The two soldiers stood at the edge of the landing field. Two dozen other soldiers milled about the area, a sense of nervous energy emanating off them like a live current. Several sat in the two Humvees, fueled and ready to go, but no one had given them the order to act yet. Some were eager to go while others didn’t want to go even when ordered. This created a sense of inertia that none of them could breakthrough.
A man in tactical gear carrying a rifle and a strange-looking canister in his hand sprinted around the corner of a building at the east edge of the landing field. Once he got into the field, he skidded to a stop and surveyed the vehicles and men. It only took him a second to make up his mind, and he started at a slow jog toward Garner, Navarro, and the MAV.
“Isn’t that that Eli dude?” Navarro asked.
“Yeah,” Gardner said.
“Clayton said he’s a bit of a dick,” Navarro said, but he did it at a whisper because Eli was just about upon them.
Eli pulled to a quick stop in front of them, almost panting. “I need you to take me to the gate,” he stopped and pointed at the MAV, then continued, “and I need that.”
“Wait, wait,” Gardner said, putting both of his hands in the air. “We gotta wait for Sergeant Jones to order us into action.”
“That’s what we’re going to do,” Eli said. “We’re going to rescue your Sergeant.”
“Hell, yeah,” Navarro said. “Let’s go.”
“Wait,” Gardner said, “we should wait for Sergeant Jones.”
Eli leaned closer to Gardner and said, “You wait, and your Sergeant is going to be dead.”
Navarro said, “You heard the man, we gotta get going.”
Navarro started toward the door but stopped abruptly. He reached back and grabbed Gardner by the arm and tugged him toward the door. In two steps, they were inside the MAV with Navarro in the driver’s seat and Gardner ready to fire the weapons. Eli slipped in behind them, taking a seat in the back.
“Let’s go,” Eli said. “Every second we wait is one second closer to Sergeant Jones dying.”
“Come on, Gards,” Navarro said, nearly bouncing in his seat. “Let’s get this bitch started.”
As much as every instinct told him not to, Gardner powered up the MAV, its engine rumbling like an ancient beast, and they were off and running. Navarro leaned forward in his seat, ready for battle.
Eli sat back in his seat and wore a solemn expression of resignation as he cradled the gas canister in his lap.
Chapter 76
Rescue Party
A fireball exploded at the back of the helicopter, nearly enveloping it. The flames rose into the sky, looking like a miniature version of a mushroom cloud. A wall of heat rushed over people on the wall. It felt as if the temperature around them had increased by forty degrees. Several people on the wall threw their arms up in an instinctive gesture of protection even though it was over fifty feet away.
“Holy shit!” Someone off to Donovan’s right shouted.
For a brief moment, everyone within the vicinity of the gate stopped shooting at the zombies as the spectacle of the explosion took their breaths away.
The fireball continued to rise into the sky but finally abated and collapsed in on itself, leaving a dark cloud covering the area around the downed chopper.
“Do you think it was an RPG?” Mason asked.
Donovan took a long pause before responding, and a zombie stumbled out of the smoke cloud fully engulfed in flames. It made it ten steps before it collapsed face-first onto the ground, flames leaping off its back.
“No, that was something different,” Donovan said.
“Like what?” Mason said.
“A bomb.”
People down the wall from them started firing as the zombies away from the explosion began their advance again.
Lassiter shouted at them, “Manage your ammo, folks.”
Most didn’t listen and continued firing.
The helicopter’s run by the wall just moments ago had cleared out a great deal of the zombies, including the ones that had built up at the base of the wall. While everyone breathed a sigh of relief, everyone knew it was only a brief respite because a tsunami of zombies was still headed their way.
Donovan and Mason continued to watch the smoke cloud for any signs of the helicopter or its inhabitants. Another zombie crawled out of the cloud. From the waist down, it was nothing but fire. When its legs became useless, it pulled itself along on its arms, until those gave out, and it went down falling into a charred mass.
Moments ago, they were prepared to make a desperate rescue attempt to retrieve Jones and Garve, but it seemed as if the winds had left their sails. There was no way anyone could have survived that conflagration. The explosion and fire had just been too intense.
Still, they locked their focus on the smoke cloud hoping for any hopeful sign. Their diligence was partially rewarded when a strong breeze from the east pushed a large section of the clouds away, revealing the helicopter’s dark bulky shape. The back half was clearly on fire, and the front half was partially blackened from the flames, but it was intact.
“Do you think they could still be alive?” Mason asked.
“I...I don’t know,” Donovan said.
“There’s no way we can go out there,” Mason said, but follow that up with, “Is there?”
A deep rumbling noise rolled in from behind them, and when they turned, they saw the MAV racing their way, looking menacing and quite lethal. It hopped over a curb and smashed into a wooden bench, splintering it into pieces.
“Where is he going?” Mason said.
“Looks like the gate,” Donovan said. He returned his attention to the fire around the helicopter and saw another burning zombie come out of the smoke cloud and crumple to the ground. The fire on the backside of the chopper continued to burn out of control, sending gouts of flame and smoke into the air. Fortunately, the majority of the fire was contained there.
Movement near the helicopter caught his attention. The front door on the passenger side of the craft opened a crack, but this only lasted a moment as something knocked it wide open. A leg came into view through a thin layer of smoke.
“They’re still alive,” Donovan said, leaning over the lip of the front wall.
“It’s Eli,” Mason said from behind Donovan.
“What?” Donovan said, sounding distracted as he maintained his focus on the helicopter.
“Eli brought the MAV,” Mason said. “Do you think he’s going out there to get them?
Garver stumbled out of the door of the helicopter, falling to his knees. He took a moment to recover but was up and on his feet again and reaching back to the door. He seemed to struggle for a moment but then pried the door wide open. A moment later, Jones came out the door using one crutch to stay off his bad leg. In his free hand, he held a pistol.
A partially blackened and charred zombie ambled out of a cloud of smoke, but Jones put a bullet in its brain, dropping it. Donovan knew Jones had no other choicet, but the gunshot would get the attention of the zombies in the area.
“Jones and Garver are still alive,” Donovan said as he lifted his rifle up, not really knowing what he could do.
“We have to get out there to help them,” Mason said.
Garver moved in tight to Jones and threw an arm around the bigger man’s waist to steady him. The move nearly disabled Jones’ ability to target any of the zombies, but it looked to be the only way they could make any movement toward the wall. How Jones would scale the wall with his bad leg seemed a long shot, but they’d cross that bridge when they got there.
The couple took two clumsy steps when it must have become apparent to Jones the crutch was only going to slow them down and prevent him from using his gun. He tossed the crutch away, and it skittered in the dirt. After that, he leaned into Garver more heavily for support.
“We need to give them some covering fire,” Donovan said. “That’s the best we can do right now.”
He lowered h
imself to one knee and placed his rifle on the lip of the wall, taking careful aim on a zombie on a direct course toward Garver and Jones. He centered its head in his crosshairs and blew the thing’s brains all over the trampled grass.
Mason followed suit and took down another zombie, putting a bullet in its brainpan. A man next to him saw what they were doing and joined in. He kneecapped a zombie, causing it to collapse to the ground. It was a good start, but Jones and Garver had to traverse a lot more ground to get to safety. And make it past a whole helluva a lot of zombies at the same time.
Chapter 77
Gate Crasher
“Open the gate!” Eli shouted, but it sounded almost like a shriek from the passenger window of the MAV.
“There’re zombies out there,” the man standing beside the gate said. He was plump in the middle and sported a longish white beard and mustache, making him look like a frightened Santa Claus. The pump shotgun in his hand sort of played against that look, though. His face told a story of pure astonishment and disbelief.
“I fucking know that,” Eli said. “Just open the gate.”
“I open that gate and they’re coming in,” the Santa Claus man said.
“I said open it,” Eli said insistently.
The Santa Claus man looked around and then up to the wall, trying to get any support he could find, but everyone was focused on the drama occurring around the helicopter.
“I don’t think I can do that,” the Santa Claus man replied, taking a long wipe at his sweaty forehead.
A bushy headed younger man poked his head out of the driver’s window of the MAV and said, “Don’t you worry, pops, we can take out anyone or anything outside that gate.” He pointed to the 105mm cannon.
“You’re not planning to fire that thing inside here?” the Santa Claus man asked, taking a step back away from the MAV.
“He will if you don’t open that gate,” Eli said, narrowing his eyes.
The Santa Clause man looked up to the wall and shouted, “Lassiter?”
“You have to the count of five,” Eli said, fixing the Santa Claus man in his stare.
Lassiter did not come to the man’s aid, and the last thing he wanted was a big hole or worse in the gate. He quickly rushed over to the opening mechanism and put it in motion.
“It’s your funeral,” the Santa Claus man said, not sounding very avuncular.
The gate slowly opened, revealing a dozen zombies standing just outside it. Although zombies had no emotions, something in the set of their body language made them come across as surprised. It was if someone had started a Black Friday sale and they were late to the opening.
It really didn’t matter because the party came to them as Gardner fired a round of the cannon. The shell moved faster than any human eye could follow and exploded among the zombies, obliterating them. The closest to the impact were vaporized. The others were torn apart.
The sheer shock of it knocked the Santa Claus man onto his butt as his mouth hung open. He thought they would just ride over them, but it was as if the driver wanted to make a big statement.
Navarro put the MAV In motion, and it rushed out the gate and into the field. Two zombies who had survived the attack rolled on the ground, what was left of the brains scrambled. Navarro piloted the MAV right over their bodies, crushing their bodies into the pavement.
Chapter 78
Out in the Open
“We’ve got thirty seconds to get away from the chopper,” Garver said as he surveyed the distance between them and the wall. There had to be close to thirty zombies shambling about. Prior to the MAV blasting a dozen of them into the next life, all of those zombies had been focused on Jones and Garver.
If there was one thing people knew about zombies, big noises attracted them. The bigger the noise, the better for them. Big noises meant more food.
But not all zombie eyes went to the MAV. A couple decided the closer meal was the best bet, and that meal was the two of them. Jones' shot had drawn the attention of two more outside the perimeter, and they were shuffling toward him.
“Let’s go,” Jones said through gritted teeth.
“How fast can you go with that leg?” Garver asked while glancing down at Jones’ injured leg.
“I’ll go as fast as I have to,” Jones replied. “How far do we need to be away?”
“Fifteen feet, but twenty would be better.”
“Let’s get moving,” Jones said.
They moved like contestants in a three-legged race with Garver supporting Jones because of his injured leg. This was no easy task since Jones outweighed Garver by at least fifty pounds. To help, Jones had his pistol hand free to take down any approaching zombies.
A tall, lanky zombie with extra-long arms came at them in a broken gait, one arm extended. It emitted an expectant, low moan, wanting to get a piece of the two men. Then another piece, and another. Zombies were voracious that way.
Garver lifted his pistol and plugged a bullet into its chest. It stumbled backward but quickly recovered and started back at them.
“Headshots, old man,” Jones said.
“Dammit, Jim, I’m a pilot, not a foot soldier,” Garver shot back.
“So, you did watch Star Trek,” Jones said, hiding a slight smile.
Garver corrected his aim and put a bullet right into the dead thing’s forehead.
“Full speed ahead, Scotty,” Jones said, and the two men started toward the wall, moving as awkwardly as two people could. What they’d do when they got there, Jones wasn’t sure. With his leg, there was little chance he could scale it. His only thought was maybe the people inside could toss down something to climb on or pull them over.
It was that or the MAV was going to take them back in. That was where Jones was putting his money. Too bad, he lost that bet, but not entirely.
Another broad and wide zombie looking partially burned came stumbling at Jones. Despite its terrible wounds, it made good progress. Jones was a much better shot than Garver and dispatched it with a single bullet.
They made it eighteen feet away when the second fire bomb went off. The concussion knocked the two men forward, nearly toppling them. The last thing either of them wanted was to be on the ground with zombies roaming close by.
To keep from falling, Jones had to place his bad leg down hard onto the ground to brace himself. The pain was immediate and overwhelming. He let out a howl of agony, but the two men remained erect, albeit shakily so.
A blast of flame erupted from the pilot’s side of the helicopter, pouring over a small group of zombies intent on getting to the two men. The force of the blast took the zombies down to the ground and engulfed them in flames. Two zombies survived long enough to attempt crawling away, but they only lasted a few feet before they went down for good.
Garver hated gutting the helicopter. In his mind, it had been their only viable means of escape, but there was little choice. The fall from the sky had probably damaged it beyond repair, and they needed something to keep the zombies behind the chopper from getting to them.
“You okay?” Garver asked as the two men paused their forward motion for a moment.
If Jones had been sweating before, it was now pouring off him as he panted with the pain.
“No, but I’ll make it,” Jones said.
Too bad for the two men that Jones had cried out. Maybe zombies were more attuned to human cries when compared with explosions because more of the zombies headed for the MAV turned and came their way.
Whoever was driving the MAV must have spotted these intrepid zombies and cut the wheels on the vehicle sharply. The driver pressed the pedal to the metal, picking up speed.
Jones and Garver were in motion again, trudging along slowly.
“We’ve got trouble,” Garver said, lifting his arm to aim at the zombies coming their way.
“Give it a second or two,” Jones said as he watched the MAV make a sharp course correction, heading for the zombies and increasing in velocity.
It happened in s
econds, and the zombies never saw it coming.
The MAV rolled over them, tossing a couple in the air and grinding the rest to the ground, leaving bones broken and smashed. The driver hit the brakes, sending the MAV into a long skid, making Garver think that he and Jones were about to be taken out along with the zombies. Out of pure instinct, Garver put up his hand, knowing it was useless, but doing it anyway.
The MAV kicked up a dust cloud at Jones and Garver’s feet, stopping only inches away from them. No sooner did it stop than a portal door popped open on the front of the vehicle, and Navarro’s head stuck out.
“Hey, Sarge, get on,” he said as if nothing was wrong and there weren’t a thousand zombies flooding into the area.
Jones and Garver stood there with stunned expressions.
“Sarge, I meant it, get on,” Navarro said. “There’s like fifty zombies about to run over your ass.”
When Jones looked over his shoulder, he saw what Navarro was talking about. A small swarm of zombies streamed toward them. The only thing preventing them from getting to the two men was the fact they had to navigate around the burning chopper.
Garver made the first step, dragging Jones along with him. There were no doors on the front. The only option for them was to climb onto the exterior of the vehicle. Garver was about to climb, but knew it wasn’t going to be that easy for Jones. So, he turned and made a cradle with his two hands for Jones to step up onto.
“Get up there,” Jones said. “You can pull me up.”
“You’re nearly double my size,” Garver said. “I can’t pull you up.”
“Well, shit,” Jones said and grabbed onto the side of the MAV, then jumped up and placed the foot of his good leg into Garver’s hand. It was perfectly timed, and Garver gave a tremendous heave, tossing Jones onto the deck of the MAV.
Garver put a little too much into the effort, and Jones lost his balance and rolled two revolutions, leaving him nearly wedged under the MAV’s big gun. When he tried to get over to help Garver, his shoulder hit the barrel,and he fell back onto the deck of the MAV. When he tried again, he saw something flash in the shadows of the building in the distance.
The Deadland Chronicles | Book 4 | Siege of the Dead: Page 33