Keep Your Crowbar Handy

by SP Durnin

  "I take it he got dead?" Foster flicked the ash from his stogie.

  "Jesus. Mr. Tact," Rae mumbled, shaking her head.

  Jake knew the conversation wasn't going anywhere good. "Go on, Warren. What happened then?"

  Jenner shrugged. "He got dead. A few of those things were inside the fuel farm. They finally broke out after Pete finished gassing up the plane. One of them bit him good. Tore a chunk out of his neck. Don and me managed to wax them with the baseball bats we brought along from Terrie and Pete's, but he bled out in two minutes. Terrie lost it. She was rocking him, covered in blood, when he reanimated then bit her. Don had broken his bat when we were dealing with the first three, so he stabbed Pete in the eye with this big-ass knife he carried. We had the kids stay with Terrie and hit the Supercenter outside the gate, thinking we could get supplies and stuff. Along with something to treat her boob, so…"

  "Wait," Laurel interjected from where she stood, leaning back against Jake's chest, his arms wrapped loosely about her waist. "He bit her boob?"

  "Damn." Kat uncomfortably crossed her arms.

  "Told you it's not just me," Jake said smugly.

  Fighting a grin, the redhead gave him a gentle elbow in the ribs. "Sorry. Little sidetracked for a minute. Go on."

  "Well, Don and I grabbed some backpacks from the camping section, then loaded up with canned food, a few medical supplies, then we raided the sporting goods section and found a couple of .22 rifles. We would've taken more, but they only had a few of those paintball guns in the case, so the rifles and ammo were pretty much all we got." Jenner crinkled his nose at the memory. "There were a few of them in there. Five...no six. We took care of them, then pulled the security gates down, so even if there were more out front, they won't be able to see anyone inside. Don thought it would be a good idea because there's so much food in there. We rigged a quick rope ladder from a second-floor break-room window to the ground, since those things can't climb anyway, and came back to see what we could do for Terrie."

  The short man scratched his head and took yet another long drag on his cigarette. "Terrie knew she was gonna turn. She'd jumped from the walkway of the control tower, while we were in the store. The next day, after we'd set up in the far hangar, she was walking around out front. She was really busted up, and I couldn't just leave her like that. I had to shoot her. "

  Kat's face displayed a definitive pout. "I didn't get to shoot my boss."

  "Moving on," Jake said loudly. "You said there are others with you?"

  Warren nodded, passing his empty mug back to Rae. "Yeah. I had the kids stay in the maintenance hangar with the King Air. We talked it over last night and I convinced them it wouldn't be a good idea for all of us to come. If you guys had been like the people I heard about before the radio went down... Well, let's just say finger lickin' good has taken on a whole new meaning for some."

  "Cannibals." Foster tapped ash off the end of his cigar again. "I told you all we might have to face things like that."

  Most of the group looked a little green around the gills. Laurel swallowed and shifted a bit in Jake's arms, needing something to lighten the mood.

  "We've been doing that since day one. It's just that none of them have a heartbeat any longer," Kat quipped.

  "Good point," George said.

  "Let's go reassure your... wait, you said the kids. What about that guy, Don?" The writer asked, frowning.

  "He went out to look for help two weeks ago," Warren said. "I told him it was a bad idea, but he felt he had to try. Don't know what happened to him."

  Jake nodded and, taking the .22 from George, handed the weapon back to Jenner.

  "Elle, can you, Gertie, and Leo keep watch? Lock the door behind us, then move the Hummer opposite to it inside the hangar. Have Leo stay on the roof while you prep the mini-gun. Anybody breathing comes knocking before we get back, shred them. Don't bother opening the door, just shoot right through. If it's those things, so long as they don't get inside, let them be. We'll deal with them on the way back if we have too." He turned back to Jenner. "Sorry, just in case."

  "Hey, I understand. Can't be too careful, you know? Zombies and all," the shorter man said.

  "Everybody, suit up." Jake hefted his M4. He ejected the magazine, made sure it was full, reinserted it into the weapon, slapped it home, and racked the bolt. "Let's go meet the neighbors."

  * * *

  The young survivors were leery of their party at first, but warmed quickly.

  The trio had sheltered with Jenner for over a month, without any word from the outside world. Kyle, Amy, and Beatrix were overjoyed at the sight of more living, breathing people. The latter went to pieces immediately when Foster entered.

  "Uncle George!" She flew across the concrete to throw herself into the fixer's arms. Foster managed to secure his pistol before the girl thumped his chest, arms twining around the back of his neck.

  "Bee?" He demanded, obviously in shock. Jake had never seen his old apartment sup show fear before, but now his weathered face was full of it as he crushed the weeping girl to him "Bee! Holy God, girl, what in the hell are you doing here? I thought you were in La Jolla with yer folks!"

  Beatrix Foster was memorable. Twenty-two, the face of a naughty cherub, big blue eyes, hair dyed green and done up in two long pigtails Anime style, and (as Allen would've said had he been there) smoking fucking hot. If her measurements were anything but 36, 23, 32, Jake would eat his hat.

  She didn't let go of her uncle as she filled him in on their escape from the overrun city. "I got a summer internship at Wright Patterson, so I stayed in Dayton! Kyle and Erin and I were at the dorms when… when they came. We'd been hiding out there for almost two weeks before Warren found us. We were trying to get to the refugee center when this Blazer skidded around the corner. We started running for it waving, you know? The others weren't going to stop, but Warren jerked the wheel from the passenger seat and almost wrecked the car, and they were all yelling at him and…"

  George squeezed Bee again and held her as she babbled. His joy was evident when he looked at Warren. "I owe you."

  Jenner shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot, rubbing the back of his neck.

  When Foster was able to get a word in edgewise—once Bee finally took a breath—he told her about his safe house and introduced her to the others. She seemed somewhat underwhelmed with their group (especially Rae for some odd reason), until her uncle reached Jake.

  "…and this is Jake O'Connor," George concluded.

  "Nice to meet you," he said.

  Beatrix took his hand, head turning to her uncle, eyes wide. "Wait... Jake? The Jake? The one you told me about?"

  Now he looked to Foster. The older man glanced at Jake guiltily and nodded to his green-haired niece. "Um. Yeah."

  She turned back, still gripping Jake's hand lightly. She smiled radiantly and took a half step closer. "Wow! Nice to meet you. My uncle's told me a lot about you, but he didn't tell me you were so hot. Pardon my drool."

  "You just keep your drool to yourself." Laurel stepped up beside him and twined a possessive arm around his waist. Jake's went unconsciously around her as well, while he did his best not to smile at his lover's reaction to Bee's advance. She had to know there was no comparison in his eyes though, no matter how appealing George's niece may be.

  "Have you seen many of the creatures since you guys got here?" Rae changed the subject before things could get ugly.

  "Not really. We stick to the interior of the airport. Ryan and I go raid the warehouse about once a week and see a few. So long as we stay out of sight though, the things don't seem interested in this place," Warren replied. "Good thing too. We could last a couple weeks on the canned food we've stockpiled and water isn't a problem. Not with the potable tank in the back. But if lots of zombies showed up, they'd overrun us. I don't think the bay doors would hold a horde of them back."

  "Is that the plane you were telling us about?" Rae pointed at a turboprop sitting just inside the hangar do
ors. There were several others within the stadium-sized expanse, but most of their engines lay open in various levels of assembly. The gearbox of a Piper Cheyenne II needed work, another had compressor problems, and a second Beechcraft King Air 200, with its landing gear in pieces, sat (probably forever) on the service floor, awaiting repair work that would never come. There didn't seem to be many qualified aeronautical engineers left.

  "Sure is," Warren replied.

  The rest of the survivors killed time making lunch with the help of some canned soup and Ritz crackers that Warren had looted from the Supercenter, as Rae and George examined the Beechcraft with Jenner. After three hours of tech-speak and evaluation, they returned to the others looking grim.

  "Ya' want the good news, or the bad news?" Foster asked.

  "The good news," Jake replied, pulling a cigarette from his tac-vest.

  Rae wiped her hands on a shop rag she'd grabbed from a workstation on the walk back. "The good news is, from what I can tell, the Beechcraft is ready to go."

  "I told you that," Warren protested.

  "Trust, but verify," Foster's female counterpart said, sweetly.

  Kat left off talking with Bee about their preferred brand of hair dye. "What's the bad news?"

  Rae crossed her arms under her breasts, which Jake made a point not to watch too closely, and pursed her lips. "The plane holds fifteen. "

  Jake put his face in his hands. "Goddamnit."

  If they were able to rescue their missing friends, the survivors would be eighteen in number.

  "What about if we take out the seats and interior fixtures?" Kat asked. That earned her a surprised look from Rae. "What? I'm not stupid, you know. I was a pharmacy tech before the world went to crap. Don't let the hair fool you."

  Laurel gave her friend a huge smile.

  "Point taken," Rae said. "If we removed all the seats, we might...might...be able to fit everyone inside the cabin, but…"

  "We'd have to leave everything," George said. "Food, water, guns, ammo, all of it. Once we made it to Texas, we'd be ass-out for supplies, wouldn't have any way to defend ourselves and would pretty much be dependent on whoever the hell felt like helping us."

  "What if...only some of us went?"

  Everyone's eyes went to Jake. He'd walked away from the group unnoticed as the rest had absorbed Rae and Foster's assessment. He stood leaning against a steel, reinforced worktable, smoke from his American Spirit floating in an ever-changing cloud above his head and shoulders, as he kept his face away. Neither of the fixers answered. Jake turned around, eyes haunted, looking like he'd just been gut-checked with a sledgehammer.

  Rae's eyes shifted up and to the left as she accessed the logical portion of her brain. Jake had seen that in many intellectuals over the years, but it was a little provocative when George's friend displayed said trait. "If you take into consideration supply space versus human ratio, even if we send along only ammunition, weapons, and an emergency supply of…"

  "Seven people." Foster applied a match to his fresh stogie. "We can send enough food and supplies along for 'em to survive, defend themselves, that sorta thing. I can give them the access info and locations of caches in the area. That way, even if the zone is belly up, they'd have a bolt hole. Our route west takes us right by there anyways, so if something did happen, we could always detour an' pick 'em up. Though hopefully once they reached Pecos, the secure area will still be there an' they'd be fine. It's a gamble either way. Run the risk of getting eaten on the drive, which could take weeks or months, or maybe get eaten a little sooner flyin' down."

  Silence reigned in the hangar as each of the survivors considered the news. To have a chance at salvation sitting right across the room on elegant wings, only to find that they might have to leave companions behind to die (or worse, become the mindless dead) was both frightening and sobering. Most of them were thinking of whether or not they wanted to throw the dice on a one-way flight to possible safety, but Jake only had one thing on his mind.

  "We're not going to talk about this now," he said. "I know everyone wants…"

  "Why not?" Bee asked

  He tossed his cigarette to the ground and stepped on it with the heel of his combat boot. "Because unless we get our people back, before Skinhead and the others who attacked Rae's safe house do something permanent to them, nobody's going to be going to Pecos. Maggie is the only one that can fly. Something happens to her? The only way any of us are flying to Texas is if we jump off a bridge, flap our arms real fast, and pray for an updraft."

  "Of course we're going after them." Laurel glanced at Kat.

  "Damn right!" Her indigo-haired friend came to her feet, passing the strap of her sword over her shoulder.

  Rae nodded. "I can track Allen's signal. It's coming in clear, roughly twenty miles to the southwest. From a town named Mulberry."

  "Woah, woah!" Jake held his hands out for attention. "We're not going off half-cocked. George? You, Kat, and Elle are coming with me. Rae, you can navigate the Mimi, right?"

  "Sure," she replied.

  "Okay. You two," he pointed at Foster and Kat, "go let Elle know we're going hunting. George, make sure we've got the travel kits, extra fuel for the Hummer, and the fuel siphon."

  The fixer snorted at him in amusement. "Yes, Mom. Anything else ya wanna remind me about that I already know?"

  "Alright, alright. Kat? Have Elle help you with ammo and a three day supply of food." Jake frowned thoughtfully. "Make sure she brings a couple of her little friends that worked so well at the pizza parlor and grab one of the Longarms too. We leave in an hour."

  He turned to Jenner. "I want you to pull anything unnecessary from the interior of that plane, except for six of the seats. Don't mess with the cockpit. Rae can help you to... No. Wait. Scratch that. Rae, I need you to show me how to operate that hand held, tracking unit of yours."

  Rae glowered. "It'd be much easier if…"

  "You're not going," Jake stated firmly, as they left Gwen and Donna to help Warren. It was definitely time to nip that idea firmly in the bud. "We can't risk both people who can drive the Mimi for this. Without George's baby, we'll never make the trip south."

  Rae didn't like it, but finally (after quite a bit of unsuccessful wheedling) agreed, and stalked off to retrieve her portable tracker. Laurel stuck close to Jake as they trooped back to their hangar. Once inside, he made a beeline for the Humvee, opening the rear hatch to get at the Starlight and thermal scopes. After taking them to a nearby worktable, Jake began making sure the thermal was fully functional. He was sure they'd need it in the near future.

  "I'm coming with you."

  He looked up to see Laurel checking the battery readout on their Starlight. "I don't think…"

  She gave him a hard look "I'm. Coming. With. You."

  "We're just going to find the raider's base," Jake said, "not attack it. Rae will be monitoring the primary unit here in the Mimi, and I'll activate the tracker in my vest when we find them. Then she can bring everyone to meet us, and we'll decide the best way to rescue the others."

  "Good. Then it won't be that dangerous and there's no reason for me not to go."

  Jake was almost speechless. "No reason? There are infected out there! Tireless, flesh-eating zombies that want to tear us apart! You can't ask me to…"

  "To sit with Rae in the Mimi, while someone I care about goes out in the streets full of tireless, flesh-eating, fucking zombies?" The redhead slapped her hand down forcefully on the worktable. "Is that what you were going to say?"

  This wasn't going well. "Laurel, please! It's hard enough…"

  She was having none of it. "Forget it! We had this discussion a long time ago. You don't need to protect me. I did pretty good before you and Kat and Allen showed up on the morning of the outbreak. Besides, I'm just as good as you are with a pistol. Better, actually."

  That stung a bit.

  "Now, we can get ready and go find our friends, or we can continue this line of discussion." Her hip cocked out and
Jake knew he was in trouble. One eyebrow went skyward and Laurel seemed ready for a fight. His mouth went dry, and he felt the first twinges of panic as he tried desperately to think of a reason for her not to go along. One that preferably wouldn't get him killed.

  "Cut him some slack, roomie." Kat came down the Mimi's ramp. She carried a Longarm sniper rifle over one shoulder and an ammunition box filled with AA11 rounds.

  The look her friend gave her plainly said, you are violating the edicts of the female sisterhood.

  Kat was unimpressed. "Look at him. He's scared out of his mind."

  Jake swallowed audibly and went back to fiddling with the thermal scope.

  "Of what?" Laurel scoffed.

  "Something happening to you." Kat shrugged. "He just hasn't realized yet that he shouldn't be worried. I'm watching his back when we go out."

  "Thanks a lot," Jake told her, obviously not pleased. That was like Kat telling him he needed a babysitter.

  "Nope." Laurel shook her head. "It seems like every time he leaves my sight, he gets into trouble. Tim's Emporium, the alley behind George's safe house, the homicidal hillbillies…"

  Jake didn't intentionally put himself in any of those situations. Mostly. "I can take care of myself!"

  "Hey, don't kill the messenger. She made me promise, when she's not around, to look after you. Well, I do that. But you have to understand something. If you ended up hurt or worse, doing the stumbling-two-step, she'd be a basket case." The pretty blue-haired woman shrugged. "So, that said, when her ass isn't around, I watch yours and when she is, I watch hers. And that's not a creepy let's-all-hop-in-the-sack-and-get-it-on type of watching either. You're not into threesomes—for which, I'm sure Laurel's extremely grateful—and while I love her like a sister, I've got the only boobies I want to play with right now."