To Sail a Darkling Sea - eARC Read online

  “Then there’s an issue,” Steve said. “Because tomorrow, Faith will be the team leader for the first group of Marines to reboard the Iwo. We’re going to be using it mostly as a training exercise. She will also be overseeing their kitting up. Because she knows very little, at all, except the best ways to clear zombies.”

  “Pardon, sir,” Sands said. “Not Staff Sergeant Fontana?”

  “Lieutenant Fontana will be managing the preparations for the assault, Gunny,” Steve said. “And along with Lieutenant Volpe he will be managing the clearance operation as a forward officer. Miss Smith along with Lance Corporal Hocieniec will be training the Marines on the Wolf Way of clearance. It’s like the Marine way but… different.

  “This is a Marine thing. A temporary, out-of-the-blue, Navy Captain is not going to tell a Marine Gunny who should and should not be a Marine. What the Captain is going to do is allow the Gunny a week to think about his response.”

  “I understand your position, Captain,” Sands said. “But, with respect, I’m not sure that I agree. Among other things… Pretty much everyone has heard about Miss Smith and we all think she’s pretty damned great, sir. But… I’m not sure, sir, with respect, that they’re going to listen and pay attention to a thirteen-year-old girl, no matter how badass she may be. Cause she’s a thirteen-year-old girl, sir. I will, with your permission, sit in on the training, sir, to ensure that they understand that… ”

  “Gunny,” Steve said, raising his hand. “Permit me to give you some semblance of peace in this matter. I appreciate you sitting in on the training. What I had not mentioned was that before the training session, there will be a brief familiarization class given by the Lance Corporal. I would recommend that you sit in on that as well.”

  “Yes, sir?” Sands said, frowning.

  “When we, Faith actually, hard-boarded the Voyage, the Dallas was standing off,” Fontana said. “And they recorded the boarding on their onboard video system. Then, apparently, someone made a video mash of it, including some of the discussion of whether she should begin boarding without nearby reinforcements… ”

  “By the time we got there it was all done,” Steve said, smiling thinly. “And Faith was like ‘No worries, Da! Bit of a scrum...’ ”

  “Scrum?” Sands said. “Definition, sir?”

  “Ever played rugby, Gunny?” Fontana said. “It’s that bit where the two sides fight over the ball.”

  “Faith always enjoyed playing Aussie Rules when we were Down Under,” Steve said, sighing. “Except Rule One. I don’t expect the video to change your mind. Give it a week. She will, however, be acting as a civilian technical expert in infected clearance during that week. By the end of the week, we should be done with clearing the Iwo and begin salvage work. We’ll discuss it again at that time. If you’re set that she is not, currently, Marine material… then I will leave that on you and, no, no hard feelings. There are any number of other areas I can use her expertise.”

  “As I said, sir,” Sands said. “I’d just like her to get some more maturity.”

  “I think you’re thinking age, Gunny,” Steve said. “Maturity is something slightly different.”

  * * *

  The gunnery sergeant didn’t crack a smile at the radio intercept of Faith’s concept of a backup plan, an intercept that had caused Commander Bradburn, skipper of the Dallas, to literally fall out of his command chair laughing. Sands managed to watch the video stone-faced as she boarded the Voyage and began her “fifteen minutes of mayhem,” set in the video to the tune of Chumbawamba’s Tubthumping. He managed to keep a straight face the third time she popped back up like a jack-in-the-box after being dogpiled by zombies. He held it in during her overheard running commentary as the rest of the Marines, even the NCOs, started rolling on the deck.

  It was when she got the Halligan tool stuck in a zombie’s head and overbalanced that he snorted. When she unstuck her bent machete and it caught a male zombie in the groin he started laughing out loud. When the, admittedly not petite, girl stuck a boot knife in a zombie’s eye then threw him over the side, tears started running down his face and he completely lost his composure as a senior NCO of the United States Marine Corps.

  * * *

  “Sometimes you get dogpiled,” Faith said, latching the bunker gear on the Marine sergeant. “MOPP’s not designed to prevent penetration. This is. And you can just get washed down in it no worries. And you are going to need a wash-down after we’re done… ”

  * * *

  “Seriously, a K-bar? You think one dinky little knife is enough in a scrum… ?”

  * * *

  “Christ,” Faith said, taking the Halligan tool away from the Lance Corporal. “Here’s how you use a Halligan tool. Ram the son-of-a-bitch. Put some welly in it, Marine… !”

  * * *

  “Zombies don’t like impolite people,” Faith said, stepping over a fresh kill. “In general, you should knock first. The real point is that they seem to hibernate for periods of time. If you go sneakin’ around, Sergeant-I’m-a-recon-scout, as you just discovered, you get surrounded by zombies who used to be sleeping and are now preparing to eat you… ”

  * * *

  “PFC, I swear to God if these zombies did go for brains they would totally ignore you!”

  * * *

  “So, this is five five six that works?” Faith said, looking at the round. Unlike the other rounds they’d been using that had green tips, this one looked like solid copper.

  “It’s superior,” Januscheitis said. He was trying not to sound nervous. Faith had been running them around their own ship for six hours like privates on Paris Island and what was worse, she kept being right. “I don’t think there’s anybody who really loves five five six.”

  * * *

  “Nope,” Faith said, putting five rounds of 5.56mm into an oncoming zombie. “Unless you get a perfect shot, it’s still sucks.” She fired one round into its head and it dropped. “I don’t suppose there’s a few thousand rounds of twelve-gauge anywhere on this tub?”

  “We don’t use a lot of twelve-gauge so… Not that I’m aware.”

  “Seven six two by thirty-nine?”

  “Haji round. No.”

  “Forty-five?”

  “Forty-five we’ve got,” Januscheitis said. “Somewhere. Ordnance was not my billet.”

  “Find me ‘somewhere,’ Staff Sergeant.”

  * * *

  “Found it!”

  * * *

  “Ooo, ooo,” Faith said, stroking the box of ammo. “Come to momma.” She bent over and hugged the pallet of .45ACP. “Mmmm… There is beauty left in this fallen world… ”

  “Oh, wait,” she said, straightening up. “This is full metal jacket, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” Januscheitis said. “Hollow point is outlawed by the Geneva Convention.”

  “Damn,” Faith said then went back to stroking the boxes. “Oh, well, FMJ forty-five is better than twenty-two magnum. Sooooft… ” she stroked the box a moment longer then reached over her back and pulled out her Halligan. “What are you waiting for?”

  * * *

  “See?” Faith said, as the zombie dropped. “One round. Forty-five cause they don’t make a forty-six. You can keep your Barbie guns.”

  “No range, ma’am,” Januscheitis said. “And you’ve only got seven rounds in a magazine.”

  “We’re fighting at close quarters, Staff Sergeant Januscheitis,” Faith said. “And will be for the foreseeable future. We don’t need range. Well, unless we have to clear another freaking cruise liner and I’ll leave that to you big, tough Marines. Those damned hot twenty-twos just over-penetrate then start bouncing around. And they don’t kill zombies. As to how many rounds you’ve got in a mag… ” she said, reloading then dropping a zombie one handed that had reared out of the darkness.

  “How many rounds of five five six, on average, to stop a zombie… PFC Kirby?” she said, reloading her expended magazine from spare rounds in a pouch.

  “About fiv
e, Miss Faith, ma’am,” the private snapped, standing at attention.

  “Staff Sergeant, divide thirty by five.”

  “Six,” Januscheitis said then frowned. “Damn.”

  “As to only having seven rounds,” Faith said, holding up her pistol. “You only have seven rounds because you use the ancient and renowned, sort of like, say, the Titanic, Colt 1911 whereas I use the modern H&K USP with twelve rounds which has been proven capable of killing a hammerhead shark in sixty feet of water. That works out to sixty rounds of five five six in relative killing power in an actual zombie fight. With lighter total weight in ammo, not having to reload and it doesn’t just zip through and go bouncin’ arounnnd like you’ve dropped a frag grenade. Old and busted. New hotness.”

  “Yes, Miss Faith.”

  * * *

  “Oh come onnnn Jannnn, let me throw the grenade. If I can’t throw it, let Trixie. Trixie wants to throw the grenade… !”

  * * *

  “There is, in fact, a primary storage of twelve-gauge on board, Staff Sergeant,” Gunny Sands said, his voice muffled by the gas mask.

  The Gunny was notably unhappy not being able to accompany the clearance parties. It just wasn’t right for a Gunny to be lolling around in the rack when his Marines were fighting zombies. He’d made a foray a day and spent the rest of the time eating, conducting physical therapy and, far too often in his opinion, resting. But the fatigue would just hit him like a hammer whenever he exerted himself.

  Today, however, he’d moved forward to the clearance command post set up in the CIC of the Iwo. The bodies had been cleared out but it was still MOPP conditions in the compartment.

  “I was unaware of that, Gunnery Sergeant,” Januscheitis said.

  “Security and control teams use twelve-gauge,” the Gunny said, pointing to a schematic of the ship. “There should be twenty thousand rounds in Compartment 6 tack 190 tack 1 tack Mike. It should be, if memory serves, port side, aft in the compartment. The rest of the compartment is mainly devoted to M829 DS for the M1s.”

  “Check that out on the next sweep forward,” Fontana said. “Which will be after we clear the Central Four and Five levels… ”

  * * *

  “You told me there wasn’t any twelve-gauge, Jan,” Faith said, pouting. “There’d better be twelve-gauge.”

  “So I’m not the Gunny,” Januscheitis said, throwing his hands up in the air. “He’s a Gunny, okay? They, like, know everything!”

  “Well, there’d just better be twelve-gauge… ”

  * * *

  “Oh,” Faith said, panting slightly. “Oh… Oh… ”

  “It’s not much,” Januscheitis said.

  “Not much?” Faith said, grabbing one of the cases of 12-gauge double-ought. “Not much? It’s… It’s… I’ll be in my bunk… ”

  Januscheitis just stood there with his mouth open as she left the compartment.

  “Do you think she meant… ” Derek said then paused. “I hope she didn’t mean… ”

  The hatch undogged and Faith stuck her head in the compartment.

  “Reloading my Saiga mags you PERVERTS!”

  CHAPTER 5

  I could not tread these perilous paths in safety, if I did not keep a saving sense of humor.

  Admiral Horatio Nelson

  “Soph, got something funky,” Patrick said.

  “I suppose I should get some clothes on,” Sophia muttered. She was currently adding some reality to the boat’s name up on the flying bridge. “In a bit… ”

  She could tell “funky” was not an emergency by Patrick’s tone. Paula was “a good man in a storm.” She just sailed on regardless of the conditions. Patrick had a bit of a tendency to panic. Which was not great in your engineer, but he was fine with the maintenance and stuff.

  “Define ‘funky,’” she said over the intercom, readjusting her sunglasses. She picked up a pair of binos to check out something on the horizon but it was just a bit of junk. Her ostensible reason for being on the flying bridge was “visual search for survivors.” Which was pretty much a waste of time. Which was why she was actually catching a tan.

  The Atlantic ocean was really, really, really big. And boats, even commercial freighters and such, were really, really, really small in comparison.

  Depending on which authority you asked, the North Atlantic Ocean, which they were currently searching for survivors, was about twenty million square miles in area. Their radar had a range of around fifty miles, if the target was radar reflective, while visually they could see between twenty and thirty miles. Realistically, it was possible that one boat might spot a lifeboat within ten miles. Essentially, it was like one microscopic germ trying to find another germ in the area of a standard American living room. That was clean and really germ free.

  When they’d first started clearing boats off of Bermuda, there had still been some distress beacons working. Not many, but they were there. And there had been a lot of boats. The waters between the US mainland and Bermuda were some of the most crowded in the world under normal circumstances. With anyone with an ocean capable boat fleeing the Plague, and the east coast of the US having a lot of such people, they were definitely crowded. There were days when they had twenty or more radar contacts or lifeboats and small boats in sight.

  The Great Equatorial Current… Not so much. Oh, there were boats down here. And life rafts. And freighters. And, somewhere, God help them, based on some of the lifeboats they’d been finding, some cruise ships including at least one “super-max.” But they were scattered. They were lucky if they found two or three vessels in a day instead of thirty.

  They were only there, really, to keep them out of the storm belt in the North Atlantic and tropical storms in the eastern zone, give them something to do and get some people rescued. Unfortunately, as usual, most of the boats they were finding were empty. Of live, sane, people, at least. Bodies they’d found aplenty. People… not so much. Not even live zombies. In the last two weeks the No Tan Lines had only found four survivors. But four was a number greater than zero.

  The only reason they were finding most of the life rafts was that they had some modern additions. Back in the 1980s, the USCG pointed out that the material life rafts were made of, plastic, was fairly stealthy. You could pimp them up in any color you’d like, they didn’t turn up on radar. So most modern life rafts and lifeboats included Mylar radar reflectors in their construction. And, fortunately, the No Tan Lines had radar. So Patrick was manning the radar and other gizmos while she scanned “visually.” And caught up on her tan.

  “Well, it’s a distress beacon,” Patrick said.

  “I probably would have led with that,” Sophia muttered.

  “But it’s well inside the range where we should have picked it up. It’s only about twenty miles out.”

  “Azimuth?” Sophia said.

  “No Tan Lines, Alexandria.”

  “Stand by, Patrick,” she said, then switched frequencies and straightened up to start the main engines. “No Tan Lines.”

  * * *

  “Holy, hell,” Commander Robert “Thunderbear” Vancel, skipper of the USS Alexandria said. Vancel was on his first tour as a sub skipper when the worst disaster in human history hit. It had not been a pleasure cruise. He’d been a bit heavy before this cruise. Now, not so much. “COB: Down periscope. Now! And tell me that’s not being broadcast all over the ship.”

  “Looks like she’s just trying to live up to her boat’s name, sir,” the COB said.

  “Fifteen, COB,” the skipper snapped. “Fifteen. And, for God’s sakes, a Lieutenant? Remind me to talk to that young lady about the decorum expected of a Naval officer at the first opportunity after we meet.”

  “Duly noted, sir.”

  * * *

  “Alex, No Tan Lines,” Sophia repeated. Usually the Navy was right up on calling back but there had been a distinct pause.

  “Lines, Alex. Be advised just picked up an intermittent distress beacon, your bearing, one one four, range: t
en point three nautical miles. Be advised, beacon was not there four minutes ago. Signal is intermittent. Our evaluation, persons operating manual generator for intermittent signal. Probable survivors. Proceeding that location at this time.”

  “Roger, Alex, keep us advised.” She switched to intercom. “Going full,” she said and put the hammer down. No real reason for it, the Alex was going to be there long before they were…

  * * *

  “Okay, up periscope,” Commander Vancel said.

  “Isn’t that redundant, sir?” the COB asked.

  “Again, COB, fifteen! And, sweet Lord Jesus I Can’t Believe They Did This, LANTFLEET’s daughter!”

  “As well hanged for a sheep, sir… ”

  * * *

  “Da, Da!” Julie yelled. “Look!”

  Lincoln Lawton stepped out onto the aft deck of the 45' Gentle Breezes and shaded his eyes against the glare. He stopped and his jaw dropped at the sight of a periscope not five hundred meters off the boat.

  Lawton, formerly the General Manager for Information Technologies of Wilson Gribley, LLC, Liverpool, UK, had just left port for a month-long trip to the Mediterranean when the news of the Plague had been released. He had, briefly, contemplated putting back into port to return to work. He knew the term “workaholic” was often used to describe him and it seemed that if there was going to be a major influenza outbreak, the Firm, which was in the biomedical technologies field, would need his services.

  Susan, his normally accepting and supportive wife, had put her foot down. First of all, it was the first long vacation that he had taken in nearly ten years. During which time his children had grown up with a father who was a virtual stranger. Second, given that the flu bug was described as being particularly nasty and wide-spread, it would be better to just cruise along for a bit without encountering it. Let it burn out and they’d put into port.

  As it turned out, Susan was right. A point she tried not to rub in. They were not infected by the “zombie plague.” On the other hand, food and fuel only last so long. They had stocked well but eventually the food ran out. And the fuel. Fortunately, there was an emergency solar still onboard that produced barely enough water for the lot of them. And he had stocked quite a few rods onboard. About the only time he spent with his family was angling on the boat in the Irish Sea.