by David Shiels
Claudia and her wolf companion, that she had yet to name, left the supermarket and headed out into the city itself. They passed wrecked cars and dead bodies at every turn; the streets, including side streets, were completely blocked with these vehicles and corpses. The entire city was in complete chaos; but whatever had happened, had passed.
The bodies looked like they had been mauled to death as there were teeth marks all over the bodies with most of them having missing limbs; she could barely notice if these people were humans at all. She looked towards the silent wolf, remembering the things it had done to protect her on the island, but “no” she said to herself out loud “not possible”. She made herself believe an airstrike had struck the city, ignoring the fact that all of the buildings were still standing; she didn’t notice, or ignored, the large amount of brown spikes lodged into the buildings.
As she continued her journey through the city part of her began to enjoy the soothing nature of the silence. There was no one to get in her way when walking down the street and no one to make her move out of the way, because that was one of the things that pissed her off the most was having uneducated idiots just pushing into her and not moving out of the way. She took most of the collisions as the other person simply being jealous after even a slight look at Claudia and this being the only way to make themselves feel better. Pathetic is how Claudia saw it.
However, one massive issue was the ever intensifying stench the dead bodies were leaving behind and as Claudia ventured further and further into the epicentre the worse the odour became; it was beginning to become unbearable. Food she recently ate would soon be coming back up to greet her.
She found her way to a metro station and came to the conclusion that if the entire city was evacuated or dead then the metro lines would also have stopped. Her business was situated in a great location next to a metro stop as well. The decision to have the company started there was one she always admired her father for; it made it extremely easy for clients to reach the premises.
Claudia, with her hands firmly clasping her nose shut, jogged down the blood drenched steps leading into the flickering lights of the underground.
A Metro Sickness
She hastily navigated past the bodies that furnished the dim hallways, swooped under the barriers that would usually require money and ran down the long escalator hoping she would not faint, and found her way to the platform.
The smell here was not as bad so Claudia released her nose and breathed in the air hard. Not perfect and largely smelt of fumes, but it didn’t make her feel sick She actually had always enjoyed the smell of petrol and would stuck her head outside of her father's limousine as a child and sniff as hard as possible, usually ending up feeling slightly high.
As the metro was something Claudia’s upbringing never required her to take, she had to consult the map on the edge of the platform. luckily the electricity in the city was still fully functioning so the small lamp above the map was illuminated and perfectly easy to read.
The trains here were not automated, but she was optimistic that the train drivers had all been slaughtered or had crashed somewhere along the tracks. With this hopeful thought in her head she jumped onto the train tracks and followed them into the darkness which was barely lit by small orange bulbs high up on the walls. Her wolf friend jumped down behind her, still following her every move.
Her hand might as well have been heavily magnetised against the wall as she paced herself down the seemingly endless hall that felt as if each step she embarked upon sang the tune to her approaching calamity for she could not see where she was placing her naked feet.
The walk down the tunnels was uneventful but slow as she carefully traversed the dark, abandoned underground tracks, being sure not to step on the live tracks or any manner of broken objects which have found their way down here. On her way past the numerous stops not a single sound was heard; not even from her wolf friend.
As she neared the station that she was looking for she noticed a large train blocking the rest of her passage; it had heavily tilted to the side enough to block passage from either side of it; the wheels were resting against the wall blocking out all light from the orange bulbs. The only light to be found was the lights peeking around the train from the well-lit station ahead.
There was naught but a small gap around the bottom of the train, where the roof would be, but this would require Claudia being in an almost crawling position for an unspecified distance as she didn’t know how many carriages she would need to pass under. She instantly decided against that route and approached the rear of the train.
The back door of the train was ajar but jammed in that position needing Claudia to squeeze between it. The gap was small but the weight she had lost recently aided her in this small quest and she fit through it painlessly. The door slammed shut behind her causing a loud echoing bang and her to instantly regret taking the supposed easy route.
The train carriage was only lightly illuminated yet it was enough for Claudia to see the pile of bodies that filled it from side to side; the train must have been attacked during peak hours, Claudia guessed, but she had never used the metro before but had heard terrifying stories of how crowded they can get.
As the door behind her had closed tight there was nowhere for the smell of decaying bodies to escape. It began to rapidly build up like an invisible storm, making her feel like she was going to faint right there and then. She covered her nose with one hand and ran, jumped and skipped her way through and over the sea of bodies; which had all fallen into the centre of the train due to its tilted position. There was no time for mistakes. The door at the end of the carriage was halfway open; easy enough for her to slip through without losing any precious time.
Each carriage she passed through told the same story. The bodies completely covered the floor making her have to use them as sort of stepping stones; she always knew people should lie down before her but this she found a bit too much.
“God DAMN it” she wanted to shout as she made it to the front of the train, but she was unable to open her mouth to let anymore of the decay into her system.
The train driver's door was completely jammed shut, disallowing her to escape. The exit door on her left was low to the group and covered in bodies which she would not have the strength in her to move them even on a good day. The door on her right was too high for her to reach.
Out of sheer desperation she released her hand from her nose and smashed hard on the main door as hard as she possibly could manage but the smell caught hold of her after only allowing her four strikes against the metal behemoth.
Vomit projected from her mouth without giving her any warning signs. It blasted against the door and reflected back against her face resulting in even more undigested food and liquid to expel itself from within.
The pain she felt inside her stomach and throat was so severe that she fell hard onto her hands and knees clutching her abdomen, her body still somehow managing to conjure up fluids and food; more than she had eaten. She wished and shouted for it to stop but the incredible odour surrounding her was too much for her body to handle. At this point she almost wished she had lived a peasant life as this smell would have been normal to her.
As she lay in her own pool of vomit, her hair tangled in the stale food she had only recently eaten off of the supermarket floor, she heard a bang above her, followed by a tap, tap, tap. She craned her neck and looked up to see the wolf at the small window at the door above her; it was bashing its paws seemingly trying to break the glass.
This gave Claudia’s body just a few seconds distraction before the vomit pains came again, but this time nothing was coming out but painful yellow fluid. Her body had given all that it could and soon it would force her body to go into shock and eventually cause her brain to shut down.
The glass broke but she was too busy straining her delicate face to defend herself from the crystalized assault as small glass shards fell all around her.
The wolf landed just beh
ind Claudia and nudged his nose against her face but she was too preoccupied to pay attention.
The wolf positioned itself firmly against the wall in front of Claudia and howled as loudly as it could. This majestic sound grabbed her attention and her brain instantly knew what the wolf wanted her to do.
She rose to her feet and planted both of them on the back of the wolf; its fur was surprisingly soft, tickling her, making her want to giggle despite the dire situation she was in. She pressed one hand against the wall to balance herself and used the other one to reach up and smack the button. The door opened and the ledge was easy enough for her to effortlessly climb out by using the thick buttons as leverage.
She looked back down at the wolf that had saved her life as it backed itself up on the pile of bodies; it pushed from its large strong back legs and sprang up towards the open door, falling just short and hanging on with its two paws; it could not support its own weight and began to fall back down; until two hands came and wrapped themselves around each of its failing paws giving him the extra power he needed to pull himself up.
Claudia hugged the wolf and it licked her face, however this slightly disgusted her considering the amount of her own vomit that had just sprayed all over her. This would be the last time they would embrace, that was for sure.
She turned around and saw what had caused the train to have blocked her path; it had collided with another train that must have been waiting at the station. She carefully climbed down from the train and slid in between both trains, finding herself on the platform edge.
She quickly ran through the metro station which was in exactly the same situation as the one she first entered and found herself back onto the main, chaotic streets; she felt like she had entered a picture as there were absolutely no movements.
Tragedy
She turned to her left and there she stood in front of the legacy that she had raised even further than it already once was when her Father had left it to her. A big sign standing proudly read out the words “Deblonge International Corporation” stamped its mark on one of the tallest buildings in the city. The sign alone took up one third of the building front, each word placed above that of the other. She remembered the day the sign was first put in place; it was the first week she had taken over from her father and she had decided she wanted to have a big sign to show the superiority of the company and felt that the current, small sign did not show the ideas she had to make the company a huge success; she had to visualise it for the people.
There were many complaints from her employees who complained that they now had no view outside of their windows, but this never bothered Claudia. They should be focused on their work not looking out of the window at other buildings.
Ten people were fired that day.
Claudia ran up the large, wide steps that lead the way to her building; the steps were immense and the only way to take one step at a time was by jogging, or by being a wolf, judging by how easily the hound hopped up them. The steps were very steep, the advantage to this was that it allowed Claudia, even in her weakened state, to kick down the bodies that littered her steps as she passed each one of them; they tumbled down the steps just like lemmings. Just because the town had fallen to disgust doesn’t mean she had to also.
She ran up to the large glass doors with pristine golden rims; their design was influenced by that of American five star hotels. It was done to make the customers feel like royalty.
Although at this moment in time the glass was missing and had been replaced by sturdy cardboard. This pissed off Claudia immensely, the heat from her anger warming up her chilled body.
“If anyone is inside you better open this goddamn door” She screamed; surely loud enough to be heard miles away in this stillness.
No reply. She bashed a fist against the cardboard. There was no chance she was knocking through this material. This calmed her down slightly because after all, she does only purchase the best.
Just as she began to think of another way into the building she heard the sound of boards being moved, then soon after the door slowly edged open. Out peeked a small, meek face. It was Felicity the company receptionist.
Claudia did not wait for an invitation into her own palace and pushed her way through the small gap, shocking the girl and forcing her back into the building before she even could comprehend what was even outside.
“Felicity, what the fuck took you so long? what if I was dying out there and those seconds you wasted being a scared little bitch had cost me my life?”
Claudia’s glare and angry red face made Felicity shiver, unable to answer.
Felicity was a shy looking girl with long brown curled hair down to her shoulders. She wore glasses and never wore anything but long out dated dresses. Today she was wearing an outrageous yellow dress with white dots. Horrendous was the first word that entered Claudia's mind.
“Pathetic as always I see” Claudia then turned and let out a loud gasp as she saw the demolition that had taken place.
“What have you done to my beautiful business?!” She turned back to Felicity as tears began to fill up her eyes.
She let out a small grunt and curled her hands into fists “What have you done to my beautiful baby?! I leave you for one weekend and this is how you thank me for the years of employment? You would have been sucking off old grandpas in some sweaty strip bar if it wasn’t for ME!”
“I’m so sorry, so sorry, so sorry, sorry lady Claudia” Felicity spat the words out at an alarming rate, almost incomprehensibly while keeping her eyes fixed to the floor.
The place was a nothing like it was before Claudia left on her date that changed everything. There was a chandelier hanging proud. There were bottles of champagne on golden stools. the walls, made with the finest quality wood pine imported directly from Canada, were immaculate and cleaned three times a day. The circular reception area gave customers the option of where they wished to stand when signing into the building. The balconies on either side that was home to statues of her father.
Destroyed.
The chandelier was on the floor, obliterated. The bottles of champagne were smashed and the golden stools nowhere to be seen. The walls were smeared in blood. The reception area was no longer the reception area; it had been completely demolished to the point where it was no longer the perfect customer entry point for clients and customers. The statues now lay in pieces on the floor near to her feet.
Claudia felt sick. She did not want to see the rest of the building. She only needed one room in this now violated place. The war room which was in the basement; it was home to at least twenty years’ worth of food and water supplies and had all the entertainment one person could possibly need. Only her eyes could open the 10 meter thick door and it was going to remain as her sanctuary while she planned her future movements.
“It wasn’t her fault! it was nobody's fault!” A dark skinned man entered the room.
“Then who’s fault was it?” Claudia demanded.
“Look at this.”
The man passed Claudia a small 8 inch tablet; the quality felt cheap in Claudia’s hand.
“It’s an American news report I recorded from last night. Since then there has been no signal on the television.”
The man tapped the screen and footage began to play.
A news reporter blipped onto the screen; she was wearing a red jacket and she had short blonde hair. Her stunning appearance made Claudia feel vile.
“This is news report fifteen since the wolf disaster began, coming straight to you from New York”
“So far we Americans have managed to keep the wolf threat at bay but each attempt they make at penetrating our defences they appear to edge a little closer to breaching our country. And as you all know too well, once this thing spreads, it spreads thick and fast and there seems to be no stopping it”
“We have completely shut off of borders from Canada and Mexico as these countries have had reports of wolf transformations. Flights and boats are still shot on sight
so please refrain from using these to enter or leave the country”
She paused, turned a page in her small notebook and carried on.
“We can report that today we lost contact with the Spanish government; the last country holding out against the plague within Europe.” She began to cry, pausing briefly to compose herself.
“There has still been no word from any Asian countries since the first day”
“Social media from many countries is still active but the posts are becoming fewer and are sounding more and more desperate. Because of this the president has demanded that a block be placed on all major social media websites as he says it is far too traumatic for us to be reading and does not help us cope with the situation.”
“Remember everybody if you see a wolf you must try to kill it. You cannot outrun it. Avoid those spikes and go straight for the face. If anyone is infected then kill them immediately as the transformation is almost instant”
“This is Candy Blaine, hoping you all a wolf free day.”