“Boys, wheels up in one hour!” #zombie

This is a rough draft so with that in mind I will set this post up.  This is the third chapter in the second book.  This book actually begins where the first book began, just from somebody elses perspective in a different area of the country, allowing you to see the two stories merge.  I will break this chapter up into the normal posts.

“Boys, wheels up in one hour!” Sergeant Wood informs the unit as they make their final preparations, then leaves them.

Ty hooks up his mp3 player as he states to the other men that a little Rob Zombie seems appropriate.  Jayce and the Colonel enter the same doors Tracy just left through.  Jayce glances at Ty, who quickly glances around the room at the other men.  He nods back at Granger.

“Sir, we are ready,” Jayce advises the Colonel.

Ty then walks over and turns down the mp3 player and they begin to finalize their assignments.

“Jensen, Sanchez have point with me.  Cole, you and Jessop take sniper with the Barretts.  Keys, you are on the saw, and Cooper, you have the M240. Once we secure a way in, we will all enter together with the other unit.”

Jayce knows that the assignments he had just gone through are the same as they had been on every mission, however, he goes through the list almost as if it was the first time.  

“What’s our ride while we are there?” Ben asks, as he wonders what it will be this time.

Deacon explains that he will see soon enough.  Sergeant Wood reenters the room to inform the unit that the “Bird” is ready.  The soldiers salute the Colonel and once he salutes them back he orders them to the waiting C17.  They grab their gear off of the tables and exit the prep room.  Ty runs back in, remembering his mp3 player.

“He has to have his tunes.” Jayce explains to the colonel. 

‘Captain, you ready?” Ty questions as he walks past Jayce and the Colonel.

Jayce assures him that he is.  He puts his arm around Ty’s shoulders and the exit the building.  Trekking across the tarmac, Ben turns and smile as he watches the flight crew back the Stryker into the plane.  Jayce knows that this vehicle is Ben’s favorite.  They reach the rear of the plane as the flight crew is chaining the Stryker down to the floor of the aircraft.  Upon climbing into the aircraft, Ben opens the rear hatch on the vehicle.  The members begin to choose their seats on the enormous “bird” for the eighteen hour flight, not to mention the stop in Germany to refuel.  Ty nestles himself into his seat, slightly head banging with his eyes closed to the music coming from the ear buds in his ears.  A tug pulls up at the bottom of the cargo ramp with a cart loaded with ammo for their mission.  Ben, Paul, and Adam begin loading it into the Stryker.  Jayce walks down the ramp with Stan. Stan asks him if he is going to miss this.  Jayce answers him that he will, but explains that he is not too excited about being one of the first to see what “undead” really means.  They look at all the commotion of the runways.  Jayce then questions about why his unit had been picked for this mission.

“This may be the most important mission ever exercised.  There is no better unit for the job.”  The Colonel responds.

The pilots stroll up and salute Stan and Jayce.  They return the gesture as the pilots board the plane.

The Colonel extends his hand and Jayce grasps it as the colonel tells him, “Captain, you and your men stay safe and we will be waiting for your return.”

“Yes sir.”

Jayce turns and walks up the cargo ramp, motioning to the flight crew to close the plane up.  He takes his usual seat between Ben and Ty.  One of the flight crew member walks through the plane and opens the door to the cockpit.   It appears as if he is telling the pilots something before he shuts the door and approaches Jayce.

“Captain, I let them know we are ready whenever they are.  They are doing their pre-flight checks and it should be about twenty minutes.”

Jayce nods and sits back into his seat.

Ty removes his ear buds from his ears and loudly asks Jayce, “So are you going to let everyone else know what you have planned?” 

Jayce looks at him surprised.  Ty has gathered the attention of the rest of the unit.  Andre is the first to ask what Ty is talking about.  Jayce hesitates, not wanting to detour from the mission, but then decides that not informing them of his resignation now that Ty has “let the cat out of the bag” will be a larger deterrent.  He begins explaining of his meeting with the Colonel and his reasons for his decision.  Expecting backlash from his men, he is surprised to receive his unit’s full support.  The only thing they are concerned about is the uncertainty of whether or not he will keep in touch.  He assures them that he will.

Just then the intercom crackles, “This is Captain Harris.  I will be your pilot on this wonderful flight to the desert.  Please keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times.  If you should have any needs please consult the inflight stewardess.  The flight crew, who had taken their seats closed to the cockpit, laugh and shake their heads.  The sense of humor from the pilot brings a smile to the somber team, with thoughts of the undead lingering in the back of their minds.  The loud hum of the engines drones out any other noise in the plane which departs from its parked position and begins to taxi down the runway.  They feel the plane shutter as it lifts off from the ground.  Jayce signals for his men to get some sleep and pulls one of the ear buds out of Ty’s ear, placing it into his own and begins to nod off to sleep.

“CAPTAIN GRANGER, SIR!” Jayce is woken up to one of the co-pilots shaking and yelling at him.

“WE NEED YOU IN THE COCKPIT IMMEDIATELY!”

“Cut ‘em down!” #zombie

"I want to start this blog off by thanking everyone who has supported me on this.  A big thanks to David A. Martinez and One Night Dead.  As I do not want to give too much away, this will be the last post with material from the first book.  We are putting the finishing touches on the editing and hopefully "DESOLATION" is in print soon.  I will be releasing a chapter in its entirety from book two next Wednesday. 

Thank you again
Jeremy E. Cherry

Duke begins growling as a couple more of the dormant zombies start to reanimate.  Luke begins to put them down with his bow as Deacon chops at them with his machete.  In Deacon’s mind he continues to try to make sense of the fact that if the scavengers had been successful, the soldiers’ weapons should be gone, but they are not.  Greg and a couple of the others begin to pick up the abandoned weapons.

They continue on to another Suburban, Deacon looks through the shot out windows.  Every ounce of color drains from his face.  Crissy asks him what is wrong.  Deacon tells her that on his niece’s last birthday, Katelynn and her mom had made a doll for her.  He goes on to tell her that both Katelynn and he had signed the doll’s butt.  Deacon reaches in and pulls out the doll, lifting the dolls dress to reveal, “Love Katelynn and Deacon”. Deacon sinks, sliding his back down the side of the Suburban.  Duke attempts to wedge his head into Deacon’s lap, beneath his elbows.

Deacon sits crouched on the ground, his head is resting in his hands and the doll on his lap. 

“They are gone!”   

Deacon sits there while Greg, Lana, try to comfort him.  He continues to stare at the doll.  Luke takes the others out to gather what guns and ammo they can find.  Deacon stands back up and wipes the tears from his cheek.  Lana embraces him.  He buries his head in the crook of her neck.  With tears still running down his face, he whispers to her

“Before, I had hoped that they had made it somewhere safe.  Now, I know they never made it out.”  He stands up straight. 

“BURN IT, ALL OF IT!”  Deacon yells as he walks away from the decimated convoy, still carrying the doll. 

Jason begins ripping off strips of fabric, twisting it, and shoving it in the gas tank.  Andy takes what paper he can find and sets the interior of the vehicles on fire.  They move from one car to the next working their way back to their vehicles. 

They all return to their vehicles to watch.  Deacon leaves obviously upset, changing the entire mood of the group.  They stand watching the cars smoke, then become engulfed in flames. 

“What the hell?”  Greg says confused. 

The group watches as all of the other corpses start to reanimate.  They shoulder their weapons to prepare for battle, but all of the zombies slowly make their way towards the burning vehicles.  They pay no attention to the survivors, confusing the entire group. 

Greg looks at Deacon and asks, “What do we do with this?” 

Deacon still upset orders, “Cut ‘em down!” 

"zombies appear cresting an embankment" #zombie

Once on the interstate, they drive through the canyon on their way to Castle Dale.  Deacon points out a rest stop on the right where several vehicles are stopped.  Jeff says that he thinks he saw movement.  Deacon slows down Lana and Alicia become nervous, and frantically start asking why they are slowing down.  They plead with Deacon to not stop. Greg explains that it could be survivors.  Deacon stops his truck on the off ramp to the rest stop, and pulls a small pair of binoculars out of the cubby in the door.  He looks, then passes them off to Greg.  The now seasoned veterans’ in this fight to survive grip their guns a little tighter anticipating what may or may not happen. 

Attracted by the sound and movement of the passersby’s, several zombies appear cresting an embankment.  A few make their way around one of semis that had most likely parked there for the night.  Still frothing at the mouth and covered in what appears to be fresh blood, they stumble aimlessly towards the two vehicles.  Greg hands the binoculars to Luke.  Looking through them, he clarifies to the group that it looks like they just had a fresh meal.  The girls start to sob as they cover their faces.  Deacon takes off, making his way back on to the interstate.  Drake follows closely behind as they leave the threats in their rear view mirrors.  Back on course, Alicia now composed, asks them if this is the sort of thing they see regularly. 

The answer from Deacon, Greg, Luke and Jeff comes simultaneously, “Yes!”

“They started at the truck stops and just grew,” #zombie

As they pull off the interstate and drive through the city, Deacon points out the herds of walkers.  He describes the first time when they had come up they and had not seen a single walker.  The more they came up, now at least bi-weekly, the more herds had started to form and multiply in size. 

“They started at the truck stops and just grew,” he explains the herds origins. 

They turn on the road leading to Castle Dale. 

Deacon picks up the radio, “Keep your eyes open! Somebody is ambushing cars up here, and looks like everybody dies.”   He advises that there are some cars and bodies that have been shot up ahead of them.

The group has not run into them yet, but Deacon knows with as much as they go to see Simon it is only a matter of time. 

Deacon leans against the steering wheel, obviously focused in on something. 

“Hey, I see something gleaming up there in the trees.  You guys pass me and go!  I’ll keep up.  It’s up here on the left, in those trees.”   Deacon radios.

“RUNNERS!” She yells. #zombies

“RUNNERS!”  She yells. 

One of her shots finds its mark, and the runner falls.  The other two runners zig-zag their way through the herd of walkers.  Deacon yells to Luke to slow down the runners and that he and Greg will stay on the walkers.  The walkers are slow at making their way to the convoy, but are still falling.  The runners have broken free of the herd.  Luke drops one within fifty yards of the truck.  The other closes in on them quickly.  The more nervous she and Luke get, the more their bullet placement becomes less than stellar.  One of Luke’s rounds find its way to the creature’s hip, turning him.  Luke puts two rounds in the torso and one in the knee opposite of the hip he had shot.  Her shots tear through the runner’s flesh as he falls.  This runner falls ten feet from the front of the truck on the passenger’s side, out of sight.  Luke and her turn their attention to help Deacon and Greg with the walkers.  There are about thirteen walkers left and they have made it within thirty feet of the truck.  Deacon starts to question how good of plan this really was.  He has almost gone through two full magazines.