“Then let's move” said Chris with a renewed determination and sense of purpose.
Chris immediately jumped to the next boulder, but in his haste, he had left Annie behind. Instantly realising his mistake, he spun round to reach out and grab her, but Annie, desperate to be with him, stepped forward, falling victim to the same treacherous conditions they'd just watched the creatures fall to.
She screamed as she fell face first into the wet, cold mud, her weight forcing her feet deep into the bog. John immediately leapt in to help pull her out, but his feet sunk deeply into the ground, the muddy peat enveloping him almost up to his knees.
Heather jumped to his side, pulling him as hard as she could. Slowly she began to drag him out, but almost as soon as he began to move he felt his foot come free of his boot, which was now lost to the depths. Pulling his other leg out, he felt his other boot come off and by the time he was clear his socks had gone too, leaving him just like Heather, completely naked.
Chris reached to pull Annie out, but she had no strength of her own and as she pulled her face out of the mud, her hands became stuck, while her knees had sunk in as well. Heather and John jumped to her side, Heather jumping into the bog herself beside a boulder and reaching out to her hands to pull them out.
Annie screamed as her hands were pulled out, terrified and confused by all that was around her. She reached her hands out to Chris, who grabbed them and pulled on her. Heather grabbed her by the waist and with a combined heave they pulled her out. Heather, overbalanced by Annie's sudden release, fell forward, splashing black water everywhere. Grasping the boulder beside her, she pulled herself out almost instantly and jumped up onto hard ground beside the shivering, terrified Annie.
“Let's move!” shouted John as he jumped awkwardly in his bare feet across the rocks.
“Shit!” said Heather as she turned. There were several dozen creatures still alive and stuck in the bog, some on their hands and knees, some just stuck by their feet, but six of them had found their way safely across the gap. They were barely a few metres away, and would be upon them in seconds. They all knew that they would have to move quickly if they were to avoid a fight.
“Chris, move, right now” shouted Heather, pointing to a rock outcrop a few feet from him. He quickly jumped to it and as Annie stepped towards him into the bog again, Heather grabbed her by the waist and jumped the gap with her. Chris grabbed Annie, who threw her arms round him as John leapt over next, wincing at the sharp rock underfoot.
“This way” said Heather, pointing at the bare rock that ran for about twenty metres before sinking into the bog again. All four moved quickly across it, the creatures just seconds behind them.
“This'll get them” said Heather as they saw the terrain past the outcrop. The bog had become wetter as they approached the loch beyond it, and the boundary between bog and loch was gradual, as the water soaked the surrounding landscape. Now it was almost indistinguishable from the loch, with mats of floating moss between the boulders. One wrong move would leave you stuck, and even Heather had to watch her step on it.
“Follow me very carefully” Heather said to the group. “Step only where I step, do only what I do. Do that and in a hundred metres we'll be safe from them.”
Chris and John nodded as Heather took her first step, but without warning the most unnatural sound could be heard, seemingly from nowhere. It shattered the serenity of the mountainside, destroying all sense of naturalness and isolation. The creature's heads all snapped up as they sensed food, their urges for Annie instantly forgotten for more urgent needs.
Then with a sickening sense of dread the group realised what it was. A mobile phone was ringing in Chris's rucksack.
Chapter 26
“Fuck it” said Chris, his heart sinking as terror rose within him. He turned to see all six creatures staring at him, and as he stepped back, they leapt forward, each one hungry for his flesh.
Heather was the first to react, grabbing her knife and throwing herself at the closest one. The creature was too fast for her though, and it was past her before she could reach it She spun on the spot and lunged at it from behind, slicing its hamstring with her knife. It crumpled to the ground, carried forward by its momentum and Heather jumped on its back, driving the knife hard into the back of its skull. But the sheer force of the thrust left the knife stuck fast in its skull, leaving Heather without a weapon.
John moved quickly as well, throwing himself at the closest creature, sending them both tumbling towards the bog. As they fell, John stumbled in a crack in the rock, trapping his foot, and he felt the harsh, painful crunch as the bones in his ankle snapped. He fell to the ground, screaming in pain as his ribs were smashed against the rock he landed on. The creature landed on its back and rolled off, down into the bog, disappearing into it so that just its arms and legs, all flailing wildly, remained above the surface.
The four remaining creatures continued their lunge towards Chris, but he dived sideways, pushing Annie in the opposite direction and out of their way. As the creatures turned towards him, he threw a rock at the closest, striking it on the head, and sending it tumbling to the ground, where it lay, motionless.
A loud scream from Annie suddenly shocked everyone as her most basic primal instincts kicked in at the threat to her mate. She leapt on the back of one of the remaining creatures, wrapping her arm around its neck and clutching its face, looking for its eyes with her free hand. Finding one, she plunged her index finger straight into the creature's eye, and they both fell to the ground, the creature screaming as she gouged out its other eye, blinding it.
Chris let the rucksack drop from his back, hoping the last two creatures would be distracted, but they were focussed on him now, and they would not turn from hunting him, not after being so close. Instead the two creatures eyed him up, their mouths salivating at the prospect of such a feast, the likes of which they had not had in a long time.
Their focus on Chris was their downfall. Heather, now back on her feet, had grabbed the biggest rock she could find, and brought it down hard on the skull of one of the creatures. It crumpled to the ground, its skull shattered by the blow. At the same instant Chris had thrown a punch at the last remaining creature, knocking it to the ground. Both he and Heather jumped on it, pinning it down while Heather delivered another killing blow with a rock.
Annie, still oblivious to the unnatural, muffled music coming from the rucksack, began to pound the blinded creature's head against the rock, smashing its skull open and killing it. Even as its brains spilled out across the ground, she continued smashing it, pounding it time and time again until there was nothing left to hold onto. Then, to the horror of Heather and Chris, she picked up the chunks of brain that she had dashed onto the rocks and began to eat them, smiling the smile of an innocent child at Chris, while blood and brain matter dribbled down her chin.
“John!” cried Heather as she began looking around frantically for him.
“Here!” he shouted back as he pulled himself back onto the rock. Heather ran to help him, seeing the now still arms and legs of the creature he had dispatched still protruding from the bog behind him.
“Are you okay?” she asked, frantically searching his body for bites, “did it get you?”
“No, it's okay” he replied, “I landed badly, I broke my ankle.”
Heather looked at his ankle worryingly. It was badly bent out of shape, with a splintered end of bone sticking out through the skin.
“Is there any way you can stand upright?” she continued, “we can't stay here.”
“No chance” he said, shaking with the pain.
“Then I'll have to carry you” said Heather.
“No” he replied, “I think I smashed a few ribs. I'm not going anywhere.”
Chris meanwhile was watching Annie in a state of shock. She was feasting on the dead creature's brains, its blood dripping down over her body. All the time she did this, she had a huge, vacant smile on her face.
“She's gone” h
e said, quietly, to no one in particular. “I've lost her.”
He looked across at the scene of carnage around him, and noticed a knife. It was Heather's knife, embedded in the skull of one of the creatures. He looked at Annie again, and tears began to roll down his cheeks.
He knew that she had to die. He couldn't leave her like this, less than human, less even than dead. Her ghostly half-life had to be ended, she would never be anything but a danger to everyone around her.
Chris stepped forward and took the knife in his hand. He pulled at it, but it wouldn't budge. He put his foot on the skull and pulled the knife as hard as he could, and with a few wiggles, the knife came free.
He looked at Annie again. Her back was to him. He knew she wouldn't feel a thing. Stepping over the creature he'd struck with the rock, he stood behind her and raised the knife.
Heather, seeing what he was doing, screamed at him, and Chris turned, distracted by her.
“I have to do it, I have to free her!” he shouted.
But Heather wasn't shouting about Annie. Heather had seen the creature at his feet moving.
“Its alive!” she screamed at the top of her voice.
“No she isn't” Chris replied, thinking she meant Annie, “she's gone.”
Before Heather could do anything else, the creature raised its head, and the first thing it saw at this low height was the unnatural, clothed foot of Chris. It reached out, grabbing his foot and biting into his ankle through the sock, its teeth tearing through his flesh to the bone.
“NOOOOOO!” screamed Heather, who watched in horror as Chris fell to the ground, blood pouring from his ankle.
Before she could react it was Annie, dependable to the end, who came to his rescue. Before the creature could get up she smashed its head with a rock, killing it instantly. Again, she just smiled.
Heather ran to Chris's side, as John hobbled along behind her, clutching his painful ribs.
“Help me,” said Chris, “please, help me.”
Heather took his hand in hers and held it tightly. As Chris shook with the blinding pain in his foot, she gently wiped the dirt and blood soaked hair from his brow, holding him in her arms like a baby.
“I'm sorry” she said in her soft, calming voice. “But I can help you. I can help you and Annie.”
“How?” he asked between heavy, slow breaths.
“Do you still want to be with her?” Heather asked.
“More than ever.” he replied. “I just want her, whatever's left of her.”
“Do you trust me?” she asked.
“Yes. Always” he replied.
“Do you see that island over there, in the loch?” Heather said, gesturing to his right hand side.
Chris turned to the right and saw in the loch an island, barely more than 20 metres across, covered with trees. He smiled and nodded at the realisation of what she meant.
“I need you to be strong, just for a little while longer” continued Heather. “Can you do that?”
Chris just nodded again, knowing now that every minute could be his last.
Heather lay him back on the ground and looked back at the creatures that had fallen in the bog. It seemed that every one had drowned in the shallow water, their primitive minds unable to figure out how to save themselves from such a simple hazard.
“I need you to wait here for me” she said to John.
“Why?” replied John. “What are you planning to do?”
“In a few hours, Chris'll be one of them” she replied. “I need to get him to a safe place, a place where he and Annie can be alone.”
John looked up and the island, understanding what she was planning.
“What do you want me to do?” he asked.
“Wait here” she replied. “You can't help, not with these injuries. I'm a strong swimmer, I'll be quick, less than an hour.”
She knelt down beside John, and looked up at his face.
“I love you” she said. “I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want your children.”
“I love you too” replied John as tears flowed down both their cheeks.
Heather hugged him on his uninjured side and kissed him, their lips lingering for a few seconds on each other before they broke away. She stood up and helped Chris to his feet and they turned to walk towards the water.
“Come on Annie” said Heather in a soft voice she remember her mother using on her many years before, “Time to go to your new home.”
Annie stood up and followed as Heather helped Chris down to the water's edge. John watched them leave, the empty remnants of his old best friends, and the beautiful image of his new lover. He watched as they moved down into the water, down below the rocks and out of sight. Now they were gone and John was left to shiver in the rain, naked and alone in the wilderness, as far removed as he could be from any concept of reality he had ever known.
Chapter 27
Heather couldn't sit still. The summer dress she was wearing was irritating her, making every inch of her skin itch like crazy. She wasn't used to clothes, but since what everyone now referred to as “the incident” a little over a year ago, she found herself having to wear the damn things a lot more.
She was sick of the sight of this office. She'd lost count of the number of times she'd been here, for questioning, for reporting, and for signing documents promising her silence. Now she was signing one for the last time.
“This department owes you both a huge debt of gratitude” said the government minister as he sat behind his desk.
Heather glanced at John who was sitting beside her. He could sense her irritation at the clothes. He knew he'd have to do his best to end the meeting before she got too grumpy, especially in her condition.
“Both of you were of immense help,” the minister continued “both in exposing this shameful operation, which as you know, was not sanctioned by the government, and for your assistance with the recovery operation.”
“Do you have any final numbers yet?” asked John.
“We think about two hundred people were infected in total, judging by the records we examined, and the bodies we found. It would seem most of the victims were either drowned in the loch or were trapped on the island. We don't know the exact numbers, many will have been eaten or their remains lost. Those survivors are being looked after properly though.”
“What's being done to help them?” asked Heather. “Is a cure being researched?”
“Yes, we're doing all we can, but the prognosis isn't good. The virus leaves the victims heavily brain damaged”
“So is that it? Is the matter resolved?”
“Yes, it is” the minister replied. “And is your offer from the university acceptable?” The government had paid a university to fund Heather's own research. She'd get to do what she did already, only with generous funding. They were buying her silence and she knew it.
“You mean my bribe?” The minister's smile faded somewhat as she said it. “Yes, it's acceptable” she finished, with a hint of sadness in her voice.
“I know we count on you to keep up the cover story” he replied. The government had claimed that the biological agent of the original cover story on Taibhseil Island had infected the mainland, and the government had shut down and cordoned off the area where the attacks took place. There had been a massive international scandal, but the truth would have been far more damaging.
Heather no longer cared about it. She'd lost her friends and family to this hellish nightmare, but all she wanted to do was forget it. If she spoke out, it'd never go away, it'd haunt her for the rest of her life, and she had a chance now for a fresh start.
“Does this mean we're finished here?” John asked.
“Yes” replied the minister. “You've done all you can for us. Go home and get on with your lives now.”
“With pleasure” said John, standing up.
“Oh, one other thing” said the minister.
“What's that?” asked John, sighing with an impending sense of wear
iness borne by all his dealings with this man.
“Oh, it's nothing” said the minister, his usual serious face breaking into a slight smile. “I just wanted to offer my congratulations to you both.” He nodded his head in the direction of Heather, and John knew exactly what he meant.
“You noticed?” said John.
“Its getting difficult not to” he replied.
“Thank you” said Heather, smiling and holding her hand against the bump on her stomach.
“When's it due?” the minister asked.
“Another four months” she replied.
“I wish you both all the best” said the minister, their final parting words being the most sincere he'd ever spoken to them.
Naturist, Red in Tooth & Claw Page 17