The Rabid lands on Harris, hitting him around his shoulders. Harris goes flying off his feet backwards, but the Rabid doesn’t let go of its catch; its claws have dug into his prey. Harris’s arms flail, trying to fight the thing off him. The Rabid is too strong and too quick and is already sinking its teeth into Harris’s stomach. The beast bites out a large chunk of flesh from his belly, taking some of his innards with it.
Harris’s fever-pitched screams of terror are futile but as quickly as the Rabid attacked, it is gone, jumping away, on to its next victim. Harris’s screams continue only for a second, then abruptly cut off as his body starts to violently convulse, twisting and turning as the infection ravages his body. Another scream lets out from deep within his throat as his blackened eyes snap open. This time, the scream is different; it is the deathly scream of death.
The assimilation of Harris is fast and with his rebirth complete, there are only two things the creature understands; to survive, and to feed. A deep burning hunger consumes the creature completely. It jumps up onto its haunches, head darting around, looking for prey, smelling it out. The sweet smell of fresh raw flesh is all around, making the pain of its hunger heighten. The scent pulls it off its haunches, directing the creature, its legs releasing like two tightly wound springs. Flying through the air, the new inexperienced Rabid misses its target but it isn’t deterred. Hunger driving it, it hits the ground, its hands and feet catching it and then it’s up, its legs powering it across the tarmac, towards the closest smell of prey. Almost by accident, it slams into a victim. The woman tumbles to the ground, her pungent scent irresistible. Before the woman has a chance to scream, the Rabid bites deep into her neck, through the veins and arteries buried there. Ripping the flesh free, the Rabid gulps the sweet meat down feverishly. More, the creature needs more, before the meat turns and the virus takes hold. Its head whips down hungrily again for seconds, but before it bites, the detonation vaporises it instantly, incinerating the woman along with it.
Chapter 9
Josh leans against the handrail that runs all the way along the wide expanse of windows on the side of the Terminal 5 departure lounge that looks over the inside of Heathrow Airport. On either side of him are the north and south runways and in front of him are more terminal buildings. Away to the left are the cargo buildings and Terminal 4, the side of the airport where they were taken into quarantine and where they took off from on their fateful mission.
The airport's lights glisten in the darkness of the night and along with the landing lights from the multitude of aircraft flying in and out of the busy airport, Josh starts to get lost in them.
The departure lounge is pretty quiet, and he just had to get up for a while to stretch his legs and gather his thoughts. He strolled around for a while before he found this little oasis towards the end of the windows, where the light is dim and some of the bustle from the people that are around is cut off by surrounding plants and pillars. He has stayed in view of Emily as he said he would, and she can see him through a gap if she needs him.
Unfortunately for Josh, gathering his thoughts is not proving easy. They keep jumping from one torturous event that has happened over the last days to another, with the image of his Dad’s anguished face at the forefront. In time, he may come to terms with having to leave him behind but right now, the guilt is stifling, and the image of his father will stay with him forever. Josh is trying hard to quell the new demons that have taken route inside him to haunt him, but he knows they will get a lot worse before they get better; it is going to take time.
Josh looks at his phone again, in the hope that he has missed a call from Lieutenant Winters, but he hasn’t. He cannot wait to get out of this place and as far away from London as possible. This place in Devon that Catherine has arranged for them to go sounds idyllic. A good place for them all to start some healing. He has to hold it together until they get there and stay strong for Emily, but right now he feels like he is climbing a mountain with no end in sight.
“Hey Josh, are you okay?” Catherine says, coming up behind him and putting a hand of support on his shoulder.
“Honestly, I don’t know.”
“That’s only natural, Josh; you have been through terrible trauma over the last few days. Give it some time, it’s all very raw at the moment.”
“I was just telling myself the same thing, but I can’t help thinking about him,” Josh says, his head bowing down.
“Of course, you can’t, you’ve just lost your dad and in awful circumstances.”
“Lost or left to die?”
“No Josh, lost; you know that there was no other option. It’s horrible but it’s the truth, there was no way he could have got on that helicopter.”
“No, but there must have been another way, I could have stayed with him, but I abandoned him, I didn’t even have the guts to put him out of his misery.”
“From what you’ve said, Josh, he was still your dad when you left him, so no you couldn’t do that, nobody could have. And there was no way you could have stayed with him for many reasons but two of them are
