by Maxey, Phil
“You should be lying down!” said Grace.
“Yeah, I was doing that, but then the smell of good food got to me, and I’m here wondering where it’s at?”
Meg smiled, getting to her feet. “There’s still plenty left. Sit, I’ll put you some out.”
Abby and Grace helped him to a seat where he sat slowly, holding the bandages across his stomach.
Meg handed him a bowl of her making. “If you want it heated up, let me know.”
“Nah, it’s good.” He took a sip, and a smile crept across his face. He glanced around the room as he took a second. “So, five more days and the alien S.O.B is dead. The voice on the radio say anything about the things that folks turn into?”
“Maybe they die as well…” said Sam.
“Even if they don’t, once the epidemic is over, the army will be able to take care of them…” said Landon. Jess cleared her throat, and he prepared himself for what she was about to say.
“Umm… actually about that, there’s something I need to tell all of you, well, actually some of you specifically.”
Everyone looked at her, and she looked at Abby, who was sat near her boyfriend. “There’s something I haven’t told you both…”
“What?” said Abby. Owen had stopped eating.
“I think you are both immune from the virus.”
Owen looked bemused. “Why you say that?”
Jess glanced at her son. “The chocolate that Josh gave you, that you and Abby had eaten. It was given to me by a work colleague… Umm, you see you were right when you said that we were the only people from Denver that had not changed. Thing is, we should have… But we didn’t, and there had to be a reason for that, and—”
Abby shook her head. “What are you talking about? Chocolate?”
“Yes, please explain more,” said Grace.
Jess took a breath. “Okay, I was fired from my job—”
“Why were you fired?” said Arlene.
“— That, doesn’t matter. Point is, my friend who works with me at Biochron, gave me a leaving present. Some chocolate, and he made a point, that we should all eat it. That it was very important that we did. I thought nothing of it at the time, but then we did all eat it, and even though everyone else from the apartment complex was affected by the virus, we were not…”
Everyone in the room was absorbed by the ramifications.
“But that would mean, your former company knew something about the alien virus,” said Grace. “A virus from another world. How is that possible?”
Everyone was looking at her and Arlene, the only two that had not eaten what Amos gave Jess.
“I… don’t know. You’re are right, it makes no—”
Abby was focused on the young woman. “That means you and the doctor are the only two that can change into those things.” Her head flicked back to Jess, then rotated around the others. “We ain’t safe with those two in here!”
Landon raised a hand. “Now, wait a minute. Meg was right earlier. Grace was close to those things at the medical center, and—” he looked at Arlene. “— Arlene, I’m sure has been in their vicinity, and they haven’t changed. Which means it’s a pretty good—”
Owen looked back to Jess. “You’re okay with two people who could harm your kids—”
Grace and Arlene stood at the same time. “Now, hold on,” said the doctor. “I saved your life!”
He looked up at her across the room. “And if you become one of those things, you’ll be taking it, because I’m in no shape to fight.”
“I ain’t going to become no monster!” shouted Arlene.
As Landon spoke again, Jess caught the young woman’s backward motion towards the wall behind her, and Meg’s shotgun that was laid up against it.
“Wait!” shouted Jess, but Arlene had already lunged, then grabbed the gun, waving it indiscriminately around the room.
Landon stood, moving to the side in front of Sam and Josh. “Put the gun down,” he said in a calm voice. “No one here is saying you’re going to become a monster.”
She waved the gun around those in the room again, making some backup behind their chairs. “Yeah you are. You all are! I’m not a—”
The generator died, as did the two lanterns. Only flickering light from a single candle residing on the floor lit the room.
Arlene’s eyes were wide. “It’s happening… Maybe you’re all the monsters! Maybe I’m—”
Daryl bundled into her, causing the shotgun to fire. Jess felt heat from projectiles, and for an instant wasn’t sure her head was still on her shoulders. Landon landed like a cat on the young woman’s arms, pulling the gun away, while Arlene screamed to be let up.
“You’re bleeding!” said Josh to his mother.
Jess felt her cheek and looked at a smidgen of blood on her fingertip. She looked at her kids, and then Landon. “I’m okay.”
“Let me up! The monsters are coming!” screamed Arlene.
“You could have killed my wife!” said Landon to the squirming woman on the floor.
“It was an accident!”
Landon handed the gun to Meg, then kneeled next to the generator. “It’s probably a blockage in the fuel valve or—”
A sound, which was half groan, half roar, boomed through the frozen forests, reverberating the wooden barriers placed across the windows. Everyone’s heart beat loud in their ears, their minds filling with terror.
“They’re here… the monsters are here…” said Josh, shivering. Jess got to her feet, placing an arm around her son.
Landon looked at the woman on the floor. “Are you going to keep your shit together? Or am I going to have to tie you up?” She nodded and he looked at Daryl, who released the weight from her back, and she sat up, wrapping her arms around herself.
Meg was looking through the tiniest of gaps left in the planks.
“You see anything?” said Landon.
She started to shake her head then stopped, trying to push her face even further into the view of the front yard and darkness beyond. “I think there’s something moving out there…”
Owen stood, grimacing. “Give me a gun.”
“Owen—”
He turned angrily to Abby. “I’m still alive, ain’t I?”
She looked away, as he looked questioningly to Meg.
“Upstairs, my room,” she said. “There’s a large crate of anything you could need.”
“Mind, if I take one too?” said Daryl.
She turned from the window, nodding, then looked directly at Arlene. “Everyone get’s a gun, apart from her…”
Arlene frowned then looked away.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
5: 21 p.m. Keller’s home.
Landon looked out the bedroom window. The room behind was a sea of darkness, as was the world outside, but his eyes were starting to adjust and with the increased fidelity came a dawning horror at what was out there. He counted at least five unnatural shapes, darker than the trees around them, sitting motionless on the lighter snow-covered ground.
“Can you see them?” said Jess, next to him. Sam and Josh were behind the side of the bed, sitting on the floor, their backs inside a small wall closet.
He nodded. “Yup.”
“I’m sure they’re getting closer.”
“Maybe.” He wanted to say they were, but that would mean at some point he and his family would be fighting for their lives, and he wasn’t quite ready to accept that yet. He had seen the creatures up close, from the food market to the thing that chased him across the parking lot, to whatever swiped the man into the air in town. He didn’t have a classification for any of them, but the word ‘abomination’ felt right. He knew in his heart they weren’t going to stay outside. That at some point, they would want in.
His left hand brushed the stock of the rifle which was leaned up against the windowsill. An extra pack of ammo sat on the floor.
Floorboards creaked from the landing behind and Meg appeared, with a candle in one hand and he
r shotgun in the other. She glanced over to the kids in the corner, their frightened faces momentarily filling her with sadness, but instead she smiled. “Hey kids. Don’t worry. Anything tries to get in here, we’ll take care of them.” Josh nodded but Sam’s glum expression stayed the same.
She turned to the two adults. “There’s more out back. Hard to see exactly, but maybe four in total.”
“I count five out front.” Landon clicked on his radio. “Daryl. What you seeing? Over.”
Static came from the speaker, interspersed with the younger man’s voice. “There are… least… three… shack outback… maybe closer. Over.”
“I’m going to head on back to the other—”
“Landon! It’s moving!”
Jess’s words produced a whimper from the kids, but he flicked his head back to the window just in time to see a dark form, the size of a large man moving slowly towards the house. He couldn’t say it was walking, as it appeared to lumber, swaying from side to side, but its progress was steady, its destination obvious. He pushed the old window up a few inches, bringing with it icy flakes blowing into the room and balanced the barrel on the sill, then looked down the sight. “Get to the back of the house. We need to know if others are moving this—”
Static burst again from his radio. “Moving… twenty-feet… passed… Over.”
Meg quickly turned and made her way across the landing to the other bedroom.
As Landon tracked the shadowy creature moving between the trunks, Jess gripped her handgun. She still had no idea how to fire it properly, but that wasn’t going to stop her from pulling the trigger as many times as needed.
Even though most light inside the house had been extinguished, with only a few candles still providing any illumination, it was still enough to give hints at the creature’s true form as it moved onto the edge of the yard. It reached the first pickup, clambering over the—
The vehicle’s alarm erupted, bringing light and sound to the space in front of the house. The impossibility of the thing could now be seen by anyone watching. Its body was an amalgamation of eyes, snapping mouths and barbed limbs that flailed at the offending vehicle, quickly snuffing out the lights, and then as the yard fell back into darkness, smashed and slashed at the hood and engine until even the siren was silenced.
“Oh god… they’re all moving… all…” said Jess.
Landon gulped, his fear almost stopping words from emanating from his lips. “Get ready to—”
The clatter of semi-automatic gunfire came from below them, from the living room window. Streams of red neon sliced through the night, and into the closest thing, making it roar, a guttural sound that was suddenly joined by the other things all around the house. A chorus of angry intent.
Within Landon’s sight, black shapes swayed and lurched. He fired, reloaded and fired again, the bullets being swallowed by the thing now increasing its speed across the yard.
Daryl’s voice came from his radio, but it was smothered by the cacophony of firing, branches breaking and screeches and roars from the things thundering towards the house.
The first of the creatures slowed as bullets slammed into it, then fell with a final groan into the snow, but another, something sleek, bounding on four legs, shifted left then right, the streams of fire from the downstairs windows mostly missing.
“It’s almost at the steps!” someone shouted from below.
Jess found herself firing at the thing without even realizing she was, and for a moment a flicker of hope started to find root that it was also about to go down, but instead, it leaped, a shadow looming close, jumping at them on the second floor. She recoiled in horror expecting the thing to crash through the window, but its target was elsewhere and glass shattered in the room to their right, followed by a heavy clump.
“It’s inside!” shouted Meg from the landing.
Jess turned just in time to see the older woman’s face light up from the shotguns shells that were blasting into something nearby, its squeals confirmation of Meg’s aim. The wall shuddered between the rooms, then broke as something crashed into it.
Jess got to her feet as Landon continued firing, bringing her small flashlight with her and rushed onto the landing area, then followed Meg’s gaze into the room next door.
As the sound of battle echoed out around them, a mass of brown-pink limbs, connected by a body of fur, with no obvious head, lay quivering within pools of blood.
“Is it—”
Before Jess could finish, Meg fired another shot into it then turned and ran back to her room. Jess moved to do the same when an explosion of wood, masonry and glass came from downstairs, the firing intensifying and somewhere within was a scream.
She ran to the top of the stairs, pointing her light down. Roars, gunfire, screams, grunts and destruction came from the darkness beyond the bottom step. She quickly ascended, gritting her teeth, her gun held with one hand, her light the other. A shadow staggered into view, almost making her fire, but instead it collapsed forwards into her arms. She looked down into Abby’s face, blood trickling from the young woman’s mouth.
“Run…”
The firing continued upstairs, but despite the silence that had fallen within the rooms left and right of her, Jess could smell the inhuman thing that was merely feet away. She lay Abby down when a creak came from around the corner. She quickly raised her gun and light. Daryl’s eyes were wide and he held his finger to his mouth, then pointed to the room on the right, the radio room and she nodded.
He lifted the barrel of his shotgun. As they both walked slowly forward an icy wind made its way from the open door. Her light swept into the opening, first showing a jagged void where the windows used to be, the refuse already being covered by a smattering of snow, then chairs and tables reduced to fragmented splinters, then blood, and Owen… At first she was sure he was dead, but his bloodshot eyes blinked. He nodded to his right, to the back of the room.
The stench of the thing filled the air, and a part of her wanted to take Abby’s advice, to turn, run back up the stairs, close the door to the bedroom and hide with her children.
The cone of light from her flashlight shuddered with the fear running through her, but with Daryl, she moved to the doorway, and slowly shifted the light across what was left of the room to—
The thing was almost the height of the ceiling, at least seven feet. It looked like a person in a clock, hunched over, facing away from them. Slowly it rotated, and opened… wings fanning out, revealing a mass of insect like legs, that coiled and slithered. Its body was shell-like and two large black eyes sat above pinchers that snapped in their direction.
They both fired, some bullets hitting true, but most pinged off as it stumbled towards them.
“Get out of the way!” shouted Meg, bundling past them and throwing a fiery glass bottle at the creature, which became engulfed in flame, its wings swiping the air, cutting grooves in the walls. They continued the assault, walking forward as it fell backwards, crashing into the rear boarded up windows, which broke outwards into the night. As the fire ate into it, it fell forward, its top half laying across the splintered wood and glass.
Jess suddenly realized her beating heart and the wind were the only sounds she could hear. She spun around in panic, but only had to make it to the bottom of the stairs to see Sam, Josh and Landon standing at the top, looking down at Abby.
“Is she…” said Sam, her face red with tears.
Jess bent down, placing her hand on Abby’s neck but no throbbing artery could be felt.
“We got a problem!” shouted Daryl. She looked up at her kids, desperately wanting to go to them, but instead she ran back into the room. Grace had come up from the basement and was attending Owen, Jess’s attention momentarily held by the doctor’s frantic actions to keep him alive.
“Jess!” shouted Daryl.
She turned to face flames climbing the walls at the back of the room, the old wallpaper alight with fire.
“Water! We need to put it
out!” she screamed.
Meg appeared from the other room, bottles of water in both hands, which she threw at the fire, creeping across the ceiling.
Daryl coughed as black smoke filled the room. “Are the other things dead?”
“Some,” said Meg. “Others appear to have moved off. Help me—” She coughed, partially covering her mouth. “— Get more water!” They both rushed back into the hallway.
“He’s alive,” said Grace behind Jess who swung back around. “Took a knock to the head by the looks of it, but his stomach wound, somehow stayed intact.” The doctor looked at the flames and the building wall of smoke.
Meg and Daryl ran back into the room, arms full of bottles as Landon appeared in the doorway. “There are flames upstairs, in one of the bedrooms, making their way to the attic!” he said.
The forlorn look in her husband’s face, the smoke invading her lungs and the distant whimpering of her children was almost too much for Jess. She wavered, feeling light-headed, until Landon’s hands were around her arms, moving her back into the hallway. Sam and Josh were standing near Abby, the sight of her crying children being enough to snap her back to her surroundings. She quickly reached out to both, moving them into the other room. She looked back to Landon. “We can’t lose this house…”
Daryl and Meg appeared, looking at the few bottles left of water. Meg looked at Landon then Jess, as smoke curled around the ceiling above them. “We haven’t got enough water!”
The door to the basement opened, Arlene appearing. “Are the monster’s…” She looked up at the smoke, feeling the heat from the other room. “Shit, the house is burning down!”
Jess held her children close as everyone looked to her for the next choice that would determine their fate. Outside were below zero temperatures and things that tore and ripped, inside were flames and certain death…
“The house is gone,” she said. “Get as much stuff as you can outside!”
“The old shack out back!” said Daryl, between coughs. “We can get inside there!”