by Ian Woodhead
***
I did as he commanded and shut my mouth, despite seeing no earthly reason why I should. I mean, there were only three of us in here. Stu, Charlie, and I had already checked out all the other classrooms and offices. There was nobody in here, something that Stu had obviously had trouble comprehending. I didn’t add Charlie into my silent dispute. He was one of Stu’s converted, a humanlike now back as one of us. Consequently, the fellow followed Stu around like a very big lost puppy.
I was mad. No, I was more than just mad, I was fucking furious. It was close to dusk now, and we were still on the other side of town, meaning that even if we set off right now, we’d still be a long way from home when the Black Sentinels came out to play.
The anger kept away the fear. This was the first time that I’d left Mark alone with the others. I still didn’t trust Mark, although Stu had assured me that he was no danger to anyone now. That may be so, but I couldn’t say the same about Harry. The meathead had made numerous offhand remarks regarding my best friend. Nothing that could be constituted as an outright threat, but the animosity was always present when those two were in the same room.
I just can’t understand why Stu was so adamant about leaving Mark behind. He was fine with any of the others going on this mission; he just needed Mark to stay behind. It didn’t make any sense to me. Why just him? I mean, if it was still a threat, then why the fuck didn’t he finish what he started, and take out the rest of those vile implants. He’s done it with the other five Humanlikes that we’d found and converted.
Not that any of the others were all that keen on going anywhere, and not that I blamed them. For the first time since they arrived, we’d actually found a place that felt secure. Oh, there had been evidence of the Black Sentinels, but that wasn’t unusual, those things must have been through every part of the town by now. Every single night they streamed out of the Spire Forest and picked their way through anywhere that might hide one of us. It’s a combination of skill and luck that we’d managed to evade them for so long.
No, they wouldn’t be moving. For three nights we heard them. Their legs scraping over brick and concrete, and not one of them had attempted to enter our new home. Like the others, I was tired; not just my body, but my mind as well. I couldn’t remember the last time we had a decent night’s sleep. How could we sleep with the knowledge that thousands of Black Sentinels were scouring the town, night after night, desperately hunting us down?
It was the nights when we heard their guns discharging, they were the worse ones. Once you heard that, all thoughts of sleeping just vanished, and you spent the next few hours wondering if they had just melted another survivor, or if they had disturbed one of the few cats or dogs that had escaped the first night’s purge.
So I don’t really blame any of them for not wanting to step foot out of our safe haven. After running for so long, I think we all needed at least a week to recharge our batteries. Once Stu had mentioned his plan to go exploring, and Harry had straight away chimed in with ‘Whatever Stu needed to do, it could wait, or he’d be leaving alone.’ Until the meathead had opened his big mouth, I was on the verge of climbing back into that nice warm bed, and into the arms of the nice warm Ingrid.
“I should have stayed with Ingrid, you ungrateful bastard,” I muttered, watching Charlie pick up an exercise book and skim through the pages. Should I be more concerned about having one of Stu’s converted in our company? After all, I only had Stu’s say so that the bloke was totally free of the alien influence. Sure, he looked normal enough, and believe me, I’ve been watching the five of them very carefully, just in case any of their faces started to change.
I remember seeing Charlie around town. He used to work as a bartender in one of the nightclubs. With his athletic build, angular features, and bright blue eyes, the lad was a regular girl magnet. The change had put paid to that though. I don’t know what Stu had done to them to change the people back to fully human, but it had left its mark. His face was now a mass of scar tissue. He looked like a skin grafted burn victim. Not that he was complaining over the loss of his looks.
You only had to watch him around Stu to see that. He worshiped the man; hell, they all did. It also meant that if I showed just the inkling of dissent in the ranks, I would automatically be in the wrong by two to one.
Charlie dropped the book, wandered over to one of the Bunsen burners, and started to fiddle with the mechanism. “I remember using this to set fire to my mate’s pencil case with one of these.”
I turned away, not wanting to join in, even though I had done the exact jape myself. I had no wish to have any common ground with the lad. This place hadn’t changed in almost five years. I still remember climbing those stairs up to the chemistry lab, back when we were all studying the core subjects. Thank God, we were able to just choose the one science. I went for Biology, not because I enjoyed the subject, I just fancied the teacher. Also, I couldn’t stand physics, and I hated Chemistry even more than I hated maths.
I had no idea what Stu wanted up here. After his last retort, I was in no mood to ask him. I wandered over to the window and peered outside, expecting to see pretty much the same as I’d seen looking out of the floor below this one. “You have got to be shitting me!” I gasped. “Stu, come here, we are so fucked!
“What part of do not talk did you not understand?”
I heard him, but the words just flew straight over me, I stood transfixed at the sight five floors below us. “Black sentinels, Stu.”
“Oh, no, Stu, he’s right!”
“The man pushed between the pair of us. “This is all wrong. They’re not acting as I thought they would. Bloody hell, this is unexpected.”
The carpark was thick with black bodies flowing like tar towards the front entrance. Dotted throughout the mass were spots of colour. In didn’t take much figuring out that it wasn’t just Black Sentinels down there. A group of humanlikes had joined this assault. “What are we going to do now, Stu? It won’t take those horrible things five minutes to get up here. It’s fucking obvious that they’re here for us three.” Even from here, I could hear them clambering over each other, rushing through the lobby, making for the stairway.
He turned away from the window, and headed back towards the large desk at the front of the classroom.
“Didn’t you hear what I just said?”
“Sure, I heard you, my young Fitzpatrick, I just didn’t feel the need to reply.” He reached the desk, and ran his fingers across the surface. “It’s been such a long time since I did this. Such workmanship,” Stu turned around and gazed at the classroom door. “So, why do you think it’s obvious that they’re here for us? Please, feel free to share your evidence.”
I moved away from the window, terrified that one of the humanlikes would look up. Charlie hadn’t moved, his face was pressed against the glass. “Get away from the window!” I grabbed his shoulder, and jerked him back. “Do you want them to see us?”
He shook his head, scuttled over the Stu, and slammed his back against the wall. “I want to go home,” he whispered.
I ignored Charlie and looked back at Stu, my anger now feeling like a furnace. “Are you missing a few brain cells? Why else would they be here?” Jesus, what was wrong with him today? He stood there, complete with his patronising posture, making me feel as though I was back in class. Hell, Stu had never been one hundred percent transparent with me with his plans, but at least until today the bastard never talked to me like I was something he’d found on the bottom of his shoe.
“That’s exactly my point, Travis, why else? Oh dear, and you accuse me of missing a few brain cells. Have you not ever not considered switching your brain out of neutral and actually engaging it?” he shouted.
“Screw you,” I hissed, storming over to the door. If he wanted those black fuckers to turn him into a puddle of slime, then that’s his problem. I had no intentions of sticking around. I pulled open the door, raced along the corridor, and headed for the nearest fire escape. It mig
ht have been a while since I was last inside my old school, but I still vividly remembered the weekly fire drills. The closest way out of here was through the physics labs a couple of doors from here. I glanced behind me, a little annoyed to see that Stu was right behind me with his poodle a couple of steps behind him.
“That’s not exactly a coherent answer, Travis. If you were being tested, I believe that would have resulted in a fail.”
“Why the fuck are you following me?”
He shook his head. “There you go again with your strange assumptions. That door a few steps from you is just the next room to investigate, that’s all.” He closed the gap to two paces, grabbed my jacket, and slammed me into the walls. “Perhaps it’s best if you stayed here?”
It didn’t matter what I tried, I couldn’t shift the bastard. “Get off me, I swear, if you don’t, I’ll…”
He lunged forward, and pressed his lips against mine. The shock was so great that for that moment I almost forgot how to breathe, let alone struggle. His eyes shifted towards the other door before he looked at Charlie. After a moment that lasted a lifetime, he pulled back.
“Don’t say one more word,” he whispered. Stu dragged me over to the door, and peered inside before pulling me over to another classroom on the other side of the corridor. “Get in here.” He nodded to Charlie who meekly followed me inside the empty classroom. “We should be able to watch the proceedings without dying. I would have preferred a better view, but your behaviour kinda put a stop to me following through with my original idea.”
He gently clicked the door shut and pulled down the grey blind, then ran over to the window. “Come and have a look at this, Travis.”
The man had done it again, he’d managed to push out my fury with just a few little obscure sentences; the kiss kinda helped as well, although I think he was just trying to shut me up. At least, I hope that’s what he was doing.
“Do you see now?”
I gazed out of the window. This side, I saw no sign of any of them. I did see the sun on the horizon, though, and it had already began to touch the tops of the Spire Forest. “Great, it’s empty, so we can use the fire door to get the fuck out of here.”
“So, you don’t see.”
“Neither do I,” said Charlie.
My heart almost stopped when I heard their legs tapping across the corridor tiles. They were already here! Stu ran over to the door, and gently lifted the blind. “Come on, lads, you’ll find this interesting.”
Oh, God, he really was missing a few brain cells! I had no intention of going over there; we needed to get out, like right now. As I edged over to the fire escape, like the drone that he is, Charlie followed his master’s command. My hand touched the metal bar, yet I could not bring myself to slam it down. I couldn’t leave them to their fate. Well, I had no problems with leaving Charlie, but I certainly wasn’t going to let those things melt Stu. Despite this one aberration, the man was needed.
“Trust me on this one, Travis. This is not a one number day. It’s not even a five number day either. Come on. Do you not want to see why we’re here?” The man’s disarming smile almost won me over. “Look, I’m sorry if I’ve been a little rough with you. I’m not being a cock on purpose.” He sighed. “I didn’t want to announce this right now, but I’ll be leaving pretty soon.”
Both Charlie and I gazed at the man. I have no idea what was going through the converted lad’s mind, but I sure as hell knew what was going through mine. “But you can’t go. Without you, we’ll all be dead in a week.”
“That’s nice of you to admit. It does make me wonder why you’re still over there stroking that bar like it’s Ingrid’s thigh. You know, instead of being over here with the rest of the gang.”
“Are you really going to leave us?”
He nodded. “I’m afraid so. There’s something that needs doing. Now, are you going to come over here, or are you leaving the party? Come on, put away your fear, and take a look at this.”
He shook his head when I still didn’t move.
“Travis. You know how the Black Sentinels operate when searching for us.” He then lifted the blind, showing me exactly what they were doing out in the corridor. “Like I said earlier, what makes you so sure that they’re after us?”
Every single one of them was scuttling into the classroom opposite us. After watching four of the things enter and not come back out, I looked at Stu. “What the hell is happening? That room is only the same size as this one, they can’t all fit inside.”
“Well, I do believe that this question of yours warrants an investigation, young Fitzpatrick,” he said, pushing down the door handle. Stu paused, and ran his tongue over his top lip. “Just for once, Travis, trust me here. No hesitation, just follow.”
I let go of the bar, and did as he asked, remembering how he just seemed to know that the Black Sentinels would go past the scrapyard on the first night after the stalks and the spiders joined up. After all these months of running and fighting, I still had problems in trusting him. For that, I felt a little ashamed.
Stu pressed his hand against Charlie when he stepped forward. “No, son, you need to stay here.”
I walked past the converted lad, sensing his disappointment, and once again, I felt ashamed at wanting to stick out my tongue as we both left the classroom. I turned around and found ourselves just a metre away from a Black Sentinel. Stu grabbed me tight, stopping me from darting back into the room.
“Do that, and we’ll both be soup.” He took one step closer to the monster, and slowly let go of my jacket sleeve. “They rely on trigger responses, Travis. At least, that’s what I believe.”
The Black Sentinel walked up to the open doorway, folded the two beam weapons under its main body, then followed its companions into the room. I couldn’t move my feet. Just being this close to them was doing strange things to my whole body. I opened my mouth, wanting to ask a thousand questions, but all I could croak out was one single word. “Why?”
“Why are we still alive?” He then did something I least expected. “This is just unreal, are you telling me that instead of running from house to house for almost four months, all we had to do was to just play fucking statues?”
Stu had copied me perfectly, even down to the mannerisms. “That didn’t even sound like me, you piss-taking bastard.”
“Bullshit,” he said, smiling. “I want you to look into that classroom, my friend. Go on, it’s perfectly safe.”
I jumped back, almost crashing into the wall when another Black Sentinel raced along the corridor, and followed the other one into the doorway. “Fuck me!” I gasped.
“Who ever said I don’t hold a cool party is obviously talking out of their arse. Right, it’s all clear. Sorry about that, I should have been watching.” Stu nodded once before pushing me forward.
Apart from the sound of my harsh breathing, I heard nothing else. I took this as a sign that perhaps the procession of monsters had finally ended. After a gentle push, I walked through the doorway, my mind filling me with images of a hundred Black Sentinels, all squashed together like sardines in a tin. “This has got to be a joke,” I muttered. Apart from my own shivering body, there was nothing in here but scattered tables and chairs. I looked behind me. “Stu, come on, Mr Know-it-all, what’s happening?”
He followed me into the room. “I think I’m more Mr Notice-lots-of-stuff, but thank you for that. I’ll take your compliment and cherish it; I might even take it to bed with me tonight and hug it until sleep finally claims me.” He brushed past my body. Come on, I know you can do it. What’s happening in here? Think like Sherlock Holmes.” Stu looked me up and down. “Are you cold, laddie?”
I shook my head. “Sorry, I usually shiver in the presence of creature’s intent on turning me into a soufflé.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“No, Stu. I’m not cold. It’s pretty warm in here.”
“Yeah, odd that, considering the heating hasn’t worked since the aliens fuc
ked everything up. Almost toasty in here, in fact.”
This was turning into another one of those times when his cryptic speaking bugged the shit out of me. Why the hell couldn’t he just stop going around the houses, and tell me it straight? Stu had made his way over to the corner of the room, and judging by his posture, he’d found something very interesting just behind the teacher’s large wooden desk. Knowing him, it could be anything from a fucking paperclip, to a pair of green panties. Maybe they all jumped out of the window? Sighing heavily, I walked towards the grinning man. Once again, he’d made me feel like the thick pupil, unable to grasp the simplest of problems.
All semblance of normality ended just by the tip of Stu’s toes, when it became obvious as to where the monsters had gone. They’d cut a circular hole into the wooden floorboards, just wide enough for their bodies to fit if they folded their weapons under themselves. Stu nodded, then dropped to his knees.
“It’s like being stuck inside a puzzle box.” Stu gingerly tapped the edge of the hole. “Melted. Seriously, how do you melt wood?”
“With chemicals?”
Stu chuckled. “Now you’re getting it!”
“No, I’m not. Believe me, I’m not.”
“You will do though. Come on, Alice, let’s pay a visit to wonderland.” He placed his legs over the edge, and dropped out of sight.
Right at that moment, the trust that I had in Stu and his decisions went head to head with my own self preservation. My moment of hesitancy, seemed to last a lifetime. It was only when the sight of his two eyes popping up above the hole that spurred me on.