The count was silent. The three of us head nodded at each other. One. Two. Three…
Palmeri let out a scream and I cringed. She must have known better because she bit her lip. Sweat poured profusely from her brow. The shaft and wound made a horrible sucking sound as her thigh rode up the length of metal.
The angle I was at was more than awkward. We needed to lift her at least another three inches to clear the shaft. It wasn’t happening easily.
“Chase,” Dave said.
I knew what he was going to say. He dropped to his knees. Now crying silent sobs, Palmeri placed her arm on his back and pushed, as he set his arms under her ass and lifted. I heaved, trying to keep the leg as straight as possible. Blood bubbled up from the wound. I thought I could smell it; coppery and metallic. The sight of it was a bad sign. Palmeri looked at me, eyes wide.
“It’s nothing,” I said.
“Stop,” she said. “Set me down.”
“We’re not putting you down,” Dave said. With a final grunt, he pushed and she rose, her thigh clearing the top of the shaft, and she was freed.
Moving her out of the pilot seat, and out of the cockpit, with me stepping onto and over the co-pilot seat and center console, we set her down. I looked up. Allison and Charlene were watching us. They had their gear gathered by the door, ready to run.
“I need something to tie off the thigh,” I said, and moved beside Palmeri. She took my hand and squeezed it hard. “We’re going to stop the bleeding and then hobble our asses to somewhere safe.”
“Just go,” she said.
Charlene pulled the knife from the sheath on her hip and tore at the tarp she had bundled up. She cut a long piece out of it and gave it to me. “I’m going to need a stick or something,” I said.
Everyone searched the plane as I wrapped the piece of tarp around her thigh and began twisting it tighter and tighter in place. We were going to have to make a tourniquet. No EMS would be responding, and I didn’t know how else to stop the bleeding.
She was bleeding a lot. It wasn’t spurting, but it was pouring and pooling around my knees. “A stick!” I said.
I removed my knife. I fit it between the ends of the tarp and used it to twist the tourniquet as tight as possible. I held it in place. If I removed my hand from the knife, the pressure would loosen and the blood would continue to flow from her. For now, it seemed to have stopped. “We’re going to get you out of here.”
Palmeri’s lips mostly trembled, as if tremendous amounts of strength was needed to attempt a smile. “This isn’t going to work. If there are fast ones out there, and there are bound to be fast ones, I am either going to slow you down, or risk getting all of us caught. I won’t have that on my head, I won’t.”
“We’re not leaving you,” I said.
“Dad,” Charlene said.
I looked up. She waved me over. She and Allison were squatting, looking out the hole in the side of the plane. “Hold this,” I said, and placed Palmeri’s hand on my knife. “We’re not done talking about this, you got it?”
She nodded. “Got it.”
I stood up and Dave and I walked toward my daughter. “What is it?”
“Looks like a building over there just off the road. It doesn’t look that far. I think we can make it.”
Allison was nodding. “Looks like a school.”
A school would mean a nurse’s office, cafeteria and bathrooms. “I like it. Dave?”
“Best plan we’ve got. You and I can carry Palmeri. Allison and Charlene can cover us,” he said.
“If the doors are locked?” Charlene said.
“Worry about that when we get there,” I said, and shrugged. “Let’s leave those things here. Just take our weapons. If it is a school, we’ll have more supplies, better supplies in there.”
“We really only found the tarp.”
“Perfect, leave it,” I said. “Okay, let’s get Palmeri.”
I went back to her. She’d removed the knife, the makeshift bandage, and lost so much blood that the color had drained from her face and lips. She looked pasty white, and blue. Again, she tried to smile. “I’m sorry,” she said, and held out her hand.
We laced fingers. “What were you thinking?”
“You guys have to get out of here, get out of this plane,” she said, and then her body spasmed with a series shivers.
I re-wrapped the bandage around her thigh.
Palmeri put a hand on mine, and shook her head. “It’s too…it’s too…”
There was nothing else. Her eyes and mouth stayed open. Vacantly, she stared at me. More ghosts to haunt my nightmares. I lowered my head and rested my forehead against her hand, our fingers still laced together.
“Chase,” Dave said. “Chase.”
I pulled away, released her hand and retrieved my knife. “Okay, we’re moving. Ready?”
# # #
I stepped off the plane first and looked left and right, holding my sword in both hands. Those things might have been holed up in the woods, but with Palmeri’s scream, hell, with the plane crashing out of the sky, they had to be beyond curious and ready to investigate. I didn’t see anything. Not a single zombie anywhere. Once I felt confident there wasn’t any immediate danger, I turned and held out a hand and assisted my girlfriend and daughter. Next, and lastly, I helped Dave out of the plane. I wasn’t sure if he would accept my hand, but he did. He took it.
“What have we got?” Allison stood beside me, her sidearm gripped tightly in hands with arms extended. “The woods are to the left and behind us, and the school, if that’s what it is, is to the right, that way.”
I saw two signs in the bit of moonlight that challenged the surrounding darkness. We had landed on RT 68, New Castle Rd. “It’s Butler High School,” I said. “That was a good call, Charlene.”
We stayed low. “Move together,” Dave said.
“You take point,” I said. “I’ll bring up the back end. Let’s stay close, clustered, okay?”
Dave nodded.
“Freeze! Hands up.”
I had to look around. I wasn’t sure where the voice came from, but I froze. “Stop everyone,” I said, hoping it came out in a whisper. “Dave? You see--”
“No talking!”
“We are no danger to anyone here. We’re just making our way through,” I said. It wasn’t zombies in the woods. It was people. Fucking people. We’d rushed to free Palmeri exposing whatever main artery had been severed and she’d bled to death when maybe we didn’t have to.
“All four of you are armed like you’re dangerous!”
“They are not getting our weapons.” Despite the fading light, I saw Dave grind his teeth.
“I said no talking!”
“Why don’t you show yourselves,” I said, still unable to pinpoint where the voice came from. I didn’t think it was to the left or the right, but neither did it seem to be from in front of us, either. “I’m telling you, we do not want any problems. To be honest, food, water, maybe bathrooms is what we’re looking for and then we are on our way. That’s it. That’s all we want.”
“And what will you do to get food and water?”
“What will we do? We’ll look for it. We’ll keep moving until we come across it,” I said.
“You’ll keep moving.”
“That’s what I said.” I think it came from the woods, now to our right, where we thought the zombies had been. It was no wonder they hadn’t just attacked us when we crash landed, or when I was underneath the plane trying to free Palmeri. It wasn’t like the zombies I’d witnessed learning, they weren’t being cautious. It hadn’t been zombies at all.
“You’ll keep moving now.”
I lowered my head. “Look, man, we’re hungry, tired and we need water. You go your way, we’ll go ours.”