When the war was full on me and my family hadn’t set foot in a supermarket for a long time, we didn’t have the money or the ration books to shop there, these places with their clothes shops, boutiques and music stores were really left to cater for the rich and people with power, not us struggling middle classes who had to eat and live off what we could find.
Clambering back under the shutter we breathed the much fresher air from here which poured in through the gaping hole in the roof, the rotting meat in the supermarket was disgusting and I could still smell it as it must have gotten stuck up my nose. Having a quick mosey around which quickly cleared the other shops of anything that might be of any use I managed to find a pack of batteries for my torch and a small bottle of Vodka which had been hidden under a till. We came to the last shop, I didn’t see anything but Darren’s eyes lit up at the music store which had many guitars, keyboards and other musical equipment. He rushed in without thinking not even checking the shop for any creeps, I followed him in but a bit more weary which was a good thing as there was a very old creature behind the till that growled when it spotted Darren reaching up for one of the guitars, I walked over and looked the poor person over, their uniform suggested they worked here. A name badge that read ‘Simon’ hung from his dirty, stinking shirt, taking pity I smashed him in the head so he was no more of the semi living.
“Sorry Simon”, I said calmly.
“Thanks”, Darren said not even looking at me as he continued reaching for the guitar, the fact that I had just killed a creature to save his ass didn’t faze him but then again he had helped save mine so I guess I was just returning the favour.
“No problem”, I said wiping blood onto an old jumper that was laying over the desk from my rifle, “So do you play?” I asked him not really wanting to know but he seemed happy I asked.
“Do I play…Where have you been? Oh yeah not with us…well I’m the master I play so great here listen”, he said strumming some notes for me.
Nodding I agreed he was pretty good.
“Oh great he’s got another guitar that’s all we need”, Monique laughed but she sounded serious.
“What I’m the best guitarist in the world”, he smiled.
“Yeah because you’re the only one left who can play”, she laughed taking a look at all the other instruments, she picked up a flute and pretended to swing it like a baseball bat, “Don’t think it will last long as a creature beater”.
“Hmm maybe a trumpet might do better”, I said pointing to one that sat on the top shelf.
She stood there and pretended to play and hand trumpet making the noise she thought sounded like one.
I laughed taking a look out the shop when I felt my throat clog up in fear, standing there bold as brass was a doctor in a white lab coat, he grinned at me with a wild frenzy look in his eyes, his dark hair was greased back and I could see where all the blood had come from earlier, him. He was covered in the stuff all up his arms like he had just bludgeoned someone to death. Lifting my rifle I clicked it so it was ready to fire, the others heard my gun and turned to lifting their blades up to back me up.
“Oh my god it’s the doctor”, Darren said.
“Bullshit! That nutter is real?” Monique said not quite believing her eyes.
The doctor looked us all over and how we were all armed and he wasn’t but I was betting he didn’t need to be, he looked like a crazy ass bastard. It had to be him I saw at the railing a little while ago and was he what I saw looking down at me from the hospital? Had he followed us here? Why?
Suddenly he took off running but not the way we had come in he headed towards the dead end where the roof had collapsed in, we all took off after him charging as quickly as we could out of the music shop and nearly into the arms of a creature, this one was very old, older than the one in the shop, the meat of its flesh had pretty much crumbled away other than a few chunks, you could the see the wisps of paper thin veins pumping blood around its nearly perished body still sending signals to its demented brain about how to just about live. One of its eyes was missing just a dark empty hole for an eye socket, the other eye had no eye lid to protect itself and was just whirling round trying to look at us but by the looks of things it had no control of the muscles that moved its eye as it literally was just spinning around. I felt bile rise in my stomach at the sight of its eye, holding it down I leaped forward and struck it fast sending it smashing to the floor where a pool of blood rippled where the head caved in. Then out of nowhere more creatures arrived howling and wailing, they all looked quite young in the time scale of being infected but there was one older one, I could tell he was an elder of the pack due to the acid scars and bony fingertips that reached out as if telling the others where to attack. He looked to be electrically charged from the storms that had washed over us over the past few days, his eyes were more rigid and in place than the last now dead one. Taking aim before he could charge I let out a shot which missed him due to a younger one standing in the way of the bullet, coincidence maybe or had it done it to save the elder? Grabbing some bullets from a pocket in my bag I rushed trying to fill the gun but the elder charged now screaming and howling. Panicking I dropped the bullets as I tried to fit them in, cursing I moved back slightly trying to snatch them up. The old one was fixated on me not Monique or Darren who were both in the midst of a blood bath with the other creatures stabbing and slicing them up like a human pizza parade.
“Fuck it!” I said to myself and I swung the gun just as the old one reached me, I hit it square on in the jaw but it didn’t hurt it, I just pissed it off even more.
With the bullets in hand I ran jumping over an old bench and ducking behind an old mobility scooter which had rusted to the floor. Shoving the bullets in just as the creature swung for me behind the scooter, jumping and falling onto my back I took aim and just about blasted it as it jumped again for me. A shower of blood cascaded over me just missing my face and eyes. Jumping up and turning I noticed that the creature I had just killed wasn’t the elder it was a young one that he had thrown at me, now he was charging again and two creatures stood in his way and instead of just throwing them aside he picked the closest one up and pulled it apart with his anger and thirst for blood, the creatures body literally split in half, I watched as the creatures organs spilled out on the white floor, intestines, kidneys and a liver splatted wetly as he then threw the rest of it by the bench. Lifting the gun I knew it was now or never I needed a head shot to kill it or it would kill me and then the others. It howled and wailed lifting its arms up then trying to bring them down to strike me, the vile venom that coursed through its veins pulsated at high level making its now electrically charged strength too much for little old me to handle.
BANG! I let out the shot which hit it right through the skull tearing its brain apart and sending brain tissue all over the wall behind it. It let out a final howl before collapsing to the floor finally dead.
Turning to the others I noticed that more creatures had arrived and were over whelming them, taking aim I shot two or three of them but when one went down another appeared. Then Monique shouted for help, one of the creatures which looked so fresh I was sure it must have been its blood that had littered the floor by the stairs had hold of her, she was able to push its snapping mouth away from her neck but it wasn’t letting go. Darren couldn’t help as he was fighting another two, I lifted the scope to look but as it was so close to her I couldn’t risk shooting it and accidentally hitting her. Running at her I just took to hitting the creature in question, enrage by me hitting it, it turned to me with its fingers full of hair that it must have ripped from her scalp. Hitting it again it staggered before Monique stepped in and dug her blade into its neck and nearly slicing its head clear from it body. Before we could ask each other if we were ok more turned up and circled us, taking to lashing out and swiping them we tried to make a break so we could run. She dug her blade into one of their faces breaking and ripping its jaw from its face, revealing darkened and razor like tee
th. Turning to see Darren I watched as he sliced one down its middle sending out a wave of putrid blood and guts, there were too many for us.
“We have to run, now!” I shouted and ran forward using my gun as a shield I pushed some of them over then climbing over them I started to head back to the stairs only to see the biggest creature I had ever seen appear from the darkness behind the double doors. This one even made the Screechers look like the borrowers, its head was just one pure large chunk of meat with two large eyes peering out from scar tissue where it appeared to have been sown together, almost like a Frankenstein monster. Its arms had to be the length of a normal man’s body they were just so huge, its legs were so large that the tiled floor cracked with every step it took and even the ground near us shook. A snarl escaped it mouth full of purposely cut sharp teeth which even cut its own tongue and lipless mouth making blood drip from it spraying it as it howled louder.
“What the fuck is that?” I heard Darren shout.
“Don’t know and don’t care come on this way”, I shouted to them both.
“That’s a dead end that way”, Monique gasped as she tried to stay by my side.
“The doctor came this way and he’s vanished so there must be a way out”, I said looking for any signs of an escape as we all charged down.
“Argh!” I heard Monique cry as she fell to her knees, a half cut creature had been lying in wait behind a plant pot and crawled out reaching out a bony hand grabbing her ankle causing her to fall. She smashed its head in.
“Go…I’m ok”, she said standing up.
As we carried on running I knew she was a few paces behind me, I felt the fear send my legs into overdrive knowing we had to find the exit now or we were goners. I had to get to where the doctor had fled to and find how he got in and out of this place. With Darren now at my side and Monique just a little behind we both took to searching every nook and cranny where the roof had fallen in. A quiet and seemingly lonely creature was here and I quickly took it out. Then I heard Monique crying out as she fought another creature which had just appeared I turned to help her only to see the large badass creature take a few steps closer to where we were, I had to find the exit and now if we were ever to have a chance. Looking at all the parts of the roof for maybe a way to climb up or a bit that wasn’t attached properly that we could squeeze behind but nothing.
“Over here”, Darren shouted.
I ran to him to see him pointing to a loose tile behind a bench, quickly lifting it I found it was an entrance to a maintenance tunnel which went down a small stepped ladder with only six or so rungs on it then it went off down a small tunnel which must lead to the shopping centres sewers and other underground tunnels and pipes. They looked water filled it but it looked like it would fit us all in down there and for us to be able to run without drowning.
Shouting to Monique she turned to run over to us, just as she did I could see the pure terror on her face as the big creature charged at her, making the whole centre shake with every step. Taking aim I shot the creature in the face twice but it didn’t even flinch or batter a non-existent eyelid. This just made the thing angrier, it flew into a fit of rage swinging it’s large, chunky meat torso then flinging it’s arms and bringing them down with such force just missing her but smashing into the tiled floor, the floor all around her and the creature began to cave in and turn to rubble opening up into a large sinkhole, I watched helplessly as she desperately tried to run on the falling ground. As she screamed out in terror I could only watch as the structure gave way from all the torture it had gone through over the years, this creature had finally broken the heart of the centre. The last thing I saw of her was her hand as she tried to reach up the top to grab something, as she vanished so did the monster that tumbled down the hole it had made with her. The howl it screamed bounced off all the remaining walls echoing all around us.
“Monique!” Darren shouted lunging forward.
I grabbed his waist trying to hold him back, if he jumped down with her there would be a good chance they would both be dead and then I would be alone again and after spending today with them and seeing these new horrors I don’t think I could handle being on my own anymore.
“Get off me”, he spat turning and hitting me in the chest winding me, as he did I slipped and fell down the maintenance hole we had found, I hit my arm on one of the rungs before splash landing in the water below, I coughed as dust and water hit my nose and tried to force their way into my wheezing throat. “Stacie?” he said wearily as he looked down into the hole to see if I was ok, he looked a little relieved to see I wasn’t harmed but then his face changed as the floor around him began to crack and groan, I could see the cracks appearing on what was now my version of a ceiling.
“Darren come on we have to move now!” I croaked not waiting to see if he would follow me, I stood to a crouch as that was all the room would allow me and I started off at a slow crouched running pace. Time seemed to slow down as I saw the bits of debris and dust start to fall over me like a fine grey snow, time took so long as I slow ran from the everlasting disaster above me, then I heard it hit full whack and cave in. I didn’t even have time to panic as the floor smashed down behind me, sending out a wave of the water in the pipe work which knocked me off my feet. More dust filled the fading air and my lungs as I began to choke on the new found fear that I might die down here!
Chapter Three …
When I awoke I found that I was no longer in the dust water filled tunnel beneath the shopping centre, in fact when I awoke I found that I had no idea where I was or how on earth I had gotten here. Lifting my aching head up slowly probably caused from the impact of the floor crashing down upon me I took a look at my new surroundings only for my heart to freeze. I couldn’t be here? How did I get here? My clothes had gone and I was wearing a hospital gown similar to the one I had seen the Screecher wear on the pier, I was lying in a hospital bed attached to some monitors and other equipment, I could hear the beep of other machines going off behind the curtains that had been pulled to conceal my cubicle. Was that all a dream about the war and the creatures? Had I dreamt the whole lot and really I had been unconscious in a hospital for some reason or another? I shook my head no, that couldn’t be right, I had been through so much there was no way I could have dreamed away a year and a half or more of my life.
Standing up I saw that my clothes had been folded neatly onto a chair by the side of my bed, rushing to them I undone the gown and put my clothes back on instantly feeling so much better that I wasn’t practically naked anymore. As I pulled my top down to cover my tummy I noticed that some drawings had been inked on me, some dots and lines like a diagram showing someone where to cut for surgery. Panicking I knew where I was, I had to be in the hospital in Brighton, most probably with the mad doctor I had seen running round the shopping centre he must have found me and brought me here but why had he drawn all over my tummy? Flash backs of the face I had seen up at the tower and then the floor caving in around me in the tunnel suddenly hit me and I felt the fear trying to take hold, he had been watching us, waiting for us to slip up so he could ambush and take us for whatever reason he desired, pushing back the strange memories of him spying on us I went to peek behind the curtain.
The sight that greeted me made me let out a cry of despair, there were rows of hospital beds all occupied by women, pregnant women. The only thing was they all looked half dead like the creatures that roamed outside, their faces were all drawn in. It looked to me that the only thing keeping them alive was the machines that beeped away next to them. Was this what had been planned for me? Bile and acid rose to my throat as I peered again at the drawings over my tummy, right where I guess my womb might be. Shuddering I swished the curtain closed, looking around for my bag and my gun I panicked again as I saw they were missing. Shit what was I going to do now? How could I fight my way out with no weapons?
“Don’t worry he hasn’t impregnated you yet”, a small but very sure voice sounded from behind me, barely a whis
per above the beeping machines.
Turning to find the voice I only just about spotted the two small pairs of eyes peering at me from behind an air vent next to the bed, taking a quick glance out of the curtain to make sure it was safe to talk I then bent down to the level of the eyes, “How do you know he hasn’t yet?” I asked.
The face came closer to the vent and I could just make out a young girl no older than 14 with large eyes and the most striking red hair I had seen, she had pale skin and was covered in freckles, behind her was a younger boy of maybe 10 or 11 with the same hair and complexion. What on earth were two young kids like them doing in a place like this? I was about to ask them when the girl answered my first question, “We saw him bring you and your friend in”, she said very hushed then she continued, “It takes him some time to prepare the… male part as he has to wait for them to turn before he can inject it in you. I don’t think he thought you would wake up so soon but he is running low on drugs now so maybe he didn’t have enough to keep you asleep”.
I felt a little relief wash over me but then another dread filled me, “My friend which one? And what do you mean male part being turned?” I think I already knew the answer but I had to hear it although I really didn’t want it to be true.
“A boy came in with you and by turned I mean into a creature. He takes the male part for making a baby and injects it into a normal woman so she can carry a creature child, he’s trying to make an army or something we heard him muttering but not a lot made sense, he’s crazy!” She replied.
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