Cryptophobia (Book 1): Outbreak [Fear The Unknown]

by Henderson, G. D.

  "Bishop!" Terry shouted.

  "Really thought I'd just let you stroll the fuck out? I said you could fuck off, I didn't specify how!" Daniel shouted and withdrew the crowbar to repeatedly hit Bishop in the face with it, splattering blood everywhere.

  "Fuck... you... stupid... fuck!" Daniel shouted with every blow. Kerry stood there in shock, too terrified to attempt to run and when she finally did muster up the courage to make a break for it, Daniel took a swing at her, rupturing the skin above her collarbone and using her bone to slam her to the ground. She yelped in unbearable agony.

  As Terry braced himself to attack, his son and Natasha held him back. Daniel left Kerry writhing and weeping on the floor and returned his attention to Terry.

  "What's wrong Terry? Aren't you the little hero anymore? Are you just going to watch her die and do nothing? Are you just going to let her down? Too much of a fucking coward to take me on again? We all know what happened last time, don't we? That's right, I beat your motherfucking ass!"

  "Stop it!" Natasha screamed.

  "I'm doing this for us, Natasha, don't you see? This is all for us. I'm paving us a future, with me your security and wellbeing are assured, join me".

  "This isn't you! The Daniel I knew was sweet and considerate, he'd never hurt a soul outside of boxing. He was never needlessly violent or filled with rage".

  "I'm the same fucking man, I haven't changed, I'm just stronger, more capable and I did it all for us. Or would you prefer me a weak and unreliable fuck of man like Terry?"

  "No, you're not the same Daniel I fell in love with, you're a monster! You killed Bishop for no fucking reason! You're hurting Kerry!"

  "The weak have no place in this world", Daniel replied, placing his foot on Kerry's head and pushing it down as she screamed in agony.

  "Stop it!"

  "I'm making the world a better place one weakling dead at a time. Once I'm done, it'll be a utopia for the strong, you and I together".

  "You and I will never happen!"

  "Oh?" He removed his foot and kicked Kerry several times on the floor, torturing her rather than killing her, as she tried to crawl away. More twitchers arrived from above, stopping only a single flight of stairs short, etching closer, but unusually taking their time about it. Did Daniel have influence over them? How?

  Terry was itching to help Kerry, to kill Daniel for what he did, but Natasha continued to hold him back.

  "Terry, you know what I hate? Handicaps. Don't you just hate handicaps? Anything that holds you back from achieving greatness, people like Terry! Allow me to demonstrate. Subject A, this Asian bitch here may be injured, but I think we can all agree she's a little better for wear than our Bishop over there, he's definitely going nowhere. I haven't done anything yet she can't recover from, therefore it's not a handicap. This...” He swung the crowbar and pierced the back of her leg with the hooked end of the crowbar once again, resulting in a scream from her that echoed throughout the entire stairway and from the amount of blood loss in a short span of time, ruptured an artery.

  "... Is a fucking handicap", he concluded.

  "Daniel! You fucking heartless bastard!" Natasha screamed. Terry's rage had hit peak point, he had never hated his man so much in his entire life.

  "Yes! That's it! That's the reaction I fucking want! See, this Asian bitch is nothing more than food now! There's no chance she'll survive out there on her own and that's more satisfying than killing her myself!" Daniel shouted.

  Kerry, in tears crawled desperately away, slipping down the stairway and leaving a trail of blood behind her.

  "Leave her alone!" Lizzy snapped.

  "I'm not interested in her anymore, she's already dead. See, that's the thing about handicaps and weaknesses, the world eats you alive, though in her case quite literally".

  "What do we do?" Elmira asked, panicking as they were boxed in, twitchers above, Daniel equipped with a crowbar below.

  "When I say go, run. I'll hold him off", Terry whispered.

  "I'm not letting you fight him alone, he'll kill you", Natasha whispered back.

  "You have George to worry about, you two have to get out of here". She glared at him with disapproval, but what could she say? She knew he was right.

  "I'll fight", Lizzy chimed in.

  "Are you kidding me?" Elmira replied.

  "I'm the only one with at least a remotely full fire extinguisher, I can at least distract him momentarily".

  "That's a point, but don't look for a fight, as soon as you get the chance, run".

  "I'll be with Terry, don't worry. I'll make sure we both make it out alive".

  "On my say so", Terry instructed.

  Just leaving the exit downstairs was Kerry, tears streaming down her face, blood pouring down her leg and shoulder. She couldn't move very fast, limping was about as much as she could manage.

  She made it out into an alley, took a moment to recover, before spotting her first twitcher.

  "Shit", she muttered. It hadn't spotted her, but she didn't want to wait around long enough for it to do so. She limped off in the opposite direction and eventually ended up on the main road.

  She stopped before a scene of chaos and looked around in shock. This was the first she had seen of the anarchy on the streets. Cars were piled up, some on fire, bodies or at least what remained of them, littered the ground and not a single direction was there not a twitcher. Smashed windows, smoke billowing high into the air, discarded items swept up and around by the breeze, sirens and alarms blaring everywhere, this was literally hell. Kerry had never seen anything like this, never in all of her life and she had seen riots in both London and her second home, Hong Kong.

  Her thoughts were primarily on her parents, they lived in Clapham and last she had communicated with them they were grabbing last bits in the house with intention of evacuating London. They were an elderly couple, but at least they were out of the vicinity of danger.

  They had hoped and prayed for her safe return, but things didn't look as though they were shaping out that way.

  She didn't want to die, she really didn't want to die, she had so much she wanted to do, so many things she wanted to achieve, so many places she wanted to visit. She wanted to find her prince charming and get married, she wanted to be a beautiful bride, have a wonderful honeymoon, give birth to a gorgeous child and become a mother. She was only twenty-six, this wasn't fair, all she wanted was a normal life, was that too much to fucking ask?

  She took cover behind a car as a twitcher lumbered past. Maybe there was still a chance, maybe God was still looking down on her. She slipped behind another car as the twitcher passed her by and made her way up the road, limping as fast as she could.

  Fuck, the pain was unimaginable, how could it hurt so fucking much? The agony from her leg was just about bearable, but her shoulder was a pain unlike anything she could have imagined. How did it come to this? She was just a normal girl seeking a normal life, how the hell had it come to this?

  She passed more cars by and prayed for a miracle, someone to save her, someone to come and help her out of this situation alive. The others were probably dead by now, slaughtered in a horrifically brutal fashion the way Bishop was, so there was no relying on them. Was she alone now? Was she entirely on her own?

  It didn’t seem as though driving was an option, as much as she wished it was, for even if the keys were left in an ignition, the cars were far too jam packed together to make any headway. The moment she'd start the engine, every motherfucker in the area would be on her like a magnet.

  She didn’t want to die, she didn’t want to die! Not like this, not so young. She was terrified, her heart was racing, pure adrenaline was keeping her upright.

  Shit, shit, shit, she thought as she rounded a corner and came face to face with a fucking twitcher, a child twitcher. She had done so well, she didn’t want to die now, but why couldn't she move, why wouldn't her body fucking move?

  The twitcher drew closer, its eyes wide and menacing, blood combin
ed with saliva dripping from its mouth, the skin on its arm ripped to shreds clearly from an earlier incidence, blood trickling down its legs. This was once a little boy who was probably going to the cinema, the park, or shopping and seeing him in this state was a grim reality of the situation that Kerry had to face, London was fucked and she didn’t want to be anything like that... that... thing.

  Mustering up the courage to run, she spun around and limped as fast as she could in the opposite direction, expecting it to pursue her, but much to her bewilderment, it didn't, instead remaining transfixed to its spot, watching her pathetically flee for her life and for a moment she honestly believed there was a chance for her to escape, she could live to see another day... until it screamed, or more akin to a high pitched shriek and an overwhelming sense of dread washed over her like the powerful waves of an ocean.

  If she wasn’t fucked before, she was most definitely fucked now. Twitchers arrived from everywhere like fucking ants, seemingly popping up from every hole and space imaginable. Her heart raced as she limped away as fast as she could, knowing that impending doom loomed over her, shrouding her in its ominous shadow.

  She didn’t want to die, she didn’t want to die, she didn’t want to die!

  She tripped over and compelled herself to get back up, but before she could, something grabbed at her leg. She turned to find one of the twitchers clinging on to her, a fat man glaring at her with insatiable hunger in his eyes. It was the psychopathic look of a rapist or serial killer and it frightened the life out of her. Fuck this fat bastard, he wasn't getting his fast food today without working for it.

  “Let go of me!” She screamed and tried to kick out at him with her good leg.

  “You look delicious... like a juicy steak”, he groaned.

  “Get off of me, you fat fuck!” She lashed out at him, but the more she struggled was the more energy she expended. To make matters worse, more twitchers arrived, holding her down. She shouted for help, praying that someone would come, praying to God to help her, praying to anyone who would listen as tears streamed down her cheeks.

  “I can’t resist... I need to eat”, the fat twitcher replied and with that he pulled her thrashing leg to his mouth and sunk his teeth into her. She let out an agonised scream, as a combination of tears and sheer pain blinded her, but the full extent of her suffering had yet to be realised. More of them ripped away at her flesh, digging into and tearing open her lacerations with their fingers. She couldn’t breathe, the pain was blinding and she was forced to endure every excruciating second of it, confronting every bit of the pain until it all seamlessly merged into one. Slowly she slipped into a dark place of which there was no redemption, watching them tear open her stomach, smother their faces in her blood, pull her muscles from arms and legs, feast on her spilling insides and after pain had peaked, it began to dissipate, with it, her screaming died down, her prayers went unanswered, visions of her past and her family flashed through her mind and then all pain was replaced with just a cold, endless, but somewhat peaceful darkness.

  “What the fuck are you guys plotting over there?” Daniel asked from the bottom of the steps, but the group above didn’t answer.

  Terry gazed down at the hollow shell of the second man his ex had fallen in love with. He was all but gone now, nothing more of him remained and his all too familiar twitch confirmed that, she had only him to rely on now and he didn't want to let her down again, not now, they were getting out of London alive, one way or another.

  “Go!” Terry shouted and with that, together they charged down the stairs towards Daniel. The other twitchers bounded after them, jumping from the highest steps to the level below and breaking bones in the process they seemed to give little regard to.

  Terry charged right at Daniel with the jagged pole, not simply content with just creating an opportunity for the others to pass by, but with intent to pay Daniel back tenfold for all he had done.

  Daniel blocked the attack and pushed Terry back with relative ease.

  “Terry!” Natasha yelped.

  “Go!” He snapped at her. She hesitated, but didn’t wait for him to say it again, she grabbed George's wrist and dashed down the stairs along with Elmira, whilst Lizzy stayed to fight.

  “Where are you going?” Daniel shouted after Natasha as she fled. He turned to Terry. “Fuck off, you weak piece of shit! I won’t let Natasha escape from me! I won’t let you have her!”

  “No, fuck you, Daniel”” Terry shouted back and swung at him again, only to have his attack blocked once more.

  Once Natasha was out of sight and with Lizzy at his rear blasting the twitcher swarm with the fire extinguisher, Terry put in his all, swinging endlessly at Daniel, not giving him a chance to retaliate.

  “What?” Daniel shouted in his face, “You think you’re a fucking man now? You feel like you could take me on now! Fuck you! You're still a spineless pussy! Know your fucking place, you worthless piece of shit! I’ll fucking kill you this time!”

  “Come on then!” Terry shouted back.

  “You think I won’t, you cocky motherfucker?”

  “You’ll pay for what you did”.

  “Look at you. Give you a fucking pole and you think you’re a big man suddenly. Why don't you stop pretending you give a shit about those scum, this is about you and I! This has always been about you and I! I took what you loved from you because you were too pathetic to hold on to it, now you want revenge!” Daniel swung at Terry with so much force that the pole flew from Terry’s hands. “What are you now? Nothing! That’s what you are! Fucking nothing! Fuck you, you weak ass fucking motherfucker!”

  Daniel raised the crowbar to deal the final blow, but before he could do so, Lizzy spun around and unleashed a blast from the extinguisher on him, forcing him to retract in an attempt to cover his face.

  “No! Fuck you!” She screamed.

  Terry didn’t need to be told what to do, he reached for the pole, stood up and drove the sharper end of the pole right into Daniel’s eye. He thrust it further, ensuring it penetrated right into the fucker’s skull. It was only after Daniel slumped to the floor did Terry step back. He stood staring in pity at Daniel, somewhat relieved that he would no longer have to deal with the sorry son of a bitch.

  Lizzy emptied what remained of the canister on the encroaching twitchers above, before dropping it to the floor and the two fled for their lives.

  Terry kicked open the back door of the building and they ran, taking a left. Without knowing which direction Natasha had taken, he would have to wait until he had reached safety before attempting to contact her, assuming and praying that she was okay. Safe was an idealist word to use in these circumstances as twitchers poured out of the exit into the alley and gave chase.

  "Fuck this!" Lizzy shouted and took off her expensive low heels, tossing them aside. "Expensive pair of fucking shoes gone!"

  It was any wonder how she had made it this far in them. She was better off barefoot, they were only going to slow her down and no value exceeded the value of her life.

  “We need to lose them”, Terry replied.

  Terry and Lizzy exited out onto a side road and sprinted down it as fast as their legs could carry them.

  They clambered over the bonnets of cars.

  "Over here!" Lizzy shouted as they ran, pointing towards a hotel.

  They barged through the rotating entrance doors and hopped over the scattered luggage that guests had abandoned. Terry jumped over and Lizzy rounded the reception desk towards the back of the lobby and entered an open staff room where they found an exit. Bursting out into an opening at the rear of the building, still pursued by the twitchers and more they had inadvertently attracted the attention of, they cut across White Lion Street and continued eastwards until they came to the Regents Canal, where they spent all of a few seconds deciding whether or not to take the plunge. The problem was in the fact that Lizzy wasn't a great swimmer and that murky green water didn't look the most inviting, but death at the hands of twitchers bea
t it to claim the trophy of unpleasantries hands down. They dived into the water, with Terry making every possible attempt to keep his phone above it, water resilient sales jargon or not.

  He'd be lying if he had claimed to have believed that the twitchers would jump in after them, but then it shouldn't have come as too much of a surprise given that some of them were former swimmers and all of them were reckless now.

  The two swam as far as they could and came out just behind London Lexicon leading on to City road. Panting and drenched, they at least had the bask in the fact they had evaded their pursuers.

  Terry’s phone had been ringing off the hook since midway through that swim and up until now he hadn't been able to answer it. It was tremendously reassuring to hear Natasha’s very much alive voice on the line.

  “Oh, thank God”, she sighed, “Every thought possible was racing through my head, Daniel killed you, those twitchers killed you, something else killed you. I'm glad you are okay".

  “Did every thought you have about me involve my tragic demise?”

  “More or less, yes, but you know what I mean”.

  “Sorry, we were a little... occupied. How are you? Are you and George safe?” Terry asked.

  “Not exactly safe, but we’re okay for the time being, we’re on Exmouth Market, next to Spa Fields Park”.

  “You’re quite some distance away from us, we’re further north east, City Road. We should decide on a place to meet and work our way there”.

  “Old Street?”

  “Okay, remember that club we went to several years back for Louise’s birthday? Golden Wasp?”

  “I vaguely remember, I should remember my bearings when I get there”.