by Gary Chesla
“OK,” Rogers and Davis replied nervously.
Doc turned back to Reynolds and Connors who were standing and watching Doc talking to Davis and Rogers.
“Go down to the front of the tunnel and be prepared to let me back in to the facility,” Doc said. “We are going to fly out through the outer bay door, go around the mountain and land out front.”
Reynolds and Connor nodded, turned and ran down the tunnel.
Doc walked to the side of the bay and opened the door to the small control panel mounted on the wall.
When he hit the switch, the back wall of the Bay began to slide open.
Gusts of wind blew through the bay stirring up dust from the floor.
Davis walked up to where the door stood open and looked out and then down.
Just outside the open door, Davis looked down and grabbed the side of the door for support, as he saw the four-hundred foot drop and nothing but sheer rocky cliffs below.
Davis turned back to look at Doc, his eyes were open wide and his face was pale white.
Davis’s mouth was open, but no words came out.
“OK men,” Doc said. “Davis, you get in the back, Rogers, you get in the co-pilot’s seat and buckle up.”
Doc climbed into the pilot’s seat and pulled the harness over his chest.
Before pulling the door shut, Doc looked over at Chervy.
“After we leave the bay, hit the button on the control panel and close the door.”
“Will do, Doc,” Chervy replied.
When everyone was strapped in, Doc began flipping the levers above his head to start the engine.
Chervy held his arms over his face to protect his eyes from the wind and dirt that began to fly around the bay as the rotors began to turn.
The helicopter rose up off the bay floor a few feet then slowly moved towards the open door.
As the helicopter flew out the open bay door, Both Rogers and Davis grabbed their seats and held on as tight as they could.
“Oh shit,” Davis exclaimed. “I’m scared shitless Doc, I don’t think we can do this by ourselves.”
“Relax men,” Doc said as he guided the helicopter away from the mountain, banked to the left and flew around the peaks.
A moment later, he landed the helicopter next to the F-18 Hornet that sat in front of the large metal doors of the facility.
Doc unbuckled his harness.
“OK, Davis, change places with me,” Doc said.
“Are you sure about this?” Davis asked. “I honestly don’t think I can fly this thing all the way out to Stone, Idaho and back!”
“I don’t think you can either,” Doc smiled. “But the thing is, you don’t have to.”
“I don’t?” Davis asked as he strapped in to the pilot’s seat and Doc strapped into the back seat. “Then who is?”
“It’s called autopilot,” Doc replied.
“You never said anything about autopilot,” Davis replied.
“That’s because I wanted you to learn a little about flying this machine first,” Doc said. “You needed to learn the basics in case there is a problem.”
Rogers just sat and listened, still griping his seat tightly.
“You see that large panel in front of you?” Doc asked.
Davis looked at the panel,” I see it.”
“See the words, destination,” Doc asked.
“I see it,” Davis answered.
“Push it,” Doc said.
Davis pushed the word on the touch screen.
The words, “Enter your destination” appeared above an empty box.
Below the box a keypad appeared.
“Now enter the numbers, seven, six, five, four, eight, two,” Doc instructed.
Davis did as he was told.
“Now push the word, GO,” Doc said.
Davis nervously touched the word “GO.”
The helicopter slowly rose up into the air and began to fly south, following the road below them, as both Davis and Rogers looked on in amazement.
When the helicopter reached the end of the road, it landed softly next to the wrecked helicopter that the men from Fallon had used to come to Granite Mountain.
“That was amazing Doc,” Davis said.
“OK, now hit the word “Destination” again,” Doc said.
Davis hit the word as he smiled.
“Now enter, seven, six, five, four, eight, seven,” Doc said.
Davis entered the numbers, “Now I push GO, right?”
“You got it,” Doc smiled.
“Where is it going to take us?” Davis asked.
“Back to the entrance,” Doc replied.
Davis pushed the button and once again the helicopter rose up into the air and flew back to where they had taken off a few minutes earlier, then landed softly.
“This is great Doc,” Davis said, “but where do we get those numbers to punch into the control panel?”
“I got them from the navigational charts in the facility,” Doc replied and handed Davis two sheets of paper. “To go to the location in Stone you enter the numbers on the paper labeled Stone. After you land in Stone and drop the crate, just enter the numbers on the sheet labeled base.”
“Is it honestly that easy?” Davis asked.
“That all there is to it,” Doc replied. “Apparently, the government realized that the people they were planning to send to Granite Mountain, in all probably, wouldn’t have the ability to fly a helicopter. So, five years ago the government replaced the old helicopters with something they felt would be more practical for this type of facility. The vehicle that we are sitting in isn’t a regular helicopter, it is more of a computer controlled drone. In the instruction packet I found, intended for the people that were to have been sent to Granite Mountain, it explained how these machines worked. This machine is based on the same technology that controls the Air Force’s Predator drones. It was designed so that anyone sent to the facility could use it. Just set it and enjoy the ride.
Anyone that can use the GPS unit in their car can fly this.”
“Thank God,” Rogers finally said.
“Just hang on to those papers I gave you with the destination coordinates and you shouldn’t have any problems,” Doc said. “And one more thing. The coordinates I gave you for Stone should land you in a field. I can’t guarantee that it will be a level spot or that there isn’t any large rocks or trees at the landing site. If you see that where you are heading is not a good place to land, gently move the control stick and guide the helicopter to a more suitable site. The computer will still land the vehicle, but you are able to adjust the landing site up to a few hundred feet without affecting the programing.”
Davis nodded.
“So, are you two OK with the mission?” Doc asked.
“I think we can handle this,” Davis smiled.
“Good,” Doc returned the smile. “I wasn’t going to send you if you felt you weren’t up to it. But I was confident you could handle this.”
“We’re Navy,” Davis laughed. “We can handle anything.”
“I never had any doubts,” Doc smiled. “You will have a bird’s eye view of what is on the ground, better than what we see on the satellite images. Let me know if you see anything along that way that you think I should know about.”
Doc unbuckled his harness, slid open the door and climbed out of the helicopter.
He stood back and watched as Davis punched in the coordinates for Stone.
When Davis had completed entering the coordinates, he looked over at Doc, smiled and saluted.
Doc nodded.
Davis touched the “GO” on the panel, the helicopter rose into the air and began to fly out over the mountainside and towards Salt Lake City.
Doc began walking back towards the entrance to the facility.
Chervy was at the door and had watched Doc giving the final flight lesson to Davis and Rogers.
“I can’t believe those two actually got off the ground,” Chervy said.
“Yeah, but can they manage to find their way to Stone and then back home without getting lost?” Chervy asked.
Chapter 8
June 30th, The summit near Johnstown, Pennsylvania
Tony was using the couch to organize the items he planned to take with him today.
His crossbow, arrows, his knife, canvas bags they had picked up yesterday to help carry things out to the car and a list that he and Mike had made last night of things at Mike’s house they thought they would be able to use.
Then he sat down and pulled on the heavy pair of hiking boots he found at Outdoor World.
They had picked out boots for each of them yesterday.
With the zombies beginning to collapse, they needed to protect their feet in the event they would accidently step on a zombie or get their feet too close to a dead looking zombie’s mouth that was still capable of biting.
Moving or lying motionless on the ground, Tony and Mike felt it would still be possible for a zombie to infect them, so they decided they needed something better than flimsy tennis shoes to protect their feet.
As he was tying his shoes, Tony looked up when Linda walked down the stairs holding Jamie’s hand.
Jamie’s other hand was wrapped around George who was dangling from her side.
Jamie’s oversized boots smacked loudly against the steps as she moved down the stairs.
“I assumed you would be coming with us today,” Tony smiled.
“I want to see what’s left of our house,” Linda replied.
“I don’t blame you,” Tony smiled. “I’m curious myself.”
“Do you think all the zombies will be gone?” Linda asked.
“I don’t know. If yesterday is any indicator, we hopefully won’t see very many of them,” Tony replied. “At least not very many mobile zombies.”
Linda looked down at Jamie.
“What do you do if you see a zombie?” Linda asked.
“I go find Daddy,” Jamie smiled.
“If we are all together and you see a zombie?” Linda asked again.
“I be quiet and don’t tramp on them,” Jamie replied.
“And why don’t you want to step on a zombie?” Tony grinned, looking at Linda and Jamie.
“So they don’t bite my feet,” Jamie replied, then looked up at Linda.
“Do zombies have sharp teeth like George?” Jamie asked. “Cause George told me he can bite right through my boots with his sharp teeth if he wanted to.”
Tony laughed, “I think that some zombies have pretty sharp teeth, almost as sharp as George’s teeth.”
“If my boots don’t work and the zombies can bite through them, then why do I have to wear them?” Jamie asked. “These boots are too big and they make me walk funny.”
“Just in case,” Linda answered.
“Just in case what?” Jamie asked.
“Just in case,” Linda replied. “Just wear the boots and be quiet.”
“Do you have any boots for George?” Jamie asked. “He needs four boots because he has four feet.”
Tony laughed.
“We couldn’t find any boots George’s size, so you will just have to carry him,” Linda replied, looked at Tony and rolled her eyes.
“OK,” Jamie said.
Mike came down the stairs next, smiling as he descended the steps.
He was going to make a comment about how everyone looked in their new hiking boots, but after hearing Linda and Jamie’s boot conversation on his way down, he decided against it.
If he opened that can of worms again, they might have to endure an endless barrage of Jamie’s questions the entire way to Westmont.
Mike walked over to the table and picked up the cup of coffee Linda had made for him and took a long drink.
“Don’t let me forget to get my binoculars when we get down to the house,” Mike said. “I just remembered them as I was coming down the stairs.”
“They could come in handy,” Tony said. “Do you have any wire or rope in your garage?”
“I think I have both,” Mike replied.
“Good, they could come in handy to set up a few trip wires around the property to let us know if anyone tries to sneak up on us,” Tony said.
“We have all kind of junk in the garage you can have,” Linda smiled. “I don’t think Mike has cleaned out that garage in years. I told him I was going to have a yard sale some day when he was at work.”
“Hey, I told you that stuff might come in handy someday,” Mike grinned. “On the other hand, it’s been nice over the last month not having anyone bug me about when am I going to clean out my garage.”
Tony laughed, “I’m sure my garage looks a hell of a lot worse than yours. Maybe one day I’ll have a chance to show you how bad it is.”
Tony picked up the little radio that was on the coffee table, the radio they had used last night to try to listen to the nightly broadcast by Doctor Kennedy.
He looked at the radio, made sure he had turned it off, then walked over and set it down on the steps.
Mike looked at Tony, “No broadcast for two nights in a row is starting to concern me now too.”
“Yeah, I just have a feeling something isn’t right,” Tony replied. “It feels like someone just pulled the rug out from under us. We have been told for the last month that help would be coming, then we stop hearing anything at all.”
“Hopefully the broadcasts will start again soon,” Mike said. “Even if they do,” Tony replied, “I say we are on our own and we stop counting on anyone else to help us.”
“Until the day help arrives,” Mike smiled.
“Yeah, I know, think positive,” Tony laughed. “Well right now I think we need to get moving while it’s still early.
I’ll try to be positive later.”
Everyone started for the door.
Mike had to cover his mouth to hide the grin on his face as he watched Jamie walk across the living room looking like a duck stuck in mud as she struggled to walk in boots that were three sizes too big for her.
They drove down Route 271, everyone staring out through the windshield, anxiously waiting to see what their old neighborhood would be like.
They were hoping to see that Westmont looked the way they had remembered it before the zombies came.
As the buildings of Westmont began to come into view, they soon realized that they had been fooling themselves to expect things to look the same.
Westmont had been one of the few upscale neighborhoods in the Johnstown area.
The largest and newest homes were in Westmont.
They had the best schools, the nicest restaurants, the best roads.
The best way to describe Westmont to someone was to show them a picture from Better Homes and Gardens and then add, “Only nicer.”
The last month they had spent at the log cabin home at the summit, a month of mostly peace and quiet, had made it easy for the group to forget the images of what they had last seen in Westmont after Mike rescued Linda and Jamie from the attic where they had been trapped for three days.
It had been easier to forget their days of terror and confusion than they thought possible.
But everything quickly came flooding back into their minds as they got their first look at Westmont in the last month.
They all sat quietly and stared as Tony drove the old Buick slowly into town.
The grass was overgrown, nearly a foot tall in most of the yards. The weeds and dandelions, which were seldom seen in Westmont, had gone wild and now dominated most of the formerly pristine yards.
Large tuffs of grass were growing up through the cracks in the sidewalks and even on many of the streets.
The buildings, with most of their windows broken, looked old and abandoned, like a scene of an Old West ghost town.
The buildings looked dirty and unkept with their doors hanging wide open or lying on the ground, split and shattered.
Cars sat on the side
walks and across the roads at eerie angles, the doors hanging open, dried blood smeared across the cracked and jagged remains of the car’s windows.
Dead bodies, rotted and decayed beyond recognition, were lying on the streets, sidewalks and hanging from the doors and jagged edges of the broken car windows.
What had happened was no longer just a memory, as Mike, Tony and Linda relived in their minds the horror that they had each endured not all that long ago.
“My God,” Linda exclaimed, “this is worse than I remembered it.”
“I don’t think it was this bad when we left,” Tony replied. “I think a lot of this happened after we were up at the summit. I’m guessing that as the people hiding in their homes began to run out of food, they must have tried to go out and look for food or get out of Westmont. It’s my guess that is when a lot of this happened. By then, it’s obvious with how bad conditions had become that they didn’t have a chance.”
“It’s hard to believe all of this was happening only a few miles from where we’ve been staying,” Mike added.
“Yeah, but help is coming,” Tony said sarcastically.
“Even if help arrived today,” Linda said, “who would they help? It doesn’t look like anyone could have survived this.”
“Unless they managed to get away to someplace safe like we did,” Mike replied.
“And we only saw two people still alive where we were,” Tony said, “and we could have done without those two.”
“So where is everyone else?” Linda asked.
“I think we’re looking at them,” Tony replied. “At least most of them and that is assuming there were a few others that managed to live through this.”
“Do you really think there are others? I don’t think anyone could have survived this,” Linda asked.
“There is Doctor Kennedy,” Tony replied, “but if there are any more, I doubt there would be very many. I beginning to wonder if Doctor Kennedy is still among the living anymore.”
