Dead in Love
Page 25
After about 20 minutes, I could hear the distant sound of a chopper, “Great, this is all I need” I whispered under my breath. Now I have helicopters directed at my ranch. I need to prepare to escape in case this situation got out of control. I let off a few more smoke grenades I had left and provided some additional confusion for the soldiers.
The helicopter landed, just down the road and the soldiers extracted the wounded man. After the helicopter had taken off, additional choppers came and landed on opposite sides of my ranch, with more soldiers showing up. This is really getting out of hand, but then again look at the situation the military and CDC let get out of hand. The town was infected with an unknown virus and the girl I love is a zombie. What in the world is going on and how did I get here? I thought to myself. I went into the bathroom and washed water over my face. I gathered some towels and got them wet, in case the soldiers decided to use tear gas for the breach.
The soldiers were now surrounding the house and preparing for the breach. I continued to fire off a few rounds every ten minutes, until some of the soldiers fired back. I never fired directly at the soldiers, just into the air above them, but I apparently am running out of time. The soldiers had the spotlights on the Humvees directed at the house and the lights were shining through the boards, covering the windows. I took the remaining smoke grenades with me into the basement.
It seemed like I was going to either be detained, as a criminal, by ignoring the military’s martial law search and firing weapons back at them, or try and somehow get into the fallout shelter and try to escape. I opened the fallout shelter door and Laylianna came out looking nervous. She walked up to me and put her head on my chest and hugged me.
I looked at her and could see that she was scared, but then again so am I. What the hell, I thought. If this was going to be the end, I might as well be like Laylianna. I lifted her head and looked at her, raising my arm to her mouth. I bit my arm and then put it back in front of Laylianna’s mouth. If Laylianna could recover to the point she was at now, why couldn’t I?
Laylianna looked at me confused and then seemed to understand what I was doing, “Bite me Laylianna, the soldiers will be coming and we need to get into the fallout shelter.” We got into the fallout shelter as I heard the smashing of wood come from the upstairs.
There were loud flash bombs going off and the smell of gas coming down the stairs. Laylianna and I entered the shelter, locking it behind us. There were a few homemade explosive devices I had made earlier, wired to lines coming into the shelter. I took the wires and connected them to a medium sized battery. The explosives ignited and blasts went off through the house.
The military breached after five more minutes and I could hear muffled steps and noises coming from the upstairs. It will take the soldiers at least two hours to figure out how to get into the shelter, by that time I hope we will be able to get out. Laylianna walked up behind me and put her hand on my shoulder. I turned around and could see she was still thinking about what I had done earlier.
She took my hand a put it up to her mouth, waiting to see my reaction. I put it up to her lips and told her, “I want to be like you, bite me.” She took my hand and paused for a few seconds, to see if I would change my mind, but I didn’t. She opened her mouth and then bit into my arm. I winced at the pain, but it didn’t hurt that bad.
After an hour, I could feel my blood warm and a fever overtaking my body. I was sweating and felt so warm. After another hour or so, I could hear the sound of a welder begin attempting to get through the shelter’s door. The last thing I remember was Laylianna picking me up from the ground and walking through the tunnels of the shelter. I was having strange dreams or visions, but they were at various stages in my life, my mistakes, my accomplishments and losses, all the major events in my life flashing before my eyes. Maybe this is what it’s like to die. I couldn’t recall the amount of time I was unconscious, but I woke in the main section of the sewage line. Laylianna had carried me through the last door of the fallout shelter and into the sewer.
The remaining door would take the soldiers some additional time to get through it, leaving me and Laylianna the time to make it out of the sewers and into the cover of night. Above ground, there were now a few fire engines attempting to control a small fire that broke out from the detonation of the explosive devices. A few of the soldiers were wounded in the blast , leaving Laylianna and I no other option than to escape and try to make it out of the perimeter surrounding the town.
I felt completely overcome by the infection and was now beginning to have to think about my movements, one step at a time, it felt like a dream. It felt like a brand new experience. Watching Laylianna and her behavior, being infected, I wondered how long it would take me to develop normal comprehension and motor skill functions.
We moved along the main section of the sewage line, which was just high enough to barely stand up comfortably. Laylianna was doing most of the support and was extremely strong for her size, but that was probably due to the virus of infection, or whatever was inside us. We made it to the last stretch of tunnel and turned the corner, “Hold it right there!” Two soldiers were standing on either side of the tunnel, shining their lights on us, with their weapons raised.
They reached for their radios and were both trying to speak into the receivers, but the signal was blocked in the tunnel. Laylianna did not hesitate and rushed forward with lightning speed, tackling both of the soldiers to the ground and snapping both of their necks. We wasted no time and moved forward, towards the ladder, leading up from the tunnel. The smell of the sewer had disappeared, probably one of the senses I am glad to have lost.
I recognized and remembered what had happened, but everything was happening in slow motion. Surprisingly, I began to climb the ladder and was starting to move a little better. Maybe my motor skills were returning quicker than Laylianna, maybe as the infection is passed the incubation period takes less time and motor skills return faster. Regardless, we would need to move fast before the sunrise.
As we left the sewer entrance, there were no other vehicles around aside from one Humvee, most likely belonging to the two dead soldiers below. We climbed inside the camouflaged vehicle and pulled away, driving into the distance. Through the fields, Laylianna drove the Humvee across small ditches and ranch property. It was still dark and we kept the lights off.
In the distance, were a few larger blockades and perimeter fencing, the blockades were about a half mile apart. There were a few vehicles patrolling the fence line and a couple of men walking behind each vehicle. They were wearing protective bio-suits and stood out like sore thumbs, the bio-suits being white. I mean how obvious can you be, this might be easier than we thought. We crawled to the fence and waited, as a patrol passed by.
Patiently waiting, Laylianna took my hand and with her other hand ripped up the bottom of the fence, leaving us enough room to crawl underneath. We crawled under the fence and made our way across another field. There were search lights stretching back and forth across the fields and we would duck and wait for them to pass, until we were far out of sight.
Back at the house the soldiers were searching through the house, fallout shelter and sewer tunnels. Soldiers discovered the two murdered soldiers and reported the incident. The bodies were taken up to the surface and loaded into a Humvee. The sergeant was combing the rural streets attempting to find us, and eventually came upon the abandoned Humvee we had taken earlier. He followed our tracks to the perimeter fence and discovered the breach in the fence.
He turned and walked back to his vehicle, “You take the other Humvee and return to base.” The soldier looked at the sergeant and replied, “But sir shouldn’t we go after them?” The sergeant looked back at the soldier, “Private, as far as you are concerned we didn’t find this and the violators escaped and are still at large inside the perimeter.”
“Yes, sir!” The two vehicles pulled out of the field and returned to the house. The remaining soldiers were loading their equipment and
preparing to return to base. The sergeant began writing his report on a clipboard. He reported the situation over the radio and was ordered to return to base before sunrise. The various vehicles pulled away from Baxter’s ranch, down the driveway and onto a main road. The emergency vehicles and fire engines pulled out just behind the Humvees and the convoy pulled off, down the street and into the distance.
Walking with Laylianna, into the sunrise, in the current state I am in, dead, I am still aware of the first time she came into my life. She was an innocent, caring and thoughtful person, with the ability to just jump right into a situation and take control. She rushed into the house and towards the couch, when she saw Sally was injured. How strange, I thought. I would never just walk into a stranger’s house, let alone being a woman and walking into a strange house.
Maybe it wasn’t so strange. For now, I was with her again. Walking into a new situation, with a stranger, or was she, it feels so right. Even though we are both, shadows of our former selves. In these bodies, holding what is left of us, I have taken the hand of someone who came back for me and took my hand. From the memory of some recent experience, Laylianna chose to come back for me. She reached down and took my hand, as we walked south; we are, dead in love, dead inside.
All events and characters, in this book, are fictitious and bear no resemblance to any person, living, or DEAD! Any similarity is purely co-incidental, and the events are not meant to discredit any of the facilities, entities or towns involved in the story.
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Massacre Cave
Crow Mountain
Return to Crow Mountain (Coming soon)
Earth Mongers
Mulberry Lane
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