The Nameless by William Alan Webb

Author:William Alan Webb [Webb, William Alan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dingbat Publishing
Published: 2019-12-18T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

“Why don’t I come up and see you sometime when you’re in the nude… I mean mood?”

Shemp Howard

2317 hours, September 30, 2012

Aboard the Roald Amundsen at sea

Gearing up had been easy. It was what the Zombies did best, who they all were at their cores, warriors ready to fight. There was no modesty among them, either, because in the teams there were no sexes; there were only good guys and bad guys. When Frosty, Donner, and Esther stood nude and toweled off after a final shower, nobody gave them a second look.

Repeated run-throughs of the launch procedure couldn’t prepare them for the reality of water flooding the lock around them. Sigurd stood by the digital panel with two other crewmen, working the various controls. As they sat strapped into their seats in the submarines, the Zombies could all watch the cloudy salt water filling up the lock outside the thick glass walls.

Green Ghost went through the pre-launch checklist, turning on various systems and checking monitoring gauges. Since every system was electric, including the motors for all fans and engines, the only noise was a low hum. Every time he glanced up at the rising water level, he quickly averted his eyes.

“Is this bothering you, G.G.?” Vapor said.

“No,” he lied, in a tone that made it seem ridiculous. In truth, being immersed in the ocean scared him more than people shooting at him did.

“Bullshit, you’re as scared as I am.”

“These things are cleared to a depth of almost two hundred feet and we’re not going anywhere close to that. What’s to be scared about?”

“I can think of a dozen things.”

The water level rose quickly. Sigurd and his men, safe in the ship’s hold, became distorted more than they had been by the two barriers of glass. Then, without warning, a sunshine-yellow fish with two sky blue stripes, one near the head and the other behind the dorsal fin, swam past the cockpit. The light of the ship reflected off its skin in iridescent shimmers that appeared psychedelic. Green Ghost and Vapor broke out laughing at a fish swimming where they’d stood only minutes before. Vapor turned to see Wingnut’s reaction, which was nothing more than his usual blank expression.

“C’mon, man, you don’t think that’s funny?”

For ten seconds the two men stared at each other.

Wingnut finally answered. “Hilarious.”

“Is he dead?” Vapor said, pointing with his thumb.

“He’s a Zombie. As long as he does his job, I don’t care if he’s dead or alive.”

#

The submarines rested on a heavy steel floor compartmented into five segments. Once the chamber had filled with water and the RPM gauge reached the correct level, the Roald Amundsen crewmen working the controls shoved a lever forward that dropped the flooring from beneath Green Ghost’s submarine. Dampened by hydraulics and hinged on one side, the door moved until it pointed at a ninety-degree angle downward from the ship’s bottom.

The submarine sank until it cleared the ship. Despite the Roald Amundsen having slowed to four knots, the submarine was immediately swept backward in the current.

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