The team secured the passageway and methodically advanced down the next set of stairs taking out more of the infected as they went. The monitors didn’t have audio, but Drew could imagine how loud the passageways must be with the Marines firing almost constantly into the screaming psychos running and jumping at them like suicidal drunken acrobats. That constant firing was going to take its toll on their ammunition supply. Drew was beginning to wonder if they were going to have enough to make it all the way to the VP closet.
The Marines had one spot they couldn’t clear out and lock down as they passed through it. They had to come down beside the main hangar and take a side passage to get to the level the VP was at. It was the same level the former President was still wandering around on in his eternal quest for brains. Or at least it’d be an eternal quest until the ship sank or one of the rescue teams clipped him. Drew wondered if killing the President would make swearing in the new President easier from a legal standpoint. He didn’t remember anything from that Netflix series with Keifer Sutherland about how the line of succession worked if the President got turned into a zombie.
The rescue team went through the open space in a flurry of automatic weapons fire. It was the only place on their route they were going to have to worry about coming back through. They’d have to give it some time for that area to clear out. The open space the team had just passed through filled up like the front couple of rows at a major rock concert in less than a minute after they passed through it.
The men around the bridge let out a collective sigh of relief when the cameras showed the team crashing in and securing the room the VP was in. Drew assumed they still called him the VP until he was sworn in and became the P. There appeared to be a quick argument between the VP and the lieutenant but then one of the men bent down and tossed the bloody body of an older woman across his shoulders. The lieutenant came across the radio and advised they had the package and were beginning exfiltration on their mark.
The only part that really required a mark was the part where they had to go through the unsecured section of the hangar. The man on the radio moved his mouse around until he was able to control the speakers on the far side of the hangar as a group. He started making noises like he was calling a dog.
“Here crawler, crawler, crawlerz…”
It sounded dumb but it worked. Now all they had to do was install an overhead paging system across the entirety of the USA and they’d be able to easily send groups of the infected wherever they needed to. The rescue team rapidly transitioned through the vacated space and into the cleared-out passage up the ladder next to it. On the monitor they saw a couple of explosions as the passageway the rescue team had gone into was sealed off from the inside. They must’ve tossed out a couple of frags for the hell of it.
Then it was over. The VP and his corpse bride had been rescued. He was sworn in on the bridge to a round of applause. His first official order as President was for someone to find a coffin for his dead wife. Then the newest President of the United States put his head down in his arms and cried.
Chapter 28: Just a Flesh Wound
“Now what?” Mikey asked.
It was a valid question. The bridge they needed to cross to get to the rendezvous point wasn’t there anymore. There were just some random support beams and piles of concrete sticking up out of the fast-flowing river. Someone had gone through the trouble of having it blown up. If the residents had done it before the infection spread to their area it may well have saved them. If the military had done it afterwards to try and establish a safe haven it still may have helped many of them to survive. Either way LeBron wasn’t seeing a way for them to drive around it. They could backtrack but he had a sneaking suspicion they’d find the other bridges had received similar treatment.
“We’re going to need a boat.” LeBron said hesitantly. He was thinking they could ditch the truck and take a boat to the little island rendezvous point. That was going to require finding a boat. They had the inflatable assault raft in the trailer, but he wasn’t sure what kind of range that thing had. It wouldn’t do them much good to make it to the rendezvous point then not be able to make it back to the truck.
“When do you think the next truck will get here?” Mikey asked.
It was like he was reading LeBron’s mind. He’d just been wondering the same thing. If another truck happened to pull up right about now it’d sure make life easier. They could leave a couple of men to guard the trucks that way. LeBron supposed they should start trying the CB radio to get in contact with the next truck. He kind of doubted they were in range yet though. It took time to build the cages and prep the trucks. He wasn’t expecting to see the next truck for another four to six hours at the earliest. It may be even longer since no one was going to try driving once the sun set.
“I’m not sure we have time to wait for them to show up. We need to make contact with the crew from the ship. They’re expecting us, so I want to make sure we’re there on time.” LeBron answered slowly. He wasn’t really clear as to what their next steps should be. He wasn’t a fan of leaving their nicely outfitted truck full of supplies sitting here on the side of the road for any random survivor to take. The only saving grace being the reinforced vehicles were meant to keep people out. If those people were psychotic cannibal freaks with extremely diminished cognitive capabilities. If a regular guy with a set of bolt cutters stumbled on the truck they were screwed.
“It’s starting to get kind of late right?” Mikey reminded him. The shadows were stretching out longer. It wouldn’t be safe out in the open pretty soon. LeBron looked down at the map and did some mental math.
“Yeah, even if we found a boat to use, we wouldn’t make it there until after dark. This river looks like it wraps around everywhere. I don’t know that we’d be able to find an island in the ocean in the middle of the night. I say we do a quick search around here to see if there’s a boat we may be able to use in the morning then we turn in for the night. We can hit it again first thing in the morning.” LeBron said. He hated saying it. Any sort of delay could be the death of his brother and sister.
“Makes sense. Hopefully the next truck shows up soon. Maybe by morning we’ll have us a convoy.” Mikey said. He was staring off the side of the bridge. You could see the overgrown yards of the multimillion-dollar homes lined up along the river. Each of them had a dock extended out over the water.
“Let’s get down there and see if we can find one that we can figure out how to get started.” LeBron said. He’d walked over to stand beside Mikey. Seeing what Mikey was staring at he’d also started checking out the homes along the river.
It took the rest of the day to confirm that every single one of the expensive boat houses were missing the actual boats. Exhausted and defeated they drove across the road and up a long driveway to a home without a million-dollar river view. As they pulled in at the end of the drive, they noticed a trailer holding a nice-looking tarp covered boat sitting in the backyard. Mikey shut down the truck and opened his door to go check it out.
“Let’s wait until morning.” LeBron said once he’d gotten out as well. It was way too dark outside for his comfort. They hadn’t seen any of the infected all day. They’d seen the standard signs of the apocalypse sprinkled around everywhere though. All of the random destruction that popped up in this world they were stuck living in. The obvious things like missing windows, cars in ditches, decomposing bodies in odd places. There was also that weird hum in the air. That constant feeling of being watched. LeBron thought it could just be his own paranoia, but Mikey said that he felt it too.
They locked up the cab of the truck and circled around to the back to lock themselves in for the night. The sound of a table being knocked over in the house they were parked beside freaked both of them out. Mikey dropped the keys in the dirt. LeBron came close to putting a few rounds into the house. The only thing that held his trigger finger back was the thought of all of the noise that’d make.
Mikey finally got the padlock off
and they hopped up in the back. Once inside they used the bars welded to the floor and ceiling to secure the doors. Once they were safely tucked in, they flipped on the electric lantern hanging on the wall. The pile of sleeping bags revealed by the light beckoned to them both. They’d just started laying out a couple of the bags when the first crawler slammed into the side of the trailer. It hit so hard LeBron thought that maybe a tree had fallen on top of them. He knew immediately what it must really be when the hits kept coming. Pretty soon the strikes were coming from every direction.
“They can’t get in, right?” Mikey said nervously looking around. In a few places the walls of the trailer were rippling where the crawlerz were slamming into it. It made LeBron happy the master chief had felt the need to bolt some extra sheet metal to the insides of the trailer.
“I hope not. The other trailers I used to sleep in weren’t anywhere near as solid these and they held up fine. Probably wouldn’t be a horrible idea to sleep in shifts though. Keep an eye on the walls until these things give up and leave.” LeBron said. He left out the fact that the crawlerz slamming into the trailer were the loudest ones he’d ever heard. They must be hurling themselves through the air like horizontal cliff divers. Knowing they were completely oblivious to their own bodily pain he wasn’t going to be surprised in the morning to find a few bodies scattered around the oversized driveway. They’d literally break their own necks trying to get at them. They also wouldn’t just give up and leave. Not until the sun came up and forced them to seek shelter anyway.
“Cool. You sleep first since you’re used to this crap. I don’t know how the hell you sleep through something like this. I should’ve brought some pills or a bottle of something.” Mikey said nervously. He absolutely looked like he could use a drink.
Mikey woke LeBron up at around three in the morning. The crawlerz were still banging into the trailer on a regular basis. Neither Mikey nor LeBron had said a word since planning out their sleeping schedule earlier. True to form the crawlerz were able to tell they were there whether they made any noise or not. It was freaky. Especially when you paired it up with that weird energy and sense of being watched. LeBron sat miserably in the middle of the trailer rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Mikey passed out as soon as his head hit the floor. His fear wasn’t enough to continue to fight off his body’s need to sleep.
The attack on the trailer slowed then stopped altogether as the sun came up. LeBron had found a corner of the door where a tiny little gap let him see the dawn creeping in. He said a quick prayer like he did every time he lived to see the sun come up. It was a habit he’d gotten into over the past few months. One he was sure his mom would’ve approved of. It was her face he pictured when he prayed which was the main reason that he kept doing it. To stop now would be like letting her go and he wasn’t ready to do that. Not yet.
Seeing that light filtering in he walked back to nudge Mikey awake with his boot. He then jumped backwards to avoid getting pummeled by a freaked out Marine. Mikey didn’t handle being woken up abruptly by feeling something poking at him very well. Once they’d both calmed down from that unexpected excitement, they made sure their weapons were ready to go and went back to the doors. Wishing once again that they had video cameras on the outside of the trailers LeBron worked the first steel bar out of its groove to open the back door. Mikey stood back a couple of feet with his rifle to his shoulder ready to kill any infected that made an appearance.
They pulled up all the steel bars and swung the doors open. The area they were in didn’t seem to have any surgers in it which was a great thing. It meant they didn’t have to shoot their way out of the trailer. It was nice to occasionally have some good luck. Mikey started to hop down off the truck to the ground below. LeBron grabbed him by the shoulder before he could get out.
“You need to jump far enough that if there’s a crawler curled up under the trailer they don’t decide to go after you. They don’t necessarily sleep the day away. A lot of the time they’re just lurking around. Or maybe they wake up when they sense us coming by. That’d explain that weird energy we both keep feeling.” LeBron whispered. Now that the sun was up, he probably didn’t need to whisper. Old habits die hard though. Especially old habits that’ve kept you alive in a world filled with death.
“Got it. Jump far so I don’t get Hungry Hippoed by a crawler.” Mikey said. He tried to say it nonchalantly, but LeBron saw him physically gulp at the thought of a pile of crawlerz writhing around underneath the trailer.
He took a few steps backwards to get a running start. That was probably overkill. LeBron hoped it didn’t end up with him supporting the large Marine the rest of the day as he limped around on a twisted ankle. He held his breath as Mikey jumped. It wasn’t pretty. He tried to jump way too far. Fear and paranoia propelled him through the air like a cheaply constructed mannequin shot out of a cannon. His arms and legs waved around wildly. He hit the ground and immediately tumbled into some kind of drunken somersault.
It would’ve been hilarious except for the very real threat of pale bodies swooping out from under the trailer at superhuman speed to rip the flesh from his body. Also dampening the hilarity was the fact that Mikey was carrying an automatic weapon. He’d jumped with his finger on the trigger and a full magazine slammed in. LeBron wondered if he should lie down on the floor of the trailer to prevent Mikey from shooting him by accident. He overcame the urge for self-preservation and maintained his overwatch position in the back of the trailer. He kept his rifle trained on the area where Mikey came to rest.
When nothing moved and Mikey didn’t accidentally shoot him LeBron let himself relax for a second. Mikey went to a knee once he recovered from his overzealous jump. He did a thorough inspection of the underside of the trailer. He didn’t see any crawlerz hanging out underneath it which made him extremely happy. LeBron hopped down and together they cleared the area before focusing in on the reason they were parked there to begin with.
The half-hidden boat trailer they’d seen sticking out of the backyard was conveniently complete with tarp covered boat. Judging by the expensive looking house LeBron assumed the boat was going to be decent. Him and Mikey worked together to try and get the cover off of it. The bungee cords and ropes and levers conspired against them. After a couple of minutes of screwing around their knives came out and the tarp was shredded.
“This thing’s huge.” Mikey said stepping back to take in the oversized adult toy they’d just unwrapped.
“It’s really on the smaller side as far as boats go. I think it just looks huge because it’s out of the water.” LeBron said. He was wondering how they got it in the water. There was probably a boat launch around somewhere, but he had no idea how that worked. He was pretty sure normal people didn’t haul a boat trailer with an eighteen-wheeler. He didn’t see them being able to slowly back the boat in. He looked over at Mikey who looked as dumbfounded as he felt.
“Let’s check the radio and see if anybody else is here yet?” Mikey finally suggested.
“Yeah, I think we may need to phone a friend on this one. It figures we’re here to rescue a bunch of sailors and neither of us know how to work a boat.” LeBron said. He wished for the millionth time that the internet was still up. He could’ve probably YouTubed everything they needed to know in under ten minutes. As it was, he had no clue. They hadn’t even been able to figure out how to get the tarp off without resorting to knives.
Walking over to the cage to climb up into the cab LeBron wanted to smack himself in the forehead. The first thing they should’ve done this morning was reach out on the radio to see if anyone else had made it here yet. The tarp could’ve waited.
“What the hell?” Mikey said. The words shot out of his mouth at the sight of the side of the trailer they’d spent the night in. He’d been so focused on the bottom of it he hadn’t seen the side of the olive-green trailer yet. LeBron knew immediately what he was talking about. It was hard to believe that human beings could’ve made the oversized dents in the side of
the trailer using nothing but their own bodies as projectiles.
LeBron left Mikey to gape at the massive dents. He unlocked the access piece of the cage so he could crawl up into the cab. He grabbed the radio as soon as he was in the cab and reached out to see if anyone had joined them yet. He didn’t get back a response after the first broadcast so tried again. Mikey crawled up in the cab and joined him in listening to the nothingness coming back at them. They were about to give up and go stare at the boat a little longer when a voice crackled on the radio.
Twenty minutes later another truck pulled into the driveway. The crew driving that one had stopped before getting to the demolished bridge. They’d spent the night in their trailer and been understandably freaked out by all the action. Over the radio they’d confirmed one of the men in their truck had spent his summers working on boats up in New England. That sounded promising. At least until the guy admitted he’d never actually had to put a boat in the water.
Crawlerz | Book 2 | Batten Down The Hatches Page 26