Islands of Rage and Hope (eARC) (25 page)

"What
is
the plan?" one of the Russians asked. "Is there one?"

"Clear the planet," Sophia said, shrugging. "Find survivors and convince them to help and just keep building until we're old and gray or we're done. Da says there's a plan, sort of. Won't get into it. Says he needs the sub crews to be able to get to the next step. So we're sweeping the Caribbean for medical supplies and stuff to make the vaccine. Notably polyacrylide gel."

"That will be difficult to find, I would think," Rizwana said, sipping soup. "There was a great deal of research going on at the end and it was being used widely."

"A lot of it was going into vaccine production as well," Sophia said. "Speaking of which, when Walker gets here we'll give you your primer shot. You can turn it down, given that it's from human spinal cords and has all sorts of other negatives. Various possible side effects include causing the disease, auto-immune reaction against your own nervous system and standard allergic reactions. In which case, we'll move you to a cabin to see if you turn. Which with your immune systems, you will."

"That's cold," Dr. Price said.

"There used to be seven billion people on this planet," Sophia said wearily. "Right now we know the condition of about six, seven
thousand
. Every coast is littered with wrecks. Some of them probably have trapped survivors in them who are running out of food and water and air and time. Every shore is patrolled by infected. Every town we've cleared has had about one percent survivors.

"You're astronauts. That's cool. You're all really smart and really capable with lots of degrees and stuff. That's cooler. God knows we need people like you and don't want you to turn or die. We can't keep you in a bubble until hell freezes over. We're holding here, instead of continuing the mission, to give you time to get vaccinated and have it take hold. Or turn. Which is a possibility. We don't want that. We need your skills, and who wants more zombies? But we haven't got all the time in the world."

"Understood," Commander Daniels said.

"So if you don't want the vaccine, the cabins are more comfortable anyway," Sophia said, shrugging again.

"And we'll get H7D3 and go insane," Tom said.

"Probably," Sophia said. "And we'll put a bullet in you and in your case probably give you a nice funeral like we did for Anarchy instead of just letting your body be picked by the seagulls. Which is what we've done with several thousand other humans who turned. Probably tens of thousands, come to think of it. Beside the wreck, when you can stand up, you can see the pile of bodies my gunboat division created on this pretty beach. The more infected we kill, the more people we can save and maybe save civilization. That's how we roll. Welcome to Wolf Squadron."

"That is the most world-weary fifteen-year-old I have ever met," Tom Shelley said as Walker gave him the vaccine.

Doing so had required getting them out of their suits. All of the astronauts, besides being physically weak as kittens, were skeletally thin. But that was common with survivors. One wag had called the apocalypse "the best diet plan in history."

"More just weary," Walker said. "Seawolf is also one of the brightest young ensigns I've ever met. Her entire family is quite extraordinary."

"Is there some more detailed information we can get than 'it's really bad'?" Colonel Kuznetsov asked. "For example, is there any continuing Russian government?"

"Fourth Strategic Rocket Command," Walker said. "Although General Kazimov apparently committed suicide by shooting himself repeatedly in the back when he tried to order a nuclear strike on Washington."

"The world has gone utterly mad," Tom said.

"By definition," Walker said, straightening up after his last shot. "If you define sanity as what is normal for the standard human, then sanity is being an aggressive animal with no higher brain function, Doctor. I was in a pitch-black stores compartment for five months passing the time doing knot work. Besides the three people who succumbed to the virus in the compartment, I had to kill an additional member of the party when he went stark mad and began attacking people at random.

"There was some issue with hooking up the TV. On the outside of the container; they don't have to come in. When it's working, we'll run the basic brochure then the video they show new arrivals. It's rather good propaganda but it is also truth, which is odd for propaganda. When you view it you will get a new appreciation for that world-weary young lady...."

Stand up when no one else is willing
Act not in hatred or in spite
Be to this world as a perfect knight
Even if it means your life

--"Sophia"
Cruxshadows

"You guys okay?" Sophia asked as she entered the container.

"They finally got the TV working," Troy answered. "They just ran the Welcome to Wolf Squadron video." It was possible the former SEAL was the only one able to talk.

"Your family started this," Tom said.

"Yes, sir," Sophia said. "That shot of me in a suit was where I was working in New York producing vaccine. Like I said, I've pulled half the squadron over a transom. We'd get you all the other briefing stuff but it's paper and there's no good way to decontaminate it and ditto with moving a computer in here. I'm not sure what they'll be playing, next, but I hope you can hang in there with it. We're going to have to crash. After that, we'll be going to four-hour shifts until you guys are recovered and we see if the vaccine holds. Shortest period for turning we've seen is three hours. So we're going to have to secure you while we pass out. Light restraints; you can get out of them if you're sane. Then Mr. Walker will be back in about four hours."

"We'll be fine till then," Dr. Price said. "One question. How many MDs have you found?"

"One," Sophia said. "You. Our other doctors are Lieutenant Fontana and Mr. Walker, who are both SF medic trained. There's one in the CDC who can talk us through stuff. Oh, and we've got seventeen hundred women who are pregnant and about to give birth."

"I'm not sure how many more shocks like that I can handle," Rizwana said.

"Here's another then," Sophia said. "We
had
eighteen hundred. We've lost about a hundred babies or their mothers to complications or miscarriages already. And when Walker isn't in here, he's running around the flotilla checking on the mothers. Including both of my subordinate skippers and six members of our boat crews. Last bit of news. We're moving, so you're going to have to put up with some motion. This beach is getting rather nasty so we're moving to a harbor that hasn't been shot up. Should take about an hour. Since I have to move
my
boat as well..."

She hung her head.

"See y'all tomorrow," she said, exiting the container.

"Sir, I've been looking at the map..." Faith said, her mouth half full of sushi.

The Marines had cleaned up after extracting the astronauts, eaten breakfast, then crashed. It was dinner time and Faith was still barely recovered.

In the interim the task force had moved to Rendezvous Bay. It was on the far side of the island from Road Salt Pond Bay and thus nicely away from the smell and sight of piles of dead bodies. Unfortunately, it was close to Blowing Point, which had been another clearance point. But even though the wind was from that direction, there was no real effect.

The bay was better in lots of ways. It had fewer wrecks and less mess than Road Salt Pond and there was, apparently, no fire damage. There were a couple of resorts in sight that looked almost as if nothing had happened.

"Remember those sayings, Lieutenant?" Hamilton said. "That sounds very much like 'I have an idea...'"

"I'm a second lieutenant not a first lieutenant, sir," Faith said. "But about the map, sir. This beach has another one of those salt ponds behind it. It's just a little strip of sand, sir. It's even narrower than that other anchorage was."

"I noticed that, Lieutenant," Hamilton said.

"Thing is, sir, we put out a couple of security points and infected can't really
get
to it, sir," Faith said.

"Thinking of hitting the beach for a tan, Lieutenant?" Hamilton asked.

"Thinking that most of us haven't had anything like a break in a long time, sir," Faith said. "So, yes, sir, that was sort of asking if the men could have some shore leave, sir. Since we're stuck here till the astronauts recover, sir. I was thinking about Christmas day, sir."

"How would you do it?" Hamilton asked, interested.

"One squad should be able to cover it, sir," Faith said. "One team at each end with the squad leader doing interior patrol as sergeant of the guard, sir. If we're here for a few days we could have them rotate one day on one off, sir."

"Why not Navy away teams?" Hamilton asked.

"I...don't run them, sir?" Faith said.

"The force has about the same number of Naval ground combat team members as Marines," Hamilton said. "How would you do it if you had them as well?"

"Not much different, sir," Faith said after a moment's thought. "Possibly have two shifts each day. I'd suggest that all armed personnel who go ashore, go ashore armed. But other than that...Just more free time, sir."

"How do you integrate the fact that people who go on liberty tend to drink?" Hamilton asked. "What about a reaction team?"

"I'm getting out of my depth, sir," Faith said.

"There's an outline for a standard liberty schedule in your inbox, Lieutenant," Hamilton said. "Along with our current TOE. I need the details filled in by zero eight hundred tomorrow. That way, people can have liberty on Christmas Day."

"You'd already thought of it, sir," Faith said.

"The definition of intelligence is generally said to be when someone has the same idea you have," Hamilton said. "I've found it to be when someone has a better idea. But you're getting there...."

"Hi, folks," Hamilton said, looking through the plexiglass. There was an intercom with a hand mike set up. "I'm Colonel Hamilton, commander of Kodiak Force. Sorry I haven't made it down here before now. You all nominal?"

"Nominal, Colonel," Commander Daniels said, sticking up a thumb.

"Now that we've got the plasma running, we're working on getting you up on video with the Hole and suchlike," Hamilton said. "We also took the time to extract the seats from the capsule. Doctor, do you think those would be preferable if we can decontaminate them?"

"How contaminated are they?" Dr. Price asked.

"We used the same protocols to recover them that we used to extract you," Hamilton said. "They're in the five-ton, which you can't see is still parked right behind the container. We're just not sure if it's worth the risk. On the other hand, the bedding you are on just came off the cleanest boats we could find that didn't appear to have been opened since the plague broke out. We cleaned the hell out of them, obviously, but...
Those
have a higher likelihood of contagion than your capsule seats."

"More wonderful news," Dr. Price said. "The seats would be preferable. They're conformal and we actually need to be somewhat vertical to get our bodies adjusted to gravity."

"I'll have them moved in next shift," Hamilton said. "For general information on the progress of any potential contagion, our experience is that most people who turn start to do so in the first several weeks after exposure. According to Dr. Dobson at the CDC, with your reduced immune systems, that's more like three to five days. So if you're going to turn we should know in a week or so. I'm not trying to be depressing with that. Simply the realities of current existence."

"Understood," Dr. Price said. "We'd discussed on the station what was likely when we landed."

"We'd discussed simply reentering more or less at random," Commander Daniels said. "But the Hole assured us that all we'd find is infected."

"It really is all gone?" Rizwana said.

"It is," Hamilton said, simply. "This is the first place we've cleared that you reasonably can walk around with minimal arms and security. And it took a heck of a lot to make it that way."

"Even looking at the view at night," Tom said, shaking his head. "It's hard to believe."

"It's like that for people who were in enclosed spaces, even lifeboats," Hamilton said. "Cognitive dissonance and denial are fairly normal responses in the current environment. I was in a warehouse. When you can go out at night and there is not a light to be seen and no humans but infected...it's easier to believe and understand."

"Do you have family, Colonel?" Rizwana asked. "We have a daughter in England."

"Point of protocol is that that's generally not a subject of discussion," Hamilton said. "But since you did ask, I had to kill my wife and son, ma'am."

"Oh, my Lord, Colonel," the physicist said, her hand over her mouth. "I am sorry for..." she shook her head again.

"And that is why the subject of family
is
generally off-limits, Doctor," Hamilton said.

"What is the plan for us when we're recovered?" Matveev asked.

"You're probably all headed back to Gitmo," Hamilton said. "If you wish to help out, that's where you're most likely to be of help. We're on a rather specific mission. But back to Gitmo is the plan."

"What is going on there?" Tom Shelley asked. "I assume that the detainees have been released?"

"None of the detainees made it," Hamilton said. "At the point that we were trying to manage their extraction, things pretty much fell apart. I'm assuming the few who were resistant were eaten by the rest or died in their cells of dehydration or starvation. It was not intentional, there was more effort put into securing the detainees than other, arguably more vital, issues. Like a lot of things, it just didn't work out. At the time I was handling other issues. Family among others. Guantanamo Bay is currently our only land base and it's not even fully secure, from what I've been getting. They're trying to get helos operational as well as building zombie traps. That's where all the building is happening and with the exception of Mr. Lyons, it's assumed that you all would prefer to be builders rather than this rather nasty but necessary destruction."

"Am I being reactivated, sir?" Troy asked, his eyes narrowing.

"Not if you are resistant, Mr. Lyons," Hamilton said. "Your mechanical expertise would be quite useful on the civilian side. But I've got a thirteen-year-old running my Marines and a fifteen-year-old running my Naval Landing Parties. Competently or they wouldn't be doing so. But you'll understand that I'm not going to turn down the help of a former Naval Special Warfare officer if it's offered."

"I'm not exactly in shape at the moment," Lyons said, raising his arm with some difficulty.

"That is what food and exercise are for, Mr. Lyons," Hamilton said. "My only gunnery sergeant, who is not here unfortunately, had to be carried off the
Iwo Jima
. He is currently again leading PT at Gitmo. Although they go running in combat gear since they occasionally run into infected who have penetrated the fences."

"You have helos," Kuznetsov said. "Do you have other aircraft?"

"The helos are yet to be certified for flight," Hamilton said. "That is where a good bit of my Marines are, working on them. As to other aircraft, there are no current plans to get airplanes working. The only strip we could use is Gitmo and possibly here. And we have virtually no mechanics qualified to work on most of them. Obviously, if we're talking about a Cessna, any of the Marine mechanics could fix one up."

"Any of us could fix one up," Commander Daniels said. "Well, most of us.
And
drive them."

"Captain Smith is concentrated on helos," Hamilton said thoughtfully. "There are planes at this airstrip. The ones at Gitmo are either too large to be viable--there's a Hercules there--or too complex. Most of the rest are corporate jets. But I suspect there are some smaller ones here. Probably not worth the effort, though. We don't do much in the way of reconnaissance and that would be about their only real utility."

"Critical parts and supplies?" Commander Daniels said.

"Scavenge and kludge," Hamilton replied.

"Seriously?" Lyons said.

"Pretty much what we do," Hamilton said. "Captain Smith noted to me that his master's thesis was on the Siege of Malta and the many work-arounds that were used to keep their aircraft flying. He holds the opinion that letting people scrounge in a situation like this, if not at will then widely, is more effective than trying to do everything by the book. So far it's working, so I suppose my boss has a point. It's a decidedly eccentric one, however."

"What about medical evacuation?" Dr. Price said.

"The most serious issue we've had on this float was an AD," Hamilton said. "Which was an abdominal through and through."

"Ouch," Troy said. "What happened?"

"As Lieutenant Smith said when I asked, we're taking undertrained Marines mixed with trained ones, few of them infantry MOS, and throwing them out into a chaotic environment," Hamilton said. "The short answer is one of them swept his buddy and jerked the trigger in panic. Mr. Walker--whose medical training was an intense but brief course thirty-some-odd years ago and about three years experience putting bandages on pimples--then opened him up like a trout and stitched everything back together as best he could remember. I'm given to understand he had someone hold open a copy of
Gray's Anatomy
while he was working."

"Jesus," Dr. Price said.

"The Marine is currently recovering in sickbay," Hamilton said. "So far the infection is under control. He has some rather spectacular scars but it appears he will live. And that more or less defines current reality. Dr. Price, ever delivered a baby?"

"I heard," Price said, sighing. "I'm hoping there are some obstetrics texts."

"We just raided the medical school on this island," Hamilton said. "They had some. Now we do."

"Any surviving faculty?" Tom asked.

"This is the first island where we have yet to find a single survivor," Hamilton said. "And we'd have found them by now what with one thing and another. We're not sure why this one had zero. We'd expected, statistically, to find twenty. But there were none."

"That is so sad," Rizwana said, shaking her head. "What London must be like."

"The ocean is made of tears, Dr. Shelley," Hamilton said. "The only thing we can do is keep lighting candles, one by one, and try to bring back the light. And with that, I really must bid you adieu. I have to go see a subordinate about a liberty schedule. The one benefit to being forced to stay in place is I can spend the free time giving my people some time off on Christmas Day before we institute a rather strict training schedule..."