Sick Bastards

by Shaw, Matt

  I guess his plan was to jump from one of the windows. Why he deemed that a good idea, when he could have just run to the back door, I’ll never know. I guess he just panicked. God only knows what he thought when he burst in on Sister and me.

  At least he didn’t know we were siblings.

  “This is why we’re going to survive,” Father said. “By staying one step ahead of trouble!”

  PART THIRTEEN

  Now

  Walled In

  Father’s words echoed through my mind as I tried to stay as low as possible in the undergrowth of tangled weeds and vines.

  This is why we’re going to survive, by staying one step ahead of trouble.

  I’m not sure how many of those things were passing me by. I could hear them all snarling and gnashing their teeth. I didn’t dare look up for fear of my movement being enough to gain their unwanted attention.

  My heart was beating so hard. I was surprised they didn’t hear it.

  How I didn’t hear them until they were practically on top of me I didn’t know. Had it not been for the thick undergrowth, I’d have been torn to pieces like the woman was yesterday. If I survive this...If they go on by without noticing me...I need to be more careful. I need to pay more attention and stop worrying about the past. If I survive this, next time I may not be so lucky.

  A foot crashed through the undergrowth and landed upon the moist earth next to my head. So close. I held my breath as though it had the potential to help me stay hidden even though I knew it didn’t.

  Please walk on by.

  Please walk on by.

  Part of me wondered whether a couple of the group were Mother and Father. Had they turned now and joined the others? Was Sister among them, walking, or was she contained within their stomachs?

  Another foot came within inches from stepping on my face.

  Please walk by.

  I closed my eyes and wished for them to be gone. A wish that went answered, for when I next opened my eyes they were no longer around me. I tilted my head over so slightly and could see them a few feet away. None of them were looking back. A silly mistake to not notice them until it was nearly too late but one that I had managed to (somehow) get away with. I can’t do that again. I won’t do that again.

  I stayed where I was until they were small dots on the horizon, despite the ants crawling over my skin biting me here and there. I’d sooner feel their bite over one of their bites. I breathed an audible sigh of relief and rolled onto my back. That was too close for comfort.

  When I was sure there was no one else around me, I sat up and untangled myself from the weeds and vines which had somehow managed to wrap themselves around me as though they had a life of their own.

  Get the fuck off!

  I stood up. If those things are heading in that direction, I’ll go in a different one. I want as much distance from them as I can possibly manage. I turned to my right and quietly started to walk onwards being mindful of where I was putting each step. The last thing I needed to do now was cause a twig to snap under my weight. Those things are fast when they need to be. I’m not sure if their hearing is good when it needs to be too. Rather be safe than sorry.

  I hadn’t made it ten steps when I was suddenly slammed to the floor with so much force that the wind was knocked from me. I barely had time to react, to put my hands out to cushion the fall, when I felt a vice-like grip on the back of my head, clutching at my hair. I yelled out in pain as I was pulled to my feet. I felt another hand on my shoulder; this one spun me around until I was face to face with a man. Not one of those things but a real man...

  His face was bloodied as though he’d received some of the treatment he was now serving me. I tried to ask him who he was. I tried to beg him to stop. I tried but I didn’t get a chance to finish a sentence as one of his bruised looking fists connected with my cheekbone, sending me crashing back to the floor. I didn’t get up. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t. My vision was dulling and I felt dizzy.

  “You’re one of them!” he shouted.

  I went to answer him to protest my innocence but was quickly silenced by a foot to the gut. Once again the wind was knocked out of me. This time I didn’t even try and respond to the shouting he was doing. I didn’t need to. I could see he was about to be answered. They were running up, fast and furious, behind him. Their arms flailing in the air. Their teeth gnashing. Their eyes fixed upon him.

  I wasn’t sure if he had stopped shouting at me. Everything was ringing in my ears. He looked shocked though. Worried even. Slowly he turned around and saw what was heading his way. The ringing in my ears continued and his last words were drowned out - as was (what must have been) his ear-piercing scream. I watched, from the floor, as he lashed out at them aimlessly. His fist connected with one of them but it might as well have missed for all the good it did. Within seconds he was on the floor as they swarmed his body. His screams still drowned out by the ringing. I pulled myself up from the floor and froze as one of those things stopped ripping at his flesh with its teeth and locked eyes with me for what seemed an eternity. I half expected it to suddenly dash towards me but it didn’t. It blinked and then turned its attention back to the twitching body of the man who was still fighting despite surely being dead.

  I wasted no more time watching the carnage. I turned and ran as fast as my shaky legs would allow me to, without daring to look back. I just kept my eyes locked on the floor. I kept them fixed on where my feet were to be landing as I traversed the thick undergrowth and crashed through holly bushes and nettles until I got away from the scene of violence.

  I suddenly stopped dead in my tracks. Not because of the things which were now some distance behind me. No. I stopped dead because of what was in my path now.

  A large wall.

  It stretched as far as the eye could see. On this side of it was thick woodland. On the other side of it there didn’t appear to be any trees whatsoever. There were buildings. Granted, there weren’t many but there were definitely buildings. My first thought was that it must have been a survivors’ camp. A wall erected to keep the monsters at bay?

  The ringing in my ears had subsided and I had barely noticed until I heard the familiar sound of one of those things roaring from behind me. I spun around on the spot and flinched when I realised they were heading for me now. The man, behind them, left in the same state as the woman I had seen consumed yesterday. A pile of bloody mush. I turned back to the wall. No way up it. Not easily anyway. A quick scan as far as my eyes could see and there was no obvious entry point.

  If I couldn’t go through it, I’d have to go over it.

  I started to run again, this time along the length of the wall until I came across a tree which was climbable. I only hoped that those things (ever gaining) couldn’t climb too. My left hand led the way by grabbing a hold of a thick branch overhead. My right hand grabbed it next and then I used all of the strength I could muster to pull myself up. Once I was up - to my stomach at least - it was easy to flop over the branch using my gut to help me stay on it whilst I moved my hands to the left of my body and swung my feet up to the right. I was out of puff but not out of danger. Not yet. By the time I was secure on the branch those things were directly beneath me. They were reaching up, trying to grab me, but thankfully not mimicking the awkward manoeuvre I had utilised to get myself up here. I paused a moment to catch my breath and then looked towards the tree I was now sitting in. With a little bit of climbing, I’d be level with the top of the wall.

  I wasted no time in getting myself to the necessary position yet I was careful not to slip. I’m not coming this far just to fuck it up now, and soon I was able to see over the wall. There were some vehicles parked up, some cabins (one had bars in the window) and what appeared to be a billboard with a map on it. In the distance I could see a vehicle driving off at speed, kicking up a dust cloud as it did so.

  I called out for someone to help me. Maybe there was a ladder over there? Maybe they’d have something to help me down from
here? I called out again, a couple of seconds later, when no one returned my call. Soon I realised no one was coming.

  Shit.

  Using the trunk of the tree as support I pulled myself to a standing position. My face and gut were sore from the kicking I had received from the (now dead) stranger. Who was that man? Why had he attacked me so? It didn’t matter. Not important now.

  The top of the wall looked to be fairly wide. Definitely secure. Sound in structure. It would take my weight and, if I were lucky, it wasn’t too far to jump from here to get to it. I looked down and saw the things scrabbling at the trunk of the tree. Jumping to the wall; it’s not as though I have much choice in the matter.

  Okay.

  On three.

  One.

  Two...

  Three.

  I closed my eyes and made the leap of faith. I wheezed as the wind was once again knocked from me as my gut slammed against the top of the wall. Ignore the pain. Ignore it. Same trick as used on the branch...

  Hands to the left, swing feet up to the right.

  I was on top of the wall. Out of breath, battered, bruised but definitely on top of the wall. I rolled to my side (and the edge of the wall overlooking the camp) and called out for someone to help me again but still no one came. Another vehicle in the distance wheel-spinning from where it had been parked. It didn’t come in this direction. It tore the dirt track up in the opposite direction completely.

  Nothing else for it but to drop down and hope I don’t break something. I positioned myself so that I was sitting on the edge of the wall with my legs dangling down. Jesus it’s high up. I cast my eyes around the campsite one last time on the off-chance someone was down there who had noticed me.

  No one.

  Damn it.

  Okay.

  On three...

  “One....Two...Three...”

  I pushed myself off. The fall took what felt like less than a second. Upon impact my legs crumpled underneath me and I fell forward with my hands outstretched to try and take some of the impact too. They took some but not enough and my arms also gave way. The hard floor rushed towards my face as I rolled forward....

  BLACKNESS

  PART FOURTEEN

  Now

  Turned

  Sister was on the dining room table. Her wrists and ankles bound to the legs of the table with what appeared to be dressing gown cord. I was sitting at the head of the table.

  Sister was begging me, “Please help me! Please get me down. Don’t let them do this to me” and I wanted desperately to help her but I couldn’t. My legs were broken; one twisted round in the wrong direction and one with the bone poking through just beneath the kneecap. They should have been hurting like mad but I felt nothing.

  The door opened and Mother and Father walked in; both of them were naked. They approached the table with their eyes fixed upon Sister’s body which was also naked. She pleaded with them just as she had pleaded with me but they ignored her too.

  Father stepped to the end of the table so that her head was directly in front of him. She was crying now. She knew what came next. We all knew what came next. We had seen it on many occasions from the people who had previous lay upon the table. He looked down at her and picked a knife up from where it sat next to her pretty head. Mother stepped behind Father and craned her head around his body to see what he was doing. And then her hand appeared too - first on his side and then reaching around stroking his genitals. Father sighed at Mother’s touch as she began rubbing his shaft up and down until his prick became hard. All the time Sister was still pleading for them to let her go. All the time, her pleads going unheard.

  Father put the knife down for a second and leaned onto the table as Mother increased the rhythm with which she stroked him. He was murmuring under his breath for her not to stop and how nice it felt. I called out for them to let us both go, just as my sister was, but they didn’t care what we were saying. Not now they were in the moment.

  Mother’s other hand appeared on his other side. It moved down and cupped his balls. He winced as she gave them a hard squeeze and a slight twist. And then her hand disappeared behind him again. It appeared again only when she gave her finger a quick suck and then it was hidden once more.

  Father laughed.

  “Do it!” he sighed.

  Mother thrust her body against Father’s and his eyes went wide. I couldn’t see what was happening behind his back but I knew. Suddenly a stream of hot spunk shot from the end of his cock and sprayed down Sister’s face and chest. Mother released him from her grip and he stepped to the side, out of breath, before slumping down in one of the spare chairs next to the table. Mother laughed as she wiped her brown finger against her leg. It wasn’t perfect but it was better.

  She leaned forward and licked Sister’s face. Specifically where Father’s cum had hit her.

  Sister whimpered.

  “Delicious!” Mother sighed. She bent over the table further and started to lick the cum from Sister’s chest too.

  Father laughed as he pulled himself from the chair. He got on his knees behind Mother, and thankfully out of my line of vision. I heard him start lapping at her. When there was no more cum to lap off Sister’s chest, she started to suck on her nipples instead.

  Sister’s ‘whimperings’ turned to sighs of delight.

  “Untie me!” she begged.

  Mother reached onto the table but she didn’t untie the cords as Sister had wanted. Instead, she picked the knife up. Sister screamed as the knife was plunged into her stomach. The blade was twisted around causing a large gash in her belly.

  Father’s face appeared from behind Mother. She immediately berated him and told him to carry on with what he was doing. His face disappeared again and the lapping noises resumed once more.

  Mother pulled the knife from Sister’s gut and reached in with her hand. Sister screamed, and screamed again when Mother pulled her hand out with a fistful of intestine. I couldn’t believe my eyes as Mother started to lick the intestine, getting blood all around her face; her face which looked to be a picture of pure sexual satisfaction. She bit into whatever the hell was in her hand and god knows what oozed from within and into her mouth. Despite the blood on Mother’s face, I could see it beginning to flush in colour as she moaned louder than she had ever done before...

  I suddenly realised that Sister wasn’t screaming at all. She had passed out long ago. It was I who was screaming. Mother and Father looked at me. Their skin was yellow. Their eyes were faded red. They snarled, curling their lips. Black tar drooling from within.

  I screamed again.

  Zone ‘B’

  I opened my eyes with a jump. I rolled onto my back. The sky was directly above me. Perfect blue skies. White fluffy clouds moving slowly across the peaceful scene. Hard floor beneath me. Wall to my right side and salvation to my left.

  I pulled up and nearly fell straight back over again; either a bump on the head, the lack of food or the mental exhaustion taking its toll on my body and state of mind.

  I looked around. There were a number of cabins in front of me and some set back from those too. They weren’t the biggest but it didn’t matter. Each cabin was a sign of other survivors. I wasn’t alone anymore. We weren’t alone.

  I stumbled over to the first one. There was a billboard next to it with a large map on it. I couldn’t help but stop and look at it. Jesus. Is this the size of the area? It’s huge. So many survivors. It seemed to be divided into areas. Different zones. I felt my hopes rise a little as I continued towards the first cabin.

  Three small wooden steps up to the door. I turned the handle and pulled the door open. Inside were a series of cages. Cages? What the hell? There was a body in the far cage but the rest of them were empty. Some keys hung from the lock in the door closest to me as though they’d been used and simply abandoned.

  I hurried over to the far cage to check on the person. I could tell by the smell that they were dead yet I still rolled them onto their back so th
at I could see their face. It was a man. He looked to be in his forties - at least - but it was hard to tell considering the state of his rotting flesh.

  What puzzled me more was that he was wearing a lab coat.

  Ian Woodhead was on a name badge that hung around his neck.

  I looked around the cabin. There was nothing else in here of note. Certainly nothing to help me determine what the hell had taken place here. My only thought was that they must have caught some of those things that were running around outside in the woods. They must have caught them and kept them here. Something must have happened and they escaped. I didn’t care. I didn’t come here looking for trouble. I just wanted help. For me and what was left of my family - if anything. I’d need to be careful. I guess it’s not as safe in here as I first believed it to be. The wall being nothing more than an illusion of safety.