The three men stood around the table and stared at each other for a second before speaking. One stepped forward and spoke in a deep voice. “Sir, you have chosen the right brothers. Before we became enlightened to the true way of our brothers, we executed similar missions against our fellow men. What I propose is we take a small boat down that we have down by the bay, to where the unclean ships are anchored. It is black and will be extremely hard to see at night. In the cover of darkness and while they sleep, we will board their ship, kill any guards we come across, then find and kill the unclean that could take our gift away. Also, will the runner be able to escort us? He could be useful in scouting out the unfamiliar areas for us.”
The runner stood and placed his hands on the SEAL’s shoulders. “Of course, Brothers. Anything I can do to help.”
Sir stood and shook each of their hands. “Thank you, Brothers. Leave once darkness has fallen.”
Day 12: USNS Mercy
It was a moonless night, and the winds were light. The small skiff, holding the AB assault group, was making decent time under the cover of darkness; it had avoided all the unclean patrols. The runner sat up front in the boat while one soldier kept watch and the other drove.
The runner noticed they were about to circle the final point of land before they should see the ships anchored off the pier. He turned and shouted back to the others, “Cut the motor. We should be able to see the ships in a minute.”
The two ships appeared within seconds as the skiff rounded the point. Without speaking, the man at the back pulled out the oars, and they started rowing quietly towards the ships. The runner pointed to the ship on the left because it would hold the one named James.
As they moved closer, they could only see two men on patrol. One of the chosen soldiers muttered under his breath about the arrogance of the unclean and how lightly guarded the ship was. The thought crossed his mind at how easy this mission should be.
The guards seemed to be more interested in chatting with each other than keeping watch over the water. The three chosen in the skiff tied their boat along the anchor’s chain. Hand over hand, they climbed the chain. When they stepped over the edge of the ship, one of the soldiers instructed the runner to wait while they took out the guards. Slowly, the two soldiers crept towards the two guards standing watch on the back of the deck as they stared mindlessly at the blackness of the ocean.
One of the soldiers signaled to the other to approach from the right of the unclean while they would approach from the left. Once they had gotten within a few yards of the unclean, the chosen pulled out their knives. The one on the left gave the signal, and they both sprang into action.
Before the two guards could even react, their throats had been sliced. Both of them fell to the deck, blood bubbling out of the slashes on their necks.
The largest chosen soldier signaled the runner to come towards them. “The first thing we need to do is find out where this ‘James’ is,” he whispered.
The runner approached quickly. “Let’s try to find one of the white coats. They are sure to know where he is.”
The group opened the first door they came to. Once inside, they saw a light coming from a room at the end of a dark hallway. As they quietly approached it, they heard a voice coming from inside the room. The lead soldier poked his head around the edge of the door to scan the room. He realized that it was some type of lab. In the back corner, there was a young woman in a white lab coat listening to music through some headphones while drawing liquid from a container and putting it into another. She was quietly singing and dancing.
The lead soldier quietly stepped back to his companions. “There is only one, and she is in a white coat. She should have the answers to what we are searching for. Wait for me to restrain her, and then you can enter for the questioning.” Both men nodded.
The lead soldier entered the room and hid under a large conference table surrounded by eight chairs. As he ducked down, he bumped one of the chairs. It made a small screech as it moved across the floor. The soldier held his breath and got ready to spring into action. He could see the white-coated woman's legs from under the table, but he couldn’t see any change in her position and figured she must still be listening to her music.
The soldier emerged from under the table and jumped towards the woman. Out of the corner of her eye, the woman noticed something and turned towards it. The only thing she could see were red eyes lunging at her. Her head started pounding, and then everything went black.
The throbbing in her head brought her back to consciousness. She tried to open her eyes, but her vision was fuzzy. She discovered she was sitting in a chair and her hands were tied behind her back.
One of the soldiers noticed she was starting to wake up. He slapped her face to bring her around quicker. The woman’s vision started to clear, and she realized the three people around her were infected. She was about to scream when one of the men shoved his large hand over her mouth.
“No screaming,” he said. “We only want information. Tell us what we want, and we will let you live.”
Tears streamed down the woman’s face. She nodded, and the man removed his hand.
“We are here for the one called James. Where is he?”
The woman suddenly knew why these men were on board. Mustering up her courage, she tried to fake ignorance. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. We’re only here to distribute medical supplies to the evacuation zones in the area.”
The AB soldiers glanced at each other, and one pulled out a large knife. He plunged it into the woman’s thigh. Before she could scream, the other soldier covered her mouth and nostrils.
Inside her head, the screams continued. The pain was unbearable. Dark splotches started to form at the edge of her vision from lack of oxygen. The soldier who had just plunged the knife into her leg bent down and stared the woman in the eyes.
“Wrong answer. Now, we are going to try this again. Do you understand?” The woman nodded as blood freely ran down her leg. The soldier holding her removed his hand from her mouth, and she took a large gulp of air.
“Where is James?” the AB said with a snarl.
This time, the woman offered no resistance. She said in a sobbing voice, “I don’t know anyone named James! However, yesterday a boat brought three men from the shore. If one of them is your man, he should be staying in the guest quarters one deck down. Now that you have what you want, please let me go!” She sobbed.
The two soldiers and the runner exchanged glances and slightly nodded to each other. One of the soldiers had made his way behind the woman. He said in an eerily smooth voice, “Wasn’t this much easier?” Then he grabbed her head and twisted swiftly. The woman slumped in her chair; she’d never breathe again.
The three men quietly walked down the hall to where the stairs were. Once down them, the two soldiers pulled out their small flashlights and started reading the nameplates on the doors. The first several in the hallway had names of the ship’s officers and chief medical personnel, and the last four contained the guest quarters. This was where the white coat said James would be.
Day 12: Blake
Blake was extremely exhausted so for once he didn’t have trouble sleeping. As he lay there, he dreamed of playing in the park with Tara and Kaya. They played on the swings while he sat on the bench soaking in the afternoon sunlight.
Suddenly, two men dressed in black with red eyes jumped out from behind a bush and grabbed the girls. They screamed, and the men dragged them away across the park. Blake tried to stand, but he was stuck on the bench. He was powerless to move and powerless to help the ones he loved.
Blake shot out of bed covered in sweat, breathing hard. He checked his watch: 0300 hours. No more sleep, even though he knew he needed more. This usually meant he would be lying there for another three hours before it was time to get up. He decided he would just lie there. At least he knew his family was safe. He smiled slightly at the thought.
He lay there for a while when he unexpe
ctedly heard someone turning the doorknob on his door. His mind instantly became alert. However, nothing happened. “Maybe that was the night patrol making their rounds,” he thought. He allowed his mind to wander back to his family; quietly he heard scratching coming from the lock on the door. “OK, this isn’t normal,” he whispered to himself.
Blake rolled over on his side to listen more intently. He heard the tumblers on the lock clicking. He reached over to the nightstand, grabbed his pistol, and lay back down. Slowly, the door opened. The dim light from down the hallway filled the room. Blake sat up, keeping a tight grip on the pistol.
“Can I help you?” he asked.
Blake noticed the faint glint of light reflecting off the knife in the intruder’s right hand. The shadowy figure lunged at Blake, knife outstretched. Blake raised his pistol and was barely able to chamber a round before the knife reached his chest.
With his left hand, Blake grabbed the intruder’s wrist and pulled it and the knife away from his body. With the other hand, he cracked the side of the intruder's head with his pistol. The man flew over Blake’s body and groaned as he crashed into the wall.
Blake flicked on the desk light, took the safety off the pistol, and aimed. “Who the hell are you, and what do you want?” he demanded. Then he saw the large red eyes of the AB. It lunged forward, and Blake fired off two quick rounds into its chest.
Munns awoke with a start and quickly made his way to Blake’s doorway. He was still in his boxers with his gun drawn.
“Check on James!” Blake shouted.
Munns jumped across the hallway and ran through James's open door. In the dim light, Munns saw a small man lying on the floor, barely moving. Another AB soldier sat on top of James. He was about to plunge a knife in his chest. Munns noticed that James bled from a wound in his chest and a cut on his cheek. Slowly, the knife moved closer to James's heart.
Munns sprinted across the room and tackled the AB soldier hovering over James. In the process, Munns's gun broke loose from his grip and fell to the floor.
Seconds later, Blake was in the room. He had his handgun raised and ready to fire. As he assessed the situation, he chose not to fire. He feared hitting Munns because the two men rolled on the ground fighting. The AB started to choke Munns, and Munns did everything he could to fight back. However, the other man was much larger and stronger. Blake glanced at the AB on the ground; he didn’t seem to pose a threat, seeing that he wasn’t moving.
Blake ran across the room and jumped on the back of the AB on his friend. He wrapped his arm round the attacker's neck to place him in a sleeper hold. Blake arched his back and squeezed with all his strength until the veins bulged in his neck. The AB soldier released his grip on Munns and pulled at Blake’s hair. Blake grunted as he tightened his hold around its neck.
By this time, Munns had the oxygen flowing back to his brain. He drew his knife and plunged it into the AB’s chest. The AB soldier stared into Munns's eyes until the life drained out of them.
James had crawled back onto his bed during the commotion. He kept his hand over the hole in his chest where the knife had been. Blake and Munns both stood and leaned against the wall, attempting to catch their breath.
Because of the fight with the AB soldier, all three men had not noticed that the little AB man on the other side of the room had woken up and crawled over to Munns's gun that had fallen on the floor.
The man grabbed the gun, rolled onto his side, and pointed it at James. He was sighting down the barrel with his yellow eyes. “For the honor and the glory,” he muttered in his broken English. As he squeezed the trigger, Munns leaped in front of James. The bullet hit Munns squarely in the chest. The air was pushed out of his lungs by the impact of the bullet, and he hit the ground with a thud.
“No!” Blake screamed as he dived across the room. He kicked the gun out of the little man's hands, and in the same sweeping motion, he brought the back of his fist squarely across his face.
Rage filled Blake, and his first instinct was to use the heel of his boot to smash the head of this piece of garbage. However, his training kicked in, and he just stomped the trigger finger of the unconscious man.
Suddenly, some Marines came running into the room. “Get a medic in here now!” Blake ordered.
One of the Marines quickly left the room and ran down the hall. The other looked at Blake for instructions. Blake stared at the AB on the ground while the Marines rolled him on his side and hastily tied his hands behind his back using a zip-tie.
Before the AB was secured, Blake walked over to the bed to check on his fellow soldier and friend. James was barely able to place his hand over the knife wound on his chest to stop the bleeding. As Blake reached Munns, they grasped each other’s hands.
Blake could tell how serious the wound was. He fought back tears as Munns pulled him towards his head. Blood bubbled out of his friend’s mouth as he whispered, “I guess we showed them.”
Blake tried to smile. “This isn’t that bad. You’re going to be OK. Just hang in there!”
Munns tried to chuckle but only coughed up blood. “I need you to do two things for me. First, I need to you kill these sons of bitches that killed me. Second, tell my family that I love them. I need you to promise that you will watch over them.”
Blake stared into his friend’s eyes. He knew the dark vale of death was coming for him. “I promise,” he managed to say as his voice cracked.
Just then, a couple of doctors and nurses entered the room. “Help me get them on the gurneys,” yelled one of the doctors. James was loaded onto one gurney while Munns was loaded onto the other.
James was the first one to be rolled out of the room. Even though he was strapped to the gurney, he looked back at Blake and nodded his head in appreciation.
As the medical personnel strapped Munns down to his gurney, his arm fell off to the side. This was all Blake needed to see to know that his friend was gone.
Blake felt a part of his soul drain out of him and fill with a dark cold rage. Seeing another of his friends die to this plague was almost more than he could bear.
Blake and Captain Nellis walked into the command center and made a call to Pacific Command to notify them on what had happened. They also let the admiral on the call know that they had captured one surviving enemy.
As the conversation ended, Captain Nellis paused and seemed to await further orders on how to proceed next.
The admiral on the other end of the call stood and leaned forward slightly on the table. “This is what I want you to do. First, try to gather as much intel as you can out of that son of a bitch. Next, at first light I want you to move the ships offshore twenty miles. Once the enemy discovers that their plan has failed, they will surely try again. Captain Reynolds, I understand that the soldier that died was a friend of yours. You have my condolences.”
“Thank you, sir. Munns was a good soldier. He will be missed.”
“Captain Nellis, you have your orders. Let me just reiterate how important it is that we find a solution or cure to end this apocalypse. Every day that goes by, there are fewer of us on the planet. Dismissed.”
After the screen went off, Captain Nellis looked at Blake. “We don’t have anyone onboard who is skilled at doing interrogations. How do you feel about doing it?”
Blake could feel the rage building inside him as he thought about his friend’s dead body. “I have conducted a few on them. I think I can get what we want out of him.”
“Can you do it without killing him before he talks?”
“Don’t worry, I won’t kill him. I just can’t guarantee what he will look like after I’m done with him.”
“Very well. However, I must insist that one of my men be present at all times, just in case.”
“Whatever makes you feel better,” Blake mumbled. He nodded his head and walked into the hallway, followed by Captain Nellis’s guard. They said nothing as they entered the room, and it took a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the dim light. Blake’s mind
quickly flashed back to his friends lying on the cold steel slab in the infirmary. He was going to make this very painful.
There was a single light shining down from the ceiling into the center of the room where a small table stood. At one end of the table sat the AB that killed his friend. He wore handcuffs around his wrist and ankles. Captain Nellis’s large Marine was standing in the corner armed with his rifle.
Blake walked across the room and took a seat on the other side of the AB enemy. The AB followed Blake with his swollen, yellow eyes. “I wonder where I should start…” Blake thought. “Who sent you and the other ABs on this mission?” Blake asked.
The AB smiled. Blake slammed his fist onto the table, “Answer me!” The Marine in the corner took a step forward, but Blake glared at him and made him step back. This took the smile off the AB’s face, but he still did not speak.
Blake stood up, walked around the table, grabbed the hair on the back of the AB’s head, and slammed his face into the table. The AB raised his head as the blood streamed out of his nose and mouth.
“We were sent here to kill the one called ‘James.’ We heard that he is the one that can take our gift away.”
Blake had assumed this was the case but wanted the AB to confirm it. “Who sent you?”
The smile crept back to the lips of the AB through the blood. “The one who leads us all. Even now, I can feel his love.”
Blake’s eyes narrowed. “What is his name and where is he located?”
The AB’s eyes had darted around the room while speaking, but now he was staring directly at Blake. “His name is Lord Dameon, and he isn’t located far from here. All our brothers and sisters up and down the coast are flocking to him for a grand celebration.”
Blake sat back down in the chair. “Tell me more about this celebration.”
“Why should I tell you? You are an unclean non-believer.”
Blake stood and once again walked to the other side of the table and slammed the AB’s face onto the table again.
AB (The Blake Reynolds Chronicles Book 1) Page 16
