To Be A Killer

Chapter 3: Rescue Me

"How near are we to Amelia, Sam?" Paula questions as we run, sweaty and slightly breathless as the sun slowly starts to rise over the hills, bringing light to the world once again.

"Not too far. See that huge clump of trees on top of the hill?"

"The huge clump that is..." Tony squints at the gray puffs of air that are coming up from them, "smoking?"

"Yes, we rather did some damage as we crashed," Amelia cuts in, forcing out a laugh. "Pilot bailed out. Rather rude, I thought. I had a little trouble with my parachute, but still. All's well that ends well."

I can almost see Sam rolling his eyes. "Yeah, it's ended with you up in that tree."

"Yes... So that thing-the device-it looks quite useful."

Tony shrugs. "To put it mildly."

"Fill me in as you go. What's it do?"

"What's it do?" He scoffs. "The zoms."

"The zoms?"

"He means it wards the zombies off," Summer explains. "We're not really sure how, but they won't come within twenty feet or so while it's powered up."

"Remarkable," She says in awe. "I'd love to have a closer look at it."

"Well, here's your chance," Tony says as we get closer-well, somewhat closer, and I raise my hand up to wave and get her attention. "Can you see us? Five's wavin'."

"Oh, yes. Far away, but there you are. Excellent. Excellent. Quickly please. The zombies are gathering and-" She let's out a small gasp as the trees rustle slightly. "And it seems they're rather pushing at the base of this tree. If it sways anymore, they'll have me out of here. Do hurry."

I pick up the pace, prompting the others to do so as well. My eyes sting and my body is beginning to ache from lack of sleep, but I guess that's my own fault for staying awake before being called out here.

But it's okay. Once Amelia's safe, we can all come back home and get some sleep, if our minds will let us. I doubt any of us will really get any rest seeing as we've found out something that is actually useful. Those people-Diana, Comansys, whoever they are-have our people. Or at least they have Maxine. And if they have Maxine, then they just might have Caleb and everyone else who left that day. We might actually have a chance at finding them again.

I want to smile at that. I really, really do. But I don't want to jinx it. I've accepted the fact that things go awry with me, so hoping on it too much will most definitely cause something to mess up or go haywire.

We're approaching the trees where Amelia sits in her helicopter. There are... maybe twenty zombies all huddled around one of the trees, all clawing at the bark of the tree and growling at the chopper above them.

Until Tony gets close enough.

Their heads snap up, almost as if they're startled by the sudden sound before they start cowering away, turning and trying to get as far away from that little box as possible. Some of them can run while others can only limp and stagger off. It's entertaining to watch either way.

"That thing is brilliant!" Amelia exclaims. "Look at them all cowering away like that. Alright, lookout. I'm going to drop a rope."

A rope plops down with a thud, and down she slides, somehow finding a way to do so gracefully. She's not exactly how I thought she'd be, appearance wise, anyway. She doesn't look much older than thirty-two, and is only a few inches shorter than me, I notice... And is she wearing makeup?

I knew the Ministry had high end stuff like guns and food and shit since they're supposed be like the government or whatever, but I didn't know makeup was still a priority. That's cool, I guess.