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

Doctors and Priests

"So what are you all good at?" I asked, cleaning my rifle, "I'm good at shooting, picking locks, and protecting them." I added, glaring at them as I put the receiver back into the weapon; making them uncomfortable.

"Well, Amy was a Doctor before all of this. I was a Priest." Kraig told me.

I struggled to hold in a laugh as I finished the rifle, "BAAAAHAHAHAHA!" I burst out, making him confused.

"What? What's wrong with being a Priest?"

I struggled to speak, "Nothing..." I burst out again, making Amy do the same.

"I told you someone would laugh!" She said, slapping her knee.

I could hear Josh a couple feet behind me, laughing as well.

I held my laughter in for a second, "Forgive me father, " I almost let it out, "FOR I HAVE SINNED!" I said as I started laughing again.

Josh spoke up, "Sorry that we don't have any little boys for you Kraig." Then he started laughing.

I fell off of my camping stool and started rolling on the floor, coming to tears from the laughter.

Kat came over to him and pulled him off to the side to talk to him, meanwhile Josh and I were hive-fiving and laughing our asses off.

"Did I hear correctly, Amy?" Crystal asked, "You were a doctor?"

"Yes, why?" Amy replied, stifling her own laughter.

"Well, it's good to have someone who has actual medical training. I've been trying to do what I can for them since this started."

I spoke between my dying laughter, "Hell, you brought me back from the dead. I think that's pretty good."

Amy just looked at her with confusion and shock, "Really?"

"Using Miss Piggy's battery and jumper cables as defibs." I answered as I sat back up.

"Wow. Just...Wow!"

"Yep, she's carried this group since the beginning."

Crystal and Amy spent some time together for a while and I went to discover what the power tools were used for; when I walked behind the dozer I saw the truck. Now with a fully rotating .50 caliber turret that was loaded by two-hundred round boxes that had been loaded on our supply crate- that was surprisingly still around- with a few boxes. Specifically twelve...

"Josh?" I called over to him.

"Yo?"

"You realize that this is going to take up more space than it's worth right?"

"Okay, calm down."

"Wasn't freak-"

"We're headed to Cali. If we land on a base or something, we can search for another pick-up."

"And be left without over watch..."

"...on a base or something. Sadie can fly a chopper and you can cover us from that."

"No, Sadie can fly a C5  not a helicopter."

"How big's the difference?"

"Control, flight pattern, agility difference... must I go on?"

"Then we have someone else shoot..."

I was starting to get annoyed, "No one else here can shoot a 98 Bravo or higher! I am the tallest, and thickest here. That is the reason I'm so fucking steady, I'm not breaking my bones!"

"Yeah but..."

"It would take weeks, probably months of training to fire from a moving helicopter! The fact that Russ did it once amazed me!"

"Alright... so we send a scout." Josh stated, hinting at something as he looked at me.

"Oh no. I'm not going in alone."

Thirty minutes later

"Alright! Drop the ramp!" Josh ordered Sadie as I ran towards the lowering ramp. My gear around my chest and my parachute on my back; "Goodluck!" Josh yelled as I jumped from the back of the plane.

It was a civilian HALO jump, or High Altitude Low Opening, which meant that I had to drop for a while and open my chute around one-thousand feet... or so Josh told me.

I was armed with my normal gear, ghille suit, rifle, M4, revolvers, hunting knife, and my bootstrap .22; but I was also going with my old shotgun. My pack was loaded with mostly extra ammo along with food, water, and a few meds (painkillers, bandages, and adrenaline). 

I broke through the cloud cover and saw the ground, then opened my primary chute. A second passed and it finally opened; slowing my decent from terminal velocity to about fifteen miles per hour, talk about some serious brakes. I was dropping into Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton onto a small baseball field next to a sort of 7/11 type building. As soon as I hit the ground I dropped my chute pack and threw everything around my back where it should be. 

I unshouldered my M4 and looked around; seeing no signs of life. I stayed low and made my way over to the miniature grocery store to look for a map of the area. 

The doors had once been automatic and only one of them was closed, leaving one side open enough for me to slip through. The inside was dark, leading me to believe that the power had been taken out. As I looked around I could make out the isles that held mainly foodstuffs and snacks, with unworking fridges in the back. I switched on my barrel mounted flashlight and began my sweep of the store, spotting a small back room behind the sales counter.

Alright, map...map... I thought to myself as I searched through small catalogs; Paris Hilton, Obama/Iran Peace talks, Map of Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base.

"Ahah!" I celebrated as I pocketed the small magazine a continued to look around, taking granola bars and small items as I passed them; along with the small pill bottles of Ibuprofen. I looked back towards the sliding glass doors and spotted movement outside and immediately switched off my flashlight and took cover at the back of one of the isles.

"Joe, you think this place has been looted?" One of them asked.

"Fuck if I know, but we need meds for Lilith and the other guy. You know that."

"Yeah, I guess you're righ- Joe, look."  They had seen my pack through the darkness, or at least the outline of it.

"Hello? We're not looking for trouble, we just need some meds."

I turned and switched my light back on, then walked out into the isle and took aim at them. I'm not sure, but I think my ghille suit and amount of weaponry put them off a little.

"Names?" I asked, keeping my sentences short.

"I'm Joe and this is Zachary; we're from a small settlement and need medicine for our wounded. We're willing to trade."

"Trade? What do you have?"

"Guns, ammo, small explosives... a few vehicles."

"Vehicles? Do you have any long bed crew cab pick-up trucks?"

"Yeah? You need one?"

"Yeah we do. For supply runs."

"We?" Joe asked.

"Joe! He's the one we saw parachute in!" Zach realized.

"Yeah, you got transport to your group?" I asked, confirming his suspicions.