Found - 5
Rick was working on yet another hole in the ground up against the building as he listened to the sound of gunfire. He had spent the last three days digging while listening to Kate teaching Martha how to shoot. He still had more holes to dig followed by constructing the window barriers in the truck bay.
Alexis showed up and offered up a glass of what looked like lemonade. "Here you go, Dad." However, the fact that it was filled with ice is what had him. Working outside in the Florida sunshine was hard.
"Thanks, pumpkin." Rick took it gladly and chugged it down in seconds. He sighed as he handed it back empty. That had hit the spot. "How goes the search?" he asked before getting back to work.
"Stationary locations like Kate's armory are easy. Finding a tanker filled with gas that moves is a lot harder. We might need to think up an alternative." Alexis was willing to listen to options.
"Plus if we can't find one, we need that alternative before the power goes out on us. Gas stations may still have a lot of gas, but it's all in tanks in the ground." Meaning they needed a pump that required power.
Rick's mind went straight to a small gas can followed by still more small gas cans. Then repeat again and again. He looked down at the latest hole. "If we have to, we have to." He'd done a lot of work to build them a house. Moving gas sounded a lot easier.
"How's Grams doing?" They could still hear weapons fire.
"Mother has stopped complaining so I guess it's going well." He hadn't asked Kate how she was doing. "What about you? When do you plan on getting in your practice?" he inquired, knowing full well his daughter had found something at that armory.
"Tomorrow. I'm planning on joining Grams." Alexis was actually a little excited about it.
"Are you sure you can handle that thing? It's almost as big as you are." He wasn't sure it was the weapon for her. Even the rounds were big in her little hands.
"I plan on lying on the ground when I fire it, so I'll be fine." Alexis had no plans to actually try to fire it while standing, let alone holding it. She had no illusions about what it was going to take. "I just need to select a target. I've done some research and it's capable of hitting targets up to two miles away." Since they were surrounded by trees she hadn't worked that out just yet.
"Two miles?" Rick looked around to see just where she could be to fire even half that distance.
"There are those line of containers on that side road we saw earlier." They had driven around and around to get used to their immediate area. They had learned that the trees were thick around them. They had also found a back area behind Frontier Land Railroad Station that they had yet to search.
Alexis thought about it. "I could maybe set up just outside the front door." She tried to picture it. "Thanks, Dad. I'm going to go look before going back inside." She left him and headed for the front of the building.
Rick was digging yet another hole when Kate showed up. "What's Alexis doing?" She had spotted her lying on the ground on her stomach.
"Lining up a shot at those containers on the side of that trail for her new toy."
Kate thought about it and liked the idea. "We need to remind her to wear ear plugs when she fires that thing." Kate had questioned her choice as well, but hadn't fought against it as much as Rick had.
"Maybe for all of us?" Rick added which earned him a glare from Kate. "It's almost as big as she is. What does she plan on shooting with that thing anyway?" He didn't see a use for it.
"Don't let Javi hear you say that." Kate knew Javi had been a sniper during the war.
Somehow his entire body sagged. "And once again all of our friends are either dead or not yet born."
Kate knew he was sweaty and probably stinky, much like he was when they were building their home, but she stepped into him to hug him. "We made new friends last time, we'll make new friends again."
After dropping the post hole digger, Rick wrapped his arms around her and let her strength hold him up. "If they aren't all zombies," he grumbled.
"There were six billion people on this planet, Castle, and they're infected, not zombies. No more than those kids were real zombies; no matter how much you wanted them to be. Please tell me you didn't go on one of those zombie walks." Kate looked up at him and buried her face in his chest. "You did, didn't you?" Rick started to explain. "No, don't tell me. My stupid husband went on a zombie walk because he wanted to be dead." She just knew he had.
"My mother is an actress, you know," he said in his defense.
Kate didn't see how that helped. She let go of him. "More holes, babe. I'm going to start taking measurements so we know how big to build each one before we make a mistake." She began to leave.
"How's Mother?" Meaning was she learning.
"A police officer she'll never be, but she's starting to hit what she aims for." What she didn't know was what Martha would do when they were being attacked by the infected. No one truly knew what they would do when the time came. Talk was cheap.
"A word of advice. She's an actress. Try to talk to her like a director. Be nice to her or be mean to her. Mother has dealt with both."
"Thanks, Castle." Kate had worried about just how hard to push Martha. "Be a hard case director." She could do that. Provided that Martha didn't learn to hate her because of it. "Maybe not that hard." She went inside to search for a tape measure and pen and paper.
~[o]~X~[o]~
As had become the norm, they were sitting at the dining table to eat dinner before they started taking turns so that someone was always up at night. That would only stop when they were sure the building was secure. This was the time when they talked about what they'd accomplished and what they had yet to do, as well as how to do that.
Rick went first. "The holes are done and we have all the bags of Quikrete that we'll need plus a little extra."
Kate added, "I have the measurements for each window now, too."
"I've got an idea on how to move the diesel but not what to store it in long term. You remember that truck that had a big plastic tank on the back?" Alexis asked.
Rick nodded. "The landscape guy."
"We can empty it, fill it with diesel and drive it here, then repeat. Just two things. One, we need something to transfer that diesel into and two, we need to find an additive to for the diesel. My research tells me that diesel will last about 3 to 5 months, 6 to 8 months with the additive. At any rate diesel cannot be expected to last longer than a year under any circumstances." She had good and bad news.
"However, by 1970s bio fuel was being used more and more. That alone creates a number of questions. What was it made from? How is it stored? Direct sunlight will cause it to degrade really fast. What is the temperature? Some biodiesel can last twice as long. But we can't mix the two long term.
"If our generator is meant for diesel we can use biodiesel if we have to…but only once." Alexis held up a finger.
"Don't the trucks we have run on diesel?" Martha questioned.
Alexis replied, "Most of them, yes. The big ones. The others use standard unleaded gasoline and we did find some unleaded gas in cans."
"We have a plan for the windows but what do we do about all the doors?" Kate had given up on to how to secure the big roll up doors.
Alexis offered a solution. "We could go back to the place we got the concrete from and look at their doors. Or I could search for cast iron storm doors."
Kate tried to picture the doors that place had. None of them looked like what she wanted. "Can you search please? That would be great." Alexis included it in her list of things to do.
"Groceries tomorrow?" Rick queried since four adult mouths were going through food fast. "Maybe nothing but fresh while it lasts and augment what we have to with canned. We still have a fair amount of meat and so long as the power's on, we can raid their freezers. Though I'm thinking we should try and find a vacuum sealer. What we put in the freezer would last longer."
"We can find them anyplace that sells kitchen goods." Alexis added it to her growing list of things to search for.
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"What have you got, Jarod?" The captain had gotten the message and was thankful that finally his risk maybe paying off.
Jarod didn't answer, mutely handing him something that he printed off. Knowing that while paper was to only be used for command orders, he thought this was important.
The captain couldn't miss the big word splashed across the top: INFECTION! He tried to read fast and Jarod was willing to let him, however, he had a time constraint. "There's more, Captain. You asked me to think outside the box." Jarod waited until he had his full attention. "I've found a site where someone's posting messages at the same time each day, based on their history. Then next one is in…" he looked at his watch, "two minutes."
The captain went back to reading and he wasn't liking what he saw. It had him reaching for the phone. "Exec, report to the communications room immediately." He put the phone back in place.
"Thirty seconds, sir," Jarod advised.
"Captain." Morrison was just a touch out of breath as he had run down from the bridge, yelling at everyone to get out of his way along the way. All he got was a piece of paper shoved into his chest. He barely heard Jarod talking as he started reading.
"The message is up, Captain." Jarod leaned to one side to allow him to read.
"This is live?" the captain questioned and heard Jarod's confirmation. "Ask them if they have video and audio capability." Impatient, the captain watched him type the message and saw the almost instantaneous reply.
"Give me a minute."
"Set it up, Jarod," the captain ordered, knowing that trying to keep this a secret on this boat was going to be impossible. He was going to have to give a boatwide announcement after this anyway.
"Communications established, Captain." He motioned at a small monitor to one side that had the captain looking to see what was displayed. To say that he was shocked would be an understatement. What was on his little monitor was a lovely teenager with long orange hair and a not much older young woman right behind her with long brown hair.
"I'm Captain Jeffrey Zimmerman of the SSBN Columbia."
He saw the older woman lean down. "SSBN?" Kate asked Alexis.
"Ballistic missile submarine. The Columbia was the first of her class." Alexis knew about it from her previous life and was a little surprised that it was still operational since it launched somewhere around 2031.
That little exchange already told him a lot. "I was hoping you could help us with some additional information." He snatched the 8-1/2 x 11" piece of paper from his exec and held it up for them to see.
"The infection." Kate now understood why Alexis had yelled for her over the communication system that each of them wore everywhere. "Alexis?" Kate knew Alexis knew more than she did.
Her eyes wide with alarm, Alexis looked up at Kate like she was nuts. That was why she had yelled for her to come.
"FINE!" Alexis would shoot Kate later. "A pharmaceutical company located in Germany developed a cure for cancer. They sold it worldwide for an astronomical price. At the prices they were charging for it I'm betting that they recovered their research costs on the first production run.
"Most of the first run was sold in Europe, Russian, China, and Dubai. I haven't yet found how it got FDA approval so quickly, but the last of the first run was sold here in the States. If you've read that, you've found out that the cure had a nasty side effect." Alexis paused to give him a chance to speak.
"It talks about these infected going on a killing spree. Three month incubation I can understand, but where is everyone?" These two were the first live people outside of his boat he had talked with.
"Yes, about that." Alexis knew this was going to go badly. "The infected aren't just infected, they're also carriers." Alexis and even Kate cringed.
He thought about that for a moment. "GOOD GOD!" Kate and Alexis watch his face fall and his mouth open wide.
Alexis took a breath and exhaled. She really didn't want to have to tell him such horrific news. She started with, "As I'm sure you can gather the police would be a first responder. They no doubt would shoot, causing a certain amount of blood spray."
"Infecting all the first responders." The captain had no trouble keeping up.
"FUCKING HELL!" Jarod whispered; the captain turned to look at him. "Sorry, sir." He turned his head to stare at his screen.
"Next would be the National Guard who would use larger weapons at larger groups." Alexis saw him begin to think about that.
The captain looked puzzled. "I'm following all that but that leaves me with a question."
"How did it happen so fast given that with the first infected it took 3 months if not longer," Alexis guessed; he nodded. "To be honest we're having a little trouble with that as well."
Kate spoke for the first time. "Our working theory is that after people were initially infected, the infection mutated. So instead of taking 3 months it only took hours if not minutes for the infection to start making changes."
The captain was still having a problem. "Being a carrier helps explain a lot, but there are a lot of people that aren't commonly among the general public." He knew admirals, generals and other high military or even cabinet members would be that open to being infected.
"You're forgetting, sir, what being a carrier means and how long the infection lives in… say blood or skin or even a cough," Alexis said, using her years as an ME in Nassau to explain.
The captain considered her words. "The Secret Service or FBI would go out to gather certain members of the government or military. They have to fight to get in and out. The cars they use become infected on the outside. Several, if not all, would touch a contaminated door handle, perhaps. Once inside they spread the contagion and suddenly people who thought they were in a safe place, are no longer." He could see it.
"Plus they only have moments before finding out that it has reached them so they start running–" Alexis continued only to be interrupted.
"The Secret Service would fire to protect them and spread the infection even further and take it with them on their clothing. Our Command and Control would be infected about as fast as they find out about the danger." The captain started cursing internally. But he didn't miss seeing his XO take a phone call.
"The infected do not like the sunlight, Captain. If for whatever reason you decide to stop at a port, remember – stay out of the dark. We have yet to actually see one face to face, though we have heard them and they are everywhere there is darkness," Kate said just before his attention was taken from them.
"Sonar has a contact, sir, headed our direction, running deep. The computer suggests a Yasen class," Morrison informed his captain.
"I have to go. If we survive we will be back in touch. May I ask where you are?" Then he turned to his XO. "Order a crash dive, take us to crush depth." Then he turned back to Kate and Alexis.
"Reedy Creek Fire Station number 3, just outside of Disney World," Alexis replied.
"Good luck, Captain," Kate added quickly.
"Monitor all communications. If that Russian so much as coughs I want to know about it." The captain began running to the bridge, starting to feel the boat pitch down.
He had options running though his head after he lost this Russian. He didn't need fuel, or air, but he did need perishables. "Report," he called out once he reached the bridge.
~[o]~X~[o]~
Kate clapped her hands. "So we're not alone after all."
Alexis hated to dump cold water on her enthusiasm. "A Yasen class is a Russian attack sub, Kate. The first one entered service in 2013; there were still a lot of them in the late 2070s."
She stopped celebrating. "And our American?" Did they stand a chance?
"His boat is a Columbia class ballistic missile boat. The first of the class was in 2027, his." Alexis knew a lot. "It's designed to travel undetected. I'm sure he'll be fine." Alexis waved Kate off, not noticing that she did it just like Martha did.
"He'd better," Kate said softly. "What are the chances that only he and this Russian are all that are out there?"
"If this is you asking if I can hack the Naval Command, the answer is no." Alexis rolled her eyes. Even she had her limits.
"No, I mean, yes. That is… I'm going to go find Castle and Martha and give them the good news." Kate made a quick withdrawal.
"Good luck, Captain," Alexis murmured to her monitors.