I nodded. “That he did. Looks like he wasn’t kidding.”
I couldn’t see the details from my position, and we were coming in to land—my least favorite part of flying—so I left it alone. I’d see it when I saw it, and that was all there was to it. Now I just had to concentrate on not losing my shit during landing.
You live through
one
plane crash, and suddenly every flight is your last. Man up, Sally
.
He looks older
, I thought as Commander—
Captain
, now—Anderson stepped out of the Stryker as the back hatch came down.
Then again, I suppose we all do. Still looks like he could kill me with a flick of his thumb, too
.
“Good to see you, Frank,” I said, my hand reaching out. He brushed it aside and grabbed me in a hug, and I couldn’t have been more surprised. I recovered enough to give him a couple pats on the back, and he released me when he saw Reynolds and Gaines behind me. Both men came to attention and saluted, and he smiled as he returned it. Then there was plenty of smiles and whacks on the back and handshakes all around as old friends caught up with each other after ten years. One of Anderson’s group stepped forward and cleared her throat, and I did a double-take.
Her hair was much shorter, but now I recognized her, and it almost gave me a flashback. I stammered for a second, and she laughed.
God
,
she even
laughs
like her
, I thought.
“Don’t worry, David. You’re not seeing a ghost. It’s just me.”
“Morena, it’s good to see you again, too,” I finally managed to choke out.
Anderson raised an eyebrow with a grin. “Something wrong, Mr. Blake?”
I glanced over at Morena. “No, no, sir. Just a bit of a surprise.”
“I would’ve thought you, of all people, would’ve remembered Mrs. Anderson.” He frowned, and it took me a second to see that he was joking.
Then it hit me. “Wait, what? Mrs. Anderson?”
Reynolds and Gaines began clapping Anderson on the back even harder as they laughed and cheered.
Morena laughed with them. “That’s not all, either,” she said, eying Anderson as she laid a hand protectively on her abdomen.
Frank turned redder than I’d ever seen him, and ran a hand through his gray hair. “Yeah, well, there’s some other news…”
I laughed and hugged Morena, then clapped Anderson on the arm. “Well, well, well! Here I was thinking you were going to die the hardened Navy man, his only love the sea. But no… married and going to be a dad, too! At your age!”
He looked up, more than a bit of the old fire in his eyes, and I almost backed off a step, until Morena laughed. “Oh, don’t you worry,” she said with a wicked grin. “He’s more than young enough to—”
I put my fingers in my ears and chanted. “La, la, la, I can’t hear you!”
She and Anderson both laughed, and I thought Tom was going to have a fit.
“Christ Almighty,” I said. “That’s like hearing that your parents are still…” I covered my mouth and made puking noises. “No, no, forget I said that. Let’s just move on, shall we?”
“I’d say that’s a good idea, from the looks on those boys’ faces,” Anderson said, nodding to the pilots behind me. “They look like fish outta water.”
Both men saluted, and he returned theirs, as well. “At ease, gentlemen. Give me a moment with your CO, will you?” Anderson grabbed my arm and pulled me off to one side. “I’ve got another surprise for you, David.”
“I don’t know if I could handle another one, Frank.”
“You’ll like this one. We’re taking two of those Humvees with us.”
“Oh?” I said, surprised. “Why?”
“We’ve got no idea what we’ll be running into when we stop to refuel in L.A., to say nothing of Christchurch when we get there. We might need the firepower.”
I noticed the .50-caliber machine guns mounted on the roofs of the trucks, and nodded. “Good thinking. I don’t know if we have enough room, though. We’ve gotta fit four hundred and fifty people in here each trip…”
“We’ll just leave them at Christchurch.”
“Seems like an awful waste.”
Anderson shrugged. “Maybe, but these damn Humvees are everywhere here in Texas. We got what you might call a surplus.” He grinned. “I wanted to take the Stryker, but cooler heads prevailed.”
“No doubt. Hard to replace
those
, by God.” I nodded. “OK, then. Sounds like you’ve thought this through better than I did.” It was then that something he’d said earlier caught up with me. “Wait, ‘us’?”
“Ah, three surprises, then.”
“You’re going with us?”
Anderson looked around, making sure Morena wasn’t within earshot. “Let’s just say my wife isn’t thrilled about it, but I’m one of the few pilots we had to loan to this mission. Plus, y’all needed someone in command.”
“Ah,” I said, shaking my head. “Well, then, welcome to the team. Which plane are we taking?”
He turned me and pointed toward the second C-5 in line. “That’s the one, there. She’s in better shape than the others, but she’s going to need some work. A
lot
of work. She’s been outside in the elements for ten years with no maintenance. It’s going to be a couple of months before we can leave here.”
“What about the ones in the hangars?”
“According to the paperwork we found, they’re all in for major repairs or near-total overhauls. We’re going to have a spotter plane along, too. A Gulfstream G5; we found one in good shape.”
“OK. We’ll get settled in for a long stay. I talked to the pilots, and they’re going to run some volunteers through basic flight procedures so we have some backup pilots just in case. Since I’m no good with a wrench, I’ll be doing that unless you need some other help.”
“No, that’s fine. I’ve got twenty guys here to do the job, plus another ten to secure the area. I’m sure Reynolds and Gaines will help with that. I’ll pass the word and see who might be up for some training, too.”
We stood there, looking at this plane that was meant to take us halfway around the world. “Tell me this isn’t a fool’s errand, Frank.”
“Well, David, look at it this way: if we don’t go find this Atkins guy, there’ll be a lot less fools in the world soon enough.”
Somehow, that wasn’t as comforting as I’d hoped.
Chapter Thirteen
Two months later
I looked up at the plane towering over me, and was mesmerized yet again by the sheer size of it. The C-5 was 65 feet high at the tail, and at 247 feet long, it was almost the length of a football field. A quick running play from the tail, and you’d be in the end zone. Its wingspan was nearly the same as its length, and the doors… well, they were just crazy. Lifting the entire nose and tail of an aircraft this size out of the way seemed incredible, but it worked. The first time I’d looked in the cargo area, I’d wondered why these things were only rated to carry four hundred people. You could easily fit a lot more in there. Sure, it wouldn’t be comfortable, and you’d be stacking people like cordwood wherever you could get a spot, but still…
Even if everyone weighed 200 pounds, you wouldn’t be exceeding the plane’s payload capacity until you hit, what, 1,350 people?
I thought.
That’s a
lot
of scientists
.
“David, there you are,” said Anderson, jogging up to me. I kept myself in reasonably decent shape—easy to do on bunker rations—but Captain Anderson was twenty years my senior and looked as healthy as I’d been in my twenties. It made me sick.
He’s not even breathing hard
.
“Here I are,” I said, smiling. “What can I do ya for, Cap’n?”
“Just talked to the pilots, and they said we’re as ready to go as we’re gonna get. Only thing left to do now is take her up for a last test flight and make sure nothing else shakes loose.”
“So we’ll be ready by, like, tomorrow?”
Anderson nodded. “Yep. Archer said the weather patterns are as good as they’re gonna get, too. Not going to be an easy flight, that’s for sure. I’m bringing Mahoney and a couple of his guys along with me, just in case. He’s already talked to Williams, who assigned him as the flight engineer for the trip.”
It was my turn to nod. “Good idea. Mahoney’s a good guy, from what I’ve seen. I’m sure he’ll be able to handle any problems.”
“I thought so, too. Glad you agree,” he said, then paused. “Hey, listen, if you want to give Kim a call, the gearheads rigged a comm shack over on the other side, near the office. Now’s probably a good time.”
I shook my head. “Nah, I’ll talk to her when we get to L.A. We just talked the other day.”
Anderson looked at me intensely for a moment, and I could tell I was about to get an ‘in my day’ speech from him. It wasn’t often that they happened, but what else could you really expect from someone fast approaching their sixties? “Son, if I’ve learned one thing from this fucked-up life of mine,” he said, laying a hand on my shoulder. “It’s that you don’t let chances to talk to your loved ones pass you by. Call her,
comprende
?” He squeezed my shoulder and then walked off, switching to a jog after a few paces.
Muttering to myself, I turned and headed for the comm shack.
I hate it when he’s right
.
Los Angeles International Airport
California
A day later, we were about five miles out of LAX, where we’d be stopping to refuel, when the pilot of our spotter plane radioed back to those of us in the C-5.
“Uh, guys, this is… this is not good,” reported Myers. “Looks like the only runway that’s open is covered with walkers.”
“Covered?” asked Anderson, moving to stand at the flight engineer’s console and picking up a headset. Most of us were crowded onto the flight deck, and those at the back were just listening, unable to even see the windows from their location.
A new voice answered from the Gulfstream. “Gaines here, sir. When he said ‘covered,’ he’s not kidding. We’ve done a few flyovers, and there’s gotta be at least a hundred of the fuckers down there. And that’s the only runway that y’all can use. The others are blocked with wreckage.”
I looked over at Anderson, and he was looking back at me. I shrugged, then looked at Archer, the lead pilot for this leg. “What’s this thing weigh, Colonel?”
He thought about it for a moment. “As empty as she is, I’d say just shy of four hundred thousand pounds, sir.”
Anderson was still looking at me when I turned back. “You’re an evil one, Mr. Blake,” he said with a grin.
“I know.”
“Myers, this is Anderson. Continue circling; we’re gonna plow the field for you. Then y’all can come up and keep what’s left off our butts. Once the walkers are clear, we’ll taxi over and refuel. Hopefully, we’ll be able to minimize our time out of the plane.”
“Yes, sir,” said the pilot of the smaller craft, his voice a bit wobbly. “Out here.”
“Uh, sir?” asked Williams. “Plow the field?”
“Take us down, Colonel. And roll right over them.”
The pilots looked at each other, and I could see Williams swallow hard. I headed back to my seat behind the crew bunks. I wasn’t the only one, either. Even though it had been my idea, I still couldn’t watch it.
This isn’t going to be pretty
.
A few minutes later, we began our approach, and I tried not to think about what was going to happen. My only saving grace was the fact that I could barely hear anything but the engines back here. I looked across the aisle at one of the soldiers who’d come with us from Bunker Eight—Markinson, I think—and he was asleep. Leaning back against his seat, eyes closed, head jostling like it does in any airplane, he was snoring. I wondered how a man can sleep at a time like this, but it didn’t really matter, as right about that time we touched down and the jarring thud of our wheels slamming into the asphalt woke him.
“Take us all the way to the other end, boys,” said Anderson, from the cockpit. “Mow ‘em down.”
The plane began jarring, bouncing like it was going over potholes, and I knew that it wasn’t potholes, but
people
that were going under the giant wheels of the plane. Or, at least,
former
people. There was a sudden change in the pitch from the engines, and Anderson laughed. “Holy shit, I didn’t even think about that. Well, that’s one way to clear them. Not going to hurt the engines, is it?”
Mahoney responded. “Uh… no, probably not, sir. Those engines might not even notice. I wouldn’t put too many through, though. Excuse me…” There was a clatter and he ran right past me and Markinson, into the head. Thankfully, he closed the door, but it wasn’t exactly soundproof, and I heard him retching over and over again. I tried not to think about what he’d seen.
“We’re almost there, sir,” said one of the pilots. I couldn’t tell which. “About five hundred feet or so.”
“Roger that. Get on the horn… oh, right.” Another clatter, and Anderson spoke again. “Anderson to Myers.” As the comms weren’t on speaker, I couldn’t hear the other man’s response. “We’ve done about all we can here. Go ahead and begin your run. We’ll try to draw them to us, but it’d be best if you had Gaines and Reynolds helping out. Slow and easy once you’re down, son. Anderson out.”
Mahoney finished his solo mission to the head and moved back toward the cockpit, deliberately not looking at me. As we rolled to a stop and the pilots began shutting down the engines, I could hear the ever-increasing noise of the walkers outside beating against the hull and moaning. Anderson spoke up from the flight deck. “OK, Williams, Archer, you stay at the controls in case we need anything in a hurry. The rest of you, we’re going topside. Get your weapons and gear from wherever you’ve got them stowed, and meet back here.”
Markinson got up and took his rifle down from the storage locker, checking to make sure it was ready to go. He glanced over at me and grinned. “Time to go to work!”
I just sighed, and reached for my pack as he moved forward, forming up with the others. I’d never actually
liked
killing walkers, it was just something that needed to be done. Some of these guys, though… I wondered if they’d actually passed the psychological tests the bunker gave regularly, or if someone had slid them by, figuring that an eager walker-killer was better than someone who, like me, only did it out of necessity. In the end, today, it didn’t matter. It was, as he’d said, time to go to work.