Charlene pulled the knife from the sheath on her hip and tore at the tarp she had bundled up. She cut a long piece out of it and gave it to me. “I’m going to need a stick or something,” I said.

Everyone searched the plane as I wrapped the piece of tarp around her thigh and began twisting it tighter and tighter in place. We were going to have to make a tourniquet. No EMS would be responding, and I didn’t know how else to stop the bleeding.

She was bleeding a lot. It wasn’t spurting, but it was pouring and pooling around my knees. “A stick!” I said.

I removed my knife. I fit it between the ends of the tarp and used it to twist the tourniquet as tight as possible. I held it in place. If I removed my hand from the knife, the pressure would loosen and the blood would continue to flow from her. For now, it seemed to have stopped. “We’re going to get you out of here.”

Palmeri’s lips mostly trembled, as if tremendous amounts of strength was needed to attempt a smile.  “This isn’t going to work. If there are fast ones out there, and there are bound to be fast ones, I am either going to slow you down, or risk getting all of us caught. I won’t have that on my head, I won’t.”

“We’re not leaving you,” I said.

“Dad,” Charlene said.

I looked up. She waved me over. She and Allison were squatting, looking out the hole in the side of the plane. “Hold this,” I said, and placed Palmeri’s hand on my knife. “We’re not done talking about this, you got it?”

She nodded. “Got it.”

I stood up and Dave and I walked toward my daughter. “What is it?”

“Looks like a building over there just off the road. It doesn’t look that far. I think we can make it.”

Allison was nodding. “Looks like a school.”

A school would mean a nurse’s office, cafeteria and bathrooms. “I like it. Dave?”

“Best plan we’ve got. You and I can carry Palmeri. Allison and Charlene can cover us,” he said.

“If the doors are locked?” Charlene said.

“Worry about that when we get there,” I said, and shrugged. “Let’s leave those things here. Just take our weapons. If it is a school, we’ll have more supplies, better supplies in there.”

“We really only found the tarp.”

“Perfect, leave it,” I said. “Okay, let’s get Palmeri.”

I went back to her. She’d removed the knife, the makeshift bandage, and lost so much blood that the color had drained from her face and lips. She looked pasty white, and blue. Again, she tried to smile. “I’m sorry,” she said, and held out her hand.

We laced fingers. “What were you thinking?”

“You guys have to get out of here, get out of this plane,” she said, and then her body spasmed with a series shivers.

I re-wrapped the bandage around her thigh.

Palmeri put a hand on mine, and shook her head. “It’s too…it’s too…”

There was nothing else. Her eyes and mouth stayed open. Vacantly, she stared at me. More ghosts to haunt my nightmares. I lowered my head and rested my forehead against her hand, our fingers still laced together.

“Chase,” Dave said. “Chase.”

I pulled away, released her hand and retrieved my knife. “Okay, we’re moving. Ready?”

#  #  #

I stepped off the plane first and looked left and right, holding my sword in both hands. Those things might have been holed up in the woods, but with Palmeri’s scream, hell, with the plane crashing out of the sky, they had to be beyond curious and ready to investigate. I didn’t see anything. Not a single zombie anywhere. Once I felt confident there wasn’t any immediate danger, I turned and held out a hand and assisted my girlfriend and daughter. Next, and lastly, I helped Dave out of the plane. I wasn’t sure if he would accept my hand, but he did. He took it.

“What have we got?” Allison stood beside me, her sidearm gripped tightly in hands with arms extended. “The woods are to the left and behind us, and the school, if that’s what it is, is to the right, that way.”

I saw two signs in the bit of moonlight that challenged the surrounding darkness. We had landed on RT 68, New Castle Rd.  “It’s Butler High School,” I said. “That was a good call, Charlene.”

We stayed low. “Move together,” Dave said.

“You take point,” I said. “I’ll bring up the back end. Let’s stay close, clustered, okay?”

Dave nodded.

“Freeze! Hands up.”

I had to look around. I wasn’t sure where the voice came from, but I froze. “Stop everyone,” I said, hoping it came out in a whisper. “Dave? You see--”

“No talking!”

“We are no danger to anyone here. We’re just making our way through,” I said. It wasn’t zombies in the woods. It was people. Fucking people. We’d rushed to free Palmeri exposing whatever main artery had been severed and she’d bled to death when maybe we didn’t have to.

“All four of you are armed like you’re dangerous!”

“They are not getting our weapons.” Despite the fading light, I saw Dave grind his teeth.

“I said no talking!”

“Why don’t you show yourselves,” I said, still unable to pinpoint where the voice came from. I didn’t think it was to the left or the right, but neither did it seem to be from in front of us, either. “I’m telling you, we do not want any problems. To be honest, food, water, maybe bathrooms is what we’re looking for and then we are on our way. That’s it. That’s all we want.”

“And what will you do to get food and water?”

“What will we do? We’ll look for it. We’ll keep moving until we come across it,” I said.

“You’ll keep moving.”

“That’s what I said.” I think it came from the woods, now to our right, where we thought the zombies had been. It was no wonder they hadn’t just attacked us when we crash landed, or when I was underneath the plane trying to free Palmeri. It wasn’t like the zombies I’d witnessed learning, they weren’t being cautious. It hadn’t been zombies at all.

“You’ll keep moving now.”

I lowered my head. “Look, man, we’re hungry, tired and we need water. You go your way, we’ll go ours.”

“It’s not going to work like that. You’re going to start walking now, walking west on this road, and we’re going to watch you until we can’t see you anymore, or until we get tired of following you. Understand?”

We’re going to watch you? That is what he said.

“Chase?” It was Dave.

There was no need for a pissing match. I had no idea how many “we” equaled, but I knew my “we” was just the four of us, and one of my four was fourteen years old. I gave some vigorous head nods, knowing full well they could see us. I’d wager some rifles held us in crosshairs. That wasn’t a farfetched assumption. “Fine. You want us to just keep walking, we’ll just keep walking. Appreciate the Pennsylvania hospitality. I’ll be sure to tell friends and family to stop by if they’re ever in your back-ass, redneck part of the woods.”

“Daddy!” Charlene hushed me. She was right. There was no need to tempt this group of strangers. We knew nothing about them. Getting to walk was better than getting killed.

“Sorry,” I said, whispering. “I’ll take point. Stay close.”

I led them. We took several steps away from the plane. The progress was slow. I wasn’t about to start running. Part of me hoped to catch sight of them, or of at least one person watching us. I wasn’t going to do anything about it if I saw them, but I just wanted to see them. I didn’t like the bully-tactics, however, I did understand them. What was becoming par for the course was protect your own. The guy talking to me could be some guy just like me, with a girlfriend and kids and some friends, and he didn’t know us, didn’t trust us. He didn’t have a reason to trust us. I think given the same set of circumstances--some plane falls out of the sky during a zombie apocalypse, and a small band of heavily armed people emerge--I’d send them walking, too. I know I would.