Only the Dead Live Forever (9 page)

17.

It was go time.
Tony was in the cab of the crane. A large steel cable had been looped over the
ball and hook that extended from the end of the crane’s arm. Brooks had attached
another two hundred and fifty feet of heavy rappelling line to the end of the
hook. The SEALs sat on the rail with the ball and hook just over their heads.
On command, Tony would swing them out over the open water and lower them to the
boat below.

Sean had synced
his wireless headset to the radio in the cab. He gave Tony the word to move
them. Brad watched as the crane swung out away from the platform, the SEALs
dangling beneath it. Sean and Brooks were dressed in bright green dive suits
and swim fins that had been salvaged from a locker on the platform. The men had
tried to camouflage or at least darken the colors with grease, but the attempt
only made them look worse.

The crane swung
out and abruptly jerked to a stop, swinging the men out and away uncontrollably.
Sean reached out at the length of his arm and grabbed the steel cable,
stabilizing them. He turned back and shot Tony a cold stare. Tony put his hands
up apologetically and then gave Sean a thumbs up. Brooks nodded back and
unclipped his D-ring, then began a slow descent to the attack craft below.

Brad changed
positions farther down the railing so he could see the boat hundreds of feet
below. He held his rifle at the ready but was not confident he would be much
good if he needed to fire at such a steep angle. Brad watched as Brooks
descended, then slowed and hung barely twenty feet above the surface of the
water. Sean slid down the length of the rope, stopped just above Brooks, and
placed himself into an over watch position with his suppressed MP5 at the
ready.

Once Sean was in
a comfortable position, Brooks continued his decent and cut into the water.
Brad watched as Brooks disconnected himself from the line and quietly swam to
the side of the attack boat before he slipped under the water. After several
seconds, Brad watched him surface near the dock with his dive knife in hand.

Slowly and
quietly he cut the rope holding the smaller boat to the dock, allowing the
small damaged military craft to drift free and away from the platform. He then
swam closer to the attack boat and, finding the mooring lines too big to cut,
pulled himself out of the water and onto the dock. Brad felt his heart race as
he tried to get an angle to cover his friend.

Brad watched the
larger ship also begin to slowly drift free and away from the platform. On
closer inspection, he could just make out Brooks’ head barely sticking above
the surface of the water; he was holding one of the heavy lines and signaling
for Tony to lower the hook and cable. The crane swung and came back to life.

Next, Sean was
slowly lowered into the water. He swam the lead line to Brooks and together
they pulled it until the end of the steel cable was in their hands. Working
together, they attached the cable to one of the heavy mooring lines. Tony took
the slack out of the line and carefully guided the boat out away from the dock
and close to one of the four large pylons that anchored the rig to the sea bed.

Brooks swam
close to the pylon and tied the attack craft off to a series of pinion hooks
embedded in the base of the structure just above the water line. Once the boat
was secured to the pylon, Sean reached up and released the cable from the
vessel and allowed it to swing free. Tony raised the cable up and away from the
boat below while Brooks and Sean pulled themselves onto the dive deck at the
rear of the vessel and ducked down, hiding.

Tony quickly
raised the hook back to the third deck and swung it in towards the rail. Bill
immediately unhooked the steel cable from the ball and hook, then hurriedly
attached a large basket to the end of the ball and motioned to Brad that it was
ready. The basket was nothing more than a steel cage the size of a phone booth.
Bill opened a gate on the basket and ushered them in. Brad shook his head but
willed himself forward and stepped into the basket with Wilson and Craig,
weapons at the ready.

They held on
tight as Tony raised them up and swung them out over the water. The crane again
stopped quickly, swinging them out hard. They swung back and forth several
times before slowing, and Tony began lowering them down toward the vessel. Brad
looked out over the edge of the basket as it passed the second deck. It was far
worse than he had imagined.

A series of
elevated cat walks surrounded by heavy pipes and drilling equipment covered the
second deck. The walkways were littered with the dead. The sun was high in the
sky, leaving the deep internal area of the deck shaded and in the dark. Brad
squinted in the contrasting lights, trying to search for movement. There was
little he could see but he knew they were there, hiding in a maze of walkways.

The basket
continued its descent until it was just above the vessel. As they got closer,
Brad was finally able to take in the size of the attack boat. It was over a
hundred feet long and painted in a grey camouflage pattern. He could see a
turret on the bow – possibly a 30mm, maybe 40mm gun; it reminded him of the
Bushmaster he had seen on the Bradley fighting vehicles. There were at least
two .50 caliber machine guns on the rear platform.

The bow was
completely covered with metal deck plating. Brad could see a walkway that
horseshoed around the large bridge structure and continued beyond onto the rear
deck. The bridge held large, tinted windows, but Brad could barely see inside
over the reflective glass. The interior looked empty, but the side doors
leading to the walkways were open, swinging along with the swells of the sea. A
large array of antennas and radar dishes sat motionless along the top of the
bridge structure.

The rear deck of
the ship was vacant except for a large rigid hull inflatable strapped to a
rack. Brad couldn’t see evidence of a battle or even a struggle on the decks;
if there had been one, then the storms of the last week must have washed it
away. Looking farther back, Brad could just barely make out the lime green
silhouettes of the SEALs crouched low on the dive deck.

Tony swung them
to the left and right, trying to drop them precisely onto a cleared space over
the covered bow of the attack boat. They touched the surface of the ship with a
metallic crunch; the vessel briefly bobbed away from them, then rose and made a
screech as the basket dragged. Tony let out more line, taking the weight of the
basket off the crane and putting it onto the bow.

Craig quickly jumped
from the basket and helped to steady it as Wilson and Brad followed him onto
the bow of the ship. Once they were clear, Tony began raising it away from the
boat. They immediately checked their surroundings, making sure they were alone.
Spotting cover, Brad and the Marines walked hunched over and hid behind the
bow-mounted gun turret.

The noise of
their landing did not go unnoticed. They heard the screaming moans start from
the second deck. Brad looked up just in time to see a primal run at them and leap
into the water. He watched the primal fly out and away from the platform before
plunging over a hundred feet to the water’s surface. The primal hit the water
with a sickening crack.

Brad then
watched the creature begin to slip below the surface before it shuddered awake
and tried to swim towards them. Craig raised his rifle and shot it twice in the
head, ending the primal’s struggle. Before they could look away they heard
three more screaming as they also flew through the air and smacked the water. Craig
and Wilson took aimed shots at these creatures as well as they moved and
struggled to stay afloat. As fast as they could shoot them, more dropped into
the sea, jumping from the high platform.

Screaming and a
rush of feet came from behind them. Brad turned to watch a mad rush of primals
fill the bridge windows. They ran and crashed at the glass but failed to break
through it. The primals left the bridge, found the walkway, and attempted to
make their way out onto the bow to get at Brad and the Marines. Sean and Brooks
broke cover from the dive deck and cut them down with their MP5s as they
crossed their paths.

Brad pulled the
Marines back into cover to prevent them from being hit by the SEALs’ crossfire.
He heard more splashing and the sound of primals impacting the water. Brad
grabbed Craig’s shoulder and faced him in the direction of the splashes. He
ordered the Marines to concentrate their fire on the primals leaping from the
deck while he covered the walkways. Simultaneously he heard more gunfire and rounds
hit the water.

Looking up, he
could see that Swanson and the others had joined the fight. They were taking
long shots from the top deck, firing at the struggling creatures in the water.
Brad heard the SEALs’ fire wither and turned to see the last of the primals
crumple at the edge of the walkway. Looking back at the platform, he saw that
the primals’ strategy had changed.

The primals were
running down the ladder wells to the bottom deck where they swarmed the docks,
howling and screaming at the water’s edge. Occasionally one would step forward
and leap into the sea. Brad and the Marines watched the primals struggle in the
water. Apparently they were not good swimmers, as most of them sank beneath the
surface after only going ten to fifteen feet.

The attack boat
was safety tied off to the pylon at least forty feet from the dock, so Brad
ordered his men to cease fire. The primals were no longer a threat, and he
didn’t want to expend hundreds of rounds of ammunition on them. The Marines
held their kneeling position with their weapons up and closely watched the
primals as they howled. There were over a hundred of them massed along the edge
of the dock. Looking up, there must have been close to a hundred more looking
down from the second level.

Sean and Brooks
moved forward from the dive deck, slowly clearing everything as they moved
towards the bow. Sticking to the outside of the boat, Brooks shut and dogged
the hatches as he passed them. Finally, they crept up alongside of Brad and the
Marines and stood with them. Brooks unzipped the front of his wetsuit and
leaned against the turret, looking at the screaming primals on the dock.

“Look at all of
them! I’m glad we didn’t decide to push down to the lower decks,” Brooks said.

“No shit. I
don’t think we would have gotten through them. We would have been overrun for
sure,” Brad answered.

“Nahh, we would
have made it, come on, Brad. This was just smarter,” Sean joked.

“What are we
going to do with all of them?” Wilson gasped, his voice cracking.

“For now, we
aren’t going to do anything with them; just keep an eye on them, okay?” Sean
said before turning his back and speaking to Tony over his headset.

Moments later
the crane started dropping the basket again with Swanson and Nelson on board.
As it got closer, Brooks grabbed it and directed it toward a flat spot on the deck.
Nelson jumped out first with a large kit bag in each hand. Once Brooks made
sure they were clear and the gear was on the bow, he flashed a thumbs up
skyward. Tony again pulled the basket up and away from the boat.

Quickly Sean and
Brooks took the bags from Nelson and opened them. They peeled the wetsuits off
and changed back into their combat uniforms and armor. They removed the
silencers from their MP5s and attached flashlights and lasers to them. It only
took a few minutes and the SEALs were back on their feet and ready for the
second leg of this mission.

“Corporal, I
need you and Nelson to watch the decks. Keep an eye on their movement. Call out
to us if you see any changes. Try not to fire on them, but don’t be afraid to
shoot if you have to. I’m just worried about stray rounds starting a fire if
you shoot towards the platform,” Sean said.

“Got it, Chief,”
Swanson said as she and Nelson moved closer to the bow and took up kneeling
positions where they could observe the crowds on the docks.

“Okay Brad, it’s
show time. Brooks and I will assault from the engine room hatch and through the
hull. I want you three to pop that door and secure the bridge. Like before,
watch what you are shooting at. We actually want to be able to drive this boat
when we’re done, so don’t go wild shooting shit up. Any questions?” Sean said.

“Understood. My
team is going to assault and secure the bridge. We’re on it, Chief,” Brad
answered.

“Good, give us a
minute to set up on the back deck and go on my movement,” Sean said as he
slapped Brooks on the back.

Brad watched the
SEALs move back down the platform toward the back deck, then turned and looked
Craig and Wilson in the eye. “Wilson, you’re my point man. Craig, back him up.
I’ll direct our movements from just behind you. Move slow Wilson, this isn’t a
race. Just like in training, guys,” Brad whispered to them as they moved toward
the door.

“Just like
training, my ass,” Wilson said. “I’m an equipment mechanic, not a door kicker.”

 “Well then, I
guess now is a good time for some on-the-job training,” Brad said.

They moved
forward and stacked up on the port side door leading to the bridge. Brad looked
back at Swanson and Nelson, who were intently watching the crazed mobs on the docks.
Feeling his stare, Swanson looked back at him and gave him a thumbs up. Brad
returned the gesture and took up the six-position on the stack at the door.