The Good Death Box Set: A Hard SciFi Science Fiction Series

by Doug McGovern

  “I never thought I’d get to say this, but the President is on the line, sir.” She smiled.

  “President? Of what?” said Harrison.

  “Um, America, Mr. Kelley. President Matthews.”

  Harrison found himself, despite how preposterous it was to worry about politics in the apocalyptic scenario, hoping that President Matthews didn’t recall how much money Kelley Pharmaceuticals had thrown at his opponent in the last election. Now Harrison would be pleading with the President on live TV.

  “Hello, sir?” Harrison was anxious but steely. If he could survive death and zombification, he could survive a conversation with the President on live TV.

  “What do you need?” The Commander in Chief’s words were too good to be true. It was almost the same as seeing the cavalry come.

  “Air and ground support from the United States Armed Services requested, sir. A federal hospital with adequate care for the biochemical attack victim en-route on Hot News Channel 16’s personal chopper. Personal escort from as high up the ranks as you can spare for the Judas that is at least a quarter of the way responsible for Leona Kelley’s terrorism exploits.” Harrison lifted a steady finger to indicate for viewers the truck that had detained Kingsley as it approached the scene. The driver spun the armored truck around and one of Kingsley’s guards threw open the doors to reveal the man in all his dishonor. Kingsley barely twitched out of nervous knee-knocking and Stern trained a rifle barrel to his Adam’s apple.

  “Watch your every blink, Doc.” She looked him up and down critically.

  The President listened intently for a moment of doubtful radio silence.

  “Roger that, Kelley. You’ll get that along with protective custody for yourself and any of the other innocents you can confirm have been collateral to this assault.”

  Mickey and Dexter had seen what was happening and had hoisted Jane up on their shoulders making careful headway for the chopper.

  Kendra Reagan covered her lips with both her shaking palms.

  “My God! The poor things been microwaved.”

  It was true. She’d cooked from the inside out. Some of her flesh had been squeezed through her pores to forming huge outside blisters like the inside outs of an over-baked potato.

  “Please. I have to stay with her. Please!” Dexter clutched Jane’s limp body close to himself reluctant to hand her up to the news crew.

  “Right. There’s room in here for at least three more people.” Kendra nodded uncertainly as she eyed the cockpit with suspicion.

  “Good. Take Doctor Joseph Kingsley and Dexter with you. Inform the authorities that I will be more than willing to cooperate when they arrive. In the meantime, I’m going to stay and delegate chess moves. Maybe clean up some of what my wife screwed up.” Harrison pushed Joseph forward.

  “She could come back for you! You’re number one on her most wanted list!” Joseph locked his heels refusing to leave.

  “Go with them, Joe. My place is here. I seem to have a stroke of Divine Intervention with all the crap I’ve survived. If not, though, it’s not really any more than I deserve letting this operation slip under my very schnoz. Sick or not, I should have been keeping better tabs.” Harrison shrugged.

  Reluctantly, Joseph followed Dexter and Jane into the chopper.

  “We did it, Joe!” Harrison smiled.

  Joseph waved at him as the chopper began to ascend.

  “You’re right! Win or lose, tonight has gone down in history! They’ll be talking about us for centuries to come.”

  *****

  Chapter 28

  “I’m scared, Dex.”

  It was the first time in her life that Jane Lewis had admitted to fear. Dexter smiled and took both her hands. She wasn’t entirely lucid so he wasn’t sure if the confession counted.

  “Won’t be long before we have you in the hospital. We’ve got you stable for now. You’re going to be okay…” He smoothed back her hair.

  She swallowed. Her lips were blistered from the fire that had burned from the inside out of her and her tongue was black on the tip.

  “I’m not scared because of that…” She looked around the room, deep blue eyes flashing almost guilt.

  “Then why?”

  Her eyes were knives of cutting fear and remorse.

  “I let her get away. I’m scared that I failed people. That she’s going to kill everyone I care about. It will be my fault too.” She started coughing. Dexter checked her precarious vitals with trembling hands. Joseph was jarred out of a much-needed micro-sleep to assist him but powered down as soon as she saw the situation was normal.

  “Jane…There’s no way it could be your fault.” Dexter swallowed.

  Jane tried to sit up and he eased her back to a lying down position.

  “How am I stable if my veins were rupturing?” Somewhere along the way, Jane had overheard what the medics were saying about her condition.

  “Your guess is as good as mine. We’re holding you together with butterfly stitches and prayer alone at the moment. Honestly, we’re all totally psyched by your will to survive. I’ve never met anyone like you, Jane. You stood up to the Devil herself and still managed to walk away from it.” Dexter tossed his head laughing, trying to lighten the mood.

  Jane blew wearily through her nostrils.

  “I haven’t walked away yet.”

  “Yeah, but you’re going to. Believe me, you’re going to. I can already see the handwriting on the wall.”

  They were taking her to the Washington National Hospital in northeast D.C. on the President’s orders. They’d set out from Shreveport about 20 minutes ago. They’d have about 4 hours to go before she was finally off the battlefield.

  Dexter allowed himself a second to breathe and enjoy the crimson dawn when it happened.

  “It’s been brought to our attention that Mr. Kelley requested air support from the Armed Services?” A female voice spoke over the radio.

  “Oh my God. Where does she get the rabbits she keeps pulling from her hat?!” Kendra sat up, jaw slackened.

  The sky was suddenly flocked with a heavenly host of pastel painted planes. A hot pink RAF RE 8 Airborne soared past the helicopter dangerously close and caused it to spin in donut shapes.

  “Jealous much?” They understood quickly that the woman on the radio was the pilot of the vintage plane.

  “What’s happening?” Jane tried to ease herself up onto an elbow.

  “They’ve decided to play us one more song.” Dexter eased Jane back to the pillow and closed his eyes. The bi-wing plane was joined by its identical mates every pastel shade of the crayon box as they flew in rapid carousel cycles about the chopper.

  *****

  Chapter 29

  Stop the broadcast? God forbid! The cameras were still rolling trying to cover every second of Jane Lewis’ dramatic evacuation.

  The President watched in increasing fury as the funky colored biplanes joined the helicopter in the air.

  “Ready Air Force One for a flight set to parallel the coordinates of the approaching Hot News Channel 16 chopper without intended landing. We’re going to walk the lady home if we have to.” All eyes were peeled from the screen to stare at the President in protocol-forsaken horror.

  “Sir?” They asked in unison, questioning the wisdom of this decision. Place their Commander-in-Chief so close to the fire? It was far too risky.

  “The American people have been shown in a single night that the police, fire/crises prevention, medical units, and National Guard cannot protect them from this woman and her Sorority of Satan! They see in plain sight that there is no escape by land, sea and now the sky. We might not be able to hold them off forever, but by God we can show them their Commander-in-Chief isn’t going to roll over and play dead while these whores menace the public!”

  It was beyond debate. Air Force One was heading for the Louisiana skyline.

  *****

  Pyrotechnics had been created for beauty and the celebration of liberty. Leona’s gir
ls had taken beauty and twisted it into the acidic ingredients for unholy terror.

  Dexter knelt close to Jane to shield her from the searing heat. The color spectrum planes swung in buzzard circles around the chopper disrupting its natural flight pattern so that it floundered like a top there amidst the clouds. The pilots of each one had a cartoonish rocket mounted on each of their shoulders, complete with red plastic cone cap and all. They lit the fuses with cigarette lighters and they exploded into spirals of green and blue rockets that singed the chopper’s window glass a crimson-black.

  “Good night!” Joseph hopped up onto his knees, wide awake now.

  “It appears we’re caught in the cross-fire of what is most likely an elaborate assassination attempt on young Ms. Lewis, as she reportedly intercepted Leona Kelley yesterday evening.” Kendra Reagan was fighting to keep her voice steady. Her microphone quaked in her hands.

  Joseph Kingsley suddenly dove in front of the viewfinder and leaned over the mic.

  “Good morning, America, I’m nobody important. We interrupt your morning newscast because everybody has to jump out of this helicopter!”

  “Are you insane?” Kendra’s hair was spiked by natural causes.

  “He’s right! They’re going to pin us in!” Dexter pulled Jane up onto his shoulders.

  “It’s suicide!” Kendra dropped the mic.

  America watched in horror as the crew realized they had no time to argue. Joseph pulled on a parachute vest and threw one to everybody. There were five people total on the helicopter. Only two of them managed to get the packs on before they bailed, dragging the packless ones with them and pinning them to their chests. The vintage planes had circled the helicopter in the shape of a flower and soared into it nose first.

  America witnessed what would become a historical sky-fire and heard the passengers’ screams. Leona’s devoted followers had committed mid-air seppuku, blowing their planes to kingdom come, to make the airways impassable for the requested air support. Fire and smoke wafted filled the planes’ vacuum. Inbound Air Force jet fighters had to swerve in nine kinds of crazy angles to avoid roasting alive.

  *****

  Chapter 30

  Jane thought she had died when she looked down and saw the sky beneath her feet. The clouds swirled below, tinged shades of burgundy by chemical fires.

  Was this ascension? Jane’s dad had been Catholic. He’d taught her to believe in God and eternal life through Christ’s sacrifice and the Holy Sacrament. She’d listened to his words and said her prayers, but she’d never thought very deeply about the life to come.

  She didn’t know much about the Heavenly Host, but she had a good feeling that it was a place of peace. This was airborne war. Either Leona Kelley had vengefully followed her beyond the Mortal Veil, or she was still alive somehow.

  Her stomach flopped like a roasting flapjack when she realized she was resting on Dexter’s shoulders. He leaned back when he felt her move and smiled, his face charred black with the debris smoke.

  “Jane…You’re okay.”

  They plunged forward and then stopped with a mighty jerk.

  “What’s… what happened?” Jane was too weary to talk.

  “It’s a long story. We were in the helicopter on the way to a hospital in D.C. that would’ve doubled as a protective custody unit. I guess Leona has eyes on the skies, too, because here we are.” He looked up. Jane followed his gaze, head feeling like lead.

  Joseph Kelley scrambled madly from the wing of an F-15 Eagle. Parachute strings were tucked under his arm. Jane realized with a painful twinge of gratitude that she and Dexter were suspended from the other end of the strings. He’d caught them on the way down. The three of them had been too heavy for the parachute to proceed naturally to the Earth and so they had coasted directly into the fighter jet’s flight path.

  Another plane slid by. Jane craned her neck backward to see that Kendra Reagan had made it out of the plane alive and the pilot was hanging from her ankles. The two of them were suspended from a Thunderbolt’s tail by their parachute’s remnant.

  Kendra moaned painfully as the circulation was cut off to her ankles. The pilot screamed from the pain of hanging on. Kendra had managed to reach down and weave chords from the parachute around his shoulders. With her hands still free, she had bowed over as far as she could and partially tethered him around the shoulders and chest. Even then, the chords could only take some of the weight off. If he let go for half a second, then the knots would give and he would fall to certain death.

  “Oh God…” Jane felt like she might throw up. She realized this would blow back in her face and she’d probably aspirate which would be seriously ironic in her situation. This gave her the strength to stomach it down.

  “How long has this?” Jane coughed. It was a Hercules’ feat just to form four syllables.

  “We’ve actually been hanging here for around an hour.” Dexter tried to shift his weight. Jane could tell he was exhausted from holding her.

  “You saved me…” Jane laid a weak hand atop his head in gratitude.

  “Yeah, like I’d let you fall. I’m just amazed you’re still alive. I’ve taken your pulse like a million times. It’s unbelievable.”

  “Well, I had a great nurse.” Jane started laughing, face cracking into goofy smiles with relief that Dexter had miraculously been here. She heard Joseph shouting in elation and looked up.

  The regular flight distance between Shreveport and the Capital is about 4.5 hours. The current Air Force One was capable of speeds up to 631 miles per hour. In desperation, the President had urged his pilot to push the engines to their max. They closed the rough 1,040 miles between Louisiana and Washington in a little over an hour.

  Now the massive plane was closing in on their Armageddon. Looking over the shoulders of fighter jets, Joseph had seen it first and was screaming ecstatically. The Calvary was here.

  This nightmare might actually be coming to its end.

  “Kendra Reagan, this is President Matthews. Do you copy?”

  In the midst of confusion, Kendra had forgotten her headset. She tapped a button.

  “I copy! Mr. President! Thank God for you!” She was weeping in profuse joy.

  “Take it easy, kiddo. We’re coming down to get you.”

  Air Force One dropped in altitude and began to slow itself down. It would be sliding into the midst of the mayhem within five minutes, tops.

  Jane felt the surge of heat and heard the whirring of vintage engines again and looked up. She realized that there had to be a reason why they’d stayed circling this general locale for an hour. The battle hadn’t ended with the suicide crash. That had just been the first of many bizarre tribute deaths in the sky.

  She heard trumpets blaring the Revelry and William Tell Overture over the din of the engines. Speakers had apparently been rigged to every aircraft, just like in Apocalypse Now.

  “Fitting,” Jane muttered to herself, swallowing as she realized she’d become a part of history today.

  The face of warfare had changed forever. Humans now had creative, operatic ways of destroying each other. Murder had been seasoned with Broadway’s Ritz. The world would never recover.

  Yet even in the hour of desperation, when humanity failed, people with noble hearts banded together to stop the advance of unthinkably malevolent forces. Though it was risking suicide mid-flight, the President had the doors dropped open. Even in the midst of the explosions and cross-fire, he personally lowered himself into the fire, connected to a bungee cord.

  Jane felt herself plucked from Dexter’s back. She looked up still feeling very stony, with her near-death experience, to realize that she was looking into the U.S. President’s face. She must have tried to speak, but he placed a thumb to her lips.

  “You’re going to be alright, Ms. Lewis.”

  One by one they were plucked out of the midst of the fight and hauled up to the Air Force One. The President did the evacuations himself despite any protocol that might have hindered this
decision. A public example had to be made. Law had failed. The system had failed. Humanity as a whole had failed because this cancer had been allowed to grow with hardly anyone taking notice. Was there still time to learn from these mistakes? Or had Leona Kelley already had the last laugh?

  *****

  Jane blacked out between the evacuation and her airborne hospitalization. She woke up to find Joseph Kelley at her feet.

  “My son has caused you a lot of hardship, dear. I hope that doesn’t mean you’ll be afraid to allow me to perform emergency surgery on you.” He smiled the brightest he could. His whole body trembled from the exhaustion his harrowing experience had caused.

  Jane slowly looked around the room. Dexter stood beside Joseph, nodding his approval of the surgeon. The U.S. President stood there as well with Kendra and her pilot beside him once again equipped with cameras. America witnessed this moment.

  “Never mind your son. You saved me from living death! Of course, I trust you!” She looked directly into the camera to make sure the entire world heard her say this. They had to know that Joseph and Harrison were innocent of all the things that had happened in the last 48 hours.

  “Ms. Lewis, your actions in the last 48 hours have earned you the civilian’s equivalent of the Medal of Honor. I would like to personally congratulate you for standing against Leona Kelley by yourself in defense of your friends, your City, and your Country. Sadly, I was unprepared by the course of events to prepare you any such reward. Circumstances might not allow for quite some time. So, while we have a moment, I would like to ask you if you have any personal requests. Please note, this request doesn’t include military protection for your friends. I’ve already guaranteed this so there is nothing to fear.”

  Everyone in the room laughed. That had been what Jane was about to ask for.

  “Well, if that’s not an option, then I would like a priest to perform my last rites.”

  The room grew ice quiet. The watching world hung off the edge of their sofas. Jane coughed awkwardly anticipating their reaction.