3 Slap - Aim for the head.

"SURPRISE, MADAFAKA~!!!"

*WHOOSH*

I ducked down as I pulled Kaley with me. Everything happened so fast but I managed to react in time. A blur of red appeared above our heads and the figure in front of us was hit dead-on. Turns out, Oscar grabbed a fire extinguisher and swung at the crooked figure that suddenly lunged at us.

A horrifying crunch followed as its head blew backward, bits of blood spraying the walls before it plopped down.

Everything fell silent but the figure suddenly twitched in place and its shoulder—that dislocated after it fell—creaked as it tried to get up. But without thinking twice, Oscar swung down a second time before it managed to get up. Another crunch followed and Oscar swung another time to double—well, triple-tap it.

After that, the body never moved a muscle but everyone's eyes were still glued to the mangled head in front of us.

Kaley and I were staring in shock but Oscar leaned over and picked up the keychain that was strapped on its waist. After that, he tried to look for more items on his person but he just stood up straight before he let out a long sigh.

"Haa… We have better shit at home… Never thought I'd see the day these old bones would see some fucking action again. You okay over there, kid? How's she—"

Oscar didn't finish his sentence as his gaze landed on Kaley but once I turned to check on her, she was just shaking horribly and her face was fucking pale. Her eyes were still glued to the figure that almost tried to take a chunk off our bodies but it didn't take long before tears started to well in her eyes again. Furthermore, she would've broken a baby's arm if she was holding it instead of mine because she was clutching on my arm for as hard as she could.

"Kaley?"

"..."

"H-Hey, Kaley?"

"..."

"Sorry for this—"

This must've been the first time she saw something like this happening in front of her eyes but she would see a lot more of this if we don't fucking move this instant. I tried talking to her—even shaking her shoulders to "wake" her up—but there was never a response so it left me no choice but to slap her across the face.

*slap*

It was only for a moment but it seemed to get the proper reception because not only did her shaking stop, the look of fear was replaced by shock of me slapping her. She was now holding the left side of her cheek but much to my surprise, her other hand wound up giving me a much, much stronger slap than what I gave her.

*SLAP*

"Ow! Why did you do that?! I'm sorry, okay?! I was waking you up! We need to move!"

It only took a second for Kaley to realize what she just did but I could only imagine the face Oscar was making right now.

"Ah— I— I-I'm sorry! It hurts and— I— I'm sorry!"

"It's fine, it's fine. Can you move now?"

"Y-Yeah…"

After that, both of us stood up and we saw Oscar checking the keys he found from the maintenance guy. He seemed to be reading through the labels on them but I took a quick glance at the figure he just took down.

Aside from the mangled head and the bloody uniform, small amounts of white crystalline powder were on his collar and his right sleeve.

'Drugs?'

I took a mental note of what I found and decided that it was still best to leave this place as soon as possible instead of investigating the body more thoroughly.

After that, Oscar motioned for me to open the door for him while he readied his bloody fire extinguisher. But as I swung it open, another horrifying sight assaulted our eyes. Looking at the scene, we immediately saw the other maintenance guy that we saw earlier sprawled on the floor.

He was face up, eyes still open, and bullet holes were scattered across his body but one was located on his head.

'Shit.'

Next to him was one of the guards earlier but he was facing the floor and a pool of dark-red blood was forming beneath their bodies. Looking at their position, the guard seemed to be pushed hard before he was thrown violently right after. Everything seemed to have happened in an instant but we weren't here to analyze the crime scene.

As someone in the movies wouldn't fucking do, Oscar decided to search the body of the guard that was face down. He took his shotgun, which was the Remington 870 I saw earlier along with a few slugs located on the guard's belt. After that, he threw me the guard's pistol, a Beretta M9 with an additional magazine.

After that, I then pulled out the guard's belt that had a pair of handcuffs, a small bottle of pepper spray, a radio, an airport security badge, and the holster for the pistol.

Taking a quick look around, I saw people mindlessly running outside while the ones here were farther than us and huddled up in one corner. I even found a bloody strap that belonged to the dog I saw earlier but I couldn't see him anywhere. It was unfortunate but we had to move on.

Some employees were trying their best to contain the situation but everything was slowly falling apart.

"You good, kid?"

"Yeah, the other guard is not here though—"

"There's another one?"

Kaley interjected, "Y-Yes, we were just here e-earlier."

"Cheh. No time to look for him now, we need to get out of here—"

"Do we just leave them here?" Kaley asked as she pointed at the two corpses.

"No. I think the people outside are handling it. We need to leave now; we still have time. Good thing is that it's still early, so we can stock up a bit more," I replied.

"Okay…"

With that said, the three of us stepped out of the main entrance but we were stopped by another pair of security guards. They looked more nervous and clueless than I thought they should be but they were eyeing the blood on our clothing and the guns in our possession.

And one of them awfully shouted orders at the top of his lungs.

"S-STOP! STATE YOUR NAME AND A-A-AFFILIATION AND TELL ME E-EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED INSIDE!"

'They don't know? Well…'

I was still wearing the coat earlier even though the stethoscope was already in my bag so I stepped forward, "Easy now, I'm Dr. Ishiyama from St. Luke's, I'm with Col. Goodman from the states, and this is Ms. Payan who was directed to escort us out of the premises. We were given permission to head outside due to a medical emergency with a serious nature and if you'd just refer to your superior officer, you'd know that we—"

"I— I didn't ask about that— W-What happened inside?!"

"Very well…" I then relayed a "tailored" version of what happened inside and from talking to him more, I discovered that he only knew about the guard and the maintenance guy that came out the door.

His face turned ashen when I told him that there was another body we just fended off with just ourselves but there might be more "drug-induced" personnel that were causing havoc inside the airport. But when the topic of the other guard that was missing, he waved me off before he pointed at the back of their mobile car.

'Shit. Hope he doesn't call our bluff—'

The guard spoke up while I was figuring out my thoughts, "We found him just sitting outside the doors of the main entrance when we responded. He's fucking terrified and unresponsive—he didn't even want us to check his injury—so we let him cool off in the back."

'Injury?'

"I see."

"You could try patching him up but I doubt he'll let you."

"Did he mention anything else?"

"Eh~ He calmed down a bit but all he told us was that he and his partner were holding their station when one of their staff rushed from the other side of the door. They tried to stop him but he suddenly went into a scuffle with his partner and things just went south really, really fast. Long story short, he said—in his own words—he… umm… it was about to come for me next so I shot him. I panicked."

'It, huh?'

He continued, "W-We're sorry you had to take care of the other one inside but everything is getting handled. Trust me, everything will be over very soon. Our department will pay a visit to you guys for more investigation once this place is sorted out and they would require full cooperation. Also, I need you two to surrender the weapons you took since it's still our property."

After he spoke, his radio buzzed and he told his partner to head inside. They needed to respond to another report but I was hearing more than one incident occurring. Other guards further out were responding to the calls but he was now carefully watching our expressions. His hand was stretched out and he was waiting for us to surrender their gear.

Oscar blew up, "Surrender our gear?! We just— Do you have any fucking idea what just happened there?! We look calm but we're still fearing for our lives! Anything could happen in any second and if you take—"

"Mr. Goodman—"

"Colonel! Colonel Goodman!"

"Colonel Goodman, please understand— I know you're in shock but you're outside now, the danger is inside and we're taking care of it as we speak. So please, do understand our situation."

"You don't understand—"

"Do you have any more information our department is unaware of?"

"Cheh…"

"Please, it would be troublesome if other people than our department had our equipment. I'm not saying you'll do anything to them but remember that everything's being taken care of."

The three of us just looked at each other but Oscar had a visible frown on his face because even if we did tell him that the thing they were unaware of was fucking zombies, I doubt he'd believe us or even let us walk freely like this.

I just sighed helplessly but just as I was about to hand over my pistol, a shout came from the inside followed by several gunshots.

Screams resounded once more and the people tasked with keeping the people inside were having a hard time, and it was this close for it to turn into a stampede. People were fearing for their lives and they wouldn't just stay in place because some guard told them to.

The guard we were with picked up his radio and drew his pistol, "All of you s-stay here! I'll check the situation inside! D-Don't go anywhere!" his hand started to shake ever so slightly and Oscar and I looked at each other and both knew what the other was thinking.

'He's not coming back.'

"Aim for the head," I gave one final piece of advice before the guard left with a questioning gaze.

As the guard disappeared inside with a few others, Oscar immediately turned around and opened the mobile car the guard was using and went inside. He found a box of donuts, 2 cups of coffee, a nightstick, a radio, and the M4 Carbine the guard at the back was using earlier. He quickly checked the magazine, put it back, then he handed it to me.

"Kid, it's still full," Oscar motioned for me to take it.

Kaley didn't even bother questioning our actions anymore and as I slung the rifle on my back, the guard behind us suddenly let out a pained groan. Oscar and I were this close to lighting him up but when I took a quick look, he was still one of us. Little beads of sweat were on his forehead and he was clutching his arm while he was breathing erratically but I surmised that I could still talk to him.

"What happened back there?"

"W-What? W-Who a-are you?"

'He doesn't remember me…'

"We just got out, one of your—"

"Fuck, my hand fucking hurts but it's going numb. H-He— that guy… he tried to grab my rifle but I couldn't shake his h-hand off. So, I p-pulled the pistol from my hip and shot him and shot him. Haa… Haa… When he fell d-down... he g-grabbed my hand and he squeezed r-really fucking hard."

"..."

"I think… I think he broke a few of them and I'm already losing feeling. One of my fingers cracked and even the bone came out… Haa… How is he so strong?! WHERE'S THE FUCKING MEDIC?! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! IS THAT GUY ON DRUGS OR SOMETHING?! I THINK I'M ABOUT TO PASS OUT!"

"Don't worry, they're coming," I lied.

"YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENED, RIGHT?! THAT'S CLEARLY SELF-DEFENSE, RIGHT?! I TOLD YOU WHAT HAPPENED, I'M GONNA BE OKAY, RIGHT?!"

"Yeah, don't worry…" I said just to keep him mostly at bay.

"I WAS JUST—"

"You're going to worry more about that hand than your job," Oscar suddenly said from the front.

"W-What? My hand? I can't even feel my… I really think I'm about to pass out… I'm burning up and I have this headache and…"

Right when Oscar mentioned his hand, I took a closer look and noticed that dark lines were starting to protrude from his forearm. Blood was dripping out and staining the seats but darker bloodstains—which I surmised came from the maintenance guy—were present on certain parts of his hand and I assumed it was the cause of the dark lines on his arm.

'Contact must have been when he was grabbed and broke his hand… I remember the maintenance guy holding onto his neck earlier…'

I gave a long sigh and said, "You need to take a rest now, sleep, and have plenty of water. They'll be here soon…"

"Ah— Uh-huh… shit…"

I gave him a dosage of painkillers and a bottle of water as a goodbye. It wouldn't do anything to make him better but it was something to take his mind off the matter. I'd rather deal with a calm infected than a twitchy and rash one.

"Let me get you comfortable. Let me remove your belt and lay down," I said as I took the same items from his belt.

I locked his side of the door as he lowered himself on the seat.

'He's gonna turn soon.'

I planned on ending his life then and there but I wouldn't want to get held up by the guards if they saw us killing their own. It would be more of a mess and Kaley might get caught in the crossfire.

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

All of a sudden, more and rapid gunshots erupted and the crowd managed to push through the guards keeping them inside. The guards outside didn't even bother to try and keep them in because they went against the crowd and went inside to help their comrades. The three of us rushed to Oscar's SUV and even if things happened sooner than we expected, we were ready.