Fiction – Ruth’s Story Part 14
Standing beside the large support pillars in the Sea Tac baggage claim area, I feel incredibly naked and vulnerable. Sure I have a pistol, but eventually the bullets will run out.
Scanning the baggage claim area for movement takes a few moments. Using my peripheral vision prevents me from obsessing on one area. This type of scanning tends to catch movement.
Not seeing any movement, I hunch over and quickly trot to grunge zombie’s corpse. I kneel on the carpet near her feet placing my Browning Hi Power on the floor to my right within easy reach.
I place my Cold Steel shovel on the floor to my left. As I am setting my shovel down on the floor I notice that the blade is covered in gore and spend a moment wiping it off on the carpet.
Thankfully grunge zombie landed on her back when I killed her. These are some really nice Doc Marten boots and look to be close to my size. Shoving her once grunge-fashionable ripped-up Levis up her leg, I see an ugly, bluish-purple bulge around the top of her boots. Lividity caused fluid to pool around the top of her boots.
When she died and then reanimated, the decomposing body fluids pooled in her legs starting just above the boots. Her boots are laced tight to her legs which prevented the fluid from running down her legs.
Her knees resemble two bluish-purple puss-filled sacks of fluid. My stomach heaves at the thought of attempting to unlace the Doc Marten boots. I decide that I do not want these boots after all. What I would have to do to get them is just too awful to contemplate further.
Picking up my pistol and shovel I quickly trot to my little sanctuary. Nothing looks amiss as I scan the area for movement. Reaching through the shattered window, I open the door and slip quickly inside.
The sun is fully up now and there is enough light to see. Despite the slight chill in the air I am damp with sweat.
To my great relief I see all my items are where I left them. Pulling my backpack out with my POF AR15 still tied to its side, I am relieved to have my weapons with me again. I keep my pistol out but put my Cold Steel shovel back in its sheath.
With my purloined rental car keys, I am now ready to get the fuck out of this damn airport! Slipping my backpack on and adjusting the straps takes a moment or two. Eventually I get the pack adjusted for my small frame. Not terribly comfortable but will have to do. Weight of the pack is not too bad, maybe a couple kilos less than what I had to carry when I served in the IDF.
Even with the Scottevest jacket tied to the pack it makes a fairly compact load. I am still sad to leave my Pelican cases, but there is no way I could carry them. I need to move, and they would weigh me down too much.
God in heaven I am thirsty! With limited water, though I am trying to ration as much as I can. But I would love to just guzzle about four liters of water right now. A nice hot shower would probably put me to sleep but it sounds lovely.
Holding my pistol in my hands with my rental car keys shoved in my pants pocket, I open the door preparing to leave my sanctuary for the last time. A quick visual scan of the area reveals nothing amiss and I slip out the door and quickly trot to one of the support pillars.
Another brief visual scan reveals nothing of concern so another quick trot and I am to the door leading outside. I chose to go to the doors that are wedged open by some poor bastard that got killed in the doorway.
I kick the corpse a few times just to make sure it is truly dead. The corpse is of an older Caucasian male lying flat on his stomach. I do not see any wounds on him and wonder what killed him and why he did not reanimate?
Slipping through the double doors outside is shocking. After being indoors for more than six days, to be thrust outside suddenly in the bright sunshine sends sharp stabs of pain into my eyes. I wish I had not left my sunglasses in my car when I got to BWI.
It is a nice bright sunny day and is a good day to steal a car and get the hell out of here. But where do I go? I do not know anyone in the Seattle area. I have no family in the states other than Amy but she is on the opposite coast, if she is even still alive.
For now I will secure transportation then search for more food and water. Then I will consider my options.
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allensrepositoryofstuff 
I’m digging it, keep them coming!!
Just caught up. Great job so far. Are you making this up as you go along or do you have it all already planned out in your mind? I only ask because of how the first story started with two people and then seemed to flash back to Ruth only. Again, great job and I truly enjoyed reading up to this point!
I actually have it all planned out. The rough draft had Ruth leaving SeaTac airport in a brief three sentence description. On editing I decided to expand Ruth’s escape from SeaTac airport which gave me an opportunity to provide more back story on her. She will catch up with her male companion in a few posts. I want to keep the posts shorter because not many people want to read a long-winded post these days. Thanks for reading, I should have another installment of Ruth’s story up in a couple days. School has kept me busy with midterms.
While the airport could have been made shorter I personally enjoy the detail that you have provided thus far. It really allows you to visualize everything from the start IMO.
You are correct I could have reduced the air port scenario quite a bit. For a novel, I probably would chop the air port part down to Ruth killing a few zombies, getting her gear and hauling ass.
Any particular reason that her sidearm is an old Browning Hi Power besides the fact that it was a gift?
It’s a good, venerable side arm, but one needs to be careful with modern loads and I wasn’t aware that it could be silenced effectively.
The Browning Hi-Power is a great modern pistol. It can be silenced quite effectively with a replacement longer and threaded barrel (which Ruth’s pistol has). The Hi-Power has slimmer grips and a lot of women (and those with smaller hands) feel more comfortable with the pistol. It is also a very common pistol in Israel, and at one time was the issued sidearm of the Israeli state police. And yes it was a gift, but it is also the pistol she had carried and shot the most and is the most proficient with. While it might not be the pefect pistol, it is quite capable of handling modern pistol ammo although it should not ever be loaded with any +P ammo.
Very much loving this!
Unlike the others, I have no problem with the airport. Girl’s smart – let the other fools break trail while I stand back to watch and take my time gathering gear…
I REFUSE to believe she couldn’t find some sunglasses in the airport – Hertz zombie would have had some not to mention grunge-girl…
I’m also a bit dumbfounded that she didn’t search the rest of the locker – especially after specifically mentioning it – and it’s not like that’s something that could slip your mind while you’re standing in it!
G*D only knows what sort of goodies might have remained in there!
She’s smarter than that!
$0.02…
For some reason Seattle sells more sun glasses per capita than many larger cities. You are correct the lack of sun glasses was an oversight on my part.
I had a long segment where she searches the locker written, but it was edited out in a desire to keep the story moving and more “crunchy.”
I have never liked the transition from the locker to leaving the air port where I cut out all the pages of her searching the baggage locker.
My sanity and fact checker and my first reader suggested I cut out the pages of nothing but Ruth going through baggage.
Maybe in a re-write edit some of the cut material of Ruth searching the baggage will get replaced.
Thanks for the suggestion and I am glad you pointed it out – shows you are following the story and I have not lost you in the wood work.