We couldn’t delay any longer if we wanted to make use of the natural light. The captain shook our hands and walked to the open exit in the mid-section of the plane.
Most of the passengers avoided eye contact, although we did receive some nods of encouragement and a few people wished us luck.
One by one, we jumped down the slide. Jack went first and picked up the pistol that was lying by the side of the security guard. I followed next and couldn’t take my eyes off the two corpses that were only a few feet away from where I came to a stop. The sight of them turned my stomach, and I lurched away to avoid touching them. Bernie and Linda followed; they looked immediately away from the corpses, once at the bottom of the slide.
Having my feet on solid ground gave me the sense of regaining at least some control. I thought we could now face whatever was happening, instead of simply awaiting rescue or death on a stationary plane.
Chapter 2 – The Airport
Jack released the magazine in the pistol and visually checked it before making the weapon safe. He pulled back the cocking slide, angled the pistol right, and a round dropped out of the breach. He thumbed the loose round into the top of the magazine, and then slid it back into the pistol grip.
“What type is it?” I asked.
“Sig P229, it doesn’t have a safety catch,” he said, inspecting it from different angles.
“Bernie, you’re the local, lead the way.”
“Okay, follow me around the left hand side. We’ll check the fence over there. If we can get through, we can walk around to the road that leads to the front of the terminal and the short stay car park,” Bernie replied.
He set off with Linda by his side, Jack and I followed, closely looking around at the terminal building and empty runways. I turned to see our stationary plane parked just off the main runway, faces visible at the windows.
Our pace was a fast walk and I looked in every direction for signs of life or potential threats.
I could barely see through the terminal windows, but the building appeared to be empty. The road on the other side of the fence had abandoned cars stretched as far as I could see, nothing around us was moving.
We arrived at the fence and surveyed it for signs of weakness. Jack pulled at the bottom where it was rusty in places, and it came away from the ground.
“There’s a man over there by the green car,” Linda shouted before clamping a hand over her mouth.
We all froze. I quickly looked back towards the road. About two-hundred yards away, where the road curved around towards the front entrance of the terminal, was a green car. Slumped against the side of it was a body. Its face appeared to be covered in blood.
Bernie was crouching down trying to help Jack with the fence.
“There’s two of them,” he said. “You can see another pair of legs at the front.”
“Yeah, you’re right, but they both look dead,” I said, joining Bernie.
The car stretched across both lanes at an angle that suggested that an emergency stop had been performed. A pair of legs, wearing orange shorts and leather sandals, protruded from underneath the front of the vehicle.
“Do you think the terrorists came along this road and killed people as they overtook them? They could be waiting for us anywhere. Shall we go back?” Bernie whispered.
“Quiet, Bernie,” Jack whispered back. “Let’s just stay here and observe.”
He cocked the Sig and looked at me. I nodded.
“Why did they get out of their cars?” Bernie asked.
“We’ll find out soon enough, so leave the guessing for now,” Jack muttered.
Bernie's patience appeared to be similar to Jacks’, and I didn’t want either mind racing when we had more important things to think about. We needed to stay focused on getting around to the front of the terminal. I didn’t want to be unfair to Bernie, but speculating on events would only provide a distraction. If an exclusion zone had been created, it was a big one that stretched well beyond the airport. The only apparent signs of life were unrecognisable, distant, sporadic noises.
Jack started pulling at the fence again, while I organised Bernie and Linda into an all-round defence formation for observation purposes. We all crouched around Jack, collectively covering the arcs around us, searching for signs of movement. I scanned from the terminal to the plane for around five minutes as I heard Jack ripping at the fence behind me, occasionally cursing. The man hanging off the jet bridge took up much of my attention at first, but as I continued my sweeps, I spent less time staring at his corpse.
“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.