Monday, August 26, 2013. 5:15PM
It’s a clear summer day; perfect for flying. After passing through security, Chance finds his way to the bar to catch the tail-end of the White Sox game. A few seats down sits Dash, nursing a beer and eavesdropping in on the bartender and another patron. It seems there’s been a lot of sick looking people leaving the airport today: a ton of young men covered in tattoos (not that that’s so strange for Portland).
Harv sits down the hall from the bar working on his laptop and waiting at his gate. He notices the last stragglers board the flight at the neighboring gate and when glancing back towards his plane, he sees a pale looking guy asleep behind him. The position his body is leaning looks incredibly uncomfortable. The older woman next to the young man nudges him to ask if he’s all right, but he doesn’t seem to react. Something just doesn’t feel right to Harv and he packs up his stuff and starts walking across to the gate across the terminal. He notices a similar looking sickly man laying across a couple of seats and stops in his tracks. Both men have the same tattoo on their necks: a figure 8 over the infinity symbol.
Sam’s finishing up a sandwich at one of the standing tables in the center of the the food court. His attention is drawn to one of the televisions in the bar that’s mentioning some kind of outbreak in New York. There’s not a lot of reports yet, but it sounds serious and similar reports are being heard from across the globe.
Sam and Harv hear some yelling from farther up the terminal at another gate. Sounds like some sort of fight broke out and people are starting to surround the culprits. Another scream resounds and what sounded like a fight now sounds like a serious problem. The curious onlookers of the supposed fight start backing up and quickly moving away as another weaker scream is heard. Sam spots a security phone and calls to report a disturbance.
Another closer scream is heard from back at Harv’s gate as the older woman he saw earlier tries to get out from under the young man who is now anything but asleep. Her husband tries to pull him off as he sinks his teeth into her arm. At this point everyone is moving towards the center of the food court and trying to figure out what all the screaming is about.
Having seen the the older woman just get attacked, Harv beelines for the bar in hopes of getting something to protect himself. The bartender is petrified and cowers at Harv’s insistence of help; so, Harv just hops over the bar and into the storage room as Sam and Dash tentatively walk to the other side of the terminal to get a better look at what’s happening.
Harv quickly grabs a bread knife and a bottle of rum and comes back out to the gathering panic. Chance sees that Harv armed himself and heads into the the storage room to see what he can find. He grabs a broomstick and starts working on making into a more impressive weapon.
Three airport security approach the first disturbance at the far gate as Sam, Dash, and a group of now frightened civilians move along the far side of the moving walkway trying to stay as far from the now multiple attacks surrounding them. They hear, over the panicked cries and security announcements, the sounds of an airplane engine revving up.
At each attack site, more screams sound as the attacked seem to stand from prone states spattered with blood and attack anyone who’s close. The older woman is now pushing her husband up against the wall with her teeth bared as the young man who bit her eyes the back of a businessman unsure of where he should move.
In hearing the loudening engine sounds, Sam and Dash double-back away from the gate in question. The engine sounds peak and a plane pummels into the side of the terminal. All those fleeing civilians in front of the gate windows are crushed or thrown as the terminals glass ceiling shatters down on all below. What was nearing panic now quickly becomes chaos and all those fleeing start realizing the danger of the situation.
Chance snaps his broomstick to give it a sharpened point, grabs a bottle of vodka, and runs out of the storage room only to realize that the bar is now surrounded by shambling and bloody individuals. All their heads swerve to take in the new closest target. Chance backs to the back of the bar only to trip over the cowering form of the bartender. He screams at the bartender to man up, stabs the nearest shambler in the head, and vaults over the bar to escape.
Sam finds a case full of basic medical kits on one of the nearby columns and starts tending to his numerous cuts and bruises before turning his attention to nearby individuals with injuries. He shows confidence and dexterity in dealing with the wounded marking him as a trained healer. All those who notice stay a little closer knowing that this man could be the difference between life and death for them.
Gunshots ring out as the security guards try to bring down what now appears to be relentless and remorseless killers, only intent on eating flesh. Sam and Dash try to stay as close as they can to the guards with guns, but even that strategy comes into doubt as one is tackled by a zombie who is immediately dispatched by the guard’s vengeful comrades. Gormless civilians advance on the corpse and hesitantly pull a pistol from the guard’s corpse, but then a reedy voice calls out with feigned authority “Air marshall! Civilian, give me that firearm immediately!” It’s Harv, 23 years old, dressed like a car salesman, holding a bottle of rum and bluffing his way into a position of authority and possession of a gun. The party comes together to defend the few remaining civilians and starts backing towards an announced opening at the gate door behind them.
A massive explosion erupts from where the planes wing can through the terminal wall as the jet fuel ignited. Dozens of civilians and infected are thrown from the blast aflame as Chance flees the pack of shamblers intent on catching him. He narrowly avoids being taken down by a flaming woman and vaults over a man devouring a child’s stomach towards the open gate others are now escaping through.
Automatic gunfire rings out from down the terminal as bullets are heard ricocheting off columns and shattering the windows. Everyone runs out the gate door, shuts it, and flees down the hall only to bang into a pack of twenty or so people trying not to fall the twenty-or-so feet to the tarmac below. Sam squeezes through the mass, flings open the a la carte luggage door and rushes to the ground with everyone following at his heels.