by SD Tanner
‘Pax, unload will ya,’ he said, shaking his head to at least express his irritation in some way.
Pax didn’t answer, but his weapons did and he watched through his binoculars as more boats disintegrated. As satisfying as it was, he knew they didn’t have enough weapons to wipe out every boat heading their way. He no longer needed his binoculars to see the boats driving through the waves towards them. He let his binoculars go, and they fell against his chest with a dull thud. He pulled up his M4A1 and got ready to join the fight. In many ways holding a gun to his enemy felt quite natural, and his mind slipped into a familiar pattern where he acted first and thought second. As he joined the combat shooters firing from behind the sandbags, through his radio, he said, ‘TL, get the lifeboats down on the starboard side. Be ready to abandon ship, but wait on my orders.’
‘Roger that,’ TL replied.
***
TL headed into the ship through the Midway Bar entrance and made his way down the crew stairs into the showroom. Once a stage and dance floor designed to be surrounded by chairs and tables for the guests to sit and enjoy being entertained, it was now just a large empty room. As he walked in through the back stage entrance, he saw about 150 people standing or sitting, each holding a backpack and wearing a life jacket. He was immediately approached by Kat, Lydia and Izzie.
‘You should give us radios,’ Izzie said sternly. ‘We haven’t got a clue what’s going on.’
TL didn’t disagree and made a note to correct that in future, if there was a future. He nodded and replied calmly, ‘Gears wants you to get ready to evac via the starboard side.’
‘I’m not evacuating,’ Lydia replied bluntly. ‘If this ship gets boarded there’ll be injuries and I’m your doctor.’ Putting her hand out, she added, ‘Give me your radio and I’ll tell Gears myself. And Izzie’s right. Next time give us radios. We’re not here to be decorative.’
His job was to manage the civilians in a crisis. He knew Pax and Gears thought he had the easier job, but he was pretty sure he didn’t. He looked at the three very able and annoyed women in front of him and wished he was up on deck with a gun. Putting his hands up to them, he said, ‘Okay. Let’s deal with the evac first.’ Looking around the crowd, he asked, ‘Where’s Ip?’
Kat replied, ‘She refused to leave the suite.’
‘Why?’ He asked doubtfully. ‘Is she scared?’
Izzie snorted and said bluntly, ‘No. She’s still asleep.’
Rolling his eyes, he said, ‘Gears’ll take care of her.’
He looked around at their most vulnerable survivors. He saw children under the age of twelve, their carers, pregnant women, a few people with injuries and some of the oldest members of their group. Everyone looked calm and ready to move. The drills have paid off, he thought. People are handling themselves well.
Radioing Gears, he said, ‘It’s all under control down here. Oh, and Ip is still in our quarters. Izzie says she refuses to wake up.’
On hearing TL’s update, Gears grunted and said, ‘Leave her to me.’
***
Now TL confirmed the survivors were ready to move, he focused back on the battle. The closest boat was about six hundred yards away, but he watched it disintegrate thanks to Pax and his heavy weapons team. Another boat took its position within seconds. He assessed the number of boats and their distance, the number of heavy weapons they had, calculated a percentage that would fail to hit target and concluded they would not be able to stop all the boats headed towards them. Eventually they would run out of firepower, enemy boats would pull alongside and the ship would be boarded. The ship was tall, they were well trained and armed and they stood a good chance of holding them down, but the hull of the ship was vulnerable. If the hull was compromised their enemy would become the sea itself. It annoyed him to think these people were so stupid they would destroy an asset they could all benefit from, but as he’d observed earlier, all that seemed to be left of mankind were nutters with guns.
‘Pax, they’re gonna try and board us. I’m gonna direct the combat shooters to handle that threat. You maintain the heat with the heavy weapons until we’re outta firepower,’ he ordered.
‘I know!’ Pax replied, as if he’d just been told the obvious, which he kind of had.
He heard the whump whump of armaments repeatedly firing and could see boats bearing down on them, exploding one after another. For every boat that exploded, another two would appear out of the mist of water still bearing down on them. The sound of gunfire from the deck was continuous and the combat shooters were firing on the people in the boats. He saw some boats were now circling as their engines still ran, but no one was left alive to steer the boat. The sea had erupted into a war zone and he knew, although they might lose this battle, it would be at great cost to their enemy.
Then to his surprise the sub surfaced between their ship and the boats. Through the sound of gunfire, he thought he could hear someone. He shouted through his mike to the combat shooters, ‘Cease fire! Cease fire!’
Another whump and he watched another boat disintegrate. Annoyed, he shouted, ‘You too, Pax!’
‘Sorry. Didn’t hear ya,’ Pax shouted cheerfully.
Bullshit, he thought, but now he could hear the tinny sound of a voice through a PA. The voice said, ‘Stand the fuck down or you will be screwed, and not in the nice way!’
He realized the voice was coming from the sub. The voice continued, ‘What the fuck is wrong with you people. Don’t you think we got enough problems without this kinda shit!’
The voice seemed to have some kind of obscene verbal diarrhea. It didn’t stop other than to take a deep breath and continue to rant, ‘Look at that nice ship. Don’t fuckin’ break it! We need the goddamn ship! You people piss me off with your stupid shit every time I’m not goddamn watchin’ you!’
If it was possible the boats started to look sheepish. Embarrassed even. He watched as they drifted to the left and to the right, not daring to breach the imaginary perimeter the sub formed in front of their ship. Some boats were already turning around as if they had their tail between their legs.
The voice concluded with, ‘Knock it off and go about your fuckin’ business!’
‘Who the fuck is that?’ Pax asked incredulously.
He stood up and laughing, he said, ‘I dunno, but I wanna meet that fuckin’ guy.’
Through his earpiece, all he could hear was the sound of the combat shooters laughing.
CHAPTER TWO: All that glitters might be gold (Captain Ted)
Milton looked up at the cruise liner while he and his men pulled alongside in their inflatable life raft. His second-in-command was a skinny naval engineer called Jake. He wasn’t really sure why Jake was his second-in-command other than he kinda liked the guy and he was a good poker player. To allow them to board easily, they’d lowered the ladder from the door on the side of their ship. Walking into the small reception area, he was greeted by a man dressed in ACUs. The man was easily over six feet five inches tall, solidly built, angry looking and he had a deep scar running from his eyebrow to his chin. Shit, he thought, that’s one mean looking sonofabitch.
‘Hey!’ The angry looking man rumbled at him. ‘I’m Gears.’ Gears stuck his thumb out in the direction of the slightly shorter, but equally as rough-looking, apish man with greying sandy brown hair and growled, ‘This’s Pax.’
A tall leanly built, well cut man with a shock of dark hair stepped forward, gave him a warm friendly smile, and said, ‘Hi. I’m TL. Don’t mind my brothers. They’re ill-mannered, but well meaning.’
‘Huh,’ he replied, feeling slightly taken aback by the sight of the three rough looking men, all dressed in ACUs, crowding the small reception area. ‘I’m Milton, but everyone calls me Captain Ted.’
Looking confused, Pax asked, ‘Why?’
‘Milton was my father’s name,’ he replied blandly. ‘But everyone calls me Ted after some fuckin’ foul-mouthed teddy bear in a movie.’
Gears shrugged and asked
, ‘And why do they call they call ya Captain?’
‘Cos they’re a bunch of assholes,’ he replied flatly.
Jake stepped forward in the tight space and said, ‘I’m Chief Petty Officer Jake. Ships’ engineer. Our Captain was lost on Puerto Rico along with most of our crew. Milton, also known as Captain Ted, is a Sergeant in the Marine Corps and we gave him informal command. There’s no formal Navy left and no one else wanted the job.’
Shaking his head, Gears noted, ‘That’s a mighty vague reason to hand over control of a sub, but it ain’t my business.’ Gears turned to him and said, ‘Thanks for sortin’ out the boats. What the hell were they doin?’
Before he could answer, TL interrupted and said, ‘Let’s go upstairs to the casino briefing room to talk.’
Puzzled, he asked, ‘You have a fuckin’ casino on board? What is this? The Love Boat?’
Jake rolled his eyes and said, ‘Don’t mind our Captain. He’s ill-mannered, but well meaning.’
Turning to him and frowning, Pax asked sulkily, ‘Why does everyone’ feel the goddamn need to apologize for us? I make no fuckin’ apology for bein’ who I am.’
He liked the ape and nodding in agreement, he said, ‘Neither do fuckin’ I.’
Gears rolled his eyes at both of them, turned to TL and said, ‘Now there’s fuckin’ two of ‘em.’
The casino room was obviously now used as a briefing room. There were maps of the US pinned to the walls with multicolored pins, a coffee machine and two large-sized roulette tables that were pushed together to form a single table. Around the roulette tables were ten deep blue plush chairs.
Whistling in appreciation, he said, ‘You guys really know how to fuckin’ live.’
Gears shrugged and said, ‘Nah. It came like this. It was a luxury cruise ship for the over-privileged. We just borrowed it and then your guys tried to wreck it by shootin’ the crap outta it.’
‘Hey,’ he objected. ‘They’re not my fuckin’ guys. We were on training maneuvers in the Caribbean when all this shit came down. Most of the crew were on shore leave when the virus hit and we never saw them again. We waited for a couple of months. Went out a couple of times looking for them, but we lost too many guys that way and we headed back stateside to see what we could do.’
‘And what could ya do?’ Gears asked, as he made himself a coffee.
‘Not much,’ Jake replied seriously. ‘At first we did some shore runs to get supplies, but that’s gotten harder. There’s less supplies available near the coast and the hunters are getting more aggressive. The people on the boats are getting desperate.’
He thought Jake might have understated it a little. When they got back into US waters, there were some boats on the water. They were able to do shore runs and gather supplies to keep the boats safe, but over the past few months the number of boats had increased exponentially and people were running to the water with less and less resources and able boats. All complained the hunters had gone crazy and were now attacking day or night in larger and larger packs. He might be a Marine, but he was the only one he knew. It wasn’t possible for him to protect so many with so little. It grated on him not to be able to do what he’d spent eight years training to do. Many may be born and few may be made, but he never thought he’d be the only one left.
He watched as Gears rubbed the deep scar on his face and then asked, ‘What’s ya mission?’
Understanding his question, he replied simply, ‘First to fight.’ He had a suspicion the three men were not wearing ACUs by chance and he asked, ‘What’s yours?’
Gears grinned, straining against the scar tissue around his mouth and he said steadily, ‘Kill all hunters and restore order.’
Interesting ambition, he thought and asked, ‘And who the fuck gave you that mission?’
‘We did,’ TL answered simply. ‘We were grunts in the US Army. It doesn’t look like there’s any military left standing anywhere, but that doesn’t mean we lost our jobs. We just answer to ourselves now.’
Nodding, he said confidently, ‘Then we have the same fuckin’ job.’
Looking at the three men sitting hunched over the roulette table, he thought, you seem to be doing a better job than I am. Curious, he asked, ‘How have you guys pulled this off?’
The three men looked at one another and chuckled. At that moment a tall, slender, shaggy haired blonde woman with a heart shaped face and brilliant blue eyes walked into the room. She stopped next to him and he looked up at her curiously wondering who she was. In answer to his unspoken question, Gears said, ‘Hey hon. This is Captain Ted. Ted this is Ip.’ Gears paused and added with a smirk, ‘The weapon.’
Ip had long fine limbs and graceful hands. She was wearing a pair of heavy black leggings that clung to every curve and a baggy t-shirt, which somehow highlighted her lean but busty torso. Despite being tall, he didn’t think she could weigh more than 120 pounds and he asked, ‘Against what? A fuckin’ Chihuahua?’
The three men burst out laughing and Pax declared, ‘Nah. The dog would win.’
Ip gave Pax a dirty look, huffed and walked over to Gears who pulled her into his lap. Oh, he thought, she’s taken. Gears gave him a knowing look and said, ‘Ip doesn’t speak. She was infected in a CDC and she carries a counter virus to the hunter virus. Means she can kill a hunter by touchin’ it.’
Surprised, he said, ‘Fuckin’ useful.’
‘We’re trying to replicate the virus she carries,’ TL added. ‘We have a doctor and some lab specialists working on it in a CDC.’
Gears explained, ‘We’re lookin’ to clear some islands. I got 150 people here who need to go somewhere safe, and start workin’ the land to feed the 280 trained scavengers and combat shooters I got on board.’
‘What the fuck is a scavenger?’ He asked curiously.
Pax replied, ‘Scavengers gather the supplies we need. The combat shooters deal with any hostiles. Both are trained to fight, but combat shooters have more weapons, tactics and survival skills.’
Gears continued, ‘The plan is to find more survivors and train ‘em or move ‘em to the islands. The virus team are workin’ on the counter virus. The combat shooters are clearin’ the hunters. We plan to get rid of all of the hunters permanently and make the mainland safe again. We’re lookin’ for alliance partners to work with us.’
From what he’d seen he didn’t think that was possible. Accessible supplies near the coast were dwindling, and he didn’t see how they could keep people fed much less trained. Jake said what he was thinking, ‘We can’t get enough supplies to feed the people on the boats, much less enough weapons to clear an island.’
TL answered their question, ‘We got a winged Black Hawk that covers 1,300 miles. It’s out right now collecting supplies. Plus we have Ip, and she clears buildings of hunters with us. There are so few people left, there’s plenty to be had if you can get to it.’
That makes sense, he thought. The proof of their success was all around him. Everybody he’d seen on his way to the casino briefing room looked fed well enough, and in retrospect he thought, happy enough. He liked what he saw and he liked these guys, even if they were Army. They shared the same mission and he figured they could team up. Grinning, he said, ‘I’m fuckin’ all in. What now?’
Grinning back at him, Gears turned to Ip and asked, ‘Whatdaya think of this one, honey?’
While he watched her, Ip regarded him with her blank blue eyes and he realized the reason they looked so odd was because they had no iris. She slowly blinked, and to his surprise, a blue colored third eyelid flicked lazily across her eye and back again. Shocked, he asked, ‘What the fuck is she?’
Ip smiled at him and said nothing. Gears replied for her and said, ‘She has a little bit of hunter blood in her, but she’s human.’ Smirking, he added, ‘She’s telepathic like the hunters and she can see into your mind.’
That worried him slightly. He wasn’t sure he wanted anyone seeing into his mind. It was private. He watched as Ip smiled at him and the
n looked away disinterested. He wasn’t sure what was worse. Having this woman read his mind, or having her read it and not find it interesting. Sniffing unhappily, he said, ‘Your girlfriend is fuckin’ weird dude.’
Gears shrugged and said in a serious tone, ‘We got one other dynamic and it really is fuckin’ weird. There’s a new type of hunter. We call it a super hunter. It still has human organs and, like all the hunters and Ip, it’s telepathic. It can control the hunters and turns ‘em into an army that can kill day or night, providin’ it can see and control the hunters.’
He’d seen the hunters fight like an army of rabid killers. They were impossible to defeat and they were driving people off the land and into the sea, but he didn’t know there was a super hunter controlling them and he said, ‘Seen the behavior, but didn’t know why.’
Snorting, Pax said, ‘That’s not even the worst of it. These assholes don’t die. Well, they die, but they hang around after they’re dead.’
He didn’t understand that and asked, ‘What do you mean? Like ghosts?’
Nodding, Gears said, ‘Yeah, exactly like ghosts. Ip can see ‘em.’
That’s sick, he thought. What kind of world are we living in now? Then he wondered what else they could do. Before he could ask, Pax said, ‘We got an alliance partner called Nelson out in Lumberton, Texas. He was a preacher and believes the super hunters are demons.’
Gears groaned and said bluntly, ‘Shaddup Pax. If they’re demons, it don’t mean nothin’. They can’t do anythin’, but stare and glare after they’re dead. That don’t make ‘em an enemy of any sort. And we can’t see ‘em anyway. If Ip hadn’t told us we wouldna known.’
‘I thought you said she couldn’t fuckin’ talk,’ he said sounding confused.
‘Nah. She can’t,’ Pax replied. ‘But her brother Isaac can. Well he’s not her real brother. He was infected with the same virus and they have a telepathic thing going, but he can talk a little bit so we can sort of talk to Ip.’