Carlie Simmons (Book 5): One Final Mission (13 page)

Chapter 36

By the time Shiro and the others had
returned from the roof, Shane and Eliza had finished removing the critical
hardware from the machine and were carefully wrapping everything in towels and
old garments.

“I just bought us twenty minutes, at
most,” said Jared.

Shane looked at him then frowned, nodding
over towards Shiro whom he knew deserved all the credit.

“That’ll give us enough time to get back
into the tunnels and over to the boat,” said Yoshi.

“Then let’s save the high-fives for later,”
said Shane, hoisting the heavy pack onto his frame while Eliza did the same.

They retraced their steps, making it to
the first floor stairwell only to see that the passage below had collapsed,
obscuring the security door to the sub-basement. Dust from the drywall rubble was
still floating in the air, causing everyone to cough.

“Shit, those explosions on the street must
have done this.” He looked up at Jared. “Nice going, ace.”

“There is another route through the back
alleys,” said Shiro. “We should be able to re-enter another set of tunnels from
there.”

Shane heard a plinking sound coming from
the silver metal door beside him that led to the first floor, like rain pelting
on a tin roof. He heard the shrieks of creatures being torn apart followed by
more pelting on the walls and door. He motioned everyone to move up one flight
of stairs to the landing. The last thing he wanted to do was open the door into
whatever was unfolding on the other side. A moment later there was silence
followed by the door handle below slowly turning. Shane aimed the rifle-mounted
flashlight towards the opening and saw Carlie emerge from the shadows.

“’Bout damn time you showed up, girl,”
said Shane, who was already walking downstairs. He placed his arms around her
neck, then they moved out into the small reception area where both groups were
reunited. Jared moved up to Amy while she was still swapping out a magazine in
her rifle and grabbed her around the waist, giving her a quick kiss.

Carlie pulled back from Shane and ran her
gloved hand across his cheek. “I’m still pissed as hell at you,” she said. “But,
it’s sure good to see your mug.”

Shane smiled and then moved over to
Matias, grabbing his shoulder with a firm grip. “These muchachas ain’t been
pushing you around too much, have they?”

“The plane ride took care of that for me,”
he replied, pointing down to his ribs. “Feel like an MMA fighter but without
the cash prize.”

Carlie pointed to the back of the
building. “Whatever you guys did with those explosions provided us with enough of
an opening to get here. Now we just gotta get the device.”

Shane swung around, patting the pack.
“Already done. I told you we’d get her done.”

Shane did hasty introductions between the
others and then asked Shiro about his advice for their egress. Carlie’s group
was the least thrilled after hearing about the proposed route along the
familiar underground corridor.

“I saw a small railcar there. Is that
functional?” Carlie said.

“Yes, we can use that to get most of the
way back towards the airfield. Then hopefully your submarine will be where you
say,” said Shiro.  

Chapter 37

Carlie retraced their steps through the
lobby, stepping over splattered bodies and crunching over bone fragments. She
pried open the rear exit door and scanned the alleyway.

“Go right—there is a shortcut,” said Shiro,
who was behind her.

“We came from the left.”

“The right will not risk exposing us to
the main street. Plus there is a gauntlet between the cars that we arranged for
slowing down anything that comes after us.”

“Very well.” She began walking out only to
jolt her head to the left at a lone zombie walking towards her. It had peeled
off from the crowd floating through the street at the front of the hospital.
She raised her M4 to snipe it but it had already begun shrieking, alerting the
others. She popped off a round into its greasy yellow forehead and then started
running in the opposite direction as the rest of the combined groups of
fighters followed on her heels. Rounding the corner of a grocery distribution
center, she peered around the side. Ahead was the tight passage of vehicles
that Shiro had mentioned. Each delivery truck was intentionally positioned so
it only allowed for a single person to shimmy past it. This went on for sixty
yards until it opened into a fenced yard lined with razor wire.

“Please, Carlie-san, let me lead,” said
Shiro, indicating several jagged rows of angled rebar sticking out of the
frames of each truck, pointing towards the opening by Carlie. “If we are not
careful, we will be the ones that get trapped.”

There was little time to debate as Carlie
began hearing the sound of suppressed rifle fire. As Shiro led the way through
the spiky passage, she turned and caught a glimpse of Shane and the others
sniping through a crowd of forty creatures flowing into the alley, splintered
heads and rotting limbs flying to either side like a street plow was pushing
through the enraged horde. She ran back and grabbed Shane and Eliza. “You two
have to get moving—that equipment you’re carrying means you go first. I’ll
cover you.”

She saw Shane start to unsling the pack.
“Forget about it—I’m staying to cover you now get your ass in gear.”

Shane fired off another round and then
gave her an irritated glance. He tapped Eliza on the shoulder and nodded for
her to follow him. They slid into the gauntlet behind Shiro and his people, who
were nearly all the way through. Carlie, Matias, Jared, Amy, and Hadley stood
shoulder to shoulder, sniping the desiccated freaks that had begun climbing
over the headless corpses. Each one that was dispatched was quickly replaced by
two more as the sickening noise of destruction and gunfire had drawn the hungry
creatures from every avenue near the hospital. As Carlie dropped in another
magazine, she tapped Jared on the shoulder and told him to retreat into the
gauntlet. With only forty feet left behind them to withdraw, they began using
short bounding movements with two people firing while the others peeled off
behind them to reload and prepare for the next wave of attack. Carlie kept this
pattern up until their weapons were nearly depleted and each person was safely
in the slender passage. After plugging two more creatures with headshots, she
removed a grenade from her vest and tossed it into the alley. Then she fled
into the gauntlet between the trucks, walking slowly backwards while trying to
avoid getting snagged on the sharp rebar. She kept her rifle trained on the
rear, hoping the explosion had created enough of a jam to buy her some time.
What she saw next resembled a black tidal wave as several hundred zombies
bulldozed around the building and slammed into the derelict rows of trucks. She
fired off several more rounds while continuing to backpedal. This blocked the
gauntlet but the pulse of body mass pushing against the vehicles began boring
open the passage like a petroleum drill punching through the earth.

She neared the end of the passageway and
felt her vest being yanked on from behind. She turned and saw Matias. He was
standing in the fenced-in corner of the alley. “Down this way,” he yelled. The
others were filing into a manhole entrance in the street. Yoshi and Jared were
guiding people into the aperture.

Carlie heard the trample of feet on metal
and then Matias’ eyes went wide. She felt him shove her out of the way and
swing his rifle up, firing off several rounds. Two zombies with splintered
skulls rained down behind her. Dozens of corpulent creatures had climbed on top
of the delivery trucks and were hurtling themselves into the enclosed area
where she stood. She pivoted and arched her body back, shooting up at more of
them. She caught one flying freak in the shoulder. It crashed into the brick
wall and slid down, shearing off the skin from its face so it looked like its
features had been removed with a giant eraser. It landed beside Yoshi and
clamped its rotting teeth on his ankle, biting hard enough into his Achilles
tendon that teeth broke out onto the pavement. Carlie slammed it in the head
with the butt of her rifle then grabbed the screaming man and slid him down
into the arms of the others below while Matias covered her.

She stood up and motioned for Matias to
go. Once he was inside, she squatted beside the corner of the building and
fired a round into the gas tank of the farthest truck. As it went up in flames,
the force rocked the other vehicles enough to slow down the clamoring creatures
on top. Carlie rushed to the manhole entrance and slid halfway down. She
gripped the heavy lid which was still partly over the entrance and yanked on
it, her injured shoulder stabbing waves of pain through her exhausted body.
Using her weight as ballast she let the lid slide partway closed as she glided
down the ladder away from the smell of burning metal and charred flesh.

Turning into the glow of flashlights
dancing off the tubular passage ahead, she saw Shane speaking with Shiro, who
was hunched over his friend, wrapping his ankle. Though she barely knew the
older Japanese fighter, she knew, all too well, the grim look of someone who
knows the fatal outcome of a bite. Tamiko and Naoki were gathered around
Yoshi’s side and everyone was muttering in Japanese while sending worried looks
up to Shane and the others.

Shiro stood up and moved towards Shane. “I
will carry him, which may slow you down, but I will not leave him behind.”

“Nobody’s asking you to. We will all
help.”

“They will be coming through that passage
soon.” Shiro pointed to the manhole entrance. “I’ve seen hundreds of goryo like
that tear through pavement to get to a single person hiding in the drains
below. “Soon there will be thousands in this tunnel.”

“How much farther to the subway car that Carlie
mentioned?”

Shiro knelt down to lift Yoshi in his
arms. “Ten minutes.”

Chapter 38

Commander Ellis was squinting into the
viewfinder of the periscope, scanning the shoreline along the eastside of Osaka
Bay. The
Olympia
had just emerged, and he was eager to retrieve Shane’s
team and be on his way. He had witnessed too many missions gone to hell in too
many ports around the world, including one time when four mutants swam over
from the mainland and climbed up on the outer deck of the submarine, killing
his XO and four others.

Ellis prayed that everything was on track
this time. He pulled his head away from the device and glanced down at his
watch. They said they’d be at the east dock by the airfield at 2130.
That’s
one hour from now. After that, it means something went wrong or they’re all
dead.
No way I’m sending my crew into that city to get Duncan’s prize
package. We can’t operate this sub if we lose any more people and I’m not
risking having all of us die here.
He leaned back and grabbed a mug of
coffee from the map table, swigging down his fourth cup of the hot tarry
substance as he tried to reduce his hangover.

As he resumed looking through the
periscope, he caught sight of an immense white light emanating from behind the downtown
skyscrapers. He paused in mid-swallow and held his breath.
Jesus, they
didn’t say it was this bad. The reactor cooling and feedwater systems must be
compromised. The entire fucking country is gonna go up. If that thing blows it
could knock out all of our electronics and send a shitload of fallout along the
western U.S. and Pacific.

Ellis walked over to the front of the
operations room and stood behind two young sailors at the helm. They were responsible
for diving and steering the leviathan. He looked at the console, reassuring
himself that everything was functioning smoothly. Then he moved over to the
weapons engineer and inspected her computer readouts and inventory. “Seven
ballistic nuclear missiles left—very good. I want those inspected and primed,”
he said to the woman sitting before him.

“Yes, sir. Is there a bearing I should enter
in?”

“The Junekai Nuclear Reactor in Kyoto.
Once Shane’s team is on board, we’re gonna send four missiles into the heart of
that thing and implode it. If there’s time—if there’s time.”

“Sir, we’ve got a small vessel approaching
from the northwest on radar,” said a red-headed man sitting at a separate
computer station next to the helmsmen.

“That could be them,” Ellis said, rushing
back to the periscope, his pulse quickening. He strained his eyes, studying the
scene, then sighed. “Damn, no such luck. It’s a few survivors from the
mainland.” He grabbed the radio receiver and turned it on. “I want an armed
detail and a medical officer up to the deck. There’s a group of three people
inbound and one is holding an infant. If they check out, then get ’em down
below ASAP. Otherwise, contact me…” he paused, lowering the receiver
momentarily and pressing his head against the periscope, recalling the last
time they encountered survivors that bore signs of infection, “…and I’ll handle
it.”

Chapter 39

Tamiko applied the handbrake on the small
cart, its metal wheels shooting off sparks along the railway as it came to a
halt before the two motorcycles driven by Shane and Amy. They were nearly at
the end of the subway tunnel near the airfield. Shiro pointed to the door of
the maintenance room, the same one Carlie had come through earlier. “Go inside—in
the corner of the floor, there is a crawlspace. Follow that until you reach the
bay. It’ll put you near the last set of docks by the runway.”

In unison, everyone turned at the
shrieking sound emanating from the bowels of the tunnel in the direction of the
hospital. There were thousands of desiccated freaks pouring through the
passageway, bent on locating the last humans left in Osaka. Shiro motioned the
others to head up to the room and get into the crawlspace.

As the group ran up the steps, Shane fell
behind, unslinging the pack and removing several bricks of C4. He carefully
slipped in a detonator and looked up at Shiro. “I’ll set this to blow in ten
minutes. We should all be out by the docks by then.”

“No need,” said Shiro, raising the tip of
his sword towards Shane’s throat. “That won’t be enough time to get everyone
out safely. But if I can stop them at the last junction with the cart, then you
will have a chance.” He nodded for Shane to get into the room while sliding the
C4 over with his boot.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“If those creatures reach this point, you
will all be overtaken and this whole thing will have been for nothing.” He
moved forward, the tip of the sword causing Shane to keep backpedaling. “Go—and
remember what I said about keeping Nora and Tyler safe.” As Shane stepped
through the doorway, Shiro slammed the entrance shut and dropped a wooden beam
in front of it. He heard Shane pounding on the door, yelling his name as he
retraced his steps down to the railway, stopping to place the blocks of C4 on
the cart and staring into the mouth of the inky tunnel ahead.

“Now this madness can end.” He climbed
atop the cart and with his powerful arms began cranking on the hand lever. Just
as the cart started moving, he caught a flash of movement out to his right.
Shiro fluidly withdrew his sword and turned to see Yoshi staggering over. The
young man climbed on board, the thick gauze along his ankle soaked through with
blood.

“Did you think you would go alone, my
friend? I would like just one more trip with the last of the great warriors.”

Shiro knew there was little point in
refusing his dying comrade’s wish and there was no place else to send him. He
scrunched his eyebrows together and then resheathed his weapon. The two men stood
erect and began working the motion lever.

As their speed increased, Yoshi looked
back down the tunnel and then to Shiro. “So is this your destiny—to die here in
this tunnel?”

Shiro resumed jerking the handle while
trying to ignore the comment but Yoshi continued talking. “You have a chance to
start over with a woman who loves you and a boy who needs a father.”

Shiro’s cheeks were flushing red. “Be
silent.”

“You’ve spent so much of your time
suffering that you have forgotten how to live, my friend. Ending your life in
this tunnel, going out in such glory, would be easy for you, Shiro. But
forgiving yourself and picking up the pieces of your life—that would be a
challenge that only a true warrior could face.”

As the cart came to the end of the
junction near a rise in the tracks, Yoshi kicked the brake lever with his boot.
Shiro rushed forward and grabbed Yoshi by the collar. “What are you doing?”

Shiro’s face was like smooth steel while a
tsunami of anguish roiled beneath the surface. The young man stared up at him.
“You have taught me much since I met you—about what it means to live with honor—now
let me return the favor and do this. Just one last duty that I can perform for
you.”

Shiro’s grip on his own soul was slipping,
touched by the man’s selflessness and his words. He felt a nauseating wave of
dormant emotions forcing their way past his granite exterior. His jaw trembled
and his throat was on fire.

The man reached up and pulled away Shiro’s
hands, letting out a partial smile. “The world still needs you, Shiro Hatsumi.”

Yoshi leaned back and grabbed the bundles
of C4, sliding them closer to him. “Please, go—and live.”

Shiro looked down the tunnel that ran
towards the airfield, and, for the first time in decades, felt a ping of
hopefulness coursing through his veins. Shiro held his head up and placed his hand
on his trusty tanto blade. Moving away, he heard the echoes of thousands of
goryo flooding into the tunnel behind Yoshi.

 “Go,” yelled Yoshi. “I’ve got this.”

Shiro shot a firm look at him and then
bowed towards Yoshi. The younger man flipped up the brake and continued his journey
into the oncoming horde in the distance.

Shiro turned and sprinted in the opposite
direction until he reached a service door. He smashed off the round handle with
his metal pipe and then proceeded up the steps to the main subway level. The
first rays of moonlight over the bay were shining in through the windows and he
could see eight goryo that had just turned towards him. Unlike other opponents
he had faced over the years, these creatures never hesitated. There was no fear
constraining their movement. They didn’t study him for weakness or examine his
moves like other fighters he had faced in dank alleys. Theirs was a predatory
rage driven by pure hunger on some twisted cellular level. He unsheathed his
sword and rushed the first two, sticking the smaller directly through the
throat past the spinal cord, then backslashing the other across the cervical
region, removing its head. He wheeled to the left, downcutting a stocky beast
along the knee then slicing another across the abdomen, its entrails smacking
the walkway with a splashing sound. Shiro ran ahead twenty feet, leaving two of
the goryo to slide around on the newly painted surface while he engaged the
remaining monsters. He feinted to the right and then leapt off to the left,
giving him enough time to remove another’s head while stomp-kicking a wispy
goryo backwards onto the tracks below. He ran to his right, decapitating an
armless beast in a red dress.

From the opposite stairwell, he caught
sight of twenty more creatures shambling towards him. Shiro bolted towards a
window overlooking the bay. He resheathed his sword and slammed his metal pipe
into the glass. The building rocked from the massive explosion of C4 as Shiro
stood with his arms on either side of the mangled window frame. “Yoshi,” he
whispered up to the moon. Then he jumped into the frothy whitecaps below,
clutching his sheathed sword in his hand.