Alone

by Prunty, Mercedes

  I knew I was in danger but I knew that I had no hope in hell of getting out I was stuck but this didn’t bother me as much as who lay in front of me, her hair was long and glossy like it had been long ago, her skin was healthy and full of vibrancy, her lips were lush and red filled out with all the blood that pumped round her very alive looking body. Even though she seemed alive she just lay there unmoving, I swam back to her, “Tanya, Tanya it’s me Stacie”, my voice came out it hoarse cries as the strain of all the screaming had taken hold.

  She turned her head to me, “Come, join me little sister, sisters together, holding hands together”, then with no effort at all she lifted her hand up to me.

  Shaking I leant forward to take it but just as my fingertips brushed hers she screamed, her face contorted into a manner of painful appearances, twisting and shattering with pain then it imploded, her nose, eyes and mouth all caving in. Her blood started to pour out from these new crevices flooding out into the already red river around me.

  “Nooo!” I cried out flinching backwards from her but it was too late I could feel it the warmth of the fluid from her twisted turning body, large claws carved their way out from her hands making her back arch in pain, I could hear her bones breaking from under all the pressure of the change. Trying to move I splashed some of the blood, her blood into my mouth, I heaved again and started coughing, then I heard it the screaming howls of the crushed headed creatures, they were coming for me. One of them stood by the gap in the fence that Amanda had created, its silhouette darkened the river turning it sour and spoilt, the blood and bodies had gone completely bad and rotten and I was now in a field of rotten mulch.

  “Scree”, my heart froze turning my blood ice cold, the howl was so close to me that I knew it had to be her, I prayed it wasn’t, I knew she was turning but I didn’t want it to be true. As I turned to the sound I came face to face with my sister, she didn’t look anything like herself, she was a darkened skeletal monster, she lifted a claw towards me before screaming and piercing my side.

  “Argh”, I screamed out in pain as it ripped a chill through me.

  Whoosh, thrum… the sound of a portable fan beside me struck me as the first sound I heard, I was no longer in pain but my body ached like mad and I could feel where the straps had cut into my arms. Instinctively I went to touch my face but my arms were still strapped down. As I lay there in the almost silence I thought to myself, I was still thinking like me and I knew I still was me but what scared me was whether I would still look like me, would I still have a face or would it be crushed in? And would that be the actual thing to send me round the twist?

  A noise small at first but I knew it was coming closer from behind the door caught my attention, then a key in a lock and the door opened…. “Stacie?”

  ~

  Dr Toni Bennet sat in a cool high rise office, it was situated exactly one floor and three rooms over from the laboratory down stairs. She was sitting in a meeting with three men and one woman but Toni knew by the tone of their voices today’s meeting was not going to go in her favour. The people who chatted to each other about her and her work but didn’t find it fit to include her in this conversation, they were the ‘Government’, they looked after and oversaw everything that happened in this small complex which had been put together after the acid rain. It was the central hospital located in the heart of the city centre, the very heart of the country, London. The so called ‘Government’ had taken control of the hospital when the original management collapsed and abandoned the place, they came in like a gust of wind sweeping out all the infected and burning their poisoned bodies, they turned half the hospital into a smaller more efficient version of itself, with not such a large population there was no need for such a large medical building. The other half they converted into homes for people, the wards and the rooms were chopped up using building materials from a local building site, they turned them into miniature apartments so families could all stay together but the people who had no one could be left in peace without being on top of others. Their way of managing this place seemed to work, people were happy but they had no direction. So the newly elected ‘Prime minister’ came up with the idea that people should still work to live, she set up the lower floors as shops, she then sorted out the people who had been trades men and women with skills and set them up with their own workplaces. Taking the things they needed from nearby shops and scavenging everything they needed this new home now had a small working community from a hairdressers to a clothes shop, a small convenience store filled with food and toiletries from the outside world that people now wanted as the must have luxury, there was even a man and his son who were decorators who would paint up the apartments so they looked more like individual places. The place was thriving…but like everything good there was a minor setback or rule, the rent. The Prime Minister decided that she wanted people to pay their way to live in this new post-apocalyptic luxury so money was raided in from local banks and shops and now it changed hands on a daily basis like it had in the old life and like before the people at the top were the richest and well the poorest who arrived with no money were still poor.

  “Doctor Bennet?” the Prime Minister said from across the table.

  “Excuse me?” Toni asked, she had momentarily let her mind wonder and had missed the question.

  “You said last time that you had made progress on the cure but since then we have heard and seen nothing, we asked what you had to say about that”, The Prime Minister said a little spikey with her tone.

  The PM as she liked to call herself was a middle aged woman in her forties, she had long greying hair tied up into a French pleat, her eyes were mere pinpricks magnified by her once very posh and expensive designer glasses. She still wore whatever makeup she could get her hands on, red lip stick was her favourite, her suit was also a posh designer name which no one cared for anymore but she liked to let people know that she had once been in power with money and she was not letting that go now. Apparently she had been a local MP for a suburb in the old London for the past Government that had run the country at Westminster, so she deemed herself the one with the knowledge to be in power now, this then made her the one to choose who she wanted to be in the Government around her. Toni knew people inside this complex that would have been much better suited to be in the circle of power at the top, they would have been fairer and a much safer option but the Prime Minister wanted people to be beneath her and to keep it that way she wanted the muscle and the fear to be at the top with her to keep all her subjects in check.

  “Progress yes about that, I thought I had made progress but it turns out all my cure does is slow down the process of the infection giving the infected person a few extra hours or days depending on how quick their body reacts to it but I’m close I know I’m close to finding it”, Toni replied hoping they didn’t just kill her on sight right this minute, they were not patient people and the cure was their top priority.

  “I’m afraid Miss Bennet that this is not acceptable, we need that cure and we need it now. We need the people to know that we will keep them safe and the cure is the only thing that will do that”, The Prime Minister commented her tongue whipping out the last few words. Toni almost laughed but caught it before it snuck out, to laugh at the Prime Minister would also be punishable by death but she was not feeling the need to laugh because she was funny, oh no she wanted to laugh due to the comment the Prime Minister had made about wanting to keep the people safe, Toni new damn right that if the infection penetrated these walls that the people would be the last thing on their minds, the cure would be kept on the upper levels locked behind glass where only the Government could access it, everyone else would die before they could reach it, including Toni.

  She waited before answering as she felt a twinge of annoyance at the Prime Minister, she called her Miss Bennet and she knew it was only to piss her off by demoting her Doctor status down to that, she had to think of something, something that would make them keep her on so she could continu
e her work and her plan, “I …” but before she could make the words come out the Prime Minister clicked her fingers at the guards who stood at the door.

  “Bring in the guest for Miss Bennet”, her voice very commanding and cold.

  The guards nodded and opened the door to the office, Toni felt her heart drop at the sight of her long term boyfriend Micah, his tanned skin was pale and his clean shaven face was beaten and bruised, “I’m sorry Toni”, he whispered.

  “Micah what have they done?” She said accusingly.

  “Miss Bennet we need you to take notice at how serious this is that you find the cure”, a sly voice sounded from beside the Prime Minister, it belonged to a rather large man called William Schmitt a German surgeon who had been practicing at the hospital when the infection hit, he was a revolting man, always eating even in front of the poor children whose parents couldn’t afford to buy food from the store, their past work had not been seen as a skill and they were thrown down to the Shanti town just outside of the safety of the hospital. Large walls had been put up all around for a mile radius but they had been forced to build their own homes between the wall and the security of the hospital, if any infected were to get in they would be the first to get slaughtered yet these were the people they wanted to promise the cure to.

  “I assure you I take this very seriously but I am working alone with this and there is only so much I can do”, She replied looking at Micah as she said it.

  “Does that mean you have used up your talents and now it is time to replace you?” William snarled.

  “No I have a lot more to give but I may know someone who could work alongside me”, she said trying to ease her idea in slowly she couldn’t give too much away as they might guess her real intentions.

  “You cannot leave the complex”, William snapped.

  “Let her speak”, The Prime Minister spoke silencing the fat German man.

  “I used to work with a guy called Demetri at my old hospital in Brighton, he has a very clever and talented mind and I know if I could get him here he could help me get past this rut and that cure would be on the conveyer belt in no time”, she said trying to not let them see the need for this in her eyes.

  “And what will you need to get to Brighton, we cannot give you unlimited funds you know this?” The Prime Minister asked me.

  “All I ask for is a car, a few guns and Micah”, she said slowly.

  “I’ll grant you the car and the guns but Micah stays here, I want to know you will keep your word and return”, she said calmly not battering an eyelid.

  “Very well but I will require another person, a man to help me move obstacles and carry any equipment I may come across”, she said, them not letting Micah go was not a shock in fact she had expected it but she had to try.

  “I volunteer my own body guard Damien to go with you, he is strong and very loyal to me so I know he will bring you back in one piece to me”, The Prime Minister smiled, “But just to enhance how much we want you to return”, she clicked her fingers again.

  One of the other men from the Government stood, he was a skinny man with jet black hair and a pointy face, his name was ‘Psycho’ although his real name was actually Christopher but Psycho suited him much better as he wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty and take out a few innocent people to prove a point. His movement startled Toni and she knew this was not a good sign, he walked over to Micah who was being held tightly by the guards, “This might just sting a little”, then he pulled out a syringe filled with the virus, the deadly infection that made people into the horrifying creatures and he drove it into the neck of Micah.

  “Nooo!” she cried out lunging forward but Psycho was too quick for her and slapped her across the face sending her flying over her desk, “What have you done?”

  “We have made sure you return. So you say your current cure only slows down the infection?” The Prime Minister smiled.

  Toni nodded her eyes filled with tears.

  “Then you better hurry and find this Demetri, you leave in half an hour, meeting dismissed”, and with that she stood and left the room.

  Toni cried out and ran over to Micah, his eyes were wide with fear but he tried to hide it in his face. As she landed at his feet he held her close, “It’s ok, I know you can do it”, but she knew he didn’t mean the cure, he was talking about their plan.

  “What if I can’t, what if there is no one left”, she sobbed quietly into his ear.

  “There will be, you’ll find them!”

  Chapter Eight …

  “Stacie?” a lone voice whispered into the room, I turned my head to the door to look at the person the voice belonged to but I wasn’t looking to greet them as such, I was looking to see what reaction their face would have as to whether I was really still me or a monster. Callum stood standing at the door frame, he looked pale but I could see that the antibiotics were working their magic as he had his old glow back in his face. His face, which was what I really concentrated on, his eyes, his reaction to me … “You’re ok!” he breathed.

  I felt my heart flutter with relief, “So I don’t have a crushed head?” I asked him.

  He shook his head with a slight smile, “No you don’t have a crushed head”.

  “Oh thank god!” I laughed, “Am I allowed out now”, I tried to lift my arms which were still tied down.

  He came over and untied them for me before scooping me up in his arms and holding me tight, his smell hit me at once, the manly musky smell which so many women go mad for but it was so sharp now, like my nose had been replaced with a sniffer dogs, I could smell the muskiness, the pheromones and the salt on the top layer of his skin where he had been sweating mostly with worry.

  “You ok?” he asked me.

  Looking up I nodded, “Yeah why?”

  “You’re sniffing me”, he smiled.

  “Oh er sorry”, I grinned.

  “How do you really feel Stacie? You looked to be in so much pain for a long time?” he asked concerned.

  “Yeah it hurt but it was only a few hours but I feel fine now, really”, I replied.

  “Stacie it wasn’t a few hours, you’ve been in here for three days”, he said.

  “Three days!” I said confused, “No I couldn’t have, I’m sure it was only hours”.

  “No it really was days, we’ve been so worried for you. Even the doctor who found you had never seen anything like this before”, he brushed some hair out of my face.

  “Doctor? What doctor?” I asked but he didn’t answer.

  “She apparently had seen people turn after being infected by Crushers but she had never seen it affect someone so badly, she knew it would be painful but not to the extent you went through. We all thought that even if the infection didn’t turn you or kill you the pain certainly would. But then you had her concoction of medicine to slow it down and the cure I guess it just slowed it all down and made the pain last longer”, he said but more to himself than me.

  “Um yeah”, I said not really knowing what else to say, “How’s Monique is she here is she ok?”

  “Yeah she’s fine been worrying about you, look Stacie, Monique told me that you and Amanda had a bit of a scuffle in the hospital and that she pretty much left you for dead? Is that true?” he asked me.

  I nodded, “Yeah she said that I wasn’t good enough for you, she tripped me up and I hit my head”, I raised my arm to where I had hit my head and flinched, where I had been tied down for so long the straps had really cut into my wrists making them sore, “Then the crushed headed creatures came as they heard us arguing and she ran off taking the truck, I fell and the creatures got me I told Monique to run on and the creature chased her”, my memory was playing it all back to me in fast motion and trying to make sense of some of it was a little disorientating, “Then it spat at me and I killed it!” The memory of me killing it hit me, slicing it open so all its blood washed over me, then me standing up and the others coming out and looking at me, “COME ON THEN!” me shouting at them and t
hem sulking off hiding in the darkened corners keeping out of my way, “Then I went after Monique but she had already gone in an ambulance so I took a car but the field of creatures had been let out. Then I drove back the way we came and….” The pain all I could remember was the pain. I suddenly started shaking as the pain flickered in my mind and over my flesh, I screamed out in fear but he pulled me in and held me close.

  “What’s wrong?” I heard Sarah’s worried voice ask from behind him.

  “I don’t know she just started screaming”, he sounded alarmed.

  “I think we need to get her to the doctor, she can look her over”, She said.

  The next few minutes were a blur as I knew I was being carried out of the room and into another one, Sarah had run off to fetch the ‘Doctor’, Callum laid me down on a clean bed as the old one had been almost torn to shreds and covered in old blood.

  “What happened?” I heard a new woman’s voice ask but I couldn’t look at her as my body was shaking so violently I had no control over myself.

  “She was fine telling me what happened then she just started screaming, I think she’s in pain”, Callum told her.

  I heard some noise like a cabinet being opened then a piercing feeling in my arm as she injected me with something but whatever it was it worked, within minutes the pain was subsiding and I was feeling more like me. When I was completely calm I got to meet the new doctor.