Nurse Alissa vs. the Zombies VI:
Rescue
Nurse Alissa vs. the Zombies VI:
Rescue
Scott M. Baker
Also by Scott M. Baker
Novels
Nurse Alissa vs. the Zombies
Nurse Alissa vs. the Zombies: Escape
Nurse Alissa vs. the Zombies III: Firestorm
Nurse Alissa vs. the Zombies IV: Hunters
Nurse Alissa vs. the Zombies V: Desperate Mission
Shattered World I: Paris
Shattered World II: Russia
Shattered World III: China
Shattered World IV: Japan
Shattered World V: Hell
The Vampire Hunters
Vampyrnomicon
Dominion
Rotter World
Rotter Nation
Rotter Apocalypse
Yeitso
Novellas
Nazi Ghouls From Space
Twilight of the Living Dead
This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things During the Zombie Apocalypse
Anthologies
Cruise of the Living Dead and other Stories
Incident on Ironstone Lane and Other Horror Stories
Crossroads in the Dark V: Beyond the Borders
Rejected for Content
Roots of a Beating Heart
The Zombie Road Fan Fiction Collection
A Schattenseite Book
Nurse Alissa vs. the Zombies VI: Rescue
by Scott M. Baker.
Copyright © 2021. All Rights Reserved.
Kindle Edition
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any electronic system, or transmitted in form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the authors.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any actual person, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Cover Art © Christian Bentulan
Table of Contents
Half-Title
Title Page
Also by Scott M. Baker
Copyright Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Preview of Nurse Alissa vs. the Zombies VII: On The Road
A Thank You to My Readers
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Chapter One
A sudden jarring shook Alissa out of her slumber. She awoke with a start, expecting deaders. Instead, she remembered her and Chris were aboard the Seahawk heading back to Warren Island. Chris slumped against the corner of the troop compartment, sound asleep. At least he rested.
The helicopter bucked a second time. Alissa grew concerned. She put on her communications headset and spoke into the microphone.
“Is everything all right?”
“We’re fine,” answered Robson. “It’s turbulence from the blizzard.”
Alissa glanced out the starboard window. It snowed so heavily she could not see the ground. “How high up are we?”
“Five hundred feet. We’re experiencing white out conditions.”
Concern became anxiety. “Are we in any danger?”
“We’re flying high enough to avoid trees and power lines.”
“How will we find the base?”
“Sparks left on a navigational beacon,” answered Frank, the co-pilot. “I’m homing in on that. I haven’t been able to reach him on the radio. More than likely the storm is interfering.”
Alissa wished they had flown back to the Iwo Jima. “How long before we get there?”
“We should arrive in a few minutes.”
Thank God, Alissa thought. She looked outside one more time, unnerved by not being able to see anything but snow. Turning to Chris, she gently nudged him.
He opened his eyes and smiled. “I must have died and gone to heaven because I see an angel.”
Alissa grinned. “We’ll be back at base soon.”
Chris tilted his head and peered through the windshield. “What’s all that?”
“We’re in the middle of a blizzard.”
“Lovely. We fight off hordes of deaders to crash and burn a few hundred feet from our destination.” Chris regretted his comment the moment he saw Alissa tense up. “Sorry. I’m joking.”
“I’m not a fan of flying, remember?”
“You can add being an ass to the list of my many faults you keep tabs on.”
Alissa squeezed his hand affectionately. “You’re good at some things.”
The playful banter ended when they heard Robson mumble over the radio, “Shit.”
“What’s wrong?”
“The lights aren’t on at the hospital landing pad. I can’t set down there.”
“How are we going to land?”
“No problem. The lights are on in Islesboro. I’ll put it down in the park. It’s only a walk of a few hundred feet to the town hall. They can call an ambulance for you.”
Robson turned the helicopter around and headed back to the center of the island. Lights came into view, partly blotted out by the nor’easter. Robson hovered over the park, choosing the safest spot to land. Slowly he descended, scanning the area beneath him for obstructions. A minute later, the helicopter set down with a jolt.
“Sorry,” said Robson. “But as my flight instructor used to say, any landing you can walk away from is a good one. The town hall is across the road to our right.”
Alissa squeezed Chris’ hand. “Stay here. I’ll get a ride.”
“I’ll go with you. It’s not far.”
“You always have to play it macho.”
Chris winked and pointed his finger at her.
Alissa opened the starboard troop door. A blast of cold air washed through the troop compartment, bringing with it a swirl of snow. She turned to Chris. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“I’d rather you carry me.”
“Yeah, but no.” Alissa removed her communications headset and jumped out onto the playground. Over a foot of snow covered the ground. She assisted Chris down from the helicopter and, wrapping his left arm over her shoulder, helped him limp toward the town hall.
Static came through Robson’s communications headset with a weak voice trying to break through the background noise. He recognized it as Sparks. “Sky King. Do not…. Repeat… danger… at once.”
“Did you get that?” Robson asked Frank.
The co-pilot shook his head.
Robson shut down the engines. As the rotors slowed to a stop, he spoke into his microphone. “Sparks, I didn’t catch all that. Please repeat.”
Sparks did. This time, the message came through clear. Robson ripped off his headset and raced to the troop compartment, leaning out the open door. Alissa and Chris were a hundred feet from the helicopter.
“Get back here now!”
“What?”
“Get back to the helicopter. The base has been overrun by deaders.”
Alissa did not hear him clearly through the noise, but she didn’t need to. The snarling coming from inside the blizzard and the shadows of figures racing toward them through the snow let her know they were about to be swarmed by the living dead.
Alissa and Chris turned around and limped back to
the Seahawk.
Robson rushed back to the cockpit, slid into his seat, and turned on the engine. Frank monitored the systems. The engine ground back to life, the gears churning interminably slow until finally coming up to speed, the familiar thump-thump-thump drowning out the anguished cries of the deaders. As the rotors reached full rotation, the downdraft blew a wall of snow away from the helicopter, catching Alissa and Chris in the face. Chris tripped and fell face first onto the ground. The deaders were less than two hundred feet away and approaching fast. They would never make it back to the helicopter in time.
“What are we going to do?” asked Frank.
Robson had only one option available. He prayed Alissa and Chris would forgive him.
Pulling back on the controls, he lifted the Seahawk off the playground.
Alissa’s heart sank when Chris slipped off her arm and collapsed. She bent over to lift him. When Chris tried to stand, the combination of snow and his wounded leg made him fall again. The charging deaders had closed to within one hundred feet. They would never make it to the Seahawk in time.
Alissa withdrew her Sig Sauer and fired through the snow at the nearest ones. In the white-out conditions, she had no idea if any of her shots found their target.
“Save yourself while you still have a chance,” ordered Chris.
“I’m not leaving you behind.”
The sound of the Seahawk lifting off ended any further discussion.
Alissa stared at the helicopter. “That fucking asshole is leaving us.”
When fifteen feet off the ground, the helicopter paused and flew sideways. Straight toward them. Chris reached up, grabbed Alissa by the belt, and pulled her on top of him moments before the Seahawk passed overhead and hovered over the horde of deaders. The helicopter’s downdraft blew most of the living dead several yards away. One deader in civilian attire had the clothes stripped from its body before being knocked over. Only a few of the more intrepid deaders still lumbered toward the helicopter.
Robson stopped the helicopter five yards away from them and descended to an altitude of four feet.
Chris dragged himself up. When Alissa tried to help, he pushed her aside. “I’m fine. Get the door.”
Alissa ran over and slid open the port door. Five deaders attempted to climb through the starboard side that they had left open, frantically trying to get at them. She turned and helped Chris into the helicopter before boarding herself, yanking the door shut behind her. The five deaders had pulled themselves into the troop compartment and crawled to their feet.
“We’ve got company,” she screamed to Robson.
“Hang on tight.”
Chris wrapped his right arm around the supports for the rear seating. Alissa held on to the ring mount welded into the fuselage with both hands, her eyes widening in terror as the deaders stood and locked their gaze on her.
Robson lifted the Seahawk another fifty feet. Just as the five deaders attacked, he dipped the helicopter seventy-degrees to starboard. They slid across the angled deck. Four tumbled out and disappeared into the blizzard. The fifth clutched onto a strap at the last second, dangling halfway through the open door.
Chris reached across his waist with his left hand, unholstered the Sig Sauer, and pumped four rounds into the deader’s face and upper body. It released its grip and dropped out of sight.
“All clear,” he yelled out to Robson.
The pilot leveled out the Seahawk and headed north. Alissa rushed over and slid shut the starboard door. When it clicked into place, she leaned against the bulkhead and sighed.
Chris pushed himself off the floor and sat on the seat he had hung on to, strapping himself in. He put on his headset.
“Thanks for saving us.”
“No problem, sir. We didn’t come all this way to be eaten by our own people. Sit tight while I figure out where to go from here.”
Alissa sat beside Chris and buckled in. The bandage on his leg was stained with fresh blood.
“How are you doing?”
“That run in with the deaders didn’t help my leg any. It hurts like a son of a bitch.”
“We’ll get it fixed soon.”
Chris shook his head. “We’ll be lucky if we don’t crash land somewhere in this storm.”
Though he would never admit it publicly, Robson felt the same way. Once he obtained an altitude of a thousand feet, he flew to the airfield on the northern part of Warren Island, prepared to set down there if need be.
“Sparks, this is Sky King. Are you there?”
“Jesus, it’s good to hear your voice,” Sparks responded. “I thought for a minute we’d lost you. Over,”
“Came close, but only the good die young.”
“Where are you now?”
“Hovering over the airfield on Warren Island.”
“Don’t land there. The whole island is infested. Those of us who made it out are at Belfast Municipal Airport a few miles north of you. Do you think you can make it?”
“Sure,” said Robson with more confidence than he felt.
“Home in on my signal. We’ll be waiting.”
Robson turned the helicopter toward Belfast.
Chapter Two
A few minutes later, Robson brought the Seahawk into a hover over the tarmac at Belfast Municipal Airport, maneuvering close to the terminal building. Alissa stretched to look out the windshield. Someone with a flashlight directed Robson where to land, the beam barely visible through the blizzard. The helicopter settled with a jolt. Robson shut down the engines.
Alissa headed over to the starboard door and paused. “Is it safe?”
Robson nodded.
Alissa slid aside the door and removed her headset. Two figures approached through the snow. One, a National Guardsman, carried an M4 Carbine. Alissa recognized the other as Doctor Carrington. He waved for them to join him.
“Come in. Let’s get you inside where it’s warm.”
Alissa helped Chris to the ground and turned to Robson. “Are you coming?”
“In a minute. I have to secure the chopper first.”
The terminal was a two-story building much smaller than her cabin back in New Hampshire. She assumed it was a former residence because a roaring fire burned in the fireplace on the far wall. Once inside, Carrington stamped his feet and shook his head to dislodge the snow, then brushed the rest from his shoulders. He wore sneakers and a light jacket. Judging by the way he shivered, the doctor must have been freezing. He gestured for them to join him by the fireplace.
Carrington rubbed his hands along his arms. “Where’s the rest of your team?”
“We’re the only ones who made it out.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Carrington noticed Chris limping. “How bad are you hurt?”
“Gunshot wound to the leg from a ricochet. Not much damage, but it hurts.”
“We’ll take care of that.” Carrington glanced around the room and yelled, “Boyce?”
“Yeah?” The voice came from a young man in National Guard fatigues casting a makeshift split around a civilian’s broken arm.
“I have another patient when you’re done.”
“Be there in a minute.” Boyce issued instructions to a teenage girl assisting him, then left her to finish wrapping gauze around the arm and joined the others. A man of average height and build, attractive with piercing brown eyes and closed-cropped black hair, Alissa guessed him to be in his mid-twenties but with more confidence than possessed by most men his age.
“This is Lieutenant Carter Boyce,” said Carrington. “Our medic.”
Boyce nodded to Alissa. “Who’s the patient?”
“I am.” Chris pointed to the blood-stained bandages around his leg. “I took a ricochet in the leg.”
“That shouldn’t be too difficult. Follow me, sir.”
Chris limped off after Boyce.
Alissa reached into her leather jacket and removed the two vials of blood wrapped in bandages. “We retrieved the samples you wanted.”
>
Carrington took the package, his expression crestfallen. “Little good it’ll do us now. We had to leave everything behind when we evacuated.”
“What happened?”
“One of the nurses became infected by the virus, died while on her way to the ER, reanimated, and attacked the rest of the staff. By the time the military arrived, most of the hospital had been turned and overwhelmed them. After that, we couldn’t stop the spread.”
Images from that first day in the ER flooded Alissa’s memory. She quickly pushed them out of her mind. “What about…?”
“Your friends? We don’t know what happened to them. Colonel Williams sent a team in to rescue them but they weren’t heard from again. They could still be alive. We know there are others trapped in the island, but how many and where is anyone’s guess.”
“Why did you leave them behind?”
“We had no choice,” Carrington replied angrily, though his tone held a tinge of regret. “It’s a miracle any of us got out. A bunch of us made it to the dock hoping to regroup and get the civilians to safety, but the ferry captain had become one of the living dead. The deaders had followed us. Most of the military, including Captain West, died fending them off so we could take a motorboat and escape. Thank God one of the civilians worked at the airport, otherwise we might still be wandering around out there in the snow.”
“How many made it out?”
“Eleven, including myself. West made Sparks and Boyce go with us. The rest are all locals.”
“Shit.” Would this fucking nightmare ever end? “What about the survivors?”
“Sparks has been trying to reach the Iwo Jima but with no luck. Once he does, they’ll send in a rescue team to extract anyone who made it.”
“How long will that be?”
Carrington shrugged. “Even if Sparks could reach them, no one can fly in this weather. According to the latest weather report, this storm could last another twenty-four hours.”
“Everyone on the island could be dead by then.”
Carrington averted his gaze and turned to face the fire.
Frustration welled up inside of Alissa. She couldn’t leave Nathan and the others to die, assuming they weren’t dead. Not after all they’d been through. But her options were limited. No one here had any military training other than Boyce and Sparks, and they probably had not seen much combat. She doubted any of the civilians could handle themselves against deaders. Besides, even if she could pull a team together, she had no way to get back to the island.
Nurse Alissa vs. The Zombies | Book 6 | Rescue Page 1
