The Beast (7 page)

‘Who’s the idiot now?’ Guggs grunted. He took a sudden step towards the policewoman and raised the metal rod.

‘Stop!’ I cried. ‘What are you doing?’

Guggs paused, mid-swing. ‘Tell him, Bill.’

‘Destroying the brain,’ Billy explained.

I blinked. ‘“Destroying the brain”? What are you on about?’

‘It’s what you do, innit?’ said Billy, shrugging. ‘With zombies.’

I almost laughed. ‘She’s not a zombie.’

From down on the ground there was a
cracking
of bone. The policewoman gave a low groan as she tried to raise up on her broken legs.

‘She does have certain... zombie qualities,’ Ameena admitted. ‘And she did try to eat you.’

The cousins turned on me. ‘Did you get bit?’ Guggs demanded, pointing the bar between my eyes.

‘What? No! Shut up,’ I scowled. ‘She didn’t bite me.’

‘But she did try,’ Ameena reminded me.

‘Because she’s a zombie,’ Guggs said.

‘Exactly,’ Billy agreed. He gave his cousin a nod. ‘Do it.’

Guggs raised the bar above his head. ‘Destroy the brain!’ he roared, cackling with glee.

‘No,’ I cried, feeling the sparks surge through me. By the time Guggs swung down, his hands were empty.

‘What the hell? Where’d my pole go?’

Billy glared at me. His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t say anything.

‘No one’s getting their brain destroyed,’ I said. ‘Whatever she is, she’s still human. She’s still a person.’

‘It was there in my hand,’ Guggs complained, searching the snow behind him for his missing weapon. ‘Where’d it go?’

‘OK. Well, what do we do with her, then?’ Billy demanded, stabbing a finger in the policewoman’s direction.

I looked to Ameena. ‘Your call,’ she said, shrugging.

My breath came out as a big white cloud of mist, but I was too numb to feel the cold.

‘Right,’ I said, barely able to believe what I was about to do. ‘I’ve got an idea.’

HUM-WHUM-WHUM.
The windscreen wipers whipped back and forth, valiantly battling with the snow that had begun, once more, to fall. It was a battle they could never win. Caught in the headlights, the snowflakes looked like stars, whipping towards us, giving the impression the car was travelling at the speed of light.

It very much wasn’t.

I leaned forward from the back seat. ‘Can’t you go any faster?’

Guggs gave a curt shake of his head. In the front passenger seat, Ameena rested her feet on the dashboard. She’d claimed the front seat immediately, leaving me hunched in the back with Billy.

‘Hey, give Huggs a break,’ Ameena said. ‘Twenty’s plenty. Am I right, Huggs?’

‘It’s Guggs.’

‘I think you suit Huggs better. You look like a Huggs kind of guy. You’re Huggs now. That’s that.’

A leery grin spread across Guggs’ face. ‘I can do a lot more than just hug. You ever been kissed by a real man, sweetheart?’

‘You ever had your lungs ripped out through your eyes?’ Ameena asked, smiling sweetly. ‘Because it can be arranged.’

‘I’d just like to get to wherever we’re going a bit quicker,’ I said. ‘Considering what we’ve got in the boot.’

‘A zombie,’ Billy said.

I sat back in my seat, arms crossed over my chest. ‘Whatever. Let’s just get a move on.’

We drove on in silence for a while, the only sounds the swishing of the wiper blades, the crunching of snow beneath the tyres and, I thought, a faint knocking coming from within the boot.

I wasn’t sure what the penalty was for kidnapping a police officer – even a zombie one – but considering I was already wanted for murder and attempted murder, I suppose it couldn’t really make things much worse.

‘So.’

I turned to find Billy staring at me. ‘So?’ I replied.

‘How’s your stomach?’

Remembering the pain, my fingers felt for the spot where Billy’s knife had punctured my belly. It had fully healed within hours – my abilities had seen to that – but I didn’t want to let him know what had happened.

‘Still hurts,’ I lied. ‘How’s your ankle?’

He shrugged. ‘Fine. Wasn’t broken.’

Damn
.

‘Right,’ I said. ‘Well, maybe next time.’

He grunted and shook his head. ‘Maybe.’

I thought that was the conversation over, but then he surprised me. ‘Sorry,’ he said quietly. ‘When I stabbed you, it... it wasn’t me. It was like something got inside my head and made me do it. I couldn’t stop myself.’

I nodded. Billy saying sorry – now there was something I never thought I’d hear. ‘It’s OK. It was a crazy day,’ I said. ‘How’s Lily coping? Where is she?’

It bugged me that I cared about Billy’s little sister, but then it was partly my fault she’d been caught up in the battle with Caddie and Raggy Maggie, her big brother’s imaginary friends. Ameena and I had saved her, but I hadn’t seen her again since.

He looked away then, turning his face to the window and gazing out at the blizzard of white beyond.

‘Billy—?’ I began, but a growl from the front passenger seat cut me off.

‘Touch me again and I’ll kill you,’ Ameena said. ‘Consider that fair warning.’

‘Yeah, right,’ Guggs smirked. ‘I think you’re complaining a bit too much. You’re well into me.’

‘My fist’s going to be well into your face in a minute.’

‘What’s going on?’ I demanded, leaning forward.

‘Huggs just grabbed my leg,’ Ameena said.

‘He did
what
?’ I spluttered.

‘Wait...’ Guggs said. ‘You two? You’re together?’

‘What? No!’ I said, a bit too loudly.

Ameena didn’t answer. Why didn’t she answer? Did she...?

‘Come on, sweetheart, you can do better than him. Why not get with a real man?’

‘You keep calling yourself that, but seriously, Huggs, real men don’t drive at fifteen miles per hour.’

Even Billy laughed at that, though he made sure he did it quietly. Even so, rage flashed across the strip of Guggs’ face I could see in the rear view mirror.

‘Stop calling me Huggs!’ he protested. His foot hit the floor and the car surged forward. I was thrown back into the seat as we began hurtling along the snow-covered street.

‘Whoa, easy,’ I complained, but Guggs didn’t seem to be listening. He was staring straight ahead now, gripping the wheel until his knuckles burned white.

There was a
whooshing
from beneath the wheels as the car slid sideways around a sharp corner. Guggs crunched down the gears and the engine whined loudly. With a sudden jolt we shot forward again, weaving from side to side as the wheels struggled to grip the snow.

‘OK, Guggs,’ Billy said, as he bounced against the side window. ‘Point proved. Slow down, mate.’

‘
Shut up, Billy
,’ Guggs seethed. The wipers were
whumming
across the screen, but for all the good they were doing, we may as well have been driving blind. ‘You want to see how a real man drives?’ he said, scowling at Ameena. ‘How’s this?’

Ameena yawned. ‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘I must’ve nodded off.’

‘Stop winding him up!’ I hissed, as we roared around another corner, spraying dirty slush in our wake. Outside, the snow streaked sideways past the windows, disappearing beyond the red glow of the car’s tail lights. ‘Guggs, stop the car. Cut it out.’

‘What’s the matter, you
scared
?’ he sneered, grinding through the gears again. ‘Too fast for you? What do you think of your boyfriend now, sweetheart?’

Ameena blinked. ‘Whoops,’ she said innocently. ‘Must’ve fallen asleep again. Are we still moving?’

‘Ameena!’ I wailed, giving the back of her seat a shove.

‘Guggs,’ Billy cried. ‘Come on, cuz, chill out!’

‘I’ll chill out when she stops playing hard to get,’ Guggs snapped. ‘What do you say, sweetheart?’

And that was when he went too far. That was when he grabbed Ameena’s leg again.

The moment he made contact, she caught his thumb. He howled in agony as she bent it into his wrist, twisting his arm at the same time until it was bending up his back.

BAM
.

His face hit the steering wheel hard enough to sound the horn. Out of control, the car lurched violently sideways. Even with my seatbelt on, I was thrown on top of Billy. He gave a pained hiss and clutched his lower leg. So, it seemed he hadn’t completely healed up, after all.

As I leaned back to my own side, I caught sight of something in the darkness up ahead. Something large, solid, and half-buried by snow.

‘Look out!’ I cried, lunging for the steering wheel to try to change course. ‘
Car
—’

There was a noise then that I can’t describe. Not a bang or a crash, but something more, as the front of our car ploughed into the back of one that was parked by the side of the road.

I slid towards the front until the seatbelt tightened across my chest. It slammed me back down, but my arms flailed out like a rag doll’s and my head snapped sharply forward, then back.

There was a loud hissing sound and an airbag exploded free of the steering wheel, pushing Guggs back into the driving seat.

The car spun, but the snow churning beneath the wheels quickly brought it to a full stop. For a moment there was no sound in the car but the unsteady rasping of our breathing.

‘Now,’ smiled Ameena, ‘you cannot say that wasn’t fun.’

‘You idiot!’ Billy cried. His face was as white as the snow on the windscreen. ‘You could’ve killed us!’

‘Not my fault,’ Ameena said. She had released her grip on Guggs, who was now struggling with a slowly deflating airbag. ‘I did warn him.’ She turned to me. ‘You heard me warn him, right?’

I nodded, too shaken to speak.

‘There you go,’ Ameena smiled. ‘Like I said, wasn’t my fault.’

‘You’re nuts,’ Billy muttered. ‘She’s absolutely nuts.’

He and I both jumped as the alarm of the car we’d hit suddenly began to wail.

‘We have to move,’ Guggs grunted. I’d expected him to have a go at Ameena, or even attack her, but he was already opening the door and climbing out past the half-filled airbag. ‘Come on, Billy.’

Billy didn’t wait to be told twice. He unclipped his seatbelt and opened the door in one move. A blast of icy air rushed into the car as he clambered outside.

‘Where are you going?’ I called after him. The door half-closed, then opened again.

‘Can’t hang around here,’ Billy said, leaning down. ‘Zombies aren’t the only thing roaming around,’ he finished, before the door slammed shut. I remembered the footprint in the sugar on Mrs Angelo’s kitchen floor. From the look on Ameena’s face, I could tell she was thinking the very same thing.

‘What do you mean?’ I asked, getting out of the car. Ameena got out too, and stood beside me. Billy and Guggs were already several paces away. Guggs had another metal bar in his hand now, shorter than the one he’d had before. I had to raise my voice to be heard over the car alarm. ‘What else is there?’

They trudged on, moving slowly through the snow. I stumbled after them until Billy was less than an arm’s length away. He twisted when my hand caught him by the shoulder, and spun to face me, fists raised. But the cocky, bullying, arrogant Billy wasn’t there behind his eyes. There was nothing there but fear.

‘Just keep moving,’ he said, walking backwards.

I pointed back to the car, already hard to make out in the blizzard. ‘What about her? In the boot? We can’t just leave her.’

‘Hurry up, Billy,’ Guggs barked.

‘What else is out there?’ I asked again. ‘What’s—?’

A deep, rumbling roar rolled across the sky. It rose in pitch, becoming more like a screech before it finally faded away. Ameena was beside me again. ‘What,’ she asked, ‘was that?’

Billy’s reply came as a low and scratchy whisper. ‘The Beast,’ he said. ‘It’s the Beast.’

‘Billy, come on!’

‘The Beast? What’s the Beast?’ I asked.

‘Explain later,’ Billy said, turning and stumbling away. ‘Need to get inside.’

‘Now you’re talking,’ Ameena said. She caught me by the arm. ‘Come on, let’s get warm, then we can figure out what all the shenanigans are about.’

‘
Jesus Christ!
’

Guggs’ voice was shrill and panicked. I could just make him out in the gloom, swinging wildly with the metal bar.

‘What’s he doing?’ I muttered, before I saw a shape making a wild lunge at him through the snowstorm. It was a man. I’d seen him around the village a few times, and at the supermarket in town. But I’d never seen him like this.

His eyes were coal black, his skin shades of grey. A mess of blood covered the bottom half of his face. It was smeared over his chin and down his neck, and it soaked into the thin white t-shirt he wore. On his bottom half he wore nothing but boxer shorts and socks. The boxers were marked with big red dots. From here, I couldn’t tell if the spots were a pattern, or if they were blood.

The man opened his mouth as he hurled himself at Guggs. His whole bottom jaw seemed to dislocate, turning the mouth into a gaping cavern, lined top and bottom with yellowing teeth.

For a second, I thought those teeth were going to clamp down on Guggs, but then Guggs’ arm was swinging. The metal bar caught the man just above the ear. From several metres away I heard the sickening crunch of splintering bone.

But still the man kept coming. His hands reached for Guggs’ clothes, grabbing at them, clawing at them, pulling the boy closer.

BANG!
The metal bar hit him again, across the forehead this time. Blood spurted from the wound and flowed down into the man’s eyes, blinding him.

But still he kept coming.

‘Let go of me!’ Guggs roared, delivering another blow to the man’s head. The freakishly large mouth opened even wider, as he lunged again for Guggs’ face.

‘Oh, give me that,’ Ameena sighed, snatching the bar away. Bending low, she swung with it. The man’s knee gave an unpleasant
crack
, and then he was on the ground, still clawing and biting, but no longer able to stand.

Guggs looked at the length of metal as it was thrust back into his hand. ‘See?’ he mumbled. ‘You do like me.’

‘Not in a million years,’ she told him, before she turned and strode towards me.