The Event (Book 3): Expansion

by Lee Thomas

  “Chris, how’s it going down here man?” I asked as I stepped into the machine shop and saw the guy running it. He was a machinist before the world collapsed, so he knew his way around everything in here. If anyone could armor a hunting blind, it would be this guy.

  “Not bad, Sheldon, not bad at all. Check out what we did on those blinds.” He answered, shaking my hand and then pointing towards one of the blinds that they had completed. “As you can see, the outer shell is tin panels, which will bend and break eventually with a pounding, but there is a wood frame around the basic blind frame that the tin is attached too. To further protect the men, there is spray foam insulation filling up the space. It’s a hard pack type, and it dries extremely solid, so it would definitely take some time for an infected, or human, to claw through it, even after getting through the tin.”

  “What about the windows?” I asked.

  “This one doesn’t have it yet, but there is a frame here that will slide in and latch from the inside to make it removable in case of emergency. You can see it there, almost complete. It will have two bars vertical and two horizontal to prevent anything from slipping through easily, while allowing the men to shoot through. It does add a considerable amount of weight however, so they will have to be moved with the chopper.” He said. He banged his hand on the tin to show me how sturdy it was, and it echoed though the machine shop, but didn’t dent. He opened the door and we stepped inside. It was a little cramped with two men, as the blinds were only designed for one. He showed me the latches that were installed already for the window frames, and how they worked. They appeared nice and sturdy, but easily undone to push out if needed. The door had a more secure latch as well, and it seemed very secure.

  “Nice, I like it.” I said as we stepped back out. “You’ve made it a nice little bunker, so it should work nice. I’ll let the chopper crew know they will have to ferry it, and we will review the maps again to see the best place to put them. How many do you have so far?”

  “This one is the third one, and we have one more we can build on. The others are out on the fantail there to test them against the weather. They have a small guard above the windows to keep the rain out, and there are closures they can put down on the inside with small holes for visibility to prevent the inside from getting wet.” He answered, leading the way to the fantail so I could see the final product. I knew they had been working on them for a while, testing different ideas and playing with them to see which one was most feasible, and doable. The first two blinds were sitting out there, painted in varying shades of green and brown for some form of camouflage. I checked them out, swinging open the now heavy door, and going in to inspect the inside, checking out the view from the windows, and even closing the rain ports to see the view from out of them. Fully closed it seemed like it could get stuffy in them, but they would work.

  “Perfect Chris. This should keep anyone safe, and we can stock it with ammo, food, and a portable radio. I’ll start a volunteer list for staffing them, and we will get them in play. I guess you can take them to the flight deck as they are done, and we will get them located soon enough. Thank you for doing such a good job on them.” I told him, shaking his hand again and heading out. I needed to review the maps and find the best place for them. I figured somewhere near both wooded areas and lots of buildings, where there could be a variety of hiding places. With only four, we would probably only give them a week, and if they weren’t effective where we placed them, we would simply move them to a new location. I settled back into my office with the maps strung out in front of me, trying to find good looking locations.

  I called the two women in charge of what we could call our personnel department and asked them to run me a list of all the men and women available we could spare so I could begin to narrow down the options. I would have to make sure it was someone who could shoot well, but also stable enough to be alone for long periods of time, as well as strong enough to fight through with swords if they started getting swarmed. A yeoman knocked on my door and entered with a stack of papers while I was still reviewing maps, and I motioned to have him drop the papers on the chair. I thanked him as he turned to leave and then sat back in my chair, closing my eyes and rubbing them to get the soreness out. The fluorescent lights on the ship played hell with the eyes. I had marked several locations I thought would work, but since it was pushing late afternoon now, I decided to head out to the flight deck for a little bit to get some fresh air and relax some.

  As I climbed the catwalk to the deck, several other men and women were up there as well, spread out and in small groups, obviously just enjoying some down time and fresh air, like I was doing. There were a few close to me that waved and said hello, which I replied to, and continued my way to the deck edge. Looking out over the water, the sun was to my back as it went down, but after an hour or so I headed back in to my office. Another few hours and I had a few more possibilities marked on the map and then started going through the papers of the candidates to sort them. Most of the ones the ladies sent me seemed perfect, and if I used all of them we could rotate them out some so no one got too stir crazy. Looking at the clock and realizing the ground teams should be back anytime, I decided to head down to the hangar bay to wait on their return. I wanted to speak with them again and see how the progress was going.

  Stepping into the hangar bay, I was once again impressed with the sheer size of the ship, this massive room reminding one of how big this ship was. The APC’s were left on their pier once we found out the fence was intact, and even with the trailers for newcomers in the second bay, it was still an awesome open space. I could see a table had been setup near the teams staging and storage area with food available as they arrived home. We still weren’t overflowing with food, but we tried to make sure everyone was still fed plenty. I waited until the teams started filtering in, talking with each of them as they came in, hearing how things went firsthand. So far it seemed it was still relatively quiet, but there were a few encounters with a couple of small groups of infected. So far there had been no more than five or six infected in any one spot, but a few of them had shown signs of starting to mutate, so we would have to start being more careful at night.

  After speaking with the team leaders, it was determined that the teams would start taking the APC’s to their grid points as too much daytime was starting to be spent getting there now. With the ease it had been so far, they were clearing the grids faster than expected, even with the travel time. The animal threat however was a new level of danger we hadn’t thought of, so taking the vehicles seemed a prudent precaution. I would radio the base in the morning to have more gas sent this way from home, and to the other ships to find out how they were faring. Since the teams were in and relaxing, I decided to head up to bed myself. After a quick shower, I laid in bed and grabbed my journal to jot down my thoughts before sleeping.

  Sept. 24th, 2020.

  Another day gone and no one was hurt, thankfully. Chris impressed me with how he armored the hunting blinds and I think they will be quite effective. We saw tigers out the other day, and no doubt other large animals are out there, free from zoos no doubt, but very dangerous nonetheless. The infected presence has been much lighter than I expected so far, but a few had shown signs of mutation, so we would have to either work faster, or more methodical to make sure we were safe. I noticed the food supply we brought with us was getting low already, but with the hydroponics onboard, and home being able to send us some, we should be fine.

  The buildings on the pier seemed to all have rooftop access, so I have a plan to make them all accessible by roof top in order to secure the doors and have a large, land based secure facility. With a lot of open warehouse space with skylights, hydroponic tables should be able to be built and started, and plenty of room for both recreation and sleeping quarters as well were available. Armories could be setup, solar panels and rain water collectors could be installed, and we could potentially make this a completely self-reliant facility without too much effort o
n our part. I planned on talking to the other locations in the morning to find out how the others were doing, make sure we hadn’t had any casualties on their end. I knew the two cruisers only had two vehicles each with them, and the apartment group I don’t think had any, so it would be slow going from their locations.

  I’m more than ready to give up this leadership role and just go about the business of surviving, but too many people are looking to me and trusting me to stop now. I’m trying my best to keep it not so structured so as not to foster any dissension or animosity among different groups, like officers and enlisted, or politicians and workers. Everyone was to be responsible for some aspect of our survival, so everyone was equal. I did plan on keeping a military-minded group though for both a Navy and an Army for defense and emergencies, that way we would have people trained, ready, and able to handle it, as well as a plan for who to listen to in times of need. Just like the ship though, I wasn’t going to push the whole rank thing, and I still hated being called ‘sir’.

  I put my pen down and closed the journal, setting it on the table beside me and turning the light off. Another day of living awaited tomorrow, and I had things to do.

  Sept. 25th, 2020

  Waking up later than usual, I swung my legs out of bed, slipped my shower shoes on and shuffled into the bathroom for my morning routine. Once done, I got dressed, decided to leave the weapons on the couch for now, and headed for the bridge. Chief Brandon was there again, not surprisingly, and we greeted each other with a nod. I went straight back to the radio room, where the bored radio operators were sitting, waiting on messages that rarely came, or to send the odd message out. We had a recording that we played over the radio waves continuously, just in case anyone else was out there and had a radio. It was also being broadcast on CB and ham radio frequencies, just to reach anyone. The operators listened for any response to the recording, and passed information between our different locations. They sat up a little straighter when I walked in, but I simply grabbed the message pad and asked them to send this message to the apartments, the Port Royal, and the Leyte Gulf asking for updates, and to the Jefferson to ask Jeff to send us more fuel and food if there was any available. I then headed back down to my office to continue reviewing maps and personnel files while I waited for the reports from the other locations.

  Responding to my page, my two pilots knocked on my door and then walked in. I had asked them here to have them look at some of the locations I had marked for the blinds, to see how accessible they would be, and if they had any better ideas for placement. We went over different possibilities and scenarios, finally agreeing on four locations within the choppers flight range. With clearly marked locations, I told them I would get copies made for each of them so we could get the blinds out as soon as possible. They both left as I reached for my phone to call the bridge and have my short list of men and women paged to the conference room so I could talk to them all and see if any of them would have issues being in the blinds. I then gathered my maps and their files and headed for the conference room.

  I set the files at the end of the table where I would sit, and the maps I splayed out across the table so they could all see them. As the men and women I asked for started filtering in, I greeted them and asked them to sit down and I would explain shortly. I waited until everyone showed up, and then pointed out the maps to them.

  “If you will all look at the maps there, I have an idea to draw the infected to us, instead of us trying to find them. We have four hunting blinds that have been armored to withstand a pretty good pounding, and I plan on setting them up in the marked locations with some solar powered noise makers. What I need now are the people to put inside them to take out whatever infected are drawn to them. I brought you all here because your files indicate that you all are decent shots, and would therefore have some of the best chances of surviving. What I’m asking for today is for you all to review the maps and the plans, and I’m asking for volunteers for this. If you’re interested, leave your name on the pad there and I will get back with you soon. The last blind is being prepared now, and I want to have them set by next Monday. They will be helicoptered into place due to the weight and the distance, and then whoever will be in them will be trucked in. Four days’ worth of food will be left, along with ammo, and we will try to switch out people every three days. That’s the plan, so leave your name if you want in. Thank you.” I finished my presentation, then sat back and watched them look at each other, look over the maps, and started several conversations between themselves. I let them talk it out, answered questions as they asked them, and hoped that at least most of them would be willing to do it.

  The conversations started melding into one large one as different ideas were passed and considered, and it seemed like most of them at least were well in agreement about the plan. Several had already written their names down on the pad, and the more it was talked about, the more the pad was passed around. After discussing it for about another hour, I asked if anyone else wanted to sign up that hadn’t already, and I thanked them all and then sent them about their business. I gathered all the maps and notes up, put them back in my office, and then headed to the flight deck to see how the chopper preparations were coming.

  Stepping out onto the deck again, the noontime sun shone down bright today, with little in the way of clouds. I could see the two completed blinds near the aft being prepared to attach lifting clips to them, and I assumed the third one was finishing its last steps and would be brought up shortly. I knew they were still working on the fourth one as well, but it’s not like I had given them a time frame to have them completed by in the first place. After walking up to the pilots performing their maintenance and getting an all clear for the birds, I walked up to the blinds to check them out in the bright sun.

  The doors were solid, and a little heavy, but they fit together well, and the lock seemed to be easy to use, and once bolted the door didn’t budge. Even with the barred windows there was enough of a field of vision to see things coming, and the rain coverings looked like they would keep the water out while still providing a decent visual field. My main concern would be the heat trapped inside, even though there were vents built in on the top that could be locked open to allow heat to escape. Water would be the top priority to be left in each one, and we should probably think of a way to keep them supplied.

  “They may not be the prettiest of things, but they will keep anyone in them safe if they have food, water, and ammo.” Chris said, coming up behind me as I stared at the blinds.

  “I don’t care about being pretty, I just want them to be effective. They look good, thank you. As soon as I have volunteers, and the pilots give the choppers a green light, we will take however many we have ready to their locations. Any chance you have the materials on board to just build new ones from scratch?” I asked him.

  “I would have to check, but if we don’t here, I’m almost certain we do back at home. I can send a request for more and I’m sure we could build another four for you in next to no time.” He answered me.

  “Good, sounds like a plan. Don’t rush on it, just whenever you can get it. I know you do high quality work, and I would hate for that to suffer because you were in a hurry.” I replied. I then reached out to shake his hand as I turned and headed back inside. I wanted to check with the weather team because I did not like the looks of those clouds to our west. If it was going to storm, I wanted to make sure that either everyone was back on board, or the safe house they had secured was stocked with plenty of food and ammo to withstand it.

  Stepping back into the tower, I pulled the hatch closed behind me and headed down the stairs to the 03 deck where the ready rooms were and turned towards Ready 3, our meteorology office. I knocked on the door as I stepped in, closing it behind me. The main area of the ready room was filled with the equipment and monitors giving us our weather information, and the small office was taken up mostly by Jackson’s desk. He stood up and walked around it when he saw me, reaching out to shake m
y hand when he saw me.

  “Afternoon Sheldon, I’m assuming you have been outside and saw the clouds to the west and have come to check on them?” Jackson asked, motioning to the monitors. There were several radar screens going, some only local but it looked like at least one was a satellite view.

  “Yes, I was. I just need to know if that storm is going to cause an issue or not. What are we looking at?” I replied.

  “Well, depending on what it does after it breaches the mountains, it’s either going to dissipate and be a gentle rain, or be a nasty, massive thunderstorm. We have two different models that contradict each other, so we need to wait a little longer to get new information to be sure which way it’s going to go.” He told me. He brought up both models on side by side screens as he talked, and it showed me the projected path of the storm, no matter which way it went. It seemed that whether it lessened or strengthened, either way it was going to dump at least some rain on us. I thanked him and then headed back up to the bridge. Stepping into the radio room, I asked the operators to get one of the ground teams for me. After a couple of minutes, we had an answer.

  “Sheldon, it’s Tony, what’s up?”

  “How close is your team to the safe house?” I asked.

  “Not very, but I think Peter’s team is searching a closer grid today. Why?”

  “I need to know what supplies would be needed to secure it better. We have storms coming, and I would rather have it stay a safe place by getting those windows boarded up and supplied before they come in.”

  “I’ll radio Peter and have him check it out then. The tables that we used originally are ok, but some wood or tin sheets would be safer.” Tony replied.

  “Heard. We’ll get started on that right away then. Be safe, out.” I said. After Tony also signed off, I asked if I had received a reply from Michelle yet and was told I had a message waiting in my cabin. I thanked them and then headed back out of the bridge. I expected it to be letting me know how the conversation went with Amanda regarding Ozzy.