by Luke Duffy
Another bite punctured through the soft skin and muscle between her neck and shoulder, sending a searing hot pain surging through her, almost making her black out. The next was a large wad of flesh being ripped from her thigh, stopping her from falling unconscious from the previous bite and prolonging her agony, as more fleshy tissue and sinew was ripped from her quivering frame.
Her head was pulled back and she felt a sudden pressure around her windpipe as her throat was gripped between a set of powerful teeth that suddenly clenched shut, splitting the skin and then dragging away a large chunk of her throat. Her head jerked and snapped back and she felt her warm blood instantly gush from the wound, soaking her face and cascading down her chest.
She gurgled; bright red spittle spattered up from her mouth as her head slumped back and her glazed eyes stared blankly at the ceiling, at the gaunt and grotesque faces that surrounded her. Unable to muster the strength to scream anymore as the precious crimson fluid flowed from her body, spraying out in all directions while her carotid artery was severed, Lisa felt her life slowly fading from her.
She became distantly aware that she was being pulled in all directions, her failing brain registering that she was losing more flesh, blood and limbs, as the dead tore her to pieces. However, a strange calm seemed to envelop her, blocking out the pain as she slowly lost consciousness and died.
29
In the pitch-blackness of the night, and with no night vision goggles, Kelly had to rely solely on the instrument readouts in front of her, and the instructions from Joey relayed through her headset. He sat in his seat beside her in the cockpit, intently studying the map and continually checking their speed and bearing, gaining an accurate picture of where they were.
The interior of the aircraft was dark except for the faint green glow emitting from the panels in the front of the cockpit, casting the pilot and co-pilot's faces in an eerie green hue.
"Got a feature coming up on starboard, Kelly, altitude: one six eight metres," Joey said calmly as he stared down at the charts in his lap.
"Turn to three-five-zero degrees and hold that bearing for two point six kilometres."
Kelly complied and adjusted the direction of the helicopter, pushing down gently on the anti-torque pedals and lifting on the collective lever to gain altitude and clear the high ground to their right.
It had been almost forty minutes since they had left the Safari Park behind, the flash of the erupting gunfire fading into the distance as they flew away to the north, continuing with the plan, even though neither of them held out much hope of Marcus and the others making it out alive.
As they had lifted the survivors from the rooftop, Kelly and Joey had been able to see the scale of the situation more clearly. The swarm of putrid flesh stretched all the way down to the gate, and far beyond. Thousands of bodies spilled through the entrance every minute, all of them making their way towards the house and the stranded survivors on the roof.
Kelly's head swam.
The dead, despite their lack of mobility and speed, had overwhelmed them before they even had the chance to get their plan into motion. Their helicopter had very nearly been turned over, as the hundreds of rotting, walking corpses surged around the fuselage.
They were lucky to have gotten anybody out alive.
She looked back over her shoulder and into the passenger area. In the dim light, she was just able to make out the shapes of the people huddled together.
Sophie's face came forward, faintly lit in the dull green light of the cockpit.
"How long?" she hollered over the racket of the engine.
Kelly leaned across to her left, bringing her face close to the side of Sophie's head and shouting into her ear.
"About another forty minutes and we'll be at the first RV."
Sophie nodded and slumped back into the rear of the aircraft to pass on the message to the others, who remained sitting in the darkness, hungry for information.
Kelly looked out to her right. It was hard to see anything other than the different shades of dark as they flew over roads, fields and trees. It was impossible to distinguish depth and distance, leaving her completely reliant on the navigation skills of her co-pilot, Joey.
She checked her watch and saw that there was one more hour until dawn. At least then, they would have a better idea of how the ground looked, and the condition they were in. Until then, she would not even consider landing. In the darkness, they would be completely blind to any threat on the ground.
Her main concern was fuel. They were already getting low, and to remain airborne, circling for any length of time would bring them to the point where they would have absolutely no reserve left. That would leave them with no option but to land when they finally arrived at the new base location, regardless of the situation on the ground.
Their margin for error was growing narrower by the minute.
She turned to Joey, about to ask him how far they were from the nearest built area, when a flash of light erupted from the ground in front of them. A stream of red lights hung in the air, growing slightly larger, and then zipping past the fuselage at lightning speed.
"Incoming," Kelly barked, "we have incoming, Joey."
The red lights were tracer rounds, and soon more joined them as the firers on the ground adjusted their aim.
The air around the helicopter lit up with the red glow from the machinegun bullets as they soared through the area immediately in front of the aircraft, missing the nose of the machine by just a few metres.
Kelly slammed the cyclic to the left, sending the helicopter into a steep banking manoeuvre in an attempt to avoid the next burst of fire from below that would surely be more accurate after the first.
"Shit, Kelly," Joey cried as he felt himself being tossed and buffeted against his harness as Kelly pushed the aircraft into the drastic manoeuvre.
He slid in his seat, clutching at the leather straps hanging from the ceiling to stop him from crashing into the door on his left. He collided with the bulkhead frame, his head ricocheting around inside his helmet and sending his vision spinning, as he strained to keep himself upright in his seat to aid Kelly as much as he could.
More fire raced up towards them, this time striking the underbelly of the helicopter with heavy thuds, punching a number of holes through the fuselage, sending small splinters of metal flying through the air in all directions.
Over the noise of the straining engine, panicked voices and cries of fear and pain could be heard from the defenceless passengers in the rear as they were tossed into one another and into the superstructure of the interior. Some were knocked unconscious and others were caught by hot splinters of metal exploding through the inside at deadly speed.
Kelly increased the throttle to maximum revolutions, pushed down on the collective as she dipped the cyclic into a steep angle, pointing towards the floor and forcing the aircraft forward, losing altitude as they did so in the hope of getting below the rounds whipping through the sky all around them.
"Altitude, watch your altitude," Joey was yelling over the intercom as the helicopter was thrown from left to right and rapidly began dropping from the sky.
Kelly banked right and saw the muzzle flashes of the firing point just twenty metres below her as she forced the aircraft around in a tight loop, her hand twisting the throttle until it would turn no more to give them maximum power and speed.
With a roar, the aircraft passed over the ambush, low and fast with smoke pouring from the exhausts. With the manoeuvre of charging their attackers, Kelly hoped to gain some distance from them before they had the chance to turn and adjust their aim on her.
The feature that Joey had warned her about earlier rose up ahead of them like a dark giant monolith, and Kelly had to pull back sharply on the cyclic and increase the collective to gain altitude before crashing into the fast approaching rocky slope.
The engine screamed in protest and the rotors whined above as the sharp and sudden manoeuvre pushed the aircraft to its limit.
They were almost vertical, soaring into the sky as more glowing red tracer rounds passed by; snapping through the blackness like lightning bolts shot from an angry god. They whizzed by with resounding cracks, displacing the air around them just centimetres from the superstructure as they burned through the night, hitting rocks jutting out from the feature in front and ricocheting into the dark sky.
Kelly strained with the controls as Joey screamed at her, warning that more rounds were coming, as he desperately checked over his left shoulder, watching the blazing tracers zooming towards them.
"Bank right, Kelly. Bank right," he screamed frantically as he saw the enemy fire racing directly towards them, sure to hit their mark.
With gritted teeth, letting out a loud groan, Kelly squeezed the last of the power that she could from the aircraft and flung the cyclic to the right, turning them in a vertical one hundred and eighty degrees that sent them into another dive and plummeting towards the black earth below.
The engine whined and shrieked, threatening to explode as it struggled to keep them in flight.
At a low altitude, she again pulled hard on the collective, screaming to herself and trying desperately to gain some lift, as she kept the cyclic pushed slightly forward for speed and hoping that they had enough room between them and the ground to pull out of the dive in time.
The engines vibrated behind the passenger area, rattling in their foundations and threatening to tear them apart from the strain. Above them, the rotors, spinning so fast that they threatened to fly loose of their housing, hammered at the air with a whirling thump that sounded like one endless beat against a bass drum, echoing for an eternity and never losing its volume, while Kelly and Joey felt the cockpit juddering around them.
The helicopter began to pull up, its nose rising towards the horizon and climbing out of the steep dive. The ground raced by just fifteen metres below them while Kelly fought to gain some altitude.
Another series of flashes erupted close to their right and a stream of fiery red projectiles zoomed towards them. With no time to manoeuvre, Kelly braced herself, clenching her teeth and tensing her body, hoping that the heavy bullets would miss.
The helicopter shuddered and a series of holes exploded through the door of the passenger compartment. Loud thumps and thwacks rang out as the heavy metal slugs impacted all along the helicopter's fuselage, punching numerous holes and causing an untold amount of damage.
Even with the noise of the engine, Kelly heard the screams of the people behind her as the machine swayed and jerked below her while the cockpit shook violently, and the controls vibrated in her hands.
All around them, red lights began to flash and warning alarms began to blare, informing them that they had sustained serious damage.
More rounds punched through the outer shell of the helicopter, sending sparks erupting from the instrument panels in front of her and causing the glass of the windshield to shatter, as the bullets punched through the nose of the aircraft.
The engine coughed and spluttered and Kelly felt the sudden loss of power as the machine was mortally wounded.
"Shit, we're losing her," she screamed as she fought to keep control of the aircraft as they were thrown into a spin.
She pushed down hard on the anti-torque pedals, but they did not respond. She pulled up on the collective, but that too did nothing as she twisted and turned on the cyclic to regain some control.
She knew that a crash landing was inevitable, but to smash into the ground whilst in a spin and out of control would be catastrophic, and would result in the complete loss of life of everyone on board.
"Joey, we've lost the rear rotor, and hydraulics, too." She glanced across at him, fear blazing in her wide eyes and her face sparkling with beads of sweat.
"We're going down. I can't hold her, Joey."
Joey nodded, bracing his legs against the control panel and grasping the leather straps above him tightly with both hands. He pushed back against his seat and screwed up his face, ready to accept the hard landing racing towards them.
With great effort, Kelly managed to slow the spin with the throttle and the cyclic, but they were still falling and a crash was unavoidable. At fifteen metres, she saw the ground rushing up towards them and she raised her legs, throwing her head back against the seat.
"Brace, brace…" she screamed, hoping that the people in the back would hear her and do what they could to protect themselves.
With a roar and an ear-splitting crunch, the front of the helicopter disintegrated as it impacted with the hard ground.
Kelly felt the tremendous jolt of the collision travel through her body, and a split second later the darkness took her.
30
Claire heard the thuds against the helicopter; felt the sudden displacement of air as the gaping holes appeared in the walls of the fuselage around them, and then the hot fluid splashing against her face and neck.
The helicopter was spinning and she could feel her body being pushed towards the door from the centrifugal force of the whirling aircraft. She tried desperately to keep a tight grasp on Sarah with one hand and on the cargo nets attached to the seats with the other.
Over the roar and scream of the engine, she could hear numerous cries of fear and shrieks of pain from the other people being thrown about inside the passenger compartment. She could also hear her daughter, crying and shouting for her, as she felt her grip begin to loosen from her hand.
"Sarah, hold on," she cried over the deafening noise of the howling engines, thudding rotors and screaming people.
"Keep hold, Sarah, I've got you, honey."
Another row of holes exploded through the shell of the aircraft, faint shafts of light beaming through and red-hot glowing metal racing through the air. Another body squealed out in the darkness as fragments of bullet and helicopter pierced their flesh.
The engine coughed behind them and, with a series of whines, descending in volume and pitch, fell silent, leaving just the thumping rotors above them, still beating at the air, but clearly losing speed as the power to the motors was cut.
The spin of the helicopter had slowed and Claire was able to gain a better grip on the cargo net, looping her arm between the rungs and pulling Sarah in close to her, as she wrapped her legs around the steel legs of the seats bolted to the floor.
"Brace, brace…" she heard Kelly screaming from the pilot's seat. She closed her eyes tight, tensing every muscle in her body, waiting for the inevitable impact that was to follow.
Time seemed to slow down; it felt as though the helicopter was hanging in the air, moving in slow motion as she gripped her daughter tightly, whispering to her reassuringly as the ground approached them from below.
"Okay, Sarah, everything is going to be okay," she whispered in a breaking voice filled with fear and resignation.
"I love you, Sarah. I love you so…"
Claire's final words to her daughter were cut off as the aircraft made contact with the ground. The impact sent her flying forwards, despite her grip on the cargo net and seat, into the bulkhead behind to the co-pilot.
Her shoulder crashed against the hard metal and then tossed her towards the door. Her head snapped back, sending a shooting pain down through her spine and back up into her brain, as she hit the fuselage with a thud, barely clinging onto consciousness.
She was distantly aware of other bodies being thrown through the air, crashing into one another and into the frame of the aircraft. Some screamed, while others crashed about in silence, already knocked out, or dead.
The helicopter continued to move. She was jostled from the door and onto the ceiling as the aircraft began to roll over, causing glass to explode and bulkheads to collapse as the frames began to buckle in on themselves.
The rotors, still spinning at a rapid rate, smashed into the ground, splintering on impact and sending fragments flying in all directions. A large piece of one of the blades sliced its way through the body of the aircraft, cutting through metal and flesh as it swathed a path
of destruction through the passenger compartment.
Howls of pain and fear echoed all around her as Claire precariously clung to consciousness.
She landed hard and felt a body tumble on top of her. She wrapped her arms around it, pulling it close and believing it to be her daughter, while gritting her teeth and accepting the beating that she received from the dying aircraft as it continued to tumble and slide across the rocky ground.
"Sarah," she screamed, her lungs feeling like they would burst as she clutched the limp body in her hand.
The destroyed helicopter rolled and disintegrated around Claire as the world closed in to envelop her.
Finally, she blacked out.
Moments later, Claire's eyes flickered open.
Everything was still and silent around her. At first, she felt confused to what had happened and where she was, and then it dawned on her as she remembered the screams and the crash.
She coughed, tasting the distinct flavour of blood in her mouth. The copper scent seemed to fill her nostrils and throat as streams of crimson sprayed from her mouth.
She wiped her face on the back of her hand, her fingertips brushing against the thick strands of hair of the head resting on her chest.
"Sarah," she whispered, "Sarah, honey. It's okay. We're safe. Sarah…?"
She began running her hands through the tangles of thick hair, feeling the shape of the face in the darkness, trying to identify her daughter.
"Sarah, speak to me," she said in a panic as her fingers ran over the mangled features.
Then, she felt the warm sticky mess that her palms sunk into as she brushed her hands along the body's neck and back. A feeling of dread rose up in her, making her head spin even more and her stomach churn as she realised that it was blood she could feel coating her fingers.
"Sarah, no, please, God, no," Claire whimpered as her hands felt further down along the torso.
