Scooter continued to laugh.
"What's so funny?" Julie asked.
"Us," Scooter said. "We look like idiots. This is like something out of a comedy movie."
Julie didn't understand. She kept looking at Scooter, trying to figure it out. There was nothing funny about what had happened to them. The world had changed. They were being attacked by..
.
wha
t
?...
z
ombie
s
?..
.
the insan
e
? She didn't know.
"I don't get it," she said.
Scooter looked down at the cart they were driving
.
That'
s
what he found so amusing. This stupid little cart. They had escaped from a crazed woman on it. A woman who was trying to kill them. They had actually gotten away from her by jumping onto a little electric powered cart!
"I was just thinking of us in this thing," he said.
He motioned downward. That was all. He didn't want to say anymore. He didn't want to explain it to her. She probably wouldn't find it all that funny anyway. He wasn't even too sure why he did.
"What thing?" Julie asked.
"It's nothing," he said. "Really."
He grabbed the steering wheel tightly as the cart hummed along underneath them.
They sat in silence as Scooter drove up and down the runways.
Then, after they turned down another of the runways, he started laughing again.
"What is it?" Julie asked. "Tell me!"
Scooter kept laughing. This time it wasn't because of the cart. Scooter had seen the little hangar. And he was sure that there would be an airplane inside it.
Chapter 13
"I didn't know that the airport had one of these," Julie said. The hangar was far from the rest of the airport. "Why's it here?"
Scooter shrugged his shoulders. He had no idea. He couldn't even remember how he had heard about it.
"Are you sure it's in use?"
Scooter glanced at her, frustration running through him
.
This was his idea. It had been a good one. Now she was trying to ruin that
.
He knew he needed to keep his cool
.
Get a grip.
"I don't know," he said. "I'd just heard about it. And here it is. Isn't that good enough?"
"It doesn't make sense," Julie continued. "Would they let smaller planes fly with the big ones?"
Again, Scooter didn't know.
As they approached the hangar, Scooter could see that it was pretty old. And somewhat rundown.
But it was there.
He stopped the cart a short distance away from it. He turned off the engine and listened to make sure that there weren't any of thos
e
thing
s
around.
He probably shouldn't have turned it off
,
he realized after
,
in case there were. They'd need to be able to get away as quickly as possible
.
But he decided not to turn it back on.
It was quiet. There were a few birds flying about. Squawking. Other than that, there wasn't much else.
"I think it's okay," he said, turning to Julie. She looked nervous, but she didn't say anything about it. "Let's check it out."
Again, Julie didn't speak. She simply nodded her head and got out of the cart. She kept Emily in her arms.
They walked over to the hangar and went to the side door. They could see that it was closed. Hopefully it wasn't locked.
When they got there, Scooter raised his finger to his lips and told Julie to be quiet. She hadn't been making any noise, and he doubted that she was going to, but something compelled him to do it anyway.
She looked at him and nodded once more.
Scooter pressed his ear to the door. Nothing.
The problem was that he also hadn't really heard anything from the woman on the bus. At least not until she had attacked them. He needed to make sure that there weren't any of thos
e
thing
s
inside.
He raised his hand, curled his fingers into a fist and battered it against the metal. Three deep thuds sounded.
"What are you doing?" Julie whispered from behind him.
Scooter didn't answer. He was waiting to hear if there was anything on the other side. Any of thos
e
things
.
Nothing came.
"See," Scooter said. "It's safe."
He placed his hand back on the door knob and turned it.
It creaked loudly as he pulled the door open. It was rusted and hard to move. Scooter had to stand back a bit to get leverage. But he managed.
He stuck his head in through the doorway.
"Hello?" he called, trying again to see if any of thos
e
thing
s
were in there. His voice echoed around the inside of the hangar.
He looked back at Julie. She continued to watch him. Her eyes rapt with attention. Or with fear.
He tried to smile, to reassure her. Here was their escape. Their salvation
.
They'd be fine.
He walked into the hangar.
It was dusty inside. And dark. But there was some light coming in through the door. Enough to see that there was nothing inside. The hangar was completely empty.
"What the fuck?" he said, forgetting about the little girl in Julie's arms. "Where's the plane?"
Julie looked as confused as he did. And as defeated.
"It doesn't look like this place has been used for a while," she said.
There was dust everywhere. Aside from that, nothing else. There weren't even airplane parts lying around. No tools. Not even an axe.
At least if he had found one of thos
e
, he thought
,
this would have been worth it.
"Why did I hear about this place?" he asked. "How could I have known about it?"
"I don't know. Maybe someone was talking about it. Or maybe they were talking about something else. You might have got it confused."
Scooter scowled. He wanted to tell her that he hadn't been confused, that he hadn't gotten it wrong. H
e
ha
d
been told about this hangar. Ther
e
shoul
d
be an airplane in it. But there wasn't. There wasn't anything.
He looked back around the hangar
.
It just didn't make any sense.
Then it came back to him. He remembered where he had heard it. He had been in the staff cafeteria - the same place that he had run into Julie. He had overheard a group of people discussing it. They were complaining about how it wasn't right, how it wasn't fair. That this hangar was part of the original airport, wheneve
r
tha
t
had been. It had been home to a lot of the old planes. It might have even had a role in some war of some kind. They needed to preserve it, not tear it down. Because that's what was scheduled to happen. The airport was planning t
o
tear it dow
n
.
He let out a sigh. He had been wrong. He looked at Julie with the little girl in her arms.
"I'm sorry," he said yet again.
He walked out of the hangar. Julie followed behind him. He explained the story of the hangar while they went.
Julie didn't seem too upset with him though. It had been an honest mistake. Now there were bigger things to worry about. Like where to spend the night.
Scooter looked up at the sky. The sun was beginning to set. They didn't have much longer out here in the light.
"We could just stay in the hangar," he said. Except there was nothing in there. No food. No water. And he didn't think that the little girl should go too much longer without them. She had been trapped in an elevator for a day. Plus, it would be good if the little girl could get out of her blood soaked clothes. It would be good if the
y
al
l
could. "On second thought," he added, "why don't you stay here and I'll go back and get us some things from the airport."
Julie glared at him. She didn't like the sound of that. "No! I don't think we should split up."
"I'm not taking you and Emily with me," he argued.
"Then don't go!"
"We have to get some food and water."
"But…"
"We need to get Emily out of those clothes."
Julie looked down at the little girl in her arms. The poor girl was covered in blood. "But…"
"It'll be all right. I'll be fast. Besides, the hangar is safe. Those things won't be able to get inside."
Julie looked back at the hangar. She wasn't all too sure. It was old and rundown. "I don't know."
Scooter raised his hand and placed it on her shoulder. He lowered his head to look into her eyes. "It'll be okay."
"I don't know," she said once more.
"It'll be fine. Trust me."
Julie still wasn't sure if it was a good idea, but she wasn't sure of the alternatives, either. The little gir
l
di
d
need food and something to change into. It didn't make a lot of sense for them all to go back to the airport. It would be too dangerous.
"All right," she said. "But don't be long. If you can't find anything, come straight back. If it doesn't look safe, come straight back. Or if you just change you mind, come…straight…back."
Scooter smiled. "I will," he said. "Now don't worry about me. Get into the hangar and close the door. Don't open it for anyone else, okay?"
Julie nodded. She hadn't planned on opening it for anyone else. She didn't even know if there was anyone else to open it for.
"Okay," she said. "Be careful."
"I will."
Scooter reached out and touched the back of Emily's head. Then he smiled at Julie and headed off to the cart.
Julie turned with the little girl in her arms and walked into the hangar. Before she closed the doors, she watched Scooter get onto the cart and start it. She still wasn't sure if this was a good idea, but there was nothing that she could do about that now. She just needed to hope that he'd come back.
Scooter turned back to face her. He waved his hand at her. She waved back. Then he drove away.
As Julie watched him go, she felt her nerves start to get the better of her. She tried to push them aside.
Everything will be okay
,
she told hersel
f
.
She turned toward the hangar and walked inside. Then she closed the door and waited for him to return.
Chapter 14
Scooter drove the little cart, but he wasn't laughing anymore. It didn't matter that he was still riding this dinky little thing. His mind was on bigger things: he was heading back to the airport.
Why was he doing that?
It had made sense when he had suggested it. The little girl needed something to eat and drink. She had to get out of those bloodied-clothes too. The
y
al
l
did. So he had to go look for something and the airport would be the best place for that. Th
e
onl
y
place. At least around here.
Now he wasn't so sure about his plan.
He kept expecting that crazy woman to come and attack him. And, if not her, then someone else.
His head constantly swivelled from side to side. His eyes darted in every direction. Luckily, there was no one to be seen. Things actually looked okay. Peaceful, almost. Of course, that didn't mean that the creatures weren't somewhere close by. Waiting to attack.
No, this didn't seem like a good idea at all.
But Scooter kept driving.
*
By the time he got back to the airport, the sun had gone down further. There was a only faint blur of red light in the darkening sky.
He could see the jumbo jets sitting there.
He pulled up underneath one of them and slowed his cart. He thought about parking it here, away little away from the airport, so that he wouldn't draw any attention to himself. Then he changed his mind.
"Fuck it," he said out loud. If any of those things were around, they'd have come after him already. Besides, he wanted to keep the cart close.
He drove up the whole way and stopped the cart outside a door leading into the airport. He wasn't sure where this one led to, but he knew that it went inside and that was good enough. All he was going to do was rush in and find something for them to eat and drink, something for them to wear. He was sure that there would be things for him wherever he went.
He turned off the ignition.
The silence was strange. Off in the distance, he could hear some more birds squawking. He could also make out a slight breeze passing over the jumbo jets. Other than that, there wasn't much. It was quiet
.
To
o
quiet. He had never heard anything like this before.
He shivered
.
This just wasn't righ
t
.
He looked up again at a jumbo jet and wished that he could get into it. He knew that he'd be able to get whatever he was looking for in there. But there was no way.
He'd have to go inside the airport. There wasn't any other choice.
He stepped out of the cart and walked up to the door. His heart started to pick up its pace and his breathing became shallow.
Maybe this isn't the best ide
a
, he thought agai
n.
The argument battled back and forth in his mind. Eventually he told himself to keep thinking about the girl. That's what it always came back to.
Scooter stepped closer toward the door.
Once he reached it, he thought of the little coffee stand that he had hidden behind earlier. He knew that there'd be food and drink there. As for the clothing, well, there'd be something somewhere on the way. He was sure of it.
He wasn't all too sure how he'd get there from here, though. He wasn't about to go through all of the hallways again. And that meant that he'd have to make his way around to the front of the airport somehow. Of course, he had the cart so it wouldn't take long. But there would be a fence...
"Stop it!" he told himself. He had come here to get things, so this was where he was going to get them. No more thinking about everywhere else he could go. He had to focus on what he was doing, where he was at.
He tried to push all of his arguments aside and stepped closer to the door. He reached out and grabbed the door handle.
As he did, he noticed that his hand was shaking. He took a few deep breaths and tried to calm himself down. It was difficult.
You'll be okay, you'll be okay, you'll be okay.
He looked over at the cart. He could always run to it if one of those things came after him. Again, same as he had at the hangar, he wondered why he had turned it off.
Forget it. Just get going.
He took another breath. And another.
"Fuck it!" he said out loud and pulled open the door.
The inside of the airport was just as quiet as outside. Scooter had thought that there was going to be a loud scream. He had thought that he was going to be attacked. But he hadn't been. There was no one inside. Not even any of the dead bodies he had come to expect.
The hallway was dark further down. Maybe he'd find the corpses (or the creatures) there.
No, don't think about that.
He stepped through the door, but didn't close it behind him. It was giving him some light and he didn't want to lose that.
He looked down and searched for something to keep the door propped open.
There, right outside, was a small rock. He bent down, picked it up, and placed it in the door frame. He closed the door against it.
It worked. The door stayed open. Scooter let out a sigh of relief and turned back to face the hallway.
Now he needed to go int
o
tha
t
.
He took a few reluctant steps, his boots clopping underneath him in the silence, and kept his hand against the wall. There was still something nice about touching it. It gave him a sense of comfort, of grounding.
As soon as he got further down the hallway, there wasn't much that made him feel good.
He looked back toward the door. Even that seemed far away. It had started to fade in the waning light. He knew that if he didn't hurry, the doorway would completely disappear.
Of course, it wouldn't really disappear. But he wouldn't be able to see it. And that, to him, was almost the same thing.
Keep going.
He took a few more steps forward. And another few.
When the darkness had almost overwhelmed him, he thought of the flashlight that Julie had been holding
.
Why hadn't he brought that with him
?
It seemed like such a simple thing to remember. But he hadn't thought of it until now.
"Fuck," he said. Then added, "Fuck it!"
As soon as the words came out of his mouth he wished that he hadn't spoken them. His voice sounded weak in the hallway, in the darkness. It hadn't sounded like his own.
He shivered again.
He wanted to turn around and get out of there
.
But he had already come so far.
He calmed himself once more and moved further down the hallway.
It wasn't long before he came upon a door. He couldn't see it so much as feel it. He ran his fingers along the frame.
Once he found the door knob, he turned it open. It clicked loudly. Not anything that he would have noticed before, but now it stopped him from moving further.
He waited.
Nothing happened.
He pulled opened the door and looked inside. It was pitch black.
He pulled his head out and looked back down the hallway. The door had almost disappeared from view too.
His thoughts began to race again. As did his heart.
"Fuck it," he whispered once more and marched inside.
Scooter kept the door open, but it didn't do him any good. He still couldn't see a thing.
He dropped to his knees and figured that he'd be better off feeling around the area instead.
He stuck out his arms in front of him and ran them along the ground, searching for anything.
There was nothing.
He tried again. A little more to the left. Then to the right.
Again, nothing.
He stood up
.
This wasn't working
.
He'd need to go further inside, but he didn't like the idea of that. He didn't want to leave the door. Some part of him thought that he'd never be able to get back to it if he did. That wasn't something that he wanted to risk.
But he had to find something.
He tried to look further into the room. He squinted his eyes, trying to get them to adjust.
Then he heard a groan.
The sound came from somewhere in the room, though Scooter wasn't sure if it was close or far away. He nearly ran as soon as he had heard it, but there was something about it that caused him to stay.
It had sounded like a perso
n
.
He couldn't help but wonder if there was someone hurt in here. Someone who might need his help. Surely one of those creatures would have attacked him by now.
But what if it wasn't a person?
He didn't know what to do. He stood at the door, his hand keeping it open.
He heard the groan again. This time it was a little longer.
I
t
di
d
sound like a person.
"Hello?" Scooter called out. "Is someone there?"
Immediately, the groaning stopped.
Scooter felt a little bit better, knowing it had to be someone, not one o
f
the
m
. He would have been attacked straight away. He would have heard the screaming.
"Hello?" he said again.
The reply came. I
t
wa
s
a scream. It was one of them.
Without any hesitation, Scooter rushed out of the door and closed it behind him. He ran as quickly as he could to the exit, his boots sounding like thunder.
Once he got to the doorway, he turned around to see if the creature was coming after him. To his surprise, no one was there.
He could still hear the screaming, though it was faint.
Scooter didn't know why the creature didn't attack. In the end, he didn't really care. He simply wanted to get away.
He closed the door and rushed over to his cart.
As he got into it, Scooter saw that the sky was nearly black
.
That wasn't good
.
He hadn't found any of the things he had come for and he didn't think that he was going to be able to now. He had failed.
He felt a pang of disappointment with himself. He could just imagine his father standing there, sayin
g
told you so!
But he had tried. He really had.
He started up the cart and pressed on the accelerator. It surged forward, humming underneath him. To Scooter, it sounded like some sort of laughter. As though this was the cart's way of getting back at him for finding it so funny earlier.
But h
e
ha
d
tried!
He spun the cart around.
But, before he got very far, Scooter saw something that made him press on the brakes. Something he was surprised that he hadn't seen before, or that he hadn't even thought about it.
It was a baggage cart. Just outside the loading area.
There has to be something there!
He quickly headed straight for it.
He had no idea why he hadn't thought of it before
.
Baggage
.
That was his department, where he worked. He felt stupid for not having come up with it sooner. He knew the inside of the handling area. He knew that there'd be lots of things to search through.
He felt himself smiling as pulled up to the the baggage cart. There were several suitcases out here. There would be more inside as well.
He'd find something for sure.
He stopped the cart and got out of it. He didn't bother to turn it off this time. That creature hadn't come out and attacked him, but he didn't want to take the chance. If it did, he wanted to be ready.
He looked back over at the door he had just come from.
Nothing.
That was good.
Scooter turned back to the baggage cart and walked over to it. He thought about pulling down a bunch of bags and simply tearing through them. Then another idea came to him.
He walked up the the front cart, to the driver's seat. He wasn't sure if he'd find what he was looking for, but he had to check.
He leaned into the cab and placed his hand under the seat. He ran it up and down along it.
It was there. A flashlight. Another smile came to his face.
Things were finally working out.
Scooter walked back to the luggage and pulled off a few suitcases and laid them on the ground. He opened them and searched through the clothes. He found jeans, sweaters, T-shirts. Unfortunately, they were all for adults. Nothing for the little girl.