Beyond the Barriers (Novella): Ghouls (14 page)

I assessed my options. Walk all the way back on a mission to find Keen? Nah. I decided I’d rather get into some trouble. My last Captain’s Mast was six months ago.

Fuck it. I was due.

I passed berths and came to a cross-section filled with a riotous crowd. I hung back but didn’t see any engineers to rescue and couldn’t figure out who to hit first. Getting into a fight wasn’t the best cure for a hangover but I’d settle for it today.

I didn’t personally know most of these guys but they were still familiar. You spend a few months at sea with a hundred and seventy-five or so guys and pretty soon you know a lot of names. They looked like electricians with their pressed shirts.

“Can someone let me through before I start breaking stuff?” I bellowed.

That got attention, but the wrong kind. A Lieutenant with fresh bars turned on me and looked at my stenciled name.

“Creed. Get some security here, now. And don’t yell on my ship again. Got it, Sailor?”

“Yes Sir,” I muttered, wanting to punch his fucking lights out. Then I saw blood on his hands.

“Sir?”

“It’s…I don’t know. One of the radio techs bit one of my men and then both of them went nuts. Go wake up the Marines.”

That was all I needed. Crazy-ass nerds biting each other? That wasn’t my problem. I was going to continue my search for Keen but then remembered that the LT knew my name. He also knew my size and it’d take about three seconds to find me.

I knew where the Marines bunked but never ventured down there. Why should I? They never came to my side of the ship.

I huffed it down their ladder and found myself in near-darkness. It was still the middle of the damn night, so that made sense, but a couple of black guys in tank tops were throwing cards at a table. One of the men jumped up on his chair and threw the little Joker.

“Suck it!” He yelled.

I cleared my throat. “Sorry to interrupt, fellas, but some LT sent me. Some guys are biting each other and the LT wants security.”

“See my shirt?” asked little Joker. “Do you see ‘babysitter’ stenciled on it?”

I looked. I squinted. I peered.

“Huh. Nope. Umm…what’s your name, man? I need to know for the LT; you know how it is.”

“GENERAL QUARTERS, GENERAL QUARTERS, ALL HANDS MAN YOUR BATTLE STATIONS. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. GENERAL QUARTERS…” The voice trailed off this time without screams, but screams or not I was really starting to get a very bad feeling about today.

“Thought it was a joke before.” The Marine nodded toward the speaker in the ceiling.

“That sounded legit,” one of the other guys said.

They looked at each other and then back toward their bunks.

Then I heard a sound I’d never heard on a ship before. Gunfire.

The Marines went into some turbo mode, moving around each other like they had a secret language. Before I could scratch my balls more than once, the black guy that had given me a ration of shit was back and half-dressed. He buttoned up a shirt and stared at me like I was a stranger. His stenciled name read ‘Kelly.’ He wore an oversized vest of some sort and slapped it over his body, securing straps and Velcro here and there as he patted down pouches and pockets.

“Weapons locker!” One of the other Marines yelled and suddenly there were guns everywhere. Kelly strapped a belt around his waist with a holster and pistol. My fists were the only weapon I’d ever been even halfway shitty with.

“Secure yourself, Sailor! Stay or go - just keep out of our way.”

“Fine man, whatever. Just don’t shoot anyone by mistake. Especially me.” I rattled off the coordinates I’d marked in my head when I’d left the LT. As soon as the men were assembled, Kelly nodded. He pulled his sidearm and racked the bolt back, did an inspection, and let it slam home. He slid it back into his holster and then was up the stairs as fast as Spiderman.

I followed them and hit the passageway while they moved out. I wasn’t more than a few steps from the ladder when a guy screamed and bore down on me. I knew his name but not much else. Bauman was a skinny little guy that wore his pants too high on his hips. He was covered in blood from a wound on his skull. The blood streamed down his head and into another wound on his face. Christ! Most of his cheek was ripped away! He howled, creating a weird hissing sound.

“The fuck?”

“Move!” one of the Marines ordered.

I ignored him and stood my ground. Come on Bauman, if you got the guts.

In a heartbeat, the bloodied, howling sailor was on me. I lashed my arm out and punched him square in the middle of the face. His nose erupted around my knuckles and he went down like a bag of potatoes.

My hand hurt like a bitch but I wore my poker face for the Marines. See? I can be a badass too.

“Dude!” One of the Marines brushed past me and leaned over to check on the sailor I’d decked. I wiped blood on my pants.

“Hey man, he attacked me,” I said.

Skinny Bauman should have been out for the day after the punch I’d landed, but his eyes snapped open as he howled and leapt up, landing on his knees with a crack of bone.

He spun and attacked the Marine. The sailor bit in and yanked flesh from the other man’s arm until blood flowed. The guy screamed in pain, pulled his gun, and hit Bauman hard enough to knock out teeth.

“What the shit!” I backed up in horror.

Kelly moved to my side and watched with his mouth wide open as the Marine dropped to the ground and thrashed his body up and down. It looked like he was having an epileptic fit.  My Aunt used to get those and they were not pretty. The downed Marine screamed, but then something quickly changed as his wails of pain became those of rage.

Bauman should have been completely knocked the fuck out - or even dead - but he staggered to his feet and raised his hands, which were twisted and splayed like tight little claws.  He howled again, that awful hissing sound now bubbling with blood, and then he was on us.

Me and Kelly beat the shit out of the guy, but every time he went down he just got back on his feet and came at us. Then Kelly’s marine buddy went bat shit insane.

What the fucking hell!

First he was staring at his arm in horror. Then he was trying to stop the flow of blood with his hand. Next he gasped and flopped over on his back. He thrashed and held his arm as more and more blood squirted. It spread over his shirt and pressed pants. You could have split a grapefruit on those seams a few minutes ago, but now they just soaked up the crimson.

“Angel, man, Angel!” Kelly yelled.

Behind me, a riot had broken out.

Two of the Marines had advanced down the hallway to confront a new foe. Only this wasn’t an argument. The same shit that was going on here was happening over there. Blood flowed, and lots of it. I had the stupid thought that it was going to take hours for someone to clean it all up. Screams, howls, some in pain, some in anger. Fists on skin, striking and ripping. It was worse than a riot. It was worse than any concert mosh pit I’d ever seen.

“Okay, fuck this,” I said to no one in particular. I’d had enough. If anyone needed me, I’d be in main control with my people, safely locked up behind a properly dogged hatch.

Kelly took out a radio and barked orders into it. He listened to a muffled voice and then stared at the device in confusion. I paused to see if he had news.

“Say again?”

“Don’t let anyone bite you. You got me, Marine? If that happens, you are dead, and then you aren’t any use to anyone.”

Kelly looked at me. I shook my head because it sounded crazy.

Then Angel gasped, foamed at the mouth and flopped around three or four times before his body went completely still. Kelly stared in horror as his friend died. I tried to look away from the riot that was occurring down the passageway, because it felt less real than what was happening right in front of me.

“Sir, Corporal Angel is down, Sir. He…he got bit. What do I do?”

“Shoot him in the fucking head. He isn’t your buddy anymore. If you don’t have a gun, then find something to bash his skull.”

“Sir?"

“That’s an order, Marine. You do it or I’ll come down there and personally rip your head off and shit down your neck!” Kelly stared at the radio in horror. “We need to contain this before it goes any farther."

Kelly drew his sidearm and aimed it at his friend.

“Oh fuck this,” I said and backed away. A riot behind or an execution ahead.

“I can’t do it.” Kelly put his sidearm away. The mob that had been behind us shifted momentum and was now coming toward us. One of Kelly’s Marine buddies was being chased.

“Go!” the Marine yelled, then turned and opened fire. The explosions were deafening as he fired into the chaotic mass of people. Sailors and another Marine fell, but the mob kept coming. The narrow passageway created a natural bottleneck.

We fell back, Kelly pushing me while he swept his gun back and forth.

Angel picked that moment to groan and sit up. He bubbled up a putrid load of blood, his lips pulled back from his teeth in a rictus grin of pure horror. He snarled and struggled to his feet. I knocked him down but he reached for my leg and tried to bite me. Bite me! Son of a bitch! I kicked him but pulled the blow at the last second, fearing the Marines wouldn’t take too kindly to me stomping one of their own.

A snarling group came at us from the port side of the ship. They bumped into each other as they tried to maneuver the small passageway. When they got a look at us a pair moaned. Moaned! One of them howled and staggered toward me with arms raised, his hands like claws.

“Up, we need to go up!” I yelled.

Kelly looked at his friend and then back at the other Marine who had been firing. He couldn't even speak. He just shot while backing up along the passageway.

Kelly pointed his gun at Angel as the unfortunate Marine crawled toward us. Kelly aimed, but he couldn’t do it. I wished I had the guts.

As our window of opportunity to escape narrowed to tens of feet, I decided that I wasn’t going out screaming. I knocked Angel back to the ground and reached for his sidearm, fighting with a damn snap that secured it. Blood and drool bubbled out of Angel’s mouth.  Every hair on my body came to attention as he let loose with a keening noise that grew into a sound from nightmares.

“GENERAL QUARTERS GENERAL QUARTERS. THIS IS CAPTAIN MCGLASSON AND THIS IS NOT A DRILL. ABANDON SHIP. ABANDON SHIP!”

Someone howled in horror over the PA system. It might have been the captain, or maybe one of the yeomen. Either way, I was done with this shit.

“That’s enough for me,” I said and pointed the gun down the passageway, waving it around like I knew the first thing about weapons.  Sure, I'd sunk hundreds of hours into Call of Duty but that didn't mean I knew the first damn thing about real guns.

I pulled the trigger and nothing happened.

“Come on, squid!” Kelly said and grabbed my arm. He pulled at the gun but I slapped his hand away. He looked pissed, but he’d have to put that shit on hold or we were going to get into a scuffle just before we were devoured.

“I can’t leave a man behind!” the other Marine resolutely exclaimed. His name tag was covered in blood.

“Does he look like Angel? Look, man!” Kelly yelled.

Enough of this. I dove for the first ladder leading up and ran right into another mass of crazies. I aimed again, then realized there was something I’d forgotten to do and looked at the side of the gun. Sure enough, there was a safety. I flipped it, aimed again, and fired.

One of the sailors folded over as my bullet punched into him, but he quickly straightened, moving toward me and streaming blood.

Kelly moved up the ladder behind me, his buddy behind him. Great, blocked from all sides. I leapt up and barreled past the freaks, undogging the hatch leading outside. Kelly and his friend were directly on my tail as we were thrust into pre-dawn light.

“Land!” Kelly said.

I looked fore-ward and saw that the city of San Diego was coming up on us fast. What was CHENG doing down there? Had everyone decided to leave their station? Christ, the ship didn’t have a chance of slowing.

“We need to get off this ship now!” I yelled over the noise of the waves.

Kelly nodded. He reached to close the hatch, but a body slipped through. Kelly lashed out and punched the moaning creeper in the face. That didn’t do much more than piss him off. Kelly drew his gun again, pointed it at the man, and then shot him in the head.

“Oh shit oh shit oh shit,” was all I could manage as I monkeyed with a life raft.

We had the newer MK-7s that could seat 25 but right now I couldn’t even get it loose. My head pounded and I had the desire to puke up everything I’d eaten over the last 24 hours. Then I remembered the hydraulic release and hit it. The canister shot over the side but I wasn’t as fast, probably because I was frozen in terror at the idea of following it.

“Are we going over?” Kelly asked.

A pair of former sailors pushed through the hatch, trailing half the crew behind them.

“Fucking zombies!” I yelled out loud, and that seemed to give me power over them. Admitting what my mind had been screaming and denying finally woke me up.

I ran to the next life raft capsule and called to Kelly and his friend.

“When I let this one rip, you guys be ready to follow it. We won’t have a lot of time because that water is gonna suck. Just stick with it and follow me. Got it?” I triggered the release.

The second capsule sailed over the side and I was right behind it. The minute the capsule hit the water it exploded into a bright yellow raft. My stomach leapt into my throat as I fell toward the waves below. I crossed my arms over my chest, pinched my nose with my fingers, and clenched my asshole so I didn’t get a seawater enema.

Hitting the water was like being dropped onto soggy concrete. Even with my body straight, toes pointed, I felt the impact in my chest. Cold water sucked at me. I stayed in the same position and waited to become buoyant. When “up” became apparent I kicked my legs a few times, saw light, and broke the surface with a gasp. I struck toward the raft with long strokes.

Behind me, my two Marine friends were doing their best to not drown. Kelly was the worst in his heavy vest. He tried to keep his weapon out of the water but it was already soaked.