“Close that door; we don’t want them wandering in here,” someone stated urgently.
Daniels closed the door tightly behind them. They were all holed up in the deck right below the crew quarters, where the laundry in the ship was washed and cleaned. Daniels noticed the dead bodies littering the other side of the room. It seems they had their fair share of unwanted visitors as well.
“I am Evans. So, Daniels where did you come from?” she asked, reading his nameplate.
“I came from the kitchens; I was the only one to make it here. What the hell happened? One moment I am prepping food for the morning and the next two men are eating my friends alive.”
An older man stepped out in front of Evans, “Son, this shit started about three hours ago. We still don’t know what happened, probably has something to do with that man we brought on board. He was the first one that was all bite and no talk.”
Daniels looked at the table they surrounded. It was a laundry table they had set up with a floor plan of the ship. Several decks had been marked off. Evans interrupted the older man from saying anything else.
“Look, we know that the two decks above us are wiped out if there is anyone alive it’s not likely that we are going to find them there. But we need to find a way out of here and fast. I was there on the main deck when they barged in and started to tear people apart.”
The older man chimed in again, “Where do you suppose we go? The only safe deck right now is most likely the engine room all the way at the bottom of the ship. That’s where we should head. All we would have to do then is seal all the doors and wait for help. I don’t think they would just leave us out here to die.”
Evans sighed, “I don’t think it will be for long. We should head up. Try to get to the bridge and contact some help or rescue. Just sitting around won’t help anything, and what if help doesn’t come soon enough? The only plan of action is to try to reach the command bridge.”
“Look here, Miss Evans. I am your commanding officer. I am ordering you, and everyone else in this room, to head down to the engine rooms and seal themselves in!” The older man looked around at the others, before settling his gaze at Daniels. He had the look of a crazed man trying desperately to hold onto something that he knew he had lost.
“What are you going to do if we don’t follow your orders, huh, Major? Are you going to court-martial us? Send us to the brig? Throw us to those things outside this room? Right now isn’t the time to be throwing around rank. We need to survive and work together. Conner and I barely made it out of that room; I don’t intend to lock myself up so I can make it easier for them to get to me,” Evans said angrily.
The others agreed, it seems that Daniels was either going to have to tag along or be left behind. He quickly agreed to go with her. Understanding that if he stayed, he wouldn’t last long. They handed him a rifle with a spare clip. “The last owner of this gun won’t need it.”
That was reassuring, but at least he wasn’t alone now. They all stacked up on the bulkhead to the stairs, praying there weren’t any more of those things out there waiting. They opened the door, finding no one. The major started to yell at them to come back, but when the door closed, they could no longer hear him. They all started up the stairs covering each door as they passed it. Daniels was watching the rear.
They only had about three floors left, when they heard the creak of the bulkhead a floor up. They all froze and looked up at the next floors landing. That’s when they heard the footsteps, a march of feet. They all backed up towards the door on landing they were on. They opened it to an empty hall, understanding it was this or an army upstairs. They entered and closed the door, sealing it behind them.
“Clear these side rooms and fast, we need to move,” said Evans. Daniels still watched the rear, while one of the men watched the front. The others split up and cleared the rooms. Apparently, no one was left in this part of the ship, and things went well. They made their way down the hall as quickly as they could, wanting to put some distance between the stairwell and themselves.
They reached a set of stairs that led up one floor, deciding to go up but with caution. Once they reached the top of the stairs, it opened into a T-shaped intersection. They checked both ways, seeing a couple of men stumbling about in the hall on the left. “Hold,” Evans whispered. “Let’s wait a moment to see which way they go.”
The men slowly shambled towards the end of the hall towards the stairwell they had just left. Something had attracted them to those stairs. Hoping it wasn’t someone who was alive they took the hallway to the right. If they hadn’t operated on this ship, it would be highly unlikely they would have made it this far. These ships were almost like mazes, hallways and stairwells everywhere each leading somewhere else.
With that in mind, they made their way cautiously, trying to take the service stairs. They were the slower way of getting around, but they were a lot safe since no one ever used them. Going up two more floors, they could see the door that led to the command tower. Through that door the stairs that went almost five stories to salvation, to help and rescue.
The only problem lay before them, blocking their escape. Around fifteen people, men and women from the crew quarters stumbled about aimlessly. They were a short walk from the door; there was no way they could sneak past them. Their only option was to kill them. An ammo count showed that they only had enough to get through the group possibly, but that was it.
“Alright, let’s do you two in front, me and another support. Daniels, you’ve got the rear. We have to hit them fast and get through that door. The noise will most likely alert more to head this way.” Said Evans.
They all moved forward as one group and started to fire, taking down several of the ones in front. The others were excited by the new people, and all of them charged forward together. The gunfire from the four people took down a few more leaving nine more people shambling their way. They pushed forward only stopping every couple of feet to steady their aim.
They reached the door within a minute. Opening it to a stairwell that was empty, they rushed in and closed the door, sealing it. Soon there would be an army of former sailors trying to get through that door. They all knew it and decided to push forward. Daniels was breathing heavily, the adrenaline heavily coursing through him.
They started up the stairs, passing a small closet, and continued going up. Near the top of the stairs, Daniels tripped and fell down the flight of stairs. They all stopped and turned to look their eyes widening at the noise caused by Daniels fall. Crashing into the wall of the stairs he slowly got up, Evans had made her way down to him and was helping him up.
That’s when they all noticed the loud banging coming from the door where the three men stood on the landing. They turned and raised their rifles towards the door. Unluckily for them, the bulkhead wasn’t secured. The door burst open, a flood of men and women came from the room on the other side.
The group saw the three men in front of them and rushed toward them. The three men fired their weapons into the group but met no success at quelling their forward movement. Realizing they had to flee rather than fight they turned around and ran for their lives going up the stairs towards the command room. The group followed them excited now with all the action that had occurred.
Daniels scrambled to his feet; he quickly opened the closet they had previously passed. He ducked inside, and Evans followed. Leaving the door cracked to peak through the opening, they stayed silent. They heard the thunderous noise of feet, a mass of them, moving up the stairwell. They heard the three men yelling and firing their rifles occasionally, a good sign that they could make it to the command tower.
Daniels and Evans looked fearfully at each other. Their options were slim; being stuck in a closet wouldn’t keep them alive for long. Through the shrieks and moans of the group up the stairs, they heard something they didn’t expect to hear. The heavy thudding sound of an approaching helicopter.
They both looked at each other; help had arrived. “We should make a run for i
t!”, Whispered Daniels excitedly. A scream pierced through the sounds, someone was in excruciating pain.
Evans gave him a sorrowful look, “What about those three men upstairs? We can’t just leave them to die!”
“There is nothing we can do for them. You saw that group; we don’t have any way of fighting them. We need to get out of here and to safety. Let’s move.”, Said Daniels.
He moved towards the door, pulling Evans with him. She allowed herself to go with Daniels, moving with him towards the door. They crept through and didn’t see anyone else. The door to the flight deck was down one level, and they raced for it with all they had. They reached the door and yanked it open; darkness had set in outside. The silhouette of two helicopters was visible, so they both ran out, waving their arms frantically trying to get the pilots attention.
One of the pilots saw them and started to lower down to the flight deck. Daniels and Evans both kept running, and they didn’t stop. The helicopter landed and started to lower its ramp. They both scrambled on, breathing heavily. Daniels screamed at the pilot to take off. The pilot gave Daniels a concerned look but understood now wasn’t the time to ask questions.
Chapter 16
The storm
They all looked at the sailor, who had introduced himself as Daniels, first in shock, and second in wonderment. “That man you say was a survivor. He’s not crazy,” Said Daniels. Those words resounded with weight in the tent.
Ramirez, who was leaning against some boxes in the back, stood up and looked at Daniels, “If he isn’t crazy then what is wrong with him? It’s not like we found him in the best of circumstances. I mean for Christ sake we found his whole squad dead with about twenty civilians as well.”
Daniels looked around the room at the other soldiers, “I know it’s hard to believe, but the command ship and everyone on it are gone. Evans and I here are probably the only two survivors left. If what happened to the ship happened in this city, hell the nation, he isn’t crazy, and that isn’t good for us.”
The pilots looked at each other, knowing that what Daniels said was true. Ramirez and Smith seemed content with staying out of this conversation and just taking in everything said.
Knight stood up straight, crossing his arms, “We were attacked by a man inside the building. He seemed to be infected, but he also had a wound that should have killed him. Are you saying these people are infected, and that’s what is causing them to go crazy?”
Daniels and Evans looked at each other unsure of how to explain what had happened on the ship.
Evans was the first to speak up, “Well, it wasn’t too long after you guys had left for your mission we came upon a small vessel, a small yacht. At first, the yacht appeared to be just drifting. As we got closer, we could see people moving about on the deck. We couldn’t tell what they were doing onboard, but we took the movement as a good sign. They tried to reach the vessel on the radio, but no one answered.”
“We were ordered to send out a small party to attempt to contact them. The party disembarked; they boarded the vessel and within a few minutes left the ship, saying that they were under attack and had lost a man. They retreated and left the vessel, returning to the command ship. They were examined by the doctor as soon as they were aboard,” Evans paused.
“Apparently, two of them had received bite wounds in the fight and were feeling sick. They started to lose it after a couple of hours. That’s when it all went wrong. Security teams were sent to secure the med bay where they were at, but they too got attacked and overwhelmed. Soon the boat was full of the crazy bastards trying to attack people.”
“Another man and I escaped the main living deck, found a few other people making their way to the command tower. That’s when we found Daniels here. We were lucky to be near the flight deck when the helicopters showed up.”
Daniels noticed that she left out the part where they had left three men to their fate, a gruesome death aboard that ship. He felt a stab of guilt hit him; he knew there was nothing he could have done for those men. However, the thought that they didn’t even try to help them made him feel terrible like he was less of a person for leaving them.
He guessed Evans felt the same way, as she looked away from the group unable to look them in the eyes. If she did, they could probably see the guilt that her eyes held and would condemn her. He thought he saw tears rolling down her cheeks. He wanted to comfort her but knew that in doing so, it meant that he was ok with leaving those men to die. That wasn’t something he could forgive himself for doing so he just stood there.
“So, we are just guessing, but it seems the virus is even deadlier than what we originally were told. If infected it makes the person go crazy and attack others. I suppose that means the Survivor next door is extremely lucky,” said Knight.
“Looks like we need to find these pilots quickly. We can only assume this building is the only safe place, and with everything that is and has happened, I don’t want to take any more risks than we have too. After we secure those two pilots, we can hold out here until someone back home realizes that we haven’t reported in. Let’s just get them back and then we can talk all you want about what is going on.”
They all nodded, understanding that the longer they were away from the building, the greater their chance of getting infected.
“We cleared out the floor below us, with the storm coming soon, we should move the Survivor downstairs. Langston and Cooper are you both ok with watching over the Survivor, he’s been through a lot. We had to give him a sedative to calm him down. Evans and Daniels, I want you two to stand guard at the door, don’t let anyone onto the floor you don’t recognize. My team will go and secure the pilots before bringing them back,” Ordered Knight.
“Actually, I would like to accompany your team to secure my fellow airmen,” Cooper said.
Knight admired the pilot’s charge to rescue his fellow soldiers, although they understood the brotherhood of the military, you never leave behind a fellow soldier.
“Sure thing, we could always use more hands,” replied Knight.
With that it was settled, all that was left to do was for them to grab a weapon for Cooper and move the Survivor to the floor below. Ramirez and Langston grabbed the man, who was still knocked out from the sedative they had given him earlier. Knight and Carter had cleared out several of the offices of their desks, moving them against the opposite stairwell’s door. They had made sure a cot was ready for the man and gently laid him down on it.
They all gathered the necessary gear to go on their trek to rescue the pilots. Knight grabbed an extra rifle and a pair of night vision goggles, handing it to Cooper. They each made sure they had three magazines each for their rifles. Ramirez grabbed his medical pack in anticipation that it would be needed to check over both pilots. Lastly, they each made sure that they had a few provisions just to be safe. There was nothing worse than being stuck in a foreign country, an unfamiliar area, without food and water.
They all met up by the door to the stairwell. Looking at each other and readied themselves. Knight knew this wouldn’t be a leisurely walk through the park, after hearing the story of the sailors they were all a little unsettled. Knight hoped that Carter wouldn’t make another mistake like he had with him earlier. He had decided to give the man another chance, after all, they hadn’t anticipated the infected attacking them.
✽ ✽ ✽
The group had left the relative safety of their rooftop retreat, making the journey down the flights of stairs. They took a short break halfway down the building, not wanting to exhaust themselves before they even got to the bottom of the building.
Knight envied the younger pilot and his fellow squad mate, Carter. They, at least, had the vigor that made them able to keep going up and down stairs as if they were playing a game. Knight would never admit it to his squad, but he was starting to feel the toll of years of service, having received several wounds. Some of which still plagued him in the field, not enough to hinder him just to annoy him.
He wanted more than anything for his men to succeed, but he also wouldn’t push them so far, they couldn’t come back. He had seen officers who pushed their men to the point of no return in the field. Normally, when pushed it led to dire consequences, and sometimes claimed a life. It wasn’t like any moral compass society could fix that; sometimes men did what they had to do out in the world that they couldn’t take back. Knight had been in those situations before.
Knight understood that there was a certain threshold, and once crossed it changed everything. He had refused such an order long ago, and it had cost him a rank. He was glad that he knew that consciously he didn’t have that moral scar and had only walked away with a demotion. Knight hoped that he could spare his men from such scars, but in doing so, he knew that he might have to take those scars for them.
He recognized that he would become the thing that he was trying to avoid, to save his men. After having the leadership of a squad for a couple of years, he understood that he would take on the responsibilities of hard, life-changing, decisions to keep the blood off his men’s hands. Little did he know that his actions defined his men and would lead to his hands covered in blood.
✽ ✽ ✽
As the group heading down the stairs took a break, Daniels and Evans sat quietly next to each other. Evans looked out the window overlooking the city, still trying to mentally shield herself from the truth that she was alive in all this. Evans felt as though she and Daniels knew more than all the others about what was happening in the city, yet, there were no words to describe it.
What Remains: The Outbreak Page 7
