The Event (Book 3): Expansion

by Lee Thomas

  After we passed the island we were in the large part of the bay, only one more bridge and tunnel to cross before we were in open ocean. Once we crossed it, this mission would officially be underway, and there would be no stopping it. I headed back towards the tower then, along with the other few people that were still on the flight deck. I recognized quite a few of them as the volunteers for the ground teams. Several of them waved to me, and I waved back. The looks on their faces showed that they were getting back into the mindset needed to carry out a successful military mission, which I knew was how most of the men and women doing this were treating it. That was good, because if they treated it like the infected could plan and hide, they were more likely to not take unnecessary risks.

  “Approaching the eastern bridge soon.” Brandon reported as I stepped back onto the bridge. The helmsman, Sammy, along with Gonzalez, were looking back and forth from the pre-plotted course written on the charts to the consoles. I watched out the windows for a few minutes as we slid through the water, moving too slow and in too smooth of water to feel any real motion yet. As we approached the bridge, I left the helm in the hands of Brandon and headed down to check with the ground teams and see how they were getting ready. Since I planned on going as well, I figured I needed to know what they were planning.

  Stopping by the weather station, Jackson informed me there was still a storm system moving in that would probably hamper them some, so tactics would have to change slightly. The infected wouldn’t mind the storm, but the people would. The team leaders had setup an office where they could discuss strategy, make sure no places got skipped, and keep maps where potential safe houses could be setup and mark off cleared areas and infected dens to see if there was a pattern to them. If they could find one, it would make it easier to clear the rest of the peninsula. I stopped by their office to let them know the weather situation, and see how much this would change their plans.

  “Sheldon, what brings you down here?” Tony asked as I stepped into the office.

  “Bringing a weather report from Jackson and seeing how the planning is going.” I replied to him, grabbing a chair and nodding to the other team leaders around the room.

  “I know Jackson said there was a possibility of some weather, what does he say now?” Christian asked.

  “There is a storm system moving in, and will probably hit the area in the next couple of days. It will most likely be intense, so we will probably have a few days that we will be unable to go ashore.” I reported.

  “We will have to see, but I agree; if the weather is too intense the teams would be more hampered than helped.” Tony replied. All the team leaders oversaw their own teams, with no one of them in charge of the whole. If a combined effort were needed on shore, they would pick one to listen to at that time, or so was the plan.

  “Have we decided on a plan yet, or are you still discussing options?” I asked, sitting back in my chair.

  “We were just starting to discuss that actually.” Tony said. I knew most of the team leaders were going to defer to Tony since he had the most hand-to-hand training of them all, which was why I was going to listen to him as well.

  “We are setting up a grid search field, radiating out from the ship. Each team will go street by street in their own grid, clearing each building, and then sealing it up and marking it so we all know.” Christian answered.

  “Each team will have nine members, not counting us. All the men will have full body armor and swords, plus rifles and pistols just in case. There will be APC’s available on the pier to retrieve the teams if they get trapped.” Gary chimed in.

  “Good. Make sure everyone has radios, or if not everyone has one make sure each group has one. I don’t want anyone left on their own.” I said. I decided to leave them to the planning since they need to all be on the same page to make this work and I headed back up to the bridge to see where we were now.

  “Where are we Chief?” I asked as I stepped in.

  “Just crossed over the tunnel, about to make our first port turn.” He informed me, turning towards me and then back to the chart as I stepped up behind him.

  “How about we have a little fun first, Chief?” I leaned in and whispered to him. He turned to look at me, and gave a quick little grin and a very slight nod. I walked over the 1MC then and turned it on. “Attention all crew. Secure any loose gear and gedunk and prepare for high speed maneuvers.” I repeated the message and then replaced the mic. The others on the bridge were looking back and forth at each other, not quite sure what was going on yet. They watched me as I looked at the charts, then back out the windows. According to the chart, open water was only about another half a mile out.

  “Helmsman, maintain current course, ahead flank.” I ordered, stepping over to the window. “Think we could get the deck wet Chief?” I asked.

  “It would be worth a try, and it could use a washing.” He replied, casually holding the edge of the chart table.

  “What’s our current true heading?” I asked.

  “East on heading 084.” Chief answered.

  “Hard to starboard to heading 170, maintain speed” I ordered, moving my feet apart to prepare for the heel, or tilt, the ship was about to do. Sammy spun the wheel and the ship heeled to port as the bow swung towards starboard. Since we were at full speed, we were moving about 30 knots or so according to the gauge, so it wasn’t just a small tilt. As I watched the compass and saw we were coming close to the heading I had ordered, Sammy swung the wheel back to center the rudder and the ship started to right herself as the rudder straightened out.

  We sailed south for a little bit about a mile out, the shoreline just visible, then turned back east to sail into open water. We went through a few more high speed turns, just for fun, then I ordered us back towards the shore. As the shoreline came back into view and got closer, I grabbed the mic again.

  “Attention all crew. We have now had some fun and it is time to get back down to business. We are approaching the shore once more and should be arriving at our selected position in a little over an hour. Final checks should begin now if they haven’t already been done. Everyone be safe, cautious, and watch each other’s backs. Remember, we are doing this not only for our futures, but for those left back at Norfolk, as well as our children. This is a tremendous project, and I don’t expect it to be done anytime soon with the amount of land we have to cover, but with several plans we have, we hope to draw the infected to us instead of having to search for them. If all goes well, we should have it done by spring. Once again, be safe, but be thorough, out.” I replaced the mic and then returned to looking out over the water.

  “Approaching the outer bank.” Chief informed me. The outer bank was a small, thin stretch of land that acted as a surge break to help the mainland not be flooded with large waves. We would have to pass through the outer bank in a break, then turn sharply southwest to our dock area. If we couldn’t make the turn, we would simply have to turn north and go into the larger, but not as deep, bay area and turn her around, hoping we wouldn’t run aground in the shallower depths.

  “Proceed with plotted course, ahead standard. Slow to one-third as we approach the breakwater.” I ordered. We had already planned how to do it with the maps, so as long as we followed that course we should have no issues. “Chief, you have the conn.” I said, turning to leave the bridge. I headed down the stairwell to the 03 level, turning down the passageway for my cabin. I planned on getting dressed out and heading out with the teams at least the first day or two, just to show I was as willing to risk myself as I was asking them to be.

  Since I had all my gear ready earlier, it was waiting for me on my couch. My armor went on after one last check for tears and worn spots, then my sword belt and my pistol holsters, along with extra clips in my leg pockets. There was no need for my helmet yet, so I left it on the counter and poured myself a glass of tea. As I drank it, I reviewed in my head everything that had happened so far, and what was about to happen. It was still hard to believe the world
had come to this, and even harder to believe that I had people willing to listen to me and do what we have done to survive. As I finished my tea, there was a knock on my door.

  “Sheldon, we have reached the dock and are pulling up to it now. Line crews are ready to be lowered to secure us. Chief wants to know if there are any additional orders?” Jon asked. He was one of the sailors that had went to man the rails earlier.

  “No, just get us docked and the lines secured, then set up watches. I want to know if anything moves.” I answered. Jon nodded and turned to leave. Chief would have probably already been setting that up, but I didn’t want to take any chances. The height of the bridge and flight deck would give us an advantage to see anything or anyone coming before they got too close. One of the reasons we had picked this place to dock at was that it was open; none of the buildings around it were very tall, so it allowed us a mostly unobstructed view. I put my glass in the sink, slipped the last of my knives into their sheaths, and headed down towards the hangar bay to meet the teams.

  Stepping into the hangar bay from the stairwell, it was organized chaos. The ground teams were doing final checks of each other’s gear, and the team leads were giving final instructions. The APC’s had apparently already been fueled and checked and were sitting near the doors, waiting to be craned down to the pier. I waved to a few of the people standing around watching as I headed for the elevator we would be leaving from.

  “Schmuck, get over here.” Tony called out to me. Even after all these years, he still rarely called me by my name.

  “How’s the planning going?” I asked as I approached.

  “We have areas mapped out and broken between the teams. There should be no overlap, but nothing should be left out either. Each team has their own map, and no one should be out after dark until we can find a safe house to secure.” Christian answered as Tony nodded to him. Each of the team leads held up a rolled-up map then, and then put them away at my nod.

  “I just want everyone to be safe. I am deferring command to the team leaders because you all know more about this type of thing than I do, and I want everyone to accomplish this mission and still be around to see the result of it. Watch your backs, I know these things don’t plan, and probably can’t set traps, but we don’t know if other people are still out there either, and they can. If you do run across other survivors, obviously our first choice would be to get them to join us and be safe, but if they attack, defend yourselves as need be, understood?” I said, looking all around the group as I did to make sure they all knew and understood. I received nods from everyone, and the look in their eyes showed me they understood and grasped the gravity of the situation.

  “If you’re done, I see the loadmaster giving us the signal to be ready.” Tony said, pointing off in the direction of the hangar bay door. Right after that we heard the low rumble of the elevator lowering and the door started opening, flooding the bay with sunlight. I looked around and all the bay doors were opening, but this should be the only elevator lowered. I knew the crane would be stationed on the flight deck above it, and once the vehicles were down we would lower the stairs for us to go down. The plan was to move the stairs a few inches away once we were all down, and raise the elevator back up for safety. It took about two hours for all three APC’s to be lowered and us to get to the pier. We watched the elevator raise back up, and we started moving off. The first order of business was to clear all the buildings in this port area so we would know the whole fenced off area would be safe. Following Tony’s direction, we split up and began searching.

  It seemed that all the buildings close by were simple warehouses with small offices in them, so they were all cleared quickly. Nothing of value was found, but there were several sealed crates in most of the buildings, so we would open those later. The team I was with had Gary as the leader, and we came upon what was apparently an office building, probably the administrative building for this whole place. Several of the windows and glass doors on the first floor had been broken out, and as we entered it was obvious that the weather had not been kind to the interior.

  “Spread out, pairs only. Mark the doors you’ve searched.” Gary said in a low voice, and the team split up into pairs silently. I followed one of the pairs, watching how they moved and interacted so I could learn how to move with the group. We moved through the first floor, leapfrogging the other teams from room to room, clearing each of them quickly. We then moved up a floor, following the same pattern and marking each door as we came back out. The second floor yielded no surprises either, nor did the third or fourth. Debris was scattered all over the floor in the rooms that had broken windows, but it appeared that once this building was abandoned, no one else entered it. There was no sign of any infected here either, unless the damage to the first floor wasn’t all from the weather.

  “Anything?” Gary asked bluntly as we gathered back in what was probably a break room.

  “Nothing, no sign of infected or healthy. It looks like no one has been here since.” One of the team members reported, Lisa I believe her name was. The others reported the same, so we headed back out the way we came, marking the wall near the door to show the others we cleared this building. The building next door seemed to have several small offices, a small possibly conference room, and a lot of open space, indicating it was probably a shipping warehouse and office. It didn’t take us long to search it, and again there was no sign that anyone had been there in a long time. Marking the door as we left, we noticed that the other teams were starting to gather near the gate, so we headed that way.

  “The other teams reported all clear so Tony took his team to one end of the fence and had Peter take his to the other to make sure it’s all intact. They should be meeting back here before too long.” Roger told me as we approached.

  “Good, once they are back we will open the gate and start working for real. Any movement since you’ve been here?” I asked.

  “Nothing yet, but Christian’s team was here first.” Roger replied, tilting his head over to Christian. Everyone was standing easy, but still watchful, which was good. I walked over to Christian to see if they had seen anything.

  “No human movement, just a few stray dogs and birds. That doesn’t necessarily mean anything though.” Christian reported before I could even ask.

  “Good. Let’s hope that that’s the worst we run into is stray, hungry animals. At least those will not be likely to attack us.” I said. We waited for Tony and Peter to finish the fence line, and when both teams returned and informed us the fence was fine, Peter radioed the ship to let them know, and we opened the gate, closing it behind us and beginning our search. We split up then, each team going for their respective areas. Gary’s team had been assigned a section more inland, so we set off at a slow trot to get to it. Our first grid started five blocks away while Christian’s team covered the four blocks between ours and the gate. As we approached the corner, Gary slowed us and motioned for us to circle up while we reviewed the map.

  “Okay, we have from here, four blocks west, and two blocks north. Since Sheldon is with us, your four come with me, the rest of you with him on the next block. We will each go the two blocks north, then start on the next two blocks.” Gary explained, pointing out the directions, and then the people as he spoke. The others simply nodded their understanding and we split off to begin the long, arduous task of clearing this place. My half of the team moved to the next block west to begin searching. It was eerily quiet with no car noise, no airplanes, no children or music. The sound of the slight breeze and the occasional rustle of paper or some other refuse blowing around was all we heard. Abandoned vehicles still sat in parking lots and on the street. A few looked like they had crashed, and it looked like the fire had spread to some of the buildings as well. We headed for the first building on the corner, and I directed two men to keep watch outside while the other four of us went inside.

  The door wasn’t locked or sealed, or even fully shut, so the lead man simply pushed it open and entered.
The rest of us followed, moving to separate areas of the room, scanning the entire lobby before moving to the apparent break room and offices down the hallway. After clearing the entire first floor, we moved as a team to the second floor. Each team of two taking one side of the hallway, we cleared it quickly, nobody finding anything of value, or any signs of people or infected either. We cleared the building fully finally, and as we left we shut the door firmly behind us and marked it with a chalk “X” to show it had been cleared.

  The next building had us switching out the street watchers, and we found this door was locked. Knocking on it produced no sounds from inside, so we assumed it was clear of infected. The lead man stepped back and kicked the door open, stepping clear to the side to allow the rest of us to go in and start sweeping the first floor. We continued this process with every building on both blocks, and then leapfrogged the next to take our last two blocks. By the time we finished the first one, the sun had started to set. The other teams had reported they were almost complete with their assigned grids for the day as well, and I made the call that we should finish the last little bit of them before heading back to the ship. We finished clearing our last block with still no sign of infected or survivors, though it did appear in two of the buildings that someone had made a controlled fire at some point, which pointed to at least transient survivors somewhere.