by GHOST.
Wrote it yesterday for his LA class (yes! they are finally writing!!!), took him less than 2 hours. This is only a first draft, not yet edited , even for spelling.
Enjoy ! (and can you tell he is into planes and flying :-)
November 2nd, 19?6:
The blizzard was probaly the fiercest Major Dickson had ever seen. Just a minute ago, the sky had been free of all clouds, and now he was in the middle of an icy hell. He was panting hard, and every once in a while, he stumbled and fell. He couldn't feel his fingers or toes, and although his face was wrapped in a thick scarf, it seemed like it would fall off from the cold any second.
Ever since he was deployed to the secret airbase in Alaska, everything had been going downhill for Major Dickson. He was only to do one mission, but because some men got shot down over Syberia, he ended up doing three. This one was to be his last, a top secret mission in a U2 taking some reconaissance photos of Russia's number N3 nuclear factory. If he was successful in accomplishing his mission, he had been told, America could easily end the cold war. Everything was going perfect, unlike in his other two missions. He had leveled off at 40,000 feet MSL, and was about 22 miles away from the factory. He would be there within minutes. He had just flown into a small bank of clouds, all systems reading normal, when suddenly, he heard a small "ping" and all his avionics went dead. He flipped the backup power switch. Nothing. He tried to channel power from the turbine generator. Nothing again. But then he noticed his radar screen started to glow its usual green again. He set it to ten miles, expecting to see nothing. But the he saw a small blip moving towards him at what seemed like an impossible speed.. It was only half a mile away now. Then he heard his engine explode. Major Dickson's plane started spinning on all its axis. The G's were unbearable! Using all the strength in his body, Major Dickson reached for the ejection handle in front of his groin. Right as he pulled it, he glanced at his altimiter. 20,000 feet. Then he blacked out.
The major woke up laying face up in the snow. He sat up and looked at the compass on his watch. He remembered that the U.S. had a tiny outpost 300 miles south of where he presumed he was. He sat up, and looked at the cloudless sky. Then he looked at the barren wasteland. There was nothing to be seen in any direction, not even his plane. Major Dickson quickly assesed the situation. He had a week of survival rations, and about two hours of gas to melt snow into drinking water. He was wrapped head to toe in -50* C grade clothes. He decided he would activate his emergency beacon, and start going south. And that's when the blizzard came.
Major Dickson had just fallen for what seemed like the thousandth time. He doubted he could go another ten feet. Maybe, he thought, I should just dig a snow cave and wait it out. But when he stood up, what he saw changed his mind completely. Not more than a hundred feet away, he saw a concrete wall. The thought that it belonged to the Russians flashed throught his head, but he decided that even being set to a POW camp is better than trudging 280 more miles through a blizzard to a place that might not even exist. And so he got up and went towards the wall. When he got a bit closer he saw it was round, and that there were blood stains every few feet or so. But there were more buildings. Suddenly, Major Dickson wasn't so sure about seeking refuge in this strange place. However, he continued onward. He kept walking, and soon, he realized he was surrounded by giant structures, with pipes here and there. Then he saw a rusty, corroded metal door that was partly open. He walked closer, and noticed it was a side door into what looked like a giand aircraft hanger, the type his U2 was stored in. He took out his pistol, and slid through the crack that the door formed.
Major Dickson was awed by the size of the whole place. It was illuminated by some flickering lights coming from the celing. In the middle was a giant nuclear reactor. And on the far side of the hanger was a set of rusty stairs that led to a glass control booth almost by the ceiling of the room. There were three figures in the control booth. Suddenly, the major realized where he was. It was a reactor room of the N3 nuclear factory! Major Dickson decided that if he could take over the control booth of the reactor, he could control the base by threatening a meltdown!
The major screwed on his muffler to the pistol, and hugged the wall, inching closer to the control booth and hiding in the shadows. He noticed the whole place had an air of decay, as though there were rotten corpses strewn everywhere. The walls were covered with rust, and, as Major Dickson noticed, dry blood. He would have thought the entire place had been abandoned for years, had there not been the three figures in the control room. Major Dickson was very close to the control booth now. He took his aim, and quickly fired three shots at the control booth. The glass shattered, but the three figures did not move, so the major decided he had killed them. Knowing that an alarm had probably been raised, he sprinted up the deteriorating stairs and into the control booth. What he saw made his heart stop. The three figures he had assumed were operators were actually, as he now realized, skeletons, with shreds of their old clothes hanging off, and dry bits of flesh clinging to their bones. Now the major had no idea what to do. He heard a door creak, and looked out the giant window of the control booth. A shady figure had walked through the entrance of the hangar. The major raised his gun to shoot, but it just clicked. He was out of ammo. The shady figure was halfway to the stairs now. Desperately looking for any possible weapon, the major noticed that one of the skeletons had a gun in its deteriorating holster. He grabbed it and was pointed it at the door, just as a Russian soldier burst through. The major madly fired his gun, and it hit the soldier. but then the major realized this was no ordinary soldier. His face was rotten, and one of his eyes was missing. His hands were green, and his fingernails long and sharp. He was a zombie!
Major Dickson panicked, but years of military training had served him well. He quickly assesed the situation, and pushed one of the skeletons out the window. The zombie ran over to where the skeleton had been, and the major kicked him out of the window. He heard a ghastly scream come from below. Then the two remaining skeletons came alive. Surprising them, the major jumped and twisted the skull off one before pushing him out the window. Then he took the skull and threw it at the other skeletons chest, which caved inward as the skeleton collapsed into a pile of bones.
Major Dickson decided that there was no point in life anymore. If he stayed in the booth, he would die of starvation, but if he left, the zombie would kill him, and even if he survived that, he would have no hopes of ever leaving Syberia dead or alive. He decided suicide was the answer. He picked up a bone and cracked it in half over his knee, He put one of the splinters on his chest. Before he pushed it in, he wanted to take one last look at the earth. He looked at the control booth, noticed everything better than ever before. The little guages, the levers, and then, he saw a hatch at the top of the control booth. He pulled himself up on a pipe, and opened the hatch. It led to the roof of the building. The blizzard was over.
Major Dickson pulled himself onto the roof. On the far side, he saw a helicopter taking off. He started sprinting towards it. When he reached it, it was off the ground. He jumped and grabbed hold of one of the landing rails. The helicopter kept going up, and started turning west. The major gave a long, hard, pull on the rail, and he pulled himself up high enough to see the cockpit. Inside, sat a white figure, with an elongated face, and two giant holes as its eyes. It turned to look at the major. He screamed and let go of the bar. Major Dickson was dead before he hit the ground.
