by Nathan Ward
“My new jacket! No, no, no!” he said loudly, brushing frantically away at the slightly frayed patch on his elbow.
“You really thought you could out smart us, you bastard?”
That question was lost on the wind as the hooded man thundered his way out of the shop- not expecting to be met with a heavy blow to the face. Murdock thrust the barrel of his rifle into the stomach of the other masked figure, followed by a dangerous swing of the stock around the back of the head, knocking them both out cold. The bodies slumped to the ground and Joy hastily stacked them up on top of one another and pulled them out of sight while Murdock approached Ash, who strangely hadn’t taken any notice to the violence, instead he was still rather concerned about the damage to his brand new jacket, that last precious reminder of all he used to call normality.
“Sir…Are you okay?” Murdock asked, looking down at Ash, certain his eyes were deceiving him. Ash momentarily looked away from his jacket and cast his eyes over Murdock’s uniform.
“Yes, yes, I’m perfectly fine, thank you. What kind of uniform is that?” Ash asked with utter fascination in his tone.
“Oh, well its military…only a select few get to wear one and I’ve hand picked them. My name is Nathan Murdock and this over here is Joy Thorn, we came to assist you, we thought you were in a spot of trouble?” Murdock remained optimistic as he awaited the man's response.
“I... I was until you showed up,” Ash replied, patting away at his jacket and then standing up straight, pausing to brush at his jacket yet again, and then he introduced himself, and suddenly seemed a little more confident now the immediate threat of danger had passed.
“Thank you so much for your help. My name is Ashley Jekel, you can call me Jekel though…not many have that privilege!” he added, feeling some what comfortable in Joy and Murdock’s presence.
“Is anyone else out there trying to hurt you, Jekel?” Joy asked, feeling concerned for the man.
Jekel shook his head.
“That was all of them, they just wouldn’t leave me alone…I thought about putting a bullet in their skulls but that’s just not me, you know?”
“I’m glad you didn't,” Murdock replied, “Where have you come from?”
Jekel paused to gather his thoughts as his eyes shaded with sorrow at memories too terrible to dare to think on too closely.
“I'm a stage magician – an illusionist. A good one, too – at least, I was...when the world was still in one piece...” he paused, drew in a couple of breaths as suddenly it seemed like the air refused to hit his lungs, he felt the pain of it all over again, blinking away tears as he continued, “Well, I had a gig in Southend…that's when it happened... everything erupted in to chaos, nothing was left standing, everything was burnt to the ground…everyone died...and now I can’t even remember their faces… not even hers...my fiancee...she died too...I had a friend...Riley...I wanted to leave with him, he said we could go somewhere safe but there was no room for me...But he got away, he took his kid, they went ...somewhere...Now I'm alone...” said Ash, then he gave a sob as tears ran down his cheeks and he started to shake as emotion choked his voice, “I'm all alone, there's no one left!”
“It’s okay, Jekel. We’ve all lost someone here; we know how it feels,” Joy reassured him, and she held him as he pressed his face against her shoulder and wept as she let him weep and Murdock looked on, feeling an ache in his heart for this man and all others like him who had survived only to know the pain of living with the memory of loss and devastation. Then Jekel let go of Joy, steadying himself as his tears stopped flowing and he wiped his eyes with the back of a shaking hand.
“Do you need any water?” Joy asked, unaware of how he had gotten so far, after all, he was just wearing a suit.
“I’m okay, thank you. I raided Tesco and stocked up but I doubt I’ll head back…there’s probably nothing left, they wouldn’t leave a single patch untouched, the UNA are thorough…”
“Don’t we know it!” Murdock replied. Then as he looked at Ashley Jekel, he was struck by the same thought of how out of place he seemed, surviving such devastation and in just an ordinary suit...He got the oddest feeling, like perhaps there was more to this man than met the eye – although perhaps it was just because his survival seemed so miraculous...
“How did you do it?” he asked.
Jekel blinked.
“Do what?”
“Make it this far?”
Jekel shrugged.
“I guess I'm just lucky...if seeing the world burnt up and everyone die makes me the lucky one, then yes, I must be. I certainly don't bloody feel it, though!”
“At least you're still here,” Joy said kindly, looking into the eyes of the man who clearly was no soldier and had seen so much carnage that it was almost too much for his gentle soul to take - he was traumatised and clearly, holding on to his sanity by a thread, that thread most likely being the pain he felt at the loss of those he loved.
“Yes, I am,” Jekel replied, “I suppose it could be worse - although I can't imagine how it could get any worse than this...”
They were all caught up in the moment, both Joy and Murdock fascinated by their new found friend, so caught up that they failed to notice something occurring around them; Jekel noticed first, then Murdock and Joy.
“Can you feel that?” Jekel asked nervously.
“Yes, I can actually…I wasn’t going to say anything I thought it was just the sand brushing against me,” Joy replied, looking up to Murdock, “There’s something, kind of...moving.”
The ground suddenly begun to tremor, knocking Jekel, Murdock and Joy off their feet, sending them crashing into the sand.
“We have to get out of here, right now!” Murdock yelled, pressing his finger against the com link on his wrist, “Enrique, we need evacuation right away!”
Chapter 30: Children of Hell
Murdock continued trying to find his footing while being thrown around. The ground was quaking and cracking and the cracks growing by the second and time was running out - then a hand erupted out of the ground and latched its long claw like fingers around Jekel's leg.
“Something’s got me!” he shouted in panic, this was swiftly followed by a shriek of pain as claws dug deep in to his flesh.
More and more hands suddenly burst from under the ground, then bodies begun to accumulate in to a mass horde around the three of them, they had never seen anything like it before, only on the old world before the devastation and the end, only then, in horror movies – but this was real. The countless figures mounting up out of the ground like ants, multiplying by the second, Murdock had seen enough, he aimed his rifle towards the hand grasping on to Jekel and unloaded a couple of blasts that immediately cut it loose.
“RUN!” Murdock yelled, grasping tightly at his rifle, ready for the unknown as he took the lead and made a bolt for freedom.
Jekel and Joy followed closely behind sprinting like there was no tomorrow as hundreds of Howlers continued to rise up from underneath the quaking ground, climbing up on one another, massing as a horde and stampeding towards the escaping humans.
As Murdock could see the end of the street nearing he heard the engines of the war bird flying overhead, but before he had a chance to communicate with Enrique another hand erupted from underneath him, but this was no ordinary hand - it had to be four times the size of a human hand, he thought to himself as it rose from under the rubble and sand and took a swipe towards him, but Murdock threw himself to the ground avoiding the dangerous lunge.
“Enrique! We don’t have much time, evacuate at the town border!”
“Yes, Captain. Move your asses!” Came Enrique's reply.
The three of them scrambled to their feet and made their way past the giant figure that had now begun to pull itself out of the ground, making way for its enormous terrifying head, filled to the brim with razor sharp teeth and six prominent deep black eyes. It was like nothing they had seen before, like a monster from a horrible twisted fairy tal
e, the kind of creature that came from the depths of the very worst of the worst nightmares the human mind could conjure.
Murdock, Joy and Jekel continued to sprint towards the finish line, marked by the bright beams of light the sun had cast as an endless horde of Howlers continued to pursue them, hundreds upon thousands rampaging through the streets of the devil-faced town, hungry for human flesh and blood, never tiring and never giving in until the blood lust was satisfied...
“What the fuck is that?” Enrique muttered under his breath as he cast his sights over the eight foot tall mutation leading the swarm of Howlers in pursuit of Murdock, Joy and Jekel. “You guys really need to pick up the pace!” Enrique demanded, preparing to maneuver the craft in to position.
As the horde pursued, they couldn’t give up even though their bodies felt just about ready to cave in on themselves, knowing if they died now all of their efforts would go to waste - and they had people counting on them and death was not an option. Murdock backed off, allowing Joy to overtake him and Jekel to join him side by side as they neared the light of day just a few hundred meters up ahead.
“Why didn’t your scanner detect them, Murdock?” Jekel asked, panting furiously. “That’s precisely what I was asking myself, I’m considering that…the hemorrhaging, the mutation…it’s gone beyond a natural level, must have churned out the very last of what ever humanity was left in them, but, it’s still a life signature… Not human any more, this is UNA tech, they have no interest in anything other than human life and maybe I need to change that,” Murdock added, as a thought came to mind - he had just realised the major flaw in the technology they had been relying on...
Joy had picked up the pace and finally reached the end of the ruins, emerging into the sun rays. She turned back for a brief second not knowing what to expect and as she did, all she could feel was the ground vibrating as the thunderous foot steps of the giant towering over them and the endless horde of Howlers charged them down like a wave of crushing strength. Suddenly the War bird descended behind Joy and launched a missile in to the ground, narrowly avoiding Murdock's foot as he trampled past.
Enrique positioned his thumb close to a large red button and allowed for Jekel and Murdock to reach a safe distance before slamming it down and initiating the activation. The missile ignited into a ball of angry flames, exploding the front line of howlers into a bloody mess, chunks of flesh and bone begun to rain from the skies as Murdock pushed Joy onward to the War bird, which had now opened its ramp and suspended itself just a meter from the ground, ready to make a hasty exit. “Board, board, board!” Murdock ordered, yelling at the top of his voice over the sound of the powerful jet engines.
Joy took the liberty of boarding first, launching her body up on to the lip of the ramp while its pilot became more and more fearful of the terrifying creatures trampling towards them.
“Ten seconds, captain!” Enrique stated, not wanting to stick around a minute longer, knowing any second they could be ripped apart by razor sharp talons and hydraulic chomping jaws.
Murdock and Jekel were now just inches from the ramp edge but so were the second wave of Howlers, they could hear their teeth chattering, so Murdock didn’t waste any time, throwing his body on to the ramp and immediately turning to hold out his arm to Jekel.
“Take my hand!” he called, deliberately looking away from the sight of the monstrosity behind him. Jekel reached out and locked his palm with Murdock's, closing their fingers to form a strong grip on one another. Murdock heaved with all his might, pulling Jekel off the ground and into the air but as he did a stray hand managed to wrap itself around Jekel's wounded ankle and countered the pull, impaling his flesh with its claws. Murdock had no choice but to pull against it, reaching to the side for part of the war bird to hold on to.
“Don’t let go!” Murdock commanded, glaring in to the widened eyes of Jekel as pain spread through him, it was sharp, electrifying pain as his flesh was ripped apart beneath him as Jekel cried out in agony.
“I’m sorry, captain,” said Enrique through the com link, then Murdock felt the craft ascend, putting more pressure on his grasp, almost pulling the two apart. “Enrique! No!” he yelled in desperation.
The tension became unbearable and as the craft rose into the sky he had no choice, Murdock and Jekel were torn apart from one another, he watched his hand slip from his finger tips and his body fall in to the sea of evil.
“NO!” he screamed as the craft spiraled away from the chaos and he watched as the creatures became as ants, mounding over their prey.
Jekel could feel the mass of bodies mounting on to him and clawing against his tender flesh, slicing and ravaging, spilling his blood on to the virgin sands beneath him, then he gathered strength in one last desperate gasp as he lashed out, aiming a kick, which collided against the jaw of a howler, ripping it from its socket.
Suddenly he found his will to live - Jekel knew that if he didn’t fight he would die here and now so as adrenaline pumped through his veins and empowered his heart to triumph he felt able, crushing his fists into the brittle bones of the cretins on top of him until finally he saw his opportunity, pulling himself away from the masses and jumping back on foot. As he drew in a breath and felt the pain in his wounds begin to ease, he looked up towards the war bird, a man alone amid the chaos – seeming to have achieved the impossible, as Jekel thought silently on all that he had survived, and there had been much and he felt sure, there would be more to come...
“Murdock! He’s alive!” Enrique shouted through the link.
Murdock switched his gaze to the tiny man sprinting away from the endless hordes.
“Brilliant! I need to try something, it’s the only way we can save him now…steady the bird directly above Jekel, no higher than a hundred meters, understand?” “Understood,” Enrique confirmed.
Murdock hurried inside the ship, making his way towards the armory where he had stored all of his experiments. He pulled open a compartment, reached inside and withdrew a small component with a sharp needle point on one end.
“I’m going to test the rig,” Murdock explained, remaining optimistic over how well it was going to perform. He pulled his rifle in front of him and begun to load a shaft into the barrel very carefully, before finally equipping the device to the end of it with its needle point erect towards the roof of the craft.
“Turning on…” Murdock murmured to himself as he pressed his finger against the device, activating its internals, “Transmitting successfully, initiating DNA preparations, first contact…” he added, tinkering quickly with the set up, knowing time was against them as Jekel took his final step, then plunged into sand, face first. He could now sense that this was the end of the line for him, he could barely move, his body had locked up and left him frozen as the stampede continued to spit and hiss in his general direction while the burning sun scorched the back of his jacket.
Murdock positioned himself at the end of the ramp as the war bird reached the end of its flight path, suspended over the body of Jekel. He raised his rifle and cast his sights, looking for the cleanest and most effective shot.
“Hold her steady! We have one shot at this, Enrique!” Murdock bellowed with his eye set on the howler nearest to Jekel.
“Take the Giant! There’s no way you’ll miss!” Enrique responded.
Murdock considered the option, knowing time was running out dramatically, it was a much stronger chance of success - but the effect of the device was limited, it had to be as close to Jekel as possible, but the Giant creature had only just emerged from behind the shadows of the ruins.
Murdock watched as the Howlers reached Jekel's fallen body and with no hesitation he pulled his finger against the steel trigger which launched the device across the dune, building enough momentum and force to plunge its sharp needle point into the flesh of the giant creature. Three hooks immediately clamped into its skin and the device illuminated with energy, signaling a successful application.
Murdock sighed with relief as
he cast his sights back towards Jekel, who had vanished underneath the mass of Howlers, his only worry now was whether his handy work had paid off or if he was about to be faced with the corpse of an unfortunate man.
“Come on, come on!” Murdock said, watching the ground below.
“What was it? What did you do, Murdock?” Joy demanded to know over the communication link.
“A little bit of reverse psychology, I took the UNA inhibitor that was manipulating me all those years ago, manipulating the entire human ranks and I reprogrammed it, ordered it to inhibit the first DNA it comes in contact with, in this circumstance…Howlers - and we all know how much they’ve bloody changed, we should be safe,” Murdock explained, still waiting for the creatures to disperse down below.
“But what about the other couple thousand fuckers?” Joy asked, anxiously.
“Well that’s what I was considering when building it, I’ve amplified the transmitter, enlarging the perimeter of its coverage…meaning we should now have total control,” Murdock replied, now sporting a massive self flattering grin.
“Or at least partial control…” he added, pushing up the strength from his wrist device.
The eight foot tall giant continued to stomp through the endless tide of howlers, headed straight towards the mass around Jekel's body, then suddenly all as one, the mutations begun to back away and cower, slowly revealing the terrified man curled up into a ball on the ground. Jekel was alive and well and nothing made Murdock more proud.
“Take her down, Enrique. It’s safe,” he said, watching as the Howlers dispersed away from the piercing sound of the war birds engines. As the craft descended the giant roared in fear, once again feeling a spell of humanity flow through it as the bird slowly touched down into the sand with Enrique still at the controls, remaining cautious of the nearby Howlers surrounding them.
“Are you sure about this?” he asked, deciding whether to shut down the engines.