by R J Murray
“The sat-phones sill not working,” he said quietly. “That means this is a bigger problem than I thought.”
“How can it not be working?” Terri asked. “The satellites are still up there aren’t they?”
“I don’t know.” He gave a helpless shrug of his shoulders. “There could be something interfering or they could be offline for good. When that crowd down there clears out, I’ll head down and look for a landline.”
“Why wait? There could be people out there trying to bring help. We need to let them know we’re here!”
“Shh,” he said with a glance at the window. “You saw how they were. They came running when they heard the… the gunshot. If they realise we’re in here, they’ll probably try to get in.”
“What makes you think they’ll care?”
“Look at the two we’ve met,” he whispered softly. “They both attacked us. Add to that those lot out there all have injuries that look like bite marks and that woman tried to bite me! They also don’t seem to be fighting each other.”
He shook his head and let out a soft exhalation of breath.
“Whatever’s wrong with them, I think they’re after people who aren’t like them.”
“So we just wait here?” she asked, rubbing her arms. Without the heating on and their coats drying on the door, it was damned cold. “How long will that be?”
“Whatever else is up with them, they’re still people,” he said. “The cold will drive them inside or they’ll freeze to death. The temperature will drop well below zero tonight.”
“Those poor people,” she said.
“I know, my love. There’s nothing we can do for them though.”
Chapter 7
As the day wore on, the hooting and savage grunts from the street below began to wear on Terri’s already frayed nerves. She was restless and irritable, huddled beneath the blankets for warmth.
Clive, beside her, stared at the ceiling, lost in his own thoughts but always returning to wondering why it was taking so long for the cold to kill them and how much of a horrible person he must be to have such a thought.
Terri, rose from the bed, crossing to the window and peering out. The crowd had thinned a little, but to her surprise, a number of the infected people had huddled together in a mass of quivering limbs in a shop doorway.
She realised they were doing it for warmth and wondered how they could choose to do such a thing but not realise that by wearing their clothing they would be a great deal warmer. Whatever had made them ill was a strange thing indeed.
The snow had stopped falling some time before and the sun was making its inexorable way down to the horizon. Dark would soon be on them and she had no idea of how terrifying it would be to have them out there in the dark.
But the worst thing was the boredom. There was nothing to do but stare at the ceiling and listen to them calling out to one another. The minutes seemed like hours and the day dragged on and on. She looked over to Clive, staring at the ceiling and made a decision.
She pulled her sweater off, then her t-shirt, shivering in the chill air. She kicked off her boots and pulled down her jeans, leaving them on the floor where she dropped them. Clive glanced at her, lifting an eyebrow in query even as he admired her form.
Without words, she knelt on the bed, her mouth seeking his, tongue darting out, eager to taste his. She slipped her hand beneath the sheets, tugging at the button of his jeans as she kissed him deeply. A shiver ran through her body, part cold and part desire for him.
“What’re you doing?” he asked in a hoarse whisper as she slipped beneath the covers.
“I need this,” she said, stroking her hand down his cheek, lingering against his thick beard. “Please, I just want to forget what happened and just feel something good.”
His fingers worked the clasp of her bra in reply and she shrugged it from her shoulders as she pulled down her knickers, kicking them off beneath the sheets. She pressed one hand between her legs, feeling the warm wetness there and moved her hand across to feel his hardening member.
She swung one leg over him, holding him firmly in one hand as she slowly lowered herself onto him, letting out a wordless exhalation of sound as she settled in place. He grunted softly, hands holding to her hips for a moment before sliding down to grip her ass as she began to move.
Slowly at first, then building up speed, grinding her body against his. She leant forward, mouth hungry for his as she moved her hips. There was a wordless need inside of her, a desire that she didn’t want to deny as she kissed him hungrily.
His hands cupped her breasts, squeezing gently, fingers teasing her nipples as she built up speed. There was almost an anger to her movements, a frenzied desire to show she was alive, to draw all the pleasure from him that she could, while she could.
He put one arm around her, holding her to him as he twisted his hips, throwing her to the mattress. His other hand moved down across her belly, between her legs, pressing against her clit as he began to thrust.
She moaned, teeth biting down on her lip as the heat built within her.
“I’m close,” she whispered, another moan following, louder this time.
His body pounded against hers with an almost bruising force. His desire for her an aphrodisiac, his hot breath coming in gasps as he gave her exactly what she demanded.
She lifted her legs, tightening them around his waist, pulling him towards her, loving the way his powerful body felt against hers. She cried out as she came, muscles tightening around him, forgetting what was outside.
“Fuck!” Clive said as the sounds beyond the hotel increased in intensity.
“Shit!” she said, “Damn, I’m sorry.”
He pulled himself free of her embrace, quickly pulling his boxers and jeans back up his legs and buttoning them up.
“Get dressed,” he said as he crossed to the window, looking down at the street. “Fuck!”
“What?”
“They’re staring up here,” he said.
“Damn! I’m really sorry.”
She pulled on her jeans and t-shirt, then her sweater before reaching for her boots. He shook his head and said, “It’s not your fault. We both got carried away.”
“What do we do?”
“Grab the bullets,” he said face draining of colour. “They’re trying to climb up.”
Terri pulled the box of bullets from her pocket and dashed over to the window, picking up the rifle and pulling back the bolt. The spent casing popped out, falling to the floor, ignored as she loaded a new bullet in.
He pulled open the window and leaned out before cursing and glancing at her. His eyes scanned the room and he nodded to himself as he pushed himself away from the window.
“Keep the rifle,” he said.
“What about you?”
Clive lifted the lamp from the bedside table and then lifted that easily in his large hands. He swung it against the wall with all his strength and it shattered. He reached down and picked up one of the table legs, giving it an experimental swing in his hands.
She lifted the rifle to her shoulder and took aim through the scope as the first head appeared over the roof, filth covered hands grasping ivy as it pulled itself up.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered as she pulled the trigger.
Blood burst from the man’s head and he dropped from sight as her stomach lurched and she swallowed down the urge to vomit. She pulled back on the bolt and the casing sprung free. She reloaded and raised the rifle once more.
“Another!” Clive yelled as she fired again.
She reloaded quickly but by the time she had the rifle to her shoulder, two of them were on the snow-covered roof. She fired once, catching one in the shoulder and spinning her around. She fell from the roof and a heavy thud sounded from below.
As she reloaded, Clive swung the table leg like a bat, catching the other infected man on the side of the head. There was a wet sounding crunch and blood sprayed over the rooftop as the man fell, sliding slowly do
wn the roof.
Terri fired again and another fell. At that range, she couldn’t really miss if she’d wanted to. Every time she saw one of their snarling faces through the scope she knew she had no choice. They wanted to hurt her and Clive, she was sure of that. Much as she was certain that if one of them managed to bite her, she too would become infected as they were.
Clive clubbed another from the roof and then another, his arm moving almost mechanically, his face blank as he shied away from the horror of what he was doing. He caught one of them on the arm and heard a sickening crack as bone broke before he jabbed the infected man in the throat with the blood-covered end of the table leg. He tottered and slipped on the slick roof tiles before falling from the roof.
Terri reached into the box for another bullet and gasped as she realised they were all gone. She looked across at Clive, swinging his club at baying, snarling men and women and slowly moving back from the window as more of them crowded it. She knew then that they weren’t going to make it.
Lifting the rifle in her hands she used the butt as a club, smashing it against faces again and again. She managed to meet the eyes of her beloved and a sad smile rose to her face as she saw the goodbye in his eyes.
Chapter 8
A thunderous roar sounded from outside and two of the infected fell away from the window. Another sounded and then another and more of them fell. The crack of a rifle followed and then another.
She glanced at Clive and his arm dropped, shoulders sagging as he breathed heavily. She peered cautiously through the open window and caught sight of a truck parked further along the street. Churned up snow around its wheels and steam rising from the engine.
Three people stood on the open-topped back, rifles in their hands as they fired into the crowd of infected people. There was no hesitation and no mercy in their actions and she sagged against the window frame as she realised they had saved them.
The guns fell silent and the truck revved its engine, before moving slowly along the street. One of those in the back of the truck raised his hand and called out.
“Hello, the house! Anyone alive in there?”
“Two of us!” she called back.
“Have you been bitten?” the man called out again. “Have you an infected wound?”
“No!” she yelled, sharing a look of concern with Clive.
“Well alright then. Get your asses down here before more of them turn up.”
There was little choice really when it came down to it. Whoever those people were, they’d just saved their asses and weren’t trying to bite them. That was a definite tick in the plus column.
They grabbed their coats, pulling them on before dragging aside the chest of drawers. Clive led the way through the hall and down the stairs, keeping the table leg in his hand ready to use it should the need arise.
When they opened the door, they recoiled at the stench of the dozens of naked bodies. Blood, shit and piss all mingled together.
“Yeah, they’re kind’a ripe,” the man who’d called out to them said. “Names, Jacob. This here’s Mandy, Elise and the big fella in the cab is Derrick.”
“I’m Clive, this is Terri.”
“Good to meet you folks and I look forward to getting to know you but we gotta go. Climb onboard.”
They did as instructed, climbing into the open back of the truck and nodding politely to the others. As soon as they were on, the truck set off and they had to hold the sides to keep from jostling around.
“Where we going?” Clive asked.
“Hunting lodge, few miles into the forest. A few of us are gathered there,” Jacob said.
Terri studied him closely. He was English, judging from the accent and in his early fifties at least. Greying hair running a little thin on top and lines around his eyes and mouth indicated he’d laughed and smiled a lot. He wasn’t doing either just then.
“What happened?” she asked. “Why are those people like that.”
He glanced at her in surprise and chuckled softly as he said, “Where you been the last few weeks?”
“Up the mountain,” Clive said. “Came back down this morning.”
“Well shit folks,” he said with a laugh. “You missed the world ending.”
“What!”
“It’s not ended,” Mandy said.
She had a nice smile and was perhaps in her mid-thirties. Red hair tied up in a ponytail and seductive eyes. Her lips wore a slight smirk as if she were laughing at the world. Her accent was French but her English excellent.
“The sat-phone doesn’t work,” Clive said. “The towns… well, dead, and the few people we have seen are trying to attack us. What the hell’s happened?”
Jacob waved him back as he leant forward, Clive’s anger clear in his voice. The older man smiled indulgently.
“I know you’re confused, son, but it’s like this. We don’t know exactly what happened. One morning the TV, Radio and internet were all showing the same message. Just a few paragraphs that said they were responsible and that the world had four hours or so before they took down the satellites and main forms of communication.”
“Why?” Terri asked.
“Because they’re fucking nutters,” Jacob said with a laugh. “They also let us know that they’d infected an unknown number of people and sent them out into the world to infect others.”
“We all laughed,” Mandy said. “Thought it was a big joke.” She shrugged and added, “we were wrong.”
“See, they had done what they said. People were being infected and it’d been on the news for a while. You must have seen that at least.”
“A form of flu,” Clive said thoughtfully. “I remember.”
“Aye, well, it wasn’t flu,” Jacob said with another chuckle.
“It’s a zombie virus,” Elise said.
Blonde and young, barely out of her teens, she had dark smudges under her eyes and a haunted expression along with a quiet voice. She looked away when Terri glanced at her and didn’t speak again.
“You’re joking,” she said.
“Well, that’s what they called it,” Jacob said. “Right up until the TV and internet died. You get infected, you change. Body burns hot for a while as the virus does its work. You get sick, flu-like symptoms but eventually lapse into a comatose state. When you wake up, most of your higher functions are gone and you're left with a driving need to feed, fuck and pass on the virus.”
“Why the lack of clothes?” Terri asked, not quite believing what she was being told.
“That’s when they get hot. Best we figure, is it keeps them alive longer. They just piss and shit where they want, most don’t even have the good sense God gave them to stop while they do it. If they wore clothes they’d soon get soiled and full of infections where their skin rubbed raw.”
“So, if they wore clothes they’d die sooner and not do as much damage,” Clive said. “Damn. Who did this? How far is it?”
“Across the world,” Jacob said. “By the time they gave the message they’d had people travelling the world for weeks. The hospitals were already overrun and people were starting to enter the comatose state. By now… I doubt there’s anywhere without infected.”
“The governments will fix it though,” Terri said. “Right?”
“Don’t believe that,” Mandy said with a smirk. “Too many of them out there and its been three weeks since the message.”
“If the governments were still active they’d have established communications,” Jacob said. “As it is, I reckon we’re on our own.”
“So what now?” Clive asked.
He reached for Terri’s hand and gave it a squeeze.
“Now,” Jacob said. “Well now, you come and stay with us as we try and survive this whole mess.”
“You never said who did it,” Terri said softly and he grinned.
“Well now, that’s the thing. All we know is the name they gave themselves.”
“What was that?”
“The End of the World Club.”<
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Chapter 9
Terri awoke with a cry, her body shaking and soaked with sweat. Memories of the dream clinging to her as her stomach churned. She couldn’t shake those images, the sounds of the crazed people dying as the bullets she fired hit them.
She raised a hand to wipe the sweat from her face and glanced down at Clive sleeping restlessly beside her. He’d not woken at her cry but by the murmured sounds he made, he was dealing with his own bad dreams.
Her mouth had a foul taste and there was a sharp pain behind her eyes as she caught sight of the bright shaft of light shining in through the gap in the curtains. It had seemed like a good idea last night when they’d arrived at the lodge. A way to shed the memories of what they’d had to do. But upon waking up, she regretted not stopping after the first bottle of wine had been finished.
The room they had been given was warm and she pulled aside the blankets and slipped out. Her clothes had been taken away to be washed and she wore just her knickers, her bra lying forgotten in the hotel room in their rush to leave. Fortunately, the lodge provided towels and robes for the guests so she pulled on a fluffy grey robe and headed out into the hallway.
She’d never been to a hunting lodge and hadn’t really known what to expect as they’d pulled up the day before. Visions had spun through her mind of animal heads mounted on the walls, glass eyes staring mournfully down as their killers had celebrated with scotch and cigars. Old fashioned furniture and paintings of wolves taking down their prey in a wild hunt, perhaps.
In fact, it was remarkably modern. While it had been built of timber with solid wooden flooring, it had large, thick, glass windows that went from floor to ceiling on the ground floor. A balcony that ran around the entire first floor and an open terrace with ample seating.
There was a large hot tub at the rear of the building and ample spaces for parking. It had a bar, laundry and fully staffed kitchen plus a dozen rooms for the guests and plenty of secure storage for their weapons and any kills they brought back with them. Terri was pretty sure there was also a place somewhere in the building where those kills were prepared, but that had been left off the brief tour.