Fermata: The Winter: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Series (The Fermata Series: Four Post-Apocalyptic Novellas Book 1) by Harper Juliette

Author:Harper, Juliette [Harper, Juliette]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: apocalyptic, story, short, read, Survival, zombie, novella
Publisher: Skye House Publishing
Published: 2015-05-29T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Vick remembered nothing about the rest of the flight. She came to herself when they reached the terminal. A horde of Homeland Security and FBI agents streamed into the cabin. Agents took the passengers out the secondary entrance, but an agent asked Vick to remain in her seat in first class to be interviewed.

As she gave her statement, the crime scene techs took Barbara’s body out first and then lifted Sheila onto a gurney. The body's right hand fell from beneath the sheet — and twitched. Startled, Vick glanced upwards. The sickening spray of brain matter offered gory testimony to just how dead Sheila was this time. Vick shook herself. All she needed was for her mind to start playing tricks on her.

When the authorities released her, Vick found her driver waiting anxiously on the other side of the yellow crime-scene tape. She dismissed his questions curtly, “There was an incident on the plane. I’m fine. Get me home.”

She didn’t remember that she was arriving in Boston on July 4th. The drive from Logan to Commonwealth Avenue should have taken 15 minutes. It took an hour. Vick fidgeted in the backseat of the limo. The confined space agitated her. She longed for the cool safety of their apartment.

A terrified need to see Julie consumed her. She wanted to hold her daughter and feel for herself that her child was alive and safe. When Vick finally turned the key in the lock, however, the welcome she found was only a note penned in Maurice’s precise hand. “We have decided to watch the fireworks from my office window. You may join us if you like.”

Hot anger flared in Vick’s eyes. “I may join you, Maurice?”

She walked to the kitchen and opened a bottle of red wine. She needed to calm her nerves. She didn’t know what had really happened on the plane. The woman couldn’t actually have been dead the first time. That was ridiculous. She must have lapsed into a fever-induced coma and then awakened in an hallucinogenic state. That was the only reasonable explanation.

Vick flipped on the TV. Almost instantly the wine glass slipped from her fingers and shattered. A picture from Larz Anderson Park filled the screen on WBZ. But the perspective wasn't a shot of fireworks over the Charles River from Brookline. The camera lay on its side on a gravel path, the lens focused sharply on a pool of something dark and shiny.

Screaming people ran in all directions in the background. Suddenly a set of shoes crossed the screen and sent the picture spinning. When it stopped, a horrifying tableau filled the screen. Three men crouched over a police officer lying spread eagle on the grass. They tore at his entrails with their bare hands, stuffing ropey bits of intestines into their blood-stained mouths.

Vick backed out of the kitchen. Her heart pounded wildly in her ears. She hit every light switch she passed, flooding the apartment with light. She stopped when she hit the side of the Steinway sitting by the front window.

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