Day by Day Armageddon: Shattered Hourglass (28 page)

•   •   •

Rico and Huck donned their radiation hoods and did a press check on their carbines before moving to the vending machine hall outside the secured area. Commie continued to run his trace and simultaneously downloaded the archived intelligence collected by this station three months before the dead walked. While downloading, he peeked at some of the messages at random, realizing that the intelligence had never been processed or transmitted to anyone outside this facility.

There must not have been time or anyone available to sift through the vast amounts of data and turn it into an actionable report. Commie scanned through the overwhelming information while Rex guarded the area, worried about Griff.

BEGIN TEXT TRANSCRIPTION

KLIEGLIGHT SERIAL 099

RTTUZYUW-RQHNQN-00000-RRRRR-Y

T O P S E C R E T//SI//G//SAP HORIZON

Addressees be advised: This report contains intelligence that has not been analyzed. For internal use only.

This station has collected COMINT originating from the PRC referring to an SAP with codename HORIZON. [REDACTED] clandestine communication with Chinese scientists associated with the Mingyong excavation was discovered by Chinese leadership some time ago, possibly before January. The PRC GSD has known of their scientist’s encrypted contact with [REDACTED] and has, in response, initiated an aggressive cyber warfare initiative clandestinely against [REDACTED]. The virus algorithm embedded into the communication attachments is similar to previous STUXNET entities as it embeds itself into proprietary [REDACTED] systems and learns vulnerabilities and limitations in real-time. It is unknown to this station as to the extent of the damage the Chinese STUXNET-like worm entity has inflicted on critical [REDACTED] decision matrix systems.

KUNIA SENDS . . . K/

BT

AR

TRANSMISSION STATUS: Unable to TX, outbound comms NMC

“This is it. Bust that hatch, Rico,” Huck whispered up the ladder. “I smell the ocean.”

Rico climbed the rungs above, his nose tuned to something rotting. “You smell the ocean, I smell death. I’m gonna take my time. You sit tight down there; I’m not gettin’ bit so you can see the sun.”

“Fair enough,” Huck said, chewing on a stick of gum he had looted from the vending machines along the way.

“Ahh, I see,” Rico said, hoping Huck would ask.

Huck took the bait. “See what, man? What?”

“This!” Rico answered as he slung the carcass of a badly decomposed cat down on top of him.

“Fuck!” Huck screamed. “You goddamned wetback! Don’t think I’m gonna let that slide. I’ll punch your green card before we get back, for sure!”

“Calm down,
mang
. It was funny,” Rico said, giggling in an over-the-top Cuban accent, sounding a lot like Tony Montana. Huck grimaced. “Why so mad? I
tole
you I was in sanitation.”

Huck laughed and reached up, trying to grab Rico’s leg to pull him down a couple rungs, and maybe a couple notches of attitude. Huck asked, “You worried about Griff?”

“I am, Griff is my friend, but I gotta stay positive. He might still be alive. Not going to let it kill me. I want to get back and finish what we started.”

“Amen to that. Ready to get over there and kick some Chinese ass,” Huck yelled, his voice echoing down the ladder and throughout the tunnel below.

Something clanged somewhere in the tunnel blackness far in the distance.

“You drop something?” Rico asked as he worked on the access door that led to the outside.

“No, it was in the tunnel. One of the things, I’ll bet.”

“Just a sec. This padlock shim is giving me a hard time,” Rico said, bending the shim again to fit inside the locking mechanism of the large brass government padlock.

“That’s what happens when you make a padlock shim out of an aluminum can, stupid Mexican.”

“Your name is one vowel off from the truth, you know that,
Hick
? I may be stupid, but I know how to keep my hands off my cousins, you backwoods
Deliverance
fuck.”

“That’s cold-blooded, man. I still owe you for the cat. Don’t think all this joking around is gonna make me forget.”

“Put your hood on, climb up here, and shut up, hick. I just popped the lock. I’m gonna throw this lever and open the door. Ready?”

“Yeah, do it. I’m ready.”

Huck pulled his gun up to high ready. Moisture condensed inside their radiation hoods as the first rays of sunlight beamed through the doorway. The view was bleak. Although a paradise of green a year ago, today the picture was much darker. All the vegetation was dead and trees were blown northward away from the blast that had rocked Honolulu. None of them had realized the full scope of the island’s destruction when they moved in the cover of last night’s darkness.

They were on top of a hill above the cave and tunnel, and could see the ocean in the distance from their vantage point. Huck noted the damaged, golf ball–shaped antennas some distance away, as well as the smaller antennas right outside the door.

They were on a steep pinnacle overlooking the infested cave entrance on the south side, and a sheer cliff on the north that dropped a hundred feet into the remains of a jungle. Rico grabbed his waterproof notepad and began making a sketch of the situation so he could brief Rex upon return. Huck had the binos, and was surveilling the tunnel entrance below. He got down on his chest and low-crawled to the edge. Rico instinctively grabbed Huck’s feet.

“What’s it look like?”

“It looks like a bunch of fucking walking dead things,” Huck replied.

Rico lifted Huck’s feet a few inches off the ground, startling him a bit.

“Quit fuckin’ around,” Huck lashed. He continued scanning the area below, looking for anything that might assist their exfil. Huck paused his bino sweep and tightened his shoulders in concentration. “Uh . . . Rico. Man, I’m sorry.”

“What . . . Griff?”

“Yeah, brother. Pull me back. Sorry, man.”

Rico dragged Huck away from the edge by his boots and sat down in momentary defeat, leaning against the rusty maintenance access shed door. “What did you see, Huck?” Rico had the tone of a man that didn’t want an answer.

“I saw what was left of a brave motherfucker that took a stand. Looks like he pulled a frag and took a few with him.”

Both men sat atop the hill absorbing the heat of the Hawaiian sun through their exposure suits, a small luxury considering their current living conditions aboard the submarine.

Huck checked his digital watch, squinting at the faded numbers caused by a weak battery that would never be replaced. “Rico, it’s been an hour. We should head.”

Rico stood up and quickly unslung his M-4, surprising Huck. Flipping off the safety with his right thumb he began to take pot shots at the creatures below. He dropped ten of the undead, with no noticeable impact on the five hundred or so that walked about cooking in the tropical sun. Rico slung his carbine and walked through the shed door that sheltered the hatch and ladder leading back down.

The ladder hole reminded Huck of his grandmother’s water well and how she had always warned him as a child to stay away from it or he might fall in.
The water’s cold down there, boy, and full of dead squirrels,
she’d kid. He drank from the creek most of the time.

“Rico, we should probably radio the boat before we go down the hole, let ’em know what’s going on.”

Rico nodded.

“This is Hourglass with SITREP,” Huck transmitted.

“Hourglass, damn good to hear you. Go ahead with SITREP.” Kil’s voice came back through the tinny ear mic.

“Facility is green, birds are unavailable. Commie reports that the birds are locked out and controlled by another entity. Going ahead with secondary objectives. Copy?”

“Yeah, good transmission. Listen, about Griff, he . . .”

“We know,” Huck responded. “We’re topside now, headed back down. Intend to exfil tonight. See you back at the boat, Hourglass out.”

“Roger, Hourglass. See you soon.”

•   •   •

Huck went first down the ladder, mindful of the sound they had heard earlier. He pointed his carbine down as he descended. Reaching the tunnel floor they pulled their masks and began moving back to where Rex and Commie were. It was a few hundred yards to the turnstiles, allowing enough time for both men to adjust their eyes from the sunlight back to the NODs. Reaching the metal gate Rico pulled the handle. It didn’t budge.

“We’re locked out—gotta pick it,” Rico said.

“Okay, I’ll pick the damn thing, you try the radio. Maybe Rex has his on; he’s not that far from here. The signal might make it through a few walls, maybe.”

Rico keyed the mic, walking back and forth from the vending machines to the gate, trying his luck with different areas to maybe get lucky with his signal ducting.

Something moved somewhere in the darkness.

“Huck? You hear it?” Rico said, jogging back to the gate.

“What?”

“Something’s in here. Don’t know how far, but no doubt it’s probably something fucked up and headed this way. Hurry up!” Rico whispered, trying to avoid unnecessary noise. The tunnel propagated sound in unpredictable directions.

The lock gave unexpectedly and Huck fell inside. “We’re in, Rico—move it.”

Rico watched the blackness down the tunnel. His NODs would
only grant a few meters of visibility in the total darkness. Something
had
moved out there, Rico knew it. He walked backward with his weapon up, through the gate, shutting it behind him. They moved side by side down the passageway, back to Rex and Commie.

“It’s gonna be a problem on the way back, man,” Rico warned.

“I don’t see how. It’s pitch black and those things can’t see in the dark.”

“Yeah, but we don’t really know what this radiation shit does to them, man. Could be fucked up.”

“Oh, shut the fuck up! We’ll make it out. The cave doors only had a few inches of gap. Those things can’t fit through. If there are any in here with us, it will only be one or two. Griff wouldn’t have fucked us like that, man.”

Huck’s statement had the desired effect, causing Rico’s attitude to shift perceptibly. They threw the hatch and walked into the room where Rex and Commie waited.

“You guys were gone a long time. What did you see?” Commie asked. His pack was closed, gear packed tight and ready to move out.

“We found the exit. That’s the good news, I guess,” Huck said solemnly.

“Spit it out, Huck. What’s the shitty news?” Rex demanded.

“Well . . . Griff . . . didn’t make it; he hugged a frag and took about half a dozen with him. Not much left, but it’s him out there.”

“He’s not . . . ?” Rex asked.

“No, he’s real dead, for sure. I wouldn’t leave him any other way,” Huck said, looking at the ground, all too tired of seeing the pain in the eyes of his team members.

Rico pulled the notepad from his pocket and showed Rex the topside layout.

“There’s a steep drop on the north side, seventy-five, maybe a hundred. The south side is above the tunnel doors where Griff is . . . was.” Rico shifted from sadness to anger as he spoke. “I don’t care what you wanna do, boss. If you wanna drop down on the south side and shoot ’em all, I’m with that.”

Rex was startled by Rico’s sudden change in temperament. “No, we’ll take the north side and get out of here unscathed. Ammo is our LIMFAC. Make radio contact?”

“Affirm,” Huck acknowledged, smacking on a fresh stick of gum. “They know about Griff, saw it from the eye in the sky. Told ’em we were Oscar Mike back to the boat tonight. What happened here?”

“Commie tried again to bring the satellites up under his control. No dice. Someone else has the reins.” Rex glanced over and saw that Commie was packed and ready to move. “Going somewhere?”

“Yeah, out of here, fast. I’ve done everything we were fragged for. The intel is burned on two DVDs in my pack. I’ll give one to you before we leave just in case. They’re duplicates.”

“Good idea. Although if you don’t make it back, I might as well stay here. Old Man Larsen would tie me to the sail and slap my balls with a car antenna if we lost our HVA.”

This made Huck laugh so hard he spit out his gum. In his head, the captain was dressed like General Patton with a car antenna instead of a riding crop. He laughed even harder, doubling over red-faced.

“Not
that
damn funny, Huck.” Rex walked over and stole a piece of Huck’s stale gum from the table and turned to face Commie. “Anyway, what happened with the trace?”

Commie replied quickly, almost as if reading from a script: “The trace stopped in Alaska. I couldn’t get beyond the firewall there.” He pulled his pack straps tightly and walked back over to the terminal. “I’m shutting down the mainframe. I doubt anyone will ever come here again but there is a possibility that we may need the systems at some point.”

“I don’t care if you download porn and set everything on fire—we’re done here.” Rex moved to the center of the room to lay down the plan. “We’re moving out when the sun goes down. Should be clear inside and Commie knows the place, so Rico—you and Commie go find some rope somewhere, four lengths if you can. We’ll make do if you can’t. Me and Huck will hold it down.”

“Roger that. Let’s go, Commie.” They both dropped their heavy packs, bringing only weapons. None of them looked forward to the next twelve hours—the trip back through the island’s belt of undead.

USS Virginia

December

I’m going to be a father!
Me?!
Though the team is on the ground ten miles into Hiroshima-like terrain, I still can’t stop smiling. Good news—
great
news. Best news since last Christmas. Nearly one year since the world died, and I find out that I have made a new life.

The message from Tara was simple, but it changed me forever:
WE ARE PREGNANT.

I paced around for what seemed like an hour, smiling and happy. Oblivious to what was happening around me. I wasn’t on a submarine off the coast of Hawaii, I was somewhere in the clouds!

On to more pressing matters.