Brandon gripped a hand to his chest, his eyes screwed shut in pain. “Lock it, Kyle. If they get in, we need to make it more difficult for them to follow.”
“How are they going to get in? Nothing can move those doors. The snow is blocking it.”
Cody, who could still see the fingers from where he stood, shook his head. Sure, Kyle hadn’t paid attention to those… things, but they were certainly making progress. There was no doubt in his mind that they’d find a way through. Pretty soon he was certain they’d be able to fit their head through the gap, and if their bodies were anywhere near as skinny as the one he’d witnessed through the snow, it wouldn’t hold much of an obstacle to them. “Kyle. Please.”
Kyle growled, torn with the decision to keep dragging Travis or add an extra barrier to their escape. He relented, running over to the door where he gripped the handle and drove a pick inside the lock. He cast a brief glance at the gymnasium’s external door and what remained of the colour drained from his face.
He fiddled with the lock, hands shaking, until there came another click. He ran back to Travis and picked up the leg he had been dragging.
“Is it done?” Cody asked.
“Fuck if I know. Maybe.”
Something crashed in the hall. Cody ran to Travis’ other leg and helped steer him through the corridor. It wasn’t until they were halfway down the corridor that he noticed that something was amiss. “Where did Brandon go?”
Amy answered, deflated and quiet. “He ran off ahead. Said something about something. I don’t know.”
Cody leered at her, unable to believe her attitude. Just because her boyfriend had scolded her, that didn’t mean she had to give up entirely. They were all in danger. They all needed to work together.
“Which way did he go?”
Amy pointed.
Another crash in the gymnasium. At this point Cody wasn’t sure if all of this was real, or if he was imagining it. Either way, he knuckled down and got to walking as briskly as possible, Travis sliding along behind them. Sophie and Amy brought up the rear, casting furtive glances over their shoulders as they tried to put distance between themselves and the creatures.
They came to a T in the corridor. Brandon was some distance to the right, past a set of double doors, tugging on something they couldn’t quite see. They opened the doors and could make out Brandon’s desperate mutterings as he fought with a handle leading to the outside.
“Locked.”
“Of course it is, fatty,” Kyle said. “The whole place is locked. Did you think you were going to do without me? Barge your fat ass through?”
“Will you cut him some slack?” Sophie said. “He’s doing his best.”
“His best is going to get us killed.”
Cody dropped Travis’ leg and shoved Kyle, his patience wearing thin. His nose still throbbed from Kyle’s attack and he was getting sick of the constant berating of his friend. “Either help him or shut the fuck up.”
Kyle glared at him, then shoved him back. “Don’t you dare fucking touch me.” He pressed Cody against the wall and raised his fist. “Don’t get cocky, new kid. You’re on my home turf, got that?”
For a moment the two simply stared at each other.
Sophie stepped over Travis and pushed Kyle away from Cody. “Enough of the male bravado. Either help Brandon unlock the door, or we’re all going to be caught by whatever the hell those things are. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather brave the blizzard than find out why they’re trying to get to us.”
Kyle, who now seemed to have found some of his confident demeanour, tutted. “Look at you guys, pissing yourself over nothing. We’ll unlock this door and we’ll be out and on the way home, no problem. Just you wait until the storm passes and we’re back at school, I’ll tell everyone how much of a pussy the new kid and his friend is.”
Sophie bit back a retort, choosing to settle with, “Just open the door.”
As Kyle knelt by the lock and worked with his tools, Sophie kept a lookout behind them. Things had fallen silent, and Cody wasn’t sure if that was necessarily a good thing. Amy crossed her arms and leaned against the wall, her eyes glossy, bags hanging beneath them. Travis gave shallow breaths, and Cody couldn’t believe he had forsaken the safe confines of Alex’s cabin for this. For a game of basketball, miles from anywhere familiar, with a bunch of people he hardly knew.
His thoughts turned to his parents, to the day that he had watched their coffins make their final processions to their graves. Twin gravestones embossed with the names of the first superheroes he had learned to admire. What would they think of him now? Their lives taken too early due to a monumental accident on the M25. What would they think of their boy who voluntarily put himself in a situation where his life could be at risk? Even if those things out there in the storm weren’t hostile—which Cody doubted greatly—the storm certainly was. How long would he, a nobody kid from England, last in the midst of one of the planet’s toughest elemental conditions?
Hot tears pricked the corner of his eyes as Kyle uttered a satisfied, “Okay,” and stepped back. Brandon moved warily to his side as they attempted to open the door. To all of their dismay, they discovered that the snow had trapped them on this side, too.
Kyle took a few steps back, then leaped at the door, shoulder smashing into the wood. The door hardly budged. Another step back. Another leap. Then another, until he finally relented, crying out with a desperate, “Shit!”
He took a breather, hands resting on his knees as he stared at the floor. “What are you guys waiting for? A little help, please?”
Sophie passed by Cody, muttering quietly enough so that only he could hear, “That’s the first time he’s been polite all evening.”
They gathered at the door, but Cody already knew it was pointless. He could see the snow through the infinitesimal gap, higher than their knees, and as much as they pushed, the wind blew back at them, the snow compacted, and the way was barred.
Brandon clutched his chest again. “How is it possible that this side is blocked, too? The wind should have a dominant direction. It shouldn’t—”
“Who cares about the shoulds and the should-nots?” Kyle snapped. “We’re fucking trapped.”
“Cut it out.” Sophie shook her head. “Calm down, won’t you? We won’t get anywhere if we keep bickering like this.”
“There has to be somewhere safe we can ride it out,” Cody offered. “Somewhere in the school where we can bar ourselves until the storm passes.” He glanced around, still not completely familiar with the layout of the school, particularly this building, which he had only been inside a handful of times. “Any ideas? Hey, Brandon, you okay?”
Brandon’s eyes were screwed shut, his breath coming in short, painful bursts. “I’m fine.” He took a deep breath through his nose. “There’s a place. A basement where the janitor stores his equipment. I’ve seen him go in there a couple of times as I’ve walked past.”
Kyle raised an eyebrow. “You want to go to Davidson’s paedo den? Are you insane?”
“That’s just rumors and hearsay.”
“Not what I heard,” Kyle said. “There’s a reason people avoid that place.”
“It’s locked up tight because he has dangerous chemicals,” Brandon retorted. “Bleach, acids, alkalis, all the things he needs to clean and take care of the school. It needs to be safe so that school kids can’t break in and hurt themselves.”
Kyle scoffed.
“Where is it?” Sophie asked.
“Ahead and around the corner. Near the girl’s locker rooms.”
“No wonder he knows all about it, it’s where he spends his time panty-sniffing.”
Sophie bit back a retort and focused on Brandon. “Take us there. Kyle, you’ll need to pick the lock—if you can. It’s the only option we’ve got right now until the storm passes, and we can get the hell out of here.”
With no other ideas taking precedent, Kyle and Cody returned to Travis. They each took a leg and d
ragged him forward as Brandon took the lead. Cody watched Brandon carefully, his hands continuing to clutch his chest. He had seen it before, the pain of the heart. Once when his grandfather had shown the early stages of his third heart attack, and again when, what remained of his family, grieved at St Christopher’s church as dirt was shovelled onto the twin graves.
Pain didn’t always have to be physical. Cody learned that the hard way.
“Guys, hold on,” Amy said, speaking for the first time since they started their journey away from the gymnasium. “It’s Travis. Look.”
They paused. Travis’ head rolled from side to side as if he was shaking off whatever dream he had fallen into. His eyelids fluttered as his pupils scrambled to connect with reality. He made a vague attempt to raise his head, but could only manage an inch before it came back down again.
Kyle moved to his side. “King? King? You with us, buddy?”
Travis gave a weak groan, his tongue wetting his dry lips.
Cody eased Travis’ leg down and waited impatiently. They would have time for a reunion later, there were more pressing matters at hand. Brandon seconded this notion with a silent communicative nod that passed between the pair.
Kyle let out a soft laugh. “Glad to see you’re still with us, buddy.”
“Not for long if you don’t hurry your ass up,” Sophie said, relaying what Cody and Brandon had been thinking. “Either get him walking or continue dragging. We’re not out of the woods yet.”
As she finished her sentence a thud echoed down the halls, the sound reminding Cody of the noise Kyle had made when he threw himself against the doors.
“Yeah, come on,” Cody said, taking Travis’ leg and pulling it along with him.
Travis groaned. Kyle was torn for a moment, then as another thud boomed back in the direction of the hall, he took the other leg and closed the distance between them and Brandon. They rounded a corner where Brandon stopped in front of a plain metal door with a bright yellow sticker which read: danger keep out.
“Paedo cave,” Kyle muttered.
“I thought it was ‘paedo den,’” Cody said.
Sophie growled. “Whatever it is, just unlock it. Now!”
Kyle reluctantly got to work, shaking his head as he spotted the two independent locks on the door. “I don’t know if I can do this.”
Travis coughed. Spluttered. He raised his head with weary eyes. “The great Kyle Samson. Beaten by a lock.”
Kyle grinned, his brow furrowing in determination. He turned back to the locks and fiddled with the picks until one of the mechanisms clicked.
He began work on the other, shaking his head as he listened closely to find the right part of the mechanism inside. The others watched with trepidation as the thudding grew more urgent, bouncing its soundwaves along the vacated hallways.
“I can’t…” Kyle threw the tools on the floor. “I just fucking can’t.”
A crash. Glass shattering.
“Fuck,” Cody whispered.
A bone-shuddering screech made its way down the corridor as, for the first time, they were met with the sound of footsteps racing rapidly towards them.
Without encouragement, Kyle retrieved his picks and battled with the mechanism. Somehow, impossibly, he managed to work the lock and he triumphantly booted the door in with a single kick.
Brandon and Sophie raced down the darkened stairs. Amy joined them. Cody struggled to lift Travis into his arms. Kyle watched with debating eyes as he seemed to struggle with whether to run or help. They were advancing at a rapid pace, Cody could make out their excited breaths and the clattering of those long blackened digits as they ran. Finally, Kyle dropped down and helped Cody pick Travis up, easing his arm around his shoulders as they made it through the door.
Cody had enough time to spare a glance back at the haunting creatures barrelling towards them. They were skeletal in their appearance, the white masks telling the tale of dead animals. A half dozen of them, at least…
Darkness closed about him. The door shut behind him as Kyle shoved him through. For a moment, they let Travis fall beside them as they worked the locks from the inside of the metal door. It was tough. The darkness was total, and they blindly trusted their senses to do the rest of the work.
No sooner had they slid the locks into place than the thumping boomed on the door. Cold, hard fingers fought to try and extract them, but as much as they tried, the door didn’t budge.
Cody let out a long breath and worked with Kyle to bring Travis safely down the stairs.
4
Tori Asplin
They sat in the darkness and listened to the world outside. Tori, Sherri, and Damien huddled close together on the sofa while Alex and Harvey kept an eye on the outside through the kitchen window.
“This is madness,” Tori said, shaking her head slowly. “Complete madness.”
Sherri drew her son tighter to her chest. Damien was 8 years old and could do little to imagine the kinds of monstrosities she had seen. After his appearance on the stairs, Sherri brought him to the sofa and cocooned him to sleep again. He dozed peacefully against her, sandy blond hair cropped neatly on his head. His pyjamas thick and woollen.
Tori watched him snooze with a note of pity in her eyes. She was nervous, knowing what those things could do and how easily they could break into a house. While she felt safer having people around her, armed with weapons that could offer some kind of protection, she still felt like they were sitting ducks. Every now and then a gunshot would sound somewhere in the town, followed by the shrill banshee scream of one of those things.
Alex and Harvey muttered softly to each other, guns readied in their hands. Tori wondered what experience Alex had with a firearm, recognizing his British accent almost immediately after he found her outside. She knew nothing about this stranger, but he had saved her. Had brought her in from the cold and found her some kind of shelter. There was a slim chance that she could be safe with him.
Who’s keeping Naomi and Oscar safe?
She wished she had her phone with her. Sitting here in the dark, she craved the little illuminated device. Not even just because of the comfort of the thousands of eyes that kept watch over her, but because her phone was her only true connection with her sister. Even if the powerlines were down, even just having it in her hands would bring her comfort.
She flexed her fingers as Sherri stroked Damien’s hair out of his face to check if he was asleep. She whispered to Tori, “Any idea what those things are?”
Tori shook her head. “None. I’ve never seen anything like them before. They were… almost human. But there was something amiss about them. It was as though they’d been left out in the sun to shrivel and wilt. They were naked, too. Not a shred of clothing.”
Sherri chewed over this information. Her eyes sparkled with thought. “Do you honestly think we’re safe here?”
“No.”
Alex appeared in the doorway and spoke in hushed tones. “There’s a group of them outside. They appear to be roaming the streets but have no intention of coming this way. It’s almost like they’re setting up a guard, patrolling for any sign of movement inside a household.”
“We heard gunshots,” Sherri said.
Alex’s face grew sombre. “I’m guessing that there’s plenty more where that came from before the night’s over. Doesn’t your town have some kind of protocol for emergency? Don’t you have a guard or a police force or something? Shouldn’t there be people out there shutting this crap down?”
Harvey spoke over his shoulder, staring out into the streets. “This is protocol, new blood. When a blizzard strikes, the most you can do is bury your head in the snow and wait for it to pass. It’d be ludicrous to go outside and risk your life in the middle of a storm like this. The snow is piling higher by the minute, temperatures are enough to freeze the blood in your system in no time at all, and visibility is atrocious.”
Alex ran a hand through his dark hair, leaving a scruffy line in its wake. “We can’t jus
t sit here. What if they try to break in? Hypothetical scenario: what happens if a pack of wolves raids the town?”
Sherri answered. “On a normal day, we drive them out.”
“In a blizzard, we lay low,” Tori finished.
“Polar bears?” Alex asked.
“Same answer,” Harvey replied. “We’re not in London anymore, kid. Life in Denridge exists by a different set of rules. In all my life we’ve never had any animals break into a house and draw us out in the middle of the night—in the middle of a goddamn blizzard, no less. We’re armed to the nines, we’re prepared, if they come for us, you best know that they’re going to be kissing bullets.”
Tori sipped from a cool glass of water, eyes not leaving Alex’s. He gazed at her from across the darkened room, and a question came to Tori that hadn’t occurred to her since all the madness had kicked off. “You were out there, too. Why were you out in the blizzard in the middle of the night? Did they come for you?”
Alex’s face hardened. “My nephew—Cody—he snuck out at some point in the night. He must have left before the blizzard kicked in, but he’s gone. I went to go find him before the storm grew too violent.” He took a long breath. “I didn’t get very far. It came on fast.”
“I’m so sorry,” Tori said, her mind replaying her encounter with the creatures. “Do you have any idea where he might have gone?”
“My only guess is the school. His basketball was gone from his room. It’s the one thing he keeps on him at all times, just in case he ever has a chance to play. I doubt he would have taken it with him if he didn’t intend to play somewhere in town.”
“And the only place to play is the school,” Sherri said. “But that’s got to be a mile away. Those things… What if they’re out there, too?”
“Don’t antagonize the man,” Harvey called back. “You think he isn’t already thinking of that.”
Alex sighed. “I have to get to him. I have to go out there and find him. He’s just a kid.”
“You’re going nowhere until these things have shifted.” Harvey turned away from the window and joined Alex in the doorway. “I can only make out so much of them, but they’re parading up and down the streets as though they own the goddamn place. You want to get across town, you’re going to have to go through a whole load of bad first. If you’re up for that then fine. But we’re staying put until the storm passes and something can be done about this. When the winds die down, the cops will be out in force, and this invasion will become nothing more than a distant memory to be featured in the Denridge Gazette.”
When Winter Comes | Book 2 | Buried Page 3