Crawlerz | Book 2 | Batten Down The Hatches

by Merritt, R. S.

  Everyone stared as the remaining helicopter took out a few infected who popped up out of the open hatch on the stern. The fire team down below took off to open hatches on the forward section of the flight deck. As they threw them open orders were piped into the forward section of the ship to proceed as planned. The message was kept short and sweet to keep from attracting the infected back to the forward section. Eyes on the bridge were glued to the monitors. Doors were thrown open as the desperate crew rushed into the passageways and made their way towards whatever hatches were closest to them.

  The plan worked great for about the first ten seconds. On monitor after monitor after that the terrified crew could be seen colliding with the ravenous crawlerz. Moving with preternatural grace the demonic infected danced lightly down the passageways. Mouths wide open they sang a lustful song of hatred as the desperate sailors fought them and each other to survive. The panicked men and women began running in multiple directions at once. Some of them turned and ran back for the shelter they’d just left. Others doggedly continued towards the ladders for the hatches leading to the promise of safety. Very few made it.

  The fireteam stood by for the order to shut down the hatches. The helicopter was flitting around like a gigantic mechanized hummingbird occasionally spitting streams of hot metal at any surger who decided to come up topside to see what was going on. In the end only a couple of dozen sailors from the first section made it out the hatches. Hundreds had tried and died in the tightly packed corridors. The monitors showed the blood covered faces of the ghoulish infected as they fed on the flesh of those who didn’t turn fast enough.

  Those that did turn began popping out of the open hatches. The fire team was given the order to seal the ship back up. Moving quickly and liberally utilizing the fragmentation grenades dropped off by the helicopters the Marines were able to get the hatches sealed with minimal incidents this time. Mostly because the demons below were busy feasting on a buffet of the dead. The grenades being dropped in those tight spaces helped a lot as well. Not even the super strength lent to the infected via their overactive adrenal glands was enough to let them withstand a frag to the face in a such a tight space.

  More of the infected came out of the hatch at the stern of the ship than emerged from the ones in the forward section. The snipers on the catwalk and the helicopters rapid fire machine guns made mincemeat out of them. The grenades took out the monitors in multiple critical areas. At this point Jeff wasn’t stressing too much about that. He was more concerned with not puking at the horror show playing out on the monitors. One of the Marines on the bridge had his head in a trash can already. Watching the gory feeding frenzy was beyond repulsive. One by one the feeds were switched to the rear section of the ship.

  “Those crewmen that made it. I want to make sure they’re being quarantined. If any of them show any signs of turning, order the men not to take any chances. We’re going to try something different with the rear half of the ship.” Jeff said a little too loudly.

  “We going to try not getting everybody eaten alive in this next section sir?” The Marine who said it was a young man who’d just graduated the scout sniper school before this all started. He was also the one who’d had his head stuck in the trashcan to barf up his breakfast. His eyes grew huge when he realized what he’d just said out loud. It was obvious that wasn’t supposed to have gotten out of his head. If the situation wasn’t so horrible the look on the young warrior’s face would’ve been hilarious.

  The room was shocked into silence. The young Marine having vocalized what they were all thinking. Their half ass plan had just killed hundreds of their shipmates. The man who’d been ultimately responsible for the order to initiate the failed plan looked like he’d seen a ghost. He was pale as paper. Yue wanted to go to him but was afraid the men would perceive that as an act of weakness. Everyone waited respectfully while Jeff took a minute to breathe and get his balance back. The people they’d watched die on the monitors were dead. The only thing they could take from that failure were the lessons they’d learned. They had to come up with a better plan this time.

  “We need to let the ship breathe. Let’s pop open the rear hatches and get as many of those things to come out as we can. The more we can kill before we tell the crew to come out of hiding the better. Let’s give our guys more of a chance this time.” Jeff said. He completely ignored the comment the young Marine had made. The Marine’s face reflected his relief at not being called out. That look lasted about five seconds. A senior officer tapped him on the shoulder and walked him out to the catwalk. Through the window they could all see the wicked dressing down the guy got.

  The helicopter could only hover for a short time before it would have to leave. With that in mind Jeff gave the order for the fire team to proceed with opening the hatches. By looking at the monitors he was hoping they could instruct the fire team which ones it’d be best to be prepared to chunk some grenades down into. The one hatch already open was still an option for the infected to pop out of as well. Jeff knew the surgers were going to probably take a week at least to convert to full on crawler mode. With so many people being infected the bulk of them would be moving towards that crawler mode slowly. At least based on what they knew so far about how it all worked.

  “Does it bother you that the plan is changing every five seconds?” Yue whispered to Drew.

  “Plan seems like a pretty strong word for opening the doors and telling everyone to make a run for it.” Drew whispered back. It wasn’t completely fair. The attempt had been made to lure the monsters to the other side of the ship. It just hadn’t worked out.

  “You think it’s going to work better this new way?” Yue asked him.

  “I think the sooner we get off this floating nightmare the more likely we survive. We need to get back to check on LeBron anyway.” Drew whispered back to her. Yue nodded realizing in shame she hadn’t given LeBron much thought in the last twenty-four hours.

  “Here we go again.” Drew said pointing to where the fire team was running in a tight formation towards the hatches. They were flinging them open and tossing in grenades then moving to the next one. They left a man at each hatch until they’d opened all the access points available. They reformed and ran like their pants were on fire to get back to the relative safety of the superstructure.

  Their fear was warranted. The infected began pouring out the open hatchways. A trickle at first that quickly became a flood. The helicopter and snipers were all firing at will now. Blasting away with everything they had as the demons flooded the flight deck.

  “At least LeBron is nice and safe back at the warehouse. Surrounded by supplies and probably watching a movie right now.” Yue said while bullets showered down on the deck below. The bullets carving easily through the tender flesh of the infected crew of the Ford. The men fleeing into the superstructure below were no longer in any sort of formation. They were each running for their lives across the treacherous slaughterhouse.

  “Yeah. I’m just happy he’s not anywhere near this mess.” Drew said quietly.

  Chapter 26: East Bound and Down

  With their route clearly marked on the map the Marine driving the truck put the hammer down and they fairly flew down the asphalt. More than a little concerned with how fast they were going LeBron kept a lookout for any infected who may decide to come at them head on. Giant lobster cage or not a two hundred-pound surger smashing into the front of the truck would make a big mess.

  “I wonder if they put extra window cleaning fluid in?” LeBron said.

  “What?” The Marine driving looked over at LeBron with a confused expression. It was the first thing LeBron had said since they’d bashed their way out of the compound.

  “What’s your name?” LeBron asked ignoring the Marine’s confused looking expression.

  “Ciccone. You can call me Mikey though.” Mikey said.

  “Cool. I’m LeBron. Like the basketball star but shorter and a million times less good at basketball.” LeBron said.
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  “Great to meet you LeBron. Now what’s up with the windshield wiper fluid?” Mikey asked.

  “As fast as we’re going if we hit a surger it’s going to burst like a water balloon filled with Campbell’s chunky goodness. The whole windshield will get covered in yuck. Once you do that a few times you’ll be right there with me on wishing we had more wiper fluid. Especially once there’s so much crap on the windshield you can’t even see the road anymore.” LeBron explained.

  “Is this about the windshield wiper fluid or are you just trying to tell me I’m driving like an asshole?” Mikey said grinning and slowing the big rig down some to take the next turn.

  “A little bit of both.” LeBron said with an echoing grin. “I’m worried about how well the cage is going to hold up if we hit a pack of infected head on.”

  “If we hit a whole pack of them head on it won’t matter because we’ll have to stop anyway. No way we have enough wiper fluid for that much yuck, right?” Mikey joked. He continued to slow down until he was only going slightly faster than LeBron considered safe. That was a huge improvement over the insane speed they’d been going before. LeBron realized he’d been holding his breath.

  “You been outside the fence much since this all started?” LeBron asked. He was detecting a trace of nervousness in Mikey’s cocky facade.

  “Nope. I’m a complete noob. Spent most of my time on the ship except for a detail guarding a supply depot on an island. Still not sure what we were guarding it from. Maybe they didn’t know the crawlerz couldn’t swim yet? Or they were worried about bands of survivors stealing it? Who knows?” Mikey said shrugging.

  “Ever see any action before this all started?” LeBron asked.

  “You realize I’m only like six years older than you right? You already know I drove a truck a couple of years. I did boot camp then a tour over in the Middle East. Got spit on by a couple of camels. Otherwise nothing more exciting than a few bar fights. Except for the little skirmishes you’ve seen us in around the base. I’m not expecting FedEx to drop off my silver star anytime soon.” Sensing Mikey was getting a little heated LeBron refrained from asking any more questions along those lines.

  “Thanks for slowing down. We should be able to make up some time once we get to the highway.” LeBron said wondering what Mikey was going to do when they were finally confronted by the infected. He guessed they’d find out soon enough.

  “No problem. My sergeant already told me to do whatever you said if I wanted to live. Living happens to be my number one priority so feel free to speak up anytime I’m being an idiot. I have no issue with listening to the voice of experience. If we run into some angry camels though I’m in charge ok?” Mikey said.

  “What if the camels are infected?” LeBron asked playing along. A stricken look crossed Mikey’s face.

  “There’s freakin crawler camels now? Animals can get this crap?”

  LeBron was quick to reassure him that he hadn’t personally seen any infected animals. He didn’t know that it was impossible, but he hadn’t seen any. The back and forth between the two helped pass the time. Before they knew it, they were out on the highway. LeBron was pretty amazed they’d made it that far without running into any surgers. They expected the surger population to be pretty low by now, but this was way better than anticipated. Of course, it just meant there’d be even more crawlerz to contend with once the sun set.

  They had a three-hour drive ahead of them under normal conditions. Whatever normal meant now. Assuming no crazy herds of infected camels or massive mobs of surgers showing up they should make decent time. The only real concern while the sun was out was any groups of survivors who thought ambushing a military truck might be a good idea. The irony there being that the base had been established to provide groups of survivors with the supplies they needed. LeBron hoped that those who needed them didn’t get in the way of them rescuing his brother and sister. That was the priority mission now. Whether or not any desperate survivors would see it that way would hopefully remain an unknown.

  The highway was as deserted as the smaller country roads had been. Broken down vehicles had been shoved to the side in a few places. There were no major traffic jams. Everyone had plenty of warning the apocalypse was coming so there hadn’t been a major need for last-minute road trips. For the most part people had been able to get where they thought they’d be safe with time to spare. Then they’d died or been infected there.

  LeBron only saw one surger on the entire drive down the highway. It stumbled out of the woods as they were driving by and gave chase. He watched it fall further and further behind them in the side mirror until it eventually disappeared. Mikey remarked that was at least one surger they didn’t have to worry about.

  “That thing will keep running after us until its legs fall off. Unless it gets distracted by something else before it catches us. Once they get your scent they don’t stop coming. Which means when we stop to sleep for the night or pull over to pee it could show up again right when we’re not expecting it.” LeBron said. Mikey had mentioned wanting to learn as much as he could. LeBron was happy to oblige him. The more everyone knew about the threats out here the more likely they all were to survive.

  “You just keep making this little Sunday drive more and more exciting.” Mikey said. LeBron almost laughed out loud when he caught Mikey staring into the mirror like he expected the surger to pop up again at any second.

  They drove on talking about different things. LeBron ended up telling the whole story of him being adopted and they joked some more about the whole LeBron thing. Mikey understood a little better after that part of the discussion why LeBron was so gung-ho to be part of this mission. He had his brother and sister to rescue. It was smooth sailing until they got to the part where they had to turn off onto a smaller road to continue towards the coast.

  At the bottom of the ramp where they needed to turn left there was a small pileup of wrecked cars under the overpass. It looked like a couple of pickup trucks had been driving too fast and collided with a minivan coming from the other direction. They were going to either have to get back on the highway to go up an exit or attach the winch and pull the wrecked vehicles out of the way. As big as their truck was, they could probably just push the wrecked cars out of the way. That would be risky since you never knew which pieces and parts might fall off the wrecks when you ran into them. Those loose parts could flatten a tire really fast. It’s not like they could call AAA.

  “What do you think boss?” Mikey asked looking over at him.

  LeBron was busy tracing his finger over the atlas they’d brought with them. The roads on this part of the atlas where super skinny grey lines indicating they were little two lanes. He saw another way to get where they were going but it passed over a couple of rivers. The road they were on now looked like it just had to go over one of the little squiggly blue lines. The fewer bridges they had to cross the better.

  “Let’s get the guy in the back to winch the cars out from under there.” LeBron replied. He couldn’t quite place which Marine had actually jumped in the back. Whoever it was had periodically checked in over the radio, but LeBron wasn’t having any luck attaching a face or name to the voice. A few minutes of coordination over the radio later LeBron found himself standing on the hot asphalt next to another noob leatherneck who reintroduced himself as Mitch.

  The name Mitch seemed out of place on the muscular blond Marine. Shrugging off that oddity LeBron stood off to the side with his rifle while Mitch ran the cable from the winch over to the wreckage. LeBron turned in a complete circle to survey their surroundings. The second he’d left the shelter of the truck he’d mentally switched over to defensive mode. He felt naked and exposed standing in the middle of the road. He knew how fast a surger could appear and take him out.

  Sensing something was wrong LeBron stopped his circular motion to check out what Mitch was up to. The Marine had wrapped a cable around the fender of one of the trucks so they could pull it out. It’d be an even easier ta
sk if he could shift the pickup into neutral. Mitch walked into the darker shadows under the bridge to see if he could do that. LeBron slowly walked towards Mitch to provide more accurate cover fire if needed.

  Mitch stood under the overpass yanking on the crumpled door to the bright yellow pickup. What kind of person buys a bright yellow pickup anyway? LeBron raised his rifle to his shoulder. He stared through the sights at the pickup and the area around Mitch. Something didn’t seem right. Mitch must’ve sensed it also as he suddenly stood straight up and looked around. Not seeing anything he went back to trying to get the door open so he could shift it into neutral. There was a flash of movement from the top of the overpass.

  “Get back!” LeBron screamed at Mitch.

  Mitch looked up from the door then immediately spun around groping for his rifle. A dark shape flew through the air and slammed into him. Mitch and the crawler that’d hit him both smashed into the side of the bright yellow pickup. They bounced off the truck and rolled around in the dirt. Mitch had his hands locked around the skinny crawler’s neck. He was squeezing for all he was worth. LeBron took off running towards them to try and help. He tripped and tumbled right into the fight.