Ragnarok Rising: The Crossing (The Ragnarok Rising Saga) (58 page)

I began to remove my armor, pack and weapons.

“Where are you going?” she cried.

“I’m going back for Ramirez and Heather!”

I handed her the last of my gear
as I grabbed a flashlight off my equipment belt. Then I shoved her towards the stairs.

“Go!” I bellowed. “I’ll be right back!”

Before she could answer, I turned and headed back down towards level five. The water was already halfway up the stairs and climbing. The lights were beginning to dim and I knew the batteries would be gone in seconds. The emergency control room must have been underwater. Hesitating only long enough to take several deep breaths then holding the last one, I dove into the icy cold water.

Clicking on the flashlight, I swam downward as hard as I could. I was following the map I had in my head and hoping I didn’t get lost.
As ironic as it would be to drown inside a dam while surrounded by the living dead, I did want to die that way. Forcing the thought out of my head, I continued to swim downward, heading for level three.

My lungs were already starting to hurt when I reached level three. Shining the light down the walkway, I could see the door to the spillway control room. If they weren’t
in there, I wouldn’t have enough air to continue searching for long.

Kicking furiously, I headed the twenty or so meters down the walkway to the door. Grabbing the door frame, I pu
lled myself inside. There were red and green lights still blinking on the control board. On the far side of the small room was another door. The control room was essentially a metal box that had an office inside it with a large control panel. Just above my head, there was about eight inches of air trapped inside the room. I breached the surface and let out my breath.

Gulping down several lungs full of fresh air, I dove down and out the other door. Just beyond it was a massive area where the mechanism that operated the spillway doors was housed. I found Heather floating a few feet from the door. She was face down and unconscious. Shoving her into the control room, I looked around frantically for Ramirez.

It took me a few moments, but I found him. He was near the big control box for the spillway doors. I could see the blinking lights on the charges. He had planted enough C-4 in this room to take the top of the dam off. We both had a detonator in our packs. Fortunately, my pack was with Spec-4 and Ramirez’s pack was with Cal Sanders. If we didn't make it, they could still detonate the charges.

Swimming over to Ramirez, I could see his eyes and mouth were open. He was stuck in place. A piece of metal had gotten hung in one of the straps of his tactical vest. Reaching into my boot, I pulled out my combat knife and cut the strap away. He floated free and began to drift. Grabbing him by the vest, I kicked back for the control room.
Heather was still floating face down, bumping against one of the control panels.

I surfaced briefly to replenish my air supply and shoved the knife back into my boot. I took several deep breaths, then held the last one. I dove back under the water and stuck the flashlight in my mouth. I grabbed Ramirez by the vest and Heather by the boot
. Swimming with both of them wouldn't be easy, but at least they weren’t struggling.

Kicking out the door, I headed down the corridor. It was taking all of my strength to drag both of them along with me.
By the time I reached level four, I could feel my lungs burning from the strain. My chest was beginning to spasm as my body fought for more air. With all the strength I could muster, I pulled them up the stairs heading for level five. We still had a long way to go.

I was fighting to keep from losing my air and my vision was starting to swim. I could hear my heartbeat thudding in my ears. In one hard spasm, I lost my grip on my flashlight and watched as it
bounced down the stairs, disappearing as it fell. It was almost completely dark now. Only the dimmest of lights filtered down from above.

I was becoming disoriented and losing focus. I could barely remember where I was supposed to be going. I knew I was close to blacking out. If I did,
we were dead. We’d all die down here in this tomb of concrete and steel, lost forever in the gloomy silence of this watery grave. As my vision began to turn red at the edges, I saw a bluish light begin to surround us. At first, I thought it was the light signaling I was passing into the next world and the Valkyries were coming for me.

Then a face appeared before
me. It was Spec-4, my own personal Valkyrie, and she wasn’t alone. Sanders grabbed Ramirez, Sergeant McDonald grabbed Heather and Spec-4 pulled me towards the surface. It was oddly peaceful as I drifted upwards, surrounded by that eerie blue light.

I
came to on my back, coughing and sputtering. Air! I could breathe! I gulped down lungful after lungful of the wonderful air as my heartbeat began to slow and my vision began to clear. We’d made it back to the surface and I was alive. I lolled my head to the sides and saw the other two performing CPR on Ramirez and Heather.

After what felt like eternity, they both began to cough and spit up water.
We had survived. Somehow, we had all made it out of there and lived to tell the tale. I could still hear a ringing in my ears, but I knew that everything was going to be alright. Spec-4 was talking to me, but I couldn’t hear her. I could tell she was happy by the smile on her face.

I started to
regain my hearing, after a few moments. Ramirez and Heather were recovering, but they were pretty shook up. I can’t blame them. Dying kind of does that to people.

“Let’s get up to the Control Tower and join the others,” said Spec-4.

Ramirez, Heather and I got shakily to our feet and headed for the stairs. Sanders helped Ramirez while McDonald held Heather’s arm. Spec-4 walked beside me with her hand on my arm, just in case I needed the help. I was more grateful than she knew. I felt nauseous and my legs were all rubbery. It was beginning to sink in just how close I had come to drowning. If they hadn’t come looking for us, all three of us would be dead.

Once inside the Control Tower, we locked the door behind us and slumped to the floor.
There were windows facing every direction and we could look out over the dam and the lake. It gave us a good view of the spillway, too. I knew that if we blew the spillway, then this tower would go with it. We needed to be off of the dam before we blew it up. We also needed to be on the other end of the dam or we’d be trapped on the wrong side of the lake.

Knowing that the light
would attract the
Stalkers
, we sat there in the darkness. We stayed below window level so we wouldn't be seen. Everyone breathed deeply and tried to relax. Most of the group was exhausted from the climb up the dam with all of our equipment. Ramirez, Heather and I were still recovering from our near death experiences.

“Ramirez, how long do we have until the batteries on the detonators fail?” I asked quietly, leaning over close to him.

“Hard to say,” he replied. “I don’t know if the water will affect it or not. Probably not very long.”

"
What kind of range do we have on the detonator?” whispered Spec-4.

“Ordinarily, I’d say quite a ways,” he said, shaking his head. “But through
that much concrete and steel, it’s going to be a lot less.”

“How much less?” asked the First Sergeant.

“Again, hard to say,” whispered Ramirez. “Not very far. Maybe a hundred meters, if we’re lucky.”

“Damn,” I muttered. “That’s pretty fucking close to all that C-4.”

Ramirez just nodded.

“Will
the flooding cause the dam to break?” asked Spec-4.

“Unlikely,” said Heather. “It’s full of water, now. If it was going to break, it would have done it already.”

“So, we stick to the plan,” I said, sitting up. “We blow the dam and get the fuck out of here.”

We had
maybe an hour left until daylight, but thankfully the storm had passed. There were still a few clouds in the sky and the moon was mostly obscured, but we could see stars above us. There was still enough ambient light to see fairly well. There weren’t any
Stalkers
moving around on the dam, but that didn’t mean that there weren’t any nearby.

Reaching for my pack, I dug out my binoculars. They didn’t have a low light function, but there was enough moonlight that I should be able to see well enough. McDonald saw what I was doing and unpacked his rifle. I knew he had a
low-light option on his scope and he might see something I wouldn’t. We started scanning the area, looking for anything we could use.

The dam littered with burned out vehicles
and would be impossible to drive across. If we were going to find a usable vehicle, it would have to be on the other side of the dam. I began sweeping the area, hoping I would find something big enough for all of us to ride in.

I could see lots of vehicles that had been abandoned, but nothing that would carry us all. Then
, like a beacon of hope, I found what I was looking for. It wasn’t ideal, but it would work under the circumstances. An ambulance parked in the parking lot of a store about fifty yards from the end of the dam. We might be able to make it, if we stayed quiet and didn’t run into any
Stalkers
.

“There’s our target,” I said. “We’ve got an ambulance
a few hundred meters from here. If we can get there without attracting attention, we might just get out of here after all.”

“We need to move
soon,” said Ramirez. “If we wait too long, we won’t be able to blow the charges.”

“Alright,” I said, putting on my armor and bucking my gear back into place. “You heard the man. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

Everyone looked nervous, but determined. We’d come too far to give up now.

“Walk away me boy, walk away me boys
And by morning we'll be free
Wipe that golden tear from your mother dear
And raise what's left of the flag for me”

-
                    
Flogging Molly

- What’s Left of the Flag

We crept out of the Control Room and back down the stairs to the maintenance door. We divided up the extra equipment
among us. Checking our weapons, we made certain our silencers were in place. Snake and I went out first to check the immediate area. It looked clear.

Motioning for the others to come on out and to keep low, I headed for the nearest vehicle. I noticed that the bodies of the dead that I had taken out last time were gone. The
Stalkers
were certainly efficient at clearing out anything that they could eat, including each other. They didn’t bother with the ones that had been burned in the explosions. I guess they didn't like their meals cooked.

When I reached the burned out police car, I knew I was close to the halfway point across the dam. Inch by painstaking inch, we moved from vehicle to vehicle, making our way towards the other end of the dam. I could see the cracking in the pavement and along the railing where the heat from the explosions had caused significant damage to the top of the dam.

I froze when we neared the front end of the burnt out fire engine. It was charred almost beyond recognition, but I could still make out the lettering on the front end. Up ahead, near the remains of the mini-van I had set on fire, I thought I saw movement. I held up my hand for everyone to stop and remain motionless while I checked it out. The last thing we wanted to do was to stumble upon a group of the dead.

Bringing my rifle to my shoulder, I began scanning t
he area near the van. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly to steady my nerves. I waited for the span of a dozen heartbeats before I saw the movement again. It was a lone
Shambler.
It was shuffling slowly between the cars, oblivious of our presence or to the fact that the
Stalkers
would eat it just as fast as it would us. Either way, it had to go before we could move on.

Taking careful aim, I centered my sights on the thing’s head and gently took up the slack on the trigger. The suppressed weapon bucked slightly in my hands and made a soft coughing sound. Instantly, the creature’s head erupted and it fell over backwards. Unfortunately, it fell right into the group behind
that I hadn't seen, setting off a
Shrieker
.