The Rats

by James Herbert

‘It’s funny, but sitting there in the Town Hall, making plans, hearing all the reports, even my own first-hand experiences of the rats–we didn’t realise just how bad the situation was. It took today’s events to really bring it home. In the morning, the streets were practically deserted, and later on, people were only travelling around in groups or in cars and vans.

  ‘Anyway, after that we met up with our escort promised by Foskins. He’d brought the army into it. Two truckloads of troops armed with water-cannon, flame-throwers, gas, the whole bloody works. It certainly made us feel a bit better.’

  ’You should have started out with them,’ interrupted Judy, cross not with Harris but at Foskins, who was in control.

  ‘Yes, I know,’ said Harris, ‘but we’ve done it all along.

  We’ve underestimated them. Despite all the reports, we’ve just thought of them as highly dangerous pests, not as the overwhelming force that they seem to be becoming. Even after the tram massacre and the attack on the school we didn’t expect to meet up with so many of them in one day.

  True, I’d chosen the most likely places–I had to if our part was to be effective–but even I wasn’t prepared for the number of times we came face to face with them. I tell you, Jude, if this doesn’t work, that whole area will have to be razed to the ground.’

  Judy shuddered. ‘What if it’s too late? You told me how fast they breed. What if they spread all over London?’

  Harris was silent for a while, then he said: ‘Goodbye London.’

  ‘Oh, darling, let’s go now. You’ve done all you can, you’ve helped them as much as possible. You said yourself you’re not really necessary, you’re just there for Foskins’ ego. Well let them get on with it. Let’s go before it gets worse.’

  ‘Come on, Jude, you know we can’t. Where would we go?’

  ‘Aunt Hazel’s for a while. You could be transferred to a local school and I wouldn’t mind working in a shop for a while. With all the schools overflowing with evacuated kids they’re crying out for more teachers to come out of London.’

  ‘No, love. I couldn’t leave now. You see, as we drove on today, dressed in those ridiculous space-suits, escorted by soldiers armed to the teeth, and I took them all to places I knew, places familiar to me, places that had been part of my life, I knew I had to see it through. If you like–and I know it may sound silly–it was my patch. The men with me were strangers to it. As far as Foskins and his ministry are concerned it could be a foreign land. Oh, I’m not saying I love the area or it’s in my blood. Nothing daft like that. But I do feel some responsibility towards it–like it’s my old school and it’s being demolished by age. See?’

  ‘Yes, I see.’ Judy smiled at him, holding his hand to her cheek. ‘You dope.’

  He shrugged, smiling to himself.

  ‘Any more incidents today?’ she asked.

  ‘Yes. In a children’s school ground we saw a score of them attacking a dog, so we drove in and went straight through them, dropping the bait without stopping.’ Into his mind crowded the terrible sight of his companions dropping the pups from the vans into the midst of the rats, something he’d been unable to take part in. ‘Later we went into a bombed-out church and discovered the flesh-cleaned bones of two people. Who they were and how long they’d been there we couldn’t tell; the skeletons were too clean to have been there too long and there wasn’t a trace of clothing. The strange thing was that they were locked in a tight embrace like lovers. We began to unload the bait when we heard a scream. One of our men had a rat clinging to his neck and was running around like a madman. Fortunately, his suit saved him from serious injury, but his fear was contagious. We all made for the exit. Two men went to the attacked man’s aid but soon found they had their own problems. The three of them ran from the opening, rats clinging to their bodies and as soon as they were clear, the water-canon were directed at the gap to stop anything else coming through.

  The soldiers helped the three men get free of the rats by using their bayonets. The army wanted to fill the place with gas, but Howard wouldn’t let them. It was the one time we wanted the rats to live, so they could spread the virus.

  ‘After that episode, we didn’t have too much trouble although we still made contact with them. We’d learned to be cautious and kept as close to the vans as possible, leaping inside at the first hint of risk.

  None of us were very brave, I’m afraid. We were too aware of the consequences.’

  ‘I don’t want a dead hero, Harris,’ said Judy.

  ‘Believe me, you won’t get one.’

  ’So what happens now?’

  ‘We wait. We wait to see if the virus takes effect and if it does, then it shouldn’t take long for it to spread. They reckon within a couple of’ weeks we’ll know one way or another.’

  ‘,And if it doesn’t work, what then?’

  ‘Well it wouldn’t be just theEast End’s problem anymore.

  They couldn’t possibly contain the rats in that area. They’d spread throughout London. And if that happens, I don’t want to be around.’

  Chapter Thirteen

  The rats came out on to the streets to die. It was as though having spent their lives scuffling around in the semi-darkness they wished to breathe the fresh air of the upper world before they perished. They littered the streets, their corpses bloated in the sun, at first causing great alarm to the people who lived in the area. The alarm gave way to relief as the people realised the vermin were dying, the crisis was passing.

  The diseased corpses were gathered up in bulk and loaded into lorries and taken to incinerators where they were reduced to harmless dust. It had taken only two days for first signs of the virus’ effect but it escalated rapidly in the week that followed. There were still attacks on people but they were far less numerous than before. And then a remarkable side effect of the virus was discovered.

  A soldier was bitten by a rat he’d assumed to be dead because of its prone position. He shot it and reported to the hospital where he expected to die. It was extremely critical for three days but he managed to pull through, his survival being attributed to a reaction on the disease carried by the rat from the virus infecting it. The deadly germ had been halted.

  Others bitten by the rats were not quite so fortunate. Some died in the usual twenty-four hours, others lingered on the edge for anything up to a week. Not enough people were bitten to allow any assumptions to be made, but the fact that one person had survived and others had lasted for almost a week was definitely encouraging. Tests were tried on animals but instead of dying from the disease caused by the rats, they died from the man-made virus introduced into the rodents.

  After three weeks, the danger from the vermin was thought to be virtually over although only approximately two thousand bodies were found. It was assumed that the rest of the rats’ population was dying or dead below ground.

  Life began slowly to return to normal. Plans were made to begin a massive clean-up operation on East London’s older districts. Houses were to be pulled down, wastelands to either be utilised for building or flattened into concrete playgrounds or car-parks. The dockside areas would be renovated into modern open-plan blocks. Disused basements would be forever sealed, sewers and drains thoroughly cleansed or rebuilt. It would cost millions but a sharp lesson had been learnt. Stepney and Poplar would eventually become fashionable areas and their history of slums forgotten.

  Foskins was completely exonerated of any blame for initial mistakes and reinstated publicly to his former position. He was congratulated personally by the Prime Minister and passed on the compliments to the team that had helped him accomplish his critical task. At a press conference he praised the specialists whose painstaking endeavours coupled with their dynamic ingenuity had finally, begun to defeat this fearsome mutant creature and the deadly disease it carried, whilst subtly implying all credit really belonged to him, as originator and organiser of the project.

  They still held daily meetings in the town hall to discuss the progress of the op
eration but the urgency was no longer felt amongst the members. A serum was derived from the virus to be used as an antidote for the rat-bites which made the disease non-mortal although now such cases were becoming much less frequent anyway.

  The danger had passed. So everyone thought.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Judy was in the bath, enjoying its cocoon warmth, when she heard the phone ring. Harris’s muffled voice came through the half-open bathroom door as it was answered. She idly wondered who the caller was.

  After a few moments of one-sided conversation she heard the click of the receiver being replaced and footsteps crossing the lounge towards the bath-room. Harris came in with a wry smile on his face.

  ‘That was Foskins,’ he said, sitting on the edge of the toilet.

  ‘Ringing on a Sunday morning? He must miss you.’

  ‘Hardly. He’s given me the sack.’

  ‘What? Why?’

  ‘My services are no longer needed. “Thank you for your extremely valuable assistance, old boy, but the worst is now over and I think it would be unfair to you to take up any more of your valuable time.” “The old bastard.’

  ‘No, not really, I couldn’t have done any more. To tell you the truth it’s a bit of a relief; I’ve felt a bit useless the last couple of weeks.’

  ‘Yes, but to get rid of you now, just when it’s nearly all over.’

  ‘Well, he’s proved his point hasn’t he? He doesn’t need me to show off to now–he’s got the whole of the public.

  Anyway, the kids will be coming back in a few weeks and then it’ll be back to the old routine.’

  Foskins greeted them warmly when they arrived at his home the following Tuesday.

  ‘Hello, old boy. Ah, this must be Judy. Do come in.’

  Half-plastered already, thought Harris, catching Judy’s eye and winking.

  ‘Most of my guests have arrived,’ said Foskins in an overloud voice. ‘Bathroom’s upstairs to the left, bedroom to the right.’

  Judy disappeared up the stairs to attend her make-up and Harris followed Foskins into a room full of chatting people.

  He saw Howard amongst one of the groups, his face flushed with the glory of the previous week’s events. ‘Hello, Harris!’ he called, waving a glass-filled hand and spilling some of its contents on a young woman next to him. ‘Come and meet everybody.’

  Harris walked over, Foskins leading him by the arm, taking a Scotch from the waiter with a tray full of assorted drinks on the way. Howard introduced him to his group with an air of camaraderie he’d never shown in their working relationship.

  ‘Oh, you’re the teacher who saved all those little children at the school, aren’t you?’ the girl standing next to Howard said excitedly.

  ‘With the help of halfLondon’s police force and fire brigade,’ smiled Harris.

  ‘Now, my boy, mustn’t be modest,’ said Foskins, placing his hand on the teacher’s shoulder and shaking it heartily.

  ‘Fiona adores heroes,’ Howard laughed, putting a possessive arm around her waist.

  ‘Come along, you must meet everybody,’ Foskins tugged him away from the group. They were joined by Judy as they made their circuit of the room, smiling, shaking hands and being congratulated. After his third Scotch, Harris’ mood began to mellow towards the Under-Secretary as he watched him laughing and bantering with his fellow ministers, accepting their praise with mock modesty at one moment and skilful braggartism the next. He noticed Howard standing to one side, glaring at Foskins, taking no notice of the chattering Fiona at his side.

  His thoughts were interrupted by Judy whispering in his ear, ‘So this is the jet-set?’

  ‘It could have been worse,’ he smiled down at her. ‘At least the booze is flowing smoothly.’

  ‘Old Foskins is certainly bathing in the glory.’

  ‘Of course. What do you think the party’s for? You can’t blame him though.’

  ‘Harris, for a belligerent man you’re very easy-going.’

  He laughed, putting an arm around her shoulder and pulling her to him. ‘All right, he made a mistake once, but he soon made up for it.’

  ‘Yes, with the help of you and all the others!’ Judy said indignantly.

  ‘She’s quite right you know, Harris!’ Howard had crossed the room to join them, Fiona at his heels.

  ‘He’s busy taking all the credit–very modestly, I grant you–when after all, it was my idea.’

  ‘Yes,’ agreed Fiona, breathlessly.

  ‘And by the way,’ he added maliciously, ‘I’m sorry to see you’re no longer part of the team.’

  Harris grinned at the researcher, refusing to be drawn out.

  ‘What does it matter? It’s all over now, anyway,’ he said, looking around for the waiter and his tray.

  ‘Yes, and we’re all going back eventually to our obscure little jobs while he ...’

  ‘Look, if you don’t like it, don’t tell me about it, tell him.’

  Harris deftly grabbed a Scotch from the passing tray.

  ‘Right,’ said Howard. ‘I bloody will!’ and marched towards Foskins.

  ‘Harris, you’re evil,’ Judy admonished the smiling teacher.

  ‘Oh dear, he’s going to create a scene,’ wailed Fiona.

  Just as Howard reached the jovial Foskins, the telephone rang in the hall and the Under-Secretary excused himself from his group, leaving the researcher standing open- mouthed and flat-looted.

  Harris suppressed his mirth as he watched the researcher gather his wits and stride after him.

  Two minutes later, Howard came back into the room ashen-faced. He rejoined them, slowly shaking his head, a look of disbelief on his face.

  ‘Darling, what’s the matter, what’s happened?’ asked Fiona, worriedly.

  He looked at each of them in turn, not really seeing their faces. ‘That phone call,’ he started to say. ‘It was from our operations room.’

  They waited in impatient silence.

  ‘There’s been another attack. Another massacre – in North London.’

  Chapter Fifteen

  Stephen Abbott sat in the darkened cinema and stole a quick glance at his girlfriend’s face, illuminated by the cinema-scope screen. He was bored with the film, partly because the big, craggy cowboy on the screen was now too old to act like superman, and partly because he wasn’t wearing his glasses. Vikki didn’t know he wore glasses sometimes and he thought it might spoil their relationship if she did. She’d probably go off him too if she ever found out about his two false front teeth; he had to be so careful in their ‘snogging’ sessions that her probing tongue didn’t dislodge the plate. She was very fussy. And she deserved to be, with her looks! Best looking bird in the club.

  He had another problem too–he wanted to go to the toilet. He wasn’t desperate yet, but the thought of not being able to go was steadily making it worse. And he couldn’t go because he didn’t have his glasses and without them he’d never find his way back to the seat. It had happened to him once before; he’d wandered up and down the aisle in the dark until his embarrassed girlfriend had waved to him. And that was the last time he’d dated her.

  He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. His arm reached around her shoulders and she snuggled against him, one of her hands resting on his thigh. The area under her hand became the centre of his feelings until the weight caused stirrings elsewhere. He kissed her cheek softly and then her lips hard as she turned her head towards him, her fingers increasing the pressure on his leg. Well, he’d bided his time for two weeks now so as not to spoil things; maybe now was the time to make his move. His heart thumping, his head filled with concentrated love and the desire to urinate overpowered by a stronger desire, he put his free hand on her wrist and stroked the silky material of her blouse. He drew his trembling and cautious fingers to the centre buttons and poked a finger through an opening, giddy at the feel of the warm flesh of her tummy. After a few moments of making circling motions with his exploratory finger and waiting for the r
ebuttal, he withdrew it and moved his hand upwards towards her breasts. He found the gentle swelling and cupped it tremblingly. Her restraining hand rested on his and weakly, without conviction, tried to pull it away.

  Instead he moved it along and slid it inside the opening of her blouse, getting it stuck between the buttons.

  He wriggled it loose and undid one of them, hearing her gasp as his hand reached inside again for her.

  My first one, he thought. My first proper good-looking bird! After all those fat ones, skinny ones, ones with big noses, ones with big teeth–at last a good-looking one! Ooh, I’m in love. Wait till I tell the boys she lets me have a feel!

  His hand crept inside her lacy bra and felt her hard little nipple, squeezing it between his fingers, pressing it as though it were a button.

  Suddenly she screamed and leapt to her feet, pulling his arm up with her.

  ‘I didn’t mean anything,’ he began to bluster, his face reddening as people turned to look at them.

  ‘Something bit me!’ Vikki cried. ‘There’s something there on the floor! It bit me leg!’

  He looked downward but failed to see anything in the dark. He bent down, more to escape the accusing eyes of the cinema crowd than to discover the offending ‘something’.

  ‘There’s nothing there,’ he said miserably.

  ’There is, there is!’ She began to cry, backing away on to the lap of the person sitting next to her.

  Someone in the next row flicked on a lighter and leaned over the back of his seat with it, holding a small flame towards the floor.

  A large dark shape scuttled underneath the seat.

  As Vikki screamed, a woman behind in the next row leapt to her feet and screamed also. Then pandemonium broke loose throughout the theatre. People jumped ,up and kicked out at or leapt away from something at their feet.

  ‘Rats!’ a terror-stricken voice echoed around the cinema, the cry being taken up by others equally frightened.

  Vikki began to pound her feet hysterically up and down on the floor, as though contact with it would make her more vulnerable to the vermin. Stephen grabbed her shoulders and tried to calm her just as the house-lights came on. Then the terror really took grip as the people saw the horror between the seats.