Ashes to Ashes (Book 1 of 2) A ZOMBIE FICTION

Chapter 2: ...Before the Storm.

The others had finally stopped at an airport outside of the city and I was finally able to land the helicopter. The damage done by the storm was minor, a few scratches in the plating and along the tail; but other than that it was fine. And of course "Miss Piggy" came out unharmed other than a blown spark plug and an easily fixed battery failure.

"I can't believe you fucking saved it!" Drake said in awe, talking about my save of the bird.

"I can't either... but I did."

"Well nice job! Listen this storm looks like it'll last a while so we're gonna try to stay grounded in the port. Who knows, maybe we'll turn up something good."

"Hey guys! What are these things?" Drew asked as he kicked two large black hawk spare fuel tanks.

"Holy shit! Dude, those will fit right on the Black hawk! Wont they?"

"Probably. Just keep searching." Russ replied for me.

I continued to search around in the many hangars that were closed while the others sat. This airport was truly abandoned, not a soul. However it looked like the military had tried to use it as an Out Post when the apocalypse started. There were a few ammo caches and what looked like it used to be a weapons depot. And in the very last hangar, a V-22 Osprey. Equipped for heavy lift with an M-60 E4 mounted onto the ramp. Sitting for vertical take off.

I climbed into it and when I engaged the on-board systems I discovered that it was fully fueled, with reserves that could last for ninety minutes of extra flight. I had seen these lift off with heavy gear underneath, at least fifteen thousand pounds worth. I sat in the pilots seat and engaged the rotors, then searched for the way to tilt them. Before long I was taxiing down the runway towards the others.

They all ran out and saw the Osprey hovering off the ground steadily, even in the rain I would love to fly this. I turned it to face it's hanger, then set it down and shut it off.

"I found and Osprey!" I said, seeming like a child finding candy, or money.

"I see that." Drake replied.

"An Osprey." I repeated, still like a child.

"Look at him!" Russ's wife said pointing at me, "He's practically a puppy!"

"Can we keep him?" Sadie joked, petting my head.

I decided to play along and started panting like a dog, we all stood under the wing of the Osprey for a few minutes longer, then I put it back where it was. I returned the their hangar and found that they had made a small fire inside and were sitting around it.

"That thing can take off and land vertically."

"And? We're not keeping it."

I frowned, then started again, "But... we can carry more..."

"No."

I sat down and just stared into the fire, still frowning.

"I was kidding." Kat, Russ's wife, finally took me out of my misery and I nearly jumped from the floor.

"YES! I get to fly an Osprey!" I started singing.

"Yes you do."

"I get to fly around all of that ammo I found!"

"Ammo?" Shaun questioned.

"Yep. All of it is in the second to last hangar on this side."

"Sweet. Any weapons?" Drake asked.

"No..."

"Damn. Oh well, hey. The Osprey had a gun on it right?"

"Yeah."

"Awesome, that means that you can still cover Piggy, and drop us ammo if we ever need it."

"Exactly what I was thinking. And I can carry one of the two thousand gallon fuel drums on the airbase here."

"Where was that?" Russ asked.

"Next to the Osprey hangar..."

We waited two more days for the storm to end, but it still hadn't and we could see the infected slowly making their ways towards us. So we loaded the Osprey up with the ammo, I took Drew, Russ, and Shaun again, and the others stayed on the ground. As I sat out side of the hangar making sure that everything was ready Russ was once again hooking the four hooked-cables up to the drum, then to the aircraft.

We took off vertically and stayed like that as we followed the bucket truck. It didn't move any faster than fourty until you got to a down hill slope, then it picked up speed and didn't slow down, or couldn't. From what Drake told us the brakes on it were essentially shot and he had to use the transmission to slow it down, and so was the steering due to some missing components.

A few hours passed and we had gotten back into the city of the damned. During our time away, the news building had collapsed, the streets became flooded with the undead, and all else was normal... well, other than the storm. I watched as the bucket truck drove through brick walls with ease and over cars and infected, crushing both under the weight.

Soon they had stopped once again, in front of a small but well stocked gun store.

"Hover me over them!" Russ ordered.

"Alright?" I obeyed and lowered the Osprey as low as I was comfortable with going in between the short buildings.

"I'm gonna climb into the bucket! Keep her steady!"

I did my best and soon he was inside the store with them and I lifted away from the truck. They continued to stay in there for longer than I expected and i began to worry as the infected began to stumble and crawl their way towards the sound of our props.

"I'm gonna pull away from the store to draw them away." I shouted to Shaun, then flew deeper into the city. Staying low enough to have them follow us, but far enough away from the buildings to not hit them. We reached a clear spot and waited for the hordes to find us, then went back to the truck. They were loading the thing down with guns in places I didn't even know it had. Like a school bus, it had compartments towards the bottom of it, and there must have been a place inside because a lot of the ammo was put in there. 

Soon they rolled out and we continued to follow, keeping a decent enough height away from them, but still staying right over them. For some reason they moved deeper into the city, and soon we were surrounded by sky scrapers . But even through the emptiness it all seemed off. Too silent. Way too silent and I think even they noticed because they began to slow down, making us slow down with them. Even the infected had seemed to steer clear of this area, and we'd soon find out why...