* * *
Faith dropped a box of ammo and fired offhand into an infected that had reared up out of the shadows. The few infected who had found hidey-holes on the deck of the ship were moving to the continuous crackle of fire from aft.
“Leavin’ that,” Faith said, keeping her side-arm in her hand.
“Concur,” Januscheitis said. He had the MG on a sling over his shoulder and his 1911 in his hand. He wasn’t going to try to use the MG in tight quarters surrounded by steel containers.
They followed a set of stairs aft then came in sight of the embattled team. Both were leaning over the side of the ship, firing down.
“Hello, we’re your friendly reinforcements,” Januscheitis said, leaning over the side to check the conditions.
Infecteds from throughout the container yard were closing on the sound of the fire and the flock of birds that had descended on fresh carrion. Crows and ravens might be smart enough to bank away from a fire-fight but seagulls carried on regardless.
The infecteds, by sheer weight of numbers, were starting to push their way up the gangway.
“Oh, that’s just not happening,” Januscheitis said, unlimbering the MG and setting it on the bulwark. He fired a burst into the group of infected trying to force their way onto the gangway and tumbled a half a dozen to the ground.
Faith leaned out and looked both ways then frowned.
“Division, Division, Ground Team One, over.”
“Division, over.”
“Should have thought of this earlier. We’ve got infected coming from in the yard. We also have them coming from fore and aft the vessel. Could you lay in gunboats fore and aft to manage that, over?”
“Roger. Redeploying at this time.”
“Break, break, forward team. Status?”
“Not finding many customers, over.”
“Sweep back to the boarding point. Get the technical personnel. Bring them up here and pick up any ammo along the way, over.”
“Sweep to boarding point, aye. Get technical personnel, aye. Move to gangway with technical personnel picking up ammo, aye.”
“Command, out. Pag, ammo.”
“Roger, ma’am,” the lance corporal said, taking the box and pulling out the links to ammo up the MG.
“Kirby, head back to the boarding point,” Faith said. “Pick up the ammo pile there. Keep alert, this thing might not be fully cleared.”
“Aye, aye, skipper,” Kirby said then dashed off.
Faith walked aft then leaned over the side to engage the infected who were managing to get onto the gangway through the fire of the MG.
“Pag, while you’re handling the ammo, keep an eye on our six,” Faith yelled. “But don’t shoot the tech.”
“Can I shoot Derek, ma’am?” Pagliaro asked.
“No,” Faith said.
“Check six, aye. Do not shoot friendlies, aye.”
* * *
“We don’t have time to drop anchor and get stable,” Chen said over the intercom. “You’ll have to fire on the fly.”
“Not an issue, sir,” Gunner’s Mate Second Class Mcgarity said, pressing the butterfly of the modified BMG. The big rounds tumbled infecteds closing on the freighter to the ground. The platform was a lot more stable than a moving Abrams main battle tank, which was his normal platform of choice and tracking around as it drifted was no big deal. He fired a moment longer then reached on hand up to key the intercom. “Sir, could you pull this thing in closer? Like, real close to the pier?”
“You’re getting them from here, Gunner’s Mate.”
“But if we get in close, I can engage the ones closing through the yard, sir. I’ll have the angle. They might try to jump and swim aboard, but we’ve got rifles, sir, and there’s sharks.”
“Make sense,” Chen said, putting the boat into reverse and backing towards the pier. “Try not to hit the cranes. One, we may need them someday. Two, while those rounds will go into a container, they will bounce off a crane.”
“Roger, sir,” Mcgarity said. “Or would that be an aye, aye, thing?”
“That would be an aye, aye, thing,” Chen said.
“Aye, aye, sir.”
* * *
“Oh, sweet,” Pagliaro said as.50 caliber BMG rounds started tearing up the closing infected. When the massive “anti-material” rounds hit, most of the infected literally exploded from hydrostatic shock. The majority of the rounds then continued on to hit any infected on the far side.
“Except for the bouncers,” Januscheitis said. A tracer round that had already passed through two infected hit the reinforced corner of a container, bounced off, hit the side of the ship then caromed wildly into the distance. “But, yeah, direct fire MaDeuce support is always a welcome sight. Now if we just had some tanks. Those are sweet.”
“Friendlies,” Pag said as pretty much everyone else arrived at once.
“Oh, this is just so much more fun than I’d expected,” Dougherty said.
“We ran into an infected on the way,” Derek said, dropping two boxes of MG ammo to the deck.
“We’ve got this,” Faith said. “Kirby, hump ammo from the boat. Derk, Bear, go make sure we’re clear otherwise. Topside and close all hatches. We’ll worry about belowdecks when we have to. Tech, can you get the gangway off?”
The crew gangway started with a solid platform that was inserted onto the deck of the ship through a latched back “door” in the bulwark. The platform extended outboard from the ship about four feet. A sloped ramp was attached to it that led to another, similar, platform that rested on the pier.
“Maybe,” Dougherty said, hesitantly. “If I don’t get shot doing it.”
He tentatively stepped onto the extended platform and looked over the side. Then he bent over the rail and ralphed.
“Watch where you stick your head,” Januscheitis snapped. The engineer had nearly stuck his head into his fire.
“Sorry,” Dougherty said, wiping his mouth. “This really isn’t my gig. Jesus.”
“Can you get the gangway off?” Faith asked.
“I dunno,” Dougherty said. “I was gonna pull the hinges on the ramp. That was gonna be tough enough but with the weight of the… bodies… Only idea I’ve got is a bad one.”
“Which is?” Faith asked.
“Pull the dogs,” he said, pointing.
The shipboard platform was solidly attached to the ship while the pier-side platform moved to allow for tidal changes and sway of the ship. The attachments were latches into the deck.
“The platform’s balanced so there’s usually not a lot of weight on them,” Dougherty said. “Right now… Hell, if many more of ’em die on it, it might go on its own. It’s only designed to hold the weight of twenty people at a time. And if we pull the dogs with this much weight on it, I’m not sure what it’s gonna do. Might fall, might stay in place, might stay in place for a while then fall. I just dunno.”
“Pull the dogs,” Faith said. “If we have to, we’ll lever it over the side with a Halligan.”
“I’ll need a hammer,” Dougherty said.
“Kirby,” Januscheitis radioed. “Get a hammer and a Halligan from the Senorita.”
“Errr… Should I bring this ammo first or drop it and get the Halligan, over?”
“Where are you?” Januscheitis asked.
“Right around the corner, Staff Sergeant!” Kirby shouted.
“Bring the ammo,” Januscheitis shouted.
“Sorry, Staff Sergeant… ” Kirby said, running up to the firing position. He had boxes of ammo on straps all over his body.
“Just drop the ammo and go get a Halligan and hammer,” Januscheitis said.
“Senorita, Ground Lead, over,” Faith said, trying not to grin. Given that Kirby had been a Marine cook, he was taking to killing zombies pretty well. But he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.
“Ground lead. We’ve got the Halligan and hammer standing by. I take it you mean a sledge, over?”
“You want a sledge hammer?” Faith asked.
“Yes,” Dougherty said. “Right.”
“Roger sledge, over,” Faith said.