The Cold

by Rich Hawkins

  They halted in the middle of the street. Ahead of them, twenty yards away, Ruby kneeled in the snow, looking down at the silver cross she held between two fingers. Her face was streaked with tears. Then she placed her hands together in prayer and looked up to the low sky.

  The blind monster shrieked from nearby.

  Andy staggered over to Ruby and pulled her away from the approaching shape of the monster. Seth moved with them as they fled down the street and along slippery pathways until they slowed to an exhausted stagger through the thick drifts. The swirling flecks of snow harried them until they were hunched over and barely walking in the blizzard.

  “I think it’s lost track of us,” Seth said. “What the fuck was it?”

  “What was that thing in the police station?” Andy asked, panting and coughing.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Poor Miles. Poor bastard.”

  “It ripped his fucking head off.” Seth let out a strangled sob, and his legs lost all their strength. He fell to his knees, exhausted and despondent. Terrified of the world. Andy and Ruby stood over him, their heads bowed against the storm. Ruby’s hands were still clasped together, the silver cross dangling from between.

  Seth joined her in prayer, and begged to God for salvation. It was all he could do.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  They found an abandoned house on an empty street in the wild wind and snow. There was no sign of monsters, but the daylight was already dimming. Something that sounded like thunder boomed far away and reverberated throughout the sky.

  It was like the darkest winter of nightmares. Seth found it difficult to think straight; everything inside his head seemed vague and drifting.

  Seth, Ruby and Andy slumped on the sofa in the living room. They had checked the house for occupants both human and otherwise, and found nothing. Like the other buildings in the town, there was no electricity or running water. The walls and floors radiated cold.

  Judging by the framed photos, the house belonged to a middle-aged married couple without children. Seth wondered what had become of them, and then decided he didn’t want to think any more about it.

  Ruby exhaled, rubbed her eyes, and then looked at the floor. She was shivering. “I feel better now. But I don’t remember much of what’s happened.”

  Andy leaned forward, holding his face in his hands. “We’re the only survivors from the train,” said Andy.

  “Just us?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Are you okay?” Andy asked her.

  She nodded, wiped her mouth. “Yeah. I just need to sit down for a bit.”

  “Same here.”

  “Yeah.”

  Seth stared at the window on the far side of the room; the world beyond was all mist and snow, seemingly empty of life. Dead silence. A sudden image of his parents, hiding from the monsters, flashed through his mind. A wave of hopelessness left him trembling and forlorn. The edges of his vision dimmed. His heart felt slow and heavy. Lactic acid ached in his limbs.

  “What shall we do?” asked Andy.

  Seth sighed, pushed the memories of Miles’ death from his mind. “Stay here for a while. It’s not safe outside. Too many people have already died.”

  They remained on the sofa, in silence, huddled together for warmth.

  *

  Seth was woken by a tall, hooded figure in a snow-flecked coat, its eyes obscured by snow goggles as it regarded the three of them on the sofa.

  Seth blinked, took a sharp intake of breath, as he noticed the rifle in the figure’s arms. He’d never seen a gun before in real life, not a proper gun, and the sight of the barrel pointed in his direction turned his guts to water.

  “I thought I was alone out here,” the intruder said, its voice muffled by the scarf wrapped around the lower half of its face. “Wake up your friends.”

  *

  The man dropped his rucksack on the floor then sat down in an armchair. He stood his rifle against the nearest wall and took off his snow goggles. Then he removed his scarf, pulled back his hood, slumped back and sighed deeply. His haggard face was darkened by black stubble. Seth, Ruby and Andy watched him.

  “I was trying to reach the police station,” the man said, “but I got turned around in the snowfall. Then I saw your trail in the snow. and thought it best to find the nearest house instead. You left the back door unlocked, by the way. Who are you?”

  Painfully aware of the rifle within the man’s reach, they spoke their names.

  The man nodded. “I’m Bill Weir. Everyone calls me Weir. Christ, I thought I was alone out here.”

  “We just came from the police station,” Andy said.

  “How was it?” Weir asked him. “Anyone there?”

  “The police are gone,” said Seth. He didn’t mention the ravaged corpses of the police officers or Miles’ death.

  Weir rubbed at his face with the heels of his hands. “I didn’t expect any different, to be honest.” He noticed them staring at him. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “You’re the first person we’ve seen since the snow began to fall,” said Seth.

  Weir frowned. “Really?”

  Ruby fidgeted with her hands on her lap. “We were on a train. It crashed. We’re the only survivors.”

  “You’ve had contact with the monsters?”

  Seth nodded. “You could say that.”

  Ruby suppressed a sob.

  “Do you know much about what’s happened?” said Andy. “Do you know what’s going on? You must know something…”

  “Please,” Ruby muttered.

  Weir glanced at each of them. “You’ve done well to survive without a firearm.”

  “We’ve been lucky,” Seth said. “Where did you find a gun?”

  Weir brushed bits of snow from his coat, before he unzipped it down to his stomach, revealing a tactical vest and a police badge on the left side of his chest. “I’m an Authorised Firearms Officer. One of the few left, I’ll bet.”

  “Is it that bad out there?” Andy asked.

  “It’s worse than you could ever imagine,” said Weir.

  Andy snorted. “What’s that supposed to mean?” said Ruby.

  “It means that normal service will not be resumed.”

  Seth leaned forward. “What do you know?”

  Weir retrieved three small bottles of water from his rucksack and tossed one each to Seth, Ruby and Andy. They unscrewed the caps and drank greedily. Seth had never been so grateful for a drink of bland water. Beside him, Ruby burped into her hand and replaced the cap on the bottle. Andy downed almost his entire bottle in one go.

  “Food?” Weir asked them, and when they nodded he threw them a large packet of cheese crackers to share. They tore into the packet, and Seth had eaten half a dozen crackers before he realised that Weir was watching them. He wiped his mouth and let Andy and Ruby eat the rest. Weir offered a sympathetic half-smile.

  “What do you know?” Seth asked him again. “What the fuck has happened?”

  Weir looked out the wide living room window at the blizzard. “I’ll go back to the beginning, when the snow started to fall, before it all fell apart.”

  *

  Weir spoke in a low voice.

  “It was chaos. There were monsters – things that shouldn’t have been possible. Horrific things. We were deployed near Salisbury cathedral and within minutes we were overwhelmed. All my colleagues were killed. I think I saw people get taken by the snow, but I’m not sure. I remember just firing my weapon at the creatures, and somehow I managed to evade them and survive. I escaped the city. My house was a few miles outside Salisbury, but when I returned there, my wife—” He looked at the floor, wringing his hands, shaking his head as his eyes welled up. “She was dead. Something had…eaten parts of her. Our house had been half-crushed. Most of the village was devastated by something colossal that had passed through. I buried my wife in the back garden and then headed west, searching for any other police units, or the Army maybe. On the way here
I saw a monster the size of a fucking mountain.”

  “What about the rest of the country?” said Seth. “Did you hear anything?”

  “The last I heard, it was all over. It’s everywhere.”

  Andy rubbed one side of his face. “What about the rest of the world?”

  Weir shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t heard about anything beyond the UK. I’m just heading west trying to find other survivors, and any remains of local government. There has to be something. Have you seen any police or military?”

  “None at all,” said Seth.

  “It all happened so quickly,” Weir said. “We didn’t stand a chance.”

  After that, no one said anything for a long while.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  As the day dimmed outside, they secured the ground floor of the house and drew the curtains across the windows. On the kitchen table were plates of mouldering food with scattered forks and knives.

  A family had lived here, and Seth tried not to think about them, or to to to look at their photos dotted around the rooms.

  The four survivors settled in the living room, wrapped in blankets they’d recovered from the linen closet upstairs. It felt safer than being in separate rooms, despite the lure of warm, comfortable beds. Andy had found a packet of cigarettes in a kitchen drawer, and he could scarcely contain his relief. He held the packet close to his chest. Ruby sat beside him, occasionally glancing his way. The silver cross never left her hands.

  Weir switched on an LED lantern, and the comforting light painted the lower parts of the walls. He handed a torch to Seth, for use in an emergency. Then he showed them how to check their feet for frostbite; they were relieved to find none. Afterwards, they ate cold food pilfered from the kitchen – baked beans, tinned hot dogs, crisps, and chocolate. After the last two days, it was the best food Seth had ever tasted.

  “Where’re you headed?” Weir asked them.

  “I’m trying to get back to my parents’ house,” said Seth.

  “Where’s that?”

  “About fifteen miles west of here.”

  “What about you, Andy?”

  Andy swallowed the last of a chocolate bar and wiped his mouth. “I have no idea. Haven’t got any family. I live alone in a flat in Bristol. Maybe I’ll just stick with you guys.”

  Ruby glanced at Andy. “I’m from Bristol too. I broke up with my boyfriend a few months ago, and he moved out, so now I rent a shitty little terraced house. There’s nothing left there for me.”

  “Fair enough,” said Weir. “Looks like we’re all heading west, then. Makes sense to stick together.”

  Seth stared at the floor. “But I don’t know what to do once I get back to my village. I don’t even know if my village is still there, let alone my house. What if it’s all been destroyed by the monsters? What if my parents are dead? What will I do then? Just wander the country looking for help? I don’t know what to do.” Sudden panic fluttered in his chest and turned his face hot. He chewed on the inside of his cheek; it was a habit from childhood, one which hadn’t done in years. He blinked to clear his misty vision. His hands were shaking.

  Andy patted him on the shoulder, but said nothing.

  “We’ll figure out something,” Weir said.

  *

  Later in the night, while Weir was cleaning his pistol in the light of the lantern, distant shrieks and roaring came from somewhere beyond the town. They all froze and listened to the trampling of a large creature in a nearby street, grinding within the earth, until it faded away and they relaxed again.

  Ruby sobbed and bowed her head. Seth closed his eyes, to shut the world out for a few moments, but it didn’t work.

  “Monsters,” Andy said. “Monsters everywhere.”

  *

  During the night, Seth woke from bad dreams to find Andy sitting up and staring at the living room window. In the darkness, the man was little more than a shadow.

  Seth cleared his throat, coughed. “You okay?”

  “Can’t sleep. I’m fucking terrified, man. I don’t think I can keep going like this. People like me aren’t supposed to…”

  “People like you?”

  “Weak people.”

  “You’re not weak, Andy.”

  “We’re all weak compared to the monsters.”

  “We’ll be okay.” Seth didn’t know what else to say. It sounded pathetic, a cruel lie told to a troubled child. “You’ll be okay.”

  Andy turned towards him. “Miles is dead. All the people from the train are dead. For fuck’s sake, there were babies on that train, Seth. All dead. Jesus Christ.”

  “I know,” he said. “I know.”

  “None of us are gonna be okay, man. It’s all gone.”

  *

  Seth woke again in the darkness some time later and heard Ruby muttering a prayer beside Andy, who was asleep, on the sofa. Her tender voice, edged with grief, brought tears to Seth’s eyes.

  He did not interrupt her, even as her prayers became muffled sobs. He tried to go back to sleep, but old memories of his childhood kept him awake into the early hours.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  In the morning they ate a quick breakfast before heading west out along the main road towards the next town. Seth, Ruby and Andy had swapped their tattered and stained coats for thicker ones from the house. They had replaced their dirty socks and wore three on each foot to keep away the cold. Weir had found suitable boots and gloves for them to wear.

  They had also filled a rucksack and a holdall with food, bottled water, and two bottles of cheap vodka Seth had liberated from the back of a cabinet in the living room. Each of the survivors had taken a swig before leaving the house.

  Both sides of the dual carriageway were littered with crashed and wrecked vehicles, and Seth didn’t look long at the shapes of bodies under the snow before turning away. He held a long-handled axe in one hand; another useful item recovered from the house. The rucksack was slung over his back.

  Andy adjusted the holdall across his shoulders and stayed close to Ruby. A carving knife was tucked into his belt. They muttered to each other. Ruby managed a wan smile that barely manifested on her face.

  Weir kept watch, scanning around them, cradling his rifle across his chest. He kept the barrel aimed at the ground.

  The hardening layer of snow crunched under their boots. The snow was falling lightly, barely at all now, but the white fog obscured visibility all around them.

  Whale-like calls and a high-pitched yipping rose from the distance in all directions.

  “Mega-fauna,” Weir said.

  “What?” Seth asked him.

  “Big fucking animals,” Andy said, before Weir could answer.

  Weir snorted, watched the road ahead. “That’s right.”

  Big fucking monsters, Seth thought.

  They kept moving.

  Seth looked out to the east, across to where the fields of snow disappeared into the fog. Trees were whispering things in the wind. There was no horizon. “Where do you think the creatures are from?”

  “They don’t belong to this world,” Weir said, looking around with his rifle half-raised.

  “You reckon they’re aliens?” Andy blinked flecks of snow from his eyes.

  “They are demons,” Ruby said, wiping her face.

  Weir shrugged. “They came with the snow. And this is no ordinary snowfall, not in summer.”

  Seth glanced at the sky. “Summer is dead and gone.”

  “Do you think the snow will ever stop?” Andy asked.

  No one answered.

  They walked onwards.

  *

  It took another hour to reach the outskirts of the next town. They stood on the slope between rows of silent buildings and regarded the devastation and abandonment before them. Several cars were wrecked and crashed at the sides of the road, and inside one was a dead man slumped behind the steering wheel. Two plumes of smoke were rising from separate locations near the centre of town.

  Seth loo
ked for shoe prints in the snow, but found none.

  Andy’s dull eyes flitted about. “More of the same, huh?”

  “There must be some people here,” said Weir. He was watching the way ahead, his rifle raised. He stood fully upright against the snow and wind. With one hand he wiped his goggles clean.

  The sound of distant roaring and thudding rose again, and rang out for over a minute, before fading away. Ruby shivered.

  “That sounded like a fight between two giants! Closer than before,” said Andy.

  They went on, past industrial buildings, desolate car parks and looted shops. Snow crackled and groaned under them. Voices in the wind. A line of terraced houses had been reduced to snow-covered rubble and debris.

  Seth’s bones ached. His joints scraped in dry sockets when he moved his limbs. It felt as though he hadn’t slept in days, yet he remembered terrible dreams about monsters and loneliness. He swept his gaze around the forlorn places about them and saw no one aside from mutilated bodies being slowly consumed by snow drifts. Dead faces stared out at him.

  Weir halted, and raised his rifle while the others stopped either side of him. They followed his aim down the road. Andy made a low sound and stepped back. Ruby held onto his arm.

  The wolves appeared from out of a ruined house and were crossing the street towards a stretch of open ground. Suddenly they stopped in the road and turned towards the survivors. There were seven of them, led by a haggard alpha, motionless as they appraised the new arrivals to the town. Their fur was flecked with snowflakes.

  Andy whispered, “Do you think they’re just passing through, like us?”

  “Be quiet.” Weir spoke without looking at him, and kept the rifle raised.

  “Must have escaped from a zoo or a safari park. Longleat, maybe? Would you be able to shoot them all before they reached us?”