Dead Life Book 5 (17 page)

Everyone was already on the helicopter and four of us were the last to board the chopper. Our first guard got on and I was just about in when he tried to push past me. The other guard had fallen back against side of the helicopter. Both of his hands came up to his neck. Blood flowed between his fingers as he clutched at his throat. He’d been shot!

John was out there somewhere. Lily and I had the same idea at the same time. She helped me to get as far away from the chopper as fast as we could. The side door to the helicopter slid closed, obviously they were taking fire. We got about fifty yards away when someone came running towards us from the other side of the helicopter. The rotors were still turning and there was a hell of a noise coming from the chopper but things were starting to quiet down. I could hear shots being fired and saw the man from the helicopter go down as he made his way towards Lily and me.

When the helicopter finally went silent I could hear the General on the chopper’s public address system.

“It seems you lied to me once again Captain. Sargent, my sharp shooter has your friends in his sights. Which one should I have him shoot first, Captain Downs or Corporal Flowers? Tell you what, I’ll decide.”

A second later I heard a shot fire and dirt kicked up at my feet.

“The next one goes between his eyes. I want you to come out with your hands in plain sight.”

John came out of the woods about a hundred yards from Lily and me. He held his assault rifle over his head.

“You don’t need that any longer.”

John dropped the rifle and continued toward us. “Sorry, I tried,” he said, as he walked by.

“They beat the shit out of Tim. I’m sorry John we couldn’t even make a decent escape attempt. It’s not your fault.”

“You got yourself captured for nothing,” I said.

“No more talking. The three of you, hands in the air.”

By the time we were to the chopper six armed soldiers were waiting for us. General Simmons climbed his fat ass down from the helicopter and joined us. After everything that had happened I couldn’t help but want to laugh at him. He was so mad you could feel the anger radiating from every pore of his body.

General Simmons waved a hand at Lily and me. “Hold those two.”

We were both grabbed by the arms. General Simmons drew his sidearm and shot John high in the right side of his chest. It was like in a movie. The classic place for the hero to be shot so that he could survive long enough to come back and defeat the bad guys. Only this wasn’t a movie. John staggered back and fell to the ground. Lily struggled against the soldiers that held her. The one on her right must have done something to get her special attention and she spit in his face. Suddenly I didn’t feel like laughing anymore. I wanted to rip General Simmons throat out with my teeth.

“Fun times over. I have a surgeon on board. If we all work together he might be able to save your friends life. Men let them go.” We were released. Both of us immediately went to John’s side. “You two help your friend on the chopper. We really should hurry. Don’t you think?”

John was still conscious. I could see he was in immense pain but he resisted. “I’m dead and you know it,” he said, through clenched teeth. “Do me a favor and kill that bastard.” Then he passed out.

Lily looked at me. “What should we do?”

“He’s not dead yet. Get him on board.” 

Chapter 20

By the time I made it back to the hospital the girls had gotten most of our crap together. They’d been having a problem with Al though. He was fully conscious by now and had other ideas. Abandoning the hospital was the last thing he wanted us to do.

I could hear Al arguing with Cindy from the moment I hit the front entrance. “Don’t you get it? These bastards are trying to grow the perfect zombie. The last thing we want to do is turn this hospital over to them.”

I walked up on the two of them and caught them by surprise. “He’s right you know.” Cindy jumped when I said this.

“Goddammit Steve you scared the shit out of me.”

“I could hear you coming a mile away,” Al said, with a grin.

“Glad to see you’ve rejoined the living.”

“Takes more than a little zombie blood on a knife to kill me.”

“If it didn’t kill you then it wasn’t zombie blood,” Cindy said.

“I don’t know. I’ve had an urge to eat you ever since I woke up.”

“We’re not talking about your sexual fantasies old man. They don’t count. Licking ain’t the same as biting.”

“You know better than that girl. I bite, lick, suck, hell I do it all.”

“Save it for later you two. Like preferably when you’re alone.”

Gina walked into the room. “Save what?”

“We’re having sex talk. Would you care to join in?”

“The last thing I want to do is talk sex with you old man.”

“Then let’s talk about why you think we should bug out of here?”

This question was for me not Gina. “On the drive back here I rethought my stance on this. Are you up for a possible fight?”

“If we don’t fight we should run as fast as we can out of here and never look back. That means leaving your kid with them. You realize that, don’t you?”

“I didn’t talk to him last, Gina did. But if you ask me it doesn’t sound very good. What have you got in mind?”

“Well I think they’ll be coming here in something pretty big and the helicopter pad next to the hospital won’t be big enough for them to land on.”

He was right. I hadn’t even thought of that. I’m so glad Al is back. “So you think they’ll try to land out by the airfield?”

“No. That’s too far away. They’ll probably set down in that open field. There’s plenty of room out there. They could land three or four choppers out there.”

              “So we should set up snipers,” Cindy said. “The four of us can’t cover much of that field though. Especially if they have that many helicopters.”

              “There’s only one chopper. I doubt he’s got more than ten or fifteen men with him, and I’d be willing to bet your son and his friends whittled that number down some already.”

              I hoped he was right. The only thing I found in the least bit encouraging about that the whole thing was that Gina had talked to Tim a while ago. Hopefully he and his friends were still okay. If they had fought against General Simmons’ men though chances were not everyone had come through unscathed. “So, what’s your plan?”

              “It’s not going to be easy. They’ll have some big guns mounted on whatever they come in here with.”

              “Once they land those guns won’t be of much use to them,” Gina said.

              “You’re right. We’ll want to let them get away from the chopper before we try anything. That way they won’t be able to take it back up and cut us to pieces.”

              “How about we blow it up when they’re all out of it? You can hide in those woods,” Gina pointed to the wooded area bordering the field. “When they land and are all out of it you can work your way close to it and throw a couple grenades at it.”

              Gina had a pretty good idea. I was sure Al would like blowing up a military helicopter. With all the ammunition it would probably carry there would be a hell of an explosion.

              “That would be fun but I’m sure they’ll be ready for us. Remember they’re holding Steve’s son hostage. I don’t think they would take too kindly to that little girl. Do you?” 

              Gina’s face reddened. Al sure knew how to push her buttons. “Then what’s your plan old man?”

              Al wasn’t going to rise to the bait. He just smiled back at her. “One of us has to kill General Simmons. As soon as he gets far enough away from the helicopter we take him out. That should slow down the rest of them.”

              “What if it doesn’t?”

              “They’ll have guns on your son and his friends. I’ll take the General and whoever’s got a gun on the girl. Steve you take your son’s guard. Cindy you’ve got the guard on the other guy, Tim’s friend.”

              “What about me? I’m a better shot than Steve.” Gina catches me looking at her, amazed that she could be so flippant about taking someone’s life. “Sorry baby, but it’s true.”

              “That’s not it,” I stammer. “Never mind. Go ahead Al.”

              “You are a better shot. That’s why I want you watching the rest of them,” Al said. “You see any other threats take them out. Everybody knows this but I’m going to say it anyway. No hesitation. As soon as I make the first shot, that’s right the General goes first, take your target down. Any questions?”

              Al waited a minute and when nobody said anything he started back in.

              “We need to get a move on. They’ll be here soon. Everybody take your radio with you but maintain radio silence. I would imagine they’ll be monitoring our frequency. So save whatever you have to say for after the shooting. Even then use your radio only for an emergency.”

              “What happens after the shooting?”

              “Hopefully they’re all dead and you son and his friends are all still alive.”

              “Let me rephrase that. If something goes wrong where do we meet? We never plan this far ahead.”

              “Good point. If things fall apart fall back to the hospital. We don’t want them to get that no matter what.”

              The four of us loaded up with everything we felt we would need. Al thought it best we each take enough supplies that if we had to abandon all our plans we each had enough essentials to last two days. We decided worst case scenario we would try to all make it to the front gate and rendezvous there. I didn’t say anything but I could tell Al felt the same way I did. We would be damn lucky if our plan worked. We had so little time there was nothing else we could do though.

              Gina and I took the trucks around the back of the hospital and parked them behind the utility shed at the back of the lot. If things went completely south we hoped that maybe we could get back here and get them before they were discovered. We ran as fast as we could back to where Cindy and Al waited just inside the tree line surrounding the field. When we came upon them they were locked in an embrace kissing one another. I knew they heard us coming but that didn’t stop them. Gina and I stood there like a couple of idiots waiting for them to stop. After what seemed like several minutes Gina must have decided that looked pretty good. She grabbed me in a bear hug and ‘laid one on me’.

              “When you two are finished,” Al said. “We need to get finished here.”

              “You’re a real prick Al,” Gina laughed.

              “That hurts me.”

              “I’d have to agree with that,” I said.

              “They’re right you know,” Cindy added.

              Al shrugged, “Sometimes the truth is a horrible thing. Let’s move out.”

              Not too far from where we started out Al had Gina take a position in the woods. Next he dropped Cindy off. We went quite a bit further before he stopped.

              “You stay here. I’m going back the way we came. I want to be close to the girls if something goes wrong.”

              “What are the chances that this is going to work?”

              “You mean they get off the helicopter, we shoot them all, and none of us die?”

              “Yeah I guess.”

              “Slim to none.”

              “That’s what I figured.”

              Al started to walk away. “It’s a good place to start though. I’d feel better if we had some kind of explosion planned though.”

              “Tell you what. I’ll toss out a grenade half way through the shooting.”

              “I’m in charge of all the pyrotechnics.”

              Al disappeared from sight a few seconds later and I was left alone to ponder our chances of success. It seemed a shame that we’d come so far only to have one or all of us killed before I got a chance to see my son again.

              It wasn’t long before I heard the sound of a helicopter in the distance. I don’t know much about military aircraft but I could see that this was a fairly large helicopter. I’d seen bigger ones on TV before but this one was big enough. There could be a hell of a lot more guys on there than I originally thought. They came in low and passed over the hospital a few times. Then circled the field we had assumed they would land in. Instead of landing the chopper moved higher into the sky. Making it nearly impossible to see through the trees.

              My radio squawked static then I heard a familiar voice. Al was right. They had radios just like ours.

              “I see from your vehicles out back of the hospital you decided to stay and wait for us. I tried the hospital phone and got no answer. I’m assuming the four of you are outside somewhere. Please come out into the open so we can see you.”

              I stood just inside the tree line and watched where I had last seen Al. He stayed in the woods and maintained radio silence. The girls were following Al’s lead so I stayed put. After a short minute the General came back on the radio.

              “Kindly direct your attention to the courtyard in front of the hospital.”

              I still couldn’t see the helicopter but knew it was hovering somewhere close by. Something flashed into view for a second and impacted the ground in front of the hospital. I wasn’t positive but was pretty sure it was a body.

              “I want to be clear and am growing weary of dealing with you people. You forced me to do this. That was Sargent Adams. Corporal Flowers will be next. Followed by Captain Downs. You have fifteen seconds to show yourselves.”

              I immediately came out of the woods, followed by Gina and Cindy. Al was nowhere to be seen.

              “There is one more of you. Where is he at?” Over the noise from the helicopter I could hear an argument raging in the background. “Times more than up.”

              From where I stood I could see the side door of the chopper pulled back. Al wasn’t coming out. I had to do something. I grabbed my radio. “Al was sick. You know that. We thought he was getting better but he turned a few hours ago. I had to shoot him. He’s dead.”

              “If I find out you’re lying you’ll all die.”

              I was sure that’s what he had planned anyway. The helicopter came down and landed in the clearing. Gina, Cindy, and I laid down our rifles and made our way towards the chopper.