by A. R. Wise
"Who is?" asked Celeste as she stood up to look.
I pulled my pistol and loaded a fresh magazine as I said, "The helicopters."
CHAPTER THREE - NO ESCAPE
Levon Kline
I pulled my pants on as quickly as I could, but modesty was the furthest thing from my mind at the time. I'd been further up the stream, minding my own business, washing myself off, when I saw the helicopters in the distance. They were flying low to avoid being seen, but they had to ascend over a foothill and revealed themselves. They were headed our way, and that wasn't a fucking coincidence.
Kim had already loaded her pistol and was pulling Celeste along behind her as she headed for the trucks. The young girl that I'd rescued from a military base was desperately trying to pull on a set of clothes as Kim grasped at her.
"We can't drive," I said as I followed behind. "We'll have to hide under one of them."
Kim stopped and glanced around. She had a determined look on her face, one that I was all too familiar with. We'd been partners for a few years before I was assigned her sister, Annie, and I'd become familiar with her mannerisms. This particular look, where she squinted before scanning the area and then bit at the left corner of her upper lip, meant that she was about to disagree with me and expected me to accept her opinion. I rarely argued, because she was rarely wrong.
"No," she said with her typical, curt assuredness. "We need to be able to escape. They're not coming here by accident."
"What're you thinking?" I asked.
"We won't be able to make it out of here on foot." She moved toward the truck and I walked backwards as I followed, keeping an eye on the approaching squadron of helicopters. Kim had a unique way of being able to talk through her thought process, which allowed everyone around her to better understand why she was making certain decisions. "There aren't enough places to hide until you get up in the tree line, and that's a good mile away. If they're after us, then they'll be looking for the trucks. When they see them, they're likely to just start shooting, so we can't hide anywhere near them."
"Babe, you'd better hurry up and figure something out," I said. "They're not far behind us. Where the fuck are we going to go?" I put a bullet in the chamber and then ejected the magazine to add another, giving me nine shots before I'd have to reload.
"Your truck is blocking mine, so we'll need to use yours as an escape vehicle if we need it. We can drive it back up to the highway." She pointed to the left of the mound of burned trucks that we'd abandoned here in the past. My truck, the one with the trailer filled with writhing corpses, was on the road that led back up to the highway.
"Get to the point," I said as we walked around the front of my truck. "Where are we going to hide?" We were swiftly running out of time.
"We need to get on the other side of that." She pointed at a small hill about twenty yards away, in the opposite direction of the approaching squadron. "It can give us cover if they start firing on the trucks, and they'd have to double back to take shots at us if they see us after passing over."
"Unless they've got snipers in there, which I bet they do," I said.
"You got a better plan?" she asked as if annoyed that I spoke out against her idea. There was a time when she was easier to deal with, back before a zombie attacked her son. Nowadays, she was impossible to debate with once she decided on a course of action. It was better to just go along with her than to argue.
"No, darling. Calm down and get your ass over that hill." I was moving barefoot on the craggy earth, and I saw that Celeste was suffering the same. She was stumbling through the weeds and rocks, yelping as she clomped down on the unforgiving terrain. "Come here," I said as I knelt at her side and scooped her up. She was light as a doll, and flopped over my shoulder. Her hands slapped against my bare back and she writhed in protest.
"I can run. I can handle myself," said Celeste as she continued to hit my back.
"Damn it, fine." I put her down and grimaced as I shook my head in disappointment. "How come every girl I meet these days is a headstrong, do-it-yourself, take-no-prisoners type? Where the fuck did the princesses go?"
"They got eaten," said Kim. "Now shut up and get your ass over here, both of you."
The earth was hot on my belly as I lay between Celeste and Kim on the far side of the hill. The sound of the helicopters' approach rose above the gentle sloshing of the stream as we hid in the weeds, anxiously spying on the squadron.
"This is bad," said Kim.
"What?" I asked. We had to speak louder as the squadron approached.
"They never fly during the day."
She was right. In the twenty years since the apocalypse, I'd never seen the military performing any tasks during daylight. They were very cautious about keeping their activities, and even their existence, a secret. The Rollers often had to convince other survivors that there was any military presence at all in the area.
"They're pissed," I said.
"They must think we have their pilot."
Harrison's friend, Ben, brought down one of the helicopters the night before, and the pilot had survived. We took him prisoner when we evacuated, and were eager to get a chance to find out more about him as well as anything else we could learn about the military presence near DIA. In all our time patrolling the area, this was the first time we'd ever captured any of them alive.
The roar of the helicopters made whispers inaudible, and I took out my pistol to prepare for a fight. "You ready?" I shouted at Kim, but I didn't need to. She was always ready, and flashed her Smith & Wesson at me as proof. She smirked, and I swear she looked a little excited.
I met Kim when she was five years old. A friend of mine had promised her mother that he'd protect her, so we went to an island out in Georgia to rescue her from a group of psychos that had kidnapped her. When we got there, she'd been stabbed and was all but dead. A mad scientist named Courtland had been doing tests on her, and had injected her with something that I'd been afraid would kill her. We tried to bandage her up, but I was sure she was a goner. My buddy and I were about to head out of there when he was blindsided by a guy with a bat. Because of that, it fell upon me to protect the girl, and I've never really stopped.
Kim and her sister became my kin. Their mother is like a sister to me now, and her daughters are like my own. I've never had kids, although my wife and I have been working on it for as long as we've been together. Laura lost her husband at the start of the apocalypse, and I've always felt like it was my job to help take care of her family. Not that they needed it. Those three girls are the toughest group of chicks I've ever met, and I'd wager they've saved my ass far more times than I saved theirs.
"Stop staring at me like that," said Kim. "You're creeping me out, old man."
I hadn't realized I was staring at her, and I bashfully turned away.
The squadron stayed low, and the tops of the hills danced from the wind. Dust curled behind the helicopters as they came over the horizon until they descended into our carcass-laden valley. Then they slowed, rearing back and kicking dust up over the hill and forcing us to lower our heads to avoid being stung by the debris.
Each helicopter was loaded with men in black armor that gleamed like obsidian in the sunshine. They dropped ropes down near our parked trucks and started to slide down. Within seconds, there were men gathering below us, just twenty yards away. Each of them carried F2000 assault rifles and swiftly mounted a search for the drivers of the vehicles.
Kim glanced at me and raised her eyebrows. She didn't have to explain what she was thinking, because I was thinking the same thing: We were fucked.
"We've got to move," said Kim. She had to yell over the sound of the helicopters, but the noise was loud enough that neither of us were worried the soldiers could hear.
I nodded and looked back, over my shoulder, at the empty plains to the east. We were near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Directly to the west, past the soldiers, the terrain was ideal for hiding, but to the east, in the direction that we w
ould have to flee, there was nowhere to hide. I looked back over to Kim, hoping she had a plan, and noticed that she wasn't paying attention to our escape route. She was staring down at the soldiers.
"What are you thinking?" I knew what she was thinking, and I didn't want any part of it.
She scooted closer to speak directly into my ear. "They didn't just blow up the truck. That means they're probably looking for their pilot, and they want him alive. We need to get down there, and get in that truck before they realize we don't have him." She was talking about the pilot we'd captured from the wrecked helicopter - the man who was taken to the High Rollers' campsite.
"And then what?" I asked, befuddled by her plan.
She looked at me as if I should've already figured it out. "And then we get the fuck out of here. Those helicopters can't have as much fuel as the truck. We just get in and drive as far as we can up into the mountains. They can't follow us forever."
"Kim, God love ya," I snickered as I pointed down at the soldiers. "But you're forgetting about the mother fuckers down there with the assault rifles."
There were a growing number of soldiers below us, and they were gathering around one man that was holding a computer tablet of some sort. Then the one with the computer looked up in our direction, and pointed.
"Oh fuck," said Kim as she crouched to the right of me.
Celeste crawled over to my left side and said, "They're not looking for the pilot."
I looked at her, stunned and confused.
"They're looking for me."
I had no way of knowing if she was right, but her confidence convinced me.
Celeste apologized to me, for reasons I didn't quite understand, and then stood up. I tried to grab her to keep her down, but she pulled away from my grip. She walked to the apex of the hill and held her blanket over her with her left arm while raising her right into the air to wave at the approaching soldiers.
"What the fuck is she doing?" asked Kim.
I shushed Kim and started to crawl backwards down the hill. There wasn't anything we could do to protect Celeste now, and I grabbed onto Kim's arm to get her to come with me. She reluctantly complied as Celeste moved away from us, headed towards the soldiers that I couldn't see anymore.
"What the fuck is she doing?" asked Kim again.
"They're here for her."
"What makes you think that?"
"That guy was using some device to track something. Maybe they can track her somehow."
Kim's eyes darted between the helicopters above and me as she considered the possibility. "Is that why they attacked Vineyard?"
"I don't know. They had trucks filled with zombies already, even before the girls broke out, so I think they were going to hit Vineyard anyways."
"What are we going to do?" asked Kim, and then answered for me. "We have to save her. We can't let them take her."
"What can we do?"
She glared at me, but understood I was right. It was suicide to run over this hill with nothing but our pistols to fight a squad of armored soldiers carrying assault rifles.
Then she scowled and said, "We're not letting them take her."
"God damn it, Kim." I grabbed her hand to keep her from crawling back up the hill. "You're going to get yourself killed. Think about David."
I brought up her son to strike a cord with her, and it worked. She turned around and anger blazed in her eyes as she glared at me. I'd pissed her off, and I knew better than to try and fight with her anymore.
She paused, filled with anger that waned as reality forced her to reconsider her desire to fight. I understood that she wanted to save Celeste, but there was nothing we could do. "I can't let them take her, Hero. I'm not leaving her."
She started to crawl back up the hill to spy over it. The wind from the hovering helicopters pulled her hair into the air and it thrashed against the tall weeds. I followed behind, ready to fight alongside her if she was determined to do this.
I got to the top of the hill just after Kim, and pushed aside the weeds to peer down at the soldiers. Celeste was still covered by her blanket, her arms draped beneath it, as one of the soldiers examined her with a handheld device. The machine emitted a green, horizontal laser in an arc that spread the width of her frame and moved up and down rapidly. When it stopped, he turned to look at another one of the soldiers and gave a thumbs up.
A soldier that was behind Celeste grabbed onto the blanket and pulled it away from her. This lithe girl, who should've appeared frail and vulnerable amidst the sea of armored soldiers, was a vision of fury and strength instead. Hidden beneath the blanket, she'd been holding two sticks.
Celeste's assault was too fast to see, and by the time I realized she was fighting, two soldiers had already hit the ground. She took one man's rifle and pressed the muzzle against his chin before forcing him to pull the trigger. Another man tried to grab her, but she spun away from his grip and then tripped him. The men were screaming, but none of them tried to shoot her. She was too valuable to them for some reason, and they were intent on subduing the whirling girl.
"Come on!" Kim was already up, and started to run down the hill.
"Fucking hell," I said as I scrambled to join the fray.
A gunshot blared from above and the dirt beside me exploded as a sniper's bullet struck the earth. I looked up and saw the glint of the assassin's scope, and I blindly took a few shots at him.
"Get to the truck," said Kim. "I'll get her."
Kim started firing at the men around Celeste, and they were surprised by the attack. Some of them tried to draw their weapons, but Celeste quickly dispatched them. However, there were too many of them for Celeste to handle, and I expected to be shot any second. I tried to aim into the ruckus, but I didn't fire in fear of hitting Celeste. Kim was more confident in her aim and was already yelling at me that she needed to reload.
I was close enough now that I didn't need to shoot anymore. I tackled the first soldier I reached and we collapsed to the ground together. The collision was exhilarating, and brought back memories of playing football a lifetime ago. The man in the suit of armor was puny in comparison to my bulk, and I heard his breath escape him as we fell over. A tube on the back of his helmet snapped and air whistled out of it, kicking up dirt in my face.
I pressed my gun into his side and fired off a few shots. I could feel his body jostle beneath me as the bullets ripped through his innards.
"Hero," said Kim, "the truck!"
She was on the other side of the soldiers, and Celeste was beside her. The squad of dazed men separated us, and we didn't have time to waste. Kim and Celeste were headed to the rear of the truck and I realized that they were going to get in the back while I drove. That is, if I could stay alive.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck," I said over and over as I scurried to the driver's side. The helicopters above were moving in an attempt to get a better shot as I got to the truck. I looked back at the men that Celeste had knocked down and saw them scrambling to get back up. I fired into them as I opened the door. A sniper took a shot, and the bullet hit the truck's door, causing it to pull out of my grip and close again. There was a hole in the door where the bullet had passed through and I continued to curse as I opened it again.
I got the truck started as fast as possible and prayed that the girls had made it into the back. For some reason, the soldiers weren't willing to shoot at Celeste, which gave me hope that Kim would be okay. That same stroke of luck didn't apply to me though, and I knew I was a target for every soldier here as I pushed down on the gas pedal.
The snipers didn't waste any time shooting at me, and the windshield burst into a mosaic as the first bullet came through. The cushion beside me was hit and I cowered from the view of the sniper as the truck started to move. I pressed myself against the door and got as low as I could while still holding the wheel. I don't think I ever stopped cursing as the truck lumbered over the uneven terrain.
Then my door opened.
I was shocked as my head flopped
out of the vehicle. There was a soldier holding onto the side, perched on the footrest as we drove across the field. He wasn't expecting me to half-fall out of the truck any more than I was, and he stared down at me in surprise. I let go of the wheel and punched him in the chest, right in the metal plate. It felt like I was hitting the side of a building and my knuckle crunched against his armor.
He started to pull me out of the truck, but then there was a violent crash that caused the door to slam against my head. The window shattered and bits of glass fell down on me as I struggled to understand what had happened. My vision swirled with flashing lights and every time I blinked it seemed like it took far too long for the darkness to dissipate. I was stunned and there was warm liquid coursing across my face.
I smelled something burning.
I let go of the steering wheel and touched the blood on my face. Then I felt as if I were tumbling through the air, but I was still pressed against the seat. I was confused by the sensation, but then I heard the tires on the right side of the truck squealing as they bore the weight of the entire vehicle. I suddenly understood what was happening: the truck was about to overturn.
When the soldier had pulled me out of the truck, I inadvertently tugged the steering wheel to the side, which caused us to cascade up the side of a hill. We must've hit a tree, which caused the door to slam on my head and knocked the soldier off, and now we were teetering on the right side wheels.
I'd never heard a truck overturn before, and it was hard to believe that it could be as loud as it was. The entire frame of the vehicle seemed to scream out as we leaned to the side. Then it started to shake, like an animal overcome with fear, and the tires bounced while the glass around me sprinkled down, tinkling across the dashboard.
I looked out the passenger side window and saw the grass below speeding toward me until it blacked out the view. We thudded and I slid down the seat as the tumultuous ride came to an end. The truck's bellowing, wrenching steel finally settled as we slid to a stop. The trailer crashed down after, and I felt the vibration under me.
