The Ark Series (Book 2): The Ark of Attrition

by Scott Kotrous

  And just like that it comes in as clear as day, and Maggie knows exactly who it is. “This is the Ark convoy broadcasting on CB channel nine, frequency two seven dot zero sixty five hundred, does anyone copy? Maggie, are you out there?”

  Maggie grabs the mic out of Kelly’s hand and presses the button. “Uncle John, Uncle John! Can you hear me, it’s Maggie. Can you hear me!” She lets go of the button and waits.

  “Loud and clear, sweetheart. Boy is it good to hear your voice. Are you alright? Over.”

  Everyone starts to cheer behind her and so she has to quiet them down before she can answer. “Oh my god, you have no idea how good it is to hear your voice. Where are you? What is the Ark convoy? Over.”

  “We’re comin’ to get you, sweetheart, are you guys safe? Over.”

  “We are for now, but we’re not sure for how long. There’s people trying to get in upstairs and we don’t know how long the steel reinforcements will hold up. They’ve been pounding on it with what we think are sledgehammers for almost a day, so we think they’ll get in soon. Over.”

  “Oh my god, just stay in the bunker and we’ll be there soon. We’re getting close to Boulder and—” His voice cuts out and is replaced with static.

  “Uncle John—Uncle John! Can you hear me? We lost your transmission!” After a brief pause and more static she hears, “Oh I’m sorry, Maggie, hate to break up the little reunion, but thanks to the miracle of battery-powered jammers we just activated close by, we had to put an end to your little party line. But don’t you worry, sweetheart, because the big bad wolf and friends are almost in your little house and we’ll take good care of you.”

  “You fucking cowards will never have the chance once my uncle’s here you will be sorry you ever stepped foot on my land!”

  “Oh what’s that, looks like my boys just took down your little metal window protector. So it looks like we huffed and we puffed and we blew your house down! Ha—ha—ha, prepare to open wide for Daddy!”

  Maggie slams the mic handle on the table and screams under her breath. She turns around and sees everyone, even Mia and Steph, arm themselves with weapons. She quiets everyone and they wait and listen. The faint sound of footsteps pounding on the hardwood floors above them infuriates Maggie. “Lock and load, boys and girls. These cocksuckers think they can come into my house, well they are sorely mistaken. This is our Alamo everyone, and we will defend it until my uncle gets here. Does anyone have a problem with that?”

  Everyone shakes their head with the same determined look in their eye as Maggie. “Good, because even though they won’t be able to get that door down, we will need to get out. So it will be one hellova’ task gettin’ outta here. But here’s the plan. We need to prep Kristie for transport. There’s a transport board in the back of the closet that’s made just for this purpose. We need to get her strapped on and ready to move. Keep her IV hooked up until it’s time to move. Peter, Nate you’re going to have to carry her, so it’s up to us girls to shoot our way outta here. Kelly I don’t know how much experience you have, so if—”

  Peter cuts her off midsentence. “She’s good, she can handle it.”

  Maggie looks at Kelly who nods her head. “Alright then, next thing we need to do is—” A loud slam against the door forces Maggie to jump along with everyone else. The two girls begin to cry, and Dusty begins barking at the door. While the pounding on the door continues Maggie goes on with her plan. She tries not to appear rattled while she yells above the thunderous whaling against the bunker door.

  Chapter 25

  John fidgets in his chair while cycling through the different camera feeds from outside that are available. His crew keeps reminding him they’re close, but their version of close seems far different from what he has in mind. His radio operator has continued to try and make contact with his niece, but the repeated transmission is just making him more anxious.

  Finally, he hears the words he’s been waiting for and it’s like music to his ears. They’ve reached the main gates to the Boulder base and they’ve stopped to survey the situation. He frantically flips through the camera feeds while at the same time trying to process the situation report being relayed over his headset. The snow is melting very quickly and exposing what seems like thousands of undead scattered throughout the interior of the base—obviously making everyone onboard very nervous not knowing what can happen to a thawed out infected.

  They get the go ahead from the Piercer and proceed to move through the gates, slowly pushing the undead out of the way. John desperately wants to tell them to move faster, but he knows the procedure and usually tries not to interfere with how the crew chief runs things. He chose Martin to head up this operation because of his extensive experience in the military conducting countless rescue missions and extractions, and he knows there’s a reason for everything. Every thought and action from this man is calculated and precise, and he rarely makes mistakes because of this way of thinking.

  John grips his armrest so hard his fingers on his one hand feel almost numb and locked in that position. Radio communication has gone silent for the last few minutes and it’s just too much for him to bear, and forces him to blurt out over the radio, “What’s going on, how far away are we? Will someone please give me an update!”

  He impatiently waits for a response and eventually hears Martins voice. “Sir, we are trying to get there as soon as possible, but we need to refuel because the exterior solar panels and the Alternator Axle still aren’t charging properly, and it’s the same for all vehicles. If we move any faster we’ll be out of fuel before we arrive at our destination.”

  John grits his teeth and reluctantly says “copy” over the radio and tries everything he can to calm himself. He doesn’t want to make his crew more anxious then they already are. He feels the Havoc slow even more and soon multiple monitors throughout the hull begin to shut down. He hears over the radio that they are losing power to most monitoring equipment and exterior cameras. No more then a few minutes later, he feels the Havoc shut down and soon after they lose power to the entire vehicle—and it goes completely dark.

  Flashlights start to illuminate up and down the hull and moments later Martin is standing in front of him shining a light on him. “Sir, we have a problem. We need to refuel, and my boys tell me they need to troubleshoot the alternate fuel source issues again. Apparently we’ve burned through more hemp blocks than anticipated, and we won’t have enough to get us back home if we don’t figure out what’s going on with our secondary fuel sources.”

  John jumps out of his seat and looks around not knowing what to do. “What—ah—what then do we do? I can’t just sit here.”

  “I didn’t think you could, sir, so I propose we take a small group and head out on foot. We’ll make our way to your niece and hopefully they’ll have this figured out soon.”

  “Let’s go,” John said without hesitation.

  Martin gives him a nod and John follows him over to the gun rack and they proceed to gear up. They take a six man team including John and exit the vehicle once they are fully geared up and after Martin briefs them on his plan.

  John is instantly blinded by the bright sun reflecting off the dwindling snow, the glare proving even too much for his sunglasses. He’s told to get in the middle of the pack and follow the other men’s direction. But once the reality of his lack of training begins to set in along the way, it makes him lose his focus and he stumbles over a body. He falls on top of it and is immediately surprised by how soft it was, since he expected them to still be frozen stiff. While he’s helped up he contemplates telling everyone, but decides not to.

  They continue to make their way up the various roads, stopping along the way only to check the map. After about a half-hour of non-stop jogging, John is about to collapse, but even though he knows he’s slowing the pace, he does his best to keep up and only pukes once. They eventually get to Maggie’s street and they stop for a drink. He doubles over and gasps for air while trying not to puke again. After t
he cramps subside for a moment he’s able to stand up and sees everyone looking at him and they don’t even look out of breath, and it doesn’t seem like they’ve even broken a sweat.

  Martin asks him if he’s all right, but John can do nothing more than nod his head and point up the hill. They begin to move again, but John’s legs feel like he’s walking in quicksand—the wet heavy snow proving too much for his out of shape tired out legs and he soon collapses in the snow. He doesn’t want to move while he lies there desperately wanting to pass out, but after a few seconds facedown in the snow he feels a hand grab the back of his vest and pull him up. His jelly legs instantly buckle and the arm holding him helps him stay on his feet. Again, Martin asks if he’s all right, but this time John shakes his head and as soon as the person holding him lets go, he falls to his knees.

  “Sir, you’re not looking so good. Maybe one of my men should stay behind with you while you rest, and the rest of us will go ahead and scout it out.” Martin takes out his canteen and hands it to him.

  John reaches up for the canteen and drops it as soon as the weight of it hits his hand. He picks it up out of the snow and takes a drink, but most of it just spills out of his mouth. He hands it back to Martin and just sits there, growing more and more frustrated with himself with every passing second. He nods his head and lets out a groan of angry frustration. He balls up his fist and punches his legs, trying desperately to wake them up. He lets out one more angry growl and punches them one more time before reaching his hand out and Martin helps him up. “Fuck it, let’s go!”

  Martin gives him a smile and a quick nod before he turns and begins to move up the hill, this time a little slower then before. Once they get within a few houses, they move off the street and get up close to the houses and slow their pace. They soon get to the neighbors house and crouch down beside a row of bushes that conceals their position along with giving them a good line of sight on Maggie’s house. They all look through their rifle scopes and can see a few armed men patrolling the perimeter.

  Martin whispers commands into his comms and two of the men break off and go in the opposite direction and soon disappear around the side of the house. He waits a few minutes before requesting a status update, but they get no response. Another minute or two goes by and they eventually get a staticy confirmation that the two men are in position and that no other hostiles are in sight. He waits until one of the men patrolling the house walks away from the other two who are smoking a cigarette before he gives another command. Even though the signal is breaking up, he’s able to tell his men to make some kind of discreet noise once the man gets to the back of the house. They watch the man walk to the rear of the house and soon hear what sounds like something hitting the back fence. They can see that the man is alerted by the sound and the other two men turn in that direction but continue to stand there smoking their cigarettes.

  Martin whispers to John to sit tight. John nods his head and so Martin and his two men quietly move up and get into position very close to the smokers. John watches while they shoulder their rifles and both pull out a knife. John slowly ducks walks along the hedge line to try to get a better view, and gets into a position where he can see everything, but while still hidden out of sight.

  He watches Martin and one of his men sneak up behind the smokers and slit their throats. John recoils in horror as the two men grab at their throats and fall to the ground and twitch as the blood leaves their soon lifeless bodies. He watches them put away their knifes and then swinging their rifles around, crouch, and wait.

  The silence is broken by the sound of a gunshot ringing out from the backyard, sending Martin into a panic. He announces something over the radio but John only hears static. He then stands up and motions for John and the other man to move up, and then again says something into the radio. They receive no response, so they begin to move toward the backyard but immediately halt when they see both men moving toward their position.

  They soon meet up on the side of the house and Martin says, “Find the open window fast, we need to get in there ASAP, whoever’s in there definitely heard that.” They quickly find the window and all get into position flanking either side and wait for their orders. Martin gives the order and as soon as one of his men turns to look inside the window, his head recoils back from a gunshot to his skull and his body falls limp to the ground.

  “Fuck! Men we’re going to tactical insertion. On my mark.” Martin pulls a flash grenade from his vest and hurls it into the house and waits for a bang that is followed by yelling. He then pulls another grenade from his vest and throws that in as well. This one doesn’t let out a bang, but just a hiss followed by a plume of smoke pouring out of the window. He gives his men a nod and one jumps into the window quickly followed by another one, and then Martin jumps in as well.

  John doesn’t know what to do and just freezes in fear, his adrenalin and heartbeat pounding so hard he can hear it. The throbbing in his ears is soon overpowered by a few gunshots and a call for the last man to get in there, so the last man jumps through the window. Multiple gunshots later and the sound of “all clear” over the radio slows John’s pounding chest and puts him at ease a bit. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath before sliding down the side of the house and dropping his rifle to the ground, then his head in his hands that shake his face upon contact.

  He slides his hands down his face and covers his mouth. He takes another deep breath and looks up to see a man turn the corner of the neighbors house and freeze when he sees John crouched there. John’s mouth gaps just as the man drops what’s in his hands and turns to run. John loses his balance and falls in the snow while attempting to grab his rifle. He gets up and grabs his rifle but the man is gone, so he radios, “Shit—contact! Some guy just ran away after seeing me, I think he’s part of their group.”

  Martin comes to the window and looks out, and then at John. “Fuck. Alright get in here and get your niece. We cleared the main levels of the house so they must be in the bunker. My men will stand guard. Just make it fast. And by the way, I found a jammer on one of the guys so we have comms back.”

  * * *

  John gives a quick nod and jumps though the window, and two men jump out. He makes his way to the basement door closely followed by Martin. John stops at the top of the stairs at the sight of the trail of blood down the steps, and he looks back at Martin. Just as John goes to step downstairs, Martin stops him and moves him aside and walks down before him. They slowly and quietly walk down the stairs and get up to the bunker door and listen.

  They hear nothing that would alarm them so John hits the intercom button. “Maggie, are you in there? It’s Uncle John.”

  After a few seconds they hear. “Uncle John, is that you?”

  “It’s me, sweetheart, it’s safe out here so you can open the door.” The door unlocks and opens and Maggie bursts through the door and wraps her arms around John, and he does the same.

  “It’s so good to see you, Uncle John!”

  “It’s so good to see you too, Maggie, I’m so glad you’re safe.” He kisses the top of her head and she looks up at him just as Jen and Nate walk out the bunker and immediately join in the hug. “Oh—okay then, group hug. I’m glad to see you kids are alright. Is there anyone else inside?”

  Kelly walks out and reaches both her hands out and John attempts to shake one of them. “Hi, John, I’m Kelly. It’s very nice to meet you.” She looks back at Peter, Mia, and Steph standing in the doorway. “This is Peter, Mia, and Stephanie.” They walk up to shake his hand just as Nate, Jen, and Maggie finally let him go.

  “It’s very nice to meet you all, but where’s your other roommates and Eric?” John tries to peek in the bunker but can’t see anything.

  Maggie drops her head and starts crying and again hugs John. “They—” She tries to slow her crying but has a hard time. “Only Kristie made it, and she’s been shot and has been out ever since.” She buries her head against his chest. “I don’t even think it’s hit me yet tha
t Eric’s dead; I haven’t even had a chance to grieve.”

  John rests his head on top of hers and begins to cry as well. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I’m so sorry.” No one says a word, they just stand there with everyone wiping tears from their eyes.

  The silence is soon broken when Martin says copy into the radio and turns to the group. “Sir, I’m sorry but we need to move out now. The convoy is fueled and moving in our direction as we speak, so we need to move out now.”

  John nods his head and then turns back to the group. “Alright, guys, we need to prep Kristie for transport and gather as much supplies as possible. I know you’re all upset but now’s not the time for grieving. We need to evacuate ASAP.”

  The ones that are still standing there nod their heads in agreement, but Peter and Kelly have already gone back into the bunker. John follows Maggie and Nate into the bunker and over to Kristie.

  Maggie checks her vitals and then looks up at John. “She’s been in and out of consciousness but her wound is healing quite nicely. She shows no sign of infection and hasn’t come down with a fever. We’ve been administering pain meds and antibiotics intravenously, so let me give her one last dose before we prepare her for transport.” She proceeds to administer the meds while everyone else continues to pack up supplies.

  As soon as Maggie’s done, she pulls out the IV and disconnects the heart rate monitor. Peter and John get into position next to her with the board, and after the count of three, they slide her over and successfully get her onto the carrier board and strap her down.

  Once everyone is loaded with backpacks filled with supplies, they quickly go over a plan and prepare to move out. They take the house out of lockdown mode and also leave the bunker open in case someone in need of supplies stumbles upon it but remove all the weapons and ammunition. John and Nate carefully pick up Kristie and follow everyone upstairs.