Up From the Depths Part 4

Powell watched as one of the small craft slowly approached the sub, stopping about 20feet off the starboard. He could make out several armed personnel onboard.

“Ahoy submarine!” A voice called out.

“Ahoy vessel!” Powell responded.

“Permission to come alongside!”

Powell glanced down the hatch at Willis who gave him thumbs up.

“Granted!”

“Do you have any infected onboard?”

“Negative!”

Powell motioned for some of his deck crew to throw out bumpers as the smaller boat came alongside and was tied up. Four armed men in Marine Corps duty uniforms, rifles, heavy body armor and helmets climbed on board and watched the deck crew. Finally a thin looking, pale younger man, in wrinkled navy khakis, stepped onto the sub deck and looked up at Powell and saluted.

“Sir, Lieutenant Commander Grant requests permission to come aboard.”

Powell just waved at him and the young man started inside the sail and up to the tower. The four Marines kept their positions on the deck. The two men looked at each other before shaking hands.

“Captain, am I sure glad to see you sir.” The young man said as he finished the handshake.

“Same here Commander. What happened?”

“Well sir, it all started pretty simple. We had some protesters at the outer fence, the usual; idiots thought we had nukes here like they always do. The Marine security team was on alert and some were at the gates assisting the civil service cops.” The young man’s eyes seemed to be slightly out of focus as his mind’s eye replayed the events. “Another group of protestors came out of the woods behind the first group. Then the second group started screaming, moaning and attacking the first group.” Powell looked at the deck watch, they all appeared to be studiously involved in staring at the darkness with their image intensifiers, he could tell they had been listening to the young commander relate his tale. Taking Grant’s arm, he ushered the other man a little further out of hearing range before motioning him to continue. “We sealed the perimeter and the Marines locked down everything. We had enough time to get the civilian workers to help us move jersey barriers to block the main gate and then the Marines set razor wire on that. The perimeter is sealed up really tight, nothing gets in and if anything does, the Marines have orders to shoot on sight. Thankfully this isn’t a large installation and most of the gates had already been sealed due to budget cuts.” Commander Grant paused a little to catch his breath.

“Where’s Rear Admiral Harrington?” Powell asked.

“The admiral’s dead sir so is the executive officer and most of the staff. They were off base when IT happened. I tried to call them on their cell phones and was on the phone with the admiral when it just went dead. Sir I think that the admiral was attacked and killed. He said something about a car accident in front of him then nothing.” Grant paused again as if remembering the event.

“What about the civilian authorities? Didn’t any of the local police try to stop it?” Powell asked.

“Yes sir, they tried. There were a few state troopers watching the protestors. They called for backup and then tried to break up the attackers. Those people just tore them to ribbons. One trooper made it back to his car and they just ripped him out of it. Looked like they ate him sir.” Grant paused to swallow, his face white. “Then the local sheriff sent some cars but the same thing happened. We tried contacting command after that but all the lines were overloaded. Then the civilian net but that was just as bad. We got a coded message from CINCPAC about the rioting and infection so I ordered the Marine officer to secure and reinforce the perimeter.” Grant stopped and took a deep breath. “Sir, most of the civilian workers have families on the outside. I have them quartered in the old Base Exchange building with what shore patrol there was with the Marines helping. I didn’t know what else to do sir, I’m just an admin guy.”

“You did fine Commander. Who’s in charge of the base now?”

“That would be you sir.”