As the Light Dies

by M. D. Woodham

  A slapping noise caught his attention making him turn back.

  Infected hands were slapping against the bottom edge of the roof light they’d come through.

  “SHIT!”he cursed.“We have to hurry guys, they’realreadyslapping the roof-light. They know exactly where we came through.”

  There were upset and scared murmurs among the group as they sped up urging Sebastian on.

  The large expanse of roof was mostly flat apart from the long semi-circular sections of roof-lights that stood several feet above them at their peak and ran the length of the shopping centre’s main aisles like big glass tubes. They were black with ash and reminded Collin of giant man eating worms he’d read about in some sci-fi novel once. He kept the thought to himself feeling bad for still being able to fantasise despite the situation.

  Sounds came up from the street carried on the wind. Crashing and banging followed by infected gurgles.

  “They know we’re up here,”said Dean.“Listen. The ones on the street know we’re up here.”

  There was a whimper from someone in the group quickly followed by shocked gasps. Andy soon saw why. They’d walked out from behind a break in one of the tubular sections of roof-light and they could see across town. An enormous fire was ablaze in the middle of town lighting the area around it. It was breathtaking in its size.

  Smaller fires raged on scattered elsewhere across the Highland city lighting up other areas of town.

  “Here,”said Sebastian. He was holding on to a railing that disappeared over the edge.“We can climb down here,”he said.“There are other ladders, but they’re back in the direction of the infected.

  Andy looked down and saw where the ladder joined a fire escape down the side of the building and dropped in to an alley, but even though the alley below was clear the end that gave on to the street was swarming with infected chasing the calls from the ones already in the building.

  He shook his head about to lean back when he felt a vibration through the railing.

  He looked down again and followed the fire escape section by section, tracing it down the side of the building until he saw a group of maybe three or four people on one of the grated steel landings.

  All of them looked like they were in uniform, and all of them were infected!

  Must have been some of the very few that made it in to work, he thought.

  Looking for a second he thought about how they might have gotten there and came up with the scenario that they must’ve tried to escape. The fire door must’ve closed behind them locking them out, the street might’ve been overrun, or they might’ve been too scared to move. Either way, they were definitely infected.Poor bastards, he thought turning back to Sebastian shaking his head.

  He didn’t say anything. He didn’t see the need to if they weren’t going to use the fire escape.

  Sebastian nodded once and said,“We could double back and check the other escape ladders, or we could cross over to the supermarket and try to get down from over there.”

  Leann was shaking her head.“There’s no external ladder the roof, only inside....”Andy butted in,“We’ll have to hop down from the canopy over the front doors. C’mon supermarket it is, the further away from the Eastgate we can get the better. Let Sebastian through and let’s go.”

  Sebastian took up the lead again, pushing forwards as fast as he could trying not to stumble in the snow as he leaned in to the wind.

  Lightning arced across the sky forking of in to multiple strands of burning bright light followed by thunder that growled so loud it felt like the air around them shook. Leann actually thought she felt the roof vibrate from it through her feet, but she kept it to herself for fear of looking stupid.

  “This weather isn’t normal,”said David.

  A,“Nope,”from Gavin was his only answer. Everyone else just kept on walking, until after a few long minutes fighting against the elements with the threatening sound of slapping hands against the roof- lights behind them, Sebastian called back,“Here’s the overpass. It’s not very wide, and there’s nothing to hold on to.”

  Andy looked down at it, because the supermarket wasn’t as tall as the Eastgate Centre, they were going to have to climb down a short roof ladder.

  Andy raised his voice and said,“Everyone stay close, take it slowly and don’t look down.”

  Dean added.“Rest a free hand on the person in front and don’t take your eyes off it until were over.”

  Andy nodded at Dean,“Sounds like a good idea,”he said.

  “I learned it from a retired trapeze artist,”said Dean.

  Andy nodded again then barked,“NowGO!”

  They did!

  They climbed down on to the roof of the overpass and started to make their way over the narrow strip of roof all joined together holding the shoulder of the person in front. David held on to Sarah with both hands constantly telling her to look straight ahead and that she was doing great as she held on to Ann’s waist with both of her hands. A few times the wind caught them causing them to stop and crouch down against the gust. Several of them yelped out in fear but in the end they made it over safely. The supermarket roof was a bland wide open space peppered with pyramid shaped roof-lights poking up here and there along with the odd section of ventilation shaft over near the freezers.

  Once they were all clear from the edge of the roof Sebastian spoke up.“If there’s a truck in the loading bay maybe we can climb down on to....”

  “Not a chance,” said Andy cutting in.“The loading bay was swamped before we made a break for it.”

  “But that was a day ago.”said Leann.

  Andy cut in again,“No!We’re not going down in to the loading bay. We’ll use the canopy over the front doors.”

  Andy never wanted to go near that loading bay ever again. He couldn’t bear the thought of seeing anything that might still remain from what had happened there a day ago.

  “Yea, I think Andy’s right,”said Collin feeling the same remorse.

  “I know what happened was terrible,”said Leann.“But we need to survive as well.”

  Sebastian looked lost for a moment looking between them when Dean jumped in and said,“C’mon, let’s hit the canopy first! See if we can drop down from there. If we can’t then we’ll look elsewhere.

  “That’sexactlywhat we’re going to do,”said Andy, and he spun around and started to jog across the roof towards the front of the shop.

  The others followed close behind as he led the way fighting an unimaginably tough fight to keep Thom out of his mind. The thought of climbing down in to the loading bay and seeing anything was too much.

  His mind ran wild, showing him Thom’s half eaten body laying on the steel steps staring up at him with a look of wonder on his eaten face. Wondering why Andy hadn’t helped him. His remains were scattered across the loading bay, yet he still looked at Andy, still waiting to be saved.

  The thought tried to buckle him at the knees.

  It was my fault. All my fucking fault, he thought to himself repeatedly.

  “ANDY!”

  His name screeched through his ears and suddenly Andy bucked backwards as his collar dug deeply in to his neck as it was yanked from behind! They’d reached the front of the supermarket and he hadn’t realised. He’d been buried so deep in his waking nightmare that he nearly walked clean off the roof! Leann was the one who had screamed his name, and then when he didn’t respond Dean had reached out and grabbed him. The three of them stood there for a minute looking at each other awkwardly, well aware of the infected slapping at the roof light somewhere behind them. Andy cleared his throat and nodded, first at Leann and then at Dean.

  “Thanks,”he said.“I’m ok. I just got thinking about yesterday, that’s all.”

  “You sure?”said Dean.

  “Yea, I’m sure,”said Andy nodding again. Then he turned and looked down at the car park with them, what they could see of it through the ash and snow.

  The car park was quiet and still. The only mov
ement they saw were waves of loose snow being driven along by the wind. Waves of black snow sweeping across the alien looking surface until it met with a solid fixture or joined with one of the many drifts gradually burying everything in sight, consuming the land and everything on it. Nothing was clear. Everything was being overcome, creating a nightmarish bleak new world. Darkness was taking over.

  “Looks good,”said David.“Well, it looks clear. We should get a good shot at this.”

  *****

  Gavin was the first to touch down. He didn’t wait for instructions or a list of who goes first.

  He lowered himself down over the edge of the roof, and with his arms fully outstretched he let go and dropped another ten inches or so on to the two inch thick reinforced glass canopy. Then without hesitating he repeated the move and dropped down beside the front doors. He landed with a tumble falling further than he thought he would and hurt his already weak ankle. Dean flinched grinding his teeth scared that Gavin had twisted his bad ankle, or even worse.

  But Gavin was up in a flash drawing his sword and whispered back up to the others,“Ok, whose next?”So one by one they dropped down copying him move for move.

  Dean waited on the glass canopy and took a hold of Sam as David passed him down and in turn Dean passed him down to Gavin and then they copied the movement with Sarah. David wanted to make the climb with Sarah piggy back but it was too risky, so she made the drop alone and without any fuss, and as soon as she touched down Sam trotted over to her and stayed by her side. David saw that she liked him and felt safe beside him and he was grateful for the big dog. Before long only Andy was left on the roof. He was dropping rucksacks down listening to the slapping sounds behind him when he heard the unmistakable sound of breaking glass. He stopped what he was doing and looked back across the rooftop listening. There was a thudding sound that he hadn’t heard before followed by cracking snapping brittle glass and then that damn gurgle!

  The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and a shiver raced down his spine.

  They’re through,he thought, and he dropped the rest of the bags as fast as he could, tossing them over and letting them fall where ever they fell without bothering to throw them to anyone anymore.They’ll find them, he thought.

  “Hey,”said Ann.“What’s up?”

  Andy leaned over the edge of the roof as he dropped the last bag and said.“They’ve broken out, there on the roof!”

  Ann couldn’t respond, she just looked at Andy wide eyed.

  “They’re never going to stop, are they?”she said to herself as Andy made the drop himself.

  “Don’t they ever give up?”said David.

  “Doesn’t look like it,”said Andy shouldering his rucksack, making sure everyone else had theirs, and they did.

  The first gurgles floated down from the roof top, carried on the changing wind.

  “C’mon!”said Dean, and they started moving through the car park weaving around cars and stepping over drifts without looking back.

  They joined Millburn Road and ran east, away from town sandwiched between a seven foot high wall on their left that ran the length of the road concealing the railway tracks on the other side, and on their right was a steep embankment covered with trees and shrubs that were all brittle and dead.

  As they ran Andy asked David.“Have you made up your mind yet? Like where you wanna go?”

  Ann heard Andy and butted in,“They can come with me, it’ll be safe at mine plus Sarah will love playing with my kids. It’ll do them all good.”

  “Uh, if that’s ok?”said David.

  “Of course it is,”she said,“I mean, it’s not like Sarah’s gonna manage to go with Dean and Gavin all the way up to their parents place is it. Twenty miles or so, in these conditions.”

  David had to agree with her, and he knew she was right about having other children around. It would help them keep occupied playing with each other.

  They trotted along in the middle of the road that had been cleared at some point the previous day making it slightly easier going on everyone.

  The infected calls behind them helped them keep their pace up, until....‘Thump! Thump! Thump!

  Andy looked back to see what the new noise was before they rounded a bend in the road and lost sight of the supermarket.

  Ann saw him and turned to look as well. Her eyes opened wide and her mouth dropped open behind her mask!“Oh God!” she said, catching the attention of the others as she spoke.

  “Hey what’s up....”Collin started to ask turning around. The sight stopped him mid sentence.

  As they all stopped to look, Dean grabbed Sam’s collar and held on to him feeling him tighten up.

  “It’s ok boy, were gonna be ok boy,”he said not wanting a repeat of earlier.

  Dean wasn’t surprised by what he saw. Not after what he’d already seen. But it did unsettle him even more than he already was, which he thought was an impossibility now.

  “There’s your answer,”said Andy looking at David.

  David nodded solemnly watching with the others as the infected horde walked straight off the supermarket’s roof!

  They watched in horror as the infected people plummeted to the unforgiving concrete below, landing in all kinds of painful looking ways. As more and more fell, faster than they could move out of the way, they began to build up as they started landing on top of each other with bone crushing force. Looking back from this distance Andy and the others saw that the rooftop was alive with silhouettes.

  They were flowing towards the front of the supermarket where they poured over in a waterfall of human bodies from the same point they’d all dropped down from.

  “They’re following our every step,”said Sebastian, more to himself than to anyone else.

  Some of them bounced off the canopy, cracking their heads on the thick glass before they continued down in to a heap on the ground. The fall wasn’t stopping them. It wasn’t stopping any of them. Some were reduced to crawling, but most of them were back up and walking within seconds.

  Some limped badly, while others were forced to drag a leg behind them, but they still stood up and pushed onwards. They still came after them. Relentlessly pursuing their prey. Their numbers in the car park were growing fast. They started to fan out from the building filling the car park like feeler ants searching for a minute trail or the slightest scent.

  Collin looked on dumb struck.“How?”he said.

  “Who knows?”said Andy,“Everyone get moving, and slowly. No sudden movements, no noise. We’ll pick up the pace around the bend ok? Hopefully their falls will slow them down enough so that we can make up some ground.”

  They started moving again desperate to put some distance between themselves and the relentlessinfected. They trudged along as quickly as they could mindful of any noise they might be making and after a few minutes Andy looked back. They’d rounded the bend and were out of view from the supermarket and it’s overrun car park.

  “Ok,”he said breathing easy.“We’re out of sight, pick up the pace.”

  They did. They walked fast kicking up snow with each step. They were nearly jogging along in the centre of the road.

  Dean was more desperate to get home than ever and right now Sam wasn’t helping. He was having a real struggle keeping Sam in check and he was getting worse by the second.

  “What’s wrong with him?”said Sebastian.“If he makes a noise we’re done for.”

  Dean looked up at Sebastian and said,“He senses something’s wrong.”

  Sebastian let out a quiet laugh under his breath and said,“Yea, like they say in the movies,no shit!”

  Dean didn’t like Sebastian’s tone.“No,” he quipped.“It means they must be gaining on us.”

  “Oh!’said Sebastian and looked over his shoulder. The road was clear, for the time being.

  They carried on, stretching the distance out as much as they could, while they could, with their heads down and their hoods and collars up in an attempt at deflecting the bitter
wind, and the blasting snow that was the wrong colour. They started passing the city’s huge gas tanks on their left nestled between the high wall and the railway tracks.

  Andy was pleased. They were making good progress, and theinfected cries when he heard them on the wind, still sounded distant. This was good. He was hopeful.

  But with the gas tanks on their left he knew that the steep embankment on their right would give way soon. At first to a block of flats that then led on to a line of other buildings that faced on to the road comprising of bed and breakfasts and small hotels amongst the odd private house. He knew they’d have to go back to being extra careful from there on out. If there wereinfectedin these buildings, previous house guests now infected waiting for their breakfast to walk passed outside. Any noise they made could bring them pouring outside in pursuit.

  Maybe we could climb over the wall and hug the tracks for a bit, he thought.

  Then something rustled on their right, up the embankment. Andy tried to look around discreetly, not wanting to alert the group. He was trying to home in on where the sound came from hoping he’d see what made it. He saw Dean and Gavin looking as well. Dean pointed towards an area of the embankment.

  Andy opened his mouth to ask something when Sam howled and started barking like a mad thing! He was trying to pull against Dean. Moving towards the bank rearing up on his hind legs as Dean held on to his collar yelling at him.

  “What is it?WHAT THE HELL IS IT?” said Sebastian as something moved swiftly through the darkness brushing passed the undergrowth along the embankment.

  “Ah’ shit!” cursed Gavin, and David twitched priming the shotgun, this wasn’t good!

  “GET READY!”Dean shouted and just then three low slung forms appeared through the dead shrubbery making their way swiftly down towards the road.

  Sarah started screaming!

  The forms were infected dogs, two were big muscular, powerful looking dogs and the third resembled a greyhound, thin and nimble. All three were badly mauled. They were pitted with savage bite marks and crisscrossed with what looked like knife wounds. One of the muscular looking dogs was missing a back leg. All that was left of the missing limb was a quivering flap of fleshy skin. The second muscular dog had one long flesh wound leading from its missing right ear all the way down to the tip of its muzzle. It looked like someone or something, had grabbed a hold of its right ear and pulled, literally tearing its scalp and the top of its snout off in one long continuous tear of flesh. Even its nose was missing.