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.Then came the female.She looked to be in her late fifties or even early sixties.She had red curly hair and was slightly overweight.They were both on the ground holding what few belongings they had, looking to me for answers.My confidence seemed to drain along with the golf cart battery after seeing so many of the creatures.I mustered up what acting ability I had (Abraham Lincoln in kindergarten) and feigned confidence, telling them to follow me.Before we left I took a zip tie out of my pack and went over to the luggage cart.They were closer now, about six hundred yards, and closing fast.I climbed into the luggage cart and put it into reverse.A loud warning beep sounded.I zip-tied the pedal down so that it would go until it hit something or the battery was completely depleted.I jumped out and rolled to avoid injury as the cart drove off, beeping loudly, in the direction of the undead mass.We headed back to the aircraft the same way I had come in, taking special care to remain undetected as we clumsily traipsed through the foliage parallel to Interstate 10.I could hear loud moans coming from behind us from the direction of the airport.We were upwind from them.No doubt they could somehow smell us, even though I admit I never bothered to examine one closely enough to see if it even breathed.As we journeyed through the woods in the general direction of the aircraft, I handed the woman the M-9 that I had stolen from the army transport truck earlier.She told me that her name was Dean and that this was her grandson, Danny.I shook both of their hands and pulled out the yellow handwritten note that I had found hidden in the fuel truck at Hobby Airport.The woman looked at the note.Her bloodshot eyes began to tear up and she stopped for a moment, looking into my eyes.She reached out her arms and hugged me while she cried.My first thought was that Mr.Davis was a close friend and family member of hers and that the note had somehow surfaced painful recent memories of his untimely demise.“I know you are unhappy, but we have to keep moving.There are many of those creatures around.The golf cart won’t fool them for long,” I told her.She insisted that she needed a minute or two to get her bearings.What could I say? If my mother ever found out I had disrespected my elder I’d get my ass kicked.I asked the woman what had happened to Mr.Davis and his family.She replied, “Danny and I are the Davis family.I left the note at Hobby Regional last month, right before we flew here.”Puzzled and feeling the ever-so-slight sting of sexism in the back of my mind, I humbly inquired who flew the plane.She smiled and for a brief second looked a little younger and said, “I did.I am a certified pilot, or used to be, when being a certified pilot meant something.”Holding back my look of jackassery, I scanned the area for any threat and continued talking to the woman named Dean.Danny sat on the ground in front of her feet, his small head scanning all around for threats.I felt peaceful as I spoke to this woman, almost as if she was the last grandmother left on the planet and I wanted to hear her stories.Now wasn’t the time.My main reason for stopping was to give them an emotional rest from what had just happened at the water tower.Although the woman was more than capable of handling herself, she was still an older woman and I felt that they had needed this brief break in the action.The woman called Dean showed obvious signs of malnutrition.Loose skin hung from her arms and legs as a testament to her love for her grandson.Danny didn’t look great, either, but I could tell that food had been given up for his survival.With guilt and a little sorrow in my voice, I made the suggestion that we keep moving and get to the aircraft as soon as possible.It would be very difficult to find the fuel truck at Hobby if we were forced to fly at night.As we walked, I tried to keep Dean’s mind off today’s events by quietly asking her why she learned to fly.She was eager and happy to talk about it.As she whispered, I kept glancing past her face into the breaks in the trees that intermittently revealed the interstate [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]