Survivors in a Dead World

by Gary M. Chesla

Ken was now looking the dead in the eyes.

  The dead took notice and started towards Ken.

  One by one they started to stagger off the roof.

  Carrie moved Ken and the helicopter along the edge of the roof.

  Soon only about a dozen of the dead remained on the roof.

  “Good plan Red,” Bob shouted. “When you first mentioned this at the meeting, I thought you were crazy. What made you think of this?”

  “Over the last year,” Carrie smiled, “I’ve been followed around by a lot of creepy things. I just thought it would be nice to see someone else get chased around for a change.”

  Bob laughed, “We still have a few on the pad near the helicopter. Any idea how we can get them off of there? Apparently they don’t think Ken looks very appetizing.”

  “Maybe they are nearsighted,” Carrie shouted back.

  “Nearsighted?” Bob shouted.

  Carrie increased their altitude another ten feet and moved the helicopter in over the roof.

  Ken now dangled a mere few feet above the out stretched arms of the dead that remained on the pad.

  Bob checked his seat belt then leaned out to look at Ken below.

  “Maybe you should pull up a few more feet before Ken has a heart attack,” Bob smiled.

  “He probably thinks you’re going to set him down right in the middle of those things,” Tom laughed.

  “I wouldn’t do that to Ken,” Carrie shouted back at Tom, “I’d only do that to people that make comments about my ass.”

  The smiled quickly disappeared from Tom’s face.

  Bob looked at Carrie and shook his head, apparently Carrie was not going to let Tom off the hook any time soon.

  Carrie guided the helicopter out away from the roof and looked down to the roof to see how many of the dead still remained.

  “There are only four left,” Carrie shouted. “Do you want me to land on the helipad and we can take care of those last few by hand?”

  Bob looked at his watch, “No we are about out of time. I don’t want to land and then see another few dozen of those things come running out of the hospital. We wouldn’t have enough air time left to take off and make it back. We can do that on our next trip.”

  “Tom,” Bob yelled, “Help me pull Ken back up.”

  The first thing Ken said when they pulled him back inside the cabin was, “No way in hell am I doing that again!”

  “I don’t think we will have to do this again,” Bob said. “You just about got all of them.”

  “You mean they all just about got me,” Ken laughed.

  “Well if we have to do this again, next time Tom, you’re going down there,” Ken shouted as he lay on the floor in the back of the cabin, hanging on tightly to the bottom of Bob’s seat.

  “Take us home Red,” Bob said as he slid the cabin door shut. The comparative quiet in the cabin was a welcomed change.

  Carrie turned the helicopter towards Heinz Field and downtown Pittsburgh.

  “When we get back we can refuel the helicopter and make sure the skid is still OK,” Bob said. “After we let this thing cool down over night, we can come back tomorrow. That way if we run into any problems at Allegheny General, we will have a lot of safe air time to deal with it or to get back home. You all did a good job today.”

  “You’re damn good with this chopper Carrie,” Ken added. “I thought it was amazing how you kept me just inches above those thing’s hands. It really had them going.”

  “Shit,” Carrie said. “Inches, I thought I had you at least ten feet above them.”

  “Oh,” Ken said looking startled.

  Tom laughed but decided to keep his mouth shut for a change.

  The helicopter landed softly on the “X” at Mercy hospital.

  Doc, Jim, Ed and Bill walked out of the stairwell to meet them.

  Ken jumped out of the chopper, got down on his hands and knees and kissed the solid surface of the pavement on the roof.

  The Doc laughed as he watched Ken.

  Chapter 13

  Ricki had dozed off.

  He had been trying to stay awake, but he was beat.

  Jamal had decided to take him on another supply run today.

  But today the supply run was just to a few places up on the ridge. Jamal decided he wanted to see if they could find anything to eat to build their strength before going back to New Florence.

  They went to old lady Hower’s house about two miles from the community center. They hadn’t been there for months.

  Not only did Ricki have to go into the house first, they made him go down and search the dark basement too while they waited out in the car.

  Today he found the old lady’s canning room.

  There wasn’t much left in the room, but they all still felt like they had struck gold.

  Ricki found a dozen jars of canned green beans.

  Of course he had to carry them all out to the car by himself. It had taken him three trips with the jars.

  If he wouldn’t have been so hungry, after the first trip he would have told Jamal that was all he could find.

  But he knew if he only came back with four jars, he and Denny would have been lucky to be able to split half a jar between them.

  By bringing out a dozen jars, he and Denny were each given a full jar apiece for their own. Jamal, Devon and George ate the other ten jars.

  Ricki didn’t care much for old green beans, but today they tasted like he was eating a seafood platter.

  Even though he and Denny each had a full jar of their own to eat, which of course Jamal made sure they knew how generous he was being today, the gang had more than three jars each.

  Ricki didn’t complain to Denny. They both just looked at each other knowingly, with the gang stuffing their faces they should all go to sleep early tonight.

  Unfortunately not having had this much to eat for ages himself, Ricki fell asleep too, even though he wanted to stay awake. Tonight was going to be the night he and Denny were planning on taking the car and leaving.

  The last thing Ricki remembered was he was listening to hear when Jamal and his buddies would fall asleep so he and Denny could start to put their plan into action.

  The next thing he knew, someone had their hand over his mouth.

  “Ricki,” a voice whispered, “Wake up. Your snoring sounds like a damn chainsaw. You’re going to wake everyone up.”

  It was Denny.

  Ricki nodded his head so Denny would know he had heard him and was now awake.

  Denny slowly removed his hand.

  “Sorry, I just couldn’t stay awake any longer,” Ricki whispered.

  “Yea, me either,” Denny chuckled. “We better get our asses moving. I think it is going to be morning in another hour. We better get moving before they wake up.”

  “Shit,” Ricki whispered. “Do you think we should wait to get dressed until after you get the keys to the car, in case they wake up it will look like we were still sleeping? If they catch us up and dressed sneaking around, they will know we are up to something.”

  Denny moved his hand up next to Ricki’s ear and jingled the keys, “Already done. I decided to get them before I woke you up. I was afraid if you were awake and knew I was going over to get the keys, you would either have a heart attack or your chattering teeth would wake them up before I could get the keys.”

  “Good thinking,” Ricki whispered back. Denny couldn’t see it, but Ricki was smiling with relief.

  “Just carry your clothes,” Denny whispered, “we’ll get dressed after we get the hell out of here.”

  Ricki nodded in the dark, then began to slide out from under his covers.

  After sitting up, he reached down near his feet where he had folded his clothes so they would be easy to find in the dark.

  He picked up his clothes and shoes and held them close to his chest.

  Ricki looked around then whispered, “I can’t see.”

  Denny reached out and took his hand and placed Ricki’s hand on hi
s shoulder, “Just hang on to me, I can see a little.”

  When they reached the stairs, Denny took Ricki’s hand and placed it on the hand rail, “Hang on to this and be careful, we’re half way out of here now.”

  Ricki started to get nervous. Just knowing he was almost out of here scared him. Maybe he had watched too many spooky movies. This was where something always went wrong. Either Jamal would all of a sudden wake up or Ricki would fall down the stairs and make so much noise he would wake everyone up and they would get caught.

  But he felt relieved when his feet told him he had finally reached the basketball court and there were no more steps for him to fall down.

  Denny led him a few more steps.

  “Just stand here for a minute,” Denny said then removed Ricki’s hand from his shoulder.

  Ricki started to get nervous again standing blind in the darkness. Ricki had never been afraid of the dark. He always had a nightlight in his room at home, not because he was afraid but because he couldn’t see in the dark.

  He forget what they had called it, he just remembered it meant he had night blindness.

  At first he hadn’t had a nightlight, but after getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and ending up in his parent’s bedroom, they started putting nightlights in his room, the hallway and the bathroom.

  Denny on the other hand didn’t like the nightlights.

  Now that Ricki thought about it, it wasn’t long after his parents got the nightlights for Ricki, Denny had been caught trying to sneak out the bedroom window one night.

  “Apparently Denny was an old hand at sneaking around in the dark,” Ricki thought nervously. “I wonder what else he had been doing that I didn’t know about?”

  Ricki stood still, afraid to move for fear he would bump into something and make noise. So far the only noise he had made was the loud thumping noise in his chest. It was deafening to him but he felt as long as he stayed at least ten feet away from anyone else, hopefully no one else would hear him.

  “Let’s go,” Denny whispered.

  “Where did you go?” Ricki asked.

  “I went and got Jamal’s knife out of the garbage can,” Denny whispered. “We might need it.”

  “Let’s get out of here,” Ricki said, “This is making me a nervous wreck.”

  “Relax,” Denny said, “Even if those guys woke up, they couldn’t catch us before we made it to the car and drove away. I don’t think they can see in the dark any better than you can.”

  “I’ll feel a lot better when we are driving down Fairfield Hill,” Ricki said. “Let’s go.”

  Denny led Ricki to the door.

  Rick felt a lot better when he heard the door click and swing open.

  He felt even better when he realized he could now see something. The sky was bright with stars and he could see the horizon in the east starting to brighten.

  If it hadn’t of been for Denny waking him up, in another hour they would have blown their chance to get away from the community center tonight.

  Ricki took a few steps towards the car which was parked only a few feet from the building. He couldn’t believe it, all he had to do was get in the car and drive away. Even though this was the plan, he worried that it would never really happen. Then Ricki looked around when he realized Denny wasn’t standing beside him.

  When he heard a noise behind him, Ricki turned to see Denny pulling the door off its hinges and drag the door over to the corner of the building and prop it against the stone wall.

  Denny came running back over to Ricki, “I used Jamal’s knife to take the screws out of the hinges. I’m hoping after we leave they will get some company.”

  “Don’t you think we should get out of here now?” Ricki asked, “Or are you planning to put some broken glass in front of the door so they will cut their feet when they come out to look for us? I’m surprised you didn’t try to tie a rope across the steps so they would trip coming down the stairs? I’m surprised you didn’t want to stick around watch how pissed off they are going to be when they wake up.”

  “Calm down,” Denny smiled. “Let’s go. I just thought I would take off the door in appreciation for all Jamal and his buddies have done for us.”

  Denny reached in his pocket, took out the keys and handed them to Ricki.

  Ricki snatched the keys and quickly got in the driver’s door.

  When Denny was in the car, they closed the doors quietly.

  Ricki put it in the ignition and turned the key.

  The engine started and idled smoothly.

  Ricki let out a big sigh of relief, “I half expected for the car not to start. I figured Jamal did something like take the spark plug wires or something. I thought it was going to be a trap.”

  “You worry too much Ricki,” Denny laughed, “but now with the car running and the door off of the community center, now isn’t the time to sit here and analyze our plan. I suggest we get the hell out of here.”

  “Right,” Ricki said, put the car in reverse and backed away from the building. He dropped the gearshift into drive and pulled out onto the road and sped down the road towards the intersection with Route 711.

  “I’m glad you finally got us out of there,” Denny laughed, “you know Jamal still has that gun he took off that counselor’s body.”

  “Thanks for telling me now,” Rick yelled, “you know you’re one crazy bastard. I can’t believe you’re my brother.”

  “No need to get nasty,” Denny grinned, “we got out of there didn’t we? This is what we wanted.”

  Ricki smiled, “I can’t believe we actually did it.”

  “Like I said, you worry too much.”

  Ricki turned left on Route 711 and started down the hill.

  “Maybe Denny was right, I worry too much,” Ricki thought.

  They had made it out of the community center easily. The hardest part was dealing with the pressure. Denny of course seemed to deal with pressure a lot easier than he did.

  “Maybe I should try to be a little more like Denny,” Ricki laughed to himself, “before I have a nervous breakdown.”

  They were half way down Fairfield Hill. The skies were still dark, with only a dim glow starting in the east. The stars sparkled brightly. The quiet night started to help Ricki relax. Things had gone smoother than he expected. Hopefully within the next hour they would be making some new friends and living a much easier life.

  “Look at all the fireflies,” Denny said. “I thought it was too early for fireflies? I didn’t think they came out until fall?”

  “They don’t,” Ricki answered as he stared down at the bottom of the hill.

  It looked like the entire valley below was filled with fireflies.

  Ricki always like to catch fireflies in a jar when he was little. Then he would put the jar in his room at night and watch the lights flashing and reflecting off of his bedroom wall and ceiling.

  He wished there would have been this many when he was a kid. It usually took him hours to get his jar half filled. Tonight if he wanted to catch fireflies, he would be able to fill the entire jar in ten minutes.

  Ricki also thought it was cool the way the fireflies were flying around in pairs.

  “Pairs?” Ricki thought. “I have never seen fireflies fly in pairs before. Especially pairs that could constantly stay together the entire time, only a few inches away from each other.”

  “Cool,” Denny said.

  Ricki slowed the car.

  “Why are you slowing down,” Denny asked. “Afraid you are going to get bugs splattered all over the windshield?”

  “Something’s not right here,” Ricki answered.

  They both stared at the far reaches of the headlights as they neared the bottom of the hill.

  “Holy shit, Stop the car!” Denny yelled grabbing the dash board with both hands as dark shapes began to form around the sparkling fireflies. Then dark shapes started to become visible below the blinking lights too, dark staggering shapes.

 
“The damn fireflies are just our lights reflecting off the zombie’s eyes,” Ricki said as he stopped the car and turned off the lights.

  “Why are you turning off the lights?” Denny yelled sounding like he was starting to panic.

  “Lights attract those things,” Ricki replied.

  “What do we do now?” Denny asked. “I knew how to get the keys, but I don’t know what to do with these things?”

  Ricki laughed to himself, “Maybe he didn’t need to be more like his brother.”

  “I’m going to turn the car around and go part way back up the hill,” Ricki said. “We’ll have to wait until we have enough light so we can see better before we try to get through these things. We’ll be OK back up the hill a ways.”

  “Are you sure?” Denny asked nervously. “I’ve never seen this many of those things before. It’s creepy.”

  “It should be fine back up the hill a ways.” Ricki said to reassure his brother. “They can’t climb steep hills. I haven’t seen more than one or two of those things make it up over the hill.”

  “OK if you say so,” Denny replied sounding unsure.

  “It might not be as bad as it looks,” Ricki said as he turned the car around in the middle of the road. “Hopefully there is just a bunch of them down at the bottom of the hill and once we get past them it will be a lot better. That’s what it was like when I went to New Florence with Jamal the other day. Once it gets light out we can find a way through them.”

  “I hope so,” Denny said. “When we made plans to get away from Jamal, I didn’t think about something like this.”

  Ricki pulled the car into a drive way half way up the hill and turned the car around so they could shoot back out on the road quickly if they had to.

  “Well now you have something else to think about,” Ricki laughed. “Look at the bright side. Even this is better than still being back at the center.”

  “That’s for sure,” Denny replied, “I think.”