Showdown, Chapter 10

(Lost at Sea)

"Any bright ideas?" Sam said calmly as the VTOL lurched again.

"Nothing that comes to mind immediately," admitted Alice.

Carlos shrugged. "I wonder if there's a life raft on board."

"With room for thirteen?" asked Christina from her place beside Jennie and Emily, who was starting to show signs of waking up. The former SWAT officer was keeping a close eye on the one-time FBI agent in case she woke up still under Umbrella control or at least wildly and dangerously confused as to her whereabouts.

"Unlikely."

"Well," said Claire determinedly, "we'll just have to find a place to land."

"Where?" Sam demanded. "I've looked at the chart. There's no place I think we can reach."

"We'll just have to find a place," she replied. "Or rather get some help with finding it." With that she threw a switch and spoke into the microphone of her headset.

"Mikey? Are you there? Mikey, come in."

She listened and repeated her call. A smile came across her face and she adjusted the radio set on the control panel. "Say again Mikey."

"I said," came the familiar voice to everyone in the aircraft with their helmets or headsets still on, "that you don't need to shout. Of course I'm here. The only time I've left here has been to run check on the kids who are all fine by the way. So what's up?"

Claire gave a brief, concise summary of the situation they found themselves in. "Can you hack a handy Umbrella satellite and find us some place to set this down before we have to try swimming for Alaska?"

"Of course I can hack a satellite," Mikey replied almost sounding insulted at that part of Claire's question. "Hold on while I do it." In a remarkably short time he was back. "Sam is the transponder off?"

"Of course," the ex-Umbrella pilot replied. "No point in making it easy for Umbrella to track us."

"Understood. Can you flash it though? I need a lock on your position."

Sam touched a control. "Wait for it on my mark Miley. Three, two, one. NOW." He jabbed the button his finger was resting on and then stabbed it again to shut it off.

"Got you. Good golly you ARE in the middle of nowhere." The young computer genius started to mumble as he concentrated on sweeping the ocean around the crippled VTOL while at the same time minimizing the number of commands he gave the satellite. He knew he needed to find his friends a place but at the same time he didn't want to draw Umbrella's attention by too obvious a demonstration of the control he had on their equipment.

"Not there... not there... too far... too small... capsized..." the litany went on until his voice rose in triumph. There! A good sized freighter with a large open deck. Plenty of room. No clue what is aboard; I can't read the name." Mikey went on to give a course and distance.

Claire looked at Sam who nodded in satisfaction. "Thanks Mikey. I there's anything else we'll yell."

In Alaska the computer wizard looked troubled as the connection broke. "I can't help but think," He said aloud to no one else, "that I better not wait for that yell before I start getting busy." And with that he proceeded to get very busy indeed.

"Everyone who can better strap in," Sam called over the aircraft's speaker system two hours later. "This is going to get rough. There's a lot of wind shear in the area."

The safety belts the rather uncomfortable seat lining both sides of the rear of the aircraft were hastily fastened. On the right hand side Jennie and Christina were helping Emily, who as predicted had regained consciousness with no memory of who she was or any of her previous life, strap herself in. The dark-haired woman was beginning to come out of the mental fog left behind by the drugs that had been pumped into her system and showing growing signs of the incredibly intelligent and discerning woman that Jennie had fallen in love with. But the glances Emily shot around the cabin rested on Jennie no more than they did on anyone else. The former Border Patrol officer reminded herself that until just a few hours ago she believed she had lost Emily forever, at least in this lifetime. Waiting for the other woman's memories to hopefully return was a small price to pay for the chance to have her back.

"Claire honey, fire up the radar." Sam, as well as Claire, Carolos and Alice all knew that just like flipping on the transponder or using the radio, any electronic emission like the radar could paint a path to them. But there was no choice. A band of heavy rain had swept over the area and dropped visibility to near zero. They knew they were close to their target but Sam had to see it to land on the ship.

"There it is," Claire reported. "Bearing ninety four degrees magnetic, range six miles."

Sam turned on the new course. Shortly the grey bulk of the looked for ship loomed through the rain. She looked terrible, having obviously been adrift for years but her deck was still relatively uncluttered and Sam eyes a place that looked sturdy.

"Hold on," he instructed as he shifted to vertical flight. "Claire, landing lights."

Once again, as he had demonstrated in LA, Sam Treadwell proved that he was the most gifted pilot the others had ever seen. Clenching his teeth, his muscles bunched as he fought to control the one-engine aircraft as it swayed alarmingly back and forth in the wind. But there was only the slightest bump when they touched down and e cut the power.

The VTOL nearly rocked one more time as everyone, including the pilot, released the deep breaths they had been holding. Laughter rang through the craft.

"What now?"

"I need to find the holes in the fuel tank. We need something to patch them and then some gas. Fortunately this isn't a jet so high octane aviation isn't an absolute must but the higher quality the better. However in a pinch we can use just about any gasoline."

Jill undid the lugs holding the side door locked. She opened it and turned around as Alice started designating search groups. As she a sudden movement caught her eye. Christina had drawn her Kimber forty five with amazing speed and was pointing it in her direction. Before she could react the sex-SWAT officer fired twice past the RCPD STARS officer. Jill spun in time to see the zombie collapse to the deck, its eyes crossed as though trying to look at the pair of bullet holes between them.

"Well, the dark-haired woman said as she readied her own weapon, "I guess some of the crew is still here." She nodded her thanks at the other female ex-cop.

"We'd better assume there are more," noted Alice. ""Claire and Sam, you stay with the aircraft and look after Stan. Jennie and Christina keep Emily with you and remain here too. Carlos, Trent and I will search the bridge area and the quarters. Jill and Chris, Mike and William, you all look for the engine room and the supply storage below decks. Everyone stay together. Cover each other. We've come together this far, let's not get careless over what doesn't seem likely to be more than a handful of zombies."

An occasional shot echoed through the battered hull as one party or the other encountered a former member of the crew. None were a problem for the hardened survivors of a world gone mad. Soon the two groups met and conducted a sweep from stem to stern of the entire ship, insuring there were no undead left.

That was the good news. The bad news was given by Alice to Sam.

"There's a machine shop that we might be able to fabricate patches for the fuel tank. However, there is not a drop of high-octane gas, low-octane gas, kerosene or any other light distillate on board. Even the diesel fuel for the ship's engines is all used up. Apparently the engines were operating when the infection took hold."

"So we're stuck."

"Right now anyway. Claire, can you get Mikey and advise him of the situation?"

"On it."

While all of this had been going on Jennie and Christina had sat with Emily, who had been rapidly regaining her wits if not her memory. Although she kept her emotions sternly in check Jennie was delighted to see how Emily was taking in the situation and making sense of it. She listened intently as the other two women told her what the world was like now and how it had got to that present state. She admitted that she did remember the world as it once had been, just not her place in it and the events of the past five years were all new to her.

Although Jennie had carefully avoided any mention of them even knowing each other besides providing Emily with her name the former FBI agent's reasoning ability and her sharp observation skills led her to make several judgments. When Jennie left for a couple of minutes to put a new bandage on Stan's wound Emily turned to Christina.

"She and I knew each other before all this." Christina noted it was phrased as a statement, not as a question. "In fact we were very close. I wonder just how close." She smiled at Christina's obvious discomfort. "Don't worry, I'm not asking you to give away anything. But I've been watching Jennie and her obvious concern for me is underscored with some very real and deep feelings."

"That could be," replied the former SWAT officer. "But I think, and she thinks, that it would be best if your memory comes back on its own rather than being colored by others no matter how close they might have been back in the day."

"Fair enough."

The entire group reassembled to hear Claire's news.

"Mikey has been in touch with several different people in both Alaska and elsewhere. Several Coast Guard cutters and their crews were of course already in Alaska when the troubles started and more joined them. However lack of repair parts and downtime along with their efforts to aid refugees to Alaska who often came in leaking and even sinking boats along with the need to protect the revitalized fishing industry has stretched them to the breaking point. They will try to shake free a cutter to bring us fuel but admit they don't know when that will be. So Mikey came up with another idea."

"Which was?"

"Remember the pirate cave complex taken over by Umbrella on the Northern California coast?"

"Sure," the heads of the rest of the original sextet nodded. Sam more than the others as his eyes met his wife's with a smile, which she returned as that was where they had found the two girls who were now their daughters.

"Well Morganna Combs and Dwayne Hicks," Claire referred to the former Umbrella spy and security officer who had aided them on their trip, "are still there." Claire grinned. "Except it's Morganna Hicks now and their adopted son Don. They have a thriving trade and repair base there for the floating communities and lone survivors. In fact just recently the first convoy from there reached Alaska with a lot of salvaged items from California. Anyway they have several larger boats now for that trade and are loading one with aviation gas and it's leaving immediately for us."

"So we just have to sit and wait for them?" asked Christina.

"Not much choice. Although obviously we need to have the aircraft repaired by the time they get here," replied Carlos.

"Oh I agree," Christina said. "I just hate the idea of having to sit out here on the deep blue sea while Umbrella recovers from our strike. Who knows what mischief they'll come up with?" Everyone else agreed.

That worry was justified. For back under Tokyo Albert Wesker was raging.

"I want every aircraft that can fly launched. Repair the damaged ones. Load them to capacity with troops. I want to deal with this problem once and for all. Have them ALL go after that ship except for a portion that will strike at that miserable hamlet they call home."

Mikey and Sam and Claire had all been right to be concerned. Although Umbrella had not intercepted the communications between them the turning on of the Transponder had not only revealed the position of the stolen VTOL but also had transmitted the status of the aircraft to Umbrella Headquarters including its critical fuel situation. Ironically Umbrella techs had used the same satellite that Mikey had hacked to track the raiders to their temporary refuge.

"But sir," protested the senior Security officer "is it wise to strip the facility of all of our troops and aircraft?"

A single shot rang out. The furious Chairman laid a still smoking heavy pistol on the table.

"Are there any more questions?"

The others present looked at the sprawled body and shook their heads.

"Good. Get moving. I want the strike to launch s soon as possible."

(To be continued)