“Hey, guys. Don’t underestimate guard duty right now,” Bill suggested. “I need ya.”
“Okay. While we’re thinking about our skills I suggest we start moving into the other cabins,” Mike urged. “Ah, just thought of a job for you boys. We will need a latrine digging. With the large number of us the chemical toilets aren’t going to hold out for much longer and I think we ought to reserve their use for the ladies.”
“Shit,” Rob mumbled. “We’ve gone from IT consultants to guards and ditch diggers in three days flat.”
“I don’t think the apocalypse is panning out too well for us,” Danny agreed.
*
BB had been watching as the snow-laden cold front rushed towards them. Mike had been right, it was a biggie. It looked like it would be a close-run thing for them to make their previous refuelling point Charlie before the weather beat them there.
“Zoë, switch to the FLIR and tell me what you can see. We’re about ten minutes out.”
Peering at the screen she could see nothing. Not even the deer wanted to be out in the path of the upcoming storm. Of course it didn’t mean to say there wasn’t anything there; they knew for a fact the walking corpses didn’t have a heat signature.
“Nada. Are we going to make it before the storm?” Snowflakes could be seen flashing past them as they sped towards the landing site.
“By the skin of our teeth, I’d say. You okay back there?” he asked, switching to the cabin intercom.
“We’re okay. A bit cold but okay.”
“You Californians, always cold. We’re about ten minutes out from the refuelling point. We’re definitely stopping ’cos the storm is coming in fast.”
“Is there shelter down there?” Kimberley asked, a little anxiety in her voice telling of her concerns.
“The site is surrounded by trees so we’ll be out of any wind the front might bring. We’ll stay on board and I’ll keep the engines running as long as possible to keep us warm and prevent snow from covering us.”
“How long will it last?”
“Well, it’s a cold front so unless it has changed it should only last about a couple of hours unless it slows down. Then we’ll be on our way again.” He made sure his voice remained upbeat; it was a trick of the airline business - Rule One, never let the passengers know the truth. Deep inside him he felt more than a little anxious as he knew how much snow could fall in a single go in this area. It was the main reason he would keep the engines running. If the helicopter became covered in snow it was entirely possible they might not get the chance to dig it out between storms, leaving them stranded in the middle of nowhere until spring. In that event they really wouldn’t survive.
“Zoë, I want to refuel before the snow sets in in earnest. If it comes down too heavily it might prove impossible to get to the bowser once the storm’s past.”
“Sure, we’ve done it before and there should still be plenty for us to take on.”
The clearing was directly ahead now, slightly to the east and below Mount Belknap which stood in its barren beauty at just over twelve thousand feet above sea level. There was a thin covering of snow as it was just beginning to settle; half an hour from now the peak would disappear under brilliant white, new coverage. The clearing appeared to have remained untouched, apparently nothing had changed since they were last there earlier in the day, and more pleasingly they could see or detect no movement at all. With luck they had slotted all the opposition last time they had landed.
The ground had a light dusting of snow as they put down within easy refuelling distance of the tanks. Zoë disconnected herself from the comms systems and jumped down to the ground. With the door open BB realised just how cold it was outside as all warmth disappeared in a moment; he was sure he heard a gasp from Kimberley as the freezing air struck deep into her unaccustomed lungs. The instruments told him it was ten below, and coming into contact with it was bracing to say the least. Taking off his bone dome, he too leapt out and put some stones around the wheels to act as chocks.
Poking his head back in, he spoke to Kimberley and Emily.
“Stay inside with the doors pulled to but left unlocked. Make sure your mobile phones, if you still have them, are switched off. We are going to refuel with the engines on so just stay alert in case we need your attention for anything.”
Closing the cockpit door once more he ran over to Zoë who had begun to feed out the fuel hose. He grabbed the yellow earth wire and pulled it out and over to the ’copter and clipped it to a strut.
“Damn it’s freezing out there,” Zoë complained. Her teeth were chattering significantly, her speech barely discernible.
“Fuckin’ A,” BB agreed, doing his best not to shake too much as the cold bit hard into his body. The temperature must have dropped since he last looked at the reading; to his fingers and nose it felt like absolute zero. Their eyes on stalks keeping a sharp look out, the task took about twenty excruciatingly long minutes to complete, each movement becoming more difficult as time progressed; their hands went numb in spite of their gloves and attempts at rubbing them together did nothing to alleviate the situation. Their faces and especially their lips were turning blue in the bitterly cold air; the snow was coming down hard now causing the fuel hose to disappear under the blanket on the ground between them and the bowser.
By the time their task was complete a layer of snow approximately eight inches deep had settled on the ground. BB had never seen weather so intense before and it unnerved him a little. He glanced at the helicopter to see if the blades were preventing much from settling on the fuselage and was pleased to see it appeared to be working so far. Finished the job and with their boots squeaking into the fresh snowfall, they struggled to return the fuel hose and the earth cable to their former position. He peered at the gauge to see how much fuel remained. “Looks like there isn’t enough for another drink so let’s hope the front does move away quickly.”
Deciding it took energy she would rather spend on warmth in her body, rather than replying Zoë just nodded automatically as they made their way back to the aircraft and got back on board.
“Argh! Goddam it, that really hurts,” BB exclaimed as blood rushed back into his hands. The pain was intense but he was glad for some sensation in his extremities again.
“Stop being such a pussy,” Zoë said through chattering teeth, her face sending the same pained message as BB’s whining complaint.
Kimberley pulled her husband down onto one of the bench seats and began to rub his arms and legs vigorously, helping the blood flow back into the limbs. Emily began to copy the doctor’s actions for Zoë and soon the pair returned to a semblance of their previous human condition.
“I could murder a hot coffee.” BB uttered when he was finally able to speak.
Zoë smiled and awkwardly delved into the magic plastic bag and pulled out a thermos flask. “Don’t know how warm it is by now, but you’ve got an imagination so use it.”
Another benefit of keeping the engines running was the warmth they gave to the cabin, keeping it at a bearable temperature, a few degrees above zero Centigrade but at least twenty above that outside so it felt positively tropical by comparison. BB looked over at Kimberley whose face looked pinched with the cold but so far she had made no complaint. Looking into her eyes he knew he could never not have made this journey; she would always be his other (and better) half.
He looked over at Emily; poor girl, he felt sorry for her to be so young to lose her family so brutally but at least she didn’t have to walk into the world alone any time soon. With luck their group at the lakes would become her new family, giving her a new purpose; one thing was for sure, she would grow up quickly in their new world. She sat staring out of the side window, deep in private thoughts that wandered across her mind while watching the snow’s mesmeric swirling motion floating all around. The covering had to be at least a couple of feet deep by now but the rotating blades had done as he hoped and there was still a little visibility through the over
head Perspex light; the downfall was not collecting with any significance on the aircraft. He hopped into the cockpit to check on the Ts & Ps; so far they were still well within normal ranges. Looking to the east he imagined he could see the sky lightening, hoping the weather front would soon pass them by. He looked away for a moment to reduce the brilliant effect of snow blindness and then looked back, and saw that it was indeed wishful thinking. He returned to the cabin.
“So. Anyone done anything interesting lately?” he asked, face serious. Slowly the question sunk in and giggles turned into full-bellied laughter at the ridiculousness of it all. Kimberley smiled for the first time since they landed.
“Zoë?” Emily spoke quietly and at first her questioning voice went unanswered. “Zoë. Can you see that?” she said a little louder this time.
Zoë turned and peered out of the window, wiping condensation from the inside surface. “What can you see?”
“I don’t know. I think it’s moving.”
Her observation had them all looking out of the helicopter, expecting to see a person or animal walking towards them but they could see nothing.
“Where?” BB asked, getting concerned. He still could not see what had caught the young girl’s eye.
“There,” she said pointing and sounding exasperated. Still no-one could see it. “Under the snow!”
“What?” Kimberley said, still not knowing what she was looking for.
And then BB saw it; a subtle movement detected out of the corner of his eye as the surface of the snow shifted slightly. It appeared to be about twenty or so yards away and the movement was barely discernible to the naked eye. Looking directly where he thought he’d seen movement, he saw nothing. Off to one side, though, something caught his eye. And there it was, a slight bump on the surface moving slowly towards them. It stopped momentarily before it made another small movement and then stopped. If he had not served in the Armed Forces and endured those god-awful assault courses he would not have recognised the motion for what it was. Someone appeared to be belly walking their way under the snow towards the helicopter. But who and how?
“Zoë. Get your gun ready.” BB snapped. The two of them readied themselves as they watched it creep ever closer.
“What is it?” Emily asked fear in her voice now.
“I think we’ll soon find out.” Zoë replied.
“Get ready to crack the door open, Zoë. I’m going to fire near whatever it is, see if we can scare it into revealing itself.” BB knelt and aimed. Zoë opened the door slightly and BB fired on semi-automatic. The noise shook the inhabitants inside the cabin, cordite stinging their nostrils with its pungent odour in the enclosed environment. Snow and gravel spattered around the mound but all that happened was that the motion stopped. Zoë quickly closed it again.
“Damn, maybe it’s nothing,” BB said quietly, watching the surface for more movement.
“There’s another!” Emily squealed in excited fear. In fact two more mounds appeared to be making their way towards the helicopter. They were only just discernable in the white on white contrast; it would have been easy to overlook them had it not been for Emily’s young and keen eyesight.
“Shit,” BB cursed before making his way quickly to the cockpit to look around in other directions. This time he noticed the sky was definitely brightening ahead of them, the weather was passing through. The brighter light revealed another three mounds to the front making the slow, stop-start progress under the snow. Assuming it was the same to the rear of the helicopter, he realised that the only side where the bloody things weren’t was the side cut short by the escarpment that trailed down around a thousand feet. Whatever they were, and his gut feeling was pointing towards the bloody obvious, these things must have been hiding out beyond the treeline, out of sight. The falling snow had been excellent cover for them as they worked their way towards the helicopter.
The big question was whether or not to fight or fly out before the storm had moved past them. Doing the maths he reckoned there had to be at least seven or eight around them and probably more in the treeline. With the woman he loved and two others he was becoming fond of on board, his indecision was positively painful to him. If I fly into that weather it might be deeper than expected. What if the GPS failed? All he would have was a radio altimeter, a compass and an airspeed indicator telling him how far he had travelled and how high he was. That was all well and good when he could see the ground but dead-reckoning in this white out was a dangerous game, especially when he had neither landmarks nor knowledge of the wind speed or direction around him. And the ground would get higher as he travelled back east towards the mountains. The last thing he wanted to do was to fly into the ground, CFIT it was known as in the trade, Controlled Flight Into Terrain. That would ruin their day for sure. The alternate option would be to fly above or around the weather front, but this was simply not possible in a helicopter, the clouds could easily go up to thirty six thousand feet; apart from that fact, they didn’t appear to have enough oxygen supplies for that sort of solution anyway. Anoxia and freezing to death didn’t seem to be the best solution, especially for Californians; hell they could stay on the ground for one of those. It hit home just how dependent his life-long profession of flying had been on known weather conditions and support from the ground.
On the other hand, he was pretty damn sure what was under the snow. What to do. Mind made up he stepped back into the cabin and spoke to his entourage.
“Right, ladies. We have a choice. We can either fight it out with those bastards out there or fly off into this weather.” He stated matter-of-factly. “If all of these things get to the chopper their combined weight may cause me problems in taking off if that becomes our last solution. I know for a fact that they are tenacious bastards and will hold on like death is chasing them. So I can’t shake them off in the air.”
“What if we stopped the ones nearest us?” Zoë suggested. “Perhaps the others will fall back?”
“I don’t think they work like that, girl. I don’t think death is at the top of their list of things to avoid. I would go out and try to deal with them, but what if one of them is a fast one? And gets me. You’ll never get through this weather with your fledgling skills.”
Throughout his little speech BB had been arguing for the one and only option he knew they had: to fly out now. They would have to take their chances with the weather. He would also have to radio ahead and tell the folks back in Colorado the latest trick these bastards had revealed. The looks on their faces told him how they would vote. No-one wanted to die here and now.
“Come on Zoë. Get your helmet on, we’re going. Kimberley and Emily, sorry that there’s nothing for you to do, but you can pray for us.” The last was delivered with a grim smile; he certainly wished he had more confidence in what he was about to do. In the circumstances he was certainly gaining advanced knowledge of the helicopter without the aid of an instructor. He just hoped he had learned enough.
All seated and ready, BB pulled on the collective and they began to lift off. With the constantly rotating blades whirring above them during their short sojourn on the ground, only a thin covering of snow had settled on the bird and in the man-made hurricane force winds and windscreen wipers this was easily swept off the canopy, giving the pilot good forward visibility. Thank God for the full de-icing capabilities of this bird, BB thought to himself. As they lifted off two of the mounds in front of them broke open revealing two grey-skinned soldiers who, recognising the impending escape of their prey, leapt up and ran stiff-legged towards the chopper. Too late, the helicopter rose into the white sky and was soon gone from their grasp.
“Zoë. Can you get on the radio and keep trying to get through to Mike? I need all my wits to fly in this. Tell him what we’ve just seen ’cos they’ll have a lot of snow too by now.”
“Roger. Will do, Captain.” She replied. He looked sideways at her, wondering if she was taking the mickey, but her face was serious. Clearly she approved of his decision to get
the hell out of Dodge. He smiled at her reassuringly.
*
“Have you guys found a stash of moonshine?” Mike asked, incredulous at what he had just been told.
“No sir, I wish,” Zoë replied. “We saw what we saw. That’s why we’re flying through this shit right now. BB says we’re about three hours out from the cabin.”
“Thanks, Warrant Officer,” he replied hoping to bring a little discipline into her report and maybe calm her down. They spoke a little more before he closed the connection. Looking out of the helicopter canopy he had a chill run down his spine and it had nothing to do with the weather.
He ran back to the cabin to find out the status of the move into the other premises. Most of the others were back but Stacey and Jackie were still in their new place, ‘making it look nice’ according to what they had told Janet.
“Everyone. Can I have your attention? This is urgent.” They all gathered around. “I’ve just been speaking with Zoë and it appears we may have a real problem.” Silence fell in the room as he explained the potential danger.
“Haven’t we killed them all?” Sandy asked hopefully, her face pale with the horror of the tale.
“I reckon there are some fast ones out there beyond the treeline,” Rob replied. “I keep seeing some movement over there. That’s why Stacey and Jackie will be coming back here under escort when they’ve done. They’ll be calling by walkie talkie when they’re ready.”
“I think they ought to come back now. The snow is very thick and will easily hide these crafty things. I don’t want it to get dark before they return, not now. And I think we ought to stay together in this cabin tonight.”
“I think that’s a good idea, Mike,” Janet agreed. “At least until we can come up with a workable solution. Otherwise we are giving them three targets they can creep up on. And us three places to protect.”
“It sure appears to be a bit of a game changer,” Chuck agreed.
“How are we going to protect our legs when we go out?” Danny asked. “If these things tunnel under the snow they’re going to meet our legs first. God, it’ll be like sharks in the water.” He shivered involuntarily. It was one of the creepiest things he’d heard up to now - a hidden threat. It was clear everyone else in the cabin felt the same.
The Common Cold (Book 2): A Zombie Chronicle-Cabin Fever Page 13