Dad laughed and carried on, even louder now. Alice giggled and covered her ears, sticking out her tongue as though she were gagging.
Dad flicked on the wipers. ‘Lot of blossom or pollen or something blowing around tonight.’
Alice watched as the wipers scraped the fine scattering of yellow plant stuff from where it had settled on the windscreen and compacted it down into a fine line at the bottom. Most then blew off as the wiper left it behind again to go bully some new arrivals.
‘This really is kind of strange,’ said Dad to himself, increasing the wiper speed. Alice looked up at the sky; if anything, in the few minutes they’d been driving it had reached an even deeper shade of yellow. More solid.
‘This plant stuff is the same colour as the sky,’ said Alice. ‘It’s really pretty.’
‘Yeah, really pretty. If it gets any prettier visibility is going to drop like a stone. We’ll be crawling back at a snail’s pace to find your mum having a fit about where we’ve gotten to.’
The radio cut to static just as someone was telling his baby they could have a go at driving his car.
‘Bums—’ Alice fiddled with the dial.
The bright light from a neon sign cut through the hazy cloud and told Alice they’d arrived at the shop. It sat at the end of a huddle of buildings containing a chemists, a grocery, a dentist’s, a pub, and at the far end a police station. This short strip served most of the residents of Apoc Hill, at least those not willing to make the longer trip to the nearest main shopping street four towns over. Dad looked out at the heavy plant stuff rain that was drifting down all around them, ‘Great. That stuff is gonna cover me head to toe.’
‘Maybe a tropical forest exploded.’
Dad laughed, ‘Mystery solved! All right, stay here and I’ll run in and out before you can count to ten.’
‘I can count pretty fast you know, Dad.’
‘Okay, make it fifty then.’ He leaned over and kissed the top of her head before jumping out of the car and slamming the door behind him.
‘No need to slam!’ said Alice, as her head rang. Dad turned back, one hand holding the neck of his jacket closed, and waved, grinning. Alice stuck her tongue out and waved back. He turned to the shop, head down, and rushed towards the door through the thick cloud of yellow plant stuff.
Alice looked around; there were no other cars, no people on the road. She fiddled with the radio some more, but it was useless. Someone must’ve pressed the off switch at all the radio stations by mistake.
‘Baby you can drive my car,’ sang Alice softly to herself as the plant stuff continued to tumble all around, slowly covering all the car’s windows. Alice yawned and decided to crawl into the back seat so she could stretch out. She lay back and started counting to fifty, like Dad had said. Though he’d probably already been in there for as long as it would have taken her to count to a hundred, maybe a hundred and fifty even.
She yawned again, wiggling to get more comfortable.
‘One-two-three-four-five—’ as she counted she attributed each number to a fresh speck of the plant stuff as it landed on the glass of the back seat door her feet were pressed up against.
‘Twelve-thirteen-fourteen-fifteen—’
Her eyes drooped.
‘Twenty-twenty-one… twen…twen… two…’
The yellow plant stuff fell heavier still as Alice’s counting slowed and finally stopped as she drifted calmly to sleep.
CHAPTER TWELVE
There was a loud noise—
A bang—
Alice blinked several times, then rubbed at her eyes. It was dark. Darker than before. Colder, too. Had she fallen asleep? She yawned. Knew she had. Could only have been for a moment or two though, right?
She tried to look through one of the windows, but couldn’t see a thing. They must be covered in that plant stuff. Stretching out the sleep kinks, she sat up then clambered back to the front seat, clicking on the car’s light. She looked at the clock on the dashboard and wrinkled her nose in confusion. It said the time was 01:23 a.m. Well there was no way that could be right. She’d been in the back seat a few minutes, tops. The clock was probably broken, that’s all.
Alice pulled the ancient old phone from the pocket of her jeans. She’d wanted the latest one, but Mum said she was too young for one yet, even Dad had agreed. So instead she had this granny phone that couldn’t even connect to the internet or anything. She pressed a button so the thing lit up: 01:24 a.m.
Alice felt a little seed of scary begin to sprout fresh green shoots in the pit of her stomach.
Where was Dad? Why hadn’t he come back already?
She flicked one of the arms that stuck out from behind the steering wheel and the wipers began to move. They struggled at first; the windscreen was coated thickly, but soon began to clear off the worst of the plant stuff. The shop’s neon sign still shone brightly in the dark, more of the plant stuff dancing in its beams. There was still a lot of it floating around out there, but not as much as before.
Alice scrunched up her eyes to try and look through the shop’s window, but it was so covered in signs that she couldn’t see anything. Was he still in there? Maybe the shop got robbed. Dad tackled the man, punched him in the face and took his gun or knife off him, now he’s sitting on him, waiting for the police to show up. It’s taking so long ‘cos of all this plant stuff everywhere, probably caused all sorts of car accidents and stuff, but they’re on their way. Of course Dad sent out the shop manager to check on her, he went back inside and told her dad that his little girl was fast asleep on the back seat. Probably sent him out a couple of times just to make sure. That was it. That sounded like something that could be true. If she beeped the horn, her dad would hear it and send the shop manager back out again to let her know everything was okay. Her dad was very brave, a hero really, took on this huge, strong, mean guy single-handedly, even though this giant guy (must be about seven foot with fists the size of bowling balls) had a gun or a knife and everything. Just hold tight, Police will be here in a few minutes, then your dad will be right out. We’ve already called your mum, she’s worried but very proud of your dad.
Alice hit the horn three times. It was like the loudest thing ever as it screeched out, the only sound in the silent night.
Alice kept her eyes on the front door. Any second now it was going to open and the shop manager, that chubby bald man with the big, bushy moustache, was going to waddle out, smiling, and head on over to her, waving.
One-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight-nine-ten.
The door didn’t open.
Eleven-twelve-thirteen-fourteen-fifteen-sixteen-seventeen-please-eighteen-open-nineteen-OPEN!-twenty.
She hit the horn again and again and again, hot prickles blurring her eyes.
The door didn’t open.
The fear now filled her stomach; the branches were moving up into her chest.
The yellow plant stuff carried on falling and began to cover the windscreen again. She started to think about this film her dad had showed her a few months ago. This weird mist had fallen all over a town and the mist was full of monsters. The people had to hide inside a store because if they went outside and into the mist, the monsters that were in there would kill them. Were there monsters out there? Is that why her dad hadn’t been able to come back to her? Would the monsters get her if she jumped out and ran to the shop?
She grabbed her phone again, scrolling until she found Dad’s name; she hit ‘Call’. It rang twice, then the call dropped out. She tried again. Same thing. A third time, the call dropped again. Alice yelled in frustration and threw the stupid old phone into the back seat. If she had a proper new phone it wouldn’t drop out like that, she knew that; the call would go through and her Dad would answer. This was all her mum’s fault! And dad’s! Why had he agreed? He usually saw her side of things.
Maybe the robber had shot her dad? He’d gone in there with a mask over his face and a gun in his hand and had tried to rob the place. The manager had b
een terrified, quickly trying to hand over the cash; her dad had sneaked up behind the giant man and tried to take the gun off him. Tried to be the hero, to help the shop manager out, but the other guy was too big. He’d pushed her dad off. Punched him. Made him fall to the ground, then he’d shot him. Shot her dad. Then he’d turned to the shop manager, shot him too because he couldn’t have any witnesses, then grabbed all the money and ran away, leaving her dad dead on the floor. It was so late that no one would come down this road to use the shop because they knew it would be shut by now. They’d go tomorrow. So no one would find them. No one would see her dad dead on the floor. Maybe not even dead, but dying. Would be dead before anyone finally found him. Maybe if she hadn’t fallen asleep like a big baby because it was almost half eleven she would already have left the car to see what was going on. She’d have found her dad, called the ambulance, he’d be in hospital now really badly hurt but okay, going to be okay, and her mum would be hugging her and making her feel like everything was okay and that she’d done a very good and brave thing.
Alice unlocked the door; her dad might be in there hurt, maybe he was still almost alive and she could use the shop’s phone to ring for help. She lifted the handle and pushed the door open; the plant stuff began to drift in her direction, as if attracted by the open doorway. Taking a deep breath, Alice placed a foot onto the road and—
—something slammed into the other side of the car, causing it to rock and for Alice to tumble with a scream onto the ground outside. Her head now in the dirt, she opened her eyes: she could see a pair of feet on the other side of the car; someone must have run at full speed right into it.
She stood slowly, the open door to her side. A man looked back at her, face bloodied, eyes wide with panic, coated in the plant stuff.
‘You! Is this your car? Is this your—’
Alice jumped back in the car instinctively, yanked the door shut and slammed the lock down. The man outside pulled and pulled at the driver’s seat door, but it was no good, he was locked out. He banged on the window, wiping the plant stuff away so he could look inside. ‘Please! Let me in! You’ve got to, they’re going to kill me! They’ve gone crazy, come on!’ He pulled and pulled at the handle, but Alice knew better than to let strangers into the car. The man darted to the passenger door and tried that, the car rocking due to his efforts, but it was no good. One lock locked them all, the car was secure.
‘Go away! Go get in your own car!’ Alice shouted.
‘Please! I’m not going to hurt you! I’m not! I’m not! I promise! It’s my brother and my wife, they’ve gone crazy; everyone’s going crazy!’
Alice put her hands over her ears and closed her eyes to try and block the man out. He wasn’t going to fool her; he was one of the monsters in the mist trying to pull her out of the safety of her own car. She wasn’t dumb; she wasn’t no dumb little baby. The car rocked and rocked. ‘Baby you can drive my car! And baby I love you! Beep-beep, beep-beep-yeah!’ Alice sang at the top of her lungs until the car stopped rocking. She opened her eyes; the man had his back to her, looking down from where he had come. Then she heard it: a high-pitched screeching. Like an animal or something. It hurt her ears. The man looked back to the car, maybe thought about trying to punch a window in, then sprinted towards the shop with its bright neon light, disappearing inside.
The screeching was getting louder. Closer. Alice turned off the car’s internal light and crawled down into the footwell, out of view of anyone else passing by. Minutes passed, the screeching sound, two of them she thought, ringing out every now and again. Always closer and closer than the last time. Running. Feet on the gravel outside, kicking up dirt. Alice’s heart pounded fit to lurch up her throat and out of her mouth. She suddenly realised how dry her mouth was, it had been hours since she’d had a drink. What if she was trapped out here for days with the weird plant-mist all around? How long until you die of thirst? She’d have to make a dash for the shop then, no other option.
The feet crunched slowly past the car’s driver side door. Alice shrank down as far as she could, not daring to breathe, her eyes tightly closed in case their whites shone out through the dark, like the shop’s bright neon sign, and attracted their attention.
The feet crunched past.
They were making their way towards the shop. She heard the door open, the buzz of the electronic bell sounding, then the door shut behind them.
Alice gasped for air, her eyes throbbing with each beat of her heart.
Slowly, so slowly, trying to keep her gasps for breath under control in case there was still anyone outside, she unfurled herself from the footwell and raised her head. Inch by inch she moved, smoothly and silently, until she could just see out of the driver’s side window. The road beyond was dark and empty. A muffled scream from the shop caused her to jump-scuttle back into her hiding place. Her cheek was to the floor, her knees tightly hugged to her chest, Beep-beep, beep-beep-yeah! Another scream, it was a man; the man who’d tried to get in the car? It didn’t sound like her dad. No. Not her dad. It must have been the man. Had he tried to hide in there and the others, the others with the gravel-crunch footsteps and animal screeches, had found him? Maybe she’d done wrong in not letting him get in, he’d been in trouble. He’d been attacked. Had he been telling the truth? Had people gone crazy and tried to kill him? Were killing him right now as she tried to block out the screams?
It wasn’t her fault, it wasn’t, no one could blame her! She was a young girl alone in the middle of the night; you don’t let a stranger in no matter what. That’s the rules. Everyone knows that. He must have known that; he must have really. Must’ve known that she couldn’t have let him in; couldn’t have unlocked the car doors and let him get inside with her even if she wanted to. Even if she believed him.
Never talk to strangers. Never go anywhere with anyone you don’t know. There’s a lot of bad people out there. Deranged people. People who want to do bad things to others for no reason other than they’re twisted in the head.
‘I didn’t let him in, Mum, I didn’t,’ said Alice almost too quietly to hear as she hugged her knees ever tighter and listened as the man’s final scream rang out, then faded, then silence.
Everyone’s going crazy! That’s what the man said. The now dead man (don’t think about that). There weren’t monsters in the plant stuff mist, just people. The people were the monsters. Had the people monsters got her dad, too? She began to think about her mum, getting home tipsy and teeth stained red. Words all slurry and happy. Calling out for Dad, then getting annoyed when she couldn’t find him. Realising she hadn’t seen the car in the driveway. She’d go up to her room next, to check on her, see if she was all right. She’d look in to see an empty bed, still made up and neat from the morning.
Her heart would start to beat too fast then, the wine drunk feeling would drain away and her blood would start to flow icy cold. She’d run into her own bedroom, shouting her name, shouting Dad’s name, run around the whole house only to find one dark, empty room after another. She’d try to call them next, would her phone be as useless as Alice’s own? Maybe it wasn’t just her phone that had stopped working.
Everyone’s gone crazy!
Everyone. Everything? Maybe the phones are all dead. The radio was dead too. Was that connected? The yellow sky and the yellow-not-mist, phones going dead, radio dead, people turning crazy.
Her mum would run into the street, screaming and crying out in panic, banging on one neighbour’s door after the other to use their phone, hers wasn’t working, no, not the landline or her mobile, her little girl was missing, she couldn’t find her husband, she could feel it in the pit of her stomach that something was wrong. Mums know. Mums always know. Alice felt worse than awful for the way she sometimes thought about her mum. She only ever wanted what was best for her. To keep her safe. She wanted more than anything for her mum to find her right now and hold her tight and stroke her hair and tell everything was okay, everything was okay, the monster people can’t hurt y
ou, no one could ever—
—the car rocked and Alice screamed. She looked up to see a crazy person at the window. It wasn’t the man from before, the now probably very dead man, it was a woman. The woman was staring down at her through the driver’s side window, down at Alice as she curled up tightly in the seat space of the passenger seat. Alice knew the woman was crazy. It was obvious. Just looking at her felt wrong and made her insides twist and turn and her brain shrink. The woman’s eyes were all wrong; they didn’t even really look like a person was looking through them. They looked like something very bad had crawled inside of this woman and was looking out of her eyes, like they were just holes in a mask. Then there were the whites of the eyes that were no longer white; Alice could see they were as yellow as the night sky. Yellow like the plant stuff that was still gently sprinkling down.
The crazy monster woman pulled at the door handle again, but seemed to understand it was locked. She stalked around the car, feet all gravel crunch-crunch, trying each one in turn, finding each to be locked, until finally she reached the front passenger seat door, behind which Alice still cowered. The monster woman tried the door. Locked again. Alice couldn’t bear being so close to the monster woman, seeing her breath fog and defog the glass as she pressed her nose flat against it and stared at her with those empty, evil, yellow-washed eyes. What was hiding inside of her? Had demons got her? Had a demon hollowed her out and climbed inside? Alice unfolded from the floor and pushed herself onto the back seat, as far away from those eyes as she could get.
The monster woman turned as the shop door opened and the electronic bell buzzed. A monster man crunch-crunched over to join her. In one hand he held a crowbar, in the other a head. He held the head by the hair, holding it up for Alice to see, its face locked in a silent scream. He threw the head towards her and it landed with a crunch on the bonnet, bounced against the windscreen leaving a crimson smear, and then rolled onto the road and out of sight. Alice wondered if it would sprout spider-crab legs and scuttle away.
Apocalypse Hill (Apoc Hill Miniseries Book 1) Page 5