Hell

by G G Garcia

  “That’s it, cherry pie,” Mel sarcastically called up. “You just stand there and give out your orders.”

  “I sorted him out, didn’t I?” Lisa moaned. “Which was more than what you bunch of plebs did.”

  “You didn’t sort out the problem. You killed him, you stupid—”

  “Right, that’s enough!” Paul snapped. “Are we gonna move this body or not?”

  Mel unlocked the main door and pulled it open. He had a quick gander outside to see if it was clear of danger, which it was, and then returned to the body of Mitch.

  “What about that Rab guy?” Craig asked.

  “Don’t worry about him,” Paul sniffed. “He’s well gone.”

  “But if he comes back...”

  “He won’t.”

  Mel cracked his neck and looked at Paul, Tony and Craig, and then asked if they were ready. All three nodded.

  “Okay.” Mel bent down, ready to lift. “On three.”

  The four males struggled to take the body of Mitch to the riverbank. Watched by Lisa from one of the bedroom windows, the men dropped the man once they reached the picket fence, climbed over, and began to roll him as if they were trying to make a snowman.

  Mitch was two yards from the water’s edge and Mel told the rest to pick him up so they could throw him in, like giving a child a ‘leg and a wing.’

  They did just that and managed to throw the lifeless body into the river. They watched as the current took him away and under the bridge, and once the current pulled Mitch under they began to walk away.

  Mel stopped walking and rubbed his head. Tony and Craig had already gone inside, but Paul had noticed he was lagging behind.

  “Ya alright, Mel?” he called over.

  Mel shook his head.

  “Wit is it?”

  “Seriously? What is it? What have we become?” he cried.

  “Um … Wit?”

  “What have we become?” Mel repeated.

  “Wit are ya talkin’ about?”

  Mel couldn’t believe how a young man like Paul Newbold had taken on this macabre incident like a duck to water. He had killed on the first day and it didn’t seem to have fazed him. If it did, he was showing no signs of remorse for his actions. The things that he had killed were infected, but they were still human. Even though he had no choice when it came to killing the IOs, there must have been a small niggling inside his head, some kind of guilt or empathy for the dead.

  After he killed his first one, Mel knew it was a necessity, but there was still a percentage of guilt that twisted his guts. If the radiation, or whatever it was that infected these people, wore off, or some kind of cure could be discovered, these IOs could be possibly transformed back into the person they once were.

  Because the infected were human, did that mean that people like Paul were murderers?

  “Just get inside.” Paul was now by the door, beckoning Mel in.

  “Okay.” Mel trudged towards Paul and asked him further, “Can I ask you a question?”

  “Of course.” Paul Newbold waited patiently for Melvin Leslie to speak further, but the middle aged man seemed to be struggling.

  “Doesn’t it bother you, Paul?”

  “Wit do ya mean?” Paul looked confused. He took a step back and gazed at Mel. “Does wit bother me?”

  “Killing people.”

  “I didn’t touch him,” said Paul, referring to Mitch. “Your wife did the damage, although technically it was the fall that killed him. Anyway, he got what he deserved, don’t ya think?”

  “I don’t mean Mitch. I mean in general, killing the infected. Doesn’t it bother you?”

  “No.” Paul shook his head, and by his reaction, Mel believed him and Paul's coldness sent a shiver down his frame.

  “No?”

  “Why would it bother me?” Paul began to snicker, amused by Mel’s query and added, “It’s either them or us.”

  “You don’t feel anything?”

  “Nah, fuck ‘em.” Paul could see that Mel looked uncomfortable, almost disturbed my Paul’s attitude, so he tried to explain, “If ya wanna live, it’s the attitude to adopt, otherwise ya won’t last a week. It’s either them or you. Wit would ya prefer?”

  Mel looked at Paul’s morose face and said, “You know what the scary thing is?”

  “No, wit?” Paul sighed.

  “I believe you.”

  “I don’t enjoy this, Mel,” said Paul. “But sometimes it’s somethin’ that needs to be done.”

  Mel nodded and smiled thinly.

  Paul went inside and Mel followed, leaving him to lock the door behind him.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  It was nearly ten o’clock, and despite the lateness the August sky was light, cloudless, and the town wouldn’t be covered by a blanket of darkness for a good hour or so.

  Maxwell and Henry sat in silence and Henry could feel his eyes getting heavy. Typical! He couldn’t go to sleep when he was in his bed, but now he was sitting up he was finding it difficult to stay awake.

  Noticing his situation, Maxwell turned to his friend and said, “Just sleep, if you need it.”

  “I’m okay.” Henry was less than convincing.

  “I feel wide awake. I don’t think I’ll sleep until the next morning.”

  Henry rubbed his eyes and stifled a yawn. The lids of his eyes were lowering again, and so was his head, but he suddenly stood up when a scream was heard from outside.

  “Jumpy, aren’t you?” Maxwell cackled. “Sit down.”

  “Sounded like someone was in trouble.”

  “Probably.”

  Maxwell didn’t seem bothered at all, Henry thought. Was he immune to this horror already?

  Another scream rang out, but this one seemed closer, and now Maxwell began to look uncomfortable once Henry went over to peer through the living room window.

  He looked through the centimetre gap, through the curtains, and all he could see was the dusky street. Maxwell and Henry loved staying in a small village like Colton. It was good for business. They were in the middle of nowhere, in a village with a population of under seven hundred, and two men driving an Audi, with no regular nine to five job who also entertained the occasional dodgy looking character, never seemed to alert the rest of the residents in the street.

  Maxwell and Henry weren’t sure if the neighbours knew about how they made their money, but when they first moved in they told residents that they were property developers. The two of them helped the elderly residents with their shopping, and sometimes gave them a lift to the supermarket in Rugeley to get their groceries. They used a charm offensive when they first moved in, and it seemed to have worked. Most of the people in Colton liked them.

  Maxwell was about to move away from the window, but another scream pierced the night. This time Henry stood next to him, and both men were looking out onto the desolate street. Despite the thick window pane in front of them, the sound of running feet could be heard getting louder as the seconds ticked by. Henry could see that over the road, where some houses were, a pair of curtains had been pulled open and a face was looking out. It looked like Maxwell and Henry weren’t the only ones that could hear the noise.

  They continued to gaze at the bend in the road, the same area where Maxwell had shot and dumped the pregnant woman’s body, and a group of people came running around the bend. Immediately, Henry and Maxwell knew they were Savs and couldn’t stop watching as the group of infected individuals went by.

  “I think we’ll have to start boarding these windows up,” said Maxwell.

  Henry nodded. “Tremendous idea, but like I said before we have no wood, and even then the sound of banging may entice more of these Savs to this area.”

  “So what do you suggest?”

  From the side, a face appeared, and both men jumped. The female was inches away from the two men, staring through the windows. The only thing between Henry and Maxwell and the lone Sav was a pane of glass.

  “Don’t move,” Henry whi
spered, hardly moving his mouth.

  The female glared at the two men, cocking her head to one side as if she was confused. She was in a cream dress that had bloodstains on the chest area, her chin had old blood on it as if she had been feeding, and her face was emotionless.

  The two scared men continued to gaze at the woman with the bloodshot eyes, and hoped she would just leave. Any kind of movement from the pair of them could excite her and cause her to try and get in, and this kind of episode could alert the crowd that had just passed by. Both Maxwell and Henry knew she could see them, but had no idea what was going to be the outcome of this.

  The female Sav opened her mouth as if she was going to say something. The guys weren’t sure if she was going to snarl or what, but she closed her mouth as if she had changed her mind. Her red eyes moved away from the faces of Maxwell and Henry; she must have heard a noise. She then looked at the men once again and ran away.

  They both released a breath out and moved away from the window.

  “What the fuck was that all about?” Henry asked.

  He received no answer, and instead Maxwell had a few questions of his own.

  “Where the fuck did she go?” Maxwell sat down and was holding his gun in his right hand. “Do you think she’ll sneak in? Maybe try and get through that bedroom window? Or do you think she’ll wait and hide, and hope that we’ll come out so she can jump us?”

  “I don’t think they have the intelligence to do that,” said Henry.

  “Why not?” Maxwell watched as his friend sat down next to him. “They’re still human, aren’t they?”

  “I know,” sighed Henry. “From what I’ve heard, they’ve seemed to have lost some skills that we possess.”

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t really know,” Henry groaned. “We only knew a little from the TV and our phones before the power went.”

  “I wonder...”

  A crash came to the side of them, and both shot up when they saw a figure breaking through the living room window.

  “Jesus Christ!” Henry exclaimed.

  The same female from earlier had ran through the window and now was lying on the living room floor, covered in glass. She groaned and began to move. Maxwell raised his gun, but Henry called out, “Wait,” but he was too late. Maxwell had released a round into the woman’s head, killing her instantly.

  “For fuck’s sake!” Henry cried.

  “What?”

  Henry pointed at the woman’s neck. A shard of glass was sticking out. “She was a goner anyway. And what about the noise?”

  Demi burst through the living room door, making both men swivel around, both pointing their guns at her for a second.

  She didn’t ask what was going on. She could feel the chill in the room, and see the shattered window and curtains flapping from the breeze, and the body that was face down in the middle of the living room floor.

  “What the hell are we gonna do?” she cried. “We can’t stay here with two windows fucked.”

  “We can block them off,” Maxwell said. “We ain’t leaving all this food and drink behind.”

  “Maybe we should hide in a room, wait till morning,” she said. “And then we can pack the car up with supplies and go to a school or supermarket.”

  Maxwell laughed, mocking Demi. “Great idea. Or even better, we could go all Dawn of the Dead and hit the mall instead.”

  “Rugeley doesn’t have a mall.”

  Henry didn’t get involved in the conversation. His ears had picked something up and his mind was elsewhere. He stepped over the dead woman and slowly approached the living room window.

  Demi looked over at Henry and could see him taking a couple of steps back.

  Demi spoke up and said, “Henry, what is it?”

  More bodies began to spill through the window, and Henry cried, “My room! Now!”

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Paul and Mel opted to stay up and urged the rest to get some sleep, if that at all was possible. Craig went for the sofa, Tony had the spare room where the youngest of the Jameson family slept, and Lisa slept in the room where she slept the night before.

  Mel sat at one of the tables in the lounge area of the pub and had his knife sitting on the table. Paul had his in his pocket and went over to the bar. He grabbed a beer from the now defunct fridge and asked Mel if he wanted one.

  “No, thanks.” Mel looked over and began to laugh. “They’ll be none left if you keep this up.”

  “I know.” Paul looked over at Mel and smiled. He could just about make him out. “I’m like a kid in a sweet shop.”

  The evening was drawing in, and it wouldn’t be long before the chairs and tables in the large area were swallowed up by the darkness.

  “I noticed there were a few candles,” said Mel. “That’s if you wanna use one.”

  “Nah, leave it.”

  Paul sat down, opposite Mel, and both men were grinning, reflecting on what had happened over the last couple of hours. They could have been homeless by now, if those two bouncers had gotten their way. Mitch was dead, and were all convinced that Rab would never be seen again, even if he managed to survive.

  “Ya wife is a character,” said Paul, taking a drink from his bottle.

  “Yeah, that’s one way of putting it.” Mel folded his arms, sat back in his chair, and shook his head. “Thankfully, I’ve never been on the receiving end of one of her punches.”

  “Really?” Paul seemed surprised. “But she’s been on the receiving end of one of yours.”

  “I know.” Mel lowered his head in shame and added softly, “Paul, she’s many things, but she’s never raised her hand to me.”

  “I’m surprised.”

  “We’re quite verbally abusive to one another,” said Mel. “But, apart from that drunken incident we talked about last night, we’ve never fought each other physically. If that was the case, we wouldn’t be together.”

  “I don’t understand why ya two are together anyway.”

  Mel laughed and began to reminisce. A smile emerged on his face and he linked his hands together and rested them in his lap.

  “You know,” he said. “We never used to be like that.”

  “Well, obviously. Wit changed?”

  “Not sure.” Mel unclasped his fingers and gently bit into his bottom lip. “I think as the years go by, the more you become annoyed with each other. Maybe it’s not right for a man and a woman to be tied to each other for decades.”

  “No kids?”

  “I told you this before, last night.” Mel seemed defensive when the subject of kids came up.

  “Did ya?” Paul shrugged his shoulders.

  “We had a tragedy, over twenty years ago, and…” Mel paused, lowered his head, and could feel his throat harden.

  “You okay?”

  “Kids never happened for us. It wasn’t meant to be.” Mel smiled thinly, which was like a stitch sitting under his nose, and added, “I think kids would have been good for our marriage.”

  “Did ya ever find out what was wrong?” Paul took another drink from his bottle of beer and said further, “I hope ya don’t mind me askin’.”

  Mel looked annoyed and had to take a breath in to calm down. Nothing was wrong. In fact, twenty-one years ago everything was perfect.

  “I don’t know whether I was the problem or it was her.” Mel spoke with sadness in his tone. “We never went down the adoption route. We just kind of gave up in the end, after the IVF.”

  “Do ya think she blames ya? Is that why she’s so hostile, ya think?”

  “Not sure.” Mel puffed out his cheeks, feeling the tears fill the bottom of his eyes, and said, “I’m pretty sure she thinks it’s her. If she thought that I was the problem, then she probably would have left me and went with someone else.”

  “So much for, for better or worse.”

  “I know, but I suppose it depends on how desperate you are to have a child. I suppose not having kids and being with me for so long gave her l
ittle hope for the future and nothing to look forward to. And that drunken rage all those years ago would always be in the back of her mind. I’m convinced that’s the reason why she can be such a cow sometimes.”

  “Beautifully said,” Paul laughed, and then drained the remainder of the bottle.

  A shout in the distance, from outdoors, made both men widen their eyes and increase their heart rate. Neither one said a word to each other. Paul went to one of the windows, to have a look out at the front, where the sound of feet came from. Mel remained where he was. He didn’t want to know what was going on.

  A female, a young girl no older than twenty years old, could be seen on the Wolseley Road. It was hard to make out in the darkness what she looked like. She looked to be barefooted, wearing a dress of some kind, and was screaming as she got near the pub. Two seconds had passed and three individuals came around the bend and were pursuing her. From a selfish point of view, Paul was hoping that she continued to go by and not try the pub. He could see that the three people behind were gaining on her. Paul was scared for the young woman and hoped she would make it. He breathed out a sigh when she went by the pub and headed for the bridge, and then something happened that made Paul gasp in horror. It was the kind of thing seen in a stereotypical horror film. She fell over.

  Paul was unaware of the reason for it, but she fell and held out her hands as she hit the tarmac. As soon as she fell in a heap, Paul should have looked away, but for some reason he watched as the three males ran to the female, and as she struggled to get to her feet, the first IO attacked her.

  She screamed as the first bite into her shoulder occurred, but her screams were more for her eventual death rather than the pain from the bite. She knew she was fucked.

  Paul continued to look out as now the three IOs were on top of the woman. The first one that attacked her was kneeling and had his hand on her head, chewing furiously from the first bite. The second took a bite out of her left arm, and IO number three had a hold of her hair and was pulling her ear off with his teeth.

  Her screams intensified and her first attacker went in for another bite. Tearing out part of her throat, blood spilled out and slapped the tarmac. Seconds later she was dead. Her attackers continued to feed for another minute and then the three IOs stood up, almost at the same time, and walked away from the body, going over the bridge. Probably heading for Little Haywood, Paul thought.