Mega Cataclysm: The Last Survivors Chronicles Page 19

  "Ok, I think we probably ought to go too," I finally decided out loud.

  "You sure?" Ben said, staring at me with that unusual look again which carried the full weight of his deep soul.

  After another pause, I finally said yes. We had to do it- no question in my mind.

  One last time, Ben looked around for reassurances, and got them. Finally he announced: "Ok then. It's settled. We go. We probably ought to start thinking about what, if anything, we take with us- but first thing's first. We have to be careful about where we go. I'll be thinking on that one relative to the likely fallout areas, but in the meantime, we better take awfully good care of that sailor. Without him, we are lost in that sub. So I guess let's go tell him of our decision."

  Heading back to the SUV, we arrived to see him sitting up, still in pain, but regaining his strength slowly.

  "Ok, since we don't have many other options, we have all agreed that going with you is our best bet," Ben said. "So we are going to have to trust each other. Can we do that?"

  "I don't know of anyone else TO trust at this point," the soldier promptly replied. "I think we pretty much have to, don't we?"

  "Agreed. We came to the same conclusion. Sorry about your friends, but these aren't normal circumstances. Had things been different, they might have lived. But it is what it is," Ben said sternly, and displaying little emotion.

  "I completely understand, despite the loss of my friends. We brought it upon ourselves, and I will never hold it against you. You did what you had to do under the circumstances," the soldier replied. "And did it quite well, I might add, despite being at a disadvantage." He looked up at me with a painful reverence, and Ben nodded at me in acknowledgement.

  "By the way, I'm Ben, that's Terry, that's Jan, and that's Brian," Ben said pointing around to each of us.

  "I'm Gary," he finally offered up. "I wish we had met under better circumstances. Sorry."

  Jan was keenly aware of every energy this man was emanating. She was gauging his sincerity, and was watching for any signs of deception. But finally, she lowered her weapon.

  "Thank you," Gary replied, a bit relieved.

  "Before another word is spoken, you should know Gary that we trust Ben implicitly. He is a geophysics professor, and knows an awful lot about key things that are going to be crucial to our navigation efforts in the aftermath of this. He also has been calculating debris patterns and other things about the event," I announced.

  "Excellent," Gary said. "So you know more about this event?"

  "Oh yes, and I'm sure you probably have some instruments onboard that will help us further... But we can talk more later," Ben replied. "Right now we need to get you better. Is there anything on the sub that can help?"

  "Oh yeah... We have an entire medicine cabinet full of everything I need," he quickly answered.

  "Then we need to get those things ASAP," Ben said.

  "Agreed Sir," he replied. "And I'll be happy to get you some food. Anyone hungry?"

  We all looked up at him liked he had asked a stupid question with an obvious answer.

  "Ok then, could you help me? Let's go," Gary said- and tried to get up-but the guy had just been shot. This was going to be a long, painful journey down to the waterline for him.

  I put his right arm around my shoulder, and Ben hoisted Gary's left arm around his. Without further ado, we began descending the hill. The women maintained their vigilance with their weapons, making Gary a bit uneasy.

  "We've been fighting off big bears and mountain lions up here, just so you know," Jan said as we made our way down the hill through the trees.

  "Mountain lions?" Gary gasped, looking around despite all his pains. "I thought those were extinct in this part of the country."

  "Yeah, so did we," Ben answered. "But that proved to be patently untrue. And there are more than we could have ever believed, too. They are huge, viciously dangerous, desperately hungry, fighting for food and territory, and confused. So we have to be very careful."

  Gary looked at Jan prowling with her newfound weapon, and said "Well do you really need those in full auto mode?"

  But a quick warning glance from Jan silenced him. "Yes, and if I could fire ten of these in auto mode at once, it still wouldn't make me feel any safer from those things," she retorted with a stern reply. Ben tossed a quick smirk my way, to which I smirked back. I recounted what had happened at Camp Alice to Gary as we neared the target landing site.

  About twenty minutes later without incident, we found ourselves staring at the motor boat. But it was on moist land now between some trees, and not partly in the water- the way I had left it. We untied it and pushed it back down the hill into the water. They all climbed in, and I shoved us off. I assumed my previous position at the motor, cranked it up and headed for the sub.

  "Jesus, look at that thing," Ben gasped, as the menacing, black shape of the nuclear monster came closer into view. "It's huge." Jan and Terry stared at it in awe.

  "Hugely dangerous... Yes Sir," Gary retorted, still grabbing his shoulder in pain. The pills had helped a bit, but I could tell he was anxious to get to that cabinet for more serious drugs.

  Once we were onboard and hoisted Gary over the deck rail, he started to climb down the ladder. I stopped him.

  "I'm warning you. It's not pretty," I reminded him.

  He nodded with apprehension but continued down, gasping as he saw the mess I had made of his mate.

  "Real sorry Larry," Gary said solemnly, but he continued on. We followed him down through the ship, and as we were headed to his cabinet, he asked us not to touch anything, especially any controls. "Not until you know what they do, and that is going to take a while," he said. "But I will show you the way to the kitchen after I get juiced up." He stopped in one room on the way and reached into a hidden area and got out a key.

  Arriving finally at the cabinet, he opened it and revealed a whole host of bottles and first aid supplies. Reaching for a couple in particular, he said, "This ought to do me for a while..." He unwrapped a syringe and extracted a liquid from one of the bottles. Within a minute he had the needle in his arm, pumping himself a small, measured dose of what appeared to be morphine.

  He started to go a bit limp, and Ben and I grabbed him and propped him back up. Looking up dreary-eyed, he said groggily "Ahhh, much better. The kitchen's... That way... Grab... Whatever you want. I've got to get... To my quarters and... Sleep. Remember, don't touch any other controls... Other than... The stove controls..."

  Terry opened another bottle and dug out a bundle of bandages and medical tape. She assisted him in cleaning and disinfecting the wound, and then secured the new bandages in place.

  "You've lost a lot of blood, so you will feel weak for a day or two while your body regenerates it. Best thing you can do is rest and give your body time to start healing that wound. We can cook some extra food for you, so why don't you sleep for now," Terry said.

  "Yes... Sleep..." Gary mumbled. And with that he slumbered off dazed towards another part of the ship.

  So we headed the way he pointed towards the kitchen. On the way we saw all sorts of evidence of the tremendous collision- and several blood stains of people that had clearly been crushed up against pipes and walls. Suddenly I wasn't so hungry anymore, or at least so I thought.

  Finally arriving at the kitchen, Jan found that a section of the steel cabinetry was refrigerated, and gasped when she opened a door. "Bingo," she said with a tinge of earnest in her voice. "We've got steaks, some fresh vegetables, and all sorts of things in here."

  "Spices are over here," Terry said, peering in another section of cabinetry.

  "Stove and fry vats are over here," I said, and Ben promptly discovered the pots and pans. Within forty minutes we had cooked up a feast I will never forget. But we had cooked way more of it than we could eat. "There will be plenty left over for Gary," Terry said.

  "Oh dear God that's good," Jan finally said. No one had spoken a word while we were devouring that meal. There was n
o time for words. Just time for chewing and swallowing, ravenously. Finally satisfied, we all sat back with full bellies and contemplated our next move.

  "I vote we find the showers, and take the hottest showers ever," Terry said.

  "That sounds even better than the food was," Jan quickly replied. She looked over at me with a curious face.

  "What?" I smirked back, basking on my full stomach, with not a care to the world, and taking another purposeful gulp of a damn good beer.

  "Oh... Nothing," she replied.

  "Well I guess let's clean up this mess and get looking for those showers," I responded.

  Within fifteen minutes, the kitchen was done and clean, all of us pitching in. We then set out for our next venture, and I reminded everyone not to touch anything again on our way. We passed all sorts of different rooms with complicated instruments, and there were ladders everywhere leading to different levels in the miniature city of steel. Finally descending down one ladder, Ben claimed the prize. He found the showers, and all sorts of associated stocks and supplies.

  The women were naked and in those showers before Ben and I could even finish looking around. Watching the steam rise from the hot showers, he made the comment that heat was not a problem aboard a nuclear submarine.

  "Nuclear reactors generate plenty of heat," he said as he undressed, a bit shy to enter the showers at first with the women in there.

  "And so do they," I said with a smirk, looking at their luscious bodies. I quickly followed and was in there pretty fast too. Hell, who cared about being naked during the end of the world? There were enough showers, but even if there weren't, it wouldn't have mattered. We were already used to sharing. Sharing everything.

  I couldn't remember a hot shower ever feeling better. I remembered a cold rain shower though. One in recent memory. But I kept my mind on getting clean. Or at least, I tried to. It seemed Jan had other ideas. And so did Terry. We just didn't know it at the time. But Ben and I, my friends, were in trouble. Good trouble. In the worst of times.

  Life at that point was either very bad, or very good- a constant rollercoaster of either mayhem and death- or extreme ecstasy. Each one of us knew that any day, or any second, could be our last in those extreme times. So any chance for pleasure was seized immediately. Having eaten and showered, it was only natural what human bodies wanted next. And no, I am not talking about going to the bathroom.

  Chapter 35: Only in the MC:TLSC- EXTREME Version

  Chapter 36: Nightmares In Steel

  Finally emerging from the showers some two hours later, we wondered how Gary was doing. He was probably still asleep. So we explored the ship more, and came upon a locked door that seemed to lead more towards the rear of the ship.

  "I'll bet some of those missiles are probably back there," Ben said. "I don't know much about subs, but if I remember right, there are a lot of variants to them- meaning- that many of them are continually retrofitted and updated with the latest technologies, particular to the role they are going to perform."

  "That is correct Sir," a voice suddenly said from behind us. We turned around, surprised to see Gary standing in the corridor. "And this particular ship has some things that are so top secret, that I have orders to destroy the ship and all on board if it were ever to come close to falling into enemy hands."

  Although he startled us, we were all relieved that he hadn't gone and gotten a weapon and arrested us.

  "Oh, we thought you were asleep," Jan commented.

  "I was, but now I'm hungry and need some food. Smells good back there."

  "Yes, we cooked up quite a meal, and there are plenty of leftovers in the... the refrigerated cabinets," Terry said.

  "Great, then don't mind if I do..." he said, and held up another syringe dosed with more morphine. Injecting it into his arm, he looked up and cringed. "My shoulder hurts like a son of a bitch. Anyway, come on, I have some things to tell you all."

  Following him back to the kitchen area, we thanked him for not arresting us with a gun.

  "Well what would be the point now?" he asked. "Nope, I made an agreement with you all and I plan to keep it. We are in this together from here on out."

  Ben looked relieved. Terry and Jan served the soldier up a warm meal, and after eating, he thanked them profusely.

  "Wow, I wish we could have cooked like that!" he said. "That was delicious."

  "Well hopefully there'll be more good meals to come," Terry replied, handing him a drink.

  Gary asked Ben more about the explosion event, and Ben told him everything we had known or speculated on to that point. Ben told Gary about Marty, and how he found out about what was really going on with the discovery in the south Pacific.

  Gary looked up shocked when we told him of the flying rocks on fire. "Jesus, I hope the President's plane didn't get hit by any of those... We never saw or sensed any of those up in the North Atlantic. Must have been an incredible sight."

  "Yes, it was," Terry said. "But unfortunately they killed..." She couldn't finish and just looked down, remembering the horrible Sandra incident. Jan cringed and looked away.

  Gary looked up inquisitively, and Ben briefly relayed the story.

  "My God... Sounds like you guys went through hell on this rock," Gary commented. "Well let me tell you, it was no better for us. I'll never forget having to clean up the mess and dumping the rest of our dead crew overboard. That took a whole day, and you will probably still see some blood stains or worse around the ship in places. It was awful. I still don't understand how we managed to survive it."

  "I think I can probably offer an explanation... And Ben, correct me if I am wrong," I interjected. "When the massive wall of water went through Panama and Nicaragua, because it wasn't the entire column of water from the ocean bottom all the way up to the surface, like it was in the Pacific, you probably lived because you didn't catch the full force of the water. You were submerged in the sub, and probably pretty deep. I imagine you caught hell, yes, but you would not have survived if the land mass has not stopped the lower portion of it somewhat- or if you were near the surface," I concluded.

  "I'd say that's a reasonable explanation Brian, and my thoughts exactly," Ben replied. "It's probably why the sub in the North Pacific vanished. They did catch the whole vertical column of water, and it was probably destroyed on contact."

  Gary looked down a minute in deep thought, and then he spoke. "Yes. Ok, we were down deep about 1,400 feet at the time. It was a hell of a ride though. That water grabbed the sub like we had no engines at all, despite our best efforts to counter it. It dragged us at some 80 knots per hour for several hundred miles until we hit shallower water- and the rocks- near the southern tip of Nova Scotia.

  "We were woken up and hung on for dear life to the sides of our beds while we were tossed and turned about. When we hit bottom the first time, I heard several of the crew scream as they were slammed into the sides of the ship. But the real damage came when we were stopped dead in our tracks after colliding with some shallow rocks. That's how I got this..." He pulled up his shirt to reveal his whole left side completely bruised. It looked awful.

  "Maybe now it makes more sense," Gary mumbled out loud. "I was already in pain from that, and so were the others, from their own wounds. Larry... Up there... Was nearly killed. That's why we left him onboard to man the ship while we went onto land. We hit very hard. So getting shot didn't help any."

  We looked on in amazement as he recounted the tale, and I briefly regretted shooting him and his friends. Briefly. But there was no excuse for raping Jan. I validated my actions again to myself.

  "I can't see how this thing survived at all, even still," I commented- looking around the room- and trying to disguise my sorrow for his ordeal.

  "Well with over two billion dollar price tags apiece, one thing is for sure," Gary interjected. "They are built for war. Tough. Real tough. So let me show you all around," he finished saying, and got up slowly, nursing his shoulder.

  He headed back towards the lo
cked door, and producing a special key card, he opened it. We saw many, many large, vertical tubes, and he promptly informed us that we were looking at highly sophisticated nuclear missiles.

  "This particular ship has changed roles quite a few times," he continued. "At present we are outfitted with a variety of different missiles for a variety of applications. We have everything from nuclear-tipped cruise missiles to several full ICBM's."

  Ben looked on in amazement, along with the rest of us. "And there's more," Gary said. "Lots more. But that can wait. Right now we need to start training you people for crucial navigational roles, and more importantly, I need to get out there and fix a few more things before we can proceed to open ocean again," he added. "But I am just not ready for that yet. I can't really use my right arm. Not until it heals more. So how about we start the training?" he asked.