The Purple Haze

by Gary Richardson

  “Okay,” said Mike, “we'd better tell the rest of them.”

  The two of them left the kitchen and saw the rest of the group still gathered around the table. Yvonne perked up immediately.

  “Are they coming for us?” she said, the highest of hopes coming out of her as she spoke.

  “Nobody is coming for us,” said James, “but we have an address of an emergency shelter not too far from here.”

  Yvonne looked as though her hopes had been shattered with that one sentence. She bowed her head.

  “How far is it?” Colin asked.

  “It's on Spring Meadow,” Mike said, “two or three miles away.”

  Yvonne looked again. “Two or three miles?” she said, looking as though she could cry at any given second.

  “I know what you're getting at,” James said, “but if we take it slow, keep our wits about us and don’t run into any trouble then we could do it in about two hours, maybe less. They'll have food and shelter there waiting for us.”

  The group looked at each other. It was clear they were nervous. The thought of being outside with those things on the loose scared them more than anything, but it was pointless staying in a building with no food. Martin stood up and moved next to James and Mike.

  “Okay,” he said, “let’s do it.”

  Chapter 7

  The survivors made their way down from upstairs back into the main area of the bank. James went first and opened the door slowly so that he could see if the front of the bank was clear. With the exception of the creatures that had been crushed against the glass, there was no sign of them. All that remained were the blood streaks from the destroyed ones, and the streaks of saliva and puss from those that made it close enough without being crushed. In the main area of the bank, the corpses of the two customers and Conner still lay there in the pools of blood left from their bullet wounds, and Simon’s body still lay on the floor behind the counters. He gave the all clear sign to the rest of the group and they moved into the banking area. They all climbed over the counter, Colin and Gaz helping Dave get over. They gathered around the front door and looked up and down the street as far as they could. Everything was still.

  “Are we ready?” said Mike.

  The group nodded unanimously and Mike unbolted the door. Outside the air smelled stagnant. It felt thick, heavy and filled with moisture, reeking completely with the lingering stench of the corpses left in the street. They looked around again to check the street was free of movement, and then they moved as a group towards the ambulances. Once they reached the ambulance Mike climbed into the back and began searching for medication. The first thing he came across was a crutch. He went back to the group outside.

  “Dave? Will this do for you at all?” He held out the crutch.

  “Yes, definitely,” Dave said enthusiastically, “thanks Mike.” He took the crutch and tried it out. He was able to move a bit more freely and without the help of Colin or Gaz, but it was still slow for him. Another bonus was that it freed up one of his hands.

  “I suppose you'll want this back?” Mike said whilst removing Dave's pistol from his pocket and handing it back to him. Dave took it and nodded in thanks. He checked he could still aim and smiled at his weapon as though it was his friend. He felt a bit safer with it and felt he could at least make a bit of a difference in a fight against the horde, if they came after them again. Mike disappeared back into the ambulance to carry on looking for the medication

  Outside the ambulance, Martin looked across the street and noticed a general convenience store next door to the bank. “Someone should go into that shop and get some supplies,” he said.

  James looked at the shop. “That's good thinking.”

  Martin pointed at Gaz and Colin “You two get as much you can. Make sure you get water and something decent to eat, not just sweets and chocolate. The last thing we need is somebody having a sugar crash and not being able to fight.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I know,” said Gaz, sounded like a teenager who didn’t like being told what to do. “Come on Colin” The two of them went over to the shop and stopped at the door. Colin poked his head around the door to see if he could see anyone inside. He couldn't see any movement, so he slowly entered the store, holding his gun ready and looking down the sights as he went. Gaz followed and grabbed a carrier bag from off the counter. They looked ahead and saw that the shop was small, but it had exactly what they needed. There was a central display unit running the length of the shop floor creating two separate aisles. The right hand side started with cooling fridges and then had some shelves holding loaves of bread. The rest of the shop was filled with various goods, including tinned food, sweets and magazines. They went down the right hand aisle first, Colin grabbing a loaf of bread off the shelf.

  “Grab a few, we'll need more than that,” Gaz said. Colin picked up two more while Gaz opened up one of the fridges and put as many bottles of water as he could fit. He went back to the front of the shop and picked up another bag, leaving the water at the front. He went back in and began filling it with tinned goods.

  Colin was holding the things the best he could, but he was starting to though with his arms full of bread and his hands holding tinned goods. It was then that he noticed on one of the shelves some back packs, the cheap kind that would just come in plastic wrapping shipped from China, with fake brands like 'Hike' printed on the side. He took down two of them and filled them with the goods he was holding. He took a third one and went to Gaz with it.

  “Look what I've found,” he said, handing the bag to Gaz.

  “Excellent, this'll do nicely.” Gaz took the tins out of the carrier bag and put them into the back pack. “Is there another one?” He asked Colin

  Without answering, Colin went and got another one off the shelf and passed it to Gaz, who went back to the front of the shop and moved the bottles of water into the back pack. Colin came to the front with one back pack on each shoulder.

  “Do you think we have enough?” he asked.

  Gaz looked at the four bags full of products. “Well, we have twelve bottles of water, a mixture of tinned food and three loaves of bread. It's only three miles to the shelter so this'll be plenty.”

  They both took two bags each and went out into the street. As they emerged they saw the others in the group gathered at the back of the ambulance. They walked over to them and Mike appeared from within the ambulance.

  “I can’t find any antibiotics. Have you got water for Dave? He needs to keep himself hydrated until we reach the community centre.” Gaz handed him the bag containing the water. He was surprised by the weight of it. “Christ we are only going three miles,” he said.

  “Well, we thought it best to be prepared,” said Gaz.

  “You've done well,” Mike said, smiling at him as he walked away. He pulled a bottle out of the bag and passed it to Dave, who immediately opened it and drunk in deep gulps. He pocketed the bottle.

  “How much food did you get?” Martin asked Colin

  “We got a few loaves of bread and a load of tinned stuff. Baked beans and tinned fruit and stuff like that,” Colin passed him one of the bags.

  “Brilliant,” Martin said as he put the back pack on, “we'll need to eat the bread first. The tins will keep for ages.” The three of them walked back to the rest of the group.

  “Are we ready to go?” asked James.

  “I'm ready when you are,” replied Yvonne, not sounding at all pleased to be outside.

  The rest of the group nodded together. James looked to the east side of the street, he could just about make out the end of it through the fog. This made him optimistic of their chances because at least the creatures weren't going to be able to ambush them from it. They would have plenty of distance for spotting the corpses and be able to group together and hold their ground. He turned back to the group and looked at them. Only now it occurred to him what a strange mixed bag of people. Two police officers, four bank robbers and two of the hostages they had taken.

&nbs
p; “Okay,” he said, “let's go.”

  The group set off together, taking it slowly so that Dave could keep up. Gaz and Colin stayed at his side, making sure that he was always stable. Craig and Yvonne were walking together with Mike just behind them. At the head of the group, James and Martin walked side by side, keeping their eyes peeled for any movement. They made their way to the end of Hough Lane and turned right. The road to the community centre was long and pretty much straight, but it would be risky due to the number of side streets and houses that could contain the living corpses. Two and a half miles up the road was Spring Meadow, and little less than half a mile down that road was the community centre.

  James walked in silence. Although he was alert, his mind was on other matters. The events at the back door of the bank had affected him deeply, although he wasn't letting it show on the outside. Also his nightmares from the previous night were still playing on his mind. The thought that his family might be dead was killing him inside, but he had to hold on to the fact that they would be at the community centre.

  “Yes,” he thought to himself, “they'll be there. They'll be there and they'll be safe.” He told himself this over and over again. Without this belief, he had nothing to go there for.

  Later on, the group had been on the road for a little more than twenty minutes, and they met their first obstacle. The road that was supposed to a straight and easy path was in a state far worse than any of them had ever seen. Because the fog had hit at the time of the school rush, the roads were packed with cars, and it was obvious that the people driving had been overwhelmed by it whilst driving. The first car they approached still contained its driver and passengers, a woman was in the driver seat and two young children were in the back wearing school uniforms. Due to the boils and cracks on their skin, it wasn't possible to tell their age. As the survivors approached the car, the reanimated corpses inside immediately sprang to life and stretched out their arms, reaching to grab the group, but their seatbelts kept them secured in their seats.

  The next car they came was the same situation. They kept as far back from the cars as they could, but the more they progressed, the cars became more and more packed together, and further progress became almost impossible. Mike noticed Dave struggling and stopped the group.

  “We can't go on like this. We're going to have to start climbing over cars at this rate.”

  James looked at him, “Well if we have to do that then we have to do that.”

  “Dave can't do that,” Mike said, “and nobody can carry him.”

  “Just leave me if you want,” Dave said.

  “We're not leaving you,” said Martin “we'll find another way.”

  James looked annoyed. He had been hoping for a straight road all the way to the community centre, but it was obvious that couldn't happen now. “Well, if we go back and take a left up Pendle Road, we can cut through Hunters Road and make our way through the residential area and come to the community centre from the other end.”

  “Sounds good,” said Martin, “let's do that.”

  James sighed and shook his head, then turned and headed back the way they came. They moved cautiously back past the cars and walked the distance until they came to the junction of Pendle Road. They turned the corner and looked at what lay ahead of them. The housing estate was a mess. Usually the streets would have been well kept and clean, but there was smashed glass, school bags and hand bags strewn all over the street. In some places on the floor there was even blood. The group looked on in shock. Even though the chaos was so apparent, there was still no sign of the things that tried to attack them in the night.

  They pressed forward slowly. James and Martin led the way again, both holding their guns ready to defend themselves. They scanned the area as they moved. Martin looked up the garden paths of the houses and saw a whole collection of different, but equally horrific sights. He saw in the garden of one house a woman's body. He could see from her face that, despite all the blood covering it, she hadn't changed when the fog hit. Her midsection had been ripped open and all of her entrails were missing. He didn't want to admit it to himself, but based on what he witnessed with Dave and the first encounter in the bank, he knew that they had been eaten out of her.

  Every house on the street had damage of one form or another. If it wasn't broken glass, the door had been forced in, some even destroyed to a mess of splinters, with blood and puss streaked across them. Some of the doorways had blood that had spilled from an unseen source, running down the steps like some twisted garden water feature. The group were in both states of horror and awe at what had happened. Some of them started to realise that they were in the middle of the biggest single disaster in the history of the town, possibly the country, maybe even the world. No one knew how far this thing had spread.

  Continuing on they reached a T-junction at the end of the street, and James signalled them to go left. What they faced was a repeat of Pendle Road. They walked a short distance and turned right into another road. The road was straight and long, too long for them to see an end to it through the fog. The group moved onward, slowly and vigilant, their eyes ever alert for the sign of any movement. They had gone about a hundred yards when James stopped. The group saw this and stopped also. Martin walked up alongside him.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “I thought I saw something,” James said, looking at a house on the left.

  Martin looked carefully, but couldn't see anything. “I don't see anything.”

  “There was something there,” James said, frowning in concentration at the house.

  The house was still and unlike the houses around it, it seemed to be in a very good state. The door was intact and the windows weren't streaked with blood. The car in the drive was old, but looked like it had been kept in good condition by the owner. Mike walked up behind the two.

  “Why have we stopped?” he asked.

  “James thinks he saw something,” said Martin.

  “I saw it!” James said in an angry whisper.

  “What?” Mike said, “What did you see?”

  “It wasn't human,” James said.

  Mike and Martin looked at each other. Martin shook his head and looked back at the house, and then he saw it. Just briefly, but something had appeared then disappeared above the garden wall. It wasn't human, or at least at didn't look human. From he could make out, it was small. He saw it was hairless and the skin was reddened and stained by the same marks that the things attacking them last night had. He saw a wide mouth, looking like a demented smile with sharp teeth. He drew in a breath and held it.

  “I saw it,” he said.

  “I told you,” said James. The three of them watched and the rest of the group closed in around them. They all watched, and then they heard a noise that scared them rigid. It wasn't like the moans that came out of the creatures at the bank; it was a low growl, long and airy. They watched, and as they did the creature slowly revealed itself as it walked around the side of the garden wall. It was a dog, dead and reanimated by the fog. It was a medium sized dog, but the breed was indiscernible due the complete fur loss. The mouth dribbled a thick drool, pinkish in colour, and boils and pot marks covered its body. It emerged as though in pain, slowly and limping, the tail not moving at all, just hanging limp between its back legs. It quivered as though cold, and with every step a wheezy yelping sound came from within its throat.

  “Holy shit,” said Craig.

  James held his arm out by his side and began to step back slowly, moving the group back with his arm as he went. As they moved, the animal just stood there, they couldn't even be sure if it was looking at them. The animal jolted suddenly as Dave's crutch slipped. Dave had to stop himself falling by grabbing hold of Colin, but the animal was alert now, and they knew this time it was looking at them. Unlike the human victims of the fog, the dog's eyes had turned black. The dead eyes looked right at them, and the mouth salivated and drooled more of the viscous, pinkish liquid. It opened its mouth and let out a
loud, airy screech. As it did, three more of the animals appeared from the behind the wall. They were various in size and obviously different breeds of dog, but they were all unidentifiable. One of them was worse than the others. It looked as though part of its side had been torn out, the bare ribcage visible in the wound. They all stared at the survivors, screeched aloud in a chilling, almost orchestrated chorus, and then ran at them head on.

  Martin saw this in slow motion. The human attackers they had encountered moved slow and clumsily, but these things ran as though possessed with speed itself, every step calculated to perfection to give the biggest stride and highest speed. They bared their teeth, as though smiling through distorted, evil mouths, and their eyes were still fixated upon the survivors.

  It was Mike who fired first. He let off a stream of bullets from his gun, most of them missing the dogs but two hitting the mark. One hit the lead dog in the leg, causing it to buckle and flip head over heels due to the speed it was moving. The other hit the dog with the rib cage showing, the bullet breaking through the ribs and knocking the dog onto its side, a mass of blood exploding from the hole. The other two dogs kept coming though, and it took a couple of seconds for them to reach the survivors. The first leapt in the air at James, who’s training and quick reflexes kicked in immediately. The dog was greeted with the butt of James' gun meeting the side of its head, a blow executed with the same precision and timing that a baseball player would have. The second dog jumped at Craig, locking its jaws around his arm. He screamed out in agony as the dog pulled back, shredding a small amount of the flesh off his arm as it went.

  In the confusion, the group had split up and Dave was left vulnerable. The dog that had been shot in the side was up again, and this time it was charging at Dave. He fired three rounds in quick succession from his pistol, and the dog went down again. The bullets had done tremendous internal damage, but the dog still tried to attack, this time dragging itself with its front paws, the back half of its body completely limp. Colin moved to Dave's position and fired a single round into the dog's head. The dog stopped cold.