Escape from the Dead Page 19

  “Well that ought to ease the burden on the food,” Clyde remarked. “You get his hardware?”

  “It’s already in the truck,” Tank reported.

  “Well sweet cheeks,” Clyde said, turning to Dana. “You don’t seem too upset I just shot your daddy.”

  Dana paused, then opened the door to the back seat of the Ford Explorer.

  “Good riddance.”

  She got in, and Tank had a laugh before turning to the other two.

  “Now, let’s head a few miles west to Morley, and see if we can bag us a big sister,” Clyde said to them, but Missy found no humor in it.

  “Jesus, Clyde,” she shot, and then hurried off to join Dana in the back seat. Clyde and Tank exchanged a glance, and Tank merely shrugged.

  The journey back from Coulson had been a bit brighter, despite the rain, and the few patches of sleet they had driven through. They had gathered more useful supplies, and it could all be packed into the trucks in preparation for leaving. Just before they’d returned to the facility that was home for only a matter of hours more, it had begun to snow lightly, and then more steadily. The truck was parked, and the group headed in, finding Mark inside the main door.

  “How’d it go?” he asked.

  “Super,” Jake answered. “And wet.”

  “Any word on Ray?” Jon asked.

  Mark shook his head.

  “Nothing yet, but Ash was all pissy, and she went up top a while ago,” Mark answered, which prompted Mick and Jake to exchange a glance. Mick handed off his rifle to Jake, and eyed the set of steel steps that led up to the door that went out onto the roof. Jake took the rifle, and gave a nod to Mick.

  “All right then, let’s make ready,” Jake said, and headed down the stairs. The others followed, while Mick climbed the stairs to the door, and found it unlatched, so he pushed it open to reveal that the light snow was still falling.

  Stepping out, he looked around to find Ash standing near one edge of the building, staring off into the distance. Carefully and quietly, he approached her, just examining her as she shook, and seemed deep in thought. He had no idea if she knew he was there, but he had moved up behind her, and simply stood there a moment before she spoke.

  “I… my phone…” she said. “Right after you left.”

  “They called?” Mick asked.

  “I think they dialed on accident,” Ash said, sounding as though she was crying. “I heard… they were shooting. I heard screams.”

  “Oh man…” Mick said with an apologetic tone. He stepped forward, hesitantly lifting a hand, but not sure what exactly to do.

  “I’m sure she’s gone,” Ash cried. “Everyone is gone.”

  “Not everyone,” Mick said, and took that last step toward her, bringing his arms up to hug her from behind. “I’m here.”

  She closed her eyes as she felt the arms squeeze tighter around her. A moment later, she turned around, her expression so serious it took Mick aback, slightly. She reached forward and brought her face to his, kissing him as she closed her eyes. He moved forward to put his hands on the sides of her face before she backed off slightly, her breathing now deeper as she looked at him. He was searching for words, and wondering what was in her head until, still looking into his eyes, she started to peel off her wet shirt.

  The radio room was nearly stripped of the items they were to take with them from it, and Mark was just entering to see if they needed help when Jake sat by the CB. He looked up at Bulldog, taking a slug off a bottle of rum. It tasted dreadful, but it made him feel warm, and he needed that.

  “I think we got all the useful shit out of here,” Jake said to Bulldog. “But since it’s snowing like a motherfucker, we’d better not delay too long.”

  “It’s snowing?” Mark asked.

  “Like a motherfucker,” Jon chimed in.

  There was a buzz from the CB, and everyone in the room turned to it, but more than just a buzz, there then came a tone. There was a click, followed by a series of beeps, and Mark looked at Jake.

  “That!” he said. “That’s some of what I heard the other night!”

  Jake did not answer, but stared at the radio. It clicked again, and there was the slightest hint that there had been a voice. Everyone was there, save for Holcomb, Dawn, Ash, and Mick, and they were all fixed on the radio. Finally, the voice seemed to clear, though still crackled with static.

  “… receiving. Again, we say again, this is US Navy seven zero two four, to anyone receiving, over?”

  Jake dropped the bottle of rum, letting it shatter on the floor as he snatched up the mic.

  “Navy seven zero two four, we read you, over!” he called into it.

  “You’re kind of broken up, but we read you!” came the reply, which brought an almost palpable wave of excitement to the whole room.

  “Good to hear, Navy!” Jake said.

  “Before we get out of range, we are advising we have an airlift in the area of Hollsfield, Georgia, by about midnight tonight, do you copy?” the person at the other end reported.

  “We’ll be there!” Jake said.

  “Map coordinates D247850,” came the voice. “Do you have anyone with you?”

  “There’s ten here,” Jake reported, noting a crackle of static. “Including a bunch of navy boys.”

  “Outstanding!” came the voice. “Hollsfield, there’s a city park, so be there, and we’ll fly out!”

  “You got it!” Jake said, but the conversation was done at that point, with no further voice coming from the radio. Jake rose to his feet.

  “We’re getting out of here!” Mark said.

  “Today just got a whole lot better,” Jake agreed.

  Mick and Ash were sitting at the edge of the roof, both dressed but wet from the snow, which had stopped for the moment, giving way to some broken sunshine. She leaned against him, staring out at the distant approach of numerous zombies. He put an arm around her, feeling her nestle in closer.

  “So what now?” she asked.

  “Now?”

  “I mean, you know,” she said. “But, I just really want Dana to be okay.”

  “Me too,” Mick added. “I don’t think we should give up hope until we know for sure.”

  She paused, and then looked up at him, scooting back so she could see him better.

  “This is so weird,” she said.

  “You know, I’ve had some sketchy reviews from women, but I’ve never heard that one,” he joked. She laughed, and shook her head.

  “No, I mean, I don’t know what to do here,” she admitted. “Usually, guys I know tell me to trust them, and act all smooth and cool, but just until they get what they want. Then they split, or kick my ass, or steal a bunch of cash and drugs and disappear until they need some more. But you…”

  “Yeah, I’m weird,” he admitted. “I give you machine guns and wipe brains and eyeballs off you. I’m so damned dumb I put more clothes on you.”

  She grinned.

  “Ha,” he continued. “Got you to smile.”

  “See? I could get used to you,” she said, just as it had started to snow again.

  “Because I made you smile?” he asked.

  “Well, just… everything,” she said. “And you keep doing it.”

  “And I’ll keep on doing it, too,” Mick promised.

  “Until you got what you want?” she asked.

  He thought a moment.

  “Hell, even I’m not sure what I want these days,” he said.

  “Well now,” she said, reaching out to rub his arm. “That’s because you haven’t seen me in my little cowgirl outfit.”

  He raised an eyebrow, and then smiled.

  “See? Now you’re smiling,” she informed him. He stood, and reached down.

  “Come on, let’s get inside before we drown up here,” he said, and helped her to her feet. They began to walk back to the door which would take them inside.

  “Thanks, by the way, for the machine gun,” she said, putting her hands in her pockets.
>
  “Well, you know…” Mick teased. “I didn’t get you anything for your birthday.”

  “Still, it was sweet,” she said, and then paused, her face wrinkling a bit. “I think.”

  They were nearly at the door, and Mick glanced over at her, smiling.

  “So, cowgirl outfit, huh…” he said.

  She playfully smacked him.

  “Shut up…” she uttered with a grin, and the pair went inside.

  Jake and the others were gathering things from the main room, and bulldog had just closed up a case which was full of gun cleaning and maintenance supplies. Dawn had just handed off to Jake a box of lighters, matches, and candles when something seemed to halt the very activity in the room. They had been working more happily with news that all they had to do was get to Hollsfield, Georgia, and there was safety. But now, as a grim-looking Holcomb had appeared in the room, everything seemed to stop.

  “I’m so sorry, my dear,” he said, staring directly at Dawn, who gasped, and shook her head. “I tried to-”

  “I think we got it, doc,” Jake said, but Dawn was off like a shot, heading through the door just as Mick and Ash were descending the stairs. They exchanged a glance, and Ash took off after Dawn, while Jake and Jon approached Mick. Both were smiling, and Mick regarded them cautiously.

  “You won’t believe it,” Jake said.

  “Try me,” Mick offered as Holcomb informed Brock that he would be back in the lab, and then wandered away.

  “We just got a radio transmission,” Jake said. “The CB. We talked to someone- the Navy is doing an airlift, about forty miles south of here in northern Georgia.”

  Mick cried out.

  “Thank fuck!” he said.

  “Yeah, you may have to learn how to fly a real plane,” Jon interjected.

  “Whatever, they let you two do it, so how hard can it be?” Mick goaded them.

  “Hey, there’s no eight thousand foot runway on a carrier,” Jake teased right back.

  “Well you know, this is all great, but what happened to Dawn?” Mick asked.

  “Doc just gave her the bad news,” Jake said grimly. “Ray’s gone.”

  “Fuck,” Mick grunted. “Kind of the day for that, then.”

  “Oh?” Jon asked.

  “Ash’s phone rang after we left today,” Mick explained. “She said it sound like an accidental call, but it sounded like some pretty ugly shit.”

  “Damn it,” Jake said. “Either way, we have to leave tonight. That airlift will be there until midnight or so.”

  Mick had to regard the thought for a moment.

  “I’ll tell her.”

  Dawn had reached the door to the lab, but she couldn’t bring herself to look at Ray as he had died, and so she had hurried away to another room, where she quickly found a mostly empty bottle of vodka. Aiming to make it completely empty, she unscrewed the top, and took a long drink from it, just as Ash appeared in the doorway. Coughing from the ugly feeling of the vodka, Dawn looked up to notice Ash, and she shook her head.

  “You here to tell me everything’s gonna be all right?” Dawn asked sarcastically. “Everybody’s here for me?”

  Ash merely shrugged.

  “Then why did you follow me?” Dawn pressed.

  Ash had cautiously stepped forward, putting her hands on the edge of the table.

  “Since this all started, I’ve lost my mom, my uncle, my whole world,” Ash said with a quiver in her voice. “Probably my sister just this morning… but, these guys have been there for me. We’re all here for you, too.”

  Dawn looked up, trying not to break down.

  “Misery loves company, isn’t that it?” she asked.

  “With all this misery?” Ash said. “Yeah.”

  Dawn paused only a moment more before breaking down, her head going to the table, while Ash had rounded the table, and put her arms around the sobbing young woman. Neither had any idea that Holcomb had just removed the straps from Ray, and had made his first notes about re-animation. It had not begun yet.

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE- SIDESTEP

  Mick was nervous, and he stood over the table in the main room as others were up making sure the trucks were fully packed and ready to go. It was only four in the afternoon, and the town of Hollsfield was just over fifty miles away, so that distance was not a problem, but telling Ash that it might be time to give up hope on her sister was a problem. Thus, when she entered the room, and playfully approached him to put her arms around his waist, he found himself trying not to destroy her mood.

  “I won’t ask if Dawn’s all right,” Mick said, turning to Ash.

  “She will be,” Ash said.

  “You didn’t hear, did you?” Mick said very cautiously.

  “Hear what?” she asked, smiling girlishly at him.

  “The others,” Mick answered her. “They talked with the navy on the radio. We’ve got to meet them for an airlift tonight, so we can be taken out to ships. This is almost over.”

  She paused for a moment, and then beamed as she hurled herself against him, squeezing him tightly. But a moment later, noting that he had hardly moved, she slid away from him, staring at him as she realized what it meant. She had backed away, and her hurt expression softened a bit as she got the phone out, and she held it up. There was a strength in her expression as she regarded the phone.

  “I think… maybe, I should get rid of this, but I don’t want to,” she said.

  He hadn’t said anything, but before she could set it down on the table, they were both stunned by the sound of the music coming from it, and she found herself staring at it. The battery was nearly done, but she looked at the screen, and pressed the button, praying that the call would last, and that it was good news.

  “Ash?” came the panicked voice of Dana.

  “Dana! Is that you?” Ash cried.

  “It’s me! Where are you?” Dana asked.

  “Where am I?” Ash asked. “Where are you? Just tell me and I’ll come and get you!”

  There was a pause, and Ash wondered if the phone had died, but then, there came a voice that made her skin crawl, and Mick could sense something was wrong.

  “Well…” came the oozing voice of Clyde. “You’re still alive. Be a shame if a fine piece of ass like you was all chewed up.”

  “Where’s my sister, you son of a bitch?” Ash asked.

  “Now don’t be so poisonous, girl,” Clyde said. “All you got to do is roll your sweet little body over here to Morley. We’re all safe and sound in the fire station, waiting for you.”

  “I want my sister!” Dana blurted. Mick’s hand touched hers.

  “Don’t tell him about us,” Mick said quietly, and she nodded.

  “You want your sister?” Clyde asked. “You better get your ass here then.”

  “I’ll be there,” she growled at him. “I’ll be there!”

  But the phone had died, and she looked up with wide eyes to Mick.

  “I don’t care who else is going,” she said. “I have to go.”

  “And you won’t be alone,” Mick assured her. “But Ash? If this is some dodge, and they fuck us, we can’t stay. We can’t miss.”

  “We won’t,” she said strongly.

  Mick hefted the UZI, and looked at her with a sober expression.

  “Then I guess you’d better get ready,” he said, handing her the UZI as he headed to the stairs, calling up them. “JAKE!”

  Moments later, the entire group was gathered in the main room, and they had decided almost unanimously that they had to make the short trip to Morley to get Dana before heading to the airlift. The lone holdout was Mark, and he approached Ash as she was straightening a black coat she’d found in the clothing gathered by the group in the last few days.

  “We shouldn’t be doing this,” Mark said. “We only have so long before that airlift leaves us.”

  “I’m going,” Ash said. “I don’t need you to get my sister back.”

  “But the weather’s getting worse,” Mark gro
aned, looking around at the others. “What if it fucks up the roads to where we can’t make it to Hollsfield?”

  “We’ll get there,” Brock said. “But we can’t leave people behind, either.”

  “Fine,” Mark snipped. “But I’m not going. I’ll wait here.”

  Mick was around a table in a flash, and had Mark by his collar, jamming him up against a wall with a scowl. Mark stared back with wide eyes at Mick as the others looked on.

  “Then stay the fuck here!” Mick bellowed. “You’ll be useless out there anyway, but stay the fuck out of the way.”

  “Great, yeah man,” Mark stammered. “I’ll just stay the fuck out of the way.”

  Mick released him roughly, and walked a few feet away, while Jake calmly regarded Mark, and then Dawn.

  “Dawn shouldn’t go either,” Jake said, which drew her eyes. “We’ll get you guys on the way back. Doc? Are you staying here?”

  “I think I should go with you,” Holcomb said. “You may need some extra guns on this one.”

  “You ever use a gun?” Bulldog asked.

  “I spent four years in the national guard,” Holcomb informed them. “It may be rusty, but I think I can handle it, still.”

  “Then let’s not waste any more time,” Jake said. “Morley’s twenty miles away from us, and we need to be south before midnight.”

  Everyone was armed, dressed and ready, and started up the stairs as Dawn remained at the table, and Mark sat at a different table. Jake looked back at Dawn.

  “We’ll be back before you know it,” he said.

  “You’d better be…” she said sadly.

  He smiled, and then disappeared up the stairs.

  Moments later, the big white SUV roared to life with Jake at the wheel, and the others in the various seats beside and behind him. It was snowing steadily, and there were already a few inches of it on the ground as it had become mixed with freezing rain. Soon, Jake had driven the big vehicle out onto the highway, and noted that the sky was dark as they went. He looked over at Ash.

  “I hope we don’t regret this,” he said.