Free Day by Day Armageddon by J. L. Bourne Page B

John and I had to use our "mailbox sound device" today while loading the H2. This was a couple hours after the military dropped the sound decoy. The things were coming out of the woodwork and many of them were milling around our street. We made four trips until the things destroyed John's noisy invention. One of them finally yanked it out of the mailbox and used it as a bludgeon, denting the mailbox top. We loaded everything up and it's almost time to leave. It's dark outside and I have turned the lights off so that when we leave, our natural night vision will be already adjusted. John and I will be flying cast in our small aircraft. I have studied the manuals over and over. Not much else to do besides countdown hours.
     
      I think we may be a little overweight on the bird. Oh well. I will get her in the air. Ten hours until the end of the world.
     
     
    VII - Nuclear Winter
    February 1st, 0430 hrs
     
      The three of us (including Annabelle) slipped out the back last night and made for the H2. Our eyes were adjusted. Apparently Annabelle's were also, as she warned us of a ghoul lurking in the shadows. John told me he felt the hair stand up on her back (he was carrying her) and we could both hear her quiet barks through the muzzle. I dispatched the creature with an aluminium bat and continued on to our vehicle. There were a few lurking around behind the vehicle, but they were a safe distance away and we were able to make it inside.
     
      The drive to the racetrack was pretty much uneventful. I drove slowly and kept my headlights off. Other than the occasional thump, of one of those things off my fender, there was nothing. The moonlight showed me the way.
     
      We pulled up to the chain link gate that led to the track. I turned on my headlights and the c-clamp was still there just as I left it. Me and my rifle exited the H2 and went over to the gate and unlatched the clamp. Although I didn't see any of them around, I could smell them and sense their presence in the distance.
     
      After pulling the Hummer in, I reattached the c-clamp. A hundred yards off I could faintly see the outline of one of the un-dead. No matter. It would take at least a hundred of them to breach the fence.
     
      John and I unloaded the H2 and packed up the Cessna. I performed the pre-flight checklist and got her ready to take to the air. I got in the cockpit and performed the engine start checklist. She started with no difficulty. Checked the fuel pressure and quantity and it was ill I in the green. John and I both latched our exterior doors and I turned on my landing/takeoff lights. It was then that I had remembered my gruesome discovery a few days before, the poor mechanic that been crushed under a lift and dined upon.
     
      I also remembered my encounter with one of them, and how I killed it, and put a 55 gallon oil drum in front of the door to keep whatever else was in there from getting out.
     
      My landing lights were pointing at the garage door. The door was wide open, the barrel was on its side. It was then, when the garages mystery resident showed itself. A loud thump on the pilots side window, and the thing was there…drooling and pressing its lips to the cockpit glass like one of those algae suckers in a fish tank. It scared the shit out of me. I can't believe I forgot about the garage until I was in the plane. That could have been my demise. I started to taxi in my takeoff area, the thing was shuffling after the plane. I tried to avoid hitting it with my propeller, as I didn't want to risk any damage.
     
      I pushed the throttle to full power, and fed a rich mixture of fuel into the engine. We started to lurch forward. My anti-collision breaks were making the stadium look like it was in a thunderstorm. I looked in my rear view mirror and could see two ghouls inside the perimeter shambling toward me.
     
      50 knots… 60 knots… 75 knots…I pulled the controls back and started to climb. It was going to be