As the Light Dies

by M. D. Woodham

  “We don’t know if that’s what we can hear Jeff. That could be anything, the wind or something.” “C’mon Shell, the wind don’t scream like that.”

  “No but it blows things around that bang against the building. I don’t know what was going on with those poor guys, but we saw them being restrained to those beds and sedated. They’re not about to start looting while they’re tied down and drugged are they?”

  “Well whatever it is, I don’t like the idea of being stranded out here with those scientists getting sick just through there.”

  “Yea, I can see that!”said Shelly looking at him.

  Jeff sighed and stood up and went to the window that looked out on to scrub land. The sealed container had been conveniently backed up against a window in the hangar. Jeff looked out in silence and watched as the ash and snow that formed an impenetrably thick black mass as it danced around on the wind but never let him see any further than a few feet beyond the hangar’s dusty window. The motion was mesmerising, it pulled him in, sucking all his attention until lightning flashed blindingly bright close by making Jeff wince and pull away from the window.

  “You’ll go blind if you keep on looking at that,”said Shelly,“remember The Day of the Triffids.”

  “Huh,”said Jeff turning around rubbing his eyes.“Yea maybe,”he said smiling. He looked in to his cup and swirled the dregs around in the bottom before downing it.“You finished?”he asked offering to take her mug. Shelly shook her head.“Not yet, thanks.”

  Looking at Shelly he felt sorry for her, she looked totally rung out.

  “It’ll be ok Shell, just let it go and relax.”he said.

  She looked up at him warily trying to put on a convincing smile that was anything but.

  “I’m fine,”she said.“I just hate feeling useless.”She sighed and leaned back in her chair hanging her head back.“Useless,and stranded”’she added as Jeff strolled across the room to rinse his cup. Suddenly there was an almightyBOOMthat sent a shock wave vibrating right through the both of them!

  Shelly fell backwards off her chair.“SHIT!” she yelled.

  Jeff flinched biting his tongue. He threw his cup in the general direction of the sink where it burst in to a thousand tiny pieces as it landed between the taps and he spun around.

  “What the hell!” he said rushing over to the window with Shelly as she scrambled to get back up, Jeff practically crossed the room with one leap and gave Shelly a brief tug helping her back on to her feet. They looked in to the hangar and gasped!

  There were huge yellow and orange flames gushing out of the first aid container! Its’door charred and buckled hung from one unbroken hinge, the polythene bubble had split and shrunk back with the burning heat. Shelly yelled out in shock,“JEESUS CHRIST, WHAT THE HELL’S HAPPENED?”

  Jeff shook his head lost for words as they both looked on astonished, wondering what had happened as stunned scientists darted in all directions in their bright orange suits.

  Jeff grabbed his headgear and flung it on securing it as fast as he could, then he grabbed the fire extinguisher that hung by the door.“Get your headgear on Shell,”he said and then before she could say anything he sealed himself in the container’s airlock that still seemed to work despite the gaping hole in the airtight enclosure.

  Shelly did what he said and pulled her headgear on and started struggling with its seal. She heard the shhhht of the external door open behind her letting Jeff out in to the giant makeshift lab and knew she’d have to wait for the room to pressurise again before it would let her out. As she finished struggling with her hood’s seal she watched scientists in their bright orange decontamination suits running in all directions. Some ran with fire extinguishers towards the blaze while others gathered up research notes and test samples from work stations, and others a little further away from the flames covered over research tables with protective sheeting to preserve their work. The pressurisation light blinked green, Shelly saw it and slammed her palm down on the big yellow button and dived in to the decompression chamber and waited anxiously for the chamber to go through its sequence of sealing the door behind her and equalising the pressure before opening the door into the hangar. It only took seconds but to Shelly it felt like minutes, long minutes!

  As Shelly waited she looked out at the chaos. She could feel the heat from the blaze through the window and she could hear the flames roar and crackle as they reached out in to the hangar through the blown out doorway. Men were aiming fire extinguishers through the opening in to the fiery first -aid room trying to get as close as they could to the flames. Their efforts weren’t having much effect. Another green light blinked on. The pressurisation sequence was complete. The door slid open in front of Shelly and the heat engulfed her. She sucked air between her teeth squinting her eyes against the heat as she stepped out in to the chaos and froze! She didn’t have a clue what to do. What could she do?

  She searched the room looking for Jeff, looking at all the orange men wielding fire extinguishers. Eventually she saw him as he turned side on and shouted at one of the other orange clad men. He was yelling at him asking where the gas supply was, telling him that they had to turn it off while he blasted his extinguisher at the same time in to the roaring flames. He saw Shelly out of the corner of his eye and turned to face her.

  He was just opening his mouth to say something when something caught her eye.

  She looked passed Jeff to see what it was, but all she saw were raging flames!

  Just the flames, she thought. She looked back at Jeff, but saw it again. A figure!

  But it can’t be,she thought,it’s in the flames!

  Jeff paused. He saw the sudden change in Shelly’s face. He didn’t like it! She looked terrified.

  He spun back round to see what had her attention crouching defensively as he turned, muscles tensed and his free arm raised up in defence not sure what to expect. What he saw didn’t shock him or scare him; it filled him with absolute terror!

  Other men saw it to but were too late, too slow to react; the burning horribly charred figures were on them in the blink of an eye!

  CHAPTER 13

  Gavin held on tight to the grab rail beside the cab looking out in to the ashy abyss as Eddy drove the bus slowly onwards, despite the ashy snow their eyes had become quite well accustomed to the darkness, grabbing the odd glimpse through the murky wall whenever they could.

  “Not that far now,”said Eddy,“about six miles or so.”

  “Cool,”said Gavin nodding, totally oblivious to where they were, he had no idea where they were, any road sign that he did see as they passed was completely covered with black snow, and he didn’t recognise anything at all, he didn’t think that even the locals would, it all looked so strange and alien.“Some strange shit this ash eh!”said Eddy,“knocking out all the electrics and that!”

  “Yea,”said Gavin,“thick as well eh, the wind just aint touching it!”

  “Yep, looks like everything’s covered in coal dust,”added Eddy.

  “Uh huh,”Gavin mumbled as something caught his attention up ahead. Eddy saw it too.

  “What’s that?”he said.

  “Dunno,”said Gavin,“probably just another drift.”

  “Strange how it’s at a different angle from the others,”said Eddy.

  As they drew nearer the shape took form.

  Eddy’s right, thought Gavin.It is at a different angle to the other drifts around it.

  It looked like something was lying in the road, just lying there being buried by the dirty snow.“Whatever it is, its big,”said Gavin as they drew closer.

  “Yep,”agreed Eddy still staring when a figure rose up from behind the bizarre hump on the ground in front of them!

  “SHIT!” yelled Eddy sitting bolt upright and stamping on the brakes.

  The wheels locked up instantly and the bus went in to a skid as it lost traction.

  “HOLY SHIT!” yelled Eddy yanking the steering wheel trying to swerve away from the figure but th
e front wheels just slid straight ahead in the snow!

  “FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!”yelled Eddy as they rushed straight at the motionless figure. He slammed his palm down repeatedly on the dead horn out of habit badly hurting his hand. Gavin held on tight wide eyed as the bus caught a little traction and started to swerve as the front tyres struggled for grip. The bus bobbed and dipped over the snow trying to swerve to the right. The figure looked like it was still hunching over the lump they had been looking at.

  “FUCKING MOVE!” yelled Eddy at the motionless figure.

  It turned towards them standing up tall right at the last minute as the nearside front corner of the bus clipped them and knocked them flying back through the black snow out of sight.

  “OH CHRIST!” yelled Eddy struggling frantically with the bus. “I HIT EM! I FUCKING HIT EM, I FUCKING HIT SOMEONE!”

  The nose of the bus buried itself in to a deep drift along the verge bringing them to an abrupt stop!

  A wave of dirty snow burst up and rushed away from the front of the bus as they came to a standstill. Eddy’s face slammed in to the steering wheel and Gavin was thrown across the front of the bus and slammed against the front panel before he dropped to the floor and then the engine juddered and stalled.

  Eddy lifted his head up slowly, all the air had been knocked out of him. He couldn’t see anything!

  He rubbed his face gently and felt what he thought must be blood. It was warm and wet!

  “Gavin?”he said.“Hey Gavin are you ok?”

  Gavin stood up slowly beside him pulling himself up using the grab rail, his heart missed a beat when he saw Eddy.“Shit,”he said.“Eddy are you....”

  Eddy cut him off.“Never mind me, I’m ok, how are you? Are you ok?”

  “I’ll be ok,”said Gavin rubbing his sore body.

  “Are you sure?”said Eddy.

  “Yea, positive,”said Gavin.

  “Ok, thank God,”said Eddy,“can you get out there and check on them?”he said pushing himself up off the steering wheel and back in to the driving seat. His eyebrow had burst badly from hitting the steering wheel and blood ran down the front of his face and his nose was bleeding.

  “I’ll be ok,”he told Gavin looking at himself in the rear view mirror.

  “But I’ve bashed my knees pretty bad. They’re in fucking agony!”

  Gavin understood and pulled his mask on and prised the doors open. It took all his effort to get the doors open, the bottom edge was buried in the snow.

  He managed to push one open far enough to squeeze through the gap. As he stepped out in to the icy cold wind he heard Eddy moaning with pain behind him, he turned around quickly and saw Eddy trying to get up out of the driver’s seat.“Eddy, just wait there,”he said.“I’ll be back in a sec.”

  Eddy nodded as Gavin tried to close the door to stop the ash and snow from blowing in to the bus but it jammed with two inches to go and it just wouldn’t budge any further.

  It’ll have to do, thought Gavin and Eddy thought the same telling him to just go and he did.

  He ventured in to the darkness to find who they’d hit.

  He traipsed through the deep snow calling out to the person,“HELLO, HELLO, WHERE ARE YOU? ARE YOU OK?”

  There was no answer. He stumbled in the snow and just managed to catch himself.“Shit!”he murmured before calling out again.“HELLO, WHERE ARE YOU? HELLO.”

  Still no answer.

  “Oh fucking hell!”he said to himself fearing the worst when he still got no reply. Gavin tried to follow their tyre tracks back the way they’d come trying to see roughly where they’d hit the person but everywhere he looked the ash blanked his vision.

  He carefully traced the bus to the rear, and then from there he managed to find the tracks that the front wheels had made as they arced across the road racing towards the embankment of polluted snow. He began to follow them when Eddy shouted from the bus.

  “WHAT’S HAPPENING GAVIN? HOW ARE THEY?”

  “HANG ON!”Gavin yelled back following the tracks and,“Bingo,”he said to himself seeing a very vague footprint. He walked closer then turned back and faced the bus trying to pictured which direction the person had been thrown. Satisfied he turned and took a step as Eddy shouted again,“GAVIN, WHAT’S HAPPENED?”

  “JUST A SEC, I HAVENT FOUND THEM YET,”he yelled back. He heard Eddy mumble something.

  Poor guy,thought Gavin,he’ll be going out of his mind.

  He took another step being careful not to fall. The snow was deep it was halfway up to his knees. He hoped that it would’ve cushioned their fall, wherever they were.

  “HELLO,”he called again and still got no answer. He carried on in the rough direction he thought the person had been thrown looking for any sign of them when he heard a strange sound off to his right. Gavin snapped his head around to look still feeling spooked by the bull earlier.

  “Hello,”he said unsure,“hello, is anyone there?”

  The sound rose up louder. Gavin wasn’t sure what to make of it.

  Almost like water rushing down a plughole, he thought. Then the noise cut off and a horrible thought crossed his mind.

  What if it’s them, trying to breathe through a mouthful of blood, he thought.

  He swallowed hard.“Hello. Please make a noise if you can hear me. I’ll come to you. Just make a noise.Please!”

  No-one answered him, there wasn’t a sound! He tried looking around but he couldn’t see a thing, and he already felt like he had already lost his bearings. He took another couple of steps and he heard the strange sound again.

  It was fainter this time, further away, it only lasted a few seconds this time but it sounded like it was coming from his left.

  Shit, they’re dying, he thought as the sound tailed off again.

  Gavin started pushing on again calling out.“HELLO! HELLO, WHERE ARE YOU?”

  He yelled out traipsing frantically through the snow until....“Whoa! SHIT! Oomph!”

  Gavin tripped and landed hard.

  Eddy was calling out for him again asking what was wrong, what was happening and he was getting worried. Gavin pushed himself up from the ground with a face full of ash. He shook his head and brushed off what didn’t just fall away.“Shit,”he said to himself rolling over on to his back. He’d belly -flopped hard.He could hear Eddy’s worried calls.

  “YEA,I’m ok,”he managed.“I tripped.”He couldn’t say any more, he was out of breath.

  Trying to breathe normally again grimacing at the pain from his stomach he glanced down at his feet to see what he’d tripped over and saw the hump that he and Eddy had seen from the bus.

  He pulled his legs in and turned towards the hump, he couldn’t make out the shape at all, it didn’t look like anything. He inched closer, images of a dead body ran through his mind and he fought to push them away.Stupid fucking imagination, he thought as he crawled closer to the obscure hump that he was certain wasn’t just another drift.

  He got as close as he wanted to be and reached out and started to brush the dirty snow away wanting to know what it was, and even what the person was doing with it before they were hit by the bus. That noise rose up again in the distance. Gavin flinched and yelled out,“HELLO.”

  He looked around nervously. His imagination showed him images of a badly wounded person suddenly emerging from the murk and falling on him spilling blood from their mouth as they tried to say something....But nothing happened. Damning his imagination he kept on brushing away the black snow. His heart was beating like a drum. He brushed more dirty snow away still not able to see or tell what it was yet. Unsure itwasanything at all Gavin poked his hand in to the dark heap and touched something firm. He pulled his hand back like he’d just been scalded and then with one final sweep of the back of his hand he brushed enough snow away and came face to face with it.

  “ARRRGH, SHIT!” he screamed. He leapt back forcing himself back with all his strength and started kicking with both legs frantically trying to push himself away from it.
>
  “GAVIN?HEY GAVIN, YOU OK? WHATS WRONG?” Eddy started yelling but Gavin couldn’t answer, he opened his mouth to speak but he couldn’t even breathe.

  He stared at the motionless hulk on the ground trying to breathe, sucking tiny amounts of air in to his lungs before it was forced back out again. He could feel that his knees were wet.

  I’ve been kneeling in it, he thought. He rolled away pulled back his mask and puked.

  “Jesus Gavin. Are you alright?”asked Eddy who was now crouching over him with his hands on his knees and panting.

  “What’s happened?”he said, offering Gavin a hand to help him back up. Gavin pointed towards the lump on the ground still lost for words and gasping for breath.

  “You fall over or something?”Eddy asked.

  Gavin nodded lost for words and they moved in closer.

  “Holly shit!” said Eddy seeing it.

  On the ground in front of them was a dead cow, a half eaten dead cow!

  It looked like it had been attacked by something.

  “Looks like a fuckingwolf’sbeen at it don’t it,”said Eddy.

  Gavin only nodded once and then he puked again.

  Eddy looked closer.“What the fuck’s happened to its head?”he said.

  The cow stared blankly in to the ash with lifeless bulging black eyes, a flap of skin pulled back from its scalp lay between them, its forehead had been bashed in, there was a jagged hole punctured right through the bone and Eddy could clearly see the skull where skin and flesh had been torn away, pulled back from the wound.

  “Oh my God! What the fuck was that guy doing! Holy shit!” He said as he laid eyes on the empty skull!

  Eddy looked it over from a distance and walked around the dead animal. The underside of its thick neck had huge gouges out of it and its bloated gut had been torn open all the way from stem to stern and its insides were now strewn across the ground gradually being buried with the ash.

  “You didn’t see this when you were walking?”said Eddy.

  Gavin shook his head.“Not until I fucking fell over it!”

  Eddy nodded thinking for a moment, and after a few seconds he looked up at Gavin and said,“They ran off!”