Soldier On: Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse (24 page)

Cade instantly realized what was happening. Hoss started screaming and hyperventilating. “
My foot, they’ve got ahold of it. Help. Pull me up...don’t let them have me
.”

Hosford’s body was being pulled through the sixteen inch wide gap. Below, in the hall, the undead were jockeying for a piece of his pasty leg. They had already ripped off his leather wingtip and sheer black dress sock. Frigid fingers worked to pull the meat towards their open mouths, the multitude of gnashing teeth yearning for a taste.

Cade tried with all his might to save the man from a horrible death; it was a lopsided tug of war, he was fighting the undead as well as the pull of gravity. Hosford Preston’s worst fear was becoming reality. He didn’t want to be one of them. A piercing scream left his mouth when the jagged teeth clamped down on his bare toes. The three smallest ones on his left foot were amputated by the ghouls grinding teeth. Blood sprayed onto the mob of flesh-eaters, exciting them all the more. Cade suddenly lost his grip on Hosford’s meaty hand. The crush of dead accepted all three hundred pounds of him with clawing fingers and open jaws.

“
Finish him
.” Cade yelled loud enough to be heard over the blood curdling screams.

Daymon moved Cade aside and trained the Glock through the jagged man sized hole. He aimed away from Hoss and fired three shots into the ghoul nearest the wailing man. If he had liked the lawyer even one iota, he would have emptied the entire magazine into his glistening dome and spared him from the fate much worse than death. Daymon’s eyes narrowed to slits as he watched the smug lawyer bleed out, bleating like a lamb at slaughter.
It’s a pity
, he thought
, that
I won’t be around to see the fat fuck turn
.

Daymon quickly followed Cade out onto the steeply pitched roof. He looked upward. The massive black helicopter hovered, blotting out the bluebird sky. The white aspens ringing the property danced and whipped about in the downdraft, tendrils of purple smoke weaved through their fluttering leaves.

Inside the house the dead were stripping the flesh from Hosford’s body and greedily consuming him. Daymon would never know, but there wouldn’t be enough of Hoss left to reanimate.

Daymon watched the cable rescue ladder plummet from the Black Hawk and strike Cade square in the face. Instantly a fine red mist sprayed from the deep bloody gash across the bridge of his nose. Without regard for himself, Cade grabbed the ladder to stabilize it and motioned for Daymon to climb. Neither man could hear himself think let alone communicate. Cade waited until the other man was halfway inside the open cabin before he started his ascent.

Even as he was bounced to and fro in the rotor wash he thought,
Duncan’s getting a hang of the Black Hawk
.
His hover isn’t as steady as one of the SOAR pilots, but not too bad for an old Huey driver.

As the helicopter gained altitude, Cade watched the treetops disappear below his boots. When he reached the top rung he was greeted by an extended hand. There was a trace of a smile on Daymon’s face, but Cade quickly dismissed it and latched on. Once inside the vibrating Black Hawk he noted the other passenger and then met eyes with the pilot. Duncan was animatedly pointing at his helmeted head. Cade understood what he wanted, located a flight helmet and plugged the jack into the bulkhead and then crawled into the co-pilot seat.

With his familiar twang, Duncan welcomed Cade aboard, “How’s it hanging Amigo?”

“Not as low as it was a minute ago. You got a bandage somewhere in this bird?”

Blood was still streaming freely from the gash, Cade tried to staunch the flow with his sleeve.

“Bandage...what you need my man is a
tourniquet
. I apologize for my boy Vincent. Chuckin ladders out of helos isn’t in his job description. From our brief conversation, turns out he was in culinary services at the base.”

The young private’s stammering voice cut in, “Yeah Sir...m-m-my bad. I was a cook...s-s-sorry.”

“No worries soldier, it’ll heal.  Duncan, how is Major Beeson coping?”

Duncan put a finger up in the air, “Wait one.” After he switched the intercom to ensure their conversation would be private, he answered Cade’s question.

“It was inevitable with those bright lights inviting every dead Tom, Dick and Harry over for a bite. Camp Williams fell...it fell fast and hard. Like a big gal on roller-skates.”

Cade ignored Duncan’s gallows humor, it seemed to be his way of coping with the changed world--or not. “How many got out alive?”

“Put it this way-Beeson was prepared. The last thing that I saw was a long line of up-armored vehicles leaving the base. From the amount of muzzle flashes and explosions that I witnessed...they were givin the dead hell.”

“Sounds like textbook Beeson. As long as I’ve known the man he always has been prepared. He might have even been the very first Boy Scout and coined their motto.”

Duncan snickered over the intercom, “Changing the subject on ya Cade.” The tone in the old aviator’s voice suddenly turned serious. “I’ve got bad news and I’ve got good news, which one do ya want to hear first?”

“Dealers choice,” Cade answered.

“I always liked to hear the bad news first...leaves a fella a little somethin to look forward to.” Duncan took a second to check the instrumentation before continuing, “The reason that I bugged out of Portland when the crazies started biting folks was to get to my baby brothers place.”

Cade looked at Duncan from the co-pilots seat, “So I gather the bad news is we’re going on a side trip.” It was more of an acknowledgement than a question. “Correct me if I’m wrong, you said he lives near Salt Lake City...that’s a
huge
population center and I’ve made a point of avoiding those at all costs.”

“That’s not lost on me. Did you already forget the shit that we have been through together?”

“How can I forget the kids that went at the hands of the Nazi bikers? I sure as hell won’t forget how many undead were streaming out of Boise.
That
was a close call...and Salt Lake is several times more populated.”

“Logan’s place should be safe; it’s about fifty miles north of Salt Lake, up in the hill country. Also it’s smack dab in the middle of a lot of wooded acreage. From what he told me last, it’s made up of a series of semi-subterranean bunkers with good fields of fire, water, the works. The place wasn’t very elaborate the first time he gave me a tour.”

Cade broke in, “When was that?”

“The late nineties, he was getting ready for the Y2K bug before anyone in the lamestream media ever got wind of it. You and I both know how that one panned out.”

“Nothing but a whimper,
but...a lot of people got rich off of the panic
.” Cade said while he scanned the airspace on his side of the helicopter. He had stopped looking ground ward early into the flight, all of the dead bodies and walking dead made him fear for Brook and Raven. Lately a palpable sense of impending doom settled in his gut every time he thought about their wellbeing and whereabouts. “When were you there last, and can you find it from the air?”

“Late last year, and it’s much improved. Can I find it from the air? No telling. But rest assured I won’t burn all of our remaining fuel searching.  I guarantee we’ll have enough fuel to get to Colorado Springs.”

“I’m curious...after Y2K fizzled what prompted Logan to keep prepping?”

“Lately, my little brother feared that a looming financial crash was imminent. Not only is Logan a ‘prepper’ but he’s a Mormon also...so as you can imagine, he’s more than ready for any and all hardships. I’m sure he’s still in denial his favorite type of horror movie has become reality. No better reason than that for me to ride this thing out at his place.”

“What do you mean by,
his favorite type of horror movie
?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” Duncan waved his hand in a dismissive gesture.

“Try me...” Cade hated not knowing all of the details going into a situation.

“Not only is my baby bro Logan a fan of the movies and such...” Duncan looked at Cade, and acting against everything his inner voice was telling him, continued his confession, “he was into the zombie walks or whatever they
were
called, and he was also belonged to  a zombie apocalypse preparedness group.”

“You have got to be shitting me.”

“I wouldn’t shit my favorite turd.” Duncan cackled. “And it’s a good thing our friends in the back aren’t listening in. I’m afraid we would have a mutiny on our hands if they were privy to all of this. As far as Logan is concerned, he didn’t believe this zombie apocalypse was going to happen, it was all-just for fun-role playing type stuff...but I hope that he was taking notes.”

“Can’t wait to meet him,” Cade was envisioning a thirty-something, Dungeons and Dragon playing, comic book reading nerd.

“Grab my go-bag it’s next to the bulkhead there. Look in the top pouch there’s a small notebook, on the first page are the GPS coordinates to my bros place, punch in the lats and longs and well see if we can surprise him.”

The Black Hawk hit another patch of turbulent air; everyone was jostled in their seats.

While he keyed in the coordinates Cade continued the interrogation, “I hope this prepper sibling of yours doesn’t put a Stinger man portable up our tailpipe.”

Duncan’s southern inflection made the words sound all the more ominous, “That thought has already crossed my mind lad and I’ve taken the time to acquaint myself with the countermeasures on this bird.” A shit eating grin spread across the aviators face. Cade pretended not to notice.

“How old is this baby brother of yours?”

Duncan let out a cackle, “His nickname is
Oops
. He’s your age; I think you two will hit it off famously.”

“Duncan I’m very grateful that you lived up to your word. You fly. I’ll navigate.”

“That reminds me. Do you still want to hear the good news?”

“Hell yes, seeing as how I’ve yet to hear even a shred of good news since day one of this monster march.”

 “Brace yourself. The last news that Beeson heard out of Colorado Springs was that quite a few civilians-including
women
and
children
had escaped from Fort Bragg and relocated there.”

Before Duncan was halfway through telling Cade the news he could see the former Delta Operators face soften, his usual steely determined look replaced by what appeared to be a new found hope. Cade let out a whoop and pumped his fist, “
Yee-Haw
!”

It was the most emotion Duncan had seen from the stoic fella since they met, days ago, back in Oregon.

“I suspected you had a little cowboy in you,” Duncan said, as he switched the intercom to include the other passengers in case they wanted to communicate anything.

“Someone win the lottery up there?” Daymon asked.

“You could say that.” Cade pumped his fist and gave Duncan a spirited hi-five. Cade felt it in his stomach first, the helicopter was slowly descending. Duncan was bringing them down, closer to the thick canopy of trees.

Changing the subject, “Who’s the fella with the spider on his head?” Duncan was obviously talking about Daymon and his full mane of tightly woven dreadlocks and apparently didn’t care that the man was listening in on the comms.

“Says his name is Daymon, he’s proven himself capable against the walkers...the guys deadly with his crossbow; the best I’ve ever seen.”

Duncan welcomed the young man aboard, “Good to make your acquaintance son. My names Duncan Winters, glad to meet ya.”

“Likewise dude.” Daymon nodded and smiled, although inwardly he still seethed at the disrespectful comment. “You need to know; where you’re headed... that place is crawling with those things. I’ve seen them with my own eyes. My mom lived there...there aint nothing living there now. I couldn’t get closer than Provo. The fuckers were rushing my Suburban so I turned around and was headed home, to Jackson Hole-before I met mister Glock in my face.”

“You did the right thing son.” Duncan said. “But don’t worry we’re going northeast of the city...way up in the hills.”

Daymon hated people who told him not to worry.
I’ve been worrying since that bitch of a Mom threw her baby boy in the dumpster
, he thought,
don’t worry my ass
. “I know, I know, but it still doesn’t feel good. It’s like there will be no closure for me. I already miss her.” Daymon’s voice trailed off. He was certainly not finished mourning the loss of the lady he considered his Mom; the one who adopted him thirty two years ago. Suddenly he exploded, “
The right thing to do is nuke the fuckers responsible for this nightmare that I can’t seem to wake up from
.”

“Someday, someone will put the pieces of the puzzle together and pinpoint where it all started. I’m sure the CDC is working hard to find an antidote,” Cade said. He shivered thinking about the ramifications if he were wrong.

“I’ve been thinking that this thing... It’s got to be manmade. Mother Nature can be cold and cruel but she aint evil. You know what I’m saying.” Daymon’s eyes were welling up with tears which he made sure to conceal from the others.

Duncan kept scanning the Black Hawks gauges while he carried on his conversation. “I concur, but anger won’t serve you well now. Keep a level head and stay frosty.”