As the Light Dies

by M. D. Woodham

  “Jeez!”he said,“that was close!”and he sat back down on the seat that was closest to him, wanting to avoid it happening again.

  “See anything?”said Katie as she passed him his boots.

  Steve took them and shook his head.“I’m gonna take a look out of the hatch. Try and get a better look. Were at the wrong angle here for me to be able to see anything.”

  “Is it wise to do that?”said Ken looking worried and doubtful.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll be quiet....”

  “Yea but,”Ken started to cut in, but Steve raised his voice and spoke over him.

  “They couldn’t get us in here earlier, and they won’t now. And besides the whole beauty of this thing is that if it gets too rough, then all we need to do is pull the lever and we’re outa here.”

  “So why don’t we just do thatnowand head for home?”said Ken.

  “Because there might be other survivors,”Steve snapped.“There’s at least one that we know of stuck down that corridor remember? Someone’s stuck down there with those fucking monsters banging at the door.”

  “Yea I know, but you saw how many there were earlier when they called to each other, most of the rig must be infected.Or dead!Going back out there is suicide!”

  Steve didn’t answer. He ignored Ken and headed for the hatch.

  Katie got up and followed him.“I’m coming with you,”she said.

  “Katie,”he started and Katie shot him a look that told him it would be a bad idea to even suggest that she stay behind.

  “Ok,”he said changing his mind quickly as he dug out one of the twin filter gas masks from one of the lifeboat’s safety packs.“Grab one of these,”he said.

  Katie nodded and went searching for one, and as she did she looked over at Ken.

  “I notice you’re not volunteering.”she said.“You should be coming too.”

  She found a mask and set to adjusting the straps to fit her.

  “Uh uh, no way,”said Ken shaking his head.“Like I said, its suicide going back out there. We were damn lucky to make it this far in one piece the first time around.”

  “Someone out there needs our help, and we know it for a fact,”said Katie.

  “No!”said Ken in defiance,“I’m staying here. I’ll be ready with the hatch for you guys coming back.”

  “Wedon’tneed this particular lifeboat Ken. We can jump on any one, you’re just being a coward.” “No I’m not, I’m keeping base is what I’m doing,”he said and then stuttered realising what Katie just said.“Uh! What do you mean you can take any lifeboat?”

  “We’ll jump on the first one we can if we have to,”she said,“andit might not be this one!”

  Ken looked at them both, worried and swallowed hard. Katie looked at Steve,“He should come with us,”she said pointing at Ken.

  “Can’t force him,”said Steve, then he reached up and started turning the locking wheel on the back of the hatch not wanting to waste any more time.

  “This isn’t over,”said Katie,“how are you going to feel sitting next to that person when we get back, with them knowing that you wouldn’t help rescue them. And like I said, that’s if we even make it to this lifeboat. You might be on your own.”

  Ken said nothing, instead he started rummaging through the survival pack under his seat looking for something to eat now he was sure it was ok to make a little noise, even if only for the time being.

  The hatch lock clicked open. Steve looked at Katie and nodded, she nodded back and he pushed the hatch open just enough to peer out. The walkway they’d come along was clear as far as he could see. He opened the hatch a little more trying to look further along the other way. It was clear as well. He looked down at Katie and said,“It’s clear as far as I can see.”

  “How far?”she asked.

  “Five feet, maybe six, max,”he said and then he pushed the hatch all the way open and stepped out and climbed down quietly on to the walkway and waited for Katie. He looked down through the grating at the platform below and quickly looked away fighting the urge to gag.

  He saw several bodies laying there motionless, most were face down with the backs of their heads missing, broken open like a boiled eggs and hollowed out. The ones laying face up had received the same treatment, but didn’t have faces. They’d been ripped off by gouging fingers and gnawing teeth. One face was still nearly intact but it was stretched and twisted like a waxwork gone wrong, lying beside its previous owner tethered by a tiny thread of skin attached to the forehead. Another deformed face, if that’s what it was (Steve was only guessing) blew in the wind. The hollowed out heads were gradually filling up with black snow, collecting it as it fell. Clothes had been torn off and the bodies beneath mauled and devoured. Morsels of flesh clung to exposed bones that were never meant to see the light of day. One man had an open wound in his chest cavity like a meaty window in to his sole. Steve saw something lying semi exposed poking out of him, it looked to Steve like a half eaten lung. The mostly intact face was looking up at him with a look of pain and terror and utter confusion.

  “Steve are you....”Katie started to ask and he waved a hand at her and placed a finger over his mask indicating to her to be quiet. She nodded. Then he pointed down while shaking his head, he didn’t want her looking down and seeing that. She nodded again understanding exactly what he meant and they started back along the platform in search of the open door they’d passed earlier.

  As they passed the other lifeboats and made their way along the ghostly platform they heard noises. Steve imagined that they were chewing, eating noises. He looked down before he knew what he was doing, unable to stop himself and saw that he’d guessed right. He saw three people face down moving around on their hands and knees. He knew they were infected because of their terrible wounds. A shoulder blade was visible on one and some of its upper spine and it was missing both ears.They all were!It turned its head slightly and Steve saw that all the flesh down one side of its face had been torn away exposing its busy jaw. He saw it moving greedily as it pulled meat from the body beneath it and shoved it in to it’s already full mouth. The next one along was showing most of its hip bone and the base of its spine where it had been mauled along with the left side of its stomach. Steve looked at the third figure and saw entrails hanging from its open stomach trailing behind it as it crawled over corpses looking for more pickings. A piece of its stomach moved like a fat sack of cream held in by a papery thin overstretched membrane. It caught on the grating and simply opened up spilling its cloudy white contents out where it ran through the grating and fell to the sea below. That’s when Steve looked away, just managing to hold it together and no more.

  Why the hell did I look down! he thought to himself taking a few deep breaths.

  They continued moving forwards along the walkway and he started to think that Ken was right. Now that it was perfectly clear what the discoloured infected people would do if they caught you, coming out was as good as suicide!

  Katie tapped his shoulder waking him from his thoughts and she pointed. She’d seen the door handle. They walked over quietly and listened. They heard the faint sound of someone crying followed by scratching and slapping and then that damn gurgle. The crying turned to cursing for a few seconds as the person became more desperate.

  It’s definitely a woman, thought Katie.

  “Fuck off! Fuck off you cunts!”came the voice.

  Steve leaned around the door and looked down the corridor. His heart sank when he saw four figures gathered around the door.

  He moved aside so Katie could take a look. After she had, she leaned back and looked at Steve with sad eyes.“What do you think?”he said.

  “We can’t go back now,”she said,“not now that we’ve heard her trapped down there.”

  She leaned back around for another look. She noted that the fire extinguishers were untouched and in place and how many bunk doors were open and how many were closed, potentially hiding surprises for them, and it was then that she saw the fidgeting tors
o on the ground. It didn’t have any legs,or hips for that matter. It was just waiting for the others to break down the door so it could crawl in behind them and eat.

  Have to watch our feet! she thought. Then she leaned back and told Steve.

  “Ok,”he said,“I’m ready to go in.”

  “You do know that we’re gonna have to use considerable force,”said Katie.“I mean like,seriously,hit them. Hit them hard enough to put them down and make them stay down yea.”

  Steve had to think about that for a second. He hadn’t actually thought about that bit yet.

  Then after two long seconds he nodded.“I’m ready,”he said again.

  Katie nodded and said,“Looking at them, I don’t know what we’ll have to do to keep them off us. Going by their wounds and the fact that they’re still mobile I don’t think they feel much pain anymore, if any. And God help us if they’re as fast as that big guy earlier.”She paused and then said,“Steve?”looking right at him.

  “Yea!”

  “We gotta be like caged animals in there, same as them ok. If we don’tkillthem it’s safe to say that they’re gonna kill us, yea!”

  “Yea,”said Steve nodding.

  Katie nodded at him and said,“I’ll go in first. I’m trained in combat, so hopefully that’ll buy you some time if you need it to do what you need to ok. All the fire extinguishers are still in place beside the bunk doors, I’ll take the first one on the left and you grab the one on the right ok. Most of the doors are already open, so we can check those bunks easily, but stay away from the closed ones, we don’t know what’s behind them and we don’t want to stir anything up that we don’t have to ok, and I know it goes without saying but be as quiet as possible. I want to be on top of them before they know we’re even here ok!”

  Steve nodded.“No probs,”he said, and Katie immediately started a count down from three, and in what felt like the fraction of a second she reached the count of one and quickly stepped around the door and entered the corridor. Steve followed glad she was finding herself again, coming to terms with the fucked up situation and taking control. As soon as they entered the corridor, the noise coming from the figures filled their ears, horrible clicking and gurgling sounds bounced around in their heads.

  Steve watched as Katie swiftly unclasped the fire extinguisher she wanted in one silent movement and took it with her. He looked opposite and saw the one he was meant to take just along the corridor.There’s mine,he thought moving on. The shouting and cursing from inside the room was keeping the infected figures occupied, and they carried on battering the door completely oblivious to Steve and Katie. Moving swiftly along Steve reached for the fire extinguisher and pulled it, it didn’t budge.“Shit!”he said under his mask and tugged it again trying not to make any noise, but it still wouldn’t move.“What the hell?”he cursed. He felt hot and clammy, beads of sweat formed on his forehead. He knelt down beside it quickly and pulled as hard as he could but it still didn’t budge!“Move you fucking thing!”he whispered through gritted teeth. He looked down the corridor at Katie who was still moving.

  He wanted to call out to her but knew he daren’t. He looked back at the fire extinguisher and leaned in close to it gripping it hard, about to give it a good tug and he accidentally nudged the door beside him. The door swung open far enough for him to see part of the bunk inside. He held his breath hoping the door didn’t bang against the inside, it didn’t. The bunk was absolutely drenched in blood! The floor was one big red puddle. He saw a person lying on the bunk, naked.

  Steve looked for a second at the still body petrified it was about to get up and attack. He was lower than the bunk and all he could see was an arm lying along its side and the thigh and lower leg. It wasn’t black in any way but it was extremely pale, even almost a milky white. He relaxed.Not infected! he thought.

  He quickly checked on Katie, she was looking straight at him with a look in her eyes that said all it needed to. He quickly tugged the extinguisher again. Still no luck. He tugged again but still didn’t feel any movement.

  “C’mon!”he said under his breath and he tried working it from side to side trying to loosen it and he yanked the nozzle off by mistake and slapped it against the door.

  “SHIT!” he cursed. His breathing sounded thunderous under the mask as he sucked air in and forced it back out leaving him to guess just how loud the slap had been.

  From the corner of his eye he saw the naked leg move.

  Oh no,he thought,what if they make a noise?

  He started to stand up needing to tell them to be quiet and the extinguisher came unhitched. Fucking idiot! he thought remembering that you have to lift and then pull.

  He glanced at Katie. She was on her way back towards him shooting him daggers with her eyes.

  She stopped as he pulled the extinguisher free.At last, she thought.

  Steve was thinking the same thing when he quickly snapped his head around seeing more movement out of the corner of his eye. The naked person was starting to sit up.

  Shit!He thought, I’ve gotta stop them making any noise.He pushed the door open a little further and immediately wished he hadn’t. He nearly swallowed his tongue. The pale milky body was smothered in large black boils that he hadn’t been able to see before, and they’d been badly mauled! The crotch and inner thighs had been devoured like the other bodies he’d seen along with most of the guy’s thick rounded belly and heavy chest, all gone, all the soft fatty tissue. Steve felt acidic bile rising up his throat, burning his throat. He was frozen to the spot. His mind simply jammed up and shut down.

  How can this be happening? How CAN this be happening? WHAT’S happening?The questions spun around his head at the pace of a whirlwind, and the torso slowly rose up off the bed with a series of tiny jerky motions. Steve stared in disbelief unable to move.What the hell!he thought.

  The torso was nearly all the way up, he would see the head. He would see theirface!All twisted and contorted out of shape, or even missing! It was about to come in to view, it was about to look at him!

  Can’t be happening, can’t be happening, CAN’T be happening!he thought.

  The torso was almost vertical when the head suddenly lopped sideways pulled by gravity in to view. Steve stared unable to breathe. The back of the head had been bashed in, then the scalp peeled back and opened up like a rose in full bloom. As the head hung there something moved inside it! It was just visible through the open wound! Steve looked, his heart banging and crashing in his chest, acidic bile burned the inside his throat.But they’re dead,he thought, they’re dead! They’re dead, THEY’RE DEAD! They shouldn’t be moving, this is wrong, this isn’t supposed to happen!

  The body juddered and the head jerked, something sloshed around inside the skull, then slipped out and landed on the bloody floor with a dull splat. Steve was horror struck, vomit dribbled down his chin despite trying his best to hold it in, then Katie suddenly grabbed his shoulder and as she did, she caught sight of the sitting corpse. She looked down at what had just fallen to the floor. She gagged and instinctively reached for the door to close it. As her hand gripped around the handle they both saw the hand of whoever had a hold of the corpse move in to view over the corpse’s shoulder.

  Black gnarly bitten off stubs smeared with blood curled around the corpse’s pale shoulder!

  Before Katie had even started to pull the door closed a face sprung in to view.

  Katie’s heart stopped and Steve flinched back certain he was about to faint.

  The discolouration gave it the look like it had just been dragged from a flaming inferno, the wounds added to the effect. Its nose and both ears and lips were missing.

  It saw them both at the same time and its face, what was left of it tensed up forming a sickening smile for a second before knotting up in to a demonic grimace, then it began to gurgle.

  Katie pulled the door shut as fast as she could, slamming it shut just as the thing crashed against the inside and started squealing like a trapped animal drowning in its
own acidic bile.

  “SHIT!” they both called out together spinning to look back down the corridor.

  Steve choked swallowing vomit and dropped his extinguisher as Katie lifted hers up over her head with lightning reflexes and brought it flying back down with both hands as hard as she possibly could smashing it in to the centre of the crawling torso’s head as it tried to bite her ankle.

  The extinguisher smashed its mutilated face in to the floor.“JESUS!” yelped Steve realising how close she was to being bitten. The other four down the corridor were still beside the door but they’d stopped battering it, they were looking straight at them now. The two freshest looking figures turned and fell in to a sprint straight towards them.

  “OH SHIT!” said Steve.

  “GET READDY!” called Katie recovering her extinguisher.

  Steve couldn’t believe her composure as she held her extinguisher with both hands letting it hang beside her thigh, and then as the first infected guy came within range she leaned over slightly lowering the extinguisher and then launched in to a swing bringing it up and around in front of her burying the extinguisher’s butt into its face cracking bone as it made contact. As its head was forced backwards its momentum carried its lower body forwards and up. Its legs swung up in the air before it fell to the ground with a big dent in its previously almost unmarked face. It landed beside the crawling torso face up. Steve saw the other one coming, it was locked on to him. He jumped in to position copying Katie and tried to pull the same move he’d just watched her pull off. The infected guy was fast and unrelenting. Steve held his nerve not wanting to swing too early and risk colliding with the infected sprinter. He ground his teeth waiting for the right time and then swung. He was sure he’d waitedtoolong now. He squeezed his eyes closed and hoped for an impact,prayedfor it. The infected runner came just within the arc of Steve’s swing at just the right time and the extinguisher crashed against the side of its head and slammed its head against the wall.