As the Light Dies

by M. D. Woodham

  Gavin stopped and looked.“Oh shit!”he said under his breath as he searched the hazy athletics field below. He saw what it was and he pointed out the window.“LOOK!” he blurted.“HOLY SHIT, LOOK!” All of them looked out to see what had caught his and Sam’s attention.

  “Oh shit!”said Keith“is that one of....”

  “Yea,”said Gavin,“that’s one of them.”

  As they watched searching for gaps in the ashy snow a silhouette raced towards the building at incredible speed. They all saw it and they watched as it disappeared beneath them out of sight.

  “Where?”started Ann....

  “They’re after us,”said Gavin,“after me. After everyone!”

  “Well you fucking led them here!” snapped Keith.

  “HEY!” snapped Dean.

  “There’s another one, look.Look!” said Ann pointing.

  They all looked following her outstretched arm and index finger, and sure enough they all saw another figure running through the ash straight towards the building following the same track as the first one. As they tried to follow it through the snow another two appeared right behind it.

  “They musta’broken the fence,”said Gavin.

  “WHAT!”blurted Keith “HOW!”

  “Force by numbers probably,”said Gavin,“they’ll be trying to break in next.”

  Before Gavin even finished saying the word next, an almighty crash erupted somewhere below them! They all jumped!

  “C’mon,”said Dean, and he took off towards the ramp with Sam by his side and Gavin and Ann close behind.

  “Wait, uh, where are you going?”asked Keith.

  Dean called back without slowing down or looking back,“We gotta stop them getting in.”

  Keith didn’t like the idea of going down the ramp towards the source of the banging. He thought that they should be running away from it. But not wanting to be left behind he hesitantly followed them. The crashing noise was loud and frantic. Ann broke out in goose bumps as a chill passed through her. Dean tried to look over the thick banister down at the lower level as they ran, there was nothing to see. They weren’t in yet.Thank God,he thought. They reached the bottom of the ramp turned around on to the top of the lower ramp and stopped. Dean looked down the ramp, searching the lower level but because of the angle that they were at and the darkness he couldn’t see anything so he started down the ramp.

  “Dean?”Ann started to ask wide eyed.

  “Hang on,”he said cutting her off,“just wait there for a sec ok.”

  He stopped again at the halfway point and crouched down to give him a better viewing angle to see the lower level. Sam stood beside him hackles up growling loudly. The crashing and banging wasn’t coming from the row of glass doors like he thought it would be. He looked at Gavin and frowned. Ann called down to them,“C’mon guys let’s go. I don’t like this.”

  “Yea c’mon Dean lets go, let’s get outa here,”added Keith standing a few feet behind her.

  “Go where?”said Dean,“hiding won’t stop them from getting in....”

  An almighty slap made them all jump, and Sam let out a deep bark.

  “What the hell!”said Gavin turning to look at Dean.

  Dean racked his brain trying to thinking as fast as he could. There was another loud slap followed by a creaking sound!“SHIT!”said Dean, and he took off again, running all the way down to the lower level and along the wide corridor with Sam bounding along right beside him and Gavin keeping up behind.

  “They’re at the weight-room fire doors,”yelled Dean.

  Keith heard and blurted,“Oh SHIT!”knowing he was right. He stayed put not sure whether to follow or not, or even to run the other way. Ann watched the two brothers disappear down the ramp in to darkness and thinking that there was strength in numbers she ran after them.

  “Ann! What the hell!”Keith blurted shocked and scared.“Ann, stop. What the hell are you doing?”And then before she even answered he said to himself,“Oh shit!”and took off after her calling for her to wait for him.

  “Have the doors been fixed?”asked Gavin remembering that the weight-room doors were in poor repair when he worked there.

  “No,”said Dean,“it still keeps getting put off.”

  “Oh shit!”said Gavin,“I hope the weight-room’s locked then!”

  “So do I,”said Dean.

  As the two brothers ran flat out along the corridor Dean glanced at the viewing doors along the back wall. He could see dark smears all over the windows.They tried the fire doors,he thought and then he turned off the main corridor and ran down the steep narrow ramp that led down to the Olympic style free weights only room, an extension to the gym above, the room where the big guys trained. Dean saw the wooden door at the bottom with its small square shatterproof window, it was closed, but that didn’t mean it was locked. He wished that management had fixed the damn weight-room fire escape properly instead of just botching it every time.“Everything in there’s too heavy for anyone to steal,” the managers use to joke. They reasoned that, as long as the door up to the gym and the door in to the main corridor are locked no-one will get in to the main building.

  The frame had been weak for a long time and was practically held in place by putty.

  Dean knew that it wouldn’t take long to break in through them, especially at the rate they were going at. The loud claps continued although now they were loud thumps and the sound of creaking wood was more frequent. Dean skidded to a stop at the weight-room door with his foot pressed against the base. He peered in to the room grabbing the handle, he couldn’t see anything. It was pitch black. More claps and creaks sounded through the darkness, and the morbid calls were almost at shrieking pitch.

  “Is it open?”asked Gavin as he skidded to a stop as Dean turned the handle and pulled the door open.

  “SHIT!” gasped Gavin and Sam howled and scratched at the door.

  Dean nudged Sam back with his knee closing the door and fished his keys out of his pocket and started trying them. It was too dark to tell one key from the other so he fumbled with each one.

  As he desperately tried keys they heard the loudest creak ever as the wooden fire doors cried out under strain.

  “Shit Dean,C’MON!” said Gavin.

  “I’m trying man I’m trying!”

  Ann was scared rigid. Halfway up the ramp behind them and behind her at the top of the ramp standing in the main corridor was Keith trying to look in all directions at once. The doors that they could hear being assaulted suddenly let out an almighty cracking splitting sound and the excited calls raging from the other side sounded much clearer. Sam’s growl turned in to a savage bark and he scratched at the door again.

  “Here they come man,”said Gavin,“they’re coming in any second now, they’ve broken the door or the frame or something. Find that fucking key Dean.”

  “I’m fucking trying Gavin. It is pitch fucking black you know.”

  There was a loud ear popping crunch from the weight-room. Sam whined and scratched the door again and then both brothers heard the satisfying click as the key Dean was trying fitted the lock. Dean locked the door and stepped back.

  “Thank fuck for that,”said Gavin backing up with him.

  Dean pulled Sam back telling him that it was ok, the door was locked, that it was ok, trying to calm him down, but he still growled and whined. The cracks and snapping sounds continued, louder than ever!

  “Do you think that door will hold guys?”said Ann who was now right behind them. She and Keith had crept up on them without them realising.

  “I don’t know but it’s better than nothing,”said Dean. He just finished speaking when the fire-doors finally let go. They burst open in a spray of needle like splinters flying through the air. The group jumped and all four gasped at the same time. The calls reached an almost unbearable crescendo and then died off.

  Sam went quiet then, listening intently. The group heard rapid scurrying sounds on the other side of their door in the darkness.

/>   “Oh shit what’s….” Keith started to say and Gavin told him to shush.

  They listened. All their eyes were fixed on the small square window.

  Gavin whispered,“We should go now. The longer they’re not trying to break through this door the better.”

  Gavin looked at Dean and nodded back up the ramp indicating that they should head back up. Dean nodded in agreement and then the doorBOOMED as something rammed it from the other side. They all jumped and Keith who was already semi-crouching fell flat on his back and bumped his head. Ann helped him back up as they moved back and the door boomed again.

  Sam pounced into action leaping away from Dean barking madly at the door and scratching it to bits with his front paws. Dean hurried after him and grabbed his collar to pull him away and as Dean wrapped his fingers around Sam’s collar a face slammed against the small window staring right at him!

  Ann cried out in terror slapping her hands across her mouth and she looked away.

  “Oh my God,”said Keith,“are they all like....”

  “Yea,”said Gavin.

  Staring back at them with featureless black eyes and discoloured black and grey blotchy skin was Brian.

  Ann whimpered,“Oh my God, I can’t believe it! What’s happened to him?”

  Dean looked on in silence slowly pulling Sam away from the door. Brian grimaced bearing his teeth and for a moment it looked like a sick psychotic smile.

  Dean tried to speak to him. He said,“Brian, are you ok? Where have....”

  Brian started to gurgle! He made that sound that Gavin had described, the sound they’d been hearing through the murk wondering what it was, while all of them doubted Gavin’s story. The realisation that his tale might actually be true made the discovery even more shocking for everyone. Brian bit at the glass his blackening yellowish teeth banged and scraped on the glass. Ann couldn’t watch anymore, hearing was more than enough for her, and she started to climb back up to the main corridor with Keith.

  “How?”she murmured,“How can this be?”

  Gavin reached out to Dean as others started to thump against the door beside Brian.

  “C’mon!”he said,“We gotta go.”

  But Dean was in a trance watching Brian repeatedly slam his face against the glass seemingly void of any pain, viciously snapping at them over and over. Both of his lips burst open and he repeatedly bit down on them as they flapped and got in the way of his gross teeth. He tore most of his lower lip clean off within seconds completely oblivious to doing so, and horrible black goo smeared across the glass.So that’s what it is, thought Dean remembering the smears across the glass in the viewing doors. The door boomed again, and then again, and again. Dust fell down between the frame and the wall on the impact.

  “C’MON!We gotta go man, c’mon!”said Gavin giving Dean a firm tug bringing him around.“They’re doing their best to bringthisdoor down now. We gotta go,”he said.

  Dean turned away from the window and looked at the others; their faces were pure white, and they visibly shaking waiting for him to tell them what to do.

  “Let’s go,”he said and they let him pass giving him the lead. Sam reluctantly left the door and trotted along just in front of Dean.

  “We’ll head up to the offices on poolside,”said Dean,“we’ll try and buy some time, but we can’t stay here. We need to be ready to take off at a moment’s notice.”

  They hurried back up to the top of the weight-room ramp and as they approached the top they all heard the unmistakable chink, chink, chink, of something hitting glass.

  “Shit, they’re at both sets of doors,”said Gavin.

  “Don’t look!”said Dean,“just head straight for pool side guys, ok. Don’t look!”

  Dean broke his own rule straight away and stole a glance as he reached the top of the ramp in front of the others. He wanted to see them, a whole person instead of just a head. He waited all of two seconds before a black silhouette burst through the ashy snow like it was a thick smoke and crashed against the doors!

  Black goo squirted out from its head as it burst its lips and broke its nose, it was followed by another one to its right and then another, and another. He couldn’t see if they were men or women but he was sickened by the ferocity and relentlessness of the attack. He hadn’t fully believed his brother’s story before. But he was coming around to the idea and he was sure the others were too. Right now though one thing was certain, and that was that whoever they were, and whatever might be wrong with them, they wanted to get in, no matter what!

  The others obeyed Dean and didn’t dare look back, Ann didn’t need telling in the first place, nor did Ken and Gavin had seen plenty to know what was happening. They ran up the ramp through the dark leisure centre and out of view as clogged-up throats screamed after them.

  Dean lead them passed the abandoned reception and on up towards the Relaxation Suite and the offices. Guilt filled his stomach like he’d eaten a block of lead. He felt like he’d failed Brian by not being able to find him and help him.What the hell happened to him,he wondered,and where are the other two guys?As they reached the top of the ramp Dean hesitated before rushing in to the offices, he glanced around and said,“We should stay out here.”

  “What! No! We should barricade ourselves in to one of the offices,”said Keith.

  “No,”said Dean,“I don’t think that’s the best thing to do. Think about it, out here we’ve got good views over the pools, the ramps and reception. And look at the view we might get of the outside if the ash clears.”He pointed towards the giant wall of windows around the leisure pools.“Plus out here we’ve got options to get outa here if we need to run. More options than if we barricade ourselves in to one room.”

  “He’s right,”said Gavin butting in,“I’m staying out here. If we barricade ourselves in to one of those offices then we’re stuck fast. You just saw that those things don’t give up once they see you....”

  “They’re people,”said Ann.

  “Yea, whatever,”continued Gavin,“but there’s something seriously wrong with them. Remember the house I hid in with those poor people inside and then poor Eddy on the bus.”

  “Should we go back and try to reinforce the weight-room door then?”said Ann.

  Dean shook his head.“No, we’ll just stir them up even more if they can see us. We’ll barricade the doors across to the dry side by Reception. We won’t be going back over that side now. That side of the building is lost to us now.”

  Gavin nodded and said,“Sounds good to me.”

  “What about getting out of here,”said Ann,“I need to get back home I need to get back to my kids and Tim.”

  Dean nodded at her and said,“Yea me and Gavin will want to do the same, we haven’t had time to talk about it yet but I want to leave for mum and dads first thing in the morning if we can and Ken will want to get back home as well.”

  “Yea, definitely,”said Ken.

  “Ok then,”said Dean,“how about we all aim to leave in the morning? If we get to stay the whole night that is.”

  Gavin nodded in agreement and Ann said that it sounded ok to her.

  “Good,”said Dean looking at Ann,“you and Keith both live close together over the east side of town, so me and Gavin could take a little detour with you two to help you both get at least halfway home ok.”He glanced at Gavin who nodded in agreement. He looked back at Ann and continued,“We’ll be stronger and safer in a group, strength in numbers and all that, then when we get so far we’ll split up and head off in our own different directions and go home.”

  “What about thosethingswhatever they are?”blurted Keith,“how are we gonna deal with them?”

  “We’ll figure something out,”said Gavin.

  “Hmm,”said Keith screwing his face up, he wasn’t too sure about that nor was he sure about staying out here in the Relaxation Suite. He didn’t like it but he went along with it for the time being, and set to work with the others barricading the doors by Reception....

  CHAPTER
21

  After hours sitting in silence cooped up inside the big orange capsule swaying in the wind, Steve was the first to risk talking. The noise from the deranged figures had all but stopped. Only the occasional clicking gurgle sound could be heard over the wind, so in a hushed tone he said,“That was fucking mental! What the hell do you thinks happened?”

  He looked at the other two. Katie glanced at Ken and he shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. She looked back at Steve.“I’ve got no idea,”she said,“but what I just saw isn’t natural! This just shouldn’t be happening! People changing colour, looking like they’ve been tie-dyed with charcoal, and thenfuckingeating each other! Who fucking knows? Something very bad has happened somewhere. Onebigpile of shit has hit the fan somewhere.”

  “What if it is the ash,”said Ken,“I mean, I know that if it is, then we must be immune or something and the radio operator guy back in the lounge....”

  “Well therewereother people that weren’t infected, if that’s what they are. Infected you know!”said Katie. Ken nodded and said,“Going by what the radio guy said....”

  “Sandy,”said Katie.

  Ken nodded and carried on,“Going by what Sandy said there were quite a few people in the canteen that weren’t infected or whatever. At least they weren’t infected right away, but then they were attacked.”He paused for a moment thinking about it and then said,“God, I can’t believe I’m even saying this. Infected people killing other people on the rig. It’s like some shitty horror movie or something. This shit just doesn’t happen in real life for fuck sake! God only knows what’s happening on shore?”

  “Don’t even go there,”said Steve,“I’ve got a wife and kids back home.”

  “So do I. Well,I’ve got a kid anyway, I’m separated,”said Ken.

  Steve sighed, and started to slide his boots off.

  “What are you doing?’said Ken.

  “It’ll minimise the sound of me moving around,”said Steve, and before Ken could protest he got up and started making his way up to the entry hatch. He had to push off the seat backs almost using them like a ladder because of the pitch of the lifeboat. He reached the hatch and looked through one of the little portholes there but it was no good, the angle of the lifeboat wouldn’t let him see the rig. All he saw was a wall of ash. A strong gust of wind shook the capsule nearly knocking Steve over, he wasn’t ready for it. He reached out fast and grabbed a handle just managing to stay up while the other two held on to their seats.