Free The Fall of Society (Book 2): The Fight of Society by Thonas Rand Page A

to see you,” Ardent said.
                “Sir, good to be alive!” he answered and Ardent saw the bite and scratch marks on his arms and legs.
                “Where’s the rest of your unit, Commander?”
                “Unaccounted for or dead, sir.”
                “Glad you’re still here.”
                “For the time being, sir,” he answered with a stone face.
                “We’re going to the closest armory and then the CDC.”
                “Yes, sir, we’ll cover you.”
                They headed into the ship as the security force covered them, but before he entered the hatch—Ardent stopped and looked ahead—he saw the burning city of San Diego, it was only ten miles away and closing. The ship wasn’t stopping because no one was at the helm. He headed in and once they were all inside, the security force sailors followed and secured the hatch. The dead were right on their tail and threw themselves on the hatch.
                Inside the ship was the same as outside on the flight deck—there was gunfire, people screaming, and the roars of the dead, all of it echoing through the corridors of the ship. It wasn’t in their immediate vicinity, but it wasn’t very far away, either. They headed down the corridor toward the bow of the ship, away from the stern, where it sounded like most of the battle noise was coming from, but it was hard to tell. The sailors used extreme caution and checked everything ahead of them. They moved slowly, but methodically. After trekking through a few sections, they reached a weapons armory. They carefully checked inside from the doorway. Once cleared, they all entered and secured the hatch tight.
                The armory had already been ransacked, many drawers and ammunition crates were opened, their contents either gone or nearly depleted. Many of the long guns and small arms were gone, but enough remained to arm this small group of wayward men and two women, one of which was bitten. They armed themselves with what little was left, restocked their empty pistol magazines, and then took any assault weapons that were available. Bear grabbed a pump-action shotgun and Ardent found himself a compact sub-machine gun.
                “In case any of you don’t know this, to put these things down permanently, you have to shoot them in the head,” Ardent said as he loaded magazines.
                “We know, sir,” Commander Phillips answered.
                “We have to get to the combat direction center and then to secondary control to stop the ship. We’re heading straight for San Diego. If she beaches, we’ll never get her out.”
                “Stopping the ship should be priority one, sir,” Phillips said. “And secondary control is aft, where most of those things are.”
                “We have to get there or the engine room to stop the ship,” Ardent said.
                “Secondary control is a suicide mission as it is, but the engine room is out of the question. We’d never make it there, sir,” Phillips told him.
                “Then we go to secondary control, Commander,” Ardent said.
                “No, sir. My team and I will go to secondary control. You and the others get to the CDC.”
                Ardent and Bear didn’t realize that most of the ones that were bitten or scratched by the dead were grouped together with Phillips. They knew their fate was sealed. Phillips addressed the ones bitten that weren’t standing with him.
                “Those of you that are bitten, you know what it means, just as I do. We need to stop the ship from beaching, at any cost. Are you with us or do you wanna die alone?”
                The others that were wounded from the infected considered his words and then, one by one, they joined his group.