These are the creatures that PC Latimer and Freddie Barnes had told them about. She hadn’t really believed them, there were no such things as wolfmen, or zombies, or wendigos, they were all myth. Sure, there was something in the woods attacking them, but she’d thought it was only logical to believe that it was someone dressing up, a weirdo serial killer, or murderous cult perhaps, but not wolfmen.
She takes another step towards the car, unsure whether to just pelt it down the road to reach it or walk slowly. Stay calm! How the hell could? There were monsters in the woods staring at her and her kids – oh, hell! Caleb. She swings around. Caleb has his back to them, oblivious of the wolfmen on the other side of the road.
“Caleb!” Her voice is a thrown whisper that catches in her throat. Alternating between the monsters in the forest and her son, she calls him again, keeping her voice low as he does his zipper up. “Caleb, come on!”
“Coming, Mum!” he calls—too loud.
The creatures shriek as he calls.
She beckons him with rising panic. “Quick!”
There are three more cars to go before they can reach theirs. Caleb turns, pulling at his zipper. She motions for him to be slow, to be quiet as he walks to her. In the forest the creatures hang back in the shadows, unafraid of being seen. Her stomach knots. What are they waiting for? Javeen had talked of how she and the other police officers had been ambushed, how they had seemed to track them through the woods. Hadn’t she said Max Anderson had been one of them? She scans the trees. She can’t see Max, but there are three women, a girl that could be Rachel, Jim Kendrick’s daughter and two males, neither of which bore any resemblance to Max.
As Caleb joins them, she walks with a quicker step, making efforts to keep her movements smooth, desperate not to trigger the creatures into action. Caleb opens his mouth to speak and catches sight of the creatures among the trees. His mouth snaps shut. As Amy grabs his arm with a firm grip and ushers him towards the car, movement catches her eye behind him. A large figure stands among the trees. Amy’s heart beats hard in her chest, a sudden need to defecate. The figure, a large male, steps out from the trees only ten feet from where Caleb had relieved himself. It’s Max Anderson. Amy tightens her grip around the car keys and pulls them from her pocket. They are surrounded. The man, the thing that had once been Max Anderson, locks its blood-red eyes on hers and its lips pull back over an elongated jaw. Incisors, bone-white and pointed, glisten with saliva as its head tips back. Amy can’t wait a second longer. “Run!” she hisses at Caleb and Jasmine. “Run!” She grabs their sleeves, tugs them to face the car, and pushes them forward as the thing that had been Max howls.
“Run!”
Chaos erupts as the creatures break from the shadows, guttural, primal howls burst from open jaws, and the monsters move with preternatural speed towards the convoy.
Screams. Shouting. Howls. Snickers. The air fills with noise.
6
Conrad twists from the vehicle approaching the fence to the galloping creatures as their ungodly howls fill the air. Their screeches fill his ears, the timbre of their howls vibrating in his chest. His heart pounds against it. He registers that the vehicle has stopped and that men are jumping out as the first creature reaches the convoy. For that second, he can’t move. There are so many people that need his help—too many people to help.
“Back to your cars!” he shouts again, his voice splitting as air is forced over his vocal chords. He grabs Tilly’s arm as the first villager is taken. The creature had run from the trees, down the slight incline to the road at lightning speed and just grabbed Allan Jenkins, lifting him from his feet and twirling him round, forcing him onto the floor. As the second creature grabs another victim, the first bears down on Allan, lips pulled back to reveal long, sharp incisors, and rips at his shirt. Flesh bared, it sinks its fangs into his shoulder. Allan bucks against the female as his wife punches at the back of its head. With a snarl, the thing turns on the wife, and pounces. Conrad turns from the sight of blood spraying from her jugular as he pulls Tilly towards the car. Mavis runs at their side.
As he urges them to run, a creature, another female, lands beside them. Tilly jumps away from the beast, knocking into Mavis. The older woman lands with a thud. The thing steps closer, its eyes, black at the centre, its whites filled with blood, and leans into Conrad. A shiver runs through his body as the thing bares its teeth and bends into his throat. It inhales then pulls away. Behind him screams, thuds, and shouting fills the air. Beside him Tilly scrambles to her feet as what was once Kelly Gray, leans closer, her breasts brushing against his jacket, and sniffs. She growls, pulls away and stares down at the women. For a second it watches, perhaps deciding between the two, then grabs for Tilly. She screams and staggers back. It pounces just as Mavis launches herself between the beast and Tilly. The thing’s jaws clamp around Mavis’ throat, incisors slicing through the flesh. She screams, beating her walking stick against the creature. It takes no notice and rips at her throat. Tilly screams.
Conrad has to take action. Saving Mavis, is not an option. The woman’s throat is being torn out and, as he reaches for Tilly, the creature has turned its attention to Mavis’ belly. He grabs Tilly’s arm, yanks her forward, and pulls her to run with him. Terrified and gurgling screams fill the air as he reaches his car. A body slumps against the boot, its belly ripped open, its innards bulging. As he opens the door and throws Tilly inside, a creature, that was once a young girl lands beside him. He kicks at her naked hip with his boot, launches himself inside the car and slams the door shut. As he locks the door the ‘girl’ drags a man out onto the road and hunches over his body. With rising bile, Conrad watches as she reaches into the thorax and pulls.
“God in heaven!”
From the backseat, where she’d dragged herself in through the back door along with Caleb, Amy scrambles through to the driver’s seat. Jasmine screams as a creature launches itself at the car.
“Lock the doors, Jasmine!” she shouts. Her plea goes unheard as Jasmine continues to scream. In the backseat, Caleb clasps his hands to his ears, then stares out at the creatures grasping and grabbing the villagers. The space around the cars, the road, the grass between them and the woodlands, is a chaos of running men, women and children. Everything happened so fast. The creatures were at the treeline and then they were upon them, slashing, biting, and then – Oh, God! – eating. Pain twists in her stomach as she slides into the driver’s seat, scraping her shin. She clicks the ‘lock’ button on the key fob, then attempts to push it into the ignition. Her hands tremble and it slips.
Thud!
A pair of eyes, pooled with blood, stare at her from the other side of the windscreen. The thing squats, muscular arms set either side on the bonnet, legs splayed as it leans forward, breasts hanging.
“It’s a woman! Mum, it’s a woman.”
Ignoring him, she pushes the key into the ignition and starts the car. The thing clings like a repellent spider, eyes locked on hers, its mouth salivating. It wants to eat them; eat her, and her precious children. Rage swirls. No way, bitch!
Amy revs the engine. Presses down the clutch, slips the car into first then releases the clutch whilst pressing down on the accelerator. The car lurches forward with a squeal of tyres. The silver Mercedes-Benz belonging to Tilly Stangton sits fifteen feet in front of her. She slams into it. The force of the impact knocks the creature off. For the first time, she’s thankful that the car is too old to be equipped with an air bag. As the monster scrabbles in the grass, Amy slams the car into reverse, swings the car round, ramming into the creature as it stands, then powers the car forward, flooring the accelerator, and heads back to the village. Jasmine continues to scream.
As the car hurtles back towards the village, Amy checks back through the rearview mirror; the thing is hobbling to a stand. How in the very hell did it get up from that? She’d reversed into it, had been sure that wheels had crushed its legs. Pain spears her belly as she grips the steering wheel. Jasmine’s scre
am pierces her eardrums.
“OK, Amy! OK! We’ve got away. Now stop screaming … Please!”
The girl quiets, her breath coming in deep sobs.
“It was a woman, Mum. Did you see it.”
The image of the naked woman squatting with her vagina open to the world, and her hair-covered breasts hanging freely, wasn’t a sight she would forget any time soon.
“Yes, Caleb. I noticed.” She forces herself to focus on the road ahead, obsessively checking in the mirror for any sign of movement. Bodies lie scattered on the verge and the road, figures still run between the cars, small groups are running into the forest, only two cars appear to be moving.
“Are all women like that?”
“What?” She stares at the cars as they manoeuvre to follow her.
“Women. Are they all … hairy like that. Does it … does their … vagina really look-”
“Caleb!”
“What?”
“Can we talk about this later? Please?”
He grunts.
Typical kid! They were fleeing for their lives and he was obsessed by the woman’s anatomy.
“Just asking!”
“Caleb, we need to focus on staying alive. Got it?”
“Got it?” He turns to the rear window. “There are two cars behind us.”
Amy checks the mirror. He’s right.
“Mr Shelby is in one. I don’t know who the other is.”
Just two cars! Just two cars out of the entire convoy!
“Where are we going, Mum?”
“To find PC Latimer.”
7
Javeen peers out of the window as the first car pulls up. Amy Carmichael. The woman corners, tyres screeching, then rolls to an abrupt halt only feet from the front door, almost scratching Javeen’s car. Swinging the door open, Amy stops with one foot on the tarmac as their eyes meet. Javeen opens the Station door, as Amy ushers her children from the car, pushing them over the threshold. Javeen slams the heavy door behind them, quickly locking and bolting it.
As she waits for Amy to catch her breath, a second car passes the station, reverses, enters the car park, and screeches to a stop next to Amy’s. Conrad Shelby jumps out followed by Tilly Stangton and his wife Moira. The woman’s face is red and it’s obvious that she has been crying. Javeen unbolts the door to let them in as Amy pulls her arms around her children, her sob heavy with relief.
“We were attacked,” Conrad blurts as soon as the door shuts behind him. Javeen slides the bolt across the door. The thick iron slots into place with a satisfying, and reassuring, clack.
“Please,” Javeen says pulling up Stuart Stangton’s chair for Tilly; the woman is on the verge of collapse. “Sit down.” Tilly sits, a massive sob erupting as she catches sight of the framed photographs of herself that Stuart kept on his desk.
She turns her attention to Conrad. “What happened?”
“The roads are blocked, as you said, but the steel barriers you spoke of at the village hall have been upgraded to impassable, twenty-foot high steel girders.”
“And the men?”
“There were no men, not at first, but, as we were leaving, I saw a vehicle pull up on the other side and armed men get out.”
“Police?”
“From the vehicle and their demeanour, I would say a private security firm, although one of military standard.”
“What does that mean?” Amy butts in.
Javeen isn’t sure. “Well, I think that … perhaps …”
“My assessment of the situation is that whoever it is knows just how dangerous these creatures are and wants to keep the situation contained.”
“Contained?”
“One of them had a tranquiliser gun.” Caleb adds. “I watched him fire it at a werewolf.”
“They’re not werewolves!”
“How do you know it was a tranquiliser?”
“I saw it stick into the werewolf’s neck—it had feathers on it like they do in the wildlife programmes. I saw one where they were shooting at elephants from a helicopter.”
“Why would they tranquilise them? They should be killing them—to protect us!”
“Perhaps saving us isn’t the main objective.”
“How can that be so? If there are wild animals trying to kill us, shouldn’t the military be coming in to try and rescue us.”
“Perhaps they will.”
Javeen’s head throbs. Their communications with the outside world, their ability to call for help, to report what is going on, has been blocked, as have their escape routes. Whoever is in control of this situation doesn’t want anyone knowing about it, of that she is certain.
“And take a look at this, Latimer.” Conrad pulls his phone out of his pocket.
For one moment Javeen’s hopes flare. “You’ve got a signal?”
Conrad shakes his head. “Sorry, Latimer. No. But I did get a photograph of the sign that has been bolted to the fence.”
He pushes the mobile’s screen into view. The knots in Javeen’s stomach tighten as he scrolls back through the photographs, flickering past a scene that begins with dark figures running from the woods, to them lingering in the shadows, the rows of cars, and then several of the sign, all of differing quality. He clicks on the one that is most legible.
She reads, “Biological Hazard. Contaminated Land. Entry Prohibited.” Her mind flits back to the meeting at the Institute on the morning Billy Oldfield had called them to oust the placard waving vegan activists from their gates, the small group of oddly incongruous men in Marta Steward’s office, and Blake Dalton’s shocked face when he’d received that call at the Hound and Stars.
“I heard him talking about ‘staying calm’ and ‘seeing it as an opportunity’”
“Who, Latimer? And what ‘opportunity’?”
“Blake Dalton.”
“Who?”
“A colleague of Doctor Steward’s from the Institute. He was armed.”
“Why would a scientist be armed?”
“He wouldn’t. I mean, he isn’t.”
“Armed?” Conrad’s frown deepens.
“No, he’s not a scientist and he was armed. I saw the gun strapped next to his ribs.”
“So perhaps military?”
“I have no idea. The men at the fence who shot up PC Osborne looked as though they could be soldiers.”
“Hmm.”
Tilly Stangton erupts with a sob. “Mavis is dead!”
Amy walks across to Tilly and puts an arm around the woman.
“Mavis is dead. Kelly … Kelly Gray split her belly open like a packet of crisps and ate her insides!”
Jasmine begins to cry.
“That thing – Kelly – she was going for me, but Mavis … Mavis got in the way, and she ate her instead.” Tilly dissolves into sobs, and Caleb puts his arm protectively across his bigger sister’s shoulder. He stares for a moment at Javeen, and then at Conrad, a frown creasing between the brows of his young face.
“I’ll kill them monsters.” His teeth bare as he speaks. “They’ll not hurt my mum or my sister.”
Pain flits across Amy’s face and she manages a weak smile at her son. “We’ll protect each other, love. Don’t you worry.”
Amy stands. Looks out through the window to the darkening sky. “We should go home. Before it gets dark.”
“No!” Tilly blurts. “I don’t want to be alone.”
Javeen catches Conrad’s glance at Tilly. “You can come home with us.”
Caleb stares at Conrad. “What about us? Can we come home with you too?”
“Conrad!” Amy interjects. “We’ve got our own home to go to.”
“Yes, but no man to protect us, Mum.”
“Sorry. Phil is out on the rig. He’s not due back until next week.”
Another flare of hope. Of course, people will try to get into the village and Phil is bound to raise a stink if he can’t get back to his wife and children. There is sure to be a rescue mission, there will have to be.
“Hell!” Conrad blurts. “There were more than thirty cars in that convoy, Latimer. So far only three cars have made it back.”
Javeen swallows. Even if there was a rescue mission, at that rate of destruction, by this time next week, it will be too late.
8
Andy steps back through the French doors at the rear of his house. He has spent the last few hours searching at the end of his garden, going into the woods, as far as he dared, to look for Topsy. Bag of chicken flavoured treats in his pocket, he clicks the sliding doors shut with a sigh. The woods had been quiet, no sign of any ‘beast’, but no sign of Topsy either. He breaks his shotgun over his arm, removes the cartridges, lays it on the dining room table then locks the doors and draws the curtains. The sun has dropped below the forest canopy leaving a jagged bank of trees black against a blue-grey sky tinged apricot. A single star shines bright.
A rapid series of knocks comes at the front door and he strides to answers. Javeen! She practically falls into the hallway, her face flushed.
“What’s wrong?”
“Close the door.”
“I am.” The door closes and he locks it as Javeen makes her way to the kitchen. “What’s wrong.”
“Everything!”
He flicks the kettle to on.
“The convoy was attacked by the wolfmen. Only three cars made it back.”
“Which convoy?”
“Conrad’s.”
“Hell!”
“Andy, he said the fences there were massive and that there is no way of getting through and the villagers were ambushed by the wolfmen and-”
“Slow down, Jav.”
“There were at least ten of them.”
“Wolfmen?”
“Yes!”
“I thought there was only Max Anderson and Lois Maybank.”
“Tilly Stangton recognised Kelly Gray and Conrad said there was a girl that could have been Jim Kendrick’s daughter and another woman that could have been Maria Konstapolis. Caleb Carmichael said there was another girl too, that could be her daughter. And there were two males that no one recognised, but … but from the descriptions, I think they could have been Harry Pilkington and Callum Banks—the Police Officers attacked in the forest.”
Caged: An Apocalyptic Horror Series (The Wolfmen of Kielder Book 2) Page 4