The Light Reapers: End of the World

The Blackhawk took off and rose above the terminal. The area was all clear until they crested over the opposite side of the terminal building and saw a crowd of infected milling about. Some were trying to get in the building, while some were looking around for the noise. The crew chief started laying down fire with his mounted M134 Minigun.

“Good God almighty,” Shaw howled. “That bad boy is chewing the shit out of them.”

The mass of infected looked up as the rounds rained down. They all howled and screamed at the helicopter, reaching for those inside. The infected were climbing over top of each other to get to those that they needed to infect. They were met with a deluge of 5.56mm rounds which removed eyes, ears, jaws and sections of upturned heads. The rounds cut through the upturned faces and plowed through the torsos and legs of those standing behind them.

Usually people will run away from danger or certain death, but the infected didn’t even seem to care about the fact that they were dying by the tens and hundreds. It didn’t even register on any of their faces, but the team didn’t have time to contemplate the philosophy behind it all and focused on dismounting the chopper.

Priest keyed his comms. “Hover over the roof and we’ll unload there.” The pilot acknowledged and brought the Blackhawk to hover about 3-4 feet from the roof. The crew chief continued to spit rounds into the mass of infected, while all three jumped out and waved to the crew chief. With the acknowledgement, the crew chief spoke into his helmet’s mic and the bird ascended, rotated to the right, and took off on its way to Dearborn, Michigan.

In his gut, Doc felt a sinking feeling as he watched the Blackhawk fade from sight.

CHAPTER 10

The scene was something completely out of a horror movie as the blood flowed in little streams down the pavement. Pieces of flesh and indistinguishable body parts lay scattered the ground for hundreds of feet. The team could hear blood dripping and squishing sounds as the gore settled, sliding and sinking off of piles of destroyed bodies.

“Jesus Christ,” Shaw breathed. “I used to slaughter cows and pigs back on the farm, but I have seen nothing like this.”

Doc quipped, “I’ve seen my share of blood, guts and wounds as a medic. I’m with you as far as never seeing this much carnage before.” Priest said nothing. He just stood there staring at the unbelievable scene. Doc continued, “Damn, look at that. There’s a head over there that flew 20 feet. Look at all the guts laying over there. It’s like up to your calf. That’s some deep guts.”

The amount of body parts stacked up in front of the maintenance door was unbelievable, and it would take a while to remove all that meat. Not to mention, they would have to wade through all that blood, all the intestines and other bodily fluids to even get to the door.

“Damn Doc, shut up already,” Priest bellowed. “Ok, boys. Let’s get to it. See if there is a way, we could gain access to those people without having to go through that door.”

The team spread out and went in search of any alternate entry point. After a time, Shaw speaks up and calls over, “I think I might have found something.” Priest and Doc run over to Shaw who is standing at a roof access door.

“Well, that is a way in and it definitely looks viable. Let’s check it out.” Priest nodded.

Shaw checked the door which was locked. Shaw pulled a pry bar from his breach kit, wedged it between the door and the jam, and gave it a good shove with his massive bulk. The door creaked open and Shaw peered in with his mag light. The stairway was clear, so they made their way down with Shaw on point, Priest as clean up and Doc covering their six. They stopped twice when they heard something, but determined it was on the other side of the walls.

As they reached the bottom, they found themselves in a maintenance area. It was a fairly long corridor with pipes running down each side. Cable trays were hanging from the ceiling, which contained power and fiber optic cable. They could also see several doors along the hallway on their right with the store numbers on them. Shaw made a comment about the doors showing numbers only and not the business names.

Priest whispered, “Ok, we know which business they are in. We just need to find the actual location and suite number. We need to search this maintenance space for maps, a directory, anything that gives us a layout of this terminal.” They went a little further, and the space opened slightly to a desk and a workshop. As they made it to the desk, they heard screams and pounding, followed by another’s screams.

“Shit, they must still find non-infected,” Shaw said. Priest nodded concurrence. After a quick search, they found some building drawings and schematics. Since Ruth Chris’s was one of the cornerstone businesses meant for this terminal in the planning stages, it was listed by name on the drawings.

“Ok, it looks like Ruth Chris’s is 120A-G. Doc, where are we now?”

Doc walked down to the closest door and came back. “Continuing forward will take us to increasing suite numbers. The closest door is Suite 88.”

“Shit, well I guess it could be worse and we could be standing at number one. Ok, let’s move out swift but silent.” The walk down to Suite 120 was uneventful except for the occasional scream, growl, or sounds of groups running back and forth. They finally reached the door for Suite 120A. “Ok, let’s do a little recon and see what we are dealing with.”

Shaw reached for the door and turned the handle, discovering it was unlocked. He pulled the handle, cracked the door open enough to peer through. His eyes go wide as he took in the dramatic scene. He was in the steakhouse’s rear, looking toward the dining room, and from his vantage point the carnage was clear. A multitude of bodies in various states of butchery lay strewn along the restaurant floor. Chairs were on their backs, tables laid toppled over, and they had smeared blood all over countless table cloths.

Uneaten food scattered the floor of the restaurant, pools of blood and various bloody drag marks. The restaurant appeared empty, so Shaw motioned the Team forward. They made their way through the restaurant to the wall separating it from the terminal corridor. Shaw peered around the wall to scout out possible next movement and viewed body parts strew across the entire field of view. Legs, arms, heads, and pieces that were not recognizable were lying in pools of blood. Tangled intestines were stretched down the passageway and wrapped around benches and poles, definitely done on purpose.

Shaw pulled his head back. “Man, these are some sick fuckers. It looks like they were playing with the in

nards, like it’s a game or something.”

Out of nowhere, there were various screams, laughs, yells, and shrieking. The team jumped at the noise.

“Shit,” Doc said under his breath. They then heard running coming their way down the adjacent corridor. They looked out to see a group of people running with a pack of the infected right on their heels. There was a man in the back who looked to be a traveling businessman. His apparent constant snaking, restaurant eating and lack of exercise had eventually caught up with him as he was much slower than the rest of the people running and had fallen behind. He was breathing heavily and finally his legs gave out as the pack jumped on him. The man let out a blood-curdling scream as several of the infected took bites out of his body. The infected bit chunks of flesh and meat from his face, neck, arms, legs and blood was everywhere.

They quickly jumped off him and were running for the rest of the group. We left the businessman where he lay while blood continued to pump out of his massive wounds and pool around him. His breathing became shallow, challenging, and was coming at a quick pace. He moaned one last time and finally stopped breathing.

“Holy shit,” whispered Priest. “This is some fucked up shit.”

Doc was about to respond with something, but heard something that stopped him. Breathing, moaning, and the squeak of shoes on a wet floor. They looked back to the businessman and watched him get up, staring around like he wasn’t sure where he was. He heard the screaming coming from down the hallway and took off after the sounds. “What the fuck,” Doc whispered. “We now have confirmation as we did with Myles on how quickly this virus takes over.”