Chapter 11
John looked at his wife. They were both sitting at the workbench, the glass of milk in her hands. He didn't know what to do. He didn't know how to help her. He had tried. He had brought her drinks and food. He had changed her clothes. And he had talked to her
.
Lots of talking.
None of it had worked. His wife still continued to stare at the wall
-
or something beyond it.
John didn't like to think about that. He could somewhat understand if his wife was looking at the wall. At least he could see it too. But if she was lost in some world that he didn't even know existed...well, that scared him.
"Honey, please," he said. "Drink."
He raised his hand and pressed it to his forehead in exasperation. He could have been speaking to the table for all it mattered. She wasn't listening.
He took the glass and took a sip himself.
"See, honey," he said. "It's not hard." He knew that she wasn't looking. She was just staring at the wall
.
Beyond.
John rubbed his forehead again. Then he stood up. He needed to figure something out.
He looked at the photograph on the table. The one of their family. Of their kids. Their grandchildren. Even that hadn't snapped her out of it. He didn't think that she had even noticed it.
He picked it up. It pained him to think that his family might have changed into thos
e
thing
s
. Or maybe they had been killed by them. That they might have survived...well, that was a thought that he chose to keep alive too. No matter how unlikely.
John had seen the terror outside. He had seen the bodies. He had seen the blood. And, though he hadn't seen any of thos
e
thing
s
in a long time, he could still hear them screaming. He knew that they were out there. Somewhere.
He stood up and walked over to the window. The dead body was still there. The blood had dried on its face. Flies had started to buzz around it.
John still didn't know who it was. The face wasn't familiar. But he supposed it didn't matter. It could have been anyone. Someone passing through. Maybe visiting a friend. He'd never know.
He turned around.
"Alice," he said. "Please. Look at me."
She didn't.
"Alice, please," he said a little more loudly. Then he shouted, "Aaaallliiiicccceeeee!"
Though his voice wasn't very strong, the sound reverberated through the basement. It sounded strange to him and took him a bit by surprise. Even the fact that he had screamed surprised him. He rarely raised his voice. That just wasn't in his nature.
He continued to look at his wife, hoping that she would acknowledge him.
She didn't move at all.
Chapter 12
Scooter kept his back pressed against the door. He could hear the creature trying to get out from the other side of it. Emily was in his arms. Julie was beside him, her back up against the door as well.
"What are we going to do?" she asked, her voice sounding panicked. And exhausted.
"I don't think it'll be able to get out," Scooter said. "Not with us holding the door shut."
"We can't stay here all night."
"I know."
"More of those things might come."
"I know!"
Julie stopped and stared at him, her jaw dropped.
"I'm sorry," he said. There is was again, tha
t
dam
n
word. "I just need to think."
Julie didn't say any more. She sat and waited while the creature banged on the door behind them.
"Maybe it'll just go away," Scooter finally offered.
"But…" Julie's voice trailed off. She didn't want to argue with him. "It might."
Scooter knew that it wasn't the best plan. It wasn't even a plan. They couldn't keep waiting there until th
e
creature went away. It would eventually get dark, and he didn't want to be wandering around in the night. Besides, like Julie had said, more of them might come. This one was definitely making enough noise to attract any in the area.
"What do you think we should do?" he asked.
She didn't hesitate to answer. "We should leave," she said. "I haven't seen the door handle move. I don't think he knows how to open it."
Scooter looked at the handle. He hadn't noticed it move, either.
But was that enough to go by?
"I think we should wait a little longer," he said
"Others might come!"
Scooter raised his hand and motioned for Julie to calm down. He didn't like how nervous she was becoming. It annoyed him. Plus, he didn't think it was good for Emily to hear.
H
e
also didn't want to hear it. It was too much to think about. He didn't know what they'd do it another one came. He didn't have the axe. He hadn't found one along the way. They had no defences - except to run.
"We'll be fine," he said.
Julie went quiet again. He could see her staring at the door, thinking about who
…
wha
t
…was on the other side.
The banging continued. The screaming as well. It sounded like a pack of wild dogs were fighting in there.
Yet it was only one man. On
e
thing.
Scooter thought about the axe once more. He wished that he had it right now. It would make him feel so much more confident, so much stronger. It would give him a chance to protect them all. He patted Emily's back.
It was then that the noise from the other side of the door stopped.
Julie looked at him as though she couldn't believe it was true. She turned and pressed her hand against the door. She placed her ear beside it.
"I think it's gone," she said.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"I told you we'd be fine." Scooter knew it sounded like such a childish thing to say, but he only realized i
t
afte
r
the words had come out of his mouth. He couldn't take them back.
Julie didn't seemed bothered by it anyway. She was quickly onto the next question. "What do we do now?"
Scooter didn't know what they should do. And, again, he didn't know why he had to think of an answer. But he shook it off and looked around to get a better view of where they were.
"We're on the tarmac," he said.
There were several airplanes parked around them. Large jumbo jets. A few bodies were scattered about the area, but aside from that there wasn't much else.
"I know," Julie said. "I told you that I was taking you outside."
Scooter didn't respond to that. He kept looking around, searching for any sign of what they should do next.
"I think it's going to get dark soon," he said. The sun was still in the sky, but it wouldn't be long before it set. He didn't think that they had much more than an hour or two. "Maybe we should just look for a place to hide for the night."
"Why?"
"WHY?" he started to shout, finding it hard to believe that she could ask such a question. He stopped himself when he saw another look of surprise cross her face. He lowered his voice. "Because we're being attacked by crazy people and I don't want to be walking around when I can't see them."
"I didn't mean that," Julie said. Her voice soft. "I meant
,
why aren't we going to try to find help
?
Why don't we take a car or something and find some people, people who haven't changed?"
Scooter shook his head. "I came in on the roads. There's no way that we're going to be able to drive a car anywhere around here. And I didn't see any other people lik
e
u
s
out there. I really think we just need to find a place to spend the night. It'll give us a chance to think about things. In the morning we can head out, try to find some others."
"Oh…"
"Of course, it'd be great if we could use one of these." He pointed at one of the jumbo jets and let out a little laugh. There was no way that they were going to be able to fly one of those. He wasn't even sure how to get into them.
But, man
,
he thought
,
that'd be fuckin' awesome!
"I know how to fly," Julie said.
"What?"
"Not one of these," she clarified. "But I know how to fly. If we can find a little plane, I can fly us out of here."
Scooter was stunned. It was a fantastic idea! The only problem was that he didn't know where they'd find a little plane. He didn't think that there would be one at the airport. This was a
n
internationa
l
airport. They didn't fly little planes in here. Unless...
"Isn't there a small hangar nearby?" he asked. "Somewhere where they fly those old model planes or something like that?"
Julie shook her head. She didn't know. She hadn't heard of it anyway. "I learned out in the country," she said. "Nowhere near here."
"I'm sure of it." Scooter spoke with certainty, except he was anything but. He wasn'
t
sur
e
. He could only say that he wa
s
pretty sur
e
. Though that had to be good enough.
"Where?" Julie asked next.
Now that was another problem. Scooter didn't know. He only had the feeling that he had heard of it. He had never been there himself.
"I don't know," he admitted. "It has to be somewhere close by. Why else would I have heard about it?"
"I suppose."
Julie didn't sound so sure. Scooter started to doubt himself too.
"Maybe we should forget about it," he said.
Julie shook her head once more. "No, let's not forget about it. Let's try to find it. At least, it'll give us something to do."
"You mean more than just survive?"
Julie gave Scooter a strange look. He knew that it was a stupid thing for him to have said. Again, it had just come out.
She ignored him and continued with the plan. "We could go t
o
Informatio
n
. They must have a map of the airport there. Or maybe in the air control tower."
Scooter didn't like the sound of either of those ideas. "I don't really want to go back into the airport," he said. "And I doubt we'd get into the control tower. There has to be some kind of code on the door and there's no way that you or I know it."
"Then what should we do?"
"We could drive around," he said finally. "I'm sure we'll be able to find it."
"I thought you said we couldn't drive!"
"Ou
t
there
,
" Scooter said, pointing to the distance. "We'll be fine in here."
"What about the sound? It might attract more of thos
e
thing
s
."
"I'm pretty sure that we can drive faster than they can run."
Julie nodded. "You're right. Let's get something to drive."
The three of them moved away from the door.
Scooter and Julie's eyes darted about in every direction. They were looking for a something to drive. But they were also looking for the creatures, making sure they didn't come after them. They glanced up at the jumbo jets every now and again for no other reason than to gawk at the size of them.
Before long, they came upon something. A shuttle bus. The kind used to take passengers from the airport to the smaller planes.
"We could driv
e
tha
t
," Julie said.
"Yeah," Scooter agreed. He had never driven one before, but he figured that it couldn't be too difficult.
They walked up to it.
As soon as they got closer, they knew something was wrong. The windows were covered in blood.
"That doesn't look good," Julie said.
Scooter stopped walking. He wanted to listen if there were any sounds coming from within the bus. Julie stopped too.
"Do you hear anything?" he asked.
"No."
Scooter took a few more steps closer. Then he raised his fist and tapped it on the window. It could be that everyone inside was dead. Maybe they had all killed themselves. He turned back to face Julie.
"I don't know if I'd want to go in there anyway," he said.
Julie nodded her head. Then she shot a look past Scooter and into the bus.
Standing behind Scooter was a woman. Her hair was covered in blood. It was strewn across her face. She began beating on the window. She started screaming.
Scooter jumped back. Emily jerked in his arms.
"What the fuck?" he yelled. He bit down his lip. H
e
ha
d
to stop swearing in front of the little girl. Though that could wait. This was more serious.
The woman inside the bus continued to hit on the window.
"We've gotta get out of here," he said.
He turned and ran with the little girl holding onto him. Julie followed.
They could hear the woman in the bus behind them. She continued to scream. She continued to beat against the glass. They didn't know how long it would hold, but they were sure that it wouldn't be long.
Scooter turned around to look back at the bus. The woman was going wild. Her head shook back and forth. Her mouth opened into horrible shapes. Her blood soaked hair swung heavily around her face.
He continued to run, then stopped when Julie pulled at his shirt.
"Over there," she said, pointing at a small electric-powered cart.
They ran over to it.
Scooter passed Emily to Julie and jumped in the driver's seat. He searched frantically for the keys. His fingers felt around both sides of the steering wheel and came upon the ignition. The keys were there.
He turned them. Nothing happened.
He tried again. Nothing.
"What am I doing wrong?" he asked.
He heard a crash behind him and turned his head to look at the shuttle bus. The woman had broken the window. She jumped out of the bus and looked straight at him. She screamed again. She started to pull her hair. Then she started to run.
Scooter turned back to the ignition
.
Why wouldn't it start?
He tried again. And again.
Then he noticed the small white button. He turned the key once more and pressed it. The cart started up.
As soon as it did, Scooter pressed on the pedal and the vehicle surged forward. He steered it underneath one of the jumbo jets.
Looking back over his shoulder, Scooter could see that the woman was still chasing them. But she was getting further and further behind.
He turned back to face where he was going. There was nothing but runway after runway. He didn't know where he was headed. But that didn't matter. They simply needed to get away.
The cart sped down one of the runways. The woman continued to chase them. She was too far back for Scooter to worry about. He didn't think that she was going to catch them anymore.
They had escaped.
*
Once the were long gone from the woman, Scooter started laughing. He couldn't help himself. He knew that it probably wasn't the best thing to do. This wasn't a laughing matter. But it came out anyway.
Julie looked at him. The little girl was still in her arms, but she didn't seem to notice anything. She kept her head pressed into Julie's shoulder.