by Hatchett
“Guilty as charged,” admitted Bear. “I thought we could start by shooting from the end of the jetways, all of which I might add, are far enough off the ground that the zombies can’t get to you.”
“Are the side doors locked?” Dave asked.
“No, but the zombies can’t deal with door handles and we’re not expecting any other visitors.”
“Fair enough. Ok, let’s get going,” Dave replied, taking the spare clips of ammunition being handed out by Irish.
The six went up to Level 2 and split off into pairs.
“Let’s meet back here in half an hour,” Bear suggested. With that Bear and Joel decided to take Gate 16 which looked West across the expanse of the airport towards Terminal 5, Irish and Dave would take Gate 7 which faced South and Issy and Andy would take Gate 28 which faced East.
As they walked towards their nominated gates, various people chatting and milling around on Level 2 asked what they were doing and decided to follow and watch though the windows. Anything to take their mind off things and alleviate the boredom. Some had already tried to sleep but with little success.
Issy and Andy entered their jetway and moved to the end before preparing their equipment. They could feel a breeze hitting them in the face, but thankfully the earlier drizzle had eased off. Hopefully, there would be no rain the following day as Issy was concerned about the blood and guts being washed off their uniforms and making themselves a target for the zombies. They both lay down on their fronts, adjusted the sights and switched the safety’s off before adjusting their breathing.
“Let’s see what you’ve got cowboy,” Issy whispered before letting off her first shot. “One for one,” she noted as a zombie’s head exploded twenty metres away.
“Are you trying to put me off?” Andy enquired with a smile.
“As if!” Issy replied.
“Anyway, I’m used to a pistol, not one of these,” Andy remarked.
“Making excuses already?” Issy asked innocently as she let off her second shot. “Two for two and our American hero has yet to get off the mark,” she added tauntingly.
Andy didn’t respond but took aim and took his first shot. It hit the zombie but critically missed the head.
“Looks like we’ve got ourselves an amateur,” Issy suggested. “What a waste of bullets.” Andy nudged her as she took her third shot which went high and wide. “And now he’s resorting to cheating,” Issy noted.
“Are you always this competitive?” Andy queried.
“This isn’t competitive. I only get competitive when I have some competition,” Issy responded.
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“It wasn’t.”
By now, the shooting parties were getting larger audiences as word spread and the sound of shots reverberated around the terminal. The spectators could easily see when zombies were taken out thanks to the external floodlights around the airport. They cheered as the zombies went down and booed if the shot had missed the head and the zombie got back up. It was turning into a carnival atmosphere with shouts from one end of Level 2 to the other. The noise attracted more zombies so there were endless targets to aim for. Some of the soldiers and civilians asked if they could try and Issy and Andy were more than happy to let them have a go. They thought that the more people who learnt to shoot, the better.
One soldier who was taking his turn with a civilian, was shooting a little wildly. He’d had quite a few drinks from the bar and despite Issy telling him to take his time and calm down, he didn’t listen. There was a noise from below the jetway and when the soldier looked down he saw a couple of zombies staring back up. He got to his feet and aimed the MP5 straight at their heads, but due to the drink was a little unsteady on his feet. He fired a shot which entered one of the zombies through the top of the shoulder, the bullet smashing its way through the collar bone and rib cage on its path towards the ground. Although the zombie was knocked over, it struggled to get back up again. The soldier tottered on the edge of the jetway and despite a frantic last grasp from Issy, he plunged to the apron below where he broke bones and was set upon by the two zombies. Andy quickly took his gun back off the civilian and fired off two shots in quick succession, both straight into the zombies’ heads. He then saw to his horror that he was too late to save the soldier; he had nasty bite marks across his face. Andy took aim and, amidst the pleas coming from the soldier, put a bullet in his brain.
Everything went silent as Andy stood there looking down. Issy grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the edge.
“It wasn’t your fault,” she said as she half dragged Andy up the jetway, everyone moving out of the way to let them pass.
When the others joined them, Issy explained what had happened.
“It was still worthwhile” she noted. “We took out loads of zombies, so Andy’s got some clean-up work to do tomorrow and some of the civilians had the chance to shoot, most for the first time ever. We can’t help it if one stupid grunt wants to get tanked up and lose his balance.”
“Yeah, very stupid,” Bear and Dave agreed.
Issy looked around at the people who had congregated around them. “That’s what happens if you’re not careful,” she said, loud enough so everyone could hear. “Now, let’s all get some sleep.”
They decided to keep their guns close overnight; you never knew when you might need it and it gave them a sense of security. They would pick up the sixth gun when they cleared the apron.
Issy moved across to the wall, selected a pillow and blanket, and made her way to a quiet area and lay down to sleep. Andy followed her and settled in close by. It was some time before either of them got to sleep.
71
Day 2
07:30 GMT
Heathrow Terminal 3
The Leaders sat around the conference table in the Security Briefing Room on Level 1 chatting to each other, the main topic of conversation being the accident at the shooting party from the night before. They had all got up early, had breakfast and were now looking forward to making further progress around the airport. Harry Williams had recovered, and as MD of the airport, had insisted that he take part in the meeting. Simon Nicholls from NATS and Ben Maynard from Medical decided that they would prefer to stay in their sections and carry out whatever the Leaders decided.
Jack tapped the table and the room quietened down. “Firstly, welcome to Harry.”
“Thanks Jack, I just want to make sure my airport is looked after and that we don’t cause any lasting damage,” Harry said looking at the faces around the table.
“You are joking, right?” asked Issy.
“What do you mean?” Harry replied. “It is my duty to run this airport on behalf of the owners and I intend to do just that.”
“In case you hadn’t noticed, we’ve had a plane crash and been invaded by zombies. All your owners will be thinking about at this moment is how to save their own skin, that’s if they’ve got any left,” Issy responded sarcastically.
“Issy,” the Major warned with a small shake of his head. “We all need to work together on this.” Issy raised her eyes to the ceiling before shrugging and sitting back in her chair. The Major then addressed Harry, “Harry, we are now in a different world to the one of a couple of days ago and the state of the airport should be the least of your concerns, except for the safety of all the people still alive around here. We will do whatever it takes to keep that safety in place because at the moment we’re in a very fragile state and people are risking their lives to try and improve things.”
“Let’s move on,” Jack suggested before Harry could respond. “We all know what happened last night. Nothing we can do about it now, so we need to put it behind us and move on. Perhaps we should start with an update from Tom about what is happening outside the airport.”
Tom sat forward and said, “The team have been monitoring everything overnight and things aren’t looking good. Sky TV has gone off the air; as you may know, their HQ is in Isleworth, not far from here.
The BBC is still broadcasting, probably because they’re now based in Manchester and, so far, there are no reported incidents there. I suspect this is just a matter of time because there have been incidents all over the country. The disease is spreading, and it doesn’t look like its about to stop. The BBC are just showing aerial shots; they have no reporters on the ground for obvious reasons. The PM’s message is still being aired every hour but there’s been no update from him or his cabinet. It seems they have all gone to ground; literally in this case. As for the airport, there are still thousands of zombies wandering around so there’s still a lot of work to do.”
“Thanks Tom. I guess it’s just a matter of time before we lose contact with the outside world. We don’t know how long communications will continue to be up and running, we don’t know how long we will have power, so we need to prepare for the worst-case scenario.”
“We shouldn’t lose power,” Harry advised. “We have direct power from Sellafield which isn’t going to stop producing anytime soon.”
“That depends of whether there are people to run it,” Issy interjected.
“If we lose power, we have our own back-up generators and enough fuel to last years,” Harry responded.
“Good to know,” advised Jack. “Sarah, perhaps you could add these potential issues to your list? We need to be able to get the generators switched on at a moment’s notice; our lives could depend on it. Following our discussion last night, have you all come to agreement on our next steps?”
“We think we need to clear the Inner Ring,” advised Dave. “If we can get a cordon of vehicles outside, then we can move freely and take out zombies from relative safety. We can then keep expanding the cordon and make any lanes we need to other areas of the airport.”
“Sounds good, so how are you going to do it?” the Major asked.
“Issy and her Killing Crew will get dirty again and create space in the Inner Ring. We have a plan,” Andy advised.
“Great, let’s get started. People will be suffering in other parts of the airport, so we need to get to them ASAP.”
“I could use the Apache’s to clear large areas,” suggested Joel.
“I think we should hold them back for defence purposes for the time being,” Jack advised. “When we finally have a safe harbour, there’s no telling who might want what we have. Plus, the Apache’s will make one hell of a mess and we don’t want someone to get bitten by a stray head!”
With that, they all got up and left the room to prepare for the next stage in their plan.
72
Day 2
08:15 GMT
Heathrow Terminal 3
Issy and her Killing Crew had used some of the dead zombies stacked in the Baggage Reclaim area to ‘get dirty’ and were ready to start clearing the Inner Ring. Standing in the Arrivals Hall she could see thousands of zombies outside. Thankfully, the rain was holding off, although there were dark clouds overhead. Funnily enough, what remained of the TV service and radio weren’t doing weather reports anymore, not that they were that accurate in the first place. The other Crews were crowded against the windows on all floors, waiting for the action to begin and waiting for their chance to join in.
Issy looked around at her Crew; she could see that they were eager to start. “Listen up,” she started, “we’re going out there in a minute, same procedure as yesterday, move slowly, keep quiet, use knives. I want you twenty,” Issy pointed to twenty soldiers, “to take these MP5’s and make your way slowly to the cars, not taxis or vans or buses. Cars. Kill anything in the cars and get them out. Then get in, make sure the windows and doors are closed and wait for my signal. The rest of us will help you get to the cars and clear as much as possible on the way. Then we’ll fall back to the entrance. When I give the signal, start the cars, and drive them to make a secure cordon around the entrance. I want them bumper to bumper so don’t worry about a little prang. If zombies get in the way, just drive over them. Any questions?”
One soldier raised his hand and asked, “What happens if there are still zombies inside the cordon?”
“Then we’ll take them out,” Issy replied. “Oh, one other thing, as soon as you start the cars, it’s bound to attract a lot more interest, so you need to move as quickly as possible before we get swamped. Any more questions?” There were shakes of the head all around. “Ok, let’s go.”
Issy took the lead towards the entrance where a couple of soldiers from the other Crews were ready to open the doors and then close them once everyone had gone through.
“Good luck” they said as Issy approached. She smiled, “Not a problem,” she replied.
As there were no zombies in the immediate area, the doors were eased open and Issy stealthily moved out into the Inner Ring, closely followed one at a time by her Crew. She waited until everyone had left the building and the doors had been closed before shuffling forward again and selecting her first target. The movement of Issy and her Crew had drawn some attention, but the zombies were once again oblivious to the fact that they were still human. “Thank you, Gina,” Issy muttered to herself again before raising her knife and stabbing it into the back of the head of the nearest zombie and holding the body as she slowly lowered it to the floor. Other members of her Crew were doing the same and they made steady progress towards the cars and taxis in the parking bays.
Without warning, some idiot started banging on the window on Level 1. This attracted all the zombies in the vicinity who turned and started making their way towards the noise. Issy and her Crew froze and watched with horror as more zombies started in their direction. One soldier panicked and turned to run back towards the doors. The two soldiers on door duty inside the Arrivals Hall were not going to open the doors; there were now too many zombies around. The soldier who had run started to panic and hyperventilate, hammering on the outside of the doors. The nearest zombies made a beeline for him and took him down, biting away chunks from his face and hands. The soldier was screaming, but there was nothing Issy nor the rest of the Crew could do without endangering themselves. It was too late for the soldier in any case. After a few minutes, the screaming stopped, and everything went quiet except for the shuffling of feet and grunting as more and more zombies headed in the direction of the noise.
The banging at the window had stopped; someone had obviously pulled the idiot away and Issy decided that she was going to feed that idiot to the zombies when she got back inside. The Killing Crew’s job had just got that much harder. Issy noted that ‘getting dirty’ only helped if you blended in and didn’t make any sudden movements. She believed that the rest of the Crew had realised the same thing.
The zombies had pushed up against the glass on the ground floor of the building. Many of the soldiers on the other side of the glass had managed to stand firm and not react but some of them plus a few civilians bolted away accompanied by a couple of screams. The noise filtered through to the zombies outside who started hitting the glass with their heads and hands, the noise encouraging more zombies to head in that direction. Luckily the glass was reinforced so there was little chance they could break it. Eventually the zombies stopped hitting the glass and a relative calm descended over the area.
Issy was seriously pissed, grating her teeth, wanting to get hold of the idiot and beat him to a pulp, her knuckles were white as she held the knife very tightly. It took a considerable amount of willpower to keep an outward appearance of calm. The whole episode was an unnecessary waste of time and effort, and the life of one of her Crew. She wasn’t going to forget that in a hurry.
Issy looked around slowly and could see that most of her Crew were looking in her direction, waiting for her to make the first move. She carefully looked around again and decided that they should be able to carry on. She held up her knife so her Crew could see and carefully put it back in her sheath. She then moved forward slowly towards the nearest car. Her Crew got the message, suspend killing unless necessary; the cars were the key to their success.
Issy reached the
passenger door of a red Ford Mondeo estate and looked carefully inside. There was a zombie sitting in the driver’s seat with the window down; the poor bugger had been stuck in place by the safety belt when he was attacked. ‘Clunk Clip Every Trip’ Issy recalled the old motoring advert. ‘Safety belts save lives’; well, not in this case obviously. She slowly moved around the car to the driver’s side, took out her knife and stabbed it into the driver’s head. Issy then opened the driver’s door, making sure that she didn’t make too much noise. She eased the door all the way open, then reached past the body to carefully unclip the seat belt. As she moved back one of her Crew helped her to manoeuvre the body out of the car. Another Crew member, one that had been selected, got into the car, put his MP5 on the passenger seat and eased the door closed. He couldn’t close the electric window until the car ignition was turned on.
Issy looked around and saw other members of her Crew going through the same process as she had done. About forty yards further on there was a sudden scream which was quickly muffled. Issy looked in the direction of the noise, as did several nearby zombies, but they couldn’t pinpoint where it had come from and didn’t move. Issy looked closer and thought ‘shit’; she hadn’t considered that there might still be people holed up in the cars. She’d have thought they would have tried to drive away. A soldier covered in blood and guts had probably scared the shit out of whoever screamed. She looked closer and could see a soldier had his hand across a woman’s mouth and was whispering in her ear. Whatever he said obviously worked; he removed his hand and the woman hauled herself across to the passenger seat before the soldier moved away and another took the woman’s place in the driver’s seat. The woman was shocked a little more as she was handed an MP5 to hold and look after.
Issy scanned the area. She could see eight cars were currently being accessed so that meant twelve had already been secured. The Crew around her had taken out their knives and were quietly taking out the zombies closest to them.
