“To be honest the surger wasn’t driving the car. The story I heard was that it was sitting in a parked car looking straight ahead turning the steering wheel back and forth. We’ve heard the swimming thing recently. That’s great information by the way. Our men in the field can use all the advice about the surgers weaknesses that they can get.”
“Absolutely. What else you got?” Drew asked. The questions kept right on coming. Now Drew understood why Blaze wouldn’t have had time to go after him. It looked like he was going to be in this little interview room for quite a while.
Blaze meanwhile was laying in the bunk he’d been assigned running scenarios in his head. He kept flashing back to zipping his people into body bags. His people who’d been sent out into the field as cannon fodder. Sent by the same man who’d drugged them and kidnapped half his troop. That man hadn’t been acting alone though. That man had orders from above. Orders that came from this ship. Orders that completely disregarded the lives of Blaze and his men. The leadership of this ship had murdered Blaze’s family and they could care less.
Blaze was ready to make them care. He rattled around the needles in his pocket. He was extremely careful not to poke himself by accident. They were the same needles the knockout juice had been in. The syringes they’d used to quiet down the infected on the plane. While Drew had been sleeping Blaze had reused those needles. He’d gone to the cage of one of the most active crawlerz and jabbed it five more times. Only this time instead of injecting it with the knockout juice he filled the syringes up with the infected blood instead. He’d wrapped the syringes up in a glob of duct tape and shoved them in one of his pockets once done.
He’d bet once they landed that all eyes would be on the five infected in the cages. He’d bet correctly. While everyone was uber focused on the infected neatly tucked away in body bags behind solid steel cages the real threat to the ship had walked off to be rudely rejected by Yue. Seeing her with the tall man in charge of everything told Blaze instantly that Yue must be in alignment with the men who’d ultimately been responsible for his family being slaughtered. He kept up the pleasantries and fake smiles throughout the abbreviated onboarding process he was put through.
They were medically evaluated and found to be fine. They told the medics that they came direct from one of the bases which eliminated them having to be quarantined for a day. They left out the part about the infected having been swarming all over the particular base they’d just come back from. The medic was sloppy in his questioning and only half paying attention otherwise they’d have been quarantined. Blaze just saw it as another point in favor of carrying out his plan.
Having made up his mind Blaze put on the identification badge that’d allow him to get to the main galley. He couldn’t go anywhere else on board the ship without an escort. He’d been shown where the galley was earlier and noted the hundreds of men and women eating in there. He shrugged into his clothes and walked over to the bunk next to his. He moved the curtain to the side just enough to confirm it was man sleeping on his stomach. Blaze dropped to his knee and pretended to fall into the bottom rack.
“Sorry! Sorry!” Blaze yelled apologetically rolling out of the bottom bunk where he’d plunged the contents of the syringe deep into the sleeping man’s butt cheek. The sleeping man was awake now trying to figure out why his butt hurt, and what the yelling was all about.
“What’s going on?” A petty officer walked around the corner to ask.
“I tripped and I think I stabbed him with my glasses. I’ll go grab him a bag of ice.” Blaze said pretending to be completely flummoxed. The petty officer nodded vaguely trying to figure out what was up. The man in the bottom bunk had slid out and was rubbing his butt with one hand. He looked up accusingly at Blaze. He just wasn’t sure what he was accusing him of. Stuttering out that he’d run to the galley and be right back Blaze took off running out of the berthing area.
Blaze walked quickly down the open passageways towards the sounds and smells of the large galley. His heart was pounding away like crazy. He’d just condemned an innocent man to death when he stabbed the sailor. That man didn’t have anything to do with the deaths of his people. The only thing he could think of now was to keep going with the plan. If he wanted to get the people who were responsible, he needed to turn this whole ship into a nightmare. Knowing he was a walking dead man he committed completely to a final act of vengeance.
A wiry looking sailor was sitting at a desk by the door to the galley checking everyone’s badges against an iPad he was using to log individual meals. The duty station was new. It hadn’t been setup to stop people from hoarding food or eating too much. It was actually intended to try to catch those who weren’t eating at all. Depression was running rampant on a ship full of people who knew their loved ones were most likely dead. There’d been multiple suicides already. Men had just taken that final step off the flight deck in the middle of the night and never been seen again. Others walked around with everyone else but were crumbling apart on the inside. Those people tended to not bother with things like eating. The ship’s psychiatric staff had recommended making them check in for meals and the captain had ordered it to be so.
“Hey man you need to check in.” The young seaman stuck on duty at the door looked up expectantly for Blaze to tell him his name. Instead, Blaze swung his arm out of his pocket and jabbed a syringe into the young door guard. The seaman tried to jump backwards to get away from Blaze. He got stuck and tripped over his chair though ending up on the ground with the syringe dangling out of his arm. He pulled it out and stared at in horror. Somehow, he intuited exactly what’d just been done to him.
A few people by the door had noticed and were trying to figure out what was going on. One of those people stood up and came forward. Blaze pulled another syringe and plunged it into his own arm then hit the plunger to send the ancient Egyptian demon plague zipping into his own bloodstream. They were going to kill him anyway so he might as well sacrifice himself as part of his own plan. He ran towards the person who’d been coming for him.
“Hey Blaze, are you alright?” Charani asked stepping froward. She’d been wrapping up dinner when she saw her former boss storm into the galley and attack the man at the check in desk. Blaze looked up at her. She saw recognition warring with something else in his eyes.
“Run Charani. Get to the flight deck. I’m letting loose the mother of all Gypsy curses on these gorger bastards down here.” Blaze said with drool leaking out of his mouth. Charani saw the syringes in his hands and the mad look in his eyes. She noted the use of the gypsy words. She ran for the door as fast as she could.
Blaze turned and ran the other direction. He ran towards the sailors at the closest table. They were getting to their feet trying to figure out what was going on. A few of them approached the crazy looking guy running at them. Once they noticed the syringes they turned and ran the other way. Knowing he was on borrowed time Blaze sprinted for a table where the people were still sitting down. Most of them had their backs to him. They were just starting to look over their shoulders to see what was going on when Blaze leapt the last few feet to bury needles in two of their backs. He plunged one of them while the needle snapped off in the other ones back when Blaze fell to the ground.
One of the men reached down to help Blaze up. It was an automatic reaction to seeing someone fall flat on their face. The thing that came up off the floor and sank its teeth into his finger wasn’t Blaze anymore. Seeing nothing but lights pulsating around him. The intensity and frequency filling him with a horrible and terrible fear Blaze’s primordial attack mechanisms kicked in. The virus alternated between kicking him in the fear and the starvation synapses. Rocking and rolling the parts of his brain that were responsible for his sanity until they snapped.
The man Blaze had bitten ripped his finger out of Blaze’s mouth and took off running. He’d end up turning in the medical bay. The man Blaze had managed to stick with the needle turned before he made it all the way out of the galley. The seam
an by the front door turned at almost the same time as Blaze and began attacking the people at the table Charani had been sitting at. The man who Blaze had snapped the needle off in didn’t turn from the broken needle. He eventually turned from the massive bite to his cheek and ear from Blaze. That man took off running for the engineering barracks. He was three minutes from turning.
It only took a few minutes before general quarters was sounded. In that few minutes of chaos and confusion the infected managed to get to almost every section of the ship. Ironically enough the one section that was prepared to defend against the infected was the lab which the five infected from the base had been transferred to. Thanks to the extra security precautions there the Marines were armed, and the hatches were already dogged down. Most of the rest of the ship wasn’t so lucky.
In the VIP section the secret service agents had no qualms with killing the people charging madly at them. Suicide bomber, zombie or guy with extreme diarrhea sprinting for a port a potty if you ran wildly in the direction of the President you risked getting shot. The secret service has contingency plans for their contingency plans. A couple of senators didn’t make it, but the President and a handful of the others were immediately secured in a small closet. The agents who sealed them in were ripped apart. The passageway filled up with the infected leaving no way out. The infected in the passageway began pounding on the thick wooden door.
Up on the bridge the infected burst in while general quarters was being announced. The captain and the XO were both bitten in that initial attack. The Marines rallied and massacred their way through the surgers until they were able to seal off the decks below. Unable to press any further they stood around in groups wondering what to do next. They at least needed to rescue somebody who could sail the ship. There hadn’t been any flight ops planned for that time period so most of the crew had been below decks. The Marines had been on the flight deck doing their evening drills.
The captain and the XO had been up on the bridge planning out the next day’s operations. They’d been together since they’d gone earlier to inspect the lab area and make sure it was secure. They weren’t the only ones who died or were turned thinking that this must have originated from those infected locked in the cages.
All told Blaze’s plan took out well over a thousand sailors, Marines and politicians in the first half of an hour after he launched it. Other than the politicians those were all sorely needed resources for the survival of humanity. The surger formerly known as Blaze ended up stuck in a small passageway outside the VIP area with about ten other infected members of the crew. The grey walls of the passageway ending on each end with dogged down hatches. Assuming no one opened the hatches then this would serve as their tomb. Blaze had gotten his vengeance.
Chapter 17: General Quarters
“General quarters! General Quarters! All hands man your battle stations. Reports of an outbreak on board. General quarters! General quarters!” The alert boomed across the ship. The amped up voice coming out of every speaker throughout the massive military machine. People stopped what they were doing and ran for their battle stations. Many of them ran right into the infected that were already sprinting down every major passageway on board. This had been a drill on board in the very recent past. Many of the sailors took their time assuming it was a drill once more.
Drew looked across the interview table at the scientist who’d been quizzing him on what he thought the crawlerz ate.
“Is this for real?” Drew asked. The scientist shrugged with a worried look on his face. He must’ve thought it was real enough to halt the interview for now and go check it out. He opened the door to the passageway leading to the lab next door and stepped out. Drew got up to follow him just in time to see a dungaree clad surger pounce on the obese scientist. Considering the little interview room just had a regular door Drew opted to make a run for the lab instead of trying to lock himself in.
He got there right as the Marine standing guard at the front of the lab shot two surgers point blank. The Marine spun and aimed his rifle at Drew.
“Not a crawler dude! Not bit! Let me in!” Drew yelled with his hands in the air. The Marine shot twice more. One bullet passing Drew so closely he felt it burn the tip of his ear. The Marine yelled at him to get inside. Not needing to be told twice Drew jumped over the lip of the hatchway to get into the lab area. Another Marine helped the first Marine slam the hatch shut and dog it down.
All around the large open lab doors and hatches were being slammed shut. The lab was in the shape of a big rectangle with a cage in the middle. The cage in the middle held the five smaller cages the test subjects were in. Marines and men in lab coats were spread out all around the perimeter. They were all trying to figure out what the hell was going on.
The loud staccato sound of an AR-15 being fired multiple times erupted inside the space. The sound echoed like thunder off the bulkheads of the enclosed area. Drew and everyone else were spinning around in circles trying to figure out what was going on. The Marines were aiming their weapons at anything that moved.
“It’s cool. One of the lab guys got bit. I had to waste him.” Yelled out one of the Marines. The rest of the Marines settled immediately upon hearing that. Unlike the guys in the white coats the Marines chosen to guard this room all had plenty of field experience. That’d been a major piece of the criteria for being selected for this detail. They didn’t want anyone who was going to freeze up just because they were suddenly in an enclosed space with a bunch of crazy people with superhuman strength trying to eat them.
Drew began walking the perimeter of the lab. He took pains to make sure he looked as nonthreatening as possible. The Marines were all understandably very jumpy. When startled they tended to react by killing things. Drew was doing his best not to startle them when he saw a tall figure in khakis on the other side of the lab. Forgetting he was trying not to startle anyone he began jogging in that direction.
Wham! His teeth rattled in his head as a mountain of a Marine slammed him into the bulkhead. Drew could taste blood where he’d bitten his tongue. Looking up he saw Jeff had glanced over to see what the fuss was.
“Drew? You can let him go staff sergeant.” Jeff ordered walking over and grabbing Drew’s hand to shake once he saw it was really him.
“Hey. Is Yue here?” Drew asked. His head was pounding. He should’ve known better than to jog like that in the direction of someone so important. He was lucky the Marine had opted to slam him into the bulkhead instead of just shooting him. His head didn’t feel lucky though.
“No. She should be back in her barracks by now. Hopefully she’s somewhere safe.” Jeff said in a worried voice.
“What happened? How’d they get out?” Drew asked curiously. From where he was standing it looked like all five of the bundles of death were still securely locked in their cages. He couldn’t imagine what kind of colossal screwup could’ve led to what was happening.
“No idea. No one has even come into contact with any of the ones you brought back. Everyone gets a medical screening when they land on the carrier. Considering it only takes one to three minutes normally for the infection to kick in it’s not like anyone can really hide it from the corpsmen. By the time the plane lands they should be stark raving if they got infected on land. If you or Blaze or one of the flight crew on the plane had been bitten, we would’ve detected it. I don’t know where this is coming from. With all the research and processes we put in place we still aren’t safe.” Jeff looked like he needed a Big Gulp full of vodka and a place to lie down for a few hours. Given the circumstances Drew could understand why.
“How do we get out of here?” Drew asked the question that was swirling around in his head. He was already putting together a plan. It consisted of getting out of the lab and saving Yue then not dying. Plan might not be the best word for it. He had goals.
“That’s going to be an issue. One of the reasons we picked this area to build the lab in was because it’s not easy to access. We’re going to have t
o fight our way out. I don’t know that we have enough ammunition to actually make it.” Jeff explained. The staff sergeant was leaning in listening. He was the head of the lab security detail.
“Hey sir. We humped a ton of ammunition down here. Fighting our way out shouldn’t be an issue. As long as the whole ship hasn’t been overrun. I mean where are we fighting our way to exactly?” The staff sergeant asked. Drew looked over at the man in amusement. Leave it to a bunch of Marines to drag down a ton of ammunition to guard five infected who were locked in cages. Looking into the lab and counting the bags that were moving around he verified one of them was still limp. That meant him and Blaze had only successfully gotten four out of five of the specimens to the ship alive. Not that it mattered. At this point the ship was literally crawling with fresh test subjects.
“Excellent question staff sergeant. There’s a phone in the main office. Let’s go see if we can’t get ahold of someone who can tell us what’s going on. I’m a little concerned no one’s followed up on the announcements over the paging system. We should be hearing all kinds of orders by now.” Jeff said walking into the main office section of the lab and hitting the speaker button on the phone.
Crawlerz | Book 2 | Batten Down The Hatches Page 15
