The Last Days (19 page)

“I’ll get Kimmy.” Kelly said and walked towards the other side of the room.

“I hope it all works out here for you.” Mike said. “Who knows, you just might see us again in a few days.”

“I hope you can get home. “Dave said. “But you and Kelly are good people, your welcome any time. Just remember you aren’t going to find many good people out there. Just watch your six.”

Mike reached out and shook Dave’s hand.

Dave said. “Down the road about twenty miles, before you reach Route 23, you will see a red barn on the right side of the road near a field. The Barn has a sign painted on it that says ‘Smoke Captain Black Tobacco.’ The barn is empty. It used to belong to my uncle.” Dave handed Mike a key. “It’s mine now, I inherited it. It just sits empty. I don’t know what the hell I’m supposed to do with a barn. It’s secure. You and your family can hold up there for the night if you don’t run into any trouble before you get that far.”

Mike took the key. “Good luck man and thanks.”

“You too!” Dave said.

“Let’s go before your daughter corrupts the morals of every resident of Graham.” Kelly said.

“What did she do now?” Mike asked.

“You mean besides telling everyone how to not get Poison Ivy on their butt.” Kelly smiled. “Where should I begin?”

Mike grinned and took Kimmy’s hand. “Come on girls, let’s go before they run us out of town.”

They got into their assigned spots in the car and Mike put the keys in the ignition.

Beep! Beep! Beep!

“I got a text. I hope it’s John.” Mike said as he reached for his phone.

He flipped open the top of the phone and went to the text screen. He read John’s text.

“His home has been overrun by the dead.” Mike said. “They are OK and trying to get into Ligonier. He said he hopes I don’t think he is crazy.”

“What are you going to tell him?” Kelly asked.

“I’m going to tell him I know he isn’t crazy.” Mike said as he read out loud as he typed.

“John, you’re not crazy. Talked to a guy in the Army today. A virus has infected the whole country. The walking dead are everywhere. The cities are gone, everything is gone. Sorry about your house. If you can, go to the farm. Enough weapons and food to hold you for six months. We are trying to get home. The dead destroyed the RV today. I stole a Prius to try to get home. Have been trying but have only covered ten miles last two days. Don’t know when we can get home. On our way. Talk to you later. Save your batteries. It is all we have left.”

Mike looked at Kelly. “Is that OK?”

Kelly nodded. “Sounds creepy hearing all that said out loud.”

“No Shit!” Mike said as he hit the send button.

The screen flashed. “Message sent.”

Mike turned the key and hit the accelerator. The car began to move. Soon Graham disappeared into the trees as the road turned.

“I hope he can make it to the farm.” Mike said. “He will be safe at the farm.”

The farm was the name they called Mike and Kelly’s house. It was an old farm house he had bought eight years ago. The rest of the farm land had been sold off to a developer. The planned development had never been built. The old farm house sat by itself out in the middle of a large field. Isolated, just like Mike liked it.

Mike wasn’t a crazy survivalist, but he felt it didn’t hurt to have six month’s worth of supplies stashed away in the old coal cellar. He figured the economy could go to hell at any time, it didn’t hurt to be prepared just in case.

A lot of good that preparation was doing him here in Kentucky. The end of the world could have waited and come at a more convenient time.

It could have at least waited until he returned home where he would have stood a better chance.

The Prius moved quietly down the winding back country road.

Chapter 18

Captain Bolten stood on the flight deck. He enjoyed the smell of the fresh salt air.

The fresh smell was interrupted every few moments when the smell from the decks below drifted up to the flight deck.

The walking dead, those that had been his crew, after getting infected soon began to smell as bad as they looked.

The sickening smell would be as big an obstacle to taking back control of the lower decks as the dead themselves.

Fortunately, Captain Tom Bolten didn’t have any intention of trying to take control of all the decks below.

With only three men, it would be too big a job to hope to accomplish. Besides, even if they could retake the entire ship, it would not serve any purpose at this point.

It would still just be the four of them.

The risk was not worth it.

When they arrived in San Diego, if there was anyone left alive, he might be able to put together a small crew. Then he would consider the possibility of clearing the lower decks. But again, where would they go?

To the best of his knowledge, there was nowhere to go.

But this was a question that would answer itself when he arrived at the home port in San Diego.

His main priority now was to retake what he needed to be able to get home. Once he arrived home, he would have the ability get off the ship and search inland to see what remained.

Whatever happened after that, he would deal with it then.

Tom Bolten walked over to his XO. “How’s our progress?”

“I think we should almost be ready to go down and look around. Let me confirm our status.” The XO said.

He turned and shouted over the wind coming in off the Pacific. “Clawson, asked McClain if we are clear yet!”

“Yes Sir!” Clawson replied. He ran towards the back of the flight deck.  When he was about ten feet from the back edge of the flight deck, he dropped to his hands and knees and crawled.

In the event a wave caused the ship to suddenly rise or fall, he didn’t want to do a swan dive into the Pacific.

Clawson crawled to the edge of the deck, pushed his head out over the end and looked down. He smiled as he watched McClain dangling off the back of the ship. He was out about twenty feet out from the large opening that led into the hanger deck. He looked scared shitless.

They were using the same idea that they had used to lure the dead off the flight deck, having someone hang where the dead could see them, then watch the dead walk off the ship and drop into the ocean. Since Clawson had volunteered for the job on the flight deck, McClain had no choice but to volunteer to be the bait to lure the dead out of the hanger deck.

Clawson definitely had the easier of the two jobs.

“Hey McClain?” Clawson shouted down. “The Captain wants to know if you’re done yet. If not, what the hell is taking you so long?”

“Go to hell Clawson!” McClain yelled.

“Is that what you want me to tell the Captain?” Clawson laughed.

McClain looked frustrated. “I think whoever was coming out, is out. Any left we’ll have to remove by hand. I would really appreciate it if someone would get me the hell back on the ship.”

“I’ll relay your message.” Clawson said. “You just hang in there. Don’t go anywhere.”

Clawson laughed as he crawled backwards onto the deck.

McClain would have liked to have given Clawson a few well-chosen words, but decided to wait until he was safely back on the ship. Otherwise Clawson would probably take the long route back to the Captain, leaving him hanging off the ship for another hour.

McClain looked at the churning waters below him. It was scary as hell to think if he fell, he could be pulled into the ship’s propellers. At best, he would be ten miles behind the ship by the time they realized he wasn’t still hanging off the end of the rope. He would be willing to bet this was Clawson’s idea to clear the hanger deck.

Clawson walked back to where the XO and Captain were standing. “McClain said he thinks they are all out.”

“I think we should go check it out.” The XO said. “When we put McClain down there, a few hundred came flying out in the first five minutes. We have only had two more come out the last half hour.”

“Agreed.” The Captain smiled. “Pull him up, then we can go down. I’m sure the Petty Officer will be happy to get back on the ship.”

McClain laid on the deck trying to catch his breath, at least that’s what he told Clawson. The reality was he was trying to calm his nerves.

“I thought there were a lot of infected on the flight deck, I couldn’t believe how many were down on the hanger deck.” McClain said as he looked up at Clawson, the XO and the Captain. “That look in their eyes as they flew out off the hanger deck made my stomach turn. There was no emotion, just that look of hunger. When they fell, the expression didn’t change. Their eyes were locked on me until they disappeared under the waves.”

“That virus is a real bitch.” Clawson added.

“Does anyone know where it came from? How the hell did this thing get started?” McClain asked.

Captain Tom Bolten was the only one on board that had any insight on what had really happened. The information was highly classified and he had been ordered not to discuss it with anyone. It was on a need to know basis only, and other than him, no one else had needed to know.

He had shared some of the information with the doctor when he began to realize the virus might have been carried aboard his ship. But by then it was already too late.

He decided to tell the men a little of what he knew. They didn’t fall into the “need to know” category, but it really didn’t matter anymore. Tom doubted there was anyone still alive that fell into that category. They had a right to know. They had earned that right. He also needed to get it off his chest. For all he knew, he was the last person still alive that knew what had really happened.

That knowledge weighed on his mind.

“Part of our mission was to send a small unit into China under the cover of night.” The Captain said. The other three men got silent and stared back at him. “We had intel that said China was experimenting with a horrendous virus that they had weaponized. They were testing it against a subversive group in Western China. I was ordered to send the mini-sub in a few nights back carrying Seal Team twelve to obtain air and soil samples to verify what the hell they were doing. We had reports it had affected thousands and was spreading like wildfire. The Pentagon had some experience with this virus a few years ago and wanted to confirm that China was in fact testing it. The team apparently brought the virus back to the ship.”

“Shit!” McClain exclaimed.

“I knew there was something bad going down in China.” Clawson said.” But I didn’t know what. I heard some scuttlebutt but nothing concrete. What happened?”

“The virus took out their entire country in a matter of a few days. We nuked Western China to try and stop the virus, but it was too late, it had already spread into other parts of the world.” The Captain said. “It spread to the U.S. a few days later. That’s when we lost all communication with the U.S.”

“What are we going to find when we get home Captain?” McClain asked.

The Captain looked at them solemnly. “If things have gone as I was led to believe, there may be nothing left for us to go back to. All we can do is hope.”

“Damn.” Clawson said. “I was so wrapped up in trying to figure out what the hell was going on here on the ship. I was more worried about running into a Chinese or Russian sub. I never thought this could have spread back home.”

“How did this virus manage to take out China so fast?” McClain asked. “I still can’t believe it took out the whole ship in a day? We’re the damn U.S. Navy!”

“It started in sick bay and had infected half the ship before we knew what was happening.” The Captain replied. “We are one big family, when one of us got sick, we tried to help him. No one was expecting what happened next. By the time we realized where this was all heading, it was too late.  It was like the question we were asked in school. When you joined the Navy, if they had offered you the choice of how to be paid. Which would you choose: a thousand dollars a week for as long as you were in the Navy or a penny on the first day you reported, they would then double the amount you had every day for a month but you then had to stay on for a four year tour of duty.”

“That’s easy.”  McClain said. “I’d take the thousand dollars a week. After twenty years the Navy will have paid me a million dollars.”

“Well you like most people would have made the wrong choice.” The Captain said. “If you would have taken the penny, by the end of the month, you would have had well over a million dollars. Grab a calculator later and run the numbers. This virus worked the same way. One infected person infected two people, they infected two more people, they then infected two more people. The infection started quietly below deck, by the time it was noticed, it was multiplying too fast to stop it.”

“What about the Army, our other ships, the government, surely there has to be something still up and running?” The XO asked.

“I am only making a guess. We haven’t had any communication with anyone in the last few days.” The Captain replied. “Our com equipment is functioning at one hundred percent, but there has not been any contact with home, other ships or anyone. I even tried to contact the Russians. From what I was informed about the virus before all of this happened, my guess is all that is left are maybe small pockets of survivors like us.”

“Not very encouraging, Sir!” Clawson sighed.

“No it’s not.” The Captain frowned. “All of this was classified, but I don’t think that matters anymore. I just thought each of you should know what we are facing. I can’t say for sure what we will find when we get back to San Diego, but we should all be prepared to face the fact that we are it.”

“If we are it?” Clawson asked. “What are we going to do then?”

“I think we try to get back and gather some intel on what we find, then we decide.” The Captain replied. “There are too many unknowns at this point.”

“What’s your orders, Sir?’ The XO asked. “What do you want us to do next?”

“Let’s get our side arms and go down and secure the hanger deck. We should be able to find supplies down there. We have stacks of crates inside the bay that were transferred onboard the day before all hell broke loose. Then we fuel up the helo and get it up to the flight deck. We are about thirty hours out from home. We will anchor a few miles out and take the helo in for a look.” The Captain said. “Just be careful when we go below. There could be infected below that didn’t follow the others out or weren’t able to follow the others. Don’t take any chances. Just do what we have to do and get back out.”

The men nodded. The problems they had on the ship were just the tip of the iceberg. Knowing that there might not be anything to go back to had not crossed their minds before.

Their situation was much more desperate than they had imagined.

They cleared the hanger deck. The scene was worse than they had expected. Many of their fellow shipmates had been mangled during the frantic infection of the ship. Those missing arms and legs crawled around the hanger deck amid the blood and body parts.

The slow moving infected were physically easy to eliminate. Mentally it was gut wrenching.

They fueled the helo and managed to move it onto elevator three and take it up to the flight deck. They then secured it to the flight deck.

They each carried a box of supplies back up to the control tower, the only place they knew for sure was safe.

Even though they now had more food in front of them than they had seen for days, no one was hungry.

They just sat and looked out at the waves and wondered what they would find when they finally arrived home.

The moaning of the infected in the lower decks echoed throughout the ship. The eerie sound only intensified the feeling of doom and uncertainty they all felt.

They would eat later.