It got to the two of them. They looked down on it. It was about as tall as Pats knees and had very powerful hands and feet. The ghostly light bobbed above it, level with Pat's chest.
’There’s something you don’t see every day,’ Pat said to Jackie. The Bolotnik immediately grabbed hold of Jackie’s ankles with both hands and pulled her forward. As it was small, because of its low centre of gravity and that Jackie was not expecting it, she fell onto the grass.
It hopped onto her chest, but little did it know who its victim was with. Pat began to swing the lump hammer this way and that. She concentrated first on smashing its teeth out, in case it tried to bite her sister.
Pat did not know what it had planned, so next, she worked on the brain,
‘You dirty bugger!’ Pat shouted, now making sure that the hands weren’t strangling Jackie.
Jackie struggled underneath and was trying to push the heavy burden off her own chest. But its weight, even with its small height, was extreme. Jackie felt like a huge boulder had fallen on top of her. If anything, that would be what would kill her – the sheer weight of the beast on her internal organs.
The Bolotnik seemed quite perplexed, with Pat’s hammering and his victim’s strength. What was happening? He hadn’t expected this. Usually, his victims seem to succumb quite easily.
Pat continued to rain down blows and was aware that she had isolated herself with Jackie up this top area and there was no one to help. Last time Jackie had saved her and this time she would be saving Jackie.
She started concentrating on the assailant’s body. Her hammer made a click sound. There was something inside that was very solid. She felt just like Jackie had - that it was a boulder wrapped up in some kind of skin, with a goblins head.
She continued bashing it from the side, over and over, trying to knock it off. Slowly, the Bolotnik wound down like an old clock. The will-o’-the-wisp still watched from above. If it started attacking her, she didn’t know how she would fight back.
The Bolotnik finally stopped moving. Pat put her hammer on the grass and pushed the creature off her sister. As Jackie struggled out from beneath it, they took a good look. It seemed to be dead. Pat had smashed its legs up, which were softer than the body. The Bolotnik lay on its side and a dark green jelly seemed to be flowing out of various areas.
The will-o’-the-wisp seemed to feel that the fun was over too, as it bobbed along towards the riverbank again away from the two sisters.
‘Come on,’ Pat said. ‘Let’s get back closer to the others.’
Beryl was struggling with one of the villagers. She was on her way to another fight when the man had grabbed her. She could have taken this man out with her weapon, but she had to be mindful that he was under someone else’s instruction. Behind the scenes, he didn’t really want to hurt her but at the moment it felt to Beryl that he did.
It had now got to the point where she was exhausted from fighting. He was above her; his hand was getting closer to her throat. Beryl screamed, but the yell was cut off as he clutched her neck tightly.
He started to press down and pull her towards the river. Beryl knew that this was what the Higher Intelligence wanted him to do.
Luckily for Beryl, Marcel came to the rescue. She never believed that one day, someone dressed as Cher would save her life. The very dead Marcel kicked the man with his high heels, which lessened the force that Marcel could normally put into it. This was lucky for the man, who was now lying ten feet away from Beryl and would wake up with a broken jaw. The most important thing was that she was safe.
Agnes and Jackie the Vampire were watching Jackie’s mother Sheila, in her wheelchair. They had taken the headless woman costume away, as nearly all of Miles and Tammy’s family had gone so it was quite safe for her to be seen.
They would take turns to nip off one at a time to help on battles that they could hear at either side of them. Jackie had just seen a Villager walk past her, a murderous look in his eye, so went to contain him.
Agnes waited at first. Then she heard what she thought was either Sue or Liz close by calling for help and ran immediately to find them, which left Sheila all alone in her wheelchair. That was how the Afanc got her.
The Afanc was quite indescribable. The body was fat and tall, almost dinosaur-like. Its head resembled a horse, but not quite. It stood over 6 feet tall and was a brownie grey colour. The rest of the people there were very lucky that Sheila was the proposed victim, as the Afanc could strike at victims from afar.
It had poisonous barbs that shot out of its mouth. Once a victim was hit with a barb, the poison fed in very quickly. Paralysing, them completely. Their body, eyes, tongue and finally their lungs.
It must have shot Sheila about six times before it got there. She never felt a thing. Of course, the poison didn’t work either.
Sheila’s eyesight was so bad that in the fog, and with the colour of the Afanc, she didn’t see it until it was right on top of her.
’Jackie!’ she shouted. Jackie began to run towards her mother. Agnes was lost trying to find the person who had cried help. She had not found Sue or Liz. Whoever was shouting had disappeared and hearing Sheila’s shout she started her way back. All this happened in the space of about ten seconds.
The grotesqueness of the creature startled Agnes. She had not expected this. It was towering above Sheila. This monster was putting its mouth over Sheila’s head to swallow her whole, like a snake. It expected Sheila to be paralysed.
Although she wasn’t, Sheila could also not escape it. Jackie immediately jumped on the creatures back. It had no small limbs to remove. She slid off again and was covered in what the creature consisted of, which seemed to be clay.
Agnes slashed ineffectively at this with her cutthroat razor.
‘Help, someone,’ they both shouted, as the monster’s mouth had passed Sheila’s head and began its descent over her shoulders. It was a good job that she didn’t have to breathe. They could still see that she was moving, but quite vexed about having her head stuck inside some kind of clay-based river predator. Her small fists beat at the beast’s neck.
The Afanc was not bothered with that at all. When Wee Renee got there, she threw a handful of SILS into its eyes, which made the creature twitch several times before its eyes seemingly dried up and disappeared into its head. Even eyeless though, it still continued the business of consuming the old lady in the wheelchair.
Sue arrived with Bob and Adam. They were the ones to save Sheila. Bob sprayed the back of it near the tail and back legs, with his plant spray. They did not want to set Sheila on fire too. Sue ignited the petrol.
The clay began to crack, dry and form a hard-grey shell. The tail could no longer move. The Afanc stopped its swallowing automatically. Sheila took this opportunity to escape. Half inside the Afanc, fully out of her wheelchair, the vampires strong hands broke through the skin of his throat. Feeling freedom, she ripped upwards, catching hold of the jawbone to stop the sudden fall of liberation. Sheila dropped back down into her chair. The beast was opened, a jagged tear going up its neck, ending in its lower jaw, which dangled downwards from a raggy area one side. The pain was greater than in its destroyed eyes.
Agnes took this opportunity and grabbed hold of Sheila’s wheelchair, pulling it back as Jackie checked her over to make sure that she was all right.
‘That’s it! Light it up,’ Wee Renee shouted. The boys sprayed the top of the Afanc, and Sue fired it up.
The monster screamed into the night, as best it could, poisonous darts jetting out from the front of it in a torrent. The tail now was thoroughly dried out, the fire had gone. Bob and Adam stamped on it. That part of the Afanc crumbled away into chunks. Adam thought it looked just like what came off his football boots the day after a match.
As parts became extinguished, the boys kicked away at them, and then ignited the fresh clay underneath. The Afanc seemed to know it had been beaten and was in a bit of a state of shock as it just hung its ruined, horsey head, still regur
gitating the poison darts into the soil.
Wee Renee occasionally threw some of the SILS, which added to the Afanc’s discomfort. There was a sudden movement, and everyone drew back thinking that it was going to attack, but the creature fell onto the ground defeated.
The Afanc was done, only just hanging on. They finished it off. Some people kicked at parts that had become baked and crumbling. Bob and Sue fired the odd piece of wet clay. When all was dry and cracked, Jackie jumped on the creature several times to make sure that it was returning to rubbish once more.
Lauren was running around looking for Rick. She was happy to find him before anything else found her. Lauren told him the story of the Sea Witch and how they had defeated it. Rick was angry with her. She knew all too well what Sea Witches were capable of. Yet, she had decided to take one on, with a pensioner and two people without weapons.
‘Lauren, you’re a fool. What were you thinking? My life’s just flashed before my eyes, and I wasn’t even there. And I tell you what – I need a better life, now I’ve seen it replayed. You are staying with me now. No running off,’ Rick said.
Lauren looked sad, as she didn’t like Rick shouting at her. Secretly, she knew it was because he loved her, so she was prepared to do what he had asked her to and stay with him.
Joe, Craig and Darren had moved on so that Rick could reprimand Lauren in private. A commotion could be heard a short way away, which sounded important. Rick put his hand on Lauren’s arm so that she would be safe and began to pull her towards the next battle.
Freddie, Brenda, Terry, Jennifer and Beverly had formed a big group, which they thought was safety in numbers. Terry was the most experienced fighter amongst them, so it was he who was leading the group.
They had trapped several villagers and put them safely to bed, which was helpful for everyone, but they had yet to come across a creature from the water. They could no longer say that, as what stood in front of them was not one, but two Shellycoat’s.
When Lauren and Rick looked around to see what the threat was, Lauren could not believe what they were about to fight. The very thing that had nearly got her last Sunday morning, almost a week ago. So much had happened since then.
With their coats and their hunched stature, there wasn’t much for Rick to latch his chain around, so he dropped it on the floor and took hold of his sizeable curved axe, which he had brought from Joe’s shop. Lauren had a crowbar, all the others had smaller weapons, knives, and hammers. The two Shellycoats were vastly outnumbered.
’Me, Lauren and Beverly will take this one. The rest of you take that one,’ Rick said to Freddie, Brenda, Jennifer and Terry. The others did not answer him but prepared to fight. Undeterred, the Shellycoats rattled and moved forward. They were confident that they would be able to kill at least two of these and drag them back to eat.
’Go!’ Rick shouted. They ran at the two Shellycoats.
Rick brought his axe down on the back of the Shellycoat they were fighting. It made a bit of an impression, but their shell coat was definitely a kind of armour. These sounded like shells, but they weren’t brittle at all. The next good sweep the axe took would have to be upwards, where there were no shells.
Lauren bashed it around the head with her crowbar, which seemed to make it very angry. Beverly ran at it with a fire poker, aiming for one of the black holes that it saw out of. A cup-like lens covered the holes. With Bev’s bulls-eye delivery, the thin membrane was punctured. The black contents ran down instantly from the punctured hole. The Shellycoat licked its lips, seemingly enjoying the fluid that ran down into its mouth.
Rick swung his axe, which swept upwards, catching the Shellycoat in the chest. Now black liquid ran out of its mouth and dripped down onto the grass from the wound Rick had made. Lauren continued to bash it in the skull, 1, 2, 3, 4 - she felt she was back at school playing hockey again.
Beverly moved around the other side of Rick to get to the other eye. Surely if it couldn’t see them at all, it would be easier to kill. Rick hit it again, but the Shellycoat was nowhere near down and out. It definitely wasn’t enjoying what Lauren was doing as it made it hard to concentrate on what it really wanted to do, and that was feed. Beverley lunged to get the other eye, but it saw her just in time and moved upwards instead. The poker went straight into its mouth and out of the back of its head. It must have had some kind of spine because Beverly got it. There was an astonished bark from the Shellycoat, just before Rick gave it a final whack in the chest with his axe.
The other Shellycoat had four opponents. They weren’t as formidable maybe, apart from Terry, but their weapons could still prove to be quite useful, considering the creature that they were fighting.
Freddie had his stick with a knife attached to the bottom of it. He pronged away at the Shellycoat, aiming for the neck and clavicle area, which was undoubtedly uncomfortable for the creature when he managed to catch it.
Jennifer had decided that the shells, as an armour could not actually hurt her, so she had jumped on its back and was striking out at his neck, from the side with a long kitchen knife.
Brenda has been given some of Wee Renee’s SILS mixture. She threw it into the Shellycoat’s face. This seemed to bring a cascade of water forth from its face. The mixture drew water out of its skin. Apart from that, with the salt and sawdust mixture in what it used for eyes, it couldn’t see anything at all.
This made it easy for Terry to come along with the long garden pruners that he favoured. Terry had yet to try and cut through any part of the Shellycoat. He had been striking it with the scissor part closed, using them as a very thick dagger before, but now he opened the two blades. Terry got a good first snip, scissoring through nearly half of the very long thin neck, that it seemed to have wound up under its coat. He tried to get it again but there was so much fluid coming out, gushing out down the length of his pruners that the handles kept slipping out of his grasp.
Rick, Lauren and Beverly had finished off their Shellycoat so came to help. The three of them, plus Freddie and Brenda, pushed it sideways onto the ground. Terry tried to cut away again, but the pruners kept slipping. The substance inside this beast was so slimy. The neck began to unwind. It looked like it could independently lock around someone. It’s links, and grinning head moved closer to Jennifer, who was trapped a little under its coat of shells.
’Put your foot on its head,’ Rick said. Terry did. Rick bought the axe down, several times, finishing the work Terry had started.
40 Mother
On the west part of the river, where the majority of the problems had occurred that night, Angela had been notable in her absence. She was at the east part of the river. She knew that this was where the worst of it was. Angela did not want to be away from the site of the most deaths by dealing with the trifling matters.
Swimming lazily under the water all the way to Moorston, the Sea Dragon finally raised its head when it reached its destination.
The people that had been fighting on the west of the river realised that their work was mainly done and began to walk downwards. Past the centre, where the Bandroom was, past Jim, Julia, Sally and Kathy who were dealing with villagers.
There was one nasty moment where one Villager attacked an unsupervised Sheila. Sheila wasn’t good at following instructions and had fed on the Villager. That was an unnecessary casualty.
Miles and Tammy had been totally oblivious of the goings-on throughout the whole of their Wedding Ceremony and most of their Reception. They realised that what was happening was not the fault of any of their guests or themselves, it was just an unfortunate coincidence that could not be planned for. They were in the east of Moorston with Angela.
Now in the short length of about a hundred feet of the river, the final battle began. This Dragon had many dead following in its wake. They had come from the sea, lakes and reservoirs - rotting corpses whose spirits still briefly inhabited their body to some extent. It was enough for them to slither through the water and on a mission. The evil had drawn th
em and the Sea Dragon, What hadn’t been able to get there through the stinking waterbed’s they lay in, he had happily dredged up with his tail.
They would come out of the water as one force. The Sea Dragon finally revealed itself, rearing up black with a tinge of red. Horned, scaly with two ridges of spiny cartilage either side of his body, running the length of his enormous long curly tail. It majestically rose twelve feet above the riverbed.
Angela could not attack it. She could not go into freshwater; it would kill her and then where would everyone be. It had to come on land, there was also frothy bubbling twenty feet away from where the Sea Dragon swam.
Tammy and Miles studied the scene. In awe, they stared at the Dragon. They weren’t going to go in the river either, but they would fight what came out, and so would Angela.
And out they came. Dead British soldiers, dead German soldiers, bedraggled men from an ancient French shipping fleet. Murdered women, murdered children, suicides, accidental drownings, all dragged their corpses out of the river towards Tammy and Miles.
Hell And High Water Page 29