Shelter for Now

by Bob Howard

  The helicopters lifted off and fell into formation, hopefully to reach Columbus without further delays.

  It seemed like only a few minutes had gone by when the sun began to set, and the Chief had to slow his forward speed in order to avoid the smoke from more fires.

  Jean yelled a playful, “Are we there yet?”

  Everyone enjoyed the reminder of what road trips had been like before the infection, but the closer we got to Columbus the more serious everyone seemed to be. Going into a big city was going to open the door to new questions about the survival of civilization, and our survival on the coast was a different world from the tall buildings we were about to see. The suburbs were also different. They surrounded the city in all directions, unlike the coast where suburbs were prevented from expanding by natural barriers such as the ocean and the marshes.

  “Not long now,” answered the Chief. He spoke into his radio and then pointed out the front windshield.

  “If there was power to the city we would be able to see the tallest buildings by now. We’re only about thirty minutes out.”

  Kathy turned around and motioned for Tom to turn off the cabin lights, and we all started trying to catch a glimpse of anything out the windows.

  The Chief and Captain Miller agreed that they needed the strobe lights on to prevent the chance of them colliding with each other, but cabin lights would present a tempting target for anyone with a good hunting rifle.

  There were a few small fires burning in the city, mostly on the outskirts of downtown, but the smoke was drifting between the tall buildings making it more difficult to make the approach. Other than the fires, the city was dark and dead.

  I was working on a serious case of eye strain trying to see anything at all. I thought I saw lights moving on the roof of a two story building, but by the time I focused my attention on the spot, I wasn’t sure what I had seen.

  “Did anyone else see lights on a roof a minute ago?”

  I figured someone else would have yelled if they had seen them, but I had to be sure.

  “Yes, but I think it may be the strobe lights reflecting back from patches of snow that have already accumulated in drifts,” said Colleen.

  I watched the rooftops as we sped past and saw our reflection from ice on the top of a building. First there was a white light, followed closely by a red. The Chief began banking a little to pass between two tall buildings that rose up higher than the helicopters, and the ride got a little bumpy from the wind currents bouncing back from the buildings.

  Our forward speed slowed to a crawl as the Chief began scouting for a place to land. He was on his radio again, and I heard him say we needed the headlights. A moment later the darkness below and ahead of us was illuminated, and we could see the devastation that could follow years without people.

  Entire blocks of buildings were charred from fires that had burned unchecked by man. Vehicles of all kinds were everywhere in the streets, and the downdraft from the rotors made the snow swirl and dance over everything. Mixed with the snow was a storm of debris and litter. Anything that wasn’t frozen in place was flying around below us.

  We were over something that had probably been a busy plaza. It was surrounded by buildings, but the bare trees were in neat rows as if it had been a park during better days. Restaurants surrounded the plaza with plenty of outdoor seating.

  “If there weren’t so many cars in the streets we could sit down here,” said Kathy.

  “I’m going to check out the parking garages,” said the Chief as he gained altitude and steered between buildings.

  Behind us was a trail of swirling snow as the three Navy helicopters followed slowly. For at least a minute, the entire plaza was bathed in light, and something was conspicuous in its absence. There were no infected dead, and there were no bodies, no human remains anywhere.

  The parking garage we found just past the plaza had been full when the infection started because it was still full after all this time. The wreckage of cars blocking both lanes were testimony to the chaos as people tried to do the impossible by escaping in a car. They must have begun wrecking as soon as they began trying to evacuate.

  A second garage was better, and there was room to land two of the helicopters. I heard the Chief telling Captain Miller we could split up if necessary. Captain Miller agreed but suggested that we should try to locate the next garage together. If only two could land on the next one, at least we would know where the other helicopters had landed.

  The third garage had landing space for three helicopters, but instead of letting one land somewhere alone, Captain Miller had his and one other land together, and then the last Navy helicopter followed us back to the other garage.

  Both landed with extreme caution and rotated to illuminate the area first. When the wheels were on a solid surface, the team in the Navy aircraft fanned out and established a perimeter. We were pretty good at protecting ourselves, but watching the soldiers do their jobs was reassuring.

  “Where are the infected?” asked Tom.

  “I was about to ask the same thing,” said Hampton.

  Cassandra had joined the soldiers as soon as our doors had opened. She felt much more at home being on the move and putting her training to use.

  “Good question,” said the Chief, “and where are the remains?”

  The Chief fixed his gaze on the area bathed in light from the helicopters and thought about his night in Charleston when his plane had been shot down over the harbor. There were infected dead stumbling around everywhere as he and Allison tried to survive long enough to find a boat and head for Fort Sumter.

  “Anybody see any rats?” he asked suddenly.

  “Rats?” said Jean and Colleen together as if they had rehearsed it.

  “Yes, rats. When I was stranded in Charleston with Allison, there were rats out in broad daylight going after the food that was rotting everywhere. I imagine when the food and garbage was all gone, they started cleaning up all the bodies. How long it took before there were more rats than food depended on how many rats there were to start with.”

  “I don’t see any rats,” I said, “but I don’t see any bodies either. There’s no garbage that appears to be edible.”

  “The rats have already cleaned everything up,” said the Chief. “Let the soldiers know we’ll be sleeping in the helicopters tonight.”

  We signaled the soldiers and told them to get everyone back in the helicopters for the night, but keep the external lights on.

  Cassandra climbed back into her seat and asked, “What’s up?”

  Kathy leaned around from her seat in front and asked her, “Did the Mercy ship get overrun by rats after everyone else was dead?”

  Cassandra was shaking her head before Kathy even finished her question.

  “The whole crew was eating the rats before they had a chance to breed. The living members of the crew were having trouble getting to food supplies, and the infected were eating anything they could catch.”

  It was obvious that the infected would win in a closed environment, but in an open environment where the rats could flee from the infected, they could eat, breed, and bide their time. When there were finally enough of them, they would go after the infected and the bodies in the streets.

  I could see where the Chief was going with his questions, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

  “You’re saying that the rats have already had their day, aren’t you, Chief?”

  “That’s the good news, Ed.”

  “Do I want to know the bad news?” I asked.

  “It’s nothing you haven’t heard before,” said Jean. “Remember what happened when the blue crabs started eating the infected. Then when they were done cleaning up the moat, they started getting aggressive and attacking anything.”

  Hampton said, “Judging by how clean these streets are of bodies and edible garbage, the rats have exhausted their food supply and would attack people if given the chance.”

  “That’s why we’re sleeping inside t
onight. Everyone get some sleep,” said the Chief. “We’ll start searching for the entrance to the shelter at sunrise.”

  ******

  Sunrise was gray and white. The sky seemed closer because the sun wasn’t visible, and the snow was swirling around the two helicopters. The Chief and the pilot of the Navy helicopter had both switched off their lights as soon as sunlight started to filter through the clouds. Everyone was warm enough, but they knew that would change soon.

  “There’s a coffee maker behind this panel,” I said.

  There was a chorus of groans mixed with a demand to quit talking and start making coffee. It was a one cup machine, but it was spitting them out fast. Jean found cream and sugar and passed it around.

  “This isn’t fair to the crews of the other choppers,” said Tom. “I mean, how can we even tell them about this?”

  The Chief sipped at his and said, “They’re soldiers. They would want some, but if they couldn’t get any, they wouldn’t want us to deny ourselves of the pleasure.”

  As he took another sip he peered over the cup at the military helicopter that was facing us a short distance away. The pilot was holding up his middle finger, but he was smiling.

  “See what I mean?” said the Chief. “We’re still number one to him.”

  Jean rummaged around in the supplies and came up with lids that fit the disposable cups. With a little help, we put together a care package for the other crew. Colleen had the seat closest to the door, so she ran the coffee over to them. The pilot gave the Chief two thumbs up.

  When she got back she said she had the impression that it was colder than normal outside, even for the month of November.

  “Another side effect of people being gone?” she asked.

  “No heat coming from any of the buildings in the city would be my guess,” said Jean. “No matter how well insulated the buildings are, they had to be losing a little heat to the outside. All of them combined would have made thermal drafts through the streets.”

  “That’s some sharp thinking,” said the Chief. “That’s what I like about this group. You guys are smart.”

  “Saw it on the news,” said Jean. “Satellites doing thermal scans of the planet, and heat blooms over cities.”

  The Chief interrupted the conversation by keying his radio and talking with Captain Miller. He had received a call saying they were ready to either warm up the engines or disembark at their current location. The Chief told him to stand by for an update on their location relevant to their destination.

  “Jim, I have you on GPS as being closer to us than I had expected. A sign up here says we’re on the top of the Hickory Garage, and you guys are in the center of the top floor of the Marconi Cinema Garage. You’re only about a block away.”

  “Close enough for someone to run us over some of that coffee?”

  “I’ll have to get back to you on that.”

  Kathy was tracing her finger along lines on a map and said, “We’re only a block west of High Street. Any idea where we need to go?”

  The Chief leaned over and started tracing along a line that was drawn on the map in red ink. He stared at it for a few minutes and then asked Kathy if there was a scale of the map. She found one at the bottom in the corner, and the Chief folded the map up to the red line.

  “Does that seem to be about six hundred feet to you?”

  Kathy glanced from the scale to the line and agreed. The red line had to be the tunnel. One end of the line stopped at a spot close to the intersection of North Front Street, and the other end stopped directly under an overpass on North High Street. Railroad tracks disappeared under the overpass.

  “The entrance to the shelter has to be under here.”

  The Chief put his finger directly on top of the overpass.

  “There’s a small, egg shaped park right before the overpass,” said Kathy. “Do you think we could land there?”

  “I don’t think we can get all four birds in there. I didn’t really get a good view of it when we landed, but it seemed like that whole area was congested. We passed right between that really tall building and that hotel by the overpass, and I was busy with the wind bouncing back at us.”

  I was listening close enough to remember what I had seen in that area, so I volunteered what I saw.

  “I don’t know if it helps much, but I think I remember the spot you guys are talking about. I think someone dropped a bomb in there.”

  “What makes you say that?” asked the Chief.

  “I saw a wrecked train right here where the tracks go under Nationwide Blvd.”

  I reached up and held my finger to the spot.

  “I guess we’re on foot from here,” said the Chief. “I’ll call it in to Jim. Am I reading this map right? The tracks go under this building.”

  “If it’s all the same to you Chief, I don’t think we need to take that shortcut to get there.”

  The idea of using a tunnel to get where we were going wasn’t too inviting after what we had discussed the night before. A good place to find rats would be in a tunnel.

  “I agree,” said the Chief. “Let’s call it in and suggest a rendezvous point where Marconi Blvd. curves by the tracks.”

  While the Chief called it in to Captain Miller we began unloading our gear. It was bitter cold, and the snow was already piling up. Colleen stepped on a patch of ice and slipped. She landed on her rear end and slid about twenty feet on the down ramp before she could stop herself. The only thing hurt was her pride, but she taught everyone a valuable lesson about how tricky this little walk was going to be.

  “The worst part will be walking on this concrete,” said the Chief. “After we get down on the streets it will be more of the same, so we’ll stick to grassy areas wherever we can.”

  “That’s reassuring,” said Colleen.

  Her face was so red that she must have felt warmer than the rest of us.

  Cassandra went over to the other helicopter to fill them in on the plan. When they saw us unloading, they had done the same on the assumption that we would be walking from the top of the garage to our destination.

  The stairwells didn’t offer enough light for anyone to be interested in saving time or getting in out of the cold. We decided to walk down the center of the garage.

  We formed up single file with Cassandra in the lead. She had convinced the Chief that her military training had prepared her for this type situation. When the Chief said his military training had exceeded hers, she countered with the fact that she was younger than him.

  Those of us who knew the Chief knew that he had given in because he was glad to let Cassandra step up, rather than because he was older. She had been itching for the chance to contribute to the group since the day we pulled her off of the Mercy ship, and the Chief was happy to accommodate her.

  We descended from the bleak light on the roof into the shadows of the garage. The snow couldn’t reach the center of the building, but unfortunately it could reach the corkscrew driveway that ran close to the sides of the garage. The wind blew the snow in our faces most of the way.

  Two floors down there was a massive snarl of cars where someone had gotten into a bigger rush than everyone else. From the way the cars were sandwiched in the middle, it wasn’t hard to picture the events. As the infected worked their way from floor to floor, more people began abandoning their cars. Those who didn’t try to run tried to drive through.

  There were no bodies around, but the building would only be free of vehicles when they were totally rusted away by the weather. The rats must have worked hard to clean the building so well.

  We had to climb over the wreckage carefully. Cassandra told us that the Mercy ship had reached a point where broken metal was as dangerous as getting bitten. A cut on a piece of scrap metal was a source of infection long before the infection that turned people into flesh eating zombies, and in the long run it could be just as deadly.

  Climbing over the jagged metal in the tangle of vehicles was like trying to climb over bar
bed wire because everywhere we put our feet was also slippery.

  I kept expecting to see an infected dead inside the cars, but even the cars that were closed shut were empty of bodies. A quick glance inside those cars was enough to make me worry more about the rats.

  It was amazing how a rat could get through a small hole, and when enough hungry rats were chewing on the same spot under a car, they would make their own hole eventually.

  “How many rats do you suppose were here?” I asked.

  Cassandra glanced back toward me and said, “Judging by the smell of ammonia, I would say about a million.”

  I couldn’t tell for sure if she was kidding, but she waited for me to catch up with her before she moved forward again.

  “This happened months ago, Ed. When the weather was warmer and there were bodies everywhere besides the ones that were still walking around. In a city this size, there are lots of places where they could have been breeding since the first days of the infection. When they came out, they came out by the hundreds of thousands, and they went for what was easy to get first. Then they went after everything that tried to get away. That would have included the living and the infected. It’s just a good thing we didn’t come here in the summer.”

  “Where do you suppose they are now?”

  “Can you guess?”

  “Well, I would say that a million rats would need a lot of food, and when they ran out of food, they moved on, but that wouldn’t be the best way for them to survive.”

  Cassandra was surprised by my answer, but I had been hanging around the Chief longer than her, and some of him had rubbed off on me.

  “It’s not like all of the rats were right here in this one spot. They were spread out across the city and all of the surrounding areas. There may have been a concentration of them here, but since rats will eat absolutely anything, there were a lot of grocery stores in the suburbs for them to empty out. When the concentration of them spread outward, they found everything already picked clean by their cousins. Eventually, the only thing left for them to eat was each other.”