“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.
As soon as we pushed the door open, a male voice shouted, “Who’s there? Who is it?”
We lurched back in fright.
Bernie slammed the door shut and locked it. “Shit, what do you think?”
We still hadn’t discussed how we were going to deal with other people since meeting Maureen.
I locked the front door, closed all of the blinds, and Jack pushed Maureen into a corner while we figured out what to do.
Maureen scrambled to her feet and started shouting, “Help, I’m being kept prisoner. There’s four people here.”
Jack and Bernie ran over and pinned her to the floor. I remembered there was a roll of masking tape in the cupboard, and used it to tape her legs together and her mouth shut. By the time I was done, she was in a foetal position on the floor and could only make muffled noises. It was good enough.