As the Light Dies

by M. D. Woodham

  “C’mon, quickly,”said Katie,“let’s go up to the....”she stopped mid sentence staring in to the dark stairwell faintly lit by dying glow sticks. She hovered for a moment.

  “What is it Katie?”called Steve,“We don’t have time to wait.”

  She turned back letting the door close as calls rang out from somewhere within the stairwell. She ran back towards the two men as they ran towards her with looks of astonishment on their faces as the door exploded open and four mottled, greyish black and horribly mauled figures burst in to the corridor clicking and gurgling. Bright red blood covered their hands up to their elbows, their jaws worked frantically, chewing something. The last one out saw them and pointed, dropping something from its skeletal hand that landed with a splat beside its chewed up toeless bare foot.

  “C’mon!”said Steve.“Cover your mouths!”

  He leapt forwards and pushed open the door to the drill floor and ventured out. Ken and Katie jumped through behind him.

  It was freezing outside and the ash was thick, Ken started coughing badly almost straight away.“Jesus it’s bad,”he said between coughs.

  Steve searched frantically looking all around, grabbing and moving things. He called out to the others,“Look for something to block the d....”he stopped mid sentence when he laid his hands on a shovel. He grabbed it and rammed it face down under the bottom of the door.

  “That’ll hold them back for a few minutes,”he said,“now c’mon, let’s get outa here.”

  Steve led the way across the murky drilling floor hunting for the exit to the outer deck. Then half way across he stopped dead. He’d heard one of those horrible calls, the others heard it too. It sounded close, too close! The three of them looked in all directions petrified expecting a discoloured half eaten figure to burst out of the murk at them, but they couldn’t see anything, the ashy snow was too thick!

  “Where the hell is it?”said Ken whispering.

  It called out again, louder this time.

  “SHIT!” said Ken.

  “Shush!”Steve hissed and suddenly something clapped right beside them in the dark.

  They all flinched looking to see what it was.

  “I can’t see anything!I can’t see anything!” said Ken.

  Katie tugged at him and shushed him as Steve looked around, frantically scanning the immediate area, he felt like his eyes were open so wide that they were going to fall out of their sockets.

  The call came again, they heard it like a slow kluging gurgle. Katie tried to desperately hone in on the sound.

  “Ican’t fucking see!”said Ken,“I just can....”

  Shut up,”said Steve.

  “It sounds like its coming from two different places,”whispered Katie.

  “Yea,”agreed Steve and the door boomed behind them as the other side was bombarded making them all jump.

  “SHIT!We gotta go, we gotta go!” said Ken.

  Steve stayed quiet ignoring him. He looked around trying to focus. He saw the covered over moon pool where the drill passed through the deck and the big tongs used to tighten the sections of drill shaft were lying beside it, but no sign of the thing calling out, yet it sounded like it should be right there. Right in front of them! He looked down through grating but there was nothing there!

  He heard two deep gurgle glug, glug sounds and he thought that it came from behind them.

  “There,”said Katie pointing at the floor.

  “WHERE?I can’t see. Where, where is it, I can’t see!”yelped Ken, getting an elbow in the side from Katie.

  “There’s a puddle of black goo just over there,”she said pointing,“their blood or whatever that black stuff is.”

  Steve tried to see it but couldn’t, he searched the floor all around them and then something fluttered like a bird and he looked up.

  “Oh shit!”he said.“There it is!”

  “What! What’s there? WHERE?” pleaded Ken.

  “Some of that goo,”said Steve,“there’s a line of it hang....”

  “A fucking line!” screeched Ken cutting in.“A fucking line! What do you mean a fucking line?”

  “Oh shit!”said Katie looking up. She managed to catch a glimpse through the ash.

  “Look up you dick,”she barked.

  “Why! What is it, whatIS IT?” pleaded Ken hunching down looking straight down at the floor.

  Steve breathed out heavily and tugged Ken up straight, telling him he could stand.

  “You think we’d just stand here if we were in trouble”he said.

  Ken straightened up slowly and very slowly he looked up at what the others had seen.

  “Oh!”he said.“Holy shit!”

  A few feet above them just out of arms reach was a pair of feet. One was booted, the other one was bare and it had been devoured, gnawed to the bone, dripping long slimy tendrils of black goo as the harnessed figure above them swung back and forth as its rope was caught by the wind higher up the derrick, above the drilling enclosure.

  “He musta still been up there on his perch when the shit hit,”said Steve quickly heading for the exit door. Even though they couldn’t see the figure and it probably couldn’t see them, it growled up there in its sling and kicked its legs every now and then obviously agitated that it could hear them nearby but couldn’t get at them. The door behind them boomed again.

  “C’mon guys let’s go. That door’s gonna open any second,”said Steve spotting the exit. Ken followed right on top of his heels while Katie stared for a moment wondering how long the man would hang up there like that? Would the others try and get him down she wondered or would they maul his other foot and as much of his legs as they could reach while he hung there helpless even though he was clearly infected.

  “C’mon,”said Steve calling her and she left the gurgling pendulum behind. Steve told them to stay close outside, be vigilant, look in all directions and be extra quiet. He said that last bit about being quiet with an emphasis towards Ken before he pulled the door open. Ken understood. First off Steve peeked out, there was nobody there - the steel walkway was clear for all of the five feet in either direction that he could see.

  “C’mon,”he said moving out, and they walked out in to the fierce icy wind leaving the drill floor behind them.

  They walked along the walkway in silence amazed that the wind wasn’t clearing the ash, at least not enough to be able to see further than five feet maximum, sometimes ten but mostly only five.

  The North Sea raged below them out of sight crashing against the rig’s legs. Ken tried his best to stifle his coughs as he followed Steve but the icy wind was making him worse, and every time he coughed Steve expected one of the sick guys to rush through the ash after them, but for the time being they were ok and he was thankful for all the background noise around them from the sea and the wind, but Ken was going to have to get it under control somehow or he was going to land them all in trouble. Leading on Steve headed towards the loading area hoping that they might be able to get over to the QC lab which he knew had its own small cafeteria with its own little kitchen with a stash of food and water. He hoped that if they could get in they could barricade themselves in and wait for a rescue team while they lived off the rations and even tried to figure this shit out.

  They pushed on against the wind as it buffeted them constantly trying to force them back. Lightning struck nearby shooting straight down in to the sea flashing white and blue giving them a glimpse of the raging seas.Fifty foot waves minimum, thought Steve. They only just heard the thunder that followed over the wind whistling passed their ears and the crashing waves beneath them.

  Steve led on moving between a few sets of corrugated shipping containers piled high. It was a welcome break from the battering wind but it was eerie, Ken didn’t like it, he felt closed in and claustrophobic. He couldn’t wait to reach the end which for now was out of sight through the ash. They carried on stepping awkwardly through the black snow that had settled between the containers being quiet and trying not to stumble in
the discoloured snow that had blown along between the containers. When they eventually came out at the other end they saw lightening arc across the sky and hit the top of the rig’s derrick, it illuminated the entire rig for a split second, making everything glow.

  “Don’t touch anything,”said Steve urging them out from between the metal containers just as one of the transformers blew near the top of the derrick sending thick bright sparks flying in all directions like a firework. A split second later another one a little further down blew lighting up the deck with white light.

  “Don’t touch anything,”repeated Steve as another three just out of sight near the engineering section blew up all at once lighting everything up as clear as day for four or five seconds and that’s when Steve saw them.

  Right in front of him and the other two illuminated by the flash was a group of figures hunched over some bodies on the deck. The flash only lasted a few seconds but Steve had seen more than enough. Those seconds felt like whole minutes as he held back the urge to gag while the figures shoved clumps of delicate pink flesh in to their greedy mouths like starved animals. Little red and pink stringy tendrils hung from their discoloured grey and blackened lips and stuck to their fingernails.

  They were eating brains, scooping out people’s heads like pumpkins.

  Where others lay that had met the same fate the crazed figures had moved on to tearing flesh from the body after gorging on the brain. They were going for the fleshiest parts first turning over their victims and gorging on the thighs and arse before turning the body’s back over and going for the genitals and the stomach, tearing handfuls of deep red muscle tissue and white body fat through wounds they were opening with their teeth.

  Some just buried their greedy mouths in to the raw flesh not bothering with their hands at all, making the bodies shake and twitch as their mouths worked savagely opening and closing fast. Gouging out flesh digging deeper and deeper with their teeth. One limp body Steve saw shook and twitched as it was being eaten, one crazed guy had buried his face in to the dead man’s genitals and inner thighs gouging out great chunks of soft tissue while another repeatedly punched through a hole in the guy’s skull like he was trying to mulch the brain. Pink slop spilled over the edges and ran down in to the victim’s hair, and just as the light from the exploding transformers began to burn themselves out, the victim opened its eyes and looked straight at Steve!

  One eye was black and shiny but the other one was only black in the corner near the nose like it was bloodshot with black ink. The rest of the eye was grey with the ghost of a pupil just visible under the muddy surface. Its lips and mouth started to twitch and shake and it opened its mouth wide and gurgled!Even in this state it wants to get at us,thought Steve, how on earth can we possibly stop them whatever they are.

  Then they were plunged back in to darkness!

  As soon as that one called out, all of the cannibalistic figures stopped eating and mutilating, and they looked up, and in turn they all started to growl and gurgle. They’d been spotted.

  “Go back! Go back. Quick! Hurry!”said Steve pushing the others back as he fought the urge to gag.

  Ken and Katie both started to trace the side of the containers going back the way they’d just come oblivious to what Steve had seen, but hearing that they were in trouble.

  They weren’t going fast enough. Steve could feel the infected bearing down on him, thumping against the sides of the containers as they chased after them. He only hoped Ken didn’t stop at the end of the containers to think where to go next, if he did he was done for.

  Steve tried to up the pace. He bolted up as close behind Katie as he could and said,“C’mon guys hurry the fuck up they’re right on top of me!”

  He wasn’t wrong. Their silhouettes were visible through the ashy snow just feet behind him when he glanced back. Katie let him pass telling him to take the lead and he managed to squeeze by Ken and take the lead and straight away the three of them sped up and started to pull away from their chasers.

  They came racing out from between the containers, Steve led them on without hesitation bolting straight across the deck and around one of the rig’s cranes towards the helicopter landing platform.

  They raced passed safety barriers, railings and sections of pipe as they ran through the blinding ash trusting Steve’s lead as the sounds grew louder behind them.

  “Hurry!”said Ken trying to breathe and cough at the same time practically choking himself. Steve saw the bright yellow on black warning strip come through the fog to his right indicating one of the stairways that led down to the warren of maintenance walkways that ran between the rig’s legs below decks and he headed straight for them.

  “C’mon we’ll cross to the other side from underneath,”he said.

  They started to drop down the steps taking two at a time when shadowy forms appeared in front of Steve. They were silhouettes, heads and shoulders, four of them at first, then five, then six, and then eight all coming up the steps towards them, following the sounds the others were making behind them. They caught sight of Steve, opened their mouths and started to gurgle. It was a shocking scene, and a shiver ran down Steve’s spine as he spun around.

  “NO!” he said.“Back up. Back up!” he said diverting them back up towards the main deck.

  “Holy shit!” said Ken seeing the silhouettes coming up behind Steve, they heard him and instantly picked up their pace. Steve wanted so much to grab Ken by his collar and scream at him to shut the fuck up but luckily for Ken there was no time. Instead he ignored him and kept on running full pelt praying he didn’t run in to anything.

  They ran along the deck towards the base of the accommodation module, they heard the two groups join up behind them, the strange calls intensified like they were shouting at each other.

  Steve and the others darted behind some wooden crates. Steve looked back across the deck trying to see if the rabid figures were locked on to them. At first he didn’t see anything through the ashy fog.... When he did he saw that they were coming straight for them.

  Before he even had time to mutter a curse to himself, Ken blurted,“OH, GOD! OH GOD, THEY’VE SEEN US. THEY’RE COMING!”

  “Ken! Shut you’re fucking mouth,” snapped Katie.“We can’t hide with you shouting out all the time!”she said saving Steve the job. They jumped up again and legged it further along the base of the accommodation module. Steve hadn’t a clue what to do next. The rig was overrun!

  They ran through the ash dodging obstacles at the last second hidden in the ash until Steve came to a shuddering stop.“What the hell....”started Ken and was cut short by Steve who just needed to look at him. Then he pointed forwards and Ken saw three horribly mauled figures doing horrible things to a fresh victim just ahead of them. He clamped his mouth shut and had to try his best to swallow another cough. He watched mesmerised as they stretched and tore the scalp away from a blonde woman’s forehead using her long blonde hair for leverage to expose the fractured skull beneath. Bile rose up his throat and he felt weak and dizzy. There was a fire extinguisher beside them, blood and flesh clung to its base. Katie saw it too.They’re not stupid, she thought, and asked,“What do we do now?”

  Steve was looking all over for a way out of their situation when Ken surprised them both and said,“UP!”and he started to climb up over the safety barrier along their walkway and grabbed on to the bottom edge of the walkway above them that they could see was clear and started climbing.

  Steve was shocked that Ken had actually come up with something useful, he gave Katie a foot up behind Ken, then followed. They climbed as fast and as quietly they could. The frantic feral group chasing them were there in a second and mistook the group of three feasting figures for them instead, and ran right by Steve’s dangling legs as he struggled to pull himself clear.

  Steve pulled his legs up and rolled away from the edge and Katie helped him on to his feet. He nodded his thanks at her and held a finger over his lips for Ken’s benefit. He nodded. They stood in pla
ce for a minute and watched as just below them dozens of figures fought over the dead woman. They weren’t kind to each other. Seven or eight of them were knocked over the safety barrier in to the sea while others were pulled to pieces in the frenzy to get at the dead woman’s flesh.

  It was an unbelievable sight both sickening and terrifying to watch. The sheer ferocity of their attacks was horrific, even against each other, but Steve noted that they didn’t actually bite each other in their attacks. He looked around and suddenly realised where they were.

  God, why the hell didn’t I think to come here first, he thought.

  He shot an excited glance at Katie.“What?”she mimed shrugging her shoulders.

  He leaned towards her and whispered,“I think we’re near the lifeboats!”

  Katie’s eyebrow’s rose and Ken’s eyes nearly popped out on stalks.

  “You thinking what I am?”said Steve grinning.

  Katie nodded and said,“Sure am.”

  They started walking along the walkway being careful not to draw any unwanted attention to themselves, they didn’t know if they could climb and the sight of the bloody fire extinguisher by the dead woman was evidence enough that they were thinkers despite their lack of vocal ability.

  The sounds rising up through the grating were sickening, each of them could easily imagine what the sounds were as the poor woman was consumed just feet below them. Ken couldn’t help himself imagining himself pulling the skin off a roast chicken for Sunday dinner, that was at first, before his imagination turned things around and showed him bony black jittery hands pulling and tearing skin from someone’s genitals, peeling back the stretchy skin revealing fresh pink tissue beneath. He felt queasy and faint. He tried to think about riding his motorbike to get rid of the images but it only half worked, one second he was revving the guts out of his bike, the next he was holding pieces of raw flesh in his hands, human flesh.