They were each covered in camouflage and weapons. Each grenade, smoke bomb, round of ammo, knife, rifle, sword, machete, hatchet, pistol, other pistol and other gear attached to them in ways to minimize the noise they’d make when they ran. Leather gloves and elbow pads gave them the option of street fighting Zombies with some protection from teeth and nails. Sean even had a pair of brass knuckles he’d taken out of some pawn shop. Kyler didn’t think those were super practical. If he got that close, he had a hatchet he could just smack Zombies around with. Each to his own though. Sean was still alive which meant he must have decent survival instincts.
They were only about half a mile from exit seventy when screeching erupted all around them. They’d been jogging down the side of the road past a bunch of cars that were still sitting in a nice orderly line where they’d all run out of gas waiting for the cars in front of them to move. Kyler was still weirded out by the number of times he saw lines of cars sitting there like that. Especially when the other side of the interstate was empty. There was rarely anyone in the emergency lane or the median either. People just sat there in a traffic jam obeying the rules of the road until they were killed. He didn’t get it. The inflexibility of people to be able to break rules and adapt to new situations was a key reason the virus had been able to spread so far so fast.
Kyler imagined the conversations happening in the cars sitting in the line-up.
“The Zombies are getting closer Dad!” Sally Sue said as her brother cried, and the mother sat in the front seat knitting some mittens. At least that’s how Kyler saw it in his head. The cute little Sally Sue being the only one young enough not to have completely had her spirit broken by the world of yesterday. She’d need a few more years of the public-school system to accomplish that.
“I see them honey. Traffics not moving and I don’t want to get a ticket though. That would mess up my perfect driving record.” Kyler just couldn’t imagine what’d made these idiots sit in the cars like they were. He would’ve been able to understand it better if there were cars all stuck in the median and on the sides of the road. At least that would’ve shown people taking the initiative to try and save themselves. The straight orderly lines of empty cars were one of the creepiest sights of the apocalypse to Kyler. On the other hand, it made it possible for them to use the emergency lanes now to get around the occasional traffic jams.
The chief was still in the lead with Sean right behind him. Kyler was hanging back ten to fifteen yards behind them serving as rear guard. He’d stop ever few minutes and turn around to scan for anyone following them. He was walking backwards looking around behind them when the screeching broke out. They never did figure out what started it. One minute they were walking down the side of the road looking ahead for the target blue minivan and the next they were running for their lives from the horde of Zombies that crawled out from under the cars they’d been walking beside.
The screeches were coming from everywhere. There were no thoughts about trying to use their hand weapons and stay quiet. Kyler started scrambling down the side of the road towards the woods. He didn’t even try to look for the others until he was almost at the tree line. He spun at the sound of shots fired and saw that Presley and Sean were only about ten feet in front of him. They had their backs to the trees as well. Flashes of fire shot out the barrels of both their rifles as they emptied their magazines in full auto mode into the mob of Zombies scrambling down from the road to get at them.
Kyler took a few shots then decided it was pretty pointless shooting at the mob coming at them. He pulled the trigger a few more times then turned and sprinted into the woods. He ignored the branches and briars ripping at his face. He ducked and crawled through one extremely dense section of briars. Behind him he heard the explosive sounds of fragmentation grenades going off. He knew that would be the chief covering their retreat by tossing as much firepower at the oncoming crowd as he could. All the noise meant this section of the woods was going to be crawling with Zombies in no time. Kyler cut left to try and move in parallel with the interstate, so he had a chance of running into the chief or Sean.
He didn’t see them as he crawled into another dense group of bushes. Zombie screeches were erupting all around him. His heart was hammering in his chest as he powered through the bushes like a rabbit on crack. His back legs driving his body forward no matter the vines and sticky plants and trees ripping at his clothing and hair. He had to fight to maintain control of his rifle as it snagged on every branch he passed. He donated a good amount of his hair and some skin to the woods as his fear-fueled adrenaline pushed him to keep moving faster.
He ran around one tree in the dark and right into a tall Zombie. The Zombie had been standing still to look around and let out one of those horrific screeches once it spotted Kyler. Kyler wrapped his arms around the Zombie and drove with his feet just like if he was back in football practice. He bore the tall Zombie straight to the ground hard. His coach would have applauded how he’d got his head in the front, wrapped the Zombie up with his arms and just kept driving his legs. The Zombie was trying to snap at him and screech at the same time. It’s competing instincts cooperating to keep Kyler from being bitten long enough for him to find his hatchet. Once he had that in his hand he sat back and swung it hard into the Zombies chest. The hatchet didn’t seem to do much damage with the thick jacket the Zombie was wearing. The Zombie tried to sit up to get at Kyler. He smashed it in the head with the hatchet. Warm blood splattered up his arm as the hatchet cracked the skull. The Zombie kept coming until he pulled the hatchet out of its head and reared his arm back to swing again. The Zombie fell backwards and lie still. Kyler smashed it in the head with the hatchet again just to be safe.
Breathing hard Kyler got up and started his frantic pace through the woods again. A brief red glow up ahead had him reaching for his weapons until he heard a quick burst of whistling. He almost missed it with the volume of screeching in the air. He ran towards where he’d seen the red light and slid to a stop in front of the chief and Sean. They were hunched down behind a large fallen tree looking into the darkness. Kyler wanted to ask them what the hell they were looking at when he saw all the movement in the bushes up ahead and realized a good bit of the screeching was coming from that direction. The yelling from behind them would’ve made an avid Metallica fan reach for a pair of ear plugs.
Kyler poked Sean and the chief and ran deeper into the woods hoping they’d get the hint and follow him. There was no path forward at the moment. They were going to have to go deeper and just be happy they’d managed to end up in this peaceful eddy between the massive rip tides of death ripping into the woods all around them. Kyler held his M-16 in front of him to block the weeds and low hanging branches. There was nothing like the fear of being torn apart and eaten by Zombies to keep you from caring too much if you ripped your clothes or ran face first through the occasional spider web. All he needed was Jenny yelling ‘Run Forest Run!” to complete the picture.
With the Forest Gump refence stuck in his head he ran straight into a chain link fence. He bounced off it and landed flat on his back. Standing up quickly he saw that the chief and Sean had been channeling their inner Gump as well keeping up with him on the mad dash. Without anyone saying a word they all flung their rifles onto their straps and started climbing the fence. Kyler was at the top working his leg over and trying not to fall backwards when he heard Sean start cussing. He looked back over his shoulder and saw a Zombie had come out of the darkness and grabbed Sean by the leg. The Zombie was trying to hold the leg still and get his teeth through Sean’s pants while Sean was kicking the hell out of the Zombies face with his free foot.
Sean had his machete out and was trying to balance on the fence and swing the machete all while kicking at the Zombie to try and get it to let go of him. He got in one good hit on the side of the Zombies head. It looked like the ear and a bunch of skin was hanging by a flap after Sean’s boot smashed down on the Zombies head. Kyler thought Sean would make it over after th
at hit. Then Sean lost his balance on the fence and fell hard to the ground below. Another Zombie appeared out of the woods and ran for the fallen Sean. The original Zombie who’d grabbed Sean on the fence went face first at Sean trying to get some tongue in a very unwelcome move.
Gunfire rang out and the charging Zombie fell to the ground. Screeches picked up in volume converging on their location. Kyler dropped to the ground to help Sean. The chief was already on the ground putting some rounds through the back of the Zombie trying to rip Sean’s tongue out of his mouth. More Zombies emerged from the dark tree line. The chief yelled for Kyler to get Sean over the fence while he covered them. Kyler bent down and picked Sean up off the ground. Sean was blubbering and resisting him.
“Come on man we have to get over this fence or we’re screwed!” Kyler yelled at Sean.
“I’m already screwed!” Sean yelled back at him cackling with maniacal laughter as blood ran out of both sides of his mouth. The laughter subsided as he gagged on the blood pouring out of this mouth. He pulled up his pants leg and showed Kyler where the Zombie had been gnawing on his ankle. Like the blood pouring out of the guys face wasn’t bad enough.
“Chief!” Kyler yelled trying to be heard over the sounds of the screeching and automatic gunfire. The chief took one look back at Sean sitting on the ground staring at his wounded leg with blood pouring from his mouth like a ketchup waterfall and recognized the situation for what it was. He turned and sprinted over to them. He squatted down next to Sean and Kyler saw the two exchange some words. Then the chief grasped Sean’s hand in a final hand shake and jumped to his feet.
“Get over that fence!” The chief yelled as he ran and through himself on the chain link and climbed it with easy proficiency. The chief was already standing on the ground on the other side of the fence when Kyler was just starting to get his legs thrown over the top of it. Behind him he heard shooting as Sean covered their retreat. Presley had reloaded his weapon and was shooting through the fence waiting for Kyler to get down on the ground beside him.
Kyler landed on the ground and stumbled. The chief pulled him to his feet and told him to run for the other side of the fencing in the big open space they were in. Property of AT&T signs were revealed in the moonlight as they ran past the large concrete building at the base of the big cell tower. They got to the other side but before they could start climbing the fence Kyler grabbed the chief and asked if they should go back for Sean.
“No son.” Presley said sadly while shaking his head. “We need to get over this fence and get out of here. Sean’s buying us some time, but we need to move fast.”
Not content with that Kyler kept his hold on the chief’s jacket. “What did you tell him?” He asked.
“I told him it’s been an honor and to make sure he saved a bullet for himself.” The chief shrugged his shoulder hard enough to force Kyler’s hand off him. Then he turned and scrambled up the fence. A second later Kyler followed him. Behind them he heard the sounds of grenades going off as Sean made his last stand. On the other side of the fence a maintenance road led the way they wanted to be going. Hoping the sounds of Sean’s last battle would attract most of the Zombies in the region they began jogging down the middle of the maintenance road towards the interstate and a blue minivan that should still be sitting next to exit seventy.
Chapter 6: Coming in Hot
MCO and the Executive airport in Orlando both turned out to be a bust. Gordon didn’t seem phased by that as he angled the plane to bring them in for a pass over the Sanford airport. MCO had been a mess. Airplanes and emergency vehicles sitting all over the runway. It looked like a significant number of planes had caught on fire at some point. The much smaller executive airport had looked like it may be ok to set down in. When they looked closer though there’d been a couple of military helicopters that’d landed in the middle of the runway and were surrounded by corpses. The runway had some big potholes in it thanks to the rockets that must’ve been getting fired out of those helicopters.
Sanford was a small regional airport. One of the places you’d go if you wanted to be able to walk to your terminal in a few minutes after parking in the garage. The kind of place you could get really cheap flights on really old airplanes as long as you were good with flying based on their route schedule. From the air it looked like Sanford must’ve been shut down before everything went to hell. All the planes were neatly parked in their designated spots and the runway was blissfully clear of any obstacles. There were cars parked in the long-term lots but not nearly as many as should’ve been there for normal operations.
“Looks like we’ll be setting down here then.” Gordon announced after a second flyover served to show Sanford still appeared to be the best option. Randy nodded in agreement and settled back into the comfortable leather co-pilots seat. Him and Kelly had already agreed this was probably their best option anyway. It was a straight shot from this airport back to their old house. In the old days you’d have been looking at a twenty-minute drive with no traffic.
Gordon got the small plane lined up with the runway and pushed the stick down to start their descent. They stared out the windows at the tarmac to see if they could detect any threats they’d have to deal with once they landed. The plane touched down and they rolled to a stop without any issues. They hadn’t seen any large groups of Zombies or militia or anything like that from the air when they were flying to Florida. Of course, they’d settled on a course that’d kept them over the ocean for the bulk of the flight. No telling what kind of surface to air missiles the people on the ground may have gotten their hands on with all the national guard armories just sitting around. They’d wanted to fly directly over land to see the extent of the damage. They’d hoped to get a better feel for what was going on but decided an abundance of caution was the better idea.
Gordon taxied them over to the terminal and stopped the plane. They got their equipment strapped on and went out the side door of the small luxury plane. Gordon checked with them one more time to make sure they still felt good about landing here before shutting off the engine. He ran through his checklist and made sure the plane was shut down in such a way that they’d be able to hop in and start it back up again quickly if needed. Then he climbed out onto the hot tarmac to join them.
Seeing him standing there in his fancy shoes with his freshly pressed khakis Randy felt like telling him to get back in the plane and fly home. The only thing that stopped him was the selfish realization that they may need the plane to look for the kids or as an escape vehicle. Looking at Gordon standing there in his freshly pressed outfit he gave the guy a very low probability of being on this side of the sod the next time a Monday rolled around.
“Ok let’s hit it. I say we go around to the main terminal and try to find a car.” Kelly said. She was excited to finally have both her feet firmly planted in the state of Florida again. Now she just needed to get a car and get to looking for her kids.
“Yeah we need to find one with keys in it. Normally we look in houses and find the keys for the car sitting in the garage. I don’t suppose you know how to hotwire a car Gordon?” Randy asked.
“I don’t know how to hot wire a car, but I do know how to rent one when I’m at an airport. If we go look in the sections of the rental lots reserved for the frequent travelers, we may be able to find a car just sitting there waiting for us.”
Randy and Tony gave Gordon a quick look of grudging respect. That was some solid reasoning the old pilot had just pulled off. Maybe he wasn’t just Zombie bait after all. If he kept coming up with suggestions like that one, he may even end up pulling his own weight.
“Wouldn’t they have put away all the keys and everything before they all left to go home?” Kelly asked as they walked past the main terminal building headed towards the lot with the Hertz and Enterprise signs up in the air above them.
“I think for normal situations like closing down for a hurricane or something they probably would’ve. For something like this I could see people skippi
ng out on some of their normal duties to hurry home and be with their families. Or, maybe this place was full of super diligent committed rental car employees. It’s possible, I just really hope not.” Gordon answered.
Ten minutes later Randy and Kelly were driving out of the small airport behind the wheel of a bright red minivan. Tony and Gordon were following them in a little red sedan. They were all thankful to whomever at the budget counter hadn’t bothered to remove the keys or lock the doors for the cars in their section before rushing home. A home they probably rushed to only to be eaten by the very loved ones they were rushing home to protect.
The road out of the airport was empty and the connecting road leading to the highway was pretty desolate as well. They dodged the occasional abandoned car and drove for about ten minutes before they caught sight of a Zombie. It was just standing on the side of the road staring into the trees. It turned around slowly as they drove past it. The sight of the cars slowly permeated the Zombies diseased brain and touched on a primal need to feed and hunt. The Zombie screeched and began to amble quickly after the two cars that’d left it in the dust. Nothing else moved except for the rainbow-colored tassels on a small bike lying broken in the ditch by where the Zombie had been standing.
Zombies! (Book 3): Violence Solves Everything Page 6