Crawlerz | Book 4 | From The Ashes

by Merritt, R. S.

  “Having been the recipient of literally tons of those supplies we thank you. You’re one of the main reasons we’re still here.” Scott said sitting back down in his original spot.

  “Were you able to raise Weathertop and let them know we’re here?” Jeff asked.

  “No. We haven’t heard from them in a few days which is weird. We normally talk pretty often. They like to know which ships have stopped by.” Scott answered with a slightly winkled brow to show his concern. Radio communication with Weathertop and monthly visits from the ships sailing up and down the coast were their only real sources of news.

  “You guys had any problems with the locals?” Haywood asked. He had to hold himself back from asking where the chief’s mess was. He knew he could get all the info he needed a lot faster there. He’d wanted to fall asleep while the commander and Jeff sat there talking about Jeff’s essay or whatever it was the government used to pay him to do. It was wonderful and all, but they needed to work off what was now common knowledge. It was impressive Jeff had outlined an issue like this and come up with some preventative measures before it even happened but at this point who cared?

  Haywood wondered if he was going to get a straight answer from the commander. He seemed to be deliberately taking his time. Haywood rubbed the back of his head where the big welt was and wondered if that was what was putting him in such a bad mood. He was normally a lot easier going. Of course the world didn’t normally seem like it only existed to spin too fast and make him want to puke.

  “We’ve had some issues with people taking pot shots when we’ve sent out scavenging crews. They came to the other side of the bridge once demanding we give up our supplies and turn the base over to them. They seemed a bit crazy. Although living out by the city the way they do would probably drive anybody crazy. We were willing to help them, but they were overly aggressive.” Scott finally answered.

  “How’d you get rid of them?” Drew asked. He didn’t have a pounding headache like Haywood so there was no real reason for him to be so straightforward. No real reason except that he was Drew and that was just the way he was.

  “We have some really big helicopters with really big guns on them. We whip those out when the big guns on our boats don’t do the trick. Luckily, they got the hint and took off. I’d hate to waste ammunition fighting other survivors. We need it for the millions of crawlerz out there doing their best to kill us all.” Scott answered to a chorus of nodding and agreement.

  Remembering the scumbags who’d attacked them outside of Philly Drew was ok with sending a few bullets their way. Seriously. What the hell? He smiled to himself. If those morons had known that the guy who wrote up the orders the President had given in the beginning was on the train, he wondered how much harder they’d have tried to kill them. He agreed with Scott in theory though. At this point no one should be pulling the trigger unless the gun was aimed at a crawler or something they could eat. Fighting one another was stupid.

  “I’m glad you think so commander. I’m looking forward to working with you and others to come up with the next set of plans.” Jeff said.

  “Sounds good. What are these going to be for?” Scott asked.

  “How to take back our world. We’ve been knocked down but we’re not out. Weapons, intelligence and being able to operate during the day give us a lot of advantages. We can and will shift to being on the offensive. It’s the only way I see us coming out of this thing successfully.” Jeff said. Yue smiled fondly at her man. He was displaying a lot of passion right now. She agreed completely that this was the kind of topic he should be excited about. Everyone should.

  “Let’s do it. Semper Paratus.” Scott said with a grin.

  “What’s Semper Paratus mean?” Drew asked LeBron. It was one of those times when there was a weird silence in the room. His question hung in the air for everyone to hear. The short woman with her hair tied back who’d just entered the room answered it for him.

  “Always ready son. It’s the official Coast Guard motto.” Captain Kate answered.

  Chapter 26: Attention on Deck

  “Then what’s the unofficial motto?” Drew asked. It’d sounded to him like she wanted someone to ask. He looked around wondering why everyone in the room was standing. Haywood kicked him in the shin and gestured at him like he was an idiot. Realizing he was an idiot he belatedly scrambled to his feet.

  “You’ve got to go out, but you don’t have to come back.” Captain Kate said with a rakish grin. She waved at everyone to sit back down and made a beeline for the coffeepot. Jeff noticed all the officers had their own cups instead of trying to deal with the dainty tea party cups. Drew and Lisa both looked a little lost on what the unofficial slogan meant. Scott must have noticed as he filled them in while Kate was busy mixing up her coffee.

  “Since the Coast Guard was founded a major part of our mission has been search and rescue. Every moron who decides to go out in the middle of a storm becomes someone we have to rescue. We’re expected to go out in that storm and rescue them. Which makes us bigger morons than they are since we know how dangerous the sea can be. We go anyway though.” Commander Scott told them. Drew and Lisa both nodded in understanding.

  “Like in that old movie the Guardian.” Lisa said.

  “Close enough.” Scott said cringing slightly. It was an involuntary response he had to anyone mentioning that movie.

  “Well what did I walk in on? Good to meet you in person Jeff. Last time I saw you was on a video call. You were telling us about how you were going to deliver a ton of gear to us. You also told us we needed to go hardcore and get ready. You’re pretty much the reason this base is still here. In case I didn’t mention it before. Thank you.” Kate said in between sips of her coffee. She made sure to very clearly say thank you while looking directly at Jeff. She made it obvious she wanted everyone to know the appreciation was completely sincere.

  “You’re giving me way too much credit. Knowing you and your team here I doubt very much that I’m the main reason you’re still here. I gave that same speech and sent the same supplies to other places. You guys are still kicking while a few of them aren’t around anymore. I’m just glad you took it seriously.” Jeff replied.

  “Flattery will get you everywhere. Now tell us all why you’re here. I trust every man in this room so feel free to speak freely.” Kate said sitting down at the head of the table.

  Jeff was interrupted by the arrival of their food. Kate insisted they all eat first. She kept the conversation light while they were all enjoying the first warm food they’d had in a while. They were getting some funny looks for keeping their gloves and jackets on. Trying to explain away bite marks all over their arms and hands could get really weird really fast. LeBron had no doubt that if they showed off their recently bitten appendages their warm welcome would quickly turn to being kicked the hell out. How were they supposed to explain that Yue had been chomping on them to enable their escape from the crawlerz. They’d all been there and none of them could really get their heads around it. None of them except Yue and she was a complete mental case half the time now anyway.

  When the meal was over the steward came out and cleared the table. He asked if anything else was needed. Kate requested some bourbon and a bottle or two of wine. She looked around the room and saw that no one was complaining about introducing booze into the impromptu meeting. Harley had suddenly gained a lot more interest in what was going on. He’d looked like he was about to fall asleep at the end of the bench until the captain had brought up bourbon. Once the booze was delivered and passed around Kate politely asked them if they wanted anything else before once again engaging Jeff.

  “OK. Your stomachs are full, and your glasses are too. This is a good time for you to tell us your story. We need to know what’s going on out there. I would send you all off to your quarters and save the story telling for tomorrow morning. There are things happening in the world that concern me though. I’d also love to hear why a couple of you are eating with gloves on. It a
lso seems a little warm in here for the long sleeves and jackets. I imagine you’re wearing them has something to do with the bandages poking out the ends of them.” Kate said. Jeff laughed a little guiltily at her lead in for story time.

  “Thank you. You’ve been more than gracious. This fresh cabbage was ridiculously good by the way.” Jeff said. Everyone from Jeff’s group nodded and added their own compliments on the cabbage. Eating fresh food was amazing. Especially fresh vegetables.

  “It’s about the only thing we can get to grow in the cold. Hoping to put in some more variety come Spring.” Kate responded.

  “That’s one of the things we’re working on as part of a more mobile strategy to take back the country. Planting fields of corn and cabbage or whatever along the railroad tracks and major interstates. As groups travel around the country, they’ll have food available so they can focus on their main job.” Jeff said. He looked up at Kate to see if she was following along.

  “Makes sense. Between the vegetables and all the game animals making a comeback I could see that working. I assume the main job would be exterminating the infected?” Kate asked. She was leaning back with a generously poured cup of bourbon. Unlike Harley she was taking the time to enjoy the finely aged liquor instead of guzzling it down like a coed on Spring Break.

  “Exactly right. We’ll have mobile teams roaming the country clearing out the biggest groups of crawlerz they can find. We were working on figuring out how that would look from a train when we got ambushed outside of Philly. I’m going with the ambushers not being big fans of the government. We’d left brochures saying the government was coming to help them. We had a whole car full of supplies to give away.” Jeff stopped talking to dig out a couple of the brochures they’d been leaving at the train stations. Once he found them, he showed them to the officers at the table around Kate.

  Jeff filled Kate and her team in on everything that’d been going on in the outside world. The only piece he skirted around was how Yue was able to sense the crawlerz better than anyone else. He definitely didn’t go into any kind of detail about how they’d gotten out of the tunnel. As far as the arms went, he said that the three of them wearing gloves and long sleeves had gotten into a fight with some barbed wire while trying to get away from a pack of crawlerz. The way he worked it into the story didn’t make much sense. He really needed to up the game on his poker face as well.

  “I’m curious how you see us fitting into this mobile strategy? In your original plan we were supposed to build big walled cities and grow veggies until the threat died out. We don’t have much in the way of walls, but the inlet seems to be doing the trick for us. We just get the random crawler who washes up alive. Why would we leave here to go ride around in trains?” Kate asked. It was a very good question. One that Jeff had already put a lot of thought into an answer for.

  “Semper Paratus sums it up. Especially when you add your unofficial motto onto it. This country needs a force to start clearing it out. Those pyramids were old as dirt and those things were still bouncing around inside. Waiting them out doesn’t really seem like an option.” Jeff answered her.

  “How many other bases are in on this? We’ll do our part. We don’t have close to enough people here to do everyone’s part though. We’ll need to hold back men in reserve just to keep this base up and operational. Risking our lives to rescue others is part of our ethos. I’ll give you that. We don’t need a guarantee we’ll survive the battle. We do need to know there’s something out there worth saving though.” Kate said.

  “It’s going to come down to either taking back the country or watching all the bases fall one by one. On top of outnumbering us by thousands to one the enemy also keeps developing new talents.” Jeff yawned during the last part of that sentence.

  “It’s late and you guys have had a long day. I’ll have the steward show you to your quarters. I’m going to send a doctor around to check on each of you. We want to make sure those barbed wire cuts don’t get infected. Let us know if there’s anything you need.” Kate said. She finished up with her goodbyes and left to give the steward her orders. Seeing the party was over the rest of the officers said their farewells and left the room as well.

  They were taken to what had once been a classroom in the large administrative building they were in. The classroom had been converted to temporary living quarters. Beds lined the sides of the room and there were boxes of clothes in the middle of the room with the sizes written on them. Personal hygiene products were also stacked up along the wall. The room was setup to work as intake for refugees. Yue walked straight to one of the beds and collapsed on top it. She was asleep before their escort had even made it out of the room.

  “What do we do about the doctors coming?” Drew asked Jeff. “They’re going to want to look under the bandages.”

  “I don’t know.” A defeated looking Jeff was struggling against his own exhaustion. His arms and palms were itching like hell. He’d actually love to ask a doctor what to do about the bite wounds. The problem was that the doctor’s first instinct was going to be to back away and call for the guards. Nobody in their right mind was going to hang out in a room full of people with human bite marks on their bodies. Jeff looked around the room to see if anyone else had any ideas.

  A quick survey of everyone in the room who was awake revealed not a single person had a decent idea. When put on the spot each of them had tried to come up with something. The only answer that made any sense was eating as much as they could before getting kicked off the base. Which may work out fine for them, but it didn’t really help with the big picture. Jeff was frustrated with the lackluster response. He was also pissed they didn’t seem to care if they were kicked off the cape or not.

  “We need these people to support this! We need these people and pretty much anyone else we can get. Without them all this crap we’re doing is useless. We might as well just go up in the mountains and live like hermits.” Jeff blurted out. His outburst got their attention. It looked like Haywood had something he wanted to say to respond. Before he could though there was a quick knock on the door. A grandmotherly type walked into the room without waiting for an invitation and introduced herself as the doctor.

  A corner of the classroom had been curtained off. They’d all assumed that was the bathroom bucket area. It turned out that was where new people on the cape went for their wellness check. The woman joked about making sure they didn’t have lice. They all knew what she was looking for was far worse.

  The woman asked them to go in the curtained off area one by one and strip. None of them could think of a way around it. She was firm as to what they needed to do. She did a complete physical evaluation of each of them. She clucked her tongue more than a few times at the state of their bodies. Harley especially got the third degree from her. She’d figured out one of his fingers was broken and that he hadn’t even noticed. He hadn’t noticed because he pretty much lived in a cloud of pain killers and anti-depressants. They all got to hear her explain to him why he needed to make a choice to either shape up or die soon.

  There was finally no one left for her to examine except for LeBron, Drew, Yue and Jeff. Yue was fast asleep, so the doctor said they’d wait and do her last. She invited Jeff to come on down when the three of them just stood there staring at her. Jeff walked in the room thinking he’d just suck it up and tell the woman the truth. She was a doctor. She might understand. At the last second, he thought of a lie that might work and decided to go for it. He stripped down to his boxers and told her to come on in.

  She looked him up and down with more of that tongue clucking. She stepped forward with some scissors and gingerly worked the bandages covering his hands and arms. She studied the wounds for a second before gasping and letting go.

  “Those are bites from a crawler.” She said accusingly.

  “Nope. They’re from a guy who was turned and ripped into us the second he did. The first guy he bit turned. We had to kill him but the rest of us seem to be ok. We’re thinking w
hatever saliva needs to be in the surger’s mouth to turn someone all got used up on the first guy.” Jeff stopped himself from talking. He knew he sucked at lying so he was doing his best to be succinct. The less he talked the less chance he’d screw it up. At least that’s what he told himself.

  “More of you have fresh bite marks like this?” The doctor asked. She was now outside the curtains. She turned to look at Drew and LeBron. LeBron jumped in before Drew could say anything stupid.

  “Yes ma’am. We were shocked when we didn’t turn.” LeBron said. Mostly to just have something to say.

  “Yeah, I was about to shoot both of them then eat my own gun.” Drew added helpfully. He was getting into the spirit of it. He enjoyed a good lie and was eager to be part of it.

  The doctor got herself under control and woke up Yue to look her over. Once she determined Yue was bite free, she had everyone leave the room except for LeBron, Drew and Jeff. The three of them stood in the classroom and listened to the sound of the door being closed on them. A little bit later they heard the sounds of drilling as locks were put on the outside of the door. More drilling seemed to indicate even more of a barrier being put up out there to keep them in.