Resident Evil: Dead Awakening

“I’m sorry; I just can’t risk the infection spreading any more than it already has.” The cold stare I gave her as the words left my mouth was close to the look of death; I could feel my hands grasp the tray slightly tighter preparing for the moment she would change. It wouldn’t be long now; the people tucked away in the corner were wordless. Stunned, I stood calmly allowing myself time to prepare for what was about to happen.
The plane was struggling to fly in a straight line, which began to distract my attention away from the desperate mother grasping at her throat. I could feel my feet collapsing beneath me, my hands losing grasp of the tray, I finally clung to the closest object I could find that would keep me on my feet for a few moments longer.
Once the plane finally chose a path that was reasonably straight I took my chance to turn and check on the mother, only to find her on the floor. Her hand wasn’t grasped at her throat any longer, I watched intensely as she stumbled slowly towards her lifeless child. From the look in her eyes they were clouding over with a new soul, new needs, and new desires.
I wanted to reach out to her and gaze into the eyes where death was creeping in, but every inch of me was too stunned. I had to find a weapon or the chance of these people surviving was minimal, our gas masks would protect us for now but that wouldn’t be enough to stop the bite off of her.
“You help me find anything that could cause some reasonable damage,” I pointed towards the young boy who seemed shaken but mentally prepared enough for what I was asking of him.
As he rose from his spot his eyes began to flicker around the large empty space around us, our eyes searching for any kind of weapon, anything sharp. Who’d ever heard of a plane without medical kit?
“Can you see anything yet?” my voice sounded frosty in my throat, I could sense the boy pausing for a moment his body never turning in my direction.
“No, Ma’am. I think the hostess’s took everything from us,” his voice wasn’t what I expected when he started talking the sound was braver than the person carrying it.
“All right,” I took a moment to glance at the woman; she wasn’t cradling her child any more. She’d moved herself away, right beneath my nose. I refused to lose eye contact with this woman any more, her eyes were frosted over completely, and even her skin seemed deathly grey.
She’s positioned herself in an up-right position against a seat which was right beside her child, the closer I inspected her the more I began to notice how her breathing was slowing, almost to a complete stop.
“Boy, stay here and keep an eye on her. Don’t let her get anywhere near you lot, I don’t want any of you dying on me as well,” I took my chance and began a light run for the floor above, hoping that they may something stashed up there instead. As I climbed each step it began to sink it, this plane was going to crash, and the chance of these people surviving is very minimal. That wasn’t my problem though; I could only worry about Ava and her safety. Who knows if the bomb has gone off in the UK already, I can only pray that it hasn’t.
I finally reached the top step only to feel the wind being sucked from the room, it was gushing out through the open door that wasn’t far from where I was standing. The hostess who had tended me stood patiently there, checking the straps on her parachute.
She turned her head slightly to catch my eye-contact, and in that same moment she smiled and threw herself out of the door. For a second I could feel my muscles pulling towards the door, begging to jump out after her, but no. Those people downstairs needed my help, and I had to find out what the situation was in the cockpit.
I glanced around finding nothing deadly apart from a fire extinguisher, I grabbed it as quickly as I could and forced myself down the stairs quicker than I cared to go, once I reached the bottom I glanced towards the spot where the woman had been. She wasn’t there.
I turned my head to where the survivors were sat beforehand only to see an empty spot lie before me, I began to notice the spots of splashes of blood that was soaking the surrounding area. Had she got to them? Was this their blood or hers?

“Hey, can anyone hear me?” with the extinguisher grasped tightly in my hands I began slowly walking down the walk way between the rows and rows of chairs, I wouldn’t hear anything, not a scream, or a murmur. She must have got to them. I managed to reach the toilets to find both doors locked, did they lock the mother in here or themselves for safety?
I took a risk and knocked on the door, hoping for some kind of people, just enough to show me that they were alive.
“Hello, is anyone in there? It’s Kayla.” I didn’t hear anything, not a muffled sound of breathing or anything.
“Hey, look its safe. I have a weapon okay?” nothing.
I checked my surroundings only to see a flitter of light from a blown bulb, nothing remotely dangerous looking was anywhere in sight.
“I’m heading for the cockpit, come and find me when it’s safe.” I began the slow walk up to the cockpit, constantly checking behind me and each side, as I walked past each row of seats I expected something, anything to jump at me. For the moment there was nothing. I had reached the second floor quicker than I expected and I began the walk away from the open door, the breeze was bitter and biting at my skin, the sky was dark and starry eyed.
“No turning back now,” I saw the door and began the quiet approach, I felt nerved. This wasn’t right, people never made it to their destination in one piece in this kind of situation.
I opened the door quickly with nothing throwing itself at me, apart from the bodies laid across the floor their heads shattered from a gunshot showed there wasn’t any chance of them making a second appearance in a new life.
“Looks like the survivors were the lucky ones,” hearing the sound of my own voice reminded me that I was still somewhat sane.

“Ada, Ada can you hear me?” I kept my finger on the button of my headset waiting for a reply.
“Kayla, you’re okay? Have you landed in the UK yet?” I sighed knowing she wasn’t going to like my response.
“Ada, I’m fine. Look I don’t have time for chit-chat. I need you to tell me how to fly a plane, the flight to the UK was sabotaged like you warned me, and a couple survivors have been bitten. They tried using the gas on us,” I allowed a brief pause to let this information sink in, hoping Ada wouldn’t lose her trail of thought and would be able to help me in this situation.
“Don’t you worry, we’ll get this plane landed, and I can’t promise it’ll be a smooth journey, are you ready for this?” I felt a smirk twitch at the sides of my lips. The taste of normality was bliss.
“Yeah, now what am I doing?” I grasped the main steering wheel, feeling the pull from the impossibly quick decent we were making.
“I need you to listen carefully, Kayla you only have one chance to get this right.” Feeling myself swallow gave me a brief chance for preparation.
“I need you to check the radar and then check how far you are from Heathrow, you shouldn’t be far now, hopefully.” Taking a brief look at the dial which seemed correct I found the distance and allowed myself a deep sigh of relief. We weren’t far, there was only a short while to go and we’d be touching ground.
“We aren’t far, actually we’re getting a little close for comfort,” I could imagine Ada stood their planning the route out in her head, preparing to give me my next orders.
“All right, I want you to lift the plane up. Even her out, you don’t want to go crashing face first in the runway, you won’t survive that.” A lump began to form quickly in my throat reminding me that this could be a 50/50 chance of me surviving.
“You’ll notice the beeping will slightly slow down the more you level out, you still need to go down just not quite so face first, do you understand?” I could feel myself forcing the plane to lift, the strength of the decent began to pull harshly on my muscles, and each second that passed was another second close to us crashing face first in the earth.
“Ada, I don’t think it’s working… Nothing’s happening.” A sharp breath escaped her mouth catching my attention momentarily.
“Pull harder Kayla, this is not how you’re going to die. Do you understand me?” I could feel myself nodding, I gave it everything I could and began the harsh pull on the steering lifting it towards me and finally I began to feel the plane raise its head. It was finally levelling out.

* * * *

I felt the ground with my fingers reaching for anything that could be used as some sort of support, the only thing my fingers picked up was rubble and dirt. I finally allowed myself to open my eyes only to see blurred images of flames flickering in the distance; I sat up and touched my head only to feel a warm sticky residue on my forehead.
Blood, the smell soon hit me. I could barely see let alone try and remember what happened whilst on the plane. As my eyes began to focus finally, I took a chance to look around. My hand still held lightly to my head, I caught a glimpse of a few bodies that were scattered around me. One body was all too familiar; the child who I’d killed only moments ago was practically in pieces.
The girls head, neck and torso was separated from the remains of her body, the veins and shattered bones were peeping through the torn flesh. I could feel the vomit forcing its way up my throat due to the smell that was smothering my nostrils. The girl’s eyes were glassed over and the vague tint of blue was present in her eyes.
Then my eyes wondered down the pool of blood that had formed at the base of her torso, finally the vomit escaped my mouth leaving a foul taste on its way out. The urges that came with it left my tired and sore, I finally summoned enough energy to stand up and begin the somewhat unsteady walk to the motorway, and thankfully the walk was all too familiar to me as I’d driven this same journey repeatedly whilst travelling with Ava.
Each step I took felt like agony as the pain struck up through my joints, the pain was striking and for a second the pain deepened in my side, as I placed my hand over my side to apply pressure I could feel the warmth of blood as I checked the wound I found myself aching in pain. I had to get to Ava, she had to be okay.
“Are you okay? I can hear you breathing on your microphone, you have to be okay Kayla,” the urgency that was present in Ada’s voice was a pleasant shock to my system, a warm feeling that I welcomed immediately.
“I’m fine, I’ve got some injuries but everything is okay. I’m on the A5 at the moment, heading for the Carlton Hotel, shouldn’t take me very long, hopefully.” I continued my journey keeping a keen eye on the cars that were stood empty, engines were running and the tremors were becoming a familiar sound. As did the distant sounds of moans, I couldn’t tell if it was an injured person or a zombie but either way I wasn’t in any hurry to check.
“That’s good; after you crashed you weren’t responding to me at all. I thought…” the silence told a thousand stories and words that Ada would never mention to me. Though a dear friend, her words were limited when it came to any form of love and affection.
“Don’t worry, I’m a little more tougher than you seem to remember.” The smirk emerged on my face and then I felt the surge of reassurance as I knew she would be listening over me every step of the way, somewhat like a guardian angel.
“Do you have any news on what’s been happening in London?” changing the subject seemed to be the best way to go, especially when it came to Ada.
“Not really, only that the rocket exploded leaving a trial of disaster behind. The town went to hell shortly before you crashed.” I could hear the weakness in her voice as she spoke, this was unlike Ada, and she usually never showed any sign of weakness.
“Right, then why aren’t there any infected blocking my paths and threatening to kill me? Ada, the streets are bare, there isn’t anyone in sight. Unless they’re all hiding, where are they and what do I do?” I finally managed to grasp hold of a weapon as I continued the tiring journey searching for Ava, the baseball bat that was held tightly in my hands seemed heavier than I cared to think of.
“I’m not sure, from what I can see from the thermal imaging, they’ve moved on. Something is leading them north. I haven’t seen something quite like,” her words weren’t the reassurance I was after but it would have to do.
“Well it isn’t horrific news, it could be worse. I’ll keep you informed, make sure you do the same,” with my last words I continued onwards ignoring the pain that threatened to slow me down. I pushed on through the pain only praying it would ease up due to the adrenaline that was pounding through my veins.

* * * *

How long I’d been walking had become a mystery the only thing my mind was set on was reaching the Carlton Hotel which was a turn-off on the A5 motorway, my fingers continued to grasp hold of the wooden baseball bat, my knuckles turning white from the tension and grip I held. The humming noise of engines were nothing but my surroundings until I approached one car that had a woman crouched over in, she’d been turned her snarls were clear even from this distance, as I neared it became clear to me she wasn’t alone.