Chapter 7 …
Monique felt a soaring pain by her left wrist, it was sharp and stung and tugged, it tugged harder almost ripping, a wet sucking sound made her eyes open like a sleepy child not wanting to get up for school. “Callum get off me I’m not in the mood”, she said hoarsely her mouth dry like cotton wool but the sucking noises continued, wet, chewing and pain.
She opened her eyes wide in terror and screamed at the decaying face that was chowing down on her left arm, “NOOOOOO!” she screamed and thrashed out hitting the thing square in the jaw. It stumbled back howling with rage before staggering forward for another bite, she raised her blade and slashed the creature’s throat, it fell to the floor like fitting before moving no more.
“No, No, No, No, No”, she said over and over as she uselessly tried to wipe away the pool of blood that kept reappearing over the wound once her hand moved away from it, “This cannot be happening, this cannot be happening to me”. She crumpled to the floor and sobbed, huge heaving gasps of air filling her lungs, “It might be fine, I might be fine, I might just end up like Callum or …Stacie!”
“STACIE!” She screamed into the infected air around her and lunged forward smashing up whatever was in her path, she had landed in the old sitting room of the mansion with a huge plasma T.V and now it was in her sights she slashed it with her blade tearing it from its wall stands and sending it to the floor in a pile of broken and shattered electrical pieces. She was in such a rage she didn’t hear the lone infected creature that was stalking her in the shadows until it was nearly too late, hearing its rasping breath at the last moment she hit out sending her blade into the things neck, the blade stuck fast in the hunk of meat but she pulled it free blood spraying out all over her. Screaming she struck it again and again until the thing was now just a bloody mess on the floor.
“ARGHHHHHHH!”
~
I was so angry at Callum, the fact that he just tried that, who the hell did he think he was? I stormed into my home and paced around making arguments in my head. What if Monique had seen it? She would be heartbroken! “I swear that man is an idiot!” I hissed into the air around me.
“What man?”
The voice made me jump and I let out an angry curse but it was only Albi.
“None of your business”, I snapped.
He shrugged standing up from my small sofa that I hadn’t even noticed he was sitting on, I had been so filled with anger that I hadn’t felt his presence here, “Way I look at it is it might be my problem if it’s going to put Kaley in danger”.
“It won’t, it’s nothing to do with Kaley”.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes I’m sure why all the damn questions Albi?”
He looked down, then raised his eyes back up to me, “What man?”
I saw something flash over his eyes.
“Who has upset you Stacie?”
“No one Albi just leave it”.
“It’s Callum isn’t it?”
I nodded, “Yes”.
“You want me to go rough him up for you?” he smiled.
I had to smile back, “You sound like a big brother”.
“I was one, once…I had two younger sisters”, his eyes glassed over hiding the old life away from his soul, I could see he didn’t want to hurt over them now.
“Well now you can be one to me and Kaley”, I said softly, just like I was supposed to be to Ollie, “Sorry I know it’s not the same…”
“Why stay here if Callum will give you trouble?” he changed the subject.
“Where else is there to go?”
“Well we need to get Kaley to where she needs to go and it isn’t here”, he replied, “I don’t plan on us staying here for much longer, maybe until after your Christmas”.
“You know about my Christmas?”
“You were acting weird, I had to follow you”, he smiled.
“You followed me? How did I not sense you?”
“Kaley can do some amazing things when she puts her mind to it”.
“She blocked you from me?”
He nodded, “I guess that’s how you would put it”.
We stood in silence for a moment, neither of us knowing what to say. Then he stepped forward and took my hand in his, “We can leave here Stacie, we never would have to come back. You could take Cain with you we could all be a family away from here together, something you won’t get from being around old wounds”.
His hand was warm in mine and I could feel the electrical current flowing between us, “How would we survive? On the run with four mouths to feed? How would we know where to go?”
“We would find a way, we are survivors Stacie or…”
“Or what?”
“Nothing…I just…I like you I want to see you happy and being here is not going to do that”.
“I am happy”, I lied, I had a feeling there was something else he wanted to say but I didn’t press him for it, I was tired and confused and didn’t feel up to any new information.
“No you’re not I can feel it in the air around you. You hate Callum but you love him to, you need to get away from him before something happens, something bad”.
“What do you mean?”
But before he could answer Kaley knocked on the door with Cain in tow.
“Hey we wanted to come see you guys, Ollie’s out doing the perimeter rounds and we’re bored”.
I smiled, Albi was right this was my little family. But how could I drag Kaley and Ollie apart they had grown close over the weeks unless…Unless I persuaded him to come to but would Monique allow it?
They both skittered off to do things and I stayed standing with Albi, his eyes burned into mine, could we really have all that he promised? A life and our own family of sorts away from here? And where was it that Kaley really needed to go and why did she have to go there?
The darkness was slowly ebbing in and I was sitting in my front room with Kaley and Cain who were both reading some magazines Ollie had looted during a supply run. Albi was fixing us up some dinner whilst I was fixing some of my bows when the door burst open and Callum burst in with it.
“What do you want?” I asked appalled that he had come in Ollie stood behind him looking worried, Monique had obviously made this a habit of late.
“It’s Monique she went to check the perimeter and hasn’t come back, its nearly dark out, I’m worried”, he puffed from running.
“Ok, um did anyone see which way she went?”
Albi came out of the kitchen and gave Callum a warning look but Callum dismissed it staring right at me.
He shook his head, “No, Ollie went to look round the perimeter as that’s where she said she was going but he hasn’t seen her or any sign of her. I have also traced some of her footprints in the snow leading towards the forest. It hasn’t snowed yet to cover them up but the clouds look like they might, we have to go and find her”.
Grabbing up my bow and arrow I signalled to Albi and Kaley to watch Cain, she nodded and watched us race out the door but Albi grabbed my arm, “This could be a game, a trap”.
“He wouldn’t lie about Monique”, I said.
“Then I’m coming with you”, Just as he said it Kaley came out.
“Albi dinners boiling over I don’t know what to do”.
“No stay here with them, I’ll be fine”, I reassured him.
“Ollie can stay with them”.
Callum butted in, “No Ollie is manning the gate tonight”.
He sighed “Well if you aren’t back by complete nightfall I’m coming out to find you”.
I nodded, “I’ll be back soon, I promise”.
He took my hand in his and raised it to his face making my palm connect with his cheek, I knew to Callum it would look like I had done it to him. I knew what Albi was doing, he was claiming me so Callum would get the hint but Albi didn’t know mine and Callum’s history, he didn’t know how much I hated but loved him inside. How I was angrier at Callum for kissing me because secretl
y I wanted it, I wanted more but it was forbidden because of my friend, because of Monique. But now Albi was giving me choices, I could leave here and leave Callum and Monique to be together in peace.
I let go of Albi’s cheek and smiled at him, “Dinners burning”.
“Stay safe”, he replied and closed the door to my home, I turned and headed down the front path to the road where Callum stood waiting, his face flushed and a strange awkward look in his eyes.
“This better not be one of your games Callum”, I said to him as we raced down the crunching snow to the gate, Ollie was a few steps ahead and already climbing up to the lookout post to take his shift.
“My games?”
“Yes to get me alone, if it is you can stop it now”.
“Don’t flatter yourself Stacie if I wanted you alone I would have done it by now, this is real Monique is missing”.
“What like you did before?”
He paused, “That was different I was…confused…I mourned you, you were meant to be dead but…you’re not”.
“Confused or not Callum you still pushed your luck”.
“Pushed my luck? It was just a spur of the moment thing, it meant nothing. Right now my heart is with Monique and I need to find her”.
“So you’re more than just close then huh?”
He huffed at me, “Yes”.
“She might come back, could she not just be hunting?” I asked.
“No…Well maybe but this isn’t like her”, by the way he said it made me think it might be like her, “Well actually just before the snowy season she vanished into the woods once to collect wood for the camp but she had told people where she was going but not this time…I’m worried”.
“She’s a big girl she can take care of herself”, I said more to reassure me than him.
“I’m worried because there was a man called Kirk who went out one day with us hunting, he vanished, no sign of him what so ever…I don’t want that to happen to her”.
My eyes dropped, I think I knew where Kirk had gone…An image flashed in my brain of a man, he had spotted a deer in the woods and had tried to capture it but had fallen down a steep part of the forest and had broken his leg and snapped a rib which had ruptured his lung. I had come across him tracking that same deer, he had called out to me for help but I had smelled his blood in the air. I didn’t have much control over the madness and the blood lust back then so I had ran off and hid from him. I had stayed near him for a while trying to sense if he would live but I could feel his life ebbing away, so I shot him, I put him out of his pain and misery. Then I buried him, gave him a proper sending but no one else knew other than me.
Looking back to Callum he had ordered Ollie to open the gate and we both ran out into the outside world, a bitter breeze was flowing our way and I knew Callum was right that sooner or later more snow was going to fall and then we might never find her.
“What is the deal with you and that Albino guy?” Callum finally asked me once we were out of ear shot from the camp.
“I thought you would be clever enough to guess that”.
“What you two are an item?”
I turned to him, “What so it’s ok for you to move on and not me? Plus we weren’t really an item were we Callum all those years ago, it’s not like we loved one another we just, felt guilty on both parts and tried to push away our guilt by…being together to fix it, even if it was briefly. What happened between us was just…”
“A one night stand in the car, when we both thought we might die with the Screechers”.
“Exactly”.
Neither of us said anymore, not until we found her footprints at the edge of the forest and followed them closely. Even then we only spoke saying ‘Over here or this way’. Winding all through the trees and the undergrowth that was thick and cold with the white stuff. We must have been walking for about an hour when I knew where she had gone, I could sense her close by, in the old mansion.
“She’s in the mansion”, I told him as he put a hand to his mouth to shout out her name again.
“How can you be so sure”.
“Trust me she’s there”, then my eyes widened in horror, “And so is a horde of creatures”, I set off at a run before Callum had time to take in what I had said.
Snow flicked up behind me as I ran and made my way to the mansion, I could see it looming in the ever growing horizon, my heart pounding in my chest hoping to god that she would be ok, that she wouldn’t get hurt. Callum was hot on my heel and before we knew it we ran in through the back door and into battle with the creature’s that now had Monique cornered.
“Monique”, Callum called out.
“I’m over here”, she answered but her voice was faded, like she had given up.
I pounced on the two that were nearest to me and taking them down, Callum shot three down before I then took out my bow and arrow to take out the ones that were creeping in through the open front door.
“There’s too many of them”, Callum shouted as he reached Monique, “We need to leave”.
“They will get to the camp if we leave them”, Monique hissed at him.
“We won’t let that happen”, I answered and took down three more with arrows but Callum was right there was too many, the ones I had just taken down were replaced by many more trampling over the fallen and crushing them into the floor.
“Stacie come on we have to move”, Callum shouted.
I felt like a useless tool in a box, I couldn’t let these creature’s get near the camp I had to eradicate them but that would mean changing from me and becoming the thing I hated most. I looked to Monique with pleading eyes, telling her to take him so he didn’t see me this way but she just looked away pain filled her eyes.
“Go, you two go I’ll catch up”, I said but Monique had other ideas.
“No we stay he needs to see you for what you are”.
I looked at her stunned, “Monique?”
“Just do it, kill them or they might make it to Cain and Ollie”.
Turning back to the horde I knew I had to change, there were at least fifty of them all crowding into the mansion and blocking off our exits, sighing to myself I called upon the blood lust and the fury, I felt my claws elongate down my fingers, then I felt my brain snap and I was gone.
~
Monique watched with slight satisfaction as Stacie changed, her claws showing themselves, the primal animal scream that howled from her lips as she roared towards the monsters tearing them apart in quick succession. She felt Callum go tense beside her at the view of his beloved becoming one of the monsters she was fighting and deep inside she felt relieved he was now seeing this for himself, that she was one of the monsters they tried to fight and keep out of the camp but they had let her and her two mates both of whom were infected too in without a second thought for the camps safety, just because it was her.
“Let’s go”, she said tugging on Callum’s arm.
But he didn’t move.
“Callum I want to go home”.
He turned to her, “You knew, you knew she was like this but didn’t tell me?”
“It wasn’t my place to say, plus are you really surprised Callum? She was like this at the sanctuary when fighting the Prime Minister”.
“No she wasn’t like…this, she was still more human but this…She’s more like them now”, and he pointed to her fluid movements and her timed attacks which took down loads at a time, she was a killing machine and in this mode she was lost to everyone and anyone. “She’s what’s been keeping the camp safe all these years isn’t she?”
Monique didn’t answer.
“She’s been here the whole time…but she didn’t come home”, he whispered the last part which churned Monique’s blood. Had he known she was there the whole time would they have ever grown so close or would he and Stacie still be together?
“Callum I want to go home”, she almost sobbed the last part, he turned to look at her and saw in her eyes she was hurting, he knew that she kne
w his heart was wondering.
“Come on, let’s get you home”, he put his arm around her shoulder, she knew she had him back now after seeing Stacie this way but for how long? How long would she have him as her own until…Until she turned?
As they left the mansion and left Stacie to do her thing they wondered back through the cold forest towards home, Monique could already feel the infection coursing through her veins. Luckily he hadn’t questioned her on the amount of blood that covered her body, he just presumed it was the blood from the creatures that she had taken out before they arrived.
“That’s not all with Stacie, the whole fighting like a deranged creature, that’s not all of it”.
Callum turned to look Monique in the eyes, “What do you mean?”
“She eats people”.
She watched as his blood ran cold, how pure horror etched itself over his handsome face, “No she wouldn’t”.
“She did, I saw her do it at the shopping centre in Tunbridge Wells, she devoured a human being because she is more monster now than human Callum. And we let her into the camp with Ollie, Cain and all the other innocent children”.
Callum stayed silent he didn’t know what to say, so they just walked but Monique knew she had set off the bomb, it was ticking down and it was only a matter of time before Stacie would have to leave and she and Callum could be together again. Maybe she would be like him, half infected, half human and they could finally be intimate together like she knew he wanted, like he could be with Stacie because she was already a monster.
The cold was really attaching itself to her bones and she shivered, her teeth chattering together. They made it back to camp within the hour and a very worried looking Ollie stood by the gate, he let them in immediately and rushed to them.
“Monique your safe thank god, you gotta stop wondering off like that”, he told her but smiled cheekily as it wasn’t an order.
“I’m fine I got jumped by some creatures but I’m cool”, she lied.
Alone (Book 2): Lone Page 14