Zombies! (Book 6): Hold The Line

by Merritt, R. S.

  Kyler shined the light down using his fingers to mask the bulk of the beam. Kelly had crawled over and joined them at this point as well with the kids spread out behind her. She had the kids sitting on the mattresses trying to keep them a little bit dry. Directly underneath them was a ton of green pine needles. The open window looked like when you opened the box to your fake Christmas tree to get it ready to setup for the season. They all took this to mean the trailer must’ve flipped over and the part with the window had landed on a small pine tree or possibly the branch of a large pine tree and that’s what was holding them up in the air. That would explain the groaning metal sounds they kept hearing.

  Randy signaled for Kyler to hand him his flashlight. Randy struck his hand out the window and moved a big mass of the pine needles out of the way. Kyler watched as Randy’s face went from curious to terrified. Randy nudged Kelly who took a look and immediately turned a whiter shade of pale as well. Kyler looked over at them and shrugged to try and get them to explain what was going on. Randy motioned for him to roll around to the side of the window him and Kelly were on. Kyler moved over and when Randy handed him the light, he looked out the window.

  “How the hell did we get way up here?” Kyler asked.

  “Haven’t you ever seen the movie Twister? Flying cows and all that.” Randy answered.

  “This is more like the Wizard of Oz. This is insane.” Kelly added carefully backing away from the open window.

  Peering down through the branches Kyler could make out the forest floor a good fifty or sixty feet below them. It was far enough down that the powerful Maglite he was using was having difficulty throwing a beam all the way there. It was far enough down that the trailer crashing to the ground could easily kill them all.

  Another long drawn out groan of tortured metal had them all holding their breaths. Randy was squeezing the floor as if he could keep it from falling if he just squeezed hard enough. Kelly had turned around to let Caitlyn and Myriah know what was going on. She didn’t know if it’d help or not, but she wanted to make sure the kids were sitting on the mattresses. She hoped it would help break their fall if they suddenly went sledding down the side of the pine tree in the giant aluminum coffin.

  “I don’t think the trees are going to hold this thing for very long.” Kyler whispered. He was being silent out of habit. At the moment they had bigger things to worry about than Zombies with really good hearing.

  As if to emphasize his comment the groaning sound started up again. This time the cheek clinching noise was accompanied by the equally horrifying sound of breaking branches. Kyler got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. Like the way you feel when you get to the top of a roller coaster track and look at the steep drop front of you. The difference being at the top of the coaster tracks you could tell yourself that thousands of people rode that thing every day and walked away from it. He’d never heard of anyone using a trailer to base jump out of a pine tree before. He decided it felt more like being at the top of the scary part of a coaster and when you looked down you saw the dead bodies and twisted metal of the people who’d gone over the top right before you.

  “Hold on!” Randy yelled. Kyler thought the yelling was probably unneeded since by this point everyone in the room was in a complete panic. The only ones not freaking out were Zoey and Ali who had no idea what was going on. Doreen had joined in the spirit of the freak out since all the adults were doing it. Zoey and Ali weren’t far behind her since seeing their parents lose their cool meant something uber bad must be happening.

  The groaning stopped. The trailer had shifted around a little bit, but it seemed like they were back to being in a semi-stable state. Randy started shining the light around the trailer again. He focused in on the door leading into the room. The closed door was high enough up on the wall that he’d have to stand on someone’s shoulders to reach it. Reconsidering that he realized as the heaviest person in the trailer he’d probably be the one getting stood on. Everyone followed his beam of light to look at the sideways door just out of arms reach. Randy thought about moving the dresser over to that side to stand on but was worried it might shift the balance in the trailer too much and send them toppling out of the tree.

  “Ok.” Kelly said loudly enough to get everyone’s attention. With everyone staring at her she continued. “We’ve somehow ended up stuck in a sideways mobile home at the top of a bunch of trees. We need to get out of here before the bough breaks. The only three ways out I see are the windows, the door and riding this thing to the ground. I prefer to climb down so I think we need to check the door and see if we can get out that way.”

  “Alright. You heard your mom. Everybody stays still while we check out the door. Kyler, you’re a tall and lanky kid, want to see if you can climb up my back and see what’s going on with the door?” Randy asked projecting way more confidence than he actually felt. He actually wished Kelly hadn’t emphasized the fact that they were sitting in a trailer at the top of a tree and could fall at any second. It did seem to be working to keep the girls from shifting around too much though. They were now just kind of lying in a huddle on the soaked mattress in complete terror at the thought of falling to their deaths.

  “Lanky? Where’d you dredge up that word grandpa?” Kyler asked trying to keep up the confident and casual air he felt the kids needed to see as well. Even though they were probably less than ten minutes from screaming their way to a horribly painful death.

  Kelly moved over to look out the open window. The rain was beating down with less intensity now. It was still creating a miniature waterfall out the open window down to the ground far below though. The trailer was swaying in the gusts of wind that kept hitting it. Each time the trailer moved everyone held their breaths. Each of them sure that each time the trailer moved was going to be the time they finally fell.

  Randy positioned himself awkwardly against the wall of the trailer. Kyler came up behind him as he dropped down to his hands and knees. Kyler stood on Randy’s back at which point he could just touch the cheap gold colored door handle Kelly was shining the light on. He didn’t want to make a jump for it or make any other sudden movements that may tip the trailer too far in any one direction. He thought about the issue for a second before getting an idea.

  With everyone watching Kyler quickly worked off his belt. Not the handyman belt he had on with his weapons dangling off of it but the regular belt he was wearing to hold his pants up. He wrapped the belt around the doorknob and used it to twist the knob until the latch clicked and the door moved away from the doorjamb. Kyler stretched up to see if he could see out the small crack in the door and his pants fell down around his ankles. He pulled the machete out of his tool belt and used it to prop open the door so he wouldn’t have to deal with that again then calmly pulled his pants back up and put his belt back on. Wishing the entire time that he wasn’t wearing the SpongeBob boxers he’d snagged at the last Ross they’d looted.

  It was only after getting his pants back on that he turned and acknowledged the kids who were completely cracking up over his pants falling down. Even Doreen was pointing at him and giggling her head off. Deciding it wasn’t appropriate to flip off a bunch of little girls he smiled and gave them a little bow before turning back around to try and get the door open more. He finally did a cautious pull up to get himself even with the door. He used the machete to push it up as far as he could get it to go. He had his Maglite turned on and shoved in his mouth.

  He shined the light around outside to confirm what he thought he’d seen from inside the door then climbed down off Randy’s back and sat down on the floor to think.

  “What’s out there?” Kelly asked him from across the room. Randy had sat up and was staring at him as well.

  “Nothing. It looks like the only part of the trailer that made it up here is the part we’re in. I can see the tree and a bunch of little branches but there’s no trailer and nothing that looks easy to hold onto and climb out of here.” Kyler said. He was thinking the only opti
on was for him to just kind of go for it. He really wished they had some rope. If they had rope, they could start lowering the kids down to the ground right now. How the hell did he keep getting in these situations? He must’ve done something pretty horrible in a former life.

  “What’s the plan then?” Kelly asked.

  “I go out the door and see if there’s a way for everyone else to come out that way. If there is then hopefully, we can climb down without killing ourselves.” Kyler answered ignoring the urge to make an obscure reference to a Zombie movie he loved based on Kelly’s question. People had become a lot less appreciative of the humor in those movies once Zombies had actually started eating their families.

  “I’ll do it.” Randy said.

  “You’re too big.” Kyler argued.

  “You’re also clumsy.” Kelly chimed in.

  “Ok. Wait a second though. Let’s figure out something we can use to tie around your waist or something, so you don’t just jump out the door and fall to your death. Can we agree on that idea?” Randy said in exasperation.

  Looking around the room they were able to collect a few thick power cords and a bunch of clothes including the fabric belts that you use to hold a robe closed. Whoever had lived in the trailer must’ve taken advantage of the robe factory outlet store or something as they had a basket full of them. Ominous creaks in the floor/wall while they walked around gathering the supplies had them rushing to MacGyver a safety harness for Kyler. When they were done it didn’t look like anything Randy would’ve personally wanted to bet his own life on. With all the creaking and groaning noises there didn’t seem to be a lot of time to perfect it though.

  Kyler had Randy lace his fingers together and give him a boost so he could more easily get to the door jamb. At the door he did a slow pull up. Once he was high enough, he threw a leg over the door jamb. Heart beating a mile a minute he sat there with one leg in the trailer and the other dangling in space. Squeezing the trailer wall between his legs like a modest girl in a dress who’d gotten talked into riding a mechanical bull he slowly pulled his Maglite back out of his pocket.

  The rain was still coming down, but it had lessened from biblical proportions to just your run of the mill thunderstorm. Turning the light on Kyler suddenly wondered if he should be worried about being struck by lightning. That’d pretty much make this the perfect day. He knocked on the side of the door jamb quickly to alleviate jinxing himself. Shining the light around he saw the trailer was resting between a handful of huge pines tress that’d all grown near one another. Near enough that the boughs from the different trees were working together to support the weight of the trailer.

  There was no sign of the rest of the trailer. Other than the jagged boards, wiring and insulation hanging off the wall of the room he’d crawled out of it was as if the rest of the trailer had never existed. Shining the light straight down Kyler saw the interlaced branches that were working together to hold up the room from the trailer. If he hung from the door and dropped straight down, then he should be able to drop on to the branch below. Once on that branch then he should be able to easily crawl along it to the main tree trunk. From there he assumed he’d be able to climb all the way to the ground.

  He let Randy and Kelly know he was fixing to take the leap of faith. Hoping he didn’t have to actually depend on the ghetto harness they’d rigged up he swung his other leg outside the relative safety of the trailer. He lowered himself down until his feet were dangling a few feet above where he thought the main branch should be. He breathed in and out a few times then let go.

  That fall of a few feet seemed to take an eternity. When he finally felt his feet plant on the branch that he’d been aiming for he still almost slipped off. He came an inch from falling to his death he was so surprised he’d actually made it. It was a big branch and there were others around it. It was by no means a safe walkway, but it was doable. Kyler was thinking they could lower the kids down one by one. Once they were down, he could have them go sit by the trunk until they were all out then they could work on getting down together.

  “I made it. I think we can get out this way. We just have to be beyond careful.” Kyler yelled to be heard above the noise from the storm. Looking at the cheap trailer wall in front of him he suddenly had another idea. Wondering why they hadn’t thought of this already he whacked on the wall a few times.

  “What are you doing?” Kelly yelled from the inside. Then she must’ve figured it out as well since he felt the vibrations from them striking the wall from the inside.

  A few minutes later they had a hole big enough for them to stare at each other through. Another ten minutes of careful hammering and the hole was big enough for them to fit the kids and Kelly out of. Randy may have a little trouble but the rest of them would be fine. Kelly tied the kids together with the robe ropes they’d collected. Once everyone was tied together, she let them start scampering across the branches to get to the trunk Kyler was directing them to.

  At the trunk they all waited while Randy beat his way through the wall. Once he made it over, they began the long, methodical process of carefully climbing down out of the tree. Having survived being flung into the tree by a tornado they felt like they’d used up all their good luck for the day so needed to be super careful climbing down. They were about halfway down when a loud noise above them made them all pause and look up. They watched in awe as the wreckage of the trailer crashed down through the branches around them separating into multiple parts before slamming hard into the ground below.

  Feeling like they’d dodged a bullet they kept moving down the rough and soaking wet surface of the tall pine. Randy was on a branch about ten feet from the ground when the first screeching Zombie showed up to see what all the noise was about. Randy pushed Zoey back up the branch she was trying to climb down from and hugged the tree while he waited to see how bad the situation was going to get. The idea of floating around on the aircraft carrier Kyler had mentioned was starting to sound very appealing.

  Chapter 6: Columbia Cloud Base

  “I need you to build bridges between the tops of the buildings so we can retake Columbia from the infected and use it as an FOB.” Krantz explained to the confused looking man in front of him. The guy was a retired Navy Seabee, but he wasn’t acting very ‘can do’ about the request. To Krantz it made perfect sense. They needed to pick a point to resupply the troops they were sending to South Carolina. The ideal place would be centralized with easy access to all the roads. Columbia was perfect except that is was full of Zombies.

  “We can’t get the heavy equipment in we’d need to do that using helicopters small enough to land on the roofs.” The grizzled, short man was trying to explain.

  Krantz had heard it all afternoon. He knew it wasn’t a normal ask. These weren’t exactly normal times though. They were rewriting the handbook on warfare every day. They might as well use an etch a sketch to figure out their strategy it changed so frequently. His vision was a city in the sky using the tops of the buildings in Columbia to stage people and equipment. They could block off the top floors and build out barracks and storehouses. The more he thought about it the more ways he could see it working to their advantage. He just needed to convince this guy to get it done.

  “Ok. You use small helicopters to drop off the teams who will secure the roofs. You prebuild the bridges that are going to run between the buildings and fly them in with some of our bigger helicopters. Do it in sections if we have to. Get people on each rooftop working as soon as possible. They can start clearing off the roofs to make it easier to land then start clearing the top floors. They’ll need to block it off the stairwells so that no one can access the roofs from the ground. The infected will be the moat around the bottom of our castles in the sky. This making sense now?” Krantz asked. He’d requested this guy because he was supposed to be the guy who could get stuff done. So far, the only thing he’d gotten done was building up excuses not to do anything. Something he’d just said triggered another avalanche of patr
onizing questions from the guy.

  “Don’t you need the helicopters to transport troops? I’m not going to be able to get all the helicopters and pilots I need if they’re all being used to ferry troops around and shoot up the South Carolinians.”

  It dawned on Krantz that he’d been put in charge of all the ground troops. He’d been trying to work with this guy like he was trying to hire a contractor to build an addon room for his house. Screw that. He took on a stern stance and went into what he thought of as ‘officer mode’.

  “Listen. I’m going to give you three big helicopters and pilots who can fly them next week. I’m giving you one smaller one today. You’re in charge of getting the cloud base I just described done in three months. Figure it out. Any questions?”

  “No sir. Who do I work with to get access to everything?” The man said. He was now striking the proper tone of deference.