Dying to Live (5 page)

Pete followed the growing crowd into the lobby and saw that the smashing sound, had in fact, been the glass front of the hotel breaking under the impact of a car colliding with it. The car was now a crumpled, mangled mess that was wedged half inside the building and folded around one of its metal supports. It took only a quick glance towards the driver’s side of the car to know that the woman who had ploughed into the building was infected. Her hair was a dirty blonde and hung in ratty tails across her face. Although her face was covered in blood and dirt, Pete could see the snarl curling her lips. She struggled in frustration, trying to get out of the car and lunge for the nearest spectator. The crumpled door did not want to budge under her attempts. Judging from the wreckage, if it did give in to her struggles, then her legs would be trapped anyway. Even so, this did not reassure Pete and Xin. There were people rushing around, trying to figure out the best way to get the woman out.

“What shall we do?” Asked Xin.

“I’m thinking,” Pete responded. It was almost possible to see the cogs working away inside his head.

“Okay, well in about five minutes that’s not going to help us anymore,” Xin said, pointing to a group of staff members who were striding towards the car. The manager was leading them with a crowbar in his hand.

“We can’t let them do that,” Pete said, shaking his head. Acting on impulse, he quickly pushed his way through the crowd and placed himself between the car and the approaching posse.

“Please Sir, stand aside. We have this situation under control...” The beak-nosed manager warned Pete dismissively.

“I’m sorry, but you haven’t. Not if you’re intending to use that crowbar on the car door,” Pete said calmly.

“Excuse me?” The manager spluttered indignantly. “There is a woman in that car that needs help. Step aside and let us deal with this.”

“Listen buddy, there’s gonna be a whole lot more to deal with if you go barging in there with that.” He inclined his head toward the crowbar.

“And who are you, exactly, to be telling me what to do?” He asked pompously. The manager flicked his head to dislodge a stray lock of slick, black hair that had fallen over his forehead.

Pete’s temper was gradually rising. His frustration was not eased by the self-righteous glare of this idiot. He took a step towards the manager but felt Xin’s hand close around his arm. She had found it harder to struggle through the crowd with her petite build. The time it had taken her, combined with Pete’s stalling, had given her time to think of a plan. Pete watched the manager’s face visibly soften as Xin smiled at him.

“Please, excuse my friend. He is right though... I’m a doctor you see,” Xin added, before anybody could argue. It wasn’t technically a lie; she just wasn’t the right kind of doctor for this situation. “If you move anything, there is a great chance that you could do more harm than good. I trust that somebody has already called the emergency services?” She asked, trying to sound authoritative.

“Oh, yes of course. They are on their way right now. Would you take a look at her?” The manager asked.

Xin exchanged a nervous look with Pete. Reluctantly, she agreed and directed the staff to disperse the crowd. As they hurried off, she whispered to Pete.

“We have to do something...” Xin hoped that she had said it meaningfully enough that he would understand her line of thought.

“Yes. When the services get here all hell will break loose if she’s alive to bite anyone... but we can’t kill her. Think of how that idiot would react.” Pete rolled his eyes.

“What if the car happened to... blow up?” Xin said innocently, keeping her voice low.

“That might work. We can only make that happen if there’s a fuel leak though.” Pete turned towards the wreck, where the woman was now leaning through the shattered windshield and trying to claw her way over the bonnet. There was smoke coming from under the hood and thankfully, a slowly forming pool of fuel. He pointed it out to Xin, who nodded thoughtfully.

“Alright, you go and distract anyone else that is still milling around...” She started.

“I think I should do it, Xin. It’s dangerous. If you’re too close when it goes up, you’re going to be hurt,” Pete said.

“Yes, but I’m the doctor. I’m the one who is meant to be helping her. How will it look if you approach the car? We don’t have time for this,” She argued. In the background, as if to back up her statement, was the distant sound of sirens.

“Okay, just be careful,” Pete said with resignation. A frown creased his forehead, displaying his displeasure at the whole idea. Without another word, he tucked a book of matches into her palm. Xin curled her fingers around them and nodded once.

The lobby was big. Big enough, he hoped, that the explosion would not cause more problems than it solved. Pete lured the remaining receptionist away, making up a tale about somebody fainting.

Xin hesitantly made her way towards the vehicle. The scratched silver paintwork still caught the afternoon sun light and glinted in her eyes. She squinted against it, shielding her eyes with her hand. The twisted creature that was trapped inside of the car, watched angrily as Xin drew closer.

“Alright, let’s do this,” Xin said to herself. She looked around, checking that she was not being watched. Feeling only the gleaming eyes of the thrashing woman upon her, Xin struck one of the matches and let it fall to the ground.

When Pete looked over his shoulder, he saw Xin running from the car. A burst of fire mushroomed outwards. Even from where he stood, Pete could see the zombie. Somehow, it had managed to pull itself over the steering wheel. He watched as the zombie was sent reeling in the blast. The broken shards of windscreen speared her head as she jerked backwards. He saw splatters of gore burst out from the impact and her face mutated in anger. A secondary explosion jarred her further and the light left her eyes. She grew still, just as the scene was engulfed with leaping flames.

The force of the blast knocked Xin from her feet and she sailed forwards. Pete rushed to her immediately, leaving the confused receptionist stood staring at the scene that was unfolding. As the fire alarm and sprinklers started up, Pete knelt beside Xin.

“Are you alright?” He fussed.

Xin was slightly dazed. She couldn’t remember how she had ended up on the cold marble floor and her head was ringing.

“I think I banged my head,” She moaned, raising a hand to touch it. “Ouch! My elbow too, by the feel of it!” Pain jolted through her arm as she flexed it.

“Let’s get you up and get out of here,” Pete decided, offering a hand to help her to her feet. Xin took it and shakily found her feet.

In the ensuing chaos that erupted, they managed to sneak back to their rooms. They decided it was probably best for them to leave right away. The emergency services would eventually discover the match and suspicion could fall upon them. The last thing they needed was to be investigated. Not only could they accuse her of starting the fire, but the police could still be on the lookout for a rebel scientist. So, in order to avoid arrest, they hastily recovered the cases they hadn’t had time to unpack, and left without being seen. They made their escape through a fire door and found themselves outside in the car park.

4.

‘Frank Burton is my name. My friends all used to call me ‘Captain’. It’s not an official title but I am a qualified pilot. What seems like a long time ago now, I flew for all of the popular airlines. But I did some things that I’m not exactly proud of and I lost my reputation as a commercial pilot. I started to take the odd contracted jobs from wherever I could get them. I was contacted by ZanChai Pharmaceuticals, at very short notice, to take a client out to America. I needed the money, so I left the squalor of my apartment and my lonely TV meal for one and headed out. I remember the flying conditions were great that night. The flight went smoothly; it was just the landing that caused the problems...’

“We’ll be coming in to land soon, sir. You may want to strap in now,” Frank warned over the intercom. He could see the airport lights beneath them and he and the co-pilot prepared to bring the plane down. The radio buzzed as though someone below was going to speak to them, but then it went dead.

“Strange,” stated the co-pilot beside him. Tim was a man of few words. A good pilot, although technically in his retirement years now and the large paunch between him and the controls showed that he was making the most of it. Frank picked up the radio controls and tried to make contact with someone on the ground. The only response he got was the crackling static.

“It looks like we’re on our own with this one then.” Frank frowned. The equipment was supposed to be perfectly maintained but failures like this were shockingly common.

As they sunk lower, the two pilots recognized a plane parked haphazardly on the runway they were coming in to land on.

“Shit!” Tim gasped.

“Tell me about it,” Frank said. “We’ll have to pull up and circle back.” He waited for Tim to follow his direction, but there was no response. He turned to Tim and his mouth fell open. Tim was slumped, clutching his chest and turning slightly purple.

“No! No, no, no! Not now! You can’t do this to me!” Frank raged, hitting the steering column.

By then it was too late to avoid landing. The best thing he could do was try to avoid hitting the other plane, but it would mean veering off of the landing strip.

“Hold on tight. This is going to be a rough one!” Frank told Bao over the intercom.

The wheels hit the tarmac with a jolt. The plane that was already on the strip was pulled round slightly. The wing was sticking out awkwardly towards the approaching plane. There was still baggage trolleys parked nearby and the passenger stairs were still pulled up to the plane door. As the plane grew closer, Frank was pulling round desperately on the flight yoke. It was as though the plane was turning in slow motion, the response was not quick enough. As the wheels veered from the strip, the plane rocked precariously and with an ear piercing shriek, the wings collided. The two planes lurched around and Frank wondered just how much damage the plane had suffered. They screeched forwards only a short way more and then ground to a halt.

After breathing a sigh of relief and saying a silent prayer, Frank turned to Tim. It was much too late; it was obvious that Tim was dead. His arms had dropped and hung at his sides. His chin rested on his chest. The glassy stare and gaping mouth made Frank feel uncomfortable, and being shut in the small cockpit alone with the corpse of his companion unnerved him. He unbuckled and hastily got out of there.

Dr Yuan was still buckled into his seat and looked a little pale.

“Sorry about that, sir. We ran into some trouble. I don’t know what’s going on out there but the airport stopped responding. The co-pilot died and there was already a plane on our runway. Looks like a hasty landing to me, and there’s nobody out there but everything’s been left lying around. I just don’t get it...” Frank trailed off and flopped into a passenger seat to collect himself.

“You... What? The co-pilot died?” Bao asked in bewilderment.

“Yeah. It looked like a heart attack to me. Shit, I guess we should call for some help. The police or something? I wonder why nobody’s checked on us,” Frank reflected, looking out of one small round window towards the airport.

Bao was starting to feel panicked about the possible progression of the infection. Everything seemed so wrong and strange. Surely someone should be out there? Frank watched as the old man unbuckled his seatbelt and rose from his seat.

“I don’t think anyone is coming. We need to get off this plane and find out what’s happening. It could be dangerous, so keep close to me and be ready to run,” Bao instructed him.

“Dangerous? Why would we need to run?” Frank asked. He was in his thirties but still young at heart. An immature flush of adrenaline ran through him at the prospect of trouble. “You mean the police? Are they after you or something? Wait, we aren’t transporting something we shouldn’t be, are we? Because I told myself I wouldn’t get into that again...”

“Will you PLEASE stop gibbering? We have no time for this. It’s not the police that we’re avoiding and if you don’t want to die... Well, in a sense at least, then you will just have to do as I say,” Bao sighed. He had made his way to the air locked door and rubbed his forehead. “I suppose we won’t be able to get off this plane in the usual way then?”

“I guess not. This will be my first time using the emergency escape slide,” Frank said, not unhappily.

Upon getting the door of the plane open, the two men stood side by side and peered out. It then became apparent that the landing strip was not completely devoid of people. It was only devoid of LIVING people. A man was laid face down in a large, circular pool of darkening red blood. What remained of his clothing was merely rags and scraps of cloth. From where they stood, neither man could see the grotesque scale of his injuries. The gaping wounds, where chucks of flesh were completely torn away, were thankfully hidden from their view. The dead man was not the only casualty. A couple more bodies lay scattered at the foot of the boarding stairs. Dripped trails of blood indicated that there had been others wounded who had managed to escape.

“Holy mother...” Frank gasped. “What the heck happened here?”

Bao did not reply to the question. Instead, he headed back to his seat and collected his briefcase. Gripping it tightly he turned to Frank.

“Remember, stay close and ready to run.”

Frank gulped audibly and Bao released the inflatable slide. They both jumped together and as they hurtled quickly towards the ground, they missed the twitching arm of a small girl. She was hiding underneath one of the baggage carrier’s trailers, lying in wait. Their feet touched the concrete and she pounced out, taking them by surprise as she sprinted forwards. The girl came charging towards them with bloody saliva running from her mouth and a guttural howl tearing from deep within her. She was nothing more than a child, with pigtails and a floaty, pink dress. Bao’s reaction was so quick that Frank barely had time to process it. The gun he pulled from under his jacket with lightning speed, was smoking in his hand by the time the shot even registered in Frank’s mind. The bullet struck home right in the child’s chest and flung her small body backwards. It was the most horrific thing Frank had ever witnessed. The girl was no more than eight years old. To their shock, she quickly regained her feet and staggered angrily, before starting towards them again. Bao prayed his aim would be true and released a second and third shot. One bullet tore a hole through the girl’s throat and the other burst through her skull. She collapsed to the ground immediately. After waiting a few moments, it seemed safe to say that she wasn’t going to get up again.

“Fuuuuuck.” Frank drew out the word, shaking his head in disbelief.

“It’s not safe here, we need to go. There are things in the hold of the plane that I need first though.” Bao looked at the pilot, who was still staring at the corpse and shaking his head. “Frank, come on. How can I get my equipment off of the plane?”

“Oh,” Frank looked around. “Well, I suppose that everything we need is here...”

“Good, well let’s get that sorted and get out of here then.”

Moving slowly due to shock and the constant paranoia of another attack, Frank worked to move the unloading ramp and get the plane’s luggage hatch open. Bao stood by with the gun, providing cover as he did so. They fortunately, did not encounter any more of the savages during the process and once the few boxes were unloaded they turned their attention to transport. It was obvious that walking was not an option and neither man wanted to travel through the airport and outside into the customer car park in search of a car. Instead, they set their sights on a white van parked on the tarmac behind the airport.

Having found the keys still in the vans ignition, they loaded their small cargo. Bao decided he was in a better state to drive than Frank. He hadn’t heard from Xin yet, but decided that he wanted to be away from the gory scene in front of him before anything else could go wrong. By some stroke of luck, a gate had been left open and they did not run into any more trouble as they left. It was too quiet for Bao’s liking. Where was everyone? And what had happened here? As he contemplated this, his phone rang. He hurriedly flipped it open and checked the caller ID before answering.

“Xin! Are you Okay?” He questioned her with a note of urgency.

“I’m fine. We ran into some trouble at the hotel though. Please tell me you’ve landed already?” She sounded out of breath but surprisingly calm, this in turn surprised Bao. He had expected that she would be finding it hard to cope in the ever growing crisis by herself.

“Yes, I’m just leaving the airport now. Where can we meet?” As he asked this, his mind noted the use of ‘we’ in her previous response. So he added, “Who are you with?”

“I can’t explain right now...” She began. Bao heard what sounded like the phone being dropped. Then a male voice in the background asked if she was alright.

“Xin?” He waited for a reply.

“Sorry, I tripped and dropped the phone. Listen, it hasn’t reached total crisis point here yet, but we’re heading out to the compound now before it does. Try to stay out of the densely populated areas and head straight out there to meet us.”

“Wait, Xin...” She cut him off.

“There isn’t time. Pete’s hotwiring a car right now and we’re getting out of here. I will explain everything when we see you. I’m sorry, Bao. I’m glad you’re here. Bye.” The line went dead.

“So, what’s the plan?” Frank asked from the passenger seat.

“It looks like we’re heading out into the desert,” Bao replied, his mind not in the current conversation. Instead, he was resentfully considering Xin’s new friend ‘Pete’.

“Why? What’s out there?” Frank asked.

“Area 51.” The answer was impatient and blunt, but Bao was somewhat hurt that his self-sacrifice had been met with so few answers. He was left with a feeling of inadequacy and under-appreciation.

Frank sensed that the old man was not in the mood to chat or explain, so the questions nagging the inside of his mind went unanswered. Just yesterday life had been normal and ordinary. So normal in fact, that he had considered it boring. What he would have given to be sitting down to that TV dinner now. Instead of heading seventy five miles out into the middle of nowhere, to a place that was not even meant to exist! His rational mind could not make sense of what he had seen and he felt not so far away from crazy town.

After a few miles, Frank could take no more.

“Look, man. I know whatever it is that’s getting you so hot under the collar ain’t anything you want to talk about. But I’m about ready for some answers from you, before I go nuts.” Bao glanced at him and nodded once, expressing that however reluctantly, he would comply. “Okay, so what was up with that girl back there? And the dead people?” This seemed to be the major question and so Frank was disappointed with the response.

“It’s not what you want to hear, but I do not fully understand it myself. In short, I do not know.”

“But, the gun? You were expecting them? Or at least expecting trouble?” Frank pushed.

“A man does not call in favours, in the middle of the night, with unsavoury contacts, in order to book a private plane at such late notice, without there being some kind of trouble.” The ghost of a smirk briefly touched his features. “But yes, I knew that there was a possibility that we could run into this... sickness.”

“So it’s a sickness?” Frank asked, puzzled.

“Of sorts, yes. We will discover more when we arrive at the base.”

“And we’re heading to Area 51 because...?”

“Because, Mr Burton, that is where it started and hopefully where we can bring about it’s end.” Bao looked at Frank, who was now lost in thought. The answers were not exactly enlightening, but they were enough to pull Frank’s thoughts back from the border of insanity. There was a lot more that he wanted to know but, sensing that the doctor’s mood had not much improved and feeling the wave of tiredness after the long flight, he decided that this could be his last chance to sleep for a while to come. He laid his seat back a little and pulled the peak of his baseball cap down to cover his eyes, before drifting off into a fitful sleep.

He woke abruptly. The van lurched and skidded to a halt. His eyes snapped open and he saw that they were on a dusty road with nothing but desert surrounding them for miles.

“Why have we stopped?” Frank asked in a voice that cracked with sleep.

“Look.” Bao pointed through the windscreen. A woman lay at the side of the road. She had on a white coat that was grazed with dirt and dust, her blonde hair was tangled and limp around her face. There was no sign of blood on or around her. Her eyes were shut and she appeared to be unconscious.