Death is only the Beginning (EDITING)

Chapter XIX

"Mike look" said Rebecca as she tugged on his sleeve to get his attention.

"What?" asked Mike as he turned to Rebecca and saw dozens of infected limping towards them while emitting a gurgling moan. From a hole in the plane, heavily decomposed soldiers began falling ten feet and hitting the ground hard, just a few feet away from where Mike and Rebecca were standing. As the two ran Mike spotted the metal door Simmons mentioned and tried open it. He cursed as he found it to be locked and while Rebecca fired at the approaching infected while Mike emptied his thirty round magazine into the lock, destroying it. It broke after round 16 destroyed the mechanism and rendered the lock useless. He then kicked the door open which swung with an eerie squeak as it hit the wall. After he and Rebecca ran inside, Mike slammed the door shut but since he destroyed the lock the door won't stay closed.

As he pressed his weight against the door he yelled "Rebecca...ugh!"

"Ye..yeah" stuttered Rebecca as fear began compelling her body.

"I need..you to...jam your...ugh..rifle against...the door knob" yelled Mike as he struggled from keeping the door from opening.

"I..I don't know..I don't know how to!"

"Ugh...hold the door" yelled Mike. Rebecca nodded and switched places with Mike. In the two seconds Mike had till the door would burst open, he jammed the rifle against the door knob with the butt against the knob and the barrel against the concrete floor. The door stopped nudging and heavy pounding could be heard. Rebecca was breathing heavily, her hands began to sweat, and the knot of fear in her chest began shrinking.

"This won't hold long. We have to keep moving" said Mike after reloading.

"What about Stacy?"

"I don't know. First we have to get out of here. Hopefully she's alright and got out of there in one piece" said Mike as he stuck a stick of C4 against the wall, stuck a wire to the opposite side, and connected it with the explosive.

"What are you doing?" asked Rebecca curiously.

"Buying us some needed time lets go" said Mike before he grabbed Rebecca's hand and ran up the long flight of concrete stairs spiraling up floor after floor.

"Where are we?" asked Rebecca as the stairs went on for three more stories.

"The air traffic control tower" answered Mike as the stairs ended in a large on the top of the tower with a fantastic view of the airfield. Among the dozens of desks that cover the room, there were dozens of computers and radar monitors.

Several infected men, still wearing the headphones need for their former job, were wandering aimlessly by an infected man wearing the clothes of a military officer with the rank of Colonel. A man, at the far side of the room, lied on the floor with his chest torn open and a his brains splattered against the window. He still carried the empty M1911 used to take his life. His name tag stuck to the black riot gear armor read 'Egbert'.

"Alright Rebecca, you try to contact Stacy while I get what we intentionally came here for" said Mike as he took down the four infected with precise head shots at the cost of five bullets.
Rebecca nodded and, as she got out her radio, began shouting Stacy's name hoping to get an answer. Sadly she didn't get an answer. He approached the dead Egbert. "I hope you have what I've been looking for" he said as he began searching dead soldier. Like the information found in Boston, he found a 64 GB flash drive labeled 'CDC'. Mike smiled but then spotted the dead man and his smile vanished.

"Anything?" asked Mike as he approached.

She shook her head, her eyes expressing sadness, and said "No. Just static. I hope she's alright"

"I hope so too. But I did find what I was looking for" said Mike, showing Rebecca the flash drive. Just then a loud explosion could be heard, shaking the tower a bit, followed by heavy moaning blowing into Mike and Rebecca's ears. Mike cursed and tossed a chair into the large window, only cracking it. He cursed again and fired off a few rounds into the glass, shattering it. He then got out a five hundred foot long nylon rope, and tied it against one of the screwed on desks. Then he tossed it down. After helping Rebecca up on that desk she watched in horror as dozens of infected swarmed into the room and running towards here. She was going to ask what they were going to do but before she could ask she screamed as she and Mike plummeted 430 feet into the airfield.

They came to a sudden halt and she only realized now that Mike his holding on to a nylon rope hanging from the top of the tower. She saw that the rope has dug deep into his leather glove and blood dripped from his hand. As they touched the ground a massive wave of adrenaline washed over Rebecca forcing her to hurl it out of her body.

"Are you alright?" asked Mike after he wrapped his wounded hand with a bandage received from his pack.

"Don't ever do that again ever!" said Rebecca angrily after coughing out the last of the adrenaline in her body.

"Rebecca? Mike? Are you there?" said Stacy through the radio.

All anger was forgotten as Mike got out his radio and said "Yeah we can hear you. Are you alright? Are you injured?"

"I..I'm fine. I had run from those zombies. There were so many"

"Where are you right now?"

"I'm um..I'm in the kitchen off the Steaking Grill at Gate B but hurry. I was able to lock the door but they are trying to get in"

"Stay put Stacy we are on our way" said Mike before he put away the radio.

"How are we going to get to Gate B?" asked Rebecca, unease and fear building up inside her.

"We'll have to climb through that plane" said Mike as he pointed at the smoking C-130 that separated them. The back hatch has been broken off and the plane tilted up and to the right forming a bridge to where they got separated. After Mike took down the infected they climbed through the cargo hold. The smell of burnt flesh filled the air and burnt stains where clearly there was fire covered the ground. As they climbed through the hole and Mike helped Rebecca down they spotted hundreds of infected wandering the opposite direction.

Unaware of their presence, Mike got out a hand grenade and tossed it to an empty row of chairs. After it went of the infected began wandering towards the settling smoke. Mike and Rebecca used that chance and ran towards Gate B, dodging snarling infected and getting chased by hungry ghouls in the process.