"Do you know how much farther it is to the evac station?" Ellis asked the pilot.

The man shook his head, and Ellis settled back against the side of the helicopter and sighed.

"Man, seems like this is takin' forever," he complained.

Nick couldn't help but agree. At least the seemingly permanent night that had hung over the carnival had finally turned into day. That was something. Now they could clearly see the complete chaos and destruction the green flu had caused down below. Hooray!

Rochelle shifted in her sleep. Nick put a hand on her head and smiled. Well, at least something good had come of this nightmare. And once they were at the evac station, they could shower, and Rochelle and he could find a private place and—

The pilot coughed suddenly, startling Nick out of his thoughts. He continued to cough for a while, hunched over the controls.

As the pilot's coughing fit came to an end, Nick met Coach's eye and saw he was thinking the same thing. Infected?

"Hey, uh, buddy?" Nick said carefully, watching the pilot. He shook Rochelle awake. "You feelin' all right?"

"Yeah, I'm go-"

He coughed even harder than before, sounding like he was almost choking. He fought to get control of his breath, wheezing.

Rochelle and Ellis had quickly caught on to what might be happening. They scooted slightly away from the pilot.

"Nick," Rochelle whispered, sliding behind him and peering at the pilot over Nick's shoulder. She was holding on to him. "Is he infected?"

"I don't know," he murmured back, not taking his eyes off the pilot. "I'd say there's a good chance."

The coughing stopped, but the labored breathing continued. The pilot straightened up. Everyone watched him tensely.

This was a BAD idea, Nick thought wildly, feeling his heart hammering in his chest. We are UP in the air with probably the LAST pilot on Earth and now the poor bastard is turning into a ZOMBIE. If he doesn't kill us, the crash will. Super choices.

Sure enough, the former pilot rose from his seat, letting go of the controls. The chopper started to descend, nose-first. The four had started to slide towards the now snarling pilot, but they all managed to grab onto something, keeping out of his grasp for a few moments. Then the zombie grew frustrated and lunged forward, grabbing onto Ellis's shoe. Ellis yelled and kicked at its hands. It let go and slid back, growling at the four of them.

"Guys?" Nick prompted, looking over at Coach and Ellis. Was someone going to take care of this before they crashed into the ground or what?

Coach and Ellis were looking back at him. Their expressions revealed that they had no idea what to do.

"OhGodOhGodOhGod!" Rochelle whimpered softly from behind him. No help there, either, and the zombie was coming towards them again.

Well, fuck. Someone had to do something.

God I am such a masochist. That's ok, it's going to take scads longer to write the Swamp Fever part, mostly because I get lost a lot and end up back where I started. Also I don't know the layout well, and really only remember the last stage of it (because it's GORGEOUS when you step out of the safe room).

But here's this for now.