As the Light Dies

by M. D. Woodham

  The infected man still tried to get up despite Andy hitting him with as much force as he could muster. He brought the pole down again putting the man back down and then he quickly hit him again before he even had time to move, and then again and again.

  Leann looked away, she just couldn’t watch.“He’s gonna kill him Collin. He’s gonna kill him,”she said.He’s going to kill that man!”

  “I think he has to. I mean, I don’t think he really has any choice!”said Collin, and seeing that Andy was doing ok with the pole, he took the fake plant pot back over to the doors and wedged it back in place without so much as a glance at the little windows and the tormented faces beyond.

  Finally Andy stood over the man gasping for breath and he looked down at him. His head twitched and his eyes flickered. He rolled his featureless eyes towards Andy and bared his teeth, he clicked a couple of times before the sound coming from his throat turned in to that horrible gurgle and he started opening his mouth wide in a slow controlled movement before snapping it closed again as he twitched his head towards Andy. The rest of his body was limp and broken and lay in a tangled inky black heap but he still wanted to bite Andy.

  “LOOK!” Andy said to the others.“Come and LOOK!He’s still trying to get me. Or one of you two! Any one of us would do. And look at his blood, its black. That’s what that black gunk is. It has to be! They’re all the same, they all bleed black! Something drastically wrong has happened somewhere for this to happen. Were in big trouble! All they want to do is tear us apart. They want to fucking eat us, all of them do.It’s all they want to fucking do!” He paused for a second and looked around. He looked at the mess, he looked at what he’d done.“That’s why I had to do this Leann. You saw how hard it was to stop him. Christ I still haven’t stopped him, look at him, he’s still moving, still wants a chunk of me.”

  Just then the man spat at Andy spraying his face with black specks!

  That was it!

  Andy raised the bar once again and brought it down squarely across the man’s forehead.

  The bar smashed through bone and tissue and silenced the man!

  Leann ran passed crying, without looking. She held a hand up to the side of her face to hide the view as she rushed towards the doors at the other end of the overpass that led in to the Eastgate Shopping Centre.

  Collin walked over to Andy.“You ok?”he asked.

  Andy looked up slowly and Collin saw there were tears running down his face.

  “I can’t believe I did this,”he said, then he looked back down.“Look at this. Look what I’ve done! What the hell’s happened?”

  Collin nodded uneasily.“You did what you had to do! We’ve all seen what they can do! You saved us Andy.”

  Andy shook his head and said,“C’mon, we still gotta get through in to next door.”

  The three of them took turns with the bar trying to break through the doors in to the shopping centre, and it was proving harder than Andy had hoped it would.

  They were all exhausted after a long day and their escape from the supermarket, but they kept at it. They had to! They each took turns to give each other a break and Collin was starting to wonder if they were going to manage to break through. He watched as Andy took his turn, struggling with the doors, prying and levering the pole repeatedly having no effect. He wondered how long the doors behind them would hold up, with all the infected pushing against them, desperate to get in at them. He dared to look back at them. They were constantly shoving each other out of the way to get a look at them through the small square shatterproof windows.

  The little square windows were smeared with black fluid that they’d all agreed must be blood. One discoloured face after another pressed up against the little windows peering in at them like they were prey caught in a trap! One face slammed against the little piece of glass and seemed to look right at Collin! It locked eyes with him which was terrifying because Collin was sure that it didn’t have any. He’d seen enough, he turned back around leaving the infected to rage on and pound the doors screeching their clogged calls.

  “GOT IT!” shouted Andy straining to hold the bar in between the doors as he tried to prise them open.

  “YES!” yelped Leann, jumping over to help.

  “C’mon Andy you’ve nearly got it, keep going, keep going,”she said helping him push as Collin joined them, and that’s all it took.

  As soon as Collin joined in they all heard a loud crunch and the door simply pushed open. Leann burst in to the Eastgate Shopping Centre and stepped to the side and out of view from the infected. She was relieved to be out of their sight and away from the one that Andy had killed. She took a deep breath and let out a long sigh. She didn’t like being observed, especially by people that wanted to eat her. Knowing they were watching her every move with their beady little black eyes had weighed her down. It had gotten to all of them.

  “Thank God,”she said taking another deep breath, as Andy and Collin pushed the door closed behind them.

  Andy looked at Collin and said,“We need to barricade the doors.”

  Collin nodded and looked around the place searching for something they could use right now.

  The place was clean, totally untouched. Leann wandered over to the balcony and looked down in to the internal courtyard and at the other levels below. They all knew that if there were any infected people loose in the shopping centre, that all the noise they’d made trying to open the doors would have drawn them out, but she wondered if there were any stuck behind counters, or locked in offices.

  “Do you think there could be any sick peoplestuckin here somewhere?”she asked.

  Andy shrugged his shoulders.“I don’t know. Could be. We’ll have to be extra careful opening every door. We’ll stay together all the time, until we suss the place out ok. Now, first things first, let’s block the doors.”

  Andy approached one of the long white marble troughs filled with imitation flowers that sat at the top of the escalator. Collin had already tried moving one but couldn’t manage on his own.

  “It’s way too heavy for me,”he said as Andy walked over.

  Andy nodded and said,“Good, just what we need,”and they set to moving the heavy chunk of marble. Both of them had to use all their strength and their combined weight to slide it across the floor. They gouged deep grooves out of the linoleum floor as they pulled and pushed it in to position and once there they set to moving the second one as Leann dragged a couple of benches over for good measure and some stray rubbish bins.

  “That’ll do,”said Andy standing back.“It’ll hold them back long enough for us to know that they’re here. Hopefully we’ll find something else to use when we look around.”

  “There’s more of those marble trough things on the next level as well,”said Leann.

  “Oh yea,”said Collin,“you gonna carry them up the stairs?”

  “I was just saying,”

  “Ok you two,”Andy cut in.“C’mon. Let’s go and see what we can find,”he said as he started walking.“Look out for any current newspapers or magazines that might be lying around. We might learn something new about all this. We might even find other people in here doing the same as us.”

  “Wouldn’t they have come to help us?”said Leann.

  Andy shook his head.“Probably scared we were a group of sick people trying to get in.”

  “Oh, yea,”she said feeling a little silly for not thinking of that already. She followed Andy the rest of the way in silence as he led her and Collin through the dark shopping centre to the wide, glass sided flyover that passed over the eastern trunk road into and out of Inverness that passed along in front of the supermarket.

  Leann stopped and gasped looking down at the front of the supermarket.

  The view was faint and fuzzy but it was clear what they were looking at. There were dozens and dozens of cars just sitting there with bonnets up and doors open, even boots.

  Dark shapes were lying around them, and in them!

  “Do you think
they’re, dead?”asked Leann.

  Andy nodded slowly, watching until there was movement near one of the cars.

  “Look! Look!Over there,”said Leann pointing.

  Andy and Collin looked and they both saw it.

  There was a car, probably a jeep of some kind sitting with its bonnet and all its doors open, and beside it one of the dark shapes was moving!

  “There’s someone down there,”said Leann,“We have to go and help them!”

  “Hang on a minute,”said Andy,“we can’t see enough to know if they’re sick or....”he stopped mid sentence as the figure they were trying to watch suddenly rushed over to another car. It paused for a moment before rushing to another car where it started to pull something out of it.

  “What’s it....”started Leann, and then she saw!

  They all did!

  The figure they watched through the murkiness pulled a silhouette from the car, another person.“They’re trying to help!” said Leann pleading, when from out of nowhere another figure came rushing in to view and stopped the figure they were watching. It looked like they were starting to fight!

  “What’s going on?”said Leann.

  Andy just shook his head in response as the wind rushing passed the flyover carrying the sound of their feverish calls up to them.

  “Oh!” she said and looked away as several more hazy figures all seemed to pop up at once, and they all rushed towards the previous two! Even though the view was poor it was obvious that they were all infected and the first one they had been watching had found someone hiding in one of the cars.“Oh, shit!” said Collin,“this shouldn’t be happening. It’s wrong. It’s all just wrong! If this is some biological attack I hope we nuke the bastards!”

  “Who knows,”said Andy,“whatever it is it’s not....”he was cut short by Leann calling out.

  “Look at this!”she gasped pointing out the opposite side of the overpass in to town.

  Andy and Collin hurried over to look and clearly visible right below them, facing them, was a single deck city bus. It had jumped the curb and crashed in to a bus shelter shattering its windscreen and practically flattening the shelter and the street lamp that stood behind it. The lamp leaned over at a steep angle, so steep that it looked like it had been frozen in time, in mid fall.

  “Wow!”said Collin.

  As they looked around, beyond the bus they saw a row of abandoned taxis further along with their doors open and bonnets up, and just beyond them only just visible from time to time on the other side of the street was another vehicle that looked like it might be a 4x4, had crashed in to the side of a key cutting shop. Andy thought that the scene looked like an apocalyptic movie set.

  “SHIT!” said Collin,“look at the bus. Look at the bus!”

  Andy and Leann looked but couldn’t see anything. Nothing had changed. Collin shuffled along the glass so that he was as close to the bus as he could be and he crouched down peering under the hand rail.

  “There look,”he said,“oh my God look!The driver’s still in the cab!”

  Leann stopped in her tracks lifting both hands to her face, she couldn’t bear to look.

  “HE’S MOVING!” cried Collin.

  “WHAT!” said Leann moving a little closer. Andy looked down at the cab but couldn’t see anything no matter how hard he looked all he could see was the dirty ashy snow filling the cab now that the windscreen had gone; that was until something moved!

  He hurried over beside Collin trying to get a better look, then he gasped taking in a sharp breath.

  “I can see him,”he said.

  “Me too,”said Leann looking over his shoulder, curiosity getting the better of her.

  Behind the steering wheel something moved up and down in the shadows.

  “He’s stuck,”said Leann.

  “Do you think....”Collin started saying when the thing they were watching moved upwards and this time, instead of only rising so far and falling back down again it kept on going, it kept on rising further and further up. None of them could move as they watched, as the driver was about to break free and reveal himself.

  “Ah!”said Andy,“it’s just a dog you idiot.”

  Leann exhaled a sigh of relief, but it was short lived. The moving thing revealed itself to be a large dog but not the friendly type. Its fur was matted and stuck to its body like it was wet, and it had painful looking open wounds in its hind legs and along its belly and neck. It pulled back and they saw something dangling from its mouth! It jerked its head back opening its mouth gathering up whatever it was and ate it.

  “God, it doesn’t look like it’s got any eyes,”Leann whispered.

  Andy nodded and said,“They’re black. It’s infected!”

  The dog jumped down from the driver’s cab and disappeared behind the dashboard causing them all to gasp in horror. Leann almost screamed. The driver was slumped back in his seat! What was left of him!

  “Oh my God!” cried Leann looking away and backing up from the window fighting the urge to gag.

  “Oh man!” blurted Andy jolting back and standing up.

  “Poor guy,”added Collin staying where he was just staring. The driver had been mauled beyond all recognition, his throat and neck were one big open wound and just a little of his balding scalp remained with thinning matted black hair. Then the dog reappeared as it hopped off the bus grabbing their attention. It lifted its nearly fleshless snout up in to the air as if searching for a scent.

  “It can still smell!”said Collin and right then the dog must have caught a whiff in the air and it darted around the front of the bus ran down the side of it, crossed the road and disappeared in to the black snow. Collin leaned back on his calves. Lightning flickered illuminating the scene revealing the full extent of the carnage!

  Collin and Andy saw that every window at street level had been smashed and debris from within the various shops and outlets littered the street where they’d been turned inside out by looters. A crow that had flown away startled by the infected dog came back and it perched on a rounded hump in the snow just below the overpass, just under Collin and it continued to pick at it. There was a small damp patch of disturbed snow where it repeatedly pecked and its beak was bright red. Collin looked at Andy disgusted by it. Andy frowned and shook his head flashing a look towards Leann.

  Collin nodded understanding, and didn’t say anything, instead he asked,“What are we going to do? I mean, what are we evensupposedto do? Even the fucking dogs are infected!”then he lowered his voice and added,“maybe even that fucking bird!”

  Andy nodded and said,“Yea,and God knows what else! We’ll have to check this place out, check it from top to bottom and make sure it’s safe. Then, if we can, we’ll stay here the rest of the night and wait for morning. It’s all we cando!Maybe the ash will ease up and clear enough for us to be able to see, and we can try to go home.”He stopped for a second and then added,“That’s if there’s even a home left!”

  Collin nodded standing up, he wanted to say something but couldn’t, a lump had caught in his throat thinking about Andy’s last words, he thought of his grandparents and wondered how they were. He hoped with all his being that they were safe, that they were ok, and on top of that he felt guilty knowing that if they were ok, they would be worried sick about him. He hoped that they didn’t try and venture out and come looking for him. Then before he knew it they’d caught up with Leann as she waited quietly at the end of the overpass. She was staring through the window of a jewellery shop.

  “Hey,”said Andy,“you ok?”

  “Yea,”she said looking up at him. They could both see that she’d been crying again.

  “Thanks,”she added,“for saving us back there, I know you didn’t have a choice, I’m sorry I gave you a hard time. It’s just that....”

  “Forget about it,”said Andy.“C’mon, let’s check this place out, see what we can find and look for a place to bed down for the night. Just remember to stay alert ok.”

  The three of them set o
ff, walking deeper in to the abandoned shopping centre trying to block out the morbid calls from infected people outside as the weather raged beyond the walls.

  It wasn’t long before they heard sounds carried on the wind that they couldn’t block out.

  Sounds that filled them with dread and chilled them down to their bones!

  Drawn out gut-wrenching screams pierced their eardrums carried up to them on the wind from somewhere outside in the unnatural darkness....

  CHAPTER 23

  The lifeboat rushed towards the turbulent North Sea pulled by gravity as it fell from the rig.

  Steve braced for impact, holding on with white knuckles to a seat-back that he’d only just managed to grab on to when Jen pulled the leaver. Jen held on to the base of the release lever, holding on as tightly as she possibly could. She crouched beside it, using her legs to push herself back up against the side of the hull to brace for impact. She looked up at the entry hatch and watched the infected figures trying to hold on. Some still tried to climb in. She hoped the impact would knock most of them off, but until then she was terrified one of them was going to fall in mid-descent or that one or maybe even more would be thrown in on impact.

  The descent felt like it was lasting forever. It was taking too long and for a split second both Steve and Jen thought two of the infected were going to make it in and fall in with them when BOOM the lifeboat hit the water!

  The lifeboat crashed in to the bitterly cold and stormy sea landing on the entire length of its hull like a bellyflop, unsettled from the weight of the infected holding on to the outside causing it to swing off balance as it dropped through the air. The impact was hard and it forced Jen down on to the floor jarring her tail bone, winding her. Steve lost his grip of the seat back and tumbled to the floor bashing both of his knees and he yelped out in pain. They couldn’t let their pain bother them. Couldn’t let it get in the way. If they did they were dead!

  Jen was up in a flash and unhooked two of the long wooden boat hooks coupled to the side of the lifeboat and threw one to Steve. The long pole whacking Steve on his head as he reached out for it and missed. Jen didn’t notice, as soon as the boat hook left her grasp she spun around and started ramming hers straight up, hitting the blackened mauled hands that were still holding on.