Mega Cataclysm: The Last Survivors Chronicles

by Scott Todd

  Another fifty feet and I was looking at the right fin under the deck in above me. It looked like if I climbed up on top of that, I could reach the deck. I went for it, got up on the fin, stood up, and then jumped to grab the bottom of the deck railing. I worked my way up that, and in no time I was quickly standing on the deck.

  The hatch door was open, and a metal ladder led down into the sub. I briefly peered down, and saw and heard nothing. So I climbed down as quietly as I could. The minute I hit a flat surface, I turned around at about the same time as a military man did.

  "Oh, you guys are back..." he started to say, but before it even registered that it wasn't them, I had pulled my Glock and shot him point blank in the chest. He went down and I finished the job quickly with another shot to the head. His brains exploded all over the floor, and I stayed silent, just looking around for a minute, ready for any others who might have heard the shots and come running. But there was only silence. I looked down at him again and noticed he was in pretty bad shape- not only from the bullets- but from other injuries.

  I remembered seeing the others injured too, but I felt no remorse. Just rage and anger at them taking my friends. I had already been to hell and back, and this asshole didn't scare me one bit. I was surprised at my own lack of sentiment. I didn't do things like this. But that was then, and this was now. I thought of Jan, and that guy pulling her head back, eying her sleek body.

  My hands trembled in rage as I looked around, and immediately spotted two of those very same rifles the landing party had leaning up against the wall next to the ladder I had come down. They had obviously staged them for the trip to shore. Good. I'm glad you did that, assholes.

  I grabbed one, checked it, and saw a switch. "Full Auto, Burst, and Single" were the options. And into full auto it went, along with the other one. The chambers and clips were full. I knew not what kind of rifle, and I didn't care. But those bullets were long and looked very deadly. That's all I needed to see.

  Out I climbed with my two new weapons, having no desire to search further for anything more. I had a mission: Get my friends back at all costs, even if it killed me. I checked the shore from the deck, and saw no one. The sub itself had muffled the shots enough it seemed.

  I went back down the way I came, and spent no time looking at anything else. If I was successful we could check it out later. In a mere minute I was heading back to shore with the motor as low as it would go, not wanting to attract any attention- and fully prepared for war. I parked it in the same spot, turned off the motor, and tied it back to the same tree.

  Grabbing the guns and slinging one on my shoulder, I debated whether I should wait for them in ambush or go after them. No question. Go. Now.

  I worked my way up towards the peak on a new path, seeing from their light footprints that they had headed up directly from the boat. I stayed just far enough off their route that if they came back down it, I would know. Confident that they had not come back down, I proceeded directly towards the top.

  "Make it close to the parking lot, assess the situation, and wait for the exact right moment to strike" is what I was thinking as I headed up as quietly as I could through the trees.

  But as I got closer, I heard some very distinct sounds in the woods. It sounded like a man grunting. I spotted the parking lot not far from there, but focused my attention, trying to discern where the grunting was coming from. Hiding behind another tree, I waited and listened more, and I thought I heard a muffled scream. It sounded like a woman. It sounded like Jan.

  My heart raced, and my rage reached unbearable levels. I searched and searched, and finally saw a faint movement through the trees. I spotted three of them over in the parking lot, and backed off to pursue another route towards the grunting.

  Silently I crept up, closer and closer, until I saw what was happening. Behind a large tree this asshole was raping Jan, with his hand covering her mouth. He was on top of her, and she was crying and in low moans of displeasure. Bizarrely, the man had a huge bandage on his chest, almost making him look like a mummy trying screw a woman. I crept up slowly and cautiously, containing my urge to rush in.

  And that's when I saw Jan's hunting knife, thrown on the ground some 15 feet from the rape scene. I sneaked silently to a tree right by it, and grabbed it slowly and silently. She looked up at me over his shoulder and her eyes got wider and wider, tears streaming down her face. I was horrified. I immediately raised my finger to my mouth telling her silently to keep quiet.

  Checking to see what the others were doing, I looked up one last time, and they were still some hundred yards away, talking and checking each other's bandages- not paying any attention. So I eyed my path to the kill- now just ten feet away. "Avoid that twig and that twig, move silently, swiftly, and grab his head and cut his throat. Hard, deep, and with everything I had," I told myself.

  I held off a bit longer, thinking I'd have the best chance if I waited until he was in the middle of his orgasm. That way he'd be the most distracted. A few grunts later his pace quickened, and I knew it wouldn't be long. As he let out the first moan in ecstasy, I made my move. I did exactly as I thought, without hesitation, but right as I came up on them, my foot snapped a twig.

  His head came back slightly with the distraction, just enough for me to grab it and get the knife through without hurting Jan. Sensing what I was about to do, she quickly pushed him upwards and away from her.

  With a quick hand on his forehead, I pulled back hard and fast, yanking his head back before he could counter the move. The slice was clean, and all he could do was gurgle blood and grab his throat. I immediately grabbed his arm and mercilessly yanked it away with adrenaline rage. I sliced his throat again more deeply, and his blood poured down all over Jan. I had nearly decapitated the man. I then took the knife and plunged it as hard as I could into his left side, piercing his heart. Within seconds, his body went limp. I pulled the knife out, and again raised my finger to my lips- telling her to keep quiet.

  Covered with his fresh blood, Jan glared up at me with wide open eyes, totally shocked by what she had just witnessed. I rolled him off of her, and looked down and saw her naked, blood-covered breasts and slender, nude body. I could tell she wanted to scream, but she was still in shock, and she just quietly put back on her pants while laying down and staying low.

  I quietly led her back down the hill, away from the scene. I knew it wouldn't be long before one or more of the others would be on their way to check on them.

  Once far enough away, we laid down behind a tree. Jan sobbed, and hugged me desperately. "Thanks," she said quietly in tears. "That son of a bitch. That son of a fucking bitch!" she kept repeating. Boy was she furious.

  "You ok?" I asked, not really knowing what else to say, and trying to comfort her.

  "Yeah, I'll be ok," she said quickly, regaining her composure.

  "That's my girl," I said confidently, and wiped the last tear from her eye. She looked at me with a deep affection that went beyond words.

  "We've got to get them," she whispered. "They are going to rape Terry too. They said it. They were waiting for us to finish." She looked down at the rifles inquisitively.

  "Yeah, they came in a submarine," I whispered. "I killed one guy in there and took these." She looked up at me with a blank, shocked stare. "They are in full auto mode which means that is like a machine gun," I said, handing her the one in my hands, and taking the other one off my shoulder. She looked down at it with apprehension.

  "Whatever you do if you fire that thing, you better hold on for dear life, cause it probably kicks like a... Like a son of a bitch..." I whispered hesitantly. "So hold it as hard as you can and try to keep it pointed at the target."

  "Ok," she whispered back. "Ok. I can do this. Those fucking assholes..." I'll..."

  "Shhh," I interrupted, "Someone's coming. You point that at him and fire when I say, and I'll take the other two. Stay down on the ground. Use it to steady your aim. Here. Like this," I told her, and assumed a forward pointing, pro
ne position. She followed and took aim. One of them was almost upon the rape scene, some 50 feet away.

  "Wait till he yells for them, and let them come to check it out. Once they're all there, we open fire," I commanded her. I was in no mood for discussions at that point. We had to take them out.

  "Ok. Ok. Wait till he yells and they come running. I got it," she said. "Those bastards."

  "Wait until I say 'now,' before pulling the trigger," I ordered her, and she nodded back.

  The next thing we heard was "Joey! Joey? Oh shiiiiiiit! Joey! Hey! Hey! She killed Joey! Get over here now!" The sound of uneven, running footsteps ensued. The second I saw their heads come over the hill and had a clear shot, I whispered "Now!"

  And open fire we did. It sounded like war. It was war. For all of ten seconds. I saw the first one go down, and shifted the aim to the other one before he realized what was happening. He hit the ground with a thud too.

  Her weapon went silent, and I eased off the trigger. "You get him?" I whispered.

  "Yeah, I think so," she whispered back. "Pretty sure."

  We heard gurgling, and then a loud scream. "Ahh, I've been hit!" a voice shouted. "Randy? Randy? You ok? Sam? Ahh shit, I'm hit!" There was no answer. I raised up slightly to see the wounded man on the ground, writhing in pain. There was no motion anywhere else. Seizing the opportunity, I quickly stood up, dawned my Glock, and went running up to the scene, pointing it at him. His weapon was on the ground, and the other two appeared dead. I kicked his weapon aside.

  "Sorry man, we were just trying to have some fun... Ahhh! Shit that hurts," he screamed, grabbing his right shoulder. He was wounded badly, but it appeared he might survive. Only if Jan would allow it, though.

  "I ought to kill you right now," Jan barked with her rifle pointed right at him, as she quickly came running up behind me. "Right NOW!" she screamed, totally enraged. She put the barrel inches from his temple, with her finger on the trigger.

  "If he even breathes the wrong way, shoot him," I said. "But wait, let's talk to this asshole first. Maybe we'll let him live." All of a sudden there was a slight movement from one of the others, and Jan wasted no time. In an instant a burst of bullets stilled that body forever, leaving brain matter and blood splattered about.

  "You! ... You KILLED him you bitch," the wounded man screamed.

  "One more word out of you and you're dead," Jan promptly replied, pointing the gun back at his head. "You don't deserve to live after the way you treated us. Fucking scum. That's what you are. SCUM. You hear me? I'll kill your ass right now!" she threatened, and kicked him with everything she had, right in the balls.

  The screams from that one took a while to die down. I looked around nervously, expecting any moment to be cut down by bullets, and fearing all the commotion would attract attention from more men- if there were any- in the sub. But once he stopped writhing and screaming, all we heard was the birds and the breeze.

  "What you do with the others?" I demanded from the soldier. That's when I noticed "US Navy," and patches on their uniforms.

  "They're tied up in... Ahhh.... In the car," he barely managed to get out between gasps of pain. I checked my rifle, reloaded it with a fresh clip from one of the dead men's guns, and made sure a round was chambered. I handed it to Jan, and then did the same with hers.

  "How about grabbing those guns and freeing the others while I keep an eye on this asshole," I asked Jan, handing her the bloody knife.

  I aimed directly at his chest and stood ten feet back. "You even look at me wrong, and you're dead. Don't try anything," I said menacingly to the soldier. "Jan, before you go though, how about checking him for weapons."

  "Sure," she replied, and promptly grabbed him by the balls and squeezed hard. He screamed again in agony.

  "Nope, guess that's not a weapon there anymore, now is it, soldier boy," she mocked. She removed a large knife and a small pistol concealed under his leg, handing them to me.

  "Little pistol packing a big punch here, I see," I said, taking a closer look at it, and eying the big bore hole down the barrel. "You better remove all that from the others too, before this creep gets any stupid ideas," I said to Jan. With one last look of disgust at him, she tore herself away and did as I asked, arming herself to the teeth with the dead men's weapons.

  "I better get them," she half asked me and told me, looking for a positive response. I agreed with a nod. With a menacing military knife in one hand and a rifle in the other, she took off running towards the parking lot.

  "Your dead... Dead buddy there... Really pissed her off," I said hesitantly to him, out of sheer lack of anything else to say. My mind raced with all kinds of thoughts about where he had come from and what he might know.

  Jan returned within a few minutes with Ben and Terry. "Oh Jesus," Ben said, running up and eying the gruesome scene. There was blood everywhere, and Jan had splattered the poor fool's brains all over with that last burst. Terry put her hand to her mouth and turned away in tears.

  "No, don't cry over these slime balls," Jan said, trying to comfort her. "One raped me and they were about to rape you too. I heard them say it as that dead bastard right there forced me over here, saying 'Any trouble out of you and we'll shoot the others. Just shut up and take it, bitch. We've been on a submarine for months.'

  "So yeah, I shut up and took it, until Brian here sliced his throat, thank God," Jan finished saying with particular vitriol in her voice.

  Terry looked up at her with a terrified stare. "Thanks... I guess..." she said quietly, and Ben tried to settle her down. After a few minutes she regained her composure, and then she looked down at the wounded soldier, who was bleeding badly and slipping in and out of consciousness.

  "He's going to die if we don't do something fast," Terry said, assessing his wound.

  "Good. Let him," Jan remarked coldly.

  Terry looked up at me and Ben inquisitively for some kind of response. "Well, so either shoot him or tell me to fix him up," Terry begged.

  Ben rolled his eyes. "Ok, I guess we better get him over there to the cars. Come on," he said, looking at me.

  "I'll watch him... Don't you worry," Jan said, pointing her rifle at him. Ben and I slung our rifles on our backs, picked him up and got him back to the cars. Terry proceeded to get a big bandage from the first aid kit and stop the bleeding, then gave him some water.

  "The wound looks to be clean through. I think he'll make it if we take care of him," Terry said, emerging from the back of their SUV.

  "But we can't trust him. Ever," Jan promptly replied, keeping her weapon trained on him. "And that's a problem. We got to watch him constantly now. We'd be better off just killing the SOB."

  "Not so fast," Ben interrupted. "He could be a valuable source of information."

  Not sure what to think or say, and still exhausted and shaken from the whole ordeal, I collapsed into the rear seat of the Caddy. I needed a minute myself to think and rest. Jan handed the weapon to Ben, and came to me, concerned.

  "You ok?" she said with a pleading look in her eyes, and stroked my forehead gently with a piece of cloth. She got me some water, and we shared a sip.

  "Yeah, I just need a minute to settle down," I replied, and was grateful for the attention. "That was rough."

  "I know, I know," she said sympathetically. "You're a hero. You saved all of us. No telling what they were going to do to us. That's twice I owe you my life. But I only have one life to give you," she said, looking away for a second. "How can I ever repay..."

  "You already have," I said, interrupting her. And she knew what I meant. That familiar coy smile slightly surfaced on her face, instantly changing mayhem into calm, and reassuring my world. Our eyes locked together in mutual understanding, and no further words were needed. Her gaze was enough. For now. We hugged and it felt good. Oh so good.

  Then there was another hand on my shoulder. "I really want to thank you for what you did back there," Ben said with a firm look on his face. His eyes nearly cut through me, he was so
seriously intent on getting that message across. I looked through the window to see Terry with a weapon trained on the prisoner. I relaxed again.

  "You're welcome. I think you would have done the same for me, right?" I replied.

  "You better believe it. Forever as long as we live, my friend," he reassured me with another pat on the back.

  "Yeah well thank God you didn't tell them I was here... Did you?" I asked, wondering.

  "Well... Well... No... Not exactly," he said hesitantly, looking at Jan with a somewhat bleak look on his face.

  "Terry almost spilled the beans, but Ben interrupted her just in time," Jan finally admitted.