The Fall of Society (The Fall of Society Series, Book 1) (34 page)

           
He
turned and walked with his head held high.

           
Everyone
watched as the old man walked toward the hangar with the gun in his hand and
four soldiers tailing him. He disappeared behind the hangar, and the soldiers
stopped at a distance.

           
A
moment later—

           
A
single shot rang out.

           
And
it wouldn’t be long before others did the same…

           
From
fifteen stories up, the view of the air base was panoramic, and he could see
everything. He closely watched the chaos with the group of survivors in the
examination lines—he watched what transpired with the old man. He looked
at the helicopters that landed, picked up people, and then took off. They
headed in the same direction toward the coast, and helicopters could be seen
returning from there for more pick-ups. He looked at all the dead that
surrounded his base; they were even out in the woods at the back of the base.

           
He
could see them everywhere.

           
Death
reflected off his eyes.

           
Colonel
Gregor Krasin was a man in his fifties, but his face and eyes were wiser and
older than that. His eyes didn’t—couldn’t—blink as he watched the
horrors below. He was numb, he was tired, and he was the base commander. He
stood in the control tower and it was currently manned with several of his men
that sat in front of computer screens and communication equipment. It was easy
to see and smell that none of them have bathed or even been able to change out
of their dirty uniforms for a few days now.

           
“Ivan?”
Gregor called to his second in command.

           
A
man in his forties approached in a formal military manner. “Yes, Comrade
Colonel?”

           
“Enough
with the ‘Comrade Colonels,’ Ivan,” he said frustrated.

           
“Yes,
sir.”

           
“Any
word from the Ministry of Defense?”

           
“No,
sir, we haven’t heard from Moscow in over twelve hours.”

           
“Then
Moscow is lost,” Gregor said direly as distant fire danced off his face.

           
“We
don’t know that, sir. It could just be a communications problem.”

           
Gregor
turned to Ivan from what he looked at outside the window. The city of Saint
Petersburg was several miles away, and it was on fire…
the entire city was an out of control inferno.

           
“Yes,
the same problem Saint Petersburg has,” Gregor said.

           
“We
must have hope, sir.”

           
Gregor
looked him with hard eyes, “I know that you have family in Moscow, Ivan, as do
I, but don’t fool yourself, my friend.”

           
“Sir?”

           
“What
are the current numbers of the evacuees?” Gregor asked.

           
Ivan
checked his clipboard—“As of an hour ago, sir, there were 785 evacuees on
base, but at last count that has dropped to 614, sir.”

           
“We’ve
evacuated that many in an hour?”

           
“No,
sir.” Ivan paused. “Most of those were infected that were removed from the
group, sir.”

           
“You
mean, shot?” Gregor said with increasing anger.

           
“Yes,
sir.”

           
“Then
just say that we shot them, damn you!”

           
“Yes,
sir. Forgive me, sir.”

           
Gregor
calmed himself, “No, I’m sorry, Ivan.” He patted him on the shoulder.

           
“It’s
fine, sir.”

           
“What’s
the estimated time to evacuate everyone?”

           
“Including
all of the base personnel…” Ivan looked at some calculations on his clipboard.
“…A little over nine hours, sir.”

           
Gregor
glanced at all the dead at their walls, at some parts; the dead were piling up
so high, that they were starting to spill over the top of the wall. Soldiers
acted quickly to kill them and bring the pile down with explosives. Two tanks
were firing their machine guns at any dead that got into the base. The large
caliber gun clapped loudly, and the projectiles turned corpses to ground meat.

           
“We
don’t have that much time,” said Gregor.

           
“Sir,
we can cut that time in half if we have the helicopters drop off the evacuees five
miles away in the countryside, instead of taking them all the way to the
coast.”

           
“No,
the ships at the coast are their only hope of escaping this hell.”

           
“Yes,
sir.”

           
They
watched as three helicopters made their approach to land after two others took
off. The first one touched down, a group of evacuees moved in to get aboard,
and then the second one landed, followed by the third.

           
Suddenly,
they heard a desperate voice shout over the radio—“The wall is
collapsing! The wall is collapsing!”

           
“Oh
God!” Ivan cried out.

           
Gregor
looked at the wall and saw a thirty-foot section by the main gate crumble and
come down—he watched as the dead spilled in and their roars suddenly
filled the base, along with their pounding dead feet.

           
“All
firepower on that breach!” Gregor ordered.

           
His
orders were relayed and many soldiers ran to the break in the wall, they fired
everything they had at all the dead that rushed in, but hundreds were already
inside and the flow wasn’t stopping…

           
Sixty
thousand of them wanted in…

           
“Warn
all aircraft to move away from the base at least ten miles!” Gregor ordered and
a radio operator did as instructed.

           
“Why
ten miles?” Ivan asked but Gregor ignored him.

           
One
of the tanks fired its main cannon at the wall breach and simultaneously headed
toward the wall, the shell thundered when it exploded and killed dozens of
them, but they kept coming, and the tank kept firing, along with its machine
guns. The 42-ton tank reached ramming speed and plowed right into the wall
breach in an attempt to stop the dead and they just flowed over it as ocean
waves to rock.

           
The
tank disappeared beneath them—

           
And
it kept firing all its guns…

           
All
of the civilians were already running toward the three helicopters.

           
Six
hundred desperately scared people ran toward three helicopters.

           
“Tell
the helicopters to take off!” Gregor shouted.

           
Ivan
relayed the order, but it was too late for one helicopter—

           
The
civilians surged all over the first helicopter as it tried to lift off, and it
managed to get airborne, but with thirty more people than it could handle. They
stuffed themselves into the doors; they hung from the sides and the landing
wheels. They held on to anything for dear life, but the helicopter spun out of
control and plunged to the ground. It crashed into the civilians and killed
dozens, many with its rotor blades.

           
The
second helicopter safely lifted into the air with a group of civilians aboard, and
it left the area in favor of the coast, as the crashed aircraft exploded
violently beneath it. The third helicopter got into the air with no civilians—it
moved back away from them and the door gunner signaled some of their soldier
friends on the ground to catch up with them for pick-up—but the soldiers couldn’t
get away from evacuees, even as they fired their weapons at them to get away,
the civilians kept coming, they didn’t care about being shot.

           
Because
the horde of corpses was right behind them…

           
The
helicopter couldn’t rescue any of the soldiers, so they fired on the dead with
their machine guns and rockets.

           
The
slaughter had commenced.

           
Colonel
Gregor Krasin watched helplessly as his base was overrun, and there was
absolutely nothing that he could do to stop the horror. His men fought to their
last breaths as they were ripped to shreds one by one. Gregor picked up an
AK-47 and loaded it. “Gentlemen,” he said to his men. “It was an honor to have
served with you. This is my last order—I relieve all of you of your duty.”

           
All
of them were dumbfounded on what to do.

           
The
last helicopter stopped firing and moved farther back to an empty part of the
base, it landed, and they waited as a dozen soldiers ran to them to be saved,
but the soldiers were being followed closely by dozens of civilians and the
undead. They were all mixed together in an undistinguishable panic.

           
“Hurry!
Run!” the door gunner screamed.

           
The
soldiers reached the aircraft and jumped in, one of them was Mikhail.

           
“Take
off! Go! Go!” the gunner shouted.

           
It
was too late as the civilians and the undead, alike, reached the helicopter and
engulfed it. The door gunner fired his machine gun and the ones that he
missed—flew by him and got onboard. The helicopter lifted into the air
with bodies hanging on it and a couple of the ones inside were the
undead—a struggle broke out in the helicopter, blind gunshots burst,
civilians and soldiers were shot. The undead attacked the pilot and tore out
his throat and then his eyes—the flight controls were let go and the
helicopter went out of control—

           
It
headed toward the control tower…

           
Gregor’s
men still hadn’t left the tower and then they saw the massive aircraft coming
at them.

           
One
stood up and pointed at it. “Colonel!” he shouted.

           
Gregor
turned and saw it—a hundred feet away and growing bigger—“Down! Get
down!” he shouted.

           
The
helicopter collided with the tower in an explosion of metal, glass, and
concrete shards. What was left of the chopper, spun away, and crashed on the
other side of the base. The air was thick with blinding dust and after some of
it cleared, the damage was visible—most of the tower roof and walls were
gone, one soldier leaned against his console with a softball-sized concrete
rock imbedded in his face. A couple other soldiers were just gone, no bodies to
be seen.

           
Gregor
got up from the floor, along with Ivan, and a few others that were still alive
and caked in dust. The Colonel grabbed his rifle from the floor and looked at
his men. “Don’t just stand there—run! Run for your lives! Every man for
himself!” he shouted.

           
Some
of them ran down the stairs, others were still in shock and staggered
aimlessly. Gregor ran to an outside ladder to climb down.

           
“Colonel,
where are you going?” Ivan asked suspiciously.

           
Gregor
spoke quickly in a panic—“Moscow and Saint Petersburg are gone! The base
is lost! I’m finishing this!” and he was gone down the ladder.

           
“No!”
Ivan yelled.

           
As
Gregor slid down the ladder, he saw the zombies everywhere in the base,
civilians, soldiers, and the dead were scattered all over, running without
direction. Undead were attacking anyone within their reach. Blood was thick in
the air, that, and screams of horror, sewn in between nonstop gunfire.

           
It
was insanity.

           
Gregor
got to the ground in the middle of it and was immediately attacked by several
corpses—he shot them dead and then ran with everything he had toward a
concrete bunker a quarter mile away. He fired more as others tried to attack
him and disappeared into the blood-slicked night.

           
A
moment later, Ivan slid down the same ladder into the midst of chaos. He looked
for Gregor in the direction of the bunker, but couldn’t see him.