Chapter 16

Chapter 16

As the moans of the infected died down, Nick slowed the Titan to a halt. Gravel crunched under the tires as he killed the engine and hopped out, wiping his arm across his head. He took a deep breath of “fresh air”, breathing through his mouth as not to inhale the smell of rot. He glanced inside the truck, and received tired glares from the survivors. His eyes locked with Jake, who was curled up tight against his seat. Nodding his head, he walked over to the bed of the truck.

Tom was sprawled out in the back, lightly panting. He looked over at Nick and grinned like a kid.

“Some crazy shit back there, Nick.” Nick nodded as he pulled a cigarette out of his vest. As it dangled from his lips and he flicked his zippo, he pulled out another and handed it over to the former soldier. He leaned over with the still-lit lighter and lit up Tom’s before lighting his, the orange flame flickering a bit as a light breeze rolled in. As the cool smoke settled in his lungs and his chances of getting cancer skyrocketed, he smiled.

“You are one lucky sonuva bitch, ya know that?” Tom laughed and he extended his hand. The soldier grabbed it and he pulled him up from the bed. “Let’s get going.”





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“The airport should be around here.” Tom said from the back as Nick cut around a vehicle wreck in the middle of the road. Things outside seemed to be getting a lot worse, and what scared Tom is that they hadn’t even come across a single survivor.

“Or one of the infected…” He mumbled to himself as he rolled the window down and enjoyed the warm weather.

“What was that, hun?” Katharina asked, burring her head deeper into his chest. She’d been latched onto him since he’d gotten back in the car. He didn’t mind.

“I was just thinking… we haven’t come across a single shambler or survivor we left. That was about a half hour ago… where do you think they all went?” Katharina’s eyebrows raised, she just shrugged.

“Maybe they all started to move on.” She said as she pulled away from him and sat up. She raised her arms and yawned loudly like a kid bored in class, stretching out until a smile spread across her face. Tom couldn’t help but stare at her chest as she did this. He really wish he wasn’t high the other night, and that he could remember getting lucky more. He suddenly grinned. If he had followed orders back in the city, he’d probably be dead now, mauled to death in the streets as he fought a losing battle. Saving her probably saved his own ass.

“My eyes are up here, Tom.” She stressed his name as he realized he’d been staring at her chest this whole time.

“And your… ballistics are down here, kath.” He joked, stressing her name as well. She laughed as she hit his arm. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close. If one good thing came out of this outbreak, he thought as she kissed his cheek, it was finding her.

“Hey, look what I found!” Jake said from up front. Tom shifted himself to look over the seats, and saw the kid holding a Polaroid camera.

“Wow, I haven’t seen one of those in ages.” Nick said. It was an old camera, but it was a damn fine one. Tom’s dad had one when he was a kid. What he loved most about them was that you could have a picture instantly, being as it printed out of the bottom once you snapped off a shot. As technology increased though and digital cameras came to, these old things became obsolete.

“Dibs!” Katharina said, leaning forward and snatching the camera out of Jake’s hands.

“Hey, I found it!” Jake said as he turned around in his seat.

“Relax, I’m just borrowing it.” She replied. “Let’s take a picture, Tom.” He smiled, pulling her close once again. She held the camera out in front of her as they shared a kiss, and snapped off a shot. Almost instantly, a small photo printed out. She handed the camera back to Jake as she flapped the photo up and down.

“We’ll be able to see it in just a tad.” Within seconds, the photo became visible. The light reflected perfectly off Katharina’s hair, making it shimmer. Since the windows were open, her hair flowed slightly over her face. What Tom liked most about the picture, though, was that they were holding hands at the bottom.

“Our first picture together.” She smiled as she held it to her chest, then went back under his arm.

As Nick slowly drove over some rubble from a collapsed building, Tom swore to himself that he’d die before he let anything harm her.





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“It’s so surreal.” Jake said to Nick as the two in the back laughed it up. Nick really hoped they made it through this.

“What’s that now?” Nick asked the kid. Jake’s gaze was transfixed on the surrounding area outside. It seemed to once be the main street of the small town.

“This used to be the busiest street in town. See that ice cream shop over there?” Nick followed the kid’s point to a store with a shattered window and a torn up corpse in the doorway.

“Yeah, I see it.” He said, slowing down the titan a bit.

“That’s where we all used to go every Friday when school was out. Guess you could call it the hip place here. Oh, oh, see that diner over there?” He pointed over at what Nick could only assume was the diner. It looked like there was some sort of explosion there. There were a few beat up cars in the small parking lot in addition to a few corpses.

“Someone probably left there gas there.” Nick said as they drove by.

“Huh?” Jake asked, sticking his head out the window and quickly looking back.

“Gas leak.” Nick pulled over and put the truck in park. “The cook probably left the grill on during the first outbreaks. Some time passes, and after a while a survivor goes inside looking for a quick bite to eat. They probably saw one or more of the infected, and not knowing the gas was still on, fired a gun. Hell, maybe they even lit up a cigarette, but either way it was probably the fourth of July all over again.”

He heard the kid sigh, and cursed himself inwardly. He kept forgetting that Jake was only a teen. His friends probably even worked at that diner.

“Look-” As he turned to apologize, his eyes went wide. Somehow, someway, a shambler had managed to sneak up on the titan. It was standing right outside of Jake’s open window, it’s rotting hands reaching for him.

“Jesus-” His response was quick. His profession had trained him to be quick, after all. In unison, he pulled the .44 out of his hip holster and shoved Jake’s head down. The shambler moaned as Nick fired from point blank range. The blast of the revolver was deafening in the confined truck. The zombie let out a gurgling sound as it fell backwards, a hole the size of a baseball now in its face.

Everyone jumped, Tom already had his gun in his hands as he looked around. Nick slowly put the .44 back in his holster.

“Dirty Harry would be proud.”





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About fifteen minutes later, they managed to find the airport. Tom could now see why the town was almost deserted. Zombies were crawling all over the place. The airport was fenced off, and most of the zombies just stood in place, watching the gate as if they were waiting for something. Creepy.

“How the hell are we going to get in?” Nick asked as he stepped outside of truck with a small set of binoculars.

“I’m going to get a look as well.” Nick told Katharina as he opened his door. She nodded as he pulled away and stepped out. “Let me have a look.” Nick handed over the binoculars, he took a look. He saw there were two guard towers, and a man in national guard fatigues was stationed in each one with a rifle. Looking down a bit at the front gates, there were two humvees parked side by side, the .50 calibers mounted on top aimed the front gates. There were four guards stationed here, each one brandished an assault rifle. They talked amongst themselves, one of them even smoking. They didn’t seem to pay any attention to the large crowd of zombies outside.

Looking deeper in the airport, there were indeed a few small aircraft left, along with the helicopter Nick saw. That wasn’t what made Tom grin though. A Blackhawk helicopter shined in the sun, stationed on the side of the runway. As he surveyed the area more, he spotted a few more soldiers, and a large group of what appeared to be survivors chatting amongst themselves. They didn’t go near the soldiers though, odd.

“Place looks safe.” Tom finally said as he lowered the binoculars and handed them back to Nick.

“I don’t know if I’m comfortable with all these undead moping around… but I’ll have to agree with you. This place sure beats the hell out of hiding in that house all day. Least here we can get some fresh air.” Tom nodded.

“How about we get on that CB radio and alert them that we’re here? No point in taking sniper rifle as we drive up.” Tom said.

“Good idea.” Nick went in the truck and grabbed the large radio set. He pulled it out and set it up on the hood of the titan. Tom walked over and grabbed the receiver.

“Here goes nothing.” He held down the button. “This is Private Tom Williams of the U.S. Army, over.” He waiting for a few seconds before a response came.

“Go ahead, Private.” Said an older man.

“I’m outside the gates with three civilians, permission to access, over.” There was a longer pause this time.

“Where were you stationed, soldier? Over.” Tom took his hand off the button.

“What the fuck?” He asked Nick. The former officer shrugged.

“Just them I guess.” Nick said. Tom nodded, and held down the button again.

“New York City, Times Square. Over.” The pause wasn’t so long this time.

“Over from the high school?” Before Tom could reply, the man spoke again. “Well shit, soldier, it’s good to hear from ya. We thought we lost you all. We’ll open the gates. Over and out.”

“The high school… wait, what?” Tom said as he dropped the radio.

“Just go along with it, apparently they think you’re with another unit… a unit that’s probably massacred. It won’t hurt to enter that place on their good side, ya know?” Nick said as he put the radio back in the truck and got behind the wheel. Tom hopped in the backseat, smiling as Katharina wrapped her arms around him once again.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” As Nick turned the car on, the gates began opening. Eight soldiers stood guard, two manning the turrets this time. Nick floored it, speeding through the crowd. Their backs were turned to the truck as they advanced on the guardsmen at the front gates, so driving around them wasn’t so bad. Just as the titan passed through the gates, the soldiers manning the .50s open fired as the others began closing the gates. The blasts of the heavy machine guns rocked the airport. Even inside the titan, Tom’s ears hurt as the zombies were shredded in a hail of gunfire. As the gates closed, the gunfire died down. Four of the soldiers immediately advanced on the truck, rifles aimed at their heads.

“Get out of the vehicle and keep your hands up!” One of them shouted. Tom saw Nick slowly slide the .44 out of his holster and dropped it on the floor, pushing it under the seat with his boot.

“I said get the fuck out!” The soldier yelled as he opened the door and grabbed Nick by the collar and through him out.

“Tom?” Katharina asked, holding his hand tightly. He suddenly had a really bad feeling about coming here.

“Just get out before they fire.” He whispered as he raised his hands and stepped out of the truck. Jake and Katharina did the same. The small group huddled together as the soldiers formed a circles around them, rifles still aimed at them.

“Strip down.” The soldier ordered. This guy seemed to be the one in charge. He had a tall build, and was in pretty good shape physically. A few days worth of stubble lined his tanned face. He had short black hair, and a long scar that ran from under his left eye down to his neck.

“Why?” Katharina asked. The man glared at her, his icy eyes cold and hard.

“We need to make sure none of you are infected. Now, I’m not going to ask again. Strip down.” He growled. Tom felt a little reassurance with this. Maybe they were so hard because someone infected managed to get into the base unnoticed, and turned later. Who knows.

Tom shrugged the thought off as he took his shirt off. Another one of the soldiers shouldered his rifle and went over to him, inspecting him over.

“The pants, please.” Tom’s eyebrows raised, but did as he was told. After the soldier inspected him quickly but thoroughly, he nodded in approval.

“This one’s clean.” Tom grabbed his shirt and slid it back on, watching as the same soldier inspected everyone else. He looked back over at the man in charge with the scar, and saw that he was staring right back at him, a grimace on his face. Tom looked away, watching as they inspected Katharina.

“Now the bra.” Tom gritted his teeth.

“She’s not infected.” He said, teeth still clenched and hands balled into fists.

“We gotta make sure.” One of the soldiers standing guard grinned. Katharina shot him a worried glance as she slowly undid her bra. Tom looked away, and noticed that Nick and Jake were as well. As Tom looked around the base, he noticed one of the others soldiers looking away as well. All of the other soldiers carried an M9 Beretta as a sidearm, but this one had what looked to be a USP on each hip. They exchanged a quick glance before the soldier doing the checkups spoke up.

“Yeah, she’s clean. Next.” As Tom sighed, he saw someone emerge from the airport’s control tower. It was a short, scrawny little guy. The man wore a pair of thin wire-framed glasses, and his white coat fluttered in thee wind as he walked over to the group.

“Private Williams?” He asked upon reach the group. Tom nodded.

“Yeah, that’s me.” The man extended his hand.

“Doctor Stevens. I need you to come with me, Colonel Taft would like to have a word with you.”