“Oh my god, they’re diseased.” Pete winced, as he covered his mouth and nose with his hand.
Slowly the woman edged out into the light and stood at the dead girl’s feet. She had been black once too and probably in her thirties. She was wearing a blue dress that was badly stained with dark blood down her chest. Her blooded eyes blinked into the light and blood gathered over her tear ducts as her eyes closed, before dripping down her cheeks onto her neck as she opened them again.
Time seemed to move in slow motion as more and more figures drifted out of the darkness and gathered at the doorway. In reality, only moments had passed since the horror of the young girl laid bleeding out onto the dock was revealed to the unsuspecting gathering of officials. One of the paramedics slowly edged towards the man at the front with a blue cotton blanket raised to offer him some comfort. He clocked the Paramedic approaching from his periphery. His head snapped round and his crimson eyes locked on to the startled paramedic who scuttled back, dropping the blanket in the blood pool.
The man’s mouth slowly dropped open, revealing his broken pus filled teeth. Suddenly he let out an immense chilling scream. The high pitched shriek pulsated through the crowd and reverberated around the mist filled dock. The terrifying child-like pitch unnervingly out of place from the mouth of a fully grown man, sent shivers of fear through the crowd who started stepping backwards, not taking their eyes off him. As if encouraged by the howls, the woman’s mouth also dropped open and released a scream more piercing and higher still. Soon multiple wails burst from the depths of the container, like a crescendo, their heads quickly scanning around the faces of their rescuers each locking onto a face filled with fear.
Several police officers pulled out their batons and racked them out with a sharp click and held them ready, instinct clearly kicking in. As sharply as it started, the screams stopped in an almost rehearsed synchronicity. Silence filled the air as ears rang with the echoes of screams. Parker flew back cracking his head on the floor, dazed, he shook his head and looked up to investigate the weight now crushing his chest. The man was on him, his hands clawing into his shoulders. Bodies piled out of the container like bats from a cave, running in every direction, each locking onto an unsuspecting uniform and launching into them.
Parker struggled and kicked at his attacker, landing a punch to his forehead. The man paused momentarily and then dipped his head down to Parker’s face and sunk his teeth into his cheek. He tore through the fleshy feast and pulled his prize clean from Parker’s face. Parker whimpered and wriggled but it was no use. The cheek was devoured and swallowed almost instantly and the teeth returned for more tearing into his neck. Blood sprayed from Parker like a hose pipe, covering his attacker in a fine red mist. Parker let out a desperate cry which soon tailed off as he drifted into unconsciousness. People bomb, burst in every direction, being run down by the fast pace of their pursuers.
One of the paramedics stumbled only yards from the container door and was set upon instantly by a young male, with hunger in his angry red eyes. The paramedic turned on to his front and reached out at nothing, praying for a miracle saviour. The young monster landed on his back and started clawing at his flesh, ripping through the desperate medics green overalls like paper, before digging his finger nails deep into the exposed fleshy lower back, tearing chunks of meat apart before thrusting his already blood stained face into the gaping wound and devouring his catch.
Several street hardened police officers stood their ground, batons drawn. As their opposing attackers launched themselves at them, batons were wildly swung in more desperation than aimed strikes. One Officer completely missed his target and was thrown to the ground by his own momentum and made a soft target for two attackers. One landed heavily on top of the officer, thrusting his knee straight into the back of the officer’s head. His face shattered under the pressure on the cold concrete dock floor. The unfortunate officer’s second attacker dived down to the legs and immediately started tearing at his calf muscles.
Panic was everywhere, screams from both attacker and victim reverberated around the misty ceiling. Pete cowered behind the forklift truck with his eyes shut tight and his hands over his ears to shelter himself from the nightmarish performance unfolding in front of him. He was picked out by a middle aged woman, as soon as she sprinted from the dark cage that had been her home for several weeks. He made easy pickings as the woman descended on him and sunk her canines and incisors into the top of his head. A tooth splintered off and shot out of the woman’s mouth from the impact with Pete’s skull. It pinged against the side of the forklift before dropping to the ground. The woman was not fazed and didn’t break stride as she sunk her hands under Pete’s clavicles and his shoulders snapped simultaneously to enforce her claim to her prey. Her teeth bombarded Pete’s skull with volley after volley of gnarling attack until the bone gave way and she forced her face into his brain, tearing the flesh from her own cheeks and jaw as she desperately chewed her way into Pete’s head. Pete hardly made a sound throughout and soon went limp, his arms dropping from his defensive cower.
Jez found himself bolted to the floor, He was frozen in one horrific moment from which he saw no escape. To his back, nothing, but a cold, dark estuary and to his front the unfolding carnage of screaming monsters devouring the very people there to help them.
“I need to get out of here.” He thought to himself.
The old man and boy zeroed in on him from the container doorway and set their take down into motion like a pair of lions, running down a gazelle. Jez suddenly found movement in his feet. He turned on the spot and ran. But there was nowhere to go except the water. It was like running in treacle, the lions gaining on their prey with every step. Jez stopped and turned as the boy glided through the air and floored Jez with a crack. His head bouncing off the dock floor.
“No time to be dazed, you go unconscious and its death.” Jez thought.
He shook his head and started throwing wild, desperate punches at the monster child’s head with his right hand, whilst holding him at arms-length by the throat, with his left. He had only seconds before the old man would be on him and then its game over. He shifted his weight to the left and rolled over, gravity did the rest and the boy was dumped next to him, laid on the dock floor. The boy immediately started clambering to his feet to re-engage the attack. Jez clawed his way backwards on his elbows shuffling along the dock floor, his eyes fixed on his next opponent only seconds away. He jumped to his feet and let loose his best free kick toe punt in the face of the boy, knocking him spinning back down onto the ground.
It was fight or flight time and there was only one option. Flight. Jez turned and sprinted over to the dock wall, without hesitation, launching himself into the darkness of the Thames. As the ice cold water quickly soaked into his clothes he was immediately paralyzed with cold and barely able to move, let alone swim. He bobbed to the surface just in time to see the old man running off the side of the dock into the water, his legs still running in mid-air like a Roadrunner cartoon, as he ran out of dock. A huge splash followed and the old man sunk into the darkness. Jez found a new motivation and started kicking his feet in an attempt to get himself away from the dock.
He looked up to see the giant Princess towering over him. Curdling screams projecting from the deck high above.
“They must have got on board.” He thought to himself.
His clothes were offering a surprising amount of buoyancy, and despite being minutes from hypothermia he was in a better place and staying afloat. Just as he was starting to feel a slight element of relief, he found himself under water and gasping for air. Something had hold of his ankle and was pulling him down. He opened his eyes but saw nothing but filthy darkness. He pulled himself into a ball and reached for his ankle. He was desperate for air, kicking out at whatever had him hooked. He screamed out the last of his air in a display of bubbles as he felt the hand of the old man grasping tightly around his ankle.
Frantic kicking and suddenly he was mom
entarily free and sucking in air on the surface. Down again. The old man had a grip on his trouser leg and was reeling him in, climbing up his body, clamping his nails into Jez’s flesh as he climbed up him. Jez opened his eyes to see the old man at chest height. He forced both his hands down onto the old man’s head and pushed out. While the old man’s teeth chomped through the thick water targeting Jez chest.
“This is it. I’ve got nothing left.”
He erupted from the water like a tomahawk missile and air flowed into his lungs.
“What happened? Where did he go?”
Jez frantically looked around for the old man, bracing himself for another attack. Suddenly the old man broke the surface. Jez desperately battered the water trying to put some distance between them. But something was different. He was bobbing on his front, face down in the water. Jez reached out and punched the old man in the back. Nothing.
“Ha, fuck you.” He said, before cursing himself for making so much noise.
He didn’t want to draw any attention from any of those other monsters. The old man made a good float and Jez turned his attention to the massacre still unfolding on shore. He couldn’t see any of the police officers or other officials, just the silhouettes of those things kneeling over putrid carcasses. But something was different, different? How could anything be different? This wasn’t exactly the norm.
“Idiot.” Jez thought to himself.
But no. Wait, something was….
He released his grip on his new float and swam to the dock wall. He grabbed hold of an old tyre that formed a link in a chain placed the length of the wall, to act as a buffer for docking ships. He pulled himself up and hooked his foot into one of the tyres, so that he could just see over the dock wall.
“What the hell?”
It was Parker. The left side of his face was missing, eaten away by one of those screaming monsters, but it was definitely him. He was sat on the floor with his back to a container. Laid out in front of him was another police officer, a female. Her once yellow jacket now a dirty dark red colour. Her blonde hair filtering blood from gaping wounds on her head. The monsters must not have seen him there because they weren’t paying any attention to him. Through the dark misty air Jez could see that Parker was busying himself over the poor girl.
“He must be carrying out some First Aid, or something.”
Parker’s hands were quickly moving over the young coppers torso, her body almost convulsing.
“CPR?”
The mist slowly parted, Jez licked his lips and quietly coughed into his hand, preparing himself to subtly get Parker’s attention. He took a deep breath and almost choked on the air hanging in his lungs. He watched as Parker raised his blood soaked hands from the poor girls body and lifted them up to his face, tugging at the stringy flesh, which snapped like a guitar string as he sunk his teeth into the buffet of intestine and skin. He chewed his feast and swallowed it in seconds, raising his face to the sky in a clear sign of elation at the taste. His mouth dropped open, blood seeping through his flesh stained teeth and he let out an almighty, high pitched, scream into the sky. Jez froze in shock, and despite the cold of the water dripping from his now heavy clothes, he felt a nervous heat pass over his body. He ducked his head back below the dock wall, covered his mouth and emptied the contents of his stomach through his fingers. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve, swallowed hard and slowly raised his head above the dock wall again. He hadn’t believed his own eyes before, and needed to confirm the unbelievable situation unfolding on the dockside.
Parker now had his blood stained face buried in the neck of the young copper. She was clearly dead. A fine mist of claret fell over her frozen, fear filled face. Her once perfect eye liner stained by tears from the intense pain she had no doubt felt. Parker tore through her flesh with his teeth like a knife through butter. Jez slowly scanned the rest of the dock. Silhouettes darted around in the mist. Another long loud shriek hung in the air from the direction of the open container. Bodies lay all over the cold wet dock side, torn and tattered remains of real people laid out in front of Jez like the aftermath of an explosion.
Shrieking, high screams echoed down from the deck of the Princess, Jez snapped his head back to look up at the overbearing ship hanging over him, nearly losing his grip of the tyre and slipping back into the freezing water. The banging of the metal gang plank vibrated around the hull of the ship as large heavy boots ran from the ship onto the dock. Jez watched as three of the crew jumped from the gang plank onto the dock. They stopped as their boots touched dry land. Hunched over like predators, keeping a low profile, noses raised to the air, sniffing out their next meal. Blood from their dark eyes seeped down their faces and mixed with that of their last victim, which stained their faces. Their heads snapped from side to side reacting to every little sound until they heard the sound they craved.
Suddenly a truck horn, sounded from up at the gatehouse and drowned out the sounds of tearing flesh and the whimpers of uniformed meals as they slowly succumbed to the inevitability of their fate. The three crewmen snapped their heads in the direction of the gatehouse. Over near the container, out of nowhere a figure stood up straight, then another, a third, fourth, all looking up at the gatehouse. Parker jumped to his feet, discarding a kidney in a puddle of entrails forming at his feet. As he stood, intestine fell to the floor from his lap. He stepped out from behind the container and joined the other diseased monsters, eyes fixed on the gatehouse. Like some well-rehearsed display they lowered their stance, as though poised for the starter pistol in a one hundred metre dash. They raised their noses to the air, not taking their eyes off of the bustle up at the gatehouse.
Jez arched his head and braved lifting another few inches over the top of the dock wall. He gazed across at the gatehouse, in hope that the cavalry had arrived to save the day, but it wasn’t to be. Truck engines roared as drivers desperately tried to turn the giant vehicles around in the narrow dock approach road. Shouts of panicking truckers drifted down the hill. Drivers from the trains ran across the east dock towards the gatehouse. They surely witnessed the container opening and the massacre that followed. Now those drivers needed to be somewhere else, anywhere else. Little Hitler was bouncing up and down next to a truck cab, begging to be let in to the safety of a soon to be escaping vehicle, his plea clearly falling on deaf ears.
Jez’s attention was fixed on Little Hitler, he always projected the mini dictator image and Jez had not seen him like this in the three years he had worked that gate. He almost raised a grin of satisfaction at watching him dance around with no control of the situation whatsoever. But quickly sunk his head below the dock wall again and raised his arm, wrapping it around his head, trying to cover his ears from the sudden continuous screaming emanating from the pack of beasts on the dock. The wails echoed through the mist for what seemed like hours, but what was in reality moments.
The screams suddenly stopped, as if a conductor had waved a baton, and the pack charged at full sprint towards the gatehouse, discarding handfuls of flesh in every direction as they freed their hands for the next take down. The three crewmen cut through a stack of containers and joined up with the main group from the open container as they hit open ground. There must have been more out of view of Jez, behind container stacks and hidden in shadows. As he watched them heard together at full, sprint their seemed like a lot more than he’d thought. As they exited the darkness and hit the flood lit perimeter yards from the gatehouse, Jez could see more of the screaming creatures. Some in normal clothes, others in oil stained crew coveralls, Parker in his blood soaked police uniform. But that’s not all, More police uniforms, two, three of them, and one of the paramedics, all sprinting side by side up the hill to the gatehouse.
“What in God’s name are they doing?” Jez struggled to process what he was seeing.
Hitler froze as he saw the seething creatures bearing down on him. He stumbled back from the side of the truck and staggered back towards his little hut. Two trucks screeched and
sparks flew as they jostled for position on the exit road. The screamers were bearing down on the trucks. Hitler felt for the door handle to his little hut, jumped inside and slammed the double glazed UPVC door as a constable impacted on the door and started hammering on the glass. Blood spraying from his mouth onto the glass as he squawked at Hitler, who was cowering on the floor in the corner of his hut and crying like a lost child. Parker and one of the African men impacted on the side of the hut and immediately started punching and beating at the windows, which started to crack and splinter under the force of the relentless blows.
The window quickly went through, and a wall of glass covered Hitler, who screamed in a higher pitch than his attackers. Parker was through the window in seconds, Hitler was picked up like a rag doll and thrown through the closed door which must have shattered every bone in his body as the door flew off its hinges. The constable, Parker and the African male dived down to the lifeless little man laid on the road and sunk their teeth into his flesh. A red spray spewed from his neck as the African man devoured his carotid artery. Parker chewed on a thigh while the constable was biting off fingers like he was eating a Kit Kat.
The Screaming (Book 1): Dead City Page 2