Black Fever: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Thriller (The Black Storm Trilogy Book 2)

by Mark Gillespie

  “Oh shit.”

  The woman unlocked her arms from around the skinny man’s waist. In a flash, she sprang onto all fours like a cat. Then she maneuvered herself around so that her head was pointing at the bathroom door. To the horror of the onlookers, the woman charged forwards at an unnatural speed and slammed the top of her skull against the door. The crunching noise was sickening and Cody’s insides lurched – it was like the sound was coming from inside his head, that’s how close it felt.

  She hit her head off the door again and again. It sounded like someone was slamming a battering ram into the side of the plane.

  “Stop!” Crazy Diamond yelled. She clapped a hand over her mouth.

  Crazy Diamond grabbed Richards by the arm and pulled him into the aisle. They hurried over to where Cody, Rachel and Nick, were watching events unfold with a look of horror in their eyes.

  Cody pulled Rachel tight towards him, keeping her close.

  “Don’t look,” he said to her.

  But Rachel looked.

  It took the woman less than twenty seconds to end her life. After a furious assault on the bathroom door, she dropped face-first to the floor. A splattering of blood slid slowly down the door. There was a high-pitched wheezing noise that came out of the woman’s mouth – the last sound she’d ever make.

  The skinny man leapt to his feet. With breathtaking speed, he ran down the aisle towards Cody and the others. He was like a rabid animal on the loose. He lunged at Crazy Diamond, grabbing her by the collar of her denim jacket.

  The man dragged Crazy Diamond back down the aisle. He pulled her hair, forcing her head back. Crazy Diamond shrieked in pain and tried to fight him off. She aimed a knee at his balls but the blow fell short. The man dragged her down quickly with a wild grin on his face. He was about to slam Crazy Diamond’s head off the floor when Nick ran over and tackled him, pushing the man backwards.

  Crazy Diamond jumped back to her feet. She kicked the man on the leg as hard as she could. Then she kicked him everywhere.

  “Asshole!” she cried out.

  Nick tried to seize control of the wriggling body underneath. It shouldn’t have been too hard for him to gain the advantage, judging by appearances. Nick Norton weighed well over two hundred pounds, compared to this slightly built man who probably weighed no more than a hundred and forty at most.

  That made it all the more shocking when the skinny man jerked his hips and tossed Nick backwards down the aisle.

  Nick landed on the floor with a crashing thud.

  “Nick!” Crazy Diamond said.

  The skinny man sprang back to his feet and leapt at Nick. He pinned the big pilot to the floor and threw punches to the body and head. His black eyes, like cold marble, stared through Nick like he wasn’t even there. The evil grin was still on his face.

  Nick tried to fight him off but the Fever had given the skinny man a freakish hit of strength.

  “We’ve got to help him,” Crazy Diamond said, turning to Cody.

  Cody grabbed Rachel and scooped her up in his arms. Clutching her tight, he ran back down the aisle, dropping her off in a row of seats at the other end of the plane. Far from the action.

  He kneeled down and cupped her face in his hands. Her wide, frightened eyes looked back at him.

  “Keep down,” he said. “Got it?”

  She nodded.

  Rachel dove down to the floor and curled up into a tight ball. It was a maneuver she’d practiced in the back of the Dodge on their way to the airport and now she had it down to perfection. She made herself small. Her arms were locked around Bootsy.

  Cody ran back down the aisle as fast as he could. “Give me my bag,” he called out to the others.

  Crazy Diamond and Richards looked at the floor, their eyes searching for the right backpack amongst the pile of luggage. It was Crazy Diamond who found it and she picked up Cody’s bag and handed it over to him.

  Pulling open the zip, Cody found the Glock 19 sitting at the top of a pile of badly folded clothes.

  There was a gargled choking sound. Cody looked up and saw that the skinny man had his hands wrapped around Nick’s barrel-like neck. He was throttling Nick Norton like a rag doll.

  “Quick!” Crazy Diamond said. “He’s killing him.”

  Cody checked the magazine for rounds. Then he walked down the aisle, pointing the pistol at the man’s chest.

  “Get off him!” Cody yelled.

  The skinny man paid Cody no attention. He continued to strangle Nick, whose bulging eyes were rolling to the back of his head. His massive, linebacker body looked almost limp and it was obvious that whatever fight he had left in him, it was fading fast.

  Cody waited for the skinny man to straighten up a little. When that happened, Cody took aim and fired a shot at the man’s chest. That skinny body, wrapped up in a cream woolen sweater, jerked backwards as the bullet struck.

  But he didn’t fall. If anything, the man was no more perturbed than somebody who’d just been bitten by a mosquito. He continued his brutal assault on Nick.

  “Fuck,” Cody said. What the hell was he dealing with here?

  He aimed again. The crack of gunfire exploded in the cabin.

  The second shot made the skinny man take notice this time. His long, well-manicured fingers released their grip on Nick’s neck at last. Upon letting go, Nick’s entire body made a loud gasping noise as his lungs begged for air.

  The skinny man stood up, looking at Cody. At the same time, a blotchy red stain was forming on the center of the cream-colored sweater.

  He walked down the aisle towards Cody.

  “Don’t,” Cody said. He knew the words were useless, long before they’d left his lips.

  The skinny man burst into a sudden sprint. He charged at Cody like a reckless bull. Cody squeezed the trigger and another loud crack exploded inside the plane.

  The bullet pushed the man back and tipped him off balance. But he stayed on his feet, his face twisted in an agonized rage.

  He ran at Cody again.

  Cody stood in the center of the aisle, his heart pounding furiously. He squeezed the trigger again.

  Crack.

  This time the skinny man dropped onto his knees. His sweater was soaked with blood – it was more red than cream now. And yet his limbs still twitched and jerked; the Fever was trying to pull him forward.

  But his body wasn’t up to it. The skinny man fell to the floor and started wriggling like a worm that had just been pricked by a sharp stick.

  “Jesus,” Cody said. He walked up to the man, kneeled down and pressed the barrel of the pistol against his temple.

  The man’s breathing was slow and labored.

  Cody glanced over his shoulder. He wanted to see if Rachel was looking. He couldn’t see her and hoped she was still hiding on the floor.

  Crazy Diamond was standing in the aisle, next to Richards. The old man’s eyes were wide with horror. Cody had to wonder – was he thinking about his late wife?

  Crazy Diamond nodded to Cody. She knew what had to be done.

  Cody nodded back. He pressed the gun harder onto the man’s temple. With a grimace, he squeezed the trigger and this time it was over.

  For a moment, Cody was lost in a daze. He stood up straight and looking down, he noticed a few droplets of blood splattered on his pants. Perfect, he thought. Just after I changed them.

  Nick was back on his feet. His mouth hung open and one hand was wrapped around his neck, rubbing at where the man had tried to strangle him. A trickle of blood ran down his nose.

  “Damn,” he said, looking at Cody. “I was just getting the better of that asshole.”

  Cody looked at Nick and managed a weak smile. “Sure you were.”

  Nick winked at Cody.

  “Thanks man,” he said. “You saved my ass right there.”

  “Guess that makes us even,” Cody said.

  “Yeah,” Nick said. “I guess so.”

  Nick’s expression turned to one of sudden surprise.
He pointed to the Glock in Cody’s hand.

  “Wait a goddamn minute MacLeod,” he said. His tone leapt from grateful to pissed off in a heartbeat. “What are you doing with a loaded gun in the cabin? I specifically told everyone that all guns were to be locked in the hold during the flight. You had a gun in your bag the whole time?”

  Cody looked at the gun in his hand and shrugged. “We were late remember?” he said. “Guess I must have missed that part.”

  Nick stepped over the fallen corpse like it wasn’t even there.

  “Oh really?” he said.

  Cody nodded. “Really,” Cody said. “And I was shot – you gotta admit, I had other things on my mind man.”

  Nick’s face was deadly serious.

  “You listen to me MacLeod,” he said. “The next time I tell you to do something…”

  Nick charged forwards and then stopped. His face burst into a massive grin. He reached out and grabbed Cody, lifting him off the ground. Then he burst into a fit of raucous laughter.

  “The next time I tell you to do something you just ignore my stupid black ass,” Nick said. “Got it?”

  Cody was about to answer when he heard a rattling sound at their backs.

  “What the hell was that?” Nick said, putting Cody down.

  They both turned around at the same time.

  “They’re moving!”

  It was Richards who spoke. He was walking down the aisle, his arm outstretched, a finger pointing at the two fresh corpses sprawled out on the floor. They were twitching. It looked as if conducting rods had been inserted into the bodies, shooting a high dose of electricity into the nerves and forcing the limbs to move, even though the owners were beyond this world.

  The dead man’s fingers were going up and down like he was like tapping at a typewriter. The woman’s legs flinched like someone had pinched her.

  “They’re still inside them,” Cody said.

  “This doesn’t look good,” Crazy Diamond said, staring at the reanimated corpses. “We have to get rid of the bodies. We’ve got to throw them out of the plane. Quick!”

  Cody shook his head. “You saw how strong they were,” he said. “And besides, what if those things get inside us if we get too close?”

  “So what do we do?” Nick said. “I’m not too happy about leaving these people inside the plane with us. You know what I mean?”

  Cody looked over his shoulder to the opposite end of the fuselage. Rachel was sitting up in her seat, watching events unfold with keen eyes.

  “We can’t stay here,” Cody said. “We’ve got to get a long way from this airport. Everything’s fucked up. We can’t risk staying anywhere near all these bodies.”

  “Where are we going then?” Nick said.

  Cody turned sideways to face his companions. There was a look of resignation on their faces, like they already knew the answer.

  “Downtown,” Cody said. “There are people there and they’re signaling for a reason. Let’s go find out what that reason is.”

  Chapter Four

  “Grab your bags everyone,” Nick said. “Let’s get the hell off this plane.”

  Nick ran to the tail end of the plane to let the stairs down again. When he came back this time, he ran down the cabin, past the twitching corpses, and stopped beside an overhead locker near the cockpit door. He looked sheepishly over at Cody and pulled a small silver key out of his back pocket. Nick unlocked the overhead door. Without a word, he reached in and pulled out an AR-15 rifle and a black Berretta pistol, placing them onto the seat below the locker. Several boxes of ammo followed. Nick crammed the ammo into his sports bag lying on the floor.

  “You asshole,” Cody said, shaking his head. “No guns in the cabin? That was Nick Norton’s big rule, right?”

  Nick shrugged. “Later MacLeod,” he said. “You really want to talk about that now?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Yeah,” Nick said, running back up the aisle with the sports bag and guns. “Well I don’t. C’mon everyone. Let’s go. We got a couple of weapons. We got enough food and water in our bags to keep us going till we get there. Leave the rest of your luggage in the hold. We’ll come back for it.”

  Cody lifted Rachel’s backpack off the floor as well as his own. He threw the bags over a shoulder each.

  Rachel reached up for her bag. “I can carry it,” she said.

  “Maybe later kid,” Cody said, grabbing her by the hand. “We gotta be quick getting out the airport.”

  Cody led her towards the back of the plane. They walked down the airstairs together as fast as Rachel’s legs would allow them. Crazy Diamond and Richards were close at their backs. Cody could hear the urgent, rhythmic tap-tap of their footsteps hitting off the stairs.

  Nick was the last man out – the reluctant captain leaving the sinking ship with a heavy heart. He was carrying a flashlight in one hand, pointing it ahead of the others to guide their step.

  “Good God,” he said, as he caught up with the others at the foot of the stairs.

  Nick pointed the flashlight straight ahead.

  The apron was littered with bodies. They looked like macabre works of art, sprawled out in a variety of tragic shapes, their wide-open eyes staring up at the black sky. Only a short while ago they’d been people, full of hope. The Black Storm was over – and to think they’d believed it. Now they were so dead.

  Cody and the others crept forward, their sights set on the terminal building just a short distance away. Their steps were slow and light. Cody felt an immediate chill in his bones. It felt like they were entering hallowed ground, intruding upon the aftermath of a terrible battle in which there had been no victor.

  It wasn’t long before Richards abandoned his sense of caution. There were no monsters and the bodies weren’t twitching like those in the plane – these corpses were well behaved, still like the dead ought to be. Whatever had infected them was gone. The old man hurried ahead of the pack, staggering towards the terminal building on unsteady feet.

  “Marianne?” Richards whispered. “Marianne?”

  Cody watched him go and cringed. What the hell? He didn’t like the thought of hanging around while Richards looked for his wife. It felt dangerous to linger here. He was certain that the others felt the same as he did but no one it seemed had the heart to interrupt Richards as he diverted from the straight path to the terminal, searching the bloody site for a glimpse of something familiar.

  “Dad,” Rachel said, squeezing his hand.

  Cody kept his eyes on Richards. “What is it Rachel?”

  “Do you hear that?” she said.

  Cody shook his head. “Hear what?”

  “It’s cats meowing.”

  Cody took his eyes off Richards for a second. He looked at Rachel and heard it – a faint, high-pitched sound coming from somewhere nearby. He remembered the old woman with the cat crate who’d been on the plane. The cats sounded like they were in distress.

  “Do you hear it?” Rachel said.

  “Yeah I hear it,” Cody said, his eyes going back to Richards.

  Nick and Crazy Diamond caught up with them.

  “Crazy Diamond,” Nick said, holding the Beretta aloft. “Know how to use this?”

  Crazy Diamond looked at the gun and hesitated. She shook her head.

  “I’ve shot a gun before,” she said. “But guns just aren’t my thing. Sorry Nick.”

  “Yeah that’s what I thought,” Nick said, tucking the black pistol into the waist of his pants. He threw the AR-15 carry strap over his shoulder and looked at Richards in the distance. “I doubt the old man has ever picked up a weapon in his life. Don’t matter. Looks like it’s you and me leading the charge Cody.”

  “Fine,” Cody said. “Speaking of the old man, we need to get moving.”

  They walked on, hoping that Richards would notice them moving and come back over. There was a wet squelching sound under their feet.

  “Don’t look down,” Cody said. “Keep your eyes straight ahead and concentr
ate on the terminal.”

  “Good idea,” Crazy Diamond said.

  Cody looked at her.

  “You thinking about your uncle?” he said.

  “A little bit,” she said. “I didn’t know him that well but he was the only family I had left and vice-versa.”

  “I’m sorry,” Cody said. “He sure as hell didn’t deserve to go out like that.”

  He tried to smile for her. But smiling here felt like a sin.

  “Look over there,” Nick said, pointing a finger at Richards in the distance. “I’ll be damned. The old man found what he’s looking for.”

  Richards was about twenty feet away from the group, kneeling down beside what looked like a pile of mangled remains. That was all Cody saw of the old man’s wife before he pulled his eyes away – it was all he wanted to see.

  They walked closer, but not too close. They heard Richards talking softly to the remains, whispering something that nobody else could hear.

  Nick was looking back and forth across the apron. Cody saw the worried look on the pilot’s face.

  “We’d better go,” Nick said. “I don’t like this place.”

  “Right,” Cody said. He looked at Rachel.

  “You alright kid?” he asked. “Want me to carry you or something?”

  Rachel was only half-listening. She was staring out across the apron, her eyes searching for something.

  “You’re already carrying my backpack,” she said. “I’ll walk just fine.”

  “Yeah but you don’t have to,” Cody said. “I mean, if it’s hard to...look down. Okay?”

  “I’ve already looked down,” she said. “More dead people.”

  She stopped walking before the last word left her lips.

  “Dad.”

  “What?”

  “Do you see the cats anywhere? They sound scared.”

  Cody sighed. “I can’t see anything Rachel,” he said. “All I’m doing right now is looking at the terminal over there. Getting to it – that’s what I’m thinking about.”

  “Two hundred people,” Nick said.

  Cody spun around and saw Nick looking back at the Alaska Airlines plane sitting on the tarmac. He wasn’t sure if Nick was talking to anyone in particular or if he was just thinking out loud. Or maybe he was talking to the two hundred ghosts lying on the apron. It was possible.