The loudspeaker sounded again. "Stop this instant. You can't hide. You're trespassing on US military space. The next shots will not be warning shots."
Only another ten feet to the ditch. Christa's brain computed for a half second to just give up, but that wasn't the plan. Just stick to the plan, she thought. That's what the old bastard said. He said we'd get out of this if we just followed the plan. Christa's brain hesitated for a second, but not long enough for her feet to stop moving. She looked once again over her shoulder, pointed backwards, and screamed. While the men in the copter couldn't hear her over the rotors, her actions caused them to hesitate. The hesitated just long enough to wonder what she could be pointing at. Long enough for Christa to make the last few feet, and slide into the ditch feet first, rolling and tumbling to a stop. There was a barred door leading into the sewer tunnel at the end of the ditch. She scrambled to it and flung it open. Christa worked her way far enough into the tunnel so the copter could no longer see her. There, she thought. If they want me, they're going to have to come in after me. All according to plan.
The copter hovered above the drainage ditch, with its light scanning the length of the ditch. After watching Christa slide into the ditch, Alex did his best to camouflage himself again. Fortunately for him, the helicopter was focusing on the end of the ditch where it had last seen Christa. The light scanned only a few feet from where he hid.
The loudspeaker from the copter boomed out again. "We know where you are. You can't hide there for long. Make yourself visible and surrender yourself."
No one moved. Christa shivered within the tunnel, while Alex clenched and unclenched his fists.
Fighting For Your Flight
The helicopter landed twenty feet from where Christa had disappeared into the ditch. With the engine still running, two soldiers jumped out, and proceeded towards the ditch. As they approached the ditch, Chaz made his move, unnoticed, to the far side of the helicopter. As he got closer, Chaz dropped to a belly crawl, and inched forward. Chaz could see the faces of both the pilot and the copilot now, as he reached for the rear-door handle. Even with the noise of the rotors outside, one of them was bound to notice the door sliding open. He grabbed the latch, pulled the door hard backwards, and jumped into the rear seat. As the pilot turned, Chaz pushed his gun up against the back of the captain’s seat, and pumped three bullets through. The captain slouched over as blood oozed from his chest.
The zombie was slower, but not slow enough for Chaz's liking. At first, it flailed at Chaz, straining on its safety belts. What it lacked in mobility, it made up for in random aggression. Somehow, its flailing arms managed to knock the gun out of Chaz's hands, sending it bouncing under the rear seats. Frantically, the zombie continued flailing and reaching for Chaz. Chaz pushed back into the seat, out of harm’s way, and scooted down to the floor to retrieve his weapon. Keeping one eye on the zombie, he groped under the seat for his weapon. The zombie, realizing he couldn't reach his intended meal, began pounding and pulling on his safety harness. Chaz's couldn't quite locate his handgun, so he risked taking his eyes of the zombie for a second to look under the seats. It was wedged into a crevice back and to the left. He just had to slide a little more behind the zombie’s seat, and stretch out his arm. As Chaz looked away and stretched for his weapon, the zombie pounded and pulled his harness enough to hit the release button. He was loose, and Chaz took a split second to realize it.
The zombie was on Chaz in a flash. Crouched down on the floor and stretched under the seat, Chaz was left vulnerable. The zombie’s weight pinned Chaz to the floor. His gun became a secondary concern. Chaz pulled his arm back from under the seat, and tried heaving the zombie off by pushing it up and pulling himself backwards. The zombie had other ideas; he opened his mouth, and lunged for the back of Chaz's neck. Chaz, unable to heave the zombie off, dodged and squirmed to keep his neck from being slashed open. The zombie momentarily lost balance, giving Chaz leverage to push him to the other side of the copter. Undeterred, the zombie bounced back, and lunged for Chaz as he frantically unbutton his knife sheath. There was no room for dodging, which would have been Chaz's first choice. Instead, he went for the block with his left arm, catching the zombie just under the chin, squarely in the throat. That temporarily held him back, but did little to curb the freak’s enthusiasm. The zombie pushed harder, straining for Chaz's throat. Holding the zombie’s throat with his left hand, Chaz managed to plunge his knife into the chest of the zombie with a twisting motion. The zombie slowed, and flailed at the blade, but didn't relent. Chaz pulled the blade back, and this time made an awkward but fatal blow to the zombie’s skull. The corpse slumped into a heap on top of him. Chaz pushed the zombie to the side, pulled his blade from its skull, and crawled into the copilot’s seat. Catching his breath as the adrenaline rush started to fade, Chaz felt a searing pain through his right hand. He looked at his hand and saw that his palm had a deep slice running across it. Thoughts of infection raced through his mind as he tore a strip of material off the dead pilot’s shirt and bandaged his palm to stem the bleeding. That bleeding slowed, but he found it painful to make a fist.
Looking out the window, he could make out one of the soldiers on the edge of the ditch. The other wasn't in sight. Ignoring the pain in his hand, Chaz worked his way to the back of the copter again. He pushed the zombie’s corpse out the door he had entered, and managed to retrieve his gun from under the seat. Then, Chaz reached over the dead pilot, opened his door, released his harness and pushed him out. He considered taking out the soldier by the ditch, but resolved to stick to the plan. He wouldn't be happy if the others deviated, so he started looking for the navigation-lights control switch.
Out of the corner of his eye, Chaz saw the soldier start running the length of the ditch. He was yelling something, and frantically waving his arms. Chaz couldn't make out what he was saying, but he was clearly agitated about something. The soldier raised his automatic weapon, and flipped off the safety. Chaz started to move. The soldier fired shots into the air, and yelled again into the ditch. Then, he pointed his weapon directly into the ditch. Chaz couldn't tell who or what he was pointing it at, but instinctively leapt from the copter and hit the ground running. The soldier fired off several rounds into the ditch. Chaz never broke stride. He hit the soldier full force with a Heisman-worthy football tackle, and they both rolled down into the ditch. Tumbling over each other, they eventually came to a stop with Chaz on the bottom. The soldier lost his automatic weapon during the tackle, but was now reaching for his combat knife. With a single movement he had the knife out of its sheath and plunging towards Chaz's chest. With no time to roll out of the way, all Chaz could do was raised both hands to block the weapon. The knife pierced his right forearm. With the knife still lodged in his arm, Chaz tried to roll, but the soldier had too much leverage on top. He raised his knife again for another strike, and this time pierced Chaz's right side. Suddenly, a shot rang out, and the soldier’s head snapped forward, then back. A trickle of blood rolled down his forehead as his body slumped to the right.
"Colonel, dammit, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be at the chopper." Alex pulled the soldier’s corpse off the colonel. "Who's at the chopper? I can still hear it running; did you take out the men in the chopper?"
"Yes, it's done. I saw this guy firing into the ditch. Looked like you needed help, so I came over. I was sure you'd both be dead when I got here."
"We're in better shape than you right now. You look like hell." Christa watched from behind Alex as he pulled out a med kit from his pack.
"We don't have time for that, boy. We've got to get that copter in the air. Time is running out."
"Yes it is, but having you bleed to death en route is not part of the plan. I've got to at least stop the bleeding before we go. Give me a minute." Alex pulled back the colonel’s sleeve, dumped a bunch of antiseptic on the wound and wrapped it tightly. He then wrapped and bandaged Chaz's side.
"That should hold. Can you get out of this di
tch on your own?"
Getting to his feet, Chaz noticed the second soldier’s body near the sewer tunnel.
"I'm not an invalid, kid, I can climb."
With much boosting and pushing from Alex, Chaz was able to make it out of the ditch. Next came Christa, and finally Alex climbed out on his own. They headed straight for the copter, moving as fast as they could in the dark. Alex directed Christa into the rear of the copter.
"Get in, and buckle up. This could be a rough ride."
Water Hazard
Alex grabbed the door to the copilot’s side, but Chaz stopped him before he could swing it open. "Nope, you're gonna have to take the pilot’s side, son. There's no way I can fly this thing with one good arm."
"No way, Colonel. Last time I tried the simulator, I crashed the damn thing every time."
"Here's to hoping you learned something from your past mistakes. I'll step you through what I can, but you’re gonna have to be the pilot today. It's not that far."
"It's not the distance I'm worried about, Colonel. It's the ending. I've never landed anything like this."
"You've only got to put it down once. As long as we can walk away after touchdown, I won't harbor any hard feelings."
"Jesus, Colonel, this is serious shit. I could kill us all in this thing."
"But you won't; I won't let you. You get to be the hero today. The copilot and pilot controls are mirror images, so I can pitch in if you get into trouble."
Chaz and Alex both strapped themselves in, and took a good look at the controls. Alex's right hand shook as he reached for the control stick. Chaz noticed, but didn't comment.
"Alright, Alex, I'm sure you remember some of this, but here's your quick refresher. That stick between your legs is altitude control, and controls our direction. The throttle is that grip over on your left. You're going to need that for takeoff, but once we get high enough, the copter’s automated governor will control that. At your feet, you've got your pedals that control the tail rotor."
"I do, I do remember most of this stuff. It's just been a while. The simulator exercises were tougher than normal flying, so maybe this won't be so bad."
"Today won't be that tough. We're just flying in a straight line for a short distance. Just remember, we want to hover, then go straight forward till we get up to about 40 knots of speed, then we'll go for height. We only need to get high enough to land on the roof of the depository. We'll bypass all that fighting on the ground. The roof should be fine for landing on."
"Should be?"
"We'll radio ahead to make sure they're listening. Alright, let's go. Get us off the ground before any more of those freaks show up."
Alex applied some throttle, and adjusted the altitude controls to get the copter off the ground. He angled the copter’s tail section down the runway, gaining speed before gaining altitude. He had plenty of room; this runway was designed for planes more than helicopters.
"Give it a bit more throttle, Alex. We need to get up over those buildings and trees at the golf course."
Alex applied more throttle, and gradually they gained altitude. As he neared the end of the runway, they were cruising at a hundred feet, close enough to see what was on the ground. There was a group of zombies and humans running around the grounded helicopters. The ground crew were waving their arms and signaling for them to land.
Then, their inboard radio came to life.
"Copter niner-alpha-zebra, this is Godman Airfield control tower. What is your status? Over."
Alex looked to Chaz. "What do we say? That group on the ground is signaling us, and I'm pretty sure they have weapons."
"Nothing; we'll be out of their airspace in seconds. They won't have a chance to do anything."
"Wait, don't we have weapons? This is a damn attack helicopter. Let's fire at them before they can fire at us."
"Right now, you need to concentrate on just flying this chopper. Don't worry about firing anything. Just keep us moving."
"Copter niner-alpha-zebra, this is the control tower. You're being ordered to return to your hangar. Please comply immediately!"
"Keep moving, Alex, you're doing just fine. This will be over faster than they realize."
Weapon flares lit up the runway below them just as the copter passed the hangars. Several shots rang off the exterior of the copter.
Chaz glanced back. "Christa, are you OK?"
"Yes, I'm fine. Nothing hit me. Can they hurt us with those guns?"
Chaz answered, "No, not with those weapons. This is an attack copter. It's built to handle a lot tougher fire than that. Don't worry, we'll be safe and sound in no time."
Alex piped up, "You mean like that one?"
Alex then banked the copter hard to the left, knocking his passengers hard up against the side doors.
"Shit, boy, what the hell was that for? Fly this thing straight."
A ballistic missile flew right past on their right side, twenty feet from where Chaz was sitting. Chaz pressed his face against the side glass, looking behind them, checking to make sure the missile wasn't heat-seeking, and making a return pass.
"Where the hell did that come from? Is the fort firing on us?"
"No, sir, look a little further down, just in front of that big water hazard."
There was a tank sitting right in front of the water hazard, with all its guns pointing in their direction. And it was on the move. Alex was breathing hard now, and shifting in his seat.
"Shit, that was a lucky guess on my part, sir. I just saw the gun flare in the distance, and moved to one side. I barely saw it coming, I just guessed and moved. We're getting closer, and I don't know if I can do that again."
Before Chaz could reply, they both saw another gun flare, and Alex jerked to the left. This time he wasn't as lucky. The missile clipped their landing gear. It wasn't enough to take the copter down, but even an experienced pilot would have had a hard time regaining control from the impact. Alex and Chaz both tried pulling the controls back on center, but they were in a lopsided spin and losing altitude fast. They didn't have much altitude to lose, and the copter was heading straight for the tank. The tank driver saw what was coming and hit the throttle, but the old tank was too slow. The rear section of the copter came down hard on the tank, stopping its spin, but not enough to stop its forward momentum. The copter hit the ground, bounced, then rolled and twisted into the water hazard. The rotors stopped them from rolling upside down into the water, just before they snapped off.
Water, plants, muck, and a few golf balls went flying from the water hazard as the helicopter became a permanent fixture. Water started to fill in the passenger compartment of the helicopter, and was quickly up to the seat level. Still dazed from all the whirling about and the sudden impact with the ground, Alex was the first one to gain his composure.
Looking in the back seat, Alex called out, "Chaz, Christa, are you guys alright?"
Christa began thrashing about like a fish out of water, pulling frantically on her safety harness. "I can't open it. Damn it, how do I open this thing? I don't want to drown. Alex. Alex, I can't get this open!"
"Christa, don't worry, we’re just in a water hazard. It's not that deep. We've already hit the bottom. Don't undo that harness yet, it's holding you in place. We're lying at a crazy angle here, and you're going to crash into the side wall when you let that harness go. Just calm down. You're fine for the moment."
"What about him? What's wrong with Chaz; he's not moving. Why isn't he moving?"
Christa was right: Chaz wasn't moving. Alex, gave Chaz a nudge, but he didn't respond. He grabbed his good arm, and gave him a good shake. A low moan came from Chaz's lips.
"Hmmm, what do you want? I'm fine, I'm fine." Chaz's eyes opened, then rolled back, and his head slumped over again.
Christa started to panic again. "The water is getting higher, Alex, I think we're sinking. It's up over my seat now. We're too heavy for the bottom of this water trap. Can we please get out of here?"
"Chaz isn't re
sponding. Give me a second, I've got to figure out what to do with him. We can't just leave him here."
"I need to get out of here," Christa said, raising her voice.
"Yes, OK, but we need to go out the right-side doors; the other door is underwater. Hold on to something before you undo that harness."
"And Chaz, how are we going to get him out?"
"I'll have to climb over him to get through his door. You wait for me to get out first. I can't see anything moving in the dark, but that tank is close by, and there are bound to be plenty of zombie freaks around."
"I think we hit the tank on our way down; maybe it's broken. Maybe we killed them all."
"That's a nice thought, but way too easy. Just wait till I get out. I'll check things out before you come out."
Christa looked around for something to hold on to, while Alex climbed over a very groggy but still breathing Chaz. He pushed the door open and tried to climb over Chaz, but it slammed shut with a loud thud because of the angle the copter was at.
"Damn, if that noise doesn't draw attention, I don't know what will."
Alex looked around, and found a narrow metal case, then jammed the door open with it. He climbed over Chaz, and lowered himself into the water hazard. The water was hip-high on him. In the dark, it was hard to see, and a light drizzle began to fall. Alex thought he saw some movement over by the tank, but he wasn't sure. At the very least, the tank wasn't moving yet. He could however still hear the low rumble of the tank's engine idling. Alex moved back to the rear door. The soggy ground beneath him tried sucking the boots off his feet. He moved slowly and surely, holding on to the side of the copter.
Revealed: Parables From The Apocalypse - Dystopian Fiction Page 8
