Survivors in a Dead World

by Gary M. Chesla

  The dead stumbled into each other. Some fell to the ground, tripping others as they struggled to get to their feet.

  From what the men could see, they would all be bumped into by the dead numerous times before they would be able to get very far from the door.

  “I will go first,” the doctor said. “It is not necessary to go as a group. In fact it would probably be better not to go as one group. I would recommend that you wait until I have gone about twenty feet and then start to follow me. I suggest you go in pairs. There is no advantage to that, but it should help you feel more comfortable.”

  The men nodded nervously.

  “Once you get to the other side of the highway. We will regroup twenty feet down over the hillside. The dead will have a hard time on the hillside and we can take off the sheets and use the rope to go down to the river from there,” the Doc said. “Good luck men. I’ll see you all in about two minutes.”

  The doctor turned and opened the door.

  He began to walk slowly out into the dead.

  A few of the dead bumped into the doctor but then continued on their way, leaving the doctor to go on.

  “This is going to work,” Ken said.

  “I thought the doctor had finally gone over the edge,” Jim laughed, “but I think we actually have a chance to get out of here.”

  “Do you want to go across with me?” Ken asked.

  “Sure, let’s do it,” Jim replied.

  Ken turned, “Ed, you and Bill get everyone else paired up. Give us twenty feet then send the next two out. Keep everyone coming until we’re all out on the street.”

  Within the next minute, the entire group was out on the street, working their way through the dead.

  The group was half way across the street when two of the dead bumped into each other. The larger of the two creatures fell backwards and knocked Ken to the ground.

  Jim stopped and looked helplessly down at Ken.

  Ken noticed Jim looking down at him and held up his hand under the sheet to signal Jim to just stay where he was.

  By now the rest of the gang were moving closer and they could also see Ken on the ground.

  They continued to move closer, trying to decide if they should help Ken get up off the ground.

  Ken slowly got to his hands and knees.

  “I’ll be OK,” Ken said to himself as his heart raced, “I can do this. Just move nice and slow.”

  Ken started to push himself up onto his feet when another of the clumsy creatures fell next to him.

  Ken felt the creature pull at him on its way to the ground, but this time Ken was able to stay on his feet.

  He turned to take a quick glance at the fallen creature before moving on.

  Ken froze when he saw the creature clutching his sheet on the ground.

  Ken stood perfectly still as the sound of the groaning increased around him.

  Ken slowly looked around, terror stricken as he stood in the middle of the dead without his sheet to cover him.

  The dead were now all looking at him.

  Ken tried to shuffle and stagger like the dead around him, but he could tell his ploy was not working.

  Jim tried to move closer to Ken.

  “Ken, get under my sheet,” Jim called out quietly to Ken.

  Jim knew instantly that he had made a mistake as the hands of the dead began grabbing at him.

  When Ken started to scream in agony, Jim tried to run. But there was nowhere to run.

  Bill and Ed saw what was happening and stood frozen, not knowing what to do.

  Bill turned and faced the other sheets, “Back to the hospital, quick.”

  The others had gone unnoticed until Bill spoke.

  The dead around the sheets started for Bill.

  Then the others then began to panic.

  The doctor turned to see what was causing the commotion behind him.

  He watched as well as heard the other members of his group died horrible deaths.

  There was nothing he could do to help them. If he could save all of their lives by sacrificing his own, he would do that. But that wasn’t an option. It wasn’t even close to an option.

  The doctor did the only thing he could do. He turned and started for the hillside.

  He tried to push his way through the wave of the dead that was coming towards him.

  They were being drawn to the feeding frenzy behind the doctor.

  The wave of the dead began to push the doctor backwards.

  The doctor began to lose ground as he was pushed backwards. He was unable to move forward and if he didn’t want to be knocked down, he couldn’t stand where he was.

  The doctor tried to move sideways along the wall of the dead coming at him, hoping to find an opening that he could slip through.

  When two of the creatures got tangled in his sheet, he knew he had lost his chance to escape.

  A last thought passed through the doctor’s mind as his sheet began to be pulled away from him.

  “I had the right idea. The plan to disguise our smell with the dead’s blood was perfect,” the doctor thought. “The problem was the sheets. I should have applied the dead’s scent to something that couldn’t be pulled off of us so easily.”

  However when dealing with the dead, there were no do overs.

  The feeding frenzy was soon over.

  The dead began to get back to their feet and stagger away in search of their next meal.

  Chapter 25

  Bob woke up this morning feeling well rested.

  Well, at least fairly well rested. Bob had been awakened a few times during the night as the thoughts about what had happened to Tom crept into his mind.

  He felt bad for Tom, or maybe it was himself he felt bad for. It was difficult to lose a friend.

  Even after seeing so many people die at the hands of the dead over the last year, it was still hard to accept.

  He felt he had become hardened to the sight of death, but was happy to know that a part of him hadn’t died yet.

  Unfortunately Bob had a lot of practice dealing with the loss of people close to him.

  Moving on was now just what you did.

  Over all though, last night had been restful. The sounds of the dead lasted all night, nothing new there.

  Fortunately it was quiet up here on the top floor of the hospital.

  Instead of sleeping in a hospital bed, Bob had taken the mattress off the bed and put it on the floor. He felt he would be more comfortable on the floor.

  He had also brought another mattress from the next room and put it on the floor close by for Carrie.

  Bob opened his eyes and looked down at the wild blanket of red hair that covered his chest and arm.

  He smiled as he felt Carrie breathing evenly against his chest.

  It was during one of the times Bob was awake last night that he heard Carrie get up off of her mattress and come over and crawl into his bed.

  She didn’t seem to be in any distress, so he just pretended to be asleep and let her make herself comfortable.

  She soon fell asleep and he enjoyed the feeling of Carrie being next to him.

  He was also interested in what she was going to say to explain herself when they woke up this morning.

  Bob was awake, but he didn’t feel like moving. He was just going to relax, enjoy the feeling and wait until Carrie was up.

  Bob guessed it was another half hour before Carrie began to wake up.

  He watched her head as she began to move around.

  A face soon appeared out of the mass of red hair.

  She looked up and smiled.

  “Red, may I ask what you are doing in my bed?” Bob asked trying to use a stern voice.

  Carrie smiled, moved her head to make herself more comfortable and replied, “Sleeping.”

  “Let me see if I have this right,” Bob said, “Yesterday when you asked me what I was doing in your bed, I swear if you would have had a stick, you would have beaten me to death. But now when I ask you what y
ou are doing in my bed, all I get is, ‘sleeping’.”

  “Uh-huh,” Carrie replied.

  “That doesn’t seem right,” Bob said.

  Bob heard a muffled giggle.

  “You didn’t seem to mind the other night,” Carrie said.

  “That night you didn’t have a shirt on,” Bob replied and did his best to keep from laughing.

  “Well I’m glad you were able to tolerate me next to you with my shirt on last night,” Carrie replied. “I can imagine how disappointed you must be.”

  “I folded it and put it on your mattress next to your pants,” Bob said flatly.

  Carrie tensed briefly and Bob could feel her moving her arms to check for her pants and shirt.

  Bob couldn’t help himself and started to laugh.

  Carrie rolled her head on Bob’s chest, pushed her face into his ribs and bit him.

  “Ouch!” Bob said as he jumped. “I guess that is better than calling me a pervert, but not much better.”

  Carrie laughed, “I’m sorry.”

  “I hope if someone manages to rebuild the world, it’s not a bunch of women,” Bob said rubbing his ribs, “It would be confusing as hell with all these double standards.”

  Carrie laughed, “Sorry, but I got nervous last night and remembered how good it felt being next to you yesterday morning after we sorted out why I was there and I thought I would come over and sleep with you again.”

  “I’m not complaining, Red,” Bob smiled, “I really not but if I would have been nervous and decided to come over and sleep with you, would you have stilled enjoyed sleeping with me? Remember you promised to try and be honest with me.”

  Carrie looked up at Bob and smiled, “I would have probably bit you. Then I would have been happy and let you stay.”

  “Pretty much like things ended up,” Bob grinned, “Thanks for being honest.”

  Carrie looked serious for the first time this morning, “I usually wouldn’t ask this, especially recently,” Carrie grinned, “Figuring I would already know the answer, after all you are a man. But it was OK wasn’t it. I really didn’t think about it like you were saying before, but you were probably right. I don’t know, but I would have probably said something nasty like I seem to have been doing around you guys the last few months.”

  “It was OK, Red,” Bob smiled. “Honestly, it was more than OK. But before I get too honest, maybe we better get up and go look at the helicopter. It could end up being a long day.”

  “I think I would rather stay here and get honest with you,” Carrie smiled.

  It was late morning, close to noon when Bob and Carrie walked out on the roof and looked at the helicopter.

  Bob looked around to find the refueling tank.

  “There is the refueling tank,” Bob pointed to a tank along the side of the building where the stairwell came up to the roof. “I’m surprised we didn’t see it last night.”

  “It was getting dark,” Carrie replied, “besides we were too excited when we saw the helicopter.”

  Bob nodded as he walked over and began trying to remove the cap from the tank.

  “The damn thing has a padlock on it,” Bob said.

  “How did you get the lock off the tank back at Mercy?” Carrie asked.

  “The guys had found some tools in one of the janitor’s closets,” Bob replied. “I guess we need to go find some tools.”

  “Where might we find a janitor’s closet?” Carrie asked.

  “Hopefully we should find one on every floor or at least every other floor,” Bob replied.

  “Just so we don’t have to go all the way down to the basement,” Carrie replied, “I don’t think I could walk all those stairs again.”

  “Yea, me neither,” Bob said and slid down and leaned back against the tank.

  Carrie slid down next to him and leaned her head on his shoulder.

  They sat there quietly for a moment.

  Suddenly Carrie jumped to her feet and ran over to the helicopter.

  She looked at one side of the helicopter for a moment then walked around to the other side.

  Bob started to hear a tapping sound.

  Carrie came around the helicopter and started tapping on the lower side of the helicopter again.

  “What are you doing, Red?” Bob asked.

  “I thought this thing looked bigger than the helicopter we had,” Carrie replied. “This one has two fuel tanks on it. I think the tank on this side is half full.”

  Bob got up and walked over next to Carrie and looked at the helicopter, “I think you might be right.”

  Bob tapped on the tank then walked around to the other side.

  “It sure sounds different,” Bob said. “I don’t know how much fuel is in the left tank, but it sounds like more than enough to get us over to Mercy.”

  Carrie walked over and got into the pilot’s seat and looked at the control panel.

  “Which switches did you hit when you tried to start the chopper last night?” she asked.

  Bob hopped into the copilot’s seat.

  “”I hit this one,” Bob said flipping the power switch. “Then I hit this one,” Bob added flipping the switch that connected power to the control panel and the gauges on the panel jumped. “And then I flipped this one,” Bob said as he flipped the switch marked fuel.

  Carrie looked at the instruments.

  “The gauge says the fuel tank is empty,” Carrie said pointing to the fuel level indicator. “Let’s turn this off and turn this switch on,” Carrie said as she flipped the switch labeled tank two.

  The fuel level indicator jumped to three quarters.

  Bob smiled, “I guess that’s why you’re the pilot and I’m not.”

  “Should I try starting it?” Carrie asked.

  “Let me look it over first,” Bob replied. “The battery was weak and we might only have one chance to get it started. Let me make sure there aren’t any obvious problems first. Once it starts I don’t want to have to shut it down to fix something if we can avoid it.”

  Bob got out and opened the panel to look at the engine.

  Carrie stood behind him and looked over his shoulder.

  Bob ran his hands over the engine, checking for loose wires or hoses.

  “How’s it look?” Carrie asked.

  Bob pulled his hand back and looked at the dry shreds of rubber clinging to his fingers.

  “The rubber wires or hoses seem to be dry rotted,” Bob replied, “This thing could use some maintenance.”

  “Anything that will keep us from flying it?” Carrie asked.

  “No, there shouldn’t be,” Bob replied.

  He took one last look at the engine and closed the panel door. Bob walked around the helicopter and checked all the control cables.

  “Get in and see if it will start now,” Bob instructed.

  Carrie ran to the door and jumped inside.

  She pushed the start button and held it until the engine started to chug.

  “Hold up,” Bob called out and opened the engine panel and made some adjustments on the engine.

  “OK, try it again,” Bob called out.

  Carrie pushed the start button again.

  The engine chugged a few more times.

  Carrie let off the button and then pushed it again.

  This time the engine sprang to life.

  Bob closed the panel and crawled into the seat next to Carrie. He pulled on his seat belt and pulled it tight.

  “All the gauges look OK?” Bob asked.

  Carrie studied the instrument panel, double checking everything longer than usual.

  “I think we are good to go,” Carrie smiled.

  “OK, Red,” Bob said, “take us home, and Red?”

  Carrie looked over at Bob.

  “Don’t wreck this one,” Bob smiled. “It’s the only one we have left.”

  Carrie smiled back nervously, “I’ll try not to.”

  Carrie pushed the lever forward to send power to the blades.

&n
bsp; The rotors started turning.

  When the rotors and the engine were purring smoothly, Carrie increased the power and the helicopter began to rise into the air.

  She hovered about twenty feet above the pad to make sure that everything felt right before leaving the pad.

  She moved the stick and the helicopter began to move away from the pad and over the church.

  She increased the power and edged the stick slightly forward and the helicopter began to move in the direction of Heinz Field.

  Bob looked around the cabin.

  “This one has a lot more room in it than our other one,” Bob said. “All the guys should be able to fit in here. With two tanks we should be able to cover a lot more territory.”

  “When we get back I think you should check and make sure this one is not going to cut out on us after we are in the air for thirty minutes like the last one did,” Carrie said.

  “Good idea,” Bob laughed. “When we get back we can let the engine idle for a few hours to be sure we won’t have that problem. I can probably get some rubber tubes and hoses from the Doc to replace any on the engine that I think should be replaced. If we would have had this chopper six months ago, we might all be living in the Bahamas by now.”

  “That sounds like wishful thinking.” Carrie smiled.

  “Do you have a bikini, Red,” Bob smiled.

  “I haven’t had a bikini for ages,” Carrie laughed.

  “That’s good,” Bob smiled again. “You won’t need one.”

  “More wishful thinking?” Carrie grinned.

  “Not anymore,” Bob grinned.

  “Pervert,” Carrie laughed.

  Bob just smiled.

  The helicopter passed over Heinz Field. A moment later they flew over the Ohio River and were now approaching the downtown area.

  The smile on Bob’s face changed to one of concern as he began sniffing the air inside the helicopter.