by JT Sawyer
“Is it lying on a recliner, working on its tan?” he chuckled as he removed a specially modified sniper rifle that was outfitted to accept a pronged spear gun dart.
“They don’t like the sun, remember, smart ass? That cluster of freaks on the last island was nearly unconscious from the heat and humidity when we came up on ’em during midday.”
Reisner tugged his blue Navy cap down and squinted up at the sky. “Yeah, well, it’s 0830, so we don’t have that advantage this time, do we.” He held up the immense rifle. “But this will be a good equalizer.”
Reisner winced, still recalling the crushing force he received to his ribs the first time he encountered an alpha creature on Jebwe Island. The beast had gotten the upper hand on him with an ambush and lifted him off the ground, nearly crushing his trachea with its brute force. He learned then to never assume they were just mindless undead creatures. They were cunning adversaries intent on protecting their own at any cost. Reisner remembered Selene’s analogy about termite colonies and how these creatures resembled an insect caste system with their hierarchy and delegation of duties. He dreaded the thought of going hand-to-hand with another alpha and was glad Ivins was along for this ride to try a new tactic.
Ivins looked back at Reisner, who was getting the rifle situated on the deck of the skiff and unspooling a thin cable attached to the dart.
“I’ll take over from here, if you don’t mind. You Agency types only know how to shoot when you’re on solid ground.” A hint of sarcasm was present in his voice.
“Probably because that’s where most firefights occur, aqua man.”
Ivins took hold of the weapon and got into a kneeling position, his left shoulder braced against the side of the dashboard while his right was pressed into the stock of the rifle.
“Well, just sit back and see how the professionals do it, William,” he said with a grin, a heavy wad of chewing tobacco tucked under his lower lip.
Reisner chuckled. “Did you already adjust for windage and distance, swabbie?”
“You learn those terms playing Call of Duty in the basement of your parents’ house?”
“Wasn’t that the video game that featured a bunch of candy-ass Navy SEALs?”
“At least we have a videogame with us as the main characters.” He paused. “Or had.” He gave Reisner a stern look, both of them realizing the references to the world they had known only a week ago were now dated—connected to a world that seemed so distant.
Reisner took the binoculars off the console and scanned the third level again for the alpha as Ivins finished setting up. In the short time since they’d met, he’d enjoyed working with Ivins and felt he was the only person amongst the SEALs who didn’t look at him and his team with sideways glances, uncertain of their role on the aircraft carrier.
“The alpha is starboard still, directing a bunch of its drones along the main deck.” Reisner studied the six-foot-tall creature with nearly translucent skin and a smooth head as it moved with purpose along the deck. He panned to the right, examining the other decks and porthole windows of the luxury liner. “Hard to believe that there were probably around a thousand passengers on that ship and now they’re all dead inside their own bodies.”
“Too bad the thermal imaging didn’t show any survivors still inside. If we had only passed through a few days earlier, it might have been a different story.” Ivins pulled his eyes away from the scope and glanced up at Reisner for a second, his expression one of consternation.
“Is that a reference to being diverted to Jebwe Island?”
“Just saying, there were probably a lot of passengers who might still be alive today if things had turned out differently with our timeline getting back to Pearl.”
“And we also wouldn’t have gotten all the research files from Hayes’ lab to help Doctor Munroe study this virus.”
Ivins raised his eyebrows then returned his attention to the rifle scope. “You mean the nebulous research lab whose seeming affiliation with your agency you still can’t talk about.”
“Come on—you know how it works.”
“Yeah, I do, but how long is McKenzie going to sit on all that intel we snagged before he lets us in on the big picture?”
He knew Ivins was right, but Reisner felt bound to Agency protocols and sure as hell wasn’t about to divulge to the battle-weary SEALs that the CIA was behind the release of the pathogen that levelled humanity and the reason why most of them would never see their families alive again.
He pressed the binoculars closer, watching the alpha move towards the railing and stare at their boat. “It sees us—now’s the time to work your magic.”
Ivins wedged the rifle stock closer into his shoulder and pressed his cheek against the side, then steadied his breathing. A second later, the improvised dart-gun released its sixteen-inch barbed projectile and hurled it in an arc over the waves with the cable in tow. The spear pierced the alpha male in the ribs beneath the heart, sending it back a few feet from the impact. It shrieked, turning its head up at the sky.
Reisner stepped back, setting the binoculars down, and rushed to the helm, starting the engine and spinning the wheel hard to the left. The boat swung around, the cable slowly losing its slack as they moved away from the cruise ship. Once the cable snapped taut, the alpha was violently yanked off the deck and hurled headfirst into the ocean below. Reisner increased the engine speed while the creature bobbed sideways out of the water with each whitecap they passed. He drove towards the Reagan then veered off towards a small civilian frigate near the port side. There were six armed Navy personnel standing on the rear deck, their ARs pointed at the creature, who had gone limp, its arms barely thrashing in the waters.
“Get the net on that thing and then reel it into the diving cage,” yelled Ivins. Reisner stopped the boat, throwing a line up to a sailor on deck, who tied them off. Then he stepped back near Ivins and began winding in the cable on the hand-cranked spool bolted to the floor of the skiff. As the exhausted creature was pulled closer, two sailors flung a weighted cast net onto the alpha. Once it was enclosed around the torso, they dragged it to the side of the frigate, where a diver’s shark cage was partially suspended in the water beside the deck, then cut the line on the cable. The shrill sound emanating from the waterlogged mouth of the beast was fierce, and Reisner was surprised how loud it was above the din of the skiff’s engine.
With the creature safely secured in the steel cage, the sailors rushed forward and placed a heavy padlock on the door then leapt back as the enraged alpha struggled to free itself of the cast net.
Reisner climbed up on the rear deck and stood a few feet away from the cage, grateful the creature was subdued. A small crane mounted on the second level swung its arm over and dropped a twelve-foot section of heavy chain with an iron hook on the end. The civilian boat captain inside the crane, his hefty midsection nearly filling the entire operator compartment, hoisted the cage up and moved it to the center of the rear deck, lowering it into a cargo hold that had been made into a makeshift lab for Doctor Munroe.
Reisner watched the enraged eyes of the creature, its gaze fixed on him as it clutched the wrought-iron bars. It reached down and ripped out the dart, gray blood spilling out as it disappeared below the edge. He looked over at Ivins, who had just climbed out of the skiff. “You sure that cage is double-reinforced? Selene’s going to be locked down below with that thing starting this afternoon.”
“Yes, I oversaw the work myself. We had two of our engineers work on it—and she won’t be down there alone. McKenzie is assigning six armed guards to her detail. They won’t leave her sight.”
Reisner crossed his arms and took a deep breath, glad that their mission had been successful but knowing this was only the beginning. Now, Selene had to do the rest if they were to understand how their enemy communicated with each other and why the alphas were so intelligent. I hope this will give us an edge. His gut told him they were going to need more than manpower and tactics to defeat this abominatio
n that had plagued the world.
He looked around at the blue-green waters and scattered tropical islands in the distance. It all seemed like such a tranquil setting, and he envied the old mariners who thought that only the depths of the ocean contained monsters.
Chapter 2
People’s Liberation Army Headquarters, Bunker One
Eighteen miles from the city of Nanjing on the western flank of the Yangtze River
General Chen Lau was seated at an oval table in the command center as he listened to the SITREP from the four other generals working under him. His son, Han, was seated to his immediate right. A lieutenant in the PLA, Han had barely survived the initial onslaught of creatures that had assaulted Beijing during the forty-eight-hour battle that consumed that city. Han knew the horrors that awaited them outside the walls of the bunker and he wondered why his father wasn’t doing more to address the immediate concerns of the nation and the survivors in outlying regions instead of focusing so many internal resources waging a cyber-war against the Americans. His own sister and mother had been lost and now he was gravely concerned how many more of his countrymen were hiding out, awaiting rescue that Han knew would never come if his father continued down this course.
Lau’s irritation kept increasing with each report of his troops killed in action during the past few days of warfare against the horrific creatures created by the Americans’ virus. His only goal was to keep his remaining eleven bunkers intact and figure out a way to minimize damages from the demonic beasts throughout China while slowly picking away at the surviving nations that could pose a threat to their future dominance.
Unilaterally, he had initiated cyber-attacks against the power grids in not only the eastern United States but also in Vietnam, Korea, and Japan, crippling the already fragile infrastructure of those age-old enemies. With the press of a single button, the uploaded worm had plunged those suffering nations into the Stone Age. For Lau, it was more than a strategic move, and his bitterness towards those rivals extended back generations in his family from the wars that claimed so many lives in his lineage. In a single chess move, he had righted the wrongs of decades of resentment in a way no politician ever could. The three military advisors who initially objected to his actions were restrained by their wrists to wooden posts outside the compound walls at midday, just before the creatures staged another assault. The old rule of law was gone, replaced overnight by Lau’s dictatorship, and swift justice for anyone who disobeyed him. With his few remaining cyber-warfare experts working on breaking through the firewalls for the rest of the power grid in the U.S., he would soon plunge them into an irretrievable darkness.
“What about the governments of Russia, Europe, and the UK?” he said, speaking aloud to no one in particular.
General Vehm, a thin man in his sixties with a wispy mustache, leaned forward while typing on his tablet, which transferred an image of a map onto the wall monitor to the right. “There is a large contingent of Russian troops on the outskirts of Kiev, and several smaller army units spread around the other cities in secure bunkers.” An image of London pulled up next, slowly expanding out to show the rest of Europe. As for England, there has been no word from their shores since two days ago. Germany, Sweden, Romania, Greece, and a few other European nations have survived, their governments partially intact, but they have all suffered heavy losses as we have.”
The officer to his left spoke in a hushed tone, hardly looking at Lau. “Perhaps we should confer with the Russians or Europeans to see if they have any thoughts on a possible cure. The Americans, whom you indicated were behind the virus—perhaps their scientists could still provide insight into the origins. Next to ours, their labs are cutting edge and represent the last hope for…”
“Soon, the U.S. will cease to be of assistance to anyone.” Lau gave him a stern look then rolled his eyes, looking at his son, who only cleared his throat and glanced down at his tablet.
“I’m not interested in a cure,” said Lau. “If one of our own men gets bitten or infected then they are to be executed immediately, regardless of rank. I heard some rumor about inducing the victim into a coma, if he’s an officer, until a cure can be produced. This is utter nonsense. With our limited resources, we are not going to burn up months trying to discover a cure.” He made a fist and rapped his knuckles on the table. “My only interest is in learning how these things function and if their weaknesses can be exploited to our advantage—if they can be controlled. Clearly there is a link between the dominant ones and the workers. We’ve all witnessed as much on the streets, so I am having my bioweapons staff figure out how that process works. If they can be controlled then they can be rounded up and exterminated.”
Han was twitching his fingers. “Sir, may I ask—what is the plan for searching for other survivors amongst our own cities? It seems like the focus has been abroad.”
“Our bunkers are filled with the essential personnel we need.” Lau grabbed the remote and flicked off the monitor then flung the device back onto the table. “If I need further counsel on domestic affairs, you will all be summoned.” He tugged on the collar of his tan jacket. “That is all—return to your duties and keep me informed of the progress on penetrating the energy grids in the U.S.”
• • •
After the other officers left, Vehm made his way around the table and sat beside Lau.
“Was there something unclear about my last orders?” Lau said, staring down at his tablet.
“General—” He paused, softening his tone and using the man’s first name. “Chen, we have known each other since we were young boys growing up in fields outside of Shanghai. I implore you, don’t make this into a war that will further inflict damage upon the rest of humanity beyond what you’ve already done. This is about more than just us now.”
Lau rolled his chair back, turning to face Vehm. “No, you’re wrong. It’s always been about China being supreme from the beginning, even before this virus. Only now we have the means of achieving that instead of wasting away the years using short-sighted political means, endless sanctions, and proxy wars. This became clear to me immediately after the virus swept over the world—the Americans thought they could strike a blow to our nation but through their failure we now have the means, for the first time in history, to be absolute rulers of this world after we subjugate these creatures.” He slid his hand forward, patting Vehm’s arm. “Don’t you see, my old—our nation is like an immense tree in the stark desert that pulls back the precious water in its limbs, sacrificing its branches so the trunk survives until the rains come again.”
Vehm swallowed hard, trying to nod favorably to appease Lau and lighten the man’s zealous expression. He forced out a half-smile, hoping to contain the bile surging in his stomach. Vehm had been in the military since he was seventeen, and he had seen his share of combat from the perspectives of both the victor and the vanquished. And though it sounded like the Americans were behind the release of this pathogen, according to the sketchy details relayed by Lau, Vehm knew that something had probably gone wrong along the way, most likely a fatal error on the part of some madman or rogue elements within the U.S. that would account for something on this scale. He also knew that the human species itself was at risk of being extinguished, and it was no time for Lau to be playing God with the fate of the remaining nations. Survival now meant banding together, not creating isolation from the other minds that could combat this menace.
In the years prior to the pandemic, Vehm had been working with Lau to modernize the PLA, taking it from a military heavy on manpower to having a sweeping cyber-warfare division and making greater technological strides to keep up with Russia and the U.S. Most importantly, Vehm and many other generals had pushed for avoiding unification of the navy, army, and air force so they would remain under their respective commands and avoid having one individual or agency in charge. Now, Lau had singlehandedly unraveled that effort and placed himself at the top. Further, Vehm suspected the general was responsible for the dea
th of the premier and possibly other cabinet members. Lau’s ruthless executions of dissenters in the past twenty-four hours had only driven a wave of terror through the remaining officers, who were already in shock from the loss of their own families and the monsters on their doorstep.
Vehm knew that Lau’s extreme behavior could spell further catastrophe for the already beleaguered personnel spread out in the bunkers throughout China. Vehm knew he wasn’t alone in his thinking but couldn’t reach out to any of the senior officers until he knew for certain who the hardliners were that sided with Lau and who were unsympathetic to the man’s draconian measures. The political atmosphere amongst the remaining officers was precarious, but Vehm knew that Lau’s current course of action would only bring ruin to what was left of China as well as thwart any attempts at working with other nations to battle the deadly menace that had swept throughout the world.
Vehm looked at the general and saw that there was no reasoning with Lau, and to push his luck any further would invite a trip to the crucifixion posts outside the bunker. “You always were the one in our village who had the drive to climb to the top of the mountain. You could run faster than any of us.”
Lau nodded with a grin. “And this time the mountain is at the top of the world and I will make sure you have a place beside me, just like when we were little.”
Vehm stood up and touched Lau on the shoulder. “You should get some rest. Even a tiger must sleep sometime.” He stood and saluted then walked off, the double doors across the room seeming like they were miles away.
Chapter 3
USS Reagan Carrier Strike Group and Civilian Armada
As the skiff approached the stern of the sixty-foot fishing vessel, Reisner examined the newly welded bars that had been placed over the bridge windows. “It was smart to use another ship besides the Reagan to secure the live creatures for Doc Munroe’s work.” He shook his head and grimaced. “I’d hate to think of one of these things getting loose on board our ship.”
