The Fall of Society (The Fall of Society Series, Book 1) (7 page)

           
Charlie
desperately tried to resuscitate the captain. He did chest compressions to
restart his heart, and then he stopped and gave him oxygen by performing
mouth-to-mouth. He checked the captain’s pulse and there was nothing. “Come on,
Henry, don’t quit on me!” Charlie told the lifeless man.

           
Charlie
did more chest compressions and was in such a frenzy to bring him back from the
dead, that he didn’t notice the captain’s skin turn gray. He stopped on his
chest and gave him more mouth-to-mouth, his mouth was against the captain’s, dangerously
close as Charlie blew a long force of air into his lungs, but it didn’t do any
good. He didn’t see it when the captain’s eyes move under the closed lids, they
moved, just briefly.

           
He
was gone.

           
“Goddamnit!”
Charlie stated in defeat.

           
He
grabbed another clean towel and placed it over the captain’s face.

           
And
then he heard the air marshal’s screams…

           
Charlie
took off running toward the rear of the plane, leaving the captain’s body where
it lay.

           
Jeffrey
and Richard walked in the direction that Charlie headed.

           
The
captain’s body was left unattended.

           
And
a moment later—

           
He
sat up…

           
Mark
was by himself with the handcuffed beast in first class, and it was still
battling to free itself from the steel bracelets.

           
Ching!

           
Ching!

           
Ching!

           
The handcuffs were taking a beating from
the force of the creature. Mark could also hear Karen, not too far away, in the
business section receiving loud complaints from distressed passengers as she
tried to calm them down. He was sweating abnormally and looked feverish, weak. Mark
removed the towel from his arm to look at the bite wound; it was deep, and he
could see the ulna bone of his forearm through a thin layer of translucent muscle
that had been bitten off. The bleeding wouldn’t stop. He became weaker and
almost fell; he braced himself against a seat and then he heard something that caught
his attention—

           
Ching!

           
Ching
—

           
Snap!

           
The chain link of the handcuffs broke…

           
The
thing was on its feet…

           
Staring
at Mark in a sprint…

           
His
eyes widened in fear. “Oh God,” Mark muttered his last words.

           
Jimmy
was in the cockpit by himself and was at a loss of what to do. “Call it in and
tell them that the captain was attacked by a passenger and then what?” he asked
himself. “Okay, just do it, Jimmy.”
 
He
adjusted his headset and microphone, reached for the radio controls, but
stopped when he heard a soft
thud
sound. He took off his headset and heard someone knock on the cockpit door. Jimmy
looked at the door monitor and saw the captain standing there.

           
“Captain!”
he said aloud.

           
He
heard him knock again.

           
Jimmy
turned to open the door.

           
He
didn’t realize that the
knock
was
actually the captain’s body
banging
against the door.

           
He
unlocked the door and opened it. “Did you forget the door code?”

           
It
wasn’t the captain that stood before him…

           
“Captain?”

           
His
discolored eyes didn’t see Jimmy…

           
“Are
you alright?”

           
It
only saw an answer to feed…

           
He
didn’t understand when the captain attacked him, so violently, that they
crashed against the instrument panel as it jumped on top of him with such
force, that its legs flew up and kicked the cockpit door shut.

           
Jimmy’s
muffled cries of pain were barely heard through the closed door…

           
Charlie
struggled to get by scared passengers that ran in the opposite direction, and
then he came upon a sight that he couldn’t fathom—Peter and Elizabeth,
who he could barely recognize—were eating the flesh of the air marshal
that they had killed. George’s head was lying backwards toward the floor, and
his dead, open eyes stared at Charlie upside-down. “Jesus!” Charlie said in
disgust.

           
Elizabeth
heard him, and it came at him to kill…

           
Karen
was overwhelmed by the anxious passengers that didn’t listen to her and
wouldn’t calm down, mainly because she wasn’t calm herself; she was more in a
frenzy than they were—“Please, I need all of you to get back in your
seats and fasten your seat belts!” she demanded.

           
“Where’s
the captain?” one passenger asked.

           
“He’s
unavailable right now!” Karen answered.

           
“Is
the plane going to crash?” another passenger shouted.

           
“Shouldn’t
there be an air marshal to handle this?” another one said.

           
Karen
couldn’t take anymore, so she turned around and left them.

           
“Where
do you think you’re going?” one asked angrily.

           
She
ignored them and went through the privacy screens back to the first class
section, when she walked in, she said. “Mark, I need your help—”

           
He
wasn’t there, no one was, and then she heard something on the other side of the
cabin, a strange noise. She walked over to the other aisle slowly and peered
over—the freed handcuffed creature was hunched over Mark, it had torn his
chest and stomach open and was devouring his intestines—Karen wanted to
scream but she clasped her hand over her mouth and let her eyes scream in
terror—it didn’t know that she was there and she started to back away. Mark
was still alive as his arms flailed in reflex, and then he raised his head and
looked at Karen.

           
They
weren’t Mark’s eyes anymore…

           
It
roared at her, and then the other one turned and saw Karen. It immediately ran
after her. She shouted in fear and ran back to business class; she tore through
the privacy screens and then pushed her way past passengers, knocking some of
them down. They didn’t know what was happening and then the creature came through
the torn screens. It quickly forgot about Karen as it attacked the closest
passenger. Newly dead Mark came in on the other aisle and began to attack
people. Passengers ran for their lives, some tried to fight them, but they were
too strong and vicious, biting and clawing at anyone within their reach.

           
It
was pandemonium.

           
Paul’s
face was pressed hard against the headrest of his seat as he fearfully peered
at what Charlie faced a few feet away—the dead girl ran at him quickly,
her eyes were ferociously wide, and it startled Charlie so much that he turned
and fled. He ran by, and Paul saw the wild girl coming his way, so he ducked
and slid down to the floor of his seat and pressed his back against the window
in hopes of not being seen. It ran by but stopped. It saw Paul and came
straight at him, he shouted in fear as her rancid face lunged at his.

           
“Get
away from me!” he shouted.

           
He
kicked her hard, breaking her jaw, but she kept coming at him, screaming madly
in a distorted broken jaw howl. Paul kicked her again, and she fell facedown in
front of him. He raised his boot over her head and brought his heel down on the
back of her skull with everything he had. Bone cracked. It still tried to bite
him, so he rammed her head many times until his boot and pant leg were blood-soaked.
He crushed her head to a pile of flattened skull. “Jesus, almighty!” he spat
out.

           
He
looked over his seat at what was going on—passengers were running madly
from those things, whatever they were, and there were more of them now—people
that were once normal, were now insane creatures that were killing and…he couldn’t
believe what he was seeing…they were
eating
the people that they killed. This made no sense. This was
madness
. Paul saw George’s body a few seats down from him. His body
was sprawled across a row of seats, his neck and chest torn to shreds, quarts
of his blood were painted all over him, the seats, and the floor. He was dead. Paul
scanned his eyes around the body, searching for something, but he didn’t see
what he looked for—

           
George’s
gun
.

           
Something
moved…

           
Paul
looked closely…

           
George’s
body
moved
…

           
The
corpse’s eyes
blinked
…

           
Paul
couldn’t comprehend it…

           
George
rose to his feet…

           
Paul
gasped as he watched George roar madly with freakish colored eyes, and then he chased
after a passenger. He, it, caught the young girl and bit into the top of her
scalp. She screeched in agony as most of her hair was ripped off. The girl’s
father tried to protect her, but the thing that was George attacked and killed
him as well. The mother was next.

           
Paul
had to get away from this, but there was nowhere to go; he had to go somewhere,
couldn’t just sit there and wait to be killed. Against scared judgment, he took
off toward the front of the plane where Charlie went.

           
“What
the fuck is happening?!” Jeffrey shouted at Charlie.

           
Charlie
didn’t hear him; he was too busy going through drawers looking for anything
that he could use as a weapon. He didn’t find anything of use and then he saw a
fire extinguisher. He grabbed it, felt its weight; it would have to do.

           
“Did
you hear me?” Jeffrey said.

           
“Yes,
I heard you. I don’t know what the fuck is going on, but arm yourselves with
anything that you can find. Any passengers try to attack you, kill them,” he
said in cold seriousness.

           
“Why?
Why are they attacking people?” Richard asked nervously.

           
“I
don’t know why, but I saw a man that was dead get back up and attack the
captain.” Charlie looked where the captain’s body was lying—it was gone. “Where’s
the captain’s body?”

           
“How
the hell should we know, maybe he’s flying the plane!” Jeffrey said frustrated.

           
Charlie
looked at the carpet and saw a blood trail leading to the cockpit door, he
moved toward the door and then Paul got there.

           
“What
are we going to do?” Paul asked them.

           
Charlie
raised his hand for him to be quiet as he approached the cockpit door. He
listened but didn’t hear anything.

           
“Jimmy,
it’s me, open the door,” he said to the camera at the top of the door.

           
Nothing
happened.

           
“Jimmy?”

           
Nothing.

           
Charlie
gripped the fire extinguisher tightly and got ready as he reached for the keypad
by the door.

           
He
typed in the code…

           
The
door mechanism unlocked…

           
He
grabbed the latch and opened the door…

           
Shock
burned their eyes…

           
The
outsides of the windows were slicked in streams of the atmosphere as the
jetliner cut through the thinning night; dawn was near. Lightning flickered miles
away, and it illuminated the cockpit slightly and revealed its raw humanity…