“In the quiet misty morning,” Faith and Sophia sang in duet. “When the moon has gone to bed, When the sparrows stop their singing, I’ll be homeward bound again.”
“All gun boats, open fire,” Lieutenant Chen ordered as the second of official nautical dawn was reached and the song ended.
Both boats opened fire, the massive.50 caliber rounds chewing up the crowd of what must have been nearly two hundred infecteds. It took less than a minute of concentrated fire for the crowd of zombies to be reduced to so much offal.
“Landing team is a go,” Chen radioed. “Drop some of Captain Carrion’s Little Helpers on that pile on your way by.”
“Time to board the boats,” Faith said, hefting her AK. “And keep an eye out for some ammo for this thing. I don’t care if it’s a haji gun. It works. Let’s take that jetty, Marines.”
CHAPTER 9
[F]ar from being the Great Satan, I would say that we are the Great Protector. We have sent men and women from the armed forces of the United States to other parts of the world throughout the past century to put down oppression. We defeated Fascism. We defeated Communism. We saved Europe in World War I and World War II. We were willing to do it, glad to do it. We went to Korea. We went to Vietnam. All in the interest of preserving the rights of people.
And when all those conflicts were over, what did we do? Did we stay and conquer? Did we say, “Okay, we defeated Germany. Now Germany belongs to us? We defeated Japan, so Japan belongs to us”? No. What did we do? We built them up. We gave them democratic systems which they have embraced totally to their soul. And did we ask for any land? No. The only land we ever asked for was enough land to bury our dead.
“Permission to look for some wheels, ma’am?” Staff Sergeant Januscheitis said.
“Oh, definitely,” Faith said, trying to keep from swaying. “There’s no clearing this place on foot.”
The lieutenant was in charge of, more or less, a fire team of Marines. But that suited Faith just fine. And they weren’t wearing “full fig” zombie-clearing kit, just basic combat gear with the addition of Tyvek suits, gas masks and hoods to reduce the chance of bites on exposed flesh. They had military headphones and mikes for radio communications and two of them carried Halligan tools and other entry systems.
All of them had a tendency to rock in place as the ground seemed to be moving. This was the first solid land any of them had stepped on in nearly six months.
“See if you can get something running that’s got a moon roof,” she added. “We can stick somebody out of the top with a loud-hailer. If my head can handle it.”
“Aye, aye, ma’am,” Januscheitis said. “Two-man teams. One checking for keys and functioning vehicles. One on sentry.”
There was a large parking lot on the jetty but it was mostly empty and none of the vehicles would crank. There were more cars at the square at the base of the jetty but those were, also, non-functional.
“The boats always have a spare battery,” Faith said. “Staff Sergeant, send a team back to get a battery while the rest of us clear these buildings. I think it was my job to think of that.”
“Aye, aye, ma’am,” Januscheitis said. “Derek, Kirby, hump it.”
“Aye, aye, Staff Sergeant,” Derek said. “Let’s go, Kirby.”
“Clear this one first?” Faith said, pointing to a cafe. “I’m supposed to get input from my NCOs, Staff Sergeant.”
“I would suggest backing up the jetty, ma’am,” Januscheitis said, pointing to a building that was probably the harbor master’s office. “That way we know our rear is clear.”
“Make it so, Staff Sergeant,” Faith said.
“Pagliaro, Bearson, crack me that building.”
“Aye, aye, Staff Sergeant,” Lance Corporal Pagliaro said, hefting his hammer. “Come on, Bear.”
“Knock first,” Faith said. “Zombies don’t like impolite people.”
“I don’t got nothing,” Pagliaro said. He’d hit the heavy door with his hammer several times. “No scratching or nothing.”
“Open it,” Faith said.
“Open it, aye, ma’am,” Pagliaro said.
Pagliaro and Bearson made short work of cracking the front doors with the firemen entry tools. When they had the locks bashed, Bearson kicked the door in and they both backed off, hefting their M4s. Nothing came through the door.
“I don’t think anyone’s home,” Faith said. “Check it, though.”
“Pag, Bearson, clear the building,” Januscheitis said.
“Clearance ops, aye, Staff Sergeant,” Pagliaro said. “I’m point.”
* * *
“One dead infected,” Pagliaro said as they exited the building. “Usual mess. Old. Most of it’s dried up. Harbor master’s office, looks like. Some boat parts but they look like they’re for those bitty boats in the harbor.”
“Staff Sergeant,” Derek radioed. “We’ve got the battery and some jumper cables. Mind if we try to crank one of these down here rather than hump it back up the jetty?”
The smaller jetty was nearly two football fields long.
Januscheitis looked at the lieutenant and Faith nodded.
“Makes sense to me,” she said.
“Shewolf says roger,” Januscheitis replied. “Shall we continue clearance ops, ma’am?”
“Only if you feel like it,” Faith said. “We can’t open and clear every house in town. We need to sweep through the streets and see if we can find any survivors. I just wanted to see if the basic methods worked. From a supplies perspective, I’d say clear the tavern and see what’s up there while we wait for Derek to find us a ride.”
“Roger, ma’am,” Januscheitis said. “Pag, Bear, go break into that bar.”
“Oh, aye, aye, Staff Sergeant,” Bearson said. “We are all over that!”
* * *
“Ola!” Pagliaro boomed through the loud-hailer. “Anybody home? Hello? Anybody home?”
The unit had broken down into two three-man teams with Januscheitis taking charge of one and Faith, with Corporal Douglas, taking charge of the other. Douglas was driving while Pagliaro stuck his head out of the moon roof to try to find survivors.
The streets of the town were deserted. So far they hadn’t seen one single remaining infected and while there was some sign of them, the usual mix of decayed and gnawed bodies and fecal matter, even that was scattered. And there was, so far, no sign of survivors.
“Is it just me or is this creepy?” Faith asked.
“Little creepy, ma’am,” Januscheitis said, taking a slow turn around an even smaller body in the street. “Christ, I hope that some of these towns have survivors.”
“There are more towns up the road according to the map,” Faith said. “I suppose we could try to penetrate into the interior.”
“With due respect, ma’am,” Januscheitis said. “I don’t think that was part of the plan.”
“Plans change, Staff Sergeant,” Faith said. “But, yes, we’d have to get permission.”
“Hey, I think we’ve got customers,” Pagliaro said. “Half a block, roof of the building.”
“Really?” Faith said, looking up through the cracked windshield. “Holy shit.”
A group of people were waving from the roof of one of the buildings. They were just in the process of hanging a sheet from the edge of the roof to try to attract the attention of the Marines.
“Hello,” Faith said, stepping out of the car. “Anyone speak English?”
She took off her gas mask. The smell wasn’t really all that bad and they hadn’t seen a single infected.
“Si!” one of the men yelled. “Hello! Thank you? Are all the infectado gone? Who are you?”
“Lieutenant Faith Smith, United States Marine Corps, at your service, sir,” Faith yelled. “We haven’t seen any. Come on down. Olly, olly oxenfree as we say… ”