The Infected Dead (Book 2): Survive For Now (30 page)

……

The Chief didn’t look too comfortable knowing he was passing over the nets that ran across the moat because he had seen that particular form of hell first hand. There was no way to explain without guessing why that Morse Code signal had come from the ship, but the best guess was that Jean had sent it. To him and the rest of us, it was a no brainer that we had to board the ship to find out for sure.

The boat banked hard to port this time as the Chief pulled the steering wheel in that direction. I was almost ready to ask the Chief what he was doing when I saw a flashlight signaling us from Mud Island. It didn’t take long for me to make out the shape of Kathy moving quickly to a stretch of beach that was beyond the dangerous oyster beds. If we were going to board that ship, we were going to need her training. She may have been a rookie when the infected dead had taken over the world, but she had become a pro in a hurry. Her blonde ponytail was bouncing as she jumped from the beach into the boat.

The Chief didn’t wait for instructions on where to go. The best place to board the ship was going to be where the Zodiacs were tied up. They couldn’t see any infected out on the deck of the dark ship, but they needed to make sure it was clear before they went into the belly of the corvette to find Jean.

Kathy squeezed up close to the Chief and said, “The signal came from a porthole directly below that big box-like structure between the middle of the ship and the stern. Does that help?”

The Chief got one of his looks, and to our relief he had a slight smile on his face. “Yes, that helps, Kathy. I’ve been thinking about what that corvette might be carrying in there, and if we’re really lucky, it’s a helicopter bay.”

“Do we need a helicopter?” I asked.

I thought the Chief was going to laugh for a moment, but he said, “Sure we do, Ed, but one thing we need even more than a helicopter is a way to get into the ship that won’t involve going through every level just to get to the space where that signal came from. The helicopter bay should have hatches we can use to get to the next level, and I’d rather shoot something looking down through a hatch than facing them head on.”

We came to a stop between the Zodiacs. They were tied to the side of the corvette, so we could tie off to them. There was a body lying in the bottom of one of the boats, and Tom aimed his flashlight at it while Kathy, Bus, and I had our weapons pointed in the same direction. It didn’t take long to see that the cause of death was a bullet through the forehead. We could see the tears in his uniform and the exposed bite marks on his hands. We knew there must have been a battle here, and from the looks of things so far, it was a total loss.

The deck of the corvette wasn’t very high above us, and a section of railing had been removed for easy access to the Zodiacs. The Chief looked up and reflexively put reverse throttle on the boat. Everyone was caught off balance, but no one went overboard, and we were all just starting to yell at the Chief for the sudden movement when an infected dead bounced face first off our bow and then backward into the water. It disappeared below the surface just as quickly as it had appeared out of nowhere. It was a good thing that we hadn’t tied our boat to the Zodiacs yet.

“C’mon, everyone,” said the Chief. “We need to climb up there before another one finds his way to this section of the deck.”

The Chief pulled us in close for a second time and switched off the powerful engines. We tied the lines to the Zodiacs, and before I could even reach the bow, Kathy and the Chief had gone up the chain ladders that still hung from above. The sound of a quick burst of gunfire was all I needed to get me up the ladder as fast as I could go.

The deck was broad and flat, and there had been some kind of confrontation judging by the amount of blood. There was a big white circle in the middle of it, and there were no masts or cables anywhere on the stern. The Chief had been right about the box-like structure just aft of amidships. We found ourselves facing a big hangar door just like the avionics maintenance building at the resort near Guntersville. The body of an infected dead was sprawled in front of the door.

The Chief said, “Hold your positions until Tom and Bus get up here. Keep Bus formed up behind our kill zone at all times. If Jean is hurt, she might need treatment before we can move her.”

Tom and Bus came up behind us, and Kathy guided Bus to a position between us.

“Stay between us at all costs, Bus,” she said. “You have your medical kit with you?”

He reached to the backpack he was wearing and gave it a silent pat. Kathy gave the Chief a thumbs up, and we moved together across the broad deck to the hangar door. There was a smaller door to the right of the big door. It had a big wheel lock in the center. Kathy positioned herself about ten feet from the door, ready to shoot anything that came out while the Chief began spinning the wheel counter clockwise to the open position. The wheel was silent, but the opening door would allow enough moonlight to splash into the helicopter bay to draw out any of the infected that had been trapped inside.

None of us were surprised by the loud groans that started as soon as the Chief swung the door outward. There had been over fifty crewmen on the corvette, and even though they could already account for a few, there would most likely be infected dead in every compartment. I just hoped Jean had managed to find a place to hide after she signaled the shelter for help.

The Chief quickly moved to Kathy’s side, and both were taking aim into the dark interior of the hangar bay as the groaning got louder and closer. As we waited for the infected dead to appear, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking that one of them could be Jean. Kathy had seen the signal, but after it had winked out, it never started again. If she was still able to send the signal, she would have kept sending it.

A shape appeared in the doorway, and my imagination was going wild. It looked like her. Before I could even yell her name, Kathy pulled the trigger on her rifle and the shape was gone.

The Chief said, “Let them come out in the open, Kathy. We don’t want them blocking the others from coming through.”

We all backed away from the door to give Kathy and the Chief a little more time to shoot, and even as we did, the dark shapes began emerging again. The light was playing tricks with my eyes, and even the tall ones looked like they could be Jean. I thought to myself that the Russian navy probably had women on ships just like our navy, and if she was captured, they may have put her in a Russian uniform. I didn’t know that the Russians did not have women stationed on their ships yet, but that didn’t stop me from worrying that we would mistake Jean for one of them.

“Kathy, wait,” I said. “What if one of them is Jean?”

Everyone looked at me with sympathy, but I could see the hard set of Kathy’s jaw, and knew the answer to my own question. If Jean came out of that door as an infected dead, she would want us to end it. She wouldn’t want to exist as one of them.

Tom put his hand on my shoulder as Kathy and the Chief turned back to the door. One after the other, six of the infected came out of the helicopter hangar and were shot in the head.

We waited for about a minute after the last one had come through the door, then we started in. Kathy went to one side of the door, and the Chief went to the other. The infected didn’t hide around corners, they came right at you. That gave us the advantage, because we always had time to take up a defensive position depending upon their numbers. The fact that no more were coming out of the door to the helicopter bay was a good sign.

Kathy shined a flashlight across the entrance to expose the inside of the bay immediately behind the massive door. She could see the back of the helicopter, but there wasn't anything moving behind it. The Chief did the same from his side of the door, and his flashlight illuminated the corner to the right of the door. He panned it along the bulkhead on the right and gave the all clear signal. Both of them aimed their lights to the center of the bay, and the Chief identified the craft as a Kamov Ka-27 helicopter. It wasn't heavily armed and was best suited for reconnaissance missions.

"That would have been my first guess," said Kathy.

The Chief looked at her to see if she was kidding, but he couldn't tell from her neutral expression. If he didn't know better, he would think she was teasing him because he knew so much, but she wasn't going to give him a clue.

They panned the flashlights back to the hidden spaces again, and the Chief went inside. Kathy was right on his heels, but she peeled off to the left as he went straight toward the helicopter. Tom went in on the right while Bus and I followed the Chief. He was carefully looking into the helicopter, and I could tell he wasn't going to assume there wasn't an infected dead inside.

"Chief, we can look at the helicopter later," said Kathy. "Right now we need to be finding the easiest way to get below decks and find Jean."

"That's exactly what I'm doing, Kathy."

He smiled at her in the dimly lit bay, and even though she couldn't see him well enough, she heard it in his voice.

"What is he up to?" She wondered.

The Chief worked his way forward from the cargo section of the Ka-27 to the pilot and co-pilot seats and didn't see anything inside. Tom and I kept guard over Bus in a safe corner while Kathy continued her sweep for exits. Without warning, the entire bay was lit up like broad daylight. The Chief had reached in through the pilot's side window and turned on the helicopter's landing lights.

"I was going to tell you to do that," said Kathy, but this time she had a grin on her face to match the Chief's.

With plenty of light we could see the hatches and doors that led from the helicopter bay to the other parts of the ship. There were three doors on the forward bulkhead, but we weren't interested in those. We were looking for the right hatch to use to go down one deck.

I asked, "What's below hatches one, two, and three Chief?"

"Believe it or not," he began, "I don't know everything about Russian ships, but if I had to guess, one hatch would go down to an accommodations section. That's where the off duty pilots would live. One hatch would go down to a service section. That's where the on duty pilots would be monitoring different stations while they wait for the orders to put the bird in the air. The other hatch would be a mechanical area, probably at the rear of the engineering compartment. That's where they would have the gear and the access to a refueling station. Helicopter fuel is different that the fuel that powers this ship, but the storage tanks would be located close to each other."

"If I had to guess what was below each of the hatches, I would have guessed down, down again, and more down," I said, "and no, I don't believe you when you say that you don't know everything about Russian ships."

Tom pointed to the hatch nearest to him and asked, "Which one is this, Chief?"

"That's the one where we are most likely to find people, whether living or dead," he answered. "That's most likely where we will find off duty crew, and just like on US Navy ships, off duty crewmen tend to gather with other crewmen. The on duty pilots have to be sharp and undistracted from their jobs. If they get the order to fly, they don't have the time to break up a party."

"So, that's where we should find Jean, but that's also where we're going to find the party," I said. "Why would she have to be in there?"

Kathy moved over to stand by the hatch. "We don't need to talk about it, we just need to do it. Every minute we stand here is one more minute that she could be fighting for her life."

The Chief was the strongest of our group by far, so he put one foot on each side of the hatch and got a grip. "I'm going to pull this thing fast, but we don't have to worry about them climbing up here if they're all infected. What I'm worried about is the possibility that there's a live one down there. If there is, then he's going to be jumpy. There's no sense in getting shot, so everyone stand clear until we know what's down there."

Everyone backed up a step, and the Chief pulled on the hatch. As it opened, he let it fall toward him, so he was able to back away at the same time. The stench that blew up into our faces was nauseating, and there was no doubt where it was coming from. The accommodations spaces had been full of crewmen when the infection had spread. The darkness below was a bedlam of infected dead who all wanted to reach whoever had opened the hatch and let the light come down on them. They were about fifteen feet below us, and they filled the corridor.

"Flashlights on single targets, please." Kathy had moved into position as soon as it was obvious that there wouldn't be anyone down there, jumpy or not, who was still alive.  "You guys light 'em up, and I'll put them down one at a time."

We all shone our flashlights down in the hole and the noise level grew louder. We centered on the one infected dead face that seemed to draw our attention the most, probably because it was directly at the bottom of the ladder, and Kathy fired a shot through its forehead.

I couldn't help myself and had begun searching the faces below for the one I would recognize, but there were so many. They were pushing and shoving for position and stepping on the first one to go down. When one managed to get to the center that had been vacated by his former comrade, we all lit him up for Kathy. One by one the process was repeated, and the pile of infected at the center of the group became too deep for them to stand.

Kathy leaned in for a look, and I aimed my flashlight at the edge of the group. "Maybe we should have started at the outside edge and worked inward," I said.