WalkerZ - A Zombie Apocalypse Story

Chapter 25 - In Search of Wings

"Cut the engines please Patil." The Cox nodded at the Captain's order and she picked up her handset, broadcasting out across the tannoy.

"My name is Captain Sands, we mean you no harm. We are part of the UK Navy, and on behalf of the government on the Isle of Wight, we'd like to come ashore and say hello, and perhaps leave some supplies with you if you need anything. If you're happy with that, please wave. If not, we will leave you alone."

Rob was peering out of the bridge window at the people onshore. "Captain, may I borrow the mic please?"

Sands passed him the handset.

"Mr White, is that you? This is Rob. I'm the helicopter pilot you helped load up some supplies at the start of the outbreak. These are good people. We're here to help."

An older man who stood on one side of the group smiled and waved, and appeared to be talking to the others with him. After a few moments, the whole group was waving and Merryn, Rob, Sergeant King, and Corporal Jansen made their way ashore.

"It's good to see you Rob," White shook the pilot's hand.

"You too Mr. White. I see your family are here, but a fair few others too. Why are you not on Bryher island?"

"It was too close to the other islands. You can walk between the islands at low tide so we kept getting walkers popping in to say hello. So we moved here with some other survivors and have been here since. The channel between St Agnes and the other isles is a lot deeper and has some pretty strong currents so we've been pretty much zombie free since we came here."

"This is Merryn who's a Scout, Sergeant King and Corporal Jansen. They're from the base at Exeter. How many do you have here?"

"There's about twenty of us dotted around the island. We lost contact with you when we moved as there's no power here so we couldn't work the radio."

"We can help you with that," said King. "We've brought a few bits with us including some collapsible solar panels, a radio and some spare parts, storage battery, some food and some medication. Have a look through what we've brought and if you need anything else let us know before we leave and we'll see what we've got on the ship.

"Are there any more like you on the other islands?" asked Merryn.

"Not that we know of," said White. We row boats across sometimes when we need equipment and we've managed to get quite a lot of food and other supplies back here. We grow a lot of stuff here now too and we're pretty self sufficient. This island is clear and we have regular patrols. The kids help keep a lookout."

"Sounds like you have things well in hand," said King.

"We need to get moving up the coast," said Merryn. "We'll check back with you when we come back this way, but if you need anything, please do use the radio as we've instructed. And please do check in with our communications specialist, Mal, at base. He likes a chat."

Rob rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Before we go, do you know of anywhere else on the islands we might find a helicopter?"

White shook his head. "There used to be one occasionally landed on the helipad on that rich fella's mansion on Tresco. But we've been through there and surveyed the place and there's nothing there but zombie tourists and some nice bottles of wine."

"I had a feeling you might say something like that," said Rob. "I reckon our next best bet might be up the Cornish coast. There's an RAF base above Portreath that had a few Coastal Rescue 'copters, and just to the south is a private company that used to do posh joyrides for people with more money than sense. They had a couple of helicopters too."