by Mike Kraus
The roar of one of the creatures cut quite clearly through the sound of them walking and running across the bridge, which in turn caused hundreds of the creatures surrounding it to stop walking and look for the source of what had made it cry out. One of the four crewmen on the bridge, frightened by the creatures overhead, prematurely detonated the explosives with an emergency detonator, causing a chain reaction with the rest of the explosives. However, since an uneven amount of explosives had been placed, it did not collapse with the precision that Krylov had planned to happen when they had long since passed the locks.
Twisted shards of metal both large and small filled the air, churning with huge plumes of smoke and flames. Bits of the bridge began to rain down onto the Arkhangelsk and Nancy pulled Leonard back, nearly toppling him over as they ran several feet down the corridor to escape from the debris crashing in through the open hatch. Hundreds of the creatures on the bridge were killed instantly at both ends where the explosives were laid, and the survivors howled in rage, focusing their attention on the destruction to find its cause.
Of the four crewmen on deck when the explosions went off, three were killed almost immediately by pieces of the bridge swinging and falling downward, scraping along the hull of the Arkhangelsk as they went. The fourth was able to dive through the hatch, barely escaping a massive piece of the bridge that hung in the air, swinging back and forth before finally crashing down, sending a shudder through the entire vessel. Alarm klaxons began to howl throughout the ship and Krylov shouted into the radio, trying to figure out what had happened.
With the bridge in tatters—and much of those tatters now on top of and in the water around and below the submarine—there was still the matter of passing through the locks to deal with. The filling and draining sequences were fully automated, yet they required someone in the control room in a tower overlooking the central bridge to start them up. The two crewmen assigned to this task were very nearly shaken off of the ladder leading up the side of the lock to the control room, but they managed to hang on through the turmoil.
Looking back, they were both in shock at seeing the carnage below them. In addition to the bridge having been half destroyed and the creatures injured and enraged, their escape route back through the Arkhangelsk’s hatch was now cut off by the massive pieces of steel that lay twisted on the deck, blocking all entry and exit. Creatures were leaping from the bridge onto the submarine’s deck far below, some of them falling still as they broke limbs while others managed to stay intact and began tearing at the debris that covered the open hatch.
“Move!” The crewman lowest on the ladder shouted at his companion, who was staring at the mayhem with his mouth hanging open. Startled, he looked down and then up before resuming his climb. With another thirty feet to go before reaching the control room, both men hurried as quickly as they could until they reached a metal hatch. The lead man pushed against it with his shoulder and it popped open with a clang. Both men pulled themselves into the control room, the lead man going straight for the controls with a radio in his hand while the other pulled a submachine gun from a bag strapped to his back before taking up a guard position near the main door to the control room.
On the Arkhangelsk, the situation had gone from bad to worse. The sound of creatures landing on the hull above them spurred Leonard and Nancy to race down the corridor, limited only by the speed at which Leonard could throw himself forward with his crutches. The creatures tore at the metal debris covering the open hatch, effortlessly removing enough of it in the space of a minute to allow themselves easy entry down the stairwell and into the submarine itself. Letting Leonard get ahead of her to jump through a bulkhead doorway, Nancy turned and saw a dozen creatures racing toward her, the red alarm lights reflecting in their silver eye sockets.
“Move your ass!” Leonard reached out for Nancy, tugging her roughly through the doorway before raising his hand and firing several shots from a pistol that had somehow materialized there. Nancy held her hands over her ears as the sounds echoed off the corridor walls, making every shot sound like a miniature explosion. Three creatures fell to the floor in the corridor before Leonard pushed against the open hatch door, swinging it shut to block the creatures from continuing through. Seeing Leonard struggle, Nancy crawled forward and pushed as well, giving the door enough of a shove to close just before the creatures slammed into it. Leonard quickly twisted the wheel on the door, locking it tightly before he jammed one of his crutches into it, keeping the creatures from unlocking it.
“We need to get moving to the command deck before those things get there.” Leonard moved his remaining crutch to the right side and balanced on it while motioning from Nancy to move to his left. He placed his left arm around her shoulder for support and started hopping forward, moving as quickly as he could. Behind them, the creatures shattered the thick glass on the door, howling madly as they threw themselves against it, trying to no avail to break through. After they had turned a corner and closed another hatch, Leonard stopped and sank to the floor, pulling a handheld radio from his pocket and thumbing the button.
“Krylov, this is McComb. The creatures are on board. You need to seal up as many hatches as you can and get us the hell underwater, now!”
On the command deck, Commander Krylov’s face turned white as Leonard’s voice came over the speakers. Turning to his dive officer, he shouted, resisting the urge to knock the man from his chair and perform the operation himself. “Dive, damn it! Dive! Get us as low as possible!”
He then turned to the rest of the skeleton crew, desperately wishing that he wasn’t running out of men so quickly. “Arm yourselves and begin to seal the bulkheads leading to the surface exits. If you see anything not human, shoot it!” The men he was addressing scrambled to obey, running through multiple exits from the command deck to obtain weapons and proceed through the ship.
Back in the control room overlooking the lock, the lead crewman looked over the controls, quickly finding the one required to begin the filling process. Connected to diesel generators below ground and solar panels strung along both sides of the lock, the control room and the lock itself was still fully operational, and needed only the touch of a single button to operate. “Commander, we’re in position!”
Static filled the radio for several seconds, then Krylov’s voice came through, barely audible over the sound of alarms in the background. “Start it now! Hurry!”
Below them, the massive vessel began to sink into the water. Air bubbles rose to the surface from the open hatch, churning the water and disorienting the creatures around the ship as they continued to try and make their way in. The two men in the control room watched the ship sink for a few seconds as they resigned themselves to their fate before activating the console and starting the automated filling process that would allow the Arkhangelsk to pass through the locks.
Nancy and Leonard had stopped to catch their breath again. Lost in some section of the ship that Nancy didn’t recognize from her earlier explorations, she was doing her best to get them to the command deck, but had so far been unsuccessful. Gunfire and distant voices—both human and not—had echoed through the corridors, making them uncertain as to the current situation involving the creatures.
“Leonard?”
Leonard was sitting on the corridor floor opposite Nancy, thumbing the radio button to no avail. He looked up at her, breathing heavily from his exertion, wincing at the stabs of pain that would occasionally lance through his leg.
“What?”
“Where did you get that?” Nancy pointed at the radio. “And the gun, too. Where did you get them?”
Leonard smiled as he massaged his knee. “Krylov needs to pay a bit more attention when he lets strangers into his weapons rooms. I snagged the gun and the radio on our way out, just in case we needed them at some point.” A loud clang echoed through the corridor, sounding closer than any of the other noises had been. “I wish I would have grabbed more than one pistol, though…”
Leonard pu
shed himself up with Nancy’s help and they continued on their way, moving as quickly and as quietly as they could. Since sitting down and getting back up again, the noise level had gone down, and there was only an occasional burst of gunfire followed by a howl or scream. All of the wall signs were marked in Russian with arrows pointing in various directions and no clear indication of where the command deck was. As they continued to move forward, though, the sound of gunfire gradually grew louder to the point where the sporadic bursts were coming from behind a doorway in the next corridor down. Leonard and Nancy stopped and leaned against the wall, trying to decide if they would be safer retreating or hoping that whoever was shooting wasn’t being overwhelmed by the creatures.
Leonard McComb | Nancy Sims
12:28 PM, April 25, 2038
“Keep it up! They’re nearly all dead!”
Commander Krylov was kneeling behind his chair, looking down the sights of a rifle that he kept pointed at the one door that was left open to the command deck. Behind him, the rest of what remained of the Arkhangelsk’s crew stood in various positions, all brandishing weapons ranging from Makarovs to AK-74s. Every few seconds, a creature would dart past the open door, testing the crew’s defenses and reactions, trying to gain entry to the room and kill the last of the people on board.
A shot rang out from behind Krylov, who shouted at the man without bothering to turn his head. “Do not engage unless you have a sure shot!” Ammunition was beginning to run low, and Krylov wasn’t certain how many creatures were left on board. In the moments since the bridge had collapsed over the Arkhangelsk, Krylov had been shocked at how many creatures had gained entry to the submarine as well as how quickly they had swept through the ship, trying to kill anyone who stood in their way. His men had performed bravely, manually closing off hatches and activating emergency bulkhead seals that prevented the Arkhangelsk from completely flooding, though the vessel’s response was sluggish due to the amount of water she had taken on. More of the flooded areas would have been sealed off if not for the creatures, though, which nearly overwhelmed the small crew.
Quickly honing in on the retreating crew, the creatures had congregated around the command deck, which Krylov had the foresight to seal off, leaving one entrance intentionally open to try and keep the creatures busy with so that they wouldn’t go on a rampage through the rest of the ship. Seven creatures had died to hails of gunfire and one of the crew on the command deck had been injured so far after he got too close to one of the beasts that hadn’t been properly finished off.
Another creature ran past the open door, hooking its hand around the frame and swinging in, staying low to the ground to avoid being shot. Krylov tracked the creature with his rifle and fired several short bursts, sending all but two rounds directly into the creature’s side and chest. It collapsed to the floor, sliding several inches before coming to rest in front of a petrified crewman who it had been trying to reach, adding another body to the seven already lying just inside the door to the command deck.
Behind Krylov, the groan of a hatch lock being disengaged made him turn. A figure was visible through the small window in the door, though he couldn’t make out if it was human or one of the disfigured creatures. Another burst of gunfire came from one of the crewmen and a howl came from the corridor as another creature darted by slowly enough to take a few bullets in the side. The hatch on the opposite side of the room began to open and Krylov tightened his grip on his rifle as he prepared for an assault by the creatures from two directions.
“Don’t shoot!” Nancy stepped through the door with Leonard right behind her, leaning on her for support as he hopped over the threshold and began to pull the door closed behind him. Krylov lowered his rifle and looked at Nancy and Leonard with a stunned expression, shocked that they had survived long enough to make it to the command deck.
“Leonard! Nancy!” Krylov’s formal way of addressing the two had disappeared as his accent had grown stronger from the stress he was under. He glanced at Leonard’s hand and belt where he carried the empty pistol and the radio that he had taken from the equipment locker. Looking back at Leonard for a long moment, he weighed the option of giving the man another weapon.
“Can you shoot?” Krylov picked up a rifle from the floor and threw it at Leonard who caught it with one hand. He dropped down on his one knee and swung the upper half of his other leg around, sitting on a step near the back of the room with the rifle placed firmly against his shoulder.
“I can manage.”
Krylov nodded, relieved, then looked at Nancy. She held out her hands expectantly and Krylov threw her a rifle as well, raising an eyebrow in surprise. She caught his look and shrugged as she slid the bolt back and chambered a round. “Women don’t shoot in your country, Commander?”
The oddity of Nancy’s statement caught Krylov off guard and he laughed involuntarily as he turned around and resumed his watch on the door. Try as he might, he couldn’t stop himself from laughing, and was soon joined by Nancy, Leonard and a few nearby crewmen who had heard what she said as well. The laughter spreading on the command deck in the midst of the battle was infectious, and Krylov soon found himself wiping tears from his eyes as he struggled to keep focused on the open door.
When the last of the creatures assaulted the room, throwing themselves through the open door in a desperate attempt to kill the people inside, they were not met with fear but with laughter, focusing the attention of each person with a laser-like precision. The attention was accompanied by a hailstorm of bullets that tore through metal and flesh alike, destroying the creatures’ attempt in a few short seconds. The juxtaposition of conflicting emotions sat strongly with Leonard in particular, who was the first one to stand up and make his way toward the creatures’ bodies, hobbling along on his crutch.
Krylov stood up and joined Leonard, then Nancy, who took Leonard’s arm and placed it on her shoulder. The three stood with the crew behind them, staring at the mangled bodies of the creatures on the floor as their laughter gradually died out. Krylov cleared his throat and turned to his crew, smiling grimly at them.
“I think that’s the last of them. Get us a head count started, then get us moving again. Once we’re clear of this damned canal we’ll surface and take stock of the damage.”
The crew moved slowly at first, stepping gingerly over the creatures strewn across the floor until Krylov yelled, clearing the last of the happy mood from the air. “Get your asses moving now!”
Everyone, including Leonard and Nancy, jumped at Krylov’s order, and the crew broke into sprints, hurrying to their stations and down the hall to find missing crew and prepare to get the submarine moving again. Leonard held out his rifle to Krylov who looked at it and shook his head, pushing it away. “Keep it, Mr. McComb. We might need it again.”
Leonard and Nancy looked at each other and began moving toward a pair of vacant chairs. Krylov spoke again, raising his voice so that the crew left on the command deck could hear him. “Excellent work, by the way. Not just you two. Everyone. Now let’s get out of here, shall we?”
Andrey Lipov | Sergei Usov
Panama Canal Main Lock Control Room
12:42 PM, April 25, 2038
“If we get back to that ship, I’m never getting off again.”
Andrey snorted at Sergei’s comment as they watched the dark form of the Arkhangelsk move slowly forward through the open gates of the lock. The ship was submerged, but they could still see it as it passed through the water, clearing the lock gate and escaping the carnage that had surrounded it.
After the unexpected destruction of the bridge, Andrey and Sergei had watched nervously as the lock filled with water, hoping that no critical systems had been damaged by the explosions. Though the process took several minutes to complete, it eventually finished, and the lock’s water level was equalized with the river ahead of the ship. Andrey and Sergei had heard of the complete redesign of the canal (like most of the world), though they had never seen it in person. Neither had th
ey imagined that the process of operating the single lock system would be so easy, making the multiple locks used previously look complicated compared to the current process.
Instead of refitting and reworking the existing locks, canal, and artificial lake, the new system actually involved a completely separate canal placed just a quarter of a mile from the old one. The twisting path of the old canal was discarded for a direct one, drawing a straight line through the land. Surprisingly, this was more cost-effective than attempting to enlarge and modernize the old canal, which is what most people had assumed would happen before the final engineering plans were made public.
Automated in ways that the old canal was not, the new construction consisted of two massive locks, each capable of holding supertankers whose size dwarfed that of the Arkhangelsk. In between the locks was a canal wide enough for ten of the supertankers to fit side by side, a distance calculated to be both cost effective and most efficient given a study of the current ocean traffic at the time and planning at least seventy-five years into the future.
