DAY 8

Epidemic

AUTHOR'S NOTE: muahahah! the fourth chapter is finally out! XD I just wanted to say that I prolly wont be posting for about a good two weeks or so... or three because I've got a crazy month ahead of me and I'm a tad short on time, you know? So, I made this one extra long so hope you all like it!... yeah!! XD 100 thumbs up to my amazing beta Jan Lee! woot woot! Good reading everyone! XD

--

Charlie sat silently, gazing through the dim morning light at the four forms moving quietly within the small white airplane. She pulled her legs up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them, surveyed the hangar. It had only been eight hours since she had came to the small party and even now while everyone seemed calm and collected, the overall stress and desolation being exhibited by the group was amazing. To her far right, sitting in a corner by the door was the woman named Elisa. Her long brown hair which was pulled back tightly into a pony tail, hung from her pale fingers as she twirled it again and again in her hands, singing to herself and moving the fingers on her other hand as if she were playing an invisible piano. Behind her , Max, also known as Matthew, laid still in one of the passenger seats gazing up at the ceiling and every now and then gazing out the small circular windows searching for Infected. Then of course there was Jhon, the handsome Scot who in truth, slightly scared Charlie. Like a lion, he paced vigorously by the entrance of the cockpit, his long knife in hand and wide eyed. He had been doing so ever since Charlie came, only once stopping to eat. Even Bryce, the young man who she had rescued the day before seemed to be in his own little world as he tossed and turned in the seat beside her in a mad attempt to get at least a wink of sleep. Charlie buried her face in her knees.

If I stay in here any longer, I just might go looney myself, she thought and sighed.

Why, if not the thought of Infected outside the plane that would her dotty, it would definitely be the tiny white passenger plane in witch the group was hiding, for even with the short amount of time she'd been inside it, Charlie already felt the strong need jump out one of the windows and end her very life. Inside the plane was a total of 38 crudely upholstered seats made perfectly into two straight rows-18 on each side-and then two fold-down seats by the exit. Directly between each row of two was a small circular window-within the plane, a of total-16. Charlie, now slightly obsessed on the subject, also noticed how washroom number 3 out of the 4 in the back of the plane had a leaky faucet, who's dripping she could hear all the way into the cabin. The lights over seats 9, 13, 28 and 33 were burned out and the covers off of the fans in seats 5, 19, 21 and 39 were missing. There was also the ever so pungent smell of rotting flesh seeping in through the tear in the cockpit that made her want to vomit and gag.

The small 'tack' of the water droplets hitting the stainless steal sink rang out in her head, tack, tack, tack... the ceiling began to spin. Charlie pulled her hands over her ears and pressed hard down onto them, closing her eyes tightly..

Shutup, shutup, shutup, shutup!-

The soft feel of a hand on her shoulder snapped her out of her trance. Quickly, her head shot up and she turned. Bryce sat with a worried look on his face. I have to say it, she thought, not being able to hold in her feelings any longer. Why if not her who was going to say it, then who?

"Bryce, I-" she was suddenly cut off.

"I can't stand it anymore!" a shrill voice yelled out.

Elisa then jumped up from the floor of the plane and walking over to the door, ripped the fire distinguisher off the wall and wheeling back, slammed it against the small circular window with all her might. Everyone within the airplane panicked. Max and Bryce jumped from their seats and ran over to the ranting woman, attempting to calm her down.

"Elisa, shh! Stop-Elisa, please stop-"

Suddenly, she spun around throwing the small red tank. It hit Max square in the face causing him to fall backward onto his behind. Blood splattered from his nose.

"Max!" Charlie yelled and ran to his side, trying to move him away from the scene.

Elisa began to scream and cry. About two seats behind Charlie and Max, Bryce stood in shock. Crap, crap, crap! the young man thought not knowing what to do. If she kept screaming and yelling like this, Infected would definitely hear her and God only knows. Looking around wildly, Bryce's eyes fell upon the small red fire distinguisher at his feet. Elisa was now ripping apart a seat.

I have no choice!

Swooping down, he picked up the blunt object then hovered over the woman hands over his head - frozen.

Her or all of us Bryce, just do it! Kill her, Kill her now-

Jhon, finally reacting to the scene, jumped into action, taking hold of the panicking woman. Quickly he slapped a hand onto her mouth holding it shut and with his other arm, wrapped, it around her tightly. She screamed into his hand and he backed into the wall of the plane, hitting his head against the hard steal wall.

"Shite!" he growled angrily.

For a short moment, she wrestled in his arms hot tears now poring out of her eyes and down her face until finally, she began to calm down. Quiet sobs then erupted from her shaking form. Jhon gave out a sigh and

slid down to the floor the woman still in his arms. He did not move his hand.

"Shh, naw. It's gonna be okay, it's gonna be okay."

Lifting an arm, he held out his hand to Bryce and gave a small nod. Bryce lowered his arms and stood there almost petrified. He dropped the extinguisher onto the floor and watched it roll under a row of seats. Was I about to...?

There was a sudden cry outside of the plane. Everyone fell silent. Bryce immediately fell to his knees, ducking out of sight. Infected were running around the plane. There were more howls and after a few minutes, they stopped and nothing else was heard for a long time. Elisa let out her few last sobs and reaching up with a trembling hand, took hold of Jhon's hand and slowly lowered it. Her eyes were red and puffy. Max sat up holding one of the plane's pillows against his nose, the entire side of it stained red. Charlie glanced over to him and quietly whispered,

"You okay?"

The bleeding and wounded eighteen year oldnodded slowly, closing his eyes and moving into a more comfortable position. Seeing him, Elisa looked down into her hands and said sounding quite ashamed of herself,

"Sorry."

"Sorry?" Bryce snapped suddenly.

Charlie turned to him, a confused look on her face.

"You almost got all of us killed just now and all you have to say is sorry? Are you serious?"

Everyone in the plane seemed to almost be stunned. For once, Jhon wasn't the one to snap, this time it was Bryce. Charlie sat in amazement. The boy who she had seen to be a kind and loving soul turned the tables and was acting like... she couldn't think of a word. Was the isolation and stress of the Infection effecting everyone that much?

With a huff, Bryce gave everyone one last angry look and getting up, stormed off into one of the washroom stalls. The small green tab over the door flipped to red. Everyone slowly turned back to the small circle and was silent.

"Dammit!" Elisa then said, "He's right, I should have fucking kept my mouth shut! It's all my fault,"

"Oi," Jhon said placing a hand on her arm, "This is no one's fault. All this 'Infection' and shite happened so fast," he looked to everyone. "We just need time to adjust."

Elisa rolled her eyes and turned to him, "Time to adjust my ass," she reached into her pocket and pulled out a small orange bottle, "I've got a fucking panic disorder. I'm on antidepressants," she kicked the bottle with her foot, "I pop those things like if they were candy."

Charlie reached for the bottle and read the label, "Prozac?"

"Yeah," the woman hiccuped.

"Jesus Christ," Jhon said taking the bottle and reading the back of the bottle, "How many a'these do yew take a day?"

Elisa reached back into her pocket and pulled out three other bottles. Two were empty.

"I used to take one of each, each day, but yesterday I ran out of Lexpro and Effexor."

Max took a bottle in his hand, "Cymbalta? My mum took these things. She had to get a pacemaker and was hospitalized for six weeks. You really shouldn't take these."

Charlie looked at the pills. She had almost forgot that there were in truth, other people in the world. Before the Infection, she saw life as it was and only ever thought of celebrities when mentioning things like this, but now, seeing an actual 'normal' person suffering from an actual disorder, her eyes were finally opened. The world isn't a perfect place, she just never thought of the possibilities. Elisa, who Charlie guessed to be at least twenty years old was always kind and never once said anything out of term, yet oddly enough, the girl could not help but wonder about her. When all was quiet and everyone off to their own business, Elisa would always retreat to a washroom for a few minutes and emerge like nothing was wrong. Charlie knew she couldn't have been using it and now knew what exactly was going on.

She picked up one of the empty bottles and curled her fingers around it tightly. Standing, she brushed off her pants and asked, "Can I borrow this for a sec?"

Elisa whipped her eyes and nodded.

--

Charlie walked slowly down the narrow isle hitting each seat with her free hand as she passed, stopping in front of a small white door. She knocked... There was no answer, so she this time, she knocked a tad louder. Still nothing.

"Bryce," she called, "It's me, Charlie. Open up will you?"

There was a short silence then slowly, a quiet rustling sound was heard from inside the washroom. The bright red green card slid to green and she stepped back. The door opened.

"Get in," he said flatly.

Charlie quickly stepped into the room and shut the door behind her, leaning onto it, hands behind her back. Cocking her head to the side, she stared at Bryce. He squirmed under her heavy gaze.

"What?" he finally snapped, not able to take the stiff silence.

"What do you mean 'what'?" the girl said back. "You know exactly what."

Bryce sat down onto the cover of the toilet and put his head in his hands, rubbing his forehead. Charlie pushed herself off of the door and shoved the orange bottle in his face, making sure he saw it.

"It's Lexpro, Bryce," she said, "An antidepressant. Elisa has a panic disorder, she can't help it."

Seeing the bottle, Bryce gave one quick glance then puched her hand away, turning his head. Charlie was shocked.

"Bryce, please. It's not her fault, I already told you, she has a panic-"

"No, no, no," he cut in, waving a hand. "It's just that... that I..." The words would not form in his mouth.

Charlie was now irritated. She flailed her arms and gave him an confused look.

"You what, Bryce? What! Just tell me, because if it's-"

Bryce stood abruptly and walked toward her angrily. Charlie stepped back, afraid and backed up into the door. He raised his hand and pointed in the direction of the group.

"I almost killed her, Charlie. Me, Bryce Renolds, almost killed her." The anger in his eyes were slowly replaced by sadness. "I knew we were in danger, I knew it-and without even thinking about it, I was ready. I wanted to kill her Charlie. I almost killed someone. Another person! One of us!"

He hung his head and ran a shaking hand through his hair.

"I'm only a kid," he looked back up to her. "We're only kids,"

He was right, Charlie knew it. It was one of the only things she'd been thinking about for the past eight days. She was only a kid. Why, Charlie wasn't even the legal age to drive, drink, buy smoke or even have sex, let alone kill someone. True, there were no age restrictions on the subject, but still.

Charlie stood silent.

Bryce looked up to his friend and looking down into her giant brown eyes gave a sad smile. He knew she understood, because sooner or later, she too would be presented with the choice. Live or die.

The young man reached behind her and turned the knob on the door, it opened slightly.

"Come on, let's go."

--

Returning to the group, Bryce saw that Max's nose had stopped bleeding, Jhon was quiet and Elisa was surprisingly sitting beside him. The woman looked up to him.

"Sorry..." the boy said just about a whisper.

Elisa, remembering what it was like at that age, smiled and nodded then said, "It's ok, sweetheart."

There was a long silence afterward. Everyone stared randomly into space.

"We have to get out of here," Elisa said finally.

"What?" Max asked, "You mean the plane?"

"No," she started, "I mean the airport. Here. We can't stay here. It isn't safe."

Bryce and Charlie nodded, Max did as well, "I'd have to agree with that."

"Well, I'd tend te disagree with yuh's."

Max turned sharply, "No one asked you, Jhon."

The two stared hotly at each other.

"Four to one Scot, we win and we say leave."

Jhon was out numbered. Rolling his eyes and kicking the seat in front of him, he threw a small fit, mumbling under his breath and cursing. The man looked over all of their faces and and with and angry sigh said defeated, "Fine," then, getting an arrogant look on his face interjected, "but here d'yew plan on goin'?"

It was silent again, Jhon smirked.

"My grandparents," Charlie said suddenly, a thought coming into her mind.

"Your... grandparents?" Elisa asked a tad confused at what exactly the girl was trying to suggest.

"Yeah-I mean-my grandmum and my granddad got this camp off in you know. I used to go out there with them every summer."

Everyone game her an odd look. "We can go there I mean. The place is really isolated and hard to find. It's right off the road and up this hill. No one would be able to find it."

She gazed excitedly at everyone, "I know exactly where it is."

Everyone nodded. Jhon sat still unimpressed.

"My older brother owned a cabin up there," Elisa added, "Him, his wife and my neice used to spend a lot of time there."

Jhon cut in, tiered of all of their ramblings, "Lovely," he said scarcastically, "Just lovely, but how d'yew plan on gettin' there naw?

Yet another problem. Max and Elisa turned to each other and conversed as Jhon and Charlie threw in ideas at random. Bryce stared aimlessly out the window thinking. True, Charlie's idea was good, but getting there was indeed a problem, not to mention the amount of time it would take to get there. The trip in truth, was only a fair three hours and a half, but granted that they were on foot and were not able to travel at night, the trip looked to be a good day or two. The young man scanned the parking lot.

"How about we use that thing," the boy then said suddenly.

Everyone looked to him. Bryce pointed out the window to the small and old automobile parked not ten feet away. It was a 1941 jeep used as transportation for the military in World War II. Elisa, now looking over Bryce's shoulder inspected the car.

"It's a hunk of garbage," she said looking disgusted. "Can that even hold all of us?"

"Yeah," Max added, "How old is that thing? What, one-hundred years old now?"

"Late sixties," Bryce cut in.

Jhon pushed his way through to look at the jeep, "Intrestin' concern all of you, but what I'm morley worried about is how we're gonna get the thing started. As you can see, it's got no keys."

And of course, Jhon was right - again. From where the group was standing, they all could see clearly that there were no keys. Bryce smirked.

"Exactly," the young man felt an overwhelming wave of safistication wash over him. "It's doesn't need keys,"

Charlie threw him an odd look. "No keys?" she asked.

"Yup," Bryce answered moving closer to the window, "Inside the car, there's like this knob thing on the dash board that you turn and then there's this button you push and there, you've got yourself a car."

Everyone was silent, thinking over the possibilities. Jhon had a slight look of satisfaction and nodded his head. Bryce felt proud.

"Sorry to cut in everyone, but we still have one more problem," Elisa started, "It's about two football fields length to the nearest road and all inside of that, a trailer park of Infected."

Charlie spotted at least five infected laying out on the runway. She sighed. Another idea shot down by their sad circumstances.

Max, still wanting to fight on the subject, looked around eyes wide trying to find any possibly answer to their 'slight' problem.

"I think I've got an idea," he said looking out through the back window of the air plane.

"You think?" Jhon said skeptical.

"Actually," Max smiled as he stood, "I know I've got an idea."

--

An overwhelming silence filled the abandoned runway. Bodies and garbage littered the hot pavement along with randomly parked planes and cars, sitting unused and useless in Heathrow, the place witch was at one time, the largest airport in all of England and was now a garbage dump. Off in the distance, not too far from the small group's hideout, Charlie and Jhon crouched behind a boarded railing on top of a small watch tower. Jhon slowly peeked around the side of the staircase. He gazed intently at the small white aircraft jammed into the side of the airport.

"Come on."

Meanwhile, back at the hideout, Max, holding a piece of broken mirror in his hand, walked over to the far back end of the plane and looked out the open door, down to the ground below. There, at the end of the steps, sat Bryce and Elisa, crouching low to hide themselves behind the bright blue tarp-like rails. They gave a thumbs up. Max immediately ran to a window and intelligently moving the piece of glass in his hand made a dim flashing light directed straight for their comrades who were now, a good fifty feet away.

"Yew ready little one?" Jhon asked Charlie, seeing the signal.

Charlie, frightened, gave a stiff nod.

While they were deciding on what they were to do in Max's plan, Charlie somehow managed to become a decoy along side with Jhon. When the sugestion of decoys was first mentioned, the Scot was the first to jump to plate along with Bryce. But then, seeing as how the young man was the only one who was able to start the car, he was forced to stay. Elisa was compleatly out of the question because she -besides Jhon- was the only one who knew how to drive. Max of course wanted nothing to do with Jhon so who other than brave Charlie to run in and same the day.

She took a deep breath.

"Okay, on the count of three..." Jhon said and Charlie took a deep breath. "One...tew... THREE!"

Immediately, the two shot up and from their position, now fifteen feet off the ground and jumping up and down, screamed as loud as they could.

"Hey yew fuckin' bastards! Come and get me! Come and get some!" Jhon howled.

"Come and get it!" Charlie echoed, sticking two fingers in her mouth and whisteling.

Out on the runway, dozens of heads popped up from behind various objects. Charlie cringed and kept yelling. Bryce, hurry up!

-

As soon as Bryce heard Jhon and Charlie yelling, he and Elisa took off in the direction of the old jeep with Max trailing behind. Bryce, placing his right hand on the door for support, hopped over the door and into the passenger seat. Her quickly turned the knob. Elisa got into the driver's seat. Bryce pressed the button... nothing happened.

"What?" he said breathlessly.

Max finally got into he jeep. He pressed it again... still nothing.

"Bryce, why isn't it starting?" Elisa asked panicked.

He began hitting the button with a closed fist.

"Got damn it, I knew this thing was a piece of shit! We should have thought of something else-"

"-Bryce, start the car-"

"-'cause if we have, we wouldn't be having this problem-"

Bryce glanced up looking toward the small watch tower. A hoard of infected ran screaming and yelling toward Jhon and Charlie. There wasn't very much time left. I've got to save Charlie, she saved my life and now I have to return the favor.

"God damn it!" the young man then yelled out, "Just fucking start!"

In a fit of rage and frustration, he angrily kicked the dashboard with his foot and with a sudden splutter, the car started. The engine roared. Raising up to cheer, Bryce was roughly thrown back into his seat. Elisa pressed her foot hard against the gas pedal, flooring it and they were off. Bryce clutched onto the sided of the car. It swerved, narrowly missing the leg of their plane.

"Holy shit!" Max yelled from the back seat.

"I think right about now would be a good time to tell you all that I can't drive stick!" Elisa said with a terrified look on her face as the car swerved around the piles of debris and God-knows-what.

"You what?!" Bryce screamed over to her, "But you said you could do manual!"

A sarcastic and scared smile spread across her face, "I lied?!"

-

Over form Bryce, Max and Elisa, a good fifty feet over, Charlie watched in fear as the massive crowd of Infected charged toward her and Jhon who stood still screaming on top of the small watch tower. She then saw the old World War II Jeep speeding toward them, swerving from left to right. The Infected were too close. They wouldn't make it in time.

"Shite," Jhon said leaning over the railing and looking down to the many Infected below.

Quickly, he grabbed Charlie's arm and moving her in front of him, pushed her into the watch tower. Quickly, he locked the door and grabbing the microphone that sat on the desk, wrapped the long cord around the door handle. There was a sudden boom and the door convulsed, the large window to their left cracked as the strong Plexiglass began to slowly give way. It didn't break. Charlie stood terrified as Jhon worked on barricading the door. The large window was almost entirely covered with Infected, their bloody hands and faces pressed up against the glass. Jhon took old of the girl's arm and jerked it toward him.

"Come on," he said.

The two ran up another small set of stairs and onto the roof.

-

From their positions in the jeep, Bryce could clearly see two figures up on the roof of the watchtower madly waving their arms and yelling. Bryce shaded his eyes from the sun to see if he was somehow incorrect because, if evarything fell out correctly, they were not suppose to be there.

Oh Jesus, he thougth seeing the two more clearly now, it is them.

Bryce began to panic. This isn't the plan - this is not the plan!

In the original layout of their get-away, the two 'decoys' were suppose to be on the balcony, not the roof. The car neared the tower. Bryce's eyes widened at the amount of Infected cramming into the small building. There were at least sixty outside alone.

"Elisa, I don't think they can do it!" Bryce yelled over to her, "They might kill themselves if they try-"

"Don't worry," the girl said, now getting the hang of the driving. She shifted gears, "I trust Jhon,"

-

Jhon suddenly stopped yelling and turning to Charlie, "When they come close enough, we're gonna jump,"

Charlie looked at him in fear, "But we're too high now, how can we jump-"

The sound of Infected marching up the stairs came loudly through the top entrance. The door shook as they repeatedly hit it.

"Here they come,"

-

"Okay everyone," Elisa said clutching the wheel.

Max gripped onto the door and Bryce tightened hs seatbelt. Infected began turning away from the tower and running towards them.

"Hold on!"

Bryce grabbed onto the door handle and bracing himself screamed at the top of his lungs, "Holy shi-"

At that second, Elisa sharply turned the steering wheel, swerving the car and sending it into a fast drift. Four Infected ran head on into the car, one rolling over the hood and windshield, one shooting into midair, flying over Max's head and the last two, sliding under the car.

At that second, the balcony door burst open. Jhon quickly grabbed Charlie's arm, "Now!" he yelled then leaped off the edge of the roof.

The two went flying through the air. If by intense planing or sheer dumb luck, they managed to have jumped at the perfect time and hands parting, hit the car. Charlie landed roughly into the back seat parts of her body sprawled into the front seats. Jhon on the other hand, didn't land entirely on the car. With a loud bang, the tall Scot hit the trunk and began to slide back, his leg now dangling off the back side of the car. Quickly, he grabbed onto the seats in front of him and getting a good grip, held on for his life. Elisa then turned the wheel in its opposite direction, putting the car back into a straight line and shifting gears, sped off towards the roar, the Infected trailing behind them. Jhon climbed into the car. Everyone cheered.

"That's righte yew mother fuckers!" Jhon yelled back to them.

Max helped Charlie into a sitting position and adjusted himself to fit Jhon in as well. Elisa shifted the gears to a slower pace and they turned onto the highway.

"Jesus Christ," Max started leaning back, "I think I may have just shit my pants,"

Everyone laughed.

"By the way, that was some shit-crazy driving right there Elisa," he added.

"Thanks," she smiled, "But I think the one we should be really thankful of here is, Bryce, " At his name the boy looked up in surprise.

"Yeah," Jhon said from the back seat "Without yew, we'd never a' found this ol' piece a' junk,"

The Scot then reached over and ruffled the boy's hair and oddly enough, Bryce felt almost touched. Jhon was almost never nice.

"Oh yeah," Charlie then spoke up. Everyone turned to her, "Where did you learn how to start up one of these things any ways?"

Bryce paused thinking then said, "General knowledge,"

Elise was unimpressed, "Oh come on now, something like that isn't just 'general knowledge',"

The young man put both hands into his lap and played with his thumbs,

"The tele,"