“Holy shit, Abby,” Troy stammered as he touched my stomach like a doctor examining a patient. “This is amazing. We have to get you back to the cabin and into my lab. We have to study the girls too...”
“No one touches the girls,” I demanded. “I don't care what Peter did to them, they are off-limits. You can take blood every once in a while, but that's it. I want them treated like normal children. If that's at all possible in this mess.”
Troy pulled away from me, knowing he had crossed a line. Troy was always a bit of an odd duck, and his social skills were pretty non-existent, but he had been getting better, until just now anyway.
“I'm sorry, Abby. You know me. I see something strange, and I want to study it to understand everything about it.” Troy frowned.
“Yeah, I get it, but let's focus on understanding how the hell we're going to get out of here first. Agreed?”
Troy nodded in agreement.
Each of us walked to the edge of the roof and looked out over what could have been no other place than New York City. Even in the dark with no lights in any of the buildings, I could tell this was the Big Apple.
I looked over the building’s edge down to the street, and I saw movement across the street. At first, I thought it was an infected, but it stopped and then moved to another location before stopping again. Then there was more movement behind it like whatever it was, was being followed.
“Holy shit! Down there... look. People are sneaking in towards the building, and they're moving like soldiers. There's no way... Oh my god, what if it's Chris and the others? We have to let them know we're up here,” I said, getting a fluttering feeling of relief in my stomach.
Stuart looked at me funny. “What do you want us to do? If we start yelling, sure they'll hear us, but so will any infected down there. They could be attacked, and one of the guards could hear us too, and then we'd all be screwed.”
“When they kidnapped me, they brought me in by helicopter, and there was gravel on the landing pad. Where's the helicopter?” I asked, looking around the rooftop.
My eyes settled on the large mound of air ducts and other machinery blocking my view on the roof. I walked around the bulky metal, and sure enough, there it was in all its black metallic glory, the helicopter. Now we just needed a pilot.
I grabbed a handful of white rocks from the helipad and headed back to the edge of the roof. I waited and watched for more movement. When I saw it, I tossed a rock near where they were moving, and it clanked loudly off of the roof of a crashed car. The person moving froze. I threw another rock, hitting the same car and began waving my hands over the edge. Thankfully the moon was behind me, illuminating my silhouette.
A flashlight blinked back in response.
“Morse code!” I punched Troy in excitement.
“Ow, Abby. That hurt.”
“Sorry, Troy. You know morse code, right? What are they saying?”
“Ugh... I wish I had my notebook, damn it. H...E...R...E...T...O...R...E...S...C...U...E, Here to rescue!” Troy whispered with excitement.
“It is Chris!” I said much louder than I had intended. My heart rate increased exponentially with the thought of seeing him and having a way home back to my family.
I ran back to the helicopter and grabbed a pad of paper and pen I had seen inside. I wrote a quick note, I HAVE TROY AND STUART - MEET US AT THE BACK-STAIRWELL DOOR ASAP - I HOPE YOU HAVE A PILOT - LOVE ABBY. I wrapped the note in a small rock and dropped it over the edge.
I watched as the shadow of a person ran to the note, grabbed it, and scuttled back into the darkness.
Before long, a light flashed from the alley again.
“Troy, what's it say?”
“C...O...M...I...N...G, Coming, they're coming!”
“I’m going to go get them. I told them I'd meet them by the back-stairwell door. I’ll let them in, and we can all get out of here on the chopper, hopefully.”
“Hopefully? What's that mean?” Stuart questioned, looking alarmed.
“I don't know how to fly a helicopter, do you? Hopefully, someone with Chris does. That's the hope part,” I replied smiling, and turning to run for the stairwell door. “Stay here!”
I swiped the key card and opened the door running down the stairs, taking them three at a time. The rush of adrenaline running through my body felt like I just did ten lines of cocaine. The twelve flights of stairs felt like nothing to me. I made it to the landing and slid the card through the scanner throwing the door open to an empty alley.
There was an infected just outside the door, and it snapped to attention with the noise of the door, but it didn't care to acknowledge me. I jogged to the end of the building jumping over piles of trash and dead bodies. I rounded the corner and almost tripped over Chris huddled in a crouch on the sidewalk.
He stood with tears in his eyes as he grabbed me into a firm embrace, lifting me off of my feet and kissing my face wildly. The infected from the other side of the alley caught up to us. I pushed away from Chris’s hug, grabbed the Ka-Bar from his belt, walked up to the infected who reached over me for Chris, and I pushed the blade under its chin and into its brain. I pulled the knife from its head, and its body thumped to the ground like a soggy bag of dog shit. I wiped the edge of the Ka-Bar clean on the bodies tattered clothes and handed it back to Chris.
When I turned back to him, there were seven other faces I was not familiar with staring back at me in wonder.
“Introductions later, we need to get back inside and up to the roof. Stuart and Troy are up there. Do you have a pilot?” I asked.
A tall, burly redhaired man with a thick beard jumped forward. “That'd be me, Garrison, the mechanic extraordinaire at your service, ma'am. Get me to the controls of anything and I can fly, drive or sail it.”
“Great. Let's go. And don't call me ma'am ever again,” I replied.
Chris laughed and hugged me again. “That's my Abby! God, I've missed you, baby.”
Chapter 23
Christopher Bryant
It was so good to have Abby back, and she looked great. I was expecting us to have to carry her out of here. She did give birth a few days ago and was in a coma recently. Now she's off running and climbing countless flights of stairs with ease. Abby honestly never ceased to amaze me.
Now we have to get Troy and Stuart and get the hell out of here.
The rest of our eleven-person crew were huffing and puffing at the exertion of climbing this many steps. Abby, however, was waiting for us at the top so she could open the door.
“Peter and his men are hopefully asleep, but I'm not sure what to expect. I locked one of the guards who may or may not be dead in my room down on the twelfth floor where they were holding us. I only saw one other guard up here, but according to Stuart, this place is hundreds of floors underground, so there could be thousands of soldiers just below us. Unfortunately, I didn't get a good feel for the place when Peter was showing off his science project, but I know he has armed guards around him, so we have to be prepared,” Abby whispered.
I felt the anger boil in my gut at hearing Peter's name. “Peter? That pedophile who raped Grayson is behind all this?”
“Yep, his full name is Dr. Peter Martelle, and he's Brigantine's ex-husband. Supposedly he and Brigantine were chosen by the government to make some kind of super-soldier, and Brigantine's version ended up turning into the Perdition Virus that we all know and love.”
I shook my head at the barrage of insane information. “What the...”
Abby cut me off. “I had the same reaction, but we need to focus on getting the hell out of here. We'll have all the time in the world to discuss everything once we're in the air.”
Abby opened the door a crack and then motioned us all to exit the stairwell onto the roof. Troy and Stuart were waiting for us next to the helicopter. Garrison had a giant smile spread across his face when he saw the Black Hawk. He ran to the vehicle and hugged the nose as if it was a long-lost lover. I couldn't help but chuckle at the sig
ht.
Admiral let out a quiet laugh. “He really likes flying these helicopters, and he hasn't gotten the opportunity in quite a while.”
Benning rushed past all of us to help Garrison make the preflight checks, and Abby ran over to Stuart and Troy.
I walked up to Garrison, who was loving life at the moment. “How long is it going to be before we're ready to take off? We need to be ready for anything at the moment.”
“It's going to take me about three minutes to get this bird off the roof. We're lucky the UH-60A can fit fourteen people in a maximum capacity situation. Otherwise, we'd have to leave someone behind,” Garrison joked.
I was just about to respond with a snide comment about how Marines never leave a man behind when the elevator doors on the other side of the roof dinged open, and all hell broke loose.
The twang of bullets ricocheting across the hull of the helicopter made us all duck and run for cover. I dove behind an air conditioner and looked for where Abby had hidden.
I looked around frantically and finally saw that Abby was with Troy and Stuart on the other end of the roof.
As quick as it started, the gunfire stopped.
“Abby, you have been a naughty, naughty girl. You are never going to get away from me no matter what you do, so why don't you come on out like a good girl and we can go back downstairs and get some rest. I still have so many amazing discoveries to show you,” Peter said as he stepped off the elevator, shielded from us by four armed guards.
Abby stepped out from behind the wall where she was hiding with her hands up. “I already know about your super-soldier project, and I'm not convinced you can do it. You're not as smart as Brigantine was, and even she couldn't pull it off without practically destroying the world. What makes you think you can do any better?” Abby asked callously.
What the hell was she doing? Goating the psychopath was not the brightest of ideas, but she did get him to walk a little closer to us, and further away from the protection of the guards. I took the opportunity to pull my M200 Intervention Sniper Rifle from my back and line up the sight with where Peter's forehead would be. A guard blocked my view, and I feared if I shot him, the rest of the guards would open fire, and Abby would be hit. I decided to keep my scope trained on the area waiting for Peter to come into view, and hopefully when the other guards weren't in a position to shoot Abby, then and only then, would I take him out.
Peter motioned for his guards to back up, and he was clearly in my view now.
I watched through my scope as Peter's eyes narrowed, glaring at Abby. A vertical wrinkle grew between his eyebrows, and his lips pursed tightly together in anger. “I already told you, Abbigail, you have no idea what I'm capable of. Your daughters are a true testament to what I can accomplish, and now that I've engineered them successfully, the sky is the limit, my dear.”
I pulled my eye away from my rifle to watch Abby's response, and I have never seen her so furious. She clenched her jaw and balled her fists up at her sides. Her face turned a deep shade of crimson in the pale moonlight from suppressed rage. Before I was able to register what was happening, Abby quickly swung her arm behind her, producing a handgun and pointed it at Peter, pulling the trigger repeatedly.
Her gun barked out loudly, and Peter's men responded by firing on Abby.
Peter was hit in the shoulder and paused long enough to grab his wound for me to take my shot. My bullet exited my rifle at eighteen hundred miles per hour and entered his left eye blowing the right side of his skull all over the ground. The gory pieces of minced grey matter splattered with a sickening noise.
The four guards were next. I aimed, and out of nowhere, a spear flew through the air, impaling one of the guards, causing the other three to turn in my direction.
Jet let out a maniacal, “Oorah!” at his success in taking out the guard.
I focused on others quickly pulling the trigger, moving to the next target before checking to be sure my bullets found their way to center mass as I had intended. I needed this firefight over as quickly as possible, Abby was hit.
As soon as the shooting stopped and all of Peter’s soldiers were down, I rushed to Abby’s side. From the moment I reached her, to getting into the helicopter, everything was all a blur.
Abby had been hit in the left shoulder, just under her collar bone, and she was writing in pain.
Troy and Stuart ran to us, giving me instructions, but my mind was so scattered I didn't register the words. I picked her up and carried her to the helicopter, where Jimmy and Lynn opened the doors and helped me get her inside. I pulled Abby onto my lap as I yelled out to anyone who would listen, “Get this thing in the air now!”
I needed to get Abby home, fixed up, and in the arms of her children.
Chapter 24
Christopher Bryant
I clutched Abby tightly, digging through my medical kit. I grabbed the combat gauze, tore the package open with my teeth, and crammed the material inside her wound as it slowly oozed dark blood. She winced at the pressure but didn’t attempt to speak. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and she passed out.
I felt for a pulse and thankfully found one. Abby was a fighter, and she'd been through much worse before. She would make it through this. Or at least that's what I told myself.
Before I could call them over, Stuart, Troy, and Lynn made their way through the others to where I was holding Abby's limp body.
Troy spoke up as he reached under Abby's head, pulling her towards him. “I've got her, Chris. Let us take care of her. She'll be fine.”
“I hope so,” was all I could manage to get out while Troy slid Abby from my arms.
Lynn was the more experienced physician, so she took over from Troy and Stuart. Lynn informed me that Abby was shot in the stomach as well, and that was the more severe injury. Both shots were through and through, so Lynn packed the wounds, saying we'd be able to get more information on Abby's injuries when we were on the ground, and she could be fully assessed.
I wiped the blood from my hands on my shirt and climbed in front toward Garrison and Benning, who were in the pilot and copilots’ seats flicking toggles and pushing buttons. “Our cabin is in Paradise Lakes, New Jersey. It's just north of High Point State Park. Do you know where that is?” I yelled over the noise from the rotors that now started turning.
Garrison picked up a map from the cockpit and showed it to me. “I found this tucked in up under the radio. Is this you guys here?” he bellowed, pointing to one of three red circles drawn on the map.
“Yep, that'd be it,” I replied, relieved that I didn't have to try and navigate by dead reckoning in the dark to help Garrison get us home.
I sat back, watching Stuart and Troy clean up Abby's wounds as Lynn tended to her. All I could think of was not wanting to make it back to the cabin after everything we had done to tell Tyler that he'd have to bury his mother too. I couldn't let that happen, but I was helpless to stop whatever came next.
I was yanked from my depression by Admiral tapping my shoulder and pointing to the medic bag I still clutched.
Admiral grabbed his shoulder, bright red, fresh blood stained his dark green shirt as he smiled through the pain. “That rescue... it was as easy as sliding off a greasy log backward.” He shouted.
I handed him the medical kit, shaking my head. “I have no idea what that means, but here.” I handed him the bag. “You better stop that bleeding. We should be back at the cabin in forty-five minutes or so, right, Garrison?”
“Luckily, she's all gassed up and ready to go, so forty-five minutes sounds about right, but I think I can get us there in thirty. As we Irish like to say, may the wind always be at your back!” Garrison yelled with a smile as he grabbed the cyclic stick, and we began lifting off of the roof.
Dozens of soldiers poured out of the stairwell door shooting at our stolen aircraft as we took off. Black Hawk helicopters are made to withstand enemy fire, so we took no damage and continued flying northeast into the night sky.
&
nbsp; Looking out over the moonlit expanse made me even more depressed. There was nothing. No lights, no fires, no signs of life at all. Were we too late in developing a weapon that could potentially wipe out the infected? Was humanity already totally lost?
We knew shitty people like Peter had survived the outbreak and everything that happened after - until tonight, that is. Was there anyone left out there that was worth saving everything for? There had to be.
I made a mental note to ask Tyler to start listening for survivors on the radio again. There had to be more people worth protecting left, and we needed to be more proactive about finding them. It was definitely a risk to bring new people in, but one I knew Abby would want us to take. We had Ella and Kasey to look out for now. They were the beginning of a new generation, and I couldn't let our efforts to bring people together cease because of them or any other reason. There’s strength in numbers, and we needed to be strong.
The rest of the flight home was uneventful. Lynn, Troy, and Stuart did what they could for Abby, but she didn't wake up. Admiral had a superficial wound in his shoulder from a ricochet, and Jimmy took a bullet in the calf. Lynn was seeing to Jimmy's injury, and the two seemed to be getting quite close.
Seeing them together made my chest tighten since I didn't know what outcome to expect from Abby's wounds.
I didn't think our situation could get any bleaker until we got closer to home. The sun had just begun to rise in front of us to the east, illuminating the trees and other landscapes below us. Smoke was rising up in the distance like there was a fire near where our home was.
Benning yelled from the cockpit, “Ugh, Chris! I think we have a problem up here!”
I pushed upfront as far as I could go to see out of the windshield. What I saw took my breath away. The infected were everywhere. It wasn't smoke that I was seeing, it was the dirt their shuffling feet kicked up through the trees.
Z-Strain (Book 3): Fallout Page 15