Nathaniel, Eddie, Vincent, Diana and Brandon shuffled forward through the snow. It was early morning and a deep chill had set in. Each day seemed to be colder than the last. It was taking a toll.
"Hey," panted Brandon heavily, "wait up."
Eddie, Vincent and Nathaniel pushing Diana forward stopped abruptly. They turned around to see Brandon bent forward - hands on knees. His skin shimmered lightly from the thin layer of sweat that had built up from exertion.
"We're nearly there Brandon, Heathrow Airport is barely a kilometre away." Eddie reported, checking his analogue wristwatch for the time. Unlike digital watches, analogue watches that required winding or were perpetual in design had remained functional. Everyone in the group had one now, scavenged from homes and Undead alike.
"Alright," sighed the heavily breathing man, groaning as he stood upright, "please let's have a break once we get there though."
"Deal," said Eddie. Everyone in the group started trudging onward through the thick snow again, except Eddie. He waited until all his comrades passed him by before continuing. He wanted to keep an eye on Brandon.
Finally the group arrived at Heathrow Airport.
Nathaniel was in awe of the development.
The entire Airport had been fortified. A ten metre tall reinforced concrete wall surrounded the perimeter. Along the wall's top armoured guards bearing the ArmSys logo patrolled. The entry terminals themselves had been converted into bunker-like entryways. The entire Airport had been converted into a fortress. Nathaniel wondered what it looked like inside. The group approached the closest entryway - labelled with a large militaristic two. The guards eyed them closely as a woman in regular civilian clothing walked up to greet them. She seemed to bounce with every step and was smiling welcomingly.
"Hey there!" she called out once the group arrived outside the entrance.
"Hi. I see you've done a few renovations." remarked Eddie.
"Haha yea we have!" giggled the lady, "Heathrow Airport has been converted into a literal fortress-city. We call it Fort Heathrow or just the Row for short."
"Very fitting." replied Eddie.
"It is. Anyway, my name is Adelaide and I'm your Settler Recruiter Officer. I'll be showing you around, explaining how things work here including the Market and see about getting you a place to sleep." bubbled the lady, smiling enthusiastically.
"Adelaide, like the city in Australia." remarked Vincent absentmindedly.
"Yep that's right! Are you from the Land Down Under?" smiled Adelaide, tilting her head to one side slightly.
"Yes," muttered Vincent quietly, looking down at the ground, "I am."
"Wonderful! Now everyone follow me into the Search Room. Here the guards will go through your belongings and seize any weapons. Don't worry - you can get them back if you're sent out of Heathrow on a mission or something."
The entire group funnelled into the room and set down their backpacks.
Nathaniel turned to Eddie and called out as he placed his bag beside the old man's own, "Hey could you go through my bag and make sure there's no weapons in it?" he asked.
Eddie nodded slowly with a sly smirk, "I sure can", he replied.
Nathaniel looked over his shoulder to Adelaide who stood waiting patiently with a clipboard. "Airport security always makes me nervous," he joked.
Adelaide laughed and used the clipboard to cover her mouth as she did so.
"Oh gosh that's funny, what's your name mister?"
"Nathaniel," he replied.
"Oh sorry can I have your full name? I need to register you all in our database. Well, it's not a real database. Just a lot of paper. It's just so we can keep track of who's who and make sure nobody else takes your weapons."
Nathaniel nodded, "Sorry. Well, my name is Nathaniel Marshall Torres."
"How about everyone else?" shouted Adelaide as she furiously wrote down names on her clipboard.
"Diana Keene!" exclaimed Diana.
"Edward Gerard Beckett" stated Eddie while going through Nathaniel's backpack.
"Vincent Shaw" said Vincent plainly as he piled all the group's weapons into a guard's arms.
"Mathers, Brandon Mathers." smirked Brandon.
"You're not James Blonde, just say your name normally Brandon," scolded Eddie as he rolled his eyes at Brandon. Brandon in turn just grinned even wider which caused Diana to smirk too.
"Fuckin' kids." sighed Eddie under his breath as he placed his yari in the weapons pile.
The guard holding all the weapons nodded at Adelaide.
"Right, well we're all done here. Let's head inside!" with the final remark she placed the clipboard into a different guard's hands and tapped erratically against a heavy steel door. Nathaniel, having worked for the FBI, realised she was actually tapping in morse code incredibly quickly and was not random at all. It was a smart system. It meant the door's 'password' cannot be easily replicated and Adelaide could do a different morse code to let the insiders know about intruders if she was taken hostage. Very smart indeed, thought Nathaniel. He tried to memorise the password however Adelaide had simply done it too fast and Nathaniel realised too late. The man glanced over at Eddie who seemed to be mouthing something silently.
The steel door slowly slid back to reveal the inside of Fort Heathrow.
Initially Nathaniel did not see anything abnormal about the airport. All the buildings seemed fairly normal or at least from the exterior. Through the glass Nathaniel realised the various levels and sections of the airport have been converted to rooms via plaster wall dividers. The overall design made it look like an oddly wide skyscraper full of apartments. However other than a retrofitted interior the airport seemed normal. Large, long buildings of glass. Hangers and terminals everywhere for passengers to board planes.
Except there were no planes.
Nathaniel's eyes widened as he realised there was not a single aircraft in sight. It was incredible. On the news and in Nathaniel's previous history in the apocalypse he knew hundreds of Aircraft were crammed into the Airport - most of which strewn haphazardly not on any runway. However they were all gone. The fresh snow that covered the airport grounds was completely undisturbed. How the fuck did Heathrow get rid of billions of dollars worth of aircraft in a fortnight?, thought Nathaniel absolutely puzzled.
The group followed Adelaide deeper into the Airport as she began their tour.
"You may notice that outside all the aircraft everywhere have been removed. That's courtesy of our founder - Theodore Sharpe. He removed all the space stealing planes for future development of Heathrow. Currently we all live in temporary housing apartments. However Mr Sharpe and his ArmSys engineers are working on restoring electricity and constructing a fully fledged town inside the airport!" beamed Adelaide, her smile radiating excitement and positivity.
"Wow that's…," Nathaniel paused, literally lost for words for a moment, "incredible. Sounds like ArmSys could make things go back to normal."
"Enough about the future, let's talk about today." began Adelaide as she stopped abruptly in the middle of the main hub of the Airport. "This here is the Hub, from here you can get to all the main districts of Fort Heathrow."
Adelaide turned and pointed in all four main halls that stemmed off the Hub.
"Here is Housing Alpha, Next to it is Production where most food and things are starting to be made, Opposite Housing Alpha is Housing Delta and finally the way we came has two different additional areas on the left and right. On the left is the Administration Office and Medical Centre. On the Right is the Main Marketplace and is also where Mr Sharpe does his business on Market Day." elaborated Adelaide, pointing at each location as she explained.
"We have replaced all the signage so if you get lost just look up. I'll take you guys to your apartment in Housing Delta in a moment.", asked Adelaide with a sweet smile "Before then, any questions?"
"Yes, where do we get food and what is Market Day?" inquired Eddie, stroking his chin in thought.
"Food is given for free at the Administration Office as is basic needs like water. However premium food and medicine can be purchased at the Market. Now, Market Day is every Friday. So far we've only had two and the next one is just after Christmas. There's actually rumours there's going to be one on Christmas actually. Anyway, Mr Sharpe possesses the power to convert goods into currency and vice versa. On market day people can barter for Sharpe to sell things in exchange for receiving desired goods. His ability is how we managed to get all the resources to get this place up and running." Adelaide paused and her lips twitched almost imperceptibly as she said "He is truly an excellent and generous man."
"Right… I see. Interesting. Can you take us to our apartment now?" asked Eddie.
"Of course, Mr Beckett. Follow Me." answered Adelaide before turning on her heel and trending off towards Housing Delta. The group wearily followed behind.
Once the group had settled into their pseudo-apartment, Eddie closed the door and gathered the group around one of their makeshift beds.
"Something doesn't seem right," Eddie hissed in the group huddle.
"Agreed," replied Nathaniel softly, "Adelaide never stopped smiling and all the planes are missing. There's no easy way out of the U.K."
"We'll act like we're not suspicious for now," whispered Vincent, "gather some more info."
"Excellent idea," said Diana, "what do you think Brandon? Brandon?"
Brandon did not respond, instead he slumped forward. His vision and hearing faded to nothingness as he heard someone shout "Oh god get him a doctor!"