by Maxey, Phil
“Where are you…” he whispered.
He swung the gun upwards realizing he wasn’t looking at the ceiling, but there was nothing there. He knew the thing could be anywhere inside, and he also had no idea what it was. Couldn’t even guess. The few seconds he got a glimpse of it, he just saw tiny teeth, lost in a sea of black fur and limbs.
He slammed the side of his fist into the wall, hoping to scare thing out of hiding, but there was no response.
Leave.
He wanted too, but then what happened to those who lived here? What if they needed help?
Two doors were in front of him along the right side of the wall. The far room he had already seen, but the one closest…
He stepped forward, his gun leading the way. The door was open but that was of no help to him to see what lay inside. He looked into intense darkness, only being able to make out vague shapes. Is that a chair? A desk?
As he slid his hand into his pocket to pull out his small lighter, something moved ahead of him in the room and he fired, lighting up blood stained walls, a confusion of pieces of wood and steel and… He didn’t know what he saw in the final fraction of seconds before the flare from the gun blast died, but it was alive with things and standing as high as he was.
Leave!
Ignoring the impulse he pumped to reload and fired again into the darkness which squealed in reply and as if the shadows themselves had come alive, lunged at him. Instinctively he fell backwards onto the hard floor as the tar like thing swayed out into the dim light of the hallway, and in that moment he saw what it was and realized he had seen it before. Hundreds of tiny creatures, like how bats group together, crawling over each other. But these were no flying mammals of old. Their bodies slithered together like liquid and in the mix he saw glistening teeth and spike like claws.
Firing wasn’t appearing to stop them. He grabbed his lighter from his pocket, a leftover from the days he smoked and brought his thumb down on the steel wheel. The flame sprang into life and he waved it forward. The E.L.F’s in a blur moved back into the room.
Grant laid there, on his back, his hand shaking held out in front of him, waiting for the thing to reappear, but it didn’t.
Leave now!
He slowly got to his feet then ran, past the open door, past the kitchen table and out into the yard. Seconds later he was sitting in his pickup, the engine still running. He took a deep breath looking over to the house, then pushed down on the gas.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Sofia slammed her fist angrily on the secure front door to the ranch-style house.
“Hello!”
“You’re wasting your time. Everyone’s gone from these places. Either left state or…”
She looked back at Vince frowning then turned, walking away from the front door and looked at the nearby windows, which were reflecting the coming night.
It was the third house they had tried, having to walk down long tracks, which usually were on the sides of hills to get to them. The sounds from the wall had died down to only the occasional drumming of machine gun fire and there was no other sign of life.
“I think I’m just going to stay here for a while,” said Vince, sitting on a black iron wrought garden chair inside a small fenced off area at the front of property.
“I need to go around the back, if you see anyone or… thing, start shouting.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She went to move off but stopped, taking her rifle from her back and handing it to him. He took it cautiously as if he had not seen a rifle before.
“You okay?”
He nodded and took a deep breath. “Yeah. Go check the back.”
She walked a few yards to the right where the garage door was but didn’t stop, knowing it would be electrically operated and moved around the edge of the building. At the rear of the property was what looked like a water tower of some kind, and a yard, which was empty of any furniture, but did have a series of areas of upturned soil, and a lone palm tree breaking up the orange-yellow sand.
The whole place sat on a small plateau. She looked to the west and the distant hills hiding the setting sun, then nodded to herself. It was a good place to defend from.
The patio doors at the back of the house were closed, while the inside showed a dining table with chairs and a smart looking kitchen.
She looked back out to the valleys that surrounded the property. On the hills a few miles off sat other similar homes, but with less than an hour of light remaining, trying to go for any of them was foolhardy. She picked up a small rock, took a few steps back, then threw it at the glass doors. The shattering noise filled the evening air making her tense. She looked over her shoulder once again, but nothing moved.
She stepped over the splinters.
“Hello?” she said into the gloom.
No noise came back.
She walked inside, past the expensive looking kitchen ware, down the hallway passing a large living room and threw back the locks on the door, then pulled it open.
“Guess we’re staying here the night then,” said Vince looking down the driveway they walked up, the rifle across his lap.
She quickly moved outside, slung the rifle over her shoulder, then lifted him and together they moved inside, closing the door behind.
“Woah nice—” His face contorted and he swore so anything within a mile radius would hear him. He fell back on the kitchen worktop then propped himself up on a stool waving Sofia away. “Anything to drink in this place? More alcohol would be good.”
She nodded, walking around the island in the middle of the room and reached up and pulled open a cupboard. It was full of packets and tins but no drinks. She tried another and another. “I’m not really finding anything like that.”
“Err… Sofia.”
She pulled some packets of noodles forward to see what was behind them. “What.” A click made her freeze with her hand in the cupboard. She knew the sound of a handgun being cocked. “I’m not trying to steal. I’m just trying to find something to drink.”
“There’s water in the tap. Get some then go!” said an elderly female voice.
“Can I turn around?”
“If you want your pretty little head blown off you can. There’s a glass in the cupboard next to the one you’re in.”
Sofia opened the other cupboard, pulled out a tall glass with a sun pattern on it, then moved slowly to the side and filled it with water.
“What happened to him?” said the woman with the gun.
“I think he broke his leg.”
“How’d he do that?”
“Monster got him.”
“What you been doing with them?”
“I have to turn around to take him the water, can I do that?”
“Fine.”
Sofia slowly turned. Just visible in the shadows of the hallway the slim barrel of a handgun was pointing at her and behind that was a silhouette of a thin woman, with long hair and wearing boots. But that was all the detail she could make out in the gloom. She moved quickly to Vince and gave him the glass, which he slowly drunk from, his eyes not leaving the figure in the hallway.
“Are you here alone?” said Sofia, then immediately regretted asking as that’s just the kind of thing someone would say if they wanted to steal from the woman.
The elderly woman stepped forward, wavering her gun in Sofia’s direction. “What’s it to ya, if I am?”
“No… no reason—” Sofia could see the woman’s hair was completely white, and fell below her shoulders. She could also see a face aged by sun and hard work. “— I just thought it must be difficult being out here, with the wall so close. Do E.L.F’s come here?”
“Some. I kill’m and bury them out back. Used to the same with Coyotes. New things, ain’t no different. They snoop around for food. I shoot them.”
“Oh…”
“You killed any?”
“Some. Vince here has killed more.”
“Why you breaking in to my place? I ain’
t going to be able to fix that back door like it was! Gonna have to board it up!”
“I didn’t know anyone was here…”
“So that make it alright to break in?”
Sofia looked down. “No…” Then back up. “If you have the wood, I don’t mind boarding it up for you?”
Even in the shadows Sofia could see the woman frown. “How about you put that rifle of yours down on the ground, then maybe we keep talking.”
Crackling came from somewhere on the woman. She held up a radio to her mouth. “Go ahead Jim. Over.”
“You alright Connie? You got them? Over,” came an elderly man’s voice from her radio speaker.
“Yeah, I gott’m.”
*****
Grant looked across to Ben who had a bag of snacks on his lap. He looked out to the homes across the rest of the zone. There were definitely fewer lights than usual. Either people had learned to keep them off, or…
“Do I have to go inside?” said Ben.
They drove into a large parking lot, full of vehicles of all shapes and sizes, many showing damage.
Grant didn’t want his son to go into the building either, but leaving him in the car wasn’t an option. “Yes. But you can stay near the entrance. Rose will come down, and we’ll eat in the waiting room area.”
“Okay…”
Grant pushed on the break and they stopped in one of the few spaces left. The entrance was still a good fifty yards away though. It was one of the more modern parts of the former university with wide glass doors and open spaces which used to contain shelves full of books.
“You were very brave today. I know it was—”
The passenger’s door opened as Ben started to get out. “I know.” He took the bag of food with him.
Grant sat for a moment, then got out and they walked between sedans and trucks to the bright lights of the double doors. He quickly looked inside to make sure there were no people with horrific injuries or dead bodies, then pushed on the handle and they moved inside to a few hushed voices. About twenty people, broken up into smaller groups were sat at tables and on sofas. Most looked up when Grant and his son appeared, then immediately went back to their own conversations.
A spot near a large houseplant with browning leaves had two empty plastic seats. Grant steered Ben to one of them.
“I’ll let Rose know we’re here.”
Ben nodded, his eyes being drawn by a girl of similar age. She frowned and looked away.
Grant walked to what used to be the librarian’s counter, but now was full of medical charts and gauze smeared with blood. A girl who looked not much older than Ben, looked up at him with a headset on.
“Can you let Doctor Rose know I’m in the waiting area. She’s expecting me.”
He wasn’t sure the young girl heard him, but she nodded and spoke into her microphone, which then blared out from a speaker situated somewhere above him.
“Thank you.”
The girl was already back to reading a magazine.
As he walked back to the waiting area, a stout man who was talking to his wife, got up and walked forward.
“Hey, you’re the head security guy right?”
“One of them yeah.”
“When you going to start doing your job?”
“I’m just here with my son to meet a friend. Think of me as off-duty.”
“Hugo, leave him alone!” said the woman seated a few yards away. A young girl was hugging her.
The man stepped to within a few feet from Grant. He resisted moving his hand towards the Glock on his hip.
“My son is upstairs fighting for his life!”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“And… one of those things, came into our house, through…” A tear started to run from the red eyes of the man.
“Hugo! He can’t help us!” pleaded the woman. The young girl looked upset.
Grant went to speak, but the man looked over his shoulder. He turned and was relieved to see Rose, although her face and clothes were smeared with red marks.
The man shook his head and returned to his wife, while Rose joined Grant. “Everything alright?” she said.
He nodded and they moved to the spot near the plant. Ben was already munching on a candy bar.
Grant frowned at him then handed the bag to Rose. “Wasn’t sure what you wanted…”
She looked inside and smiled. “Is that last nights pasta in the container?”
He smiled. “I thought you liked it!”
She reached in pulling it out and flipped the lid up. The smell of green pesto sauce and tomato’s wafted into the air. She took the plastic fork and set about eating it eagerly.
Grant pulled out a packet of chips. “How is it upstairs?”
She paused as if waiting for the right word, then continued chewing. “Not good.” She looked across at the man and his family, making sure they were far enough away not to hear. “We lost more than we could save.”
Grant leaned forward and held her hand. “But some were saved.”
She nodded but then pulled hers away and continued eating. “How is it outside?”
“Attacks across the camp.” He thought about the thing he saw in the house, and the hair on his arms stood upright.
“But it’s under control right?”
He could tell she needed him to say the right thing.
He smiled. “The army are kicking ass.”
She nodded then carried on eating.
After a hug and a promise to pick her up six hours later, Grant and Ben were back in the pickup.
Grant went to turn the key when Ben spoke up. “Why did you lie to her?”
Grant’s mind went through a number of possible replies all in the space it took for him to let go of the key and sit back in his seat. In the end he settled on the ‘no BS’ approach. “Because it would have done no good to tell her the truth.”
Ben looked glum. “Do you do the same to me,” he said without looking up from his hands.
Grant smiled. “Wouldn’t work with you.” Grant hoped that honesty would lighten the mood in the pickup, but his son’s expression remained the same.
Ben then looked up at his father. “The monsters are in the camp, aren’t they? And more are coming? And then… where will we go?”
Grant gestured to the bags in the backseat. “What are those bags called in the back?”
Ben looked over his shoulder. “Go-bags…”
“So that means, with them, we can leave this camp whenever we want.”
“But—”
Grant held his hand up. “There are other camps. There’s the one north, there are others east…”
Ben looked back down to his hands. “The monsters are everywhere.”
Grant sighed. His son was right. The old world was dead. Now it was about who would survive the madness. He started the engine and reversed out.
CHAPTER NINE
Sofia gave the nail a hefty hit. It was the last of around twenty she had placed in the three wood boards which covered the hole she had created. Between each strike she would look out into the darkness, straining her senses for any reaction but so far it had been all quiet from the hills outside.
She looked up at the woman who was seated behind her. At least Connie’s pistol was holstered.
“Done,” said Sofia, “We’ll be on our way.” She pushed the words out. Who knows what was lingering on the dirt tracks, they didn’t even have a flashlight.
“Where you gonna be heading?”
“I don’t know. To the next property I guess.”
“That would be Jim’s place, five miles west. He’s not going to want you there either!”
Sofia smiled and moved towards Vince who was trying to stand up from his position at the kitchen worktop.
The woman sighed. “Just hold on there a minute.”
Sofia looked back at her, while Vince fell back on the stool.
Connie scrunched her face into a frown while subtly shaking her he
ad. “Won’t serve anyone if you go out there and get eaten by one of those things. Maybe you can stay here until the sun comes up.” She looked at Sofia, while placing her hand on her holster. “Remember I got the guns! And a radio!”
Sofia smiled. “Thank you for letting us stay.” She flicked her eyes at Vince.
“Oh… yeah, thanks.”
“Where should we sleep?”
“I’ll get you some blankets and you can sleep out here.”
The woman who Sofia figured was in her late seventies, got uneasily to her feet and disappeared down the hallway, and then into one of the rooms there.
“You trust her not to shoot us?” whispered Vince.
Sofia rolled her eyes. “You would rather take your chances out—”
Connie reappeared with a bundle of sheets and placed them on the kitchen counter. “These should do for ya. It’s not cold.”
Sofia then had an idea. “Have you eaten? I don’t know what you have to eat, but I can make something if you want?”
Connie frowned, turning away and taking her flashlight with her. “There’s water in the tap, and some canned fish in the cupboard, help yourself to it if you want. There are candles and matches as well. Blow them out before you sleep! I don’t want to wake up to the house burning down!” She then opened the bedroom door, moved inside and closed it.
An hour later there had been no sound from Connie’s room, but two bowls that once held fish and spam lay on the counter, and two bundles of sheets were laid out on the hard floor with Sofia under one and Vince the other. A single candle did its best to light the dining area, and a thin layer of smoke laid across the ceiling.
Sofia looked up.
“What?” said Vince.
“Making sure there are no smoke alarms. I don’t want to wake her up.”
“Yeah, she might come out here still dreaming and shoot both of us.”
Sofia smiled and they both burst out laughing.
A knock came against the wooden boards, abruptly ended their giggling. They looked at each other then back to the drapes that had been pulled across where the patio doors were. One of the wooden boards began to creek and a tapping noise came from a nail which was bouncing on a tile. They both lay, frozen in place.