The dead spore collectio.., p.61
The Dead Spore Collection, page 61
“Can you even hear me, or is this pleasant discourse all going to be one way?”
“All I can do really, is apologise. It’s my fault. I should have listened. Thing is, I’m just too soft. Just because I changed, I obviously believed that I could help you discover your human side. Still, it’s not all bad news. Thanks to your timely distraction, we did manage to get Danielle out of her confines.”
I crouched down and swept my hand through the hay, grinding my teeth in annoyance as some of the stuff stuck to the sticky red mess on the back of my hand. My efforts showed me that Danielle had been busy during her imprisonment. Judging from the dried blood and the deep score marks in the concrete, she’d literally tried to dig herself out of here using only her nails. I so wanted to burst into tears at the sight of those marks, imagining her anger, frustration, and terror of being trapped in here, yet for all the obvious distress that those score lines portrayed, all that emerged was fury. Those fuckers had used me, and that included my sister. “This is it then? You’re going to leave me in here to rot?”
“Of course not, Colin. As soon as our guest and your sister have finished doing the dirty deed together, he’s going to come in there and eat you. It’ll be quick and painless. Please don’t hate us for this. I’m really sorry, but I just can’t trust you. Thing is, I really had no idea that she’d tied up most of your abilities. That’s one thing she didn’t confess to me. When I first saw you, I really did believe that the tin’s description matched the contents. Look, if it’s any consolation, before the shackles came off, you did good out there. Really you did, and I’m proud of you, Colin. Thanks to your efforts, we can now move ahead and get back to normal.”
So that was it? I really had come to the end of my existence. Somehow I thought that I’d feel more than a little pissed off at ending up as a potential meal for my sister’s new boyfriend. After what I’d been through since coming here, though, I think that I’d already used up my quota of extreme emotions.
“You are wrong about me, Dominic!” I shouted. “I have changed. Even after Danielle’s chains fell off and all that shit turbocharged through my head, I still saved the three tainted humans.” I licked my lips, and looked up at the corners of the wall, in search of that speaker, just waiting for it to crackle into life again.
There was a small part of that old me still clinging on, and it was this smidgen of Colin who kept reassuring me that the Keeper just wouldn’t do anything as crude as feeding me to some mutated zombie. I mean, it was just too ridiculous for words, not after the trouble he went to in keeping me alive.
As the seconds stretched into minutes with no sign of reply, even that comforting voice gave up the ghost and abandoned me.
Now that my fate was well and truly sealed, I found to my surprise that all of those suppressed energies brought about from the unshackling had already left me. My old self quickly filled that vacuum. Bringing back a calmness that I thought had gone the same way as that comforting voice.
I turned and sat down, resting my back against the door, and gave my temporary accommodation a tired gaze. There were scratch marks all across the top of the wall. My sister had never given up trying to get out of here. How she had even managed to reach that high was beyond me; I saw no way to get up there, aside from climbing.
She had been that determined to get out of here, and whether a greater purpose called her or her hormones were driving her insane would be the one question that I’d never get to answer. It did make me question exactly how she had been able to get out of here in the first place. After all, it’s clear that she hadn’t achieved it alone.
Danielle never gave up. I shut my eyes and allowed that calmness to seep deeper inside me, whilst visualising the corridor directly behind this very thick door. Those three tainted humans had expanded their sphere of influence way past their physical bodies, and more importantly, through walls, windows, and doors. Although it had only created a cloud of confusion for anyone psychically attuned, it still proved that you didn’t need to have a clear view to affect anyone. Not that I needed any more evidence, the monster had already proven that.
My hope was to connect to Linda. If anyone could help me out here, it had to be her. After all, the bitch wouldn’t be breathing if it hadn’t been for me saving her neck. She owed me.
The image of the corridor materialised. It shocked me just how easy it had been to ‘see’ what was behind this locked door. What surprised me even more was that it wasn’t empty. A figure stood directly in front of the door on the other side just a couple of inches from where I sat.
The third shock hit me when I established the identity. It wasn’t one of the tainted humans. It was another hunter, the first hunter that I’d first encountered back in that filthy room.
Hello there, Jacob, fancy meeting you here.
The hunter silently screamed. I guessed that his terror of me, specifically of what I’d done to his companion, hadn’t left him.
Open this door.
The Hunter didn’t even hesitate. Like an obedient dog, he pushed down on the fist-sized latch to the left of the door and keyed a four-digit code into the keypad under the latch. I didn’t even bother questioning how he knew the code or if this had been how my sister had got out, it didn’t really matter. I stood up, brushed myself down, and hid the grin as the light from the corridor burst into the dark room.
The hunter stood there, looking as though he’d just filled his trousers. Thing is, I don’t think it was because of finding me in here. Something else had already had the pleasure of scaring this creature stupid. It didn’t take a genius to work out what.
“We don’t have much time,” he gasped. “I think…” The hunter paled and stretched out his hand. “Past history and all that?”
I looked at his token of friendship whilst sensing the lurking presence of another very powerful mind just beyond the boundary of my range. That thing, the true monster, my supposed executioner, was on its way. “Fine by me,” I said, taking his hand. “I hope to fuck you know how to get out of here.”
The Hunter nodded. “You mean a route out that doesn’t end up with the pair of us becoming food? Yeah, I know a way.” He pulled me out of there and shook my hand. “There’s only me and you left. It’s got the rest of them.”
He turned and raced down the corridor until he reached the door to the room where I had awakened.
“You’ve got to be joking,” I muttered, watching him look both ways before disappearing inside the room. I ran after him, skidding to a halt at the open door. The corpse were gone, but apart from that, the place looked the same, including the fact that the family were still inside.
The hunter held the adult’s wrists while the remaining son looked on. “I don’t believe this!” He nodded at a small vial resting on the bed. “Do you know what that is?”
I nodded. I knew exactly what it was. The man had pushed a syringe of the stuff into the side of the enforcer’s neck right before I fed on him. Jacob had already worked out the significance of its properties and wanted to do the same to these three before leaving vile town.
“We only have to eat one of them; Hell, we could just break open one of their skulls and share the brain meat between us. What do you say? It’ll only take us a couple of minutes at best.” Jacob looked past the open door. “I believe we do have time.”
I walked past the blubbing teenager and picked up the vial. “Why don’t we take this with us instead? Surely it’ll be safer to take a human on the outskirts instead. That way we’ll have enough time to dine at our leisure.”
“What? You mean you’re willing to let these worms off the hook after everything they’ve put you through?”
I stared into his black eyes, then looked at the remaining fluid in this tiny glass vial. “If I was to be totally honest here, Jacob, I think that’s the whole point. I’d rather not take any more human lives.”
I placed the vial back where I found it and walked up to Jacob until we were almost nose-to-nose. “Let them go,” I said quietly. When it became obvious that he was going to do no such thing, I raised my arm, intending to throttle the life out of the Hunter, his role in rescuing me forgotten as my rage increased.
My arm stopped in my flight, its movement halted by the presence of another hand.
“It’s okay, Colin, you don’t need to finish it. You’ve already shown us your true self.”
I turned around and found myself face to face with Danielle.
“Oh God!” I gasped, unable to stop myself from throwing my arms around her. “I thought I was never going to see you again.”
“Yeah, well, it was a close run thing. Jacob was so close to leaving his allocated spot.”
The other hunter grinned at me. “I had no doubts; you wouldn’t have been able to get this far without picking up a few tricks.”
She kissed the tip of my nose and turned to towards the door. Another figure was now inside the room. He looked up and flashed me a warm smile.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am to see that you came through.” The Keeper shook my hand. “I won’t deny it, though, I did have my doubts that you would pass the test.” He gently pulled Danielle out of my embrace. “You had better go to him. I can’t keep him away for much longer.”
Her pained expression almost broke my heart.
“Don’t worry, Colin,” she whispered, kissing me again. “I assure you, this is for the best.” Danielle turned and ran out of the room.
“Fuck me, so I really was a pawn in some stupid chess game?”
“More like a bishop, I think,” replied Dominic. “The analogy isn’t that far from the truth though.” He took hold of both my hands. “Only this is no chess game, this is the future of all of our species, the humans, tainted, and the hunters.” He paused. “I’m not going to predict Mother Nature’s future intentions regarding what could eventually appear in your sister’s womb. For that, we’ll see what happens. Right now though, what we need to do is to take back our world.” He looked at the others in the room, his gaze staying on Linda. “Two decades ago the dead rose up and our parents failed to stop them from almost making us extinct. We’re going to accomplish what they couldn’t. We’re going to destroy every single fucking zombie on this planet.”
The end
Embrace of the Dead
By
Ian Woodhead
Prologue
James Darwin watched in exasperation as his two best friends scurried up that rusty metal ladder bolted to the sewer wall. The comparison of their frantic movements to that huge rat that landed on Adam’s shoulder wasn’t lost on him. It wouldn’t be all that surprised if they started to squeak like that fucker as well.
“You’re both a set of cowards!” he shouted. “It’s gone now; your pathetic bleating scared it away.”
The curved sewer wall amplified his shouts, making his voice sound twice as loud. Adam and Oliver both paused on the ladder but they didn’t turn back. James tutted in disgust as they climbed out onto the surface, leaving him alone.
Were they still up there? Hanging around to see if he’d follow them up? Well, if the yellow twats were intending to wait then they’d be hanging around for a long fucking time; James had no intention of joining them.
He pulled out a crushed packet of cigarettes from his inside jacket pocket and dug around, looking for one still unbroken. He gave that disk of blue sky one final look before turning away. This was just like Adam, exploring the sewers under the school had been his fucking idea. Trust that gobby little shit to chicken out.
He lit the cig and filled his lungs with hot smoke; he nodded, that was so much better. The fumes helped to block out the eye-watering stench drifting up from the brackish water by his boots.
“Fucking cowards,” he muttered.
James switched on his torch and played the beam along the crumbling brickwork, smiling when the light illuminated the small furry body of a rat; it squealed before leaping onto the top of a large ceramic pipe. Those things were more scared of him than vise versa. The horrible animal shot away. He couldn’t wait to tell the rest of the class that Adam had shat his pants at the sight of a rat. James giggled. Bugger it, he’d tell them that it was a mouse or a hamster or something. He’d make sure that Adam would remember this day forever.
He walked along the narrow ledge, being careful not to brush his blazer against the green slime coating the bricks. Rats he could deal with, but his mum was another matter. She’d tear him a new fucking arsehole if he buggered up his school uniform. James glanced at the sleeve. There were a couple of stains, but the new washing machine that his mum’s last boyfriend had bought would easily take care of them.
James chucked the tab end into the water and checked the pack for another unbroken cig. He grinned when he discovered just one more left; it was a bit crumpled up but no splits, which was the main thing.
This pack had come from his mum’s latest shag-piece. Some scrote called Dave; apparently his mum had gone to school with him. He’d just been released from prison, not that James held that against him. He may be as rough as a badger’s arse and a bit shouty when pissed, but at least he wasn’t one of those cunts who spoke with his fists once they’d had a skinful, unlike the horrible twat that his mum had been seeing a few months back. James shuddered, reliving the painful nights alone with that evil bastard. He was so glad that he was out of their life.
Dave didn’t mind James smoking, which was a bonus. He’d thrown this pack at him this morning and told him he’d sat on it whilst in the pub last night.
James gazed up towards the open sewer cover, just daring them to show their faces. He lit his cig and waved it from side to side. “Well, fuck the pair of you!” he shouted, “I did say I’d crash my fags but as you two have lost your spines, you can both suck my knob.”
That would well piss them off. Getting their hands on the old cancer sticks had been proving well hard since the pigs had cracked down on the local offies and corner shops. James found it a little ironic that it was far easier to buy weed nowadays than a packet of fags.
He continued on his way along the ledge. The idea had been to walk to the next exit; apparently that one came out directly under the girl’s changing rooms in the sports block. Oliver had told Adam that he was full of shit, but somehow James thought there might be a grain of truth in the rumour. Adam may be yellower than a wagon full of dead chinks, but he wasn’t known for his bullshitting skills. Whatever the truth, James intended to find out.
He shined his torch across the far wall, wondering just how far the next exit was. He attempted to go through the surface journey in his mind but gave up when he realised the idea was bollocks, he wouldn’t be able to do that unless he could walk through walls. Still, it couldn’t be that far.
Something further down the sewer fell into the water with a huge splash. James spun around and pointed the beam in front of him.
“Who the fuck is there?” he shouted. James looked up toward the open grate. It dawned on him what was going on; those turds up there were lobbing bricks down. “Just you two fucking wait,” he growled. “You’re both gonna get a total bitch slap, see if I don’t.”
He turned back and hurried along the ledge, eager to get to the next set of ladders. He began to feel a little uneasy; James couldn’t put his finger on as to why, he just felt spooked, as if someone was down here with him. Of course, the idea was just plain stupid, he was getting as queer as those two useless fucks.
He laughed out loud, startled when his voice cracked. James skidded to a halt when something else splashed into the water not far behind him. The opening was almost out of sight, so that couldn’t have come from the surface.
Could it have been a rat? He shook his head, no way, not unless it was the size of a fucking dog. He flattened his back against the damp wall. Well, fuck the blazer. James shone the beam directly into the black water. The frightened features of his face stared back at him.
It was time to get the fuck out of here, something here wasn’t right. He ran along the ledge, keeping his eyes fixed on the water. He heard something else, it sounded like moaning. He stopped and burst out laughing.
“Oh bloody hell, you stupid pair of tossers. It’s you two ain’t it, trying to shit me up. You set of fuckers; you nearly had me going too.”
He swung the torch around, trying to locate them. James then heard another moan coming from the other direction. “How the fuck are they doing that?” he whispered.
He looked up and saw two faces staring down at him.
“Who are you talking to?” Adam’s voice sounded tiny.
James shrieked and jumped back when a blast of foetid air hit him in the face, followed be the sound of a phlegm-filled cough. He made out the shape of a huge body beside him. James brought up the torch and screamed again as the harsh white light illuminated a tattered dark jacket barely covering a set of slimy rib bones. James staggered back, not believing this was happening. The dead thing shambled towards him, its moaning increased in volume.
His feet strayed close to the edge as James backed away from the approaching monster as a blackened arm shot out of the water and fastened around his ankle. Before he could react, a flesh-shrunken head followed the arm. The jaw opened and ragged chisel like teeth bit through his school trousers and into his flesh.
The intense pain shot through him like fire. He felt his mind close to locking up, and James was vaguely aware of the other one reaching out towards him, its excitable groans were the only sound that he could hear. Suddenly, the one in the water pulled and James slipped, his head cracked against the concrete. The dead thing slowly dragged him into the freezing water; it lunged once more and bit into his inner thigh. The sewer water filled his open mouth before he could cry out.
Chapter One
