“Keep me on the line.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“You’ll try what?” Colin asks.
“We need to get closer. They need confirmation.”
“Oh, that’s it. Let’s drive towards the zombies so we can get a better look at them! You’ve got to be kidding; don’t do it mate,” Colin pleads.
“We got to, the sooner we can tell, the sooner we can get outta here. They are probably just survivors, but get your rifle ready though, just in case.”
“Oh, my days. Taking the piss,” Colin announces as the cart edges forward and he shifts around in his seat with his rifle.
Movement is just what the Rabids, spreading out from the burning terminal building, have been waiting for. The cart’s two headlights, bouncing on the concrete—dim as they are in the haze—is all they need. The new target, potential fresh prey, re-energises the hateful creatures, springing them into action.
Broad and Colin’s eyes are wide, straining as they stare out the front of the cart, trying to get a clearer look at the figures in the burning haze. The figures do get bigger in their vision and the two men soon realise the shocking truth.
“Turn around, get us out of here; those aren’t people, they’re coming straight for us. Turn around!” Colin shouts at Broad, his hand moving at the steering wheel to turn it for him.
Broad sees it too; the figures are running at them up the runway and across the grass verge that separates the runway from the taxiways. It doesn’t matter. He still can’t see them clearly and the bright orange fire behind them flashes in his eyes. The figure’s silhouettes don’t move normally; it is an inhuman run, intersected with leaps and bounds, like animals.
“I’m fucking going!” Broad shouts as he rakes on the steering wheel, his phone still in his hand, turning the cart around to get it pointed back to the Terminal 5 building. At the same time, his foot pushes the accelerator.
“They are getting closer. Go faster, go faster,” Colin pleads to Broad.
“My foot is to the floor; this fucking thing won’t go any faster!” he tells Colin as he stops turning, the cart and the empty cages behind it straightening up.
The baggage cart does pick up some speed, and it bounces violently over the imperfections in the concrete slabs below its wheels, jerking them in their seats. Behind the cart, the empty cages crash up and down, threatening to break free. Both men wish the cages would break free and stop slowing them down.
“They’re gonna catch us; we’re not going fast enough!” Colin declares in panic, the sanctuary of the terminal building still a long way off.
“Can you see them? How close are they?” Broad demands.
Colin doesn’t want to look behind; he is too scared of what he will see. He concentrates on the distant lights of the terminal building in front of him, willing them to get bigger and closer.
“Colin! Pull yourself together man.”
Colin knows he must look, but he is ashamed of the fear gripping him. He feels like a frightened small boy, he closes his eyes for a second and gathers his courage. Fuck it, he says to himself as he twists in his seat to look out of the back window.
“I can’t see anything,” Colin tells Broad with some relief that he knows is misplaced.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s dark, I can’t see anything.”
“They are there, mate, I know it; I could run as fast as this cart. Keep looking!” Broad tells him.
Colin concentrates, his head trying to counteract the bouncing of his body as the cart jerks. Lights that point to the rear from the cab throw a dim light over the rattling cages behind, which doesn’t help his view. He tries to look beyond the lit cages and thinks he sees a shadow cross the orange glow of the fire in the distance, but he isn’t sure. They must be getting close to the terminal building now?
Colin thinks his eyes are deceiving him as a dark shadow crosses into the light of the cages behind. His confusion escalates as the shadow lands into the second cage at the back. The loud crash from its landing could be mistaken for a crash from a big bump in the road. The shadow disappears into the well of the cage and for a moment, Colin thinks he imagined it.
“What was that?” Broad shouts, but Colin doesn’t answer. “Colin, what was that bang?”
“I think something just jumped into the back cage?” Colin answers nervously.
“What you mean, something?”
Colin doesn’t answer; he is paralysed with fear as he watches the shadow rise up from the well of the bouncing cage. As it rises, it is caught in the light shining back from the cab. It faces away from Colin, and he can only see the back of its head and the green camouflage of its army uniform through the squared steel wire mesh. The thing suddenly whips around to face Colin, its hands rising to grip the mesh, its disgusting fingers poking through the mesh, pointed in Colin’s direction.
The beast’s evil black eyes lock Colin in its chilling gaze. Blood drains from Colin’s face and drops to his boots as fear courses through him. Hideous teeth appear as the beast’s mouth opens and it snarls, biting at Colin. Its right hand releases and the mesh moves up above its head, and it grabs the mesh again—and starts to pull itself up.
“What’s going on, Colin?”
“One’s climbing over the back cage.”
“Well don’t just sit there, shoot the fucking thing!”
Colin had forgotten the rifle in his hands; it had sat there like a useless toy. His hands tighten around it as if he could lose it again. All at once, he feels the security it offers and the power; it reinvigorates him. Colin bursts into action, brings the rifle up, and leans back at the same time, back towards the windscreen. The rifle nestles into his shoulder, where it has been a thousand times before. His aim comes naturally to him, and always has. It rarely lets him down. The beast is at the top of the meshed side of the cage and just disappearing out of the dim light as it comes over the top.
Colin adjusts his aim and pulls the trigger. The shot from the rifle rings out in the confined cab, making the men’s ears ring. The bullet pierces through the back window, shattering it into hundreds of pieces but the pieces don’t drop; they stay in position with just a small bullet hole near the top. Colin knows instinctively he hit his target, and through the shattered window, he sees something fall.
Colin can’t afford to take any chances; he pokes the muzzle of the rifle forward sharply into the shattered glass. As soon as the muzzle makes contact, the glass gives way and sprinkles down, out of the frame, the pieces pinging onto the floor.
Immediately, the rifle's sight is searching for its target again. Colin moves the rifle down to where the beast has fallen. Through his sight, he sees the beast in the well of the front cage, staring at him. The creature jumps at Colin so fast he barely has time to pull the trigger again, but he does. The bullet hits the beast in the chest as it flies at the cab’s small window frame, where the glass used to sit. The bullet does nothing to stop the creature and it smashes into the wire mesh of the front cage, stopping it just short of the cab's window. The creature latches onto the mesh, its crazed face level with the window; it goes so wild it tries to bite through the steel wire.
The rifle fires again, straight through the creature's forehead. The power of the bullet explodes the back of its head, sending the head shooting backwards as the beast falls down dead, back into the well of the cage. One of its front teeth hangs by a sliver of glistening flesh from the meshed wire.
“Is it dead?” Broad shouts at the top of his voice, his ears ringing.
“Yes, it’s dead,” Colin confirms.
“I hope you’re getting all this, Lieutenant,” Broad shouts into the open line of his phone, in his hand.
“He had fucking better be!” Colin exclaims. “How much farther?”
“Not far now, mate, we are just coming up to the start of the terminal buildings.”
“Watch out!” Colin shouts as the eyes of a zombie shine through the driver’s side door window.
<
br /> The warning is too late; Colin didn’t see it until the last second. Broad doesn’t know what is happening as the creature hits the side of the cart, right next to him. The cart sways to the side with the force of the blow and the driver’s window implodes.
“Shit!” is all Broad manages to shout as an arm and head follow the smashed glass into the cab. The creature goes to bite Broad, anywhere it can. In a pure reflex action, Broad’s arm comes across his body and stops the creature sinking its teeth into his other arm. His hand pushes against the forehead of the beast, his phone still in his hand, and now squashed against the beast’s head. Broad tries to push the creature back out of the window but it is too strong; it is all he can do to stop it biting him.
“Shoot it!” Broad shouts at Colin.
Colin brings his rifle around to bear, which isn’t easy in the small cab. Broad’s body and arms are blocking his shot to the head.
“Shoot it, fucking shoot it!” Broad shouts again in total panic.
Colin desperately tries to get a decent target. He moves further forward, squashing his back against the windscreen and taking the only shot he can find. He puts two rounds into the shoulder of the zombie which blasts it back and opens up a new target—the top of its chest. Colin fires again, hitting the zombie in the chest multiple times. Just as Colin thinks the bullets are useless, the zombie falls away, back out of the window. The back cage behind them jumps in the air on one side as its wheels hit the falling body.
“Fucking hell!” Broad shouts.
The path in front of the cart is now a little brighter as the cart moves into the lights shining from Terminal 5’s buildings and they close in on the wedged open door into the building.
No solace comes with the brighter light; all it does is let them see the dire straits that they are in. The cart is being chased by creatures all around the back of them, their grotesque forms threatening to catch them at any moment.
“We’re in the shit here. There are loads of them. What we gonna do?” Colin asks desperately.
“We just gotta get back to the door and get inside,” Broad answers, as positively as he can, but knowing it’s bullshit.
“As soon as we stop, they’ll be all over us!” Colin shouts, on the edge of losing it.
Neither of them sees the creature’s attack as it goes for the driver’s smashed open window; it comes from nowhere. The beast bursts through, and its head, arms and body are in the cab before either of them can react. The only thing stopping it coming in further is it hitting Broad’s body.
Broad screams in panic as the zombie goes to bite his arm with his hand that is on the steering wheel driving the cart. His arm shoots away from the barred teeth as they come in to bite him. The cart swerves as he releases the wheel, both of his arms flailing about trying to fight off the attack as he screams.
There is no stopping the creature; its strong arms and hands grab hold of Broad and its face buries into the side of Broads body. The creature’s powerful jaw sends its teeth clamping down, slicing through the material of his uniform and into the soft flesh of his lower body. Broad lets out a deafening, deadly scream.
As the cart swerves to the right, it hits another creature with its front quarter, the creature goes down and underneath the cart's wheels. Colin doesn’t even see the second creature being hit, as his back is to it and his eyes are fixed on the zombie eating into his mate, next to him.
Colin raises his rifle again and shoots into the top of the feeding zombie’s head, taking the risk of hitting Broad. The creature goes limp straight away but doesn’t fall back out of the window; it stays in Broad’s lap as he screams his head off. Colin, now running on instinct only, goes to grab the cart's wheel to get it back under control, but he is too late.
The cart smashes into the tyre of an airplane's wheel that is parked up next to one of the terminal buildings. The cart hits it hard and Colin is forced into the windscreen that smashes. He doesn’t go through the windscreen; he is stopped by the thick black rubber of the tyre the cart has hit. The cart bounces back off the tyre, coming to a stop a couple of meters back. Colin, dazed and covered in glass, has managed to stay in the cab of the cart, just about.
Before the cart comes to a complete stop, creatures are swarming all over it, on its cages and cab. Climbing over it, fighting to get to the prize at the luggage cart’s front. Within seconds, the vehicle is hardly visible underneath the plague of death.
Chapter 11
Lance Corporal Broad’s phone is still active as Winters takes it slowly away from his ear. The only sounds coming from it now are those of feeding, threatening to make Winters’ stomach burst through his throat. He is racked with guilt and shock by what he has just been listening to. The horrific deaths of two young men that he sent out on that mission.
Winters goes dizzy; he has to quickly sit down in the nearest chair and take hold of his head in his hands before it falls off his shoulders and onto the floor.
Winters knew what he was doing when he sent them off on the reconnaissance mission. He knew it was very high risk and still knows now that it had to be done, as there was no other way to be sure. That doesn’t make him feel any better about the order he dished out to the unsuspecting men only a short time ago. Broad had looked so young, he couldn’t have been more than in his mid-twenties and the private Winters saw him walk off with was even younger. His stomach somersaults again; it is going to happen, and he can’t hold it back.
Winters manages to grab a bin from under the desk next to him, and puts it on the floor in front of his chair. His stomach lets go and Winters urges nothing but bile into the bin. His stomach contracts violently three times before he manages to bring it under control. He spits the last dregs out and closes his eyes for a moment.
“Are you okay, Lieutenant?” a female voice asks from above him.
“Yes, sorry,” Winters manages to say.
“Don’t be sorry; aren’t you feeling well?”
“I’ll be okay in a minute, thanks, just came over all dizzy.”
“Can I get you some water?”
“Yes, please,” Winters replies, his head still in his hands. Slowly, the blood returns to his head, the dizziness subsides, and his wits start to return. He has to report what he has just witnessed to Colonel Reed.
“Here you go, Lieutenant,” the female voice says and Winters lets go of his head, sitting up in the chair.
“Thank you,” Winters replies and looks up to see Sam holding out a small plastic cup of water for him. He feels his face flush with embarrassment.
“Has it passed?” Sam asks with a look of concern etched across her face.
“Yes, thank you, Sam. It’s not like me to do that,” Winters tells her as his foot pushes the bin back under the desk to try and hide the evidence.
“What brought it on? Was it the phone call you were on? Have you had some bad news? Tell me if I’m being nosey, but I couldn’t help but notice you on the phone and it looked serious, judging by your face.”
“Yes, it was serious, I’m afraid. I have to report in with the Colonel to tell him if you want to join me?”
“Yes, okay, I’m at a bit of a loose end now that Major Rees has left. I should report back in with my superiors to be reassigned,” Sam tells him.
“You will want to hear this first,” Winters says as he gets up to check to see where the Colonel is.
“It sounds ominous,” Sam says as she starts to follow Winters.
Colonel Reed is back at the front of the command room, standing looking at a blank screen. Winters assumes he is waiting for the drone footage of Terminal 4 to appear.
“Colonel, I have new intel, Sir,” Winters announces as he walks up behind the Colonel.
“Continue,” the Colonel orders without turning to look at him.
“Sir, the two men I sent on reconnaissance to Terminal 4 are dead.”
Colonel Reed now does turn to look at his assistant. His arms are folded across his chest and he has a stern look
fixed to his face as he says, “Continue.”
“Sir, they drove a vehicle down towards the building and the fire, as I ordered. About halfway there, they were attacked by multiple hostiles. The two men retreated and managed to make it back to the Terminal 5 area, but unfortunately, they were then overpowered and killed. Sir, the hostiles were people infected with the virus.”
“How did they report back to you if they were killed, Lieutenant?”
“Sir, I had an open phone line with one of the men for the whole contact. I listened to the whole thing. Sir, Terminal 4 is compromised; we now have infected directly outside this building and it is certain that more of the infected are spreading out to other parts of this base, Sir.”
“Holy shit,” Colonel Reed growls to himself, his eyes bulging with a look of anger on his face. “Thank you, Lieutenant dismissed.”
Sam looks over at Lieutenant Winters from the periphery, now understanding what had come over him. The phone call she had seen him on was that one. He had ordered two men outside to see what was going on and they were both killed. No wonder he had been sick.
“What are they going to do now?” Sam asks as Winters comes away.
“They will activate one of the contingencies in place. I won’t know until they have decided,” Winters replies as he watches Colonel Reed already picking up a phone with an urgent look on his face.
“That sounds ominous,” Sam says.
“It definitely won’t be good news.” And then Winters has a thought. “Come with me,” he tells Sam.
Winters heads for the exit of the command room at a quick pace. Sam follows his exit, struggling to keep up with him, confused at what is suddenly so urgent that it involves her?
Sam follows him over to the conference room where they had come from. She assumes he is looking for Major Rees. The room is abandoned though, and all the files have gone. Only the computers and printers remain, that now sit idle.
Winters turns back towards the wide corridor. “Come on,” he tells Sam. This time, he breaks into a jog as he goes down the long corridor, obviously hoping to catch the Major before he leaves. Sam finds it easier to keep up with him at jogging pace but is at a loss, as to what is going on.
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