Everything felt heightened, intensity burning through my mind and my body, and I wondered, briefly, if it was the virus’s doing. If it was a symptom of what it was doing to me.
Barrett kept looking over at me, like he was deciding what to do with me. I swallowed, burying my own instincts way down deep, because now was not the time for any of this.
It was better he didn’t act on whatever impulses were stewing behind his brooding gaze. I might be changing, might be becoming a fighter—I hoped—but I still wasn’t going to kiss a man while the brains of another clung to my mouth like goopy lip gloss.
As I moved, I looked around our surroundings, coming back to reality and remembering Jamie and Alexa were somewhere out in the parking lot, alone. I was sure that once we got into the vehicle, everyone would want to search for them. I was sure, dammit, because if they didn’t want to—I was going to fucking make them.
Nolan was running from van to van, checking the identical keys on the little white plastic fob against every door that might match. It would have been easier to just press the automatic lock button, cause the headlights of the right vehicle to flash and the horn to spurt to life, but I knew why he didn’t. We couldn’t afford to call any more of the infected to us. We were all tired and I didn’t think I had another bloody ballet performance in me right then, despite my internal swagger.
“Son of a bitch,” Nolan grunted out as the key didn’t fit yet another van.
“Lucky number six,” Rose said, and jogging toward the last van. “It would be the last one. Guess we’re just that bloody lucky.” The sarcasm floating beneath her accent was thick, driven by fear and desperation.
“Yeah, well, whoever the hell pissed off karma needs to make amends,” Nolan scowled.
“By the looks of things, it was the whole world that pissed karma off,” she retorted.
Nolan made short work of opening the last van—a sleek black thing with a chrome bumper and four rows of seating for ten passengers: two rows of two singles and two benches, one shorter than the other.
We were all standing, appraising the vehicles, maybe reveling in gratitude that we’d made it to the van.
“What the hell are you all waiting for? A written invite? Get the hell in,” Nolan barked, pitching his voice low. “I can see several of the goddamn things headed over here. You want to fight again or have a break from this shit?”
Karla moved forward first, not needing to be told twice. She shoved herself into the rearmost seat, settling against the fake tan leather and letting out a sigh that was relief incarnate. Leon hesitated, looking at Rose, who was standing by Nolan’s side. When she made no move to get in, he shook his head—a slight gesture that was barely noticeable unless you were staring right at him—and he climbed inside to join Karla in the back seat.
I went next, settling into the second bench. I was surprised Barrett didn’t opt for one of the more accommodating bucket seats, or even demand on taking shotgun, but no, he slid himself in beside me, close enough that our thighs pushed together. The sensation shouldn’t have made my pulse race, not given our surroundings and our circumstances, but God help me, it did.
Nolan and Rose had gotten in while we’d been settling ourselves in the back. Only Akhira remained outside, standing between cars and studying the situation like he was seeing us, and the world, for the first time.
Nolan reopened his door and stuck his head out. “Akhira, seriously. We’ve got to go. Get the hell in here.”
“Tsuma ga matter,” Akhira looked down at his blood-soaked hands before looking back up at us, his expression calm.
“What’s he doing? Boy better hurry the hell up,” Karla grumbled from her seat.
I glanced over at Nolan, watching as his jaw muscles tightened.
“Akhira!” Leon called. “Get your ass in here, man.”
The Japanese man, with his gore-slimed suit, gave us a funny look before speaking. “Doushi tomo yo,”—he made a small, almost bow—“wakareda. Kou-un wo Inoru.”
“What’s he saying?” Karla leaned forward, her hand brushing my shoulder.
“Um…” I bit my lower lip. “I don’t think he’s coming with us.”
“What do you mean he’s not coming with us?” Rose opened her door, making like she was going to step out and drag the man into the van with us if she had to.
“Rose, stay in the van!” Nolan didn’t look at her; his gaze was only for Akhira. He closed his door slowly, sucking in a deep breath, then he turned in his seat to look at the rest of us, the skin tight around his eyes. “We can’t force anyone to stay with us. And we need to find Jamie and Alexa before it’s too late.”
“Might already be too late,” Barrett drawled beside me like he had no cares in the world.
Without thinking, I shoved my elbow into his side and felt satisfied when he snorted out a breath of pain.
“I’m just saying what everyone’s thinking. The kid and her dad, out in that shit? They’ll be lucky if they lasted a hot Southern minute.”
“They’re not dead,” I protested. “They’re not dead and we’re going to find them in time. Now shut the hell up.”
I could see everyone nodding around me, but no one had the fire in their faces that meant they believed and were dedicated to finding our lost companions. But Nolan had already said we were going to look for the pair, that we needed to find them. He wasn’t planning on just abandoning them, no matter if his expression looked like he doubted they were alive.
As much of a stubborn, moody asshole as he could be, I respected him for not just abandoning them.
Akhira smiled and bent at his waist again before standing up straight and slowly backing away from us. We watched for several seconds in silence, glancing among each other as if to confirm that yes, we really were letting him just go like that. And no, we weren’t going to stop him.
Nolan waited for Rose to reclose her door and then he pressed the locking button.
“What a total wanker,” she mumbled with a shake of her head. “He’s going to get himself killed!”
Nolan shoved the key into the ignition, and I could feel that we were all holding our breath when he turned it, causing the van to rumble to loud life. I closed my eyes for a moment, knowing the sound would call more of the zombies to us and that it was time to drive…drive without Akhira, and with only a small, realistic hope of finding Jamie and Alexa in the maze of cars outside the terminal.
When I reopened my eyes, I glanced at where Akhira had been. And I found him gone. He was nowhere, not even his head peeking from above shorter vehicles. I said a small prayer for him, stupid though I thought it was that he’d left the safety of numbers.
Nolan drove slowly, weaving between cars and trying to avoid bodies on the ground. He wasn’t always successful—and each time the front wheels of the van crunched over a used-to-be person, I felt tears well in my eyes. When the back wheels also completed the climb, I had to bite my tongue hard to keep from really sobbing. Just there, in the airport, so many people were dead or dying. This thing, whatever it was, had spread like wildfire here. Would it be any safer out there, away from this place? Where there were no giant fences keeping the things caged and looking for meals in a localized area? Or would it be worse…free-range hunting…?
I didn’t realize I was shaking again until Barrett snaked an arm around me. The pressure there was what I needed, the comfort of another “alive” person’s touch. I pushed into his body, turning my face and letting my cheek rest on the soft material of his shirt and trying to avoid some of the blood splatters that were drying and turning nearly black.
He didn’t shift away, so I knew the further closeness wasn’t uninvited. I only rested there for a moment, breathing the musk of him in, the niceness of it tainted by the smell of death.
Then I sat back up and straightened my shoulders, sighing and wishing I could just let everything go and nuzzle into him long enough that all the ugliness and shit of the world would pass me by, like scenery from
a moving car, and we’d come to on the other side of the journey with everything daisies again.
Stupid to dream when everything around you is a nightmare.
I set my mind back on Jamie and Alexa, more determined than ever to find them and have something good happen. We were all looking, leaning toward the window glass like a few inches closer would help us spot them faster.
It was Rose, from the front seat, that saw them first.
Chapter two.
Rose
“Bloody hell, Nolan!” My stomach lurched as I watched Jamie shove Alexa further behind him and swing wildly at the horde of zombies getting closer. They were huddled behind a large SUV, with zombies stumbling towards them from several directions. Jamie looked fierce—at least as fierce as any father no doubt would be if he were trying to protect his only daughter from a zombie attack…
Alexa looked petrified. Her top was smeared with blood, though if it was hers or one of the undead’s, I wasn’t sure. Jamie slammed his knife into the forehead of one of the monsters that got too close, an arc of sludge escaping as he pulled his knife free and let the body fall to the ground.
He looked around frantically for a way out, but they were trapped between the wall, the SUV, and the horde of zombies moving towards them.
“Sweet baby Jesus, get us over there!” Karla called from the back seat. “That poor child.”
Nolan tried to swerve the truck around a mound of bloody, broken bodies on the ground, some still twitching, but it was impossible. The tires bumped over the small hill and I sucked in a breath as the sound of crunching and the feel of bones breaking reverberated through the vehicle. Leon muttered a curse word from somewhere in the back of the truck and Karla started to pray, her murmurs frantic and desperate.
I watched in horror as Alexa used her own knife to swing at a zombie that got too close. The blade penetrated its arm and she lost her grip on it as the zombie grabbed for her. Alexa screamed loudly, a mix of fear and desperation as she cried and pushed at the zombie with her bare hands. The muffled sound of her terrified screams intensified, burning their way into my soul and imbedding themselves.
“No, no, no!” Sam cried from the back.
“Get over there!” I shouted, fear squeezing my vocal cords in their grip. “Quickly!”
“I’m trying,” Nolan grunted, swinging the vehicle round a sharp bend and slamming straight into a zombie that had come in search of all the commotion we were making. “These bastards are everywhere though.”
The zombie stared in at us through the glass, and though Nolan had increased his speed to try and shake it off, it wasn’t going anywhere. I realized that it must have somehow managed to get itself wedged into the bumper. Probably because its insides were likely turning to mush and making its more body pliable. The image of chewing gum trapped in the sole of my boot came to mind and I grimaced.
Its jaws continued to snap open and closed threateningly, its hands still clawing at the car bonnet as it made some god-awful noise that probably resembled something like “get me the fuck off your bumper, you filthy animals” in zombie language.
I had the sudden urge to laugh, the feeling bubbling up my throat like a burp wanting to escape, yet I couldn’t because now was not the time for laughing. Now was the time for screaming and fighting and praying that we somehow made it out of this situation alive and hopefully saved our friends in the process.
My thoughts were rambling together, I knew it, but couldn’t stop them from colliding through my mind at an alarming rate. Hysteria was throbbing through my body and getting ready to let loose the manic laughter I had inside me…
Another piercing scream came from Alexa and I jumped forwards in my seat, my laughter dying much like everyone in the terminal. A whimper left my lips as I watched a zombie grab Alexa from behind and drag her backwards. She fought it with her bare hands, hitting it over and over again with her closed fist, but it made no difference. Jamie turned and took a swing at it with his knife, chopping one of its arms off, and then turned back to his own war. Another zombie squeezed past the crashed SUV, dislodging most of its guts in the process, but hey, who needed guts when there was fresh meat on the menu—
It joined the now one-armed zombie in its attempt at making Alexa lunch, and despite her desire to live, her strength was waning. I could see it from where I was, and the terror of that realization clutched at my heart and squeezed.
“Nolan, bloody drive!” I cried out—anger, frustration, and utter devastation changing my voice into something I didn’t recognize. “Alexa,” I sobbed as more zombies squeezed through the small gap and fell upon her, dragging her to the ground.
There was no possible way to hear her limbs being torn from her body, or the teeth tearing the innocent flesh from her bones. And yet I heard it. Loud and clear. But the thing I heard the loudest was her silence. She didn’t scream or cry out.
Nolan slammed on the brakes, and the zombie stuck to the front of the truck shuddered but still clung on regardless. I put my hand on the door handle, ready to open it and jump out. Ready to run towards Alexa and save her.
“Rose,” Nolan grunted my name.
I glanced across at him and he shook his head at me.
“It’s too late.” He placed a heavy hand on my arm, his own grief evident in his hard features and normally cold eyes.
“We can’t leave them,” I sobbed, hot tears tearing down my cheeks. “Not like this, Nolan.”
He gave my arm a small squeeze but didn’t say anything else. He didn’t need to. He looked away from me, back towards where Jamie was still fighting, unaware of his loss.
“We can’t help her, but what about Jamie?” Leon asked. “We can still help him.”
“The man won’t need saving,” Barrett replied, his voice devoid of any emotion. Somehow, that matter-of-factness stung me more than Nolan’s obvious anguish.
I looked over at Barrett and then back towards Jamie. He was slashing at the zombies, blood and gore spraying his clothes as he hacked away at them. There was a small break in the fighting and he looked up, his panicked gaze landing on us, and relief bathed his features.
“Alexa, come on, baby,” he yelled breathlessly. He turned to where Alexa had been stood, realizing that she was gone. He spun in a circle, his frantic gaze going everywhere in search of the only thing that mattered to him anymore. I knew the moment he saw her. The moment he realized that she was gone. His shoulders rounded and his mouth opened in shock and horror, but no words came out.
He looked over at us.
So close, and yet so far away.
A mass of flesh-hungry zombies separated us, the crowd now three deep, at least. We were out of time. He was out of time, and we all knew it. There was no way we could get to him. But it wouldn’t have mattered even if we could have. It was like Barrett said: Jamie didn’t want saving anymore.
He looked back down at where Alexa lay, rivers of sweat trailing down his face.
“Oh sweet, Lord,” Karla murmured, and then I heard her start to pray again.
I saw Jamie give up, and it was an image that would haunt me forever.
I watched him open his arms wide, his once firm and deadly grip loosen, and let go of his knife. And then I watched the hungry horde descend on him, dragging him to the ground without so much as a cry for help escaping his lips.
The noise of death was overwhelming. The crunching and slurping as the zombies filled their bellies with our innocent friends, feasting on their flesh until they would be nothing but bones. I felt sick—more sick than when I’d had to plaster myself in zombie gore. And even more sick than when 30,000 feet up in the air, my whole world had changed forever.
Sickness spiraled in the pit of my belly, dizziness clawing at my mind. Was this it now? was this all that there was? My hands were balled into fists, my nails digging into my palms as my body trembled and shook.
Everyone was dead.
I would likely be soon.
This was it now. this was m
y life. My world.
This was the end of everything.
I threw open my door before turning and heaving, the sound of my vomit splattering against the gray concrete almost nonexistent against the noise of Alexa and Jamie being eaten and the echoing screams in my head. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and sat back up before slamming my door closed again. Tears burned my eyes but I refused to let them fall.
“Get us out of here,” I murmured, feeling numb.
Nolan didn’t argue. Instead, he reversed for several feet before turning left out of the car park and into the daylight. The truck fell silent, no more tears shed as we drove away from Jamie and Alexa, all of us praying that they didn’t wake up and become one of the zombies themselves.
The day was hot already, the sun shining down on the world like it was just any other day and not a living nightmare. It was how I had imagined this place to be—warm, sunny, a new start. A new adventure. Right now, I had expected to be on a beach somewhere, sunbathing, swimming, snorkeling, drinking, making new friends…
Instead I was here.
In hell.
Bathing in death and destruction.
At least I’d made some new friends, even if I was having to watch them all die one after another. I glanced around the truck, taking in the people I was attempting to survive the end of the world with. Sam was sick; that much was clear. Barrett was a criminal and I didn’t trust him not to bail on us at a moment’s notice. Karla was strong and fierce, but I had a feeling she would be leaving us soon too. She had family, from what she’d briefly mentioned, and she’d want to be with them. That left Leon, who was capable and could think on his feet, but as his hurt gaze caught mine I knew it was no good to depend on him. He wanted something from me that I didn’t want to give.
So that just left Nolan.
Nolan, who was moody and headstrong. And yet I couldn’t help that I felt safe around him. He was older than me, by easily ten years, though I’d always been told I was older than my age. We fought well together too. That had to mean something, right?
Red Eye | Season 1 | Episode 4 Page 2
