The horde moved in on us again and pressed against the side of the garage. They beat at it and moaned. Even with the immense noise it was truly a fucking chorus of the damned.
Joel prodded Craig and pointed at the edge of the roof. Craig took Christy’s hand and together they crept toward the side of the building. He kept his hand in front of his face while she stayed low and let Craig take most of the wash. When they were close enough to step on to the strut, a guy inside reached out, grabbed her arm, and hauled Christy inside.
Craig collapsed when Christy was gone. He didn’t move, just sat there with his legs folded under his butt.
The dead went into a fresh frenzy when they saw their prize getting away. The shuffler howled and gibbered. He leapt at the building over and over until he was bloody. The other’s pressed from all sides.
Roz was next with Joel helping her toward the end. They tried to prod Craig but he pushed hands away.
The building shook and a corner of the roof swayed, then collapsed as the wall beneath it gave way. Roz made it to the helicopter strut and was helped on board.
The roof tilted but didn’t go down. I grabbed Craig and hauled him to his feet.
“Come on. We’re almost there!” I yelled.
He nodded once and said something but I couldn’t make out the words.
Hands helped him onboard as the roof tilted again. I leaned forward and barely kept my feet. One quick glance over my shoulder told me that this was going to be a very short day if I didn’t get my sorry ass on the chopper.
I grabbed my backpack and swung it over my back. The huge wrench got me right in the kidney. I almost doubled over in pain. Then I moved to the edge of the roof and prepared to avoid being zombie chow.
There was a moment where Joel and I met eyes. He prodded me onboard, but I did the same. We stared back at each other like a pair of idiot heroes in a buddy action movie. I didn’t feel particularly heroic. All I really wanted to do was get on the helicopter, get to somewhere safe, and take a long shit because my sphincter was not up to the business of me being scared to death all the goddamn time.
Joel pushed and I advanced on the chopper. It was only a few feet away but below was a mass of dead like I’d never seen before. All eyes were on me as I stepped toward the helicopter strut.
The older man’s hand came out and I got one foot on the strut while my other was still on the roof. That’s when the damn thing gave in. Joel managed to make it to the edge but the second wall crumbed to kindling beneath us.
The shifting caused me to end up stretched between two worlds with hell directly underneath. Someone grabbed the guy in the transport, and with that as an anchor, he hauled me, screaming, into the helicopter.
Joel held on for dear life, and behind him came the dead. The collapsed roof had created a perfect platform to serve him up like dinner. The Z’s moved up the newly created ramp while Joel looked on in horror.
“We can’t risk it. That building’s gonna collapse any minute and probably take us with it!” The woman in the chopper yelled over the “whump whump” of the blades.
The older man looked at us. I had taken a seat on the floor but when I saw Joel’s panicked face I came to my feet.
“You can’t leave him. He’s saved all of us more than once.”
“Sorry, son,” he said and leaned over to say something to the pilot.
I didn’t think. I pushed him to the side and stepped back onto the helicopter strut. I used the machine gun barrel as an anchor and stretched out for Joel.
“Get off! I can’t shoot if you’re in the way!” the woman said.
“Good!” I bellowed back.
I reached over my shoulder and ripped the huge wrench out and swung it around to lean out as far as I could.
Joel got one hand on the wrench head. Another garage wall went down and took the roof with it. Z’s scrambled for purchase but slid down the platform with arms and legs flailing.
Except for one.
The shuffler was nasty. He had long strands of hair but they weren’t enough to cover his head. They hung over his face like wisps of white cotton. I shuddered because he made a leap, mouth open, and managed to reach the edge of the garage wall that Joel was balanced on.
I pulled as hard as I could and Joel came along for the ride. The man grabbed my arm and pulled me in. I pulled Joel along until he was on the helicopter strut. The engine screamed above us as all of our weight settled and pulled the transport closer to the collapsing building.
Joel got his hand on the side of the chopper and pulled himself inside. I struggled against the tilting chopper and managed to get one leg in before the shuffler leapt.
We were rising when it caught the strut and managed to hold on. The helicopter tilted once again and suddenly I was looking down at about a hundred hungry mouths.
“Asshole!” I yelled and kicked the shuffler in the face. I did it again and he fell away into the crowd.
They hauled me in and all I could do was collapse as my heart thundered within my chest in rhythm to the blades above us.
After a few deep breaths I looked up into the face of a grinning Marine named Joel Kelly.
“I am not cut out for this fucking hero bullshit!” I yelled.
“Me either, man. But I love you just the same.” He clapped my shoulder one time then took a seat.
The old man looked us over appraisingly but didn’t say a word.
“Thanks for saving us,” I said after I’d managed to catch my breath. “I’m Jackson Creed and my gay lover there is Marine Sergeant Joel Kelly.”
The man nodded at us.
“I’m not his gay… whatever, man. Thanks for picking us up.”
“You folks were about to be zombie chow.”
“Yeah. Not much choice. We were stuck up there until you came along.”
“I’d like to get real friendly but we gotta make sure you’re safe. This won’t take long so save the introductions. I’d hate to shake hands and then have to blow your brains out.” He grinned, but there was no humor behind the gesture.
The guy nodded at the gunner. She slid a silver metal box about the size of a briefcase out from under the metal bench. The guy took it from her and opened it to reveal a computer display. There was a camera attached by a bunch of wires. Shit looked like a science lab experiment.
“We just need a picture of your eye,” he said and extended the camera.
“A picture?”
“Yep. We figured out how to spot the virus. Doesn’t always set in right away. I’ve seen guys walk around infected for three days before turning.”
“Damn,” I said and submitted to a shot.
The flash was bright and left me blinking furiously for a few seconds.
We took turns opening an eye wide while he snapped a shot. After each picture he typed something on a keyboard and waited.
“Where’re we headed?” I asked.
“We have a base but it’s not much. Damn zeek’s nearly overrun it every day. All the ammo in the world and we can’t keep clear of them. Piles and piles of the dead. Never smelled anything so foul in my life.”
The sound of the rotor overhead was a constant throb against the cabin as I peered over the lid of the silver box to see if I could get a peek at the display.
“What’s going on out there?” I asked.
“Out there? Out in the world you mean? How long you boys been stuck out here?”
Roz cleared her throat.
“Sorry miss.” He smiled in her direction.
“No problem.” She grinned back but it was just as empty of humor.
“Almost two weeks. Our ship crashed into the base. We’ve been on the run ever since.” Joel filled in the details.
“I’ll tell you what’s going on out there.” He looked at each of us in the eye. “The worst things you can imagine. When you think it can’t get worse, it does. When you think that humanity can’t get any worse, it does. And when you think the damned Z’s can’t get any nastier.”