Alone

by Prunty, Mercedes

  Nodding I stood up and took hold of the large gun, I spotted the creatures about six of them, they had all congregated at what used to be a bus stop, they looked to be trapped by some metal that had collapsed from the bus shelter so I decided not to shoot them, we needed to preserve all the ammunition we had.

  Amanda drove the truck slowly through a road that came to a wonky shaped round about, a large retirement apartment block was to the right along with some once very expensive houses to my left. A few creatures snuck out from the empty driveways onto the road but not enough for me to think of as a threat. It was hard to believe that only last week I was in this town trying to fight my way to Brighton and now I was back.

  The truck whirred as we headed down a long round that was only broken up by a small faded mini round about which led further down the road we needed, we passed the back end of a park which had what looked like an old rugby club house and goals nestled in between all the overgrown trees, bushes and grass. My eyes flashed over the old field as I knew with long grass like that anyone or anything could be hiding and we wouldn’t see them, scanning it with the large gun turret I couldn’t see anything other than a small little squirrel climbing up a tree. We then passed the old college and the sight made Amanda stop the truck.

  The old buildings had been burnt to a crisp, it had happened a long time ago judging by the half melted rotting corpses laying all over the road in front of us but some of the students hadn’t been lucky enough to die from their wounds. In a large field just next to the college and next to what I guessed to be the hospital was one of the largest hordes of creatures I had seen yet, there could have been hundreds maybe even thousands. They were all trapped in by some metal fencing and it looked like someone had blocked of the holes in the fences and gates with old cars and other random things. But what really churned my stomach was what the creatures stood on, the ground under them seemed to be moving, almost slithering up and down like a liquid but I could see that it was more creatures, ones whose legs no longer worked and had given way underneath them, ones whose bodies had been crushed to a bloody pulp but were still writhing around feeding on the blood and flesh of the others around them.

  I turned the gun turret to shoot but Amanda whispered through the window, “Don’t! Just leave them they’re trapped in there they aren’t coming out”.

  So I left them all to still stand there rotting and collapsing on each other, I felt so guilty like it was my duty to put them all or as many as I could out of their misery.

  At the next turn to the left we pulled into the hospital car park, the hospital itself looked quiet and calm but I knew these places held secrets and I couldn’t get rid of the uneasy bile filled feeling in my stomach that something was in there, something we should leave well alone and go home but we had promised Sarah and Callum so there was no going back now, not yet. Maybe I was just being over cautious because of the last hospital I visited.

  This building looked like a maze but hopefully not as complicated as Brighton, its many floors and towers were disorientating but at least this one only seemed to be on a few levels it was just more spread out over the land.

  Amanda killed the trucks engine right outside of accident and emergency and we waited, I stood there looking all around us trying to stop any danger that might be headed our way but there was nothing. Maybe all the people that had been here were holed up in that slush pile behind us. Monique slowly got out first using her pistol as her point of search, I jumped out the bed and raised my rifle looking around. I took a path round a few ambulances and looked inside each of them. Inside the first two was nothing not even blood stains which looked to be a miracle considering this place would have been the towns first port of call when the acid rain hit. In the last one though was a body bag but it looked like the person had died a long time ago judging by the smell inside.

  I heard Monique, “It’s clear my side”.

  “It’s clear here”, I replied.

  “Well let’s get this done then”, Amanda ordered appearing from behind another ambulance.

  I didn’t like being bossed around by her and if I had my way I would shove her in that field of creatures and go on my way back with whatever medicine I found but she had been here, she supposedly knew the way around so I had to abide by her instructions.

  The main entrance was dark and eerie so we all reached for our torches and looked around the inside of the main door frame before slowly stepping into the unknown. To our right was an old florist‘The friends of Eastbourne hospital’ was written on a sign above the door, a few steps up was an old ticket machine, cash point and a gift shop but the shutters were down on that one and I didn’t feel like exploring in there as red paint had been written over the metal,‘Don’t Open Deranged inside’.

  Just passed that were two corridors one leading right up into the heart of the hospital and one that led off to the right to the outpatient unit. To our left was a seating area and an old café, a reception desk and another corridor which led to a maze of other corridors and eventually to the A n E department.

  “So which way?” I asked her.

  She looked left then right, “I’m just trying to think”.

  “Well that way says A n E wouldn’t it be worth looking there? I’m sure once when I went to accident and emergency they gave me antibiotics”, Monique suggested.

  “Yeah let’s search there first but as we’re here we might as well spread out and search the whole place for supplies”.

  “Wait what? Don’t you think we should just leave once we find what we need? I don’t think we should push our luck here plus we need to get back and give him the medicine as soon as possible right?” I said.

  “I’m in charge here so you do as I say”, She snapped back at me.

  I was about to snap something back to her but Monique just put her arm on my shoulder, “Ok”.

  The A n E department was so quiet and full of gloomy shadows, there were windows but not a lot of them and even the windows that were still attached to their frames were covered in dirt, grime and other uninviting things. My torch light bounced off the walls as I searched almost every nook and cranny trying my hardest to be fully alert and ready for any trouble. We reached the waiting area with no creature sightings but there were a few dead bodies and skeletons all crushed and slumped on chairs and on the floor but none of them moved. I came up to a small nurses station, it was fully windowed but fitted with closed blinds, grabbing the handle I opened it slowly and Monique held her blade up ready to attack but the body inside was long gone. The smell made me reach as I walked in, there was a small medicine cabinet in one corner along with tonnes of paperwork and wires for machines. I rattled the door but it was locked, looking around I found some keys on a small desk grabbing them up I opened the cabinet. Inside there were a few medical supplies and medicines that Sarah might find useful but no antibiotics so I filled my bag and exited the room. Both girls waited for me to inform them if I found any but I just shook my head.

  We then turned and headed past some double doors which led to the main bed area for the accident and emergency, a small ceiling window shed some light in the place but not a lot. Checking the coast was clear we then ransacked the area looking in all the drawers, cupboards and trollies but still no antibiotics.

  “We need to go further in the hospital”, Amanda said heading to some doors and pulling on them but they were locked shut, chains had been wrapped around the handles preventing anyone from getting in or out from the main hospital this side, “Shoot, looks like we’re going round the long way”.

  As we turned to walk back the way we came I stopped and held my hand up to stop them, out in the hallway to the seating area I could see a shadow moving, from here it looked like a tall skeletal figure. I leant against the wall counted to three then poked the rifle round the corner to look but it was gone, I used the scope to double check even stepping out to look further down the corridor but nothing, the place was still empty.

  “What
did you see?” Monique asked.

  “I’m not sure”, I replied.

  “Probably nothing, your mind playing tricks on you”, Amanda sneered and walked out ahead using her torch and gun.

  Monique shrugged but gave me a knowing look, she knew full well that when I saw something the last time we went out on a big supply run I had unintentionally found the doctor and his attentions for us all, she was probably worrying what I had found this time round. Putting her blade in her belt and going back to her pistol she headed off after Amanda.

  I knew I had seen something I wasn’t mad, I took one last look behind me but it was still empty there too. Shaking myself mentally I forced myself to move on, this place was really giving me the creeps more than normal but I think it was because it was so damn quiet and because of the weird skeletal shadow.

  We headed back the way we had come to the main entrance but this time we went straight up the corridor to the main part to the hospital, the corridor was actually a walkway filled with glass panels and I could see now this place was bigger than I expected as there were actually a few floors below us as well as above us but due to the front being elevated it made it look as if this was the ground floor.

  We came to a T-section one half of the corridor veered left to the surgical areas and the other led to some lifts and stairs then further ahead was paediatrics. I mentally made a note to myself I was not going down there, I couldn’t, I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle seeing the children’s ward.

  Amanda didn’t even give us time to ask were to go from here as she just turned down towards the surgical areas. We passed a few wards but they had been blocked off or locked by chains and there was no way we could force our way into to these areas without specialist equipment or the right keys.

  We walked all the way round in like a large arch shape and ended up coming to the door we had been stuck behind at in the emergency bit, this then tailed off to some more rooms, wards and operating theatres. Amanda took point and made us keep our torches up so she could see her way around, as we turned a corner my heart stopped in my chest as I heard a ticking noise, almost like claws or nails clicking on a tiled floor. Turning round I expected to see something but the corridor was empty and the noise had stopped, I lifted the torch to the ceiling just to make sure there was nothing there climbing waiting to spring on us from above but it too was clear.

  “Stacie light”, Amanda ordered so I turned and lit up the corridor again.

  She tried a door to a room labelled medicines store room and it opened, I lifted the rifle and Monique lifted her gun but again it was empty, this just seemed too easy. Once inside we shut the door then using our lights we searched every shelf and drawer.

  “Yes!” I heard Amanda breathe.

  “You found them?” I asked her.

  “Sure did”, she smiled.

  “Why don’t we take some too?” Monique said.

  “Why I’m gonna give them to him?” Amanda asked.

  “No I meant just in case we get separated we can still get some back to him”, she suggested.

  “Why would we get separated? You two planning something?” she accused us.

  “No I think Monique is trying to use her brain, this world is full of surprises and if we get separated and you can’t get back straight away maybe one of us still can”, I snapped.

  She looked pissed but I think she grasped the point, “Fine here take a few boxes”, she handed both of us some each.

  “Right now shall we leave”, I pressed as I really didn’t like it here.

  “Just a few more rooms, this place is like a goldmine for supplies”, she ordered.

  “Yeah and there’s a reason for that”, I said.

  “Yeah and what’s that?” she asked me.

  “No one’s stupid enough to go any further”, I replied.

  “You calling me stupid little girl”, she shouted flying at me from across the room, she went to punch me round the face but I stepped back so she missed me. I pulled a smug face at her which really wound her up so she lunged at me flicking her leg out and taking out my own and making me fall backwards.

  SMACK!

  My head hit something hard and I could see fuzzy stars blur my vision.

  “Oh my god Stacie are you alright you’re bleeding?” Monique asked me but all that came out my mouth was a mumbled reply, “Oh you idiot, you’ve hurt her”.

  “Oh what does it matter she’s a goner anyway, just look at her still pining over her dead sister”, she laughed.

  “F….uck….you”, I whispered.

  “No sweetheart fuck you. You think you can call me stupid and get away with it? No I don’t think so……..” she was cut off by a scream.

  “ARGH SCREEEEEE”

  “What the fuck was that?” Amanda said.

  “You two bloody fighting and arguing has probably attracted the creatures in hiding”, Monique spat.

  “Oh get over yourself they probably already knew we were here, smelt our scent in the air”, Amanda snapped.

  “Right well what now?” Monique asked.

  “Stay…here…till……gone”, I tried to say.

  “No way we stay here we’re all dead, I say we make a run for it and if Stacie can’t handle it then she gets left behind”, Amanda snarled.

  “Yeah you would just love that wouldn’t you, for her to die so you can have your beloved brother all to yourself again. You’re so strange, jealous that your brother likes someone other than his sister, what are you into incest and all? Or is it the guilt over what happened to her sister eating you up? Taking something that wasn’t yours so she died when she could have saved her, like we’re now trying to save your brother. You’re so sick and twisted!” Monique let rip at her.

  Amanda just laughed it off, “I’m not jealous I just don’t like her, she is too young for him she’s still a kid and he needs a proper woman to fulfil his needs not some teenage brat!”

  “Age is just a number and what does it mean now a days? Everything we used to know is gone, everyone we used to know are gone, you should be happy for him that he’s found someone he likes”, Monique said back to her.

  “Happy? Why should I be happy that he has met someone that might get him killed?”

  “Why would she get him killed?” Monique said.

  “Because he will follow his heart and not his head and that will get him killed, I will not lose my brother to her”, she shouted the last part which caught the attention of whatever was looming close by as another scream pierced the air shattering the argument.

  “We need to go”, Monique said turning to me, “Can you walk?”

  I tried to stand up but my head danced with the stars and my vision wavered slightly, grabbing a nearby shelf I hauled myself to my feet, “Be…fine”.

  “Ok after three we open the door and run alright”, Monique said trying to take control of the situation, “One, Two….” But before she could say three Amanda threw open the door and ran, Monique a little taken aback but still more aware than me pulled my arm and dragged me out the room after her. We turned to leave the way we had come but there it was the creature or whatever you could call it, it was tall and skeletal looking, its bones protruding from its paper light flesh, the things toe nails had grown so long they looked like claws and it was then I realised that had been the clicking noise I had heard earlier but what made me cry out in shock was the things face. I had always thought the Screechers’ faces were the most haunting but they were nothing to this thing, the front of its face where the mouth, eyes and nose sat was completely caved in, looking closer I could see the whole skull had almost shrunk as if it had been sucked in. The eyes could barely see out from their new position and they looked too dark like the pupils had exploded into the whites of the eyes, the nose was sniffing the air sucking in our scents and drooling from its wonky, shattered mouth. The teeth were sharp and jagged but they were not good for attacking with as the way the head had caved in meaning the creature could probably not bite
to attack but its claws on its hands looked lethal, like ten knives all coming from its knuckles.

  It screamed again making my blood chill and my brain wanting to give up, I felt my body start to drift out but Monique jerked me forward making me a little more alert again, “Come on this way”.

  I followed her as she dragged me down the unfamiliar corridor but the screams and the clicking that followed me freaked me out to the point I just wanted to put the gun to my head and go now before they got hold of me. Suddenly I heard more than one set of clicking feet, I turned my head slightly to see four of them. Two were climbing down from the ceiling, sneaking out from holes that had appeared from no one being able to maintain the building, or maybe they had burrowed into the ceiling like a rabbit would for a warren?

  “Run! Faster!” I said to Monique who heard me but didn’t look back, her legs sped up dragging me along but my legs couldn’t cope as my brain malfunctioned the correct signals and I stumbled letting go of her hand and sprawling to the floor.

  “Stacie get up”, she cried panic stricken.

  “Can’t”, was I all I could muster out, my head was pounding where I had hit it and I felt so dizzy and ill, like I needed to pass out.

  “Get up now Stacie”, she sobbed knowing I wasn’t going anywhere.

  I shook my head, I knew I couldn’t do it anymore I couldn’t run, walk or survive. My brain had shut off the part that made me care, “Go run Monique…Look after Cain and Ollie for me”.

  “No”, she grabbed my shoulders and began to drag my body along the floor but I was too much of a dead weight and she was weak.

  “Go Monique now!” I ordered her.

  She sobbed at me, “I’m so sorry Stacie”.

  “RUN!” I shouted.

  This made her jump and she stood up straight, sobbing she said, “Bye Stacie”, she then turned and began to run off, half way through her run she looked back and shot a few bullets in my direction hitting two of the creatures, one was injured badly and fell to its death, the other was hit but not badly but it squealed in pain running up the wall and hiding in a ceiling crevice. The other two howled in anger and sped up, the nearest one ran past me and headed right for Monique she screamed aiming the gun but missed, then all I saw was the flash of her coat before she vanished behind a corner followed closely by the creature, I heard a few more bullet shots and another scream but I couldn’t make out if it was hers or it.