Dead Life (Book 4) (6 page)

              “Get your pistols out,” Al said.

              “I saw the shades on one of the windows down there,” Gina said, motioning down the walkway with the hand she held her gun in.

              Al started in the direction she indicated with Gina and I following behind.

              “Don't linger in front of the doors or windows,” Al said. “We don't know who's up here yet.”

              We went past two of the rooms. Then about five doors down one of the doors opened and someone walked out.  Gina's dad Pete, the man we had come all this way to find, was standing right in front of us. As soon as I saw him I could tell something was wrong. He was bleeding from the mouth and both eyes were nearly swollen shut. Pete was a big man and from the little I knew of him not the kind of guy easily subdued. From the looks of things someone had given him a hell of a beating. He held one of his hands up about waist high, indicating that we were to stay back. Gina tried to push past Al but I grabbed her from behind to stop her.

              “I knew you were still alive kiddo. Looks like your son was right Steve,” Pete said.

              “Are you okay Pete?” I asked.

              “Yeah, we had some trouble a few days ago but everything's fine now.”

              “Let me go,” Gina said, trying to pull free. “Daddy what happened to you?”

              “Stay back little girl. We've got the infection down here.”

              “I don't care. We went through hell to get here and get you out of here,” Gina said, pulling her arm from my grasp and looking back at me. “Don't touch me again.”

              Al stood between Gina and her father blocking her from getting to him. She tried to push past, but he stood firm.

              “Don't be stupid girl,” he said under his breath. “You're going to get him killed.”

              “Honey, I'm glad you're still alive, but honestly, you've got to leave.”

              I heard something behind me and glanced back over my shoulder. A door was coming open right behind us.

              “Steve, Gina, I need you to crouch down,” Al said.

              As we crouched down Al drew his other pistol and pointed in the face of the man that was coming out of the room. He now stood with his back to the rail facing the wall. The gun in his left hand in the face of the man behind us. The one in his right hand aimed in the direction of Gina's father. His attention split between the two targets.

              “You need to stand real still mister,” Al said to the man behind us.

              I was looking at the man that had just come out of the room when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye behind Pete. Someone came out of the room Pete had just come out of. He brought up a pistol, pressed it to the back of Pete's head, and grabbed the back of his shirt pulling him to him.

              “I told you it wouldn't work Pete,” the gunman said. “You need to drop your guns, friend.”

              “I'm not your friend and that's not gonna happen,” Al said.

              Then things happened really fast. I heard Pete say “not my daughter too you son-of-a-bitch” as he pulled away from the man holding him hostage and turned towards him. Gina screamed “No!” and the gunman put his pistol under Pete's chin and pulled the trigger. That's when both of Al's pistols fired at the same time, killing the men in front of us and behind us.

              Gina ran past Al and knelt beside her father. She pulled his ruined head to her breast and sobbed. I must have been in shock or something. All I did was stand rooted to the spot looking at the dead bodies that lay around me.

              “Snap out of it Steve. I need your help. Clear the room he came out of,” Al said, motioning to the body that lay at my feet. “I'll get the other. Be careful. Can you do that for me?”

              He didn't wait for an answer. Al rushed past Gina into the room. I went into the room behind me and looked around. It was a standard motel room, one room and a bathroom. I stumbled through the room and looked into the bathroom. Fortunately both were empty. If someone had been waiting in there for me there probably would have been another dead person to deal with; me. I came out of the room and found Al crouched down next to Gina. He was trying to comfort her. I don't think she heard a word he said to her.

              “The room is clear,” I said, as I walked up.

              “Thanks buddy. There's an oriental lady in there on the bed,” Al said, and cocked his head at the door. “She's been dead for quite a while.”

              Gina gently placed Pete's head on the ground and stood up. She went to the body of the man that had killed her father and kicked him in the head. Then she pulled her pistol and emptied it into his chest.

              “Did I hear you say Chong is in there?”

              “Yeah, she's in there but don't go in,” I said.

              “It's okay. I pulled a sheet up over the body,” Al said.

              Gina and I went in and stood beside the bed. Chong had been tied to the bed. I could see her arms were up over her head. Ropes came from under the sheet and were tied to the headboard. Her feet were sticking out from under the sheet and her ankles were tied spread eagle. These ropes were tied to the bed frame. Beside her I could see where Pete had been tied next to her body. I wondered how long these sick fucks had him tied next to her corpse.

              “What now?” Gina asked.

              “Now, we need to get out of here,” Al said, from behind us. “I just checked. We have five maybe ten minutes tops. Then the horde will be on us.”

              “I know we don't have time to bury them,” I said. “Gina, are you okay with burning the bodies?”

              “Yes, dad wanted to be cremated anyway.”

              “Steve we gotta hurry. Let's bring him in here and put him on the bed. Then you go to the truck and get a gas can. I'll come with you and cover you from the street. Gina just wait here.”

              We carried Pete's body back into the room and put him on the bed next to Chong. After making sure that Gina would be okay there by herself we went down to the parking lot. Al stayed out in the street in front of the motel and I went to get a gas can from the top of the truck. Before I got back to Al I could hear him shooting into the horde. When I ran back I could see that we only had a few minutes to get out of here. He was busy taking out the sprinters that were closing in on us. Gina had come out onto the second floor walkway and had her rifle out firing into the horde. She was covering Al's back. Zombies were coming at him from both sides.

              I hurried up the ladder and ran past Gina. When I got to the room I saw that she had cut the ropes that had Chong tied to the bed. She had pushed Chong's body closer to Pete and had placed their hands together. Before I poured gas on them I ran back out to Gina.

              “Are you done in there honey?”

              “Yes, just do it.”

              I went back and doused the bed in gas, poured some around the bed, and made a trail leading out of the room. I slapped my pockets and realized I didn't have a lighter. I was going to have to use my gun to start the fire. By now Al was firing nonstop and Gina was having a hard time covering his back. The sprinters were gone and the horde was almost on him. I told Gina to get down the ladder and that I would cover Al until she got down there. She climbed down the ladder and ran to Al. They stood back to back with one another firing their rifles on full automatic.

              “Get to the truck!” I hollered.

              Their only chance was to leave now. Gina looked up at me and shook her head no, still firing into the approaching horde. I don't know how many times they had changed their magazines but I knew I only had three left. They had to be almost out. Both of them had been firing longer than I had. Al threw his rifle around his back and drew his pistol in one hand, grabbed Gina with the other, and pulled her along with him as he ran for the truck. I continued firing in front of them, taking out as many of the zombies closest to them as I could. Gina ran out of rounds and drew her sword. They fought their way through the horde and made their way to the truck.

              After they crossed the street and made it to the row of buildings between the motel and where the truck was the horde thinned out. They had made it. Al threw the passenger door open and climbed in. Gina followed him in, closed the door, and looked back at me. I gave her a thumbs up and waved. She sat staring at me, tears streaming down her cheeks. Al started the truck and pulled away before they were surrounded.

              I was alone in a sea of zombies.

Chapter 5

              A huge explosion rocked the area just as we came into the clearing where our ride out of here awaited us. I looked back toward the installation and a fireball rose into the sky momentarily erasing the predawn darkness. The rotors were spinning and the door to the chopper stood open. We climbed in and immediately lifted into the night sky. As we cleared the trees I could see the sun was about to rise on the eastern horizon. To the west I could see the fire from the missile silo. I motioned to the gun mounted in the door of the chopper and quickly put my headset on. John manned the machine gun and I had the pilot circle over the fire. Seeing no movement on the ground we headed to the northwest in the general direction of Fort Leonard Wood. Our pilot informed me that there was an airport not far from our location where we could stop for refueling.

              I moved to the front and sat in the co-pilot's seat. The pilot had several maps in the cockpit and I went over them while I filled him in on everything that had happened that night. He told me that just as we got to the chopper he heard a voice over the radio saying, “see you in Fort Leonard Wood”. At the time he thought it was one of us. Now he realized it was the doctor. The thought of that bastard following us all the way to Missouri made me sick. Not only would we have to battle our way through what was in front of us we'd have to constantly be watching for him coming at us from behind.

              “Did you get all that John?”

              “Yeah I heard. Let's hope he goes full zombie soon and forgets all about us,” he replied.

              “Well if he doesn't I've got first shot at killing him,” Lily added. “That fucker had his hands all over me. Speaking of which, is there a shower on this thing Lieutenant?”

              “Yes there is. It's right outside that door where the machine gun's mounted.”

              “I'll use it later. Right after you,” Lily said.

              “Maybe we could go together, save water,” he replied.

              “Alright you two that's enough,” I said. “Let's get back on task. We're coming up on a city. That's not Birmingham is it Lieutenant?”

              “No sir. That's probably Hoover. Birmingham is just north of here.”

              “I didn't think it was, it's too small.”

              We were flying low trying to stay off any radar General Simmons might be using to try and track us. Up ahead the heavily wooded terrain we had been flying over gave way to a more rural setting. I could see farmland in the distance. As we approached a house in the middle of a field of corn attracted my attention. It wasn't so much the house but the hundreds of zombies that surrounded it that drew my interest. I had the Lieutenant fly in for a closer look. On the roof three people stood waving frantically to get our attention. A fourth stood at a hole in the roof fighting off the zombies that were trying to get at them.

              “John, Lily get ready. We're going to do an extraction,” I said into my headset. “Take us down Lieutenant.”

              “We don't have a hell of a lot of fuel left, Captain. Make it fast.”

              “Just get us down there. I'll talk you in.”

              I hurried to the back of the chopper. John and Lily already had the door open and were in the process of throwing out the rope ladder. The chopper had a winch but none of us knew how to operate it so we would just have to make due with the ladder. Our pilot lowered us as far as he could on his own and I talked him in the rest of the way. The Chinook is a big chopper. It makes a lot of noise and moves a lot of air. The sound of the rotors drove the zombies on the ground into a frenzy. The backwash from the spinning blades nearly knocked the woman and two small children off of the roof. John stood by the ladder and Lily manned the big gun. I stood next to her and could barely hear her yelling for the man to get away from the hole in the roof. Of course there was no way the people on the roof could hear her if I could just make out what she was saying standing right next to her. I was talking the Lieutenant in and motioning for the man, who I could now see was swinging a shotgun at the heads of the zombies that were trying to climb through the hole and onto the roof, to get away from the hole. He finally looked up and saw me just as one of the children grabbed onto the rope ladder. The man crouched down and crab walked toward us. John got hold of the first little girl and Lily opened fire. The big gun cleared the hole in a matter of seconds. Then a thought occurred to me. I tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention and told her to hold her fire.

              The backwash from the rotors combined with the slant of the roof was too much for them. They were too uncoordinated to do anything to try and adjust their balance. As soon as they gained the roof they stood and tumbled down; either falling back into the hole or off the side of the roof.  By now the man was to the ladder and was able to help the smaller of the two children to the ladder. John pulled the smaller girl to safety and the woman started up. We were occupied with getting the woman in the chopper when I looked down at the man and drew my pistol from my holster. He looked up at me with a frightened look on his face, thinking I was about to shoot him. I fired over his shoulder taking out the zombie that was about to grab him from behind. He glanced back, realizing what had just happened, and started up the ladder.

              John and I each grabbed a handful of his shirt and pulled him in. The three of us fell back into the chopper and the Lieutenant took us up. We got to our feet and the man pointed a pistol in my face. I recognized it as mine. He must have grabbed it from my holster when we were on the floor of the chopper.

              “What the hell is going on? We just saved your asses,” I yelled over the sound of the rotors.

              “You're not killing my little girls,” he shouted back.

              I looked at the woman and the two girls. She was sitting on the floor of the chopper holding both of the girls in her arms. I could now see where the girls arms were covered in gauze wrappings blood leaking through the bandages.

              “They're burning up with fever,” I heard John say over my headset. “I felt the heat coming off of them when I pulled them in.”

              “What's he saying,” the man yelled at me.

              I motioned behind him to the headsets hanging on hooks beside his head. He reached over and grabbed one fighting to get it on with one hand while still holding the gun on me with the other.

              “What the hell's going on back there?” Lieutenant Price's voice came over my headset.

              “The two kids we brought on board are infected. Their dad has a gun and is going to shoot me if we try to kill the girls,” I answered.

              “Does everybody have their ears on?” he asked.

              “Yes, and he will too in a second.”

              “Then get ready. Things are going to get shaky back there. Tell me when.”

              With him holding a gun in my face there was nothing I could do to prepare myself for what was about to happen. Lily sat down and gripped the bench. The Sergeant reached out and braced himself on the wall.

              Just as the man got the headset situated on his head I said, “Do it.”

              The chopper banked hard to the right and the girls' father stumbled back towards the open door. As he went back his arms pinwheeled and the pistol discharged. I felt a round go past my ear as I also fell towards the open door. I grabbed one side of the doorway with both hands and as I was on my way out,  he grabbed the other side. He held on with one hand, still holding my pistol in the other, and yelled into the head phone for me to “tell him to stop.” He was in the process of bringing the gun to bear on me again when the chopper banked hard to the left. His free arm, the one that held the pistol, pinwheeled wildly as he tried to maintain his grip on the side of the chopper. The gun went off multiple times fortunately firing outside of the chopper this time.

              As the chopper leveled out I was able to get my feet under me. This gave me the opportunity to free one hand from the doorway of the chopper. I punched him in the face with everything I had. His head rocked back and when it snapped back I gave him another. The gun fell from his hand. I grabbed a handful of his hair and threw him to the floor.

              “That's enough Lieutenant. We're back in control,” I said into my microphone. “Are we clear of the zombies?”

              “Yes sir we're clear.”

              “Then put her down. We're going to let these people off.”

              “You can't just leave us here,” the woman said. “We'll never make it.”

              “Ma'am I'm sorry but we saved your butts back there and for thanks your husband tried to kill me. Your daughters have been bitten. Am I right about that?” She nodded her head. “Then you need to deal with that. I don't have to tell you what's going to happen.”

              “Please don't leave us out there on our own,” she begged.

              “If you want to stay on this chopper you know what needs to be done.” I felt bad for her. Hell I didn't even blame the man for what he'd tried to do. If it was my family I might have done the same thing. This was my family though and I was going to do whatever it took to protect them.

              “Just let us off,” she said.

              “We can't go back out there,” the man snarled at her. “You people are in the military. You're supposed to protect us.”

                            “After what you did you're lucky I don't just throw you out that door right now,” John said.

              “We're losing hydraulic pressure,” I heard Lieutenant Price say over the headset. “With all that shooting back there a line must have got hit.”

              “Can you get us down?” I asked.

              “I think so. Get ready for a rough touch down.”

              Lily got up to help the woman get the girls situated.

              “Let them do it. I don't want anybody going near them,” I said.

              We hurried to get ourselves buckled in. The chopper landed smoothly, a testimony to our pilots ability, and we made to get off of the chopper. I had Lily get a survival kit together for the family and sent them on their way.

              “If you even look back at us he's going to shoot you dead,” I said, nodding to the Sergeant. “If I thought I could trust you I'd have given you a gun. Since I know I can't there are two knives in the bag. I suggest you keep them handy. You're going to need them soon. Good luck.”

              They started off walking in the direction of Birmingham. I didn't hold out much hope that they'd get that far but even with what their father had done I wished them well. Lieutenant Price found the ruptured hose and Lily helped him fix it while John and I stood guard. We watched the family as they made their way to a row of houses in the distance. They hadn't gone far before the parents had to carry the girls. It wouldn't be long now. The break in the hose was easy to find but hard to fix. We were on the ground for about an hour when Lily came over to John and I telling us we'd be ready to go in a few minutes. Lieutenant Price was topping off the hydraulic fluid then we'd be on our way. Sergeant Adams looked to the row of houses through his scope. Four figures were headed our way.

              “They're coming back, looks like the kids got them,” he said.

              “Let's get out of here,” I said.

              “Do you want me to take them out?”

              “Save the ammo.”

              They were about a hundred yards out when we finally lifted off. By that time the kids were running in our direction while their badly damaged parents hobbled along behind them. Within minutes we were over Birmingham. From the looks of the city things had gone pretty bad here. Most of the city was burned to the ground while the sections still standing were overrun with the undead. We passed over a hospital that we could see had survivors on the roof. After what we'd just been through we decided to keep going. Lieutenant Price pointed out that we were low on fuel and really didn't have time to run a rescue mission. If we changed our minds later we could always come back to look for survivors after refueling. We discussed this but I knew and was sure the others felt the same way. We wouldn't be coming back.

              Crossing over the city we finally came within sight of the airport. I could tell it was going to be bad even before the runway came into view. A plane had come in for a landing and crashed into the control tower. A wing must have just clipped it because the tower was lying on the runway in pieces. Parts of the wing lay scattered further down the tarmac. The plane itself had plowed through the fencing surrounding the airport. What was left of the plane burned beyond recognition in the field at the end of the runway.

              Besides the section of fencing missing from the plane crash other parts of the perimeter had been breached. Fencing lay on the ground everywhere, pushed over by the thousands of zombies that now roamed the runways. We wouldn't be refueling at this airport.

              The Lieutenant looked at me and shook his head, answering the question I had yet to ask.

              “Do we have enough fuel to make it to another airport.”