Carlie Simmons (Book 2): In Too Deep

by Sawyer, JT

  Chapter 52

  After changing, Carlie walked down the narrow gray corridor past the stairs leading to the engineering level below.

  As she stepped through a hatchway into another hallway, she heard commotion on the up-bound stairs ahead and saw Boyd jumping from the middle step onto the floor a few feet in front of her. Dozens of sailors were frantically pushing each other out of the way to get down, their eyes rollercoaster wild. Then she heard screams from above and saw a young man at the top of the stairs get violently yanked up. The red lights on the wall beside her began flashing.

  Over the cacophony of sirens and screaming crew members came the XO’s voice on the intercom. “This is the commander; the ship has been breached. All section chiefs secure your levels and close off….” She heard shooting and then yelling. “Shit…kill them…kill them all…” The sound of gunshots on the bridge was replaced by screams as if a rabid tiger had been set loose on the vessel. Carlie stopped moving forward as the fierce shrieks of the XO went silent and she could hear hissing sounds coming over the intercom.

  Chapter 53

  Carlie’s instincts, refined from years of protective training, were urging her to rush towards the threat but the stairs were blocked by dead crewmen and she knew her Glock only had a partial magazine left in it.

  “You don’t…you don’t want to go up there,” Boyd said, trying to catch his breath. “I saw at least three of those things climbing onto the ship. They killed my guys right before my eyes” he said as sweat ran down his left cheek and mingled with a spatter of blood on his neck.

  She turned and retraced her steps through the last hatchway only to run into Matias, Shane, and Jared, who were running towards her.

  “You can’t go back that way,” yelled Matias.

  She swung her head towards the stairwell leading down to engineering and jumped over the railing with the others on her heels. The hatchway that led into the hallway towards the rear deck was still open and they climbed inside. She grabbed the handle of the vault-like door and started to close it then spun her head back towards the others. “Wait, where are Pavel and Amy?”

  “They must still be down in medical in the opposite direction,” said Shane.

  “Alright, Boyd, you stay here and see if you can direct any others this way. Then close the hatch until I return, said Carlie. “I’ll radio you on the intercom when we are heading back this way.”

  She glanced at the waistlines of Shane, Matias, and Jared and saw that they were still carrying their pistols. Carlie pulled out her Glock and did a magazine check, counting off four rounds.

  “Hey, I know you’re an ace with that but you don’t want to be firing full-metal jacket rounds down here,” said Shane. “If it passes through one of those things and pierces a fuel line or the missile loading area, we’re all gonna light up like that beachfront we just came from.”

  Carlie grimaced and then reluctantly reholstered the pistol and removed her nine-inch tactical blade. “It looks like we’re doing this the Roman way, fellas,” she said, looking back at the others.

  Chapter 54

  As they darted past the stairwell they had just descended, Carlie and the others ducked through two more hatchways that hadn’t been secured. After ten minutes of quietly navigating through the passageways, they reached the medical room on the right.

  Upon entering, Carlie detected movement in the far corner and saw Amy raising a pistol at her. “Whoa, it’s me, take it easy,” Carlie said, lowering her blade.

  Amy breathed a sigh of relief and yanked on Pavel’s sleeve behind a large metal cabinet.

  “Anyone else in here?”

  “No, I don’t think so.”

  Jared was keeping an eye on the hallway with Matias when he ducked his head into the room. “Hey, why don’t we just seal off the hatches on either side of this hallway and hole up here?”

  “Because this location is mid-ship and there’s no other escape route out of here if we do,” said Shane. “The engineering area back there has exits to the outside deck at the stern.”

  “We’re going to have to make a run for it the way we just came,” Carlie said, grabbing a fire extinguisher from the wall. “Grab as many of these as you can find. They may come in handy for blinding those things.”

  “How many of those things are up there, do you think?” said Amy.

  “Boyd said he saw three of those fast-moving monsters on the main deck below the bridge. I don’t think the other type can swim,” said Carlie.

  “What do you mean, swim?” said Jared. “Those things are brain-dead animals.”

  “It’s a moot point since they are here,” said Carlie, pushing past the entrance. “Keep your formation tight and let’s roll.”

  Chapter 55

  As they made their way along the narrow passage, the red emergency lights were all that illuminated the way. Carlie walked with her right blade hand extended while keeping her left hand at mid-chest to parry incoming strikes as she had been trained to do through many years of knife fighting. The Secret Service used a medley of empty-hand and blade training methods that took the best from Filipino Martial Arts, Krav Maga, and Army Combatives. She had had to use her close-quarters skills in non-lethal encounters many times before while protecting dignitaries in crowds but never figured she would be fighting her way through a ship of hungry flesh-eaters.

  As she neared the stairwell by the rear hatch, Carlie reached for the intercom button and relayed the message to Boyd to open the door. She saw the round handle beginning to turn and the hatch release which caused the well-worn hinges to groan and echo off the metal walls.

  While she motioned the rest of the group to climb into the other section, she heard the clanking of metal steps behind her and saw a tall mutant land gracefully on the deck below the stairs only twenty feet away. Carlie marveled for a second at its cat-like grace in descending. It was nothing like the clumsy figures she had battled before and, with the benefit of more lighting, she could see there was a cunning predator’s determination in its gaze. Its face bore a smooth yellow complexion without any of the wrinkles of the other mutants and its well-etched muscles were evident through its torn garments. As she crouched lower to prepare for an offensive strike, the creature moved forward, parting its lips slightly while purposefully hissing through clenched teeth.

  She raised her blade higher and saw Shane move next to her. “Let me blast this fuck and then you can go to town on ’em,” he said, lifting the fire extinguisher and unleashing a haze of white mist as the creature rushed for them.

  As the fog filled the air, Carlie lunged forward, ducking low and slicing the creature deeply across the right quadriceps muscle until she felt it hit the bone. The mutant shrieked and collapsed on one knee as its injured leg gave way. Carlie raced around behind it and went to slash its neck but the creature spun, viciously jerking her boot and sending her onto her back. Shane rushed forward and struck it in the side of the head with the fire extinguisher, knocking it into a storage locker. It stood and limped towards him, grabbing him by the throat and lifting him off the ground with one hand.

  Boyd rushed out from the hatchway with his machete but the creature slammed its other hand across his jaw, sending him into the wall. The enraged mutant stood hulking before Shane, its ropy muscles flexing violently as if its torso was plugged into a high-voltage outlet.

  Carlie shook her head and sprung back on her feet. She jumped on the creature’s muscular back and drove her blade deep into the cervical region, partially severing the spinal cord. The mutant’s strength wavered and it released its grip on Shane. Carlie dug the blade into the hilt and saw the tip come out the other side of the neck. She began swirling the handle while a spray of blood ushered over her hand. The creature snorted in a breath as it tried to grasp behind at Carlie with its weakening arms.

  “Why can’t you die already?” she yelled, driving the blade in further until she heard the neck snap like a handful of wet twigs. The creature instantly colla
psed in a heap on the floor. Carlie yanked out her drenched blade and kicked the crumpled beast in the ribs then she collapsed on the floor next to Boyd and Shane.

  Shane was rubbing his throat and gulping in air. “Shit, that bastard was strong.”

  Boyd sat up, wiggling his jaw back and forth then rolling his tongue around his mouth. “Christ, I think that thing knocked my tooth lose.”

  “Let’s get to the rear deck and then figure out a way off this ship. No way in hell we can risk battling any more of those things without firearms,” said Carlie, who was still catching her breath.

  As they helped each other up and the others moved out from the hatchway to help, they heard a scream come from the floor above as the last crewman was killed. Then they saw two creatures leap over the railing and land in the middle of the stairwell.

  Chapter 56

  Boyd, who was nearest to the two enraged mutants, began making a vicious figure-eight pattern with his machete, taking swats at their limbs. The creatures spun backwards and got jammed on the stairwell. Carlie rushed up with the fire extinguisher and began flooding their faces with spray until the canister was empty.

  “Get back in the other hallway and prepare to seal the hatch,” she said. “We’ll be right behind you.”

  One of the creatures lunged for Boyd and it suffered a slash across the forearm while Carlie raised her knife and drove it into the ribs. The creature groaned and recoiled into the one beside it, causing it to slip back on the white spray on the stairs.

  “Let’s get out of here,” she yelled at Boyd as they both pulled away and darted for the hatch.

  She climbed through the door with Boyd on her heels. As she turned to grab the handle, she saw him holding on from the other side, his face contorted in a grimace as his ankle was violently yanked backed by one of the mutants who was crawling behind him.

  Boyd shrieked in pain and struggled to kick loose the creature’s grip but instead slipped to the ground on one knee.

  “Close the hatch,” he said, holding onto a grenade on his vest with his other hand.

  “You’re not gonna make it if you do this,” said Carlie.

  “But you are,” said Boyd as he slammed the door and twisted the lock in place.

  “No—dammit…no,” she said, pounding her fist against the wall.

  “Come on,” Shane said, tugging on her collar. “We gotta move now.”

  She staggered backwards, feeling Shane’s grip on her shirt as she struggled to let go of the hatch. Carlie could see the others running ahead of her down the narrow passage as her pace quickened. Then she felt a thunderous explosion roar behind her and the walls groan from the strain.

  Chapter 57

  As the bulkheads around them creaked from the blast, a second explosion ripped through the level below them, causing the ship to tilt slightly. Carlie and the others leaned against the wall, trying to stay upright as the force continued to rock the floor beneath them.

  “Shit, that blast must have ruptured something in the engineering section below,” said Shane. “If the hull is fucked, then so are we if we don’t get off this ship.”

  They continued moving along the canted hallway as the lights flickered and release valves on the ceiling began spitting out steam. Carlie could feel the bulkhead beneath her hands buckle and strain as she tried to maintain her footing along the passage.

  As they neared the outside hatch for the rear deck, she moved up alongside the others. “Before we open that door, we need to have a plan for getting off this ship. We can’t afford to engage any more of those things in hand-to-hand combat,” she said as sweat ran off her forehead.

  “I recall the XO saying that the nearest landforms from here are the Cayman Islands about two hundred nautical miles to the southeast followed by Cancun,” said Matias. “That section of Mexico is probably three hundred miles out with a few small islands dotting the ocean between here and there.”

  “How long before Barksdale or White Sands know we’re in trouble?” said Amy, raising her voice above the crackling of steam in the ceiling pipes.

  “We weren’t due to check in with them again until tomorrow evening and the XO probably didn’t get off a distress signal given this sudden attack,” said Carlie.

  “The helos on deck can make it to the Caymans for sure with all of us—if the fuel is already topped off,” said Matias.

  “How do we get ’em de-rigged and the engines fired up without drawing attention to our location?” said Jared.

  “Sounds like one plan but we don’t even know for sure if there were only three of those things,” said Carlie, who was looking at Pavel, who was standing frozen with fear.

  “There should be some reserve Zodiacs and certainly life rafts attached to the rear deck,” said Shane. “The Zodiacs are only good for short runs though and don’t afford any protection from the elements.”

  Another explosion boomed under their feet and they felt the entire ship begin to tilt down.

  “Alright, I say we try to get to a helo and then use a life raft as a last resort,” said Carlie as she craned the metal lock and pried open the rear door to the deck outside.

  Chapter 58

  As they climbed out onto the dimly lit rear deck, they ran for the helicopter anchored to a nearby platform. Each of them struggled to walk upright as the Destroyer swayed sideways into the rush of waves cresting the deck. Carlie found herself careening into crates on her left followed by suddenly being thrust into the railing on her right. Waves began increasing over the side as the ship began receding. Emergency lights adorning the deck flooring and a faint glow emanating from the bridge ahead provided an outline of the doomed vessel.

  The helicopter seemed so close but getting to it was an uphill battle as the ocean began claiming the ship before them.

  “We’re not going to get that helo off of here in time,” shouted Matias, holding onto a deck-mounted canon.

  “Life rafts—let’s get to the rafts, then,” she yelled above the roar of the sea which was slamming against them, indifferent to their plight. They held on to whatever they could grip as each person fought to make it back to the rear. Shane made it first and began yanking the rip-cords that attached an eight-man inflatable life raft to the railing. The front of the Destroyer had canted upward as the rear hull was nearly filled with water. This caused everyone to start sliding downwards.

  As Carlie fought to maintain her footing, she saw a bloody figure emerge from the rear hatch entrance from which they had just emerged. She saw the creature’s chest and face covered in shrapnel from Boyd’s grenade and reddish-orange blood was streaming down its legs. It began moving towards Shane, who had just deployed the raft in the water below.

  She yelled to him but her voice was drowned out by another blast of seaspray. Carlie frantically tried to speed up her pace but kept slipping on the inclined surface. The creature was only ten feet away from Shane now. She thought of drawing her Glock but knew she couldn’t guarantee a clean shot or ensure Shane’s safety.

  Standing up, she pushed off a set of metal storage lockers and sprinted downhill. Carlie increased her speed and tackled the creature from the side just as it was reaching for Shane’s back. She felt her hands make contact with the wax-like surface of the creature’s arms and chest as both of them tumbled over the railing into the waves below.

  Chapter 59

  Swallowed by the black grip of the waves, Carlie felt herself sinking into the embrace of the cold water. Her eyes searched for light and she felt her heart racing in terror for the location of the surface but her eyesight was gone. Struggling to hold her breath, she swung her head around as she felt the jolt of a wave thrust her deeper into what felt like a bottomless tunnel. Then she thought of the creature. Had it drowned? Could it even drown? Where was it at?

  As the pressure between her ears increased and her lungs began burning, she saw a flicker of light to her right. She turned and swam furiously, her soaked combat fatigues and boots slowing her movement. S
he glimpsed it again, amidst the ripples of black waves that kept blotting it out. Her face burst through the choppy surface and she saw the emergency strobe light on the life raft emitting its brilliant flash atop the inflated round roof. She sucked down air and then was slapped in the face by another ferocious wave which fought to retain its hold upon her exhausted body.

  While she swam, Carlie saw other forms moving inside the life raft, their figures faintly illuminated by the occasional flicker of the strobe. She could still make out the canted Destroyer to her right, like a giant steel finger angled skyward, its size decreasing with each stroke she made.

  Then she felt a tug on her hair. She paused in mid-stroke, sensing bony fingers pulling on her followed by a guttural howl. She swiftly pivoted her torso and elbowed the thing in the side of the head, causing it to let go.

  As Carlie swam furiously for the raft, the creature pawed at her legs. With only a few feet to go, she saw Shane and Jared leaning out of the yurt-shaped raft, trying to reach her. Carlie quickened her pace with each arm and leg fluttering with crazed intensity. Reaching the edge of the raft, she thrust her left hand up as both men quickly pulled her inside.

  Jared looked back at the faint sight of the bobbing yellow face. “Somebody kill that zombie motherfucker already.”

  Carlie stood up and slid out her pistol, attempting to hold the sights of her Glock steady on the approaching creature as the waves smashed against the raft.

  Fixing her mounted flashlight on the crazed beast moving towards them, she struggled to hold the front sight on its head long enough for a clean shot. “Steady me,” she shouted back to the others. Jared and Shane rushed to her, grabbing her belt loops while trying to support themselves against the heaving sides.