Survival Instinct: A Zombie Novel (101 page)

Roger lived not far from Leighton.  He had always been a recluse and ran his own cheap radio broadcast.  His equipment had managed to pick up Chant’s warning, and he had recorded the whole thing.  After debating whether it was false or not for a whole day, he had decided that it wasn’t.  He put it on the internet and began playing it over his own station, urging everyone else who picked it up to do the same.

In New York City, things had gotten really bad, really fast.  The information relay that had been taking place reached them too late.  Chaos had ensued everywhere.  David had managed to escape by getting on a boat in the harbour.  With five others, including his older brother, they had set their sights south.

In Russia, the outbreak had first gotten out of control in Moscow.  The Russian officials had tried to quarantine the city but it hadn’t worked.  In the end, they had set off a nuclear bomb on their own soil.  It had greatly slowed the rate of infection, but it had been too late.  It had already begun spreading everywhere else.

China had shut down quickly, urging all its citizens to take precautions and look for signs.  With its high population though, it hadn’t taken much to start an infectious flood.

New Zealand had also shut down quickly.  They had begun screening everyone for the disease and quarantining everyone found infected.  There had been a few cases, but the population had been well informed and had kept vigilant.  Everybody had watched their neighbours carefully, sometimes
too
carefully.  More people had been killed on suspicion of infection rather than from the infection itself.

When the outbreak hit Australia, the Australians had stormed the Marble Keystone facility there.  Many of the guards who were supposed to be protecting it were nowhere to be found.  Although it had been too late for many in the city, they had burned the place to the ground anyway, killing whatever employees they had found.  Hugh, who had joined those attacking the building, made sure to spit on the rubble before fleeing to the deep outback.

Peterson had been on an expedition in the Congo when the outbreak occurred.  He had absolutely no idea what had happened.  When his team had tried contacting their outside sources via satellite radio, they had gotten nothing.  Having reached their expected pickup point on time, they were confused when no one had come.  The tribe they had been staying with took them in, sending out one of their own to see what might have happened.  He had not brought back good news.  Peterson and his team had decided to stay with the locals.  He didn’t see that he had any other option.

Nedly had watched everything from above.  Once the outbreak was public knowledge, many nations had tried to bring back their astronauts, but their own central control was already gone.  He and the crew had decided to try a re-entry on their own.  They had known they would run out of food, water, and air soon enough.  Nedly had prayed to every God
that he could think of as he strapped himself in.

Section 6:

Arrival

Riley Bishop

Alec was out of his chair and lying on the rooftop.  His sniper rifle was in hand and pointed at the section of building where the other guys were preparing their
Molotovs.  Riley sat by his shoulder, looking over at the other side of the prison with him.  Although she knew that’s where the other guys were supposed to be, she couldn’t make them out.  The building was basically T-shaped.  They were sitting on the helicopter pad on one of the short ends of the T, the guys were in the long end a few stories down.  Alec could see them easily through the scope of his gun.  On his other side was Abby.  She had Tobias’s camera in her hands and was fully zoomed in and recording.  Tobias would want that, but the camera had another use: Abby was acting as Alec’s spotter.

“They got the wire mesh off.”  Alec’s voice was cold and emotionless.  He relayed things to Riley in monotone.  “They’re getting ready.”

Riley quickly scooted around to Abby’s side.  She wanted to watch with Abby on the camera.  Although she wouldn’t be able to watch for long, she could at least witness the firebombing.

On the little LCD screen was a dirty window through which you could make out the fuzzy forms of Misha, Mathias, and Tobias.  It was surprisingly easy to tell them apart by their frames alone.  Misha was a small scrawny kid, Mathias was quite broad, and Tobias stood a good few inches taller than both of them.  She watched as tiny, pixel-wide flashes occurred; the lighters being flicked.  Two bright flares lit up as the cloth caught fire.  The cloth was actually the lower, torn up sections of Riley’s shorts.  She could no longer make pants out of them, but that didn’t matter.

“Looks like Misha is having trouble with his lighter,” Alec relayed.  “Never mind, there it goes.”

On the screen, a third flare-up bloomed to life.  Then the three fireballs were chucked out the window, one right after the other.  Part of the building was in the way of Riley seeing the actual flames, but the black smoke rose quickly enough.

As the boys turned to run, Misha seemed to grab Mathias’s arm and pull.  Mathias shifted sideways from the tug, and then got knocked flat on his back.

“What happened?”  Abby looked and sounded slightly panicked.

Alec didn’t answer.  His rifle did.  The force of the shot rocked him back slightly and tried to pull up the muzzle, but he recovered quickly.  An expert.  He locked a new round into the chamber.

“They okay?”  Riley tried to keep the worry out of her own voice.

“They’re fine,” Alec told her.  “Mathias took one in the vest, but he’s back up.  I took down the shooter.  Abby, track the path ahead of them.  Tell me if you see any more guards.”

“Okay,” Abby nodded, trying to be brave and do her job.

The rifle cracked again as Alec fired off another shot.  “There’s panic now.  Riley, get the bird started up.”

Riley nodded even though he couldn’t see her.  She ran over to the helicopter.

As she went by the rear door, she glanced into the back compartment.  Cender was back there with the two dogs.  Everyone else was calling him Josh, or Joshua by now but it was taking much longer for Riley to pick up the name.  It looked like he had managed to stow the gear as best he could and was dealing with the furry companions.  The German shepherd, Rifle, was actually in one of the seats with the harness belts strapped around him, and hooked into his own harness.  He looked extremely goofy, especially with the skunk toy hanging from his mouth.  Shoes, on the other hand, was much too small to stick in a seat.  Cender was currently tying his rope leash tightly to the side of the cabin.

Riley kept going to the closed-off cockpit and hopped into her seat.  When they had first gotten up there, she had nearly panicked because she hadn’t been able to find the key, but it turned out the thing didn’t use one.  Danny informed Riley that military helicopters never used keys.  This particular model had a push button ignition.  Thank god for military equipment.

Danny was already sitting in the co-pilot’s seat.  Ever since they had gotten up to the roof, he had been sitting in the cockpit trying to familiarize himself with everything.  He had swapped his oversized army helmet for an oversized pilot’s helmet with a built-in headset.  Riley grabbed the other helmet and pulled it over her head.  She adjusted the mic and tightened the chinstrap.

“You ready?”  Riley turned to Danny.

Danny looked at her.  He was very pale.  He nodded though.

“You get the honours, fire her up.”  Riley gestured to the large red button.

Danny hesitated a moment, then jammed on it hard.  The engine came to life with a hum and the instrument panel lit up.  Riley looked at all the buttons and controls.  This chopper was a lot more complex than the little one she had gotten her license on.  She didn’t tell anyone, but the last time she had flown a helicopter was when she was twenty-two.  That had been ten years ago.  Most of the main controls seemed to be the same though.  She would just try to avoid touching all the others.  She started the rotor blades turning.

Danny leaned forward and flicked a switch, which nearly gave Riley a heart attack.  He looked at her with large, apologetic eyes.

“Headsets.”  He tapped the side of his head, his voice coming through the speaker pressed tightly against Riley’s ear.

She nodded.  “Just tell me what you’re doing before you do it next time.”

Danny nodded.

Riley then leaned sideways and shut her door.  She looked out through the side window to watch as Abby got to her feet.  Alec handed her his rifle and she ran with it and the camera to the chopper cabin.  Riley knew, without seeing, that she handed the objects to Cender who would find a place for them.  Abby then reappeared and ran back to Alec, who had already started crawling to the helicopter using only his arms.  She looped her arms under his and started to drag him.  It was clearly hard work.

Riley found herself constantly looking toward the door to the stairs.  She was praying that when it opened, it would be the guys and not Keystone soldiers.

Suddenly, there was a pinging on the windshield and Riley instinctively ducked her head.  This was unnecessary though. 
Apparently, not all the soldiers knew that the windshield was made of the newest type of bulletproof glass.  Their rifles, especially at a distance, wouldn’t be able to break it.  Still, Riley worried about a bullet finding its way into the motor, or through the open door on the side.

The stairwell door burst open and Tobias and Misha came through half propping up Mathias between them.  Riley shook her head.  The idiot had gotten himself shot again.  Hopefully it wasn’t too bad as she wouldn’t be able to check on him this time.  Of
course, Cender would be back there with him.

Tobias helped Mathias get into the cabin while Misha went to help Abby with Alec.  With his help, they managed to get Alec inside.

Riley had no way of knowing if the door was shut.  She took a deep breath and hoped that it was.  She pulled back on the stick, causing the chopper to lift itself up into the air.  It lifted a lot faster than she expected; the controls were very sensitive.  She glanced over her shoulder, at the prison roof, praying no one fell out.  It didn’t look like anyone did.

“We’re good!”  Cender’s voice came over her headset.  There must have been another one plugged in, in the back.

More shots pinged off the hull, but as Riley turned them to face the right direction and lifted higher, they lessened.  Danny held Alec’s GPS in his hands.  They weren’t sure they would be able to use the chopper’s, so they were using his.  He held it out where Riley could see it.

“Door’s closed,” Cender updated her.  “Everyone is present and accounted for.  Although I
think, Rifle may have peed on the seat.  It stinks.”

“That’s just an added bonus,” Riley started laughing.  She couldn’t help it, she was so happy.  “You know they’re going to track this thing down eventually and I love the idea that there’s going to be some dog pee with it.”

Next to her, Danny was all smiles.

* * *

The rest of the flight was actually rather uneventful.  The chopper flew smoothly and easily, the forest below whipping by in a green blur.  At one point, Riley even took them up high and let Danny take the controls.  He was a little wobbly and didn’t know exactly what level was.  He kept tilting the chopper so that it kept getting higher.  Riley instructed him carefully though, and even took her hands off the stick.  Danny’s eyes really bugged out of his head when that happened.

Soon enough though she took control back.  Danny’s hands quickly released the stick, glad not to be in control anymore.  Although he looked like he was enjoying himself immensely, he wasn’t quite ready for the responsibility of flight.

As their destination got ever closer on the GPS, Riley started to use her eyes rather than rely on it.  She slowed the chopper down some and began looking for landmarks.  Although she wasn’t a pilot very often, she had been in the air more than enough times.

Up ahead, she picked out her brother’s place.  He had his own small airfield cutting through the trees.  Her brother worked as a pilot for his own tourist flight company, and his little runway also served as an emergency landing field for other planes.

Riley circled the field several times, having to check the area visually.  Not even Danny knew how to change the radio frequency.  Apparently, that was part of a different set of instructions.  Riley was worried.  Her brother usually monitored all stations and he’d be on extra alert with what was happening.  In fact, he should have heard the helicopter circling and tried to contact them.  Maybe they were on an encrypted channel.  Then he would have come out to see with his own eyes.  And he was home.  His large plane could be seen peeking out of the massive hanger and his truck was in the driveway.  Maybe the zombies had managed to get this far already.

“Hold on to your asses,” Riley told everyone who had headphones.  “We might have a few infected on our hands when we land.  That, and I can’t guarantee a good landing.  I hope you all bought flight insurance.”

Riley realized that Mathias and LeBlanc had managed to rub off on her when she said that last line, making jokes when the stress levels were high.  Actually, Cender was like that too.  The assholes.