LZR-1143: Redemption (6 page)

Hundreds more were climbing from the water.

It was time to leave.

This was my head talking. My body screamed for more.

“Better move,” said Kate, and I nodded. We started to run, even as the sound of four massive propellers cut through the fog, a low drone on the horizon.

SEVEN

The mist was a blessing and a curse. We couldn’t see more than fifty feet ahead, but we knew that it shrouded our movements as we shadowed the herd of corpses that shuffled along ahead of us. The engine noise grew louder, competing with, and ultimately overpowering the music and acoustic clatter from the overflying drones, now focusing on providing a musical target farther to the west.

The tarmac was filthy with pieces of clothing and other matter, the exact nature of which I could only imagine, seeing that it was the leavings of a herd of thousands of living dead. In the near distance, a small commuter jet was off on the grass between runways, canted slightly to the side, one wing sticking slightly further into the fog. An open door led to an inflated escape slide.

A bloody smear ran the length of the now dingy yellow rubber, and a single suitcase lay at the foot of the ramp.

I followed Rhodes, whose gun remained up and trained forward. Kate followed, and the two sailors, armed only with pistols, looked around frantically, not having expected to be suddenly thrust into a land war from the relative safety of their vessel—a vessel that now stood vulnerable, anchored in the middle of a river once assumed to be safe ground.

Behind us, the fog was breaking, and as we sprinted forward, I turned, making out the green and red landing lights of the massive plane. Guns protruded from the belly and sides like a giant pincushion, and its massive engines roared in the fading mist.

It was an impressive sight.

And an even more impressive sound.

My eyes fell to the ground, and I groaned.

In the fading fog, they were coming.

Dripping, covered in flotsam and debris, matted hair clinging to rotted faces. Eyes protruding sickeningly, and arms outstretched, pleading. Wanting.

They came. Thousands upon thousands.

The gunship roared over their heads, barely missing the first ranks of the crowd, wheels extended. The screech of rubber hitting damp concrete coursed in the air, and the propellers cycled down loudly almost instantly, seeking to arrest the large machine’s momentum.

We had almost reached the end of the runway, and in the distance ahead of us, to the left, where a group of cargo hangars abutted the access road underneath road signs for the nearby freeway, we could see the other herd, clustering near the fence line and flowing between buildings in a fruitless quest to find the origin of the offensive noise.

They had turned back at the sound of the massive airplane, and they saw us as clearly as we saw them.

And them both groups—the dead and undead—saw the frantic forms of the adolescent girl and her dog sprinting toward our group and the now taxiing airplane that was quickly turning back to the east, edging in a circle like a beached whale.

“Ky!” shouted Kate, raising her hand and shouting.

God damn it.

How the hell was she here?

I turned away from the group and toward the girl, yelling as a zombie appeared from an overturned luggage bin and shambled in her path.

She didn’t even hesitate. A crossbow bolt instantly protruded from the creature’s skull and she hopped over the obstruction as she passed. Romeo was easily pacing her, head whipping to the sides as if nervous and anxious to be running. She wore black clothing, much like ours.

Very much, in fact.

Kate followed me as Rhodes and the other two men slowed in front of a parked airliner bearing the name of the carrier that I had last used to get from the West Coast back to New York the night of Maria’s death. I fought the flashbacks as I caught the young girl in my arms and rushed her toward the group.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I yelled over the noise of the propellers, sparing a glance for the two herds that now bracketed us on either end of this runway.

“You can’t leave me behind, I told you!” Her voice was nearly triumphant, and I just pushed her ahead of me in anger, even as a tide of relief washed over me.

On the tarmac, the warplane was slowing as the massive herd approached from the west. The nose turned ponderously as we all sprinted the last hundred yards.

But as we passed the tail of the abandoned airliner, we heard the familiar sounds of slow footsteps clanging against metal, and looked up. The ramp to the rear door of the huge plane was full of the dead, emerging from the packed 747 en masse, as if they had been waiting there all along.

The sailors bolted away from the plane, even as Rhodes started taking out the lead creatures strategically, trying to trip up the ones behind by laying out bodies on the stairs in front of their clumsy feet. As I watched our airplane turn, nose pointed back toward where we had come, I realized that we had a problem. The runway we had planned to use to take off was blocked. Thousands of creatures were in our way and our planned escape was cut off. More pulled themselves out of the river each second.

“Iron Eagle, you are going to have to pull around. We have to take off to the South, do you copy?”

“Copy that, we’re just waiting for you to jump on.” As he spoke, the hatch on the side of the plane dropped down, and a man in a flight suit waved his hand.

The two sailors bolted toward the plane immediately, but the man in the lead fell suddenly to the pavement, twisting his ankle as he fell over a small discarded child’s toy laying on the tarmac.

I didn’t want to think about why the toy was laying there. Or to whom it had belonged.

Kate moved to help the fallen man, but she was too far.

A group of fifteen of the dead from the plane had escaped Rhodes’ covering fire and were within mere feet of the hapless youth. He scrambled on all fours as his friend backed away, stricken with terror. They had clearly never been face to face with these things.

Four of the creatures were on top of him, teeth flashing and arms pin wheeling through flesh and blood. Kate’s gun fired, and I raised my own, careful to aim high. But it was too late. As the bodies fell back onto the pavement, the mutilated corpse of the young man bled onto the ground. A crossbow bolt flashed into another row of the creatures and I turned to Ky.

“Save it, we need to leave, now!”

She backed up, and Kate grabbed her arm, pulling her forward to the waiting plane. The second sailor was running, arms pumping furiously as he made for the plane.

They were coming at us from three sides, now. The massive herd from the river was within five hundred feet, while the even bigger group from the terminal side was dodging luggage carts and parked planes, returning to the runway from the cargo terminals. The drones continued their cacophonous assault, swooping overhead and toward the west, while from the abandoned 747, they were crushing each other to get to the ground. And there were many that had succeeded.

Rhodes was still focused on trying to stem the tide of bodies flowing from the metal staircase, but he was failing. The airplane was full, and these creatures hadn’t eaten in a long time. I saw the door hanging awkwardly from the fuselage, realizing that it had just been broken down—likely the noise from the landing aircraft was finally enough to push them over the edge, and against the door in enough numbers to push it from its warped hinges.

They streamed out onto the tarmac, and he finally stopped firing when his magazine emptied. He turned toward me, and we ran together toward the open door and the airman inside.

The warplane had turned to the south, and was facing away from the two herds converging on us.

But the first row of creatures from the abandoned plane was too close. I turned, trying to buy Rhodes some time. They were everywhere, and I couldn’t take them all myself. But the plane needed time to complete its turn, and taxi into position without getting zombies jammed in the blades.

As I raised my gun, I saw the closest creature suddenly slump and fall over on itself, a spray of red and white shooting out of the back of its head. Then the next, and the next. Within seconds, the entire front rank of the cohort had fallen, heads destroyed by the snipers positioned on the roof of the control tower, who finally had a shot through the fading mist.

My comms crackled as a serious voice asked calmly over the net, “You have a plane to catch, sir? I reckon you ought to make haste. Good luck.”

I raised a hand toward the control tower in silent salute, then turned back to the plane.

Kate and Ky were already at the door, climbing up and hoisting the dog up an extendable ladder. The huge engines were increasing the power to the blades, and they spun faster as the huge machine moved forward slowly. We reached the side of the plane, and I yelled as loud as I could to Rhodes.

“Get up!” I swung the shotgun down and scanned around us, watching for the closest creature. Behind me, I heard him start up the ladder, and Kate’s voice crackled in the ear bud from inside the plane.

“Mike, we need to go now. They are close to blocking off the runway.”

Cursing, I saw the two groups mindlessly moving toward a meeting in front of the nose of the plane, only five hundred yards distant. I turned and grabbed the closest rung, but as I did, a hand shot from underneath the plane and grabbed my ankle. Surprised, I thrashed, and Kate’s eyes widened, moving toward me. I shook my head and yelled into the cabin.

“Go, go, go!”

The engines immediately started to roar with increased throttle, as the pilot aimed the plane sharply to the south, putting the river to our left and the terminals to our right.

The hand below gripped tight to the metal plates of the shin protector, and the head of the creature came into view. I couldn’t tell if it had been a man or a woman—the hair had all fallen out, and both eyes were a fluid-filled, misty white. A jagged tooth stuck crookedly from the dirty mouth, and I simply stared for a full three seconds, remembering.

We had been inside a long time. It had been a long time since I looked into the face of death, so close.

I didn’t bother with a knife, or a gun. As the plane accelerated rapidly, the gravity force pulling the creature away, I simply reached down, put my hand on the creature’s face, and twisted the head completely around. The spine snapped, severing the connection between the brain and the body. The hand went limp, and as the plane moved quickly down the only runway not covered with the dead, I climbed up the ladder.

As I moved deeper into the cabin, which was alight with control panels, digital readouts and screens, and working chairs, I thanked the airman closing the door and moved toward the cockpit.

The pilot and copilot sat staring at the crowd of creatures approaching from the river and the terminal, even as they moved their hands over the controls.

“What’s the hold up, let’s move.” I said, rudely. Then, belatedly. “Sorry, guys. Tough day. We got a problem?”

They didn’t flinch, and the colonel in the pilot’s seat was calm. “Yes, Mister McKnight. The runway we are on is a little too short. But we are going to have to give it a shot. Our bigger problem is that group on the port side of the plane. They are going to cut us off if we take off to the south. One or two in the blades isn’t a problem. A hundred will put us in the water.”

I cursed and followed his gaze. There were thousands, lining the entire length of the narrow strip of land along the river. There were too many, and they were too close.

“Go. I’ll figure it out,” I said, and disappeared.

In my headset, I heard the curt order. “Throttle up.”

The plane shot forward as I grabbed the sole airman in the cabin with us and pulled the hood from my head, nodding quickly toward the large 25mm Gatling-style gun protruding from the plane on the port side.

“Son, those cannons work?”

“Yes sir. They’re locked and loaded.”

“Well, they’re pointing in the right direction. What say we pretend like our asses are on the line and play mow the zombies?”

He started in surprise, as if just realizing that they were an option, then shot toward the controls, flipping two switches and grabbing a control lever.

“These were never meant for use on the ground,” he said. But then he smiled. “But I always wanted to try it.”

The humming sound of a 7,000 round per minute Gatling gun vibrated through the cabin, and Kate stood up to join me at the window. The guns were angled toward the front of the plane, and he was taking down entire swathes of the creatures as the shambled near the path of the plane as it accelerated toward the river on the south side.

I glanced forward, and saw the rapidly approaching end of the runway, and the concentration on the pilots’ faces. A warning bell started to chime.

“Runway length decreasing. Abort take off. Abort take off.”

The cannon fired incessantly, plowing a path as the zombies moved inexorably toward our path. Isolated creatures made it through, some passing harmlessly under the wings, several slamming into the whirling blades and disintegrating.

The plane started to vibrate heavily, and Romeo barked.

Ahead, the river was close.

Very close.

Kate’s hand was tight on my arm, as the co-pilot cursed loudly.

We weren’t going to make it.

The gun whirred smoothly, creatures continuing to fall.

The pilot suddenly barked over the comms.

“Now!”

Both men pulled back on the throttle as the nose ran out of concrete.

The river was there, and we were on top of it. A loud crack and a terrifying lurch threw us all sharply, then the nose pulled up slightly, at a gentle angle. Barely more than ten degrees. I could still see the river. And the ripples in the water.

Jesus, there were hundreds of thousands of those things in the river.

The airman at the controls stopped the firing, and leaned back, staring out the front of the plane. Hotels and apartment buildings lined the river, then we were over Old Town Alexandria, then the 395 bridge, then we were banking hard to the left, still merely a hundred feet from the river’s surface, but safely in the air.

I looked at the airman next to me and smiled.

“That was fun, huh?”

He grinned.

“Yes sir. Never seen Washington D.C. before.”

Somehow, that made me feel better about the world at that moment.