Walking Among the Dead

Part 2.1 (On the Road Again): Chapter 7

Walking Among the Dead: On the Road Again

CHAPTER 7

Matt reaches a stagnant line of traffic about a mile down the road from the airport's main entrance. Scanning his surroundings for a sign of anything, good or bad, he hesitantly turns the keys in the ignition to power off the car and opens his door, trying to remain as quiet as possible. The silent, chilly air sends chills down his spine, both in cold and fear. He takes his first couple of steps forward, into the sea of cars and begins questioning his decision. There is absolutely no sign of life anywhere to be found, and some of the vehicles paint a disturbing picture. One small family sedan has its back door wide open with a teddy bear on the ground outside. Bending down to pick it up, he spots a small handgun on the other side of the car. Yes, he had denied an offered weapon, but that was in expectation of being able to drive right up to the airport's gate, not having to trek the distance he now has to. He walks around to the gun and picks it up, examining it closely. Matt has never held, let alone fired, a gun and he awkwardly tucks it into his pocket and continues on. From the vehicle directly in front of the car with the teddy bear, a corpse hangs out the driver side door with a pair of bullet holes at either temple. It exists as nothing more than literal dead weight and simply hangs there, its arm dangling. Matt turns in disgust trying to wipe the thought from his head that the mess had once been as lively as him- also probably as frightened towards the ends, but at least living.

The more he looks into the cars and tries to figure out their stories the more he becomes terribly frightened with what he is walking into. As he enters the area of the airport, with the fence on his side and the runways visible, the cars are more often in a state of disarray. He tells himself the people must have had to leave in a hurry for whatever reason and slowly trudges on.

One van's trunk remains wide open with a backpack left inside, open at the largest zipper pocket. Matt peers in and finds some snacks and water bottles, takes out a bag of chips, puts on the bag, and turns right up the airport's small entrance road. The airport is a small regional one, but an airport nonetheless and yet appears to be an entire ghost town. He gets to the gate and the latch surprisingly opens with a simple lift, the lock on the ground behind. However, the second gate, leading to the parking lot of the airport, which is even more filled than the street outside, is locked. Shoving on the gate proves fruitless and he backs up to assess his dilemma.

Matt is an athletic young man, but climbing the fence is impossible since it is topped with barbed wire all along. He goes back out the first gate and scans the perimeter of fencing as far as he can on either side and sees no obvious gaps or holes; everything is intact. Hoping for a miracle, he walks back up the second gate and pushes on the door again. Matt looks up one last time into the air traffic control towers nearby and the distant windows of the airport buildings but sees nothing. He draws his gun and takes a second to figure out how to release the magazine and check how much ammunition he has. There are about seven rounds in the gun's clip and he shoves it back in and cocks back the gun. From a slight distance, he finally takes aim at the gate's lock and is forced into dropping the piece only seconds later. A megaphone projects from an unknown location, "Don't you fire that damn gun, kid!"

Startled, he picks the gun back up and aims into various different directions, yelling back, "Where are you? Who are you? Let me in!"

In one of the towers, no longer hiding, one soldier turns to another, "Come on, Martin. This dude looks harmless."

"It's not what Sarge would've wanted."

"Would you give up on that, bro? I'm calling down to the others."