Date: Sun, 16 Oct 2011 22:20:29 -0500 From: John Ashton Subject: Outbreak New York Ch 1 The alarm clock buzzed its typical buzz. Annoying. Like the one mosquito that gets in your room in the middle of a summer night. The only way to get it to stop is to smack it, which is exactly what Lucas did. He sat up in bed and stretched out his arms. It was really 6AM already? He pulled the covers off of himself and stood up. Lucas was well built. Six feet from head to toe. His build reflected the hard work that his job as a luggage handler put him through on a daily basis. Not overly muscular, but a slight definition to him. His boxers were slightly askew and hanging just at his hips. His chest was hairless. He walked into the bathroom to start the shower when a moaning caught his attention. Slightly startled he continued into the bathroom. "Do you have to wake up so god damn early every day? Shit!" A voice called from the other side of the bed. "If you want to have food this week, yes." Lucas yelled over the running water. "Well keep it down!" the man yelled sleepily. "Ethan, No more complaining from you" Lucas shouted loud enough to be obnoxious. Ethan rolled over in bed to see his boyfriend turned away from him removing his boxers. As he climbed into the shower Lucas tightened his butt cheeks and closed the door of the shower behind him. Ethan lay there half asleep. He was only a couple years older than Lucas, 25. He had a slight 5 o'clock shaddow on his squared face. He stood about 6'2" and was a bit heavier of a build. Lucas took a little longer than forever to shower in the mornings. Ethan was usually able to cope with this as he liked to sleep in a bit longer than Lucas. When Lucas was out of the shower Ethan was dressed and about to head out the door. He carried a briefcase with him, but most people did not believe him to be a business man. "Pick up, or drop off?" Lucas said, eyeing the briefcase. "Both.." Ethan said. "It is only weed, and a little coke. I will be careful." "That is why you have two guns in your waist?" Lucas said, "You know I don't care, but why lie to me?" "I know, you always catch me. Luckily no one else does." Ethan said leaning in to kiss his towel clad boyfriend. Lucas looked at the clock and panicked. He had 5 minutes before he had to be out the door. He hurried over to his dresser and slipped on the first clothes he could see. Luckily his work vest was hanging up, and not lost in the mess of his closet. He slipped on his shoes and headed out the door. The drive to the Airport was uneventful. He found lucked out and was able to get the closest parking spot to the door for staff. "Lucas, you are so lazy" He thought to himself as he climbed out of his Jeep Wrangler. He hurried in the staff entrance. He had to wait and go through security like anyone else. Luckily he knew one of the TSA staff and they often helped him out if he was a bit behind. "Hey Mike, how is the collection today?" Lucas said to the TSA staffer, referring to the confiscated items of the day. "Not bad, not bad. Already got a couple goodies in the room. Some people don't think these days." Mike responded waving him through the metal detectors. "You are clean man, get to work." Lucas took off down the terminal to the exit on to the tar mat. Down the stairs he went and started his duties for the day. Chapter 1 Outbreak Lunch time came and Lucas decided to head inside to grab a bite to eat. That is when he heard it. Gun shots rang through the terminal. "RUN!" a lady screamed as she zoomed past him. "Stop or we will fire!" someone shouted. Obviously this did not help, because gun shots resumed. Lucas ducked into a staff only room. Panicked he locked the door behind him. He looked around at the small closet-like storage area he had locked himself in. He was the only one in here, and luckily. The room was barely large enough to hold him. He could hear the gunshots from the other side of the door. He could also tell that the gunshots were not effective, as screaming and footsteps overpowered the sound of the guns, until the shots stopped all together. Lucas sat on the floor wondering what was going on. All he could hear now was screaming and foot steps. They must have killed the security. More must be on their way though. They had to be. But there was no more gunfire. Only screaming. Lucas' curiosity got the best of him and he decided to take a look. He cracked the door just enough to peer out at the terminal. He could see a TSA staffer lying on the ground, face up, a few feet from him. He could see this man was severely injured. He was covered in blood and not moving. Suddenly another man knelt over the staffer and for a second Lucas thought he was about to help the man to safety. However, the second man instead took a large, and rather impressive, bite out of the staffer's right hand. "Holy FUCK!" Lucas screamed. The man who was enjoying his new found meal looked right at Lucas. His eyes were cloudy, but there was no denying that he had noticed Lucas. He stood up and lunged in one swift motion toward the door to the closet and grasped the door before Lucas could react. Lucas pulled on the handle, desperate to close the door, but the other man was stronger than he looked. Lucas, in a panic, grabbed the nearest object, a broom, and tried to bat the man away with the handle. It worked long enough to close the door, and lock it again. The only sounds that he could hear now were a quiet scream from a distance, and the sound of metal hitting bone, as a large metal object fell off of the shelf behind Lucas and struck his head. The blow, and the experience, were enough to cause Lucas to lose consciousness. When Lucas came too his head was throbbing, but the memories of what had happened were still clear. This did not mean that he had to believe what he remembered. He had just dreamed it. Could there really be cannibals in the terminal? He sat up and rubbed his head. He made a note to complain about the buckets being stored on a shelf when he saw a maintenance person. He stood up and looked at the door handle. It was still locked, and it struck him as funny that a closet would have a lock, and from the inside. He unlocked the door and pushed it open. Something was blocking the door. When he finally got it opened enough he pressed himself out of the closet. He looked down and jumped to the side. There was a bloodied man propped against the door. His clothes were that of a McDonalds employee and he was laying face forward against the door Lucas had just exited. Face forward, that is, if the man had a face left. It looked as if he had spent hours trying to eat the flat surface of the door. The door looked as if he was somewhat successful. All around Lucas bodies were lying on the floor in awkward positions. The TSA staffer was still on the floor next to where Lucas was standing. Lucas brought himself together enough to bend over the staffer. He was dead, and not moving. In fact, there was little left of him. His clothes were torn, but still recognizable. His body was not as whole. His work badge lay at Lucas' feet, and he picked it up. "MIKE!" Lucas said. He did not have time to react further because he heard scuffling down the terminal. Lucas did not wait to see what this was and took off at full speed toward the staff parking. The whole way there was littered with bodies which were mangled and half eaten. There was enough blood around to cause his stomach to turn, and Lucas could handle blood. The worst part was the smell. When Lucas reached the garage where the staff parked he was thankful he had parked in the first spot. He started up the jeep without hesitation and pulled out of the parking spot. He drove right through the bar that controls traffic out of the garage. The roads were packed with abandoned vehicles, and it made driving difficult. Lucas decided it was safer to stay in the jeep, though, and swerved carefully around the other vehicles. Every now and then he would see a dead body, but he kept driving. Up ahead were two bridges. He could see a major pileup leading off of the second. He slowed down as he approached the last bridge. To the right there was a rout off of the highway and he took this ramp. He had to get home to find Ethan. He had to be alright. As he pulled through the town he saw more dead bodies littering the road. In a few spots he had no choice but to drive over a few. His heart stopped every time he felt the bump of the car passing over the body of a person he may have passed in the store. The drive to his apartment took Lucas about a half an hour. All things considered this was good timing. In fact it may have been a record considering he did not stop for stop signs, or lights. Lucas ran up to the building and up the stairs to his apartment. The lights were on inside. "Ethan is home..." Lucas thought to himself. "Ethan?" he shouted. There was no answer. Lucas walked through to the kitchen and shouted again. "Ethan! If you are here say something!" There was a scratching noise on the wall behind him. It lead into the bedroom. "Ethan?" Lucas said as he opened the door to the bedroom. The door opened and Ethan was standing there with the same clouded look in his eyes. His flesh was no longer the pale color Lucas was used to. It had taken on a blueish tint to it. Ethan had a pretty serious wound on his arm, where it looked as if someone had taken a bite out of him. Ethan lunged at Lucas from across the bed, but only fell face first onto it. He quickly started crawling across the covers and again fell onto the floor. Lucas closed the door and could feel the intense banging on the other side. It would not be long before Ethan broke through the flimsy wooden door. Lucas turned and ran down the hall way to the kitchen before the door gave way and Ethan was rolling over into the hall behind him. Lucas turned the corner and Ethan flew by him into the living room before he could turn to chase him into the kitchen. Lucas grabbed onto a chair to block Ethan's advance. Ethan seemed to not notice the chair and ran right at Lucas knocking him over with the chair between them. Lucas rolled over pushing Ethan to the side with the chair and stood up again. Lucas leaned to the counter where Ethan had apparently left his gun and grabbed it. Across the room Ethan stood up and looked to Lucas. He stood for a second breathing heavily and drooling down his face. "Ethan, Ethan, snap out of it. Please... snap out of it." Lucas said tears swelling in his eyes. Through his tears he saw Ethan lunge at him. He heard the bang and saw the blood fly from Ethan's head as he tumbled to the floor and Lucas' feet. Lucas couldn't move and fell to the floor as well. He looked over and saw Ethan lying a few feet from him and jumped up. Lucas ran to the bedroom and found Ethan's briefcase. He opened it up and saw 5 bags of weed which he knew were weighed to 5g each. He moved them aside and saw a bag full of a white powder he assumed was cocaine. Along side these were an envelope of money. He pulled it out and counted $2000. He put the gun on safety and put it in his waist band. There were 2 more clips in the closet that after a brief search he found and put into the briefcase. He closed the case and went to the kitchen again. He paused for a moment when he again saw Ethan's body lying in the middle of the room, but left the apartment and headed to his car. He started the car, and drove down the road. If you have questions, comments, suggestions, or anything else my email is johnashton07@gmail.com