Ferine Apocalypse (Book 1): Collapse

by Leonard, John F.

  Her legs scuttled her backwards, fear and repulsion moving her without conscious thought. She’d lost a shoe and had to dart towards the shutter to retrieve it before retreating again. Hastily examined that shoe, her eyes drawn to the movement in front of her. Moaned in disgust as she realised the heel was broken.

  She stood and with a one-legged wobble replaced the shoe. Took them both off when she realised she couldn’t walk properly.

  Fantastic. Just fan-fucking-tastic. Monsters stalking the streets, the end of the as we know it ...and now I’m going barefoot in a business skirt. A plump parody of Milla Jovovich, where Milla gets the dress code wrong once again and, frankly, has been overdoing the cakes. Comfort eating before the Apocalypse perhaps.

  Caroline forced her eyes away from the gate and surveyed the underground car park.

  Dark.

  A little light filtering from the entrance and a ghastly red glow from the Range Rover’s brakes but the rest of the lights were out. Modestly sized area, only intended for use by senior personnel, senior management. The staff could sort themselves out, they didn’t get access to onsite parking.

  The beautiful girl, Adalia, had stopped the vehicle scant inches from the far wall. A little later on that brake, and she’d have ploughed head on into solid bricks and mortar.

  Caroline falteringly walked over to the Range Rover, steps prissy and unsure, concrete cold and hard underneath her feet.

  “Things could be worse. You could be the other side of the shutter,” she murmured to herself as she drew alongside the driver’s door and motioned Adalia to open it.

  The girl got out and they stood side by side appraising the gateway.

  “Will that hold them?”

  “Don’t know. Probably, for now. Perhaps they’ll calm down once they can’t actually see us,” Caroline replied.

  Growling.

  Rattling.

  “What happened to your shoes? Are you okay?”

  “Heel broke. They were hardly ideal for ...for this, but they were better than nothing.”

  Caroline threw the shoes into the car and covered her face with bloody hands, breathing heavily.

  No, I’m not exactly okay. Quite a way from that, to be honest. Let it go. Just let it go and get on with staying alive.

  She lowered her hands and exhaled.

  “Right. Worry about footwear later. We ought to get properly inside and find out what’s happening in there.”

  She’d left bloody marks on her cheeks. Adalia didn’t mention it. Simply nodded.

  There was a solid looking door in the rear wall to their right. Caroline went to an access keypad to the left of it but the door was already open, resting on the curve of the latch.

  It had one of those self-closer devices at the top but it wasn’t strong enough and sometimes failed to completely close. Caroline had noticed it a while back, well before all of this madness, and ignored it. The building manager’s problem, not hers.

  She looked back at the growling pack outside the shutter and then looked at Adalia. They nodded at each other and Caroline cautiously opened the door onto a small space.

  Spartan and unfurnished. Breeze block walls painted white. An elevator to the left and another door at the far end on the right.

  Mentally reminded herself to give the girl the access codes. Nearly laughed out loud as she thought about it. Strictly against company policy. She could lose her job.

  “Stairs,” she mouthed, indicating the door and walking to it.

  Finger to her lips and then gentled the door.

  Quiet. No noise.

  Utilitarian staircase. Same white block walls.

  Bare concrete stair risers.

  God, she’d be happy to get some carpet under feet. Her soles were already hurting but it was more that. She felt somehow naked and vulnerable without shoes and the rough floor seemed to emphasise it, make it all the more obvious. Make it all that more off-kilter crazy.

  Two flights of stairs separated by a switchback landing. Yet another door, this one without keypad. Just a handle.

  Caroline mouthed ground floor, foyer, and went through, relishing the softness of carpet.

  Layout mirroring that below but opening out into a larger area at the opposite end.

  She led them into that area.

  Frosted glass partition and double doors to the front of the building that faced onto Broad Street.

  Doors to private offices in front of her and a reception-security desk angled across a bigger space to her right.

  A large concertina partition forming the right-hand wall. The partition had windows that hinted at a larger room beyond.

  Their attention was drawn to the doorway of an office. The one furthest from them which adjoined the concertinaed wall.

  It was the only door open and they could hear noise coming from the corridor beyond.

  Dull thumps interspersed with an odd rasping sound.

  Caroline frowned at Adalia and motioned her to follow as she tiptoed across the foyer to peer down the hallway.

  “Oh fuck,” Caroline breathed before she could stop the words.

  A skeletal figure stood in front of a door and was quietly hissing through a shattered glass viewing panel.

  Raking talons down the wood of the door and snapping at the aperture, its head catching the frame to create a hollow thump each time. The door resembled an old and much used scratching post. One for big cats. Very big cats, like lions and pumas.

  The thing turned to regard them. Snarled at them to reveal an enormous tooth-crammed jaw.

  Flexed huge claw tipped hands.

  It wore the remains of a security uniform.

  Shirt torn and filthy, trouser legs tattered at the cuffs. Shoes and socks gone, exposing feet to match its deformed hands. Most of its hair gone, the skull swollen with grotesque tubular distensions.

  Caroline could smell it. Even at this distance.

  Raw and unpleasant. Its odour seemed to fill the corridor like corruption will fill a casket.

  The thing ran at her.

  Caroline was slow to react, almost mesmerised by the sight and stink of it at close quarters.

  Pulling back and closing the door, she wasn’t quite swift enough. The door partially snicked and the thing impacted the other side. She felt something splinter and give, the door springing open an inch, then six inches.

  Its jaw forced into the gap, spitting and wetly horrible.

  “Help me,” she begged Adalia as she squatted lower and dropped her weight to the door.

  Felt the door slide and saw claws appear around its edges. Adalia flung herself against the hinged side momentarily arresting the slide and pressing it back.

  Caroline was winning the battle until the pressure increased and the outward progress resumed.

  The bottom of the door bit into her bare foot. Tore over the little toes and bore down on the bones of her foot.

  She sensed the mounting force against her shoulder and a simultaneous slicing into her foot.

  Screamed as a sudden wrench hurled her into the air and tore at her foot.

  A low guttural bellow and the thing flung the door wide. The force scattered Adalia as well as Caroline, the door rebounding off the wall.

  The beast burst through, tumbling and off balance.

  It rolled, righted itself and advanced.

  Crouched. Ready. Coiled.

  Prone on her back, Caroline had time to register the shape of the creature framed against diffused light glowing through the glass partition. A nightmare shape that was going to kill her and, in all likelihood, eat her while it was doing it.

  Winded and dazed, she tried to shuffle away. A yammering pain from her foot. A sickening sense of something wrong and damaged down there.

  The thing was low and ready to spring when Adalia attacked it.

  Kicking and ineffective, the girl was dismissively swiped away.

  Caroline heard the sound of ripping fabric, the thing’s shirt or Adalia’s clothing
and then it loomed over her again.

  Closer, poised.

  She could see its eyes.

  There was nothing left of the person it had been. Whatever intelligence fired behind those eyes was inhuman and alien. She saw Adalia in the periphery of her vision, sitting up and fumbling with the gun. Unsure, fiddling with it.

  Wouldn’t be in time, whatever she managed to figure out with it, it wouldn’t be in time. Caroline would fight but she didn’t think she’d have any chance. No chance at all.

  There was movement behind the creature.

  A man bursting through the doorway.

  A blur of motion as he swung what looked like a fire extinguisher. Caroline watched in wonder as the extinguisher connected with the side of the things head. A heavy clunk and the stomach-turning sound of living matter meeting metal. She would swear that she actually saw its skull indent and heard a crack as its neck canted almost to its shoulder.

  The creature was swept to the side and the man followed it, neatly stepping over her legs. He raised the extinguisher again and brought it down base first. A dead drop delivered to the things head. Horrible fracturing sound and thick jets of fluid spurting a short distance to pool on the carpet.

  She rolled clear and stood on unsteady legs as the man delivered yet another vertical hammer blow. The thing lay there, weakly twitching. Shivering.

  The man retreated from it, shallowly panting, holding the heavy tube of metal in front of himself. Defensively, aloft and angled, waiting for a sign to wield the weapon once more. Giving her opportunity to look at him properly.

  An Asian man. Medium height and build. Stained clothing. Strained face. She vaguely recognised him. One of the centre staff.

  “Hopefully that was the last of them ‘cos I’m knackered,” he said shakily.

  He glanced in her direction.

  “You okay?”

  Caroline nodded and he spoke again.

  “It had me trapped in Carswell’s office. I was just trying to decide how to escape ...or ...deal with it. And then it was suddenly gone. Guess it liked the look of you guys better.”

  He looked over at Adalia.

  “I think the building is clear of them now and I’d like to get away from the windows down here. Feel a bit exposed with all this glass. Shall we move up to one of the higher floors?”

  The two women both nodded and followed him, limping and dazed.

  <><><>

  His name was Ranjit Basuta.

  Everyone called him Ranj or Baz he informed them. He did indeed work at the centre. Caroline knew him by sight although but had never worked with him directly.

  He was a strangely innocent looking man. Late twenties perhaps. A minor overbite and slightly bulbous eyes that lent him an air of permanent mild surprise.

  Sensible short haircut. Not handsome by any stretch of the imagination. Inoffensive and unremarkable.

  They sat in one of the meeting areas on the sixth floor, the highest level of the building other than the roof.

  Next to large sliding doors that led onto one of the many balconies.

  Drinks and snacks from the rest room.

  Slightly uncomfortable corporate sofas and modern coffee table.

  Nursing wounds and minds anesthetised by unreality. It was oddly peaceful. A huge deserted open plan office floor. Bright and empty.

  They’d considered opening the double glazing and going onto the balcony itself but wanted to talk first. A respite before once more confronting a world gone mad.

  Caroline and Adalia gave him edited versions of their stories, to which he listened with grave concentration. They asked what had happened to him.

  “I live with my parents,” Ranj started, shrugging diffidently, discomfited by this admission, embarrassed that a man of his age still relied on his mother and father.

  “I came back here to the Centre when they collapsed. Didn’t know what else to do to be honest. I couldn’t get any help. No ambulances, no police. Not even much on TV or radio. Some stuff on the internet but none of it any help to me. I’m an only child, a few aunts and uncles but we’re not close and they aren’t replying anyway.”

  Caroline and Adalia nodded their understanding.

  “There were a few people here. Like me I suppose, nowhere better to go. Two had collapsed. The others had put them in the dining room and were trying to look after them. The dining room, that’s a big room behind the folding wall down in reception.”

  Added for Adalia’s benefit. She nodded.

  “The dining room,” he continued, a look of distaste on his face.

  “Don’t go in there ...it’s a ...it’s a mess. Really nasty. Stay off the third floor as well.”

  He paused and looked away.

  “Anyway, I went back to my parents. I ...it’s hard to explain it. They were changing. They looked different. Then they woke up and ...well ...I got out. Didn’t really know where I was going, just had to get out. They were everywhere, those things. The streets were filling up with them. I came here again. Don’t know why. Suppose I thought it might be secure.”

  “Were they like all the others, your parents? Had they turned into ...you know?”

  He nodded at Adalia’s question but didn’t offer more, unwilling to discuss his parents further. Neither Caroline nor Adalia wanted to pursue the subject.

  “When I got here it was ...,” he shook his head, searching for a way to put it into words.

  “Carnage. It was carnage. The two collapsed ones had woken up and attacked the others. Killed three of them. Not just killed them. Chewed them up, torn them apart. There were two left, Mo Kahn, from Skylarks, and a team leader, David Eddings, he mostly worked nights I think.”

  Caroline nodded. She knew David.

  “He and Mo had ...dealt with one of them and were after the other one. I was being sick in the dining room when I heard a shot from upstairs. David had a shotgun.”

  He shook his head again.

  “Don’t know how he got a shotgun. Said he used to be in the army. Anyway, they’d found the last one up on the third floor, eating one of the girls from personnel. Mo had stabbed it through the stomach with a scaffolding pole.”

  Ranj mimed a sizeable piece of metal with outstretched arms.

  “It got up again though and bit out his throat. David had shot it in the gut but it still wasn’t finished. I got there as he blew its head off. Mo bled to death. We tried to stop the blood but ...it was too much. Most of his throat was gone.”

  Ranj was silent for a while, staring at his hands.

  “I think you have to get them in the head. To ...stop them properly. They get hurt but they keep going otherwise,” he finally said.

  Adalia nodded. “Yeah, I saw something ...well, that makes sense to me.”

  “What happened to David?” Caroline asked.

  “We went through the building from top to bottom to make sure it was clear. Didn’t check the management garage. I didn’t think about it, and he was parked out front so I suppose it didn’t occur to him either. Anyways, David decided he couldn’t stay here. Wanted to get out into the country. He thought it’d be safer. I just needed to get my head together so I stayed.”

  Ranj paused, coughed and swigged water to clear his throat.

  “Found the security guard thing when I wondered down to the basement. It was at the garage shutter trying to get out. It chased me up here. I thought the door had locked behind me when I legged it. Guess it hadn’t closed. That thing just pushed through. You guys turned up not long after that.”

  Silence fell on them again.

  “Are we safe here?”

  Adalia voiced the thought that was lurking in the back of all of their minds.

  “The entrances are all coded and those things are like animals. I can’t see them punching in a code even if they knew it. All the window walls worry me though. That’s why I wanted to get off the ground floor as soon as possible. It must be that special tempered glass but enough of them...”

 
Ranj let the sentence trail off.

  “I’ve seen it crack a few times,” Caroline said.

  “The big main window on Broad Street. Drunks or vandals on a Saturday night. Not totally shattered but it always had to be replaced.”

  It didn’t need to be voiced. If a drunk or vandal could break them, those creatures would be more than capable of doing so.

  “Stay clear of the ground floor windows if we can then. I don’t know what attracts them but they can definitely see us,” Ranj offered.

  “And they can hear us. So keep quiet,” Caroline said.

  ”They may even be able to smell us. What’s that thing animals have? Jacobson’s organ. Picks up pheromones or something like that. If they’ve developed that we could be in all sorts of trouble.”

  Caroline almost wished she’d not spoken the thought out loud as their expression grew pensive.

  Ranjit broke the silence.

  “How badly hurt are you?” he said, indicating Caroline’s foot which was raised on the seat.

  “Cuts and bruises mostly but I think there might be a broken toe or two. Hurts to walk on it. Oh, and I don’t have any pissing shoes anymore.”

  She paused and went on.

  “It could’ve been a lot worse. I haven’t thanked you properly Ranj but I think you saved my life. So ...thank you. Seems a bit lame but I mean it sincerely.”

  ”Yeah, you were awesome,” Adalia quietly added.

  He shrugged it away uncomfortably.

  “Yeah, you’re welcome, but I’m no kind of hero. I was going to kill it anyway.”

  <><><>

  The three of them sat for some time, lost in their own thoughts. Eventually, Ranj stood and moved to look out onto the balcony.

  “You can’t see much from here. Are you guys okay with me opening up? I think we should be safe as long as we don’t draw attention to ourselves. Unless they can climb walls as well.”

  Adalia moved to his side.

  “Open it. We need to see what’s happening out there whether we want to or not. Maybe if we can watch them it may give us some ideas. We need to figure out what we’re gonna do. We can’t stay here forever.”

  Caroline sighed wearily and levered herself to her feet. Her bare feet, she thought with rancour. Her bare, painful foot. She’d have to get some replacement footwear soon. She wasn’t sure the short black business skirt was entirely suitable for the current situation either.