We just gawked out the front wind screen of the car at the crowd, it had completely stopped us. There was at least a couple of thousand people there shouting and chanting.
Better health services
More rooms, more doctors
Cheaper health care
They were shouting other things as well, but that was all I could work out from the mob. Many people held signs that said relatively the same thing.
"Turn it around" ordered the driver of my car into the CB radio system mounted to the dashboard of the car.
"Roger that, taking the left turn just behind us"
"I'll be right behind, the next right after that should bring us parallel and take us to the embassy in the same way" my driver stated. "The civilians are to go to the closest recreation centre to our current location"
"Roger, I'll be heading off then" that must have been the driver of the bus. "Mr Busujima, my passengers would like to say thanks for helping them"
The driver held the radio to me and I took it, pulling the curly cord to its limit. Pressing the button in "Don't worry about it, I would not have been able to sleep if I had just left them there" I indicated, "it's the proper human thing to do, I wish you safe travels until you get home"
"They say thankyou, over and out" he said as the bus continued along straight as the rest of the convoy turned right.
Even though there was a protest, we were traveling along a road that travels parallel to where the crowds were. There was almost no one on the street here. Seems they are all walking down the same street. From what I could see, the protest wasn't as big as it first appeared.
"What is the current situation for the protest?" I asked, "It seems to be a lot smaller than what everywhere is saying"
"Well here is the main line of the protest, they had moved further than we had thought. That's why we had to change course unintentionally. But like where we picked you up, there are gang fights or just general street riots. For some reason it's slowly spreading throughout the city".
"That's pretty bad, does this happen a lot here? I don't remember seeing anything in the news about anything like this"
"First time I've every seen something like this, I mean sure protest can happen, but this is more like what you see happening in various places in Europe recently where protests have turned into fully fledged riots. Riot control is going to have to come into play soon, and it may not end pretty. There has already been some deaths reported in other places around the city, you can only hope it stops soon"
The car rounded the third corner since getting away from the protest, and we entered the on ramp for a motorway and from here it should be a nice easy trip to the embassy.
"Five more minutes sir"
Two hours later I was sitting at a table in a lunch room, talking to a few people who had come for some dinner. They are from the FBI here in America, even they didn't know much about the state of the city. I had seen the news earlier, and the protests and riots have begun in Los Angeles and Washington as well.
"Apparently similar stuff is occurring in various European countries as well" I suggested.
"Yeah, the protests have been about the same reason. Seemingly a massive amount of sick and not enough hospital or just ordinary health care options. And because of such increased illness as off recently, equipment, personnel and supplies are become more expensive" the guy sitting to the left said.
"Seems that some illness is going around, it has killed a lot of people now, apparently but no one knows what is causing it. Hell it could be a series of problems and we just haven't realised it yet. But it's estimated at 1000 people have died in the USA due to an unknown disease, and many more recently but most of those deaths have been put down to known diseases" the other agent added.
"To think that in the current world such medial problems exist, that is a lot of deaths, I really hope that we are seeing the end of this. Otherwise it is going to be classified as a plague eventually" I sighed. It is really depressing that so many deaths are occurring.
The two agents, stood up after looking at their watches "well we have to go off, back on duty soon" the first guy said. "Man night shift is horrible" the other added.
"Night shift in FBI? What are you doing?" I asked.
"Ah it is just some admin stuff, paper work, boring as all hell, but someone has got to do it I guess"
"Well I hope you two have fun"
"We will try, we will try"
I was left to ponder to myself, the embassy was rather quiet at this time of night. It was surprising to see it so desolate. I guess with all the rioting going on, people are out and about checking up and securing other important figures.
With nothing to do I pulled out my tablet and did some googling on the situation currently sweeping across America. What appeared amazed me.
"More than half of the west coast of America in riots"
"Cities in flames"
"East Coast to burn shortly"
Those were some rather disturbing headlines, I wonder what it was the driver said about Europe, I pondered. I believe he had said that there were riots there as well.
A quick Google search confirmed my suspicion, seems it has been going on longer in Europe and the situation is significantly worse.
"Thousands dying everyday"
That headline caught my attention, opening the article it described the fact that internationally a disease that is currently still unknown is sweeping through Europe.
"It is claiming the lives of thousands daily and no one has found a cure or any way to prevent or slow down its rate of infection.
Currently the major know symptoms are: Hypersensitivity in the hearing, reduced sight ability, higher than usual aggressive behaviour, extreme hunger, muscle degradation, loss of balance and coordination.
These symptoms vary per person and there are other symptoms not mentioned here as doctors are unsure if they are caused by this virus."
Wow this sounds quite bad
, I thought to myself. To think in today's advanced era that such a disease could wreck so much havoc to our society, not to mention kill so many.
It seems nation leaders and medical experts are travelling to Australia to discuss methods to combat the spreading epidemic. I was still reading through the articles. Australia is one of few countries the disease hasn't gained a large foot hold in yet.
Wow, was my only thought when I realised that the first reports of an epidemic appeared only two days ago. No wonder I haven't heard of it until today.
"Mr Busujima would you please come with me" said a deep coarse American voice, which caused me to jump. The man had pretty much snuck up behind me, I must have been too deep in thought about the situation to notice his presence. This fact does not make my lifetime of training look good at all.
"Yes, just give me a minute, what is the problem" I asked as I started to pack up my tablet.
"The riots are getting worse, also it seems that people are starting to get very violent. This is causing a major panic in the general populace" the agent continued. "This panic is causing many people to start leaving the cities for the country, as a result the reads are starting to clog, and many are trying to get earlier flights out of the country"
"So my flight has been moved forward?" I inquired.
"Precisely"
Fifteen minutes later I was in the back seat of another armoured SUV, its lights and sirens blaring. We were speeding through traffic like no tomorrow, the pace the driver had set would make you think he was doing a race across a city or country, like what you would see in the TV show Top Gear.
"Five minutes and we should be arriving sir" the agent from before said from the front passenger seat. It was the only thing that had been said in the trip so far, we had just sat in silence, listening to the roaring engine as it was flogged with a lead foot.
The five minutes pasted quite quickly, pulling up at the entrance to the main terminal at the international airport, I was shocked to see how many people were rushing in through the many large automatic glass doors. The agent opened the door for me, grabbing my carryon luggage I pulled myself out of the car. The rest of my luggage, which consisted of a large suitcase and a long plastic tube wrapped in a midnight blue silk.
Walking through the main doors, at a brisk pace, set by myself, we proceeded to check in.
"Sir, your plane is waiting for you, as this is a special request from the FBI we will allow you on the flight with your luggage, the flight is already delayed as it is" stated the attendant with a slightly dreary tone as she saw my ID. I guess the last few hours have been very tiring, the line behind me had grown exponentially since I had joined it. She let out a big sigh with a glance over my shoulder.
Hurrying off to gate one, as it said on my boarding pass, I wished a silent "You can do it" to the attendant. The agent flashed his badge and we were waived through the metal detection and x-ray machines. Luckily gate one was the closest gate and within moments we had made it there. Three attendants ran towards me.
"Are you Mr Busujima?" the one man asked.
"Yes"
"Thank god, we weren't sure how long we could hold the plane back for, it is nearly an hour overdue now" the attendant stated as he scanned my boarding pass, while the others started to move my luggage down the long tunnel to the plane.
Following suit I walked down the tunnel, the air-conditioning causing it to gradually get colder the closer I got to the plane, or was it the outside temperature seeping through the corrugated aluminium walls. As I stepped through the door, a chill passed down my spine. I got a bad feeling, like something was going to happen on this plane. Waving it off, saying to myself it was only the cold air, I followed the flight attendant to my seat.
I was put into business class, at first I wondered how whoever had arranged this earlier flight had obtained this seat, but a quick look around revealed of ten seats only two others were occupied. So my luggage was strapped down in the seat next to me, which was on the isle while I took the window spot.
18 hours later
The twenty three hour flight was wearing down on me, I still had about five hours until we reached the Perth international airport. I was never a good flier, in the sense that I just can't relax, despite that fact I was still able to get a few hours of sleep.
Half dozing off, the first scream almost went unnoticed. The second scream however had me at my feet, it was a sickening scream of terror from a woman. Looking through the curtain that separated business class from economy, I could see many people looking to the back of the plane, where many more screams were erupting.
A man came running forward, blood running down his arm, and collapsed a couple of meters in front of me, where I was still standing in the curtains. I looked like the man had been bitten on his shoulder, quite a bad bite as well, there was even flesh missing by what I could see through the torn shirt he was wearing.
Stepping forward and kneeling down, I examined the man, his breathing was erratic and he looked like he was in a good deal of pain. Ripping his shirt to make a small bandage from it, I proceeded to wrap up the injury on his arm.
Leaving the man on the ground, with someone who said they were a doctor, I walked towards the back of the plane.
The planes main cabin was split into three sections, the first and closest to the front is business class, the next two were both economy class. Each divide had toilets and a small area with first aid and other supplies. It was the third section where the man had come running, and the screams, which had still not stopped, were coming from.
Looking through the curtain separating the second and third compartments, all I could do was stare at the horror ensuing. People were crawling over each other, fighting, many were biting while others were trying to fight them off. It looked like a few people had gone insane and were laughing or just crying where they stood and sat.
Seems the main issue is that many can't seem to get out of their seat belts, while trying to protect themselves.
Taking a few steps back before turning to face the other passengers. I had deemed it impossible for myself to help the situation, there was just too many people on the attacking side. I'm surprised that no one had gone to look before me, but now many were standing up. There were much more people huddling against the chair in front of them or looking terrified. I guess most of the passengers thought the plane was going to crash or something.
"Ok, it seems as though something has caused some passengers to go crazy, so what we need to do is move away from this part of the plane" I announced, there were a few sighs of relief, but also many others became more worried. "I don't know if we can help the situation on the other side of the curtains, so the best thing to do is to stay away from them"
A few people were looking through the curtains, some vomited at the sight of the gore. The screaming had completely stopped now, which made it creepier. More people were getting up and moving away from the back of the plane.
I left the passengers there and headed back to see how the man who had been attack and escaped is going, it was about twenty rows of seats. When I got back to him I found a handkerchief over his face and the doctor shock his head at me.
"What's going back there?" the doctor asked, while packing up the first aid kit.
"I don't know, some form of madness is going on. Passengers in the last section are killing each other, pretty much a blood bath" I replied, rather quietly so those around us didn't hear the exact details. "They are biting each other".
"So that's how this guy got his wound" the doctor said while gesturing to the now motionless man at our feet.
"I'm going to try and talk to the pilots, to see if they can get us to go quicker, we will only be safe once we are out of this plan, or manage to stop the people going crazy. I believe the latter is going to be quite difficult" I stated, stepping over the body to head to the front of the plane. As I stepped over the man, he began to move, convulsing, jumping to miss hitting him as he sat up, I fell through the curtains into business class.
"Huh? I can swear your heart stopped". I could hear the doctor saying to the man, as I stood back up. "How are you feeling, you had a really bad fever and I thought you were dead"
"Garrgl"
"What was that? I can't understand you, I think you should sit down" the doctor said in a calm, slightly reassuring voice. "Wait what are you…" his sentence was cut out with a scream, I believe was his.
I ran forward, back through the curtains, to see the man biting the doctor's outstretched arm, on his wrist. Moments later the doctor collapsed on the floor, shaking. A lady screamed, which started a panic.
Shit, he was affected as well I thought to myself and stepped back through the curtains. Getting to my stuff strapped in next to my seat, I pulled the silk off the black plastic tube. Opening up the end I pull out my sword and unsheathed it. I guess I'm going to have to do some threating.
I stepped back through the curtains once again and raised the sword, with the limited head room and people on either side, the only attack I could possible do is a thrust. The man took no notice of my sword and looked straight at me. It looked like his eyes were clouded over with a pale bluish white. Could he be blind?
"Please calm down, and get on the ground" I said in a menacing tone, quite loudly that it drew the attention of many to me and subsequently my sword. There were many small gasps and cries of fear.
The man took a step towards me.
"Please get down sir, I don't want to hurt you" I shouted.
He lunged at me, my outstretched sword easily made its way into his chest. I didn't react fast enough to pull it back. His momentum forced him halfway down the one and half meter blade.
He looked back up at me, there was no pain on his face. Standing backup with my sword still protruding out his back he took a step towards me, reaching out, it was as if he took no notice of the sword and was still trying to get me.
I looked down at the blood running down the blade and dripping onto the floor.
"What the fuck is going on"
~Authors note~
Now things are getting crazy, and finally we meet our first zombies, in a plane no less.
I hope people have noticed my slight, not too in your face explanation of how the zombie apocalypse happened. One thing that has always annoyed me in zombie stories is there is no explanation of how the world is suddenly engulfed in zombies everywhere. I believe that for it to happen it has to be a disease that mutates to the point of zombies.
So this is what I've done in this story, to get around the world it is a virus that is slowly evolving, starts off harmless so it spreads before killing people until it gets to the stages of zombification. Unfortunately for Mr Busujima the zombification part for some of the sick passengers occurs on his flight. What does this mean the state of the world is going to be like once the plane lands?
The interesting thing is that I have had this story planned for over a year, and this scene was one of the original scenes I thought of. It may have a significant similarity to a scene in the Brad Pitt film 'World War Z', but I had thought of it before seeing the movie. Not that it matters if people believe me or not, this is a site for fan fiction anyway.
It took Two weeks longer than I planned to write this chapter, the new anime season has started and I pretty much spent all my free time, which I was going to use to write this, watching the new anime instead…The curse of an anime lover.
I hope to get the next chapter out as soon as possible, but because I have a test in a week, another the following week and two assignments, I'm going to be rather busy for a while.
So follow my story so you can get notified when I eventually post the next chapter. Once uni finishes for the year I'll be able to post more frequently.
Anyway for now I'm off, hope you enjoy my story and will stick around for the next instalment.
~Daff out