The landing was a complete dud. I couldn’t see shit from up there. I felt completely impotent and stupid. It was obvious I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. All the landing provided was time: time to feel terrible for all the crappy decisions I had made up until that point. I had endangered my friends’ lives. Not only that, but I had also picked up two other people I couldn’t take care of.
My mind raced with negative conclusions, which was just an extension of how I felt back at the security fence. My friends were probably dead, and that was probably my fault. The military wasn’t there, and I was all alone. If I had allowed it, my mind would have raced in an infinite loop of horrendous outcomes. Instead, I summoned strength and resolve I never knew I had and put a stop to the destructive thinking.
Once I calmed myself, I inexplicably laughed. Kelley probably thought I was crazy, and maybe I was. After all, we were literally fifty feet from Miley’s parking lot. I wasn’t going to learn anything else from the landing. All I was doing was putting the baby’s health in jeopardy because I was afraid to cross the street – afraid of what I would find or not find.
You know how you feel when you buy a Powerball ticket? Although statistically you know you probably aren’t going to win, that doesn’t stop you from thinking you could be holding a winning ticket. I wanted to savor my numbers a little while longer, I guess. I didn’t want to find out I’d lost, because everyone’s a potential winner until they’re not. I couldn’t put it off any longer. I had made excuses long enough. It was time to walk across the fifty-foot expanse and see if my friends were there. It was time to check the numbers.
I quickly made my way down to where Kelley sat. Where the hell was the baby, I wondered. Before I could say anything, she said, “I needed to feed her. She was getting fussy.”
Sure enough, she had her inside her parka. “Oh, okay – I’m, uh, I’m going back up there until you’re finished.”
“It’ll just be a few more minutes.”
“Sure.” More time to savor my numbers.
She seemed to be trying to be nice to me. For a moment, I felt guilty for the way I felt about her. I hired a lot of people in my day, though, and my record was pretty good, especially given I didn’t always have top tier people to choose from. I was confident in trusting my gut, and it was screaming not to trust her, especially since I was pretty sure she lied to me about the cell phone. Having said all of that, I was willing to delay my conclusions about her until a later time, especially considering she had just lost her husband in a horrible manner.
But still, if all the electronics were down, how in the hell did she have a cell phone?
Nearly as soon I got back to the landing, I heard a crash to my left, followed by the sounds of multiple broken windows. What the hell! Soon after, I heard the crunch of footsteps in the snow directly below the landing. My first thought was Kelley running off with the baby. I looked to where the noise seemed to be coming from, and it wasn’t Kelley. There was a brief respite of sound, and then I was inundated with the crunching of hundreds of footsteps in snow.
“The fuck,” I said under my breath. A completely naked Gray walked by, no more than ten feet away from the duplex. I quickly switched off my headlamp, so he wouldn’t see me. He was closely followed by Grays in various forms of dress. The naked man was in the minority, but there were others who were nearly as scantily clad has he was. If they were affected by the cold, they didn’t act like it.
Grays filed out between the houses all along D Street before congregating in the street adjacent to Miley’s office. Without the extra light from my headlamp, I couldn’t see far enough to get an accurate number, but considering the number of footsteps and the amount of sniffing and snorting I heard, there a lot of them.
Why hadn’t I fucking gone when I had the chance!
“William,” Kelley whispered from below me. I quickly scanned below us to see if any Grays had been alerted by her voice, but the ones I could see seemed unaffected. I quickly but quietly made my way down the steps, crouching to stay below the railing as I made my way around to where she sat safely in her little nook with the baby still inside her parka.
“I can’t see anything from here. What’s going on?” She asked, being a hell of a lot cooler than I was.
I got as close to her as comfortable before whispering, “Grays. We’re blocked from Miley’s, at least from here, anyway.”
She gave me a questioning look. “Grays?”
“The monsters,” I huffed, leaving it at that.
She nodded.
A Gray sniffed dangerously close. He must have heard me. I put my hands out in front of me, palms towards her, letting her know to stay put. I duck walked my way to the steps leading down off the porch. My legs burned at almost any new activity. So much so that my right leg finally locked up, causing me to have to stop and stretch it for a moment before continuing. I crawled on my hands and knees the rest of the way to the steps that led off the porch.
I peeked around the railing to my right, then chided myself for letting out a quick gasp. No more than five feet away stood at least four Gray stragglers. They were curious about something because they sniffed the air relentlessly, but for whatever reason they seemed contented to sniff in place. The fact that they were agitated let me know they knew something was up, but they were having a difficult time figuring out exactly what it was they were curious about. One of them yelped like a dog. That was new.
There was a noise somewhere to the south of the duplex. Who in the hell would be stupid enough to make that much noise? I wondered. It sounded like a metal pipe being smacked against the airport safety fence. There was a buzz of grunts and inhuman sounds beginning near the fence and cascading all up and down the line of Grays in the street. This was followed by numerous fast running towards the sound. Much to my dismay, there were still plenty of grunts and snorts from Grays who didn’t leave. Still, I couldn’t help wondering if the noise hadn’t thinned the ranks in front of us enough that we might be able to sneak through the line.
My manhood already gone due to my inability to walk upright, I crawled back to the nook. I let Kelley know I was going to see if there was a way forward to Miley’s, and if there wasn’t I was going to try to clear a way back to safety. “Get your pistol ready just in case.” She nodded.
I crept down the steps, trying to stay low and quiet enough to go unnoticed. The four steps off the porch were just about the cherry on top for my increasingly uncooperative legs. A lone Gray was off to my right, his back facing me. He was the only one I saw, but there were others. I was sure of that. The Gray in front of me suddenly jerked his head around to the side, sniffing loudly but not moving.
I inched towards D Street. I cursed silently. The Grays in the street were packed in so tight, there was no way we could make our way through their ranks. I moved a short way towards the airport, but the line was just as thick there. There could’ve been a thousand or more of them blocking our way. Why had I been so damn stupid and indecisive?
I eased my way back several feet away from the street. As bad as I hated to think about it, the maintenance building was probably the safest bet. We might be able to break into a house that was closer, but who knows what we might find inside. I decided on the maintenance building. It was the safest bet.
I would need to clear a path back to the maintenance building. I wasn’t sure how I would do it, though. I couldn’t exactly ask them nicely to disperse in an orderly fashion. I quickly glanced around for bottles, cans, or anything like that I could use to get their attention. Then it dawned on me that even if I were to be able to find things to throw, they weren’t going to make enough noise when they hit the snow. That wasn’t going to work. I finally decided I would have to be the noisemaker.