Project Airborne

by Johnson, Cassandra

  “I guess that confirms our suspicions.” Brian said, looking around with Kaige, there weren’t even security cameras mounted at the entrance anymore, he could see the holes where the bolts used to hold the motion sensor cameras. “Stay alert guys, I can’t see any cameras, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t still being watched.”

  With no visible signs of any human activity, they pressed on as the sky gradually began to grow lighter every second.

  Circling around the building they couldn’t find any sign where people were regularly entering and exiting, the doors were locked from the inside, which meant that someone needed a key to get inside. However, one thing Kaige noticed was that the building itself didn’t look like any other store; they had gone to in the past to raid when they were gathering more supplies.

  “Have you noticed it looks clean out here?” Kaige asked after the sun had risen just enough that the whole sky was a dull, muted gray color and she didn’t need her flashlight anymore.

  “It’s definitely been kept up, the seasons and the weather have gotten to the other building, but not this one.” Brian replied, earning nods of agreement from Logan and Kaige.

  Even the parking lot at Lowe’s had cracks in the cement where weeds had begun to peek through, and it was cold when they went there. Here? There wasn’t any trash around the building, whereas everywhere else, the wind had blown up leaves and old soda cans, deserted chip bags that were dropped into outside trash cans, but the bags were never retrieved. The world was a dirty place, but this building wasn’t.

  “Probably didn’t bother hiding because they assumed, we were all dead.” Logan said, his voice slightly distorted as he craned his head from one side to the other, looking around for a door that wasn’t deadbolt from the inside.

  “How the hell are we supposed to get in there?” Kaige asked, scrubbing her fingers over her should before adjusting her cap to keep her ears from freezing.

  Pursing her lips softly, she scanned her eyes around the exterior of the building.

  “What about up there?” Logan pointed up to the roof.

  Kaige remembered her brief time working in retail enough to recall that most places like this had their air conditioning systems on the roof and for maintenance purposes, there were always ladders attached to the side of the building, sure enough there stood a ladder just off the side of the loading dock.

  Pushing her gun back inside of its holster she walked over, giving the metal a little shake.

  “It feels sturdy.” Kaige told them to look back at Logan and Brain before she began to ascend the levels, the two men following behind her as she took each step slowly, testing her weight on them, but they never once felt like they were about to give, she never even heard them groan one time as she slowly came to the top of the building.

  “Son of a bitch.” Kaige stood on the ladder, staring over the ledge of the building onto the roof where there was a helicopter pad and a helicopter parked right there.

  “What it is?” Logan asked with a grunt from under her.

  “You’ll see.” She replied, climbing up onto the roof and began to walk towards the helicopter. Again, there were no signs of people, nor any cameras. They probably didn’t think that they needed them because everyone was dead and any that had somehow survived the zombies they just killed on sight.

  “Holy shit.” Logan breathed out, his feet planted on the roof as a gush of air escaped his lips and he was staring straight at the black helicopter.

  “I’m going to take a wild guess and say that’s what you were hearing at night.” Brian said, dusting his hands off as he came to stand beside Kaige, the two men on either side of her.

  “Yep.” She nodded up and down silently afterwards as she soaked in that moment, to see with her own eyes standing right in front of her meant more than she could explain even to herself.

  Logan was the one who finally broke the spell that they were all under while looking at that piece of machinery and approached it. His fingers gliding over the smooth black shining paint as if he had to touch it to believe it. As much as he believed Kaige seeing it with your own eyes was something altogether different.

  “Hey,” Logan paused, motioning for Brian and Kaige to come closer before he rounded the back of the helicopter. “It’s a door.”

  Closing the distance between the helicopter and the door he grasped the handle, his fingers slowly caressing it before he finally turned the handle and the door opened.

  25.

  “Jesus, it’s like a furnace in here.” Kaige exhaled as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

  “Like the bowels of hell.” Logan commented, pushing the only visible door open and looking out, “We’re good.” He motioned as he stepped through it.

  Overhead the florescent lights washed them out, every line and pore standing out on their skin, dark lines beneath their eyes in the empty cavern.

  “I’ve got to come out of this jacket.” Brian said, shrugging his jacket off and tying it up around his waist quickly.

  Despite the lights, Logan left his flashlight on, letting the beam bounce off the ceiling and then the corners of the room.

  “Looks like the stock rooms been cleared out.” Kaige said as they stepped through the door from the stairwell and found themselves standing at the back of the store where all the stock used to be kept. Now it was nothing more than an empty room, gray light flooding through the two windows in the heavy swinging doors.

  “See any cameras?” Kaige asked as she glanced around the room, but once more she didn’t see anything that told her they were being watched.

  “Surely, we should have been seen, or did they think they were so alone that they didn’t even bother putting them up?” Brian asked. Even during his time in the military, the lowest ranking buildings still had security cameras posted in every room and at every exist to keep an eye on the people that were coming and going.

  “I don’t know.” Logan replied, moving to the swinging doors to look through one of the windows out of the once upon a time sales floor and stared, his eyes growing wide before he pushed the door open and disappeared behind it.

  For several seconds, Logan wasn’t sure what his eyes were seeing.

  Kaige and Brian followed, pushing the opposite door open and stepping through, the overhead lights were somewhat softened, individual beams of soft yellow light fell from the ceiling, casting the objects in their light into a golden hue, the fluid inside them made Kaige think of beer commercials, the way the bubbles ran up the frosted cold glass but what was inside them was more disturbing than any zombie she’d ever seen walking the streets.

  Facing them were ten evenly spaced tanks, but she hadn’t yet been able to count the rows and rows that stood behind them and inside a body was suspended in the fluid, floating beneath the surface of the water. On the front of the tanks there were vitals being read on a monitor as she came closer to inspect them. Temperature, blood pressure, oxygen levels, a heart monitor, alternative nutrients was being fed to them through tubes in their abdomens. Squinting softly, she looked up at the man that was floating in the tank, tubes and wires connected to the body.

  “What is this?” Brian asked, moving to look at a woman in one of the tanks, examining her face and body for a second before he looked down the aisle, there were more probably another twenty or so just like this and they were all outfitted with the same set up.

  “I think they’re being preserved.” Kaige finally spoke, tilting her head softly as she walked down the line, checking all the monitors.

  “How do you mean?” Logan asked, walking around one of the tanks.

  “Well, look at them, they’re perfect. They aren’t sick or thin, they show no visible signs of infections in the skin.” Kaige trailed off for a few seconds as she gently rested her palm against the glass and immediately the readout on the monitor changed, beeping causing her to jump back.

  The warmth from her palm touching the glass had changed the surface temperature of the water just
slightly, the body inside twitching somewhat as the monitor, then began to blink, the temperature of the water inside the tank, cooling it back down to ninety-eight degrees.

  “There has to be at least two hundred people here.” Brian said finally.

  “And more in other facilities I bet.” Kaige nodded, moving away from the tanks and looking around once more. “This can’t be the only one,” She added.

  “But where are the technicians? If they are preserving these people, then there must be a nurse or something somewhere who’s supposed to be keeping an eye on their progress. What if one of the machines, feeding them stopped working or they ran out of oxygen?” Logan said, pointing out the fact that since they entered, the only living creatures they’d seen were the ones living inside of those preservation tanks.

  “You’re right.” Kaige paused, taking her gun from her holster once more. “This doesn’t feel right. No one was alerted when we came in, no alarms, no cameras and now this?” She shook her head quickly. “Come on, let’s keep looking.”

  The entire front of the store was outfitted to hold the tanks, but the three of them were unable to find any other signs of people or the operators just the tanks themselves and the people left inside them. Eventually they found themselves investigating the cooler, or what used to be the freezer area of the store and they found an elevator shaft, with only one button, down.

  “Do we dare?” Kaige asked, looking at the iron gate that served as the doors.

  “I don’t think we have a choice.” Brian replied, grabbing the gate and pushing it back as Logan and Kaige stepped inside and Brian followed them, hitting the button with the arrow pointed down. There were only two, on the inside, one to go down, and one to bring them back up.

  The engine of the elevator slowly started, and the cabin lurched slightly as it lowered, carrying them down deeper into the earth below the building and stopped once it reached its destination.

  Pushing the gate open they stepped out into a long and dark corridor, the overhead lights flickering as they ticked and buzzed overhead. The second level was nothing at all like the first, at least the lights worked, but here looked dirtier, gritty but just as empty as the level above.

  Keeping close to one another, they kept their weapons at the ready, as if waiting to be caught or attacked. They couldn’t hear anything except the electrical ticking of the lights, keeping their flashlights ready as the overhead lights weren’t as reliable.

  Moving down the corridor they came to a door on the left that was left ajar, but there was no one inside the office. A cup of coffee in a paper cup sat on the desk and a computer, but it was turned off as if someone had left to go home at the end of the day and hadn’t come back just yet.

  “Where is everyone?” Kaige whispered as they made their way further down the hall and came to a bend, cautiously looking around.

  “I was wondering the same thing.” Brian replied, his voice hushed as they came to another door, this one was closed and when they tested the knob it was locked so they kept moving forward, not hearing or seeing anyone.

  “Maybe they saw us coming and evacuated?” Logan asked, glancing down the hall they’d come down, but there wasn’t anything behind them except for what they’d already seen before.

  “You think so?” Brian wondered aloud as they found a hallway that forked, going both left and right in the directions.

  “Which way?” Brian asked.

  “Let’s try right,” Kaige said, pointing down the hall to the right simply because the lights seemed to be functioning slightly better. They could always turn back if they didn’t find anything and explore the other end of the underground facility.

  They were half way down the hall when they heard shuffling, like someone was walking right behind them. Kaige turned, shinning her flashlight down the semi lit hallway, but saw no one, maybe it was simply the tension of the situation, but she didn’t think that her ears would begin to play tricks on her. Each step they took was followed by the same type of noise until they reached yet another door, this one was closed as well but the door was unlocked. Listening, she could hear the same shuffling noise coming from inside. Like someone was brushing their feet against the floor, but not necessarily walking, just grazing the floor with the soles of their shoes.

  Turning the knob, Kaige slowly opened the door when something skittered across the room. Jumping, she couldn’t stop herself from shouting as the greasy, puss covered face came looming out of the office through the doorway and she was bowled over as it struck her.

  “Get down!” Brian shouted, firing his weapon twice into the zombie’s chest and then a third time into the head, the bullet going straight through and out the other side, leaving the brain matter splattered behind the body as it hit the ground. Clutching her chest, Logan had caught her, but she didn’t even feel his arms under her, holding her up until he was helping her back to her feet.

  “I was not expecting that.” Kaige drew a breath and swallowed hard.

  Brian pushed the door the rest of the way open, looking inside gun first, clearing the room before he went inside.

  “It’s safe.” He called back to them.

  “Are you alright?” Logan asked her, looking her pale face over before Kaige nodded up and down quickly, looking into the room. It was an office, but it was completely trashed, the computer from the desk was on the floor, papers littered the desk and floor.

  “It looks like their facility wasn’t as secure as they thought it was.” Brain said, pointing to the body in the corner.

  “Shit, there’s barely anything left.” Logan said, looking over Brian’s shoulder as he crouched to get a better look at the corpse, you could see where the teeth had scraped the bone to get all the meat.

  “I wonder how long it was in here with... him?” Kaige wasn’t sure if the body was male or female there was literally nothing left to determine the sex of the person that was dead on the floor.

  “Who knows, but if there was one in here, there are probably more.” Brian said, straightening up to his full height again.

  Kaige took another look around the office and began to gather up the papers from the floor and the folders on the desk.

  “I’m taking these, they might be able to help us. I don’t know how, but I know we’re never coming back here once we leave.” Stuffing them inside her backpack she went to the filing cabinet in the corner and opened the drawers, only one was full and she knew she wouldn’t be able to carry it all back in her backpack. “Logan, let me put this in yours.”

  Filling up his bag, he strapped it back onto his back, slightly weighed down by the files, but it was nothing that he wouldn’t be able to handle.

  “Come on, let’s get out of here before another one finds us in here.” Brian said, ushering them out of the office and back down the hall when they heard a voice.

  “Did someone just say help?” Logan asked, his eyes cast to the floor as he listened.

  “I didn’t hear anything.” Kaige replied, but she grew quiet and listened again.

  From far away, they heard something banging, but it was so faint that they couldn’t determine exactly what it was.

  “Is anyone there!?” It was so far away that they barely heard it, but this time, they were all sure that they did hear a voice from somewhere.

  “We’re here!” Brian’s voice sounded off, moving ahead of the group and following the voice down the hall, hearing the banging coming louder.

  “Please help me!”

  “We’re coming!” Brian cut into a run, the voice growing louder and louder now as they came to a set of steel doors with a Caution sign stamped across the center.

  Punching the button that opened the doors they swung open into a brightly lit room and the three of them drew their guns.

  Inside zombies were roaming everywhere, there had to be thirty at most clustered inside, clawing at cages trying to get at the humans left inside them. One, the person who led them there, was crushed against the back wall
as the cage was shaking and rattled by the zombies that were trying to get inside.

  “Kill them! Get me out of here, please! I have kids! I can’t die here.” It was a man that spoke, the same voice that lead them down the hallway.

  Kaige was the worst shot no matter how much she’d practiced, but Brian and Logan’s groupings were impeccable. Taking aim, they began to fire, one after another the bodies began to pile up, but there were still more coming as Kaige leveled her sights and kept firing no matter how poorly her aim might have been her only thought was to injure them enough that Brian and Logan could shoot them in the head once they were slowed down.

  “Fuck! I gotta reload.” Brian shouted, but Kaige immediately stepped in, taking his gun and giving him hers, knowing she had a few more bullets, the shots continued to ring out through the hallway, those who were able to in the cages had ducked down, lying curled in fetal positions to avoid being hit by a stray bullet. Reloading Brian’s gun she passed it back to him as fast as she could before Logan’s did the same thing and Kaige quickly realized that she was of better use to them by keeping their guns loaded when they were out of rounds.

  Over and over one zombie after another dropped until the room was still and Logan and Brian stood there panting in the smoke.

  With bodies littering the floor Kaige carefully stepped over them and came into the room, her eyes taking it all in. There were men and women, children even, all held in cages, but only two so far seemed to be alert and moving. She didn’t know if they were dead or alive.

  “A-are they all dead?” The woman from the cage asked, slowly lifting her head from beneath her arms and looking through the bars and the carnage that took place from the gun fire.

  “Yeah, I think so.” Kaige replied. “Do you know where the keys to these cages are?” She asked then, looking around once more.

  It wasn’t at all like the tanks on the first floor, these people weren’t being preserved at all, if anything they were being used to feed the zombies, maybe. Kaige didn’t know what they were being kept for, nor why they were even here to begin with.