As the Light Dies (44 page)

The figure jerked a little like it was under strain and it turned to the side slightly and Collin knew that it was
n’
t deformed at all. It was holding Maggi
e’
s head up to its face. The figure was enshrouded again, and before Collin had time to imagine any number of terrible things Maggi
e’
s head landed back in front of him, this time facing in to the supermarket staring in through the glass looking at Collin with gouged out eyeless sockets.

Collin gasped filling both of his empty lungs to bursting point at once. He saw tiny veins and tendrils clinging to the bridge of Maggi
e’
s nose poking out from the empty eye sockets. He saw right in to the fleshy tissue behind her eyes. One side had been gouged out a little and blood seeped in to the remaining hole until it overflowed and dribbled down her face like tears of blood. Collins body tried to gasp again but could
n’
t, his lungs were locked tight, he saw stars, he needed to breathe but his lungs were
n’
t working.

Two meaty palms slammed against the main doors and splayed out. Collin jumped back knocking a waste bin with his elbow sending it flying and banged his head off a steel railing. He looked up and saw the hands still there, and he saw that the right hand had a giant gap between its thumb and forefinger like it had been run part way through a band saw. Collin remembered the truck driver, and that was the trigger for him to move. With no air in his lungs and no strength in his oxygen starved legs he scrambled to his feet and ran forcing his legs to carry him. He called out with a shaky squawky voice as his throat burned
,“
Run Leann
!
RUN!”

As he neared the photo booth and ki
d’
s ride-on toys running all out of shape Leann lurched out of the shadows and joined him. She glanced back and nearly wet herself when she saw the four figures pressed up against the shop front trying to look in at them as they slapped and thumped the glass. The noise reverberated throughout the whole supermarket like thunder.

Collin darted in to the staff corridor with Leann right behind him clinging on to the hood of his jacket and they collided with each other and tumbled to the floor in a heap. The swing door rattled closed behind them cutting off the noise and blew out the only candle there was in the staff corridor plunging them in to total darkness. The pair of them were gasping for air when Leann suddenly felt hands reaching for her, trying to grab her arm.

Collin felt it too. Groping, grabbing hands, and they both started screaming!

Shelly looked around for something she could use as a weapon in a state of shock and disbelief, she was on survival mode now. She did
n’
t have time to be anything else.

At first when she saw figures appear through the flames stumbling and waving their arms, she thought that the ill scientists, the ones that had been put in the med room under quarantine were making a last ditch effort to save themselves and escape the flames
,
everyone did
.

It became apparent very quickly that it was
n’
t like that at all.

In the first instance the men trying to put the fire out had thought the same as Shelly and they tried to reach out to their burning colleagues desperate to help them and put out their flames, but as soon as the flailing burning figures saw the men advancing to save them, they attacked like a pack of rabid dogs. Their shuffle became an all out sprint and their flailing arms thrashed out and reached purposefully.

The closest men were overcome in seconds, overpowered and pulled to the ground in utter shock unable to comprehend what their colleagues were trying to do to them. Their protective hoods were torn off and their burning colleagues violently targeted their heads, clawing, swiping, and punching them before repeatedly slamming their heads off the ground until bone cracked and skulls split! Screams echoed unendingly inside the hangar as their burning colleagues dragged them to the ground and started eating them. The men further back tried to ready themselves to push the walking fireballs back but their bio suits melted on to them under the extreme heat burning them and hindering them. They tried holding their extinguishers out at ar
m’
s length to hold them off, but it was no good, their burning colleagues were too fast and violent for them, and when one guy did seem to successfully hold back one of the human torches they ganged up on him. One burning figure after the other would join the first one and then another and another if tha
t’
s what it took until they downed the man and moved on to the next victim.

One man close to Jeff had three of them gang up on him, and as the middle one pounced on to him and knocked him to the ground Shelly saw along with others that the burning figure was actually trying to bite and gnaw at the poor ma
n’
s face as his hood was torn free. The burning man filled his fiery mouth with flesh that he tore away as the man screamed burning and bleeding before the human torch focused its attack on his head clawing and tearing clumps of frazzled hair off with burning fingers and smashing his head off the concrete floor with both hands.

Shelly saw an empty extinguisher lying on the ground and rushed towards it having to hold an arm up to protect her face against the intense heat burning her face through her visor. The flames enshrouding the rabid figures reached high up in to the roof of the hangar like hellish tentacles.

The protective airtight polythene bubble that had been surrounding them was all but gone now. Shelly grabbed the fire extinguisher and ran to Jef
f’
s side with it held high above her head as he fought with one of the burning freaks. She reached him as the freak lunged in and bit down on Jef
f’
s forearm and tore a big chunk out of him severing tendons as he held his arm up in defence. He yelled out in pain as the fireball backed up again. The arm was dead to him now, it hung by his side limp and pouring blood. Shelly swung with all her might bringing her fire extinguisher down hard. The burning figure side stepped and she missed ending up smashing the extinguisher on to the unforgiving concrete floor and painful vibrations shot up her arms buzzing her hands nearly shaking the extinguisher from her hands.

“
WHOA!”
said Jeff as her fast moving extinguisher whizzed by his head. He had
n’
t realised she was there. The burning figure lunged in at Jeff again. Jeff lifted the nozzle of his extinguisher and forced it in to the thin
g’
s fiery face risking a bite in his other arm.

He squeezed the leaver and white carbon dioxide spewed out extinguishing its face, and for a second turned it pure white. With the flames momentarily out of the way Jeff got a look at the perso
n’
s face and wished he had
n’
t. They were unrecognisable, most of their face was gone, charred and burnt, hanging from the bone. The white carbon dioxide powder gave it the look of a melting wax work drooping down over the exposed charred jaw bone. Its eyes were still intact though and through the white film left by the extinguisher they stood out in stark contrast, glazed black eyes stared back at him and Shelly. Jeff could
n’
t believe what he was seeing. Black gunk was just starting to seep out of the burnt flesh oozing through the white powder when the flames took over again.

It all happened in a split second but Jeff was certain that the disfigured face tried to smile at him before it was engulfed again, hidden behind its hot mask. Jeff shuddered as the figure tried to lurch at him again. The burning figure shoved Jef
f’
s good arm out of the way and came in close. Jeff recoiled yelling out in fear.

Behind him Shelly had recovered and she swung her extinguisher and brought it down over her head again and this time she hit the walking fireball dead centre on the back of the head, and without meaning to she sent it crashing right in to Jeff and they both fell to the ground.

Jeff screamed out in pain and terror.

“SHIT!”
yelled Shelly, horrified at what sh
e’
d done.

She started kicking blindly in to the flames trying to knock the freak off Jeff but her kicks were absorbed every time like she was kicking a heavy sand bag and she was getting burnt.

“SHIT!”
she yelled again stepping back, she did
n’
t know if she was hitting the rabid fireball or Jeff. She saw flashes of Jeff through the flames struggling to get free, he was screaming at the top of his lungs. She waited for the bulk of the flames to come her way and she raised her extinguisher again and swung it sideways as fast as she could like a golfer and she connected hard.

She just hoped it was
n’
t Jeff sh
e’
d hit.

The momentum of her swing and the weight of the extinguisher pulled Shelly all the way around, and as she came back around she saw Jeff rolling across the floor trying to put himself out.

Relieved for Jeff she fixed on the burning madman as he started pushing himself back up of the ground. Shelly ran at it and brought her extinguisher down as hard as she could right in the middle of its back between the shoulder blades. She felt something give through the vibration and heard a loud crack, it sickened her. The figure slammed back down on to the floor motionless, she stood back still holding her extinguisher tight, watching it, expecting it to move.... when it did
n’
t she looked up and she became aware of the carnage all around her.

Sh
e’
d been so focused on helping Jeff that everything else had taken a back seat. Blood curdling screams filled the air and the immense heat burned the air still left inside her suit. She looked down at herself and looked at her suit as it shrank around her body, her visor was tinged black in places making it hard for her to see. She looked back over at Jeff thinking that if she could get him to safety sh
e’
d be able to try and help the others. Shelly was completely horror struck when she saw him. Jeff was limping towards her, his right cheek was gone along with most of his chin, the wound was already cauterised from being gouged out by that burning mouth. His skin was blistered and burned and his hair was singed to nothing more than a shrivelled up hole on the side of his head and most of his scalp was now hairless and was already peeling. His suit was melted to him and patches of it had totally disintegrated looking like the rubbery material had fused with his skin. The wound on his forearm was terrible, Shelly thought that it almost looked like a small bomb had exploded under his skin and blown his arm apart.

As he limped towards her she could barely look at him. She was crying, she knew sh
e’
d caused this. She forced the burning maniac on to him.

“I’
m so, so sorry Jeff
,”
she said as tears streamed down her face clouding her singed visor. Shelly could
n’
t look him in the eye
.
What have I don
e
? she thought, as he skipped a step. Shelly flinched towards him reaching out meaning to catch him if he fell avoiding looking at his face.

He skipped again, and again
.
Shit, he’s gonna fal
l
, she thought. She looked at his legs trying not to see his upper half avoiding any eye contact, she dare
n’
t risk looking him in the eye. Jeff did
n’
t fall, he was gaining on her fast. Shelly took a step back and he moaned loudly grimacing with what face he had left and lunged towards her swinging his extinguisher up high.

Oh my God
,
thought Shelly and she jumped out of the way amazed that Jeff would try and hurt her even after what she had done as Jeff brought the fire extinguisher down on to the crawling burning mess that was reaching out for her from behind.

Shelly realised how stupid sh
e’
d just been, thinking that sh
e’
d brought down the burning thing with one blow when no one else had, and that sh
e’
d thought Jeff would ever hurt her.

She joined Jeff and swung her fire extinguisher over and over bashing the now partially disabled figure as it crawled after both of them between their blows.

How the hell can they keep o
n
going
,
she though
t
, it’s not right, it’s not natural
!

They worked together swinging as hard as they could, over and over until Shelly was gasping for air. Despite the fire destroying its muscles and tendons and joints it still came, relentlessly pursuing them as its fire started to burn itself out. The loss of flames actually made things harder for Shelly because now she could see what she was hitting of aiming blindly at a ball of flames hoping for a good hit. What she saw was horrific. The fire had
n’
t left much, but yet it still came for them. No matter how many times Shelly and Jeff hammered the charred figure, it kept trying to reach out for them as it crawled after them.

“DIE YOU FUCKING BASTARD!
”
yelled Jeff as he brought his extinguisher down again putting all of his body in to the swing. Shelly glanced up and caught sight of his face. She cringed and snapped her head away feeling the burden of guilt trying to pull her down and as she looked away she saw that just across from them several of the still walking husks were rising up from their mutilated prey and they were looking at her and Jeff.

The carnage she saw was horrendous. While she and Jeff had been fighting one figure the other rabid fireballs had been fighting as well, and winning! Mutilated bodies littered the hangar floor lying in puddles of blood left behind by the smouldering figures as they started to move towards her and Jeff. Right then Shelly suddenly realised that the figure they were fighting was making a croaking noise and so were the others. They were calling out to each other and with their burnt vocal cords and charred lungs all they could manage was a dry croak. Shelly shouted Jef
f’
s name and nodded towards their new followers when he looked at her. He shook his head stepping back from the figur
e
stil
l
crawling after him
.“
Where is everyone
?”
he tried to say
.“
We need help
!
”

The pair of them looked around the place backing up and could
n’
t believe what they saw.

Everyone that had been out on the hangar floor trying to fight, were lying on the ground dead or in one or two cases dying. The carnage was horrendous, bodies lay half eaten with severed limbs and horrific wounds. The head wounds on some were beyond belief with holes punctured through skulls. Jeff was sickened as he looked around, he saw one of the charred figures repeatedly thrusting its hand inside one of the fallen me
n’
s shattered head retrieving fistfuls of pink mush and cramming it greedily in to its brittle mouth.

“
What the fuck is happening
?”
he said and Shelly vomited when she saw it.

“Oh my God!”
said Jeff
,
“Look!”
He pointed up to the far end of the hangar where there was a line of low lying built in offices. Shelly looked and saw that the remaining scientists and workmen had sought refuge there trying to escape the same fate as their colleagues on the hangar floor. But the plan had backfired and the large windows made it easy to see the carnage inside. Men ran around like scared mice trapped in a box with no way out as they were attacked just like those out on the hangar floor but their attackers were
n’
t burnt and charred like those on the hangar floor. They were wearing the same bright orange bio suits as the rest, only the
y’
d ripped off their hoods to expose their hungry mouths. They were much faster and better coordinated than the charred figures. The office was a blood bath! The windows were turning red as gouged arteries spewed out blood at a tremendous rate masking the scene to anyone outside. The screams were mercifully muted behind triple glazed aeronautical grade glass
.
“They’re not burnt!”
said Shelly
.“
Why are they doing that? Wha
t’
s happened
?
”