The dead spore collectio.., p.10
The Dead Spore Collection, page 10
“It’s the young girl.” His dad ran past Dominic then stopped dead as three of the creatures looked up from their meal. They all dropped the meat onto the road, stood up and lurched up to him.
“You fucking idiot,” said Dominic, running up to him. He wrapped his arms around the man’s chest. “He’s not yours!” He pushed the old man over to the van, now hearing the terrified sobs coming from under the vehicle.
Dominic pulled his dad down. “Get under there and grab her.” He wrapped his fingers around the ankle of the infected next to them and dragged the creature back, before gently booting the next one in the side of the ribs. The infected did edge away, not moving their scarlet eyes away from Dominic.
“Quickly, dad, get under there and grab the girl. I think we’ve seriously overstayed our welcome.” The two that he’d dragged out began to growl, baring their teeth and shaking. The three next to them did the same. Within a few seconds, every one of them were doing the same. The noise drilled right into Dominic’s brain. He clamped his hands hard against his ears, wanting the noise to cease and yet – the more the sound continued, the more something deep inside him welcomed it. They were challenging him, annoyed at his intervention, at taking food that was rightfully theirs.
His eyes and hands dropped to the floor. He saw a pair of legs shifting about next to his body. The fabric rolled up the ankle to reveal white flesh. The growling subtly shifted in tone. They were no longer angry at his intervention. The creatures, his companions urged him to take the next step, to join them, to shed the last of his human emotions and become a part of their tribe. All he had to do was to lunge forward and bite into that piece of meat.
Dominic looked up into the deep blue sky; he put his hands back over his ears and screamed, wanting his voice to block out their insidious chanting. Here was another voice, now two, shouting at Dominic, telling to move but he no longer had any control over his body. The change, that was interrupted all that time ago was about to re-commence.
Somebody took hold of his arm and his view of the sky altered. He saw two human faces looking down at him. He didn’t know either of them. Dominic arched his back as a bolt of agony shot through the length of his body, through his tear filled vision, he managed to focus on the man. He needed to tell him to leave him, to run as fast as he could, before it was too late, yet no matter how much he tried, only pain-filled groans left his mouth.
Chapter Ten
It didn’t surprise Monique to discover that their journey away from that supermarket had been uneventful. None of the infected followed them, obviously too interested to getting to the people inside the building. Her mind kept going back to when those shutters rolled up and those creatures came at them. Jesus, what had possessed them to keep those things in there, using them as a pack of fucking rabid dogs. Oh sure, she had to commend them on their ingenuity but what would have happened if one of those thing had managed to get loose?
She took a deep breath, not wanting to ponder on what she and Geoff had fled from. Yet no matter how much she wanted to focus on their immediate problems, her traitorous mind kept pulling her back to the events in that carpark.
“Are you okay, Mon?”
She allowed him to pull her over a low wall. Monique jumped down and followed the man through somebody’s neat garden, unlike Geoff who just walked through the flowers, she kept to the path. “I will be when we get back home.”
What would have happened to the three of them if Conner hadn’t played silly buggers and allowed them inside? Perhaps Alan would have still been with them. Then again, considering what the pair of them managed to escape by the skin of their teeth, it’s a likely possibility that they could all have been pulled apart once those monsters had gotten in that supermarket.
“Geoff, I think they came back for their own kind.”
“No, give over. That’s ridiculous, they’re mindless animals, they operate on instinct alone. Don’t start giving them feelings, Monique.”
“I don’t believe that.” She paused beside the garden gate. “Think about it, Geoff, just think about it. They could have taken us down at any time. The infected only showed their faces once the ones inside were in the carpark.”
“Monique, does it really fucking matter? Look, I’ve just lost my best mate, okay? All I want to do is to make sure Danny is healing okay before retiring to my bed and getting drunk. So if you don’t mind, please lets not have this conversation.”
She bit her bottom lip to stop her from retorting. If it hadn’t been for her quick actions, Mr, ‘I’ve just lost my best mate’ would still be with Alan and she would have made this trip back alone. Monique silently sighed and followed him across the street. Maybe pouring some wine down her throat wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all. Oh God, it now hit her that she had just seen the one man who she could have chosen to love, ripped into tiny pieces by a bunch of monsters. Maybe Geoff was right about them. All they deserved was death. It’s not like they gave them any pity.
“Monique!”
His urgent call pulled her out of her melancholy. She joined him at the street corner and groaned at the sight of the door to the church hall wide open. “No, not this as well!” She raced across the street, her frantic mind desperately trying to figure out exactly how many rounds she had left in the gun.
Geoff urged her to stay outside before he ran through the opening. She took no notice of the man, after checking to make sure there was no movement out here, she followed him through. Monique found herself standing in a pool of thick blood. He held her breath, not wanting to breathe in a foul metallic odour and gingerly lifted her foot, almost gagging as the congealing blood stuck to her boot like hot tar.
She jumped onto a clean patch of floor and quickly spun around, looking for signs of any survivors. All she saw was more blood and a furious Geoff glaring at her.
“I told you to stay outside. It’s not safe in here.”
“Shut up,” she snarled, grabbing hold of the edge of the door. How dare he tell her what to do after his actions back in that carpark. Monique slammed the door shut, then shrieked at the sight of one of the infected flat against the wall. She stumbled back, tripping up over her feet, Monique fell into the blood lake. The creature charged, she was just able to bring up the gun and fire off a single shot. It roared before collapsing, its still body falling across her chest, pinning Monique to the floor.
Its vile body odour filled her nostrils, overwhelming the stink of congealing blood. She turned her head, glaring at the man. “Don’t just stand there, get it off me.”
Geoff smiled down at her. “Now why would I do that?” He bent down and scooped up her fallen gun. “Told you not to follow me in here, Monique.”
“Give me that back, you shit!” After a few seconds of frantic struggling, she pulled one of her arms out from under the dead creature’s body. “I mean it, Geoff, you…” Another infected creature rushed out from inside one of the rooms adjacent to the hall and ran up the walls. It howled once before it dropped onto the balcony and vanished into one of the rooms on the second floor.
The man shook his head. “Not a chance in hell, dear. You stay where you are, out of my way.” He leapt across the woman and ran over to the room, shoving her gun down the back of his trousers and with his gun drawn.
She yelled out in utter frustration, fully aware that the bastard had left her helpless. Monique tried again to shift the dead weight but only succeeded in moving the body onto her guts. She screamed and yelled while pushing at the body with her one free arm. The body then moved a couple of inches to the left. Monique felt a little more give. At last, the damned thing was finally moving!
It was only when the creature opened one eye and raised its head when Monique realised it wasn’t quite as dead as she figured. It wasn’t her moving it after all. “You bastard, Geoff, you utter bastard!”
Instead of using those thick arms to hold her still while it used its teeth to tear out her throat, the creature savagely shook its head from side to side like a dog trying to dislodge a flea before trying to stand up.
Its left leg landed inches from Monique’s cheek, the splash spraying cold blood across her face. She grabbed the creature’s ankle with both hands then jerked them back and rolled out of the way.
Monique scrambled to her feet and raced towards the room, she could hear somebody whimpering. It wasn’t until she reached the door when Monique realised that the noise was coming from her.
Just like the entrance to the church hall, there was blood everywhere, it looked like someone had detonated a large tin of red paint in the middle of the room. She glanced behind her only to find that the creature wasn’t following her, she couldn’t see any sign of it. With luck the bastard had crawled into a corner to die.
“I’m so sorry, Mon. Everything happened so fast.”
Monique rushed into the room, bypassing Geoff, who was kneeling beside what remained of Christine. That dirty fucking creature had ripped open her stomach and pulled the woman’s steaming guts out of the ragged tear. He prayed that the poor woman’s death had been quick without much pain.
“Go find all the others,” she growled, retrieving her gun from Geoff’s belt. “There’s nothing you can do for this one, she’ already dead.”
“You don’t understand, I…”
“No, you don’t understand, the longer you dither about, the more chance our friends will end up like her.”
She dropped down besides Alice. Thick blood drenched her body but as far as she could tell, Alice hadn’t received any injuries. Alice sobbed once and wrapped her arms around her chest. “It’s okay, none of it’s mine,” she whispered.
“Oh Jesus.” Monique grabbed the crying woman and held her tight. “It’s okay, honey. You’re safe now.”
“No, we’re not,” she wailed. Alice pulled herself out of Monique’s embrace. “We’re not safe and never will be. The only one in here who’s safe is her. Christine’s out of this now.”
“Where is everybody else, Alice?”
Monique bit down on a retort. Why should she even be surprised that Geoff hadn’t moved from his spot?
Alice shrugged. “I have no idea where they all are.”
“What happened? How the fuck did my Christine end up like this?”
His question sounded like an accusation, like all this was Alice’s fault. Monique wanted to shoot the bastard.
It took Alice a few moments before replying. “Danny was fine up to a few minutes ago. He was sitting up next to Christine, sharing some private joke, and then,” Alice licked her lips. “And then he went wild and did that.”
Monique stood up. “I tell you what, why don’t you stay here, Geoff and keep Alice safe?”
The cowardly bastard didn’t even raise issue with that request.
“Monique, why do I feel so normal? I mean, shouldn’t my body be shaking my muscles off my bone by now?”
“Don’t you worry about it, honey. We’re all going to get through this. Just be ready to move when I shout.”
She left them and re-entered the main hall. That poor woman was obviously in deep shock and she believed that Alice would never get over what happened to her just now. It felt harsh to think this but that woman just wasn’t built for the apocalypse. Come to think of it, neither was Geoff. Those two deserved each other.
Christ, that was a horrible thought, who was he to say who would and wouldn’t survive through this? After all, those two had somehow managed to survive so far, an achievement denied to the untold millions who hadn’t lived.
Monique pushed away her thoughts and focussed on her immediate problem. She scanned the hallway, then ,looked up to the balcony, looking for any signs of human life. Common sense told her that the others should have run outside and found somewhere to hide. Why else would the door be wide open? If that was the case though, why were those two creatures still inside here? Also, how come Alice was still alive? Surely, the creature that used to be Danny would have pounced on the woman as well. It made no difference what she thought, Monique would still have to check every room until she found the others. “Please, I don’t want to find any more dead.”
She made her way towards the next door, keeping her body flat against the wall. What trouble her more than anything was why the hell did Danny change in the first place? The poor sod was shot, he wasn’t bitten. She reached the next door, swallowing hard when she saw it open. Monique carefully pushed the door a little wider and peered inside.
All she saw was the table full of dominoes, a glass of orange juice balanced on the edge and four chairs. There was no sign of the remaining survivors. She silently closed the door, listening to the mechanism click.
She hurried over to her room, still trying to understand the implication of what had transpired here. The obvious answer was that those evil bastards back at the supermarket had coated their bolts in infected blood. The other plausible answer was just too dreadful to even contemplate. If they all had this terrible disease swirling around in their bodies then they might as well just lie down and give up.
“That’s never going to happen,” she whispered. “Not on her watch. Monique pushed open her room door, wanting to cry at the trail of devastation in her own sanctum. This had happened on her watch and there’d been nothing she could have done to prevent it.
“What happened in here?” She slowly entered her room, stepping over her wrecked drawers which once contained all of her underwear. Monique crouched and picked up a pair of black frilly panties. Oh Christ, Dominic had bought her these. She remembered laughing like a drain when she’d ripped open the gift wrap covering the cellophane wrapper.
She knew it had been stupid to laugh like she did. The silly sod thought he’d done something wrong. It’s just that after all that time together, Dominic still had no idea what she really liked. He was such a typical bloke.
“and I so miss him,” she sobbed, angrily wiping away her hot tears.
Monique froze. Oh shit, there was one of those thing in here with her! She caught the reflection of bare skin in the mirror at the side of her bed. She spun around and fired. Tiny shards of splintered wood exploded from the door frame, showering little Harry. She yelped.
“Oh my God!” She ran to the boy and hugged him tight. “You silly little sod, I could have killed you!” Monique grabbed his shoulders and pushed him. “Why didn’t you say something?”
The boy just shrugged, apparently unfazed by his narrow brush with death. “The others are upstairs, Monique. We don’t have much time.”
Harry wriggled out of her grasp and ran our of the room, with Monique right behind him. They raced past the remaining doors and over to the stairs that led to the balcony. Already she could hear their cries as well as what sounded like somebody frantically scratching nails over wood.
Harry took the steps two at a time, reaching the top seconds before she did. The woman moaned at the sight of Danny lying on the floor, his clawed hands desperately trying to dig through the thin wood. The boy fired, his shot just winging the infected creature, but it was enough to make it stop. It jumped onto its feet and charged them. Monique screamed at it, and emptied her gun into its body.
“Mon, look.”
She turned away from the fallen creature and watched the other one at the end of the hallway. It howled once before it threw its body through a window. “Are there any more?”
Harry shook his head. “No.”
“You sound pretty sure.”
“That’s because I am sure, Monique.”
She squeezed past the infected body and stopped directly in front of the door. “It’s only me,” she shouted. It’s okay, you can come out now, there’s no more left.” She turned to watch Harry jump over the body. His flat expression had gone. What she saw there instead, made her blood run cold. The boy looked terrified. “Are you okay?” He shook his head and pointed a shaking finger at the broken window on the other side of the hall.
Three more infected creatures had crawled into the building, they dropped onto the floor and ran into the nearest room. “Oh no!” she gasped. “Monique sensed the door behind her starting to open. She bundled the boy inside. Another four had climbed in. They were making their way towards the stairs. She slammed the door shut and sank to the floor, listening to the muffled shrieks coming from the floor below.
The woman yelped when something heavy slammed into the door on the other side.
“We can’t stay in here,” said Harry. It’s not going to take them long to chew their way through the wood.” He checked ejected the magazine from the handle. “Don’t have many left.”
Monique took the two girl’s hands and moved them over to the corner of the room, listening to their excited grunts coming from the balcony. From what she had discovered so far today, she knew for a fact that those bastards were not going to suddenly forget about them and leave.
“How are you doing, Michaela?”
“I’m still alive.” The woman’s wide eyes darted from the door back to Monique. “However long that might be.”
Harry headed over to the hatch that led to the roof.
“What the hell are you playing at?” hissed Michaela. Leave that shut.” The boy ignored her and pulled the handle down. He gazed at Monique. “We don’t have any other choice.”
“He’s right, she replied. She ran over to the now open hatch. “Let me check if it’s clear, Michaela, then you and the girls follow me. Harry, can you guard the rear?”
He nodded.
“You’ve gone mad, there’ bound to be loads of those things up there.”
“Why would there be? As far as the infected are concerned, we are in here.” Monique pulled her way through the hatch and used the metal ladder bolted to the wall to climb up onto the roof. Despite her confident voice, she still expected to see at least one of those things skulking around. Thankfully, the roof was clear. Monique waved the others to join her.
As the girls climbed up, Monique suddenly realised exactly how fucked they would have been if one of the things were indeed up here. Oh sure, she had the fire-power to put it down then surely then the noise of the gunshot would have attracted the rest of the bastards?
