Free The Grave: A Zombie Novel by Russ Watts Page A

Christ’s sake, this is ridiculous.” Tug undid his seatbelt and stood up. He was wearing a tight black T-shirt t hat showed off his muscles and he was angry. His face was red and his eyes bloodshot. “I didn’t fly halfway round the world to get killed in a bloody backwater jet plane driven by some two-bit trainee. Let me at those bloody pilots. Who the hell do they…”
    There was another bang and the plane began to nosedive again. Instantly, Will and Mark were thrown forward against the cockpit door and Tug forced himself back down into his seat. Flames erupted from the plane’s other propeller and the plane rattled and rolled as if it were trying to battle a giant monster.
    Will heard shouts from the cockpit , but the pilots weren’t talking in English and he couldn’t understand them. He pushed Mark away and they sank back into front row seats ahead of Rasmus.
    “Everyone okay back there? I mean is anyone hurt?” asked Will clipping his belt in. He turned around to look down the plane. Through the left side windows, he could see only clear blue sky and through the right nothing but crimson fire and black smoke. His friends and colleagues were silent, but their faces told him everything he needed to know. He could hear crying coming from some of the women and Josef was asking how Rasmus was. Rasmus, however, was not answering.
    Tricia and Claire were white, their eyes closed tight. Tricia was praying as her parents had taught her to as a child, hoping God would hear her this time. Tug had already adopted the brace position, obviously expecting the worst and not waiting to be told. Rasmus was still out cold. Wilfred was looking around the plane nervously, his eyes wide and alert, darting about the plane as if looking for an escape. Kelly was sat upright, her back straight and her eyes focused dead ahead. As he looked around, Will met her gaze and they both nodded to one another. He knew she would not collapse under duress and she knew she could rely on him if the worst happened. When his eyes found Suzy’s, his heart skipped a beat.
    She was crying and holding onto the armrest beside her with a vice-like grip. He wished he were sitting back with her now, holding her and comforting her, but to get up again would be suicidal. He could do nothing now but wait and hope the pilots regained some sort of control. The plane was being thrown around like a leaf in a hurricane. They were being jolted from left to right and up and down, with no apparent control. Suzy’s eyes locked onto Will’s and he tried to send her reassuring thoughts. She seemed so fragile in that moment. A tough New Yorker reduced to crying like a little girl.
    There was another bang and the plane exploded into a cloud of smoke and fire. The cockpit door blew apart and icy cold wind rushed into the cabin, snatching their breaths out of them. From his seat at the front of the plane, Will saw the co-pilot thrown forward and then sucked straight out into the sky, flying into nothingness. The man was ripped out of his seat in a second, the side window no longer there. Will heard his body bounce off the hull and there was a faint scream; Will never saw the man again.
    Through eyes that were being forced shut by the high velocity wind rushing at them, Will saw that the front of the plane was now a mess. The control panel looked dead and the remaining pilot was wrestling with the controls. Their steep descent was levelling out. God knows how, but the pilot seemed to be getting them under control. With the cockpit door gone, the plane’s contents were being sucked out into the sky as they plummeted down toward the ground. Bags, briefcases, papers, books and jackets all rushed passed Will on their way out of the plane. He thanked God that he had stayed in his seat and not decided to get up and head for Suzy. If he had, he would’ve been sucked out along with the now dead co-pilot.
    The plane was still descending and the ground was rushing up to meet them