by Ian Woodhead
A few of the prisoners had seen him approach.
A youth of similar age to the uniformed idiot ran to the fence and stuck out his arm, demanding that he help them. It was an opportunity that Lee could not resist. He ran over to the enclosure, acting as though he was concerned with the boy's plight. He wrapped his hands around the youth's bicep and jerked back, wrenching the arm out of the socket.
He savoured the wet ripping sound the arm made as it separated from its original owner. The boy's cries were so intoxicating that Lee had to work hard not to fall to the ground in euphoric ecstasy.
“I’ll be back for the rest of you,” he grinned before turning and racing towards a block of detached houses.
Chapter Twelve
Maddie thought she had honestly lost the bastards. The last time she dared glance behind her, they were dragging their fallen colleague up against a wall. That notion proved wrong when she heard the two adjustment officers follow her into this house. The bastards had not yet come up the stairs, but she knew it would not take much time to figure out where she was hiding.
The gun that Davis had pushed into her hand was of no use now. She looked at it in disgust before throwing it on the bed. The bloody thing had only had a single round in the chamber. She got off one round before her trigger finger replied with dry clicks.
Maddie choked back her annoyance.
Her ears detected the sound of the door at the bottom of the stairs opening. Her eyes desperately darted along the walls, looking for the homeowner’s weapon cache.
“Oh fuck; you have got to me kidding me!”
The only item visible was a glass paperweight sitting in the middle of a wooden shelf beside her.
“So, I’ve chosen the only unoccupied house in the community? That’s just fantastic.”
They had started to climb the stairs, taking their time and being cautious. Were they taking the piss? They both knew that her gun was empty. Then again, they were both part of the old guard and knew of her history.
That paperweight might take out one of them, but not both.
Fuck, she needed to find another way out of here. She ran over to the window and looked through the dirty glass. The overgrown garden below may cushion her fall. Then again, she could end up breaking most of the bones in her legs. She ran over to the shelf, picked up the paperweight, and threw it at the window, jumping at the deafening noise.
The two men charged up the stairs, Maddie dropped to the floor and rolled under the bed, just as the two officers charged into the room. Maddie stopped rolling when her body smacked against a solid object. At first, she thought is was a folded up carpet until it turned its head and stared directly at her.
She yelped and panicked. The next thing she knew, somebody was pulling her out from under the bed.
“Where’s the other one?” demanded one of the officers. “Where’s the fucking traitor?”
Maddie took a deep breath and pointed to the gap under the bed. The other officer dropped to his knees and aimed his pistol at the gap.
“Come on, fuckface. Get out of there, right now!”
The other officer threw Maddie against the wall and pointed his own pistol at her head.
“Are you going to be a good girl?”
Maddie nodded, unable to take her eyes off that bed. The other officer had his eyes fixed upon his colleague’s gun. She decided not to inform him about the grey arm reaching out from under the bed. He would find out himself in a second.
“I’m personally going to execute you myself, you dirty tainted bitch.”
That gruesome hand was only inches from the man’s knee.
“Tell me something, Nigel. Who the fuck let you back into the force?” She smiled sweetly. “Still having problems with hitting things or has your aim improved?”
The officer’s face creased with fury. His mouth opened to deliver a comeback, but immediately clamped shut when his colleague shrieked out in terror.
Maddie leapt up and threw her body at Nigel. His expression went from shock to terror as she followed him down to the ground. He tripped over the struggling pair by his feet and landed flat on his back with Maddie on top of him. She grasped his wrist and slammed his gun arm hard against the floorboards, jumping in surprise when the gun went off. The shell disintegrated the kneeling officer’s left hand, spraying the corpse with chunks of flesh and bone fragments. The monster was momentarily distracted as it began feverishly licking the gore from its own face. It quickly turned its attention back to the live prey caught in its grasp.
Maddie scrambled to her feet and stomped down hard on Nigel's arm before running out of the room. She heard Nigel screaming out as she fled down the stairs. She did not know whether it was because his friend was injured or that the thing under the bed had bitten him as well.
It did not come as a shock to her to realise that she did not care. One of the magistrate’s officers had shot her boyfriend. As far as she was concerned, they all deserved to die. Maddie ran through the house, wishing she had asked the pair if one of them had killed Bruce. She was going to destroy the fucker who fired that bullet, and then she was going to kill the fat fuck magistrate. Nothing else mattered.
As she emerged into the light, another two shots rang out. How many more of her kind would die before the day was finished? She ran up the path, thinking of all those innocent people that the officers were rounding up.
“Are you sure you don’t care about them?” she muttered. “Don’t they matter as well?” Maddie felt tears running down her face. Why did it all have to be her responsibility? It was not fair. Why was she risking her neck while Our Lady was no doubt hiding away, safe and sound?
Maddie cried out in surprise when she spotted a blue uniform running toward the house. They must have heard the gunshot. She ducked down and hid behind the gate, hoping that the officer had not seen her.
“What do you think you are doing?” hissed a familiar voice. “Come on, Maddie, we need to move.”
She jumped up. “Where the hell did you go? I thought I had lost you.”
He shook his head. “Some officer almost took my shoulder out. Luckily, the bastard missed. I’m sure it was Nigel, that bloke never was a good shot.”
Maddie shook her head. “It couldn’t have been him, he’s up there. I think one of the dead got him.”
“Good,” replied David. “It’s time to…”
Another gunshot rang out and something hot and wet splashed across her face. David's eyes widened and he fell forward into Maddie's arms. She turned her head back and saw Nigel leaning out of the window, aiming his pistol at them.
“Don’t you die on me!” she moaned, trying to drag David's groaning body closer to the house.
The man fired again and Maddie saw David’s ankle shatter. David was already in a state of shock. The shot to his ankle only brought a slightly louder groan of pain. She screamed and pulled him through the high grass.
“Run out of shells, you bastard!”
The man fired again, this time he missed. Maddie heard him howl out in pain. At first she figured it was because he had missed. Those howls turned to shrieks and she knew that the monster had overtaken him.
She laid David in the grass, raced over to the gate, and saw Nigel’s colleague tearing chunks of meat out of the officer’s neck.
“That serves you fucking right,” she growled.
David moaned as he slowly turned his head and gazed at her,
“I’m hurting, Maddie.”
She ran back and dropped to the ground, not having a clue what to do. She looked deep into his eyes.
“Don’t worry, you’ll be okay.” Oh god, who was she kidding? The man looked as though he was drowning in his own blood.
“Maddie, I want to die with you holding me.”
She sobbed and wrapped her arms around his neck.
“I love you,” he whispered.
“No, don’t go!” she sobbed. This was so unfair; she did not want him to die. No, she would not let it happen.
The man groaned out and coughed. “Maddie, oh Jesus, what the hell are you doing to me?”
She hurriedly released him and stumbled back, not believing what she was seeing. The gaping shoulder wound was slowly knitting together.
“Maddie!” he cried out, “Come back!”
She let out a ragged breath; her heart was pounding like a racehorse.
“Fuck me,” she whispered. “I did that?” Maddie flung her arms around the officer and held him tight, listening to his own heartbeat grow stronger. The officer pulled her off him and looked into her shining face with wonder in his eyes.
“Oh my God. You’ve just brought me back from the dead.”
She shook her head.
“No, I didn’t. I just stopped you from dying, David.” She looked at the palms of her hands, trying to see if there was something different about her. All she saw were a pair of small hands, covered in mud, bits of grass, and thick blood.
Maddie watched him lift up his trouser leg to reveal the flesh beneath. He wiped away the blood; all that remained was a slight depression just above his mended ankle.
“Fucking hell,” he exclaimed. “You really have healed me.” He groaned and attempted to get to his feet.
Maddie grabbed his shoulders, and laid him back down on the grass. Two more gunshots rang out in the distance.
“Sorry,” he said. “Honest, I am. I just feel like I haven’t eaten for a week.”
“What are you craving?” she asked, trying to keep the suspicion out of her voice. The fact that she had not healed him at all and had somehow just turned him into her first hunter was bubbling just under the surface of her mind.
The officer gently too her hand.
“Relax,” he uttered. “I’m craving pizza," The man sighed and closed his eyes. “A stuffed crust pizza, the size of a tractor wheel, covered in ham and pineapple. Then I want a four pack of ice-cold lager to wash it down.”
He released her hand, and then lay back down.
“Can you get that for me?” he asked. “I’ll be staying right here for a little while, I think.”
Maddie laid her fingers on the side of his neck, his pulse was strong and steady; he had just fallen asleep.
“I can’t promise you a pizza,” she said, stroking his hair. “I’ll see if I can find you something to eat though.”
The officer’s hand shot out and he wrapped his fingers around Maddie’s wrist. “You need to listen to me, Maddie. We are all just players in this game. Our Lady had seen everything.” He placed her hand over his healed shoulder. “She told me that you’d do that.”
She snatched her hand away. “She has seen everything?”
“I don’t know about everything, Maddie.”
“Then she knew that they’d shoot Bruce?”
He coughed. “Yes. She said that he’d die.” He pulled her towards him. “Maddie, I didn’t believe any of it, even when I knew Bruce would was to go against the wall, I thought she was just guessing. There’s no way though that Our Lady could guess that you would heal me.” David sat up. “She’s right, we are players and we all have our role to play. If we try to deviate, everyone in the community will perish.” He yawned and lay back down. “Find me something to eat?”
“Wait, no this is just too much” The woman stood up and dragged him through the garden and into the kitchen, she rolled the sleeping man up against the kitchen cabinets, out of sight.
“Oh, shit,” she said, seeing a spot of blood seeping from the leg wound. Maddie raced over to the cupboards on the other side and pulled them open, moaning when she saw that they had already been cleared out. Only dusty plates and a few glasses were left.
She frantically searched through the rest of the cupboards, finding nothing. She checked the last cupboard under the sink and found a small tin of cat food. She pulled off the lid, opened his mouth, and scooped the pink mush inside.
“Come on, eat. It’s minced beef pie filling."
He greedily ate what she had stuffed in his mouth. His eyes shot open. His glazed over eyes scared the crap out of her; he looked like one of the dead. Maddie backed off, not sure what to do. She turned around and saw one of the dead officers at the top of the stairs. Maddie could not allow them to leave this house. She put the tin into David’s hand, wrapping his fingers around it. She opened the nearest drawer and thanked god that there was a knife right on top. She ran up the stairs. The dead officer reached out his missing left hand to grab her. Maddie pushed the knife deep into his eye socket. She pulled it out and rushed down the hallway, heading towards the bedroom door. As she reached it, the other one lunged for her. Maddie ducked down and kicked out its legs. As the thing that used to be Nigel fell to the floor for the second time that day, she thrust her knife through the thing’s ear.
She stepped into the room and found the original thing dead in the middle of the room with the top half of its head missing.
Maddie scooped up the fallen officer’s pistol and checked the magazine; there were still some rounds left. She raced back downstairs, relieved to find David sat up with the now empty can between his legs. The colour had returned to his skin and he looked human again.
“I would have preferred a pizza,” he said, looking in disgust at the can.
“Why did Bruce have to die, David?”
“Maddie, it’s been well over a year since the world went to shit. Can you think of any woman who has become pregnant after the outbreak?”
She had not expected him to say that.
“I don’t know. What has that got to do with anything?”
"The normal people can’t conceive now. Nobody has figured this out because we were too busy trying not to fucking die. There are four hundred people in the community and about eighty are our people.”
He slowly got to his feet and opened the door. “She told you to be strong. She told me to look after you and make sure you don’t die.” He placed his hands on her shoulders. “Your job is to save the people who hate us, Maddie. They’ll hate us even more if they find out that you’re pregnant.”
Chapter Thirteen
The tension in the courthouse was almost palatable. All this intense feeling surging through the air had given him his first erection today. God, he was fucking horny.
The magistrate cast his stony gaze along the faces of the assembled audience, seeking out the defiant, confused, and upset expressions. There were so many, but he found the one man who was to be his special guinea pig in this instructive session. Jack Roach had every reason to hate him. His officers had ripped the man’s loving wife out of his hands once they had found out that she was one of the tainted. Jack thought his wife was with the rest of the mutants, currently awaiting execution.
There were a large number in the courthouse, but he expected more. It annoyed him that the courthouse was not full. He had confidently predicted that nearly all of his normal townsfolk would be desperate to hear what their beloved leader had to say about his mass round up. Although the numbers were not great, it was not going to upset any of his immediate plans.
He had already told his snivelling idiots to stop fretting over everything. Once this upset was over with and his community returned to normal, he would seriously have to consider getting rid of his delegates. They were more of a hindrance than a help. A bunch of grovelling yes men that had nothing of value to contribute to his empire.
The man saw the officer close the doors, and the magistrate made himself ready to start. Just before he opened his mouth the magistrate abruptly felt so at peace, he almost giggled. His mind began to wonder and the magistrate felt the tips of his fingers go numb, the feeling quickly travelled up his hands and into his arms. A distant voice reassured him that everything was okay, to just relax, to close his eyes, that there was nothing to worry about.
He almost did just that. The voice sounded so like his mother. The magistrate kicked himself in the shin, hard. The sudden pain surging through his leg banished the soothing voice and left him feeling cold and vi
olated.
He tried to analyse the frightening experience, acutely aware that his people were starting to look a little uncomfortable.
The unsettling notion that one of those tainted things had just attempted to control him would not leave him. Was it too much of a stretch to believe that some of them had mental powers similar to the hunters? The magistrate thought it was more than possible. Those things in his cage were not that different from the rest of the fucked up ex-human bastards trying to annihilate them. He sighed. If only the rest of these idiots before him shared his thoughts.
He jerked up his head and nodded over at the captain of the guards; the man nodded back. That meant everything was in place and he could start. His people would soon see just what the tainted were really like. The uncertainty and defiance would melt away, leaving them frantic for his personal brand of salvation, just as it should be.
The magistrate crashed down his gavel, demanding the attention of the people seated in the courthouse. He cleared his throat and continued.
“We have stopped the dead from invading our community. We have been very lucky. We only suffered one fatality. It could have been a lot worse. Now before we start I think we should pay our respects to our fallen comrade. So, if you all please, I’d like you all to stand and bow your heads and offer a prayer to Robert Johnson, husband of Kim Johnson.”
He waited for them to sort themselves out before continuing. Once the murmurs and whispers died down, he continued.
“The man slaughtered dozens of the filthy things. Unbeknown to him, on his last heroic outing, one of the monsters had scratched him.” The magistrate felt the horrified sigh ripple through the audience. They all knew the consequences of that discovery.
“The real hero, though, was Kim, his loving wife. The poor woman adored her husband. But she knew what had to be done.”
The magistrate fell silent and then turned his attention back to Jack Roach. He waited for him to raise his head before continuing.
“The brave woman knew that any scratch or bite from any of those things is fatal. There is no cure and nobody is immune. Change is inevitable."