Morgan stared at herself in the airport bathroom mirror popping another diazepam under the yellow light. She hadn’t slept properly since the funeral on Tuesday. Soon she’d be back to normal, cramming for exams in her university library and the tragic event of her uncle and aunts death would be forgotten so she could study for finals. Before life could resume normality she had to escort her kid cousin Fran back to Edinburgh where Morgan’s parents would take guardianship of the orphan. Poor kid, Morgan thought gripping her suitcase and heading back to the lounge where she had left the eight year old.

The airport was eerily quiet for a work day. There were small groups of people. Morgan supposed it had something to do with the chemical leak that happened yesterday, maybe that also had something to do with all of the flights being delayed.

She sat down next the Fran. The kid is so quiet, Morgan thought. I guess it’s to be expect giving the circumstances. Putting on a smile, Morgan pulled out her purse and emptied the change into her palm.

“Sweetie, why don’t you take this and get yourself something yummy from that vending machine over there. Your barely touched your breakfast.......you must be hungry...” Morgan said, putting on the sweetest tone. Fran nodded standing up and letting Morgan dump the change into her small palms before hurrying to the vending machine a couple meters away. Good job Morgan she won’t starve, Morgan thought to herself.

Morgan reached into her purse pulling out her cell phone and headphone wanting nothing more than to turn off and play some music. However, a commotion caught her attention. Glancing toward to doors to the small airport she saw a large crowd of people approaching. A large crowd entered the airport in a hurry bombarding the desk. Curiously, Morgan observed the crowd. They were all carrying only small bags if anything. The majority of them looked sweaty and shocked as if half traumatized. Morgan glanced at the vending machine making sure that Fran was still near arms length.

Standing, she moved a couple seats closer wanting to hear the commotion. It was hard to make out what was going on with so many people talking and yelling. She managed to catch bits of dialogue like “my cell phones dead..” “so is mine” “we haven’t got much time..” “those things won’t be far behind..”

Morgan’s eyes were then captured by something strange happening by the doors. There was a man walking into the door. Mesmerized, Morgan watched him. Bam. Bam. Bam. He walked into the glass over and over. Red splattered against the door which finally caught a few people’s attention. Observers like Morgan rushed to help the man just as a couple more people walked through the automatic doors. Morgan watched this new group. Something wasn’t right. They shuffled in slowly at first. They were more disheveled than the group at the desk. Their heads were bent low so she couldn’t see their faces.

Suddenly, they picked up speed heading towards the helpful group of observers gathering around the injured man. In a sudden act of violence one of the shufflers grabbed the closest person. With a horrid snarl. The shuffler sank it’s rotten teeth into the man’s meek tearing out flesh. People started to run In a crowd towards the plane gates.

Terror vibrated through Morgan. Turning toward the vending machine she called out for Fran. She was gone, swept into the crowd.