“That fucking bitch didn’t die,” he thought to himself. She leaned in for another bite and tore away one of his eyes this time. He bellowed curses at her and then lost his strength to hold the door closed.
Webb appeared on the upper stairs of the first-floor stairwell, looking down at Abarra as the infected girl bit and tore away his eye. He yelled with rage, brought up his M4 and took out the woman on Abarra’s back. Then plugged the security guard in the face as a couple more infected busted through.
Webb started down the remaining stairs, but Abarra yelled, “Get the fuck out of here! Now! Webb looked up at him and caught Abarra’s eye. Webb knew there was nothing he could do now.
“Fuck!”, Webb yelled. He raised his rifle to end Abarra’s suffering when more infected poured into the stairwell and dog piled on top of him, blocking Webb’s shot. It didn’t feel right, but Webb knew he needed to get out of there and there was nothing he could do now, anyway. He fired a couple three-round bursts and took off up the stairs. He made it to the fourth floor and burst out of the maintenance door on the roof.
In all the carnage happening to Abarra, Webb didn’t hear the Blackhawk hovering just off the roof with Dr. Costa on board. Kennedy was entering the helicopter as Webb sprinted and jumped in through the side door.
“Go, go, go!” Webb yelled and the pilot lifted off of the CDC building’s roof. The pilot hovered over the insurance building to pick up the sniper element. As Neville and Shin loaded into the Blackhawk, the door on the roof of the CDC building burst open and dozens of infected came streaming out. The infected saw the helicopter, the prey on board, and charged toward them like a crazy mob.
The distance was too great between the buildings and the infected started dropping off over the side with their arms still outreached for Webb and his team.
Shin made his way in and the bird ascended. Webb glanced back to the CDC building just in time to see Abarra standing on the roof staring at him. Staring, just staring, head moving side to side, click, click, click, click, click, click….
CHAPTER 15
Doug looked at Priest while he talked to Webb, having previously asked where they were going or what they were doing now. Priest contacted Overlord for a set rep and to relay info to Webb. Shaw was in the back with Allison and Doc. Doc kept talking to Allison about all the stuff they had done and didn’t shut up log enough to take a breath. Shaw was getting annoyed because Doc was taking up time, he wanted to get to know Allison better.
“Doc, come up for air. You chatter on more than a damn chipmunk on speed. Give the woman a break, already.” Doc looked over at Shaw with a confused look, because Shaw rarely said a lot. Doc clammed up and turned to look out the window, and Allison discretely reached over and gave Shaw’s hand a squeeze in thankfulness.
Shaw didn’t know how Allison felt about him since they just met and the world was crumbling around them, but he told himself he would find out. “I mean hell, she had blonde hair, blue eyes and a pin up figure,” he thought to himself.
Shaw liked that fact that she seemed to possess a strength and intelligence that exuded a certain confidence which attracted him. He used to deal with bimbos, but had changed and would not deal with a woman if she was in that category. He definitely wanted to find out more about Allison, he just didn’t know if they would have the time to do that. Unsure about what would happen, Shaw wondered if Allison and Doug would go their separate way soon.
Shaw was kind of quiet, usually saying things when they needed said. He and Priest had become best friends, even though Priest was older than Shaw by about 10 years. They would go fishing, hunting, attend football games and just hang around each other. Neither of them had been married yet. Shaw was close a few years ago, but his fiancé decided she couldn’t deal with his military life and his constant deployment. Shaw and Priest had talked about it, and Shaw confided in him he may have been willing to leave the military if she would have been agreeable to discuss it. Shaw had related it pissed him off, because she just made her mind up and closed the door on their relationship. Priest told him it was a blessing in disguise and if she wasn’t willing to talk about something as important as that, then it spelled doom for any other struggle in life they would come across.
Thinking about Allison and maybe re-entering the world of dating brought up the past and his last relationship. Shaw sighed, closed his eyes and decided he would let it go for now and he drifted off to sleep in a matter of minutes. One lesson about being a Special Operations Rapid Deployment Unit was that you ate when you could, drank water when you could, and got sleep when you could. Try to wait for that perfect scheduled down time never came during a mission. “Get it, while you got it,” the saying was.
The chopper hit some turbulence and swayed in the air, but that wasn’t what stirred Shaw in his sleep. The touch on his hand caused him to part his eyes slightly to see Allison had grabbed his hand and was holding it. Her hand was soft and small in his, but they were freezing cold. He didn’t know if she reached over for comfort, safety, warmth or just human contact. He didn’t know, nor did he care, because he enjoyed it, accepted it and would not put any more meaning into it than it was.
Allison glanced over and saw a smile just at the corners of Shaw’s mouth. She let a smile form on her mouth.
After a while, Priest briefed everyone on the info from Webb’s group and let them know that they were to find a stage area and wait for further instructions.
“Doug, are you familiar with the Dearborn area?”
“No, Sir. Indiana is my base of operations.”
“Ok, then we need to be on the lookout for a safe place to set down and remain on standby.”
“Ok, gotcha Sarge.”
Doc speaks up, “Make sure it’s somewhere safe.” Doug and Priest look at each other and roll their eyes.
They entered the outskirts of Dearborn 20 minutes later and immediately began looking for a suitable spot to land.
“How about a parking garage,” Doc uttered.
Priest shook his head, “Negative, too many points of entry to cover. We need a roof top with only one access point to secure.” They flew around for two minutes when Shaw noticed something.
“Hey, I think that might be a hospital right there. I see a helicopter pad on that roof at our two o’clock.” Doug rotated around to see it.
“What do you think Sarge?”
“Hmm, what scares me is that the hospital would be the first place they would take the infected. I bet that whole hospital is full of infected.”
“Yep, probably so,” Shaw answered.