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Book: Final Dawn: Season 3 (The Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Series) by Mike Kraus
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Authors: Mike Kraus
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with themselves and the task they were about to perform than with the two strangers standing nearby. Nancy kept her arm around Leonard to help him balance as they waited for the hatch to open.
“How much longer?” Nancy whispered to Leonard, who shrugged in response. A soft flashing amber light answered Nancy’s question, as did a loud mechanical rumble from the direction of the top of the wide stairwell.
Light burst through cracks in the hatch as it rolled open, flooding the compartment with fresh air, the smell of the ocean and the sound of rushing water. The Arkhangelsk had barely surfaced as it was passing under the first bridge on its way to the locks as the helmsman fought to balance stealth and speed. The depth of the canal was less of a worry, since there was more than enough room for the Arkhangelsk to remain fully submerged and make its way through.
Radios strapped to the crewmen’s chests crackled and a terse order was issued. They immediately ran up the stairs, exiting onto the exterior of the Arkhangelsk. Two of the men ran for the port side while the other two headed to the edge of the starboard. They dropped to their knees as a shudder ran through the ship, causing Leonard to tip forward, nearly losing his balance. The ship came to a near stop and began to surface faster, bringing them high on the water.
When the submarine finally finished moving, the men extracted sets of tubes from bags carried on their backs and began aiming them at the bridge supports high above their heads. Small black shapes flew from the tubes and landed on the steel of the bridge with rhythmic thumps as the magnetic sheaths wrapped around the plastic explosives kept both the explosives and their detonators attached to the bridge. Even as high as the Arkhangelsk was in the water, launching the explosives at the high points of the bridge was risky, and more than one failed to attach because it simply didn’t gain enough altitude. The combination rail, vehicular and pedestrian bridges were all of the bascule drawbridge variety, designed specifically to ensure that ships of all heights passing through the canal could get through. A high arch on the first drawbridge meant that the explosives couldn’t be evenly distributed, but instead had to be clustered around both ends.
The total time the four crewmen took to affix the explosives to the drawbridge was under two minutes, after which they hurried back down the stairwell as thousands of creatures continued to stream over the structure high overhead. One of them spoke softly into his radio and the hatch began to close as the submarine sank back into the water, moving forward to the next target.
Rachel Walsh | Marcus Warden | David Landry
5:07 AM, April 25, 2038
“Rachel!” Marcus’s voice was low, but he still managed to hiss at her as he spoke, communicating a frightening level of urgency and panic. “Wake up! We’ve got problems!”
Rolling over and pushing herself to her knees, Rachel crawled forward, joining Marcus and David who were each crouched behind a control panel, peeking above it to watch out the side of the train. Sam lifted his head to look at Rachel and she shook her head at him, whispering for him to stay still.
“What’s going on, guys?” Rachel slid in between David and Marcus, who both pointed through the window. After meandering through the woods for a while, the tracks converged with a highway, running parallel to it for several miles. Out on the highway, illuminated both by the glimmer of the rising sun and lighting from the storms, Rachel saw the reason why David and Marcus were both staying hidden. No more than fifty feet away, thousands of creatures were moving together down the road heading south. Changed individuals both old and young made up the group that was larger than Rachel could have imagined. The creatures paid no attention to the train as it passed them by, whipping down the tracks at top
“How much longer?” Nancy whispered to Leonard, who shrugged in response. A soft flashing amber light answered Nancy’s question, as did a loud mechanical rumble from the direction of the top of the wide stairwell.
Light burst through cracks in the hatch as it rolled open, flooding the compartment with fresh air, the smell of the ocean and the sound of rushing water. The Arkhangelsk had barely surfaced as it was passing under the first bridge on its way to the locks as the helmsman fought to balance stealth and speed. The depth of the canal was less of a worry, since there was more than enough room for the Arkhangelsk to remain fully submerged and make its way through.
Radios strapped to the crewmen’s chests crackled and a terse order was issued. They immediately ran up the stairs, exiting onto the exterior of the Arkhangelsk. Two of the men ran for the port side while the other two headed to the edge of the starboard. They dropped to their knees as a shudder ran through the ship, causing Leonard to tip forward, nearly losing his balance. The ship came to a near stop and began to surface faster, bringing them high on the water.
When the submarine finally finished moving, the men extracted sets of tubes from bags carried on their backs and began aiming them at the bridge supports high above their heads. Small black shapes flew from the tubes and landed on the steel of the bridge with rhythmic thumps as the magnetic sheaths wrapped around the plastic explosives kept both the explosives and their detonators attached to the bridge. Even as high as the Arkhangelsk was in the water, launching the explosives at the high points of the bridge was risky, and more than one failed to attach because it simply didn’t gain enough altitude. The combination rail, vehicular and pedestrian bridges were all of the bascule drawbridge variety, designed specifically to ensure that ships of all heights passing through the canal could get through. A high arch on the first drawbridge meant that the explosives couldn’t be evenly distributed, but instead had to be clustered around both ends.
The total time the four crewmen took to affix the explosives to the drawbridge was under two minutes, after which they hurried back down the stairwell as thousands of creatures continued to stream over the structure high overhead. One of them spoke softly into his radio and the hatch began to close as the submarine sank back into the water, moving forward to the next target.
Rachel Walsh | Marcus Warden | David Landry
5:07 AM, April 25, 2038
“Rachel!” Marcus’s voice was low, but he still managed to hiss at her as he spoke, communicating a frightening level of urgency and panic. “Wake up! We’ve got problems!”
Rolling over and pushing herself to her knees, Rachel crawled forward, joining Marcus and David who were each crouched behind a control panel, peeking above it to watch out the side of the train. Sam lifted his head to look at Rachel and she shook her head at him, whispering for him to stay still.
“What’s going on, guys?” Rachel slid in between David and Marcus, who both pointed through the window. After meandering through the woods for a while, the tracks converged with a highway, running parallel to it for several miles. Out on the highway, illuminated both by the glimmer of the rising sun and lighting from the storms, Rachel saw the reason why David and Marcus were both staying hidden. No more than fifty feet away, thousands of creatures were moving together down the road heading south. Changed individuals both old and young made up the group that was larger than Rachel could have imagined. The creatures paid no attention to the train as it passed them by, whipping down the tracks at top
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