactly how much it was going to suck to come out that door. To their credit the men didn’t spend a lot of time considering the option of doing nothing.
Doing nothing would mean their mission was effectively over before they’d even had a chance to get started. Doing nothing meant within a few nights you wouldn’t be able to see the warehouse there’d be so many crawlerz trying to get into it. A big portion of the infected outside were surgers. Once again Drew and LeBron were forced to reevaluate their theories on surgers. It didn’t look like they necessarily flipped a switch and became crawlerz as quickly as thought. If they did then there wouldn’t be so many surgers wandering around outside the warehouse right now. The biggest issue with that was it meant they couldn’t just sit in the warehouse a few days waiting for it to be ok to go outside during the day.
“Maybe most of them change? You guys may have just run into some anomalies.” Zimmerman said hopefully after LeBron and Drew explained to everyone why they didn’t think the gestation period or whatever for the surgers to change to crawlerz was accurate. They readily admitted they didn’t have all the answers. They could only report what they’d seen. LeBron was pretty sure gestation was the wrong term to be using but let it slide since Drew had been the one to blurt it out.
“Do you guys have any tanks in here?” Drew threw out the question hopefully. You could drive a tank out of here and down the road with a mountain of crawlerz hanging off of it.
“Nope. That’d make life too easy. Closest tanks would be at the guard’s armory. I’m not sure any of us are up to hot wiring a tank. Be a useful skill but those things are locked down like crazy. They’re hard to figure out even when you have the codes and keys. Good thought though. Keep ‘em coming.” The lieutenant answered.
No one had any more thoughts. To get the creative juices flowing again Drew asked if they could get a tour. Zimmerman was volunteered to take them around while the lieutenant and Leander got on the phone to get connected via radio to the carrier. They were going to see how soon some welders could be flown over. Zimmerman excused himself to grab a drink and some better footwear. He’d been walking around the warehouse in his shower shoes.
“What kind of special forces bad ass wears flip flops during a zombie invasion?” Blaze asked as soon as Zimmerman was out of earshot.
“More important how do we get on the carrier to rescue Yue and the others?” Drew asked seriously. Blaze and the others from the clan stared at him like he’d lost his mind.
“What makes you think they want to get rescued? Me personally I want to get taken prisoner on the big safe boat. Hardest part of that‘s probably waking up early enough to make sure you don’t miss breakfast.” Emilio answered. He was a roustabout who normally got paid to help setup the show and then to drive it wherever they were going next. Drew had spent some time as his escort when they were still roaming the country in trucks as relatively free men.
Emilio had made a good point. Drew just wasn’t interested in hearing it. His sister had been kidnapped and taken away from him. He fully intended to get her back. He also needed to get reunited with LeBron while he was at it. They may only be separated by a few hundred yards of dirt but that few hundred yards was covered with flesh eating fiends. They needed to work harder on staying together like their dad had wanted them to. Drew was snapped out of his worries by Zimmerman’s return.
“You guys ready for the tour?” Zimmerman asked. He was rubbing his hands together like he was ready to tell them about how the warehouse was originally constructed in 1857 by early English settlers.
In the end the tour inspired a lot of awe at how big the place was, but failed to inspire any brilliant new strategies on how to deal with the mess they found themselves in. The description the lieutenant had given was pretty dead on. It was a massive space full of all kinds of supplies. Drew mentioned it looked like enough food to feed half the country. Zimmerman did some quick mental math. It was probably more like enough to feed the men on the carrier for a few months. Once the crew on the carriers ran out of food, they’d most likely start pilfering directly from these stocks. The men in charge wouldn’t let the crew of their ship starve just because these supplies were originally intended for survivors.
Footsteps echoing all around the massive underground facility they saw lots of crates on the main floor. The floor beneath them was covered in neatly parked vehicles and workshops full of parts. Ultra-modern looking hybrid trucks sat waiting to deliver their loads all around the region. Hummers, troop carriers and a few dozen of those electric motorcycles made up the rest of the inventory. There was a massive elevator built into the floor to take the trucks and Hummers to the hangar level. Zimmerman told them there was a separate spiral ramp to get the bikes and smaller cars to that level.
They did a quick walkthrough of the lowest level too. Massive diesel generators were running to produce the electricity the base needed. Considering the extremely low utilization of electricity the base would easily stay electrified for at least the lifespan of the men currently occupying it. They could do that without even needing to make use of the solar arrays hidden around the base for providing supplemental power. Everything they saw was bigger and more modern than they’d expected but nothing stood out as a real game changer.
“Are you thinking that whole tour thing was just to get us out of th
e lieutenant’s hair for a little while?” Blaze asked Drew.
Up in front of them Zimmerman made ding-ding-ding noises and told Blaze he’d won the grand prize. When he asked what the grand prize was Zimmerman announced they’d all won a ticket right back to where they’d started at. Back upstairs in the lounge the meeting seemed to have died down.
“Where’d everybody head off to sir?” Zimmerman asked the lieutenant.
“I sent them to try to find nets or dart guns.” The tired looking officer answered. “We reached out to the carrier and asked about dropping off welders. They were good with that. They had another ask though after I told them about the theory you had that the surgers were not turning into crawlerz as quickly as thought. They want us to capture a couple of live specimens for them to study on the ship.”
“Have they not seen every zombie movie ever? That never works out well.” Drew blurted out. Blaze was nodding along with him. Everyone turned to stare in disbelief at the lieutenant. Lieutenant Murdock just shrugged.
“They assured us they’d have it under control. Those welders that’re coming are building special cages to hold them.”
“You can count me out. This is dumb.” Drew said.
“That’s too bad. Your brother seemed to think if the infected were going to be rounded up and shipped over to the carrier it’d be a good idea for you to go with them to make sure nothing happened. He brought up all your field experience compared to the complete lack of that everyone else has. Leander agreed with him. If you want to get a chance to check in with your sister, you might want to get on board with this plan.” Lieutenant Murdock said smoothly.
Of course, that changed everything for Drew. He now saw LeBron’s hand in this. He wouldn’t be surprised if the idea to collect specimens had come from his little brother. It was classic LeBron to suggest something that looked like it just benefitted you then have it magically turn into something he wanted once you got into it. Drew just hadn’t expected the kind of crap LeBron pulled at home to work on the leadership of the United States Navy.
LeBron didn’t even really need to shave yet and here he was convincing the military it was a smart idea to cage up some highly contagious cannibals and transport them to their floating fortress. It was a risky move that put the lives of the thousands of sailors on board the ship at risk. The Navy had started it when they decided to drug them and kidnap Yue. Drew wouldn’t lose any sleep worrying about them. He was going to lose sleep thinking of how he was going to be flown out to the ship locked in the back of a tiny plane with cages full of the infected.
That was assuming they could catch the damned things to begin with. The soldiers who hadn’t spent a lot of time fighting the infected were thinking they could inject them with dope or throw a net over them. That’d work out about as well as frying bacon naked without using utensils. No way in hell they were going to be able to toss a net over a crawler then pin it down and inject it with night night juice. You might as well send a man in a wheelchair to run with the bulls. Despite the insipid lunacy of the entire concept Drew knew he’d be walking into the arena with a trident and net once Murdock made the call to go. On the plus side, he’d have a team of highly trained warriors backing him up.
Not caring to join everyone else to watch a movie in the breakroom Drew went and crashed out in one of the cots. He tried not to let it bother him that the military men had put the riff raff out in the hallway to sleep. He’d seen there were a few vacant rooms inside the living quarters area that must be too good for them to put the circus scum in. Carefully removing the oversized chip from his shoulder, he reminded himself that if everything worked out just right, he’d be on a plane shortly to see his sister. He just had to shut up and do his job.
He tried not to think about the fact that he’d be sitting in the back of a plane surrounded by man eating monsters in homemade cages.
Chapter 8: The Fine Art of Seduction
“All this for that jarhead?” Charani asked Yue with a smirk.
Yue was at the mirror in the head within their berthing area getting ready for her shift as a waitress. She’d bought some lipstick and a small military makeup kit from the commissary on board. It had to be one of the last stores in the world still accepting dollars as payment. Everyone on the ship was still getting paid in good old American greenbacks. The store accepted them because the alternative was to just let everyone walk in and take what they wanted. That wasn’t going to happen on a military ship. Especially not one the President was cruising around on.
Yue was attempting to up her game for the shift that evening. Her plan being to make Jeff fall in love with her whereupon he’d send a plane out to collect her brothers. The problem was she’d never been a big makeup person. She’d leaned more towards the Tom boy side of the equation when it came to stuff like that. She liked watching Hallmark movies with her mom, but she’d also routinely missed the school bus during March madness. She got addicted to staying up late working on her brackets and watching the games. She could shoot better than both her brothers.
Her absurdly honed skills with a rifle didn’t translate well into applying blush. The more she tried the more she thought she looked like a clown. An Asian clown. Not that she’d ever seen an Asian clown. Now instead of doing her makeup she was stuck standing in front of the mirror wondering what race clowns typically were. She’d always assumed they were all white men. She’d never really thought about the fact that you couldn’t tell what race they were since their faces were hidden behind all that thick makeup. Charani’s comment about the jarhead completely threw her off.
“Who?” Yue said staring into the mirror back at a lewdly grinning Charani. “Oh no! Not that guy! Gross!”
“So, you’re not smearing on hooker camouflage to try and seal the deal with that walking bag of hormones? Good because you could show up in sweats with your arm hair braided and he’d still be in love.” Charani joked then became serious again. “Who then?” Yue came up with a dozen lies she could use. She trusted Charani though. The woman had always been a straight shooter with her.
“The guy in charge of the continuation for the country department thing. The one the President put in charge of everything. He’s on board and eats in the dining room where I’m a waitress. If I can get him to like me maybe he’ll do something for my brothers and Blaze and the rest of the guys. They don’t belong out there in the field.” Yue said quietly after peeking under the stall to make sure no one had been hiding out in there the whole time. If the stars all magically aligned and her plan actually worked, she knew she’d have to keep it a secret.
“I guess it’s worth a shot. Just don’t let that Marine see you talking to the other guy. He’s liable to get himself arrested punching out the head of whatever the name of that department is. They seriously need to come up with an acronym or something. Maybe you can help him with that once the two of you move in together.” Charani continued to chat with Yue while helping her apply her makeup and fix her hair. Charani was a veteran of the stage. She’d done plenty of stints in the dressing rooms getting girls ready to go out into the lights. She knew how to give a pep talk while making sure the girls looked their best. She also knew plenty about the ways into a man’s heart.
“Hopefully he notices me this time.” Yue said looking critically at her reflection. She couldn’t understand how Charani had done so much to her face in so little time. She looked more like her natural self now than she did when she wasn’t covered in a layer of gunk. Instead of trying to change her Charani had accentuated her natural beauty. She’d sort of smoothed out her face. Yue hated that she’d never be able to do it herself. She was also getting super nervous about her plan.
“He’ll notice you alright. If he can see you through all the other men trying to talk to you.” Charani said. She was standing a couple of feet back admiring her handiwork. Yue smiled nervously at her then tried batting her eyebrows. Instead of looking seductive she looked like she had something stuck in her eyes. The next
thing she knew she did have something stuck in her eyes. She didn’t want to ruin the makeup by wetting her face, so she started fanning her eye with her hand. Charani stared at her disbelievingly with her mouth slightly open.
“It’s ok to say I’m an idiot.” Yue said on the verge of tears.
“Did you really just hurt yourself trying to bat your eyelashes?” Charani asked. It was as if the word ‘bemused’ had been coined specifically for this moment to describe the look on her face. Yue punched her in the arm and they both started cracking up. They were giggling like a couple of schoolgirls when one of the crew from their berthing area walked in on them. The woman gave them a long hard look trying to figure out what was so funny before checking herself out in the mirror and leaving. The female crew tended to be guarded around the outsiders. That ticked Yue off since it wasn’t like they’d asked to be there.
“Wish me luck.” Yue said taking one last look in the mirror. They tended to frown on people being late to work on the carrier. The military was super fixated on everyone being on time.
“I don’t think you need any help getting lucky.” Charani winked at her. Yue flipped her off and walked out the door. Her cool exit ruined when she tripped over the bottom of the door as she left. She plummeted headfirst into the small group of women playing a game of hearts at the table by the door out to the passageway. The women helped her up. She attempted to muster the dignity to walk out with her head held high. Her mental image of herself clashed with reality. What everyone saw was her running out with her neck at a weird angle blushing so much it looked like she’d applied too much blush. The women seated around the card table stared after her wondering what all the drama was about.
Crawlerz | Book 2 | Batten Down The Hatches Page 7