by David Shiels
The radio and TV had gone eerily quiet not long after the initial broadcast.
But either way, Studley was in no condition to be rescued. She was all he needed and they would not take him away from her.
She went and grabbed a towel and took it to the sink, drenched it in water then returned to Studley, placing it on his throbbing forehead.
He stopped squirming but still breathing heavily and looked at her.
“My shoulder feels like a bad booboo is on it.” He spoke with a childish voice, his lips quivering.
Lisa cracked a smile; a slight pain tore through her dry, brittle lips. It’s the first time he has spoken since the incident “It’s ok Studley, I’m here for you and I always will be”
“I know what happens to peoples who are shot by the wolfies, they turn hairy and kill other peoples” His eyes looked bewildered and lost, his body still covered in sweat, he looked 10 pounds lighter than when he was first placed in this bed.
Lisa hugged him hard, “You’re Okay, promise” Studley closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, Lisa remained hugging him and dozed off soon after, whispering the words “I will always protect you”
As they slept, hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives.
Daylight came and despite the chaos, the birds still remained singing their choirs as if it was a normal beautiful day.
In the bedroom it was still like night time, only slight rays of light peeking through the cracks in the barricaded windows.
Lisa was asleep in the sweat stained bed, her thoughts currently creating the perfect story in her head of her being on a beach made out of ice cream and being served ice cream sundae’s by muscular men made out of sugar. She was in bliss, currently far away from the reality of life.
Studley however was back to reality; he had left the bed for the first time in 10 hours and decided to see if all that had happened was simply just one of his chaotic dreams. He was in the living room, no longer was there a stunning display of items bought and won by his parents but now it was looking like the aftermath of an earthquake, items had been tipped over everywhere, there sole use now to block up every single entry point into the house.
Tears soared down his cheeks. He thought he would never see his home in this state before, he hadn’t known much in his life but this was one thing he had always believed would remain forever.
He peeked through one of miniscule gaps in the curtains; the bright daylight lightly searing his eye, it recently too used to the darkness. He recoiled, childishly rubbed his eyes, then approached slowly and looked again.
Out on the streets it appeared as if it was just another normal Sunday morning, he was tempted to go outside and get fresh air and perhaps even check on how Angela was doing after being attacked.
He moved from the living room to the hallway and approached the heavily barricaded front door of the house and slid aside the stacks of chairs that had been placed there. They were heavy and made the wound in his shoulder flare up, causing him to whimper out a small cry of pain. He ignored it and made a gap just big enough for him to slide through.
Heart Break Again
Outside the air was good. It felt like it had been so long since he had been outside. He walked down the porch steps, onto the grass and looked up and down the street. There was absolutely no sign of life, neither human nor beast. Studley honestly questioned the legitimacy of his memories, the only thing consistent was how some of the houses were boarded up, but he was never one to look at other houses anyway, nor was he one to leave the house much. He would rather stroke his favourite toys.
He looked to the house to his left, Angela's house. Was she really torn apart or was that just a rogue memory? Not something unheard of for Studley. He walked up to the house and peered through the broken window that bordered the living room. It was more of a mess than his own but he still had to find out what happened to Angela.
He walked back down the steps and opened the large brown gate leading to the garden. As he walked down the path he noticed all of the flowers had withered and died, the rest had been furiously dug up and lay sprawled out across the path.
He carried on down the path and turned into the garden. He fell to his knees.
Blood. Everywhere. The garden was covered in blood and limbs. What he saw was no dream. Angela really was torn to pieces. He let out a loud cry, tears completely obscuring his view. This was not right; he wanted to believe he was still asleep. He began slapping himself across the face. Not enough. Harder and faster he slapped and slapped and slapped some more with a few pinches added in, all whilst screaming Angela’s name.
Two hands tightly grabbed at his forearms.
"Studley stop this nonsense, we have to get inside, now!" whispered Lisa, as loud as she could, her eyes still half closed from just waking up.
Studley appeared to not even acknowledge her and continued to scream Angela’s name, eyes closed, face turning a dark red.
“Studley, please it’s not safe out here, Angela is gone!” Lisa pleaded; her face looking like it will burst into tears at any moment.
Studley stopped his tantrum and looked at Lisa, his eyes full of tears while green liquid ran from both of his nostrils.
“But she was my best friend” he peered around at the body parts, still sniffing his runny nose.
Annoyance suddenly swept across Lisa’s tired face.
“No, studley, I am your best friend, I always have been and I always will be.” Her voice was very stern, spoken as if she was talking to a naughty child.
Studley ignored her sentiments and grabbed a bloody severed hand off of the floor and held it against his chest.
Looking Angier now, Lisa slapped his hand as hard as she could, making Studley drop the limb to the ground.
“Stop it!” She growled.
Angela was indeed Studleys best friend. Apart from Lisa she was the only person who ever treated him like a normal human being, other people he met used to dislike him instantly after he had spoken due to his voice sounding ‘dumb’, as some cruel people at school would put it. Often he would forget what he was doing or would not realise the effects of his actions. He was like a child in a man's body, yet, Angela accepted him for who he was.
Lisa had never liked the attention Angela gave him, ever since her and Studley were young she had always been the one to protect him and it would always be her shoulder that his tears would land upon after another day of being bullied. Their mother was always out partying and their father was always too busy with work to ever give Studley the attention he required, then they moved to this neighbourhood and Angela treated him just like Lisa, perhaps better, and she did not like the competition.
Lisa had lost a lot of friends over the years because of Studley by choosing to stay in to console him after a long abusive day causing her to lose touch with friends and be considered ‘boring’, and siding with him when he claimed her friends had insulted him. She had made a lot of sacrifices and hated that another person was taking him away from her.
While Lisa was shocked to initially see her limbs scattered around the blood stained garden, sorrow was not an emotion that seeped into her brain.
Suddenly a loud voice boomed in the distance, “To any remaining survivors, please give us a sign that you are still alive”
Studley’s head shot-up like an alerted rabbits.
“Studley, no” Lisa grabbed his head to her chest
“This will be the last time that we patrol this area, if there are any survivors please give us some kind of a sign you are alive” With each word the voice was nearing their location.
The patrol tank had patrolled the area twice since the attack had begun, looking for survivors. They made promises of a safe haven not too far away and they will provide transport and to protect everyone. The vehicle they drove looked like a tank but only smaller and a lot louder. The armour was dented and covered in dark spikes. During the night patrol it had a large vibrant light that they would beam against every ho
use.
Every time they had called there were sounds of screams and gunfire. Lisa wondered if they were killing more people than they were saving.
They both sat there, quiet as possible listening as the car drove closer and closer; Lisa could feel Studley getting more and more excited and she knew she could not stop him from running to it. When younger it was impossible to stop him rushing to the ice cream van even if he had no money to spend.
Studley broke free of Lisa and ran surprisingly giddily back down the garden path and into the main road, Lisa sighed and gave chase. She knew this was going to happen.
He stood on the pavement, raised one arm and waved; it was a wave not to gain their attention but to simply say ‘hello’ and expecting them to drive on by, but this of course was not their intention.
The small tank came to a dramatically slow halt. On top of the tank, half of his body in view, the rest hiding in the area below, was a man who looked to be in his mid-60s. He was completely bald and wearing something that looked like a gas mask; it almost totally obscured his face, but left the back of his head exposed except for a thick black strap which held the mask in place.
The man's face immediately turned to Studley in a very robotic manner, and then the attention turned to Lisa as she slowly walked from the garden walkway and into the bright street.
Silent Aggression
“Identify yourselves!” the man's voice was raspy and haggard, obviously a big smoker. Lisa wondered how he had lived to the age he was.
“I am Studley mister sir!” Studleys’ intention was to salute but instead put one finger across his upper lip. The man frowned at this, half tempted to tell the driver below to carry on with their final round.
“You think you’re funny, son?” The man said. Studley dropped his arms to his sides, with a puzzled look on his face. “Millions of people are dead and even more are dying, and you’re making jokes?! The government doesn’t care about you. We are doing these patrols voluntarily and we have lost so many people doing these runs. We were told to stop it, but I was determined to do one more, to try to save a few more lives.”
It grew incredibly silent.
“Well?! Do you think you’re funny now?” the man demanded some kind of response.
“N-No sir!” Studley looked at ground, body as stiff as a board.
Lisa walked in between the dispute and waved her arms, signalling for everyone to calm down.
She explained to the sergeant about Studley’s condition and how they had been trapped inside their house.
“We have had people pass through multiple times since last night, why didn’t you respond to us?”
Lisa didn’t know what to say.
His eyes, now suspiciously scanning the pair, focused on the wound that was visible through Studleys torn t-shirt.
“You two wait here a moment”
He retreated back down into the tank.
Lisa faced Studley and whispered “Did you see the way he looked at your shoulder? He knows something happened.”
Studley remained silent.
A few long minutes passed, Lisa’s eyes constantly scanning the area, she was sure that Studley’s screams would have attracted the attention of some nearby wolves but nothing had approached them, eventually the man reappeared from the top of the tank.
“You need to come with us, both of you”
He spun his body around and opened another hatch at the back of the tank.
Lisa knew that she couldn’t let Studley go with them; they would use him as some test subject and perform horrific experiments. She would not allow that.
“No” she replied, while backing off with one arm wrapped around Studley’s arm, “We are fine here”
“Listen little lady, my superiors need to see this young man here.” He placed his rifle on his back and he climbed out of the tank, handcuffs were dangling from his belt.
“Just leave us alone!” She pulled at Studley and they both moved back towards their house, Studley followed aimlessly, not really sure who to follow or why.
The man reached and grabbed hold of Studley’s other arm and pulled him towards him; despite his age he had a lot of strength and easily pulled the siblings towards him.
“It was not a requ-” Before he could finish his sentence Lisa threw her hand at his face, nails first, attempting to scratch him.
The man had great reflexes, catching the arm while saying words to try to calm her down. But she was not listening, adamant to cause harm to him.
“Mick, I could use some help out here” He said it in a calm tone.
A door popped open on the other side of the tank and a man walked out, he was completely covered in brown camouflage army gear, no skin at all was visible, but he was of a bigger build to the older man.
He approached the struggling trio and grabbed hold of Lisa’s attacking arm, followed by dragging her away from Studley and the officer; her grip instantly released from Studley. The man had an extremely strong grasp, like a vice that had been tightened all of the way.
The old officer placed a handcuff on his wrist and placed the other on Studley.
“It’s for your own good, boy” Said the old officer.
A floating hissing sound and out of nowhere; a brown spike lodged in the veteran’s throat making him fall to the floor whilst grabbing at it, attempting to pull it out. Studley was taken to his knees as the hefty man fell down. He watched on, unsure what to do.
On the other side of the tank the other officer was still dragging Lisa away as she kicked and punched at him but his armour protected him from every single blow. She was heavily sweating at this point, each blow getting softer and softer.
He noticed her fatigue, released her and walked around the other side of the tank. Lisa was panting, with a defeated look on her face.
“What the fuck!”
The officer dropped to the older officer and immediately pulled the spike out of his neck; it caused blood to gush like a fountain, covering him and Studley in dark sticky fluid. He placed both of his hands on the veteran’s neck to attempt to halt the bleeding, but it would not prolong his life.
A female scream pierced everyone's ears. Studley awoke from his shock and ran to where he heard Lisa scream, dragging the dying man with him, the other officers grip lost on the man's neck, causing his head to bounce on the cold, hard pavement multiple times, blood spraying everywhere like a hose that was on full power and the negligent owner had let go of it.
Mike was going to give chase but suddenly felt a few pinches in his armour and looked over his shoulder.
He noticed three brown spikes sticking out of his upper back; he spun around fully to see three adult wolves charging towards him, all looking and sounding extremely aggressive. He pulled out a sidearm, a military standard handgun, and shot three at the oncoming threats.
Two wolves went down from his precision head shots but one wolf managed to deny Mike his hat trick of shots. The surviving wolf jumped on him, pinning him down to the rough ground.
The gnarly teeth of the wolf continuously snapped at the face of Mike. To avoid having his face gnawed off he had to tilt his face from the left and to the right, to the rhyme of the wolves dripping jaws. The weight of the wolf must have been at least two hundred pounds. The wolf had lay his body on top of his, planting Mike’s left hand and both his legs in place, preventing him from kicking the beast off of him, giving him one free hand to keep the jaws at bay.
As this was happening Studley had just gotten to Lisa, she had her back pressed against the tank as he saw two wolves sprinting towards her. What he did next was an incredible feat of strength.
He let out a high shriek worthy of a banshee queen and with just his handcuffed arm he lifted it and flung the old, dying officer around and smashed his body into that of the approaching wolves, causing them to be flung on to the pavement. Both wolves fell onto their sides, momentarily dazing them.
Lisa was almost hyperventilating, positive that what she just witne
ssed was an hallucination. She put it to the back of her mind and struggled her way to Studley, who was standing completely still like a statue, watching the wolves as they struggled to regain composure.
“Studley! Studley! We have to get back inside the house!” Lisa’s voice was low and there was a long, exhausted breath between each word.
They started back towards their house when they heard a grinding sound... the face of the now dead officer being dragged across the floor; his face had been the body part to collide first with the wolves, being decimated to the point of being unrecognisable; His face was full of wolf spikes, piercing him like shards of glass,. His face mask had done nothing to protect him and they had gone right through his eyes, blood obscuring his facial features.