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

Change of Plans

We drove towards the airstrip and soon discovered that hundreds of infected had roamed into the unprotected dirt strip. Probably attracted by the planes that had been coming in and out. 

I grabbed my radio and held the button down, "Sadie, come in!"

"What?" She replied, telling me that she hadn't seen the runway.

"You need to reroute. Set course for the next nearest runway, the zombies have flooded the runway."

"Well, can't you clear them?"

"Sadie, drop altitude and take a look." I told her.

Seconds later I saw the C-5M drop below the cloud cover, then raise back up, "Wow... Uh, hang on."

A few minutes passed and I could hear Sadie and Josh chatting in the background, talking about what the clearest runway would be.

Josh picked up the radio, "Alex?"

"I'm here."

"Alright, there's a long stretch of highway leading out of Camp P. If you follow that North a few miles you'll see a bunch of corn fields; we'll land there once we see you."

"Shit, alright." I put the radio back on the shoulder strap under my Ghille suit, then opened my door and stood up to shout to the others; "Everyone listen up!" I saw everyone trying to cram out of the windows to hear me, "We're headed out of Camp Pendleton! Up North a little ways, the plane will land in a patch of corn fields. Just follow me and we'll get there in a little while." I shouted and the shut the door and started the truck back up. 

We all turned around and headed towards the North Gate along the highway.

"So... what type of stockpile do you have on that plane?" Joe asked.

"Enough of one. Listen, I still don't know you, and you don't know me. But I will not spare you or anyone else when it comes to my friends on that plane; so if you want to start something, start it with me."

"I wasn't getting hostile... I was just askin'."

"Although I do thank you for bringing me and my truck back together..." I said as I pet the wheel.

He chuckled a bit, "So I'll remember not to try something with them on the plane. Because you look like the type to sleep with them revolvers."

"I am. I also sleep with my rifle, both of them."

"And that shotgun?"

"Nah, I just brought this 'cause I was going in alone." I told him as I tossed the shotgun into the back with everything else, "So..."

"So?"

"Back in the store. You could've shot me, taken everything I had. Why didn't you? Christ I look like a fucking bandit!"

"Well normally bandits hold up people or shoot first. I've seen it a bunch. But you made me think of my own son. He was in Afghanistan when all of this started. He wore that same type of leaf suit and everything, carried himself much like you do. He was protecting of others too."

I looked back through my life since this had started; Drake and I had become like brothers. The hardest thing I had to do during this wasn't jumping out of a window of a skyscraper, or getting blown out of a building... It was handling his loss. Knowing that every time I held that .44 it would bring me back to that day under the plane wing.... Knowing that it could've been me lying there instead of him, knowing that Crystal could still have loved him.

It made me think of losing Josh, or Drew, or anyone... They were like family to me, and I'd be damned if I'd let them fall to the infection or anything else; it brought tears to my eyes. The impact of a small sports coupe brought me back down to earth. I pushed through the metal red and white bar of the military gate using the Plow that still sat on the front of the truck.

Before long we had spotted the corn fields and I radioed to the Plane to land. I watched as the large aircraft touched down just outside of the enormous fields, then began to slow down from the hundreds of pounds pushing back and the use of the plane's braking system. They turned around and the ramp dropped, leaving us to drive in.

The look that Crystal and Drew had when they saw the Ford was priceless, like they'd seen a ghost.

"I got my baby back!" I saw Jenn get confused as I said this.

"Wait, that's your truck?! Like, from before the helicopter?" Crystal asked, shocked like I had been.

"Mhmm." I said happily. The ramp rose and I could feel the plane start moving and soon the sound of corn slapping the sides ended and we climbed in altitude.

The new passengers all found a spot on the plane to sit and talk amongst themselves. Meanwhile, I looked over my truck and discovered that at one point the tires had been replaced and looked brand new with the one in the back, as well as the fluids had been replaced, most of the shot parts, and everything else that had needed to be replaced, was. 

"Dude, you drove that thing?" Josh asked.

"Uhuh!" It was like when we found the V-22 Osprey, I couldn't contain my happiness.