Out of the Dark: An apocalyptic thriller

by Ashlei Hawley

  “You’ve shown her what kind of man you are, and it’s a good man,” Shane said, trying to make his admiration evident in his voice. “You need to show her what you want to be for her, if it’s more than a friend.”

  “My dad had the talk with me when I was twelve, Shane,” Ray told the other man derisively. “No offense, but I really don’t need it from you.”

  “Just trying to help.” Shane held his tongue, refrained from calling Ray any other friendly names.

  “Thanks for the attempt,” Ray said, though he sounded more annoyed than grateful.

  “What do you expect we’ll find when we go looking for the old man?” Shane asked, switching the topic and his tactic. If he could get Ray talking about the situation, he could learn more about his personality and intelligence as he wanted to.

  “There are only a few options,” Ray answered. “If he’s alive, he’s either uncorrupted, half-corrupted, or the blight has taken him completely. If it’s the last option, chances are he wouldn’t even be home. Night’s fallen now, and the fully corrupted walk freely. If he’s dead, he’s dead. If he’s gone, chances are he’s either corrupted or dead somewhere out there.”

  “Not very many comforting options, are there?” Ray caught the hint of sarcasm in Shane’s voice.

  “I don’t see any reason to sugarcoat things,” Ray said simply. “Laura’s not here and the probability that her dad is turned or dead is high.”

  “You’re a good guy, Ray, I mean that. But you’re bleak as a mother fucker.”

  Ray snorted, but didn’t otherwise respond.

  They pulled into the driveway of Bill Atkinson’s home moments later.

  The house was single story and plainly built; white siding, brown window frames, and a porch that had only one step up. Minimal seemed to be the keyword of Bill Atkinson’s home. There were no trees or bushes to maintain, a small but tidy lawn that was kept green by sprinklers in the summer and mowed by Sam on Saturdays. There was a fence around the backyard.

  Sam had told Shane that Bill had a dog named Betty. She was his well-loved, four-legged child and in his older age made the perfect companion for him. A Jack Russell, Betty was rambunctious and loud, and would create quite a ruckus if she wasn’t calmed immediately when Shane and Ray went to the door. Sam had said that was one of the best early indicators if something was wrong. If Betty didn’t make a noise, they were either gone or there was something bad to anticipate within.

  Ray was the first one at the door, having already told Shane that he’d simply feel better if the uncorrupted man let Ray take point. Shane had reluctantly agreed. Therefore, it was Ray who knocked lightly on Bill’s door and Ray who twisted the knob when no one answered after a full minute of waiting.

  The door was unlocked, and Ray pushed it open. It swung into darkness. None of the lights in the home were on and there was no sound of a dog barking.

  “First indicator, right?” Shane asked, and he sounded uneasy.

  “I’d be more comfortable if you stayed here,” Ray admitted.

  “Not on your life. You can be point man, but no way are you going in there alone. Not only does it go against all my better instincts, but Amy would kick my ass.”

  Ray raised an eyebrow to that. “You’re two of her, man. Grow some balls, for God’s sake.”

  Shane chuckled. He was pretty sure this discussion was just the two of them stalling. “I know girls like her, bro. I’m more afraid of her than I am most men my size.”

  “Wow. That’s really sad,” Ray retorted. “Well, let’s get this over with.” When Ray tried to hit a light switch on the wall to the left of them, nothing happened. He mentioned it nonchalantly, but the lack of light made his nerves taut.

  “Good thing we brought flashlights,” Shane commented as he pulled one from his pocket and switched it on. Ray already has his out and glowing.

  They entered quietly, sweeping the flashlight beams from side to side. The beams occasionally played over each other, pushing back the darkness more capably than when they were shining alone.

  “Ray?” Shane whispered.

  “Yeah?” Ray responded, just as quietly.

  “Something’s wrong in here.”

  “Yeah.” Ray felt it, too. It wasn’t hard to miss. And where was the dog?

  “Betty,” Ray called in a hushed voice. “Here, girl. Betty.” The singsong tone sounded stale as it echoed off the unfamiliar walls of Laura’s father’s home.

  “I don’t think they’re here,” Shane murmured, playing his flashlight beam over an empty living room and then a similarly vacant hallway. There were other rooms down that way, and Ray stopped the both of them, following Shane’s flashlight beam with his own.

  “I think that’s just wishful thinking on your part,” Ray commented. “We should check those rooms. There are what, three or four down there?”

  “Might be a staircase,” Shane suggested, straining his eyes to see further down the hallway.

  “Did Laura mention a basement?” Ray asked. Shane shrugged his response. He didn’t think she had but he didn’t know for sure.

  “Let’s just go,” Shane suggested. He didn’t like how timid his voice sounded, so he followed it up by the very decisive action of moving forward.

  Ray thrust an arm out and Shane bumped into it. Annoyance flared inside the younger man.

  “I said I go first,” Ray reminded Shane, who gave an audible sigh, but stopped moving.

  “Then go,” Shane declared impatiently. “The night’s not getting any younger here, you know?”

  Ray didn’t like how hesitant he was to move forward. Though he knew he’d had to accompany Shane, had felt he hadn’t had a choice in the matter, he didn’t want to be there.

  Shane sensed the conflict inside Ray, and tried to put a lid on his edginess. Ray wasn’t a man of action. He wasn’t exactly faint-hearted, but he also wasn’t someone typically inclined to acts of bravery or valiance. A good guy he was, but a heroic one, Shane was sure he’d never been, nor had to be. Ray was surprising himself as much as anyone, Shane thought.

  “I’ll open the door, you shine the light,” Ray whispered as they came upon the first room. The door was closed, so Ray put his hand on the doorknob and turned. Shane stood at the ready with his flashlight.

  The door opened. Shane shined his light inside. The beam swept back and forth in three quick twitches. Shane attempted to penetrate every darkened corner at once, which led to the beam moving jerkily, too fast for Ray to formulate an accurate picture of what was within. He thought he saw a dresser, then a desk. Pictures on the wall reflected the light back to them and burned his eyes.

  “Nothing in there,” Shane murmured from behind him, and Ray nodded in agreement. He hadn’t been able to see the room clearly, but it had been enough to assure him nothing living currently resided inside.

  “Onto the next,” Ray said as he made sure the door was securely closed before they moved forward.

  The process was repeated for the second room, which had also had its door closed. Ray opened, Shane shined the light, they both observed breathlessly, expecting some new horror. It felt only natural that they would be threatened or find themselves in the presence of death.

  “Maybe he left,” Shane suggested as Ray turned toward the next room. The door to this one was open. “Maybe he’s on his way to the Walkers’ already.”

  “And maybe we dropped acid together a couple of days ago and we’re dying of dehydration on my living room floor,” Ray responded sarcastically. “Maybes don’t matter. Let’s just focus.”

  “You’re a hard man, Ray Barrett,” Shane commented dryly. “Completely humorless, you are.”

  “Please,” Ray retorted with an insulted grunt. As he approached the threshold of the door, he lifted the tire iron defensively and continued talking. “I’m the funniest mother fucker I know.”

  Shane wanted to laugh at that, but he heard Ray suck in a deep breath and hold it as he prepared himself mentally to step into t
he doorway. The younger man swept his light back and forth in the exposed room.

  As the others had been, the room was empty.

  “Well, shit,” Shane said. His nerves were almost more on edge because of the lack of an attack. Without seeing anything or anyone, he and Ray were just becoming more and more nervous.

  “No stairs down this way,” Ray announced as he trained his light on the small area of unexplored hallway to the left of them. There were no other doors; nowhere else to go. “End of the line,” Ray declared somberly.

  When the ‘thump’ and subsequent dragging noise sounded from behind them, both of the men nearly jumped out of their skin. They turned as one, training their lights down the way they’d come. Both beams of light shook, the trembling making the light jump from wall to floor to wall. They saw nothing in the inconsistent light, but they heard another loud thud and shuffling, a strange and disconcerting sound.

  “I didn’t see anything over there,” Ray hissed as he continued to sweep his light back and forth. “I didn’t see anything when we came in. What’s the layout of the house? What area did we miss?”

  “Kitchen?” Shane guessed as he shrugged, making his light bounce. “Backdoor? Hell, I don’t know. Obviously we missed something.”

  “Move,” Ray ordered decisively. “This is not where we want to be in a confrontation. It’s a dead end.”

  Shane started forward and Ray moved in front of him quickly, bringing up the tire iron with both hands. That meant his flashlight beam aimed up toward the ceiling, but he cared more about the weapon than the light at the current moment.

  “Shit,” Shane breathed out in a panicky voice as his light finally fixed itself on a shape. “Shit, shit, shit.”

  “Holy fuck,” Ray added, hearing his own voice squeak in fear.

  The man, whom both Shane and Ray assumed was Bill, was soaked from nose to hips with cherry red. Having seen the atrocities committed since the onset of the current happenings, Ray was still astounded to see an older man stained with the blood of his well-loved pooch. Ray assumed the blood was Betty’s because Bill dragged the mangled body of a Jack Russell behind him. Lengthened by the trauma which had undoubtedly killed her, Betty’s body had been torn almost in two. Her entrails slid wetly behind her, staining the carpet as blood had stained Bill’s face.

  Bill walked with a pronounced limp and Shane saw that his exposed calf had been savaged by little teeth; Betty’s teeth. Shane assumed the dog had attacked once corruption had taken the man, and had been dispatched subsequently by her once-loving owner, who was currently pulling her body up to his mouth to take another tough, noisy bite.

  Ray made retching noises beside Shane, but the other man was too terrified, and too fascinated, to look away.

  Bill Atkinson had been quite an average man. He was not tall nor short, not fat nor thin. He had relinquished the fight that many men his age faced and covered the last few valiant wisps of hair on his head with a ball cap when around other people. He’d been fond of golf, a sport he found himself gladly able to partake in every weekend; on the course in the summer and at an indoor green when the weather turned nasty. He’d been an avid lover of nature, a bird watcher. To keep his mind sharp, he had taken up the habit of studying and identifying various local flora. Bill had been well-loved by the family he had left. To them, Bill was not just an average man, but a good man, a great man. But now, Bill Atkinson was infected, corrupted. He chewed on the leg of the dog he had cherished. The new Bill Atkinson scared the shit out of Shane Harris.

  “I smell...a Bringer,” Bill whispered in a harsh, croaky voice. “I smell…a beacon of death. Offer the uncorrupted to the Bringer…Trevor, the boy…Bringer.” He trailed off and Shane found himself distinctly discomforted by the man’s words, especially seeing as he was the only uncorrupted in the hallway.

  “What do we do here, man?” Shane asked Ray. He was backing up, but finding that wasn’t his best option. There was nowhere to back up to.

  At the sound of Shane’s voice, Bill’s attention snapped onto the two men in his hallway, and his mouth fell open to release a feral snarl. Doggy treat forgotten, Bill dropped Betty’s remains on the floor and started toward Shane and Ray.

  He was impossibly fast, sickeningly so. Shane was in his grasp almost immediately, though he’d tried to dodge into one of the rooms and out of his path. His grip was impossibly strong; the madness in his eyes a glaring proclamation. When he lowered his mouth to Shane’s face, close enough to kiss under different circumstances, Ray came up from behind and pulled him off with both hands. Unable to hit Bill without risking Shane, Ray decided his wisest course of action was to confront the older man physically. It was the only way in his mind. Shane was uncorrupted and had to escape.

  Bill roared as Ray pulled him away from his intended target. The ravenous cry was loud enough to shake the inside of Shane’s head. It felt like his brain was about to separate from the safe confines of his skull as he listened to Bill’s inhuman bellowing.

  Shouting in pain as he stumbled away, Shane watched Ray grapple with the exceptionally strong older man. Teeth now designed for tearing flesh ripped into Ray’s forearm as he tried to hold the man away from Shane as securely as he could.

  “Out,” Ray panted at Shane. “Get the fuck out of here!”

  “I’m not leaving you!” Shane objected, intending to wade back into the fray.

  Ray succeeded in shoving the old man away from him, leaving half of the skin of his arm and a good deal of flesh inside the open, gnashing mouth. With as much force as he could muster, he heaved Shane in the opposite direction.

  “Get your ass out!” Ray screamed as Bill came at him again. Ray sidestepped the clumsy attack and flung the old man into the wall. The resounding crack that followed the contact could have been the wall buckling or a bone breaking. Bill responded with equal disregard to the wreckage of his home or body and went at Ray again.

  “I’m not going to tell you again,” Ray hollered as he grappled with Bill. His strength was beginning to fail whereas Bill’s seemed to grow with each act of aggression. “Get out now! Get back and take care of Amy!”

  Ray’s moment of distraction cost him. Bill used Ray’s focus on Shane to sneak his face in between the younger man’s arms and batten his bloody mouth on his exposed neck.

  “Ray!” Shane cried out as he stepped forward, but Ray struggled to pull Bill back even as his breath wheezed out painfully.

  Blood soaked his collar as he used his remaining surge of adrenaline to drag Bill further away from Shane and shove him into one of the rooms. Tearing the old man away from his neck meant that blood poured more freely, but Ray thought it was worth it to lock Bill in the room and give them some breathing room.

  “Go,” Ray rasped as he leaned heavily against the closed door. Bill slammed against it bodily from the other side, making Ray bounce with each impact.

  “You’ll die,” Shane said plainly. “Come back with me.”

  Ray shook his head and put even more of his weight against the door. The old man was relentless. His howls shook through Ray’s mind even as the tremors of Bill hitting the door made his body quake. He wasn’t like the old man yet, and this was a way to guarantee he’d never become that way. When he caught on that somber thought, he knew he wouldn’t go even if he thought Shane wouldn’t be put at risk because of it.

  “I’m staying,” Ray said resolutely. Shane was surprised he could hear the other man over the screams and pounding of Bill. Ray’s moment of perfect clarity, begun by the acknowledgement that he wouldn’t leave even if it wouldn’t risk the uncorrupted continued with a warning for Shane. “Trevor’s unique among the corrupted, Shane. I was wrong to leave Amy there. If what has Trevor gets even one uncorrupted soul, we’re done. Please, I’m begging you. Even if you don’t want to leave for yourself, get out now and get back to her.”

  “Leila,” Shane breathed out. Worry for the baby was rampant within him, clogging his throat and tearing at whatever calm
still remained. He was her only protector now. Ray nodded, seeing where Shane’s chain of thought had taken him.

  “Leila, too. If Trevor gets them, or any other uncorrupted, it’s over, Shane. Get out of here.”

  “If we make it through this, it’s thanks to you, Ray,” Shane told the younger man as he turned to leave. “I’ll make sure everyone knows it.”

  Ray offered Shane a sad smile and shrugged. The movement was so self-conscious and casual, so natural and out of place in the current situation that it made Shane’s decision to leave even more painful. While he walked away, Shane saw the door crack under Bill’s unrelenting assault. He decided it’d be best to run.

  He crashed out the front door and into the waiting night. The dark was pregnant with crouched shadows. Within them dwelt hidden eyes now willing to make their pursuit of him evident. He fumbled the keys out of his pocket, popped the locks, slid inside the driver’s seat, and relocked the doors. When he pushed the keys into the ignition and the engine turned over, he couldn’t conjure a more welcome sound.

  Shifting into reverse, Shane took a last look at the tidy little house. Nothing came into the night after him, so he sent silent thanks inside to Ray. Turning into the street, he shifted to drive and started off at a reckless pace. He needed to get back to the Walker home. The faster the better.

  Chapter Thirteen

  As Shane pulled into the driveway of the Walker household, his phone vibrated inside his pocket. Already, he had deemed the device an entity of a technology so useless in the new world that it shared a category with telegraphs. Therefore, it surprised him immensely when he pulled the phone out of his pocket and saw that a text message had somehow miraculously come through.