As the Light Dies

by M. D. Woodham

  “God!”said Katie.“Hey are you ok?”she asked, dropping back down a couple of steps towards him.

  Ken stayed put on the midway landing, he had a good view of the scene.The whole scene.

  He yelled out,“NO! STOP! GET BACK!”

  He hopped down a couple of steps and grabbed her nearly knocking them both over in the process. He managed to stop them both from falling and he stopped her from dropping any further!

  “JESUS!What’s wrong,”she said.“The guy just fell.”

  She was nearly choking against her collar as Ken pulled her.

  “RUN!” he yelled pulling Katie even harder, trying to pull her back up the stairs with him as the guy on the floor started to sit up.

  Steve who was standing the closest to the man was just beginning to see what was wrong!

  “Oh, shit!”he said,“Ken’s right we’ve gottago!”

  Katie fought to pull Ken’s hands off wanting to help the fallen man while he frantically tried to keep a hold of her. She couldn’t understand him.

  “KATIE!”he yelled.“For fuck sakeRUN!”

  Katie looked at Ken and then at Steve and she couldn’t understand what was wrong with them both.“The man’s covered in blood,”she said,“he needs our help!”

  She looked down at the man trying to assess his wounds knowing that she had to help him and when she looked at him properly, got a real good look at him, a blind panic exploded inside her and she realised how wrong this was!

  She threw Ken off in an instant pushing him back against the banister and bolted back up the stairs in to darkness without looking back. All the commotion caught the attention of the man on the floor who was now sitting up. Steve looked at him hearing Ken behind him shrieking at him to hurry, to“RUN!”

  The guy on the floor turned to look at them, he turned slowly as if he was just realising what had happened after falling through the door, and that there were people watching him. It was Mick the new driller who had barged between Steve and Katie earlier, the big guy that Sandy had first gone on about.

  Steve stared at him in disbelief, unable to take his eyes off him.

  Mick was a strange dark colour, a mixture of black and grey. He almost looked like he’d been charred in a fire!What on earth! Thought Steve confused.

  Mick’s eyes were fixed on him, they gleamed jet black like orbs of darkness. Below them, from his discoloured black lipped mouth all the way down to his huge barrel chest he glistened completely saturated in blood.

  Steve stared dazed as Mick started to try and get up, and that’s when Steve saw that directly in front of Mick hidden behind his enormous bulk, lay a man in his lap with a horrendous gaping wound below his ribcage, Steve saw all the way inside the man’s stomach.What was left of it!

  Katie had been right, he thought as he saw blood flow freely from the opening in the man’s abdomen as the body was shoved out of the way by Mick as he started getting up.

  The more Mick moved the more Steve saw of the body on the floor as it rolled and flopped out of the way and he realised that it was old Bill.

  He gasped, he couldn’t believe it! The questions that needed answered ran through his mind in a flash, there were thousands of them that all screamed to be answered at once!

  Why did this happen? How did this happen?What’s happening?

  He started to shake as his adrenalin surged and he realised that as hard as it was to believe, big Mick had been doing this, he’d beeneatingold Bill. Ken started grabbing at his shoulder, pulling trying to get him to shift before theman thing on the floor was up on his feet. Steve began to stir from his daze like shock and he took one step back, then another, half of his own will half forced by Ken.

  Ken was going hysterical but couldn’t bring himself to drop down any closer.

  “C’MON! C’MON! FUCKING RUN!” he screamed as the thing that was Mick started standing up!

  Old Bill’s limp body lay across Mick’s feet. Mick swung one of his trunk sized legs and kicked old Bill’s limp husk with tremendous force and sent it sliding across the corridor that was now slippery with Bill’s own blood. His body slid all the way across the corridor and thumped against the opposite wall where it lay in all its butchered glory.

  Mick let out that gut wrenching gurgle as he stood up and looked at them. Ken clasped a hold of Steve’s jumper and was yanking him back up the steps as fast as he could.

  “But old Bill!” said Steve.“Old Bill! We can’t just leave!”he said still struggling to get his head around what he was seeing, his eyes still notbelievingwhat they were seeing!Not wanting to believe!

  Mick bellowed as he called out the weird gurgle sound like a gorilla, a giant silverback calling in the troop. Suddenly more discoloured figures appeared in the corridor following Mick’s call. They all shared the same slick black eyes and strange mottled, discoloured skin. Blood was smeared across their faces and soaked their collars, their hands and forearms.

  The two men were horrified, they stumbled backwards up the steps unable to take their eyes off the figures gathering in the doorway until they stumbled up on to the midway landing and the next section of stairway leading back up through the iron giant back the way they had come and that was their trigger to run as even more discoloured figures shuffled in to view.

  Both men turned and ran, they bolted launching themselves up the stairs two or three steps at a time running for their lives. Seconds later they both men felt the thunderous vibration of trampling feet as the horde started their chase!

  Steve and Ken kicked their legs as hard as they could, forcing themselves up the stairs being deafened by the morbid calls rising up behind them.

  As they passed each level Steve was sure he heard new calls rise up somewhere in the darkness.“Where the hell are we going?”asked Ken.

  “Back to the lounge, we’ve gotta find Katie and I bet that’s where she headed.”

  “What if she didn’t go back up there?”

  “Then fuck knows. We’ll have to figure it out!”

  As they ran up the last stairway gasping for air Steve heard the door below them burst open as new figures heard Mick’s battle cry and came looking emitting their own rabid calls in return.

  “Shit they’re fast,”he said as they burst out on to the L-shaped corridor that led back to the lounge.

  They ran for it and as they rounded the corner they saw Katie at the other end up against the lounge doors. They were still closed. She was slapping the doors with both hands screaming and shouting.“Oh shit, that’s not good”said Ken.

  “That fucking prick isn’t’opening the door for us,”said Steve as they closed in.

  The fire door the men had just come through crashed open behind them.

  “Here they come,”said Ken.

  Steve called ahead,“Katie what’s wrong, we’ve only got seconds!”

  Katie turned towards them relieved to see they were both ok but shaking with fear, she called back to them,“He won’t open up.”

  “Ah shit! What now?”said Ken practically out of breath.

  “Fuck knows!” said Steve,“he’gotta open up! Those things are right behind us.”

  Steve and Ken skidded to a stop beside Katie as she hammered the door and Steve slammed his fist against the door making it judder.

  “SANDY!”he yelled. No answer.

  “HEY SANDY! YOU’VE GOT TO LET US IN!” Still no answer.

  Steve hammered the door again and yelled,“YOU’VE GOTTA FUCKING OPEN UP, RIGHT NOW BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!”Still there was no answer.

  “Oh Fuck!” said Ken looking back the way they’d come. Katie turned to look with him.

  She gasped!“Steve we have to go,”she said.

  Steve still hammered the doors!

  “Steve!” she said grabbing his arm.

  Steve didn’t turn; he knew what was happening behind him, what was coming for them. Hearing it was bad enough and turning to stare wouldn’t help things.

  The furious discoloured group were appro
aching fast with Mick leading the way charging ahead of the horde.

  Steve thumped the door again and before he could shout Sandy yelled through from the other side.“I’m not opening up! I told you that, I did. I told you, I told you not to go. I practically begged you, but oh, no you just had to go and grab some attention didn’t you? Bring them....”

  “Sandy please, just open the door, we’ll be in, in a flash and then block the place up again, there’s three of us to help get the job done, c’mon,”called Steve.

  “I’m sorry,”said Sandy,“I’m really sorry, I really am but I can’t open the door now, not now. I can hear them coming. I told you didn’t I.I told you!”

  Steve knew it was no good, the lounge was off limits to them now; he turned around and saw the approaching mass of darkened hate!

  “We’re outa time,”he said.“C’mon,”and he started down the open stairway to their right.

  “Where are we going?”Katie said as she practically jumped down the first flight of steps.

  “Anywhere but here,”he said.

  “Sounds ok to me,”said Ken starting the descent with them.

  They ran down the stairs dropping as many steps at a time as possible while above them they heard the banging start.

  “They’re trying to get in at Sandy,”said Ken almost stumbling.

  Neither Steve nor Katie said anything they just concentrated on getting down the stairs as fast as they possibly could.

  They reached the main deck and came out opposite the ROV control and maintenance area. Katie stopped dead and screamed!

  Right across from them a woman lay draped through the broken window in an office door hanging from her waist with her blonde pony tail hanging in mid air and her lifeless hands lay palms up on the floor. Her back was fully exposed to them with what was left of her kaki green boiler suit hanging from either side torn straight down the middle exposing the torn and shredded flesh beneath. Little pieces of her littered the corridor. Ken put a hand to his mouth.

  “Oh my....”he managed and then he vomited.

  Steve reached out for Katie’s shoulder, as she struggled to get herself under control.

  “Why did they do this, what’s wrong with them, what’s happened?”She pleaded.“This isn’t natural.”

  Steve shook his head lost for words.“I don’t know Katie,”he said as he looked around making sure they were still alone, they were, and for the moment at least no-one was following them.

  Steve looked at the woman, he didn’t know the woman by name but he’d said hi in passing, he knew that Katie had known her a little better he’d seen them chatting from time to time. It was a terrible sight.This is really serious,he thought still trying to convince himself that what he was seeing was real. He thought of old Bill and wondered how he’d ended up like that in Mick’s lap. He hoped that it had been quick end for them, it’s all he could do, although going by their wounds he doubted it very much.

  Katie leaned back against the wall sobbing and Ken put an arm around her as Steve leaned in for a closer look at the woman and in to the office behind her. He had to hold back the urge to gag, the poor woman he thought, her entire back and from what he could see her hips as well along with her upper thighs were a mass of deep gouges, bite marks and even what he guessed were finger marks. Blood was absolutely everywhere, the office behind her was empty but had been turned upside down, and he worried that whoever did this might not be far away.

  “Ok guys c’mon we’re far from safe yet,”said Steve. Ken nodded and then as quick as a flash he reached out and gripped Steve’s arm tight and pulled,hard!

  Katie saw and realised what was happening and she yelped mid sob. Ken reached out to her and pushed her along the wall with his free hand as he pulled Steve with the other.

  Steve glanced over his shoulder to see what Ken had seen and staring straight back at him with those dead lifeless black eyes was the woman. She’d pushed herself up and was looking at them, watching them. Her skin was swollen and blotchy, her bottom lip was missing and one cheek was a mess of flapping tissue. A deep tear in her skin ran up from her mauled cheek passed her eye where her lower eye lid had been torn away and it tapered out over the bridge of her nose. It was hard to look at her. She reached out for them clutching wildly in mid air with gnawed hands and Steve saw that her veins running along her arms stretching back from her wrists were black. She opened her mouth and started croaking, her face twisted and contorted out of shape as if she was about to vomit. She coughed and croaked some more until the sounds gradually morphed into one forming a deep rumbling gurgle. Her throat worked erratically, moving up and down as it started to produce that feral sound and Steve noticed that her upper lip had turned black as she peeled it back in a snarl exposing lumpy black gums!

  “SHIT!” said Steve,“what the fucking hell is this? With wounds like that she should be dead!”

  “We have to try and help her,”pleaded Katie.

  “I don’t think we can!”said Steve.

  The woman started bucking violently, trying to free herself from the window frame. She was agitated and almost seemed to screech that primitive call she’d developed. The three of them ran along the corridor putting some distance between themselves and the woman.

  Ken and Steve dared to look back, Katie couldn’t, she kept looking dead ahead further along the corridor, she refused to look back at Louise.

  “Thanks,”said Steve giving Ken a nod.

  “Not a problem,”he said.

  “I think were gonna have to get off the rig,”said Steve looking back at the mutilated woman thrashing and banging at the door trying to break free.

  “Thank fuck she’s stuck”, said Ken....”

  “They’re our colleagues and they’re sick,” blurted Katie and just as she finishing sayingsick, the door from the stairway pushed open.

  Steve’s eyes widened as the door opened. It opened slowly, almost cautiously. Steve hoped it was another survivor, if that’s what they were now. Then Mick came through!

  He didn’t see them at first. He just stood in the doorway looking at the woman as she thrashed trying to get free. She looked at him almost knowingly.

  “She called him,”Ken whispered.

  Steve nodded.“Back up,”he said and silently they started backing up, moving slowly trying not to draw any attention to themselves as Mick reached out with one of his huge shovel sized hands and grabbed hold of one of the woman’s outstretched forearm and with one big tug he pulled her through the window tearing her stomach wide open on the glass shards that were still lodged in the window frame stabbing in to her abdomen. Her internals began slipping out of her before her body dropped to the floor in a heap on top of her own stomach. Katie was concentrating hard on the ground beside her feet, she couldn’t bear it, and despite not looking, she still saw with her peripheral vision certain movements and actions, and she knew all too well what was happening. Without letting her arm go Mick placed his booted foot across her flesh-stripped back and climbed up on to her and stood between her shoulder blades.

  “Jesus,” whispered Steve under his breath and he and Ken heard her ribs start to pop under the strain. Mick still unaware of them grabbed a hold of her arm with both hands pulling it right round behind her and started pulling. He was using his whole body, pulling as hard as he could.

  The woman’s gurgle turned in to a morbid scream but somehow it sounded more out of frustration than anything else.

  “Why?”said Katie,“We have to do something, we have to help.”

  “It’s almost like she isn’t one of them yet!”said Steve.“She’s not infected enough or whatever the hell they are and he’s treating her like he would us. We can’t help her, not now, c’mon let’s go”

  “Can’t we even try?”pleaded Katie.

  “What’s to save?”said Steve,“she was going to do to us what someone did to her.Is doing to her!”

  Still backing up they turned around and picked up the pace. Katie was going against everyth
ing she knew. She was trained to help a fallen comrade at all costs, not turn around and walk away. She felt ill and faint, weak even which annoyed and unsettled her. She knew that out of everyone on the rig she was military trained and was supposed to be able to cope in any situation under extreme stress, but she wasn’t, she couldn’t it was all just so out of the ordinary and unbelievable, things like this weren’t supposed to happen outside of a horror movie, she just couldn’t bring herself to accept what was going on.

  Ken kept up with the others barely able to breathe, he was too scared to. Steve’s mind swam with images and questions.Old Bill, the woman, big Mick. How that woman had still been alive, had old Bill still been alive as well? Was he infected as well? Is that even what this is, an infection?Then his thoughts turned to his family.How were they copinghe wondered, would they even be able to cope? Is it even like this back on the mainland?Fearing for his family he reminded himself,Ruth’s got her head screwed on, she’ll have her wits about her, they’ll be ok. Ruth will make sure of it, of course she will, she’s determined, she’s smart, she’s a fighter.He told himself the same thing over and over. He had to, because his emotions were close to taking over if he didn’t make himself believe that they were going to be ok.

  They continued onwards without looking back, every step was a step further away from Mick and the woman regardless to what he was doing to her. The sounds were terrible, Mick was grunting and gurgling and she was making a horrible dry clicking sound, she was struggling.

  A shiver passed through Steve, and the hairs stood up on the back of his neck making his shoulders twitch a little. He didn’t like having that thing behind them even though it was busy tearing another one to bits.

  One less to run from,he thought.Maybe they’ll all tear each other to bits in the end!

  He turned around instinctively and his eyes met dead on with Mick’s.