by Hatchett
At one point, Timur had been challenged as he veered too close to a coach blocking one of the airport’s exits. He’d have to remember to stay away from them and not bring attention to himself. It was clear that the guards near the perimeter were particularly alert and he made a mental note to tell the others when they met up later that night to go over the plans once again. He had identified one problem which they hadn’t anticipated; there was now a vehicle cordon twenty metres outside the perimeter fence which was holding back the zombie hordes, and the zombie hordes were a big part of their plan.
Earlier that morning, they had awoken to find welcome letters and instruction sheets had been slid under their doors. They were expected to meet up in a room in Terminal 4 for some sort of induction at 10.00am.
They checked in with each other then walked across to Terminal 3 again, this time to find some breakfast and do some more scouting. Upon leaving the restaurant at around 9.00am they heard loud engine noises and saw a small crowd had gathered on part of the apron. Naturally, they had wandered across to see what was going on and almost laughed aloud as they saw the last of the soldiers trudging up the ramps of three Chinooks before they closed and the helicopters took off. It was only when they were in the air and were swinging around to head West that they noticed that the two Apache’s were going with them.
Timur had caught Zeki’s eye and both grinned as if Christmas had come early. They hurriedly found the others, and all headed swiftly back to the hotel, checking the area to see how many soldiers were still left. The answer appeared to be ‘not many’.
They all met up in Savas’s room and decided to implement their plan immediately. They had originally expected to be there for days, waiting for the right time to attack, but with the helicopters and all those soldiers heading off, they doubted they would ever get a better opportunity.
They had all gone back to their rooms, retrieved the bombs from their hiding places and placed them in their holdalls. They also retrieved their knives and pistols and hid them about their bodies. It was chilly outside so wearing a coat wouldn’t look out of place.
Tolga, Savas, Yavuz and Zeki left the hotel and spread out, heading in different directions to various targets around the airport.
Timur left one of his bombs in his room then went down to reception to speak to the woman who he had seen standing behind the desk the last couple of occasions he had walked past. He managed to persuade her to come and look at a problem in the communal toilets and, once he was sure there was no one else in the room, stabbed her through the heart and dragged her into one of the cubicles. She would make a nice surprise for someone later on. After a quick check to ensure there were no tell-tale signs of the killing, he hurried back to the reception desk, entered the office behind and, finding it empty, placed one of his bombs on a shelf and concealed it with one of the many books.
Timur then made his way towards the basement, checking carefully to ensure no one was around. He found some pallets which he believed was roughly below the reception area and left another bomb hidden in some plastic wrapping. He then left the hotel and wandered around the lawned area outside as if he were out for a morning stroll. He saw that cars and trucks had been used to form a blockade against the hordes of zombies straining on the other side. He moved closer and, appearing to crouch down to tie up a shoelace, surreptitiously rolled one of the smaller bombs under the nearest car before heading back into the airport.
Savas had taken the riskiest role; that of trying to infiltrate the Command Area on Level 3 of Terminal 3. He had ducked into one of the many maintenance closets, found and changed into some overalls, grabbed a large toolbox, emptied most of the contents and refilled it with his arsenal, then quickly made his way to his target.
The Command Area was a bit of a mess; the once white walls were smudged with dark oily smoke from Mamba’s previous bombing. There were electrical wires hanging from the ceilings like vines hanging from the trees in a jungle and parts of the floor were pulled up to reveal even more ducts and masses of cables intertwined like writhing snakes.
He headed along the corridor, switching from one side to the other to avoid workmen making repairs, towards where Mamba had told him the Security Centre could be found. When he got there he just stopped and stared with his mouth hanging slightly open. The room was in total disarray, broken glass and warped metals and plastics everywhere. There was even a hole in the far wall letting in some of the light from outside. He was wondering why Mamba wanted a bomb placed here when it was clearly already damaged beyond repair.
“Not good is it?” someone said from his side, making Savas jump out of his skin.
He turned quickly to find a skinny man in his thirties, roughly five nine, greying brown and a pair of thick glasses perched on his beak-like nose.
“I could kill those thugs who blew it up,” the man continued, with a distressed look on his face. “They don’t know the damage they’ve caused to my equipment. Have you been sent to help?”
“Er, no,” Savas replied quickly, realising that he was one of the ‘thugs’ that this man was talking about. “I had a few minutes before another job and wanted to see how things were going.”
“They’re not,” the man said, with anger in his voice. “It’s going to take weeks or more to get this place back into shape, and that’s only if we can find the necessary equipment.”
“Where are those thugs now?” Savas asked, beginning to feel confident that he had got away with his disguise and might learn something useful. He considered whether to just kill the man and leave him to turn, but there were too many people nearby who might hear any scuffle or walk in at the wrong moment and raise the alarm.
“In the West Country. But don’t worry, we’ve sent a team to track them down and finish them off once and for all. I just don’t understand why people are like that. It’s the end of the world as we know it and you’d think they’d want to rebuild and try and get back to something like normal.
Savas listened with growing hatred. Where was the fun in civil society? What gave these people the right to say how he should behave and what he should do. His people had been abused and oppressed for years and now it was time for payback, all rules forgotten. But the destination of the helicopters was worrying and he knew he had to get a message to Mamba.
“I guess I better go and get on with my next job,” Savas had said, turning to leave.
“Good meeting you,” the man said.
“You too.”
Savas hurried out of the Command Area, all thoughts about killing the man or leaving a bomb in the area long forgotten. He walked quickly to the nearest toilets, forcing himself not to run and nearly tripping over a bucket and mop and a sign saying ‘These toilets are temporarily closed for cleaning’ on one side. Finding the toilets deserted, he entered a cubicle and got the satellite phone out of his holdall. He quickly hit the redial button and waited to be connected.
“Boss? Trouble coming your way. You need to get out,” Savas said quickly once he was connected.
“We seen ‘em,” came back and then the line went dead.
Savas put the phone away. He had no idea how far away Mamba was from him, but it clearly hadn’t taken those helicopters long to get there. By comparison, the train journey had seemed like an age, having to keep up an act the whole time, talking to those boring motherfuckers he’d been sitting next to. He just hoped Mamba understood what firepower was heading his way.
Savas recovered his poise and decided to tape a little bomb under one of the sinks. It wasn’t in the Command Area as instructed, but it was close enough, and Mamba wouldn’t be any the wiser.
After washing his hands, he placed them under the hot air dryer. The outer door swung open and a man entered, saying ‘hello’ and heading to the urinals.
Savas smiled and withdrawing his knife, walked across to the man, and plunged it into his neck. A little reckless because someone else could walk in at any moment, but Savas was beginning to get bored and fan
cied a bit of action. Savas lowered the man to the floor, the man’s eyes wide open in shock and his mouth moving but struggling to make any sound. Blood was pumping in spurts from the large gash in his neck and urine was still squirting into the air like a miniature fountain.
Savas quickly stepped out of range and, after a final, quick look at the man, left the toilets, pulling the closed sign with him and leaving it outside the door. There was no one close by, and no one seemed to be paying him any attention, so he casually moved off towards his next target.
As Timur had highlighted the previous evening, the most difficult part of their mission would be to plant bombs near the outer perimeter, then plant a few more along the vehicle cordon twenty metres further on. Yavuz had come up with the best solution, so after their first sorties placing bombs and leaving some zombie surprises for the residents to find, they had carefully targeted some of the remaining guards near the buildings. As a team, they had identified unsuspecting guards going about their business, taken them by surprise and strangled them to make sure their uniforms were undamaged. Once they were dead, they switched out of their own clothes into the uniforms and helped themselves to the weapons.
Once Timur, Tolga, Yavuz and Zeki had the required clothing, they split into pairs and headed to different sides of the airport towards the coaches blocking the exits, ready to ‘relieve’ the guards already there. It hadn’t taken long to take these guards by surprise and kill them. Then they just needed to wait until they turned, kill them again and use their blood and guts to get dirty. After all, they had to protect themselves when they let the hordes in.
While one of them stayed behind to act as a guard on the perimeter, the other carried their bags and placed bombs along the perimeter and the outer cordon, pretending all the time that they were doing a sweep of the area.
Savas stayed near Terminal 3 in his overalls, keeping watch and ensuring nothing untoward happened to the two pairs. As he was standing there, the alarm was raised in the Terminal; they had obviously found something, and moments later there was the sound of running feet and a group of four of five people went running past him towards Terminal 4. Seconds later there was more shouting across the apron and people running in all directions, then an alarm went off.
Savas smiled to himself as he saw the first zombie following people across the apron. He checked on his men and saw that they were now making their way back towards him. He withdrew a second phone from his bag and dialled a number. A second later, several explosions rang out all over the airport, followed by debris raining down, fires, smoke and people starting to run and scream.
The four reached Savas and Timur handed him a jar of blood and guts, which he swiftly opened and tipped over his head. He dropped the jar as Timur handed him one of the dead soldier’s automatics
“Time for the real fun,” Savas opined, as he took the gun. “Spread out. See you later.”
They all spread out and went in different directions. Finding cover, they started sniping the people running for safety. It was like a duck shoot, with plenty of targets to keep them entertained.
Savas kept an eye on the perimeter, watching as the zombie hordes surged through the gaps in the fencing, heading towards the fleeing and screaming people.
At one point, some of the remaining guards appeared to regroup and looked like they might organise some effective resistance. A few bullets in their legs put paid to that and Savas watched in awe as they were swamped by the zombies.
Within half an hour, there were zombies everywhere and no humans in sight. They had either been taken down or were hiding in the buildings. As a couple of zombies nudged past him, Savas pulled another phone from his holdall and turned it on. He dialled a number and watched with a big smile on his face as explosions ripped apart surrounding buildings and the hotel they had stayed in. Buildings in which the survivors thought they would be safe. He laughed lightly, attracting the brief interest of a couple of zombies nearby. He looked around. There were still many buildings untouched. After all, it was big place and they only had so many bombs. Still, the zombies should do the rest and it would be way too late to do anything if and when the helicopters returned.
He glanced around one final time, raising his gun to pick off some guy who hadn’t been caught. He then shouldered the weapon thinking ‘time to go’ and headed towards the rendezvous in the car park. All in all, it had gone far better than expected. He was still alive after all. There was just a couple more things he needed to do.
The mission had gone well, and they’d all made it safely back to the rendezvous at the car park. Savas took another look around the airport from his vantage point, pulled the satellite phone from his holdall and punched the pre-programmed number. After a couple of rings, Mamba answered the call.
“Still alive then?” Mamba said, as an introduction.
“I could say the same about you,” Savas replied.
“Ya don’t need ta worry ‘bout me, man. I’m indestructible. Did ya do it?”
“Yeah boss. All done. I’ve even taken some pictures and a few videos on one of the phones so you can enjoy it yourself later.”
“Ya all make it?” Mamba asked.
“Yeah, all here,” Savas confirmed, hearing Mamba laughing.
“Good lad. Go hide ‘n rest. I’ll be in touch.”
With that, Mamba ended the call and Savas turned to his colleagues.
“Time we headed for the ‘The George and Dragon’. I could do with a beer and Mamba recommended the place.”
The five picked up their gear and headed towards the car park’s exit. As they walked, they heard the first sounds of the helicopters returning.
26
Day 25 – 18:00
Swindon
Mamba was just sorting himself out when the satellite phone in his pocket started ringing.
He pulled the phone out, pressed the button and placed the device to his ear. The smile on his face grew with each passing second until he was laughing. After a couple of minutes, he pulled the phone away, clicked the off button and put it away.
“What?” asked Ahmed from the doorway, wondering who was calling and what was going on.
Mamba looked up with delight written all over his face.
“Heathrow is burnin’ ta the ground. They’re fucked.”
Ahmed looked puzzled for a few seconds.
“Ayla is there,” Ahmed pointed out, as an afterthought.
“Collateral damage. Shouldn’t’ve fucked me over, should she?”
Ahmed was now wishing Ayla had come with them.
“Anyway, how do ya know it’s burnin’?” he asked.
“Later,” Mamba replied, tapping the side of his nose with his forefinger. “We got betta things ta do. Let’s jus’ say the fuckers tryin’ ta find us’ll be goin’ home wiv their tails between their legs. ‘Cept they ain’t got no home no more. Shouldn’t’ve wasted their time comin’ after me.”
He laughed and shook his head in wonderment then stood up and led the way out of the office with Irina and his other new woman, who was called Hana, on each of his arms. After testing both women’s promise to do as they were told, and with the others watching on, there could be no doubt what was expected of them all.
Ahmed had returned mid-action and after a bit of cajoling he had chosen one of the women sitting in one of the chairs to be his. Her name was Marika and she happened to speak some English, as did the third woman sitting in the third chair.
Marika had darker skin than the others, with dark almond shaped eyes and dark long, straight hair, a thin face, and a slight frame. Mamba smiled inwardly at Ahmed’s choice, knowing that Marika was the closest thing to Ayla in the room. He had been tempted to pick her himself but wanted to see what Ahmed would do.
Mamba walked along the gantry and down the stairs, with lighting provided by battery powered lamps set at various intervals around the main areas of the warehouse.
Mamba followed Ahmed’s directions towards the middle of the warehou
se where Faruk and Ismet were waiting with the rest of the men. Mamba had heard the murmur of voices, so he had a good idea where he was going in any case.
As he rounded the end of yet another row of goods, the space opened out and the area was more brightly lit. All his men appeared to be there, huddling around a decent-sized circle made up of large boxes. It seemed that the men had managed to locate alcohol and drinks were being passed around.
The men parted as Mamba moved towards them, Dev offering him a beer which, to everyone’s surprise, he declined. He reached the boxes and looked into the circle and saw Faruk and Ismet standing there as expected. There were a few grunts and the gnashing of teeth and some muffled screams from behind the pair, and Mamba saw a zombie tied to one support pillar and two women bound, gagged and tied to a second pillar a few metres away from the first. Mamba smiled.
“Let the fun begin,” Mamba shouted, and his men quickly spread further around the outside of the circle to get a better view. It also gave the women a chance to edge up to the boxes and take in the scene. There were a few gasps as their eyes were immediately drawn to the zombie, the first time they had really seen one up close. Then they saw the two women who had been part of their little group and shuddered.
“I thought you said you would let us leave,” Irina said accusingly as she turned to Mamba. “We had a deal.”
“True,” Mamba agreed. “But first ya need ta know what leavin’ actually means,” he added cryptically.
Mamba let go of Irina and Hana and clambered over the boxes into the circle. He walked across to stand next to Faruk and Ismet then surveyed the onlookers, finishing by staring straight at Irina and Hana and the other women who had closed in around them for support.
“The world has gone ta shit. All we got is this,” he said, pointing to the zombie. “Wherever ya go, most people are now like this. Zombies. Millions of ‘em.”
