“You killed more than we did.” William said defensively.
“Yeah, but the ones you killed were the important ones.”
“Nuh-uh nuh-uh, the one I killed was fresh!”
By the time we got to the Inner Harbor the sun was already overhead. Zombies wondered everywhere. The landscape was worse than I had seen in any post apocalyptic movie, except maybe footage of cities after World War II.
“I heard the Air Force firebombed the city to try and contain the infection. They launched a massive B-52 Arclight raid on the northern part of the city, burnt it to the ground. Didn’t kill the zombies though, flaming zombies carried the conflagrations south and demolished the whole city.” Dan said.
I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it certainly seemed to be the case.
Our speculations were interrupted as we reached our target, the former Coast Guard Cutter Taney, a ship with an impressive service record through World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and now perhaps the Great Zombie War.
A lot of zombies were active in the area. I don’t know if they had ever gone dormant or if the helo flights yesterday reactivated them, but they were everywhere.
“Do you want to stand back and clear them from here, or do you want us to drop you off?” CWO Magann asked.
“If we try to shot them from here we will alert every zombie in the city before we finish. Get us as close as possible, cover us, and get ready to rig that tow line.”
Without answer Magann deftly brought the PBR under the stern of Taney and I clambered up over the side of the pier. Immediately zombies began to approach. We killed two dozen before Marion, the last person off the boat, was on the pier.
As the PBR pulled away and opened up with everything onboard I assessed the situation. The outboard side of the ship still retained its white paint, but the side I was looking at now was blackened and blistered. The fire must have reached the ship, but her all steel construction did not burn and the ship did not have a noticeable list. We might actually be able to complete this objective.
We ran for the brow, the gangway, mounted near the stern of the ship.
William went up first, and immediately began shooting at the zombies on deck. By the time I made it up he and Ethan had already cleared a beachhead.
Baublitz was right behind me. He stopped and saluted the stern where the flag should have been, then turned to salute me. “Request permission to come aboard sir.”
“Not the time.”
He stood there. Everyone was forced to stop on the brow, shooting down at the zombies gathering at the bottom.
“Granted god dammit! Get up here.” I yelled.
“Thank you.” He said as everyone rushed up after he had moved out of the way. Then Walls and Bull picked up the ramp and tossed it away from the ship, zombies and all.
From deep inside the ship a loud moaning rose up. I remembered how many people had flocked to the sea to try and board a ship when the plague first hit. Apparently a great number came here too even though the engine had been dead some thirty years. They were still here.
“William, Ethan, clear the deck and superstructure. Baublitz, close all hatches, make sure whatever is down below stays inside the ship, Bull, use your ax and cut these mooring lines, Walls radio Sterett and tell them we are ready to go, Marion help Markus rig a tow line.”
Everybody got to work and things seemed to be going well. With a groan Taney slipped her mooring for the first time in over a decade and began to drift with the current out towards the channel. We attached a thick hawser to the towing bit at the stern of the ship and passed it to the PBR below us. They began to sail toward Sterett, which was just backing into the Inner Harbor as Taney drifted out of her berth into the main channel.
Even as Sterett began to bring Taney’s lifeless hulk under control we heard a blood curdling scream. I looked around.
Ethan did the math first. “Where’s Baublitz?”
We were on the starboard side of the ship, watching the zombies on the pier below us. Marion turned first and headed for the port side. As soon as she rounded the superstructure the zombies were on her. No one could get off a shot.
She swung her M-4 with her powerful farming arms, like Davy Crockett and knocked the first zombie clear off the ship. But she overextended her follow-through and the second zombie was one her.
It ripped her throat out before she could scream, not that she would have. Bull rounded the superstructure and put a round in the zombie as it started to get off of her. Ethan shot her as she started to rise.
I turned and ran for the bow, up the starboard side of the ship. As I ran the football field length I heard more gunshots from the opposite side of the ship. I rounded forward part of superstructure just aft of the demilitarized gun mount and began heading in the opposite direction, towards the stern. Maybe a third of the way back a door to the crew’s berthing compartment was wide open. I grabbed the big metal bar and pulled it down to dog the hatch closed.
I turned and Baublitz was standing there, covered in blood, looking at me through red eyes. I fired once.
Chapter 15
Sterett’s RHIB brought over some Marines and Sailors to take command of the derelict Taney as she began her long, stern first journey to Bermuda. We were photographing corpses for the database and throwing them overboard without ceremony.
Marion and Baublitz were relieved of their equipment and lashed to some 55 gallon drums we found on deck. Walls punched holes in the drums with his K-Bar so that when we rolled them overboard they would fill with water to drag our friends down to Davy Jones Locker.
I was right about Marion not lasting the week.
The RHIB took us back to Sterett.
Chief Aquia was already waiting. “I’m sorry for your loss shipmate. Skipper wants…”
“To see me in his cabin, I know, I know.” I turned to the rest of the team. “You know the drill, grab some chow, steal some ammo from the leathernecks, I’ll brief you in 45 minutes.”
Commander Owen met me in his cabin again. “I’m sorry about your losses. I just got done informing Rapier 6 about your success. Dr. Morano is glad to have new subjects.”
“I don’t care what that bitch says…”
“It’s alright; calm down, the admiral has one more mission for you while we’re in Baltimore. You can thank the Lost Boys for this one.”
I looked at him confused and thoroughly drained.
“We are gaining ground, but public support is still low. Command wants you to do a little publicity stunt just like The Lost Boys did at West Point. All you have to do is take a picture. We’re retaking Fort McHenry.”
It was one of the most famous incidents from the great retreat. The Second Defense of Fort McHenry. Elements of the 29th Division had come in by chopper. The city was doomed and the army was pulling out everywhere. Everywhere except the fort.
Thousands of refugees from South Baltimore fled to the peninsula, one of the flattest, most open places in the city. The 29th set up a command post in the fort. At one end of the peninsula they set up defenses and a checkpoint to get civilians through. At the seaward side any seaworthy craft was commandeered to get people to safety. The trees were blown out of the way and an airlift rescued more people.
An EOD guy, Chief Nathan Little, slowed the zombies when he blew the Fort McHenry Tunnel. He lost his life, but he saved hundreds with the time he bought. It couldn’t have been more than an hour.
The Zombies reached the Fort and pushed through the outer perimeter in minutes. The last helicopters touched down on the forts flat ramparts to evacuate the troops. The 29th was ordered out so it could fight again.