Zombies! (Book 5): Greater Love Hath No Man

by Merritt, R. S.

  While they were swinging around, they saw the Zombie herd surge onto the grounds. The Zombies who’d initially been lured into the area by the gas station fires had overflowed into nearby streets. The herd was close enough that the one Zombie screech had set a thousand of them in motion. Kelly watched horrified as the men they’d been guarded by were swarmed by fast moving Zombies. There was no way any of them were going to survive.

  Even worse than having to see their captors suffering a brutal death was the life or death slalom course run their pilot was taking them on. The plane veered sharply to the left then to the right throwing them out of their tasteful leather seats. The kids were all screaming their heads off and trying to figure out how the seatbelts worked. Everyone over the age of ten had their hands cuffed behind their backs so holding on was pretty much impossible. The two soldiers sitting in the front of the plane watched impassively as everyone in the back bounced around.

  The plane was divided into multiple sections. Randy, Kelly and the kids were seated in the back of the plane in a section with a beige divider separating them from the front of the plane. There was a section on the other side of the divider that looked like it had a huge, plush couch on one side and a couple of large, leather recliners on the other. The recliners were wrapped around a couple of mahogany tables set in the floor of the plane. The whole interior reeked of wealth and privilege. The kind of plane billionaires smoked thousand-dollar cigars in while jetting off to buy islands or do whatever it is that billionaires do.

  They felt a huge amount of force as the plane fought against gravity to get them off the runway. The pilot struggling to get them airborne before they collided with any of the Zombies streaking towards them. The pilot somehow pulled off some sort of pilot magic and got them in the air. Randy righted himself in his chair and made sure Kelly and the kids were all ok. Kelly poked him on the shoulder and pointed with her knee towards the two guards up front. They both had weapons on them and looked like they knew how to use them. They also looked entirely too calm following that chaotic take-off and landing. These were men who’d done this type of thing before. They kind of reminded Kelly of Gonzalez.

  Once they were in the air and flying one of the guards got out of his seat and walked back towards them. He made sure they were handcuffed securely then got them all into their own seats and fastened in with seatbelts. He went to the front of the plane and screwed around with the TV until it came on. He then screwed around with the knobs some more until he was able to insert a disc. A few seconds later they were flying in a luxury jet watching SpongeBob SquarePants Season 2. If it weren’t for the handcuffs, the armed guards and the certain execution at the end of the trip it would’ve probably counted as one of the best days they’d had since the whole apocalypse mess had started.

  They sat in surreal silence watching SpongeBob at twenty thousand feet while the apocalypse happened in another world far beneath their feet. Random breaks in the cloud cover showed a world that didn’t look all that much different from what they’d have seen looking out a plane window pre-apocalypse. Looking down reminded Randy how much open space there was. How many forests and rivers had been untouched before and would now be quick to revert to their primal state. Handcuffed in a plane with seasoned, armed guards watching their every move Randy felt something he hadn’t felt in a long time. Real hope.

  Kelly leaned over and kissed him on the cheek then turned with her back to him so they could hold hands. They flew like that in comfortable silence just enjoying being a family. They sat like that in peaceful bliss for about ten minutes before the door to the next section of the plane slid open and a man dressed in a business suit stepped in.

  “Bet you never thought you’d see me again.” The man said smiling with his hand resting on the butt of the Colt 45 stuck in the waistband of the expensive looking suit he was wearing.

  Chapter 12: The Welcome Wagon

  Krantz woke Kyler up butt early as promised. Rodriguez and the rest of the team got to sleep in a little later as Krantz wanted to get in position first to watch for the plane. The plan was for them to meet the plane and off-load the prisoners. Once the prisoners were off-loaded the rest of the team would come down in the two pickups provided by the fire station outpost. They’d meet up on the road to get the prisoners loaded and then be off before any Zombies showed up. That was the plan anyway.

  The outpost was on full alert tracking Zombie and vehicle sightings along the interstate in both directions. The outposts on either side of this exit knew to tell anyone driving down the road to stop and wait for the all clear before continuing. Knowing they probably weren’t coming back Kyler and Krantz shrugged into their full kits before heading out the door. Petty Officer Steve was there to see them off and reassure Krantz that he’d be manning the radio personally to make sure everything went as planned. They said their goodbyes and headed off down the path.

  They didn’t bother snagging a set of the mountain bikes this time. Those were a bitch to ride when you had all of your gear strapped on. Instead they just set out on foot across the street disappearing quickly into the weeds and brush along the trail they used to get down to the interstate. The rest of the team would be getting up in about fifteen more minutes to pack their gear in the truck. Then they’d sit around waiting for the word to move to the staging area. Once Krantz radioed in the plane was in sight the team would drive the trucks down to the interstate on ramp. They’d stand by at the on ramp until they got the order to come meet up with them.

  Like every plan in the apocalypse there were a few million things that could go wrong. That was one of the reasons the radios were so important. Adapting to new situations quickly was a skill pretty much every field soldier had at this point. The ones who weren’t good at it were mostly dead or wandering around infected. If something did go wrong, they’d communicate by radio to figure out a work around to complete the mission.

  To be clear on what their mission actually was Krantz had pulled them all into a room the night before. The prisoners needed to be put in the pickup trucks and driven about thirty miles down the interstate. They were headed for the exit that would take them to the camp that they were supposed to drop the prisoners off at. They were to keep the entire family alive with emphasis placed on keeping the man in the group alive. Krantz had skimmed over that part as he didn’t really see any point in trying to tell his men not to protect a bunch of little girls. If anyone on his team intentionally let a little girl die, he’d shoot them himself.

  Kyler and Krantz made it down to the interstate right as the sun was coming up. Keeping an eye on the sky and a radio speaker plugged into his ear Krantz led the way down the side of the interstate to check on the patch of black tar they’d cleaned off for the plane to land on. They verified everything looked good then picked out a spot on the north end of the strip to wait. An hour later they were still waiting. A quick radio check revealed none of the outposts on either side had spotted anything and that no Zombies or cars were coming their way.

  “How long does it take to fly here from Orlando?” Kyler asked. They were outside and typically would’ve maintained strict operational silence. Kyler was feeling pretty safe since the radio operators had let them know there weren’t any Zombies actively moving around in this area.

  “About an hour and a half for a regular plane. That’s counting going up and coming down. I don’t know what kind of plane they‘re using to fly the prisoners up here though. Let’s give it another two hours before we get worried that they’re not coming. Pilot could very easily get lost too. No satellite beacons or radio towers or any of that. He’ll be flying using a compass and landmarks. Probably just follow I-75 like you’d do if you were driving. That’d be the easiest way to get here. He’d still have to calculate where he was though, so he’d know when to look for the landing spot.”

  Krantz sat down abruptly and turned his eyes to the skies again effectively ending the conversation. Kyler took the hint and shut up. He turned his own eye
s upward and scanned the sky as well. Still not seeing anything he felt around on his body to make sure his weapons were in easy reach. It was something he did about once every five minutes out in the field. He also made sure his pack was on his back in a way that’d be easy to drop it if he needed to. He had a machete, a hatchet and a carpenters hammer dangling off the webbed belt he’d taken to wearing.

  He’d made the move to the big, green army surplus belt since there was no way a regular belt could hold all the weapons that he needed to drag around with him. He’d actually been using a tool belt he’d snagged a at Home Depot for a long time. He’d switched to the green webbed belt as the other one had made him feel like some kind of homicidal Bob the Builder. Sitting in the weeds staring up into the sky waiting for the family to show up he was supposed to escort to their execution he decided if he got the chance that he was going to switch back to the tool belt from Home Depot instead.

  Interrupting his musings on which belt would work the best Krantz punched him in the arm and pointed up at the sky. He was intently listening to the speaker plugged into his ear as well. Kyler stood up and raised his eyebrows ready to do whatever needed to be done. Krantz pulled out the Motorola handset and pressed the send button then gave the coded order to move to the staging point. Kyler wasn’t a hundred percent sure why they were bothering with code words and such. As far as he knew the only people who cared about this family was the Senator and the soldiers tasked to deliver them. He supposed the family would be pretty interested in their fate but doubted they were in a position to try and figure out code phrases.

  Kyler finally caught sight of the plane. It went from being a shiny dot on the horizon to an actual plane buzzing the interstate in a matter of less than a minute. They watched as the plane circled the interstate. They assumed the pilot was putting eyes on the road to make sure it would serve as a safe landing strip. Kyler was hoping they’d stick to the plan of landing with the plane at the northern most end of the strip. Otherwise him and Krantz were going to have to triple time it to the southern end to off-load the prisoners.

  The plane suddenly made some sharp banks then shot up straight into the air. It dove down again and buzzed right over their heads before disappearing out of their sight.

  “Is it coming back?” Kyler asked.

  Krantz shushed him as he listened intently to the speaker in his ear. He finally hit the send button and ordered the drivers to head over and pick them up. While they waited for the pickups to arrive, he let Kyler know what was going on.

  “Pilot said the interstate wouldn’t work and they were going to try FTY instead. We’re going to head that direction as soon as they get the trucks down here.”

  Kyler nodded absently. It seemed odd to him that the plane had made all those evasive maneuvers. He assumed it was because the pilot was trying to figure out if he could land there or not.

  “I thought we were doing the interstate because FTY was no good for landings right now?” Kyler asked.

  “That’s what I thought too. I’m going with the pilot probably knows better which airstrips around here are the safest for him to land on.”

  The trucks rolled up in front of them and Kyler jumped in the back of one while Krantz got in the front of the lead truck. The trucks started to move then stopped suddenly. Krantz stuck his head out of the small pickup and yelled so the men in the backs of both the pickups could hear him.

  “Zombies spotted headed this way. They probably got stirred up by the plane. Anyway, they’re the fast ones that like to jump so stay frosty.”

  Krantz poked his head back in and the pickups rapidly accelerated down the road. With the wind whipping though his hair Kyler tried to keep his eyes peeled for any adrenalized Zombies pouring on the speed to try and catch them. He wished he’d asked someone how far away the airport was that they were headed to. He knew Krantz wasn’t going to be letting up on the pace anytime soon. They needed to meet the plane there and off load the prisoners before a bunch of Zombies started showing up. If that happened, the plane would probably take off without off-loading the prisoners.

  It was way too windy and noisy in the back of the truck to hold any kind of conversation with the other guy stuck with him. Rodriguez was up in the passenger seat of the little green Toyota they were driving. Kyler didn’t know if that was thanks to his seniority or thanks to the butt cut that wouldn’t go away. The other truck had Krantz in it and was leading the way. Kyler carefully strapped his rifle to his pack laying in the truck bed and took out his newest toy.

  The jet black tactical semi-auto shotgun had been given to him by Petty Officer Steven as a going away present. They had an armory full of SWAT gear and things they’d looted from the local law enforcement offices and gun stores. Kyler had been happy to make room in his pack to strap in the lethal looking weapon. He thought it’d be the perfect thing for shooting any of the adrenalized Zombies that tried to hop in the back with them. He had the magazine loaded with alternating buck shot and slugs. He didn’t have to kill the Zombies just keep them from getting in the bed with him. If they got a face full of lead at eighty miles per hour, they weren’t going to be bouncing up off the concrete to keep chasing them anytime soon.

  Not that they’d be going eighty miles per hour for much longer. They’d be turning off the interstate soon to take smaller roads to the airport. The smaller roads wouldn’t be as well cleared as the interstate was so the drivers would need to adjust their speeds to accommodate. That part of the journey where they slowed down to navigate around obstacles in the road would be the time when Kyler would be putting the shot gun through its paces if the road that they took happened to be harboring a bunch of the infected.

  There was always the possibility that they’d just wind up taking a leisurely drive over to the airport and picking up the prisoners with minimal hassle. That was the scenario everyone had as number one on their wish list. The more typical scenario was them getting swarmed at some chokepoint in the road and losing at least one of the trucks. All to pick up some people who were destined to be executed anyway. What a waste.

  True to the pessimism that pervaded the post-apocalyptic world the first bend they came around was only partially cleared. They drove as far as they could before confronted with the reality of a massive bulldozer that blocked most of the road. The parts that weren’t blocked by the dozer were blocked by the pile of cars it’d been pushing off the side of the road before the operators were swarmed and eaten by Zombies. Kyler wasn’t a professional forensic investigator but by this point he’d seen more death than he cared to remember. He was able to look at a pile of bodies and intuit how they’d died. The more he knew about how other people died the less likely he was to make the same mistake.

  The dozer was empty but bones and remains were scattered all around it. Some of the bones still had military clothing wrapped around them. From where he was sitting, he could just make out some rusty weapons poking out some of the piles. That was all he needed to visualize what’d happened the day the road clearing crew had been sent to clear this one off. He wondered why they hadn’t sent another crew at a later date to get it cleaned off though. The road did lead to an airport, so it did have some strategic importance. Like today for example it would’ve been nice to be able to get to the airport without hitting this traffic jam.

  They were lined up along the side of the road with Krantz looking down into the field beside them trying to see if they could go around this mess when he got a call. Everyone stood around watching as Krantz listened to the speaker he had in his ear. He suddenly started waving his hand around in the air and pointing at the trucks for them to get back in. Krantz ran over to the truck Kyler was in and told the driver to turn around and get back to the interstate. The driver asked what to do then.

  “Turn north and haul ass. The plane didn’t come over here it crashed somewhere further north! We’ve got to move!”

  Chapter 13: Any Landing You Can Walk Away From

  “You remember Capt
ain Donaldson right Kelly? He’s the guy whose team shot at us and took Gordon on the 417.” Randy said reminding Kelly about their ill-fated run down the toll road where they’d been surrounded and had their pilot taken from them. He’d gotten a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach at the sight of the man. It brought home where this flight was taking them.

  “Captain O’Donnell actually. Your commanding officer according to the oath you betrayed. You can’t imagine how happy I am to see you all again. Your girls look like they could use some food. Maybe even some sunlight. We have all kinds of canned pasta up in the next section of the plane if you’d like to send them up there. We’re going to reserve that section for everyone not wearing handcuffs.”

  “Go ahead girls.” Kelly told them. “Zoey you make sure Doreen gets plenty to eat and doesn’t make a mess in the nice plane ok?”

  Neither Ali, Zoey, nor Doreen wanted to leave so it took a little cajoling but finally the little girls all left for the middle section. One of the guards got up and went with them to help prepare the food and make sure they didn’t get in any trouble.

  “Now it’s just us adults. Well, at least adults and the two old enough to be tried as adults.” O’Donnell said smiling. “I guess you know why I’m glad to see you again?”