“I…I’m armed,” Billy said. ‘Come out slowly or I’ll pump you full of lead.” The phrase he quoted from his favorite console shooter came out squeaky and quivering, not quite the menacing threat he intended it to be.
Billy could hear something inside, but wasn’t quite sure what to make of the sound. It sounded like someone was slapping a wet washcloth against the floor. His shaking hands fumbled with something underneath the gun and he felt slightly better when the flashlight clicked on. Only slightly. The overwhelming darkness still swallowed most of the light that the tiny flashlight managed to produce.
“I’m coming in. No sudden moves, okay?”
Slap…slap…slap…
A circle of light washed over the darkened bulks of arcade machines. It was just past the pool tables that he swooped the light down to the ground just a few steps in front of him. Someone was hunched down, their back turned against the boy. He couldn’t see what the person was doing, but whatever it was, made that slapping noise.
“Hi there,” Billy said. “It’s okay, I’m here to help.”
The slapping sound stopped. The man stayed hunched down with his back turned to Billy.
“My parents should be on their way here. They will help us and take us to wherever everyone else had gathered, safe and sound.”
Slap…slap…slap…
Billy took a step forward and the man spun his head around. In the silver beam of the flashlight, the man’s eyes were pitch black in their sockets and the bottom half of his face was coated in blood. His teeth were visible through a gaping hole in his jaw. Still Billy recognized him.
“Dad…?”
The man stood up and without taking his eyes off Billy, produced something long and slithery. It was drenched in blood and Billy instinctively knew it was intestines. The man that was supposed to be his father locked his teeth around the intestine and ripped off a piece that he chewed and swallowed.
Billy tried his best not to scream out.
The man then tossed the rest aside and reached a blood-soaked hand out to the boy.
Billy took a quick step backwards. “Dad? What’s going on? Where’s mom?”
The blackness in the man’s eyes seemed to dissipate somewhat, allowing the whites of the Sclera to show through thin threads of what appeared to be black veins. The man looked around, almost as if confused with where he was or what he was doing there. He looked at the shaking boy and then at the blood on his hands.
Billy looked down on the ground past the man that appeared to be his father. He had to bite his lip to keep himself from screaming out in fear at the torn-open carcass of a person. It was most probably Leon, a friend who worked at the arcade. Whoever or whatever the thing was in front of him was not his father. That much Billy was sure of. He briefly entertained the idea that this might be an alien being that most likely shape-shifted into his father’s form, but this thing was sure as hell not his dad.
The black veins thickened. The man groaned.
Billy raised the gun and aimed it at the man’s head.
The man held out his hand and with strained effort tried to utter something.
Billy was about to instruct the man to remain still when the flashlight mounted to the bottom of his gun flickered and died, instantly flooding his vision with nothing but black.
There was a shifting sound as the man moved closer, and from within the infernal darkness the man finally managed to breathe the one word the boy feared hearing the most.
“Buh…Billy…”
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Kill Them Dead 1 (Zombie Thriller Series) Page 6