Zombies! (Book 5): Greater Love Hath No Man

by Merritt, R. S.

  Randy and Kelly stared daggers at O’Donnell while Myriah and Caitlyn just tried as hard as they could to avoid looking at him. When it became apparent none of them were going to speak up O’Donnell kept right on talking.

  “I’m happy to see you again because you caused me quite a bit of trouble when you deserted your post. That alone would’ve been enough to have you crucified as a warning to others. We wouldn’t have wasted a lot of time looking for you though. Definitely not the resources we poured into it this time. Do you know why we poured those resources into the search? Do you know why I pulled everyone in my region off guard duty just to try and find you?”

  Once again Randy and Kelly just stared at O’Donnell. He got up and walked over to Myriah. He pulled his arm way back then backhanded her in the face. Her head rocked to the side and she yelped out in pain. He pulled his hand back and hit her again. Myriah was now openly crying with blood running down her lip and the side of her face starting to swell.

  “Because I killed that woman! The principal!” Randy blurted out. He’d almost ripped his wrists off trying to get them out of the cuffs so he could rip off his seatbelt and get his fingers locked around O’Donnell’s neck. He could visualize doing it and oh how sweet it would feel.

  “That’s a major part of it yes. The main thing though is I was sent a communication from the Senator himself saying if I didn’t find his sister’s killers and bring them to him for retribution that he’d take out his grief on me instead. She died on my watch, so I’m not entirely pleased to be on this flight either. If you hadn’t decided to be a murdering, traitorous, piece of garbage then I’d still be relaxing in my lake side mansion drinking thousand-dollar bottles of wine. Instead I’ve been coordinating a damned man hunt for the last three months. I was being laughed at the whole time because who the hell takes that long to find a family running around in the apocalypse with a bunch of freakin’ kids with them.” O’Donnell stopped venting and took a deep breath trying to regain his composure. He’d lost his calm demeanor and now just looked pissed.

  “We’re just trying to take care of our girls.” Kelly spoke up.

  O’Donnell walked over to Myriah and slapped her hard again on the other side of her face. He slapped her a few more times before going over to Caitlyn and doing the same thing. When he was done both girls were black and blue and bloody. Myriah was sobbing and trying not to choke on the snot and blood running down her face into her mouth. Caitlyn had tears and bruises but looked more pissed than hurt. Kelly was sobbing loudly and screaming for him to stop. Each strike to her girls hurting her more than she could bear.

  “What do you need from us?” Randy asked coldly.

  “Why would I need anything from you? You’re a walking dead man. You and your wife are going to be ripped apart and fed to Zombies. Probably while your kids watch. All before the sun goes down today.”

  “You said you were worried because his sister died on your watch. What can we do to help you?”

  O’Donnell stood still and shot Randy a confused look.

  “Is there something we can say that’d help you out?” Randy clarified his question. Kelly and the kids were also looking at hm strangely now. Then a light clicked on in Kelly’s eyes as she understood where he was going with the offer.

  “I can’t think of anything. You should be less worried about me and more worried about your wife and kids.”

  “I am. If you can think of something for me to say, then I’m happy to say it. You just let my wife and kids live.” Randy said. He heard Kelly breathe in sharply next to him.

  Wham! O’Donnell hit Randy so hard he felt his teeth wobble around in his skull. Randy looked up just as O’Donnell’s fist came crashing back down at his face again. Not thinking it’d actually do any damage but hungry to strike back Randy head butted the incoming fist with his forehead. He felt the hit from O’Donnell, but something went wrong with it.

  He opened his eyes back up to see O’Donnell cursing and holding his hand. Randy’s head butt had either broken or sprained the guys wrist. Randy was really hoping for broken.

  “I’m going to enjoy watching you die.” O’Donnell managed before he left for the middle section of the plane where the kids were. The guard who’d taken the little kids up front had shut the door so they wouldn’t have to see whatever happened. The guard who’d stayed in the back of the plane with them had kept his mouth shut. He’d sat there with his hand on his pistol staring ahead impassively the whole time his boss beat the crap out of the prisoners.

  “Prick.” Randy said spitting out blood. “You like working for a guy who beats on girls?”

  The guard glanced over when he realized Randy was talking to him.

  “You’re really questioning my life choices right now? Maybe try not deserting your post and killing everybody in sight. Shut up and sit there quietly or I’ll come over and take a few swings myself.” The guard looked pissed. He looked down at the bloody spot on the carpet where Randy had just spit. “Stop spitting on the damned floor.”

  O’Donnell walked back in and told the guard to drag everyone to the middle section and work on getting them cleaned up. It sounded like he was more worried about the interior of the plane getting blood stains all over it than he was about his boss seeing he’d beat the crap out of them when they landed.

  “Mommy! Daddy! What happened!” Shouts from the little girls as soon as they were marched into the middle section of the plane. Kelly went down on one knee to nuzzle the girls since she wasn’t able to hug them with her cuffs on. The guard had them stand still while he got napkins from the wet bar area that he used to clean the blood off their faces. Looking down Randy realized they were standing on tile now versus the carpet that’d been in the other room. Much easier to clean blood up in here. Not the most reassuring reason to be moved.

  Once the guard was done cleaning them up, he went into the back of the plane with a roll of the paper towels and some cleaner he took from under the wet bar. They were ordered to sit down at the decadent leather couch that wrapped around the polished mahogany table. Once they’d all sat down O’Donnell watched as Randy’s and Myriah’s noses continued to bleed all over the place. He considered the blood for a second before ordering Myriah’s and Kelly’s cuffs removed.

  “You two need to focus on not bleeding on that couch. I promise you’ll regret every single drop. I’m not uncuffing your husband so you get to be a good wifey and hold his hanky for him. I want all of you with your seat belts on nice and tight. I see the seatbelts come off or you try anything besides stopping the blood from getting everywhere you’re going to regret it. Understood?”

  “This is the pilot speaking. We’ll be approaching the landing area in about ten minutes. Please make any last-minute preparations then get seat belted in for the landing.”

  Kelly and Randy both perked up at the voice. O’Donnell noticed and something clicked in his head. He disappeared up front towards the cockpit after telling the other guard to get in place to watch them closely. He reappeared a minute later with another blast from the past.

  “Gordon!” Kelly called out in surprised recognition. The old pilot standing in the hallway next to a grinning O’Donnell smiled back at her. He looked around and took in the whole group.

  “You found your daughters!” He said. He moved forward to hug her but was blocked by O’Donnell.

  “I wouldn’t be getting too close considering why we’re dropping them off old man. I just thought it may be neat for you to see them again. See what eventually happens to those who try and get away with crap in my region. Now go land this thing.”

  Gordon ignored the order to get back to the cockpit and stood there taking them in. He saw the little girls with tear streaked faces. He saw Kelly holding the paper towel to Randy’s blood drenched face. Next to Kelly he saw Myriah smiling at him through her own blood-soaked paper towel.

  “We’ll be landing soon. You guys all have your belts on, right?” Gordon asked. Kelly said yes wondering w
hy he furtively shot her a wink. “Ok. Captain you have about ten minutes to do whatever you need to do before you should get your belts on too. I’ll call it out over the overhead if you need to get belted any sooner.”

  Then Gordon was gone leaving a still stunned Randy and Kelly wondering if they’d just imagined him. O’Donnell stood there gloating for a second before walking towards his seat. He ordered the guard to clean the prisoners up and get everything locked down. The other guard came walking back into the room holding a bunch of used paper towels. He headed for the trash can on the other side of the bar.

  The plane took a sudden nosedive throwing everyone not seat belted against the bulkhead. Randy felt like he was going to pass out a second later when the plane pulled up sharply then banked to the left. The two guards and O’Donnell were flopping around the plane like loose change in the dryer. Randy ducked as O’Donnell came flying over the top of them when the wall suddenly became the floor.

  Kelly was as confused as the rest of them at first. Then she remembered the odd wink Gordon had thrown her direction. She elbowed Myriah in the stomach. Myriah gave her a hurt look. She was trying not to puke, the pane they were in was fixing to crash, and her mom was jamming her elbows into her ribs. Kelly held up her free hands. She hissed at Myriah to be ready to take off her belt and fight. Randy looked over questioningly. He felt like he was going to blackout from all the g-forces they were pulling. The plane banked hard in the other direction and O’Donnell and his two men flew to the other side of the plane slamming into that bulkhead.

  One of the guards started screaming in pain. A blood-soaked bone was sticking out of his forearm. O’Donnell saw them looking and pulled out his pistol. He’d started to shout some sort of threat at them when the jet did a full-on spin throwing the unfettered Brotherhood goons all over the interior of the plane. O’Donnell lost his grip on his pistol and it went flying away from him. Kelly desperately followed the trajectory of the pistol as it bounced around the plane. When it came to rest on the bottom of the couch that they were sitting on she unhooked her seat belt.

  Kelly fought the vertigo away and grabbed the pistol. The plane went into a sudden series of climbs and dips that sent them all bouncing around. One of the guards had managed to get into a seat and get the belt wrapped around himself and fastened. He caught Kelly by the arm and pulled her roughly to him. He put her in a headlock, and she put the pistol she’d claimed up to his chest and pulled the trigger a few times.

  The boom of the high caliber pistol echoed in the confines of the upgraded tin can they were flying in. Kelly’s handed were covered with blood. Her first thought after pulling the trigger was that there was no way they were getting all that blood cleaned up before they landed. She caught herself looking down to see if she was over carpet or tile. Pulling herself out of the weird state the vertigo and violence had put her in she looked around the cabin for O’Donnell.

  She didn’t see him, but she did see the guard with the broken arm laying on the floor. He’d passed out from shock or blood loss or pain or something. Either way it didn’t look like he was in the fight anymore. The door to the cockpit was open. O’Donnell screamed for them to stand down and stay out or he’d kill Gordon. Completely ignoring the command Kelly went to unlock the cuffs on Randy using the key she took out of the dead man’s pants. When her hands proved to be too shaky to get that figured out, she handed the key to Myriah to do it.

  She stepped over to the guard laying on the ground and quickly disarmed him. Deciding that they didn’t need to drag around prisoners ever again she shot him in the head. She turned around and Randy was standing there. She handed him the pistol she’d taken off the man she just shot.

  “Hey babe. It’s ok. Good job. Let’s finish this.” Kelly and Randy approached the door to the cockpit.

  The cockpit door flew open. Gordon was standing there in front of O’Donnell with a knife pressed to his throat.

  “Any closer and I’ll cut his throat!” O’Donnell yelled.

  “You cut his throat we’ll all die. Including you. How about you put the knife down and we have him fly us somewhere neutral and we all go our own ways.” Randy offered.

  “No. Step back. We’re landing now.” O’Donnell said. The knife was suddenly retracted from Gordons neck and slid deep into his abdomen. Gordon shuddered with the pain.

  “Why’d you do that!” Kelly screamed stepping forward trying to get a clear shot at O’Donnell. O’Donnell kept the plane walls and Gordon between him and Kelly.

  Kelly shot five times through the plastic partition O’Donnell had been hiding behind. The first two shots missed and smashed into the dials and gauges on the right side of the cockpit. The third shot nicked O’Donnell’s shoulder causing him to yelp in pain and spin towards his left. The fourth shot hit his collar bone and the fifth shot drilled through the center of his forehead blowing a big wad of bloody grey matter out the back of his skull.

  One of the shots had punched a hole through the windshield. The window broke apart in a section before stabilizing. The wind streaming in blew the chunky brain goop all over Kelly and Gordon. They ignored the biohazard getting stuck in their hair to concentrate on more pressing matters. Kelly squatted down next to Gordon to check out the knife wound. It was gushing blood still.

  “We need to sit him down!” Kelly yelled at Randy. Gordon looked up at Randy and then patted him on the shoulder. He smiled at both of them while Kelly was trying to walk him out of the cockpit.

  “You found your babies. I’m done for. Let me get this plane on the ground before I take you all with me. Patch me up then get in the back and strap in. It’s going to get really bumpy.” Gordon yelled over the sound of the rushing wind. He continued to beam at them proudly with blood leaking between his fingers. Randy could see pieces of brain and random trash swirling around in Gordons sparse grey hair and bushy beard.

  Kelly tucked a small travel pillow against Gordons side and helped him sit back in the pilot’s seat. The trees below were way too close for comfort and they were moving way too fast. She ignored the view from the cockpit while wrapping duct tape around Gordons waist as tight as possible to hold the pillow in place and slow down the bleeding. He grunted a little bit with the pain of it all but smiled and patted her on the hand when she finished and kissed his cheek.

  “Ok. I’m going to try and set us down on the interstate north of where we were supposed to have landed. Might even make it over the Tennessee border if we get lucky. I won’t try it if I start feeling worse before then. Can’t risk the mountains. I just want to make sure I get us set down before I pass out or something. Get in the back and make sure everyone’s wearing their belts. Make sure there aren’t any loose objects laying around.”

  Kelly said thank you one more time then headed back into the main cabin. She worked with Randy to get everyone fastened in and make sure there were no loose objects. Once they’d done everything that they could they belted themselves in and held hands. The plane began to angle down. They felt the thump as the landing gear was lowered. Hoping Gordon was able to stay conscious long enough to get them safely on the ground Randy started spouting orders off.

  “The second we hit the ground I need everyone up and moving. We need to clear this plane and be gone before the Brotherhood show up. Before the Brotherhood find us there’ll probably be a mess of Zombies anyway. We’re not going to be landing quietly. Hold on.”

  “Stay with your buddy!” Kelly added.

  The tires touched the road. They felt the sudden deceleration as the brakes were applied. It seemed to be going pretty smooth then there was a loud banging noise and the plane went sideways off the road into the trees. That was the last thing Randy remembered before he blacked out.

  Chapter 14: The Gauntlet

  Kyler held his shotgun with both hands and put his back firmly against the cab of the pickup truck. They’d outrun the Zombies on the interstate when they’d been scrambling to get to the airport. That meant those Zombies were now g
oing to be directly in their path as they backtracked to head north to try and locate the wreckage of the plane the prisoners were in. This should be an interesting scenario. He’d never been in the back of a pickup truck purposefully driving towards Zombies before. Normally they were driving in the opposite direction as quickly as possible.

  The two pickups in their group slowed at the intersection with I-75 to shift over to the on ramp to go north. A lone Zombie was bounding up the ramp to attack the first truck. The driver followed standard protocol which was to slow down if you couldn’t avoid the Zombie. Otherwise it’d just jump and come through the window. If you slowed down, then hopefully the Zombie would go to one side or the other and you could then accelerate to get away from it. The lead driver had developed his own twist on this standard trick. He slowed down and stuck his arm out the window inviting the Zombie to come get him.

  It was probably something he’d done successfully a few times before based on the nonchalant way he did it. Kyler kept his head stuck over the side of the truck bed to watch what happened. He personally thought the driver was taking a needless risk. There was a lot that could go wrong for a very limited reward. There was also the matter that something working on most of the Zombies didn’t mean it’d work on all the Zombies. That proved to be the case this time.