Getting to the departure areas was difficult. The lack of power meant that the airport systems locked down. Security gates that opened when the staff checked documents were stubbornly closed. Emergency exits that pushed open from the inside were smooth locked barriers from the outside. All designed to keep people out even when the power failed.

  This did mean that culling zombies was, again, too easy. The creatures which had found their way to the first layer of security couldn’t reach them and it was like shooting fish in a barrel.

  More too loud cheering and derisive comments came from the fire teams. Even veterans like Carl and Charlie were taking part now.

  Then they had to get in. In the end Camila and a few others with Boost and crowbars managed to pry an emergency exit open and they moved in, scouts first.

  David’s ears buzzed with the agitated sounds of Nath trapped in the area, though there were less than he expected, or perhaps had hoped for.

  Closing his eyes he reached out, dispatching his own spirits to get a better feel for what was going on. He could sense the distant buzz of larger groups of undead though his spirits. Surprisingly there were smaller groups spread around inside the departures area, agitated but still spread out.

  He reasoned they were trying to find ways to get back to the area where they had been killing their kin. David paused again, the nagging lack of death cries when he hadn’t been personally involved still making little sense.

  Then the scout next to him interrupted his musing.

  “We good? Is your Spidey sense showing any problems?”

  “No, no problems, there is…”

  Before he could even finish his thought, the guy turned and yelled “ALL CLEAR! Let’s go and bag some zombies and save some people!”

  There was a ragged cheer from behind him and despite the scouts having made basically no progress into the area the main fighting groups began to advance.

  Charlie looked at him funny, Carl actually commented.

  “Good call, given the lack of resistance we kinda need to push on, I’m not looking forward to when folks have time to stop and think about what they have been doing, I reckon some might fall to bits.”

  Billy just looked at him silently, then shrugged.

  “Bessie doesn’t like what’s ahead. It smells of death, well more decay than the zombies do.”

  David nodded and followed the stream of fighters into the departure areas.

  The advance this time found horror.

  There was clear, and expected evidence of the brutal smashing of mutant’s cocoons and even signs of fights between zombies and the odd newly hatched mutant.

  Damage, broken bodies and signs of decay that made him think this wasn’t recent.

  Charlie found him soon afterwards looking sick.

  “Dude, I think we might be in a high mana area or something. I don’t know if you check these things but my magic is regening faster. Also, I think you need to see this.”

  Charlie led him to a group of people standing around in the duty-free area beyond security. Several were holding bottles and looking sick. When he arrived, he saw why.

  Everyone had become accustomed to three patterns.

  First, the broken dark oozing of fallen zombies. Relatively bloodless, with disgusting fluids oozing out but no circulation expelling blood.

  Second, dead people and survivors. Looking like they had fallen where they were standing, they often needed close inspection to tell one from the other.

  Finally, the signs of the zombies rage against mutants that had yet to emerge. There was a LOT more fluid and disgusting mess but paired with the strange vegetal silage smell that while strong and unpleasant was the foulness of the farmyard not the slaughterhouse.

  This was different. There was blood. So much blood. Dry now and reduced to a faded reddish brown. There was also the stench of decaying meat and opened bowels.

  In the center of the horrific tableau were three bodies, or what was left of them. They had died hard and David couldn’t help but categorize what he saw even as he choked back vomit.

  A hand extended still clutching the jagged broken end of a vodka bottle. Half the head was missing, probably accounted for in the hideous smatter of material and horrible bloody footprints leading away.

  The smell was indescribable, worse as he categorized injuries that spoke of a mob. One that cornered three ordinary people and beat them until they were ruptured and broken. One that trampled through the spilled blood, piss and shit then moved away leaving tracks.

  Then the sharp smell of sick hit his nostrils as someone lost it. Moments later another followed and the churning bile David was feeling was coming up, he couldn’t stop it.

  He shuddered wishing he could turn his brain off.

  These had been survivors. Awake. All the little pieces told him they had been fleeing and made their stand when they were cornered here. Improvised weapons. No bags. The woman’s foot clad only in pantyhose, high heels presumably discarded earlier in her flight.

  There was no doubt now as he looked up, seeing his rage and nausea reflected in every face around him.

  “Everyone needs to see this. THIS is why we are putting down zombies. Not one more person. Not even one. These fuckers get nothing…”

  Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

  He didn’t gnow where the words came from but he believed them and if the force of collective rage had any say this would be the end of it.

  Of course it wasn’t. They found the same tragedy played out here and there in the departure lounges. David felt a certain horrible logic. More magic, faster awakening, surrounded by zombies. Discarded and abandoned luggage, the sort of rolling cases everyone had these days for travelling for work scattered around. No survivors. None.

  They even started carrying perfume taken from the concessions to spray around the dead to mask the stench.

  Still, something nagged at David. He couldn’t put his finger on it by the time the leadership group met up.

  Mark got the discussion going.

  “We still need to sweep a few distant gates, see if we can get into the planes that are hooked up, then get into the secure Arrivals area. I’m worried that we aren’t finding survivors, my support teams are beside themselves after what we found and won’t risk abandoning people.”

  Charlie picked up.

  “Dude, I get it. I’m not sure we will find them. I don’t know why but this is a high mana area and I think anyone who was going to wake up, did…”

  He left hanging what the horrific result of that was.

  “Madre de Dios. Do we move on, push for the next terminal? We saved people outside! In here not so much.”

  Mark cut her off. “NO.” then softer. “Sorry, this is fucked up but my people won’t do it. I know it’s fucked up but they want to find someone, anyone hiding in a toilet or locked in a broom closet or something. I know it’s irrational…”

  They all looked at each other. They all felt it too. Something had to make sense of this.

  David spoke slowly. “Something is bothering me about all of this.”

  As everyone looked at him with a mix of confusion and empathy he continued hastily.

  “No, not like that. Though of course it is bothering me. I mean there is something we are missing. The pieces just don’t fit together.”

  Then he took a deep breath and spoke again.

  “Look, we need to lead these people, sometimes that means ordering them to do what is needed not what they want. Sometimes it means not giving an order you know won’t be obeyed...”

  He could see Camila getting ready to argue so he pushed on quickly.

  “Let’s see if we can get both things done. We think it’s high mana levels accelerating the timeline which means it’s ALL going to turn into this… Still, there is something that doesn’t add up. So, this is what I think we should do…”

  That was how David found himself and Billy heading on foot towards the next terminal along the raised access road, one of the radio’s liberated from the fulfillment center was on his belt.

  They only had three of the things; having lost most of them to Phil and his council.

  Who would have thought that a couple of dozen radio’s that seemed like overkill yesterday would prove to be so inadequate.

  Mark had been using it to coordinate the support group and with the other scouts accompanying Carl and hitting the arrivals area and customs hall while Mark and his team scoured the secured areas for survivor’s radios were in short supply.

  Their first stop was with the support group members still with the convoy. One radio needed to remain there, but they now needed to ferry the other one up to Mark with the fighters to stay in touch.

  After confirming the small group watching the trucks had seen little sign of activity, and due to the crashed cars on the approach didn’t plan to drive up to the terminal, the two continued on foot.

  David and Billy moved crouched low with Bessie moving about ten yards ahead of them. The two men were maintaining a steady trot to cover ground.

  Their plan to travel outside on the road, checking the route for the rescue vehicles with them to evacuate survivors had made sense, still it was a lesson in just how much radio communication they really needed.

  David was silently drawing up lists of all the stuff they needed, starting with a lot more radios. Come to think of it he suddenly understood why every single police officer had one, why every soldier did too. At least he thought they did. Frustrated his mind descended into a speculative loop and his expression darkened further. Of course, this wasn’t what was really bothering him. He was still chewing on the strange behavior the zombies had displayed…

  Billy finally broke the silence as they neared the second terminal.

  “Look, I know it might not be any of my business, but you seem kinda out of it. What’s going on?”

  David paused, realized that he hadn’t said a word since they left the convoy and shook himself before responding.

  “I thought I had this stuff figured out, you know? Zombies see people, they do this. They die they do that… Only the rules seem to have changed here. I don’t get it and if I’m honest it makes me a lot less confident of my plans.”

  “Is that why you stopped leading the teams and basically handed it all off to Camila and Carl?”

  “I didn’t…” then David realized that he had, in fact done exactly that. He had been in charge giving orders and after their discussion he had…

  “Dammit, I’m still thinking like an analyst not the person with the D.”

  Billy looked at him funny and asked, “with the what now?”

  David flushed, reminded that Billy was aggressively NOT part of the corporate world he had worked in.

  “My job was to advise people who made decisions, I was an analyst so I would figure out what was going on and then suggest courses of action to powerful people. We referred to decision makers as those with the D, they were in charge…”

  By this point they had crossed the space between terminals and were approaching the second massive building, this time with no crashed cars blocking the approach.

  David continued, organized now as talking with Billy made him organize his thoughts and feelings.

  “I kind of stumbled into being the one taking the decisions here. I feel that I see the problems better than most and when you guys started going with my plans I didn’t really notice I was in charge. That and the ‘council’ just rubbed me the wrong way, it was all the bullshit of the old world at a time when people couldn’t afford any of that…”

  Billy nodded along, listening patiently.

  “So I guess I ended up sort of being in charge but reverting to type. It’s why I put myself in charge of the scouting, gathering information, figuring out what to do.”

  “It’s familiar, it’s what you know.” Billy paused then spoke softly “So what do you really want to do? I’m not sure if you’re a leader…”

  “I don’t know, I figure we need a leader who understands what is happening and gets the urgent priorities. Plus, I really hate the idea of being told what to do by some pencil pusher or worse a washed-out cop with delusions of grandeur.”

  Billy nodded, then spoke softly “Well, if you want the choice let me give you two pieces of advice from someone who lost everything once already. First, you gotta let these things out or they will eat you alive. I know… Second, if you want to have freedom you need power, you need to lead.”

  David looked troubled. “I get the letting things out, but if I do why would anyone follow me? I don’t have the answer, hell last week my biggest worry was a toss up between making ends meet each month and avoiding becoming a hermit because it’s so much easier to make ends meet that way…”

  Billy nodded along before responding “It isn’t simple, heck, if you ask me I don’t have any answers for you… I’m just a man with a dog.”

  Then he continued.

  “Look, people see you’re smart and have stuff figured out. That gives you power. Plus, I don’t know but I feel that in this world anyone who can do what you can with you know…” Billy vaguely waved his hand in the air looking slightly troubled “…magic. Well, I reckon you will be a power in the new world even if you weren’t in the old. I don’t envy you, people will want what you have and they will want to use you. Take it from someone who lived at the bottom of the pile, you need to be hard enough to hold power or you will be used up and discarded.”

  David sensed there was history there, but as they approached the open area of the curbside drop-off for the terminal the time to speak had come to an end.

  “Thanks, I appreciate you listening to me. Happy to return the favor whenever you need…”

  Billy nodded then spoke softly. “Now that’s why I follow you… It’s what you do. So keep it up son and I’ll have your back.”

  Before moving out into the open area They paused, Bessie in front of them as they looked at what awaited the team in the second terminal.