by S. Ganley
The video feeds from the parts of Virginia and Maryland that the planes overflew showed a little more promise than the overrun congestion inside and directly around Washington, DC but not by much. Every major population center they were able to see appeared similar with the presence of large numbers of undead as well as massive destruction and clogged streets. Smaller towns appeared completely deserted, although they did note one or two signs that survivors may still be holding out in some of those areas. In one case a boat appeared to be in motion at a point along the Potomac River and another view showed a collection of mobile homes that had been moved into a tight ring forming a perimeter around a small area. A controlled fire and several people were easily visible inside that ring. Dr. Woods could tell right away that he was not looking at zombies at that point. All of the people on the screen were looking up directly towards the camera and tracking it with their heads as it passed by, two of them were even waving frantically towards the passing planes. The presence of survivors was another factor they were going to have to consider. Any upcoming mission on the ground would not be a rescue mission. Any survivors who spotted their arrival were likely to feel differently and approach the ground crews. It was possible that such situations could turn violent when those survivors were turned away, it was one more thing he would have to pass along and make sure the teams on the ground were prepared to deal with.
Dr. Wood had spent the evening and early morning hours assisting the lab technicians in their computer modeling of the air samples recovered from the reconnaissance flights. Their final results confirmed the initial findings from the first run of testing on the carrier. There was no sign or indication of any virus in the atmosphere. While it was cause for a certain degree of celebration that they had overcome their first hurdle, Dr. Woods knew they weren't home free yet. They still needed to collect more samples at different times of the day and hopefully during different weather conditions to determine if the virus was moving on the air stream and capable of resurfacing without notice. If they could get three or four more flights with samples that continued to yield negative results it would be enough for them to confidently move on to the next stage and move people onto the ground to collect their live samples. From that point he hoped that it was only a matter of time before they were able to come up with something resembling an antibody to at least prevent if not cure the virus.
Chapter 14
Garrett and Miranda made an initial trip out to the Range Rover by themselves to check the area along the path and at the road for any signs of zombies. During the night they had spent several tense hours silently huddled just beyond the front door of the Ranger Station when zombies had materialized out of the woods and explored the front porch and surrounding grounds for a while. They had disappeared back into the woods after close to an hour of searching for an entrance to the shack. They hadn't tried hammering down the door as all of them had seen in the past, they simply walked along the porch for a while, scrapping their bodies against the wall and locked door and then moved on when a simple way to enter the shack did not materialize.
Three quarters of the way down the trail Garrett's nose alerted him that zombies were near or had been nearby recently. He signaled a warning to Miranda and pointed off to the left side of the trail where he believed the smell was strongest. Carefully picking their way through the underbrush they moved close to fifty feet into the woods when Garrett froze in place causing Miranda to do the same. With a slow and deliberate palm down motion he signaled for Miranda to drop to a knee into the surrounding brush. A line of tall trees was just in front of them and in between the thick tree trunks they both watched as a herd of zombies packed into the woods between the trees and tall grass. More movement at a point just out of their line of sight several dozen yards closer to the road told them that even more of the undead were stacking up in the woods all around them. Garrett noticed Miranda growing ghostly pale as she realized just how outnumbered they were. Giving her another hand signal he led her silently back the way they had come and out onto the path. Remaining silent and picking their way cautiously they continued following the path until they were within sight of the road and their two vehicles at the head of the trail. From a concealed position in the woods Garrett scanned the entire area and was relieved to see that no zombies had taken any interest in hanging out near their transportation. They appeared to be content with staying in the woods for the time being, but Garrett knew that it wasn't going to be long before they decided to venture out further and once again stumbled on the Ranger Station. He was even pretty sure that they knew exactly where it was, taking into consideration Doug's theory of them being overly attracted to Kimberly’s scent.
Garrett wasn't sure why they were holding back this far from the station but their presence presented them with one hell of a dilemma. They had to bring the rest of the group down this path within a short distance of that crowd of zombies to reach the cars. The thought of trying to work their way around further into the woods on the opposite side of the trail occurred to him but then he quickly dismissed it. Emily and Doug had both already demonstrated their inability to be subtle on flat open ground. Trying to guide them quietly through several acres of dense woods would be about as subtle as blaring an air horn along the way. He was also considering the possibility that the zombies they had already discovered were not the only ones in the area. Stumbling across a large herd like that in the woods would be a recipe for disaster for all of them. Once they had retraced their steps close to a hundred yards up the trail towards the station, Garrett stopped at a slight bend in the trail and instructed Miranda to return to the station for everyone else while he remained in place to keep a watch on the zombies further down the trail. He told Miranda to leave Kimberly in place in her bunk and he would return personally to bring her out once the rest of them were safely at the vehicles.
"What?" She stammered at his instructions. "What happened to all of us staying together?"
"If Doug is right and Kimberly is the one that is attracting them, then the only way the rest of you are going to safely pass is without her mixed in with you." Garrett explained.
"And if he is right then you and Kimberly will be like lambs going to the slaughter. Its suicide Garrett." She argued.
Garrett knew there was little he could say at that point to temper her growing emotions. He reached out and took her by both arms and pulled her in close to him. Without breaking eye contact with her, he leaned in and kissed her passionately on her trembling lips. "Trust me on this one Miranda. We are going to get through this but it has to be this way. Now go, we don't have much time."
She stepped away from him, clearly struggling to find some measure of reassurance in his words. Their eyes remained locked together for several seconds until she finally broke the spell with a nod of her head. Turning back towards the Ranger station she quickly disappeared back up the trail while Garrett returned to his post on the far side of the bend and kept vigil for any signs of zombies starting to move forward through the woods.
Twenty minutes later Garrett heard a soft whistle from behind him and saw Miranda move cautiously back into view several yards up the trail. He gave her a thumbs up and she waved to someone out of his view. Moving slowly down the trail Doug and Cameron were half carrying Kyle along as he struggled with the wounds on his side with every step he took. Emily came along next, huffing and puffing under the weight of the smallest pack they were able to strap to her back with a few meager supplies and then Shellie stepped into the view taking up the rear with her shotgun held ready. Garrett conferred with Miranda for a moment and informed her that other than a few times when he could hear loud moans and movement deep in the woods along the trail everything seemed to have stayed the same since she had left him. He felt it was as clear as it was going to get for them to make their move for the road. Keeping his voice low he reiterated the warning that Miranda had already drilled into them before leaving the Ranger Station to watch their footing, keep together and
remain deathly silent while they passed through this last section of the trail. All of them understood and acknowledged the instructions. He considered focusing on Emily during the discussion but he knew that she was aware of her own shortcomings in this type of environment. Embarrassing her would not make her any less clumsy or inept in her movements.
Garrett allowed a couple minutes for everyone to catch their breath, readjust the loads they were carrying and mentally prepare themselves to make the final push along the trail and to their vehicles. Miranda was going to take the wheel behind the Range Rover while Shellie agreed to handle Kyle's cruiser even though Kyle insisted he could drive. Doug became a little flustered when he was not considered for the job of driving either vehicle but Garrett put him in his place explaining that it was not a male vs. female issue. Doug had his own job to do making sure Kyle and Kimberly were stable and remained alive to reach the hospital. Reliving Miranda at the front of their small column, Garrett started making his way slowly down the trail with everyone else following closely on his heels.
Three times along the way Garrett had to call for a halt when they heard sounds in the woods nearby as zombies moved about or moaned loudly. On one occasion they were able to spot a group of zombies through a break in the trees and they all watched and waited while they passed by and moved deeper into the woods without paying any attention to them. Garrett was sure that the zombies could smell them, a group their size with all of them sweating heavily from tension and exertion was surely filling the air with an attractive scent for the undead. The fact that they were moving along this close to such a large herd of zombies without being swarmed made Doug's theory about Kimberly seem even that much more credible. Whatever smell Kimberly was sending out was much more attractive to these zombies and they were content with letting the rest of them slip by unmolested.
Breaking through the woods at the end of the trail, Garrett once again called for a brief halt while he pushed on ahead and did another sweep of the area around both vehicles to make sure there were no surprises waiting for them. Satisfied the area was clear he waved everyone else forward and helped them while they situated their gear and themselves safely behind locked doors. As he was about to turn back and head up the trail again he felt someone grabbing his arm from behind and turned to face Miranda staring red eyed back at him.
"I should go with you. You can’t help Kimberly and fight at the same time." She pleaded.
He knew that he didn't have to tell her that if it came to a fight on his way back one extra gun was not going to make a difference. Grasping her by the shoulders he spoke softly but firmly.
"Give me one hour. If we aren't back by then, get the rest of them out of here and somewhere safe. Kyle doesn't have much time for us to be dicking around and you know that. As far as Kimberly goes. If Doug is right and she could possibly hold the cure for this thing, I have to do everything possible to try and get her out of there in one piece. I promised everyone that I wouldn't leave anyone behind and I intend to be held to that."
A clasp of thunder in the distance caused both of them to turn towards the sky. They hadn't even noticed the clouds rolling in signifying an approaching storm and it now looked like they were on the verge of a heavy downpour in the next few minutes. It was a testament to just how accustomed all of them had become to modern conveniences that allowed them to receive weather warnings and reports at any time or location that the approaching storm was able to sneak up on them. Being deep in the woods made it difficult for them to see much of the skyline in any direction other than right above them and it was only that single clap of distant thunder followed by a shift in the breeze that finally alerted them to the change in weather. Garrett saw the coming storm as a potential stroke of incredible luck for what he was about to do.
"This is perfect." He exclaimed, Miranda looked confused so he laid it out for her, "the storm will help hide us. The wind and rain should conceal any scents that are attracting the zombies. There's a good chance that me and Kimberly can walk right past them without them having a clue we are nearby."
Miranda's eyes lit up with the thought that she might not have to see Garrett heading off on a suicide mission after all. Even though they were operating on hunches and guess work it was still a glimmer of hope that she had not had only moments earlier.
Garrett pulled her into him and embraced her tightly. With a kiss to the top of her head he stepped away and darted off into the woods towards the trail. Miranda stood her ground and watched as he disappeared into the woods. After saying a silent prayer for his safe return she returned to the driver’s seat of the Range Rover where she was determined to wait as long as possible for Garrett to reappear with Kimberly at his side. With Garrett now gone and even with the glimmer of hope that the approaching storm brought with it, she still had a nagging sense of impending doom that she was unable to quell. She knew that she was stupid for allowing herself to start having feelings for Garrett in the midst of so much death and destruction but she also recognized the need for her to have something worth fighting for. She was now starting to wonder if it was an internal conflict between her need for something positive to prop her up and the understanding that that same prop could be her own undoing that was giving her a premonition that the worst may be yet to come for all of them. Glancing around inside the Range Rover she examined the worried faces of the others and understood that each of them was probably in the midst of addressing their own private fears about what lay ahead for them. One thing that she knew for sure was that despite Garrett's insistence on her leading them out of the park if he wasn't back in the specified time frame was that she would not leave that spot until he was either safely back by her side or she lay dead next to his corpse. Without him, she would be lost in a world turned upside down and she was just not willing to continue on down that path. She started making her own contingencies for what they would do if he wasn't back within an hour and was confident she had just the right plan if it came to that.
#
He was only three-quarters of the way back to the Ranger Station when the rain started. There was no gentle easing into it either, in an instant the sky seemed to open up and release the rain in thick sheets. Visibility instantly dropped to only a few feet and his movements were further hampered by the sudden increase in the wind. Low lying branches began fluttering out in front of him concealing the path and throwing confusing shadows on the ground. He was smacked on both sides by branches and leaves turned into tiny missiles gale force winds as the full force of the storm descended on the park all around him. He was reminded of jungle survival training in the thick woods of Panama.
His squad had found themselves up against a murderous tropical storm during night maneuvers several klicks from the nearest road or familiar landmark after a helicopter insertion during a land navigation exercise. When the training had first been presented to him and they had conducted a map recon of the area they would be operating in he had thought that it was laughable at how easy it would be. The trainers had anticipated a three day hike following their insertion but judging by the distance and terrain he could see on the maps, Garrett had laughingly told them to make sure there was plenty of steak and beer for dinner that same night. What he didn't know was that the training had been timed specifically to occur during the rainiest season of the year. The navigation maneuver was added to the schedule in conjunction with the approach of a monster storm. Since everyone undergoing the training had no access to television, radio or Internet, they had no warning of adverse weather approaching until they were on the ground and found the day turning to night as a thick blanket of storm clouds descended on them. What Garrett had jokingly thought would be a half day walk in the park ended up being a grueling three day struggle for survival. They had learned valuable lessons on that exercise, some of which he had put to use in actual combat situations since that training. The storm he was faced with in the park was not quite as torrential as what he had experienced in the jungles of Panama, but he w
as finding himself dealing with a similar level of disorientation and difficulty in movement. With tree branches slapping out wildly all around him and the rain kicking back up from the muddy ground at his feet it was becoming impossible to tell where the trail was anymore. He concentrated on keeping his body oriented in the direction he had been heading before the worst of the storm descended on him. He knew that even though the trail wound its way in a serpentine fashion through the woods, it was ultimately a straight path from the road to the Ranger Station. His best bet at that point was to forget trying to follow the trail any longer and push on into the woods while maintaining as straight a path as possible. He thought he was within only a hundred or so yards from his destination, any further than that and the chances of him stumbling out into the open ground that marked the surrounding yard of the station would had diminished drastically. Garrett knew that despite his best efforts of following a straight a line, every time that he jogged to one side or the other to avoid a tree or other obstacle and returned to his original path was putting him a little of course. He could miss his target by only a few feet and never realize it until he was a good distance beyond it and forced to turn around and try from a different angle. The longer he spent tromping around in the woods, the greater the chance that he would miss his window for snatching up Kimberly and stealing past the horde of zombies waiting in the woods not far behind him.
