by Lee Thomas
Finally passing the area where we found the group in the hotel, I saw smoke rising into the air, but it looked like a controlled fire, but even using the binoculars I couldn’t quite see where it was coming from. I knew Ethan’s group there at the hotel had also secured the hospital grounds next door, so they had plenty of space to be making a fire, which I knew they did on a regular basis. I assumed it was probably that, but would radio them as soon as I got back to confirm. The sun had fully set by the time I made it to the inlet for the area the ship was in, and in the dark it was a little hard to navigate. The wind had also started to die down quite a bit, so I lowered the sails and secured them, making sure the boom wouldn’t swing and hit me now, then fired up the engines, which thankfully didn’t make a lot of noise. The engine compartment had been well constructed with a little bit of soundproofing, so whoever had it built apparently liked their quiet.
I throttled slowly back towards shore, not wanting to hit a sandbar too fast, but if I remembered right there weren’t any in this area. I made it into the inlet, turning south as the ship came into view. She wasn’t far from the inlet, but as I approached, I realized there was no way for me to tie the skiff up to the pier. It was designed for container ships, much, much larger than me. I then remembered a small residential area on the other side of the small peninsula we were at, and I wondered if it would have a small marina, or private piers. I headed that direction, and as I turned west I was rewarded with the sight of several small boats, and a long line of small piers. I pulled up next to one that was open, and close to a large building which appeared to be a hotel from here. As I killed the engine, I coasted close enough to the pier to jump off with one of the tie off ropes, hold the ship from hitting the pier, and then began tying her off. Once she was secured, I went below and grabbed my gear, putting on my sword belt just in case, and then headed in the general direction of the ship.
I knew this area had been searched already, and cleared, but until we knew the whole peninsula was secured I would not let my guard fully down. Since there wasn’t a lot I had brought with me, my bag wasn’t too heavy, and it only took me about half an hour to reach the fence of the shipping company we were using as a base. There was no gate here though, and I didn’t want to walk all the way around it, so I simply started climbing the fence. Making it to the top, I swung my legs over and then sat there for a sec, just looking out over the area from the slightly elevated perspective. The slight wind blew my hair slightly, reminding me of the need for a haircut again, and eventually I swung my leg over and began climbing down the fence, dropping the last bit to the ground. After only taking a few steps, the sound of a foot scraping on concrete behind me made me swing around, drawing my sword as I did and going into a fighting stance.
“Drop it!” called out a voice, turning on a flashlight, temporarily blinding me.
“Dammit, it’s me, turn that damn thing off.” I called out, shielding my eyes from the light and lowering my sword to the ground.
“It’s Sheldon, lower your gun.” A second voice said, quickly followed by the light lowering, and then switching off.
“Thank you.” I said, blinking to try to restore my eyesight.
“What are you doing climbing the fence, especially at night?” the second voice asked, which I finally recognized as Peter, one of the team leaders of the search teams. It must have been his turn for watch duty tonight.
“I didn’t want to walk all the way around to the gate, and I came in on my skiff instead of wasting the fuel for the chopper. Plus, I wanted to keep it close down there in case they need it her for any reason.” I answered, finally able to see well enough to sheathe my sword without cutting my fingers off.
“Well, I’m glad we have the ask questions first, then shoot policy, or someone would have hell to answer for.” Peter chuckled, looking at the other man, whose name escaped me for the moment.
“Me too.” I replied. my eyesight finally returned too normal, and we all turned to walk back towards the ship. “How did you know I was there anyways?”
“We have a couple of motion sensors setup along the portions of fence we can’t see from the ship, and you triggered one. We were coming to see if it was just an animal rubbing up against the fence again, and saw you climbing down. With the reason you left, we thought maybe we had a raider coming in ourselves. I’m glad to see we were wrong.” Peter informed me.
“Me too, but where did you guys find motions sensors?” I asked.
“Gary’s team was out doing another search, and found an electronics store that was relatively untouched. It had all sorts of cameras, motion sensors, radios, that kind of stuff. They gathered a bunch of it up and brought it back, and Wes managed to get them set up with some solar panels nearby to charge the batteries. A small transmitter/receiver was setup about halfway between them and the ship so we could get a signal all the way on the ship to monitor them.” Peter told me.
“Impressive, I’m always surprised by what those tech guys can come up with. Anything else happen while I was gone? Has anyone tried the FLIR units yet?” I asked as we walked.
“Yes, on the trucks. Gary’s team was using them when they found the electronics store, and what they did was run the truck down a block, and then searched the houses to confirm they were as empty as the FLIR said. They got a small heat signature in one house, which turned out to be a den of possums, so nothing dangerous, but it showed it works.” He replied.
“Not dangerous? Have you ever seen a possum up close? Those little bastards will tear you up just for the fun of it sometimes, especially if they are cornered. But I get your point, compared to what we are searching for, not too dangerous. I’m just glad they have been proven to work, but if we discover infected with it, that’s when I will know they work for us.” I answered as we came around the last set of buildings and the ship came into view, which was always an impressive sight, no matter how many times you saw it.
“Well, I’ll remember that if I ever run across one then. Gary, Steven, and myself were planning on going out tomorrow, do you want us to cancel that now that you are back?” Peter asked as we started up the stairs to the elevator.
“No, continue that. I’ll probably be going with one of you, because I want this done as quick as we can. I would love it if we could celebrate New Year’s knowing the land was safe.” I replied. we paused inside the hangar bay as we finished our conversation. “Either that, or I’ll spend the day going over the maps. Don’t wait on me, if I’m going I’ll be there when you are ready.”
“Yes, sir.” Peter said with a chuckle and a grin. He was one of those guys who loved making jokes, and he knew the whole ‘sir’ thing still irritated me a little, but I went with it and chuckled with him. Turning towards the hatch that led to the stairs, I made my way up them to the bridge to let the duty people know I was back, and then went for my quarters for a shower and bed. Finally passing out around midnight, I hoped I got some decent sleep to be ready for tomorrow.
Chapter 10
Oct. 4th, 2020
Reaching over to shut off the alarm, I moaned as I sat up in the bed and swung my feet over the edge. I didn’t get as much sleep as I would have liked, and this never was the most comfortable bed. I knew the teams would be leaving soon, but in my current state I figured I would be more useful looking at maps and making plans. I didn’t want to cause any unnecessary risk to our men simply because I was tired.
Dressing in my normal jeans and t-shirt, I slipped on my boondocker boots and left my weapons put up. I wouldn’t need them today, and they just got in the way when I stayed onboard ship. My first stop was the hangar bay to see the teams off. I chatted with the team leaders for a minute, needlessly telling them to be safe and wishing them luck. After watching them leave, my next stop was the conference room where the maps had been kept. There were street atlases, satellite images, and notes from where the teams had already searched. I started laying them all out, comparing the notes with the atlases, then with the satellite p
ictures. I noticed that the area we were in, called Ocean City, was almost fully searched. I made a note to check with the machine shop chief and see if the hunting blinds had been placed while I was gone. I had the positions marked where we thought they would be most effective, but I also knew that we were still looking at places when I left. I reached for the phone and called the bridge, asking whoever had made that decision to come to the conference room.
“When did you get back?” Christian asked as he walked into the room about ten minutes later, setting a few photos and a notepad down on the table.
“Last night, late. I took the skiff back instead of wasting the fuel for the chopper, and I wanted it to stay down there for now anyways. How was things here the last couple of days?” I replied.
“About how you would expect them to be. The FLIR units seem to be working great, and we have cleared several more grid sections in almost half the time it took before. It was a great idea.” Christian informed me, looking at the maps I had spread around.
“Looks like we have almost all of this area searched, and we can then start spreading out to the neighboring towns and woods. Have the hunting blinds or noise makers been placed yet?” I asked, running my finger along the map as I talked.
“Three of the blinds have, here, here, and here. The fourth was delayed because of a mechanical failure on the chopper. No one was hurt, the bird got back here ok, but it was close. Your cousin David and his mechanics got it running again, no problems, and we plan on placing the fourth one here today.” Christian answered, pointing out their locations on the satellite map I was looking at as he spoke. I could see they were not quite the same places I was looking at, but they were spread far enough out, and in remote enough areas, that if any infected were wandering around the fields or wooded areas, they were sure to draw them out.
“What about the noise makers, where did they go?” I asked.
“One is here, to try to draw infected between these two blinds, but the terrain would make them go around this hill here, which would force them to go near enough the blinds they could be taken out as they passed. Another is here on top of this building. It’s a casino, and we took a team to clear it yesterday and secure all ground floor entrances. There is no way in that building now from the ground, without breaking something. The plan is to take supplies and set up a camp there, leave a team to take rotations on the roof, and take the infected out as they approach. There is lots of wooded area around it, as you can see, but around the building there is plenty of open ground, so no cover on approach.” He explained as he showed me the area. The casino was out on its own a bit, so if any infected were wandering around the woods, the noise maker should draw them to it from quite a distance.
“If you are putting solar panels there for the team, why not rig some spotlights on the roof also? The light would draw them in as well as the sound, and any survivors would know there were live people there too.” I inquired. We had been so focused on searching for infected to make it safe, that I think everyone kind of forgot that there could be survivors out there too.
“Hmm, we hadn’t thought of that, but that could be arranged. I’m sure we could come up with some to take there, or, being a casino, I’m sure they probably have their own spots already there. We’ll see about getting power to some of them.” Christian answered. We talked about other options, different plans, and any other issues that had arisen since I left the ship, but everything seemed to be going pretty much according to plan. The teams were using the FLIR units successfully, and we had received word from the Port Royal and the Leyte Gulf that they also had had good luck with the units. Since that rapidly increased the speed at which we could search, I hoped we could have several secure areas set up away from the ship before too much longer. I wanted to be able to let people start moving up here and setting up as soon as possible.
Christian finally left a few hours later, and I continued to review the maps, looking for weak spots in the plan, trying to think of a new way to do it. I headed up to the bridge to ask the radioman to send a message to the gate crews asking if they had seen anything recently. I then went to the weather room since it was also the station that could pull new satellite pictures when needed and asked them to pull new pictures, hopefully with heat signatures this time to see if we could see any areas lit up. I next went to the flight office and told the pilot in charge to setup a flight plan in increasing circles and to also find landing places further inland, especially airports and other places that could be secure and possibly have fuel for the chopper so we could use it to search farther and farther away. I hoped that maybe we could even find a small plane at one of those airports and fit a FLIR to it as we would be able to cover more ground more quickly that way.
With it being about three in the afternoon now, I realized I still hadn’t eaten today, so I headed down to the galley to make a sandwich, or see if any leftovers were available. Finding some beef stew left in one of the fridges, I found a bowl and heated some up, sitting alone in the dining room. It wasn’t as good as Michelle’s was, but it wasn’t bad. Setting my dishes in the bin, I headed back up to my cabin to think and plan some more, and write in my journal some. I swung by the bridge first to let them where I would be, and then finally closed the door behind me and tried to relax a little. I grabbed my journal first, settling on my couch and tried to organize my thoughts.
Oct. 4th, 2020. Once again we are in danger. Not only are those damn infected still a problem, and the food supply is still in short supply, and not being able to reproduce ammo means we are limited on bullets, and power is not everywhere, or running water, but now we have a rogue group of survivors who have threatened us. Two attacks on the wall, and they started a fire that now threatens to jump over onto the base, even though we have fire watchers there, just in case. I still hate being in charge, although I finally got the sailors and other military people to stop calling me sir. I planned on just fading away once this area was totally secure, and letting other, more capable people run things. I wanted to just be able to hang out with my kids, go sailing, and forget about the insanity of the last three years.
We still haven’t come up with a name for this place yet. Since it was compromised of land from three separate states, it didn’t seem right to call it by any one of those, but maybe we would simply keep the names, and have it divided into three areas, with a local group in each one to run things in each area. We may keep a centralized group of leadership somewhere to maintain the guard details at the gates and some form of order so we don’t delve into chaos and end up destroying the very thing we are trying to protect and build. That was a matter for a group discussion later though.
I closed the journal and looked at the clock. It was pushing six in the evening, so the teams should be back by now, unless they were setting up in safehouses away from the ship. I was a little anxious to hear how the day went, see how much they managed to search with the FLIR units. If we could finish out this area by tomorrow, we could seriously start expanding our efforts, and start moving people up here. With the amount of land we had cleared now, as well as what the others were getting done, I wrote a note to send a message to the base so Jeff and Dave could make the preparations to begin moving everyone else up here, along with the animals and whatever hydroponics or gardens were mobile. I was sure that there would still be volunteers to stay there, which would be great, because that would keep the base active and safe. I had meant to speak with the hunting camp to see if they wanted to move their operations to the base for a more secure camp, but I hadn’t talked to them yet. I had also noticed on the map that there were several airports here, so I wanted to secure one of those and bring what few useable aircraft we had up here, along with any fuel or spare parts that were on our current air base. It was getting late in the day now, so I decided to just finish my thoughts, take a shower, and get some rest. Tomorrow promised to be busy, and I wanted to be ready to give this new effort as much attention as possible to finish it quickly.
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nbsp; Oct. 5th, 2020
“Sheldon, wake up, we have a problem.” Someone said, shaking my shoulder. I jumped awake, reaching over to turn on the lamp, and squinted in the sudden brightness. The clock read 6:30, so whatever this was must be important.
“What, what’s wrong?” I asked swinging my feet over the edge of the bed.
“We got a message from the north gate guard. There is a group of infected across the bridge, and they have been increasing in number all night.” the messenger informed me. As the cobwebs finally cleared from my brain I realized it was Thomas, the one who used to be my yeoman when the Navy terms were still being used.
“Are they attempting to cross the bridge?” I replied.
“Not at the time of the message, but the captain up there, Hank, is worried because it is now a sizeable group, and they have limited men and ammo.” He answered.
“We have a helicopter and crew left here, right?” I asked for clarification.
“I believe so, yes.”
“Get them up and ready. Have men and supplies ready to go in thirty minutes, and get a ground team in a truck headed that way with ammo as well.” I said, walking over to my dresser to get some regular clothes on. Thomas nodded and turned to go, and I heard the door close behind him. A few minutes later the announcement was made over the intercom so I knew I would have to hurry if I wanted to be on the chopper. I threw my clothes on, boots, and grabbed my sword belt. The pistols got loaded and chambered, then slipped into their holsters, and finally I grabbed my helmet and headed out the door.
“Give me an update.” I said as I entered the bridge. There was only two people there, but I knew the radioman would be down the hall, and would be giving updates as the gate gave them to us.
“Approximately eighty to a hundred infected have gathered so far, some appear to be mutated, but not seeming to leave to seek shelter from the sun coming up.” Chief reported, turning to hand me the report.
