by Jeff Ping
Chapter 4
I jumped into the seat at the controls of the Cat and locked the door to my cage. I revved the engine and raised the blade to about two feet. I engaged the gears and started my crawl toward the creatures. Even at the speed of eight miles an hour, it was easy squashing. The creatures didn’t even try to get out of the way.
I was able to lead the Zombies away and then turn and just mow them down. If they were lucky enough to be knocked down by the blade and then be missed by the tracks, they got back up and continued to chase me. But if I hit them with the tracks, they stayed down. I continued this technique for over two hours. By this time, Pete had driven up closer and was using an M16 to take out stray walkers and any crawlers that he found.
I got out of the Cat and using my own M16 I joined him. Approximately three hours after we started, we had effectively killed them all.
I got my bolt cutters from the tow trucks tool box and cut the lock securing the gate. We opened the gate and Pete drove through. I secured the gate with a carabineer and a chain. We drove toward some buildings. At the end of the runway was the cause of the smoke Pete had seen from the tower. A large transport aircraft had evidently crashed and burned.
Inside the building there were signs posted directing Group Alpha thru Delta to aircraft on runway 1. Group Echo thru Hotel to aircraft on runway three. Another sign directed all pilots to staging area six. Rifling around the desk, I found a memo stating all personnel were to evacuate and reassemble at Hill AFB in Utah.
We exited the building and I watched as a group of five Zombies staggered down the street toward me. Pete lifted my 30-06 rifle and aiming thru the scope, fired. The head of the leading Zombie snapped back and she went down in a heap. His next shot took one of the Zombies in the right eye, he dropped as well. The third shot went wide and he missed his target completely. Oh well, that was a disadvantage of the homemade silencer. Occasionally, the rounds were deflected. The fourth round scored a hit, removing most of Zombie number three’s skull. He dropped Zombie number four but it required two more shots.
By now Pete's homemade silencer was starting to spray its packing. In a few more shots it would fail to suppress any sound. He removed the silencer and attached a new one and stowed the used one in his pack for repacking later. The fifth Zombie was now out of his line of sight so it would "live" to bite another day.
A survey of the street below showed it to be clear. Pete walked back to the truck and laid my sniper rifle inside.
We returned to the tower where June was feeding the kids.
"Well, at least we know what happened to the military, it appears they evacuated to Utah." I said.
"Bill, I can’t believe Tommy would just leave me here alone, without any word or explanation." said June.
"It’s been a while since I was in the army but, I don’t remember getting any choice or the option of choosing to follow or not follow orders. It’s best to believe he was ordered to evacuate and has not become one of the creatures like we destroyed today." I said.
"Well, I think I'll go to the motor pool and add some fuel tanks to the side of my truck tomorrow. In the next day or two I'll be pulling out of here and heading north. So think about it, and come with me or stay here. It's up to you." I said.
"Is it possible to make another pass through base housing before we leave Bill? I need to pick up some clothes and things for me and the kids from our homes. We could look for any survivors that are still there too?" asked June.
"WE, leave? I thought you wanted to stay here? And wait for Tommy." Pete said.
"That was before I learned that he abandoned me to these things." June said.
"Don’t be too hard on him. I’m sure he didn’t have a lot of choice in making that decision. But I really do think leaving is your best shot at survival." I said
"Well, since I owe it to the kids to protect them, and Pete feels he needs to protect us, I really do owe it to Pete and the kids to give them the best chance to survive." June said.
"Well said. I think Pete can take you to cruise base housing and check for survivors tomorrow. Even for a short trip you can only cram ten to twelve people in the APC. Just remember, don’t pick up anyone that may be infected, man woman or child. No matter what they tell you, do a search of everyone for bites and/or scratches prior to putting the people in the APC in danger." I said.
The next morning while Pete and June prepared to leave for base housing, I went out on the cat walk of the tower and looked for creatures. I spotted a couple of stragglers up the street headed in the direction of the motor pool.
Returning inside I asked Jack if he would like to come to the motor pool with me and be my look out. Jack readily agreed, happy to get outside. June hadn’t allowed the kids to leave the tower the whole time I had been here. June looked apprehensive, but shook her head in the affirmative when Jack pleaded with her to let him come with me and skip the base housing trip.
Then June added, "Bill before you go, I just want to say that I know it's a different world we are living in than the one we knew a few weeks ago. But just you keep in mind Jack is still a little boy. He's ten years old. Please don't let anything happen to him."
Less than a half an hour later, Jack and I were headed to the motor pool. Jack climbed into the truck like he had been doing it all his life. Once in the cab, I handed Jack a hand radio and showed him how to use it. I told him to let me know if he spotted anything, creature or living.
At the motor pool I had Jack climb up on the land/sea container on the truck bed. This kept him close and out of reach of any creatures and provided him and excellent view of the area around the truck.
I removed the fuel tanks from a semi that was parked at the motor pool and used the forklift to carry them to my truck. Then I went to work securing them behind each of the existing fifty gallon tanks that were already on the truck. This should allow for plenty of margin for the eight hundred mile trip north.
When I had completed the tank installation, I filled the existing and new tanks with diesel and told Jack we should check out the exchange.
I stopped the truck by the front doors of the exchange. I handed an MP5 to Jack and told him to just make sure he didn’t shoot himself or me. I gave him a quick run through of gun safety and showed him how to take the safety off.
I told him to grab a cart and I got myself a heavy duty hand truck. I reminded him to stay in the middle of the aisles and to look before turning any corners. Then I asked what he needed. So we got a couple video game consoles, a few handheld units, and at least one of every game. Jack's cart was full by this point so I told him to push it to the front door and grab another cart.
Jack quickly returned with an empty cart and was set to load up the remaining game consoles when I stopped him and asked what his sister liked.
"She reads and types on her computer all the time," said Jack.
"Well, then let’s get some of these," I told him as I started opening laptop boxes.
"They will take less space if we get rid of the packing."
I also grabbed a couple of USB hard drives as well. Next, we loaded up the cart with books and magazines for Beth and June to read. Even if they didn’t enjoy guns, fishing and car magazines I grabbed one of each they had. I’m sure Pete and I would.
Next, I loaded my cart with a couple generators, a box each of cartons of various battery packs, and several of the largest amp hour deep cycle batteries in stock. Lastly, I piled on a few cases of beer and sodas.
Jack and I pushed our carts back to the front door. This time we encountered what had been an Airman coming through the front door. Jack jerked his MP5 up but he forgot to take it off safety. I raised my MP5 and fired a burst into the creatures head. I grabbed it by the feet and dragged it away from the door.
We pushed our carts to the truck and loaded everything onto the container that I had mounted on the truck bed. The laptops and Jacks video games I put in the back seat of the truck.
; "Wouldn’t it be easier just to leave the safety off?" asked Jack.
I guess he was embarrassed about forgetting to take his safety off.
"Remember the part about not shooting yourself or me? The safety plays a big part in that," I said grinning.
When Jack and I returned to the tower, Pete, June, and Beth were already there.
"Man, I’m glad you finally got here. We went by the motor pool and didn’t find you. Then when we got here and you weren’t here either, June was nearly hysterical worrying about Jack. She’s been after me for an hour to start looking for you. I told her that with all the weapons you’ve got in your truck he was safer with you than here with us," said Pete.
"We decided there were a few more things we needed from the exchange," I said.
At this point I noticed three women standing on the other side of the control room. "Who are they?" I asked.
Pete spoke up and said "These are the only people we found. And we drove up and down the streets several times."
"They haven’t heard from their husbands’ either," said June.
An hour later, we all sat around and discussed my plan of heading north and away from population centers. The three new women expressed their concern about leaving without their husbands knowing where they were.
"No one will be forced or coerced into going with us. We can even leave you with a working vehicle and weapons and ammo. But I’m leaving tomorrow, so you need to decide if you are coming or not," I said.
"I’m coming along," said a young girl of about eighteen named Sue. I later learned she was the daughter of a Chief Master Sergeant who had been stationed to the base. She told me she hadn't heard from her father for over a week. "He went to work one morning and never came back home," she said in anger.
Another of the women, Joan, also said, "Not me." She appeared to be around 40 years old and I learned her name was Joan.
"Me neither," said the third woman. She was a younger woman in her early twenties, named Kali.
Pete and I made a quick and uneventful trip to the motor pool. We spent the rest of the day attaching additional fuel tanks to the side of the APC. This probably would have been a bad choice if we had been facing an armed adversary. But with an enemy we needed to out run, it made good sense.
When we finished we had added approximately a hundred gallons to the APC’s fuel capacity. We topped off his fuel tanks and retrieved the van to leave it for the women who were staying behind.
