“Kristen?” Lex’s brow contorted. Slowly, he exchanged glances with his brother, swallowing deeply. Zach gasped hearing the name and moved so he could see her face. By then, screams were coming up the corridor, a horde of people starting to run past.
“What the hell?” Glancing towards Ian, Lex hooked a thumb over his shoulder. “That what you were talking about?” Ian didn’t need to respond. Lex had already known and any suspicions he had were confirmed in his brother’s eyes, the way they hardly flicked over to see the commotion; the kind of certainty Lex read there. “Shit,” he whispered. Clearing his throat, he turned back towards the couple on the bench.
Kristen was trying to sit up. She reached for Zach’s face, her breath rasping and loud. “God, baby, are you ok?” Zach ran his fingers through her blond hair and she turned her head sharply towards it. “You’re so cold…”
“Hey, come on, we’ve gotta go,” Lex was saying, his brother speaking towards a similar end as they approached. “Kristen, can you walk?” Their words were cut off, suddenly, when Kristen snarled, pulling her lips back in a hideous grimace as, suddenly, she lurched for Zach.
“What the hell,” swore Lex, as he rushed forward, ripping the bride off her husband with his brother’s help. She was screaming wordlessly, writhing. “She must be delirious!” Her fingers clawed madly, her head whipping madly in every direction, wildly trying to bite them.
Zach had been knocked to the ground by the violence and he lay there, still, for a moment, shocked. A moment ago she’d been dead, now she was up and fighting, as if a sudden mad craving for longpig had taken over. “Baby, hey,” he began, finally, slowly getting to his feet. “What’s going on, honey?” he whispered. “Baby, come on,” he added, moving towards her, again, but she didn’t seem to know him, his voice, or even so much as understand his words.
People were screaming, falling, down the main corridor. The opening to the terminal sheltered them as people ran past, but as they began to stumble in, others staggering after, they began to shamble towards them. Many of them had the same terrible eyes Kristen seemed to sport at the moment and, as Lex cast a glance over his shoulder, he saw them overrunning the stragglers, pulling them down, ripping their skin with their nails, and biting into them. Whole herds of the infected, ruthlessly attacking those around them, just as Kristen was trying to do.
“We’ve gotta get out of here,” he said to no one, to everyone. They were still quite far away, but they were coming and time was clearly limited. Someone down the corridor was putting up a good struggle. He seemed to have a blunt instrument in his hands and was bashing his attackers in the head. Some of them groaned and fell, finally terribly still. “Hold her,” he said to Ian and Zach, glancing around for a weapon of sorts, meaning to go and help, yet as the intention took him, the man finally went down with a wail. A trail of blood stained the wall as the infected swarmed him. “Oh my God,” whispered Lex, his stomach turning as he realized they were eating him alive. And yet, with a last awful screech, he went silent. The last few healthy people were gone and Lex realized with a sudden gasp, that the three of them were amongst the last remaining prey as the herd seemed to turn in unison towards them, towards where Kristen hissed and moaned.
“Now!” shouted Lex, grasping Zach by the collar and hauling him to his feet. “We have to go, now!” Glancing around himself, he spotted a column, used for powering electronics while people waited for their planes. Stepping forward, Lex knocked it over, watching as plastic pieces shot in different directions and reached for the metal bars that had held it up. There were four, but he grabbed three, passing them out to each of his sane companions. “Here. Use these to hit them in the head. That seems to work.”
Zach didn’t raise a hand to accept one. “Christ, Lex, what are you talking about?” spluttered Zach, who was trying to help Ian restrain his wife.
Lex cast another glance towards the approaching herd. “I’m not sure,” he said, but as soon as the words were escaping, he found himself chuckling. It all seemed so deeply useless now, the pointlessness of his entire existence hitting him full in the face, once again. But now, a kind of excitement seemed to come with it, a smile painting across his features. He felt the burden of it slipping as if suddenly it’s own pointlessness had turned on it, one gaping, self-devouring maw. “Maybe the end of the world. Whatever it is, we have to move.”
Zach shook his head. “I don’t think we can move her. Help is coming. We need to wait here.”
“Just fucking look.” Lex pointed towards the crowd. “Help isn’t coming.”
He watched confusion dawning in Zach’s face, brow contorting, lips parting to suck in a deep breath. “My God.”
“There’s a door behind you. Take this,” he said, shoving one of the metal bars into his hand. Zach looked dumbly down at it for a moment, a silent horror lit his eyes. “We’re going in there and we’re shutting the door behind us.”
Zach’s eyes locked with Kristen’s unseeing ones. “You two go on.”
“Nope,” insisted Lex. Without another word, he stretched out his hand. “Come on, Officer. Where’re your cuffs?”
“We can use them to bind your blushing bride’s hands. She can come with us. You got your gun?”
“Lex, I’m going for my honeymoon.”
“Fine. Hold her tightly.” Lex rushed towards the double doors. Without another word, he raised the bar over his head, bringing it crashing down on the doors. The reverberations seared through his hands, sizzling through his veins and into his bones but he raised it again. Again. Again. He raised it, holding it up…
It wasn’t a bang. The sound from behind him was something more mundane seeming and much more terrible, like a pop, it’s aftermath a crushing weight that shattered through eardrums, loud like a blast but quicker than a snap of the fingers. It was a gunshot. Lex turned quickly. Ian and Zach knelt together, Kristen lying flat on the floor, terribly still. Honeymoon or no, Zach didn’t go unarmed and being a cop had its privileges.
“Oh my God,” whispered Lex, turning slowly. All around them, the infected were swarming in an ever tightening ring. The open design of the airport had allowed them to see the herd coming, but now the noose was drawing shut. Lex wasn’t sure what had happened, exactly, but it was clear enough that Zach had had to kill his own wife, either to save himself or Ian, or just to put her out of her misery, Lex didn’t know. Hurrying back over, Lex knelt by them. “Come on,” he said, putting a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “We have got to get out of here and I can’t break down this door by myself.”
