Dead Life (Book 5)

by D. Harrison Schleicher

  “Let’s just drop it. I want you to stay here with Cindy. I’m just going to drive around. We’ll stay in touch over the radio.”

  “I’m not letting you go by yourself. Every time somebody goes off alone something bad happens.”

  “So what’s your plan? You think we should leave Cindy here by herself? Al’s still unconscious. Somebody has to stay with her and Al.”

  “You don’t know what it’s going to be like out there. You can’t go by yourself.”

  I pulled Gina into my arms and kissed her. “It’s got to be this way and you know it. I’ll hurry back and when I get back we’ll spend a little quality time together. How’s that sound?”

  Gina slid her hand down between us and rubbed my groin. “Hurry.”

  I kissed her one last time. “That’s what I’m talking about. I’ll be back in a flash with the cash.”

  “What cash?”

  “It’s an old saying.”

  “Just get going. When you get to the truck do a radio check.”

  The first thing I did when I got to the truck was radio Gina. Everything checked out so I wasted no time and headed right out. Gina wanted me to radio in every half hour but I talked her into a radio check every hour. I mean honestly what difference did it make? What was she going to do, come running out to save my ass? If things went south it would probably mean that I was dead. The last thing I wanted her doing was charging out into a horde of zombies trying to rescue me.

  I had a map of the base and was going to head over to the barracks first. Fort Leonard Wood was a training facility for new recruits. I figured my best bet at finding anybody on the base was going there first. I drove between the huts where they kept the new recruits. Everything looked normal at first. I even got out of the truck and went into two of the barracks. Both were completely cleaned out. Except they weren’t clean. From the looks of things the army had emptied this place out pretty fast. Shit was thrown everywhere. Lockers were empty, beds were unmade, and they were both trashed. It was strange that they had left the hospital in an orderly fashion but the barracks had been evacuated in a hurry. There was nothing to be learned here. Time to move on.

  “Break one nine for a ten one hundred.”

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean,” Gina replied.

  “That’s trucker CB talk. I’m pretty sure it means I need to stop and cop a squat.”

  “What?”

  “Never mind. I just finished checking out the barracks. Looks like they bugged out of here pretty fast. I’m going up to the airfield next.”

  “Keep me updated and do me a favor.”

  “Anything baby.”

  “Quit playing around.”

  “I’m not playing around.”

  “Then when you call me try and be more serious. I’m worried about you. Please stop playing. If you need to go to the bathroom just go. Don’t tell me about it.”

  “I’m sorry. Don’t worry so much. There’s nobody here. I’ll be fine. I’ll talk to you later.”

  “One other thing. Al’s coming around. Cindy says his heart rate is coming back up. He’s been moaning and tossing and turning in his bed. She thinks he’s going to be okay.”

  “Thanks. That’s good news. I’ll call you as soon as I’m done checking out the airfield. Over.”

  The airfield was probably only about five minutes from the barracks. Fort Leonard Wood wasn’t one of the bigger bases. From what I remembered from when Tim was stationed here during his basic training the airport was mostly used for small aircraft and helicopters. Troop transport planes and jets didn’t fly out of Fort Leonard Wood. I doubted that I would find anything at the airfield. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

  I debated as to whether I should call Gina and let her know what I was seeing. As best I could tell it looked like a small war had been waged at the airport. The fence on one end of the field had been razed and from the looks of things the runway had been extended several hundred yards. Construction equipment littered the sides of the new addition to the runway. Buildings had been plowed under to make room for the asphalt that must have been laid in a hurry. Something big had happened here and it looked like the military did everything in their power to get away from it as fast as possible.

  I drove my truck down the runway but had to stop before I got to the end. The new construction was pitted with huge tire tracks from the planes that must have used the runway before the asphalt had a chance to set. I went as far as I could then stopped to look at the devastation in front of me. The tops of the trees at the end of the runway had been recently broken off. Either the landing gear or the belly of a plane had hit them during take-off. To the south of the trees was a large field where one of the wings of the plane had torn a huge furrow. A quarter mile past that was what little was left of the burned out wreckage of the plane. I doubted that anyone had walked away from this.

  There was nothing I could do sitting here; this had happened days ago. I turned the truck around and went back to where the hangars were. All the bay doors were open except one. Every one of the open hangars that was open was empty. Not a single plane or helicopter was left. I remembered coming here with Tim years ago. It wasn’t a big airport but it was a busy one. There had been takeoffs and landings every few minutes that day. I could imagine every plane being loaded with as many soldiers and their families as they could hold. Had something like this taken place at every military base across the country? And if it had, where had they all gone? Communications broke down so fast when the outbreak first happened that I had no idea what kind of response the military had made. Other than the reserve unit we had seen decimated on the second day I hadn’t seen any evidence that our country had even tried to stop the end of civilization. Maybe our armed forces were all in a central location waiting for the right time to mount an offensive. Possible? Yes. Probable? Not likely. I wasn’t going to hold my breath waiting for the government to come to our rescue.

  I drove over to the closed hangar and got out of the truck. Before I got to the door I could hear moaning coming from inside. There were definitely zombies behind that door. I quietly crept over to the side of the building looking for a window. There wasn’t a window but at the far end of the exterior wall was a door. I didn’t like this. There was no way I was going all the way down there. The door was too far away from my only way of escape, my truck. I went back to the bay door in the front of the building and stood outside listening. The intensity of the moaning coming from behind the door had diminished. They must have been responding to the noise from the truck engine and the sound from the door when I got out. What had me confused was why weren’t they banging on the door trying to get at me? This was creeping me out. I spun around and raised my rifle. Ready for whatever was behind me. Which of course was nothing. The only sounds I heard were coming from behind the door. There was only one thing to do. I knocked on the door. This got them started again but they still weren’t pounding on the bay door. Next I banged on the door. This really got them going. It was really loud in there but there was still nothing at the door. I had to find out what was going on. I was having another what would Al do moment. The answer was in my backpack on the front seat of the truck.

  I went to the truck, got in my backpack, and got two grenades. The door to the hangar was just like a large garage door. It worked off an electric motor. There was a keypad on the wall next to the door but that wouldn’t do me any good. Even if I knew the code the door wouldn’t work without electricity. If I opened the bay door they would probably all come storming out at me. Even though I had a feeling the zombies in the hangar were restrained somehow; that was how my luck had been going lately. Whatever could go wrong would. Instead of going down the same side of the building with the door that was too far away from the truck I tried the other side. As luck would have it the door was just around the corner. Made sense that there would be a rear door and a door close to the main entrance. What made more sense than that was that I’d tried the wrong side fir
st.

  I leaned my rifle against the wall outside of the door and took one of the grenades in my hand. Gripping it tightly I pulled the pin and looked around, wondering where I could put it. I was only going to throw the grenade as a last resort. Hopefully I’d be reinserting the pin in a few seconds. I stuck the pin in my top pocket and reached down to pick up my rifle. How was I going to open the door with a grenade in one hand and a rifle in the other? “Al, how do I do this?” I said to myself. Then I heard his voice in my head say, “Put the rifle down. Take your pistol in one hand and use the same hand to open the door,” in a disgusted tone. “You didn’t have to say it like that,” I said. Talking to myself, I’m losing it.

  Putting my rifle back against the wall again I fumbled my pistol out of my holster with my left hand. I got hold of the doorknob as best I could and turned it ever so slightly. At least it wasn’t locked. The latch clicked loudly and the moaning started back in earnest again. I threw my body against the door, closing it with a loud bang. Something wasn’t right. I looked down at my hand. The grenade wasn’t there. It was lying on the ground by the wall. I reached down to pick it up, realized that was a bad idea, grabbed my rifle, took two steps, and dove around the corner as the grenade exploded.

  I’m dead. I have to be dead. No I’m not. I’m fine. I’m not fine. I’m an idiot. Thank God nobody was here to see that. Al would be laughing his ass off and Gina would have killed me. I stood up, dusted myself off, got the other grenade out of my pocket, then thought that I had better not and put it back. The zombies were going crazy inside the hangar by now and the moaning sounded louder from just around the corner. Moving away from the hangar I gave myself plenty of room and went back around the corner. The door looked fine but there was a jagged three foot hole at the base of the wall. All I would have to do now was get on the ground and peer in through the hole. What a stroke of genius. Couldn’t have worked out better if I would have planned it that way.

  I went back to the truck and got a flashlight. Should have got one before. Then went back to the hole in the wall. From about ten feet away I got down on the ground and looked in. There was light coming from inside the hangar. They must not have shut down the generators on this part of the base. I could see something that looked like a table laying on its side on the ground but not much else. Whatever it was blocked my view into the hangar. I crawled to a different angle so I could see around it and saw a bunch of table legs but no zombie legs. I got up, went to the door, and went in. The hangar looked like a make-shift hospital. There were dozens of cots lined up throughout the building. Each bed had the still “living” body of a zombie strapped to it. Most, but not all of them had their heads restrained. Those that could lifted their heads to look at me. The ones that couldn’t raise their heads, because they were strapped down better than the others, shifted their eyes to get a better look at me. The way they looked at me from the corners of their eyes was the creepiest thing I had ever seen and believe me I’ve seen a lot of weird shit in the past few weeks. All of them gnashed their teeth and fought to free themselves. The dinner bell had been rung and I was the main course.

  This was why the hospital hadn’t been overrun. Whoever was in charge here knew exactly what was going to happen and had kept the infected out of the hospital. But why had they left them here like this? I wouldn’t have done something like this to my worst enemy. This was why I had never joined the service. Only a group of assholes as seriously fucked up as the US Army would do something this sick. I was going to have to put each one of them down. This was going to take a while. There were close to a hundred zombies in the hangar.

  It was getting pretty loud inside so I went back outside to radio Gina. If I didn’t check in soon she would most likely come charging up here hell bent on saving me from the clutches of imminent death. I didn’t want her to see this.

  “Gina, are you there?”

  “Yeah, I’ve been waiting for you to call. What took so long? Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. I’ve got a mess here to clean up. Then I’m coming back.”

  “You need to come back right now. Al’s awake and he’s asking for you.”

  “That’s great. Tell him I’ll be back in an hour. This can’t wait.”

  “There’s something else.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m not sure. Tim called. He said they would be here in less than an hour. That was fifteen minutes ago.”

  “That’s not possible. When I talked to him this morning they were in Mississippi.” Then it hit me. “I’ve got the Sat phone. How the hell did he call you?”

  “I heard a phone ringing at the nurse’s station. It went on for over fifteen minutes. They have one of those sat phones like you have. I finally answered and it was Tim.”

  “Why the hell did you answer the phone?” As soon as the words left my mouth I knew I’d just made a tragic mistake.

  “Don’t talk to me like that.”

  “I’m sorry. Tell me what he said.”

  “The only reason I answered it was because it just kept ringing. It was like they knew there was somebody here. I didn’t say anything at first. I just listened. There was quite a commotion in the background. There was somebody yelling at him. Then Tim finally said something.”

  “What did he say?”

  “At first all he said was, ‘Dad? It’s me Tim.’ When I told him you weren’t here and introduced myself he asked about Uncle Al. Did you tell him about Al being sick? I didn’t know Al was his uncle.”

  “He’s not.” There was definitely something very wrong here. “Yeah I mentioned that Al was sick.”

  “Well other than to tell you he would be here sooner than expected, I don’t know, it seemed like that wasn’t why he was calling.”

  “What did he say then?”

  “That was it. Then the yelling in the background escalated. I’m pretty sure I heard a gunshot. Then the phone went dead.”

  “I’ll be back there as soon as I can.”

  “Is everything okay?”

  “Yeah I think so. Maybe not. I don’t know.”

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “I told you I don’t know.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “What do you think? You were on the phone with him.”

  “I think he’s in trouble and we’re about to be.”

  “I think you’re right. If you and Cindy can move Al get him to the truck and wait for me.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “I think General Shithead is on his way to Fort Leonard Wood.”

  Chapter 19

  Two men climbed into the dump bin of the truck and threw me over the side. I landed on my back and the breath was knocked out of me. I laid there gasping for air. General Simmons stood back far enough that I couldn’t get at him. One of the men jumped down and kicked me in the side as I rolled away from him he grabbed the rope between my hands and pulled me to my feet. The other soldier jumped down and the two held me there.

  “I’ve got some good news for you Captain.”

  “You’re letting me go?”

  “Oh no. Much better than that.”

  “You’re going to kill yourself?”

  From where I stood I could feel the rage coming off of him, washing over me in waves. He nodded to the two soldiers holding my arms and I was thrown to the ground. After that I was kicked several times then drug back to my feet.

  “We found one of your friends. Seems you were wrong about them being killed by the undead. Other than a few cuts and bruises she seems to be fine.”

  Lily was drug from around the truck. She was gagged and had her hands tied behind her back. I had to give her credit, she fought hard against the two much larger soldiers that had her by the arms. The one that had hit me when I was captured wrenched her left arm up pretty hard and she took a kick at him. The bastard side stepped the kick then moved closer, punching Lily in the nose. Her head rocked back but she didn’t go down.


  I strained against the two holding me but wasn’t going anywhere. “You’re a dead man.”

  General Simmons looked at me, considering what I’d said. “Sargent, if she tries that again you have my permission to shoot her.”

  “Thank you sir.”

  “So now, Corporal Flowers, tell me. Where’s Sargent Adams?”

  Lily gave General Simmons a disgusted look and shook her head.

  “Take the gag out of her mouth Sargent.”

  He pulled the gag down quickly, keeping his exposed hand away from Lily’s mouth. “Careful sir, she’s a biter.”

  Good, she’d taken a chunk out of at least one of them.

  “Where is he?”

  “We both got killed by the zombies, General, but they ate him all the way. I guess I got lucky. I came back like that doctor fella. I can still talk.”

  If it wasn’t for the dire situation we were in the look of abject horror that came across the faces of the two soldiers that held Lily would have caused me to burst out laughing. One of them, I’m assuming he was the one she bit, let go of her arm and moved away. He reached up and pulled his t-shirt away from his neck, trying to look at his shoulder. “Did she break the skin? Am I going to die?” He moved further away and brought his rifle up. “Stay away from me.”

  “Don’t be a fool corporal. She’s not a zombie.”

  “No sir. No sir. We all heard about that doctor you’re after. You aren’t going to kill me.”

  “Last chance,” General Simmons waited for half a second. “Somebody shoot this man!” he shouted.

  I heard the cough of a suppressed high powered rifle round go off about the same time the man’s head exploded.

  “I’m tired of playing with you people. Sargent, draw your sidearm and place it against her head. She moves shoot her. Someone bring me the sat phone.”

  While all this was happening General Simmons came over to where I was. “Can we try and be reasonable men now Captain?”