Deadland Rising (part 3 of the Deadland Saga)

Redemption (Chapter 30)

After Major Paul Mallary and his officers laid claim to the President's home, we briefed him on everything that had happened since we had arrived. Akio was able to fill in the gaps of the time between when the squadrons were sent to the south and our arrival. I learned that Aline had started as a good facilitator with a knack at building relationships. As time passed, the relentless loss of survivors had a profound effect on her, and she'd developed an obsession to sculpt a new country, beginning with the capital.

The major kept his word. He imprisoned Aline, James, Mike, and Peter. Moose Jaw had two airports. The military airport had been destroyed, no thanks to me. But, the city's commercial airport remained functional. With an armed crew, Akio loaded the prisoners into a King Air and flew them south, where they were shoved out of the airplane with nothing but the parachutes on their backs. If the zeds didn't get them, the irradiated environment would. It was brutal, and I winced at the thought of how they met their end.

Akio, a commercial airlines pilot with tens of thousands more flight hours than I had, flew the antigen and research to Helena's CDC facility. I signed on to help deliver the vaccine as each batch was created. The CDC estimated that it would take three years to produce enough vaccine for the world's survivors-and even longer to distribute it-but we'd do it, assuming we could keep the planes running and full of fuel. Akio, I, and three other pilots would be the Pony Express of the twenty-first century. Clutch, of course, had volunteered to be my navigator and co-pilot before I had a chance to ask him.

The major retained control of Moose Jaw, but no longer called it the capital. Before the outbreak, he'd been a history professor in addition to being an Army Reserve officer. He believed the provinces were too spread out with not nearly enough survivors in between to support a centralized government. He called democracy an idealistic notion at this point in the game. Instead, he proposed a cooperative feudalistic system, believing the only way to survive until everyone "got back onto their feet" was to have each province control its own area, with trading and agreements with nearby provinces.

His opinion had its share of dissidents, with people accusing him of trying to bring us back to the Dark Ages. Personally, I agreed with him. The world was already worse off than what people faced in medieval times. We were homeless and struggling to survive day by day. I figured a feudal system had to be easier to achieve than Aline's idea of a centralized government.

Clutch stepped back from loading our supplies, which included new radios to talk with Moose Jaw and other provinces. He wore a T-shirt, which showcased his full-sleeve tattoos. "Ready to head home?" he asked.

I smiled and nudged into him. "You bet. Let's go home."

Griz had already climbed in the back along with Joe, the only remaining survivor of the New Eden squadrons sent to the south. My Cessna had been destroyed in the fire, and so I opted for a comfortable twin-engine, which could make it back to New Eden without a fuel stop and haul a lot more supplies.

I climbed in, and Clutch took his seat and organized the maps. As I taxied to the runway, Akio smiled and waved broadly from the edge of the ramp. I waved back and smiled, knowing I'd see him in a couple days when he'd come to pick up the zed kids and bring them to the CDC center in Helena.

I'd miss Moose Jaw. It was more than the sense of safety and the electricity and people like Akio. It was the city's potential. Moose Jaw was proof that we could live relatively normal lives, even in all this.

But we weren't ready for that. Not yet.

I throttled forward, and the airplane picked up speed and took to the air as though it couldn't wait to get off the ground. We climbed high, seeing only major landmarks such as rivers, forests, and cities. The sun glistened on a flooded river, and I hoped its floodwaters would wash away the zeds, leaving only pure water behind.

We touched down at the airport outside New Eden by mid-afternoon. Fortunately, there were no signs of wild animals today. The Humvee sat by the hangar, but there was no sign of Zach.

After we tied down the plane and moved the supplies from the plane to the Humvee, we leaned against the Humvee's bumper. Clutch handed me a bottle of water, and I drank greedily. The three of us stared off at the woods, watching the tree line. When nothing emerged, we all climbed into the Humvee and headed back to New Eden.

On our drive, we saw more creatures moving around than when we'd left. Not many animals-only the sick dogs and wolves seemed to venture out during the day. It was the two-legged ones.

Spring was here.

The zeds were thawing out.