Crawlerz | Book 2 | Batten Down The Hatches

by Merritt, R. S.

  “It’s for you Yue.” The sailor whispered smiling. Yue didn’t have it in her to wring out an answering smile at the moment. Especially since it was about the five millionth time that she’d heard someone say that. All five million times the person saying it had a similar look on their face. Like for some reason that horrible pun was any kind of creative or funny. Wondering if the sailor was just screwing with her Yue put the phone receiver to her ear.

  “This is Yue.” Yue cringed when she said it knowing how confusing that sentence could be to whomever was on the receiving end. The thought flashing through her brain for the millionth time that her parents should’ve given her a new name when they adopted her. They could’ve stuck with the same theme and gone with Sue or something. She’d been a baby it wasn’t like she’d have ever known.

  “Hey. It’s so good to hear your voice. Are you ok? Is it safe there?” Jeff’s voice was barely audible over the sound of the surgers slamming into the door.

  “Not really. Can you let the guys topside with the guns know that we’re going to be in the head in here and that the infected are working overtime to try and get us? It’s so good to hear your voice too! We’ll be good. Just get the Marines down here fast.” Yue told her new boyfriend. She would’ve hung up and called for a rescue herself except that Jeff had a lot more sway than a recently fired waitress.

  “I’m on it.” Jeff said.

  “Hey Yue, just wanted to say I love you and be safe. I’ll see you soon! Jeff needs this phone to call for your rescue team now so bye!” Hearing Drew’s voice and knowing he was ok brought tears to Yue’s eyes. She looked around and realized no one was still in the main berthing area. Charani and another woman were standing by the door to the head waving at her to hurry up and join them. Their only hope at this point was that the surgers didn’t figure out there was another door to bust down anytime soon. Hoping the Marines made it to them before the surgers found the door Yue sprinted inside the head and sat down in the crowded space.

  They’d barely got the door to the head closed and locked when the door in the other room gave out. They experienced a solid forty minutes of sheer sweaty terror sitting in the cramped space with everyone trying to be as quiet as possible. No one spoke or coughed or breathed harder than necessary the entire time. They all knew the slightest noise could be the death of them all. They could clearly hear the surgers ripping apart the other room trying to get to the humans they sensed to be close. None of the surgers seemed able to figure out the whole door to the bathroom thing until one did.

  A loud rap on the door caused one of the sailors to let out a terrified yelp. She immediately slapped her hands over her mouth, but the damage had been done. That one yelp brought an onslaught on the door. The flimsy wooden door that was the only thing standing between them and starring in their very own slasher film. The women all scurried as far away from the door as they could. A few of them crowded into the stalls. Yue and Charani were crammed inside one of the shower stalls. Charani pulled the shower curtain closed to shield them. All that was going to accomplish was going to be making it a surprise when they were about to be mauled. Yue supposed that might be better than watching all of the murder that was about to happen.

  The door was smashed open. The room filled with surgers ripping into the screaming women. Charani and Yue held each other and waited to die. Each thinking maybe if they just stayed quiet the demonic beasts might not notice them. Not that anything could really be heard over all the screaming in the room. It got even louder when gunfire ripped into the room. The bullets smashing the porcelain sinks and ricocheting off the metal bulkheads of the small space. The large mirror covering the wall over the top of the sinks exploded into a tinkling rain of skin piercing shiny shards.

  The shower curtain was flung open and a Marine in full assault gear looked down at the horrified women. The barrel of his weapon stayed pointed at them as he ordered them to get on their stomachs on the deck. When they didn’t move fast enough, he screamed the order again and put his finger on the trigger. Spit flew out of his mouth. He screamed at them to lay down or die. They hit the blood covered floor face first shivering in fear and relief. The room smelled like piss and blood. The lights had mostly been shot out so there was the ambience of a haunted house. The dead bodies of their bunkmates took on the look of discarded mannequins in the dim light.

  The Marine kept them on the floor for a full five minutes while he poked around the room looking for other survivors. The rest of the Marines who’d assaulted the surgers in the room pulled out to continue clearing out this section of the ship. When the Marine finally told them that they could get up they realized the blood had begun congealing to them. It made a sick sucking noise when they got up. Looking over at Charani Yue realized they needed to ask a quick favor. As disgusting and macabre as it was, she felt like it was something they needed to do.

  “Do we have like two minutes to rinse off and throw on some different clothes?” Yue asked. The Marine looked her up and down then glanced over at Charani.

  “You all look like that girl in the Steven King movie. Like if it was more diverse. I’ll be outside. You’ve got three minutes. Hurry up.” The Marine turned on his heel and left. Yue stood there with her mouth hanging open. Even though she was the one who’d come up with the idea she still thought it was pretty dumb. She’d never expected their rescuer to actually let them do it.

  “How bad do we look that he agreed to that?” Charani asked.

  “Let’s hurry. This is probably the stupidest idea ever.” Yue said.

  They rushed to get clothes and towels. They stripped as they hustled back into the bathroom. Neither of them took more than a minute to soap up and let the water wash the blood off of them. The floors of the shower stained red as the bloody water circled the drain. Hissing at each other to hurry up they toweled off and threw on fresh clothes. Leaving the blood-stained towels on the floor they rushed out to where the fully kitted out Marine was talking on the phone with his back to the bathroom door.

  “We’re ready now.” Yue said to get his attention. The sooner they could get him to escort them topside the better.

  “Cool.” The man said turning around to check them out. “Follow me. Stay close.”

  “Who were you talking to?” Charani asked. Yue didn’t know if Charani really cared who the man had been talking to or if she was just trying to take her mind off the scenes of death all around them.

  “My sergeant. He wanted me to check in with him once we had you out on deck. A VIP is interested in making sure you’re safe. Evidently someone pretty damned important to have gotten us sent down this passageway ahead of schedule. You two are lucky. You’ve got a guardian angel looking out for you. I hate to think if it’d taken us a few more minutes to get down here.”

  A few more minutes and they’d have been just as dead as everyone else in the small room. Yue hadn’t looked closely at the bodies, but she knew each one would have a few extra holes in them to make sure they stayed down. The Marines leading the search and rescue efforts were the ones with experience leading the raids on land. They all knew better than to let these things get behind them. As long as you kept them in front of you and had plenty of ammunition you had a chance. Once they got around you forget about it.

  They walked through a passageway carpeted in the bodies of the lost. In some places they had to work hard not to step on a corpse in order to proceed. The sound of automatic weapons fire echoed down the passageways. Their escort took them up two sets of ladders past multiple guards and finally out a secured hatch onto the flight deck. Once on deck they were immediately marched over to a room that’d been commandeered to serve as the new comms center for the ship.

  Their escort reported in at the door and told them who he had with them. A minute later a major in camouflage with a pistol hanging off his hip emerged from the communications room. He walked over to them taking in their wet hair and general look. Shrugging off the questions he undoubtedly had he stopped to
talk to them.

  “I’m assuming you’re Yue?” The major asked addressing Yue.

  “Yue is me.” Yue replied back.

  “There’s a lot of dead people on this boat. We lost a few Marines going in to rescue you and your friend here. My tolerance for people trying to be cute is very low right now.” The grizzled major admonished her.

  “Sorry sir.” Yue replied chagrined.

  “Stay up here. Stay safe and stay out of the way. We don’t have the manpower to rescue you again.” The major said walking away.

  “Excuse me sir. Have you seen Jeff? The man in charge of the Department for the Continuation of the country. Or something like that?” Yue asked the major’s backside. He stopped and responded without turning around.

  “We’re sending men to get him soon. He ordered us to go after you first.”

  The major continued walking away from a stunned Charani and Yue who now knew why the major had such an attitude with them. Jeff was thinking with his heart instead of his head. Yue was grateful for that since otherwise she’d be dead, but it must make life a lot more difficult for people like the major to try and plan out a way to methodically retake the ship. Suddenly the few minutes they’d taken to shower seemed extremely selfish.

  Chapter 19: Change of Plans

  LeBron swung his legs over the edge of his cot and stretched. Looking at his watch he saw that he’d slept until almost noon. If he didn’t have to pee so bad, he felt like he could keep his eyes closed for at least a few more hours. He stood up and walked past all of the empty cots in the large room. Each had been cleared of the personal gear that’d been sitting on them. The rows of empty cots looked like the white crosses at Arlington. Row after row memorializing the fallen.

  He finished up in the bathroom and got himself dressed. Wondering why no one had been sent to wake him up he walked out into the hallway. He swung by the small galley and helped himself to a cup of coffee and a can of Pringles. The small can of Pringles had been taken out of the personal supplies of one of the men who hadn’t made it. He could still picture the guy joking that he was saving the can because one day it’d be worth a fortune.

  LeBron shoved the can of Pringles into his pocket and continued down the hallway towards the operations center. He sipped on the hot bitter coffee as he walked. The caffeinated beverage serving its purpose of slowly making him feel alive. The timing worked out such that he felt like himself by the time he entered the operations center. He wondered if he should’ve bothered getting out of bed when he noticed the faces and demeanor of the people sitting around the room.

  “I was wondering when you were going to wander in. We kept you up way past your bedtime last night.” Leander said waving his hand at LeBron to come sit down beside him. LeBron sat down wondering to himself what was going on now.

  “Good morning sir. What’s everybody acting so weird for?” LeBron asked pulling out the tube of chips to munch on. He only had them out for a second before he slid them right back in his pocket. It’d be too weird crunching away on chips in the somber silence pervading the room.

  “Check out the monitors.” Leander said while watching LeBron closely for a reaction. Knowing he was once again being tested LeBron turned his attention to the monitors everyone was staring at.

  “It’s just the base right? The top of it. Why’s it all dug up like that? Oh.” LeBron once again had talked himself into a conclusion. This time the conclusion wasn’t an epiphany around how they could better complete their mission. This time it was a reluctant understanding that they may not be as safe as they’d thought they were.

  “The duty officer logged about a hundred crawlerz digging in above us last night. There’s no telling how deep they made it. We can’t see into the holes from the angle we have the CCTV coverage at. We may try an overflight with a drone later to take a closer look. They’re still out there in the dirt above us.” Leander said. That explained why everyone was so freaked out.

  “They can dig all they want but they can’t get in, right?” LeBron asked. He really hoped he wasn’t about to find out about some Achilles heel the base had. Even if there were some minor flaw in the design it wasn’t like they were being hunted by super geniuses with laser beams. This wasn’t the attack on the Death Star. This was a bunch of brain warped freaks with rage issues digging into the dirt to try and get at the humans they sensed below. A herd of overgrown rabid gophers attacking a military base built to withstand all kinds of natural and man-made disaster scenarios.

  “The hangar was built to be bomb proof. We’re in the support building for the hangar. Can they get in? Probably not. Do I want to stake our lives on being in the building that’ll probably keep the crawlerz out when the guaranteed crawler proof one’s a few minutes of brisk walking down hill from here?” Leander trailed off see sawing his hand in the air.

  “What do we lose by moving there?” LeBron asked.

  “Mostly just this room. We’ll be flying blind without the AV hookups in here. Everything else is redundant with what’s already in the hangar.” Leander was thinking along the same lines as LeBron. He didn’t say anything though waiting for LeBron to think it all the way through.

  “We move everybody to the hangar except for a skeleton crew that focuses on this room. We make sure they have a big pile of bullets in case they need to shoot their way out. At some point really soon, we ask those Seabees if they know how to wire the video feeds so that we can see them in the hangar instead.” Leander was nodding along with what LeBron was saying.

  “Alright. We’re making the transition over to the hangar in three hours. Meet up by the front door with your gear unless you’re looking to hang out here and see if the walls keep them out or not.” Leander dismissed LeBron and left to go take care of the details around moving the majority of the people over to the other building.

  LeBron walked dejectedly back down the hallway. He regarded the walls with distrust as he walked. He wondered how close to breaking through the concrete block the crawlerz actually were. With their ability to tap into their adrenal glands to max out their strength if they dug deep enough to be able to strike at these walls then the walls wouldn’t hold. LeBron was no architect but looking at the walls closely they looked to just be concrete blocks. Closing his eyes, he could picture the concrete block frame being put together then covered with hundreds of tons of earth and rock. He couldn’t think of any valid reason the hangar would’ve been built any differently.

  He was looking forward to cornering one of the Seabees and trying to understand better how the buildings here were built. That was now a critical piece of knowledge they needed. The hangar may very well be bombproof the way it was built but was it crawler proof? Especially now that the devils were doing double duty as diggers. It was uncanny how the infected kept sniffing out where they were hiding. It didn’t say a lot for humanities long-term chances of survival.

  Staring down at his cot he wondered what exactly Leander had meant about gathering his gear. He normally carried his gear around with him every time he got out of bed. He’d definitely be making sure to do so from now on. Visions of crawlerz busting through the walls as he walked down the hallway would ensure that. He grabbed his pack and threw it across his shoulder. The backpack held most of his worldly possessions. Realizing he needed weapons and ammunition LeBron went in search of the Marine in charge of the armory. No way was he going to try to sprint across the corpse littered fields outside without a weapon.

  The door to the armory was locked tight with no one in sight. LeBron bounced around the offices and hallways for a few minutes looking for Leander. He didn’t see Leander anywhere but did run into a senior non-com who agreed to hook him up with some weapons. The guy looked like a walking armory himself, so LeBron felt like he was in good hands. They went down to another small office where the duty officer grabbed a spare key to the armory and walked them down to it. He opened the door and gave LeBron carte blanche to the neatly stacked rows of weapons on the walls inside.<
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  Thirty minutes later LeBron was quietly sitting in the back of the operations center staring at the monitors again while waiting for the order to leave. He felt much better now that he had the comforting weight of a Glock on his hip as well as the AR-15 leaning on the wall beside him. The monitors showed they might not need to rely on the weapons at all to get down to the hangar. If they could move quickly and quietly enough then this whole transition to the other base may turn out to be a non-event.

  LeBron let his mind wander back to the books and movies he’d enjoyed around the zombie genre. He’d done this exercise multiple times trying to correlate what was happening in reality back to the fictional depictions of what a return of the living dead would look like. How simple would it be if just smacking these things in the head with a baseball bat took care of them. The movies never showed the real effort that went into actually murdering someone by hand. It was intense and obscene and would have quickly elevated the whole genre to the adults only section of the rental booth.