The Common Cold (Book 2): A Zombie Chronicle-Cabin Fever (14 page)

By the time their task was complete a layer of snow
approximately eight inches deep had settled on the ground. BB had never seen weather
so intense before and it unnerved him a little. He glanced at the helicopter to
see if the blades were preventing much from settling on the fuselage and was
pleased to see it appeared to be working so far. Finished the job and with their
boots squeaking into the fresh snowfall, they struggled to return the fuel hose
and the earth cable to their former position. He peered at the gauge to see how
much fuel remained. “Looks like there isn’t enough for another drink so let’s
hope the front does move away quickly.”

Deciding it took energy she would rather spend on warmth in
her body, rather than replying Zoë just nodded automatically as they made their
way back to the aircraft and got back on board.

“Argh!
Goddam it, that really
hurts,” BB exclaimed as blood rushed back into his hands. The pain was intense
but he was glad for some sensation in his extremities again.

“Stop being such a pussy,” Zoë said through chattering
teeth, her face sending the same pained message as BB’s whining complaint.

Kimberley pulled her husband down onto one of the bench
seats and began to rub his arms and legs vigorously, helping the blood flow
back into the limbs. Emily began to copy the doctor’s actions for Zoë and soon
the pair returned to a semblance of their previous human condition.

“I could murder a hot coffee.” BB uttered when he was
finally able to speak.

Zoë smiled and awkwardly delved into the magic plastic bag
and pulled out a thermos flask. “Don’t know how warm it is by now, but you’ve
got an imagination so use it.”

Another benefit of keeping the engines running was the
warmth they gave to the cabin, keeping it at a bearable temperature, a few
degrees above zero Centigrade but at least twenty above that outside so it felt
positively tropical by comparison. BB looked over at Kimberley whose face
looked pinched with the cold but so far she had made no complaint. Looking into
her eyes he knew he could never not have made this journey; she would always be
his other (and better) half.

He looked over at Emily; poor girl, he felt sorry for her to
be so young to lose her family so brutally but at least she didn’t have to walk
into the world alone any time soon. With luck their group at the lakes would
become her new family, giving her a new purpose; one thing was for sure, she
would grow up quickly in their new world. She sat staring out of the side
window, deep in private thoughts that wandered across her mind while watching
the snow’s mesmeric swirling motion floating all around. The covering had to be
at least a couple of feet deep by now but the rotating blades had done as he
hoped and there was still a little visibility through the overhead Perspex
light; the downfall was not collecting with any significance on the aircraft.
He hopped into the cockpit to check on the
Ts
& Ps;
so far they were still well within normal ranges. Looking to the east he
imagined he could see the sky lightening, hoping the weather front would soon pass
them by. He looked away for a moment to reduce the brilliant effect of snow
blindness and then looked back, and saw that it was indeed wishful thinking. He
returned to the cabin.

“So. Anyone done anything interesting lately?” he asked,
face serious. Slowly the question sunk in and giggles turned into full-bellied
laughter at the ridiculousness of it all. Kimberley smiled for the first time
since they landed.

“Zoë?”
Emily spoke quietly and at
first her questioning voice went unanswered.
“Zoë.
Can
you see that?” she said a little louder this time.

Zoë turned and peered out of the window, wiping condensation
from the inside surface. “What can you see?”

“I don’t know. I think it’s moving.”

Her observation had them all looking out of the helicopter,
expecting to see a person or animal walking towards them but they could see
nothing.

“Where?”
BB asked, getting
concerned. He still could not see what had caught the young girl’s eye.

“There,” she said pointing and sounding exasperated. Still
no-one could see it.
“Under the snow!”

“What?” Kimberley said, still not knowing what she was
looking for.

And then BB saw it; a subtle movement detected out of the
corner of his eye as the surface of the snow shifted slightly. It appeared to
be about twenty or so yards away and the movement was barely discernible to the
naked eye. Looking directly where he thought he’d seen movement, he saw nothing.
Off to one side, though, something caught his eye. And there it was, a slight
bump on the surface moving slowly towards them. It stopped momentarily before
it made another small movement and then stopped. If he had not served in the
Armed Forces and endured those god-awful assault courses he would not have
recognised the motion for what it was. Someone appeared to be belly walking
their way under the snow towards the helicopter.
But who and
how?

“Zoë.
Get your gun ready.” BB
snapped. The two of them readied themselves as they watched it creep ever
closer.

“What is it?” Emily asked fear in her voice now.

“I think we’ll soon find out.” Zoë replied.

“Get ready to crack the door open, Zoë. I’m going to fire
near whatever it is, see if we can scare it into revealing itself.” BB knelt
and aimed. Zoë opened the door slightly and BB fired on semi-automatic. The noise
shook the inhabitants inside the cabin, cordite stinging their nostrils with
its pungent odour in the enclosed environment. Snow and gravel spattered around
the mound but all that happened was that the motion stopped. Zoë quickly closed
it again.

“Damn, maybe it’s nothing,” BB said quietly, watching the
surface for more movement.

“There’s another!” Emily squealed in excited fear. In fact
two more mounds appeared to be making their way towards the helicopter. They
were only just discernable in the white on white contrast; it would have been
easy to overlook them had it not been for Emily’s young and keen eyesight.

“Shit,” BB cursed before making his way quickly to the
cockpit to look around in other directions. This time he noticed the sky was
definitely brightening ahead of them, the weather was passing through. The
brighter light revealed another three mounds to the front making the slow,
stop-start progress under the snow. Assuming it was the same to the rear of the
helicopter, he realised that the only side where the bloody things weren’t was
the side cut short by the escarpment that trailed down around a thousand feet. Whatever
they were, and his gut feeling was pointing towards the bloody obvious, these
things must have been hiding out beyond the treeline, out of sight. The falling
snow had been excellent cover for them as they worked their way towards the
helicopter.

The big question was whether or not to fight or fly out
before the storm had moved past them. Doing the maths he reckoned there had to be
at least seven or eight around them and probably more in the treeline. With the
woman he loved and two others he was becoming fond of on board, his indecision
was positively painful to him. If I fly into that weather it might be deeper
than expected. What if the GPS failed? All he would have was a radio altimeter,
a compass and an airspeed indicator telling him how far he had travelled and
how high he was. That was all well and good when he could see the ground but
dead-reckoning in this white out was a dangerous game, especially when he had
neither landmarks nor knowledge of the wind speed or direction around him. And
the ground would get higher as he travelled back east towards the mountains.
The last thing he wanted to do was to fly into the ground, CFIT it was known as
in the trade, Controlled Flight
Into
Terrain. That
would ruin their day for sure. The alternate option would be to fly above or
around the weather front, but this was simply not possible in a helicopter, the
clouds could easily go up to thirty six thousand feet; apart from that fact,
they didn’t appear to have enough oxygen supplies for that sort of solution
anyway. Anoxia and freezing to death didn’t seem to be the best solution,
especially for Californians; hell they could stay on the ground for one of
those. It hit home just how dependent his life-long profession of flying had
been on known weather conditions and support from the ground.

On the other hand, he was pretty damn sure what was under
the snow. What to do. Mind made up he stepped back into the cabin and spoke to
his entourage.

“Right, ladies.
We have a choice.
We can either fight it out with those bastards out there or fly off into this
weather.” He stated matter-of-factly. “If all of these things get to the
chopper their combined weight may cause me problems in taking off if that
becomes our last solution. I know for a fact that they are tenacious bastards
and will hold on like death is chasing them. So I can’t shake them off in the
air.”

“What if we stopped the ones nearest us?” Zoë suggested.
“Perhaps the others will fall back?”

“I don’t think they work like that, girl. I don’t think death
is at the top of their list of things to avoid. I would go out and try to deal
with them, but what if one of them is a fast one?
And gets
me.
You’ll never get through this weather with your fledgling skills.”

Throughout his little speech BB had been arguing for the one
and only option he knew they had: to fly out now. They would have to take their
chances with the weather. He would also have to radio ahead and tell the folks
back in Colorado the latest trick these bastards had revealed. The looks on
their faces told him how they would vote. No-one wanted to die here and now.

“Come on Zoë. Get your helmet on, we’re going. Kimberley and
Emily, sorry that there’s nothing for you to do, but you can pray for us.” The
last was delivered with a grim smile; he certainly wished he had more
confidence in what he was about to do. In the circumstances he was certainly gaining
advanced knowledge of the helicopter without the aid of an instructor. He just
hoped he had learned enough.

All seated and ready, BB pulled on the collective and they
began to lift off. With the constantly rotating blades whirring above them during
their short sojourn on the ground, only a thin covering of snow had settled on
the bird and in the man-made hurricane force winds and windscreen wipers this was
easily swept off the canopy, giving the pilot good forward visibility. Thank
God for the full de-icing capabilities of this bird, BB thought to himself. As
they lifted off two of the mounds in front of them broke open revealing two grey-skinned
soldiers who, recognising the impending escape of their prey, leapt up and ran stiff-legged
towards the chopper. Too late, the helicopter rose into the white sky and was
soon gone from their grasp.

“Zoë.
Can you get on the radio and
keep trying to get through to Mike? I need all my wits to fly in this. Tell him
what we’ve just seen ’
cos
they’ll have a lot of snow
too by now.”

“Roger. Will do, Captain.” She replied. He looked sideways
at her, wondering if she was taking the mickey, but her face was serious.
Clearly she approved of his decision to get the hell out of Dodge. He smiled at
her reassuringly.

*

 
“Have you guys found
a stash of moonshine?” Mike asked, incredulous at what he had just been told.

“No sir, I wish,” Zoë replied. “We saw what we saw. That’s
why we’re flying through this shit right now. BB says we’re about three hours
out from the cabin.”

“Thanks, Warrant Officer,” he replied hoping to bring a
little discipline into her report and maybe calm her down. They spoke a little
more before he closed the connection. Looking out of the helicopter canopy he
had a chill run down his spine and it had nothing to do with the weather.

He ran back to the cabin to find out the status of the move
into the other premises. Most of the others were back but Stacey and Jackie
were still in their new place, ‘making it
look
nice’
according to what they had told Janet.

“Everyone.
Can I have your attention?
This is urgent.” They all gathered around. “I’ve just been speaking with Zoë
and it appears we may have a real problem.” Silence fell in the room as he
explained the potential danger.

“Haven’t we killed them all?” Sandy asked hopefully, her
face pale with the horror of the tale.

“I reckon there are some fast ones out there beyond the
treeline,” Rob replied. “I keep seeing some movement over there. That’s why
Stacey and Jackie will be coming back here under escort when they’ve done.
They’ll be calling by walkie talkie when they’re ready.”

“I think they ought to come back now. The snow is very thick
and will easily hide these crafty things. I don’t want it to get dark before
they return, not now. And I think we ought to stay together in this cabin tonight.”

“I think that’s a good idea, Mike,” Janet agreed. “At least
until we can come up with a workable solution. Otherwise we are giving them
three targets they can creep up on. And us three places to protect.”

“It sure appears to be a bit of a game changer,” Chuck
agreed.

“How are we going to protect our legs when we go out?” Danny
asked. “If these things tunnel under the snow they’re going to meet our legs
first. God, it’ll be like sharks in the water.” He shivered involuntarily. It
was one of the creepiest things he’d heard up to now - a hidden threat. It was
clear everyone else in the cabin felt the same.

“Well, we have a couple of shovels we can use to spear the
snow ahead and around us as we make our way to the hut.” Tom suggested.