John Ringo - To Sail a Darkling Sea

“Sophia?” Chen said.

“The primary purpose of this mission is the recovery of the ocean capable yachts,” Sophia said. “Most of those are tied up along the breakwater. As such, I would suggest putting in a primary security team at the base of the breakwater, probably with a 240 and some rifle support, then go through and clear and remove any infected from the yachts. If we place a gunboat alongside one of the yachts, oriented to fire parallel to the breakwater, they can support if there is a heavy response by infected. If there are still too many, have inflatables in place to support the retreat of the security team. I would recommend the Sergeant Major primarily be with that machine-gun and rifle security team. That’s the point that is most likely to have major infected response and Anarchy was our only person fully qualified with the 240. He trained Rusty on it so I’d suggest Rusty as the gunner. I’d suggest the Guppy as the support boat with the Chief onboard to maintain control of the fire from the gunboat. Leave all the Guppy’s gunners aboard, the ground team taken from the Wet Debt and the other boats with security. For the defense team I suggest use most of the Wet Debt crew. For the clearance team… Olga and I can handle that.”

“Sergeant Major?” Lieutenant Chen said. “Comments?”

“I think the overall plan is good, sir,” the Sergeant Major said. “However, the Lieutenant should not be involved in active clearance with respect, ma’am.”

“Light clearance like this isn’t hard, Sergeant Major,” Sophia said. “But it is adrenaline pumping. And when you have adrenaline pumping, you get ADs. It takes a steady nerve. Olga, despite her apparent flightiness, is pretty steady. I’ve done it plenty of times. Rusty has done it some. The rest of them aren’t experienced at it.”

“Choose someone else, Lieutenant,” Lieutenant Chen said.

“Yu?” Sophia said. Then: “To be clear, Seaman Recruit Leo Yu from your boat, sir.”

“Yu is a good steady hand,” Chen said, nodding.

“Better him than Steinholtz, that’s for sure,” Sophia said.

“Two Seaman Recruits,” the Sergeant Major said, frowning.

“What we tend to have is Seaman Recruits, Sergeant Major,” Lieutenant Chen pointed out. “And they haven’t been through recruit training . There hasn’t been time. For an example, our schedule calls for cutting out the vessels, clearing this town, recovering survivors and making it to the next town by no more than twenty-three hundred hours, local, so as to start the next party and attract the infected. And so on and so forth.”

“You have to have some time for training, sir,” the Sergeant Major said.

“Tell that to the Commodore, Sergeant Major,” Chen said. “Who, in fact, agrees. And also notes that if we’d taken time for training, we might never have found you. Or me. Or any of the security specialists, seamen, etcetera. We’re not going to be able to clear the entire Canary Islands before we leave. We know there are more liners tied up alongside in This more or less is training.”

“Understood, sir,” the Sergeant Major said, frowning. “Well, then, we’ll have to hope for the best and plan for the worst I suppose, sir.”

“That’s the spirit, Sergeant Major,” Sophia said, smiling tightly. “What’s the worst that could happen? A zombie apocalypse?”

* * *

“Where do you want to land?”

The inflatable was crewed by another bloody twelve-year-old. And a nervous one at that. Everyone was nervous which wasn’t enjoyable for Sergeant Major Barney. Nervous troops did tend to AD. He had a vision of one of these bloody ponzers shooting out one of the bloody pontoons and them all going in the drink. Because there were, yes, sharks. They seemed to be following the bloody boat.

“On this end,” Barney said.

“Why here?” Steinholtz asked. “It’s a long damn walk down that pier.”

“Because I bloody well said ‘land here,’ Seaman Recruit!” Barney boomed. “Is that good enough for you, Seaman Recruit or would you like a bloody valentine with it?”

“Sure, sure,” Steinholtz said.

“Quit looking so nervous, you lot,” Barney said, shaking his head. “We’ve got a bloody damned gunboat backing us up, we’ve got a bloody Singer and so far there aren’t any bloody zombies to shoot. This isn’t taking down a Taliban stronghold. We’re picking up some yachts from a bloody marina. I won’t say this will be a walk in Hyde Park but take a bloody breath, follow orders and we’ll all come back heroes. Right? Right. Just pull the bloody boat up to the damned pier if you will, Coxswain!”

“Yes, sir, Sergeant Major,” the driver said.

“And would people quit calling the Chief and I ‘sir’?” the Sergeant Major said, shaking his head. “The Chief and I work for a living.”

“But… you call a Chief sir, Sergeant Major,” Yu said. “Don’t you?”

“What?” Barney said. “Since when?”

“Isn’t that like a Master Chief?” Yu said. “And the Master Chief in Halo always was called ‘sir.’ ”

“What?” the Sergeant Major said. “What the bloody hell is Halo ?”

“The video game, Sergeant Major,” Olga said, clearly trying not to laugh.

“DOES THIS LOOK LIKE A BLOODY VIDEO GAME TO YOU, SEAMAN RECRUIT?”

“Well, now that you mention it… ” Olga said, trying to keep a straight face.

The sergeant major just held his hands to the sky and growled.

The yachts that were the target were tied to a narrow pier separated from the breakwater by a stretch of water about ten feet wide. There were bridges from the pier to the breakwater, which had a road on top of it, at regular intervals.

The Sergeant Major stepped ashore first and caught the tossed line from Olga. He held it in one hand as the group got out of the inflatable then tossed it back into the boat. This was only part of the “security team.” The rest were in the second inflatable with the Lieutenant.

“SR Zelenova on point,” Barney said. “Up to the first bridge then Zelenova and Yu break off and the rest up on the breakwater.”

They got to the first bridge and Olga continued down the pier followed by Steinholtz.

“Steinholtz,” Barney snapped. “Get up on the breakwater,” he said, pointing.

“By myself?” Steinholtz said.

“Oh, God Lord,” the Sergeant Major snapped. “We’re all bloody following you ! That’s what point means you bloody poofter! Cross the bloody bridge! It’s not exactly the Rubicon!”

“What?” Steinholtz said.

“Just cross the bloody bridge! It’s not as if there are zombies! The road is bloody clear!”

“Actually, there are, Sergeant Major,” Olga said, pointing. A lone infected had finally found its way to the flock of seagulls feasting on the dead and was now loping down the breakwater. It had a ways to go to get to the group and was still better than two hundred meters away. “Well, one.”

“Can I shoot ’im?” Steinholtz said, racking a round into his weapon.

“Oh, let’s just wait here and let Steinholtz try to shoot the bloody zombie,” Sergeant Major Barney said, crossing his arms over his weapon. “Go ahead, Steinholtz. Try to shoot the bloody zombie. Why not? We’ve all day.”

Steinholtz raised his weapon and started firing. And firing. And firing.

The zombie had slowed. Not because it had been hit, but because it was emaciated and clearly out of energy. If it even noticed the group it wasn’t apparent. And it definitely didn’t notice the fire.

“Steinholtz,” the Sergeant Major said, pushing through the group and placing his hand on the weapon. “Before you run out of bullets, we’ll just cross the bridge, shall we?”