by S. Ganley
Garrett burst out of the woods and onto the strip of grass next to the road. Out in the open free from the woods the visibility was much better allowing him a clearer picture of his surroundings. He snapped his head to the right where he had last seen both of their vehicles parked and was not completely surprised when he saw them gone. Even more unnerving was the amount of trees and branches that were down across the road in every direction. One particularly thick tree was stretching from the woods on the far side of the road across to the opposite side, if either of their vehicles had remained behind it would have surely crushed them into junk metal and killed everyone inside at the same time. While he was relieved to see that Miranda must have obeyed his instructions and moved out after an hour. He was also disheartened to know that his ordeal was now far from over. Any chance of a quick escape had left with Miranda and the others.
Shadows in the woods coming towards him let him know that some of the zombies they had forced their way past had managed to follow them and would be pouring out into the clear at any second. The advantage he had with visibility outside of the dense brush was about to become a liability when the zombies also stepped free of the darkness and were able to see Kimberly and himself along the road. There options were as limited as the time they had to consider them. Garrett could feel his own strength waning, the combination of cold wet rain, fighting his way back and forth through the thick woods and the stress of their situation was taking a toll on him. He imagined that Kimberly was in just as bad if not worse shape. It was several miles to the main nature center near the park entrance before they could consider stopping. Traveling along the road the whole way would be easier on them but it would mean they would have to fight off pursuit almost nonstop. Taking a route through woods brought even more risks. They had already seen how easy it was to stumble on zombies in the darkness and they had pushed their luck in that regard as far as possible. Even more worrisome was that Garrett wasn't sure they wouldn't end up hopelessly lost trying to travel that far through the woods to a location he had only been to once in much better conditions. They were going to have to make a stand right there. If they could stem the tide of zombies coming after them they would follow the road and hope to reach the nature center without attracting too much attention along the way.
Garrett removed the rifle from his shoulder and stepped behind the thick trunk of a recently fallen tree. The body of the tree would create only a minor obstacle for any zombies that got that close to him, but it gave him a measure of security that he didn't feel just standing out in the open. Kimberly understood right away about what he had planned and before he could say a word she took a stance shoulder to shoulder with him. To Garrett's surprise she also pulled out one the spare pistols that Calvin had brought along and held it out it in front of her. Garrett had forgotten about that small 9mm, Miranda must have left it with her while she led everyone else back to the road.
"Can you use that?" Garrett asked as he watched Kimberly struggling to rack the slide on the pistol and chamber the first round.
"No, but Miranda told me to just point and pull the trigger. I will do what I can." She answered honestly.
Garrett offered her a smile, he liked her spunk. He knew she was still suffering from the virus and probably wanted nothing more than to just curl up in a ball and fall back to sleep. Instead she was willing to take a stand with him and give it her all so they both had a fighting chance at living to see another day. The spirit she was showing right there was exactly the fighting spirit that would ensure the survival of the human race. Garrett decided that if this was to end up being his last stand then he was proud to be making it with someone who exhibited the will and desire that he was seeing in Kimberly just then.
"Ok, but hold your fire until they get really close. You need a head shot for a kill anything else just seems to piss them off and wastes ammo. Aim and squeeze, don't think about it, let it be as mechanical an action as possible." Seven zombies stepped out from the woods right in front of them preventing Garrett from giving Kimberly more than that brief piece of advice. She nodded to him and held the pistol out in front of her with as much confidence as she could muster but Garrett could see the shaking in her hands announcing her unease and nervousness. She had killed before, Garrett knew that and he was sure that when it came down to it she would be able to do so again.
The zombies had noticed the two of them now and began charging forward fighting against the driving rain and raging wind but coming on fast none-the-less. Garrett steadied his aim over the sights of this rifle, he held his fire but tracked the closest threat and waited. When the zombie reached the strip of grass at the edge of the road Garrett fired his first shot. The bullet traveled true and slammed into the zombie’s nose, exploding the entire face into a shattered mass of ruined tissue and splintered bone. As that zombie started to drop to the ground Garrett shifted his sights and took on his second target. Two of his few remaining rounds finally brought this one down. The wind and rain were combining to offer the worst possible shooting conditions. After the round left the barrel of his rifle it was immediately subjected to those forces. When it had traveled twenty feet the bullet was already being pushed just a fraction off target. Every ten to fifteen feet further the bullet's trajectory was changed even more. This left Garrett with an effective firing distance of between twenty to thirty feet, beyond that he was just not capable of corrections to his aim that would result in a head shot.
Letting the zombies continue to approach he could see that this was going to be a short fight. Two at a time at that distance would be a little challenging, but now he had five coming at him in a bunch. They were also racing towards him almost abreast of each meaning that all of them would come into range at the same time giving him only three or four seconds to drop all of them. Kimberly might get lucky and nail one, but it was likely going to come down to hand to hand combat in just a few moments. Pushing that thought aside for the moment Garrett pulled the rifle back into his shoulder as tight as he could to steady his aim. Picking a point a quarter inch to the side of where he wanted his next bullet to strike he fired off another shot. His adjustment was off, but not by much, the ear and earring of an elderly female zombie blew off the side of its head and disappeared behind her. Maintaining the same point of aim as the zombie took three more steps closer, Garrett fired again and shattered the woman's forehead. Quickly shifting to the side he fired round after round in rapid succession. Two more zombies fell after he had fired six rounds. Garrett heard the report of a pistol firing next to him and knew that Kimberly had joined the fray now that they zombies were within on a few feet of the far side of the downed tree they were standing behind. Garrett couldn't tell how effective she was but he didn't see any zombies dropping so any hits she was scoring must have been only ineffective body shots.
As the remaining three zombies reached the opposite side of the downed tree and began clambering over it, Garrett got off one last point blank shot into the top of one head. He then dropped the rifle to his side and clamped his hand over the handle of his knife. Before he could pull the blade free of the sheath there was a series of rapid shots from several feet off to Kimberly's side. The two remaining zombies crumpled into ragged heaps and slid off the side of the tree into the branches all around it. Garrett’s first impression was that Kimberly must have pulled some kind of surprise Annie Oakley stunt on him and had just fired off perfect and rapid fire kills. But Kimberly was standing there with her pistol still aimed out to the other side of Garrett where she had fired her last shot. Something passed into his peripheral vision coming towards them from behind a grove of brush at the top of the bend in the road. Garrett jumped towards the rifle at his feet and then stopped short when he recognized the figure that stepped out into the road in front of him. Miranda was crouched in a shooters stance, her pistol swinging from one side to the other searching for additional targets.
Chapter 16
Crusher checked his radar as their flight passed over the
Virginia coastline on the way towards their patrol route. He was growing concerned about the dark image of the massive storm still hovering over the capital and surrounding areas. Viewed from the radar on board the carrier it had appeared the storm was breaking apart and their flight would be hitting their target in moderate winds. The radar feedback his plane was displaying now that they were closer to Washington did not indicate any lessening of the storm. As he stared at the developing weather conditions on his computer screen he started to consider scrubbing their flight. No sooner had that thought occurred to him then they entered the outer fringes of the storm. Instead of making the call to scrub the flight, Crusher settled down further in his seat and focused all his attention on his flight controls and monitoring his wingman's relative position to his own. They were flying a much looser formation for this mission than they would have normally done. Since there was no danger of hostile action they were more concerned with flight safety than the ability to bring weapons onto targets as they presented themselves. That level of separation left both of them flying without any visual cues from each other. Even their navigation lights were swallowed up in the storm clouds. This would mark Huntress' first real world mission outside of training flights that relied only on instrumentation for all aspects of the mission. Even visual orientation with the ground was impossible. Looking outside the cockpit neither pilot would be able to tell up from down with nothing but pitch blackness everywhere they looked. Conditions like that can become disorienting overtime. Fighter pilots are trained to concentrate on their instruments and the heads up display inside their helmet visor.
"Huntress, we are ten minutes out from the start of our first patrol pattern. How are you doing back there?" Crusher called over the dedicated frequency between the two planes.
"No problems, going to have to do better than this to shake me up." She replied.
Despite the bravado she was trying to display, Crusher could detect the concern in her voice. She was likely gripping her control stick so tight that her knuckles were turning white while her stomach was tied in such tight knots that she was feeling sick, but she would never admit it to Crusher. He had been a rookie pilot once himself and understood exactly what she was dealing with. There was no room for any sign of weakness in a navy pilot, to reach the top you had to be the best even under the worst conditions. The apocalypse may not have been something they had trained to deal with but as far as any of them were concerned it was business as usual in their world.
Both of them were still on autopilot as they allowed the computer to set up their approach along the most fuel efficient course possible. The computer would also take into account the more severe pockets of weather and adjust their course accordingly. Once they reached the boundary of their designated patrol pattern Crusher planned to take over manual control and he was pretty sure that his wingman would follow his lead on that. A brilliant flash of lightning several miles ahead of them lit up the sky all around. He knew they were in for one hell of a bumpy ride, but he also knew just how important it was that they get the samples they had been sent to collect. If he aborted this flight there was no telling how long they would have to wait for their next opportunity to collect these key samples. The sooner their mission was accomplished the sooner a cure for the virus could be developed. While it may not help the ones they had left behind on the mainland, it could at least ensure that those of them who had survived so far had some kind of future waiting for them. He focused back on the controls and busied himself with checking readouts and instrument indicators. They were committed to this mission now and he intended to see it through to the end.
#
Miranda explained to Garrett that when his hour ran out she had sent everyone else ahead with Shellie in Kyle's patrol car. They would have all continued to wait with her, they had insisted that they should stay together. But the weather was knocking trees down all over the road and there was a concern one of them would end up smashing their cars or the road would become too snarled for them to get out of the park. They had agreed on a rendezvous location not far from the hospital Doug was planning on taking Kyle. The others would wait for them until nightfall and if they didn't show up they would push on to the hospital without them.
Miranda had moved the Range Rover down the road into the entrance of a fire break where it would be protected by some sturdy oak trees that she thought would block any smaller trees and branches knocked down by the storm. She had returned on foot just in time to see the zombies leaving the woods and rushing across the street towards Garrett and Kimberly. The storm had allowed her to sneak up on their flank and take up a perfect position to pick them off when they reached the tree trunk with Garrett and Kimberly on the other side. As a wave of relief washed over him at the sight of Miranda and her uncanny marksmanship, Garrett rushed over to her and swept her up into his arms.
"Shouldn't I be the weeping female making this move?" Miranda whispered into his ear as they embraced on the side of the road.
"Darling, I think the way things are these days we can put those gender roles to rest once and for all. I am just so damn happy to see your beautiful face right now." He replied, "even if you can’t follow the simplest of instructions."
She laughed playfully in his ear, "I waited exactly an hour as you ordered and got everyone clear. But I made a command decision at the last second to edit your orders just a little. Isn't that something you have been trying to teach me, flexibility?"
He found that he couldn't argue with her logic. In the world they now found themselves in a situation can change in a matter of seconds and flexibility was very important. Even more important was that despite Miranda's personal motivations for not listening to him and waiting for his return, there was something even more important to be learned from that lesson. Every one of their lives counted more then they realized. There was little room for selfish acts of bravery any more. With each loss to their numbers the group as a whole suffered even more. The loss of Calvin in what would have normally been considered an unmitigated act of bravery, hurt all of them more in the long run.
"You did just perfect." Garrett replied as he pulled away from her and looked down into her eyes. Without another word he bent forward and kissed her with a passion that only others who have recently faced death could ever understand. They remained in that embrace for several seconds until Kimberly cleared her throat from behind Garrett to get their attention.
"Ummm, I guess I am a little behind on things." She said in response to seeing the two embracing in such a familiar fashion. "But shouldn't we take this party down the road." Kimberly was gesturing to the bodies of the zombies spread out around them. They knew there were many more in the woods nearby and staying put for too long was not the best idea.
The storm was still pounding away with unrelenting intensity and all of them were soaked to the bone and more than ready to get inside a dry vehicle where they could rest their weary legs and backs. Miranda led the way down the road and after several minutes of fumbling around in the rain finally found the entrance to the fire break. A small tree had fallen partially across the small road making it more difficult to locate. Garrett dragged the larger branches clear of the entrance while Miranda and Kimberly loaded into the Range Rover. He was glad that Miranda had the common sense to send the rest of their group ahead in the patrol car. There was a good chance they would need the off road capabilities of the Range Rover to make their way out of the park.
Climbing into the passenger seat of the Range Rover, Garrett fell back into the seat and for several seconds just enjoyed the peacefulness of finally being out of the wind and rain. Even though they could still hear the storm all around them, with the doors shut it was almost like stepping into a different world with the sounds muted by the well-insulated vehicle. Without a change of clothes all they could do was turn the heater on and wring out their drenched outfits the best they could. Garrett tried his best to turn away as the ladies removed their shirts for a few moments to squeeze
as much water from them as possible. Out of the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of Miranda smiling at his discomfort.
Five minutes later Miranda had the Range Rover on the move. It was a harrowing drive through the park roads, the four wheel drive proved its worth on several occasions when they were forced off road and through the brush along the edge of the woods to skirt around obstructions. Garrett and Kimberly spent their time scanning the sides of the road and into the tangles of trees that had fallen in different locations. They were searching for any sign of the patrol car having become trapped on its way out. As difficult a time as they were having with four wheel drive at their disposal it must have been even more difficult for Shellie to navigate clear of the park. Adding to the hazards of downed trees and barely passable roads they also spotted dozens of zombies along the road and caught glimpses of even more in the tree line during the occasional flash of lightning. As they passed the entrance to the nature center the road leading out of the park opened up to a well maintained three lane drive with much wider grass shoulders that supported a myriad of walking paths. They were able to stick to the center of the road for most of the remaining drive with only a single episode where they were forced over the curb and onto a walking path for several feet. Miranda was just about to turn them back onto the road when Garrett spotted something unusual.
