23
There was pandemonium on Alcatraz. Immediately upon hearing what Brenda had to say about the plague, shouts, accusations, and demands erupted from the congregation. Martingale simply would not be quiet, and he had gained some followers. He and two others had to be forcibly removed from the room, with bellows of dissent and demands for more information hurled back over their shoulders.
Unfortunately, Sam’s phone died during the chaos. It wasn’t a loss of signal, but a dead battery from Sam using the item as a toy for the past few days.
A rescue was in order. Brenda and her crew needed extraction post-haste, as a means of stopping the spread of infection was within their grasp. After the Commander had Martingale and his stooges escorted away, he quickly spoke to Meara, Pitt, and Rick, then McInerney himself exited with an element of three SEALs.
Meara and Barnes attempted to quiet the folks gathered in the cafeteria, and eventually the noise subsided. The policemen answered questions as best they could, but the bottom line was that they knew little more than the people asking the questions.
Two tense hours after his hasty departure, McInerney returned with poor tidings. There was still no contact with the President and Joint Chiefs at Barro Colorado or the carrier group steaming east from Asia. CINCPAC, the Pacific Naval command, was also not answering the phone. In fact, no military installation he had tried to contact was responding. As far as he knew, Commander Kevin McInerney was the ranking military officer on the western seaboard of the United States. One thing the Commander did fess up was that the information contained in Brenda’s hard drives was of paramount importance, and had been labeled priority one by McInerney.
Insofar as the rescue, certain details of the operation had to be ironed out, such as who was to go, what supplies they would need, and most importantly, how to get there. Traversing the breadth of an entire continent infested with cannibalistic fiends was in no way conducive to long life. There was no major interstate that crossed the United States that at some point didn’t run through at least three major cities, and cities were hotspots for infection. Once the team had gotten across the nation to carry out the rescue, they would then have to make an equally grueling and dangerous return journey
Taking the submarine for the rescue was brought up. The sub would be offshore, and immune to the infected while at sea, but it was a trip of longer than twelve thousand miles, and would take the greater part of twenty days at full steam. The Panama Canal would most certainly be overrun, and nobody knew how to operate the locks. The trip calculations didn’t take into account any problems they would encounter. The sub was immune to all but the worst of weather, pirates, or desperate civilians, but rogue elements of anyone’s military with a sub of their own, or perhaps a destroyer, could pose problems. No port of harbor was safe, and if the sub suffered a reactor, or other kind of mechanical issue that couldn’t be resolved using the on-board machine shop, or worse, an uncontrolled outbreak on board, the crew could actually be further away from Boston than they were now. The operation would need to move over land.
Meara, McInerney, Pitt, and Barnes held council in Meara’s command center. Some others were there at invitation, but most of the Alcatraz group had meandered off to do their daily tasks, or weep for loved ones lost.
It was decided that the Florida would remain and guard the last bastion of safety in the area. In addition, should the Rock become overrun, the submarine could be used as a fallback point until the island was cleared, or they could search for another island. Logistics would be handled by McInerney’s crew, and supplies for the cross-country mission would be obtained on the way. Communications would be difficult, as there was no one currently manning the ground tracking stations for the communication satellites. Mil-sats were still usable for ground forces, but McInerney hadn’t been able to contact anyone. No one knew how to work the magic that had allowed Brenda to call Sam. Once the ground crew left, they would need to use predetermined contact times and days to get in touch with the Florida. The rest of the time the team would be on their own until their return.
After much deliberation, it was decided that the SEAL team would act as the rescue team, but once they got there, the whole band would have to improvise. There was just no way of knowing what they were up against. Rick Barnes insisted on going, and both Meara and McInerney thought it was a good idea for him to go, as he had first-hand knowledge of the facility they would be entering. He had been there dozens of times when he was a policeman in Boston and his ex-wife had been working at the facility.
As soon as the OK came down from the commanders, Dallas, Anna Hargis, and Chris Rawding demanded to accompany Barnes to Boston.
“Out of the question,” McInerney declared.
“Commander,” Dallas began, “you can let us go, or we’ll swim after the boats. I ain’t lettin’ Rick do this alone.”
“He won’t
be
alone, sir. He’ll have a team of the best tactically-trained operators the United States has ever seen, and quite frankly, you’ll get in the way.”
“I can handle myself, and I seen what Anna n’ Chris can do too. We won’t be no trouble, and unless you’re gonna stick us in a cell, we’re goin’. If ya do stick us in a cell, the second ya let us out, we’re gonna go after them. Or ya could just shoot us now.
Sir
.”
McInerney looked at Barnes who had let a smile creep across his face at Dallas’ words. Rick noticed the Commander’s glance and immediately dropped his gaze to his shoes.
Meara shook his head at the whole spectacle, and left the room with Pitt to discuss local matters.
McInerney took a long look at those remaining and sighed. “Call me Kevin.”
“What?” asked Dallas.
“Call me Kevin. My men call me Sir. My wife…” he drifted off.
“Where’s your wife?”
“Havre, Minnesota. Just north of the Bearpaw mountains.” McInerney sat down heavily on a rusty chair.
“Is that where ya call home?”
“It was. That’s where we grew up. She’s my high school sweetheart. We have a place in Monteray, but she was home in Havre for a wedding. I was on duty and couldn’t make it with her.”
“Where are you all from?” the Commander asked.
“No shocker for me, I’m from Texas.”
“Grew up in Frisco,” Rick began, “met my wife… ex… at a party of all things, then moved to Boston for a bit. We had Sam, then things fell apart between us. Brenda was… difficult, and I lost my job because of budget cuts, so I moved back here.”
Chris and Anna spoke at the same time; Chris was from Oakland, and Anna from the Bay area.
“Amazing how pleasantries can get lost when faced with the end of the world.”
“I agree, Kevin, but what’re we gonna do?”
“I have to stay with my boat. The SEALs will escort you to Boston, where you will guide them to where the scientists are and then you will assist them while they relocate to their alternate laboratory. Hopefully they can hold out until you get there.”
“If we get there,” Chris said under his breath.
Anna punched him in the shoulder. “We’ll make it.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because if we don’t, then we can’t possibly win. Without this cure, or suppression thing or whatever it is, we don’t stand a chance.” All eyes were on her now. “This is the ultimate war of attrition, and we’re getting our butts kicked. If we can stop the spread of infection, then we can pull our asses out of the fire. I for one am sick and tired of the dead not staying dead.”
McInerney shook his head, “Which is why you will need to leave within the next day or two. You will have to supply yourselves on the way. I will send this element of Hammer Platoon with you, but that’s only six men. I know six men seems like a pretty small army, but believe me when I tell you, if you get in a situation where the SEALs can’t help you, an entire infantry company wouldn’t make a difference. These boys are that good.”
Rick broke in. “So is Martinez, and I trust him with my life. I want Martinez to come with us.”
“I understand. Captain Meara, myself, and Lieutenant Commander Pitt will remain behind and get Alcatraz going. I have some engineers that could fortify this place, and make it fairly impregnable. There’s a Marine weapons depot in Alameda, which is right across the bay. We will have a team check it out. Hopefully it hasn’t been looted.”
“I’m sensin’ a lotta hope in most o’ these plans there, Kevin.”
“Agreed, Dallas, but at this point, hope is one of the few things we have left, don’t you think?”
“Yes sir, it sure is. We’ve also got-”
McInerney’s radio blared to life: “Sir we have two DMLs from the mainland! Targets are Alcatraz and the Florida! Repeat, DML! We are submerging now!”
“EVERYBODY DOWN!” screamed the Commander, who instantly dropped to the ground, pulling Anna and Chris with him as he went. The rest of the room hit the floor in confusion, Dallas putting his hands over his head. McInerney fumbled for his com unit. “Secure and dive ASAP! I want a reciprocal trajectory algorithm in thirty seconds. Return fire with an SM39! Don’t keep me waiting, Jensen! We need—”
Alcatraz shook with a giant explosion. Dust and bits of moldy plaster rained down on the folks in the command center. It was suddenly very hot, and there was a tremendous ringing sound. Flames licked the glassless windows of the former Model Industries building, even though there weren’t a log of combustible items to burn. Part of the floor and wall gave way behind Rick, and he scrambled like a crab so as not to fall into the newly-created chasm. Chris stood and leapt forward, grabbing Rick’s hands just as more of the floor gave way. Rick’s feet were dangling two stories above broken slabs of concrete and wicked-looking twisted rebar. Chris pulled and Rick crawled forward to safety, breathing heavily.
The same disembodied voice that had issued the initial warning, blurted something unintelligible through the radio.
McInerney was on his back rolling, holding his head. He blinked a few times and looked for his walkie-talkie. “Say again,” he coughed.
“No further solutions, Commander!”
“Keep monitoring, and fire when your solution is prepared!”
“Aye sir!”
Dallas spoke up from the floor, his hands still over his ears, “What in the hell is a goddamn DML?”
“A detected missile launch. Whoever doesn’t like us has got some toys.”
Screams drifted into the command center from the island.
24
Fifty meters or so into the slimy pipe, little Noah started to panic. His mother tried to console him to no avail, and finally Billy piped up.
“Hey! Who’s crying?”
“Not me!” Caleb yelled up forward.
Billy shined the light back behind him. “So it’s Noah? Hey Noah, did you ever watch Bugs Bunny?”
The crying stopped instantly, but Noah said nothing. Caleb crawled forward a little more. “Mommy wouldn’t let us watch Bugs, she said it was too vilet.”
“It was purple?”
“No, vilet, like people get hurt and stuff.”
“Oh,
violent
!”
“Yeah, s’what I said, vilet.”
Billy chuckled. “Well, anyway, Bugs was always tunneling someplace, but he never ended up where he was supposed to go. He always missed the left at Albuquerque. I’m pretending that I’m Bugs, tunneling through the earth. We won’t miss that left though, because Noah is going to be our guide! We’ll make it to where we’re going.”
“What about me?” asked Caleb, his blond hair filthy and matted with whatever was in the pipe.
“You’re…”
“Shhh!” whispered Martin from up front. “We’re coming to a break in the pipe. Be very careful, and somebody help the kids. It’s a fifteen foot fall if anybody slips through, but it’s easily avoided if you pay attention. This is one of two places where the pipe we’re in spans a wide gap.”
Martin crawled forward and looked through the hole, a rusted out piece of the pipe perhaps a yard long. It was passable, as the hole wasn’t large enough for even one of the kids to fall through. Martin wanted everyone to be safe regardless hence the warning. Light streamed below from an unknown source illuminating the two legs of someone sitting down. Another shadowy form stumbled past the light source, followed by another. The forms didn’t seem to be going anyplace, but just meandering around.
Martin moved past the break and kept going, Billy right behind him. Billy looked back at Caleb, putting a finger to his lips. Caleb nodded in the affirmative, and made the same gesture to his little brother behind him. Noah and Melanie made it past without issue, but as Ali tried to negotiate the chasm, her bow, which she had slung on her back, got stuck on one of the pipe’s rusty edges. She couldn’t call for help or she would alert the creatures below her, and while they couldn’t reach, she didn’t want to let the things know that there was a smorgasbord in a tube above them. She tried to back out of the bow, but was stuck fast. After a mighty heave, the bow popped off over her head and it made a clattering noise as it skittered forward. Ali looked down into the faces of the undead, who now looked back with unrepentant hunger and need. They reached for her, but she was far above them. She continued moving down the pipe, pushing the bow in front of her, but couldn’t help thinking that Tony and Abbey would run into this small group of infected as they made their way to the meeting point.
She was still thinking about them when there was a terrible sound of rending metal and the pipe behind her collapsed with a resounding crash. Snapping sounds followed, and suddenly she was sliding backwards. The duct was slick, and she pressed her back, hands, and knees as hard as she could into the cylinder walls to stem her descent. She stopped after only a few feet, but wasn’t able to feel any appreciation for stopping. The pipe had fallen down at such an angle that she could barely make out the bottom of the broken pipe through the dim light.
Ali looked back up, and muck from the intact line above dropped into her face, momentarily blinding her. Disgusted, Ali wiped her forearm across her eyes and spit out the crap that had fallen into her mouth. Looking back, she was able to discern movement at the base of the cracked cylinder she was stuck in.
One at a time, an indeterminate number of dead gained access to the pipe, a mere twenty or so feet behind her, and they started crawling forward, mewling.
“They’re in the pipe,” she shouted upward. “They’re right behind me, hurry!” She scrambled forward, grabbing the bow as she did, her feet kicking on the slime and getting little purchase.
The group of survivors moved faster. “Fast” was a relative term anyway, in a slimy two and a half foot diameter sewer pipe, but they sped up some. The moans of the pursuing dead echoed all around them, seeming to come from all directions.
Melanie cried from the middle of the pack, “You said that they wouldn’t get in here!”
“Yeah, well, best laid plans! Move!”
It was challenging inching along in a very confined space, and terrifying knowing that there were zombies in the narrow tube behind them. Eventually, they came to an access grate in the pipe which looked down on a large room. This must have been the macerator pit, as the room was lighted, and a steel mesh framework covered the floor. The space looked clean and neat as compared with the other rooms and tunnels they had seen. No undead seemed to be in the area below them, but there was no mistaking the cries of the ones in the pipe behind the gunk-covered party.
Billy ran into Martin’s shoes. “Uh, you need to hurry up there, chief.”
Martin said nothing.
“Knock-knock Martin, we have company behind us.”
Billy heard several meaty thumps in front of him, and Martin grunted heavily.
“Martin? Martin!”
Martin replied with something unintelligible.
“What? Speak up and hurry, they’re getting closer.
“The pipe is crushed.”
From behind: “What’s happening, why aren’t we moving!”
Billy’s words reverberated around everyone, “Everybody shut up for a sec! Martin what’s going on, we have to go, now!”
“The pipe is bent closed in front of me. I can’t move it. Something’s crushed it from above and pinched it closed.”
“Pass this back to Ali!” Billy yelled, giving the flashlight to Caleb, who passed it back further. “Ali, how close are they?”
Melanie began to cry as she passed the light back.
Ali got the flashlight and shined it back the way they had come. A small dip in the pipe thirty feet back obscured anything further from view. “I can’t see them!”
“Flip on your back and kick that grate, we have to get out!”
She did as she was told, feeling the cold goo on her back, but the cylinder they were in was too skinny for her to raise her leg high enough to get any good kicks in. She started kicking furiously, but the lattice wouldn’t budge.
Panic set in for Melanie first, “Jesus, we’re going to die in here, my kids, my kids! God no! Not like this! Not-”
“Mel, shut up!” Billy yelled. “You’re scaring the kids! Ali, kick!”
A cacophony of sounds assaulted Ali. Yelling, crying, and pleading from in front, and the ever present noise of the dead from behind. Her kicks rang against the grate echoing throughout the area, and she started to get mad.
“RRRaaarr!” she yelled as she kept struggling. She shined the light back and saw a pasty hand come up over the dip in the pipe. She kicked even harder, but realized it was useless. The bow was too long to turn in the confined space, so she was unable to shoot the creature whose head and shoulders were now in view. The thing saw her and doubled its efforts, some of its cohorts right behind. “They’re almost on us!” she yelled.
As the creatures inched their way forward, Ali came to the realization that she was about to die, and a calm sereneness came over her. Smashing both feet down at once, she thought that it would have been nice to start over on Alcatraz with Billy and this Sam girl he kept talking about.
“Get the kids past me!” Billy shouted. “Hurry!” Billy turned on his back and shimmied a little back towards the way they came. He passed Caleb and Noah over his chest toward Martin, and as he did so, he looked into Caleb’s eyes through the gloom illuminated by Martin’s lantern ahead of them. “They will never touch you, kiddo.”
“Ok,” was the small, terrified reply.
“Mel, can you get by me?” Melanie was weeping and didn’t respond. Billy used his toe to nudge her roughly. “Melanie! Snap out of it!” He gave her a full-on smack with his foot, but not enough to hurt her. She looked surprised, but started to climb over him. Her formerly white shorts caught on his chin, and muck and goo fell in his mouth. He spit it out and tried to inch backwards while she went forwards. They made it and Billy kept inching toward Ali.
Ali stopped kicking, raised the flashlight and screamed. The lead zombie was three feet away and reaching for her feet. It inched further, and Ali tried to back up, but now Billy was in the way. The thing reached forward and grabbed her shoe, and she kicked furiously, but the creature kept coming. She repeatedly kicked it in the face and shoulders, only it had succeeded in getting both hands on her leg and wasn’t giving up. The dead man was heavy - he looked like a dead football player - and Ali simply couldn’t pull away. Billy was yanking on her, trying to pull her back, but with nowhere to go. Billy passed her something long and thin, and she grabbed it. It was one of her arrows. She spun it so the broad head was facing the enemy and jabbed it into the thing’s eye, but not far enough. The dead man kept pulling at her, trying to bite her legs. She gave another desperate kick and sent the graphite projectile home, the zombie dropping its head to the floor of the pipe instantly. The ones behind piled up against the dead one, unable to proceed.
Pap! Pap-pap!
Gunshots, close. Definitely in the sewers.
Ali kept kicking the grate for all she was worth, but it wouldn’t budge. The infected behind the first big one were tugging at him and trying to move forward at the same time, fortunately not making any progress.
Suddenly, Tony and Abbey rushed into view below them. Abbey raised her pistol and fired once back through the opening they had come from.
“Tony! Tony up here, we’re stuck!”
Tony looked around the room, confused.
“Up here!” she screamed. “They’re in the pipe with us and we can’t get out!”
Tony and Abbey both looked up and saw the grate. Ali stuck her fingers down through it, and Tony understood. He grabbed an aluminum step ladder which was hanging on the wall, and got as close to the pipe as possible.
“How’d you get stuck?”
“Don’t ask stupid questions, just get us out! They’re on top of us!”
Pap!
“Trust me, it isn’t any better down here,” he muttered as he stepped back a rung on the ladder.
Tony swung his axe and the pipe made a heavy clanging noise.
Abbey turned to look at him, “Hurry! There’s a bunch coming!”
The grate bent upward on his third swing, and it broke on the fourth, swinging down on a hinge.
“It’s open, c’mon!” Ali yelled to her compatriots.
Pap-pap-pap!
Tony backed farther down the ladder and helped Ali as she came out of the confined space. Billy was next, and he gave the re-killed offensive tackle zombie a few good kicks for added measure. A filthy hand missing the ring and pinky fingers had reached about chest level of the horizontal dead man, and was doing its best to grab Billy. Melanie came next, followed by the kids. They all moved toward the exit across the macerator grille.
When Martin tried to make his escape, the creature behind the one with the arrow in its eye had moved up enough to grab Martin’s hair. He pulled himself away, but lost a few locks in the process. Tony, who was now as covered in pipe-scum as the crawlers were, helped him down. The twice-dead zombie had moved forward considerably, pushed by his dead brethren. His head and shoulders hung down out of the grate.
“Tony, we have to go!” Abbey shouted, and ran to the group.
Dead people flooded into the macerator room after Abbey: at least a dozen shambling figures, covered in blood, some missing limbs. Caleb screamed and pointed at them. Some came at Tony, but the majority went for the larger group of survivors who had moved some distance away.
Pap-click…
“Shit!” Abbey yelled, fumbling with a second magazine.
Twang!
An arrow was suddenly sticking out of the skinless forehead of the closest undead, who collapsed lifeless. Ali fired a second arrow, but missed her target and got the chest of the creature behind. “Come on! We need to move!” She nocked another arrow and fired again.
Abby drew the slide on the pistol after she had slammed a second magazine home. She aimed carefully and fired into the oncoming horde.
Tony kicked the ladder out of the way, and was about to run down the corridor when the dead man and the undead young woman that had grabbed Martin fell from above. It was a glancing blow, but it still knocked Tony down. He struggled away from the bodies and got up quickly. The young woman had grabbed his pant leg, so he brought his axe down on her wrist, nearly severing her hand. He dispatched one zombie with his axe, and avoided two others as he caught up to Abbey. Together they followed the rest of the group of survivors through the connecting tunnel and moved on.
The living humans were much faster than the dead ones, but the dead just didn’t give up. Billy and Martin were up front, followed by Melanie and the kids, Ali, and Abbey, with Tony bringing up the rear as they moved quickly down the tunnel. They lost sight of the pursuing dead as they sped down the old sewer, shoes slapping on the bricks. They stopped for a moment to catch their breath when the tunnel opened up into a much wider passageway. This part of the system was partially submerged.