Ghosts of War

by Sajjad Tameez

moved forward. They stepped over the body, still paranoid that it might jump up and attack them. Aware that they only had a few rounds of ammo each and not knowing how many of these things there were, made them uncomfortable. But Barnes didn't give anyone too much time to think about the mess they were in. He marched forward, shooting at anything that came towards him.

  They all felt that, considering the circumstances, this is too easy. And that's when they ran into Lance, but not the Lance they remembered. His clothes were torn, his face looked like it had worms wiggling under his skin and blood rolled down his cheeks like tears.

  'Lance?' Nicole called.

  'I don't thing that's our Lance,' Barnes said, aiming his weapon. The gruesome version of Lance stopped and raised his arms to stop his drooling friends, who approached from behind. They stepped back and blending into the background, they disappeared into the darkness.

  'I don't think that's the last we'll see of him!' Ryan remarked.

  'Damn it, room V12 is not on this floor, look, V11 is the last room.' Nicole said.

  'Come on... we got to keep moving.' Barnes ordered.

  They all paused as they looked at the pitch black stairwell, 'who killed the lights?' Ryan turned his torch on and pointed it forward. They suddenly felt betrayed by their paralyzed legs when they noticed all the glowing eyes gathered together.

  'What the... how many of these things are there?' Nicole panicked. When they turned back they could see Lance and his new friends creeping toward to them.

  'Quick, in here!' Barnes kicked open the door next to him. They rushed in and tried slamming it shut, but a wormy arm wiggled through. They all pushed against the door but could feel the immense pressure building, knowing that they couldn't hold the it for long. Barnes removed his knife and began hacking at the arm, splatters of dark red blood sprinkled in the air. He cut vigorously through the flaky tissue and could feel the bone cracking. The door slammed shut as the limp arm fell into the puddle of blood on the floor. Although exhausted, they grabbed whatever they could and wedged it in front of the door. After a few seconds, the terrifying banging stopped and their lungs allowed oxygen back in.

  'Over here!' Nicole pointed at a large map on the wall, 'it seems to be a map of the building.'

  'That's convenient! See if you can find another way up to the next floor and find us a way out of here!' Barnes checked to see how much ammunition he had left. 'I don't have many magic bullets left!'

  'I've only got a couple of rounds.' Ryan remarked.

  'I got it...' Nicole said with confidence, 'there are three ways out of here, one, is down that stairwell, two, is back towards the front stairwell, that we came from and three, is a through the air vents. But God knows what size the tunnels in the air vents are!'

  Barnes looked around the room, 'I can't see any vents here.'

  This was some type of storage room, the vent is behind that wall unit, whatever was in here...'

  'Sh...' Barnes interrupted and put his hand out for silence. They could hear some light shuffling. They pointed their weapons at the row of wall units at the back. As They crept forward, the sounds became louder. Barnes opened the wall unit where the noise was coming from and they were all startled at what they saw, a young, pale skinned girl huddled inside. Nicole lowered her gun and stared into her bright blue eyes, 'it's ok... we're not going to hurt you.'

  'Be careful!' Ryan said, trying to hold her back, but she shrugged him off and moved closer, 'come on, it's ok.' The skinny girl crept out of the unit and sat down in the corner, putting her arms around her knees. Although her dark eye circles were huge and she had no hair what so ever, she didn't look like the things that they had just faced.

  'Who are you? Can you speak English?' Nicole asked. The girl nodded lightly.

  'Good. What is your name?'

  'My name... is Catherine.' She replied in an outlandish accent.

  'How did you get here?'

  'My entire family was abducted and bought here. I am the only one left.'

  'Your father was one of the scientists?' Barnes asked. The girl nodded.

  'How is it that you have not turned into one of those things?' Barnes said suspiciously. The girl remained silent for a few moments. And this made Barnes restless and pointed his weapon at her head.

  'What are you doing? She's just a girl!' Nicole stood in the way.

  'Get out of the way!' Barnes shouted.

  'Stop it!' The girl screamed, 'just stop, you're just like the others, turning against one another.'

  Barnes lowered his weapon and crouched down, 'what do you mean others?'

  The girl stood up, her eyes looked glazed as she fell into deep thought. 'You are not the first to come here, there were more before you. They were brave and strong as well.'

  'Where are they?' Barnes asked.

  'They... they never made it back out.'

  'You mean, those damn things out there got to them!'

  'Those things... are your friends, they are imprisoned just like you!'

  'What the hell is she talking about?' Ryan panicked, listening to the foot steps emerging from outside.

  'They are afraid too, they are afraid of the ghosts in the walls.'

  'Ghosts! Yeah... I think we've heard enough, come on we got to get out of here!' Ryan said, shaking his head.

  'You don't get it do you, there is no way out of here.'

  'It's the bloody Nazis isn't it! I knew it.' Ryan frowned.

  'Do you really think that is place has anything got to with the war?' The girl raised her eyebrows.

  'Go on...' but they were all stopped in their speech as the door began to shake with loud bangs. The girl quickly hid back in the wall unit and shut the door.

  'Ok get ready, it isn't going to take them long to get through that door!' Barnes said. They stood on either side of the door and waited, praying for a miracle. The bangs against the door were so strong that the wall that they were leaning against was trembling. And it wasn't long before the door gave up and collapsed. The hideous looking people, with their skin slithering down their boney cheeks and their eyeballs bulging out of their sockets, barged in. They looked around like hungry wolves and breathed like hissing snakes. Barnes shot one in the side of the head and his head exploded, Ryan and Nicole began shooting and taking a few of them out but there were so many that they were soon cornered. They all knew that there was no way out and non of them had any ammunition left. The scary platoon of gruesome people crept forward, almost tauntingly. Barnes pushed Ryan and Nicole behind him and rushed into the crowd and after striking a couple of them with a few hard punches, and after having little to no effect, he turned and smiled at Ryan and Nicole.

  'What the hell is doing?' Nicole screamed.

  Barnes allowed one of them to bite into his arm before shouting out in pain and punching him in the face a few times.

  'No!' Nicole screamed. Barnes began to shake and his eyes opened wide. He nodded at Nicole and Ryan, before removing his knife and stabbing and slicing at the monster-like beings. Ryan and Nicole tried to help but Barnes pushed them back and fought valiantly, with sudden surge of power. Barnes was already a force to be reckoned with but now he seemed unstoppable. After a five minute frenzy, he stood in a room with blood painted walls, severed arms and mutilated heads were scattered across the ground. Nicole crept forward and touched his shoulder, 'are you ok?' she whispered.

  Barnes didn't turn and face her, 'come on... we don't have much time. I need to get you out of here and get to that room.'

  'Forget the room. We need to all get out of here!' Ryan said.

  Barnes walked towards Ryan, who was stepping back in fear. 'I can't leave here now, but I am going to get you guys out of here. I just need you to promise me something... promise me that you'll not let me turn into one of those things!' He handed a pistol over to Ryan, 'it has got one of those special bullets left in it. I've been saving it for someone special!'

  'You mean you had already planned this!
' Nicole said, with a stream of tears rolling done her cheeks.

  'Come on, let's move! That's an order!' Barnes led the way as they stormed out of the room and he had ripped the map of the place off the wall and showed them the route that they were going to take. 'This vent here will take you back down to the ground floor, it might be a rocky ride and a tight squeeze but it should lead you all the way out.'

  'This is crazy, you can't stay here, we can all get out of here.'

  'Sh... listen...' they could hear slow footsteps in the distance. It was Lance, his head was now patchy, blood was dripping from his ears and nose and his nails looked like they were about to slither off his fingers. His eyes had turned black and his teeth looked more like fangs. He screwed up his face a hissed as he ran towards them.

  'Go! Now!' Barnes shouted. Ryan grabbed Nicole, who was reluctant to move, and they ran towards the vent.

  'We can't just leave him!'

  'We have to go, there's nothing we can do for him now!' Ryan kicked the vent a few times before it caved in. The vent was so tight that it seemed impossible to get in and move.

  'We need to get out!' Nicole managed to squeeze in and shuffle through, but Ryan felt like he was stuck, 'keep going, I'm right behind you.' He closed his eyes as he felt a sharp pain on his leg. He tried to shuffle further in but was dragged out vigorously. When he landed on the floor, he could see a menacing looking man, towering over him. His dribble was boiling hot and was scorching Ryan's skin. The man's long wormy fingers were deceptively