Zournal (Book 6): The Final Countdown

by R. S. Merritt

  I saw Reeves staring out the window at the ground below. He didn’t look extremely happy with the situation. I looked across and saw Ginny over by the other opening. I started walking over to try and say something uplifting to her when I saw Wilson sitting in a seat up near the front. He had on one of those fancy helicopter helmets on so he was probably able to communicate in all this ruckus. I redirected myself towards him. Good thing since I had nothing uplifting to say really. I mean, we were in a helicopter tied to a thing we couldn’t lift hovering over a few thousand insane cannibals who were howling for our blood. I was going to need a nap and a snack to boost my energy up enough to figure out a way to spin that.

  Wilson saw me coming and motioned for me to sit in the chair next to his. I sat down and he pulled a set of headphones out of somewhere and plugged them into a jack on the wall and handed them to me. We screwed around with them for a minute before we figured out how to get them working. I marveled at the silence that descended when I put the ear pieces on. It was pretty wonderful. Wilson broke the silence once he figured out the headsets were working.

  “This is seriously FUBAR. The pilots let us know they can’t drag the trailer because of all the Zombies down there braced up against it. They tried to pick up the trailer and that seemed to work but we’re still tied to what is left of the other helicopter and we’re not strong enough to pick up the trailer and the other helicopter. At this point we’re hovering until we run out of fuel and plummet to our deaths. We’re thinking have some guys get under the helicopter and cut us loose and then we try something else tomorrow.”

  I sat for a while trying to think of a way around it. I was acutely aware it was our plan that had gotten everyone into this mess. No telling how many Seals had died on that other helicopter when it was overrun and went down. Cutting our losses now and retreating to try and come up with a better plan seemed like the best alternative to me as well. Unless.

  “Hey Wilson. Do you think we could rappel some guys down to the trailer to try and cut the ropes going to the other helicopter?”

  He thought about it. Then he pressed a button on his helmet and talked for a bit then listened for a bit. He fumbled around after that until he was talking to me again.

  “I just talked to the Captain. They were already trying to figure out how to get that done. They’ve got a couple of guys who could fast rope down then try and clear the ropes. We can’t shoot the ropes when they’re on the ground because there are so many Zombies it hides them. We can’t just shoot them off the trailer because we’d be sending all kinds of bullets into the trailer itself. They are getting ready to try and pull the trailer up again then they fast rope down and as the ropes comes up that is still attached to the other helicopter they are going to try and either shoot or cut it away. Its thick ass reinforced rope though so that causes all kinds of problems.”

  The way the attachments had worked had been predicated by the fact that the Seals being sent in couldn’t carry the amount of rope that would be needed for the whole connection. The rope itself was way too heavy. Instead, they had carried enough to attach it to the trailer and then run it out to attach to the heavy lift kit chains and ropes on the bottom of the helicopters. It all sounded complicated and like a while lot of work to me but it was getting the job done. The problem being it was such a solid setup that the rope on the twisted hunk of other helicopter down on the ground refused to let go.

  We started going back up. Wilson switched over to my channel every once in a while, to give me a quick update.

  “The trailer is up in the air again.”

  “Seals out the side to go see what they can do. They’ve got bolt cutters and welders”

  “Seals are on the trailer. They cleared off a few Zombies with their pistols.”

  “They’re over and working on it. Zombies are able to touch their feet they’re so close to the ground.”

  Without any warning, we shot up in the air like we’d been shot out of a cannon. Must have gotten rid of the excess load. The helicopter wobbled all over the place and I thought we were going to be going back down. We all took deep breaths a minute later when the pilot got the helicopter back under control. We stabilized and started moving out. Excellent, this was some serious progress. I started thinking we may actually make it out of this alive. Wilsons voice popped up in my headsets.

  “We’re not going to make it past the outer edge of the Zombies before we run out of fuel. I’m letting the gunners and everyone know so they can get ready. When we hit the ground if we can open the trailer and get the girls out we’re going to do that. We’ll probably have to leave the bombs and come back for them in a day or two. I need you to get your people ready to abandon this helicopter as soon as it hits the ground. We have the transport coming for us so hopefully we can get everyone loaded up and get the hell out of here before the bulk of the Zombies catch us.”

  So much for feeling like we might survive this fight. I took the headsets off and went over to Reeves. I leaned in close and yelled in his ear.

  “We’re going to ditch the copter here in a minute and meet up with the transport. Go ahead back to Ann and I’ll grab Ginny and meet you guys back there. Make sure you have a ton of ammo.”

  Reeves headed towards the back of the helicopter. I went and grabbed Ginny and we went to the back and took seats next to Ann. Ann was petting a freaked-out Daisy who was hiding under her chair. Daisy wasn’t drugged so she was going to be on her own for this fight. Once we all had our gear strapped on and our weapons ready to go we settled in to wait for the landing in the hot zone.

  Landing was a very generous way to describe how the bird got set down. The pilot set the trailer down then started trying to set the helicopter down by the trailer and clipped a telephone pole with the rotor. I think we ran out of gas around the same time so we fell sideways about ten feet to the ground with the rotor hitting first and smashing into the ground. We all were strapped in so no one was seriously hurt but it took a few seconds for everyone to be ready to go. Knowing that Zombies would be zeroing in on us any second now added a ton of motivation to get out of the helicopter quickly.

  We climbed out the closest open door and assembled in the middle of the dark street. Reeves had his flashlight out and was looking around. He poked me on the shoulder and pointed towards the trailer that was sitting about fifty feet behind us. We jogged in that direction. Weapons out and ready. Within a couple of seconds, we were flanked by Seals and when we got to the trailer we saw a few were already working on getting the back doors to the trailer open.

  Screams were coming out of the darkness all around us. The doors popped open and we shined our lights in to illuminate the crazed looking women aiming rifles at us from the interior of the trailer.

  Entry 5: Running Just as Fast as we Can

  Daisy bounded past us and into the back of the trailer where Marg’s daughter gave her a big hug as Daisy tried to lick her to death. That broke the ice and the girls got it that we were not there to kill them. Wilson and team got them all moving in the direction of the transport that was coming down the road to pick us up. Behind me I heard machine gun fire starting up as the Seals worked to keep the incoming Zombies off of us for long enough for the transport to get here and pick us up.

  The girls trooped out with a couple of them helping others who were limping. I saw Catori’s sister talking to Wilson. That’s a conversation I needed to be a part of. I walked over to the corner of the trailer where Wilson had taken her. She was crying and he was holding her so I guessed the information about how Catori had died had been passed along to her already. I walked up and gave her a hug and told her Catori’s last words had been to ask us to watch out for her and we were going to do that no matter what. I held her for a few seconds then got out of the way as Ann came and took over.

  With Ann watching her I wanted to take a quick look in the truck and try to figure out how we were going to get the suitcase nukes and if they looked like they had been damaged. I went into
the trailer and saw that there were several Seals standing in the trailer checking out the large square objects in the back. I walked towards them as they were turning around and heading out. Captain Abraham stopped me and said we needed to get out of here. I looked behind him and saw that the boxes looked undamaged but one of them was resting on a lump on the floor at a weird angle. Seeing where I was looking the Captain shook his head and we all started leaving the trailer.

  Outside the trailer the night had erupted once more into chaos. Brass shell casings were flying everywhere as the Seals tried to use up as much ammo as they could while they still had the big boxes of it available on the helicopters. They were losing the fight. The Zombies were pressing in from down the road and they were starting to come in on the sides as well. Headlights were visible from the large military transport coming towards us. It was pulling in next to the trailer and coming to a stop. Before it had even completely stopped a ramp was shoved out the back of it and a forklift came zooming down out of the vehicle.

  I saw the Seals ushering the girls up the ramp and protecting them. The forklift was going into the trailer with several Seals following it in. Ann ran up to me.

  “The girls are getting in the transport but if they spend a ton of time trying to get these nukes we’re going to get overrun and they’re going to end up dead.”

  I knew the Captain wanted those nukes but I agreed with Ann that we didn’t want to get anyone else killed trying to get them out. They still had not come out with the first box on the forklift and the Zombies were already closing in on us. We started making our way to the transport. We setup in the back of the large vehicle and took shots at any Zombies we saw coming at us. Most of the ones we shot came out of the weeds on the side of the road. The Seals were all collapsing back towards the transport.

  I saw the forklift finally come out of the trailer and head this way. It only had one of the nukes on it. I saw Abraham was standing on the side of the forklift beside the Seal who was driving it. They got here and everyone worked to cover the operation as they got the big box into the back of the truck. I could see Abraham thinking about going back for the other bomb. There was no way we were going to be able to hold this position for that long.

  I caught Abrahams eyes and shook my head no. He looked thoughtful for a second then he started yelling for everyone to get in the transport so we could get the hell out of there. We pulled up the ramp and everyone jammed into the back of the transport. It was standing room only. A few of the girls were standing on top of the nuke. I wasn’t sure they actually knew what it was. We left the green forklift in the middle of the road and started speeding away from the site. Within seconds Zombies covered the trailer and the rest of the area we had just been in.

  I closed my eyes and let myself relax for a second. Then I opened them and got ready for the long ride to the base.

  Entry 6: Regroup

  The base was an abandoned gypsum mine in the middle of nowhere. When we turned into the base I thought we were just stopping to stretch our legs. Then we kept on driving. We stopped at the security gate and one of the Seals got out and went into the booth and a few seconds later the pole blocking the entrance went up in the air and we drove through. We drove into one of the mines. It ended in a dead end. We sat there for five minutes in the dark and then the floor fell away from us. We were on some kind of giant open ramp that the Seal driver navigated us into without hesitation.

  He parked the transport in a large open underground parking lot. Lights had come on as we drove in and looking around I saw a few more transports and other random vehicles including some civilian looking trucks. There was a row of gas pumps over in the far corner of the base. Doors were lined up on all sides of the underground garage. The Seals all started getting out and helping the girls down out of the truck. One of them went and got another forklift and we helped them slide the nuke over so they could get it on the forklift.

  Wilson came walking over and grabbed us. He took us into an underground section of the building that looked like it normally functioned as NCO quarters. Nice rooms with a single bed in each. He set us up with the rooms he said were ours and then told us he’d send food and for us to wait there. About thirty minutes later there was knock on our door. One of the first things we’d done had been to drag chairs into a single room so we could all sit together. I got up and opened the door to see two of the Seals standing there. They asked us to come help them carry some stuff.

  We went out with them and they took us down the hall and out into the underground garage. When we got there they proudly showed us the collection AstroTurf they had set out by our door. I stared at them for a minute, wondering why they thought this was so great.

  “For Daisy genius.” Ann whispered in my ear.

  That was awesome! I turned around and saw Ginny had already left to get Daisy. I asked if they had anything else for us to carry and they handed me a box full of MREs. They told us the water should be working in the showers and sinks and it was safe to drink. While we were getting that all settled Ginny came back out with Daisy. Daisy looked a little self-conscious about it and uncomfortable with all of us staring at her but she managed to take care of her business on the AstroTurf. I swear it made the entire underground garage stink.

  We returned to our room. We settled in and sorted through the MREs to get everyone their personal favorites. Once we all had our food spread out and were munching away on the various delicacies located in the plain brown plastic wrappers we started talking about what we thought we should do next. We were all still committed to taking out the Koreans but now there were some other variables out there as well. A big one being what to do with the girls we had rescued. The assumption was that the Seals would take care of them so they’d probably end up settling here at this base. I’d hoped there were support personnel at the base but it seemed like there were just the Seals wandering around. We’d need to ask Wilson and the Captain what their plans and thoughts were once we got in to meet with them. Reeves was impatient to go find someone and get the scoop. The rest of us were pretty happy to have somewhere we could just sleep the day away without being too worried about dying.

  Walker came by a few hours later to check on us. He let us know Wilson and the rest of the officers were all tied up in a planning session while the enlisted guys were all doing all the work that needed to be done. The girls had been put into a more open enlisted barracks that had originally been intended for females. It was an open environment as they felt the girls would feel more comfortable that way. They were all doing well. The corpsman had made the rounds and fixed up the physical injuries they had. Like everyone else, the real injuries and pain they had were mental and were going to need a lot more than bandages and pain killers to take care of.

  We started quizzing Walker and he was free with his answers. He figured we were in the inner circle of trust at this point so no reason to try and be cute about anything. Plus, pretty much anyone who would give a shit about him providing confidential information was dead anyway. Worse case, they lock him up here while they all went out to get shot at and eaten by Zombies. All the Seals who were here had originally been on the east coast. They had fought their way down from Portland and taken over this base.

  This place wasn’t a base in the true sense of the word. It was more of a hidden fallout shelter for the local bases in the event of a nuclear war. It had been built back during the cold war. The rumor was that the IRS were seizing the assets for failure to pay taxes and the local military thought it would be great to turn it into a secret fallout shelter. The local government wanted the extra revenue to roll in so it was all worked out. Everyone had pretty much forgotten about the place by now. Secrecy through obscurity.

  The North Koreans might have it on a list as a possible base but probably not. If it was the Russians or the Chinese invading us they definitely would have known about it. There were hundreds of these bases scattered across the USA though so it would not have been a high priority to chec
k out. When the Seal team had rolled in there had been some Zombies in residence but nothing too difficult to clean out. Best of all, large solar cells on the other side of the mountain provided all the power needed.

  They had come across the country about eighty men strong. Most of them were originally part of Seal team eight but they filled in gaps as needed with volunteers from other units. By the time they had made it down to Portland they had lost a good deal of their support personnel and were down to about fifty men. Those fifty men had rolled out to meet Wilson and us and recapture the nukes. They were now down to about thirty men after that raid. Of those thirty, five were pretty banged up and would probably be spending the next few months lying in bed and pushing themselves around in wheelchairs. That meant there were twenty-five total men still combat ready. Of those twenty-five, two were pilots, two were corpsmen and the rest were Seals.