Element Z

Chapter 5: Mayday

As Ethan began clearing the rubble a faint whimper could be heard from underneath, Ethan cried out as the others helped him uncover what was his dog. Once removing more pieces of the roof, they found a baby German Shepard. Ethan broke down as he picked the dog up hugging it softly, Jake went back to the car to get the first aid kit. "You're going to be okay, Blake I promise." Zach put his hand on Ethan's shoulder. "Let's get him back to the car so Jake can bandage him." After a few minutes of bandaging, they got back on the road and made a route to the nearest bridge out of the city. "His name was Blake, was it? Well little Blake is going to be alright, so long as we can get out of this city at least." Ethan wiped his tears as he continued to drive. "Thank you, Jake. I'll get us out of here."

"Is that a missile?" Before Ethan could react it hit a building next to us and debris hit the car knocking it off of the road. We all got in the floorboards ducking, as more missiles hit other buildings near as jets flew by. "What the hell, they're just bombing every place they see now?" Jake said as he peeked out the window. After the jets cleared the place Ethan got back on the road and kept driving. "I think they might be targeting us, and any thing that moves. They might not want to risk letting anyone make it out of this city." Zach said with a long sigh, realizing they might not make it out of there. "It's alright, I know a safe place we can go. Just sit tight and we will be there soon." Ethan said as he noticed the car was running out of fuel.

Some time passed and they arrived at a shed, upon entering it they walked into an elevator and went down into a secret bunker. Jake and Zach were blown away by what they were seeing as Ethan led them to an office room, where Ethan began searching through a file cabinet. Jake looked at a wall noticing the Element logo as he then looked back at Ethan. "Wait a minute, what is this place?" Jake pulled out a file with a map in it. "Well it's this area's bunker for Element employees, in the event of any unforeseen disaster such as nuclear war, invasion from another country, and well what you probably didn't see coming a virus outbreak! Shocker, right?" Zach fed the dog as Jake walked towards Ethan. "If you aren't an intern then what are you?" Ethan looked at him. "I am one of the managers of Elements facilities in this area, I came to monitor the intern training to make sure it was correct and then well, outbreak."

Zach walked over as he stared Ethan down. "Do you have your work ID?" Ethan searched his wallet and handed it over. "Wait but you said those interns were your friends...you killed one." Zach's eyes grew wide as Ethan didn't have a blue dot either. "Look Jake, yes they were my friends. I helped get them hired, but they didn't know I wasn't an intern. That was all real, unfortunate, but real." Zach handed Ethan his ID back, as he sighed. "Well then what's the plan now then? How do we get out of the city without being bombed? Or are we staying here since we can survive the nuclear blast?" Ethan put the map on the table. "We are not staying here because the fallout after the nuclear explosion will leave us in a radiation zone, we need to go to the executive bunker in San Francisco where we can hopefully talk to the higher ups on what to do next."

Jake smiled feeling a tad bit of reassurance knowing that there was a safe place out of the city, but Zach still felt troubled that he was the only one who got a shot. "Well unfortunately our destination is 5 hours away and there is a good amount of hordes of infected out there. The bridge we were heading towards has most likely been closed off. We can't get there by car." Jake jumped as he remembered Zach's flight experience. "What if we took a helicopter?" Ethan laughed. "Oh wait you're serious? Do you know any pilots?" Jake pointed at Zach. "Zach has flown executives to places for this company." Ethan thought before realizing. "Wait you are that Zach? Sorry we just have a lot of Zach's, well then that's great we just need to get to an airport. Element should have a helicopter stored there."

As they went for the bunker exit the ground shook as jets flew by bombing the area, Jake sighed looking at the ground. "Can you imagine the innocent people they have probably killed by now all because they can't contain it? They will kill us all to save the world.." Zach hugged Jake from behind to help calm the situation as Ethan looked on the outside cameras. "Alright they are gone, let's get out of here." Once out of the bunker and in the car, Ethan drove and got them to the airport. Rushing inside to their dismay there were no helicopters left, but in the Element Hangar was a private jet. "Shit this isn't good." Jake hit the fence in anger. "I think I can manage, it won't be the same but we don't have any other choice right?" Zach sighed as he pulled Jake along and the three loaded their stuff on the private jet.

Upon noticing that there was a crowd of people outside the airport, Ethan noticed that a horde of infected were on their way.  "We have to go now, they are coming." Zach backed the plane out of the hangar and lined it with the runway as he begun accelerating. Jake looked out the window at people begging to be let on as they managed to get the plane into the air. As they got some distance, Jake watched as the horde started to devour the crowd. "You shouldn't watch, it's just going to hurt you even more." Ethan said as he handed Jake a bottle of water, Jake sighed taking a sip as he stared at Ethan. "You know it's funny how this started off with me trying to protect you and get you out of that facility and now you are helping us." Ethan smiled as he laid back. "Yeah that is funny, couldn't have expected things to get this bad so quick."

An hour of flying had passed and Zach spoke over the intercom. "Guys, there are jets approaching and I can't get the radio to work, it looks like it was sabotaged." Jake and Ethan rushed to the window as they saw jets in the distance. "Maybe they will help us?" Jake said as he watched them approach. "Oh no, they're going to shoot us. Damn it, it's one thing bombing the city but this? This is extreme." Ethan pulled Jake away and towards a seat in the back as he strapped them both in. As Ethan expected, a jet fired a missile and it took out the plane's engine. "We've been hit, hold on tightly. We are going to have to land in a field." With four hours to go and the jets circling back around, making it to their destination felt harder. They weren't just going to have to survive an emergency landing, they were going to have to avoid being blown up.

Zach laid eyes upon a clear field with no animals or anything as he started to lower the plane hoping to have a smooth landing, he deployed the wheels as the jets got closer shooting another missile. Zach swerved the plane trying his best to evade it but was unsuccessful and it made a hole in the plane. The air being sucked out of the plane was hard to withstand, and Jake fell unconscious as Ethan held on seeing the ground get closer and closer. "Brace for Impac-" Zach was cut off as the plane broke into two pieces with Zach on one side, Jake and Ethan on the other. Spinning and spinning Ethan also fell unconscious as the plane crashed.