V Plague (Book 13): Exodus

by Dirk Patton

  “Stop!” I screamed, skidding to a halt.

  Nitro knew the drill and pulled up instantly, but Rachel nearly ran me over, sending me stumbling several steps forward. But, it worked. A heartbeat later, several rounds tore into the tarmac where we would have been if we’d maintained our pace.

  “Run!” I shouted again, surging forward.

  Dog trotted slightly to the front, looking over his shoulder to see if I was playing some sort of game. In a way, I was, but if I lost this one, it would be my last.

  “Suppressive fire on that goddamn roof!” I yelled to the team members who had stayed behind.

  Everyone had a sound suppressed rifle and I couldn’t hear their shots, but they must have opened up because the incoming fire suddenly ceased. I didn’t think there was a chance in hell they’d actually be able to target and hit the bad guys at the range they were engaging from, but bullets pinging off your cover have a way of making you keep your head down. At the moment, that’s as much as I could ask for.

  Ahead, the Cobra streaked around the back of a hangar, turning to line up its weapons. It suddenly flared, cutting speed to a hover as it popped up for a look down shot on their position. There was a ripple of flashes from one of the cylindrical rocket pods as Anna fired. But, before the ordnance could reach its destination, there was a flare from the rocket motor of a missile igniting only a few yards above the roof of the hangar.

  The weapons fired by the helicopter impacted a fraction of a second later, the structure erupting as multiple warheads detonated. Anna, aware of the inbound threat, attempted to evade, but the Stinger slammed into the Super Cobra. Its seeker head had locked onto the heat of the aircraft and struck only a foot behind the dual exhaust ports which were located above the tail boom.

  For a second, the helo disappeared in a ball of fire and smoke before suddenly emerging back into view. It was no longer able to stay in the air, tilting dramatically as half the tail section fell away. Amazingly, the main rotor was still spinning, and that threw the crippled machine into a spin as it dropped from the sky. I lost sight of it as it plunged for the tarmac.

  With the threat of the enemy on the roof of the destroyed hangar eliminated, I changed directions and charged directly for the crash site. We needed to get there quickly as there was always a possibility that Anna had survived, but the helo had been at least a mile away when it went down.

  After a hundred yards of sprinting, all of us slowed. Well, all of us except Dog. He was racing ahead, grudgingly pulling up and waiting when I called him. I didn’t know what might be on the far side of the hangar and didn’t want him charging in by himself.

  I tried to push harder but didn’t have it in me. Apparently Nitro did, as he began to pull away. A horn beeped from behind and I nearly stumbled in surprise. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw the fuel truck with Goose behind the wheel. Johnson, Bunny and Monk were clinging to a ladder-type structure on top of the tank that ran the length of the vehicle.

  He slowed, and I shoved Rachel into the cab, sending Dog after her before leaping onto the passenger side running board. Surging ahead, he slowed again to allow Nitro to step up on the driver’s side, then accelerated hard. With a moment to not have to concentrate on running, I looked back at the 747.

  “Vance, what’s your fuel state?”

  “We’re topped off and good to go,” he answered immediately.

  I acknowledged his answer, gripping the door tighter as Goose steered around the destroyed hangar. Looking through the cab, I could see the distress on Nitro’s face as he clung to the opposite side of the truck. Rachel had her arms around Dog’s neck, hugging him tightly.

  Clearing the debris field created by the Cobra’s rockets, we turned, and I got my first look at the crashed helo. The main part of the fuselage was on its side, belly facing us. The severed tail section lay a couple of hundred yards away. The Stinger had ruptured the fuel tank and spilled AvGas was feeding the flames that were spreading towards the front of the aircraft where the cockpit was located.

  Goose hit the brakes when we were still several hundred yards from the crash. I was glad he did since we were riding on a rolling bomb if it got too close to the flames. Nitro was off the running board and charging forward before we came to a complete stop, and I dropped to the tarmac and followed. We’d only gone a few steps when the fire found its way into the compromised tank and the Super Cobra vanished in a ball of searing flame. Nitro and I were both blown backward by the shockwave of superheated air, throwing our arms up and turning away to shield our faces.

  “Goddamn it,” Nitro said as we slowly climbed to our feet. “What the fuck was she thinking?”

  We simply stood and stared at the flames.

  “You heard her,” I said gently. “The guilt must have been eating at her for a while.”

  “She didn’t have a damn thing to feel guilty about! None of this was her fault!”

  I nodded slowly, unsure what to say to comfort my friend.

  “Major, you’d better get your ass in gear,” Vance called. “Pearl just spotted a shitload of infected coming our way.”

  “Copy,” I said, turning to Nitro. “We gotta go. Infected coming. Probably drawn to the explosions.”

  He didn’t respond or even act like he’d heard me.

  “Nitro.” I reached out and put my hand on his shoulder. “We have to move, or her sacrifice will be wasted. Let’s go!”

  Slowly he gathered himself, shook his head, then turned to follow me back to the fuel truck. Bunny was still on the roof, keeping watch, Johnson and Monk on either side. Rachel and Dog had stayed in the cab.

  “Mount up,” I shouted as we trotted up.

  “We heard,” Johnson said, jumping onto the cab before swinging up to the top of the tank.

  “How much time do we have?” I asked Vance once everyone was aboard and we were heading back to the plane.

  “Not much.”

  I could hear the whine of engines starting in the background.

  “This thing go any faster?” I shouted at Goose.

  “Not a fucking sports car, sir,” he yelled back. “Pedal’s on the floor.”

  We rounded the rubble of the hangar, Goose giving it a wide berth so we didn’t blow out a tire on the shards of metal scattered across the tarmac. Coming back into the open, I was glad to see the navigation lights on the 747 were flashing. The landing lights brilliantly illuminated the open runway to the aircraft’s front.

  Someone was standing next to the tractor that provided motivation for the air stairs, and as we drew closer, I recognized it was Igor. He jumped behind the wheel, ready to move them away from the plane the instant we were aboard. Goose wheeled up close to them dropping us off before pulling the fuel truck a safe distance away. I sent everyone up the stairs, following and stepping through the door.

  Igor drove the stairs to where the tanker was parked, jumping out and following Goose to the plane. He’d already removed all the deflated emergency slides and hung a climbing rope from the main cabin door.

  “We gotta go!” Vance shouted from the cockpit.

  I rushed forward and looked through the windscreen. Just rounding the corner of the terminal, and faintly visible at the limit of the landing lights, was the leading edge of the infected. Females. Charging fast, and shitload didn’t do a good job of describing how many of them there were.

  Dashing to the door, I leaned out and saw Goose a third of the way up the rope, Igor waiting on the ground for him to finish the climb. I shouted at them, Goose putting on a burst of speed and Igor taking a second to look in the direction I was pointing. He must have seen the infected, and the sight spurred him to action. Leaping, he grabbed the rope only a few feet below Goose’s boots and began scaling the line, hand over hand.

  “Anchor me!” I shouted.

  Almost instantly, Nitro’s big hand locked onto the back of my belt. Leaning out the open door, I extended my arm and Goose grabbed my wrist as I clamped down on his and hauled him up into
the cabin. He tumbled past, jumping to his feet and leaning out, urging Igor to climb faster.

  “We’re out of time!” Vance shouted.

  “Wait!” I answered.

  “They’re here!” Rachel screamed from somewhere behind me.

  “Go!” I bellowed over my shoulder, then nearly lost my balance as the 747’s huge engines throttled up and the plane began pivoting to come into takeoff alignment.

  Looking down, I caught my breath when I saw Igor swinging like a pendulum, legs far to the side. He was only halfway up the rope, and the momentum of the aircraft in motion was preventing him from being able to do anything other than hold on for dear life. The big Russian looked up, then I lost sight of him for a second as he swung beneath the belly of the plane. When he reappeared, he traveled through a parabola, his boots no more than ten yards from the intake of the closest engine.

  “Fuck this!”

  I lost sight of Goose but didn’t have time to worry about him. The rope Igor dangled from was in my hands, and I began trying to pull him up. But, between his more than two hundred pounds and the force of being swung around at the end of it, I couldn’t gain so much as an inch.

  There was a flash of motion, and I was bulled aside as Goose rushed forward and dropped out the door. I stared in shock, then saw the additional rope trailing out into the night. Leaning farther out, I tried to see him, and Igor, but at that moment the plane straightened out and was suddenly picking up speed.

  “Vance, slow down!” I screamed, now on all fours and sticking my head out into the open.

  Goose had tied a rope to the base of a row of seats, then around his waist before going out. Now, he twisted at the end of it, trying to get a loop secured around Igor. Every motion of the plane sent them twirling away from each other, then the engines throttled back and we slowed to a crawl as Vance reacted to my shout.

  In seeming slow motion, Goose reached the end of an arc, then swung back towards the center. But so did Igor, and the two men slammed into each other. The impact was hard enough for me to hear, even over the roar of the idling jet engines. Igor lost his grip, arms windmilling as he fell to the tarmac.

  50

  “Vance! Stop the goddamn plane!” I shouted, leaning even farther out to see where Igor had landed.

  “They’re almost on us! If they get in front of the engines, we’re fucked!” He yelled back.

  “NOW, GODDAMN IT!” I roared.

  A second later, the brakes groaned and we came to a stop. Goose swung back and forth, suspended at the end of the rope. With Nitro holding me, I thrust most of my upper body through the door and ducked my head, trying to see Igor. After a couple of seconds, I spotted his legs, and he wasn’t moving.

  The screams of attacking females reached my ears an instant before I saw the first one. They raced in, gathering around Igor and leaping for Goose’s dangling legs, sending him in a panicked scramble up the rope. Pulling back into the cabin, I twisted my rifle around and reached for the rope Igor had been climbing, intending to go down and fight my way through.

  “No!” Nitro cried in my ear when he saw what I was trying to do.

  Ignoring him, I bent and grabbed the rope, but he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me away from the door as a body flashed past on its way to the tarmac below. Twisting around, I grabbed Nitro’s wrist and levered it to the side, then slipped away and lunged for the door. Together, he and Johnson tackled me to the floor, and I heard Rachel yelling for Dog to stay.

  Nitro had his not inconsiderable body weight on my back, my arms pinned beneath me, and Johnson was sitting on my legs. I thrashed, but couldn’t free myself from them. Shuddering in anger, I screamed my frustration. A moment later, Goose’s face appeared as he climbed up. He scrambled into the cabin and turned to look down at the ground.

  “Who the fuck went out?” I shouted.

  Rachel leaned down next to my face.

  “You need to stop,” she said, calmly. “That was Nicole. We’ve seen what she can do. Now, quit fighting. We’re already in a sea of infected. There’s nothing you can do.”

  Slowly, the energy drained out of me, and I stopped resisting Nitro and Johnson.

  “Quiet,” Rachel mumbled in my ear. “Don’t stir them up.”

  “Got your shit together if I let you up?” Nitro asked in a low mutter.

  I nodded my head and almost instantly his crushing weight was gone off my back. Johnson untangled from my legs, and I squirmed forward to get a view of what was happening outside.

  The breath caught in my throat when I looked down at a solid mass of females. They were crowded in so tightly the ground was completely invisible. But, they were just standing there, all of them intently watching something I couldn’t see. The engines were still running, and I didn’t like how close some of them were to the voluminous intakes. Raising up on an elbow, I turned to see Nitro ready to grab me if I did anything stupid.

  “Tell Vance to kill the engines,” I said quietly.

  He frowned and raised a questioning eyebrow.

  “There are females standing directly in front of the intakes. If even one gets sucked in, we’re not going anywhere.”

  He nodded and moved quickly to the cockpit. Apparently, it took some convincing as nearly a minute passed before the engines spooled down and went silent.

  Absent the whining roar, I could hear an odd humming sound. Actually, it sounded more like a song than anything. There was a lilting quality, and in a strange way, it was almost soothing. I looked to the side as Rachel pushed in between Goose and me. The three of us sat there, nearly mesmerized.

  “What the hell is that?” Nitro asked from behind.

  I simply shook my head.

  The song continued for several minutes, suddenly stopping. When it did, the females beneath us moved. Slowly, they began shuffling to the side, the tarmac becoming visible once again. As they pressed back, those who were farther out shifted to make room.

  Once a wide path was open, they all came to a stop and stood stock still. Nicole appeared a few seconds later, leading an unsteady Igor. His arm was draped over her shoulders, and I wasn’t sure he’d have been on his feet if not for her. Bite marks were visible on his exposed skin, blood running freely. His shirt was rent open, revealing damage to his torso caused by slashing nails.

  Nicole brought him to a point directly beneath the door and, moving cautiously, tied a loop in the end of the rope that dangled to the ground and slipped it over his head. Once it was below his shoulders, she worked it under his arms and cinched it tight. Without looking up or saying a word, she steadied him with one hand while twirling a finger on the other.

  “Pull!” I said as quietly as I could.

  Grabbing the rope, I pulled it tight then began heaving on it as Nitro and others lent their strength. When Igor appeared at the sill, Rachel and Goose grabbed him and brought him aboard as gently as they could. The team immediately lifted him up and carried him farther into the cabin with Rachel staying at his side. Dog whined softly, then jumped off his seat to follow Igor.

  Nitro and I eased up to the door, looking around when Gonzales put his hands on our shoulders. The three of us looked down at Nicole, who was standing in the middle of the throng of females. She slowly turned a circle, looking at them, then the song started up again, and I realized it was her.

  For nearly a minute she sang to them, tones only, no words, then raised her arm. As her hand came level with the ground, the song ended. For several seconds, nothing happened, then as one, the females turned in the direction she’d pointed. Slowly at first, then, like a damn breaking, they began running. Nicole remained where she was, unmoving, like a boulder in a stream.

  There were no screams as the infected ran. No sound at all, other than the slap of thousands of feet on the tarmac. Despite the speed of the females, it was several minutes before the last one disappeared. Nicole heaved a sigh and looked up, smiling when she saw the Master Chief.

  I kicked the line out of the doo
r, and it slapped onto the asphalt by her feet. She reached out and grabbed it, climbing up faster than I’ve ever seen anyone scale a rope. Gonzales reached out and bodily lifted her into the cabin, crushing her against him in relief.

  “We can leave now,” she said when he finally put her down. “The runway is clear.”

  For a few seconds, all I could do was stare at her. She met my eye, and I could see the exhaustion on her face. I turned and shouted for Vance to get us in the air.

  51

  We took off at a steeper angle than the commercial aircraft had probably ever achieved, but that’s what you get with a military pilot. There was no gentle glide through ten thousand feet, followed by a slow ascent to cruising altitude. Vance kept the power on, finally leveling out after banking sharply. I undid my seatbelt, moved Dog off my feet and made my way forward to the flight deck.

  “Didn’t know a 747 could climb like that,” I said.

  “Me either,” he answered with a grin.

  “Heading south to go around the Russians?”

  “East, first,” he said, reaching out and tapping an electronic navigation screen. “This thing’s about the size of a World War II destroyer, and as stealthy as your grandpa after eating chili. No way they don’t already have us on radar, so I’m heading away, hoping they don’t decide to come after us.”

  “And, if they do?”

  “Well, as far as I know, they weren’t patrolling inland. Just hugging the coastline. They’re apparently there to prevent any aircraft from Hawaii making it to the mainland. If that’s the case, we’re starting out with a several hundred-mile buffer, and going farther away every second.”

  “Could they catch us if they wanted to?”

  “Maybe,” he said, shrugging. “A tail chase is a bitch, even if you’re after a much slower aircraft. I had time to look through a manual while you were fucking around at the airport. Cruise speed for this baby is about five hundred and seventy miles an hour, but I’m pushing it to the limit right now, and we’re at just under seven hundred miles an hour. That means to catch us, they’d have to go supersonic, which guzzles fuel, and means they’d have to have an aerial tanker to fill up along the way. I’m pretty sure they don’t, so my best guess answer is no. They can’t intercept.”