‘Okay. Okay. I like scary movies. Well. Some scary movies. I liked Halloween. The original, I mean. The old 70s one. Creeped me out something rotten when I caught it on TV once. Couldn’t sleep for a week after.’
‘You big girl,’ said Alice. Bill looked down at her in surprise, to see Alice looking back, smiling. Bill laughed, Alice joined in, high and giggly. It felt like a pressure valve had been released and the two hooted and giggled and screamed with hysterics until the tears streamed down their faces. Finally Bill had to pull over to try and catch his breath.
‘So. What’s your favourite scary movie?’
Alice pondered this seriously for several seconds, ‘Well… I like The Thing. And The Shining. And Halloween. And The Babadook. Dad showed me so many awesome movies!’
‘He sounds like a pretty cool dad.’
Alice looked at her hands. ‘He is.’
‘Alice… I’m sorry about your mum.’
She looked up and smiled grimly, suddenly looking much older and more weary than she should. ‘That’s okay. That wasn’t my mum. That was a monster.’
Bill felt a sharp pain in his heart as he looked at the girl. He turned the key in the ignition and set off again.
‘So, where should we go?’ asked Alice.
‘Well. In all honesty, I’m not entirely sure. But away from here sure sounds like a good idea.’
He put his foot down and tried to keep his eyes on the road; it didn’t take long for the pain to begin.
At first, Bill didn’t notice the new agony, mixed in as it was amongst so many other complaining parts of his aging body, but soon enough it began to shine through, his other aches and pains nothing but background noise.
‘Are you okay, Bill?’
Bill tried not to grimace as he turned to answer, ‘Sure. Just old, I suppose.’
Bill?
‘You’re not that old. Well. I’ve seen older, anyway. My Granny was older, before she died.’
Bill snorted and winced, holding his stomach. He couldn’t afford to break down, not now he had someone relying on him. He clenched his jaw and concentrated on driving.
Where are you going, Bill?
Bill tried to ignore the Yellow Man’s voice.
‘Look!’ Alice pointed to the side of the road, where a man with horns was waving at them, smiling, whilst a dog chewed at the unmoving body at his feet.
‘Don’t look at that, Alice. Don’t look.’
Do you think you can just run away, Bill? The Hill needs you.
The pain was getting worse. Bill’s head felt like someone was trying to tunnel their way out and his vision had begun to turn fuzzy round the edges.
‘Come on. Come on.’
‘What’s that, Bill?’
‘Nothing, just… talking to myself.’ He smiled, but he felt bad for playacting.
The first wall of fire they came across stretched clear across Conston Road. Bill couldn’t see what was burning; it looked almost like it was just blazing clean up out of the ground itself. He turned the car around and looked for the next way out. By the time he got to the third wall of fire, Bill was pretty sure someone didn’t like the idea of them leaving.
‘What are we going to do now?’ asked Alice.
‘Don’t worry, there’re plenty of roads we can take yet.’ But each path they tried to take was the same. A wall of flames holding them back. Bill wondered if the whole of Apoc Hill had been encircled with fire.
‘We can’t leave, can we?’ said Alice. Bill looked down at her, saw her eyes getting a little watery; it made his chest hurt.
‘Hold on—’ Bill made sure the windows were up, revved the engine, and stomped on the accelerator. The car lurched towards the flames—
‘Bill, we’re going to—’
‘It’s okay, it’s okay—’
They were swallowed and all was heat and bright, bright light and Bill wondered if he’d just killed them both.
—And then the heat was gone and there was no more fire. Startled, Bill pressed the brake and brought the car to a screeching halt.
‘Look!’
Alice was pointing back the way they came; the wall of fire was gone. Bill wondered if it had ever really been there.
‘Okay, let’s get the hell out of here.’ Bill turned the engine over again and set off.
You’re going to let her die, Bill?
The pain was increasing. He looked up through the windscreen; would the sky ever turn blue again? If he just kept on driving, would they leave this nightmare behind, see the edge of the yellow sky receding into the distance through the rearview mirror as they drove into a world untainted by the yellow horror?
‘Are we going to be okay now, Bill?’
‘Of course, of course,’ he replied, voice growing hoarse.
‘My stomach is telling me otherwise, is all.’
‘Don’t worry, let’s just keep on driving. If we keep on driving, we can leave this all behind, you’ll see.’
Bill squinted at the sky through faltering eyes, wiping a hand across his brow to stop the sweat that was accumulating from dripping in. There was no sliver of blue in the distance. No sane world approaching at speed. There was just this, just corpses and demons and yellow and pain.
Bill, she needs you. Why are you running away?
There was a flash of movement in the rearview mirror, Bill saw Cali, saw his daughter, eyes yellow, skin sallow, mouth grimacing to reveal red stained, broken teeth—
‘Help me, Dad!’
‘Cali!’
Bill turned to the empty back seat and the car swerved—
Bill heard Alice scream his name, or maybe it was the tires as he stamped on the brake and they skidded in a whirl, or maybe it was neither, maybe it was the whole world screaming.
Bill jerked, his head cracking against his driver side window as the car finally stopped. Pain radiated from him and he screamed, he thought he screamed; he opened his mouth wide at least, but he couldn’t hear any sound, just the pounding of his own heart as the image of a bloodied, desperate Cali flashed at him over and over. Eyes now just a yellow haze, he fumbled for the door handle, had to get out, had to get away, pushed the door open and fell into the road, his shoulder making pained contact first, then his head followed suit, bouncing off the tarmac.
He felt a small pair of hand on his shoulders. Alice? Must be. Must be. Bill pushed her off and tried to stand. He made it two steps on his feet, then crashed back down.
‘No. Damn it. God damn it.’
Bill crawled. He crawled forward, had to; had to try and get further away. Had to leave her behind; had to get away from the dead Cali. From the lie! Had to leave that dead lie in the back seat.
‘Where are you going, Bill?’
Bill ignored him.
‘Bill, the Hill will crack. I told you that.’
Bill kept on crawling.
‘Alice, Alice keep close!’
Had he said that or thought it? He was letting her down; he’d taken her into his care and he was letting her down. Oh, Cali. What would she say? To see her Dad crawling along the road like a worm, scared by visions, by lies. That’s all that had been in the back seat, he knew that. Had to believe that.
‘Bill. Stop. Come on, Bill.’
Oh God. With every crawled foot of progress, the pain that seemed like it couldn’t get any worse somehow increased. The further away from that damned hill he got, the worse it… the worse…
Oh—
Bill suddenly felt like he knew what the pain was: Apoc Hill didn’t want him to leave. Wouldn’t let him. It brought monsters to stop him. Showed him lies to try and make him stick. It wouldn’t let him run away; it circled the place with flames, with pain, with lies. The further he tried to go, tried to escape, the worse it rained its fury down upon him. He was meant to go to that house.
In the time it took to breathe in, the feel of hard tarmac morphed into grass and soil. Bill blinked and he could see again; he stood and the pain pulled away, like
it was just a blanket someone had draped over him, now to be whipped away with a flourish.
The Yellow Man stood before him.
‘You can’t leave, Bill. You really can’t.’
‘Why?’
Something roared high above in the yellow sky, and Bill staggered back at the strange enormity of it. It writhed, gigantic, horrifying; Bill screamed and ran down the hill, away from the thing.
‘Where’s Alice? What have you done with her?’
Bill pulled up, almost falling over, as the Yellow Man was suddenly before him. ‘I’ve done nothing with her, Bill. I want you to see her again, all safe and sound. Honestly I do. I don’t want to hurt you. I need your help. Mary needs your help.’
Bill looked at his yellow skin, at his coal black eyes and the horns that twisted from his scalp. ‘What are you?’
‘I’m just trying to help her.’
Bill looked around, startled, as he saw they were now stood on the porch of Mary’s house.
‘What’s in there?’
‘The way this all started. Maybe the way to stop it. The way to save your daughter?’
‘That’s a lie. That’s just a lie, Cali is fine. She’s fine!’
Bill looked up at the Hill as the unfathomable beast that shook and raged above it roared in anger, the noise an assault erupting from its many mouths and beaks.
‘Just let us leave. Please.’
The Yellow Man tutted and shook his head. ‘You’re the one chosen to save her.’
‘And what if I don’t? What if I stay well away from that damned house?’
‘Dad, I need your help!’
A familiar voice.
‘Cali? Cali, where—’
Bill turned and he wasn’t in Apoc Hill anymore, he was stood impossibly in the black void of space. There was someone in the distance, an astronaut, floating free.
‘Cali? Is that—’
The image juddered, and then it was everywhere, the yellow pollen, it swamped like a tsunami, and in his ears his daughter scream, scream, screaming as the beast moved towards her, wrapping her tight in one of its sickening limbs—
‘Cali! Cali, I’m coming! Don’t be scared, don’t be scared!’
‘Help me, Dad!’
Bill reached out, but she was too far away.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Alice gently stroked Bill’s hair; some of it stuck damp to his forehead. She had been crouched by him as he lay stretched out and unconscious in the road for almost twenty minutes.
‘Please wake up, Bill.’
She thought about that demon looking man and the dog, eating that dead person, and wondered if she’d be able to drag Bill back to the safety of the car. Knew that she couldn’t really.
‘We need to get in the car. It’s not safe at all.’
She thought about her mum; thought about hitting her over the head with Bill’s weird gun. She hadn’t had a choice, she knew that. Her mum wasn’t there anymore; whatever that yellow stuff was, it had taken her and replaced her with a monster. So now Alice supposed she didn’t have parents anymore; there was just her, all alone in a town full of creatures that had stepped out from the scariest movies she and her dad had ever secretly watched together.
She felt her heart flutter. They’d never do that again.
Never ever.
They’d never whisper about what film they were going to watch next when they had a special evening to themselves. She’d never sit scrunched into her dad’s side as something wonderfully horrible happened on screen that made her twist and scream in delight, as her dad laughed and wrapped his arm around her.
And now she felt guilty that again and again, her thoughts turned to her dad and not her mum. She loved, loved, loved her mum, and she felt shame that she kept thinking of him over her. Maybe she hadn’t deserved as great a mum as hers.
‘Why is this down to me…’
‘Bill?’
Alice looked at him. His eyes were still closed tight but his mouth was working, now speaking soundlessly; Alice gripped his shoulders and shook. ‘Bill, you better wake up before the monsters get here.’
Bill’s eyes fluttered open and his throat croaked; Alice leapt to her feet and ran to the car, leaning in to grab a bottle of water. She darted back, knelt down, and gently poured some of the water into Bill’s dry mouth. Some spilled down his chin, but he swallowed the rest gratefully.
‘What happened?’ he asked, quietly, slowly moving into a seated position.
‘I don’t know. You looked really badly in pain, then the car spun and you tried to get away. Are you in pain, still?’
She saw Bill take a moment or two to consider the question.
‘No. Well, yes, but not that other pain. That’s gone.’ He rubbed at his eyes. ‘Seems like I can see again, too.’
‘Well that’s good!’
Bill got up and Alice followed him back to the car. He turned the key in the ignition and the engine started up, but then Bill just sat, gripping the wheel, looking at the way out of Apoc Hill through hooded eyes.
‘What’s wrong?’
Bill turned off the engine and sat back, rubbing his hand over his face slowly and sighing, looking dead tired. ‘I don’t think we can leave.’
‘Why not?’
‘Alice, I… this all sounds crazy, I know that. But I think what happened to me was because I was trying to leave, trying to run away.’
‘Apoc Hill won’t let us leave, will it? It’s holding tight onto us.’
Bill looked at her, eyes a little wide, ‘You can feel that?’
Alice nodded. ‘It makes me feel like my stomach is tipping over and over. I couldn’t put a reason behind it until you said it, but that’s what it is. Apoc Hill doesn’t want us to go.’
‘I think something… I think someone wants me to go to Apoc Hill itself. To the house that stands beside it.’
‘Why?’
Bill shrugged, ‘Not sure. But there’s a woman there, or there isn’t, who does or doesn’t need help. I don’t know. I feel like I’m getting all sorts of things thrown at me to see what sticks.’
‘How do you know someone might need help?’
‘Well…’ Bill sighed, and looked away like he was embarrassed or something. ‘A yellow man, with black eyes and horns, keeps telling me so. Among other things.’
‘He has horns?’
‘Yup; nice and pointy, twisting out of his forehead.’
‘And he’s yellow? Yellow like the sky, like the pollen?’ Bill nodded. The yellow horned man sounded a lot like some sort of devil-demon to Alice. He had horns, after all. Although she didn’t remember seeing many yellow coloured demons, they were usually red in her TV and film watching experience.
‘So we have to go to the house by Apoc Hill?’
‘Well, doing what a demon wants seems like a pretty foolish thing to do. So let’s not do that.’ Bill started the engine.
‘Where are we going?’
‘To my house. We’ve got walls, food and water; let’s just hole up and see what happens.’
Alice nodded, but her squirming insides told her it wasn’t going to be so simple.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Bill turned the car in the empty road and headed home. They almost made it.
As he drove, his eyes would flicker to the rearview mirror, fearful that each time he did so Cali would appear again. She would be sat, in a tattered spacesuit, helmet smashed, teeth bloodied. It was a trick, he knew that. Thought he knew that. Was pretty sure, anyhow. For whatever reason, he was expected to go to the house by Apoc Hill. The Yellow Man had tried gentle nudges, tried to dangle Mary in front of him, a damsel in distress, the idea of being a hero, and now he was using his own daughter against him. Trying to make Bill believe that if he didn’t go to the house, that Cali would die and that it would all be his fault.
Playing on his fatherly instincts and love. That love that transcends a parent’s own sense of self-preservation.
A dirty tric
k.
Well Bill didn’t believe a word of it. Cali was up there orbiting the planet in the Defiant, she was just fine. He hoped she was just fine. And Mary… Mary probably wasn’t even in that house. Or else she was and she was already dead. Maybe she does need your help, Bill. But why is that my problem? Why do I have to go!
He had Alice to protect now, anyway. To drive toward a house that every fibre of his body told him was evil because some sort of supernatural man was trying to force his hand was insanity.
‘Who’s Cali?’ asked Alice.
‘Hm?’ Bill replied, pulled out of his brooding.
‘Before we skidded and whirled, you called out her name, said “Cali”! Who is she?’
‘My daughter.’
‘Oh. Is she… is she okay?’
Bill thought about her hanging in space, the beast wrapping its limbs around her.
‘Yeah. She’s an astronaut. She’s not even on the planet right now. She’s just fine.’
Probably.
‘An astronaut? Wow! That’s pretty awesome!’
Bill smiled a little, ‘Yeah.’
‘Are the demons showing you her? Is that why you shouted?’
‘Just a dirty trick, Alice.’
Alice nodded, ‘We won’t let no dirty, dumb monsters trick us, right Bill?’
‘Right.’
They were a minute or so from Bill’s house as they passed Aileen’s place. Bill tried not to picture her corpse splayed out in the bathtub. As he made it past, and a little further, he realised he hadn’t been breathing. He gulped quickly, and that’s when he noticed Paul.
Paul was dead. Paul’s body was rocking gently in a wooden rowboat on Dearnewater.
Paul was stood in the middle of the road directly in front of the car.
Alice screamed, Bill yanked the steering wheel sharply—a blur of vision, a smiling corpse, the screech of tires, then black.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The monsters stood still as statues around Alice. She thought they looked like a family: a Mum, a Dad, a grown up son, even a family dog. None of them spoke or interacted with her, they just stood, waiting. The son had been the one to rescue her after the crash. Or so she’d thought, anyway. Head spinning, the car door had been pulled open and he’d leant in to pull her out, releasing the seat belt and lifting her into his arms. At first Alice thought they must have struck him, as his head was coated in blood, but then she knew that couldn’t be true. The blood was too dried on, it wasn’t fresh.
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