Whiteout

by Gabriel Dylan

  “Do it, then. Do whatever it takes for us to get through this. Look outside. The storm’s lessening, the snowfall’s nearly stopped. Maybe we can make it.”

  Hanna nodded, picked up her hockey stick and wiped the snow off its edge.

  “If those things come after us tonight, if they find us, I’ll make them sorry. I’ll take as many with me as I can. Come on. We need to make one more stop before we get back to the hostel.”

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Nico found himself reeling at Hanna’s words. “Are you insane? If those things get in here, we need to run. We have to!”

  “If you run, you’re dead. We’ve seen them out there. We can’t outrun them, not in the open. They’re like wolves. They would be on you in seconds. But you’re welcome to try.”

  Across from Nico, Ellie’s eyes widened in horror. “We can’t fight them. That’s the last thing we should do. We need to hide and keep hidden. If what that old man told you is true, they’re hunting us. Didn’t you see what they did to our friends back at the hotel?”

  Hanna glanced at Ellie coldly. “I saw. I saw it all, from the moment they took Stefan. And I remember leading you all to safety that night. If I hadn’t led you upstairs you’d have been eaten along with your friends. At least my way we have a chance.”

  Tara swore, stepped away from the shutters and sat down with the others. A strand of her long blond hair slipped down over her face, and she pushed it back from her eyes. “I agree with Ellie. A chance of what? Of making them angry? How do we even know we can hurt those things?”

  Charlie and Hanna had returned from the village streets with a bag of stale loaves and baguettes salvaged from a bakery. Tough as it was, the bread still tasted heavenly after three days of tinned food. As they recounted their conversation with the old man, Nico couldn’t help but wonder if they had brought it to soften the blow of the story they had to tell.

  Nico’s appetite had faded as Charlie recounted the old man’s words. And a moment later his poor stomach threatened to regurgitate the little bread he had eaten when Hanna unveiled her plans in the event of the creatures finding their way into the hostel.

  It was fair to say her strategy hadn’t gone down well. But, as ever, Hanna didn’t seem to care too much what the others thought.

  “I know we can hurt them.”

  Tara snorted. “What, have you got a crystal ball as well?”

  Hanna shook her head dismissively. “I know.”

  “Really? How?”

  Hanna narrowed her eyes and glanced across at Tara. “I killed one.”

  Leandra leaned forwards and joined the conversation. “What? When?”

  “The day when Ryan left. When I went into the ski shop to check it was clear, there was one of those things pinned under the wheels of the bus. The one that bit her.”

  Nico watched as Poppy seemed to come out of a daze. She didn’t seem well at all, her face pale, her eyes feverish, and she had hardly left the sofa in the past twenty-four hours. Her brow was constantly beaded with sweat and there were dark lines under her eyes.

  She sat up a little and squinted across at Hanna. “You saw it … the one that bit me?”

  “It was like a shark that had washed up on a beach. Black eyes full of hate and hunger. A wide mouth, dozens of jagged, bloody teeth. Your blood.”

  Poppy wiped at her eyes as if rubbing away sleep. “What did you do to it?”

  Hanna shrugged and nodded down at the metal hockey stick that went everywhere with her. “I made sure it wouldn’t bite anyone else. I smashed away at that thing until all that was left were bones and brains and skull and teeth. Trust me, they can be killed.”

  Tara wrapped her coat around her shoulders. “What are you, some kind of robot? Everyone else is terrified, and you’re going on about killing them. What’s wrong with you?”

  Hanna waved Tara’s words away dismissively. “If they come here tonight, I’ll try to kill some more.”

  As if to emphasize her point, she lifted up the rucksack she had brought with her. The contents clinked and rattled. “Who’s going to help me?”

  Ellie shook her head slowly. “Tara’s right. It’s lunacy to fight them. Let’s just pray they don’t get in here.”

  Nico glanced across at the window, where Jordan stood chewing away at the last of his baguette. Back at home he didn’t seem scared of anything, but since the creatures had appeared he had barely spoken. Behind Jordan, the shutters were open a crack, the sky outside slipping into darkness. It wouldn’t be long now until they closed the shutters and started another endless night.

  Nico looked back at Hanna. “You told us that the old man said that they’re looking for us. That they won’t let this storm go until they find us?”

  Hanna shrugged. “So he said.”

  “How can they do that? How can they control the weather? Only Thor can do that and he’s not real! It isn’t possible.”

  Tara snorted in his direction. “If you don’t have anything more useful to throw in than your expansive knowledge of comic books and geek films, maybe you should leave the talking to the grown-ups.”

  Nico glared at her, sick of being patronized and belittled by the others. Before he could go back at Tara, Leandra pointed towards the window and the dying light outside. “But the storm’s gone now, hasn’t it? The wind isn’t howling any more, the snowfall’s almost stopped.”

  Tara licked her lips. “Maybe the old man was wrong. Maybe tonight they’ve gone. Given up.”

  Nico felt a wave of hope wash over him. Maybe Hanna was tough enough to smash away at those things in a way Nico could only dream of, but that didn’t mean she knew everything. He glanced round at the others. “Maybe she’s right! Do you think so?”

  Hanna shook her head. “No.”

  Ellie stood and walked to the shutters. “But look, the storm has gone. Leandra’s right. Look! Ryan and Shiv could be on their way here, right now, coming to help us!”

  Nico saw a flicker of hope on the faces around him, but Hanna was quick to shoot it down. “Or they could be frozen at the edge of a hillside. Or worse.”

  Tara swore at Hanna and dug her mobile phone out of her pocket. “You don’t know that. Ryan will have made it, I know he will. If the storm’s gone, help could be on its way right now. They could be here any minute. They might even send a helicopter, right?”

  Nico watched as she tapped away at her phone. “Anything?”

  “No. There’s still no signal. But that doesn’t mean anything.”

  Hanna’s eyes never left her. “If this storm has gone, if that old man was talking nothing more than lies, then somebody could make their way up to us. But tomorrow. Not tonight. The pistes will be death-traps with the snow we’ve had. And there’s no way they’d fly a helicopter at night, here in the mountains, not unless it was an emergency. And they don’t know what’s happening up here.”

  Nico wiped at his nose. “You’re sure?”

  Hanna’s grey eyes searched him out in the dim light. “Maybe tomorrow. It’s been what, three days, since we’ve had any contact with the valley? That’s not unusual. But tomorrow, if this storm stays gone, they might try to send someone up. Maybe. Even if they weren’t torn up, the lifts wouldn’t run in the winds we’ve had. But maybe tomorrow somebody will realize things aren’t right up here.”

  Jordan swore and laughed to himself bitterly. “Shit, if they’re not here by tomorrow and there’s no snow I’m walking down there. No discussion.”

  Hanna shrugged. “Maybe. But there’s no help coming tonight.”

  The smile slowly seeped from Jordan’s face.

  “Shit, I’m scared. You know, I’ve never been scared of anything before, and I’ve lost track of the fights I’ve been in, the times I’ve been dragged down to the police station. All that stuff, it didn’t scare me, not one little bit. But now, right now, I’m shitting it.”

  Nico stared at him, shocked at Jordan’s open admission of fear. But Tara didn’t seem to feel a s
imilar sympathy at his revelation.

  “Police station? That’s awful. You’re like, a criminal, aren’t you? You’re worse than Charlie, even.” Tara looked at Jordan as if she was studying some new, rare type of species she hadn’t encountered before.

  “I never knew anyone before who was in trouble with the law. Now I’m stuck with two of you. But we’re all scared. Even the robot girl over there. Although she wouldn’t admit it.”

  Hanna glanced in Tara’s direction. “Are you talking about me?”

  “If you’re not scared you’re an idiot, or you’re a liar.”

  Hanna ignored Tara and looked around the group. “I’ll tell you what does scare me. What if those things have stopped the storm, the snow? Just turned it off somehow. Think about it. The storm keeps us here but maybe it stops them finding us as well. The wind, the blizzard. Maybe it hinders them hearing us, sensing us. You couldn’t see anything out there last night. But now the storm’s gone … and they know we can’t run, not at night. Not when they’re out there.”

  Tara rolled her eyes in Hanna’s direction. “Now you want to believe those … those things control the snow? I thought you didn’t believe in monsters and vampires?”

  Nico was about to interject another of his filmfuelled observations about creatures that dwelt in the darkness, but Hanna spoke first.

  “I still don’t. But think about it. Right now, the storm stops. Just as they might be coming out to hunt. Just as they need to see, and hear, and find us.”

  Nico felt his heart quicken in his chest. “I hope you’re wrong.”

  Hanna walked towards the window, closed the shutter, and turned to face the group. “That old man said they’d find us tonight. I don’t want to believe him, but he knew a lot about what’s happening here.”

  All that Nico could see was Hanna’s silhouette, cut out by the pale light of the moon. She let her words sink in, then spoke again. “You can argue with me all you want, but if you want to survive you need to listen to me. I’d rather run. But not if those things are going to hunt me down like a fox and gut me. I don’t want to die like that. If they come tonight, we need to make a stand.”

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Charlie wasn’t sure what it was that gave them away.

  Just after it had gone dark, Poppy had fallen asleep. She had twisted and turned and moaned in the darkness, mumbling and hissing a stream of gabbled, delirious words. Charlie hadn’t been able to understand what it was she was saying, but the sounds alone were haunting.

  It had been some time before midnight, Charlie reckoned, when Poppy had woken up and limped off towards the toilet down the hall. A while later, Leandra had switched on the lantern, the light spilling into the room. She’d seemed to check where she was, whispering to herself, then once reassured she’d quickly switched off the light.

  Maybe the lantern had given them away, or perhaps it had been Poppy’s moans and cries. Or maybe Hanna had been right, and it had only been the storm that had kept them hidden for so long.

  At first, the sounds were far off, on the edge of the village, in the forests nearby. Hungry moans, feral cries and shouts, slowly creeping closer to where Charlie and the others lay.

  They had taken it in turns to sit at the shutter and peer through the cracks at the frozen world outside. Charlie took the first shift. Just after dark, in the ghostly light of the moon, the still world outside looked almost beautiful. Drifts of snow piled up against the fronts of the chalets and houses opposite the hostel, the pale frosting on the cobbled streets pure and unblemished.

  Sitting there, alone, he had almost convinced himself that the last few days had been nothing but a nightmare. But then the howls and cries had drifted to his ears, and he knew that their pursuers were out there, somewhere, on the hunt.

  It had been Jordan who took the shift after Charlie. His blocky, battered face had looked pale and drawn, his curly hair silver in the moonlight.

  As Charlie passed him the other boy grabbed him by the arm, eyes fixed on the floor as he spoke. “I know I was a dick to you. We was never going to be friends, but you’re all right. You could have run for it with Ryan and the others, but you stuck around. So I’m sorry, OK. I just wanted to say that.”

  Charlie had drifted asleep some time after, wrapped in the folds of his sleeping bag on the hard wooden floor.

  He was awake the moment that Jordan’s panicked words drifted around the room, the other boy’s voice a hushed, strained whisper. “There’s two of those things out there. Down by the door. It looks like they’re sniffing, like dogs, but I don’t think they—”

  The sound of splintering wood from downstairs cut Jordan’s words dead. Nico bit back a frightened yelp. Charlie opened his eyes and reached for the crowbar that lay next to him. From the speed with which Hanna leaped to her feet he knew that she hadn’t been asleep. She picked up her hockey stick and the rucksack that lay inches away from her and hissed at the others.

  “They’re here, downstairs! Move! Remember what we planned. Go!”

  The thin beams of moonlight that shone in through the shutters were more than enough to light the way as the group scrambled up from where they were lying. More sounds came from downstairs, fingers tearing at the wooden shutters, fists pounding the doors.

  Leandra grabbed Charlie by the sleeve, her eyes wide and bright. “Are you sure? Are you sure they—”

  Hanna pushed her towards the door. “They’re here! And if you don’t move, you’re going to die here. Go!”

  Charlie blocked Hanna’s way out as she dove for the hallway. “We can still run. We can try to get away from them. I know I said we should fight, but—”

  Hanna cut him off before he could finish. “They’ll hunt us down. You know they will. You look after the others, I’ll try to slow them down here. Take this, then go.”

  She pressed a small key into his hand, then reached into her bag and brought out a bottle with a rag stuffed into the top. Hanna drew a lighter out of her pocket and glanced up at Charlie. “They’ll burn. Everything burns.”

  After they’d left the old man, Hanna had broken into the small off-licence that sat on Kaldgellen’s tiny main street. As she had picked the bottles of spirits off the shelves and passed them to Charlie, he had begun to understand her plan. All of them had fire warnings.

  Hanna clicked on the lighter, checking it one last time, then glanced to her right. Jordan stood there, his face ashen and bloodless. “I’m coming with you. I’ll help you. If—”

  Jordan didn’t get to finish his sentence. A piercing scream came from downstairs, high and afraid.

  As if thrilled by the sound, the pounding from downstairs intensified, dozens of fists banging on the wood, growls and cries filling the night. Charlie glanced around at the group desperately. “Who is it? Who’s down there?”

  Nico put his hand up as if he’d suddenly solved a puzzle at school. “Poppy! Where’s Poppy?”

  Another scream from downstairs, a frantic shout, a word. Please.

  Tara looked down the stairs fearfully. “We have to leave her! We can’t—”

  The rest of what she said was lost to Charlie as he ran down the stairs to the source of the screams.

  The moon shone through the skylights in the roof above the derelict reception area. By the pale light Charlie could make out a figure leaning against the wall next to the barricaded front door. As he got closer he could see Poppy’s auburn hair. Tears streamed down her cheeks and she seemed to be in a daze.

  A long, thin arm slid in through a hole in the wood of the doorway. It lashed around frantically, trying to find a handle or latch to gain entry to the building. Thick, claw-like fingernails scraped patterns on the wood; dirty, bloodstained bandages covering the ravaged flesh of its arm. Charlie reached over to Poppy, put her arm around his neck and half-dragged her to the dusty reception desk in the corner.

  “What are you doing down here? What happened?”

  Poppy shook her head. “I don’t know. I th
ink I was sleepwalking, dreaming. I heard noises, voices in my head, telling me to—”

  A huge crash from their left made both of them spin around. Another one of the creatures had started to fight its way into the building, bursting through a boarded-up window. A pale face and half a withered body stuck out into what had once been a long dormitory, rows of rusted bedframes standing by like idle sentries. A few more seconds and the creature would be inside the hostel.

  Charlie sprinted into the room, the thing’s head whipping in his direction, awful jaws snapping open and shut manically. Tendrils of saliva hung from the intruder’s vicious fangs. Charlie was reminded of a set of wind-up teeth he’d had as a child; the ceaseless slam and judder of the dentures as they clicked across the floor.

  He rushed at the creature and started to smash away at it with the end of his crowbar. Its dark eyes widened, its attempts to get into the room becoming more and more frantic. Blood ran from its scalp and eyes where Charlie had struck it, but it seemed to barely feel the blows.

  Charlie stepped back, lifted the crowbar and swung it as if he was hitting the ball in a game of rounders. He felt the impact judder down his arms, and he watched the creature’s jaw sail across the room in a spray of teeth and blood and gore.

  Somewhere behind him, Poppy screamed again.

  Charlie didn’t have time to consider the terror of the situation or the horror of what he’d just done. Automatically, he pulled the crowbar back once more, slammed it down and felt it dig deep into the creature’s skull. The thing jerked convulsively then fell still, its shattered head hanging down over the boarding that covered the window, blood sliding down the plywood sheets.

  Charlie turned and ran back towards the hostel’s wide reception area. He entered the lobby just as he heard glass shatter somewhere near the doorway. An instant later, the whole room came alive in a flickering dance of flames and a fan of hot air submerged him.

  Hanna was over by Poppy, helping her to her feet. Jordan stood by the desk, staring down at his fingers in shock, as if he couldn’t quite believe that the flaming bottle had been launched from them. Over by the doorway, the creature that had been trying to get into the lobby whipped this way and that, engulfed in the inferno that had burst out from Jordan’s improvized firebomb. The thing was still alive, still trying to get in, but as Charlie watched the flames started to devour its flesh, hair and clothes.