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“Yeah, too fucking quick,” Priest replied. “Ok, let’s find these two civilians and get the hell out of here. They should be in the restaurant’s walk-in fridge, in the kitchen, I am assuming. We find the kitchen, then we find the walk-in fridge.” Priest whispered.

They made their way toward the rear of the restaurant and right in front of Shaw were the double doors leading to the kitchen. Priest and Doc posted up on each side of the opening, then Shaw slowly opened the door. Without warning, a figure busted its way through the door, knocking Shaw back on his ass. The figure landed on top of him and began trying to bite his face. Shaw recovered quickly enough to fend off the infected. Just as Shaw got his hand around the man’s neck, the figure stopped fighting and slumped over to his right. He saw Priest standing there with his combat knife dripping with blood and what seemed to look like brain matter.

Doc offered his hand and helped Shaw back up.

“Damn,” Shaw whispered. “If that had been a female, she would have reminded me of my old girlfriend back in Alabama.”

Priest motioned for them to be quiet by putting his index finger to his lips, ”Hopefully, they didn’t hear that,” he whispered. They all stopped to listen to see if the infected were coming back and heard nothing. Priest motioned them into the kitchen. It was an enormous kitchen with a prep area to the right and order pick up counter directly ahead. Behind the counter was a grill that still had steaks on it that were on fire and looking like charcoal. All three looked at the ruined steaks and shook their heads. Damn shame, all that beef wasted was the look they gave each other. Doc pointed to a hallway to the left of the grill, which they all followed with Priest on point. The hall led back to another room, and against the back wall was the door for the walk-in.

Priest continued on and found a light switch next to the door. There was also a 12 x 12 window in the walk-in fridge’s door. Priest flicked on the light and peered in. He immediately saw a young woman who met his eyes, began screaming and backing away from the door. Luckily for them, she couldn’t be heard through the door. Doc shoved his head in the window to see what was going on and smiled at her, which elevated her hysteria.

Priest thought she would pass out. “Breathe, lady, breathe.” He knew he had to get her calmed down before he opened that door, or every infected in the whole terminal would hear her screaming. An older man came next to her and tried to calm her down, while Priest attempted to make hand motions to let her know things were ok. He then put his finger to his lips for her to be quiet. When she had calmed down some, and he opened the door. He put his arm in first with his palm down and moved it up and down, motioning that it was ok, calm down. He finally got his face in the door and spoke to both of them.

“It’s ok, we are here to get you out. Shhh, everything is all right, but we need to move and move now to get out of this place safely. Are you both ok to move? Can you walk?” Both nodded. Priest kneels and looks at the woman. “I’m MSGT Alec Priest and I believe you were talking to our Commander, Captain Webb?”

“Yes, I was. I am Allison Reeves. I am a reporter for a local news station, and this is Doug Harris. He is the pilot of our Channel 4 news helicopter.” Priest shakes both of their hands.

“This is SGT Joseph Mancini or Doc as we call him, and that big son of a bitch over there,” Priest throws his thumb over his shoulder, “is SSGT Jeremiah Shaw.”

“Ma’am,” Shaw dipped his head toward Allison

“So, Doug, is your helicopter somewhere here on the airport?”

“Yes, it is,” Doug replies.

“Is it functional?”

“It is, or it was when I left it last.”

“Ok, how many does it seat?”

Doug looked down at the floor, and somberly said, “four.”

“It seats four, but is it powerful enough to take the weight of five?” Priest asks.

“Well, yes, it can easily handle that much weight. You know, it has some equipment we could dump to lighten the load if we had the time.”

“Hmm, ok.” “Where is it located?”

“It is on the flight line at the east end of this terminal.”

Priest said, “Ok boys, we are bailing out the same way we came in. Doc, you take point and lead the two civilians down the hall and up the stairs to the roof where we will regroup. Shaw and I will cover your six and follow. Everyone clear?” They all nodded. “Ok, let’s roll.”

With Doc in the lead, next Allison, Priest, Doug, and finally Shaw guarding their rear, they stop at the kitchen door to listen for movement. They heard nothing, so Doc slowly opened the door, stepped out into the restaurant and headed for the maintenance door. He then motioned for the rest to follow his lead.

They made it halfway to the maintenance door when Priest catches movement out of his peripheral vision. He turns to see the businessman is standing there. His head was tilting from left to right and making a clicking noise. Click, click, click-click. “I see some who need the poison. The wonderful poison to be like me, like us… Click click, click.” He then breaks into a run for the group.

“Move! Doc, get them to the door,” Priest bellows. Doc makes a run for the maintenance door, with Allison and Doug right behind him. Priest squares up to fight businessman as to not draw attention to their location by using his rifle.

Businessman is about 15 feet away when Shaw shoots out toward him. Shaw connects and delivers the most devastating clothesline Priest has ever seen. All 275 pounds of Shaw lunges with his arm like a hook, connects with Businessman’s neck and hits with such force; it breaks Businessman’s neck and flips him head over heels to leave him in a quivering mass of flesh and broken bones.

“Fuck me!” Priest utters in amazement as Shaw runs back to him. “Remind me to never piss you off.” They chuckle as they sprint to the maintenance door. As they make it through, Priest yells at Shaw, “Make that door in-op?”

“Copy.” Shaw grabs a large screwdriver and a hammer off the workbench near the door. He wedges the screwdriver in the metal frame behind the door and hit it with the hammer which lodges the screwdriver in the frame. As he turns to run, he hears banging and scr

eaming on the other side of the door. He yells, “They are at the door. Move!” The rest of the group had already reached the roof as Shaw bursts out of the door meets up with the group.

They kneel there for a few minutes to catch their breath. Priest looks around to everyone there, “Everybody all right? Anyone hurt?” All of them shake their heads. Except for being scared to death and a little winded, they seemed to be okay. He looks around the roof, thinking of their next steps.