Crawlerz | Book 2 | Batten Down The Hatches

by Merritt, R. S.

  Drew let his M-16 dangle from his shoulder strap. He pulled out his pistol and held it loosely in his hand. Their enemies were way too fast to try and out draw them. There was a few more shots fired outside followed by suppressed screaming then silence until something started beating on the door. Drew moved forward to see if it happened to be someone who was still alive and uninfected. The rage filled inhuman scream that split the air told him it wasn’t worth the effort of checking.

  Just like that him and Blaze were all that was left of the force protecting the warehouse. A bunch of half-naked freaks with inhuman speed and strength had taken out the extremely capable fighting force that’d been in charge of guarding this facility. If these men couldn’t survive then what hope did the rest of humanity have? Not that the rest of humanity would think it was a great idea to leave their impenetrable fortress to play tag with the insane man eaters.

  Drew walked around until he identified Lieutenant Murdock. He had to nudge the head with his boot to make sure it was him. The back of the lieutenant’s head was one big hole and the skin had gotten loose on the front of the skull too. He was able to tell it was him though. Gagging at the stench of death he bent down and pulled the radio away from Murdock’s body. He fought down his rising gorge to grab the pistol Murdock had used to cure himself of the infection. He’d stripped plenty of rotten corpses, but the freshness of Murdock’s mixed with having known and liked the man made it grosser. Kind of like eating a hamburger made out of a cow you’d kept as a pet. It’s different when it’s not just a hunk of anonymous meat. Probably why no one really keeps cows as pets.

  The radio was silent. That wasn’t abnormal at all. When someone stopped answering you stopped transmitting until they did answer. This was for a very good reason. The person who stopped transmitting may very well be hiding from a ravenous pack of the infected who’d rip him apart if they found him. You didn’t want your radio check to be the reason someone died. Drew picked up the radio wondering what the code was for complete failure.

  “Barracks actual this is the warehouse. Over.” Drew said with the transmit button depressed. He’d heard the soldiers here talking enough to know that barracks actual was the way to call Leander. The actual part meant whoever was in charge of that unit. There’d been multiple units before but now the call signs had been trimmed way down.

  “What’s your status warehouse? Over.” The voice on the other end of the transmission was an unknown one to Drew and Blaze.

  “Everyone’s dead. Mission failed. Blaze and Drew are the only two left alive. Over.” Drew transmitted. He felt like that was a pretty succinct explanation that summed up the complete mayhem that’d just occurred.

  “Warehouse say again. Over.” The voice came back disbelievingly. Drew sighed. He felt like he’d summed it up pretty good the first time. Now that the adrenaline was dying down, he had the shakes. He was freaked out. He was in a massive hangar surrounded by the dead. He’d almost died. Blaze looked like he wanted to roofie himself. That might not be a horrible idea. Otherwise he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to sleep again.

  “Everybody. Is. Dead. Over.” Drew enunciated loudly into the radio.

  “10-4. Standby warehouse.” The voice responded. Drew shrugged. It wasn’t like they had many options other than standing by. He wasn’t trying to open the door and walk outside again anytime soon. Hearing someone yelling, he turned his head quickly to look over towards the door. Blaze was facing away from him screaming at the wall. More precisely Blaze was cursing out the monsters outside who were back to banging on the wall again. At the sound of his voice they tripled their efforts. Drew wasn’t sure what Blaze was trying to accomplish but if it made the man feel better to yell at the wall then that was fine with him. It wasn’t like they were going to be able to get in. Luckily for the starving infected outside the idiots inside the nuclear bomb proof zombie fortress kept walking outside and shooting at them with nerf bullets.

  “Hey Blaze. You done yelling at the wall?” Drew called out when Blaze paused in the middle of his diatribe to catch his breath. After all that the poor guy could probably use a lozenge. Blaze turned around to face Drew. His red face glistening with the tears he’d shed. For the first time it dawned on Drew that Blaze was surrounded by the corpses of his family. Blaze collapsed onto the ground and knelt in the middle of his dead band of faux gypsies. He’d been the leader and father figure for the roustabouts and misfits laid out all around him in the grotesque poses of death.

  “I killed them all. I killed them and I let the women get kidnapped. They trusted me to save them. This is all my fault.” Blaze stuttered out around big gasping sobs as Drew walked over towards him. Drew had no idea what to say. He needed LeBron or Yue here to help out with this. He kept his mouth shut rather than risk saying something stupid. He sat down next to Blaze and pulled his own knees up to his chin. He wrapped his arms around his legs and kept his grieving friend company.

  “Warehouse one this is barracks actual. Over.” Leander’s voice crackled out of the radio startling Drew and Blaze out of their contemplative states. Blaze had been remembering his friends. Drew had been busy trying to think of a way to get LeBron and himself on the plane back to the carrier. Although he suspected at this point someone should probably go ahead and call off the whole crawler hunt idea. It just wasn’t working out. Considering how screwed up this operation had gotten it made it seem like an even stupider idea now to bring the infected specimens back to the ship. Might as well dress the pilot up like the grim reaper while they were at it.

  “Barracks actual this is warehouse one. Blaze and Drew. Over.” Drew said.

  “Good to hear you made it Drew. LeBron recognized your voice earlier and let me know you were still alive. I don’t think he took a breath the whole time we’ve been watching you guys over the CCTV.” Leander said. Blaze and Drew both idly looked around the top of the hangar for the cameras. Little black domes way up on the roof looked back down at them. It also answered the question on why LeBron had been so happy to hear his voice. The cameras were so high up the picture probably wasn’t super clear.

  “Yes sir. Thank you, sir.” Drew said. Blaze gave him a look and then reached over to wipe the brown off of Drew’s nose. Drew knocked his hand away and told Blaze that they needed to suck up some if they wanted to convince Leander to put them on that plane. That was the only way Blaze was getting reunited with his people and Drew was ever going to see Yue again.

  “Drew can you tell us what happened? Were the surgers who were stacked up all given the injections? Why weren’t they chained up?” Leander fired questions fast and furious. Drew waited until he was done and then answered as best as he could. When he was done the response that he got back wasn’t what he expected. Leander got back on the radio and told him they still needed to get a couple of specimens before the plane got here. He made it clear it’d be up to him and Blaze to do it. The only way that they’d get a seat on the flight out to the carrier was if a few of the infected were in the hold along with them.

  Blaze stared at Drew in disbelief. Drew didn’t notice because he was busy staring at the radio in his hand in disbelief. The surgers had just taken out almost twenty-five men. The majority of whom were highly trained special force operators. Now 007 up in the barracks was putting it on a circus administrator and a kid who hadn’t finished high school yet to save the whole operation. Leander must be completely desperate. Or, he just didn’t care if Blaze and Drew also died at this point. He’d decided they were expendable, and he could afford to roll the dice with their lives.

  “Now what.” Blaze said leaning back to rest on his hands.

  “I guess we need to go roofie us up some surgers. We’re going to have to get them all packaged up and ready to go.” Drew said.

  “You sure know how to party.” Blaze said getting up and dusting off his hands. He was busy looking everywhere except at his dead friends.

  “Don’t worry. Once we get a couple of freaks tagged and bagged, w
e’ll get these guys all into bags too. We’ll be sore tomorrow but I’m not going to leave them lying around like this.” Drew said.

  “What about the guys outside?” Blaze asked.

  “Yeah unfortunately I think they’re pretty much screwed. Vultures gotta eat.” Drew answered. He felt for the men who’d fallen out there, but no way was he going to get himself killed trying to give them all a proper burial. If Blaze wanted to that was all him. Drew planned on kidnapping a few of the walking dead, mummifying their friends in body bags, getting a drug enabled good night’s rest and catching the first plane out of there in the morning. It was also the only plane, so he really needed to make sure they had their payment ready to go by then.

  Chapter 11: Awkward Beginnings

  Jeff stood in the passageway nervously waiting for Yue to come out. He’d come by to apologize to her. Standing in the passageway with his blackening eyes and swelling nose he realized apologizing might seem weird. He’d just been enjoying some soup when she overflowed his water glass leading to the incredibly painful series of events. He still had a hard time connecting the dots on what’d actually happened. She’d broken his nose and put him on the floor. He still should’ve stood up and kept the secret service agent from dragging her out like that. That’s what he was there to apologize for. He wanted her to know he felt horrible about how she’d been treated. He felt even worse that it’d taken him so long to insert himself into the situation. They were treating her like some kind of terrorist.

  “I’m so sorry.” Yue emerged from the passageway with the apology spilling out of her mouth. The words were out of her mouth before she’d even seen how messed up his face was. Mortified she tried to think of something else to say. A simple ‘I’m sorry’ seemed pretty inadequate considering Jeff looked like he’d accidentally wandered into a UFC cage match.

  “It’s ok. I actually came down to apologize to you. I should’ve stopped them from taking you out in handcuffs. Your face looks really good though.” Jeff blurted out. The second the words were out of his mouth he wished he could reel them back in. Your face looks good? Where’d that even come from? Yue wasn’t sure what to say to all of that. She needed to strike fast though. This guy was the golden ticket for her brothers getting off the mainland alive.

  “I’m glad you think my face looks good. Yours looks pretty horrible.” Yue cringed internally. Calling him ugly should do the trick. Why was she getting so tongue tied around this guy?

  “I noticed how pretty you were the other day. I was hoping I hadn’t messed up your forehead by ramming it into my nose.” Jeff replied. Once again hating on himself for sounding like an idiot. He wondered how long they could keep up a conversation composed completely of random embarrassing thoughts.

  “You noticed how pretty I was the other day?” Yue asked. She ignored the shore patrolman behind Jeff. The seaman was going to get eye damage from rolling them so hard. He was joking around quietly with the other shore patrolmen. When he noticed Yue looking at him, he stopped and unsuccessfully tried to wipe the smirk off his face. Dude thought he was hilarious. Jeff was too busy looking like a deer caught in the headlights to even notice the comedy act behind him.

  “Ohm yeah. When you were there. You know when you first showed up at our table. I did think that. So now I’m glad your face isn’t messed up. Mine is but it wasn’t anything special to begin with. I’ll have to make up a manly story to go along with the black eyes. The truth isn’t going to cut it. Not on a ship full of Marines anyway.” Jeff was rambling. He was desperately trying to work out how to bring this extremely off the rails conversation to a close.

  “Apology accepted. I guess I won’t be seeing you again. I doubt I’m allowed back in the dining room again ever.” Yue said looking up into Jeff’s eyes. She thought about trying to bat her eyelashes but the last time she’d tried that it hadn’t ended well.

  “Would you like to go back for dinner tomorrow night?” Jeff asked. He shocked himself with his own boldness. The look of confusion on Yue’s face wasn’t reassuring. He stood there smiling nervously at her until she figured out that he’d just asked her out.

  “You mean with you?” She asked.

  “Yes. You can be my guest if you’d like. My date?” Jeff said a little less smoothly this time.

  A few minutes later Yue was back in the head in her berthing area again. Charani was staring at her while she brushed her teeth. Yue was grinning like the Cheshire cat through a mouthful of toothpaste while Charani shook her head slowly in disbelief. Neither of them could really believe that Yue had accomplished her goal. Teeth brushed Yue told Charani good night and slipped into her bunk to get some sleep.

  She woke up the next morning well rested despite having her sleep disturbed in the middle of the night. Being taken off the dining room roster meant she was back to being unemployed. Her yellow identification card had been returned to her in the middle of the night. A sailor had woken her up and sent her out into the passageway to be greeted by an unsmiling secret service agent. He’d handed back her identification and told her she was good to go as far as they were concerned. She’d sleepily asked him if that meant she had her job back. The man had shrugged and left. Her gainful employment was evidently not a concern of his. She went back to sleep wondering if the toilet cleaning gig came with knee pads or if she had to provide her own.

  Excited for a full day with nothing to do Yue hurried to get dressed. She threw on the uniform of the day and walked out into the passageway. She supposed she could go try to find out what her new job was going to be. She was afraid they’d assign her to something that may interfere with her dinner plans though so opted to skip out on that for now. Worried that someone may come to tell her what her new assignment was she decided to spend a few hours wandering as much as her yellow tinted badge allowed. After everything she’d gone through to get this date, she wasn’t trying to miss it.

  After a quick breakfast she went up to the flight deck to hang out. The air was slightly warmer which she took as a sign they were heading back south. She’d tried to figure out what direction they were going by looking at the sun. LeBron could tell the direction and time of the day by doing that. When she’d told Charani that she’d gotten one of those pitying looks she was learning to loathe. In a patronizing voice she’d been told that if she just looked to see which side of the boat land was on, she should be able to figure out which way they were going. Charani had made it sound so easy a cavewoman could figure it out.

  Yue had nodded like that made any sort of sense and changed the subject. Like most millennials she needed Siri to tell her how to get pretty much anywhere. The only person she knew who could do the navigating by the stars thing was LeBron and that was pretty hit or miss. She was pretty sure he’d just gotten lucky a few times leading them around while he stared up in the sky like he was the reincarnation of Magellan.

  She missed her brothers. Just thinking of all the fun that her and Drew could be having making fun of LeBron’s star gazing right now brought a smile to her face. She could close her eyes and imagine LeBron’s stuffy retort. He’d know exactly what direction the ship was moving. He’d probably have a pretty good idea of where they were in relation to the coast as well. Or at least he’d say he did. Then Drew would ask him if he remembered why he’d driven the wrong way on the interstate that one time for like an hour if he was so good with directions.

  The teasing never stopped between the three of them. Well at least it wouldn’t now that their parents were out of the picture. Nancy hadn’t been able to abide them making fun of one another. She’d liked to say they should be building each other up since the world would try hard to tear them all down. Bart was as likely to jump into the teasing as he was to tell them to shut up. She missed them both so much.

  She missed her life. She missed feeling safe. She didn’t even know where to start counting the things she missed. Leaning against the side of the bottom of the ship’s superstructure she let herself get emotional. The wind whip
ped the tears off her face almost as soon as they appeared. She stared across the dark blue water to the land just visible on the horizon. She wondered how bad it’d gotten ashore and how her brothers were doing. She stared at the distant land wondering how the hell she was supposed to know which way they were going just by staring at the land passing by.

  “Trust me you’re better off on the ship than over there.” A voice broke Yue out of her trance. Startled she turned around and saw it was the Marine who’d taken a liking to her. He was dressed in full on battle rattle with a big pack on his back.

  “Over there’s where my brothers are. Where they are, I should be.” Yue replied smiling. Despite herself she’d come to enjoy her conversations with the cocky Marine. He’d absolutely despise hearing it, but he’d managed to worm his way right into the friend zone. She’d told him about her brothers and how they were helping out at one of the bases. His eyes revealed he realized his mistake at implying how dangerous it was over there.