Alone

by Prunty, Mercedes

  “Hello Stacie how are you feeling now?”

  I looked at her, she had long dark black hair which had been tied up into a messy ponytail. She was in her mid to late thirties and she smelt like Cinnamon and a little of hint of a clinical smell clung to her. “Better thanks”.

  “Do you mind if I ask what happened?” she said.

  “I was thinking about what happened, I got to the part where the pain first started and then it came back and took over”, I replied.

  “That’s a little odd but we’ll keep an eye on it. And the medicine has worked, you don’t hurt now?” she asked.

  I shook my head, “Nope all gone. Um Callum said that I had been in pain for three days? And that you all thought the pain would kill me, do you think it still could if it came back? What if I’m not cured what if like yours done it just slowed it down, what if I’m still going to cave in?”

  She mulled over what I was saying before replying, “I can’t know for sure if you’ve been cured unless you come back with me to my hospital in London, I can check you bloods and give you scans to make sure. If that is the case my medicine won’t slow it down forever, it could give you a few days, weeks maybe more but eventually you would turn. The pain you just experienced does concern me as Callum had the same cure as you and seems to be fine but you were attacked by a different breed of creature”.

  “Different breed? Yeah I guess you could call them that, they were much more terrifying. Have you seen them a lot as that was the first time I had come across one and I’ve been to a lot of places over the past year or so”, I asked her.

  “Yes Monique told me a little about you, you have travelled quite a bit. And yes I have encountered the Crushers a few times, they are a mutation of the virus. Most of them were patients that had been undergoing treatment for dementia, they had lost their minds and when the virus hit them it reacted with the medication they were taking, it reacted in such a way their minds and bodies couldn’t cope and their heads caved in, this deprives them of the usage of their mouths hence their skeletal form as they don’t get to eat much but they don’t really need to for some bizarre reason their only real goal is to infect people with the mutated virus. They like to live in large numbers and are a bit like dogs and wolves in the fact they hunt in a pack with an Alpha, they follow this one Alpha everywhere”, she said.

  “And what happens if the Alpha dies or is killed?” I asked.

  “Then they normally have an Omega, a right hand man as it were to take the Alpha’s place, unless they find someone stronger who’s infected with the same form of their virus, then they choose them”, she said looking at me cautiously, “Why do you ask?”

  “No reason just wondered that’s all”, I smiled but something was bugging at me but I didn’t want to say and them find me a freak.

  “Well are you definitely feeling better, no more pain?” she asked me.

  I shook my head, “Nope all the pain is gone”.

  “Well it does seem strange, like because you remembered the pain it came back”, she was mulling something over in her brain.

  “Well if I feel bad I’ll come back and see you, I just really wanna go and stretch my legs”, I said trying to get away, I didn’t want to be around this doctor. There was something about her that made me feel uneasy

  “Right well let’s get you some food before you go wondering off yeah”, Callum smiled taking hold of my arm

  “Ok but anything wrong, anything in the slightest you some back and see me ok”, the doctor ordered.

  Nodding to her as we walked out I breathed a sigh of relief.

  “You sure you’re ok? You did look to be in a hell of a lot of pain just now”, Callum asked looking deep into my eyes.

  “I’m fine ok, really I am. I think I just need some air”, I pulled away from his grasp.

  “Wait you need to eat”, he called to me as I walked away.

  “I’ll meet you at the canteen in an hour ok”, I said heading to the main gate.

  The guard at the gate was a tall Middle Eastern man and he didn’t look as if he was going to let me out, until a woman’s voice called out from the other side.

  “HELP!”

  Rushing over I spied out to see Amanda running from a group of five creatures.

  “Open the gate”, I cried out.

  “But the creatures”, he replied.

  “Use your goddam gun!” I snapped.

  He shot them down in quick succession before throwing open the gate, Callum was by my side in a heartbeat and rushing to his sister who stumbled in. She looked like hell, her clothes all torn and shredded, her hair a ruffled mess. She pretty much collapsed in his arms, he led her in and sat her down by the people who were doing the washing. In all this commotion I took to a quick jog and raced out of the camp just as the gates clicked shut behind me.

  “Stacie wait!” Callum called out to me but I was gone.

  I couldn’t face Amanda right now because I knew the anger inside me might flip out and kill her. She had left me and Monique for dead and had gotten me infected and there was no way I was going to be civil to her. I needed air to breathe and to think, I needed some alone time away from all the ogling minds and eyes back at the camp.

  After I few minutes I slowed down to a gentle walk, I didn’t head back to the town as that was not what I needed, I needed the land to calm me down and whisper its natural voice to me to help me think. A few miles later I stumbled across the old farm house that we had been at mere days ago but I didn’t want to go there either. An hour or so passed me by and I found myself at a large parkland with a lake, I sat down near the water’s edge and stared into the rippling waves that splashed ever so cautiously at the shore line nearest me. I closed my eyes and listened to the world around me, birds tweeted, singing choruses to one another from the tree lines, fish bobbed up to take a sip of air gently breathing a whisper of serenity to me, then I heard it. A rustle of feet in the bushes snapping the smallest of twigs but making an echo of a noise, spinning round in an instant I also cried out with laughter as a squirrel dashed out and up a tree.

  Laying myself down I looked up into the blue sky that was filled with the fluffiest of white cotton clouds, different shapes and sizes wafted past disappearing into the distance. Then I heard another noise, the tiny pitter patter of ran drops hitting the ground. I felt confused as the sky here was so blue there wasn’t a rain cloud in sight. Sitting up I looked over to where the sea should be and I saw the coming rain cloud but it was still miles away how could I hear the rain drops all the way from here?

  Suddenly a shock took hold of my body and I felt myself convulsing on the dirt and mud, my mind flashed with images that I wasn’t seeing, it was like it was through someone else’s eyes. The rush of clawed feet on tarmac as the creature I was seeing was running. The old children’s zoo I had seen before my crash came into view, a large rusted signed post said the name before a large clawed hand swiped it cutting the metal in half with a screech of nails on a chalkboard, the noise was so loud it pierced through my mind. Before I knew it the convulsion had stopped but I was still screaming from the pain of the noise in my brain.

  It took a few minutes for me to get over my episode until my heart was beating normally and my mind no longer hurt. Shaking myself mentally I had no idea what had just happened, Maybe it was just a daydream gone a riot, I thought to myself.

  Thinking that had to be it I stood up and brushed myself off, taking a brisk walk back to the camp I was there in no time, in fact a hell of a lot quicker than it had taken me to get all the way to the pond in the first place. A different guard was on duty now a woman, she opened the gate for me without saying a word and closed it quickly behind my back. I felt a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach and an unusual taste in my mouth, almost as if I could taste someone’s dislike for me, looking over at the woman I could see she was looking at me with a hatred in her eyes. No I couldn’t be thinking, feeling or tasting how people felt that would just be silly person thi
nking.

  Not bothering to hang around I rushed back to my room, slamming the door shut and locking it tight. What was happening to me? Sitting on my bed I curled up into a corner trying to hide from the world when I sensed him there before he knocked.

  “Stacie it’s me, can we talk?” Callum asked from behind the door, I couldn’t let him in he had to stay there to be safe from me.

  I didn’t reply.

  He tried the handle to find it very much locked, “Stacie open the door or I’ll kick it in”.

  Feeling dismayed I got up off the bed and opened it slowly, I peered through the small crack between the door and the frame. His eyes met mine and I could see relief flood through him at the sight of me being ok and still human. “Stacie please we need to talk”.

  I stepped away from the door and let him in, he looked tired and I knew the infection from the wound was still tiring him out but I could feel and sense that the antibiotics were working too, he sat down on my bed whilst I stayed put in the corner.

  “You ok?”

  “Fine”.

  “You sure you were gone for hours and you haven’t eaten for days”, he looked me up and down trying to read my body language.

  “I’m not hungry”, I replied.

  “You must be a little hungry Stacie”, he said not believing me, “Starving yourself won’t fix this situation”.

  “What situation?” I asked as his tone changed a little.

  “The one with Amanda. She said it was you that attacked her and she fled leaving you two behind. She crashed the truck and had to walk for days to get back here”, he said but more of a question, almost asking me why I had done it.

  “I told you and so did Monique she attacked me, she left me and Monique to be attacked by those creatures in the hope that I would never come back to you”.

  “Don’t lie Stacie”.

  “I’m not lying, she is! Just look at me I got infected because of her she done this to me, I didn’t do this to myself.” I hissed at him but I could hear the fierceness in my voice behind it.

  “My sister would not lie to me Stacie”, he replied calmly, I could taste his disappointment in me which only angered me more.

  “Believe who you want to believe Callum but don’t come crying to me when you realise your sister is a lying little bitch who only wants you for herself”, I snarled at him.

  “I don’t want to fall out with you Stacie but there is no need for that”, he stood back up to leave, “I think you should stay out of the way for a while until I can sort something”.

  “Sort something?” I said.

  “About you”, he replied and turned to leave pausing at the door, “I’ll get Monique to bring you some food”.

  He closed the door behind him, I waited a few minutes feeling the anger build before letting it erupt, I felt my hands slice and smash at the bunk beds that adorned my room and splinters of wood flew all around the small room as I tore everything to pieces. The quilt and pillow that I longed to snuggle under were ripped like a knife going through butter, bits of cloth and a few feathers littered the floor. Turning I spotted my bag and flew at it knocking it wildly to the floor scattering all its contents with the debris from my trashed room, Clack! My rifle fell to the floor landing on top of my photo, I froze as the thought of destroying the one thing I had left of them all filled me no longer with rage but with the despair at losing them all and how I had accomplished nothing. I had spent the last year or more of my life looking for her only for her to be taken away just as I found her. The pain that entered my soul now was a different kind of pain to the one I had felt when I had collapsed at the pond, this was just pure heartbreak and I fell to the floor sobbing and crying into the coming night.

  I had fallen asleep at some point cuddling my photo and my rifle, I had come up with the idea of just ending it all and I pointed the rifle at my own face but with the sudden guilt of Cain and Ollie I couldn’t bring myself to do it but I still held the rifle just in case I no longer felt the guilt and changed my mind but it never changed not even when Monique burst in and dropped to her knees to help me up from the broken floor. She screamed and cried out in terror and at first I couldn’t understand why.

  “Stacie what the hell happened to you?”

  I didn’t say a word as she stood me up, a semi silence was whistling in my ears, I couldn’t focus.

  “Stacie where is the creature?” she asked me pulling me forward so she could look directly into my eyes.

  “What creature? Are Ollie and Cain ok, are they alright?” I panicked wondering how on earth the guards had let a creature in to terrorise the camp.

  “No Stacie the creature that was here with you”, she said looking confused.

  “There is no creature here with me”.

  “There must be, this mess”, she looked over at my shredded bunk beds, “These are claw marks Stacie”, she rubbed her fingers over the wood that was hanging loosely from a nail.

  I looked at where she looked and gasped, she was right the wood had been torn apart by claws not by a human hand but I had been the only one in here and I remembered smashing everything up, “I done this”.

  She gave me a weird look and grabbed my arms lifting them so she could see my hands, “Stacie, these cuts in your hands…The Crusher’s they had claws…Do…You?”

  Taking a worried glance at my hands I saw what she was talking about, just below my knuckles where cut marks that were wide enough for something to have come out of them. I shook her off me and held onto my hands, “Stand back stay away from me”.

  “No Stacie its fine we’re get you to the doctor she can help”, she promised.

  “No one can help me now”, I whispered.

  “We have to clear up the evidence”, she hissed suddenly throwing herself into my wrecked pile of a room, “If people find out your still infected they will force you to leave or kill you”.

  “Maybe it would be better if they did”, I whispered.

  “I’m not letting anyone take you away from me and the boys, if need be we will leave before this gets out of hand”, she warned me.

  Then a pain, so powerful it was almost as though a siren was sounding through my mind once again. I felt my hands fly to my head in response as if it would help in some way. I fell to my knees and instantly went down on my back and fitted like I had at the pond. I felt bile rise in my throat as my body tried to fight off what was happening but it was no use, I convulsed to the point I passed out.

  Claws flashing in the moonlit street, the howls and cries sounding so loud all the other Creatures stayed hidden in fear, a rushed glance at a sign post, Brighton 3 miles, a howl into the night and they let their minds flow out and connect, connecting with mine and hunting me down.

  “Stacie!” Monique’s worried voice called out snapping me back into the world of the humans.

  “They’re coming for me”, I hissed rushing at her and trying to run past.

  She clamped her hand down on my arm and dragged me back, “Whose coming?”

  “The Crushers, they’re coming for me. They’re at Brighton already!”

  Her face paled, “Come on we need to warn the others”.

  I leant down and snatched up my bag shoving all my belongings and my photo back inside before snatching my rifle and running out the door following Monique’s hot heels. She raced to the garage with me not two seconds behind, she didn’t bother to knock just flung the door open and waltzed in.

  “Monique is everything ok?” Callum asked getting up from a foldaway chair, he and Gavin had been sitting with a few drinks, sharing the bottle of Vodka I had looted from the shopping centre many moons ago. I didn’t care much for Vodka so I didn’t care much that they had been drinking my loot.

  “No the Crushers are coming for Stacie”, she blurted out.

  “What?” he said dumbfounded.

  “They’re are coming, they’re are already in Brighton somewhere”, she told him.

  “Stacie how do you know this?�
� he asked me.

  So I told him all about my trip to the pond and collapsing and seeing them, then again in my room and seeing them but this time much closer.

  “What’s going on?” The doctor walked in with Amanda who had been stitched up from a large cut on her head, possibly from her supposed crash but I thought it was just to make them believe her side of the story. It wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if she had sliced her head with her own blade just to spite me and make me look the bad guy in all this. Plus if she had wanted a real crash she should have gone through the one I had only just managed to climbed out of, I still had no idea how I was still here after that but then miracles happen and people have survived weird and truly horrific events and freak accidents before me or maybe it was the virus in my veins making me more susceptible to be able to bounce back after things, whatever it was I just hoped I could hold onto it long enough to prove her wrong.

  Callum and Monique quickly told her the situation but I had my attention somewhere else. My eyes zoned in on Amanda who stood very close to the nice new doctor, she thought standing there would protect her from me but she was wrong, no one could give her the protection she needed now. Her eyes peered into mine, a small curve of a smile spread over her face lighting up her eyes, she was amused at what had happened to me, how I had been infected and now I still might turn because the creatures were on their way to collect me. I could taste her amusement on my tongue, it was a souring taste and I so wanted to wash my mouth out with soap to be rid of it. No I wanted to be rid of her and before I could stop myself I was charging full pelt at her, raising my arm ready to strike her down.

  “Stacie no!” the male voice boomed through the garage before the owner of the voice knocked me to the ground.

  I felt strong arms wrestle me trying to prevent me from moving a muscle but the person was foolish, I had become stronger and I didn’t like to be held down. Throwing Callum off me like a rag doll I turned back to Amanda ready to kill her.