The BIG Horror Pack 2

by Iain Rob Wright

  Boss growled. “The fool.”

  “He’s the one being hunted,” Lexi said. “He just doesn’t know it yet.”

  Miller started heading towards them. It was impossible to make out his expression from so far away, but from the way he moved he looked angry. Perhaps he didn’t like having his name shouted.

  There was a flash of movement at the very beginning of the canyon, about a dozen metres behind Miller. He had his back to the movement, but Lexi saw it clearly. Someone had flitted past the far entrance to the canyon, moving in and out of view rapidly.

  “Miller, run!” she shouted.

  But it was too late.

  Bodies funnelled into the canyon behind Miller, bunched so close together that they almost moved like liquid; men and women scurrying over one another as they advanced rapidly down the enclosed canyon. Their clothes were torn rags. Many of them were half-naked. They were not friendly. They were like the woman who had attacked Lexi on top of the Helter-skelter. Dead people.

  Miller finally heard the stampede behind him and spun around. He threw himself backwards on his heels in shock and quickly brought up his rifle and fired. The sound of the rifle clacking echoed of the canyon walls like thunder and the stream of ball bearings shredded through the bodies like a water jet through leaves, tearing off limbs and disintegrating bone.

  But the horde kept on coming.

  The torn, bleeding bodies were unstoppable, surging forward like a single organism until they enveloped Miller. His rifle pointed into the sky and continued firing but within a second he was gone, replaced by swarming bodies.

  “Get your arses moving,” Boss yelled.

  Nobody needed asking twice. They turned tail and ran for their lives. The sound of chaos bore down on them, a thousand rabid footsteps echoing off the canyon walls. They were halfway inside the narrow chasm. Trapped. They could head only in one direction, towards the entrance they came from, which meant they were in a life or death sprint with a horde of monsters at their backs.

  Lexi was no runner and started falling behind. Gellar looked back and noticed her flagging; then did a crazy thing and stopped. She raised her rifle and started taking shots.

  “Gellar, move,” Lexi shouted at her.

  “You keep on. I’ll buy us a few yards.” She carried on firing, even as Lexi raced right by her.

  Lexi doubled down and caught up with the others. Her father glanced sideways, reached out and grabbed her shoulder. “Come on,” he said, “you can’t help her now.”

  They shot out of the canyon like bullets from a gun and lost their bearings as they suddenly found themselves back in the open. They stumbled around, looking for a place to go.

  Hopper threw out an arm. “This way.”

  They ran towards the giant log flume. It was built on top of a fake mountain range and Hopper was the first to grab a handhold and start pulling himself up. “Start climbing,” he shouted down to them.

  The horde spilled out of the canyon like pus from a wound, squirting in all directions. Lexi leapt at the fake mountain and started clawing her way upwards. Her fingers ached within seconds but she ignored the pain and kept pulling herself upwards. At one point she dared looked down and saw that the horde of dead men and women were swarming beneath her feet like ravenous piranhas. But they didn’t climb after her. They leapt and snatched, but seemed unable to grasp the rock with any sort of timing.

  The top of the fake mountain was a good fifty feet in the air, and Lexi was the last to reach it. By the time she dragged herself up onto the ledge, Trent, Hopper, and Boss were already waiting for her and helped pull her up. Sweat poured from them all.

  “That was frikkin’ crazy,” Hopper said.

  Lexi slumped down onto her knees and tried to catch her breath. Boss knelt down beside her and patted her back. “We’re safe,” he assured her. “They didn’t climb up after us.”

  “G-Gellar.” she said.

  Boss exhaled. “If she isn’t here now, I don’t think she’s coming.”

  “She stayed behind to buy us time.”

  Hopped growled. “Damn Americans, always so brave. It makes me sick. Miller stood his ground, too, when he should have run like a screaming child.”

  Trent stared down at the rocks beneath his feet. “Damn, Gellar’s really dead. I think she had the hots for me.”

  “I…do…not!”

  Everyone looked around to see a hand gripping the top of the rocks. Hopper rushed over to help Gellar up onto the platform and seemed ecstatic to see her alive. She was bleeding from a wound on her neck, but seemed like she would be okay. She was out of breath, but quickly marched up to Trent and pointed her finger in his face. “Believe me, you’re not my type. Tell you the truth, the only one who even comes close is Lexi.”

  Trent frowned, then opened his mouth. “Oh….”

  Lexi blushed, but overcame it by going over and giving the woman a hug. “You brave fool. Thank you.”

  “Hey, until we get off this godforsaken tourist trap, we’re all teammates. I lost my rifle. Those people are savages. They swarmed Miller like… I don’t know what. And one of them bit me right on the neck.”

  “I don’t think they’re people anymore,” Lexi said. “One tried to bite me, too, on the helter-skelter. The woman’s stomach was all torn out, and I think she was…dead.”

  Hopper put his hands to his face. “Great! Frikkin’ space zombies. Are you kidding me?”

  “What are you talking about?” Boss said impatiently.

  Hopper removed his hands from his face. “Er…space zombies? Dead people walking around in space. What would you call them?”

  Boss suddenly seemed unsure of himself. “I don’t know, but certainly not space zombies.”

  “Let’s just call them dead people, for now,” Lexi said.

  Hopper nodded. “Fair enough. So we know what happened to the guests now, but we don’t know why. How do we avoid being eaten and get our arses home?”

  “The plan still stands,” Boss said. “We get to the comms centre. We radio Earth and get a team here. If we can manage to remove whatever jam has been targeted at our ship, we may be able to evacuate.”

  Trent was shaking his head and looked anxious. “So, after getting ourselves all the way to the comms centre, we then get to turn right back around and head all the way back?”

  Hopper ran a hand through his hair. “Hoping all the way that the crazy guy in the video doesn’t just reactivate the jam while we’re on our way back to the Hermes.”

  “We need to kill him,” Gellar said. “If we have any chance of getting out of here in the Hermes, we need to take out the madman who sabotaged it.”

  There was a brief silence, before Boss admitted, “You’re right, but we have no weapons and no clue where he is. We’ll just have to hope for the best while preparing for the worst.”

  “How do we get down from here?” Lexi asked. The platform they were on was a lonely plateau beside the ride’s log flume. About fifty-feet ahead, the river suddenly dropped over a crest and plunged towards the ground where the…dead people...would be waiting.

  “We’re safe up high,” Trent said. “We should stay up here.”

  “We can’t live on top of a fake mountain forever,” Hopper said. “We’re not gnomes.”

  “Help will come,” he said, although in no way confidently.

  Boss grunted. “Perhaps, but how long are we willing to wait? There may be survivors here that need our help. We have a duty.”

  “I’m just a technician,” Trent blabbered. “It’s not my job to rescue people.”

  Lexi shook her head at the coward. He’d been little different back at the academy. She remembered once how he had refused to jump from the high dive above the swimming pool during the first stages of their pilot training. It had taken him a month longer than everybody else to finally take the plunge, and he had almost failed. “No, you’re right,” she said. “It’s not your job to rescue people. It should just be a part of you being a
human being. You’re talking about waiting for people to come and rescue us, but what about the people waiting for us to rescue them?”

  Trent said nothing. He just looked over the edge of the fake mountain, with a face that looked like it was going to vomit.

  “Guess we take the river then?” Hopper said and, without saying another word, he stepped over the edge and plunged into the calmly moving water. He dove forwards and went beneath the surface, rising a second later, shuddering. The water only went as high as the bottom of his chest. “Least it ain’t deep,” he said.

  Boss looked down at Hopper and sighed. “Do you ever think things through?”

  “I prefer to get things done. Come on, there’s no other way, so get it over with. The water’s fine.”

  Lexi shrugged and hopped over the edge, landing in the water beside Hopper. The others followed quickly and, before long, they were all wading along the river. The Forbidden zone lay beyond Asteroid Falls and that was where they were headed. They needed to get there quickly, before anything else tried to kill them.

  Chapter Seven

  They came to a stop when they reached the log flume’s lift-hill. The water stopped to give way to a pair of winch chains that ran along a steel track. At the bottom was the ride’s queue hut. The small shack looked empty and Lexi prayed that it was. The horde from the canyon had lost sight of them atop the fake mountain and it seemed like they might have managed to sneak away.

  Lexi and the others dragged themselves out of the water and onto the metal catwalk that ran down alongside the lift-hill. Lexi had to help Gellar, since the American had begun to favour her left side since becoming wounded.

  “You okay?” Lexi asked her.

  “Yeah, just haven’t got a lot left in the tank.” She admitted it with a smile.

  “Everyone, keep a low profile,” Boss said.

  They each stooped down and began creeping down the hill towards the shack. They flinched when they entered the small building, but gave a collective sigh of relief when they realised that the massive monster coming through the wall wasn’t real, just a prop. The giant sandworm, with rows upon rows of teeth, was just part of the ride theming. It had a horn on its head the size of a golf club.

  “Looks like my grandmother,” Hopper said as they passed by it.

  Lexi wondered how Hopper could stay so upbeat and keep cracking jokes. Either he wasn’t afraid or he didn’t understand the seriousness of the situation. A third option was that he didn’t care about dying.

  Boss headed over to the exit and poked his head around the edge of the doorway, but pulled back immediately. “There’s one of them out there,” he whispered

  “Just one?” Lexi whispered back.

  Boss nodded. “Looks like.”

  “They don’t make any sound,” Gellar said. “If we take it out, we should be able to move on by.”

  Lexi frowned. “If we take it out? Should we really refer to them as it?”

  Gellar shrugged. “Call ‘em what you like. All I see is an obstacle that needs dealing with.”

  “I’ll do it,” Hopper said. He pulled a short dagger from a sheath on his belt.

  Lexi was surprised. “You carry a knife?”

  “A pilot never knows when he’s going to encounter space pirates. Knife comes in handy.”

  Gellar huffed. “You think a knife is going to keep you safe from pirates?”

  “It ain’t for them.”

  Boss sighed. “I don’t see another way, so if you want to volunteer then so be it. Just come back in one piece.”

  Hopper nodded and headed out the shack. He held the knife out in front of him and looked like he knew how to use it. Lexi wondered if the blade had ever seen use before. The rest of them huddled in the doorway. Lexi was ready to rush out and help the second things went bad, but she silently prayed that they wouldn’t.

  Hopper’s target was a middle-aged man in bloodstained shorts and a Fast and Furious 27 t-shirt. He also wore a torn, plastic poncho with the words Kopper Kanyon Escape printed on it.

  Hopper stayed low, kept himself behind the dead tourist, and managed to get right up behind without being spotted. He rose slowly, bringing up his knife…

  …

  He seized the man around the neck from behind and plunged the knife into his heart. Then he pulled it free and stabbed again. And Again.

  But the dead man did not die. He thrashed and kicked, tried to bite at Hopper’s forearm that was wrapped around his throat. Hopper kept stabbing, making a mess out of the man’s torso, but the wounds were having no effect. The dead man kept on fighting.

  Lexi saw the panic in Hopper’s eyes as he struggled to hold on. Beside her, Trent was hissing. “That stupid idiot. The only way to kill a zombie is by attacking the head.”

  Lexi turned to him. “What?”

  “The head! You have to attack the head and destroy the brain. Nothing walks around without a brain, not even a dead man.”

  Lexi looked around for a solution and thought she spotted one back where they’d come from. She ran over and seized the horn on top of the giant sandworm’s head and pulled with all her strength. The thing was made of steel, but the sandworm’s head was fibreglass. It creaked and moaned as she worked to get the horn free and, when she began bashing at it with her fist, it eventually began to lean.

  The steel rod broke free.

  Lexi sprinted back to the exit, where she now found her father trying in vain to help Hopper. The two of them each held one of the struggling dead man’s arms. If he made a noise, he could attract more of his kin, but fortunately he remained silent, even as he thrashed and battled to get free.

  Lexi held the steel rod out in front of her like she was going to use it for pole-vaulting, but as she closed in on the dead tourist, she raised it over her shoulder and thrust it towards his face. The spike slid in through the eye-socket and went all the way out the back of the skull. The dead man stopped moving.

  Hopper and Boss hopped back as the body slumped to the floor at their feet. When it hit the ground, the dead man’s skull exploded and released a tide of black mush.

  “Damn. Something liquefied his head,” Trent said with a grimace.

  “Good work, Lexi,” Boss said. “We were beginning to lose the battle there.”

  “It was because of Trent. He said we have to attack these things in the head. He knew what to do.”

  Trent straightened up and looked proud.

  “Makes sense,” Gellar said. “When I stopped to fire on them, they just kept on coming. Eventually, I had to throw down my rifle and get out of there.” She pressed a hand against her wounded neck. “I only just managed to.”

  “We need to get moving,” Boss said. “The Forbidden Zone is up ahead. I saw it from up on the mountain. We need to get to that comms room.”

  “What if there’re more of those things?” Trent said.

  “Then we stay out of their way. Or we run.”

  Gellar pointed. “I think the way is clear over there.”

  There was a path leading off to the left. It passed through an eating area and seemed quiet, deserted.

  “Let’s move quickly,” Boss said.

  When they reached the small courtyard between the various restaurants, Hopper dragged himself over to a burger hut, skipping over the counter and rummaging around the back. The scrolling menu screen listed the extortionate prices as if it were still business as usual. It gave a strange sense of normality against everything they had seen.

  “What are you doing?” Lexi asked.

  Hopper grabbed a paper cup from a dispenser at the back, then brought it to the front where there was a row of taps. He pulled one of the handles and released a flow of draught cola. He filled the cup up to the brim and then downed the contents. Gasping, he said, “I’ve been so busy trying not to die that I forgot how thirsty I was. Can I get anybody anything?”

  Despite the lingering danger, everybody rushed over to the counter and placed an order. Hopper poured them al
l their beverages of choice and then topped them up again once they were empty. It made a difference. Everybody seemed a little less near breaking point now.

  Lexi smiled at Hopper. “You’d make a good barman.”

  “I’d make a good anything,” he said.

  Lexi chuckled. Somehow Hopper’s arrogance wasn’t offensive, perhaps because it might well be true.

  “Hello again, my friends.”

  Everybody stood back as the burger hut’s menu screen was taken over by the face of a man they all recognised.

  Chapter Eight

  “Trying to leave this place or contact Earth is no longer possible,” said the man on the screen. Like before, he seemed extremely unwell. His eyes wept a bloody substance and the sore on his cheek had spread down to his lips and chin. Despite the grimness of his condition, however, he spoke with confidence and clarity.

  “My name is John Cog and I am a warehouse employee for Grand Galaxy Amusement Park. While my pay grade is low, I have found myself with the unfortunate task of having to take authority over this installation. No one can leave.”

  Lexi shook her head and shouted at the screen in frustration. “Why? What has happened here?”

  Cog blinked his swollen eyelids slowly and sighed. It was unclear whether or not he could hear anything until he gave a reply. “Do you really need to know what happened here to understand what must happen? No one here must be allowed to travel back to Earth. No one from Earth must be allowed to come here. Death is all around you and it will cling to you all. This facility has been attacked. By whom, I do not know, but it was I who opened Pandora’s box. I let this thing out, and I cannot allow it to hurt any more people than it already has.” Cog started coughing then and spattered the camera lens with black mush.

  “Who did this?” Boss demanded. “We need to retaliate.”

  Cog caught his breath and shook his head sadly. “The package was sent anonymously and a dozen nations could be responsible. I have learned things in the past few days. Things that make the true nature of this place clear to me. If the rest of the world knew what Britain and America were really doing here…” he started coughing again. He cleared his throat and stared into the camera. “Who did this is not important. What matters is that it all ends here. If you do not see that now, you will soon. They are coming for you now.”