Red Eye | Season 1 | Episode 4

by Riley, Claire C

  RED Eye

  The Armageddon Series

  Season One: Episode Four

  By

  USA Today Bestselling Author

  Claire C. Riley

  &

  Victoria Cage Author

  Eli Constant

  RED EYE

  Copyright ©2019 Claire C. Riley & Elizabeth Constantopoulos

  Cover Design: Wilde Designs Elizabeth Constantopoulos

  Editor: Amy Jackson

  Formatting: Claire C. Riley

  ALL RIGHT RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, without express permission from the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the authors’ imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locals is entirely coincidental.

  About the episode:

  The code word is coconuts!

  ** Things come to a head between two members of the group

  and a line is firmly drawn when someone gets the wrong idea. The group realizes that the world

  as they know it might not ever be right again. **

  About the series:

  When a red-eye flight from London to Los Angeles brings two strangers together, they have no idea that it’s the end of the bloody world!

  Rose, a British runaway, is ready for the adventure of a lifetime. Her hopes are high, her funds are low, and nothing is going to rain on her parade.

  Except maybe the apocalypse!

  Sam is an American ballerina on her way home from a hellish vacation. She’s tired of culture, tired of traveling, and seriously tired of men. She can’t wait to get home.

  That is until everyone turns into flesh-eating zombies!

  Neither woman expects their exhausting overnight flight to devolve into bloody carnage of terror and mayhem.

  But when you’re over 30,000 feet in the air

  and there’s nowhere to run

  and nowhere to hide…

  what else can you do but team up with as many survivors as possible and try to stay alive?

  *

  Start this epic zombie apocalypse thriller written by USA Today Bestseller Claire C. Riley and Victoria Cage Author Eli Constant.

  All episodes available in Kindle Unlimited.

  Red Eye Season 1: Episode 1- OUT NOW

  US: http://bit.ly/31ZIRKTRedEyeUS

  UK: http://bit.ly/2ouPKWLRedEYEUK

  Red Eye Season 1: Episode 2 – OUT NOW

  US: http://bit.ly/34EFbjyRedEye2US

  UK: http://bit.ly/32rgl4SRedEye2UK

  Red Eye Season 1: Episode 3 – OUT NOW

  link

  Red Eye Season 1: Episode 4 – OUT NOW

  Link

  Season Two Episode One coming January 2nd 2020

  RED Eye

  The Armageddon Series

  Season One: Episode Four

  By

  USA Today Bestselling Author

  Claire C. Riley

  &

  Victoria Cage Author

  Eli Constant

  Prologue

  “Dad, I know, I know. I’ll be on the next flight.” Ana shoved the phoned further into the crook of her neck and pushed some more coins into the slot. Her cell had run out of battery hours before, and despite several failed attempts to buy a charger, she’d had to resort to the payphone. She hadn’t even known those things still existed. Most of the ones at gas stations were no longer in service.

  “I’m worried, Ana. The nurse didn’t turn up today. Who’s going to cook my dinner?”

  “I’ll be home by dinnertime, Dad. I’m sure it will be fine,” she said, glancing around her with uncertainty. She desperately wanted to get back home to her dad. He was sick: early onset dementia. He needed her, especially since the nurse hadn’t turned up for work that day. “Did you take your pills this morning, Dad?”

  The airport was busy, a strange atmosphere in the air. People were trying to go on like normal, but they were tense. No one knew what was happening, only that something was happening.

  “Of course I did,” he grumbled. “Just get home as soon as you can, Ana. I’m worried.”

  “I will, I promise,” she said, her gaze on a little girl. She looked lost and confused, one hand clutching onto a raggedy teddy bear. She turned away, briefly, readying to hang up. “Dad, listen, I have to go.”

  “Okay, but you get home quickly, Ana.” His voice sounded tired, and for a moment Ana deeply missed the vivacious man he used to be.

  “I will.” Ana hung up and looked back to where the little girl had been, automatically heading in the same direction. She’d seemed to be crying, her face pale, her dress dirty, a teddy bear clutched in her arms. The terminal branched off up ahead and the child was out of sight now. Ana’s steps sped up and she looked from left to right, finally spotting the little girl heading past one of the abandoned smoothie stands.

  “Hey,” she called, her heels click-clacking on the floor as she hurried along. “Hey, sweetheart.” She reached the girl, placing her hand on one small shoulder and noting how hot and clammy it felt. The girl didn’t respond, and Ana found herself instinctually looking around for the child’s parents. They had to be nearby.

  Other people passed them by, their eyes firmly on their cell phones or staring out the windows. So many gazes that were lost, confused…worried. Everyone had somewhere to be, and no one seemed to know what was happening. A crowd had formed around one of the overhead TV stands as people waited for news.

  Well over an hour before, all planes had been suspended. Cabs weren’t making the rounds to pick up new passengers anymore. Some people with cars had given up and left.

  Cell phones had started ringing, one after another, and voices had echoed through the terminal. All the same sorts of conversations—What’s going on? How are you getting home? I’m scared. Then batteries began to run low, and everyone started arguing over the charging stations. Forty stations in LAX, a sign had said. Four outlets each. 160 outlets wasn’t nearly enough. It would devolve into actual fights at some point.

  Ana tuned in to the television for a second. The anchors were waiting to hear a speech from the president.

  Whatever this was, it was big.

  She squeezed the little girl’s shoulder gently, focusing back on the situation at hand, the one she might be able to control and help. “Sweetheart, are you lost? Do you know where your mom is?” Ana asked.

  The little girl turned slowly, her movements jerky.

  Ana’s smile fell.

  Chapter one.

  Sam

  I kept looking in the distance for Jamie and Alexa. I couldn’t see them. The parking garage was dim, despite the sun pouring in from the open-air sides. It was almost like a thick fog was suspended in the air, slowly suffocating us.

  I hated that we’d separated; It wasn’t right. Barrett was close to me, his chest rising and falling faster than I’d seen it since meeting him. I’d begun to think he was a machine, an android; tireless and fierce, devoid of feelings, but I was seeing the man behind the tough mask now. I don’t think he’d been taking our situation seriously—not until we were ripping open bodies and painting ourselves with what had once been the insides of a human being. Then it became all too real for everyone, including him.

  I hadn’t had to cut open one of the zombies myself. Barrett had done it for me and I’d coated myself in the sewage of flesh and blood. I�
��d retched continuously, gagging as the smell of death dove down my throat and clung to my insides. Rose had looked similar, like she was realizing with unwavering clarity that it really was the end of the world. Why else would you smear a dead person’s blood and flesh across your face and body? Why else would you allow little chunks of clotted blood to catch in your hair?

  Jumping as another body hit the ground, courtesy of Akhira, I felt a wall beside me, firm and unyielding. I knew without looking that it was Barrett having inched closer to me. I didn’t know why I felt so drawn to him and I certainly didn’t understand why he was being so protective of me. Or maybe he wasn’t being protective of me at all. Maybe it was all in my head. God, I didn’t know anything anymore…not with the world like this. Everything seemed confusing and blurred, the lines between reality and fantasy mushing together until everything mingled into one like a milkshake.

  Nolan started moving, keys from Karla in hand. Rose kept pace with him, her knife held tight to her small body. Her gaze scanned all around us, her features drawn tight as she analyzed the situation with fearful but determined eyes. There was something changed about her. I’d watched as she’d killed the zombie that was attacking Nolan. She… she hadn’t hesitated.

  I wondered, morbidly, what would happen in the future if I did finally change. Would she hesitate if it came time to kill me?

  Shuddering, I allowed Barrett to whisk me forward, his strong hand gripping my elbow, as I thought over how I was feeling. It was stupid to do so while danger poured in from all directions. But Rose killing without pause…it made me wonder…She was adjusting to the situation, and I had to too.

  “We need to go that way.” Karla was huffing and puffing, her large body having trouble moving as fast as everyone else, but by God she was determined to keep up. “Got the biggest thing they have in the lot. Newer passenger van. It’s…” She took a deep breath, coughing a little, and then cringing as she looked around at the zombies shambling ever nearer with every sound we made. “…going to be behind all the smaller vehicles and SUVs.”

  Of course it was…Wasn’t that just our damn luck?

  Nolan nodded, grunting an “okay” before continuing to work his way in the direction she’d pointed. One of the infected nearly fell out from beside a blue sedan in its eagerness to get at Akhira. He side-stepped smoothly, like he’d been fighting zombies since birth. Unfortunately, the swift movement caused the zombie to angle toward Karla instead. The large woman shrieked, pulling up the gun she held and firing—firing the way a person does when they’re scared shitless and only have minimal training: badly.

  Look at me judging—the girl who’s only trained in one thing: dance. And that makes me a pretty crappy survivalist.

  Barrett let go of me, rushing forward and moving almost in a box step around Karla and her attacker. He gripped the zombie’s neck with his large hands and yanked it around, WWE-style. It nearly helicoptered off the ground, flew a few feet through the air, and Barrett let go and it slammed into the windshield of the same sedan it had been hiding beside.

  The large man with the Texas drawl didn’t stop there though. He launched forward, driving his knife so hard into the zombie’s skull that I heard the ear-piercing sound of the blade on metal as he dragged the knife away, cutting through the head like it was made of gelatin instead of bone and brain.

  A small horde of zombies were now converged on our right side.

  “Oh God!” Rose called out, her eyes going wide.

  “Korosou, ga korosare yohga, youshaha nai!” Akhira barked at her before stepping forwards and taking the first two down with little effort. The man was barely breathless. Leon followed, hacking at the others like he was taking out his frustration on a fencepost instead of a diseased monster. I think I knew where his rage was coming from. I glanced at Nolan and Rose, still at the front of our troupe, but looking back to make sure everyone was okay. They were settling into a position of leadership together, and it worked somehow. They worked somehow.

  Akhira grunted something and I turned to look at him, Barrett once again moving alongside me. The Japanese man was nearly on the ground, one hand holding him from totally falling while the other fended off a zombie. Leon couldn’t help; he was elbow-deep in his own fight.

  I saw it first, so I moved first. However, Barrett barreled in front of me, shoving me backwards. I stubbornly kept moving, despite his obvious direction to stay back. If Rose could be strong, if she could kill, so could I. I didn’t want to be some damsel in distress. I’d always been in that position. It was time…shit, time for me to grow. Who knew it would take the end of the world for me to grow a fucking backbone.

  I didn’t have a gun, only a small knife. I was sure they wanted to reserve the more serious weapons for those who stood a better chance of using them. I centered myself, thought back to the restaurant and slaughtering the hungry demons through the gate. I could do that again. I’d do it now.

  Barrett was already helping Akhira, so I moved to Leon. He was facing four of them, impossible odds by the standards of everything we’d seen so far. If he’d had a security barrier between them and him, maybe. But he didn’t.

  He only had me to help. God help him.

  Holding the knife firmly, I moved around the quad of the sick. The nearest one turned to face me as I moved, its features partially obscured by the deep cavity in its face where something had taken a chunk out of it by teeth or hands. I gagged and fought to not lose my stomach contents as it closed in on me.

  I imagined that I was debuting as a Prima. That it was Swan Lake and I was dancing Odette and Odile. But really, I was Odile disguised as Odette. I was deception and cunning. I pivoted gracefully as the gangly, uncoordinated monster shuffled forward. I twirled, knife at the ready, like it was the feathers extending from my fingertips. And then I found my purchase, shoving the blade deeply and with exacting force, into the Prince…into the zombie.

  I didn’t even mind when an arc of wet crimson spurted out from the wound as I drew my weapon away from the creature. It was not a kill shot, so I moved and controlled my body and lifted onto my toes and drove the knife down once more, this time hitting home. I could see the way the light died behind the red-hued eyes as it realized it was finished.

  I can do this, I thought. I can do this.

  Another target. I danced and I danced.

  This time, I was the Sugar Plum Fairy. Yet I was not a useless creature standing to welcome the monsters into my kingdom. No, I was the war-bringer, fighting the seven-headed mouse king and his army. I shifted and moved like I’d never moved before, caught in the spell that was killing. I felt like myself—more myself than I had in years. I added to the gore across my body with each implantation of my knife. My entire body became soaked with it and I relished it—even the smell, which no longer made me feel ill.

  I realized, slower than everyone else, that the immediate threat was gone. I came to a standstill, my eyes focusing on the faces around me who were standing with mouths gaping. The shadows of the garage made their expressions seem more severe; I hoped that was the case, at least. Even Rose looked astonished…and concerned, if the tightening around her eyes told a truth.

  Desperate and feeling like I had become a monster in those moments, I found Barrett’s face. And his expression stilled any worry in my soul. There was astonishment there, and also awe. But, if I were being honest, there was mainly lust. If you’d asked me before, before the zombie Armageddon, if I’d want a man who looked at me that way—when I was blood-coated and fresh from killing instead of clean and prima donna—I’d have laughed in your face. But now it sent a thrill through my belly, my nerve endings firing up like I’d just been given a jolt of electricity. I felt fucking alive.

  “Come on. We have to keep moving.” Nolan’s deep voice cut through the spell that had fallen over me. “This lull in the bad shit isn’t going to last forever.” He took a hard glance at me before turning around and heading toward the section of larger vehicles. The pat
h took us up the ramp a bit to the next level, and it gave me a better view of all around as we slowly rose higher.

  I didn’t follow immediately; it was like the gore and grime soaking through my clothes had already started to stiffen, rendering me a statue. I saw Rose take a step forward, but then her eyes darted to look at something, then back to me. She gave me a small smile and then started following Nolan toward our transportation and the hope of safety. It wasn’t until Barrett was right in front of me that I realized he’d moved closer. I was in a sort of fog, like the after-euphoria of sex, only muddier.

  Everything about the killing had felt good in the moment, almost right. Now, though? I felt like a storybook villain, with everyone waiting for me to work some evil magic and smite them all. I almost laughed at that, almost giggled and laughed and called every damn zombie in the place to us again.

  But a sobering look from Barrett and a large, calloused fingertip brushing against my lips pulled me back from the edge. My eyes met his and there were things being said between us that I didn’t even understand. Things I couldn’t put voice to.

  “Come on, we’ve got to keep moving.” He spoke low, a growl in his chest that was halfway between battle-fueled adrenaline and bedroom intentions. He reached for my arm, to help me move like he had back in the terminal, but I didn’t need it. I wasn’t a statue. Realization hit me, finally: I wasn’t ashamed of killing those things. We’d all killed those things. I wasn’t going to go back to being weak and needing saving.

  Barrett seemed to like that I walked forward on my own. I could swear, despite being surrounded by fallen bodies and smelling like the dumpster behind a butchery, that he would have grabbed me up in his arms and kissed me to kingdom come if we hadn’t been running from zombies and falling behind the group. Or maybe my imagination was getting the better of me, my own sexual euphoria blinding me to how things really were. If that were true, then I never wanted to wake up from it. Because it felt good—the sort of good that just might have been worth the end of the world for.