As the Light Dies

by M. D. Woodham

  He dragged his fingers through the snow like claws desperately searching for the torque wrench as the dog pulled him further along the ground. He was just about to pull his arm back and swap hands when his left arm butted to a stop. Then his hand exploded with crushing pain!

  Gavin screeched out with pain and whipped his head around to see what was happening. He nearly swallowed his tongue when he saw an infected woman looking down at him with a vacant but excited expression on her face as she stood on his hand! Bright red blood, someone else’s, smothered her face and neck and her hands and forearms.

  Gavin’s first thought was for Dean.Had they gotten him? Was that his blood?

  She parted her swollen black lips exposing her teeth letting black drool seep through and run out over her bottom lip and down her chin before it dripped on to Gavin’s wrist.

  Gavin tried pulling his arm free but it was stuck fast. She started to gurgle and she dropped to her knees and leaned over him....He screamed!

  *****

  Ann stepped back staring through the chipped glass at the figure, she couldn’t tell if it was infected or not. It was partly hidden behind the dirty glass.

  “Ann?”called Sarah. Ann looked back at her noticing that she still had her eyes shut tight.

  Thank God,she thought.“It’s ok sweetie, hang on a minute ok.”

  “Ok.”

  Ann spun back around but the figure was gone.

  Confused she leaned in closer, but saw nothing. They’d completely gone. She started wiping the glass with her sleeve again wanting to see the figure. When she looked inside again, her heart stopped dead before racing at two hundred beats a second. She didn’t understand what was happening at first. It was hard to tell but the figurewasn’t infected, she could be certain of that.

  Inside she saw two men struggling with one of the vending machines. They were pulling it away from the wall. They were joined by a young woman, a teenager with bright pink hair. She came out of the toilets holding a box. She looked at Ann and waved, Ann waved back and the teenager started shaking the box up and down as she waved it across the floor. Then she started walking towards the doors, towards Ann. Ann tried to think what on earth they were all doing when the men dropped the vending machine to the ground with a crash and started turning it around so that it was long ways down the corridor. Suddenly Ann understood what they were going to do.

  Gavin screamed out behind her, causing her and Sarah to look round.

  Sarah screamed when she saw what was happening and ran to Ann. She grabbed hold of her for dear life and buried her face in her side shaking uncontrollably and crying.

  Ann saw Gavin on the ground struggling badly. She saw the infected dog tugging at his ankle and a heavy set infected woman in a torn up floral dress kneeling by his head swinging both of her meaty arms through the air, slapping at Gavin’s free arm as he fought her off as best he could.

  Ann desperately wanted to go to him, but she daren’t leave Sarah alone, she just couldn’t.

  More figures emerged from the ash near Gavin, his screaming was attracting them.

  Ann looked up, searching for the others and she saw them as they appeared through the ash on the other side of the abandoned cars. They were running fast.

  Smoke was flowing from the barrel of David’s shotgun as he attempted to reload on the run, and Dean’s sword was black from its sharp tip, all the way down to the handle.

  “HELP GAVIN!” she screamed.

  Loud banging from behind her grabbed her attention.

  She turned to see the girl with the pink hair was up against the glass door. She was waving madly at Ann, shooing her back away from the doors. She wanted her to back up. Fast!

  *****

  Gavin fought back against the infected woman as best he could with only one free arm. She was bloated and heavy as she kneeled on his arm swiping and slapping at him, stinging his face and neck with her puffy hands. He yelled out in frustration and anger as he fought against her. He actually tried to use the infected dog to pull him away from the woman, pushing against her chunky knees between blocking her mindless blows. It wasn’t enough. She weighed him down and held him in place like an anchor. He wasn’t going anywhere!

  The woman shuffled closer and wedged his head between her meaty thighs, and now that she’d knocked his dust mask out of the way she slapped her floppy overblown fingers against his lips.

  Her blows were fast and heavy. Gravity was on her side, and for Gavin it felt like it was actually pulling her chunky arms down against him!

  Gavin’s free and kicking leg lay still on the ground. The muscles were exhausted, filled with lactic acid. He was losing the fight. He felt like he’d already lost. Snot flew from his nostrils with his frantic breathing as he tried not to open his mouth. He tried to clamp it shut against the woman’s wandering fingers. But he couldn’t get enough air in to his lungs purely by breathing through his snot filled nostrils. He felt like he was suffocating. He opened his mouth and gasped, sucking in as much polluted air as he possibly could and the woman’s infected finger tips tapped against his teeth and brushed against his tongue.

  He turned his head to the side and snapped his mouth shut in disgust.

  His stomach flipped over threatening to erupt and spew vomit up his throat. He tried to roll away but it was useless, he was pinned to the spot. He was stuck there staring up passed the woman’s thick discoloured thighs that sandwiched his head waiting for her next swipe.

  He saw her rubbery fingers coming in close again and squeezed his eyes shut and clamped his mouth closed. She pinched at the side of his face, then pulled at one of his ears and then at his hair and then his nose. She pulled hard!

  He screamed through gritted teeth as she tried her best to tear an ear off, and then his nose. The pain was unreal. Then she turned his head to the side pinning it against the frozen ground with both hands and she leaned on him with all her weight. He was sure he could feel his skull flex under the strain. His eyes and ears hurt from inside!

  Waiting to hear the first crack he opened his eyes trying to see Ann and Sarah, hoping not to see them, hoping that they’gotten inside and he saw another figure rushing towards him through the ash. He closed his eyes. It was over!

  He closed his eyes again hoping that he’d black out quickly with the pain, or that David if he was still alive would put him out of his misery with a blast from his gun. With his eyes squeezed shut, certain that the dog had torn his foot to shreds now and was gnawing at the remaining stump, he felt the woman’s hands pulling hard at the skin around his upturned cheek and ear.

  She leaned in close. Her mouth was wide. Black dribble ran on to the side of Gavin’s face. He could feel her close, could feel her puffy mottled lips against his ear. Here it comes he thought!

  Suddenly the ferocious tugging, and the pain in his leg eased. He felt something brush over his thigh. He thought the dog was coming for his throat. He ground his teeth together trying to tuck his chin in to his chest as tightly as he could.

  His mind scrambled with images. Snapshots of memories flashed in front of his closed eyes, fond memories, and not so fond ones. Ones that were only hours old, then images flashed up of what might be about to happen to him. He pushed his head against the ground in desperation, trying to put as much distance as he could between the side of his face and the woman’s plump lips, waiting to feel the dog’s snout nosing under his flexed chin to get at his throat.

  His heart banged like a drum threatening to burst through his chest. He let out an almighty scream with all the breath he had in him and the pressure against his head increased tenfold. And then, in that instant the pressure was gone. He heard grunting and gurgling right beside him followed by growling and barking.

  Gavin rolled away as fast as he could utterly amazed that he could. After several fast and frantic rolls he stopped and dared to look up. The figure that had rushed towards him at the last second was swinging some kind of baton against the infected woman’s head and nec
k and shoulders. It was a man, a tall bulky man in dark clothes - some kind of uniform.

  Gavin looked for the rabid terror dog and saw that Sam was fighting with it. Sam was ducking under and jumping over the sword’s handle and six inches of blade where it protruded from the base of the dog’s neck. Unable to bite with his muzzle still on, he clawed and scratched the dog doing his best not to get bitten. Gavin jumped to his feet and instantly fell to his knees as pain shot up his leg like he’d stood on a metal spike. He yelped with pain remembering his ankle.

  He dared to look, and was amazed to see that he still had a foot, and that it wasn’t covered in blood. He tried standing again gritting his teeth ready for the shooting pain knowing he had to help Sam and the new guy. Sam and the badly mauled infected dog rolled around and tumbled in the snow. The infected dog snapped wildly at Sam spraying strands of black saliva all over the place. Sam was putting up a good fight despite being hindered by the muzzle, but he was hindered.

  Gavin was just thinking he had to get the muzzle off Sam before it got him killed when he saw the terror dog bite down on Sam’s snout and start shaking. Gavin gasped with horror as Sam struggled to pull free again. It took him a few seconds of frantic pulling and furious shaking, but he broke free unharmed. The muzzle cushioned the blow. Relieved, Gavin limped towards Sam faster than before grinding his teeth against the immense pain when suddenly David appeared right beside the two dogs.

  He was lying across the bonnet Gavin had climbed over behind Ann and Sarah, and with one fluid motion he brought the gun around from his side and pushed the barrel against the back of the terror dog’s head. Sam knew what this meant and scurried backwards, and as soon as Sam was clear David pulled the trigger and burst the dog’s head wide open in a spray of tarnished meat and bone.

  Dean appeared next, leaping clean over David as he still lay on the bonnet and he raced straight towards the dark clothed man struggling with the infected woman.

  Gavin was just about to call out for someone to help the new guy but saw he didn’t have to, and right then Dean yelled over his shoulder at him mid stride telling him to run and help Ann get in to the Eastgate.

  “OK”he yelled back pulling his sword from the infected dog’s body. Then he turned and started over towards Ann and Sarah.

  David dropped down from the bonnet, spun around and started firing reputedly in to the oncoming tide of death. He aimed at the closest figures first constantly aiming for a head shot, certain that it was the only shot that made them stay down.

  *****

  Gavin looked back at his brother as he joined the overpass and started limping across. He was just in time to see his brother swing his sword up over his head and bury the blade deep in to the infected woman’s head. He cringed. The blade sliced straight through her right eye and came to rest as it touched her top row of teeth.What on earth is going on?’ he thought as Sam caught up with him and bounded passed him towards Ann and Sarah. A fraction of a second later Sam howled and leapt through the air, covering the rest of the distance towards Ann and Sarah in a flash. Ann flinched seeing him coming at them like that, and before she had time to blink he landed in front of her kicking up clouds of dirty snow from all four paws. He darted behind her and Sarah and leaned against them, pushing them away from the doors. Ann realised what Sam was doing and just managed to say,“Sam it’s....”before the glass doors exploded outwards, disintegrating in to a million pieces as an upturned vending machine ploughed through and ground to a halt as it hit the thick snow.

  “C’MON!” yelled Andy waving them in.“HURRY!”

  Ann gathered Sarah up in to her arms and ran towards the newly demolished doors and a group of new people.

  Gavin was in shock, he hadn’t expected anything like that to happen. He spun around to call his brother and David, and he was relieved to see that he didn’t need too. They were just about to reach him, running like crazy with the new guy beside them.

  “C’MON HURRY!” yelled Andy as he backed in to the shopping centre.

  Ann was so relieved that they’d found people. Even though it was clear that the Eastgate wasn’t being used as a rescue centre. She ran down the corridor carrying Sarah trying very hard not to slip on the slippery floor. Leann ran with her, holding her arm to steady her.

  “I’ll help you,”said Leann.“I covered the floor with hand soap from the toilets to help us slide the vending machine along the floor.”

  Ann nodded not really hearing as Leann led her down the corridor towards the glass doors at the opposite end. They came out inside one of the shopping centre’s main aisles, opposite the darkened jewellery shop Ann knew was there. Once through Sarah reluctantly looked around just as Sam darted through the doors behind them. He went straight to her side and stayed there letting her grab on to him. Ann knew that the others must be coming or else Sam would have stayed out there with them.

  She looked back as Gavin joined them.

  “We can’t hang around,”he said.“There’s too many of them, they’ll break through these doors in seconds.”

  Leann nodded.“Help me,”she said and she ran over to a nearby marble bench.

  Gavin joined her, and yelping with the pain from his ankle he helped her to push it towards the doors.

  “With those other two benches we should have some time,”Leann told him between grunts.

  Gavin nodded unsure as Collin came through the doors in front of them right as David started unloading his shotgun in to the infected mass behind them making them all flinch.

  There was no doubting that he was inside the shopping centre, his shots rang out so loud that everyone’s ears popped and started to ring.

  The overpass was forcing the horde in to a bottleneck making it easy for David to take them down one by one. There wasn’t the slightest hint of hesitation in him now. Not now that he’d seen what they were capable of, getting back up after being shot at point blank range with a twelve bore shotgun and still coming!

  Tearing his neighbours to pieces!

  Seeing it for yourself was far different from hearing it from a stranger that you’d just met in your backyard that you suspected of stealing.

  He fired repeatedly until he was empty. Then he reloaded as many cartridges as he could before he had to start firing again. Head shots, body shots, it didn’t matter. He just kept on firing and re- loading and firing and reloading. But there were so many of them pushing forwards, coming closer trampling the ones that he’d managed to drop to the ground. Some were even forced over the side when there was nowhere else for them to go.

  Before long they breached the shopping centres shattered doors. They climbed over the vending machine and then walked through the hole it had made.

  David backed up further and further until he eventually joined the others as he stepped back in to the shopping centre through the second set of glass doors still loading and firing over and over.

  His hands worked at lightning speed feeding the gun as the shots echoed inside the centre, dropping one infected after the other until finally the trigger just clicked and there was no muzzle flash.

  David automatically pumped the gun again, click, he pumped again, click. He was empty and he wasn’t reloading.

  His nerves had taken over repeating the same move over and over.

  “NOW!” yelled Andy, and he and Collin let the doors go that they’d been holding open for David and they both threw their weight behind one of the nearby marble benches and started grinding it in to place across the doors with help from Dean.

  The new guy jumped behind the other bench with Gavin and Leann and helped them.

  As the door was being blocked off Sarah broke away from Ann and ran to David as he finally lowered his gun and stood there in a daze.

  She wrapped her arms around his waist still crying and hugged him tightly. He hugged her back briefly as he came to again and then he jumped over and helped the others barricade the doors feeling guilty for letting his nerves get the better of him. No-one said a
nything, they all understood, everything about what was happening was shocking, and it was clear to everyone that they were going to have to do absolutely whatever it took to stay alive from now on.

  They managed to grind one of the marble benches across the doors before the horde reached the other side. The second one was in place within seconds, reinforcing the first adding enough weight to stop them for now.

  Discoloured mottled faces pressed up against the glass on the other side. Black blood oozed from burst lips, missing noses and mauled fingers smearing the glass. Their combined noise was tremendous this close, their gurgles echoed throughout the deserted shopping centre like a vibration, everyone could feel it through their feet like a tremor.

  A third bench was forced in to position before Andy suggested they make a run for it.

  “I don’t know if those doors are reinforced like the outer ones,”he said.“Who knows how long they’ll hold?”

  No one needed telling twice.

  They ran along the dark aisles passed the deserted shops and across the flyover to the opposite side of the centre.

  As they ran Collin said,“Maybe they’ll lose interest like the others.”

  “Others?”said Dean looking across at Collin.

  “Yea,”said Andy.“They chased us from the supermarket next door, that’s where we all work, or at least where we did work. We got in here across the overpass and blocked the doors and waited. And they just seemed to lose interest after a while, then moved on. But I don’t think this new lot are gonna lose interest anytime soon.”

  “Me neither!”said Gavin.

  No-one else spoke after that. They just ran following Andy’s lead.

  They reached the mountaineering outlet where Andy, Collin and Leann had kitted themselves out earlier and they stopped. Andy told everyone that he thought it was best if everyone got kitted out. He said that their time in the shopping centre was limited. No-one disagreed.

  “We won’t have much time before they break in,”he said,“and when they do we need to be gone.”