Chapter 3: The Escape
We were halfway across the tarmac when Emmett turned to me. "I'm Emmett by the way." He said with a broad smile.
"I caught that already." I said with a smirk back.
"This is the part where you tell me your name." He nudged me with his elbow.
"Satine."
"Satin?"
"No." I answered. "It's like Sah Teen."
"Satine." He repeated. "Very pretty"
"Eh, I guess, I was named after a character in a book. Guess my mom liked it so much, Satine Abel Denton. Satine comes from a French word that means Smooth I guess…"
"Sad."
"Not really, I mean it's unique."
"No I mean your initials are S.A.D."
I laughed, "I guess I never noticed."
"You're what like 18? 19? And never realized that your initials were 'sad'?"
"20. I guess it's never been that important for me to realize."
"I think it's pretty, kind of like an irony. Ya know?" He asked.
"No." I answered.
"Well I mean you don't seem that sad. Like in the brink of a zombie apocalypse you'd think people would seem more… sad... But you seem kind of fine." He smiled over to me and I shrugged.
"Like I said. Guess I never noticed."
He laughed broadly. As if he were thoroughly amused. "I don't know why it's that funny." He admitted.
I shrugged. "You just need something to laugh about." I said.
"I agree."
We shared a smile.
"So where were you headed again?" He asked.
"Arizona." I answered with a sigh. "It was a birthday gift so I could go down and see my grandparents. I was just about to get on my plane when the airport got taken over." I looked over at him, we still had a ways to go until we got back to the airport. And unfortunately I could see zombies sulking around the airplane that was docked in the terminal. "How about you?" I asked.
"Well our parents had joint custody of us. And this was the last summer we were going to do the whole summer with one parent and school with the other."
"We turned 20 the day we flew out of New York June 15th." He said. "We promised we'd come see him one last time before we went off to do our own things."
"Happy birthday." I said in a sympathetic manner.
"Thanks." He laughed. "You too."
"Sucky present to get stuck in North Dakota for summer." I added, "I was supposed to fly out a few days after that."
"We've been here every year since we were 8, we always did summer camp here, so we are used to it. Then we did camp counselor stuff when we turned 18."
"I haven't been to many places, I couldn't imagine people coming here for summer, it sucks just as bad as winter usually."
"We were never to bothered by it." he shrugged
I scanned the area near the airport, spotting another security guard wandering around.
"Think you could pick him off?" I asked pointing to him.
"Yeah, Why?"
"We may need a badge to get into the airport again." I said he nodded understandingly. We paused and he took aim, took a deep breath and pulled the trigger, hitting the slug in the head. We silently cheered and began to trot to the body.
When we reached the body we found a gun at the officer's side. Emmett grabbed it, released the clip, studied it for a quick second and then smiled.
"9 Mil." He said as he racked the gun. He flipped it around and handed it to me, "Congrats Satine. Your first gun."
"So you think" I laughed, he undid the holster on the security guards side.
"You've shot before?" he asked.
"My mom was prior military and a gun fanatic. I've been shooting since I was old enough to hold a gun."
"Impressive." He laughed as he handed me the holster. I fastened it to my jeans and secured the gun back into it on my right side. On his belt we found a Taser, pepper spray and another baton, I grabbed them and put them into my almost full backpack as Emmett grabbed his access cards. "Officer Leonard Morrison." He said softly.
"Rest in peace Officer Morrison." I said, "He was the agent that did my screening to come in." I said remembering his handsome face, which was now, of course, blown apart by a bullet. After we thoroughly rooted through his body we turned, there was more slugs around us but they had seemed to have not noticed us.
"We had better get going…" Emmett said quietly, I nodded in agreement as the slugs moans and groans grew a tiny bit louder.
A few yards ahead of us was an outside terminal entry door. We scanned the badge.
"Access Granted: Officer Morrison."
We pushed through the door as zombies began to notice us, closing it quickly behind us.
"Looks like the hallway is clear. I said looking up and down the terminal hallway. Emmett nodded and looked with me. Once the automatic lock clicked shut we left the door, following the signs that said "Baggage claim."
We were lucky to not see any of them through our walk in the terminal halls, when we got to the baggage claim it was still clear and quiet. We both shared a look of relief as we scanned over the area.
"Think we are good for now…" I said quietly. He nodded
"So what's the next move?"
"It's always good to grab extra food." I said pointing to an already broken vending machine which was one in a line of many untouched ones. "Grab a couple suitcases, stack them full and take them with."
"I like your thinking." He said with a broad smile.
"Keep an eye out." I said as we walked to the baggage area, a long line of unclaimed bags sat on the conveyor belt I grabbed a large hard sided suitcase and unzipped it I began pulling stuff out and throwing it around me. I suddenly hit something rubbery and stiff. My cheeks flushed. "Check this out." I giggled as I used a shirt to move the item. Emmett turned and giggled
"Guess someone was traveling without their hubby?" he asked I shrugged and tossed the vibrator to the side. "You ever use one?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" We both giggled as I emptied out the suitcase. "Hey what size does your sister wear?" I asked
"Like a small, maybe a medium?" he said turning back to me.
"This is all ladies stuff…" I looked through, a lot of T-shirts and Jeans along with 2 pairs of sneakers. "Grab another suitcase, I'm out of clothes, I haven't been able to find my bag, I'm going to take these."
"Yeah sure."
I emptied out any other sex toys that I found and then pulled it over to the vending machines. Emmett was pulling another bag from the belt. He opened it and groaned.
"Why do you get the sexy bag of sex toys and I get old people stuff?"
When I looked back I saw him pulling out adult diapers and denture cases, along with other older person items.
"Guess I'm just lucky." I laughed as he tipped the suitcase over to empty everything. He pulled it over to the vending machines. I packed whatever open space I could with the snacks form the already broken vending machine. Emmett pulled the rest into the suitcase he had, but it wasn't nearly enough to fill it. "I picked this one pretty thoroughly the last few weeks." I said shrugging.
"There's plenty around." He looked to another vending machine.
"I have screwdrivers in my pack…" I said.
"I'll take one, you take one?" he responded
"Deal." I dug through my bag and grabbed out the tools we both took to a vending machine and began unscrewing the hinges on the opening doors.
"Hey, I'll get the top if you get the bottom." He mentioned, I looked up and agreed, I was much too short to unscrew the hinges on the tops, but it was much too risky to break through the front panels to get the machines open. So we switched and he unscrewed the top hinges while I unscrewed the bottom. After a minute we were both able to pull the doors open from the machines we worked on. Then Emmett went to a drink machine. "Em and I never got to drink soda when we were with our mom." He said absently as he removed the door and began packing sodas into the suitcase.
"I don't blame ya for wanting some," I countered as I threw chips and candy bars from the machine.
"There is a lot of 'some's I want." He giggled slyly with a wink. I laughed back.
"Oh I'm sure."
"Hey, 10 weeks without some is pretty hard to handle." We laughed
Once the suitcase was as full as we could manage we set back out. Emmett hauled the heavier suitcase with us, gun raised in one hand as we made our way through the terminal.
"Okay so… According to the map if we take the next right it should lead us to the hallway that goes to the parking garage…" I said as I looked over a map of terminal A.
"I assume there will be people in there…" Emmett mentioned.
"Maybe not, when I looked at the security cameras there wasn't usually anyone there except for a stray slug or two." I said as we begun walking down the hall.
"Still keep your gun ready." He said I nodded. It took a few minutes of quick walking until we reached the entrance to the parking garage. He peered through the window and looked around. "Looks clear." He said softly.
"Good because behind us is not…" I said he turned, a group of three slugs were ambling toward us slowly. Emmett grabbed my hand and pushed me through the door reaching back and grabbing the suitcases we pulled behind us. The door clicked shut behind us.
"We gotta hurry there isn't a lock."
"This way." We ran down the garage past lines and lines of abandon cars. At the end of the hall was the car hop station. A small desk sat in front of a door. I could hear a zombie gurgling and moaning inside the room.
"Looks like he probably tried to hide… But it was too late." He said peering through the small broken window that the slug was looking through. "Stand back. I'm gonna try and pick him off." Emmett raised his gun and stuck it through the cracked window. I heard a low pop and then the body fell to the ground. Emmett looked back at me. "Okay. Let's hurry."
He slowly opened the door, being cautious of the slug body. When we entered we found a large cork board with thousands of keys all with tiny yellow labels. I grabbed for one and read the label, which was scribbled in bad chicken scratch "Jacobsen, s10 truck 32a."
"Parking spots…" he said grabbing another. "What level are we on.
I peeked my head out of the door and looked around until I saw a large C painted on a wall across from us "C. A and B are underground levels."
"Okay so find stuff on c and we will see what has the most gas." He said as he started piecing through keys. I nodded. We both flipped tags up and read quickly if it was on any other level we passed it. Once we both had a handful of keys we left the room. We took our bags and walked to the center of the parking level.
"No alarms." I said. "If we can't find it by its lights then it's not worth it."
"Smart." He whispered. We clicked the unlock buttons on the keys that we had, and looked around for lights. One by one we went to each car and checked the gas levels.
"Satine!" I heard Emmett whisper yell. "Full tank!" I ran over to the car he had found, a big new black suburban, it even had dealership plates on it still, it was backed into an extra wide spot. Emmett popped the trunk as I trotted over grabbing the keys from him. He went back and grabbed one of the suitcases, loading it into the back. He then tossed his gun on the dash and ran around back to me, grabbing the suitcase I had in tow and putting it in the back. He slammed the hatch shut then ran around to the passenger side and got in. I climbed in and threw my backpack into the back seat.
"Ready?" I asked as I clicked my seatbelt, I looked over and he was strapping his seatbelt. He nodded. I stuck the key in the ignition and turned it. The vehicle sputtered slightly then roared to life. We both breathed a sigh of relief. As a force of habit I looked both ways and then pulled out of the spot, following the arrows to the exit. As we drove out we passed a few slugs who lumbered lazily outside the parking garage. "They give me the heebie-jeebies." I said as we passed.
"I agree…" Emmett mentioned. "Hey! Our bikes!" I looked to where he was pointing. 2 bikes sat at the door. "I need to grab them." he said, I parked the truck and popped the trunk, Emmett quickly opened the door, scanned the area and stuffed both bikes into the back, they laid hap hazardously over the suitcases, but they fit. As we rounded the corner of the airport we could see the air tower at the end of the lot.
"I don't want to have to break through a fence…" I said as I scanned the fence line that surrounded the airport runways.
"Over there." Emmett pointed to a broken down gate with a golf cart stopped a few feet from it. "Looks like they tried to get out themselves…" we both noticed an almost completely eaten body only a few feet out from that. As we drove closer we could see dried bloody footsteps and hand prints around the body. I slowed down and slowly drove over the broken down gate and through the grass until we reached the tarmac. I sped up to get a head start on the zombies who noticed us and started to amble in our direction. By this time, every zombie had made their way to the fences and near the airport, leaving the air traffic tower clear.
"Glad they all found their way gone." We could see Emily in the window scanning the area. She spotted us and left the window, I presume to run down the stairs.
"Stop with the back door right in front of the door. I'll throw the doors open and grab the bags we will hop back in and hightail it out." Emmett explained as he unbuckled his seat. He put his hand on the door and pulled it so that it was popped open and ready to jump out. "Ok. Honk once." He ordered as I skidded the car to a stop I laid on the horn quickly and pressed the unlock button at the same time. Emmett bailed from the vehicle, and the door to the air tower swung open quickly, Emily threw a bag to Emmett and he turned, heaving it back to the car, he tossed it on the seat and Emily followed him, tossing her bag into the back seat and sliding in. Emmett went back to the tower and grabbed one more bag from the doorway, scanned the room quickly and then ran back to the car, throwing himself back into the seat.
"Got everything?" I asked them. They both nodded.
"Good to go." Emily said.
"Step on it." Emmett urged as one of the rabbits from the fence began making their way to us. I flipped as sharp of a U'ie as I could in the big vehicle. And sped off back down the runway back to the opened gate, a slug stood in the way. I took my foot from the gas as we drove over the gate then floored it into the slug which rolled underneath the vehicle.
"Gross…" Emily gagged slightly.
"Agreed." I said.
"So where are we headed?" I asked.
"We live all the way across town on Lincoln drive." Emmett said. I nodded.
"Lincoln…" I repeated, "That's near 16th street right?"
"Yeah?" Emmett said.
"Do you mind if we stop at a few places?"
"Is it safe?"
"Well… we will see…" I said quietly.
"If it's sketchy we can't..." Emily added from the back.
"That's fine, if it's not safe we don't need to…"
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone