by Stuart Keane
Dave nodded. "Let's take down these fucking vermin. I never did like animals … the only place for them is on your plate or on the fucking wall."
Robyn walked to the door, followed by Dave. Dawn stood up and groaned. She bent over and held her stomach. Penelope glanced at her. "You okay, Dawn?"
Dawn smiled. "Yes, just trapped wind. Comes with the kid." She hobbled to the centre of the room. "Let's do this." Dave smiled and started for the door. Jeremy banged his guns together. "Yeah, let's do—"
Dawn screamed.
Then the room filled with a tearing, squelching noise.
Blood splashed the ground below her, followed by urine. Jeremy walked towards the pregnant woman. "Shit. Did your waters—"
"That's not her waters, Jeremy. Get back."
Dawn looked up at her companions. Her stomach was moving around, bulging, pushing, crunching. More tearing sounds pricked their ears, more blood, darker this time, sluiced onto the ground.
A huge tapeworm spooled onto the floor, splashing and writhing in the blood. Robyn screamed and ran for the door. Penelope saw her go. "Robyn, no!" Dave grabbed her, held her to his chest, her face turned away.
A second tapeworm uncoiled to the ground. They both began wiggling their way towards their prey. Dawn let out a gurgle and a third tapeworm emerged from her mouth. It crawled onto her face. Dawn's bloated, bloody corpse collapsed backwards to the ground.
"Fuck this, man." Jeremy stepped forward, held one of his guns sideways, and shot Dawn in the face, hitting the tapeworm. He fired again, blasting her in the stomach. As he did so, Zoe stepped forward and stamped on the remaining tapeworms. She squished them under her foot. "Take that, you fuckers." She then kissed Jeremy hard on the lips. "Man, you turn me on when you get nasty."
Zoe smiled and caressed the still warm metal on his firearm. Suddenly the gun went off, firing into the ceiling above. Plaster and chalk rained down on Zoe. She danced. "Look, it's snowing," Jeremy smiled.
Robyn pulled away from Dave and walked over to Penelope. "Can we go now? Please. Before Rambo here gets a hard-on and kills us all."
A couple of laughs escaped the survivors.
As they left the room, Zoe began scratching her scalp.
They abandoned the café and emerged on the top floor of the mall. Barrington Mall was one of the largest in the UK, famous for Poe's meatball and lobster roll, a surf and turf in a bun. One of those 'love it or hate it' foods, it brought an audience from far and wide. Posters advertised the delicacy everywhere.
Penelope looked around. Ignoring the branded stores, and any on the bottom floor, she spotted an Adidas shop. Further around, on the opposite side of the floor, was a Wilkinson's and a British Steel. A white door said OFFICE. "Dave, over there, see it? Knives, baseball bats, golf clubs."
Penelope started for Adidas, followed by Jeremy and Zoe. Dave took Robyn with him and went the other way, circling to the OFFICE door. Penelope nodded at Dave and they officially separated, heading to their respective destinations.
"Yo man, I can get me some new shoes." A smile lit up Jeremy's face.
Zoe said nothing. She was scratching her head. "Shit, man, I think I have nits. Bet that stupid preggers lady gave them to me." Penelope said nothing, stepping to the entrance. Poking her head in, she saw the shop before her.
It was immaculate, empty, and pristine. Almost as if humanity had simply vanished and left it behind. Jeremy walked past her and whistled. "Check out these golf clubs." He flicked a price tag on a bag beside him. "Fuck that, they cost more than my car."
Zoe laughed, still scratching her scalp. "You drive a fucking Nova. A pencil case costs more than your car." Jeremy chuckled. The smile disappeared from Zoe's face.
Penelope stepped into the store and grabbed a driver club. She swung it, liking the weight of the weapon. "Perfect. Jeremy, round up some bags on wheels and we'll fill them up. Grab some balls as well. Drivers and irons only, we need hard-hitting weapons."
Penelope turned to Zoe and frowned. Zoe was scratching her head and blood was dribbling down her face. Her fingers were making a wet, squelching noise on her scalp. Her hair was matted with fresh blood. "Fucking nits, they're driving me crazy." Penelope stepped closer. She held the golf club ready. "Erm, Zoe … those aren't nits."
"Whatcha chatting about, ho?"
Penelope gulped. Zoe's face was covered in bugs, small black beetles. They were eating her flesh, burrowing into her skin. They were coursing around her hair, crawling over her brutalised scalp. A few were buzzing around her, waiting to dive in and attack. As Zoe scratched, several crawled onto her hand and slid up her sleeves. Zoe realised and pulled her hand away. "Ow, something just bit me." She looked at her forearm. Blood was dripping from several small holes. Zoe's eyes widened.
She saw the bugs.
Zoe screamed. Her skin was moving and throbbing. Hundreds of bugs crawled beneath the top layer, eating her flesh, sucking her blood. Hundreds of black bodies moved and feasted. Holes began appearing in her face, her pores widened until dark blood was oozing from them. Bugs crawled out and burrowed into the spare, exposed flesh. As the girl spun, a sheath of skin flapped away from her forearm and squirted blood on the glass shop front. It broke away and slapped the floor.
Jeremy came back and looked at his girlfriend. "Oh, shit. What happened to you … Zoe? Zoe!" He dropped the golf clubs and ran in. Penelope held him back. "Don't, they'll get on you. They'll kill you too."
Zoe screamed as her face slid away from her skull, the muscle already devoured. Loud drips of blood splattered the marbled floor as Zoe collapsed to her knees. Several dead bugs dropped to the ground, fed, gluttonous, dying from exhaustion. Many replaced them in droves, all wanting a piece of the fresh meat. They feasted until their tiny stomachs could feed no more but continued eating anyway, driven by an insatiable bloodlust. Zoe fell forward and died, gurgling from a throat filled with thousands of bugs.
Jeremy stepped closer. "Don't, Jeremy." Penelope didn’t say anything more. The poor guy had lost his girlfriend. Penelope looked at the fallen body and turned to vomit on the ground. The strong stench of copper was sickening.
The bugs were moving towards Jeremy. "Wanna fucking bet?" Jeremy pulled his guns and fired at the ground. The bullets sparked off the tiles, doing little harm to the swarm. "Wanna take my bitch from me, huh? Fuck you! I'm gonna smoke your—"
One bullet flashed up and hit Jeremy in the face, obliterating his eye and piercing his brain, killing him instantly. His body flew back comically, flopping to the ground in a heap. Blood spurted all over the payment counter behind him. A poster of David Beckham turned crimson with the brains and gore. The guns clattered to the floor.
Penelope turned and saw her accomplice fall to the ground.
Stupid kid, just stupid.
Within seconds, the bugs were on him, tearing at the clothing and flesh of the fresh corpse. Using the distraction to her advantage, she grabbed four driver clubs, hesitated, and dropped one, taking three. She pocketed a bag of golf balls too. She considered going for the guns but they were surrounded by the carnivorous bugs.
Three left.
Will any of us survive this?
A low, chattering of tiny legs filled the room, giving Penelope goose bumps. She shivered, the heebie jeebies shot up her spine. Penelope gagged, sidestepped, and walked out of the store. She ambled out onto the second floor, away from the bugs.
"Penelope, what happened? I heard gunshots." Dave and Robyn were walking towards her. Dave was holding two shotguns, one in each hand. Robyn carried a bag on her shoulders, which jostled and clinked, heavy with metal weapons. Penelope held out a hand. "Don't … just, get away. We need to go."
Both of them paused. Penelope walked towards them, wiping her mouth. "They're dead. I think Zoe disturbed a nest of … something. You know, when she shot the ceiling. They just ate her from the inside out. Jeremy tried shooting them but … well, a ricochet …"
Dave shook his head. "Stupid, dumb kid. Stil
l, not a nice way to go."
Robyn said nothing. She held Dave's arm, comforting herself.
The trio walked away from the Adidas shop.
"What the fuck is happening here?" Robyn said it. Penelope and Dave stopped, looked at one another and said nothing. "Why have the animals turned on us?" Robyn continued.
Penelope sighed. "Well, in hindsight, you can name a few reasons. They hate being the inferior species, they're on every restaurant menu in the world, we keep them in cages most of the time … to name but a few." Robyn nodded, her mouth set in a straight line. "Yes, but …"
"Did you see the eyes?" Penelope interrupted. "Did you?"
Dave shook his head, saying nothing. Robyn stared at Penelope. "No, why?"
"They were black, pooling pits of tar and evil. Like swirling cups of coffee. The animals haven’t turned on us. Something is affecting them, making them do this. I mean, I saw a giraffe earlier eating a human leg. Seriously? Giraffes don’t eat meat."
"You mean like … possessed or something?"
Dave snorted. "Fuck me, this isn't The Exorcist. The animals have gone mad. For whatever reason, they've had enough and decided to exact revenge."
Robyn shook her head. "That's just daft."
Dave laughed again. "Look around you, Robyn. Use your fucking eyes. This is happening, right now, to us, to Barrington. They're killing people without mercy. Even evolution put a stop to that. Well, in some respects."
Penelope sighed. "Whatever it is, we need to get out of Barrington now. If we can get out, warn someone, we can contain it. Hopefully. We need to get to the —"
A loud, metal screech interrupted them. Dave jumped and looked down into the mall. The exterior front doors were buckling. After those was the interior main entrance, which would bring the animals inside. Once breached, they would be in and all hell would break loose.
A cacophony of sounds filled the empty mall. Screeches and howls and growls and grunts. A loud elephant roar filled the room and made Robyn wince. Penelope looked at the door. "We need to go, now."
One door buckled on its hinges. Dave saw a gorilla shove a muscular arm through and wrench the door off its support. The arm was soaked in blood, and missing chunks of fur. It tossed the door like a magazine, it clattered against the wall.
Dave led the way. He handed one shotgun to Penelope. "Robyn, stay behind me, okay?" She nodded, following Dave. Penelope cocked her shotgun; the satisfying snick snack gave her a little confidence. Robyn slipped a knife and a cleaver from the bag and held them by her side. They reached the top of a curving stairwell. It took them to the lower floor. Dave breathed in and out. "It's either this or the lifts."
The noise started to grow. The animals were through the first door.
"Stairs are good," Robyn uttered.
Down they went. Dave took point, aiming the shotgun. "Dave, how many bullets do we have?"
Dave stopped for a second. "Shells, they're called shells. We have twenty, ten each. Make them count."
"You didn’t have any more?" Penelope queried.
"I lied about gun crime. Barrington doesn’t get it often and they certainly don’t have the budget. So, as I said, make them count." Dave grimaced as he calculated their odds. Not good, he thought. "If we can get to the parking garage, we have a great chance. Come on, chop chop." Dave touched down on the ground floor and walked backwards from the entrance.
The noise was growing louder.
Suddenly, a rabid howl broke the silence. It came from Dave's left. A wolf leapt over the floral stand in the centre of the floor. It knocked into Robyn, sending her flying. She dropped her weapons and slid back a few inches. The wolf landed, skidded, its claws clacking against the tiles, and finally found its footing. Dave turned and aimed. He didn’t fire.
"Shoot it, Dave," Penelope ordered, terrified.
"Not yet …" The wolf snarled, baring its teeth as it walked towards him. Dave breathed in and out.
"Shoot it!" Robyn hissed. The wolf passed her, ignoring her.
"Not …"
The wolf pounced.
Dave fired. The gunshot cannoned off the walls. The buckshot obliterated the wolf, evaporating its head into a lumpy, red mist. The headless body flew by and slapped the tiles behind them, slid, rolled, and came to rest against the entrance to Starbucks.
Snick snack.
Dave smiled. "Take that, you fuck."
The animal noises were becoming louder. Loud banging and scratching filled the entrance foyer. The door dented and splintered in places, slowly giving way to the masses behind it.
Penelope helped Robyn up. "We don’t have much time."
"Guys … I just want to say, if we don’t make it …"
Dave put a finger to his lips and hissed. "We’re going to make it. Trust me."
Robyn closed her mouth. She looked at Penelope and gave her a hug. Penelope flinched, hesitated and patted Robyn on the back. Dave passed them. "Save the loving for later, ladies. Time’s a ticking." Dave ran to the back of the mall, towards a large arch that read PARKING. "This way. We’re nearly home free."
The two women followed. Dave reached a white double door. "Right, behind this door is a ramp down. The van is at the bottom, on the left. We always park it there. We get in, drive away and survive. You got it?"
The two women nodded.
Dave wiped his face. "This is it, ladies. Ready?"
Without warning, Dave pushed the door open. Light pierced the darkness in the parking garage. Dust filtered through the beacons for indeterminable seconds. Dave smiled. "This is …"
The lights illuminated hundreds of pairs of green eyes. The parking garage filled with rabid snarls and growls.
Then the floor moved.
A black mass of spiders crawled towards the three survivors. Robyn screeched and ran back into the mall. Penelope backed off, her skin pricking in fear.
There must be a thousand spiders here.
Looking up, Dave saw the packs of wolves and dogs, all shapes and sizes, their snouts splattered with blood. Some were hidden behind pillars. They were staring at him, baring their teeth. Dave gulped. "I'm sorry … ladies. I truly am."
He stepped forward and fired.
Several spiders splattered, their innards painting the pillars and cars beside them. Dave reloaded and fired again, this time hitting three wolves. They yelped. "Come on, fuckers. Come get some." He fired a third time, and knocked an Alsatian off its makeshift perch, a brand new Jeep.
Snick snack.
Penelope fired too, hitting another three dogs. They whimpered as the buckshot blasted into them. "Dave, we need to go. We have to get to the roof."
"Fuck that, we'll be eaten alive."
"We don’t have a choice."
"Heads up, guys!" Robyn ran up behind them and tossed a crate of vodka into the throng of spiders. Some spread out, aware of the incoming projectile. The vodka bottles smashed on the concrete. Dave smiled. "Yes!"
He fired.
The vodka erupted in a blue ball of flame and whooshed. The vodka spread across the ground and cars like wildfire, engulfing the spiders. The wolves retreated, growling. High-pitched squeals of pain filled the room. Penelope felt the hairs rise on her neck. Dave shouted in triumph. "Yes, take that you …"
An orangutan lowered itself from the rafters and snapped Dave's neck. The head twisted right around so he was facing Penelope. A vomit-inducing crack filled the room. His body was still facing the wrong way. The beast then squeezed Dave's head and it crunched between its strong paws. Bone and brain splattered the ground below him. The shotgun hit the ground and discharged, blowing a hole in the wall.
Penelope held a scream in and grabbed Robyn. She was still standing between the white entrance doors and hadn't seen Dave's demise. Her ravaged eyes were on the spreading fire, their protection at this time. Penelope pushed her back into the mall. "Robyn, we need to go."
"But Dave …"
"Dave's gone. We need to go, now!"
Penelope graspe
d her hand and sprinted for the stairs again. She stopped. The stairwell was alive with hundreds of insects. They were writhing, slipping down a step at a time, coming for them.
"Shit."
Penelope grabbed Robyn and pulled her to Starbucks. They ran into the coffee shop, found the counter and hunched down. Penelope kept a look out. "Robyn … Robyn?" The woman had become catatonic. Penelope slapped her, which seemed to work. "Robyn!"
Robyn looked up, a dazed expression on her face.
Penelope shook her head, resigned. "We can't escape."
There was no way to the roof and the door wouldn’t hold much longer. She wondered if she could get through to Robyn. Penelope nodded. "We don’t have many options." She placed the shotgun in Robyn's hands. "You have a choice. They can take you … or you can. You can end this if you want."
Both women sat silently. Penelope resumed peering over the counter. So far so good. A door broke, slammed against the wall. The noises, with no barrier between them, became much louder.
They had mere minutes.
Penelope looked down at Robyn. She leaned in and placed her forehead on hers. "I'm so sorry, so fucking sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen. Please forgive me."
Robyn sniffed; a tear ran down her face. "I forgive you. And I'm sorry too."
Robyn aimed the shotgun at Penelope and fired.
The blast sent the woman crashing back against the counter. Cups and plastic stirrers poured down on her shoulders. Penelope groaned, blood spilling from her mouth. A slab of bloody intestine poked from her stomach. Her vision started to fade.
Robyn stood up and smiled.
She looked down at Penelope and cocked her head. "Yep, my babies will have a field day with you. Oh, let me introduce myself, I'm Dr. Robyn Cole … I believe you're familiar with my work." Robyn spread her arms. The animals surged into the coffee shop and … stopped. They didn’t attack Robyn; they merely stood behind her, like a team, a unit.
Something affecting them.
"You see, Penelope, they don’t want much. They just wanted their planet back. And I gave it to them. Evolution, it seems, comes at a price. The ultimate price. Humanity must suffer. And suffer they will."