Necrovoid

by Ian Woodhead

  Necrovoid

  Book one – The Immersion Seeds

  by

  Ian Woodhead

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright June 2019 by Ian Woodhead

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, scanning or otherwise, without prior permission of the author.

  Cover designed by Stephen Landry

  Chapter One

  NOW

  What was the point of busting their guts, so they could reach that farmhouse now? Jordan Ellis slammed a hand over his mouth and screamed into it in pure frustration. He didn't know what to do anymore. The only choice left was to stay here and wait for the inevitable, to wait for Jenny to die. He couldn't leave her alone, he just couldn't do it.

  “Please, just go, Jordan. You know it's what you have to do.”

  He moaned silently then dropped to his knees beside the sitting woman, the wet grass soaked through his trousers in seconds. “That is so not going to happen.” Jordan gently pulled her hand away from the bite mark on her neck, trying not to grimace at the damage. The blood flow had stopped now but that was no cause for celebration. It just meant that the infection had taken hold, and they both knew what that meant.

  Both Jordan and Jenny were fully aware of the implications even before either of them had met. The authorities had drummed in that particular warning days ago, a couple of days after what the media had called 'Zero Hour'

  He ground his teeth in annoyance, determined not to let his mind drift away from the task at hand. What they did to them, both the media and the authorities, would come back to bite them, literally, that much, Jordan did know. Right now though, he needed to focus.

  Jordan threw the bloody tissue that she'd been holding against the wound onto the ground then pulled out his remaining tissue and placed it into her hand. “Here you go. This is the last one. I need you to hold this against the wound.”

  She just stared at him, not moving an inch. “What's the sodding point, Jordan? I'm dead already. We both know there's no coming back from this.” A single tear rolled down her left cheek. “Jordan, I can't feel my hands anymore. I think it's starting.” She dropped the tissue. “I'm about to turn. Oh, God! Please, you need to get away from me. Get out of here before it's too late!”

  He violently shook his head. “No way. Not a chance, Jenny. I ain't going to leave you to those bastards,” he said. “They'll rip you to bits!” Jordan twisted his body. He couldn't see them but that didn’t mean anything. Their three pursuers will have reached the foot of this hill by now. It didn't matter that the mist hid their approaching bodies. They could hear their mournful howls for miles. He pulled himself up then forced Jenny onto her feet. “I'm not leaving you here,” he repeated. “So you can get the dumb thought out of your head, right now.” Jordan pulled her further up the gentle incline. “That farmhouse has got to be around here somewhere.”

  He looked over his shoulder and could now make out their pursuers' rough outline. There were five down there now. Five down there and very soon, one up here. He looked deep into Jenny's large brown eyes. “I don't know what to do anymore, honey!”

  “Yes you do,” she replied, sighing softly. “The farmhouse will give you temporary sanctuary. There are enough supplies stored there to keep you alive for months. You'll be safe from attack. You just need to sit tight and wait until the powers that be sort out this mess.”

  He looked away, not wanting her to see his face. Jenny didn't know what those bastards had done to them.

  She grabbed his hand and squeezed. “I need you to promise me something.”

  “I'm not sure I can, not knowing what it is.”

  She forced out a smile. “That one again. Jordan. When you think of me, I want you to only remember the fun we had. Don't dwell on what happened in that grocery store. That wasn't your fault.”

  Jenny touched his lips. “Don't interrupt. You know what to do. You have to leave. There is no other choice. Do it, Jordan. Leave me here and save yourself!”

  He shook his head. “I just can't do it.”

  Jenny let go. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him before releasing him. “I'm so sorry about this. I really am.”

  Before he could respond, the woman punched him hard in the guts then spun around and raced away, running back down the hill and towards their pursuers. Moments later, the sound of her agonised shrieking reached him.

  Jordan choked back the sobs, not believing she'd just done that. “Oh, God, I love you, Jenny!” he shouted. His only response was the sound of wet chewing coming those hateful monsters. He rolled onto his front and started the painful crawl towards where he thought the farmhouse would be. Just for a moment, Jordan almost gave up and stopped moving. Better to wait for them to find him than to continue without her. A couple of seconds of utter agony and then it would be all over, an eternity of blessed oblivion. The only thing that kept him going was the thought that the bastards who released this on their own people were still alive.

  Hate kept him going as well as the need for revenge. The people who did this were going to pay dearly.

  SIX HOURS EARLIER

  He ran his fingers along the top of the weapon while doing his best not to lift it closer to his face so he could sniff the smooth surface. Jordan chuckled to himself. This was just incredible! The feel of the cold metal under his skin, the smell of machine oil in his nose and the weight of it. That's one thing he never expected. This shotgun was heavy!

  “Do you want me to leave so you two could have a moment?” The young woman winked. “You know, in private.”

  Jordan knew that his face had gone as red as the walls in this shop. “I bet I look like a kid who's just been given a new toy. Sorry about that. It's just that over here, we don't really have access to guns.”

  Her name was Jenny Saunders. She lived on the east side of the United States. She was only supposed to be staying for a week before going back to her parents. All this Jordan already knew. They had exchanged the briefest of introductions just ten minutes ago after bumping into each other. She knew his name, that next year, Jordan would be hitting the big three zero in four months time and had a part-time job, working in a body shop on the other side of town. Jordan kinda looked forward to explaining the difference in car part names to the American. As sad as that sounded, he believed it would help to take both their minds off from the nightmare happening to them right now.

  “Don't worry about it, Jordan,” she said. “You don't have anything to prove.” Jenny approached him, placed the tin of pineapples she had found on the empty white shelf next to Jordan's shoulder and gently squeezed his arm. “After all, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be here.”

  He felt himself colouring up again. "Er, thanks," he stammered. Just ten minutes earlier, the pair of them were running through the town's shopping mall, thrown together through mutual circumstances. Jordan wasn't quite sure that he could take full responsibility for saving this woman’s life. All he had done was to run into that toy shop to avoid the two infected who'd been chasing him ever since he had made the stupid mistake of setting foot inside the mall. It's just a coincidence that Jenny had been there already. She too was hiding from her attackers. The only difference was her pursuers had followed her inside and had been slowly making their way down the games and outside toys aisle when he ran inside.

  The noise he'd made by falling against a space Lego display had given Jenny the distraction she needed to climb out of the giant pale blue doll-house
she'd taken refuge inside. The girl managed the evade her attackers and escape through the fire exit on the other side of the shop, pulling Jordan through the open door after almost tripping up over his sprawled body.

  “Have you ever fired a gun before, Jordan?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I was in the army cadets for a few years so I'm used to most military weapons that our lads use. Granted, that was a few years ago but I haven't forgotten. I've not fired anything like this though.”

  “That's a relief,” she replied, smiling. “That means you can teach me.”

  He hadn't expected that answer. “Wait, I thought you guys grew up with guns? That you could fire a weapon before you learnt to speak or something.”

  She giggled. “Right. I think someone has been taking too much notice of the cop shows on TV. We're not all gun-crazed yahoos, Jordan. Believe it or not, my parents have never even owned a gun. Come to think of it, apart from a couple of the older folks on the outskirts, nobody on our street has a firearm either. Granted, I guess our town isn't exactly typical of our country but we've had no problems so far.”

  Jordan opened his mouth then closed it again. Spouting out that her town might now be in as much shit as this place probably wasn't the greatest idea he had ever had.

  Thanks to the communication blackout and the quarantine imposed on their country, they didn't have a clue what was happening beyond their borders anyway. Nobody knew whether the authorities had this disaster under control or if the infection had spread past their borders.

  “Is that thing loaded?”

  He shook his head. Jordan had already checked the chambers. No, it's empty. I'll have a scout around, see if I can find any shells he might have dropped. Why don't you see if you can find anything else to eat? There's bound to be a few more tins knocking about.” He made his way towards the window, still expecting to see a column of tanks and APC'S rolling down the middle of the high street, mowing a path through the hordes of infected while searching for anyone still alive.

  Fat chance of seeing anything like that. The only movement he saw through those windows were four infected on their knees. They were grouped in a semi-circle and feasting on... Jordan turned away, feeling his guts slowly churn at the thought on what or who they could be feeding upon.

  “I suppose we're lucky to be alive. You know, it could be me and you out there.” Jordan kept his voice quiet, saying the words solely for his benefit. He didn't really want his new friend to hear him comparing themselves to the dozens of chewed up corpses they'd already passed to reach this shop.

  He turned away from the window and continued the search for some shotgun shells. Jordan started by returning to the corpse where he'd originally found the weapon.

  The dead man lay close to a coffee machine at the back of the shop. Judging from his military type attire, this guy must have belonged to one of the new militias formed by the new government a few months ago. Jordan remembered a few of his neighbours thinking of joining up when the leaflets dropped through their doors back before anyone realised how bad it was going to get, but he didn't really take much interest.

  He had already checked the body once but it didn't harm giving the corpse another search. Jordan leaned over the corpse and checked all his pockets. Apart from a wallet and a couple of chocolate bars, he had nothing else on him. Jordan sighed. This meant the gun was next to useless. He was hardly likely to stumble across any ammunition anywhere else.

  “Maybe he wasn't alone? Maybe...” Jordan stumbled back when the corpse moved his head. “Oh shit!” Jordan's blood ran cold when the thing slowly began to sit up. “We need to get out of here!” He spun around located Jenny and ran towards her. “Jenny!” he hissed. “We're not alone in here.”

  The woman had already noticed their unwanted occupant had started to move about. Jenny ran over to Jordan. She looked at the corpse, took a deep breath and snatched the shotgun out of his heads.

  “Jenny, what the hell are you doing? Didn’t you hear me telling you that it’s empty? He cried. “Seriously, it needs shells. The damn thing is useless without them. Come on, we have to get out of here!”

  “Listen to yourself. Just where are we going to go?” she snapped back. “You know as well as I do that these damn shuffling monsters are everywhere.” Jenny ran up to the corpse. The dead thing’s legs were now drawn up to its chest and now looked like it was trying to remember how to stand up. A moment later some old memory must have reached the corpse’s rotting brain as it started to lift its body. The corpse had almost stood upright when it must have realised that there was fresh meat close by. The corpse turned its head, looked straight at Jenny and hissed.

  This did not deter the woman. Jenny jumped the side, away from the thing’s grasping hands then swept her leg in a low arc. Her foot caught the back of the dead thing’s ankle and it fell back down. She then booted it straight in its expressionless face. It took another savage kick before the back of the dead thing's head bounced on the floor tiles.

  Before it could recover, Jenny smashed the gun's stock into its face. Jordan involuntary winced when she hit it again and again. The sound, once she'd smashed its skull, wasn't too dissimilar to the noise those dead things made once they started chomping their way through their victims.

  “That was gross,” she muttered, climbing off the mutilated body. Jenny dropped the gun, wiped sweat from her forehead then walked over to him. “Hey, what’s with the face? Don't look at me like that, Jordan. I had no other choice. If I hadn't smashed its head in, the bastard thing would have alerted all its buddies.” She took both his hands. “ You know, do you think it might be better to stay here, just for a bit longer? Maybe all this will blow over?” She leaned forward and softly kissed him. “I’m sure we can do something together to occupy the time?”

  His mouth had gone drier than the bottom of a budgie cage. He couldn't believe this. They were stuck in the middle of the greatest disaster ever to happen to their species and this young attractive woman was coming on to him. “I’m sure we can hang on for a bit longer,” he stammered. If we can find enough food.”

  Jenny just laughed while dragging him towards a door situated behind the shop counter.

  Present

  It had only taken him a few minutes to locate the farmhouse but those minutes seemed to stretch for hours. Stumbling through the thigh-high, wet grass while holding his bruised guts and listening to those horrors get closer and closer was not his idea of a having a good time.

  He lay on the hardwood floor, listening to those things scratching at the thick door. Jordan had learned the hard way not to trust his life with a few inches of wood. Once he stopped hurting, Jordan intended to move further into the building. With luck, there should be a cellar packed with enough supplies to keep him alive for the next few months.

  He didn’t intend to stay here for that long, just enough for those things out there to lose interest and leave. Jordan slowly sat up, the pain had started to dissipate. If they ever do bugger off back down that hill.

  There wasn't much of interest in here. Apart from a single wooden chair by his side and a small wooden chest by the left wall, this room was empty. Hopefully the rest of the farmhouse would offer something a little more of value. Perhaps the two doors behind him would yield some goodies.

  “Another shotgun with a thousand shells would be nice,” he muttered.

  This room wasn't that large, he guessed it was probably a little larger than his old bedroom. From what he could work out, the building seemed, at least from the outside, to be quite large, meaning the other rooms ought to be a decent size.

  Jordan moved closer to the window, he wanted to see how many of those dead things were out there now.

  He got to eight and stopped counting. Where the hell had the others come from?

  “No way!” He moved back, not believing how many had appeared. That scratching had gotten frantic. They knew he was in here! Jordan scrambled away from the window and raced to the back of the room, fully awa
re that time was running out. He had hoped that the few of them out there would just get bored and forget he was here before leaving the farmhouse in search for more accessible prey but that obviously not going to happen, not now.

  The front door had already started to splinter. He reached the next door which, he prayed, would lead to another way out of here, when several spears of muted sunlit stabbed wall in front of him. Jordan spun around.

  A single arm poked through the bottom of that door. Within seconds, another one joined it, followed by two more as the wood started to give way.

  Jordan stood, frozen to the spot, watching in revulsion as those arms waved around like octopus tentacles, periodically slapping against the floorboards and the side of the ruined door. Thick, dark red blood spurted from their damaged fingers everyone a limb made contact with a surface.

  Another section of the door broke away, letting in another small sliver of sunlight. The light suddenly vanished when one of their heads slammed through the hole.

  Jordan moaned in terror, feeling his bowels wanting to discharge when that dead thing lifted its head and growled at him before it opened its mouth wide and bit into the side of the door.

  His self-control only returned when yet another dead thing pushed its arms through the top of the ruined front door. It wasn't going to last much longer and if he didn't do something right now, he was dead.

  “ Oh, come on man. Get a sodding grip. That poor girl didn't sacrifice herself so you could give up.”

  The door handle had stuck into his spine when he fell against the door. Without taking his terror-struck gaze off the once human monsters, desperately trying to get inside, Jordan reached around. He managed to wrap his sweaty palms around the cold metal handle, and twist it both ways until the door finally opened.

  He wept with relief when he fell back into a narrow corridor. Jordan kicked the door shut, stood up, then looked for anything heavy he could use to block the door.