Midnight Rider on a Graveyard Run

by Gary Koz Mraz

  “You know as well as I there are weight restrictions that can be exceeded. If you have no luggage, you may be able to push one more, but not over 150 lbs.”

  “Of course, you're right. Tell him to bring an extra 20 gallons of fuel; we will need it.”

  “Ok, Liz, good luck. You will hear from him soon. His name is Will Barclay. Don't get yourself killed.”

  “Thank you, Richard, thank you.” They disconnect, and the group is silent.

  “I know I have taken charge here,” Yang states. “You can all weigh in, but this is how I see this going down. The scientist, Voodoomama, Liz, Zac, Yin, and Fifi take the plane out. Cleaning Lady and I refuel the Rover when the plane gets here, and we drive out. I'm Chinese and speak the language, and Cleaning Lady… Well, he's six foot six and 250 lbs. He takes the space of two people. It's as simple as that.” Her logic is irrefutable.

  We are one hour from pick up and the Range Rover begins heaving and sputters to a stop. Out of gas, we push the Rover to the side of the road and put up a makeshift tent to protect us from the harsh desert sun. It's quiet, dead quiet. Both Liz and Voodoomama have come around, but it’s as if they are drunk. They are incoherent with small lapses of lucidity, then fall back to sleep. We are all packed and ready to go at a moment’s notice, conserving energy and the last of our water.

  Minutes tick by like Chinese water torture. Yin is standing atop the rover scanning the skylines.

  “Yang, come here, look at this,” Yin requests. Yang hops atop the Rover and grabs the binoculars. “My god, Yin, get me the M14 and scope.” Yin assembles the rifle with a high-power scope and hands it to Yang. She peers through the scope “They are 10 miles away and moving fast.”

  “How is that possible?” Yin exclaims.

  “I don't know, but we are in deep shit, people. Look out at the horizon.”

  The distant horizon looks as if a dust storm ten miles wide is approaching. It’s the dust of several hundred thousand ToxoZombies heading our way.

  “How could they have gotten this far this fast? There’s no way!” Cleaning Lady blurts.

  “If they ran at 10 miles an hour for ten hours, there is a way. These aren’t normal humans,” Yang explains. “They are freaking zombies with one mission: to kill us. And they are probably dying of exhaustion to do so. But they are here and will certainly overrun us within the hour.”

  “Where the hell is Barclay?” Fifi asks. “Call Branson and find out where the damn plane is.” No sooner than this is said, the phone rings.

  “This is Will Barclay. I have you triangulated and will be landing within the hour. Be ready to board upon landing.”

  “Please, get here as fast as possible! It’s critical you push pick up,” Yang demands.

  “I am flying at low altitude to avoid radar, airspeed 240 knots. I will be coming through the valley within thirty minutes or so, and we should have visual then.”

  “Contact us the moment you enter the valley. Over.”

  “Roger that, over and out.”

  “This is not good; this is just not good,” FiFi frets.

  “Yin, we still have another micro nuke in the Land Rover. I have an idea,” Yang states.

  Yang plans to take the micro nuke out ten miles while Yin detonates it remotely. The blast should eliminate tens of thousands ToxoZombies and slow down the rest. Barclay’s plane will still be in the canyons and unaffected by the 80-mph wind blast.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Cleaning Lady protests. “First of all, you can’t get it near them in time. Secondly, you’ll be killed.”

  “Easy, Lady, easy,” Yang smirks. “You have no clue who you are dealing with here. First, it’s only a two-kiloton blast with a half-mile radius, and lucky for us, we have an eastward wind so the radiation fallout will move away from us.”

  Yang straps on a backpack with the micro nuke. Yin will detonate it when she sees Yang’s flare gun go off.

  “Yang, please, don’t do this!” Cleaning Lady pleads bereftly.

  “Just watch me!” She takes off running and disappears within seconds. Yin turns to Cleaning lady. “She’s been clocked at 60 miles an hour.”

  Yang approaches the hordes and what she sees is shocking. Tens of thousands leap along with giant strides, bounding along like strange alien grasshoppers. Charging ahead with bloody foaming mouths, their dehydrated bodies are frail and sickly. Hundreds fall dead from exhaustion as others leap forward over the twisted, broken bodies. Yang surmises that they are workers that powered the city with 12 hours of daily pedaling. They’ve been using their leg muscles for god knows how long, and they now lurch forward like crazed spastic kangaroos. She sets the bomb so it will detonate within the front phalanx of the encroaching masses and races back towards the group. At three miles out, she hunkers in behind a sand hill and fires the flare gun.

  Everyone back at the Rover has dug in. Yin commands. “Do not look at the flash and be prepared for extreme high wind turbulence in 5, 4, 3 2, 1.” Ten miles away, a thermonuclear detonation completely devastates a tenth of the oncoming Toxos. The ensuing wind blast hits at 80 mph for several seconds and dies out.

  Yang arrives back out of breath and weak. “I think that did the job.”

  The cell phone goes off. “This is Barclay! Come in, this is Barclay! What the fuck was that?!”

  “We are fine.” Yin explains. “Everyone is fine here. When will you have a visual?”

  “I have visual now, and besides a fuckin mushroom cloud it looks like the entire Chinese army is heading directly at you!”

  “Barclay, you're here, it's OK!” Yin vows. “Set it down, and we will all get out of here just fine.” They watch as a Piper comes in for a perfect three-point landing, rolling within twenty feet of the Range Rover before the door pops open.

  “Let's get moving people! We need to turn the plane around!” Barclay demands. Cleaning Lady, Yin and Yang swing the small plane around for takeoff. Barclay starts handing out five-gallon cans of petrol to Cleaning Lady; he proceeds to pour one into the Rover's gas tank. The cockpit is emptied, and we start loading in Liz, the scientist, and Fifi. We can see ToxoZombies approaching fast in the distance. The blast may have wiped out weak ones, but it seems that the stronger ones are now charging full tilt.

  A drowsy Voodoomama rifles through the Land Rover and pulls out the Saber of Fate from her baggage. She is wearing the Keystone ring and touches the handle then hands the sword to Yang. “Just in case,” she mumbles as Yin carries her to the waiting plane.

  “Yang! Behind you!” Cleaning Lady yells. Yang spins around as hundreds of ToxoZombies bound over a sand dune toward them. Machine gun in hand, she starts mowing down the front lines until the gun empties. Pulling out the sword, she begins literally slicing through Toxos like paper, dozens with each stroke, cutting them down like a weed eater. She becomes a twirling dervish in a ballet of death. The Saber of Fate matched with Yang’s power and speed decimate the horde.

  Fifi slams the loaded Piper Cherokee's door and the plane begins to taxi down the roadway. Cleaning Lady and Yang jump into the Range Rover. It won't start; it was run bone-dry and is stalling.

  ToxoZombies begin piling on top of the vehicle, scratching and grabbing, pulling off the wipers, digging at the window cracks as their burnt, bloody, irradiated faces foam at the mouth. They stare in demonically at the doomed inhabitants. The Rover sinks from the weight as the roof begins to dent and crumple inward.

  Suddenly the Rover roars to life, and they floor it. Most of the ToxoZombies fly off. As they race towards the Piper Cherokee, they see that several Toxos have jumped onto the tail section of the taxiing plane. It can't lift off because of the added weight. The plane is barreling down the highway at 90 miles an hour. Yang opens the window with a 9mm handgun and picks off the remaining zombies clutching the Rover. They catch up to the plane as it's bouncing off the roadway unable to get airborne.

  “I can’t fire at the plane,” Yang yells to Cleaning Lady. She grabs the cel
l phone and calls Barclay.

  “Barclay, slow down and keep a steady speed. I will get them off your tail.” She throws the phone to the floor and climbs out onto the Land Rover’s hood.

  Barkley yells back, “We have another problem! Do you read me? We have another problem!” But no one hears his warning.

  The plane slows to 60mph and stabilizes on the roadway. As Yang secures herself onto the crash bars on the front grill, a bloody hand grabs her leg from below. A Toxo has been clinging to the bottom of the Rover. A swift kick to the head ends its life. She motions Cleaning Lady to inch closer until they are within reach of the airplane. Yang grabs the leg of a Toxo hugging the tail and yanks him off the plane. He slams into the Rover’s windshield and bounces onto the roadway. As Yang inches toward the last zombie clutching the tail section, he leaps directly at her, grabbing her neck with his hands. Wrapping his legs around her body, he bounces with her off the Rover, and both hit the roadway at 60 miles an hour, tumbling into the distance.

  Cleaning Lady watches them roll away in his rear-view mirror. As the plane slowly rises into the air, Cleaning Lady suddenly realizes there is a concrete barrier directly in front of him. The plane's wheels barely miss the barrier as Cleaning Lady slams on the brakes. He skids directly into the concrete wall at 50mph, totaling the Land Rover.

  Inside the airborne Piper Cherokee, Yin watches the chaos unfold below: her sister tossed into the desert, the destroyed Rover, the imminent approach of the army of death. Silently, tears roll down Yin's cheeks; her twin has given her life to save the others. Yin too is dying inside as she stares blankly and transfixed into the endless horizon.

  Soaring high above the Gobi Desert a silver sky shimmers against crystal clouds like an aurora borealis caressing the pulsing panorama of desert dunes. It’s absolutely beautiful.

  Chapter 14 – Road to Redemption

  Steam and dust from the crushed radiator and exploded airbags fill the cabin of the smashed land rover. Cleaning Lady is dazed, but unhurt. He grabs the door handle but to his dismay is jammed shut. He lays down in the cabin and with both feet kicks out the driver's side window. Sliding out of the door, he surveys the damage. Yang is somewhere on the road, and he bolts after her. Passing the crumpled remains of the zombie that attacked her, he finds Yang in a heap by the side of the road.

  “Yang?” He puts his hand on her shoulder. “Yang can you hear me?” She slowly unfolds, badly beaten up and bruised. “Don’t move. You’ve probably broken a lot of bones.”

  “No, I don't break bones, but every other part of me hurts. Let's get the hell out of here.”

  He cradles her battered body, and as he bolts back to the destroyed Land Rover, they pass the sword Yang had tucked in her belt. “Get the saber,” she barks and tucks it snugly back into her belt. “What happened to our truck?”

  “Long story,” he snaps. “But I have our B plan.” Laying her down next to the Rover, he pulls the Triumph Trophy motorcycle from the back of the truck and leans it against the Rover.

  “The bike looks fine. I'll gas it up. This is our way out, Yang.” He pulls a 5-gallon gas can out of the hissing truck and pours it into the tank of the motorcycle.

  “Lady, you better hurry. We got a hundred thousand angry zombies on our ass!” He shoves food, water and a sleeping bag into the panniers, turns the key in the ignition, and hits the starter. The bike grinds to a dead click. He hits the starter again, but there’s nothing.

  “Oh, this just keeps getting better, Lady.”

  “God damn it, Yang, I got to push start this thing.” As he looks at the oncoming army, he pulls out his handgun and hands it to Yang. “It has six rounds. I will be right back.”

  “Yeah? If not, I’ll save a round for me.”

  Looking severe, Cleaning Lady pushes the bike between the barriers. With a running start, he hops on the bike and pops the clutch. The Triumph sputters to a stop and he jumps off for another desperate try.

  Yang watches as a human tsunami thunders towards her. She pulls herself up and props against the Rover. She tries pulling the saber out of its sheath, but it won't budge. After a few seconds of tugging, she lifts the handgun and stares into the oncoming tidal wave of death and begins to laugh loudly. The absurdity and hopelessness of the situation is preposterous. The thought of being ripped apart by a torrent of slashing hands and bloody teeth gnashing her flesh is unbearable. Yang lifts the gun to her head, slowly squeezing the trigger when the roar of the motorcycle breaks her trance. Cleaning Lady scoops her onto the bike with one arm and heads out into the open desert. Yang, securely planted in the back seat, realizes she’s still pointing the gun at herself and stuffs it into her pants.

  “Jesus, Lady, you sure know how to show a girl a good time.”

  “Don't call me, Lady. Please.”

  “Fine, Lady. What should I call you?”

  “Jeff.”

  “Jeff. Ok, Jeffery.”

  “Just Jeff.”

  She hunkers down, hugging Jeff with both arms and clamping her thighs tightly to his. Yang knows she's safe…for the moment. Pushing her breasts hard into his body, she lays her head against his back and drifts off into much-needed slumber.

  The melting desert sun burns into Jeff’s eyes, and then, he struggles through a pitch-black moonless night. The temperatures drop, but Yang is still unconscious as he forges onward. This endless tunnel of darkness is totally consuming. There is no escape; he must keep moving forward… fast. The winds kick up, and ghostly shadows of desert sand dance across the tiny white strip of halogen headlight as unseen hands punch and pummel the speeding motorcycle.

  *

  Inside the Piper Cherokee, the low drone of the airplane growls likes a hundred monks. Yin sits silently then suddenly blurts, “Where are we going?”

  “Back to the Paro airport in Bhutan,” Barclay replies. “If you had to pick the only airport on planet earth we could get in and out of right now, the Paro would be it. There are only eight people in the world licensed to land there, and I am one. It's your lucky day, missy.”

  The Landing is rough, to say the least. A crosswind howls at the overweight plane. The group is shuttled to the Zhiwa Ling hotel where they settle in. The Thundertaker phone rings and Yin answers.

  “This is Liz Duran,” Yin states. After another voice print authorization, General Alexander gets on the line.

  “Agent Duran, we will have an extraction team there within 12 hours. Is everyone safe?”

  “Colonel,” Yin responds. “Do you know where I am right now? Triangulate this phone.”

  She hears a flurry of orders in the background. “You are in Bhutan?”

  “That's right, and four hours ago we would all be dead if not for a Good Samaritan. We are at the Paro Aeroport; there are six of us alive and safe here. We have the scientist.”

  “Alright, Mrs. Duran, I am told extraction ETA is now eight hours to the Paro Aeroport. We are glad you are safe.”

  Voodoomama and Liz walk into the room, completely awake and lucid.

  “What the hell is going on? Where are we? Where is Yang and Cleaning Lady?” Both are briefed on the events of the last 24 hours and informed they have been infected with the Toxo Trigger virus, yet now seem fully coherent.

  “Zac, where did we meet the Monks on our trip to Lhasa?” Liz asks.

  “It was Gyantse, the Tashi Lhunpo Monastery. We were separated from the group and escorted to the room of a hundred smiling golden Buddhas. It’s where the monk said to us, ‘When the world becomes numb, and hope fades you must return here, and right here. Do not forget this; your life and the life of your world depends on it. This is the truth. We will be waiting.'“

  “How far is that from us right now?” she asks Barclay.

  Barclay laughs. “Four hours on a Royal Enfield. I collect them. Do you know how to ride a motorcycle?”