by Gary Chesla
A huge explosion was heard off in the distance. Smoke and a large spray of water rose high into the horizon.
“The other contact has now come to the surface. It is coming our way.” McClain said. “I believe it is a Las Angeles class sub. It is one of ours. Still no response over the com, Sir!. Any orders?”
“I don’t know if he has a problem and can’t receive our radio communication? Use the tower lights and signal ‘Welcome’.” The Captain said. “I have an idea he could also use a friend about now.”
“Yes Sir!” McClain replied. He pushed the controls using the tower lights to send the greeting.
A few minutes later, a light flashed a reply from the subs periscope.
“It’s the Topeka Sir. They are requesting permission to approach.” McClain said. “It’s either that or they are requesting an apple pie. Sorry Sir. My Morris Code is a little rusty.”
“Tell them to come on in. I believe we have a few apple pies on board.” The Captain smiled.
“XO on one Captain. He is asking if we know what caused that big explosion?” McClain said.
“Just tell him to get his ass on board. We are having company.” The Captain replied.
“Yes Sir!”
The Topeka moved alongside the Ronald Regan.
The Regan lowered a rope ladder and helped the Captain of the sub get on board.
When the sub’s Captain climbed on board, he saluted Captain Bolten. After exchanging introductions, he quickly added. “I see we are doing things the hard way.”
Captain Bolten smiled. “Trust me. You wouldn’t want to come up through the lower decks.”
“No Problem Captain. I’m just happy to be able to come aboard. “Captain Andersen replied.
“What happened out there?” Bolten asked.
“We’ve been tailing that Chinese sub for a few days now. We were in the Pacific. When all communication stopped from command, we started to attempt communications with our ships around Japan. We were only able to make contact with some of our other subs. When all hell broke loose on the surface, we got some garbled communications about ships’ crews going crazy.
We decided to approach a few of our destroyers to see if we could find out what the hell was going on. It was unbelievable what we found. Most of the ships were either deserted or crawling with…..I don’t know how to describe them.” Anderson said.
“Is zombies the word you are searching for?” Bolten added.
“Do you know what the hell is going on Captain? Because if you do, you would be the first one that we have contacted that did.” Andersen said. “Some of the other subs reported they had brought some injured sailors on board. That we the last communications were received. We picked up a few injured men north of Australia. An hour later all hell broke loose. Half my men were killed. I had to seal off all the forward compartments to keep control of my ship. Our communication equipment was destroyed in the struggle. Unfortunately the mess and supply room was in the forward compartments. The rest of the men and I have been living on potato chips and popcorn since. We could all use a good meal.”
“How many men do you have left?” Captain Bolten asked. “Thirty men.” Andersen replied.
“We can provide you and your men with a good meal, but what about that Ming?”
Andersen continued. “After we lost all communications, we decided to come back to San Diego. All our surface ships were just drifting aimlessly, some had even sailed aground. Our ships, the Russian and Chinese ships, there was nothing left. We decided to come home and see if there was anything we could do to protect the states. That’s when we detected this Ming. It seemed to be sinking these dead ships for the hell of it. We followed it to see where it was going. It was the only active boat we have seen in the last week, when it headed for the U.S. we took a serious interest. We detected you yesterday, but we didn’t try to make contact with you until we determined the Ming’s intentions. We didn’t want to let them know we were there. When we saw it get into position to threaten your ship, we took it out.”
“I appreciate your assistance Captain.” Bolten said. “Why don’t you get your men on the Regan. After you have something to eat, you and I should talk.”
After the sub’s remaining crewmen were feed, Captain Andersen, Captain Bolten and the XO had a long talk up on the bridge.
Captain Andersen didn’t want to believe what he heard, but from what he had seen with his own eyes, he understood the gravity of their situation.
Captain Bolten continued. “I’ll take you in for a tour of San Diego and LA in the helo. Words can’t describe it. You need to see this with your own eyes. We have been using the helo the past few days to search for survivors. You’ve met the entire ship’s complement at dinner. Most of them were trying to survive inland before I found them.
The best I can tell, there isn’t anyone else left. There isn’t anywhere inland to go. The only safe place on the west coast is the Regan.”
“So what are your plans Captain?” Andersen asked. “It doesn’t appear there is anything left here worth staying for.”
“I was thinking I would go north. We have some bases in Washington and Alaska. There may still be some of our men that survived up that way. I thought I would go see what I can find. “ Captain Bolten replied.
“If you don’t find anyone?” Andersen asked.
“I thought I would come back to San Diego and see what I can salvage from the ships in the harbor, then maybe go try to find an island somewhere. Come back here in a year or so and see if anything has changed. Care to come along?” Bolten asked.
“You’re the Ranking officer Sir!” Andersen replied.
“Between you and I, I’m afraid the chain of command doesn’t exist any longer.” Bolten said.
“On the contrary Captain.” Andersen smiled. “As I see it, it is the only thing that still exists. I don’t think we can survive without it.”
Andersen stepped back and saluted.
“Very well Captain.” Captain Bolten smiled. “Together we might just be able to survive this.”
Chapter 27
“Daddy, it stinks down here!”
“Shhh! We have to stay quiet. Just for a little longer.”
They crawled for another fifty feet. The water in the sewage pipes was up to their chins as they crawled. They didn’t care to guess at what the things that floated on top of the water might be.
It was all they could do to ignore the smell.
They had crawled for over two hundred feet. They stopped at every manhole cover they came to. The light shining down through the holes in the lids had given them just enough light to see so they could keep moving.
So far, none of the manhole covers would budge.
They kept crawling, hoping they could push the next cover up off the hole. They also hoped the dead wouldn’t be staggering around to greet them once the cover budged.
They kept crawling and hoping.
When they came to the next cover, they were surprised to see that this one moved.
John pushed the lid up with his shoulder.
It began to rise, than it slid off to the side.
He listened. It was unusually quiet.
He slowly pushed his head up through the opening where the cover had been.
They had crawled almost three hundred feet.
They had crawled under Route 30 and under the end of the runway at the airport and had come up in a clump trees in the field that bordered the airport.
John could see across the road. He looked at Latrobe Chevrolet and the thousands of the dead that were trying to get inside, to get him.
John had just about given up and accepted that their journey had ended. The dead had them cornered and were seconds away from getting into the utility room.
John had lowered his eyes. He didn’t want to see what was going to happen next. To be mauled by the dead was going to be horrible enough, he didn’t want to watch, not until the pain would force him to open his eyes and see wha
t he didn’t want to see.
It was then he saw the manhole cover for the sewage line that ran under the room, where the building’s sewage lines connected to the system.
With the Latrobe Airport across the road, the sewage lines were much larger than usual to accommodate the airport and bordering shopping centers.
He quickly removed the cover and pushed Barb and Cindy down into the sewer. He jumped down and pulled the heavy cover back over the hole as the dead burst into the utility room.
They saw him pull the cover over the hole, but their hands were not capable of pulling the cover from the hole. They threw themselves against the cover to no avail.
Apparently, miracles could happen.
John swore if he lived through this, he would rewrite the ending of The Night of the Living Dead.
If the people barricaded in the basement had just looked for a manhole cover in the basement, the movie could have ended on a high note instead of them all dying.
There wouldn’t be anyone left alive to appreciate the new ending, but he would know.
Right now that was all that counted.
“Come on up. Just stay low. If we crawl through this field, it will come out on the back roads behind the airport.” John said optimistically. “We can find another car and go to the farm using the back roads. I think we can do this!”
They crawled across the field, staying low in the grass.
They were still too scared to make any comments about how each other looked or smelled.
The time to laugh would come later.
Chapter 28
Mike, Kelly, Kimmy, Billy and Liz made it to Dave’s family hunting cabin.
It was more of a hunting complex than it was a family cabin.
Five small log cabins sat at the top of a steep hill in the wooded mountains.
Dave and his Mom stayed in one cabin. The two older men moved into another of the cabins. Dave had found two other families that were more than happy to come along to escape the dead.
Mike and his crew received a warm welcome from Dave and the others. They were welcomed like family members. In reality, they all felt like they were all part of the same family now.
Dave told Mike that he could move into the remaining cabin.
Mike, Kelly and Kimmy moved their things from the car into the cabin loft. The loft reminded them of the barn.
Billy and his sister would sleep on the couch. Kelly gave them each one of their extra blankets.
The dead roamed around at the bottom of the hill below the cabins. The steep hill, at least for now, seemed to be a barrier between the people in the cabins and the dead.
Kimmy didn’t worry about the dead as much as Mike and Kelly.
She was just happy to see there didn’t appear to be any damn cats around the cabins.
She was also happy the cabins didn’t have bathrooms inside. The old outhouse smelled, but there were plenty of trees around the cabin.
Mike and Kelly shared the food they had in the Prius with the others.
Tomorrow the group would get together to discuss plans on how the group would hunt for wild game and gather nuts and berries to feed the group. They would discuss and plan how they could work together to help the group survive.
They all had plans to return to their homes as soon as possible, but until then, they would all do what they could to survive as one.
There were some hunting rifles, knives and bow and arrows in the cabins. The older men knew the hills and could tell them how to hunt, but the younger men would probably be the ones that would go out to hunt.
They would discuss how to secure the cabins in case the dead did manage to get up to the cabins, but that would be tomorrow.
The rest of the day, everyone would rest, or at least try to rest.
Everyone had been through a lot. They would take this time to be thankful that they were still alive.
Tomorrow they would begin work to stay that way as long as they could.
Mike, Kelly and Kimmy sat on the small porch of their cabin. At least for now, they felt they had made the right decision to wait a bit longer before trying to go home.
The last few days had been so stressful. They were glad they didn’t have to deal with anything else for now.
Mike was tickling and teasing Kimmy when his phone beeped.
Mike sat back to catch his breath and reached for his phone. “Maybe it’s John. I turned the phone on after we got settled in, hoping we might hear from him. I haven’t had it on for a couple of days because we have been a little occupied.”
John pulled out his phone and looked at the screen. He looked puzzled.
“What is it?” Kelly asked when she saw the look on his face.
“It says I have a text message from Kelly. Did you send me a text?” Mike asked.
“It wasn’t me. I didn’t even bring my phone with me. I left it at home.” Kelly said. “Do you know another Kelly I should know about?”
“Not that I can remember.” He smiled.
He pushed the text icon to go to the text messages.
He smiled. “It’s John. He made it to the house.”
“What did he say?” Kelly asked.
Mike read the message. “John said they finally made it to the house. He said his phone got smashed in Latrobe. He found your phone and wanted to send us a message to let us know they made it. He said it is a war zone back home. It took four days to make it to the farm and they were lucky to make it at all. He said it might be a good idea if we could find a safe place, to wait it out for a while before trying to come home. He said our place is like a fort and he doesn’t plan on leaving until we come home and toss them out. He hopes we are all OK and hopes to hear from us soon.”
“I’m glad they made it to the farm and are all OK.” Kelly said. “From what he said, it looks like we made the right decision to stay here for a while before trying to get home.”
“I guess so.” Mike replied. “Taking four days to get from his house to the farm, it sounded like he went through what we did.”
“I hope not everything.” Kelly sighed.
Beep Beep! Beep Beep! Beep Beep!
“What’s that?” Kelly asked as Mike looked back at his phone.
“It’s the low battery alert. My battery is almost dead.” Mike said. “I better text him back before it dies.”
Mike typed. “John. Glad you are all OK. We couldn’t get any farther. We are holed up in a cabin in Graham, KY.
Will wait for things to settle down before we try again. Be home as soon as we can. Don’t be concerned if you don’t hear from us again. My battery is almost dead.
If I can find a way to charge it, I will get back to you. If not, hope to see you soon.
Stay safe Brother!”
Mike pushed send. The message sent notice flashed across the screen, then it all went black.
“The battery just went dead.” Mike said.
“At least you to were able to hear from your brother and let him know we are OK before the battery went dead.” Kelly said.
“Yea. I guess I should learn to be thankful for the little things in life.” Mike smiled.
“I’m little!” Kimmy said happily.
Mike pulled her close and hugged her.
He didn’t want to let her go. She was one little thing he was very thankful for.
The sound of the dead echoed through the valley below.
“How Long?” Mike worried as he looked at his family. ”How long would this nightmare last?”
The world had changed, even more than Mike realized.
In fact, the world they had known died days ago.
Life would never be the same again.
The last days, as bad as they had been, would be the last good memories they would have about their past life. The last days when they still had hope.
The new world had begun.
It would not be a world they would like.
esla, The Last Days