"What are you talking about, the greenies can just keep blasting them with grenades," another man responded.
"I’m standing on the East ramp with them, and they say that the grenades they had were brought by just a few guys," said the first man.
Chapter Nine
Sulla sat in the administrative office at the Butler County Airport. They had moved into the room a radio designed with an array of frequencies to talk with planes. Shortly after Sulla destroyed the bridge on Route 8, Captain Anderson contacted him on the radio over the emergency channel. Their conversation went something like the following.
“This is Captain Anderson of the Pennsylvania National Guard; I need to talk to Paul Sulla.”
“This is Sulla. Go.”
“I have about two-hundred civilians I’m loading in a convoy and bringing to you,” Anderson said.
“Cool, where are you coming from, and how many soldiers are you bringing?” Sulla said.
“We are at the Butler VA armory. I only have about twenty soldiers, but more may filter in throughout the night. What’s your situation there?” Anderson said.
“Dude, I need ammo. In addition, I have about three-hundred people, give or take, forting up here at the airport. About a hundred of them have guns, and we have formed an ad-hoc militia to hold the area. So how soon are you coming over, so I know when I’ll have to start cleaning the house for the totally awesome party we’re going to have?”
“I will be loading trucks all night. We’ll convoy over in the morning with everything that can be carried for a pot-luck” Anderson said. “Oh, by the way, I hear your last party knocked the main bridge down to get to you. Is there anything else I should know about?”
“Yeah, sorry about the bridge” Sulla said. “You’re kind of on the other side. But if it makes you feel better, I have another bridge. Speaking of which, you may want to close that door behind you on your way through."
The conversation had gone on for several more minutes before both men got back to their own crisis.
The night had brought no sleep to Sulla's eyes, and his hand rested on a cup of coffee that Dr. Carson's assistant, Kimberly, had brought him. I don’t even drink coffee he thought, but the warmth feels good in my hand.
A number of people had disappeared during the night. Sulla didn’t think they were dead because their vehicles were missing. Everyone had family that they wanted to find. Sulla knew that if those people could find their loved ones, they would be back.
Sulla's father and younger sister, Bianca, had made it to the airport fairly early on to help out. The two of them were currently watching a section of fence on the airport property.
Knocking out the bridge had scattered the horde buying the community valuable time. Hundreds of zombies fell over the gap in the bridge to their end below, but most of them survived to roam the creek bed.
Sulla waited all night for help to arrive from Pittsburgh, and then he heard the reports out of Oakland. Butler was small potatoes compared to the river city, and the big boys had other worries now.
Sulla watched Kimberly serve coffee to the five other people sitting at the conference table. The people assembled had emerged as the ad-hoc leaders of the militia supporting Sulla. Dr. Carson sat at the opposite end of the table eyeing Kimberly.
When Sulla picked them up in the helicopter, he noticed that Carson was wearing the girl on his arm like a watch. He didn’t pay much attention then, but now it stood out to Sulla as a direct contradiction to the wedding band on the good Doctor’s finger.
“As we all know, things are bad,” Sulla said. “Other than Captain Anderson’s unit, I don’t think we can expect to see any help. To make matters worse we had a number of people slip out on their own to collect family. I think our first order of business today is to organize parties to round up local family members that are still outside the fence.”
To Sulla’s right sat Eric Mullins, a Middlesex Township Police officer. He nodded in agreement with Sulla.
“Eric, I’d like you to work with guys from our road department and any other police left to form up these parties. Let’s start with trying to find the families of mission critical people like the Doc here.”
Kimberly’s head snapped around to look at Carson from the side of the conference table. She had been mid-pour of filling a cup of coffee, and she spilled some of it.
“I appreciate the offer,” Carson said, “But my spouse was at the Mall when it got attacked. After seeing what happened at the Hospital, I’m under no illusions about her odds.”
Kimberly put down a cup and walked out of the conference room. Her face felt flushed at the conversation behind her and her heart wanted to explode out of her chest. Down the hall, she pushed open the door to the women’s room and turned on the faucet. She bent over and filled her hands with water and splashed it on her face.
What kind of person am I, she thought. I’ve wronged this woman, and now she is probably dead, and my first reaction is that I’m happy that he is all mine now. Kimberly remembered an Easter Sunday when she was a little girl. Her mother had dropped her off at Sunday school for the first time. She sat around a table eating vanilla wafers in her new white dress with blue trim. The teacher taught them about how it was wrong to take what was not yours. To illustrate the point, the teacher took Kimberly’s cookies away. It hurt Kimberly's feelings to single her out like that, but the teacher gave them back later.
“I’m so sorry Alison,” she said to the mirror in front of her. “I’ve wronged you, and there is nothing I can do to make it up.”
In her pocket, her cell phone vibrated for the first time since the outbreak started. She pulled the phone out and saw her mother’s number on the display.
Kimberly’s parents had been having marital problems for as long as she could remember. Her father drove trucks for a living and one day he took a job out west driving a rig between military bases in the desert. The separation proved to be a good thing for the marriage and it stayed that way for several years. One day her mom announced to Kimberly that her father wanted them to move out west with him. At this point, she was grown up and had her own apartment in Butler, which Dr. Carson had been moonlighting at for a few months. She urged her mother to take the opportunity to patch things up with her father and make the move, but she would not be going along.
“Kimberly, thank God,” her mother said on the phone. “Doug, I got through, pick up the other phone. We’ve been trying to reach you all night, are you alright?”
“Mommy I need you.” Kimberly said.
“Are you hurt baby?”
“No, but it’s awful here,” Kimberly said.
“Where are you at; are you safe?”
“I’m at the County airport with other people,” Kimberly said.
“Kim, honey,” her father said, “If there’s any pilots there I want you on the next plane out. I don’t care what it takes or where it’s going; you just get out and get as far away from there as possible. Do you hear me?”
“Yes daddy,” Kimberly said.
“I’m serious about this Kim, anything it takes.”
“I’m so sorry, I love you both,” Kimberly said.
“Baby you don’t need to be sorry; you just worry about taking care of-,” her mother said as the phone went dead.
Kimberly realized the phone cut out, but finished her statement anyway. “I’m so sorry that I’m not the girl you tried to raise me to be.”
She knew the guilt over Alison would eat at her, but she also knew she wouldn’t stop or leave him.