Scarlet Memories (Book 1) (2 page)

Ian peered around the room as he saw Jeremy do. Everyone looked helpless. He knew that half of these people had no homes to go back to. That many of them had family in another state. Most of the cast and crew had been flown in. He could only imagine what they must be going through. And then he remembered that
his
family was back in New York.
Surely, they will know of someplace safe to go?
He talked himself into thinking.

In reality he wasn’t so sure. His parent’s barely watched the television as it was. He doubted they knew any of this was happening. Ian’s eyes began to water. He allowed himself to think positively about the situation. Someone will help them. They are strong.

He forced himself to bury any thought of them. If he didn’t he’d be unable to take care of himself.

‘I’ll go make sure Kendra and Jim know. You,’ he motioned with his finger at Jeremy,’ We need to make sure everyone here has a place to go. I’ll come back with those two to help you make sure.’

‘Alright, I’ll see you in a minute.’ Jeremy said walking in the general direction of the others.

Ian shuffled passed the staging area towards the back of the warehouse where he would find Kendra and Jim. He felt drained and way under-prepared for this situation. He wondered what could have started all of this. No one really knew where it began anyway.
How bad is it out there?
He thought. Lowering his head and focusing on his shoes.  Ian came to the double doors that would lead him to the dressing rooms. He focused on the sign that read,
‘CAST AND CREW ONLY
.’ His attention was broken when he heard a noise coming from behind the doors. Opening the door to see who could be in the break room, he heard the noise again. Searching for the light switch Ian tripped over something.
What was that?
Ian suddenly had no breath left in his lungs.  He could only think of what he’d tripped over. His mind wandered over so many outcomes.
Oh my god it’s one of those things!
He cried!
I’ve got to find a light switch. He thought with exasperation.
But, just then, he heard something slop onto the ground. It sounded eerily like wet meat being thrown into a pig trough. The old familiar,’suuuueeeewwwwyyy
pig, pig, pig! Sueeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwyyyyyyyyyyyy!’
came to mind.
God what am I thinking? Where is that light switch?
Ian felt quickly along the wall as he jumped up. It seemed like it took him forever to find it.

‘
Click’
The light switch snapped up to the on position. Ian had been facing his hands on the wall. He had to turn around to face whatever it was he had tripped over. The
thing.
He snapped his neck to in front of the door entryway. It was Kendra. She had fallen onto the floor and busted her head open. And from the looks of it, it was fairly bad. He rushed to her side.. As he got closer, he noticed that she also had what looked like a bite mark on her shoulder. You could tell because she had changed into her nightly pajamas. Which included a tank top that read, ’Kiss the cook,’ and ‘fuzzy pajama pants’. They had giant pink lips all over the length of the fabric. There was also,’muah!’ printed all over the bottoms. He inched his way closer to her. Bending lower as he checked for her pulse. He grabbed her head and lifted it off of the concrete floor. Ian checked the wound on the back of her head. It definitely did not look pretty. And had already begun to smell?
Why would it already smell like that? I heard her hit the ground…
The wound was also doing something else that he didn’t understand…The blood had already begun to congeal.

But, that doesn’t make sense. She just fell!
None of the facts seemed real to him anymore. Nothing, none of the evidence would back up what he had heard only moments before. He gently laid her head back down onto the floor and stood up. He searched the cabinets in the break room for a towel or something that could stop the bleeding.
Bleeding? I thought I just saw her would congealing? Why am I grabbing this?
He thought to himself. He had just found a dish towel that he could use and threw it into the sink next to him.

‘GRRWWAAH
’
Came a voice from behind him.

It was a sort of grunt mixed with a moan. He wasn’t completely sure which one he had heard. He whipped around to see Kendra off of the floor and heading towards him. Her face paler than before. Her eyes had a crazy look about them. As if they were strangers to her own body. She also had throw up on the corner of her mouth and cheek.

‘Kendra?’ ‘He asked.

‘What’s wrong with you? Are you ok? I just heard you take that fall… And I am sure I just saw you dead on that floor!’ He spoke to her, his voice quivering with fear.

She lunged at him out of nowhere. Grabbing at his shoulders and arms trying to take a bite out of them any way that she could. Ian looked down and noticed her mouth open much wider than she had ever done before. It looked unnatural. It seemed that her teeth had gotten longer too. But, taking a second glance he realized that they were broken and jagged.

‘You’re one of those things!’
He cried, Pushing her away by her shoulders. Trying to avoid her jagged teeth. She just kept coming at him. No matter what he did.
God that smell was revolting!
He eventually pushed her so hard, that she fell against the employee refrigerator. Hitting her already battered head into the corner of the handle. Kendra lay on the floor not moving. Her body unconscious the blunt force trauma she had just endured. He knew he had to do something. But, what could stop a
dead
person…
Thing
…
Creature?
That was when he looked down and saw Kendra’s finger twitch. Her arms then began to move to push her lifeless body off of the ground. Droplets of congealed blood fell from the giant gash in the back of her head.
Gross
! He thought as he rushed to find something he could use to ‘put her down.’ He looked over at the sink area where they usually prepared their daily meals. This is one of the first times that he had come into the break room and found all of the dishes done.
Why today?
He grumbled.

He had hoped that he would find a knife or something blunt to use. There was nothing. Not even a coffee maker. They were all used to getting Starbucks, so, there was no need for one. Ian could not believe that nothing of use was in the room. At that moment Ian decided to push passed Kendra and opened the fridge. He grabbed ahold of her long hair and slammed it between the fridge doors. Kendra spat drying blood out of her mouth and clawed at Ian trying to grab him from the legs. But, Ian moved away just in time. He slammed it so many times that her head began to crush. He could see her brains squishing out of her skull and falling to the floor with a splat.

Kendra finally stopped moving. She was no longer slashing at him with her broken fingernails.  Her arms and legs hit the floor completely still. Her body seemed truly lifeless now. Out of sheer curiosity, Ian pulled the door of the fridge open. He could see brains and teeth all over the floor. And that smell was so much worse now. It’s like it was coming from the brain itself. And Ian had gone and made a soup of it all over the floor! Putting his arm to his face, Ian jumped back wafting in front of his face. He grabbed the trash can and fell to his knee’s throwing up immediately into it. He could taste his meal from earlier. And the taste of the acid burning his throat. The smell of Kendra’s dead body coming up with each time he threw up. He had to get out of this room.

Ian rushed to the break room door and into the dressing room area. He still had to warn Jim. Even if he was a complete jerk the guy deserved to know. Passing the many posters and signs that the crew had put up in the halls, Ian heard another noise. This time it was coming from Jim’s office…He rushed to his door. As he was about to turn the knob, he heard an all too familiar sound coming from inside the room. It sounded like the electric shaver Jim was always shaving with. He carried that thing around everywhere. Ian had no idea why he constantly shaved. It wasn’t like his beard would grow over night. Just another reason confirming the fact that Ian couldn’t stand Jim Cranston. But, he had come here to warn him and that was what he was going to do.

Ian knocked on the office door before entering. He knew the consequences that would follow if he didn’t. Jim hated an unannounced entry into his office. He adored his privacy and promised anyone who ignored that request a long and enduring one sided shouting fest. Of course it was very rare for anyone to do this now. They had all had their share of hearing him rant.

‘Jim I’m sorry to barge in’ Ian started. His train of thought was violently interrupted by the images he now saw. Blood… Blood, guts, body parts, brains, everything that makes up the human body mass of Jim Cranston. The smell of the blood reminded him of the scent of iron and rust.
God! What happened here?
He glared around the room. It was dark and musty. But, from what he could see, it looked as though there had been a huge struggle starting at his desk. All of his nick knacks and paper weights were rolled across the floor. Far from where they were supposed to be. And there was a lamp thrown to the floor, the bulb busted. The filing cabinet closest to the majority of where his body parts lie, was tossed to the side as though it didn’t weigh very much at all.
He had thousands of manuscripts in there! How the hell did someone pick that up? Much less throw it that far without any trouble?
Ian questioned.

What if Kendra did this?
He asked himself. Trying to mull over a thousand scenarios in mind. It had to be her. She would be the only one who could do this. He thought, spotting Jim’s family portrait broken and ripped up on the floor. It made Ian think about his own family again.
Were they alright? Did they get disemboweled like this

Ian shut the door to the office trying to shake the scene from his memory. Unfortunately, it was instilled there forever. Something he would never forget. He knew he would need to warn the others that the threat had already been there all along. They had to get somewhere safe. This thing could get ugly quick and without warning. And there was no time to sit and dwell on things that he can’t change. He set out to tell the others what he had just experienced. The most bizarre thing that has ever happened to him. He had done things he wished he didn’t have to do. Kendra was his friend. They did everything together recently. They were midway through the shooting of the movie and were inseparable. Ian tried to think about the last time he had a friend that close. He couldn’t really think of anyone but Matt Rings. His old best friend in High School. He was the biggest guy he knew. With the biggest heart too. Matt was a survivalist junkie and somewhat of a doomsday prepper. He studied all things used for self-sustaining situations. He wanted to be able to live life without needing modern conveniences. And he was getting good at it. That’s when they went their separate ways to go to college. Ian went to Pace University in New York. And Matt… Well Matt went off to travel to teach himself the ways of the land. He was doing something that he loved. They lost contact shortly after high school was over. And Ian hadn’t heard from him from him in so long.

Ian snapped to it. He was at the front of the warehouse now. Where everyone had gathered earlier to watch the video. Passing a corner, Ian ran into Jeremy. When Jeremy saw him his eyes looked concerned. ‘Are you ok’ He asked Ian. Jeremy was staring at the blood all over Ian’s pants and bottom of his shirt. To him, it probably looked like Ian had gone mad.

‘I’m fine’ he said waving his hands in front of his face. ‘I need to talk to you about what happened in there.’ Ian pointed to the back of the warehouse and dropped his gaze back down to the floor. How was he going to tell him that he just kind of... murdered the supporting actress and their boss? I mean, he knows that the world had gone to the dogs. But, it still seemed barbaric. But, this was the first sign of trouble for anyone in the entire group. They had managed to isolate themselves from the current situation somehow. It must have been because they were so busy with filming the movie that many of the cast and crew hadn’t traveled outside of the filming location for days. Only the select few who lived here in Texas really did. Ian pulled Jeremy to the side and spoke to him very quietly. He knew this would upset a lot of people once it got out. And now wasn’t the best time. Who knows what they would do if they found out this early on. Ian was barely able to handle it.

‘Kendra and Jim are dead.’

Ian’s mouth suddenly ran dry at hearing the words come out of his own mouth. Somehow it made it seem more permanent. More
real
. If anything
was
real anymore. Jeremy dropped his jaw so far down it could have touched the floor. ‘What the hell do you mean they’re dead? We literally just saw them like fifteen minutes ago!’ Jeremy said to him in dis-belief. He watched as Ian began to recount what happened.

‘It was Kendra. Remember how she’d been sick?’ He questioned Jeremy. ‘I think she came down with whatever the hell is bringing the dead back to life. She must have gotten to Jim when she turned. She killed him too.,’ He paused. Wiping the sweat off of his forehead. ‘She ripped him to shreds and there was no saving him.’ Ian felt the image of Jim’s body parts strewn across the room coming back to the surface of his memory. ‘There was no way that he could be saved…’