Free 900 Miles: A Zombie Novel by S. Johnathan Davis Page A

The ground was consumed by thick black smoke. I wouldn’t think that anyone could have lived through that.
    There are moments in our lives when time is divided into two parts.  Before an incident, and after.  These moments are usually life changing, and you can always look back on them, knowing that they existed.  Very rarely do you know they are happening at the time.
    My parents dying when I was in grade school, meeting Jenn, finding out we were pregnant – all significant moments, and each of them propelling me off into a different direction. Later, I would realize that this was one of those moments. This was one of those times where the pot would get stirred once again, and it all started with a scream.
    The moment we opened our doors, we heard someone frantically calling from inside the downed chopper.  Kyle and I made our way as close as we could, but the fumes from the leaking fuel filled the air. The twisted metal body was sitting on its side.
    Kyle ran up a small wooden ladder that led him to the top of the broken playground.  He was just high enough to look down through the open door that now faced the sky.
    “He’s alive!” he said, shielding his eyes to see better.
    I darted over to the front of the chopper, where the blood soaked windshield lay shattered.  The copilot was missing his head, and his body was badly mangled.  I could see movement in the midsection of the chopper, but could not make out exactly what was happening.
    Kyle’s vantage point was better, and I could hear him yelling down to the person trapped inside
    “We’ll get you out.  Don’t panic!”
    “Don’t panic my ass!  I’m trapped in here with one of them !” came the frantic yet pain filled reply.
    “Where?” Kyle demanded.
    “It’s pinned between one of the seats and a wall, but it’s getting loose!” the guy yelled breathlessly.
    I made my way up beside Kyle. The platform we stood on was actually part of a pretend pirate ship, complete with a skull and crossbones flag waving in the air.  Quite fitting, if not a bit ironic.
    Peering in, I could see the zombie pilot, still wearing his helmet, pinned at the front of the chopper.  His arms were just inches from the guy, who appeared to have a gut wound.  He had one bloody hand on his stomach, and the other on a metal case.
    I looked nervously around the park.  The crash had been loud, too loud.  The sun was just peeking up over a large hill and I could see a bunch of the undead’s silhouettes moving towards us as they came charging over the hill along with it.
    “Now or never,” I muttered. Kyle dropped in through the open side door. The pilot had his hands clutched around his would-be victim’s shoe when Kyle kicked the thing in the face, knocking the zombie’s helmet off.
    After unlocking the guy’s shoulder strap, Kyle lifted him up to me.  I reached down and hefted him through the side door. Trying to stand at the top of the play set, the man’s legs buckled causing him to collapse to the wood.  Just as I started to pull Kyle up, the dead pilot ripped his own leg off in an effort to get at him. Kyle gave several hard kicks as his eyes urged me to hurry. I gave a final heave just as he hooked his foot on the edge. We slammed back against the play set, scrambling to get away. I didn’t know how long that thing would stay in there, but I certainly wasn’t going to find out.
    With a grunt, Kyle slung the man, still clutching his metal briefcase over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry.  Down the stairs, and around a tire swing, we made it to the Hummer just as the horde of creatures began to close in around the chopper.
    I opened the back door, and Kyle threw him in.  We both climbed into the front seats just as the first zombie reached us.  It was dressed in a suit, not unlike the one I was wearing. We felt the front and back tires sequentially bump up into the air as I drove over Mr. Suit.
    We traveled a number of miles, passing various groups of