Whatever was making people crazy had gotten into her; probably when her husband bit her. Was that how it transmitted from person to person? Bites?
Nick was confused as to whether the sick people needed help or if they were completely beyond it. Each time he’d tried to assist anyone they ended up attacking him. Even Deana had seemingly wanted him dead. James too. It hurt too much to even think about right now.
Nick stepped carefully as he approached his car. He could see that Lara was still inside and mobile. She was hanging out of the driver’s side door, the same way he had before leaping clear. The airbags were deployed and squashed her torso up against the seat. She was scrabbling at the gravel and reaching towards Nick with a hungry expression, but it didn’t seem like she was going anywhere.
Once he got closer, Nick could see what was keeping Lara inside the car. Her legs were tangled in the seatbelt. The more she tried to crawl away, the tighter the strap became around her ankles. She wasn’t going anywhere. Still, Nick trod carefully, steering clear of her clawing fingernails and bloody jaws. Before he was totally away from the wreckage, he examined his injured neighbour closely. He wasn’t sure why he asked the question, “Can you hear me, Lara?” followed by, “Are you okay?” because both answers were obvious.
Of course Lara gave no response. She just kept on trying to get at him like a rabid fox. Nick shook his head, wishing he could understand what was happening; wishing he could do something about it, but he had no choice but to leave his concerns behind for the moment. His primary focus right now was finding somewhere safe.
The garden centre looked deserted, but there were a couple of cars in its pebbled car park, which made Nick hopeful. He climbed the nearby embankment and crossed over onto the pebbled parking area, heading for the main entrance up ahead. He was surprised when the glass doors slid open for him. Considering the early hour – 7:15 according to his watch – Nick had assumed the place would be closed.
The first part of the garden centre consisted of indoor planting, incense burners, and greeting cards. Nick almost jumped out of his skin when he brushed past a set of tinkling aluminium pipes, but got a hold on himself when he realised it was just a wind chime. The smell inside the building was one of musky perfumes mixed with soil and plants. In contrast to the many heady odours, his ears detected nothing except the diminishing clinks of the wind chime.
“Hello,” Nick called out. “Hello, is anybody here?” Someone must be there, considering the automatic doors had allowed him access.
An alcove lay ahead, with an overhead banner reading: AQUARIUM. The space was full of wall-to-wall fish tanks, all of them glowing with soft blue light. The smell in the room was musky.
Nick spotted the girl in the corner peeking out from a storage closet and jumped out of his skin. She yelped and yanked the closet door closed with her inside.
“Hey,” Nick shouted after her. “You frightened the life of me, there. I need help. I’ve been in an accident.”
The girl said nothing. The closet remained closed.
“Please. I’ve been through hell this morning. I just need some help.”
“Go away!”
Nick frowned. “Why won’t you come out?”
“Go away,” the girl repeated, “before they hear you.”
“Before who hears me?”
“The owners. They’ve gone…mad.”
Nick swallowed. Oh no, not here as well.
“There’s no one around,” he said, more in hope than anything else. “They’ve gone. You can come out.”
“No. They’re out there somewhere and I’m not coming out. No way.”
Nick contemplated yanking the girl from the cupboard, but decided that would be counterproductive. It was no way to make a friend. His only option was to try to reason with her.
The sound of raspy breathing.
Nick sensed a presence behind him, but before he had chance to turn around, someone pummelled him in the spine and sent him reeling forwards onto his hands and knees.
Nick twisted around and saw a hunched-over old man in an olive-coloured cardigan. Flakes of scalp and grey dandruff covered the woollen garment. He wore the same insane, animalistic expression of the other sick people Nick had seen.
Nick scampered back just in time to dodge an attack from the old man. He hopped to his feet and ran to the corner of the aquarium, searching for an escape. But there was none.
Nick found himself cornered.
The old man approached, like a lion stalking a baby gazelle.
With nowhere to run and no other choice, Nick met the old man’s charge head on, grabbing a fistful of grimy cardigan and using his attacker’s momentum as a weapon. He twisted sideways, threw out his arms and flung the old man headfirst into the fish tanks.
Water exploded and flooded the ground.
The old man’s head had impacted with a tank full of neon tetras and was now lodged between the jagged edges of the broken glass. The jutting shards tore at the wrinkled flesh around his neck and any attempt to get free only opened the wound up wider.
Nick staggered away, dizzy and confused.
Blood mixed with the remaining water at the bottom of the broken fish tanks as the old man continued squirming; the gash on his neck opened up further, eventually spouting thick arterial blood. His sandaled feet twitched a few moments then went still.
Nick slumped to the floor, breathing heavily. The urge to scream was growing. He just wanted it all to stop.
“What’s happening? What’s going on out there?”
Nick looked towards the closed closet. “I think I just met the owner. I don’t recommend his customer service. Are you going to come out now?”
“No.”
“Stop hiding like a child. You need to get a grip. Come on,” he said. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
Slowly the closet door creaked open and the girl peered out at him. “First sign of danger,” she said, “and I’m back in the closet.”
Nick nodded wearily and tried to smile. The girl was just a teenager, maybe early twenties. She was a dark-featured, big brown eyes full of trepidation and fear. She eyed Nick with suspicion and with an expression that suggested her morning hadn’t been much better than his.
“What happened here?” Nick asked her.
“I’m still waiting for someone to tell me. I got here early because Mr Curtis wanted to set up a new display, but when I got here the place was deserted. I went round back to the cottage – that’s where Mr Curtis and his wife live – and I found the front door wide open. Next thing I know, Mr Curtis and his wife are running at me like lunatics, trying to bite me. I ran back into the store, but I didn’t know what to do so I ended up hiding in the closet. That’s when you came along.” She looked down at Mr Curtis’s body, his head still trapped inside the fish tank. “I don’t get it,” she said. “He was so nice. I don’t know why he would suddenly want to hurt me.”
“It’s not just him,” Nick explained. “People have been losing their shit all over town. My wife…my son.” He didn’t want to think about James, so he turned his mind to something proactive. “We should try to get some help. Do you have a phone here? Or Internet access?”
The girl nodded. “Yeah, we have both in the office, but there’s a problem.”
“What?”
The girl nodded toward Mr Curtis. “Well, I’m looking at Mr Curtis, but where’s his Mrs Curtis?”
As if to punctuate her point, a far-off crash caused them both to look towards the aquarium’s exit.
“Close by, would be my guess,” Nick said. The young girl started back towards the cupboard, but he grabbed her arm. “Hey, you’re not going back into hiding. We need to deal with this.”
“You deal with it. I’m going to sit down on the vacuum cleaner with the door closed.”
“And then what? Stay there till it gets dark?”
The girl sighed and shook her head resignedly. “Fine, but can we at least get something to defend ourselves w
ith?”
Nick nodded. “Sounds good to me.”
***
They found what they needed in the storage closet. Nick removed the head from a broom handle and the girl found herself a hammer.
“What’s your name, by the way?”
“Eve.”
“Nice to meet you, Eve. My name is Nick.”
“What’s with your face?”
Nick suddenly remembered his bad graze and fingered it tenderly. “I had a car accident. Hurts like hell. My insurance is going to go up.” He chuckled, not sure why he was thinking of such insignificant things.
Eve grunted. “Can we just get this over with?”
“Sure thing.”
They headed out of the aquarium and into the main store. “What’s through that archway?” Nick asked, pointing clear across the store.
“The café and checkouts. The office is near there.”
“Then that’s where we’re heading.”
Nick crept forwards, broom handle raised over his shoulder like a baseball bat. The area ahead was cloaked in shadow, lit only by the weak morning sunshine filtering in through the skylights. Through the archway and to the left was a cosy tearoom. To his immediate right was the store’s checkout area. The STAFF ONLY door to the office was right behind.
He looked back at Eve and raised an eyebrow in concern. “Be careful,” he told her. “Mrs Curtis could be hiding anywhere. These sick people have a habit of blindsiding you.”
Eve didn’t reply, but hung back and kept her distance.
The cash-tills were set into a booth with two long desks about four feet high. Behind the tills was the store’s exit, leading back out to the parking lot.
“Hello,” Nick said in a raised voice, deciding it would be better to alert Mrs Curtis and see her coming than to have her sneak up on them. “Mrs Curtis, are you here?”
“What are you doing, dumbass?” Eve hissed.
“Trying to flush her out. Better than her getting the drop on us.”
Sure enough, Nick’s calls were met by the sounds of someone shuffling behind the tills. A bloody hand clung to the surface of one of the desks.
“There!” Eve said. “There’s someone over there.
Like a cat, Mrs Curtis sprang from behind the tills and landed on the counter, staring right at them. A stringy ribbon of flesh hung from her lower jaw.
“She always this friendly?” Nick asked.
“No,” Eve said. “That’s not Mrs Curtis.”
“Then who the hell is it?”
“I have no fucking idea.”
A hungry growl spun them both around. An old lady in a frilly blue dress glared at them from inside the café, face pressed up against the glass.
“Now that’s Mrs Curtis,” Eve said.
Mrs Curtis threw herself through the glass window of the café and rose to her feet on the other side, glittering shards covering her like confetti.
Nick and Eve were flanked from both sides.
“Run,” Nick shouted, dropping the broom handle when he realised its uselessness. Eve hurried after him. They ran back into the main shopping area where Nick clattered into a chiminea. He only just managed to keep his balance.
As they reached the entrance’s automatic sliding door, they quickly realised they were on the wrong side of the sensors and it wasn’t going to open from inside the building.
“Damn it,” Nick shouted.
The two crazed women clattered towards them, smashing apart everything in their path.
Eve pointed. “This way.”
She dragged him by one of his coat cuffs and got him moving deeper into the store. Up ahead, she skidded to a halt. Nick almost slammed right into the back of her.
“What the hell are you doing?” Nick looked back over his shoulders at their pursuers. The only thing keeping them away was their clumsiness and staggered movement. “We need to move.”
“Look!” Eve pointed.
Nick’s jaw fell open.
Mr Curtis was back on his feet. The old man’s neck wound was so deep that his head now hung to one side. He moaned at them hungrily, crept towards them with shuffling feet.
Nick took a step back. “There’s no way he could still be alive.”
“I don’t think he is.”
Nick didn’t have time to ask what Eve meant. Mrs Curtis came crashing through a colourful display of hydrangeas and barrelled right into Eve, who immediately screamed and tried to escape.
Nick was just about to help her when the other crazed woman fell upon him. She grabbed for his throat, just the way Deana had only hours ago. This time Nick was ready. He took the brakes off his inhibitions and threw a solid punch. He felt a crack as the woman’s bony nose turned sideways. As she staggered back, Nick reared up and aimed a massive kick to her knee. There was a crunching snap and the woman collapsed to the floor.
“Help me,” Eve screamed.
Nick’s path to Eve was blocked by Mr Curtis, who had finally made it over. He was much slower than his wife, frail and lethargic, so much so that Nick was able to step right around him and rugby-tackle Mrs Curtis just as the old lady was about to have a chomp on Eve’s neck. Eve fell free and Nick and Mrs Curtis went down to the floor.
Nick was straight back up and running, shouting for Eve to get after him. They made it all the way to the far end of the garden centre before a heavy glass door marked FIRE EXIT stopped them. Eve didn’t let it deter her and threw herself against the push-bar, shoving the door open and stumbling out into the car park. Nick followed and, together, they put their backs against the other side of the door and started shoving it closed. It was a typical fire door, built to close slowly and not cause a draft.
Nick felt himself going red in the face as he strained. Come on, come on. Close goddamnit!
Mrs Curtis threw herself against the other side. Nick and Eve both yelled out, startled by the sudden and unexpected strength of the old woman.
Eve moaned. “How is she so strong? Mrs Curtis is almost eighty.”
“I…don’t…know,” Nick pushed as hard as he could, “but we need to get this door closed, right…sodding…now. Look!”
A man stumbled in their direction, all bloody and broken. His head craned when he spotted them and he let out a moan, before heading towards them across the crunching pea gravel of the car park.
“I’m slipping,” Eve cried out. “I can’t hold it much longer.”
“I can’t either,” Nick admitted. “We’re going to have to make a run for it. After three, you ready?”
“No.”
“Okay. One…two…”
“…three!”
Nick and Eve made a mad dash across the car park, gravel flying up behind them as they sprinted like their lives were on the line. They cut a wide arc around the bloody man ambling in front of them and headed for the road. There was a chance Lara might have got free and was now lying in wait somewhere up ahead, but that would also mean it would be safe to get back inside Nick’s car and drive the hell out of there. However, as Nick leapt down the embankment, he saw that Lara was still tangled up in the seatbelts and was going nowhere. The car was a no go.
“Where do we go?” Eve said.
Nick gritted his teeth, looked around. Then said, “Anywhere but here.”
Eve pointed to a sharp bend in the road up ahead. “Maybe we can lose them around there!”
Mrs Curtis was now hunting around the car park, sniffing the air like a wolf; but so far she seemed unable to locate Nick and Eve’s location at the foot of the embankment.
“Okay,” Nick said. “Let’s move.”
They pounded the road, heading for the sharp bend. Nick’s breaths were ragged and painful, but there was no other choice but to keep on running.
Just as Nick thought they might make it, a piercing screech filled the air, coming from the direction of the car park. They’d been spotted.
Eve’s eyes went wide. “Mrs Curtis is coming.”
“I know. Just keep r
unni—”
There was a noise. Right behind them.
A rumbling.
A screeching.
Nick spun around and managed to dive aside just in time to avoid getting hit by the skidding bus. Eve hit the dirt right beside him, their faces both buried in the dirt. There was a stretched-out moment where it seemed like death would descend upon on them any second, but it eventually passed, leaving behind nothing but a tense silence.
Nick lifted his face up out of the dirt.
The bus had come to a stop, its bulky rear tyres resting less than a metre from Nick’s outstretched legs.
The vehicle’s pneumatic doors hissed open.
“Get in!” screamed the driver.
Chapter Five
Nick helped Eve onto the bus then flung himself in after her. He sighed with relief when the doors hissed shut behind him.
The bus rattled and groaned, then got moving with a jolt. Nick and Eve stumbled into the aisle. Eve staggered to the nearest seat, clutching her chest as she tried to catch her breath.
Nick grabbed a rail and stayed where he was, noticing the other people on the bus. He nodded at them all politely, but then turned away to face his saviour: the bus driver.
If the man hadn’t come along when he did…
The man behind the wheel was rotund, with thinning black hair that was grey at the sides. Both of his narrow, unblinking eyes were glued to the road with intense focus.
“There’s a car wreck up ahead,” Nick warned him.
The driver nodded and slowed up a little.
Mrs Curtis ran towards the bus, racing down the centre of the road like she was a bull charging a flag.
The driver shot Nick a quick glance. “Friends of yours?”
“More like acquaintance. She’s one of them.”
The driver narrowed his eyes and concentrated on the road. For a moment it looked like he intended to run Mrs Curtis down, but at the last minute he swerved and went round her.
“I’m Dave, by the way,” the driver told him, once they were safely back on the main roads.
“Good to meet you, Dave. I’m Nick, and the girl with me is Eve. What made you pick us up?”
The BIG Horror Pack 2 Page 4