As the Light Dies (45 page)

Jeff tried to shake his head, his pain limited his movement.

He and Shelly only looked for a few seconds but that was long enough. The
y’
d both seen enough to know that they had no option but to make a run for it. Staying in the hangar meant death now.

“
Must be an infection or something
,”
said Jeff
.“
It mus
t’
ve spread
!
”

He looked back at their advancing charred figures
.“
W
e’
re screwed
,”
he said and he skipped forwards quickly and whacked the charred brittle remains on the floor as it reached for him, and this time when he hit it a piece of its hip broke off like brittle plastic.

“Oh God!”
cried Shelly as Jeff whacked it again breaking more of it away.

“C’mon!”
he said looking up at her
.“
The
y’
re brittle,
c’
mon
!
”

Shelly joined Jeff and started swinging her battered extinguisher again, hitting it repeatedly, as hard as they could and with every blow another piece of it fell away.

Shelly was managing three blows to Jef
f’
s one despite her body constantly trying to vomit at what she saw, what she was doing. She glanced at Jeff quickly thinking he was about to go over as he stumbled, but he caught himself just in time. She saw how much he was struggling, he was in bad shape and she fully blamed herself.

How on earth is he going to run for it?
,
she wondered as they swung at the still moving remains. More and more of it crumbled and fell away as chunks of ash. Jeff caught it side on and pushed it closer to Shelly and it managed to grab hold of the toe of her boot.

“SHELL!”
yelled Jeff and she pulled back fast breaking free of its grasp and she broke in to an all out frenzy, desperate to stop the thing in its tracks. She swung as fast as she could and she kicked and then she even stood over it for a few seconds and slammed the butt of the extinguisher down, powering down with all her weight and she reduced the thing to just its upper torso and one arm. She wanted it stopped
.
She needed it stopped
!

What she was seeing and what she was doing she just could
n’
t believe but she carried on swinging and slamming knowing there were more charred monsters coming after her and Jeff, she could see them out of the corner of her eye gaining on them as they fought against their charred and brittle bodies relentlessly rushing onwards. She stepped back and went over her ankle and fell to the ground. She was completely and utterly exhausted, and in that instant, right there that second all that mattered was each individual breath, she guessed that she had time for two, maybe three breaths before she would have to get back up and fight for her life again with Jeff and each one of those breaths were going to feel like bliss....then she screamed out so loud she hurt her lungs.

The one-armed torso grabbed on to her foot with its charred claw of a hand and started to pull itself towards her. Shelly lifted her head and looked down her body at the monster as it pulled itself in closer with a series of small jerks staring at her intently. All of a sudden Jeff stepped over it from behind and swung the extinguisher up over his head
.
Thank Go
d
, she thought.

But he was slow, pain was getting the better of him. Shelly pressed herself down, against the cold concrete floor as the black flaky head rose up beside her and cracked open its mouth shedding charred wisps of burnt skin as its jaw tried to work splitting open brittle cheeks. It looked awkward and jerky in its movements. It looked mechanical almost, like an indestructible machine intent on murder. Shelly could
n’
t move, she just stared at it amazed it was moving at all after everything else that had happened to it wishing that the floor would eat her up and then it burst in to a cloud of dusty ash and brittle chunks as Jef
f’
s extinguisher came down hard on the crown of its head only just missing Shell
y’
s as it swung passed.

Shelly felt its grip on her snap free. She rolled away fast, blind with fear getting too close to their other pursuers. Jeff yelled at her to watch out and she jumped up in a flash and swung her extinguisher at the closest one and hit it hard on its shoulder. She broke a good sized chunk off and sent it tumbling to the ground, but it stayed focused on her, never taking its silky black eyes off her.

It reached out with its other arm as it rose up on one knee as the others stepped around it moving in excited by how close she was.

“
Hit the head
,”
yelled Jeff
,“
this on
e’
s finally gone down
!
”

Shelly saw the remains all crunched up like a pile of charcoal. Black fluid oozed out of cracks in the blackness here and there. Shelly turned around just as Jeff was starting to say something again but she did
n’
t really hear what. As she turned she saw a charred hand in front of her face, it was reaching out for her. It nearly had her
.
Not that slow after all
,
she thought ducking and then jumping out of the way.

She swung her extinguisher at the thin
g’
s head hoping that Jeff was right. She brought her extinguisher down with both hands aiming for the centre of its head.

She heard a sickening crack and felt it vibrate up her arms from the blow. The extinguisher had landed a little to the left caving it in like an eggshell, burnt and brittle flesh flew through the air, but it was
n’
t enough it fell to the ground under the momentum from the blow but it still came at her, watching her with its one good eye trying to get back up
.“
SHIT, JEFF
!”
she screamed.

“
Again! Hit it again
!”
he called. He was
n’
t coming to help her this time, he could
n’
t.

Shelly caught a glimpse of him, he was lying down propped up with his good elbow, he looked beyond exhausted now, h
e’
d lost a lot of blood and he was turning very pale.

Shelly felt guilt gnawing at her again, sh
e’
d seen plenty of ill people before through the job, and Jeff looked ten times worse than all of them combined with his open wounds added to the mix. She swung again full of hate and anger screaming out with frustration as she did. She landed a good hit, just off dead centre but it did
n’
t matter, sh
e’
d already weakened the skull and she demolished the head, the burnt up body fell and lay motionless.

“YES,”
she cried turning to face the next one. They tracked her across the open floor, the sheer number of them pushing her back. She was confused, she was sure that there were only five quarantined scientists in the med room and Jeff had just put one of them down, but there were many more now. She looked around frantic and saw that not all of them were as badly charred as others. They were all burnt but she could tell the original quarantined figures apart from the others easily, they were burnt beyond belief.

One of the figures stumbled over to her right tripping on a power supply cable. She snapped her head around to look and saw the Professor. He was badly mauled, fingers were missing and one hand had nearly been completely devoured, his forearms were bleeding profusely along with his chewed up neck and his nose was missing. His suit was in tatters, torn to shreds in places, singed in others but he was
n’
t really burnt.

Then she remembered what Jeff said about an infection. She looked back over the hangar floor as the professor struggled to find his feet again. She felt her heart jump, then stop, then jump again when she saw previously thought dead orange suited men pushing themselves up off the ground. The Professor skipped and hopped catching her attention again. She looked and realised one of his feet was actually flopping around hanging on to his shin by a flap of skin. He was walking on the stump that remained at the bottom of his shin and every couple of steps the severed foot would swing and land beneath the stump, and as he put his weight on it, it buckled sending him in to another tumble. He looked up at her with those same cold black eyes the others had and smiled at her. He opened his mouth wide and let out the weirdest sound sh
e’
d ever heard. It was a deep bellowing gurgle, just like sh
e’
d heard on the news but the laptops tiny speakers had
n’
t given the sound any strength. It sent chills racing down her spine and filled her with dread!

The others all seemed to respond to it, they each tried to call back with their burnt vocal cords and the newly risen or rising sped up hearing the Professor before opening their mouths and bellowing the same primal war cry.

Still backing up Shelly looked down the hangar at the blood drenched offices, the freshly infected were still occupied and as horrible as it was, she was glad they were.

She swung her extinguisher with her tired arms and with every swing that she thought had enough force to do the job the first time around, did
n’
t. The skulls were still tough despite burning. She had to work at each one trying to weaken them and break them down with multiple blows before going for the kill shot while constantly backing up. She dropped another one by kicking out its ankle and then thrusting the extinguisher straight down on to the back of its head as it tried to get back up, the brittle skull cracked on the fifth blow finishing the job. As she withdrew from that one another got close enough to touch her shoulder. She lunged backwards and slammed up against the wall! Sh
e’
d backed herself in to a corner without realising! Sh
e’
d lost sight of Jeff!

With nowhere else to go and panic setting in she shoved the closest one back using the base of the extinguisher holding it out at ar
m’
s length trying to give herself a little more distance and time. It reached out quickly, far quicker than sh
e’
d anticipated and it grabbed hold if her sleeve. Shelly cried out twisting and turning her arm and only just pulled her arm free as her sleeve was torn off. She jabbed at another one, punching the extinguisher out in front but she was weak and it had little effect and she did
n’
t have the room to swing it either. She was being penned in.

“JEFF!
”
she screamed
.
“JEFF HELP!”

She could
n’
t hear if he answered over the croaks and gurgles.

He’ll hit them from behin
d
, she thought
,
any second now...
.
any second now
!

Gnarly grimacing faces closed in as they cried their dry croak. Shelly held her extinguisher out in front of her, side on between both arms like a thick pole and pushed against their chests trying to hold them back. She pumped her arms thumping their chests with the extinguisher and kicked at their legs trying to break the brittle stalks but it was
n’
t working, they were still strong, stronger than she was. Now she was so tired, and they pushed against her, eating up her room.

Shelly took a deep breath, opened her mouth and screamed as hard and as loud as she could, it was a horrible gut wrenching ear piercing scream, and they closed in.

As her scream tapered off as the last of the air in her lungs left her she slid down the wall as far away from eager hands as she could knowing she was prolonging the inevitable, but still she hoped Jeff would burst through any second. Her scream was nothing but vapours now as she curled up on the corner, she felt her crotch dampen, she just let go; nothing mattered now
.
Nothing
!

She tucked her chin in to her chest making herself as small as possible. Something touched her hood, she tightened up even more clenching as tight as her muscles would let her before cramping up. She felt bodies jostle and move around, she heard grunting and shuffling scraping feet as they moved and pushed towards her. Fighting among themselves to be the first to reach her.

She felt them clawing at her suit, almost tapping it with their brittle claw like hands. From inside she imagined that it was heavy rain and her mind suddenly whisked her away to safety, and with her eyes closed as tightly as possible she found herself inside on old memory standing beside her dad. She was holding his hand, it was twice the size of hers and it was rough and calloused from work but it was warm, and it was safe. They were standing on the shores of Loch Ness in the pelting rain watching for the monster. The
y’
d stood there for over an hour watching the troubled waters as the heavy rain fell from dark skies. Her dad had
n’
t uttered a single word of complaint to her nine year old self. H
e’
d stood beside her the whole time, as long as sh
e’
d wanted to while she was certain that she was going to be the first one to see the monster in recent years, she was going to be the first on the scene and she was going to report everything.