[Apocalypse Roulette] Anna Sergeyevna Romanov: Crash Landing

[Fayth]

"...and the women, my friend." Boris laughs heartily, grinning at Ivan, "American woman come in two flavors: banana," he holds his hands a short distance apart and jerks them downward, "and orange!" he shapes his hands around an imaginary orange as the rest of the plane erupts in laughter.


"What, no variety?" Ivan pouts, crossing his arms over his chest. "Variety in women is the best part of being on assignment!"


"No, they either believe that only sticks are pretty so they don't eat, or they don't care and eat whatever they want!" Boris continues to laugh. "It makes for problems in b-"


An on-board announcement cuts him off, telling the assembled Russian soldiers that landing is imminent. Those awake rouse the sleepers, and everyone begins pre-landing procedures: securing unsecured books, plates, and cups, turning off cellphones and laptops. Most of the travellers exchange quick jokes and smiles, enjoying their last few exchanges in their mother tongue before the mandated switch to English for the joint assignment.


The plane lands without a fuss, but there is a strange tension in the air. It filters from the cockpit on back, soldiers uneasily rolling their shoulders and tightening their jaws without knowing why. Conversation dies down, and silence persists all through the plane rolling to a stop. The bright lights of Midway filter through the windows, and the door to the plane unfolds onto the tarmac.


"Alright, one at a time," grumbles a sleepy junior grade officer, overseeing the disembarkation of the plane.

 

[Wolf Rawrrr]

Anna spent most of the flight staring out the window. She dozed off somewhere over the Atlantic and had woken up just as they were flying over lake Michigan on approach to Chicago. It was her first time in the States. She studied a map of the local area on her laptop while trying to ignore the bad jokes around her. Not that she minded; she just wasn't in the mood. It didn't stop her from smiling once or twice though.


Her coming to North America was part of a joint project between the U.S. and Russia. Classified, of course. She wouldn't even know what it's about until the briefing tomorrow. And she didn't know anyone else on board the military transport plane, though it looked like some of the crew knew each other.


When the plane touched the ground at Midway International Airport she asked herself what time it was. The flight took what, nine hours? The timezone switch would take some getting used to. Anna looked out the window but all that she could see were bright lights in the dark. Somewhere at the end of the runway there would be a welcoming committee. Assessing it would help weigh just how important this project was.


By the time the plane came to a halt Anna could feel the tension heavy in the air. She quickly packed up her stuff, which came down to a rucksack and a sports bag, and followed the other uniforms out the door. She was the third person to step out. Anna took a deep breath of night air and blinked, then looked around to examine her surroundings.

 

[Fayth]

There is no welcoming committee. There is no sign of life other than the first two soldiers to step out of the plane. Other planes hover still and silent on the pavement, lights dark and wheels immaculately clean. The patch of runway in front of them is blank, bare, leading up to a door that leads to the inside of the main Midway building.


Other enlisted men file out after Anna, each one as close-mouthed as the first. They are all smart people, observant, and the very fact that there is nothing and no one here to observe escapes none of them.


The junior-grade officer - Alexei Kasyanov - is last off the plane, face tight and lips curved downward. He pulls his cell phone out of one of his pockets and turns it back on, quickly dialing in a number. About a minute of him holding the phone to his ear passes, and he drops it without saying a word.


"Service is down," he announces in English. "We will wait inside for the Americans to collect us."


His tone is disapproving, rather obviously so. He leads the way toward the door, hefting his bags over his shoulder.

 

[Wolf Rawrrr]

It's not that Anna didn't believe Kasyanov's report, but she just couldn't help seeing for herself. That the service would be down was hard to believe, but one glance at her HTC phone was enough. There was no signal. Now, a thing like that, as unusual as it could be, wasn't enough to make it seem anything was wrong. But coupled with the lack of a welcoming committee and the eerie atmosphere on the airfield... It was enough.


"Something is wrong." she said as they moved towards the door. The main building loomed ahead of them. Anna moved up to the door with everyone else and waited for those in front to open it so that she could follow inside. She wondered if everything would be ok on the inside. After all, this was Chicago, not a backwater airfield in the middle of Siberia. Like that one time. She expected more traffic here.

 

[Fayth]

"Perhaps there is a tower down nearby," Boris offers when he hears Anna, but there is no hope in his tone. His are the words of a man who does not wish anything to be wrong, but knows that it is very possible, if not probable.


Kasyanov opens the door, sliding in first. From her little experience with him, Anna has seen him repeatedly hold open doors and allow enlisted men to go first. It is unusual for an officer - most are self-important and insist on being in the lead no matter how rude their actions would seem in the civilian world - but now, he has shifted into 'problem' mode. Something is wrong, and he must be the first to handle it, must be first in the line of fire. It is how true leaders are expected to be, but how people are rarely willing to act.

The door opens into a long hallway, one with windows lining either side. This too, is deserted. All that can be seen at the end is a wall that surely opens into a T-junction, and the windows show only pinpricks of light against the dark backdrop of the early morning.


There is some shifting among the soldiers, a few bags re-adjusted against shoulders or backs, but no one speaks. After a few moments, Kasyanov leads the way, lowering one of his bags to the floor so as to pull it along. Wheeled luggage bags are surely a blessing to all military members.


The hallway continues on, as hallways do, until the group reaches the end. In one direction points a sign in English reading, "restrooms", in the other says, "main building".


"Does anyone need to use the facilities?" Kasyanov turns to his group, eyes scanning over grim faces.

 

[Wolf Rawrrr]

An empty hallway was the last thing Anna wanted to see, but not entirely unexpected. Outside was still dark but what she could make out through the glass walls looked like a recently abandoned airstrip. At least on this side of the airport. Maybe there's a grounding order in effect for some reason, she thought. Could be related to cell service failure. Makes sense.


But she didn't share her thoughts with the rest of the team yet. If it occurred to her, it probably occurred to them too. Besides, there was a more urgent matter pressing at the moment. One that she just remembered, or became aware of. She raised a hand when officer Kasyanov asked the question, and said instinctively: "Da." A moment later she corrected herself: "I mean, yes sir. I do. Won't take long."


God knows when she'd get another chance, so she decided to better take this one.

 

[Fayth]

Another soldier piped up once Anna did with his own need, and Kasyanov waved them both off. He turned to survey the hallway, eyes restlessly going over the emptiness over and over again. The other four soldiers let their bags fall to the floor, leaning against walls to settle in for the wait.


The bathroom is spotless, not a single speck of dirt or water residue anywhere on the gleaming metal. There are two stalls (the far one closed, the near one partially open), a sink with a hand sanitizer dispenser next to it, a condom/pad/tampon dispenser, and a baby-changing fold-out table.


When she walks in, she hears, just barely audible, a whimper from the far stall.

 

[Wolf Rawrrr]

Anna was surprised at how clean everything was. She already headed for the nearest stall when she registered the whimper from the farther one. Normally, she'd ignore it. Anna wasn't one to overextend in concern for other people - at least people she didn't know. This time, however, it was different. The grounded airfield, lack of cell service, empty hallways, and the silence... She just realized that this whimper coming from a toilet stall was the first sound that wasn't made by her team. And that's why she went to investigate.


She quietly put down her rucksack and sports bag near the exit door and then carefully walked to stand by the closed door of the second stall. She was going to try opening it when another idea hit her. She backed off silently and slowly opened the first stall to check if it's empty.

 

[Fayth]

The first stall is as empty as expected. It's just as clean as the rest of the bathroom, with a fully-stocked toilet paper roll dispenser and all.

 

[Wolf Rawrrr]

Anna slids inside the clean, empty stall, then carefully climbs onto the edge of the toilet in order to gain additional height. Finally, she grabs hold of the top of the wall and leans over it to take a discreet peek at the inside of the second stall. What did she expect? Nothing. She had no idea what to expect, and she wasn't thinking about it either. She simply went and looked, trusting herself to be able to handle anything that comes.

 

[Fayth]

Sitting on the toilet, silent tears leaking down her cheeks as she stares at the door, is a woman in the middle of her life. There is a hank missing from her long dark hair, and her checkered power suit has a splash of blood on it, but the woman herself looks unharmed to a casual glance.


She does not notice Anna, curling up into herself with her knees pressed tightly to her chest and her arms wrapped around them. She's biting her lip so hard a trickle of blood runs down her chin, and her breathing is fast and erratic.

 

[Wolf Rawrrr]

Anna paused for a few long moments up there, partially because she was studying the woman but also because it was somehow difficult to tear away from the scene. Finally she carefully got her feet back on the ground and thought about what do to. Hell, might as well since I'm here, she thought and sat down to do what she came here to do.


She figured that she couldn't cause much more noise than she already had - and if that wasn't enough to upset the woman, neither would this. Just in case, she decided against flushing water. In a minute, when she was done, she would go and see what's wrong.

 

[Fayth]

Another whimper from the other stall, a shift of cloth, and then a low, rhythmic chant.


"The Lord is my shepard, I shall not want..." The woman's voice is deep, breathy, one that could be pleasant to listen to under other circumstances. Now, it breaks with fear, cuts out entirely once during her recital. "I shall not want. He makes me lie- lie down in down in green pastures...."

 

[Wolf Rawrrr]

Finishing her business, Anna positioned herself in front of the other stall in which the woman was chanting. She's... quoting the Bible? Anna hesitated a moment, then slowly opened the door. Better to resolve this before her team started wondering.


"Are you alright?" she asked, trying to cut down on the accent. Anna's English was great with the exception of her Russian accent. No matter how hard she tried, she never managed to completely conceal it. That's why she rarely bothered. But in this particular situation it occurred to her that sounding less... foreign might be helpful.

 

[Fayth]

The woman squeaks, jumps, cowers. When Anna asks her question, the woman looks up warily. Her eyes are a dark brown, eyelids puffy from crying. Her makeup is so smudged as to be almost clownish, and there is a single spot of blood high on one powdered cheek.


"You're... sane?" Her voice breaks, but her eyes are cautiously hopeful. "You're not one of those loonies?" She looks Anna up and down, takes in the uniform, relaxes a little.

 

[Wolf Rawrrr]

Anna also relaxed a little, let the tension go. She had completely forgotten that she was in uniform and wondered what the woman would think of her. Would she recognize a Russian Army uniform?


"It's alright. Don't be afraid." Anna said to calm her. "Are you hurt? What's the situation here?" She didn't even realize how official she sounded. Force of habit, but hopefully she'd get some answers anyway.

 

[Fayth]

"I'm... not hurt. This blood is my coworker's." The woman swallows, closes her eyes for a second. "I was leaving for a business conference in LA. Harley and I were waiting for our plane. It got delayed." She shrugs, for an instant the bored businesswoman. "Midway, right? And then a man a few aisles away started having seizures. He... vomited several times, and fell onto the ground. Someone in his aisle was a doctor and started taking care of him right away. Someone else called 911 and they said they were sending someone, but I don't know if they ever got here."


She takes a deep, shuddering breath, bites her lip. "Then he came back all of a sudden and attacked the doctor, started biting people. He got the doctor and a few other people, before security got to him. Then, a couple terminals down, someone else started seizing and... I don't know how it all got out of control. Things are kind of blurry after that. " The businesswoman looks down at the blood on her suit. "One of the... rabid people... got Harley, right in front of me. I ran for it, and next thing I know I'm in here and you came in and..." She shakes her head, "...were in the stall next to me. I thought I was going to die."

 

[Wolf Rawrrr]

Anna listened to the woman patiently while trying to draw the lines in her mind. At the end she nodded and even managed a smile. "I didn't mean to scare you. Sorry. Your story sounds like there was some kind of an epidemic. I'm glad you got out of it in one piece. However, there's one thing that's troubling me..." Anna said, taking a few steps away to look around the still spotless bathroom one more time. Not that she was expecting to make any new discoveries. She also checked her phone. The signal was still dead and nearly ten minutes had passed since she left her team in the hallway.


"If there was such chaos here, then where did everyone go? It's dead quiet, the airfield's completely abandoned, and we haven't encountered or heard a single person since we landed. Where are the authorities at least?" Anna launched a ton of questions at the poor woman, not really expecting a reply, but immediately after an answer formed in her own mind. Evacuation. Quarantine. Great.

 

[Fayth]

As if on cue, someone knocks hesitantly at the door. "Romanov?" Comes a masculine voice. Ivan, it sounds like. "Are you alright?"


The woman swallows, then ventures out of the stall, standing at the far end of the bathroom. "Is he with you?" She whispers. "Romanov, is that your name?"

 

[Wolf Rawrrr]

"He's with me, don't worry. Part of the team." says Anna to reassure her, then shouts so the man outside can hear her: "I'm ok! Coming out in minute!"


She then turns her attention back to the woman. "I am Anna Sergeyevna Romanov." She introduced herself with a smile. "I'm with the Russian Armed Forces. What is your name?"

 

[Fayth]

"Alright, Romanov," Ivan replies from the other side of the door. "Please hurry, none of us want to have to come in after you!"


"Bethany," the woman says. She takes a deep, shuddering breath. "I don't know what the Russian Armed Forces are doing here, but I should be safe with you." Bethany gives a soft, quavering smile. "Right?"

 

[Wolf Rawrrr]

"Let's just say we're part of a project with your own armed forces." said Anna to wrap up any additional questions. "And you're safe now. Come, follow me."


That said, Anna led Bethany towards the exit, picking up her stuff off the floor on the way. She opened the door and stepped out in the hallway to find Ivan.

 

[Fayth]

Bethany follows quietly, her steps echoing off the walls of the small bathroom. When Anna steps out into the hallway, Ivan gives the civilian a quick smile, and introduces himself. "Ivan Kaminsky, Russian armed forces." Bethany responds with her own name, and he nods.


He gives Anna a look as if to say, Is this why you spent so much time in there? but doesn't openly question her, instead turning to head back to the rest of the group.

 

[Wolf Rawrrr]

"Let's get back to the others." said Anna, more for Bethany's sake than Ivan's. She follows her teammate while gesturing the woman to follow her. In her head though, she was trying to make sense of the situation based on what she learned from Bethany.


Where did everyone go?

 

[Fayth]

Ivan leads them the very short distance back to where the Russian team gathers. When they arrive with an unknown civilian in tow, the heads of all four soldiers and the officer turn toward them.


Kasyanov's hand twitches in the general direction of his firearm, and the four enlisted men shift uneasily on their feet, one of them obviously staring at the blood on Bethany's suit. Kasyanov doesn't speak, but gives Anna a clearly expectant look, one eyebrow raised.