“I think Amita and I were more inspired by the idea of the pandemic coming for us at first. We weren’t true believers in that first month. We started putting some thought into what we could do though. I had my granddaughter staying with me while her parents were off on safari over in Africa. It was a trip they’d been talking about for years. They never made it back.” Carl added. He was the construction worker who’d made it big. He’d used that talent to build safe rooms into the houses around the island. His company had won the contract and as part of that deal he’d gotten himself a prime piece of real estate to call his own. The safe rooms had been intended for protection from hurricanes, but they turned out to be pretty effective against crawlerz as well.
“What happened to the doctor and his wife?” LeBron asked. It was nice to be sitting in a room having a conversation without worrying about being overheard. The large shelter built into one of the conference rooms at the country club was crawler proof for the most part. It was intended to provide protection for a large group of people if they happened to be caught here during anything from a bomb threat to a hurricane.
“One of our neighbors was a retired admiral who got paid to consult with the pentagon. Basically, a fat seven figure salary to occasionally take old buddies out to play golf and talk them into certain vendors for huge contracts. That sort of thing. He made a couple of phone calls and three hours later there was a couple of explosions and the bridge wasn’t there anymore. I think that gave everyone a false sense of security. A few days later some infected ripped through a bunch of people in broad daylight. I’ve tracked down how they got here since then on the video system. They were on a boat that just floated across from the other side of the river. It was completely random.” Amita supplied a little more backstory on how so many of the islanders were still alive.
Looking at the tablet Amita was passing around LeBron could see furtive shapes moving through the lashing rain. The rainstorm he’d come up through had turned into a full-on hurricane. The trees on the island were bending over like they were trying to touch their toes. No one else seemed overly concerned about the storm. LeBron on the other hand wasn’t just thinking about them. His brother and sister were on a ship covered with the infected trying to get to a small island in the middle of a hurricane.
“Can you look out in the ocean?” LeBron asked. To answer their inquisitive looks he went ahead and explained why he was there. He’d been vague about it previously although he wasn’t sure why. He’d thought they may be pissed about a few hundred sailors coming to camp out on their peaceful little patch of paradise.
Amita hit some buttons on her tablet and then stared into the rain coated lens of the camera mounted on the top of the country club. She couldn’t see anything through that one so started trying others. She finally gave up after one of the cameras she was trying to look through lifted off into the air. The camera was mounted solidly to the roof that’d just been blown off one of the homes.
“We might have a problem.” Amita said explaining what’d just happened to the roof on the home that was closest to the ocean to Carl. She shook her head when LeBron asked her if she’d seen anything that looked like a ship. All she’d really seen was rain and glimpses of the raging surf. She hit some buttons then handed Carl the tablet so he could watch the roof blow off. Carl grunted and began pacing back and forth.
“What’s the problem?” LeBron asked. Mentally he was ticking off all the possible answers to his own very vague question.
“These houses were all built to withstand up to a cat 5 hurricane. We’ve gone around and made sure all the doors and shutters have been shut in every house. This storm’s something else. I’m not too worried about the wind but the storm surge could be an issue.” Carl said. He left them to go sit in an overstuffed recliner where his granddaughter bounced up into his lap demanding a story.
In addition to locking down each of the houses against storms they’d also sent men out every day to thin out the crawlerz on the island. They’d used the high-tech surveillance cameras to locate where the crawlerz chose to spend the day then sent men to exterminate them. Even with their heightened sensitivity to sunlight the infected would still spring out of whatever dark hole they’d burrowed into when they sensed a group of uninfected approaching. It was dangerous but necessary work. If this hurricane tore down all the homes, then their hard-fought liberation of this island would all be for nothing.
Tossing around scenarios in his head for what the sun would bring in the morning LeBron laid down in the cot he was told he could use. He slid his pistol under his pillow and put his pack down by his head. For all he knew these people were planning to slit his throat as soon as he fell asleep to take his guns and ammo. He fully intended to sleep with one eye open.
Amita poked him a few times at dawn to wake him up. LeBron jumped up with a start knocking his pistol onto the ground. Amita stared in amusement at him while he slowly collected himself. She bent over and picked up his pistol then handed it back to him.
“Nightmares or trust issues?” She asked him with a smile dancing across her lips.
“Both. Sunup?” An embarrassed LeBron asked. His embarrassment soon forgotten when Amita nodded that the sun had indeed risen. His thoughts immediately turned to getting outside to take a look and see if he could locate the ship. He rolled out of the cot and shrugged his way into the heavy pack.
He took the heavy pack off a minute later after Amita explained they were going to have to dig their way out of the wreckage of the country club before they could get outside. The storm had pretty much destroyed everything. What the wind hadn’t wrecked the storm surge had demolished. If it weren’t for the hardened storm shelters Carl had built into the different buildings, they’d probably all be dead. She had a few cameras that were still accessible, but they weren’t showing anything useful since they were either submerged or buried in rubble.
An hour of manual labor later LeBron was able to squeeze out through the wreckage of the club. It was now a muddy wreck. You could just make out the fact that it’d been a building the day before. Carl emerged a minute later and handed him his pack.
“Let’s take a walk.” Carl said stepping down into the knee-deep water covering what used to be the stately driveway.
“Cool. I want to go check out the ocean and see if there’s any sign of the ship yet.” LeBron said. He was hoping not to see anything actually. If they’d come to close to shore during that storm last night, he didn’t see how they would’ve kept from running aground. Once they were pinned down, they could’ve been beaten apart by the massive waves.
“This whole place was wetlands when it first got developed. I guess when we slink out of here later this land will go back to being a swamp.” Carl said as they walked. At the end of the driveway, they waded through more water until they got to what was left of the beach. Seeming extremely close to them was an aircraft carrier resting at an odd angle right off the coast.
“Do you know where we can find a boat?” LeBron asked a stunned looking Carl. He’d walked LeBron out here to get the young man to see his fantasy of an aircraft carrier pulling up on the beach wasn’t going to happen. Now he was trying to answer LeBron’s boat question, but no words would actually leave his mouth.
Chapter 33: You Can’t Fight the Rip
“I think we’re further out than when we started.” Drew complained. He wasn’t quite as bummed as he could’ve been. They’d lucked into a half-inflated raft and some other buoyant objects. Flotsam that’d either fallen off the ship or been swept out to sea by the receding storm surge. If he’d had to keep swimming this entire time, he doubted he’d have made it. The younger Marines with them swam like dolphins but the two older ones had obviously been neglecting their exercise regimen recently. Laying across the half-inflated raft with Yue while they doggedly kicked their feet wasn’t too bad. Although he was pretty sure they were as likely to wash up on a beach in Australia as they were to reach the beach they were kicking for.
He could feel the sun beating down on him, but he was uncontrollably shivering. He was going to get hypothermia and sun poisoning at the same time. His parched throat told him that dehydration was also trying to get up in there as a potential cause of death. He noticed Yue’s eyes were closed so he poked her in the side to wake her up. Her open eyes reflected the misery he felt but they also revealed she wasn’t dead yet.
“We there yet?” Yue croaked out.
“Almost. Just keep swimming.” One of the Marines sang out through chattering teeth imitating Dory from Finding Nemo. Looking over Drew saw the Marine was floating on his back with his head resting on the raft. He had his hat pulled down to shield his eyes from the sun while he napped. He was one of the men with the survival training. If he’d given up, then they really were screwed.
Drew rolled over on his back and looked towards the ship. They’d drifted a considerable distance from it. Mostly thanks to the massive rip current pulling them out to sea. The island they’d hoped to land on appeared deceptively close. It was also almost completely under water still. Coming to the peak of the wave they were currently on Drew saw a light reflect off glass in the water around the carrier. Not sure what it was he’d seen he asked Yue to borrow her pistol.
Her eyes popped open as she frantically looked all around them for the dorsal fin that she thought he needed the pistol for. Drew would’ve laughed but didn’t think his parched throat would be able to handle it. Instead, he stuck the pistol up in the air and pulled the trigger three times. The cussing all around him a reminder that it might’ve been a good idea to let everyone else know he was about to shoot a gun right next to them. When he explained why he’d done it they all got hopeful for a few minutes. When nothing happened, they all began to slip back away into their own worlds.
Drew kept up his enthusiasm slightly longer than others. He put his head down finally and just surrendered. He let his body float in the water. Focusing on that sensation of weightlessness helped him avoid fixating on how thirsty and cold he was. His attempt at slipping away peacefully was ruined by the arrival of a Boston Whaler throwing up a wake all over them. Gagging and spitting out water he looked up at the obvious mirage. He laughed at the tricks his mind was playing on him and put his head back down in his arms.
Strong arms reached down and fished him and the others off the raft. Most of them were in a hypothermic fugue state by that time. The small sports boat suddenly crowded with the half dozen half drowned shipwreck survivors splayed out on the deck.
“We’ve got to get them back to shore.” LeBron said looking down at the blue lips and half-closed eyes.
Carl nodded and pushed the throttle all the way forward. The tough little boat breaking through the large swell with ease. Carl handled her with the ease of a veteran sports fisherman. He was one of those special people who could actually sit down and watch the fishing tournaments on TV.
LeBron went around rubbing the skin of each person. A couple of the Marines were coming out of it and helping now as well. One of them directed LeBron to help him get everyone’s clothes off. LeBron stopped and looked at him wondering if the hypothermia had impacted the man’s brain.
“He’s right. We can use our body heat to help warm up the ones who aren’t waking up. We need to do it now.” A tall gangly man was in the process of pulling off his sister’s t-shirt. She wasn’t really wearing much anyway so not a big deal. LeBron helped get one of the older Marine’s pants off while keeping an eye on the tall guy to make sure he wasn’t trying anything weird with Yue.
They were in the river headed for the wreckage of the dock they’d found the Boston Whaler wrapped around when another boat came cruising towards them from further inland. In the midst of everyone scrambling to find weapons LeBron recognized the occupants of the other boat. He told everyone to stand down.
“Somebody knows how to party! Where’s our invite?” Mikey yelled when he saw the pile of bodies in the boat and figured out that they were living people. A pile of naked dead bodies in a boat is a completely different kind of party and not one he had any desire to be invited to.
“Hello there beautiful.” Gus said pulling off his jacket and gallantly tossing it over to a shivering Yue.
“That’s my sister.” LeBron said.
“I was talking to the tall guy in the whitey tighties. Can you pass my jacket over to him?” Gus joked. His face was dead serious though. LeBron realized he was wearing dry clothes and a minute later pretty much everyone was hanging out in their underwear. LeBron, Carl, and Gus were all mostly naked with their dry clothes being used as blankets for the rapidly dethawing people in the boat. Mikey was the only one allowed to keep his pants on since his leg was still all messed up from their battle to escape the garage. LeBron had told him to stop trying after he almost fell out of the boat attempting to take his pants off.
“I can’t believe it’s you.” Yue said as she disengaged from the bear hug Jeff was giving her. LeBron eyed the tall man suspiciously.
“It’s ok’s they’re going steady.” Drew said rolling his eyes behind the height challenged couple.
Mikey took them all the way up the river to the house where the trucks were parked. There were three trucks crammed into the driveway now. They’d let them know they were coming. Men were standing on the end of the rickety looking dock with steaming cups of coffee and a stack of blankets.
“Ok. Get these guys comfortable. We’ll be back.” LeBron said. Jeff helped the others up and onto the dock leveraging his height to assist. Then he grabbed himself a blanket and hopped back down into the boat next to LeBron.
“I’m going too. We need to keep up the laps around the carrier. There’s still a lot of people trapped inside. If we’re not there when they jump, then they won’t make it.” Jeff said. Carl got them moving at a safe speed through the debris choked river down to the inlet. Gus and Mikey followed directly behind. Carl had the homefield advantage. His ease with the sports fishing boats made him the natural leader in this situation.
Jeff filled in LeBron and Carl on what’d transpired to take the proud carrier down. A massive military weapon that was the pride of the fleet. It hadn’t gone out with a bang but with a moan. Taken out by an ancient bioweapon. LeBron and Carl listened in awe as Jeff described the carnage and horror experienced aboard the ship. Jeff put the VP to President part of the story as nicely as he could, but it didn’t take a genius to read between the lines there.
“That was the helicopter I saw fly over right before it began to rain.” LeBron said. That sweaty hike across the island already a distant memory. There was no telling where the fancy golf cart had ended up at during the storm.
“I guess you noticed the helicopter left but he didn’t bother sending anyone back to help the rest of us.” Jeff said. No longer bothering to force them to read between the lines. He was so sick of politics at this point. The world was literally dying all around them and morons like the new President were still making power plays.
“You guys drop me off. I’m going to let my granddaughter know I’m ok and get some more guys on boats to come help with the rescue effort. I’m assuming one of you can figure out how to drive this boat?” Carl asked. They both nodded. Carl didn’t seem convinced.
“We’ve got this. We’ll see you when you join us out there.” LeBron said.
“Wear your lifejackets and don’t aim straight for the survivors. You won’t be doing them any good if you run over them. These things don’t stop like a car does.” Carl said. He seemed to be reconsidering if he should leave them in charge. Jeff assured him they had it covered and shoved off from the pier. He accidentally went in reverse about twenty yards before figuring out how to go forward. Doing his best not to make eye contact with Carl he then steered them out into the channel. Following in the wake of Gus and Mikey who were full speed ahead out towards the massive shipwreck.
When they’d made it out to about a hundred yards distance from the wreck they slowed down. Each of them went
a separate direction slowly trolling to look for survivors. Surgers stood on the edge of the flight deck staring down at the boats with hate filled eyes. They seemed to intuit that even with their adrenaline pumping they couldn’t reach the hated humans. LeBron was looking up at them when the heads on every surger along the deck suddenly snapped to look in the direction of three desperate sailors hauling ass for the railing.
LeBron got off a couple of shots before Jeff put his hand on his shoulder. From this distance bobbing around on the boat it wasn’t likely he’d hit what he was aiming at. The last thing he wanted to do was accidentally snipe one of the men making a run for it. The three of them were making a valiant effort. The surgers converging on them from every direction. Two of the men made it to the side. One of them was ripped backwards out of the air as he jumped. The other man leapt like an Olympic diver and disappeared into the ocean with two of the surgers tumbling into the water after him.
Crawlerz | Book 2 | Batten Down The Hatches Page 30