Chapter 194
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 194
Chapter Title: Under the Black Water (12)
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Ugh! Winter ducked his head. A humid blast of hot air swept by intensely. Rattle-rattle—splash! It sounded like chains were spilling and waves crashing, and then a massive freighter let out a roar as it plunged into an unrealistically sharp turn. Joanna instinctively spun the wheel. In that brief moment, the high-speed craft changed course three times and accelerated, overtaking the freighter.
The scenery flashed by. Through the dissipated fog, the freighter's bow was a wreck. Shattered and ablaze. Its internal framework was fully exposed to the outside. The depths inside glowed reddish-hot. It meant a powerful explosion had punched straight through.
Ahead, the sea split open. The sharp exhaust of jet engines streaked over the high-speed craft.
Screeeeech—
Winter covered his ears a beat too late. Throbbing pain. Muffled hearing. Without the physical enhancement from combat skills, his eardrums would have burst. Moments later, the fog not far behind tinted orange. Boom! A teeth-rattling explosion chased the flash's trajectory.
A ship-to-ship missile attack...?
Stunned, Winter gestured urgently toward the cockpit. Evade, evade! His senses, still aching, overwhelmed his spine with too many warnings to process at once. Each direction he pointed to was a narrow, precarious safe zone. Every time they barely dodged, supersonic anti-ship missiles skimming the sea surface whizzed by one by one.
To make matters worse, naval gunfire rained down.
Boom-boom-boom-bang!
Pillars of water shot up in a line. Chilling whooshes tore through the nearby darkness repeatedly. Orange explosions flashed underwater and on the surface. The ships sailing side by side in Hangzhou went berserk. Reckless evasion maneuvers tangled chaotically, crashing into each other and causing disasters.
Dodging all those collisions was luck beyond skill, but
[Watch out!]
Joanna's sharp scream. Amid the wreckage and scraping starboard side, a dangling anchor chain swung in close. A heavy, razor-sharp hunk of steel weighing dozens of tons, swaying mere meters above the waves. Winter, who had anticipated it, dodged by a hair, but the high-speed craft itself could not.
Crunch! The impact of aluminum alloy tearing. The craft's bow lifted toward the sky for a moment. With nowhere to brace, Winter tumbled toward the bridge.
[Aaagh!]
Screams of hard impacts and rolling came through the radio receiver.
Splash, whoosh! The high-speed craft, barely avoiding capsizing, accelerated with full power. By the time the two in the cockpit regained their wits, they were cutting across the front of the former People's Liberation Army fleet advancing in formation.
‘I see. No way they could escape through the bay entrance.’
Winter understood the Golden Gate situation. A full-on clash between the PLA trying to flee the bay and the U.S. Navy blocking them. The high-speed craft had plunged right into the heart of that battlefield.
Here, civilian ships were mere obstacles and decoys.
Moreover, the Chinese had nuclear torpedoes. The one mentioned in the briefing. "Storm," was it? No idea which faction owned it, but there was no guarantee it wouldn't be launched in an extreme situation.
Winter grabbed the machine gun mount again.
“We can’t get out through Golden Gate! Land! On shore! North of the Golden Gate Bridge!”
With Alcatraz at their backs, Fort Baker on the north shore of the strait was close. There were container walls stacked there, so at least safe from land-based mutants. Pointing in that direction with such judgment, Joanna shot back a desperate cry.
[The radar, the radar’s gone!]
Winter finally checked behind. Beyond the shattered bulletproof glass, Joanna and Talbot's hair whipped in the wind. When the dangling anchor had impaled the craft, the radar mast and 1.5 deck had been wiped out entirely. Now, the ship's only observation was human eyes.
“Calm down! Don’t miss my signals! We’re almost there!”
He had a map in his head, backed by "Map Reading." About 3 kilometers to Horseshoe Bay, the small port where Filipino sailors had docked. Just a moment. If bad luck held off for just a moment, they could land. Winter gritted his teeth and focused. Where would the next death come from?
“Hard starboard! Hard starboard!”
"Survival Instinct" rippled warnings from beneath the pitch-black waves. Nerve-wracking effects included. Unable to detect underwater monsters from above water, the threat approaching from below was clear.
Torpedo!
The combined acceleration of approach and advance made it chillingly fast.
Deviating from a straight path wasn't enough. Winter shouted again.
“Cut the engines!”
No questions asked. Joanna moved her hands swiftly. Whirr— the twin engines fell silent immediately. In the inertia sweeping forward, Winter hammered the heavy machine gun trigger repeatedly. Boom! Boom-boom-boom! Thick casings sparkled brilliantly in the sea's fiery glow as they ejected. Suppressive fire targeting three of the four monsters approaching through the debris.
Melville ahead, torpedo behind.
“Hard to port!”
Engines off, but inertia remained. The rudder turned, changing course.
The charging torpedo passed 20 meters astern of the high-speed craft.
The monsters, however, didn't stop. He had meant to chase the three and make the last one flee too, but they seemed accustomed to the heavy machine gun fire now. They pressed on even with direct hits. Vengeful white wakes drew tightening circles. The moment Winter raised the grenade launcher.
Boom!
A white, round echo bloomed in the black sea. A nearby torpedo had detonated. Aimed at a warship, but a large fishing boat exploded. An enormous water column surged from the epicenter. Sailors caught in the blast wave shrank pitifully to dizzying heights before raining down like hail with the seawater.
No need for grenade fire now.
“Engines on!”
One shout wasn't enough. After repeated yells, they finally started. The combined 970 horsepower thrust shoved the small hull forward powerfully. And crunch—! The bow smashed through a Melville. It was one numbed by the torpedo blast's aftermath. Watching the others' movements hurt just to see. Like earthworms writhing on red-hot asphalt.
‘I hope that's permanent nerve damage...’
That had been real bad luck holding off. Melvillies navigating by multi-sonar. Torpedoes homing on sound sources. So it wasn't odd if a torpedo chased a sea monster. Even whales got mistaken for subs. The high-speed craft would have been shredded by the indirect blast effects alone.
Behind, the fleet engagement intensified.
The radio net filled with ragged breaths. Joanna in the main cockpit breathed the hardest. Each helm adjustment must have felt like grinding her soul.
After overcoming several near-collisions, the beach appeared abruptly. But the harbor entrance was blocked. Ships crashed into the breakwater cast ruinous shadows. As the high-speed craft raced alongside crumbling wave walls, pursuers appeared atop the breakwater. Coast Guard with wobbly aim, gasping breaths already hungering for plague.
[Fort Baker’s fallen too...]
Talbot's murmur carried sorrow.
“Go north!”
Joanna silently set a new course. Keeping the harbor to port, they hugged the rocky coast northward. Not all forces wiped out, gunfire continued from land. WWII historical coastal batteries reactivated streaked by quickly.
‘What now. Time’s short.’
Current time: 03:48. If believing Kowalski's warning, only 42 minutes left.
Of course, she had only said high possibility.
[Winter! How about landing there?]
Winter immediately recognized the direction from the cockpit. A short, rough beach under a gentle cliff on a rock outcrop jutting into the sea. About 80 meters from the coastal road. Close to the base but nothing but a barometer, no troops or mutants visible.
Just one lone mutant that had tumbled down roaring at the water's edge.
Roooaaar—!
But it wouldn't jump in. Even with Melvillies around, normal mutants feared water.
“Good! Further north is the minefield! Everyone, prepare to land!”
Bang! A single heavy machine gun round shattered an infected human's head.
Dodging a few reefs poking above water, the boat finally touched land. Scraaape. Sharp scraping from below, but who cared now.
Under Winter's covering fire as the first ashore, Joanna and the intel agents stepped onto land one by one.
Climbing the 60-degree, 20-meter cliff, lights of vehicles racing along the road appeared between trees. A few Humvees and one fuel truck. One Humvee lacked a gunner. More hasty retreat than organized withdrawal.
“Looks like they’re abandoning the base, but no idea where to. Wonder if command’s even intact...”
Talbot's trembling words were right. Climbing up here just to hit a wall. No clue if they had a destination. But multiple vehicles heading the same way meant something.
'What was over there?'
Winter recalled past memories. Scenes from arriving on Corona Triumph, moving by Ferrari. A trash-filled beach near the container walls. And a helicopter abandoned between trees. Helicopter?
Winter spoke to the agents huddled in the brush.
“Looks like they’re trying to evac by chopper. You remember, Anne? The ones parked just inside the wall.”
The FBI agent looked perplexed.
“Weren’t those airframes past their service life?”
“Gamble on luck. Past life doesn’t mean instant crash. Best option now.”
“But...”
She pondered briefly, but reality offered no alternative.
“Straight line to the west coast is over 5 kilometers walking. Through hills, nearly 7. And we’ve got under 40 minutes. Too late to find another boat there.”
The bay's nuclear blast would spew massive fallout. Needed at least tens of kilometers from ground zero for safety. Escaping Golden Gate by craft would’ve cleared the zone, but pointless regret.
Radiation poisoning was certain death. Old chopper at least offered hope.
Joanna agreed.
“No time to waste. Join the survivors first.”
“Good. Anne, lead. I’ll take rear this time. Everyone else, watch flanks.”
Decision based on base side being riskier.
Walking distance: about 800 meters. Hurrying agents' breaths reached their jaws. No one at full stamina. Joanna, depleted since 12 hours ago, worse. Skimping sleep for overseer duties, exhaustion deeper.
Talbot and Tucker agents supported her staggering.
Kyaaack!
A horde racing along the coastal road filled Winter's view. Mix of Coast Guard, Army, sea refugees. Naturally, speeds varied by host stamina. Winter targeted the fastest's knees, then hips.
Pop! Pop! Pop-pop! Pop-pop!
Single shots nearly as fast as bursts, never missing. Heavy investment in marksmanship made "Personal Firearms Proficiency" practically maxed.
Leg-broken ones tumbled, tripping followers. Calculated shots toppled dozens. Yet the wave behind outnumbered. Those trampled cracked and died with crunches.
After securing distance with enfilade fire, Winter caught up to the agents ahead in one sprint.