To Sail a Darkling Sea

“We also clear a maximum of twelve hours per day,” Steve replied. “Because if you try to do more than that, over time you start making critical errors. Like blue-on-blue fire. So… we’ll schedule it for off time in clearance. And if my Marines can’t clear with a hangover… they’re not real Marines, Captain.”

“Squadron, Ground Team One.”

There was a sound of continuous fire over the circuit.

“Go, Ground Team,” Steve said.

“Tell Gunny to break out all the double-ought. There be weevils in the bread!”

“How heavy is it, over?” Steve asked.

“Oh, fair dinkum an all. Piece of cake if it weren’t for these bloody Barbie guns. Embarkation port of the supermax had some food stuffs spilled about. Got water, got food, got zombies. Bit of a lark. Going pistol, Janu. Okay, going next pistol, Janu… LitClear, could we get some fire on our flank, over? Told you you should get a real pistol… Yeah… Got that… Go ahead and reload, you two, got this… Thanks, LitClear, keep up the fire… Gunny, we’re going to need frags for this one… And … why do we want two-handed swords? We can’t swing them in the… Oh, really? Staff Sergeant requests something called claymores… And we’re clear… Or we were… Squadron, we’ve got this, but it’s going to take some time … break… Take some time… Embarkation port on the supermax is, repeat, is open. There’s a fair number of… Stand by… Fair number of infecteds … stand by… Fair number of infecteds in the… Stand by… Oh, jeeze, you have got to be shitting me? Fair number of infecteds in the embark… In the embarkation… Stand by… We’re going to lay in the… LitClear can you get a gunboat over between the two ships? That’s a fair posse heading this way… Stand by… Oh, jeeze, I’ve got him… Bloody Barbie guns… Reload, Kirby… Kirby, you’re just pulling on an empty trigger, reload… We’re going to lay in blockades to prevent… stand by… prevent infiltration then start active clearance of the perimeter until you arrive. LitClear, that’s as close as we’d like, thanks… closer really… Is that a roger? Shoot him in the head, PFC. I thought you were an expert rifleman… It goes like this … There, one in the chest, one in the head, they fall down go boom even with a Barbie bullet. And at this range if you can’t do that you shouldn’t have an expert … rifleman’s… Oh, just die already … badge… Squadron, you there … ? Squadron? Is this working? Hello? Any station this net … ? Hello? Oops… Damn open c… ”

“Ground team, Squadron, status, over,” Captain Smith said, calmly a few moments later.

“Embarkation area is clear, Squadron. Going to reammo and continue to check the other two liners. Over.”

“Were you in the dunny, over?”

“Negative, Squadron, never even broke out my kukhri. Honest. Big thanks to the Golden Guppy, though. Over.”

“Continue recon ops. Do not, repeat, do not allow infiltration behind you.”

“Got that covered, Squadron. We’ve got boats standing by. We can always jump it.”

“Clearance Ops will be by the discretion of the local commander. DivOne, understood?”

“Understood, Squadron. Not exactly chomping the bit to clear one of these again.”

“Squadron, out. Lieutenant Isham, ensure that all the shotgun ammo we can find on the Iwo is on the Pit Stop as well as any shotguns we can scrounge. Faith seems to positively enjoy scrums, but I’d like to avoid them if we can.”

“Yes, sir,” Isham said, making a note.

“And ensure we have pistols for all clearance personnel as well as sufficient stocks of forty-five. This is going to be a bloody one.”

CHAPTER 11

The Sons of Mary seldom bother, for they have inherited that good part;

But the Sons of Martha favour their Mother of the careful soul and the troubled heart.

And because she lost her temper once, and because she was rude to the Lord her Guest,

Her Sons must wait upon Mary’s Sons, world without end, reprieve, or rest.

It is their care in all the ages to take the buffet and cushion the shock.

It is their care that the gear engages; it is their care that the switches lock.

It is their care that the wheels run truly; it is their care to embark and entrain,

Tally, transport, and deliver duly the Sons of Mary by land and main.

Kipling, “The Sons of Martha”

“Bloody hell,” Faith said. She had gone through a decon shower in full kit then a “real” shower and now was collapsed in the saloon of the Senorita as were the rest of the clearance team. “I’d started to forget what a real fight was like.”

Night was falling on the port of Santa Cruz De La Tenerife and the last sunlight reflected a brilliant salmon off of snow-capped Teide mountain in the distance. Calling sea birds circled the boats moored in the main channel, squawking over bits of what had been human beings and were now shark torn offal.

There had been infected around the cruise ships. All three. Lots of infected. Stores had been laid in at the embarkation ports and the infected had been feeding on those as well as each other. Water should have been problematic but zombies would drink anything and most of them even survived it. There were puddles of rainwater on the dock. No rational human being would drink from them but zombies weren’t rational.

“You guys used up quite a bit of our fresh water,” Sophia noted. “We’re going to have to find a source of resupply.”

“Get some from the tender,” Faith said. “We’re going to be taking lots of showers.”

“It’s going to need your support getting containers,” Sophia said.

“And that’s for tomorrow,” Faith said. “We didn’t have any real problem with infiltration from the main city, today, but we still need to get the pier blocked off. I’ll get with the captain of the tender. We’ll need to… ” She stopped and held her head. “I know I was going somewhere with that.”

“I’ve got food coming up,” Paula said. “You probably just need blood sugar.”

“As soon as I get food in my stomach, I’m going to collapse,” Faith said. “I know I was going somewhere… ”

“Get with the captain of the tender, ma’am,” Januscheitis said.

“Oh,” Faith said. “We’ll need to try to get any containers that are well down on piers. These piers are so long there isn’t much in the way of infected infiltration from the city. So… ” She stopped again.

“There’s a commercial port on the other side,” Sophia said. “You should be able to get some from there.”

“Right, saw that,” Faith said. “The ship we should look for embarkation ports on the outboard side. If we can get them open we can extract into the harbor rather than onto the pier. I’d like to just get the embarkation ports pierside up and closed. That will prevent the problem of infiltration… Am I making any sense?”

“Plenty, ma’am,” Januscheitis said. “We’ll take care of the equipment.”

“Equipment,” Faith said. “I knew I was forgetting something… ”

“That’s what NCO’s are for, ma’am,” Derek said.

“We’ll need to get the Boadicea up here for survivors… ” Faith said.

“And that’s above your paygrade, ma’am,” Januscheitis said.

“It is?” Faith said.

“That would be Lieutenant Chen’s call or Squadron,” Januscheitis said. “You don’t have to worry about that level of support.”