Final Dawn: Season 3 (The Thrilling Post-Apocalyptic Series) by Mike Kraus

it.
     
    “We need to get moving to the command deck before those things get there.” Leonard moved his remaining crutch to the right side and balanced on it while motioning from Nancy to move to his left. He placed his left arm around her shoulder for support and started hopping forward, moving as quickly as he could. Behind them, the creatures shattered the thick glass on the door, howling madly as they threw themselves against it, trying to no avail to break through. After they had turned a corner and closed another hatch, Leonard stopped and sank to the floor, pulling a handheld radio from his pocket and thumbing the button.
     
    “Krylov, this is McComb. The creatures are on board. You need to seal up as many hatches as you can and get us the hell underwater, now! ”
     
    On the command deck, Commander Krylov’s face turned white as Leonard’s voice came over the speakers. Turning to his dive officer, he shouted, resisting the urge to knock the man from his chair and perform the operation himself. “Dive, damn it! Dive! Get us as low as possible!”
     
    He then turned to the rest of the skeleton crew, desperately wishing that he wasn’t running out of men so quickly. “Arm yourselves and begin to seal the bulkheads leading to the surface exits. If you see anything not human, shoot it!” The men he was addressing scrambled to obey, running through multiple exits from the command deck to obtain weapons and proceed through the ship.
     
    Back in the control room overlooking the lock, the lead crewman looked over the controls, quickly finding the one required to begin the filling process. Connected to diesel generators below ground and solar panels strung along both sides of the lock, the control room and the lock itself was still fully operational, and needed only the touch of a single button to operate. “Commander, we’re in position!”
     
    Static filled the radio for several seconds, then Krylov’s voice came through, barely audible over the sound of alarms in the background. “Start it now! Hurry!”
     
    Below them, the massive vessel began to sink into the water. Air bubbles rose to the surface from the open hatch, churning the water and disorienting the creatures around the ship as they continued to try and make their way in. The two men in the control room watched the ship sink for a few seconds as they resigned themselves to their fate before activating the console and starting the automated filling process that would allow the Arkhangelsk to pass through the locks.
     
    Nancy and Leonard had stopped to catch their breath again. Lost in some section of the ship that Nancy didn’t recognize from her earlier explorations, she was doing her best to get them to the command deck, but had so far been unsuccessful. Gunfire and distant voices—both human and not—had echoed through the corridors, making them uncertain as to the current situation involving the creatures.
     
    “Leonard?”
     
    Leonard was sitting on the corridor floor opposite Nancy, thumbing the radio button to no avail. He looked up at her, breathing heavily from his exertion, wincing at the stabs of pain that would occasionally lance through his leg.
     
    “What?”
     
    “Where did you get that?” Nancy pointed at the radio. “And the gun, too. Where did you get them?”
     
    Leonard smiled as he massaged his knee. “Krylov needs to pay a bit more attention when he lets strangers into his weapons rooms. I snagged the gun and the radio on our way out, just in case we needed them at some point.” A loud clang echoed through the corridor, sounding closer than any of the other noises had been. “I wish I would have grabbed more than one pistol, though…”
     
    Leonard pushed himself up with Nancy’s help and they continued on their way, moving as quickly and as quietly as they could. Since sitting down and getting back up again, the noise level had gone down, and there was only an occasional burst of gunfire followed by a howl