To Sail a Darkling Sea - eARC (27 page)

“You just like that one cause you like to climb,” Faith said. “That’s your sort of thing.”

“But does it make sense to you, Shewolf?” Chen asked.

“Unfortunately, yes, sir,” Faith said with a sigh. “We’ll probably need support getting them down the ladders, though. And it doesn’t cover extracting the other refugees. But… Gimme a moment, please.”

She zoomed the image in and out then hunted around on it.

“Okay,” she said, finally. “This is still going to take at least all day. Maybe more. We go up the cliff. Ugh. Then we put in machine-gun points here, and here,” she said, marking two points on one of the condos. “That will give us coverage down this road here. Then we cross, go up this condo, which doesn’t have survivors but is the shortest distance, cut over to this one, which does have survivors, and extract them. Pretty much the same with this one to the left. Sir, we’re going to need
all
your ground capable security personnel to man these points and help extract survivors, sir. I’d recommend that the extraction in the second village be held until we complete this one, sir.”

“I’d agree with that, sir,” Lieutenant JG Elizabeth Paris said. The instant Lieutenant had been the sole survivor of her family on a sailboat. She’d been into sailing and boating since childhood, knew small boats and the ocean and was still sane despite her experiences. Now she was in charge of three.

“Concur,” Chen said. “I will manage the overall operation. Lieutenant Smith, Shewolf, will be in charge of the Marine force and primary clearance. Lieutenant Smith, Seawolf, will be in charge of the forward security teams and extraction. Lieutenant JG Paris, will be in charge of over the water extraction and the local security teams for that. Hand-off will be at the water. Seawolf will cover Avenue de Colon. Callsigns will be Team Shewolf, Team Seawolf, Team Paris. All clear?”

“Clear, sir,” Sophia said.

“Let’s start figuring out the teams and detailing it out as well as we can,” Chen said. “After all, we’ve only got all night… ”

* * *

“Ahem,” Olga said as the captains were preparing to depart. “Lieutenant Chen, sir?”

“Yes, Seaman Recruit Zelenova?” Chen said, formally.

“Since there is nothing to do for a while, would it be okay if I accompanied you to the
Wet Debt
? I was wondering if I could play with your big guns. The Marines only gave me
little
guns and I’m
longing
for some
big
guns.”

“We usually fire in the morning… Seaman Recruit,” Chen said, rolling his tongue around in his cheek. He knew he was being played but sometimes being played wasn’t all that bad…

“Can’t I just…
stroke
the trigger on your guns a
little
, sir?” Olga said, coquettishly. “I
really
like to fire off big guns in the dark. Maybe with a little light… ”

“Sir, if I might suggest you just give in on this one?” Sophia said. “She’s really into big… She likes weapons, sir. And there’s no real issue with firing off some of the BMGs at night. The zombies don’t care. Sir.”

“All aboard, Seaman Recruit.”

“I just love being an Recruit,” Olga said, clapping her hands girlishly. “I
like
being trained. On the way over, perhaps you can teach me something about Seamen, sir… ”

* * *

“Ooooh,” Olga said, stroking the breach of the Browning machine gun. Her eyes were closed and she was writhing in time to the stroking. “Ooooh, ooooh… ”

“You wanna… ” Mcgarity said, trying to keep some professional demeanor. “You wanna… ” He finally just started laughing.

“I think I need some alone time… ” Olga panted.

“
You
need some alone time?” Rusty said. “What about
us
?”

“I dunno big boy,” Olga said in a perfect Mae West voice. “Is that a roll of silver dollars in your pocket or are you just glad to meet me?”

“So… ” Mcgarity said. “You wanna blow off a few rounds on the big gun?”

“I’m not sure I can get my mouth arou… Oh, you mean
fire
it?” she asked. “That would be
swell
!”

* * *

“Where’d you find her?” Skipper Poole of the
Noby Dick
asked.

“She was one of the chicks on the Russian yacht,” Chen said, sipping a beer. They were up on the flying bridge of the fishing boat watching the team prepare to fire. Okay, watching
Olga
prepare to fire.

“She’s a pistol… ”

* * *

Anarchy went through the procedures for arming and firing an M2A1 BMG Mod1 while Rusty opened up the battle box and got it loaded. The battle box was a customized water proof rounds case produced on the
Grace Tan
that held ten thousand rounds of linked ball. One of the reasons to use the fishing boats as gunboats, besides hard points, was that they could handle the weight of all the rounds.

When they’d all donned hearing protection and the gun was ready, Olga let loose a five round burst at the dimly visible cluster of infected on the shore. Most of the rounds were high but she didn’t seem to care.

“Oooh!” she said. She fired another, longer, burst. That one was on target. “Mmmm… ” she moaned. She held down the trigger…

“Oh, God! Oh, God! Yes, yes, yes! God YES, YES, YES, OH GOD, OH GOD, OH GAAAAAA… ”

She stopped firing when all the infected were clearly down.

“Oh,” she moaned. “I need a cigarette.”

“Seaman Recruit Zelenova?” Chen called from the bridge. “A moment of your time?”

* * *

When Olga got up there, Chen gestured with his chin for Poole to find business elsewhere and patted the vacated seat.

“Sit, Seaman Recruit,” Chen said. “You said you liked to be trained. Time for some training.”

“Of course, sir,” Olga said, throatily.

“That would be ‘Aye, aye, sir,’ ” Chen said. “I enjoyed, as any heterosexual male would, your little display. But this is not play time. This is professional time. Can you distinguish the difference?”

“Yes, sir,” Olga said. She’d dropped the accent.

“The display was more or less what I expected,” Chen said. “Which I didn’t mind. It was good for morale. All good. But tomorrow, you’re going to be over there,” he said, gesturing with his beer bottle to the shore. “With a bunch of other people. With guns. Surrounded by infected. Trying to do a very demanding and stressful job. People will be barking orders. Some of them conflicting. Things will go wrong. Problems will have to be solved on the fly. Even if things go wrong, people will have to stay focused. They cannot, absolute can
not
, be focused on Seaman Recruit Olga Zelenova and her shapely ass and legs. Which means that Seaman Recruit Olga Zelenova has to be a non-entity. Just someone to be given orders and obey them to the best of her ability without being Olga the Great and Sexual. The question, SA Zelenova, is can you do that? Because if you cannot, you need to be back on the boats, not on the land.”

“I can dial it down, sir,” Olga said. “I can even turn it off without… turning people off, sir. Yes, sir.”

“Good,” Chen said. “I hope you’re right. Because Petty Officer Mcgarity will be your boss tomorrow. And I need him thinking about the mission, not how he can convince you to get in a little quicky in an unoccupied condo. Cause sure as God made little green apples, the shit will hit the fan right when he’s thinking about it. And, Seaman Recruit, if you actually do bunk off for a little bunk time, or wall time or floor time, I will put both of you off these boats so fast it will make little blue Cherenkov radiation trails.”

CHAPTER 21

The most consistently successful commanders, when faced by an enemy in a position that was strong naturally or materially, have hardly ever tackled it in a direct way. And when, under pressure of circumstances, they have risked a direct attack, the result has commonly been to blot their record with a failure.

Sir Basil H. Liddel-Hart

“Go, go, go,” Sophia said, waving for the crew to get off the boat. She’d been the first one from the “security” team to set foot on the island.

Olga stepped off the dinghy and looked around. A couple of the security guys were looking a little pale, but she’d been on one of the “forensic cleaning crews” cleaning up infected held boats and the
Boadicea
. She’d seen messes before.

And there was a mess. A few more infected had trickled in to the park overnight giving the gunboat crews something to fire up in the morning. Not many, though. She’d gotten most of them earlier in the evening. The pile of bodies was covered in shrieking seagulls making it hard to hear the Lieutenant.

Uniform for the day was Navy “bluecam,” body armor and helmets. They were wearing Marine body armor since the Navy version was just a flak jacket.

She pealed right, covering “her” sector, as the team assembled to follow the Marines.

“Steinholtz,” Mcgarity said. “Keep an eye on your sector.”

Seaman Recruit Matthew Steinholtz had been an Brinks armed security guard who won an all expense paid trip on a cruise liner. It was the worst cruise of his life. But he sort of knew how to use a gun and that was about as good as they were getting.

There were seven security specialists considered “functional” for this operation. Some needed to stay back on the gunboats to provide cover. Others really weren’t “up” for a landing in an infected held town.

And the ones they had weren’t really trained in this.

“PO, you take point,” Sophia said. “We’re going to swing down to the vehicle opening. Just follow the Marines.”

“Roger, ma’am,” Mcgarity said. “Steinholtz, again, look
that
way,” he said, pushing the SR’s weapon to the south. “If I hear one of you lock and load without my or the Lieutenant’s specific orders, I will personally shoot you. We’re more likely to get killed by ADs than zombies. Move out. Slowly.”

The group began to shuffle down the beach, stepping around dead infected.

“Zombie,” Olga said.

“Where?” Steinholtz said, spinning around.

“Steinholtz!” Mcgarity said, grabbing him by his harness and spinning him back around. “Keep
your
eye on
your
sector!”

The Marines had spotted the infected loping down Avenue De Colon. They turned as if they were one mind and each fired a burst. The zombie was hit by at least thirty “Barbie Gun” rounds and dropped like a stone. Then they all swiveled back to covering their sectors. It was over in less than a second.

“For any of you who saw that, that is
not
how we do it,” Mcgarity said. “Cover
your
sector. Lock and load if I tell you. Fire if I tell you. Do
not
load, do
not
fire if I don’t tell you.”

By the time they got to the vehicle entrance to the park, the Marines were already across the road and into the far building. The building had a metal gate with an electronic lock that the Marines had “bypassed” with a Halligan tool.

“Okay,” Mcgarity said. “We plant ourselves here until we get called forward. Olga, there,” he said, pointing to one of the parked cars. “Steinholtz, there,” he said, indicating the opposite side. “Hadley, Larson, on Olga north. Yu, Hill, on Steinholtz, south.”

“Can we lock and load now?” Steinholtz asked.

“No,” Mcgarity said. “Because we’re going into that building over there. And I’m not going to have one of you idiots AD in a stairwell and have it bounce around until it hits me in the ass.

“Infected, Petty Officer,” Olga said.

“Your sector,” Mcgarity said, putting a hand on Steinholtz’s helmet to forestall him turning around. “You have to trust me and Olga to handle it. How far, Seaman Zelenova?”

“End of the road,” Olga said. She still hadn’t charged her weapon.

“These things are trickling in from that direction,” Lieutenant Smith said. “Stand by. I’ve got this. Keep them on target.
Golden Guppy
, Seawolf, over.”

There was a burst of fire from inside the building and everyone flinched.

“Your sector, Steinholtz. Larson, I see
you
trying to turn around,
too
. Keep an eye on
your
sectors… ”

“Golden Guppy.”

“Jerry’s Kid loping down the road. See it?”

“Roger.”

“Take him out for me, please.”

There was another burst of fire from in the building followed by more from the .50 offshore.

“Your sector, Steinholtz, Larson, Hill. Do not look at the fire… ”

Olga fortunately did not have to turn around to see the effects. Then again, she’d seen them from behind one of the guns. The infected splashed when the massive machine-gun rounds hit her.

“Okay, okay, Mcgarity,” Steinholtz said, excitedly. “There’s one this way, too… ”

“Hill’s sector,” Mcgarity said. “Keep on your sector, Steinholtz… ”

“Noby, Noby, Seawolf… ” the Lieutenant said as there was another burst of fire from in the building. “Can you engage that infected headed north on Colon?”

“Negative. Our security team’s moving to the beach and they’re too close for us to want to risk it, over.”

“Anarchy, one, say again, one of our people can engage… ”

“Hill, your sector,” Mcgarity said. “Lock and load one thirty-round magazine.”

“Okay, okay,” Hill said, pulling back his charging handle.

“The correct response is ‘lock and load one thirty-round magazine, aye,’ ” the Lieutenant said. “And keep your freaking finger away from the trigger.”

“Lock and load one thirty-round magazine, aye,” Hill said. “I’m loaded, can I fire?”

“Jesus, it’s getting close… ” Steinholtz said.

“Watch
your
zone, Steinholtz,” Mcgarity snapped. “Hill, take a good firing position. Calmly. You’re on a range. You want it to get close. Trust me, I’ll take it out if it gets too close… ”

“I got another one,” Olga said. She was just barely following the conversation.
She
was paying
close
attention to her sector.

“
Guppy
, you got the Jerry Kid… ?”

“Take your weapon off of safe… ”

There were several burst of fire from inside the building and another infected exploded with .50 caliber fire…

“Aim for the chest… Deep breaths, just on a range… ”

“Division, Shewolf. At the top of the building… ”

“Fire single, aimed, rounds… ”

“Oh, just let him shoot it!” Steinholtz yelled.

“Steinholtz,” the Lieutenant said. “One more word out of you and I will pull the trigger on this pistol. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, ma’am… ”

“.
.
.
we’re putting up the scaling ladder now… ”

“Engage… ”

There was a crack of a round from behind her…

“Division, we got a posse up here, you see this?”

“I got it. I got… her… ” Hill didn’t sound so much elated as deflated.

“Roger, Shewolf.”

“We don’t have an angle. We can scrum… ”

“And I’ve got another,” Olga said. “Where are they trickling in from?”

“Can you get these without hitting us or the survivors, over?”

“Division, we have this infected,” the Lieutenant radioed. “Releasing support to Team Shewolf… Olga, lock and load one thirty-round magazine.”

“Oh, and now they’re trying to climb down the ladder. Don’t engage those, Division. We don’t want the ladder damaged… ”

“Lock and load, aye,” Olga said, pulling back her charging handle.

“Prepare to engage infected with single, aimed, fire… ”

“How come she just gets to shoot… ”

“Steinholtz,
shut the fuck up… ”

“Prepared to engage, aye,” Olga said.

“Engage.”

It took five rounds to drop the infected. The man had soaked up four and she was pretty sure she missed with one.

“Place weapon on safe,” the Lieutenant said.

“Division, Shewolf. Way is clear to the survivor building. Starting entry for clearance at this time.”

“Seawolf, Division, move your people forward to key locations to screen survivor movement, over.”

“Mcgarity, you’ve got Steinholtz and Larson… ”

“Oh, thank you sooo much, ma’am.”

“Hold this position. The rest of you with the exception of Olga. Remove your magazines.”

“Why?” Hill asked.

“Because the LT told you to, fuck head!” Mcgarity said. “Pull out your fucking mag. Now!”

“Okay, okay,” Hill said, dropping his magazine out of the well.

“Pull back your charging handles and ensure your weapons are clear,” Sophia said. “Not you, Olga.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Olga said as the others cleared their weapons.

“Now, put the mags back in and do
not
charge your weapons.”

“There’s one this way,” Steinholtz said. “Can I shoot it now?”

“Now when I say ‘lock and load’ you say ‘lock and load, aye,’
then
you lock and load. Got it. And only lock and load and
don’t
put your finger on the trigger til I tell you… ”

“Order of movement will be SR Zelenova, myself, Hill, Hadley and Yu.”

“Who?” Hadley asked.

“Me, you dumbfuck,” Leo Yu said.

“Now you can fire… ”

“Yu, keep looking back in case we get infiltrated,” the Lieutenant continued. “Only SR Zelenova or I can lock and load or engage unless I tell you to engage. Understood?”

“Yes, ma’am,” the group chorused.

“I got it! I got it!”

“Good for you. You’ve only got three thousand kills to go to equal a thirteen-year-old
girl
… ”

“Mcgarity. You keep your eyes on the entrance. Do not let any of these idiots AD us or any of the refugees. Let’s roll.”

* * *

Crossing the street was one of the oddest things Olga had ever done. And she’d done a lot of odd things. But it was absolutely weird. It was just a street. An empty street in an increasingly empty town with the wind whistling through deserted condominiums that had once probably cost a billion dollars apiece.

She checked both ways, automatically, before stepping onto the pavement. Not for zombies, for cars. Cause you didn’t cross the street without checking for cars. The problem being, there were no cars. None running. They were lined up, parked, cold and dead. There were no tourists. There were no retirees. There were no children laughing and playing. Just a slightly cold wind and the occasional howl of a zombie in the distance. And muted bursts of fire from far, far up the cliff.

She entered the gated courtyard of the condos and paused, looking around.

“It’s clear,” Seawolf said. “Proceed.”

The main door of the condo complex had apparently been open because it was mostly intact. And it was pretty dark in the foyer.

“Lights,” Sophia said. “Turn on your taclights.”

Inside the foyer there were the usual mailboxes. There was a large sideways V spraypainted on the mailboxes. The paint was fresh.

“See that?” Sophia said. “That’s the sign that means ‘this way to the exit.’ If you’re following somebody, you go in the opposite direction. If you’re trying to run away from zombies, that is probably your best bet.”

“Or you can follow the bodies,” Olga said. There was one at the base of the stairs.

“Or you can follow the bodies,” Sophia said with a sigh. “Especially if my sister is involved. Hill, Hadley, move that out of the way as we go by. Don’t want the refugees tripping on it. Let’s keep moving, Olga.”

Olga carefully stepped over the body, sweeping up with her weapon to check the stairwell then continued upwards. The stairwell, fortunately, had windows in it. There was plenty of light. And while she’d never actually done anything like this or trained for it, she’d grown up with the War on Terror and had seen the pictures and videos of soldiers fighting in Iraq. She also was an avid gamer so when she came to the landing she turned around and carefully stepped up the stairs, backwards, keeping an eye up the stairs.

“Very nice technique, Olga,” Sophia said. “But we’ve got ten more floors to go up and this has been cleared. My sister doesn’t leave kills behind if she can possibly avoid it. Besides, if they come pounding down the stairs, we’ll hear them in plenty of time. Just walk and keep your eyes and ears open.”

When they came to the next floor, Sophia pointed to the fire door.

“Hadley, Hill, chock these doors shut.”

The team was carrying chocks and hammers. A few swift blows and the door was stuck fast.

“Keep moving,” Sophia said.

“Hey, sis, where you at? We got customers. Lots of customers.”

“Chocking the doors,” Sophia said, keying the radio. “You know, like we planned?”

“Just hurry it up. These people are ready to leave. Division, Team Shewolf, over.”

“Division, over.”

“We’ve got some survivors with mobility issues. They even managed to keep some of their old folks alive. We’re clearing out the corridors so we can move them through the building but we’re going to need help getting them down. Over.”

“Done, ma’am,” Hill said.

“Then let’s get moving,” Sophia said, gesturing.

“Roger, we’ll get some DivTwo people up there with folding stretchers. Recommend, if there is anyone who has the knowledge, belaying them down from the balconies rather than carrying them down the stairs, over.”

“Division, Seawolf, over.”

“Seawolf, Division, over.”

“I can handle that exercise. I don’t have the bodies for more than putting in some guides, though. I’ll need to use the Marines for labor. I’ll also need some rope and shackles. Over.”

“Sounds like my kind of party,” Olga said.

“Not now,” Sophia replied.

“Division, Shewolf, over.”

“Go.”

“There are climbing ropes all over up here. One of the survivors was apparently a professional climber who lived here. That’s how they survived. They’ve even been scavenging empty apartments. So we’ve got the ropes. Over.”