Deadland's Harvest (6 page)

“I figured as much,” he said, his smile fading.

“I’m still hoping Manny was exaggerating, and there aren’t any big herds headed this direction.”

“We’ll find out soon enough,” Clutch said quietly.

This morning, while we were at the stream, I’d brought Clutch and Jase up to speed on everything Manny had said. But, it wasn’t until Jase had left to grab the truck that I’d told Clutch just how large the herds were reported to me. I swallowed and gave a tight nod before going through my pre-startup checks. Satisfied, I looked outside to Jase who was busy keeping an eye out for zeds. “Clear,” I called out. I turned the prop on the engine and it came to life. The magnetos were starting to run rough. Unfortunately, I knew nothing about the mechanics of an airplane besides the most basic items, and neither did anyone at the park. There were two guys who maintained the Humvees, and they were doing their best to keep the plane in shape as much as their knowledge would allow. If the FAA still existed, they would’ve grounded this operation months ago. As it stood, it was just a matter of time before I’d have to find a new airplane for transporting cargo and going on longer scouting trips like today’s.

Once the engine warmed up, I taxied the plane onto the road and ran through my pre-takeoff checks. It took a few minutes to tame the coughing engine by leaning the mixture and playing with the throttle. Once everything was in the green, I motioned to Jase who, after one final three-sixty, ran over and squeezed inside behind me. Takeoff was the most dangerous part of the flight. There was no way to mask engine noise and full throttle, and even though any zed that neared the park was quickly dispatched, more zeds showed up all the time.

As Jase buckled in, I put on my headset. While there was no use for headsets to communicate with control towers or traffic, they did make it easier to talk with the passengers and to report in to Tyler when we were returning from scouting trips so he could make sure the runway was cleared for landing. To not draw zeds to the area, I liked to fly straight in and with the throttle pulled back to keep my landing as quiet as possible.

“Everyone ready for takeoff?” I asked.

Clutch nodded. “Ready.”

I looked to the backseat.

“I’m ready,” Bill said, his voice coming through loud and clear through my headset.

Jase was still adjusting his boom. “Let’s rock and roll,” he said.

I smirked and then turned my focus onto the road in front of me. I pushed the throttle full forward, and the plane rolled ahead, slowly at first, and then passing each yellow divided highway line faster and faster. I tugged back on the yoke, and the plane lifted off the ground gently, the smoothness of the air instead of tires against rough concrete was the only sense of transition from the ground to the sky. As the plane climbed, I turned toward north on my compass heading.

I set the stopwatch taped on the panel, a backup to help remind me how much fuel I had remaining. I looked at Clutch. “While you look for herds, keep an eye out for landmarks and let me know if we start to veer off our flight path.”

“Got it,” he replied, all business.

“If I have to ride backseat, I call dibs on the music,” Jase said, and I found an iPod dropped onto my lap.

With a chuckle, I plugged his MP3 into the audio input and kicked off the playlist he always listened to on our scouting runs. Flying was one of the few times we could listen to music without fear of zeds, and we always played rock-paper-scissors to see whose music would be played. Though, listening to
any
music was nice. Pop music filtered through our headsets, and I turned up the volume.

We flew for an hour, everyone given the same task: search for herds. I kept the plane three thousand feet off the ground so that any herds would be easier to spot. Bill nervously chattered, his voice cutting over the music. Once I threated to pull the plug on his headset, he was a better passenger.

The air was smooth and cool, and the sky was clear. It was an absolutely perfect flying day, and I found myself feeling lighter and breathing easier. There was something surreal about being in the sky, removed from the death and destruction below. It was the only time I could still feel completely at peace. After all, the sky was the only place left without man-eating predators.

“There’s one! Down there, below!” Bill exclaimed.

“Down where?” I cranked my head around to see him pointing out the window to my right. I looked, searching for zeds. My gaze narrowed on a field of dirt that seemed to go on forever in the distance, and I turned the plane in that direction. As we approached, the dirt morphed into what looked like a giant, flat anthill. Chills covered my body because this was no anthill.

“Holy bejeezus,” Jase said. “That’s no herd. That’s…that’s…”

“Fuck,” Clutch muttered.

“Yeah,” I added, my jaws lax. As we drew closer, the movement began to split into individual humanoid shapes all moving together like fans at a music concert, only far bigger than any concert or sporting event could be. The herd was larger than I could’ve possibly imagined. Hell had opened up and spurted forth millions of demons from its gorge.

“I told you guys these herds were huge. And it looks like another one in the distance out there,” Bill said from the backseat. “Now that you’ve seen it, can we check on my family?”

“Hold on,” I said, as I continued to stare at the mass of zeds below us.

“I wasn’t expecting a herd like that,” Jase said. “What could we possibly do if it found the park?”

After a tense moment of silence, I pulled off to return to our flight path.

A heavy stone was already growing in my gut. I found it hard to breathe, and my chest pounded like I was about to have a heart attack. I could already guess their trajectory from seeing the relatively straight trodden path over a half-mile wide that went on for as far as I could see. Camp Fox didn’t stand a chance.

As I flew north, parallel to the zed path, Clutch continually updated the map while muttering under his breath every few seconds. The herd had crushed all the grass and fields in its path. We lost the path a couple times when we flew over larger towns, but quickly found the path again on the other side.

“God,” I sighed. “There’s another one.”

Clutch looked up and followed my finger. “Jesus.”

Another herd, at least half the size of the first, looked like it was only thirty miles or so behind and headed the same direction.

“I’ll mark it down,” Clutch said as I tried to stay focused on my heading, but my eyes kept darting back to the herd. Worse, not ten miles later, another herd appeared in the distance.

“How can there be so many?” Jase asked from the backseat.

No one answered. In fact, no one spoke for many long minutes. I gripped the yoke and twisted my hands around it. Clutch scribbled on the map. I couldn’t tell what Jase and Bill were doing behind me. My mind was too busy dealing with shock. I didn’t need to be an actuary to do the math. There was nothing we could do to defend Camp Fox against such numbers.

We were absolutely, completely fucked.

My brows furrowed as I held back a sob. The unfairness of it all pissed me off. We worked so hard to survive. We’d finally gotten to the point where we felt a step ahead of the zeds.

And now this?

Like Manny’s group, we could only run, but where could we go? The massive herds seemed to cover an entire line of latitude as they moved south.

Bill lunged forward and pointed straight ahead. “There,” he said, wagging his finger. “See that? The university is coming up.”

I jumped, startled. “Get buckled in!”

“It’s SMSU. We’re there,” he said, not moving.

I squinted and made out the connected buildings. We were still at least five miles out and I throttled back to slow the plane and descend. “All right, guys. Keep an eye out for zeds.”

“They would’ve all left with the herds,” Bill said.

“Do you know that for sure?” I countered, adding in flaps to slow the plane to near stall speed.

He said nothing.

I sighed. “Where’s that street I can land on, Bill?”

He leaned forward more. “Birch Street,” he said as if I could read street signs from up here. “It’s just to the south of the dorms. We kept it clear in case we had to pull out.”

“It’s east-west, right?” I asked, looking once more at his roughly drawn map.

“What?”

I made a motion with my hand. “Does the road go north and south or east and west?”

“Oh, east and west. You can’t miss it. It’s the main street for the university.”

As we neared the small university, I slowed the plane and dropped in as much flaps as I could without stalling. Once I had the street in sight, I nodded. “I’ve got it.”

I frowned as I took in the university. During a typical scouting run, zeds dotted streets of any town I flew over. Here, other than the random zed crawling across the ground or a rotting corpse, I saw nothing. The entire university seemed devoid of zeds. “You guys see anything?” I asked.

“Nothing yet. Just a few stragglers,” Jase said.

“Same here,” Clutch said. “From what I can tell, those stragglers look pretty decrepit.”

“You’re going past the street. Down there! Down there!”

I flipped off the intercom but could still hear Bill’s yelling even through my headset. The street was narrow, only two lanes lined with trees and streetlamps. It had a ninety-degree curve on the eastern edge and a forty-five on the west. I could make it work, but there wasn’t much room for error, and no room for a late-decision go-around.

Clutch squeezed my knee, and I turned. “You sure you want to try it?” he yelled since I’d turned off the intercom.

I looked back down at the street. I had to make the call. If I continued to circle, the engine noise would draw all remaining zeds into the area. I glanced at Bill. His eyes were wide and pleading. It would’ve been easy to fly over and drop a bag, letting the survivors make their way to their families and friends on their own. But, if I were in Bill’s shoes, this close to my family…

“Damn it,” I muttered and dropped in the rest of the flaps. There was no way I couldn’t
not
land. I may have lost my parents, but if it was Clutch or Jase down there, I would have to see for myself. Bill deserved the same.

I lined up for a long final approach. I wanted to land as short as possible because neither the length nor the width of the street was forgiving for a botched landing. My grip was firm on the yoke. I had to get it right. The stall warning sounded, and the ground came up quickly. The wheels hit hard. The plane bounced before settling down. I stepped on the brakes to stop faster than I could with a taildragger.

I pulled off my headset and looked around to find no zeds running out to greet us. I bit my lip. “Well, that wasn’t my finest landing.”

“We didn’t crash, so I consider it a success,” Clutch said.

Jase tapped my shoulder. “I’ll cover you while you get lined up for takeoff.”

I nodded and opened the door. I brought my seat forward. He squeezed out from behind me and hopped outside. Bill leaned between Clutch and me as I started to taxi back the opposite direction I’d landed. Jase walked alongside the Cessna as I taxied, ready to take out any random zed that came at us.

“What are you doing?” Bill asked. “You’re going past the dorms.”

“We’ll check them out on foot. First, I need the plane ready in case we need to make a quick takeoff.”

He muttered something and leaned back. Suddenly, I found myself pressed forward against the yoke as he squeezed passed me. “Hey!”

Bill jumped out of the plane and ran back toward the dorms, carrying the bag of letters.

“Idiot,” Clutch muttered.

I shook my head. “He’s going to get himself killed.” I taxied the plane all the way back to the eastern edge of the street and turned around, setting the plane up for an immediate takeoff. “I’m half tempted to just leave him and head back.”

As I cut the engine, Jase walked around the front, still scanning the area.

Clutch grabbed his rifle.

I put my hand on his forearm and fought to say the words I needed to say. “You should stay with the plane, in case we need to make a quick takeoff.” I inhaled before he had a chance to speak. “You know us. Jase and I won’t do anything stupid. We’re just going to check on the dorms, that’s it.”

“I know. I trust both of you. It’s the other guy I don’t trust.”

“We’ll be wheels up in ten minutes. You stay here and sweep for us in case zeds start trickling this way. Okay?”

He sat there, gripping his rifle. After a moment, he hit his legs, startling me.

“I hate this. I fucking hate this,” he said before tilting his head back against the headrest.

My heart ached for him. “I know,” I said softly and touched his cheek. “This is a temporary inconvenience, that’s all. You’ll be walking soon. I know it. We just have to take it one day at a time.”

His lips tightened. “I’ll see you in ten.”

After a moment, I dropped my hand, unbuckled, grabbed my gear, and climbed out.

“Be careful,” he said suddenly. “I’ve got a bad vibe about this place.”