by Hatchett
“Fair enough,” Alan replied. “What now?”
“I’ve ordered some transport to take you to our base. You’ll be able to freshen up and get some food and drink, then you can tell our Coordination Crew what skills you have, other than flying, and what jobs you can do. We might also need to use your planes.”
“Ok, anything else?”
“Not for now. We’ll move your planes some other time. Get what you need from them, the transport is nearly here,” Issy advised seeing two minibuses on their way down Southern Airside Road.
A few minutes later the minibuses pulled up and the new arrivals boarded before being taken back to Terminal 3. Issy and her group took one last look around before boarding their own vehicles and returning to the main cordon.
79
Day 2
20:00 GMT
Heathrow Terminal 3
The Leaders sat at the same table in the pub on Level 1 that they had used the previous evening, all of them nursing their chosen drinks, having already chosen their food orders.
Issy was updating everyone about the arrival of the planes. “You should have seen this Alan hit the ground when the shot rang out. Talk about crapping yourself! I nearly burst out laughing,” Issy advised. “But, it does highlight some problems we need to resolve sooner rather than later.”
“Like what, Issy?” Jack asked, although he suspected he knew where she was going with this.
“Well, for one, we were totally unprepared for these planes arriving. Other aircraft could arrive at any time and they might not be as easy to deal with as Alan and his gang. Or, we could get people coming in through the perimeter barriers. If we manage to secure this place, then other organised groups might want what we have. They may also be armed and may want to take it by force. So, we need to be prepared to defend ourselves and do it properly.”
“All good points,” noted the Major. “By this time tomorrow, we should have the airport fully secured. Then we can think about defence. We also need to consider other things like food and drink; it will run out soon, especially with the number of people we now have on site. We also need to think medicine and a whole number of other things to keep us going and be self-sufficient. This virus is not going to end quickly, if ever, so this is the new reality.” The Major sat back to let his words sink in.
“You’re right Major,” Jack advised. “Once the short-term issues like the perimeter and zombies inside the perimeter are dealt with, we will need to think longer term. Any thoughts or suggestions?”
Gina sat forward. “Sarah and I have been considering this amongst other things. For a start, we could block the runways to prevent more planes landing. We could also put sentries all over the airport.”
“We’re looking to help people, but we also need to ensure our own safety,” Andy added. “We could block off the runways with cars, trucks or buses and they could then be easily moved if we need to use them. Maybe we just close the Northern runway off permanently and just use the Southern one if and when we need it. But, it won’t stop heli’s landing and to be honest, I’m not sure we’d ever be able to stop that from happening.”
“We don’t have enough Leaders to cover everything,” Joel noted, “and some of the Crews will need to change as our needs change. For example, we shouldn’t need a Killing Crew after tomorrow, but we might need a Food Crew.”
“We’ll always need a Killing Crew and I’m not growing food,” Issy blurted to laughs around the table. No one in their right mind could imagine Issy watering vegetables.
“I’m sure we will find something to suit everyone’s talents,” Jack advised when the laughter had died down.
“I agree that we need more Leaders and more Crews,” Gina advised. “Sarah and I have come up with a few suggestions.”
“Any nominations for Leaders?” the Major asked.
“The only two I know are Sean Elder and Travis McMahon, part of Bear and Irish’s old SO14 Security Team,” Gina replied.
“They’re both solid and reliable and know this airport inside out,” Bear added to nods from Irish and Jack, “but it depends if the Major has anyone in mind from his side.”
“We don’t have sides anymore, but I have been giving this some thought,” replied the Major, “and whilst there are a handful of people in scope, I don’t think they’re quite ready.” The Major mentioned the names he had been considering to Issy, Joel and Dave who all agreed that these soldiers weren’t ready to step up.
“They may well be ready when we next need Leaders,” Dave advised, “but I agree that they’re not quite there yet.”
“Is everyone happy with Sean and Travis?” Jack asked.
“I don’t have a problem,” the Major advised. “I think we have a good team here and I trust your judgement.”
Jack flicked his comms on and asked the Surveillance Team to locate Sean and Travis and ask them to join them. Ten minutes later they were both seated at the table with a drink in their hands.
“We’ve invited you here,” Jack began, “because we’ve decided that we need more Crews and that means more Leaders. If you feel up for it, we’d like you two to join us as Leaders.”
“I’d love to,” replied Travis with a grin. He was twenty-eight, five feet eleven tall, just under thirteen stone with a blond crew-cut and blue eyes. A bit of a joker but hard when he needed to be. Not for the first time, he made eye contact with Gina and smiled, a smile that was reflected on her face.
“Same here,” added Sean. Sean was twenty-seven, six feet tall and nearly fifteen stone in weight. This might be considered overweight, but Sean liked to work out, so his big frame was mostly solid muscle. With his chiselled face, brown crew-cut, and dark brown eyes, he was a favourite with the ladies.
“Welcome to the team,” Jack advised, and there were handshakes and fist-bumps all around. “Now, let’s get back to business. Sarah, Gina, you had some ideas?”
Sarah and Gina looked at each other to see who would speak first. Gina deferred to Sarah. “Once the airport is secure, we need to think longer term and come up with a strategy. Currently, we have around four hundred and thirty people, or four hundred and fifty-five including today’s new arrivals. We have all age groups and all manner of skills and that’s without knowing how many other people are stuck in the other parts of the airport. Bearing in mind the size of Terminal 5, the total number could rise significantly, and all these people will need feeding, clothing and somewhere other than a floor to sleep on. Luckily, airports cater to thousands of staff and passengers every day, so we have a significant amount of resources now, but they won’t last forever, and we will need to replenish stocks. Food and drink will be the key problem, so we need to start thinking how we’re going to address it very soon.”
Gina took over, “We think the Crews will need to adapt to changing needs; we will need airport security to protect us from outsiders, internal security to look after the people within the airport, procurement to get the things we need from outside, protection details, and so on. We see our Coordination Crew continuing and expanding as we make use of the people we have on site and the new ones we find. We see all the Crews getting bigger, so each Leader will need to consider delegating areas of responsibility to different people within their Crews; for example, we can’t coordinate hundreds of civilians between the two of us, so we will have no choice but to delegate. We’re considering setting up new teams based on their areas of expertise; for example, we have at least a dozen electricians who can form their own team, select a leader, and report in to us. This team would be charged, no pun intended, with looking after the power around the airport and everything that goes with it like lighting, et cetera. We have professional gardeners who can form a team to look to grow our own food, builders who can look to shore up defences or rebuild some of the damage caused, and so on.”
“It’s clear you have spent some time thinking about this, which is good,” Jack remarked, “but in a day or two things may look completely different, so I sug
gest you keep thinking about what needs to be done and in a couple of days we’ll all sit down and go through it again and make some decisions. By the way, what did you have lined up for the Major and myself?”
“As well as overall leadership, we thought you should act as intermediaries and network with other friendly groups if and when we find any. By the way, did you hear back from the Heads of the Army or Navy?” Gina asked.
“Not yet, although we hope to hear from them in the next few days when things may have calmed down a bit,” Jack replied. “I’m sure they all have immediate problems to solve before they can start thinking about anything else. So, is everyone happy with how things are going?” There were nods around the table. “Ok, we’ll consider possible changes in a couple of days, once the airport is fully secure, but we’ve still got a lot of work ahead of us.” Jack noted a couple of ladies bringing their food. “In the meantime, let’s eat!”
80
Day 3
07:30 GMT
Heathrow Terminal 3
The Leaders met in the Security Briefing Room for what was fast becoming their daily routine.
Tom Williams updated them on what was happening outside the airport. Effectively, the virus was spreading quickly, and it was just a matter of time before civilisation in the UK completely disintegrated. The BBC was still on air – just – but they were now attempting to instruct people how to survive rather than repeating the PM’s speech.
Tom noted that his team had access to all police-monitored CCTV around the country for as long as it worked, so they could see what was going on in large towns, cities and on the main roads; this would be helpful when it came to rescuing people and finding resources.
There were unsubstantiated reports that the virus had spread to Scotland and Wales, although the islands and Northern Ireland continued to be virus-free for the moment. In fact, Ireland had decided to shut itself off from the outside world to try to avoid what was coming. The camera feeds showed that most places were now deserted; shops had been looted and people were obviously barricading themselves in their homes. For those that had decided to run, most roads were now impassable. Significant numbers of vehicles were stranded on the routes towards airports and the coasts where people were perhaps hoping to get a plane or ferry to somewhere safer overseas. There were accidents and fights happening everywhere, impatient people driving on the wrong side of the road, lorry drivers shunting cars out of the way. Road rage was almost as rampant as the virus. The hundreds of thousands of people stranded in their vehicles were effectively dead; they couldn’t get out because they were surrounded by zombies and they wouldn’t be rescued because there was no longer any rescue service. Those in their homes were not much better off, although they might get to live a little longer.
The other major piece of news obtained from overseas broadcasters was that the virus had somehow appeared in France, so seemed it was just a matter of time before it spread further across continental Europe.
As Jack thanked Tom for his update, one of the surveillance operatives knocked on the door and entered. She told Jack that she had Admiral Sir Gerald McFadden on the line. Jack told the Leaders to continue with the meeting as he and the Major rose and went next door to take the call.
Issy naturally took the lead. “My Killing Crew is on a train station and Underground hunt today. We’ll have these cleared by lunchtime. What about the rest of you?”
“I’m planning on flying back to Aldershot to see what else we can get out hands on.” Joel advised.
“Irish and I are going to try to clear the other Terminals,” Bear advised.
“I’m going to seal the perimeter,” Dave advised.
“Gina and I are going to sort out more roles for those that don’t have anything to do,” Sarah advised.
“And my Crew is going to pile up thousands of bodies and burn them,” Andy advised. “Lucky me!”
“Don’t start any fires until we’ve sealed the perimeter,” Issy suggested. “We don’t want to attract unnecessary attention.”
“What do you want Sean and I to do?” Travis asked.
“Can you put vehicles on the runways to prevent unauthorised landings? We need to close the Northern runway permanently, but for the Southern runway we might need to move the obstructions quickly and easily should the need arise. Perhaps you can then consider how and where we need to set up security stations.”
“Will do,” Travis replied.
“If we can regroup around 13:00 at Costa, we can see where we’re at and what else we need to do. If we have the time today, I would like to commandeer the Hilton Hotel; it’s about time I had a decent place to sleep. Any questions?” There were none, so all the Leaders stood and went off to find their teams, ready to get things moving.
81
Day 3
07:45 GMT
Heathrow Terminal 3
Jack took his seat behind his desk as the Major took a seat opposite.
The phone rang, and Jack put it on speaker as Admiral Sir Gerald McFadden was put through.
“General, this is Jack Robinson, Head of the Aviation Security Operational Command Unit at Heathrow. I’m here with Major Simon Fellows, 1st Battalion of the Grenadier Guards based in Aldershot.”
“Call me Gerry.”
“Fine, I’m Jack, and the Major is known as the Major. Thanks for coming back to me. What’s your situation?”
“The virus has reached the South Coast but thankfully we’re on our own little island called Whale Island and we’ve cut off all access to the mainland. The problem will be supplies; we’ve got enough to keep us going for a month or so but then we’ll need to source more. What about you?”
“Much the same. We’ve nearly sealed Heathrow but we’ve got hundreds of civilians and will very likely have far more by the end of the day. We’ll then try to rescue others. We’re going to need more protection and more resources at some point. I don’t suppose you know where we might get out hands on a Galaxy transport plane do you?”
“I think the RAF have the odd Hercules or Atlas, but I have no idea where.”
“Thanks, but we haven’t been able to get hold of the RAF or the army.”
“Ah, Burlington?”
“Yes Gerry. I decided not to go.”
“I was too late, but I’m not sure it was for me anyway.”
“So, what is your Navy up to?”
“We’ve been following orders; patrolling the coast, preventing boats and planes escaping to the continent, but I doubt we’ve stopped everyone. Can’t blame people from trying to escape but if they’re carrying the virus then what else can we do? I don’t suppose our orders count for much now in any case.”
“I think you’re right, it’s every man for himself and orders are now irrelevant. According to our information, the virus has already reached France and is spreading quickly, so trying to stop people from crossing the Channel is a waste of time and effort.”
“I guess it was only a matter of time,” Gerry said sadly. “I’ll call off the dogs and just try and secure the islands.”
“Let’s keep in touch,” Jack suggested, and Gerry agreed that they should. “You never know when we might need each other’s help. Good luck.”
“And to you,” Gerry replied before disconnecting.
Jack looked at the Major. “That went well but there’s not much we can do for each other at the moment.”
“At least we know who to turn to if we need a missile dropped somewhere,” the Major said with a hint of a smile.
“We could still do with finding a transport plane if we can. It would be good to bring a few tanks over here to protect the perimeter, then we can use the plane for collecting resources from other parts of the country. I’ll ask Tom to see if he can get someone to use the satellite imagery to see if they can find anything useful and see if other airports are accessible.” With that, Jack and the Major rose and headed towards the Security Command Centre.
82
Day 3
/> 08:00 GMT
Heathrow Terminal 3
Issy and her Killing Crew were grouped together in the Arrivals Hall on the Ground Level, studying the underground maps, and waiting for her order to move out. It was raining heavily outside but as they would be working underground, this wasn’t a concern. They had got ‘dirty’ a little earlier; on this occasion they had used some of the dead bodies piled up in the cordon, but due to the weather, they had needed to drag them indoors before they started their gruesome work.
The Crew’s aim this morning was to clear the main line station and the Underground; the mainline station was located roughly one floor beneath the Short Stay Car Park whereas the Underground was roughly halfway between Terminal 2 and Terminal 3 on Lower Ground Floor 2, a further floor below. There were also Underground stations at Terminal 4 and Terminal 5, but these would have to be cleared at a later date.
Issy had split her Crew of fifty-five into five teams of eleven, each with their own designated areas to clear. One team, Team 5, would clear the Short Stay Car Park on the Ground Level, just outside the new larger cordon then use the stairs in the car park to access the levels below ground and catch up with the other teams. The other four teams would clear the various corridors of the Lower Ground Level before two teams moved on to the mainline train station and the other two teams, including Issy, moved towards the Underground station.
Issy knew that both the Underground and the mainline train station used automated ticket barriers so there was little danger that they would be met by hordes of zombies, just the ones already wandering around in the tunnels.
Issy signalled that Team 5 should move off before she and the other teams approached the stairs which would take them below ground. Access to the stairs had been blocked by Bear’s Crew so no zombies could gain access to Terminal 3. Issy raised her hand for quiet and when everyone was settled, Issy gave the order to move the barricades. She stood still, scanning for any movement on the other side until she was satisfied that there was nothing there. Once the gap was wide enough, Issy and the four teams moved quickly and stealthily through before closing off the gap behind them.