“Until they stop jumping up here or he dies I’m thinking.” Drew said. He was just happy he wasn’t the poor bastard standing out there. It wasn’t a position with long term potential for growth.
They continued steaming along. The idea around dropping the anchor was eventually discarded. They’d considered it to try and keep the carrier from becoming a hazard by breaking up and radiating part of the coast. It would also have been nice to have it as a resource they might be able to come retake once they got organized. A little more discussion around the potential pitfalls of trying it and all the officers agreed with Jeff it wasn’t worth it. Especially since it didn’t sound like they’d be able to do it anyway. Yue and Drew hovered in the background trying to overhear as much as possible without annoying the frazzled officers. Most of the men in the group were confused by why the young woman and her kid brother were hanging out on the bridge anyway.
“We’re so screwed.” Drew whispered to Yue who just nodded along. On top of everything else they were both beyond exhausted. It wasn’t like you could take a nap in the middle of all this. The Marine on the catwalk was now shooting at infected every couple of minutes.
“Not as screwed as that guy. No way he can keep that up much longer. I’m going to see if Jeff can send someone out to help him.” Yue said starting to break away from Drew and head towards Jeff.
A flurry of gunshots and the screams of the Marine outside stopped her. She was too late to save him. Two Marines who’d been waiting by the door went out to take the place of the man who’d just been taken down. Another man got up and locked the door behind them. Yue shook her head slowly in awe of the sheer brass balls of the men she’d just watched calmly walking out on the catwalk like they were on their way to grab a burger. She leaned back against the wall and watched the hands on the clock slowly ticking away.
She realized she must’ve nodded off when she heard Jeff asking her how she was doing. Considering she was sleeping standing up less than ten feet from where a couple of Marines were steadily murdering infected who could jump like giant fleas, she was doing ok. Looking over to see what Drew was up to she saw he’d actually slid all the way down the bulkhead. He was sitting on the deck with his head tilted back snoring away.
“I’m good. What’s going on?” She asked while trying to unkink her seriously screwed up neck. Humans weren’t meant to sleep standing up.
“Same old. The helicopters are on the way out to the island. We’re on our way to the island. At least we think we are. The senior chief is saving all our asses. He’s been talking us through how to do all of this. Even gave us some more ideas on how not to die.” Jeff joked.
“Those are ideas worth exploring. How about the guys on the catwalk?” Yue asked.
“Swapping them out every thirty minutes so they stay frosty. It’s pretty much a nonstop shooting gallery out there. Most of the infected can’t make it up and over the railing so the guys are just blasting them off when they get a grasp on something. They’re attracting a lot of attention though. I’m worried a whole wave of those things may jump at the same time and overwhelm them.” Jeff answered. They stared out the window as one of the Marines walked over to the railing and blasted a couple of shots off directly below him.
“You get any sleep lately?” Yue asked Jeff. Judging by his sunken eyes she was pretty sure she knew the answer already.
“Plenty of coffee up here. It’s the one thing the bridge is actually well supplied with.” Jeff answered. It would’ve been much more convincing if he hadn’t broken out in a giant yawn halfway through his response.
“How much longer do we have before the helicopters get here? Maybe there’s time for you to take a quick power nap. It’s not liked this day’s going to end anytime soon.” Yue said. She was getting a little anxious about the fact that she didn’t think anyone was taking the time out to sleep. Except of course for Drew who sounded like a hibernating grizzly bear in desperate need of a CPAP machine.
“Helicopters inbound sir.” A man called out loudly from the front of the room.
“I’ll grab that nap later.” Jeff said with a grimace. He turned around and walked back towards the front of the bridge. Yue started to wake Drew up then changed her mind and let him sleep. If there was anyone who could sleep through a high-powered aerial attack on a bunch of screaming infected it was her brother. She was going to need him fully awake and alert if this actually worked.
“Sir they’re requesting permission to fire.” The man on comms called out loudly. He didn’t realize Jeff had walked almost all the way over to where he was. He jumped an inch or two when Jeff tensely gave permission from right behind him.
“Everybody down!” One of the officers yelled. That reminded everyone to duck. Considering a couple of attack helicopters were going to be sweeping the ship with machine gun fire at a few thousand rounds per minute putting their heads down was probably a great idea.
A minute later the world got lit up as the helicopters started blasting away at the monsters covering the deck. The noise was insane. Especially when a few stray rounds struck the superstructure. After a few minutes of steady firing the helicopters switched to more directed fire. They were targeting individuals and small groups now rather than just trying to clean out the entire mob. The men on the bridge stood back up to assess the situation. Yue started to get up and was asked to get back down again. Rather than risk having her head blown off by a random round because she wanted to be a tourist Yue took the request to heart and sat back down. Drew had barely even moved during the attack so far.
“What’s going on?” Yue asked the Marine who’d told her she might as well be safe and stay on the ground.
“There’s one helo on each side of the ship. They’re blasting the hell out of the crawlerz bouncing around out there. There’s a ton of the bastards pouring out of the holds. They look like a bunch of demonic fire ants on meth.” Yue nodded her appreciation for the colorful report. She’d picked a very descriptive jarhead to ask.
She lay on the ground beside Drew doing her best to remember what the next part of the plan was. She’d been pretty skeptical that the helicopters were going to show up in the first place. She was now doggedly wracking her overworked brain to recall what phase two of this operation was supposed to be. She sat there trying to figure that out until she realized she hadn’t heard any gunfire in a while. She looked over at the Marine she’d been talking to. He winked at her and left to take his turn out on the catwalk.
She stood up and stretched walking over to stand near where the tight group of senior officers had gathered to watch a fire team sprint across the deck. The men were rushing to secure the hatch that the infected had been seeping out of. A couple of scout snipers had moved out onto the catwalks. They were picking off isolated crawlerz who’d somehow survived the murderous onslaught of the two attack helicopters.
The fire team was wading through blood and body parts to get to that hatch. They’d come out of the bottom of the superstructure at full speed. It was only a matter of time before more of the infected came bubbling out of that opening. The faster they got to it and got it sealed up the sooner they could all relax and plan out the next phase. They’d initially thought they’d need to have the helicopters come back a few times to draw out all of the infected. That first pass had been so successful they were reconsidering.
About halfway to the hatchway it was determined that this was more of a glass half empty kind of situation. Crawlerz began to stream out of the opening. The screaming cannibals made a beeline for the fire team. The officer on comms with the fire team glanced over at Jeff for authorization. He approved with a curt nod of his head. The officer then ordered the fire team to fall back to the superstructure. Yue was left wondering what the hell they’d been thinking trying that in the first place. Evidently these guys needed sleep even worse than she thought or there was something she didn’t know. Probably a combination of the two.
The fire team fought their way back across the c
orpse covered flight deck to get back inside the superstructure. They were quarantined on the bottom level until it was obvious that they weren’t infected. On the catwalks above the snipers continued taking out the infected until they were ordered to cease fire to conserve ammunition.
“Now what?” Yue asked Jeff when he finally made a pitstop at the coffee machine.
“We stick with the original plan. It just may take a little longer than we thought. Keeping the helicopters fueled up is going to be a little rougher than anticipated. They’ve got to fly all the way back to the Charleston airport. There’s a boat with a couple of SEALs on it who were supposed to move the fuel to the island but that’s hit a snag. Like they literally hit a snag and the boat got stuck. So, they’re working on that.” Jeff said in between sips of coffee and barely suppressed yawns.
“Why’d we try to get the hatch closed then?” Yue said confused where that failed mission fit into the big picture.
“If we could seal off the flight deck, we could send some men in to pull out the aviation fuel hookups for the helicopters and fill them up right here. That’s obviously not a valid option yet. It was worth a shot though. The people trapped below are starting to fade.” Jeff finished off sadly. The weight of that responsibility weighing him down. Yue realized that’s why Jeff couldn’t sleep. Not when the people trapped below had an expiration date fast approaching.
Now that the desperate attempt by the men to seal off the hatch had been explained Yue felt better. She’d really been hoping it wasn’t just a random gesture caused by some kind of infighting between the officers already starting to hover around Jeff again. She caught a couple of glances that made her aware that taking up the commander’s time right now wasn’t appreciated. She excused herself idly wondering what Jeff’s title actually was now? There didn’t seem to be any questioning by the men in the room that Jeff was the one in charge.
With a thousand mutilated cadavers draining blood onto the flight deck and the sun still a couple of hours from making an appearance Yue let herself slide back down to the floor next to Drew. The helicopters would hopefully get back in time to do one final run before the sun came up. That way they’d be able to knock out the bulk of the crawlerz who had access to the flight deck. After that they were going to start popping hatches and seeing how many people, they could rescue using the music over the speakers tactic.
Scared to go try and find a quiet corner on a different level Yue made herself as small as possible and leaned into Drew. She shut her eyes wondering if she’d be able to sleep.
Chapter 24: A Beach Getaway
“Hey LeBron. Head upstairs. Leander wants to see to you.” The master chief put the phone back in the cradle and went back to work. Given how time sensitive everything was they were working around the clock. Men could sleep as they needed it. The loss of the barracks was all the motivation most of them needed. They wanted to get these trucks finished so they could begin an inspection of the base itself. No one wanted to live out the nightmare scenario that’d taken out the garrison up in the barracks.
LeBron finished carrying the big box filled with screws and washers over to the workstation and set them down. He didn’t bother saying anything to the master chief since the man was focused on attaching the metal cage they’d constructed to the frame of the truck. Wondering what it was Leander wanted to talk to him about he turned and jogged towards the stairs. As he jogged, he contemplated the likely reasons for the summons.
By the time he got to the top of the long flight of stairs he was winded. He’d sped up as he realized the request to see him in person very likely had to do with the status of the carrier. The only thing he could think of off the top of his head that’d require an in-person meeting was if Leander needed to tell him something had happened to Drew or Yue. There were a million other reasons Leander may have sent for him. That one was all LeBron could think of as he flung open the door to the stairwell and jogged down the corridor into the operations room.
“Thanks for coming up so fast.” Leander said when LeBron skidded to a stop in front of him. He stopped so fast that his sweat threatened to fly off him onto Leander. LeBron had tried to report in when he’d first arrived. He’d been breathing so hard no one could make out what he said. Luckily a lot of the things on a military base are ritualistic so all he had to do was make noise at the right time and everyone knew what he was trying to say. When you were breathing that hard you could be excused for not standing at attention. He also got cut some slack since he wasn’t old enough to vote yet.
At Leander’s insistence LeBron took a minute to recover. Looking around the room he noticed the increased level of intensity at which everyone was working. Men were running in and out and using the phones way more than normal. A lot of them were also running over to Leander with questions. LeBron found himself having to impatiently wait a couple of minutes before being able to get back in front of the base commander. Finally, Leander shifted his attention back to LeBron.
“I’ll say this fast because we have a lot of work to do. We finally got through to the Ford. They reached out to let us know they’re coming in hot. They may need us to pick them up off a little sandbar by Charleston. The crew did get infected. It’s so bad they’re abandoning the ship. Your brother and sister were both still alive when we talked with them. They’re expecting to hit the beach sometime tomorrow with an unknown number of Marines and crew.” Leander rattled off the earth-shattering information to LeBron. LeBron felt his knees go weak first with relief then with worry as Leander spoke.
Yue and Drew were alive. They might not be in the in the best possible situation, but they were breathing and not craving a bit of long pig. LeBron pulled himself together. It sounded like he may be playing a part in making sure they stayed that way. There’d be a lot of planning needed to successfully carry out a mission like this.
“What’s the plan then sir? What can I do? When do we leave?” LeBron fired off his questions. He was already wishing Leander had just talked to him over the phone. If there were things that they needed the Seabees to be doing, he could’ve told them directly instead of wasting thirty minutes running up and down the stairs.
“That’s why I needed you up here. We’re working up a plan. They don’t know how many people are going to make it off the ship. It could be fifty or it could be a few hundred. No matter how many it turns out to be, a lot of them are going to be in bad shape. Food and water’s at a premium. There’s still hundreds of them trapped in different sections of the ship hiding out from the crawlerz.” Leander stopped talking and looked at LeBron to get his take on what they should do. LeBron was used to this game. Leander liked to hear his people’s ideas without influencing them by saying what he thought first.
“The trucks aren’t ready to go quite yet. Helicopters would be best anyway. Except after a few trips there’d be nowhere to land because of all the infected they’d attract. If they could get from that island to an airport and find a plane to land here that’d probably work out better. I don’t know if that’s possible or not. I’d say we pencil in them flying here in as big a plane or helicopter as can fit on the runway as plan ‘A’. We can keep the Seabees building out the trucks and loading them up with supplies as plan ‘B’. If the air lift can work that’s best but be ready to roll out and get them if we need to.” LeBron said thoughtfully.
“Agreed. Except I’d like to go ahead and get that convoy rolled out as soon as the trucks are ready. That way we can stage them as close to the beach as we can get them. It may take longer to get there than we think. The roads are mostly clear based on the last aerial reports but there’s a lot of variables once you leave the base.” Leander said. It was true. The best laid plans typically fell apart as soon as you were confronted with the enemy. People trying to kill you were annoying that way.
“Makes sense sir. You want me to take a second look at how they’re armoring up the trucks and make sure they focus on those?” LeBron asked. He didn’t think Leander had call
ed him up here just to validate the high-level strategy. There really weren’t that many ways to get a group of stranded people from one spot to another in the middle of an apocalypse. He knew he was stretching on the double check of the master chief’s work too. He might as well offer to taste test an iron chef’s spaghetti sauce.
“Actually, I want you to roll out with the first truck and be my eyes and ears. There’ll be a couple of Marines with you, but you’ve got more field experience than any of the other guys here. I’ll make sure they know to listen to you. I want to put your survival instinct to work for us. You good with that?” Leander didn’t look like he expected any sort of pushback. After all he was sending LeBron out on a mission to save his siblings. LeBron may not have as much combat experience as some of the Marines on the base but none of them had rolled through the zombified southern states in a convoy of trucks. LeBron had done that with Blaze. That type of experience could be the difference between success and a messy bloody death.
“Works for me sir. Thanks for letting me go out after them.” LeBron started backing away. Now that he had his orders, he was ready to go. He hated the idea of anything slowing him down knowing his brother and sisters lives may depend on him being there. Of course, if option ‘A’ worked out all he’d be doing was sleeping in the back of a truck for a few days while crawlerz whacked away on it. Yue and Drew would actually beat him back to the base in that case.
Crawlerz | Book 2 | Batten Down The Hatches Page 22