“Why did she attack me, and who taught her to hit like that?” I mumbled out through the gauze in my mouth.
“The man you shot was her brother. They had been held up together since day one. He was down when we got there. I thought he had a heart attack, so I had been working on him. No one saw the bite.” Apache covered her face with her hands showing a rare weak moment. I reached out, pulled her into my arms, and hugged her tight. Just like that, the storm passed and she became hard again. She was careful to lock down her emotions.
“Thanks, Dan. Thank you for all you do.” She got up and disappeared back to the Humvee.
I tried to close my eyes again only to find Julie smacking my cheeks lightly. “You really need to stay awake, hun. Not good to go to sleep after a hit in the head like that. She should be glad I wasn’t over there. I’d have kicked her ass for touching my man.” I chuckled slightly and gathered her into my arms. She sighed and nuzzled into my neck.
“If a month ago you told me I’d be planning a military mission, shooting zombies, and being able to hold you again, I would’ve been put into the looney bin with how hard and long I would’ve laughed. Yet here I am, the lost love of my life in my arms.” I kissed her head and watched Vic and Sharla start on their way to us. “Hun, I need you promise that you’ll be good.”
She didn’t have a chance to respond when Vic and Sharla made it over to us. Julie raised her head and tried to keep her face relaxed. I gave a weak smile. “Sharla, please forgive me.”
I trailed off when she cut me off. Her face was puffy from crying, and she looked gaunt from a bad diet. “No, please don’t apologize. I should be the one apologizing. I just saw red and reacted. Vic explained everything to me. I am so sorry. Can you ever forgive me?”
I stood up onto shaky feet and gathered her into my arms. She shuddered and started to sob. I held her, letting her cry and getting it all out. I had no words that would help her with the pain she was feeling. Her tears dried up, and she looked up at me. Her bloodshot eyes showed a window to her tattered soul. I pushed back her hair and kissed her forehead. “All is forgiven. I am sorry for all this crap in our new world.”
Sharla gave me a weak smile and patted my armored chest. “I’m glad I didn’t hit you in the chest. I think I would’ve broken my hand.” She sighed and turned to Vic. “I am sorry, my love, for beating up your friend.”
I liked Sharla. She was a strong woman. She was a woman pushed to her limits who had just watched her brother being shot in the head by yours truly. Yet here she was making little jokes. Julie took Sharla’s hands in hers and introduced herself. The two ladies sat together and started to talk and comfort one another. I wandered off with Vic over to the drone station. My head was still pounding, but at least the bleeding had stopped. I took the gauze out and threw it into one of the Humvees. As we came up on the station, I first noticed that Harry was now manning the drone. Brian was leaning against the outer wall of the plane, his eyes closed, his posture relaxed. I took a peek at the monitor and saw trees and water. We must be in Washington by now. Soon we would be turning east on our way to Fairchild Airbase. Then it was a two-hour drive to my dad’s ranch. I could taste his cooking already. I was looking forward to not being scared all the time or looking over my shoulder for Ridder every time I stepped outside.
Kuppers came down from the cockpit and waved over for Vic and I to come to him. We obliged and picked up Hase on our way. I rubbed the side of my head, trying to calm the ache and pounding inside. Kuppers held out his hand to me. I opened mine and he dropped two white pills into it. I hunched my shoulders, not really caring to ask what they were. I tossed them into my mouth and dry swallowed.
“Those should take the edge off the aches.” He looked me over and shook his head, “Sucks when you do the right thing and still get your ass kicked. Someone needs to teach you how to fight, or at least defend yourself.” He smiled, but it didn’t make it all the way to his eyes. I knew something was up and not something good. “After I drop you off, the team needs to leave right away. Seems to be a problem back in California, and they need us. So I have been ordered to drop whoever wants to leave at the airport and take off. The rest will have to be done on your own.”
I felt the gut punch of his words and meanings. We would never be able to make it to my dad’s without help from the rest of the team. Hase and Vic looked like they wanted to punch something.
I sighed and stuck my hand out to Kuppers. He took it, and we shook firmly. “You have to do what you have to do. It has been an honor fighting alongside you. Thank you for your kind words, instruction, but, most of all, your friendship.” I let go of his hand and took two steps before a powerful hand gripped my shoulder.
“Oh hell, boy, the reason I left the military is because I have a problem with orders. Shouldn’t take us more than two hours to escort you and your family. We need to leave a small force behind to fuel up the plane and provide security. We started this whole damn thing as a family. We will end it as a full team. Vic and Hase, load up supplies and ammo in the Humvees. Have someone clean the .50 and reload the MK-19. I need to go and tell Phillips we are ignoring the General’s orders.” He squeezed my shoulder once and disappeared back to the cockpit.
Hase and Vic barked orders to the team, getting their asses moving and performing their tasks. I had an idea and made my way over to Harry. “Hey, Harry, I need a favor. Send the drone ahead and start recon on Fairchild Airbase and Spokane city proper. We need eyes on target before we get there.” He nodded at my orders and went to work tasking the drone’s flightpath.
I found my headset and put it on, “Phillips, you on this thing?”
“Yeah, Dan, what’s up?” He did not sound happy, maybe perturbed at what Kuppers just told him.
“Halo flight has left us, who is now acting as escorts?”
“That would be Hellcat 1 and 2. They are a flight of two F15’s with fuel drop tanks. Almost same ordinance load-out as the F22s. Why, what’s on your mind?”
“Just asking. I like to have all the data.”
“I am sure you do. You know with your little trick down there, we could’ve lost the plane and all, right?” He sounded pissed.
“Phillips, I am not in the business of losing friends. If it meant you and your precious plane were overrun by zombies in order for us to just try and save the team, I would’ve sacrificed everything, even my own life. I know you think that what I did was foolish, and maybe it was, but I don’t leave people behind. I lost too many friends in the tower I was trapped in. That is not happening again.” I pulled the cord out of the jack before he could respond.
Harry looked back at me. He had heard the entire conversation. He gave me one of those giant shit-eating grins and a thumbs up. I waved him off and walked away. Those pills were starting to kick in, but the edge was exactly what they were able to help with. I still had a pounding and ache in my head. Instead of feeling like someone was using a jackhammer on my brain, it now felt like the person switched out for a sledgehammer. I sat down away from everyone and tried to relax without closing my eyes and falling asleep.
As I sat there, little Angel popped up from her hiding spot by one of the Humvees. She climbed up on my lap and cuddled against me. Somehow this little girl knew when I was hurting and in need of comfort. I stroked her hair and sat in that moment, ignoring everything around us. It was then she turned and looked up at me with those eyes. “Dan, thank you for following through on your promise and protecting me. I was so scared before you entered my life and carried me to safety. You are like a second daddy to me. I wish you, Julie, and I could be a family.”
I laughed quietly and pushed her hair from her face and tucked it behind her ear. “Little one, we three are a family. Add in your crazy uncle Sasquatch and we make four. And when we get to my dad’s ranch, we will be an even stronger family.”
Her face beamed with happiness. That glow seemed to be coming back, but then as fast as it appeared she dimmed and her face transformed into uncertainness. Her voice seemed to become softer, “I hope so with all my heart.” She took my face into her little hands and kissed both my cheeks and forehead. She turned and looked over her shoulder to Sharla. “She needs me. Things are dark for her.” With that, she climbed down and walked away.
That little girl seemed so beyond her age sometimes. I felt a little better, and the pounding in my head had even subsided. I sat back, crossed my legs, and removed a granola bar from one of my various and numerous pockets. I ripped open the package and just about broke another tooth on it. I switched tactics and used my back teeth to break a piece free. I worked it around in my jaw before it finally started to break down. I watched Angel as she sat with Sharla. She was changing Sharla’s mood, comforting her with quiet words and touches.
I felt the plane bounce as we hit turbulence. I turned my head and examined the screen at the drone station. I started making out shapes of buildings in the distance. I stood and made my way over slowly. All I needed now was to fall and hit my head again. Three concussions in one day would be some kind of record, I was sure. “Hey, Harry, is that Spokane?”
He nodded and pointed at the screen, “I came in from the south. I will fly over downtown first, then head west to check the city airport, then Fairchild.” The city looked fine. No fires off in the distance. No cars moving or signs of chaos just yet. The city looked different, though, it looked empty and devoid of life. In this case, the undead, or would that be twice dead? Side tangent I know, forgive me.
“Harry, does any of that look weird to you?”
He watched the screen a little closer and examined the data coming in from the drone before speaking. “I think I see what you are looking at. There is nothing moving down there. No human, no zombie, nothing at all. I am going to swing by the airport and Fairchild. Let’s see how bad they are.” The picture changed, and I could tell the drone had turned west by the sun’s position now running low in the sky.
I could see the Spokane airport coming up in the distance. Harry gained some altitude, the picture cleared up and we could see more. We both gasped audibly. It was empty, not a plane on the ground. The parking lots came into view. They were packed with buses and large transport. Still not a soul moved on the ground. “Look at this, Dan, the whole place is a ghost town. Not a plane on the ground, not a soul, alive or dead. I’m going to head over to the base and see what’s going on there.”
I picked up my headset and plugged into the jack, “Phillips, you still talking to me?”
“I’m a professional, what do you think?”
“The drone is over Spokane. Harry took us over the city proper and the municipal airport. The weird thing is the place is empty. We don’t see anyone, alive or dead. All the airplanes are missing from the airport, also. The drone is heading over to the base now.”
“What do you mean you see nothing? No hordes?”
“Unless they are all indoors, we see nothing moving down there. No fires or mass damage.”
“Advise after your recon of the air base.”
Harry snapped his fingers at me to get my attention. I turned in his direction and saw what he was trying to show me. Fairchild Base looked intact. I counted fifteen large planes parked off the runway near a large hangar situated west of the long runway. Again, not a soul could be seen on the ground. No vehicles moving, nothing.
“Phillips, we’ve gained eyes on Fairchild.” I explained to him what we found.
“We can’t sit up here in the air any longer. We need fuel, so let’s land this thing.” As he spoke, the plane started downward, quicker than I expected.
Harry moved the drone to a higher altitude and was able to bring the C-130 into focus on the camera. We were coming in from the northwest, overflying the Spokane airport. “Harry, after they land this thing, how about we bring the drone down, too?”
“That would be a great idea, but we should have Brian take over then. I don’t want to plow this thing down onto the ground, possibly fowling the runway.”
I looked around and found Brian sitting on the floor with his head down in his arm, sound asleep. I moved over in his direction and tapped his shoulder. He raised his head and looked up at me with swollen eyes. I told him what I needed him to do, and he got to his feet slowly. I pulled my bottle of water and handed it over to him. He drained it, crushed the bottle, and handed it back to me. He then rolled his head around his massive shoulders and then stretched out his back and arms. He traded places with Harry and took over the drone. I watched on the screen as our plane touched down and, at the same time, felt the wheels hit the runway. I grabbed onto the station and held on as Phillips braked hard, bringing the C-130 to a quick stop. We sat there for a moment, then started moving again. I watched on the screen as we taxied toward the parking ramp and the other planes. The drone then lined up and came down, landing partway down the runway, and then taxied after the C-130. Brian reached over and typed some commands into his stations computer, powering down the drone.
The rear ramp slowly motored down to the ground and made a slight clanging sound as it stopped against the tarmac. The Humvees were released from their tie downs and driven out, then parked in a way to be able to protect the plane. I took Angel’s hand, and we walked down the ramp and out into the sun. We both shielded our eyes from the bright glare. I was loaded down with my Zomgo pack and weapons, including my MP5, 1911, and shotgun.