First Activation: A Post Apocalyptic Thriller Read online

  “Right, we’re in business. Let’s get through here and find out what’s going on,” Jack said.

  I turned to see him wriggling through a gap he had created at the bottom of the fence, Bernie and Linda followed, with me bringing up the rear. I stood and looked at Jack.

  “That’s the quickest I’ve ever got through customs,” he said.

  Nobody commented on his badly timed joke, Jack paused to shake his head. I nodded in the direction of the terminal and Bernie started to walk towards it slowly. We followed in an extended line spaced out over thirty yards, Linda next, and then Jack.

  “Which terminal is this?” I said.

  “Does it matter?” Jack answered.

  “Get back, now,” Bernie shouted. We retreated ten yards and crouched behind a car.

  “What did you see, Bernie? What is it?” Linda asked.

  “There’s people… lying around the front of the terminal – over cars, on the floor, everywhere!”

  “Are they all dead?” Jack said.

  “It’s a fucking nightmare.”

  Bernie put his head in his hands. Linda wrapped her arm around his shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

  “Do you want to go back to the plane?” she asked.

  We’d come too far now to turn back. The possibility was remote that a large group of armed men could be lying in wait for us. We were on a commercial flight and shouldn’t pose any real threat to whoever had taken out a whole airport. However, I was worried that we might be breathing in some kind of germ. Had a biological weapon been used?

  “Let’s take it slow, and try to find some help. A working phone line, anything. Jack, are you okay with that?”

  “I don’t see what other choices we have. Linda, you and Bernie can always go back to the plane.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Bernie replied. “Linda is staying with us, and we’ll carry on to the front of the terminal building, and then cross to the car park.”

  Linda nodded. Jack pulled the Sig in front of him again in a two handed grip, and I loaded a cartridge into the flare gun and kept it in my right hand.

  I could understand why Bernie wanted Linda by his side. I doubt either Jack or I would have been part of this endeavour individually.

  Jack took the lead as we edged around to the front of the terminal, then all stopped to take in the scene in front of us. I froze, open-mouthed. Bernie’s comment about a nightmare was accurate; it looked like a medieval battlefield.

  There must have been over three hundred bodies strewn along the front of the terminal. Some were between stationary cars on the road, but most of them were around the front entrance of the building. I moved closer for a better look. Many of the butchered corpses had improvised weapons close to their hands – a wrench, a broken bottle, or a rock. Others seemed to have turned their weapons on themselves. One young man had fallen backwards over a luggage trolley, and it appeared he died while grasping a knife that had been forced into the roof of his mouth. A well-dressed woman looked as if she had performed some kind of lethal surgery on her neck with a pair of nail scissors.

  As we crept past a police car slowly, it appeared that the officers inside had taken part in a quick draw contest. One of them was leaning against a shattered window with a bullet hole in his eye. The winner had decorated the interior ceiling with his brains. I reached into the passenger side of the car, and took the semi-automatic Glock service pistol that was still in the limp hand of the quick draw loser.

  I made the Glock safe, stowed the flare gun in my backpack, and then turned to look at the rest of the group. Jack stepped closer to me, I could see Linda’s lips quivering, and Bernie was silently shaking his head, his hand on Linda’s shoulder.

  “This is unbelievable. What the hell has happened here?” Jack whispered.

  “I’ve got no idea. Did you notice that they all look like they turned on each other?” I said, keeping my voice low.

  “Yeah, what do you think kicked it all off?” He had lowered the Sig and stood slumped against a car hood. “Why did they all attack each other? It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “I don’t know, maybe all these people knew something we didn’t?”

  In every visible area I looked, a violent act had taken place.

  Jack and I quickly ducked behind a car, Bernie and Linda did the same as a metallic noise rang out on the opposite end of the terminal to where we stood.

  “Did you see anything?” Bernie mouthed.

  “No, we just heard that noise,” Jack whispered back.

  We all peered around the sides of the cars and waited. From around the far corner of the terminal, walked an elderly woman in a green tracksuit.

  We looked at Bernie and Linda in surprise. They had seen her too. The woman started to wander slowly amongst the bodies, leaning down and touching each one. It looked like she was checking for signs of life.

  “What should we do? There’s no way she caused all of this,” Jack said quietly.

  He looked back at the old woman who seemed unmoved by the corpses that surrounded her.

  “What if she’s like the security guard at the bottom of the slide?” I whispered.

  “We’ll wait until she gets close, jump out, aim our guns at her, and then get her to talk.”

  “Okay, you give the signal.”

  I looked over to Bernie and gestured for them to stay where they were.

  As the elderly woman closed in on our position, I thought about having to shoot her, and felt a bead of sweat run down my temple. I cocked the Glock as slowly and silently as possible, making sure a round went into the chamber.

  “Freeze! Put your hands in the air, now,” Jack shouted as he leapt up and aimed his Sig at her.

  She continued towards us.

  “Take one more step and I’ll shoot,” I shouted, and raised the Glock.

  “Thank God, I have found some people alive,” she said.

  The woman looked curiously at us, but showed no other signs of emotion, then slowly raised her hands from the elbows upwards.

  Bernie and Linda stepped out from behind their car, and he began an immediate cross-examination.

  “Where have you come from? What’s your name?”

  Good questions, I thought. Let’s see how normal she is.

  “My name is Maureen. I’ve come over from Hook Creek. You are the first people I have met today who are alive.”

  She now appeared to be scared, which was a strangely positive sign.

  “Why did you come to the airport?” Bernie said in an aggressive tone.

  “I heard two shots fired from this direction. I was hoping to find someone, anyone.”

  Her explanation seemed to make sense, I thought. I’d probably do the same thing. It couldn’t have been very nice for an old lady to suddenly find herself amongst such gruesome surroundings, and the sound of shooting may have been a potential source of rescue, or at least life.

  “What’s happened here? What caused it all?” Bernie continued.

  “I’d like to know that as well. All of this senseless killing…” She broke off momentarily and looked down. “You probably know more than me. I’ve only just arrived here.”

  “Have you seen anything at all in the last few hours?” Bernie replied. I could hear frustration in his voice.

  “I was walking in the park on my own. I came back to find my car was stuck in the middle of abandoned vehicles. I heard the gunshots over here and decided to come looking for help. Can you lower your guns, please? You’re frightening me.”

  Jack looked at me, I nodded, “Okay, we will, but stay where you are.”

  “Thank you.”

  She started rummaging in her bag, no doubt for a mint or maybe even a cigarette, and took a step forward. But I was taking no chances.

  “I said stay where you are. Get your hands out of the bag.”

  “Please, don’t be worried. I have a mobile in here. I can try to get in touch with people for us. It looks like we all need help. I’m
not too old for a mobile you know!”

  She took a few steps towards us, trying to show us the contents of her bag, humming in a friendly way as she rummaged.

  “Do you want to take her back to the plane?” I said turning to Bernie and Linda.

  Linda’s eyes widened as she screamed, “Look out.”

  I instinctively moved to my left and felt a slash across my right arm just below the shoulder. Maureen had produced a carving knife from the bottom of her bag and lunged at me, a split second was all that she needed. Jack reacted immediately, kicking Maureen in the chest and she fell backwards. We pointed our guns at her again.

  This time, I wouldn’t let her out of my sight for a moment.

  “You’d better start talking. What the fuck’s going on?”

  She was panting and rubbing her ribcage where Jack’s walking boot had connected just under the armpit. She spat on the floor, then sprang up with surprising speed for a lady of advanced years and lunged at Jack. He jumped to his left and crashed his fist into the side of Maureen’s temple, she staggered and tripped backwards over a dead body.

  “Shoot her. We can’t keep our distance forever. She’ll get one of us eventually,” Bernie shouted.

  “Not yet, unless you want to do the honours?” Jack replied with his eyes fixed firmly on our assailant.

  Bernie cracked his knuckles and took a step back.

  Maureen regained her footing and started circling us with serious intent on her face. Jack and I kept pace with her to allow Bernie and Linda protection behind us, but she was starting to sense that we might not use the weapons.

  “I only want to kill one of you, the other three can leave,” she said in a surprisingly rational tone.

  “What’s wrong with you? What will it take to make you stop?” Bernie pleaded over my shoulder.

  Maureen ignored Bernie’s question and carried on circling us, she appeared to be looking for a momentary lapse in concentration.

  “Bernie, take the Glock for a second, will you?” I said keeping my eyes fixed on Maureen.

  “Okay, but I’ll use it if she attacks again.”

  He took my place alongside Jack. I ducked behind them, took the flare gun out of my backpack and pulled back the hammer.

  “How’s your arm?” Linda asked, and I noticed blood running down my fingers.

  “Its fine, don’t worry about it for now.”

  The wound only seemed superficial, but it was painful.

  “What are you going to do with the flare gun?” she asked.

  “We can’t just shoot her; I don’t mind using this to scare her though.”

  I held up the gun and pointed it towards Maureen’s face. My intention was to shock her into submission by shooting it close to her head. She might get some slight burns, but it would be worth it to calm her down.

  I pulled the trigger and the gun made a loud popping noise as a glowing projectile slammed into the right side of Maureen’s forehead. She dropped like a stone, as the flare lay sizzling on the ground a few feet away.

  “Christ, I didn’t know that was going to happen, I thought it shot a ball of fire or something,” I said.

  “We don’t want to draw anyone else to us,” Bernie said and kicked the flare underneath a car.

  He was probably right. Both living people we had encountered since landing had been maniacs. Whatever had gripped them must also have taken hold of everyone outside the terminal.

  Jack approached Maureen and kicked the knife away from her hand, and then reached down to check for signs of life.

  “She’s out cold and her head’s a mess.”

  “Let’s keep quiet in case anyone heard that,” I said while motioning for us all to get down.

  “What shall we do with her now? She won’t stay like this forever,” Bernie whispered.

  “Harry, did you see any handcuffs in that police car when you took that Glock?” Jack asked.

  “I’ll go and have another look.”

  I didn’t want to go rummaging around dead bodies again, but I knew we needed to restrain the unconscious Maureen.

  The others waited with Maureen while I ran in a crouch over to the police car. I opened the left door and purposefully tried to avoid looking at the faces of the two officers inside, while rifling through the driver’s belt. I found some handcuffs, extra ammunition, and a can of pepper spray, which all went into the backpack I had taken from the plane.

  “Come on, she’s starting to wake up,” Jack was shouting.

  I sprinted over and took out the cuffs. They were already in the loaded position, so we turned the groaning old woman over, slipped them on her wrists, and squeezed them tight. We propped her up against the car wheel.

  “There’s a police building around the corner, not too far from where that mad woman appeared,” Linda said.

  “What are you suggesting?” I asked.

  “Well, she might have looked for people there first before coming around the corner. If it’s empty, then there’s probably a cell we can throw her in, it will also get us out of the open.”

  “We’ll take it nice and slow,” I said. “Let’s make our way over to the police building. Bernie, you lead the way with Linda. Jack, you take Maureen. I’ll bring up the rear.”

  Maureen was now groggily awake and certainly not acting like a sweet old lady. Jack lifted her up by her collar and we started walking in procession towards the police station. As he held her out at arm’s length beside him, she occasionally swung a kick at him, but her legs were too short to make any kind of meaningful contact.

  The way ahead was completely blocked with bodies and debris, I couldn’t help but irrationally think that all the dead might just rise up at any moment and attack us. Progress was slow as we attempted to step around twisted figures; it seemed that we were all keen to avoid stepping in blood or some other bodily fluid.

  “It’s a good job she’s not a two hundred and fifty pound guy,” Jack said, as he momentarily stopped to adjust his grip. Maureen was small, but she was definitely putting up a fight.

  We needed to reassess our tactics when we had time. At that moment, our aim was to get out of sight in case anyone else was nearby. Dumping Maureen where she wouldn’t bother us again was priority number two.

  We rounded the corner and approached the police building. It was a concrete, single story, stand-alone structure with a solid front door.

  “Do you know what’s inside, Linda?” I asked.

  “I think it has a few holding cells for anyone who misbehaves in the airport, but probably not much else. This is where they get thrown until local police come and pick them up.”

  It sounded exactly what we needed. We could secure the building, lock up Maureen, and then plan our next moves. I gestured for us all to continue and we broke cover to cross the road towards the entrance. As we approached, I motioned the group to crouch in front of the building and wait.

  I gestured that Bernie and I would go in first, swapped the flare gun for the Sig, leaving Jack, Linda, and Maureen, crouched against the front wall. Jack kept the flare gun pointing directly at Maureen’s head.

  I turned the handle slowly and found the door was unlocked. Bernie looked at me, raised his eyebrows, kicked the door open, and ran inside with the Glock in front of him. I quickly followed him into a seemingly deserted room. The layout was simple. The room was a rectangle with an internal steel door on the opposite side. There were cupboards along one wall and two workstations behind a long desk.

  I indicated to Bernie that we should check the steel door before we brought the others in. Bernie was breathing heavily and after our short clearance work, I guessed he had used up a lot of nervous energy as he was in good shape. I tried the door but it was locked. Moving towards the cupboards, I mimed a cover position to Bernie, who aimed around me as I opened each one in turn.

  The place was deserted and I relaxed slightly.

  “Bernie, what was that at the door? I was trying to sneak in.”

  �
��If somebody was waiting for us, they’d have had even more time to prepare if you took all day opening the door.”

  His explanation was logical, and made sense. However, if we didn’t communicate and work together, we were going to make a mistake. I was certainly glad our first living obstacle so far had been old Maureen.

  We sifted through the desk drawers but couldn’t locate any keys that might open the steel door.

  “Maybe the guard went outside and joined the battle in front of the terminal. What do you think, Harry?”

  “I noticed a few uniforms amongst the bodies. Let’s go and try to find some keys.”

  We went back outside and told the others of our plan.

  “Just let me go, I don’t want to hurt anyone. I’ve changed my mind,” Maureen began to plead.

  “Stay quiet you old bat,” Jack said, moving her with the barrel of the gun.

  Maureen spat in his face and the spittle rolled slowly down his cheek. I could see he was furious, but kept his anger controlled, looking away from her and wiping his face. Jack had reacted to less than Maureen’s provocation in previous situations, his intentions were always better than his solutions.

  The horrors we had seen in the last hour had left me numb to the dead all around us, but it was taking its toll on Linda, who looked drained and shaken. Bernie also noticed and had his arm around her waist, pulling her towards him protectively. We still needed to see if we could find the keys to the steel door, so Bernie suggested that she stay with Jack in the building and away from the gruesome view.

  Bernie and I scanned the bodies in the near vicinity and picked out two potential candidates, by looking for shoulder epaulettes on the uniforms. Each corpse had a set of keys, so we took both and went back into the police building.

  “I thought it was going to be harder than this,” I said when the third key I tried opened the lock.

  “How could things be any harder?” Bernie replied.

  He was right. If somebody had suggested to me on the plane, while I was drinking my lukewarm coffee that I’d soon be thieving from corpses to break into secure areas of police buildings I’d have spat the coffee all over the seat in front of me and laughed.