Al came into through the kitchen doorway. “Downstairs is clear. We need to go up. The rest must be upstairs.”
We went to the stairs to start up. Dillon was standing at the top of the steps looking down at us. He was covered in bite marks. Dillon's eyes were glazed over. The infection had already taken him. Al didn't hesitate. He shot Dillon and started up. I stepped over Dillon's body and looked down the hall. Four dead zombies lay in the hall. Two were missing their heads. Blood, brains, and bone fragments were everywhere. Dillon's shotgun lay on the floor. The barrel was bent and the stock was shattered. One hell of a fight took place up here. Dillon had beat the other two zombies to death with the emptied shotgun.
There were four doorways leading off the hall. All four doors were open. The first two rooms we came to were empty. We moved down the hall. We came to the next door and could hear the sounds of chewing and moaning before we even looked in. We silently moved past and went to the next door. It was the same story. The dogs must have come up the steps to try and protect the children. Dead dogs and children were everywhere. Zombies crouched over them eating. I started to retch and Al glared at me. “Keep it together.” He whispered. “You take this room and I'll take the first. Shoot them all, even the dogs.”
I stood in the doorway. Al took the other. We started shooting at the same time; first downing the zombies then moving to the children and dogs. I'd empty one magazine, eject it, and slap in the next. I went through three clips before Al came and stopped me.
“That's enough buddy. Let's get out of here.”
We went downstairs and Al went into the kitchen. He opened the hearth of the wood burning kitchen stove Lisa had prepared our breakfast on hours before. There were some large tongs beside the stove. Al told me they were used for moving logs around in the stove. He started pulling flaming logs out of the stove and stacking them in the middle of the kitchen.
The fire started quickly. Al and I stood watching the flames as they spread through the room. The drapes hanging on the door leading out to the backyard caught on fire.
“Come on Al. It's time.” We turned and headed for the front door.
Chapter 12
Day 4
Sergeant Adams took Lily with him and went to gather the men. I watched them as they left and it seemed as though the two were engaged in a heated conversation. About what I was sure I would find out later. I talked with the two pilots about my plans for them. One would take me to the “undisclosed” location of Dr. Parks. The other would to go with the rest of the men, fly reconnaissance, and basically lead them until if and when I returned. I left it up to them as to who went where. After a short discussion it was decided Lieutenant Price would fly me to the Dr. and Lieutenant Mercer would go with the troops. They needed to gas up the choppers and get a fuel tanker ready to go with the platoon. When the first of the troops began to arrive, I sent them with the pilots to help. The men gathered around and I waited for Sergeant Adams and Corporal Flowers to get back so I could begin the briefing. After a longer wait than I would have anticipated, the two returned. Each had a backpack and looked to have already gathered their gear. I knew where this was heading. I went to the Sergeant to find out what they had in mind. Then I planned to put a stop to it.
“Glad to see you're ready Sergeant. I want you and Lieutenant Mercer to take the men north about ten or fifteen miles. It should be fairly clear of zombies that way. Then you should head west. When you get clear of these hordes maybe you should give the men the option of going it on their own or staying with the platoon. There's no reason to stop them from trying to get to their families. I would tell you to let them go now but if they were to try going east or south they'd never make it The horde coming at us from the south is so big we can't even stay here. Going towards them would be suicide. And I can't even imagine how bad it must be to the east. There's got to be millions of zombies all up and down the coast. Try to persuade the men not to go east.”
“What are your plans sir?”
“Honestly, Sergeant, I don't know. The only thing I'm sure of is, I want to meet Dr. Parks. He's the one that created this virus. The government thinks he's our best bet at finding a way to stop this. I'm not so sure about that.”
“Why not sir?”
“Not only did he create the virus, he's the one that spread it all over the world.”
“And they think he's going to invent a cure? Who could be that stupid?”
“The people in charge.”
“Corporal Flowers and I are coming with you.”
“You're going with the men. Lieutenant Mercer is going to need your help. And I want you to keep an eye on Lily for me.”
“There's four other sergeants in the platoon and six corporals. Having me there isn't going to make a damn bit of difference. And sir, Lily is perfectly capable of taking care of herself. The way we see it, you're going to need our help. Besides she's not going to take no for an answer.”
“That's too bad Sergeant. There's no telling what kind of mess we'd be walking into. I can't take that kind of chance.”
“What the hell do you think it's going to be like out there for those men? You think they're going to have it any easier? Living just turned into a risky business. Captain, I'll take my chances with you. She feels the same way.”
“Give me a minute with her.”
“You got it. I'm going to go check on those fuel trucks.”
Adams got in one of the jeeps and drove the short distance to where the men were busy filling the fuel trucks. Before he was out of the jeep I could already hear him yelling at the men. I found Lily arguing with Lieutenant Price while she loaded her gear on the chopper.
“I don't give a shit what you thought. Sergeant Adams and I are coming along.”
“Look Corporal, you need to watch that mouth of yours. All I said was that Captain Downs didn't say anything about anybody going with us.”
“Instead of giving me a hard time you could be helping me get this shit loaded.”
“I'm not helping you do shit. I'm going to go and find the Captain.”
I stood there listening to the entire exchange and thought this might be a good time to come to the Lieutenant's rescue.
“Lieutenant.”
“There you are sir. She seems to think she's coming with us.”
“Let me talk to her.”
“Good luck with that sir.”
The Lieutenant stepped back and stood there with his arms folded across his chest.
“Alone Lieutenant.”
“Of course. I need to go get some maps or something anyway.”
He turned and walked away. Lily stared daggers at me, waiting for me to say something.
“Tell me about the kiss.”
“What would you like to know? I can tell you you're a lousy kisser sir.”
“Corporal, that's not what I meant. Besides you took me by surprise. That wasn't my best effort.”
“I can't explain it. It just happened. You saved my life. I don't know. What do you want me to say.”
“Are you sure you want to come with us.”
“I'm not sure of anything. That's not true. I'm sure I don't want to die. But yeah, we're coming.”
“We'll need more food and water. Make sure there's plenty for everyone. Do you know which tent is mine?” She shook her head yes. “Would you grab my rucksack? It's already loaded with my gear.”
“Yes sir.”
She hugged me and kissed me on the cheek. She ran off, it looked almost like she was skipping down the runway. We weren't fighting zombies this time. If I had to guess, I'd bet one hundred and fifty of the two hundred men standing there saw her kiss me. At this point I didn't care. It was time to talk to them anyway. I walked away from the chopper and called for the men to gather round.
“I want to congratulate you men. We made it.” Cheers went up and I waited for the celebration to subside. After a few minutes I was able to continue. “Alright, alright, listen up. Most of you already know there's another horde headed our way from the south. This one's ten times larger than one we just faced.” I was exaggerating a bit but wanted to make sure the men saw how dire the situation was. “There's no way we can stay here.” This statement was met with some rumbling from the crowd. “Lieutenant Mercer is going to take most of you north of here. Then you'll head west. At this point we haven't determined where we're headed. The Lieutenant will use the helicopter to scout locations and observe the movements of the enemy.”
“Sir, wouldn't it be safer to stay here? I thought we were supposed to hold this airfield.”
It was one of the sergeants. “The last thing Colonel Bradley told me was that the fighter jets would not be returning. We've been left on our own. There is no way we can fight off this next horde. You all saw how close we came to being overran by the last group. If we want to live we have to abandon this base. The trucks are already loaded with food, water, and ammunition. You have fifteen minutes to gather your gear. I suggest you use that time wisely. I want anyone over the rank of private to meet with Sergeant Adams. That's all.”
“Adams get them briefed. After they get far enough north let them do as they please. No one stays here though. I'll let Lieutenant Mercer know what I think he should do. That's all”
I know I was short with the Sergeant but I couldn't help it. It pissed me off when they questioned my orders. Being responsible for this many lives was hard work. I'd be relieved to get the hell away from here. It didn't end here though. I still had Lily to worry about. She was capable and didn't need me. I couldn't help how I felt. Nothing was going to happen to her.
Lily returned with the extra food, water, and my rucksack. Sergeant Adams loaded extra ammunition and we prepared to leave. The convoy of trucks headed out with Lieutenant Mercer flying reconnaissance. We lifted off. I had our pilot fly north over the battle field we were leaving behind. Bodies were strewn everywhere, more on the far side of the trenches than I would have imagined. The big guns on the helicopters had done a hell of a job. Without them we never would have stood a chance. We flew back over the airfield and headed south. It wasn't long until we were flying over the horde headed towards the now abandoned base. Zombies as far as the eye could see. Maybe I hadn't exaggerated, they would have rolled over us like we weren't even there. It took a few minutes to fly over the horde, traveling at over sixty miles an hour. The entire city of Richmond must have been headed our way.
I could see the fires from Richmond from miles out. As we passed over the city, the devastation was evident even from the high altitude we maintained due to the large amount of smoke in the air. The center of the city had already burned to the ground. The fires were working their way to the outskirts of the business district. With no one to battle the blaze, it would soon reach the suburbs where hopefully the lack of combustible material would slow the flames down. Obviously the General had sent his bombers into the heart of Richmond. From what I observed, all they had done was drive the zombie horde out of the city. Why hadn't the bombers tried bombing the zombies outside the city? Had the General changed his strategy already? He probably didn't even have a plan. His only goal was to keep his own ass alive. When we reached the southern most part of Richmond, I had Lieutenant Price radio the General. It took a while but we finally were able to raise someone from Command.
“This is Petty Officer John Kisker from the Battleship Longfield. With whom am I speaking?”
“Lieutenant Price, Fort A.P. Hill. I've been trying to reach General Simmons. My radio has been out and I've just gotten it back on line. Is the General available?”
“He's been going crazy trying to reach you. Give me a minute. He's below decks. Stay on this frequency and I'll call right back.”
“Did you get that Captain?”
I was wearing head phones and a microphone that were linked to the on board intercom system. “Yeah I heard. Remember I don't want him to know I'm with you.”
“Then just listen. Even if you talk he won't hear you unless you push the button for the microphone.”
We waited five minutes.
“Lieutenant Price, here's the General.”
“God dammit boy. I don't know what kind of games you're playing. There is no way both you two assholes lost radio communication at the same time.”
“Sir, I can't speak for Lieutenant Mercer. I haven't heard from him since my radio died. All I can tell you is I'm sorry sir. As soon as I got the radio working again I called right in.”
“What happened at A.P. Hill?”
“I don't know sir. Things looked pretty bad. When I last heard from you I broke off from the fighting and headed south. As soon as I found a safe place to land I sat her down and went to work on the radio. Just got airborne a few minutes ago. While I was waiting for you to get to the radio, I tried to reach Lieutenant Mercer. Still haven't gotten hold of him sir.”
“Don't worry about Mercer. I want you to go to the set of coordinates I'm going to send you in a minute. What? This Navy fella says your GPS is off. You're going to need that to find where I'm sending you.”
“It's working fine on my end sir.”
Lieutenant Price had disabled the transmit feature on the GPS. As far as the General knew, the entire system was down. We didn't want him knowing our location.
“We can't tell where the hell you are Lieutenant. We're not getting a fix on your location. You sure it's working?”
“As far as I know it's working fine. Send me the coordinates and I'll let you know.”
“Go on boy, you heard him. Send the coordinates.”
A set of numbers came up on the GPS.
“Got it sir. Somewhere in southern Alabama. Is that right?”
“That's it Lieutenant. Get down there as fast as you can.
It's a small military post out in the
boonies somewhere. I don't know much about the place so you're going to have to find it based on the coordinates I sent you. We lost contact with them twelve hours ago, so they won't be expecting you. I need you to get Dr. Jeffery Parks and bring him out here to Battleship Longfield. Bring whatever research he has with you. This is important Lieutenant. I want this man alive. Do you understand me?”
“Loud and clear sir.”