Mutation (Twenty-Five Percent Book 1)

by Wheatley, Nerys

  They pushed their bikes for the next couple of streets. Strangely, there were no eaters around, even though the rumble of the moans was growing in intensity. Alex wondered if all the eaters in the vicinity had been drawn to it, effectively clearing the area.

  Rounding a bend in the road ahead of Alex, Micah suddenly stopped and rapidly backed up again. Alex opened his mouth to speak, but stopped when Micah raised a finger to his lips and shook his head frantically.

  Alex pushed down the stand on his bike as quietly as he could, then crept slowly forwards, lowering to the ground when the houses would no longer hide him and crawling. He peered around a garden fence.

  The road ended around a hundred yards ahead at a T-junction. Beyond, all he could see were eaters.

  It was as if they had been lined up like dominoes. Each stood directly behind the one in front, no more than a few inches apart, creating a solid barrier across the road. Every eater was facing in the same direction, to Alex’s right, their heads angled slightly down. It looked like some kind of bizarre queue, as if they were waiting for something to happen.

  As he watched, every so often a movement would make its way along the rows, each eater moving just a little later than the one in front, creating rippling effect through the massive horde, a small Mexican wave of motion.

  But worse than anything else was the sound. Every single one of them was emitting a low moan, as though they were in some kind of trance. It wasn’t the desperate moans of an eater when it saw food; it was a constant yearning, an unquenchable craving for something just beyond their reach.

  The intensity of the sound rose and fell, vibrating through the ground and thrumming inside his chest. Shudders drummed down his spine. A deep, primal fear crawled through his gut.

  He pulled away from the corner and sat back against the fence, breathing hard and fighting down a wave of nausea. The hand he wiped across his brow came away damp with sweat. After a few seconds, he crawled back out of sight and stood to walk back to the bikes.

  “What?” Micah whispered.

  He didn’t even know how to put what he’d seen into words. When he shook his head, Micah walked past him and crept to the corner as Alex had, to see for himself. When he returned, he was noticeably paler.

  “That’s just...” Micah paused, taking a breath. “What are they all doing?”

  Alex shook his head to indicate he didn’t know. Although it was quieter around the corner, he could still hear that sound, making him feel like a thousand tiny insects were crawling down his back. He shivered.

  “I think we need to see what’s going on outside that barrier,” Micah whispered.

  “And how are we going to do that?” Alex replied. “As far as we can tell, every road that leads out is like that.” He waved his hand towards the corner and the hordes of eaters out of sight beyond.

  Micah turned and pointed to the top of a tall building they could see over the houses to the east of them. Alex recognised it as a ten storey office block he’d driven by on countless occasions. It belonged to an insurance company, if he recalled correctly. He remembered staring at the glass entrance from his car many times as he’d sat in the traffic jams caused by the construction a few years back. It was very close, if not on top of, where he now knew one of the strange metal barriers would be. The barrier towards which all the eaters were now facing.

  Alex looked at Micah in disbelief. “You can’t be serious. I’m the one who comes up with the insane plans. You’re supposed to be the voice of reason and talk me out of them. You’re not supposed to suggest them.”

  Micah huffed out a breath. “You don’t have to come,” he said, “but I want to know why thousands of people are either being turned into monsters or dying in here and all we’ve seen of the army is those damn helicopters. I want to know why we’ve been abandoned. I want answers. That’s all.” He turned and stalked back to his motorbike, retrieving the backpack he’d left on the seat and sliding his arms into it.

  Alex stood for a moment, then followed Micah and put on his own backpack. Micah watched him, his eyebrows raised.

  Alex spared him a glance then went back to his preparations. “It will never be said that Alexander MacCallum baulked in the face of an insane, harebrained scheme.” He pocketed the motorcycle key. “So what is your harebrained scheme?”

  Micah frowned and looked back at the tall building.

  “You do have a harebrained scheme to get us there, don’t you?” Alex said.

  He held his hand up. “Give me a second.” After looking around for half a minute or so, he smiled. “Okay, we can’t get there by the usual routes, so we go for the unusual.” He pointed at a narrow pathway leading to the back garden of a house on the east side of the road.

  “You want us to climb six foot garden fences all the way there?” Alex said, not bothering to hide his reluctance.

  Micah hoisted his backpack higher on his shoulders and tightened the straps. “Well, if you think you’re not up to it...”

  Alex sighed. “Just shut up and let’s get this over with.”

  They spent the next half hour picking their way through back gardens and hauling themselves over fences and walls. The walls weren’t so bad. The fences were worse. The single hawthorn hedge left Alex covered in tiny painful scratches and poked him in places that made his eyes water.

  He noticed Micah favouring his wounded leg on more than one occasion, but he made no complaint. When they got into the office block, if they got into the office block, Alex knew he’d need to take care of whatever injuries he’d sustained when his motorbike went down.

  The three roads they had to cross were a nightmare, with the vast horde of eaters visible away to their left. They sprinted across, keeping to any available cover and trying not to make a sound, each time expecting to hear a sudden surge of moans and the shuffling of thousands of eater feet coming for them. But, whether by skill or luck, they made it without attracting any attention. Alex’s natural pessimism told him that couldn’t last forever.

  Eventually they reached the edge of the residential neighbourhood and looked out from between two houses. On the far side of the road in front of them was a small retail park with a line of large stores, then beyond that was a cluster of four ten storey blocks, the farthest of which was the insurance building.

  Stretching before them, the wide expanse of the road with a car park on the far side offered very little in the way of cover. The streets at either end of the one in front of them angled slightly towards each other here, meeting some way beyond the barrier. Thousands of eaters hemmed them in on both sides. Crossing the road would leave them exposed in every direction.

  They peered up and down the road, then pulled back out of sight.

  “Got any more harebrained schemes?” Alex said. “Because I think this one might have run its course.” He leaned back against the wall of the house, winced, and removed a thorn hooked into the seat of his jeans.

  Micah stared across the road. “Run really fast and pray?”

  “We’ll never make it without being seen.”

  “They all seem to be really focused on the freaky moaning and swaying thing. If we’re quiet, maybe they won’t notice us.”

  “You know what I really love in a life or death situation?” Alex said. “A good, solid maybe.”

  “You didn’t have to come.”

  “They’ll put that on my grave,” he said. “If there’s enough of me left after this to need one. Okay, let’s get this over with. I suppose we all have to die sometime. Although if now is that time, I’m blaming you. That’s all I have to say.”

  “If only it was,” Micah said. He pointed to two large vans parked side by side in the car park, outside a carpet store. They provided the only cover between them and the first building. And they were at least two hundred feet away. “We aim for those first, then head for the back of the insurance building. There has to be a door there somewhere. Ready?”

  “No.”

  “Good. Let’
s go.”

  They crept from the cover of the houses, Micah in the lead, Alex’s heart pounding.

  The tightly packed crowds of eaters blocked them in on both sides, no more than two hundred feet away in either direction. The moaning sound was almost tangible, throbbing against Alex’s chest, battering his eardrums. Up close like this, the smell of the new eaters permeated the air, like thick pollen on a warm summer’s day. He fought the urge to cough.

  Alex kept low as he ran, although he didn’t know why. He knew full well how visible they were out here. If even one eater saw them, they were in real trouble.

  And then it happened.

  He was watching the eaters to their right as he ran. One moved its head, glancing to the side, looking right at him. Without thinking, Alex grabbed for his gun. He stopped and took aim, but before he could shoot, every head turned to look directly at him.

  The moaning stilled.

  For a split second there was utter silence.

  Alex froze, staring at his death reflected in a thousand pairs of eyes.

  A cacophony of moans exploded through the air.

  “Run!” he shouted, launching himself across the road.

  Seeing the danger, Micah sprinted for the car park. They ran past the stores, which offered no real protection, and through a cluster of more industrial businesses beyond them, car repairs, kitchen fitters. Alex risked a glance back as he left the car park and immediately wished he hadn’t. It looked like every eater in the city was behind him. The sound of the ravenous moans of thousands of eaters was deafening, almost drowning out the rapid shuffling gait of their feet.

  Rounding a corner into the car parks for the group of office buildings, Alex stumbled to a halt next to Micah, who had stopped and was staring at the ground around him.

  The first thing he noticed was the blood. The ground was more red than grey. The viscous fluid had stained the tarmac and seeped into the concrete walkways. Dotted around, piles of clothing fluttered in the breeze, torn and bloody. As they walked forward he noticed something worse amongst the shreds of material. Bones. Stark and white. Licked and gnawed clean.

  The smell of copper still filled the air, that and rotting flesh, and Alex gagged at the stench.

  The sound of moans shook him out of his shock.

  “Come on,” he said, grabbing Micah’s arm and pulling him forward, trying not to look too closely at the carnage they ran through.

  The front of the insurance building faced out onto the main road, so they aimed for the back which faced the car park. A solid looking door was set into the wall up a short flight of stairs against the outside of the building. Micah took the stairs three at a time and yanked on the handle. It didn’t move.

  “We don’t have long,” Alex said, breathing heavily as he ran up behind him. “I’m not sure, but I think they might be getting faster.”

  “It opens outwards,” Micah said. “Can you break it down?”

  Alex scanned the thick security door. They’d need a battering ram.

  “Not in the time we have,” he said.

  He started down the steps, intending to try one of the other buildings, stopping as the leading edge of the horde of eaters emerged from the cover of the surrounding landscaped vegetation and buildings.

  Micah hissed in a breath.

  It was like watching insects swarm from a nest. They squeezed out from between the buildings and spread across the open area, swamping abandoned cars and stumbling over bollards and hedges. Many fell and were instantly trampled by those behind them. The whole space filled with eaters, yet still they came.

  A tidal wave of hunger.

  Alex backed up the stairs, his heart thumping against his ribcage. He’d never been so afraid in his life. The remains of whoever had tried to come through here before them had been obliterated by the surge of eaters, but he could still see the massacre in his mind’s eye.

  As he looked out across the car park and the approaching ravenous crowd, he knew they didn’t stand a chance.

  They slipped off their backpacks and left them against the wall by the door, freeing up their movements. Alex pulled out the rifle, stuffed the spare magazine into his pocket, and set the selector to continuous fire. He’d be out of bullets within seconds, but he knew it didn’t really matter now.

  Micah took his skull-spikers from his pocket and glanced at Alex, his expression grim. Alex loosened the sword in its scabbard and mustered up a small smile.

  “Brought it all this way,” he said. “Might as well use it.”

  Micah shook his head and smiled. “Just make sure you point it in the right direction.” He looked out at the horde. “I’m sorry. This is my fault. If you hadn’t followed me here...”

  “Don’t flatter yourself,” Alex replied. “I don’t do things because you say so. I thought it was a good idea to come.”

  “I thought you said you were going to blame me.”

  “Oh, yeah. In that case, I take it back. This is totally your fault.”

  Micah smiled. “The last two days has certainly been an experience.”

  Alex returned his smile. “Yes it has.”

  The first wave hit the five foot high concrete platform on which they were standing in a sea of grasping hands and gnashing teeth. Arms reached beneath the metal bars of the safety fence, grabbing at their feet. Alex and Micah moved back out of reach and waited for them to find the stairs. It didn’t take long.

  A few tripped at the first riser. More clambered over their incumbent forms and staggered up the steps. Alex opened fire, aiming at head height to kill as many as possible as quickly as possible. The first wave fell, creating a mound of bodies that slowed those behind. As he reloaded, for a moment he thought they could somehow block the way with bodies. But the eaters that took the dead’s place simply scrabbled at them until their corpses rolled aside, opening the way forward.

  He squeezed the trigger again. Another swathe went down. The rifle clicked empty.

  He dropped the gun and drew his sword, looking out across the horde. The pile of bodies around the steps was a drop in the ocean. It hadn’t even made a dent.

  It took less than half a minute for the eaters to scramble past their dead comrades.

  The horde closed in again.

  Alex thrust and slashed, taking down the first few with his weapon’s longer reach. Any who got past the sword fell to Micah’s knives.

  They fought with the desperation of men who knew they were about to die, every kill meaning a few more seconds of life. The bodies piled up in front of them, collapsing down the stairs, tripping those behind. But there were always more to take their place.

  Alex was breathing hard. The sword felt like it was getting heavier, his movements slowing. He was already tiring and he knew that, even though it felt like they’d been fighting for hours, it must have been less than ten minutes. Beside him, Micah was grunting with exertion and Alex could hear him panting for oxygen.

  It wouldn’t be long before their adrenalin fuelled energy ran out. There were simply too many. They couldn’t last.

  Alex thought about the pistol at his waist. When it came to the choice between a quick death and the slow agony facing them, he knew what he would choose. He just didn’t know if he had the strength to do it.

  From behind them, Alex heard a thump and a scraping sound.

  “Come on!”

  He glanced around at the voice to see the door wide open, two men beckoning them in.

  Micah grabbed the eater in front of him, thrust the knife into its eyeball and pushed it at those coming up behind it.

  “Go,” Alex grunted, stabbing his blade into another head. Male or female, he didn’t notice any more.

  Micah dashed for the door, grabbed their packs and disappeared inside. Alex stepped back and, with the little energy he had left, smashed his foot hard into the chest of the eater in front of him, sending it tumbling back into those following, knocking them down the stairs.

  Then he spun round and t
hrew himself through the doorway.

  A bang echoed around him as the door slammed shut.

  21

  Cocooned in the darkness behind the door, for a few seconds all Alex could hear was the sound of heavy breathing and a ringing in his ears from the sudden lack of sound. He flinched as muffled thuds hit the door outside.

  As he gulped in oxygen, he looked around the room. Micah was by the door, leaning against the wall as he gasped for breath, a skull-spiker still clutched in each hand. Their two rescuers stood nearby, their eyes unfocused, and Alex realised how dark it was in the windowless room. As he watched, one of the men felt along the wall next to the door and flipped a switch. A fluorescent tube light on the ceiling flickered into life. Alex squinted for a few seconds as his eyes adjusted.

  The room was essentially grey, grey floor, grey walls, grey locker style cupboards lining one wall, some grey metal shelving units against another, a couple of grey metal chairs in a corner. Two grey doors lead from the room and a grey staircase ran up the far wall and disappeared into the ceiling. It seemed to be some kind of storage/janitorial room, with cleaning supplies on the shelves and miscellaneous maintenance items propped in the corners.

  “Holy crap,” one of the men said, his gaze darting between Alex and Micah. “I’ve never seen anything like that. We thought you’d be dead for sure.”

  “Another couple of minutes and we might have been,” Alex replied. “Thanks.” He looked at Micah. “You okay?”

  Micah straightened, flipped his stilettos back into their handles, and began to laugh. After what they’d been through, he sounded insane. Alex found himself joining in. The two men stared at them as if they’d lost their minds.

  “I can’t believe we’re still alive,” Micah said, shaking his head.

  The adrenalin still coursing through his veins was making Alex feel slightly light headed. Unable to find the words to sufficiently express himself, he whooped.

  Micah froze and stared at him, then they both burst into laughter again.