by Chesla, Gary
But when the Sergeant’s eyes shot open, his milky white clouded over eyes that stared at Johnson, he felt like an icy dagger had just been plunged into his stomach.
Johnson had to quickly look around to confirm he wasn’t still back at the power plant, clearing rooms of the walking dead.
Johnson heart stopped when he felt something land on his shoulder.
When he turned his eyes to glance down at his shoulder, he saw a bloody hand griping his arm.
Johnson froze for a minute, not knowing what he should do, until he heard Bennet’s voice.
“We have to get the hell out of this helicopter,” Bennet said. The sound of pain clearly in his voice.
“Bennet, what they hell happened?” Johnson asked.
“Not now,” Bennet replied. “We have to get out of here first. Can you give me a boost up to the door?”
Johnson looked up at the side door that was now overhead in the helicopter that had landed roughly, then he rolled over as got on his hands and knees.
“Sure,” Johnson replied groggily and bent forward and cupped his hands together to take Bennet’s foot.
Bennet put his foot in Johnson’s cupped hands and yelled for him to lift.
Bennet grabbed the door handle as Johnson boosted him up, slid the door open, then grabbed the frame and pulled himself up to the top of the overturned helicopter.
“Grab my hand,” Bennet yelled down at Johnson as he laid to the side of the open door to steady himself as he reached down into the helicopter. “Hurry!”
Johnson slowly reached up to take Bennet’s hand and felt himself being yanked up out of the helicopter.
“Are you OK Johnson,” Bennet asked as he dragged Johnson off to the side of the opening.
“I think so,” Johnson replied. “I’m still a little groggy after having my head bounced off the floor down there.”
“You’re lucky that was all that happened to you,” Bennet said. “Another few seconds and I would have had to leave you down there too.”
“What?” Johnson asked, not understanding what Bennet was saying.
“Look,” Bennet said and nodded his head back inside the helicopter.
Johnson looked down to see eight bloody arms and four gray faces staring back up at him.
“Shit,” Johnson exclaimed. “How did this happen. One minute I closed my eyes trying to think, the next minute I’m a human pinball. Now this! I don’t understand what is happening.”
“It was Davis,” Bennet replied. I told you to take his gun because I thought he fell asleep again.”
“Yeah, I remember that much,” Johnson said.
“He must have got infected back at the power plant,” Bennet continued. “I was just sitting there and the next thing I know, Davis gets up and lunges at the pilot. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing as he bit into the pilot’s shoulder. When the pilot let out a cry, the Sergeant tried to wrestle Davis away from the pilot. Remember I told you if you get bitten by one of the walking dead, you become one of them and I would have to shoot you?”
“Yeah,” Johnson nodded as he watched the horror show below.
“Well, Davis then attacked the Sergeant, tearing half of his face off,” Bennet said. “I tried to get my gun up to shoot at Davis, but it was too late. The pilot began to change into one of the infected and he let go of the controls and joined Davis in attacking the Sergeant.
That’s when we went down hard. Lucky we were on approach to land back at the facility and not high in the air.”
“Yeah, lucky us,” Johnson said.
“Come on,” Bennet said. “We need to get off this helicopter and go get help.”
“Yeah, I think I need to have my face looked at,” Johnson replied.
“The hell with your face, you’re ugly and nothing is going to change that,” Bennet said. “We need to get a gun and put these guys down before they get out of the helicopter and infect anyone else. If the infection gets into the facility, it could take out the whole place overnight. That’s how the infection destroyed the entire country, it only takes one.
Right now, our main priority is to make sure they don’t make it to the facility.
I’ve seen it happen over and over too many times over the last week. If they make it to the facility, we’re all screwed.
Come on, while they are trapped inside the chopper, we have to do this now before one of them gets loose, unless you want to volunteer to go back down inside to get us a gun.”
“No, I think I’m done volunteering,” Johnson replied. “You go first, and I’ll follow you.”
Bennet slid down the body of the helicopter towards the back and dropped to the ground near the tail rotor.
Johnson followed and dropped down next to Bennet.
“The entrance to the facility is right over that hill, it’s no more than about a quarter of a mile,” Bennet said.
“I’ll try to keep up with you,” Johnson said putting his hands on his head, trying to steady himself. “I could use a few minutes for my head to stop spinning.”
“You can rest when we get in the facility,” Bennet replied. “Put your arm over my shoulder and I’ll help you.”
Johnson put his arm over Bennet’s shoulder and the two men started up over the hillside.
They hadn’t gone more than a few steps when they stopped and turned to look back at the helicopter.
The sound coming from inside the helicopter, the loud groaning and the sound of fists pounding against the glass front of the cockpit grew frantic.
“I don’t think they want us to leave them behind,” Johnson said.
“Not exactly,” Bennet replied. “Once someone becomes infected and becomes one of the walking dead, I don’t believe they can think about anything except trying to kill the living. Even then it’s probably not a conscious thought, just a basic instinct or something.
From what I have determined, they don’t feel pain. You can unload your rifle into them and it doesn’t faze them one bit.
They aren’t afraid of anything or they can’t connect the dots, you know like what will happen to them if they walk off the top of a building or in front of a gun.
I’ve saw one of them walk off the top of a building trying to get at me. I was on the top of one building and they were on the top of the next building. They walked straight at me, ignoring the fact that the building ended and there was a fifty-foot drop, like they expected to walk on air or something.
I’ve been in a car with all the windows smashed out except for the driver’s window. One of them just stood pounding on the window for ten minutes, glaring at me. I don’t think they have the ability to figure out that if they would just walk around the car where there weren’t any windows they could have just grabbed me.
So, I don’t believe they have the ability to think about anything, I believe they just react.”
“This shit is just too crazy to be real,” Johnson said.
“Well you better believe it,” Bennet said. “All you can do is just accept it and don’t try to figure it out or it will drive you crazy. When it first started, I almost went insane trying to make sense out of what I was seeing until I just decided there wasn’t anything I could do about anything except just try to survive. Take my advice and don’t think about it, just think about keeping yourself alive.
We better get out of here before that front canopy gives out. Those large cracks worry me, as long as they can see us, they will keep pounding at the glass.”
Johnson removed his arm from Bennet’s shoulder.
“I think I can manage on my own from here,” Johnson said. “Everything has stopped spinning, but my nose is starting to kill me.”
The men turned and started walking again.
“How long does it take to turn into one of them after you get bitten?” Johnson asked.
“It varies,” Bennet replied. “I’ve seen some guys turn in a matter of a few minutes, others have held out for an entire day.”
“Why the diff
erence?” Johnson asked.
“The hell if I know,” Bennet replied. “I’m no expert on this shit. As far as I know, there are no experts. All I can say is just don’t get bit.”
“It didn’t look like Davis had been bitten,” Johnson said.
“He wasn’t, I looked him over in the chopper after he fell asleep to make sure,” Bennet replied.
“I know you’re going to ask me then how did he get infected? All I can say is that it just happens. Maybe he had a cut or scratch that got infected or he breathed in a piece of one of those things when we splattered their brains all over the walls back at the power plant. I don’t know. All I know is anyone can become infected at any time, so keep an eye on everyone. If you see someone starting to act strange, watch your ass.”
“This shit sounds scary as hell,” Johnson said. “How are we supposed to survive something like this.”
“I don’t know, maybe we can’t,” Bennet replied. “Not many have survived it. All you can do is use your head and hope you can somehow.”
“That wasn’t what I was hoping to hear,” Johnson started to say, but stopped when a crashing sound came from the helicopter behind them.
Johnson and Bennet slowly turned to look back at the helicopter again.
“Shit, I was afraid of that,” Bennet said when he saw that the glass canopy on the helicopter had bowed outward and then crashed to the ground.
The four infected men inside, toppled to the ground, then awkwardly began to struggle to their feet and then started to move towards them.
“We can beat them back to the entrance,” Johnson said. “I can’t move very fast yet, but I’m sure I can move faster than they can.”
“Change in plans,” Bennet replied.
“Change how?” Johnson asked. “Shouldn’t we get back to the facility?”
“They will follow us back to the entrance of Cheyenne Mountain,” Bennet replied. “I don’t think it would be a good idea to let them get near the entrance. The further away from the facility we can keep the infection, the better for us all.”
“So, how do we do that?” Johnson asked.
“You’re OK, right?” Bennet asked. “You can walk around on your own well enough to keep out of reach of those things if you had too?”
“If I had too,” Johnson replied. “I just hope it doesn’t come down to anything like that.”
“Good,” Bennet said. “We are going to wait here until they get close to us. When they are almost to us, I am going to run back to the helicopter, now that it’s empty I can go inside and get one of our guns while you keep them occupied.”
“I’m not sure I like that plan,” Johnson replied. “What’s plan B?”
“Plan B is you run back to the helicopter and I stay here,” Bennet said.
“I guess plan A wasn’t so bad after all,” Johnson said. “Just don’t take too long getting that rifle.”
“When the infected get close, just keep going up the hill,” Bennet said. “They can’t go up hill very well so you shouldn’t have any problem staying ahead of them. Just keep their attention so they don’t come after me right away. I need time to get inside the helicopter and find a rifle and some ammo.”
Johnson nodded, “I hope you realize how fucked up this is.”
“Yeah, just try not to think about it,” Bennet replied. “It’s not like we can do anything to help them. If that ever happens to me, I would hope that someone quickly puts me out of my misery. I don’t know if those guys know what happened to them or not, I hope not, but if there is any part of them left, I could only imagine the torment they would have to be going through. For their sake and ours, we have to do this.”
“Since you put it that way,” Johnson said quietly,” let’s get this over with and get back to the base.”
Johnson watched the eerie sight of the four infected men staggering slowly towards him.
Chills ran down his spine as he watched the four tortured bodies drag themselves forward across the ground.
He didn’t know any of these men very well, in fact he had just met them, but they were stationed at the same base as he was, and now they were ……
A sense of sadness began to come over him as he watched them, especially as he watched the Sergeant.
He had tried to not think of the infected back at the plant as people, but rather as some hideous monsters that were trying to kill him.
But as he looked at the Sergeant, the feeling of relief he had felt earlier today when the Sergeant decided to take Johnson with the group on their mission to the power plant, flooded back into his thoughts.
He had been so happy at the idea of getting out of the close confines of the cave, to Johnson at the time it had felt like he was being let out of prison.
He had felt an overwhelming sensation of gratitude towards the Sergeant, but that feeling now was being replaced by the realization that everyone Johnson had ever known and cared about was probably now just like the Sergeant.
What the Sergeant was now, what he represented, was what Johnson had been trying to ignore the entire time he had been at the power plant today.
Johnson now was finally facing the reality that the world was gone, replaced by his worst nightmare.
It was obviously a nightmare, but he honestly didn’t know what he was feeling, other than he was stunned.
He had been suspicious that something was happening since arriving at Cheyenne Mountain, but after what he had seen today, so much had come at him all at once, it was so overwhelming and unbelievable that his mind was almost too numb to feel anything.
Johnson was so consumed with his emotional realization of what his life had become, wrestling with what he had seen meant, that he almost missed Bennet yelling that he was making a dash for the helicopter.
Johnson began to walk backwards up the hill as the four staggering bodies came closer.
It seemed like only a few minutes had passed before Johnson heard the first sound of gun fire.
As the shots rang out, the four infected men fell to the ground, one by one.
Then Bennet was once again standing next to him.
“Are you OK?” Bennet asked. “You look like you’re ready to pass out.”
“My head is killing me,” Johnson replied. “Between what I’ve seen today and getting bounced around in the helicopter, I think I need to get inside and lay down for a while.”
Bennet nodded as he studied Johnson carefully.
“Do me a favor,” Johnson added and smiled. “I’m not infected, so just don’t shoot me yet.”
Chapter 6
August 10th, Granite Mountain
Tony walked into the mess hall, spied Mike, Linda and Jamie sitting in the corner having lunch and walked over to join them.
“Where have you been all morning?” Mike asked as he took a sip of hot coffee to wash down a mouth full of hot scrambled powdered eggs, “or are you too big to hang around with us common folk?”
“We’ve been busy today,” Tony replied.
“Where you busy playing cards again?” Mike laughed.
Tony smiled, “We made a big discovery today. We found the president.”
“You found who?” Linda asked as she stopped chewing her breakfast and stared at Tony.
“Well, were not sure we found the president, but we found his plane,” Tony replied.
“You found his plane?” Mike gasped. “Did he crash? Were you able to tell if there were any survivors? Any idea of where he might have been trying to go?”
“Do you think he was trying to come here to Granite Mountain?” Linda asked.
“It didn’t crash,” Tony said. “Air Force One and two other large jets are parked over at Cheyenne Mountain on the access road near the entrance to the facility.”
“Cheyenne Mountain?” Mike asked. “That’s the place the Captain and Doc have been talking about trying to go explore because it is like Granite Mountain. That’s great news, Tony.”
“Yeah,” Tony answered. “Cher
vy was using the satellite camera to see if he could find a place to land the turbo prop over at Cheyenne Mountain when the guys spotted the planes parked outside the entrance.”
“Why were they looking for a place to land the plane?” Linda asked. “Couldn’t they just use the helicopter and land anywhere?”
“Cheyenne Mountain is too far away,” Tony replied. “It’s six-hundred miles away, too far for the helicopters.”
“Did Chervy see anything else over at Cheyenne Mountain?” Mike asked. “Where there any signs of people moving around?”
“We saw what looked like a helicopter had crashed next to the facility, but other than that, we didn’t see anyone outside the facility,” Tony replied.
“Maybe they are staying in the mountain, like us, waiting for the virus to die out,” Mike said.
“It could be,” Tony replied. “Doc has Chervy and Fran watching Cheyenne Mountain for any signs of activity while we put together the things we would need to go over to see what we can find.”
“That would be something if we found the president there,” Mike said. “It could mean that someone is still in control of the country and maybe has plans and the ability to rebuild the country. It would also be great to know that everything wasn’t wiped out by the virus.”
“I’m not so sure,” Linda added. “If we find the president there, does that mean we have to move again? That would be three times in a month. I’m not sure I want to move again, I like it here. If Cheyenne Mountain is just like Granite Mountain, what would be the advantage of leaving what we have here? Over there we could end up having to live under all kind of rules and regulations. I wouldn’t doubt that we would have to start paying taxes again.”
“We’re moving again?” Jamie asked. “George says if he has to fly on an airplane again, he isn’t going. Flying makes him throw up, just like when he eats bugs.”
Mike smiled, “Tell George not to worry, we won’t make him get on any more airplanes.”