The helicopter came in, and every moment it became impossibly larger, the troops on the ground were uncomfortable. Some general was barking orders to a ragtag group of military men, what was left of the armed forces. Telling them to take aim at the chopper.
Rob ran out onto the tarmac, taking the stairs two at a time. Hitting the pavement, he waved his hands, running into the throng of armed men. Del stood at the top of the stairs with her arms crossed, looking unconvinced. “Stop, stop! What the hell are you doing?” Rob said. He pushed one man in camouflaged fatigues over, then stormed his way to the general. “What do you think you are doing? That’s a helicopter!”
The general looked less than pleased to be questioned and he turned to look at Rob. “That is a Russian military gunboat.”
“Yeah, and probably full of humans! Do you think zombies are flying that thing?” Rob pointed at the flying machine while it bore down on the airport, the air about them starting to kick up from the chop. The General didn’t look convinced, and he didn’t tell his men to stand down. Still, he’d not told them to open fire. Rob was sure that would be a mistake: for all the men he had, that gunboat was a flying tank. Armor plated, armed to the teeth, who ever they were if they opened fire on would be left a smoking wreck.
“General?” Rob said, challenging the man.
The chopper came in over the grounds and made a slow circle of the grounds before it hovered just over their heads. “Umm,” a young female’s voice echoed over loud speakers attached to the helicopter. “You might want to put your guns down, because I think my dog is going to open fire on you if you don’t.”
Rob didn’t think he’d heard the girl right but the airport around then started to echo with the amplified barks of a dog. “You have got to be kidding me,” he muttered. But at this point, with the world coming to an end, he was ready to believe that pigs could fly. Why couldn’t dogs fire missiles?
He was ready to plead his case when the General waved his hand, calling into his radio, “Stand down, stand down!” Not all at once but quickly after they, to Rob’s relief, lowered their weapons and cleared a space on the runway for the massive helicopter to land. He wouldn’t call it the smoothest landing but with a lot of back and forth the machine came to a rest on its runners.
The machine started to power down and the troops moved in closer to the machine. It was far less dangerous once it was on the ground. There in the cockpit was a blonde haired girl that couldn’t be much out of her teens and jumping about, looking through the windows, was a white and black spotted dog. In the lower gunners’ seat was a man in army dress, his clothes wrinkled and covered in blood.
The man stepped out first and some men raised their rifles at him. It seemed they weren’t ready to simply accept him. He was arguing with a captain while Rob tried to force his way forward. The girl had opened the driver’s hatch and the dog, an Australian sheep dog, dived from the cockpit. He was barking and jumping between the men, keeping them away from his co-pilot.
“I’m a general in the US army damn it, and you’ll stand down!” the man in the uniform called. Rob was getting closer, starting to hear their argument.
“A general with no forces, and a Russian aircraft?” one of men said, challenging him.
The girl in the cockpit was looking too scared to come out.
“Wait,” Rob tried to say, but no one was listening.
“I was in charge of the men at Umatilla, I’m General McNabb.” He stood up a little taller, showing some pride.
“You can explain it from the holding pen, General.” The man was not sounding like he was believing the story. Men were moving in to cuff him. Others were climbing up to pull the girl out of the cockpit. She started to scream and close the door on them.
Rob jumped between the men and McNabb. “Wait, wait, fucking wait! Don’t you see? This is the only man that can tell me what’s going on in that base!” The men didn’t move, but they didn’t back off either. Everyone was on the edge, and any moment it was going to get ugly. Even Del looked like she might be a bit worried for him, her blue eyes widening slightly, her eyebrows raised.
Then the back hatch of the helicopter popped open and a large man with a large belly came out, drinking a beer. “Top me off bitches, we’re back!”