by Amber Wyatt
Fifteen minutes later she was zooming up Griffin Road in the dark, just next to the airport, approaching the turn-off to the South Perimeter Road. She had managed to put on some mascara and lipstick and popped a handful of mints into her mouth. Caroline felt particularly rough after only an hour’s sleep and she did not want Joe to have second thoughts about bringing her along, if she turned up with breath like a dog and looking ten years older than usual.
“Oh shit,” A forest of red lights glowed ahead of her. The rear brake lights of dozens, maybe hundreds of cars. And I thought I was going to be early! The roads had been empty, but the junction ahead of her was totally jammed with traffic. She realized that they must all be going for the so-called ‘secret’ flight too. “Fuck it.” She pulled the steering wheel hard left and pressed on the pedal. Her Chevrolet truck responded like a bull out of the gate, veering across the opposite lane and then lurching over the curb on to the rough ground. Open-mouthed, pale faces gaped at her through their windows as she sped past the long queue of cars jammed bumper to bumper, and raced across the grass parallel to the airport fence. Caroline knew exactly the access gate Joe was talking about. It was the easiest, if not the only place to access the runways from the south perimeter road. Plus, on their first date she had given him a blowjob in the car park next to it.
Suddenly the car park appeared in front of her bucking headlights. Even though it was still twenty minutes before the five o’clock deadline, she arrived just in time to see a school bus ram through the airport gate and speed off across the runways. The chaotic mess of cars lined up behind the now open gate started to move through and then spread out, speeding across the runways in a kaleidoscope of swaying headlights towards the terminal. She recognized Joe’s red Mercedes parked up, lights off, back at the car park, so she guessed he was the one driving the bus.
Caroline did not even bother to brake. She just drove full speed straight into the mass of vehicles squeezing through the gate, and used the solid chassis of her bulky Chevy to shunt other cars out of her way. People beeped their horns indignantly but she ignored them and focused solely on the Columbus Airlines plane directly ahead. Fuck your cars, people! We are abandoning them anyway. Joe’s school bus was almost at the plane now, and true to his word, a stair truck was slowly pulling up to the front cabin door, just behind the cockpit. That must be Moses driving the stairs.
Car after car screeched to a stop next to the base of the stairs. Caroline drove around them to the other side and slammed on her brakes in the shadow of the stair truck itself, virtually touching its side. Staring out of her windscreen she was appalled at the chaos unravelling around the base of the stairs. Right in front of her, a middle-aged man in a Hawaiian shirt took one step out of his car and was immediately run down by a VW beetle, which in turn slammed into a BMW that also appeared out of nowhere. Cars were jammed door to door, and people panicked and shouted as they felt their way through the maze, alternating between the pitch black of the night and the blinding glare of headlights. Men and women cursed and panted as they tried to get huge suitcases out of their trunks, and then climb over other cars dragging bags and loved ones with them. On the stairs themselves, there was vicious fighting with luggage being grabbed and thrown over the side by panicking passengers impatient to get past those who were moving too slowly.
“Oh my god, what a fucking mess,” Caroline realized that she was in a little oasis of calm, sheltered behind the stair truck, but that it would not last much longer. She opened her door and jumped out, putting her ID card around her neck and slinging her bag on to her back. She saw a man, undoubtedly Moses, unplugging a thick power cable from underneath the plane and running over to do something to the nose wheel. Caroline realized that she could already hear the whine of the plane’s auxiliary power unit behind her. Jesus that was quick. Joe must be in the cockpit already. Looking at the impassable scrum of fighting passengers at the base of the stairs, she was suddenly struck by inspiration and climbed on to the bonnet of her truck and then up on to the roof. The rail of the stairs was just next to her and she grabbed it and vaulted over, straight into a mob of angry, grappling men.
Outraged hands grabbed her and she suddenly felt a flood of panicked adrenalin as she realized they might just throw her back over the side.
“Wait! I’m crew!” she shrieked, holding up her ID badge.
Then a strong voice rang out, echoing her. “Wait! It’s okay, she’s a member of the crew!”
“Thank you,” Caroline banged out a professional smile and held up her ID higher so that everyone could see. Suddenly the surrounding hands were helpful, lifting her to her feet and propelling her forward up the stairs. Holy shit it actually worked!
“Caroline!” Joe was at the open door of the plane and the wide smile splitting his face was so genuine that she felt an answering glow in her heart.
“Joe!” she called back. Then there was a colossal bang and his smile turned into an open-mouthed ‘O’ of horror as the stairs lurched sideways underneath her, knocking her off her feet. People screamed and fell over the railings as the entire stairwell leaned over and then crunched to a stop, tilting over at a precarious angle. By sheer luck she had been already been holding on to the rail, and she clung to it with a white-knuckled grip to prevent herself from falling to the runway below.
Still on her knees, Caroline risked a look down over the side. The stair truck was leaning over to the right, supported from falling only by the roof of her truck. With a grunt of effort, she pulled herself up the angled, steel steps and looked over the other side. A camper van had piled straight into the left-hand side of the stair truck, nearly toppling it over. An angry group of passengers was crowded around the front of the camper, shouting and waving at the driver to back off.
Caroline did not bother to wait. She climbed the last couple of steps, hauling herself up the rail and stepped across the now much wider gap towards the cabin. Joe’s strong arms caught her and pulled her in before her feet could touch the floor.
“Hey Baby,” he breathed, his lips at her ear, sending a tingle all the way down her back.
“Hey yourself,” she said throatily, turning her head to kiss him. Thank God I had those mints.
He stopped her with a quick peck on the lips. “Sort these assholes out, I need to get forward and start the engines. The passengers are taking way too long and we have to leave urgently. Like five minutes ago.”
“Got it.” Behind her, in spite of the precariously leaning stairs, the crowd down on the runway was still managing to get up to the cabin door. In fact, they were moving quicker than before, since the acrobatic climb necessary to traverse the stairway had forced them to abandon their suitcases. Despite the chaos, or maybe because of it, the familiarity of her uniform seemed to give her unquestioning authority over the panicked herd, and they obeyed instantly as she screamed at them to continue moving to the back of the plane so that everyone else could get on board.
The massive engines whined into life, and the huge turbofans started to turn slowly at first, then faster and faster. A wail of despair went up from the huge crowd still milling around the base of the crippled stairwell. More and more cars were still coming across the blacked-out runways from the access gate. And the perimeter road beyond the fence was still fully lit up by headlights of even more vehicles. By now there were at least a couple of hundred vehicles on the way. Far too many to fit on board.
Caroline’s eyes were caught by a flash of red and blue lights from the direction of the terminal.
“Joe!” She turned and shouted into the cockpit. “Cops are on the way!”
“I know, I know. Whoever isn’t on board yet isn’t coming with us. We’re leaving right now. As soon as we’re clear of the steps, seal that door.” Joe turned back to the controls.
The flight was pretty much full already anyway, but people were still clambering their way up the leaning stairwell and climbing through the cabin door. Caroline caught sight of a man down in the crowd try
ing to push an obese, elderly woman in a wheelchair through to the bottom of the stairs. Are you fucking kidding me?
The powerful Rolls Royce engines howled and the plane started to move. A young man who had just reached the top of the stairs leaped for the cabin door and missed, his fingers whipping across the bottom edge of the doorway as he tried to hang on and failed. Caroline winced, but the noise from the engines drowned out the noise of him landing on the concrete forty feet below. She stepped forward, and careful not to fall out herself, pulled the door closed and locked it in position. Suddenly the plane lurched to a stop and a number of passengers still standing in the aisle stumbled and fell forwards.
“What’s wrong?” Caroline rushed into the cockpit. A police car had parked directly in front of them, blocking the way. One cop had exited and was shouting through a loudspeaker. Whatever he was saying, it was unintelligible inside the cockpit. But the message was clear. Stop.
Joe looked up at Caroline then turned the small tiller next to his joystick. The nose wheel turned seventy-five degrees to the right and he pushed the throttles. The huge airliner swiveled neatly on the spot, surprising the policeman. Evidently, he had not known it could do that. Caroline gasped and Joe cursed as the police officer drew his pistol and aimed it at the side of the cockpit. But before he could fire, he was tackled to the ground by the indignant mob below.
“Enough messing around. Let’s get the hell out of here,” said Joe.
“Joe,” Caroline paused, looking out the side of the window. “There are hundreds of cars out there! They’re still coming through the gate. How many tickets did you sell?”
“I don’t know. I told Moses to cap it at two hundred, but I think the greedy bastard just left it open, so that he could take the money but just leave behind anyone who did not manage to get on board.” The runways in front were black and empty. The tower had turned off all the runway lights, but Joe had flown from Fort Lauderdale hundreds of times. He could find the start of the runway with his eyes closed. And on this particular morning he was pretty sure he did not have to worry about any other planes getting in his way.
Joe had deliberately chosen to break in through the south access gate, not just because it was the closest to the Columbus plane, but also because the runways to the south, now totally blocked by hundreds of cars, were just taxiways for planes to move from the runways and hangars to the terminals. The actual runway he intended to take off from, was on the far side of the terminal to the north, and was totally clear of any obstacles.
“Just the two of us in the cockpit. Take the co-pilot’s chair and strap in,” he nodded at the empty co-pilot’s chair next to him. She quickly buckled herself in as the plane bounced across concrete and grass on its way to the end of the runway. Over the radio the demands from the tower became even more strident for Columbus 754 to return to the terminal and shut down engines. Joe peeled off his headset and dropped it on to the floor.
“Passengers take your seats and ensure your seatbelts are securely fastened,” Caroline said over the cabin address system. “If there are not enough seats available, sit down on the floor and hold on to the seat leg next to you. Because this is going to be one hell of a take-off.”
From behind them they could hear the whole plane erupt in cheering. Joe grinned at her as they turned sharply on to the runway, and then without any hesitation he switched his focus to the runway in front and gunned the throttles to full power. The plane surged forward as if it were alive.
Caroline’s answering smile froze on her face. Something was wrong. The passengers in the cabins behind were not cheering. They were screaming. A sick, cold feeling curdled in her stomach.
“Joe, show me the cabin cameras.” She flicked a look backwards and confirmed that the cockpit door was closed. It had automatically locked as she shut it behind her.
“Busy right now, babe. Give me ten seconds to get our wheels off the ground.”
He glanced up once as she unbuckled and stood up, but then returned his concentration to the controls as they hurtled down the runway. Caroline rushed to the cockpit door and put her eye to the peephole. Shit! Her view was restricted to the immediate area between the flight deck and the bulkhead of the forward galley. But even through the thick armor of the bulletproof door she could hear the bloodcurdling screams from further inside the plane.
She felt the familiar push under her feet, and an almost greasy, sliding motion as the plane’s nose lifted and the wheels left the ground. They were airborne.
“Okay we are on our way!” Joe crowed, but then almost immediately his voice changed. “Oh God. Oh shit.”
Caroline turned and saw that his face was white with horror, riveted to the screens showing the internal views of the passenger cabins behind them. She rushed over to see what was happening.
Passengers were fighting each other. Fighting desperately. Some were trying to eat others. It was exactly like the footage she had been watching from the Galleria. The entire rear cabin was already gone. They were swarming their way quickly through the middle cabins in a tidal wave of snapping teeth, and clawing hands, against which surviving passengers desperately tried to protect themselves with hand luggage, trays and anything else they could get their hands on. She even saw one woman holding up what looked like her own child in front of her, to block an attacking zombie. In a flurry of blood and flailing limbs it was all over, and in seconds both the woman and her child had turned and were attacking their screaming neighbors.
“They’re on board. Oh my God, there are zombies on board! How did they…” she cut herself off deliberately as she realized she was becoming more and more shrill with panic. Joe swiveled his head between his instruments and the screens showing the carnage behind them. The tsunami of zombie flesh had now reached the front cabin and Caroline flinched as gunshots rang out only a few feet behind them. Fucking Florida! What kind of maniac would start shooting on board a plane? Someone shouted hoarsely for help just outside the door and hammered at it, demanding to be let inside. She clutched at the fanny pack on her waist, feeling the hard angles of the revolver inside.
“Don’t worry they’re not getting through that door.” Joe said. She knew that. It was designed to stop machine gun fire.
The desperate banging on the cockpit door stopped and so did all the shouting and screaming from the other side of it. Caroline went back up to the door and put her eye to the peephole before recoiling immediately. There were a dozen or more bleeding zombies packed in just outside, staring at the door. She whirled around, eyes wet with fear to see Joe urgently signaling her to be silent with one finger held up to his lips.
“They can’t see or hear us,” he whispered, barely audible against the background noise of the engines. Caroline nodded back in understanding, mouth clamped tightly shut. She could feel big, hot tears escaping from the corners of her eyes and trickling down her cheeks. In front of her Joe frowned, looking down at the headset on the floor where he had thrown it before take-off. The repetitive voice telling him to turn around come back, to land the aircraft, had sounded different just then. Had he heard the word ‘force’?
There was a blinding flash of white light and an explosion just outside the cockpit window. Caroline screamed as she was thrown to the floor. She grabbed hold of the back of the co-pilot’s seat for support. The floor jerked crazily and her stomach hiccupped as the plane started to plunge back down to earth.
“Oh Jesus, I think the left wing’s gone!” Joe shouted, trying to make sense of the panel in front of him which had lit up with alarms. His knuckles were white with strain on the control yoke. The light from outside turned a warm yellow. “We’re on fire! Extinguishers aren’t working.”
Caroline felt an almost preternatural calm settle over her, as she realized there was nowhere to run. She was going to die. So, this is it. This is how it ends. Joe had straightened out their spin, but the view forward from the cockpit window showed the ground rushing inexorably up towards them.
“Pul
l Up,” said a robotic voice urgently, as the automatic warning system noted that their plummeting descent and low altitude. “Pull Up.” The alarm system repeated, along with a host of warning tones, ringing throughout the cockpit. “Obstacle, Obstacle. Pull Up.”
“We can make it.” Joe hauled back uselessly on the control yoke, muscles standing out like cords on his forearms. Their flight path flattened out almost imperceptibly. No darling, we’re not going to make it, we are about to die, Caroline thought, looking out of the window as they rushed towards the dark ground below. She had maybe another twenty seconds of life left she realized, before oblivion. In a flash of inspiration her head suddenly whipped around and looked at the cockpit door. A terrible and insane thought had occurred to her. The undead… cannot die.
“Too Low. Terrain,” blared the warning system. “Pull Up.”
With one last sad glance at Joe, Caroline quickly moved to the back of the cockpit and gripped the door handle with a shaking hand. Life or death. It’s the only choice I have. In one swift move she unlocked the door, opened it a little and shoved her hand blindly out through the crack. For a second nothing happened, then bodies hammered into the other side of the door and Caroline screamed in agony as her arm was suddenly wrenched upwards and frenzied teeth chomped down, biting off her one of her fingers. But almost immediately the pain stopped and she felt a hot rush in her blood; a dizziness. A hunger.
Hungry. Joe. No! The door. Need to get to the door. Trying to keep that last thought in her mind, she pushed her way out of the cockpit, ignored now by the other undead, who swarmed past her towards a screaming Joe, and moved towards the cabin door, reaching out for the escape handle.