by Amy Cross
Letting out a cry, Javier pressed the tendril up until it was touching the light. The flames were starting to burn his hand now, but he refused to let go, refused to stop until he was sure that this was working. And then, finally, the flames burst along the tendril and consumed the bulbous knotted head of the creature, causing it to let out a high-pitched squeal.
Gasping with pain, Javier finally pulled back. His hand was badly damaged, but he watched as the flames spread from one creature to the next until – finally – all the creatures fell down from the door.
“Why are they burning so easily?” Ruth asked.
“Everything has a weakness,” he replied, before stepping past the flames and opening the door. “Let's go.”
Finally getting outside, Javier carried Merrie across the patio, while Ruth followed just a few paces behind. After a moment, however, Javier stopped as he saw flames in the distance, and he realized that something was very wrong down in the town. There were helicopters, too, and he could hear sirens in the night air.
“What's happening?” Ruth asked. “It's like everything's going to hell.”
“This is bigger than just us,” Javier replied, watching as one of the helicopters began to race toward them. “It looks like the whole island's getting dragged into it. What the -”
Suddenly he spotted a light rushing from under the helicopter, racing straight toward the villa, and in a split second he heard a loud whooshing sound.
“Get down!” he shouted, shoving Ruth aside just as a missile roared overhead.
As Javier landed on Ruth, with Merrie's unconscious body still on his back, the missile slammed straight into the villa and the entire building exploded. The ground shook, the air itself seemed to scream, and a huge fireball obliterated the villa and rose high into the darkness above.
Chapter Forty
One week later
“It doesn't hurt,” Javier muttered as he fiddled with the strap that was holding his injured foot in place. “It's just uncomfortable.”
“Can I take another look?” Ruth asked, reaching down to grab his ankle. “Maybe I can -”
“Just leave it.”
She touched the side of his foot.
“Javier, I -”
“That hurts!” he snapped, pulling away. “Just leave it be, okay? The doctor said it'll heal. I broke the damn thing, didn't I? It's natural that it's not going to feel great.”
“I'll clean up the bandages,” she replied.
“Why bother?” he asked with a sigh. “No-one's coming in for a tattoo any time soon.”
Looking across the studio, he couldn't help but feel exhausted. He'd been building the business up for so long, and now it had all been ruined by that crazy night a week earlier when the military had shown up. Sure, things were supposed to be getting back to normal, but the entire island had been quarantined and custom had dried up completely. People were trapped on the island and had begun to use their money only for essentials.
And a tattoo was definitely not an essential.
“It'll be okay, you know,” Ruth said finally. “Things are going to get back to normal now.”
He turned to her.
“They are,” she continued, sensing his lack of faith. “It'll all settle down. Soon people are going to be flocking to Mallaca. You need to be ready for all the people who are going to want a tattoo of those creatures.”
“I don't know that I want to get involved in that,” he replied. “It's morbid.”
“But if -”
“Hey!” an excited voice called out, and a moment later Kay appeared in the doorway with Gemma just a few paces behind. “Did you hear the news? It was just announced in the main square. The quarantine's over and we can start leaving this afternoon.”
“That's great,” Ruth replied. “You must be desperate to get back to England.”
“Before I came here,” Kay said, “I would have loved the idea of spending all this time in the sun. But do you know what? I actually miss home. And after everything that happened last week, I want to be somewhere familiar for a while. And to see a damn good shrink.” She turned to Gemma. “You're the same, right?”
Gemma nodded. Since the events of the previous week, she'd become withdrawn, barely saying anything at all. It didn't help that her damaged ribs were causing so much pain.
“So have either of you guys seen Merrie?” Kay asked. “I need to let her know, they're saying we might be able to get a flight out this evening.”
***
“No way,” Merrie said firmly. “Not a chance. Not without Judy.”
“The cops and the army are looking for Judy,” Kay replied with a sigh. “If they can't find her, what makes you think you'll do any better?”
“I am not leaving this island without my sister,” Merrie continued. “I promised her that I'd save her and I'm going to stick to that promise.”
“But -”
Sighing again, Kay realized that nothing she could say would ever make a difference.
“You guys go,” Merrie added. “You have to. I totally understand. You've got lives to get back to, but Judy's my sister and I will stay here for as long as it takes. Forever, if that's necessary.”
“You can't blame yourself for what happened.”
“I don't,” she explained. “I blame those lunatics up at that villa, and I blame those things, those creatures, whatever they are. But I'm still not budging until I've seen Judy. Even if she's...”
Her voice trailed off, and there was a hint now of tears in her eyes.
“She'll be okay,” Kay said, putting a hand on her shoulder and at the same time forcing a smile. “I'm sure of it. She's probably just... lost.”
“I'm going to find her!”
“I know. But Merrie, I feel awful for saying this, but Gemma and I really do need to go home. Now that the quarantine's over, we can get a place on a government flight back to Heathrow tonight, and we're going to leave. The nightmare's over, but we can't begin to rebuild our lives until we get home.”
“And I can't begin to rebuild my life without Judy,” Merrie replied. “Once I've found her, I'll bring her home. Then we can all get together and... Well, maybe we won't laugh about it. After all, more than a hundred people died in Apocalypse.”
As she spoke, she spotted two more soldiers wandering along the street, carrying heavy-looking machine-guns. Various armies and bio-hazard groups had been swarming all over the island for the past week, stamping out any lingering hints that the creatures might have survived. Merrie watched as the soldiers walked past, and for a moment she considered hurrying over to them and asking if there'd been any more news from up at the villa. Then again, she knew she was unlikely to get told anything.
Glancing toward the hill, she saw that emergency teams were still working at the site where the villa had once stood. From what she'd heard, there was nothing left now except a smoldering crater.
“I should have saved her,” she whispered, as she thought back to the last time she'd seen Judy. “I let her down.”
Kay put a hand on her shoulder.
“Don't tell me it's alright,” Merrie continued. “Don't tell me I did my best. My best wasn't good enough, but I'm not giving up.” She turned to her. “I'm going to find Judy. I can't explain how, but I just know she's out there somewhere. She's still alive.”
Chapter Forty-One
Tendrils pulled tight across Ruth's face as she tried to scream. Leaning back, she reached up to her face and pulled hard on the first tendril, but she succeeded only in slicing her fingers against the razor-sharp edge. As her own blood ran across her face, she forced her mouth open and tried again to cry out, only for another tendril to rush between her lips and force its way down the back of her throat.
“It's okay,” a calm, familiar voice reassured her. “Don't worry, Emma. Give in to it, the way I gave in to it.”
“Emma?”
Startled, Ruth turned and saw that Javier was standing next to the car, still waiting for
her. They'd been on their way out of the studio, planning to drive to the far end of town and see what was happening around the port area, but then...
Then what?
Ruth had stopped in the doorway for a moment, and then her thoughts had rushed off to something else entirely. Not a memory, exactly; more a fear, of what might have been. And she'd heard her mother's voice so clearly, almost as if the intervening years had briefly vanished.
“We can go another time,” Javier told her. “Maybe this is too soon for -”
“No, I'm fine,” she replied, determined not to seem flustered. “Let's go.”
***
“It's like a war-zone,” Javier said as he drove the car slowly past the harbor area, where soldiers were still manning checkpoints and examining anything that was heading out to sea. “Well, I've never actually been to a war-zone, but this is how I imagine they feel.”
“Stop!” Ruth said suddenly.
Javier hit the brakes, bringing the car to a juddering halt.
“What?” he asked. “Ruth? Did you see something?”
It took Ruth a moment to realize what he'd said, and a moment longer before she turned to him.
“Emma,” she said finally.
“I'm sorry?”
“My name's Emma,” she continued. “Or at least, it used to be. I think I'd like to go back to using my original name.”
“Okay,” he said cautiously, “I guess that makes sense.”
She murmured something else under her breath, before opening the door and climbing out of the car.
“Where are you going?” Javier called after her. “Ruth? I mean, Emma? I mean...”
Sighing, he unfastened his safety belt and stepped out of the vehicle, just in time to see that Ruth – or rather, Emma – was wandering toward the soldiers who were questioning the captain of a fishing boat.
Stopping, she watched as the frustrated man continued to explain himself, but the soldiers seemed very reluctant to let him pass without a fuller interrogation.
“What is it?” Javier asked, stepping up behind her. “You've been acting stranger and stranger all morning.”
“Don't you feel it?” she whispered, as a shudder ran up her arms. “There's something here. It's not over.”
“What are you talking about? The travel ban was lifted this morning. People are free to go now. Well, searches are still being carried out, but they've obviously decided that the main threat is over.”
“It's not, though.” She turned to him. “I've seen these things before, back at the hospital all those years ago. I'm remembering more and more about what they're like. You're going to think I'm crazy, Javier, but it's like... When they're around, I get this weird feeling. It's as if I can sense them. I felt it when I first went up to the villa, although at the time I didn't realize what was causing it. Now I do, and I still feel it right here, right now.”
“We've all been through a lot,” he replied, “and -”
“I'm telling you,” she said firmly, “it's not over.”
“The army has searched the island thoroughly,” he pointed out. “Do you seriously think they'd take any risks. It's been a week, Ruth, and -”
“Emma.”
“Fine, Emma. Whatever. But it's been a week and obviously those things are dead now. You saw how easily they burned. It's just going to take a little time for us all to recover.” He waited, and then he stepped closer and put a hand on her arm. “I guess this is harder for you,” he added, “because of the connection to your mother. It's going to take time to -”
“They're still here,” she replied, interrupting him.
He sighed.
“This was all too easy,” she continued. “They were supposed to have all been destroyed when Leadenford was blown up. Then they were supposed to have all been destroyed at that holiday camp. The truth is, they keep surviving, almost as if they're inevitable.”
Hearing angry voices nearby, she turned to see that the captain of the fishing boat was finally being allowed back onto his vessel, and that soldiers had finished checking his crates. All the cargo was now being loaded, and Emma felt a shiver in her spine as she thought of people and goods leaving Mallaca and spreading out across the world.
“It's going to spread,” she whispered finally. “They're giving up too easily. It's going to end up everywhere.”
Chapter Forty-Two
“Don't feel bad,” Kay said as she stepped onto the plane, with Gemma just a few paces further back. “It's Merrie's choice to stay. I understand why she feels she can't abandon Judy, but she's way over-compensating. And anyway, it's clearly too late. Judy's gone.”
Struggling to get past several people who were loading their bags into overhead compartments, she somehow managed to make her way to the sixth row.
“These are our seats,” she muttered, before putting her bag away and then wriggling into a seat. “I swear, these Mallaca Air planes are even smaller than usual. How do they expect anyone over four feet to actually squeeze in here?”
She let out a gasp as she finally managed to get into her spot, and then she leaned against the window as Gemma sat in the next seat. Already they were struggling to keep out of one another's way, and Kay's knees were pressed painfully hard against the back of the seat ahead.
“At least we're getting out of here, I guess,” she said, leaning back in an attempt to get comfortable. “It should only be, what, two or three hours until we're back in London? Probably just enough time to develop DVT.”
She glanced over at Gemma, who was staring straight ahead as if in a daze.
“It'll be okay,” Kay added.
Gemma turned to her.
“You must've seen some stuff in the stampede, huh?” Kay continued. “You must've thought you were gonna die. I thought the same when I was on that roof, and then when I was trying to find a way out. I mean, I actually faced down three real zombies. Three actual, real zombies! Isn't that kinda freaky when you think about it?”
“I saw a girl's head get crushed by people's feet,” Gemma replied.
Kay swallowed hard.
“Her eyes kind of...”
Gemma hesitated, before trying to smile.
“I'm gonna get therapy when we're home,” she added. “Like, proper therapy from a doctor. It's either that or I start drinking heavily, and I think if I started, I'd never stop. And I know I'm gonna be okay. We all are. It's just a matter of getting through this difficult first part, right? It's just about staying sane now those stupid monsters are gone.”
As they continued to talk, neither of them noticed the brief, faint bumping sound that came from the overhead compartment directly above their seats.
***
“How about you?” Merrie asked, turning and showing the photo to another passing man. “Have you seen this girl?”
“Sorry.”
“Can you take a closer look?” she called after him, with desperation in her voice, but it was already too late. He was gone, lost in the crowd, and for a moment she felt that there was no point asking anyone else.
It had been more than a week now since she'd last seen Judy. Looking down at the photo, she felt a fist-sized thud of sorrow in her chest as she saw her sister's smiling face.
“I know you're still alive,” she said out loud, hoping to make herself feel more confident. “I just know it.”
A light breeze hit the photo, causing it to flutter slightly in her hands.
***
“I always hate this part,” Kay said, gripping the hand-rests as the plane continued to taxi toward the runway. “Dumb, right?”
She glanced at Gemma, who was flicking through the in-flight magazine in an attempt to distract herself.
“I'll feel better when we land,” she continued. “Mum's gonna meet me at the airport. We can give you a lift to your place, if you like.”
“Thanks,” Gemma replied, “that'd be -”
Before she could finish, they both heard a bump in the overhead compartment. They b
oth looked up, with a hint of fear in their eyes, before finally turning again to one another.
“I guess we're pretty jumpy, huh?” Kay said with a nervous smile.
“Should we take a look up there?” Gemma asked cautiously.
“We're not allowed to undo our seat-belts,” Kay replied as the plane turned onto the runway. “Hey, come on, let's not be idiots here, okay? Stuff moves around in luggage all the time. This is exactly the sort of jumpy shit we need to avoid now we're trying to get over what happened.”
“I suppose you're right,” Gemma replied, leaning back in her seat and placing the open magazine on her lap. “I just wish they could hurry up and get us in the air. The sooner we leave this fucking island behind, the better. It's been a total nightmare.”
At that moment, the plane's engines began to roar. Kay leaned back as the plane began to move faster along the runway, and she gripped the hand-rests a little tighter as she prepared for the stomach-churning sensation of life-off.
“It's going to be fine,” she said through gritted teeth. “There's no -”
As the plane got faster and faster, however, she suddenly spotted a thin black tendril slipping out from inside an overhead compartment on the other side of the aisle. She told herself that it was just the strap from a bag, but then another tendril appeared, followed by two more from another compartment.
Suddenly she realized she could hear people shouting in the back, and she turned to see that more tendrils were dropping down from compartments all the way along to the plane's rear.
“No,” she whispered, “this can't be happening.”
A fraction of a second later she felt the plane lifting off, leaving the runway and roaring up into the bright, late-afternoon sky.