The Amoeba From The Ash

by Prunty, Mercedes

  “Then go”, Rosetta stated, “I’m not stopping you”.

  “No but the police are”, she answered, “I need to know they are safe, I knew something wasn’t right with the Public Health turning up and I was right and now I know I can keep my kids safe. I have to get to them, I have to get to the other side of the line…”

  “I thought you only said son?” Finch questioned narrowing his eyes.

  “I have a daughter too but she’s nearly an adult but my boy, he’s only five…”

  A scream cut their conversation off, a blood curdling cry of pain, followed by a cry of pure hunger.

  3.04pm Cross Levels way

  Ned Dawling awoke with a pounding headache, he hadn’t remembered going to bed, he hadn’t even remembered leaving work or going home. There had been a call out, a fight had resulted in what was thought to be a stabbing. They should have taken the air ambulance which Ned was the pilot for due to the time of day and traffic build up but the thickening ash cloud had made visibility a problem so they had been ordered to go for the usual ground ambulance and with crews at a low due to a sickness bug it had been just himself and Jill as the others had helped attend the train crash.

  Acrid smoke was filling his nose which made him panic, was something on fire at home? He opened his groggy eyes again trying to bring himself fully into the world, they fluttered against a chemical sting. He could hear something hissing in front of him, looking he could see the crumpled bonnet of the Ambulance, the windshield was shattered but hadn’t fallen into the vehicle. Blood was smothered over the dash. He lifted his hand up to his own face and head but there was no blood there. Then he remembered… He was driving the Ambulance past the college and towards a small shopping district which housed a supermarket, furniture store, computer store, petrol garage, doctors and pharmacy as well as a hospice. There had been traffic which was not uncommon for that stretch of road at school pick up time and he had pulled out with the sirens on to try and get to the person in need who was situated just outside a gym. Apparently two gym goers had been fighting over who had the better body, hadn’t been a problem until one apparently stabbed the other, although the person who took the call did say it sounded like people were screaming about biting. Ned had driven along the road no problem, people moving over like drivers normally did, he looked out and saw it was safe to go round the roundabout then BAM… A driver speeding out of the shopping district down the wrong side of the road and heading the wrong way round the roundabout hit them full on. An Ambulance is quite a big vehicle to move but it had knocked Neds steering from his hands and had forced them to hit the roundabout barrier. Then it had all gone dark as they were also hit from behind, the impact causing Ned to smash his head on the driver’s side window…

  Ned looked over to the passenger side and saw Jill covered in blood, her window on the passenger door was fully smashed open, her face covered in the elements from outside, covered in what looked to be ash. Ash that was falling like a gentle snow from the skies. He shifted in his seat and reached out to her, grasping her shoulder and calling her name, “Jill? Jill can you hear me?”

  He had to admit things didn’t look great for her, blood was leaking from her nose, eyes, ears and mouth as well as from a large gash in her right temple. Her breathing was shallow and staggered, hoarse and wheezy.

  Getting himself off the seat he opened the door, the ash was falling in thick wafts now, more like a steadying blizzard, Ned didn’t like the look of that or the thick smoke coming from the engine so he covered his mouth and nose with the sleeve of his arm whilst he rushed to the back of the ambulance and opened the doors to get in. Once inside he ransacked the emergency vehicle, he found some hospital grade face masks and put one on stashing the others in a small medical bag he was filling. He needed bandages, cleaning agent, pain relief and stitches. Once he had all he needed he hopped out of the ambulance and went to walk to Jill, only to notice her door was wide open now. Running to it he grabbed the door to see she was gone, he had a sinking feeling inside that something wasn’t quite right here.

  Looking around he noticed all the cars around him were empty, no people were sitting in them. How long had he been out for? And why hadn’t anyone come to help? Surely the people who had been in the cars would have come to help, normally there is always a few people that try to help in emergencies. Unless? Unless something scared them all off? Made them run away? Maybe the driver of the car that crashed into them was a mad Knifeman or woman, maybe he had taken people hostage somewhere or a terrorist? His mind raced with different ideas as to why the place was dead, not a soul in sight.

  Crunch!

  A noise sounded by the front of the vehicle, a wet crunching noise, almost like a chewing then… sucking sound.

  Ned edged closer to the crushed bonnet of the ambulance where the noises seemed to be getting louder.

  “Hello? Jill is that you? It’s me Ned, are you hurt?”

  No reply but he guessed he hadn’t been expecting one. He turned the corner of the bonnet and froze, his brain trying and failing to put together the view before him, bringing it together in small pieces, in slow motion and in clear high definition colour. Jill was crouched down over a body of a man, Ned had no idea how the man got there but it didn’t matter, what mattered was what Jill was doing to him. Wet, sucking and chewing noises coming from the front of her, she had her hands inside the man’s chest cavity, blood poured over her hands and the dead man’s body as she pulled and snapped out a flesh covered rib before bringing it to her blood covered lips and bit down on it, sucking all the plasma and tearing all the tissue from it, before stopping and reaching in to get another.

  Ned’s stomach heaved, he had seen a lot in his time as a paramedic but never this, never someone eating someone else, especially not one of his own, someone who had sworn to save lives.

  “Jill?” He said his voice wavering.

  Her head snapped round at him, her teeth full of blood and chunks of meat. “Raha”, she wheezed at him lifting up a bloodied hand towards him.

  “Jill what happened? You sick?” Ned asked.

  “Ahh Rahh”, she replied with, it was like how she had forgotten how to talk.

  “Why are you eating a man?” He cried out disgusted with her.

  She moved slowly standing up, her bloodied hands clawing over the bonnet leaving handprints. She took one wobbly step, then another and another, with each one her steps looked stronger and more directional towards Ned.

  “Stay back Jill, I don’t want to hurt you”, he said.

  “Ah…hhh”, she didn’t hear him or didn’t care and she carried on, bloodied drool dripping from her crimson red lips.

  “Jill stay back”, he commanded fear finally settling in. “What is wrong with you?”

  “RAHHH”, she hissed loudly and lunged, Ned put out his arms to grab her and held her back. She howled with a hunger unknown to most men as she tried to pin him down, her jaws snapping and slashing at his jugular in his neck, trying and needing to feed.

  “Jill get off”, he snapped shaking her trying to snap her out of whatever was happening inside her mind but she was too out of it to notice, she just lunged more trying to get at his throat, “Jill I said stop it!” he shouted and pushed her harshly backwards. She stumbled whilst trying to lunge so Ned pushed her again, this time she fell, a heart stopping wet crunch sounded as she landed.

  Ned stood there in shock as he looked at her now dead and twisted body. A bollard pole that had been bent and was sticking out after the ambulance hit it was now fully embedded in her chest. She was no longer moving, wheezing or moaning… it was just silence, pure and frightening silence.

  Ned looked around at the road side to see if there were any witnesses that would stand up for him in a court of law, self-defence, she was eating someone, but no one was around. Not a soul.

  Kids, I need to get to the kids! He thought remembering how Pippa had mentioned how she was stuck at the line gates due to the crashed train and how
she had asked him to get to the kids first if she couldn’t. ‘The public health are here’, she had told him. Was it due to this weird illness Jill had suffered from? Was he infected with it already? Were his kids? He had to know if they were ok. Looking at his watch he saw it was past pick up time, if Alicia had got there on time then hopefully she would be taking Daniel home now. So he ran across the unmoving and silent roads and then headed through the alleyway between the supermarket and doctors which was a quicker route to get home on foot.

  “Please be ok my babies”, he said to himself as he ran, now remembering fully the events that had happened to him and the new ones that were unfurling in front of his wide awake eyes.

  3.09pm Decoy Primary Academy

  Alicia felt fear and dread fill her whole body as she entered the school via the wide open school gates. The whole place looked deserted which wasn’t a good sign, normally at ten past three the playground was heaving with parents calling out their kids names, children rushing past to have one last kick about with a ball with their mates or that last minute gossip before heading home but now there was nothing. No one.

  She headed through the school grounds to where his classroom was situated, the door was hanging wide open, red handprints differing in size from small childlike ones to larger adult like ones littered the plastic white door and the windows. She gulped back her fear hoping it was just red paint, that it wasn’t blood, she had already seen too much blood today.

  Her footsteps crunched over broken glass as she walked into the classroom and closed the plastic door, she couldn’t work out where the glass had come from as the door was still intact as were the windows. The classroom was in full disarray, chairs thrown to the sides, tables toppled over, trays and draws emptied over the carpet but… there was no one here.

  “Daniel”, she whispered looking around for any movement. She got no reply, so she thought for a moment, what would I do if something bad happened to my school and I was Daniel? I would hide. She began slowly opening cupboard doors and peering in but there was no Daniel and no children. She left his classroom and moved onto the toilets right opposite the door, more blood littered the walls here and Alicia felt her hope leaving her.

  Chink!

  A loud noise echoed down the hallway, Alicia went to run out before realising she was unarmed, she had left the tripod at college, if the teachers here were turned funny like Ellen then she needed to arm herself. She didn’t care about prison now, all she cared about was finding Daniel and making sure he was safe and alive. Running back into the classroom she searched for a weapon of some sort but this was an infant school, health and safety officials ruled the roost and made sure schools didn’t house potential weapons. Scowling she spotted a tub of sharpened pencils, grabbing a few she sighed, they would have to do. Maybe she could take out someone’s eye if they attacked.

  Clack!

  Another noise sounded from the hallway, followed by footsteps, small, unruly footsteps. Alicia ducked behind a table, keeping just enough of her eyes looking out to see who it was.

  ~

  Daniel Dawling had been running a lot today and his small legs were tired. First he’d had P.E which was his least favourite lesson in the whole wide world, they had been training for their sports day event which was only a week away. Then something bad had happened which he didn’t understand, all he knew was that he had to keep running and hiding, or at least that’s what his teacher Miss Jude had told him to do.

  They had all been queuing up for lunch time play when it started, they had all been in the hall, their tummies full of food when Miss Marty one of the dinner ladies lashed out and bit one of the boys on the table nearest her. He hadn’t been really naughty or anything, he had just wanted some more juice, she had been so angry. Then the other dinner ladies began screaming, trying to get Miss Marty off the boy but then she bit them too. Miss Jude came running in to see what was wrong, she ushered her class out of the hall and into the classroom shutting the door and telling the teaching assistant to go out the front classroom door to the office to alert them and the police but the teaching assistant never came back but some parents did. They were early, panicking and rushing in taking their kids home. Miss Jude didn’t stop them, saying they would be safer because something was wrong. Daniel and three other kids were left, Rosy-Lee, Sera and Leon. They sat huddling Miss Jude as they waited, she constantly told them that their parents would be here soon. Then CRASH! One of the teachers had smashed his way in to the classroom, blood dripping from his mouth and hands, he lunged for the kids but Miss Jude stood in the way taking the blow. She fought off the male teacher who ran off into the hallway. She fell back against her desk hitting her jar full of marbles that smashed against the floor, her hand instinctively going to the bite wound on her fore arm, her hand came away red and bloody, her face had gone really pale and she looked scared and teachers didn’t look scared. Rosy-Lee leant down and began picking them all up but Miss Jude told her to stop.

  “Stop kids, look, you need to run and hide, hide until your families get here. Make sure no teachers see you. Stay safe!” Then she got up, opened the door and ran, ran as far away from the children as she could get before the bad thing happened.

  The other three just stood there crying and moaning but Daniel knew he had to run. He ran leaving the others in the classroom, he had to hide until his mum arrived, he knew she would come, she always did, he was her little ‘Ferret’ a little nickname she had given him after he fell in love with a toy ferret as a baby. He could hear the others screaming as adults howled at them but he was through the doors and heading back to the hall. He had no idea where to hide, not until the door at the other end began to open, a bloody hand appearing behind it. He darted behind the curtains that hid the tables and chairs when the hall was tidy and not used for lunch. He held his breath and waited.

  ~

  Alicia poked her head out just as a small child from Daniels class walked in, she was about to call out to them until she saw the blood dripping from the young girls mouth. Rosy-Lee she thought Daniel had called her before, a small girl with dark hair and dark eyes, as Alicia looked at her she thought how she looked like a small vampire. The girl was sniffing the air before lifting her hands and licking the dried blood from them.

  Alicia needed to get out but Rosy-Lee was blocking the way, she had to get her to move somehow without her noticing that her next meal was right in front of her. Alicia ducked right down and looked around at what was near her, there were the pencils she held onto and paper, a shoe, some blue-tack and marbles. Biting her lip under her scarf she then placed the pencils down for a moment and scooped up the marbles quietly in her hands before taking a quick glance, Rosy-Lee was still by the door, standing in a trance like state, staring into nothingness. Sitting back down Alicia readied her shaking hands and flicked one of the marbles at the window opposite the table she hid behind. She knew if this worked she would have to move quickly. Tick. The marble made a small but glassy sound. Alicia held her breath and waited but it didn’t grasp the young child’s attention like she had hoped. Fiddling with the ones she had left she chose another one and flicked that up at the window too and waited. Rosy-Lee moaned a low and confused sound but still made no attempt to move. Fed up and wanting to get out to find her brother she threw the last few at the window a lot harder than before. Tick, Tick, Tick, Smack!

  “Ra-Ahhh”, Rosy-Lee cried out and ran towards the sound. Alicia moved just as she saw Rosy-Lee’s young feet pass her table, the movement caught the infected child’s attention and she turned rasping after her. Alicia ran the short distance over the small classroom, her heart pounding in her chest, the run lasting forever in her mind as her hand reached the door. She grabbed the handle as she entered the corridor and twisted her body as she slammed the door shut behind her just as Rosy-Lee banged into it. “Ra-Ahhh Ahhh”, the child screamed out in frustration, Alicia could see the anger, the hunger and the fury in her small blood covered eyes through the small pane of wind
ow glass in the door.

  “I’m so sorry Rosy, you didn’t deserve this”, she mumbled feeling heartbroken at the sight of the child whilst grabbing a small chair that was situated at some small tables outside the classroom in some sort of reading corner and shoved the chair leg through the handle and wedged it over the door frame so hopefully she couldn’t get out.

  Backing up a few steps Alicia took a moment to focus her thoughts before heading down the corridor to the hall. She passed a small library and peered in but other than all the books thrown all over the small room there was no sign of Daniel. She reached the door that led into the hall and looked in through the small pane of glass, she noticed a hand whip past some curtains, a small hand. Could it be? She opened the door and edged in quietly, she knew not to run in blind just in case that small hand belonged to another Rosy type child but she was so eager to find him. She gave the room a once over and saw it was empty other than half eaten food on the lunch tables, so she headed straight for the curtains. With a shaking hand she grabbed the curtain and pulled it open… A dinner lady stood before her, blood dripping down her chin as she chewed on a severed arm. The hand was small but had a wedding ring on and had bright green painted nails, so it had belonged to a small woman, maybe a teacher, parent or another dinner lady? She didn’t care much now as it wasn’t as if she could help the poor woman now but what she did care for was the hungry way the dinner lady looked at her dropping the severed arm with a wet, bloody slap on the tiled floor.

  “Raha, ahh”, she moaned taking a drunken step forward.

  “Ah crap”, Alicia gasped moving backwards and stumbling over the tables and chairs. She landed hard on her bum but crab crawled backwards as the dinner lady moved for her. Alicia kicked out the chairs trying to stop the dinner lady from coming any closer but although it made her trip she just got straight back up.