“That going to reach?” Paul asked the question that was on everyone’s mind.
“Find out in a minute,” Jack shouted back.
The entire group, even the pain in the ass Deneaux, watched as Jack extended the ladder. Woefully short would have been an adequate description. There was a good twenty feet between the tip of the ladder and the lip of the roof. An Olympic jumper could not bridge that gap. I smirked a bit as I thought of Deneaux trying. She could have probably made it if she had her broom.
Jack came down from the ladder control box and walked around the ladder truck until he found what he considered a suitable portable ladder.
I looked at Jack as he grabbed the ladder and then looked to the furthest point of the extended ladder which was swaying in the light breeze. “No way,” I breathed.
“Jack I don’t think so,” I said, voicing my concern.
Eliza and Tomas - Interlude
“Interesting,” Eliza said as she watched the rescue attempt.
“No way,” Durgan said as he watched the sway of the ladder. “They came up short. I say we take them out now!” “We will do as We wish,” Eliza said, nodding to Tomas. “What do you think we should do, dear Brother?” Eliza asked as she stroked his cheek.
“Michael Talbot will find a way on to that roof, Sister. And then we will have them all in one place,” Tomas answered as he looked through the window in the former store manager’s office. Grief was etched on his features, but it was belied by the eagerness in his eyes.
“All you have to do is send your zombies up to that fire engine, Mistress, and this whole exercise will be over,” Durgan said with a tone of exasperation.
Eliza grabbed a handful of Durgan’s shirt and lifted the man who weighed nearly three times her body weight and thrust him against the far wall. A small picture and a framed award shattered to the floor as a dazed Durgan tried to regain his footing.
“Do not trouble me with what you want!” she shouted. “Do not presume to think that I care at all what petty thoughts run through that pathetic human brain! You will do as I command, WHEN I command it!” Durgan was finally able to stand. He was certain that he had just suffered a mild concussion, but Eliza’s words rang loud and clear through the accumulating fog in his brain. “Yes Mistress,” he said meekly as he placed his hand up to a small wound on the back of his head. Tomas never turned around throughout the entire episode and that enflamed Durgan more than that little shit-eating grin the kid generally displayed around him.
“What are you doing, Brother?” Eliza asked as she joined Tomas back at the window. Durgan for the moment was completely forgotten.
‘So, this is the joy of being in the company of immortals,’ Durgan thought as he pulled up a chair, his head throbbing uncontrollably, his vision slightly blurred.
“I am sending zombies to the truck,” Tomas answered matter-of-factly.
“When did you discover that you could control them?” Eliza asked with an arched eyebrow.
“Just now,” Tomas answered, deep in concentration.
“I do not think that I like this new development, Brother.”
“I would not think so,” he told her, never wavering in his concentration.
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT – Talbot Journal Entry 14
“Zombies have spotted us,” Cindy said as she looked down from her perch on the fire engine’s hood.
Perla began to question the wisdom of what Jack was trying to pull off.
“Jack, I think we should just get out of here. Those people on the roof, we don’t even know them,” Perla said, embarrassed when she realized that I was within earshot.
Jack looked over towards me and shrugged his shoulders as if to say ‘She doesn’t speak for me.’
“I’ve said it from the beginning,” I told them. “You don’t owe us anything,”
“We might not know you well now,” Jack began. “But we will eventually, and I for one wouldn’t be able to look myself in the mirror if we didn’t do everything in our power to rescue them,” he finished more to Perla than for me.
“You be careful,” she said, putting her head on his shoulder.
“I made it through a tour in Afghanistan and one in Iraq . What’s a little high wire act above a few thousand zombies in comparison?” he asked her with bravado.
“Not funny,” she said as she mock punched his arm. The words did have the desired effect though, as she walked away from him with a slight smile.
“Jack, I think we should get out of here before the zombies make their way up to us and rethink this,” I told him.
Gary was at my side, nodding as he looked at the outstretched ladder swaying gently in the breeze. “I wouldn’t trust a monkey on that.” A rifle shot exploded through the relative stillness of the day. “Nice shot, Meredith!” Justin yelled.
“Fifty feet, Dad!” Travis yelled.
Now came the dilemma. If we tried this insane plan we were stuck here. It was an all or nothing proposal and to what end. Within seconds, we would all have to be on the fire truck or in our own vehicles getting the hell out of Dodge. The plus side had completely diminished as far as I could tell. The absolute best we could hope to accomplish at this point was to be stuck up on the roof with Paul and Alex, the worst would be being stuck in the fire truck. I didn’t think it would be capable of pushing through a wall of zombies. Well scratch that, the absolute worst would be getting eaten. Yeah, that would take the cake.
“Twenty-five feet!” came the update.
“Let’s get out of here!” I yelled. I’d made up my mind, there was no upside anymore.
“I can do this,” Jack said as he began to climb the extended ladder with the mobile ladder.
“What’s going on Mike?” BT asked.
“Zombies will be here in a few seconds,” I told him.
“And then we’re stuck,” Tracy added, filling in the blanks.
Perla seemed relieved that her fiancé would not be making the attempt.
“Just let me try it once Mike?” Jack asked, never really stopping his ascent.
“Brian, he’s not going to listen to me. You need to get him down so we can get out of here,” I said. Gunshots from Meredith, Travis and Justin seemed to reiterate my point.
“Jack, he’s right!” Brian yelled. “We’ve got to get out of here while the getting is good.” “Get the girls and get the hell out of here!” Jack said as he reached the end of the ladder.
“Can we just drive away with him on the ladder?” Perla asked, nervousness putting a tremor in her voice.
“He’s having a hard enough time staying on as it is, we hit a bump…” I let my frank answer trail off.
“We stay. Travis! I’ll help you, let’s grab the ammo cans, everyone else on the fire truck,” I said with dejection. This was not how I had envisioned this moment.
I had no sooner handed up the last ammo can when the zombies came around the back of the truck. I scrambled up the truck quicker than I thought my bone-weary body could move.
Meredith started firing into the rapidly growing crowd around us. I placed my hand on her shoulder. “Save the ammo for when we’re going to need it,” I told her.
“That isn’t now?” she asked me incredulously.
I just shook my head in negation.
I turned to watch Jack’s progress. It was at this exact moment that I wished I had been forced to watch a 72 hour Glee marathon, anything but what I was about to witness. Jack had propped up the smaller ladder by jamming it through a couple of the much bigger ladder ’s rungs. Now he was trying to secure it with some cabling. But before he could do that, the swaying from the wind, the jostling of the truck from our movements, and the zombies bumping into the body of the truck began to jar the ladder loose. I saw the small aluminum ladder begin to slowly fall as Newton ’s law began to take effect. My first instinct was to tell him to let it go. I had always taught my kids that it was not worth injuring yourself to save ANY piece of equipment, get out of its way and let it fall where it may.