Moosehill Militia (Book 1): INFECTED (34 page)
“Go go go." Ron started yelling at his driver, there was no helping those men. The Swarm got to within a few feet of the rear of his Humvee before they were accelerating enough to put distance between them. Captain Ledger and his men quickly out distanced the Infected and made it too the docks grabbing their personal gear out of the Humvee 's and boarded a ships boat that was waiting for them.
Looking at his men after getting in the boat must have been like looking in the mirror. They all had looks of disbelief on their faces. Ron figured he had the same look. Looking forward he can see the USS Nashville his home for the foreseeable future in the distance.
***
Commander George Wilson had his orders transmitted directly from the Admiral an hour ago, to the USS Georgia where his team just happened to be caught on when all this shit went down. They were off the coast practicing some ingress and egress from a submerged vessel near the outer banks, when they received orders to meet up with Second Fleet. These waters off the Carolina’s are notorious for its rough ocean weather, although this week's operations were blessed with abnormally calm ocean conditions.
The Georgia, an Ohio Class Trident ballistic nuclear submarine, was reclassified as a SSGN nuclear submarine due to nuclear treaty obligations to reduce nuclear weapons. The Navy in their wisdom decided instead of scraping four perfectly good subs to remove the nuclear missiles and convert some tubes to guided cruise missile platform and also a Special Forces delivery vessel capable of launching up to sixty six Seals or Special Forces Marines. Now here they were acting as a picket ship a few hundred miles off the coast of New England on the lookout for some mysterious submarine that Second Fleet detected before they or any other U.S. submarines arrived. The Marines have been in action on several locations in New England and Norfolk now it’s their turn. The orders he and Captain Prescott of the Georgia received, order the Georgia to entire Boston harbor to reconnoiter the harbor islands and inner harbor, especially the coast guard station and the level of Infected, all without attracting the attention of the Infected. A daunting task at the best of times never mind now.
Seven hours later the USS Georgia, partially submerged was passing Deer Island to the North and Long Island to the south heading into the Boston inner harbor at one a.m. Captain Ronald Prescott and Commander George Wilson had discussed their options while traversing Cape Cod Bay. They both agreed to attract less attention by coming in at night and be alongside the Coast Guard Pier in the middle of the night. The Boston Coast Guard Station was a logical place to start as the Admiral wanted the Cutters checked out too. Commander Wilson planned on having his men ready to leave the submarine as soon as they were on station.
“Helm steady as you go, dead slow ahead.” Captain Prescott talked quietly into his microphone to the Helm Station. The Sail was crowded as Prescott and three lookouts jockeyed for position. No lights could be seen in the City or Logan Airport to their north so he had to rely on radar, dead reckoning using electronic charts. The satellites had died the day of the Flare so no GPS navigation, they also relied on the mark one eye ball at this point.
Fifteen tense minutes later the USS Georgia passed Logan Airport close aboard to their north and Fort Independence and the Mass Port terminal to their south. The boat at this point was moving very slow with only it’s Sail above water. The Captain had ordered the hull submerged and water was quietly pushing up against the front of the Sail with a little over a foot of water washing across the deck. The boat was just about scraping the bottom as they passed over the harbor tunnels to Logan Airport. They slipped further into the inner harbor past the Rose Wharf, Long Wharf and the Boston Aquarium just a little further and on the south east side is the Boston Coast Guard Station. The Georgia started to turn to Port as they went over the Callahan tunnel that goes under the harbor from the North End to East Boston. Being dark with no lights the crew of the Georgia has to rely on radar and the lookouts on the sail, with the Skipper giving verbal instructions in an unknown Harbor in the middle of the night with no lights. Maneuvering a five hundred and sixty foot long submarine was no easy task.
Commander Wilson figured they should have transferred to a Virginia Class Submarine to come in to this harbor or just came in on a Helo and screw the noise.
“Commander Wilson, you ready to go, where pulling up to the middle wharf of the three at the Coast Guard Station, our lookouts have seen no sign of the Infected on the Station as yet. They have located Infected outside the base, maybe we’re lucky and the gates were closed and kept them out.” Captain Prescott told Wilson.
“Positive thinking Captain, but I doubt it. We’ll see them soon enough. He told Captain Prescott as his sixty six men started to file out of one of the hatches going down into the bowels of the submarine.
“Good luck Commander.” Prescott said as he shook Wilson’s hand. “The Georgia will stand off a hundred yards or so until we hear from you. Along with the Seals went two dozen snips or engine men to get the cutters moving if possible.
In Port, tied up to the docks, were the USCGC Escanaba and the USCGC Seneca both medium endurance cutters. They were both of the Famous class of Cutters about two hundred and seventy feet long with helicopter facility's on the aft end. The Seals were assembling on deck as the Georgia coasted up to the wharf, only about two thirds of the submarine fit alongside the wharf, the stern stuck out into the harbor for two hundred feet or so. Prescott watched as the first Seals scrambled up the wharf tying off ropes for the men behind and for when they come back to descend onto the deck of the Georgia.
Commander Wilson was the third Seal onto the wharf. He saw no Infected or anyone for that matter. One of the Coast Guard Cutters was on the opposite side of the middle wharf the Georgia was moored at, and the other Cutter was on the first or southernmost wharf. Wilson sent his second in command Lieutenant Roy Robertson with half the force and engineers to that wharf and Cutter to get it operational.
All the Seals had their full load out of equipment, but also carried a silenced 22 or hush puppy as it was commonly refereed too. Any Infected they ran into would be dealt with by the silencer. They were under orders to not attract the Infected if at all possible. So the rifles would only be used if they were compromised and in dire straits. Wilson’s team observed the USCGC Seneca that was moored at their wharf, all appeared quiet. Wilson gave the signal to move and the thirty three seals on his team silently rushed the gangway and up onto the ship. Here they split up with a team of engineers escorted down a hatch by half the seals, and to the rear of the ship toward the engine room.
“Petty Officer Rose led the way to the bridge.” Commander Wilson told one of his Seals First Class Petty Officer Rick Rose or RR lead the way inside a hatch and forward to the Bridge. Rose was a giant of a man standing six foot four and not an ounce of fat on him. He could have played middle linebacker for any NFL team if he had chosen. Now he was in his element, point man on a dangerous mission. Rose heard a noise up ahead while leading down a passageway. He believed the Bridge was just ahead up one ladder. Seals were given some leeway on the weapons they carried, Rose carried a custom made Spax twice the size of a normal one that the Marines carried, and he admired the tool and contacted the company and had his made at three times the price of the normal size.
Rose carried the large Spax in one hand and his silenced 22 in the other. Just as he thought if must have been some ship noise that he was unaccustomed too, three Infected dressed in enlisted men’s clothes came out of a hatchway right in front of him. They turned quickly and rushed him. “Fuck, Infected.” He whispered loudly back over his shoulder, even as he lined up the forehead of the first Infected in his 22 sights and pulled the trigger. The second Infected came at him from the other side and he left his Spax buried in its chest where it lodged after carving through its head and neck. The last he shot in its open mouth as it tried to bite him. The whole incident took around ten seconds, Commander Wilson registered as he watched from three places behind Rose. He picked the right man for point, Wilson thought to himself as it ended.
“Good job Rose, but let’s keep moving to the bridge.” Wilson whispered to everyone. They advanced up one ladder and came to a hatch which was open and led into the rear of the bridge. A quick search revealed no Infected. Wilson kept a few seals on the bridge and sent the others to start clearing the rest of interior of the ship. By tactical radio he contacted the team in the engineering section, they too encountered Infected killing two with no casualties. After ten minutes it was determined by the engineers that they could have the ship up and running in one hour. Wilson heard from Lieutenant Robertson, his ship had no Infected they could find as yet. Their estimate to get their ship operational was around five minutes longer than his ship.
Commander Wilson contacted the USS Georgia and informed Captain Prescott that there mission was a go and he could start to pull back to the lower part of the inner harbor for now. The Georgia acknowledged.
One hour later both ships started to reverse out of there berths, when a lookout spotted a light on in one of the buildings and a man waving at them. “Damn, we have survivors in that Coast Guard Building.” Commander Wilson informed all parties that were part of this operation. “Roy, keep pulling your ship out of the berth, we will get them.” He told Roy Robertson on the tactical net. “You sure skipper, I could still get half my men onto the pier to help you.” He told Wilson. “Okay, do it before you clear the dock, send them my way.” Wilson replied.
The USCGC Seneca came to a stop and moved forward slowly again. Twenty of Wilson’s Seals with George leading the team onto the pier himself, meet up with the fifteen Seals from Robertson’s team. They huddled for a few minutes while Commander Wilson explained the plain.
“Here’s the deal we have an unknown number of survivors in the middle building. Did anyone else see survivors or lights from any of the other buildings?” Wilson asked. He only saw shaking heads. “Then we move straight in to the middle building and enter through the rear double doors. Use you’re hush puppies as long as you can, watch out for survivors and we search from the ground floor moving up, any questions?” No one did, these men knew their business. “Move out.”
The Seals naturally took up positions as they moved to the middle building that Wilson thought was probably quarters for the crews. The Seals entered the bottom floor and immediately put down a half dozen Infected that were loitering around the lobby area, in a smooth choreographed way. The seals split up and ascended the stairs on either side of the lobby. Reaching the second floor they again came across a dozen Infected. The Navy Seals not being in a generous mood hacked the heads off most of these afflicted. On the third floor they encountered furniture blocking the stairwell. “Hello anyone there?” one of the men called up to the barricade. “Who is it?” Someone called down. “It’s your mother you idiot, do the Infected talk to you because they sure don’t to us, you tool.” The sailor responded. “Okay, Okay, that was pretty stupid.” A seaman called down. Whoever was up there were working on removing the barricade.
Ten minutes later they found out that there were one hundred and twenty Coast Guard Sailors in the building and were quickly running out of food. Commander Wilson organized them for the dash to the Seneca. The Seneca was prepared to pull away as soon as all were aboard.
“Everyone keep moving to the ship, my Troops will cover the rear so if you hear shooting keep moving and get up the gangway onto ship as fast as you can and get out of the way. Be careful, don’t go wandering around below. We cleared the ship but I wouldn’t call it one hundred percent secure yet. Understood?” he heard a lot of yes sirs.
“Let’s move.” The few Seals leading moved out quickly and the Coast Guard sailors followed just as fast. They moved in a compact mass straight down the middle pier to the gangway for the Seneca, which had been reattached by the men left onboard. Wilson hanging back with a dozen of his men noticed a group moving from between the middle building and the building to the north. He wasn’t sure at first, but then he heard the moan and the feet shuffling.
“Time to go to the rifles gentlemen.” He told the men with him. More Infected were coming around the corner, looking back toward the ship not all the men were aboard, the gangway was a bottleneck.
Wilson started the party by firing first at the closest to him. Shooting two in the head. That was the signal to start shooting. The Seals opened up with controlled aimed shots, trying to put the Infected down with one round to the head. These men were elite warriors and expert marksmen, and many of those first shots took down Infected. Wilson was worried the noise they generated shooting was sure to attract more Infected. He and his men slowly retreated while continuing to shoot the Infected. Halfway back to the gangway he saw a large mass of Infected come around the corner of the building from the area of the main gates. Damn he thought, “Time to let them have it.” He yelled out. And opened up on full auto into this new group. The men went to continuous fire in controlled bursts and changing magazines smoothly with practiced ease. The Infected were falling like dominoes, even so they were closing on his men. Looking back, the Seneca’s gangway was clear. Wilson stopped firing and starting going behind his men and slapping their backs, signaling for them to breakaway and get to the ship. He pulled a pin on a grenade and tossed it into the group of Infected twenty yards away, his men seeing this turned and ran for the gangway. Wilson ran with them. He didn’t even turn as the explosion went off running hard for the Seneca. Wilson was the last over the gangway, it was pushed off onto the pier as the ship moved slowly backward into the harbor channel. Job well done Commander George Wilson congratulated himself and his men. The Seneca and the Escanaba followed the USS Georgia back down the harbor channel and into the Atlantic heading for Cape Cod.
