by SD Tanner
Captain Ted started to fidget with the door and said, ‘Step back. The fuckin’ thing’s locked.’
While he watched, Captain Ted used the stock of his gun to break the handle and then his knife to lever the door open.
Still puzzled, he asked, ‘What’s in there?’
Straining against the lock on the door, Captain Ted replied, ‘This is the latest tech for FOB’s.’
Captain Ted saved himself from having to explain any further by pulling the now broken door open. Stepping into the container, he shone his flashlight into the metal box and saw a row of bunk beds with a door at one end. Captain Ted pushed past him and shone his own flashlight into the container, then opening one of the small metal boxes, the container flooded with daylight. Flicking his flashlight off, he looked around the container and saw it was sleeping quarters for up to eight people. In between the bunk beds were in-built lockers. He walked to the end of the container, opened the door and saw two toilets, two sinks and two shower cubicles. Looking up at the ceiling there were strip lights and down at the ground level were power points between the bunks.
‘How does this work?’ He asked curiously.
‘This is one of the living containers,’ Captain Ted explained. ‘They got containers that only have showers, some with only toilets and some that are kitchens.’
‘Sounds like Lego for FOBs,’ he observed.
‘Too fuckin’ right,’ Captain Ted replied with a happy grin. ‘I heard about these. Some of the containers should have diesel generators and hopefully there will be some solar powered generators. The principle is you can configure what you need.’
He took a closer look around the container room and noticed it had a hardwearing linoleum floor, ventilation fan and the storm proof windows had screens. The décor was pine colored plastic and, although basic, it was livable and probably enduring. He doubted any hunter could break in past the metal shutters and doors.
Feeling optimistic, he said, ‘Let’s check out the rest of these. Would be real useful if we can find some that are solar powered.’
They continued to inspect the containers and found there were over three hundred of them sitting in this area of the Marine supply base. There were at least a dozen that generated power through either solar or diesel. They also learned the living containers with bunk beds had solar panels concealed in the roof so they were self-sufficient for basic power to the container. Some of the living containers were like a small house and had bunk beds and their own kitchenette. Each living container had hosing for water and sewerage and, once connected to processing units, would be fully functioning. About a dozen of the containers were actually fully equipped kitchens which, judging by the number of freezers and burners, were clearly designed to deliver thousands of meals daily. At the end of the containers was a Kalmar vehicle with an extendable arm designed to move the containers, plus several flatbed trucks. The whole set up was just sitting there waiting to be used.
He couldn’t believe their luck and turning to Captain Ted, he said, ‘I never knew these existed.’
Captain Ted shook his head and replied, ‘They fuckin’ didn’t until the last few years.’
‘Well, I’ve never seen them before. Our FOBs were shittier than this,’ he observed dourly. ‘Do you reckon we can get them to the island?’
‘Don’t see why not,’ Captain Ted replied thoughtfully. ‘They’re designed to be deployed. The bird can probably carry them in a sling, but we’ve got a lot to move so we’re gonna need a transport ship. The sub engineers can sort that, we just gotta get them to the dock.’
He was about to suggest they go find Pax and check the warehouse, when two women appeared from around the corner of one of the containers and both women had shotguns aimed at their heads. Sounding bored, the taller of the two woman said, ‘Get your hands up boys,’
Despite having a gun pointed at his head, he wasn’t sure the woman was really threatening his life. Sounding uncertain, he said, ‘Umm…hello?’
The other woman was younger and shorter and sounding far more alert than her friend, she said, ‘Oh, don’t take her bored tone to be non-threatening. She’s just on a lot of meds.’
They were sitting outside one of the containers and remaining seated, both he and Captain Ted put their hands above their heads.
‘Step away from your weapons and remove your vests,’ the younger woman said sternly.
Confused, they looked at one another, but then did as they were told. He couldn’t see Pax, and the bird was already gone and wouldn’t be back for a few hours yet, so they were on their own.
‘Who the hell are you?’ The younger woman asked.
Deciding the best approach was an affable one, he smiled and replied amiably, ‘My name’s TL. We’re with a much larger organized group and we’re looking for supplies to set up a base at Mayport.’ Indicating with his head towards Captain Ted, he added, ‘This is Ted. He was with the Marines. Last assignment was on board a sub, which is out off Miami. That’s where we’re based right now.’
Captain Ted obviously decided to follow his lead and equally as amiably, he said, ‘We got about three thousand people out there.’
The older woman continued to look bored, but the younger woman looked surprised by his speech and she said firmly, ‘I’m Arianna and this is Janet. We have a group living out here, and you need to leave.’
Feeling pretty stupid waving his arms in the air, he asked, ‘Can I put my arms down now?’ Without waiting for her permission, he lowered his arms and Captain Ted followed his lead
Still trying to be non-threatening, he said, ‘If you’ve been watching us, then you know our ride left and we can’t leave yet.’
The two women looked at one another and Janet said flatly, ‘You need to decide, Arianna. We can tie them up, shoot them, frog march them off the island or let them go.’
Surprised by her absolute clarity about their options, and her apparent complete lack of interest about which option Arianna might choose, he said in a relaxed tone, ‘We’d like a say in that.’
Before Arianna could answer, Pax appeared from behind the container the women had come from, and with his gun trained on both women, he said in a conversational voice, ‘Put the guns down, ladies.’
Both Arianna and Janet lowered their guns, and Captain Ted walked over to the women, took their guns and said amiably, ‘Let’s play nicely. It’s the end of the fuckin’ world, and it ain’t easy finding a date these days.’
‘Doubt it was ever easy for you,’ Janet remarked dryly.
Captain Ted grinned and replied, ‘Wasn’t that hard. I’m with the Marine Corps, and all the ladies like a man in uniform.’
Rolling his eyes, Pax said rudely, ‘Fuckin’ jarhead.’
‘Shaddup dogface,’ Captain Ted replied happily.
Sighing, he said to the women, ‘Ignore these two, they’re both stupid. What’s the story here?’
Arianna and Janet looked at one another and Janet shrugged and said flatly, ‘We’re living on the other side of this base in the commercial area behind the barriers.’
‘Yeah I saw the barriers,’ Pax replied. ‘Why ya livin’ there and not here?’
‘The Marines lived here,’ Janet replied dully.
Looking confused, Captain Ted looked asked, ‘What Marines?’
‘The ones in the warehouse,’ Arianna replied.
‘Ya mean the hunters in the warehouse,’ Pax said bluntly.
‘They only turned a month ago,’ Janet said flatly. ‘Before that they were protecting us.’
Puzzled by their story, he asked curiously, ‘Who’s us?’
Arianna and Janet looked at one another again, Janet shrugged and said flatly, ‘We have forty kids under the age of ten here. There’s only three adults left now.’
‘No wonder you take drugs,’ he observed sympathetically. ‘How did you end up with forty kids?’
‘We were teachers,’ Arianna explained. ‘When the virus broke out, our PE teacher piled
the kids onto a bus and brought them here. Most of their parents were in the military, so it kind of made sense and it worked for a while, but something must have gone wrong. The Marines were living in the warehouses and then one day they all turned.’
‘We can’t get into the warehouse now and we’re running out of supplies,’ Janet added in her monotone tone.
‘How many Marines were there?’ He asked.
‘Eleven,’ Janet replied.
Captain Ted swore and said in disbelief, ‘I got eleven brothers in there I gotta kill.’
‘They’re not alive,’ Pax said somberly. ‘Ya can’t kill what’s already dead.’
Captain Ted nodded and said, ‘We can’t leave them like that. I don’t want to, but we need to put them down.’
Turning to Arianna and Janet, he said, ‘We’ll clear the warehouse, but then you need to come back to the ship with us. We can’t leave 40 kids out here. It’s not safe.’
They headed across to the warehouse and on the way, he asked Captain Ted, ‘What’s likely to be stored in the warehouse?’
Not looking too happy about having to put down eleven of his brothers, Captain Ted answered, ‘Uniforms, small arms, ammo, tactical gear, food, water. Usual shit.’
Walking beside him, Pax added, ‘I walked the rest of the base and found HIMARS. Ya know, mobile rocket launchers. Howitzers for arty. Lotta birds, Cobras and Sea Knights. Assault vehicles. Abrams tanks. HUMVEEs. Trucks.’
‘Gears is gonna be a happy man,’ he remarked. ‘That’s a shedload of firepower and heavy weapons.’
Pax asked Captain Ted, ‘Do ya know how to use that shit?’
‘Not all of it,’ Captain Ted replied candidly.
Shrugging, Pax said, ‘It doan matter. We’ll work it out eventually.’
By now they’d reached the enormous warehouse and walking along the outside walls, they tried to understand the layout within. While they walked, he asked Janet, ‘I assume you’ve been in there. What’s it look like inside?’
Janet pointed to the far end of the warehouse and said, ‘There’s offices and facilities down this end. The rest is floor to ceiling racks with motorized equipment for loading and unloading. We never used the loading bays, so I don’t know how they work.’
Looking confused, Captain Ted asked, ‘Why did the Marines stay here?’
Arianna answered simply, ‘They said they had orders to protect the supply base.’
‘Orders from who?’ Captain Ted asked. ‘And where from?’
Arianna shrugged and said, ‘I don’t know, but whoever they were they didn’t know about us or the kids. Apparently they were ordered to keep civilians away from the supplies and equipment.’
Surprised, he asked, ‘They disobeyed their orders?’
‘Of course they fuckin’ did!’ Captain Ted declared angrily. ‘Those kids are everyone’s kids, and it’s our job to protect them. You fuckin’ know that as well as I do.’
Of course Captain Ted was right, but he was surprised any such orders were given and he wondered where they could have come from. Gerry was scanning the airwaves 24/7 and he hadn’t heard from any government in over four months, but the Marines were operating under orders until a month ago. With communications in such a mess, it was possible there was government still standing and he and Gears figured there were probably government bunkers still operating somewhere.
All three dumped their packs down and started unloading spare ammo, flashlights, flares and food. They handed the food to the two women and attached the flares and ammo to their vests and belts.
‘How do you wanna do this?’ Captain Ted asked grimly.
‘It’s gonna be dark in there,’ Pax replied. ‘If we open the door they’ll come to us then we can take ‘em down, but we oughta stay near the entrance just in case too many attack at once.’
‘This is a shit day,’ Captain Ted said unhappily. ‘But it’s gotta be done.’
The door to the warehouse wasn’t locked and Captain Ted opened the door while Pax threw a flare into the entranceway. Captain Ted and Pax waited in the doorway and they were quickly greeted by the sound and movement of two hunters running towards to their position. Once they could see the manically vibrating heads, both men opened fire and the hunters dropped to the ground still moving.
Clearly not happy with the task he had set for himself, Captain Ted intoned, ‘Two down. Nine to go.’
Over the sound of the still moving hunters, they heard growling and hissing as more hunters drew closer. He stepped into the doorway so they were now lined three abreast and Captain Ted threw another flare to light the entrance. To his left, he saw movement and Captain Ted opened fire again. To his right, he heard Pax do same. Looking ahead he saw two hunters coming out of the darkness towards him. He fired a grenade from the M203 attached to his M4A1 towards the hunters hoping to disable both at once.
His tactic worked and he heard Captain Ted count again, ‘Six down. Five to go.’
They waited, again Captain Ted threw a flare hoping to attract more hunters to their position, but there was no response.
‘Whatdaya think?’ Pax asked.
‘I think they wised up,’ he replied.
‘We need more fuckin’ light,’ Captain Ted said morosely.
‘Yep,’ Pax replied, and the two men looked at one another. Without speaking they walked in the direction of the vehicles they’d seen from the air.
‘You might want to take cover,’ he told Arianna and Janet.
‘Why?’ Arianna asked puzzled. ‘What are they going to do?’
‘Ventilate the warehouse,’ he replied dryly.
Within a few minutes, he heard the sound of a HUMVEE starting up and moved back from the warehouse. The HUMVEE came out from behind a building. He watched as it gained speed and Pax drove it directly at a set of double doors that were obviously designed for small loads. The doors were made of corrugated metal and were no match for the heavy steel front of the HUMVEE. They buckled and gave on impact. With the speed of acceleration and the smoothness of the warehouse floor, the HUMVEE failed to gain traction under braking and crashed into a huge rack that reached to the ceiling of the double-story warehouse. With one end destroyed by the HUMVEE, the rack destabilized and the warehouse filled with the sound of screeching metal on metal as it partially collapsed into the rack behind it, which then also screeched and buckled. Boxes of loose supplies fell, forming untidy mounds of broken boxes and dust and powder was thrown into the air when the contents exploded on impact.
Walking towards the mess Pax made of the doors, Captain Ted and Pax climbed out of the HUMVEE and crouched behind the doors. Their dramatic entrance had the desired effect and he could see the movement of bodies rapidly converging on the HUMVEE. He joined Captain Ted and Pax firing at the hunters bearing down on them. With the combined firepower and skill of three experienced shooters, they quickly brought down the remaining five hunters. Once the hunters were down, they dragged the bodies to the back of the warehouse where they continued to move aimlessly.
‘Whatdaya wanna do with them?’ Pax asked Captain Ted.
‘Burial at sea,’ Captain Ted replied simply.
They walked back into the warehouse with Arianna and Janet. The racks were largely full and he could see they could keep an army supplied for a long time with pretty much everything they would need. Gears would be a very happy man. Although he could understand how Captain Ted felt about losing his fellow Marines, he was grateful they managed to keep the supplies intact. These supplies meant they could put a considerable armed force at the Naval base and keep them well armed and able to fight.
Looking at his watch, he saw it was now 11am and he called to Pax and Captain Ted, ‘We need to get moving. It’s gonna to take the pilot a few trips to get those kids to the ship.’
They now had six adults and forty kids to move. The bird should be back to them in the next hour and he wanted to get the kids organized to move. It would take at least three trips and each trip took two ho
urs each way. They could just get out of the base before darkness fell providing they didn’t delay and the pilot wasn’t late. He tried to radio the bird, but got no reply and he assumed it was still out of range. He was about to ask Janet to take them across to the kids, when a hunter appeared from behind a rack and clawed Janet to the ground, ripping into the back of her neck. Despite the ferocity of the attack, Janet didn’t make a sound and he wondered just how many meds the woman was taking.
‘Fuck!’ Captain Ted shouted, as he launched himself at the hunter.
The hunter yanked its head away from Janet, taking the hair, flesh and bone it had firmly clenched in its jaws. Pax pushed one solidly muscled arm under the neck of the hunter, and Captain Ted grabbed the hunters arm, unhooking it from around Janet. Between them, they pulled the hunter from her body. The hunter snapped angrily at both men, and he pulled out his handgun, flicked the safety off and got between Pax and Captain Ted.
Pushing the gun up against the back of the hunter’s neck, he said to Pax, ‘Move your arm.’ When Pax let go of the hunter, he fired a bullet straight into its central nervous system.
Sounding exasperated by what had just happened, Captain Ted asked, ‘Which one of you assholes can’t fuckin’ count?’
Clearly in shock, Adrianna exclaimed, ‘Oh shit, we forgot about Andy!’
Now sounding confused, Captain Ted asked, ‘Who the fuck is Andy?’
Looking visibly upset, Adrianna replied, ‘Andy and John tried to get into the warehouse a week ago, but they never came out. I guess they turned.’
Clearly these men meant something to her and Adrianna began to cry. Walking over to her Captain Ted, wrapped his arms around her and said, ‘It’ll be okay.’
Dropping to one knee, he checked Janet’s pulse, but the hunter had torn through the base of her skull and she must have died almost instantly. Lucky for her, he thought, otherwise she would have turned.
Shining his flashlight up and down the racks, Pax asked, ‘Does that mean there might be another one?’ Answering his own question, he said, ‘It doan matter. We fucked up the door, so we can’t secure the place anyways. I’ll bring the combat shooters when we come back and we’ll sort it then.’