I did a small cyclic climb and then pushed us over banking right then left, dropping more altitude it was a hailstorm of incoming fire now, not just from around the stadium, but from around the streets, and on top of roof tops. I ducked behind a couple of skyscrapers as an RPG round flew past my nose and impacted the MetLife building next to me, exploding and sending glass flying out in from of me and down towards the streets.
“Get us out of here sir,” Jackal said in a cool and collected voice, “you are clear around to the left.” Slim backed me up hanging out the window shooting his 240.
“I’ve got a technical 6 o’clock shooting at chalk 2,” Thompson said as his 240 belted out brass onto the canvas seats. “1-1, 1-2 how are you guys looking?” Jim keyed over internal .
“We’re alright man we took a few hits, I’m going to have our crew dogs take a look when we land at the pax terminal, how about you guys?”
“Yeah, we’re alright we took a few his, but our systems are green right now.” Jim sounded as casual as always, coming from a dude who has gotten shot down and shot up more than most pilots I know, it didn’t’ surprise me. “Man and I thought Detroit was bad,” I said over the radio.
Jackal smiled and said “When did the City turn in fucking Compton bro?”
“When the Reavers took over Ft. Hamilton, prolly” I said.
“Anybody want some bacon?” Slim held up a greasy plastic bag up over the center console and Jackal and I looked at each other. “Come on… you know you want some… baconbaconbaconbacon.” Jackal looked back at him and said “Where the hell did you get bacon?”
Slim was feeding the greasy strips into his mouth clutching the ends of the meat with his long gangly fingers and replied while chewing. “Well the store got the bacon from a Pig, I got it from the store and then smoked it in the barracks… It’s smokey deliciousness is amazinggggrrrrrr nom nom nom.”
“I’ll have some.” Thompson stuck his hand in the greasy bag.
“Take your gloves off first rookie, you’ll get em all fucked up,” Slim said while munching on. “Dude that smell delicious! Hook a brother up Slim” Jackal received the greasy bag, handed me a slice.
“Awwwwwww yeahhhhhhhh,” I said in delight.
We pulled in short final over the water and started our approach to the helipads where the civilian crowd was waiting. “Man look at this place.” I said while putting adjusting my approach angle. The people were rioting, screaming and yelling, pushing each other over and trampling over one another. They were climbing on up on fences and trying to get on helicopters; there were a barges over flowing with people. There were people in business suits, people with bags, children, holding pets, babies, the elderly, homeless, foreigners and tourists alike.
The Staten Island ferry was capsized and on fire, and other boats were so overburdened with people, some people were latched on the rubber bumpers, dangling chest deep in the water. The military had brought in 18 foot T-Walls to make a secure LZ with C-wire on the top of it, they had a pretty extensive and fortified Entry Control Point, and but it looked like they barely had the crowd at bay. “Alright Jim, I’ll take the far right pad closest to the entrance.”
“Rodger that, I’ll come in right behind you.” The crew chiefs, hanging out their windows walked us in, “you’re clear down right”, “and down left sir”. I continued down looking out the left door, and down towards the ground.
A couple soldiers in full kit ran up to the crew chief and yelled into their mic boom, “WE’VE GOT 22 PEOPLE FOR YOU TODAY!”
“Okay, Thompson tell him to send them out, we’re at 1000 pounds of gas on the money.” The grunt signaled to with a wave of his arm, and the people started running out towards the aircraft. There were 11 people coming towards my aircraft, 4 young women that looked terrified as hell, and looked to be around my age in their mid twenties, there were three men in business suits, one of them with a briefcase and 7 other men of different ages and appearances, one of the dudes had a Marlboro cigarette hat on, an oil stained blue shirt and a had a mangled looking beard, he looked like a mechanic as his hands were covered in grease and looked oil stained. That and the motherfucker had a grease rag in his pocket. I thought the dope was going to have his hat blown off his head, but he took it off, hunched down and came into the rotor system, and buckled in on the front couch in a split second. That’s odd… must be a vet or something… back in ’Nam maybe, I thought to myself I turned back to look at him, and he gave me a hang loose sign and a toothless smile.
“Yo you check out that old joker in the back?” I looked at jackal, who was packing another lip. He stomped on the floor mic and said, “Yeah man, he’s totally outa of the ’Nam.” “Jim how many Pax you got man?”
“11, we’re full up.” Okay, winds look straight down the pipe, we’ll come straight up, fly down the street here and climb out over central park.”
“Rodg!” he said. “Okay man I’m coming up and out.”
“Alright man, you have the controls, take us home.” I looked over at jackal, he readjusted and sat up in his chair and put his feet on the pedals, I made the radio call to JFK tower and let them know what we were doing and we started to take off. “Shit man look at that crowd down there, that’s insane….” It must have been 5000 plus people, helicopters were all over the place, picking up people and dropping them off, split between Floyd Bennet airfield which was controlled by the Navy, and Governors Island, where FEMA and the CDC had set up shop.
Jackal pulled in some more power and dipped the nose to gain some airspeed, there were Zs fucking everywhere, the streets were jammed with taxis, buses and cars, some of them were on fire. I looked down and saw a family running from some Zs. The woman fell and dropped her child and they were just about to get over run by the Zs.
“SLIM DO SEE THE FAMILY BELOW US AT OUR 9.” I blurted out. “Slow back man” Jackal pulled back and decel’d us, “I GOT EM!” Slim shouted!
“Open fire on the Zs man, see if you can cover them.”
“On the GO!” Jackal came down in altitude, “2, 1 one, we’re going to try to cover this family of civilians making a run for the Safe Zone, maneuver to facilitate their movement watch your fire.”
“40 feet, no lower Jackal, scan for wires Thompson, keep us clear and back get the ones of the right.”
“Rodg.” I reached back and grabbed the M4 in the center console rack; we were at a very slow however and did something that was really stupid but I didn’t care.
“what the fuck are you doing Lex?” “Helping out Slim,” I racked a round in the M4, stuck my foot in the door arm Lock and started shooting at Zs. I caught one of them with a 3 round burst in a dead sprint, he stumbled and splattered over the hood of Car. “Reloading!” Slim said over the ICS. POP POP POP POP! I hit one in the shoulder tearing off its arm, and blew off its left knee cap.
The terrified family, looked up at us, they continued to flee down the sidewalk. We helped them out for another block where the made it to a ground patrol helping civilians towards the safe area. “Hey it’s cool and all that we tried to help them out but that was really fucking stupid and risky Lex,” Jim said over the radio.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Jackal spoke up over the radio. He looked at me and said, “I got kids man, 9 and 14, you bet you fucking ass I would have done the same thing. It was a risky fucking call but sometimes it pays off.“
“Appreciate that, hey bro we’re almost bingo, we need to roll NOW.”