The Dead Don't Bleed: Part 2, The Aftermath (37 page)
Read The Dead Don't Bleed: Part 2, The Aftermath Online
Authors: S. Ganley
Garrett sat in the darkness and just stared at the speakers. Hearing that brief conversation had stirred something deep inside of him and he was sure that he was on the verge of having an epiphany about the course his life needed to take from that point on. There had never been a doubt in his mind that other survivors
just like them were out there. Hearing those voices on the radio and sensing the struggle in their words and tone he understood exactly how they felt. People were still out there fighting day by day and losing friends and loved ones along the way. Those same people probably dreamed and prayed for some form of salvation that may never come. Garrett understood that he wanted to be a part of helping people like that. He knew there was no way he could just sit on the sidelines while others faced unimaginable danger on a daily basis. His first priority would be delivering his own small band of survivors to safety, but he vowed that once that was accomplished, he would return and seek out other survivors.
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By their second day of isolation on the top floor of the hospital, Kyle was well on his way to recovering from surgery. He had finally managed to take several steps on his own and there was no sign of infection from his wounds. Copious amounts of pain medication was ensuring that he was able to endure the lingering effects of the surgery with only minimal discomfort.
To everyone's continued disbelief, Emily exhibited absolutely no signs of the virus.
Everything they had seen up to that point indicated that a bite victim would succumb to the virus well within the first twenty four hours only to return as one of the undead a short time later. After a full forty-eight hours following her attack it was clear that Doug’s desperate last minute move with a transfusion from Kimberly had truly worked. He had finally admitted to Garrett that he had his own doubts prior to giving that transfusion. He had half expected it to kill Emily because of her blood disorder, but he had to do something. Doug knew as well as all of them that if his wife got to the point where she was about to die from the virus that the only merciful thing to do would be to end her suffering quickly with a bullet to the head. He had weighed that option over and over but knew that when it came down to it he could never put a gun to the woman’s head and pull the trigger. His alternative was to gamble with the possibility that Kimberly’s blood really did carry the antigens that would save her life. It was an Eighteenth Century method of trial and error that would have seen him disbarred and probably imprisoned before the Apocalypse. Doug told Garrett that he had laid it all out to both women, the risks and the possible benefits to Emily. His plan was to set up a one way transfusion, Kimberly was never in any danger of fluid transfer from Emily that could possibly infect her. Both women had readily agreed to take the chance. Emily understood that the procedure could just as easily end up killing as saving her. But she also understood that alternatives.
Doug confided in Garrett that Emily’s near death experience seemed to have brought about a change in her.
Before the apocalypse Doug their marriage was a joke, something that Doug would have done anything to find a way out of short of losing everything he had worked all his life to obtain. Emily had become someone so unbearable that the mere sight of her often turned his stomach. With both of them now completely stripped of all the money, possessions and status that had defined their previous lives, he thought they were now discovering things about themselves that he had never thought possible. With Emily recovering from the bite wound and the transfusion, the two of them had spent countless hours huddled together just talking. He was starting to learn things about her that he never realized before and once again seeing the girl that he originally fell in love with many years earlier. He thought it possible that they had a chance of falling in love all over again and he was willing to let those chips fall where they may.
Food and water were starting to become a pressing issue for all of them. With the stairwell to the lower floors of the hospital almost constantly flooded with a never ending parade of zombies, their ability to scavenge supplies was extremely limited. Garrett estimated that using emergency rationing they had enough for another two or three days at best. He had been spending a great deal of time on the roof working to set up a system to collect rain water and morning dew into lined trash cans and other containers they were able to find.
He was also experimenting with the use of crude snares in the hopes of trapping some of the hundreds of birds that routinely made use of the roof during the day. It was a long shot but if they could manage to catch three or four a day, the meat would be able to sustain them for a while longer.
Olivia clambered up the roof stairs and burst through the door at a full spring. Seeing her charging across the roof towards him, Garrett's first reaction was to reach for his pistol with the fear that zombies had finally found a way to infiltrate
their refuge. Something about her mannerism told him that something else was going on. She was excitedly waving something in her right hand while wearing the biggest smile on her face that Garrett could ever remember seeing on the pilot.
"Garrett! There coming! Search and rescue!" She shouted while
still halfway across the roof from him.
He now recognized the object in her hand, it was the two way radio she had carried with her since ejecting from her plane almost three days earlier. To conserve the limited batter power in both her radio and emergency beacon she had only been turning them
on for short periods of time twice each day. Before Garrett could reply, a familiar sound that he never thought he would hear again carried to him from somewhere off to the east. The churning blades of a heavy transport helicopter sent a vibration through the roof that carried down into the floor directly underneath them. Just as Olivia reached his side, Garrett saw several excited faces burst from the access door on the far side of the roof and begin frantically searching the sky all around them. It was Miranda who spotted it first. Dropping from altitude they all saw the massive Sea Stallion search and Rescue helicopter descending towards the roof of the hospital.
Forming a rough
semi-circle along the fringes of the roof, everyone watched in awe as the helicopter softly settled down directly in the center of the roof. Garrett couldn’t help but notice that the three door gunners dressed in full chemical warfare gear directed their multi-barreled machine guns towards them as the helicopter settled down. The passenger compartment doors of the helicopter slid open and a half dozen chemical suit wearing soldiers armed with assault rifles fanned out and formed a protective ring around the perimeter of the helicopter. A minute after the soldiers were all in place, three more similarly dressed figures emerged from the back of the helicopter and began walking towards Olivia.
"Garrett. Wait here and don't make any sudden movements. These people will be jumpy and nervous." Olivia said and then turned back towards the
soldiers and walked forward to meet them halfway.
Seconds after
meeting the greeting party, Garrett was surprised to see Olivia lunge forward and wrap her arms excitedly around one of them in particular. He couldn't hear a word she was saying over the roar of the helicopter, but from the excited look on her face and the mutual hug she had shared with this particular individual he took it as a good sign that they were in friendly hands. After the preliminary greeting was concluded, Olivia directed the visitors to the furthest end of the roof away from the helicopter where they carried on an animated conversation for almost fifteen minutes. On several occasions Olivia turned and gestured towards Garrett and the others who were gathered on the fringes of the roof patiently observing the little meeting. It seemed that she was pleading a case for the rest of them to be included in the rescue effort. Garrett couldn't hear the conversation or see the faces of the others but judging by the unwavering look on Olivia's face it appeared she was refusing to leave unless everyone left together.
A resolution seemed to have finally
been reached as the group broke apart. Two of the chemical suit clad figures made their way back to towards the soldiers guarding the helicopter while Olivia and the third visitor walked forward to meet with Garrett.
"Garrett. I would like to introduce my squadron leader, Lieutenant Alan Chapman." Olivia offered.
"I have heard some impressive things about you." Lieutenant Chapman said. "It seems we all owe you a debt of gratitude for keeping the young Lieutenant here safe."
Garrett detected a general friendless
in the man's voice, even muffled as it was through the filters of his face mask. Olivia had talked about her squadron leader before and had said that if anyone could organize a rescue effort for her that he would be the one to do it. Garrett knew that he would not normally have been included in a rescue and that his presence here showed his genuine support in recovering a pilot under his command. He immediately found a great deal of respect for someone willing to go to those lengths for one his people. "I appreciate the sentiment sir. All of us have just been doing our best to survive. I won’t say it hasn't been without its challenges."
Crusher glanced around the rooftop at the rest of their people standing idly by and quietly observing from a distance, "I can only imagine. It
hasn’t been easy for any of us. But, we are now ready to offer you and the rest of your group the opportunity to leave. Lieutenant Frostburg has made it clear that she will not step foot aboard our helicopter until the rest of your group is already loaded. She has also briefed us that one of your numbers has overcome the infection and you have successful tested her blood for use as a cure. I will be honest with you and tell you that this piece of information in no small way has ensured all of you a ride out of here. Our mission is search and rescue of a downed pilot. But our overall goal is finding a solution to the outbreak and it sounds like you may have helped get us closer to that than anyone else."
As they were speaking, Garrett noticed the other two men who had conferred with Olivia now directing several soldiers back to the helicopter. In a moment they reappeared carrying a collapsible stretcher and ran towards the doorway at the other side of the roof.
"Our men have been instructed to help your wounded and assist in anyway needed." Lieutenant Chapman said as he followed Garrett’s gaze and noted his questioning expression.
The rest of the men near the helicopter shouldered their rifles and walked towards Miranda and the others along the edge of the roof. They were ushering them towards the helicopter but Garrett saw that none of them were willing to be the first to move forward and all eyes were turned towards
him. Waving his hand towards the helicopter he signaled for them to follow the soldiers and climb on board the craft. Garrett then followed Olivia and Lieutenant Chapman towards the open door of the aircraft where Garrett stopped and waited for the soldiers inside the building to return with Kyle and the others who were still inside. Miranda walked over to him while everyone else was ushered into the crew compartment of the helicopter and offered seats. The helicopter made it impossible to attempt a conversation, but there really wasn't anything that needed to be said between them. She looked up into his eyes and offered him a smile. As they waited for Kyle to be loaded, Garrett reached down and grasped Miranda's hand. While he was elated that they had all made it to this point and the rescue they had dreamed about had finally come, he found his thoughts drifting.
Garrett had never talked to Miranda or anyone else about the dead father behind the wheel of the jeep at the entrance to the park. It was something that never really left his thoughts though. Watching as his rag tag group of survivors
piled into the waiting helicopter, his thoughts also turned to the radio transmission they had picked up just a few days earlier. There were still so many other less fortunate souls left fighting for survival without any hope of salvation. He had made a promise to himself to return and help however he could and he intended to follow through on that. His hope was that he could prevent any more fathers from facing the same pain and anguish he had witnessed inside that lonely jeep in the park.
Walking hand and hand with Miranda, Garrett
stepped stoically towards the waiting helicopter. While he felt relief that this chapter in their life was finally closing, he also felt an anxious anticipation for the next one to soon begin.
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Also Available on Amazon.com:
The Dead Don’t Bleed Series:
The Infected Series
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