Jolly Alpha Five Niner

The sounds of the helicopter blades were giving me a headache, along with the bumpy flight and reading on the move. That's what I was doing as Taylor played with the controls, reading the supply list for the township. I wasn't wrong about being short on supplies, the helicopter was near empty, unlike they usually are. Taylor breaks my train of thought as Abel comes into view.

"Abel Township is just on the horizon, see it now. Just a few fences to keep the zoms out, don't how they live like that… not that they will be living like that soon." Taylor turns on the coms to Abel Township, "Abel Township, this is Jolly Alpha Five Niner from Mullins base, 5 miles out, approaching from the east brining med supplies, shelter and loan of one of our own. Jolly Alpha Five Niner, requesting permission to land."

"Got that, er…I mean Rodger that… you're clear too… yeah you can come in." A young and unsure voice replies through the head set

"Rodger that." Taylor turns to me with a grim look on her face, I continue to read hopefully she leaves me be… unlikely. "Level with me, you and I both know we don't have half the supplies, we've lied to the township!" I look up annoyed.

"Come on Tay, I'm told no more than you are."

"Yeah, I know, you don't know anything. Someone will come up to you at Abel and say I'm here to brief you on project green-shoot, then you will find out what your mission is about, I just… what the…?" gunshots ring out and I stand to look out and see where that is coming from, not seeing anything I head towards the back.

"Who the hell is shooting? That's not coming from the township! Who the hell has a rocket launcher in this area?" an explosion destroys the tail of the helicopter and I'm thrown towards the front of the chopper. "We're hit! I've lost the tail rotor!" Taylor connects to Abel as I pull on a parachute and pass one to her.

"May day, may day this is Jolly Alpha Five Niner, we are going down 3 miles out from Abel Township, 2 souls on board!"

"This is Abel township calling, supply copter you are coming down fast! Can you hear us? Open your shoots! Jump…jump!" I did just that, hoping that Taylor was getting out behind me. The back of the helicopter was on fire, taking no chances at being caught when the chopper hits the ground I jump.

The chopper was still high when we were hit, I pull the string to open the shoot once I am a safe distance from the burning helicopter, and thankfully it opens. In the background I hear the chopper hit the ground, hopping to god that Taylor got out, I focus on landing without breaking my leg. Over the coms I can hear the Abel township coms operator starting to panic.

"Hey, hey I uh… this is Abel township calling, if anyone is alive if you've got your parachute open, this is Sam Yao from Abel township… ohhh, I'm just a coms operator, I'm not meant to handle this stuff." I land thankfully without breaking anything, Sam however is not any happier, and my day just gets worse. "You've come down in a horde of zombies they've heard the noise, there is thirty, no… forty zombies. Your only safe path is towards the tower, if there is anyone alive, just run… Run!"

I unhook my parachute as fast as I can and look around for the tower that Sam spoke about, and needless to say, I do as the jittery coms communicator tells me to do… I run.

"Wow, there is someone alive down there, running! Hey, can you hear me?" Sam sounds relieved to see me on his screens moving, it was a good sign that he can see me.

"Yeah, I can hear you!" I reply through my headset, now was not the time for formality, and I'm sure he would forgive me if I didn't state my number or name.

"No answer, but still look at them go! Heading for the tower just as I said!" damn it, he can't hear me… not that it matters at the moment, he can see me and there for direct me away from the horde of zombies I can hear approaching me from behind.

"Okay! Running person! If you can hear me, well you're going great, the main group is behind you and you will soon be out of the forest soon… but there is a… well yeah… I can't think of anything that isn't a 'small army of zombies'… sorry don't do so well under massive pressure. Anyway there is one of those on the east side of those trees, if you change direction and head towards the old saw mills, you should be able to see the gigantic red signs now…" I change my course to head to the old saw mill that has ivy climbing up the sides of it and small piles of rocks surrounds the base of the building.

"Hey look at that, they are changing direction, just like I said! Okay… that means that we can bring you in safely." I sigh in relief, I can here mumbling on the other side of the line and Sam protesting against something that someone says, complaining that he shouldn't ask me to do something that I might be injured, and the voice argues back. The voice changes and it's a woman this time, Sam scoffs as she begins to talk.

"This is Doctor Myers, the only medic in Abel Township. Lord knows I'm sorry to ask but your route will pass by the old hospital, we know there are medical kits there from the first wave of infection, if you pick up even one or two that would be helpful…" Sam cuts over the top of Myers.

"It's too dangerous, you know what happened to runner 5!"

"The zoms have followed the noise of the crash"

"But what about the person who fired the rocket launcher?"

"If someone wants to kill that runner, taking an unusual path will make it harder not easier," Sam scoffs, "I hate to be hard headed, but everyone around here earns their keep, you should be able to see the Robison hospital, one of the building, Griffons tower, it's the tallest in the city. If you can't bring anything in, we might not be able to let you in."

I change my course to head towards the hospital, I have a bad feeling that comes with this. Hospital corridors are not known for their windows, any lighting comes from the lights in the celling, without anyone at power stations that isn't grey, no power runs these light leaving everything dark. When everything went dark it was one of the first things we learnt, don't go into hospitals alone, and without a flash light. If you did, well you most likely would never make it back out alive or at least unbitten. However, this woman wanted me to run into a hospital for medi kits, injured, covered in blood, unarmed and without a light. Might as well tell me that I can't come in at all, because I am going to die before I reach the gates of Abel.

"Ok, ok…man that great, your making good time, no broken legs I see. Hey listen, I'm going to call you runner 5, just cause… well I don't know your name, and we just lost a runner, in the same hospital you are running through now." Well that's good to know after I start running through the hospital, if I didn't want to be here before I sure as hell don't want to be here now.

"Oh, god I am going to die." Christening me as runner 5 than telling me she died in this same hospital feels like a bad case of déjà vu.

"Ah she was so fast really funny and cleaver… me and her we sort of… she was amazing… But hey you can be out new runner 5! if you make it back alive." That's just great, I'm replacing his dead girlfriend.

"Yeah, our runners are important to keep us going here, any fuel we have goes to running the generators and the truth is, if you have two legs and can go faster than a slow shamble you can outpace the zombies, am I right? Yeah ok… your pace is good, but maybe head through the ground floor of the hospital, there is a swarm gathering of zombies in the car park that I don't like the look of. Yeah… yeah, that's good. You can even pick up anything you pass, we think there may be some… well we sent the old runner there looking for some file, so if you see anything official looking pick it up and bring it home." As Sam is talking to me I walk through the dark corridors looking for any important looking document, all the while picking up medi kits.

After a few minutes I stumble across a CDC box. "Well, we can't get more official than the CDC in the middle of a zombie apocalypse." I pick it up and keep walking, obviously I walk into Sam's line of sight.

"Hey, there you are. I've got you on camera now, great to see you now… even though you are a little blurry. What that you are carrying? Look at this doc, runner 5 picked something in the hospital" I lifted the box up in hopes that they could get a better look at the CDC box

"Is that the centre of disease control file?" Myers sounded surprised at the discovery.

"What's that?" it surprises me that Sam was unaware about what the CDC was, or maybe he just was curious about the box

"Runner 5 I don't say this lightly, that box might be worth your life to protect. Don't drop it!"

"What is it?"

"It could be nothing it could be everything"

"So a pretty narrow window of definition" it was at this point that Sam started to sound annoyed at Myers vagueness over the situation.

"What that shadow over there?" Myers seemed oblivious to the annoyance in Sam's voice and placed concern in her voice aver the appearance of the shadow, Sam seemed to panic over the sight.

"Oh… oh no, this is what happened… this is what happened, when we sent her out! They are following you! The swarm from the car park they are following you, now run!" Behind me I could hear the groaning of as Sam called it 'a little swarm', however it didn't sound little. Picking up my pace I ran flat out in the general direction of Abel, hoping to god I was going in the right direction.

The zombies are right behind me, I'm getting tired. I can hear the moans right behind me, so much for Sam's 'if you can go above a slow shamble you can out pace them' theory.

"They are so fast, why are they so fast"? They never run, why are they running? Runner 5, runner 5, they are gaining on you!" Sam sounds panicked at the idea of the zombies running, and in reality he isn't wrong to be panicked about this. I am, hell I'm ready to cry.

"Runner 5, you are not far from the gates now if you keep going we can send some people with guns out to meet you. Only one zombie is close to reaching you, put on a burst of speed now!"

Myers comes across as the calm one in this situation, I put on the burst of speed at her request, but my legs are killing me, and I feel like I'm inhaling razors with every breath. I can hear Sam as he starts to speak. He sounds broken once he notices that it is his dead girlfriend who's undead, cold hand brushes against my arm as I slow, my body cries for a break.

"Oh go… it's her… I can see her… its Alice… the old runner 5, she's the one chasing you. Oh… she's still wearing her head set… she…" another voice cuts over the top of Sam's wavering one.

"Runner 5, its runner 7 her head of runners. The doctor told me you found some useful information at the hospital we are sending people out to meet you keep running as fast as you can. Don't look back she's right behind you."

I do just that, it becomes harder to breathe and keep my pace up as time goes on, thankfully the sound of guns echo around me along with the sounds of bodies hitting the ground. A man runs up to me carrying a gun while the people in front of me up on the fence continue to shot down the zombies.

"This way, run!" I run closer to the man in order to avoid the bullets whizzing past me, for some reason the zombified runner 5 has fallen back.

"They're going to shoot her, I can't watch, I don't want to…"

"It's what she wanted Sam, you know she wouldn't want to live like this…" Myers holds compassion in her voice as she attempts to console Sam.

"Run! We've got it covered!" I run closer to the township and notice for the first time that it was bigger than expected.

"Raise the gates, raise the gates!" Sam calls out, as the gates start to raise there is an irritating, yet beautiful wiring noise. Finally I cross over into the township and I'm instantly surrounded by people. People calling out for food and other items, others just curious as to who this new person is. I struggle to breath, the back pack feeling like 100tones on my back at the moment. The crowd parts as a tall man around my age with black hair and a head set on comes through.

"Hey good to see you in the flesh. The totally unbroken skin not bitten by zombies flesh I hope!" I nod my head not trusting my voice as I struggle to remain standing as Sam slips my bag off of my shoulders.

"Step back, step back, don't crowd. Runner 5 can't take in so many new faces right now." He shoos people away, and as the crowds begin to disperse I hear someone whisper "that's the one from Mullins base, the one they sent to help with project green-shot." I hold my breath and look around too quickly. My head suddenly feels too heavy, and my lungs deprived of oxygen. The world turns upside down and goes black.