by John Holmes
I had joined a damage control party running a fire hose forward to try and squelch the blaze. I looked up over the high bow bulwarks and saw the gate of the drydock coming into view as Chief Aquia finished the turn and lined us up for our approach. The ship put on one last burst of speed, as if she was game to die in battle.
Without warning a Phalanx gun on the carrier slewed around and aimed directly at us. The Gatling gun opened fire like a buzz saw as I ducked behind the nearest armor plating. It wouldn’t have done any good if the gun had been targeting me. Instead the 20mm shells tore through the bridge, shattering glass, ripping metal, and shredding instruments. There was no way anyone was still alive up there, but still the ship remained on course.
I peaked over the bulwark and saw soldiers or yard workers running across the gate. I ducked down. My shout to “HANG ON!” was lost in the din of battle.
Chapter 24
ETHAN
They didn’t have much vehicle or man power to commit to the search. I made a mess of my escape route, turning every which way, but I was never more than a mile from the fence. At nightfall everyone retreated inside the fence. All the activity had stirred up the zombies and they all descended upon the fence. Despite the danger, I wanted back in. They still had all my gear and the fifteen shots in my pistol wouldn’t get me very far against the zombies. They had the whole outside fence area well lit, but I had noticed they didn’t devote the same manpower to the side of the base which faced the water.
I skirted around the fence just outside the sight of the lights. I’m sure my movement was lost amongst the dozens of zombies moving around. The fence wrapped around the whole property but as I came to the water it wasn’t as lit or patrolled. The water below was cold and rocky but there was a convenient ledge ten feet below the top of the cliff and five feet above the water. Water crashed up to my feet and it was hard to keep my footing, but I took it slow.
I kept going until I was below the house with the comms gear. I could tell where it was because of the thick cable which came over the side of the cliff and disappeared below me. I used the cables to climb up and peer over the top. The house had some lights shining from the inside but I couldn’t see anyone around outside. They probably had every man they could spare stationed on the outer fence culling the Zombies that were drawn in.
Part of the fence was cut to allow the cables to pass underneath. I got up to fence and used some elbow grease to lift that part just enough to allow myself in. I did my best to straighten the chain link back into place. They would have to get close to notice anything amiss. Hopefully my presence would go unnoticed.
I moved along the cliff inside the fence opposite of the way I approached. It was the opposite corner from the gate so I figured it would be the quietest area. There was a large bush butted against one of the houses closest to the corner and I made myself at home underneath. As my adrenaline finally wore off, it was all I could do to keep from crying aloud from the accumulated beatings my body had taken. It wasn’t worth moving anymore so I stayed out of sight. I slipped off the sleep.
I’m not sure how long I was out. I woke to explosions and screaming. There was total confusion. I rolled out from under my bush. Predawn darkness concealed me. I moved to the fence overlooking the bay. With each explosion I could see the outline of a dark ship. After seeing the silhouette I was immediately reminded of a mission IST5 ran a couple years ago in Baltimore to capture the USCGC Taney. The paint was different but the outline was distinctive, despite attempts to alter it with canvass awnings and false deckhouses. Still quite the plan.
Seamen scrambled around returning fire from the mounted machine guns and mortars. Taney continued on her course further into the harbor. Several PBRs were buzzing around and two headed toward the outpost returning fire.
I was lost in the confusion so I decided to make myself of use. I ran back toward the park at the center of town. I came around a corner and surprised a tall sailor. I put two rounds center mass. He fell quickly to the .45. I bent over to loot his weapon and I’ll be damned if it wasn’t my M-14. He only had two magazines on him, but that would be plenty to cause trouble.
I took cover in the playground beneath the jungle gym. I drew down on the farthest guard post and dispatched the man posted there, returning fire. Most of the towers were now unmanned but my shots were lost in the confusion and I was able to take out the remaining tower guards. I was still unnoticed as I made my way out of my hiding place.
I approached the line of defensive turrets from behind. I was able to take out the team furthest from the water and I looted their position. Several grenades were my bounty. I armed and rolled one along the ground toward another position in front of mine. I ducked behind the sandbags making up my cover until the explosion.
The gunners ahead took notice of the explosion and saw me peek up above my cover. Their defense forces were now divided between fending off the PBRs and chasing me between houses. I exhausted my .308 ammo but decided to hang onto the rifle. It was chaotic. The fences and structures stared to fall from the volume of fire.
I found myself at the front gate entrance to the outpost. There I found a Humvee hastily parked just inside the gate. I approached, out of breath. I began to take fire from the other side of the vehicle and I dove for cover behind it. From the ground I could see under the Humvee. The fire was coming from civilians huddled behind a building by the gate, as far from the water and fighting as possible. About twelve women and children including some that I had met. I called out from the Humvee, “I won’t hurt you! Please take this and get out of here!” I struggled to make myself heard over the chaos. But as I looked up through the windows I saw them slowly approach. I put up my arms and moved away. They all piled in and I watched them drive away avoiding the zombies. I wondered if Zoey was with them.
Loud speakers could be heard coming from the water. “Echo Sierra. Whiskey Sierra.” I perked up. The call repeated. “Make yourselves known.” Those PBRs were getting pretty close. I had long since lost pursuers so I made my way slowly back toward the water. There were only a couple crews left manning their guns.
This was my chance. I sprinted headlong to the bay passing the gunners. I don’t know if they didn’t see me or were just taken off guard. I dove into the water and started swimming. At this point I was fueled by adrenaline and swam all out. The PBRs were buzzing about and I screamed myself hoarse trying to get their attention.
I finally just took out my pistol and waited until one was close and loosed four shots into the air. A spotlight was on me and I was hauled aboard while we took fire. I could see further up the bay to the Taney. Clearly there was something big happening. The Chief approached me. I greeted, “Echo Sierra. Thanks for the rescue. What’s the plan?”
“Whiskey Sierra just radioed in, we are going to go pick him up now. There is some spare gear in the cabin.”
I went in to find a plate carrier and several magazines. I chose the appropriate ones for my guns. I felt the boat slow down, then speed up again and before I knew it I was joined by William. He also started grabbing replacement ammo.
Chapter 25
RYAN
Taney shuddered. It was too soon. A massive explosion tore through the back quarter of the ship. It was like a giant vengeful hand had reached down and lifted the stern out of the water, only to slam it back down again. I don’t know what caused it but I saw a large square of metal, which had been riveted to the ship since the mid 1930’s fly into the air. Taney immediately began to settle and the cant of the deck towards the stern became instantly noticeable.
Then the ship shook again, even harder than before and made a defining sound of twisting steel. It was Taney’s death throw. The ship’s bow, reinforced for icebreaking, crumpled like a soda can as it impacted the gates of the drydock. The bow drove up onto the top of the gate, making the list of the deck even more pronounced. The gates also gave way a little and water began to flood into the graving dock.
I can honestly say I
was stunned by the cacophony of destruction going on around me. The night turned into eerie day, by the fires, explosions, gunshots, and lights all over the harbor. Even as I sat paralyzed with fear, my senses overwhelmed, other began to pull themselves together.
The operators threw boarding nets over the sides on the bow and began to climb down. The defenders must have been temporarily stunned themselves because for precious seconds the gunfire slacked off.
Lieutenant Herold grabbed me by the shoulder and started leading me to the bow. “Time to go, remember the explosives are set to go off. Remember, hands on the vertical, feet on the horizontal.”
He pushed me over the rail and I grabbed the net and began to climb down. Above me Herold stepped on my hand as he began to climb down after me. “Keep your hands on the vertical ropes.” He said as I pulled my hand out from under his boot.
The shooting began to intensify as the SEALs and other operators swarmed the area. If we succeeded it would be because of their speed and violence of action; few can stand against an onslaught like they mounted.
By the time I was running across the open causeway on the gate the fighting was already moving into the surrounding buildings. I joined Adam behind a traffic barrier. Herold and his radioman joined us as he began to coordinate the attack.
He put down the handset and looked up at me. “The boat crews managed to ambush the outpost at the mouth of the harbor. They picked up your cousins and are bringing them to the pier over there. Grab them and proceed on your objective.” He went back to issuing commands over the handset.
Adam and I broke cover and ducked into a building. I took point with my P-90 and we began to sweep through the rooms. We exited and ran to a warehouse across a road. The door was locked but it already had a small explosive charge on the locking mechanism. We looked at it confused, then we smelled death.
The explosive beeped as it armed and we ran straight ahead. There was a load pop as the charge went off, then several more pops from other warehouses nearby. The doors pushed open and the undead started to poor out.
Suddenly the immediate threat wasn’t the rebel gunman, firing wildly to cover their retreat, but the hordes of undead, released against us. Adam and I ran for the dock where Ethan and William were getting out of the PBR. Luckily the zombies ignored us and went after the people who were making noise. They must have been suffering from sensory overload between the fires and explosions and gunfire all around them.
Suddenly a violent explosion rocked the entire harbor. The massive amount of explosives packed into Taney’s bow went off with an earth shaking crack and a blinding flash of light that shook buildings to their foundations and broke windows all across the city. The gate to the dock was utterly obliterated and water rushed into the dock.
As I picked myself up off the ground where I had instinctively thrown myself after the explosion William and Ethan jumped off the boat to joined me on the pier. Other explosions started going off around the area. The Special Forces guys were destroying their targets now almost unopposed.
“It’s been a while since I saw fireworks like that.” William said as I bear hugged him.
“I’ve seen better.” Ethan said trying to feign disinterest in the holocaust all around us.
“I guess this means mission accomplished.” I said.
A new set of explosions immediately ended that train of thought. They weren’t demolition charges, they were something else.
Chapter 26
General Fortier’s counter attack was just as devastating as our initial attack. He personally led the attack in his command Humvee and his hastily organized assault included a number of vehicles, both military, and armed civilian technicals. A Bradley fighting vehicle charged in the vanguard firing its 25mm bushmaster cannon at buildings where the attackers were taking cover.
The assault punched through our lines and surrounded the drydock with vehicles. Infantry boarded the Roosevelt, which unfortunately had not received significant damage and was floating freely in her berth.
The four of us quickly dispatched several zombies and rejoined Lieutenant Herold who had gathered a group of operators around him.
“If the General thinks that ships is important enough to defend, then it’s important enough for us to assault. We have to disable that ship and bag the General.” He said to the assembled collection of armed men.
“How are we going to take out those vehicles?” someone asked.
“We don’t have to destroy the vehicles, just the gunners. Marksmen get to work.”
Ethan and William moved into positions and started picking off targets I stayed well behind them to cover for zombies. My P-90 didn’t have the range to pick off gunners but against zombies it excelled. By the time enough gunners had been neutralized I had already emptied a 50 round magazine into the encroaching zombies. On semiautomatic the weapon barely recoiled and I can hardly claim to have gotten a headshot every time, but I got at least thirty.
At a signal from Herold we rushed the gangway. Several men went down to machinegun fire from a few of the vehicles that still had gunners, and a few more bought the farm when a rebel with a shotgun popped out of the entrance hatch at point blank range and fired several shots. He went down in a hail of gunfire and we made it into the ship.
“How are we going to hunt down one guy in a 100,000 ton super carrier?” I asked.
Adam answered my rhetorical question with a Socratic question “Where is the last bloke always hiding mate?”
“Knock off the fake English accent, I’m trying to think.” Lieutenant Herald said.
“Fake accent my arse.” Adam retorted.
“What reason would the General have to be in the engine room?” I asked.
“Think about what type of ship we’re on mate.”
A look of realization spread across Herold’s face followed by a look of horror. “Everyone converge on the engine room, immediately.”
The sound of gunfire could be heard echoing through the ship as the operators who had already begun to fan out converged on passageways being guarded by Fortier’s rebels.
Adam took point with his automatic shotgun with me behind; Ethan was in the middle, and William bringing up the rear with his long rifle. We were like Athenians in the Minotaur’s maze, snaking our way through endless passageways, occasionally running into enemies in quick bloody gunfights, sometimes running into other friendly groups. When we heard someone coming we would shout out the prearranged password, “Firefly”, they would respond, “Serenity”.
Luckily the passageways were marked and we could somewhat follow them although I would have preferred to have one of those “you are here” maps like you see in the mall. We must have been close to the engine room because we stopped encountering our own people and started to run into tougher and tougher resistance. For the most part violence of action was the deciding factor in our favor.
We rounded a corner and were met with a hail of automatic fire. Adam had cat like reflexes and dove out of the way, but one round ricocheted off a bulkhead and caught me in the chest. My SAPI armor plate stopped the round but it still knocked the wind out of me. Ethan grabbed me by the shoulders while William put up cover fire.
The rebels had thrown up a barricade at the end of a long passageway as their last line of defense. This time Adam was ready and threw a smoke grenade. The passageway was flooded in acrid red smoke and the gunners fired wildly. We responded while Adam bounded forward to another passageway, closer to the gunners. He pulled the pin from a grenade, released the spoon, and held for a heartbeat.
The sound of moaning began to drown out the sound of gunfire. The undead began to push into the space. Adam dropped the grenade and ran back to us under fire from the rebels, and pursued by the undead. Somehow the indestructible little bugger made it back to us, just as his grenade went off in the midst of the horde. I don’t know if the zombies were released onboard like the ones in town or if they wandered on board chasing the assault force.
; The rebel gunners, still firing their squad automatic weapon, drew the bulk of the horde, which piled up on their barricade and eventually pushed through it destroying the enemy strongpoint.
Our adrenaline was up and our breathing was ragged. Our aim was mediocre at best but eventually we put down the entire horde and carefully picked our way through the corpses, careful to avoid any ankle biters in the confined space.
We stacked up on the door to the engine room, nervous and shaking with exhaustion. “What do you think the General is armed with?” I asked.
“I bet my chopstick and 3 tubes of MRE cheese it’s a grenade or detonator or something like that.” Said Ethan.
“Nothing, he has bodyguards. I’d bet Trooper on that.” Said Adam.
“I’ll bet my multicam jacket it’s a nickel plated revolver.” Said William.
“I’m thinking it’s an ivory handled 1911. I’ll bet my concealed carry holster.” I said. Then putting my hand on Adam’s shoulder, I said: “Go.”