I pushed myself into the cold metal of the door and felt my lips repeating “Please” silently over and over. My only hope was if they didn’t notice me and all headed towards the ambulance.
As they passed by my hiding spot one of them seemed to smell me or sense me and moved with more purpose towards the doorway. The others followed suit. They seemed to realise that the one in the lead had found something and were following expectantly. I pushed myself deeper into the darkness and fumbled for my bow. I knew it was loaded, but I would be lucky to get off one shot before they were on me.
The ravenous at the front was just over an arm’s length away and he was staring straight at me, I had not seen one so close. His chest was bare, and he had bite marks on his skin. His arms were stained and scratched, his extended and bloated belly hung over the top of his ragged trousers which looked like they had once been pyjama bottoms but were now rags. His feet were bare and sore; his face had the same vacant look I had come to recognise, eyes pearly white, lips blue and dirt smeared everywhere. He couldn’t be any older than sixteen or seventeen and as he reached out a hand towards me, I could see the tips of his fingers, ragged skin covered in grass stains, his little finger was missing and most of his nails were gone, blood was clotted over his wounds. His hand had blue veins running through it and up his arms, I could see a ring still on his middle finger encrusted with dirt. I held my breath as he came closer and disgustingly his fingers brushed my face. Tears well up in my eyes, ‘This is it’ I thought, ‘I have nowhere to go’. The ravenous in front of me opened his mouth and I could see his teeth, the grass caught in them, his tongue was half bitten off and blood was filling his mouth and dripping from his lips. I closed my eyes, pulling my face away from his touch and suddenly he was gone, his hand wasn’t in my face anymore and that dazed smiling expression was not in front of me. I looked around and realised he was on the floor with 3 dogs tearing at him, their growling was completely drowned out by the siren. More dogs came pouring around the corner, leaping at the ravenous and tearing at their flesh. The figures went down, each one overwhelmed by the dogs, they tried to fend off the creatures and bite at them, but the dogs had better teeth and more power in their jaws. I stayed still watching the animals rip the ravenous apart and could see that one of the discarded parts was an arm, it was lying near the doorway with a wrist band pass attached. One of the ravenous must have been an employee. Reaching out my foot towards it I edged it towards me slowly. The dogs didn’t seem interested in me as long as there was ravenous flesh to eat but I knew it wouldn’t last. As the arm moved closer, I bent down and grabbed at it, lifting it I felt repelled at the soft dead flesh and the blood covering it made it slippery. It was very heavy, and I had to grip its wrist tightly. I turned it over, grimacing as blood squirted out of the torn end and positioned the wrist band against the panel. Nothing happened; I almost slapped myself on the forehead as I remembered there was no electricity! Of course, it wouldn’t work. I dropped the arm and leaned back against the door, scanning the carnage in front of me looking for a way out.
I turned back to the door and could partially see through the little window in it. The crisscross of wire mesh couldn’t completely obscure the view. I scanned the gloomy hospital corridor beyond; it looked like a dark and barren place, but I would have given anything at that moment to be in there.
I turned back to the barking dogs, leaning against the useless door, and wondered how long the ravenous would keep the pack occupied and how soon they would sniff me out to attack. The dogs were getting closer as they fought each other for the best bits of food and now and then one would look in my direction, but for now the meat underneath their noses dragged their attention back to the gory meal in front of them.
The door behind me gave way suddenly, and I stumbled backwards in surprise and shock. I turned to see Lara’s grim face and felt her pull me through the gap. Inside, Mark and Lance were keeping an eye out for trouble. Relief washed over me, I hugged Lara and she hugged me back. We stumbled over to Mark “Was the siren your idea?” he asked in a hushed voice. I nodded, and he looked a little impressed, “Good one, have all the dogs gone that way?” I smiled and nodded again. I didn’t feel able to speak; I was so full of emotions, I feared I might burst into tears if I opened my mouth. Mark seemed to sense my feelings and nodded back at me, “That’s great let’s get out the front way whilst we still can.”
We jogged through the hospital, trying to keep our eyes, and ears peeled for the pack returning. Lara kept her gun at eye level, and I had my bow ready, Mark had the throwing daggers in one hand and Lance had unsheathed his sword. The corridors were silent, but we saw signs of the pack all around. Faeces smeared on the floors and chewed bone’s, I guessed even the ravenous stayed away from here because of the dogs.
We got back to the van with no problems, listening to the constant barking of the dogs behind the building and being glad that they stayed there.
In the truck Jason was still unconscious, Lara and I climbed in the back and we started to look through all the medical stuff that she had managed to gather. She told me what I had missed while I was asleep, Mark had spotted the hospital signs and they had decided to detour for supplies and to help Jason.
“We all got out of the van,” she started “You were still asleep, so we let you rest as we would only be running into the hospital and grabbing some medicines. The place looked deserted, so we thought it would be ok. Lance realised a few steps away from the van that he had forgotten his radio. But I had mine and Mark had his. We didn’t want to waste time, so we left it behind. Once we were in the hospital and through reception, we saw a couple of dogs. Mark was so excited he crouched down and patted his legs, calling to them. The dogs looked confused, but then they began to growl. I called Mark away, but as he walked towards me one of the dogs jumped at him. Lance hit it with his backpack, and we ran for the stairs. I got out my radio and called you, but I dropped it and one of the dogs grabbed it”
I fumbled in my pocket and produced the pieces of the casing from Lara’s radio that I had kept. Lara took them from me and ran her thumb over the painted-on hearts, she looked sad but continued “Then Mark got his out and the batteries were flat, so we just ran. We ended up in a little room with lots of dogs outside; they kept trying to get in. I found lots of pills and things inside the room we had run into; I think it was a storeroom or something. So, I grabbed what I could, and then we sat and waited while the dogs tried to bite their way through the door. It was horrible; I thought they would burst through at any minute. Lance kept saying, “If he only had his radio” but I kept thinking how stupid I was to drop mine. I have no idea how long we were in there, but it seemed like ages. Mark’s radio kept fizzing in and out, but it didn’t seem to be sending out because of the low battery. At one point I managed to shoot one through the hole, I hoped it would scare them off, but they just kept coming and then the siren started, and they all ran away. We came down and found you outside with the dogs and ravenous everywhere. You know the rest.”
I opened my mouth to tell her of my adventure, but I saw tears running down her cheeks.” Lara, what else happened?” I asked, knowing she was holding something back. Lara looked up at me with her eyes full of sorrow “It’s those dog’s” she said between sobs “They ate all the people in the rooms upstairs. I saw bones everywhere.” I nodded sadly “They were just hungry” I soothed trying to comfort her. Lara shook her head, “That’s not it, there were……. incubators.” I stopped trying to read the bottles in my hand and looked at her, “Incubators?” I repeated.
Lara nodded, “For babies; all turned over and smashed…… what if they…. had still been alive when the dogs……?” She stopped short and the horror of what she was trying to say sunk in. I imagined that I could hear the babies screaming as the dogs attacked. I held Lara’s hand “They could have been empty” I whispered not believing it but trying to sound convincing. Lara continued sterilising the needles, “Maybe” she said simply but she d
idn’t stop crying and I felt the tears stinging my eyes as I wondered if we could have saved them if we had been here earlier. I felt overwhelmed with guilt, I had been hiding in my house while children died, and people screamed out for help. Mark’s voice carried over to us, “We couldn’t have saved them.” He said this sadly as if reading my mind, “The electric went out weeks ago, any generator would have packed in ages ago and if they needed life support or oxygen, well, we have no way to supply those things. We couldn’t have done anything.” I looked towards the front of the vehicle, all I could see was the back of Mark’s head, but his words made me feel a little better and I could see Lara wiping her eyes. I pushed the guilt away, maybe I wasn’t a hero, but I was doing all I could, and crying wouldn’t help, we still had each other, and Jason needed us. We bent our heads and made up the solution of antibiotics that we hoped would help him. I explained what had happened after I woke up and realised they had left the truck. I had just got to the part about the corpse in the ambulance falling out onto my feet when I saw Lara’s pack move. It shifted position and a strange noise seemed to come from it, I moved towards it, but Lara noticed and moved protectively in front of it. She looked nervous but pulled open the zipper; I backed away a little wondering what on earth she had put in there. Two puppies tumbled out onto the van floor, they mewed like kittens, they could only be about 6 weeks old. Mark looked back towards us and tapped Lance on the shoulder. He jabbed his thumb in our direction and said, “Stop the van”. He sounded quite tired and not thrilled, Lara bit her lip and looked at me with huge worried eyes, but I was too busy watching the puppies. One began to pee on the metal van floor. I moved my blanket out of the yellow stream and as we pulled over, I shook my head and looked up at Lara’s face. We both knew that Mark was not going to be happy.
Standing on the grass verge Mark didn’t argue or shout he spoke calmly and tried to explain to Lara that the puppies would be a huge burden on our resources and that we would need milk, as they looked very young, which was all off and dog food which would mean another foraging trip into town. He wasn’t patronising, but he spoke slowly, and I could feel my head nodding along to his words. He was right of course; we could hardly look after ourselves in this hostile world, never mind two small dependant puppies. They would need constant care, they had to be trained and fed. I listened to everything Mark said and agreed but felt myself cringe a little at the way he acted, like a teacher telling off a student. I glanced over at Lance to see his reaction, but he was just stood there holding the puppies and looking at the ground. Lara was nodding along to all that Mark said as well, and she waited patiently for him to finish talking before she defended her actions. As she spoke, she looked at Lance holding the squirming puppies and said, very softly like a chastised child “I got them for you, Mark, they were meant to cheer you up and be your guards. I thought they could help protect the castle.” Mark looked a little surprised at the thought of the puppies being for him. He put his hand on Lara’s shoulder, “It was a lovely gesture,” he said smiling down at her worried face, “and I guess they will make good guard dogs. I just wish you had spoken to me first.” Lara beamed and ran over to Lance. She grabbed the puppies and ran back to Mark holding them out and babbling happily. “They will be brilliant guard dogs and they will keep watch at night, they won’t eat much, and I will look after them for you. I’ll make sure they don’t get in the way; you’ll see they will cheer us all up.” Mark took one of the small dogs and looked it over. It seemed to be of a mixed breed, maybe part Alsatian or Labrador. It yelped as Mark turned it over “It’s a boy” he said simply, Lara stroked the head of the one she was holding “This is a girl” she said tickling its nose, “I thought we could breed them. They seem to be good at killing the ravenous”. Mark let the little brown puppy he was holding near his face lick his nose. He gave it back to Lara and got in the van. “Come on” he called to us all, “Let’s get on the road before their mum comes to get us.” Lara gave a little squeal of pleasure and skipped back to the van with the puppies. I followed her, wondering which idiot would be cleaning up after them and after a moment’s thought, I imagined it would probably be me!
Lara played with the puppies in the back and I administered the antibiotics to Jason the best I could, using some medical books we had swiped for guidance. There was no change, but we had not expected miracles, I sat wiping his feverish face with a damp piece of Lance’s old shirt. We used the melted snow we had collected to keep the puppies hydrated. They needed a lot of water; we stopped and collected stream water for them. They needed some easy to digest food, so we drove towards the closest town. Now and then we checked the console to see if the news was on, but it was just static now.
Lara kept saying, “it will be ok; you’ll see. The town will be empty.” Mark didn’t look so certain and I knew that no matter how cute or helpful they might be, we were risking our lives for the sake of these animals.
We followed the map towards a populated area. We noticed a few birds in the trees. Now and again we saw little groups of them, it was as though they had begun to find each other and stick together. Lance stopped the van, and we all got out to take a look at a small group of them flying from tree to tree. They were skittish and hopped from one branch to another, flapping their wings, ready for flight. They were a beautiful sight, and I knew we were all hoping that this was a sign of things getting back to normal. As we climbed back into the van, talk was mostly about the different species and the colours on their wings.
The shadows got longer as we drove, and Lara sat playing with the puppies. At one point there was a nasty smell, and we had to stop the van to clean up their little accident. Climbing back in I could still smell urine and worse, Lara looked a little shamefaced, and it made me feel sorry for her. “We can get some bleach when we stop,” I stated, trying to make her understand it wasn’t a big deal. I noticed Jason stirring and called to Mark, stopping the truck he rushed to the back doors just as Jason sat up. Jason looked around at us all and rubbed his sore head, “What the hell is that smell?” he asked in a croaky voice and we all laughed. We were relieved that he was ok and unsurprised that his first words would be a complaint. “The ammonia in the puppy’s puddles probably worked like smelling salts” Lance joked. Mark laughed harder, and we all felt a sense of relief. It was so good to laugh. I filled Jason in on most of the stuff that had happened. He was still weak, so Mark told him to stay lying down in the back, I opened a can of sweet corn and he ate it cold. We fed him sips of water and he let the puppies climb onto him and fall asleep. As we settled down to rest Jason thanked me for all I had done. I felt all warm inside at his praise and shining with embarrassment I tried to dismiss his kind words, but I couldn’t deny that they made me feel appreciated and part of a family again.
Surviving The Ravenous Page 7
