Orpheus Born by Dan DeWitt Page B

On the plus side, it was parked right next to the building
    “Got any ideas?” Jameson said.
    Actually, I did, and I told him as much. He wasn't a fan, but I knew he'd do as I asked. Trager wanted that truck, and I could tell that Jameson didn't want to have to explain why he came back minus four guys and the one thing that we were sent for.
    For the second time in a couple of days, I found myself dangling from a rope ladder over a sea of dead people as they converged upon us. Believe me, you do not get used to anything like that.
    We made it onto the roof without incident. I motioned for everyone to get flat, and they obliged. I low-crawled to the edge and risked a peek. Jameson took the chopper a few dozen feet away from the terminal building and dropped to about 15 feet above the ground. He held that bird steady as the zombies all made a beeline for him.
    I'd been fighting for my life since the whole thing kicked off, and I hadn't really had a chance just to observe the zombies. I was not encouraged to see how fast they still were. If anyone found themselves facing more than a handful of those things at anything less than a distance, they were finished.
    Jameson did a great job staying low and moving slow. Flying like that, he drew off most of the ones in front of the terminal and around the truck. On the other hand, he drew a lot of zombies from the back of the terminal to the front, but they were far enough away at the edges of the building that I didn't think they'd be a problem if we moved quickly.
    I wanted to use the roar of the helicopter to our advantage, so I kept as low as possible and looked through the nearest skylight to get our bearings. The others each chose a different skylight and did the same.
    I couldn't be sure what I was looking at, but I could tell right away that it wasn't the airport manager's office. The three sets of eyes reflected in the beam of my flashlight gave me a momentary sense of hope that I'd found some survivors, but that was dashed when I saw their insane, but futile, attempts to jump up and eat whatever parts of me they could grab.
    I looked to my teammates. Fish raised his hand and pointed. I hustled to him and we all shined our flashlights down. A beautiful wooden desk was right below us; it sure looked like a boss's desk. I smashed out the panes of glass and swept my flashlight around the room. I saw bookshelves, maps, and the only thing I really wanted to see: a keybox. Mutt had said that he was “pretty sure” he could hotwire the truck if need be, but I'd much rather have the actual keys. The room was empty, but the door to the hallway was open. My gut told me to wait a minute, and I was glad I listened to it, because a zombie wandered into the office and right into my beam.
    I just reacted.
    I drew and fired two into its face. My boots were on the desk before the zombie was completely still; I had to get that door shut. I grabbed its legs and pulled it into the office, but not before I got a glimpse of human-sized shadows in the hallway. Before I could shut the door, Sam shut it for me. The guy must've had me by nearly twenty years, and I was the one who almost had a heart attack.
    “Jesus,” he whispered. “You could have told us your plan.”
    “No time. And thanks for following.” He nodded, and that was that. I had his complete trust, and he had mine.
    I motioned for the other two to join us. They finished tying off the “just in case” rope ladder to the roof and were on the floor within a minute.
    Fish put a toe into the dead zombie's neck. “Starting the party without us, Orpheus?”
    “There's plenty to go around out there.”
    Mutt had already gotten down to business and was looking through the keys. “I caught the tags on the truck, so if the keys are here, I'll know.” He flipped through some more sets then held one up and jingled it. “Hello, beautiful.”
    “You're sure?”
    “I'm sure.”
    “All right. We have two plays here. We kill whatever's