The Event (Book 3): Expansion

by Lee Thomas

  “Ships business today?” he asked as I got close, seeing I was not in my gear.

  “Yeah, a few things I need to check on, make sure we are still good. I also will be looking at this fence, seeing if we can secure it better, and maybe add something to the top of it to prevent any of our furry friends out there from jumping it.” I replied. Tony nodded as I talked, as well as the other team leaders, which let me know they understood. Other than Roger, they were all former military, and they understood that the captain rarely put boots on the ground for missions like this. I had never said I would go out every day, because I wanted the people who knew what they were doing to be doing the work, I just wanted to tag along occasionally to learn and help out. I left them to finish their preparations then and headed towards the Engineering office to speak with David and see how things were going there. I hadn’t spoken to him much, and even though he was Michelle’s cousin, we never hung out much. He had excellent mechanical skills, as well as proved to be a pretty good leader, so I had placed him in charge of the engineering department here so I could leave Shayne in charge at home.

  After touching base with David and finding out that all was well, I started wandering around the ship then, talking to various people, getting a feel for how people were handling the situation, and just keeping in touch with them. With the size of our group, I didn’t know everyone like I wanted too, but I tried to at least remember faces, and tried my best with names, just so no one felt neglected or ignored. Most were dealing with the stress in their own way, playing cards or board games, some exercised more, others were learning other skills, and some just needed a willing ear to listen to them vent. Tony had left an old staff sergeant from the army base in charge of security while he was off ship, and he informed me there had been a couple of fights that had to be broken up, three or four men that had to cool off in the brig for a few hours, but nothing too serious so far. Stephanie, the lady that Michelle had left in charge of the galley, informed me that food stores were not overflowing, which was our standard state, but they would do their best. Dave was supposed to be sending us whatever home could spare roughly every week or so to supplement what we could scrounge up here as well.

  After touching base with as many people as I could, and getting a general feeling of the ship, I eventually ended up back on the flight deck, standing near the aft edge staring out over the water. I liked to stand there and just feel the breeze, letting it waft over me and listening to the low sounds of the water sloshing against the hull, the occasional sea bird calling, and every so often the low sound of conversation as someone walked across the deck, enjoying the open air themselves. After some time, I turned and walked the distance to the bow to stare out over the pier area here, and beyond the fence. What I could see of it looked like it could be easily fortified with some tin panels, or if we could find some privacy fence sections. There was bound to be at least a couple of hardware stores within a few miles, so I would probably gather a team and go in search of one, and see what we could bring back. Tools and building supplies were always welcome, almost as much as food or weapons were. I knew several members of Kevin’s group, that we had hooked up with in Nashville, were onboard here, and I was sure they would volunteer to go on a supply run with me. For now, it was just planning, so I turned and headed back towards the tower to see if anything new had been reported to the bridge, and to grab a radio. Jansen told me everything was fine there, and after grabbing my radio I made my way down to the hangar bay. There was a small guard detail hanging out near the bay door, not really “guarding” by the look of them, but I knew that if anything or anyone came up to the ship, those five men would make sure that nothing got onboard that wasn’t supposed to be. I waved to them, getting nods in response, and since the elevator was already down, and would remain so during the day, I crossed it to the staircase and went down to the pier. It was quiet out here, the water sloshing barely heard, and very few animal sounds floating across the low wind. Even my footsteps sounded hushed as I walked down the pier to the fence, stepping over or around the little bit of debris scattered around the ground.

  After finally making it to the edge of the fence, I started following it away from the waters’ edge it terminated in. It looked like there a few spots where dogs or other small animals had pushed underneath as the chain link was bent, and a couple of places had what appeared to be dried blood and fur on them. I found a small pile of broken cinder blocks and took some of them to the bent places and attempted to block them off temporarily. Drawing close to the gate, it was obvious that the fence had seen some storm damage over the years as several of the posts and horizontal bars were bent in places, and a few places even looked like they had been broken and welded back at some point long ago. Whatever this place was before, it was obviously not maintained the best, especially the fence. The chain link was broken in a few places, but mostly intact, so hopefully strengthening it up would not be too difficult. I hoped to make the pier a safe place to be, even at night.

  I passed the gate, following the fence and looking for more signs of wear. The quick inspection the first day was only looking for major holes, which didn’t find any, but I was doing a slower, more detailed inspection. I noted several areas that would need attention, but by the time I made it as far as the fence went I didn’t discover any major damage, just neglect and some areas where small animals had pushed through. All in all, we could fortify the fence easily I thought, and maybe even use some of the closer buildings as guard towers to watch from. The sun was passing noon it looked like, so I started wandering back through the various buildings in the general direction of the ship, looking at the exteriors of them to see if any could be secured and used as safe houses if need be. Since most of them seemed to be steel or concrete block construction, I made a mental note to see if all or any of them had rooftop access. If so, we could maybe build aerial bridges between them and still have access to them, even if the fence was compromised.

  “Sheldon, we need you back on the ship asap.” Janson’s voice came over the radio, with a sense of urgency to it. I acknowledged the message, then started jogging back towards the ship. I had made it most of the way back already, so it didn’t take me long to reach the elevator. I jogged up the stairs as quick as I could, heading for the bridge as fast as I could.

  “Report.” I said, completely out of breath as I entered the bridge. I tossed my radio on the table and braced myself up as I drew in breath after breath.

  “We got a report from Dave. There was a team doing a search and supply run further south, down around the North Carolina line, and they ran into a problem.” Janson reported, handing me the message from Dave. He had apparently taken the time to type a quick report and sent it to the ship. I took it and gave it a quick scan, then straightened up, looked at Janson, who had a grave look on his face, and then continued reading.

  A ten-man team went on a supply run to the North Carolina line. During a search of an industrial area, a large group of infected was discovered in a secured building once the lock was popped. The following is the transcript from the team leader of the incident:

  We were searching an industrial area, looking for building materials and such, when in one building we busted open a lock, opened the door, and a huge herd of infected were inside and started swarming us. We managed to get outside, but there were more there as well that had moved in while we were inside. We got back to the truck, but Kerry tripped and went down, and we couldn’t get to her in time. We realized that she had the keys to the truck, so Ozzy told us to hang on, then threw his door open and pushed through the few infected at the truck and started yelling and running to get their attention. As he ran he kept swinging his axe, lopping off heads as he went, but there was too many for him to keep that up long. He continued running and yelling as he entered a building, leaving the door open so the infected followed him in. The largest part of the herd had made it outside by then and followed Oz into the building since we were quiet, and we snuck back to
Kerry’s body to get the keys without being spotted. We managed to retrieve her body, and as we were loading it up and trying to figure out how to get Oz out of there, the building he was in exploded.

  It sounded like multiple explosions back to back, and fireballs erupted from every window and the open door. Every infected in there, as well as Oz, was fried to a crisp instantly, and the shock wave blew out the trucks windows. Tommy gave this account of searching the building:

  Oz, Henry, and myself searched that building, and it was apparently a chemical warehouse, full of chemical barrels, but little else. There were a couple of different gated enclosures storing some barrels, and flammable signs up all over the place. Whatever this place was storing was dangerous, that we could tell for sure. Henry made a comment about this place being one large bomb waiting to happen, and we just kind of laughed, but apparently, Oz remembered that comment. He had pistols with him, so he must’ve locked himself into one of the enclosures long enough to draw as many as possible to him, then shot a barrel. That would account for the multiple explosions and the large fireball that scorched the building.

  I lowered the report and leaned back against the edge of the console, wondering how I was going to break that news to Amanda. Since Michelle knew her better, and a lot longer than I had, I decided to send her a message and have her deliver the news to Amanda herself. This was going to destroy Amanda, but hopefully knowing that Oz went out a hero saving the team and protecting her would help ease the pain somewhat, but I doubted it. It was never easy losing a loved one, and they had been together for a very long time. I reached for the notepad, scribbled out a quick message to Michelle and gave it to one of the sailors to pass on to the radioman to send home for her eyes only.

  “What now?” Janson asked.

  “There’s nothing we can do from here, so we continue on. The faster we complete our mission, the faster we stop getting reports like this. We carry on, I’ll let Michelle tell Amanda about Oz, she knew her best. Let’s focus on the task at hand so we can keep everyone safe. I’ll be in my cabin for a while, page me if you need me.” I replied, turning and heading out of the bridge. I had been friends with Amanda and Oz for a while myself, but Michelle had known them longer. Oz was a lot like me, loved swords and knives, not that big on guns, fiercely loyal, and destructive when angered. I could fully see him sacrificing himself for the team, especially knowing that Amanda and their son would be safe. Knowing Michelle, she would probably take Amanda in for a while to make sure she was okay.

  I couldn’t focus on that now though, clearing this land had to be my main priority, we could grieve later. Keeping everyone safe was my main goal, and I was determined to do that. I wanted to stop getting reports like this, stop losing people, just try to stop the craziness of this new world as much as possible. Trying to keep my mind off it, I just rattled around my cabin for a while, straightening up, cleaning a little since I usually let it slide, and trying to decide what to do about Oz. We didn’t normally schedule funerals anymore, as they would be happening too close together, and we rarely had the bodies to bury, but I thought a memorial of some kind, not just for Oz, but everyone who lost their lives building and then protecting the base. Thinking that was a good idea, and Dave and Michelle could plan that accordingly, I headed back to the bridge to send a new message to Dave and Michelle, asking them to set that up.

  Once the message was sent, I headed out to the flight deck to enjoy the last of the days’ light. There was a slight seaward breeze, and the distant barks of dogs was carried across the wind. It was still eerily quiet however without the constant drone of vehicles, planes, boats, or even human voices. It was comforting and unsettling at the same time. Hearing the low sound of metal clanging together, I walked to the pier side of the ship and looked out and down and saw that one of teams had returned. I counted ten heads, and no one seemed injured, for which I was grateful. I stayed and continued watch as three more teams showed up, and by then it was too dark to see the gate anymore, so I headed down to the hangar bay to wait for the last two teams. The last stragglers of the ground crews were just leaving the staging area after securing their gear for the night and leaving notes on their day’s activities. I was planning on reviewing those nightly, but had been slacking so far. At least they had managed to make it to my cabin for review.

  After it had been dark for a couple of hours, and still no sign of the other two teams, I headed up to the bridge to see if they had at least radioed in. Stepping onto the bridge, the night crew consisted of only two sailors, one of which I was sure was a civilian the way he was dressed. They both greeted me cheerfully and seemed at ease, which told me they had probably worked together before. I was glad to see that, as it meant the military and civilian groups were merging like I had hoped. I didn’t want to foster a separate military/civilian mindset, as everyone was responsible for the safety of the group overall.

  “Figured you would be asleep by now, what can we do for you?” the sailor asked, Samson by the name tag.

  “I just wanted to check on things before hitting the rack. I noticed there are two teams still out, have we heard from either of them?” I replied.

  “Yes, Christian’s team opted to stay at the bank again, and Gary’s team stayed with them. They are all safe and accounted for.” Aaron answered, the civilian.

  “Thank you. Have a good night, and please have some food and ammo ready to be taken to the bank. If we are going to be having people stay, I want it stocked. I’ll see you all in the morning.” I said, nodding to them and heading out of the bridge. As I entered my cabin, I tossed my sword belt on the couch and then headed to bed, hoping for another safe, productive day tomorrow as well.

  Sept. 24th, 2020

  I awoke the next day and got dressed, not yet sure if I wanted to be on the ground today or not. With what happened to Ozzy, and wanting to start securing the pier area fence, by the time I made it to the hangar bay I decided to not go out, but rather stay and take a small team around and start securing some land for us. I informed Tony of this and then walked back to the machine shop. I wanted to see about a ladder and maybe some rope so I could test my theory on moving from rooftop to rooftop on the buildings. If that was possible, we may be able to secure most of the entrances to the buildings, and only keep one or two open to be able to use the buildings as safe havens, even in the event of the fence being breached.

  Finding no ladders, I decided to just see if the buildings had roof access today, and I had a map drawn up of the pier area so I could mark out where we needed to focus on the fence repairs. I had little equipment with me, just my sword belt, a radio, and my map, so it didn’t take me long to make the walk from the ship to the first building, which was apparently a shipping office, but it also housed a multi-room breakroom with a pool table, card tables, and a sitting area with a tv. Whatever this company shipped, it apparently took care of its employees.

  Making my way through the building, I found the door to a maintenance closet on the second floor which led into an equipment area with hot water tanks and furnaces, and a huge maze-like system of duct work. As I shone a flashlight around I found in the closet area, I saw the hatch that presumably led to the roof. I climbed the few steps to it and turned the handle, pushing the hatch open. Sunlight flooded in, and there was a latch to prop it open, which I used. I walked around the roof, looking down from the sides and gauging the safety of the low wall along the edge. It was about waist high, but looked to be in good shape. I made my way back outside, making a notation on my map, then moving to the next building. It was mostly warehouse space, some small offices, and little else. I did eventually find a roof hatch as well here, so I climbed up there and inspected the roof there too. I found the same basic layout on this roof as well, waist high wall, and same type of paper-like coating. Just like the first building, other than being exposed to the weather, everything seemed to be in decent shape. The next four buildings were the same, all had relatively easy roof access, and the wall around e
ach would make a good, secure base for a walkway across the gap as well. I made notes on my map for each building, and finished checking most of the buildings on the near side of the gate by noon. They were almost all two stories, but some of the buildings on the far side were three, and it looked like two of them were four stories tall. Those would obviously pose an issue to my idea, but I was sure we could find a way to make it work.

  After checking about half the buildings on the pier, it was pushing three o’clock, and I was getting tired from all the stairs and ladders. Most of the buildings seemed in useable shape, though neglected somewhat, so I was sure we could use them for housing, or hydroponics, or ammo storage. I would probably set up a small base of operations here, stock it, and then take the ship back home to start shuttling more supplies and people up here. Since the Port Royal and Leyte Gulf also had teams on the ground in two other locations, I knew they would also be setting up their own secure bases somewhere to keep safe until we knew the whole peninsula was clear. With those two places, plus the apartments that Ethan ran, this would make four secure starting locations, plus finding safe houses like the bank to use, we should be able to quickly expand our safe zones. I decided to head back to the ship then and save the last of the buildings for tomorrow.

  Making my way back to my cabin, I reviewed the reports we had received from the small garrisons at the gates we set up before, and they told us that infected sightings had seriously dwindled in the weeks since securing the entrances to the peninsula. My hope was that there hadn’t been a huge infected presence to begin with here, and that making this land safe would be a lot easier and faster than we planned. There was a plan we had tossed around with putting hunting blinds up in strategic locations, along with some solar powered sound makers to lure the infected to them to make it easier on the men. I had asked the machine shop men to make them stronger, so I decided to go down there and see if they managed it.