Carlie Simmons (Book 5): One Final Mission (14 page)

Chapter 40

“There!” said Carlie. “Two zodiacs at my
eleven o’clock.” She was standing atop a steel platform beside the tunnel while
the others piled in around her. Though the moon had just risen, casting light
upon the shoreline, Carlie flicked on her flashlight and began emitting
patterns of three flashes to signal the boats.

Shane was the last one to extricate
himself from the tunnel. As he stood up, he heard the sound of shattering glass
and saw a lone figure with a sword in his hand dive out of a window into the
ocean.

“They’re almost here,” said Carlie. “We
need to start moving to the docks while the creatures are clear of this area.”

Shane peered back inside the tiny
crawlspace, searching for Yoshi, when the explosion in the subway tunnel a
half-mile distant rocked the entire platform. Fingers of flame erupted from
every sewer grate and tunnel entrance along the waterfront. The violent blast
knocked the group back off their perch. Half of them landed in the water while
the others crashed hard onto the unforgiving planks of the dock. Within seconds
a gaping maw in the crawlspace entrance had ripped open from the explosion,
causing seawater, debris, and pieces of the dock to rush in, as if the city
itself was conspiring to swallow its last living denizens.

Carlie, Amy, and Hadley got sucked into
the tumult. Eliza managed to lunge out from her grip on the dock to grab Carlie
by the collar and hoist her out of the current. Hadley was clinging to a
section of bent rebar jutting out of the concrete around the jagged mouth,
pulling himself up into the hands of Matias, who struggled to retain his grip.
Jared and Shane raced towards Amy, who was on the other side opening, clawing
at the foundation. A cluster of fishing nets that had detached from the dock
swept by her, catching her boots. The tangled mass began yanking her back just
as Jared arrived along the crumpled walkway. He lay flat with one hand gripping
the damaged railing as Shane held onto his beltline while trying to retain his
cumbersome pack.

“Where do you think you’re going, cutie?” Jared
said, wrenching his arm forward, grasping her outstretched hand and staring down
at her face, which was illuminated by his headlamp. “Hold on, baby, I got you!”

The raging waters tugged at her body,
pulling her down. “Jared, don’t let go.”

“You hold on.” His voice was guttural as
he strained every fiber in his tense body.

The force of the current yanked the balled
netting further into the tunnel, causing Amy to begin to slip through his wet
hands. He lunged forward to retain his grip, the pull nearly dislocating his
arm. “You’re not getting away from me this easy, darlin’.”

Amidst the sea spray pelting her body, he
could see tears running freely from her eyes. “Jared—I love you,” she said,
crying. “I love…” Her face disappeared from his sight as she was plucked away
from him into the hungry current and swept away amidst jumbles of broken beams.

“No—no—Amy,” he shouted into the watery
abyss while trying to free Shane’s hold on him. “Let me go, goddammit! I have
to get her.” Jared was thrashing his arms wildly while hollering, “I have to
get her.”

Shane was fighting his own anguish back,
trying to control Jared’s manic movement. Above the nearly deafening pulsing of
the waters below, he could hear the terrifying groans of zombies on the streets
above them. “Jared—she’s gone. There’s nothing we can do—we have to leave or we’re
not going to make it.” He strained his arms, pulling Jared back up, and then held
him firmly as Jared pressed his back into him while yelling up at the indifferent
sky. Shane saw muzzle flashes coming from the deck-mounted guns on the
Olympia
followed by the impact of rounds on the streets near them.

“Let’s go,” shouted Carlie as she and
Eliza waved to them from the shadows below. Then they ran forward to help
Hadley and Matias, who were already firing upon several creatures near the
embankment above.

Shane helped Jared up, his rubbery legs
barely keeping him from falling back. They walked together along the brittle
walkway and rejoined the group. The zodiacs were a hundred yards out from the
mangled dock. Shane’s weary group trotted into the waiting arms of the boatsmen
while the subway system behind them continued collapsing.

Chapter 41

Despite congratulations from the boatmen
on the ride back, all of the passengers were silent, oblivious to the praise
and the accomplishment of the mission. Jared pressed his white knuckles into
the sides of the boat, his wild eyes staring into the distant tunnel where he
had just been holding onto Amy. His granite face held back a tidal wave of
anguish as his thousand-mile stare remained fixated on the crumbling aperture
beneath the docks.

Shane placed his hand on Jared’s shoulder
but knew the man was oblivious to the sensation.
How can Amy be gone?
thought Shane as he looked across the water.
This wasn’t supposed to happen.

When both zodiacs arrived back at the
Olympia
and everyone was safely on deck, Shane refocused his attention out to the bay.
He made a hasty introduction to the commander and pulled him aside.

“Welcome aboard,” Ellis said, extending
his hand towards Shane and then Carlie. “Your mission was a success, it seems.”

They both looked at each other then cast
their gazes down, reflecting on the toll. “Success—yeah, I reckon it was,” said
Shane.

Shane stepped forward. “Sir, I’ve got one
man unaccounted for. I’m pretty sure he’s either in the bay or at the aquaplex
on the western edge. Request permission to take a boat crew out to search for
him.”

“No chance. That reactor could go at any
time. We need to get underway.”

“How long will it take before you’re ready
to submerge?”

Ellis put his hands on his hips and gave
Shane a stern look. “I’m not putting my crew at further risk.”

“How long?”

“Thirty minutes—that’s it. If you want to
take your own personnel out, I can give you that time but then we’re gone.”

Shane ran back to Matias and Eliza. “Give
me your remaining mags,” he said.

“You’re not going back out there?” said
Matias. “Is this guy worth it? You hardly know him.”

“He is, trust me.”

“Then I’m riding shotgun,” snapped Carlie
from behind him. “You’re not leaving me out of the picture again.”

“Right, right—I know that. I was gonna
grab you as soon as I was done reloading here.”

Carlie snatched up a few magazines and
then both of them ran towards the boats, hopping into the nearest zodiac. Shane
grabbed the control and spun off on a hard right, peeling away from the
Olympia
into Osaka Bay. He made a beeline for the location of the airfield, searching
for the buoy that he had first come to after the crash. He needed this as a
reference point to triangulate the approximate location of the aquaplex in the
dark.

Clutching her gloved hands on the console
visor, Carlie lowered her head and let out a soft whimper. “I can’t believe
Amy’s gone. One minute she was right beside me and then…then she just got swept
away.”

Shane didn’t flinch, holding back his
emotions as the mist pelted his face. The waves whisked the boat along, the
tumultuous current matching his own inner turmoil. He looked over at Carlie for
a second. “The mission
was
a success like Ellis said—all except for the
part where I lost one of our own.”

“What happened to Amy wasn’t your fault.
It’s not about you or your leadership. We all knew the risks as we have on any
of our missions. You can’t protect everyone, Shane.”

“I’ve always believed that if you fight
hard enough—viciously enough—that you could overcome anything life threw at
you. For me, that thinking never changed in this new world. But I was wrong—and
in the process, I drove you away from me as well.”

“You know, it’s OK to admit you’re afraid
sometimes,” she said.

“I’ve been so used to calling the shots my
whole life that I sometimes forget to say out loud what I’m thinking and I end
up leaving your feelings out of the equation. This is never how I wanted things
to unfold between us. After all we’ve been through to make it this far, I
didn’t want to risk losing you.”

“I’m not gonna leave you, Shane. We’re in
this together—in this life and everything that comes after.”

He nodded, giving her a sorrowful look. “Deep
down, I know that. I’ve always known that.” He swerved his vision back to the
bay, searching the water. “Let’s get the hell back home and be done with this
mission.”

After arcing out from the airfield, he
proceeded to the buoy and towards the inner passage. In the spotlight that was
bouncing off the choppy waves, Shane saw a slender figure swimming in the
distance, the fatigued body barely able to complete his strokes. As they
neared, they saw Shiro stop and tread water, his head sinking under in the
rough waters.

Shane maneuvered alongside him and handed
off the steering to Carlie while he reached out for the nearly spent figure. He
hauled the shirtless man over the rim of the boat, noticing the array of tattoos
adorning his upper body and arms. Shiro fell back into the zodiac’s walls,
flopping his head up towards Shane. “Nora and Tyler…”

Shane squatted down beside him, patting
him on the shoulder. “Yes, they’re safe—and they will be thrilled to see your granite
face again.”

Carlie spun the boat around and jammed the
throttle forward, enroute to the
Olympia
, whose exterior lights served
as her mental talisman.

Shiro strained to see the darkened
horizon, looking in the vicinity of where the aquatics center was located. He
thought how odd it was that such a place would stir feelings of home but he
knew that such warmth was provided by Nora’s presence and the spirited laughter
of little Tyler. It stirred in him longings for his childhood home, memories of
more carefree days that he was surprised to find surfacing. He felt the jaded
veneer on his soul cracking like sunbaked clay during the heat of day. Shiro
noticed the ocean breeze rushing across his face and sensed that it was silent,
no longer filled with the voices of angry spirits. He clenched the rope railing
beside him and took in a deep breath then let it out with a sigh.

He gave Shane a sideways glance. “Before
you arrived just now, I was thinking of how ironic it was to have escaped the
tunnel and then to meet my fate in the very ocean where my days began as the
son of a fisherman.”

“But your willpower overcame your
destiny,” Shane said with a grin.

Shiro shook his head and smiled.
“Shane-san, you are a funny man.”

“Yeah, he is,” muttered Carlie. “But he’ll
grow on you.”

“Hmm,” Shiro said, standing up and joining
both of them as he gazed out at the ripple of waves, their whitecaps
illuminated in the moonlight. “And what will become of me and my people once we
arrive at your Fort Lewis?”

“Well, we’re always in need of men skilled
with their hands. That part of the human struggle will probably never change,
regardless of the time period.”

Shane leaned his hands on the console,
staring up at the moon then glancing over at Carlie.

“Or maybe you’ve got other talents—are you
any good at growing crops or farming?” said Carlie with a slight smile, already
knowing the answer.

Shiro shook his head and grimaced. “Much
better with a sword in my hands than a plow.”

“Likewise,” said Carlie as Shane nodded in
agreement.

Chapter 42

Fifty minutes later, the
Olympia
had relocated eighty nautical miles off the eastern coast of Japan. Commander
Ellis announced his intentions to send four nuclear ballistic missiles into the
reactor in Kyoto. This would result in an implosion that would consume the city
and much of the peninsula. After his speech, the
Olympia
’s hull throbbed
as the missiles were released and the resulting devastation was broadcast on TV
monitors throughout the vessel. The flashpoint evaporated buildings, homes, and
storefronts in searing vapors that quickly folded in on themselves and a minute
later were gone. Only a plum-orange glow remained in the vicinity of Kyoto as
if the sun itself had just been pulled down into the foundation of the former
city.

Carlie was sitting beside Jared in the
officers’ lounge with Matias and Eliza. Jared’s head hung low as he stared in
shock at the TV monitor, the white-hot pulse of the implosion matching his own
spiraling meltdown. His entire life had been spent flitting from relationship
to relationship until the fateful day he realized how much he loved Amy. From
that day forward, the narrow doorway to his soul had opened and he allowed her
in like no other person before. And now all he felt were jagged splinters ripping
through every fiber of his being while the image of her hand slipping from his
continuously looped in his fog-enshrouded mind.

Shane came in and tried to console him as
the old teammates sat in silence reflecting on all of their missions together
with Amy and their many good times together. Shane kept looking over at Carlie,
grateful for her presence and never wanting to be apart from her again in any form.
He thought back to the previous day when they were all gathered at Fort Lewis.
He was not entirely certain they would succeed in such a precarious undertaking
but there was no place else he wanted to be than in the company of his band of
brothers and sisters that he had come to admire so much. This was the true
meaning of family in his life.

In another section of the ship, Shiro was
sitting on a bunk beside Nora and Tyler. For the first time since they met, he
pulled Nora in close to him, resting his massive hand on top of the little
boy’s shoulder. Shiro thought of Yoshi’s smile and his exuberant spirit. He
thought of his brother, his childhood, and his small group of survivors that he
had fought so hard to protect. He pulled Nora closer, staring into her lovely
eyes then kissing her on the lips without restraint.