World of Ashes II (2 page)

              The pilots saw the fighting too, and even though they were running on fumes chose to reroute to anywhere that could fit the large plane. As radio communications were overwhelmed and air traffic control no longer had a handle on the situation, the only place they could set down turned out to be a highway. The pilots made the announcement to buckle up and assume the
oh shit
position, although they were professional enough not to put it that way. Daniel buckled the Asian girl in when she confused two latches with no clip in her panic. He barely had time for himself when the whine and hum of the engines cut out and the plane was left to drift in silence after a brief sputter. Before anyone could scream the wheels slammed down onto the narrow pavement hard enough to dislodge some of the passenger’s stowed luggage. The plane’s landing gear couldn’t slow them in time and the nosecone took out a Greyhound bus that was run up against the center divider. The tires were sheared off with a deafening clap and everything fell to the right when the halved bus’s front end caught the starboard wheels and ripped the entire assembly off the wing. While the plane slid on the front and port wheel braces, Daniel had time to look at the cars and trees the wings were slicing to confetti, though not the time to wonder if anyone had been in the way, he was still stuck with the thought of decapitated children. With luck, or perhaps some truly gifted piloting, the jet came to rest in a field on the other side of a thin row of trees without bottoming out. Blessedly the plane didn’t catch fire. This was probably because the tanks were bone dry, the engines shut off before they even hit the highway.

For a moment longer nobody said a word, the silence ringing in their ears while the plane made all kinds of structural and mechanical groans and tics. Suddenly someone coughed and there was pandemonium on the plane, people shouting and screaming and climbing over one another like a stampede of stupid. The crew did their best to calm passengers and deployed the emergency slides lest they be trampled too. Daniel stayed in his seat, not wanting to be caught up in the clusterfuck when he saw the plane was in no immediate danger of exploding. The girl who’d been leaning over him unbuckled and slid closer, she was staying put too. They waited together until the path was clearer and those losing their minds were out of sight. The crew gathered the cooperative passengers in the trees they’d crashed through and waited for rescue for what seemed like hours, distributing what food and water was left on the aircraft after the pilots said it was safe. Despite the repeated radio calls and passenger trying to get through on their cell phones, no one ever came. Police cars and fire trucks passed them in a hurry for the first hour, but after that hour the emergency vehicles they saw became fewer and were traveling faster. One ambulance covered in blood flew by with no lights on, Daniel was by the side of the road and made eye contact with the driver. It was a terrified child that was nowhere near the age to drive. He didn’t stop for them at any rate, and who could blame him? Race, creed or religion didn’t matter now. The human race was just another rat fleeing the sinking Spaceship Earth. The only question was why? How had a bunch of unarmed hippies sent the capital of the United States into complete and utter chaos? The British made less of a mess two centuries ago, and they burned the damned White House.

From the time the plane evacuated everyone could see the smoke plumes of the cities around them. They saw one jetliner after another try to land with varying degrees of success in every available, or semi-available stretch of land. Fireballs mushroomed from one crash or another, at least one plane was shot down by surface to air batteries stationed in the DC area. The sound of the rocket engine was audible before it hit the jet, Daniel counted the seconds between the impact and when they heard it. Four seconds, the old wives tale was that meant four miles, but that was probably bullshit. The fear of the riots was soon replaced with the fear of invasion, otherwise why would the military shoot down a passenger jet?

              “I’m Lea, by the way.” The girl said while they were standing around, watching the pilots pretend to speak to someone on a walky-talky. They wouldn’t let anyone near the plane for long, claiming it was in case of fire, but it was probably to keep people from knowing there was nobody on the other end of the radio. Not anymore.

              “Daniel Sawyer, PFC type.”

              “You’re in the Army? My uncle was too.” Lea smiled, feeling safer around him already.

              “Well, don’t ask me if I know him. I can’t tell you how many people ask me if I know their relatives. It’s a big Army.” Daniel tried to be funny.

              “Never underestimate the stupidity of others.” Lea smiled. “So what are we gonna do?”

              “Sit tight for now. But if the fires get closer, I’m bugging out.”

              “Can I come with you? I don’t know anyone else, and you’re the only one who’s spoken to me…” Lea tried to hold back how nervous she really was.

              Daniel looked Lea over. “Yeah, sure. Is this your first time being away from home?”

              “No. Do I look like a child?”

              “Kinda. Take it as a complement, you look younger than you are. When you’re forty that’ll really mean something.” At least Lea thought that was funny. “I’ll stick with you, though. Maybe we can find a refugee area.”

              Some of the passengers slipped by the crew as it started to get dark and broke open the cargo hold to get their stuff. Daniel didn’t have any weapons but a pocket knife, still it was good to have it back. One man was a private security officer for a celebrity who’d taken an earlier flight home. He had two Beretta M9s with enough ammunition to start a small war. Naturally he didn’t share, but he welcomed Daniel to tag along until he found a weapon for himself. Lea came too, they still had daylight but no one was letting strangers into their homes as far as the eye could see. Daniel saw some blankets hung out to dry in a lawn, he and the man with the guns scoped the place out. Whoever owned the property wasn’t there, but their house was locked down tight with a blinking security system visible through the windows. Lea fell asleep on Daniel’s arms after they’d barricaded the door to the expensive miniature barn out back. Mark, their armed guard, finally relinquished a gun to Daniel when he showed the man his Army ID. Eventually Mark needed to sleep too, and Daniel would have to stand watch, so he might as well trust someone.

              Daniel checked the chamber and racked a round. “I’ll take first watch.” He said.

              “Been traveling the world on a music tour. You go ahead and get some shuteye.” Mark said. He waited for Daniel to be out of sight and opened the sliding lid to his ring. It was in fact a movie prop his employer had given him from his last spy thriller, but it was also water proof and if you removed the blue diode inside it was a glorious place to hide a line of coke. Four countries and not one had ever checked to see if his ring was a hidden compartment. Mark considered it good luck, as well as a place to keep his favorite vice close.

              Daniel closed his eyes and tried to sleep, though it was a wasted effort. Fitful and full of nightmares of what they’d seen that day he didn’t stay out for long. He woke to find Mark wasn’t there, or at least not inside the shed anymore. At first, Daniel thought he’d stepped outside to piss, but after almost an hour Mark hadn’t come back. His shoes were still there too, so it didn’t make sense that he’d have run off. Daniel flipped the safety onto the fire selection and let Lea down gently to sleep on his blanket for a pillow. “Mark?” He whispered loudly. There was no response. The tool shed was at least a few hundred square feet, some grease monkey’s MOPAR wet dream. It was “decorated” with naked women and muscle cars on outdated calendars adorning every space not allotted to antique oil cans and spare parts for who knew what kind of car. Mark wasn’t in in the shadows or behind any cabinets, but there was a small bathroom hidden behind a stack of used tires and Daniel took the time to piss and wash his face in an oil stained sink. Obviously Mark hadn’t had to leave to relieve himself, so where was he? Daniel had been sweating profusely since landing and probably smelled like he’d been on the lamb for weeks, it occurred to him to change his clothes and his mind began to wander. What if he’d taken the later flight home? Would he have ever left England? Or maybe the earlier flight, but then who would be here for Lea? Mark? The hell with that.

              Looking to his left Daniel saw through the small vent window that Mark was standing in the yard like a creepy statue. Sneaking out the door, he walked up behind their companion. “Mark? Are you okay?” He wasn’t scared, he knew how to perform riot duties and wasn’t beyond shooting someone to keep himself safe right now.

              “It’s burning…” Mark said. “It’s all… burning…”

              Daniel looked over the tree line, the night sky was aglow in bright orange and blood red hues from a thousand fires that raced across Georgetown and Arlington. The sun had set, but there wouldn’t have been any light even if it were high noon. Pillars of black smoke faded the fires in the distance, it would have made air travel impossible, air rescue a pipe dream. What escape did they have now? Was stealing someone’s car even an option? Stay on task. Situational Awareness. Basic training wasn’t that long ago, damnit.

              “We need to get back inside.” Daniel said, looking around suspiciously.

              “I know… I just… couldn’t… I didn’t think I’d ever see my home burn.” Mark said, turning his head to look at Daniel briefly. “I was in high school when they hit the Twin Towers. I enlisted the next week. I thought it would make us safe again but we failed.”

              “You think its terrorists?”

              “How could it not be?”

              “I have to get back home and get to my unit. They’ll be calling us up by now.”

              Mark laughed. “You’re kidding yourself, Dannyboy. Yesterday this was just race rioting in a couple different cities, but now?” Mark gestured wildly at the horizon. “Where else is this? Don’t go near the Army, Dan. You have the perfect excuse to lay low until this blows over. Nobody will blame you.”

              “I’m not a deserter.” Daniel protested, possibly a little more insulted than he should have been. Mark didn’t know him or his story, why would he assume Daniel was simply too patriotic to quit, that despite his reserved outward appearance Daniel was the kind of man to be
the
last man on the last gun for the last fight. Then again, what kind of guy was Mark if he would encourage a soldier to go or stay AWOL? Was this his version of caring?

              There was a sound in the bushes behind Mark. He turned around and fired a shot at it, which didn’t hide his most unmanly shriek of terror. From the bushes there was a loud yelping sound and a fat looking mop of a dog came running from the darkness, its hind leg dragging uselessly behind it. The dog fell and laid down whimpering before Daniel’s feet. He rushed up to it and tried to see where the plump old boy was hit, but the dog was dead before he found the wound.

“…fuck you, Mark… What the hell are you doing, man?” Daniel turned to face Mark, maybe even to hit him, but instead saw his first plague victim up close and personal. It had come from the shadows toward the sound of the gun, now the grayish colored woman in her finest trailer park evening attire, complete with heat-curlers and bunny slippers, was in the process of swallowing Mark’s throat.

Panicking as he was dragged down, Mark fired several shots through her stomach, but the ghoul continued to eat him even after he’d stopped struggling. Daniel shot her once in the head, possibly by luck because he couldn’t see very well in the dark with so much panic sweat burning his eyes and adrenaline coursing through his veins. The plague victim dropped to the ground with a thud. Mark was still twitching when Daniel rushed over to check him for a pulse. It was a futile effort, the wound to his neck irreparable even under the best of conditions. Lea was standing over them, watching with unabashed horror as Daniel stood up and tried to wipe the blood and freshly cut grass off his pants. He succeeded only in making a more gruesome mess and stopped to pick up the second M9 before he made things worse. Daniel handed Lea Mark’s gun with a look that said
I think you’re going to need this
.

              Now just two, they spent the rest of the night and most of the early morning hiding in the tool shed. This time with everything that wasn’t bolted down up against the doors and windows, they felt a little safer. Several people, some running, others shambling, passed through the yard none the wiser that there was anyone watching them. The slow ones Daniel surmised must be infected with whatever was making people crazy. They looked like corpses, sometimes grievous and certainly mortal wounds covered their bodies, bones and guts hanging out or dragging between their legs. There was no logical reason why these people would still be standing, even if they were under the influence of a virus or a drug the simple loss of blood should make them immobile. In Mark’s suitcase was another three magazines for each gun and a second chance vest that didn’t fit either of them. The shed had a tap for water, but no food, unless you consider sardines and Copenhagen long cut to be food. If they wanted to survive one or both would have to venture out of their hideaway.

              Like a solar eclipse, the day was dusk when Daniel finally felt brave enough to open the door again. During the surreal blackout from the ash clouds he decided it would be a good time to attempt to get into the house the shed sat behind. The back door was still locked, but climbing to a second story window let them in. Lea was locking the window behind them when she pointed to the scene of death from last night. Daniel looked too and saw only the dead dog and woman, Mark’s body was gone in the direction the woman had come from. A trail of blood from where he had been led beyond the yard and away from the house. Lea flipped on the lights, probably by habit, and Daniel flipped them back off and covered her mouth before she could curse at him.