Shelter for Now

by Bob Howard

  There was a rap on the window of his door, and he jumped, but it was only the soldier who had wheeled the battery cart up to the helicopter.

  “Sir, this craft is a Sikorsky S76D, and she’s a real sweetheart,” yelled the soldier. “She had lots of juice in the battery, and the warm up time is minimal. You can go ahead and start the rotors spinning.”

  The Chief gave him a thumbs-up and hit the switch. He saw the soldier back away from the front of the craft in the direction of the rear and then head for the building. A moment later he saw eight of the soldiers crossing the landing circle toward him. Seven piled into the leather seats in the passenger area while one joined him up front.

  When he lifted the helicopter from the landing pad, everyone felt like they were inside a big ride at the fair. Even the rest of the soldiers on the roof of the building got a little sick as the body of the craft swung from left to right. It did a half circle to the right as it rocked and then began a slow turn back to the left.

  “Sir, are you sure you can fly this thing?” said the soldier in the co-pilot’s seat.

  “Piece of cake. It’s just a fancy Black Hawk, right?”

  The soldier didn’t bother to answer. The Black Hawk was a great aircraft, but not just anybody could fly it.

  The Chief got the Sikorsky pointed in the right direction and gave it just a slight amount of forward tilt to gain momentum. He didn’t need to waste time with altitude because they weren’t going far, and the sleek executive helicopter crossed the runways, taxiways, aircraft parking areas, and grass dividers in seconds. Before they knew it they were hovering above the building next to the narrow street where the Navy choppers had been stashed.

  The Chief felt a rush of air, and the noise level went much higher at the same time. For the first time he realized just how good the noise dampening material on the helicopter had to be.

  One of the soldiers had dropped a line out the door and disappeared out of sight in one smooth move. A second had positioned himself to move and drop over the side without hesitation.

  The co-pilot climbed into the back, gave the Chief a quick wave, and followed the last man out. As soon as he was gone the Chief rotated in place and headed back the way he had come.

  He hoped he could land on the roof to pick up the second load because the ground landing pad was no longer an option. It had become occupied by a few dozen of the infected. Not every roof was able to support an extra seven thousand pounds, and he didn’t want to wind up in the lobby of the helicopter service.

  Given that the weight of the soldiers was already a strain on the building, the Chief carefully hovered and then lowered the craft toward the roof. He held it one to two feet above the surface of the building as the next group loaded themselves and their weapons into the helicopter. He rotated again and turned toward the other side of the base.

  On the way across he took a moment to check on the status of the horde of infected and the large contingent of former occupants of the airport passenger terminals. He saw that the Army and Kathy had been fairly effective at reducing the numbers, but the tremendous horde from Dorchester Road was almost to the airport terminal. They had made much faster progress than he had expected so he added some speed to the second trip.

  The first group of soldiers had the top of the building secure and had watches set at all sides. The second group joined them quickly, and the Chief went back for the final trip.

  One end of the airport was a mass of infected walking steadily in the direction of the terminal, but the Chief knew their goal was the one story building where Kathy and the remaining soldiers were carefully taking aim at the leading edge of the horde. From his view, even he was amazed by the sheer number of the infected.

  The wind from his rotors buffeted the last of the soldiers as they sent Kathy through the door ahead of them. Even as they were getting off a few more shots, they had insisted on being gentlemen when the helicopter approached. She argued with them, but it didn’t do any good.

  As soon as the last boot came through the door, the Chief angled the helicopter in the direction of the Air Force Base and began the last trip across. It was only a matter of seconds before they were once again in position and dropping the soldiers down the rope.

  “You are landing,” yelled Kathy. “Is this where you do something crazy? If you are, I’m going with you.”

  The Chief grinned as he answered.

  “I wasn’t going to waste time trying to talk you out of going with me. As a matter of fact, I would have been surprised if you had gotten out.”

  With the door closed and the passenger section empty, Kathy had a chance to fully appreciate the helicopter they had acquired. She had climbed into the copilot seat, but she was turned around as far as she could to take in all of the luxury.

  “Did we really live like this before it all ended?”

  “Some people did, but I doubt many of them fully appreciated what they had. They didn’t know that real life is like living from paycheck to paycheck. You can loose it all overnight.”

  “When are you going to tell me the plan?”

  “There isn’t really time to explain it, so let me just tell you what I’m doing as I do it.”

  Kathy watched the top of the building fade away as the Chief lifted the executive Sikorsky into the air and immediately took a hard turn to the right. The Chief had gotten used to the controls and how well the aircraft handled, so he was in his element. She could see that he was enjoying himself, and that he couldn’t wait to do whatever it was he planned to do.

  Behind them the Army pilots had lowered a rope from the building onto the side facing the flight line. A large chainlink gate had been erected between two buildings creating an alley, and the three Navy helicopters had been towed into that alley. Kathy saw two of the pilots going down the rope together.

  She was just about to ask the Chief what they were doing when the Chief swung the Sikorsky around to face the gate from about fifty yards away. He hovered for a moment and then carefully lowered the helicopter toward the asphalt surface of the flight line.

  The Chief started to say something, but Kathy beat him to it.

  “You aren’t doing what I think you’re doing, are you?”

  “I wouldn’t doubt it,” laughed the Chief.

  From their point of view in the helicopter, they could see the broad chainlink gate straight in front of them, and two of the pilots were almost to where a lock secured the gate against the weight of the infected dead.

  Ever since the arrival of the helicopter on the first trip to the top of the building, the infected had begun moving from the buildings and alleys that surrounded the Navy helicopters that were covered with tarps inside the fenced area. They had eventually come to the heavy duty fence and had begun piling up against it. The weight of the horde pushing from behind was crushing the infected in front. The fence bulged in several places, but it was holding.

  The pilots had to avoid being grabbed by the hands that were reaching through the fence, but they were much quicker than the emaciated infected. One slipped a long metal bar through the lock and then drove the lower end of the bar into the ground where it met the post where the gate was latched. Both pilots put all of their weight onto the other end of the bar while one of them swung something that could have been the biggest wrench Kathy had ever seen. It hit the lock, and it snapped apart.

  Both pilots hit the ground but were up and running as fast as they could toward the rope as the gate swung outward. Just like the windows bursting at the airport terminal, the force of the horde pushing from behind caused the infected in front to be trampled to the ground.

  The Chief was only about two feet from the ground when he started easing forward. The gate was completely open, and the infected that didn’t fall to the ground had begun staggering toward the noisy helicopter.

  The Army pilots were already safe on the roof and had pulled the rope up with them. They wanted to stay and watch, but the Chief had simply told them no m
atter what happened, be ready to get down into the alley and shut the gate from the inside.

  “Do you still need for me to explain the plan?” asked the Chief.

  “No, I think I figured it out,” she yelled back. “What makes you think it will work? You know damned well that all you’re going to do is blow them over and keep them busy.”

  That was when the Chief got that trademark smirk on his face that he always got when he knew something that no one else did.

  He eased forward until he had the undivided attention of every infected dead within the enclosed area, and then he began backing away very slowly. More and more of the infected stumbled through the gate as most of the infected that had been pushed to the ground managed to get to their feet. He didn’t know how many there were, but he knew it was hundreds.

  On top of the building where he had dropped Captain Miller and his soldiers, they watched in amazement as the alleys between the buildings emptied. They saw the opportunity the Chief had told them to watch for, and one by one they dropped over the sides of the building and closed the big doors on the buildings. If there were more infected dead lingering inside, they wouldn’t be able to come out while they prepped the helicopters.

  The Chief backed the executive Sikorsky away only when the downdraft of the rotors blew over the weak bodies of the infected. He didn’t want to knock them down. He wanted to draw them away far enough for the gate to be closed again. Then, he had something else in mind.

  Kathy saw out her window that they had backed all the way out onto the asphalt flight line where the Air Force had previously parked the big Globemasters, and the horde of infected had followed.

  “Here we go,” said the Chief.

  Kathy wished she was watching from somewhere else. Not because she was afraid, and not because it was the biggest mess she had ever seen, but because she would have liked to have witnessed it from a distance. It must have been spectacular from above.

  Still only two feet from the ground, the Chief made the nose of the Sikorsky dip slightly forward. The helicopter rushed at the wall of approaching infected dead, and the tips of the rotors brushed the crowd of infected the way a string trimmer brushes at a crop of tall grass along a driveway. Dozens of the infected went down onto the asphalt minus their heads, and some lost more than that.

  The Chief felt the front wheel roll on the pavement and immediately rocked the helicopter backward and upward so the rotors were away from the ground that had only been a few feet away from them for a few seconds. He backed the helicopter away from the horde and got it into a controlled hover a few feet above the ground. Once he was stable, he rotated to the left and got ready for a second pass.

  “Wait a minute,” yelled Kathy at the top of her lungs.

  The Chief backed the helicopter away from the advancing horde by a few more feet. From above where he brought them into a hover again, it resembled an alien crop circle in the horde. The advancing infected dead had already started closing the circle around the bodies of those that had fallen under the spinning blades.

  The Chief was grinning at Kathy like a kid who had found out he had a really cool toy, but Kathy had her mouth hanging open. She didn’t know what she wanted to say, but what came out was a simple question.

  “How the hell did you know that would work? I’ve seen lots of movies, and no one ever gets their head chopped off by getting too close to a helicopter.”

  “I guess I should have explained first, but I had to see if it was possible myself.”

  “You mean you didn’t know if it would work?”

  “I’ve never tried it before, if that’s what you mean. When would I have ever tried it?”

  In the distance ahead of them Kathy saw the big chainlink fence swinging into the closed position again. She knew they had secured the area for the Army to begin prepping the three Navy helicopters.

  “Hang on just a second,” said the Chief. “Let me do that again, and then I’ll explain.”

  He would never have admitted it to Kathy, but when he approached the first time, he was a little afraid. If it didn’t work and they didn’t crash, they would be lucky. What he hoped for was what they got, but a small part of him thought they would wind up doing a hard landing that probably wouldn't kill them but would certainly strand them in a bad place.

  The Chief dipped the nose for a second time, and this time it was a little smoother. He felt like he was more in control as he actually let the front wheel touch the ground before he rolled forward, using it as a guide as the rotors began cutting another swath through the horde. When the front wheel bumped into a body, he pulled up and backward for a second time.

  “Those things are unbelievable,” he said. “This thing shreds them, and they keep coming. Okay, let me tell you why I thought it would work.”

  The Chief backed them a little further away this time, realizing he had to give Kathy a moment. She was tough, but he had to admit, it wasn’t every day you got to use a helicopter like that.

  “When they trained us to do night drops from Blackhawks, one of the first things they drilled into us was never to approach a Blackhawk from the front. They made us watch a training video of a pilot who landed facing the base of a hill. He got out of the chopper, and then he went up the hill. His own rotors picked him off as he walked up the hill.”

  “That’s awful,” said Kathy.

  “Yeah, I know, but I’ll bet a lot of people don’t walk into the spinning blades of helicopters because of that video. If he had seen a video like that, he’d still be alive.”

  Kathy was still trying to digest what she had seen and heard. She had seen it work, but she knew it was precision flying. It could be done as long as he didn’t try to go too deep into the horde at one time. If he went in too far, the rotors would wobble. It was anybody’s guess what would happen after that.

  The Chief went on explaining, “It’s simple math. From the pavement to the tip of the rotor it’s just over eight feet. The manual says ninety-seven and a half inches. That means I only need to tilt the front of the helicopter three feet to take down everything but a short zombie.”

  “A what?” Kathy’s head whipped to the left hard enough to crack.

  The Chief feigned a confused expression.

  “You said zombie,” said Kathy.

  “No, I didn’t.”

  “Yes, you did. You said you could take down everything except a short zombie.”

  “No, I did not call them zombies. They aren’t zombies. I already explained that to you.”

  It was obvious to Kathy that the Chief was going to keep denying what he said.

  “You haven’t heard the last of this,” said Kathy. “Finish your explanation.”

  “That’s all there was to it. All I had to do was roll forward with the front gear on the ground and the rear wheels no more than a couple of feet in the air, and anything over five feet tall is mincemeat.”

  Kathy gave him a grin that was a lot like the one he liked to give her, but she also figured something out. He had deliberately called them zombies to get her to lighten up a little, and it had worked. He had distracted her just enough to keep her from thinking about what they had just done and what they still had left to do.

  “I don’t know how your mind works sometimes, Chief. You’re a Psychologist and a warrior wrapped up in one body.”

  She saw that he had the same half smile as he began methodically easing into the dwindling horde and then backing away. Each time he left behind more devastation, and each time the horde was smaller. Finally, he put all of the wheels on the ground. They both climbed out and used rifles to drop the few stragglers that were still trying to reach them.

  When they were done, they flew the short distance to the chainlink gate where they were greeted by Captain Miller and his Army pilots. All they could do was laugh, but they heard more than once that none of them had ever seen anything quite like that.

  CHAPTER NINE

  WHILE THE CHIEF and Kathy were away on the
ir mission to liberate a helicopter from the Air Force Base, we didn’t have the luxury of just sitting around and waiting for their return. We had learned that Uncle Titus had been correct about keeping our heads down and staying inside the shelter in order to guarantee survival, but there was something he didn’t consider. Survival wasn’t enough.

  If all I wanted to do was survive, I would have just shut my door and never opened it for anyone. I had everything I needed in the way of supplies, but people aren’t meant to be alone. Some individuals could live their entire lives without ever being around another living soul, but you had to be tired of people to get to that point, and I wasn’t tired of people.

  Cassandra was the member of our group who came up with the idea about the Mercy Ship being a hazard to other survivors, and that we should put some kind of marker above it that would warn off other ships. We were getting ready to do a routine patrol when she brought it up, and Doc Bus was quick to recognize the symptoms he had seen in Jean, Kathy, and the Chief in the past.

  As a group they shared the guilt of surviving when over five thousand others had died on the Atlantic Spirit. At least they had each other to lean on, and when they expressed their feelings to each other about escaping from the ship, they were able to reassure each other that they didn’t have any other choice. Dying just because that was what everyone else was doing wasn’t an option.

  The Chief and Jean had left behind friends when they abandoned ship, but that didn’t mean they had abandoned their friends any more than Kathy had when she chose to stay on board the Atlantic Spirit when it sailed away from the cruise ship terminal in Charleston.

  Kathy had told us once that she had some bad nights thinking about her fellow officers who had stayed behind in Charleston and died. She said there were over four hundred police officers in the Charleston Police Department and that in the entire history of the Charleston PD dating back to 1878, there had been less than two dozen officers who had died in the line of duty. The Chief had made her feel better when he pointed out that the people who had sought shelter on the Atlantic Spirit were just as much her responsibility as the people in the city. He told her she just played the hand she was dealt.