As the Light Dies

by M. D. Woodham

  “Open the door fuck face,”he said and the rest of them chuckled.

  Andy saw Collin hesitating.

  “Never mind them just now,”he said,“we’ll sort them out when they’re inside, just get them in.”

  Collin knelt down by the seized bolt; he had a bad feeling about this. As soon as he put his fingers near the bolt the same guy kicked the door again making Collin jump and he fell back on his arse. Laughter broke out among the hooded men outside and Collin looked up at them, he knew their type. He’d spent all his teenage years avoiding guys like them, always on the lookout for them, and he had plenty of scares for all the times that he’d missed them.

  “C’mon Collin!”said Andy urging him on.

  Collin moved back towards the doors hesitantly. He glanced up at the guys and saw that one of them, the fattest one of the group was holding a Stanley knife.

  Collin wouldn’t have noticed it if it wasn’t for the guy impatiently pushing the blade out and then retracting it again, over and over. It was the movement that had caught his eye.

  “C’mon fuck face,”said the one standing at the front and he slammed his palm against the door and Collin realised he was keeping one of his hands in his pockets. He was moving something around, Collin could see it. He looked back at Andy who had been joined by Leann now as she came over to check his hand. It was bleeding quite badly.

  “I don’t know if we should let them in Andy,”he said.

  “Christ Collin. C’mon they’re in danger,”said Andy and he shuffled back towards the doors.

  “Don’t kick the door,”he yelled to the gang as he reached for the bolt with his bloody hand.

  Leann thought she saw a silhouette rush past behind the group; she was the only one to see it.

  “Oh God!”she said.“Andy please hurry.”

  “I’m trying,”he said.

  Then the guy who was still pressing his palm against the door, totally oblivious to anything going on behind him and his friends leaned in towards the door and said,“That’s right blondie, open the fucking door like a good little boy!”

  More chuckles.

  “Prick,”called another, followed by more chuckles.

  Collin dared to glance up again, and he saw that the Stanley blade remained open permanently now.Maybe he’d seen something in the ash like Leann, he thought. He looked at the guy holding the knife, he was staring straight down at Andy as he fiddled with the lock. He had a glint in his eye, a glint that Collin knew all too well.

  “Andy, stop!” he said,“they’ve got....”

  “GOT IT!”said Andy standing up.“What’ve they got Coll?”he said glancing at him but before Collin could say anything the doors thrust inwards and hit Andy on the side of the head!

  Collin jumped back waiting for the beating to start. But the doors hadn’t opened, the lock between the two still held them together; but only just!

  “Holy shit!” said Andy rubbing the side of his head where it hurt, and it really did hurt.

  He watched a little shocked, as the thugs tried to force their way in and that’s when he realised two of them had knives.

  Holy shit! he thought, seeing the blades. He glanced at the big guy with the Stanley knife and then at the mouthy one at the front, the one that came across as the leader, if they had one, and he saw the medium sized hunting knife that he rolled between his gloved fingers and his palm.

  “Let usINyou fuckers!”he yelled and heaved against the doors again.

  “Yea!Fucking open up,”added the one with the Stanley knife.

  Leann was backing up; this was all going very bad she thought. The guy with the cycle chain swung the chain against the glass making Collin and Andy flinch and then she heard that unmistakable deep and hollow gurgle sound! She let out a frightened whimper backing up further still, and that’s when Andy knew it was too late for them.

  He backed up away from the doors.

  “Hey!What the fuck!”said the leader now passing the hunting knife from one hand to the other and then back again making sure that they all saw it.“Get over here and open the fucking door,cunt!” he said. Cackles of laughter rose up from the others, and the guy with the length of wood shouted in to Leann,“Hey girly!”

  She looked at him.

  “Yea, you,”he said,“just you wait till I get in there. You and me are gonna get all cosy!”

  “No youwon’t!” blurted Collin, and the four men burst in to laughter.

  “Says who little man?”said the one with the cycle chain, and then he swung it against the glass doors again. Andy cringed at the noise. He knew what it would attract. He even thought he wanted the sound to attract infected people.

  “C’mon guys, for fuck sake,”said the leader,“let’s just fucking get inside.”

  There were a few grunts from the others, and then suddenly a group of mottled figures rushed in from all around them like smoky shadows becoming a solid form and emerging through thick fog.

  It wasn’t even a full second between the figures becoming visible and then crashing into the thugs! They were fast.

  The two with knives lashed out straight away, without any sign of hesitation and sliced open the infected attackers reaching hands and then their faces, necks, and their bodies, they stabbed and slashed at anything they could reach! Despite the wounds they inflicted, the infected didn’t stop, they didn’t even so much as blink. Black blood poured from the wounds confusing the thugs! They’d never seen anything like it! They started to panic, they could feel that they were being overcome, and they started screaming. Screaming for help!

  Andy turned and shouted back at Leann to run back up the stairs.

  She didn’t need telling twice, she spun on her heels and took off running as fast as she could back towards the escalators.

  Then Andy turned back to Collin and said,“We’ve gotta get those doors closed again, we’ve gotta get them locked again!”Collin nodded.

  “We’ll wait till they move far enough back from the doors and then we’ll go for it ok? You do the top bolts and I’ll do the bottom ones ok.”

  Collin nodded again astonished by what was happening right in front of him.

  The thug with the length of wood hadn’t lasted long. He lay on the ground face up but with only half his face.

  An infected woman in a torn up business suit had used the thug’s own weapon against him and now she sat on his chest repeatedly ramming the chunk of wood down on to the bridge of his nose gradually breaking away and splitting bone, until eventually she joined his eye sockets together in one big hole as she broke through his skull while others behind her fiendishly tore his body to shreds! Satisfied with the hole she’d made, she picked out bits of shattered skull like a child eager to get inside a kinder egg for the surprise within. Then she started scooping up pink sloppy matter with her dirty gnarly hands and shoved it in her greedy mouth!

  The thug with the cycle chain had lasted a fraction longer but now faced the same fate as he lay on the ground with an infected guy in a dirty kitchen uniform and torn up apron kneeling by his head clamping his head between his knees. The thug bucked and kicked trying to get loose but another infected man in nothing but his underwear sat down on his waist weighing him down and started tearing through his jacket, exposing his pale scrawny torso. The thug tried in vain to hold back the infected chef but it was no good, the chef quickly overpowered him and forced his fingers deep in to the thug’s eye sockets and started gouging out whatever his chubby fingers could reach through his windows to the world as the naked person started devouring his stomach, peeling back fat and muscle to get at the organs beneath. The thug’s screams were loud enough to shatter bulletproof glass!

  He didn’t scream for long.

  Mr Stanley Knife was in trouble! He’d backed up against a lamp post holding his bleeding neck with a hand that was missing two fingers as his neck wound, a bite mark, spewed out a tight fountain of blood! He was trying to defend himself by slicing and slashing in all directions. He jumped ar
ound keeping his back against the lamp post and slashing repeatedly until the fine blade snapped off inside the eye socket of one of the infected without him even realising!

  With no blade he still stabbed at the figures but it was no use, the blunt object was no match.

  He screamed out stabbing and kicking maniacally as a pair of discoloured hands reached around from behind and wrapped around his throat and then pulled him back, pinning him against the lamp post. The fleshless bony finger tips dug in to his flesh, breaking the skin on one side of his neck and sinking in to the bleeding wound on the other, despite his groping hand.

  He screamed and screamed and screamed as the hands pulled back and opened up his chubby neck. Instinctively he tried to free his neck, and as soon as he grabbed the hands tearing his neck open, the others were on him. His clothes were torn off in seconds exposing his pale rippling body that was opened up like a burst sausage to exposing copious amounts of white, rubbery and greasy body fat. But the infected didn’t stop there. They kept on digging. Through him!

  His screams were cut short!

  Mr Flying Kick had tried to run for it, but his poor limping attempt at an escape hadn’t worked and already his grounded silhouette resembled the carcass of some unlucky mammal out on the great plains of African after providing dinner for a pride of lions.

  The leader of the group, Mr Hunting Knife had lost most of his left hand trying to fend off his infected attackers, he gave up his mauled hand as lost and thrust the bloody mess in to the mouth of his closest attacker, a guy in blood-stained dungarees. Mr Hunting Knife was gagging him and holding him back at the same time while he repeatedly stabbed his attacker in the chest and neck spraying infected blood across the front doors! He even stabbed his own arm by mistake in his frenzy!

  “Holy shit!” said Collin.

  Andy shook his head and said,“I can’t believe they were gonna use knives on us!”

  As he watched Mr Hunting Knife putting up a fight, Andy thought that he looked mentally unstable in the way he fought, he was completely unreserved with his attacks, it was no wonder he was the last one standing.No wonder he was their leader,he thought.

  The infected guy bit down hard and Mr hunting knife shoved him back ramming his disintegrated hand right to the back of the infected man’s throat while stabbing him anywhere he could over and over with his free hand constantly screaming at the top of his voice. Then he thrust his knife deep in to his attacker’s side, just below the ribs and used the knife like a lever to turn his attacker around. It worked, and as he turned the infected guy around. Mr Hunting Knife kicked him in the back of the knees dropping him to his knees. But the infected man still had a hold of his left arm. He grabbed on to Mr Hunting knife’s arm with both hands and gnawed down on his hand. Mr Hunting Knife wriggled and tugged, and pulled until he broke free, and all that remained of his hand was a glistening and bloody stump at the end of his wrist! Mr Hunting Knife stared at his wrist in disbelief as his life blood poured out of him.

  Then realising they had to take their chance, Andy said,“Ok,c’mon.Let’s do it!”and he leapt out from behind the pillar he’d been hiding behind and ran for the doors with Collin right behind him.

  They reached the doors pushing them flat again and in line with the bolt holes as Mr Hunting Knife was pulled to the ground howling in agonising pain just feet away! They worked fast, getting the doors bolted back in to place within seconds and then they retreated, wanting to get out of sight before the infected lost interest in their catch and turned their attention on to them.

  They ran as fast as they could as Mr Hunting Knife’s guttural screams resonated throughout the entire ground floor of the shopping centre. Neither Andy nor Collin looked back....

  CHAPTER 28

  “Hey!”said Steve as he tentatively reached out to touch Jen’s shoulder while he held on as tight as he could with the other as they rocked up and down. Jen opened her eyes and blinked away the sleep as she straightened up in her chair. Before she even looked at Steve she checked their course and tweaked the wheel slightly.“Must have dozed off,”she said finally turning to look at him.“Did you sleep for long?”she asked.

  “Dunno,”he said,“I just woke up. I didn’t think I’d be able to sleep at all but I guess with everything going on I must’ve needed it.”

  Jen raised her eyebrows nodding.“Physical and emotional exhaustion,”she said.

  Steve nodded and she added,“Knowing that we’re away from those freaks would have helped, at least for now that is.”

  Steve moved over and buckled himself in just across from her.

  “You think they’ll be infected on the mainland?”he said.

  “Gotta be,”said Jen,“it’s the ash that’s doing this, that’s what’s changing people,infectingthem you know! Everywhere the ash falls things go to shit, and it’s abigcloud! It just keeps spreading and spreading. The last report we heard said that satellite images showed the cloud had reached so far east it had started passing over Siberia, and that it was so far south that it could be seen from Venice.It hadn’t reached Venice yet but it wasn’t far off. It’s probably all over Venice by now though and Siberia.”

  Steve stared at Jen amazed. She continued,“Germany, France, Austria, the Netherlands; they were all completely smothered. The whole of Europe will be covered before long, if it isn’t already. It’s crazy eh? And just before we lost contact with head office there’d even been reports that there’d been sightings of the cloud from Iceland. So if they can see it you just know that the UK is covered, especially by now.”

  Steve swallowed hard.“How do you know?”he asked.

  “I was holed up in the petro chem lab. I was the only one that didn’t leave when we heard the noises. I thought that it was just the guys getting rowdy, being stuck on the rig and that, you know?”Steve nodded.“Sean and Alex went to see what was going on, and Rebecca and John were already on break, so I was left on my own. Anyway, twenty minutes passed and I was thinking about going and checking on things myself when Rebecca finally came back and started trying to bash the lab door open with her head. It gave me a hell of a fright at first. Her eyes were totally black, no white, no blue, nothing. She had missing fingers as well, and bite marks all over her forearms. I didn’t know that’s what they were then though but I soon put two and two together.

  She looked terrible the poor thing. I tried talking her down at first but I only made her worse.

  Every time I went near the door she went totally berserk, she actually snapped her front teeth off banging her face against the glass so hard! Anyway I locked the lab doors so no one could get in and tried to email the office back in Aberdeen and it worked....”

  “You still had power?”said Steve.

  “We have our own self-contained battery backup system. It’s a totally sealed environment so I suppose that helped keep the batteries alive for so long, but they died long before they should have. So anyway, I reached one of the tech guys and he told me that things were bad, really bad, and in astrangeway! He told me about the discolouration reports he’d heard from other rigs and some of the stand-by vessels, and reports ofthe rageas he said they were calling it, and every time he had those reports, the ones aboutthe rageshortly afterwards the rig went dark, he couldn’t reach them again, no com’s response nothing, no matter what he tried to do, and he didn’t think it was all down to the ash suddenly cutting them off, not every time anyway! I suppose I had a heads up in a way.”Steve nodded and wished they all did.

  “I wish we did,”he said, then asked,“have you seen much of the rig?”

  “I’ve seen enough! I fought my way up to level three trying to get to the lifeboats relatively easily. Rebecca actually managed to paralyse herself hitting the door like that so many times, and that gave me my chance to leave. It was horrible to see her like that. Her body face down with her head looking straight up at the ceiling, and all she wanted to do was get to me. She just kept snapping and biting at mid air like she wanted to bite me. L
ittle did I know! Anyway, as I passed her I couldn’t take my eyes off hers. They were black like marble. It really freaked me out! Oh’yea, and that noise, you know; that croaky kinda sound.”

  Steve nodded.“I’ve heard it too many times,”he said.

  “The poor girl,”said Jen shaking her head.“Anyway, after what I’ve seen throughout the rig, I think she must have been trying to defend herself you know by holding her hands up in defence and the freaks must have just chomped down on her. Jen mimicked the action by raising both her arms and said,“I think it must have happened like that for a lot of them because nearly every sick person I’ve seen have wounded arms and hands.”

  Steve was nodding, he hadn’t stopped to think about that, but he thought she was probably right, all of the infected he’d seen had mauled hands with missing digits and badly wounded forearms.

  “Anyway,”Jen continued,“I knew it was bad by the sounds I could hear, and the first thing I thought of was getting up to, and in to one of these lifeboats. I thought that other people would be doing the same and I was worried that in their mad panic they wouldn’t think about others, and that they’d just jump in and launch even if they were the only one inside, leaving me stranded.”

  “Well you aren’t,”said Steve sure he could hear a slight tremble in her voice.

  “I know, I know, but only thanks to you and your friend. If it wasn’t for you guys I’d still be stuck back there in that damn bunk room. It’s ironic really, I got across half the rig without being seen even though I saw plenty of what was happening you know. I turned the corner in to the corridor that lead to the lifeboat rack and there was one guy going absolutely crazy with another guy that was unconscious on the floor, he was tearing him to shreds. It was horrific! I tried to back away but he saw me and he was up in a flash and practically sprinted at me. I knew I wouldn’t be able to outrun him, so I dived in to the nearest bunk,thank God it was open,and that’s how I got stuck. I found that long crowbar,”she nodded at it lying on the floor of the lifeboat.