by Gary Chesla
“Yes, Sir,” Edwards replied.
“Why are you keeping two pilots behind?” Doc asked.
“The infected will be here before the base is evacuated,” the Captain replied. “We need to keep some firepower behind to slow the infected to buy us enough time to get everyone out.”
“Thank You,” Doc replied.
“No, Thank You, Doc,” the Captain sighed. “I needed the nudge to make a decision I should have made before now.
There is no honor or glory staying here and letting all my men die. There may not be anyone out there that gives a damn any longer. There may not be anyone out there left to fight for. Whatever the case, we can’t help anyone if we are all dead. It is time to retreat and regroup. To live and maybe fight another day, that is if there is anything left to fight for.”
“I believe if we can survive for another month, we can do a lot of good for anyone still alive in our country, Sir,” Doc replied.
The Captain looked at Chervanak, Rogers, Davis and Doc.
“I want you to get your supplies together. You will stay here with me until the infected attack. I will need your skills until I send out the last of our bombers. After that, we will go out on the next flight,” the Captain said. “Until then, I need you to monitor the progress of the infected and keep me informed.”
“Yes, Sir,” Chervy replied.
The Captain turned and left the room.
“You heard the Captain,” Chervy said. “Go pack and get your asses back here. We still have work to do.”
Rogers and Davis put on their masks and ran out the door.
Chervy looked at the doctor, “It is going to take over two hours for a Seahawk to reach Granite Mountain and return. The infected will be here in twelve hours, that means we can only evacuate half of our remaining men before the infected arrive,” Chervy said. “Do you think we can keep them at bay with the men we will have left and buy enough time to get everyone out?”
“No,” Doc replied. “From what I saw when I examined the men after today’s attack, half is about all that will still be alive by the time the infected arrive.
Half the men are displaying early signs of being infected.
There won’t be anyone left to evacuate by the time the infected arrive if I am right.
All we can do is hope to get the healthy uninfected men off the base before the men showing symptoms of the infection turn and attack us from within.
I’m going over and instruct Edwards to divide the men so the healthiest men will be evacuated first. I will explain to him why he should post the others out along the trenches to stand guard.”
“Do you think he will listen?” Chervy asked. “That will be a hard pill to swallow, sending out half your men, knowing you are sending them out to die.”
“I’m hoping he will listen to reason,” Doc replied. “If not, none of us may make it out of here alive.”
Doc turned and left.
Chervy turned back to the monitor and realigned the satellite to look for the horde of infected coming in from the south.
As he typed on the keyboard to realign the satellite’s camera, he heard the roar of jets taking off down the runway.
Chervy counted the sounds as the jets roared down the runway. He counted eighteen jets taking off and flying westward towards Salt Lake City.
They were soon followed by the base’s two Seahawks.
Chervy felt strange, knowing that he was waiting to leave, hopefully before the infected overran the base.
Knowing there was a chance he wouldn’t make it out in time, made chills run down his back.
It felt worse than it felt this morning, waiting for the infected to attack the base.
The feeling of hope, so close and barely hanging above total disaster, was a very uneasy feeling.
Chervy pulled up the view of the base then zoomed out to see what was happening a hundred miles out.
He looked at the group coming up from the south.
They were still a long way out.
If the base was lucky, the infected would not arrive for another fifteen hours or more.
The extra time would certainly help the base’s evacuation plans.
“Maybe things won’t be as tight as I thought,” Chervy thought.
Then Chervy looked to the western side of the screen.
“What the hell?” Chervy said as he stared at the screen.
The group on the western side of the base was no more than two hours out and even worse, had grown significantly.
“This group wasn’t supposed to get here for another three days,” Chervy thought.
But as he studied the screen, he saw where this new group was coming from.
Since the last time he had looked at this view of the base, probably six or eight hours ago due to the planning for and then the attack from the west, another group had moved down from somewhere in the north.
“My God,” Chervy said.
Chervanak got up, feeling he had to inform the Captain of the new development.
He started for the door, only to trip over a chair and land hard on the floor as the monitor flickered and then all the lights went out.
Chervy crawled in the direction of the door and felt around until he came to the wall in the dark windowless room.
He stood and felt his way along the wall until he found the door.
He turned the handle and stepped out into the blinding sunlight.
When his vision cleared, he saw men coming out of the other buildings, shading their eyes as they came out to find out what had happened.
Chervy made it to the Captains office and waited to go inside.
When he was told it was OK to go to see the Captain, he opened the door to find the doctor inside with the Captain. The room was dimly lit by an oil lamp sitting on the Captain’s desk.
“What happened to the power?” Chervy asked.
“The emergency generator broke down,” the Captain replied. “Apparently it hadn’t been high on the priority list of things to keep maintained at the base.”
“How soon will they have it up and running again?” Chervy asked nervously.
“It might not be back up until tomorrow sometime,” the Captain replied.
“Shit,” Chervy said. “Sorry Sir!”
“What’s wrong?” the Captain asked.
“Before the power went out, I was looking at the group of infected that was coming from way out in the west,” Chervy replied.
“They won’t be here for a few days. What’s the problem?” the Captain asked.
“While we were having our hands full with the group coming at us from the east this morning, another group from the north slipped in to our western side and are heading this way,” Chervy said. “It is a larger group than we were counting on. I was getting ready to zoom in on them to find out what I could, but the power went out before I could gather much information.”
“Hopefully we’ll all be out of here by the time they reach the base,” the Captain replied. “It won’t make any difference how many are coming or when they get here.”
“But that’s the problem,” Chervy said nervously, “From what I saw, they will be here in two hours.”
“Damn it,” the Captain swore. “We haven’t started to dig the trenches on that side of the base yet. We don’t have anything on that side of the base to even slow them down.”
The Captain picked up his handheld radio.
“Edwards!”
“Yes Captain,” Edwards replied.
“The men I just talked to you about posting along the trenches,” the Captain said. “I want you to reposition them along the road on the western side of the base.
Post the rest of your men along the hangars, facing west.”
“May I ask why the change, Sir?” Edwards asked.
“We have a group surprising us from the west. Arm the men with those old grenade launchers from Hangar Twelve that we were to send to San Diego for disposal,” the Captain replied. “Giv
e the rest of the men whatever kind of weapons they want.”
“Yes Sir,” Edwards replied. They could all hear the sound of frustration in Edward’s voice.
The Captain hit the button on his radio again.
“Sanders!”
“Sanders has left for Granite Mountain, this is Kelly here,” came the reply.
“Sorry Kelly. I want our two remaining jets in the air now,” the Captain said. “There is a group of the infected approaching the base. I want you to drop everything you have on the front of that group.”
“You don’t want us to identify the largest clusters and take them out?” Kelly asked.
“Not on the first run,” the Captain replied. “I want you to tear up the area at the beginning of the group. The objective is to slow them down. I need craters and uneven terrain to trip up the group’s progress. Then I want you to come back and rearm. On your next runs, you will focus on the largest clusters. After your third run, report back for further instructions.”
“Yes Sir,” Kelly replied.
The Captain looked at the doctor and Chervanak.
“Gentlemen, I want you on the next flight out when the Seahawks return,” the Captain said.
“But Sir,” the doctor said. “I may be able to be of help. This base is going to be a madhouse in another two hours.”
“That is why I want you out of here,” the Captain smiled sadly. “The rest of us will follow after the attack, if we survive. In the likely event that things do not go well, you Doc are the only person I can think of that may have a chance of stopping this infection. Take Chervy and two other men to assist you in your work and get the hell out of here. There isn’t anything more you can do here now. What happens here is now in the hands of a higher authority.
I’ll have Edwards assign ten men to your helicopter. Take those men with you for security when the choppers return.
When you get to Granite Mountain, even if you cannot locate the survival facilities, you should have the time to work on this problem in a safer and quieter environment.
I know, given enough time, you can beat this.
It was just unfortunate, we were unable to give you that opportunity here.”
“But Captain,” Doc started to say.
“That is an order gentlemen,” the Captain said. “Get the hell out of my office and get ready to evacuate.”
As Chervy and the doctor walked to the door, the Captain added.
“And Doc,” the Captain said, “Thanks for everything.”
The doctor looked at the Captain and nodded.
Then he turned and left the office.
Chapter 31
May 11th, Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
Tony crawled under the shiny red Corvette they found sitting along the road, five miles outside of Johnstown.
The sportscar was sitting sideways with the front end of the car pressed into the bank along the road while the backend of the car remained out on the highway.
Beyond the fact that the driver’s side window had been smashed, the car didn’t look to be in bad shape.
If the Corvette had been able to hold more than two people, they would have considered leaving the old Buick behind and taking the newer car, mainly for the automatic transmission and power steering.
Mike stood at the side of the Corvette and scanned the area.
“What do you think?” Mike asked.
Tony tapped the gas tank with his knuckles.
“I think we may have just gotten lucky,” Tony replied. “This one sounds like it still has gas in it.”
“Now if we just had a hose or something,” Mike said.
“Check the ditch alongside the road and see if you can find a couple cans or bottles,” Tony said as he slid out from under the back of the Corvette. “If we can get a couple cans, I think I can find something to punch a hole in the gas tank. We can transfer the gas to the Buick, one can at a time.”
“I’ll go find a can,” Jamie yelled from the backseat of the Buick.
“No, you stay in the car with Mommy,” Mike replied.
“Why can’t I go and help Daddy?” Jamie asked.
“Because he needs us to stay in the car so he knows where we are,” Linda replied.
“But, if I’m helping him, he’ll know where I am,” Jamie protested.
“Because I don’t want to play with George,” Linda smiled. “We know what George does to anyone that doesn’t want to play with him. So, I need you to protect me.”
“Don’t be silly, George can’t eat you,” Jamie grinned.
“Just keep an eye on him for me. OK?” Linda said.
“George promises he won’t eat you,” Jamie smiled. “Right George? See, he promised.”
“We both know how George listens,” Linda replied. “Just keep an eye on George. Your dad needs to help Tony and we would only get in his way.”
Mike smiled as he listened to Linda and Jamie.
It was good to be back with his girls again.
Mike walked over to the drain at the side of the road and looked down over the embankment.
Debris was cluttered around the sides of the clogged drain pipe.
“I have three pop cans over here,” Mike called out.
Tony pulled his head out of the Buick’s trunk and held up a screwdriver.
“Bring them over here,” Tony said.
Mike crawled down over the embankment and gathered up the soda cans, two Diet Coke cans and one Doctor Pepper.
Looking at the cans reminded him how thirsty he was.
He climbed back up on the road and carried the cans over and handed them to Tony.
“They don’t hold much,” Mike said.
“They will have to do,” Tony replied as he used the screwdriver to punch out the top of the cans.
“This should work,” Tony said. “I’ll punch a hole in the gas tank and fill the cans. As I fill them, I’ll slide them next to the back tire. Grab them and pour them in the Buick then set the can by my leg. This isn’t my first choice, but if this is what I need to do to avoid walking, I guess I better get started.”
Mike nodded and walked over to the car window.
“Linda, would you keep an eye open while Tony and I get the gas out of that Corvette?” Mike asked.
“Sure,” Linda smiled.
“What can me and George do?” Jamie asked.
“You watch out that window and yell if you see anyone coming,” Mike replied. “Don’t let anyone sneak up on us. OK?”
“Are they going to be mad because Daddy is taking their gas?” Jamie asked.
“No, they don’t need it anymore,” Linda replied and smiled up at Mike, “You better go help Tony while you can.”
Mike removed the Buick’s gas cap, then walked over to the Corvette.
Tony’s legs were sticking out from under the car.
Mike heard a thump and then the sound of liquid splashing into one of the tin soda cans.
“Get ready,” Tony called out as he grabbed the second can and slid a full can of gas out next to the back tire.
Mike took the can and ran over to the Buick and emptied the can into the Buick’s gas tank.
He ran back, put the empty can down next to Tony’s legs, then grabbed another full can.
“Keep them coming,” Mike said.
Transferring the gas, one can at a time, took ten minutes and Tony finally crawled back out from under the Corvette and held up the last half can of gas.
“I’m starting to miss the good old days,” Tony smiled. “You know when there were gas stations, gas pumps, attendants that cleaned your windshield and no zombies.”
“Times change,” Mike replied. “We can’t stand in the way of progress.”
“Well, when I see progress, I’ll be sure to get out of its way,” Tony grinned.
“Let’s get moving,” Mike said. “I’d like to find someplace we can spend the night before it gets much later.”
“What’s wrong with right here?” Tony asked.<
br />
“Here on the road?” Mike said.
“No, not on the road,” Tony replied. “I think I’m half crazy, but I don’t think I’ve gone over the edge yet. I mean somewhere around here. Maybe we can find a farmhouse or some other abandoned place back off the road.”
“Why here?” Mike asked.
“Why not,” Tony replied, then smiled. “Seriously, because we haven’t seen a damn zombie since we got close to the summit. Once we go down over the other side of this mountain, we’ll be running into Ligonier, Latrobe and Greensburg. All places where a lot of people lived.
The old man said, the more people the more walkers we would find. We saw that ourselves on our way back to Johnstown.”
“I see your point,” Mike said.
“Something else hit me as we drove up that steep hill to get up into Westmont. I was thinking, you know I do that sometimes,” Tony grinned. “I ask myself why there were so many of the dead in Johnstown and only a few when we got up to your house.”
“More people lived down in Johnstown than lived up in Westmont,” Mike replied.
“I considered that, but downtown is only a mile at the most from your house,” Tony said. “You would think that the way those things move around, even if just by accident, you would have thought there would have been a shitload of them staggering around up in Westmont too.”
“What reason do you attribute to the lack of zombies in Westmont when there are so many downtown?” Mike asked.
“After thinking it over for the last few hours, I think it is because of that steep hill,” Tony said. “The way those things struggle to drag themselves around, I don’t think they can climb hills very well.”
“How about the cabin?” Mike asked. “The cabin was up in the mountains.”
“So were Cherry Tree, Twin Rocks and East Conemaugh,” Tony answered. “The walkers up there were already there. When they became zombies, they didn’t have to climb a mountain to get up there, they were already there. If no one lived up that way, I don’t think we would have seen any walkers until we got back down in the valley.
