by Gary Hickman
Priest pulled his pistol with such speed; it was almost a blur. He fired a round into Shin’s forehead before he knew what was happening. Priest shot up to his feet. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he was yelling when Shaw and Doc ran up. “He’s gone,” Priest said. Shaw turned to Doc, “He was bitten and wasn’t long before he turned.”
“Shit.” Doc’s eyes dropped to the ground.
“We gotta find everyone else and reassess,” Priest said. All three left to find the rest of the team.
Webb came to himself and stumbled toward the downed Pave Hawk. The aircraft was a mangled mess and Webb called out but did not receive any replies. The bird was still laying on its side, so he had to scramble up and on top to gain access to the cabin. He peered in the open side, searching for whoever was still in the aircraft. He could see a pair of legs underneath the helicopter with a massive pool of blood on the pavement.
Webb jumped down into the aircraft to see who it was, but once he got nearer, he saw the BDU pants and black boots. The tension went out of his body for the time being. The clothes identified the last ISIS prisoner they had taken, but Webb wasn’t shedding any tears for that piece of shit. It upset Webb that they didn’t get the chance to torment the fucker and then have the joy of killing him themselves.
Webb looked toward the cockpit and saw the side of Doug slumped over in his seat, so he made his way over to him. With his initial assessment, Doug looked okay, but as he got closer, he saw Doug had a huge wound on the left side of his head.
Webb put his fingers on Doug’s neck to check for a pulse. He pulled his hand back as there was no pulse. “Fuck,” he mumbled under his breath. He closed Doug’s eyes, which were still open, and said a small prayer over him. He called out to see if anyone was left in the aircraft, when he heard a muffled voice coming from the back of the helicopter. “Call out,” he yelled, trying to locate where the voice was coming from.
“Here,” came a voice. Webb followed the sound and under some supply boxes and gear bags and found Lia. She looked a little frazzled, but otherwise okay. Webb keyed his comms, “I got Lia. She is okay.”
“Shaw and myself found Shin, but he didn’t make it,” Priest’s voice turned a noticeable down turn.
Webb responded, “Shit. Okay. Doug didn’t make it either. We need to find Allison, Neville, Izzy and the doctors.
Lia and Webb heard a voice, “Get this shit off of me!” It was coming farther back toward the tail section. He and Lia moved MRE cases, load out bags and other items. As they removed things, a pretty tanned face in a scowl appeared. Izzy’s features softened when her eyes saw Webb’s face.
“We got you. We got you,” Webb reassured her. “Anything broken? Are you hurt?”
“I don’t think so,” she answered him. They extracted her from the wreckage and she immediately grabbed Webb and hugged him. She held on for dear life and he stroked her hair as he hugged her back and reassured her.
Lia saw Priest come through some smoke and flames. She ran to him and embraced him just as Izzy did Webb. Priest had no problem reciprocating the squeeze. He really cared for her and he was at a place in his life where he couldn’t care less what anyone thought. Lia pulled back with tears in her eyes and kissed him urgently. He felt the passion, fear and reassurance in her kiss. She pulled back again and looked at him.
“Well, hello,” he stuttered. They both laughed at one another.
“Let’s go find Allison,” she said. They called out for her. Shaw had already begun frantically looking for her and was yelling her name when he heard a noise in front of him. He couldn’t see but made out a figure moving on the ground. As he approached slowly, he noticed Allison’s long hair.
Making his way toward her, another figure jumped on him from his right. Trying to get to Allison to see if she was all right, Shaw raged on this fuck. He used the infected man’s momentum to grab him underneath the armpit and slammed him to the ground, head first. The man’s head hit the pavement with a sickening crack, followed by a wet splat sound. The rest of the infected body followed his head in, slamming to the pavement. He no longer had any resemblance of a head after Shaw was done. He ran to Allison and saw that she had a sizeable piece of debris laying on top of her. She was conscious and was in pain.
“Hey babe. I knew you would find me,” she said as she looked up at him.
He had concern in his eyes, “Don’t worry babe, I will get you out of here.” He yelled for help with Webb and Izzy showing up a second later.
“Pull her out when I lift this up,” he said.
“You can’t lift that by yourself,” Webb said.
“I need your strength to pull her out. Now just do it.” Webb and Izzy both nodded. That big son of a bitch lifted that piece of debris with a grunt. Webb and Izzy grabbed Allison under her armpits and pulled her out from underneath. She let out a small scream when they pulled on her. Shaw slammed the piece of debris on the ground and ran over to where Allison was. “How is she?” he asked. Izzy had her shirt pulled up, checking her abdomen and ribs.
“I’m checking her over now.” Webb turned to Shaw, “Let her work. We still need to find Neville.”
“Okay, captain.” The two took off looking through the wreckage, looking for their missing brother.
Priest and Lia had met up with Doc. “How you doing, Doc?” he asked.
“A little banged up, but I’ll be all right.” “Any sign of Neville, Caulfield or Choi?”
“Negative.” The heat from the fires was getting intense, and the team was running out of time to find the others. As they continued to wander through wreckage, they spotted Dr. Choi. Her stature gave her away, but as they came closer, something didn’t look right. Upon further inspection, they noticed her left arm was missing and just a stump and the shredded remains of her lab coat sleeve. She locked eyes on them and a recognition flashed in her eyes. She let out a scream and ran straight toward them.
“Aw shit,” Priest raised his Walther PPQ and put a .45 caliber round in her forehead. She immediately dropped to the ground. They walked over to her and immediately saw the bite and chew marks on the stump of her missing arm.
Priest keyed his comms, “Team, keep your head on a swivel. Infected are still milling around. I just had to put Dr. Choi down after she tried to attack us. We are down to Neville and Dr. Caulfield, so we need to find them ASAP.”
The Team called out for Neville and Dr. Caulfield. After a couple of minutes of searching, they heard gunshots. Some seconds later, a couple more shots rang out. They all ran toward the noise with their weapons at the ready. They cleared a few enormous pieces of debris and saw Neville standing over Dr. Caulfield with a crowd of infected advancing toward them.
Shaw yelled to pull their attention away from Neville and Caulfield. The rest of the Team opened up on the infected as Neville kneeled over Caulfield. They dispatched the infected in several seconds and in hearing the gunfire, Webb showed up a second later.
“Shaw, Neville, go perform security for Izzy while she works on Allison.” They took off and Doc ran over to Caulfield to assess his injuries.
“My leg hurts terrible,” Caulfield said as Doc reached him. Doc pulled up his pant leg and triage the injury.
“Well, your leg is fractured and we need to splint it. Let me run back to the chopper and get my med kit. I have a splint in there.” He ran off to locate his med kit.
“We need to get Caulfield and Allison stabilized and get the hell out of the middle of the wreckage. It’s nothing but a beacon for those infected, and we’re sitting ducks here.”
Doc quickly returned and could splint Caulfield’s leg. They made their way to where they found Allison. She was sitting up with a grimace on her face.
Izzy looked
at Priest, “Some bruising and sore ribs, but otherwise okay.” He nodded in acknowledgement. The Team quickly scavenged anything they could from the downed bird. Webb had scouted a small air traffic control tower while searching for the rest of the Team. It would give them a 360-degree observation and contained only one point of entry to defend.
While Izzy, Doc, Lia and Neville stayed with the injured, Webb, Priest and Shaw cleared the small air traffic control tower to set up for the night since it was getting dark. They only encountered a few infected they dispatched and threw off the catwalk at the top of the tower.
After getting Caulfield and Allison settled in, the Reapers met to go over objectives. Webb laid out where they were, “Ok, our mission, as I see it, stays the same. We have to get Izzy, Caulfield and the samples to North Carolina and the CDC lab. HQ is gone and we haven’t been able to contact any other command. Hell, we haven’t made contact with any people, period. Opinions?” Priest continued to mull over their options to make sure he wasn’t missing anything.
Shaw spoke up, “Way I see it, I think it is our only option right now. If the facility is still intact, not only will the scientists have the lab and equipment we need, we will have a base of operations which will be easy to defend and limit our exposure.”
Priest nodded, “That was exactly what I was thinking. We could scavenge for equipment, vehicles, supplies and try to plan out our next move or moves. I say regardless of how we find it; we clear it and use it. Well, within reason, that is.”
Webb agreed, “Any objections?” There was silence. “Ok, it’s settled then. Now in the morning we will have to find our next mode of transportation, load up and make our way to Boone, which isn’t but about 120 miles from where we are now. We’ll split the teams up and occupy two vehicles. Priest, you, Shaw and Lia will be one team. Me, Neville and Doc will be the other. We’ll put Allison and Caulfield in with you, and we’ll have Izzy. Izzy can shoot so that gives us a little more firepower to measure up to Shaw over there. Plus, if we separate the scientists, it will increase our chances that at least one of them makes it to the research facility. We’ll post two on watch and rotate four hours.”
Priest spoke up, “I’ll take first watch with Neville. Shaw, you and Doc release us after four.”
Webb looked at them, “Whoa, that leaves me out.”
“Yeah, your brain needs to be functioning to get us through this shit. Enough said,” Priest finished. Webb didn’t argue, and they left the circle.
CHAPTER 32
Priest was sitting outside of the tower on a catwalk that wrapped around the circumference of the tower. He focused on the ground; as the moon’s glow illuminated the area. The NVG’s took that light and made the view light up enough to see just about anything. A faint sound to his left, Priest had his pistol out and pointed as fast as a rattlesnake strike.
Lia standing there.
“Holy shit, not a good idea,” he said as he re-holstered his pistol. He looked back up to see her face was stoic, eyes were wet and glistening. Tears were forming but not falling. “Hey, what’s wrong?” His voice took on a gentle tone. She said nothing, but sat down next to him with her head into his shoulder and chest. He put his arms around her. He could feel her shivering, but knew it wasn’t because of cold. “Hey, talk to me.” he whispered.
The tears were coming now, and she was fighting to speak, “W-we lost so many today. Kind people. People who didn’t deserve to die. I didn’t know them half as well as you, but I still feel the loss.”
“I know. I have lost so many people in my life, I almost lost count. I can remember every one of them though.”
“I too have lost people in my life, but it doesn’t get any easier. Actually, the more people I lose, the harder it gets. Sometimes I wish I could just shut people out, close myself off. That’s just not me though, and I don’t think I could if I tried.”
Priest pondered this for a minute. “They say God will never give you more than you can handle, so it seems you have a huge heart for a reason. Few can love like you do, and that is a rare trait. One that is definitely missing in this world. It was missing before all this shit started. I am undeserving to know you like I do now, although I’ll take it and thank God for it. I would have loved to know you before all this, without the death and chaos. Regardless of what you are going through now, you’re still a light to me!”
“You sure spread it on thick.”
“Yeah, just like Shaw, I’m from Alabama. We know nothing else but thick…. syrup, gravy, bullshit.” She kissed him and pulled back for a few beats. He looked at her and couldn’t believe how beautiful she was, and what was more unbelievable was that she loved his dumb ass. He watched her walk back inside and thought, “Just say thank you and move on, dumbass”.
The next morning came without incident. Priest and Webb were kneeling down on the catwalk with their bino’s searching for viable transportation options. There were some infected lumbering around off in the distance, but nothing that was an immediate threat. “You seeing anything?” Priest asked.
“Negative. All these snowflakes with their Prius’ and these other little shit cars. We need at least two SUV’s or pickup trucks.”
“Agreed. With all the abandoned cars along the road, I don’t want to get stuck because this little car can’t drive through a fucking puddle, much less a couple of infected,” Priest mused out loud. They continued to look for several more minutes. “Oh, wait a minute. Hold up,” Priest sounded excited. “Look at our two o’clock. Right past the base of the water tower.” Webb turned toward the direction Priest described. Priest continued, “Is that a Chevy and Jeep dealership over there?”
“You know, I think it is.”
“Hot damn. We get our pick of some brand-new shit!” Priest was even more excited.
“I believe you are right, my friend. So, we need to check out a couple of these pieces of shit and see if they are operational. As long as they can get a team over there, that’s all we need out of them.”
Priest nodded, and they both went back into the tower.
Priest started directing the team, “Neville and Lia, you stay on the catwalk and provide oversight, sniper style. Webb, Doc, Shaw and myself will take two of these puddle jumpers to get us to the Chevy dealership a few miles northeast of our location. We get in, find the keys for two Tahoe’s, Suburban’s, Jeeps or whatever, and we bail the fuck out. Questions?” Everyone shook their head. “Ok, gear up. Check your equipment, weapons and ammo. After we gain transportation, we will have to locate a facility to resupply. A base or National Guard Unit.” Everyone nodded.
Everyone was in place and the deployment team made their way down to the cars in the parking lot. They had checked the office in the tower for keys as they progressed down to the ground level with no luck.
At full battle rattle, the team systematically waded through all the cars. They found one with an extra set of keys in a magnetic box under the car. The other was an older model, which Shaw busted the steering column and used his Leatherman to crank over.
From their previous recon, they could see that the highway was extremely congested with abandoned vehicles and a quick glance down the streets of the town revealed a much less hindered route. They made their way through a quarter of the route when the Old Grand Marquis Shaw was driving shuddered. It was gasping and wheezing and sputtered to a stop. “Damn piece of shit Ford,” Shaw spat. They all got out to pull security, while Shaw checked out the car. Doc pulled up behind them and they all got out. Webb came running up.
“What’s the problem?”
“Looks like a vacuum leak issue,” Shaw responded. As Shaw continued to work, a distant wailing started. They all were on their toes were looking for the source. It was early morning, and the sun hadn’t bu
rned off the morning mist and fog yet. This made it difficult to see very far.
“Dude, what the fuck is that?” Doc asked wearily. He was becoming frazzled as the sound got louder and more voices joined in. “Seriously, what the hell is that?” In front of them, barely seen through the fog, figures appeared. They appeared as small shadow figures and were aggressively tilting their heads from side to side. Instead of the clicking noise, they were making those screeching/crying noises. They were slowly coming toward the team as the fog dissipated.
“Mother fucker!” Webb said as he looked closer. “They’re fucking kids. Little infected kids!”
Doc turned to Shaw, “Come on big man, get his thing started. I don’t want to shoot no kids.” His voice was trembling.
“I’m trying, I don’t want to shoot any either,” Shaw barked back. They could now see the building up the street was a daycare facility.
“Aw, shit. This ain’t right,” Priest added when he saw the daycare playground. The scene was something out of a Clive Barker Novel, think Hell Raiser, but with children.
The tiny figures were infected kids from toddler to maybe six or seven. They slowly shambled towards the Team as they emitted the crying/screeching sound. It was high pitched and creepy as hell.
The breath caught in Priest’s throat when he saw the playground. The kids had killed, no mutilated, some adults. Possibly those that worked there. One woman was sitting on the merry-go-round with her abdomen ripped open. Her intestines were splayed all over the merry-go-round and draped over the bars. Some were using them like ropes to hang on while other kids spun the merry-go-round.
Another woman was swinging back and forth on the swing set, looking like one of the swings. She was hung by her own entrails from the top bar of the swing set by her neck. Two kids pushed her legs and watched her swinging back and forth while they giggled. All the while, their heads were tilting left and right.
“Fuck me,” Doc uttered. “Holy Mary Mother and Joseph.” He made the sign of the cross. Just as the first kids were now 25 yards from them, they heard the car’s engine start up. They all turned and ran back to the car. The kids let out a horrifying shriek and came after them.