Pandemic Z (Book 1): Pandemic Z Page 14

  “Hey, maybe Harrison Ford could play me in a movie.”

  She smiled. “What kind of movie would that be? A computer nerd invents hit game about zombies and then takes a dangerous flight with a kickass woman sitting next to him.”

  “Excuse me, no. It would be something like hero sidekick defeats shit ton of zombies on an early morning flight!” He sounded excited at the idea.

  “Yeah, and who would play me?” Lena questioned, missing a zombie’s head but hitting its shoulder instead. She aimed again closely and hit right on target with the next bullet.

  “Jewel Staite,” he immediately replied.

  “Who the hell is that?”

  “Lena! How can we be friends if you have no idea who Jewel Staite is! She is surely a divine goddess way above us mere mortals! The most beautiful, the funniest, the most gorgeous… Oh man. She is just so damn… cute.” He had a far off look on his face.

  “Oh, yeah, of course… I knew that. I was just testing…” she said.

  “Lena!” Captain Pertus was face to face with a zombie, and its teeth were ready to sink deep in the captain’s flesh.

  “Oh damn,” Barry muttered.

  Lena stopped shooting and pushed past the passengers who had gathered. She grabbed the zombie roughly from behind and pulled the collar of his shirt. The zombie struggled for breaths as he tried grabbing for Captain Pertus. The captain ducked successfully and dodged the zombie’s flailing arms. Lena knew she had to shoot him in the head.

  “If you have a weak stomach, look away now,” she warned the surrounding passengers.

  She leveled the gun with his forehead and inhaled deeply before shooting him. She could see the skin flake and the grey tones mix together, creating a disgusting masterpiece on the back of his neck.

  The surrounding passengers breathed uneasily. They were afraid of the zombies, but they were also afraid they’d get hurt in the crossfire. A baby cried a few rows away from where Lena stood. The baby’s mother had been transformed into a vicious, flesh-eating zombie.

  Lena leaned her head away from the zombie and quickly pulled the trigger, putting the mother out of her misery.

  A crowd of passengers cowered away as three more zombies emerged from out of nowhere. Lena rolled her eyes at the foe, but by this point, she was used to seeing zombies snarl and grunt. They were just more enemies to kill.

  “Ah! There’s more of them!” Jack Enright cried and shoved Dick into the row. He crouched beside the doctor and watched through the gap in the seats.

  Lena ejected the magazine to see how many she had left. With only one left in the chamber and two in the magazine, she knew there was no room for error.

  Barry moved to Lena’s side. The brave computer nerd was ready to be the airplane clown and bring smiles to the fearful guests. “When you left New York, did you ever think you’d be friends with such a handsome guy like me?”

  “Hah! Yeah, keep dreaming.”

  He smiled. “I will!”

  Lena focused on the zombie coming down the aisle. The passengers were crammed like sardines into the rows, and they watched eagerly as Lena took on the enemy again.

  “One down,” she said as she watched the lead zombie as he fell to his knees and face planted on the carpet.

  “They’ll definitely need new carpets after this,” Barry said.

  “And they’ll have to redo the bathroom,” Lena said, pointing the gun at the bathroom that still held Hawaiian Shirt.

  “Oh, right! I forgot about him.” Barry chuckled to himself.

  Lena shot the second zombie and let out a breath of relief as the figure fell on top of the first.

  “Second down,” Barry said.

  “Damn right,” Lena agreed, focusing in on the remaining zombie.

  “Almost there, Jewel Staite,” Barry calmly muttered.

  “I am not a goddess, Barry…” Lena told him.

  Lena felt the pressure from all the eyes watching her take down the remaining zombie. It snarled and groaned as it shifted its weight unevenly from foot to foot. The hissing zombie focused on getting to the captain as if a built-in sensor guided him to the frightened airline pilot.

  Captain Pertus stood closer to Lena, hoping to knock the zombie off course by distracting him with a new scent.

  “Hey!” Barry screamed at the oncoming zombie.

  The noise perked the zombie’s ears, and he looked around. Small children let out little yelps, and mothers tried to hush them, knowing that any noise could mean certain death or a bite—possibly a fate worse than death.

  “Hey!” he cried out again, and the zombie turned to him.

  Passengers huddled closer together, holding their noses. The smell was putrid. Not only was the living zombie letting out horrific smells, but the pile of dead zombies had released the worst smell in existence. Lena stood ready with the gun in her hand, she couldn’t afford a miss.

  “Hey, Mr. Zombie!” he called a final time. The zombie focused completely on Barry, and Captain Pertus was glad the attention had shifted from him, even just for a moment. “Why can’t a nose be longer than twelve inches?” he asked.

  Grunt.

  “Because if it was, it’d be a foot,” he finished proudly.

  Snarl.

  “Yeah, that didn’t go too well with my fellow game designers either. They had bloody awful senses of humor, just like you,” he said, unsurprised at the mediocre reaction.

  “What did you expect? The zombie to clutch his oversized beer belly with laughter? Maybe he’d cry laughing and snot would ooze from his nose with how funny you are?” Lena asked him.

  “Snot oozing from his nose? The current smell is bad enough!” he said, fanning his hand in front of his nose.

  “Good joke though. If I wasn’t about to shit my pants, I totally would’ve laughed,” Captain Pertus added.

  Lena stood ready to squeeze the trigger when the aircraft jolted forward. The zombie teetered for a moment but remained standing. Unfortunately, Barry lurched forward and collided with the row of battered seats in front of him.

  The aircraft felt like it was bouncing over a gravelly road with the largest speed bumps in history. The tired passengers held on to anything they could grab.

  Lena struggled to keep her feet in position. “Turbulence!” she said.

  Sherri, the mascara-stained air hostess, let out a high-pitched squeal as the drinks cart came free from where it had been haphazardly shoved in a hole. It hadn’t been secured properly from the earlier panic of Sunshine, and it moved as the plane bounced up and down.

  “Watch out!” she warned as the cart picked up speed.

  “Lena!” Barry cried out, and Lena dived into a row of seats. “Death by soft drinks and pretzels.”

  The turbulence continued, and the cart of refreshments careened down the aisle into the zombie, easily pushing him back from the momentum.

  “Is he dead?” a passenger asked.

  “I still think he’s breathing!” the fascinated teenager said, pointing at the pinned down zombie.

  “Dude, he’s like immortal or something,” Dude stated.

  “Levi, Kate, stay close. I don’t want you to get hurt,” the mother said while holding her teenagers close.

  “Lena, you know what to do.” Barry nodded solemnly.

  Lena nodded back and stood, holding the gun in her hand. The zombie stared at her with his black eyes. They were cold and vacant, but they brought on great fear. Lena was ready to finish the problem at hand.

  She felt the trigger under her strong, steady finger. The aircraft wasn’t free from the shaky bouts of turbulence, but Lena felt strong as she stood to face the zombie

  She pulled the trigger, and the bullet soared through the air, hitting dead center in the zombie’s forehead. His black eyes rolled back, and his flailing hands fell to rest.

  The plane jolted and threw the passengers forward again. Lena shook a little, but she remained firmly planted on her own two feet. The zombies were dead, the plane was s
afe from harm, and the captain was still alive.

  Barry stood gingerly to join Lena. The two of them looked at the pile of dead bodies in front of them. She blew the residue from the barrel of the gun and turned to Barry.

  “I…” She stopped, not knowing what to say to him.

  “Yippee ki-yay, motherfucker.” He smiled and she couldn’t help but laugh at him.

  “Yippee ki-yay, indeed.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Screams pierced the air in the cabin. Lena saw Barry standing and wobbling next to her, and they exchanged scared looks as more screams erupted.

  Captain Pertus screamed again from where he was pinned against the curved window of the plane. His face was scrunched up, worried about the bloodcurdling screeches coming from business class.

  “What was that?” he asked, terrified.

  “Bad news,” Lena replied.

  “Very bad news,” Barry agreed.

  She once again checked the magazine to see that she had no more bullets. After a quick check of the chamber, she realized that was gone, too. She was out of ammunition, and trouble was coming their way.

  “No bullets?” Barry asked, raising his eyebrows in concern.

  “No bullets,” Lena answered, chewing on her lower lip.

  The passengers went wild all over again. They pushed to the back of the plane. The drink cart was shoved from its lopsided nook, and it hurtled back down the aisle before it disappeared into premiere class. A few moans and grunts sounded out as the flying cart collided with the enemy beyond the peering eyes of those left in economy class.

  “I guess the rich people ordered some drinks,” Barry joked exhaustedly.

  Lena tried to force a laugh, but she was exhausted from the constant fighting and calming the passengers.

  Guests huddled in the back of the cabin, far from the oncoming groans and grunts of the ferocious zombies. Even after all the battles Lena had fought, she felt ready to take on these lazy figures. She just hoped that it would soon be over so she could enjoy a large glass of cold red wine.

  Lena scanned the empty chairs. Everyone had rushed to the back of the plane for safety—everyone except one man. Lena nudged Barry and motioned to the seated man. Barry looked at Lena and shrugged. It seemed odd that he hadn’t moved with the rest of the fussing passengers.

  His skin was oily, and he had a mop of long, greasy grey hair that was slicked behind his ear. He had a messy, uneven beard that clung in patches to his gaunt, stretched face. He was ominous and creepy, and he looked like he’d graduated villain school with flying colors. His long nose extended shyly from his face, and his mouth curved in a greedy, menacing smile.

  His focus was down toward something in his lap. His forehead was creased in concentration, and he looked like he was playing some sort of game. His eyes darted back and forth as he mouthed silent words under his breath.

  “Hey, Barry…” Lena whispered.

  “I know. He’s not a zombie, so it seems a bit creepy he didn’t move with the rest, eh?” Barry whispered back.

  “What is he doing?” she quickly asked.

  Barry shrugged and leaned on the headrest, scrutinizing the man a few rows from him. “It looks like he’s playing some form of game.”

  The screams got closer, so Lena crept out of the row and made her way toward the man. The other passengers looked intrigued by the oily man, but some whimpered about the oncoming zombies. No more of the lumbering figures had come through from premiere or business class. They could hear the enemy, but there was no sight of them. It was only a matter of time.

  Lena carefully walked up to the slender figure. His hands were long and bony, and his arms bent over the table. He had a well-defined chin that sharply curved into a thick neck. The collared shirt he wore was unbuttoned slightly, and a gold chain hung around his neck.

  Inhaling, Lena realized there was a familiar scent in the air. He smelled like oranges, a warm and fruity scent on a man who looked terrifying. His purple shirt matched perfectly with his black pants, and an expensive jacket hung between the two seats. Lena stood over the odd man and looked down at him.

  The airplane flip-down table was open and spread across his lap, and an open can of soda sat crackling in the corner of it. The man focused on a tablet filled with moving red dots. It was like he was playing a strategic mobile game. The dots grouped in a dense blob, and the other little red blips drifted from one side of the screen to the others.

  The creepy individual didn’t move. Barry looked over Lena’s shoulder, and they both studied the man as he watched the red dots move. They never moved outside of a bordered area, an area that looked very much like a hallway.

  “Oh…” Barry whimpered.

  “Huh?” Lena was too focused on the scent of oranges.

  “I think on the screen…”

  When he paused too long, she asked, “What is on the screen?”

  The citrus smell reminded her of her childhood. Sweet memories of her mother rushed into Lena’s head as she watched the well-dressed, greasy man flick at the screen, smiling to himself.

  “I think it’s…” Barry didn’t finish his sentence.

  “What?” Lena asked with a mix of annoyance and fear in her tone.

  “That’s the uh… Well, it’s...” His voice trailed off before silence hung in the air again. The orange scented man paid no attention to Lena or Barry standing there. Instead, he focused intently on the screen as Barry just stood frozen in fear, his mouth hanging open in disgust. The strange man seemed to have no interest in the world around him. He didn’t seem to be aware of the danger or wild enemies that threatened them from business class.

  “Barry, what is it?” Lena whispered.

  “I don’t want to bloody believe it,” he said. He paused before hesitantly opening his mouth to speak again. “Look at it. Lena, it’s the plane.”

  His words were quiet, but they sent a harsh, chilling trickle down Lena’s spine. The game was actually the plane and not a game at all. Nothing fit together as Lena shook her head, hoping to rid herself of her confusion. She knew that, by now, she wasn’t hung over at all anymore The wine had passed through her system, and reality had set in, even though this reality was far from what she had imagined it would be.

  “The plane?” she asked. “You’re absolutely sure?”

  The man in the row didn’t shift any of his attention from the tablet and continued to murmur under his breath. It was like he was a part of the game. It looked like he was controlling the dots, molding them, directing them, leading them to something.

  “Sir, what are you doing?” Lena stupidly asked the man with the tablet, but she was met with nothing.

  Barry shifted his position so he could see the screen better. “It’s not a game.”

  “How do you know for sure?” she asked him.

  “I’m a bloody developer, that’s how,” he snapped at her.

  “Sorry, I was curious,” she said coldly.

  “Sorry, that was my fault. I don’t get it. What is going on?” Barry stumbled over his words.

  “I don’t know, but I have a bad feeling about this,” Lena said.

  She inhaled the deliciously sweet aroma. It was a welcome change to the dead corpses around them. The foul stench had fully circulated through the plane as it continued on its journey to the UK.

  “Your feelings serve you well but don’t let them cloud your judgment.”

  “That’s very wise, Barry, but I think I know my feelings aren’t fogging the situation up.”

  “It’s a movie quote, Lena. From a science fiction show.”

  “Oh. Missed my pun, too, didn’t you? I thought you’d pick up on it, Mr. Jokester.”

  “Fog off,” He smiled back at her.

  Lena gripped the empty firearm in her hand and tried to get the strange man’s attention, but he wasn’t snapping out of it. He focused on the screen like they had an unbreakable connection.

  He continued to smile to himself like he had achi
eved another level. Barry had said what was happening on the screen wasn’t a game, but the orange smelling creep was reacting to it like it was, and he was conquering everyone he set out to fight.

  “One… Two… Three…” Barry counted as the little red dots pulsated on the screen.

  “Barry?”

  “Six, seven, and eight…”

  “What are you counting?”

  “Twelve, thirteen, and fourteen.”

  Lena let him finish counting before trying to get any sense from him.

  “Nineteen. Twenty.”

  “Twenty what?” She almost screamed at him, but she kept her tone under control.

  “Twenty little red dots,” he proudly said.

  “Twenty more of them, Lena Turner.”

  Lena jumped at the sound of the new and menacing voice. The words almost slid out of the strange man’s mouth like they were covered in the oil his skin produced.

  “How do you know my name?” Lena asked, trying to keep the fear from her voice.

  “I’m Roy.” His tone and posture were both confident. He acted like he was a powerful man who could take over the world at the drop of a hat.

  “What are you doing?” Lena asked calmly.

  Roy said nothing but pointed at a dead zombie. The zombie was crumpled on the floor and oozing foul smelling liquids. Lena stepped carefully as she examined the monster at her feet. Barry didn’t dare move in case the thought of the zombies’ disgusting smell made him want to throw up.

  “What am I looking for?” she asked the strange man.

  “Oh, you’ll know when you find it, Lena Turner.” Roy still stared at the screen.

  “I will. Why don’t you tell me and make the whole damn thing a little bloody quicker?” Lena shouted at Roy impatiently.

  “Oh, Lena Turner, where is the fun in that?” He smirked.

  “Fine,” she said.

  Lena crouched by the decomposing zombie. She checked his waistline for any sign of a weapon, then checked his hands in case they were holding anything or would give her an indicator of what she was looking for.

  “I can tell you if you’re hot or cold if you would like that, Lena Turner.” His voice was chilling.

  Lena felt uncomfortable knowing the bearded creep knew her name. He’d probably picked heard her tell the air marshal earlier, but she couldn’t be certain. With this guy, she wasn’t sure of anything. She had faced many dangerous missions and had been face to face with the most sadistic human beings anyone could imagine, but something about Roy made Lena truly afraid.