Day One (Book 2): Choices (10 page)

“I told you, at least half the damn town, maybe more,” Johnny answered.

“I’m not going around, that’ll take too much time,” I told him.

“I’m shooting you straight, man. If you come this way, you will
not
make it!” He said with perfect intent.

“Are they all clumped together or spread out over a large area?” I asked, as an idea formulated in my head.

“They are all clumped together, but there are several lagging behind, as well as to the right and left of the main pack,” Johnny informed me. “Why?”

“To the left, about a half a mile or so away, there’s the interstate. Can you see any that far out?” I asked, now standing beside the car smoking a cigarette, watching my surroundings for any of the unseen undead. The SBR sat on the roof of the car well within my grasp if I needed it suddenly.

“From where I’m at I can’t see anymore, but that doesn’t mean that there are none out there. There’s no moon out tonight, so my sight distance is almost nonexistent,” Johnny told me.

“Going around means I have to back-track to the intersection and go all the way around the town, and then cut through. That’ll take too much time, not to mention the fact that there could be even more somewhere along that route that you haven’t seen,” I explained.

“And once again, Brandon, I’m telling you that it would be suicide to keep going straight,” Johnny said. “He’s here and you’re not far from him, so take the time to get to him safely. Don’t run on pure emotions, man. That’s just going to cause you to make a mistake.”

I listened to his words and knew he was right, but the need to get to my son was outweighing my ability to think logically and if I didn’t get a hold of the situation, and soon, I would make a mistake that could cost my life or even Johnny’s and my Daughter’s.

“Dammit!” I said, looking to see if maybe there was something close by I could use to get either through the pack or around them. I’d rather go through them and not waste any more time, but I had to think clearly and accurately to accomplish that task. I put the radio to my mouth, “Can you get close to them and maybe lead them away from the intersection?” I asked.

“I can try, but there’s no guarantee’s they’ll all go for it,” Johnny responded.

“Just get as many as you can to follow you. I’ll deal with the rest,” I said.

“What are you going to do?” He asked curiously.

“Just get them away from the intersection,” I added and crawled back into the car.

Johnny placed the gun in his lap and spun the bird around, to get a better view of what he was about to do. He lowered the aircraft toward the pack of undead, which quickly heard him and looked skyward to see the bird slowly coming down toward them. They intensely became violent and began mobbing together in hopes of being the first to attack this mystical thing above them, so much so that they began to attack one another to get a better position.

“Attack each other! That’s right you stupid bastards, tear each other apart to try and get me!” Johnny shouted.

I made sure that each of the nine mags in my chest rig was easily available to me, that the mags for my Beretta were as well. I would not have time to search for them in just under a minute, so I would have to rely on memory as to where they were when I needed them. I tightened my grip on the steering wheel and ran over the details once more in my mind. The second location I was enroute too was only a few hundred feet from the intersection, so I had to make sure that those undead that didn’t follow Johnny were neutralized before I could proceed.

Johnny hovered the MD500 just feet above the undead, watching them try and climb over each other to get a grip on either skid. When they got close, he would gain a few feet for safety and kept a close eye on the pack until they were all underneath him. “Okay, I got their attention. I’m going to head toward the interstate, that way if they break off you’ll still have enough time to locate your son and get the hell out of there before they overrun you,” Johnny told me.

“Roger that,” I replied. “Let me know when you get them going.”

“I don’t know what you have going on in that brain of yours, but whatever it is, just becareful,” Johnny added.

I keyed the radio and tossed it into the passenger seat. “Okay, let’s do this shit.”

Johnny dipped the nose and the aircraft responded by moving slowly in that direction. The undead below took the bait and began following him. They were unable to run due to the amount of decomp most of them had undergone, yet they were still able to move quite faster than he had expected. “We’re moving,” Johnny said.

I revved the engine a few times and opened the power sunroof. A soft cool breeze blew in and caressed my face. It felt nice and for a few seconds I was lost in a tranquil reverie where the world was not a dangerous place. A pounding on my window pulled me from that wonderful place and I saw one of the undead trying to get in. I brought the SBR up and lowered the window long enough to shoot it in the head. It dropped and I put the car into gear. “Clear me a path… I’m coming through!” I shouted into the radio.

“Go!” Johnny replied.

“Keep her safe, Johnny. Let nothing get her until I get back,” I said into the radio.

“They’ll have to kill me to get to her. You have my word on that,” he replied.

Excitement mixed with the unknown fear that lie ahead and took the last drag of my cigarette, rolled the window down to flick it out into the street, wondering the whole time if I was thinking clearly or if Johnny had been correct and I was simply running off of emotion? I couldn’t afford to be wrong this early in the game, nor could I afford a simple mistake. One slip of judgment, allowing just one undead to remain, or just one slight miscalculation would spell total disaster.

I did what I could to clear my head and get myself into the right state of mind and after a few clear moments of thought, I felt that I was ready to continue. That I was in perfect working order, no mistakes, no rage filled fits to blindly lead me into hell. I was as right as the rain, which spotted the windshield in front of me.   

Chapter Five.

I let the car roll forward under its own power, still trying to come to terms with what I was about to do. I wasn’t sure if it was courage or foolishness that was about to unfold, however, what was to come was a necessary evil. Over a week had passed since all of this started and my son had been all alone for it, which pushed me to not make him wait even a second longer to be rescued. Whatever I had to do to get to him, I’d do without regret or hesitation. Morals and values had been put on hold, just this once. So whatever or whomever got in my way, they would pay with their lives.

After only a few seconds, which could easily have passed for at least an hour, I had built the proper amount of courage needed to do what my mind had told me was purely logical. I romped down on the accelerator and the Sentra tires spun for traction. I was pushed back into the seat as the car lunged forward and we were off and running. “No mistakes. No hesitation,” I said aloud as the car built speed. “No mistakes. No hesitations.” I repeated and continued to repeat.

Rounding a very long and shallow corner, I could see the intersection and the massive amount of undead that had not taken the bait. Against the words I had just spoken to myself, I let off the gas pedal, hesitating to think weather I was doing the right thing or not. “Screw them!” I pounced on the accelerator again and looked for the perfect place to initiate my half thought out plan.

“Did I get enough of them away from the intersection?” Johnny asked.

I keyed the radio without  breaking my attention from the road. “Nope, but it’s too late to try again. I’m almost there!”

“What?” Johnny shouted in dismay. “Please tell me you’re kidding?”

“No time to talk… I’ll see you in a few,” I replied and attached both hands to the wheel.

The undead that remained heard the engine and looked in my direction. They must not have had any comprehension of the two ton bullet that was barreling down on them, as they didn’t try to get out of the way. They simply came straight for me. The lights were on bright hoping to blind some of them, but to be honest with you, I don’t think it really mattered.

“Almost there… just a few more seconds,” I told myself. “Right… about… now!” I spun the wheel to the right, pulled the emergency brake and let inertia do the rest, as I hung on for dear life. The car spun sideways slamming into the group of undead with brutal force. I watched as they were run over, a few were ejected all the way across the road, and as the rear end spun ninety degrees and continued to plow through them, I grabbed the open sunroof and prepared to move.

The car slid to a stop and without a second of wasted time, I emerged through the roof, took in the total number of remaining undead, calculated which ones would be close enough to be a true threat to me and shouldered the SBR. I gunned down the first three I saw, switched directions and fired upon a group of eight. They each fell in turn before I switched directions once more and began engaging those that were shuffling at me. Half way through the fight, I dropped the empty mag, inserted a new one and got back to business.

Johnny spun the bird around and headed back toward the intersection, fully expecting to find me being overrun with undead and far out of the grasp of his help. Yet as he neared the intersection, he could see piles of the undead on the road, me shooting from the open sunroof, and hordes more flocking toward me. “Holy shit!” He stated. “What the hell are you doing?”

I could hear the bird, even felt the rotor wash blowing across my face and through my hair, but I didn’t take my eyes off of the undead and continued to gun them down as they approached me. Shell casings flew in all directions as I spun and mercilessly continued to kill anything in front of me. I cleared another mag, dropped inside the car to reload, and then popped right back up to shoot again. A single undead mounted the car and I was unable to get my weapon through the opening in time, so I whipped the Berretta out and quickly dispatched him before returning to my main weapon.

“You crazy son of a bitch, you’re going to get yourself killed!” Johnny shouted over the radio, but I was too far engaged to stop and answer him.

Some of the remaining undead went after the helicopter, as the rest filtered over the corpses and assaulted me from three different angles. I was beginning to see that I might have bitten off more than I could chew. There were a lot more undead than I had expected and they seemed to be coming out of nowhere, like some never ending sea of gnashing teeth and ripping death. “Get you some, bastards!”

This time when I dropped into the vehicle to reload, the driver door abruptly opened and three undead loomed over me. Once again the Beretta was yanked from its holster and took care of them for good. In the process I had fumbled one of the full mags, dropping it to the floorboard, to which I didn’t want to retrieve it and lose sight of the mounting undead. If I lost just one of them, they would have the advantage over me and I was not in the most tactical of places to be initiating a firefight. I was too exposed and had nowhere to retreat if I was overrun. I was, in essence, a sitting duck. “Shit, shit, shit!” I yelled trying to pull another mag from the chest rig and get it loaded into my weapon before the two undead I had spotted reached me and turned me into a late night snack. I used my foot to shut the door, slowing them down sort of.

I loaded and fired through the windshield, getting both of them before popping out of the sunroof to finish them off.

“Get moving while there’s a break in their numbers,” Johnny shouted. I waved to him and dove through the opening, back into the driver seat, put the car in gear, and pounded on the gas pedal. The car shot forward and I ran three of them down in the process of fleeing.

“Son of a bitch, that was close!” I shouted as I broke clear of the undead and looked back to see them fade into the night.

“You’re gonna have to either abandon the car and go on foot, or keep going, because they are coming after you,” Johnny announced over the radio.

“Coming after me?” I asked. “How many of them?”

“All of them,” he replied.

I pounded the steering wheel with my hand. The street sign where I needed to turn came into my headlights and I looked in the rear view mirror, but could see no one. “Are you sure, because I don’t see any of them,” I asked.

“Trust me, they are coming… and they look pissed!”

Choices, choices. I let off the gas pedal, nearing the turn and wondered if I’d have the time to get to the second location, locate my son, and then get him out of the area without any more problems. I knew better than that, even if I didn’t want to believe it, I still knew there would be only a minute, maybe two before they stumbled in upon us. And then there was the fact that he could be elsewhere. He had friends that lived in this small town and he could have easily went there instead of to his grandmother’s house. He could be anywhere, for that matter, and placing myself in direct danger would do nothing to save him if I was in the
wrong
location.

I put my foot back on the gas pedal and sped up. “I’m gonna try and lead them away from the location,” I told Johnny. “Once I manage that, I’ll come back. Can you fly over the house a few times, maybe the noise will attract him and he’ll come to see who it is.”