Part 1
Night settled over the Chep Lap Kok departures area in terminal two. Many of those with flights going out in the morning stretched their legs out over the length of the metal benches and prepared to hunker down for a bit of restless sleep. Others waited in line to buy a last snack at the 7/11 before they would return to their luggage and assume the same positions as their compatriot flyers.
Sandra Carlos was one of the people waiting for her flight out in the morning. She had finished working as a domestic helper like many other Filipinos in Hong Kong this was the first time she was going to see her family after being in Hong Kong for four years. She had all the trappings of a Filipino living abroad. Designer handbag, a new pair of running shoes, a touch screen smart phone and lastly she had her brand new laptop that she had bought to keep in touch with relatives back in the Philippines. Cold from the frigid air conditioning, Sandra sat in relative comfort locking her knees together to form a sturdy base for her laptop. By her side was a bottle of orange juice, which she sipped on while her computer, hooked up to the free airport Wi-Fi, loaded up her instant messenger so that she could start her scheduled conversation with her husband and daughter back in the Philippines. After a few minutes the computer loaded up the screen and the happy smiling face of her husband greeted her.
“Hi dear,” he said cheerfully while waving for the webcam.
“Oh it’s been so long since I got to talk to the both of you,” she said almost choking up on tears of joy.
“So how has work been? I hope your client hasn’t been working you too hard.
“No he’s been fine. They have such a wonderful family and the kids are adorable. They’re so obedient.”
Her husband smiled more out of relief rather than out of approval. He had heard lately on the news of reports of domestic helpers being abused by their clients and some of them even being forced to have sex.
“Thank God that you got one of the good families,” he said, “When does your flight leave?”
“It the first flight leaving tomorrow morning sweetie.” The idea of going home made her heart leap out of her chest. She could finally provide for her family for a while and do all the things that she had been planning on doing with her husband and daughter. It was going to be a special treat because they were going to take their daughter to Star City, an amusement park in Manila. She just couldn’t wait to be back in the Philippines. Back at home with the people she loved.
“Is asleep already?” Sandra asked her husband hoping, just a little bit that her daughter hadn’t already nodded off.
“No, no she’s in the living room watching television.” For a few moments her husband went off screen.
“Regina, Regina. Mama wants to speak to you,” her husband called, his voice slightly distorting because of the connection. After a few seconds the husband returned to the computer.
“She’ll be up in a minute, dear.”
They were about to start talking once again when Regina appeared in the doorway. She looked to be in some kind of distress, wiping her tears away with one hand. Regina rigidly held up her other hand begging for her father to walk over and take a look at it. Naturally his fatherly instincts caused him to move quickly over to where his daughter was. He hunched over Regina, craning his neck to get a look at the wound from all sides. A look of shock and fright washed over Sandra’s husband as he held the wound in his own hands.
“Hun, what is it? Is Regina hurt?”
“Looks like it.” Sandra’s husband turned over to Regina, “Where did you get this bite? Did you get too close to the neighbour’s dog again?”
She shook her head, “I went to get my shoes from outside because I didn’t want them to get dusty. Then, Mr. Lacson was running down the street and tumbled into me, then he bit me.”
Regina did her best to hold back her tears but then let out a long wail of pain again. Her arm looked like it had been bitten pretty badly with the swelling being visible from the computer. However, there was another side effect off it. Even from the computer she could see it as clear as day. Regina’s was deathly pale and she walked in the room slowly with an unflinching stare. Both her parents were at a loss for something to say and both just stood there staring right back at her.
“Regina,” said her mom hesitantly through the microphone, “It’s mama do you remember me?”
The six-year-old girl stared back at her in silence but still slowly walking towards the camera and to where Sandra’s husband was sitting once again. In a sudden instant the girl started to shake violently as her hands splayed out into claws.
“Regina,” exclaimed her father as he rushed over to his daughter. Sandra couldn’t believe what she was seeing and she began to sob. Her child had just had what looked to have been bitten by one of her neighbours and she was looked so deathly pale. Maybe it was the camera playing tricks on her or the resolution being too low on Skype, Sandra thought. Sandra’s husband scooped up Regina in his arms trying to calm her because she was now screaming with tears running down her cheeks. After a few seconds the screaming stopped. Both of her parents were now fully gripped in fear and panic both of then on tenterhooks as to what would happen next. And what happened next shocked both of them, right to the core. Regina suddenly opened our mouth revealing all her pearly whites for the camera before she plunged her mouth into her fathers shoulder. Her head violently shook almost like a meat-scavenging animal. She flailed from side to side sinking her teeth deeper and deeper into her father’s shoulder. Instantly blood started to drip down her father’s white t-shirt, first starting out as small droplets but now running pooling at the sleeve before running down the rest of her shirt.
“Sweetie,” Sandra screamed, waking up most of the other passengers waiting for their flights.
“Lady can you keep it down I’m trying to get some rest here,” one passenger groaned.
“It’s my daughter,” Sandra screamed again, “She just bit my husband.”
“Bullshit, what are you talking about? You must have one terrible daughter,” the passenger spat back.
“No it’s true,” another disturbed passenger said, looking over Sandra’s shoulder in horror, “She’s got a firm grip on the guy that's for sure.”
Soon there was a tight huddle of people looking on at the sickening footage. A six-year-old girl had sunk her teeth into her own father and was now ravenously trying to tear off a piece of his flesh. Regina found the shoulder to be too futile and now decided to try for the neck.
Again she barred her jaws wide and then plunged her teeth into her father. Then she started to writher from side to side once again. A husky scream came from her husband whose windpipe was slowly being crushed. He tossed about trying to get his daughter to let go but in doing so overbalanced and hit the bare concrete of their bedroom floor. His head had connected the floor with sickening crunch and a pool of deep crimson blood started to radiate outward from his skull.
Sandra screamed at the top of her lungs, feeling the whole spectrum of emotions from fear and horror to sadness and grief. Those around Sandra started to comfort her but she pushed them away, once again letting out a primal scream that resonated through the concrete and steel of the airport departure terminal. She then began to breath heavily, trying to pull herself together but to no avail.
That was when the notifications started to pop up on her Internet browser.
Darren Legaspi posted: The end is nigh repent and forgive your fellow man
Laura Geronimo posted: The dead won’t stay dead and we are their food.
Jay Rosario posted: My girlfriend just tried to bite me. How fucked is that?
There were more posts where they came from. People all tweeting, posting and commenting about their first brush with diseased flesh eating people. Some of the messages coming through were teenagers eager to ‘kick some zombie ass’. Others were calls for unrepentant sinners to rejoin their religious brethren to repent and go to a better place. Then the final nail came in the coffin came through when another passenger waiting for their plane checked the news on his smartphone. The frightened man held his phone up high, each of the individual fingers in his hand trembling with horror and panic. The once huddled mass moved from Sandra’s computer screen over to the man to get a better look at what he was holding up. Sandra managed to pull herself together as well and moved over to get a better look. The headline of the article read:
‘The Undead are here and they are feasting on the living’.