Everything was a blur. She didn’t remember when they got to the airport or even getting on the plane.
She knew something was wrong with Greg the pilot, she heard them talking about it. What exactly it was she didn’t know.
No one really spoke to her, that was fine with Rachel, they probably didn’t know what to say. She glanced across the aisle to Barry. He stared forward, she wondered if her face held that much pain.
It felt like it did.
She looked up when she saw Rigs approach, he nodded with a ‘Hey’ to her.
She replied softly, “Hey.”
Rigs sat with Barry.
“We found some tools below that’s the best we can do,” Rigs whispered. “And there is a pistol in the cockpit.”
“Ammo?” Barry asked.
“One clip.”
“Well, I’m gonna bet you’re our best shot, so you take that. The rest of us will have to arm up with whatever we can.”
“Hopefully, Greg’s contact was right. The airport was shut down before the outbreak got out of control. So we may be clear there.”
“Until we leave,” Barry said.
“We’ll have to find a way. If the airport is safe, maybe staying there is an option.”
Barry nodded. “None of us are from Pittsburgh, are we?”
“Guy in the back has a cousin. But doesn’t know anything about the city.”
“It was our closest destination of our choices. For Greg that’s a good thing.”
“For all of us,” Rigs said.
“How is he?” Barry asked.
“Giving crash course lessons, no pun intended to a man name Steve who has some pilot experience.”
“He doesn’t think he’ll make it?”
Rigs shook his head. “He has a fever. Len didn’t have one. He’s fading fast.”
“From a scratch?”
“Unbelievable, huh? Good thing though,” Rigs said, “We’re about ten minutes from making the descent.”
“Excuse me,” Rachel said. “Sorry for eavesdropping but … do you think it’s a good idea to have the only other person who can fly this plane in a small cockpit with a pilot that could conceivably turn at any second.”
“Um … maybe not.” Rigs stood up.
“How are you?” Barry asked Rachel.
“About the same as you.”
Barry pursed his lips and nodded. “Right now I could use a drink and a smoke, and I quit smoking fifteen years ago.”
“Go get a drink.”
“No. No, I uh, need to be clear headed. We don’t know what we’ll face when we land. Or worse …” Barry said with a pointing nod. “What we could face on this plane.”
“Dude, I saw the movie,” Kasper whispered to Rigs just outside the cockpit. “Plane crashes, he’ll still live. Once we land, we shut the door or Steve can land …”
“No.” Rigs shook his head. “We’ll be ready. Maybe Len was a fluke, I mean, he turned really fast.”
“Like World War Z fast?”
Rigs cringed. “Yeah. But Brad, Rachel’s son was gone maybe a day. Everyone in that stadium had been dead for a day.”
“Everyone in the stadium had the actual virus. Len was bit, things mutate.”
“That’s right, you’re the expert.”
Kasper bobbed his head. “On this stuff, yeah. I know Rachel tries to toss stuff out there like zombies will eventually run theory, she was wrong.”
“But she was right on the fact they open doors.”
“How weird is that?” Kasper asked. ‘In the movies they never do.”
“Can you two take a seat?” Greg asked. “We’re going to land.”
“If it’s okay with you,” Kasper said. “We think we may just stand …”
“Sit,” Greg ordered. “I’m strapped in and I’m not going to die before we touch down. Go.”
Reluctantly they took their seats in the first row nearest the cockpit.
There was no announcements they were landing. Rigs wasn’t big on praying, but he snuck one in there as they made their descent.
The touchdown was as smooth as Rigs expected it to be with someone like Greg with his experience.
Greg even maneuvered the plane close to the terminal.
Rigs felt horrible for Greg. It could have been him. Both him and Greg were blocking the door of the bus, Rigs just so happened to be the one Rachel’s husband decked. When he was down, Greg dove to block the door and that was when one of those things grabbed on to his arms and tore his skin.
A decent size scratch, but nothing no one worried about until one hour later when Greg got sick, really sick.
Rigs looked out the window of the plane, trying to see movement or any of those things. He didn’t.
The plane completely stopped and the engine noise died down.
Rigs stood. He looked back at Rachel, badly wanting to talk to her, let her know he was there. He turned back around when he heard the slam of the cockpit door. Steve was holding it.
“Okay, so …” Steve said. “You guys all want to get off the plane now?”
“At least he held true to his word,” Kasper said to Rigs, then faced those on the plane. “We don’t know what’s in the terminal. We hope nothing, just make sure you grab a tool to defend yourself.”
“All well and fine!” Steve shouted his body bouncing with the door. “Can someone open the door so we can get these people off the plane please?”
Barry hurried to the plane door. “Help Steve,” he instructed. “You have the gun if he gets out.”
Rigs nodded and raced to help Steve.
Barry opened the plane door and lowered the stairs. He stayed there hurrying people along. “Get as far away from the plane as possible,” he told them. “Kasper, go.” Barry told him.
Rachel was the last one.
Even Steve raced off the plane before her.
She walked like a vacationer returning home, moving slowly, a bag slung over her shoulder and what looked like a large wrench in her hand.
Once she passed through the door, Barry called out to Rigs. “I will yell out when I am clear of the stairs, let go of the door and bolt, we can raise the steps from below. Got that?”
“Yes. Go.”
“Be careful,” Barry told him and then, he too, stepped from the plane.
Kasper stood back, not far from Barry who waited by the stairs of the plane.
The others, with the exception of Rachel, kept their distance.
It was a heart thumping wait.
“Do you think he’ll take him out on the plane?” Rachel asked.
“Probably. That’s probably what’s taking so long. Barry yelled for him at least thirty seconds ago.”
“I think we need to go check on him.”
Rachel stepped forward, when she did, Rigs blasted out the door and barreled down the stairs.
“He’s coming,” Rigs said, meeting Barry at the steps.
“We have to do this manually. Kasper!” Barry yelled. “Help us out.”
Too late.
Greg’s reanimated being stood in the doorway of the plane at the top step.
Rigs backed up. The four of them, Rigs, Barry, Kasper and Rachel stood in a line a few feet from the stairs looking up at Greg.
Rigs pulled the pistol from the waist of his pants and engaged the chamber.
“Take your time.” Kasper said. “They can’t do stairs. If he tries, he'll fall.”
“We thought they couldn’t open doors either,” Rachel added. “But they did.”
“He can’t have the …”
Greg took the first step, then the second. He moved slow.
Rigs lifted the weapon.
“Shoot him,” Barry said.
“Shoot him.” Kasper repeated.
“It’s not as easy as it looks on one of your TV shows,” Rigs said. “I’ve known this man for years. It’s not that easy.”
“Sure it is,” Kasper replied. “Do it. Do you want me to?”
&nbs
p; Rigs aimed, he held the weapon steady, but something inside of him couldn’t pull the trigger. He didn’t just see Greg as a dead being, he saw him as the person he knew.
Frustrated, Rigs exhaled. “Can you?” He waved the weapon to his left.
“What the hell.” Rachel grabbed the gun, lifted it, cupped it her hand properly, lined Greg in her sights and fired one shot.
One single shot landed directly in his forehead. Greg toppled forward and rolled down the stairs.
Rachel extended the pistol. “One of those things will not …. hurt anyone else from our group. Ever.”
Barry reached around Rigs, placed his hand on the gun, and pushed it back to Rachel, “I changed my mind. She should have the gun.”
<><><><>
They had landed the airplane not far from the airside terminal concourse B.
The large group took what little belongings they had, making their way into the employee baggage loading up to the concourse.
They saw no infected whatsoever.
In fact, when they emerged into the air terminal the lights were still operational, and a soft background music played giving the empty airport an eerie effect.
“Someone call Stephen King,” Kasper said. “Tell him we’re in his Langoliers novel.”
For some odd reason they all took the moving sidewalk.
They moved though the empty gate area, no one said much.
Rachel noticed Rigs was a bit cold to her and she figured it had to do with the pistol situation. She trailed the line of people and made her way to Rigs, trying to give him the gun. “Take it.”
“No.”
“I really don’t …”
“No, it’s Barry’s from his plane, he said you should have it.”
“Are you sure?” Rachel asked.
“Yep. Kinda surprised though that a housewife from Indiana can shoot that well.”
“That’s insulting.”
“Sorry.”
“You’re upset.”
Rigs just looked at her.
“Whatever.” Rachel put the gun behind her in the waist of her pants and stepped back giving distance between her and Rigs.
The moving sidewalks, Concourse, A, B, C and D all led to one place. The Air mall.
A huge food court was near the center with different shops, and Barry, pulled out a chair and sat down. “I think it’s safe enough we can all stop.”
“There’s twenty-four of us,” Sandy said. “Someone want to help me get some food going. I know none of us have eaten.”
There was a volunteer that followed Sandy to the Mexican Grill stand.
The entire air mall looked as if they had evacuated and the employees and travelers just left things as is.
Carry on luggage was scattered about, uneaten food.
No one noticed. Not even Barry at first Maybe because it was so commonplace, but the television played. And unlike in Nassau, the news was on.
It was a local station.
“How about that,” Barry said, standing. He walked nearer the television. “Maybe things aren’t as bad in the US as the Bahamas.”
Kasper walked over and turned up the volume and pointed to the ticker tape at the bottom of the screen.
Boil water advisory.
Power conservation in effect from eight am to noon, daily.
“I don’t know about anywhere else,” Kasper said. “But it looks like Pittsburgh is still standing.”
EIGHT
Pittsburgh International Airport
‘Recorded Earlier’ appeared at the bottom of the screen as Counsel woman Liz Nazinski stood before a podium of microphones outside of the football stadium.
“They are winning,” Liz said. “For now. Yes, we have them here, but we are not like other towns and other cities. You can flush your toilets, you can drink the water. Sure you have to boil it, but you have water. In Erie, the number of risen dead is eight percent. That’s why this initiative is important. A week ago, the president finally emerged from his bunker and he said, ‘Liz, what are you doing right in Pittsburgh?’ I told him, ‘Mr. President, we aren’t hiding in bunkers, we’re fighting’.”
Cheers emerged from the crowd.
“And he and I have been discussing my plan, the same one we have here and we are taking it nationwide.” She raised her fist. “If these special elite teams do their jobs, we are looking at dead free zones and then eventually, a dead free country.”
More cheers.
“We are actively looking and accepting capable volunteers. We also will be romancing people we know are out there already fighting. You know what’s funny?” She leaned into the podium. “The president asked why I thought we were a beacon of light. I told him we’re Pittsburgh, home of the original undead, of Romero, we’re the steel curtain not only of football but of the zombie apocalypse. We will push it back!’”
Using the remote, Barry muted the set. “Oh my God.”
“She’s enjoyable,” Sandy said. “Very positive. Just funny how we’ve been here for three weeks and no one has even come out.”
“No need for an airport.”
“True. Not yet.” Sandy stood. “Well, I’m going to get back to work. Light lunch today.”
“How are we doing on supplies?” Barry asked.
“Since six people left to find civilization, we’re good. I estimate another three months. I do think eventually, before winter hits, we should forage. To clarify, for food.”
“What else would we forage for?” Barry asked.
“Better to say what else have we foraged for. Seems Kasper and Rachel pick up unnecessary items every time they go out to … practice.”
“I hate that they do that,” Barry said. “It worries me that one day they’ll be followed.”
‘They said they have that under control. Sometimes I feel like the movie Dawn of the Dead, just waiting for the hoard to break in.”
“Which one?” Barry asked. “Original or remake.”
“Both, but I could never tell in the remake how long they were in the mall. They had a nice montage, but …” Sandy shrugged. “Who knows.”
“You didn’t strike me as the type to watch those movies.”
“Not really a fan. But I’ve seen them. Say, how about instead of watching the news, you help me fix lunch today?”
“Sounds like a plan.” Barry got up from his seat and turned off the television.
Every day he watched Counsel Woman Liz and her pep talks. He had no doubt that a lot of Pittsburgh was safe, the city was functioning. He just didn’t know how long it would hold. Every day not only did they show her, but the hundreds that came into the city for Sanctuary.
Sure, they were pushing the infected out, and that worried Barry, because according to Kasper they were pushing them out of the city and straight to the outlying areas.
There was nothing safe about that.
<><><><>
Rigs had his thing at the airport. Every day for the previous three weeks he worked on making it a long term shelter. Securing the floors, having an escape route with a vehicle in place. They were actually safe there, at least he thought they were. Out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by a fence. Just outside the runways there were farming capabilities.
Those who didn’t want to stay, who wanted to venture into the city for safety, left.
Rigs was content staying at the airport.
Unlike Kasper and Rachel who went out every day. They were his eyes and ears for what was close.
He worried about Rachel, he hadn’t physically seen her in two days. Unlike everyone else, she set up her home in Concourse A in the security office. She was away from everyone.
Rigs sought her out.
He left the center area and made his way down that concourse. He could hear thumps and bangs and spotted Kasper walking toward the center.
“Hey,” Kasper said.
“You guys okay?” Rigs asked.
“Yeah. Is lunch ready?” Kasper asked. “It’s kind of late. I
got something for Sandy.”
“More … booze?”
“She said keep it coming.”
“Rachel not eating again?”
“Not right now,” Kasper said. “She will. She grabbed some candy. Right now she’s being a little hard on herself.”
“Why?”
Kasper shrugged.
“How was it out there?”
“We never made it past the freeway today. She wanted to go that route and see. I don’t know what people are thinking. They want to get to the city, but the roads are bad. Highways especially.”
“Any of those things?”
“Oh, yeah. Lots.”
“They running?” Rigs asked.
“They’re in that, ‘I wanna run but I’m decomposing too much’ phase to run. They still move fast. Saw a few new ones today. Saw … uh ... Steve.”
Rigs cringed. “Our Steve that left four days ago?”
“Yep. Ran right for us. He didn’t make it far.”
“Son of a bitch. Where’s Rachel?” No sooner did Rigs ask that, he heard the sound of something rolling across the floor. He looked to see a mannequin arm. “Never mind. I bet that was her.”
“Yeah, she’s uh, training.”
“Training?” Rigs asked.
“She wants to join the congresswoman’s movement.”
“Do we know what that is?”
“It’s a means to kill those things,” Kasper said. “That’s all that matters to her.”
“How about you?” Rigs asked
“What else is there to do?”
“Plan for the future.”
“There’s no future if we don’t get rid of them.”
Rigs nodded. “I want to check on Rachel. I’ll see you at the food court.” He took a few more steps toward the storefront where he knew Rachel had to be, and just as he got to the entrance, the head of a mannequin rolled out. He bent down and lifted it, carrying it inside with him. “I’d say …” He held it up to her. “You got it.”
Rachel chuckled airily and shook the head. “Hardly. If this was a real one, she’d be snapping at us.”
“The kill the brain thing really is the way to beat them?” Rigs asked.
“Easiest way. I mean you can damage the neck and the limbs stop working, they just drop. But then you still have to destroy the brain. So I just go for that. It’s one shot.”
The Eliminators | Volume 1 Page 6
