by Aline Riva
Tara sat beside David as he looked out the window at the lonely runways, all deserted expect for the one where their plane stood. It was ghostly out there, this was not a major airport but a medium sized place and certainly before the outbreak would have been busy. Now silence hung in the air, along with the stark reminder that the undead had done this, they had brought life as it used to be to a staggering halt, never to be set right in the same way again...
“I keep thinking about before,” David said sadly, his gaze across the departure lounge, where Marie sat alone, he was looking over her shoulder now, out of the window towards the runway, thinking of those lost on the field trip that had had changed everything...
Tara turned her head sharply, her red hair a blur with the speed she had moved as she spun around and glared at him.
“Then why didn't you just stay with her?”she hissed angrily.
David was still looking to the window, not to his ex wife. He froze for a moment, processing all Tara had said, then he turned his head and looked at her, knowing in that moment he had been right – her envy or insecurity or whatever it was that made her like this was pushing them apart – and they would have a real struggle to get through this – but not now, this was for later. There were far more important priorities to keep in mind, like saving the world from the undead outbreak...
“I was looking to that runway,” he said in a low voice, “Thinking about those we lost on the field trip! Do you ever think of them, Tara?”
Shock registered on her face as she realised her mistake.
“Of course I do! What a terrible thing to say -”
“Yeah,” he muttered, turning his head, looking away as he kept his voice low, “It was a terrible thing, Tara... you should keep your mouth shut sometimes, don't you think that might be for the best?”
“I said I'm sorry -”
“I don't want to know,” he replied, and stayed with his head turned, looking to the closed door, waiting for it to open, waiting to begin the journey that would take them back to Chile, then back to Antarctica where it had all begun...
As another passenger entered the room, Jason looked around first, then he smiled as the light caught on the clear mask that shielded the damaged side of his face.
“So you made it then...”
“How could I say no?” replied a familiar voice, “A chance to save the world – of course I want to be there!”
Then the others looked around, surprised to see someone they never thought they would see again: It was Lauren. She had just walked through the door of the departure lounge, and she was dressed in combat attire and wore a padded jacket like she was already to take on the snow and ice and the army of undead. Her dark hair framed her face and her eyes sparkled as she smiled.
“It's good to be back,” she said.
As the others got up to greet her, David reached her first, looking in surprise at Lauren, the sole student survivor of that first fateful journey to Antarctica.
“But how did you know, how did you get here?”
“You're not the only one who went off base,” Jason replied from where he sat in the corner as he waited for the flight, “I went off for a day and sent a message back. And no one missed me, thanks a lot, guys!”
“I had no idea you were coming back -” David began, but she turned away.
He paused, waiting as the others greeted her, first Toby then Tara, then Vince introduced himself with a handshake. Lois gave her a hug and then Rick did the same, telling her it was good to see her again. David tapped her shoulder and she turned back to him.
“I can't believe you're here!” he said, still feeling surprised, then as he thought of how the oldest of the students had been the only one to make it to the plane, he felt a sense of dread.
“Are you sure you should be here? I mean, what about Maxie, how is he?”
“He's back at the safe house with a few of the others.”
“Others?”
“We've had a few more turn up,” Lauren told him, “And Maxie is doing just fine.”
“Is he up on his feet yet?” David asked.
“No. He can't walk, I don't think that's ever going to happen, but he's getting used to the wheelchair. And we're just fine, really, we are.”
“How did he feel about you coming back to the Arctic?”
She hesitated.
“Actually I'm not here to join the battle. The Captain said I could come along to help out – but I can't fight, I'm sorry.”
Then Captain Swan joined the conversation.
“I only gave her permission to help, not to join the battle squad,” she said.
David's eyes clouded with confusion as he looked from Tina Swan to Lauren.
“I'm pregnant,” Lauren explained, “So I won't be out on the ice. I'm going to join Rick and Lois at the communications post.”
“That's great, they'll need all the help they can get, and congratulations,” David said warmly.
“You're helping us? That's so good to know!” Lois exclaimed, coming over to join them. She glanced back at Rick, who had been wearing a thick black woollen hat, as he took it off and briefly rubbed at his aching scar, Lauren spoke quietly to Lois.
“Jason told me everything. Don't worry about him, I'm sure we'll manage okay. I know he wanted to fight.”
“He still does,” Lois replied.
“Well this job is just as important,” Lauren reminded her, “We need to keep in touch between the ice and the UK – also we may get messages from other areas of the Arctic where ships are waiting, we have a strong military presence out there – Jason gave me all the info I needed.”
“Since when was Jason told before me?” David asked.
“It was Jason's idea to contact me. I''m glad he did. It's good to be here.”
“And it's good to see you again,”David told her, feeling a vague ache of sadness as he thought of their other visit to the Arctic and the terrible consequences...at least this time Lauren would be out of harms way, at the communications post with Rick and Lois...
Then something prodded her in the back, a poke, poke, poke that she felt through her padded coat. She turned around and looked down to see a child standing there, wrapped up in thick winter clothing, wearing a grey and pink bobble hat – the grey in the hat matching the child's complexion.
“Oh...Hello,” she said cautiously, “You must be Flossie...”
The child stepped closer and started to sniff her like a curious dog, then thrust her empty icky stick towards her hand, looking up at her, silently pleading with her to hold it.
“I've heard about your stick I don't really want to...okay...”
She took the stick by the lower end. Then Flossie grabbed at her coat, pushing it upwards as she placed a hand on her belly, then pressed her ear against it.
“What's she doing?” Lauren said nervously, looking to the others feeling slightly alarmed as the mutant child clung to her with a tight hug, ear to her belly, smiling as she sensed the new life inside her that was not yet advanced enough to outwardly show.
“It's okay,” Lois said quickly, getting up from her seat and hurrying over to join them, “I think she knows about the baby...Flossie, don't do that...Let go, good girl....”
Flossie continued to hug Lauren, giving a grumpy growl to Lois like a defiant puppy.
She took the icky stick from Lauren and looked to it and smiled.
“Ooh...” she said, “Look what I've got...I might keep this, Flossie...what a lovely stinky icky stick – all mine!”
Flossie let go of Lauren, moving in a flash as she snatched the stick back from Lois.
“Now go over there and sit with Rick.”
Flossie stood there looking up at her.
“Sit!”Lois said sharply, and the mutant child reluctantly walked over to the empty seat beside Rick and sat down. He put his arm around her and gave her a hug.
“You mustn't do that to people,” he said in a fatherly tone as Flossie looked at him silently
, “It's nice that you like babies but you mustn't cling on to pregnant ladies, okay?”
Flossie briefly left the stick in her lap as she replied silently, putting her hands together in the shape of a heart, the only reply she could give.
Then the door opened up and the Captain rose from her seat.
“It's time,” she said, “We're flying to Chile.”
Leaving the UK behind had not been the wrench any of them expected to feel as the plane rose into the skies and headed away from home soil. They were not really leaving home - that was a place that had been devastated by the coming of the undead, now all that remained was a ruined shell of what used to be called home - and all they could hope for was a victorious return that would prove the neutralising gas known as NV-16 effective against the risen dead. If it worked, it meant humanity stood a chance. But nothing was certain because the dead were so great in number they easily outweighed the living...but a win in the Arctic would certainly put the odds more in the favour of humanity...
The flight to Chile was uneventful, most of the group slept on the way, saving strength for the challenges ahead, apart from Lois, who had to repeatedly run up and down the aisle between the seats as she tried to catch Flossie, who, on seeing another seating area behind the occupied one and finding it empty, had decided to climb over all the vacant seats and then run back again and repeat until she was caught. But the handful of passengers on this flight gave no complaint, knowing this flight could be the last time any of them saw near normal life again – no one knew how bad it would get out there in the frozen wasteland, none could be certain of returning, either.
When the plane touched down in Chile the mood was sombre, the group arrived to a make shift airfield that was heavily guarded, and were transferred to the waiting flight to take them on the final leg of the journey to the Arctic.
Once back in the air, the travellers felt weary from the long hours spent on the first flight, for many hours David tried to sleep but could not as he found his thoughts turning back to that first doomed flight to the ice. As he turned his head and looked to Tara, who sat in silence, her thoughts somewhere he couldn't guess at, he felt for a moment that if he looked around at the other row of seats he would have seen them all sitting there, Justin before the vaccine, Alex and Holly and Megan, Samantha and Sofia, Ryan... all of them.
He did look around, just to save his sanity, but the only face he saw from that trip was Lauren, no longer looking like the excited student she had once been, now a seasoned fighter and pregnant with her lover's child.
The other seats were taken up by Jason, who had removed his mask to apply lotion to his burns, behind him sat Lois and and a very excited Flossie who leant over Rick, who was sleeping as she pressed her grey nose against the window and watched as clouds flew by.
“Don't do that!” Lois said, pulling her back.
Then Lois grabbed the pillow that had slipped away from the back of Rick's head, as he slept on she cautiously leant him forward, putting the pillow back behind him as he woke up with a jolt.
“Don't fuss, woman!” he said sleepily, “Get off me!”
“I'm sorry, I just wanted to make you comfortable!” Lois exclaimed.
“Then let me go to sleep, leave me alone...” Rick complained, closing his eyes as the pillow slipped away once more.
As she watched the events unfold, Marie flashed a smile of amusement as her gaze met David's. He smiled back, then looked away, over to where Lauren looked a little pale. She had been to the toilet and back for the third time and looked rather queasy, no doubt the flight was making her throw up due to the pregnancy. Toby was sat at the back with Vince, both men were smirking at Lois and her failed attempt to help Rick by disturbing his sleep. Behind his own row of seats, Captain Swan sat running through plans on paper, as several soldiers sat beside and behind her.
David gathered his thoughts, trying to stay in the present moment without the pain of the past coming back to haunt him. But it was there in his mind, this crazy thought that if he had seen them all back then, back before the vaccine was given out, he could have jumped up from his seat, told them, We are going back! No one is going to the Arctic, we're going home! But what difference would it have made? The outbreak had been worldwide...
David took a deep breath, composing his troubled thoughts and then turning to the window. But what he saw brought it back to him sharply all over again: They were below the clouds now, in the distance the permafrost darkened land beckoned, where icy waters and icy shores led to a snowscape land of frozen desert – they had arrived. They were flying back into the Arctic shores...
Deep in the frozen land of snow out in the Arctic wasteland, the ice cave glowed an unearthly blue as light fell in from outside, making the walls and the huge spiked icicles that hung inside look a horrible kind of magical as Justin Frazer stood there, dressed in black, balaclava off and his mutated face grey with skin peeling and blistering as he took a step closer to the woman who slept on her back, on a table of ice, her only clothing a faded t shirt that fell to her thighs. Her skin was the same colour as the Arctic glow, her lips dark blue, her eyes black, and her body smooth and hairless. As he watched the rise and fall of her chest he wondered why Samantha had not changed and become New as he had back when the undead had risen – clearly the virus and the cold had changed them both, but in different ways...
That would be the effect of freezing point temperatures.
He knew this because he had gone to the hostel and tried the radio, listened in and learned much, even heard the military channels as they had come to life, talking of plans to seek out the seed of command and wipe out the army of undead he commanded.
He knew everything...
Justin smiled as darkness glittered in his gaze and he thought of his undead and their might and how inferior the living were – they were not, New they were not as he was, they were food for his army...
Food thought it could take on the might of the New breed of altered human?
He chuckled, then as he leant over the table and pushed up her t shirt, exposing her bare flesh that glowed with its smoothness in the blue light of the cave, Justin placed his hands on the swelling on her belly. She gave a slight sigh and slept on, unaware in her deep slumber that he was touching her. If she had known, she would have been furious...
Justin closed his eyes, savouring the memory of the events that had happened after many weeks trapped together in the ice:
She had laid down on this very table of ice and stripped off her clothing, looking at him with dark eyes inviting, legs parted, as the light from the cave made her hairless body glow unearthly.
“If you want me, you can have me,” she had whispered.
And he had taken her, harder and more roughly than he had taken her back at the hostel under the shower, this time he had let out the animal in him, the mutant side of him that ruled his body and mind, fucking her like he didn't care if the force of it killed her. She had enjoyed it, she had cried out and raked her nails down his back as he had been lost in a moment of climax that he had never reached before – the height of it so overpowering, the strength of it mind blowing...
Then she had looked into his eyes and smiled.
“Justin,” she had said as her voice echoed about the cave like a ghostly whisper, “I hope you liked that. Because I want you to remember this moment...Remember this, I HATE you!”
Then as pure venom had shone in her eyes he had pulled away from her, slammed his fist against the wall of the cave as he yelled BITCH and she had laughed as the icicles came crashing down. For a moment she had been trapped, the long shards of ice like bars to divide her side of the cave from his and she had crawled over the snow, naked with a look of victory in her eyes to see such despair in his as she curled pale fingers about the shards of ice and peered through the make shift bars and smiled.
“What's the matter,” she said in a voice that tormented him, “All alone, are we? I do hate you, Justin. I hate you to the dept
hs of my soul. I hope it hurts. I reject you forever. I want you to hurt forever!”
But that act of hers had backfired badly - at least, for Samantha. Now that child he had put in her belly was growing. It moved as he kept his hands there as she slept on, and he smiled darkly.
“Every king needs an heir to the throne, you are my legacy...” he murmured, then he caught something on the wind, something that sent his mutated senses into overdrive as took his hands off her sharply, then dashed over the the entrance of the cave, where he inhaled the air, felt the pull of his undead who were always reaching out to him from the frozen wasteland, then he smiled as his eyes darkly shimmered and his mutated face bathed ugly in the daylight that fell at the mouth of the cave:
Humans. Many of them. More than before, more than the handfuls scattered about the edges of the land... And some of them, just a few, smelled familiar...
His gloved hand clutched at the edge of the cave entrance as he peered out, his face monstrous against the pure, glistening snow as he chuckled in a voice low and cracked and dry.
“David Harley...” he murmured, “Can't wait to see you again, can't wait to meet you, can't wait to eat you...”
Then his laughter echoed low about the cave as he stood there part in gloom, part in sunlight as the smell of the living fired up his senses, making him hunger for something he had not enjoyed in a long while:
Warm human flesh...
Chapter 6: Antarctica
Leaving the plane after it touched down on the ice was a real shock for some of the group. Toby and Jason had looked about the vast landscape of white, then to the brightly coloured units and then to the hostel up on the hillside and as the wind blew chilly and the sun shone down on a desert of ice, Toby glanced at Jason and shook his head.