A shot rang out behind her. She turned to her right to see a walking corpse fall to the ground. A 5.56 round in its head. Three more shots came in quick succession. She could see Derek firing his rifle off to the right side of the helicopter.
Reality came back with a vengeance as she realized they had managed to get the attention of nearby zombies.
She ran the thirty yards to the aircraft and jumped in. Derek slammed the door shut, climbed back in the copilots seat and nodded to John. He lifted off, pivoted backwards to the left and headed Northwest again.
Amy sat down beside Jimmy, who was holding Spanky, and hugged them both. She closed her eyes and cried quietly.
John flew over the nearby school they had stopped at four days ago and came to a hover over the playground.
Below them at the swing set, lying on her back on the ground with her feet up on the seat of the swing, was the little gomer girl Amy had taken special interest in.
“The little gomer girl there,” John said to Derek. “Was swinging here four days ago when Amy and I came by.”
They watched her for a moment. She moved around a little but didn’t try to get up. Her left arm had fallen off and was on the ground beside the swing. The skin was peeling away from her face. The sight saddened John.
“She’s dying,” Derek said.
“Literally falling apart,” Derek said. “Do you think, as weird as it sound, that the dead can die of natural causes.”
John looked over at Derek and pondered the thought for a second. “It sure looks that way.”
“Do you want Amy to see this?” Derek asked.
“No,” John said. “She took special interest in this little gomer. I don’t want her to see her this way. Especially as upset as she is now.”
“Ok, then off to the armory,” Derek said.
“You go it...”
They flew the fifty miles to Laurens in a little less than twenty minutes. John turned the search light on and circled the compound several times.
“I see six of the dead outside at the gate,” John said.
“I’ll get in the back, open the door and take them out from the air,” Derek said. “You get me in position for a shot and I’ll do the rest.”
John nodded. Derek climbed in the back and woke Amy.
“We’re landing,” he said.
“Where are we?”
“At the national Guard Armory in Laurens,” Derek said. “We’re stopping for supplies.”
“Ok.”
“I’m going to open the door. You and Jimmy stay seated. We have some zombies we have to take out. Let Jimmy know so the shots don’t scare him.”
“OK,” Amy said leaning over to speak to Jimmy.
John hovered over the Armory while Derek methodically took out the zombies. He tapped John on the shoulder when the last one was down and pointed toward the ground.
“We’re good,” he said.
John descended into the center of the Armory.
“Before I shut this thing down,” John said. “Get out and do a security check. If it’s not safe to stay here we can be back in the air in seconds.”
“I’m on it,” Derek said.
He got out and made sure the area was secure. He checked the surrounding vehicles and went to the main building. Shinning his flashlight through the window he only saw one of the dead. A uniformed gomer sat at a desk in one of the offices. It raised its arm to shield its face from the bright light but didn’t get up to investigate.
Derek was satisfied it wasn’t a threat and returned to the helicopter. He tapped on the pilots cockpit door and opened it.
“Shut it down,” he shouted to John making a throat slashing gesture with his hand. “Shut it down.”
Derek circled the helicopter, slid open the cargo cabin door and climbed back in. He shut the door and tapped John on the shoulder to let him know he was safely back in the cabin. John nodded and powered down the engines. Seconds later the rotors dipped lower as the rotation slowed.
The twin turbo shaft engines whined down and came to a stop. Silence enveloped the aircraft.
John shut down the helicopter’s systems plunging the cockpit into darkness and leaving only a few red instrument lights on. The cabin was bathed in a soft crimson glow.
“What now,” Derek said.
“We wait for the sun to come up,” John said.
“That’s about eight hours from now,” Derek said.
“Right,” John said. “A good night’s sleep.”
John and Derek stretched out on the floor and slept with their weapons just in case. Amy and Jimmy stayed in their seats. Spanky in Amy’s lap.
14
Pit Stop
-------------------------------------------悪魔死--------------------------John blinked hard and looked around the cabin. He was surprised they had slept through to morning without waking up. A testament to just how exhausted they were.
Hearing footsteps on the gravel outside, he sat up, grabbed his rifle and shook Derek to wake him.
“I think we have company,” he said.
A pair of hands cupped around a female face appeared in the window. “Hey, wake up in there,” the voice said. “How many of you are there?”
“Four,” John said.
Derek stood and wiped the condensation from the window. Standing outside holding a rifle was a women in her late twenties to early thirties. She wore an Army uniform with the name Miller over one pocket. Derek slid the door open.
“Good morning,” she said. “I sure wasn’t expecting anybody to come flying in here last night. I’m Stephanie.”
Jimmy sat up and rubbed his eyes. Amy got out of the helicopter and shook her hand.
“I’m Amy, that’s Jimmy, the dog is Spanky.”
“I’m John,” John said sticking his hand out.
“Derek,” Derek said shaking her hand. “You don’t want us to call you Sergeant?”
“Oh God no,” Stephanie said. “I’m just a part time soldier. In real life I’m a customer service rep for the cable company. I came here when all this started thinking it would be safer here. I thought more of my reserve unit would come here but only Specialist Mason showed up. Sick no less. He died and came back as whatever he is now. Where did ya’ll come from?”
“Charleston,” Derek said.
“Which one of you is Navy?”
“Actually none of us,” John said. “I’m ex Navy but that was a while back. I used to fly these things. The helicopter is from the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman. Derek is ex Army.”
“Really?” she asked Derek.
“Yep,” Derek answered.
“Awesome,” Stephanie said. “How did you guys get the helicopter?”
“It’s a long story...” Amy said.
“So why here?” she asked. “You lost?”
“No,” John said. “We’re just making a pit stop. We knew this was here and thought we would stop on our way North to get supplies.”
“Supplies?”
MREs and ammo mostly,” Derek said. “Maybe a few extra weapons.
“Well,” she said. “I have all three.”
“How large is your group?” Amy asked.
Stephanie laughed. “You’re looking at the whole group right now.”
“Two,” Derek said.
“What?”
“Two,” Derek said again. “You and the gomer.”
“The what?”
“The gomer. Inside,” Derek said nodding back toward the building. “I saw it last night.”
“Your pet zombie,” Jimmy said matter-of-factly.
“Oh...” Stephanie said. “You mean Specialist Mason.”
“Yeah, your gomer,” Jimmy said.
“He sits at his desk all day waiting on me to give him something to do,” she said. “Don’t worry he won’t hurt you.”
“We know,” Derek said.
“How do you know?”
“We have a lot of experience with them.” Amy said.
“Why didn’t you come out last night when we landed?” Amy asked.
“I wanted to wait until daylight so you wouldn’t shoot me,” she said. “I have a hiding place in the ceiling. You wouldn’t have found me if you had come in looking. Besides, for all I knew you were bad guys.”
‘So what made you so sure this morning we weren’t?” John asked.
“I came out around three and checked you out,” she said. “I shined a red flash light in the window. You guys sleep like rocks. Your dog looked up though. He didn’t bark thank God. I decided to let you sleep. You all looked harmless enough. Exhausted but harmless.”
“Exhausted is putting it mildly,” Derek said. “We’ve been to hell and back.”
“Well, it’s been quiet here,” Stephanie said. “Except of course when Mason came back. I almost killed him but... he never tried to hurt me so I left him alone.”
“So you’ve seen no other survivors?” Amy asked. “Even though there aren’t that many.”
“You talk like there are only a few of us left.”
Derek, John and Amy looked at each other.
“How many people would you guess survived in the country?” John asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe ten million.”
“Try thirty five thousand...”
Stephanie’s mouth dropped and her eyes became wide.
“That’s insane,” she said.
“Right...” John said.
“Wow.” she said. “I’ve seen only the dead. They’re out there. At the airfield. They know I’m here and come by to growl through the fence every now and then but they can’t get in. I killed a few at first but what’s the point. I mean they’re all gonna die anyway.”
“What do you mean they’re all gonna die anyway?” Amy asked.
“Like Mason in there,” she said. “He stinks to high heaven and getting worse. He turned the day all this started. So he’s been dead for... what? Ten days? He doesn’t get up much anymore. His legs are weak. He’s lost an ear. His nose fell off. I mean like they just fell off.”
There was a rattling at the fence on the airfield side of the compound.
“Over there,” Stephanie said. “You see those dead guys? There were thirty of them. Now, we have....” she counted silently in her head as she pointed out each one. “Eight. That’s it.”
“What happened to the rest of them?” Derek said.
Follow me,” she said heading out for the fence.
John noticed Derek wasn’t moving. He was standing in the same place staring as Stephanie walked away.
“Hey... what are you staring at?” John said smiling.
Derek looked at John and smiled. “Oh,” he said sheepishly. “Sorry.”
As they neared the dead grew restless and angry. Clawing at the fence and growling.
“I say we go ahead and shoot them,” Derek said. “The only good zombie is a dead zombie.”
Stephanie looked at him and frowned. Amy smiled as Stephanie led them over behind some trucks parked nearby.
“There,” she said pointing. “One, two, three, four... and way over there at the corner of the fence is two more.”
At first they thought they were just bodies lying on the ground, but when the bodies heard them talking they moved trying to drag themselves toward the fence.
One of the walking corpses was making some headway by crawling on his elbows. After moving only a few yards its arm snapped off at the shoulder. It fell to the side and rolled over on its back.
“You get it now?” Stephanie said. “They’re dying. Again... It’s just a matter of time.”
“I hope you’re right,” Amy said. “I have my doubts but I hope you’re right.”
“When did you notice this?” John said. “Derek and I talked about this on the way down. We noticed the same thing.”
“Just the last couple of days,” she said. “They’re falling apart fast.”
Derek looked at the zombies and raised his rifle slightly.
“Leave them alone,” Stephanie said. “If you fire that weapon they’ll start coming out of the woodwork.”
“She’s right Derek,” Amy said.
Derek lowered the weapon. “Whatever...”
“Come on guys lets go inside,” Stephanie said. “You can meet specialist stinky... I’m used to it but you may want to brace yourself.”
“We’ve smelled nothing but death for ten days,” John said. “I think we’ll be ok...”
Stephanie led them into the armory. Specialist Mason looked up when they walked in and grunted. He rose in his seat and tried to get up.
“Keep your seat Specialist Mason,” Stephanie said to the gomer.
The gomer sat back down.
“Good boy,” she said.
Jimmy laughed. “See, he is like a pet.”
“Yeah maybe so,” Stephanie said laughing. “Follow me. I stay in a different part of the Armory due to the B.O. of the Specialist.”
“Why don’t you kick him out,” Derek said.
“Because, it would hurt his feelings,” she said seriously.
“Can you really hurt a gomer’s feelings?” Derek asked.
“Yes,” Amy answered. “You can.”
They followed Stephanie into what looked to Amy like a gym. Folding chairs were arranged neatly in rows as if there was going to be a ceremony. They crossed the large room and entered a double walk through door.
“This is the supply room,” Stephanie said.
On shelves along the wall were boxes of new uniforms and boots. On the other wall were hundreds of cases of MREs and water bottles.
“Wow,” Jimmy said. “That’s a lot of stuff.”
“What about ammo?” Derek said.
“That’s locked up back there,” Stephanie said pointing to another door.
The door was very heavy and solid. Stephanie reached into her pocket and pulled out a set of keys, walked over and unlocked it.
“There are pistols, rifles and plenty of ammo,” she said. “Help yourself.”
“I don’t see any grenade launchers,” Derek said.
“I don’t have any,” Stephanie said. “Sorry.”
“Oh well,” Derek said.
“Why would we need a grenade launcher?” Amy asked.
“We wouldn’t need it for protection from the dead,” Derek said. “We would need it for protection against the living.”
“Expecting some trouble?” Stephanie asked.
“You never know,” Derek said.
Stephanie picked up a case of MREs and handed it to Derek.
“I’ll get some water,” she said. “Take these in there.”
They moved back to the large room and sat down.
“It’s not the best food in the world but it’s better than nothing,” Stephanie said.
“Right...” John said.
“Where North of here are you headed?” Stephanie asked.
“We’re not sure,” John said. “But somewhere secluded and on high ground.”
“Why not stay here?” Stephanie asked.
John looked around. “We want to go to a place that is more secluded for one. This is on a main highway.”
“It’s not just the dead we have to worry about,” Amy said. “If you’re right and the zombies do die off, our biggest threat will be other survivors once the dead are gone.”
“Right...”
“We need high ground,” Derek said. “We need to be able to see people coming from a ways off. Not just when they show up at the door.”
“Well, I know of just the place,” Stephanie said. “It’s secluded. On the top of a small mountain. Beautiful area, plenty of tress.”
She had there attention now.
“Where,” Amy asked.
“Have you ever heard of Glassy Mountain?” she asked.
“I’m not sure,” John said.
“I haven’t,” Derek said.
“I have,” Amy said.
“It’s not hard to get too,�
�� Stephanie said. “On top of the mountain is a fire watch tower in a fenced compound. There are a couple of buildings and one narrow road that leads up to it. With the fire watch tower you have command of the entire area.”
“Is there room enough to land a helicopter,” John asked.
“Plenty of room,” Stephanie said.
“Sounds perfect,” Derek said. “Where exactly is it?”
“It’s about fifty or sixty miles North West of here,” she said.
“You should go with us,” Amy said. “Is there anything keeping you here?”
“No, my family is gone,” she said. “That’s why I’m here.”
“Then it’s settled,” Amy said. “You’ll go.”
“John are we staying another night?” Amy asked.
“I think we should,” Derek said. “We need the rest. The past few days have been hell.”
“I agree,” John said. “We’ll stay tonight and fly to Glassy Mountain tomorrow.”
“Deal,” Stephanie said and hugged Amy. “Thank you.”
They set to work loading the helicopter with cases of MREs and bottled water.
John and Derek discussed the number of weapons they should take and settled on ten M-4s, Ten M9A1 pistols and plenty of ammunition for all.
They also took two small gasoline operated generators, six folding cots, six sleeping bags, ten blankets, six folding chairs and two folding tables. They tied everything down and made sure the cargo wouldn’t shift in flight.
When they were finished they stood back and looked through the open cargo door.
“Are we too heavy,” Derek asked.
“Oh no,” John said. “This bird will carry a lot more weight than this. We could sling a load underneath if we wanted to.”
“It’s going to be a cramped ride to Glassy Mountain,” Amy said.
“Right,” John said. “But we will only be in the air for thirty minutes.”
The rest of the day was uneventful. John checked over the helicopter to make sure everything was in order. Derek cleaned and admired his new M9 and M4. Together they gathered other gear such as survival kits, MOLLE rucksacks, magazine pouches, entrenching tools, canteens etc. and loaded them in the cargo hatches on the side of the aircraft.
Amy asked for clean clothes so Stephanie fitted everyone with new boots and clean Army uniforms.
“When we get to where we’re going we can loot the nearest department store for some real clothes,” Amy said looking down at her new baggy uniform.
The Demon Dead: Troubled Waters Page 15